Of Kings and Commoners - Kingmaker AP

Game Master RPGGGM

You really should pull Scarlet away, lol. If she gets a challenge she will send them packing (and earn their eternal hatred)

Maybe we should instead look to Galt for our "in time" inspiration :-)

Having read a bit of Galt, and it's antagonistic satellite Gralton (in the River Kingdoms) I would advise against that, Robespierre.

I am assuming by the sounds of things that Scarlet (at least) is heading out after the bandits. As Celyne is off-line for a little while (been in touch, her player is suffering through a back injury making it tough to concentration on gaming), I'm leaving her back at the outpost. Is Illthir going?

"Yeah, I know Angus. But my charge ran off on a wild goose chase while these guys can't wait to scoop up Oleg's remains for themselves." Scarlet fumes and then follows Numalar.

"We need to get this over with, quickly. We're just wastin' time at this point. The sooner we get to the mercenary company, the sooner we stop the Stag Lord."

"Ah cant' be waitin' fur ye forever, lass! Aam headin' out on tha' moorn come Nine Hells ur high water! Ye haur?"

"Yeah, I know Angus. I wanted to go today but- ERGH!" Scarlet basically pleads with Numalar to move on.

Yes she'll follow. Player is also suffering from new-job-fatigue so apologizes in advance if I'm a bit slow posting actual IC posts this week : )

"Yeah, I know Angus. I wanted to go today but- ERGH!" Scarlet basically pleads with Numalar to move on.

Numalar is mounted up and waiting for the rest of you to get ready so we can chase the bombers.

BTW Scarlet: Jhod has a lesser restoration spell prepared for you.

Assuming you told her about that.

Scarlet, finally ready to move on, bounds up to Shepherd Jhod. "Hey, Shepherd. Numalar said you had prepared something for me. I hope you can help me with this tick bite I got a few days ago. The immediate pain has ended, but every time I try to flex me muscles it gets sore. I'm not as strong as I used to be."

Scarlet's down -3 Strength.

lesser restoration: 1d4 ⇒ 4

After blessing Scarlet, the shepherd says: "Good hunting, and may Erastil guide your path."

And they are off.

Hustle and reach the bandit camp in 1.33 hours (the horses would get close to becoming fatigued limiting later fast riding), or ride at a normal rate and arrive in 2.67 hours? Note, Didymus and some others in the party have traveled for sometime today already meaning if you continue the pursuit the initial tracking party will have to force march sooner than Scarlet, Illthir and the horses they are bringing. (Link)

Illthir could use Song of Marching for free hustle. But ... That has the tiny drawback of her actually singing while we are trying to stalk bandits :P

Song of Marching will pay off someday!

Scarlet flexes her arms. They feel a lot better. "Good huntin' indeed. Thanks Shepherd." Scarlet follows the party.

"We need to catch these bandits, right? Well let's double time it to their camp already."

Scarlet is totally for a forced march, but she's also impatient. When are we gonna get to The fireworks factory the Mercenary Company?

I'm down with the Song of Marching. We can stop using it when we think we are getting close.

I think Kingmaker is one of the few APs where Song of Marching is actually a relevant ability.

It is :-)

Also since moving fast is fun Illthir has the Triple Time masterpiece. That one gives +10' move for one hour to 1/skald-level targets.

I think Sir Dog is the slowest mount so he'll definitely get a bump. Is there anyone else moving at his speed?

Otherwise she'll just boop somepeople at random

Right - chase time. Illthir thought to herself, a little sad she wouldn't have the opportunity to chronicle the heroic demise of Langrave today. Oh well there were other days! And getting the bandits responsible for the current mayhem felt more important right now. And so she readied herself and her horse for departure.

I think Sir Dog is the slowest mount so he'll definitely get a bump. Is there anyone else moving at his speed?

Aside from Sir Didymus there is Scarlet (who usually doesn't bother riding) and Luna. All three normally move at 40'.

Then let's slap it on those three and Illthir herself just in case she needs to run away from an angry Swordmeister in the future :P

Also dot since somehow this campaign didn't want to show up on my summary anymore. Probably just something temporary I hope!

"That song of yours will come in handy, no doubt. We can move as fast as Zokon's tracking will allow us to...and possibly be back to the outpost by tomorrow...or catch up with Makdoon easily if he departs before then - sorry about that, Scarlet...but we should really dispense swift justice to those who committed this atrocity if we find ourselves able to do so - that said, I expect they will move away as far as daylight allows, so we can probably safely use the song while the sun is up. We'll need to keep tracking during the night, where limited visibility will slow us down, so we'll be silent then, anyway.", Alia sums up the proposed plan.
Oh, do feel free to correct me but that's my suggestion-

"Yeah, I wanna punish them too. But we don't know how many there are and we don't know how strong they are. If we return with my Company though I know they wouldn't stand a chance."

