Exploring the Savage World of Keltica

Game Master ZenFox42

Wow! Lots of activity on my "unavailable" day (figures). Not complaining about the amount, just wished I could have answered quicker. Let's see...

(Remember, this "building" is carved into the side of a mountain - not much to burn...)

Also, this could be important for immediate future decisions - the flying machine is several long corridors away from here. Arabella knows the way.

Katana counters any ideas about exploding or burning the place with "Weren't several of you saying before that this would make an excellent stronghold for *us*? And regarding Gerta, I feel confident that we can deal with her when she shows up again.

The main issue is the remaining Orcs. Connor, can you ask WindDancer how the fight in the mines is going? Who's winning?

Addressing Alex with...not quite disdain, but more dismissal..."I am certain there are no 'authorities' out here to report to, we are on our own. And it sounds like Gerta was working for someone - we may be the only ones who know of this, and who can stop them. Is it not our duty to do so?"

Arabella
-There was some gunpowder in the lab's safe, but not enough to blow up anything significant. Nothing else of usefulness in the lab safe.
-There are some half-finished devices in the lab, but Gerta's probably wearing all of her finished devices. There was, however, that "crystal compass" she showed you - it's still in the lab.
-You find a map of the area tucked in-between two books on the bookshelf as you search for the hidden panel.
-There's a penalty to finding the hidden panel - no success there.

Marko tries to open the office safe :
Investigation & Wild: 1d4 ⇒ 31d6 ⇒ 5
He barely manages to get it open (it's old, and a simple lock). More on its contents in another post, later today.
Marko asks "It would take me an hour to memorize all my spells, but if I can have 10 minutes I can at least re-learn my damage spell for the day..."

I'd use Investigation to *find* papers that were hidden in a secret panel in the desk, but since these were lying on top, Notice makes sense to see if you can pick out any interesting/important bits in them...
Actually, Smarts might make more sense to make sense of the papers, but I'm not going to make you re-roll it.

Alex - more on the contents of the papers later today.

Connor - I appreciate the role-playing, but Katana healed Alex's wound up above, so put any used power points back into your pool.

I thought Katana healed Marko's wound?

Actually, I did say Marko, but I meant Alex. I checked, and Marko was never wounded. That's twice now I've mixed up characters' names - DRAT my memory! So technically, Katana fixed Alex's wound...

There's well over 100 GP (remember, you're used to SP!) and several fine gems in the office safe.

The map has several landmarks marked on it (cliffs, lakes, etc.), and a couple of X's. Hard to judge the scale.

Between the papers in the safe and on the desk, there's several important items that I'll post tomorrow.

Does Marko get his 10 minutes? Others can be loading guns and such.

Any comments on Katana's comments? I realize Connor/WindDancer may not be able to post for a while, but others can discuss things.

I'll assume Connor's healing didn't take place, then.

Katana counters any ideas about exploding or burning the place with "Weren't several of you saying before that this would make an excellent stronghold for *us*? And regarding Gerta, I feel confident that we can deal with her when she shows up again.

The main issue is the remaining Orcs. Connor, can you ask WindDancer how the fight in the mines is going? Who's winning?

Addressing Alex with...not quite disdain, but more dismissal..."I am certain there are no 'authorities' out here to report to, we are on our own. And it sounds like Gerta was working for someone - we may be the only ones who know of this, and who can stop them. Is it not our duty to do so?"

Alexander's eyes narrowed at Katana's attitude, and he didn't deign to answer her. He felt no need to answer to a peasant with airs above her station. He certainly didn't consider it his duty to stop a rampaging pack of natives, at least so long as he had no holdings they could threaten. This slave camp certainly didn't qualify as that.

He buckled himself into his armor, then had a look at the area where the others had seen the dwarf disappear.

Notice: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Finding no hidden panel, he gathered what valuable items and information he could find, then studied the papers as Marko finished his own studies.

"Connor, can you tell WindDancer that we're going? That little dragon is really quite a help, as are you, my lad." Alexander smiled at the boy - he'd stood up to this whole ordeal in an exemplary fashion.

A strange ripple in space-time passes over everyone. The only person affected is Marko who staggers back and moans.

"Oh my, what happened. I feel the same but somehow a little different." Taking off his glasses and cleaning them. "Is everyone else alright?"

