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I was thinking about getting a commission of all of us around the council table having a relaxing drink. If I get it done I'll post it up for you all.
Would you guys want to see if we can get another gm since we’ve come this far? Or do we want to let sleeping dogs lay?
I'm going to echo Edric here and say thank you so much for your time, OGGM. You've given us all a wild ride of emotions while running this. Good luck with your job!
All is good, Talia! We’ll be here! Good luck and stay safe!
Gavriil nods to the others then silently heads down the hallway to the south, keeping his eyes and ears open for more trolls.
Gavriil pants in place as the adrenaline from fighting the trolls courses through him. He grimaces down at his tattered cloak and looks to the others. "That was a little more than I bargained for there. Is everyone alright?" He moves towards the door to the south and listens for anymore trolls
He looks back to the others and says quietly, "I think I should look ahead again, then bring you in for an attack."
Gavriil swoops in next to Edric, his rapier pointing the way, relying on speed to defend himself from the reach of the troll. As he slides into position, he stabs upward towards the troll’s chest.
Gavriil fumbles with his off hand to pull a potion from his belt. With a shaky, blood-covered hand he tilts the potion back down his throat immediately feeling the effects of the potion before turning to face the western entrance.
Gavriil grits his teeth under the onslaught of the troll’s attacks. He clutches the wounds with his off hand and stabs back at the beast in anger shouting in giant at it, ”Itza Ralph Lauren, Oogha!!!”
Giant: ”This was a Ralph Lauren, you idiot!”
Gavriil waits for Talia's spell to go off before rushing into the room to attack the troll closest to them with a flurry of jabs from his rapier.
Gavriil leads the way back up the winding path towards the fort, trying to remain quiet and vigilant the whole way.
Gavriil relaxes back, getting ready to wait for dusk, and says, ”One last thing I want cleared up, and I hope I’m not coming across as brash by asking, but: What exactly do you bring to the table in this, Sentir? You’ve proven your woodwork by being able to track the trolls, but I’d like a little assurance that you’re not going to be a liability to us up there. If you don’t think you can handle it that’s fine, but I’d rather know now rather than when I have troll breath in my face.”
Gavriil thinks for a minute then continues, ”Actually, now that I think about it, going up just before the sun goes down might be wiser. We’ll have the sun at our back as we make the final approach to the fort and we’ll be able to see without lights. If we just mind our shadows near the murder holes, we may be able to get at least through the door undetected. Though, with Edric clanking around they may hear us coming.”
OGGM:
Gavriil notes the two trolls blocking further advancement. He swears mentally before deciding that it may be better to deal with them with the others. He slowly and cautiously retraces his steps back to the others to let them know.
Once back to the others, Gavriil nods grimly at them. "It's going to be interesting, that's for sure. There's only the one narrow path leading up to their camp and they have murder-holes cut out along the wall to aid in defense. I wasn't able to get inside because they had two trolls guarding the only entrance. So I don't have a clue on their numbers over all or other defenses they might have set up. "If we're going to do this then we may want to wait till night. The dark might help conceal our approach some. If we can get at least through the door without tripping the alarm then we might have a chance. I wouldn't want to go up that path with trolls manning the murder-holes, though."
Gavriil presses himself up against the wall and moves as silently as he can towards the door to peek inside. If the coast is clear he moves inside, trying to learn as much about their enemy and the fort as possible.
Gavriil takes two flasks of alchemist’s fire from Sentir and secures them to his belt, being extra cautious to make sure they won’t fall off as he’s moving. He turns to Edric and pats him on the cheek and says, ”Don’t worry, mom. I’ll be sure to be home before the watch gets set.” He sets off in the direction of the hill, moving as quietly as he can through the tree and snow fall, keeping an eye on his surroundings.
Gavriil nods to Sentir. The man seemed to be a boon to them on their hunt so far. He looks to the others and says, ”Well, we better get moving then. I’m a little better at moving unseen than most of you. I could possibly scout them out to see what we’re walking into. Or we can take our usual approach and head in there without any plan at all. Either way I think this needs dealt with as soon as possible. They’ll likely get more mobile once the snow clears.”
Gavriil, still tired of the cold weather, is completely useless to the others when it comes to tracking the beast.
Gavriil wakes the next day feeling more tired than he ever had before. It was a long night in the shelter, trying to stay warm and shivering himself to sleep. After they get the entrance to their shelter cleared out, Gavriil sighs heavily, "This is ridiculous. We can't do any good out here if we freeze to death. We need to get back to Concord and ride out the storm. I doubt the trolls will be mobilizing too much in this weather."
