You have my prayers and best wishes.
Unfortunately, it's one of those things that doesn't have a good ending. My mother has cancer, and things have gone wrong. I'm travelling up now in case I don't get a chance to later.Just a head's up, I probably won't be posting on Saturday and Sunday as I'll be out of town for a family emergency.I hope everything with your family goes okay.
I am sorry to hear that. Praying for you and your family.
Sorry to hear that Nikeisha. My thoughts and well wishes to you and yours.
Thanks for the info Mended! Understood! Lemme think about it. I'll try to get a post in late Wednesday, or else Thursday morn.
Thank you all for the well wishes.
@Nikeisha, my thoughts and prayers go with you for this weekend as well. I hope that no matter the outcome, you are able to find peace.
@Psalm.
A few questions.
1- Is there a "great library" Its the capitol of the republic so I imagine so or something like it.
2- Is there open worship of Desmos in the city. Assuming our prvious mentions that sometimes law-abiding people worship evil deities to avoid calamity.
3- Is anyone who I learned of these legends from possibly in town.
1. YES! But... The greatest library in all of the continent of Iewiuf is the Arcanium inside the tower of the Arcane Order, and the only people allowed into it are members of the Orders, members of government, or those private citizens that pay the exorbitant sum necessary to gain entrance. Even then, the library is broken up into five separate levels, each higher level having more security, and, likewise, more "classified" information. Private citizens are only ever allowed into the lower two levels of the library, and there's a separate fee for each level. There are rich members of society that have their own small private libraries, and they share those with their friends. Obviously the Order of the Arcane has convinced the leaders of the Republic that knowledge can be dangerous, and therefore have pronounced themselves the protectors of that power.
2. Not at this time. Worship of any of the Dark isn't strictly forbidden, but it is highly frowned upon, and people who do it openly would be shunned, and open themselves up to persecution. They would, also, obviously, be making an overt statement about their vision of how the world should work. Worship of the Dark in civilized areas is almost always done in secret, unless a plague or war strikes, then praying to the Dark for relief becomes more common place.
3. If, here, you mean are there any Rangers from the Order of the Wild that you traveled with currently on respite in town? Let's leave it up to the dice. Rangers, especially those that are mission capable, do not frequently stay in the city for long, coming only to replenish, debrief and get new orders. So let's say there's a 25% chance that any of your previous Ranger acquaintances are currently staying at the Order of the Wild compound. I'm calling high here, so 76-100.
The dice are on your side! :) Yes, one of your previous acquaintances, Maldeth, the half-elf Scout is in town, and he was one of the people that shared the lore about Kraiula with you. :)
Rolls for what Quint's contact from the Shepherds will know:
Any other categories that might be relevant?
@Quint: The last election year was 144, and it is now 146, so four more years before elections, which means that corruption in the government might be "recent" but not that recent, corrupt officials would have had to have been widely known throughout the city, wealthy, and campaigning three years ago. Obviously that means that whatever this clandestine group has been planning has been in the works for quite some time... Take from that whatever you will.
BTW LOVED the bleating sheep noise to signal your knowledge of the Shepherds scam. Great stuff. As to the rolls you made, that's troublesome... I'm going to roll an investigation check with a +2 modifier for the Shepherds, and see if that gives us something better to work with.
Okay, dice are on your side as well. :) That coupled with the Arcana roll will give you the following.
Quint, my spoiler there makes heavy use of that Thieves' Cant document I linked to previously. Everything in italics is from the cant. I did that both for flavor and because the conversation you're having is taking place in an alley out in the open, so your contact would be a wary of divulging his information in a way that any orc could understand it. :) Let me know if you have any questions.
