[OOC] Heart of Darkness (Part II)

[secretID]

I meant the question of whether another direction may be better for Tink. The site is very small, though, so it's pretty crowded. I confess I'm having a hard time picturing him having a hard time approaching such a small space. I've been imagining it as an opening within a cave system, but I guess that's wrong. Anyway, we'll just roll the dice on Tink. Hopefully they're not hostile anyway.

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by secretID

I meant the question of whether another direction may be better for Tink. The site is very small, though, so it's pretty crowded. I confess I'm having a hard time picturing him having a hard time approaching such a small space. I've been imagining it as an opening within a cave system, but I guess that's wrong. Anyway, we'll just roll the dice on Tink. Hopefully they're not hostile anyway.

A 100' diameter cave seems pretty big to me. It could easily hold dozens of darklings without being too cramped. (I calculated that this is ca. 650m² of living space at least, even after cutting 50m² of impassible terrain.)

The darklings who lived here and died were about three big to middlesized families at best though.

I imagine it as a single, bigger grotto with a few stalagmite columns and a few tarps between them.

There are three tunnel entrances into the grotto. If there are active sentries, it's nearly impossible to get in unnoticed. You can only hope that they don't have those for Tink to have a chance to succeed. So far Tink isn't aware of any dedicated sentries.

Boanagh doesn't have any particular advantage in mind for either of the three exits.

[secretID]

Ah - 50' radius.

It looks like I did have a correct image of the site, so I'm confused. How can Tink know that there are multiple darklings there, but not know whether there's a sentry?

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by secretID

Ah - 50' radius.

It looks like I did have a correct image of the site, so I'm confused. How can Tink know that there are multiple darklings there, but not know whether there's a sentry?

Because he's coming from a tunnel he only got a conical view of the site. So there are lots of dead angles that Tink wasn't able to even check from afar. He saw darklings, but he isn't sure if they are watching the entrance particularly. They could just be chilling, living their best darkling lives. Basically, what I meant is that he isn't aware if anybody is particularly tasked to pay attention to the exits.

@edit:
Also, the ones Tink saw weren't in blind sight range of his tunnel.

[secretID]

I edited, and included some OOC notes about the changes. It occurred to me that IRL many things could potentially be overheard outside of 30', the blindsight range, so we'll see how it goes.

[Mindsiege]

Sorry that this post took me so long. It's been a few busy days.

[secretID]

No problem.

I'd like Tink to lead the guard, and perhaps others, into a bottleneck. Is that doable, given the locations of Tink and the party?

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by secretID

I'd like Tink to lead the guard, and perhaps others, into a bottleneck. Is that doable, given the locations of Tink and the party?

The whole tunnel that Jimmy's party is currently in could be considered a bottleneck. The party is currently behind the first bend which leads to a direct view into the cavern/campsite. If Jimmy and his buddies run a few turns away they could get to an even narrower spot, though the tunnel snakes a bit and there aren't long lines of sight. Tink can easily get back to Jimmy within a single turn. If Jimmy wants to lead the darklings anywhere, he'll have to make them follow first. Right now everything is still open.

[secretID]

Rather than stumble through this IC, I'll try to describe the goal here. Something like

 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/QS6p***.png[/img]

would be ideal. The idea is that anyone coming toward the party rounds the corner to see the party a good ways off. The corridor could be narrower or a bit shorter, though I wouldn't want it wider. Is something like that available?

I realize that getting them to come is a different issue.

[Mindsiege]

Unfortunately your image didn't work. Looks like there was a random curse word in the image link.

[secretID]

[Mindsiege]

With the tunnel that you're headed from you have about half that length available at that width as a spurt directly behind the bend which you're occupying right now, and from there on out it gets curvier with even shorter but also narrower straights. After that it's basically back into the cave system which I haven't fully mapped out yet.

[secretID]

It sounds like we're close enough that Boanagh could call out to the guard - yes?

[Mindsiege]

The corner would have been close enough to call out, but where you placed the formation would be a bit out of distance. They would hear him shout, but a real conversation might be difficult. It's not clear how well he would be able to convey a message.

[secretID]

FYI, I care less about a full conversation then about hopefully drawing them to this position for a conversation. I would have done this through Tinkerbell, but I assumed it would be too awkward to try to get him to speak words in a language he doesn't know.