Quicksilver Messenger Service

[Kislath]

((( here's the link to the OOC thread. Check it often: )))
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7782717#post7782717


After about a half hour of wondering if the door would ever open, you guys are happy to hear the 'click-clack-shunk" of locks opening, and the door finally opens. A little dingle-jingle is heard as the door brushes past a string of bells.
A slovenly fellow's eyes meet yours, and they widen in surprise at seeing such an assemblage waiting at the door.

"Oh. 'ello. Sorry about that; I had a spot of trouble with me lunch. I 'ope you 'aven't been waiting very long. Might I 'elp you?"

[AtwasAwamps]

Sathris glances away from whatever poor sap he had conned into speaking with him about dragons and flashes a brilliant, pleased smile at the slovenly fellow behind the door. He steps forward and makes a mildly dramatic, but still quite impressive bow towards what he assumes is an agent of his hopefully-soon-to-be-employer.

“No wait at all, sir, and I do hope your fine meal was quite enjoyable. My name is Sathris D’anyara, scholar-***-traveller-***-adventurer, and I…” He looks around and generally waves to the other men standing around “…and these other fel…gentlemen…are here to inquire about the help wanted sign we all saw!”

[Mangles]

Darvis rolls his eyes before interrupting. "What he means to say is we all want the job and need to know how much you are paying to get it done?"

[Freshmeat]

Cormin Dale takes a step closer, hoping that the man with his atrocious lower-class accent would skip the small talk so they could get this over with already. With a strange look of mixed condescension and thinly-veiled curiosity, he inspects his soon-to-be colleagues, trying to gauge their potential usefulness.

[Fortuna]

Ridemin smiles, returning the look.

"Can we get on with this?" He shifts around, fidgeting, obviously anxious to move.

[Reptilius]

Randal shakes his head and sighs audibly. "Now hold on a moment, there," he says reproachfully to Darvis, "there's no need to be so uncouth to this fine man."

"Now then, my good sir," he says to the doorman, "Randal Highcastle, ever at your service." He bows deeply, attempting to out-humble Sathris.

[Marillion]

"And I am Lieven Gaerwn, musician and traveler extraordinaire!" He took off his feathered hat, flourished it eloquently, and bowed so deep that his nose almost literally scraped the floor. He held it for a moment, then swept back upwards and replaced his cap. "I do so look forward to being of service to you."

Heh. Amateurs. Never try to out-humble a bard.

[Kislath]

"Oi, right then! If I 'ad known the sign would 'ave been so rapidly effective, I'd 'ave put it up a lot earlier! Well, gents, it so 'appens that I've a bit of a mess on me 'ands concerning a certain late dispatch, which is why I need some extra assistance. Normally there's an extended process of evaluatin' new prospects, but time is of the essence. I didn't expect so many to show up, but you're all in due to the urgency of this matter. What I need is for someone to head down to the dock, book passage on the good ship Harm's Way, set sail for the Isle of Immaculate Doom, pick up a li'l trinket called the Orb Of Despair, which is already packed up and waiting for you at the 'arbormaster's office, bring it back 'ere, and then deliver it to an eccentric old gent what lives alone in some old ruins at the edge of the Mere of Dead Men. "alford's 'is name, 'oratio 'halford. What say you, gents, looking for a few days distraction? Should be a quick trip there and back, with an easy 1500 gold coins for each of you.
Piece o' cake! What could possibly go wrong, eh? I'll even give you a bit to pay for yer boat ride.

[Mangles]

"It won't even cover the cost of.... nevermind I'll take it."

[AtwasAwamps]

"Well, that does sound like quite the simple task! Is there anything we ought to know about the cargo?"

[Kantolin]

The dwarf chuckled a bit at the flurry of excitement as the man finally came back.

Just a bit, though; he was in the same boat as most of these. Or well, he had to assume so anyway - he really needed money, to the point where he was almost saying yes before the man had finished his explanation.

"Horatio Halford, huh? I guess we're lucky, then - I thought he'd be called Murder Death or something. Phew, any chance all of those names were comedically named?"

He stretched. "Not that I can say no, though. So yes. But I gotta agree with Sathris..."

He paused for a moment, then opted not to attempt the last name. "- here. Can you give us any extra information about... well, anything?"

Somewhere inside, he figured his mom would be boxing his ears again, but wasn't quite sure why.

