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Harry grunts agreement at Sable, whilst waving his mug towards Bree to take her up on the offer. [b]"I suppose the next bit is tracking down the Lamia, and seeing what else is around here. The Ogres wont have been alone"{/b]
"Normally it's a banshee wail of hate and destruction. Song isn't bad, at least she didn't finger me out for my myriad of trespasses against decency"
Yep :)
"Sir Karlan, this is Bree of Riddleport. Bree, Sir Karlan. I trust you both, and I know you can work together, and it will be more of a truce - Bree does things like I do things and it isn't always pretty, but at least the heart is generally in the right place. And when it comes to ferreting out the evil bastards trying to do us all in, I know I can rely on Bree to be in it through thick and thin and to the bitter end" "This Sable fellow cant be all bad if he's been with Bree a while and is still walking and talking, in my estimation... and who doesn't trust a Dwarf eh?"
"Bree hasn't changed I see. If she hasn't wanted to stab something in a while I'd almost consider it a case of affection"
"A Cleric friend? There's a first. Good news on Brandon though, a small miracle, and so I'll happily take on board you and your crew as you are obviously blessed. If only you brought a half a dozen of Riddleports best quickwives with you too then we'd all be blessed"
Harry makes his toast "To pending plunder" he smiles. "I see the message got out about whats been going on, well let me start filling in the rest of it. Some filthy lot have decided they like some Rune loving overlords that once kicked about these parts and have been into all sorts of dark, sick and twisted magic whilst reviving their old ways. And we are going to stop 'em, thats a fact" "It's been a while since I left Riddleport, hired out as a tough on the Slippery Eel as it carried merchant goods along the coast. One night she went beneath the waves as she was a tied old bird and decided to take a nap. Thumper got me out..." he points to the enormously overgrown Rottweiler "and we made it ashore. I made it to Sandpoint with my trousers, a tree branch, and that dog. The locals took me in and gave me a fresh go earning an honest copper and I thought I had found a slice of paradise away from the edge of Riddpleport, until the filthy bastards we're after sent a wave of Goblins in to raid a festival." Harry looks at the rum and then intently at the fire. "It's to be a bit of Riddleport justice, some good old bloody minded revenge" "The little rats ran everywhere and were stabbing everyone, it was a bloodbath, worse than the sort of turf wars Clegg and Zincher would ever be involved in... the screams... the children... the things went after the children. I still remember her face, the blood, her hair, the look of panic in her eyes as the numbness overtook her and I couldn't stop the blood, I couldn't stop it and it was everywhere and on me and on her! She dies in my arms and big tough Harry couldn't do nothing, he failed. So I took my stick and Thumper and with a bunch of other likely lads we smashed every Goblin skull we could find and then went looking for some more. That girl was buried on a hill, a really pretty little graveyard, and this..." he puts a small earthenware jug on the table "is soil from her grave, and you know what I tell you this - we've lost some damn good men fighting our way through this wave of evil, and when I get to the root of it and find the pr1ck responsible her death, I'm going to ram that jug of dirt right up his arse. Any questions?"
"I look forward to resting my axe in them" Harry offers, rather dourly.
"Yeah I know it's a concerted plan, but you know what, I am going to find the dirty bastards behind it and I am going to make them pay - and when I rip their hearts from their chests I will rip the gold from their coffers and build a monument to their passing... I will get revenge."
With that Karlan heads back to the inn. Harry grins and beckons over to Thumper to follow - "Reckon Sir Karlan has it right again!"
Harry smiles at the assertions.
"Miss Zomesco, this is Mr Ironfingers, as legitimate a trader as I reckon I know, which isn't much of a comfort I am sure, but the weapons he deals in have edges as straight as the deals they come with" "We can get the rest of the payment by the next moon sure enough, I just reckon there's a few items I might be wanting - aside from booze and good looking women - as you need to import one to find one around here." "Present company excepted of course"
Harry looks at the horrid weather and only manages half a smile when the talk turns to that of spoils of war. "Suppose we need to let the officials know we gutted the Ranger Fort, and then for accommodation there's that Inn we stayed at when we got here. Shalelu and her pops should be long gone out of there by now, they better be..."
"Flighty wench has evaded our blades"
Harry and Thumper begin leading the way back to Turtleback ferry...
"I'm not keen on vengeful ghosts either." Harry finished packing, satisfied that him and Karlan have sorted out their difference.
"Was he working with them, sure. Was he working for them? I think he was doing so without realising the full extent of things, he grassed on Kaven pretty quickly; when Kaven failed the Test of Erastil it was Jakardros that vouchsafed for him, the same Jakardros that sprang forth Shalelu, they're rotten the lot of them. Was Vale a liability? I'm certain he was, and now he's not. In the end it was a hard choice, but Vale had to go - it was inevitable - he knew about us, he knew about them, he was in tight with Shalelu - even right up to the end he was worried about her more than himself."
