GM Peachbottom's War for the Crown

Game Master Peachbottom

It's a little funny when I muse that Navia was essentially built to do the thing our agents are doing. Granted, it takes spell slots with minutes/level duration to give her the ability to travel on her own, so she has a lot less versatility.

Might have to do some personal spying on some key targets in the future >:)

Do you guys need help getting started?

Let me know how you want to proceed.

Is anyone wearing disguises and if so, with what?

Are you approaching with stealth, with diplomacy, with combat?

I was worried this part could feel a little railroady so don't feel like I'm pushing you in any particular direction. All approaches are valid even just letting the tax collector go.

Honestly, I don't know. Disguises are a must. In fact, Trevor need to cover his eyes, because his iridescent eyes are too unique to the area. The cleric will leave the planning to the more martial and stealthy members of his coterie.

Honestly, don't overthink it.

Also, since some of you expressed interest in a non-lethal route, I'll just mention an item that you may have forgotten about.

Styx Oil

It may or may not be helpful.

I also have my sleep venom, if we actually are going the nonlethal route. Could use the hat of disguise plus my singing to distract them and then surprise attack them with the rest of the party. Sleep only lasts a minute but that should be enough to grab the cart and run off with it.

I’ve got two uses of Sleep Venom a day, and we have three of the Styx oil, and there are five of them, so it seems as if this is the perfect plan.

The perfect plan until someone rolls a high Fortitude save.

We'll just ignore that possibility and hope that we don't have to so unfortunately murder them all. Couldn't be helped, really!

Tychus will certainly wear plain dark clothing. And he will acquire some blunt bolts for non-lethal.

I should have a post up early tomorrow morning.

Dark clothing for me. I'll just carry my club for smacking things

Dark clothing. And maybe some goggles.

Xallis hadn't taken the time to purchase much space clothing before the tax collecting, so he'll stay back and be invisible.

Perhaps we can pin the blame on the Night Swan.

Her calling card was a black feather, correct? Perhaps we can leave one at the scene?

I'll also acquire a sap for more non-lethal shenanigans.

Turns out Ravithra listened! What wonderful rolls.

I would like to spread rumors that Night Swan was behind the thugs attacking the tax collector

Would spreading rumors fall under Sabotage?

Sabotage Opponent (Genius or Subterfuge)

You cunningly set one of your opponents up for a fall, perhaps causing one of his shameful secrets to go public.

Associated Skill(s): Knowledge (local or nobility), as appropriate to the opponent (Genius); Sleight of Hand or Stealth (Subterfuge).

What are the odds I can find a Mithral Chain Coat, magical or otherwise?

What are the odds I can find a Mithral Chain Coat, magical or otherwise?

You can find one. It can be magical.

Would spreading rumors fall under Sabotage?

Sure. But I also see you already did perform charitable acts. Did you want to change it? I'm not going to do another Persona Phase after this one right away.

No. I was just making a recommendation to Icabhod.

Okay wait, don’t we know who the Night Swan is? Or at least, one of the people acting under the name, that is.

The assassination attempt on the Baron at the party earlier, didn’t Icabhod disable the trap that Lucretzia set for the Baron? Wasn’t there that black feather that might have been left behind intentionally? Either she is the Night Swan, or they’re actually a group.

I’ll probably have Liraela look into this with this social round when I get a second to get a proper post up. See if she can dig anything up on Lucretzia or her past.

Yes, you discovered that Lady Lucretzia Marthane is the Night Swan. As far as you know, she acts alone. You have not heard any stories in which she worked with a group. She escaped the Palace of the Birdsong and is still at large. You haven't seen the last of her.

You are spreading rumors among local people, none of whom witnessed the event. But many have heard of the Night Swan so spreading rumors that a group attacked the wagon rather than an individual would be less believable.

The people in the Beggarwood occasionally steal but are not really bandits. But they often get blamed for being bandits and Lord Lotheed sends his man Gul Guisarme down there to rough them up on occasion. Since the tax collector, Giado Eta believes he was attacked by a group of bandits, he thinks he was attacked by those from the Beggarwood rather than the Black Swan. It's your word against his.

You could convince people that the Black Swan did the attack due to lack of witnesses as long as you spin it the right way.

I don’t think they’ll believe us that it was the Night Swan. We (regrettably) left them alive, and they think a large (given my illusion) group of bandits attacked and stole from them.

We’ll have to think of some other plan, if we want to save the actual bandits in the Beggarwood. Which I’m not saying that we should, just throwing it out there.

Here is Malphene Trant's stats from the first chapter. If taken on as a cohort, she could be leveled up to whatever level appropriate for the feat.

I made a character sheet for Dame Malphene Trant. I will likely take Malphene as Trevor's co-hort when he gets to 7th level, when he takes the Coalition Leader feat.

I have an RP question: Trevor will likely tell everyone down at The Public House about his courtship with Dame Trant. Should Trevor hire a bard to spread the news of his courtship in Oppara? Or would that not be good etiquette? I've read that nobles would sometime hire others to spread important news. Do you think it would jeopardize the mission? I'm not sure what would likely be the best path to follow.

Hiring a bard to do that would not affect your mission. You can do that if your character wants to.

I'm going on a week-long vacation starting Friday, and I might not be around much tomorrow. I will have my laptop with me and internet access for most of it, so I will probably check my email and respond during that time, but this is just a heads-up that I might be slower at posting than usual.

Thanks for letting us know. Enjoy your vacation. Don't worry about posting if you can't. Going anywhere good?