Another bit of lore that I realize has been in my head and in the setting indirectly but I've never overtly stated. There are more than a few dark skinned humans and half-elves running around bigger cities. Dark skinned humans are known as "plainsman" because they live in tribal communities in the plains between the River Tindar and the River Saxwyn. They are mostly herdsman and farmers, but they have a rich and aesthetic tradition of war among themselves. Some of the plainsman have left that warrior society for the civilized lands of the Highlands and the Republic. :) Important because I had Maldeth mention "plainsman" in his words to Psalm, and I realized nobody would have any idea what I was talking about. I'll see about possibly getting a new site page and explanatory document up this afternoon, as I don't have a whole lot pressing work to do. :)
Hmm... decoding that using the document (which is neither alphabetized nor searchable) was pretty tedious. Would you mind if we treated Thieves' Cant more like a foreign language, where we post what it sounds like a character is talking about (either as actual dialog or just something like "it sounds like they're talking about ducks"), then put what's actually being said in a spoiler? A vocabulary of secret words that small limits the messages that can be conveyed to things that are pretty trivial, and like I said, it's tedious to decode. I read through the whole thing once, decoding on the fly, and by the end I had no idea what had been said, and had to start again, making a copy and replacing text. It was actually easier to see what was being said by reading when I when I was just guessing at meanings than when I was decoding it, which means that it's not a very effective way to hide a secret message.
What Quint heard:
So, there may or may not be drow who don't look like drow. If there are, these possible drow aren't killing people, but are instead using corrupt officials, crooked hedge wizards, and contacts among the city guards and the church(es) for some unknown purpose.
I don't think there's anything in there that gives me a clue as to what to try next. Even if I knew some way to spot a drow in disguise that could be performed by a hired orphan with a little instruction as to what to look for, there isn't really any lead on where to look for "plastered" drow, other than that they might be making contact with anyone involved in either the government, the sale of magical services, the churches, or the city guards. Basically, they have to watch the entire city. I was hoping for something a little more specific, even if it turned out to include some herrings that turned out to be of too ruddy a hue to be strictly useful.
I'm also confused as to what symbols Quint apparently showed them. Did I miss something?
I had been planning a scene where Quint had to con the Shepherds (who kinda morphed as I was writing from the thieves' guild into a three-person crew that was beholden to a larger crime syndicate) to get whatever information those rolls were worth, saying he had a big fish on the line and offering to cut them in if they helped him get the fictitious payday, but first he needed some information about some disturbing rumors that might fowl up the plan. And if he rolled poorly on the deception check, he might not even get the full information, and would have to go elsewhere.
The sketch drawings that Akassa showed you all. A four pointed star with a long tail, and a five-pointed star, whose points are curved, like claws, with each claw being a different color: red, black, white, green, blue, white... Those symbols.
About Thieves' Cant... Yes? I don't mind using a simpler form. I found that document pretty easy to use after a bit. Albeit, the "bit" including, as you say, a tedious learning curve. We can ditch it moving forward if you want. I just thought it provided a cool flavor element. Consider it ditched. :)
As to the vague, "look throughout the whole city," indication. Trust me when I say that was purposeful. My expectation of things here is that it will take a few, if not several, weeks of investigation/down time, before really solid (read: specific names) are able to be nailed down. So, regardless of how good the rolls to gather information might be, I've got a vague time table in my head here, and am keeping you all on the proverbial hook, while it plays out. That let's me get in some interesting encounters in the midst of the down time. Things that are built to happen at certain times. Things you all might catch wind of, if people are looking in the right places at the right times. :)
Does that mean that coming back to the shepherds after a week or two might give me some more specific information? Sounds like we're going to need to finish dropping out hooks in the water, then switch to downtime mode rather than try to narrate specific events if we want to get anywhere ,'8/
I don't mind the specific hooks, but it seemed like we had a quorum for doing it the down time way... Was I wrong about that?
It just seemed like there were a lot of high die rolls coming up, and very little coming out of them. I was asking myself "if that's all that got me, what would a low roll have done?" Thinking about it a little more, I realized that the problem was, to stretch a metaphor, that key pieces of the puzzle aren't even on the table yet, so it doesn't matter how hard we look for them.
Still, I was envisioning getting some solid leads up front, some of which wouldn't lead anywhere, but that would take time to track down, thus the downtime stuff. Once Quint sets up his network of orphan spies, they will obviously take some time to learn anything useful. I was hoping that he could learn enough now to at least give them specific instructions for who to watch or what to look for, and he would be paying each of them to do it. Maybe you were thinking more along the lines of a him telling a larger number of orphans that he's looking for any information about drow in disguise (plus whatever leads the others find), and offering a bounty for any information they can find (with the appropriate downtime rolls)?
If you don't have any red herrings for him (assuming the drow in disguise are not one), I'll probably make up a few myself to work into my next chunk of narration, just to add a bit more flavor.
