Ironclaw: The Will to Power

Game Master UltraFennec

An Ironclaw: Squaring the Circle game set in the environs of Triskellian, with potential to expand further. Focused on the intrigue and violence surrounding the conflicts between the rising Guilds, with a lighthearted base tone.


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Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

You're quite right. No objections here.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Good!

Anybody have particular preferences for certain kinds of stories? I have a few different ideas we could move on with for the next phase.


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

Natalia took Mystic: Elementalism as her free gift. (set up for the long term, I'm afraid.)

And if Quinn has left that book on the altar, Natalia is going to poke around in it. Maybe academics would help tell about where it came from?


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6
UltraFennec wrote:
Anybody have particular preferences for certain kinds of stories? I have a few different ideas we could move on with for the next phase.

Once I figure out what Delroy wants besides 'just doing his job' I'll get back to you on that.

In the game I Skype on Mondays, my Green Mage / Thaumaturge ended up in the Indicateur of all places. So who knows what Delroy might get himself into.


Male Wolf

Picked up claws of iron.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Oh my goodness, lots of sudden activity!

Happy new year, everyone. We began this in April and it sounds as if our first story is drawing to a close. Huzzah to you all for sticking it out! I have to say that this is the first PbP game I have seen which really managed to go places and even (hope I don't jinx it!) accomplish its first adventure.

And you're all awesome. :D

I can't help but think we'd be further along if I were a more reliable poster and once or twice folks have had to wait for me (though UF has been GREAT about finding ways around that and moving the story along for everyone else). I'm sorry. I will try to do better this year, I promise. Of course, well...'Try' is the significant word. :/

As may have been hinted at a few times in Rosza's narration about some of her minions having masks (and herself as well, though it really hasn't come into play beyond being mentioned in her very first 'Rosza getting dressed for the world' post) and knowing a thing or two about calling 'Stand and deliver!' in the moonlight, I was sort of suggesting that she's one of those young nobles who occasionally does unpleasant things by night: I initially described her to UltraFennec as a cross between Shakespeare's Young Prince Henry (who goes off being a highwayman with Falstaff for laughs, adventure and pocket money in the Bard's play Henry IV, pt. 1) and Hemingway's Lady Brett Ashley, the center of a group of jealous men who all fawn over her, but who is horribly fickle, even with the only one she truly loves back, unwilling to commit herself, in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.

If you are an English Lit student, you probably want to strangle me by now.

Anyway, so I have been from an early stage looking seriously at Rosza Juette picking up Highwayman as a second career...She has Dilettante's Trappings, of course, Presence would suit her all too well as a burgeoning skill, and so on.

Having said that, I realize that such a choice could impact the campaign...Possibly adversely in the opinion of some players... Streetwise seems a very valid choice for her to pick up with all this mucking about with smugglers, embezzlers, and the underworld of Triskellian, but I don't know if people want to be dealing with an urban campaign that involved a lot of such things, or if people would rather go out on a dungeon-crawl or other adventure.

It'd work fine for Rosza...She has political hooks and backstabbing relatives to spare that could be dragged in, and UF has a laundry list of them, besides which all of us might have acquired powerful enemies (or allies, for that matter) by slashing our way into one of Triskellian's larger thieves' markets, and Rosza has background reasons to want to start accumulating power and influence (which invariably means someone else is losing it or having it taken from them forcibly) in Triskellian...but I would like other peoples' opinions, because the way Rosza acts as a sort of hot-headed social Face (noting Natalia's player who commented that Rosza sort of 'assumes she is in the lead' -- not helped by the internal sense of justification that this is Lissemanteau business and she and Natalia are the only nobles, therefore de facto as well as de jure in charge), and the way the Gift Gang of Irregulars works (potentially VERY powerful...Note Rosza's minions killed two and put two others to rout without her successfully sticking a sword into anyone, plus they have been useful for rolls in the city to find out/organize/orchestrate things), I'm forever worrying that I'm being an upstaging pain in the butt anyway.

So having blathered all that, I really am eager to see what others want to do before committing, myself.

And off I go to write A POST! Huzzah!


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

In order....

I wish it hadn't taken us this long to get here, but there were plenty of hiccups along the way. Some avoidable, some not, but now I can finally use my other ideas! YEY!

