Ciri Romanea's page

Things went well. I finished up on some other stuff we were dealing with concerning Lictor Octavio and crew, and a bit of roleplay, and then set up the groundwork for Marquel. And it does seem quite likely the group is going to try for Marquel himself rather than investigate why someone from the Chelish Navy was so interested in him. All this without him even trying to get a message out!

Of course, that also brings up something to consider - how would I handle the favors and the like? Originally Captain Sargaeta was going to offer a broken teacup of favors (though knowing my group's luck, they'll roll a 1 and have the teacup just bounce off the ground unscathed). But if the group didn't do anything and instead broke Marquel out on their own then... well, what reason would Sargaeta have to help the PCs?

After a bit of a break, my group is back again. I'm trying to figure out how to make the whole Poison Pen thing more interesting and I think I might have figured out an angle.

Several of my group are nobles and as such there's a prime opportunity for them to learn gossip about a scandal in the Aulorian family - Marquel is no longer allowed out of the house because he had a lover that his father disapproves of. And the lover is a sailor on the Chelish warship that's undergoing repairs, she was turned away from the Aulorian manor, her missives refused!

Thus the group can learn of Lieutenant Elia Nones of the Scourge of Belial. The group could then hopefully take the initiative (because helping the first mate of a Chelish warship would be useful to learn what they're up to), and with a little research realize that it's not Nones who is the lover... but Captain Sargaeta himself! By approaching him, this shows both initiative and a chance to curry favor (and maybe even subvert) a Captain of the Chelish Navy. (Little do they know that he's already ripe for being subverted!)

Hopefully this will be less adversarial than how Nones shows up initially. It also means that if the group doesn't take the bait, they still are aware of what's going on so that when Nones does show up to do Sargaeta's bidding, they have an inkling of what's going on.

I've a question. I'm crafting an NPC, a Zealot (Vigilante archetype) of Norgorber. If their Social Identity was True Neutral, would their Aura (which corresponds to Norgorber) detect as Evil?

Would they remain immune to Smite Evil because their Social Identity is not Evil, despite the fact the god they worship IS Evil?

Alternatively, if their Social Identity was Lawful Evil, would they detect as Strongly Lawful, or only faintly Lawful seeing they're above 4th level?

Well, I've decided to expand on part of the Random Encounters table for Old Kintargo. After reading the awesome write-up on here about the Lady and her control of the street gangs, I decided it would be interesting to expand on the gangs. For one thing? The Nidalese spies are going to be trying to find out who the Silver Ravens are. They'll sell that knowledge to their temple (who'd then get it to Barzillai).

I figure the conflict between the spies and the drug dealers is because the spies are busy selling the list of people buying drugs to their temple, which ends up in the hands of the Dottari. Once some of their bigger clients ended up arrested, their little war started up.

It makes much more sense for the group to find a way to deal with the gangs in Old Kintargo and have their actions recognized by Thrune than stuff that honestly he wouldn't know about. So I'm thinking of using that instead. :)

It should. Though the map sizes can be fairly large. One thing I did with the larger maps was select a smaller size map and then halve the pixels for each square. The largest map is 20x30 squares (and you can always use the maps that don't have grids). Even if you assume those squares are 10 feet each, that's still doable with Roll20. There's eight maps in all. The files I have are jpgs, which can easily be loaded into Roll20.

It's going to take a while (as my group isn't even halfway through Book 2 so far), but I'm going to switch out the map for the Hags in Ravounel Forest with Iconic Maps' "The Hag Tree" map. It's a fantastic map and given the hags' theme, having them in a flooded part of the forest living in a huge tree just seems right somehow. :)

My group is getting ready to try and free the Armigers (assuming they don't sidetrack themselves again) and they're contemplating a Stealth approach to things. So I'm thinking that there might be a secret sewer entrance to the Holding House.

It's close to impossible to break into the Holding House unless a Rogue took feats to boost their lockpicking skills. They're going to only have maybe a 25% chance at best to pick the locks in that place.

Think about it - the Gray Spiders had a rather nice hideout (though I'm thinking of adding a sewer entrance as it makes sense they'd use the sewers extensively... this might be how the Order of the Torrent got into the Gray Spiders' lair). So why not use the sewers as a means of easily getting into and out of places?

