Kiradia's page

Sebecloki, I'll be PMing you my complete character sheet with backstory shortly. I just need to roll up a Wild Talent here...

3d8 ⇒ (3, 2, 2) = 7 = Detect Psionics

Also, you talked about wanting to do a kind of urban/feral thing and Araska would certainly fall more on the feral side of things. As a person she's open to adventuring with just about anyone and has a focus on vengeance (because of her daevic possession) directed towards defilers so if there are people who plan on being defilers then that might not work out but from what I've seen there's a lot of people leaning either neutral or preserver.

I'll admit to a bit of a problem coming up with connected characters because I don't really see much about people's characters beyond crunch so to get that rolling, I'll post my backstory below. If anyone wants to try and tie in with me or sees any possibilities for interesting character combinations please feel free.

Hello! I've come up with a character for consideration. This is a Mystic (Aurora Soul)//Daevic/Champion that's focused on unarmed combat. There's some interesting synergies between the two classes that I think will be fun to explore in such a high power brutal campaign. I'm pretty sure I've caught all the mechanics needed but gestalt characters are complicated so I am still checking it for errors but its ready to be posted. I also still need to buy equipment but that can be done close to last. I'm writing up a background for the character, how she became mythic and where her power comes from. I'll post that later today. If you have any questions or comments I would greatly appreciate them.

Ok, here's my dice rolls for my character.

5d6 - 9 ⇒ (6, 6, 4, 6, 5) - 9 = 18
5d6 - 6 ⇒ (4, 3, 3, 6, 4) - 6 = 14
5d6 - 5 ⇒ (5, 6, 2, 3, 4) - 5 = 15
5d6 - 2 ⇒ (1, 5, 1, 6, 3) - 2 = 14
5d6 - 3 ⇒ (2, 4, 4, 5, 1) - 3 = 13
5d6 - 6 ⇒ (5, 5, 5, 1, 5) - 6 = 15

I noticed you are allowing third party material for this so I am wondering if you would allow the Akashic Mysteries book from Dreamscarred Press? I've wanted to try out a Daevic character for awhile now.

Hello! I'd like to express my interest in this. I'll have to come up with something tomorrow but consider this my dot. This sounds very interesting!

I'd really love to give a playthrough of this setting a try. I don't think I can GM because of my schedule but if someone puts up a recruitment, I'd definitely apply.

Hello! I'd like to throw my interest into the ring. I'm enjoying reading over stuff and my vote would be towards Starlit Kingdom.

I'm still here as well, work has just slammed me with an Office 365 company migration so I've been unable to make an update post. I'll see about getting something up soon.

A friend and I are going to be making a submission soon. A question however, since you are allowing Dreamscarred Press material. Are you allowing the Rajah playtest (found here) for this game? If not no big deal, I just didn't want to make something using a playtest document before my friend and I got started coming up with an idea.

I feel like my idea for a Vizier would fit your criteria but obviously I leave the final say up to you. The Akashic Mysteries is a Magic of Incarnum remake by Dreamscarred Press that I've had a desire to try out. There are other classes Dreamscarred has put out besides the Vizier but they haven't been added to the d20pfsrd yet so I can't easily link to them. In any case, the idea would be a Magus//Vizier.

The Vizier can be found here: The Vizier

If not approved, I'll probably start working on some kind of Paladin gestalt.

Dot. Question, what are your feelings on allowing third party (Dreamscarred Press stuff in particular)? And are there any enforced Unchained classes (like summoner)?

Oh! Goodness... I'm perfectly fine with that method of introducing Tiranne. Sorry I didn't respond sooner, I misunderstood the situation.

Yea, getting sattled with DJing for a wedding (I'm not a DJ, just an IT person) was not part of my plans heh. I'm back though.

I'll have to post tomorrow morning, been helping a friend get ready for a wedding. Very exhausting.

Hello! I'd be interested in submitting a character. A bit late for me to get started but may I ask what your requirements are? How long of a description are you looking for? What kind of tone has the story taken so far? Since a character would be jumping into an existing story, how do you want to handle the team backstory questions?

I'm looking at playing a Nova to mark that down. Thanks for answering my questions. :)

Hey guys, I'm deeply sorry about my absence. I've been absolutely slammed by a big project at work recently and by the time I get home I usually barely have enough time to get ready for bed. However, the worst of that is behind me now and I'd be eager to get back into this if you guys will still have me.

Hey guys. I'm deeply sorry I haven't posted recently. Work hit me with a new site that needed a full network setup and its been a nightmare. I should be back around now though. Sorry once again.

