"So remind me...what is the plan when we catch up to the Tengu? They were recovering a religious artifact, and they committed crimes when doing so. Is our goal to recover the item...or arrest the Tengu...or wipe them out as a threat...or try and parlay some sort of agreement between them and Camlin...or wait and see?"
Sioned keeps her head down as she follows the leaders towards their night's shelter.
"I mean, they're certainly treating us as hostile invaders or something. Since we aren't taking the hint that we aren't welcome, I think we need to establish what we plan on doing by pressing on."
{ooc}I'll step up after Fubar is done in a month. I wanted to get a feel for how PbP works before I tried my hand at GMing
LG male human [taldan] paladin of Shelyn 1 [AC 18/12/16; hp 1/10]
It would seem we'll need to capture one of them, then. The paladin considers his words for a moment. Though I will admit, taking it by force and figuring out what it is later may be faster. Based on what we know thus far.
Did you get the invite to the Obsidian Portal campaign, Fubar? If not, it should be on its way.
After moving through the dark for another hour, you come to a place where you guess adventurers stopped - it really is not much more than a dugout part of a hill, but it will give some shelter. It has another of those ice adventurers symobls carved into the wall.
Camp is quickly set, and fubar readies to stand the first watch he offered earlier.
The weather has been mostly clear for most of the day, but many stars are now obscured by clouds.
Ahz gets his bedroll ready. I can take a watch if we need, to cut down on our down time - though normal downtime should be about 10 hours, and normal fast downtime should be about 8 hours - do we want to shorten that to get back on the trail?
I'll let you more martial-minded people figure out the watch schedule - wake me if you need me and/or whenever my wtch comes up. In the meantime, I will stick to one of the main principles I learned in survival training - eat, pee and sleep whenever you get the chance.
And with that, Ahz rolls on his side and immediately sinks into sleep.
Sioned bundles herself up and reclines with her back against a wall. Rusty nests in the sleeping roll with her. She looks a bit uncomfortable with the idea of resting while others keep watch.
"I need some rest, but not so desperately that I can't take a shift if you need me to."
Gnosh flings out his bedroll and says, "I'll take third watch. See you in the morning," and slumps over, huddled in blankets, dreaming of nothing but ice and snow.
{ooc}oooh, a fencing ranger :). Fubar, think you can be ready by Monday or so? Or we can give it to the following monday if you need more time to prepare?
Fubar stands the first two hour watch. While the others slumber, he keeps an eye on all directions. During this time, the snow begins. Unfortunately, the falling white flakes against the darkness keep reminding Fubar of fighting and stars, and this keeps him fairly distracted. Luckily, nothing untoward happens during his watch.
Andreas stands the next watch, and sees nothing more than thickening snow.
Gnosh takes the third shift, practicing moving around the small dugout quietly while listening for any noise at all. The sfot fall of the snow is all the meets his ears (and a bit of snoring).
Caydee takes the fourth watch. While offering to take the dark shift - in reality at that latitude, at that time of year, it is pitch black for most of the night, until the sun comes up basically. Nothing happens on Caydees shift either, though the snow has mounded up well around the opening of the dugout.
After the casters has slept for 8 hours, they wake to begin their daily spell rituals, and to cook breakfast, and to let those nice enough to keep watch round out their 8 hours of shuteye.
It is still pitch black out, even more so due to the heavy cloud cover. The snow is not lessening - in fact, if anything, it is thickening even more.
After breakfast, you are all gathered around and ready to continue, or discuss what to do next.
After we complete our spell rituals, before we prepare breakfast, I want to take a look and see if the Tengu passed this way, and if there is any chance of following their tracks now.
Hey Shae, any chance you can pop some light around here for me while I check for tracks?
Survival/tracking check:
Take 20 to find tracks - 20+10 = 30
You are able to find the Tengu tracks after a bit of searching. Unfortunately, the deepening snow will make the tracks next to impossible to follow until daylight, and maybe not after that for very long, depending on what the weather does.
Gnosh gobbles up the remainder of his breakfast. "You want to talk to the feathered ones, fine by me. Hope you got some pretty words." He waves to Caydee, "Lead on, lady, or if you want, my eyes are fairly keen in the dark."
Sioned scoops up Rusty and nestles him in her cloak. "That'll keep you out from under orcish foot." She follows along in the center of the group, grateful that she doesn't have to trail-break through the deepening snow.
She will cast light as needed unless the party wants to remain inconspicuous in the darkness.
Well, Ice Tongue Pass is what, another 4-5 days march. I don't know where the Tengu live, so I really don't know if they are heading back home or to the site of the original find or...I just don't know. I'd rather stick to the trail if possible, but if we lose it I guess Ice Tongue Pass is our next best guess.
And with that, I track on (I will take 20 to re-find the tracks if I lose them, whenever I can).
"If we want to get in contact with the Tengu, maybe we should put up some fireworks or something and get their attention. Make it obvious that we are coming and draw them out of the woodwork. Then again...that might just give them license to set up a nasty ambush." She shrugs and hums to herself while trudging on.
She also glances at Fubar to check if he is wearing an eyepatch over his right eye.
First, let's see what the weather does...three sets of rolls for the day (morning/midday/evening), first roll = basically what happens (1-extreme worsening, 2-4 - fairly worse, 5-10 - a bit worse, 11-16 - a bit better, 17-19 - fairly better, 20-extremely improvement, second roll = how much better or worse (higher number = more) in the range of the first die. If both first 2 dice 1's or 20's, roll again, and a 3rd 1 or 20 includes bizarre/unseasonable weather (sudden melting, ice-age level freeze, etc). I do random rolls for such things when weather is important but I do not have a specific plan for the scenario.
