I'm thinking I'm gonna have to drop this game :( Sorry for taking so long to decide that - it's because I really don't want to - but I'm going through a series of career changes that are gonna make it hard to keep WotR going at all let alone anything else.
(baaaaaaaaaasically if anyone cares I'm up for promotion getting shoved forcibly into a management position except I don't want to be a manager - I'm attempting to make a career switch to research in clinical trials- either way my free time situation is a lot less certain than it was a few months ago)
Nary listens to Auraelia. She knows how it feels to have to go worrying about money. She had decades to refine her skills, and poor, weak humans didn’t have that luxury. So she responds honestly - ”Those are good skills! You shouldn’t try so hard to find people who wanna pay you for your skills. You should just go to people and tell them why they need your skills. People are… impressionable. They just want to be told what to do, sometimes.”
She answers her question - ”Dunno, we like to travel! We’ve been all over Varisia, and I think this is the last big city here we haven’t lived in.”
Nary manages to amuse herself in the waiting room with ghost sound, which is good because she’s never had to sit in the same place for four hours straight ever, in her life. She perks up when she is lead to Kroft, and all but sprints to her sister to embrace her in a hug. They're identical - down to the shocking pink hair - which is unusual for gnomes.
”Oh, gods, Isabel! I’ve had to deal with ghosts and mobs and crocodiles to get you out of here. You had better be grateful,” she snaps, but she’s shaking.
”This is Auraelia, she’s good at tracking and hunting stuff, especially crocodiles! She helped me save you. But you’re right. We need to get out of here.” She turns to Kroft and offers a quick bow. ”Thanks so much!”
She grabs her sister's hand - she doesn't want to let her out of sight again.
Nary smirks. "I don't get into trouble, it just follows me around."
She switches gears from message to a normal conversation - she turns to look up at Auraelia, her face serious.
Nary entertains herself during their conversation by psychically making it seem like a random townsfolk in the waiting room across from them is loudly passing gas. Over and over, in the middle of their otherwise serious conversation - softly at first, but then more frequently and with more volume. She picks out a guy that is sitting next to some other people, hoping to force them into moving to another seat and making him feel real awkward. Ghost Sound Will DC 15.
"Hey, I didn't know that. I just dunno how useful I'd be in a job like that, y'know?" She shrugs. "I can't rip apart giant crocodiles, like you..."
"And I'm really glad we saved your daughter. I was real worried for a moment, I can't imagine what you were feeling..."
"Oh kay! Well, thank you ma'am!" Nary salutes Marshall Kroft. She pauses at the door on her way out. "And it's Naerdowil. Why do you humans have such trouble with gnomish names?"
She goes to the waiting area - she is far more patient now that the prospects of getting Isabel were looking so far up. She hadn't really expected it to be this simple.
The mesmerist tries to not get ahead of herself, though. She doesn't trust no uppity paladin woman. Stomping around and keeping her Isabel from her. The nerve!
She tries to distract herself by talking to her bodyguard. She grins mischievously and whispers, psychically manipulating her sense of hearing... "I can't believe you volunteered me to work for the town guard. What are you getting me into?" She's grinning widely though - she doesn't mind - she'll do anything for cash.
Ughhhh, magic? Lame. Nary groans internally. She sticks to the exact same story, and offers as firm of a handshake as she can manage.
At least the woman was agreeable. Even though she's a little miffed that the guard hadn't already taken care of them before it got this bad. Wasn't that the point of guards??
But she stays friendly all the same - she wasn't sure if she could manipulate her at all. "Great! I'm so excited to see my sister again."
She pauses. "How long is soon?" She sounds a little desperate. It isn't faked.
Hahaha, well she's actively trying to paint as glowing a picture about it as she can ;)
Like skipping the parts where Lamm got tortured for information by a little crazzzyyy persssonn
And the part where some lady invited me over for fruit and angst who was totally alive was actually dead the whole time because of the maggot head in the hat box D: believe me officer it is true!
He left. I'm gonna wait for Auraelia to have anything to add before Kroft responds, though.
K.Local:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
While Nary hopes that she comes across as disarming and likable, she thinks on what she knows about the woman from keeping an ear out for gossip. Was she strong-willed? Or just some dithering fool?