You don't actually have to go off and be a Ransacker of the Ways on camera if you think it'd bother people, and the skill help will be useful most times anyway. Hell, it might come in handy if we need to bluff some unscrupulous git someday.

I have an English degree, and do not want to strangle you. :)

Note: You are in Harrowgate, and have a Phelan Atavist with you. You have kind of made enemies by default if anyone in the city connects y'all with this. :D Because obviously you weren't doing vigilante justice, you're in cahoots with those savages! And a daughter of a noble house of Bisclavret lands in your company no less! XD

Let me be clear: this is probably the only legit dungeon-crawl you'll ever do unless the group as a whole really, really needs to go plunging into Autarch ruins for some reason. The guilds and their wars are still the focus here.

GoI is less powerful when you realize that as soon as a gang member does something "heavy" for you, or you can't pay them enough to stick around for whatever reason, they disappear for at least a Chapter. Which has just happened. Although they'll be back next adventure ANYWAY, it won't be right on the button.

Don't worry about upstaging people. You have the swagger and the drama that compliments the more cautious and morose nature of most of the group!


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

I also swear that after that last post I am not using the cliche "ancient evil revived" plot that afflicts so many otherwise good fantasy stories.


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

Rosza doesn't see me as noble! :(


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

Quinn: Not to hurt your feelings, but Natalia doesn't see you as a Noble either; in the sense of being from one of the Calabrese noble houses. But that is more Calabrese nearsightedness than obvious slight, Natalia just doesn't understand that you are a noble in your counrty.

Delroy: How mean, not asking for Natalia's help with Academics, a Dunwasser specialty. (;_;)


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6
Natalia Ivanova wrote:
Delroy: How mean, not asking for Natalia's help with Academics, a Dunwasser specialty. (;_;)

My bad. I was hoping to see the religious side of it, Feel free to take offense in character, it'll make for good RP.


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

Well I was mostly joking, but sometimes I forget that in fantasy games, commoners with swords/authority/combat ability/air of superiority, are suddenly very common.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Quinn does have a sword, yes, and swords may be common, yes, but as per the discussion in the Tavern, Rosza is sort of 'withholding judgement' on Quinn, because Quinn claimed some sort of nobility and acted as if she were on an equal footing with Natalia and _above_ James (who dammit, I wish had not quit, because I, for one, was enjoying the roleplayed interaction).

As I see Rosza's attitude, it's sort of...Quinn claims to be some sort of noble but is from across the sea, far far away. She's polite, and seems to have some idea of honor, that's good. But it's not like if Rosza picks a fight with Quinn and kills her somehow an entire House of tigers will mobilize and threaten the Lissemanteau, causing the Lissemanteau to box Rosza's ears or offer them her head on a platter to prevent some sort of unfortunate political incident.

Whereas if Rosza did something truly untoward to Natalia, the Repense, despite being a 'minor' House are still a HOUSE and almost certainly Rosza would have to answer for the slight on some political level or other.

Contrast that to people like, say, Delroy. If Rosza did something heinous to Delroy but stayed within the bounds of noble behavior (characterized it as reprisal for some perceived slight against her own honor, for instance) the church might harrumph, and Rosza might have a great deal of trouble getting blessings or witch-finder help for the rest of her life, but unless it was provably criminal to other nobles, she would unlikely be officially excommunicated, and the church certainly wouldn't lean on House Lissemanteau with any real pressure to make them correct their wayward child. Or Ceallach, who might cause various weird wild wolves to come after her, but that sort of uncouth savage behavior can happen no matter what civilized people do, so it again is NOT a political matter for the Lissemanteau.

Or, well, James, who could be mugged and left in a ditch and probably most of the world wouldn't notice except his shipmates...And again, they would have little to say about the matter and certainly it wouldn't affect Rosza's standing in the nobility or her House.

Therefore in a fashion, Rosza is wary of offending Quinn unnecessarily because she's not quite sure whether or not Quinn has political clout, somewhere ELSE, but she's not going to bow and scrape to avoid a direct confrontation like she might if she trod on Natalia's wingtips.

Admittedly, that'd be more because Natalia is a friend, but still, you see the point. Quinn isn't a part of an immediately recognized political entity that might be an issue to the political entity that Rosza is a part of. Her 'House' has no authority to speak of in Triskellian, save maybe an embassy or some such...As opposed to the Repense, Lissemanteau, etc...

