As You Command OOC

[JbeJ275]

What kind of roll would it be to see if her face reminded him of anyone from intelligence reports now that Cypher is a bit less distracted?

Hmmm…. Ideally professional skill (Spymaster) if you have it. But failing that gather information rolled with Int instead of Cha is the best idea I have, but I’m happy to hear suggestions for something more fitting.

[Waistcoatwill]

He doesn't currently have any ranks in profession (I've never had a character with ranks in profession because I've never been sure how to use it to be honest). I will rectify that next level. I had been pumping up gather information for him to represent that, so I could just switch them over if you think that makes sense?

Gather info with Int sounds perfect!

[MrAbdiel]

Should I be… taking profession: Hegemon or something? I feel like I’m the only one not paying a profession tax! XD

[JbeJ275]

He doesn't currently have any ranks in profession (I've never had a character with ranks in profession because I've never been sure how to use it to be honest). I will rectify that next level. I had been pumping up gather information for him to represent that, so I could just switch them over if you think that makes sense?

Gather info with Int sounds perfect!

I didn’t until I also started playing GURPS which also has profession skills but uses them fairly differently and skills in general cover more things. Basically, I’ll let you use it in many contexts relevant to gathering information on an organisational scale and anywhere else those skills seem like the most relevant thing.

As for Lanorak, you could always take Professional Skill: General or Admiral. Which I might ask for in more complex engagements to see how much control you get in your deployments or things like that

[Waistcoatwill]

That sounds ideal, I definitely saw him as effective on an organisational scale but terrible at wandering into a bar and chatting to people to get the local gossip. He'll need to leave that up to his more charming and charismatic colleagues.

If that's okay I'll swap the skill ranks out of gather information then? That roll would only be 42 without the skill synergy bonus.

Edit: @Darius - Cypher doesn't completely trust Sharkan, is it okay of he probes his background a little whilst discussing the missing woman?

[Darius Vibrtrar]

I get that, feel free to try.

[JbeJ275]

That sounds ideal, I definitely saw him as effective on an organisational scale but terrible at wandering into a bar and chatting to people to get the local gossip. He'll need to leave that up to his more charming and charismatic colleagues.

If that's okay I'll swap the skill ranks out of gather information then? That roll would only be 42 without the skill synergy bonus.

Edit: @Darius - Cypher doesn't completely trust Sharkan, is it okay of he probes his background a little whilst discussing the missing woman?

Feel free to swap those over.

Honestly, I just figured Lamorak would put all the loot in his treasury and ration it out as needed. An unexpected downside to having one party member being the designated lord is that loot may not be rationed equally. XP

In the meantime, I commissioned an artist to draw some art of Maiabel! Here's the updated picture!

Spoiler: Pic

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Also I kind of let this pass at first but this image is so great. I really love it.

[Waistcoatwill]

Cheers, the skill points are now swapped!

He's jumping on the possible Gift of the Moon shapeshifter theory as he's already suspicious about the potential were-tiger spy in front of him. Once he's managed to get a night's rest and prepare new spells he'll try to make sure there's no one hanging around their immediate vicinity undetected.

[MrAbdiel]

I did a scene-shifter post! JBE, tell me if I ever presume too much about my adlibbing descriptions or scene movements. I'm just trying to manage the way that Lamorak is sort of the nucleus of the scene, and to not require everyone to come over to him and wait politely for us to be done at a given time! ;)

Also, that loot. Did someone already do the split? If so, ignore below.

Spoiler: Loot

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4,000 Gold Pieces,
150 Platinum pieces and
20,000 silver
3 potions of lesser restoration
2 potions of cure serious wounds,
20 small vials each holding a potion of cure light wounds
2 potions of water walk.

Well, the coin splits easily enough 4 ways. Everyone gets:

505GP
37PP
5000SP
5 Potions of Cure Light Wounds


I'll take one of those Cure Serious and a Lesser Resto, since I'm a particularly high value target for our enemies and also prone to being isolated in the air. The rest...

1 Cure Serious
2 Water Walk
2 Lesser Resto

I recommend giving to Cypher, mostly because he has a Haversack to put them in/access them quickly, and is reasonably mobile, so he'll be a good dispensery.

[Waistcoatwill]

Thanks for doing the breakdown! Cypher can be team waterboy if everyone is happy. Have we had a night's sleep before this meeting?

@JbeJ275: Would a 100gp pearl for identifying the crown be available on the island? What about paper and ink etc for writing spells into a spellbook?

