Iron Gods: Forged into Legends

Game Master polyfrequencies

Keldor steps aside to get a better tactical position and attempts to smack away the flying bird attacking him.

Slam Attack!: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 7 + 1 = 9
Damage(Magic): 2d6 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (1, 6) + 4 + 1 = 12

I don't even know why I try anymore sometimes...if I could just HIT something. Anything!

ouch. How about a +2 to hit? It only costs me 1 Standard Action xD

Correction on how Ferocity works with nonlethal.. spoiler: it doesn't

Keldor's swing misses the Orc

The orc in the middle of the field turns and sees Birdfood on fire, and blind. and just grunts and runs for it. Full rull east

As the Orc runs out of the blast range, the small device sets off a massive explosion. Sending concussive waves of energy outward.

Birdfoot Reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9
O1 Reflex: 1d20 ⇒ 16
O3 Reflex: 1d20 ⇒ 20
O2 Reflex: 1d20 ⇒ 9
Yarkus Reflex: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

The bust Knocks out Birdfood. Never even seeing it coming. A few of the Orcs are knocked out. The Orcs standing seem shocked seeminly eager to take off, now that Birdfood is gone. The hawks that are awake seem to be a bit confused still and continue to attack.

Round 3
O4, Rej, Kij
Ury, Gauntlet
Boom, Basil <--
O6, Birdfood (Sleepytime), Yarkus
Thawm

(O5 is running)

Basil takes a step back and levels her gun:"Stand down. We do not demand you yield. Only that you cease hostilities. Your chapter of Steel Hawks is now under new management, once again. Your allegiance should be to your clan, not a single leader."

Intimidate: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

I know that won't work on the birds, but I also don't want any reinforcements to show up and join the enemy side...best if we can get those warriors still here call a truce and take it from there. Also to minimize casualities we inflict.

Another orc runs out of the building, but seems to be running for it. Just taking off.

The orcs seem to start backing off. Birdfood keep sleeping. It seems like the Birds are the only ones you will need to deal with.

The Orcs all look like they are going to run, well the ones that are awake.

Round 3
Rej, Kij
Ury, Gauntlet, Basil, Thawm <--

"Having trouble tagging the birds, Keldor?" Thawm says before enhancing his aim with a Blessing of the Faithful.

the aforementioned round of +2 to attack ^^

The birds go into a flanking position on basil and strike away.

Rej Bite Basil: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11
Rej Talon Basil: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23
Rej Talon Basil: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Kij Bite Basil: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
Kij Talon Basil: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Kij Talon Basil: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3

Ury giggles to herself. And tosses a bomb at the bird on the outside of Basil. The fire wraps around her, but hits the orc on the ground.

Bomb: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15
Damage: 4d6 + 5 ⇒ (2, 1, 4, 5) + 5 = 17

The bird drops to the ground, scorched. The remaining orc runs for it as well.

Only one bird left is a dangerous creature.

Round 3
Rej
Ury, Gauntlet, Basil, Thawm <--

Swinging again at the last bird...

Slam Attack! w/temp bonus!: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 7 + 2 = 16
Damage(Magic): 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (4, 5) + 4 = 13

Gauntlet's swing crashes into the small bird. Bring it down.

The orcs continue to run, while some sit not conscience on the ground. Birdfood sits against the back wall out as well.

Combat quiets. The orcs will run if you don't intercept them.

Now that things get quiet. What do you want to do?

Thawm is first to break the settling silence.
"Think they're running to tell the current evil-overlord?"

Keldor shrugs.

"I don't care. See? Was that hard? He's alive. We didn't have to kills bunches of people to do it. Let's grab 'Birdfood' and go. He was so rude..."

Keldor shoulders his way over to Birdfood, divests him of any weapons quickly, and then shoulders him to carry him out but still leaving one hand free.

"I guess I don't want to wait around for what might come back here."

Thawm sighs.
"Yeah, let's hurry up before the conjured steed evaporates."

Quickly looking through Birdfood's gear.

Collecting the stuff, and grabbing Birdfood.

You going to book it back to the entrance? With Birdfood?

yeah, looks like we're leaving any possible loot inside the place for later, probably never xD

We also didn't have to fight a bunch of goons for longer than necessary. I call that a win in my book.

What is the Strength Bonus for the Composite Longbow? I hope its only a +1 (or less). I can use that now that I'm a Paladin and it is my god's personal weapon so... Could be very useful later, especially with the Human Bane arrows.

