Okay, Ryder's going to have to go for it without someone grabbing the rope. It should be a straight roll since I've got advantage from the dream leaf (trying to decouple engine) and then disadvantage from the stunt.
Ryder pulls himself towards the train with the rope. Pulling himself towards the engine car, Ryder attempts to decouple it from the rest of the train.
You run along the side of the train, slip between the carts and heave at whatever all that important looking interlocked metal bits are! A big pin fires loose, cracking you in the forehead! You suffer 8 damage. When you come back to your senses the engine threatens to crush you against the rest of the train!
You barely make it back up top as the whole train shudders violently. Looking back down, the door to the engine room is smashed inwards! The same can be said for the part of the train the engine is repeatedly slamming into. A well timed jump could land you in either the edge in room or the back end of the train; your pick.
You hear the voice of the goddess return, whispered behind your ear, “You have no idea what you’re doing.”
With that, it dawns on you you’re having a bad trip.
From within the engine room a huge elemental device is now clearly visible, taking up most of the room. It consists of a burnt glass orbs, many half-melting copper pipes and a dirty looking slab of engineering horsepower One blue, one green and one white fire elemental pin pong inside it at high speed!
The track switches or maybe, the train switches, but either way, they didn't crash yet. Turning back to the rest of the train, he heads a loud clang.
Jumping on his board, he speeds back down the hall. "Heads up!" He yells out, speeding past his teammates. As he nears the water elemental that blocks the hallway, he kicks his board into the air, launches up, and then turns into a bird.
Flying over, he rushes through the door to the engine room before transforming back.
"Ryder! Toss me the end of the rope and secure yourself in the rest of the train!"
You see two options.
1. Smash the glass and release the zooming elementals. No doubt they’re under a spell making them think they’re not on the train, so that’s a fight.
2. There’s a bunch of valves you could close. That’ll stop the elemental’s power running through the engine… but then where is all that energy going instead?
No special roll to do either option. Feel free to do something else if you can imagine it.
Sug doesn't see many options. He could smash it, or try the valve. Problem with valves os if he shuts off the power, it still leaves the engine running. If it's still running, that's going to go somewhere and he was afraid that somewhere meant an explosion of some sort.
"Damn". Sug positions himself between the engine and the door, raises his scimitar, and smashes it down on the glass.
In light of recent events, Maggie reconsiders her next course of action. Since the engine is now visible, she decides to try out her illusion idea. She moves to the back of the train, begrudgingly misty stepping past both the fire and water elementals blocking her path. Once she's close enough, she examines the engine to discern the best placement of a minor illusion of the part of the engine the escaped elements would use to enter the engine. The best spot ascertained, she casts a minor illusion of that part of the engine on that part of the illusion in an effort to counter-act any the magic hiding the engine from the stray elementals. "Hey Lyn, would you ask the elementals if they see the engine now?"
Maggie casts Misty Step to get past the elementals blocking the hall to the engine car. She could get through the water elemental, but the fire elemental would be a potential problem. Then she makes a Investigation check to determine the best placement of a 5x5' illusion of part of the engine, for which she'll use her banked 20 on. Then she casts Minor Illusion of the that part of the engine ON that part of the engine.
“Engine? …Engine!”, the water elemental burbles as Maggie’s spell takes hold.
Then the ping ponging fire elementals smash through the glass as Sug’s scimitar cracks the surface!
“Engine!”, they cry, sloshing their way over to cool the engine’s overheated pipes.
Sug is knocked back onto his shell, but it otherwise merely singed by that elementals passing. The engine begins to fall away from the rest of the train second by second.
The train is currently heading for a bridge across a spectacular canyon, right now, at high speed, but it’ll be at walking pace by the time it’s half way across it.
While much of the train interior is ruined the elementals have returned to their senses, able to shake off the initial spell with Lyn’s calm words and Maggie’s counter illusion. They are moving to the engine room as quick as they can. Good work team!
You hear a door slide shut. Click, that’s a lock. Who was that?
