Right, and after that brief interlude I return you to your scheduled gaming!
Am I posting, or waiting for Ottakar, Erevan, Felrin to post?
Due to the addition of a certain male kitten by the name of Loki to the household, my posting may be a bit spotty for the next few days (hopefully two or three) as I will be trying to make the little beastie feel at home. Just thought you should know...
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Haven't really had anything I've felt compelled to add, really. For now, Ottakar is simply following along and observing. He certainly has no desire to speak with someone foolish enough to waste their time with a ridiculous pursuit such as acting. Now to get ready for my acting gig in four hours... :P
Etna just wants to take a bath, really. :P
Wanting to post, running around like a lunatic today, will try to post at some point today.
Also, I'll be camping this weekend, returning late Monday, so posting is improbable until then.
Winston is awesome. That is all.
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I just love having a familiar.
If I remember correctly, by next level Winston will become more intelligent than the doctor is sociable. :P
Winston is awesome. That is all.
This. I should leave you guys alone more often if you're going to come up with stuff like this!
I just love having a familiar.
If I remember correctly, by next level Winston will become more intelligent than the doctor is sociable. :P
I just choked on the wine I was drinking. Bad PC!
Not to mention that Winston's Charisma is only slightly lower than the Doctor's. Heck, perhaps we should let the dog talk if at any point we are given a choice between the two, if only because barking cannot be done snarkily.
Also, wine, huh? Such a sophisticated devil. Oh, wait...
Fortunately, Felrin's intuition (read Wisdom) makes up for his lesser reasoning capability to some degree. In any case, I'm fairly sure he's not going to get that prom king crown either, Doctor.
There we go, back on track. I would apologise for the delay but this is an Evil campaign.
And I hope one of you speaks Dwarven, or I've just wasted 15 minutes of my life...
Erevan does, so you can feel better now. :-)
Etna has 14 INT and Linguistics maxed: it would be weird if she didn't speak dwarves. :P
Tkaara - to answer your question, it's a loud, ongoing argument; it's not over any time soon. Feel free to read the spoiler.
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Here is my thought for proceeding. I do not know how much we need to role play things, and how much is more guided ideas.
Ottakar/The Professor is here to research flora and fauna, and also to look into interesting artifacts from the ares. However, he is more interested in science and the military (his "hobbies"). Thus, Tkaara will spend most of her time berating him and attempting to keep him on his task, but pretty much as soon as she leaves, the Professor will seek out soldiers and other locals to learn about the history of the area - what battles were fought, how they were won, etc. The Professor is also interested in science, and will, when he gets a chance, seek out the alchemist to chat with about recent development is alchemy.
On the other hand, as soon as she has the Professor in the suite "studying", she will head to the common room to socialize with the locals and the soldiers - using whatever skills are necessary.
I have not thought as much about Erevan/Etna/Felrin, but I am sure that they can work out a similar two sided investigation technique.
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The one problem with this is we are sort of semi-splitting the party. I do not know how DMD will view this, but it seems strange/hard for all five of us to investigate together, especially with our backstories having us here for different reasons.
No problem, I was sort of expecting it! You'll cover more ground that way as well.
Given that you are all likely to report back to one another, I see no reason to spoiler the exploration process; I'll just break my posts up as required.
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Well, then come up with something else you want to study that would bring you up to the north. Being here to research flora and fauna sets right up with your high knowledge(nature). Being interested in military history, sure you do not know a lot about it, but you just really like it. I doubt you would need a huge amount of info about that.
Also, Tkaara can prep you some, she does have +6 in most knowledge skills.
I'm waiting for the Innkeeper to respond, then take a bath, and I think Etna's done for the day, unless Erevan thinks it's best if I accompany him to talk to the dwarves.
I promise you're not forgotten - I'm having too much fun with this game to let it drop. Apologies for the slowdown, it's temporary.
Splish Splash, still taking my days long bath. :P
While we're waiting for the next update, plans for the next day?
Me and Erevan could go check with the dwarves, maybe?
I was thinking that. The dwarves do sound like a plan. They may know things of interest to Craigh and Jenna after all.
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OK, update is, well, up ;)
Also, I've put a list of your progress in the Campaign tab and will continue to monitor things; if you lose track of what's going on, it's easier to look there than go through the Gameplay thread.
So, list of things to do:
-Go sell the horn and furs for some liquid cash. Would it make more sense for Jenna/Craigh to sell them, or Not-Tkaara and the professor?
