Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Panzersharkcat]

He originally thought of beatings and dangling him off a cliff but decided those were too unreliable. He will instead try to act friendly and talk to him nicely, asking him why did he did and accomplices. He'll try to assure him he doesn't need to lie to him.

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal will try to change to back to a human way outside the range of the town, in order to prevent Hybrid harming. I have a lot to tell the party.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Hm. First you'd need a cliff for that, not many of those underground and they're certainly not going to let him out to where you can find one.

Although it is quite easy to want to do that after talking to him. He sniffles. He snivels. 'I was only doing what I was paid to do, I don't care about the upper class, and they're going to say it was a vicious evil thing to do and take me out and drop rocks on me 'til I'm dead and horrible-' half way there already- 'well yes, but if they had it happen to them now and again they wouldn't be so keen to stand back and let it happen to ordinary people.

I'm not saying I'm an honest man, the gods know I've tried to be but it never seems to work, but I am an ordinary man, I have family, and I needed the money to buy things for my sister's four little ones-' hopefully Alfred isn't believing any of this, although he has obviously had enough practise to be a reasonable actor- 'I just did what they wanted me to.'

"They" turns out to have been 'One man, I did ask, and he said I didn't need to know but I followed him, he met with them all, all those people, the undersheriff, the bailiff, hard bastards the lot of them. Well, I know who not to cross, so I went and did it and they were waiting for me.'

Not sure if he's telling the truth or not, but there's nothing inherently unlikely in it- although the one man who hired him, he may be key to this. He gives Alfred a rough description. 'Dark haired, medium big, more tall than wide, quiet but not natural, like, he had been trained to it or something, a fighter but too sneaky to be a knight, higher class than he wanted to let on though, greyish eyes, everything he had wasn't his normal stuff, he had a sword and he was used to swords, but not that one, like his own would be too easily recognised so he had borrowed another one.'

Rohal can manage to change back, and follow Larric by scent to the temple/boatyard, William as he talks to the footmen and soldiers, Alfred towards the keep and the dungeons, or- what actually is Eliska doing now? Lady Tamarin has need of the chamber- would fall asleep on her feet if she didn't have a bed- so where's she going and what's she doing?

[Kaelan]

OOC
Just a bump to say that I'm still keeping an eye on the tread. Will post when william's next action is relevant

[Panzersharkcat]

He thanks the assassin for his time, gives him a pat on the shoulder, and lets him have a bit of food to eat. He decides it's as good as he will get out of him and leaves to find the others.

(OOC: Well, he'd have been satisfied with dangling him off the castle walls if they were going to let him out and let him do that. But yeah, best that they didn't.)

[Feralgnoll]

Ill find Larric first. He would have the best sense of the magics that Rohal saw on his little trip.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

oh, good, all the smells and sounds of a busy boatyard. This bit will largely be between characters- although if you want someone to run it by Dame Tamarin might be up and about by now.

[Simon_Jester]

Rohal finds Larric, now smelling faintly of pine because of the clouds of sawdust drifting through the boatyard. Larric is looking out over the water, thinking for a moment before he heads back to the temple complex again.

The alchemist turns around and does a doubletake as he sees Rohal behind him- not actually sneaking, but approaching with no more and no less than his natural quietness. "R- Rohal! Did your message make it through? There's bad news here in town, have you heard? No? ...A royal proclamation came to the palace, about an hour ago. The king is making Colonel Calvern the new Countess of Auvaine..."

[Feralgnoll]

"That. Does. Not. Bode. Well." Rohal's lips curl up a bit remembering the damages done by Col. Calvern's troops.

"However, I did deliver the message successfully to Detrick. He is finishing routing bandits then will return. However, I encountered others on my trip. Dark Elves. They attacked a group that had more enhanced creatures. Like the leg I brought you." Rohal some what curtly responds. Trying to remember human tongue is always hard.

[Simon_Jester]

"Glad to hear about Sir Detrick, I hope he can at least get things into shape before Her Ladyship shows up to break them up again. She moves fast, might go anywhere, but probably not here first."

