Gilda Grabapple's page

Thumbs up here, at least for now.

And yes, also wishing Dak well.

Gilda, as always, is ready and willing to share her wisdom.

"Ehh, invisibility magic isn't perfect, even in town. This one time at the Temple back, oh twenty years ago or so, we had this peeper who kept sneakin' in. Ya just had to look real close and ya could see the shimmer in the air wherever he was. Underwater should be no different, it'll be about lookin' like we're blue and green and hopin' that whoever we's sneakin' up on is in the middle of some daydreamin'"

Gilda places her palm on her forehead.

"Eh, what am I sayin'? We wanna swim towards whatever tried to make us all swim toward it? Ain't that kinda crazy? Maybe if we give it enough time to think its charms didn't work, it'll swim up to us?"

Gilda presses her palm to her face as all four of her companions leaps into the water, some presumably of their own will, and others not so much.

"Alright, Ven. Keep and eye on the boat alright? Maybe stay hidden a bit."

Gilda takes in a breath and holds it, which is completely superfluous given she's been gifted the ability to breath in water like a fish. She clutches the boat's edge tightly, seeming to not want to let go before finally closing her eyes and leaping over the edge.

At first, the old widow flails about eyes closed before finally peaking out from a single eye and floating.

Earlier, Gilda cast Ride the Waves which lasts hours.

"Hey, what am I freakin' out about? I can swim!"

She begins gliding effortlessly through the water in Celia's direction, winking at Gregor as she passes.

"Celia! Hon!?"

Gilda pauses for a moment, giving the wizard a chance to come to her senses - or be restrained by Gregor's or her own hands - before resorting to magic.

Gilda has a suppress charms, but its duration is just concentration. She's might be more likely to try to grapple Celia, given it's Celia if Gregor can't get to her first (and with her swim speed she should have no issue catching Celia?).

CMB (grapple Celia): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17

I suppose one question is, how/if we can tell what happened given we had similar urges. Sense Motive? Just roleplay success?

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (3) + 17 = 20

Gilda reaches out as she watches Evander silently leap into the murky depths.

"What are you---?"

Her eyes bulge as she glances towards Matiscio and Gregor, uncertain how at least she would deal with the tiefling's sudden action.

Will DC15: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 10 + 1 = 30

Gilda peeks over the edge of the boat into the murky depths.

"No.. nuh uh. Not jumping into you."

Sighing, she tears her gaze away from the empty darkness and looks towards the others.

Gilda smacks herself on the forehead in an exaggerated manner as the group unfolds their own boat and begins the journey to the "Eye".

"Eye, eh? Anyone else think eyes are kinda creepy? So I imagine a place called th' Eye ain't gonna be so nice either. Might've called it Eyes and Tentacles just ta, ya know, really keep them tourists away."

As she peers into the water, Gilda winks at their groups all-too-quiet faerie dragon companion before she gives herself a little extra boost at their impending explorations, courtesy of the Old City.

Ride the Waves on Gilda. Heightened Awareness + False Life too.

False Life: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

I just realized I don't have Vend's stats for use as a familiar.

Presumably he's coming along with us. I'll admit though I am somewhat having second thoughts about an improved familiar in PbP - it's probably not as fluid to roleplay with compared to a tabletop setting whereas a non-speaking familiar/companion is easier to emote (or one where the player has full autonomy over the roleplay of?).

Gilda just has the one for this detour, plus a Ride the Waves for herself. I didn't expect the Speaker to apply it, so we can have ours in case it's dispelled.

Gilda shrugs.

"Fly. Swim. Either way I'm using magic. You guys got a boat we can borrow? Could save the magic for when we get there. Four miles of swimming sounds pretty tirin'."

Gilda gestures towards Celia, wondering if she's thinking the same things as her.

"So, if whatever's out there can warp Ol' Ner's brains, it might be able ta' do the same ta' us if we're forced to face it."

Gilda scrunches up her nose, considering what favors she could ask Old Kintargo for this far away from her home town that might ward their group, or bring one of them back should they be so... dominated.

"And our magic didn't work ta' break that."

Gilda crosses her arms, waiting then hoping for someone else to voice the concerns reaching into the back of her mind.

"So, uh, Nerrenn. From what I could tell, somethin' else had their paws on his mind, and those things don't just happen accidentally due to some sorta cursed land."