I'd be interested DM Jon. I'll think about some ideas and put one up here. :)

A few weeks later...

A toy crier, a young boy with a voice that carries, standing in the middle of Charhollow on top of a soap box with his gloved hands cupped around his mouth, "Hear ye Hear ye! Read your daily paper here gentlemen! Crow's Foot erupts in violence! A Gray Cloaks interview that will intrigue you to no end! Only 2 slugs gentlemen and ladies!"

The sky hangs heavy over Duskwall with clouds ripe with rain waiting for the right moment to drop their payloads of darkened water. A Bluecoat walks past spinning his billy club lazily as he keeps an eye on the street. No one really notices in the hustle of the streets as a small group makes its way into a small dusty library in the middle of Six Towers. Standing at the back of the room behind a desk, a small old woman with a cane looks up through her spectacles at the group who enter and holds up her arm, pointing her cane at the back door and giving a nod before going back to work.

In the back of the room waits an older man, gray at his temples and a cloak of gray on his shoulders. If he has any disapproval for the company he is meeting he hides it well, as the former Bluecoat comes forward and shakes the hand of the leader of the group, "Welcome... welcome... I'd offer refreshments but the library doesn't allow food or drink. Please sit and lets begins our discussion. I am eager to see what we can accomplish erm... what do you lot call yourselves anyway?"

Sounds good to me! I'll get an update going tomorrow.

More than enough time has passed, so I'm gonna move on for now. Saint, I'm not skipping your downtime but we really need to get this moving or its going to die, let us know what you decide and we can retcon anything we need to. So, the final question in all of this is what you guys want to do next. We pretty much enter a sandbox at this point where the crew gets to decide their goal. I do have an overall story to tell later down the road but for now, its all about the crew and your beginnings.

The options include doing another job for pure money, or doing a job for money and some Claim your crew can grab like Turf or a Vice Den. You could try to make some new friends as well by doing a job for someone else. You guys get to decide the goal. So, let me know what you think.

Ok, back from a long weekend. In the interest of getting back to playing the game, may I suggest you focus on building your contacts for now Saint? It will give you some time to get used to the downtime activities and at this point downtime has taken far longer than I anticipated. Adding a contact will be a 6 segment clock that you would probably roll Consort or Sway on depending on if you want to make a contact of an acquaintance or a stranger.

As for the other questions, almost anything can be a long-term project, its a very open ended sort of downtime activity and can be used to get crew upgrades (though they usually take a long time). An alchemy lab or tinkering workroom would fall under the Workship crew upgrade but its not a big deal if someone wants to make acquiring one a long-term projecct.

As a Leech you have several options for long term projects. You could craft something like a new weapon or device, or some kind of potion or poison. Whatever you think would be useful to being Shadows. You could also do some kind of social thing if you wanted to expand your character's influence. Long-term projects can be just about anything really, I know that can be paralyzing for some people to make choices based on a near infinite set of options but pick a goal and focus on it. :)

Ok, in that case, I still need a few things from some players. I haven't heard back from Guts but I have from Dusky so I'll get on Dusky to make his post. Saint, I still need downtime actions from you so if you could make a post for that we can try to get this going to the next score. The last page has my post about downtime activities and a link to the summary for bullet points of actions required.

So... I feel its time to ask... how is everyone feeling about the campaign? Do we wish to continue or stop it? If there's confusion please ask questions but if there's a growing lack of interest I'd like to know so I can try to change things to get it back on track.

Saint: Ok, looking over the score, I think I have found 2 xp for you. Specifically dealing with the ghost, which was the main challenge of the score, Saint expressed both his belief's and his background at the same time when he discussed his feelings on ghosts and helping them by destroying them rather than letting them descend into madness and you expressed your revulsion at the idea of sharing your life essence with another being to save their "unlife." While the rest of your XP triggers didn't happen, I think both of those are enough to give you 2 XP, which you can assign to any of the 4 groups.

I'll need to look over the score, but focus on your downtime activities for now. I'll look over the XP stuff when I get a chance to later this afternoon but technically XP (kind of... sort of) happens after Downtime which can be used to gain extra XP through training.

Sorry friends, weekend was pretty busy for me. So... I'm curious where everyone else is? If you have any confusion about what to do please ask questions. I'm more than ready to answer them and others can as well. The downtime portion is about doing personal stuff and goals and gives chances for roleplay outside of the high tension score. So... how do your characters unwind?

