GM Niles Rippers Campaign

Game Master nilesr

Notice check: 1d6 ⇒ 4
Wild die: 1d6 ⇒ 3

The Russian takes a look at the coach, checking the undercarriage and the wheel that failed.

"Wonderful..." Carl mutters. "It seems that we have a shadow. Shall we attempt to lose him, or perhaps try to lure him in to a dark alley where we might waylay him and ask him some pointed questions."

"I don't believe in coincidences... if he is indeed following us we should try to know why. He may not be an enemy, but this does arise suspicions." answers Rasheed without even turning around

"You have a point my friend. Very well. Let's see if we can have a chat with our pursuer. I have a feeling that he's not going to be friendly, but perhaps we'll have our first bit of luck today."

"I'm sure he was, Carolina. Like I said, I have a feeling that something rotten's going on here... as does Lord Tristan. He's with Nathaniel now, tryin' t'get to the bottom of it, but I wanted to know if he'd been actin' strange at all lately? When was the last time you saw him, before yesterday? Was there anything... off about him, if you catch my meaning?" Unsure of how to proceed, Victoria sits next to the other woman and gingerly puts an arm around her shoulders. "If we're right, and something's causin' him to act this way, we're gonna fix it. But you've gotta help me get a clearer picture of what's going on first, okay?"

Persuasion: 1d4 ⇒ 4
Persuasion; Ace: 1d4 ⇒ 1
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Total of 5.

Mei politely requests of Tristan could hang back for a moment before they join the 'happy' couple, insisting that she was having a little trouble putting her camera back away. When the two are out of earshot range, Mei keeps her voice low. "The countess isn't as she seems after all. I hate that we were right, but that begs the question of just what...? Possession is one possibility, but..." She shakes her head in exasperation, muttering in her native langauge before switching to the more recognizable English. "I really am far too unfamiliar with the specifics of the otherworldly to know more without consulting the books. What should we do?"

Tristan nods, scratching Ajax's head as he listens and thinks. "Yes, well, it seems all suspicion is behind us now. It's time for action of some sort... But until we have a better idea of just what, or how, and until we have more of you healthy young folk here... We may have to wait." Tristan grimaces, then snaps his fingers. "Say, some of us were off to the Marshes' manse, and the others were directly to the telegraph office, what? Let's make use of this modern technology and send them a message. I'm sure Nathaniel won't mind."

Andrej

You inspect the carriage wheel and notice that it has been recently repaired. This isn't what catches your eye, the movement as you bend over does!

50+means1st: 1d100 ⇒ 67

A man lunges at you with a Knife!

1d4 ⇒ 3 Andrej manages to dodge aside narrowly. The man looks like a ruffian and snarls at Andrej.

Andrej, you are currently alone in the carriage house. The man is between you and the door. You are armed with whatever you carry normally, and your fists. It's your turn.

Carl and Rasheed

If you are trying to duck into an alley and lure the man inside, roll a Stealth check please. Otherwise, give me a better idea of what you are actually trying to do.

Mei and Tristan

Just let me know what your next move is

Victoria

Carolina hangs her head and sobs I just don't know what has come over Nathaniel! I was just with him not ten days ago. We had a joyous weekend in Exeter. In fact.. she trails off, unsure of how much to reveal to this newcomer. One more persuasion check please Victoria

Is this happening the night of the now-canceled wedding?

Rasheed keeps walking until an appropiate alley appears. Once that place is found, he would casually walk in and the moment line of sight us lost, he looks for cover to prepare the ambush as he draws his sword.

Stealth: 1d4 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -11d6 - 2 ⇒ (2) - 2 = 0
Benny. 2/3 remaining.
Stealth: 1d4 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -11d6 - 2 ⇒ (6) - 2 = 4
Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Carl continues their walk, making sure not to look back or let their pursuer know that they're on to him. He follows Rasheed in to an alley, then ducks behind a corner, gripping his cane tightly.

Stealth: 1d4 - 2 ⇒ (2) - 2 = 0
Wild: 1d6 - 2 ⇒ (6) - 2 = 4 Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 5 Total: 9

I think we're off to the telegraph office to shoot a couple messages off: one to be delivered to Victoria and Andrej at the Marsh townhome, and one to be given to Rasheed and Carl--surely they're nearby the telegraph office and can be found, they're a very distinct pair of gentlemen. If we need a Persuasion test to get to the office, let me know; also let us know if you want the descriptor of our actual message, otherwise it'll just be something to the effect of "Hey, things are happening here, please come when you can."