Edit: Since we found out about the disappearance before getting home, Cypher will instead prep Rope trick, See invisibility, and Summon Monster 2 as his arcane Dilettante Spells for the next day.

The plan will be to see if the hounds catch any funny scents they can track. If that fails he'll use see invisibility and Detect thoughts to try to make sure they aren't still hanging around on the ship and haven't infiltrated our rooms in the castle.

Edit 2: Once he is sure he can't find any physical evidence or immediate threat Cypher will focus in on the name 'Aulani' and any beings thought to be connected to the crown. He'd definitely go through all the motions of using hounds, see invisibility, and Detect thoughts first before spending more time hitting the books.

[JbeJ275]

Okay, crown rules are up. I'm not really used to much custom item creation even though I wanted ou all to have uniqe ones this game so a I reserve the right to tweak it if it's underwhelming or overpowered. It's meant to be powerful in it's versatility and significant but not gameshifting in combat.

Thanks for doing the breakdown! Cypher can be team waterboy if everyone is happy. Have we had a night's sleep before this meeting?

@JbeJ275: Would a 100gp pearl for identifying the crown be available on the island? What about paper and ink etc for writing spells into a spellbook?

Edit: Since we found out about the disappearance before getting home, Cypher will instead prep Rope trick, See invisibility, and Summon Monster 2 as his arcane Dilettante Spells for the next day.

The plan will be to see if the hounds catch any funny scents they can track. If that fails he'll use see invisibility and Detect thoughts to try to make sure they aren't still hanging around on the ship and haven't infiltrated our rooms in the castle.

Edit 2: Once he is sure he can't find any physical evidence or immediate threat Cypher will focus in on the name 'Aulani' and any beings thought to be connected to the crown. He'd definitely go through all the motions of using hounds, see invisibility, and Detect thoughts first before spending more time hitting the books.

Pearls would be, as would paper and ink though spells themselves cannot be bought in to copy at present. The hounds comb over much of the island, but without an initial scent to identify her with it becomes difficult to chase down the leads as they sniff at anyone who's just been outside recently. There are no invisible people. You detect magic throughout the castle and the army barracks to your satisfction, but it's slow and troublesome going. The islands is rather large and it's difficult to see how you could check the minds of literally everyone forcing you to focus on those in key positions.

Aulani is a common name amid the beastclans, you find refererence to a number of old sorceresses by that name, mostly from after the crown was lost. Seemingly they were all inspired by a friend of Narva Ad Enthyias, a contraversial historical figure, who wielded immense transformative power. No contemporary people of that name though and the history past that point is dry and familiar to you. It could easily be a psuedonym or even a codename meant to be recognised only by a few though.

[Waistcoatwill]

I've no experience homebrewing for 3.5 but for what its worth the crown looks great. Some very handy but limited abilities and good little survivability boosts to keep the head honcho in the game.

That search is absolutely perfect!

Cheers about pearls and paper. I bought some scrolls for Cypher at char gen to add when he got funds/downtime.

On the name, nice and mysterious. Is Narva a well known figure?

[JbeJ275]

Narva is fairly well known. Kind of the same level of knowledge that people would have had of Boudicca during the medieval period. She was immensely powerful, but eventually got exiled from the beast lands due to messing with some fundamental concepts in nature magic, and fled north where her story kind of cuts out.

[Darius Vibrtrar]

.... wait.... did we just meet a version of merlin?

[Waistcoatwill]

And she's seemingly not a cat person!

[MrAbdiel]

Let us know if Lamorak's wild demands are doable or not, JBE! :D And if I understand the crown correctly.

[JbeJ275]

Yep, that's the core mechanics of the crown. I was going to wait for Maiabell to raise any comments and make any rolls they wanted to but I think I kind of let that get away from me, at this point I'll assume they're serving loyally without much comment and take ten on any rolls I would have required.

[Waistcoatwill]

Samphire and shellfish, even this veggie has a watering mouth now! Our little home isn't so bad!

The saltpetre is really exciting. What do we think team, is it worth looking into how we can maximise harvesting of that and investigate setting up trade with one of those two? Not sure what the dwarfs can offer us, but if Stormkeep gave us some coin/guns it would be amazing.

Alternatively, Cypher could look into profile specific beast clan folk to try and get on side to prevent/assist against horse clan reprisals?

Nicking some serfs from the elves might help the mineral harvesting too I suppose.

@JbeJ275: Has Cypher had time to jot that first spell in his spellbook yet? Also, do we currently have enough expertise to start extracting the normal salts/saltpetre?

[Dusk Raven]

I apologize for not responding - time seems to have gotten away from me. You are correct, however, in that she'd carry out her orders without much comment.

