I really hope that means we can start calling Quint things like kiddo, youngun, junior and so on... :) Didn't realize we had ourselves a "room" full of grognards. :P
I never pay attention to my age, but I was born in 1975.
34. Apparently, I just feel old.
Well, at least I'm not the only one under 40...
We're probably playing the two youngest characters, as well.
That's true. What a coincidence...
That's true. What a coincidence...
Also both picked the Urchin background, and we're the only (remaining) arcane casters in the party.
So, I haven't figured out all the details, but I'm playing with the idea of manipulating the Shepherds into taking a job that they can't do without a second-story man, so they will have to recruit Quint. Better if they think it's their idea, not Quint's, so I might need to enlist the help of another party member (probably Jun and/or Nikeisha, since they're trained in deception) to provide them with the information. Bonus points if we can pick a target that will help our other goals... maybe the guy that Hack saw the tattoo on, or Jun's shady half-elven merchants?
Of course, it occurs to me that I could also just use Disguise Self to make them think they're getting the info from someone else. For that matter, I could just use Disguise Self to pose as one of the Shepherds to gain access to the compound...
I never pay attention to my age, but I was born in 1975.
Same year as me, so unless you were born later in November or December than today, it would make you also 43. :)
@Quint, magic is the bloodstream of the universe. Forget all you know, or think you know. All that you require is your intuition! -- Name that movie! I'll give inspiration to anyone who can do it without googling it. :)
... Forget all you know, or think you know. All that you require is your intuition! ...
Shame on me!!! I knew it sounded familiar but I could not remember what it is from!! Had to Google it. I'm not naming it to give others a chance, but I feel ashamed of myself for not remembering it. GREAT movie! One of my favorites!
Speaking of grognards and the feel of flipping pages in a book. Just wanted everyone to be aware that Amazon's current prices for a bunch of the D&D 5e books are drastically reduced. Many of them are nigh onto 50% off!!! Take a look here, if you're interested.
So, did anyone have anything else to share before we begin week 2?
I also need to know what Quint and his orphan spy network have learned so far surveilling the Shepherds' compound...
So, did anyone have anything else to share before we begin week 2?
Good question... I feel like people in the party are holding back from each other just a tad... Not that I want to force full disclosure. I just imagine the investigation would go further if everyone was operating with all the available information...
Speaking of orphan spies, do we have any additional targets for them? Some shady half-elven merchants, maybe?
Hmmmm.
Psalm is not intentionally holding back if he it seems like he is. At least since Quint prodded me. Even then it was not intentional.
I think some of us are having a little trouble figuring out where to go next in our investigations, or are having trouble explaining them because we're not entirely sure how they ended up where they did.
Are there any other crossovers we should have between investigations? It seems like there might be a natural link between Jun and Luna's investigations. The possibility of Quint assisting with Psalm's has been brought up OOC, but we haven't heard enough about what Psalm is up to to make the connection IC. Hack's thing sounds like there will eventually be a place where others can help, but it's not far enough along. I've already mentioned where Quint might want to bring someone else in on his...
Luna has given full disclosure to the best of my knowledge. If I'm missing something please let me know.
Well I feel sufficiently clueless. Really. What haven't I said?
As far as Psalm notes Hack has the most substantial lead.
Okay, I think part of the problem everyone is having is that I'm purposefully leaving things pretty darn vague right now for a reason. I want to actually challenge you the players a bit, as opposed to challenging your characters. So I'm trying to see if you all can put my little, what I would call "pre-clues," the clues before the clues, together to formulate some strong conspiracy theories. If everyone is clueless, for me, that's okay, and we can just start the second week of investigation with those mini-clues, and hope that some "real" clues come out of the next week's rolls. If that's the case, please, by all means, write an in-game post that narrates where/with whom your character would focus their investigation, and roll whatever skill rolls you think would be involved in that avenue of investigation, and we'll see what week 2 brings. :)
@Quint, for the orphans, are you looking for a name to give your network of spies besides Azuri or Ogram?
@Quint, for the orphans, are you looking for a name to give your network of spies besides Azuri or Ogram?
The orphans have been tasked with tracking activity around the Shepherds' compound. Who comes and goes? When? What are their descriptions, and can they get any names? What patterns do the guards follow? Perhaps most importantly, is anyone coming and going by any route other than the obvious entrance?
Quint and his familiar have been scouting as well. The familiar can get inside the walls and got a nat-20 on perception, so maybe there was an overheard conversation?
Well I feel sufficiently clueless. Really. What haven't I said?
Like most of us, you have talked about what you learned, but not how you learned it, or what you tried to do, but didn't succeed (in your case, getting into the upper levels of the Arcane Order's library). If you want help from anyone else to accomplish that, you're going to have to say something about it.
