The Father of Waters

Game Master Fighting Chicken

Seems like there are 200 people, 50 are fighters, 50 more can be roped into a milita. The 100 remaining include the wounded, the elderly, and the young.

There are two censuses coming that will in game let us know the number of people and the amount of food that we have.

For running we can try and follow the Tooyah or head East towards Te-Moak. Cornucopia might be a mess but Te-Moak might not be.

I think abandoning the helpless will cause a morale drop harsh enough that we might as well devolve to an every person for themselves kind of situation.

Which we could do, if we want to turn this game into a small group of vengeful muder hobos killing things rather than a society level game :)

Personally I'd like to have as many live as possible, even if it adds some complications.

Te-Moak is more direct of a route, and is closer, than venturing to Cornucopia. If we want to save as many people as we can, it might be wiser to head to there first, then decide if we should relocate to Cornucopia after we are fed and healed slightly. Either city probably won't be too happy about 200 refugees.

Both regions have some significance to Naira. She was educated at the Engineer's College in Cornucopia. She was stationed at and working with the Engineers of Te-Moak following her graduation until a recent assignment brought her to Shadeholme.

If we slow our route for those injured and sick, it will take more time, but we will also be better able to forage and hunt to get food. I can conjure water really easily, so we shouldn't worry about that. At night we get off the path, perhaps hide in fog and leave a few scouts out to alert if anything comes close.

Get along in the wild: Move up to half your overland speed while hunting and foraging (no food or water supplies needed). You can provide food and water for one other person for every 2 points by which your check result exceeds 10.

With the sick and wounded, we will already be moving at half speed. The able bodied could likely provide for many of us, and if they can't, then we ration accordingly.

TLDR: Ration out what we can manage, play it safe and slow to Te-Moak.

Catching up on current events now, forgive me if my assessment isn't too great or has missing parts.

@Istiel below: They caught us off-guard, I say in time we return the favor, eh?

True , and considering Oios and Drazen are both Good and Istiel is sworn to protect these people, it would be a hard sell.

With the supposed destruction of monk's mound Istiel is technically already a vengeful murder hobo? Guerilla warfare against the mountain men and striking fear into them would apppeal to her...

Te-Moak sounds like a good destination. With the infirm slowing us down the raiders, who will most likely send a group age us when they realize we're gone, may actually catch us and we'll have to defend ourselves on the road.

@Istiel: thank you :)

You know what we need? Information. Suddenly the Divination sphere is looking pretty damn good.

FOOD
Imix still has Nature sphere: I was going to trade it out for destruction to avoid conflict with Naira, but after seeing the build I thought the Nature (plants) was actually less of an overlap. It can provide some marginal food.
Hunting is a great idea, but remember we are at the end of winter (at least as I remember) and thus everything around us is likely low on stored fat.

NON-COMBATANTS
They might slow us down, but long term they might pull their weight. Remember that this includes children too young to carry weapons, who eat less and will become productive later. It includes elderly, who might well be high level farmers or craftspeople. It includes the maimed, who might well still be healthy in some ways (a man struck blind can still lift what a normal person can). It includes those suffering a breakdown, and any of them could still be useful in more peaceful circumstances.

There's also the possibility we might be able to increase the speed of the very slowest. Iseult, for example, could be carried on someone's back.
I think we're going to want to carry armour, and a lot of stuff. Most people are going to be encumbered or heavily encumbered.

The Frozen strike squads probably include Barbarians. I don't see a way of avoiding those... 40ft movement and high con for forced marches.

Conclusion: I think we need to take the river as long as we can. With rafts we can probably travel 24/7, and hunt (fish) at the same time.

A parallel?

FOOD

The food from the Nature (plants) sphere would be nice, though it requires you to burn spell points like crazy if you wanted to help anyone more than the immediate party. Still, go seed-nova and you could feed how many people, 48 people at least? If we carry those bushes with us, in 4 days time we will be set.

Your call on that, it might not have too many uses outside this moment. Maybe a bit sadistic, but I kind of want to see where this goes without a magical solution.

If we hunt and move, we can cover a lot of bodies with food. If we have 50-100 able-bodied individuals, we can feed half the force just by taking tens on survival (and then some?).

By taking tens, this party alone can feed ourselves and 12 others (2 for me, 4 for Oios, 3 for Istiel, 3 for Drazan, none for Imix).

