Do you think we can fight the warden and win, without alerting the whole castle? I guess his room does have thick walls, but it doesn't seem like a safe bet. In general, I think it's very unlikely that breaking out everyone will go unnoticed for much time at all.
Lexica's plan to climb down the castle wall with our rope rather than going out the gate seems like a good idea as part of my full-stealth plan.
It's a shame Tiadora couldn't fit a boat in that veil of hers.
1. There are basically three obstacles in the way: our cell door, the first island gatehouse, and the shore gatehouse.
2. Sneaking past the guards at a gatehouse seems very hard (unless the prison is even more badly run than we realize, and the gates are unmanned in the middle of the night).
3. We can bypass any single gate with our magic window, but the ogre won't fit through.
4. Fighting our way out means fighting "limitless" reinforcements on the bridge.
Much depends on how many guards are actually at their post in the middle of the night. Leaving the ogre behind seems like a good idea, unless we think we'll have to fight a lot of guards no matter what.
A basic plan:
1. Pick the lock to our cell at like two in the morning.
2. Walk out of the prison in the dark. (How good is dwarvish night vision?)
3. Put the window in the first gate.
4. Jump off the bridge and swim to shore rather going through the second gate.
This would be easier alone TBH, especially if dwarves can see in the dark.
[X] Fait accompli. This is not a discussion. You have the tools, you have the plan, you have the allies outside the prison. They will recognise reality and fall in line, or they will be left behind.
An addendum: prices in PF2e are quite deflated compared to other D&Ds, so 100 gp may actually be a whole lot of money. This makes bribing a guard a live possibility. We probably want Lisara with us if this is part of the plan.
Dwarves have full-on Darkvision, yes. Your vision without light is absent colour, but you can see perfectly well.
On the topic of reinforcements I should clarify that you can probably get across the bridge in a few minutes, tops. The reinforcements from Varyston will take an hour or so to arrive after the signal is sent - they are more of a concern if you end up in a stand-off or stick around in the prison rather than effecting an escape as quickly as you can.
Excellent. I now strongly feel that we should try escaping alone. Bringing a human along means we'll need to carry a light source, which will make stealth much harder. I guess we could bring the orc with us, but realistically, it'll be easiest for a single person to pass undetected.
[X] Fait accompli. This is not a discussion. You have the tools, you have the plan, you have the allies outside the prison. They will recognise reality and fall in line, or they will be left behind.
[X] Fait accompli. This is not a discussion. You have the tools, you have the plan, you have the allies outside the prison. They will recognise reality and fall in line, or they will be left behind.
Secondary Objectives:
Defeat Matthias Richter the warden
Defeat Tomas Blackerly the sergeant
Escape without sounding the alert
Escape with all prisoners
Find out who is embezzling the funds
That being said, I don't fancy the chances going up against a wizard of unknown skill. If I were to guess, the warden is the one embezzling to fund his spell research and the sergeant just has low will and no spine. There's an opportunity to add blackmail to our crimes here.
Do we want to wake the ogre? We have no idea if the ogre will cooperate or immediately try to eat us - if for a distraction we should try to wake him up anyway, it's just a minor elixir of life that any level 1 alchemist can make, although the small bonus is small - a +1.
Ideally, all prisoners manage to sneak out at an un-Mitra like hour when the guards are either asleep or hungover with nobody raising the alarm at all. 4am is the shift change, but it's likely that the corrupted guards will choose to leave their shift early and take over the shift late. Let's say about... 10 minutes to 30 minutes, probably. Also, as they are corrupted, there's a chance we could bribe some to look the other way on the escape.
Between the prisoners, only the human doesn't have darkvision, but if we leave him he might just shout to bring the guards down out of spite. If we do bring him we're going to have to use the lantern.
So...
At 0345-ish;
Use Telekinetic Hand to pass the Infiltrator Toolkit to the bandit and have him pop open all the locks.
Use Telekinetic Hand to pass Elixir of Life to the ogre.
Consider knocking out the human - in fact, maybe you can ask the other prisoners using Message if the human can be trusted. He was a militant member of Mitra's church, after all.
