GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
Koba is a little embarrassed to approach the WykkydRod, as it bears a remarkable resemblance to some of the idle drawings she'd made as a student in the academy. An academist's air soon prevails and she is studying and rifling through papers with the zealotry of the learned.
--
I'll use a charge from me bag 'o' books for +1 to the spout lore.
I'd also like to spend my last heritage hold on something written by Professor Red to ask 'Whom do you serve?', if that's possible?
My vote is we camp out down here- since they've light-vanished all their gear I doubt they'll return.
We should also look at pack space to see how we need to split stuff up. Ajax has quite a bit of carrying room, so I can take the brunt of the stuff on (including this death rod in it's case if we decide we want to take it with us)
Xeno explained to the others what he had learned about light from studying the magics of the logographer as well as the War Beacon of the Lost Sun, as he carried the bulky thing over to Glory.
"This was meant for you." The Wonderworker said plainly, before explaining how to use the Beacon.
Nodding to the jumper pouch he had handed Koba, Xeno said "It looks like the fight Ashcrown picked this time is with a group from the Ironblossom Weald."
The Wonderworker sat down and got comfortable, pulling out a knife and some kind of root vegetable from his bag. "Whew, I could use a nap. But first, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving. I have some rations if any of you want, but I can't stop thinking about roasting these tubers over an open fire." Xeno said, and began peeling the tubers with a singular focus.
--
I agree on camping here and on using pack space as a guide.
As for splitting the loot I'm all for giving the stuff to whoever could use it best, so I think giving glory the War Beacon (since it uses CHA) and the shield to Ajax makes the most sense. We'll see about the baton but I suspect Koba could put it to good use. As for the coin I would prefer to minimize book keeping so just assume we have a shared pool of loot split among us, and we'll need to figure out where to use the different kind of coin (gamblers, magicians, etc). Bigger ticket items like the silver inlay and the jewled marker will need extra care.
Assuming I don't take any of the previously unknown items, I wouldn't mind getting my hands on the pills/potions since a lot of them are useful for one time offense/defense boosts, and the jumper pouch if it's versatile. Also I have no adventuring gear or books, so that would be nice.
As a scrawny Mage I'm already at 5/6 load. Though I could give Glory my dagger to reduce that by 1 and I don't think the 5 rations (also 1 load) I have will last long given that we have no other food besides the tubers (which are also 1 load and will be gone soon).
@Glazius, can the jumper pouch only be used to communicate with a different associated pouch(es) (ie in the enemies hands), or is it versatile and something we could use among ourselves?
Right. Koba, you actually manage to make some sense of the pile of generally non-communicative messages. It does not count as the question you ask from them, somebody's still got that one.
From what you can tell, Professor Red (not their real name) was communicating with... a few barrister's offices scattered among the three or four parishes of Dis ritzy enough to afford a judiciary? Looks like the actual communications between the force in Ironblossom Weald happened though a different skeleton, and Professor Red was just providing his expertise? Maybe he thought of himself as too important to bother with these worldly affairs?
Anyway, much of his outgoing communication is... about legally precise definitions of "living" and "ownership". Which starts to make sense when you understand the rod. You could call it the Rod of Infernal Counsel, especially if you were an infernal trying to foist it off on somebody.
---
See, the general fate of many of the infernal peoples is to backstab each other in a rigid legal framework; that is to say, to make a frontal assault at the precise moment that someone coincidentally turns around. The game isn't for everyone, and in Dis it's a lot easier to slink away from the bench, but it does still need referees unencumbered by unfortunate histories. Thus the Rod.
The Rod will let you clearly communicate with any infernal creature, understand anything they say or write, and even bypass most of the level of self-defensive obfuscation a lot of them tend to use. But it comes at a price. When a living creature takes ownership from the rod with intention to benefit from it, they are entered into the lists of Hell.
When you are in the lists of Hell and Make Camp, you become a Devil's Advocate while you rest, arguing a case in one of the infernal courts. Pick a mental stat and roll it. On a 10+, you perform admirably; take +1 forward to make a Devil's Bargain. On a 6-, you must pay the Devil's Due. On a 7-9, you successfully argue the case and can pay the Devil's Due to take +1 forward to make a Devil's Bargain.
When you have to pay the Devil's Due, you bent your will or logic or personality around to serve the court, which as we all know bears no relationship to anything in the real world. Roll your Devil's Advocate stat with disadvantage until two of the dice match.
When you wish to make a Devil's Bargain, make your demands of Hell, whatever they are, and roll. You only get bonuses to this roll from successfully being a Devil's Advocate. On a 10+, the GM will impose 2 conditions from the Ritual list. On a 7-9, 3 conditions. On a 6-, 3 conditions in addition to one marker that will be called in to pull you away from the real world to play Devil's Advocate. You may choose to back out of the Bargain and retain your bonuses if the conditions are untenable, but your marker on a 6- will persist and you can't make a Devil's Bargain again until after you Make Camp
Taking yourself off the lists of Hell is a Devil's Bargain; the conditions will relate to some other living creature you have to pass the Rod off to.
---
Xeno, the real trick in getting a jumper pouch set up is in the kind of runic combination lock that also forms the clasp. Specifically it's in enchanting that lock to sync to, in the example you have in front of you, a single other pouch as the pouch's bearer moves about the planes and as Dis pulls those selfsame planes inexorably into itself. You've seen the occasional example with multiple settings through some kind of additional spell-gem on the cover or activated by a slight-of-hand reclasping, but this pouch is single-destination. Any decent mageweaver could retune it or put a matching one together in the first place for a little time and a fairly considerable fee, but no special effor. You can ballpark the whole operation at about 200 coin, at least as a starting point -- you'll need to find someone who has the time and an acceptable way to pay them.
---
Everybody let me know if there's anything you'd like to do before you turn in tonight, because it promises to be a bit of an adventure one way or another.
Glory thanks Xeno for the Beacon and tries it out some. The light reminds him of... someone he knew... he thinks.
He wanders around the complex a bit as they prepare to make camp, the map in one hand, the beacon gathered in the other. Maybe this place still has some secrets to reveal...
Glory, just for future reference, you might have noticed that now and then I have mentioned Etana like they're a real person you all still know, because they are. Unpossible Future Xeno's trick was basically enough to change the decision that got made about who would end up investigating the message. If Etana's original player is still curiously examining this thread, Etana is up to her own devices in and about your current headquarters, as are the potential infinity of other people who might want to be joining you, if they want to be.
I may of course be making unreasonable assumptions here, and there is some other luminous figure in your past, in which case, duly noted.
---
Additionally you are owed something interesting but not useful in your meanderings, so I'll tell you this: when people call these the Sultana's Gardens, they are being, um... truth-adjacent? Moreso than they realize?
I mean, let's start with the basic fact that this complex is from the past no one can remember, or at least the past that has fallen out of public knowledge. Let's also start with a commonly-available body of songs, or perhaps bawdy of songs (depending on your choice of tavern), about the Sultana. In a time of myth, before Dis even existed, various forces paid court to the Sultana, and in the fullness of time Dis was born. Whether or not Dis is an only child or has its father's eyes has never really been answered.
The painting on the roof of the work chamber, which Xeno has accidentally revealed, is a mural of a night sky and a cosmology that no one has ever seen, but by itself that's not much of a story.
But you take in the painting, the style, the pigments, with an oddly instinctive understanding - perhaps you yourself were a painted statue, as was the style at the time? And then you can make out the faint traces of brushwork over the rest of the complex. And the subjects of the paintings.
I've said earlier, there are traces in the stonework of the person who originally built this garden city. But it would seem, based on what you can make of the pictures they appear in, and the elements of the Sultana's distinctive and eternal styles, that the city itself was intended as a gift for the Sultana. And not, like, the "please don't eat me" sort of gift, either.
So were these gardens built by one of the Sultana's original suitors, or somebody just hoping to catch her on the rebound? There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful response.
---
When I get back from work tomorrow I'll assume everyone who wants to do something has done something and move on to making camp.
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
edited January 2017
Sniffing at the thought of odd vegetables, Koba examines the 'jumper' pouch as an excuse not to eat them just yet. While most military enchantments are designed for clean, traceless dimensional transactions, there is always an imprint from the spacial-folding involved.
--
Almost forgot, I'll use the warmachine Let Me See That move to ask 'What has been done most recently with this?' about the jumper pouch.
Koba, you examine the pouch carefully and finely. What look like marks of wear, rips and scratches and such not sufficient to break the conceptual idea of "a pouch" that will jump stuff are actually... well, some of them are normal wear.
But there are some very precise and round punctures, no bigger than a needlepoint, with silver residue on them, and there are impressions on the pouch's surface of the various logostic flourishes you've come to associate with Professor Red. I told you all earlier that multidirectional pouches were kind of luxury items and that's because the kind of craftwork necessary to accomplish that was a lot of trouble over and above just acquiring, like, two pairs of pouches.
So Professor Red's got the skill to make a logographic array to turn a single-directional pouch into a multi-directional one, which suggests several things. Maybe he was sending his unofficial communications in secret. Maybe, fitting the general motif you saw in the work room, these skeletons were presented with a jumper pouch as a communication device by their original employers and turned their skill to make what they could of it. Either way I suppose the net effect is that you have a much broader scope of things to think about for your one question about the skeletons' communication. ("The skeletons were not involved with this at all" does not count as an answered question for these purposes.)
Anyway, to no one's surprise you were also right to avoid the vegetables.
---
I mean, don't get me wrong, they smell wonderfully tempting especially when roasted, but when you bite into them, Xeno, well.
Geth, roll 1d6 for stat roulette.
In much the fashion of a Devil's Due, you now roll Wisdom with disadvantage until doubles come out. Also mark XP for accepting Etana's destiny.
A quick note on the advantage/disadvantage mechanic. If you're affected by both at once (you'll never be affected by multiples) you can either roll 2d6 normally or roll 4d6 and keep the middle two, whichever you'd rather. "Did you get doubles" will be a lot more likely on the latter choice, but IIRC there's no fast way to get the maths done for you on it.
Everybody else! Well, there's a question for the skeletons' notes to answer, or you can hang onto the bulky 1-weight of them for later use.
Also, these things smell damn good - one might say supernaturally, even compulsively, good - and you're hungry, so you have a choice to make.
You can mark XP and play stat roulette if you'd like. Or you can pick a stat and tell me how it helps you resist temptation to Defy Danger. The catch, of course, is that if you fail this, well, you've already picked a stat, haven't you?
Also, tangentially to this, Koba! Let me know if this makes sense to you.
I've got... basically two classes of magical items. The ones the party's Lore skill has completely identified, which tend to be explicitly disposable, and the UNKNOWNS. The disposables anybody can have recognized, however they like.
Handling an UNKNOWN with Let Me See That and asking "what does this do" will give you basically all upside, no downside. So in the examples given, you would find out:
- the War Beacon lets you command light as the Lantern move Bend Light, but not that it has charges or how those charges are lost or gained.
- the Rod of Infernal Counsel lets you communicate with all infernal creatures and even bargain with them in return for Ritual-style costs, but not how the bargain roll works or that it makes you play Devil's Advocate.
- the Folded Shield lets you Stand In Defense with advantage, but not... well, you'll see.