Seems to me all I need to push things forward to the end of the first week of investigation is a post with some rolls from Luna and Hack. Quint, if you want to keep narrating the entire week in "mini" posts, I fully encourage that, but for whomever doesn't want to do that, you can, as others have, give me a direction your investigation is headed, and some rolls of the skills your character would use to investigate.
Thanks!
I wasn't trying to force an RPed out week of downtime. I was just inspired by Jun's approach and really started where Psalm would start. After he had some good start rolls it provided a string of clues to pull on.
If you give me string I am gonna yank on it.
Sorry Mended and everyone else. My apologies for my delay. I was going to try to make my post yesterday from work, but I found to my great disappointment that I cannot access Mended's Eafphqu page to get the info about the Monk's order in Rydwyna. And I forgot I cannot access my character sheet from here either. I meant to do it at home, but my body demanded sleep and more sleep, and then even some more sleep! I will make an effort to get that post taken care of before Monday!
Finally got my Find Familiar narration up. I wrote most of that about 6 months ago, shortly after I decided to eventually take the spell, and it's been sitting around waiting until I had the chance to use it since then. I just had to edit a few details around the edges, since I didn't know the group would be back in Rydwyrna before Quint had the chance to cast it.
What's the owl's name going to be? :) Great post by the way, I love all the descriptive details, it makes the world come to life.
I'm going to wait on furthering the next week of investigation because I feel like your characters would, certainly, put their heads together and brainstorm ideas in regards to each other's lines of investigation. Don't you think? For example. I thought that when Psalm told Quint that the library is shrouded in a silence spell it might really intrigue him to the possibility of sneaking up to the higher levels... Especially after Nikeisha reveals that Enwelros was in the habit of visiting tht tower at odd hours. Though, of course, if he got caught it would no doubt ruin his chances of ever officially being allowed into the Order. I also thought that perhaps Jun, since he is of Tindaran descent, and a trader to boot, might have some insights into what types of things a smuggler might hide among sacks of rice... Just spit-balling here. I figured you all would have more innovative ways to help each other out. So, I'll wait until you all have had a chance to collectively brainstorm about each other's revelations, since that might possibly adjust where you're looking as you move forward.
@Psalm, among the tomes currently available to you in the Arcanium, there were no drawings or pictures specifically associated with Kraiula. There were, though, pictures of Kraiula herself, and those pictures all show her with five heads colored the exact same colors as the points of the curved star image that Akassa showed you. Psalm is smart enough to see that that is most likely not a coincidence.
@Luna, the initiate that befriended you and told you about the rice said that she's never seen anything hidden in or any hidden messages in the rice, but that the initiates that clean up the rice aren't there when the sacks are spilled onto the mat. Meaning, by the time they get there to do the clean up, the sacks have already been opened and disposed of...
No, not at all. I'm certain he's resourceful enough to get paper, ink, and quill on his way moving about the city. :) We'll just call that part of the cost of his week's investigation. Speaking of which... using the lifestyle category "comfortable" from the PHB, and adjusting the gp cost of research a bit because of the clandestine, and therefore a bit more expensive, nature of your research. I'm saying that each character is spending 25gp a week total, which covers both cost of living and investigative expenses, whatever they might happen to be. Let me know if anybody would like to present a case to dispute that number; I like arguing. :P ;)
What's the owl's name going to be? :) Great post by the way, I love all the descriptive details, it makes the world come to life.
Quint hasn't named the owl. He still isn't sure that she really exists, and what control he has over her is entirely subconscious. He may start calling her Aelyra though, after the girl whose voice it uses when it speaks to him in his head, so we can use that as the owl's name for now.
As for the 25gp number, that seems high, given that the senator said she would reimburse our expenses at the Black Pegasus (Quint, for one, would not have chosen to stay there if he thought it would cost him nearly that much, since that's still a LOT of money in his eyes), and nobody's narrated any actions that would cost them more than a few GP in bribes and the like. Hack is even earning money, apparently.
Mended, I know I was not clear & I suspect others were not either. Was Senator Akassa paying for our expenses at the Pegasus ... period - as in indefinitely? Or at least for the duration of our stay for this investigation? Or was she paying for just the one night of meeting with her? The wording on that was not definitive.
