Soulriders 5.0: Legend of the Unending Games

Sometimes you'll want to do stuff that can easily be arranged between sessions, like asking around over leads, rolling knowledges, or just chatting over strategies for what lies ahead. This is the thread for it, so that we can have everything lined up neatly to dive right in when we start the next session rather than having it take up time of our valuable once a week session.

Right-o~

I want to gather info on our target, miscellanea about the port (say on the Harbormaster and on how you'd apply for a job there and how security tends to be handled) and on the family situation/inheritance of our client. Can I do that sort of prep without drawing untoward attention?

It takes 1d4 hours for each gather info check, and you've outlined 3 of them. Do you want to do each before next session? This can have an impact on what time you start at, assuming you intended to immediately investigate the seized ship.

If you do then feel free to roll for them in whichever order you feel you'd want to tackle them. As far as untoward attention goes, there's no way to know what attention a question will draw until you ask it.

PLAN

1) Go to dockside taverns
2) Find someone who knows this Soller guy
3) Get him totally smashed
4) QUESTION TIME - What's Soller been up to lately? How many friends does the guy have? What's he got going on that boat?

So to confirm, you're outlining how you'd go about the info-gathering rather than stating a desire to RP all of this solo or somesuch?

It covers my first GI target and I can live with not knowing much about our client for the time being. Thus! Time to show incredible interest in the workings of the port, smile prettily and be properly concerned over security.

If we're met with moderate success on these we should be able to act afterwards. Thoughts?

Well yeah, information-gathering like this isn't so much fun to RP, but it's how I'd want to do it, you know?

Getting info on dockside workings is simple enough and can be done with a usual GI check.

Getting public gossip on Soller Vark can likewise be done with a simple GI check, but if you want to specifically find a buddy of his and get the dude wrecked so he spills information that may otherwise be kept quiet, that's a bit more involved and would be a good place to start next week's session.

For timing reference it is 5pm when you leave the Vanderboren estate, and events will continue apace regardless of what you happen to be doing, up until you interfere with said events. We may have started with a railroad to get you together, but things are now moving in real time rather than at the speed of plot.

Hmm. Alright, I'll gather the public gossip on Vark for now. How do we do this? I'll take 10 if possible (19, whee), but otherwise just roll for me whenever you're resolving it, Diplo mod is obviously +9.

Seems that it's settled. I'll use that very time to gather harbor miscellanea (harbormaster, security, procedures, etc). Taking 10 is awesome (+10 mod), but if I can't I'll roll this evening.

Taking 10 for gather info consumes the full 4 hours.

Rudy asks around the docks about the man named Soller vark, and picks up a few things.

"Soller Vark? Yeah, he comes in here sometimes," a well endowed young redheaded tavern wench at the Blue Boar snorts. "Always bragging about that scar that he got 'duelling a hook handed pirate'. S'all shite, if you'll pardon my Elvish. He got it in a brawl over at the Crooked Lantern. Used to work there myself and I saw the whole thing. He kept putting on a big production like he was some champion of war, and I guess he knocked a few guys out, but then he got conked on the back of his head with a bottle and gouged down his arm with the broken glass," she seems quite amused at this last part. "So, hey, I get off work at midnight... you doing anything?" she concludes her tale with a sidelong look at Rudy.

Whatever Rudy's reply to the hopeful young lass, he ends up at the Crooked Lantern shortly afterwards. "Hear Vark's got something big going down tonight, saw one of his buddies in here yesterday talking about paying off her tab after her big payday," a grizzled old dwarf tells Rudy in exchange for a tankard of spiced rum. "Haven't seen Vark or any of his cronies in here at all today, though. Smart money says he's smuggling something, but you didn't hear that from me."



Meanwhile Henrietta prowls around on her own errands to learn more about the Harbour and learns a trick or two herself.

"The Harbourmaster? You mean Lord Islaran?" a bald headed and robed acolyte of Posiedon asks as he collects today's offerings left at the statue of the Sea Father by superstitious sailors and reconsecrates it for another day. "It's a terrible shame, he's dying, some chronic problem with his lungs - even with magical healing it just resurfaces a month or two later. Wouldn't be surprised if he just stops bothering sooner or later, he strikes me as that type. You hardly ever even see him, these days, and he used to be so energetic."

"Hah, the Islaran family might claim Lordship of the harbour, but between you and me, it belongs to the thieves and crooks," a snappily dressed young man tells Henrietta, buying her a drink as they chat in Old Nancy's Tavern. "'Course, the Islarans are too out of touch to crack down, and the Watch doesn't care so long as the thieves prey on each other more than they do honest folks. Still, best to keep a close hand on your coin purse down here, and watch which way the wind blows - sooner or later, one of the guilds will get an advantage over the rest, and then things are going to be bloody."


Assuming nobody else has anything to do, it will be 9pm when the next session starts.

Before you left her estate, Lavinia will have told you that her ship is the Blue Nixie and is docked at pier 5 near the Smith's guildhall.

Hey Yuth, you need to memorize some spells!

...facepalm. On it.

Edit: Already did it, just didn't indicate it clearly. Kind of.

The sack that Maril gave to Rudy happens to contain lots of platinum coins! 93 of them, to be exact!

Searching the captain's quarters, Rudy comes across a hidden panel which contains a golden ring adorned with what could well be the signet of the Vanderboren family. Threaded through the ring is a scrap of parchment which has four pictures of a compass on it, arranged in a collumn from top to bottom.

The first compass has a triangle drawn around the East arrow in red.
The second has a square drawn around the West arrow in red.
The third has a pentagon drawn around the East arrow in red.
The last has a triangle drawn around the West arrow in red.

Trucy and Shug (the smuggler rescued from the Rhagodessa) are both at the party's mercy right now, so it's up to you guys what you do with them.

[23:06] <@Erin> roll 1d20+9 diplo
[23:06] * +Hatbot --> "Erin rolls 1d20+9 diplo and gets 24." [1d20=15]

GIing on Brissa!

Asking around Azure district the following day, after leaving Maril behind with Myra in an oddly celebratory mood, Rudy happens to find that Brissa Santos was fairly well known.

"Oh, you're after Brissa?" an older woman asks Rudy, grinning toothily as she mends an old fishnet on the side of the street. "Not surprised, a strapping young lad like you would be... You know, I was quite a looker in my youth," she pats up her thinning steel grey hair and smiles in a manner that only accentuates the many wrinkles across her leathery face, "But young Brissa probably has me beat. Last I heard she was seeing some rich boy from the Merchant District, but there's more important things than money, aren't there?" Upon being prodded as to where Brissa lives, she leans closer, "Oh, I shouldn't be giving away a young girl's address to just anyone, but you seem like a nice boy," she pinches Rudy's cheek at that, "She's over on Wall Street, number twenty two."

Upon arriving at Wall Street, Rudy can find the address in question easily enough, a fairly nice and respectable two-storey house built against the city walls, and one that certainly doesn't deserve to share the same city with Trucy's deathtrap of a hovel. There's no answer to any knocking and a passerby sees Rudy's attempt and stops to say, "Brissa ain't in, lad. Think she's been outta town this last week or so." Further questioning doesn't seem to provide much more help than that, and he merely shrugs, "She never said anything before she left, anyway, so dunno where she might be. She's out of your league, besides."

Planning to get an advance from Lavinia so I can go repay that guy for losing his boat, and I'll tip him 10gp because I guess he lost a few days income and suffered some stress. Here's hoping I can find him...

[23:07] <Kallen> roll 1d20+9
[23:08] * +Hatbot --> "Kallen rolls 1d20+9 and gets 15." [1d20=6]

Lavinia gives Rudy the advance without complaint, considering it's so close to payday anyway, although she does wonder what he spent the 100gp she gave him for the Nixie affair on so quickly. It doesn't take much wandering about pier 5 before Rudy spots the boatman who loaned him the rowboat before... standing on the pier directly above his safely tethered rowboat. Further investigation reveals that he found it on the neighbouring pier the day after Rudy borrowed it, and never really thought much of it.