Asking "what's wrong with this, and how might I fix it" might give you a clue as to the downside, or it might not, because it assumes there's a problem you can fix. I'd tell you:
- the War Beacon works its best with either a skilled lightcrafter or an actual sun
- the Rod of Infernal Counsel is made to infernal standards and their bargains are highly structured
- and nothing about the Folded Shield
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
edited January 2017
Sat on the Conqueror's retrieved helmet and turning the Wykkyd Rod over in her hands, Koba remembers one of her Uncle's seminal publications- Tarturus: Beneath the Underworld. The military propaganda machine had taken his musings on the hellish legal system and painted the devils as possible allies in the war, but any parley had always hit dead ends.
She wasn't sure if her uncle would laugh or cry to see her speaking with devils, let alone taking part in their legal process. A smile crept onto her face.
Having almost just gone down another creature's gullet, Glory isn't sure he's ready to be eating anything. Xeno does seem to be enjoying the tubers, but Glory has this nagging image in the back of his mind, about the danger of things that shouldn't be eaten...
--
Geth roll 2d6 for Defy Danger +WIS
Making Camp will get Glory to 15/21, and he'll use one of his bandages to get to 19hp.
Does anyone have spare load? The banner puts Glory 1 over, assuming he still has the rations and adventurer's gear he originally started with. It would be a shame to leave the clockwork wire behind, after how useful it's been.
Ajax's stomach growled as his adrenaline rush began to pass. Now that things were calming down, his body was looking for some sustenance, and it looks like Xeno has just the thing.
--
Geth, roll 1d6 for Stat Roulette
Make Camp should put me up to 20/23 (I'm pretty sure I tracked back to have 9hp when the fight ended).
I should have plenty of space (assuming I don't get a strength disadvantage).
Once they were all done eating Xeno offered his dagger to Glory as well. "I think you'll find this handier than... well your hand."
After picking through the odds and ends they had recovered, the Wonderworker took some of the some of the gear, notes, and potions for himself and gave the iridescent clamshell to Ajax. "Eat that in case you find yourself fencing with a rogue Spirit or Phantasm." he said simply.
--
I should be at 13/16 hp now. I think I'm at 4/6 load if Glory takes my one weight dagger off my hands.
If there are no objections I'll grab the potions/pills except the anti-intangability one. I'll also take the 2 use adventuring gear and 1 use book.
Glory, you don't have the rations you started with. Nobody does, except for Xeno, who didn't start with you. You'll have to nosh on his stuff to not go hungry.
Incidentally, you just get disadvantage on your very next Wisdom roll, instead of until you get doubles.
---
So, something I should have mentioned in all of this is that the top half of General Blue's skull - not even a jaw - (also not even their real name) - is still kind of intermittently hopping about and berating you as you go about your business. It doesn't seem to have been evaculighted with the rest of everything. The plate-headed servitors finish their work cycle and just kind of sit there. The black, decaying servitors can be moved off the work floor before they burst into infective fragments.
Will you all just toss General Blue into an empty tube and abandon this place, or try and make something out of it for yourself? As Glory will attest, it seems to have lain dormant for quite a while before the skeletons found it to make use of.
And once you've decided all that among yourselves, if Ashcrown is still the next stop on your journey, well, you've made the navigation roll to get there -- you just decided to take a detour. You can still find the way just fine.
So, if Ashcrown is still the next step on your journey, tell me -- what are the front gates like?
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
Koba sets the suit to cruise-control and hoists herself halfway out of the suit's collar, the helmet clanking off it's hinge as she took in the approach to Ashcrown.
At one time the gates must have been impregnable- crystal studded walls of pumice, riddled with murder-holes and machicolations- but war takes it's toll. The giant interlocking obsidian rods that made up the gate mechanism all sat at odd angles, like decaying teeth unable to stem the flow of refugees and soldiers pouring in and out.
"Rubbish! Terrible! Puny!" a stream of insults interrupted. She reached back into the suit to re-muffle the skull, her thick skin protection enough.
--
Koba would definitely keep the skull (in a sack to shut it up). Could come in handy later.
Right, so. Kinda the same deal here as your detour to Imscatha Tor. I'll drop you some rough outline, you yourself can take the actions you'd like to take. And this one comes with a nice shiny end of session, too. So I'll be including the procedures for that at the end of this unskippable cutscene.
---
A long time ago, but not so far back no one can remember, Ashcrown was widely regarded as a parish full of tuff doodz. Fire is destructive by nature (well, okay, everything is destructive by nature but fire is destructive by nature to things a lot of people happen to care about, such as shelter and personal possessions), and so the fire-creatures that weren't going too crazy to live among polite company grouped themselves together and focused on discipline. It is a truth universally acknowledged that power + discipline = tuff doodz, and quite a few people who thought they were hard enough walked up to the gates of Ashcrown and banged their shield, subjecting themselves to trial by fire.
Not even a dad would make that joke anymore. Because people who think they are hard enough, but actually aren't, tend to hold grudges, and grudges breed secrets, and secrets breed conspiracies, and conspiracies breed wars. And so, Ashcrown remains a parish full of tuff doodz, but it's more like, industrial-strength tough dudes now? The casual tests of strength against random strangers are things of the past. Any outsider who tries to pull that kind of thing today is treated as, well, a possible enemy combatant, and things do not go well for them. But the culture of discipline still remains, and the constant friendly posturing against the outside has turned into a still-friendly rivalry on the inside.
Kind of an intramural thing, really.
You all get a little guiding wisp of flame that trails you or precedes you through the corridors and the drill grounds. It marks you, say the guards, as a curious outsider, not for instance some ally of Ashcrown who's up for a little surprise ambush practice in the middle of a stairway.
The flame-person who takes delivery of the message (whoever among you is actually making the drop, and maybe that's all of you together but it doesn't have to be) may or may not be an intelligence officer. They may or may not be in an intelligence building. They may or may not actually be named Marigold, though they do only come up to your waist and the color and shape of their guttering head-flames do kind of put you in mind of a flower of some description.
They may or may not be trying to drive you nuts by making ridiculous musical malaprops constantly, calling, say, your accomplishment an accompaniment and something sinister symphonic instead.
But here's the general upshot of the conversation: delivering the coded message is arpeggioed (appreciated) and the message itself seems to be genuine, but on the face of things your tale of embrochure (adventure) in getting it here is only that - a tale. It really is rather con brio (convenient) that any witnesses have passed on to the lands beyond. (General Blue, if you haul him out, does that old Michigan J. Frog number where he pretends to be just a regular ol' armored half-skull.) But you did a good thing, and you don't look to be Del Signo (signaling) to any enemies of Ashcrown. And the message pouch, if you let them examine it, will at least match up with other intelligence they have about their many enemies.
Here's the even more general upshot: you gon' get paid for this, we'll just make a move at the start of the next session to work out exactly how.
So. Ashcrown. It is 95% fortress by weight and/or volume, and it's focused. If you don't want to get in a fight or get ready to get in a fight, the rest of Dis is that way. (Somebody is going to spot that on a poster somewhere, intercut with several swears.) But it's a great place for fight-readiness. Weaponsmiths, armories, arms arcane, drill grounds for dozens of different techniques, libraries of tactics and strategy. You're just visitors so they're not going to sell you the crazy-good stuff but at the least it's out there on display.
So much to do, and some questions to consider.
- Do you share the pouch? Really this one's almost a gimme, they just want to check where the lock points, which is a non-destructive procedure, but if you want to get some leverage going maybe you don't feel that friendly.
- Do you try and hand over General Blue to their dubious mercies? It's rather unlikely anybody in Ashcrown is going to pry too much so you can keep him wrapped up if you like.
- Do you try and track down any Aspirants who may be Ashcrowners or training here, see if they know the people whose souls you freed? Tell them what happened for peace of mind or hope of reward?
In addition to, you know, the obvious. You want to track down trainers, track down knowledge, get some common weapons or armor or gear?
---
And then the end of session. Your votes count for the party here, so tell me:
- what notable enemy, if any, did you overcome?
- what notable treasure, if any, did you find?
- what notable thing, if any, did you learn about the world?
And then a couple of things personally.
- did you exhaust your alignment to roll with advantage? If so, mark XP and refresh it. You can change your alignment to anything from your current playbook or another one if you think it suits you better, or PM me and I'll send you a big ol' list of the things.
- refresh all the bonds you exhausted. Did any of them come to completion in the course of this adventure? Either because you think they can go deeper or you think you've done all you can? Then mark XP and erase as many previously-exhausted bonds as you want, writing some new ones. They can be with the same person and develop that relationship, or be new blank hooks to your character's story that might apply to anybody.
Sorry to dump the homework on you and run off for the weekend. (Not actually running off, will still be monitoring thread.)
My votes:
We share the pouch.
Koba keeps General Blue.
Track down local Aspirants, more for peace of mind but rewards are cool too.
I would be interested in purchasing 3 sets of bandages (15 coin).
The rest of the party should probably get rations.
I gladly gave a ration to Glory to eat before. If Glory didn't want my dagger I barter it away, mostly to drop weight.
Xeno seeks training in mental discipline. He knows that is the key to mastering his temporal abilities.
Notable enemy: Skelemalgam
Notable Treasure: Infernal rod, Folded Shield, War Banner.
Notable learning: Learned some secrets about Light Magic as well as that skeletons of the Ironblossom Weald are planning on moving against Ashcrown.
(+3 xp)
I exhausted my alignment. I'll keep it the same.
(+1 xp)
I depend on Koba's clarity in a crisis.
(Resolving bond with Koba, changing it to the above. I'll leave the Ajax one alone and the blank free for Glory.)
(+1 xp)
So 5xp + 5xp before end of session leaves me at 10xp. Subtract 9 from get to level 3!
For leveling I will increase my INT to 17, and use Cameo to take Healing Light (INT) from Lightbearer, thanks to the spooky quantum entanglement between Xeno and Etana.
Now I can use healing light to heal in combat and use time shenanigans + bandages when I've drained my INT too much.
Geth roll 3d6l2+1 for heritage
(Does this get added to the 1 hold I still have or replace it?)
Geth roll 2d6+2 for healing light on Xeno
Geth roll 1d8 for healing
Edit - good news - rolled doubles on wisdom, bad news - failed on healing. That's a good omen...
I take -1 forward. Xeno admits defeat and uses a bandage to treat his wounds instead.
Votes:
Share the pouch.
Keeps General Blue.
Track down local Aspirants, agree mainly for peace of mind.
I lost my coin, so nothing to purchase.
I seek out sword training, likely through drills or challenges with anyone drilling (though, within the bounds of practice, not actual combat with a risk of injury)
Notable enemy: Skelemalgam
Notable Treasure: Folded Shield.
Notable learning: Skeletons of the Ironblossom Weald are planning on moving against Ashcrown.
(+3 xp)
Didn't exhaust alignment for advantage.
I will resolve one bond with Glory
Glory is soft, but I will make them hard like me. -> Glory has proven themselves battle worthy.
(+1 xp)
I had 3xp before end of session, so now I have 7xp (still not enough to level...)
