The Dark is Rising - WotW Part I (COMPLETED) (Inactive)

Game Master Darkness Rising

AU – great summary of the elements we should consider, thanks for putting it together. On the question of taking out the soldiers, I agree that trying to do it gradually will alert them, and we’d rather have them unsuspecting. Poisoning the goulash sounds like an excellent idea.

Per Etna’s point, Felrin would be happy to collect whatever supplies might be needed for this from the alchemist’s shop – perhaps the good doctor could put together a list of supplies to be pinched, and maybe even put together some bottles/vials/flasks of water or powders colored to match the stuff to be stolen, so they could be used as replacements and the theft might not be noticed right away? I guess it depends how much volume of material is needed to poison a regiment. While we’re at it, we should get hold of the necessary materials to poison the messenger birds, as I agree that isolation is a key element in our plan.

On another point: Is it worth Felrin trying to get a job at the fort? I had been thinking it would get us access and an understanding of the layout, but we’ve found a secret door to the place and the Doctor is working on a map, so we’ll already have both of those to some degree. I might be able to get some useful first-hand info, but I might also end up assigned to be a stable boy or some other very restrictive job and learn nothing, and have less flexibility to take on other tasks. On the other hand, if I can get up to the battlements, disabling the siege engines would be a pretty easy task for Felrin, and the same goes for the tricksy little double-drawbridge they’ve got. What do the others of the Ninth Knot think?

And finally – Felrin would be quite happy to come up with the mechanics for a telescoping cane/longspear for Doctor Ottokar. Perhaps we could make it tell time as well…

A few notes:

1) Doesn't one of the captains take a group of soldiers on patrols? If we know when they are leaving, we could either try to ambush them, or make out attack when they captain is gone.

2) If we can cause disruption in the town, this might cause the fort to send soldiers to help. For instance a large fire that does not appear too suspicious on the night we launch out attack. I do not know if anyone has any charm person or similar spells that could be useful for this.

There is some useful info at the fort; I'm assuming Felrin will take the Iverson's offer at least for the Moonday.

So, what did we decide on the ABP thing?

There is some useful info at the fort; I'm assuming Felrin will take the Iverson's offer at least for the Moonday.

Useful feedback, thanks. I'll proceed with the plan, at least for Moonday and perhaps beyond, depending how it shakes out.

So, what did we decide on the ABP thing?

Looks like we're going ahead with it. Update character profile accordingly.

I'm thinking of what Etna can do now: the things that are left to do are to check on Mad Martin (just to see how the tower where he lives is etc.), and find a way to acquire proof that Kaitlin and Eddarly are having an affair. Anyone has any idea on how we could do that?

A review on what we know about each captain:

Barhold: Disciplined, devoted. He's the innkeeper brother. Called "Iron Sam" behind his back.
Mott: Waiting for a promotion. His head is elsewhere: maybe he suspects about his wife's affair? Lives at house number 8 on the map: maybe we could sneak in when nobody's there?
Varning: Likes to talk. Does patrols (easier to kill by himself?). During his patrols, he usually ends up at Freeman's Rock, by the lake.
Eddarly: He is no gentleman (WOOT, heavy insults flying around!). As above, he's having an affair with Kaitlyn's, Mott's wife.

One option, since we have the hat of disguise, would be to find what Mott's wife looks like, then have either Etna or Tkaara be seen by Mott with/around Eddarly. A better option could be to steal a letter in his wife's hand writing, as well as one in Eddarly handwriting. Then have someone, probably the Doctor or Felrin, not sure which would be better at forgery. Then, we leave the letter(s) where Mott can find them. Or perhaps have someone in disguise, give it to a messenger to deliver to Mott's wife, but time the delivery when Mott is also home.

We also need to find what the innkeeper is doing in the basement. We might be able to use this against Barhold, although he is so disciplined that I doubt it would get us far.

Finally, for Varning, we definitely need to try to nail him when he is on one of his "patrols". I do not know how often, although Felrin might be able to get the scoop on this from other servants in the fort. After all, servants love to gossip.

I like the plan with the forged letters! Incidentally, the check for a forgery is based on Linguistics, so we I got that covered: can't believe that is actually going to be of use, instead of just flavor. :P

We could make three forged letters: one from Eddarly to Kaitlyn , and two from Kaitlyn to Eddarly. We'll hand one to each lovebird, and the extra Kaitlyn-->Eddarly to Mott: we could make a fake arrangement for Kaitlyn and Eddarly to meet, and make it so Mott will be there, too.
Hilarity* ensues. This way, we can also time the thing so that it happens the day we launch the attack.