"And- more alchemy-monsters. Really..." Larric starts walking slowly back to the temple complex. "Hunh. Well, I knew elves do it- that milk cow I told folks about last night, the man who mixed it told me the recipe might have been elvish- maybe something got lost in translation... anyhow. Elves do it, stands to reason the black elves do too, and possibly darker and stranger, they're not known for kindness to animals. If it's them, I don't know what they're playing at; if we're lucky it's another one of those things that doesn't matter until three years after doomsday. If not... hm. I wish I knew somebody who knew elves, properly I mean, not just doing a bit of business now and again."

I assume Rohal is following. Larric continues.

"Wait, I'm not sure I understood you right. Did you say the black elves had the beasts, or that whoever they were fighting had them?"

[Panzersharkcat]

He arrives back to where the party is staying and waits there to meet the rest of them. He'll meditate on his findings for the time being and, after consulting with his group, maybe inform Ridebert of the assassin's accomplice and recommend some sliver of mercy for him in his punishment.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

As opposed to, what, getting crushed by rocks?

Do remember that Ridebert's under suspicion himself and will not be in a position to decide the treatment of the assassin. The hope would be to figure out who really put the guy up to it and get him, thus clearing your cousin's name.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Well, yeah, but he's going to wait to consult with the brainier members of the party on this matter. Alfred's no detective, even if I want him to pull a Batman impression at times, and he's aware of that, given his predilection towards implausible and hilariously wrong theories.)

[Simon_Jester]

On the other hand, Alfred is pretty damn good at Interrogate- so being careful about extracting what you're fairly confident is the truth out of this guy might be worth your while. Hopefully, he's succeeded in doing that.

Personally, my interpretation is that Alfred's actually brighter than he gets credit for, but he's mentally lazy most of the time- he probably relies on having a Sancho Panza or two from his family estate along whenever he goes out to do something important. Think of him as a potential George W. Bush in the making, with a big hammer.

Seriously, though, Panzer, please try a little harder to keep track of what's going on. I like you, you're a cool guy. But it makes it difficult when I keep having to stop and explain to you why your plan results in getting set on fire by a sadistic demon horse, or why your cousin can't decide how to carry out the death sentence for the man who's planned as the star witness against your cousin in a murder trial of his own.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

What is generally happening around the castle is; panic.

A very substantial fraction of the people here fought and lost, and managed to run before they could be killed- the next largest group bottled it and never engaged in the first place. They're supposed to be fighting men and women, defiers of evil and upholders of the law, the shield of the people; they know this, and torn between duty and survival, several are melting down, one is openly weeping in fear in the corner.

A substantial proportion have decided the hills look lovely this time of year, and are packing to depart. A few more are still busy with the politics of the morning, but that gradually tapers off- Ridebert catches up with Alfred, and he has with him a heavy- set blonde warrior woman, one of his co- accused, must be Dame Andrea.

She surveys the hall, people coming and going in a state of high dither; sneers, says 'Not much point trying to evenly divide the slices of a cake that's about to be thrown in the furnace- is this your cousin Alfred?' to Ridebert.

Ridebert, without that much in the way of malice, says 'Yes- one of the chief heroes of that business over at Caer Edric.' Clearly trying to push her onto him, and looking closely at her it's easy to see why. She's definitely one of the lads- built like a rugby player, scars, tangly hair and spiky attitude.

'Oh, good, you should know what you're doing then.' she says to Alfred. 'Better than Sir Foulbreeches over there- it can't be worse than last time.'

[Kaelan]

Given the general mass panic William will ask if anybody actually knows where our new countess has set up home? He'll also head to the holding cell of Radulf and let him know the good news as well. He mights want to appeal to the countess for justice and its only fair to give him the chance.....

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Well, Ridebert's the one he knows. He just wants to have him delegate his suggestion upwards to whoever actually decides the punishment. But yeah, on second thought, that doesn't work so well.)

He takes a liking to her already. Making a little guffaw the "Sir Foulbreeches" comment, he says, "I got some information out of him, Madame. The only relevant bit may be the description of the man the assassin said arranged things." He repeats the assassin's description: Dark haired, medium big, more tall than wide, quiet but not natural, like, he had been trained to it or something, a fighter but too sneaky to be a knight, higher class than he wanted to let on though, greyish eyes, everything he had wasn't his normal stuff, he had a sword and he was used to swords, but not that one, like his own would be too easily recognised so he had borrowed another one.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Given the general mass panic William will ask if anybody actually knows where our new countess has set up home?