And it is almost three AM and I am rambling, probably unnecessarily.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Okay, so in regards to the freebie, Rosza will be picking up Rider's Trappings as her 'has always had it' Gift, because due to its 'renewable' nature it seems an odd thing for her to pick up during the campaign-so-far (as opposed to Streetwise, which she arguably has had more than a little to do with):

Background and Roleplay Details, More NPC Ideas.:
Upon her initial arrival in Triskellian, Rosza was involved in a bit of a misunderstanding with several other gentlecreatures of fortune on the High Road, and ended up swiping their spare mounts due to a disagreement with them over the division of tasks and coin. This resulted in her coming into town with a string of no less than a dozen palfreys which had been stolen less than a week before from a stable owned by a group of Plessis with financial ties to the Lissemanteau, and as soon as she became aware of this she returned them to their original owner. This had the dual effect of directly ingratiating herself on a personal basis with the stablehands and getting the stable owners out of imminent default on their debt to the Lissemanteau due to a loss of stock, and while some of the accountants of House Lissemanteau were, perhaps, disappointed, it was treated on the whole with a glad-handed air of 'See how well we take care of you?' Due to this incident, Rosza has an exceptionally valued relationship with the owners of said stable, including a favorite palfrey which is nominally reserved for her (it is occasionally rented at a high rate, but in such a case she can lay hands on another one, or possibly, once she is a more accomplished rider and if she's on Lissemanteau business and can insinuate a need, a destrier) as well as having her own set-aside riding accoutrements on indefinite loan (although they are not, strictly speaking, her own possessions...which is why they never seem to get sold to pay for a night's entertainment or seized as collateral against her debts).

And so you can add to Rosza's list of Persons of Interest a set of highwaymen who might react badly upon recognizing her (some of whom might well be other Nobles-Without-Accounts but for different noble houses (or even Lissemanteau!)), a few Lissemanteau moneylenders who might peevishly feel that she owes them something for not permiting the stable to default into their ownership, and any number of commoners who might have business with a stable.

After that, the plan is to buy 'Streetwise' as her next Gift, followed by 'Extra Career: Highwayman'. Then probably start up with 'Improved Ally'.


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

Hence the lack of the gift Noble, for now anyway, though truly that was because I didn't originally know about it.

Though I also thought I was making a funny, but it is interesting how it became a discussion.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Ah, I think too much, analyze my own character's ideas too much, and I have no sense of humor, clearly!

The new year seems to have revitalized things slightly, probably because people have some time off?


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

If you really want to take Improved Ally go for it, but as already discussed in PMs, I'm leery of forcing people to spend their Gifts improving NPCs (especially when they can't get the really important Gifts anyway). I had planned on giving Guillaume one dose of Improvement after each adventure, something to keep him useful as y'all grew in power, but still not directly compete with the PCs.

Does the group think that's OK, or am I stretching it too much?


Male Wolf

No idea. As I said I picked.claws of iron. Next up is probably the gift to negate reeling, then mayne guard soak or howl of a thoysand souls. At some point i'd like to move into the battering charge strike thing (the one where in the book he's doing some DBZesque fire punch of doom). It'll be my super move.


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

UltraFennec: I asked for some background for roleplaying.
Natalia would be interested in them, of course; but right now her interest is in finding her friends alive and OK.
If Guillaume picked them up, it might save him from Natalia's wrath (look, magical shiny!); but if they are still lying about, Natalia won't notice them until she's done with Guillaume (or someone else picks them up).


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Fair enough. I was just informing you of the current status of the scene is all, and being me and who I am, suggesting a way to keep things moving.

Either way, we're waiting on Rosza.


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

Unless you want to NPC Guillaume... he's the focus of Natalia's attention right now. (I know he's Rosza's ally, but sometimes Allies do strange things...)
And he could have picked up one of the pieces, if you wanted him too.


Female Red Fox

Hello Everyone. Sorry about my absence. Last few weeks has been kinda hectic. Went home for the holidays(First time in 2 years) and had finished with working 60 hour weeks before that. I apologize for inconveniencing everyone :(


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

As long as you can keep a semi-regular posting habit, I will have no problems with the inconveniences of life.

