Search Posts
I'm sorry to hear about your loss! You can join in whenever, this is pretty lax so plain and simply it can be as easy as you happen to be walking through town as the group is dropping into a hole. However, don't feel like you need to start in if you aren't feeling up for it!
That's what I was thinking too, or at least Gregor returns, one of the two. I hope everything starts to work out okay in meat space soon, Xavante!
Wil has no problem picking out tracks that match the ones above ground now that the only other ones in the area are some vermin that have made the garbage pile home. The head off in the direction of the bend in the sinkhole.
That's fair, I understand how RL can get in the way, but it still leaves us with only three left. I'll leave it for a couple of days to see the others come back into play.
It seems to me we're down to two with little response from the various feelers I've put out already. I hate to say it, but it looks like this experiment has died. I hope you guys had a good time while it lasted!
With the light source you see that the cavern wall to the south is only about 10 feet away from the garbage pile, but the north side of the cavern heading back towards the town is quite expansive. About 60 feet in front of you the cavern veers off to the left a bit. The biggest thing that strikes you is that this is a very large sinkhole, and it appears to be more or less right under the town.
Fisty begins trying to underclimb the ceiling and makes a few handholds down until his immense weight gets fully added and he looses his footing and hand holds plummeting to the garbage below.
Fisty can see that the hole is about 40 feet deep with his darkvision, there aren't any walls in the immediate vicinity to climb down, unless you want to try to ceiling climb to a wall. From what he can see, the caven is quite expansive, and there is a giant pile of garbage beneath the hole.
"Uh, no? I don't play 'round in garbage, though" he says with a look of confusion. "Why would I be carin' about garbage? And what kinda weird tracks? There's animal all over out here."
Wil leans down to inspect the hole and is hit by the faint smell of something rancid.
He sticks his head in to inspect, and with the dim light coming from the sun overhead he can't see the ground or the sides of the walls. However, the structure of what he can see gives him more than enough information to determine that this is likely a sinkhole, and a big one at that. As he's inspecting the group hears a man call out to them. "Hey neighbors, taking out the garbage?" a man says coming out of the last house of town. He clearly doesn't recognize that you are not his neighbors let alone members of the town, until he sees Xavante. "Oh, yer that group of strangers that's been helpin' us out! Sorry, this whole thing of not knowin' who anybody is is kinda tough to deal with. What are ya doin' at the garbage hole?"
Based on Xavante's earlier description, it wouldn't a be a stretch for Wil to conclude that the tracks might be from the Flue Hag. You have no issue picking out and following the tracks leading to about 50 yards south of town. Here, you find a hole in the ground that is about 4 feet in diameter.
Xavante's words help you think about the issue differently. Instead of looking for more drag marks you realize that the bag was likely hoisted over a shoulder! With that you can pick out tracks that are a little more weighty in the ground. It also really surprises you that you didn't pick up on this before, but these tracks are also claw shaped. You see that the tracks head straight down towards the south side of the town, it won't be hard for you to follow them now that you know what you're looking for.
Fisty pretty easily notices the drag marks at the back of the granary, but also looses it in the mess of footprints where Wil lost the trail.
Unfortunately, you're still having a hard time finding what to follow in the mess of traffic.
It's pretty free form, and at the moment everyone is investigating a new "illness" in a town they are currently in. You can jump in now if you'd like, entering into the town. It's very tiny, so it's pretty easy to notice someone new coming in.
Wil doesn't catch any magical signatures. He does notice what seems like some drag marks heading out the back door toward the right side from the door. It seems to him highly likely that the drag marks could easily be from a bag of wheat. This only stands out because it doesn't appear to be a high traffic door. However, the dragging stops several feet away getting lost in what becomes a higher traffic area that is much harder to pick out a specific trail to follow.
A cursory glance around town would tell you that the greater majority of places here don't have basements. Only larger establishments that would need it for storage will have them. The tavern of course would be one, the town hall, and the granary are likely candidates. You'll have to check with individual homes to know for sure on those, but just a look at foundations tells you that it would be a rare home that has a basement if any of them have one at all. Attics are a little more common, and most homes will have one. The town only has about 20 or so houses, but a rough estimate you would make would say about 75% have some kind of attic. You only see 6 chimneys in the town.
Wil doesn't notice anything magical in his vicinity
A cursory check around the tavern by Gregor would find that the owner of the tavern is just sitting in the kitchen on a stool, dumbfounded at what is going on. She's not necessarily catatonic, but she's close. It definitely explains the lack of breakfast food. It doesn't take much looking around to see that everyone is handling this is vastly different ways. This includes the man you all see through the window running down the middle of the street screaming. He's not screaming anything in particular, just the type you'd hear from someone who has snapped. Or the woman who casually strolls by shortly after him holding a basket of flowers seemingly unaffected entirely.
