Varus Arminius's page

Are we waiting on a call of which is Primary and which secondary?

Since we're at max morale, and since supply and Intel are greatly desired, beseems obvious that the Assault will be secondary and the Recon primary.

@Karina: Ah, okay, I was going to say something dumb like "don't we get two specialists, so we get three in the Primary" but Doyen is down, so he's not going, so we don't get him.

Should we coordinate what Special Ability we all take for our Rookies? Wouldn't we be so embareassed if we all took Home Cookin'? =)

Are we waiting on a call of which is Primary and which secondary?

Since we're at max morale, and since supply and Intel are greatly desired, beseems obvious that the Assault will be secondary and the Recon primary.

"Ah! Good morrow to you!" Commander Varus chirps cheerfully as the Kaviya the Marshall and Ze Quartermaster the Quartermaster enter his tent.

The tent is sparse and serviceable, giving only faint hints that this is where large decisions are made. The map before him is a folding board on which rough coal strokes are made indicating terrain, possible routes of movement, and enemy units.

"Terribly sorry we haven't any tea, but the damned undead burned all the earl grey and it'd be a war crime to force colonial bohea on my two commanding officers, what!" he says buoyantly in the style of all his people.

"Top shelf work at the bridge, all. Crashed the thing down proper and popped the greyskins in the nose to boot!" he says by way of compliment. It doesn't matter that there was no officer actually in the action. If the troops assigned gained victory, that means the Marshall planned it right, and the Quartermaster outfitted them right. The rest is trickle-down.

"We'll have to take advantage of the momen'try pause and move camp soon. We must needs keep up our supply, so might be the south road to be the most meat.

Mind you, we'll need some eyes-on for the road we take, so I'd conjure we ought do some recon aforehand, what?"

I think we're still waiting on the GM to come up with the missions open to us?

Honestly though, I was leaning against doing so anyway, because the rules for a lone alchemist is brutal. Essentially, they have trouble making progress and pick up corruption very quickly, compared to having multiples.

So, I viewed using Sonia on the project to be something she can work on in the mean time, and viewed the 1 corruption to be not too bad a trade off.

I am really rooting for Sonia. My first instinct is that we should totally have an Alchemist just so Sonia can follow in old Gurgle' footsteps, but on the other hand being able to play Sonia would be amazing.

Am Confused now.

Dean C, are you going back on your initial instinct about getting the alchemist? It sounds like you were for having one alchemist, and now less so.

I just need to know if we're giving up on Alchemists in case it comes up in a future mission.

as The Quartermaster that we take the Southern roads.

Southern road it is then!

A Commander is supposed to ask the GM:

Initial pressure. Ask the GM how much pressure remains after the
first mission.
Initial time. Ask the GM how the first mission affected the time you
have left to make it to Skydagger.
Initial intel. ...you seem to indicate this is zero.

I looked over the places/options, and right now I'm thinking our plan could be the long Northern road. Since Pressure resets at every movement, it seems that moving more often will keep the Pressure lower. Also, at fat, rich cities, the temptation would be strong to sit and wait for too long and then get nabbed.

Excellent!

@Kaviya: Yes, go ahead and take Marshall. Not only do you have more creativity, intellect, skill, charisma, writing acumen, cleverness, good judgement, imagination, intuition, and talent than me, but I'm pretty sure you have more time. =) Go ahead and take Marshall and I'll make sure to get everyone's expectations up for a myriad of colorful backgrounds and NPC interactions!

Just go ahead and Copy and Paste the data in Varus' sheet. I think the only number you need to track is moral, and right now that's 8, which is good.

All the 6 squads are there, with their bonuses. We've taken the Ravens out for a spin and I've made some notes on their established fiction. As you role play them, try to keep them in mind.

"And the good Brother here has vanquished Eater, so it looks like it's one a-piece for the both of you! We seem to have a good contest here!" Marshall Varus chips cheerfully, uncaring if Shreya responded or not. It was good for the troops to hear that the not only chosen could overcome the enemy's elite.

It was also good for the Stags to get some good Shreya time. Bloody downer of a bunch, the lot. If it took being in radius to divinity to give them some bloody smiles, then all the better I say!

Marshall!

Protective! Bold! Cautious! Stylish! Crisp!

I'm modeling him largely on Field Marshall Montgomery mainly because that's the first name that comes to mind when I hear 'Marshall'.

Bump?

Varus, ever a student of a good martial display, nods and complies. He selects what he thinks is a good bolt and loads the spear-sized projectile, preping Himalt for another go.

"That seems a prudent course, and we have no love for either the door or this workshop. Commence as to firing!"

"Are you able to tell what it does, Gal?"

"Alright, good point." Varus replaces the cork and 'walks' the barrel a bit further away, where it'll be more out of the way, should something bad happen.

Of note, were you to run this again, it might be worth considering just how much danger to put in. Having the "8 billion orcs are -just- over there" thing, combined with the warning of PC death, made us not just paranoid, but also cautious.