Fog:

The rulebook is distinctly vague about the value of individual actions in determining XP gain. The way I've watched John Harper do this stuff is basically to say "Do you as a player feel as if you've done enough to warrant 2 XP instead of one." Which immediately opens itself up to the "Don't be a weasel" conflicts of the system so I prefer something a bit more structured. When it comes to the addressing a challenge portion of a score, I think it should come down to using both of the descriptors to determine how much XP you got. So, for Fog, you did address a challenge involving stealth when you got everyone into the house and did evade the possible challenge of being caught by Mahu as he went to check the backyard. So 2 XP there.

Expressing beliefs, drives, heritage, or background is even more vague because the book says that the players are allowed to set beliefs and drives as they choose from session to session. I like to record drives and beliefs my characters develop as we play if I am going to claim XP for them and they should be able to influence future actions in the game otherwise its all down to just saying "my drive was to complete the job" and we completed the job so at least 1 xp for that. I do agree that Fog strongly expressed his apathy for the dead so 1 XP for that but is his apathy something that drives him? If it is, I'd allow 2 XP for that and expect it to come up in other ways as we play more.

Struggling with vice and trauma is much easier to decide on and doesn't need as much arbitration but it is worth mentioning that struggling with your vice can come up in a score, not just during downtime.

Crew XP

You guys did make a successful burglary but it wasn't overly difficult so 1xp.

The inner conflict between the crew about the ghost definitely applies, I'd also say that if the group wants to make the crew's drive to be seen as people who get the job done that would be another +1XP. It wouldn't exactly mean you got a new reputation, like being Professional, but all of you do have a drive as a crew to prove yourselves on the streets, which might create conflict between your desire to be Professional and your desire to get the job done.

Charterhall is definitely a risky place for a crew like yours, so I'd give 2 XP for that.

So... in total, at least 4, maybe 5 if you guys want to accept that crew drive. A good start for the campaign. :)

Downtime
Between scores each PC has time for 2 downtime activities. For those without the book the activities are.. (There are rules for each of these, but this is a brief description.)

Acquire Asset - Gain temporary use of an asset such as a special item or set of common items, a cohort, a vehicle, or a service (transportation, legal representation, use of a warehouse, etc).

Long-Term project - Start a project clock for a long term project. An example would be investigating the Hallow's tattoo, finding a way around the tattoo, or something else.

Recover You recover from wounds. You go to a healer and they roll, marking a number of segments (1-3) on your healing clock. When you fill your healing clock, you reduce each instance of harm on your sheet by one level. So injury 2 becomes 1 and injury 1 goes away. Your healing clock has 4 segments.

Reduce Heat - Reduce your heat somehow, possibly by consorting with a friend who is a Bluecoat.

Train You can spend time in training and mark xp on the xp track for an attribute. If you have the appropriate crew traijning upgrade, you instead gain +2 xp.

Indulge Vice You indulge in your vice and relieve stress. you roll dice equal to your lowest attribute (prowess, etc) rating and clear stress equal to your highest die result.

Downtime Summary

1) How did you feel about the game's handling of Position + Effect on actions?
I find the game's handling of Position + Effect to be interesting but a little obfuscated. Specifically with Effect, it turns out its possible to have "extreme" effect if you somehow push past Great effect but the usage of "extreme effect" isn't spelled out anywhere. Also, outside of clocks, there is very little direction for what each stage of Effect represents for a given action because everything applies so broadly.

2) How did you like the flashback mechanic?
I love having my own personal retroactive hammerspace.

3) Did you feel encouraged to make certain risky decisions through the gameplay?
All the time, the XP system is practically designed around pushing for desperate and risky decisions.

3a) Would a campaign tab table of what gives XP have helped with making certain RP decisions?
Not for me, but I own a copy of the rulebook so I'm outside of the need for it. It would certainly help those who don't have the rulebook.

4) How did you feel about the overall flow of action, mainly the lack of turn orders?
I feel like the flow of action got muddled during the score with questions and actions being ignored. Some of that is down to the lack of turn orders where I feel that a round robin style would have helped keep the flow going. Though some of that is also down to the PBP way we are playing the game. Otherwise, it works well enough as long as everything has a job to do.

I'll allow that flashback for 3 stress but it will strain your friendship with Celes. She's a physicker, not a mastermind of sabotage, so I'm also gonna start an 8-segment clock for this. Gonna call it I'm Out and if Fog continues to ask Celes for things outside of her specialty it'll blow up eventually. This clock will fade in time if left alone.