"Please, tell me whatever you can. I'm here to help." For a moment, Victoria forces herself to drop her rough exterior and give the other woman a genuine smile. For a second, Victoria looks almost ragged; once her demeanor shifts, the evident pallor in her face and the stress on her body is evident, and then she seems back to normal. "Anything you tell me is in the strictest confidence, only myself and my fellows will know; you needn't worry about it getting you in trouble or anything of the sort. Okay?"

Persuasion: 1d4 ⇒ 4
Persuasion; Ace: 1d4 ⇒ 1
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Total of 5.

Niles, when you get back; assuming Andrej were to shout for help or something (if he's at the house and not on his own the night before), would Victoria be able to hear it?

I'm back. It sucked.

@Andrej This is the afternoon of Friday 6/3/1892. The wedding was going to be Sat 6/4/1892. If you ever want to know what the current day is or what's been going on, click the campaign timeline link up top.

Carl and Rasheed
1d6 ⇒ 4

You dodge into an alley and quickly find hiding places. A few moments later a dodgy looking fellow in a black coat follows, his face looks like that of some sort of street tough with a smashed nose.

You don't have "the drop" on him, but you do have the element of surprise if you care to take an action

Tristan and Mei
The manor house is a few miles outside of town, I'll assume you get the carriage to bring you back into Staithes so you can meet up with the others.

Victoria

The young Caroline hangs her head and says sadly I just don't know how Nathaniel could do this...after all, we were wed in Exeter. she gasps as she realizes what she's said Oh please! Oh please don't tell Father! she begs Victoria.

@Victoria No, the Carriage house is far enough away that shouting won't reach the main house.

I can only imagine. I didn't have a good understanding of just how bad it was until I saw it made the national news, and then I heard more from there. My props to you for doing what you do. In game, I was confused as to how far we were from the others, so scratch the telegraph, we'll just meet them.

Tristan makes for the carriage with Mei, planning to head back into town to meet the others. If Nathaniel asks why, Tristan explains he'd like to get the others and enjoy a pleasant, full meal with his friends new and old.

Mei follows along with Tristan, happy to let him do the talking, and even happier to get away from the... whatever she was.

Andrej has a walking stick and a boot knife; since he doesn't know whether the carriage house is well-lit inside, he's got a lantern as well.

Andrej shakes his head slightly, then takes his cane in a two-handed grip and swings at his attacker. In the dim light his blow goes wide of the mark, though.

Fighting: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Deciding not to draw blood without reason, Rasheed springs forward, moving to put himself between the thug and the alley's entrance/exit.
The sikh then proceeds to point his sword at the thug and ask "What bussiness do you have with us? And don't try lying to me, we know you were tailing us. Answer the truth or prepare to face the wrath of Kangra Valle's Lion!"

Can't remember if Persuasion covers intimidation, but I lose nothing by trying. And at the very least I am "blocking" his exit.

Persuasion: 1d4 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 5

Carl and Rasheed
Is the alleyway one entrance: 1d100 ⇒ 65 No, sorry.
Intimidation is it's own skill iirc.
Rasheed springs out of his hiding place and points a weapon at the man.

OY! he snarls and then turns to flee!

Gonna let Carl get a post in. Also, Rasheed you'll get a free attack if he runs off

Andrej

Andrej swings his cane, missing the snarling man dressed in workman's clothes. The man responds by trying to fillet the Russian

Fighting: 1d4 ⇒ 3 the knife flashes dangerously but misses Andrej. The man eyes the doors and bolts!

Andrej you get a free attack on the man as he runs away.

The workman manages to dodge Andrej's parting blow on the way out.

Andrej Swing!: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 3

The dice module does not love Andrej.

"You two were married?" Victoria asks, a surprised look on her face. "I'm... was there a minister, was it all official? Was the marriage, well.... was it consummated? I mean, that just makes it seem all the more likely that something's gone wrong. Who else was there, is there anyone else we could ask about this? I won't mention it to your father, of course, but I need to know anyone else who was present. If they didn't notice anything odd either, then... well, I'd agree he must not be in his right mind. The woman probably has some sort of control over him... maybe something about that necklace?" Victoria muses to herself for a moment at the end, before pausing for her to answer.

Andrej

We are going to use the chase rules. It's a 5 round chase, if you haven't caught him and tripped him up (a melee hit) by then he gets away

Round 1
Bad Guy's Agility: 1d6 ⇒ 4 1 Success=1 Card Draw Jack of Spades

You'll make an Agility roll and I'll draw cards based on the number of successes you have.

