gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Aug 27, 2019 22:11:05 GMT
I would rather stick with the forum rather than invest in multiple social media gimmicks.
I think Dave has gone up another level in curmudgeon.
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Post by zaphodbeebledoc on Aug 28, 2019 13:02:27 GMT
I would rather stick with the forum rather than invest in multiple social media gimmicks.
I'm not too sure what Twitch is, but I wouldn't describe email as an social media gimmick...
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Post by pericles on Aug 28, 2019 17:03:24 GMT
I would rather stick with the forum rather than invest in multiple social media gimmicks.
I think Dave has gone up another level in curmudgeon.
Disappointing. I was aiming for Luddite or better yet Dinosaur.
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Post by brumguvnor on Aug 28, 2019 17:23:11 GMT
I'm sure luddite and dinosaur are class-abilities of curmudgeon...
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Post by brumguvnor on Aug 31, 2019 14:38:26 GMT
Episode 3: Congratulations on your success: commiserations on the fact that you are now known as competent but are not yet senior enough to get out of the shit jobs. Or "expendable" as we call it...
The party stopped to draw breath once again, and started down the vertical shaft inside the mound at the centre of the hexagonal column.
Nic went down first and found the back if the circular boulder wedged into the passageway at the very bottom of the shaft. He also found the two passageways that went along the side of the main one, from which ambushes and arrows could be launched. This is where the 2 kobolds he had cast the sleep spell on had been.
The vertical shaft had 2 doors: one wen to the snipers balcony and was locked on the way into the vertical shaft - but not locked when going from the shaft to the balcony. The other door was very firmly locked, with no handle. They examined the door to the snipers balcony, and even though they could work out how it functioned, the information was of no use due to the sheer thickness of the stone surrounding the locking pegs.
So, Cog used his trust warhammer and simply battered the door down. Not subtle or quiet to be sure... - but effective.
Llandree just before this had managed to make her familiar materialise in the corridor on the other side of the door, and scouted down the passageway. So when Cog had opened the door they knew that it was a small, rough-hewn corridor that bent around in a U shape to open into a large, irregular chamber with a lot of openings off it, and a lot of burning rush lanterns that had obsidian mirrors behind them t o focus the light onto the entry into the cavern.
This would mean that anyone who entered the cavern (which they would have to do in single file, due to the narrowness of the passageway) would be at a severe disadvantage as they emerged due to how strong all of the lights focused on them.
So Llandree used another of his spheres of darkness and entered the chamber, ducking and weaving to not offer an easy target, he started to try and shatter the lanterns. The rest of the party came in behind him, and spread out: Masvo, Tuo'ka and Cog advancing to a larger passageway to their left, Nic emerging from the darkness to the right after following the wall, where he promptly started to execute one kobold after another with his hand crossbow.
Masvo, Cog and Tu'ka also emerged from the sphere of darkness and engaged 3 kobolds - one of which was much more richly dressed than the others. Then this kobold blasted the party with a thunderwave spell, which hurt Cog, Masvo and Tuo'ka - but not before Tuo'ka has used the suggestion spell from his help of telepathy that he should surrender right now and the his familiar had flown to Dravid, got the enslavement collar and he had clapped it around its neck.
The collar was immediately activated and the geas of "obey the clan" took hold of the kobold leader: the rest of the suviving kobolds were held at swordpoint until they also complied.
They then used the sending stones to report success and request pickup and Tannhauser arrived - suspiciously quickly. He bought with him a bag of holding full of fine wine and good food and immediately toasted their success.
After the public praise, he did have time for a little talk with them, the key points of which were: - why the hell did you not land on the central column to start with? - why did you march right down the one avenue of approach absolutely certain to have a permanent guard on it? - why did you not select a single battle-leader to co-ordinate properly?
At that point he pauses, and reflects "Still - you all survived - and succeeded. If it's stupid and it works - it ain't stupid."
You all get 100 XP and go up to second level.
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Post by brumguvnor on Sept 6, 2019 18:37:10 GMT
Episode 4: the reward for doing a good job? - another job, just harder...
Tannhauser arrived and celebrated with the group their victory. Always prepared he produced some cooked chickens and hogsheads of ale from his bag of holding, and toasted their success. During the impromptu celebration, Tuo'ka seemed to notice a couple of things that distracted him and made him thoughful - but it was all lost in the ebb and flow of a raucous atmosphere.