And that place where we cross the ally, needing to make stealth checks, and/or perception checks...I don't think anyone really understood that, and having to cross that both coming in and coming out...just slowed things down. The people who really didn't want to do stealth still had to, twice, and even granting advantage to +0 isn't a good feeling.

So, having mega-danger, mixed with an admittedly slow pace, just let the caution drag things down.

Maybe take out the highly visible orc army? To me it just seemed like a thing that "oh we'll have to level up before we can deal with that".

Yeah, I know we didn't have to go in the back way, but the front looked very guarded, and that checkpoint was just gonna get more guarded as things went on.

IMHO. YMMV.

Leveled to 3rd.

Well hell. Alright let's do this thing. =)

As Anders mentions that there's something odd about the floorboards, Varus says, "Do you think we should dig them up? See what they hide?"

Varus whistles softly at the impressive technical apparatus in evidence.

"Well! This is certainly beyond the pervue of the common orc! And, from the...art...in evidence, it seems that the good scientist is no fan of the orcs himself!

...not to mention we could stop breaking his crossbows...."

Varus starts looking around in the crates and barrels, verifying their inventory.

Then he peers through the small holes in the far door. He suspects them to be murder-holes, or traps of some sort, and it's important to determine what end of the hammer they are on!

Perception!: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

Varus stands behind Sharla, ready to rush in or aid, should the room beyond be occupied.

Assuming Himalt is still aiding, and there's no reason to think that he's not, you can continue to get Advantage.

Can...can you try again? I don't think it's disallowed, so long as we're not under threat?

Varus looks on and sighs audibly as Anders' strength seems...less than overwhelming.

"Himalt, would you mind lending your vigor's aid? Never kill a thing once when you can kill it twice, eh?"

Assuming Himalt aids Anders, then Advantage on that roll. XP

Varus' curiosity is piqued by the revelation of the new room. "I would council that we try to take down that false wall. It looks weak enough that Anders should be able to hack through it in a trice!

Have at it!"

For his part, Varus keeps a sharp eye on the only door out, making sure they are not taken unawares.

Then he thinks of it and suggests that Himalt do the same.

As Sharla bends over to -another- trap, Varus gets to the opposite corner of the room, putting space between she and him.

But as the door swings out, the trap apparently sprung, he rushes forward, a healing spell forming on his lips.

Waiting with baited antici.............................................................
...................................................................
...................................................................
....................................................................
..................................................pation!

Hmmmm. Fair 'nuff.

With that said, since it's no secret that I think blind recruiting is for suckers, would any of you know anyone who would want to play in something this ambitious?

Ooooo. Some actually useful Warlock perks! I'm not sure how to process that...

Anyway, hey, guys, I know that we all agreed to this being a slow-moving campaign, and I think that it works, since we all had agreed to it beforehand.

I'm in another game that is also slow-moving, but is not so gifted with such understanding players.

So, YOU ARE ALL INVITED to this thing.

Go ahead and post in either Discussion or Recruitment. Whichever suits your fancy. (you too, GM Grey. =)

Also, the GREAT news is that the DM is letting us make our own races! (Squee!!) And as far as I can tell he doesn't actually have many restrictions. I think he's more focused on story and exploration than combat anyway, so it doesn't have to worry about being unbalancing. (Oh, yeah, so, it is Pathfinder, but whateves, right?)

Hope to see you all there! =)

sry. been sick. still am.

Varus comes back into the room, nodding to himself at his wisdom of staying outside. Sizing up Sharla's injuries, he shakes his head. "Fah! If you had suffered something egregious, I would spend grace upon thee, but such a scratch as this does not warrant the expenditure.

Still, now that we have that out of the way, perhaps we can move on to meatier subjects."

Varus assists as he can, peering about and making helpful suggestions...whether wanted or not.

Aiding, giving Advantage to Sharla so you can roll again for both of those. Also, sorry, but if you're not down by at least 8 hp we'd likely waste hp.

Varus nods as he motions Himalt to join him just outside the doorway.

"It's okay, I prepared Healing Word for just this kind of emergency," he says, nonchalantly discussing the chance to rob Death of a prize.

Varus starts working on dismantling the crossbow traps. Both to make sure they don't accidentally get reset while they're in the room, as to make sure they're not here if they have to leave and come back -again.

"Here, hold these," he says as he hands the crossbows to Himult to stuff in his pack.

They're paying the guy. May as well let him do his job.

"Oh what the hell?!?" Varus exclaims at the overly-deadly display of a multitude of traps. "Oh confound! Why bother even having a door anyway? A large lock is one thing, and a single mechanism, a single crossbow or the like is unusual, even in the worst neighborhood! But this? This is excessive bordering on delusion!"

Varus observes the now-defunct front door lying prone in the street. "Well, I can not say that I morn for the loss of the door. It died in the line of duty, but it's death was as tragic as it was unavoidable."

Varus takes a position next to Anders, castling Light on the room to make the searching easier.

Varus has neither skill nor interest in the opening of unknown doors, so he leaves those decisions to his betters.

In truth he'd just as soon once more unto the breech go and fight some orcs in the open, but he's in the minority on such an opinion and so continues to defer.

