Xha the exile's page

"Ha! More folly!"

Xha strides down the corridor.

[dice="Pull!"]1d6+1d8+1[/dice]

{So a plus one to Jarad's roll and a bit of danger. I'll take it.}

Xha hauls up the lariat. Box still attached?

If yes. Drop box back onto spikes. Repeat as needed. If box stops moving, bounce it off the spikes again to be sure and then haul it up. "Hold on Jarad, we can pull you across once I get my rope back."

If no. Xha loops the lariat towards or over Father Jerad. "Tie that tight. We can haul you across." Xha tosses the free end to Cappy (and Quinn if they are about). "When Jarad jumps, pull, we need to keep him off those spikes."

Is the manic box still manic? It took a nasty fall.

You're a barbarian, that's how!

{Good point, Whip it. Whip it good!: 1d10 ⇒ 5}

How am I doing damage with a rope?

Defy Danger to resist being pulled, str: 1d6 + 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (1) + (4) + 2 = 7

"Jarad! Shove!"

{seriously, some aid will put the mimic in the pit.}

Hmmmm I wonder what a forceful and messy lariat looks like?

You go over the pit, box go into the pit. All good

{Knew there was a reason I wanted this..}

Replacing his sword Xha shrugs the lariat into his hand. With a twirl and a throw the looped rope sails over the pits towards the fighting duo. Volley, dex?: 1d6 + 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + (5) + 1 = 8 Hmmm, don't really care who I hit. Snag Jarad and pull him free, catch the box and pull it into a pit. Not sure how to fit this into the move structure.

Ow, armor: 1d8 - 1 ⇒ (3) - 1 = 2

"Out of the room!" Xha vaults towards the doorway (and through it into the hall way if he can) Defy danger if needed: 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (5) + (4) = 9 Either Dex+1(speed) or Str+2(jumping distance) could apply but with that roll it may not matter.

Cappy's hand has barely cleared the jaws before Xha's sword flashes down.

Hassan Chop!: 1d6 + 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (5) + (1) + 2 = 8, Damage: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

*Salutes*

Xha allows Father Jarad and Cappy to enter first.

The barbarian keeps an eye out for Quill.

I think Antionius missed a post.

"Generals, We are going in to scout and find that dammed flower everyone is nattering on about. Your job is to bring these walls down. Go over, go under, go through, I don't care. Of the Golem king puts in an appearance run. See how far from his castle you can bait him. Perhaps while he is chasing you some others can slip behind scout the throne room but I do not need to tell you you jobs. Hell even if the walls repair themselves we will learn how long it takes and that will be a victory of sorts."

Nice toy Cappy

Xha quickly ties the rope into a serviceable lariat.

Xha turns to the hoard.

"Generals, We are going in to scout and find that dammed flower everyone is nattering on about. Your job is to bring these walls down. Go over, go under, go through, I don't care. Of the Golem king puts in an appearence run. See how far from his castle you can bait him. Perhaps while he is chasing you some others can slip behind scout the throne room but I do not need to tell you you jobs. Hell even if the walls repair themselves we will learn how long it takes and that will be a victory of sorts."

To the Hoard.
"We go to find a key, you to tear down the door. Either way we are leaving!

Right off to die now. Did Xha get the rope?

Xha downs a pint of warm ale.

"Ah, yes this is good. The plan as well."

"Antonius, Wrathion, get this rabble together and ready. Find ropes and weapons, hooks, ladders and things to dig with. Find someone who understands fighting with walls and listen to them. We are going to find a dead flower and talk to a painting. Civilized warfare is very strange."

Xha will grab a coil of rope as they leave the camp.

{FrogFoot, Tec-level question. Back when the Greek city states were fighting among themselves the way to defeat walls was to pull them down with ropes and hooks etc. Come the middle ages and better design and the (re)invention of concrete meant you now had to knock down the walls by throwing large rocks at them, poking them with rams or screws or sapping them from below. What era are we in?
It occurs to me that if it is the first we have a lot of folks, plenty of rope, and the are no defenders on the GK walls that anyone has mentioned. GK can't bring the house down if it is already rubble.}

Xha stands and wipes his face with a brown cloth seemingly tangled round his arm.

