Non-combat RP during a combat encounter. AKA Operation Joseph

Party:

Valeros, Human, Lvl 4 Fighter

Kyras, Half-Elf. Lvl 2 Ranger, Lvl 2 Inquisitor

Sylph (me), Ifrit, Lvl 4 Oracle

Ella, Human, Lvl 4 Sorceror

Taros, Human, Lvl 4, with Hooves the Horse.

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We are travelling with a caravan to the dwarven city of Beauros. We were headed in that direction anyway, and in exchange for guarding it we were offered 50GP each and free food and accomodation. However, the owner of the caravan, Abroshtor, refused to let them see the cargo. The journey was 16 days, and over the course of the first 8 or so days, all but one of the party Taros decide they want to know. One evening, myself and Kyras are sitting on the roof keeping watch, while Ella and Taros are asleep. Valeros manages to intimidate the caravan owner into showing him inside the cargo without us knowing.

Ella, myself and Kyras find out about this, but Valeros won't tell us what the cargo is. So the three of us create a plan. This route is notorious for bandit attacks. We wait for a bandit attack, and use the distraction to break in. The next night, Ella goes to check out the cargo door. It's locked, the carriage is too strong to break, and there are 3 padlocks on the door. Abroshtor has all 3 keys on a keychain he keeps about his person. So she comes and tells us we need to get the keys.

Then begins operation Joseph (in-joke, sadly). Until it occurred, only the 3 of us (and the GM) knew the plan. Basically, it goes as follows:

1. I summon an eagle
2. Valeros uses control to make Abroshtor drop his keys.
3. I send my eagle down the carriage to pick up the keys.
4. It then carries on right to the far end and gives Ella the keys.
5. Ella finds out what the cargo is.
6. We defend the carriage, returning the keys to Abroshtor before he notices they're gone, and pretend nothing happened.

Didn't quite work out.

So on day 15, bandits do attack. Prior to the fight, I summon an eagle as to the plan. However, Abroshtor has stayed inside the carriage, where the eagle won't be able to get in through the door.

So the fight begins. Taros charges in on Hooves, skewering one of the bandits. They pile in on him, trying to hit Hooves and dismount him. Kyras uses control to make Abroshtor drop the keys. Realising I need to get through a door, I summon a pony. It kicks down the door, and charges right through the carriage, picking up the keys with its mouth. Ella recieves the keys.

However, Valeros is also there, and is about to demand Ella gives him the keys when he realises if he doesn't help Taros, both Taros and Hooves will die. He curses and charges in. Ella slips through the door to the cargo, closing it.

Myself and Kyras then proceed to pick off the bandit leader. We fell another bandit before the other two successfully flee, one being chased by my eagle. I walk up to the bandit leader's body and cut off the head. Ella returns the keys to Abroshtor and we pretend nothing happened.

...close enough.

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NB: Another interesting plot point that came out of this. Prior to this fight we'd rescued a pair of dwarves who had a goat, from another group of bandits in the same clan. When the bandits arrived, they demanded the goat. Sylph told the leader they could leave with the goat, or with their head.

Post fight, Sylph walks over to the corpse, cuts off the head, holds it up and says "I warned you."

For some reason I made him keep hold of it. Maybe I'll make it into a clockwork automaton. Anyway, we arrive at town and it turns out that due to an influx of immigrants the gates are closed. The guards say they'll let us in if we fetch them the head of... would you believe it, the very bandit leader we'd just killed! So we actually skipped an entire section of the adventure, which had us return to the bandit camp.

And the GM showed me his notes. They were always going to ask for the head! Instead we then had time to do fun stuff in the city in that session.

EDIT: Forgot the cargo. It turned out after all that, that it was just some wooden collectible items. They were hiding it so they could charge more for it, claiming it was hand-made by them in the city. So we passed that info along to the guards and moved on. None of the three of us actually cared what the cargo was, it was just that our characters' personalities meant when we were told "no you can't see it", we wanted to know why.