Checking in from Gencon. Gotta say, the update looks aweseome! Gonna try to get a post up before bedtime.
I've been wishing that I was there ever since I heard that the Mythic rules were announced, lol. Hope you have a great time :D
Hey folks. Just leaving work now (1½ hours later than usual), so might not be able to make my followup posts tonight, but I'll have a go, before I get into a very busy weekend (daughter's first birthday party).
If you don't see anything posted within 6½ hours from now, you can assume I'm asleep, and you'll have to wait til Monday. Sorry!
Really cool posts.
The village of Walters-- what the hell went on in those dreams? lol
I figured that with a Sense Motive roll of 28 it probably isn't even possible for anyone to hide their various states of being freaked out from Theron, so I went ahead and had him notice and ask wtf is going on. Hope I didn't jump the gun ;)
Now, if only I could get these numbers to come up for my attack rolls...
I'm going to go crazy if we're left with a 'Is this Kendra an illusion?!?' cliffhanger over the weekend D:
Alright, I'll try and hold back my posting spree for a bit so other people have a chance to say stuff.
Though, I have to say, if my guess about what exactly happened is right, then that makes Theron's dream even more awesome ;)
That was a GREAT and spooky comment Walter!
Back from Gencon now so should be able to resume a more normal posting rate. Just giving a heads up.
Every time I think that I may have finally gotten my roleplaying almost up to par with the rest of the group, someone has to post something awesome to remind me that I have a long way to go ;)
Hey folks. Sorry to say there will be no further updates until Monday/Tuesday. I am still at work (at 8:20pm) and will be here for a while yet--then back in tomorrow morning at 6:30. Doesn't make sense to take my laptop home with me on the train and risk being mugged for it.
So I will be back after the weekend.
Fortunately, I think by tomorrow night all the stupid deadline stuff will be over. : )
My own post reminded me that Vesmera and Walter were going to meet up. Harblgarbl I hate forgetting things. I may just write that out myself if you think that'd be good, or we can pretend "later" means "waaaay later" if you think that's better. :d
no worries Cyn
Re: Walter & Vesmera--I forgot about that too! Whoops.
I'm happy for you to write out the conversation; I may drop in with a coda from Vesmera when I get a few minutes tomorrow.
Hey folks--
I know I said I wasn't going to be able to post until next week--but that doesn't mean you can't. Plus, can you give me a hint about what you want to do next? Go back to Harrowstone? Visit the town? Do something else?
Please discuss. If I don't hear back before Monday I'll dump you back at the prison. ; )
I'm for hitting Harrowstone. I think we'll find more answers there short-term than we would trying to stalk the town and find out who has been bleeding rats to paint the statue.
I'm for hitting Harrowstone. I think we'll find more answers there short-term than we would trying to stalk the town and find out who has been bleeding rats to paint the statue.
Walter's +1!
I reckon that's a quorum, even if nobody else votes. : )
Yea, once everyone is rested I'm up for going back to harrowstone :D
Agreed. I'd love to figure out a way to put some kind of tracer on anyoen who approaches the monument, but i have no idea how to do that.
Harrowstone or bust!
Oh, i got it... how about we cast Arcane Mark on every piece of dust within 30 feet of the monument!
FOOLPROOF!
Or we put a Glyph of Warding on the monument, with Arcane Mark as the spell. Then we can Scry at our leisure.
I say we suspend Lem over the monument, and have him continually cast Create Water. The one who goes to write on the thing will have to get soaked no matter how stealthy his is, and then he'll stand out more. Plus, the water will automatically wash away blood.
This plan cannot fail.
What if we got a whispering way agent in town and that the blood is some sort of spell link or anchor or conduit?
I'd love to set a trap/lay in wait but that said? We can do that when we get back... our last trip was only 1-2 hours long. I think we'll be back in sufficient time.
True. I'd just love to set up some kind of watch on the monument. Whether that's a stealthy observer (whether that's Raj -- to make sure he keeps his innocence -- or Lem -- for the unfallible water-spout approach) or some kind of mundane or arcane trap-thingy.
If our would-be Splatter Man is consistent... we can figure how many days he goes between visits to the monument and set up a watch around the next time he/she should visit. Catching him may be tough, particularly if he is a mage... what with Vanish being a low level spell. :(
If I were going to do this, I'd do it invisibly just to make sure I'm not randomly spotted.
Alternatively, (and just for giggles) we could run a counter-operation. WE paint the statue with the next set of letters and see if we can't make this guy wonder what the hell is going on. :D
For Walter's sake, we won't go with VES.
Hey, Karrik, thanks for being concerned with Raj's innocence. Freakin' Half-Orc c@$<-block for the win! XD
Alternatively, (and just for giggles) we could run a counter-operation. WE paint the statue with the next set of letters and see if we can't make this guy wonder what the hell is going on. :D
For Walter's sake, we won't go with VES.
Lol! We'll come back to find the letters we wrote have been crossed out, and the correct ones were written underneath.
Lol! We'll come back to find the letters we wrote have been crossed out, and the correct ones were written underneath.
LMAO
If our would-be Splatter Man is consistent... we can figure how many days he goes between visits to the monument and set up a watch around the next time he/she should visit. Catching him may be tough, particularly if he is a mage... what with Vanish being a low level spell. :(
If I were going to do this, I'd do it invisibly just to make sure I'm not randomly spotted
True, which was why i was trying to find a way that we wouldn't have to have someone on-hand to actually see the person, but would put some form of subtle way of tracing their movements after they put the mark on the monument. Powdering the floor, to use an elementary example. This means that we'd have some investigatory work to do after the next letter is left, but hopefully it would give us a handful of suspects, which we could use other criteria to narrow down further.