---

Meanwhile Henrietta and Trucy spend a few hours in the Cudgel District looking for Hermann Kiel, eventually finding him at the Shrine of Apollo. He's busy fixing some tiles on the roof, but upon hearing he has visitors he happily jumps right down to talk to the duo, looking to be a well muscled but rather short bald man with a small nose and chin and a large forehead. Upon being asked about Brissa Santos he nods and explains that she's a talented young painter who's yet to make her mark on the artistic world, and so works quite cheaply, which suits him because he's not rich, but his mother back in Ciyone insisted that he send her at least a painting because she hadn't seen him for so long. He doesn't know anything about Brissa's lovelife, although does admit that she's quite lovely to look at and so surely doesn't lack for it, and doesn't have a clue about any other 'jobs' she might have.

I would like Trucy to look into people who returned to the harbor roughly after the time we got ambushed and locked in, with special focus on small rowboats.

Myself, I'd like to look into the Lotus (GI result 20) and into who had been frequenting the Taxidermist's Hall later (GI result 15).

[20:12] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+11 GI for Lotus
[20:12] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+11 GI for Lotus and gets 20." [1d20=9]
[20:12] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+11 GI for who visits the Taxidermist's Hall lately?
[20:12] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+11 GI for who visits the Taxidermist's Hall lately? and gets 15." [1d20=4]

Trucy obediently runs off to conduct her errand while Henrietta beats feet and greases palms across the Merchant District, searching for vital clues and leads!

"Hey, you're asking about the Lotus Dragons?" Shug the would-be smuggler asks, now seemingly working honestly in unloading a merchant vessel that recently docked. "Didn't you know that's who Vark got those animals and stuff from? Yeah - and remember that huge ass monster beetle thing? I hear they keep the nastiest stuff like that to themselves. Didn't seem so bad when it was in its cage, but wouldn't fancy running into one of those again," he holds his stomach with a queasy look. "Dunno how to contact them, though - Vark was pretty secretive. Never even told us who the buyer was."

Continuing along after that, Henrietta ends up at the Tanner's Guildhall, a strong scent of leather and oils permeating everything as she strikes up conversation with an overweight dwarf puffing on his pipe just outside the front steps. "Taxidermist's Hall, eh?" he peers up at Henrietta, tapping some ash out of his pipe before taking a long draw. "Yer not far off, I suppose. Animals start the same way when they come here, but we turn 'em into boots and belts, not preserve 'em as they are. I know where yer after, though. Just need to head over the bridge into Sunset, up at the corner of Water Street and Dead Dog Alley, ye'll find yer mark. Guy that runs it's a bit of a tightarse, though." To enquiries as to the comings and goings at the guildhall, he simply shrugs. "Sorry lass, yer probably better off asking someone who lives 'round there?"

Of course before that, Henrietta must make her scheduled meeting with Trucy as the sun begins to sink low, close to dinnertime. "A few people actually mentioned it, since the sea was pretty choppy and there was just one guy struggling to bring his rowboat in not long after sundown," she reports. "He didn't stick around long after mooring it, headed up North into the city. Nobody gave me much of a good description, but apparently he was wearing green and yellow under a dark cloak. That mean anything?"

I would like to discuss things with Lavinia, though I'm not sure who else actually wants to talk to her as well, if at all. I also think Rat was intending to look up the collector for the Cobras?

And since Trucy's been cold and lonely lately, I could ask her to look into this gang.

I wanted to talk to Lavinia too.

I do also want to hook up with the collector, yes.

I'll toss up a post in the PbP thread later today for you two to talk to the boss.

Upon being asked to go investigate a gang in Shadowshore, Trucy suggests that some hazard pay wouldn't go amiss.

How about a very nice 1gp hat of her very own?

Trucy sulkily replies that a cloth cap might make her look boyish enough to deter any potential rapists, but nonetheless hurries on to do Henrietta's bidding.

Rat, is your plan for the collector to wait two days for when Rabbani is scheduled to pay his protection and grab her coming or going?

In light of recent events (that's such a nice, usefully ambiguous statement) I'm proposing the following:

Naturally, we all get together to exchange this new and exciting information, whereupon Henrietta wishes to suggest that we approach the Cobras openly and tell them that the Dragons will be moving in on their turf. From there, several outcomes are possible, and two she consider likely are those outlined by Trucy; they either decide to flee (which allows us to return to the Dragons with the poisoner's help secured, and gives us cred with them to find out more about Vanthus and their plans for the city) or they can choose to make a stand (where we could offer to work with them, and return to the Dragons). If the latter is chosen, we can try to convince the Dragons that we have discovered the hideout of the Cobras, and know when they would be weakened/inattentive/whichever. Ideally, we might even triangulate with Lavinia to have the authorities ready to move in as soon as the Dragons make their move.

All in all, I'm proposing a modular plan like this which would depend on which way the wind blows, and the first part of which is the aforementioned approach of the Cobras without delay (meaning, the same day Trucy talked to me). Does it sound like a plan people here like? If so, do people want to go as a group?

I can actually get behind this. With the conversation just now there doesn't seem much point to seducing their collections girl (who may or may not be a crippled magical loli- three things that are all major turnoffs for dating shenanigans) and getting her to spill their secrets.

If they do want to make a stand I'm not really into fighting for one gang or another- it's just a level of criminal involvement I don't wanna have. Sicking the guard on the whole lot would be my ideal plan of choice (though admittedly if Trucy isn't viewing them through rose-tinted glasses, the Cobras seem alright, I guess.)

I'd certainly like to go chat up the snakes, too.

That's actually not a bad idea. Turning the whole thing into an ambush on the Dragons could work out fairly well, especially if their leadership is killed.

Or they could just kill a whole lot of each other. I'm all for either avenue.

Eb, can you post a description and/or map of the Lotus Dragon's lair, or at least the bits we've been in?

...and how it would correspond with the layout of that part of the city, from what we can tell (taxidermist's hall, surrounding buildings, etc). If it's not too much trouble, that is. Should help with planning if we don't die to snakes~

Apologies for the poor quality, I'm still getting the hang of Gimp. Hopefully future maps will look better, but this covers the basics well enough I hope (not to any particular scale).

(http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3250/lotuslair.gif) (http://img12.imageshack.us/i/lotuslair.gif/)

Funny looking twisty passage in the middle is where the ladder up to the taxidermist's is, it extends further right than you explored. Bottom left is mess hall, bottom middle is training room, bottom right is the Lady's sitting room (with rhagodessa guard and war room between). Upper right is the waiting room/dock, big almost pepsi logo is the cistern.

(http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/4808/citymap.gif) (http://img841.imageshack.us/i/citymap.gif/)

Red dot is taxidermist, blue dot is well. Bridge to Merchant district is Southwest and off the map. The North is the mainland.

Obligatory post of 'what are you guys going to do now' so I can prep stuff for next session or make use of the play by post thread.

I'm going to city hall/local council/fantasy equivalent and attempting to secure architectural documents related to the sewers, canals, and other underground areas that are in the whereabouts of the Lotus Lair.

Make a diplomacy check, Rudy?

edit: er, that is, when I'm around to see it.

[10:04] <@Janson> Rat! Are you around?
[10:07] <Rudy> Yep
[10:08] <Rudy> Ah, I see
[10:08] <Rudy> roll 1d20+12
[10:08] * Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+12 and gets 28." [1d20=16]

[10:18] <Rudy> roll 1d20+7 engineering will do, I hope
[10:18] * Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+7 engineering will do, I hope and gets 11." [1d20=4]

Castle Teraknian is the administrative centre of Salerno, and knowing the way from the recent trip to Lavinia's vault, Rudy heads over there! While initially he gets given the run around with officious talk about appointments and references and procedures and questions such as "Why do you need these plans?" and "Who are you working on behalf of?" and "What are you doing in my office?", dogged persistence and a winning smile eventually pays off when a homely young clerk is sufficiently won over by Rudy's charms to bend a few rules on his behalf.