Outside Mahu's house and down the street a set of bad accidents have pulled the attention of the Bluecoat patrols away. Leaving a relatively easy escape from Mahu's house once one of you as setup the climbing gear needed to get out of the second floor without complication. Ophelia has a bit of trouble getting down given her drained state but once her feet touch the ground the crew makes their way out into the darkness of the hour of thread. After a short time Dusky is also able to make his escape and slips out of Charterhall, making his way to the abandoned watch tower in Six Towers. Once the group has reconvened Ophelia produces the jar of leviathan essence and whispers, "Lets get paid."

PAYOFF

Later that night, the crew waits near the delivery spot. The hour of ash approaches as the group of scoundrels sit at a table in the Golden Plum restaurant. Chef Roselle has just served the group of scoundrels a round of drinks when a young man sits himself at the table. Before any of you can react or say anything he flashes a bumblebee pin attached to his coat at the shoulder by pulling up a short flap of cloth. In hushed tones he says, "Yo' lot got da goods?" His voice drawls slightly with an accent as he looks at the crew inquisitively. Guts presses his foot forward and slides a bag over to the young man's leg and the young man reciprocates the gesture by pushing his own bag over to Fog.

"Please ta do business. Consida yous impression made. See yous lot around.

As was said in the note, you guys are getting paid 15 coin. This is honestly an extreme amount of money so don't expect this kind of payout most of the time. Your vault can hold 4 coin and each of you can also keep 4 coin max so if you split it 5 ways each of you get 3 coin. This is up to you guys as a crew however to decide how the money is split. You guys also gain 2 Rep.

HEAT
You guys achieved a low exposure level for Heat. However, you did score against a well-connected target though you didn't know it though nothing else applies so 1 Heat total for this score.

ENTANGLEMENTS

Lowest: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10

A few days later...

Esta makes a sudden appearance at Ophelia's private residence, bouncing through the halls and poking at everything. Her presence is mischievous and she insistently asks questions about what Ophelia is doing, even following her around on the streets invisibly. The next time Ophelia plans to head down to Six Towers Esta will probably follow if she doesn't do something. Esta does have a "curfew" of sorts since she has to be home to daddy every night but she seems to have latched onto Ophelia for some reason.

Ok... you guys can now do Downtime activites. Everyone gets two downtime activities for free and may spend coin or rep to do more if you wish. I'll have a longer right up for downtime in the Discussion thread later.

Ok, tried to give a bit more time to Ophelia but lets move this along, I'll send a PM and figure out whats up.

Esta shakes her head and scrunches her face, "Hide & Seek is boring! I always win!"

Ophelia steps forward with a slight frown on her face that Esta misses. Giving a nod towards the group before she starts to pull some materials out of the pack she carried with her on this job. A glass jar the size of a medium drinking glass with a metal cover on it, the glass scuffed with long wear and more than a few scratches on the inside. A mask of relatively fine make with intricate swirling markings along its face that she puts on as Esta exclaims, "I love charades!"

Ophelia gives a short smile and starts her work quickly...

Since Ophelia is doing this alone,, I'm setting this at a Desperate action but with Great effect. The Fine spirit mask is letting her see the connection better, and the Spirit bottle will help contain the leviathan essence. I've marked the XP for this and am going to take a small liberty and push for +1d. I think Yorick would have done this based on previous posts so I don't feel too bad about spending resources like this but I don't want to make a habit of it. So, here we go!

Attune(Push): 3d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 3) = 12
There's that.

Ophelia's mind strains against the make-shift ritual she has been working for the last several moments. Esta sits listlessly as her life essence is manipulated by the electroplasmic energies that Ophelia wields. The power involved starts to manifest in the real world and not just in the ghost field such that the rest of the crew can see the tendrils of energy that are siphoning to and from the diamond. Ophelia's back arches as the ritual comes to an end with a bright flash of light and the leviathan life essence snaps into the spirit bottle. Ophelia slumps forward weakly and pulls the spirit mask off, her face is pale and drained, her eyes glassy with lack of focus and her hands hold the spirit bottle with the Leviathan essence white-knuckled.

I'm gonna hit Ophelia with severe harm Drained Life Essence. You can resist this down to level 2 harm with a Resolve roll if you like.

Ophelia whispers after a moment, "I've got it... we can go... she will wake up in a little bit."

Guts noticed while he was searching for a way out that there is a window at the end of the banister walkway but it would take some setup to make the drop safe and it would be facing out to the street, in plain view of anyone outside at the moment.

I'll make a post later today if Ophelia has not made one by the time I wake up. Been a busy Wednesday for me all day/night so I didn't have time to make a post yesterday. Sorry for the lack of activity.