It would also explain why the Holding House isn't used to house prisoners regularly... the Gray Spiders did a big break-out one time, and after that important prisoners were kept at Castle Kintargo. The incident itself might have been covered up, and reasons for the Holding House falling into disuse may have not been reported... so Barzillai doesn't realize the holes in its security.

Given that the Order of the Torrent isn't exactly considered a high-risk group of prisoners, the holes in the place's security won't matter much. At least, not until a certain rebellion breaks the Order out of prison.

One thing I'm actually considering doing is having other rebellion groups out there. One of these groups is going to have things go bad. Really bad. They'll be trying to spring a couple friends from the Dottari and end up killing a dozen of the guards - and these guys have been long-time members of the Dottari. They even grumble about what Thrune is making them do, but they have a job to do and need to make a living (and at least one PC has heard one of them complaining about this while coping with complaints about the increased tolls at the Bleakbridge).

When things go south? It's going to wash over to the Ravens, despite the fact that my Ravens have avoided killing any Dottari or Militia members. The Dottari are going to be far less lenient after this. Worse, because the number of Dottari are lessened, it will allow an increase in crime as a result, and people are going to be ending up dead as a result.

There are several street gangs mentioned in Book 2. These can be a source for potential rival rebellion groups and the like. And if the Ravens start recruiting among the gangs or trying to rein them in, it will very likely have an impact on how the city views the Ravens... and on Thrune's own reactions toward the adventurers.

Okay. I've come across a weird set of rolls.

First, I rolled for an Event and it occurred. The Event rolled was Roll Twice. The write-up for Roll Twice states: Roll Twice: Roll two times. Both events occur this phase, in the order they are rolled. Multiple rolls of Roll Twice stack.

The very next roll, I rolled for "All is Calm" which states: All Is Calm: No event occurs this week or next week; gain a +1 bonus on all Security checks made during the next week. If you roll All Is Calm as a second event, it does not cancel the effects of the first event but still prevents an event from happening next week. An eventless week caused by this event does not raise the chance of an event occurring in the week after.

The write-up fails to mention what happens if you roll All is Calm for the first of a Roll Twice event. Does it negate the Roll Twice and switch it over to All is Calm? Or would you have two events happen anyway and the benefits of All is Calm while something still happens?

I was wondering... what happens if you rescue someone who is set up for Doghousing? Do the Silver Ravens get the bonus in supporters for rescued people? Are they still part of Kintargo's population, or are they smuggled out of the city?

It states that each week, 1d4 petty criminals and the like suspected of supporting the Silver Ravens are doghoused. That number of people are removed from Kintargo's population (as Doghousing would be lethal to low-level victims - rules in the Core Rulebook state they start suffering the effects of thirst after around 34+ hours (assuming an average Constitution of 10). They would likewise suffer 1d6 hit points of damage from dog bites trying to get food and water.

You can last three days without food according to the rules before you start suffering adverse effects from starvation, so smarter people could very well just go for the water at first, knowing they need that more and the dogs would probably be interested in the food at first.

So the rules on Doghousing would be incorrect (unless the guards starved the prisoners for a couple days before doghousing them). That said, Doghousing is a slow way of killing people and it makes sense that the population is permanently declining. Even if you survive doghousing... you're going to try and leave Kintargo and not return while that madman is in control.

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Anyway, I was primarily wondering if the Silver Ravens still get a boost in the number of supporters when doghousing victims are rescued. And what is the reaction in that case? I mean, wouldn't it become more and more difficult to rescue doghousing prisoners seeing the prisoners keep getting freed and more guards are assigned to watch over them?

Ciri Romanea wrote:

I am a tad tempted to have Thrune use the attack on the Fantasmagorium as a way to start smearing the name of the Ravens early on by claiming their investigations found a group of terrorists calling themselves "Ravens" had been behind the attack on the Victocora estate and had taken the bodies of the slain with them for nefarious deeds. The question becomes: how long does it take for Thrune to learn about the attack on the Archive, given that Nox was put down.

(Seeing at least one of the Redactors doesn't have his legs tied and isn't gagged, I'm willing to bet it's going to be much sooner rather than later. Even so...)

Keep in mind the scene at the end of book 2. If the Silver Ravens are declared terrorists, it gets a bit awkward when he gives them rewards.