Gavriil pulls his cloak tighter to try to fight off the wind. He shouts over the howling storm, ”YOU’RE GETTING WISER WITH THE YEARS, TALIA!”
Gavriil nods along with the others, "If nothing else it might be useful to have someone who can make alchemist fire along for the ride with us. I say we go ahead and offer him a spot in our scouting party."
On to the event phase!
Gavriil smirks as the well-dressed man approaches the platform and Edric addresses him. Definitely a noble's son, probably ran away from home for something new. The crazies south of the border must have seemed like a good place to start, he thinks as he sips his brandy. He speaks up to the nervous-looking young man, "Unfortunately you're a few months late. The viscountess has been engaged for some time and has now her illness has developed further into becoming marriage! Though, I'm sure if the brandy wasn't too much for her she will be more than willing to talk to you."
Then let us build bridges, not walls, this turn!
That works for me!
Gavriil stops playing his lute lazily on the edge of the platform the council was given looking out into the town square as Halda brings out the glasses of brandy for each of them. He accepts the two glasses for himself and Lily from the lady-in-waiting with a nod of his head and awaited Talia's toast. A faint smile crosses his lips at the end of the toast and he takes a drink from the glass. He gives a nod to the viscountess and says, "Don't go spreading that around. I have a level of infamy I need to uphold. It's part of the charm. I'll take it as a personal attack on my character if I start hearing 'Dandy of the Greenbelt' whispered in town." He gives a mischevious grin to Lily and continues, "Especially if it's muttered by the women."
21 Kuthona, 4708 Gavriil wakes earlier in the day than usual. Over the past few days the capitol city of Concord had been buzzing with the approaching festival. Though not a religious man, Gavriil understood the significance of the two holidays and how they probably had a little more meaning to him this year. Especially if his recent dreams were divine intervention on Desna's part. Before the sun breaches the horizon, and still under Desna's twinkling blanket called the night sky, Gavriil pulls the shadows around him and sets out to deliver a few things. First, he stops by Talia's chambers. He gives a quick look up and down the hallway to make sure he is alone before pulling a letter out from his coat and sliding it under the door. She'll probably find it when she wakes. It reads: Talia's Letter:
Viscountess Talia Khavortorov, Slayer of Howls-in-Hills, Ruler of Fairhaven,
I've recently learned of the holiday of Crystalhue and all the strange customs that come with it. Though I am not pious, particularly in the case of Shelyn, I thought at least one of the customs should be observed. I never apologized for what I did to you, Naralesh, and Dregan. We all had accepted the charter to forge into the Stolen Lands and map it out. When the job got too tough I ran away like I have my entire life. I left you three to face the bandit camp on your own. For that, I am deeply sorry. I know words, especially written ones, are often not enough so, if you check with the kitchen staff, they will present you with a bottle of aged Issian Ice Brandy. I seem to remember you favoring that over my whiskey when we sat down to have a drink many moons ago. Sincerely,
After that, he slips through the halls of the castle to the magister's office. He places a small, snow-white collar and a new eye-patch on the desk along with another letter. It reads: Naralesh's Letter:
Magister Naralesh,
I'm not sure if it's this business with the trolls or the colorful crystals illuminating the town, but I'm starting to see things in a new light. Because of that, I need to get something off my chest. I need to apologize to you most of all this year. Since we have first traveled into the Greenbelt I have not always been kind to you. I make comments about you being the one-eyed wizard and joke about bad things happening to Nora. I am wrong to do this. This is no way to treat a friend. You may have noticed that I may have been even harsher in the past few months. I think this is in most part jealousy. I refused to believe that you and Talia were happy together and I think I planted the blame squarely on your shoulders. I refused to see with open eyes that it wasn't you stealing her away, but her finding happiness in your arms and you happiness in hers. That you really were the better pick and the better man for her. For all that I am truly sorry. To help show how sorry I am, with this letter you should find a new collar for Nora. I think she'll look nice with it on. Sincerely,
Next, he tip-toes down the halls to the General's office. He pins the letter down to the table using a new starknife for the general. It reads: Edric's Letter:
General Edric,
Don't worry, it's not an assassin sending you a message. This is a gift. I wanted to thank you for putting up with me over the past months I've been brooding. You've been a true friend and a shoulder to lean on in a time when that was very much needed. I do need to talk to you about your goddess soon, though. It seems that she may be meddling in things she shouldn't be. Your friend,
He makes several more stops to places that the other council members will find them. Vosil's letter apologizes for constantly going against what the man suggests and thanks him for looking out for all of them, along with a bottle of Varasian wine. Asha receives a letter apologizing for Gavriil's constant heathen tendencies with a pendant of a bow and arrow. Darrick gets a letter apologizing for putting ink in the man's tea-cup, though it was hilarious it was wrong, along wiht a new tea-cup. Barrod's letter thanks him for his counsel and comes with a new tankard. After all the gifts and letters are delivered, Gavriil goes out in the town with his lute. He spends most of the day playing his lute and looking for wares among the artisans. Eventually he finds himself near Lily's house and asks her if she would like to go to the ceremonies that evening. Not even in a romantic sense, just to have someone to spend the evening and festivities with. That evening he and Lily go to the ceremonies and sing and dance along with the others celebrating the two goddesses. He laughs, drinks, dances, and plays his lute along with just about anyone that wants to join in on the festivities. As Desna's dust fills the air, Gavriil feels something he hasn't in a long time: Peace.