Victoria

The woman turns bright red. Yes. There was a minister. Perlham, Peralhim...something like that. She looks confusedly at Victoria when Victoria begins talking about necklaces. She's not a ripper and has no clue about the occult

"Now, now my good man," Carl says, stepping out from hiding next to the man. "No need to get worked up. We just want to ask you a question or two." He lets his silver pocket watch drop in to his hand. "Now, why don't you look here and just calm down." He begins to swing the watch back and forth in front of the man.

Psionics: 1d8 ⇒ 7
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 6 Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 5 Total: 11

Carl attempts to hypnotize the man into complacence with confusion. Since I get a raise, he has to make a Smarts check at a -4 or be Shaken, which means he can't move further than his pace unless he gets rid of shaken. So that should keep him from running away effective.

Agility roll: 1d8 ⇒ 1
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Lacking familiarity with the area, Andrej struggles to keep pace despite being in better shape than his quarry.

Gah!

Carl and Rasheed
Rasheed springs out of his hiding place and points a weapon at the man.

OY! the man snarls and then turns to flee!

Carl steps out and with a few words 1d4 - 4 ⇒ (2) - 4 = -2 stuns the man. The Rough Looking Fellow looks around dazedly before staggering away almost drunken like. Unshake: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Rasheed you get a free attack on the man if you want to take it.

Andrej

Round 1
Bad Guy's Agility 4 1 Success=1 Card Draw Jack of Spades
Andrej Agility 3
The man bolts from the Carriage house, gaining ground on Andrej!

Round 2
Bad Guy Agility: 1d6 ⇒ 2 no successes.

Rasheed sees the man stunned but trying to escape and drops his sword, trying to grapple the thug to prevent it.

Fighting Grapple: 1d10 ⇒ 71d6 ⇒ 3

Agility check: 1d8 ⇒ 2
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Andrej catches a break as a coach goes by, slowing his quarry down and allowing him to make up some ground on the man.

Andrej
Round 1
Bad Guy's Agility 4 1 Success=1 Card Draw Jack of Spades
Andrej Agility 3
The man bolts from the Carriage house, gaining ground on Andrej!

Round 2
Bad Guy Agility: 1d6 ⇒ 2 no successes.

Andrej Agility 4 1 Success Four of Spades
Andrej catches a break as a coach goes by, slowing his quarry down and allowing him to make up some ground on the man.

The chase continues!
Round 3

Bad Guy Agility: 1d6 ⇒ 1 no successes

Rasheed and Carl

As the man turns to run, Rasheed grabs him in a modified chokehold!

The Man Struggles: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Carl and Rasheed can act, Rasheed if you beat a Fighting roll TN2 you hold him fast and he doesn't break away

Victoria

Are you waiting on something from me?

Tristan and Mei

Sorry for the wait. Did you guys want to do anything while we wait on resolving Andrej and the others?

"You're not going anywhere my friend," Carl says. "Why don't you calm down and we can talk about this like gentlemen rather than struggling like alley toughs."

Persuasion: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 5

The Russian has the man's measure, for the moment, and continues to close the distance. He runs in silence, saving his breath for the chase. I will have to work on chasing down prey, if I wish to be a true Wolfen Jäger.

In hot pursuit: 1d8 ⇒ 5
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 5

If there are any penalties please take them into account... and do inform me, I'm trying to learn the more specific details of SW to DM it one day ^^

Rasheed keeps the lock, using his experience to turn the thig's toughness against him.

"You won't leave without answering, sir!"
Fighting: 1d10 ⇒ 51d6 ⇒ 3

Unless we happen to arrive just as something else is going on--unlikely given the timeline of things, with Mei and Tristan having spent a few hours wining and dining and photographing Nathaniel and the Countess--I figured we'd just wait for these things to pan out. A necessary evil of PbP, but one we brought on ourselves by splitting the party so much.

Same thoughts here. I'm fine with waiting around for things to become less action packed for the others.

Andrej
Round 1
Bad Guy's Agility 4 1 Success=1 Card Draw Jack of Spades
Andrej Agility 3
The man bolts from the Carriage house, gaining ground on Andrej!

Round 2
Bad Guy Agility: 1d6 ⇒ 2 no successes.

Andrej Agility 4 1 Success Four of Spades
Andrej catches a break as a coach goes by, slowing his quarry down and allowing him to make up some ground on the man.