Swallowing, she adds "which means somethin' intentionally is targeting him or the village... is there anything yer forgettin' to mention about this Drowned Eye? You know, when ever I think about creepy things in the water, I think about dark evil tentacled brains..."

Gilda allows her eyes to rest on the Speaker.

"So, any chance your forgettin' about some sorta Unspeakable Evil that might be hangin' out there?"

Assuming she replies enough to read her...

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (17) + 17 = 34

Gilda waits longer than usual to respond, given she's recently found herself in the position to be the first to jump in whenever they meet someone new.

Clearly, Celia is planning some sort of dissertation, perhaps on the origin of planes relevant to this Drowned Eye. Evander likely feels the pressure to impress the Speaker with an elaborate pun.

"The Drowned Eye, eh? Well, see we're tryin' to fix up ol' Kintargo best we can and we're needin' friends in all sortsa places - both high and low."

Gilda glances towards Matiscio and Gregor.

"So, fixin' these problems. That's somethin' we's real good at, so I imagine this Eye ain't no big deal for us. Probably some sorta spirit or somethin' that needs us to beat it up real good or maybe do it some sorta favor."

As the others seem to generally be nodding agreement that they didn't travel all this distance to just turn down the elven leader's request, she goes right into asking more questions.

"So whatdya know about this place? Buncha somethin' must be livin' there?"

Gilda lets out a sigh of relief once Aava interjects and begins to lead them towards their "Speaker".

As they trudge forward, Gilda speaks her mind, "so, what's the deal with this Speaker?"

"Is that like the mayor here or is it some sorta priest?"

Ah Gilda has that prepped as well!

Sensing that she's communicated her message well, Gilda also seizes the opportunity of the distraction Evander is causing to see if she can undo whatever binds the man's mind.

Dispel: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

Gilda leans over, putting her hands on her knees while she takes a deep breath.

"How many miles did we just walk? A hundred? Next time, we bring a carriage or somethin'!"

Sniffin' the air as she resumes standing, Gilda smiles as the sodden remnants of the village don't look that dissimilar to her creature comforts in Kintargo.

"Ah, rotten' fish.. smells like home."

**

As the group is greeted by the foremost aquatic elf, Gilda takes a step back behind Matiscio.

Bluff (pass this on to the party): 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (13) + 16 = 29

"Oh HEY, Nerrenn. You're uh, real charming for an elf! This is quite a dominating group that's come out ta' greet us!"

Gilda nods towards Celia and then towards Nerrenn just in case the wizard was busy preparing a monologue instead of catching onto her cues.

Expecting little by way of pirates boarding their vessel, Gilda opts to employ one of her most powerful magicks to check up on Tayacet.

The first day we'll do a little scrying. I suppose we should've collected bits of some of our fellow resistance members as well just to ensure their goodwill.

Gilda can also employ her Divination with a 77% chance of success if we have something we want to gain insight to for this trip?

For the day of arrival, Gilda will use all her 4th level spell slots for Ride the Waves expecting that at some point they'll be going underwater again.

Engage.

Gilda overtly rolls her eyes while grinning.

"Only half the village is underwater? Good thing we got some experience there!"

How long's the journey? I suppose if we make it within a day we can prepare some underwater spells before disembarking.

Gilda nods agreement as a thought races through her head.

"Hey, these aquatic elves. Any chance this village is underwater instead'a next to it?"

Sounds like we all regroup at the Lucky Bones and are present for the talk with Rexus. Not sure how public Gregor's letter tearing is, but Gilda's paranoid ears would perk at "trap" if it was overt.

Gilda leans back, somehow finding a stale bagel to nibble away at while feeding the hardest pieces to Sprinkles Too. The cityshaman lets Rexus and Celia discuss the finer details of the two noble families with one ear trained torwards bits that would be relevant to her own interests while she begins to discern Venny's tastes in snacks while she offers the lower half of the bagel.

"So, Ven. Whatcha like snackin' on?"

**

As the conversation wraps, Gilda restates the tidbits she gleamed as most interesting to herself.

"So we got some friendly boozies in Belcara? I like the sound of this family. And Sendi's just interested in money eh? I dunno much about Arcadian trade - what's that mean??"

Gilda nods at Evander's suggestion.