"Mission parameters are sufficiently satisfied.", Basil makes sure Birdfood is tied up:"By bringing him, that should be sufficient proof that he has been removed from his post. I doubt you will approve of his likely fate, Keldor - but all the same we were efficient and swift."
Basil is also in favor of returning Birdfood to the outpost...if we can formalize a cooperation agreement, Ury can then stay there.

"Yeah. Let's see what the soon-to-be leader of the steel hawks has to say." Thawm says before hooking up the wagon again.

The bow is technically a +2. I have always house ruled that you can pay to have it modified. I know there is a magical adaptive property. So my ruling is you can pay to lower it. By loosening the string a bit. But the structure of the bow can't go above +2. So lowering it for 100gp but not raising it. So for now, you take a -2 to attack with it.

You throw the body onto the back of the spectral horse. And ride back to the entrance of the town. While traveling you notice a few other orc groups, but they seem to avoid you. No need to even avoid them.

Before you get there you notice a small silver bird. What looks like a raven. Flying fast toward you. It flies past you then turns and faces you, while strangely hovering. Keeping pace with you. It lets out a clear voice "Greetings travelers. My name is Dinvaya, and I am sending this message requesting a chance to talk to you in the Clockwork Chapel. As you head north there is a ravine to the west. Follow that" Before there is any chance to reply the raven flies up and north.

A strange occurrence. In the distance, you can see the gate.

"Clockwork Chapel, huh? Weird. Think we should check it out after we hand over No-lips?"

"Definitely. That may-hap been the priest we are looking for."

"I concur. Joram mentioned one Dinvaya in Scrapwall on the run from the technic league. We were tasked with presenting her with the idol of Brigh and convincing her to move to Torch. If she makes contact with us, that is very convenient. Since we moved swiftly and directly after our briefing, it is highly unlikely someone knows of our task - so the chance this is actually a trap - rather than a genuine attempt of contact - is below 3.874% probability."
She looks after the Raven: "We should definitely finish our current task, first, though. Afterwards, we can head to the Clockwork Chapel."

With the small interlude with the Raven, you continue the remaining 200 feet to the back gate.

Guards look at you, "Ah! Is that Birdfood? HA! Come with me."

They direct you to the same room you met with Sevroth. When you arrive the room is empty. Birdfood is still passed out.

A few minutes later Sevroth shows up, "Ah! Ya bastards.. you did it! That lipless a+*++&@. You didn't need to bring his body here... ... Wait. He is still alive??!"

She moves to Birdfood. You can see she is very thinly veiling that she is going to kill the man.

Right? I'm not sure that he's a cannibal, but something is wrong with him for sure.

Thawm shrugs.
"Not for long, I hope. Try telling that to Keldor, here, though and you'll get an ear full."

"We believe that there...should be a trial, of sorts.", Basil attempts to get Sevroths attention: "Making that a public event would reinforce the credibility of your claim to leadership, possibly even among those who were merely planted to swell the ranks."
Bluff: 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (13) - 3 = 10
Aye, Sense Motive 10 reveals she doesn't really care and mostly wants to appease Keldors sense of Justice. Not spoilered because it's also very thinly veiled.

Still riding Gauntlet, Keldor waves everyone off.

"We are not contract killers, but we have brought Birdfood to you per our agreement. He is no longer in charge, and I doubt he would be given much of a chance to re-gain that position now. He IS evil. You may...do with him as you wish. But I would ask you give him the chance to offer up intelligence on your rivals here, and then banish him for his troubles here. The lack of a body will do more for your reputation here than merely killing him too probably. I'm not saying show mercy or compassion, things which I doubt are considered important here...but it shows leadership and fairness. Thinking of your people before your own, and using this man's weaknesses against your enemies in the end will go further towards you holding onto leadership than the sharpest knife."

Diplomacy(Untrained): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16

"I did not expect you to suggest torturing him, but I certainly have sufficient anatomical knowledge to try.", Basil shrugs.

Thawm chuckles. "We don't need torture. Nethys can prevent him from lying, I'm sure."

She breifly looks to Keldor "Sorry, but that is now how it works around here" She steps forward and with two very fast, very hard fists to the face of Birdfood's neck cracks.

She rubs her knuckles for a second "Now.. What can I do to help? Need information about the gangs and their locations and leaders?"

If you want to try to stop this. We can roll init and retcon this post. She does lethal damage, but it may not (by math) kill the man. So if you try to stop it I will go look up his exact health and go from there. If you are ok with it, we can continue the conversation.