Tuo'ka spent some time beheading some of the small, swarming pternadons they had killed and did a thorough search of the place... - which turned up a very high quality dagger. Llandree also searched and found several large emeralds: no one else found anything.
They got on the airship and flew home. On arrival, a large sabre-tooth cat came bounding up to Tannhauser, who had evidently just been healed from some injuries, and almost knocked him over with her affectionate welcome. The cat is easily as tall as Tannhauser and at least 12 foot long. Tannhauser introduced them all to the cat - who apparently likes to be known as Slainte - and firmly said "friends!" to the cat. It sat down, looked at him - and in particular his Clanmark, looked at the parties Clanmarks and gave an audible snort full of derision.
Tannhauser led them to a floor in the Special Circumstances Tower that they had never been to before... - which when they entered very closely resembled a Norrheim longhouse that seemed to be bigger than the space available in the tower.
All along the side of the hall were the blooded warriors of the Clan... - whose ranks they had now joined.
They walked to the far end where there was a roaring fire and a large pig roasting on a spit. The archmage was there and cut them all a slice of pork, and poured them all a glass of wine, saying "A warriors portion, served by the hand of your Chief". The assembled warriors shouted their approval, and the real celebration began.
Llandree saw that the Archmage slipped away, not wanting to join in the boisterous party and so she did the same. The resat of them saw many favours change hands as wagers were settled over their survival. Llandree meanwhile located a wizard willing to teach her a new spell - alarm - as a ritual, and as a result now owes the hobbit mage Burdock a small favour.
During the evening a gnome artificer came bounding up to Tannhauser and said "I've finally got the sucker working! - want to give it a try? - say at a 3 to 1 ratio?" - so Tannhauser engaged in a drunken tug of war with Slainte, with his strength stepped up threefold by the geared device the gnome had made. Even with that mechanical advantage, Slainte was winning easily. Then Ugrat the ork head of security stepped up - and even he couldn't beat the massive cat, not even when the gears were stepped up to four to one.
After the party wound down, Tannhauser told them there would be a new mission tomorrow that he would brief them on - but that they were NOT to bother him before noon.
The next day - well after noon - fortified with cooked, sliced pig products and strong herbal teas, Tannhauser briefed them. Which consisted of: "two Clan members have gone missing in Skaygen; we suspect the Brotherhood are behind it. Get your asses there, infiltrate them, find out what you can - and do not hesitate in calling in overwhelming force when you have found anything good. This is not the kind of mission where it would be shameful to have to call in backup: this is the kind of mission where you go ahead and find what we need to kill." You are being sent in first because you will be unfamiliar to the criminal underground.
With that he leaves and Zahel, the half-elf girl who was your "base controller" comes in to help you get whatever you need to accomplish the new mission.
Mission briefing:
- Skaygen is a town on the border between the Empire and the Orklands: well - more accurately, it is a regional barracks and storehouse for the Empire troops that man this section of the Great Wall, that has grown over the years with all of the trades that fighting men need - and housing and facilities for their families.
- the people that are missing are Herrick, a male human ranger, and Nazra'ck, a female Drow sorcerer. They only just completed their own training, having been in a cohort 2 seasons ahead of you: you know them fairly well, but never actually trained with them as they graduated before your own intensive training started. Give a choice, they decided to opt for boring but lengthy service, and are the apprentices and dogsbodies for the Clan Tower in the town.
- the Tower has a landing pad for airships on its roof, has 10 floors, and sells low level magic items - not just "entry level" weapons and armour (as in+ +1 and no higher), but also items to make life easier in a cold, miserable posting: cloaks of warmth, warmth stones: they store a lot of goods there and ship out much more than people can believe due to using bags of holding. In order to maintain cover they send stuff out by caravan that they don't actually need to - and at times like that they use mercenaries from the local Brotherhood.
The head of the Tower is Jorvik - a human barbarian from Norrheim: other personnel are:
- 3 warforged and 2 human guards (the warforged are not yet at full self-awareness, but they are getting there) and an iron golem, that likes to lurk by the front door pretending to be a statue.
- there is another Drow there, Vornzen X'iltyn, who is the Intelligence Officer, and the other apprentices are Skanga - a half orc fighter, and Braemer, a half-elf wizard.