He never calls them the Silver Ravens though. He calls them "concerned citizens" and the like.

I am a tad tempted to have Thrune use the attack on the Fantasmagorium as a way to start smearing the name of the Ravens early on by claiming their investigations found a group of terrorists calling themselves "Ravens" had been behind the attack on the Victocora estate and had taken the bodies of the slain with them for nefarious deeds. The question becomes: how long does it take for Thrune to learn about the attack on the Archive, given that Nox was put down.

(Seeing at least one of the Redactors doesn't have his legs tied and isn't gagged, I'm willing to bet it's going to be much sooner rather than later. Even so...)

Recently, my group recovered the two zombified bodies of Aneran and Porcia Victocora, Rexus' parents. They want to bring this up to the Nobles so to destroy faith among the nobles toward Thrune's rule. I'm curious if anyone else has had similar happen in their games, and how they chose to have the Noble Houses react to this news. And for that matter, what Barzillai Thrune himself said in this matter.

One of the "benefits" of Animate Dead is that it renders the body useless for the purpose of Speak With Dead (as well as Raise Dead/Reincarnate spells). Without a Resurrection or True Resurrection spell, Porcia and Aneran are essentially gone and cannot be talked to. Seeing the highest spell available in Kintargo for non-government folk is 4th level, Commune is even out of reach here.

So, how do the PCs "prove" their case? All they have is a couple of slain zombies that were in a horrible fire. While some of the nobles could potentially identify the zombies... they've also been dead for two months at this point.

So I'd like some thoughts on this. :)

Okay. I'm curious as to how other GMs would handle this situation. (I'm really curious what the Devs would do, but I very much doubt they ever come into the old forums so... alas!) My group has effectively Batmanned their way through the first book of Hell's Rebels. And by Batmanning, I mean they did not kill any of the human guards, redactors, or the like.

Of fatalities, the only deaths were of actual monsters (like the mites and dretches), Nox, and the ogrekin (the latter two were knocked out and then coup-de-graced, in Nox's case with a good-aligned attack). Part of this also lies with the fact that I keep track of hit points for baddies when they have gone into negatives rather than having them just be dead outright.

So, how should I award Notoriety? The Redactors know the Silver Ravens attacked them (though three of the Ravens were using masks to disguise who they are). Thus word will likely reach Barzillai Thrune about the attack and who was responsible. Should I handle this as-if Nox had escaped (ie, 2d6 increased Notoriety)? Or one point for each living Redactor?

(Notoriety is a combination of how likely antagonists are to identify the Ravens, but also the townsfolk. Thus I could see Thrune ordering everyone to remain quiet.)

Further, should I have arrest warrants served for the two Silver Ravens who went without masks? Yes, Barzillai Thrune is trying to avoid mentioning the Ravens in hopes that this will just die down, but there are two members of the Ravens, one of whom is quite colorful and known among the tiefling community for his... eccentricities. Thus seeking to arrest these two characters seems... like something that may have merit.

Anyway, I appreciate everyone's thoughts :)

Sarenith 30, 4713

Thelin woke us. He said something odd had happened with Freya near the end of his watch - despite the fact we were sleeping before a banked hearth with a roof over our heads, a dusting of snow had covered her blankets all at once. She was shivering before the fire, which Thelin had rebuilt, and after we were all awake and coherent, she told us what had happened.

She dreamt of a black-clad rider on a black steed racing across a snowy plain. He was being chased by huge silver-white wolves and other riders clad in blues and silver. One used magic to try and strike him, but her enchantments faltered before striking him, but it allowed the wolves to reach him and one breathed frost on him while the second worried his arm. He just... slaughtered everyone, wolves and soldiers alike, but the silver-clad woman cast a second enchantment which left a shard of ice which pierced him. Freya woke as the man threw his blade at the woman, and she found herself covered with snow.

We (well, Alak and the others, I mostly listened to them) talked about the dream and what it might mean. Thelin seemed to think the wolves were likely Winter Wolves. The woman may have been one of Irrisen's witches? But the others weren't sure. But it does make it more likely that Irrisen is involved in some way.

After we were finished with breakfast, Lady Argentea and the Heldren village council saw us off, as did Ten-Penny. I don't recall seeing Petrio this morning. I wonder if he snuck off when Araval's back was turned? I don't blame him one bit. Anyway, we headed out to meet up with Rokhar, when we found out his fae had also died during the night, having bled from the mouth, ears, and other parts.

