Hekazu

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

The unforgiving opener from the party caught the attackers unaware. This was especially well demonstrated for the first target of the group's focus: As soon as the kobolds had dropped to something unknown, something that he might have felt as a little itch at the back of his head, he could only guess magic was in play. But before he could think much further, an arrow grazed his arm, and he let out a loud groan of pain and surprise. Soon after came flying a heavier object, even if it was a bit slower, that one did indeed cause great damage as it skewered him to the ground in front of the door. It wasn't quite a literal skewering though: If he had tried, he could've gotten up. But there was no strength remaining to pull off such a feat. He felt blood flowing from both his mouth and his wound as he closed his eyes, never to open them again.

And while his story ended here, his partner was still up, although they, too, had pain on express delivery heading their way. Another arrow pierced the heavy concealment provided by the cloud of smoke their little fire was creating, striking her painfully in the shoulder. At least it was not her sword arm, she thanked her god. Soon after she heard a noise from her left: It seemed as if her allies had notice the commotion. Good. She couldn't handle whatever was coming all alone.

Mechanics

Kobolds remain asleep. The first humanoid target goes down, leaving only the other standing.

The smoke obscures the thirty (30) foot radius area it covers, looking through fifteen (15) feet of it causes anything observed to be heavily concealed. Initiative order is in the characters tab as per usual. Go ahead @Gordian Nought.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

No worries! I can definitely alter it! Give me a sec.

EDIT: Changed it up. Does this new readied action work? For future reference, can Torus make a mound with Mold Earth, with surrounding loose dirt, if he can't simultaneously excavate the vicinity's ground?

@Gordian Nought

Yup, it should function as an improvised weapon that forces a DEX save instead of an attack roll, given the Shape water cantrip in itself has no damage values. As for the loose dirt, sure. If there's loose earth somewhere he can move, he can build a pile out of it somewhere else. But remember, it's five feet per turn.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

@Gordian Nought
I am sorry to inform you of this, but the ground around the temple is not loose enough to allow the use of the function of Mold Earth you would like to. while creating difficult terrain is still a possibility, torus should be able to tell this and thus I am informing you of this. If you want to change your action, go ahead.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Having received the call to action and approval from the man he believed to be some sort of an authoritarian figure in the group, Mr. Lake reached for the pouch he had on his belt. "These attacker truly need to take a break", he said in jest as he procured a smaller pouch of sand from amidst many different items. He carefully pulled out a pinch of it and sprinkled it onto his other hand while pronouncing words in the language of the arcane. The effects were immediate, causing the six kobolds to fall onto the ground within the smoke.

However, within the smog two more shapes moved about, causing Mr. Lake to bite his lip as he realised he had not got them all. Had his spell not been strong enough or had the effective area missed them? Whatever the case, those figures were still moving. At least they were no further than 55 feet away, if that was of any help. Lake carefully placed the sand back where it belonged and warmed up his fingers for a certain gesture most wizards were quite familiar with. If need be, he could always bring forth the power of Burning Hands.

Brannor let loose his arrow on the moving shape on the left, judging from his point of view. The arrow indeed struck something, but in the dense-ish smoke from 15-feet point from the edge, it was hard to see what it had struck. But at least the yell sounded like some humanoid. Most important of all, they didn't seem to be ready to counterattack yet!

Mechanics

Brannor hits his longbow attack.
The enemies were not ready to face your attack. That means they are Surprised for the first round, unable to act.

ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!

Lake's status

3rd level Enchantment Wizard

Usable spells:
1st level - Sleep, Colour Spray, Burning Hands
2nd level - Irrelevant

Slots remaining:
1st level - 1

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

@Lucius Cypher@Gordian Nought@The Harbinger of Ferocity@Norschtalen@Ryonara

Just so you don't miss it, Mr. Lake has shared information about his current available tools. He has more as any wizard would, but both him and I see those doing either no good or more harm than help in this situation.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Mechanics

Investigation is not exactly the correct stat to use here, as Deception would be applicable to the situation. After all, she is thinking from a social perspective and trying to figure out how to best deceive her opponent(s).

