Search Posts
"They must've been in a hurry to finish this place, if they forgot to put traps on the door. Or someone else has already come through here." Marten brings his shield up and advances cautiously just inside the room, with Falling Leaf in his other hand. "I have a feeling that I'm going to be fighting that thing, Gorum-style," he says wryly.
"Two trapped rooms in a row. I don't trust those doors."
Once Mouse gives the all clear, Marten bravely moves into the room beyond and turns the wheel with a grunt. "Certainly getting my exercise for today," he quips. Gorman just rolls his eyes in exasperation. After seven rotations of the wheel, Marten says, "I think I heard a mechanism disengage. Anyone want to check the door?"
Gorman wordlessly walks over to the platform with the boulders and kicks over one of the planks that he made (which was, of course, unneeded due to Gunoke's awesome powers).
Marten frowns slightly and says, "This is another puzzle?"
"I wonder how the mechanism works. I heard a click when it reset. If we can get some of the floor tiles up, maybe we can figure out how to trip it."
Do we have access to make whole? We could break a rock into pieces, move the pieces to the socket, then repair it.
"Well, it was worth a shot, Niadroub," says Marten appreciatively. "Let's see if I can get the second one moving."
Marten manages to muscle the second boulder into place.
The third one, at last, proves too much. "I think that's my limit, barring other magic."
Note as well that Marten's wearing a +4 Strength belt so he's actually at 21 right now.
Since nobody else responds, Gorman goes outside to get some wood and start carving down some planks.
With some grunting, Marten rolls the smallest boulder up into its socket. "Well, that was doable, but not easy. Might not be possible with the bigger ones," he says. "We should put some ramps here anyway, if we're going to try it like that." "Zelera, if you can polymorph something, you might as well polymorph the biggest boulder into a tiny pebble, then put it in its socket and dispel the effect."
"Hmm. The brute strength method to this would be for a few of us to try to push the boulders and roll them into place. Could perhaps even construct a harness for Tracer to move one, though not sure how maneuverable that would be."
"Niadroub, what's the smart way?"
Marten shrugs off the priestess' spell and brings his blade around to hammer home on the witch that he faces .
Gorman reloads, levels his pistol, and fires at one of the witches.
Marten waits for Mouse to get into position (meaning about twenty seconds after he can't see her any more), then moves to anchor the fight against the nearest priestess in the entryway. "For the Republic!"
Gorman moves up behind the paladin and fires from a crouch just past Marten's side. (Same target.)
Waffles: Tracer:
Marten is always doing silly stuff like running off to get into fights or making strange poses when he could just be eating apples! No sense at all.
The new girl... oh the tiny little squirrel? I won't squash her! Even my tail would go over her head! Marten advances to take up a guard position and waits for the command to engage.
Waffles: Tracer:
"It seems we both have self-styled 'masters' who are buffoons." Marten suggests, "A light spell on my shield should take care of the problem for those of us who can't see in the dark. If you want to sneak ahead into the darkness, Mouse, just don't get so far away that we can't catch up to you in a hurry if something bad happens!" He pats Tracer's neck and says, "Why don't you get some grass and stay out here."
After showing Ms. Zelera that the blood covering her small frame was not her own, Mouse looks up at Tracer, nodding at the unnerving comment from its master "He is a fearsome creature." horses might common above ground but not under it. So she gives the beast the respect it deserves and tries to stay away from its iron banded mace feet. "While you were scouting, Mr. Niadroub used impressive magic to return the young women to their homes. Now we go into the tunnel? Seek out the leader of these kidnappers?" there is a steel in her voice that says while she has pledged herself to aid these lords and ladies, she will probably go into that tunnel on her own if they say they are done. "Quite right. We must put an end to this perfidy," says Marten agreeably. He pats Tracer at the withers, then rubs the horse affectionately. The horse dips his head and then shakes it, then turns and watches Mouse a bit uncannily, like he knows that he's being talked about. "Incidentally, Tracer is quite intelligent, and though he cannot speak, he certainly understands us." Tracer punctuates that statement with two stomps of one forehoof. Gorman, meanwhile, takes the opportunity to clean his pistol barrel before reloading it. "Who's carrying the light source?" he asks pragmatically.
Marten dismounts from Tracer and signals Mouse. "Apologies for going over you in the heat of battle. I would imagine it is unnerving without advance notice." "What do we need to do to make sure that our rescued ladies are safely returned home? An arduous overland trek for them without assistance seems unlikely."
