Agents of Cheliax Abroad (Inactive)

Game Master Molech

Holy cow Paizo seems to be finally up! I think it's been down off and on since Sunday night! Hopefully the bugs and imps have been permanently defeated.

Yes, the site was up and down like a yo-yo for a few days.

One thing I would like to discuss is using the information/paperwork we found in Phandros' wagon to gain influence within, if not outright overthrow, his family's holdings/county/etc.

Magnius is definitely smart enough, and well versed in such things, so would probably know how to make use of what we found, but out of game, I'm not so sure.

That sounds like a fine idea Magnius.

I will have another look at the relevant posts and turn my devious mind to the issue.

It will be easy to find those posts under the 'Monster Treasure' alias in the "Character" page.

And I can clarify when needed.

And "Non_Player Character" can refresh your memory of when the various Spartaco members have spoken and what they've said.

Obviously Manius Battori III is now one of my NPCs and I've been using him.

Hopefully posting the way I do will help you guys keep track of who's who when you want to check.

Going through those posts myself (for the first time in a long while), I'm wondering if they're too cluttered.

Do you guys feel you have enough of a handle on the various names you've been introduced to to start distinguishing between Charthagnion and Phandros, for example -- or Corentyn and Macini, or Carnacella Spartaco and Olivia Spartaco?

Perhaps we should get a Knowledge: Society roll and I'll put a post in the Campaign Info page that's something like "Longmarch Archduchy Houses":
1st: Chathagnion
2nd-8th: Phandros, Arvanxi, etc.
Minor: Spartaco, etc.

But I think it better, for now, if you just try to get power in Spartaco. Build a good base of influence here -- in the Barony you've come to usurp (or whatever) -- and then start to move up.

(And that's when Thrune will call you to the capitol for your BIG mission.)

The four NPCS in our current scene have confused me slightly, but that's in part because of the various titles used in Cheliax aren't something I am used to.

But I'm getting better at it.

Also, I don't plan on going after Phandro's holdings now. Just something to look into down the road. Be a shame to let all that info go to waste, lol

I just put up a little blurb in the 'Campaign Info' page on House Spartaco. Nothing in there is new -- all of the information has been given through NPC posts or other parts of Campaign Info -- but hopefully it will help end any remaining ambiguity and you can begin formulating ideas.

I am back. A bit sore from driving, but otherwise intact! I am going to refresh my memory on this game and hopefully have some useful stuff to say in a bit.

Posting in Gameplay after my meetings this morning .... a refresher to setting the scene.

Yay, Paizo is back up. (I tried yesterday but they were down. ....Again.)
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It looks like a quick read over the last page of Gameplay will catch you guys up.

-Barbazu Hall in Castle Spartaco is pretty plain.

-You told Vocaturo, Olivia, Mogranzini and Carnacella about the Bellflower Agents -- and added that some of Phandros' own cadre were in on the assassination.

-Countess-Consort Olivia Spartaco rushed out because she has to contact all the nobles she invited to the wedding and let them know the wedding is off.

-Your Diplomacy was a sufficiently strong First Impression, especially in a tense and suspicious situation, to make Count Vocaturo look at you favorably.

So,
.... You can accept a stay at the Castle -- presumably to get in the good graces of Vocaturo and Olivia. With the risk that sooner or later one of them will get a Sense Motive. And here you can certainly learn of what's happening *When* it happens.

.... You can attempt to come up with a pretext to join Viscount Mogranzini as he travels to Varni to speak with his daughter, Baroness Stella Spartaco. With the intention of moving quickly to the destination of your eventual power-grab.

.... You can ask about this 'Valsecchi' person the Count is going to assign the duty of hunting down the Bellflower Agents.

.... You can try to get in on the contact between Count Vocaturo Spartaco & Marcus Phandros and then Archduke Kettermaul Charthagnion.

.... Or try to get in on what Countess Olivia is doing.

.... Or obviously, just about anything else you want to do!

I noticed earlier that when I first described Barbazu Hall I said it was a painting of Queen Ileosa on the wall, oil on canvas. What a blunder! Of course I meant to say Queen Abrogail Thrune. It's corrected in the new Gameplay post.

(I'm DMing a game in Korvosa, my primary campaign -- obviously I had that campaign and Ileosa's name on my mind when I made the post.)

Hopefully you guys realized that was an error on my part. (Why would House Spartaco have a painting of a member of House Arvanxi on their wall?!)

