Also, I'm going to be out of town Saturday through Tuesday and unable to post.
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Save your silver! Neppka already has a crowbar! I remember now that we opted not to try and pry the doors open in case it ruined the lock and thus our chance at picking the lock.
"This thing been out in the weather for a while. Everything seems to be seized up". "Well, thanks for trying. That's what we brought this along for."
Neppka wedges the crowbar in a likely spot to either break the lock or the door hinges, and tries to leverage the doors to the tomb open.
While they while away the afternoon, Printhello asks way to many questions about the tomb and the door and the dwarf for which they are doing a service.
Before they leave town, Neppka makes sure anyone coming to the graveyard has met Festus and understands that he helped out in the fight against the Varisian vagabonds ("Varisabonds?"), and after talking, they figured out that Neppka, Vako, and Krrys'tall had earlier come across the remains of the dwarf's missing brother. They all discovered that Festus' brother was trying to retrieve something important from the tomb near where he died...
...and while the party was inclined to help him out, they didn't want to rush a tomb exploration when they needed to get back to Sandpoint and report what they had learned about their encounter with the Varisians.
To me, this is just fulfilling a promise, which will hopefully be quick. Neppka realizes that the Amber Shard is also worth pursuing, but there's no immediate leads for it. So, hopefully, explore the tomb for Festus, and then come back and see if anything has turned up with the Black Fist goblins or the Amber Shard.
"Gandethus? We met him earlier. Not a fan. "If he does have this Amber Shard, someone should let him know that he's been found out. "I guess. Maybe. "Anyway, Printhello, Shaka, where are you thinking we should go? I kind of promised a dwarf named Festus that we'd help him explore his nearby family tomb."
Neppka stares forlornly at the smoking oven, his hopes of a timely dinner lost. Despondent, he pulls out the burned pages found in Kevin's room and hands them to Printhello.
"Quink!" Neppka calls as he opens the door. When the scholar notices the smoke and runs into the kitchen, Neppka follows but doesn't get very far before he's doubled over coughing from the snoke.
"Shit!" Neppka runs towards a doorway closest to where the smoke is pouring out. He bangs on the door and tests the door knob for heat before he opens it and bravely charges into danger.
Neppka considers Printhello and then nods.
Neppka witnesses the chaos spinning things out of control, only this time he doesn't really think it's funny. To the acolyte, he says, "Nobody's dead. We were worried that Vako might have been injured, but he seems to be okay. "Right?" he asks of Printhello. To Krrys'tall, "I mean, if you want to be mad at Kevin, fine. But we are the ones snooping in his room. But he might deserve it, because..." Finally, he points at the ring in Shaka's hand. "...that looks like the symbol that the hobgoblins had tattoos of. And this," he holds up the half-burned pages, "looks like their writing. "We should definitely bring this stuff to Quink's tonight. And I don't know, maybe tell someone else? Maybe? The guards in this town don't seem to take me seriously."
Why would Kevin do that... Why is everyone being so mean to me. Vako starts to tear up. "Come on, he didn't it to you. He just did it, and then you opened the box without thinking what Kevin did to it. "Maybe if we find him, we can get him to apologize." Neppka looks at the papers Shaka retrieved to see if he can figure out why the script looks familiar.
Neppka makes a note to look into the familiar writing language later. He's more concerned about Vako at the moment. "Is he all right?" he asks the acolytes. "Who was this guy Kevin? He has traps in his room!"
Wh... hapen? "A trap got you. Kevin is more interesting than I thought."
Once Vako has been pulled out from under the bed and Shaka has retrieved whatever is left from the hidey-hole, Neppka carefully lowers the bed back to the ground. He stands silently watching Vako for any sign of recovery, but part of his attention is on Shaka to see if they've learned anything.
"Get him out!" Neppka moves to lift the bed.
Neppka nudges Shaka with his elbow and gives a squawk-laugh. "See? I told you this would be fun." Neppka asks Printhello to lead the group to the cathedral to talk to the halfling's boss.
In case you care, it was a natural one on the diplomacy check - a critical fail. Hence the strong negative reaction. That's how the best stories get told. Also, the worst stories, but we're not there yet.
