The Devil We Know Series (Part IV: The Rules of the Swift) (Inactive)

Game Master Baerlie

"Torch? Who's that? Don't tell me we have a stowaway on board." the Baron says while looking around. "There is still time to turn around or we kick him out of the ship right where we are."

"Yes, dinner would be excellent. In addition to hearing about that tiger, it would be great to learn more about the area we'll be traveling to from an expert. We don't always have the benefit of traveling with someone experienced with the location we journey to."

Tippy laughs. "If we do find him, I recommend waiting until we're several miles out to sea before kicking him overboard, but I wouldn't worry. He's just an annoying man who keeps showing up on our last two missions."

Celentrai quietly snickers to herself imaging seeing torched kicked off the ship.

"You know. He might enjoy that saltwater bath a little too much Tippy. Perhaps we could spice it up with some sea life."

"Do sharks like eating large piles of owlbear excrement?"

"I think he might frighten all the critters away."

"No, he'll just convince the shark to eat some other guy, whom he had already tricked into jumping into the water for him, only to turn out that the other guy was also the shark all along."

"Iso feel sorry for poor burnt man. It must hurt lots to risk spending so much time in water."

He looks over the edge of the ship at The Worlds Biggest Bath, and shakes his head.

"So we have a date tonight." Baron Rudyahm says with a grin. "And this is Tidjani, he will show you your cabins and around the ship. I wish you a pleasent stay on board."

"You are most gracious sir, thank you!"and with that said Celentrai follows Tidjani to her cabin

Borrobol thanks the Baron for his time and follows Tidjani to learn more about the ship and to settle into his cabin. "Have you been in the Baron's service for long Tidjani?"

Iso tags along wiht Brrrobol, banging his head on low ceilings from time to time.

"Real Ships are Open."

"No, I'm hired for this expedition only. I'm cleaning the ship, cooking the food, making the beds. Everything the Baron does not have time for." he says with a big grin while watching Iso banging his head on the ceilings. "You will get used to the moving floor. I'm glad nobody of you gets seasick."

After walking through half the ships length below deck he opens four doors. "These are your cabins. Please keep the small windows closed if you are not in there. Just in case we meet heavy waves. Over there is the toilet." he says while pointing at another door. "Please keep it clean, this toilet is used by everyone on the ship, even by the Baron."

After showing you also the sun deck and the galley he leaves you alone. "Please excuse me, I have to prepare lunch."

Iso looks at the toilet with amusement.

"Other ships Iso has been on, he has just hung over the side."

He can't resist trying to cram himself into the small room (after divesting himself of most of his weapons). A few minutes later he comes back out.

"Better watch out for big waves." he mentions sheepishly.

The barbarian has travelled by ship before and is impressed to have a cabin to himself. He removes his armour and after oiling it stows it in the small cabin, along with the majority of his arsenal.

How long would it take to get from deck to the cabin if we ran into unexpected trouble?

Only a minute to the cabin and back if you run

"Thank you for the tour Tidjani. I'm more worried about falling in than getting seasick. I'll make sure I'm in my cabin with the windows closed if we get any big waves."

"Thanks for the tour we appreciate it. Please let me know if you need help with anything."

Iso eyes the ship warily. Still, after stowing his weapons and armour he heads back on deck where he does his best to mix and mingle with the crew. Once on deck, the barbarian is all but naked, wearing a pair of trousers and little ease - showing off some large scale tattoos over his chest and arms.

Eventually he gets around to climbing the rigging and secures himself a good spot high on the mast from which to spit at seagulls and admire the view from on-high.

On deck you see all kinds of people preparing equipment for the expedition. Counting the rations, water bottles, ropes, armour and weapons.

Iso climbs the rigging to the crow's nest. He has to fight some seagulls which used the nest to share food. It's a bit messy.

Soon the evening comes and you see a beautiful sunset. The men on deck finish their work and move under deck to prepare for dinner.

"Hey Iso! Time to stop playing with the birds and come down for dinner. Let's hear about this tiger!"