Taking Rudy to a large archival store below the castle (but above the vault level), she sneaks him behind the stacks for some fun and espionage, bringing up the relevant documents. From perusing the reports, a few things become apparent. The cistern that he just escaped from is visible on the plans, set under the well servicing Dead Dog Alley. It connects to one of the city water purification units further North, at the edge of the 'island' - these are small automated magical devices spread throughout Salerno's waterways to combat the pervasive filth that tends to accumulate in them in the absence of a full developed sewer system. The pipes used are all small ones no more than a few inches wide. The only exception is a single storm drainage pipe of two feet wide that connects to a small cavern system under the very Easten extent of the island. As of last year all waterfront accesses to said caverns were sealed by the Lord Kellani, who holds the title on the streets above, citing structural concerns. It should be completely dry if it was properly drained prior to sealing, but what's shown of the caverns matches up with where the underground dock was, and they're shown extending farther South, about as far as the Taxidermists, Rudy thinks. The primary opening which was sealed up is shown on the diagrams, so Rudy could locate it easily enough now provided he didn't mind getting wet.

That's all he can see. There's no sign of any underground complex or network of tunnels large enough for people to walk around in, at least not officially.

After that, I'll go see Lavinia and enquire about this Lord Kellani.

So who is this mysterious Lord Kellani? Assuming Rudy checks in with us, I'd like to give Lavinia an update of the situation and ask her about this highly-suspicious man. If she doesn't know enough for us to act upon, I'd settle for where it would be best to look for more information on him ourselves.

Lavinia always has time for her valued employees, and possibly even their unpaid tagalongs!

"Lord Kellani?" she repeats once everyone's settled in her sitting room on comfy chairs, provided tea and cakes by Kora. "That would have to be Baron Hendrick Kellani," she nods to herself, going on, "He's something of a mirror to my parents, actually. They were nobles who spent much of their time 'adventuring'. He's an adventurer who bought his way into the nobility. Although if you listen to certain rumours it sounds more like he was a pirate. It's true that most of his interests tend towards the nautical - he even tried to usurp Lord Islaran as Salerno's harbourmaster shortly before I was born, but I gather he didn't have enough support. It's poor to speak so of the dead, but I'd hazard Lord Islaran was a rather more formidable figure in years past than he ended up..." Lavinia looks momentarily guilty as she dwells on that.

"As for specifics," she continues after a moment's reflection, "He owns an estate in the Azure District comparable to my own... although perhaps better appointed," she smiles self deprecatingly, "I've met him a few times, and he always seemed quite charming as an older gentleman, but he carries himself as one accustomed to fighting to get to where he is. He actually has a daughter my age as well - Rowyn Kellani. I recall we both debuted in the same season, and I was quite jealous of her skill as a dancer," she allows a whimsical look to pass on her features.

"That aside," she brushes past the matter, "Despite the rumours Lord Kellani has never been legitimately linked to anything underhanded - and for that matter, far darker rumours float around many of my fellow noble houses. You must not make accusations without evidence - he could make life very difficult for you, and it would reflect poorly on me as your employer. But... if he is behind the thieves my brother has fallen in with, it makes the situation all the more tangled. Such a scandal would destroy his house, and perhaps without his support the Lotus Dragons would crumble. But a man with nothing to lose can be driven to do terrible things."

Henrietta stirs the sugar in her cup methodically, placing the spoon down on the tray once she is confident it has been mixed properly.

"I do not want to bring this up," she says, taking a sip of her tea to check its temperature, "but what if... what if, perchance, this ties into the recent events in Salerno?" Her hand twitches nervously, and she places the cup back for the time being, lest she spill anything. "If the baron wanted to get Lord Islaran out of the way before, but did not have enough support... what if he has decided to try a different way? And a pirate's roots would fit decently with, well, with smuggling and that sort of business. Maybe that is what the Lady of the Lotus meant when she was talking about taking over everything that gets brought into Salerno from the harbor."

Henrietta pauses briefly to take a breath. "Maybe we misunderstood the Lotus Dragons before? What if this is how they intend to take over the city, and... and not through eliminating every rival gang? If this is the way everything is connected, we might learn more from finding out about Lord Islaran's replacement or, umm, by receiving information from the guards about their investigation into his death."

"It makes a great deal of sense, doesn't it?" Lavinia agrees in a resigned tone. "A new Harbourmaster has yet to be chosen - the new Lord Islaran is an artistic sort with no head for beauracracy or for that matter interest in the role. I believe he only inherited the title because both his sisters are more interested in marrying into other families. Islaran's star is likely to fall further in the coming years, and the Kellanis are well placed to fill the void, at least in terms of running the harbour. From there a place on the Iron Council is quite a natural step."

She picks up her steaming porcelain cup and sips on her tea, holding the cup before her in a contemplative manner. "The Lotus Dragons could be sacrificial pawns. Use them to consolidate organised crime around the harbour, then 'defeat' the ascendant gang in some manner of staged confrontation? Who could doubt his qualifications after such a display?" Setting the cup down again, her expression turns pensive, thoughts clearly turning through her head but unspoken. When she does at last speak, it's with an air of resigned determination. "This goes far beyond my selfish desire to have my brother returned to me, and if I'm to be worthy of my station I can't ignore it. At any rate, it doesn't sound like you can infiltrate the Lotus Dragons after what they just tried doing to you. I will speak to Lord Islaran and the Iron Council to try and learn of any moves from Lord Kellani. You should try to learn what you can from other sources if possible - but at the core we need evidence, and I believe there's only two places it will be found; Kellani Manor, or the Lotus Dragon hideout."

"There... might be another way," Henrietta muses, blowing on her cup and then taking another sip. She gives Lavinia a contemplative look of her own. "Lady Vanderboren, you said that the matter of a new Harbourmaster is one of choice? In that case, well, does it mean any noble can submit herself for the post? I would not have mentioned this if you were not already someone the Lotus Dragons have an eye on, but since things are as they are... perhaps a third way of learning more exists by nominating yourself and awaiting for Baron Kellani's offer to pay you off so that you would stand aside?"

Henrietta takes another sip of tea, feeling her nerves settle down, bit by bit. "If our suspicions have anything to them, whoever is after the job would not be able to stand idly by in such a case. An outright assassination of a candidate for the post so soon after Lord Islaran's murder may actually be unlikely, or people might eventually connect everything, so we might succeed in drawing the mastermind of all this, if one exists, of course, out into the open."

Lavinia looks caught off guard by that suggestion, her eyes widening and her mouth falling open before she composes herself and puts forward a proper genteel appearance once more. "They would laugh me out of the door, Baroness or not," she shakes her head gently. "I have no experience in nautical matters nor in managing a harbour. There are already enough unkind whispers about my ability to manage the Vanderboren estate, simple as it is. It would damage my name greatly merely to have asked. And even then, backroom politicking over a prestigious appointment is no evidence of wrong-doing."

"Dreadful position to hold anyway, I'd say," replies Rudy, withdrawing a notepad and taking a look at the sketches he made of the plans. "I suppose evidence would take the form of contraband or papers linking the two parties in question. They'd smuggle it in through the waterfront somewhere, to that underground port. We could try and keep an eye on it.

"Infiltrating the hideout might not be completely impossible, either. We just need to figure out a way to make sure they're too busy with something to worry about someone sneaking in. I thought of looking for structural weaknesses within their caves. It may be possible to cause a few to collapse, which would no doubt have those underground in a bit of a panic. It could provide ample cover, even for a bunch of standouts like ourselves."

"If we go after Kellani himself, we'll need some sort of cover to infiltrate his mansion... ah, he has a daughter, you mentioned? I don't suppose you know if she's attending any parties or the like in the near future?"

"I'm afraid my own attendance at social functions has been rather spotty of late," Lavinia shakes her head apologetically. "I could try to find out, though. But do have a care in collapsing any caves - I don't want any innocent people falling into sinkholes or having their homes destroyed on my conscience, and I'd hope you wouldn't either," she adds in a reproving tone as she focuses on Rudy for a moment.

