"There's a Legion that never was listed"- Party 2

Game Master Ghost1776

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
...

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
...

Portions of "IF" by R. Kipling

.

Dot dot dot dot! *cha cha*

Dot

Dot.

Dot I think

Rowan wakes up early the next morning, all pack and ready to go. He goes to the inn and waits downstairs for the others to wake. He paces back and forward, contemplating on waking them all up now.

"Come, brothers, we are off to the mainland."

Going down to the harbor in the morning, you inquire about any ships that are heading to Varde or Quiesce. Your party is directed over to a section of the harbor that shows a little less wear and tear and docked there are four big ocean going ships The Golden Princess, which is going to Quiesce, The Silver Princess, which is going to Varde, and The Ruby Princess and The Emerald Princess whose destinations you don’t know.

Krag clatters down the stairs as he rushes to meet the other Half a Dozen. Packed and ready to go.

"Morning! Are we ready. Rowan you seem anxious to get going. Let's make haste. ONWARD!"

Heedless to whether anyone is following him, he slowly marches out the door fully armed and armoured with an enamours grin on his face.

Adventure! Nothing excites me more.

*clatter**clatter**whistle*

Krag is clearly happy and he's heading for te port at a dwarves pace slow but steady

Tassira rolls out of bed ready to go... sort of.

One quick casting of Prestidigitation later, her clothes are perfectly fine.

She wanders downstairs, lugging two backpacks with her.

"I hope the horses won't mind the extra weight." She says to no one in particular.

Profession(cook): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
Vigar having woken up early and prepared early rations sees Rowan and Krag up. He also sighs upon seeing Tassira valiantly struggling with two backpacks and clearly failing.

"Give me your packs, I'll carry it for now."

To the other he gives a cheery wave, passing them their prepared portions. This time a simple bread crust filled with carrots, poultry and lightly spiced.

Seeing most of the people downstairs already, he leaves, shouting behind him.
"Excellent. We are all here. Let's be off then."

Rowan practically runs towards the docks. He doesn't notice that Kariel isn't up.

Local: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19
He asks around for when the ships will leave and gets the information about the ships.

4 ships? Curious?

Looking around, he realizes that in his haste he has left the others behind, so he sits on a nearby bench and waits.

Vigar sighs as he realises that Rowan in his haste forgets that not everyone can keep up with him and even more without doing a headcount.

One is missing and he realises, that Kariel is still abed.
Trudging up the stairs, packs and all, he proceeds to her door and knocks on it but not before enlisting Tssira's help in this.

"We have a sleepy one it seems. COuld you help me in checking if she's fine Tassira?"

Tassira gives Vigar a grateful smile as he helps her with her backpacks.

She nods at Vigar when he asks her for help waking up Kariel. She opens her door a bit and sticks her head in.

"Kariel? Are you awake?"

Krag spots Rowan on the bench after watching run passed.
Merchant: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

"Four ships how odd, but also fortunate, I wonder if I know any of the captains."

Krag looks for the others.

"Ah, did we forget the others in haste? I am sure they will be along soon. Let's secure passage"

Looking up, Rowan answers sheepishly
"Yeah..."

Rowan gets up and joins Krag.

Are any of these boats familiar DC20: 1d20 + 4 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 4 + 5 = 25

"That one looks familiar, I believe I have met the Captain before."

Well then, lets go see where he is going.

He walks towars the boat.

Marrovak follows.

"Oh well this is highly convenient, recognise these ships and the flag they fly. Queens of the North."

Krag turns his head a little to whisper at Rowan.

"And if you recall, our cousin Arean now owns the fleet. I should imagine this is not so convenient. An old friend of my father's is sort of retired aboard the Golden Princess. We should go have a chat, maybe they can be of some assistance."

Krag heads towards the Golden Princes.

"Well isn't that a coincidence" Rowan says wryly "I'm starting to get the sense that Fate will follow us everywhere on this journey.

Krag approaches the ship, looking for Captain Maridun.

"Ahoy Captain Maridun! Are you aboard?"

A little bit late, Kariel made her way down the plank, pulling along her bags and all of the supplies within them. It wasn't exactly a burdensome load or anything, but... well, scarce or not, she was going to do her utmost to find some way of storing her things that didn't require her to carry around huge bags all the time. "Vain" wouldn't be the right way to describe her, but she DID have an understanding of how important appearance was to diplomacy, and since she couldn't easily disguise herself (the metallic wing and oversized artificial arm were slight giveaways), she was determined to make the most of it instead.

"I apologize for my tardiness. There were a few things I needed to take care of." she said, bowing slightly.

Kariel is followed by Tassira, brushing off her pants and trying to straighten her vest.

"Still, you could've at least waited for us instead of taking off. Almost lost you a couple of times." She says to Rowan, Krag & Marrovak.

Vigar follows behind with Tassira's, Kariel's and his backpacks, having offered to carry them for the ladies.