NON-COMBATANTS

They are also, I guess, people ;P I think the burden of 200 lives might outweigh whatever they both can and cannot carry. Take what we can, certainly, but if it risks a life, I don't think I'd endorse it.

TRANSPORT

If we can get some sturdy water transport, I could maintain concentration to have a storm behind us. Heavy rain'll give us cover from behind, speed up the current a little perhaps. If we have sails, I can push winds as well.

If a raft capsizes, however, given the weather and the general condition everyone is in, the occupants might as well be considered dead. We'd also lose anything our beloved two-legged pack mules are carrying ;P

Most of my gear is fairly water oriented. Fishing kit, diving kit, water-proof attire, a canoe, a buoy. Some of it might come in handy.

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Ah, good ol' BSG. That is an apt comparison. I was thinking something akin to the Trail of Tears. Either/both don't both too well for us in the end, let us hope it is more like a walk in the park, no?

Based on Domhnall's visions, we must flee. It seems clear the idea of the Flame drives the barbarians, not their leaders directly. We will have to kill the idea... somehow.

Of course, you all will not have this information until morning, but hopefully we can get it spread quickly enough to not waste time.

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On the subject of escaping:

We do not know how many boats are on the canal, but I have the feeling there will not be enough for all of the people plus their supplies. We can scout tomorrow to determine the exact number of boats, but that's not my greatest fear- it's the bird creature that followed us today. It WILL see everyone making for the boats, and WILL warn the others. The mountain men will be on us before we have even loaded supplies.

I propose we take the underground passage which leads into the forest, allowing us to move unseen towards the east for enough distance to break through the moutain-man controlled area and safely escape to the road towards Te-moak.

FIRST we have to kill or chase away the skin-stealer, which should be tomorrow's goal.

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Other things:

This vision was interesting.

"A fallen bird on Father's Mound, broken in half, while the city rages against the dying of the light. No message will reach the king."

Obviously it means we can expect no help from Cornacopia, but what of the rest? A fallen bird on Father's mound? Did something happen to the bird-woman in three corners, sparking a riot? I'm interested to know what you all think.

"Ai! A woman comes with comfort and a demon's deal. The river forks at her arrival!"

Is this Naira? That would be the simplest explanation, but what if it is not? Could there be another way about to be offered to us? (Secretly, I hope the Frozen send an envoy or something, so Istiel can punch them in the face. We need more diplomats to punch.)

TRANSPORT

If a raft capsizes, however, given the weather and the general condition everyone is in, the occupants might as well be considered dead. We'd also lose anything our beloved two-legged pack mules are carrying ;P

Ah, hang on. Hypothermia takes about half an hour or more in a healthy person. If we fish them out and warm them up (and the cold shock hasn't given them cardiac arrest) we should be fine. Assuming cardiac arrest is HP damage, even that should be okay.

On the subject of escaping:

We do not know how many boats are on the canal, but I have the feeling there will not be enough for all of the people plus their supplies. We can scout tomorrow to determine the exact number of boats, but that's not my greatest fear- it's the bird creature that followed us today. It WILL see everyone making for the boats, and WILL warn the others. The mountain men will be on us before we have even loaded supplies.

I propose we take the underground passage which leads into the forest, allowing us to move unseen towards the east for enough distance to break through the moutain-man controlled area and safely escape to the road towards Te-moak.

I was figuring we get everyone to make 5ft x 5ft rafts, then rush the water, get them in and tie them together into a sort of raft train. Should be pretty easy to make a 5 ft raft, I would've thought. Anything in a barrel can be waterproofed and rolled into the river (with a tie). A bunch of other transporting stuff will float anyway. Means we can move 24/7, but does mean our route is predictable.

I'm worried that getting 200 people through the secret tunnel will mean we get spotted. I don't see how we're not going to get spotted going east with that sort of size group. On land the Frozen can easily double our speed, and probably quadruple our travelled distance each day.

FIRST we have to kill or chase away the skin-stealer, which should be tomorrow's goal.

I agree - of course - but we can leave orders for others to do while we are doing it. Remember it may already have left.

ALL FEATHER
Man, right now, I wish we knew about All Feather.

TRANSPORT

Depending on the speed of the water, it might be dangerous still. We might also have limited control over our own vessels. My biggest fear with a water route is a lack of control, it'd be difficult to counter an ambush, react to a threat or changing circumstances.