Trying to probe for info about her HD to make a decision of hypnotism vs charm person
Diplomacy!:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29Tellin the truth?! Auraelia what have you done to me D:
Nary grins, and offers a bow, settling into her eclectic gnome merchant persona. "Hi! My name is Nary, as in nary a care cuz I don't have any! And a week ago your fine guardspeople wrongfully arrested my gentle sister Isabel for the murder of a paladin, based on the words of a fisherman. Well, I knew that wasn't true, so I talked to the fisherman and after some jabberjawin' he admitted he was framed into it by the actual killer, Gaedren Lamm, a guy who owns a fishery."
She pauses and thinks. "Anyway Gaedren Lamm is actually a big-time criminal who was on the radar of a couple of people that were brought together by Ila Indigo.. Let's see... he sells drugs. And he killed Ila's mom."Kind of."And he killed this other guy, Aaron's fiancée . And he also kidnaps kids and forces them to steal things for him. He stole this lady's daughter," she gestures up at Auraelia. "And then when she didn't steal things for him he tried to feed her to a crocodile. Anyway when we found out he had kids on the line that was too much so we busted in there to save them. The kids are all right! But Lamm ended up dying. Anyway, I found this here sword in his things, which shows he killed that paladin, right?" She offers it to Field Marshall Kroft.
"Hmmmm... did I miss anything, Auraelia?"
So... is the other guard in the room with the Field Marshall or did he leave? ;)
Nary can't really handle sitting around an hour. That went against everything being a gnome stood for.
She sits and looks at her paper, appearing to scrutinize it. She understood numbers - understanding numbers is important to understand money and growing up, money was all that really mattered. But really, all she is doing is scoping the room. In her right hand she palms her coin, mentally applying one last dash of prestidigitation - she needed to keep it shiny, after all.
Rule number one was to never try and talk down more than one person at a time. People who were alone were more vulnerable.
So Nary approaches either a guard who is standing alone, or at maximum, two standing together. She focuses on one, quickly making eye contact. Her strange, blue eyes seem to swirl and suck a person in, making it hard to break away. Hypnotic Stare, -2 to will saves
"Hi! I'm Nary, and this is Auraelia. We're here to report some really big crimes - drugs, murder, child slavery - whoo-whee!" She shows off her enormous sword of holiness and glowing-ness. "And he murdered a paladin and framed my blameless, angelic sister for it. Anyway, I spoke to Sargeant Soldado last night about it, so why don't you just move me right along?"
Bluff:1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30Hoping to present the sword as proof for a bonus if I can :D
She smiles charmingly. No need to bring her talents into this if she could help it.
K.Local:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9Humanoid guards -was trying to see if Nary knows if these guys are weak enough (have few enough hit dice) to be worth using Hypnotism. But she probably doesn't know D:
Wow. People got really upset over the new Queen, didn't they?
Nary frowns at all of the horribleness that apparently went on last night after she fell asleep. Particularly the Hellknights - she didn't like the looks of them. A hand slips into her pocket and she fidgets with her coin, but otherwise, aware that a lot of people are looking at her, Nary attempts to act like she should be here.
But really, all the awfulness was starting to unsettle her. Why was there so much blood?
They were going to tell the truth? To the town guard?
Hah! That's a new one.
"Well, okay. We can do that." And if that didn't work, she had some ideas.
It wasn't going to go that easy, of course. But she shoves her nervousness somewhere deep inside of her, and leads the way down the street towards the Citadel. She twirls her walking-stick in front of her like a baton, as if she were leading a parade. Because it was - a parade just for Isabel.
I've been pondering thrallherd, cause it's really cool. I dunno if I'll do it because while that is totally what Nary would love to do, it's also kinda evil to have over a hundred brain-slaves o_o;
But of course there is a very very long time before then to see if I'm going all super-villain with Nary.
Anyway, I wanna know what you'd require for it since obviously Nary is not psionic.
Specifically - would you require the Skill Focus (Diplomacy) feat for entry into the prc? If you're gonna want a feat as a prereq, would you be open to modifying the Inquisitor psionic feat to something that actually works with psychic magic?
And - would you require Knowledge (Psionics)? Or handwave it? Or maybe change it to a different skill requirement?
If you are requiring Nary know Telepathy - the soonest she could enter the PrC currently is level 11.