Edit...actually, my alignment is kill a worthy foe, which I did, and the SRD says if you fulfilled alignment, gain an XP. Is it fulfilling it, or specifically exhausting it to gain an advantage during the session?
AustinP0027 on
0
Options
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
--
I vote:
Withhold the pouch.
Withhold General blue.
Track down any Aspirants as a courtesy.
Notable enemy: Professor Red
Notable treasure: the friends we made along the way the ceramic seal of the Last Gatesmen
Notable experience: Lightning can be harnessed to power things! @Glazius maybe I misread, but I didn't see where you said we get xp for each of these, so I'm assuming we don't?
Exhausted my alignment, so that's 1xp, and the crusader option is still a good fit so I'll stick with it.
I'll resolve Etana's bond to get a blank slot.
I'll resolve Ajax's bond and change it to: Ajax is kind of goodlooking, I guess. Not that I care.
I'll resolve Xeno's bond and change it to: Xeno's power is mysterious and dangerous- I need to keep an eye on him.
I'm happy with Glory's bond, so I'll stick with it.
I actually don't have any coin, I just assumed I could spend some from my share of the loot we got. Probably should actually divide it up, and maybe not spend so much, that much stuff is overkill. I'll count it up asap.
Edit - so it looks like we have 151 coin in motes and chips and inlay, which I assume are easy to move. Divided by 4 is 37.75 so I'll forgo the extra 38th.
We have 200 coin in the bigger stuff, the big marker, and the light spinel. Divided by 4 thats 50, but I assume we need to do legwork to move that stuff, so I'd leave that alone.
So I'll retcon my spending to just be three sets of bandages.
Votes:
'Meh' on sharing the pouch. Glory will generally back Koba here, but Xeno is smart too, and could persuade him.
'No' on sharing the general.
"Yes Yes' on tracking down the Aspirants, that could shake some great stories loose.
Glory gets more rations (3 of his 9 starting coin), but is then too encumbered to take Xeno's dagger, so Xeno should barter it away. That stiletto is around here somewhere...
He will also ask Ajax to hold onto the coil of clockwork wire, to make room for this new banner.
Glory will seek training for advanced secrets of stylized dueling.
Notable Enemy: Hungry Hungry Skeleton Head
Notable Treasures: seed of a story about the origins of the Sultana's Garden, talking skeleton head which could make for a fantastic future prop
Notable Learnings: how to change a skeleton's mind, flashbacks don't work in real life, there is such a thing as being too good at hiding things
Other Learnings: The Grenadier's Burden, or someone posing as them, is making magical equipment, which is new
Alignment: Put yourself at risk for the sake of a friend or lover. That was exhausted, and seems appropriate for at least another session.
+1xp
Bonds: I will resolve my two bonds with Ajax, leave one blank, and change the other to Ajax has his own, rough style. I can still make it better. I'll keep the ones with Koba and Xeno as they are.
+2xp
I had... um... 8xp before this (Power! <clap> <clap> Gamer! <clap> <clap>), so that puts me at 11xp. 2xp after levelling up.
Glory, Level 3 Showboat
+1 to Charisma
New Move: Now I Have The Upper Hand - additional options for Parry - disarm or steal item
Starting with 2 hold for Anything You Can Do, iirc, since Glory has one bond each with everyone. Haven't quite decided what move to copy yet.
Geth roll 2d6-1 for Heritage hold
Heritage hold:
2d6-111 [2d6=6, 6]
0
Options
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
-- @Boozer oh woops of course. In that case that gets Koba up to 11xp, 2xp after leveling.
Lvl 3, +1 Int, new move: Battle tech- Arc-Current field (melee attacks gain Elemental (Electric))
Yes, you should all be marking 3 session XP, in addition to at most 1 alignment XP and 1 bond XP (though you can replace any number of bonds). Ajax, I'll spot you that 1 alignment XP since you were definitely in that kind of scenario, but let me be clear going forward: use it (advantage) or lose it (XP). Since we're playing over weeks instead of sitting down for a night or two, keeping track of alignment via having marked it off is a lot easier than paging back to see if a particular plot beat happened.
So lemme introduce you to the start of a new session. It's surprisingly a lot like the start of the first session!
Well, there's one exception. Ashcrown is certainly willing to pay, but only... well, only paying in kind. Information for information. And the information you receive in return is going to be the kind that only sinks in after some decent practice sessions.
So, while there are still The Kip, The Noise, The Spects, and The Score, you may, if you wish, cut out on Ashcrown early to devote some time to Ditchwater. Two people take Noise, two people take Spects, you'll both do a full roll and I'll go with the better result in each case. You will gain nothing from The Kip and The Score but also put nothing at risk. Note that these roles are not restricted in any way based on the roles you may have taken before.
Especially if you decide to go for all four, keep in mind there's probably some Discern Realities floating around that hasn't been claimed yet, especially as might help with The Kip and The Noise.
---
When you make yourself a Kip away from Kip, you'll spend time roaming around Ashcrown trying to track down the Aspirants and impress upon them the magnitude of what you did, while trying to conceal from the Ashcrown loyalists proper the magnitude of what you have. So tell me how you're pulling off this mix of bragging and subtlety - if you like, name me one Aspirant you want to impress and how, and one Ashcrowner you want to avoid or dissuade, and how - and roll +appropriate stat.
Here are three things that you want:
- You don't have to loan out the jumper pouch. It will come back to you okay if you do, but I'll keep the fact in mind if a 3 comes up at the wrong time in the future.
- You don't have to give up General Blue. If you do, he's not going to come back.
- The Aspirants will owe you one. Like, a big one, not just a "leverage for Parley" one. You can find Aspirants pretty much everywhere doing everything, as long as it's even slightly likely to impress the Sultana if word gets to her. If there's a big enough crowd of Aspirants that it won't put a big dent in them, a crowd not unadjacent in size to the one in this here parish, you can even demand a sizable sum of coin or a prized artifact.
On a 12+ take all 3. On a 10-11 take 2. On a 7-9, take 1. On a 6-... yeah.
Though on less than a 12 you can take one more than you're entitled to, but a random one of those will come at a significant cost or with a significant wrinkle. Not, like, worse than giving it up or anything, because I try not to be a dick*, but all the same.
*if in spite of my best efforts I am a dick I will at least be a reasonable dick and pull back from consequences you cannot abide.
---
When you secure The Score you'll spend time meeting the right people and trying to get your fellows to also meet the right people, to learn the lasting lessons rather than just picking up a neat trick without a deeper understanding. Tell me how you do the difficult work of knowing who to know - if you like, name me a fellow student you make an acquaintance with and/or a master who impresses you with their accomodation or their reluctance - and roll +appropriate stat.
On a 12+, you hold 9-esteem. On a 10-11, hold 7-esteem. On a 7-9, hold 5-esteem. On a 6-, at least hold 3-esteem.
Spend esteem, 1-for-1, right now, to get these shinies.
For each party member, you can:
- spend 2-esteem and I will work with them to craft a useful and permanent technique.
- spend 1-esteem and I will tell them the hopefully-evocative* names of three useful techniques, and based only on those names they will pick one to learn.
- spend 0-esteem and they will at least pick up scraps of something useful. They will hold (2d2-1)-preparation, and spend it at an appropriate time (with maybe an appropriate story) to roll with advantage.
Note that these new techniques are going to be the mixed blessing of the "permanent magic item" style rather than the significant power upgrade or reliable bonus of a move.
You may also tell me about a specific crafter and the style of items they make, and either:
- spend 2-esteem for an *IDENTIFIED* item of power made in their style
- spend 1-esteem for two consumable items made in their style
*(see earlier Dickishness Ripcord protocols if they're not sufficiently evocative)
---
When you work The Spects at home and abroad, you're going to be keeping up with old leads and working new leads, maybe by heading back to Ditchwater early, working a commute and cutting into your sleep, or using some kind of rigged-up telepresence thing that Octagonia has... probably unpacked as the Dukes diminish? Right? You left a note? Tell me how you make it happen and roll +appropriate stat, and...
Well, no matter what happens time passes and other people are out there. There was one extant public job (the geometric people wanted to track down Blank the Blank and the Motti Gang) and you had two exclusive jobs (oust the Toll Collectors' Guild from Halitica or inter the body and final fate of Nail-Jaw Anthes for the Last Gatesmen). You also have a private job or two you can choose to pursue, as a main job or a sideline to your existing work. ...or, you know, set out on your own, forge your own fate, see if you can make it pay the bills.
I'll make a progression roll for the public job, then roll up one new job in Ditchwater and one job here. Then, between the two new jobs (sight unseen) and your two exclusive jobs, I'll make progression rolls for:
On a 12+, no jobs.
On a 10-11, one job.
On a 7-9, two jobs.
On a 6-, three jobs.
You can choose which jobs get rolled on. In addition, you can decide to make one extra roll in order to make one of the new jobs exclusive for one go. ...yes, even on a 6-. I'll make sure that whichever new job you choose is not gone, only changed.
---
When you try and keep a lid on The Noise, good news! Ashcrown picks up everybody's Noise, eventually, and they're not interested in tuning in to any more of it than you are. All you need is to make sure that their processes of disinformation in general keep you protected in particular. After you charged off on a fool's errand, who knows what might become of you? Tell me what you did - and maybe name me somebody you worked with, from Ashcrown or even an Ashcrown loyalist among one of your extant Noises - and roll +stat.
On a 12+, wow, great work. Somebody thinks you're gone or at least not enough of a threat to bother with. I'll tell you who.
On a 10-11, nobody takes particular notice of what you've done.
On a 7-9, somebody does. I'll tell you who, and what nuisance you have to deal with when you get back to Ditchwater.
On a 6-, boy, does somebody ever. You tell me who (examples: the Motti Gang, Medusa's Column (who took over Rum River from Ajax's guild), the primary-colored skeletons, whoever it was they were communicating with) and I'll tell you what you have to deal with right the heck now.
---
Oh! And one more thing. Dis isn't idle either.
One of the many reasons people liken Dis to a living thing is that even when a parish is part of it, it can tend to move in regular cycles. There are some parishes that work on "seasons", being part of a turning wheel that can bring more parishes in and compact the ones that are there tighter. There are some that work on "tides", keeping a fairly regular cycle of advancing and retreating in regard to other parishes.
One of the other reasons happens one night - Dis takes in somewhere new, in this case at some remote edge but in reality nearly anywhere. The ground rumbles, buildings shudder, ash flakes off and falls down. The air smells - well, the air smells of so many things, spiced and rank and fresh and stale and pure and curdled - it's hard to tell what the air smells differently of, only it smells differently. That'll stick for a couple days at least.
What the new place is and what its neighbors think doesn't reach Ashcrown nearly as fast as this news. Thanks to some confluence of tides and seasons, the parish of Ecalypse Tower, home of the Church of the Rogue Moon, and the parish of Goingforth, where the Wayfarers resettled or perhaps stayed after that terrible disaster so long ago, are exactly one parish apart now, which is closer than they've been in living memory. And the parish in between, a warren of alleyways and buildings called Lehmark's Angles, is famously impossible to truly barricade. (And infamously impossible to barricade against Ditchwater, which also adjoins it.)