If needed, pass daggers to orc and Lisana and use phase bolt to subdue guards.
Sneak away in the darkness, bribe guards if necessary, and barricade and lock first gatehouse if there's opportunity.
May hold a guard hostage or bribe for map of Branderscar.
If a kitchen is found, grab meat and bones to distract guard dogs and frying pans and kitchen knives, which can also be thrown to attract attention. If there is strong enough alcohol, consider Crafting a molotov cocktail. Beer can be used to change our scent.
There should be boats for evacuation, if we find one we can choose to use it instead of swimming.
If confronted by the warden or sergeant, Lisana may bluff that she is actually an imperial investigator sent to search Branderscar on suspicion of embezzling.
The prison is guarded by local soldiers drawn from the nearby town of Varyston. There are three shifts in a day, and perhaps a dozen men or so on any shift, the bare minimum for a facility of this size.
Shift changes happen at 12 noon, 8pm and 4am.
Should there be trouble, an effectively limitless supply of replacements can be summoned from Varyston by signal lantern, and will arrive within the hour.
You fool! Everyone know you can level up much faster by ditching the party, sequence breaking into the lich's lair, and abusing the AI with the magic amulet from that mountain village. You jump straight to level 14 like an hour in.
[X] Fait accompli. This is not a discussion. You have the tools, you have the plan, you have the allies outside the prison. They will recognise reality and fall in line, or they will be left behind.
[X] Common Cause. You will take the time to establish a form of consensus with the other prisoners, where everyone knows what must be done and has a good idea of how.
That's what the other members of the party are for, to help you survive when you tumble straight into a string of bad luck. Lisara's player probably can't believe the rolls either.
You do nothing upon being returned to your cell, at least not visibly. You simply sit there, mind churning, one point after another assembled like an artisan laying out her tools. With this veil and the items it contains, you have everything you need to attempt a breakout from Branderscar. Perhaps you could even go alone - put a hole in the wall, use your superior senses to navigate to the wall and use the rope to descend from there. It might work, but it would also be incredibly risky, and you will only get one swing at this vein. Having the others on side would be an advantage, but you know your own limitations. You are not a leader, you have neither the skills nor the temperament for it. That leaves you with one choice.
Step one is to get your hands free. You have heard tales of mages who can work magic with nothing save purest will, but you are not among them. Moving carefully, you pluck the small image of the toolkit from the veil, setting it on the ground next to you. A moment later the enchantment unravels and you are left with a small collection of picks, levers, wire and other assorted tools. It's good quality stuff as well - whoever Tiadora sourced this from knows their trade.
Article:
Thievery test! DC15, d20+5+1 = 15! Success!
It takes a minute or two to manipulate the little tools into position and unlock your handcuffs, mostly due to the limitations imposed on your dexterity by the bonds, but you manage it. The cuffs come free without so much as a sound, and with a soft sigh of relief you rub blood back into your wrists and hands. Then you flex your fingers through a series of arcane geometries and erase the distance between your words and your neighbour's ears.
"Lisara," you mouth silently, knowing that the magic will carry your words to her as if you whispered them in her ear, "My visitor was an ally. I have lockpicks, knives and a rope. Whisper your words and I will hear."
There is a long pause, and for a moment you worry that the magic did not work, or that you might have accidentally severed the connection early. Then Lisara's honey-soft words echo in your ears.
"How interesting," she says, and despite her superficial calm there is an edge of anticipation beneath the words, "Yet why are you contacting me, and so covertly at that?"
"Because we will need every hand to improve our odds," you reply, keeping the trans-geometry conduit open with simple intent, "and you are better with people than I."
"So I am," the elf agrees with a muted laugh, "Very well. Tell me your plan."
Speaking swiftly, and resisting the urge to get lost in minutiae, you lay out your key points - a breakout during the night, where the guards will be half-blind and possibly distracted with drink and gambling. A raid on the warden's tower, if feasible, to reclaim the arcane supplies you will need to be most effective. Then you use the rope to bypass the gatehouse and make it onto the bridge to the mainland, where you can either overpower the few guards at the coast or drop into the sea and swim for shore.
