Daaang guys, some of us go to work! Coming back to 19 new posts just in gameplay and finding out that suddenly we're in parley. I can't keep up. :<
I've read up to the latest now though. I gotta agree that if we let him go free/alive after this we've made ourselves a significant enemy that we probably can't afford. Plus the deal that his lackeys are offerring sucks... they should at least have offered back the gold we paid, plus any info, plus hush money, lol.
From Bashiel's perspective, he's seen enough to feel that Devargo is guilty of terrible things: profiting off people's addictions and worsening them, enabling theft, killing who knows how many (serious human bone count in that hold), and protecting cultists/child kidnappers. As always he'd prefer to bring Devargo in, but would not feel bad about Devargo biting the dust here. Letting him go is out of the question, both from the guilt of crimes standpoint and the possible future retribution standpoint.
Since he's unwilling to talk about the cultists, we need some free rein to investigate his quarters and find what connection he has. So there's no good reason to leave immediately. We also need to retrieve those letters.
My vote is for giving these guys an ultimatum along the lines of: "Devargo is done for, you can choose to go with him by attacking us. Give up the letters and consider yourselves lucky that you get to keep the 550 gp. We won't pursue you if you flee after that and you may find some way to keep this place running with someone else in charge once we're gone."
@Quin: Good luck with your cat!
Also totally OOC: We could use some good old fashioned loot, and I'd be surprised if there wasn't a stash of it somewhere below deck. Devargo must be loaded, right?
Is Spiderman already dead from the taking 10 to climb up? He was so far gone and bleeding out... oh, but Varor still hasn't gone. More popcorn.
Quinlan was still up top, I think. So assuming his heal check worked, he should be able to stabilize him.
Yeah... that hadn't happened when I posted... or else I was too busy eating popcorn. :) Well, another reprieve for Spiderman. We'll see if this one lasts.
lol, keep it up peanut gallery. We'll have you in here before long, making the hard moral decisions with the rest of us. :D
He lives! For now.
Okay wow, I have a lot I need to say here so please stop the posts cuz I have to take some time to write this down, so then I don't need to constantly be refreshing the page to see if I need to readjust anything I write.
Okay, so I can hear talking going on up deck but I can't hear what anyone is saying because you weren't talking into the hole, and you weren't screaming it. The only reason I knew that Devargo had fallen the first time was because one of his lackeys screamed it, so I didn't hear a word Kalem said. I heard him say it, I just didn't hear a word of it. Talking to someone 10 feet below you, through wood, in a normal voice, is not the best way to get someone's attention.
So hey Bashiel, thanks for leaving me, I'm in scale mail so I can't climb up a rope without help.
And yes me and Bashiel are both morally and legally required to take Devargo in. While we were tied up before because he paid his vice tax, he has now tried to kill us along with his lackeys, meaning that he has no defense now. He was also fully aware that I am a member of the temple to Sarenrae, I told him this.
Just like with hearing things, 10 feet through wood is not a good angle to get a visual on a situation. Meaning that I have no idea if Devargo's alive, dead, stable, or dying. And yes I did release that channel energy to heal Devargo. Again I heard his lackey screen that he fell and he told us nothing of the cultists, meaning we need him alive, which brings us back to leaving him here. That means we get no closer to the cultists plus, again, me and Bashiel are morally and legally required to take him in now.
And now with that said to you can get back to talking with each other, I have a play post to write up.
Mm. Varor, there is a 10'x10' hole in the middle of the floor/ceiling and people are circled around it. I don't think you're going to have trouble hearing people talking in a normal voice. That's just open space; not through wood. Visual is definitely a problem, but not conversation.
It's probably a DC10 to climb up with a rope. Scale Mail is -4ACP. So by my count there is a chance that you'd need a 13 to climb up. Just use your trait inspired to roll twice and statiscally you should be able to make it up even with armor penalty.
Also...Spider-Man has been stabilized and so far I'm pretty sure that the only murder-hoboing being discussed atm is for the mooks.
Though IC given how the law has been unable to deal with Spider-Man, Kalem would rather get the information and kill him than risk the ire of a man whom he believes will be released by the watch.
Meanwhile, IC, Zamanda and I are blissfully ignorant of the life and death struggle going on. Moral dilemma? What moral dilemma?
Well I was thinking more like just having the guy arrested but if killing him is what's necessary that's fine.
And I have had people try to get my attention from about ten feet up or more using their normal speaking voice. Yeah my grandfather and mother have done so at their houses when they were on the roofs of their houses for whatever reason and have to yell to get my attention, so I'm speaking from experience here. And they live, and I grew up, in the country, so there wasn't a lot of noise to distract me.
Varor, knotted rope is DC5, you can make it even with your penalty if you take 10 (now that we're out of combat).
I didn't leave you high and dry here :> (or low and spider-y, as it were).
Oh it's a knotted rope... Okay, I did not see that.
I'd like to bluff them to make them think that *we* are the cultists, coming to find what information about us is about. And as such fear no guard. Anyone have a problem with this?
Given that Kalem is a Tiefling and Isla is going blood-crazy claws-out, I think I can pull it off.
Why wouldn't the cultists fear the guard?
Didn't explain that clearly. Cultists are notoriously crazy. As in, we dont fear anyone that we can kill, and we don't fear death because our god is with us. Give us what we want before bad mojo happens to you.
At this point the mooks are bargaining too hard and standard intimidation isn't working. The only thing besides finding something scarier than us to pretend to be is for Bashiel to pull out his badge. But that opens up a whole can of worms, where murdering everyone but the one man with the info we want becomes the simpler solution.
