Sundakan |
Well, he was being very cautious before, so I didn't think it was a given.
But whatever.
The two of you enter the building, Thetsu unseen.
From inside, you can see out clearly. It seems the windows are also one-way mirrors.
The baron sits inside on an ornate chair of blackened wood, flanked by four guards (who seem to be of a much higher caliber, and less savory character than the ones at his hoome).
"Welcome, welcome! What took you so long? I made sure not to use my usual anti-scent countermeasures so you could follow. Though it appears teh tracker has taken the precaution of hiding himself in the shadows."
The baron peers around 1d20 ⇒ 1 but does not spot the nearly invisible Vanara.
Thetsu |
"Cool. Most folks say nobles are useless but you're pretty apropriately paranoid. So what now?" Thetsu says while revealing his presence.
Sundakan |
Dorla looks at the Baron. "It's obvious that more is going on here than we realized. Can you please explain the situation?"
Apologies in advance (and behind) to Lemmy, but I planned this a while back and didn't feel like changing it.
"Surely you must have wondered why such a frankly boring and insignificant noble would be the target of such a skilled assassin?"
He stands up and bows with a flourish.
"I am the Blackthrone. Or, I should say, A Blackthrone, one of the many representatives of the office."
"I have been given the task of drawing out and eliminating this 'Silverback'. Of course, I'm a barely competent fighter, if that. I had planned to hire mercenaries, but fate intervened to drop a pack of wandering fortune seekers with a personal vendetta against him into my lap, lucky me."
"I admit, I'm somewhat disappointed in your showing back at the manor, but capturing a fleeing target with the sorts of abilities that have been reported is quite difficult."
"I have decided you are likely our best bet of capturing this man and avenging the death of Rosethorn. What do you say? You'll be rewarded handsomely, of course."
Donovan Egoblade |
Thetsu |
"Getting paid to kill someone we already intended to sounds like a done deal to me. Our partner will probably be pleased to know that both our planned methods of finding Silverback would have led to the same place. So why is he targeting you anyways?"
Sundakan |
"Well, my identity as 'the' Blackthrone is a bit of an open secret. Still unknown to the public, though most in the underworld know it."
"After he killed Rosethorn, we started sending men after his employer. I'd guess he sent Silverback to kill me in the hopes it would stop us from coming after him."
"Like most outsiders, I think he misunderstood the relationship between the Blackthrone and the rest of our government. He made the mistake of assuming that simply because we represent and control the criminal element here, we would not take offense at him killing one of our colleagues who happens to be the leader of our police force."
Donovan Egoblade |
I really don't want to be the guy who focuses too much on his character's personality and ruins everyone's fun... But seriously... Let me review the situation:
- The Blackthrone is a known criminal.
- The Blackthrone is willing to kill people.
- The Blackthrone never even introduced himself.
- The Blackthrone has never given us any reason to trust them.
- The Blackthrone wants to keep his secrecy but demanded that I allowed my mind to be read.
- The Blackthrone apparently never heard of "beggars can't be choosers". The way I see it, warning them was a favor! If they want my help, they can't afford to make hypocritical demands.
- The Blackthrone wants me to meet meet him or his men (well-known criminals who I have no reason to trust) alone, in a dark alley, in the middle of the night, in a place I don't know and where I have no friends or even acquaintances.
- The Blackthrone apparently thinks Donovan is the one being unreasonable.
Literally nothing in that list inspires trust or friendliness, quite the opposite, in fact. Both in and out-of-character, neither the Baron nor the Blackthrone ever gave me any reason to care about them. Knowing that they are the same person only increases my disdain for him.
Not only I have no reason to like, trust or care about the Blackthrone, I now sincerely hope Silverback succeeds in his next assassination attempt. We can always deal with him after the baron is dead.
Sundakan |
Thing is, he ISN'T a "beggar". You guys are the most expedient option, but not the only one.
You also missed the part where he's actually a government official, not just a common criminal.
- The Blackthrone is willing to kill people.
- The Blackthrone never even introduced himself.
- The Blackthrone has never given us any reason to trust them.
The irony here being all of this describes you as well. You're a dangerous armed man who's waltzed into this city in the company of largely unknown elements and started asking pointed questions about a matter these guys were already looking into. You're on their home turf, it's not really their responsibility to prove their trustworthiness to you since YOU'RE THE OUTSIDER.
Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way somehow? I'm not seeing how he's acting unreasonably at all. Not trusting someone who has given them no reason to trust them because they refuse to disclose even the most rudimentary information about themselves or their goals is ENTIRELY REASONABLE.
Third opinion? Scavion? Redelia?
Donovan Egoblade |
In hindsight, "beggars can't be choosers" isn't the best saying... Let's go with "don't look a gift horse in the mouth".
The irony here being all of this describes you as well. You're a dangerous armed man who's waltzed into this city in the company of largely unknown elements and started asking pointed questions about a matter these guys were already looking into. You're on their home turf, it's not really their responsibility to prove their trustworthiness to you since YOU'RE THE OUTSIDER.