The conversation's winding down here, so I'll leave it to you guys to settle on a plan between yourselves as to what you'll be doing next session. Please post to give me something to prepare for!

So, a plan, then? I think collapsing things is horrible. I dunno if causing flooding is possible or not. They can clearly flood sections, but is that the limit?

What I'm interested in, here, is why did the baron restrict the tunnels. Beyond the obvious, yes. Do maintenance people regularly go to such places normally? If so, can we manufacture a pretext to send them over? What would such a pretext be? How can we find out more about this stuff?

Well you could have Knowledge (local) or Knowledge (Nobility) but since nobody does you'll just have to ask someone. Thankfully Lavinia and Trucy are right there, so yeah.

The landowner is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of his or her own land, and only a Royal Warrant can supercede that. These are usually issued by the Crown in cases of incompetence, absence, or malfeasance, because generally it's in a noble's own interest to keep their property well tended, and they also don't like having strangers snooping all around in their business.

So that's a bust. Speaking of people who are around and know stuff, does Lucie know if any of the Snakes are sufficiently stealthy and could be persuaded to help sneak about the lair of the Lotus Dragons?

"Mort," Lucie says in response to this query. "You met him at the hideout. Had a good leer for Henrietta here, as I recall. Might be he could get in an out without leaving sign if we needed him to. Mind you, his idea of fun tends to leave people dead or bleeding, so if having a look 'round's all you want of him, best make it clear before you send him on his way. If he'll go, that is. Can't rightly speak for any of the gang but myself."

Okeys. I think that from what we know so far, this is the only thing we can pursue right now.

-Lavinia would take time to find out about the baron's daughter, and events are proceeding on course in the meantime. We, however, would be just sitting on our hands there.

-Blowing up the city is bad, let's not. Even if we could.

-Misusing bureaucracy for our ends seems impossible. I can't forge a Royal Warrant and I don't want to mess with the Crown anyway, that's super-scary.

-Flooding seems extremely difficult, if even possible. We really need to investigate more first before even trying, and by having someone good at stealth do it we might be able to land that info.

From all this and due to us just lacking the right sort of skills (and the right spells), how about we persuade Mort (and/or the rest of the snakes) to work with us on this? If it works, we might learn more about the caverns, and if Mort's discovered then the attention of the Dragons might temporarily shift from their plans to dealing with that incident. Meantime, we could try looking for that underground harbor and for ways for the huge snake to arrive over, if we manage to get the Snakes onboard for this.

If we know more about their lair, about their plans or if we have that huge snake with us, I'd be fine with just forgetting about the baron altogether here and striking back at the Dragons.

We don't lose much in asking them, I suppose. Possibly some respect! As they don't care all that much about what goes on outside their neighborhood. But it's probably safe enough to ask and I don't really have any other ideas. And taking the fight to the Dragons I'm guessing is not really feasible without some backup.

It'd be totally convenient if we could flood the Dragons out, but I'm not convinced this is even possible. And for all we know Vanthus could be down there somewhere and it's kind of against the terms of the job to drown him.

Lavinia can rez him if she wants to.  >_>

Rat? I recall you being able to summon all sorts of elementals for more than a few rounds, so if we do look for the underground harbor or try to chart more of the underground network it's really up to you, I figure.

Anyone else?

It's only a few minutes, and they're not very smart. However I can summon earth elementals, which can earth glide, which is sort of awesome since I think that means I can summon one on the street above the caverns, have it go straight down, and surprise everyone inside.

I'm proposing a modular plan, then. We go see Lucie's gang and try to get them to help out. I'll just offer to pay them if all else fails. If that too fails to seal the deal, we'll return to the Dragons's turf and try to add to our map of their lair via elementals. With a bit of luck, we'll either have a better map of their tunnels (and knowledge of defenses, if the elementals survive them and are smart enough to relay them) or a chance to lure some of the Dragons into a trap (if we piss them off with our scoutings).

I figure it'd take us the session to do this stuff, so no need to plan beyond this for now~

I'll go ahead and propose this as our plan of action barring other ideas (but still, post with like 'yes' even if you don't have anything to add, guys?)

If we do attack, I think we should use the cistern trap back on them. >_>

Eb: As far as flooding the tunnels go.. well, can I? Is is feasibly possible for us to do so?

Quote from: Carthrat on January 20, 2011, 03:44:28 AM
If we do attack, I think we should use the cistern trap back on them. >_>

I'd thought about this, but I think it's possible they'd watch for that. Lotus Lady will surely check up on her pets at some point and find them all dead, from which they can only conclude that we escaped.

Quote from: Carthrat on January 20, 2011, 03:53:52 AM
Eb: As far as flooding the tunnels go.. well, can I? Is is feasibly possible for us to do so?

The tunnels are just above or at the waterline, so opening them up to the canals wouldn't spark a massive deluge or anything. Blocking up the drains in the cistern while the pipes were running would cause it to overflow and water to go down the two tunnels, but the flow rate combined with the large area means it wouldn't be a speedy process.

Ok, so I'll be going earth-diving with earth elementals for the day. I can get 7 summons a day (and save the last to resummon Myra), and each lasts about three minutes. How should we do this, Eb? I can repost the map and circle the rough areas I'd like to start trying to map, though in this case I'd be just as happy with the routes being arbitrarily decided. I'd rather scout many different places, expanding our knowledge of the overall layout rather than fully explore any one route at this stage.

For simplicity's sake just describe where you'll start searching (referring to the surface map) and what areas you'll try to cover from that point onwards, along with the specific orders you'll give the elemental prior to it being sent downwards.

Ok, the elemental will be ordered to glide along the ceiling of whatever tunnel it's travelling down. It is to spend about a minute exploring in any one direction, taking any turns that become avaliable to it before coming back to me and telling me what it saw.

I'd like to chart the circles in ascending order!

(http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/968/lotuslairexplore.gif) (http://img29.imageshack.us/i/lotuslairexplore.gif/)

Where will you be on the surface during this? Are you going to have the elemental go down at one point you know is an access (like the taxidermist or cistern) and have it remain underground mapping the complex, or will you be having it descend from points on the surface you think correspond to where you want to explore and hoping for the best?

I was gonna start aroudn the taxidermists hall and gauge distances from there. Because my elementals don't last very long I have to be roughly above the area they're checking out, so they can report back to me in time.

[19:58] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+13 GI on the house
[19:58] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+13 GI on the house and gets 27." [1d20=14]

Henrietta accosts a young maid approaching one of the neighbouring houses, covered basket in hand and red cloak pulled tight over her black and white uniform. She doesn't seem to mind talking to Henrietta under a nearby shop awning, however, swiftly won over by the sorceress's pleasant demeanour and charming hat. "Oh, that house?" she turns her head towards the ivy-clad building, "That belongs to the Marevanchis. They use it to hold meetings sometimes," her freckled face adopts a scandalised blush and she lowers her voice, a hand coming up to cover her mouth, "Very private meetings, if you'll pardon my meaning, m'lady. I shouldn't repeat such scandalous rumours, but I sometimes see young Lord Marevanchi coming with all sorts of different young ladies, so I can almost believe them myself. Supposedly they have a secret dungeon in their manor estate with all sorts of exotic female prisoners brought out for special parties... I shudder to think of it!"

Trucy, darling, do you know anything about the Marevanchis, the young Lord Marevanchi or their parties?

"Well, it's not like I'm a close personal friend of their highnessnesses, so it's not like they invite me to their parties," Trucy laughs as she's questioned, "But the Marevanchis are like your poster children for shitty decadent nobles who don't do anything decent with their lives. They've got a mansion up in the Noble District with all the other worthless hanger-on nobles. They're old money, but I dunno what businesses they're involved in these days."

"What about this slavery rumor? You think there's something to that? In this day and age?" asks Rudy, wiping his forehead.

If pushed Trucy admits she has no idea if such salacious rumours are true or not. But she certainly believes them.

The three nice guards near my home have been very trusting and accommodating. I would like to pay them another visit and ask about any fellow guards they are familiar with in Sunset I could approach.

