Heralding the Coming of the Age of Worms (Inactive)

Game Master Fanguar

Am also back after wee sojourn to Italia...

Will try and get something up later today :)

A little out of character interruption, here's hoping one of the others steps in with a bit of reason, Pavo might be sneaky, but I don't know if he is sneaky enough to spring ALL of you :P

He might be though, and you are more than welcome to try.

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to railroad you into accepting Smenk's offer, but it is the path of least resistance.

True that, either break out of jail and continue to be criminals, or take the man's offer and have a chance at getting the charges dropped.

Los Bandidos!

We break out and go take care of the cult... Sheriff is in Smenk's pocket, F him.

The juice is on the loose!

Truthfully, everyone seemed against even hearing Smenk out.

Markus was channeling the vibe. He's not looking to make the decision on his own or go against the crew's wishes/desires.

Not there, and glad about that, but his deal did not seem all that bad to me...

Haha, funny that, because Pavo's plan was to confront Skenk and see what the man wanted :P. Ok, depending on what Pavo sees from his vantage point outside the jailhouse, he will have to start coming up with a plan.

Have reined in Los Banditos will a possible compromise?

Waiting on Ramos.

I am fine with whatever. Ramos is CN and I feel that he would have no issue accepting a deal from Smenk. He would also have no problem turning on Smenk later for having him arrested in the first place.

But, but, but... Smenk is the one who bankrolled the observatory! You folks are confusion...

Time an a place brother... this ain't the time nor the place... but rest assured Smenk an' his... will get what's comin' to 'em

So, how much time has passed? Is Lucid still happily scribing scrolls with his wizard friend?

Ya, I would say Lucid is still copying spells. Not that much time has passed and copying spells was going to take several hours.

Alustan's is probably a good place for the team to regroup and work out a game plan. The word will go around town pretty quickly as to what the current situation is, so you guys will have normal access to the various shops and what not.

So, lets claim the rest of the money for the owlbear pup asap - I bet that shop keeper was hoping to keep it all. :)

I agree with you Lucid. We need to upgrade some equipment and the owl bear will go a long way towards helping with that. I can cast a spell to make any item masterwork, but what I would really like to see is getting Markus a magic weapon since Sevrrir has one and so does Pavo.

Yeah, we are gonna need to plan how to approach this whole Dourstone situation too. I don't think we will win any points is we use the same strategy in this situation as we did at the Observatory.

I would recommend taking your time and coming up with a good plan of attack. Once you get to the baddies, you can indulge your urges for murder and mayhem, but the Dourstone mine is a working mine, so just rushing in and stabbing miners might be frowned upon.

As an aside, I just wanted to point out that the last adventure was pretty lenient in letting you rest pretty much whenever you wanted. That's not so much the case this time around.

Also remember that the gp limit for diamond lake is 800gp.

Stealth, bribery.or get hired on?

Stealth... Usually only 1 way in/out of a mine. Bottlenecked?

Bribery... What's the going monthly wage? Maybe a month's wages or 2 or 3. If they're questioned, they had to take a pee break, only gone for a minute.

Hired on... New hires get watched, and they might know us. Sverrir being a dwarf might be brought to boss's attention.

However we get in, might want miner disguises.

Ok, so I am just going to spit ball some ideas.

1. This cult of Hextor, they must have a way to get in and out of the mine without raising attention. There might be a secret way in that we could exploit.

2. Why does Smenk want us to do his dirty work? How does Dourstone figure into his plans.

3. Smenk has a chokehold on this down, is there any reason why we couldn’t have "him" work the back channels to get us access to Dourstone?

4. We could fake a "bad gas" incident. I believe that mines would use canerys to test for air quality. If we could somehow get inside, we might be able to temporarally shut down the mine by killing some canerys and making it look like some sort of toxic gas had flooded the tunnels.

That’s all I got. It seems like we don't have much information to go off of.