[Marillion]

FIFTEEN. HUNDRED.

Lieven almost began to drool, but managed to contain himself. FIFTEEN HUNDRED! And all for delivering a package to an old man! There might even be a tip in it for him...

Lieven was fairly sure that Orb of Despair and Isle of Immaculate Doom were ironic names, but just in case, he cudgeled his memory for any snippets he may have heard regarding either them or 'Oratio 'Alford.


Bardic knowledge check: [roll]1d20+9[roll]
b

[Reptilius]

Randal sighed inwardly. Fleeing the city was bad enough, but scrabbling for this...pocket change was almost offensive, and he doubted the price would be negotiable. Damn. Best get to work, at least. Besides, maybe the Orb of Despair would be a world-destroying artifact, and this 'eccentric old gent' a vile and insane cultist. That would brighten his day."I assure you, Sir Halford, that I will personally see to it that the package is delivered safe and sound."

[Fortuna]

Ridemin literally quivered with anticipation. "Yes yes, we'll take your money. Now can we get moving please? He started doing little jumps.

[Kislath]

"Right, then," he says as he disappears back into the office.
A moment later, and a very quick moment at that, he re-emerges bearing seven small sacks of coins.
" 'ere you are, gents, enough for a round trip fare and bit left over for some base necessities. You can walk to the docks if you'd like, or take a ride on a wagon. Hurry either way, though, as the ship will be departin' at sunset."
(((OOC- Newton isn't a waterfront town, being some five miles inland. It does have a good dirt road directly to the city docks, though, and moderate cart traffic along that road.
The amount of money he gave each of you is 125 coins of gold.
Sunset is about five hours from now, so you have enough time as long as you don't dawdle. )))

"As for the package, I don't know right much about it. I imagine it's worth quite a bit, and it's probably rather fragile. Always consider everything you carry for us to be worth a bit and fragile, by the way, and you'll do well. If you gents can manage this li'l job without mucking it up, I might trust you with some more important deliveries. If you don't mind me sayin', by the way, you lot look like you might have some unique talents what might prove most useful on occasion."

He smiles an odd sort of smile, an almost.. conspiritorial sort of smile, in fact.

"Good luck, gents! Now, if you'll pardon me, I've a bit of an appointment with an important would-be client. It wouldn't do at all for the manager of a delivery service to show up late, would it? Gives the wrong impression."

With that, he closed and locked the door behind him, walked past you, and scurried down the street.

((( OOC- Marillion, your bard knowledge check was partially successful, 2 out of 3. The OOC thread has the details in case you haven't already seen them.
Everyone, I put a link to the OOC thread at the top of this page for easier reference. )))

[Mangles]

"Stupid squirrels always.." The rest of the sentence is left to unintelligent mumbling as Darvis starts to leave for the road, picking up Bear and his donkey along the way. Darvis will walk to the docks.

[AtwasAwamps]

Sathris watches as Darvis stumps off and then turns to the rest of the group, flashing them a friendly smile and smoothing out the rumples of his fancy silk shirt.

"Well, then, gentlemen, shall we get a move on? I think yonder fellow has his own ideas, but perhaps we'd best make our way to the appropriate dock together?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow. "After all, if we're to work together on this particular task, no reason not to get to know one another a bit better. Though I'm sure you're all simply wonderful fellows and that we'll get along quite swimmingly!"

[Fortuna]

Ridemin dashed out the door at high speed, running towards the dock.

[Freshmeat]

This sounds simple enough... Cormin thinks to himself. Surely the ominous names are there to get courier candidates scared - sow the wheat from the chafe, so to speak

Strolling casually so as to appear interested but not too eager, Cormin follows the rest to the docks.

[Kislath]

The trip to the docks is uneventful, with only a few benign wild animals spotted and no bandits. Eventually you smell the sea breeze and hear the gulls cawing, and a moment later you find yourself looking down a moderately steep cliffside at the ocean and the docks. Two ships are moored.
Getting down there is an easy enough thing, you can see, as there is a wide staircase built into the hillside. There is also a very large dumbwaiter mounted on the cliffside, presumably for lifting and lowering cargo.
From up here, you can easily see several men scurrying around the place, tending to the ships.

[Kantolin]

The dwarf chuckled again, as Sathris' comment went either unheard or unheeded, and shrugged. He was also pleased at the idea of earning money, which generally made him laugh more.

