Alvero Elceren's page

Harrowing as it may have been for the wizard, it was clear the more battle-brazen among them had no hesitation or difficulty with this batch of trouble. If anything, I'd imagine the ease with which they ended the Nictari should bother me, but I suppose that makes them all the better to have close in court.

Maurice's counsel was well-taken by the king, it seemed, and for good reason. The man often hoisted reasonable ideas, and that was something Alvero could get behind. He did have one thing of note to add to the king's response though.

"Respect and fury, cold but with fiery purpose. As long as you are consistent in your portfolios, the audiences before you will know how to identify your highness. Straying from their expectations may confound the general folk though."

Leaning on his staff, the mage took in the post-life puppeteering Maurice wrought on the deceased. Alvero was not a fan of this form of necromancy, mainly because it seemed to give the dead some agency. Things don't have agency, and they don't betray you. People do.

Know(Local): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

Note the broken condition negatively affects items; for weapons, it is a -2 to attacks and sets the critical threat to 20x2.

Seeing the lancers have difficulty striking them, Alvero did not see a reason to run, rather attacking their bodies with force. He focused his efforts on the assailant whose weapon he tore asunder.

Telekinetic Fist (ranged touch attack): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

Fisting: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Alvero sought to reduce their adversaries' capabilities, starting with the least injured of the pair. Holding his right palm to the sky, he brought his left hand against it in a scissoring fashion. Combined with his incantation, magical forces began to tear at the weapon of his target, seeking to rend it.

Break - Fort DC 19 or object is broken. If already broken, becomes destroyed.

My empathy, Maurice.

On a related note, been going through something similar with my last remaining grandparent recently; my grandmother had broken her hip, and I'd moved to her apartment temporarily to help her with daily living until my aunt could assist. I don't receive alerts for the game's posts, but I did get a private message from our Storm Crow and an email from that which reminded me to post. I should have recalled on my own devices, but I had no computer at her apartment, and it wasn't at the forefront of my mind with the developments. My apologies.

That said, let's show these rogue negotiators how we do diplomacy!

As was usually the case, a parley resulted in dissatisfied parties on both sides. Usually, this meant each held true to their causes. In this case though, it meant the Nictari had miscalculated.

While the cleric had sought to exert subservience in their hearts, Alvero favored an older, more inescapable format of persuasion: force.

Waving his left hand in the air, he gathered enough arcane power to push at a particular point on one of the interceptor's bodies. The collar should do...

Telekinetic Fist - ranged touch attack: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20

Fisting: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

He was surprised Addanc would leave them alive after such brazen assault, but then again, Alvero likely surprised the others by taking direct action in a fight. Being very much aloof from such matters by preference, it seems he'd not gone rusty in stoneworked halls.

However, true to form, the wizard retreated a few paces to keep himself out of harm's way.

Who knows if they have more. I'll conserve my main energy until it's needed.

Hey all, posting will be slow for a while; I work in the tourism and hospitality industry in a city where St. Pat's is 1000% everything, apologies as we go into this next week

I demand a rainbow be saved for me!

Listening to the schemes brandied around him, the wizard nodded to himself. Invasion has a satisfying ring to it, young king, but patience.

He cleared his throat.

"An incursion of force - despite favorable odds of victory - is expensive. It costs lives and resources, not just to secure the new lands, but also in destruction of the territory that would fall under your patrimony. Finja's more temperate plan may require more finesse, but it will enrich your realm all the more as a result."

The tower elf turned to the forest elf. "Did you have particular people in mind for those substitutions? I confess while I'm well connected with the mercantile classes, foreign nobles aren't generally my supper-mates."

Know(Nobility): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

Alvero would favor some others (NPC's) heading there, for the social finesse is something he isn't a master of. His bluntness may drive them away from the plan/alert them, and he knows that's a possibility.

Fair Lands, indeed...

The wizened mage looked to his liege, waiting with respect to see how he would respond to this petitioner. A measure of fairness has already been extended in granting this feathered soothsayer an audience in the first place. Despite the accusation the Vault of Heaven's squabbles against the other realms were pointless, the inevitable conflicts were at the fore of Alvero's mind.

His pale skin was in contrast to the tengu's dark feathers as much as his orderly process of refining the land's productivity was to the alarmists' knee-jerk warning. The wizard was no clergyman, and not concerning himself with the spirit realms beyond, he saw few problems martial strength with material support couldn't fix.

After the crown had his chance respond of his own mind, he straightened a crease in his robes and took a few paces over to him, bending slightly to speak softly. "How and when he learned of and revealed this is - if the story is to be believed - as interesting as the information itself. Why one messenger? Why now? And are there more details being held back."

Alvero bowed his head slightly before stepping back and righting it. He had no idea if the alarmist was telling the truth, but the more outlandish a tale, the more skeptical he tended to be. Perhaps it was himself getting on in years, but he'd hoped the king would take after that trait and dispense with much rubbish and expedite his dealing with the riff-raff. Since his wife's passing, the tower elf had been more cold, treating most people like commodities more than commoners. People of status or ability sometimes caught his eye at a different angle though - people like the kind and the councilors here. They can make things happen, and together, we can change the Fair Lands into something useful.

He exhaled slowly. Perhaps some wine would take the edge off after this session of court.

Sorry I've been out for the early part of this week. I had a mild case of food poisoning, but it was a busy week at work, so I got backlogged. I'll fill-in the slides later on Thursday.

Regarding the conversation in the thread so far.

1. 8 must go. 10 should be a buffer state to the lesser lands to the south. Depending on how advanced clockwork mechanisms are, a naval conflict with 6 could be problematic. Given our proximity to the mainland, it is worth considering what exploratory parties could do for us there.

2. Being morally-flexible, Alvero is mainly worried with the economic stability of the realm, not who the country must upset to achieve it. He has an acute understanding of leverage via scarcity, and it is his believe material might - as well as political - revolve around a society's ability to feed and function from day to day.

3. The above being said, he is a mage. One of the resources in the area he's interested in putting a net over is gems, for they are necessary components for a number of spells. While the idea of a land of archmages is lofty, magicians do have a tendency to become concerned about their status amongst one another and start infighting. Neutering them by leveraging their material components keeps firefights to mere embers.

4. Despite being a mathematician myself, I must agree sacred geometry as a feat is BS. The others I've not heard great things about.

5. Alvero will be taking item creation feats as he levels, I imagine. The question is mainly which sorts of these it would be. He has scribe scroll, though craft wand/wondrous item come to mind.

regardless you are certain you want no part in it.

How do you know I'm not into that kind of stuff, hmmm?

GM/Addanc, how notable are the arcane towers' fame/clout in the Vault of Heaven? I'm trying to decide how much I should have Alvero's possessions reflect any legacy nature/gentrification of the place.

It would probably be good to build-out foundational relationships between our characters.

Alvero might be seen as a non-threat to Addanc given his esoteric magical focus, so perhaps the two could be more colloquial than most of the ruler's associates. It may also help he can be rather heartless with people, looking at them with bankers' eyes, perhaps giving Addanc some sort of relief others distance people as well.

How overtly/frequently is Maruice's faith represented?