That said, 25 Gp does seem a bit high, but I am unfamiliar with prices in 5E as well, and since I can't seem to find any price listing for 5E ... ?
One reason that I will NOT run a 5E game, difficulty of finding prices.
Yeah, there are things I like about 5e, but the organization of documentation (especially surrounding the game's economy) is not among them.
I was thinking more about the characteristics of the different members of the Shepherds, and how you would build a character with those traits. I especially wanted to figure out why Rook was such a good archer, and I ended up making character sheets for each of them. Rook ended up with an attack bonus only 1 higher than Quint's with a bow, but with the sharpshooter feat that lets him ignore disadvantage for long range. Two of the three ended up being multiclass builds. I made them level 3, using the standard ability array (which made it difficult to pump Rook's attack bonus with his bow higher than Quint's).
This exercise also brought the reason they want Quint to join their crew into better focus. His skillset fills a hole in their capabilities (even without his new magical abilities). If he did join, he would probably end up either arguing with Azuri (who is the crew's leader) over the group's plans, or trying to manipulate her to think that his plans were her own idea.
Three things.
1) I realize now that when you all read "our coffers will reimburse you for any expense incurred there," many of you read that as you having a running tab at the Pegasus that would be paid by Akassa. That is NOT what I meant. That was a foreshadowing of Akassa giving you that big bag of platinum from her own "coffers." I should have been more clear about that. Obviously for reasons that pertain to secrecy Akassa paying a recurring bill for you all connects you to her in a way that leaves a trail, and she'd rather not have that. So the money you got was the "reimbursement," for already incurred and future expenses. So taking up merchant class rooms at the Pegasus costs coinage. Which brings me to...
2) I haven't found pricing of things difficult to find at all, actually. The Player's Handbook has, in my opinion, a very easy to navigate set of tables that address almost all of the "normal" expenditure costs. Chapter 5, starting on page 143 and moving all the way to page 159, has various tables for the costs of everything I've ever needed to look up. Which brings me to...
3) Here's how I figured the costs. Page 157 PHB says weekly lifestyle expenses for people who are living in the "comfortable" style, is 2g a day. 2*7=14gp a week. Page 187 PHB lists the cost of doing research, which includes looking through libraries, persuading out gossip and the like at 1g a day. 1*7=7. 14+7=21. I added four more gold pieces per week because I figure there might be a little extra "wheel greasing" that needs to take place to keep contacts quiet about your investigation, and also because it's a nice round number. I could see a case being made to, instead, lower the cost to 20 gp total for the week...
Hmmm ... I do actually have a physical RL 5E PHB! From some point when I thought I was joining a RL tabletop 5E but ... that GM had his own ideas that threw the corebook right out the window! So my PHB got buried somewhere deep in my closet ... I'll have to go get the 'shovel' and dig that out!
So, okay, when you lists those prices it does make more sense. I would however think that in Luna's case research at a monastery where money & items (or better put = materialism!) just aren't anywhere near what they are in the rest of the world I could see a case of it costing less. But at the same time making a 'customized' cost per player could also be a lot more work and cause conflicts or disagreements ... so, in the interest of peace and unity I would say 20 Gp does sound a LOT more reasonable, especially if we are staying at the Pegasus.
That said I can also see Quint (and perhaps others?) NOT wanting to stay there since we are paying out of pocket for it!
This does bring me to another question Mended? When the innkeeper took us upstairs after our meeting, I got the impression that he gave us one communal room for us to share? Or do we each have our own separate room? And if it is a communal room that we share, would that not bee a different price? Or would the price still be per person?
And I am going to think about whether Luna would stay here or not??? Yes, she likes the 'comfortable' style, but she also realizes her coin is limited and NOT a regular, steady income.
Yep, PHB works well for me with my tabletop game in RL.
Call me a millennial, but in the 21st century, I don't think that putting ink on a piece of a dead tree even qualifies as an organizational system. This makes my profession ironic, and I frequently have this argument with my co-author, but I personally find physical books worse than useless.
I did buy physical copies of a couple of pathfinder books. When they arrived, I flipped through them and marveled at how little of the information I needed was actually in each book, then put them on a shelf and continued using d20pfsrd.
Even the PDFs for 5e are a pain to use. Half of them have text as an image, and the other half are littered with OCR errors that break text search. There are online resources (of questionable legitimacy), but they're also full of typos, and different ones are missing different information.
