Still no posts on his account or aliases since 12 Feb. 18 days, now.
I can deal with a game getting dropped. People just vanishing causes me more concern than the continuation of a game can.
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10 days. I hope Seamus is alright.
Hello? Storms get people? I hope everyone's okay.
"A cairn usually stands above the land around it, don't they? This place just doesn't look right to me." He searches anyway . . ..
"Well . . .. Before we run off like children to play in the Cairns again, is there anything you need, Gramps?"
I'm in one WotR group already. We're working our way out of that surprising start. I could happily join anyway, though . . .. I'll take my thoughts to that thread.
Shartol returns the hug, squeezing probably a little too tightly, until he finally pulls away. "Rolla and Hollin are both managing to just go on with their lives. Trying to support each other and save a little something. I had no idea what would be next. These people helped change that. They took me along to help them get the ingredients for the plague cure. They were going to help me find out what had happened to you, since nobody knew where you were . . .." He chokes a little at this point before continuing in an completely different tone. "NOT the best time for you to vanish," frustration and fear obviously mixed in his slightly raised voice.
"Dad, Gramps. I, uh, had to bring Dad home. He's on the hill with Mom, now." The young man can't force himself to look his grandfather in the eye.
The exchange works for me.
"Uhhhh . . . .. He WAS gone?" The young man walks up to the door and knocks lightly. "Gramps?"
So, Seamus? Happy, upset, or neutral about my efforts to derail the carrot you put in front of us? <eg>
"Honestly, I don't remember ever having even tried the door. Either he did or it was already open."
The young man looks confused. "If I had an idea where to start looking, he wouldn't be missing, would he? Not until I didn't find him there, I mean. I'm guessing the best hope to find some clue where he was headed would be to see if he left anything in his notes and such at home. But I'm guessing."
Shartol grins sheepishly. "Other than he's gone and not even anybody in the family has any idea where to, or even specifically when he left. Unless you're running away, normally you tell SOMEBODY, right?"
Our loot? "The cairn should be a quick diversion. That's all they ever proved when I was a boy. If we're supposed to be the protectors, shouldn't we be trying to figure out what's wrong and address those problems first? Like, where's my grandpa? There's been no sign of him in a couple of weeks. That's not normal."
The young monk starts by going to the tavern where many of the loggers relax. While there, he speaks with the loggers about Irori, and the effort required to improve oneself. He spends some money on food and drink, basically purchasing an audience, while he discusses the potential inherent in everyone and how working together a group can help each other be more than they would manage alone.
Towards the end of the night, he strikes a bargain to gain some help in his efforts to build a shrine in exchange for assistance with the logger's normal tasks. So, for the next couple of days, Shartol goes and helps the loggers, taking quickly to a task they largely dislike: scampering up trees to top them and establish rope lines to help guide other trees. As he does this, he notes that some of the tools the loggers have been using to help with this task are old and not as safe as they used to be, so he purchases some replacement gear in order to keep helping them even after he's done.
That all looks correct to me, except that it looks to me like your Knowledge (religion) bonus is +5, so even with a +3, your Take 10 would be 18, not 20. But if this is incorrect (or when you bump it up 2 points), you will be totally correct. Hey! Don't make me actually notice that the one skill which applies most often is worse than the cheap skills . . .. Party-pooper! As for the items, I think some of them were magical, weren't they? We wanted someone to translate the Dwarven writings to see what the book IS, but short of that information, none of those items especially appeal.
Okay, looking over the downtime rules in the PRD . . .. If Shartol wants to make an altar to Irori (on the outskirts or just outside of town) as the first step in constructing his own monastery (not that he would see it as such at this point) he would need: 2 Goods
or he can spend 210 GP and have somebody else go through the effort. He can purchase units of goods at 20 GP apiece, or he can earn them doing skilled labor (Knowledge (Religion) being his only matching skill), getting 1 unit for every 10 points on the skill check, at half cost (10 GP) apiece. For Influence, he also has only Knowledge (Religion) and it has a base cost of 30 GP For Labor, he has Climb or Swim and it has a base cost of 20 GP. For Magic, he has, once again, Knowledge (Religion) and it has a base cost of 100 GP Seems like Knowledge (Religion) is going to be very important for Shartol's downtime activities. Doing it himself, from scratch, while taking 10 on the skill rolls, will take 10 days and 105 GP. Once he has the altar, he can use the bonus it provides for gaining influence to increase his Take 10 Knowledge (Religion) roll by 3 points, making it a 20 and providing him the ability to earn 2 points of Influence in a single day. Right?
The young monk greets the morning out in the street, again, stretching and practicing his kata. This morning, he has no audience. It seems everyone is either in line, or inside, watching, hoping and praying. When he finishes the routine, he cleans himself and has some breakfast before heading to the apothecary to see if the news is as good as hoped, not yet known, or deeply troubling.
I'm willing to give them a go, but I won't have time to actually look them over before the weekend.
