tomboys and troublemakers: a wfrp 2e game

[wilphe]

I do indeed not feel normal, but I know what will pick me up! he attracts the attention of the passing innkeeper, Tell me sir, I am a little bit not myself, do you perhaps pray have any dwarven stout?

[bramblefoot]

the barkeep nods, taking your money and sliding you a mug of foaming stout.

everyone who is currently in the bar, gimme a perception at -10

[wilphe]

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d100)[75] Perception 51 -10 for penalty +10 for excellent vision if applicable

[MrAbdiel]

Spoiler: OOC Roll!

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untrained and the extra penalty means I’m looking for a flimsy little 16 or less. But here we go: (1d100)[75]

[bramblefoot]

Spoiler: wighard

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the stout is delicious and nutty. you do find a small note under the bottom. the note is in neat crabbed script. it reads "proceed with all haste to the mining camp. something important is happening there. you must disrupt the grey ghost's plans. do not tarry" the note stays intact

[wilphe]

Wighard gets up and moves over to Bertelis, Your wound has healed up ok? pressing on the Bretonnian's shoulder be casually presses the note into Bertelis' hand and returns to his seat and waits for him to peruse it I feel perhaps is time to get going then if the good burgers of the town have assigned you a quest

Spoiler: NOTE

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the note is in neat crabbed script. it reads "proceed with all haste to the mining camp. something important is happening there. you must disrupt the grey ghost's plans. do not tarry"

[MrAbdiel]

"Healed enough, I think. You're a credit to your profession, Wighard." When he looks over the note, he slows in his chewing and glances up at the physician with casual, clandestine concern. "...Well enough that I might set out this morning without fear. Are Emil and Gimgroth still waiting on their meals?" He peers around the tavern, as he wolfs down the rest of his breakfast.

[-Sentinel-]

"Good news - I've spoken to the town council, and secured us paying work. A mine in the town's catchment has gone silent; a worthy opportunity to do some good for the miners in whatever manner of trouble they are in, and to be paid twice for the labor of travelling to this town."

Emil, buttering a chunk of bread, stops with a frown.

"Gone silent, you say?" he echoes. "Now that's worrisome. It means whatever happened over there, not a single miner got out to tell the tale. I suppose we can go have a look... but the fact that the town council is hiring outsiders tells me that they're afraid, or they'd send some of their own men."

[bramblefoot]

Spoiler: emil

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a ratty-looking fellow wearing a patched and torn cloak slips out the door at the mention of dwarven stout

OOC
so whats the plan? ya just gonna ride down and check out the mine?

[MrAbdiel]

"Gone silent, you say?" he echoes. "Now that's worrisome. It means whatever happened over there, not a single miner got out to tell the tale. I suppose we can go have a look... but the fact that the town council is hiring outsiders tells me that they're afraid, or they'd send some of their own men."

The knight thumbs his trimmed beard thoughtfully, as he pushes away his empty plate. "I shall dare to hope the miners are well, if afraid to tread the road back to town for fear of some phantom. But there are as many real threats in the forest as there are phantasmic ones. I shall prepare my horses; and we'll go seeking the welfare of these workers at once."

The wording of that description, seeking the welfare of these workers, is obviously crafted; an oblique attempt to frame the effort in a way that conforms to what the knight perceives as Emil's worldview, rather than his own. Whether this is good natured or condescending is open to debate, as the knight pushes up from his chair and heads out to the stables.

Spoiler: OOC Plans

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Sir Bertelis is ready to go; and it seems Emil and Wighard are ready too. Gimgroth, we'll assume, is also ready, and we'll hope he chimes in when his player gets time.

[bramblefoot]

you head off to the mine, with directions generously given by the town council. its a half-day walk, less by horse.

someone toss me 1d100 will ya kindly?

[MrAbdiel]

Spoiler

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(1d100)[97]! Come on, random treasure chest. Full of money. Or plate armor.

[bramblefoot]

there is no better way to put it than this. somehow, you guys got lost on a half-day walk throughout the woods. nothing makes sense, and the map has blown away. wdyd?

[MrAbdiel]

The situation felt ridiculous. The path had been just a half-day's journey. The instructions had been reasonably simple. The burghers had even gone out of their way to have a map sketched by a servant in the room while he was there, to remove ambiguity for the foreign knight. But something had gone wrong. They had followed the appointed way until the side track which should have taken them on to the mine; but then rainshower had hit, sudden and severe enough that they pulled just off the track and sheltered under the most generous trees for fifteen minutes until the clouds had blustered themselves out.

It must have been at that point, Bertelis reflected, that we got lost. We rejoined what we thought was the track we came in on, but was in fact another track with nothing to offer but confusion. Now half the day had slipped away, and the map - sketched on paper in runny ink - had disintegrated in the rain. The knight had a theory that the map had been wrong in the first place - failing to mark the turn-offs they ought not take, which might obscure the ones they should. But it was too late to make that complain now. Here they were; and here he had led them.

Sir Bertelis had done the only sensible and masculine thing to do in this situation: he attempted to fix the problem by trial and error, adopting a posture of overcompensated confidence sufficient to deflect any unsolicited suggestion that something might be wrong. But after having led his companions back down the path twenty minutes to its terminus in the now muddy and rain-gleaming forest with no obvious indication of how to rejoin the main road and right the error, he pulls his steed to a stop, dismounts, settles his hands on his hips, and tips his head forward a little as he admits in so many words what the other three travellers have certainly come to guess.