"...I can't believe I'm the one calling for a cool head, here."

Alia calmly points at the ground:"I'm no tracker, but thats not more than a handful of horses they have. Certainly not too many to surprise them when they sleep. Strong? They could be. But that's why we're not opting for a fair fight.", Alias expression turns somber, "Not after what they did."

"We would best be prepared for more undead," Numalar mentions. "It would be the rare necromancer that only had one undead minion. Plus whatever was in that explosive... they may have more of that too."

Numalar shudders for a moment.

Too much yappy not enough slappy!

"Eye spy with my little eye something beginning with o." says Zokon as he reaches for his bow looking over Alia's soldier

I thoughr Alia stayed with Zokon or did you leave him in the wilderness by himself.. ?

Oh, I stayed with you, but I fully expect the others to catch up with us eventually.

It is afternoon when Numalar, returns with Illthir, and Scarlet in tow along with some [where 'some' and 'sum' both = X] horses and one dog.

Situation report
The bombing occurred at about 6am. +4ish hours later (should have been closer to 8 or 9 by the movement and tracking rules, but whatever, it was the best hill in that direction and you guys rolled pretty well) the forward group finds the bandit's camp. +6 more hours and Numalar completes his round trip to get help from the outpost (going a little faster on the way back thanks to musical walking accompaniment). Currently it is late afternoon (4pm-ish), 10 hours have passed since the bombing.

Numalar and Didymus have been traveling for 10 hours (a chunk of it slow, but still draining), Alia and Zokon have traveled 4 hours, and Illthir and Scarlet about 2.5. The round trip can be accelerated by 'hustling' your various mounts into nonlethal damage and fatigue territory. All the travel thus far has been over rolling, and more often than not, trackless plains. Rough hilly territory lies ahead. The party has an idea where the brigands are heading, but not their precise path.

"I don't think Sir Didymus can go on much longer," says Numalar.

"Shall we make camp, and continue on at first light?"

"It will be slower to track them then for them to run." Illthir notes and plays a low sad tone on her flute. This certainly wasn't improving the mood. Biting her lip she took a long look at the tired door before offering the rest of her thoughts. "Maybe we can try for higher ground and hope they are careless enough to light a fire? Or push into the night ... But I fear that camping only means they'll widden the gap tomorrow."

We could also try and continue to use Song of Marching. If they hear us it'll simply become a test of endurance which the skaldy song could win. Or they could simply make an ambush...

"Angus is leaving for the Mercenary Camp tomorrow morning with or without us." Scarlet grumbles. "Obviously I follow Alia, but we know where these bandits will end up: back with the Stag Lord."

"Eventually yeah ... Maybe we could race ahead and try to guess what path they'll take instead?"

It is afternoon when Numalar, returns with Illthir, and Scarlet in tow along with some [where 'some' and 'sum' both = X] horses and one dog.

Situation report
The bombing occurred at about 6am. +4ish hours later (should have been closer to 8 or 9 by the movement and tracking rules, but whatever, it was the best hill in that direction and you guys rolled pretty well) the forward group finds the bandit's camp. +6 more hours and Numalar completes his round trip to get help from the outpost (going a little faster on the way back thanks to musical walking accompaniment). Currently it is late afternoon (4pm-ish), 10 hours have passed since the bombing.

Numalar and Didymus have been traveling for 10 hours (a chunk of it slow, but still draining), Alia and Zokon have traveled 4 hours, and Illthir and Scarlet about 2.5. The round trip can be accelerated by 'hustling' your various mounts into nonlethal damage and fatigue territory. All the travel thus far has been over rolling, and more often than not, trackless plains. Rough hilly territory lies ahead. The party has an idea where the brigands are heading, but not their precise path.

So the plan? The people you are tracking have about 3/4 of a day's head start and mounts that are probably as fast as your fastest mounts. There are some slower mounts among your group and some of your group has been traveling all day.

I'm cool with riding on Illthir's song bonuses for as long as they still will work today. I don't know how long that is. But if we're done, we're done.

The next morning, with those songs going right from the start of the day we might catch them day 2 or maybe day 3. We definitely ought to make better time than they.

Song of Marching (hustle for free) is 1h per nsr (normal song-round). Masterpiece of +10 movement is also 1h per nsr. Illthir had 12 nsr per day.

However we are gated by the tracking-speed. If we push through the night and don't catch them by the morning the odds are good they'll just move too quickly for us to ever catch up ... Same issue really if we rest and then take a fair race.

Another thing worth thinking about is if there are any choke points up ahead between them and the fort. We might be able to race ahead and then catch them there since we don't need to track them. But that's a pretty big if and might.

Know:Geo: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

Illthir takes a moment to think on the upcoming terrain. Maybe she's heard something about the lay of the land?

