If someone else can find where the Grinders drink, Casia will be happy to attempt to follow them. Prowl is one of her strengths.
I'm going to catch up with my friend Grace, the extortionist. She might know a few things about the criminal side of life and be able to tell me something.
Nice :)
I'll put a post up in gameplay later.
FYI I've got my year 3 tenure file due in a couple of weeks, so posting is going to be slow on my end. Please bot as needed.
Ooh, good luck!
I *so* do not miss life in acadmia.
Jonah, nto to worry. I'm thinking it was a controlled position - you had plenty of time to work on this thing - so the complication is you lose position down to risky and have to use a different action instead. I'll post somehing on those lines for you to work with.
Okay, so I'm thinking Tinker to paint on a quicksilver mix to each card to act as a better anchor for 'holding' the energy.
"What were ya tryin' ta do anyway Jo? Could'a told ya it wasn't workin'." Naty says still nibbling aether fluff from her fingers even as she start to animate the cards so that the Knight of Swords holds up the Eight of Coins forcing it to hand over all its loot.
I loved this! The whole interaction between the two is great, and animating the cards like that was pure genius :)
I agree :) I don't want to overuse Naty as a coplmication but she's too much fun to leavea on the sidleines
Your Tinker roll is a 5 so that means it works, but the complication is limted effect. It will hold for a bit and while it doeses you'll get waht you want from it - but at some point ti will fail.
Glad you both liked it. I've really enjoyed bringing Naty into the picture and I'm also trying not to over use her too much. :)
Sounds good on the complication. It seems something like the card deck might be refined and perfected as a Crafting item during downtime. Of course, that depends on how many other DT activities I need to take care of first. :)
Thinking abot it, I really like the way Jonah has put agency into the NPCs - Fin, if you want to run both side of that conversation and let me know what he discovers, that works for me :) You rolled a 6, so no side effects. Have at it
@Casie - you are not fortogotten, sorry there hasn't been much for you to do.
@Lolo - I hope your review is going well and you will be back with us soon
No worries. We're in the middle of a big crunch at work, so ...
File submitted, buried in an avalanche of work but I'm digging out. I'll get caught up soon. Thank you all for your patience.
OK, I have no idea where January went. Posting now.
EDIT: So we now have where to find them, but we don't know what their leader looks like. Maybe Lolo's conversation can provide that info? (I didn't want to hog the spotlight)
I'm definitly going to be letting you all play the NPCs going forward! It works well :)
EDIT - my timeline for this one is omething like
30 Jan - deal with Lyssa (done)
3 Feb - Lolo and Eel (in progress)
5 Feb - Fin catches up with Grace (done)
7 Feb - Casia outside PP (in progress)
9 Feb - Jonah enchants cards (done)
Of course you cn use flashbacks and so on but that is a rough idea.
@Casia - giv me an action roll and tell me waht you are doing (apart form taking the piss out of Fin, I mean ^_^)
Her plan is to make her way to the Pickled Pike and follow anyone she can identify as a Grinder, hoping to locate a more core location. Perhaps where Hutton takes his repose?
So it looks like Jonah would know to go to the Pickled Pike after completing his work, since that info was discovered a few days earlier. Is that right? Assuming so, I'll get a post up over the weekend.
@Casia - success with consequnces, ok I know wht happens there. You found the right place, *but* you were spotted. You got away unmarked, but I'm giving a -1d6 penalty to the engagment roll. The Grinders know *somehtng* is up but they dont' know what. Feel free to post something on those lines.
@Jonah - that works for me.
I'll ggive Lolo a bit longer to post before I move us forward agiain.
Ugh, sorry - I somehow missed your post, GM.
GM: Not sure if I need an action roll at this point since I was last in the timeline and it sounded like the Engagement Roll was coming after all of the other posts. Let me know if you need one from me.
@Lolo - no problem, it happesn. I can't hink of a clever complication so I'm just going to say that your talk was overheard. You get +1 Heat represents the unwarnted attention. Your team is now at 7/9 heat.
@Jonha, no that's fine. I'll do the engagment roll in a bit :)
So let's think about the egnagement roll.
You always get 1d jsut for pure luck. Lolo's intel is worth +1d and might help you with putting flashbaks together to deal with stuff that comes up. And let's say Jonah's trick with the cards lets you work out where he lives. That's worth +1d, 3d6 total. Against that you lost 1d because of Casia's roll and you're going right into enmy territory, which is another -1d. Plus the Grinders are higher Tier than you. That's another -1d.