I am not sure of what our next move should be. My main idea is to stay the night then head out to the baroness Phandros was to be married to and offer our services to protect her from further Bellflower attacks. Not sure thats very plausible though.

I think it's a good time to brainstorm a plan.

Start throwing out ideas or questions -- and certainly concerns if you really don't have any ideas.
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You have the room and can discuss ideas both in-character, or in metagame here.

We've definitely moved into a more Sandbox part of the campaign -- whether it's a question of gathering info or just coming up with somewhere to go,.... Everything seems to be working.

You've eliminated the possibility of Phandros joining Spartaco, which would give the significantly smaller House Spartaco quite a powerful ally. And additionally have a good introduction to Count Vocaturo. (At least, unless Valsecchi does track down the Bellflower Agents and learn what happened.)

Now it's just a matter of playing your cards right to build political power here, through the newly established Barony.

@ Alfred Ensbridge,

If you stay the night before heading out to Varni the next morning,....

1) Is there anything you want to discover here in the Castle?
2) What pretext do you want to use to go to Varni tomorrow?

I'm thinking that staying the night is also probably the best idea. Gives us more time to talk to the nobles, and/or investigate things.

Um, I'm not sure where the wheels fell off or where I've erred. I don't know if I haven't given enough lead or enough description, ....or maybe if I've given too little direction, ....or what.

But I really want this campaign to go.

Should I try to make this part, at least, more linear in design -- give you guys a specific goal,.... instead of a sandbox, 'gain-political-power-insinuating-yourselves-in-Varni-and-by-extension-Gher adescci-County'?

If you could give me some advice, here, it would be really helpful.

I was thinking you would come up with a host of questions and follow-ups, gathering some info, and then plot a way, any way, to further insinuate yourselves here.

Or am I totally wrong and you guys are just ready to do all that in Varni? And you're just waiting on me impatiently? Frustratingly?

What's up?

Sorry, I thought I'd only be out for the weekend but my wedding social consumed more time than expected.

As for my part, my plan is to stay the night then head to Varni under the pretext of conveying my condolences to the baroness. And then look for some pretext to stay there.

What say you Magnius and Yaos?

I've gone ahead and set up Varni. It's 'open' enough to keep up the sandbox design -- but early enough 'in time' to do something more linear.

I was honestly waiting for Yaos to chime in. I've done an awful lot of the important stuff in game, and I didn't want to keep hogging the spotlight.

Unsure what's happened to her.

Regardless, I am cool with going to Varni.

No need to wait, may as well either post an action in Gameplay-- taking the game by the ears -- or propose an idea in Discussion and give it 18 hours for a response before posting it in Gameply.

If we have lost Yaos I will Recruit a couple new PCs but I see no reason to pause Gameplay. I don't foresee any problems temporarily running Yaos as an NPC.

I'm sending her a PM.

Yaos has not been lost, rather temporarily misplaced. I have been having an awkward time in real life and didn't have the time and energy for re-reading some stuff before contributing when the campaign re-started.

I should have at least told someone what was going on. Apologies. Will organise a post presently.

It's all good, hope everything in the pseudo-real world outside of the Paizo Boards is coming back to normalcy.

Sorry if the Stella Spartaco post seems disjointed, I lost the original post and had to do that from memory.
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Stella Spartaco has just asked why you've come all the way out to Varni -- basically wondering why an Arvanxi and Battori would leave Castle Spartaco.

You're in.

At this point you can start to maneuver pretty much however you want.

You're in Varni, what there is of it, and the Baroness not only accepts your story but even likes you.
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We can go forward in one of three ways (or preferably a combination of all three).

-- I can go 'event-based' and present roleplaying and/or combat scenes over the next few weeks that potentially propel you, eventually, to prestige and power here.

-- I can describe Varni and its people and features -- what you learn in a few days -- and you can go Sandbox.

-- I can listen to your brainstorming ideas and suggestions, feeding off what you post. Then present events and sandbox-features to move the game forward on your specific interests.
For example,
.... If you figure making good friends with the Baroness is the best way to go, in order to get her to appoint you with responsibilities as advisers, let me know and I'll focus on that.
.... If you want to adventure in the badlands making Varni safe and propel yourself that way, let me know.
.... If you want to intimidate the Baroness into appointing you as advisers and rule from the shadows, let me know.
.... If you want to offer your powers to hers in order to aggressively expand Varni (maybe this is sorta like #2?) and make it greater than, say, Castle Spartaco in resources, let me know.
.... If you want to try to turn her against her family and join with her against them in a civil war of sorts, let me know.
.... And of course, feel free to give any other suggestions and talk them through.