Marten arrives just in time to give Mouse a flanking solution that lets her cut the two fallen barbarians to pieces. He beats Falling Leaf against his shield and then points the blade at the next nearest barbarian (red). "Are you as weak as your brethren?" he taunts.
Marten squeezes Tracer through the tents; with haste the horse can make it to the other side with time to spare. He leans sideways in the saddle to lash at the prone barbarian.
Gorman advances and reloads.
Marten and Tracer go wild on their foes.
Gorman takes a shot at Dusk's foe .
Marten swings his shining mithral sword overhead, shouts "Ha-HA!" and then pivots to bring Tracer around the tent. The speeding horse leaps over Mouse and closes in on the other barbarians!
(Miss again) Gorman advances, using a tent for cover, and quickly reloads his pistol.
I really want to tank up against the big mob to the southwest. If Vibenia sends Dusk in to help we can get flanking bonuses over there. If we're lucky, Red will come in behind Marten for a flank, and then Mouse can flank the flanker and annihilate him. Assuming the barbarian's don't have uncanny dodge, that is...
With haste, Tracer easily hops over the foliage and slides through the trees to come upon the nearest barbarian. Marten feels a tiny twinge of remorse about striking down a man who's just part of a tribe doing its tribal things, but those tribal things include kidnapping young women and that's just not polite. He lashes out with Falling Leaf as he brings Tracer into combat.
(Presumably a miss) Gorman moves up using Marten for cover and takes a shot with his pistol.
With actual time to prep, Marten casts bless weapon, divine favor and weapon of awe.
After they eliminated another beast, Mouse asks "So you wander the countryside, destroying any dangerous wild animals that could harm your tribe?" The question is genuine curiosity, since that is what she has witnessed so far. Nothing wrong with pest control, not in the least, a cleared warren is a safe warren, but she somehow though it would be different. "One of many responsibilities," replies Marten from atop Tracer. "In a larger and more developed nation, such patrols might be the province of road wardens, but our fledgling project is very much a personal-touch kind of operation." And then they are at a barbarian camp with hostages. "I could sneak in, but without a diversion I don't think I could sneak back out with five others under my wing." Mouse looks concerned but patient "Unless we wait until night?" Marten frowns and says, "The real challenge will be getting the prisoners out safely. We have to make a distraction to get the barbarians away, or find a way to extricate them quietly and without being noticed, like by making the real prisoners invisible while leaving an illusion behind."
Marten does the same that he did before: He pivots on Tracer to rush one of the aurumvoraxes (the one not held by magic).
Gorman takes a shot with his gun as well.
"Since they're so territorial, maybe we can use a similar tactic. Draw them out."
Marten congratulates Mouse heartily on disembowling the big cat. "Well struck! And you have steel resolve, fighting from beneath a dangerous predator like that! I am put in mind of stories about knights fighting dragons." Gorman starts carefully cleaning his pistol. "The aurumvorax?" he says. "Like an angry wolverine that eats metal as well as flesh and bone. It's ornery, dangerous, hard to kill. Also the pelt is valuable... if you can figure out how to get it off."
Gorman shouts, "Give it everything now!" He levels his pistol and there is a loud report and a belch of smoke.
Marten waits for the fusillade of ranged attacks from Gorman and, probably, other party members before he spurs Tracer to charge!
After Tracer rears up and smashes Speartooth with a hoof, Marten brings his blade down as the horse comes back down.
Marten says to Vibenia, "Thanks, but it looks like the problem has been solved!" He raises in the saddle as he brings his mithral sword up and tells Tracer to charge.
"I'm not sure that a cat will understand my antagonism."
"Can we smoke him out? With an actual fire or magic? Otherwise I may just make a lot of noise and see if he comes out and I can run him down."
Marten nods to Mouse and leans forward to whisper something into Tracer's ear, then holds position, waiting to charge if the big cat (or something else dangerous) should make a sudden appearance.
Gorman loads his (now scentless) black powder into his pistol via a cartridge, tamps it, and puts a ball down the barrel, then moves over to one side of the canyon, looking up. Marten draws Leafcutter and remains a bright, shiny metal target in the middle of the cleft.