A voice crackles over comms, “We’re getting a report from some local in a tower that the train is slowing down. Any lead on what was causing the problem? A group of orcs that act as this region’s fire service / paramedic unit are headed your way. Once they’re on the scene this mess becomes theirs to deal with by law. Don’t make this a diplomatic incident, okay?”
"Alright, single file, no pushing. Plenty of room for everyone." Lyn worked to direct traffic, now that the elementals were all more or less returning to their normal work. "Looks like it worked, at least well enough to slow things down." She tapped her earpiece. "...and now it's almost someone else's problem."
Ryder watches the engine room slamming into the car in front of it and gets the timing down. As the engine begins to settle and the train slows, the opening gets a bit wider. Ryder takes advantage of the expanded opening and dives back into the train, making himself as thin as he can and spins like a corkscrew as he moves through the air. Landing gracefully in the back car Ryder just says, "That Goddess is mean, guys. I prefer the other two."
Safely back aboard the train, Ryder moves from car to car, taking inventory of the passengers aboard, looking for anyone suspicious. "The perp may still be on board, so I'm gonna try and find them.
Sug hops back up to his feet, happily I injured by the surge of elementals. He immediately turns and hops through the door, away from the engine room and onto the rest of the train.
Theres still a hag? he thinks to himself. Tapping his earpiece, "We still have the instigator on the train." Sug tries to move down the hall and try the doors, looking for one that was locked.
Cyr curses under his breath, he hadn't even thought about finding an instigator until just now.
"Roger that, let's check some rooms and make sure all the passengers look alright."
He starts opening doors and mentally recites a prayer to help him recognize any malevolent intentions in the passengers he finds.
Divine Sense
As an action, you can detect good and evil. Until the end of your next turn, you can sense anything affected by the hallow spell or know the location of any celestial, fiend, undead within 60 ft. that is not behind total cover. You can use this feature 3 times per long rest.
Maggie reports in to HQ: "Roger, HQ. The immediate problem was the engine elementals running amok. We've managed to get them back into the engine and the engine car detached. We have one unconfirmed eyewitness report of a hag on the train. We're searching door to door for them now." She then joins the rest in searching rooms. "I heard a door lock. That's probably our perp, who's probably disguised.. I you find a locked door, do whatever you have to do to open it and investigate."
You can make an Investigation check to try and see through an illusion - Maggie's word choice is deliberate.
5/10. Not including my own posts or double posts in this.
—
Ryder
Rushing around, you notice an old fellow looking out a window, the other end of your rope in hand. He’s puffing and panting. He was evidently trying to keep you alive, but wasn’t strong enough to do much of anything with the rope.
“Oh! You’re alive!”, he cheers.
Elsewhere, there are some goblins fighting over a single playing card. Where the rest of the deck went isn’t clear.
Then, we have a locked door. No one answers when you knock.
—
Sug
You arrive at the same locked door. There was an old man in there last you looked.
Pick the lock or smash the door down with Athletics, your choice gang. Help action can easily be done, and should be assumed. No more than one attempt though.
—
Cyr
You sense that there is a celestial onboard!
Following the trail, you find an old man pulling in the last of a rope through an open window.
Ryder kneels down in front of the door and pulls some hairpins out of his hair (Ryder is very particular about his hair so there's a few in there to keep it nice). He attempts to pick the lock while Sug looks over his shoulder and offers help*.
Ryder focuses very hard and reminds himself, "Right tighty, lefty loosey."
*I see it almost like the scene in the Simpsons where they try to solve a Rubik's Cube together. "Use your main finger..."
Rolling off into the hot sand is a tall, gangly hag. She notably has ginger hair run through with stark white. Did you see a hand written th six fingers for a moment? Yes! Six fingers.
While she rolls away her body begins to grow feathers… she’s half way through transforming into a bird!
The train barrels on, putting some distance between you by the second.
She’s left her luggage on the train. Yours to confiscate, I’d reckon.
Encountering the old man, Cyr suddenly feels nervous. The man is unassuming, but Cyr's divine sense is shouting at him that he is looking at a Celestial. He fights the instinct to kneel.