A man in the corner, sitting alone at a table drinking a beer, "Yeah, I heard about something like this before back in..." The patron who recognized Xavante earlier in the discussion interrupts the new man, "Who are you? I don't recognize your voice!" as he stares vaguely in the direction of the person he is addressing. The man sighs in frustration at being interrupted, "I'm Jonah, I'm from Austerberg, passing through on my way south." Austerberg is large city you all recognize that is roughly a quarter-day ride from the town you're in. "As I was saying, back in Austerberg, there was some folks talking about strokes of bad luck happening in pockets of the city. Stuff like everyone on one block got a nose bleed that didn't stop for 14 days. The south side dock workers all got the Clap in one night. Hmm. Come to think of it, that might not have been related. Anyway, the Michaelses, their whole family lost all of their teeth in one giant sneeze..." he pauses, then says to himself, "Poor Delilah, she was only 11, just got all her grown up teeth in." He then goes back to addressing the room, "Well, see, the authorities started investigating and I heard after a couple weeks they found what was causing the problem. I overheard in a tavern that it was some kind of creature, and they ran it out of town. Sounds kind of like the one you described talking bird," just now registering that he's talking to a bird. He goes silent for a few seconds, then slides his beer away from himself to the other side of the table. He turns to the rest of the room, "The folks there, they said it wasn't a normal creature. Something about it was different, never did hear more about it, though. Now I got this bad luck, not sure what I'm supposed to do. How am I gonna recognize my family down south?!" He absent-mindedly grabs the beer again and continues drinking it.
Wil ponders aloud about the bad luck and the bit about the hag. Xavante, with his tale, shows that he is well versed in Hags. There is a Flue Hag mucking about nearby.
Wil feels like what might do something like this is just on the tip of his tongue, but can't quite place it. Might be a spell that's been cast? Something akin to confusion? The more he thinks about it, the more it just feel like the whole town being struck with this at the same time is some mighty bad luck...that's it! Luck! Wil is fairly certain a hag is doing this, but he can't quite remember what kind messes with luck.
"Yeah, when he yelped and started talking. It was his voice. I suppose someone could have been pretending to be him, faking his voice, but I don't know why anyone would do that."
One of the patrons clearly recognizes a bird that is speaking, "Oh thank the Gods! I can recognize some things. Wait, you said, 'What's wrong?' you recognize people?! You're not affected!! We can't recognize anyone, no one in town can. We know someone is talking to us, and we can recognize their voice, but we can't recognize each others faces. It's awful! Some of us are worse off than others. Old Mel, he came into the tavern this morning, and I was standing next to the door. He thought I was a coat rack and tried to put his hat on my head until I started talking! Gave him quite a start, I did." "I can figure out that I'm lookin' at a face, but I don't know who it is. Like that person over there," he looks over at Dr. McKnuckles, "There's a small nose. Big ears stickin' out. Great big mouth. I can describe it all, but if I stop lookin' at individual parts I don't know who it is! Who are you? Are you my neighbor Anna?"
Not really, I'm more or less letting you guys determine how you want to start this new investigation. Mike can insert himself as he sees fit as well.
Each of you find your place to sleep, paying whatever version of room you took, and you all sleep through the uneventful night. When you wake up you find that the common room is filled with very confused people. No one seems to recognize each other even though the four of you clearly recognize all of these people as the townsfolk you knew when you left to take care of the ratling problem. They are all speaking and behaving normally, albeit in a stressed manner considering that they cannot recognize anyone no matter how hard they try.
I'll kind of second mdt on this one. I totally understand why people put restrictions on non-core races and even 3rd party material stuff, but there's some really cool themes that can be made with some of that stuff. Every time I read a recruitment post I have to immediately throw out 3/4 of all the characters I've made because they were built around a theme that doesn't line up with pure core races or the like. I'll also second the mid-level. I've never found levels 1-3 to be interesting for most classes. Those levels always, to me, felt like the build-up to when characters really start to flesh out into who they are becoming (both mechanics and RP-wise). In terms of suggestions, I'm always partial to creative spins on typical mechanics. I think someone like you, nate lange, who understands the PF rules well enough would be able to modify on the fly if necessary. I hate to use this as an example, because it doesn't exactly translate to high fantasy, but something like the Suicide Squad movie that's coming up soon. A band of narcissistic assassins who, because of circumstances, end up HAVING to save the world. A group of mischievous small races who keep messing up all the pomp and circumstance of a haughty society for the sake of tiny people recognition. I'm totally spitballing, hopefully the intent comes across?
Probably around now or after the group sleeps for the night would actually be an ideal time, actually. First encounter is over, so they're heading back to town to eat and sleep for the night before the next terrible thing happens...
You do indeed make it back to town without issue. There isn't anyone out and about. There's a few candles lit in an occasional home, but everythings pretty shut up for the night.
All of you are quite certain there's nothing of importance in the cavern. You head out and reach the mouth of the cave and find that night has fallen. You're tired and hungry, and it's quite dark, but it's possible you could navigate your way through the woods back towards the town with enough light sources. Alternatively, you can spend the night in the cave.