If you look back to page 1 or thereabouts, you'll see why that news traveled so quickly, but please don't confuse this for a horrific omen that you must attend to at once. You'll know when I'm pitching you one of those. All the same, though -- like the man says, life's a funny old thing and doesn't contain enough to drink.
--
I think I could work the Spects using time shenanigans to make it there and back quickly. Probably by making time move faster for myself so what feels like day(s) of travel for me is actually hours for everyone else. Will probably come back hungry and exhausted but none the worse for wear. Using +INT.
Alternatively I could work the Kip by sneaking around town using +DEX. Avoiding locals while whispering our great deeds into the ears of Aspirants.
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
--
I'm all for working the Score - picking up some techniques sounds tres cool and I could see Koba observing and evaluating in the proving grounds of Ashcrown.
As the crew settles in for its brief stay in Ashcrown, Glory starts working on a new story, "The Beating Heart of the Sultana's Garden" (working title), trying different versions of it to various impromptu audiences around town. He tries to tailor it by reading his audience... are those trapped souls Aspirants, or long-departed Ashcrown warriors?... and he keeps the details of the adventuring party a bit vague, though there may be enough there for someone who knows them to recognize them.
He also keeps the eventual fate of the adventurers a bit vague, though he does hint at the tragic. A small man with a spiked shield on his back even recommends a few places for Glory to try the story out.
All in all, it looks like the story's going over fairly well.
--
Would the Wayfarers be this close to Ashcrown if Glory hadn't flubbed the Score last time? We may never know...
3 session xp and one bond xp puts Glory at 4xp after levelling up.
And now, The Noise.
Geth roll 2d6+2 for The Noise in story form
The Noise in story form:
2d6+27 [2d6=1, 4]
0
Options
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
edited February 2017
Koba takes to one of Ashcrown's many proving grounds, the 10-foot tall Conqueror turning many heads. She looks instead for those who are unimpressed by a necronautical warmachine, finding a squat toad-man barking instructions at some sparring Ashcrowners.
He only turns when his assistant, eyes wide at the sight of the suit, ceases spritzing him with water.
--
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for The Score
Aw, dang it. Since I'm the only one that didn't intend to get some training, I'll spend 1 esteem for each of the others to pick an evocatively named technique, and everyone gets the 0 esteem preparation.
Xeno took the liberty of removing the telepresence mesh from Koba’s bags. The glow of future potentialities had been too bright to ignore.
Cringing as the animate mesh of wires and crystals settled onto his temples, the Wonderworker cast his mind forward to a near future when Octagonia would finally get around to reinstalling the telepresence device in their quarters.
Xeno sagely ignored the myriad paradoxes involved in using it to work leads in a future Ditchwater, and got to work.
--
Geth roll 2d6+2 for the Spects
(INT)
Doing Spects cause I think Ajax could work the Kip using intimidation/STR to dissuade.
I’ll let Ajax use the discern realities bonus since I’m not sure how many we got, though if there were more than one I'd happily use it.
Edit: Roll on the Toll-collector job, and assuming I don't have an extra discern realities bonus to turn this into a ten, roll on the Nail-jaw job as well. Roll on the new Ditchwater job to make it exclusive.
My thinking is to avoid progressing the new local job so we can do it next/soon.
Koba, the intention on all those esteem choices for your party members were that they would be mutually exclusive - you could either spend 2 or 1, or get a consolation prize for zero.
Knowing that, would you like to rearrange things at all?
---
Xeno, I did go back and look at the Discern Realities and how they've been used, and you guys have been pretty good about it. (I will start posting hanging DRs at the end of my posts, though. Stands to keep in mind.)
The only hanging thread I could find was that Koba picked up something about the personal stylings of Professor Red. You might be able to say that gives you an advantage in picking up job opportunities here in Ashcrown?
Well, either way I'll hang onto it until Ajax presents his plan to secure The Kip here.
For the Weaponmaster, brute strength was the answer to most problems. Something in your path, cut it away. Braggart that needs to be silenced, fists work for that. Aspirant loyalists that would be threatened by the news that his crew had just saved the souls of multiple Aspirants....hold on a minute. Simple logic dictated that a few threats and a hand resting on a sword hilt would dissuade almost anyone from trying to enforce their will upon the group. But it was conventional wisdom that also said that it wouldn't stop everyone, and all it took was enough individuals that were willing to push the envelope to pull in others who might have stayed away. The last thing they needed was a full out riot.
So, instead, Ajax relied on the wisdom of battle to assess the best way to impart the knowledge of what they had accomplished, but tactfully, and in small doses in order to reach someone higher up in the Aspirant company. And so, the Weaponmaster carefully spread around small facts, a description here, to gather a name there, to get a location over there, all in the hope of connecting the souls they released with the people they were connected to in life, to share the good news of their release.
--
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for The Kip
Edit: Gaah...should have rolled for something else. Hopefully everyone is ok with these choices.
We'll loan out the jumper pouch.
We'll give up General Blue. The Aspirants will owe us one.
The Kip:
2d6+28 [2d6=5, 1]
AustinP0027 on
0
Options
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
-- @Glazius In that case I'll spend 1 esteem on everyone but me and take the consolation prize for myself.
@AustinP0027 I'm fine with that, seems the best option.
Koba, duly noted. The half-flame toad (who for some reason I want to name Basil?) has several productive discussions with you unrelated to the minutiae of your suit and its operation.
You've made your kip, Ajax. Probably won't be lying in it though. Anyhow:
Lichtaneur's Interposing Strike - so long as you have hold against a worthy foe from Battle Instincts, Hack and Slash against them will serve to interrupt one of their moves, without spending hold. (You deal with the consequences of Hack and Slash, as normal.)
---
Xeno, the jobs shake out as follows:
- Ousting the Toll Collector's Guild from Halitica: Word around the pubs is that Krevar Scarsalver made a few good trades and, flush with cash, drank a little too heavily with a crowd who drank a little too lightly and were a little too known to be in the pockets of the Toll Collector's Guild. You couldn't casually ask after who and where, but...
- Finding Nail-Jaw Anthes's corpse and the story of his death: no longer exclusive but still yours.
- Tracking down Blank the Blank or the Motti Gang: there's now a multicolored paint blotch with a geometric hole in it on West Desperation where the geometric man was asking for assistance. The Motti Gang are no longer laying low. Probably no money in this one anymore.
- An Ashcrown job: Damasus the Fearless, chaplain for the Blackstone Dragoons, had an ask going for anybody who could retrieve a Flame Core. Ashcrown is kind of light on true "wild" life - any fire creature bred there is an asset for war - so killing one in the prime of its life just to extract a devotional flame is a bit of a bridge too far. Much easier to find a remote plane where fire-creatures still roam freely and hunt down one of those.
- A Ditchwater job (exclusive 1): a refugee, Sister Brevard from the plane of Icechain Sanctuary, has a tale of mystery and woe. Icechain is a plane fairly close to Dis, expecting themselves to be drawn in one day and living as though tomorrow won't come. But something unexpected happened - another plane seemingly crashed into theirs, or at least a city they had no idea even existed dropped on top of theirs, from out of a thundercloud-choked sky. She wants some idea of what happened, and in general a map of the place and sketches of its notable features would be an enormous help to the refugees from Icechain Sanctuary as they seek help elsewhere. Some of their own have already tried but haven't returned.
An-Sendol's Essential Warmth - when you Defy Danger to avoid or endure dangers represented by extreme heat or cold, you can briefly meditate to equilibrate your core temperature and roll with advantage. However, you're basically just temporarily ignoring the feedback from your extremities, so you'll take around half the original damage (least of 2 rolls) in the attempt.
---
Glory, here's your'n.
Ensepheron's Resounding Seeker - when you execute the Dodge Roll action directly at an enemy tense yourself for a ground-covering lunge, you can Hack and Slash any enemy within Near range, and you'll be right next to them when the attack finishes... which may be a good or bad thing, depending on how you rolled. Also, unless you hit a 12+, or choose the "open yourself up to an enemy attack" option on a 10+ but forego the bonus damage, you'll create a notably loud shockwave.
And here's that Noise I was promising you.
---
Ajax is the first to notice it when you're heading back to Ditchwater along the slow and steady way - a group of roughs from Medusa's Column (including, to your chagrin, Glory, a man with a familiar-looking spiked shield) are kind of staking out one of the notable approaches to the place, having rented out a few edge apartments for at least long enough to get comfortable pacing the roofs.
You can't think of anyone they might be waiting for, other than you.
You could, of course, engage in a frontal assault, but Ditchwater isn't their territory any more than Rum River is and if you can get inside you can probably avoid them a lot more readily until they decided they've laid out enough time and money and give up.
So, other than a frontal assault, here are a couple of options for you.
Ditchwater has a limited number of entry and exit options - most of the other parishes want to limit their exposure. But you could try to sneak around the edges of this one and somehow avoid getting spotted by Medusa's Column.
Or, hey, there's Lehmark's Angles, which definitely adjoin Ditchwater. All you'd have to do is plot a clear course through them while avoiding the Wayfarers and the Rogue Moon and everything else nasty that lairs there. Not too hard, right?
But hey, it's about choices. So what do you choose?
Right, sorry, that's a bit of an ask. Let me break it down a little bit.
The direct road from Ashcrown to Ditchwater runs through - well, now, it actually cuts around the edge of Havenglen Grove. There's a lot of deadwood around the path, though, maybe deliberately so, and at the border the dead trees take on a stony cast as they abut the entrance to Ditchwater. Havenglen can react to the tides and seasons faster than nearly any parish, because even in Dis so much of it is still alive.
The edge of Ditchwater is... not really that different from the other parts of Ditchwater? Edge apartments rotate their renters pretty regularly as the view becomes more to some creature's liking, but you can smell the Ditchwater ditch water already. The road heading into Ditchwater itself is pretty broad but not too well-trafficked right now, though as more people become aware of their new neighbors that's likely to change. The edge apartments have actually... either leaned against each other and been reinforced or actually built a kind of residential bridge over the entry road, and the toughs from Medusa's Column are patrolling the roofs on top of that.
Roofs in Ditchwater are pretty flat. Those as aren't tend to be rendered flatter than they were by the traffic of the ol' Thieves' Highway, which is also why the more long-term places in Ditchwater tend to be ground-floor, or subterranean if you can afford them. Anyway, the patrol itself is pretty regular but you've got a thick forest to conceal yourselves in for the moment.
To reiterate with further information, your options -
Sneak in through the entry from Havenglen, somehow. Time the guards and move when they're not looking, squeak through a narrow alleyway and try not to draw attention, jump three stories over the edge buildings and likewise try not to draw attention, wait for food traffic to get heavy and try to blend in with the crowd? Whatever you choose, pick the person among you least-suited for the attempt, and tell me how they make it work anyway. Then they'll roll +appropriate stat, probably with some bond help, to try and get you all in, but I should warn you - even on a 10-11 you'll probably have to make a bit of a sacrifice to leave nothing at all suspicious.
Just make a go of it straight on. You've got time to watch them (and Discern Realities) and you probably should to get some idea of the actual numbers you've got going here. It's not That One Fight Where You Have To Remember The Run Command levels of numbers, I'll tell you that much, and they're pretty much all going to be funneled through stairways and roof windows unless you get completely out-tacticsed, but a lot of things can happen in the cut and thrust of combat.