"Yeah, whichever houses you think we'd need them intro's for. Preferably we can meet with the ones that are as, uh, good humored as you all are."

Gilda smirks a bit as Gregor delivers an oration rivaling some of Celia's monologue on magic, religion, other worlds and... nobles?

She juts a thumb at Gregor and Matiscio.

"He's uh, pretty good with a bow, too. And Muscles here's good wit his fists!"

Gilda smirks as the Archbaroness proposes demonstration of an artistic ability to curry her favor, choosing to arch an eyebrow in Gregor's general direction.

Gilda shrugs and looks towards Evander.

"If you got some supplies, we can probably draw or write something fancy, right?"

Gilda stands.

"But, I mean we got a lotta talents with the City choosing us and stuff to make these changes."

Snapping her fingers, she heads towards one of the exits from the living room.

"Here's a trick, ya see how I'm about to head outta yer house back outside?"

Gilda steps through the doorway (invoking her Doors to Everywhere extraordinary ability) before reappearing in the kitchen doorway.

Waving her hands, she adds, "and now I'm in your kitchen!"

Gilda nervously glances about at the corners of the room as if otherworldly monitors has perched themselves in the very shadows to observe their conversation.

She looks to their recent field-dragon addition.

"Venny? Do another pass around outside and see if we got followed, eh?"

She then smooths her smock, patting the sleeping Sprinkles Too as she does and grins at the others as she once again seems to be given the first opportunity to speak to a noble.

"Yeah, we got Kintargo's best interests in mind. It don't take no genius to see that the City ain't doin' so well with that thug in charge, right?"

Gilda from her years of living with dozens of elderly women knows that it's always best to let others do the talkin' and pick up on the things particular to their interests.

"So, whaddya think's wrong with the City? Might be we, or someone we knows can make some improvements?"

Gilda bats hey eyes, attempting to evoke a much younger version of herself .

"Honey, everything in life is an exchange of favors, just some are more of a pain in the rear than others..."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (4) + 17 = 21

Gilda pays a little attention to Evander as she tries to suss out if he's as annoyed at having to help the "richies" as much as she is, and seems to ascertain that he too knows that whatever favor they curry will be temporary as they'll clearly be returning the city to the poor and destitute trodden-upon people before this is all over.

Sure, we can have Lia make a formal intro. Maybe we can use this time after leaving Lady D to go check on Marquel and see what his thoughts are on getting his house on our side.

Gilda shrugs.

"Ehh, all them nobles are mostly the same. Just tell 'em how greats they is and stroke their egos and make 'em a buncha promises and I'm sure we'll do just fine."

The shaman leans forward and rubs the sides of her nose with both hands, contemplating a city where there might be a little less nobility and a little more commoner. Evander would know what to do here with his fancy words.

She waves Celia ahead.

"Sure, them Aulamalas sound like they got somethin' they need given how helpful they's been painted to be."

Gilda eyes Lady Docur with some suspicion as the conversation unfolds. This elf was certainly being helpful and forthright with little reservation. Nonetheless, the information she was providing was valuable to their cause.

"So, uh, Canton Jhaltero... does he have anything he needs done like Auxis and his missing kid, or anything particular he's fond'a that'd make sense'a us knowin' about to break the ice, so to speak?"

Gilda smooths her dirty smock, feeling a bit out of place among the weller dressed half-elves. Despite becoming some sort of fairly wealthy vigilante, she still hadn't made time to actually upgrade her dayclothes.

The streetshaman looks toward her allies, fairly confident they're already in a good place given several armed vigilantes have been allowed into Lady Docur's room without much by way of question or guarded presence.

"So, I take it ya got the message we sent? Might be another one told us ya weren't so happy with how things've been these days and might be we could work together to do somethin' about it?"

Sure, that works Zek. And precautions? Pah!

Gilda smirks as Gregor shares his thoughts on elves, taking the opportunity to locate and encourage Venny to tag along. Always enjoying a ragtag group of personalities, she feeds the flames some.

"Ya know, I never understood it. We used ta' have these fortune tellers, right? But somehow the elf 'teller got 'ta charge extra, like there was somethin' special about her tellin' just cause she was elf-like?"

Gilda rubs her stubble as the group departs for the streets.