@Xallis: I’ll get a full RP post up this afternoon after work, but if I’m reading your intent correctly (Inscribe Magical Tattoo), I was planning on taking it at level 7, yeah. Would’ve taken it this level but my caster level is actually only 4, not the required 5.

Yeah, I saw the potential for that and figired Xallis would too, so at the very least it'd make for a fun conversation topic. Even better if it comes online at a later time.

Thanks for letting us know. Enjoy your vacation. Don't worry about posting if you can't. Going anywhere good?

I’m driving up to a cabin near Lake Tahoe with two of my friends from high school to record a bunch of music and hide from the heat. Next weekend I’m meeting my mom in Ashland, Oregon to see a few plays at the Shakespeare Festival. :)

Let me know what your final judgement is going to be.

Then also let me know:
Are you going straight to Jambis or bridge first?
Do you want to make another improvement to Stachys?

I think we should check out the bridge next.

For improvements, the repair of the pump house will increase the quality of life in the area.

So obviously this crime judgement hits a little close to Liraela’s childhood, which is why she’s a bit heated about it and so insistent that the punishment be as light as possible. Don’t worry, though, she doesn’t see it as malevolent. She trusts the group enough by now to chalk it up to not being educated on certain lifestyles and what it requires.

To put the punishment Liraela suggests into perspective, you make half of a Profession roll per week in money (speaking of which, I need to start singing for money weekly around the county, every bit counts!). The average farmer has a +9 in his profession skill, which means that even on a 20, they’re only seeing 14.5 gold pieces per week in return. And obviously they won’t roll 20’s every week, so there will be times when he doesn’t get paid even that.

The punishment of having to repay the 100 gold pieces is actually a significant penalty to a random commoner and will likely take up to 10-15 weeks (or even more depending on rolls) to repay, all the while still trying to make ends meet for his family.

Think of it less like leniency and more of Liraela trying to solve the main reason why she feels like the group is here: the poor quality of life in this area. She does intend on killing the count, after all. For now anyway, unless plans change.

I think we should go to Jambis and send some followers to check out the bridge.

Also down for the Civic Improvements, Basic (1,000 gp).

Icabhod had downed a Barkskin extract when they arrived since they tended to get assaulted more often than not.

He then starts hurrying down to rescue his allies.

Allies?!! We're not friends?!! :((

Rolling more dice than a coked-up Marilith and I can't crack a natural 10. Feels bad, man.

If Festo isn't too badly injured, Tychus might spend a few minutes looking around the canyon. Would be a shame for an Abadaren to pass up the opportunity.

Sorry for the delay! I'm back at my computer today and busy catching up. I'll post something in a little while. :)

Casting haste on Icabod, Tychus, Trevor, Liraela, and Henrika. I forget how buff spells work when I pick specific people but one of them has mirror image on, if I can't hit Henrika I'll get Navia instead.

Casting haste on Henrika is not hampered by mirror image. Haste does not require an attack roll, so Henrika can simply be selected.

For spells that require touch, the wording of mirror image specifies attack rolls. If Henrika allows herself to be touched for the spell to target her, such as a cure spell, I would also allow the spell to work without a chance of targeting an image.

"I forget, 'Cousins'. What are we looking for again?" The still inebriated caydenite asks.

You are basically just investigating. One of the four barons of the County of Meratt has been missing for some time and his estate and surrounding village have gone to ruin. No one knows what happened. So you are looking for clues to figure it out yourselves.

Given that Trevor seems to have found someone, I suggest we all go speak to whoever this mysterious person is before continuing our attempts to break into places. Not that I’m opposed to breaking in, mind you.

Liraela got the same result as Navia, so she does not disable the lock. I'll tell you, you need a 30+ to disable the 3rd lock. It is within your range to succeed so you can try again, or you can see if you find a key, or there is always the "smash the door down" option.

For what it's worth, Xallis wouls have been more than happy to pass out a guidance on a lock that was giving Navia trouble.

But yes, going tbe Speech route seems like a good idea. We have enough rogue-likes for a Plan B(&E)

Per Araig Telus' description: Like most hag curses, Araig’s fate can also be undone by fulfilling a specific action; in this case, true love’s kiss will reverse the affliction, but this criteria is rendered almost impossible thanks to Araig’s cannibalistic hunger.

Does anyone want to be Belle?

Oh, I didn't see this until after I finished my post! :D

Hmm, it occurs to me that this Master Frater Mosle seems to have a deep and abiding love for his master, so much that he refuses to let him be harmed by those who want to make the realm safer. That sounds like true love to me! Any way we can convince him to give the baron a smooch? ;)

No, Frater Mosle does not love the Baron. There is no way to solve his problem with a kiss. He does not have a true love and he wants to eat you.

We often hurt the ones we love.

If I mathed correctly, a scroll of Break Enchantment is only 1,250gp. I don't mind buying one it it stops these people from committing banditry.

If I mathed correctly, a scroll of Break Enchantment is only 1,250gp. I don't mind buying one it it stops these people from committing banditry.

The only problem with this is that you have to make a caster level check against a DC of 11 + CL of the effect. The scroll would have a CL of 9, so it's not exactly guaranteed.

This might be a 'come back and fix it later' problem if we can't find a true love to kiss him. (And no I'm not doing it, so don't even ask)

Does he love himself? Then we can get a mirror.

I mean, it all depends on how we'd define 'love' for this one. Navia has some very creative interpretations of what that can entail, as soon as the servants bring it up.