Inclining his head towards Rowan.
"So we're taking ship to where we are supposed to be going?" He questions.

Taking a once over of the ships, he notes that 4 of them are magnificient indeed overshadowing the rest of the smallers ones at dock.

"Well I thought you were right behind me. This ship is heading to Quiesce. It takes us a bit out of our way, but this promises us cheap horses, which will more than make up for the time. And, it would seem, Krag knows the Captain. Hopefully, we can get some sort of discount, if not by Krag, then by Arean. Krag tells me this ship is a part of the company she inherited."

Vigar raises an eyebrow at Rowan's words?
"Concidence?"
His tone leaving no doubt that he doesn't think so.

"I agree. This can't be a coincidence; Professor Crispin probably planned this all out." Tassira nods.

"Well the company is supposed to be significant, so it could be. But all 4 major ships here all hers? I am starting to think that we are going to have to remove the word coincidence from our vocabulary, as much as it pains me to attribute things to destiny. Or at least to the foresight of Crispin. The old man certainly saw far. Though it seems strange to me. He often forgot his glasses a top his own head."

A small smile appears on his face, remembering his old adviser.

"...I'm a little more concerned about what else he might have planned. It would be easier to make our own plans if we knew what would be available." Kariel mused. She looked to the side a moment later, apparently wondering if a rock was going to fall right beside her, complete with a note tied around it to answer her question. Sadly, that wouldn't have been the strangest thing to ever happen to her, though it would at least be fairly high up there.

Vigar shakes his head, his old legionare trainng coming to the fore.

"I'm more worried that other eyes have noticed as well and not all of them friendly. Afterall. He gestures to the four large ships. Who could missed that? I would suggest caution."

"I'll agree to caution, but not to paranoia. We need not bog ourselves down with second guessing our actions. This is the problem with prophesies and visions. People become paralyzed by making the simplest decision, second guessing what the are or are not "meant" to do."

Kariel smiled slightly. That was the very point she'd brought up before - it was indeed easy to get sidetracked by visions, and fail to realize the future you should have simply because you were expecting something else. "Perhaps we should simply agree to do what we think is best, then, without worrying about prophecies." Besides, visions of the future or no, she knew exactly what she wanted to do in the future, and had every intention of seeing that through.

9:00 AM The other party is arriving on this ship at 11:00 depending on what you do we may have to merge the gameplay threads again for a while,... this is what happens with sandbox play, the only Captain who Krag had any chance of knowing was the one whose ship was going to the other's party destination ... (now banging head against desk)

Coming on to the deck of The Golden Princess you can tell it's not your typical merchantman. All the sailors are in very good health, and there are a lot more females then normal. Female sailors and marines seem to be at least fifty percent of the crew. Another thing you can’t fail to notice is how heavily armed and alert they all are. Every member of the crew is armed. From the ordinary sailors going about their tasks armed with visible daggers and various long blades, to the marines in scale mail who are watching you closely, everyone seems ready for conflict at a moment’s notice. Even the young girl who is sitting on a coil of rope writing in a journal has a pair of throwing daggers tucked into a sash around her waist. This crew is armed to the teeth and something has them on high alert.

The girl, who must be about twelve or thirteen, has a very, very large dog sitting at her feet. The dog’s fur is starting to go grey and he is made even more distinctive by having an ivory peg leg in place of his natural right foreleg. On the collar around the dog’s neck hangs a military medal. Resting in the sun, next to the pair is an extremely large (but nowhere near as large as the dog) cat. The cat, the dog, and the girl seem to be the only ones on the ship not watching you closely as the Captain approaches you and starts to speak.

“Master Bloodshield isn’t it?” The Captain’s a tall women in her forties with better than average looks, dark red hair and violet eyes. She carefully looks you over seemingly taking in every detail. Her eyes narrow when she sees the signet rings some of you are wearing. There’s something of a strain in her voice when she asks “What can the The Golden Princess and I do for the House of Al’Trin today”. You can clearly tell the way she emphasized the name Al’Trin.

"Captain you are looking well! I see the Admiral is with you too and your daughter how she has grown. Please excuse me for get straight to business our need is somewhat urgent, I believe one of your fleet often travels towards Varde our destination, we are hoping secure passage for Six. There will also be a further Six more heading for Quiesce your usual destination I believe? House Trin would be grateful for assistance you could provide."

Her eyes narrow at the mention of her daughter but her face is more open by the time you finish speaking.

"The Admiral is getting up in years but he's still a formidable foe against those who would take what he considers his, something everyone would do well to remember. As for travel to Varde, Captain Zova Maridun of The Silver Princess is indeed heading there. It's the ship in the slip next to us on the right."