Oh and there was a second working mine that went out of business? Perhaps some of the shafts linked up and we might be able to use it as an alternate route? Fanguar can we make some gather information checks to find out details about the workings of the mine? Go to the emporium and throw some gold around. Must be a few disgruntled miners that have been laid off that could tell us about the complex.

#1 presupposes, they need to sneak in. Could be like images we see of the KKK. Day job, then put a hood and robe on.

#2 he states he wants plausible deniability... eliminate a rival/competition.

#3 dourstone doesn't seem to be under Smenk's control.

#4 way over my little head.

Last paragraph - sounds like money for info or a bribe.

Knowledge local or gather information checks would be appropriate for finding things out. You could also spy on the mine itself.

Let me know what info you're looking for and make a roll. Be aware that if you are asking around about the mine, that information may make it back to the Ragnolin or even the cultists.

And I'll be happy to try to help, once you come and get me. :)

1. Yeah sneaking into to a cultist hive could prove very risky - unless they are cloaked and mysterious. As its Hextor I'm thinking more militant (perhaps the mine guards/security are the cultists?) - either way they will know "dopplecultists" when they see em.

2. Dourstone does indeed eliminate a rival and adds to his power base. Smenk clearly doesn't like the thought of a Cult of Hextor operating on his doorstep - a Lawful Evil militant cult at that... so in sort he feels threatened and needs that threat eliminated without weakening his own forces... the fact he is threatened should give us pause... but it is also a chink in his armour too.

3. Don't think he is either. More likely Dourstone has got in bed with this Cult to build his own power base - rival crime lord in the making??? As such Smenk will be of little help in this one.

4. Sounds a stretch. A plausible stretch mind but might take a lot of setting up??

Think getting intel - finding out how they hire (miners and guards) and taking it from there. Also looking at the history of the mine too... that might reveal old shafts/entrances that no-one remembers or the cult might be using?

My 2 runes worth.

One thing to look into for intel, is talking to the miner's themselves. They might give us the information we need for the mine without making Dourstone aware that we are gathering info. Depending on the questions we ask, we might be able to better gauge Dourstone's involvement with the cultists.

Lucid, jump right in!

It's common knowledge that the Dourstone mine is the worst mine to work for. Low pay, terrible conditions etc. Getting hired on as miners wouldn't be a problem, especially considering your current criminal status. Bribing miners would also work, assuming they aren't also cultists.

If necromancy wasn't against the law maybe worshipping Hextor isn't either. Dang Diamond Lake liberals.

Well, I could find a group of miners that are at a bar and scan them with Detect Evil If I did that a few times I might be able to sort out the good from the bad and that would give us a better idea of who to approach.

The best approach is to hire in as miners. Lucid's family is well known for being miners, and Lucid taking a job at mining should be seen as him coming to his senses and growing up a little. Talking to/gathering information from other miners makes good sense too. And avoiding evil miners gives us a leg up on that.

Sverrir stooping so low as to work in the Dourstone would fit too - he might provide some focus of attention to allow for the others to investigate etc?

Being a cartographer, Markus may have access to historical records, plans of the Dourstone.

Why is this starting to feel like Ocean's Eleven?

a Miner's ploy should work for getting in, but first gathering some information would be a good idea. I might take charge of that as I wasn't really involved with the incidence with Smenk's boys, so they will be less likely to be aggressive to me if I need to go to the Feral Dog. Once we sort out selling and loot split, I plan on picking up a disguise kit so we can make use of disguises if need be.

Bumpity bump bump.

So what's the game plan? Complete infiltration? Couple of people go scout? Bribe miners?

As for loot buying, we can just cash out and do that behind the scenes, no need to RP it, unless you want to.

IC, Lucid is still waiting for the party to come and retrieve him.

OOC Iam for going in as miners, (if that works) after gathering some info as best we can from outside the mine.

Is it a 24 hour operation?