"We'll probably have plenty of time on the way." He said, slowing or speeding up his pace such that it matched Sathris'. "Kenyon Garvan, by the way - and definitely looking forward to this."

He paused for a moment, as the sea breeze from the docks shifted his shirt - which, given its focus on aesthetics, contrasted against his sturdy-and-functional longer trousers, but that's neither here nor there. He glanced at the two ships, contemplating for a moment; his mom probably would think he was crazy for liking sailing.

Aimlessly, also to Sathris, he asked, "...also, uh. Can you say your family name again? I don't want to butcher it, heh."

[Mangles]

Darvis heads down to the ships Bear and the Donkey in tow. Heading up to the first man on the docks he can see he demands "Which ship is Harm's way."

[Kislath]

The man which Darvis approaches is at first focusing his attention elsewhere, to a large crate being guided up the gangplank of one ship. A lot of noise is coming from the crate.
"Thump! Whonk! Crack! Crunch! RRRRRR! *Snort*"

"Easy, lads, just take yer time and do it right. We don't want a repeat of yesterday, aye?" he calls over to the men loading the crate.
He then spins around to see Darvis.
"Oh, hallo," he says. "If yer looking for the Harm's Way, you found her. You got business? See the shipping office." With that, he points to a new looking large shack at one end of the docks.

"Pull it together, lads!" he yells at the dockworkers. "We've got to be underway soon, and don't got time to be chasin' no escaped beasties."

[AtwasAwamps]

“D’anyara,” Sarthis said matter-of-factly in response to Kenyon’s question. “Dee-apostrophe-ay-en-wy-ay-ar-ay. Pronounced Duh-an-ya-ra. I know, it can be a bit of a mouthful, but sadly, we cannot choose our parents and I’m sure they’d be heartbroken if I changed my name. If they remember they have a son. They might not. They’re very dedicated to their work.” Sarthis didn’t even sound particularly upset about this. “It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you, Kenyon, and I’m sure our trip will be…rather…eventful…”

Sarthis’ voice trailed off for a moment as he watched the crew of their supposed ship wrestle unhappily with a large crate making animalistic sounds.

“Well, that CERTAINLY doesn’t sound ideal,” he murmured. Shutting his eyes for a moment, he murmured a few quick words under his breath, his fingers working rapidly in subtle symbols.

Sarthis would like to activate the invocation Magic Insight. This is essentially detect magic, on permanently. Standard action to activate. Also making a Knowledge: Nature check to see if I can recognize the sounds coming from the crate as some kind of creature he’s familiar with:

Knowledge: Nature check: [roll0]

EDIT: Wow. Apparently I know that grass is green. ::headdesk::

[Mangles]

Darvis ties the donkey to turns and tells Bear to gaurd it. He turns and yells at the others as he heads over to the shipping office. "Hurry up you lot." then begins muttering to himself.

[Reptilius]

"I must say, I think I've had enough eventful for a while. It'll be good to be doing something peaceful for now, away from the stress of the city..." Randal catches himself as his mouth starts to wander, "but you don't want to here any of that. Now let's get going! Our druid companion is waiting for us."

[Kislath]

At first he is difficult to notice, but as you approach the desk more closely you can see a gnome behind the desk, sitting on a not-quite-tall-enough stool. He is busy looking through some ledgers on the desk and seems quite pleased.
Eventually he looks up, way up, and notices you looking down on him.

"Oh! Hello. Are you here about the cheese thing, because that's not my fault! Nobody ever mentioned anything about wererats, you know."

[Freshmeat]

"That's right. We represent a magical guild of cheese vendors who love nothing more than to dress up as adventurers and root out all forces of darkness that threaten the noble dairy product we sell every waking day."
Cormin Dale glares sarcastically at the gnome.
"In other words: no, we're not here about your cheese. We're here to book passage on the Harm's Way."

[Mangles]

"We can't afford the crossing, but we can work for it. None of us are weak and some of us have spells that could help you."

[Kislath]

((( OOC- actually, you CAN afford it, since your boss gave you the advance money for just that very purpose and then some. I mention this in case you missed it. I am going to assume, however, that you knew this full well and are merely trying to be cheap. Very well, your wish is my command.. )))

"Is that right?" asks the gnome "Well, this must be my lucky day! I have a mob of wererats to contend with, and if you could clean out that little infestation for me, I'd be happy to arrange for your trip, assuming you're going where the ship is going anyway. Of course, you'd have to find them and kill them and get back here in about two hours. It's an option. Otherwise, the fare is 70 coins, round-trip. Perhaps you could deal with the rats when you get back? You'd get paid for that, naturally."