We can segue a few days here if need be -- I can describe what is here, what you learn about Varni, and give you news from Castle Spartaco as needed.

You're in.

At this point you can start to maneuver pretty much however you want.

You're in Varni, what there is of it, and the Baroness not only accepts your story but even likes you.
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We can go forward in one of three ways (or preferably a combination of all three).

-- I can go 'event-based' and present roleplaying and/or combat scenes over the next few weeks that potentially propel you, eventually, to prestige and power here.

-- I can describe Varni and its people and features -- what you learn in a few days -- and you can go Sandbox.

-- I can listen to your brainstorming ideas and suggestions, feeding off what you post. Then present events and sandbox-features to move the game forward on your specific interests.

I don't have a preference at present. Once we have decided what we want to achieve and how we can look at this I think.

For example,

.... If you figure making good friends with the Baroness is the best way to go, in order to get her to appoint you with responsibilities as advisers, let me know and I'll focus on that.

This seems a good idea to me. Yaos will try to befriend the Baroness in most any event, become something of a confidante and see what she wants and what makes her tick. And why she is relieved that Phandros got snuffed. I am strongly in favour of doing this first, then deciding when we know more.

.... If you want to adventure in the badlands making Varni safe and propel yourself that way, let me know.

May be a good idea imho.

.... If you want to intimidate the Baroness into appointing you as advisers and rule from the shadows, let me know.

I prefer a friendly approach at least at first.

.... If you want to offer your powers to hers in order to aggressively expand Varni (maybe this is sorta like #2?) and make it greater than, say, Castle Spartaco in resources, let me know.

May be a good idea imho. But we want results for ourselves of course.

.... If you want to try to turn her against her family and join with her against them in a civil war of sorts, let me know.

My thoughts on this- not yet, maybe not at all. I want to learn more for now.

At the risk of giving our awesome GM LOTS of extra work, we could easily pursue several of the options, by splitting up.

Yaos attempting to befriend the baroness is a great idea. Magnius could pull it off, with his social skills, but I think Yaos is the much better choice.

Meanwhile, I could ride with any soldiers to fight off any 'monsters' in the badlands, or possibly convert to them to our side.

Finally, Alfred could endear himself to the slaves and servants, and work on them.

We don't need to necessarily overthrow or oust Stella. As the overall goal for this game is to eventually move into other lands, and convert them, our need for a solid homebase, with somebody we trust in charge, will be essential to our overall success.

I think attempting to make that Varni, with Stella in charge for us, is probably our best bet.

Sounds like a good plan Magnius.

We should all be able to make Diplomacy/ Gather Information rolls to gain further information while doing so.

I have no problem with you guys splitting up -- it won't create more work or be a hassle -- in many situations (such as this one).

As Magnius said, the best course of action for me is likely to stay among the slaves, servants, and commoners in the area, creating a general following for ourselves amongst the people.

I also think winning Stella over to our cause and using Varni as our home base is a good idea.

I do think that for riding off into the wilderness to pacify it we should go together. If all three of us become known as protectors of the area it will help with creating a cult following for us, and puts us in a good light.

Yea, we can definitely all due to the wilderness thing, but much like with Phandros' caravan, I'll work on converting the soldiers and those that are associated with them to our side.

Got it,....

Yaos starting with Stella Spartaco and any other House members and top advisers here in Varni,

Magnius starting with guards and soldiers here in Varni,

Alfred Ensbridge starting with those who came with Phandros and the common-folk here in Varni.

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I'll get some posts up for each starting Tuesday and Wednesday.

We may decide to use Spoiler tags for different conversations, not because I care if who reads what, just so that it's easier to manage the posts, their readability. We'll play it by ear.

Ya if the posts end up getting too long spoilers will be nice to break everything up.

All the sudden I'm super busy at work (Fiscal year ends in 3 days!) and won't get to Alfred Ensbridge till tomorrow. Sorry!

It may help if you think of a specific, or even generalized, goal you want to accomplish -- whether it be looking for a weakness you can eventually exploit, manipulating characters for a future purpose, gathering info on what life is like here so you have a bigger picture -- or whatever.

But the more you take the game by the scruff of the neck and move it forward, the better the Sandbox plays out. You can either articulate what you want to attempt here in metagame, or in Gameplay in character.
But the more understanding I have of what you may want to try or learn or proceed, the better I can choose what to put in front of you.