[JbeJ275]

Samphire and shellfish, even this veggie has a watering mouth now! Our little home isn't so bad!

The saltpetre is really exciting. What do we think team, is it worth looking into how we can maximise harvesting of that and investigate setting up trade with one of those two? Not sure what the dwarfs can offer us, but if Stormkeep gave us some coin/guns it would be amazing.

Alternatively, Cypher could look into profile specific beast clan folk to try and get on side to prevent/assist against horse clan reprisals?

Nicking some serfs from the elves might help the mineral harvesting too I suppose.

@JbeJ275: Has Cypher had time to jot that first spell in his spellbook yet? Also, do we currently have enough expertise to start extracting the normal salts/saltpetre?

Either of the first two options would be week long downtime actions, like the ones we’ve just done with a Craft Alchemy check for the first and a Spymaster or Knowledge Local check for the second. You guys can choose how many downtime actions you take but other nations will also be both reacting to you and proactively doing things in that time.

You’d have had time to copy over the first spell, and knowledge of how to refine the Saltpetre would either be a craft (Alchemy) or roll a d100 to see if you got lucky and have that knowledge among your current forces.

[Waistcoatwill]

Brilliant. What do the team feel would be better to focus on?

I'll try the d100 roll just in case we get lucky as it might change what Cypher does.

(1d100)[41]

[JbeJ275]

Yeah, that's not going to cut it I'm afraid.

[Waistcoatwill]

Cypher has some limited skill in alchemy, +7 standard +15 once per day with inspiration, but if we need sustained craft checks then pet alchemists would be handy. The unseen crafter spell can help him go away for 8 days and continue daily craft checks to make a start whilst we abduct someone.

@JbeJ275, would that allow him to set things up and help plan the raid in one downtime week?

I don't think we should target the Vanadians if they are one of the best buyers for the saltpetre.

[JbeJ275]

Hmmm… I was going to say no, as you’re not doing that much of the craftwork yourself but with the text “ except that the unseen crafter can be assigned any one task that can be accomplished by the use of the Craft skill.” I’ll allow it to draw on your knowledge to instruct others with diagrams and the like.

The main alchemists are either the Vanadians, or a group of dwarves that live in fortified holds in that unclaimed area east of the beast clans, though I will point out that whoever you’re trading it with you will need some sort of route to effectively get it to them, or else a much more accessible market for them to come and get it from.

[Waistcoatwill]

So raiding for an alchemist is doubly tricky then. Any other ideas boss overlord?

[MrAbdiel]

… what about crazy rogue alchemists? Ones that are already prisoners somewhere for.. I don’t know, science crimes.

Are there prisons, in this world? Or do they hang ‘em all?

[JbeJ275]

There are work camps, staffed by prisoners of war or criminals in various nations, but these will also be somewhat protected.

Now it is true that both of these groups and indeed others like the Ordanans who have teams of talented alchemists do tend to want to maintain thier monopolies on alchemical products, and so wouldn't be willing to let a prospective master alchemist just wander anywhere there are better prospects. However even there you run in to the issue of your island being less appealing than most.

However, the task of refining the Saltpetre in to a form worth selling is less demmanding than that of making the end products they buy it for. If you're willing to settle for the second, you have a broader range of targets. From the undercity of Ordana, to Clan Marwolaeth in the beastclans. You used to have some in Marcelia, but they were all killed or fled during the course of the civil war, or else are going to be in the capital and better protected than elsewhere. It's an unusual enough skill level that you won't just be able to recruit one, but most courts in the land will have one you could take, and there might be a few private or criminal enterprises with them as well.

[Waistcoatwill]

Visiting Ordana and trying to recruit someone from the undercity and then stealing serfs on the way back sounds moderately efficient to me. Plus they might have an idea of how to open up markets with then Vanadians.

[MrAbdiel]

Visiting Ordana and trying to recruit someone from the undercity and then stealing serfs on the way back sounds moderately efficient to me. Plus they might have an idea of how to open up markets with then Vanadians.

That sounds like a fun adventure!

I’m not sure I feel like we’re stable enough to just start abducting large amounts of serfs. I think mass kidnapping will earn reprisals. But we’ll see what opportunity opens up.

Is such infiltration possible? Can we take the flagship near enough to Ordrana that we can make our way to shore and infiltrate?

[JbeJ275]

Sorry for the delay. RL stuff was slowing me down a bit. We've started the next expedition now so feel free to specify any preperations you made, ask any questions and lay out your plan for getting into the undercity.