"When we got back to town, Shalelu had already been tracking us down. She seemed very keen on joining up with Vale and I and going for a wander, it became immediately clear to me that it was probably the same innocent sounding request to go off into the woods with her and one of her Ranger friends that Kanyk and probably Gerlick heard before they went missing. Vale and Shalelu seemed thick as thieves and anything he knew she'd know in about five minutes - one way or another. Anyhow, I managed to put her off on a wild goose chase, and that's when I knew it was time to act - Vale talked, oh he talked plenty... a lot of what he had to say seemed fairly straight forward, and although he seemed more genuine than his friends, he had a head full of information and kept the wrong company. He had to vanish, and so he has, and our enemies are deprived of a lead" "Lets stop telling Manticores, Giants, Rangers, and strangers our planned actions, and we wont go on the missing list as well. You want people alive and well, then let's stop putting them in danger"
"Did you want the long version of why Vale had to go, or the short one?" Harry just keeps at cleaning odd bits of loot. ”Too many questions” Harry assures ”He asked too many questions and he knew far too much because people kept answering those questions. I brought it up before over and over, I asked real nice if we could stop spilling our guts and giving ourselves away to every passing stranger we met, yet still we persisted. I tried to mislead the fellow, I tried to give him a false story so that whether he was a rat or not he wouldn’t know our intentions, but you lot just couldn’t button it down. He was supposed to believe we were going to simply wait around for reinforcements and waiting on news of rewards, but thanks to the big mouths here with their hot air blowing and pontification about not resting a moment until the Ogres are done for, Mister Ironblood, and that we need to go in and get the job done regardless of reward, Miss Zomesco, no he knew our assault on the fort was going to be sooner rather than later. He could have walked away believing a lie and he’d have been fine, but when you loot kept correcting the lie so that he knew the full truth then he became a walking liability. Lets assume he was the one ranger who was on the straight and narrow, well he’d still squeal when the people following us got a hold of him and then they’d be right on us. If he was a rat we had the same problem” Harry similarly begins to sound tired and as weary as Karlan. ”If he was a rat then he had to be disappeared, if he wasn’t a rat then he still knew too many truths for the enemy not to want to peel his skin and make him sing our song, so he had to get disappeared. He was dead the minute the wagging tongues here kept loading him up with enough information to get him killed, enough information to get us killed, Vale had to go. It is a dirty job, and I don’t relish it, but we need to protect ourselves and that can’t happen if we blab our guts out over and over. Hopefully Shalelu and her dear old dad Jakardros enjoy their ‘reunion’ in Turtleback...pack of racist Orc hating rat bastard double crossers. oh yes, she was there too, asking questions questions questions, couldn't wait to get out here with us again, for no particular reason. Even when Jakardros was told she was in mortal danger and I gave him a password for her freedom, notice he was more interested in what we were doing than her welfare?” "They did in two of my cousins, I'm sure of it, well they wont be doing me in as well, they've been selling us out all along"
Right. Isn't that her version of unwinding?
In some ways even easier with Karlan than with Winter...
You do realise that this IS Harry, and thus thats not actually implausible.
"Write a letter? No old mate, you seem to confuse 'sending a message' with 'sending a message', you aren't a Riddleport native eh? When I send a message I don't send the Pony Express, I just send part of the pony. Letters aren't much good when the heavy thinkers you are fighting can't even frigging read. Just don't let Sir Karlan 'proof read' your work, he gets a bit upset. He didn't like my 'open correspondence' to the Rangers much at all... reckon we're on for a bit of an argument about that too."
Harry practically beams with delight "Its been months, but finally we get paid!" he admires the haul.
I'll probably kick off another couple of PFS games soon, just of late I have been a touch time starved :) DMZZ do you want to hit Inactive on the other campaigns then please? Harry DID INDEED send a message from Turtleback Ferry. He sent a few messages really...
Harry looks at Sir Karlan thoughtfully, and gets back to work.
"The one in Turtleback wont be much good" a dark look momentarily crosses Harrys face, but then he smiles and warms up again, "Let's not go back to that same tavern eh?"
Harry pats Thumper heartily, "Survived again eh?" and they get to work pillaging the Fort. They also look for Rangers, just in case. "Shall we return to Turtleback Ferry?"
"In fairness, we've been pretty thorough since. Although we need to remember to stop telling wandering strangers who we are and what we are doing every five minutes. It's becoming a full time job making them forget again afterwards. Half the world seems to want us dead, no point telling the other half where we are and where we are going"
"Poor old Aldern, sad how that went really."
"Awww Ailetha, you're just in need of your timbers being shivered"
"Reminds me of the woman I met in Magnimar, she warmed up a bit when she got to handle a shiv"
"Talk myself into trouble, talk myself out. Dont reckon all the hot air I blow would ever thaw out your frostiness though eh?"
