The orc and the pie. (teaching game)

[jakarta]

At the crossroad outside the town with the utilitarian name of South Waystation, which is of course south of the provincial capital of Trade Port, of the same named province, there is a sign post where you have gathered. As is traditional in this region (more like mandated by ordinance really) there is a posting board where wants, offers, and odd jobs are listed so that passers by might take interest in the town.

You are young, hungry, and eager for work.

There is a crowd of similar persons around the board. The pickings are slim. A lost cat here, a fugitive there, someone offering homemade perfume, and a year old notice of a desire for firewood.

{You may introduce yourselves}

[samduke]

walking through the people gathered at the sign, Amalthia takes her time looking at the various jobs that she could do.

[Linken]

Aimery looks kinda ridiculous, what with the whole battleaxe, armour and oversized tower shield thing, but he seems quite happy to just head through the crowd and check the noticeboard. Cat, no, he'd probably get stuck himself... he looks for anything more interesting and maybe more worthy of his time. He has to stand as tall as he can to see the board, but he manages. He hopes.

[An Enemy Spy]

Lyra is mesmerized by the business of South Waystation. Is this what a city is? She doesn't think she has ever seen so many people in one place in her whole life. Ryhla, the woman who had taken Lyra in and taught her in the ways of the druid, had always told her that city's were dens of vice where people had forgotten the values of the wild, but Orph always brought her such pretty trinkets from the markets when he came to visit.

Lyra certainly stands out here. A Halfling girls dressed in furs with bright feathers in her hair and a hawk perched on her shoulder, she draws more than a few looks. Taima is as unused to to the busy surroundings as she is. He screeches at passerby and buffets Lyra's face with a wing. "Calm down, Taima." Lyra admonishes him. "People are staring."

Her stomach rumbles. She hasn't eaten a thing all day. She's not even sure how one gets food in these places. There's no game to hunt or bushes to forage. But look, there's a stand just over there filled with fruit that anyone can just pick up! Lyra walks over to the fruit stand and takes a bite out a big juicy pear.

[anjxed]

"Well will you look at that" Anjxed thought, "A gnome paladin, never thought I would see one of those. Heh a small druid, what's she doing here in the city"

"Maybe I'll find the cat, and get someone to join me in findin pg the criminal"

"Maybe I'll just get the cleric's gold. His purse is exposed."

[LyphenThymes]

Alistair stands well behind the group gathered at the board, he knows what's on the board, he was there earlier before the sun rose completely. The only thing of interest to him was a notice about a fugitive, but most likely it was an old notice. He gently pets the forehead of his trusted mule while he mutters a few soothing words of comfort to the beast.
As he checks that the load is secured properly his attention is drawn to a halfling girl and her hawk screeching at those getting too close. As she calms the upset hawk she strolls to a fruit stand and begins to eat a pear before she's purchased it and the look on the vendors face is priceless. Alistair continues to watch but his eyes are drawn to a shifty looking dark haired man who is dangerously close to a cleric near him, and it's obvious that he's sizing up the cleric to see if he'll notice a few gold peices go missing from his exposed gold pouch. Just as the events begin to unfold his trusted mule shifts its weight and nickers softly behind him, drawing his attention back to his task of checking his load. As he finishes, he turns back to see how things are unfolding.

[jakarta]

"Young lady!" starts the flustered vendor. "In these parts it is traditional to pay for fruit before eating it.".

[An Enemy Spy]

Lyra looks up, startled. Ryhla had explained money to her. Lyra thought it was strange that people would give away valuable things in exchange for nothing more than little metal tokens. When she asked, Orph had tried to explain to her about supply and demand and how coins were units of arbitrary value that represented potential goods and services to obtain in the future, but Lyra still had trouble with the concept. She had never imagined that food would have to be paid for. What if someone didn't have any coins? Would people just let them starve because they didn't have few metal discs in their pocket? Lyra thinks about asking the man this, but decides she doesn't want to make trouble. After all, she's in his city, and as Ryhla said, city folk love their rules.
"Oh, I'm sorry. How many coins do I give you for this?"

[samduke]

While reading the board Amalthia notices the job about a fugitive..
*EDIT Per DM

and begins to wonder just how much money she could earn from this and starts to look to see where to go and whom to talk to about that job.

