@Grendel_Khan , you've expressed you want to
stalk and slay the sellsword and the dairy trader. See below.
The moment the violent, supernatural conflict with the tree and its undeadspawn resolves, LEIF rushes off, trailing the distant sellsword rider and ranch-hands/dogs as they corral the dairy trader's cattle. Over his shoulder he tells his companions that he'll catch up with them at The Septarch's Tower.
The caravan is trailing the dairy trader himself who is on his own horse and heading due northeast straight to the pack animal trail that switches back all the way up the eight meter crag of The Bluffs to Fallcrest's Hightown district. No doubt they head to the large estate that looms large over the cliff face. It must be debt collection day to the self-styled “lord” Armos Kamroth, a wealthy landowner who collects rents from scores of farmers and herders living in the countryside nearby. The dairy trader is surely heading there to settle affairs with "lord" Kamroth and give of his weekly earnings.
Leif knows there are three courses he could chart in this chase across the open meadow, nearly fully bereft of obstacles/cover to hide behind for very long, to get ahead of them before they find the security of Kamroth Estate for the evening:
* (1) Try to get ahead of them by scaling the dangerous crags of the Bluffs themselves. Short route, but difficult and dangerous; Complexity 1 SC, Level +3 (so level 4 with DCs of 10/14). Injury, being spotted, being caught-out in a bad situation with the sellsword (Standard + a few Minion ranch-hands) would be in play.
* (2) Journey through The Catacombs; crypts for Fallcrest's folk that are cut into the very limestone of The Bluffs themselves. There are mausoleums and family burials that connect to Hightown, but (a) it is labyrinthine and (b) you might run into mourning families or possibly even crypt guardians or wandering undead! Complexity 2 SC, Level +2 (so level 3 with DCs of 9/13/21 and one Hard DC available to me).
Alternatively,
* (3) You could just chase them down with speed and discretion and initiate a combat before they get to the switchbacks of The Bluffs; Stealth move vs DC 16 = earn a Surprise Round vs the mounted Standard Skirmisher of the Sellsword + 2 x Minion ranch-hands (Brutes) and cattle as terrain elements.
Let me know your choice here (on Discord) or if you have an alternative and we'll firm things up.
Reply from
@Grendel_Khan :
Enticing as it would be to simply rush them and fight it out ASAP (option 3), Lief knows the Elect are up to something at Kamroth Estate, and doesn't want to tip them off, if possible. So he'd like to try to make this look like an accident—not in any fancy way, but if he can scale the crags and ambush them while they're making their ascent, maybe he can toss their bodies and such off the edge.So he's gonna gamble, and go for option 1.
Complexity 1 SC, Level 4 (DCs 10/14)
Goal (Staged): Stealthily scale the crag of The Bluffs and ambush the dairy trader caravan as they ascend the pack animal trail.
0/4 Successes
/0 Failures
/0 Hard DC Available
/1 Secondary Skills Available
/Primary Skill Training exhausted;
Two routes to choose from at ground level:
* There is shorter route, but it entails a section that is a brutal, crimpy, body-tensioney climb of a 30 degree wall that will test Leif's fingers to their limits. However, it will empty him out on the pack animal trail, well ahead of the caravan and out of sight of any Kamroth Estate lookouts. This route is more about pain threshold, endurance, and technique (
Endurance, Climber's Kit bonus applies except for Endurance in this case, Further if you Secondary Skill Athletics here you can carry your Crane's Wings Athletics +5 bonus to this Primary Skill check as you can bypass the early sections of the climb with a leap). There are no
HARD DCs available in the challenge by default, but Leif can go this route to gain 2 x Successes if he risks the
HARD DC (which would be 21).
Failure here would mean serious strain and suffering of his hands, a -2 penalty forward to his inevitable ATK check to slay the caravan or a -2 penalty to hit in Round 1 of combat if it comes to that.
* The alternative route is a simple vertical ascent with a hard traverse left to get ahead of the trail. However, this route has no native cover or concealment so he's going to have to pick his moments to move vertically and horizontally. Its also longer and slower and this is a race. He can't afford to set gear (so
no Climber's Kit bonus). He'd need to pass both a
Stealth and
Athletics (Crane's Wings would not grant bonus here due to height and dynamics of climb) Primary Skill check vs
MEDIUM DC to empty him out above the caravan and out of sight of Kamroth Estate.
Failure here at Stealth means an issue with Kamroth Estate/The Elect (reinforcing the caravan), failure at Athletics means an encounter with the ranch-hands while Leif is in a precarious position.
@Campbell
The material split-second in which the Feygrove Crossing to the domain of The Unseeling Fey is obliterated by the tree's demise stretches out in Sariel's mind for considerably longer. The scream that everyone else hears is not what Sariel hears. Instead, Sariel hears the cold, seductive voice of the Queen of the Unseelie Fey.
"Hear me SARIEL, SON OF THE GHALE OF WINTER; COUNCIL OF MITHRENDAIN. I know why your brother has courted this treacherous partner. Something bedevils him. Something that is the spawn of your father's deep past that he has kept hidden for centuries and more. A Bralani Wintersoul, an eladrin of the Winter Court whose name is nearly lost to time, was his first love and he hers. Their separate paths led to a parting that she has never gotten over. For all these years she has suffered a heart so thoroughly broken that malice has festered and fully blossomed. Little other emotion dare tread there now.
She has seduced your brother, an easy enough target, and a sympathetic one, given your father's like of investment and the poor boy (this last bit is laid on very thick)."
* What do you do? Do her words ring true and you believe her (1)? Do you know she is lying and want to pinpoint (describe it if successful) the evidence of her prevarication and point it out to her (2 - Insight vs Medium DC 15 to begin a very difficult Complexity 2 SC, Level +4 SC vs the dark, canny Queen of the Unseelie)? Do you end this temporal dilating connection with the Archfey with a word and your will (3)?
If (1), then
vignette a very brief, back-and-forth conversation with her in this split-second in time.
If (2) then
we begin a conflict with that opening move (its Complexity 2, so that means I have 1 x Hard DC of 22 to deploy at my discretion);
make that move now.
If (3), then
describe Sariel's shunting of the connection and I'll cut to Sariel, Starn, the Frankenrunner, and the Fallcrest Light Infantry at the base of The Septarch's Tower with the key given from Lady Markelhay.