/rant
Anyway, yeah, I guess 20gp is reasonable if it's covering both our rooms/meals and our investigative expenses, though Quint isn't going to be happy when he sees his bill at the Pegasus. It may be enough to push him toward the option of trying to infiltrate the Shepherds (at least if he fails to find a secret entrance), so that he can earn back some of that money doing jobs with them while he maneuvers to get invited into their compound.
Millennial.
So, I take it we're one week in now, and should mark off the first 20gp on our sheets?
That's my estimation of things, yes. So we're all agreeing that 20gp a week is reasonable, for now? With maybe some deciding to find cheaper accommodations when they get the first weekly bill?
Millennial.
Took me a second, but then it was a literal LOL followed by coughing fit! Hahaha!
I'm good w/the 20 Gp. Still haven't decided about the moving out though.
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I'm trying to remember, in this game setting, are Drow as bad a 'thing' as they were in 3.5 or Pathfinder? Or are they different here? - This could make a HUGE difference in how Luna reacts to Quints question about Drow.
Wow...just wow...
I'm probably just terribly old, but I like reading through the paper books first to get an idea of the system, and then using electronic resources that I can link to when I start making stuff.
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Millennial.
Damn it Mended. I was just about to type that (I had the quote ready and everything, then I went back and had to delete my post. =D
I am definitely terribly old, and I am a traditionalist. There is something about the feel, smell, etc. of a book that I simply do not appreciate through electronic means. I play weekly in a tabletop group, and have for the past 10 years. We all still use books, miniatures and even a DM's screen. It is the most interactive and best gaming that I do.
Hack, I also DM a semi-monthly tabletop game that uses this same setting. In fact, the Hand of the Republic is that group, and everything that happened regarding Enwelros actually happened in their campaign. We use grid maps, minis, I have a DM screen, and we all have a set of books. I completely agree it is the best way to game. I like PbP, it provides the ability to be much more descriptively narrative "on the spot," but D&D is always at its best when a bunch of people are sitting around a table flipping through books. :)
@Jun, when you can take the grain of rice from my hand...
@Luna, completely forgot that I never addressed your question about rooms at the Pegasus. I was going to leave that up to everyone. Some people narrated that they had their own room. For any who never really addressed it, we can certainly imagine it to have happened however you choose. As to Drow... You may not remember this post from way back in January, but it specifically addresses the Drow.
It said:
The Drow!!! The existence of Drow in Eafphqu, at this point in the world's history are nothing but a whisper of a rumor, and, in fact, I did/do have some grandiose plans for those evil creatures to make a major impact on the global political landscape at some point. Letting everyone behind the screen a bit, I had the idea that the Drow are dealing secretly with the d'rak (orcs), and having them steal human women in their prime breeding years (it is well known that the orcs steal young women as well as treasure when they come raiding -- it is likewise common knowledge that half-orcs are a minority race on Iewiuf, thus most people put one and one together and get two, never supposing there's a third option), when they go on raids. This is, actually, one of the primary story lines of the tabletop game I'm running in the same system. :D The d'rak deliver the girls, unharmed (very importantly), to the Drow, who are using them to produce half-drow offspring. Of these offspring, they select those with physical characteristics that will allow them to pass as surface half-elves, and then train them rigorously as spies. Their campaign of espionage is already well under way! They dwell among you... The truth is out there. =D
Obviously that's a crapton of player knowledge. As far as characters are concerned the existence of Drow is myth, fable, legend, faerie tales for children. Psalm's current line of investigation has the most potential to reveal any solid evidence about the existence of the elves from the Shadowlands.
Does that cover everything?
Mended, though the information that Quint got was all in one paragraph, I don't see anything else there suggesting a link between the drow and the people the shepherds stole the silver cult necklaces from. Actually, it's not even clear why they even mentioned the rumors about drow in response to Quint's question about the symbols...
Can I get a little clarification as to what they were trying to tell Quint?
I'm also a little confused about why the exchange made Quint feel the need to follow Rook back to their safe house. What, exactly, is he hoping to learn by getting in there? Just feeling a little lost as to what my character's motivations are...
