DM CD's Unrest in Atlus

Game Master Vethcyr

To Martin, before all this went down:

Well they certainly seemed to know you. Seems a bit odd, is all. He smiles. Though everything about the last two days has been odd, right? What an adventure!

He sits at the table during the debriefing, nodding enthusiastically at parts but not saying much.

"Interesting. You must have escaped from the goblins just as that forest fire broke out. It's quite the blaze, we've heard. What became of the goblins, why was a murder blamed on you, and why do you think some higher force was involved with the halflings?"

"Heh heh, forgot to mention the forest fire. We thought it would be a good way of slowing down the enemy troops. Set it so that we could get a head start. As for the higher power. I'm a simple man, and I don't play at knowing the gods intentions but it seemed strange that the beast arrived just that night and then left us in peace.

"Why did the vista team fail, and what's this about a murder?"

"From what I understand, Caladrius, Pygrado, and Eleri took a prisoner after they fought some Goldcrest scouts. When the three of us met up with them, I dressed up as a Goldcrest scout and talked to her. We were getting along just fine, didn't need to interrogate her or anything. I wouldn't have minded looking her up after the war in case she wanted to play with some manacles again, on or off, if you know what I mean." He laughs.

"But all of a sudden her head exploded, and right after that we got attacked by the halflings. I'll bet ya anything it was their shady commander who pinned it on us! All of Goldcrest thinks we were to blame for that and want us to stand trial for her "murder"." He air quotes the word murder.

"I see. These halflings you fought, they rode the giant birds, wielded firearms and belonged to the Black Talon mercenaries? They've been dropping firebombs on the city these past two days. Lord Galliani seems to have driven them off, however. Now tell me about the mines. What happened down there, and when did you", he looks at Leto, "meet up with them? Also, where is miss Warlow?"

"I joined up with them when they went into the mine to fight the assassins. They started killing and me and the miners went and hid further in the mine. I met up with this group when we all fought against the assassins that were left in the mine after the ones that came after you and the king left to, well, come after you and the king. Who is Miss Warlow?"

Eliri was a wizard who set out with us. She... the halflings got her. We don't know if she's alive or dead. He purses his lips, and sits silently for a minute. Then he turns to Vincenzo.

So, what do you need from us now? We can take a crack at Stronginthearm, or maybe take out some of his officers? His eyes gleam with hope.

Gareth cuts in, "Now, wait up Pygrado. There's something else to report first. A couple things, actually. First off, when we were captured by Goldcrest troops, one of the officers mentioned an invaluable diviner who helped them find our location at the Vista. So that could explain why our initial plans failed."

"And then down in the mines, I don't know how this happened, but Dulff turned on Visran. We can either assume he's been coerced, controlled, or just is a traitor. Visran is dead, sad to say. It gets weirder. One of the golems we fought was sentient - it actually was an evil creature. It mentioned something about us not being able to stop "the Masters". Have you ever heard of an organization by that name?"

"A diviner? Wonderful," Vincenzo says wearily. "That would certainly explain the precision of their assassins. We suspected both Dulff and Visran were dead when the golems went berserk. As for this intelligent one, I'm no expert on golems. You'd have to talk with Visran or Dulff about that, and they're obviously unavailable. I've never heard of an organization called "the Masters"," Master Vincenzo says. "Is there anything else? If not, I should bring this information to the king's attention so that we can decide what to do next. It's unlikely that eliminating Stronginthearm will be an immediate concern - according to you, he and the dwarves have been trapped within the escape tunnel, right?"

"We believe so sir. I'd love to 'elp the city more now, but I'm dead tired. Is there a place to sleep 'ere?"

"I would suggest that we should move on the dwarves as soon as possible. We do not know if the dwarves have tunneling equipment with them. If we can get to them first we could take out a large number of dwarves and have Stronginthearm as a prisoner. Or kill him as an example. But that would only inflame the dwarves and make him a martyr.

Even so I would still recommend seizing him tonight if that is possible."