*Disclaimer: Hilarity may not be the correct word.

Update character profile accordingly.

Felrin is now updated.

Lol - easiest adjustment ever for me. Just changed "Cloak +1" to "Resistance +1", etc. Only actual change was increasing my weapon damage by +1 since the weapon was already masterwork.

Wanted to clarify something: Can I choose natural weapons as my enhancement, even if I don't always have them? Making the longspear magic would be great and all, but when I go full blown wolfman, I'd rather have my tooth and claw...

Also, just to be clear, now redundant magic items like the amulet of natural armor just get retconned out of existance?

Oh, and DMD, I totally spent yesterday loudly telling everyone how we should have remained colonies of the British Empire. Long Live the Queen. >.>

I think that you could "attune" yourself to the spear, and then on another day attune a natural weapon. I do not know whether DMD will allow all natural weapon, a single weapon (1 claw), or a certain type (claws).

I figured I would not be able to have them all, but if the ruling is that it functions as an amulet of mighty fists, then it would apply to all unarmed/natural weapons. My question was whether or not I could apply it to weapons I do not always have access to. What would be really neat (and probably more than a bit cheesy) would be if the Beast and the Doctor could choose separate load-outs that would change when I do... :P

Also, just to be clear, now redundant magic items like the amulet of natural armor just get retconned out of existance?

Correct.

Oh, and DMD, I totally spent yesterday loudly telling everyone how we should have remained colonies of the British Empire. Long Live the Queen. >.>

Heh. And they didn't shoot you?

I figured I would not be able to have them all, but if the ruling is that it functions as an amulet of mighty fists, then it would apply to all unarmed/natural weapons. My question was whether or not I could apply it to weapons I do not always have access to. What would be really neat (and probably more than a bit cheesy) would be if the Beast and the Doctor could choose separate load-outs that would change when I do... :P

No to separate load outs, yes to Amulet of mighty fists. At 8th level, you can attune two separate weapons to +1; at that point, you could have both the spear and the natural attacks at +1.

Note that you can change the attunement once per day, so you could start the day with the spear and then (when you morph) choose the natural attacks. Of course, once you turn back, the spear would no longer be a +1 weapon until the following day...

OK - events in Athens seem to be somewhat chaotic at present, so I'm going to bot Erevan until he appears.

Erevan will be spending time being a nobleman in a small town; he will draw everyone's attention and gossip by doing nobleman-type things, so that the rest of you attract less attention.

So, my evil, evil, villains, what is your plan looking like? Do you have tentative dates?

Let me just make sure I know our window of opportunity. On 27 Neth, Sakkarot said he would have his troops in position in two weeks, which means the window opens on 11 Kuthonah. And the longest time he'd allow was one month, so the window closes on 25 Kuthona (Christmas!) - but sooner is better, as his troops will be squabbling by then.

So we have 10 days until the window opens, to further our resarch and make a plan. Felrin would like to spend a little more time getting to know the ins and outs of the fort first-hand, and would be happy to either probe deeper into the alchemist's secrets (to blackmail him into giving us what we need) or sneaking in to make off with what we need - though I'd prefer the first option. Now I have to run, but at least I've got the dates figured out.

Correct, on all counts.

Remember that on 11 Khutona you could help to make stew for the soldiers: ideally, if we could make a plan by that day, it would be great!

Do you think that Etna could try to befriend Kaitlyn? We know that her and Eddarly are exchanging letters so maybe, if that was the case, she could offer to act as in between, if the get close enough.
Any idea on how Etna could approach her? We know Kaitlyn is very active in charity, so maybe something connected to that?

The normal way for a noble(wo)man to get involved in charitable work is by offering a (substantial) donation ;)

But I am sure you can come up with something creative...

EDIT: added more dates to the campaign tab

So, charity wouldn't be something that would let me meet her...

...it's a stretch, but maybe something about Timeon? We knew that he was acting as a go between for Kaitlyn and Eddarly: maybe she remembers/know something about him? Jenna could have the second motive of having come to Balentyne to investigate on his disappearance, maybe? I really don't know how Jenna could have met him before, though, as Timeon had been training with the knights of alerion for a long time...
Any ideas, my fellow BBEE?