I'm just going to go visit some other alchemists from the merchant district. I'd assume I have to pay some fee to use their stuff?

So Lucie and Rudy are going to stroll around the city and see if they can turn up 1x Miranda, I believe? If she ever mentioned what neighborhood she was sleeping in to anyone, now's the time to point us in that direction. I know I can't recall it happening while I've been around, but if it happened before that, somebody speak up. If we don't even know what district she was likely to be in, I guess our best bet is to visit various guard houses asking about her (on the basis that other people got attacked last night too, so she'd likely wind up coming to the police's attention, dead or alive).

Rudy can lead here since he actually has diplo ranks and a non-nerfed CHA mod. I can aid?

Yeah, I was going to check with guard posts in each district, so this works for me.

<Lucie> roll 1d20+5-4 60% chance of actually helping go?
* Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+5-4 60% chance of actually helping go? and gets 4."12 [1d20=3]
<Lucie> Boo.

Well, looks like it's all you, Rudy. Charm the pants off 'em. But only figuratively. Unless they're pretty.

I'll just take 10 for 22. This seems fairly routine. <_<

Glenn can make use of the facilities at the Alchemist's guildhall in the Merchant District for 1gp an hour, but while there they ask why he hasn't joined up. 5gp a month permits free use of all facilities, and lets him sell potions throughout the city! (of course it's not illegal to do so regardless, but the guild exists to protect its members from non-guild competitors).

Henrietta is unable to find the three guards from last night as they're currently off duty and likely asleep. The guards who are present reassure her that her information has been passed up the chain of command and will make its way to the Sunset Watch so appropriate action can be taken.

Lucie and Rudy can go to the Play by Post thread.

Sure why not, Glenn will join the alchemist's guild. Make some new friends that way and stuff!

So if anyone wants to talk a bit before next session IC, lemme know? I'll be around~

About anything in particular? Nothing specific occurs to me, though I'll surely respond if someone else has a conversation starter.

About what we do when we land, for one, but there are other things like what just happened on shore <_<

So now that we have both money and free time, Lucie needs to do the following:

-Move! Somewhere nice ("nicer than her current neighborhood" doesn't say much). I figure since she's not real used to having a lot of money she might splurge here and veer into the Rudy range of excessive spending, not sure. Have to look at the lifestyle rates. Not sure what neighborhood, either, have to look at those again (suggestions here? It should be someplace where she can get to any of you guys or Lavinia more easily).
-Probably the above necessitates saying goodbye to the old gang even though they'll think I'm an elitist snob now, because it's just not right to leave people behind without saying anything.
-I totally need clothes that don't look like they came from a thrift store, if I'm going to be going to fancy banquets and stuff. Probably Lucie will be investing in a lot of dresses with high necks and/or scarves.

-I plan to chat to Lucie and the Cobras over Maya and where she got her powers from, and investigate further depending on that.
-Also, I want to begin planning a construction company; Salerno has a ton of places that are in dire need of being fixed up, so I'll begin looking into assembling the proper contacts and consider sources of labor, which in turn will be discussed with both members of Shadowshore and my new communist friends.

My short-term plans include:
-Fixing up the spider head taxidermy and sending it along with a care package back home to my parents.
-Renting a house next to mine for Trucy.
-Searching for a banquet dress maker, possibly with Lucie. (Is Trucy invited too? Then she can come as well!)
-Learning more about Hecate, but not because I believe in her or anything.
-Looking into buying a house/land.

Forgot to mention, if Rudy seriously wants to try etiquette lessons, we can. It's not like Lucie doesn't need them (or is incapable of realizing they'd be beneficial from an actual teacher. She's not sure Rudy counts, but hey).

Glenn's plans are:
-doctor/cure
-talk to Arabani regarding cure if she hasn't left by time I'm cured (hopefully?)
-buy a nice tuxedo or whatever passes for male fashion for the banquet
-rent a house? (I forget if I actually rented a new one before we left or not, but I suspect I did not since we went into the hideout then boat trip almost right after)
-find out more about what being in alchemist guild entails, if I can get access to other extract formulas, start a shop (or just sell stuff to a shop from what I make) or what.
-make at least five alchemist's kindness for Rudy's party, one for each of us and one for Trucy!
-find that girl that turned me into a goat and get something to spike the punch with at Rudy's party (probably not this one actually....well, maybe.)

Lucie

For moving home, pick one of the districts in Salerno and a lifestyle bracket, and I'll describe your home the way I did for Rudy and Henrietta in the loot thread.

Saying goodbye to the Cobras should be RP'd, we'll do that in PbP.

Clothes shopping is something that we could RP with Henrietta as well.

Rudy

Finding out about Maya can be done in PbP. If you ask Lucie beforehand, she knows stuff and can tell you if she feels like it.



For assembling contacts, roll knowledge local and diplomacy, and I'll give you some starting points there.

Lucie seems to want etiquette lessons, but it's not because she likes you or anything. You two could RP that on IRC together and post logs on PbP or just go back and forth with posts there.

Henrietta

Fixing the head can be done with cantrips easily enough. Sending the package back to Jovar on the next ship out will cost 20gp, and probably be with your parents within a month or so.

Both the houses next to yours are occupied, but there's one a few doors down that's vacant. I don't particularly care to work out specific rents when that stuff's already included in lifestyle, so just give Trucy a 10gp payrise and we'll call it even.

Trucy is not invited to the banquet. Clothes shopping can be done in PbP with Lucie.

With Hecate, how specifically are you going to go about your schooling?

Where are you looking to buy housing/land?

Glenn

You can get a Remove Disease cast easily enough at one of Salerno's many temples for 150gp.

Talking about cures can be done in PbP.

You can join the girls on their clothes shopping or just deduct gp and buy appropriate clothes as per the goods and equipment rules.

Your old house is mostly intact aside from the gutted alchemist's lab. It can be repaired/cleaned for 'free' out of your upkeep, but if you want to move house (or change your lifestyle band) pick a district and I'll write something up.

There's lots to being in the guild! Right now you're an Associate Member. This requires a fee of 10gp per month (in addition to your upkeep) and entitles you to the following: Free recipes for all healing extracts (Cure X Wounds ones. If you took Cure Moderate at level 4 I'll let you swap it for something else since you can get it from the guild), the right to sell potions within Salerno without guild interference, the contacts to trade extract recipes on a 1 for 1 basis (not the Cure X ones since everyone knows them, but effectively this lets you double your Extracts known by giving all your recipes to other guild members and getting new stuff in return - feel free to pick as you please from the list, I don't care to worry too much about the specifics on this).

That's the lowest rung of the guild. Being in it for longer and performing services/making discoveries advances your station and provides more benefits.

Making hangover cures goes without incident.

You can roll diplomacy to try and find Vriskna and we'll see from there.

[21:18] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+12 diplo
[21:18] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+12 diplo and gets 25." [1d20=13]
[21:18] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+6 k: l
[21:18] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+6 k: l and gets 20." [1d20=14]

I'll try and tag Cid sometime, possibly tomorrow.

-I'll make a post about what I'm sending and deduct the cash before the next session rolls up.
-Roger, I'll list the Trucy stuff on my sheet and post the cash deduction there as well.
-I have a rival! I can ask about for Vriskna. Does Salerno have a temple to Hecate? I can ask about that. Between my GI and Trucy's local knowledge I hope to have an option or two.
-Salerno nobles essentially own land in the city where they have estates, land outside the city (say a part of the forest by the dragons) and various lands for businesses, right? I'd like to start with the former. If it's way more expensive than what I currently have, it would be nice to have an estimate and a goal.

Rudy

Rudy finds out some information on contacts/potential competition in the building trade.

Building by Design, in the Cudgel District, is an independent construction company run by Dirk Penthurst, it's been running for a few decades and Dirk's getting old, but it employs close to 20 full time staff, with more being taken on a temporary basis as jobs permit. They're expensive, and have been known to over-run deadlines, but the work is quality.