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Post by brumguvnor on Mar 14, 2020 20:46:44 GMT
Ha!!
I have just sorted out in my head the whole, over-arching, world-spanning plot for MagePunk!
I know the whole thing now... - so all that's left is to inflict it on you when Steve needs to take a break!
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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 10, 2020 16:04:43 GMT
Episode 5: Where the hell did that Ork horde come from?!
The party received their final briefing from Tannhauser, and were told to fly into Skaygen from over the Orklands, so as to be able to provide up to date reconnaissance information for the Empire. Whilst doing this they were shocked to see an HUGE Ork horde camped in front of the gates - so much so that no one was looking up as two wyverns came streaking down out of the sun.
The wyverns riders leapt from their backs and onto the deck of the airship, and a short, vicious fight ensued. When it was over, the two half-elf crewmen were dead, as were the orks and wyverns.
They landed on the roof of the Skaygen tower, glad of the raised walls around the platform that meant no one in the town below could see them. They took a deep breath and prepared to disembark, convinced of the fact that nothing in this town could be as bad as the journey here...
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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 12, 2020 16:16:15 GMT
Episode 6: Skaygen: hive of scum and villainyOK: quick summary of who's who: Jonny is Tuo'Ka, a male Arokocra rogue, Tony is Masvo a male warforged ranger, Masvo, Dave is Landry a female human mystic, Lawrence is Dravid, a male Drow shadow-sorcerer, Sam is Nazir, a male halfling artificer, Steve is Nicodemus a male gnome rogue. After playing other characters so long is the most-excellent Jarl, we got used to using in-character names almost all the time - it would be amazing if we could get back to that again. On landing the airship, Anhej had a breakdown over the two crew members dying on his watch - and revealed that they were his cousins. He quit on the spot, telling everyone he could stand to be a gunner, but he could not face the responsibility any more. After some discussion, Tuo'Ka volunteered and was accepted as captain of the airship by the rest of the party. Anhej took him into the captains cabin to fill him in on some of the details of captaincy. Then Jorvik came to meet them - a huge bear of a Norrheimer, bigger and if possible meaner looking than Tannhauser. He was accompanied by Vornzen the drow intelligence officer. Jorvik showed everyone around, and Vornzen showed them his corner of the main mess-hall on the second floor where he had a big map, lots of notes and sketches and general info about the orks. He proved to be a total geek, devoted to his subject and very expert in it, but socially inept in any other area. After taking a quick breather, and a chance for some restorative tea and cucumber sandwiches, Jorvik asked them to pick up a bag of holding from the airship hold, and come with him to the main fortress. In terms of layout the town of Skaygen has the foulberg - or the part of the town outside the gates - that surrounds the Fortress itself. The fortress is a wall a hundred feet tall that blocks the mountain pass. On this side of the wall, there is another wall, but this one is "only" 25 foot tall, and guards a courtyard and some outbuildings from the foulberg. Outside the wall there is a cleared area in case the troops need to fire on the town. Immediately bordering the cleared area are the establishments cleared for the troops to frequent: brothels, moneylenders, gambling dens, taverns, drug shops, restaurants, pawnbrokers and loot liquidators. There are some more often frequented by the officers and some more frequented by the rank and file. On arriving at the Fortress they were passed through by the guards who recognised Jorvik, and the Commanders aide was sent for. This was Livus Aurelian, who Tuo'Ka quickly ascertained to be a slimy, self-centered, obsequious, treacherous, conniving little shit. He led everyone up to a meeting with the Commander, Sattarian. His office is right at the top of the Fortress, looking out over the orklands and the newly arrived horde. (I will be creating a map of the town, and the fortress and a plan of the Tower as soon as possible!) Sattarian was courteous and Tuo'Ka worked out he was a hard but fair man, loyal to the Empire. He acknowledged them as good allies, and debriefed them about what they knew about the horde. He let them know that if he had his way he would unleash the legionnaires onto the foulberg and cleanse is with fire... - but his orders explicitly forbade him from doing that, and he always follows orders. He had another meeting, so they left and went to a meeting room to talk to Livus who also gave them an Imperial token, to identify them as official allies, should there ever be any doubt. He also briefed them on the 3 main (known) gangs and their leaders: Orcust: half ork thug, running protection rackets, murder for pay, and generally anything violent that paid well. Ilhame: a half-elf madame who ran most of the brothels, drug-dens and taverns in the town. The Man in Black: a very mysterious figure who seemed to run all magically related illegal activities. The party left the Fortress to try and find out what they could from the town. They posed as merchants with wares to sell, and seemed to be making headway... - until in one pokey little pawnshop they noticed a group gathering outside of thugs, being directed by a figure in an alleyway and overlooked by an Arokocra. A brief fight kicked off - the thugs did not seem to be able to be intimidated and seemed intent on their mission of extortion or other organised, profitable brutality, and were not prepared for how lethal a trained soldier is compared to a mere street thug. They also had the great foresight to take the last thug down with non-lethal strikes, and took him prisoner. Quickly binding him they stashed him in one of the now empty bags of holding that they had carried goods from the Tower to the Fortress, and set off home to interrogate him at their leisure.