I guess we could try to infiltrate. I worry that we may not be playing to our strengths, but I would accede to the wishes of the group.

Lucid, I don't think Pavo came up to us yet...

I say bribe/knockout night guard. Charisma 7 here.

I reckon oil the wheels of info with some chat with miners... although not to flash the cash too much... just give em a taste.

We could play up the arrest/criminal angle - now we're crims,no-one will hire us, so we've no choice but to head to the Dourstone for some coin...

If Smenk and Dourstone don't get on - we could even concoct a story how we have been robbed of all our gains by Smenk and the corrupt authorities - we're pariahs looking for justice, to get even somehow (the cult might even look at some of us a potential members - we could get one/more into their ranks??? Donnie Brasco styleee)

Either way this needs to be a well thought out gambit? Probably need to smuggle our gear in somehow and have it stashed? Getting some miners in our pocketsis might help with that?

Anyway food for thought...

I say we have two potential angles that we can follow.

1. Go in as miners and find a way of smuggling our gear in, not raising Dourstone's awareness of what is going on.

2. Talk to Dourstone about what Smenk wants us to do, letting him know that Smenk is trying to take the dwarf's mine. Whether Dourstone is involved or not, I don't think he wants his mines taken. Should he not be involved, then we can go in as Dourstone's hired guns, wiping out any cults that might be there and weakening any claim that Smenk would have on the mine.

Sorry, what was the tally on the split?

Site ate my cheesy post! Nice one, Sverrir.

Do you guys want me to just write you into the dungeon? It's not really that important and I don't want to get bogged down by it.

Whatever works! Time to get... SHAFTED!

Thinking of recreating Markus for PFS, what you all think? Fauchard is PFS legal! Or an alternate similar build w/Half-Orc Andoren Faction, freed slave.

Is the greater crit threat worth the exotic weapon proficiency, or go bardiche? Fauchard is just... Awesome!

I think that might be for the best Fanguar. It seems like we are getting bogged down here and I would like us to move along. From what I have seen with pbp's it seems that the action can break down when figuring out plans. Sometimes being thrown into it works out the best.

I am good with that. Sorry for my low post rate of late. Was traveling all weekend - posted about it to the other game but not this one - meant too.

I am back home now and unless I run off to a con this weekend I should be around until Labor day.

I'll post something soon about loot so that people can have their gold in case they want to buy something before the transportation takes place.

OK - Its been a while. But to revisit loot, this is what my records show.

With the sale of everything we wanted to sell, including the owlbear cub we now have party treasure of 5593 gold. If we divide that by 5 we get 1118.6 gold each.

Loot of note that I have on my spreadsheet is as follows. It may not agree with what everyone has recorded.

Potion of Cure Light Wounds - Markus
Cloak of Resistance +1 - Lucid
+1 Shock Silver Short spear - Markus
Circlet of Wisdom +2 - Ramos
Potion of Gentle Repose - Assume this is an oil - Ramos
Potion of Ghoul’s Touch - Paralyzing Touch for 3-8 rounds - Ramos
Potion of False Life - Extra health for three hours - Markus
Potion of Chill Touch - To our bad touch cleric Ramos
Amulet of Natural Armour (+1) - Sverrir or Markus
Bottled Yeti Fur - I think this is natural armor. If so whoever did not get the amulet above

I was thinking. Perhaps we should look into selling that +1 Shock Silver Short Spear. It would sell for roughly 4,300 gold (or somewhere close to that). While I know that Diamond Lake coulden't afford that much, we might be able to convince Lucents wizard teacher to enchant some regular weapons in trade. Get some more +1 weapons. Thoughts?

Markus isn't partaking in the Filge loot.

What magic weapons do we have, thespear is an ancient artifact... A work of art. Markus would probably not want to sell it. Someone can use it., though.

What about the fang things?

I'm guessing we'll pound on some baddies and get some +1 weapons soon. We have a dagger and short sword?