After the short time that the group has to deliberate, Esta comes floating back up through the floor, a smile on her face as she sees the group still there and comes closer. Esta looks up at Ophelia and says, "Where's the game? Is it ready yet?"

Time for action, what does Ophelia/the group do?

The diamond exactly matches what you were expecting the jewelry to look like.

The little ghost girl gives a delighted giggle as she looks up at Fog. Enjoying the praise Fog gives her and her eyes light up inside her pale hollow face as she nods her head rapidly, "I love to play and I love riddles! You can bring her over tomorrow!"

The ghost's head turns over to Ophelia once she starts talking and kneeling down to eye level. Giving more nods she answers, "Yesh! Daddy gave me this necklace yesterday! After I um..." and her ephemeral body flickers again as she frowns, turning a bit darker in hue, "After I had my accident. Said it was for being such a brave girl!"

"My name's Esta, I was about to go and get a snack but that can wait since I got new friends to make! What are we gonna play first?"

Ophelia, now that you've gotten close to the object, your Attune roll gives you a more detailed understanding of what the diamond is doing. The energy inside the diamond is substituting for a Ghosts normal Need to feed on life essence. The energy from the diamond is being slowly fed into her in a safe manner, but you could do a few things with the connection. You could feed all the life essence into Esta at once and allow her to be sustained for possibly years if you do it right so she wouldn't need the necklace. You could substitute the life essence inside the diamond with some of your own or someone else's in the crew and siphon the Leviathan life essence into another object because the life essence is obviously the real prize for this job. You or someone else could convince her to give up the diamond through some subterfuge though you know what will likely happen if you do that. Finally, if you all want to be heartless bastards, you can forcefully take the diamond necklace and run.

So... what do you do? :)

Mahu continues his conversation, delving into the minutia of Customs law and regulation. His unusual animal is a Tycherosi Kushar Insect, a rare breed of beetle rumored to have curative properties.

Upstairs

Ophelia's mind is flooded for a moment with the cold wind that dominates the upper floor of Mahu's house. Her head snaps back as the electroplasmic energy rushes past her and coalesces in front of the crew. The spirit forms into a little girl wearing a crinoline petticoat and her hair done up in ribbons. Hanging around her neck is a gold necklace with a small triangular diamond hanging from it. The spirit girl gives a small giggle as she claps her hands, making far less sound than a living human would, "Are you here to play? Daddy brings such interesting people here sometimes!" The little girl flickers a moment as Guts pulls out the spiritbane charm, and the little girl gives a small frown towards the charm.

You subtract the lower result from the 6 stress. So, 6-4 for 2 stress taken.

Ok... I'm gonna roll Saint and Ophelia for going up the stairs quietly. You guys will do it without much issue thanks to Dusky's setup action improving your effect and already rolling a six. Doing things quietly as a group is the expected way to do things in this rule system so might as well continue with that.

Ophelia's Prowl (Take lowest): 2d6 ⇒ (5, 5) = 10
Saint's Prowl (Take lowest): 2d6 ⇒ (2, 2) = 4

Alright, that's 1 more stress to guts marked now... rubs hands evilly time for the next part.

The infiltration group makes their way up the stairs to the second floor bannister, ducking behind a solid bit of handrail as Mahu steps into the back of the hallway only a moment later, responding back to Dusky with a raised voice, "Not usually no..."

As Ophelia makes her way up the stairs she gets a cold shiver down her spine and a tingling of hairs at the back of her neck, alerting her to the presence of something supernatural.

Looking out into the backyard after opening the door, Mahu gives a slightly frown as he sees his dog naw'ing away at the ratcake and gives a short whistle to bring his dog to him. "Bad Beatrice... spit that out immediately... you have no idea where its been." as Mahu points to the floor and Beatrice reluctantly lets go of the food and drops it to the floor, looking up at Mahu with a soft whine hoping she did good. Mahu nods and picks up the ratcake while exchanging it with a treat from his pocket, turning around and tossing the ratcake into a nearby waste-bin.

Coming back into the living room, Mahu sighs and says, "Please excuse me, now... to the matter at hand, I wanted to speak with you about the regulations of bringing in unusual pets..."

Upstairs

As Fog starts to make his way towards a window at the end of the hall, he feels the same rush of cold air that he felt at the bottom of the stairs except much stronger, his cloak billowing back and snapping in the unnatural breeze as cold mist starts to escape the group's lips with each breath.

Ophelia, your Ghost Senses are tingling, you can make a gather information check here using Attune (with your +1d from Ghost Mind) to try and figure out what this is before it fully manifests.

