Evesa's been checking details with me but I hope she'll post soon.  In the meantime I should clear up one thing.  The Keep is on a shelf or plateau a little over half-way up the hill/mountain.  The cliffs don't drop off at the back they rise further up.  You could work your way around then climb down the cliffs, but you'd be horribly exposed if anyone saw you.

Ah, crud.  I might have read this adventure before after all.  But it was a long time ago, and I don't remember everything anyway.

Ah well, thanks for letting me know.  Now I can customise it.  You might recognise the structure but I'll try to make sure therer are at least some surprises :)

*nudge*

Is there anyone about?  I can't take this game any further without you lot deciding how to approach the Keep.

I'm still thinking about, over several days.  I'm supposed to be fairly bright, you know...

I'm going to go with what everyone else decides.

I am probably being dense, but I wasn't clear on it and was sort of waiting for the map.  Maybe I can just talk it out, though.

It seems like from the description the only real way to approach the keep is from the front gate, even assuming levitate and rope.  Is that right?  The only other option is to climb the mountain and try to drop in from behind?

If that's correct, then I guess what we need to do is figure out how best to take out the sentries from a distance, and go in the front.  Seems like a straight up storm-the-keep approach is the only really viable one, unless I am missing something.

I guess we could check the surrounding area for secret exit passages, or check the walls we can get near for secret doors.  Could I do that in a reasonable amount of time?  We would probably want to enter the keep during the day....

Orcs aren't overly penalized by sunlight; they can still see fine in it, and likely as not they have some poor snaga* up there, blinking like an owl, for sentry duty.
I still kind of like the idea of a distraction of some sort.  Timed correctly, we could get in and take a position of strength or concealment, while the orcs are looking the other way.  Ideally, this would be in the opposite direction we want to come in from, but I don't think that would work, considering the cliff and everything.  So what we might do is, while the majority of us try to sneak up to the main gate, one of us (me if nobody else wants to) gets together a big bonfire, and, while the orcs are looking at the big pillar of smoke (should buy us a few rounds, at least), the rest of you get closer, take out the gate guards in a surprise attack, and let the bonfire-lighter in.  If we get a lot of resistance from outside, we can always run away like a certain silly English king and his k-nnnniggits (it took me forever to realize what that was...).

*Weak, slave-like orc.

Well, we could do that.  From Fletch's description it sounds like they might not be paying much attention anyway.

The daytime thing was for the benefit of the humans in the party more than against the orcs.  Plus I think orcs are nocturnal and more of them might be awake at night.  Maybe Fletch can tell us if that is an incorrect assumption.

Sorry, I obviously haven't been clear enough (and I really should have got a map ready in advance).  There's basically three options:
1. Climb up the 50ft cliff at the front,
2. Cimb down the 50ft+ cliff at the back,
3. Go straight up the ramp.

It's a very big area to try and search for secret doors.  You could spend a day carefully checking the base of the cliff and still not be sure that there wasn't an exit hidden further back in the trees.

With your levitate and a rope, either climb would be fairly straightforward but if you go straight up to a tower top you'd be defending the rope against 2+ orcs while the others climbed up.  A more discreet approach might be to use the same trick but only as far as the base of the wall, you might then be able to pick a spot between the sentries or a gap in the wall.

Daylight is your friend.  Physiologically at least these are pretty standard orcs.  They don't like bright sunlight and are perfectly happy to rely on their darkvision.

Hmmm.  I am starting to agree with Atalakis' plan of simply charging up the ramp.  I can only levitate 1/day, so if I just went to the base of a wall, I would probably not be able to levitate up the wall to affix another rope.  Unless one of you can climb well, it would seem to me better to just go in through the doors.  I think Borovik was our thief, so I am assuming no one here is a great climber....

If by thief, you mean lock-cracker, that would be me now (except for, you know, I don't have any thief's tools...  I guess Atalakis is still the 'locksmith.').  But I'm only a wimpy elf; not a great climber.  And I'm beginning to favor the gate approach as well, although we don't have any siege equipment to force our way through the gate if it's held against us.  Would it be stupid to have Atalakis charging at it with his lance?

That's a good point.  Fletch, did Zyphen get a chance to notice anything about the gate itself?  Locked, barred?  Could I climb a tree and get a look or anything?

Maybe, if we built a large wooden badger...

No need.  Evesa, courtesy of Silence and Darkness, crept up close enough to take a look at the central tower a couple of nights ago.  There's a tunnel leading underneath the tower into a courtyard.  There's a portcullis, but it's raised.  The gate itself is ruined and its remains have been used as part of a crude barricade just inside the portcullis.

Evesa can think of four possibilities, either the orcs want to drop the portcullis when attackers reach the gate, perhaps to split the party (but that seems a bit clever for orcs); they want to get into and out of the Keep easily (but she hasn't seen any patrols); they're overconfident (always a possibility); or the portcullis is stuck.

"Called shots"!  I hereby dub you "oldschool", Fletch. :)  My PCs liked those faaaaar too much; I was sort of glad when they got rid of them.  (It did give them a reason to actually wear their helms, though.)

...  I feel like a newb again.  None of my characters ever wore helmets...  Wow.  Not even that dwarf cleric?  Wait, one of them does.  Two.  An Impilturan fighter and a shifter druid.  Although the latter is more of a head-dress than a helm.

Old school?  No, certainly not.  I'm just more used to 3rd ed than 3.5.  Old school is for those dusting off 1st ed boxes in memory of the late Mr Gygax.

Okay, the last time we had a post from anyone except Cuaglar and Zyphen was 25 February and that was Corven to say that he would go along with whatever everyone else decided.

I know Kanir's gone, if only from posts in the OOC Forum and DM's Lounge and Evesa's idle so I was planning to NPC her, but Atalakis and Corven have also gone quiet.

I'm going to post once more today to try and give Zyphen and Cuaglar something to do, but if I don't hear from Atalakis or Corven within 48 hours I'll be advertising for new blood.

Corven is out of town.  He should be back early next week, probably Monday.  He reads the board still, I know.

Atalakis is around.  I will poke him and ask what's going on.

Endurance has some uses, Cuaglar.  It allows you to sleep normally in medium armour for a start.  Once my dwarf fighter had mithral full plate he never took it off :)

You don't have to worry about me, I'm around and reading the threads ^^ (although I was gone last week).

I'm about too. Just a heads up to my disappearance. DM Fletch and I am expecting our first baby in October and I've had some serious morning sickness. So hopefully I'm on the mend and can start posting again regularly. :D

Congratulations!

Congratulations!
This message was last edited by the player at 04:17, Sun 30 Mar 2008.