Arabella will take the crystal compass and the gold and gems in the safe (distributed with the group of course). Arabella agrees that letting Marko prepare some offensive spells would be good, especially since we were already assuming some time had to be allowed for all this searching and gearing up. She'll also take any of the special crystals that might be around.

Arabella says, "I'm no warrior and I want to get out of here very badly. But we were once slaves and I'm not sure I can live with myself if we don't do what we can to be sure that some of the prisoners get free. If they've overpowered the orcs, then we can stay and help mop up, find Gerta, and deliver justice to her. If not, we can perhaps tip the battle in their favor. If we are outnumbered, however, I think we should leave and perhaps try to convince the nearest militia of the threat and let them deal with it."

I was giving Connor/WindDancer some time to reply, but I guess he's slammed, so I will report (thru Connor) that WindDancer says that most of the Orcs in the mines have been "subdued", but also along with a lot of the slaves. That's probably all the detail that WD could provide.

Trying to come up with the notes y'all have found, just having a hard time focusing today...will have something as soon as I can.

Alexander grunted, but finally nodded in the affirmative. "Perhaps WindDancer's intelligence can be relayed to us through Connor. That should prove helpful in determining our course." He looked at the boy hopefully.

Edit: Ninjaed!

Alexander nodded to Arabella. "It seems fortune is in our favor. Let us go forth and see just how many orcs we may relieve of their duty to this place." He swished his rapier through the air.

And ninja'd by just one minute! Wow!

In Gerta's papers, y'all find a letter :

Tomei - things are finally now progressing faster than I'd hoped. I should soon be able to produce single crystals powerful enough to replace the banks of crystals we need to use now. This should make mass production of our flying carts, armored carriages, and iron skeletons possible. I hope to bring the first batch next week.

You also find drawings and sketches of devices that if you use your imagination (never having heard of such things before), look like the items described. One note : in the picture of the "iron skeleton", there's a humanoid figure *inside* the middle of the thing, almost like inside a cage.

Dr. Lovelace has competition! :) Is there a train that carries a couple of government agents around foiling such plots? Maybe we could form such a group when we become more advanced.

Arabella will obviously want to take these diagrams and the letter for future reference and perhaps to set Gerta's research back a bit.

Since we're to the point of moving on, where is the entrance to the mines relative to the exit to the air car? Is one on the way to the other, or are they in opposite direction from here?

Sitting quietly in a chair, Marko takes a moment to cradle his beloved spell book. Then he opens it and begins to study.

K'Don will take this time to look over all the everyday things on book shelves or places like that.

Notice: 1d6 ⇒ 4
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 4

He gets a 4, FWTW

Sorry, gang. Been slammed, as ZF indicated.

After relaying the status update from WindDancer, Connor says, "I told her you said we're going. Do you want her to come here to us, or meet us somewhere, or stay where she is for now?"

"Is there a train that carries a couple of government agents around foiling such plots?"
THAT'S how I should have started this game - at least then you'd have to go where you're told! :)

Last I've read :
-K'Don wanted to blow the place up
-Katana wanted to take the place over (or at least, reminded you that some of you had wanted to)
-Arabella wanted to fight or leave (how do you feel now that you know most of the Orcs are dead in the mines?)
-Alex is now ready to take down the few Orcs that are left
-How does Marko Mark II feel about it?

So far, haven't seen much consensus...

K'Don was always for taking this place for ourselves. Just thought the group thought it would be too hard for us or something along those lines.

Marko would love to have a place like this. A place for all the books he was soon to collect on his adventures around this new land.

"If most of the orcs are defeated, then I believe we must try to help liberate the mines and at least free the prisoners. Holding on to it may be difficult if there are others involved in the plot who will come to investigate the loss of crystal supplies. But that is a question for another day. People may be dying and Gerta may be rallying orcs that WindDancer cannot know about through secret passages and such."

ALL - so, down to the mines to liberate the prisoners and kill the last remaining Orcs?

Sounds like that's the plan!

Armored and armed once more, Alexander gave Arabella a dashing smile. "If we may throw grit into the gears of Gerta's plans, I for one am willing to do so, provided it does not entail harm coming to Connor." Did Alex ever get Connor a gun, or was that only on the drawing board for when he got better at Shooting?

Kneeling by Connor, he said seriously, "You're a brave lad, but I don't want you running off alone, Connor. Is that understood? Stay with us, and use your remarkable talents in our defense, and I believe we shall come through this in one piece. Including WindDancer," he added when he thought he saw a trace of stubbornness on the boy's face. "When this is through, I believe Master Montalvo has promised you an apprenticeship to learn more about your unique skills?" He glanced questioningly at Marko.