He looks at the cloth.

"Here, these will do." Xha tosses the dun colored trousers towards Quill.

"Yes I would see this Golem King's fortress with my own eyes."

Xha is still carousing.

Soon he will be drunk and start dancing on the tables and trying to climb the tent wall using only his lips.

{No rush, we NEED this intel and Xha is pants at Humint. And Hello Quill nice to meet you.}

Unfortunately Galadin our rhyming paladin has the best grasp on a MAJOR clue.

{Sweet, good call boss.}

Xha raises a flagon to someone he can't quite see

Xha carouses while the other characters do the real work.

{Just letting you know I am still here. Please carry on.}

{Hey Qadir! Galadin! You still with us?}

To Zim'wa: "True but they will try. With your information on the orchard, pooling what the survivors have learned and the resources in this place we are forging a knife. If we die, we die. We do not choose our fate."

{Note to self, things that need doing:
1)Tally material resources. What goods are freely provided? Food? Healing? Weapons? Horses?

2)Gather information: What do the survivors know about the palace and the GKing? What have the other groups faced on the way here? What have their interaction with the Agents been like?

3)Who are we? How many folks in the horde? What specialties/equipment of note can they bring to the fight?

4)Who are they? Where does the food/gear come from? Can we take control of the supply? It it a way out or a way to bypass the Gking.

NOTE Xha would not even THINK of half of these, or at least not in this way but someone in the horde/camp/group would....}

Thank you Xp marked.

Carouse looks like a risky move anyway. Hey it occurs to me that a Barbarian with Mortal Pleasures as a hunger is the best party planner. So long as they are invited mind you.

Also do you accept my answer to the race move question for this session?

Hate to disagree but...

Carouse
When you return triumphant and throw a big party, spend 100 coins and roll +1 for every extra 100 coins spent.

bolding mine. You need the cash to get in the door.

Unless you are changing the move in which case I nominate Galadrin or Zim'wa to roll the party bones.

Pity we do not have the 100 coins, this would be a great time for a carouse move!

Right well that made my next level harder.
Was planning on using the multiclass moves to get armor from the fighter and ultimately reach armor 3 with Unencumbered Unharmed.

Having Bend Bars on the table changes things.

Must ponder

oh and trading an advanced move for +1xp per session appears to be worth it. It is basically what the Barbarian does after all. Might not be worth it twice though.

{From each according to his ability. To each according to his badassatude. Now if we only had someone nearby to put the General of the Rights head back together. }

Hey Frogfoot rules question can

*Appetite for Destruction
Take a move from the fighter, bard or thief class list. You may not take multi-class moves from those classes.

be used to take a fighter starting move?

more generally do the multiclass moves allow you to take the target classes starting, race or alignment moves always assuming you qualify for the specific move in question of course.

Take the spotlight away please! I tried to steal some food and wound up with a mini-horde. Crap now I need to deal with logistics and personnel and AAAIIIIIEEEEE!

Plenty for Xha to do off screen for a bit besides all the scenery chewing is bad for his diet.

Sotto voce for the folks at home. "And you... you who are watching. Consider this your only warning. We will survive, we are getting out. And when we do we will not stop at destroying the tower. Free us. Stop this and we are friends. Keep watching, do nothing, and the hate distilled and concentrated in your name will come for you. This is your chance, make the best of it."

And Xha deliberately closes his eyes.

"YOU WILL NOT FOLLOW!" Xha bellows back at the centuar.

"You will lead! Now you stand by my side but when this ivory folly is smoke and dust you will stand as General of the Left when we scrub this kingdom from the map."

"And you..." Xha looks at caved skull. As the tent grows silent.
"You, questioned me."
"You challenged me."
"Wounded as you are you dared to pit your strength against mine."

Xha's face splits with a smile.

"You are brave, you think, you care what happens. Please honor me by standing beside me as my future General of the Right."