"I must ask your forgiveness, companions. I have lost us." The confession comes flatly and with a certain amount of humility in its plainness, now that he's worked up to it; conspicuously absent of conjecture about the rain, or the map, or the burghers being more to blame than the knight himself. He chews his lower lip for a moment, permitting a hanging few seconds in which he may bask in the defeat and the others may lance him with proportionate scorn; but then musters himself to attack the problem again. "Let us split a little, and look for signs of distinction. Listen for water, look for tracks that are not our own, shelters, animal dens. Do not wander so far that you lose sight of Adélard and Rainier, to whom we will regroup in several minutes hence. Perhaps if we find enough cues in the land, we will find a better heading. Failing that, we will be better equipped to camp for the night, and to start out fresh tomorrow - but I yet have hope we will be at the mine before the gloaming."

Spoiler: The Plan

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Bertelis' plan - to which no one is required to conform, but everyone is invited - is to scatter a little in the immediate area looking for landmarks, clues, and topographical features that will help us find our way to the road to the mine. None of us have Navigation (gulp), but itt seems that Bertelis is the only one in the party as it stands with Outdoor Survival, which seems to be the next best skill as far as "getting us back on track" goes. I'm hoping to fortify the roll with assistance from the others, maybe dependant on successful 'near enough' skill checks like Perception and Search to look for landmarks and tracks, or maybe even Common Knowledge: Empire. It's up to you to decide what will count, and how hard it will be to succeed, GM.

Here's my roll either way, pending whatever bonuses Bertelis may get from other folks assisting: Outdoor Survival Skill 46 - (1d100)[64]. I reserve the right to come back and fate-point if it, once all the assists have shaken our and you set a difficulty level, it happens to fail!

[bramblefoot]

everyone gimme perception or an appropriate skill. those that succeed grant +10 to sir bertelis' check

[wilphe]

Note in future to ask for guide

Wighard has been with commanders who got lost before, so is not yet too worried and also unwilling to dwell upon the young Knight's admission of failure.

As you wish, but we should not spread out too far.

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d100)[20] Perception 54 +10 for visual

[-Sentinel-]

Emil gives a sigh. He is very much a city mouse and almost useless in this kind of place. Nevertheless he does his best to help Bertelis find their way again.

Spoiler

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Perception 63: (d100)[72]
Fortune: (d100)[25]

[bramblefoot]

with much fumbling and no small amount of dumb luck, you do actually find the trail again. its late afternoon/early evening at this point ,and the sun is starting to plummet over the horizon. ya got a couple hours of daylight max. wdyd?

[wilphe]

Keep going or find a suitable place to setup camp while we still can see?

[MrAbdiel]

“The latter. By the roadside here will do. That rain will have brought out the worms, and the worms will bring out the birds. I shall see if we can eat better than jerked beef, on this stopover.”

Finding a patch of clearing beside the road, the knight tethers his horses, takes bow and quiver from one saddlebag, and leaves the others to make their camping arrangements while he still has a lick of daylight to hunt.

Spoiler

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hunting vs 46 - (1d100)[77]. Failing that, he’ll head back to the camp, eat some miserable rations, and set up his best quality 2 person tent.

Mmmm. Deluxe.

[bramblefoot]

after a meal of jerked meat and water, you settle down for the night

are you setting a watch? if so, i will need the order, and perception checks at -20 for darkness

[wilphe]

Wighard
Grimgoth
Emil
Bertelis



Fire will be lit, but allowed to drop to embers so we have it if we need it but it won't be destroying night vision.

[wilphe]

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d100)[73] Perception 54 +10 if visual

[bramblefoot]

there are a few rustles on your watch, but nothing out of the ordinary

[LarsWester]

It took a two day journey and getting lost for Grimgoth to break his silence. He was in a very low mood since finding out that the "dwarven stout" was a passphrase and was no real dwarven stout to be had at the tavern. Still he figured trouble at a mine should be something a dwarf should see to and struck out with the others. When he rose for his shift on the watch he grumbled to Wighard shame about that stout. and set up getting his shield and armor donned.
PerceptionVs38 - (1d100)[11] with Night Vision to 30 yards

[MrAbdiel]

Bertelis returns with nothing to show for his effort; the same number of arrows in his quiver, and a little more hang-dog in his expression. The young knight is struggling today, it seems; a bad steer into the wilderness, and then a flubbed effort to cover over the failure with some game bird for dinner. He's quiet for the rest of the night; much less of the jaunty conversationalist. He makes one last effort to end the day doing something with a modicum of competence - wiling away an hour before sleep comes playing the fine wooden flute from one saddlebag.

Spoiler: Needless Flautistry

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[ROLL=Perform vs 47]1d100[ROLL]

Screwed the macro, but in the OOC it's a 45 - pass. It's a decent, pleasing sound.

...Then, when the time comes, he takes his watch.

Spoiler: Watch Duty after Emil

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[ROLL=Perception vs 23]1d100[ROLL]

Screwed the macro, but in the OOC it's a 45 - a big ol' failure!

[bramblefoot]

more rustling. a couple times you think you see large luminous eyes staring at you, but when you look again, nothing

Spoiler: grimgoth

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you do see a pair of large luminous eyes staring at you

[LarsWester]

Grimgoth seeing something out in the woods looking back at the camp cranks back on his crossbow loading a bolt. He also checks that his axe and shield are nearby. He kicks the knight in the leg softly. Wake up. There's something out there. He says softly.

[MrAbdiel]

Bertelis stirs, takes the requisite blurry pause to retrocomprehend what the dwarf has said, and shakes his fatigue off as much as he can while cautiously gathering up his own sword from nearby, making sure the rest of his armament is within reach as well, and that his horses remain unmolested. Crouching beside the dwarf now, he confesses: “I see nothing. What was it?”

[bramblefoot]

now you see it. a pair of luminous green eyes stare out of the darkness. they blink a couple times, then continue to stare. wdyd?