The Stonemason's Guildhall is in the Cudgel District as well, and serves as a meeting place and trade contact for numerous stonemasons throughout the city, ensuring prices are fair and consistent. They'd be keen to get a line into any new construction companies to negotiate supply.

The Glassblower's Guildhall is in the Merchant District, and everything said about the Stonemasons applies to them.

The Upwards House in the Merchant District is the office of Arturo Cobley, Salerno's foremost expert on architecture and engineering. He designs buildings on commission, and is often employed to inspect completed buildings even if he didn't design them. His opinions are well regarded by those in the know, and a bad word from him can ruin an up and coming builder or architect.

Henrietta

Roll diplomacy to try and find Vriskna. Trucy thinks there's a shrine to Hecate somewhere in the Noble District but she's not sure where exactly.

Buying land is complicated. Every inch of land in Isernia is owned by some noble or another, from the lowest knight right up to the king (with the sole exception of foreign embassies, which are owned by the rulers of other countries). It's a source of income and symbol of status all in one. You may get lucky and find a destitute noble willing to sell, but it's more likely they'd sell to another noble than to a commoner.

For a piece of land within Salerno's city walls big enough to build a manorial estate, you'd be looking at a minimum of 20,000gp just for the land itself, and then you'd have to evict the current inhabitants and tear down the existing structures before building your own mansion. Realistically you won't be able to buy land until you're a somebody, regardless of your money. Of course buying your way into nobility is hardly unprecedented.

Though various districts appeal for various reasons, it ultimately makes the most sense to move to Merchant since it's fairly easy to get to any other place one might want to go from a central location.

Lucie will also be irresponsibly squandering her income on luxurious accommodations because, well, for the first time she actually can. Cost of living: wealthy, 100 gp/month.

[19:02] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+14 diplo
[19:02] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+14 diplo and gets 20." [1d20=6]

Quote from: Ebiris on April 10, 2011, 07:35:36 AM
Glenn

You can get a Remove Disease cast easily enough at one of Salerno's many temples for 150gp.

Doing so.

QuoteTalking about cures can be done in PbP.

Alright. I'll do that sometime during this week I guess.

QuoteYou can join the girls on their clothes shopping or just deduct gp and buy appropriate clothes as per the goods and equipment rules.

I'll just buy something.

QuoteYour old house is mostly intact aside from the gutted alchemist's lab. It can be repaired/cleaned for 'free' out of your upkeep, but if you want to move house (or change your lifestyle band) pick a district and I'll write something up.

I'll move to Merchant district, but keep my current lifestyle of 10gp/month.

QuoteThere's lots to being in the guild! Right now you're an Associate Member. This requires a fee of 10gp per month (in addition to your upkeep) and entitles you to the following: Free recipes for all healing extracts (Cure X Wounds ones. If you took Cure Moderate at level 4 I'll let you swap it for something else since you can get it from the guild), the right to sell potions within Salerno without guild interference, the contacts to trade extract recipes on a 1 for 1 basis (not the Cure X ones since everyone knows them, but effectively this lets you double your Extracts known by giving all your recipes to other guild members and getting new stuff in return - feel free to pick as you please from the list, I don't care to worry too much about the specifics on this).

I'll pick up CMW, though I don't have any plans to sell potions just yet. I would also like to trade some recipes and pick up Comprehend Languages & Cat's Grace.

Could pick up more, but I'll do that at some other time since I imagine that finding someone and then trading/writing/etc takes some time to do.

QuoteMaking hangover cures goes without incident.

Neat.

QuoteYou can roll diplomacy to try and find Vriskna and we'll see from there.

[11:17] <Merc> roll d20+0 diplo for Vriskna
[11:17] * Hatbot --> "Merc rolls d20+0 diplo for Vriskna and gets 14." [d20=14]

Braving the Cudgel District once more, Glenn asks around to try and find out where he could find Vriskna. Unfortunately while he finds several other former barnyard animals who would dearly love to find her again themselves, nobody has any clue where she actually resides. He also seems to attract a lot of suspicious attention from guardsmen in the area.

This Saturday we'll be RPing Rudy's party. Please post who you're inviting, and Rat post what sort of food/service/entertainment you'll be laying on (kickass parties are expensive).

I invited Vriskna as our surprise guest, and if by some dumb luck Trucy isn't invited I'll be sure to do that.

I can't think of anyone Lucie would be inclined to invite.

Samarintha+co, though I will strenuously avoid inviting the crazy guy who wanted to kill us.
That awesome cleric of Davy Jones, because I can't say no to a one-scene-wonder.
Obviously Trucy is invited, have faith in me man :(
I'll cheerfully invite the Jade Ravens, too.

Entertainment-wise, I'll hire cooks who specialize in Anowian cuisine; if they do a good job here I'll be ready to employ them on a more permanent basis as house staff. I'll also seek out the craziest bard I can find. I have no doubt that the merchant district can also provide whatever substances people might want to abuse, and I'll probably do a tour of the district myself. Depending on the disposition of my neighbours, I may invite them too. (Or their kids.)

And yeah I'll probably go invite Maril, too.

Visiting the Salerno Opera House, Rudy is able to negotiate the services maestro Piannin Percussio (that's probably not the name his parents gave him) who is legendary for his over the top performances, being a virtuoso on over a dozen different instruments and gifted with a booming voice that could wake the Gods.

Between entertainment and excessive debauchery, the expenses for the party come to 1,000gp.

Yes it's obscenely expensive, but this is how the big leagues play.

Glenn isn't inviting anyone. Everyone he knows/likes is already coming.

Just noting intentions for PbP here:

-Hit the occult bookstore, where Lucie will presumably be a regular customer in near future.
-See how mom's settling in, try to find something for her to do with her time if she needs distractions (she probably does).
-Lucie will also want to look into the people that got namedropped in her dreamworld, out of idle curiosity. And get a maid.

I presume we want to try and do stuff before next Saturday takes us out of the city.

Also etiquette lessons with Rudy theoretically happening Wednesday.

This coming session we'll be searching for the place Maya got her badass snake and mental trauma. How are you guys going to go about finding said place?

I'll check to see if there are any communities in the direction Maya indicated, and start by making inquiries about large caves or dark rumors in the area, particularly if there are any that seems to spring up around the time Maya vanished.

Rudy will head back down to Shadowshore sometime to chat with Hermann once again!

The banquet will be held in Castle Teraknian starting at 7pm, although guests (particularly guests of honour) are encouraged to arrive early. Four courses will be served one on every hour until the final course at 11pm. The tables will be cleared after half an hour to allow guests a chance to digest and mingle as they please. A listing of the main guests follows, along with Lavinia's advice on them which you may heed or discard at your leisure.


Baroness Lavinia Vanderboren

"You all know me, of course. I'll do my best to help you all throughout the banquet if you have any trouble."

Earl Derik Islaran

"He only recently inherited his title, as I'm sure you all know. I don't think he's attended many formal events previously, and will probably use this as an opportunity to try and make his own contacts among his fellows."

Henry Lorchester

"Second son of the Lorchester family who represent the Champion district, he's a keen follower of the Arena and reputed to be a competent warrior in his own right. He also, I'm sorry to say, is something of an airhead... but one that's pleasant to look at, at least."

Charlotte Arabani

"First daughter of the Arabanis who I believe you already know. She inherited her mother's gift for magic and practices druidic traditions. She's also a friend of mine, so be nice."

Avner Meravanchi

"First son of the Meravanchi family - I entertained discussion on the rumours about that family before, but I trust there won't be any of that at the banquet. Still, he has a reputation as a playboy. Henrietta and Lucie, please be careful?"

Duchess Adelphi Lidu

"She represents the Noble District, and along with Duke Lorchester is the highest ranking noble in Salerno. She's getting on in years, but still sharp. She's known to be a firm believer in tradition and proper behaviour, so have a care not to offend her. Discussing matters of history might mollify her, if you're knowledgable yourself."

Viscount Herastus Knowlern

"Representative of Sunset District, he's normally quite reclusive so it's nice that he chose to attend himself rather than sending a family member in his stead - something about these events must have caught his interest. He's known to be a fervent scholar of arcane subjects and magic, though I've never heard of him practicing it."

