RP (non-canon): D&D Mission 1: Getting "Acquainted"

Denkou shook her head. "It looks clean, but no guarantees." She moved over to the monkey, and picked up one of the arrows, keeping her head down. No telling if the trap had more then one shot in it. She inspected the arrow, looking for poison or other such unfriendly materials. "I think we should stand out of the way, and open the door. Check to see if anything tries to kill stuff in front of the door. If not, we might as well head in, because after this trap, I feel no desire to try getting up a level, not when I can't really check for traps at the same time."

Again with the being ignored...

Sorri managed to keep from sighing melodramatically and instead just looked annoyed. Fine, if they want to take the obviously more difficult way...

Aurelus turned to the quarterling. "Sorry, lass. I didn' bring me bag. I'm no' sure if me sword or me shield would weight abou' that amount, but we could find out, if ye want.

What d'ya have in mind?"

Denkou shook her head, peering nervously at the window the trap had been in. "Whatever we do, we should be careful. I'm not sure, but I think the trap was poisoned. Anyone else know a bit about poisons?" She held the arrow out for the others to inspect as well.

"Might I see it for a moment? I am somewhat knowledgeable on herbalism." Ghira asked politely. Without waiting for an answer, he took the arrow by the shaft and turned it until the liquid could be seen.

SentientRace said:

Aurelus turned to the quarterling. "Sorry, lass. I didn' bring me bag. I'm no' sure if me sword or me shield would weight abou' that amount, but we could find out, if ye want.

What d'ya have in mind?"

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"If we tie a rope to something heavy or that can hook onto the balcony edge, one of us could climb up, tie the rope to something up there, and then the others could follow. We would be bypassing two entire floors of traps. Even if we caught several on the way up, I think that would be a good trade. She looked over at Denkou. "And it's still a little light out, so you might be able to see them easier, right?"

Sorri glanced up at the house. "If he..." A nod to Aurelus. "...can throw a sword between the railing posts up there and we can get it to turn sideways when we pull on the rope, it would lock itself up there."

"By Wee Jas, this is a very dangerous poison!" The Imaskari exclaimed, a look of alarm in his eyes. "You're lucky the monkey went first, because this would have destroyed you without some POWERFUL help. It's from a rather frighteningly large type of scorpion."

Now that he knew what was on it, he held the arrow by the very end of the shaft (the side without the head) very daintily. "Do any of you happen to have any vials? It would be a waste to toss such a valuable material."

As the quarterling cleric spoke, Aurelus got closer to her and left the wizard and the rogue talk to each other regarding the arrow tip's contents. He was much more interested in what Sorri was thinking about; particularly because they were in the same page in terms of logic.

The human fighter put his index and thumb fingers under the hairs of his chin and rubbed. "Interestin' thought, lass, bu' I'm no' sure that'd werk using me sword." He unsheathed the longsword that was given to him while he was in the Drakenshire army, and pointed at the edges of the sword. "These're sharp. If we wrap a rope around i' an' hope ta hoist ye up there we'd be making fools of ourselves!"

Sheathing the sword, he extracted the torch that was pinned to his belt. "This torch migh' be useful... or that wizerd's staff. We could try usin' this ta wrap a rope 'round 'n lock i' ta the balcony railing posts." Aurelus turned to look at the others, then back at the quarterling. "Ye got a rope, righ'? I'm not sure the other're willin' ta climb like we're."

Sorri nodded. "The torch is an idea too. We have more than one of those, right?" Then she nodded. "I have about fifty feet of rope. How high do you think it is up to the balcony?"

Talarin seemed to finally come out of his daze. "Sorcerer, not a wizard." he replied as he tossed Aurelus his short spear. "That oughta work, don't ya think?"

"Nope, jus' this one here. I had more in me bag, but I lef' i' at the inn. Fifty feet a rope is good 'nough. Couldn' be more 'an 30 feet up to the balc'ny."

Aurelus turned to the sorcerer and extended his free hand to catch the shortspear. His gaze shifted to the spear, then to back to Talarin. "Was talkin' 'bout Ghira, bu' this werks jus as well." Aurelus looked at the top of the balcony.