Varus nods. "Oh absolutely. Onward!"

He looks at Anders, meaningfully, as if expecting the warrior to lead the way.

In fact, it's pretty plain that he expects Anders to lead the way.

Varus goes over to the hole dug into the ground. "What think you of this? Perhaps when next we come here we can just utilize this hole to climb under the fence and so not worry ourselves about sneaking past yon alley?"

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23
Stealth: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (8) + 0 = 8

Varus keeps a sharp eye out, again playing the part of watchtower as the party sneaks across of the alleyway.

He throws a series of hand signals to Anders, giving him good tips of how best he could stealth across.

The cleric, of course, simply does the best he can, and hopes the others are more stealthy.

Varus is sorely tempted to see how Meesk is doing...but he doesn't want to get roped into taking the time for a conversation, and 'twould be bad to risk any noise she might make. He promises himself that he'll check up on her on the way out.

"Well, mental note that we'll need to ask around about any relations. Ah, Himalt, know you of any that might lay claim to a drop of blood from this noble house?"

The odds that someone might have such a tie is high, but he doubted they'd find them quick.

Shall we onward to the alchemist's door?"

Ah, yes. Not encountering the watchers at the security checkpoint along the road, going through the fence, through the cemetery, to the trapped thingy with the stuff. And also the things.

"Well, we've had good luck going in through the cemetery before, I see no reason to change now.

OK, let's try it. And I want to visit the architect's sacrophogus.

Let's get to choppin'!

I think we're at consensus that we want to do the same route we've been doing, through the cemetery.

The question still undecided is if we want to sneak around still, or just do the stealth rolls again once we get to the alchemist's door.

"Do we want to sneak around, as we did before? I recall that went quite poorly.

This time, let us set up in an advantageous position and let them come! We can either choose the time and place of the fight, or wait until something in that alchemist lab blows up and then brings the whole horde down on us to catch us wounded with our pants down!"

Rule of Two: When two members of the party agree on doing a thing, that thing happens. =3

"Well, we've had good luck going in through the cemetery before, I see no reason to change now.

Also, with us at full strength, we can draw some of those cursed orcs after us and thin their number more!"

Awwwwww. That's nice. P.S. Anyone else think that the DM is a little -too- excited about someone dying? Anyone get that impression? =P

Varus nods and tips his flagon back, drowning the last gulp of mead and smacking his lips. "Well, by the Powers that seems like a good piece we've done here. Well, are we ready to go put in a day's work?"

Oh! Well THAT was interesting!

I've always thought the Red Wizards of Thay were hella cool. I know they're evil, but, but, but...they're dressed in red!!!1!

(It doesn't take much to impress me. =)

Well, I guess that's easier than my convoluted plan anyway.

Sharla? Still with us?

Might he just as easily use Baldur's Gate? =)

Um, Anders, maybe make a roll? I'm sure between you and Gal mind-talking you can come up with some city car away?

As you wish. So long as it's distinctive (one eye, long scar, distinctive helmet, etc..), so that Varus can say that even though he only saw/heard of him briefly, but would "recognize him anywhere".

We've got a shapechanger, and a mind-talker, and we need a plan to deceive someone? Done!

Galenus can come up with this idea and then disseminate it. I'm going to assume that he fills Varus in on something about "Zhents are a crime family" or somesuch.

1) Sharla excuses herself and leaves. She goes outside and changes into an orc with one eye and a bad attitude.

2) Varus checks on something, then comes back, feigning panic, saying that he has just seen an evil-doer. "Indeed, 'twas Lord Borak the Despoiler himself. I caught High Father Joakim complaining about him once. Said he was a highly-placed muckity-muck in something called the "Zhentarium." He might have very well followed me here, gents, so be on your guard, and mayhap he shall pass us by."

3) Gal looks to Martin and, on his and Martin's behalf, offers to "handle" Lord Borak for Varus, to Varus' infinite gratitude.

4) Gal leads Martin out of the bar where Sharla, as Lord Borak, confronts the two, and communicates that Martin is wanted badly in *insert some town far away from here*. And he'd best leave now, on pain of death.

How's that? =)

Galenus, what's your plan here? What are we ultimately doing with Martin?

Honestly my assumption was that we'd kill him, since he's come out an an Agent of Evil. To that end, getting him half an hour out of the city would be a fine idea.

Or we could have a friendly drink and then just leave the city. But leaving him alive almost guarantees that he'll cause mischief. Either turning the city against us, or ambushing us directly. Or maybe hiring some guys of his own and just waiting for us to trudge back in to town low on hp and spells.

So...?

Varus nods in understanding as the warlock's message is conveyed. He then thinks he shouldn't have nodded at nothing verbal, but too late now.

He keeps his eyes on a swivel, tracking the group with Martin, and looking out for Brayjio to do his run-by and scan Martin.

I feel that I'm mostly staying on the sidelines for this one, so that 1) I'm even less in danger of appearing to spam posts and 2) since the character is low-charisma, his best play is to stay silent. Had I made the history roll, I might have a different tack, but the RNG decided it was not to be. =)