I love the reference with the name Stronginthearm.

Gareth laughs at Leto, half interrupting him, "Kill him as an example? Who do you think you are, mister tough guy? Why not try to negotiate with him instead to end the war? Their gig is up, we know their plan. They aren't going to win the fight. So there's no reason to cause any more bloodshed."

Leto gives him a long look and seems to be annoyed at this way of viewing the assault (and for interrupting him...mostly for interrupting him) "First of all, I am not suggesting we kill him, just that seizing him gives us options. And so far as them not winning. I would like to point out that their assassins, who are still alive by the way, could have, and would have, killed all of us and the king during this attack.

And just because we know one plan does not mean that they don't have others. If I organized an army and planned to take a city I would have a few dozen plans. More important than all of this is the simple fact that as long as they believe that they could win, they will keep fighting and bathing this city in blood. I would advise that we take Stronginthearm now figure out what to do with him later and see what we can do to end this struggle now.

In short: There is plenty of reason for bloodshed this day."

Pygrado smiles at this, again.

A friend of mine used to say that as long as men had gold and love and pride, there would be need for blood. This day is not so different from any other, and our fight, Jamros, Gareth, is far from over.

His wounds twinge just then, however, and he grimaces. Not that I'd mind a bit of a magical pick-me-up before going back into the fray.

Vincenzo stands up and says, "I must go speak to the king. I'll have a guardsman show you to a suite of guest rooms and send someone up to heal your wounds. We don't require any immediate action from you." With that, he leaves the room.

While I can throw an army of clerics at you guys to heal your wounds, there's no way to regain spent spell slots apart from resting. Also, you're due for a level up once you rest.

"Well in that case we should probably turn in for the night. It has been a busy day...Ah! Vincenzo I believed you wanted to speak to me after our talk if everything has been addressed."

Yeah I really didn't want to go up against another group of enemies with only 1 1st and 1 second level spell and cantrips against a bunch of enemies. But it is what my character would have suggested so I had to do it. I was really hoping Vincenzo would say no.

Gareth gets up and stretches. "Some sleep sounds good to me." He awaits the guardsman to take him to his room.

"I meant to speak with you with the others. Should you wish to speak with me privately, it will have to wait until tomorrow. I have other matters to attend to," Vincenzo responds, walking out of the room.

Moments later, a silver guard enters and indicates for you to follow him. "A healer will be sent us shortly," he says.

Well, my desire to DING! outweighs Pygrado's desire to kill. So rest it is.

EDIT: How are we doing HP determination again?

Odd level (5, at the moment): x/2 + Con Mod, where x=class hit die. You know, your formula.

Oh, that one. :-p. I couldn't remember if we were using that one for this or just for Stolen. Profile is updated.

So, are we leveling now?

After you rest. I've just been staggering my posts a bit to give you lot time to plan out your level ups.

A guard arrives moments later to escort you to your rooms. He leads you to a well-appointed but not lavish suite of rooms. Shortly thereafter, a priest of Pelor shows up and heals your wounds (you're now at full HP, and any ability damage/drain you may have suffered is removed).

In the morning, after you rest, you feel more capable than ever before (now, you level up).

I want a level-up summary from each of you, posted in the discussion thread. Try to format it like THIS.

Retcon
Before Martin goes to bed he takes a servant to the side. "Csn you see that this armor is repainted, befitting a soldier of the silver keep. My family's crest is the wolf symbol of the Stillwaters clan. If you could have the armor paint that insignia I would be much albiged. Similiarly, can you take this shield and afix a battle spike. It was Sir Aventus Arracino's shield and I wish to do it honor, but my fighting style is slightly different than his. Also, if you could see that some fresh clothes are prepared for me an our companions in the morning that would be most beneficial as we were stripped of ours by the goldcrest forces."

Martin thanks the servant for his services.

Martin: The servant nods and takes your stuff, saying "I'll see what the smiths can do. It might take a day or two for them to finish the job, however." He also promises to find fresh clothes for all of you.

