Episode 2: a Midnight Rendezvous

00:00:16 Francesca Harn: Welcome to Rolling Solo, where I follow the journey of Francesca, a tiefling bard, as I learn to play D&D one role at a time.

00:00:26 Francesca Harn: We're following Francesca di Valcere, who walked away from her noble family to live by her own rules. She dazzles on stage, but in the shadows she schemes using her wit, magic and charm to survive. Last episode saw Francesca showing off her performance skills on stage at the Broken Bow Inn in the river port town of Droslev's Gate. With all eyes on Francesca, there was nonetheless one particular patron who stood out. A scar cheeked guild member whose eyes saw too much. What's more, an old acquaintance, Séraphine, the innkeeper, made a pleading request for aid. Now, with choices to be made, Francesca's journey continues.

00:01:12 Francesca Harn: "I owe you and you owe me. And if anyone can make this right, it's you." A beat of silence. Then she sets a small pouch on the table. Thieves tools, oiled and ready. You sense the gravity of the choice. Options. Accept outright. Take the mission. Seraphin will trust you fully two probe. For details, press Seraphin for names, routes, and what she really knows. Using your investigation or persuasion skills. Three. Decline or delay? Risk offending her, but maintain freedom of movement. What's Francesca's move? This is a tricky one for this character, because you kind of feel like she would want to have the freedom of movement and not be kind of forced into acting on something, especially so swiftly or without information. But I don't think she would decline it. And the fact that it's people, this is a shipment of people we're talking about here. So I think if we're talking about a character that is morally on the good side, I mean, yes, she's a thief, but she's more of a Robin Hood style thief rather than a, lots of riches and roll around in my money thief. So I think we're going to go for probe for details. We don't want to go into this blind and without out any information, but we don't want to risk delaying. So we want quick probe for details. Excellent. Francesca never leaps without knowing where she'll land. You let your fingers brush the pouch, but don't take it yet. Instead, you lean back. The golden lamplight glinting off your eyes, "Seraphine. You wouldn't risk me for half whispers. What exactly do you know who's moving them? How and who stands to profit? No riddles." Séraphine exhales, scanning the shadows as if the barrels might have ears. Make a persuasion or investigation, check your choice. Persuasion is plus six. Coax the truth from Seraphine's fears. Investigation plus four. Interrogate the details she's giving you. Spot holes. Force precision. Which approach do you take? Charm or scrutiny? Now, I kind of want to play a numbers game here. And the fact that I know that I've got plus six on persuasion means that I kind of want to go that route, so I'm not going to doubt it. I'm just going to go straight in for persuasion. So let's have a quick type. Make sure I can actually spell the word persuasion and get our dice ready. Francesca knows how to lean on someone's heartstrings. Roll persuasion d20 plus six and tell me what you get. Oh, that was not a good roll. That was four. But I mean, plus the six means we're at ten. So that is like the mid tier. Let's see what it says. Partial success. That's what I thought. Seraphine presses her lips together, clearly torn. "Francesca, I'm no spy. I only know scraps, but enough to be frightened. The ship's name is the Widow's Smile. She docks at the south pier at midnight. Offloading is handled by the Black Glove themselves. Not Cutpurses, but their enforcers. And someone higher up in the city's guard gave the order to look the other way." She shakes her head. "I don't know the buyer. I don't know where they'll take the prisoners. If I did, I'd tell you. But the Guild keeps its secrets tight." Her eyes soften, but there's a strain in them. "Please don't push me further. If I speak more, I'll put you and me both in the ground." You have the ship, the time and the dock, but not the full chain of names. And you've pressed Séraphine as far as she'll go. From here, Francesca can head to the docks to night, acting on the Intel you've got. Seek more info before midnight, perhaps from the scarred cheeked Guildsmen. Or by working your own contacts. Or play it cautious. Set a trap, shadow the operation and learn more before committing. What's Francesca's move?