Hey, the tentacle monster was only for hugging, not plugging! Also, when nearly everyone else was sex obsessed there was little other option...
The baby ratling tries to suckle Wil's finger. Wil, you notice that it has tiny adorable buck teeth, and mid-suckle attempt it bites your finger hard.
I messaged a couple of people, but I'm cautious to re-open the recruitment thread. I appreciated everyone's attempts to make characters they enjoyed, but the last recruitment thread got very close to going from comedy fun to cybersex and I'd prefer to not have to deal with that again. I'm seeing if I can drum up some interest individually with lurkers on the recruitment boards.
It coos and poops on your hand
Daniel heads towards the alcove carefully and finds two creatures with tiny baby human hands and giant baby human heads as adorable as can be...with hideous rat-like bodies.
Wil manages to notice in a tiny alcove on the side of the cavern there is some sticks and brush sticking out. He also notices some soft rustling sounds coming from the alcove, but otherwise the cave is empty short of tracks, refuse, and rat hair.
Yep, I'm making adjustments to style and continuing forward unless someone else decides to drop
Heading into the darkness of the cave you find that it is not very large. Only about 50 feet in do you find a small cavern.
This is, of course, the hard part about dealing with internet. For one, everyone's concept of how a free form game is supposed to play out is likely to be different. Add in the element of preferences for humor and it gets even more challenging. Couple that with how easy it is to lose intent behind typed words when there's no vocal inflection or facial expression to gauge and we end up in situations like this. To a certain degree, I can't "read the room" very well and ultimately was trying to make sure I'm appealing to everyone's idea of how they want to play. I'm happy to modify the game as the group prefers. Removing self-reference is simple enough for me to do. I have certain limitations on how much time I am able to invest in real life calculations and such, so I will stick with things like awarding gold exclusively as opposed to managing tables, looking up things, etc. However, it's just as easy to have the gold come from a reward from, say, the mayor or a horde being defended by what you killed. Things like experience, again, very simple. It's a matter of . Ultimately, this game is an experiment of seeing if different ideas of humor can be combined for everyone's sense of fun. My idea of funny is certainly not tied to self-referential. I'm a big fan of intelligent wit, so that kind of modification is about as easy as it comes for me to pull off. Will that be enough to keep everyone happy? Who knows, but like I said, it's all an experiment with no consequences tied to it. Feel free to post thoughts and ideas for going forward if the group would like to continue.
The vial impacts in the center of the rat ball, acid spraying everywhere dissolving the remaining rats and injuring Daniel, Wil, Fisty, and Gregor slightly. There is a giant mound of slop that once was rats and ratling at Fisty's feet. A man comes out of the cave with a push broom and an Oscar Mayer uniform on. He starts to sweep up the remains, then pauses and looks at Fisty, "I'll be needin' all the parts sir, sorry about this!" and begins sweeping the brain matter off of Fisty's face. After he disappears back into the cave with all the slop you all hear immediately followed by what kind of sounds kind of like a shotgun blast in the sky. A second later you're all pelted with 1200 gold pieces to split up among the five of you while a glowing +240xp floats in front of your face for a second.
The man with the Oscar Mayer uniform on was quite thorough except for a couple of ears oddly enough. The rest of the forest floor is pristine. You notice is it beginning to get a little darker as the sun starts to set.
Wil's swing connects with the ratling's head making a loud popping noise splattering Dr. McKnuckles in the face with brain matter. Daniel leans in to bite the ear, and finds his mouth empty, mostly because the ear is on the ground. Gregor fails to connect with even a single rat in the swarm crawling all over him and Dr. McKnuckles.
Gregor's bomb explodes in the center of the giant rat ball immediately turning half of it to a tumbling ball of giblets...
while taking out a fair emount of the other half of the rat ball with it. The remainder of the ball continues on to furiously nibble on Gregor's toes as well as...
Dr. McKnuckles sausage-fingers. + DC 12 Fort Save against Disease + DC 12 Fort Save against Disease The Ratling then proceeds to charge the most scrumptious target available running near enough to Wil for him to swing but completely avoiding the trip attempt in an acrobatic tumble that ends with the Ratling flipping off Wil with his tiny, eerily human hand...
but proceeding to miss Dr. McKnuckles entirely and biting his tongue before being wrapped up in a giant bear hug by the "primary care physician."
As Aineyr's arrow pierces Ratling 1's testicle you hear his squeak quickly increase several octaves reaching a sound that just happens to be the structural resonance frequency of his skull causing it to explode.
@Aineyr - Gregor did the identify a while ago, but never beat the DC enough to know weaknesses. The roll is Knowledge (Arcana). @Gregor - That's right, I forgot. From a distance stand point, the rat swarm is a bit too far ahead of the ratlings, but you will hit both the ratlings
|