I like the plan. Only question I have is how many terrain improvements can we do before we increase in size? If we can afford it I think it may be wise to finish the road between Concord and Hart’s rest, and then possibly start a road heading south. Roads through river hexes include the coast of bridges so that could help us moving through our own kingdom to react to situations like the trolls faster.
That sounds good to me, OGGM! Mowque- If you’re happy with it then it’s fine with me!
Gavriil laughs when Darrick points out that the swordlords couldn’t take care of the problem. ”Now that sounds like the swordlords I know. A whole lot of bluster and posturing and not a whole lot of action. I swear when two of them fight there’s more feinting than fighting going on. But! I’ll be more than willing to take their gold.” He looks around to the others and says, ”Then it’s agreed. I’ll finish writing this missive tonight and send it along north in the morning. Edric will raise the troops and Dregan can send scouts discreetly to the south to try and root out where they are. We will also send out a call for alchemist fire. Possibly Bokken can help us with that.” He stifles a yawn and says, ”If there’s no other pressing matters tonight then I think I’ll head to my rooms to finish the letter and get some sleep.”
I don’t have a problem with any of those ideas, including the teifling. I just wonder if the trap-breaker is almost too niche. I don’t want you to feel like you need to fill that hole and then end up being a one-trick pony and not liking it. Then again, I’ve never played an alchemist so I might be missing something. Also, OGGM, would you allow use of the downtime system with building specific buildings and organizations? I have this idea of Gavriil wanting to build his own dueling academy based on his style of fighting since he didn’t mesh well with the swordlords in his background. I’ll use my own funds to build and maintain it. It’s just his way of biting his thumb at the aldori braggarts in the north.
Gavriil looks up from the draft that he is writing to look at Edric and says, ”I’m not suggesting we send them after the trolls. I just want to increase the military presence within our borders to protect our people. We pay them good coin from our coffers to perform a dangerous job that I expect to be done when we call on them. I stand by my suggestion that we raise the militia to fortify our borders, especially to the south, and send scouts out to try and ferret the location of these trolls out.” He takes a drink from his tankard without breaking eye-contact with Edric and continues, ”But, I’m no general, so I’ll leave those decisions up to you and the viscountess.” He then turns his attention to Naralesh and says, ”Of course, we wouldn’t want to look weak in the eyes of the fatherland.”
Gavriil looks over the letter from the Swordlords and listens to the other council members before he puts forth a few questions, "Naralesh is right about security. How could the Swordlords in the north have caught wind of this before us? Does this mean that they themselves are probing south? If so that does pose a few more interesting questions about borders and such that may be a problem in the future. Even if the swordlords don't particularly like how things are in Brevory, they are still apart of it. It could cause problems if we both plant our flags in the same place." He sighs and says, "In any case, Asha is right. We don't want these trolls meddling in our affairs and hurting our people. If the swordlords want to pay us to take care of this situation that we would probably have already taken on, then that's great! As for what we should do: I suggest we raise the militia and increase patrols while we try and send scouts to learn where they are. After that we can move in on them and remove the threat." He sits down at the table and says, "I can write up a response thanking them and assuring them that we'll take care of it in the mean-time." *EDIT* Ninja'd by the wizard
Gavriil rides sleepily along with the others through the wind and snow to Concord. His dreams recently had been causing him to get less and less sleep. Sometimes his dreams involve his time out here in the Stolen Lands, others when he was a child. No matter what, though, there were two things that were present in all of them: Long, bending tendrils of shadow that constantly wrap around him and that damnable comet flying through the sky. Apparently, Desna has seen it fit to break the truce that he had with the Pantheon. The sight of Concord with its warm beds and lack of having to really confront the weather almost brings tears to Gavriil's eyes. He is so excited to be back in civilization, he doesn't even realize the smattering of people staring out at them look on them like they're crazy. He smiles and nods to each person he sees, slipping in a wink to the maidens if he thinks no one is paying attention at the time. Just as quick as his mood improves, though, it crashes back down again when he hears from Darrick on the steps of the castle. He gives the nobleman a faint smile and says, "The viscountess is right, Darrick. It seems strange that we always have problems when we leave things in your capable hands. But no matter, with our lady's permission I suggest we discuss this 'matter of utmost import' in the council chambers over some hot cider and next to a warm fire and not out here where we might freeze to death."