"And that reminds me, I never understood why the rates for a Calistrian elf were double that'a non-elf and the dwarf girl in our place went fer half unless there was some sorta Miner's Guild meetin' in the city.."

Gilda blinks a few times as the brawler delivers his speech on the domino effect of their efforts.

"Yeah, Muscles. Good thinkin' - I mean I dunno why the City wants me to think this Lady D is so important but maybe gettin' her onboard first might give us some sorta angle for the resta' them richfolk?"

Why don't we send a raven to Lady D first and give her a couple hours or a full day to respond and see what that yields? I'm not sure we're pressed for time in our "week of downtime" so a day to see what fruit that bears is probably good in tandem with all our hideout logistics?

"Yeah," Gilda nods at Gregor's words as she tries to sort through her own thoughts how some hoity-toity elfschool is exactly going to help them.

She shrugs.

"I ain't got no clue how this girl's gonna help us, but it seems she's got a lotta money and that always seems to help a cause."

Gilda shrugs at some of her insights.

"Eh, not sure why this Lady Mialari Docur is such a big deal, but the City wants me ta' know it's pressin' to go make good with her. Maybe we see what she's up to while we make good with Lia's folks?"

Gilda will use her pearl to gather info again, this time focusing on Lady Docur.

Juat before she embarks on her first effort to scry on Tayacet's activities, Gilda beckons Venny over as she sits cross-legged and assumes her "commune with the City" pose.

"Alright, let's see if I can dig up any dirt on more folks ta help us overthrow this Barge'o'Flies..."

Gilda will Gather Info seeking out others who may be impacted by Barzillai's rule that the Ravens could recruit to their side.

And GM Zek, I'm fine with a GM nudge here - you can assume we're considering forming some sort of leadership/council/advisory group or at least contemplating recruiting friends in higher up places so we can oust Barz... so if there's a nice convenience time for Rexus or Laria or someone to propose a Raven outreach initiative, I think we could use the breadcrumb.

As a player, I'm good with what Matiscio proposes.

Gilda's CN (although wise - streetwise) so she'd likely go for whatever kind of system gangs/organized crime have in place, which is really dictators with lieutenants, but ones who came from impoverished roots who continue to look out for the poorfolk.

Not sure what day this is, but Gilda would certainly be scrying on Tayacet during her down time, so I'll let GM Zek decide the optimal time/method of delivering that intel.

Gilda bobs her head.

"Oh, I'll check on Tayacet, alright..."

She pats the pocket containing the Tien woman's hair as she grins.

Yeah, perhaps that's easier for us at this point - if the Lictor or Laria or someone presses us to meet with other major players at regular intervals... an unofficial council just not Council with a capital C?

Unless someone here in character really feels the urge to push for a formal Council?

Maybe we eventually are like "hey, let's make this official?" but at the moment it could be some of our stagnation is partly none of the PCs has this kind of agenda at the moment (in addition to world events).

I'm not sure how imminent forming a council is for moving the plot forward, or if we have other alternatives the way the adventure is written?

Given the idea was just given to the group and we weren't coming up with it on our own as characters, it might be a bit rough for us to suddenly develop the idea in-character at this time?

I imagine our self-directed goals would be to establish as many different/separate bases as we could right now to diffuse risk and setup communications between them and then see if we can get any intelligence from Tayacet and perhaps independently see if we can start to do recon on Thrune himself using our invisibility/fly/scrying/etc magic?

Gilda considers the idea of a council, he usual paranoia at things unraveling at any change to the status quo (or in maintain it if that was the proposal on the table).

"Eh, the one danger of a council is if we decide ta have meetings we'd have all these folks'n the same place at the same! Gotta be extra careful."

Rubbing her hands together, she leaned in.

"So whatcha all think we should do next? Seems like we should be makin' friends with them Thrunes, so once ol' Barge'o'Lies is outta the picture we ain't dealin' with them comin' at us, but rather bein' pleased at our work."

Ah, yes, I believe Gilda will use Scrying on Tayacet to see what we can discover.

Does the party object to allocating 1000gp from the party fund for a silver mirror?

(we should've had someone clip something from Barzillai - maybe we can befriend his barber?)

Gilda stares into the dragon's eyes for a long moment.

"Yeah, sure... share in the spoils. Trust me, I got an eye for the best treasures, been diggin' 'em up for ages."