00:05:31 Francesca Harn: I think Francesca is someone that works in the shadows, and she wouldn't ever want to go into something completely blind. So I feel like she wouldn't be relying on other people, but she also wouldn't want to jump straight in. So I'm going to say that we're going to shadow the operation. Very on brand. Francesca doesn't leap without a safety net. You rise from the chair, slipping the pouch of tools into your belt with an easy grace. I'll take action, Seraphine. But I don't act blind. Midnight's a stage I won't step on without knowing the script. Relief flickers in her eyes, tempered with worry. She squeezes your hand once before retreating to her duties, leaving you alone in the dim back room. The inn's noise filters back through the walls, laughter mugs clinking, and somewhere in that din whispers that could sharpen into daggers. You still have hours before midnight. Options for Intel gathering. One approach, the scar cheeked guildsmen. He clearly knows something, though it risks walking into the black gloves shadow. Two visit Whistle Corin, the gnomish locksmith, has ears in the underbelly and might have heard about the widow's smile. Three seek out the Orphan Street choir. Children are invisible in the alleys. If anyone noticed unusual movement near the docks, they will have. Four blend back into the crowd. Gather general gossip, but stay subtle. Who does Francesca turn to first for information before midnight? I feel like we've pushed it as far as we can go with remaining subtle in a crowd. So I'm leaning more towards seeking out the contacts like, our locksmith or our orphan choir. I quite like the idea of the children using them for Intel, because they go unnoticed, and they will have spotted things that I think I will find quite useful. So I'm going to go with seek out the Orphan Street Choir.

00:07:40 Francesca Harn: Excellent choice. The overlooked often see what the powerful miss. You slip out the back exit of the broken bow. The cool with the air brushing against your skin. The city hums with nightfall. Goals crying over the harbour. The creak of masts. Laughter spilling from taverns. The Orphan street choir makes their camp near the old aqueduct arches, a crumbling ruin where sound carries beautifully, perfect for practice and performance. You find them huddled around a brazier. Voices soft in mournful song. A half a dozen children spot you first one breaks into a grin and calls out "Francesca, sing for us. Tell us a story." Their leader, a wiry girl of maybe thirteen named Penny, tilts her head. She knows you too well. Knows you wouldn't come at night without reason. You need to coax information about movement near the docks, but kids are wary and they'll want something in return. Make a persuasion or deception. Check your choice. Persuasion. Win them over with charm, honesty, and your bond. Deception. Spin a story. Make it a game. Lure the info from them. Do you try honesty or a clever story? And what do you roll? This is a tricky one. because you kind of want to go with what you would feel as a person. But I want to play as my character because I would probably go for the persuasion route. However, I feel like my character because she doesn't actually one hundred percent trust people. she might go more for the deception route. Tricky. You know what? Yeah, I'm going to go with the deception route because I feel that that's more honest to the character. So let's see. Get that dice out and get rolling. Let's see. Oh, okay. I definitely could have done better than that. That is a critical one. Let's put that in. So critical one. Um, you get critical one, which is automatic fail. and then you also get a critical twenty on your d20 dice. And if you get that twenty, you pass whatever. Because it's a critical pass, because it's obviously quite rare to get either end of that spectrum. So definitely not my best roll. It has to be said.

