Given the persuasiveness and diplomacy of Tanique's plea, Praelia was surprised when she was so thoroughly rebuffed.  She examined those eyes and the tone of voice carefully to see if she could detect something amiss.

Insight: 21

Sister Tanique looked angry for a moment, but then her expression softened
"You seem upset, my friend.  I can tell that things aren't going as well here as you'd like.  Perhaps we can help you.  We're a group of many talents, after all.  Please, sir, let us help."

The slide closed and the sounds of movement could be heard. The gate opened, showing several monks, dressed in simple linen vests and breeches with leather boots, all brown. The one at the front, a human male was just into his 20’s. Behind him were 5 other people, a male and female in brown robes. None talked other than the young man.  His face was serious and stern.

“We need no help, especially from mercenaries. We are capable of looking after our own business - clearly nosy people who can’t understand English don’t understand that we aren’t asking help.”

The woman in robes stepped forward, placing a hand on the mans shoulder. He turned, and seeing who it was, bowed his head. The woman crossed her arms, her voice musical. “My friends - we are a order of peaceful people, but we know how to protect ourselves....from any intrusion. Now if you will excuse me, we must see the head of our order for meditation. We bid you good day.”

She stepped back and nodded, two of the monks closing the gates.

....the woman had a smug smile as she turned.

"Well that went well."  Praelia said dryly after the door closed.  She turned to Tanique.  "Don't get me wrong, I thought you were very convincing.  If your appeal didn't get us in, diplomacy was destined to fail."

"Any idea what she meant about understanding 'Inglis' or whatever it was?  Is that a religion of some sort?"


OOC: Did my insight check fail?

Watching from afar, Peregrin mutters, "It's not working." Although tempted to sneak forward, he sticks to the plan and stays put until the other return.

In reply to Praelia (msg # 24):

Tanique sighed and backed away from the door, to stand by Praelia.

"They're definitely hiding something,  i can feel it in my bones.  Is that woman responsible for it, or am I just being paranoid?"

She smiled wryly at the dragonborne's question about "Inglish"
"It's a fad among the affluent and snooty in human society to not admit speaking a language known as "Common", so they came up with another word for how 'proper' humans speak.  That just makes me more suspicious,  I'll admit "

"Humans"  Praelia snorted derisively.  Common was common.

"They're definitely hiding something, but the question is, is it anything to do with us?  They're a secretive order so by definition they have things they wish to hide.  That doesn't necessarily link them to the cultists or make them a threat to the region."

"We should return to the others.  Clearly diplomacy will not work."

Sister Tanique shrugged but nodded
"My instincts are telling me that there are shenanigans afoot, but I'll admit that I can't say if this is connected to the cult behavior.  We may need a Plan B"

Praelia began walking towards the others, wanting to be out of earshot of any prying monks before she replied to Tanique.  "My concern is how far we can push without evidence.  I am not about to storm a monastery of possibly innocent monks just because they're being cagey with us.  So far they are guilty of no crime.  We need proof of some sort.  Perhaps our scouts can learn more?"

The priestess nodded
"Yes, perhaps subterfuge might prevail over diplomacy "

Thum looked at the door. Maybe he could break it down. He took a few steps back and took some deep breaths. He squared his shoulders, ready to charge the door and bash it in..




Thum's shoulders slumped and he sighed sadly. "Okay.." He turned away from the door and walked back towards the others dragging the butt of his greataxe.

The three return to the group, Thum, holding his axe, looking back a little dejected almost like he left his favorite battle axe behind.

Peregrin says, "No luck, I see." Turning to the side, he points off towards the other side of the valley, as if looking for where they may go from here, but oddly, he continues talking, "Don't look. They are watching us from the windows. Perhaps we should act as if we're leaving."

While looking around, he wonders what water source feeds the monastery, presumably a well.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:47, Tue 18 May 2021.

Tanique nodded to Peregrin and followed his lead

Walks off with them.

Once the group is out of sight of the building, Peregrin resumes the conversation. "Well, we have our suspicions. I think that justifies some surveillance. Should they come out after us, it would be even more suspicious," he adds.