Rochelle Kellani

"Unfortunately Baron Kellani chose to send his second daughter in his stead. This could either be taken as a snub, or an effort to groom her by gaining experience in formal settings so she can become his heir. She was always in Rowyn's shadow, so I'm afraid I know very little about her."

Baronet Emil Draktus

"This man unfortunately represents Shadowshore... it could uncharitably be said that they're an apt fit, with apologies to Lucie. No doubt he's interested in the sudden rise and demise of the Lotus Dragons for reasons not of the angels."

Baron Malevan Kilraven

"You can also call him General and still fall within protocol. He leads the King's Army on the coast. I understand he's quite the no nonsense type who favours straight talking over formality, and generally doesn't linger long at such gatherings.

Miszen Witchwillow

"Our ambassador from Anowia. She will be attending to express gratitude on behalf of her nation for maintaining the open and peaceful nature of the harbour. Unfortunately I don't know her, but I expect she may pay particular attention to you, Rudy, to see where your loyalties lie."

Baronetess Sascar Tilernos

"I would prefer not to speak so ill of someone, but the Baronetess is overly fond of both drink and gossip, and is likely using this banquet merely as an excuse to exercise her appetites. At the very least, please avoid giving her fodder for spreading perniciously inflated tales throughout the city?"

So I'll take up Witchwillow's offer and pay a visit to the embassy someday!

Some things are contingent on Lavinia, but the one thing I'm sure I want to do is chat with the pirates the next day. Anyone wants to tag along for that?

Cor, could you elaborate a bit more? Contingent on Lavinia doing what? What do you want to talk to the pirates about?

Sure thing. I'll go into what I want to accomplish:

-Communist pirates. They're going to leave in a couple days, I believe, and I'd like to catch them before that happens. They seemed receptive to going after nobles that give the rest a bad name, but it was just us chatting at the time. I'd like to see if they're good with it, and if they have any targets already. We could probably help each other, be it by sharing information together (on Kellani's piracy, in a true fit of irony, say) or outright stopping some dirty dealings (evil government cults abusing kids or some noble selling slaves?). If there's really nothing more to be said here and you'd prefer to sum it up, that's also good. Ideally, if they're in, we'll need some way to stay in touch and, if possible, to exchange some info. Kellani and Meravanchi are suspect, and there's that eidolon cult, and I'm not above seeing if pirates know anything of use there. If Lavinia actually has any enemies and shares that with us, they get happily added to the shitlist.

-Eidolon cult. I want to ask Lavinia for a couple days to go there and bury the victims. And even though I don't believe in the afterlife the ghosts probably do, so I'd like to ask Vriskna if she's a priestess, and if so if she wants to come and help. Barring that, the only other possible cleric I know is Melinda, so I could try hiring her? If I strike out on both, I can just try to randomly hire someone from a religion that has protecting kids as one of its tenants. If Liamae wants to combine our sorcerous might for this or Trucy isn't too scared of the ghosts, we should have enough to not randomly die. And probably enough firepower to not actually need to go into it IC if you don't want to.

-I kinda wanted to talk to the other PCs! Somewhat in the vein of what I missed out on at the end of the last session. We're a team, we're pals, we can talk about goals that go beyond 'we all work for Lavinia'. One of my goals is pretty much to help Lavinia expand her influence and gain happiness, so in that sense it also somewhat depends on whether I know just what she wants or have to stick to the more general terms here. Not really sure if the Ravens should/would like to be included there. My preference is really to see where it can go with PCs alone, then plan further ahead.

Okay. For point one, Lavinia doesn't really have any enemies nor is she inclined to make any right now. Likewise the pirates are eager to get back to sea rather than spend any longer than they have to in hostile territory. They don't really care about common and unverified rumours concerning the Kellanis and Meravanchis of the world, although they are interested in government sponsored child abuse and greatly appreciate any hard info you can share about that which they can create some propaganda about. None of them know anything about it otherwise.

Point two, Vriskna is curiously hard to find, although Melinda cheerfully sells herself ("Not like that, ye cheeky lubber!") for 100gp to come along and put some children to rest, double that plus a share of any plunder if she ends up having to fight anything. Liamae is busy with the other Jade Ravens on another mission right now, but Trucy can come along. We will need to RP this so lets try and get it done tonight?

If you want to talk to other PCs hit them up on IRC and post logs or just head into the PbP thread, that's all on you guys.

Lucie needs to do the following:

-Wander over to Cudgel district and visit the temple of Hermes for a start. Even if they don't have any answers for me, they might be able to point me in the right direction. If I pass by someplace that seems like a nature cult, that's worth a look too (should've grilled Arabani about that subject more, but the conversation got awkward right when I tried to bring that up, alas).
-Stop by Telvanta's and see about meeting with the woman at some point, purely out of neighborly curiosity and certainly not to ask questions like "Is your dance school really for training assassins." (Also how did I not recognize when the name came up last time that she's my landlord. D'oh.)
-See what my mom's been doing with her time and quite possibly find something better to occupy her.

Surely someone briefs Henrietta on what we found at the cult base, yes. Don't know if that needs to happen onscreen, really, but either way we want her to put those knowledge: nobility ranks to use at the very least to try and place those names we found.

-Oh God so scary. This made a believer out of me (don't worry, it'll pass as the shock does). Lucie, I hate you with the fiery passion of a thousand bright suns.

-For you, Cid. When do you guys want to CHAT?
[00:00] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+7 spellcraft
[00:00] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+7 spellcraft and gets 16." [1d20=9]
[00:00] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+3 nobility
[00:00] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+3 nobility and gets 7." [1d20=4]

The wand mystifies Henrietta and she has never heard of Kivan Gardner or Jellica Hawthorne.

If we're going to cover some stuff over the week, then I'd like to revisit my intention of chatting Lavinia up some more. Maybe I'll learn something nice in an informal setting and then, one day, she'll be pleasantly surprised by a neat gift! My vote for my time is getting to know my nice employer and trying to make her happy~

EDIT: Rat, Cid said thursday might work to get together for a chat. We are talking about roughly 11pm-midnight for me, which should be around 6am-7am on friday for you, I think. Is that possible? If not, how about just breaking it up? I'm fine with approaching each of you separately, if that's how the dice fall.

It's not really good for me. Maybe we can do it this weekend?

I am so bad at this....

[20:10] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+17 spellcraft!
[20:10] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+17 spellcraft! and gets 25." [1d20=8]

[23:20] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+14 GI on whether the rescue party of Rudy's landlady brought that pirate ship back with them
[23:20] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+14 GI on whether the rescue party of Rudy's landlady brought that pirate ship back with them and gets 26." [1d20=12]

So do we have a plan for the coming session? I'm down for Arena shenanigans or seeing Lavinia about a meteor.

Ideally I'd like to resolve all the individual stuff you guys want to do on your own and then, barring following up on anything as a group, timeskipping towards the meteorite. As you've probably all figured out, I've been horribly uninspired to do PbP stuff lately, so I may just handwave and summarise the individual stuff.

It's honestly undesirable for this to be handwaved for me, can we find some time where the visit can be RP'd? If not now, we can just say I went to say hi instead of talk about anything important, as was my intent.

Okay. I'll try and put something together to post at some point.

Quote from: Corwin on May 19, 2011, 05:23:17 PM
[23:20] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+14 GI on whether the rescue party of Rudy's landlady brought that pirate ship back with them
[23:20] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+14 GI on whether the rescue party of Rudy's landlady brought that pirate ship back with them and gets 26." [1d20=12]

As far as Henrietta can learn by chatting up dockhands and harbour rats, it's been months since the last prize ship was sailed into Salerno.

Chase Rules

We're picking up next week with you guys chasing after the polymorphed dog, and we're going to run it as a Chase encounter rather than a Combat encounter, which is a bit different in how it plays out, but I'm hoping it'll result in a more fun and memorable encounter rather than having anyone feel short-changed about their combat abilities not working the way they normally do.