"Sounds good," Lisara approves, "You've got your hands free? Good, pass me the picks and a knife."
For a moment you hesitate - your own cell door is not open, and would it not be better to wait for nightfall - but you suppose you can't ask someone else to take the lead and then immediately refuse to follow their direction.
The telekinetic hand works on a similar basis to your messaging spell - by eliminating the distance between your hand and what you seek to grasp, without altering the space that it occupies, you are able to grasp something in your hand that lies far outside your normal reach. Slowly and cautiously, you use the spell to pass the small pack of lockpicks and one of the knives across to your neighbour's cell.
Less than a minute later, there is a sharp rasp of metal and a muffled curse that echoes through the entire prison block. The door at the end of the corridor scrapes open, sending your heart into your throat…
"Keep it down!" One of the guards yells down the hall to you, not even bothering to leave the warmth and comfort of his post, "And stay away from the bars!"
The door slams shut once more and you let out a shaky sigh of relief. Then you notice that the human who was meditating in the opposite cell has stirred, and is now staring intently at your neighbour.
"Gents, I've good news for you," Lisara murmurs, just loud enough to be heard by her fellow prisoners, "None of us are dying here. You with me?"
"Aye," says a low and rumbling voice from somewhere out of sight - the orc, you assume, who apparently can speak the common tongue after all. The human opposite you hesitates for a moment longer, then closes his eyes and nods decisively.
Article:
Lisara tests Thievery and Stealth to unpick the various locks.
DC of Thievery is 15. D20+7+1 = 26! Critical Success!
(In Pathfinder 2nd edition, any test that exceeds the listed DC by 10 is a critical success, any that fails by 10 is a critical failure. This also applies in combat.)
DC of Stealth is 13. d20+7=8! Failure! Natural 1 downgrades to critical failure!
As you watch with bated breath, Lisara slips from her cell and begins systematically picking the locks on all the remaining doors, following up by releasing your companions from their chains. She even pauses to wink at you, her elven eyes solid orbs of perfect azure, utterly without iris or sclera, and you can't help but note that were she human you might think her Tiadora's long-lost sister. Her hair is closer to honey-blonde than platinum, but other than that…
Lisara steps back inside her cell, drawing the door closed behind her, and the rusty old hinge screams in agony.
"What the…" Again the guardroom door opens, but this time the man inside is not content to simply shout warnings down the hall. This time he has heard something that should be entirely impossible, and so he comes down at a careful prowl, club drawn and ready. You see him pass your cell, and your dread rises to choke you. "The hell was that?"
"Relax, soldier," Lisara says in her lazy drawl, "Just stretching my legs. These damn chains make a racket."
Article:
Lisara tests Deception! Lying to someone requires a deception roll against a DC of their perception modifier+10.
DC is 17. Lisara rolls d20+5 = 11+5 = 16. Failure.
For a moment you think the guard believes her… then he takes another step forwards and his eyes widen in sudden shock.
"What the…"
You don't know what gave you away. Perhaps you never will. All that matters is that the jig is up, and before you can even put the thought into words, Lisara is out of her cell with a dagger in hand.
"Shame," she says with false cheer, tossing the knife from one hand to another in a fleeting display of dexterity, "Guess we do this the hard way!"
She punches forward with the knife in hand, sliding it past the soldier's guard and into the exposed flesh beneath his arm. Blood fountains forth, and with a strangled yell the guard swings the club in his other hand, a wild blow that catches Lisara across the chin with a horrid crunch.
The elf falls, and the guard staggers backward, clutching his arm. "Sacred Mitra that hurts…"
"Shit - Collins, you alright?" the voice of the second guard, the one still back at his post, is taut with alarm.
"Yeah, fuck, I'm good," the first guard growls, grabbing a set of manacles from his belt, "Bitch had a knife… sound the horn, get the sergeant up here. I'll lock this one up."
