Homebrew system thread II, section 3

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Probably; there'd likely be less in it if he was using a bow, but there isn't space for archery here; backs warily away, seems not to believe that you're willing to let him go, puts some distance between you, weapons ready and wary all the time- then ducks behind a group of bystanders and runs for it. Looks as if he's heading for the nearest horse to steal, actually- heading out of town. How far do you want to follow him?

[Fiji_Fury]

Leaving town... that could be either good or spectacularly bad. Given our luck, spectacular is to be expected. Unfortunately, Dale is alone, short on supplies, money and out of mana. He is not equipped nor prepared to give chase beyond the town limits, so he'll go that far and see what he sees. Beyond that, he'll turn back to rejoin the others.

Note to self: next time, start with stealth.

This place is a political quagmire. Dale sees the sense in what the Druid was saying (something to the effect that a little thought will reveal Qulan to be doomed by itself), but... these people need healing and protection from death. Both of those things fall squarely into his sphere of responsibility, even if he'll be damned to have any clear ideas about how to proceed next.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Oh. Right. Didn't realise there was still something there to action.

The yeoman you're trailing heads for the nearest well to do house and steals a horse. If you're not stopping him in this process, he'll take the road for Auvaine city, and the major temples there probably.


Jub, Kaelan?

[Jub]

(Sorry, I've been lacking in mental energy this past month.)

Bertram would first try to guess where the person might be going and try to work out a way to get there ahead of he tall thin man. If that doesn't seem to offer much of a solution he'll simply start to move forward at greater speed commanding people to make way and hopefully cutting a path the militiamen behind him can follow in.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Weird thing; you can't post properly from a mobile device if you have a PM wait ing. Third attempt then-

The person Bertram is trailing may be from one of the dogs that hadn't barked yet, a watcher and observer from one of the other powers that may be interested but has not yet shown their hand. It makes sense of the hiding the holy symbol, and that he appears to be heading back the way you came, into the temple district.

[Simon_Jester]

So we are... waiting on Kaelan, and in my case on a description of the results of the type of tactics I described in my last post.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Between what I resume Dirt is up to (which Larric might have to rein him in from, if that is in fact at all possible), there's not much fight left to go; most of the Valdemironi are down and trying to avoid being kicked to death by the mob. The magical protection placed on them is not necessarily going to stop that, and a little ogre power would be a good idea.

People thickly and closely packed together, and lots of noise; watching your back in this is not easy, and she notices Larric doing it. Moves over to talk to him. Remembering that you have a very large and slightly distracted audience, what's the first verbal move?

[Simon_Jester]

"Ah, hello, milady. Interesting stab in the back you've got there."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

'Some people deserve nothing better.' she says casually prodding one of the Valdemironi with her toe. 'A little late for a sorcerer to be worrying about someone else's abilities, don't you think?'

[Simon_Jester]

I think we might want to do a general situational overview; the party got split up into its component atoms and none of us really know what we're doing or what to do as far as I can tell.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Hm. One, yay, a post, something is happening.
Two...no, I shall restrain my pessimism. (I hate sunny days.)

Right. What's happening is that the fight is more or less over, there's no-one standing up left to hit; some people are pushing through it all, trying to make arrests of sorts, absolutely everyone in the party forgot about the NPCs you had in tow, Larric, Dirt and Selene are having a verbal confrontation, Dale is well outside the fight following someone who appears to have been commanded to bear a message to Auvaine, and will rejoin (in a flagrant if necessary abuse of the powers of continuity) very soon- next round, amazingly- and Bertram is following someone headed for the temple complex, who appears from where he's going and how lurkish he appears to be to be from the temple of Sulidain the trader god.

Would you like to know more?

[Kaelan]

OOC

Been away for work (at a hotel with restrictive internet)
Will catch up on the back reading and post tonight.

[Fiji_Fury]

Dale will rejoin Larric ASAP and keep his observations about the messenger to himself. He'll try to assess Selene and see what impression and details he gets from it. She is clearly one of those lightning-rod figures... so is there anyone whose actions she is shielding by attracting so much attention? Larric will keep his eyes and ears open and find out as much as possible.