I do however abhor leaving the game to sit too long when it's not my fault, too long being defined as around 5-7 days at most, and I'm trying to keep myself from letting things lie fallow.

So players should expect that after a week, if we're still waiting on a response from someone that's important, and you haven't responded to my prods, that I will likely attempt to keep things moving and sidestep the necessary response unless it's absolutely critical to the game.


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

BTW: Somehow I see Natalia always giving Guillaume a hard time, and constantly teasing him. That is why all of the Natalia/Guillaume banter.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

It works.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

D'oh, players being smart and trying to address the mystery with all the pieces together. XD


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Dragging a bit. Madonna de Vieuxpont, we await reply.

And if not I think this will be the right point to wrap things up if nobody minds a narrated denouement. If you DO mind that, please tell me right now so I can zip us to that.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Madame Boat Anchor reporting in, I'm sorry.

I keep hoping that my life will settle down. I mean, in theory, the law of averages states that at some point it should at least appear to...


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

So...are we ready to move on? I don't want to cut anyone's important stuff short or anything, and it'll take me a minute to draw up a full resolution and intro to the next bit, so you've got a bit more time.


Female Weasel Dilettante

I'm good with it, though Rosza does intend to drop in on Cedric and Jacques as mentioned.

And I'm sorry, I have been so distracted lately...DID we find any sign of the missing shipments in terms of remnants, or just a matter of 'Nope, they clearly ended up here and got broken up/sold'?

Or is that your resolution? :)

I'm sorry. So much going on.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

You haven't found the stolen goods yet. I was going to get to that in my resolution. EDIT: Possibly because there was villain-chasing going on, but nobody logged a Search attempt anywhere but the shanty-town AFAIK.

If you want to drop in on Cedric, then I can put that up if I get good-to-go from at least half the group. Shouldn't take long, and I think I know how I can segue that into the next thrilling story of action and adventure, yadda yadda.


Female Red Fox

How long would you say using my healing prayer would take?


Female Bat : Star Elementalist

I want to threaten Cedric too! Because the image of a small child-like bat threatening anyone is just funny.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

@Javiera: Um, the rules for it should specify a time, and if they don't...probably short enough that you don't need to worry overmuch about it outside of combat. Just write out some taking-action and we'll be good.


Female Red Fox

It does, 5 minutes, sorry. Didn't see that earlier.

At least it zaps hurt from any injured people around for the prayer.


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

I will certainly go see Cedric with everyone else, also keeping an eye out for stolen things on our way out.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

I'll start hammering away at that then. Should have time enough to put it up later today, but keep your fingers crossed.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Agh, 'Jacques'. Rosza meant JEAN-Yves.

This is one of those games which is quite fun to read from the start, but I hadn't done so in a while. Mea culpa.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

I wouldn't worry, it's totally in character isn't it? He's just a messenger bird, and most definitely a peasant.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Just to verify, noone found the missing goods on the way out?

Also, there are a few things Rosza would like to have taken care of before dropping in on Cedric. Birds travel faster than coaches. I'll be writing that up in the next little while.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Nope. There is a reason for that. ;)


Female Weasel Dilettante

Addendum:

Paizo seems to be doing that stupid 'Oh, I will assume you meant to close the OOC tag after the first paragraph and ignore the closing tag after the last one.' thing again.


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4

Yeah it's never stopped doing that for me. :(

I just kinda swing with it and triple check my tags before posting. But I have time to do that most days. Still, good ideas there. And you've given me something I can work with for later, even if you didn't intend it...which means of course I'm speaking of something other than Jean-Yves...MWAHAHAHAHAHA *choke*

In an only slightly related note, you should find the opening for the Second Ironclaw Serial Adventure (title pending) rather interesting. :)


Female Weasel Dilettante

It's all BEEN rather interesting! Seriously, you run a fun game.

As for the plot hooks, By now, between Rosza's initial character app, our conversations, the additional RP ideas and NPCs I attached to Rosza's 'free' Gift a few weeks ago, et al., you've got a whole mob of Rosza-connected NPC possibilities and I'd hope most of those have semi-evident hooks attached.

I seriously try to make more opportunities as a game goes on. And I figured Rosza's trying to score some points with her House; plus establish some active NPC connections who have reason to feel some degree of either loyalty, fear or both to her; and it makes sense for her to try to wheedle a little extra help when storming the ca...er, shaking down Cedric.