"Uh, Y-yes, sir. Yes. Very a day, for certain. A-are you alright? I don't suppose... could I see your identification?"
I'm going to assume everyone reports in off camera to keep this moving and brief.
"Let's grab the hag's belongings as evidence and let HQ sort it out. Cyr, would you mind asking the older gentleman if he has any info for us about the hag that would be of use to us? After that, agreed we port out and let the local fire and rescue folks sort this out?"
Sug peers his head out the window for a second, shaking his head. Tapping his earpiece he speaks to the team, "Hag got away. Need to note she had ginger hair with a streak of white, along with six fingers. We'll want to put a description out for the other teams."
He turns back to Ryder. "Looks like she left her luggage behind, we should probably search it and confiscate it. Maybe there are some clues." Sug pulls the luggage out and begins digging through.
“I am quite fine now. Thank you so much for sorting things out.”, he says gently.
Then he has a look through his pockets, pulling out buttons, a bag of mints, loose change and so on, until finally he shows you his passport.
“I’m visiting from quite far away you know. Haven’t been to this land for years.”
His name is Arvan D. Oré, he’s from the gnome heartlands, in his three-hundreds (elderly but not on his way out) and by the looks of it he’s far travelling, with stamps from all over the placed, not just tourist traps. In fact, you note his travels tend to take him to places you wouldn’t visit—that run down tiefling country the just pulled itself out of fascism and has turned democratic, the Ruby Island of Nahutu that still has whole towns to sweep up after a tsunami two years ago, some keep on the borderlands…
—
Sug
Pretty standard belongings for a hag. A tiny pixie skull on a fine chain, suitable as a spell focus. Large sized black dresses, a pointy hat. A disguise of common clothes, knitting kit and grandmother styled round glasses. Bottled newt. Plus, a business card denoting one Raum, Patron of Genius. “For brilliance need not go unseen.”
The bags seem heavier than they should be, but all you can do is shrug at that fact.
—
The 69ers
Cyr has just enough time to hand back the passport to the old man, who smiles warmly.
“Both odd and even are found on the die.”, he says as he pockets his passport, “So beware the hand that throws it. Don’t let them weight it.”
Then for the briefest moment Cyr, and the rest of the team, are nowhere. You are teleported back to HQ as the train slows and you hear the rumble of eager orcs kicking up dust just outside the train.
Each member of the team has earned 100 gold coins. Not the highest wage, but that’s just to pay the bills… what you’ve really earned the chance to increase your reputation. Not just with Claymore, but the wider world!
You get to pick your next mission. Usually you’re plucked out of your daily lives and thrown wherever you’re needed, but certain missions are less urgent, but at times more important. Right now, you’ve got dibs on:
1. Unrest at Algaemont Manor
A triton billionaire has built a grand undersea manor on a sacred burial ground, and he’s paying big bucks if Claymore will rid him of an undead problem.
2. Gladiatorial Wombat
The beastmen of the Underside Island will only allow Claymore to continue activity in their land if a team can best their warriors in a tournament, with a cache of magic weapons as the prize.
3. Crabtankerous
A giant hermit crab has settled along the coast, and on its back is an ancient ruin long thought lost. Claymore needs to get to the bottom of why the crab has taken over the beach and refuses to budge.
This downtime is a long rest, and feel free to describe what you’d like to do for that period. We’re free to explore the world however you can imagine until everyone is prepared to take on another mission.
If any player would like to take a break, that’s fine too.
Level up! Ryder is at 3600 XP (since we started at 900 XP, level 3), and level 4 requires 2700. He's picked up Elven Accuracy for this ASI, giving him +1 Dex (for an even 18) and can reroll a die when attacking with advantage (effectively triple advantage). That's part 1 of what will become a solid nova round for Ryder. Level 5 and 6 will be huge improvements for him as well. And depending on how long this game goes, I think a multi class into Ranger for Gloomstalker will be the way to go for Ryder.