At the moment you're looking at zero dice, which is not great! If you ahve any ideas on what you can do to even the odds then shout out.
Hmmm...Do we have time so that I could Attune to Compel a minor spirit to pass through all of the rooms and halls so I could create a floor plan of the house? Maybe able to mark where living beings were located? Knowing where his room is or at least the floor it's on might be worth an extra die.
Or don't we have an underground map of sewers for our hideout? If we know where the house is, could we locate his sewer and then use Wreck to jam up his sewer line so it'll back up and maybe drive some of the guards out of the house? This of course assumes indoor plumbing and sewers. :)
Spend an extra day to stake out the place with a Study or Survey roll to get a better idea of the coming and going of various guards or his two underlings?
I like any and all of the above ^^^
Also, what about choosing to go with a light load? According to the book, if you're kitted out with a medium load or more, you look like what you are: a scoundrel ready for trouble; but if you have a light load, you look like anyone else. It's a risk, because light load means we won't have a lot of gear at our disposal if things go wrong, but if we don't stand out then maybe we have more of a chance of blending in - would that be worth an extra dice or so?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hmmm...Do we have time so that I could Attune to Compel a minor spirit to pass through all of the rooms and halls so I could create a floor plan of the house? Maybe able to mark where living beings were located? Knowing where his room is or at least the floor it's on might be worth an extra die.
I don't think taht would work, or at least not in teh way you would hope. Ghosts don't see things the same way - floors, walls, doors, stairs and so on are optonal to them, and the Ghost Feild has ecchoes of other buildings, you could end up with a map showing rooms that never existed, or don't yet exist, or only existed 1000 years ago. It would be like asking HP Lovecraft to do a Valentine day card - it's not what theyre known for. Plus most houses have at least basic protection from a wandring ghost.
tl;dr Nice thought - createive but I don't advise it. Ov course, it's your character so you can do what you leike :)
Or don't we have an underground map of sewers for our hideout? If we know where the house is, could we locate his sewer and then use Wreck to jam up his sewer line so it'll back up and maybe drive some of the guards out of the house? This of course assumes indoor plumbing and sewers. :)
I frogot about taht, you do have underground maps and pass keys and a specila ability that adds +1d when you do clandestine infltration. Let's say tthat gives you +2d on your roll, which is not bad.
Spend an extra day to stake out the place with a Study or Survey roll to get a better idea of the coming and going of various guards or his two underlings?
Taht could work, but anyting other than a 6 will create complications.
I like any and all of the above ^^^
Also, what about choosing to go with a light load? According to the book, if you're kitted out with a medium load or more, you look like what you are: a scoundrel ready for trouble; but if you have a light load, you look like anyone else. It's a risk, because light load means we won't have a lot of gear at our disposal if things go wrong, but if we don't stand out then maybe we have more of a chance of blending in - would that be worth an extra dice or so?
I would allow that! If you all take a light load I'll give you another +1d to teh engagement roll. That would give you 3d on your roll.
let me know waht you want to do!
It would be like asking HP Lovecraft to do a Valentine day card
Your mind is a very, very strange place. I approve :)
Sounds like using our maps and traveling light give us the best options.
I'm soooo tempted to do the Attune, just to discover what that Valentine's Day card would look like. :D Alas, I'll pass on it this time around.
I'm fine going with a light load if others are.
That sounds good to me!
Light load and maps it is! :)
OK, so you're starting the score ina risky postion. I'm traveling thiw weekend but I'll post something on Monday.
On a completely dfinerent point, waht experience do you all have with PF2? Does it work ok if you decide *not* to use maps, or is it really designed so it needs thsose 5 ft squares? I'd be interested to know what your take is.
I still prefer PF1 over PF2, but I've played in both systems without maps (on these boards as well as FTF). They're both quite workable and enjoyable without them.
If someone's planning on running/playing in a tactically heavy/focused game, though, the lack of maps might create frustrations. Although, that would probably be the case regardless of rules system.
I've only run one PF2 game (the one you and Itzi were both in) so I certainly wouldn't claim to be an expert; that said, it seems to me that PF2 - moreso even than PF1 - is designed with maps in mind, to the extent that some feats/abilities will be less useful in "theatre of the mind."
