The Survivors (The Open World)

[Plainsfox]

OOC: Gather info check. All of 11 ><  

[Jacior]

Seaorin slid off the dragon's head and dropped to the ground, landing lightly on his toes. "Are you kidding me? We flew a zombie dragon here and you want to do the subtle approach? I figured we'd just confront the town, order them to obey."

"I guess if we are trying the subtle I'll give it a shot too. And don't tell me what to do Al." Seaorin circles around the town until he reaches the path that would take him away from the town and mountain.

He walks up the path into town, noting the structure layout, possible defense points and such. He approaches the sixth person he sees and asks. "I am looking for a group of adventurers. I heard they passed through here a few days ago. Any idea where they went?"

((Can I get a desripction of the town? You know, is it surrounded by walls, does it have any other fortifications? Do we know the makeup and names of the party that killed the boss?))  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Kaidahthuan calmly reached a claw up to her hand and dug it deep into her own flesh, bleeding out as she recited the words to an eldritch spell, calling forth to the great beyond and pulling entities into her world. Appearing before her are five janni, bound to her service by her own eldritch will.

"Become Invisible, go into the city, and perform some reconnaissance. Come back here before the spell expires and tell me if you find anything of value. In particular, what are the city's defenses? Are there any particularly skilled and dangerous warriors or mages? Is there anything of powerful magical value in the town?

"I realize that you won't have much time, so make the best of it. Immediately!"

{Casting a Maximized, Extended Summon Monster VIII to summon 1d4+1 Janni (that'd be 5 Janni) and sending them invisibly into the city to get information. Duration is 30 rounds. Not much time, but maybe a little bit...}  

[Slave Xaccheus]

In order:

Mirqos, you determine that the adventurers had one friend stay behind in case something happened. Where he is in the town, or even if the friend is a "he" is left undetermined.

Alaric, you discover that your boss had been connected to the Drow in a mountain stronghold that had been fighting the dwarfs. Without his support, they are loosing the battle at last. In addition, one of the bar matrons states that her friends are the ones who killed the dragon. She says with a nervous voice that they haven't come back in three days.

She's willing to pay you to go on an expedition to find them.

Kai, your Janni discover nothing.  

[Disciple of Sakura]

{Glad to see that they were a waste of an 8th level spell slot. *Shrug* I've got plenty more. Maybe I should just summon 5 Bralani eladrin and force them to ransack the town. Heh heh heh...}  

[Plainsfox]

Mirqos would come back and report the scant info he gained.

"Give me time, and maybe I can ferret out who the last member is."  

[Disciple of Sakura]

"I suggest we throw some monsters at the town while we surreptitiously observe them and determine who the real threats might be. Then, we kill those threats with a surprise attack, thereby demonstrating to the townsfolk that we are nothing to be trifled with. How does that sound?"  

[Plainsfox]

"It has merit. I am also tempted to advise that we should work to aid the drow and then throw them and their slaves at this village. If it is done right, none will know our hand is involved."  

[Slave Xaccheus]

Mehecuiatl nods assent,

"I like the sound of that plan. If we were to eliminate the potential threats, the city will be easier to subjugate. Then we'd have a cheap enough labor force to rebuild the keep, and we could use any local police as troops when aiding the drow against the dwarves. Or, we could go with the other option of using monsters against the dwarves and aiding the drow first, and dominating the city then. Either way, it's no carapace off our backs, we have allies with the drow, and two areas with bodies to loot. It's a win-win situation."  

[Disciple of Sakura]

"Honestly, I find Drow to be distasteful. They're incredibly unreliable and prone to breaking ranks and torturing each other rather than following simple commands. The world would be better off without the majority of them. Lolth is a very misguided goddess if she thinks she can create anything truly lasting that way. I believe a few summoned beasts could draw out any wayward heroes in the town, yes?"  

[serketcity]

(Or, maybe I can.)
Alaric stared dully at the woman, before widening his eyes in shock. "Oh! Those heroes? But of course. You see, I met them on the road as I was headed into your fair town. Give me a moment to convene with MY traveling companions and we shall gather whatever scraps of knowledge we can... if they agree to it, of course."
Of course, a cruddy bluff. No one ever taught Alaric how to run a good con. with a little luck he might pull it off... but even if he didn't, why would she be suspicious?
With that, he headed out the door, to his companions. Once at the outskirts of town, he joined the conversation. "It seems the one of the townspeople is posting a reward for news on the previous party. Did we turn them into zombies, or were their ashes in the rubble with the rest? Either way, bring some remains and we'll be sure to find out who the last hero is. Of course, even with a full-on attack we could probably take him out, regardless of if we identify him first. But that is just my opinion."  

[Disciple of Sakura]

"I'm certainly not sure what happened to the heroes, honestly. I don't recognize any of the heroes in the corpses milling around here, but they might still have been disintegrated or polymorphed. What does it matter, though? We just dredge up a corpse, disfigure it, and claim it's the remains of one of them. No reason to need the real thing if we're just trying to lure him out."  

[Plainsfox]

"If their last one is a cleric, then there are a few simple ways to deal with that. I say we send the remains of "Master" into the town and see what we dredge up!"  

[Slave Xaccheus]

((Sorry about ignoring Jacior...))

The town is a typical town, with about ten to fifteen wooden houses with thatched roofs and a tavern/inn. Some houses have two stories, with the lower doubling as a shop of some type, from a smithy to an apothecary.

Nothing new that you didn't already know.  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Plainsfox

"If their last one is a cleric, then there are a few simple ways to deal with that. I say we send the remains of "Master" into the town and see what we dredge up!"

"That's one way to go about it - and the corpse is expendable as far as I'm concerned. But I think the general idea is to be a bit more subtle about it. Specifically, to let the hero not know that the Great Master and/or his followers are still around. If we were to use other monsters that were summoned, they might not be validly linked and the hero or heroes in the town might not suspect anything at all."