She pauses for a moment "I'm sure she will be able to help you on your way home but this close to sail time I'm not sure about your companions. While the Queens of the North wish to avoid any Imperial entagelments, of any king. We are all here waiting for a party that has made prior arrangements to sail with us but sadly hasn't made clear her party size or destination. So our ships are still waiting to finalize our passenger manifests. Your companions could buy standby tickets perhaps."

sense motive: 1d20 ⇒ 16

Noting her discomfort as their presence, Vigar asks the captain directly.

"What seems to be the problem? Your ship is fully armed and you seem discomforted by our presence. It would be good to share with us your troubles or reason why."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10ooh ow

Opting to make my own Diplomacy roll here...

Sense Motive 1: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Tassira misses the flood of emotions on the captain's face.

Sense Motive 2: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

She also misses the captain's discomfort, but decides to take Vigar's word for it.

Taking 10 for Diplomacy: 10+10 = 20
"If there is a problem, you may rest assured that we have no interest in causing a scene. Please, allow me to thank you for your time. We'll opt for standby tickets to Varde." She says. She tugs on Vigar's sleeve with one hand while putting her ring-wearing hand in her pocket.

"Perhaps it best if you all leave my ship right now," she says her voice turning to ice. "I have no intention of sharing information beyond what is required by treaty with lapdogs of the Empire or worse" she hisses out "Alenkines".

Vigar glances at Tassira as she tugs his sleeve.
"Hmm?"

Sense Motive: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (20) - 1 = 19

Even Rowan can't miss the icy hate in her voice, but he misses some larger overtones.

"Well thank you anyways for your time. We'll just find another ship then. He turns to the others, lowering his voice Let's go find Arean. It's her ship after all."

First Check Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Second Check Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

Third Check Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Kariel's brow wrinkled slightly as she tried to think. This was an interesting development, wasn't it? True, she'd never expected every step of their path to be paved for easy walking, but the woman did appear to have a rather... distinct frustration with the ruling house of the Empire. Even more, she seemed to be distinctly angry with it... and that took a lot of guts, particularly when the Empire was so harsh already.

Ooooooor maybe Vigar had just really pissed her off. Well, these things happened, and he did seem like he had good intentions... Kariel couldn't be too upset with him. More relevantly, what had House Alenkine done to piss people off so badly? Was there anything about these ships in those books she'd been reading?

Knowledge (History): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10
Knowledge (Local): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

She shook herself a bit, though. Hopefully they could still salvage this situation somehow. She owed it to the gods to at least make the attempt to improve the world a little bit. She took a deep breath, then calmly walked forward, spreading her wings a bit to frame her body.

Diplomacy (Improve Attitude)
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29

"As Captain, you do have authority over this ship." Kariel agreed quietly. "We are the passengers you were waiting for, but if you will not take us onboard, I hope you will at least be able to set aside your anger towards those who only wished to help you." She looked at the Captain for a long moment, then turned towards Rowan and nodded slightly. "Indeed. I think it will be better for everyone if we take another ship." She let her wings return to their resting position behind her back as she picked up her things and began walking towards the dock.

Captain Maridun 's perception check: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20

Captain Maridun's hand raises in a signel and suddenly over a dozen marines are pointing double crossbows at you as well as 2 crew served siege weapons.

"What have you done with the Lady Arean ,Oathbreaker, are you the reason she isn't here yet?"

opps ninjad let me edit to respond Kariel's post

"You Imperial child stealers, and Alenkine Oathbreakers aren't leaving till I have answers."

"We haven't done anything to her. We are cousins. Well second cousins really. Vigar is her cousin. And Tassira here is her half sister. Technically, we are all related to each other. Apparently the Alenkines get around."
He's rambling nervously a bit, something that happens when two dozen bolts are all aimed at his head.

Diplomacy: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -1

He whispers to the others pleadingly "Help me."

Well. This escalated quickly.

Sense Motive: 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (1) - 3 = -2

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
Tassira starts to panic.

"We haven't done anything to her! We just arrived here before she did! I swear!"

Vigar steps forward unheeding of the crossbows.

"Crispin."

He snaps out the name as if wielding his spear, showing no fear for he is Legion.

Kariel looked at Rowan. They really weren't doing much to make her attempts at a pleasant resolution any easier. She sighed a moment later, letting go of the irritation. She knew they all meant well, and forgiveness was the teaching of the Gods she followed.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25

She looked back to the Captain a moment later, then raised her artificial arm. "...I lost this when I was taken from my home as an infant." she said calmly. "My parents were murdered, and I was crippled before I was even old enough to know what was happening. Then the nobles started passing me around like a bargaining chip. I won't deny that there are plenty in the Empire that would love to steal children, because I was one of those children, and I was their slave for longer than you've been alive. I know very well the depths to which they'll sink. However..." Her eyes narrowed slightly... and her halo burst into full, glorious existence above her head as her wings spread wide once more. "I would appreciate it if you would lower your weapons. If you have a question, then all you need to do is ask, and we will answer as best we can. There is no need for violence right now, and the only thing it will do is cause pointless grief to everyone."