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You know your friends are hardcore PbPers when they point out new posts on your own campaign threads. This is the only place on these messageboards I'm ever likely to get to play an artificer, and in a well-run game to boot. Count me in if this thing ever starts up again. Perhaps do a bit of a reset and have the Iron Carnival reach the next town, dropping off the character of players who've decided to move on. We might even be able to put out feelers for new recruits.
Scratch that, lol. One of my old players who previously dropped out has signed back up. This calls for a short solo adventure parallel to the main game so that he can be written back in. I think I spoke too soon about helping MG out. I don't really have much time spare myself. Sounds like you've got it covered anyway.
I just finished a big chunk of prep for the PbP I'm running at the moment. The players have got quite a few decisions to make, so it will be low-maintainence conversation and descriptions for a couple of weeks. If you like, Monkeygod, I could start working on my take on this haunted village the band is about to explore - perhaps relieve you of some of the workload of the adventure? Is everyone else ok with this idea?
Back at the camp: "We'll certainly make plenty of kills. As for making a killing...treking to Varasia is not going to make us rich. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I figure the way you make money in this game is to find a nice big war and throw in your lot with one side or the other. By the time we've bought gear and food we'll be lucky to break even from taking odd jobs." Torque looks down the road toward the fire the other travellers are camped round. "We'll be doing it to keep folk like that safe. Reckon it's worth it?"
In the light of the conversation I just had with Fury in character, and given I haven't been in a fight since I levelled up, can I swap dodge out for point blank shot? You're right MG, it wasn't the best choice...
Torque shakes Fury's hand. "I can tell you now, this band is really going to be something"
"If you can coax such a tempermental machine to shoot true, it would not be too much of a stretch to teach you to work on of these devices. Learn the basics of technomancy and I could build you a rig to make that gun hit as hard as a cannon." "And in return, perhaps you could teach me to fire one of my own. I could use the punch that an alchemical cartridge gives"
"Nah, not a problem. If you guys started working out how to do what I do you'd be liable to stop paying me. Come to think of it that gun does look a bit...unstable. I guess you know when to pull the trigger and when it's been jarred out of position? The exact measure of powder? The sound the hammer makes when it locks true and the sound it makes when it won't strike hard enough?"
"The mana wastes would sadly shut down my machines as surely as they hamper the powers of the others. They shape arcane potential in the same way as...you know what, never mind" "They're like your gun in one respect, though. You don't need magical ancestry or divine favour to get use out of them. I could hand this gauntlet to you and you'd have a good chance of getting it to work."
"Well strike me down. I studied under a wanderer from Alkenstar as well. Alk was his name. He is the one who invented all the arcane machines I carry - I just build them to his schematics. I'll tell you this for free - if I was given a choice between going home to Rahadoum and travelling to Alkenstar, I'd be bound for those mana wastes without a second thought."
Back at the camp and without much else to do, Torque climbs up onto the wagon where Fury is keeping watch. "Where did you get that firearm from anyway? Alkenstar is a long, long way from here. Is someplace else building them now?"
"Your threats are slowly escalating, Fury. Soon you'll be promising to sell children's organs to zoos for meat" "Good luck, boss. Best make it quick."
"Does anyone have a horn or bell that could be used to signal for help? Is there such a thing somewhere on the caravan?" If there is a church spire visible in the village: "If not, we could listen for the sound of that church bell. Perhaps you will be able to retreat to there but not back to the caravan."
Torque keeps his voice calm and even "Keep calm, Ma'm. We'll fetch him out. What is his name? Could you give a decription of him?"
"That doesn't sound safe in the slightest. I reckon we should try and skirt it and keep going."
Torque also helps Fury get the caravan off the road. "Hells, we're at the field execution stage already? There I was thinking you had a soft side Fury"
"Someone who knows they can't get away with doing the same to one of us. Don't you think this looks more and more like delaying tactics? Something to get us to move more slowly and cautiously? Either that, or this is a mind game played by a being even more arrogate than I currently sound" He looks over the horses. "We're probably going to have to reimberse the merchant for these. Anyone know the going rate for a horse in these parts?"
"Those rocks could be better placed, but if we start building an improvised fortress the whole 'complacency' ruse is going to be a bit thin"
"Like Valen says, feign vulnerability to draw them out. If they don't bite, ignore them."