It also seems likely that there will be death rights to perform. That will take place once/if we resolve the verbal sparring, and Dale will reach out to see if priests from any of the other gods are willing to help (and if they have any impressions about what happened to D'nor's temple and priests; they seem to have been a little too thoroughly removed from the local game-board for it to be a coincidence).

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Out of character note first- Panzersharkcat, formerly Sir Alfred, has apparently been having a hard time of it lately- no details in this public forum, but might be worth popping into HoS and trying to cheer him up.

Kaelan, have you noticed that whenever you say that, you rarely if ever actually do? To a large extent the game moves at the speed the players push it at- the NPCs can dance around each other as much as I like, but nothing much changes without the players.


Dale arrives to a faint sound of curtains flapping, in the middle of the confrontation, and sees what has passed so far. He hasn't actually met her before, has he? First impression is that she's almost a parody of a female warrior, curly hair and steel bikini, but looking more closely she's a deliberate parody and is playing it for all she's worth. A good actress, but too proud of her abilities as an actress to avoid showing them off. Probably can fool most of the people most of the time, but anyone who has been around as much as the PCs and most of the important NPC's should be able to see her performance for what it is.

The main person whose actions she's shielding is almost certainly herself. Plain sight and all that.

Is Dale actually saying anything, joining in, backing Larric up, what?

[Fiji_Fury]

Are the priests, adepts and craftsmen of Ikhran (spelling?) present or did we simply outpace them and leave them back at the temple of Valdemiron? It would be prudent to make sure we're not a few lonely voices in the crowd if it comes to verbal sparring, accusations or argumentation.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Some of the fitter ones can be assumed to have made it, and you do have some backup, yes. Lisanna is looking at the castle walls and what has been done to the wards, the fittest acolyte is just arriving at the same time as you are.

[Kaelan]

Right, up to speed and have internet access to post

Moving on. Looking at the fallen priest and his would be guards Dirt asks "stay and fight or run away?" He'll oblige them either way. On completion it will be priest over the shoulder and back up Larric (but not to close as Dirt doesn't want to be hit with mind mojo again)... Muttering to himself in a semi sulk given all the food that's going to be wasted after today.

"Still think Humans trying to be like 'Sven's. Be easier if we take over town."

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Hm, where did I leave off...

IC:

'Some people deserve nothing better.' she says casually prodding one of the Valdemironi with her toe. 'A little late for a sorcerer to be worrying about someone else's abilities, don't you think?'

His reply to Selene would be a slow nod. His features aren't especially mobile, and he's not a practiced actor, but he starts to stage a look of dawning comprehension- which probably comes across a bit parodic, though it's an expression he's certainly had lots of practice at in reality.

Then: "Aye, that'd likely be so. If I were talking about magic."

The alchemist turns to Dirt and begins sidling over towards Dale, trying to lead the ogre back in that direction.

To the magically sensitive in the audience he appears to have the beginning of a screen up- will not quite clenched but poised to do so, the beginning of a defensive gesture placed on a hair-trigger.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Doesn't look as if Dirt's brain has caught up quite yet- most of the fighting is over, unless he's talking about grabbing the fallen Valdemironi away from the men from the castle who have come to take the priests prisoner. In which case, to where and to what end? (In terms of intentionality, that is- they are edible, so what end in terms of fate they come to, well.)

Selene's response to Dirt's comment is mostly addressed to Larric, 'At least the giant cannibal lunatic has some kind of ambition. Why couldn't you be more like that?'

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Ah, yes. Again with the misreading Larric's disinterest in politics and tendency to moralize as timidity, and trying to goad him out of it.

[Privately rolls a d20 against Larric's Human Perception score]

Hm. What to make of that? Well, I'm never sure exactly what to do with Larric-Selene conversations; I've made up a number of characters who'd be happy to banter with her (and indeed would find her whole schtick rather charming and admirable), but Larric Smith and Selene d'Avariel have almost no points of contact.

She's a paladin of the goddess of politics and patroness of heroes, with a natural flair for deceptive obviousness. He's a natural philosopher at heart... who wishes he could pick up Truth and hit things over the head with it, and wanders around doing dangerous things because he thinks it's the proper thing to do, as much out of loyalty to the rotating collection of friends he's gone into danger with as anything else. And, at moments like this, out of a lingering devotion to Truth.

I have no idea what'll happen when Larric says this, maybe nothing, maybe a counterproductive result, but it's a very Larric thing to say.