Alright Murder is turning out to be fairly difficult to thoroughly engage the entire party. Especially when ya'll are rolling well without any real complications/consequences popping up. It's definitely something I see as a problem for playing Assassins as an entire crew.

Any suggestions?

The best thing I can think of is to expand the scope of murdering a bit. Many jobs will of course have a primary target and that can't be avoided but multiple primary targets could help, and coming up with obstacles that we can't just bypass with the engagement roll would require more participation from everyone. John Harper is running this game here: Rollplay: Blades in the Dark

Which features a group of Assassins and may help come up with ideas.

Still here!

Outside

The black furred dog, similar to a Jack Russel Terrier, catches the movement of the ratcake as it flies through the air and lands in the decently maintained grass of Mahu's backyard. Giving a single not so loud bark as the Terrier bounds towards the ratcake and starts licking and biting at the hard tack food. So distracted, the group makes their way to the backyard door and finds the door unlocked. A sign of how safe people feel in this district perhaps? Whatever the reason, the group slips into the room and finds themselves in the unlit section of the house. The back of the house from the porch starts with the kitchen on the right and a guest room on the left. Stairs lead up to the second floor from the right side of the hallway and a strange cold breeze comes down from the stairs. From the groups position, the faint light of the front living room can be seen glowing into the hallway, while the faint conversation of Dusky and Mahu continues...

Conversation

Mahu gives a nod as he takes a sip of his own tea, coming close to seating himself when he hears the bark of his dog and gives a frown towards the back hallway. "Strange..." and he turns back to Roger Plank, "Please excuse me again, my Beatrice is usually a quiet dog, I should see what has made her so excited."

Mahu puts his tea cup down on a side table next to the chair and starts to make his way to the hall.

We'll call the ratcake 0 stress for the flashback. Its a nice insight into how Guts thinks and isn't really strenuous in itself. Let me know how you guys want to deal with this new stuff!

Ok, engagement rolls are a fortune roll which starts with 1d for sheer luck, then we start piling on modifiers based on a few criteria. First, if the operation is particularly bold or daring you get +1d. I'm going to say yes this plan is bold, mostly because you are planning on doing burglary in a district that has a security rating of 4. Its quite dangerous to do this job here. Next, is the operation overly complex or contingent on many factors? No, its pretty simple as far as plans go, so no -1d there. Next, we have whether the plan's detail exposes a vulnerability or if they target is strong against the approach or has any special preparations. Both are no, in my estimation, so no decrease or increase. Finally, friends and rivals can also help or hinder, but you guys haven't called on any friends and none of your rivals have been involved so no dice there. Finally, you guys tried a setup roll with Dusky trying to distract Mahu which rolled a 3, which is going to give a -1d from the failure to distract. There's no way to resist this roll as far as I can tell so we're moving forward with just 1d for the engagement roll! How exciting for me! :D

Engagement Roll: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Hey! Not bad, so you guys started with Mixed results in a risky position, which takes care of getting into the alleyway incidentally Fog.

Mahu's face takes on a mask of consternation when Roger Plank gives his opening speech, shaking his head as he responds, "I'm afraid you've wasted your time Sir, I already gave that item away as a gift to my cousin. She is going on a trip south to the Capital, I thought it prudent to give her some protection for the journey. Her train left some... 4 hours ago."

Mahu's body shifts to the side making room through the door, "However, if you like, you can come in for some refreshments before you leave, I have been meaning to make a visit to the Ministry about some other issues with getting products through Customs."

Assuming Roger Plank enters the building since the main goal is to keep Mahu distracted...

After seating Roger Plank in the main living space in a comfortable chair, Mahu says, "Let me go and get some refreshments out for you," before exiting the room and making his way down the hall.

----------------------------------

Meanwhile outside, once the door closes behind Roger Plank, Fog gives a wave of his hand and the group presses forward quickly. Unlatching the side gate and stepping through as a group. The crew heads down the side of the house and into the small but well kept backyard, peaking around the corner Fog catches a resting dog sitting chained to a post in the front half of the yard closest to the house, its tail wagging as it looks up towards the fence covering the back half of the yard where a crow sits staring down at the dog. Turning back to the others, Fog whispers, "We got a dog..."

So, there's the engagement roll! Your mixed result is that you got into the alleyway leading to the backyard but there's a dog you need to bypass or contend with. So, from here, you guys can propose actions and decide on which one to take. There's no exact turn structure to this portion since we aren't in any kind of combat yet. If you want to try to Prowl past the dog as a group action, we can take Fog's initial Prowl roll and use it or if someone thinks they have a better idea put it up for consideration. As a reminder, you guys are starting in a risky position which is the standard position so depending on what action you take will set the effect. For those new to the system, effect and position work off of three levels with position determining what kind of consequences you might suffer from your roll, while effect level determines how much you achieve out of the thing you want to have happen when you make an action roll.