Cut through Lehmark's Angles, where they probably aren't expecting you. Lehmark's Angles is the one parish that has a more or less permanent connection to Ditchwater, by which I mean about like a hundred permanent connections to Ditchwater. But L.A. is either warded against cartographers or actually rearranges itself rather than being moved by Dis - you'll need to plot a way through, and that works the same way as cutting through the Sultana's Gardens. Somebody rolls +int to try and work out the best course, somebody else rolls +wis to keep a weather eye out along the way.
Take an even more roundabout path through Havenglen, to some other parish, to maybe even some other parish, to Ditchwater. Same rolls as barging through L.A., but the problem here is that the arrangement of everything is going to be so unfamiliar that it's almost certain to take you a significant amount of time to get to Ditchwater, check on your quarters, and...
Well, heck, I haven't even asked. What job are you freebooters looking to take up next?
(And, I mean, there's always pressing the Ask About... button and typing freehand exercising your radical freedom to act just as you want, if you've got another course of action in mind other than checking back into Ditchwater and taking a job.)
Posts
--
I'll use a charge from me bag 'o' books for +1 to the spout lore.
I'd also like to spend my last heritage hold on something written by Professor Red to ask 'Whom do you serve?', if that's possible?
My vote is we camp out down here- since they've light-vanished all their gear I doubt they'll return.
Geth, roll 2d6+3 for Spout Wykkyd Lore
Agreed on camping down here.
We should also look at pack space to see how we need to split stuff up. Ajax has quite a bit of carrying room, so I can take the brunt of the stuff on (including this death rod in it's case if we decide we want to take it with us)
"This was meant for you." The Wonderworker said plainly, before explaining how to use the Beacon.
Nodding to the jumper pouch he had handed Koba, Xeno said "It looks like the fight Ashcrown picked this time is with a group from the Ironblossom Weald."
The Wonderworker sat down and got comfortable, pulling out a knife and some kind of root vegetable from his bag. "Whew, I could use a nap. But first, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving. I have some rations if any of you want, but I can't stop thinking about roasting these tubers over an open fire." Xeno said, and began peeling the tubers with a singular focus.
--
I agree on camping here and on using pack space as a guide.
As for splitting the loot I'm all for giving the stuff to whoever could use it best, so I think giving glory the War Beacon (since it uses CHA) and the shield to Ajax makes the most sense. We'll see about the baton but I suspect Koba could put it to good use. As for the coin I would prefer to minimize book keeping so just assume we have a shared pool of loot split among us, and we'll need to figure out where to use the different kind of coin (gamblers, magicians, etc). Bigger ticket items like the silver inlay and the jewled marker will need extra care.
Assuming I don't take any of the previously unknown items, I wouldn't mind getting my hands on the pills/potions since a lot of them are useful for one time offense/defense boosts, and the jumper pouch if it's versatile. Also I have no adventuring gear or books, so that would be nice.
As a scrawny Mage I'm already at 5/6 load. Though I could give Glory my dagger to reduce that by 1 and I don't think the 5 rations (also 1 load) I have will last long given that we have no other food besides the tubers (which are also 1 load and will be gone soon).
@Glazius, can the jumper pouch only be used to communicate with a different associated pouch(es) (ie in the enemies hands), or is it versatile and something we could use among ourselves?
PSN: Boozer_777
From what you can tell, Professor Red (not their real name) was communicating with... a few barrister's offices scattered among the three or four parishes of Dis ritzy enough to afford a judiciary? Looks like the actual communications between the force in Ironblossom Weald happened though a different skeleton, and Professor Red was just providing his expertise? Maybe he thought of himself as too important to bother with these worldly affairs?
Anyway, much of his outgoing communication is... about legally precise definitions of "living" and "ownership". Which starts to make sense when you understand the rod. You could call it the Rod of Infernal Counsel, especially if you were an infernal trying to foist it off on somebody.
---
See, the general fate of many of the infernal peoples is to backstab each other in a rigid legal framework; that is to say, to make a frontal assault at the precise moment that someone coincidentally turns around. The game isn't for everyone, and in Dis it's a lot easier to slink away from the bench, but it does still need referees unencumbered by unfortunate histories. Thus the Rod.
The Rod will let you clearly communicate with any infernal creature, understand anything they say or write, and even bypass most of the level of self-defensive obfuscation a lot of them tend to use. But it comes at a price. When a living creature takes ownership from the rod with intention to benefit from it, they are entered into the lists of Hell.
When you are in the lists of Hell and Make Camp, you become a Devil's Advocate while you rest, arguing a case in one of the infernal courts. Pick a mental stat and roll it. On a 10+, you perform admirably; take +1 forward to make a Devil's Bargain. On a 6-, you must pay the Devil's Due. On a 7-9, you successfully argue the case and can pay the Devil's Due to take +1 forward to make a Devil's Bargain.
When you have to pay the Devil's Due, you bent your will or logic or personality around to serve the court, which as we all know bears no relationship to anything in the real world. Roll your Devil's Advocate stat with disadvantage until two of the dice match.
When you wish to make a Devil's Bargain, make your demands of Hell, whatever they are, and roll. You only get bonuses to this roll from successfully being a Devil's Advocate. On a 10+, the GM will impose 2 conditions from the Ritual list. On a 7-9, 3 conditions. On a 6-, 3 conditions in addition to one marker that will be called in to pull you away from the real world to play Devil's Advocate. You may choose to back out of the Bargain and retain your bonuses if the conditions are untenable, but your marker on a 6- will persist and you can't make a Devil's Bargain again until after you Make Camp
Taking yourself off the lists of Hell is a Devil's Bargain; the conditions will relate to some other living creature you have to pass the Rod off to.
---
Xeno, the real trick in getting a jumper pouch set up is in the kind of runic combination lock that also forms the clasp. Specifically it's in enchanting that lock to sync to, in the example you have in front of you, a single other pouch as the pouch's bearer moves about the planes and as Dis pulls those selfsame planes inexorably into itself. You've seen the occasional example with multiple settings through some kind of additional spell-gem on the cover or activated by a slight-of-hand reclasping, but this pouch is single-destination. Any decent mageweaver could retune it or put a matching one together in the first place for a little time and a fairly considerable fee, but no special effor. You can ballpark the whole operation at about 200 coin, at least as a starting point -- you'll need to find someone who has the time and an acceptable way to pay them.
---
Everybody let me know if there's anything you'd like to do before you turn in tonight, because it promises to be a bit of an adventure one way or another.
tags: @Grog @Boozer @wildwood @AustinP0027
He wanders around the complex a bit as they prepare to make camp, the map in one hand, the beacon gathered in the other. Maybe this place still has some secrets to reveal...
--
Geth roll 2d6 for Spout Lore for stories
I may of course be making unreasonable assumptions here, and there is some other luminous figure in your past, in which case, duly noted.
---
Additionally you are owed something interesting but not useful in your meanderings, so I'll tell you this: when people call these the Sultana's Gardens, they are being, um... truth-adjacent? Moreso than they realize?
I mean, let's start with the basic fact that this complex is from the past no one can remember, or at least the past that has fallen out of public knowledge. Let's also start with a commonly-available body of songs, or perhaps bawdy of songs (depending on your choice of tavern), about the Sultana. In a time of myth, before Dis even existed, various forces paid court to the Sultana, and in the fullness of time Dis was born. Whether or not Dis is an only child or has its father's eyes has never really been answered.
The painting on the roof of the work chamber, which Xeno has accidentally revealed, is a mural of a night sky and a cosmology that no one has ever seen, but by itself that's not much of a story.
But you take in the painting, the style, the pigments, with an oddly instinctive understanding - perhaps you yourself were a painted statue, as was the style at the time? And then you can make out the faint traces of brushwork over the rest of the complex. And the subjects of the paintings.
I've said earlier, there are traces in the stonework of the person who originally built this garden city. But it would seem, based on what you can make of the pictures they appear in, and the elements of the Sultana's distinctive and eternal styles, that the city itself was intended as a gift for the Sultana. And not, like, the "please don't eat me" sort of gift, either.
So were these gardens built by one of the Sultana's original suitors, or somebody just hoping to catch her on the rebound? There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful response.
---
When I get back from work tomorrow I'll assume everyone who wants to do something has done something and move on to making camp.
tags: @wildwood @Boozer @Grog @AustinP0027
--
Almost forgot, I'll use the warmachine Let Me See That move to ask 'What has been done most recently with this?' about the jumper pouch.
But there are some very precise and round punctures, no bigger than a needlepoint, with silver residue on them, and there are impressions on the pouch's surface of the various logostic flourishes you've come to associate with Professor Red. I told you all earlier that multidirectional pouches were kind of luxury items and that's because the kind of craftwork necessary to accomplish that was a lot of trouble over and above just acquiring, like, two pairs of pouches.
So Professor Red's got the skill to make a logographic array to turn a single-directional pouch into a multi-directional one, which suggests several things. Maybe he was sending his unofficial communications in secret. Maybe, fitting the general motif you saw in the work room, these skeletons were presented with a jumper pouch as a communication device by their original employers and turned their skill to make what they could of it. Either way I suppose the net effect is that you have a much broader scope of things to think about for your one question about the skeletons' communication. ("The skeletons were not involved with this at all" does not count as an answered question for these purposes.)
Anyway, to no one's surprise you were also right to avoid the vegetables.
---
I mean, don't get me wrong, they smell wonderfully tempting especially when roasted, but when you bite into them, Xeno, well.
Geth, roll 1d6 for stat roulette.
In much the fashion of a Devil's Due, you now roll Wisdom with disadvantage until doubles come out. Also mark XP for accepting Etana's destiny.
A quick note on the advantage/disadvantage mechanic. If you're affected by both at once (you'll never be affected by multiples) you can either roll 2d6 normally or roll 4d6 and keep the middle two, whichever you'd rather. "Did you get doubles" will be a lot more likely on the latter choice, but IIRC there's no fast way to get the maths done for you on it.
Everybody else! Well, there's a question for the skeletons' notes to answer, or you can hang onto the bulky 1-weight of them for later use.
Also, these things smell damn good - one might say supernaturally, even compulsively, good - and you're hungry, so you have a choice to make.
You can mark XP and play stat roulette if you'd like. Or you can pick a stat and tell me how it helps you resist temptation to Defy Danger. The catch, of course, is that if you fail this, well, you've already picked a stat, haven't you?
---
tags: @Grog @Boozer @AustinP0027 @wildwood
I've got... basically two classes of magical items. The ones the party's Lore skill has completely identified, which tend to be explicitly disposable, and the UNKNOWNS. The disposables anybody can have recognized, however they like.
Handling an UNKNOWN with Let Me See That and asking "what does this do" will give you basically all upside, no downside. So in the examples given, you would find out:
- the War Beacon lets you command light as the Lantern move Bend Light, but not that it has charges or how those charges are lost or gained.
- the Rod of Infernal Counsel lets you communicate with all infernal creatures and even bargain with them in return for Ritual-style costs, but not how the bargain roll works or that it makes you play Devil's Advocate.
- the Folded Shield lets you Stand In Defense with advantage, but not... well, you'll see.