Geth roll 1d10+2 for HP gain
I just like rolling my HP open, don't mind me.
Ryder spends a good portion of the down time training. He won't let anyone know, but Ryder really feels like he's been beefing it on missions lately. For Ryder, he loves being on the 69th. His team is full of awesome, yet eccentric, individuals. A flashy team for a flashy man like Ryder. And Ryder wants to bring his best on future missions, since the brighter the team shines, the brighter he'll shine when he does something epic.
To that end, Ryder decides to cut back on the Dream Leaf. That last time really didn't go well and so Ryder gets rid of what he has. He remembers a long time ago that Maggie used Dream Leaf as a spell component (Ryder is pretty gullible) and so he discreetly leaves the last two Dream Leaves with Maggie's gear back at HQ. Gonna keep my mind clear and my eyes sharp.
Giving the last 2 Dream Leaves to Maggie, feel free to use them how you wish. As a reminder, this is what it does:
As an action, you get so high you gain 1d6 temporary hit points and believe you can perceive the Elven gods. You gain advantage to any skill checks you make that are following the Elven gods’ advice for 1 hour.
Also, if Dario of the 3rd is getting better, Ryder would love to learn firearms from him. Even if he doesn't get one of his own yet, he thinks they're cool and flashy and wants to learn how to use them.
When the new missions options come in, Ryder knows immediately which one he wants to do. Fighting undead? An ancient ruin? They're cool and all, but an opportunity for the 69th to show off their skills in a grand arena? That's the thing that Ryder lives for.
Maybe it's just the anime fan in me, but I do love a good tournament arc. I'm down for 2.
Aaand, updated character sheet. Uploading straight here is easier than trying to link a Google Drive.
Sug is already level 4, got the level after the extra exp from the last mission. I'm going to go back and audit that to make sure it's right.
For downtime, Sug tends to prioritize spoiling himself with comfortable things as well as eating good food. So this time around, Sug is going to seek out some all you can eat place, probably sushi (feels thematically appropriate for a turtle). Gorge himself then head back home to collapse.
I think Cyr's mission preferences in order would go 3, 1, 2
During downtime, I think Cyr would want to look into Claymore's files and see if they have anything about the apparent celestial he ran into
Not counting any bonus XP rewarded, we've gotten 2600 XP. Maybe Endless can clarify, but did we start at 900 XP (level 3)? I'll be completely honest, I'm not familiar with XP leveling in DND, games I've been in used milestones for leveling. Is XP cumulative or does it get spent and then go back to 0? If it's cumulative, then we should all be level 4 as the lowest amount of XP in the group should be 3500, which is above the required XP for level 4. That'll also help me keep my XP correct since, like I said, I don't normally do XP advancement.
Lyn should level up as well, I'll get my sheet corrected later tonight when I have more time. I'd probably vote for #3, but #2 sounds fine as well. Lyn doesn't like dealing with the undead.
I was just doing it for old times sake. Level up gang! I’ll milestone it going forward.
Oh, I don't mind doing XP, hopefully it didn't come off as criticism. I just wanted to clarify because I thought that Cyr should be leveling up, too. Team needs their Paladin in top form.
Maggs levels up to 4! Grabbed Chill Touch cantrip and Web spell. +2 to Intelligence.
During downtime Maggie is seen with an owl on her right shoulder most of the time. To anyone showing the faintest amount of interest, Maggie explains that the owl is her familiar Charlie and he's the bestest owl in the whole wide world yes he is!
She spends a good deal of time looking in this Raum character, seeing if any other teams have encountered them (and reading those reports) or even gotten the lucky assignment to bring them in or down. If possible, she'll try to plant the seeds to get the 69th considered for Raum duty. She also sees if that encrypted journal was decrypted and anything useful was found in it.
If there's any kind of administrative rank to earn - this world's equivalent of detective or similar - that would net prestige or greater access in the outfit, she looks into the process of achieving that rank. She's not a bad woman, just ambitious, to paraphrase an old tune.