Morning: 1d20 ⇒ 91d20 ⇒ 13, 9 = slight worsening, 13 = moderate level = a bit heavier snow
Midday: 1d20 ⇒ 31d20 ⇒ 5, 3=fair worsening, 5 = not very much
Evening: 1d20 ⇒ 31d20 ⇒ 4, 3=fair worsening, 4 = not very much
Now, we'll do random encounter rolls for the day. What number constitutes an encounter depends on where you are and how many random thins are around. Where you are, in a snow-storm = not very likely. I fluctuate the numbers, and the number of times I roll, depending on circumstances. In this case, I think a 1:20 for morning, 1:20 for midday and 2:20 for evening.
And sometimes an extreme roll (1 or 20) overrides later rolls as well - for example the 20 I rolled in the morning would tell me that there won't be any encounters for the day. I'm telling you all this just so you get an idea of my DM style. I'm still going to make you roll perception checks because I normally won't tell you about these rolls :). And I'll generally get your perception rolls first anyway.
{ooc}
Everybody give me 3 perception checks (except Fubar, I'll just use the 3 you already rolled).
Ahz and Caydee give me 12 more tracking rolls each.
The snow starts falling more heavily as the sun comes up. Throughout the brief day it increases steadily. As darkness descends on another long northern winters night, the snow continues increasing and the wind blows a bit stronger, making travel and sight both difficult and uncomfortable.
"Is this snow tah be tha end o us?" Fubar regards the others more knowledgable than himself in such matter "Or is this but a warm spring day?""I always knew on day the light and white would consume me!"
LG male human [taldan] paladin of Shelyn 1 [AC 18/12/16; hp 1/10]
I thought I was familiar with the colds of the region from my time in Camlin.
Andreas casts his gaze across the gorge in various directions, trying to discern the terrain through the falling snow. That said, I feel much as you do, Fubar; it would seem the difference in climate between these mountains and Camlin is of a similar scale to that between Camlin and Crescent Harbor.
Sioned buries deep in her cloak and slogs on, muttering to herself about the questionable intelligence of those who choose to live in a land of ice and snow.
Most of the party remains relatively vigilant through the day, though the ever-increasing snowstorm bots out most sight and sound. You press on even after darkness falls, almost a complete blackness. Sioned is required to light areas several times in order to keep moving forward. After several long pauses in the night to re-find the trail, the trackers call it a day. Andreas noticed in the morning {ooc}being a little nice here since nobody specifically asked about it another ice adventurer sign at the last resting place with the rough distance to the next. As the snow piles higher, you manage to find the next resting place. Unfortunately, it is also merely a large, natural rock lean-to, and has high mounds of snow around the entrance.
{ooc}I will assume a 'standard watch order' now - let me know if it is ever otherwise. It goes something like Fubar, Andreas, Gnosh, Caydee, Ahz/Sioned. Everyone roll 4 perception checks for your turn at watch. In the meantime, let's see what the weather does overnight...
The snow slows down a bit, then slowly slows down a bit more, then returns to its heavy levels of falling. Leaving the shelter will require a bit of digging in the morning, when the snow appears to be trying to fill the gorge.
{ooc}Tomorrow Fubar takes over as GM. To finish off my GM duties - **Gnosh**, please try to get that background in by monday night, and register on Obsidian Portal if you haven't. **Everyone**, tell me what you learned - this can be something funny ('don't drink more than your body weight in dwarven ale, bad things happen'), moralistic ('Elves don't like their ears pierced with arrows from their friends'), personal growth ('Snow really makes me want to kill somebody!'), etc. Try for something specific to both the preceding game session (since I started GMing) and specific to your character in it. I'll try to come up with an example with Ahz. Post these by Monday night as well. I will give out xp on Tuesday.
By the way - my turn was a bit combat-oriented and we pulled off combats fast. That's good when it can work, but it usually does not go that fast with play-by-post. And that is fine too.
Sioned came to Camlin to hide and to isolate herself. She is surprised to find that she can rely on what are basically strangers to keep her safe and is discovering that she missed this sort of companionship and camaraderie.
She is also learning that she is effectively snow-blind and might as well read a book while walking in line with the party or standing watch.
LG male human [taldan] paladin of Shelyn 1 [AC 18/12/16; hp 1/10]
Perception Skill Checks
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21
Andreas learned that though the explorers and guides of Camlin are trustworthy, they seem to have a fondness for exaggeration; either they intentionally made their shelters in the Gorge sound like more than they are, or they they really need to visit more civilized lands to the south. Either way, the paladin will be prepared to conduct any future conversations with them on an equal footing once he returns to town.
{ooc}Good going on waht you learned - though one last request for that - can you summarize it all in basically 1 sentence? For example, Sioned, something like 'I came to the north to get away from people, and now I miss them', or 'Keeping watch is easy, just watch the pretty snowflakes!'. Andreas, something like 'I need to open a string of ice-based inns here, because these sleeping places suck!'. Basically, try to reduce it to a sentence. Great job!
Ahz and Sioned wake up in the morning, and go through the same ritual of spell needs, locating the trail from yesterday, and preparing breakfast. The snow is still falling thick and heavy, and will soon make the trail impossible to find if it continues...
...and you feel a strange shift in the multiverse as GMs rotate...
Caydee, Fubar and Gnosh, still need what you learned, and Gnosh your background and join obsidian portal if you get time.