IC:

The alchemist cries out to Dale "Hey! Dale! Over here!" and waves an arm, moving slowly and making sure the ogre doesn't do anything irreversible like eating the priest's head.

Then he turns back to d'Avariel. Looks her in the eye for a moment, seeming very very puzzled by what sounds to him like a stupid question. Not very long, but long enough to be noticeable as he seems almost to literally chew over what she said, muttering it back to himself under his breath. He frowns, still confused, then stops looking quite so confused.

"My gods, have you been talking to people who want the same things you expect them to want, for so long you can't even tell when you find someone who knows why he wants something different?"

There's a fair amount of disbelief in that, which d'Avariel probably knows how to react to, and a hint of sympathy that for all I know would send her ballistic.

OOC MK II:

A purely random speculation:

If someone were to look d'Avariel in the eyes for a long time, then from what I know about her style, I can almost imagine her wanting to reverse the usual form and saying "uh, my bikini is down here."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

If she could break out of that mould and do something different, stop misreading him according to her own standards and do something different, it would maybe be a healthy thing for her; but it would also make her a more dangerous opponent.

'Too long speaking to people who use words purely for effect, including on themselves, and only by their deeds can they be measured. Everyone says they're different.' The one she prodded earlier groans- she picks him up with one hand, (he's not very big), about to start dragging him back into the castle. 'Sometimes they even fool themselves into believing it.'

[Fiji_Fury]

OOC: I just had an incredibly weird experience where my user-name/password did not work. Requested a new password under the "Forgot Your Password" tool... but it's strange that it wasn't working in the first place. Ah well. Seems to be sorted out now.

IC: Dale increases his pace towards Larric and Dirt upon hearing his name. Larric sounds a little irritated and that can't be good for a man who's usually so calm. He catches most of the exchange between Selene and Larric and definitely backs Larric up.

"These fools," pointing at the Valdemironi, "were, and perhaps still are, convinced that the only correct path is their own, with them in total power. Tell me you aren't reckless enough to commit the same sin. And an idiot to boot if you mean imply that Larric Smith is a liar."

Dale is blunt. No attempt at playing the crowd or the situation any further. All he knows is that d'Avariel could easily be behind the twist in the ritual we all disrupted and that she is disparaging Larric and Dirt. Dirt's status in the human settlement may not be much more than she says even if she is wrong (partly... the lunatic part), but to disregard or try to have the crowd disregard Larric's actions of the past (uh... couple of weeks? I'm not sure how game-time is flowing here)!? She's so used to wrapping things up in intrigue that taking a direct path when she expects layer upon layer of subtlety may throw a wrench into her machinations, even if it is just a small set from this conversation.

On the other hand, if she takes a mystical or physical shot at Larric or Dale... well... Ikrahn's adepts, some of the crowd and importantly Dirt will probably have something violent to say about that. And if she does so she'd better hope she puts both of us down in one fell swoop or D'nor will be receiving the passing of another haughty spirit very soon.

[Jub]

OOC: Sorry all. I've just had no creative energy for the past month or so and it doesn't seem to be getting better yet. I'm going to drop out for now and let Bertram fall to NPC status. I might come back with a new character when I get some creative juice back.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Sorry to hear that, Jub; we were just really starting to get a sense of the character and where he fitted in. Doing something like this is usually good, for me anyway, for recharging the old creative wellspring, but whatever's right.

Dale' s aggressive challenge is met coldly, at first, a raised eyebrow, but she comes back with 'all right, I won't tell our, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually. What on earth makes you think we're all on the same side? Or not as the case may be.'

[Kaelan]

In which case, to where and to what end?

Larric wanted a priest, so Dirt got said priest. Until otherwise informed Fifi's new pet is going nowhere....

Now he's along side Larric, Dirt looks at the paladin again more carefully.
- Poorly dressed with ineffective armour - check
- Self important ego of self worth - check
- Doing stupid things for no good reason - check
- Far too skilled at killing things when she could have spent her time more constructively - check

Yup, definitely your typical human 'adventurer'.
Looking defiantly at her, "Dirt is different. You, not so much. Also, Dirt not can-a-bul. I no eat cow."

Turning his attention back to Larric & Dale, "We done killing. Maybe time to get back to fixing town. again"