Finally she submits her after action report of the Sand Lancer job to Commander Fiddlefee. She makes sure to highlight every team member's contributions: Lyn talking the elementals down, Sug averting the train's path from the city, Ryder getting the engine car detached from the train, and Cyr on crowd control and diplomatic relations with a high mucky muck from Gnome country.
She even manages a couple nights clubbing in her killer dress. She'll invite Lyn along for a gal's night out.
Next mission preference order: 2, 3, 1. Undead are icky and she doesn't speak crab.
I've now fixed my stats so Lyn is a legal multiclass character. Whoops! Everything else from her level up should be on there, but if I missed something, please let me know.
Lyn tries to spend their break in training and meditation, but Maggie keeps blowing up her Cantrip, so she eventually relents and takes a break for some clubbing. She doesn't seem to get this activity at first, but does manage to relax once she's had a drink or two, plus some overpriced food. Lyn is a surprisingly good dancer, but she has the most fun when the inevitable bar fight breaks out.
Now I just need to convince our GM that I should be able to somehow combine Shocking Grasp with an Unarmed Attack now that I have Dragon Disciple...
Posts
Ryder pulls himself towards the train with the rope. Pulling himself towards the engine car, Ryder attempts to decouple it from the rest of the train.
Here we go!
Geth roll 1d20+2 for Athletics
Geth, you heartless monster.
You run along the side of the train, slip between the carts and heave at whatever all that important looking interlocked metal bits are! A big pin fires loose, cracking you in the forehead! You suffer 8 damage. When you come back to your senses the engine threatens to crush you against the rest of the train!
You barely make it back up top as the whole train shudders violently. Looking back down, the door to the engine room is smashed inwards! The same can be said for the part of the train the engine is repeatedly slamming into. A well timed jump could land you in either the edge in room or the back end of the train; your pick.
You hear the voice of the goddess return, whispered behind your ear, “You have no idea what you’re doing.”
With that, it dawns on you you’re having a bad trip.
From within the engine room a huge elemental device is now clearly visible, taking up most of the room. It consists of a burnt glass orbs, many half-melting copper pipes and a dirty looking slab of engineering horsepower One blue, one green and one white fire elemental pin pong inside it at high speed!
Geth roll 3d4 for Brain Damage
Jumping on his board, he speeds back down the hall. "Heads up!" He yells out, speeding past his teammates. As he nears the water elemental that blocks the hallway, he kicks his board into the air, launches up, and then turns into a bird.
Flying over, he rushes through the door to the engine room before transforming back.
"Ryder! Toss me the end of the rope and secure yourself in the rest of the train!"
Perception on the room. Do I see an off switch?
Geth, roll 1d20+6 for Perception
You see two options.
1. Smash the glass and release the zooming elementals. No doubt they’re under a spell making them think they’re not on the train, so that’s a fight.
2. There’s a bunch of valves you could close. That’ll stop the elemental’s power running through the engine… but then where is all that energy going instead?
No special roll to do either option. Feel free to do something else if you can imagine it.
Meanwhile…
“I have within my sights the rebellious locomotive. I take it all here are in agreement that action should be taken forthwith?”
“Oh quite. How could any right minded individual pass the opportunity to make a moral choice when such is offered?”
“Indeed, it is most fortuitous that we had selected to ride towards our picturesque canyon on this day.”
With that, a hulking orc tronker* gang sets out towards the train!
*tronkers are like motorbikes but they’re on treads and have sand-plows on the front.
"Damn". Sug positions himself between the engine and the door, raises his scimitar, and smashes it down on the glass.
In light of recent events, Maggie reconsiders her next course of action. Since the engine is now visible, she decides to try out her illusion idea. She moves to the back of the train, begrudgingly misty stepping past both the fire and water elementals blocking her path. Once she's close enough, she examines the engine to discern the best placement of a minor illusion of the part of the engine the escaped elements would use to enter the engine. The best spot ascertained, she casts a minor illusion of that part of the engine on that part of the illusion in an effort to counter-act any the magic hiding the engine from the stray elementals. "Hey Lyn, would you ask the elementals if they see the engine now?"