Again, there doesn't seem to be any good options, just different dangerous ones. As long as we think out the options, I think we will be mostly safe, or at least no more safe than taking another route.

SKIN-STEALER

If I join before the capture of the skin-stealer, I'm going to be a great suspect for this (outsider recently moved in, chief engineer just died and cannot verify my mission or identity, only people who can verify my identity now are other outsiders). Imix might've heard a rumor of an Undine water-casting engineer in his travels, but probably not enough to confirm I'm not a skin-stealer.

Unless rain is this bad-boy's big weakness, I won't be able to add too much to locating him. Maybe I could freeze him, take them out of the fight for a round or two, stop them from escaping.

We haven't seen any Frozen with bows, right?

Except for that warband of hundreds of warriors shooting arrows at our fleeing villagers in the beginning of the day, no. :p

I just don't think the water route is safe. It is too out in the open, and we will be more easily spotted. The forest will give us line of sight cover, and scouting ahead of the main group/eliminating Frozen patrols will ensure safe passage to the road.

Unless rain is this bad-boy's big weakness

BP confirmed that the skin-stealer's weakness is punching. Istiel will punch it to death. With her fists. Maybe Istiel will punch it to death twice for good measure; again, with her fists. She uses those for punching, if that wasn't clear.

Amusingly, if Istiel levels up tonight, her unarmed strike will be considered a magic weapon, and its weakness MIGHT ACTUALLY BE PUNCHING. Cold iron/silver punching isn't until much later.

Man, right now, I wish we knew about All Feather.

THIS is the real information we need right now. Whose side is he on?! Can he be trusted?!

Imix wrote:

We haven't seen any Frozen with bows, right?

Except for that warband of hundreds of warriors shooting arrows at our fleeing villagers in the beginning of the day, no. :p

I thought that was javelins?

SKIN STEALER
Sadly all those things are also human weaknesses. Was hoping for something like kryptonite.

The warbands have a volley attack that is fluffed as javelins, arrows, spears, etc. Mechanically, it is a ref saves area effect.

Individual frozen could and do have arrows.

Re: All-Feather. A knowledge (nature) check can give you a bit of information. Anyone who wants, go ahead and give me a check in this thread.

@ the folks at the Meeting: Anything else you all are hoping to accomplish the evening of Gozran 20? If not, I'm going to move on to the early morning, and get Naira into the game.

knowledge: nature: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22

In terms of what we're hoping to accomplish, I think a lot could be handwaved. There'd be a lot of administration to get people organised. I think we want people to stay in larger groups.
(A) Do we tell people about the Skinwalker? Imix says yes. Toxic for morale though.
(B) Do we get people to start testing each other? Could lead to accidental killings. Might be bad for Morale.
(C) Do we tell people how little food we have? Imix votes yes. Morale is for the weak.
(D) How do we make Oios look like a really attractive target for the Skinwalker?
(E) How do we get the skinwalker when it tries to kill Oios. It killed 5 guards pretty much at once, so it must be terrifyingly good. It might require holy (ie +3 Suriname Enhanced) weapons to kill. I think Imix should therefore hand out with Oios, because it will also stop the group fragmenting so much. This also gives Drazan (as the best warrior) a reason to do so.
(F) I think we tell people to set up, and have anyone who can be conscripted as a militia, and paired with a (compatible) warrior to teach them the basics of how to fight. Will take a bit of work to make this sensible - people who hunt with a bow should be paired with archers where possible, for instance.
(G) We need sentries - enough to stop a surprise night attack that may be coming.
(H) Do we lie to people about how bad our situation is, or to give them hope ("I know where Earth is!")

A) Voting no , we want the skinwalker to be bold and attack, not skulking in the shadows. Warning everyone will just make it more wary.

B)Again no on the testing. Will probably end poorly.

C)Yes to the food. The skinwalker is a temporary problem , the food problem is here to stay.

D) Easy, if we want the skinwalker to target Oios, we gather everyone together, and have him up-front proclaim he is the new leader of Shafeholme, and will guide us to salvation blahblahblah

E) The same way we kill everything, Pinky; have Drazen hit it until it dies. On the subject of the guards though, wasn't one of them clutching feathers in his hand? The skin-stealer could have gotten help from the bird-beastman we saw flying above the scouting group earlier.

(F) Yup. Give people weapons, give them hope.