Nary's head reels when she realizes she let her mask slip. It's disconcerting. Way worse than being touched was being seen.
She does her best to recover, giving a reassuring grin. "Oh! It's okay. It's not that. You're very tall, is all. I don't mind it."
Nary listens to Auraelia's thanks - though, internally, she groans.
I did way more than that, lady! I was in Gaedren's head the whole damn time, keeping him from bludgeoning Aaron to death with that damned chair.
But it's okay. The less she knows about Nary's powers the better.
At the door, Nary hugs Auraelia back. She mirrors her body language and demeanor - standard procedure for a con artist. Auraelia was being touchy-feely, so Nary would be too - she grabs her hand like a child.
"It's okay! I'm glad I was able to help. I'm not a warrior like you are."
She had seen the way Auraelia had defended her child. That was the kind of ferocity she wanted to imprint to herself.
Before they left though - they needed to get their story straight. She closes the door.
"Okay. Let's get things straight first before we go talking to the constabulary. Are we going to admit that we killed Lamm?"
Nary's stomach churns when her hair is ruffled, but she tries hard not to let it show how much it bothers her. She's probably as old as Auraelia's grandmother so, being treated like a child by a child was... uncomfortable.
"Isabel is.... a lot like me and also not like me at all. She's kinda quiet," she offers.
Playin' it cool?:1d20 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18
Food, a roof over her head, a willing accomplice - Nary had picked a good mark tonight, it seems. Auraelia was definitely the right choice, here.
Aaron seemed... unstable. Ila... Nary didn't want to think about Ila, because that meant thinking about it. Mavarro... also a good mark. But significantly less threatening looking than Auraelia.
Because, seriously. Auraelia dragged a crocodile across Korvosa. Like no big deal.
She turns to Marius, who appears to be a mook of Mavarro proportions.
"Thank you for breakfast! You're a fantastic cook. Who taught you?"
The sword is strapped to her back, still. She wasn't letting it out of touch from her, let alone out of sight.
Hmmmmmmmm. I thought the children were at Maria and Ila's with Mavarro/Aaron? And Auraelia and Nary went back to Auraelia's house? Or did the children come with?
Nary’s already awake. She’s been awake for awhile.
Between her awful nightmare, the fact that she was in someone else’s home, and the anxiety revolving around getting her sister back, she has enough thoughts muddling around in her head to keep her from sleeping much. She gets enough to rest her mind – re-center her thoughts – but not much else.
She peers out from under her blanket at Auraelia.
”Okay.” She glances at Bloo, who she made sure guarded her while she slept. ”Is it okay if Bloo stays here? I can’t promise he won’t pee on everything, but he told me he once fought a goblin dog, so he’ll be good at guarding your kid from getting kidnapped again.”
Nary frowns when Sergeant Soldado dodges the question as to how the king died.
Whatever. It's not like she really cared. Not her problem.
She follows the group back to Maria's Ila's home, but she continues to ignore Maria. She intends to follow Auraelia right now, since she offered to help her get Isabel out of jail. She sticks by her side, scratching Bloo on the head while she waits to see what the others were going to do.
She definitely wanted the rest of the stuff. But it sounded like a bigass chest. If leinathan thinks she could carry that, and all the gold, and the sword, then.... ok! XD She'd totally have done that. She don't give a damn how ridiculous she'd look.
It sounds like Aaron was the most likely person to have grabbed the chest. But since he never explicitly said he did so, thats a GM call.
If we left all that stuff at Lamm's place, though, Nary totally intends to go back for it tomorrow night. Assuming circumstances allow :P
Hmm, well I would have roleplayed out the encounter with Nary, which should be a prompt to make skill checks and pay more attention to the scene.
I'd rely on the fact that my players would probably assume "oh she just felt like RPing a quirky gnome magic shopkeeper" or "maybe this shopkeeper has a QUEST!" to pull it over on 'em. They could totally call her bluffs, I just don't expect them to. Sort of like how you could have totally called Sana's bluffs, but didn't. Cards stacked in the house's favor.
But I think what would happen is my players would make a big to-do even when shopping "quickly" - because naturally I am just an evil GM that would sell you a fake magic item during an interaction that goes like this
"I want to go to town and buy a +1 keen longsword." "Okay. That'll be 1,550 gp, since you're well liked by the blacksmith." "Okay, good."