[Mangles]

"I don't have time for wererats, I have a boat to catch. 70 gold and I get to take my pets with me, I have that much but not a silver more."

[Reptilius]

"I don't see why we can't help him. He seems to be in some trouble, and I'm sure he will be generous in his thanks. Besides, the seven of us could make short work of the creatures, and certainly be back in time before the Harm's Way sets sail."

[Mangles]

Darvis grumbles grudgingly agreeing to doing more work

[Kislath]

((( OOC- okay, so we have two guys who want to hunt wererats, one only begrudgingly, and the other five haven't yet posted their desires. You should discuss it, I suppose, since you don't know WHERE they are, now MANY there are, and how long it would really take you to deal with them and still not miss the boat. )))

[AtwasAwamps]

Sarthis had arrived in time to hear most of the conversation and listened silently before nodding his head once, decisively, and turning back to the harbor master.

“While my companions discuss the likelihood of such aid occurring, could you perhaps furnish us with a bit more information about your were-rat infestation? Perhaps a rough estimate of numbers and the general location of this particular warren? It would certainly help us out! A few measly rats on their hindlegs are little much for a company such as ours, but a lack of information can defeat even the mightiest of warriors!” he said, flashing a winning smile.

Diplomacy roll, in case you want it for my attempt to wheedle extra info in a super-nice manner:

[roll0]

[Kislath]

"Well, that's just the thing," replies the gnome. "They have never been seen before this week, and nobody ever even knew they were about. My main warehouses are in town, but the cheese wagon never made it that far, being ambushed along the way. The lone survivor says that there were about eight ratmen, and they came out of the forest, from the south side, about one mile up the road from the docks. Their nest is probably not all that far away, but it's anyone's guess as to where it is exactly."

((( OOC- hmmm... okay, so it's conceivably doable, IF you can get lucky and find them quickly )))

"Oh, what a mess. That was some very expensive cheese, too, as cheese goes. It was a special import, all the way from Calimshan. Half a year's worth, all gone."

[Marillion]

Lieven

Having decided to keep his knowledge to himself so as to avoid giving his teammates the wrong idea, Lieven stepped forward, clutching his hat to his chest, eyes shining. "What a terrible fate for such fine cheese! Sir, your plight has stirred depths of my soul that were heretofore unknown! As you are my witness, I swear that I shall bring those thieving vermin to justice and write a ballad detailing your terrible tribulations that shall be sung across the land!"


Some one else might have needed a bluff check. But nope. Lieven just...really loves cheese.

[Mangles]

"Its a fools errand if we miss this boat."

[Kislath]

((( OOC- yeah, there is that. The boss did complain that this delivery was already late, and it's a long wait indeed for another boat to the Isle of Immaculate Doom. Not exactly a tourist hotspot, ya know.
Don't you just love dilemmas like these? Hmmm... if only there was a way to make this easier.... )))

[Freshmeat]

"Hm, well it certainly promises to be a complete waste of our time, but it does sound like easy money." Cormin says. "I would prioritize our dealings with the artifact, especially since the gnome here already pointed out we may as well deal with his wererat problem later. However, an acceptable compromise between opportunity and expediency may be reached. I suggest we go and investigate the area near the road in question to try and find tracks or other clues. If we don't find anything after, say, half an hour, I'll use my considerable magical talents to look into the near future. If it tells me we'll find the wererats in short order, we go through with the plan but make haste nonetheless. If we don't, we call the thing off for now and return here to board the Harm's Way."

The spell 'Cormin Dale, mage extraordinaire!' is referring to is Augury, of course.

[Mangles]

"Do you have a map to harm's way, the route across the sea. If you throw that in with the booty for your wererats I'd certainly be more inclined to go."

[Kislath]

((( OOC- The Harm's Way is the ship; you don't want a map to the ship? Do you mean you want a map of the way to the Isle of Immaculate Doom? If so, then why? Are you planning on swimming if you miss the boat?

Where is our party's Dynamist? You guys definitely have a need for speed.

So far, by the way, I think that one of your ideas is a lot better than the one I had involving more cheese. LOL !

