Darkest Corners volume 2

Game Master Harakani

I'd appreciate it if, even if you have to godmod Diene a little out of character, if the situation occurred in some such way that Diene is not the focus of attention. My father just went to the emergency room today, so my posting may become erratic. My last post was the only one I can guarantee for a while.

I'd appreciate it if, even if you have to godmod Diene a little out of character, if the situation occurred in some such way that Diene is not the focus of attention. My father just went to the emergency room today, so my posting may become erratic. My last post was the only one I can guarantee for a while.

sorry to hear that. hope it's not too serious/he gets well soon.

Ouch. Good luck! I hope everything turns out as well as possible.

I am back.

Me too! I'll get something up in a minute.

@Diene: Sorry to hear about your dad. I hope he recovers quickly.

EDIT: Actually, should I put my actions in yet? Or should I wait for the GM to respond to Diene?

Sorry to hear that Diene, I'll tie you up until you're ready to return. All the best.

I'm thinking, we should probably make sure the fire doesn't spread - aka removing all the dry plants. There seem to be a sizeable crowd of conscriptable people around we could utilize ...

Thoughts ?

I am confused...where am I? Still trundling through the crowds?

I'm thinking, we should probably make sure the fire doesn't spread - aka removing all the dry plants. There seem to be a sizeable crowd of conscriptable people around we could utilize ...

Thoughts ?

I concur...but the building is covered by Ivy as a whole, too.

I am still in favor of getting some divine caster on the scene.

e.g. even Isama has "Create Weather" memorized, which I take to mean Water. Every casting, every round, will be about 75 pounds of water she can direct somewhere. 10 times per minute-

If the Seargant also happens to have it memorized, the two of them can already make quite a difference here.

@Ser Thirus: and yes to the 8-second-ninja-dwarf, you are still in the crowds, for now, but we're waiting for you guys, just considering what we'll be doing first.

Isama could do a whole bunch of things but fell behind everyone so isn't there yet.

Isama could do a whole bunch of things but fell behind everyone so isn't there yet.

totally true that. In character though, I'm currently mostly interested in Isama's ability to be a human fire hose once she arrives on-scene. ^_^

Diene: Fingers crossed. I hope he gets better soon.

@Thirus: still trundling.
Those who have arrived have a short window to do something before you get there.
Speaking of which
@Mia: You can make a diplomacy check to do so. I'm okay with that being the check you've already made (as you stated your intention). It will take a round (they're indifferent) to do, but take them much longer to find someone even if a number of them scatter.

I'll give the newly arrived a brief window to declare any actions, then bring in everyone else.

yay. thanks. On another note, I'll be gone starting now, until probably Sunday, for a Family Camping Trip.

I will follow the lead of the senior guards members(Castor+Ophelia) since they obviously know how to survive in this squad.
If possibly, I'll stay near Ser Thirus, allowing him to keep watch over me and doing the same in regards to him.

@them taking a while to find someone: All fine. I did not suspect inmediate success, rather that some form of containment/fire-fighting backup could be available later on, in case its needed. If none of them manage to bring someone, no harm done, either. But if they get lucky, it could be very helpful later on.Plus possibly be a Plot Device for you to use either way

EDIT: Actually, should I put my actions in yet? Or should I wait for the GM to respond to Diene?

Put them in now :)

@Ophelia: it's a good plan, and will make a huge difference to fire spreading, but it's going to cause damage to the garden (remember gardens are expensive in Nex). I figure about 20K-5K damage (depending on how much you can get agreement the plants were dead and had to be replaced anyway), but remove the chance of neighbouring buildings going up unless there is a change in circumstance (like an explosion).
Sound reasonable?

@Mia: Great then. I'll get Constance's action, then post results.

@Damage - Is the rate of damage inflicted counted against city property, or property of general ?

Ophelia feels that the sorcerers guild is the faulty part here (since their house is on fire!) and the damages to their property isn't really a concern for her.