Turning to K'Don, he raised his rapier in salute. "I shouldn't have thought I'd willingly head into those mines again. Let us have at them, then!"

"Yessir," says Connor quietly.

ALL - so, down to the mines to liberate the prisoners and kill the last remaining Orcs?

Arabella has no desire to kill the orcs if they can be defeated any other way, but she realizes it may come to that. She will try to use "reason" to defeat some of them and will be upset if any who were disabled are summarily dispatched.

Still want to know the answer to the question posed earlier: Since we're to the point of moving on, where is the entrance to the mines relative to the exit to the air car? Is one on the way to the other, or are they in opposite direction from here?

"A question for all: Where do you think a secret ESCAPE passage leads to?"

"The Flying Ship may not be there when we arrive."

Previously : "the air car is several long corridors away from the office."
The office, air car, and mine entrance forms the ends of a "T", sort of.

More tomorrow.

ALL - I believe Arabella is asking that opponents who are merely stunned by her gun are not finished off, not that the rest of you should not use your weapons as normal (which would kill).

I would have done this sooner, but I was thinking we had tried it already, but looking back through the posts, Alex rolled to notice but the rolls were too low for success. Not sure if this requires notice or uses the investigation skill, so I'm doing both.

While Marko studies his magic book, Arabella begins to search the wall near where Gerta disappeared to see if she can find a secret door. She taps the wall listening for hollows, presses and slides loose boards or bricks, tries to shift any furniture to see if any of this triggers an opening door. Oh, and she'll remove the candle from the holder on the bookshelf.

:) (For those who don't get the reference.)

notice: 1d6 ⇒ 4
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Wild Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Result = 9, success + raise if TN is 4.

If that's enough to find the secret door, then ignore the rest. But if the required roll uses investigation, she'll roll that next.

Investigation: 1d4 ⇒ 3
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 4
Result = 4, success if TN is 4.

Looking for a hidden door/switch is "searching", the Investigation roll was not high enough (there is a penalty, it is well-hidden).

ALL - a new map is ready
I have placed you all at the entrance to the mine, but you can arrange your marching order from there up to the wolf (the wolf is not there, it is just a marker on the map).

That's when whoever's in the lead can see the battle, and melee will begin.

If you look down the tunnel leading to "2", you see a table, some chairs, and some cots. The room is empty.

WindDancer is hiding in the tunnels leading to the cages.
WD, let's say you've used 1/2 your Power Points so far in helping the prisoners.

Please post in Discussion when you've had a chance to move yourself.
(I've already moved Katana to second-from-lead.)

WindDancer reports what you see : a few Orcs are left fighting a few slaves.

Initiative (start of round 1)
Alex : Init: 1d1000 ⇒ 775
Arabella : Init: 1d1000 ⇒ 527
Connor : Init: 1d1000 ⇒ 575
K'Don : Init: 1d1000 ⇒ 387
Marko : Init: 1d1000 ⇒ 495
WindDancer : Init: 1d1000 ⇒ 397
Katana : Init: 1d1000 ⇒ 586
Orcs : Init: 1d1000 ⇒ 379

So in order : Alex, Katana, Connor, Arabella, Marko, WindDancer, K'Don, Orcs

All please note that Arabella has said she needs a "clear field" to use her gun. So Alex and Katana could Hold if they choose so Arabella can fire first.

(I moved Connor so that he can eventually view the battle from around a corner, which is what he usually does. That way, if he sees someone in the group needs help, he can react.)

Alex will hold until Arabella has fired.

Location for Connor is fine.

K'Don is good

Good place for Marko in the back. He has some offensive spells ready now.

Waiting on Arabella (who's busy in the mornings, so everyone just hang tight)...

Thanks for waiting. Long day.

Arabella darts forward to get a shot at the group, but quickly sees there's no good shot that will take out orcs without also hitting the others, so she instead focuses on lowering the fighting dice of the orcs instead.

She targets all 4 orcs, spending 5 points.

weird science: 1d8 ⇒ 2
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Result = 2

Spending a bennie or she'll waste half her points.

weird science: 1d8 ⇒ 4
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 4
Result = 4
Barely enough, so it'll have to do.
So the orcs need to roll a spirit roll to beat a 4 or suffer a reduction of their fighting die one step.