I have to admit, I feel a little bit better hearing that. Maybe they can't stand the warmer weather, and that's what killed them? Though Rokhar had kept his sprite in a cage for a couple of days. Something killed them though, and it likely used magic to do so. We're lucky it didn't turn that magic against us, though it might be that they somehow killed themselves on the same day to avoid our interrogating them? I don't know.

But I'm not to blame at least. Odd, but I feel better knowing that.

We headed back to the Lodge and then tried to get the zombies across the ravine leading deeper into the Border Wood. Let me tell you, crossing an icy bridge in windy weather is difficult enough for living folk. The first attempt to send a zombie across saw it fall off the bridge and only get caught by the rope Rokhar had tied to it. Better if it had just fallen in the water to be lost, if you ask me.

Alak then thought to send Fawkes across with a rope which he twined around some bushes. I crept across next and secured the rope, and now I'm watching the group slowly bring zombies across. Seriously, we'd have been better off without them and without Rokhar. Well, that's the last of them, time to pack up my journal and start forth again.

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The snow is blowing a lot harder now and falling faster. It's a couple feet deep, and Araval has to go first to push a path through the snow, followed by Thelin. I think we'd been traveling for 15 minutes when we found some fresh tracks crossing the path. So Alak hid in the bushes and urged Rokhar to send one of his zombies ahead... and nearly a half dozen blue-glowing skeletons came out of the trees to attack the zombie. In fact, all they had to do is get close to the zombie and it started to frost over.

Seeing I'm useless in a fight, I started an inspirational song (though it was likely lost on the zombies) while Freya cast some enchantment on Araval's Lucerne hammer to set it ablaze while Thelin moved up next to another of the zombies and prepare to face them. The sacrificial zombie was soon frozen solid and fell to pieces while the remaining skeletons moved forward to attack Thelin and the second zombie. And we proceeded to fight the skeletons.

Well, to be more precise, Araval and Thelin destroyed the skeletons, with poor Thelin getting frosted quite a bit by exploding skeletons. Freya actually threw a vial of Alchemist Fire that she'd apparently acquired without telling the rest of us and succeeded in killing one of the skeletons. And the skeletons allowed three of the former bandits to return to their final rest. May they rest in pieces. Frozen pieces.

Looks like Freya's finished patching up Thelin, so time to pack up the journal.

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We pushed through the snow for another two hours before we came across fresh signs - specifically, blood. We also heard a scream, but Thelin quickly realized it was from a deer that a triad of wolves had just taken down, and he managed to calm the wolves down enough for us to sneak away and investigate the blood trail, which apparently wasn't from the deer. No, it was the corpse of a hunter, Dryden Kepp, and Thelin found his pack. Thelin and Alak are going through his journal now. It seems Kepp had found a strange hut further along the path, with a creepy doll sitting in it.

Yeah. It seems Araval hasn't forgotten or forgiven the doll from Freya's little dream-quest. Hell, none of the others had. I was quite surprised, to be honest. I'd forgotten about the doll in that quest. In fact, I'd not thought of Old Nana and the events that had drawn us into this whole mess at all. As for Kepp, he was going after that giant white weasel... and found it. Unfortunately, his attempt to use bear traps on it didn't work so well. He was going to try and make his way to safety. Obviously, the weasel beat him to it.

Thelin and Araval confirmed that the tracks were of a weasel, though obviously one far larger than normal and even larger than dire weasels. I think Araval was looking forward to tracking down and killing this thing, but as it isn't headed toward the Somir Valley where Teb Knotten is located, we chose to continue down the path instead.

We continued on for maybe half an hour or so (while the sun occasionally can be seen through the clouds above, I'm mostly relying on my own intuition and occasionally checking in with my brother who has an uncanny ability to know what time it is) when we came across an area where the snow had been scraped away from the ground, and the ground itself dug up a bit. We proceeded cautiously but had no way of anticipating angry trees would start attacking us.

I mean, I've heard of treants before. I'm not sure these were treants, or if they were, they were the rebellious angry children of treants who were lashing out at everything because it was far too cold out for the time of year. But until they moved, I had no idea they weren't trees. Thelin had no idea they weren't trees! Okay, sure, he's more at home in the mountains than in wooded areas, but we've been on a ridgeline so he's a bit more at ease right now.