(Perhaps we can even recoup some costs by fining them for not following the City Fire Safety Standards! :P)

The damages will come out of our success as a team one way or another. Whether that's by having the sorcerers use their political weight against us or an actual properly levied fine.

Even though some of us know that property damage might be held against us, I do not really see us weighing up every single decision on the base of what monetary damage would be made.

I think it is a good idea to destroy the dry foliage to lower the risk of the fire spreading to adjacent buildings.

They should be thankful we aren't doing what they did in Roman times for fires.

The 'fire brigade' would show up and charge the owner a huge fee to put out the fire. if they didn't, they'd let it burn to the ground.

Isama is a druid so she could diplomatically suggest that she'd help with growing the vines back later. But for now I'd think the guards wouldn't care that some vines got damaged in the face of a spreading fire.

Cool - just didn't want to spring it on you.

So what, we keep the fire from spreading? I mean, I see no call to be heros here...yet anyway.

I am afraid we will have to go inside no matter what...

Well, yes.

Isama!
Be careful... :)
we new guys have not encountered that yet but there seem to be pretty strict rules on using magic on citizens...which our PC's would most likely know more accurately about than us players-
Now, i have no idea if those guys would likely qualify but...well, it could be quite a touchy subject on our report if any of them are-

It's also rather unnecessary. The situation is handled. What is needed is for you to put out the fire. Pleeeeaaase.

Can't do anything else outside.

Need to go in. Taking six seconds to talk to some people isn't going to make a difference to the fire. If Isama would know that casting the spell is a very huge deal she won't cast it. She'll still make y diplomacy attempt before heading inside with the team. Anyone got any ideas how to deal with the smoke? Could summon air elementals instead of water ones though I don't think that would be very useful.

Sorry about my slowness, a bit slammed with stuff at the moment : )

@Smoke - On the bright side, Ophelia lacks a respiratory system to worry about. But on the other hand, she is quite heavy (perfect for falling trough weakened floors!) and not in the slightest fireproof...

May I suggest something along the lines of wet towels over the mouth and try and be quick about it? The Air Elementals are also an idea, but they last so shortly ...

Psssh... Smoke is what fort saves and con modifiers are for.

@protection from fire and smoke=> no idea.
AFAIK a wet towel over your mouth is fine for exiting an area, where you're not so much trying to breathe as to prevent breathing in what is there.

In both Roman times and middle ages, it seemed if a bucket chain did not work, they were more likely to use tools to bring down the house to prevent the fire from spreading(hooked lances and axes in rome, same and explosives later)...so from my sources I did not find many means of "protection" as we'd need it, without looking towards magical sources which we don't seem to have available.

Technically, we could try and bypass the stairways by climbing up the side of the building...at least some of us should be light enough for the ivy to hold our weight, and go directly towards the likely source. but other than this party-splitting idea, not much comes to mind.

Purely technical, we can all hold our breath quite a while and if its non-magical fire the damage per turn would be "neglectable" while we storm up...but that does not make this a good idea/course of action

Another problem with smoke is it obscures vision which is pretty bad.

true that, isama. but vision impairment alone, i guess I could work with.

I suppose we need to try and enter the building, and see how bad it is.

at least one of the hat brigade was so smart to run to the arena and try to fetch their own summoners, so possibly, we may have support from water elementals at some later point in time.

for now, quite possibly you should try and quench some areas.
It's 5x20 feet cubes per charge, which should at least be capable of clearing us a way free of flames.

problem is, you are our only real tool against the fire. both with create water and the quench wand, so I suppose us others will just support you for the time being unless someone see's another option to act.

Ophelia, Dara, Constance and Castor, Diene: are any of you mentioning the Directeur might have been in the top floor using the big summoning circle?

A lot of the building is stone (like much of Qantium). Smoke (and choking to death) is a serious danger. Wet towels will give a bonus when you start making the fort saves.

I did not mention the Directeur because that seems to me(in character, not OOC) to be inaccurate information. They have a huge summoning circle which is active, and quite possibly the inferno started from there.