Before the group teleports out, they pick up Marten, who's necessary because Niadroup needs a 6' tall slab of canned meat that he can use as cover while casting spells. Marten proves to be an affable armored human warrior with blond hair and a pleasant smile. When Mouse is introduced to him, he's in the middle of a discussion with an elf woman of surprising elegance in a diaphanous translucent black gown, and an armored halfling warrior (?!). He excuses himself from the conversation to make introductions. He kneels fluidly to speak to Mouse from an equal height when she is presented. "A pleasure to meet you, Mouse," he says, offering a gentle handshake. "Welcome to our fledgling country! I hope that you find it all to your liking." He gestures to the other two associates. "This is my companion Tessara, and the honorable Sir Willkirk." Tessara gives a sort of vague and ephemeral gesture of greeting in a way that seems indistinct but very elvish. Willkirk, the armored halfling, bows as best he can in his armor while holding his helm under one arm. "Madam," he says rather formally. Once the team describes their intentions to Marten, he nods and says, "Give me just a moment." He turns back to Willkirk and says, "Would you be so good as to see to the disposition of border works around The Fort Formerly Known As Drelev? The city is in dire straits but we must keep it secure from trolls, giants, and other enemies, and that probably means finishing the works that Drelev left incomplete." He turns then to Tessara and says, "I'll be back in almost no time, and we can make all of the arrangements then. We'll pick out some nice paper for invitations and I'm sure that Lord Colwyn will be happy to provide us with a lovely location for the ceremony." The elf woman nods, takes his hand, presses it between both of hers, then lets go, turns, and sashays off to her next task. She never kissed Marten during the exchange, but their heat is palpable. Marten goes to fetch a different companion, a rough-looking dark-skinned human with a red bandana and simple mismatched armor. Frankly, he looks like a pirate. "This is Gorman," says Marten. "Among other skills, he's an excellent tracker." Gorman grunts noncommittally and says, "This isn't on a boat, so I don't know how much you expect." Marten claps Gorman on the shoulder and says, "I always expect the best from my friends! Come on, Gorman. We'll finish this hunt and have you back for your puttering around on the lake." ~~~~~~~~~~
Marten gives a whistle and there's a sparkle of divine energy as his horse, Tracer, appears magically. He mounts up while Gorman moves ahead and draws a pistol. Gorman kneels down and checks the ground.
"The wind carries down into the depths of the valley," the pirate says as he rubs some soil between his hands. "This old cat can smell everyone coming. My guess? It's going to climb up on to a high point and watch us, leap down in ambush if it can, sneak away if it thinks we're too dangerous to it."
Svetlana and Oleg Leveton are the couple from Oleg's trading post back at the start of the adventure. They are non-adventurers. Kesten Garess is the brooding leader of a mercenary squad from Brevoy, he's a low-level fighter. Zelera (under Counselor) is not a "former" PC, no matter how much Niadroub might wish otherwise. Marten would be loath to displace an existing person and would prefer to only take a leadership role if a vacancy should naturally arise (e.g. the Grand Diplomat or General retires, dies, or changes allegiances). I am usually invested in Kingmaker build sheets, if those are going to continue to need attention. (My understanding is that they matter a bit around book 5, when you have to raise an army.)
Hello John! As our GM has mentioned, as long as you have trapfinding, you should be good to go. :) (Oh, and Not Evil, since Marten's a paladin.)
I'd love an addition, but players are kinda thin on the ground. Could maybe post in Recruitment?
Not a bad idea, he can stay in the capitol in wedded bliss and make proclamations while we are out doing stuff :)
What a way to start the new year. Best of luck to you and hope to see you around the boards sometime.
Sorry V!
No problem, I thought it was a funny side scene. Yala is a veteran drinker and she has figured out that after you drink certain Numerian chemicals (like antifreeze) you can survive if you follow it with hooch (because the ethanol gets processed by your liver first, which makes the ethylene glycol go through your kidneys instead, so you don't die).
DERRRR I will just do both! I'll have Tessara start picking up item creation feats AND make a new recruit who's a wizard-engineer with some item creation powers as well. Suboptimal? In theory. Do I care? No! It's more fun to have both the item creation AND the flexibility in who to take on adventures.
The original item creator idea that I made was a wizard-engineer, and I could still go that way, but all of the useful construction spells are higher level and as a recruit he won't have access to them until at least another level up (spells like wall of stone at 5th (wizard 9) and move earth at 6th (wizard 11)). I don't really have any better ideas, though, so I'm happy to keep that if you wanna have someone who can handle that stuff in downtime (or provide a means for you to get those spells into your own spellbook).
Ok, grabbed the aforementioned belt of physical might +4, headband of alluring charisma +2, and mithral chain shirt +1. Was thinking of making a dedicated item creator recruit, but the more I think about it the more I think I should just have Tessara start doing that role, so there's an out-of-game excuse for her to spend more time with the party (making magic items for us) to go along with the in-game excuse that she is Marten's partner. That does leave a recruit slot open, so thinking about what to put there.
|