Maggie casts Misty Step to get past the elementals blocking the hall to the engine car. She could get through the water elemental, but the fire elemental would be a potential problem. Then she makes a Investigation check to determine the best placement of a 5x5' illusion of part of the engine, for which she'll use her banked 20 on. Then she casts Minor Illusion of the that part of the engine ON that part of the engine.
Oo\ Ironsizide
“Engine? …Engine!”, the water elemental burbles as Maggie’s spell takes hold.
Then the ping ponging fire elementals smash through the glass as Sug’s scimitar cracks the surface!
“Engine!”, they cry, sloshing their way over to cool the engine’s overheated pipes.
Sug is knocked back onto his shell, but it otherwise merely singed by that elementals passing. The engine begins to fall away from the rest of the train second by second.
The train is currently heading for a bridge across a spectacular canyon, right now, at high speed, but it’ll be at walking pace by the time it’s half way across it.
While much of the train interior is ruined the elementals have returned to their senses, able to shake off the initial spell with Lyn’s calm words and Maggie’s counter illusion. They are moving to the engine room as quick as they can. Good work team!
You hear a door slide shut. Click, that’s a lock. Who was that?
A voice crackles over comms, “We’re getting a report from some local in a tower that the train is slowing down. Any lead on what was causing the problem? A group of orcs that act as this region’s fire service / paramedic unit are headed your way. Once they’re on the scene this mess becomes theirs to deal with by law. Don’t make this a diplomatic incident, okay?”
Ten posts until the end of the mission!
Safely back aboard the train, Ryder moves from car to car, taking inventory of the passengers aboard, looking for anyone suspicious. "The perp may still be on board, so I'm gonna try and find them.
Geth roll 1d20+5 for Acrobatics
Geth roll 1d20+4 for Perception
Geth roll 1d20+2 for Insight
Theres still a hag? he thinks to himself. Tapping his earpiece, "We still have the instigator on the train." Sug tries to move down the hall and try the doors, looking for one that was locked.
"Roger that, let's check some rooms and make sure all the passengers look alright."
He starts opening doors and mentally recites a prayer to help him recognize any malevolent intentions in the passengers he finds.
You can make an Investigation check to try and see through an illusion - Maggie's word choice is deliberate.
Oo\ Ironsizide
—
Ryder
Rushing around, you notice an old fellow looking out a window, the other end of your rope in hand. He’s puffing and panting. He was evidently trying to keep you alive, but wasn’t strong enough to do much of anything with the rope.
“Oh! You’re alive!”, he cheers.
Elsewhere, there are some goblins fighting over a single playing card. Where the rest of the deck went isn’t clear.
Then, we have a locked door. No one answers when you knock.
—
Sug
You arrive at the same locked door. There was an old man in there last you looked.
Pick the lock or smash the door down with Athletics, your choice gang. Help action can easily be done, and should be assumed. No more than one attempt though.
—
Cyr
You sense that there is a celestial onboard!
Following the trail, you find an old man pulling in the last of a rope through an open window.
He wipes his brow, “What a day, eh? Phew.”
Ryder focuses very hard and reminds himself, "Right tighty, lefty loosey."
*I see it almost like the scene in the Simpsons where they try to solve a Rubik's Cube together. "Use your main finger..."
Geth roll 2d20k1+3 for Lockpicking
The door slides open to reveal…
Nothing. Wait!
Rolling off into the hot sand is a tall, gangly hag. She notably has ginger hair run through with stark white. Did you see a hand written th six fingers for a moment? Yes! Six fingers.
While she rolls away her body begins to grow feathers… she’s half way through transforming into a bird!
The train barrels on, putting some distance between you by the second.
She’s left her luggage on the train. Yours to confiscate, I’d reckon.
"Uh, Y-yes, sir. Yes. Very a day, for certain. A-are you alright? I don't suppose... could I see your identification?"