The easiest way for me to answer that is to say that Quint was playing a hunch. A hunch that Azuri and Ogram actually knew a lot more than they were saying, and were withholding that information because they are trying to get Quint to join. As you pointed out with your character creation of that small group of the Shepherds, Quint could fill in some gaps in their skill set, very nicely. They want him in, working for them. Quint thinks the mentioning of the Drow was a tease, a thread they want him to pull on. In Quin't previous experience with the Shepherds they haven't been all that intelligently organized, more a loosely held connection of various street gangs. He wanted to see if that was still the case, or if things had changed on the streets since their last attempt to recruit him (over a year ago). Turns out his hunch might be right. Now, seeing the size of the palatial safe house they're hanging out in, he's almost certain somebody else is pulling the Shepherds strings, and he'd like to find out who, and why! :) Make sense? If not let me know. I could try and explain it differently.
Call me a millennial, but in the 21st century, I don't think that putting ink on a piece of a dead tree even qualifies as an organizational system. This makes my profession ironic, and I frequently have this argument with my co-author, but I personally find physical books worse than useless.
I did buy physical copies of a couple of pathfinder books. When they arrived, I flipped through them and marveled at how little of the information I needed was actually in each book, then put them on a shelf and continued using d20pfsrd.
Even the PDFs for 5e are a pain to use. Half of them have text as an image, and the other half are littered with OCR errors that break text search. There are online resources (of questionable legitimacy), but they're also full of typos, and different ones are missing different information.
/rant
Anyway, yeah, I guess 20gp is reasonable if it's covering both our rooms/meals and our investigative expenses, though Quint isn't going to be happy when he sees his bill at the Pegasus. It may be enough to push him toward the option of trying to infiltrate the Shepherds (at least if he fails to find a secret entrance), so that he can earn back some of that money doing jobs with them while he maneuvers to get invited into their compound.
A year ago I would have completely agreed with you.
Last February after doing some research on writing and typing by hand. I started using an analogue journal. I can tell you how it has changed my habbits. I used One Note in the past. I might one day experiment with using my tablet to write on rather than paper but there is something about the feel of it that feels like I am doing something substantial rather just functional.
Because I was using my journal more activly and regualarly than One Note (which I still use for second drafts and things on the computer that exist digitally) I started creating my own D&D character sheets. It started with just printing one up but the flexibility of doing it myself and pulling from several designs and tailoring it for my characters was more fun. It quickly morphed from just a character sheet to an in character written journal (it pushes me to think even more in character) recording our adventures.
Ironically while it is really no more or less convient to carry than my tablet (a Surface 3 Pro) I find I want it with me more and more if I think I might need to take notes.
As for physical books. I think they are a luxury. At the end of the day most of the information is free online in one form or another. I will always take free over spending 40 bucks on a book.
Though the collectors edition of Waterdeep Dragon Heist looks pretty cool.
Okay, so several of you saying your old ... Now I am curious to know? So I will volunteer mine first. I'm 48 (49 in February). If others don't feel like sharing, so be it.
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I can't remember and a quick search did not find, How much was our individual cut from the Senator's money again please?
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Rooms at the Pegasus: Under the impression that the rooms were paid for by the Senator, Luna would have taken her own room. Upon receiving the bill, she will pay it, but then proceed to look for cheaper accommodations, though that will be difficult with her 'high-nosed' expectations. Mended, if you want us to RP some of that let me know. I have not dug out my book yet to look at prices. Might just look for a downloadable PDF.
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I do like books, but I have very limited storage space for physical items. So digital books are MUCH more convenient in that sense. But yes, there is something about the feel of flipping an actual page and the smell that they can have that is special.
Just turned 45 in September. Obviously a Xer so we imagine ourselves as never not cool sooooo "Dead is the new 30."
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Turned 43 in March. I think "never not cool" perfectly describes my delusions of myself. :P ;) :)
49...the coolest...but my two young sons may not agree.
33. So far, the youngest by 10 years...
I can't remember and a quick search did not find, How much was our individual cut from the Senator's money again please?
Quint passed out 17pp to each of you.
Quint passed out 17pp to each of you.
Thanks Quint! I finally updated my profile page to include the senator's payment & subtracted the 20 Gp as well. Now I just need to get my actual character sheet updated & update the link to it, because that is all wrong! Can't do it from work though.
34. Apparently, I just feel old.