(G)I believe this has been taken care of by the Garrison captain

(H)No reason to lie, but Oios should ham it up on how important he is to saving everyone. It's too bad Rigel is give, a some good bluff and diplomacy rolls would have went a long way here.

Alternative: If we DO want to tell the people about the skinwalker, we gather EVERYONE together for the speech, tell them about the skinwalker, then have them test once another on stage while we watch. Some people are probably going to die accidentally, but it's for the greater good.

A) No. Same reason as Isitel
B) Same as A. Mob panic and lynching is not what is needed.
C) We need to start rationing so yes.
D) Yeah Oios is going to have to give a speech. Say Hamfatten is missing so Oios is a representative of Damballah is blah de blah. All the other leaders can be on stage and defer and then Oios swans around town.
E) Oios can have a retinue. Coincidentally the Retinue can be all the PCs
F) Yeah 50 actual fighters each getting a buddy seems to be the only way to bring the fighting force up quickly. Hopefully we have 50 long spears that we can provide the newbies.
G) Yeah I think the one thing we need in the meeting is to get Hamfatten to work well with the Captain
H) Omit information selectively.

Also what the heck happened to the magic person in the silkworm grove?

Thom? I think he's still there? No one has checked on him, but I doubt he's happy about the situation and I'm not sure what he can do to help. While Oios is dangling like bait on a hook doing the rounds, we could talk to him.

We still don't know what was in that bag he gave Rigel. I don't think anyone but Rigel knew about the bag either, so we can't exactly ask.

^ The PCs don't even know that he gave Rigel a bag (though I'm sure you're aware of the distinction, just thought I'd point it out)...

So, nothing else tonight (Gozhran 20) then?

Unless Drazen has something to do i think we're good.

Man that was a long, terrible, and fun day.

Yeah, hope Hamfatten and the Captain get along, though it doesn't seem like there's any problems on that front. How late is it? If it's very late it doesn't make sense to gather people together until the morning anyway.

OK, cool, I'll wait a bit for Drazan to chime in and move us along shortly.

If I move to quick, Drazan and I can always spoiler stuff in the past.

Istiel, I'll wrap up the Dom arc tonight when I'm at home.

Istiel, I'll wrap up the Dom arc tonight when I'm at home.

No problem. Domhnall has already told us how it's going to end...

You swear you can see a man, rail thin and standing ramrod straight, staring back at you, his face covered with an elaborate mask, lupine in nature.

FOX PRIEST *shakes fist*

I am so glad I can check my campaigns page for updates rather than manually checking this thread now.

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A.) If we have everyone knowing, people will be looking for the skin-stealer. Everyone will be accused, there will be no trust/

B.) We should probably save testing for when we have suspicious people. Otherwise, all will figure out what is going on, and we'll have a witch-hunt on our hands.

C.) Yup, agreed. Not like we can hide this either, they'll notice they are starving.

D.) Big speech would work. It does seem I am the only one with Bluff and Diplomacy though, we might want to figure a way to work that in if possible/reasonable.

F.) I agree, while it might not amount to much, basic training will at least get people in a better state of mind.

Oios is going to be using Intimidate for the hopefully short time he's in charge.

Huh, so between here and Te-Moak is a bridge full of barbarians? That's a bad sign.

Lost my post yesterday, sorry.

Drazan will hang with Oios for now for all the good reasons.

And so Naira was shot to death by our paranoid bowmen on her third in game post.

Thanks for playing with us Naira!

It could be only two posts, who knows what could happen before my next one.

Edit: Oh yeah, I'm a goner. Been fun everyone, but I feel the need to stick with my Engineer Pride here.

Quick question out of character, with Matla dead, are there any other living engineers in Shadeholme, or did they all die out on our mission?

Silkworms might make our refugees more welcome.

I think Imix and Oios are probably walking pretty closely together, if not actually together.
@GMBP: any problems turning up at the gate?

@GMBP: any problems turning up at the gate?

Done!

@ Naira, a quick check with Chukix by any of the PCs will give the information that there are currently no engineers in Shadeholme. It is assumed they were all out on surveys the morning of the attack, save Matla, and haven't been seen since.

Oops, Drazen and I posted on top of one another. Oh well, the result is hopefully the same.

"Better to have buttered and lost, than never buttered at all."

Hahahahahaha! Awesome.

Drazan of Peklenc wrote:

"Better to have buttered and lost, than never buttered at all."