Remember, your cover story is you are here looking into the hereditary ties of Erevan to the area. The more you stretch that story into other areas, the harder it is going to be to keep the pieces together.

You are a noble. Ask about the charities she is into. We do have some money. I hate to give it away, but even 100 gold is a sizable sum that could get you into the good graces of her. An idea might be to talk with Mama about paying for food for the poor and hungry for a few days. For instance, you could have a Starday feast, or something of that sort.

The other option is to just have Felrin sneak into Mott's manor when he and his wife are out, perhaps in the early/mid-evening when most of the household staff are probably gone. He should be able to find something in her hand writing. As for something in Eddarly's handwriting, that might be harder. I suppose that Felrin might be able to filch something from the fort if he can get into the captain's room.

Also, if Felrin is able to get the schedule of the captains, then Felrin or the Doctor could sneak into the fort through the secret passage and get something from Eddarly's room.

Once we have their handwriting, then we can draft some missives between them and place them in such a manner as to appear to have been dropped, accidentally left, but where Mott will find them. If my understanding is correct, Mott is a bit of a hothead, and discovering that his wife is cheating on him could be all sorts of fun - a duel perhaps?

Got it. I'll try to think up something tomorrow.

Hope you don't mind my moving things along like this; I don't want to railroad you but I do want to make progress.

Speaking of which... Captain Varning and his Mundane Mook patrol is now away and not expected back for a fortnight. I assume you want to take some time out and ambush them? If so, I'm happy to essentially handwave it: it'll take you two days - one to track them and find them, wait until they camp, kill the sentry and then take the others as they sleep; and then a day to return (you'd get back late evening).

Unless, of course, you're hungry for some dice-rolling? Frankly, the encounter's not much of a challenge, but I'll do my best to provide one for you.

Let me know.

I think a bit of railroading is helpful when a PbP is in sandbox mode like this, so keep it up!

Ambushing Varning and his crew, to reduce total numbers at the fort, sounds good to me. I could go either way, handwaving it or playing it out, based on what others would like to do (with a slight preference for the handwave, I guess.)

Edit: also, that's a mighty map of Balentyne.

There is of course an error in the Gameplay thread: it is Toilday 2 Kuthona.

The gremlins responsible for this glitch have been apprehended. They will not trouble us again.

We don't want to apprehend the gremlins. No, we want to invite them to a party with the guards. Then the guards will have the privilege of finding rotten foodstuff's in their scabbards and other joys of working with gremlins - and the guards thought the bugbears were the main problem.

That was exhausting to write by phone. :P
Also, every time I use emissary, it looks like I always roll horribly. <.<

I'm in favor of handwaving the encounter, by the way.

Progress! Apologies for the wall of text.

OK, partially updated Campaign tab - calendar is up to date. List of rooms for Balentyne map will follow later.

For now, let's award XP!

Captain Varning: 2,400 XP

10 rangers: 4,000 XP

At some point, I will stop awarding XP for low-CR enemies, but not yet.

Busy for a few days and you miss a slaughter. Oh well. :P

Sorry for my absence, hope all is well with the rest of you. Onward!

Felrin, could you fetch me one of those letters, please? Looking forward to Etna's reaction at the content, considering how prude she is. :P

PS: I bet Felrin has been passing the last IC days kicking pebbles and muttering to himself how "Everyone is having fun murdering Mitrans without him."

Will do - have a post half-written but got busy.

Edit: and yes, Etna, Felrin was indeed sad to have missed the murder party. You read my mind.

Nice planning - and great writing!

So, what goes into the forged letter? You're fairly sure that Kaitlyn and Eddarly have something planned for Fireday evening: you know from the Captains' rota that Mott has the 4 p.m. until midnight shift at the moment, so you have a rough idea of likely timings as well.

What's the plan?

I think that if we want to have sparks flying on Fireday, we'll have to make it so Mott "finds" the fake letter during his shift, possibly around the evening. We want him to run to his home and hopefully do something dumb into the heat of the moment.
I thought about leaving the letter in his office, but I don't know if that would work. :/

Hm, that might work - Felrin could "mis-deliver" the letter to Mott's quarters rather than Eddarly's. Stand back, await fireworks.

Plan?

We'll just have to be sure to deliver it around 9-10 p.m., just to be sure that Kaitlyn and Eddarly are already meeting.

Like Tkaara said a couple of days ago, I hope for a duel to death. :P

Sounds like we have a plan, with just some minor quibbling over details. I'll get a post up shortly.