Btw, Nikeisha hasn't said anything to the group about what she learned. I think she's the only one...
Jun's plan for week two is to follow up on the rice clue and then make a serious inquiry of Diamond Imports; it doesn't hurt that he's a Half-Elf.
@Quint, for the orphans, are you looking for a name to give your network of spies besides Azuri or Ogram?The orphans have been tasked with tracking activity around the Shepherds' compound. Who comes and goes? When? What are their descriptions, and can they get any names? What patterns do the guards follow? Perhaps most importantly, is anyone coming and going by any route other than the obvious entrance?
Quint and his familiar have been scouting as well. The familiar can get inside the walls and got a nat-20 on perception, so maybe there was an overheard conversation?
Were you considering that part of the first week's investigation? I guess I thought that was set up at the end of week one, and those answers would come at the end of week two...
Hack will be returning to the man he met with the tattoo to offer his protection services.
Were you considering that part of the first week's investigation? I guess I thought that was set up at the end of week one, and those answers would come at the end of week two...@Quint, for the orphans, are you looking for a name to give your network of spies besides Azuri or Ogram?The orphans have been tasked with tracking activity around the Shepherds' compound. Who comes and goes? When? What are their descriptions, and can they get any names? What patterns do the guards follow? Perhaps most importantly, is anyone coming and going by any route other than the obvious entrance?
Quint and his familiar have been scouting as well. The familiar can get inside the walls and got a nat-20 on perception, so maybe there was an overheard conversation?
The observation will continue in week two, but they had more than half the week, so I would expect some preliminary information. If nothing else, Quint should have learned something from his own time on the surrounding rooftops, and from his familiar's observation at night.
Mended, I sent you a PM. No rush.
Sorry, I didn't realise we were all meeting up and rolled a second check for info. My brain bad. I'll come talk with you guys in a bit.
The observation will continue in week two, but they had more than half the week, so I would expect some preliminary information. If nothing else, Quint should have learned something from his own time on the surrounding rooftops, and from his familiar's observation at night.Were you considering that part of the first week's investigation? I guess I thought that was set up at the end of week one, and those answers would come at the end of week two...@Quint, for the orphans, are you looking for a name to give your network of spies besides Azuri or Ogram?The orphans have been tasked with tracking activity around the Shepherds' compound. Who comes and goes? When? What are their descriptions, and can they get any names? What patterns do the guards follow? Perhaps most importantly, is anyone coming and going by any route other than the obvious entrance?
Quint and his familiar have been scouting as well. The familiar can get inside the walls and got a nat-20 on perception, so maybe there was an overheard conversation?
Quint, this is why I much prefer the roll for the whole week method as opposed to the mix and match, some specific narrative RP some bulky dice rolls. In my head those things you had happening were all part and parcel of the first week's worth of investigating, with nothing much more revealed at this point than the existence of the safe house, the seeming tease of information to goad Quint into something, and the fact that there are at least a few citizens that are not afraid to "openly" wear jewelry that connects them to something nefarious. Likewise, I'm not certain how you think a bunch of orphans would know anyone's name, or at least not anyone important to the investigation. I doubt they even dabble in politics. They might, if they spent a lot of time on the streets in the city, know what an important person's carriage looks like, and they may have heard the names of some of the senators, more important aristocrats, or of the gaudy rich merchant leaders. But, in my head, that would be about it, and, for obvious reasons, no rich muckety-muck is going to go undisguised into a thieves' guild's safe house. In addition, the timing of your first week of investigation isn't great, specifically because a high ranking official that is part of the secret society has been revealed. Obviously at this point, everyone else, that has a great deal to lose if they are found out, are going to be very careful about their movements. Like I said before, this is one of those things that benefits from patience and perseverance, the party's investigation will be best if it is the slow draw out, rather than the quick knife.
So, while I appreciate your enthusiasm and a desire to get things moving quickly, there are a lot of things in play here that your characters cannot yet be aware of, and it will take patience and perseverance to bring them to light. If I'm dodgy with details, or a holding things close to the vest, as the expression goes, it's because I'm trying to keep a bit of intellectual edge to your enemies. They aren't dumb. They aren't going to reveal themselves as plainly as the nose on your face the week after one of their high ranking number got found out. Have patience, keep at it, I'm certain you all will be able to put this conspiracy together in no more than a month's time. At which point I'll be very interested to see how this party of such drastically different personalities decides to handle what they've found out. :)
Okay?