[anjxed]

[roll0]

Ah well, she wouldn't have that much gold anyway.

Huh, she's looking at the fugitive sign. Better gold even if we split it.

I tapped at her shoulder to get her attention
Edit: DM has commanded it :smallbiggrin:

[jakarta]

Teachable Moment

This is an example of a few different things.

1) Getting ahead of yourselves in a game.

2) Mild metagaming.

3) Inappropriate check rolls.

4) needing to "roll with" a gameplay mistake to preserve the narrative.

Or

5) needing to retcon to repair a gameplay mistake.

I thinks point #1 will become apparent as I explain the other things.

On point #2, your character doesn't know she is being sized up for a pickpocket attempt. As players, you are aware of it because he posted the thief's thoughts, but your character doesn't have an ESP effect going and wouldn't know what anyone else is thinking. You need to keep in mind the difference between character knowledge and player knowledge.

For her to be aware (#3), when the GM tells you to, you would need roll her spot check to notice that someone is looking at her, followed by a sense motive check to determine why. It the thief was being (cause the player said so) sneaky about 'casing' the cleric, then the spot check would be vs either a hide check (modified for only being able to hide in the crowd) and/or a bluff check (to be pretending to be acting "non suspiciously"; just hanging out).

LyphenThymes should also have rolled checks to notice what was going on, instead of just narrating that his character noticed.

At this point, the thief is only looking. He hasn't actually attempted to pick the pocket yet.

This is where you got ahead of things (because you were metagaming).

anjxed made it worse by assuming the thief failed the spot check without ever rolling the slight of hand check. "Slight of hand" is the pick pocket's skill, and a check is rolled when anyone tries to do something like pick a pocket, cheat at cards, or steal the silverware. This check would have been against the cleric's spot check, and the spot checks of everyone nearby, to notice the pick pocket attempt. Furthermore, he never rolled the save vs the spell. {edit: Oh, I see now that he did} Also, since the cleric was casting with her opponent within melee distance (he had to be that close to pick her pocket), the opponent has a chance to disrupt the spell. Casting in melee provokes an Attack of Opportunity (AoO). If the thief was feeling vicious, he could have punched or grabbed the cleric to force a concentration check to successfully cast the spell.

Which brings us to points 4 and 5.

We can either just "reset" and say that this never happened and otherwise ignore it, or we can roll with it.

In Improve Theater, there is a concept called "yes, and....". This means that you play off of the other members of the troupe instead of contradicting them. This is pretty much what anjxed did when he stated that the thief was afraid after you had the cleric cast the fear spell. Some groups try to be narrative focused and play this way, but other stick to the game mechanics.

So, we can put the IC thread on pause, and anjxed and SamDuke can express their opinions of if we should 'roll' or 'retcon' this situation in the OoC thread. Then I will decide, and we will either "back up" and roll the needed checks, or just resume.

[jakarta]

The fruit vendor quotes a price of 6 for a copper.

As the wanted poster is being examined, a murmur passes through the gathered crowd. Turning, you see a well dresses halfling woman. She is middle aged and has a dignified pose. The fruit vendor seems to be respectful of her.

She approaches and looks over the crowd with a slow, appraising confidence. She then "Would you, you, you....(all the PC's and a few others)...please come with me. I have a possible job offer, or at least breakfast for you."

She turns without further explanation and walks in the direction of town.

[An Enemy Spy]

The fruit vendor quotes a price of 6 for a copper.

As the wanted poster is being examined, a murmur passes through the gathered crowd. Turning, you see a well dresses halfling woman. She is middle aged and has a dignified pose. The fruit vendor seems to be respectful of her.

She approaches and looks over the crowd with a slow, appraising confidence. She then "Would you, you, you....(all the PC's and a few others)...please come with me. I have a possible job offer, or at least breakfast for you."

The turns without further explanation and walks in the direction of town.

"I don't have any copper coins." Lyra says. She pulls a gold coin out of her purse. "Is one of these as good?" She asks hopefully.

[jakarta]

The vendor looks at the offered coin, and looks for a moment at his own purse.

Shaking his head, he takes the coin, drops it in his purse, then reaches down behind the stall. He pulls out a sack of apples, removes one and replaces the pear you took from the display. Then he drops the sack on Lyra seeming not to car if it finds its way into her arms, or hits either her head or the ground.