In regards to the previous religious question, Shartol reveres Irori. Shouldn't be a surprise there. I'm looking at either Champion or Guardian right now. Both look like good fits, for different reasons. The link to the college Google share wanted me to log in before giving me access, so I'm using the PRD while I try to make up my mind. Edit: Hmmm . . .. Guardian - Tier 1
Looking over the two, it is just so obvious that Shartol SHOULD take things from both sides. Champion:
Guardian:
And those are only from the Tier 1 powers! Honestly, I hadn't looked at a Mythic option because of how frequently games fold, I didn't want to look too far ahead . . ..
The young monk sits and listens, watching the others as they chatter about the apparently common dream. "I think this was nothing any of us asked for. The challenges placed before me must be dealt with in keeping with Irori's example. Not understanding the challenge just means it will take longer."
This weekend I am helping run the Winter Camporee for the local Boy Scout District. I MIGHT (depending on when I leave work) try to make a post Friday before I head out to the campsite, but I won't be back until Sunday.
The young monk rushes over to the half-orc and administers to his wounds.
The young monk also steps up so that he can reach the worg, approaching the non-business end since the business end is busy trying to eat the healer . . ..
His first shot seems to conect with the warg's hip quite well, but his attempt to emasculate the creature missed, as it reacted to the pain of the initial strike.
Dancing around the back of the room, Shartol leaves the Druid and Bear to work together and sets himself next to the worg, across from Kervos.
"Creatures?" The young man shakes his head as though to clear it, focuses on the worg again and starts over. "What sort of creatures would be a problem for you?"
Shartol stands there, nearly motionless, with his mouth hanging open, staring at the talking wolf.
"Uhhhh . . .. Nice doggie? Goood doggie?"
"So . . .. We have signs that there may still be a dwarf here, and that he has been keeping wolves as pets, along with something similar but bigger. Is it just me, or do you think the dwarf could have ordered the wolves to attack us in order to maintain his privacy? I mean, he seems to live here, we arrived unannounced, and we've been forcing our way through everything without even trying to be friendly, right?"
The young human looks at Vaashti and tries to suppress a grin. "You're right. Something doesn't smell right about this."
"How many mushrooms do you think we need? I mean, I understand that those couple aren't enough to treat the whole village, but how much WILL be enough?"
Shartol looks embarrassed as Ruhk provides his description. "That sounds like something the elder monks would say to describe how a group works together." Then he manages a very Ruhk-like smirk. "Of course, the one providing the description would never put himself as the center of the group . . .."
Discussion points from the young monk through the night will include: "Do you think we can pull this off? Actually gather everything and get it back in time to matter?" "Do you think this medicine will actually help against this plague?" "What is working against the village that such monsters and beasts are protecting the things that we hope will save our friends and families?"
Happy Ho-Ho to one and all!
Frustrated is an amazing word. It manages to describe an emotion with a thousand causes, and a thousand shades which exist as a result. Right now, the young monk is frustrated. The best techniques he knows to gain advantage in a fight really don't work well on moving skeletons. They have no eyes, no nerves, no simple soft tissue pressure spots . . .. AND they are managing to avoid most of his traditional attacks, while continuing to rip the flesh of his companions. Should the group fail in their efforts to retrieve the potential medicinal ingredients, the entire village could die from this disease. Another layer of frustration, with its own multiple shades of the emotion involved. As si typical, Shartol's not really thinking about this while he's fighting, but it is boiling away, under his thoughts, increasing the urgency of the fight beyond that caused by the fight itself, creating a tension that could never be replicated in a sparring match. "Stay put and fall down you, you, you VIOLATIONS!"
While expressing himself seems to have helped, the wild look in his eyes doesn't match anything you've seen from this young human before.
Watching the dance of companions on the other side of the skeletons, Shartol steps up and tries to deal with the next skeleton in line . . ..
The young man gets less picky about his targeting, and tries to simply pummel the skeleton with a Mantis Fist or elbow, whatever he can make contact with!
"So, what can you do to a skeleton?" The monk asks, realizing he's not really sure what to do next.
Before he lashes out and tries to knock the skull off of the neck . . ..
"Oh, I'm afraid this is really going to hurt!"
Double move through the line of friends and foes, tumbling to avoid Aoos, trying to end up past the furthest skeleton in . . ..
"I'm trying to picture how the dwarves lived here, how they used these rooms, how they studied and worshiped. It still seems empty, foreign, and kind of meaningless, though. I've got to be missing something."
Burial if the bats make a ruckus? What kind of bats ARE these? Wait. He was chuckling, wasn't he?
The young human follows the crowd, unconcerned about where they go (after being corrected about the smithy), as long as they are looking for the mushrooms.
"Seems kinda dark. Let me get a torch out." The young man pulls and lights a torch, holding it out and up to help light the way for everyone.
Shartol's got 8# left for light, but is already carrying 50' of hemp rope.
"I'm just glad it seems to have worked!" Glancing about while the others start cataloging their finds or investigating the space, Shartol notes "This place has an awful lot of hungry predators in it. We should probably try to be more careful."
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