"Let's grab the hag's belongings as evidence and let HQ sort it out. Cyr, would you mind asking the older gentleman if he has any info for us about the hag that would be of use to us? After that, agreed we port out and let the local fire and rescue folks sort this out?"
Oo\ Ironsizide
He turns back to Ryder. "Looks like she left her luggage behind, we should probably search it and confiscate it. Maybe there are some clues." Sug pulls the luggage out and begins digging through.
Investigate I guess?
Edit: It's Luggage!
Geth, roll 1d20+1 for Investigation
“I am quite fine now. Thank you so much for sorting things out.”, he says gently.
Then he has a look through his pockets, pulling out buttons, a bag of mints, loose change and so on, until finally he shows you his passport.
“I’m visiting from quite far away you know. Haven’t been to this land for years.”
His name is Arvan D. Oré, he’s from the gnome heartlands, in his three-hundreds (elderly but not on his way out) and by the looks of it he’s far travelling, with stamps from all over the placed, not just tourist traps. In fact, you note his travels tend to take him to places you wouldn’t visit—that run down tiefling country the just pulled itself out of fascism and has turned democratic, the Ruby Island of Nahutu that still has whole towns to sweep up after a tsunami two years ago, some keep on the borderlands…
—
Sug
Pretty standard belongings for a hag. A tiny pixie skull on a fine chain, suitable as a spell focus. Large sized black dresses, a pointy hat. A disguise of common clothes, knitting kit and grandmother styled round glasses. Bottled newt. Plus, a business card denoting one Raum, Patron of Genius. “For brilliance need not go unseen.”
The bags seem heavier than they should be, but all you can do is shrug at that fact.
—
The 69ers
Cyr has just enough time to hand back the passport to the old man, who smiles warmly.
“Both odd and even are found on the die.”, he says as he pockets his passport, “So beware the hand that throws it. Don’t let them weight it.”
Then for the briefest moment Cyr, and the rest of the team, are nowhere. You are teleported back to HQ as the train slows and you hear the rumble of eager orcs kicking up dust just outside the train.
You each gain 1000 experience!
Each member of the team has earned 100 gold coins. Not the highest wage, but that’s just to pay the bills… what you’ve really earned the chance to increase your reputation. Not just with Claymore, but the wider world!
You get to pick your next mission. Usually you’re plucked out of your daily lives and thrown wherever you’re needed, but certain missions are less urgent, but at times more important. Right now, you’ve got dibs on:
1.
Unrest at Algaemont Manor
A triton billionaire has built a grand undersea manor on a sacred burial ground, and he’s paying big bucks if Claymore will rid him of an undead problem.
2.
Gladiatorial Wombat
The beastmen of the Underside Island will only allow Claymore to continue activity in their land if a team can best their warriors in a tournament, with a cache of magic weapons as the prize.
3.
Crabtankerous
A giant hermit crab has settled along the coast, and on its back is an ancient ruin long thought lost. Claymore needs to get to the bottom of why the crab has taken over the beach and refuses to budge.
This downtime is a long rest, and feel free to describe what you’d like to do for that period. We’re free to explore the world however you can imagine until everyone is prepared to take on another mission.
If any player would like to take a break, that’s fine too.
No interest in working for a billionaire and has nothing to do with not wanting to deal with undead thank you very much.
I think Cyr's mission preferences in order would go 3, 1, 2
During downtime, I think Cyr would want to look into Claymore's files and see if they have anything about the apparent celestial he ran into
Geth roll 1d10+2 for HP gain
I just like rolling my HP open, don't mind me.
Ryder spends a good portion of the down time training. He won't let anyone know, but Ryder really feels like he's been beefing it on missions lately. For Ryder, he loves being on the 69th. His team is full of awesome, yet eccentric, individuals. A flashy team for a flashy man like Ryder. And Ryder wants to bring his best on future missions, since the brighter the team shines, the brighter he'll shine when he does something epic.