{sack of 299 apples acquired. With the pear, you now have 100 pounds of fruit. }

[anjxed]

As he saw who the halfling pointed at. Anjxed had an idea

Hey you there the halfling in fur. Need some help with that bag? Just give me a couple of apples and we are even

[samduke]

looking at the Halfling whom just pointed in her direction Amalthia looks at some of the others pointed out and then cautiously follows.

[An Enemy Spy]

"Oh, thank you." She hands him two apples. "I can't eat them all by myself anyway."

[LyphenThymes]

Alistair quietly trails behind the group leading his mule, slightly uncomfortable with the whole situation. "Hopefully this will all be over soon.."
He mutters to himself as he follows cautiously.

[anjxed]

Anjxed carries half the load of apples, he kept the 2 apples in his pack to be eaten on the road later.

Heh, I just made a new friend

[Linken]

The gnome decides to come with the halfling just out of sheer curiosity. He smiles to himself as he wades through the crowd- least some other people were getting picked, too, so it isn't a trap. He hoped. He has a quick look around for anything else that may be interesting before just keeping up- albeit struggling a bit because of the armour.

[jakarta]

You are led though town and bear looks both scornful and curious from the townspeople. It seems some like vagabond adventurers less than others.

You are led up the main street, into the ally between the bank and the chandlers' guild, and into the unexpected green yard lined street of a residential district. your destination is a large house, not quite a mansion. You are led to a side entrance into the servant dining area. There on the table is laid out plates of eggs, sausage, toast and fruit. Your animals are shown to the barn yard to be fed or at least roost.

While you eat you are called one at a time to a smaller chamber where you are interviewed. Your host is Ms. Meena, the head secretary at the bank. She asks about your background and skills.

Are you honest with her?

[samduke]

A fine day Ms. Meena, I am Amalthia, I give aid and comfort to some whom I deem worthy.

[anjxed]

Hello Ms Meena, charmed to meet you. Anjxed, thief extrordinaire, keep your gold safe from me. Else, finders keepers.

[LyphenThymes]

"Hello Ms. Meena, my name is Alistair. I'm a ranger. Right now I find myself curious as to whom you are, and why you've gathered us all here today."

[Linken]

Yes, of course Aimery is honest with her. He's a Paladin, for goodness sake. Nice to see someone who's also on the short side, though.

Hi. I'm Aimery. I serve Heironeous, god of Valour. I'm good at healing things, destroying things... as long as it's for good, of course.

[An Enemy Spy]

"My name is Lyra and I know all about living in the woods because that's where I live I've never been to a big city like this before everything is so big big I mean your normal sized like me which is nice because it's overwhelming being around all these humans and your house is so nice I never lived in a house like this I lived in a cave with Rhyla she said that people in cities cut down trees and destroy the forest to make houses to live in but you seem nice I'm sure you don't burn down forests and kill animals for sport or else Rhyla would come after you but you don't you don't know who Rhyla is she raised me to be a druid after Orph found me he's a ranger he said he I was left in the woods as a baby and he found me and took me to Rhyla and they taught me how to hunt and fish and commune with nature and use magic and I have a hawk his name name is Taima do you want to meet him?"

[jakarta]

Meena explains to each of you in turn that she has a job that requires a particular skill set, and that if she decides that you have those skills, she will offer the job to you.

To Lyra she adds in private Would you like to trade some of those apples for a fresh pie, and some tarts, and a jar or two of apple sauce? and perhaps trade 2 of your gold coins for silver and copper so you may buy one apple at a time?

Over the course of 2 hours all who were invited are interviewed, and the crowd thins as some are sent away with a bag lunch.

[An Enemy Spy]

Lyra declines the offer. She likes her fruit in its natural state.

[anjxed]

So I wonder who gets what job or whatever saying to no one in particular

[Linken]

Aimery's probably one of the only ones left. He waits around, kinda bored but excited.

[jakarta]

Each of you who asks is informed that if you are determined to be qualified, you will be offered a short term job.

Presently, only a handful of you remain {the party}. You are led down the hall and up the stairs to a bed room. Before opening the door, the looks at the lot of you with a determined, commanding, protective stare. "He is weak. Ask no questions. Just nod. You will be given you assignment, and then you will leave to do it. There will be no negotiations. If you don't want to do the job you will stay here until it is completed by the others, given dinner, and then sent on your way. Once though the door you may NOT leave unless you are doing the job, or it has been completed."