The boss guy is a "seriously powerful" summoner.
If he did not put a stop to it himself, and/or did not re-attune the summoning circle to counter what he unleashed, it's quite likely that he's either gone, or for some other reason incapable of putting a halt to whats happening.
For Daria, it's most probably that he either hid away in a demiplane, or is dead(courtesy of either what started the fire, or the smoke.) The option that he could be the culprit for some agenda has not crossed her mind yet as there's too much else to worry about.

Diene just wants someone to put out the fire. So that the smoke starts clearing, so they can go in.

I am here, just got called away on business. But keeping up, so I am active! Just I don't have my sheet with me, so I can;t roll any skills!

Will be back in civilization tomorrow.

@diene, asking someone won't help unless they tag along. there's 2 at the entrance but plenty more in the building. If possible, a "permanent" solution regarding those would be preferable. But ya, did not want to bog us down again with this...DM's call if we find a way to bypass or utilize the constructs, regardless of what he decides I guess we enter.
It was just an idea that crossed my mind, being a spontaneous caster and all that, thinking how they'd go about recognizing me as a member if i was one and that they could be useful tools if we could "requisition" them.

I fully expect that to be some pattern on the robes of the members that makes the constructs recognize them as "boss".

In further thinking, I'd fully expect Diene to approach a few of the Sorcerers with an intimidate check and a famous movie quote:"Your clothes. Give them to me! Now."

Diene didn't draw the conclusion that there'd be more. She just figured we needed entry, so a member could open the way at the door.

I understand. Right, you also went ahead so probably missed some information. Basically I just said it because that first one I met tried to stop me.
I just saw it as logical that the others we will meet inside will also try and stop us, rather than let us go about our guard business.
Mis-transferance of information, there, sorry, it's quite late here and i've been working on a assignment i'll have to hand in tomorrow more or less 8 hours straight -_-

I would be up for the mentioned scene. Would be fun to see : )

Heh, as fun as it would be, I don't think Diene gonna chose to do that. :P

Alright, we've spent a long time outside, I want to move us a long soon.

Good catch Mia, have you used constructs before :)? The Sorcerers believe it's in the blood, but the ring seems to be a bit of a cheat. Not uncommon not to share the identification password with people. Remember that the constructs escorted these people out anyway (though it will be helpful).

hej, as i told Ophelia, it's in my trait...I've been interested in mechanisms, clockworks and constructs. Mostly taking apart, though, so far. ^_^

And yep, the constructs escorted them out, but I assume that if they recognize us as members they will listen to orders to "stand down", or go submerge themselves in the pond.
At the least, they will not attack us on sight, and I may be able to disable them with a disable device check if they try and "escort" somebody else out. *shrug* how helpful it is is all up to you ;)
just trying to get advantages for us guards where they can be reasonably(=logically) argued for- Daria is smart, after all...and while much of that is book-smart to explain bardic knowledge, she's more practical in applying her knowledge/smartness in hands-on-ways/social engineering/con artistry than say, a wizard who is way smarter but more socially awkward and less skilled with practical applications :)

Thinking about it, I don't think any of you guys would have been here before. It's a small school, aimed primarily at arrogant noble spellcasters.

@Daria: Thank you ;-) But right you are...

@Daria: Thank you ;-) But right you are...

Hehe, ya, i was thinking about you too. Just didn't know how to express it properly, because while 16 is way better than "average", it's dwarfed by the intellect of your average int-based caster(like you).

@GM: let me know if ordering them to "defend" us is too far-fetched. I reckon "probably intended as backup guards." would imply they have combat-capability and are intended for cases such as something from the zoo escaping, too, so using them this way would be intended behaiviour for them.
not that i even know IF ordering them will work -_-
but i figure its worth a try.

Sure.
The issue here is precedence of orders. You lack the key to countermand the emergency procedure orders.

Man... I didn't mean this to be so Asimov. Very clever though.