EDIT: Pffff. Paizo, you sillies. No strikeout?


Male Wolf

This is obe of those times when I really don't know how to deal with Ceallach.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Frustrated at being stuck in a tiny box on wheels? Grumpy at Rosza's going on about silly city-dweller concerns? Irritable at her incessant scribbling of lines and stacking of paper leaves? I don't know what Ceallach's goal is, so I don't know if he's feeling closer to completing it, or further than ever? Maybe consider what he expects or doesn't expect to happen?

I recommend that you don't treat him like you have to be careful with him for the party's sake. I wish James had stuck around because honestly I thought there was some very characterful roleplay on the parts of everyone involved (including Ceallach :D) in that little bit of inner-party conflict. It gave a lot of early life to the characters and set up some definite ideas of how they interact, IMHO. Rosza doesn't understand magic, but is beginning to understand that her small friend doesn't need her protection...But Rosza is the sort to jump into anything that threatens her friends and come down on it with both boots. Quinn was puzzled and angry at the lack of respect, but took cues from people around her and reacted in a mostly calm manner. We saw the first elements of Natalia's anger at being sidelined or treated as helpless, and the sort of way she escalated from pleasant to sweetly sarcastic threats. Delroy became the peacemaker and negotiator of the group. James was, well, a stubborn and uncivil sailor with no manners. And Ceallach was the looming, dangerous barbarian who was entirely self-confident in his own abilities and the information he brought, while remaining dryly skeptical of the foppy citydwellers and their fickle attempts to 'replace' him.

Run with whatever you think might happen! :)


Male Hooman Utter Fool/4
Rosza Juette de Vieuxpont wrote:

It's all BEEN rather interesting! Seriously, you run a fun game.

As for the plot hooks, By now, between Rosza's initial character app, our conversations, the additional RP ideas and NPCs I attached to Rosza's 'free' Gift a few weeks ago, et al., you've got a whole mob of Rosza-connected NPC possibilities and I'd hope most of those have semi-evident hooks attached.

I seriously try to make more opportunities as a game goes on. And I figured Rosza's trying to score some points with her House; plus establish some active NPC connections who have reason to feel some degree of either loyalty, fear or both to her; and it makes sense for her to try to wheedle a little extra help when storming the ca...er, shaking down Cedric.

EDIT: Pffff. Paizo, you sillies. No strikeout?

Well thank you for the compliment! I always wonder whether it seems fun to everyone or if they're scratching their heads.

Plot hooks wise, I'm going to have to compile everyone's character-based hooks into some sort of document because they're scattered around and I can't remember all of them off the top of my head. Rosza's seem to stick around, probably because we talked about them quite a bit.

As for Paizo and the strikeout, yeah, they have some limitations to their boards that mildly annoy me. The people here are awesome, the boards...somewhat less so.

I've been considering putting forth a move to RPoL or RPdom or some similar site that has more feature-ful PbP facilities and doesn't cater to one game specifically, but I shouldn't do such a thing without the consultation and acceptance of the group.


Male Raccoon: d6 Witch Finder: d6

RPOL is actually quite good, The game can have separate threads per chapter, there's many more options available for text embellishment, including strikethru and color, though they're missing 'spoiler' though that functionality is replaced with the ability to place private lines within the messages that only specified players can see.

Oh, and it's tags all work like you'd expect.


Female Weasel Dilettante

Uhm, because I was foolish and stupid I can't do RPOL. Like an idiot, I skimmed their AUP, because I sort-of assumed it was like most other sites out there...and within less than twenty-four hours got myself banned because I tried to create multiple accounts for different games.

RPoL, like Paizo, is unusual in that it permits you to create character 'aliases' for different games, apparently.

And they are bloody hardcore about enforcement.


Tiger Taoist, Sworddancer

What's AUP? And why can't you have multiple accounts?

@Delroy
I would prefer spoilers, you can set text aside under a DC, and the players that make it can see what it says without waiting on you to inform them later. Also you can set flavor text or break up long posts, basically organize and set aside text without absolute limits on who gets to see.

My character sheets, or at least my newer ones, are all organized under spoilers for different segments of the sheet. Makes a much cleaner view, and easier to find what I'm looking for.

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