Cloud heads off in search of something from his abode…but does not return.
Search Posts
Earlier, outside the tower, with Pagma
At the Eternal Lantern
At Doctor Damihansig’s
Now
Cloud seems reluctant to enter the tower, and stands outside, longspear gripped tightly, scanning the edges of the fog for enemies.
Cloud watches Pagma with professional interest, unsure if he would have approached the trap the same way, yet equally unsure if he might have spotted the decoy element. He too breathes a sigh of relief and gives Pagma the slightest of estimable nods. Cloud nods to Sakura. ”Let us hope the blessings and the relit lantern have an appreciable effect. I do not wish to face the mastermind Granny Hi mentioned without all possible advantages…”
Cloud senses Pagma’s discomfort, perhaps a mirror of his own. He nods to her reassuringly. ”We will be strong together.” he says quietly.
@DM - another clarification please - is the Governor’s House completely disappeared, without a trace, or razed to the ground? Just trying to work out if it has been attack and destroyed, or magically…bamf’ed.
Cloud removes his helm briefly in deference before just as quickly replacing it on his head. He points to Sakura, ”Sakura killed the buso…and it’s jinxkin associates fled into the fog.” he relates simply. Then after a pause, he points to a point on the map. ”Hai-er still mans the tower, here, on the edge of town, and will need to be relieved…or rescued. Have you heard of her family - are they here?
Cloud strut-saunters over to the pile, passing and noting the siblings ministrations. He sees much that is distressing, but feels his group are at least holding together. He stares at the assembled pile, the decapitated head of the buso. ”I wonder if the southsiders and northsiders might smooth over their differences after this shared event. If they manage to survive, that is.” he says, half to himself. Towns are strange creatures… He turns swiftly, as Sakura speaks of plans. ”Pagma, Jing - what say you? I care not which way we go, just that we go together.”
Heh, I’m not really fussed about missing combats. I think it is a matter of different time zones as I am in Oz…
Cloud’s head cocks to one side as he watches the scene. His tone lower to a conspiratorial hush: ”The ocularly challenged larger creature is a…buso, nominally a tree-dwelling denizen, but here, happenstance creates a lair of broken furniture. They eat…other sentient humanoids, if I recall.” The young man smiles crookedly, whether in satisfaction of his recognition of the buso or some other, less savoury internal joke is unclear. He speaks just a little louder, as if to press home the point. ”I hazard that if it notices us, we will be contenders for it’s repast.” Cloud indicates the scene before them, jinxkin and buso alike. ” So. Do not let them catch us…alive.” he finishes, carefully bringing his longspear to bear.
Cloud’s “home” is a collapsable lean-to tucked into the bole of a tree a little to the east of the Great Willow (W29) at the base of the low rise that sits above the letters “ui” as part of the word “guide” in “Players Guide” on the map on page 16. According to the guide, there might be foraged foods and non-metallic raw materials in the vicinity. ;)
Cloud will Investigate, using Society generally in the town, or Thievery if looking at a specific building, structure, object, dead body for traps/snares etc.
Yep, I’ll alert when there is a critical success. RAW, Recall Knowledge rolls are supposed to be secret, but it’s easier on PbP to have the players roll them. Do you mean “secret” as in the DM rolls behind the screen and doesn’t tell anyone what the result was?
Seeming oblivious to the bloated horror of the guards’ demise or the curious bodies of the small interlopers, Cloud muses on how illustrious he might seem to….certain people if he were to tame Ugly Cute and ride the skittering thing into batt…er…”friends and family”?!? Did Hai-er say “friends and family”? Cloud has no…family to speak of. And his “friends”…well, his current companions seem to be the closest thing to achieving those. Which makes him a little nervous - clearly friends are something that are vulnerable, and need to be “checked on”. Cloud revises how he sees his companions slightly - they seem quite capable of looking after themselves. Cloud nods after Jing De. ”Also Kamo. Kamo ended one of the talking centipedes” he assures Hai-er helpfully. He looks at the guard again. ”You have been very brave, and forthright. If you prefer, you could accompany us….to check on your own…friends and family.”
Yep, I figured out I forgot proficiency a little later, but it still didn’t make sense! Ok, thanks for the explanation. Another question: the Recall Knowledge - my understanding was that the DM tells you whether RK is successful (or the level of which). How can you know if you get a critical success? Or will Brainiac determine that and alert you/us?
Cloud watches with interest. He understands the lanterns are important to the local folk, but hasn’t heard what for or why. At any rate, he’s more interested in where a giant stone spider might have rustled off to…
Ok. But how did you arrive at your strike number? You rolled a 19. Added your Int modifier of +4. That gets 23. How did you get 25, and what part does the RK play?
I was thinking of the lump of cold iron…
Feeling less worried by fog than spirit…ed centipedes, Cloud resumes a more strut like saunter. Besides, he finds the fog comforting, preferring the embrace of texture to the stark blankness of a clear bright day. He even smiles a little. The smile fades as the general sense of unease in the group touches him. ”Are there yet more rituals held on this morning after the night of spirits?” he asks the group generally, trying to bring some small sense of normalcy to proceedings.. ”I have…chores to do.” he finishes uncertainly.