I never suggested torture, but was suggesting simple banishment in exchange for information. Anyway...No. Keldor knew what was probably going to happen here, but he had to at least try to talk sense and and give the man a chance. Anything else here might have compromised the 'big' mission too much. Keldor is still coming to grips with the reality of being a Paladin and being smarter than the average Paladin too. He recognizes the reality and logic of each situation, so he can't really lie to himself much at all unfortunately. He did what he could reasonable try to accomplish within the bounds of Scrapwall's life and laws such as they are, now he has to live with the consequences such as they are too. Faith and logic do not always agree. Its that simple. Sometimes he has to choose. This time he picked logic for various reasons. Next time...? He will just have to try and do what he can to make amends sometime in the future. Assuming his god lets him.

"Give us anything you can tell us about 'Hellion' and his...
Its?...followers. Their location, goals, manpower, weaknesses...everything you might know or suspect."

I know you did not "suggest" torture. But you did suggest to offer him to give up information about his allies. Which I doubt he would have produced voluntarily. I purposefully misunderstood you since you simply "waved off" what had been said before, including my attempt to make this easier for you by requesting a trial(even if it would be court martial). Basil figured if you don't care, she may have misjudged situation or intent, and thus overcompensated by expecting different extremes - e.g. torture.
As he formerly was a Smiler - that is, with another gang - and was placed as pupped by Hellion, chances are if banished he would have run back to them and provided intel on us. So banishment seemed an illogical option, and Basil found no proper interpretation for your suggestion except "make him go missing".

"And allow us to operate from your base, for the time being. I understand that any failure on our part would potentially endanger you, and if we are ready to act openly, I will not insist on your hospitality. But until such time as we are more accustomed to Scrapwall, I request that you provide us a save shelter for the rest my companions require."

"Yeah, what Basil said. A safe place for the cart would be good. Some thugs killed our horse!"

With a wave of her hand "Yeah, sure. We can clear out a room here for you. Some of us are going to go north and reclaim the old building you where just at. Though the gate will still need guards. So this place will be more empty. Sure"

"As for the Gangs. We have us, the Steel Hawks. You know our deal. Then we have the Smilers. Birdfood, was a plant from them. They are based in the northwestern region of the city. They are not loved by the rest of the people living here. But, they're particuarlly Hated by the Redtooth Raiders, with whom they are in a constant fight. The Smilers are canabals. What is funny, is the Redtooth Raiders are all ratfolk.. And as far as I know they don't eat ratfolk. So who knows" She shrugs a bit.

"The Smilers' headquarters are in a strange ancient building. Covered in strange metals. Their leader is a rough looking hobgoblin lady. I have never seen her without her zombie friends. I think she is magical."

Switching directions "The Redtooth's Raiders, like I said before, are ratfolk. They are the second most powerful gang here.. Well they where, they have fallen bad. Their leader is Readtooth, Obviously... Another lady rat. They are located not too far from here. Along the east wall. You would need to pass through their territory to get to the Smilers up north. I think they call it Redtooth's Warren."

"Now the Lords of Rust.. Which you seem most interested in. They are all types of creatures, Orcs, those strange machine people like your friend here, and ratfolk. Most of them live in the Scrapmaster's Arena. Which is east of the Smilers and north east of the Redtooth's Raiders. They like to have auditions in the Arena. Fights of course. They have a troll who acts as a kinda... guard and front face of the gang. Helskarg is her name. Their current leader is named Kulgara a female orc. Mean lady, who replaced some robotlady who left awhile back. Sharing duties is Nalakai who is kinda the second in command, I expect. Nalakai is a orc cleric of their God.. That weird Hellion thing. All I know if it, is that it likes to show itself as images on machines occasionally. Looks like some sort of red devil."

Looking bored and tired. "Anything else? I would love to take off and go take back my home now.. if its not to much of a bother." sarcasm is very thinly veiled here.

Keldor shrugs, seemingly a bit downcast now.

"Go I guess. Thanks for the information? Oh...what do you know of the Clockwork Chapel?"

She rolls her eyes "Yeah, Dinvaya, that crazy woman lives there. She's up in a dead-end gorge up to the north, but watch out - She doesn't take well to visitors!"

Crunching the numbers.. *tap tap*... looks like you should all level. Enjoy

Thawm half turns to leave.
"Interesting. Thanks for the info. Got anything you'd be willing to share that might help us remove hellion's following from power?"

Keldor waves his hand to keep up Thawm's line of questioning.

"Or where Hellion comes from? Why it considers itself a 'god'?