In the morning, you find that fresh clothes have been laid out in the communal room of the suite, and that Caladrius is gone. A basic breakfast has also been set out for you (cheese, bread, and sausages).

Leto, having slept horribly, slides through his door, his steps oddly careful. He makes his way over to the breakfast and nibbles a bit. Looking around wondering when everyone else would wake up. Then Leto thinks of something, makes his way over to the door and pokes his head out to a servant. "I am sorry but I tripped and broke a couple of things last night. Could you send someone to come and clean it up. But...don't replace them. Thank you."

Leto then returns to breakfast and continues to eat.

Gareth sleeps in later than most and slogs into the communal room groggily. After taking a few steps into the room, he shakes himself awake with a funny noise. "Morning everybody!" he announces cheerfully. As he sits down and takes a bite of sausage, he adds, "Nothing beats sleeping in a warm bed, huh? Hey, so what's the plan for today?"

Martin yawns, opening up his door about 30 minutes after Leto gets up. Brushing his eyes, he surveys the table, spotting the breakfast and the clothes.
"Now this is exactly what I need after a couple rough days on the road. Sausage anyone?" Martin says, digging into the breakfast.

Pygrado wakes quite early, feeling unusually refreshed. His morning calisthenics might wake light sleepers in adjacent rooms. He grabs a sausage and begins chewing on it, but heads out into the city to get a sense of how the siege has progressed overnight.

Barring solo adventures, he returns just as the rest of you are breaking your fast with his report.

Leto looks around and says "Well I was thinking last night. We fought together well yesterday and I was wondering if you would be amenable to me joining your merry band for a time?"

Martin looks over at Leto over his sausage, and betweeen bites says, "You seem to know a thing or two about fighting, but we don't know what we're doing next. We haven't really gotten the details, only that the town is still being attacked. Who knows if we're even staying together at all. *munch munch munch* I would say that you could tag along, but i don't know what the king has in mind for us yet."

Gareth nods at Martin, "I wasn't even aware that we were a merry band... I'm still employed by the Silver Guard for the time being. But while we're together still, who had those gems we found in the tunnels? Why don't we go off and see how much of a price we can get for them, eh? Might be a nice advance for the good work we did." He takes a large bite of bread and says with his mouth half full, "Thwat ith, uf courth," he swallows, "if the king doesn't need us for anything."

...

Did Caladrius have the gems? If so... he just stole a loooooot of money.

Pygrado returns. We did it, friends. Goldcrest's forces have retreated, and sent a rider under a banner of truce. The war is over and we can return to our careers. He grabs a chunk of bread, grinning.

"I guess we were more successful that I realized. Oh and I actually meant could I join your merry band in travelling around the city. I don't know my way and you all seem to know the city very well having worked here in various capacities before." As Leto speaks a snake pours out of his sleeve and onto the table. It slithers over to some of the leftover meat on Leto's plate and begins to eat. "Oh yes, I should introduce this fellow. This is Louis."

If so, that would be an interesting side quest: "Where's Caladrius?"

At the mention of the gold Martin looks up, "You bring up a good point, we should sort through all that stuff we found in the tunnels and split it up. Sort them into piles of before and after leto joined us, and then divey everything up. I think I'll take one of these composite longbows. Oh and maybe that red cloak that never got claimed."

Martin starts taking out the stuff he has been carrying and lays it out on the table.

Just did a lot of party loot processing. Please take a look at the sheet and your character. I have us selling all of the loot except for that listed under your character section. I have us getting a 1/2 price of items from town except for the art objects. (This does not apply to Leto) There are a few exceptions/notes that I list on the bottom left of the excel sheet. And I also included a Party look section, if you think we should add other things to party loot then let's talk about it.

If there are no objections:
Pygrado gets 1543.6 gp
Gareth gets 1894.1 gp
Jamros gets 3570.6 gp
Leto gets 4972.7 gp
Martin gets 5111.6 gp

Some other things to notice, pygrado has not listed his dex belt on his page, and should. Also, the only charcter behind wealth by level is Martin, so thats good for the party.