Hahahahahaha! Awesome.

I could not resist after the set up with melted love. :)

Naira, a quick check with Chukix by any of the PCs will give the information that there are currently no engineers in Shadeholme. It is assumed they were all out on surveys the morning of the attack, save Matla, and haven't been seen since.

Sweet! I'll go ahead and add "Interim Chief Engineer of Shadeholme" to my resume ;)

Sorry for being late today guys.

Good stuff folks. I'm going to let you all play this out a bit, as it seems there's some questions you have for each other. Also a good way to integrate Naira, especially since you don't have any engineers in town.

This part of the campaign, I'm planning on running as event and time based. So, if you go somewhere or do something, something else can happen. Other things will just happen when the time comes.

In general, I'm going to need you all to think in terms of general plans for each day, starting with 'today', Goz 21.

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Also, my wife and I took the jobs in Texas, so we'll be moving at the beginning of September. Weekends have already been really busy for me, as we've begun prepping our house for sale/meeting with people etc., for the event. I'm going to keep things moving, and I'll let you know any delays looming on the horizon. For now, it looks like weekends are going to be rough for me to get a post in until after the move.

There will certainly be a downtime when we're driving our stuff to TX and moving into the new place as well, as I can't post these detailed posts from my phone.

Thanks in advance for the understanding and patience!

Congratulations on the new job!
Moving is always a pain - if you need time, just say so. Your posts are excellent - I agree that trying to post them from a phone would be impossible.

Good stuff GM. Moving is terrible but exciting also.

For Oios, who somehow is in charge at the moment, interrogate Isitel with Imix. Then interrogate Naira. Then, if all of that doesn't end in blood and ice, address the crowd to inform them of the new 'leadership'. Then stomp around town glaring at people.

Will have to decide how open we want to be with the people of Shadeholme in Oios' address. But we've got two significant bits of roleplay to do before we get there.

Oios: in which case let's be quick about it.
People could be
1 in disguise
2 contract-bound (need a cool name for this) and thereby forced to do it.
3 Skinstealers
4 ???

1 should be solvable with written tests on knowledge: engineering. That'll also probably get 3.
2 is difficult - careful explanation that we know what such things are and are happy to try to thwart them? Not sure how else to detect such. Possibly ask if they've signed a contract and have Oios "Detect truth" on them?
We need to be careful because 3 is unknown by the town.

Well the nat 20 on Sense Motive probably assures Oios of Isitel. Hopefully Imix can satisfy himsef about the discrepancy in what Isitel said.

Funny thing about the contracts that we've seen so far is that none of them had the clause of "Don't tell anyone you've signed a contract!" so just asking them if they've signed a contract is most probably enough with a good sense motive.

In fact the contracts are really being used as quite blunt instruments. "work yourself to the bone, kill your comrades, gamble till you die, rebel against the crown" kind of stuff. We can probably surmise that subtle nuanced compulsion contracts don't work all that well. Maybe becuase the more scope there is for interpretation the more wiggle room people find, or maybe even just fail to grasp, thus rendering the contract not really effective.

Don't know if GM thought of that but it's a cool explanation.

Three people with negative charisma modifiers get in a room and almost fight, who would have thought?

Bp- Congratulations! Moving really is a pain, but it will be worth it in the end.

Istiel's plan for the current day:

1) Not get clubbed by Imix.

2) Join the others during Naira interrogation

3) Find Telowo, ask him to get some men to remove Dohmnall's body from the top of the warehouse for creamation before it gets eaten by crows. (the monks do not put the bodies of those that have taken their second journey out to water, as the spirit has left the vessel and made its way to the crossroads on its own power)

4) Attend speech, stomp around with Oios and look for excuses to knock heads.

5?) Should probably find Suuha and Scree to deliver the (good?) News of Dohmnall's ascension.

Don't know if GM thought of that but it's a cool explanation.

Heh, no, your GM is not that bright. GM is just more a 'blunt instrument' type of guy. There's a reason I'm playing Juliet in our CotCT game. There's not a lot of nuance there.

I like what you've come up with though, so that's how it works.

Yes, totally, that's exactly what I intended!

Just waiting to see what you all do.

All the PCs are in the meeting room, what next?

Ah! I missed Drazan's post! I will have something up shortly, within the next few hours!

I am good to go to the meeting room with Drazan.