Good question. I meant to tie my question in to the current events of the gameplay thread - basically, the caved-skull warrior is saying that people from your country are reckless and charge into danger without thinking, implying that thinking isn't their strong suit. Thus he is challenging your intelligence and the intelligence of your tribe. How do you respond?

The big and pretty much unconscious question that Xha asks himself before he responds to a challenge is "Is this person in my tribe?" Here tribe can mean anything from family to clan to adventuring band even to nation. Tribe is also context dependent. Take the Greek or Italian city-states. They fought among themselves incessantly but let the HRE, Pope or the Persians stick their nose in and the former enemies unite to fight the outsider.

In this case Caved-skull is not a member of the tribe so Xha's response was dictated by Xha's immediate concern not to loose face before the tent group. The semi-violent response was calculated to silence the challenge and establish Xha as a person of consequence in this socially chaotic environment. The fact that Xha's response to Caved skull could be the first step in forging the scattered adventures in to a horde was pure gravy.

As far as challenges to his intellect specific Xha follows the Heavy's philosophy: "Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe, maybe. I've yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet."

lol can't wait to see what happens

I think I broke the gm.

{Yes Cappy's back. Hold onto your hat folks. It's gonna be a bumpy ride!}"

"Good question!" Xha moved close to caved skull man and grasps hid pointing finger in his fist. {Defy danger dex if needed: 1d6 + 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + (4) + 1 = 9} "You are right I don't have a plan." Xha increases pressure on the trapped finger as he speaks. "The king has a plan. All of this is orderly and controlled." Xha begins to force the trapped finger back. He keeps caved skull's hand on his own mid line so as to force caved skull to his knees. "The agents have a plan, at least they want us to believe so. But us, the victims, we don't have a plan." At this point caved skull should be on his knees or have a broken finger.

"How can we have a plan? We have only just arrived and we are injured." Here Xha indicates caved skull's skull.

"We mourn our dead companions." Here Xha makes a general sweep with his free hand including everyone in the tent.

"We are distracted!Xha's foot flashes out shattering or at least spilling a keg or wine barrel or spit of food.

"We are controlled!" Xha hauls caved skull to his feet and a bit more forcing the man to stay off balance.

"We are tortured!" Xha exerts more pressure on the trapped finger at the same time lifting the man higher until he is on his toes.

"We are treated like animals!" still holding the height and pressure on caved skull.

"But we are not animals..." Xha tempers his voice, the tone softening as he lowers caved skull back to a comfortable standing position and releases his finger. "..we are free people. We will not be controlled. We will not be tortured. We will not be cut down."

"My friend here is right, I have no plan. Because I do not need one." Xha pauses. His eyes sweep the room. "You have a plan." Xha indicates the centaur. "..and you have one.. and you and you and you ." Xha moves about the tent indicating random people. now from across the tent he points to caved skull. "You! You know that the golem king fights not with arms and skill but with collapsing walls. This! This is the beginning of how we will take this stone thing down."

My people, my overly optimistic people, have a saying The greatest stone is toppled by the wind. We are that wind. The golem king was planned, was designed to face small groups fighting them in his castle. We will force it to fight an army. and leave it no walls to cower behind."

Head is too full of Jack Nicholson's Joker right now. All I can see is Xha headbutting the annoying man and saying "Good question."

I just don't have anything to follow that which would be a problem.
Let me ponder a sec.....

I do not understand what you mean by "direct challenges to your intelligence". Do you mean an insult or belittling based on a perceived weakness of intellect? {"Isn't he stupid nursey?" gotta love Blackadder} Or are you talking about an intellectual challenge like a riddle or puzzle?

Oops error
Alignment XP not marked. I have not eschewed a convention of the civilized world

Race xp was marked.

Leveling done
+1 con

Advanced move: What Is Best In Life
At the end of a session, if during this session you have crushed your enemies, seen them driven before you, or have heard the lamentations of their kinfolk mark XP.

The name was just to good to resist.

Waiting on actually using the new level until downtime/contemplation requirement has been met.