Problem is… I can't figure out a way that is subtle enough, effective enough, and is resistant enough to natural elements to actually work.
Alternatively, (and just for giggles) we could run a counter-operation. WE paint the statue with the next set of letters and see if we can't make this guy wonder what the hell is going on. :D
For Walter's sake, we won't go with VES.
Lol. Hadn't considered this… could be fun, but man I don't have a clue how to keep this from going sideways. How do we determine the appropriate next letter? And if we're not concerned with that -- and are only concerned with throwing off his/her game in order to hopefully force them into making a mistake that we can detect -- don't we really just run the risk of tipping off the person that there are people being smart about tracking/tricking them?
: shrugs :
again.. just not sure how to do this smartly.
Hey, Karrik, thanks for being concerned with Raj's innocence. Freakin' Half-Orc c@$<-block for the win! XD
Anything for you, brother. :P
One thing that I'm worried about is that the perpetrator will change the location of his writing now that we've erased this one before anyone even got to see it.
Perhaps. But I think the spook is trying to make a point with the choice of the monument... and changing location would really tip his hand. If this is a supernatural 'something' then there is no reason to change the location. It could simply repaint the block when it wants to. Also, haunts and the like tend to repeat their actions. They are pretty single-minded.
Changing the location, to me, would indicate this is likely a live person - kind of blowing his cover as a supernatural baddie.
I'd love to set up a trap to spot our Offender, but I think we aren't at a level where we can do anything too fancy along those lines with spells.
I think the Sheriff mentioned there was one other person in town whose name starts with VE. So if we were inclined to repaint the statue - and I'm not saying we should - we could use that person's name.
The other option here is to watch the statue and the likely victims - Vesmera and the other guy. It's possible that whoever is imitating the Splatter Man has something against the victim personally and is using the Splatter Man ruse as a cover. Maybe we should dig into their lives a bit and find out if anyone has something against them.
Well, if you're trying to throw off a copycat killer, the best way is to mess up his operation so he gets sloppy.
First off we screw up his plan. Erasing this early helps, but we need to paint our own. Fake letters is a great idea, but either
1) Someone else's name, so VU to throw suspicion to Dragomir
2) Something just wrong, like VC or something (Though preferably not someone's initials).
3) Something indescribable, like V&
This makes them angry and hopefully they'll do something stupid (though hopefully no one dies from it).
Putting a guard out here 24/7 is a bad idea imo, since they'd probably end up dead and would provide the killer with a source of blood. Establishing a larger outpost would just make people uneasy. At least in my opinion.
There's also always the guy who admits to the crime but didn't do it plan. Find someone who would admit to having done it, get them locked up in the Sherrif's office for awhile. Would probably want to work with the Sherrif on it though. The supposed criminal makes up a bunch of outlandish stories on why he did it that attempt to embarass who actually did it, then they foul up trying to make it right.
Of course I've read too many mystery books to none of those might work depending on motivation.
If we were to paint our own letters, the law of plot and comedic timing virtually guarentees we'll be caught.
If we were to paint our own letters, the law of plot and comedic timing virtually guarentees we'll be caught.
This is exactly what I was thinking. XD
I say we have Raj do it. ;)
Bah! We won't get caught... because we'll have the sheriff in on it and keeping his guards busy elsewhere. And someone will have a Vanish spell they can throw on Raj. :)
If the Lem waterspout doesn't work, why not just have a bunch of citizens move the monument into the church temporarily? Let's see the ghost try to pull some shenanigans in the temple and get smacked down.
Hey folks. Have loved reading your thoughts about how to capture the perpetrator! Some ideas have real merit. : )
Harrowstone it is. I shall assume you are doing the same thing as last time--sneaking off from the town and obfuscating your destination. I shall also continue to assume you are detecting traps inside Harrowstone as you go--which won't help if Raj isn't up front, though.
Off to see the wizard then. : )
Yep, Raj will play guinea pi... er 'Scout'.
Whoops! I wanted to use the money from the crossbow to buy some holy water and possibly scrolls from the church before we left. Is it too late for that? :-/
Specifically, I'm looking for a magic stone scroll, remove fear scroll, and holy water.
The holy water will be fine. The scrolls, however, will have to wait overnight unless you (a) talk to Father Grimburrow directly or (b) succeed on a DC 20 Diplomacy check. Then they will be ready late at night (neither is on-hand; they're both adventurer-type spells).
Easy choice, hehe.
You manage to charm some young acolyte sufficiently that he or she runs off to organise to scribe those scrolls for you right away--and delivers them to you around 11pm. Along with a mint and an offer to turn down your bedroll. ; )
Ok, I'll take the two scrolls and 3 vials of holy water. At cost that's 125 gp I believe. I will then pay off 35 gp of my debt. ;-)
You manage to charm some young acolyte sufficiently that he or she runs off to organise to scribe those scrolls for you right away--and delivers them to you around 11pm. Along with a mint and an offer to turn down your bedroll. ; )
Hehe, why thank you. The service here is excellent.
Hey all...as Lem pointed out I am buried at work. Just got home for the night. Thanks for proxying my action and will try not to miss out on the nextt combat...
No probs! Good to see you're still kicking though. : ) Hope you get a good night's sleep!