So far it looks like you guys are definitely undecided, but leaning toward ratbashing if you can somehow make it snappy. )))

[Mangles]

((OOC. I have a boat in a box :D but no map means we'd just paddle in circles. Also did augray work?))

[Kislath]

((( OOC- Cormin hasn't yet cast an Augury. His plan was to go to the area they were last seen, search around for a half hour, and then cast it if you didn't find them. )))

"The way to the Isle of Immaculate Doom?" asks the gnome.
"I can certainly show you it's location on my map."

[Reptilius]

"It is true that we have other business to attend to. If time were not of the essence, we would be happy to assist you. But once we have completed our work, I would be happy to dispatch the beasts."

[Kislath]

((( OOC- Ah! Finally! After SIX DAYS, somebody finally posts something. I was seriously wondering if anyone was still playing this game, and wondering what I did to make everyone leave. Good grief, people, where ARE you? Based on what I have so far, I am going to have to use the dreaded plothammer, which I normally never do, in the hope of getting something rolling. )))

"Oh, that's a shame. Well, thanks just the same. The rats have probably already eaten the cheese by now anyway. So, the Isle of Immaculate Doom, eh? It's not every day that someone ever wants to there, lemme tellya. I'm sure it's on business, but not my business, so let's just get you on your way, shall we? The round-trip fare with meals is 70 coins each, please."

[Freshmeat]

Cormin frowns. That awkward pause following his suggestion seemed like it had lasted days.
"All right, gentlemen," he finally says to his companions. "Let's get moving."

He hands the gnome 70 coins and boards the ship.

For the record, I didn't cast Augury immediately because it can only look half an hour into the future, and we'd spend most of that walking to the road first anyway. Hence the idea to go there, search for a bit, and then cast it. Oh well.

[Mangles]

"Yeah fine. Here's your gold." Darvis grudgingly hands over the 70 gp. "Guess we better catch that boat."

[Kislath]

Okay, you pay your money, take your boarding passes, and make your way to the boat, where you see the last crate of cargo finally making it's way down the hatch. They crusty old seadog you talked with earlier seems to be very happy about this, and you see him nod approvingly. He isn't paying any attention to you. However, someone else IS paying attention to you; standing by the gangplank is someone who is probably the ship's purser, beckoning you over to him.
"You there!" he calls. "Passengers? If you be passengers, now be the time to board. We'll be shovin' off this very hour."

[Kislath]

Actually, it wound up taking about an hour and a half.

Getting out of the port itself was a bit of a pain, but once the ship made the open sea and the proper course was set, a sailor up on a tall spar at the stern opened up a Bag of Wind, propelling the ship forward at a surprising and steady speed.

Inside, the Harm's Way is surprisingly comfortable, being not only a cargo ship but apparently also a quite satisfactory passenger boat. The only real downsides to the trip are the boredom and the noises coming from the load of monsters in the main hold. The food is exemplary, with a kitchen and chef as fine as you'd ever find on dry land, and with every bite your irritation over the cost of it fades just a little bit more.

Everything is going quite smoothly on this, the third day of the trip, and while everything is quite lovely on this floating hotel, you are pleased to know that tomorrow morning you'll be at your destination.

Then of course, it happens. Some doofus complained that he was bored, and as if on cue, there is suddenly a major ruckus of shouting on the main deck. This is followed by more shouting and sailors running, and then the whole ship shudders for a moment when it hits something below the water, or, possibly, when something hits it.

[Mangles]

"Ruddy sailors don't even know how too keep a ship stable. Come on and lets get moving." Darvis looks around for someone to yell at for not doing their job but everyone seems too busy. Instead he goes and makes sure Bear is ok.

[Kislath]

Bear isn't where you left him, but it shouldn't be very hard to find him.

GrOoOwL !

There, see? He has apparently wandered off to the main hold. Something must have sparked his curiosity.

((( OOC- what are the rest of you doing? )))

[Kislath]

OOC-

Well, it looks like everyone else has quit playing this game. I don't know why. It's very disappointing, and annoying.

Mangles, we can continue this as a solo adventure if you'd like, but that might be a bit awkward, so if you'd rather quit, that's perfectly understandable.

*sigh*
Next time, I'm going to keep the party smaller and insist on daily posting.

[Mangles]

yeah sorry i dont really want a solo adventure. I would happily continue playing if others are still willing however. If you post another game let me know