Asking "what's wrong with this, and how might I fix it" might give you a clue as to the downside, or it might not, because it assumes there's a problem you can fix. I'd tell you:
- the War Beacon works its best with either a skilled lightcrafter or an actual sun
- the Rod of Infernal Counsel is made to infernal standards and their bargains are highly structured
- and nothing about the Folded Shield
Does that sound fair?
---
tags: @Grog
She wasn't sure if her uncle would laugh or cry to see her speaking with devils, let alone taking part in their legal process. A smile crept onto her face.
--
That sounds perfectly fair @Glazius
Making Camp puts me at 14/19hp and lets me fix the suit. I've got 3 charges of bandages if anyone wants +4hp.
Well I could do with the XP (only on 3), so let's play stat roulette.
Geth, roll 1d6 for Stat Roulette
So that's Strength at disadvantage? Gonna keep that for a while I think.
--
Geth roll 2d6 for Defy Danger +WIS
Making Camp will get Glory to 15/21, and he'll use one of his bandages to get to 19hp.
Does anyone have spare load? The banner puts Glory 1 over, assuming he still has the rations and adventurer's gear he originally started with. It would be a shame to leave the clockwork wire behind, after how useful it's been.
--
Geth, roll 1d6 for Stat Roulette
Make Camp should put me up to 20/23 (I'm pretty sure I tracked back to have 9hp when the fight ended).
I should have plenty of space (assuming I don't get a strength disadvantage).
I had 10 load left before taking the shield.
After picking through the odds and ends they had recovered, the Wonderworker took some of the some of the gear, notes, and potions for himself and gave the iridescent clamshell to Ajax. "Eat that in case you find yourself fencing with a rogue Spirit or Phantasm." he said simply.
--
I should be at 13/16 hp now. I think I'm at 4/6 load if Glory takes my one weight dagger off my hands.
If there are no objections I'll grab the potions/pills except the anti-intangability one. I'll also take the 2 use adventuring gear and 1 use book.
PSN: Boozer_777
Incidentally, you just get disadvantage on your very next Wisdom roll, instead of until you get doubles.
---
So, something I should have mentioned in all of this is that the top half of General Blue's skull - not even a jaw - (also not even their real name) - is still kind of intermittently hopping about and berating you as you go about your business. It doesn't seem to have been evaculighted with the rest of everything. The plate-headed servitors finish their work cycle and just kind of sit there. The black, decaying servitors can be moved off the work floor before they burst into infective fragments.
Will you all just toss General Blue into an empty tube and abandon this place, or try and make something out of it for yourself? As Glory will attest, it seems to have lain dormant for quite a while before the skeletons found it to make use of.
And once you've decided all that among yourselves, if Ashcrown is still the next stop on your journey, well, you've made the navigation roll to get there -- you just decided to take a detour. You can still find the way just fine.
So, if Ashcrown is still the next step on your journey, tell me -- what are the front gates like?
---
tags: @wildwood @Boozer @Grog @AustinP0027
At one time the gates must have been impregnable- crystal studded walls of pumice, riddled with murder-holes and machicolations- but war takes it's toll. The giant interlocking obsidian rods that made up the gate mechanism all sat at odd angles, like decaying teeth unable to stem the flow of refugees and soldiers pouring in and out.
"Rubbish! Terrible! Puny!" a stream of insults interrupted. She reached back into the suit to re-muffle the skull, her thick skin protection enough.
--
Koba would definitely keep the skull (in a sack to shut it up). Could come in handy later.
---
A long time ago, but not so far back no one can remember, Ashcrown was widely regarded as a parish full of tuff doodz. Fire is destructive by nature (well, okay, everything is destructive by nature but fire is destructive by nature to things a lot of people happen to care about, such as shelter and personal possessions), and so the fire-creatures that weren't going too crazy to live among polite company grouped themselves together and focused on discipline. It is a truth universally acknowledged that power + discipline = tuff doodz, and quite a few people who thought they were hard enough walked up to the gates of Ashcrown and banged their shield, subjecting themselves to trial by fire.
Not even a dad would make that joke anymore. Because people who think they are hard enough, but actually aren't, tend to hold grudges, and grudges breed secrets, and secrets breed conspiracies, and conspiracies breed wars. And so, Ashcrown remains a parish full of tuff doodz, but it's more like, industrial-strength tough dudes now? The casual tests of strength against random strangers are things of the past. Any outsider who tries to pull that kind of thing today is treated as, well, a possible enemy combatant, and things do not go well for them. But the culture of discipline still remains, and the constant friendly posturing against the outside has turned into a still-friendly rivalry on the inside.
Kind of an intramural thing, really.
You all get a little guiding wisp of flame that trails you or precedes you through the corridors and the drill grounds. It marks you, say the guards, as a curious outsider, not for instance some ally of Ashcrown who's up for a little surprise ambush practice in the middle of a stairway.
The flame-person who takes delivery of the message (whoever among you is actually making the drop, and maybe that's all of you together but it doesn't have to be) may or may not be an intelligence officer. They may or may not be in an intelligence building. They may or may not actually be named Marigold, though they do only come up to your waist and the color and shape of their guttering head-flames do kind of put you in mind of a flower of some description.
They may or may not be trying to drive you nuts by making ridiculous musical malaprops constantly, calling, say, your accomplishment an accompaniment and something sinister symphonic instead.
But here's the general upshot of the conversation: delivering the coded message is arpeggioed (appreciated) and the message itself seems to be genuine, but on the face of things your tale of embrochure (adventure) in getting it here is only that - a tale. It really is rather con brio (convenient) that any witnesses have passed on to the lands beyond. (General Blue, if you haul him out, does that old Michigan J. Frog number where he pretends to be just a regular ol' armored half-skull.) But you did a good thing, and you don't look to be Del Signo (signaling) to any enemies of Ashcrown. And the message pouch, if you let them examine it, will at least match up with other intelligence they have about their many enemies.
Here's the even more general upshot: you gon' get paid for this, we'll just make a move at the start of the next session to work out exactly how.
So. Ashcrown. It is 95% fortress by weight and/or volume, and it's focused. If you don't want to get in a fight or get ready to get in a fight, the rest of Dis is that way. (Somebody is going to spot that on a poster somewhere, intercut with several swears.) But it's a great place for fight-readiness. Weaponsmiths, armories, arms arcane, drill grounds for dozens of different techniques, libraries of tactics and strategy. You're just visitors so they're not going to sell you the crazy-good stuff but at the least it's out there on display.
So much to do, and some questions to consider.
- Do you share the pouch? Really this one's almost a gimme, they just want to check where the lock points, which is a non-destructive procedure, but if you want to get some leverage going maybe you don't feel that friendly.
- Do you try and hand over General Blue to their dubious mercies? It's rather unlikely anybody in Ashcrown is going to pry too much so you can keep him wrapped up if you like.
- Do you try and track down any Aspirants who may be Ashcrowners or training here, see if they know the people whose souls you freed? Tell them what happened for peace of mind or hope of reward?
In addition to, you know, the obvious. You want to track down trainers, track down knowledge, get some common weapons or armor or gear?
---
And then the end of session. Your votes count for the party here, so tell me:
- what notable enemy, if any, did you overcome?
- what notable treasure, if any, did you find?
- what notable thing, if any, did you learn about the world?
And then a couple of things personally.
- did you exhaust your alignment to roll with advantage? If so, mark XP and refresh it. You can change your alignment to anything from your current playbook or another one if you think it suits you better, or PM me and I'll send you a big ol' list of the things.
- refresh all the bonds you exhausted. Did any of them come to completion in the course of this adventure? Either because you think they can go deeper or you think you've done all you can? Then mark XP and erase as many previously-exhausted bonds as you want, writing some new ones. They can be with the same person and develop that relationship, or be new blank hooks to your character's story that might apply to anybody.
Sorry to dump the homework on you and run off for the weekend. (Not actually running off, will still be monitoring thread.)
---
tags: @Grog @wildwood @AustinP0027 @Boozer
My votes:
We share the pouch.
Koba keeps General Blue.
Track down local Aspirants, more for peace of mind but rewards are cool too.
I would be interested in purchasing 3 sets of bandages (15 coin).
The rest of the party should probably get rations.
I gladly gave a ration to Glory to eat before. If Glory didn't want my dagger I barter it away, mostly to drop weight.
Xeno seeks training in mental discipline. He knows that is the key to mastering his temporal abilities.
Notable enemy: Skelemalgam
Notable Treasure: Infernal rod, Folded Shield, War Banner.
Notable learning: Learned some secrets about Light Magic as well as that skeletons of the Ironblossom Weald are planning on moving against Ashcrown.
(+3 xp)
I exhausted my alignment. I'll keep it the same.
(+1 xp)
I depend on Koba's clarity in a crisis.
(Resolving bond with Koba, changing it to the above. I'll leave the Ajax one alone and the blank free for Glory.)
(+1 xp)
So 5xp + 5xp before end of session leaves me at 10xp. Subtract 9 from get to level 3!
For leveling I will increase my INT to 17, and use Cameo to take Healing Light (INT) from Lightbearer, thanks to the spooky quantum entanglement between Xeno and Etana.
Now I can use healing light to heal in combat and use time shenanigans + bandages when I've drained my INT too much.
Geth roll 3d6l2+1 for heritage
(Does this get added to the 1 hold I still have or replace it?)
Geth roll 2d6+2 for healing light on Xeno
Geth roll 1d8 for healing
Edit - good news - rolled doubles on wisdom, bad news - failed on healing. That's a good omen...
I take -1 forward. Xeno admits defeat and uses a bandage to treat his wounds instead.
PSN: Boozer_777
Votes:
Share the pouch.
Keeps General Blue.
Track down local Aspirants, agree mainly for peace of mind.
I lost my coin, so nothing to purchase.
I seek out sword training, likely through drills or challenges with anyone drilling (though, within the bounds of practice, not actual combat with a risk of injury)
Notable enemy: Skelemalgam
Notable Treasure: Folded Shield.
Notable learning: Skeletons of the Ironblossom Weald are planning on moving against Ashcrown.
(+3 xp)
Didn't exhaust alignment for advantage.
I will resolve one bond with Glory
Glory is soft, but I will make them hard like me. -> Glory has proven themselves battle worthy.
(+1 xp)
I had 3xp before end of session, so now I have 7xp (still not enough to level...)
Edit...actually, my alignment is kill a worthy foe, which I did, and the SRD says if you fulfilled alignment, gain an XP. Is it fulfilling it, or specifically exhausting it to gain an advantage during the session?
I vote:
Withhold the pouch.
Withhold General blue.
Track down any Aspirants as a courtesy.
Notable enemy: Professor Red
Notable treasure: the friends we made along the way the ceramic seal of the Last Gatesmen
Notable experience: Lightning can be harnessed to power things!
@Glazius maybe I misread, but I didn't see where you said we get xp for each of these, so I'm assuming we don't?
Exhausted my alignment, so that's 1xp, and the crusader option is still a good fit so I'll stick with it.
I'll resolve Etana's bond to get a blank slot.
I'll resolve Ajax's bond and change it to: Ajax is kind of goodlooking, I guess. Not that I care.