-I'd say we could talk to the dwarf once they get to the inn in the evening. We could make it sound more natural, that way.
Proposals for other things to check out?
EDIT: Reads campaign tab.
Secret door? O.o
On the subject of selling some of the stuff, if for no other reason so as to have money to spend, I am not sure a pair of nobles selling seal furs and bits of ivory makes much sense. At least it sounds odd to me to have such people play at being merchants of sorts.
As to the dwarves, I agree. Not only would it be more natural to strike upa conversation while being in the same inn's common room, but perhaps their drinking may loosen their tongue a little and even dull their minds so that they do not wonder too much why we are asking them such things.
On that note, the idea is to ask the dwarves about the fortress, on one hand because of Craigh's interest in finding out more about some possible ancestors hailing from this region and on another to see if such defenses may be used in Caer Dawe, right? Also, anyone else think we should perhaps take a look at the dwarves' map of the fortress (this may be acomplished by Erevan and Etna's talk with them) and/or perhaps "relieve" them of it at some point?
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Any map is invaluable. We need to know how to position things and when we try to disable things in the fort, we are going to need to know where the defenses, commanders, and other key components are.
As far as selling things goes. One person could easily stick the furs in a haversack and then leave town. When out of town, change their appearance before returning as a merchant with goods to sell, probably arriving from the Farholde side where such furs are probably more common. Once the sale is done, leave town, sneak around, and return as a different person or as themselves.
Erevan and Etna might be great for this. They could decide to go on a sight-seeing tour of the area, this probably would not raise suspicion, especially if both of them left, and then just Etna (higher charisma for the sale) returned to sell the goods. Two out, one in, one out, two return.
This could be done several times to sell things, under different guises, over a period of say a week.
That is a pretty neat idea! I especially like the "different guises over a week" part for added safety.
I like the plan about disguising ourselves to sell the furs! Erevan, could I borrow your leather armor?
We could walk around the market before to buy stuff for the "picnic", and have an excuse to make small talk with the people around town to see if we can find about what's going around the place.
Tkaara's plan for the day is cool, too. Shake those boney hips at the guards! We may still not know what's up with her, but we already saw that she can't do much during the day.
I'll get to posting ASAP. Once I'm done, I'll copy-paste here what Timeon told us about the officials: didn't we have someone to blackmail, if it benefited us?
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Yeh, I figure that Tkaara can travel with the Doctor a certain amount of the time - either early morning (in a grumpy mood), or late afternoon (in a better mood since happy hour is just around the corner.) When she is with him, she will be sort of the annoyed assistant, directing him to do things, and trying to keep him on task, while appearing to be semi-bored and not really caring much about the task other than that it is her job to see that it gets accomplished.
Straight from Timeon's mouth:
"The fort of Balentyne guards a bridge across the river Tyburn and into the Savage North; it is the only point for a hundred miles East or West by which the river can be crossed. It is heavily guarded: at least 100 soldiers, led by four captains and commanded by Lord Thomas Havelyn, a mighty paladin. The four captains are Sam Barhold - he runs the place, he's known as "Iron Sam" behind his back - and captains Mott, Eddarly, and Varning. They're supported by priests and there's even a wizard. He has a bad reputation but I've met him, he's devoutly Mitran, I'm sure of it."
"The fort is part of the Watch Wall; communications with other forts and outposts is via messenger ravens. There's a rookery on the top of the round tower where the ravens live."
"Because the fort sees active service, most of the non-military personnel live nearby in the town of Aldencross. It's the biggest town around, and has a permanent market. All of the servants who work at the fort live in town, as do some of the captains, apart from Iron Sam. His brother runs the only inn in town, the Lord's Dalliance."
He pauses, and there's a slightly embarrassed look to him - for a moment, there's a glimpse of the old Timeon; perhaps Tiadora's ministrations merely traumatised, rather than erased, his personality? "Th- there's one more thing. The wife of captain Mott, she's very pretty" he gives Etna a quick, almost guilty look. "Last time I was there was about six months ago, and she asked me to deliver a letter she'd written - but not to her husband; to Captain Eddarly. I - I think they're-having-an-affair."