Somewhat reluctantly Iso climbs down the rigging.

The mostly naked barbarian looks around for where dinner would be.
"uh, that is.. we don't have to dress up - like we did for the opera in Oppera do we?"

"Not like the opera, but more than you have now. He might like to hear some tales of our adventures so if your armor has any interesting scrapes and dents, it might add flavor to the story."

Iso dashes off the ship in search of clothing.

Eventually he returns bedecked with parcels and packages.

"Iso has been meaning to buy a penguin disguise for many months. Iso's public demands that he also attends the most Exquisite performances. Sadly many do not appreciate Iso's street style at such events."

Iso shakes his head sadly at such a thought.

He then perks up with a smile. "Iso also find nice hot weather outfit. After last trip to hot city, Iso need clothes that allow air to pass around his manly form."

That would be a courtiers outfit and 5gp worth of extra bells for his beard. And a hot weather outfit. Iso's funds are sadly now running very low.

Celentrai looks almost shocked at Iso outfit.
" Iso I would never have imagined you in such an outfit. There are not furs at all! " she says with a smile.

"Iso enjoys theatre as much as the next man." he says a little sheepishly. Then he adds sadly
"Maybe more so. Opera in Oppera was Very Exciting! Iso took active part in performance. Iso also wrote splendid review, very well received. Iso never saw silver though, wicked editor stole all takings."

He points to the (older) set of bells woven into his beard.
"Iso bought these to help get into show. Iso pretended to be Ulfin Guard!"

Lowering his voice he adds. "But new clothes so scratchy. And Iso never remember which fork to use at dinner. Knife too small and nobody in southlands like Iso taking axe into eating hall to cut dinner."

He tut tuts to himself at the savagery of the southern standards.

"Iso suspects using little knife to cut dinner lead to poor digestion." A loud noise emanates from his rear in support of the statement. "See!"

He finishes by asking "Maybe baron would like to see Iso light butt air? Torch never got to see such wonder."

"I think you'll find that open flames and wooden sailing ships don't mix," Tippy gasps, quickly moving to get in front of Iso.

"Yeah, maybe we'd better save that demonstration for the jungle."

With a sad sigh Iso nods his head in agreement.

"Iso not have money to pay for patching of burn in pants anyway." he adds practically, trying to find a silver lining to the cloud of his non-performance of his favourite party trick - again.

Sorry, store-game-madness-delay.

After changing to a proper outfit you attend the dinner, you are invited to sit at the baron's table. "Have you ever been to Jalmeray before?" Baron Rudyahm asks.

"This will be the first time for me. Furthest south too. Sedeq was as far as I'd ever been before this trip."

"This will be my first trip there. Can you tell me what to expect when we arrive?"

"Heat. Damp. And smell, from Iso," Tippy suggests.

Iso looks afronted.

"Iso have very sensative sence of smell and knows smell of Iso is as sweet as can be found. Iso has never been to jungle before. Looking forward to seeing it but hopes it is not too hot."

"Well, heat and a lot of jungle. We are going to hire some porters, a mahout and an elephant. The trip to the hunting territories of the tiger is not far, only a few days from the Hunting Lodge. Tell me some stories about your last trips."

You can earn some favor points with good roleplaying, either from the Baron or the Count or both :)

"Our last quest? We were asked to recover several statues. It appears they were magical and would summon a creature to attack us, if they were activated. We ended up running all over town collecting them." Celentria replies.

"Of course, it turned out that the guy who told us where to find the cursed statues knew the locations because he had just illegally sold them to those people that morning, then murdered the only other person who knew, and demanded we do him a favour in exchange for the information!"

Iso flexes his muscles.

"The mission was not too hard. Though even Iso was worried when one man with statue vanished from sight in front of Iso's own eyes!"

He shakes his head.