The opens the door, and guides you into the room.

On room is dimly lit by lanterns. The walls are covered with commemorative plaques, certificates, and sketches. What words you can make out have to do with banking and trade guilds and charities.

In the bed, covered up to his chin with a quilt, is an elderly halfling. She helps him rise to 1/2 sitting and props him with pillows.

He slowing looks you all over. He does seem tired, old, but his eyes are still bright.

"I am Wells Fargo, President of the bank, though in title only. My wife here has actually been running things for a while..."

Given their ages, you would have assumed that she were his daughter instead of wife.

He continues, "I've held the position for nearly 60 years now, been married for 90, worked at the bank for a century. Worked up from the broom boy.. he he. But before that, and none know this but my wife, I was an young adventurer like you. After one close escape too many, and after after several dead friends too many, I came to this town and determined to settle down. Just before I entered town I hid something in a nearby cave. I have not returned since. I have a map for you to the cave. At the back of one chamber is a pile of rocks. Under the pile I buried a chest containing 2 sacks. The chest may have rotted away, but I'm sure the sacks are still there. Get them for me. Do not open them. I will give you 50 gold pieces each if you do this for me." He begins to cough a bit and his strength seems to fade a bit. She gestures for you to leave as she tends to settling him. You all wait in the hall.

That was 3 hours ago. The trip to this cave was not difficult. The terrain was mostly flat and the map was very clear. The entrance was covered with overgrown bush, but that was easy to clear away. You are now gathered out side of it. She gave each of you 2 torches as you went out the door. In what order do you enter the cave, and who will hold a torch so you can see?

[samduke]

Amalthia looks the cave entry over once then decides that she will enter second and off to one side holding a torch

[jakarta]

The cave entrance is a bit less than 5 ft wide. You'll have to enter one at a time. It may widen as you go deeper...

[An Enemy Spy]

Lyra casts Detect Snares and Pits on the cave entrance.

[jakarta]

you don't detect any hazards. so long as you concentrate you can keep the spell up for 10 minutes.

[An Enemy Spy]

Lyra places herself in the center of the group to minimize the chance of anything hitting her and breaking her concentration.

[jakarta]

{ ok, that is 2 'not first's. Anyone in front?
}

[Linken]

Aimery is at the front of the group. He'd request for the person behind him to take the torch so he could see- his Low Light vision should help. His sword (or, well, axe) and board are drawn.

[LyphenThymes]

Alistair will fall in third hoping to cover both Aimery and Amalthia with his Composite Long Bow. Hopefully his positioning will allow him to defend Lyra as well if it comes to that.

[anjxed]

Anjxed will probably go in last to cover the flank. Someone might be trailing them

[jakarta]

The cave is dark. It is hard to see.

Spot checks. {1d20 + wisdom modifier + ranks in Spot skill + racial modifiers if any }

[samduke]

I have the torch 30 ft illumination, 60 ft shadowy... not sure if that helps..
but here is the spot roll
[roll0]

[LyphenThymes]

[roll0]

Racial ability: Low-Light Vision

I'm not sure if this includes my racial plus 1 to spot search? Can you double check please?

[samduke]

[roll0]

Racial ability: Low-Light Vision

I'm not sure if this includes my racial plus 1 to spot search? Can you double check please?

it appears to be the case yes

[jakarta]

[roll0]

Racial ability: Low-Light Vision

I'm not sure if this includes my racial plus 1 to spot search? Can you double check please?

The spot check roll would include any racial bonuses. Are you asking for someone to check your sheet?

[anjxed]

1d20

Anjxed struggles to see in the darkness of the cave

[jakarta]

Are you having trouble with the die roller again? If it isn't working for you for what ever reason, you can use the die roller at wotc.

[LyphenThymes]

The die roller seems to be working, as it shows I rolled a 14, I was trying to see if it was the correct number or if I actually didn't add my racial ability of +1 to it. Which if I hadn't would make it a 15, correct?

[An Enemy Spy]

Lyra's Spot Check: [roll0]

[anjxed]

[roll0] +2 =8

Lets try this again

Edit: Hey it worked damn low roll