Notes:
1) There are about 100 soldiers stationed at Balentyne (already in the list of things we knew)2) Ravens are used as messengers (if we off them the day we open/blow up the wall, they won't be able to get reinforcements in a timely fashion)
3) Instead of just blackmail, we could orchestrate the whole thing so that Mott and Eddary are busy going at each others' throat the day the wall goes boom. Being without two of the captains could put a serious dent on Baletyne's effectiveness.
PS: I knew that being paranoid and keeping the masterwork backpack just in case was a good idea. :P
I have the following actions for Starday morning/afternoon
Ottakar - steal/copy map from dwarves' room
Etna - sell goods
Erevan - ?
Felrin - TBC
Tkaara - wait for nightfall
I have edited Erevan's post with a bit more. At first I thought Etna asked Erevan -and Winston, of course- to wait for her, but I guess moving about a bit should do no harm. :-)
As Corporal Grant said yesterday, you get an interview with Lord Havelyn, the commander - are you sure you're up to being interviewed by a high-level, high Sense Motive paladin? Alone?
So, I blithely set off to join the guard, and DMD asked the question above, quite reasonably. My question to my companions of the Ninth Knot: can anyone think of a scenario in which I meet Lord Havelyn in company with the Knot, or at least some of its members? I could have my current employers (our noble visitors to Aldencross) there to vouch for me, I suppose. I'm not sure how having more people trying to bluff him is going to help, but I'm also reluctant to try it on my own, in case it goes badly.
Well, Erevan cannot come, even though it would make sense as Felrin/Dav's current employer. As an antipaladin, he already has a moderately strong aura of evil, so finding himself in front of a paladin may not be the best of ideas.
@Felrin: Jenna could accompany you, too, and it would make sense. I'm already occupied for the day, though, so we will have to do it another time.
I was about to suggest tomorrow, but it's Sunday: I guess we'll have to go see Balentyne's chapel. That would help for Etna's cover as a particularly religious woman: maybe we could do it on [Golarion's name for Monday that I now don't remember]?
Waiting for a couple of days won't be a problem, I think.*
*Unless we somehow gain 30.000 exp in a day and a half: in that case, we'll all start registering as evil, and I will start registering as very evil. Same for Erevan and maybe Tkaara (when do you get your type changed as an undead?).
Could happen...
Not happening.
Also, Winston is (still) awesome.
Also, Winston is (still) awesome.
*Bows to the best of his abilities*
@Felrin: I'm not sure about your idea - on the one hand, it's the sort of off-beat, lateral thinking that I like, and if I were still playing, I would definitely have had Hecate try and apprentice herself to the wizard. On the other hand, it's not clear what you achieve: for example, an apprentice has clear reason to be there, reasonable freedom of movement, and doesn't have to associate much with the high Sense Motive, smite-y paladin. By contrast, as a mook soldier, you'll have almost no freedom of movement, your whole day will be taken up with routine - and if anything suspicious happens, it's "blame the new recruit time"...
It's your call, and I'm open to running with it, but I don't see the big plus that you seem to.
Thoughts?
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Perhaps the town guard would be better. You might get to the fort for training of one sort or another, and would gain brownie points when talking with the soldiers from the fort. I am concerned about the sense motive of a mid-level paladin as they do tend to be over righteous.
At the same time, joining the soldiers would allow him much more free reign of the fort to see how things are set up and perhaps some passwords or secrets. He would also be able to learn about patrols and troop movements which could be very useful.
At the same time, joining the soldiers would allow him much more free reign of the fort to see how things are set up and perhaps some passwords or secrets. He would also be able to learn about patrols and troop movements which could be very useful.
This is exactly what I was thinking. I'd have every reason to be in the fort. In fact, it hadn't even occurred to me that it was an unusual approach, it seemed like the natural thing to do. I'm a little puzzled why this issue is only coming up now, since my plan to join the guard has been pretty clear for some time. I've been building my persona around it, and it's my cover story for why I'm in town.
Obviously, if it's doomed to fail because I have to bluff someone who's out of my league, I don't really want to do it - but I'd have to retool things pretty significantly.
On another note: I'm on a 2-week work trip, and am turning out to have less ability to post than I expected, so my presence may be a bit intermittent.
OK. Let's see what the dice decide.
*1 catastrophic Sense Motive roll later*
..."Right, he's agreed to resign, throw the other officers in prison, put you in charge, and open the gatehouse - was there anything else?"
(Let's face it, I have great form for catastrophic Sense Motive rolls - or is this where my karma finally runs over your dogma?)