The same thing we do every (ten)day... plot to SAVE THE ISLES (planning thread)

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Re: The same thing we do every (ten)day... plot to SAVE THE ISLES (planning thread)

Post by gonz.0 »

After Action Reporting: Participants please feel free to chime in and give your point of view.

Horatio Allengarde, Tobias Menzer, Isabelladonna Sproutleaf, and Zova the Champion of Ruqel were the team to attempt the raid, with an associate Lua (Erelual Teken'viir) waiting for us, if any of us survived.

Our plan was almost random seeming, and depended upon luck to keep us from killing ourselves with the method of entry. Zova was prepared to do her part, in fine form and spirits. Horatio was worried, but prepared to give his all. Our little wizard Belle was liberal with prepared spells to improve our chances of survival, and our half orc wizard had to depend upon his instinct more than knowledge to guide our entry point when he cast his dimension door into a space he had only heard vaguely about. Toby Menzer had a personal stake, even more than Horatio. He was rescuing a close friend who had been taken months before. Horatio was rescuing someone he had put into personal danger out of desperation, their bardic companion Camelia. He felt it was his duty to save her, if no one else. While he was certain that they both were grateful for the help of the other two, their motivations are not fully understood by Horatio at this time.

"We were not fully successful at landing our destination, the magic forced us into a cavity for we were directed toward solid stone. i trusted Toby knew what he was doing, but not as much as I trusted Tymora to aid us in this bold action. As luck would have it though, our wizard's instincts were close enough to put us into a room within the same hall as our friends. We were successful at fighting our way out of the cell we started in, and freeing a whole hall's worth of slaves; roughly ten all together. It was a tough fight, for very skilled drow mercenaries are not to be trifled with, and not to be left to have your flank."

Horatio, though he is quite skilled at moving unseen, was spotted by one such drow mercenary. He took aim and fired his crossbow causing the fray to begin. Toby bravely rushed into the gap behind Horatio and joined the fight, using his now large size to block the door so none could get in and attack the female members of our party. Zova was attempting to push through to get into the fray, and the men were becoming overwhelmed without her. As the mercenaries closed in, little Bel put into action the plan she had told all about and started launching fireballs into them, being careful to not catch anyone standing in the doorway or the cell they were in.

Once the initial push was over, the would be heroes patched and spelled away their wounds, they collected themselves and started opening the cell doors. There they discovered they were only a few cells away from their main goals. They also discovered there were a lot more than four or five. The plans of using magic to escape were dashed as it was discovered that no magic worked upon the prisoners directly. Plans were altered, the more dangerous choice made. They freed who they could, sneaking them through the city and out through the secret portal network. They brought the rescued captives to the Queen, as Horatio planned to beg for the aid of the most powerful wizard he was aware of, her husband, appealing to his noble conscience and her responsibility as ruler.

Of personal note::
Spoiler:
Horatio's motivation was one of duty. He had long heard his father disparage the idea of nobility, and agreed with the unenlightened views of his father who had been disowned by his own noble grand father Lord Alvaro Javier A’Lengared. Victor changed his family name to Allengarde from A’Lengared in protest of being disowned (among other reasons), trying to say that he was disowning them in a greater fashion than just a lost inheritance. Horatio had been convinced by his father's vitriolic fervor and a logical idea... 'how can the wealthy remain wealthy if they are generous to the common people...' the argument that he also used to enforce why it was acceptable to steal from them... 'no noble would ever be generous even though they claim they are and should be'. Now, however; Horatio had grown two decades older and now had real interaction with the noble class. He had began to understand the concepts of duty to the people known as noblesse oblige. He saw that his father was wrong all those years before. He began to feel guilty for allowing so many back in Baldur's Gate to believe he was a noble keeping a secreted home in the city to entertain women away from his estate, which he did not have. Horatio finally recognized he had above average ability, and growing wealth, along with association of a noble woman. His sense of duty and his knowing of it came all at once, he had been faking it so long. But it became real in the days a few years ago about the Green Grass festival, in the presence of the Queen and along side the noble woman when the missions were first brought to their attention. When the mission was first given to discover who had been taking the people, and there were several parts and parcels.

This particular action was a major step in completing one part that was given to the noble woman Thai's to see to completion... Those many months before, just as Horatio was humbly before royalty, he was asked just who he was to be there. Without hesitation he pledged allegiance to the Lady Thai's. His mind had concocted a plan to help her recover from an embarrassment by showing that she was a capable leader and able to engender loyalty. From then forward, he was known to the Queen as the Lady Thai's' retainer. This began to change after his returning from a long assignment and finding the noble woman had vacated her home and none had seen her since he had left. He was distraught, but had accepted the work and given his word to do his part. He needed to report to the Queen directly to show that he had followed through as he had pledged and done his duty to both Lady and Queen. While he waited for audience, he learned from Toby and the others that there was so much more to the mission, very complicated and dire. He made his report, and once he was asked by the Queen directly, he accepted the whole of the mission as his own. He wanted at first only to report and redeem the Lady's honor and reputation by doing so in her name, he felt no great allegiance to this land or it's people. But being alone, and still the Queen asked of him for more, he saw in her something he respected. He thought of Arrow and her family, and began to feel the obligation that was explained to him so long before. Nobility obliges, the thought that those who are able are obliged to be generous to the common people with their skills and wealth.

After some time and a subsequent reports he felt he owed it to the Queen and the people, as a way of redeeming the failure so far. His frustration at failing had pushed him to desperate lengths. Over several months he liquidated the fortune he had been amassing, spending it upon tools, weapons and information, and mostly upon freeing slaves the only way he knew for sure he could. He bought them and freed them himself, telling himself and others they were a good source of information. But with that fortune running out, and seeing a light at the end of the path he had become even more desperate to act. He even put another at risk, Camelia, in a desperate bid for enough information to enact a raid. Horatio regretted almost instantly selling the bard into bondage, and even knowing that the plan was weak for the small party of four to try to storm that stronghold, he committed. He looked at his companions and dared even think of them as friends. He feared that it might be the last time he looked upon them, one or all. The fact that they had survived, and managed to return to the Queen with half a score of captives made him feel truly noble for the first time. Even though he was on his knee before the Queen begging for aid from her powerful husband, he felt noble and right.
The real Gonz.0
"Where morality is present, laws are unnecessary. Without morality, laws are unenforceable." -Anonymous

Horatio
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