Nary is cool though! She was.... originally a villain I made who would be a con-artist shopkeeper.
My players let their guards down while doing RPG-y stuff like shopping, so she'd sneak 'em a fake magic item and jet! And then it'd be an investigation to hunt the gnome down. With some extra confusion when you realize they were twins.
But uh... I decided a mind-control villain would be unfun. And also my f2f players have difficulty with investigation stuff. I was scared they'd just get frustrated and angry at losing money, and then become irrationally paranoid at every shop they ever shopped at again.
I worry that she'll end up too villain-y for this group, though :(
Nary is surprised to see the angry crowd disperse. That's interesting. They must have not been very angry to begin with, huh?
K.Local:1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Nary watches the Watch-Sergeant silently at first - she doesn't really trust law enforcement right now, not after what happened to Isabel.
As the mob disperses, she grins and claps her hands. She psychically amplifies the noise - making there appear to be four different people giving Ila and Mavarro a standing ovation - though in truth it is all in their minds... (ghost sound, DC 15 if anyone cares)
"Bravo! Now, let's take this guy's advice and get out of here." She pauses, and steps over to address Watch-Sargeant Soldado. "So, I'm from out of town." She lowers her hood. "Why were those people so angry?"
Nary rolls her eyes and sticks close to Auraelia. She didn't really understand Ila. She's been so quiet, all night, so naturally she chooses to open her mouth the moment she gets into a situation that she could get killed for doing so.
She's even more surprised when Mavarro decides to back her up. What gives? She closes her eyes and tries to think of something she's overheard while living in Korvosa that could explain why all these damn people cared so much about the Queen to yell about it in the middle of the night.
Nary looks up at Ila with her big, inhumanly blue eyes. "Um, okay, do what?" She looks at the guards. "I'm not helping any guards. No guards ever helped me!" She looks at the other people. "Those people should just be less angry and go to sleep."
She shudders as she watches Maria stick her hands through solid material. But she just watches. It isn't like she could help carry him, or anything.... if she wanted to.
Nary frowns, but she does her best to hide how anxious she feels. She glances back at Mavarro - he was obviously a local. "Why are they so mad? Do any of you know? Who cares who's the queen?"
My bad - I thought Sigrid was healed up already :-)
Earlier:
Nary looks at the kids, and tilts her head. "Yep, he's dead! That guy was a murderer and stuff. He had to go."
She grabs the cash in the drawer. She wasn't about to leave that behind. What would Isabel think?
Nows:
Nary straight up ignores Maria, drawing her hood up to protect her face. Perhaps she was the sort of apparition that ceased to exist if you stopped believing in it. And Nary was great at playing make-believe, as wasn't that just the heart of lying?
She dismisses her dancing light, and follows Auraelia and her daughter and the dead crocodile out the door. Ghost? What ghost?
But the situation outside wasn't going to be ignored. Unable to read the signs, Nary is confused as to what is going on. She doesn't ask though, drawing close to Auraelia. She can ask later, when they are safe. With her head bowed, and her hair hidden under her hood, she could pass for her daughter. A heavily armed daughter.
Then the hippogriff and the marine crash into the building in front of them. She's not the most altruistic of gnomes, so her first thought is - "Maybe we should take a different way?"
Nary considers the options. On one hand, she figures if she lets that huge chest of loot out of her sight she'll never see it again. On the other, Auraelia was big and strong and nice. (And probably weak-willed. Always a bonus.)
"Ummmm," Nary thinks for a moment, then grins. "Okay! I'd rather go home with you if, that's okay. I have a place to stay but, I don't really want to run around this city alone at night with a giant glowing sword strapped to my back... after I helped kill some guy. Or... rather... watched you fine folks kill that guy! Especially with uh... the riots."
She turns to Sigrid. "Your mum's really nice! I wish my mum was nice. She left my family to join a traveling circus troupe when I was young. It was sad."
+6 HP (d8 HD + 1 Con}
+1/3 tricks per day favored class bonus
+1 Ref, Will
+1 BAB
Class Features
Misdirection (Su) Mesmerist Trick: Nary can make a bluff check in response to target making an attack (including spells) to feint.