I'll resolve Xeno's bond and change it to: Xeno's power is mysterious and dangerous- I need to keep an eye on him.
I'm happy with Glory's bond, so I'll stick with it.
That puts me on 8xp.
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for Heritage
I may have jumped the gun in the three question xp. I got that from the end of session move in the SRD.
http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/moves/#End_of_Session
I actually don't have any coin, I just assumed I could spend some from my share of the loot we got. Probably should actually divide it up, and maybe not spend so much, that much stuff is overkill. I'll count it up asap.
Edit - so it looks like we have 151 coin in motes and chips and inlay, which I assume are easy to move. Divided by 4 is 37.75 so I'll forgo the extra 38th.
We have 200 coin in the bigger stuff, the big marker, and the light spinel. Divided by 4 thats 50, but I assume we need to do legwork to move that stuff, so I'd leave that alone.
So I'll retcon my spending to just be three sets of bandages.
PSN: Boozer_777
Votes:
'Meh' on sharing the pouch. Glory will generally back Koba here, but Xeno is smart too, and could persuade him.
'No' on sharing the general.
"Yes Yes' on tracking down the Aspirants, that could shake some great stories loose.
Glory gets more rations (3 of his 9 starting coin), but is then too encumbered to take Xeno's dagger, so Xeno should barter it away. That stiletto is around here somewhere...
He will also ask Ajax to hold onto the coil of clockwork wire, to make room for this new banner.
Glory will seek training for advanced secrets of stylized dueling.
Notable Enemy: Hungry Hungry Skeleton Head
Notable Treasures: seed of a story about the origins of the Sultana's Garden, talking skeleton head which could make for a fantastic future prop
Notable Learnings: how to change a skeleton's mind, flashbacks don't work in real life, there is such a thing as being too good at hiding things
Other Learnings: The Grenadier's Burden, or someone posing as them, is making magical equipment, which is new
Alignment: Put yourself at risk for the sake of a friend or lover. That was exhausted, and seems appropriate for at least another session.
+1xp
Bonds: I will resolve my two bonds with Ajax, leave one blank, and change the other to Ajax has his own, rough style. I can still make it better. I'll keep the ones with Koba and Xeno as they are.
+2xp
I had... um... 8xp before this (Power! <clap> <clap> Gamer! <clap> <clap>), so that puts me at 11xp. 2xp after levelling up.
Glory, Level 3 Showboat
+1 to Charisma
New Move: Now I Have The Upper Hand - additional options for Parry - disarm or steal item
Starting with 2 hold for Anything You Can Do, iirc, since Glory has one bond each with everyone. Haven't quite decided what move to copy yet.
Geth roll 2d6-1 for Heritage hold
@Boozer oh woops of course. In that case that gets Koba up to 11xp, 2xp after leveling.
Lvl 3, +1 Int, new move: Battle tech- Arc-Current field (melee attacks gain Elemental (Electric))
So lemme introduce you to the start of a new session. It's surprisingly a lot like the start of the first session!
Well, there's one exception. Ashcrown is certainly willing to pay, but only... well, only paying in kind. Information for information. And the information you receive in return is going to be the kind that only sinks in after some decent practice sessions.
So, while there are still The Kip, The Noise, The Spects, and The Score, you may, if you wish, cut out on Ashcrown early to devote some time to Ditchwater. Two people take Noise, two people take Spects, you'll both do a full roll and I'll go with the better result in each case. You will gain nothing from The Kip and The Score but also put nothing at risk. Note that these roles are not restricted in any way based on the roles you may have taken before.
Especially if you decide to go for all four, keep in mind there's probably some Discern Realities floating around that hasn't been claimed yet, especially as might help with The Kip and The Noise.
---
When you make yourself a Kip away from Kip, you'll spend time roaming around Ashcrown trying to track down the Aspirants and impress upon them the magnitude of what you did, while trying to conceal from the Ashcrown loyalists proper the magnitude of what you have. So tell me how you're pulling off this mix of bragging and subtlety - if you like, name me one Aspirant you want to impress and how, and one Ashcrowner you want to avoid or dissuade, and how - and roll +appropriate stat.
Here are three things that you want:
- You don't have to loan out the jumper pouch. It will come back to you okay if you do, but I'll keep the fact in mind if a 3 comes up at the wrong time in the future.
- You don't have to give up General Blue. If you do, he's not going to come back.
- The Aspirants will owe you one. Like, a big one, not just a "leverage for Parley" one. You can find Aspirants pretty much everywhere doing everything, as long as it's even slightly likely to impress the Sultana if word gets to her. If there's a big enough crowd of Aspirants that it won't put a big dent in them, a crowd not unadjacent in size to the one in this here parish, you can even demand a sizable sum of coin or a prized artifact.
On a 12+ take all 3. On a 10-11 take 2. On a 7-9, take 1. On a 6-... yeah.
Though on less than a 12 you can take one more than you're entitled to, but a random one of those will come at a significant cost or with a significant wrinkle. Not, like, worse than giving it up or anything, because I try not to be a dick*, but all the same.
*if in spite of my best efforts I am a dick I will at least be a reasonable dick and pull back from consequences you cannot abide.
---
When you secure The Score you'll spend time meeting the right people and trying to get your fellows to also meet the right people, to learn the lasting lessons rather than just picking up a neat trick without a deeper understanding. Tell me how you do the difficult work of knowing who to know - if you like, name me a fellow student you make an acquaintance with and/or a master who impresses you with their accomodation or their reluctance - and roll +appropriate stat.
On a 12+, you hold 9-esteem. On a 10-11, hold 7-esteem. On a 7-9, hold 5-esteem. On a 6-, at least hold 3-esteem.
Spend esteem, 1-for-1, right now, to get these shinies.
For each party member, you can:
- spend 2-esteem and I will work with them to craft a useful and permanent technique.
- spend 1-esteem and I will tell them the hopefully-evocative* names of three useful techniques, and based only on those names they will pick one to learn.
- spend 0-esteem and they will at least pick up scraps of something useful. They will hold (2d2-1)-preparation, and spend it at an appropriate time (with maybe an appropriate story) to roll with advantage.
Note that these new techniques are going to be the mixed blessing of the "permanent magic item" style rather than the significant power upgrade or reliable bonus of a move.
You may also tell me about a specific crafter and the style of items they make, and either:
- spend 2-esteem for an *IDENTIFIED* item of power made in their style
- spend 1-esteem for two consumable items made in their style
*(see earlier Dickishness Ripcord protocols if they're not sufficiently evocative)
---
When you work The Spects at home and abroad, you're going to be keeping up with old leads and working new leads, maybe by heading back to Ditchwater early, working a commute and cutting into your sleep, or using some kind of rigged-up telepresence thing that Octagonia has... probably unpacked as the Dukes diminish? Right? You left a note? Tell me how you make it happen and roll +appropriate stat, and...
Well, no matter what happens time passes and other people are out there. There was one extant public job (the geometric people wanted to track down Blank the Blank and the Motti Gang) and you had two exclusive jobs (oust the Toll Collectors' Guild from Halitica or inter the body and final fate of Nail-Jaw Anthes for the Last Gatesmen). You also have a private job or two you can choose to pursue, as a main job or a sideline to your existing work. ...or, you know, set out on your own, forge your own fate, see if you can make it pay the bills.
I'll make a progression roll for the public job, then roll up one new job in Ditchwater and one job here. Then, between the two new jobs (sight unseen) and your two exclusive jobs, I'll make progression rolls for:
On a 12+, no jobs.
On a 10-11, one job.
On a 7-9, two jobs.
On a 6-, three jobs.
You can choose which jobs get rolled on. In addition, you can decide to make one extra roll in order to make one of the new jobs exclusive for one go. ...yes, even on a 6-. I'll make sure that whichever new job you choose is not gone, only changed.
---
When you try and keep a lid on The Noise, good news! Ashcrown picks up everybody's Noise, eventually, and they're not interested in tuning in to any more of it than you are. All you need is to make sure that their processes of disinformation in general keep you protected in particular. After you charged off on a fool's errand, who knows what might become of you? Tell me what you did - and maybe name me somebody you worked with, from Ashcrown or even an Ashcrown loyalist among one of your extant Noises - and roll +stat.
On a 12+, wow, great work. Somebody thinks you're gone or at least not enough of a threat to bother with. I'll tell you who.
On a 10-11, nobody takes particular notice of what you've done.
On a 7-9, somebody does. I'll tell you who, and what nuisance you have to deal with when you get back to Ditchwater.
On a 6-, boy, does somebody ever. You tell me who (examples: the Motti Gang, Medusa's Column (who took over Rum River from Ajax's guild), the primary-colored skeletons, whoever it was they were communicating with) and I'll tell you what you have to deal with right the heck now.
---
Oh! And one more thing. Dis isn't idle either.
One of the many reasons people liken Dis to a living thing is that even when a parish is part of it, it can tend to move in regular cycles. There are some parishes that work on "seasons", being part of a turning wheel that can bring more parishes in and compact the ones that are there tighter. There are some that work on "tides", keeping a fairly regular cycle of advancing and retreating in regard to other parishes.
One of the other reasons happens one night - Dis takes in somewhere new, in this case at some remote edge but in reality nearly anywhere. The ground rumbles, buildings shudder, ash flakes off and falls down. The air smells - well, the air smells of so many things, spiced and rank and fresh and stale and pure and curdled - it's hard to tell what the air smells differently of, only it smells differently. That'll stick for a couple days at least.
What the new place is and what its neighbors think doesn't reach Ashcrown nearly as fast as this news. Thanks to some confluence of tides and seasons, the parish of Ecalypse Tower, home of the Church of the Rogue Moon, and the parish of Goingforth, where the Wayfarers resettled or perhaps stayed after that terrible disaster so long ago, are exactly one parish apart now, which is closer than they've been in living memory. And the parish in between, a warren of alleyways and buildings called Lehmark's Angles, is famously impossible to truly barricade. (And infamously impossible to barricade against Ditchwater, which also adjoins it.)
If you look back to page 1 or thereabouts, you'll see why that news traveled so quickly, but please don't confuse this for a horrific omen that you must attend to at once. You'll know when I'm pitching you one of those. All the same, though -- like the man says, life's a funny old thing and doesn't contain enough to drink.
---
tags: @AustinP0027 @Boozer @wildwood @Grog
Thanks Glazius! That will put me at 8xp, so, still one short of leveling.
Let's discuss. I'm leaning towards taking a roll at The Score with Wisdom and possibly seeking out a master to converse with.
I think I could work the Spects using time shenanigans to make it there and back quickly. Probably by making time move faster for myself so what feels like day(s) of travel for me is actually hours for everyone else. Will probably come back hungry and exhausted but none the worse for wear. Using +INT.
Alternatively I could work the Kip by sneaking around town using +DEX. Avoiding locals while whispering our great deeds into the ears of Aspirants.
PSN: Boozer_777
I'm all for working the Score - picking up some techniques sounds tres cool and I could see Koba observing and evaluating in the proving grounds of Ashcrown.
Pick your moves and make them, then! First come, first serve!
---
tags: @wildwood @Boozer @AustinP0027 @Grog
He also keeps the eventual fate of the adventurers a bit vague, though he does hint at the tragic. A small man with a spiked shield on his back even recommends a few places for Glory to try the story out.