Finally, if everyone could set their Load Level (Light, Normal, Heavy) in their profiles that would be great.-

Sorry I didn't get the engagement roll up, was running an in person game tonight and had to do prep for Fridays game too, I'll get things going later today. :)

Yes, Dusky's deception will setup the engagement roll. Depending on what he rolls will determine how it affects the engagement roll.

Ok, you guys will need to decide on what detail sets off your score. At this point, you have about all the details you are going to get, trying to gather more information on the house is would be risky at this point. Nothing you guys have found in all your exceptional information gathering points to a wife or paramour so your crew can safely say that there isn't much chance of that event occurring. So, discuss the detail for your Stealth engagement roll, set the point of infiltration and then I'll make the engagement roll and get this score in motion.

As an aside, I've really enjoyed how this is progressing so far but once we get into the score this is going to be a bit of a test run. There's usually a huge amount of back and forth on actual rolls once position & effect start to matter and I'm not sure how to streamline that for PBP yet. So I'm gonna run this first score by the book so we can all get our feet wet. I'm asking for your guys patience while we do this. :)

Fog: I found the sheets on the G+ group, I've also found another set of sheets that I like quite a lot better. I'm working on converting those over in between other things.

Gonna roll for Fog to keep things moving.
Survey Group Action: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Ouch, not your guys day for surveying the house. So Guts, you take 2 stress for this group action and get limited detail.

Guts and Fog pick a position near the house and stand about making as if talking to each other about something or another, frosty air blowing out from each others lips as the cold air mixes in your lungs. Gaslight giving just enough illumination to see that the house is a two story affair. Windows into rooms on the first and second floor on the front of the house give faint light while the front stair case sits as silent as stone with a stout wooden door. The alleyway is fenced off with a latch gate possibly giving better cover on the otherside. However, before Fog and Guts can move around, a patrol of Bluecoats come walking with gaslight lanterns held high, barking orders for the pair to leave as loitering scoundrels are not appreciated on the streets of Charterhall. With far too many Bluecoats for the two to contend with the both of you head back to where your crew waits for you, ready to finish the plan.

Gonna continue this in discussion.

Saint & Ophelia: The serving girl gives a wide smile and guides the both of you over to one of the empty tables. The wood is blackened and ashed like most woodworks are in Duskwall, though the finish tries to make the disfigurement artistic. The serving girl gives a nod, saying, "I'll be back with some Sekanjabin (a drink made from white vinegar, sugar, and honey) to get you started," and turns back to head to the kitchen, weaving her way through the crowd with the ease of long practice. The conversation of the cafe washes over the both of you as Iruvians and Akorosi and even a few Dagger Isles all talk about the issues and news of the day. Eventually, you both pick up on one group of Iruvians talking amongst each other over a game of some sort involving wooden tokens along a grid board. One of them turns to the other and says, "I got the perfect idea for a gift Farhad. There's this jeweler over on Farrier Lane, got in some new shipments few days ago. Rumor is the diamonds got Leviathan Blood in their centers, gives them some kind of warding power. I bet your wife would love that, since she's studying the occult and all," and so their conversation continues...

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Fog: Stepping among the works buzzing around the desks moving papers and document folders from one stamp or signature collector after another, Fog catches the seal of one of the smaller train companies as a functionary steps up from the line of desks for a moment to catch a drink. Fog slips in and swipes the papers in a flashing moment and amongst all the work going on, a few papers wouldn't be missed for hours. On the paper that caught Fog's eye is a shipping manifest of the train including jewelry, toys, curios, and sundry luxury goods. Scanning down the the page, he finds what he's looking for as a description is given as such:

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Guts & Dusky: While Guts takes up a position of his choice among the bar patrons, Balthazar Clawtree, Collector of Exotic Curios comes up to Jorro's table quite pleasantly and strikes up a conversation with the man, introducing himself and giving his calling card. After a time the topic turns to Jorro's job as a merchant with Balthazar asking questions to drive towards the point.

"May I ask who your patron is?"

Of course, I'm legally beholden to Kirsto Jewelry down south in the Imperial Capital, I run a branch office for them up here in Duskwall."