Zokon tries to aid Illthir in her geographical planning

kn geo: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

"I'm for catching them and sneaking up on them and getting rid of some nasty stag lord resources."

If this helps them get done with this task sooner rather than later, Scarlet will try to help.

K. Geography: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19

Another thing worth thinking about is if there are any choke points up ahead between them and the fort. We might be able to race ahead and then catch them there since we don't need to track them. But that's a pretty big if and might.

Illthir takes a moment to think on the upcoming terrain. Maybe she's heard something about the lay of the land?

I'll refer you to your regional map for hints about the bandit's path.

If the bandits are heading to the old fort, Illthir, Zokon and Scarlet imagine that their quarry might be anywhere between the region encompassing the mysterious stones and lands surrounding the Old Sycamore by the end of the day (depending upon how far they pushed themselves and their mounts).

"So *huh* there's two main crossings on the Thorn river between here and maybe where the fort is. Unless of course it's across the Shrike." Illthir summarizes what she, Zokon and Scarlet manages to recall about the lay of the land. It was something - but it didn't really feel concrete enough to base their plan on. But what choice was there really? "Unless of course they go by where you said their old camp were - that's also possible. So we have an one in three to pick the right one. *Hmm* If I were a bandit I'd pick the southern river ford I think; it would make tracking marginally more difficult would it not? But that's ... not very certain."

That doesn't look likr they are going back to the stag lord at all if i'm seeing it correctly?

"Well, if the dog is tired, let it ride on a horse. We can't stop. It's tonight or never. They'll only widen the gap - it's no good if we can hustle with Illthirs help, if we are limited by the speed at which we can follow their tracks. They'll outrun us, inevitably. So we have to hope they set up a camp for the night, and that we'll be able to catch up with them during that night. If we are unsuccessful tonight, we need to hurry back to Olegs and see that we catch up with that mercenary."
Alia looks on ahead:"I know they are heading back to their master, maybe after running another errand or task, but that's no good. We can only guess who was involved, and some or all of the culprits may decide to desert the Stag Lord when a mercenary army shows up on their doorstep. Which means they'd manage to evade punishment for what they have done. Simply assuming that we'll be able to get justice once we assail the Stag Lords Fortress is not good enough if we have a chance to get them now!"

Summary: as said before: Tracking limits our speed - if we cannot catch up while they are camping for the night, they'll outrun us in the subsequent days - then it only takes some bad weather or a trail used by multiple different tracks splitting up again, and we will have lost them.
I definitely think it's worth trying, but if we find no camp when marching on during the night, the sensible thing is to turn around and go fetch the mercenaries - but at least we tried, in that case...

That doesn't look likr they are going back to the stag lord at all if i'm seeing it correctly?

Assuming that Zokon figures the Stag Lord is headquartered out of the old fort at the bottom of the map, then they are, as that seems to be the direction of their travel.

As a side note, Mivon, the place that Angus is traveling to to meet his mates, lies further southwest, in the same direction. The only trick in going farther than the old fort will be finding a way across all the water blocking the party's path. Angus is taking the long way around because he has traveled that way before and considers it safer and more sure.

"So *huh* there's two main crossings on the Thorn river between here and maybe where the fort is. Unless of course it's across the Shrike."

The party previously passed on taking the rickety bridge for safety reasons.

"I agree with Alia, lets go after them and turn back if we fail to find them and I think that the best path is the fastest and shortest, they want to get back to the Stag Lord and this is a dangerous place, how many things have we run into that have tried to get us."

Zokon already has all his stuff packed and so he is just waiting on a decision now

Tracking Mechanics: I am guessing that we are on firm ground and there are between 3 and 5 people with horses. Tracking them at full speed would have a DC of 18 as long as it doesn't rain. More enemies would reduce the DC. Tracking at faster than normal speed would be a DC 33.

We can also use survival to predict the weather for the next 24 hours.

Looks like Song of Marching allows hustling but not forced marching, and we need to make a forced march to catch up since we can't track at faster than normal speed. So we would have used Song of Marching for the rest of the group to catch up with Alia and Zokon, and then use her Triple Time ability to allow everyone to move at the same speed while Zokon is tracking.

We can forced march if we are willing to use up healing to restore the horses.

"Well, if the dog is tired, let it ride on a horse..."

Sir Didymus on horseback. :)

"That may work for the moment, but Luna and Scarlet both also are slower than a horse. But Sir Didymus has been running a lot longer than anyone else today. If Sir Didymus rides a horse, how much longer can we continue?"

Illthir has a heavy horse which can probably carry Sir Didymus and Illthir at the same time if we can contrive a way of keeping him on it. How many more hours can we use Triple Time?

"If we don't catch them tonight, we should be able to get ahead of them and cut them off."