Neppka's eyes go wide as the man snatches food out of the hand of a child and flings it into the street. "Damn! Nobody's asking you to hunt for anybody, dickhead! They just wanted to ask if you'd seen him, since he was here recently. "But you probably don't see much with your head shoved so far up your ass." Neppka motions to Printhello and Vako that it's time to go before addressing the wizard one final time. "We're leaving; keep your twitchy fingers down. Be smart."
"Well, I've finished breakfast. Let's go talk to Father Zantus and see if Kevin has family in town. "Vako, wake up Krrys'tall. Festus, you're welcome to come with; if not, we'll meet you back here before dinner time at Quink's. Come on, Shaka. Maybe there will be another fire and/or goblin attack to deal with along the way. Could be fun."
********* Neppka, nonplussed by the unexpected direction taken the conversation(s) have taken, falls silent to see how these topics shake out. He's not committing to anything until after Quink's dinner, after all. Despite the time of day, he signals for a round of drinks for everyone at the table.
Neppka is about to respond to Shaka's assessment of Quink's culinary skillset when a gnome pops into the conversation with a plea for help. After Vako promises their aid, Neppka considers the gnome and the bouncing leshy and asks, "Um, hello. How would Vako be able to help? Do you have any sort of lead at all?"
"Great!" Neppka butts in. "Brodert wants us to stop by for dinner. If nothing comes out of what he's worked up about, we can head back to the vault. It's not far. "Say... Shaka... you're staying at Quink's place? Is he a good cook?"
Neppka quickly ticks off the key points of his recap on his fingers as he speaks. "Met Festus in a brigand's prison. We helped him find his brother's corpse. It was in a cemetery with a sealed tomb. Festus wants to get in there to find what his brother was looking for."
"Well, the problem with that is that none of us are being paid to get in there, so I'm not sure where your fee would come from. "Are you the guy Brodert Quink was talking about? If so, the best we can offer is an equal share of whatever we walk out of there with. It might be dangerous, though."
What do we do? Do we go to the scary place? Vako says as Quink runs off. Confused by Quink's sudden retreat, Neppka shrugs at Vako's question. "Maybe we should find out what he's so worried about, first. We still need to find someone who can help us open the vault doors, anyway."
Neppka pulls out the piece of paper with the strange writing that he looted from one of the hobgoblins. He passes it over to Brodert Quink. He watches the gnome's face in concern.
"Grimbeard you say? A dwarf? Let me recollect..." he wipes his small spectacles on his robe, not really getting them clean as the gears of his memory start turning. "In fact, I do know that name. And so should you if you study your history. Grimbeard was a dwarven warlord, a rebel and a renegade some say. He led a revolt in the Five Kings Mountains about a century ago. Unsuccessful revolt, I should say, but it was a near run thing, as these things go. Why on earth do you ask, my good fellow?" Neppka reaches across the table to gently pick up Brodert's glasses and then he wipes them with a clean napkin from the table. As he is doing this, he explains that when they encountered the Varisians who were harassing people, their leader was in cahoots with a glowing, ghostly dwarf who called himself by that name. Vako pops up right next to Quink on the other side and goes Oh and a Brown Stone. Some people are looking for one and I was making a mudball to give to them but I lost it and I think they might not want any sort of a brown stone. He smiles at Vako who pokes in from the side. "A brownstone? Like a building? I don't believe I know the reference, but am somewhat familiar with the architectural style, if that's what you are referencing." A building would make sense Vako nods, attempting to mimic Quink's sage mannerisms. They were in these rolling building things, maybe they want a change. Neppka shakes his head vigorously, as if that act alone will stop the conversation from veering further off course. "No no, not a building. Some gem that they call the 'brown stone.' Two words." He says as an aside to Vako, "Those rooms on wheels are called wagons, or sometimes carriages. Lots of Varisians use them to travel around and bring their things." Returning his attention to Quink (and returning the gnome's spectacles), he continues, "We also met the dwarf Festus at the Varisian camp." "Festus seems to be pretty familiar with Grimbeard. He's interested in us helping him explore a vault beneath a small cemetery we discovered, but the doors to the vault are locked up pretty tight. We could probably break the doors to get in, but that doesn't seem like the right thing to do. "I'm also curious why the town was attacked by goblins, yesterday."
"Good morning, Master Quink! "Did you sleep well, and also have you ever heard of a dwarf named Grimbeard?"
Thanks for pushing that through, DMDE. Welcome, newcomers!