I've also updated the information on the fort Balentyne in the campaign tab - there's some potentially useful pointers there.

EDIT: And done - everyone but Felrin, can you let me have your actions for Fireday morning/afternoon please? Note that staying in the warmth of the tavern and doing nothing is absolutely an option. Wouldn't blame you at all - it's horrible out there...

I thought of something yesterday: at level 7, I'm going to become an actual Devil with all the subtypes, right?
What happens if they cast Dismissal/Banishment on me?

Poof. :-P

D:

I mean, whatever the response, there's still that 20% probability that I get sent to a random plane: they all seem pretty...lethal.
Though, because I'll get Regeneration 5, I could end up somewhere like the Elemental Plane of Earth, and get trapped into an endless cycle of death and rebirth by suffocation.

I have no mouth, and I must scream.

I'll...just be sure to keep those two Villains Point up in case someone shoots me a Banishment. <.<

DMD - can you clarify a thing or two? I had understood the attack would be coming from the north. But from the map, I'm guessing it's coming from the east, so the baddies would have to cross the river - is that correct? I think Tkaara's plan to use the secret passage is an excellent one, but if it means Sakkarat's forces have to cross the river first, it may be hard to pull off. But we could still create a diversion in town (play/plague/deadly fire) and have a bunch of soldiers go there, so we can use the stone block to close off the servants' entrance and have far fewer defenders in the building when the attack comes.

Looks like we need to better understand the workings of the gatehouse. Has Felrin been told he can't go out there? I see that the bridge (#18) is off-limits to non-military folks - how about the passageway at #24? Doesn't it need dusting?

You're right, in that the bugbears have to come over the bridge. Looking at the map, and the map of Talingarde, it looks like there's a slight bend in the river: the overall direction of the River Tyburn is East-West, so the bridge does in fact go the the Savage North; but I agree it isn't clear.

You're also right in that Sakkarat's forces have to cross the river first - your job is to make sure that the gatehouse is open. Thorn also instructed you to kill the Commander. Apart from that, how you do this is up to you.

Finally, 24 isn't a passageway - it's a parapet where archers can stand and shoot anyone who gets onto the bridge. It's definitely off-limits to non-military personnel!

EDIT: So now you know (or can guess) what happened, and who killed whom.

Anyway, for the death/removal of 2 officers, I award 4,800 XP

I also award you a further Villain Point

Your plan to break the defences of Balentyne progresses forward! What's next?

Mwah ah ah!
With that, I think everyone capped their VIllain points, correct?
I didn't remember that we had to kill Avelyn, too. :/ That will take some more work.

I think that we should follow Tkaara's idea to invite the fancy-hat-with-bard-attached to raise the morale after such a terrible, terrible tragedy.
Instead of setting fire to a random building, we could do that to the tower where the hermit with the messaging crows lives: a lot of birds with one stone.

PS @DMD: Any comment on the whole Banishment/Dismissal thing? Where will I end up?

PSS : The blog post for Hell's Unleashed came out today and there's a construct/devil/golem/super cool thing made out of paper.
I don't know what it is, but I want one. *.*

PS @DMD: Any comment on the whole Banishment/Dismissal thing? Where will I end up?

No comment at this time. If you want to make a Knowledge (planes) roll at some stage, you might get an answer :)

I end up at home, in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot tea in my hand, right?

"Home" and "fireplace" are definitely appropriate terms, and hot liquids on the hand might be a feature too...

Don' you mean fire-place?

Now that I had a chance to read DMD's last post, I love the detail. Between the pace and quality of posts, this is one of the few pbp campaigns that I have really felt immersed in.

Two thumbs up to DMD, and to the rest of you. Now, lets see about cutting off the head of the beast and seeing Balentyne fall.

Tkaara returns to her regularly scheduled "bored ditzy blonde" routine.

I completely agree, Tkaara! I've had other immersive PbP games, but this one consistently impresses me with the depth and the quality of the writing, especially on DMD's part.

DMD - I'd add that the pacing you're able to keep up in this sandbox segment, is really great. I have seen many games get completely bogged down in this sort of moment in the story, but you take a general sense of what we're agreeing to as a plan and plug it into the story without waiting for us to decide whether the napkins on the table at the Dinner of Ultimate Evil will be crimson or scarlet, or other such details that ultimately don't matter to advancing the tale.

No time for a proper reaction post right now, will get one up later.