Sheet Link:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?cs9obzxr288z6lz

Didn't realize Caladrius had claimed the gems. Let's say he left them behind in an uncharacteristic display of good faith.

Thanks JZ, looks fine to me. Though the MWK Leather Armor should be in communal loot instead of my personal possession, although that really shouldn't affect things much at all. Keep in mind that we are also receiving 1k gold each from Vincenzo, so I think Martin will catch up to wealth per level.

Gareth looks delighted to hear Pygrado's news. "Hey hey! That's great to hear! Once we deal with the gear we got, whaddya say we celebrate? First round's on me!"

As much fun as a subplot focused on catching the runaway Caladrius and extorting the diamonds from him would be, I can see why we're passing on that one.

Oh dow, feel free to sell it and take the 80 gold, and it will literally effect nothing. The way I've set it up is that your gear your basically buying from the party for the sell price. So it is actually cost neutral for you to sell it. This way people get even loot, but it encourages people to keep items dropped rather than buy new ones as you essentially get 50% off that item from it's buy price, or you can sell it just to get back the gold.

Yay. Just yay. I had literally no money on me. Not a single gold piece because I had spent the last little bit on the healing potions. Now: Money Money Money Money!!! Money!!! Any other character and you would see the most epic debauchery which this city has ever seen. It would involve elaborate and extensive whoring, boozing, and probably some explosives. Oh well. I have been eyeing some cool items which will be more useful anyway.

trying to move things along....
can we say that we spend the morning shopping/ offloading our loot?

Works for me. I'll add the proposed gold total to my character sheet.

Also, Martin, you and I have 5 bags of blasting powder each. Sell? Keep? Explode?

I vote keep some. You never know when you will need some boom boom on hand.

"Let's head out then and sell it." Leto gets up, Louis slithers up his sleeve and Leto puts on his glove. He puts on his boots and stands by the door ready to head out.

Go ahead and shop. Vincenzo and Heric have a lot on their minds, and will likely not call for you until the evening or the next day. You may wish to follow up on leads or seek out characters from your backstory, should you be so inclined.

While the party is venturing towards the village, Gareth suggests, "Well, if we do end up sticking together as a group for future missions, it wouldn't hurt to be more prepared as a group. What if we pooled some cash together and picked up some wands? I know my dad used to always carry around a wand of Lesser Restoration around with him in his study in case something went wrong and he was weakened. It probably wouldn't cost too much and it would really come in handy. And if we could find a wand just like the one we found in the woods Jamros, that could also be nice to cure some of our lighter wounds."

Either a Wand of Lesser Restoration or a Wand of Lesser Vigor would only cost 750gp and it would free up spell slots for us all. Split between the 5 of us, that's only 150 or 300 a piece.

I'll look through scrolls and pick out a couple useful ones most likely.

I'm also considering getting an item for myself of some sort. More on that later.

Martin pulls the equipment that he's keeping back off the table, putting on the new clothing that's been provided for them. "It's good to be in fresh clothes again. While it's only been a couple of days, those clothes were really soiled by the savage beatings I've taken."

Starting to walk down towards the market, Martin nods in agreement to Gareth's suggestion. "I'll gladly contribute the 150 gold to the cause, and I can add in another 150 once we get the king's reward."

Making their way to the market Martin helps sell the gear to the venders set up there, helping haggle out a better deal. You also see him pick up and buy a magical belt at one point, which can be identified as a healer's belt (MIC). Once he has his portion of the loot, Martin turns to the group and explains "I want to go check at my family estate and make sure that my family is doing well from the attack on the keep. It's only a brief ride, and I should be back either this evening or at latest tomorrow morning. If there is a change in plans you can leave a message for me with the guards at the castle. Here is the 150 gold that you asked for and good luck in your shopping!"

Martin puts 150 gp into Gareth's hand and with that you see Martin head off towards the stables, presumably going to buy a horse.