Xha end of session one

Bonds: none are resolved.
Current bonds:
*Cappy is puny and foolish, but amusing to me.
*Galadin’s ways are strange and confusing.
*Father Jarad is always getting into trouble—I must protect them from themselves.
*Qadir shares my hunger for glory; the earth will tremble at our passing

Alignment already marked. Kvak

Group questions.
1, yes. We learned the king in a fink!
2, yes. Between the clay men and the drakes and the trolls one of them had to be notable.
3, no. drat.

so it looks like 2xp +bonds & alignment each correct?

You know this would not be a bad end of session spot.....

(he said aware that Xha only needs 1 more xp to level.)

There was no mention of giving away.

Though to be fair there was also no mention of selling....

Right All property is theft time!

Hey boss when do we get to resupply? Food and adventuring gear could use a reset and I think Cappy is on his last throwing knife.

Fair enough! Being at 9 actually puts you within range of an Aid roll from a teammate to push it to 10, if one of your comrades attempts to help you...

{I must admit that idea did weigh on my decision. :7}

Might be a little meta-gamey but I am not risking that 9. I figure they will just point us at something we want to do anyway and I would really hate to bolix my first change at leading a horde.

Actually Int is the dumpstat.: 1d6 + 1d6 + 0 ⇒ (6) + (3) + 0 = 9

This is why the Paladin should do the rabble-rousing. Side quest incoming!

The warrior strolls up and puts one arm over your shoulder, Xha. Drink heavily colors the odor of his breath. "Of course, friend, I'll educate you on how f%*$ed you all are." he drinks from his mug and smacks his lips. "The Golem King is the size of a giant, with arms that possess the strength of twenty men. Whenever any of our groups attacked, he destroyed the surrounding castle, bringing the whole section of the building down on our heads." he takes a deep pull from his flagon, and then gestures to his skull. "Literally in my case."

He belches, then goes on. "Still, 'snot like he minds destroying his own castle. It's fully rebuilt every time someone steps foot in his chamber, by magic." he scoffs. "We aren't meant to win. Those bastard Agents cut us loose when we failed, and we're stuck here. The Tower of Light's a fuggin' lie. We're all meant to die here, for the amusement of the commoners." his head hangs low. Listeners nearby are nodding, their expressions ashen.

Xha idly shrugs off the drunk as he scans the crowd astonishment clearly showing on his face.

"Do not tell me you believed a civilized politician, you are free people not foolish sheep."

Xha scans the crowd. Head tilted as if examining a horse.

"Or perhaps you are...You walked into the Golem kings castle as though led by a judas goat. Why? Why attack this king in small groups? Why face it on ground of its choosing?

Tear the castle down! Force it onto your ground, harry, bait and trap!
It may have the strength of twenty but there are far more than twenty here. Look to each other. It is one. One foe. One castle. We are many. The lion is torn apart by the wolf, this carved king will fall.
We are free! The rules of Agents and Kings are less than sand, less than nothing to us!
Stand!
Fight!
Show this so called king Vesteri his error in thinking he could hold free people in a lie."

Over at the food tents, the warrior with the caved in skull smiles a rictus grin at Xha. "Oh aye, a fallen bit of masonry from the ceiling crushed me skull and knocked me out cold while the Golem King performed for the audience." At the mention of the word "audience," everybody nearby spits on the ground.

"From what I have seen your path was the correct one. What makes this king so strong? Why have so many been beaten by one thing?"

Over at the food tents, the warrior with the caved in skull smiles a rictus grin at Xha. "Oh aye, a fallen bit of masonry from the ceiling crushed me skull and knocked me out cold while the Golem King performed for the audience." At the mention of the word "audience," everybody nearby spits on the ground.

"From what I have seen your path was the correct one. What makes this king so strong? Why have so many been beaten bu one thing?"

Xha stares openly at the man's wound.

"Did the Golem king do that?" Xha asks.

{Are there other injured? About what percentage of the folks in this tent plus folks in sight outside? With a decent number Xha might try an 'individually weak but united strong' (go union!) speech to convince this rabble to collectively assault the GK rather than allowing it to defeat them piecemeal. Though this kind of thing is more in Galabin's idiom.}