Taking a little time to finish blinking, Cloud nods. ”There is danger to come…” he says with his characteristic murmur. He bends down, taking care to look at Sakura, but says nothing, either out of respect, deference or simply not knowing what to say. He examines the remains of the centipedes. [to see if anything is out of the ordinary in a…natural/physiological sense]
@Kamo: can you explain what you did on your turn? It looks like you use Devise Strategem to generate an attack number. Is the Recall Knowledge part of it?
Cloud blinks. Once before the attack. Many times after.
“No food this morning.” Cloud murmurs. ”Something’s up. Look at our ritual wrappings. Different. Like many seasons have passed. In one night.” Cloud is unable to guess at what any of this might mean, and now that he has uttered the words, he wished he hadn’t.
Cloud wakes with a start, possibly engendered by Pagma’s scream. Watching the scene in front of him, Cloud reaches around for his warrior’s helm, before placing it reverently on his head. There. Safe. And sound. Cloud makes a silent prayer to the…spirits…that he prays…to, and then closes his eyes as the other folk continue their conversation. Cloud listens to the soughing of what wind there is, smells the air, feels the heat of the sun on his face. But it tells him little other than that he is still here, near Willowshore. And that something is clearly amiss. Sakura says so, and she seems…smart. Cloud opens his eyes and stands up, adjusting his gear appropriately. He moves over by the others. He idly wonders if he too has straw in his hair and fidgets a little, also wondering if said appearance of straw might make him more presenatable socially. Like Kamo. ”Nice spider…thing.” he says to Pagma. ”Hi Tik!” he says conversationally. To Tik.
I’d say 18-19? It’s Saturday morning here, so doing….family type stuff..will post as I can.
Thanking you DM! Let’s see if Cloud can live long enough to get to level 2!!!
Thanks for the answers and advice folks. I had an inkling it was about mobility, and had realised stances were a cost to enact/switch between but that all makes sense. Should be fun to play around with. Sadly, my Thaumaturge aspirations are likely dust - the Thaumaturge Dedication has a Cha 14 prereq - my Background didn’t offer any boosts to Charisma, and even if I switched my free boost from Wisdom (thus cruelling the already poor Streetwise skill feat) to Charisma, it would still be only 12 and rejigging any other way would make what is already pretty MAD even worse. I guess I just don’t see why a Multiclass Dedication needs a prereq, kinda feels like oldskool Ability requirements. I mean, a Monk/Thaumaturge *is* pretty silly, but it was exciting to me…I’m just not the sort of player who picks ancestries and backgrounds to make the optimised class, and pay the ultimate price…
Ok, Cloud is finished. Cloud has no idea where he came from, no parents and few ties to Willowshore, but given all of that gravitates toward the town out of necessity and a strange compulsion. He has some strange ability to emulate tigers and wolves, and can come across as somewhat odd and feral, but also comical with his mannerisms, fondness for his fine helmet and mysterious background, or general lack thereof. Although he looks like he can take care of himself, Cloud is not exactly a forest savant, more a rugged survivor (Mysterious Foundling background adjustment removes the Terrain Expertise (Forest) and replaces it with Streetwise) plus took rank in Survival to represent…surviving. And the reason he looks like he can take care of himself is because he has Society (from Streetwise) to watch and understand Willowshore folk….and…..helps himself to other people’s belongings (Thievery). He is lonely, and immensely conflicted about both the deception and the petty thefts he engages in to survive. He tells himself that he helps people out, which he does, and is a hard worker, if not as effective as people think he might be (no ranks in Athletics, but still strong). Cloud does have a Healer’s Kit, if not a lot of understanding about the best way to use it. Medicine +2 from Wisdom only. On a rules level, I’m still not exactly understanding how Flurry of Blows works. Do I make both attacks without MAP, and then apply MAP to any subsequent attack with either of my remaining two actions? Or do I apply MAP to the second attack of the Flurry? And if so, what is the point given more attack aren’t exactly going to be very successful. And Flourish means I can only Flurry once in a round, I get that.
This is my monk’s alias, haven’t gotten a start on anything yet. Still checking out the tiefling stuff and figuring out if it fits the coalescing image I have for him. @Sakura (and all): I would imagine we would definitely know each other - clearly Sakura and Kamo are related. Pagma and Cloud and Solicitor’s Sorcerer would likely be aware of each other. Cloud is a slightly odd fellow who, while friendlly enough, wears an outlandish helmet (outlandish given he isn’t per se a soldier) and tends to strut around meaningfully…while shopping for fruit or haggling over root vegetables. I would imagine he shares Kamo’s thoughts on spirit activity in Willowshore so they might have a common interest there. No-one knows exactly where Cloud goes at night, and he doesn’t seem to be related to anyone in the village. He just appeared some years back, seems to be able to take care of himself, and has assisted numerous villagers with odd jobs of a manual labor variety. |