Towering Ego: Add charisma bonus to will saves. (Unless emotionally affected.)
Spells
+1 1st lvl spell/day
+1 1st lvl spell known (Hypnotism)
+1 knack known (Message)
Skills
Skill ranks: 6 (class) + 1 (INT) + 2 (background)
+1 rank to: Bluff, Diplomacy, K. Local, Perception, Stealth
+2 rank to: Sense Motive, Handle Animal ;D
Nary's eyes widen as she slowly comes to comprehend what is going on with Maria. She turns pale, and reflexively ducks behind Auraelia, keeping her between them. Heart beating fast, she wonders what the hell was going on. Was she dead this entire time? Or was it an illusion?
Nah, couldn't be an illusion. Nary was a gnome, and gnomes know illusions.
She follows the rest of the group mutely, keeping close to Auraelia. When the subject of leaving comes up again - she speaks up.
"I am so ready to get out of here," she says, avoiding looking at Maria. She's almost a comical sight - the longsword strapped to her back is almost as tall as she is.
"I need my buddy, Bloo, though." She turns to the children. "Hey, kids. Do you know where Lamm keeps some grub? "
Diplomacy:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18
Assuming they are helpful:
Nary will seek out some kind of meat - at the very least there should be fish somewhere. She'll take as much as she can carry. She'll go find Bloo, calling out his name- "Hey, Bloo! C'mere!". She'll attempt to use the food to get him to follow her to Maria's house.
She wasn't really sure what else to do. She isn't the kind of gnome who was really used to being around animals, having lived in cities almost her entire life.
But he was a real nice dog. And it seemed cruel to just abandon him in this shithole. It wasn't his fault his master was chief asshat and got himself killed because of it.
Nary is in favor of leaving sooner rather than later.
F2f about to start so I'll need to level Nary up.... probably tomorrow evening after my shift (like 10pm or so)
But Nary's goal is to follow the others around - specifically Auraelia, cause she likes her ;D, and then hopefully go try and bust Isabel out first thing in the morning. Hopefully with minions friends.
She is all about that loot, but she's not too worried about it right now. Cuz Isabel's more important than loots.
Nary pauses. There's something she should be noticing, but isn't.
It's probably because of that big box of loot that they found. She tries her best not to seem too concerned about it. But seriously. That was a big haul.
She nabs the longsword from the dresser - it's big and heavy compared to her - but maybe she'll be able to get her sister off if she has it.
"Will... one..or some.. of you come with me and vouch for me?" she asks, trying to sound meek. "Asshat over here framed my sister for killing some paladin. And this sword looks.... paladin-y. And there's a random finger. So maybe I can show this to the guards and show them Lamm killed that guy instead." She holds it between two of her own fingers. "But I'm afraid if I go in alone I might not be convincing enough. Y'know?"
That and if they try to arrest me I'll have back-up! Or a distraction. Heh.
Nary furrows her brow in confusion, and crosses her arms. What? That head in the box was also the midwife? The one that they left upstairs in the house? It had to have been some kind of trick... An illusion. A con.
Oh! Perhaps she had a twin. Like Isabel. Maybe Gaedren just had it out for twins!
Oh... no. That isn't it. She listens to Ila cry, or more accurately, moan incoherently, and realizes that she was wrong. But... how?
Nary shivers. She's just about had enough of this awful place. She digs around in the drawers and shoves anything that looks even kinda promising in her bag.
A young Iomedaen paladin who was sniffing around the fishery a little bit too often. Gaedren had come forth with evidence that Isabel had killed him - his holy symbol was found in the room that Isabel was staying in.
When it went to court, Gaedren showed up to testify and the judge basically put Isabel in jail because Gaedren had told him that she had done it - there was very little other evidence and no real proof that the Iomedaen holy symbol found in her room had even been the paladin's.
I dunno exactly what sort of evidence you want her to find! I can try to think of something, if you want, but I figured you'd want to take care of that :P
Nary listens to Gaedren as she climbs up onto the dresser to grab the hatbox."The drawer, hmmm?"
She gingerly climbs down.... then opens it and shrieks, dropping the box to the ground, sending the head rolling.
Ugh, ugh ugh! I just had to know....
The gnome shivers and steps away from the head, momentarily distracted from the task at hand.
