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Polarity Shift
2012-02-14, 02:23 PM
Dr. Zeek, Nameless, Peter, Theo. Those were the names of the four hired to deal with a certain information broker, a Mr. Ivana Haxhew. He bought and sold information of all kinds and his services were quite in demand - and just as exclusive. Of course this was the nice way of saying he blackmailed people into doing his bidding which would explain a lot... Whatever the case, not many knew where to find him. Your employer however does - he's built himself a miniature underground complex under the town of Podunk where he meets with prospective clients that he trusts enough to show his face directly (the rest he deals with via letters and the like). According to him there is a certain alley, and if you search the ground there you will find a secret passage leading to a spiral staircase heading downwards.

Sure enough, this information was accurate as a spiral stone staircase does indeed lie under a panel designed to look like false ground, the steps spiraling off into complete darkness.

OOC: I need to know what time of day in 24 hour notation you are choosing to begin. I also need to know what you are doing about visibility and how you will choose to proceed. Do dice work here without being subject to tampering or do I need a dice thread?

As a reminder, this exercise is meant to demonstrate that a party of four characters of Tier 4 or lower cannot deal with a standard adventuring day. As such any of the following will result in an automatic loss:

Taking more than one day to deal with the day's worth of encounters.
The death of the entire party.

Any of the following will result in a automatic judgment loss:

At least half of the party of four dying (if half the party is dying every single day, they are clearly not successful even if they did somehow limp through it).
Withdrawing from the area entirely (it's a normal routine day, you shouldn't have to run from it).
Tactics clearly unsustainable on a daily basis, aka consumable novas.

Any of the following will potentially result in a judgment loss:

One person dying (it's possible this is bad luck... it's possible this is something that could easily happen every single day... this is a judgment call).
Withdrawing from a fight without withdrawing from the entire area (again, you shouldn't need to run, but since you aren't completely defeated early this might not be considered a loss).

Victory condition:

If the party defeats all four encounters in one day with no dying, no running, and sustainable tactics only they win.
If the party meets all of the above conditions but one person dies due to judged bad luck, they win.

There are also degrees of defeat, so it is possible for instance to continue anyways to attempt to salvage the situation.

I'm not going to make a separate OOC thread as OOC talk can be prefaced with an OOC: tag.

Toptomcat
2012-02-14, 02:52 PM
OOC: I need to know what time of day in 24 hour notation you are choosing to begin. I also need to know what you are doing about visibility and how you will choose to proceed. Do dice work here without being subject to tampering or do I need a dice thread?

OOC: The forum dice- these dice [roll0]- work perfectly and are immune to tampering, to the best of my knowledge.

Does it really matter what time of day we begin if none of us pray to regain spells and the adventuring will go on underground? I suppose for maximum chance of catching the enemy sleeping if we're lucky, we could arbitrarily designate 1 AM 00:00.

IC: Zeek will wear his Hatband of Continual Flame for visibility. He remains at the rear of the party and suggests that Nameless summons an earth elemental to stealthily scout by using its Earth Glide ability to reside in the walls and just peek an eye out into the hallway to check things out with its Darkvision before reporting back.

In fact, he suggests that we use the Earth Elemental in this way to get a map of all elements of the underground complex that lie within thirty feet of the surface.

Polarity Shift
2012-02-14, 03:10 PM
OOC: 01:00. Understood. It does matter.

I forgot to mention that the stairway is 10 feet wide with a 10 foot high ceiling. I'll try to remember obvious parts of the description better.

Assuming he does want to do that I will post Rock Man's findings.

Toptomcat
2012-02-14, 03:22 PM
OOC: Oh, wait a minute- this staircase isn't where we've been sent by Ivana Haxhew, it's where we've been sent to meet Ivana Haxhew? Who is, to the best of our knowledge, not actively hostile?

In that case, scratch that request to map the whole complex, just to scout the staircase down. Who have we been sent to meet this info broker by, and exactly how have we been asked to deal with them?

Also, is either our employer or Ivana Haxhew known for any unique contributions to arcane magic? Knowledge: Arcana: [roll0]

Polarity Shift
2012-02-14, 03:30 PM
OOC: Oh, wait a minute- this staircase isn't where we've been sent by Ivana Haxhew, it's where we've been sent to meet Ivana Haxhew? Who is, to the best of our knowledge, not actively hostile?

In that case, scratch that request to map the whole complex, just the staircase down. Who have we been sent to meet this info broker by, and exactly how have we been asked to deal with them?

Also, is either our employer or Ivana Haxhew known for any unique contributions to arcane magic? Knowledge: Arcana: [roll0]

OOC: By "deal with" the noble meant kill (that was more of the usual high class subtlety combined with plausible deniability). Ivana Haxhew is somewhere in here. The noble gave a fake name (and wouldn't say his real name) likely because of plausible deniability again. You have no reason to believe Mr. Haxhew is hostile at this time.

Dr. Zeek does not know of any arcane abilities possessed by Mr. Haxhew or this anonymous employer.

Toptomcat
2012-02-14, 03:48 PM
OOC: Ah, got it. Reinstate the request to map the compound via earth elemental.

I guess my alignment is CN rather than CG, if my typical adventuring day consists of a political assassination. Good thing we didn't end up with that Paladin.

Polarity Shift
2012-02-14, 03:51 PM
OOC: I think the plot was selected at random, and if it makes you feel better there's no indication he's a good person (and plenty that he isn't). D&D morality is a messed up thing, but there you have it.

Assuming he does want to do that (and someone is here other than you) I will post the results.

Lans
2012-02-14, 08:40 PM
Before we start I cast tensers floating disc twice, and have the barrels placed on them filled with stones.
I then do what was suggested using earth elementals to scout, provided everybody else is ready.

Sir_Chivalry
2012-02-14, 10:36 PM
Shanksley places one pair of boots on his feet and the other in his pack.

IP Proofing
2012-02-15, 08:17 AM
The earth elemental finds nothing within thirty feet of the surface other than a continuation of the same staircase spiraling off into darkness.

Lans
2012-02-15, 05:23 PM
Hmm

Should I try an air elemental?