Another of the zombies were returned to the earth. And we managed to destroy all three of these sticky misbegotten children of a drunken treant, though we had a druid with us so we obviously didn't do anything wrong. No, we were just setting nature right once more. And they attacked us. We were just passing through and there were no signs or warnings. I don't know. Maybe they hate the undead? I don't blame them.

We continued on and after only a little bit started descending into a valley. Bloodied pawprints from the weasel warned us of something afoot, and soon Alak had uncovered a bear trap. Thelin recalled Kepp's journal which mentioned setting several bear traps, so I've been writing in the journal as Alak uncovers each beartrap using a stout branch before he disarms them. Looks like Alak's found the last trap, so I'll wrap up for now and be attentive. Hey, I might be useless in a fight, but there's other ways I can pull my own weight.

Sarenith 29, 4713

We had leftover soup for breakfast and then saddled up the remaining horses to head back to Heldren. Lady Argentea, Freya, and myself were put on the horses. We didn't make very good time though. It seems that dead people shambling along don't walk very fast, especially when you have some of them walking ahead and the others behind us. Araval and Alak insisted on this so the zombies could provide a "guard" of sorts but given they can only be given simple commands and Rokhar is the only one who can command them, I wasn't sure of the wisdom of that plan.

Seriously. They are relying on the whims of a necromancer who has us surrounded to not try and slaughter us all. If we didn't just kill him out of hand, and I'm not ruling that out, then we should have wished him well and gone our own separate way. But no one was listening to me, outside of Thelin who understood my concerns but at this point... well, he said sometimes it's wise to keep your enemies close so they can't ambush you when they're out of sight. But I had this feeling that Thelin would have been quite happy crushing Rokhar's head under his maul. I'd be happy with that as well, and I don't know how to feel about that. Am I a horrible person for wishing a necromancer dead?

There was one advantage to our larger group - nothing tried to mess with us. We did stumble across some tracks that Thelin claimed were from a dragon and he was really earnest about that but Alak thought it was a bipedal creature of some sort. I'm inclined to believe my brother. Besides, Thelin has an odd sense of humor. He may have been trying to prank me. I'm not that gullible.

Several hours later we finally reached the trapped chest we came across what seemed like months ago at this point. Rokhar was amused to learn we'd not found the loot which was buried under the chest and then proceeded to screw up on disarming the trap. Sadly, the bandits didn't construct their log trap very well. It hit Rokhar, but he was able to dodge mostly out of the way and unfortunately his brains were not splattered across the path. Alas.

Needless to say, I didn't offer him any of my healing talents, and in fact I stated outright we shouldn't heal him. Freya chose not to as well. Rokhar was dismissive of our talents (probably hoping we'd "show him" by healing him or somesuch) and started having his zombies gather up the armor and weapons until Alak pointed out the chest could carry it all. Seeing this included some of Lady Argentea's dresses, she was less than pleased.

That's when Freya popped up at her side and handed her a case of jewelry she'd found in the carriage back when we'd started on our quest to rescue Lady Argentea. I swear, a tear almost appeared in her eye. I think we were redeemed, just a little, at that moment. A quick word to my brother had him suggest to Rokhar that he keep his zombies out of sight of the village, and we returned to town.

Lady Argentea was touched to learn that one of her guards had survived the ambush and in fact had sent us on the path to find her (well, okay, it was actually the town mayor who'd asked us to but indirectly he was responsible I suppose). She spoke to the mayor and had a letter of credit written up to give us 500 gold to thank us for rescuing her.

So now it's time to go shopping and see what we'll be doing next. I know Araval and Freya were looking at some masterwork backpacks while Thelin was seeking to sell off most of the frozen elk he still had. Araval also picked up some shield that could quickly be slung on his back and let him switch from blade to hammer in a moment's notice.

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I picked up a set of lockpicks. For the longest time I've avoided the family trade - thievery. But we've been coming across more and more traps, and while my brother tries, his greatest asset is his mind, not his fingers. I'm far more nimble than he is and I think I remember enough tricks of the trade that I can start opening locks and disabling traps. Admittedly, I'm not the best at finding traps, but we'll see how things go.