"The map may show three crossings over the Thorn river, but there really only are two. The bridge on the map here," Numalar points at the "Rickety Bridge," "is not actually passable. A man leading a horse crossing it would surely cause that bridge to collapse."

"Which means that if they are returning to Heibarr then they must cross either here, at the main ford, or here, at the Thorn River campsite."

"Going to the campsite would mean cutting through forest, which would slow them down a lot, and it forces them to turn north. It is unlikely they are going that way, and if they do then that probably buys us an extra couple of days."

"Which means that if we miss them can head to the ford and await them there. If they are overdue then we assume they went via the campsite ford, and we can reevaluate then."

"Following Makdoon's trail means leaving the region for several weeks. As much as I'd like to hire them, I don't think we can afford to leave. And while we do have some funds, I don't know if we can afford their fee."

GGGM: Did Makdoon ever quote us a price for his mercenary company's services? And how big a company was it?

Illthir spent four rounds if we used both effects while catching up and I think that was the intention. Additionally she spent one round at the explosion.

That leaves 7 rounds

Triple Time is 1target per skald-level for 1hour per song-round.

That means three hours if everyone gets it. But Zokon is really the only one that needs it, the rest of us can hustle to keep up.

So if we can keep dealing with non-lethal we have 7h of +10 move on Zokon. As a bonus we can boost Scarlet and Luna up to 50' move.

So that seems like the most efficient way to stretch the song-rounds the most. If we can deal with the non-lethal damage.

Actually it's a really good point that only the tracker needs to move faster. Everyone else can find some other way to catch up.

If he's mounted and the mount is under the effect of Triple Time, then he can track at a speed of 60' without hustling.

"Lets get going then." Zokon gets to tracking and following the closest path to the forest as no one has said otherwise yet.

Survival: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

Kn Geo if needed: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

"Lets get going then." Zokon gets to tracking and following the closest path to the forest as no one has said otherwise yet.

Survival: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11

*Faceplam.* Taking 10 would have been a success.

Makdoon did call a price, we talked about that before. We also decided to hire them(because of necessity) and send the invoice to the Magistrate in Restov(because strifing against banditry required that course of action considering the magnitude of the Stag Lords operation). We had that discussion, before, and if not for the assault, we would have departed with Makdoon to go fetch the mercenaries - why the sudden change of mind, Numalar?

That said, I am not convinced picking one of the crossings at random and hoping they don't spot our ambush is very promising. We don't even KNOW if they are heading straight back, or are running multiple errands. There were undead on our trip to Bokken as well - chances are the necromancer was involved - the bombing of the Trading Post may only have been one among a number of tasks near the South Rostland Road they are to fulfill. We could rush ahead, wait a couple days at the crossing in ambush, then decide they used the other one and rush further on, only for them to use that crossing a week later.
There's too many random factors. We should do what we can to maximize our potential today, but if we fail to catch up, there's so many "what ifs"(each single one making us fail) that it's not worth gambling on them when we have mercenaries to fetch...

Makdoon did call a price, we talked about that before...

Sorry, I didn't realize that it was settled. Did the magistrate agree?

I believe it was talked about the day before the Magistrate arrived. Partially ooc as well, don't think he can read that :-P

Sorry, there've been a ton of NPCs lately and I've had a hard time keeping track.

Still, I think what we are doing now is more important.

If anyone were to ask the Magistrate about hiring mercenaries (on Restov's payroll), he would probably look around nervously and say: "Certainly not!"

Firstly, politically it looks bad if Restov goes out and hires a professional army (even a small one) considering the simmering enmity between Restov and the King Regent of the Dragonscale Throne. Numalar certainly would know this and Zokon probably could guess this as well. Anyone else would need a Knowledge (nobility) check (DC 15).

Second, it is potentially a lot more expensive than the 6,000 gp reward for the Stag Lord's head. The Magistrate is nothing if not a cheapskate. Even if the political optics didn't look bad, he would still get estimates first, and then he would probably give the job to his son-in-law.

Well, AFAIK the reasoning was that your charter commands you to 'strive against banditry and other unlawful behaviour' - I think the Stag Lords actions qualify. Stag Lords has a army in a fortified position. The mercenaries are a tool to fulfill the task given by the King Regent.
My mistake in that the Magistrate/Restov are not 'underlings' of the Dragonscale Throne...I figured he would pass it on to his superiors in Brevoy - which is what that idea was about.
As in, cart several wagons full of dead bandits there plus an invoice for the mercenaries, and the information that the bandit problem has been taken care of - for good. Mercenaries are expensive, certainly, but the potential damage to trade, infrastructure and productivity of the region certainly outweighs that cost...

That said, it was more meant as a question, as I was not aware if we changed our opinion. Last thing I knew, Scarlet worked out some kind of deal with them, for a family discount. Plus it's her good buddies so it seemed fair to go visit her backstory and give her some spotlight as well.