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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 12, 2020 16:58:30 GMT
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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 14, 2020 14:13:22 GMT
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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 14, 2020 14:14:34 GMT
And a couple more. The layout clearer for you now?
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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 15, 2020 11:35:45 GMT
Episode 7: "If you but free her, I will fight and die for your cause."
The party drew breath after the short but vicious fight, and stood over the bodies of their fallen foes. Except for one, large thug, who had received the last blow of the fight as a knock out, instead of as a sword thrust. They decided to take him back to the Tower for interrogation, and tied him up securely, and put him into one of the bags of holding, with just his head sticking out. A crowd of thugs, scoundrels, ne'er do wells, slack-jawed yokels and assorted miscreants started to assemble, muttering about "who do these foreigners think they are, resisting a legitimate extortion business?" - and some of them started to gather rocks and other makeshift missiles to hand. This was soon halted though with a casual display of magic, summoning (what seemed) to be a roaring bonfire in the middle of the street, and some typical high-handed Drow causal arrogant brutality. Getting back to the tower, they told Vornzen of their captive, and he seemed impressed - and keen to sit in on the interrogation, both to observe their technique and also to learn first hand anything they found out. They broke into one of the Clan's many boxes of 10 goodberries to bring the prisoner around without spending an entire healing potion. (this means that the "timestop" spell on the box is now dispelled and that the rest of the berries will need to be consumed within 24 hours or lose their potency. Vornzen gave the prisoner a "little something from my families potion library" that made him more susceptible to intimidation and lowered his defences in general. Tou'ka used his Helm of Telepathy and the interrogation began. As soon as the prisoner learned what the main thrust of their questions was, he seemed to change somehow - he became more relaxed, in the sense of "I have nothing more to lose - it is time for a final effort: do, or die." He told them he was one of the people who carried their comrades to one of Orcust's locations - a building known for some perverse reason as the Summer House. They spent some time learning of the defences of Orcust's main HQ - and then found out that the defences of the Summer House were just as formidable: the appearance of the building as ramshackle and about to fall down was a total facade: the walls were actually solid iron, the door could take a battering ram (and was up a short flight of stairs for the exact same reason that the door to the Clan Tower was up some stairs - so as to stop a battering ram being bought up and used.) To get in he had to give the special knock, and the password, and present his tattoo to one of the iron studs in the door - and only then be let in. Once inside any visitors would be blindfolded, and led a very complicated route before getting to where they needed to go. The prisoner revealed his name to be Trajank, and the reason for his "do or die" attitude was that his sister - Plethra - is being forced to work in one of Ilhames brothels. His proposal is simple: if they get his sister out, he will get them through the door of the Summer House. Tuo'ka was able to get the password from his mind through telepathy, and also confirm everything else he said was true. He confirmed Trajanks opinion of the strength of the Summer House and how hard it would be to break in if the door were not opened. If they do this and survive, Trajank will willingly pledge himself to their Clan for life. You know that whilst you cannot unilaterally accept new people into the Clan, you can recommend them for induction, and pass them up the line for testing and if accepted, training. The party then started to discus whether to free Plethra and thus enlist the enthusiastic help of Trajank, or whether to try and storm the Summer House without his help. At this moment, Vornzen and Jorvik update the party with some news: - Jorvik tells them that Tannhauser is sending another scout ship down here as soon as one can be freed up. The only problem is that the Conclave is finally putting together their long expected push against the Lichlord and that all available transport is currently dedicated to getting their troops and equipment into position. Rumour has it that the Conclave has paid for exclusive use of one of the Clans two battleships, 2 destroyers and 2 scouts - and the mere fact that so much of the Clans airpower has been allowed to be used by one faction shows how seriously the Archmage is taking the threat of the Lichlord. - Vornzen tells them that wyverns from the horde have started to aggressively scout the fortress defences, and it looks like they are paying very close attention to the longer ranged defences, like the trebuchets. Also attached is the plan of the Tower, with the basement added in. [Insert GM handwaving: this map has always been like this,. There was never a map created where the GM forgot to put the basement in. Didn't happen.] And finally: two big fights, and a lot of in-character roleplay in an interrogation? - everyone goes to level 3!Attachments:
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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 17, 2020 16:51:32 GMT
Since it has come up on WhatsApp: the tower defences.
