The Proedros Staff: Interviews (Whit)

[fyleisch]

This isn't the real game, this is just a diversion while recruiting progresses. It's also a more fun way (for me :smallbiggrin:) to ask questions about the character.

Feel free to roll wherever you feel appropriate. I don't expect you to have a character worked out yet, so just roll whatever plausible values you feel like for this part.
You don't remember exactly where you got the poster. They'd been stuck up all around the city; contractors wanted, and now you hold one in your hand. You followed the directions on the papyrus sheet to a warehouse at the edge of town, stark and a little dirty. The grass, still wet from the night's rains, squelches underfoot, and somewhere overhead a raven cries. The sign on the exterior door read simply "Applicants", and inside you find a waiting room. You're the only one there.

After a few minutes of waiting in silence, a woman enters from an adjoining room.

"You're here for one of the construction project positions? Please, come with me."

She leads you into a messy office; the desk and shelves are crowded by papers and folders, and she sits behind the desk, below a grimy window. There is a single hard, bare wooden chair opposite her across the desk. She gives the warrior an appraising glance, his armor and weapons, before she nods at the chair opposite her.

"Sit, please. I'm Ionnia Lerax, I've been put in charge of recruiting for this little project. What do they call you?"

[brentcourtney]

Whit hesitates slightly before moving to comply. He sits down lightly and attempts to put on an air of competence. "My name is Whit Alden. I heard you were looking for people with certain qualifications and I figured you might could use my education or physical training in this project of yours." Having introduced himself he feels more at ease and actually fills out some of that air of bravura he was attempting at the beginning of the conversation.

[fyleisch]

"Certain qualifications is right!"

Ionnia looks over Whit's weapons and armor approvingly. Behind Whit, the office door gradually falls closed, and he hears the latch click. The whole rickety building must be on a slight slope - sinking into the mud perhaps? If the building does have inadequate foundations, then its lifespan is limited.

"I take it that your qualifications run to the martial? I've heard several nasty rumors about the old road North, do you feel that you could equip yourself well in a fight, protecting others, even?"

[brentcourtney]

Whit is turns his head slightly at the sound. He is more than a bit disappointed his martial prowess is what caught her attention, but doesn't let it show.

"Depending on the number of foes, certainly. My mastery of combat may differ from the average man by nor hitting as hard or, perhaps, as often, but I assure you there are things my blade can do that most brutes could only dream of doing."

Attempting to steer the conversation toward his whole self rather than just his worldly self, he adds, "That being said, my mind is as sharp as my blade. Training at a monestary from a young age can have that effect on you."

[fyleisch]

"Oh really." The woman pulls open a drawer and rummages around for something.

As she rummages, Whit sees a figure pass by the window behind Ionnia's desk - a large, red-haired woman, wearing a leather cap and a scowl. Ionnia, focused entirely on the drawer, doesn't notice anything amiss. After a few seconds, Ionnia pulls a notepad and quill from the drawer and looks back up at Whit expectantly.

"I've been looking for someone, anyone who knows something about the geography to the North, or about the history of the old road. All of the best surviving books seem to have been locked away in religious libraries. Do you know anything about the climate up there?"

Please make something up :smalltongue:

[brentcourtney]

Trying to stay professional in hopes that he can get the job, Whit says noyhing of the woman and gives no sign that Ionnia can see that he even saw the lady. He adjusts his position in the chair slightly and the scrape of Armor on wood startles him for a second and then he relaxes again. If he wants his chance to gain public favor, this is his best chance. Nothing, not even his curiosity, can be allowed to get in the way.

"Nothing too exotic, I'm afraid. The land grows gradually more wooded as you head north and most of the trek feels like you are heading uphill. I always feel like I'm going uphill when I head north, bit this is actually the case as there are hills before you reach the next inhabited area that way which give into the mountains. Weather is basically the same as here, though, with a bit more precipitation. The road, I fear is likely covered by plant growth and barely, if at all, still discernable at this point."

[fyleisch]

"Interesting, interesting. It seems like it might be possible for the laborers to suppliment their food stocks with foraging, that should save us some money."

The woman scribbles down quick notes.

Without warning, the door to the office bursts open, the latch breaking and flying across the room, driven by the booted heel of the large red-haired woman from outside. She's breathing heavily, clearly incensed, and holding a cleaver in her left hand.

"Rejected? Rejected!? You're crapping rejected!"

She hurls the cleaver at Ionnia, but it's clear that the cooking implement wasn't designed to be thrown, going wide and embedding itself in the window frame behind the desk.

The red-haired woman doesn't seem too upset that she missed, drawing a club from her belt and preparing to advance on the terrified administrator. She doesn't seem to have seen Whit sitting nearby, or is just too angry to care.