00:10:02 Francesca Harn: You spin a tale weaving intrigue into a game. Smuggler's ship's secret cargo. The choir giggles, eyes wide, but then Penny's expression hardens. "You're lying Francesca. You never lie to us." The braziers glow flickers across disappointed faces. The bond you built with them falters, their trust strained. Penny turns away, muttering, "if you can't tell us the truth, then don't come to us at all." One boy, small, quick eyed, lingers, though as you step back into the night. He tugs at your sleeve and whispers. "I saw men by the south pier loading crates. Big ones too big for coin. They had the black cloths Mark and a guard captain was with him. I don't know his name, but he had a red cloak." Then he darts off before Penny can scold him. You've learned the shipment is definitely at the south pier. The Black Gloves enforcers are moving it, and a red cloaked guards captain is involved. But your bond with the choir is damaged. Penny will remember your lie. Midnight approaches. Francesca can now head to the south pier and shadow the operation as planned. Seek out Whistle Corrine for names and details on this red cloaked captain, or risk returning to the Guildsmen at the inn to press for confirmation. What's Francesca's next move? Yeah, so you can see there the risk that you roll, uh, with basically by rolling a dice. so that critical one really kind of screwed me over. I've lost trust with the children, which is probably not going to be great for the later game, but that's that's the way it goes. Otherwise what's the point? You've got to just go with what the dice tells you to go with. So I'm thinking I want to try and get this back under control. I'm going to go with my instincts and just go straight back to heading to the South pier. Let's see what happens next. A river port breathes differently at night. By the time you near the south pier, the usual bustle has faded, replaced by whispers of water against wood and the creak of rigging. The moon paints the widow's smile in silver. A broad bellied brig with her sails furled, moored and waiting from a vantage between stacked crates. You watch black glove enforcers patrol the pier, broad men in dark leathers, hands resting on cudgels. Chained figures are herded from the hold, their shackles clinking faintly too many to count in one glance at the end of the pier. A guard captain in a red cloak oversees the process. He speaks with the guild lieutenant, their words swallowed by the night. But the body language is clear. This is no accident. It's partnership. As you crouch low, you have to decide your approach. Options One. Eavesdrop on the leaders. Creep close to overhear their conversation. Make a stealth check two. Count and assess the prisoners. See how many, what condition they're in. Whether escape is possible. Perception or investigation. Check three. Mark the guards rotations. Learn the patterns and weaknesses of their patrols. Stealth or investigation. Check for slip away to plan. Retreat for now. With what you've learned. Do you want to roll? Stealth, perception or investigation? And which target are you aiming for? So this is where I kind of would be really annoying for a non AI, dungeon master, because I don't want one of those individual options. I want to kind of fuse them. I think probably in real world, I wouldn't be able to do that with the benefit of a non-human DM. I'm going to kind of exploit that. I want to count and assess the prisoners whilst also marking the guards rotations. I will make a concession that that's going to take me longer, so it's a risk of waiting too long and missing my opportunity. So I'm going to make sure I type that in so that they can factor that into the way the narrative plays out. So I am kind of being a little bit naughty with it. However, I'm also giving it the information it needs to kind of bite back at me. So let's see how that works out. So I'm going to roll two D20s one for perception to figure out what's going on with the prisoners, and then also one for stealth to try and assess the guard's rotations. Let's give it a go. So that's a thirteen for the perception. Not bad. Seven for the stealth. Not great. So let's pop that in and see what happens.

00:14:53 Francesca Harn: So, as we know, I'm still very much a beginner to all of this. One thing I completely forgot about was modifiers. So I have my character sheet printed out in front of me. Even that did not remind me. So when you make a roll, you've got these character scores and they tell you when you do something. If you've got a modifier that's either works for your advantage or can work against you. So for when it comes to my perception roll, I got a plus one. But for stealth I got plus five. So that kind of moderates it out a little bit. So I got a combined total of fourteen for perception and twelve for stealth, which puts both in the partial success range. Let's see what that gives me. Narrative wise. You crouch low, breath shallow, and peer through gaps in the stacked crates. The prisoners, you count at least a dozen chained captives, though more may still be below deck. Their condition is poor, gaunt, bruised and shackled in pairs, but one stands out, a tall figure posture straighter than the rest. With eyes sharp. Despite the chains. They don't move like the broken. The guards. You shadow their movements just long enough to notice. They circle in groups of three with a blind spot near the pier's lantern post where the shadows break. It could be exploited, but as you edge closer, one guard pauses, frowning as though he heard something. You freeze. After a tense moment, he spits into the water and moves on. Too close. They don't know you're here, but a repeat mistake might be costly. You know now, twelve plus prisoners, one of whom may be significant. Patrols have a blind spot, but you've already risked notice once. Choices one target the strong looking prisoner. Watch them more closely. Maybe try to signal to eavesdrop on the red cloak. Captain and Guild Lieutenant risk getting closer to overhear. Free. Set up an escape plan. Use the blind spot to prepare interference or sabotage. Four. Withdraw for now. Take what you've learned back to Séraphine or another ally. What does Francesca do? So again, I really want to focus on what my character would do. I feel like she was initially really kind of reluctant to dive straight into this, but seeing the plight of the prisoners and the sheer number of them and how gaunt and starving they are and yeah, basically the conditions are not knowing where they're going to next. And if she doesn't step in now, maybe she will have lost her chance forever. So she's definitely not going to withdraw. I know that much. I'm tempted by the targeting, the strong looking prisoner, but that's quite risky. I definitely don't want to eavesdrop because I've already got close to being caught once. Let's not do that again. So I'm either going to set up an escape plan or target the strong looking prisoner. I feel like I've been a bit too gutsy recently, and I need to kind of tone myself back a little bit, because my character is a little bit more, intelligent than me, is what I was gonna say. But she's more used to these situations, so she would be thinking clearly. So we're going to go for set up an escape plan.