In his travels, Peregrin tended to stick to the main roads and larger towns. Being somewhat new to this area, he knows virtually nothing about these reporting cultists. Certainly, the stonework of the monastery is something aligned with the stone-armored villains that attacked the town, but for the moment the connection is rather tenuous.

"Do you think this is the place we seek?" he asks Xantria. "Or are we looking for the ancient stone bridge?" he continues, a bit confused.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:09, Tue 18 May 2021.

Xantria nods, "It is the place I have heard of and it makes sense the stone clad warriors might be here. Like the ones we fought in town with those bugs."

He looks at Peregrin, "Why don't we look for signs of tunnels like those bugs might use in the area ?"

"I'm thinking we could perform all of these and more.  Lets move away from the monastery but set up camp somewhere.  Not so close we seem a threat or encroaching on their building, but close enough they know where we are.  Maybe an hour or so away.  But somewhere they can see us, perhaps by a campfire in the evening.  We want them to know we're in the area."

"This allows us three avenues to explore.  First, we offer ourselves an inviting target.  Should they have ill intent they might come out to attack us.  Obviously we would need to choose our campsite carefully, lest it become a battleground."

"Second it means our scouts could do some exploring come night should they feel they can penetrate the castle silently."

"Finally we have a base from which we can explore the local area for signs of bugs, cultists, anything.  I do not think we should pack up and move off simply because of a shut door and cold reception.  Lets set up a defensible camp and explore the area.  Let us be the hunters while pretending to be the prey."

"Sounds like a wonderful plan"

"Indeed.  I will stay with you until after nightfall, and then I can perhaps get a closer look at what's going in the monastery, cautiously of course," Peregrin adds. He defers to Praelia, the battle expert, in terms of picking a suitable location for the camp, adding his expertise in terms of approaches and sightlines, to the extent it is welcomed.

Praelia gratefully accepted Peregrin's offer of help.  "We need to pick a site carefully.  It must be far enough away to look like we're respecting their privacy but close enough they feel they could come out to scout or attack us.  Perhaps a neighbouring mountain or some such so we have good line of sight but they have to traverse many valleys and climb trails to reach us?  I imagine your keen eyes will be better at locating such a site.  If you can find such spots I can evaluate their defensibility."

<Based on DM's OOC note, I'm assuming we located a suitable defensive location for our camp>


Having found a suitable spot, Praelia turned her attention to the others.  "Well this seems like a good spot.  I will spend time making it more defensible.  Before that we need to discuss reconnaissance."

"It sounds like Peregrin and Naeldil will examine the monastery after dark.  Did one of you want to brief us on the plan?  Do we all go or just a few scouts?  I for one, am not good at being quiet.  I tend to be one of the loudest on a battlefield."

This message was last updated by the player at 23:13, Sat 22 May 2021.

"I have been told I can be bombastic." Looks sheepish.

As the group settles into camp, Peregrin takes the opportunity to put together a warm snack, pulling a variety of spices out of his park, along with four potatoes. He wraps them in some damp leaves and stuffs them into the bed of the campfire. While cooking, he explains a bit further, "I work well alone - when scouting that is. I would not be inclined to actually enter the premises; perhaps a look over the wall, but any entry should probably be reserved for another time, after we gather more information."

After about an hour, he uses a long metal rod to push the potatoes out of the coals and lets them cool a bit. Then, he slices them open and adds some bits of jerky, dried cheese, salt, and pepper, mixing in a tiny bit of water as moisturizer. "These will fill your bellies," he pronounces, proud of his creation. He offers them to the group and then immediately begins eating his.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:20, Tue 25 May 2021.

Thum spends the afternoon gather wood for a large campfire. He sort of chuckles and giggles as he drags large pieces of wood into the camp. He's looking forward to lighting this mother of a camp fire.

He takes a break to eat one of Peregrin's potatoes. "This is good. Tastes good. You know what would make it taste better? Wrap some bacon or meat around the potatoes as they cook.  hmm.. hmmm...Maybe drip some deer fat on the potatoes."