Gilda shuffles back towards the main area the the others, beckoning the diminutive dragon over as she does.

Rubbing her hands together, she glances at the others.

"So, what's next?"

Gilda chuckles at the tiny dragon's demeanor, seeing it as little more than a ruffle-haired child awake and cranky in the morning before breakfast.

"So, we's been thinkin' it's time fer a promotion fer ya! Getcha out inta' the field wit' us fer a little excitement -- and who knows? maybe a little treasure, too."

As the dragon seems a little interested, she continues.

"We keep dealin' wit spies and stuff sneakin' around n' tryin' to watch us... in fact we just caught one today."

Gilda leans in real close, looking the dragon in the eyes.

Plus, yer whole ability to talk in our minds would come in real handy when we gotta tell each other stuff and there's some sorta reason we can't do it aloud!

Gilda stormed the narrow hall, eyes narrowed and searching the rafters for signs or shimmers or whatever it was that could tip off the whereabouts of something invisible. Gods be damned, she needed a way to spot things hidden from the eye after the whole situation with Tayacet.

Whistling, she shouted, "Venny?! Where you at, dragon? This ain't no time for nappin' or snackin'!"

Traveled, thought I could catch up while doing so, but seems otherwise. Posting now!

For all we know, all the troublesome elements we're likely to run across has some sort of sponsorship with/support from Barzillai. But Tayacet wouldn't know that and could certainly keep uncovering his pawns and assuming they were the Ravens.

I say good enough at this point - we should just have some regular system where she can check in or deliver messages to us. I suppose during our weekly downtime, Gilda can prepare and use Sending to get her report or setup a meeting.

Gilda leans against a wall enjoying the fresh air with Gregor as she contemplates just how much pull she'll have in getting Venny to listen to her.

I'm having a hard time picking another feat besides the more mundane Spell Focus or Extra Hex options so this feels a little more interesting.

Gilda will go for it assuming she can still keep Sprinkles Too as a mundane rodent on her person?

Gilda and Gregor should be far enough away there's no change of Tayacet hearing them.

Gilda shrugs.

"Little Miss One Percent certainly thinks highly of herself. I certainly don't trust her, but I'm not sure I trust us in catching whomever Barzlebum would send next. Might be if One Percent goes missing, he might upgrade to someone at a higher pay grade who'd be harder for us to catch."

Gilda considers the dragon for a moment.

"Yeah, for all we know he's followin' us right now, eh? When I've been sleepin', the City's been telling me some stuff so I think I might have a better shot at sensin' if we're bein' watched."

She holds up the clump of Tayacet's hair and shares a crazy grin.

"Worst case, witta' mirror we cans see whatever Miss One Percent's upta whenever we want."

Gilda didn't butcher the poor girl, just a small chunk from the long section!

Gilda waves her hand and smiles half apologetically.

"Eh, give her an extra ten gold bonus this week for this!"

Gilda shakes her fist with the dark hairs swaying from it as she finally departs.

Gilda leans forward, staring into Tayacet's eyes but sensing they may just have gotten themselves an insider to do some reverse intelligence gathering. The whole thing would probably fail spectacularly.

She glances towards Evander.

"Five gold?! Are you crazy?! Why that's a fortune! You could eat real good fer weeks on that!"

Standing up, she brushes off her smock and moves closer to Tayacet, drawing her dagger as she does so.

"We ain't gonna give ya a choice in this, miss. Just hold real still, right there..."

With a slash Gilda grabs a handful of hair from the Tien woman's head and quickly stuffs it into a pocket.

"Just so we uh, can see if ya get inta' any trouble and need our help, ya know?"

Smirking Gilda heads outside to give Gregor the "good news", knowing at the very least the two of them could probably come up with an angle for their new "agent's" assignment to minimize their risk.

Sense Motive (not told Barz much?): 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (20) + 17 = 37

Gilda holds her breath, her eyes searching the woman's face for any signs of falsehood as she suggests she hasn't told Barzillai much of anything yet. Maybe things could be salvaged without resorting to magic, or worse...

Gilda reddens once Tayacet makes the Lucky Bones but bursts when the woman confirms what they all already suspects.

"Of course it's Barzillai! Ugh, how could you even consider takin' a job from someone so wretched?! For gold?! Some things are more valuable than a few hundred coins!"