Torque jumps off the wagon, picks up the discarded musket and goes after Fury "We're being paid to STOP the caravan being ransacked Fury!" He catches one of the objects being thrown onto the road "I don't have a clue what holy water is, or how you think it will help, but I DO know..." He glances over his sholder at Acune and lowers his voice "I DO know that begging for holy anything is never the best way out of a tight corner. No matter what's out there we'll fight it with our own guts and our own steel. I'm not saying we're safe. What I'm saying is that even when there's no way out but down you don't pray, you fight" He thrusts the stock of the musket at the gunslinger
Torque makes sure he keeps his voice down when replying to Valen " We should be careful not to let these things slow us down or tire us out too much - if they haven't attacked yet, maybe they haven't got the strength to. I like the idea of setting an ambush in camp tonight, but if it doesn't draw anything out we should just press on as normal." He then beckons to Helen "Perhaps one of our new allies will have an idea what these things are. If there are no local rumours, it's likely they're linked to this buried entity"
What the Hells are you doing with Dodge?! Makes no sense man! I get all the crafting feats and a good selection of metamagic feats from the class. No sense in taking feats to boost damage output - that's not my role. Also, I was thinking of going for Mobility before I spotted Healing Run.
Would it be ok to take the following feat next time I get one: Healing Run (third party content) I know I'm playing a third party class, but I felt I should still check case-by-case.
"It'll take too long Fury. I'd say eight hours to break down what I'm currently working on and repurpose it into a toxin supressor, and even then we're talking delaying, not curing. We need to get a stock of potions and tonics together for this kind of thing." He looks to Valen "It's close enough to sunrise, perhaps we should get moving. If there's gribblies about we should be guarding, not napping."
"Fury took a shot at some kind of monsterous humanoid. And...looks like he's off to look for it" Torque calls after Fury "Are you sure going solo is a good idea? Whatever it is it's quick!"
"Hells! What are you firing at Fury!? Torque springs to his feet alongside the rifleman, trying to spot whatever it is the rifleman attacked. Of course, it's already gone.
"Indeed. May we have many more. That said, where did you learn that song you sang earlier?
Torque is more intent on chatting than keeping watch
Torque will spend his watch rebuilding the applicator gauntlet now that Fury's illness has cleared up.
"Hah" Torque shakes Valen's hand "I've got no interest in leadership Valen. I've got plenty to be getting on with, I don't need to be worrying about issuing commands as well." Torque then lowers his voice "For example: a leader has to make sure recruits can be trusted. We've got two armed women along with us who we barely know. They're great, though, aren't they? When we tired from the road they're cute tavern girls serving us pancakes. Then we get ready to march, and by the way they're seasoned soldiers ready to back us up. It all seems a bit convinient. Barely anyone in the village mentioned the bandits - one of whom we killed - who we know came from there. I don't know what Eristil is but it sounds like community is a buzzword for people who follow it." He clenches and unclenches the shock gauntlet "Volunteering to join us is a safe way of slitting our throats to get some payback for our spot of backwoods law enforcement. If they'd tried knives or poisen in the tavern and botched it they'd have had a squad of angry mercs loose right in the middle of their precious village. If they try it out here, they can just leg it into the wilds." Torque glances over at Miri, who's no doubt still a picture of tough innocence "Or maybe we really have got a couple of allies who are battle ready free of charge. At least, we'd better hope they're battle ready because the first time we'll find out they're a liability is when the dead claw their way up for round two"
"Sure thing, boss" Torque follows Valen to one side.
Back at the camp, Torque thinks back to when they first learned of Miri and Helena's home village - when they broken through the bandit's barricade. Gremm strides up to the older highwayman and calling upon his father's wisdom and strength neatly cuts the bandit in two. "Of course we could give them a couple scars. Every good story involving a fight for your life should leave you with at least one." A wolfish predatory smile spread across Valen's face as his hand begins to glow sickly green and small drops of acid fall to the ground. What we done for these people, really? We killed one of their fellows and then came back from Grimatar's keep with an unbelievable sounding tale. And yet here they are travelling with us - heavily armed "I am a devout follower of Erastil, and he teaches us to always be prepared to defend our community. It's why I chose to accompany you on this trip." We're a band of outsiders who killed a member of their community. And we're about to bed down for the night and trust them to watch over us? Torque straps on his shock gauntlet, takes out a screwdriver and starts fiddling with the casing. It looks like he's maintaining it, but in fact it's ready to be triggered. He than walks through the tents and sits down with Miri and Nine-Tail. "Evening you two. Thanks again for taking point. Nine-Tail didn't hold you up did he Miri?"