"If it can grant spells and have clergy in it's name, it rightfully considers itself divine. I would rather focus on finding out how to bring about it's downfall, rather than understand it's origin. Mayhaps one of my kind succeeded in Absolom and ascended. It will not matter.", Basil adds to the argument.
Basil turns to the woman:"Apologies for holding you up yet longer, but please understand that this is in your best interest if you plan to hold your new place permanently this time...Hellion attempted to drain power via a magitech device, from a place far from here. Do you have any idea what he could need this power for? Rumors, even, of anything that may be in his possession or domain and require large amounts of power, that could further it's goals? If we understand it's needs, we may deduce it's weaknesses. Divine or not, it has already proven fallible..."

She grins a bit "I don't know what he is. I do know he likes to show himself on panels around, or at least that is what people say. He looks like a Devil of some kind. I guess I am not sure it really is a He. I imagine you would have to deal with the Lords of Rust to do anything about it/him"

"I have heard he has clerics.. How else could get get power? Isn't that something gods do? Yeah, exactly what your robot lady said."

"Power sent here? Magitech, look lady-looking-thing, I have no idea what that is all about. I mean, if it is after power, this whole place has dead machines and strange caves. They seem to run off weird power. I know people are always looking for those powered silverdisks to run strange machines they find. Could there be something big or powerful it wants to get going? Or maybe he found a nice mechanized back scratcher and ran out of batteries"

Almost didn't type backscratcher.. but figured this not an adult Message Board.. But you get the crass joke he was attempting to make

I'm cool either way. I think we're all adults here? In another game here on the PBP boards I've got an elven inquisitor of Calistria who is basically a dominatrix in her off time. So...

Thawm nods and then waves goodbye.

to the cleric's tower!

I thought we were just given a place to rest and heal up? We not going to rest first?

I do, Basil wouldn't even with more explicit language :)
"Thank you for your time. I had hoped there could be rumours, but it makes sense that he keeps his plans secret - the agent he needed to replace also did not know details."
Basil is ready to leave.
after getting Uri settled in here?

Ury chimes in. "I am happy here. I can work on some supplies for you, if you wish."

The gang leader also chimes in "Yes, you are welcome to one of the empty rooms. Feel free to be on your own timeline. I am going to take off. Gooood luuuuck" And she leaves.

You can take a night here, or just head up to the cleric's area. Whatcha doing? I assume you are setting up Uri as well.

oh good point, Uri needs to be set up, maybe rest and then clocktower xD

That makes the most sense to me too.

With that, Keldor dismisses Gauntlet and relaxes a bit in his simpler armor. Lounging easily he looks at Uri.

"Can you make us any of those bombs for us? They seemed to come in pretty handy. Can you make them so they don't kill people? Like the technology versions Basil used?"

She thinks for a bit, "Hmm, I don't think I can make exactly what you used before, but I might be able to come up with something. Might be a bit expensive and take awhile to get it right. It is a lot easier to just burn or create acid, than it is to just knock someone out. I expect about a week to create it, though I will need to play around with it. Up to you"

I am thinking about Sting Grenade. Not sure if there is a different option

Keldor smiles as he removes any blood, dirt, and smells using his new magic cloak. Then turns to Uri in gratitude as he fiddles with his armor's camouflage controls, setting the armor to 'scrap-city' mode.

One energy charge expended on my armor to engage the +3 bonus to stealth while in a specific type of terrain.

"That works for me m'lady! I will come back and see how many you can make with what materials you can gather."

He then gives her 30gps as a down payment, mostly for exertion of the attempt and materials cost at least.

She accepts the money, and starts to go about building something with the money.

You are all able to rest for the night. Getting healed up and resting to prepare for the next day.

The next day you are able to head north to see if you can visit the. Heading through the Steel Hawk Territory, a few roving groups give you nods, but leave you alone. As you move farther north out of their territory you notice even more people living here. There are small dens in the trash, or small shanties everywhere. Mostly the people hide deeper in their holes when you move through. It is interesting to see so much life, even living as hard as they seem to be.

Moving into the Redtooth's territory you notice a lot more ratfolk have taken up residence in this area. As you get into the heart of their territory you can see some sort of altercation coming from from off to the side. You could continue north along your destination, but to the east there seems to be 2 groups of people currently fighting.

If you take a moment to look you can see 4 larger human looking creatures firing guns into a small crowed of ratfolk. The ratfolk are closing the distance and attacking up close. It defiantly looks to be a one sided fight with the humans with guns winning.

If you would like to interceed we can get a roll20 map going. Otherwise you can continue on, or watch how this encounter goes. You are about 30 feet from the battle.

Thawm is going to be extra hasty today and just jump in :D

Oh, I bet they'd let us keep some of the guns if we help...
"I say we help the rats."

Thawm starts casting Summon Monster 3!