"Yes, of course, quite reputable. If I may ask further, I heard rumor you had brought in some jewelry that was sold to an Iruvian. I had planned on purchasing it myself but by the time my runner had gotten to Nightmarket it had already been sold. May I ask for the Iruvian's address so I may attempt to purchase it from him?"

"Well... I didn't know there was so much interest in that little bauble. I'm afraid I don't rightly know where he lives. I know he heads down Charterhall after he's done shopping in Nightmarket. You might inquire for him there, near Jayan Hall of Alchemy, his name is Mahu..."

After that, the conversation continues until Balthazar Clawtree wishes it to end.

It will be easy enough to find the Iruvian Mahu from there, Jayan Hall of Alchemy keeps records of who goes there for study or experimentation and keeps a list of ways to reach most people. However, Charterhall is a very safe and secure part of Duskwall, so how you guys wish to approach this job is up to you. If you think you have enough information to pick a plan and set a detail then we can go forward with that. Otherwise, continue to try to gather information. :)

Sorry, right now I mostly have time to post later in the evening, since I'm on the west coast I know that'll be pretty late for people. I also generally post less on weekends. So, Guts, this situation would fall under Gathering Information which doesn't actually care about position or effect. Its just a matter of the level of detail you get. So you did flub the Prowl roll so you won't be able to observe Jorro unnoticed but with a 6 on your Survey you did get exceptional details. Also, Nightmarket gives +1d to acquiring an asset at the cost of 2 stress. Its your hunting ground bonus giving your crew +1d because the Score is set in Nightmarket and is a Burglary type of job.

Over the next few hours Guts sits at one of the open stalls with a drink in hand, observing Jorro from across the crowd as it slowly dwindles in time with twilight turning to darker dusk. The riot of color that represents Nightmarket blooming into full riots of color as the overhead sky filters towards nighttime. In those hours, Jorro spends most of his time standing inside his shop, a small but four-walled building rather than the open stalls of the streets. In his one street window, Jorro's curios and jewelry twinkle in the shining lights of Nightmarket, catching the eyes of several passing ladies and even a few gentlemen looking for gifts for their paramours. Jorro talks professionally with everyone who steps into his store, helping with selections and haggling over prices with the ease of a seasoned salesman. Jorro stays late into the evening before closing up his shop, though not as late as the Nightmarket usually stays up. After closing his door and pulling down the steel sheet protecting his front window, Jorro casually whistles as he heads down the street towards one of the many pubs in Nightmarket.

You can choose now how you want to get information out of him. Like I said a 6 is exceptional detail with followup questions so you could meet him at the pub or maybe break into his shop while he is distracted with closing it so you can look at any documents he has in his shop. Choice is yours, this is more about expressing how your character gets the info than if it will happen at this point. :) Also, Dusky can catch up to Guts pretty easily once he finds Jorro's shop, so how you two want to approach him is up to you.

Fog and Saint/Ophelia, your gather information rolls will also get +1d since they are happening in Nightmarket and the whole crew has an extra downtime action available to it that can be used to discovery an opportunity, acquire an asset you might need for the job, find an appropriate client, etc. If Saint is doing the Consort roll for Gather Information then Ophelia can help by taking 1 stress and giving +1d if she wishes to.

As the crew leaves their new lair as quickly as they can to prove themselves to their client each goes on their separate path towards the information they will need to pull off this score. Gaddoc station looms large and bright in the Nightmarket as Fog approaches the steel structure. The flood lights illuminate Gaddoc Station's sign fiercely and point out over the railways so passengers know where they need to stand and where it is dangerous. Laborers work along the docking stations of the train yard loading and unloading the endless cargo under the watchful gaze of the taskmasters shouting their orders for where each shipment needs to go. Fog slips in among the crowds in Gaddoc easily and comes upon the hub of activity for the train yard workers, sheets of paper flying fast across the desks as they are signed or stamped as needed.

Meanwhile, Saint and Mrs. Walker make their way to a peculiar part of Nightmarket where smoke hangs heavy in the air. Loud conversation in modern Iruvian dialects fill the air as the pair move among the Iruvian immigrants who have made their own row of shops and cafes among the rest of Nightmarket's free wheeling trade and bustle. Stepping into one of the cafes Saint and Mrs. Walker are met with a few looks from the Iruvians given their light features but it isn't out of the ordinary for people to come around seeking the pleasures Iruvian Cafes can offer. A serving girl with a tray folded over her chest steps up to the pair as they finish hanging up their coats and asks in lightly accented Akorosi, "How many I help you Sir? Ma'am?"

Go ahead and give me your rolls guys and we'll see how this goes for you!

Gameplay post is up! So excited to finally get started!