First off, here's a map as requested, not particularly to scale but it gets the message across I hope.
(http://i54.tinypic.com/24qv0wj.jpg)
Left to right the green dots are Rudy, Lucie, Henrietta, and Glenn. Blue dot is the air elemental, red dot is the dog.

The chase will resolve itself like a board game. Currently Rudy and Glenn are on square 1, the Elemental, Lucie and Henrietta are on square 2, and the dog is on square 4.

On each square there are two 'obstacles' to overcome. A participant can avoid the obstacles and automatically move one square forward as a move action on their turn without making any checks. Alternatively they can try to overcome the obstacles with various checks, taking a standard action to overcome one obstacle, or a full round action to attempt both.

If an obstacle is attempted but failed by less than 5, the character only moves forward one square (even if he succeeded on the other obstacle). Failing by more than 5 results in not moving forward at all. Failing both checks results in becoming stuck in the current square and having to spend a full round action becoming unstuck (effectively forfeiting the next turn) as well as potentially other penalties such as damage depending on the sort of check attempted.

Base speed and special movement both impart modifiers to these checks to account for the mobile nature of the chase. For every 10 feet less than speed 30, a -2 penalty is applied to all checks. This becomes a +2 bonus for every 10 feet faster than speed 30. Having flight provides a +10 bonus. (the air elemental therefore has a total bonus of +24)

A character can also attempt to cast a spell or make an attack on their turn, but in the case of melee attacks these can only be done if on the same square as the target.

This particular chase will end when you either kill/capture/incapacitate the dog, or it gets more than 8 squares away from its nearest pursuit.

So you have an idea of what to expect, here's what's on squares 1 and 2 for you to deal with when we start next week.

Square 1

Alley shortcut - DC 15 perception
Barge through crowd of shoppers - DC 20 intimidate

Square 2

Squeeze through narrow alley - DC 10 escape artist
Climb onto building balcony/stairwell - DC 15 climb

You might notice these are pretty generic, that's intentional. There's no set route through the city for this so I want to keep my options open - don't have any concerns that I'll skimp on the flavour text once we're in the chase and you're actually dealing with this stuff first hand. Every time you land on a square I'll tell you OOC what the options are and describe the scene IC to match as best it can depending on where you are. Taking a move action will basically assume that you're steering clear of anything too hazardous and taking your time over the simple stuff. If you can think of a spell, item, or special ability that would handle the obstacle in question, feel free to suggest it when it comes up.

Before it gets asked, you can't take 10 on any checks during a chase.

So what actually happens when we overcome an obstacle? >_>

I should've just transcribed the rules from the GMG, can't believe I overlooked that.

Each obstacle overcome is one additional square of movement. So if you pass one you move 2 squares, pass both and you move 3 squares.

Another stupid question, this time from me! We can move from 0 to 3 squares, that seems obvious, but what about the dog? Does our object of pursuit also play by the same rules and decides whether to roll skill checks to bypass obstacles, or is it fleeing at a set speed?

All participants follow the same rules.

I would like to GI the neighborhood to make sure no one but that Waltham guy got a recent change of personality/behavior.

[22:07] <Henrietta> Can I GI, btw? I'd just take 10 for 25.
[22:09] <Ebiris> sure fine

So we have a couple days, right? I'll pay a visit to that casino sometime.

If you guys want to we could run the casino visit next Saturday during the wait for Henri's mind being fixed.

Sure. Who here isn't up for drinks and gambling, really?

Sounds like fun. Perception will be rolled with wild abandon to spot cheaters!

Noting that Lucie intends to take Ilona up on her offer to show Lucie around town if there's time for PbP this week.

Actually now that I think about it, are you guys still intending to go talk to Lavinia about the Zameina situation or are you just letting it lie for a few days after the sudden drama of Rudy's arena fight?

I was all for going to talk to her originally, but I ended up being convinced that this can wait a bit. Doesn't really feel right to go talk to Lavinia that very day.

Yeah, Rudy's more like than not to go get that drink with Tobin, then go home and stare at the ceiling for the rest of the afternoon.

I doubt we'll wait more than a day or two, though?

What those guys said.

Is it possible to take Liamae out? It might be fun to google ourselves (my GI is +15, and comes to a nice 25 while taking ten) if she has disguise self too and likes the idea. Or even just a simple dinner. Could that work out?

Liamae lacks disguise self but is quite insistent on enjoying that dinner Henrietta promised her. She even made sure to tell Rudy and Tobin about it before everyone went their seperate ways after the Arena battle. Since you're paying feel free to put a post in the PbP thread setting up.

It's very likely we'll die this saturday but even if we do let's at least try to plan for the session? Then, at least, I won't have any complaints.

-Let's get distances? I believe Liamae and myself (holding Val) are 50ft away from the tower. I'm not sure how tall the tower is, how far Lucie or Rudy are from us (and each other) and where the skeletons are in comparison.
-Let's understand the grounds better as well? Liamae made all the traps glow, and we can see there are four rows? Or are those more like circles surrounding the tower? Since Haste is in existence, perhaps someone could just go around them if it's a field. Also, are we reasonably sure there's nothing from us two and to the tower itself? Nothing of the same sort of trap, at least.
-How much closer to the tower must I get to have total cover from the guys on top of it? I presume they need some sort of angle to see me, and unless it's a featureless tube of a tower, there is probably some bit of masonry which would make targetting me very much impossible (and vice versa)?
-Lucie, even if the necromancer healed the black skeletons last time, I still shot one of them twice (MM and Disrupt Undead). Wanna check with perception if you can spot any difference in the pair? It would be nice to know whether my spells actually do anything. (of course, assuming no one 'healed' them and the like)
-I figure Liamae and I could help each other by one of us holding to interrupt anyone peeking from the tower while the other shoots the skeletons. Good, bad, dumb?
-Rudy, I think having new summons continue to harrass the guys at the top of the tower is probably the only way we'll survive. Thoughts?

I can keep throwing summons at them, as long as the summons are 1x lantern archon or 1d3xair or lightning elemental, or possibly lantern archons.

However there is a dude with a spiked chain there who can probably gun through them all in a round- they may well trigger AoOs just for getting in range and he has cleave, so.

I also have the option of booting up a Lantern Archon and getting him to cast Aid, which is looking like a totally great idea as well and one they can't really interrupt. 1d8+3 temp HP per round!

>Eb, how hard is it to move through the caltrops?
>Cor, how much blastage can you unload? Because I think the plan of 'hold action on shooting mages who put out their heads' isn't a bad one, and to be honest the skeletons aren't nearly as dangerous as the dudes inside- they still need to get through Lucie, looks like, and she looks to be getting a chance to dish out a few blows at the least. Taking down the ranged dudes who can pick off me (1 HP!) and you (4 HP!) seems like a priority.

I would like to run away, but it's looking pretty hard when there's a girl who can probably oneshot me or Henri if she gets a chance up there. I don't think Henri or myself can really escape from our current position either, so we're stuck trying to at least kill the mage while hoping we don't get shot. If my sense of the scene is correct, the only way to retreat is basically to run around 120ft back into the forest for me, and further for Henri- who has been messed up by caltrops and can't possibly get away in time.

MM is my real way to damage anything, and it's 3d4+3. I can also break out a few MM+trip maneuvers, in case my MMs damage the skeletons and Lucie needs the +4 to hit a prone one.
Slots-wise, I'm about halfway through.

By popular demand:
(http://i.imgur.com/XYtAA.gif)
(image not to scale)

The caltrops (which are something else) can potentially be jumped over if you know where to jump. In the area lit up by Liamae's glitterdust you can move through at half speed without injury, or full speed with a reflex save to avoid injury.
Being within 15 feet of the tower could grant cover unless the person on the top gets onto the wall to properly look right down. Being adjacent to the ground floor walls facing away from the tower would also provide cover.

To clarify, if I so much as try to step forward, I risk getting hit with traps? We only know about the 20ft section behind me?

I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of additional traps or obstacles.