"You're sure something will crop up? You're the head of the squad now Valen, I'm afraid you can't just wait for patrons to come to you. Don't worry, I'll happily help you with the prospecting. There's bound to be another escort gig in Vieland that'll take us east. We've just got to either find a merchant who plans to profit in taking a dangerous road." Torque grins "Failing that, find a merchant who'd immedately organize an eastward trip when offered such competent and reasonably priced protection. In fact...how about we go and quiz our current patron for contacts?"
"Whatever we do, it will need funds. I'm not saying for a second we shouldn't be undertaking Grimatar's mission - some things are more important than gold. Nonetheless, to stay effective we'll need revenue. We should keep our ears peeled for quick jobs whilst we travel." When Fury approaches Torque takes out what appears to be the mask of his condensate syphon with a could of small vials and pumps attached to it. "Take a deep breath through this on my count" With that, he stirs the mechanism into motion and when Fury breaths in the fresh smelling gas that fills the mask his fever diminishes to nothing.
Torque's device will keep Fury right as rain for two and a half hours, then the mask suddenly starts to smell foul and ceases to work.
"Just a sec, boss, it sounds like Fury is delerious. That said, that was a surprisingly pretty song. Perhaps it's the non-zealous girls we've now got on board, eh?" Torque calls to the next wagon "FURY, YOU STILL FEELING ROUGH? THE TREATMENT'S UP AND RUNNING!" He then turns back to Valen "Horses and wagons take a bit of beating. At the end of the day getting stuff from A to B is about how much energy you can release. There was talk in Alkenstar, theories mostly, of using high pressure steam from burning coal to push machinery but by the time you factor in all the inefficencies a horse looks like a teleport scroll by comparison. Here's what I reckon. Magic is the ultimate power source, but there's no reason you can't use mechanisms to get more out of it. Exactly how that would be done, I'm not quite sure. I am all up for any research you may have planned."
"I'm afraid raw condensate won't do a lot to help, Fury. However..." Torque seems to be talking to himself now "I could filter it so that it was less viscous...that way it would influence your organs rather than your flesh..." He takes out his toolkit, removes the gauntlet from his arm and start dismantling it. "This will take a few hours, but no worries. I want to see if this works. I don't suppose you want to donate a seive to the march of progress Miri?"
"And, all jokes aside, having Valen in charge might not be such a bad idea. We're sellswords, and I reckon he'd make a pretty good sword salesman." He stops working for a moment and looks over the table with concern "Are you alright, Nine-Tail?"
"Agreed. We should get back on the road tomorrow morning sir, once you've had a bit of time to recuperate. We may not have much time."
"Sorry to hear it sir. Still, it's good to get out clean. I've got no problems with Valen taking over. Ol' Showgalley will make a fine ringmaster."
"It would help if we had any idea how long we've got before this rising evil breaks free. That said, I like Valen's plan. If the Hold of Belkzen is mountinous we probably won't even save that much time travelling though it compared with skirting south."
"That sounds about right. Does anyone know much about the lands we'll have to travel through to reach Varisia? We should avoid warzones - we might not be able to resist getting stuck in."
"Or, you know, just do it for me" Torque follows in Gremm's wake, towards the inn that has become the Carnival's de facto HQ.
"I've got no qualms with that. Someone help me move Corpral Two-Bear"
Been busy for the last couple of days. Still checking regularly, however.
"Exactly. What's a few dozen miles to the east before travelling five hundred or more to the west? Besides, Vieland is the best place in this whole region to buy supplies, horses and perhaps even find a larger convoy to roll with. Getting to Varasia will need more preperation than working out which way is west and starting walking. Except in Nine-Tail's case, it seems"
Once Two-bear's leg is set, Torque continues "Finding Grimatar was a ghost was probably the least surprising part of the encounter. He spun us a hell of a tale about some unspeakable evil he's got contained under his keep. He needs someone to try and find a way of dealing with it, which apparently means heading to Varasia to get some intel from a scholar there." He looks to any members of the party still around two-bear before continuing "As crazy as it sounds, after seeing the place we're inclined to believe him. We've happened across a serious, serious problem here and we might be the only team equipped to deal with it. Sir, I reckon you should consider taking the Carnival east once our current contract is fulfilled."
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