All in all, it looks like the story's going over fairly well.
--
Would the Wayfarers be this close to Ashcrown if Glory hadn't flubbed the Score last time? We may never know...
3 session xp and one bond xp puts Glory at 4xp after levelling up.
And now, The Noise.
Geth roll 2d6+2 for The Noise in story form
He only turns when his assistant, eyes wide at the sight of the suit, ceases spritzing him with water.
--
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for The Score
Aw, dang it. Since I'm the only one that didn't intend to get some training, I'll spend 1 esteem for each of the others to pick an evocatively named technique, and everyone gets the 0 esteem preparation.
Cringing as the animate mesh of wires and crystals settled onto his temples, the Wonderworker cast his mind forward to a near future when Octagonia would finally get around to reinstalling the telepresence device in their quarters.
Xeno sagely ignored the myriad paradoxes involved in using it to work leads in a future Ditchwater, and got to work.
--
Geth roll 2d6+2 for the Spects
(INT)
Doing Spects cause I think Ajax could work the Kip using intimidation/STR to dissuade.
I’ll let Ajax use the discern realities bonus since I’m not sure how many we got, though if there were more than one I'd happily use it.
Edit: Roll on the Toll-collector job, and assuming I don't have an extra discern realities bonus to turn this into a ten, roll on the Nail-jaw job as well. Roll on the new Ditchwater job to make it exclusive.
My thinking is to avoid progressing the new local job so we can do it next/soon.
PSN: Boozer_777
Knowing that, would you like to rearrange things at all?
---
Xeno, I did go back and look at the Discern Realities and how they've been used, and you guys have been pretty good about it. (I will start posting hanging DRs at the end of my posts, though. Stands to keep in mind.)
The only hanging thread I could find was that Koba picked up something about the personal stylings of Professor Red. You might be able to say that gives you an advantage in picking up job opportunities here in Ashcrown?
Well, either way I'll hang onto it until Ajax presents his plan to secure The Kip here.
---
tags: @Grog @Boozer @AustinP0027
So, instead, Ajax relied on the wisdom of battle to assess the best way to impart the knowledge of what they had accomplished, but tactfully, and in small doses in order to reach someone higher up in the Aspirant company. And so, the Weaponmaster carefully spread around small facts, a description here, to gather a name there, to get a location over there, all in the hope of connecting the souls they released with the people they were connected to in life, to share the good news of their release.
--
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for The Kip
Edit: Gaah...should have rolled for something else. Hopefully everyone is ok with these choices.
We'll loan out the jumper pouch.
We'll give up General Blue.
The Aspirants will owe us one.
@Glazius In that case I'll spend 1 esteem on everyone but me and take the consolation prize for myself.
@AustinP0027 I'm fine with that, seems the best option.
Geth, roll 2d2-1 for Koba's preparation.
---
Glory, here are your techniques:
- Gabardini's Demonstrative Parry
- Enspheron's Resounding Seeker
- Iz-Maracad's Dastardly Feint
I'll throw that Noise on you when y'all are headed back.
---
Ajax, here are your techniques:
- Baron Firestone's Grand Sundering
- Sesteena's Verse of Flame
- Lichtaneur's Interposing Strike
Keep in mind you can pick one more thing if you like (which will probably be keeping General Blue?), but then I'll add a complication to a random one.
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Xeno, here are your techniques:
- Merlag's Empty Conscience
- Erramoor's Burning Dream
- An-Sendol's Essential Warmth
You're clear to take that +1 and not roll on something else. What'll it be? (Not be?)
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tags: @Grog @wildwood @AustinP0027 @Boozer
I'll choose Lichtaneur's Interposing Strike
Also, not going to pick an extra one. Don't thinks saving the skull is worth a potential complication.
I'll choose: An-Sendol's Essential Warmth
Don't roll on the Nail-jaw job.
PSN: Boozer_777
Enspheron's Resounding Seeker sounds... intriguing. Dialogue option 2, please.
Lichtaneur's Interposing Strike - so long as you have hold against a worthy foe from Battle Instincts, Hack and Slash against them will serve to interrupt one of their moves, without spending hold. (You deal with the consequences of Hack and Slash, as normal.)
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Xeno, the jobs shake out as follows:
- Ousting the Toll Collector's Guild from Halitica: Word around the pubs is that Krevar Scarsalver made a few good trades and, flush with cash, drank a little too heavily with a crowd who drank a little too lightly and were a little too known to be in the pockets of the Toll Collector's Guild. You couldn't casually ask after who and where, but...
- Finding Nail-Jaw Anthes's corpse and the story of his death: no longer exclusive but still yours.
- Tracking down Blank the Blank or the Motti Gang: there's now a multicolored paint blotch with a geometric hole in it on West Desperation where the geometric man was asking for assistance. The Motti Gang are no longer laying low. Probably no money in this one anymore.
- An Ashcrown job: Damasus the Fearless, chaplain for the Blackstone Dragoons, had an ask going for anybody who could retrieve a Flame Core. Ashcrown is kind of light on true "wild" life - any fire creature bred there is an asset for war - so killing one in the prime of its life just to extract a devotional flame is a bit of a bridge too far. Much easier to find a remote plane where fire-creatures still roam freely and hunt down one of those.
- A Ditchwater job (exclusive 1): a refugee, Sister Brevard from the plane of Icechain Sanctuary, has a tale of mystery and woe. Icechain is a plane fairly close to Dis, expecting themselves to be drawn in one day and living as though tomorrow won't come. But something unexpected happened - another plane seemingly crashed into theirs, or at least a city they had no idea even existed dropped on top of theirs, from out of a thundercloud-choked sky. She wants some idea of what happened, and in general a map of the place and sketches of its notable features would be an enormous help to the refugees from Icechain Sanctuary as they seek help elsewhere. Some of their own have already tried but haven't returned.
An-Sendol's Essential Warmth - when you Defy Danger to avoid or endure dangers represented by extreme heat or cold, you can briefly meditate to equilibrate your core temperature and roll with advantage. However, you're basically just temporarily ignoring the feedback from your extremities, so you'll take around half the original damage (least of 2 rolls) in the attempt.
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Glory, here's your'n.
Ensepheron's Resounding Seeker - when you execute the Dodge Roll action directly at an enemy tense yourself for a ground-covering lunge, you can Hack and Slash any enemy within Near range, and you'll be right next to them when the attack finishes... which may be a good or bad thing, depending on how you rolled. Also, unless you hit a 12+, or choose the "open yourself up to an enemy attack" option on a 10+ but forego the bonus damage, you'll create a notably loud shockwave.
And here's that Noise I was promising you.
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Ajax is the first to notice it when you're heading back to Ditchwater along the slow and steady way - a group of roughs from Medusa's Column (including, to your chagrin, Glory, a man with a familiar-looking spiked shield) are kind of staking out one of the notable approaches to the place, having rented out a few edge apartments for at least long enough to get comfortable pacing the roofs.
You can't think of anyone they might be waiting for, other than you.
You could, of course, engage in a frontal assault, but Ditchwater isn't their territory any more than Rum River is and if you can get inside you can probably avoid them a lot more readily until they decided they've laid out enough time and money and give up.
So, other than a frontal assault, here are a couple of options for you.
Ditchwater has a limited number of entry and exit options - most of the other parishes want to limit their exposure. But you could try to sneak around the edges of this one and somehow avoid getting spotted by Medusa's Column.
Or, hey, there's Lehmark's Angles, which definitely adjoin Ditchwater. All you'd have to do is plot a clear course through them while avoiding the Wayfarers and the Rogue Moon and everything else nasty that lairs there. Not too hard, right?
But hey, it's about choices. So what do you choose?
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tags: @AustinP0027 @Boozer @wildwood @Grog
The direct road from Ashcrown to Ditchwater runs through - well, now, it actually cuts around the edge of Havenglen Grove. There's a lot of deadwood around the path, though, maybe deliberately so, and at the border the dead trees take on a stony cast as they abut the entrance to Ditchwater. Havenglen can react to the tides and seasons faster than nearly any parish, because even in Dis so much of it is still alive.
The edge of Ditchwater is... not really that different from the other parts of Ditchwater? Edge apartments rotate their renters pretty regularly as the view becomes more to some creature's liking, but you can smell the Ditchwater ditch water already. The road heading into Ditchwater itself is pretty broad but not too well-trafficked right now, though as more people become aware of their new neighbors that's likely to change. The edge apartments have actually... either leaned against each other and been reinforced or actually built a kind of residential bridge over the entry road, and the toughs from Medusa's Column are patrolling the roofs on top of that.
Roofs in Ditchwater are pretty flat. Those as aren't tend to be rendered flatter than they were by the traffic of the ol' Thieves' Highway, which is also why the more long-term places in Ditchwater tend to be ground-floor, or subterranean if you can afford them. Anyway, the patrol itself is pretty regular but you've got a thick forest to conceal yourselves in for the moment.
To reiterate with further information, your options -
Sneak in through the entry from Havenglen, somehow. Time the guards and move when they're not looking, squeak through a narrow alleyway and try not to draw attention, jump three stories over the edge buildings and likewise try not to draw attention, wait for food traffic to get heavy and try to blend in with the crowd? Whatever you choose, pick the person among you least-suited for the attempt, and tell me how they make it work anyway. Then they'll roll +appropriate stat, probably with some bond help, to try and get you all in, but I should warn you - even on a 10-11 you'll probably have to make a bit of a sacrifice to leave nothing at all suspicious.
Just make a go of it straight on. You've got time to watch them (and Discern Realities) and you probably should to get some idea of the actual numbers you've got going here. It's not That One Fight Where You Have To Remember The Run Command levels of numbers, I'll tell you that much, and they're pretty much all going to be funneled through stairways and roof windows unless you get completely out-tacticsed, but a lot of things can happen in the cut and thrust of combat.
Cut through Lehmark's Angles, where they probably aren't expecting you. Lehmark's Angles is the one parish that has a more or less permanent connection to Ditchwater, by which I mean about like a hundred permanent connections to Ditchwater. But L.A. is either warded against cartographers or actually rearranges itself rather than being moved by Dis - you'll need to plot a way through, and that works the same way as cutting through the Sultana's Gardens. Somebody rolls +int to try and work out the best course, somebody else rolls +wis to keep a weather eye out along the way.
Take an even more roundabout path through Havenglen, to some other parish, to maybe even some other parish, to Ditchwater. Same rolls as barging through L.A., but the problem here is that the arrangement of everything is going to be so unfamiliar that it's almost certain to take you a significant amount of time to get to Ditchwater, check on your quarters, and...
Well, heck, I haven't even asked. What job are you freebooters looking to take up next?
(And, I mean, there's always pressing the Ask About... button and typing freehand exercising your radical freedom to act just as you want, if you've got another course of action in mind other than checking back into Ditchwater and taking a job.)
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tags: @Grog @AustinP0027 @wildwood @Boozer
Thanks for the additional info Glazius.
I think we should risk the Angles, we have 3 of us that could try for those rolls comfortably.
My vote for the job would be toll collectors or Nail jaw, in that order of preference.
PSN: Boozer_777