00:18:19 Francesca Harn: Perfect. Francesca never charges headlong. She arranges the stage. First. You melt into the pier's shadows, slipping toward the lantern post where the guard rotations overlap. From here you can act without immediate eyes on you. The widow's smile groans softly against her moorings, chains clinking as prisoners shuffle across the gangplank. Options flicker through your mind. The bones of an escape plan. You could sabotage the lantern, post snuff or shatter it to deepen the blind spot. Guards might stumble in the dark. Or you could loosen the mooring ropes with a sharp cut. The widow's smile could drift free. Chaos for captors, maybe. Opportunity for prisoners. Create a distraction. Use a spell to pull guards away at the right moment. Or perhaps mark the route. Quietly prepare a safe path through crates and alleys for when the time comes to flee. Each option will need a roll, sleight of hand, stealth, or spell casting, depending on the choice. Do you want Francesca to sabotage, cut, distract or mark? And how do you go about it? I feel like sabotaging the lantern post would be a good idea. Loosening the mooring rope seems risky. If we're not sure if there are prisoners still on board, that might not be the best thing for them. Creating a distraction that could cause more problems than it solves. So I think I want to sabotage the lantern post first and then work from there. So let's sabotage. You creep to the lantern post. The iron fixture creaks faintly, flame dancing within its glass belly. Guards rely on this glow to pierce the night, snuff it, and half the pier vanishes into shadow. Your dagger slides into your palm. Or perhaps a cantrip dances on your tongue. You can shatter it quietly with sleight of hand, a quick flick to the crack the glass and let the flame gutter out. Or you could snuff it magically auto success, but might be noticed as sorcery. Or perhaps you want to cut the posts support using stealth weaken it to topple later, creating a sudden blackout. When you choose, which method does Francesca use to sabotage the lantern? I'm going to go with what I kind of assumed when I made this choice, so I'm going to roll for sleight of hand and shatter it quietly. I want it done now so that I can see what I'm working with in the darkness, and just how much it helps me, or perhaps doesn't help me. Also, my sleight of hand is a plus seven, so I like that. Oh, I do not like my roll, but with that plus seven, we should be okay. I just rolled four, so that takes me up to eleven. Let's see what that does. You draw your dagger and flick the point into the lantern's glass. Crack a hairline, fracture spiderwebs across the pane. You twist just so the flame gutters, then dies, leaving half the pier drowned in shadow. But the glass doesn't fall cleanly. A shard drops, bouncing on the planks of a sharp clink. One of the guards barks, oi! What was that? The red cloaked captain turns his head for a breathless instant. Golden eyes meet yours across the gloom, sharp, calculating. Did he truly see you or just sense something out of place? Then from the ship's hold, a cry pierces the night. One of the prisoners, the tall one you noticed earlier, shouts in a commanding voice. Now, while their blind chains rattle, panic surges. The pier erupts into chaos as guards scramble prisoners. Lurch and the captain snarls orders and Francesca, dagger still in hand, caught in the moment between Shadow and exposure, must choose her. Move.

00:22:22 Francesca Harn: And let's end our episode there. Join me again next week to find out just how Francesca copes with this situation. Every story starts with a single roll. Until next time, keep rolling solo.