The situation looks like this, the pink newcomer is the irate woman:

http://i.imgur.com/Lz1Zku6.png?1

If you want to roll, feel free to do so using whatever bonuses you like at this point.

[brentcourtney]

Whit allows anger to cross his face briefly before stilling it. He reaches down and releases a catch on his calf and reveals a cleverly hidden sheath there from which he draws a short sword. He kicks the chair back and away from himself as he stands and draws his rapier spinning into a combative stance.

"If you wish to draw blood, we may trade blows. If you wish to file a complaint, however, you have done so poorly and need to apologize."

[fyleisch]

"You!" the woman growls, turning on Whit. "They replaced me with you!? You won't stop me. You won't stop me going North."

She turns the club on the man, making an insane attempt to brain the man with nothing but her wooden club.

The mysterious woman swings at Whit!
Attack (club): [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[brentcourtney]

Whit parries the blow with his short sword and attacks with his rapier a single blow in hopes that the thrust will be the only one required to make the woman realize the stakes of this encounter. The necessity of violence here is disappointing, but it is a hazard of this line of business. Lamentingly, Whit tries to reason with her. "I've no quarrel with you. I do not wish to kill you, but if I must..."

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[fyleisch]

The large woman shrieks as the blade cuts into her arm, though the wound is minor. She staggers back, implausibly shocked, as if she didn't realize violence might be met with the same.

"But... North. I have to go North!"

As she speaks, spittle begins to foam up around her lips, and her heavy breathing becomes more like pained gasping.
Her eyes roll up in her head, and she collapses to the floor in a faint.

"Helga! Oh dear. She must be ill, some kind of fever." Ionnia rushes over to the woman's side and holds a hand up to the Helga's mouth to check her breathing.
"That must be why she was so angry, she was perfectly polite when I interviewed her the other day. The poor woman."

Ionnia looks up at Whit.
"I'm sorry for the interruption, and thank you for your help. I can say you've definitely got the job! I think she might well have hurt me if you hadn't been here."

[brentcourtney]

Whit lowers his weapons and straightens before sheathing them. He casts a concerned look at the collapsed woman. "I'm glad you're alright. I hope you figure out what is wrong with her. What should I do as far as getting ready for the job and when can I meet other, hopefully less agitated, members of this expedition?" Whit asks, attempting to lighten the mood. He walks over to the chair while talking and brings it over by where it was when he came in for his interview.

[fyleisch]

"There will be a meeting in a few days for you to meet the other members. I still have a couple of interviews to finish, and it looks like the command team might be missing a couple of members, but you all seem resourceful, so I'm sure you'll be fine."

Whit's question seems to register to the shocked woman.

"What can you do? Oh yes! I almost forgot." She walks back to her desk and shuffled through some papers, before bringing out a thin binder and passing it to Whit.
"These are excerpts from the some of the reports of the uh, initial scouting teams we sent North. I think a couple of them describe some trouble or other that they got into up there. I was hoping you could do some research on the dangers they found, and perhaps brief the other team members when you see them."

Ionnia passes over the binder, which opens to reveal several pages of parchment, each in a different hand, each apparently torn from a different journal to be compiled together.

"There's no rush. You can take those away and bring your findings to the meeting. You'll be summoned by messenger when everything else is ready."

Below are the excerpts from the reports. The bestiaries of Diarkis contain every creature in the SRD monster list, but the city's libraries are old and incomplete.

Obviously this is just for fun and completely optional, but at the same time, knowing what the expedition might face in advance might provide an advantage.


The attackers were some kind of monstrous spider! - Six feet across, eyes glistening, fangs dripping with venom.

They moved quickly, and many climbed into the trees to descend upon us from above. We fought off the first wave, but with the second came a figure. It seemed to be a woman at first, but Cyril said...

He'd been bitten by then. I think... I hope, the poison was making him delirious. He said he could see spider's fangs in her mouth.

On the second week of the journey they set upon us, dozens of them - tiny, less than two feet tall, with blue skin and hair that blended perfectly with the foliage.

They couldn't do much damage, their arrows were little more than pinpricks, but they made mischief in the stores, and no matter how hard we struck them, we barely seemed to hurt them at all.
This report contains several pages covered in sketches of eyes, each one in a different style and a different size. Some of the line-work and shading is exquisite.

Perhaps the scout was an amateur artist, and this is one of their practise sheets?

There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous up here. We've been travelling for days, and none of us have been killed or replaced. Nothing up here seems to be interested in devouring us, and the others are happy and unafraid.

I recommend subsequent expeditions travel unarmed, split into groups of no more than ten, and post no watches at night. This is truly a safe land.

[brentcourtney]

Whit takes the proffered papers with a smile on his face. "I will gladly try to make something out of these reports if I can. I look forward to a good partnership in the days to come." With that he bows and heads towned the exit.