Ilsa, we don't. At least in part because the field marshal wanted the investigation into the ambassador to be on the sly. Bashiel is however a sergeant, so I guess maybe holds a bit of sway. We can also hide behind Cressida's and let things take their course if it comes to that (I'd rather not though).
Kalem, in-character I obviously can't get behind such a blatant lie (though Bashiel is hardly going to oppose you unless the lie is for nefarious purposes), but out of character it sounds relatively OK. I'm not too thrilled about our chances if we pull that card. I also feel like they probably don't know much about the cultists (since they're underlings), and our best bet is still investigating Devargo's quarters and the rest of Eel's End. I'm not totally sure that claiming to be cultists would help or hurt us with that.
One thing that we're definitely agreed on, from the discussion thread, is that we're not giving up Devargo to them. Too much of a risk. We're also agreed that we're not leaving without info on the cultists.
The alternative here is calling their bluff regarding how protected they are, then convincing them through diplomacy that its in their best interest to allow us to do what we came for and otherwise allow their business to proceed. Try to drive home that anything else will risk their lives or leave them without a job in a dangerous city.
Pulling the badge out should be a last resort, and I'd call it more of a bucket than a can... But obviously murdering all these folks outside of self defense is a no go for Bashiel (since Bashiel has no clear evidence they're guilty of all the bad stuff Devargo is) .
Are you sure they are bluffing? I don't think they are.
I'm kind of hoping the 'guards' they referred to that are coming include Kressida who could conveniently *cough* bring me along *cough*.
Pellius comes with the guards and finds Kalem using a mook's head as a puppet, engrossed in a deep negotiation with it.
"This...isn't what it looks like."
Intimidate: 30
Intimidate: 29
Intimidate: 20
Bluff: 30
I'd say talky wise we're rolling pretty well so far. :)
Yeah, the rolling luck recently has been insane. Both talking and not (at least for me).
But dang these enforcer guys are implacable. Just give up! Kalem is super scary, and you should be running for your lives :>
If they still refuse I'm all for just dusting them. Loot their bodies. Loot the house. Loot everything. And because of how creepy the place is, we'll probably be doing a good deed as well.
With that introduction, it looks like Pellius and Zamanda are going to be fast friends. :>
Oh, absolutely. :) Your turn for popcorn. :)
Nothing to see here folks. Move along.
Pel - you left out 'Mandy'... maybe she's cute that way?
Well, I did leave open the possibility of 'something else.'
I figured I'd open the question up to you guys in gameplay, just in case anyone wanted to argue for better loot/better positioning. Right now we've got 950 gp remaining from bribe money, loot off Devargo (I assume some decent stuff), the ambassador letters, and any Urgathoa/cultist-related stuff.
Here's hoping there aren't solid-platinum statues down there to make Bashiel regret giving his word.
PS. Bashiel is so going to get shanked. But gotta RP that WIS damage. :S
On the bright side, two new characters are already getting introduced, so now's not a bad time for another. : )
I'm not reading backstories either.
I'm fine with just kill off these guys but in character and I have to be open for the avenues of diplomacy.
Just to reiterate and since we've two new players, when it's directed to another player/PC, I'm totally fine with y'all reading stuff I put in spoiler boxes. I expect you to keep metagame versus in-character knowledge separate, but I see no reason you couldn't read about what other characters are experiencing.
Skill-based spoilers are a different story, for obvious reasons.
If there's something I really only want to share with one character, I'll send it via PM.
That said, if you prefer, no need to read it! Anything I feel you guys absolutely need to know, I will leave open or call out for you.
It's funny. The aasimar is a better liar than my Tiefling and may even be sketchier to boot. :)
She's definitely not your typical Aasimar, that's for sure.
That's what makes me so adorable.
Of course she's more believable, she's pretty, and not part demon.
GM: Not sure what you are planning, but If possible Zamanda will need some private conversation with Cressida. She wouldn't talk about her father in front of a group, and until that is resolved, she is unlikely to go along with anything.
Got it. Thanks for highlighting that. I'll think of something today.
Hey folks, just want to offer a couple of friendly reminders and ask for your help with this. I'm posting this in my other campaign, too.
First, whether in combat, a social interaction, or exploring, please don't assume you know what the outcome of a particular action will be unless an AC/SR has been established (or you roll a nat 20 or 1), outcomes of social skill rolls, or that if a spell is contingent on things being a certain way that it will deliver the result you are expecting. It's happened a few times the last few weeks by a few people in this game and another I'm running, and I thought I should say something. If it's just really obvious that you whiffed a roll, of course, have some fun with it if you like. But unless you know what the outcome is going to be based on facts already observed, don't assume and write it for yourself. Determining the outcome of the roll or action is pretty much always up to the GM.
Second, please make sure you're giving space for other characters to shine. That means helping with push and hook for RP and plot advancement, but also not dominating the spotlight. One of the things that was really hard for me when I started with PbP was learning to sit on my hands after the GM or others posted. Let other people get the first post; realize you don't always have to be the first to react to everything. And give room for others to contribute to RP dialogues. I've violated this myself (and aided others in violating this) the last days with a volume of posts that have overwhelmed other players who weren't able to connect every hour -- Varor and Bashiel, sorry.
I'm going to try to be better about this myself, but wanted to ask your help, too. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.
Thanks for the reminders and advice... if I'm ever a problem, just pm me and let me know... I'll try to change my ways... lol.
Like Quinlan said, great reminders and advice. I'll try to put such things into practice. And, to borrow from Quin again, please pm me if I need to adjust.
On a similar note, if there's anything I can do to make GM'ing easier for you, please don't hesitate to ask.