"This guy seems to be a real snake. Tell me his name so I will remember not to do any business with him." the baron answers to Tippy's version of the story. "Undead in an opera? That sounds like some kind of hard work for a badass! I like people who are proud of their scars. But dealing with cursed statues also sounds dangerous." after a few minutes of eating and drinking he continues. "Have you ever been hunting animals before?"

You can also ask him questions, of course.

"Never but it sounds exciting! Is there anything special we should know?"

"Iso hunted cats with large teeth in frozen north since leaving breast of mother. Iso is a good hunter!" he says proudly.

"What is largest animal Baron has hunted?" asks Iso, glad the topic of conversation had moved away from cursed statues.

"Hunting a tiger is dangerous. They are intelligent animals and they don't fear anything. Not even fire. You have to be careful and alerted all the time. They are especially dangrous during the night. Let me tell you about my last trip." Baron Rudyahm’s face grows stern as he recalls bygone events.

"There were four of us on that trip, plus a half dozen porters or so. It was our seventh day in the bush. We’d had a bad day hunting on the trail, so we split off to the west to follow a little stream deeper into the jungle. The tiger came for us that night, despite our campfires. He must have been young to be so bold. I never saw most of the carnage. All I could hear were screams, gunshots, and men begging for help in the darkness. With the gun smoke and the darkness, I could barely see the end of my musket. Something took a right nasty bite out of my leg, but I wheeled and unloaded my gun in its direction. I must have only clipped it, yet that was enough to startle the beast. The only glimpse I caught was its striped haunch and tail bleeding as it ran off into the darkness. I managed to limp my way out of the jungle on my one good leg, and that was the end of it. Ah, but we’re going to catch that stripey bastard this time, eh? We’ll give him what for this time around. It seems we have an experienced cat hunter in our team." the baron says whil patting Iso's back.

"But I'm sure you all have your talents. Venture-Captain Valsin always chooses the right people to do a job."

I'll post a retcon story when I have time to do so. In the meantime, I'll roll with this.

"I've never hunted cats before, but I have fought against apes, fey, undead and assassins. Usually I roll right over them. Do these cats all attack with the bite? How big is the beast?"

Iso lets his eyes grow large.

" Iso has seen white cats with teeth longer than Borrbol's armour spikes. It has the speed of... well, Iso, and the cunning of a demon. They are as big as..."

he looks around and gestures to the baron. "Baron here. And they are strong too. Very tricky. Iso finds best to approach from down wind while cat sleeps. So hunting during day best. Hard to find though as coat like snow."

He does an Iso-Shrug.

"Iso expects cat in jungle to have changed coat though." He executes a trade mark grin and gestures to his own outfit.

"Just like Iso!"

"I am sure you will guild us well on this hunt and you will finally get you trophy!"

After more chit-chat about past adventures and hunting the baron leaves you alone. "Excuse me please, I have a lot of preparations do do before we reach the Segang jungle."

The next days are calm. Some minor storms shake the ship on it's way to Jalmeray, but nobody is in danger.

Your first stop in Segang is at a local hunting lodge, where Count Matsanda hires an elephant, a mahout (elephant driver), and a dozen porters. The elephant seems well past its prime, but it’s the only suitable mount available at the lodge, so Matsanda takes it. You can also purchase mundane survival gear if you wish.

Iso struts about in his jungle suit, admiring his new threads and looking quite out of place.

"Iso can't believe it is this hot already. Iso hopes the next mission he are sent on is somewhere colder."

Still, he cannot but be at least a little impressed with the elephant. He does his best to hide it though.

"Up north, ours have wool."

Diplomacy GI: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (14) - 1 = 13

Diplomancy: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

Celentrai smiles sweetly and asks if there is anyone around here who would like to talk to me. :)

Something about the heat must be beginning to grow on Borrobol. Either that or the inhabitants of the local hunting lodge are amused at the sight of a spike-covered, sweating dwarf. Either way, Borrobol makes a charming companion to Celentrai as she chats up the locals.
Diplomacy to assist GI: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (17) - 1 = 16 +2 to Celentrai for the 20