Deception roll: 21

Parum did not need to think long to figure out what could possibly work. First she and her friends would need to sneak upon their enemy in the cover of the smoke cloud they were causing by themselves and once the fight broke out, she could have "backup" shout out at them. Of course, no such thing would be coming, given how long the circling group did take on each rotation.

While she thought, Mr. Lake turned to face her instead of Brannor and nervously fidgeted with his fingers, rubbing each hand with the other in turns. Once inspiration rose to Parum's face, the wizard gave his answer: "Well, I could blind them with Colour Spray, but that's short lived... perhaps Crown of Madness... but that in turn has proven to not be very effective against those robed people, as if they were too devoted to care about my orders. Then last piece of control I can provide would probably be Sleep, but there's no guarantee if it'll affect all of them. Lastly, no self respecting Wizard leaves home without preparing Burning Hands. You should remember I can only muster two spells, one stronger than the other."

With that out of the way, Mr. Lake turned his focus back onto the temple, trying his best to time how long it took for the big group to make the rotation around the building. It was no short effort, but they couldn't exactly follow the situation much longer if they wanted to make it in before the front door was busted into pieces. Lake was fairly certain these people knew that too and found no need in rushing them. Better late than never, better prepared than dead. And dead people get nowhere.

Lake's status

3rd level Enchantment Wizard

Spells he has shared:
1st level - Colour Spray, Sleep, Burning hands
2nd level - Crown of Madness

Slots remaining:
1st level - 1
2nd level - 1

The escape from Wolfwing's lair

<Snipped quote by Hekazu>

Oh, they have windows in this setting? Although it doesn't make much sense in a fortress... Welp, you're the boss, I won't question it.

@Lord of Evil

They indeed have windows and they truly do not really fit into a fortress. There is no mistake here.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

@Gordian Nought
The raven notices nothing new, having already observed the temple for some time.

The escape from Wolfwing's lair

@Dusksong
It is pretty much like Lord of Evil guessed, a very small window akin to an arrow slit. Not quite as small, but even if the glass on it were to be broken one could not squeeze out of the hole. With what tools you have, enlarging the gap would be impossible.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

The rest followed Brannor's lead along the stream, approaching the temple in steady pace. Mr. Lake evidently was not the best at keeping quiet, given how he seemed to occasionally cause small things drop into the water, begetting a splashing sound. It didn't seem like he was doing it on purpose, but it did cause one close call with a nondescript group of raiders sighted on the southern side of the water. They almost caught the adventurers in their sights, but luckily even Torus managed to duck into the trees in time. There were just four of them, but they were all people, three of which appeared to have a bit heavier arms than those seen before.

Eventually the temple came into their non-familiar aided sight, under assault as they had been told. Multiple enemies surrounded the building, clearly too many for the group to handle in straight up combat. However, a moment of further inspection revealed something about how these people had set themselves here. On the front door, a mid sized group of two raiders, six kobolds and one really impressive looking man, like one plucked them out straight from a disciplined and well trained army unit, compared to those they were overseeing. The two less impressive men were handling a battering ram and smashing it against the front doors periodically. They wouldn't last infinitely.

There were still two other groups to address though... possibly the biggest threat in the area was the mob that was making rounds around the temple. Three raiders, ten kobolds and two of those drake things they had fought back at the sally port. These were scattered in a mob of no particular order, especially with the kobolds darting around all the time. The last group was apparently attempting to light a fire at the back of the temple, on the back door as Kyra could well tell. The smoke from the fire obscured them somewhat, but it was only a handful of people... two humans and some kobolds, probably no more than six. "So, what's the approach?" Mr. Lake whispered to Brannor, assuming the big man was in the lead.