Your dread crystallises into urgency, and without a word you shoulder the door to your cell open and step into the corridor, turning towards the guard post at the end. You can see the soldier there already reaching for the alarm horn on its little wooden shelf, and with a shout of denial you stretch forth your hand and send your grip through the aether to seize it for yourself. You can't contest his strength, not remotely, but you can haul upwards and send the horn bumping against the corridor ceiling, and that is good enough for now.
"What in the…" the second guard growls, looking up at the horn, then back down at you. With a furious scowl he grabs a heavy crossbow propped up by the door and levels it at you, sliding a bolt into place. "Drop it, prisoner, or I drop you."
"Wait," the first guard says, frowning as he stands over Lisara's unconscious body, "If her door is open as well, then…"
Without a word, the human prisoner in the cell opposite yours steps out of his cell and snaps a high kick into the soldier's jawline. You hear the grisly crack of breaking bone as his neck twists fully around, and the man named Collins falls. His compatriot does not have time to react, because the orc too has emerged from his cell - a massive brute of scarred flesh and flea-bitten rags, one entire arm replaced with a scything claw more fitting to a children's nightmare. He knocks the guard's crossbow out of his hands with a single swing, guts him with the second, and kills him with the third.
You think the human might have been begging for his life there, at the end. It didn't help.
"My compliments on your quick thinking, miss," the human says, bowing politely to you, and he clearly hasn't been long behind bars because his physique is still flawless in its chiselled might, "I am Brother Mikael, late of the Serene Order. We have a small window here to win free of his prison. Come, let us not squander it."
"What about them?" you say, glancing back at the other prisoners. Lisara is sprawled in a limp heap on the ground, her jaw and the side of her face flushed and discoloured, but you think she is still alive. The ogre, meanwhile, is beginning to stir in his drug-induced stupor, clearly rousing at the sound of violence and the smell of blood.
"Leave them," Mikael says with a shrug, already turning away and hurrying to rejoin the orc, who appears to have shaken his arm back into something more fitting for his species, "We cannot risk delay, nor waste precious resources."
Article:
How do you proceed?
[ ] Leave Them You will leave the unconscious Lisara and the Ogre behind, and attempt to escape with your two remaining allies.
[ ] Revive Lisara You will expend the Elixir from the Veil to restore Lisara to consciousness, then press on.
[ ] Remain The guards likely have a first aid kit, with which you will attempt to revive Lisara and perhaps mitigate the effect of the drugs on the Ogre. This will take at least twenty minutes.
In each round of combat, everyone gets a total of three actions.
Round One
Lisara
Strides to leave her cell and approach the guard
Attempts a Feint - d20+5 = 20, success, natural 20 upgrades to critical success. The target is off-guard against attacks she makes until the end of Lisara's next turn.
Confident Finisher! AC is 18, reduced to 16 by off-guard. d20+7=17, hit! d4+3d6+1=12 damage. Guard is badly wounded.
Guard One
Strikes with his club. Lisara's AC is 17, d20+9 = 27, critical hit. 2d6+8 = 16 damage. Lisara is reduced to 0HP by nonlethal damage and knocked out.
Draws manacles
Applies manacles to Lisara
Valka
Strides out of the cell into the corridor
Casts Telekinetic Hand (2 actions) to grab the signal horn and lift it up to the ceiling.
Guard Two
Draws crossbow.
Readies action, to shoot Valka unless she cancels the spell on her turn.
Human Prisoner
Strides out of cell, adjacent to guard one.
Adopts Dragon Stance.
Makes a flurry of blows for two attacks. 21 and 14, one hit. D10+4 = 9 damage, guard one drops.
Orc Prisoner
Strides out of cell, up to the second guard
Casts Gouging Claw, attacks Guard two. 22 to hit, success. Deals 8 piercing damage and 2 persistent bleed damage.
Round Two
Valka
Ceases concentrating on the telekinetic hand, allowing the horn to drop.
The time crunch is brutal and will only get worse once we actually try to leave the cell block, but now that we're doing this live, at this final moment before the plunge where we really will have to abandon anyone who can't keep up- we need to get the troll pointed at the guards.