"Well we need to keep it to metaphors because when we speak plainly we seem to keep losing people, look at poor old Cousin Kanyk - we spoke plainly and he went on the missing list, Gerlick the half orc shaman - he went too, in fact theres a long bloody list and I reckon those uppity Rangers and their ily, cant trust em, they're behind it. What does a ranger know of the Sea eh? So oceans are a safe metaphor. Then again my Great Axe seems to get the point across too"
"The seas we rode in Riddleport are familiar and safe and we know their wily ways and they way those oceans swell. The ones in Sanpoint are a whole new creature, and best avoided. Whats bad is that the only decent talent was back in Magnimar, and come to mention it that particular little venture worked out JUST FINE thanks for asking Karlan, its just when we got to Turtleback and I was lookingfor cold ales and loose women and all I got was loose beer and cold women... and bloody Rangers"
"Nothing. Nothing happened, and anyone who says different will probably go looking for Rangers"
"The point is, my old mate, is to keep the bastards talking as long as you can so that your crew can clean out the full range valuables in an orderly and leisurely manner eh? Besides, we only talk to people we didn't come to kill, the rest of em we're best cutting down mid monologue, as frankly they are using up valuable time we could be using spending their to be looted gold on wenches and beer"
We can do it in gameI suppose... Harry will be happy to post the 'official' story... Would probably be a long post!
I dunno, I suppose Harry would be filling them all in on everything once he met up with them...
...in the night.
True.
Harry's:
'Heavy Harry', a Half Orc Rogue (Thug). A cigar chomping crossbow slinging debt collecting scallywag with a 'sort of rustic charm' that sees him do well with the fairer sex. He isn't a bad fellow really, in fact most people find him “very reasonable”, with a clear cut sense of fair play and with very good manners (until business has to get untidy, then he’s a monster). If it is in the contract, it is in the contract, he isn’t one to judge the right or wrong of it, just to carry out his work without fuss and with minimal bother. Harry is a Half Orc and his sheer brutish mass gives away the heritage, however his features also belie the Elven side of his ancestry leaving him handsome and chisel jawed. A complete hit with tavern wenches everywhere. Harry was conceived (and quickly ‘orphaned’) in Riddleport, running as an urchin until he was taken in by one of the ‘rental wife houses’ out of pity as an odd job boy, and later acting as minder for the ladies – ensuring they had no trouble collecting their due at the end of an evening. What he lacked in formal schooling he quickly made up for in street smarts given such an environment; similarly it taught him a fair deal about people from all walks of life – how to make the men fear him, how to make the women love him. His reputation grew quickly and he was soon pulling in the coin hiring out as a debt collector, his pure bred Rottweiler named Thumper loyally at his side and adding to his overall menace; he was also sought after for his tact and his smooth way of getting the job done without undue force... a hard stare and a few hard words being all it usually took to part a debtor from his coin. Recently declared by the crew of the visiting merchantman The Slippery Eel as "the most intimidating brute they'd ever met" (meaning they met him after declaring they couldn't pay their sundry debts to the local innkeepers) they offered him a job as a guardsman aboard the ship for quick voyages between Riddleport and Magnimar; they figured if he scared the pants off them he’d be a charm against pirates and brigands. Luck wasn’t to be with them on this latest journey, however. Just days ago The Slippery Eel went down after a fire tore through the belowdecks (easily sunk due to her poor condition), she limped close to a bit of shoreline between Sandpoint and Windsong Abbey before slipping under the waves with most of her crew. Had it not been for Thumper rousing him and helping drag the semi-conscious Harry from his hammock and guiding him above decks it is likely he would have shared their fate. Making it ashore with only the clothes on his back and his faithful sidekick Thumper by his side, he joined the few survivors in the sombre walk to civilisation where they all then parted company. Harry lacking any coin or anything of value is now stranded in the town of Sandpoint. Kabal is from Brevoy, Bree from Riddleport, Sable I'm not sure.
Harry clearly has trust issues, as every NPC we meet seems to be on the line between 'dick mover' and 'evil nemesis'. That said, I can see word getting back to Riddleport, Harry's home town, and a bunch of fellow scallywags, scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells answering his call. Harry had actually sent a secret message unbeknownst to the party on the side when he 'took the ranger back to Turtleback Ferry' (touch wood he was never found). On a more 'bonding' level, Harry is a dirty orphan wharf rat who grew up with a pack of rats, perhaps one of them was the new guys. Besides which I can see a few things for Karlan to do as well.
That said, we are ALL originally from Riddleport.
Bree, Harry, Kabal. Poor Karlan would have his work cut out.
Harry knows where the bodies are buried. Somewhere out there on the range...r.
My god... in HoR it would be a PARTY of 'Harrys'!
BOF - • Make one extra attack as part of a full attack action, using its highest base attack bonus. Harry continues hacking at his foes. Attack
Attack
Attack
BOF - • Make one extra attack as part of a full attack action, using its highest base attack bonus. Harry starts chopping away at an Ogre... Attack
Attack
Attack
As a GM it saves an enormous amount of time, quite often sorting out the tools and posting up the snapshots is significantly longer tan any other aspect. I'd place map jiggling as taking up about 60% of my PbP GMing time. Downside is that players can shift about as you say and a few things get missed. On balance I'll take the speed over possible lack of accuracy, but then I like fast paced storylines and fast paced combat - a PFS Scenario to take no longer than 4 weeks, which means combats need to take 3 days at the absolute MAXIMUM regardless of level
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