My thoughts are to identify weaknesses and conflicts within House Spartaco we can exploit. I am also very curious as to why young Stella seems untroubled if not relieved at Phandros's demise.

Magnius - The prospect of one of the human males wooing Stella into marriage was raised early on. Am I right you are not interested? It is an obvious course.

Got it, Yaos looking for weaknesses within House Spartaco to exploit.

And is curious about Baroness Stella'sseeming untroubled countenance at Francesco Phandros' death.

Magnius - The prospect of one of the human males wooing Stella into marriage was raised early on. Am I right you are not interested? It is an obvious course.

Maybe. If something like that is going to occur, I would like it to be as organic as possible. I don't like forcing my PC into a relationship like that.

Hey Ray, any chance we can get images for our important NPCs, or is that asking too much?

It's really hard for me.

The amount of time I would spend on one NPC is considerable, trying to marry the idea in my head to one of the avatar images on the Boards (or longer, using Google images search). Then there's the anathemic idea of cluttering up the Characters tab with tons of NPCs, so many of whom may not have a long shelf-life. It's a tricksy thing, guessing which NPCs in a Sandbox are going to last long.

I'll try something next week when the fiscal year is over and I have a week off from work -- with NO guarantees or promises.

I should be making a more significant post tonight or early tomorrow.

My thoughts are basically to let Toraen and others who want to find more work go. Give them their pay and a small bonus for their good work and cooperation and just let them leave. No point in keeping people around who don't want to be.

Ennahvail I'd like to groom into a person we can trust with larger tasks, she seems willing, and will hopefully be able.

Alfred will also be willing to speak to who ever wants to talk to him, and will probably spend a while getting to know everyone since there are so few people here currently. I'll let that play out how you want. I'll talk to Tad in my post in a bit though.

Yaos wrote:

Magnius - The prospect of one of the human males wooing Stella into marriage was raised early on. Am I right you are not interested? It is an obvious course.

Maybe. If something like that is going to occur, I would like it to be as organic as possible. I don't like forcing my PC into a relationship like that.

Fair enough.

Diplomacy rolls and such:

If you guys could put these rolls in Spoilers it would really help. So far it hasn't mattered as your rolls have been well sufficient to get a positive base-reaction-adjustment.

But there will be lots of times in the future where the result of the roll is uncertain -- and in my head I need to consider the DC before seeing your result. So if you hide the result in a Spoiler tag it gives me the time to consider the appropriate DC prior to seeing your result.

This would apply to Knowledge checks and all kinds of things where I may want to consider the appropriate DC.

Thanks.

I hope the Spoiler tags for these conversations is working -- though I'm under the impression y'all should be using them, too.

This way a Player can reveal the blocks of dialog for his or her PC only and read straight down the Thread -- for ease of use.

(And when the Player wants to read another PC's conversation, he or she can reveal only that PC's conversation and read straight down the Thread.)

....But we can also do the ole cut-and-paste for Quotes, re-posting the whole conversation each time. This will be hard for me time-wise. Going back to copy/paste the posts is a time-consuming task sometimes. ....Remember that after a certain word count the Reply button cuts off remaining text -- and doesn't include spoilers.

What do you guys think?

I'll use the spoilers as suggested. No need to quote everything, seems like a lot of work.

No problem using the spoilers for conversations, but then, we would not also be able to to spoil rolls.

Unless we kept them separate, ie the post would have two spoiler tabs, one for the convo, and one for the roll. Nothing wrong with that, however, just wanted to point that out.

You can put a spoiler in a spoiler.

Just make sure not to name the inner spoiler. Or don't name the outer spoiler like so,

There are a bunch more variations on how many you can stack and stuff but thats the basics

I'm going to play it by ear with you guys -- the length of dialog -- but will look for stopping points or times to segue when nothing of value seems to be about to occur (or is occurring).

I also want to give you guys time to get into character & develop background and personality -- and just learn about the setting and my DMing style, strengths & weaknesses. (Feedback Always Welcome)

But when dialog looks like it's starting to ramble on, I'll end it and move on. I may make a few mistakes early on, cutting off a conversation without realizing you were building up to something, or realize too late that all we're doing is talking about the damn weather -- there may be a learning curve.

So far, with the three current conversations, I'm looking for opportunities to let you get deeper into character, and trying to build up to some (hopefully) interesting bits about this place and its NPCs. Oh, and give enough details around here for you guys to be able to really start taking control of the game.