True, but you see... I never asked him to trust me. In fact I even mentioned it's very reasonable for him to not do it. Also, we did introduce ourselves and gave him a reason to trust us: we went to his house, gave him information on the assassin, allowed him to probe our minds deep enough to know that not only we never wished any harm on him, we didn't even know who he was and even offered to help protect him FOR FREE, even though, again, we have no reason to care for his life.
BTW, just to be clear... This is not a campaign or GM issue. I really enjoy this campaign and I think you're a good GM... I apologize for sounding overly confrontational. It's a flaw of mine to get too passionate in discussions that really aren't all that serious).
I just don't like, trust or need this NPC. I see no benefit in helping him. AFAIK, we don't even plan to stay in this city, so I'm not particularly worried about being friends with the locals.
Again, sorry if I sounded angry or rude. It wasn't my intention.
Dorla |
I think the only real problem here is refusing to take the GM's plot hooks. Even if a particular hook isn't that interesting to a particular player/character, sometimes you have to follow anyway to see the fun rest of the plot. A player who refuses is just making the GM's job harder.
Chirrup pipes up in his little voice "Donovan being a poopy-head. Donovan won't help Chirrup protect HER, or help HER protect Chirrup."
Donovan Egoblade |
I think the only real problem here is refusing to take the GM's plot hooks. Even if a particular hook isn't that interesting to a particular player/character, sometimes you have to follow anyway to see the fun rest of the plot. A player who refuses is just making the GM's job harder.
I agree... Though in my defense, I did try to reach a compromise.
Chirrup pipes up in his little voice "Donovan being a poopy-head. Donovan won't help Chirrup protect HER, or help HER protect Chirrup."
Luckily, Donovan has a +8 bonus vs emotional blackmail. XD
Donovan Egoblade |
Actually... I only agreed to accompany Dorla and Thetsu. Then I allowed one question as a compromise. A question, I might add, that very clearly revealed that I had no intention or reason to harm the baron... Or anyone in the whole freaking city, for that matter.
"I value my privacy more than your pointless questioning. When *I* require your assistance, then you'll be free to make demands." says Donovan without any effort to be pleasant. "But okay, I'll join your babysitters and try to keep the scary man away from you."
Dorla |
Dorla lets Chirrup out of his satchel and he flies over to Donovan. Chirrup then continues singing his silly song about being glad to see Donovan while flying in circles around his head.
Dorla coaxes Chirrup back into his satchel. Then she looks at the Baron. "Do you have any more information than we do as to where Silverback may be hiding?"
Dorla has decided to just ignore Donovan's rudeness.
Donovan Egoblade |
"We don't. We are literally capable of detecting Silverback's presence when he approaches and Thetsu got his scent now... says Donovan, shrugging his shoulders. "It's your life he's after. You're the one that almost got assassinated. I don't particularly care if we get him tonight or in a week. Sure... I'd rather be done with this as quickly as possible, but if you want see if we find him before he finds you, I don't mind the gamble."
Thetsu |
"Hey Don, I know you really don't like this guy or something but he's gonna pay us for something we were gonna do anyways so can we get to the task at hand or are we just going to continue letting a teleporting assassin run around?"
"So yeah, what leads do you have?" Thetsu says addressing "Blackthrone".
Dorla |
Dorla turns to Donovan. Her anger is flashing in her eyes. "No, Donovan, you are not stating facts. You are continuing to show yourself argumentative, selfish, undependable, and picky."
Dorla then turns back to the baron and gives him her full attention.
Chirrup looks confused. He doesn't know whether to keep singing his song about being glad that Donovan is back, or to finish off Dorla's comment with his own little snide remark.
Sundakan |
"It's your life he's after. You're the one that almost got assassinated. "
Man that was really a close one the way SB shanked his bed when he was on the opposite side of the city.
The baron pointedly ignores Donovan and addresses Thetsu and Dorla.
"We do know he's not in the city. We've narrowed it down to a few likely places. Some caves and clearings. I'll give you a list."
Donovan Egoblade |
You know... How about we just roll Perception and Survival to find his hideout? There is no point in agonizing over where to go first instead of actually going somewhere. We have zero information on the locations, so we might as well just check them from closest to farthest.
Here... I cast Detect Hostile intention on myself and then take 10 in Perception (26) and Survival (15). I also have the Spirit Sense stance active, if that makes any difference.
Sundakan |
If you'd been at the Baron's house it would have actually let you catch him there. You can smell things on the Ethereal Plane, whereas Thetsu could not (and that's why he lost him).
You go out in the woods, and after about an hour Chirrup falls still for the first time in days. He relays that his tracker has been shut down, though the last tug was in this direction, narrowing it down to three of the locations.
It appears Silverback has decided to cut his losses.
The next location (a cave) is empty save for a bear that doesn't attack you as long as you leave it alone.
The clearing that is marked next, however, feels...off somehow. Donovan sees nothing, and smells nothing but plants, but the area definitely feels hostile.