Lady Argentea also asked if we could investigate the source of the winter weather and stop it, if at all possible. She's going to remain in town and the next time a Taldor patrol comes through, alert them to the threat of the winter fae. She seems to think this could be the precursor to an invasion. Personally, I don't think that too likely. No doubt some fae in the First World are behind this. I know that the winter-touched Fae are often found in Irrisen, but it makes no sense for the Witches to strike this far from their home.

Alak asked the others about their backgrounds and what they could do. That's when I learned that Araval is a bit of a skald on the side, though he prefers telling stories to song and dance, as he started down on an epic tale of seeking the man who murdered his Orcish father and being framed for some crime and set to fight off his fines in the gladatorial pits in Tymon. Eventually (after paying off his fines) he grew tired of the endless battles and heard rumor that his father's killer was seen in the south, so he headed out and met Freya and Thelin on the road. I'm giving him short shrift here. He spoke more at length, but I wanted to write down what I could before the dying light of the hearth. In the future I'll have to get more of his tale out of him and give it justice on my pages and in song.

Thelin didn't have much to say, really. He commented on his connection to nature and to the mountains and how few dwarven druids existed. Thelin also seemed to feel out-of-place among his people, even as they continued to accept him. In fact, the maul he wielded, Earthbreaker, was I think a family weapon? He was trained by a mentor or family member, I'm not entirely sure as he used dwarven terms and sadly my grasp of dwarven is... limited to dwarven ales and a few bawdy terms - I'l have to ask Alak what he was saying later on, I know Alak is versed in dwarvish. Eventually he chose to wander the world and contemplate his connection to nature and to mountains. How he ended up in the woodlands of Taldor is a mystery. (Okay, not really, he ended up joining Araval and Freya in their travels. But it sounds more dramatic that way!)

Freya's tale was one of being on the other side of the world, Tian Xia, and snagging onto the wrong thing at the wrong time. It was all shimmery and glowing and she'd snuck past the guards and the like, but the moment she touched it, there was a flash of light and the object had lost its glowiness and she was stuck in a strange land. Fortunately, she knew enough Taldorian to get by as her parents had traveled a lot and had spoken to Taldorian traders in the past who'd made their way over the Crown of the World to trade in Tian Xia. She's an odd one, but I rather like her. She's got odd luck at times though - I've seen her put down objects and they go flying off in another direction. And I've heard an odd giggle just afterward but it didn't seem to come from her. She seems just frustrated by it. Maybe she caught the attention of some fae being? I'm not sure.

Alak then opened up about his own abilities and past, including his oddly-colored eyes, white hair, and his odd abilities. He also commented that our Da and Ma had rescued the two of us and then adopted us. As for myself, I'm self-explanatory! Dancer, drummer, singer, actress, and songsmith. I'm an open book. I doubt they needed to hear about my talents, they're already quite obvious.

We then started to talk about Rokhar (who wasn't present for this little discussion, he was busy ferrying in goods from his chest of ill-gotten wares to sell while ensuring his band of undead bandits didn't scare the populace though to be honest if we just set the whole lot of them on fire then they'd not scare anyone and might help ward off the cold for a bit!). I'd been practicing my arguments and I went on at length about how it harms the soul even beyond death and that the priesthood of Pharasma, Goddess of Death, reviled the undead and sought to end the suffering of all the undead. And then he said something that left me second-guessing my entire argument. I have no idea how he did that but... I didn't do what he wanted with that ice fae. I shouldn't be second-guessing my brother. I shouldn't. I should trust him.

The topic then turned to our captive winter sprite and what questions we should ask her. I'd like to think that this justifies my decision to rebel against my brother but the Gods chose to prove me wrong. When we pulled her out of my pouch, she was dead! She'd bled all over my coins. I must have crushed her by accident. I've failed Alak again.

The others are asleep now. I'm keeping an eye out and will wake Araval in a couple hours. While we might be "safe" in the Silver Stoat tavern... you never know, not in this day and age.

Zvezda? Is that you? How did you get into this asylum all the way from Irrisen? But I thought your companion was named Fritzwick, not Mr. Bear....

(This is entirely too awesome, we have a Black Cat Monk in our Reign of Winter campaign who... well, has a most interesting personality and I swear somehow Mrriaál is her spirit-sister!)