The chase continues!
Round 3

Bad Guy Agility: 1d6 ⇒ 1 no successes
The man slows down and Andrej (King of Diamonds) fully closes the distance, getting within arms reach of the man!
Andrej you can make an attack on the man, a hit will trip him up and end the chase. A miss and we continue the chase. His parry is 4 and his toughness is 4

Rasheed and Carl
Grappling is simple in SW. Grappler rolls Fighting to begin the grapple, Grapplee rolls the better of STR/AGI in an opposed roll each round to break free. No penalties unless they already apply to trait rolls or fighting rolls
As the man turns to run, Rasheed grabs him in a modified chokehold!

The Man Struggles: 1d6 ⇒ 2, but Rasheed holds him fast.

Carl asks the man a question and the man snarls and spits at him. Stay out of my mind demon! The Red Moon says STAY OUT!

Victoria

Tristan and Mei

Ok, Sorry will try and get this all resolved ASAP

Carl looks in the man's eyes for a moment. "Hmmm, well I have good news and bad news. The good news is that this man has likely no connection to the Countess or the Cabal. The bad news is that he's quite likely one of the escaped inmates whom we heard about earlier today. Would you be so kind as to knock him unconscious? I believe we'll need to deliver him to the police before we go visit this art collector."

Knowledge Psychology: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 5 Total: 11

Overhauling the fleeing man, Andrej takes a swing at him and manages to land a glancing blow. "You are better surrendering now!"

Hitting now: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Damage (I think): 1d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (5) + (2) = 7

Quick question: is it posible to use Grapple to subdue him totally ala deathlock? I'm considering it so we can bring him to a police officer, this man sounds like an asylum escapee.

Yes, you can deal STR damage with an automatic hit on your turn.

Andrej

Andrej clocks the man with his cane behind the head, the man crashes to the ground unconscious.

Andrej looks around quickly to see if anyone is about to question what just happened, and if not he gets the man off of the beaten path and searches him. How hard will it be to get him back to the carriage house and rejoin Victoria?

Not waiting on you, I got suddenly busy as I just started school. I should be back on schedule now, just very busy couple of days.

"Don't worry about it," Victoria says, catching the other woman's confusion. "Thank you for the information, really. I know this is very difficult for you, and your father... we'll figure this out, alright? I might see if I can have a word with that priest, but... well, from what you've told me I'm not sure it's necessary. Clearly, he had no intentions of doing something like even by the time you arrived home. The others have been off doing some other investigating, I'm sure between the lot of us we'll figure something out."

Andrej

Andrej searches the man and finds a sharp knife and 3 shillings. The man carries nothing else...

Are you asking how hard will it be to drag/carry him, or are you asking how hard will it be to carry him unseen?

Victoria

I certainly hope so. I'm devastated. Absolutely devastated...how could he do such a thing

Anything else or are you ready to meet up with Andrej?

How hard to carry him unseen.

Notice check: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Aces wild: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Total of 9 on the Notice check.

The Russian makes a mental note of the man's clothing peculiarities. How well do his outer clothes fit and match? That is, does it look as though he stole them from different sources and/or from people who were a different size than him?

You should check if his outer attire has any "shankin'" hole. I mean, he did try to shank you the moment he saw you.

Edit: Forgot that I did not roll my STR damage to subdue.

Rasheed, believing that the thug isn't but an asylum inmate, tries to subdue him.

Strength: 1d6 ⇒ 6
HULK HOGAN HAS POSSESED ME: 1d6 ⇒ 5

@Andrej Well, you are in the countryside so I'd say a 1 in 6 chance of someone seeing you. It's exactly as you say, the clothing is mismatched and ill fitting.

Rasheed easily knocks the man unconscious.

Andrej glances around, then picks up the unconscious man and carries him back to the estate.

"Well done my friend," Carl says, checking his watch before putting it away again. "Quickly, let's find the nearest police station and deliver him to custody. We should have plenty of time still."

1d6 ⇒ 4
Andrej
Andrej manages to bring the man back to carriage house without being spotted.

Carl and Rasheed

A not so friendly Policeman says What's this then? Bringing drunkards into the station? Better to dump them in the river I say.

"I don't believe he's a drunkard," Carl says. "Oh, where are my manners. My name is Dr. Carl Jung, and this is my friend Rasheed. We found this man behaving rather... oddly not far from here. When we confronted him, he started shouting about mind demons and red moons. His gaze is rather... unfocused and his behavior is was a bit... erratic. Having heard about the asylum incident earlier today, we feared that he was one of the patients and that he may harm himself or someone else. So we thought it best to deliver him to the proper authorities."

I'll be damned. the policeman says Let me see here. he consults a page with written descriptions of the escapees

Thomas Edderick. Deranged. Black hair, stocky build, scar on cheek. Well. You fellows did well, what did you say your names were?

"Dr. Carl Jung."