Hello, Mowque! I can let the bard cover most of the story in detail if you want (though I'm sure she'll leave out the good stuff like me bravely rushing back with help to save her from the clutches of bandits) But the gist of the story is that we were all hired by the leaders of Restov (whom do not like the current leadership in Brevory) to map out an area of unclaimed land south of Brevory called the Stolen Lands. We spent the entire book mapping out the area and making it safe for people to live here. Once we had the area mapped out we were given a stipend to start building a new settlement down in the Stolen Lands. We built our settlement upon the ruins of a bandit fortress that we cleared and established the Viscounty of Fairhaven, with our capitol being named Concord. For most of this book we have been expanding our fledgling kingdom while also continuing our explorations to the south of the area we had previously explored. The major players so far are: Viscountess Talia: Fiery, red-headed leader of Fairhaven. A former play-write and bastard who has risen to the top of the social ladder in the new kingdom. Magister Naralesh: The great one-eyed wizard is our magister and recent husband to our Viscountess... which I guess makes him the Viscount now? I'm unclear on how that exactly works... General Edric "Godly": The fearsome General and all around good-guy. Has some serious issues from his past that sometimes come back to bite him, but it usually doesn't stop him from hitting anything we're facing like a truck. A breath of fresh air compared to the stick in the muds that are usual paladins. Grand Diplomat Gavriil Niktosky: Me. Scoundrel of the Greenbelt, Bringer of Ale, Lover of women, Demon of the Dancefloor, Virtuoso of the Lute, and all around great guy. I don't like to toot my own horn, but most of these people wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me, and a few that were with us aren't anymore probably because of me... Your new best friend. And Edric is right on the character creation rules. We have pretty much everything covered except range dps if Vosil is no longer with us so you could create pretty much any character you want!
I don’t have anyone that I can throw into the ring. Sorry! As for the kingdom building aspect, I went ahead and colored in our kingdom on the map. I was having a heck of a time going through Vosil’s notes trying to figure out what we have and what we might need next. If it’s ok with everyone I can rewrite the descriptions of each zone to tell what changes we have made to them for future reference. Edric, if you want to try and make sense of the rules you are welcome to it.
Edric makes it up there to possible source of divine revelation? Sweet, he's doing a better job on Gav than I thought! Easy there! He still doesn’t like the gods, even her.
Haste will always be useful. If you have it too it opens Nara up to getting other spells out there. But I may be in the minority in thinking that. As for languages, possibly Issian? It is a language offered in a trait so it might be useful at some point in the campaign, even if it hasn’t been so far. And yes, shadow dancer. I’ve always wanted to play one and I feel swashbuckler gives a great springboard into the PrC. Plus it may help us shore up the lack of a rouge in the party. The only thing it doesn’t give me is trapfinding and disable device, so we’re still a little out of luck in that department.
Alright, folks! I'm back from my trip! Level-up on its way! Gavriil Dreams: Gavriil sits in one of the towers under the watchful gaze of Desna's comet all those many months ago. Looking up at the comet streaking across the sky, Gavriil gently strums his lute and sings a song of respect towards the goddess, even though he doesn't quite agree with their meddling with the mortals. His fingers glide across the strings and he sings to the meteor shower, the flashing lights casting long, hard shadows across his features. Tendrils of shadow spring from his fingers like wisps of smoke as his fingers splay across the strings, shifting and moving across the room behind him. At last his fingers halt with the end of the song, but the music continues. A gentle woman's voice that he had not heard before rises and picks up the tune where he had left off. He looks into the room for the source of the voice and finds a woman made of shadow and stars. Against his own volition, Gavriil moves to the woman and begins dancing with her, his feet knowing every step to the dance already without him knowing it. They move together, light and shadow under the fiery sky and.. Gavriil awakes with a start just as the sky is starting to lighten with dawn, but before the sun actually breaches the horizon. He looks up to the sky at the stars above and wonders if his dream was just the result of too many night-caps the night before and spending too much time with Edric or, possibly, a message sent to him from the Lady of the stars... 1 level of shadowdancer obtained.
Gavriil rides along with the others quietly, it’s too cold for playing the lute on their travels in the winter wilderness. Instead, he keeps and eye out on their surroundings while they travel.
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