The front door is a very strong, solid iron door. There is also a short passageway leading in from the door, with iron bars as its walls, and a portcullis can be dropped down, trapping someone inside it. These doors are AC 20 with a damage threshold of 10 and 40 hitpoints.
There are rings of ballistas and crossbows both at ground level and at the wyvern roost level. They all have the same stats as the ones mounted on airships.
The door down from the landing platform is just as strong as the door in from the street.
Interior doors are AC 19, damage threshold of 7 and 30 hitpoints. All doors swing closed and are considered locked at all times to anyone without a Clanmark. With a Clanmark they can just be pushed open. All doors have the ability to be "deadbolted" from either side, by swinging down a large handle, which causes bolts to shoot out from the frame into the body of the door. Deadbolted doors get +2 AC, +2 damage threshold and +10 hitpoints.
There are patches on the wall throughout the whole tower: if someone with a Clanmark puts their hand on them and says "alert, alert, alert" then a loud trumpet sound will be heard throughout the Tower and all doors will deadbolt themselves. And no - having a Clanmark does not automatically stop a door from being deadbolted. Named officers of the Tower - so Jorvik or Vornzen - can cancel an alert, and also cancel deadbolting. Any three clan members can cancel a deadbolt on a specific door, by holding their hands against it for a turn and all saying "cancel, cancel, cancel" whilst doing so.
Usual procedure is for all exterior doors to be deadbolted at night, and interior doors to be locked as standard - that is to anyone without a Clanmark.
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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 19, 2020 15:53:25 GMT
Episode 8: the House of Blue Lights
The party argued long and hard over whether to kill Trajank for daring to propose a deal that helped both parties, or if they should agree to it. At point they told him that he would have to help them get their comrades before rescuing his sister, but his answer was a flat no: "you seriously think I am going to give away my single bargaining chip?"
So: they decided to go in and rescue Plethra. Landry and Tuo'Ka got onto the roof of the gambling den next door to the brothel, and Landry sent her spider in to scout out the layout.
Dravid and Nicodemus went in, both magically disguised from their normal appearance, with Trajank in a bag of holding with a straw sticking up through the mouth of the bag for air, and they asked for Plethra by name - and paid well enough that they got directed to one of the better rooms at the front of the brothel.
Once in there, they allowed Trajank out of his bag, and he had an emotional reunion with Plethra and told her to get into the bag and she would be safe. He then did a full, prostrate submission at the feet of Dravid and Nicodemus and said "I will fight and die for you and your cause" before getting into the bag.
They went back to the Tower, where Plethra was bought more up to speed by her brother, and she said "Well then: seems to me the best place I could be is in one of these nice, clean, rat-free cells, until you get back from the Summer House." - and she walked into a cell and closed the door behind herself.
The group plotted and schemed and finalised the decision to have Trajank and Nicodemus be the front-men, with the rest of the party hidden in bags of holding about their persons. Trajank led the way though the backstreets of the foulberg, and got them to the Summer House in record time.
Just as they Nicodemus was thinking about what to say to the guards, Trajank knocked, gave the password and out his tattoo up to the magical sensor and the door opened.
Inside were two ogres in full plate armour, with a shield and great-axe each, and a disturbingly sharp and intelligent look in their eyes. They said "Trajank: you're here ahead of schedule. We all good?"
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