Throwing the spear wouldn't be too hard; after all, spears are meant to be thrown in a direct path. The problem would be aiming it so that it slid between the two railing posts and not hit one as it went. Several tries could be attempted, but he'd rather not have to delay their climb upwards by getting it wrong if he could avoid it.

Aurelus handed the spear to to the quarterling. "Awright, lass, wrap the rope around the center of i'. When ye're done, hand i' over."

The spear shouldn't break under the weight of the quarterling climbing up the rope. However, it was anyone's guess how much weight it could withstand. If the cleric was holding the end of the rope and pulling at it while someone else climbed, it would perhaps lessen the weight on the spear, but even then that wasn't a very solid plan.

Wrapping the rope around the railing posts was a much better idea, once the quarterling was ontop.

The aforementioned half-halfling did as Aurelus requested and retrieved her length of rope, then fastened it to the spear.

"There."

I hope this works...

The man grabbed the spear in his hand solidly, then shifted it around. When he was done, he was grabbing the spear next to his head with his right arm bent inwards, tip aimed at the railings of the balcony, bottom aimed at the floor.

"Now le'ssee how good of a throwin' arm I got!"

Aurelus narrowed his eyes, staring at the gap between two of the balcony's railing's posts and aiming. In the slowly darkening night sky, this was not an easy feat, but he hoped his training in zero visibility would stack some odds in his favor. His right foot slid backwards, and he wound up for the throw.

He lunged forward and extended his right arm towards the balcony, letting go of the spear and watching it arch upwards to his desired target...!

The spear zipped through the air. As it sped towards its target it became apparent that it would miss. However, out of sheer luck, it missed its target but went through two different posts instead of the ones being aimed for. They heard a clunk as the spear bounced off of the balcony and suddenly there was a quick tug on the rope before the spear bounced to a stop.

...

"Quite the throwin' arm, aye!?" He grinned a sheepish grin. Although Aurelus hadn't been aiming at the gap of the two posts next to the ones he was aiming for, he did manage to get the spear to the balcony, right?

"Now le's reel i' in slowly so that i' locks i'self on 'em posts, or we'll have landed i' up there for nary a reason!" He lifted the rope from the ground and began to slowly pull the rope, pulling the spear towards the poles of the balcony slowly but intermittently, trying to get the sides of the spear to level evenly and perpendicularly with the rope.

If that was accomplished, then they could get the short one to climb up and tie the ropes to the posts and finally get some progress in this quest of theirs.

All this time wasting was getting Aurelus anxious about the cursed disease they all had, which he hoped would not affect them for the remainder of the night.

Talarin watched with as Aurelus tried to set the spear just right. "I hope this works." he said as he rubbed Joanna's head.

Aurelus pulled the spear as one of the ends wedged against the railing, as he pulled to try and lock the other end in the knot came out and the rope dropped to the ground, leaving the spear on the balcony.

Sorri grimaced as the rope slithered off the spear and dropped to the ground. "Okay...Plan B." She took a deep breath. "If you can give me a bit of a launch, I can grab hold of the railing and you guys can catch me if I can't get a grip." She looked at the others. "It's either that or throw my backpack with the rope tied to it, and a backpack doesn't have fingers, right? All I'll have to worry about is the railing or deck being rigged."

Talarin just gave a helpless laugh as he watched the rope come down without his spear. "I liked that spear." he said to Joanna. He looked at Joanna then the rope and She followed his gaze and back to him. Almost imperceptably she shook her head in a negative. While he nodded in the affirmative. They stood there a minute shaking and nodding thier heads respecively.

"Bah! Lass, did ye tie the knot prop'rly!? Saints o' Pelor! Ye'd think ye'd make a double knot on the thing that it wouldn't be undone so eas'ly!" He held the end of the rope in frustration, looking up at the balcony.

The small one had a second idea, which he supposed was better than the first, if only marginally. She could certainly grab onto the railing, but he wondered how well or how bad she'd be a climber to pull the stunt off. "...Alrigh, lass. Le's give tha' a shot. Take off all the heavy things ye have on yerself and I'll toss ye up to the balc'ny!"