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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”
I let my Mask of Many Faces wash over me, transforming me into a haggard, decrepit man. The kind whom people tend to avoid while walking around a city.
I completed the disguise with some quality under-the-breath mutterings as I wandered near The Leaky Barrel Inn, the last known location of The Weevil here in Everlund.
A hired guard kept me from wandering too close down an adjoining alley, but through the window I could spot the sellsword Bryseis had told us about. As the guard escorted me away I reached out with my mind, informing the well-groomed man that there was more coin in it for him if he came outside and had a little chat a few blocks away.
It was risky, but it worked. As I shuffled away I could hear the man give out a loud laugh and open the door, slapping the guard on the back as he stumbled, presumably on the noble quest of booze-hunting.
He followed me around the corner, leaned against the wall, and crossed his arms. I turned, and a smile crept along his face. “Standard rate my friend. You double his cost, I turn on my employer.”
Back in Everlund we had one very important loose thread dangling in front of us: The Weevil. Krowen informed us that, thanks in large part to Bryseis’ clandestine networking, we knew not only that The Weevil was in town, but also that he was staying at a specific abandoned inn in a rough part of town. And this time we weren’t aiming to capture him.
We had the element of surprise, but we still wanted to gather as much information about his makeshift fortress as we could. Korinn and Bryseis used Invisibility and the Broom of Flying to perform some aerial reconnaissance, noting a trio of snipers on surrounding rooftops.
Halfred and T.I.M. took to the marketplace to ask around. Halfred found an angry girlfriend of one of the hired goons. He convinced her to promptly march up to the entrance of The Leaky Barrel Inn and force her bewildered boyfriend to come home. One less guard!
I always relish the chance to use my Mask of Many Faces (my at-will Disguise Self Invocation). I had Kazin transform into a disheveled homeless man and wander near the Inn, glancing through the windows from a distance. I noted some more hired goons as well as a trio of higher-priced paid mercenaries that Bryseis had previously been warned about.
We knew that one of them, Garen, could easily have his loyalties turned with the right coin. I got as close as I could without upsetting the guards at the door, and used Awakened Mind to send him a proposition: we’ll pay him more to abandon the Weevil now, keep his sword sheathed, and feed us information.
The plan worked. Garen exited the building with no one the wiser, meeting me in an alleyway around the corner, with Bryseis and Korinn landing down beside him. We convinced the smooth-talker with the universal language of money, and Bryseis handed over a whopping 1,000 gold like it was nothing. The sellsword told us about the guards and the traps inside, as well as suggesting we hit the place at night.
We thanked him and let him on his way, and returned in the evening (and I was impressed that Chris instantly transformed the map into night-mode).
From there we executed a flawless stealthy infiltration. Halfred took out the rooftop snipers under cover of darkness, while Kazin used Mask of Many Faces to look like Garen, and convince the guards to round the corner to check out some…ladies of the evening (despite some hilariously bad Performance rolls).
We ran into a tense problem with the upstairs scout, who noticed the missing guards. At the same time a Warforged guard came outside and prepared to signal the alarm. We had to act fast.
Halfred fired a grappling arrow at the Warforged, and T.I.M. used Hold Person to paralyze it just before it could go back inside. I glanced up at the guard in the second story window and used Suggestion to send her home, quietly. Korinn walked up and critically Witch Bolt’d the paralyzed robo-guard, downing it instantly. And all was quiet.
We shuffled upstairs as the scout, still under my influence, nodded at us and exited the building. We debated about how to disarm the lightning trap at the upstairs hallway when we spotted yet another guard, this one reading a book by candlelight.
T.I.M. used another Hold Person to paralyze him. Halfred followed up by snaking him with a Grapple-arrow and pulling the poor bastard into their own lightning trap before Bryseis gutted him. Brutal, but effective!
The noise of the lightning trap caused some of the sleepers to begin stirring. Halfred cast a Web from his Wand at the hallway, and we prepared our final ambush of the Weevil.
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