To that end, Ryder decides to cut back on the Dream Leaf. That last time really didn't go well and so Ryder gets rid of what he has. He remembers a long time ago that Maggie used Dream Leaf as a spell component (Ryder is pretty gullible) and so he discreetly leaves the last two Dream Leaves with Maggie's gear back at HQ. Gonna keep my mind clear and my eyes sharp.
Giving the last 2 Dream Leaves to Maggie, feel free to use them how you wish. As a reminder, this is what it does:
As an action, you get so high you gain 1d6 temporary hit points and believe you can perceive the Elven gods. You gain advantage to any skill checks you make that are following the Elven gods’ advice for 1 hour.
Also, if Dario of the 3rd is getting better, Ryder would love to learn firearms from him. Even if he doesn't get one of his own yet, he thinks they're cool and flashy and wants to learn how to use them.
When the new missions options come in, Ryder knows immediately which one he wants to do. Fighting undead? An ancient ruin? They're cool and all, but an opportunity for the 69th to show off their skills in a grand arena? That's the thing that Ryder lives for.
Maybe it's just the anime fan in me, but I do love a good tournament arc. I'm down for 2.
Aaand, updated character sheet. Uploading straight here is easier than trying to link a Google Drive.
Sug is already level 4, got the level after the extra exp from the last mission. I'm going to go back and audit that to make sure it's right.
For downtime, Sug tends to prioritize spoiling himself with comfortable things as well as eating good food. So this time around, Sug is going to seek out some all you can eat place, probably sushi (feels thematically appropriate for a turtle). Gorge himself then head back home to collapse.
Not counting any bonus XP rewarded, we've gotten 2600 XP. Maybe Endless can clarify, but did we start at 900 XP (level 3)? I'll be completely honest, I'm not familiar with XP leveling in DND, games I've been in used milestones for leveling. Is XP cumulative or does it get spent and then go back to 0? If it's cumulative, then we should all be level 4 as the lowest amount of XP in the group should be 3500, which is above the required XP for level 4. That'll also help me keep my XP correct since, like I said, I don't normally do XP advancement.
Oh, I don't mind doing XP, hopefully it didn't come off as criticism. I just wanted to clarify because I thought that Cyr should be leveling up, too. Team needs their Paladin in top form.
During downtime Maggie is seen with an owl on her right shoulder most of the time. To anyone showing the faintest amount of interest, Maggie explains that the owl is her familiar Charlie and he's the bestest owl in the whole wide world yes he is!
She spends a good deal of time looking in this Raum character, seeing if any other teams have encountered them (and reading those reports) or even gotten the lucky assignment to bring them in or down. If possible, she'll try to plant the seeds to get the 69th considered for Raum duty. She also sees if that encrypted journal was decrypted and anything useful was found in it.
If there's any kind of administrative rank to earn - this world's equivalent of detective or similar - that would net prestige or greater access in the outfit, she looks into the process of achieving that rank. She's not a bad woman, just ambitious, to paraphrase an old tune.
Finally she submits her after action report of the Sand Lancer job to Commander Fiddlefee. She makes sure to highlight every team member's contributions: Lyn talking the elementals down, Sug averting the train's path from the city, Ryder getting the engine car detached from the train, and Cyr on crowd control and diplomatic relations with a high mucky muck from Gnome country.
She even manages a couple nights clubbing in her killer dress. She'll invite Lyn along for a gal's night out.
Next mission preference order: 2, 3, 1. Undead are icky and she doesn't speak crab.
Oo\ Ironsizide
I've now fixed my stats so Lyn is a legal multiclass character. Whoops! Everything else from her level up should be on there, but if I missed something, please let me know.
Lyn tries to spend their break in training and meditation, but Maggie keeps blowing up her Cantrip, so she eventually relents and takes a break for some clubbing. She doesn't seem to get this activity at first, but does manage to relax once she's had a drink or two, plus some overpriced food. Lyn is a surprisingly good dancer, but she has the most fun when the inevitable bar fight breaks out.
Now I just need to convince our GM that I should be able to somehow combine Shocking Grasp with an Unarmed Attack now that I have Dragon Disciple...
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/72917145