Torgar Earthbreaker seems to be a frequent poster on the boards and the character feels like will fit well with the Dwarf parts of the game. I've also played with this player before (briefly), and I've seen them around on the PbP section of the boards for a long time. Also, they don't seem to be in a ton of other PbP games. I bring that up because I've noticed a trend that if a player is in too many games, their involvement overall tends to suffer. (Myself included!) I've never played with GM_Drake/Barbie Rivers, but I've also seen them around often, and they also don't have a plethora of existing games.
I'm very happy to have another player join us, but I don't know anyone that I've played with often enough that plays 2E. Alternatively: We buy a crowbar!
"How would we get past the lock?" Neppka challenges Vako before stuffing half of a slice of bread in his mouth.
Hobgoblins attacked Sandpoint. We stopped them. And after checking the Gameplay thread to make sure I spelled Brodert Quink's name correctly, I remembered that the hobgoblins have a black fist tattoo we want to ask him about.
Okay, fair. I guess my intention was sort of to review that, but only the parts that I thought Ameiko hired us for, and then also why we want to talk to Brodert Quink. I think that Krrys'tall covered events as I recall them, and I genuinely couldn't remember why "brown" was associated with the crystal until Vako's post just above. I appreciate the communication, GM.
Before Neppka gets too wasted Too late, but he tries to answer anyway. "A ghostly dwarf who just disappeared with the old hag? Where did they go? What did they want anyway? Do you think you have seen the last of them?" "Yes! "I don't know! "I don't! "No! "No! I don't! ...Wait. I think I did that out of order? Let's see... Yes, no, Oh! I mean 'I don't know,' and also another 'I don't know,' and then... the other one. "They were looking for a crystal or a stone. Brown? The dwarf was a guy named Grimbeard, who might be supposed to be dead. My new friend Festus can tell you ALL about him!" Neppka puts his arm around the dwarf cleric, happy to help make the introduction. He indicates that Festus should speak, but then immediately interrupts to ask for another mug for each of them.
When he gets to the inn, Neppka makes sure that Ameiko knows that he thinks they've taken care of the Varisian bandit problem. He'll catch her up to speed and anyone who wants to hear when things slow down a bit, but right now he's distracted by all the adulation the group is receiving. He does ask after Brodert Quink, and promises to Festus that they can try and track him down later this evening, but that promise is soon forgotten as Neppka consumes the free drink and attention. He is very appreciative of the free room the innkeeper promised, but he'll have to enjoy the room tomorrow night, because he passes out in the common room tonight. Maybe he'll remember his promise to Festus after his hangover passes tomorrow morning.
Okay, when Vako asked about "group loot," I immediately assumed that they meant a list of the loot they've acquired, which gets sold and/or divvied up whenever makes sense. But I feel like Krrys'tall might be meaning "group loot" in a different way?
Without thinking twice, Neppka pockets the coins. When he sees them next, he'll give Vako and Krrys'tall 4 sails each, and he'll give Festus and Candalreth 3 sails each.
Neppka does, however, show the scrap of paper to Sheriff Hemlock. "My friend Festus and I need to go ask Brodert Quink some questions. Since he knows so much, maybe I can ask him what this says. Or if he's heard of these black fist tattoos."
"Oh. Yeah. After we took them down, we were too distracted by the fire to check the bodies." Neppka checks the corpses for anything interesting, starting with the hobgoblins.
Neppka looks at the others to see if they have any theories they want to bring up before answering himself. "No idea. We were just coming back from taking care of something for the innkeeper at the Rusty Dragon when we saw the flames and rushed back. While out there, we saw plenty of Varisians on the road and a few giant bugs, but no signs of goblins. "Is this the only part of town they attacked?"
Neppka asks a likely townsperson if there's any other attackers in the town. If that threat is over, he'll help with running water.
Neppka sees an opening when one of the arsonists turns to flee, and uses the momentum of his spin to lash try and chop the goblin down.
He then takes a moment to shout at the townsfolk who have been watching since before the group arrived. "There's just one little guy left! Save your town!" He points to the purple goblin still spreading the flames before stepping up to the final combatant. ◆ He changes his tactic by wielding his sword with only one hand and uses the other to try and hinder the goblin.
Emboldened knowing that Vako and their healing abilities had his back, Neppka focuses purely on taking down the two goblins attacking him.
Yes, they've said multiple times in the past that they will be upgrading the forums (which probably means replacing them), but none of their language suggests that the forums will go away.
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