Thanks! :)
I didn't really expect the orphans to bring Quint the names of any political figures (though once we HAD such names, they would be useful for keeping tabs on them). I was thinking that they would help him build his knowledge of the Shepherds organization beyond just Azuri, Ogram and Rook, and the patterns of movement around the compound so that I could start implementing a plan to get inside in week 2.
So you're looking for sort of a detailed itinerary of how often people are coming and going from the safe house, where they might be going, and, if possible, any names that are heard on a regular basis? To do so would take at least a week, if not more. A few days would not be a big enough sample size to even confer a pattern, unless somebody was doing something every day at roughly the same time. Unless you're just talking about like guard shifts on the walls? In which case we're talking about three regular shifts of eight hours, rotating at dawn, dusk, and the middle night. The walls of the compound have rampart walkways, and there are always three guards on each wall, as well as four guards at the gate, two on the outside, two on the inside.
I think a detailed itinerary of regular comers and goers would most likely be the ideal goal for the second week of investigation. At the end of a full week plus' worth of observation, Quint's orphan sources would probably be able to give him a couple solid ideas about patterns of movement, and a couple more names of the regular movers. Sound good?
Sounds good.
Everybody still here? I'm still waiting on some week 2 investigation posts before I can move things forward... I know the holidays are a busy time, if things are slow because people are busy, I totally understand. Hopefully next week sees things get back to moving pretty regularly again. :)
I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday weekend (even if you aren't celebrating it). :)
Thanks, still here. Do you still need rolls from me if I am soliciting my protection services? If so, what are you looking for? Investigation? Perception?
Actually, give me an Insight roll. You'll see why when I eventually get the week 2 summary posts up. :)
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Hack continues to do surprisingly well in an area where he has no skill...lol.
Still here, but don't wait on another narrative post from me. I can do that in week 3. I'm in crunch time for a big book delivery for the next week or so, so my long-form writing energy is spoken for.
Still here.
Psalm was able to find out some information. Though as he said the biggest lead at this point seems to be what Hack found.
I know that Quint and Jun sounded like they were going to look into some threads that their week 1 surfaced.
Psalm at least as far as I saw had no string to further investigate.
With less opportunity I was hanging back so that they could follow up on things.
I will think further on what I can try to chase down week 2 but at the moment I am not sure.
Ayup. I'm here til the wheels fall off.
@Psalm: well, if you don't mind following one of my requests, you could investigate the cult that the senator was accused of being a part of.
I'm around. No holidays here in the UK, so no worries there.
Here. RL busy. I';try tp get something up tomorrow (Thursday), but if not feel free to bot a roll for me. I'm thinking monastery again maybe? See if I can find out who opens the rice?
Ayup. I'm here til the wheels fall off.
@Psalm: well, if you don't mind following one of my requests, you could investigate the cult that the senator was accused of being a part of.
Not at all. Persay but I have missed something. I will have to revisit everything.
I am only aware of the one cult and that Akassa pointed out that several members were found.
YOu mean that senator?
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!!!
(And if you don't celebrate it, then just happy day to you as well!)
Happy Thanksgiving!
@Psalm: Yes, the senator who set everything off. Out of character, I'm thinking that the cult is the same cult that the Drow are worshipping.
Mended, And everyone else, My apologies for my delays. I have several RL things taking up my free time lately. Medical insurance decisions, change of doctors, new health problems, etc, etc.
I do NOT want to leave this game. I do like it, though it can be frustrating at times not knowing what to do! So please, feel free to bot me if needed. At the same time it is not fair to all of you, so if you feel the need to drop me for the time being I will understand.
I will be reading posts, and posting myself as soon as able, but just right now ... things ... crazy ... huh? ... u get the drift.
Since Luna wants to be botted, I believe I'm only waiting on a week 2 investigation post from Psalm. If I don't get that by tomorrow, I'll probably just bot him as well, and get things moving forward here. We've had a nice little break for Thanksgiving. Now it's time to push things forward as we head towards Christmas. :)
Sounds like a plan.
Hope everything gets easier for you Luna.
... Hope everything gets easier for you Luna.
Thank you Nikeisha.
However, I just got word this morning that my Mother suffered a 'small' heart-attack last night and is currently waiting in the ICU to get a catheterization done. She is in SC with no real family (but a lot of good friends) and I am in Northern Illinois unable to go to her currently. I would appreciate any prayers, well wishes, good thoughts for my Mother please.
Just to point out, on December 3rd it will be one year since my Father passed away. They had been married for 53(54?) years and even though my Mother sounds in good spirits, she always was the one to put on a brave face. A part of me fears that she may die of a 'broken' heart from missing him.
Sorry to hear that Luna. Good luck to your mother, and I hope it all goes well.
Best wishes, Luna, and good luck to your mom.