I don't see that as a problem, but if you're not planning to use maps then I would be upfront about it, because feats that e.g. add +5ft speed just won't be as useful.
I have zero experience playing or GMing PF2, so can't be of much help except to say if it is PF it'll probably be pretty map oriented. I guess I would say it mostly depends on your players. If they are okay doing away with every 5' blah, blah...and hand waving a few more things, then you'll be fine. If not, then theater of the mind will likely be pretty tough.
Thanks for your replies :)
What part of the city are we in? Is the house still in The Docks?
Oops, yes it is and yes that's where you are!
I think we should try and get off the street and onto the rooftops. I'd like to flashback to looking at maps to spot a useful building that would give us a way up from here.
Should have stayed in school! ><
Good news - I think that's a reasonbaly use of a flashback, zero stress and controlled postion.
Bad news - you failed. I' m going to say that's a lost opportunity, so Fin realsises that there is *no* way of getting to the rooftops from where you are. Your choices are go back underground and try to navitagatte a bit closer, or go at street level. One thing I like about BitD is that failure doesn't meaen "ntothing happens" - every action reoll means something will happen, whether you want it to or not :)
Well done on managing to psost yesterday, btw - more than I could do - the site kpet crashing, unless it was jsut me?
The Docks are a pretty busy, bustling district, so I think we could just blend in with the sailors, haulers, and various others who are likely to be walking the streets. Then use Prowl to try and slip unnoticed down the narrow alley behind or to the side of Hutton's house where we might find a window, side door, or way up on the roof (drainpipe or something).
Not sure of the layout, so I'll just roll Prowl for the moment.
^ I like this. It makes sense that since we're carrying light loads we could blend.
Site was totally down for me yesterday.
Full success! That gives you 2 ticks so you're now at 2/4.
If you look at the old maps of London, you'll see that behind all the dock areas (St Katherines, Victoria, all the others) there's a ton of crsappy housing areas - Wapping, Limehouse, all the others. You've now moved from the busy part into someting like that: cramped streets where eveyone sort of knows everoyne else. You're getting lccloser to your destination and you haven't reaised any alarms yet - well done! But there's still a bit fuerther to go yet.
That makes sense. I don't have a lot that will help here, unfortunately: Finraeth's core skills are hitting people and knowing things.
More Prowling?
Oh, FFS!
Given that Lolo and I are Skovlanders, could we use Sway to look like Grinders bringing a couple of prisoners or 'persons of interest' to see Hutton?
Then again, maybe I'll wait to see what happens with that double 1...
No, no need to wait to see what happens. It's not important anyway. Yeah, not important. In fact, ignore it completely. Let's do Jonah's suggestion!
So that didn't work. I'm going to say Cas falls over, on top of the bottle she's carrying which breaks it and the shards go into her leg. Take level 1 harm, cuts to leg. Although you're in a busy palce and you're *defeintly* not the only one in the street who's falling over blind drunk (think Gin Lane), you are getting a bit of notice.
I'm strating a 4-clock "Too much attention" and ticking it once.
I'll go ahead and give my Sway roll a try now.
Not the best, but still a success.
OK, stealth didn't quite work for us so I'm going to go with Jonah's way of doing things and try a Consort roll.
One more tick on the "too much atention" clock for Jonah, but him and Finraeth get you there on the good clock :)
I think this is the point at which we start thinking about climbing up onto the roof; unless the prohibition you mentioned earlier is still in effect, GM?
@Jonah: Can you summon up a fog to cover us like you did before? That should stop anyone from seeing what we're up to. Hopefully.
Not sure I can do the fog again, that actually took Naty's help if I remember correctly.
But what about the 'obscuring' effect of my card deck? I could split it into four equal parts, giving a quarter deck to each person on the team. Would that be enough to grant everyone a +1d on a Prowl to get to the roof of Hutton's house unnoticed? I'm guessing that would then exhaust the stored magic in the deck. Do I need to make an Attune roll first to 'call up the magic' or something?
IIRC, the efect you were going for there was quite a big scale - enough fog cover to get you home. Here you'd be trying to fog up an alley/street to gve you some cover, which i think you could do on your own, if the dieice let you :)
Id forgottoen about your card deck so i'm glad you reminded me. Taht could dfeinitly work, or backfire and fry you all. Etiher way it'll be interesting. Maek an Attune roll and see what happens.