Correction. Marko has ONE offensive spell ready (Bolt-Light)
my goal is to play Marko the same as he has been, no changes

Can Marko move to a position to make a shot this time or should we wait until we see the results of Arabella's attack?

Marko - you only have Bolt, but you can cast it as many times as you need for the rest of the day, until you run out of PP.

Arabella - you do realize that the innocent bystanders will also only be knocked unconscious, right? I know you don't want to kill, but I'm just checking - you don't even want to knock out an innocent?

I'll make the opposed Spirit rolls when it's the Orcs' turn to attack.

Everyone else can act now.

I know they won't be harmed permanently, but so far, they are allies in the fight and it might be easier to overcome the orcs if they are conscious and resisting. Plus if they are unconscious, we would either need to carry them to safety or wait around from them to come-to. It's also possible they'll do worse on the saving throw than the orcs, so it might just take out allies and leave enemies free to concentrate on us.

It's more logistics than pacifism. I'd rather save the power for another situation. As bad as I rolled on my biogoggs attempt, it's just as well.

Marko, no need to wait for the results of Arabella's "attack", as the only possible effect is to lower their fighting die. Shouldn't affect the results of a bolt attack.

1d8 ⇒ 2
1d8 ⇒ 1
1d8 ⇒ 7
1d8 ⇒ 3
1d8 ⇒ 5
1d8 ⇒ 3

1d6 ⇒ 1
1d6 ⇒ 5
1d6 ⇒ 3

Still waiting for Aribella to do her thing.

K'Don moves to a position behind Arabella and prepares to fight. Do a little showmanship stuff, like run a form.
K'Don needs a distance weapon. Didn't realize it until just now

Marko moves to a position behind Arabella. And prepares to cast the bolt-of-Light spell. Doing 3d4 and Opponent parry is reduced by 4 ?

Strange, is it not, that the game has come down to the same 4 people. At least we have one new person.
I have it best a split personality, and bodys to match, one pure fighter, one pure mage, played by one person. 8-)

K'Don - Arabella HAS done her thing, that was with the goggles.
Please don't forget to declare in advance *how many* "clearing" rolls you're going to make, then wait an hour before making them in another post.
And I guess if you do a clearing run, then you really should make whatever roll you're going to make immediately after. You can't just decide to wait and roll later.

Marko - roll Spellcasting to activate the power vs. TN=4, and if there's no ranged penalties then roll 2d4 (1 PP) or 3d4 damage (2 PP), but ignore the *armor* part of their Toughness. So their Toughness is 7 for your Bolts.
You don't always have to go for the 3d4, a 2d4 can Ace and do lots of damage as well (see Alex's attack below for an example!).
Think of it this way : you're spending twice the Power for only 1.5 times more damage (3 dice vs. 2).

Arabella - the prisoners are starved non-fighters using improvised weapons, so their Fighting is d4-5. Just knock 'em down next time. :) Just kidding, they do provide a gang-up bonus if nothing else.

Alex, Katana, (Connor), Marko, WindDancer, K'Don all still have actions.

Alex said he would shoot, so I guess he's willing to hit a prisoner...
Shooting & Wild: 1d8 ⇒ 81d3 ⇒ 3
Explode: 1d8 ⇒ 5 = 13 vs. Orc B's Parry of 6 is a Success and Raise

Damage: 2d6 + 1 + 1d6 ⇒ (2, 6) + 1 + (2) = 11
Explode: 1d6 ⇒ 2 = 13 vs. Toughness 8 is a Success and Raise
Orc B is Wounded, and drops

Katana moves and attacks :
Fighting & Wild: 1d8 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 1 +1(gangup) = 5 is a miss

What is the effect of Arabella's shot. K'Don action depends on what happened to the orcs.

I'm sorry, I must be behind a move or something.

K'Don is going to move 10 squares and try to flank for gangup bonus on orc C attack if he can.

Marko positions himself for his Bolt spell. Firing if he can.

ARABELLA USED HER GOGGLES. THERE WAS NO SHOT FROM HER.

K'Don - to run, roll a d6+2 (no Acing). You must get at least a total of 4 to place yourself where you want to be.
If you can get there, roll -2 to your Fighting for double-action, but +1 for gang-up from the old man.

Marko, roll your Spellcasting.

Running: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
Made the running roll.

K'Don attacks
Fighting: 1d8 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1
Wild: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1
Wild Miss but no fumble?