Not here?

The county seat is in Auvaine, which is, what, thirty miles away? Fifty? A hundred? For that matter, we don't even know that's where she is- Johanna Calvern moves around a lot, and moves quickly, which is one of the reasons her army beat up everyone in the whole kingdom.

He'll also head to the holding cell of Radulf and let him know the good news as well. He mights want to appeal to the countess for justice and its only fair to give him the chance.....

Oh, that's just evil. Give Radulf something to worry about too...

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Start with the geography- the two major rivers first. Take a Y shape, rotate it about fifteen degrees left, there you are- the Moshar is the left hand fork of the Y, the Chura the right hand fork, they join together at the Grumbling Falls then flow as the lower part of the Y down to the sea and the national capital of Jotunhallr.

Auvaine City is on the Chura, east south east of Qulan about thirty miles.

The Countess has been sighted in so many different places it almost defies belief- until it is recalled that she rides a nightmare for whom 'getting tired' is a foreign concept. Most of the sightings are probably hysteria and paranoia at that, but she could certainly be in more places in the course of a day than most people- easily outdistance her own escort, and yes it was tried.

What makes sense is that she's riding the boundaries, wandering all over the county to get a good look and feel for it as it is now- theories of where she'll go and what she'll do are plentiful, facts and solid reasoning few. She's a heavy weight to drop on anywhere, and if she wants to get the county back functioning again the chances are she'll want to avoid the capital, or anywhere else where her presence might cause the breakdown of order. Like here, at the moment.


Dame Andrea says to Alfred and Ridebert, 'And the assassin followed him as he talked to each of us. So it should be possible to find him from thinking who we all talked to that day, who we all have in common- then we can put him to the question and find out who and why.'

'In this?' Ridebert waves an arm at the ambient chaos. 'Hundreds of people.'

'Answering that description- assuming there's no trickery involved? The scrote may have told you what he saw, but I doubt he's that good at telling when he's being conned, couldn't be or he wouldn't be stupid enough to be bought and caught.' Andrea realises, and points out to Alfred.

On a Perception check, Alfred notices several people listening in to the conversation, including one of the Constable's men and a servant of the family of the acting Treasurer.

Ridebert replies 'If there is trickery, the number of people who could be trying to set us up for this gets a lot smaller.'


Radulf isn't in a holding cell, he's in Dame Tamarin's borrowed part of the Temple of Chelet, watched by three of her men, and she's just coming to as William enters. He ends up telling both of them.

Radulf's reaction is more straightforward. He laughs fit to burst. It seems the only reasonable thing to do under the circumstances.

She takes it rather worse. Looks down, says something about 'I should have been more careful of what I wished for. Wanted revenge, prayed for a chance to get my blade into one of them, into her. Now...'

[Panzersharkcat]

"True enough. He seemed to be telling..." He stops, turns to those two, turns back and says a bit quieter, "We're being overheard. One of the Constable's men and a servant of the Treasurer, in particular. I suggest we move this to somewhere more private." He pauses again and asks, "Should I call them over?"

[Simon_Jester]

She takes it rather worse. Looks down, says something about 'I should have been more careful of what I wished for. Wanted revenge, prayed for a chance to get my blade into one of them, into her. Now...'

"I wouldn't counsel it, milady, you seem like a good person." Larric's back.

He turns to include William. "The message got through; with luck he'll be back shortly. Some other news, not big. Before the proclamation- you were out gathering news, not so? Had you heard anything, Will?"

[Kaelan]

"nothing of great importance that we don't already know. The general loyalty level around here is lower than normal and if the baron's not back soon he may [youtube][/youtube]find the rest of his warriors joining the bandits in the hills"

I think the trial of radulf's going to be fun - I don't think the new boss is going to look kindly on anybody inflaming the situation any more than it already is.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Andrea thinks about it. 'Yes.'

On being pointed out, the treasurer's man runs- it's one of the extended family, a grandson or something- but the constable's man decides to brazen it out. Walks over to you.

Gets the first shot in. 'Conspiring already? how could you sink so low as to do such a thing?'

[Panzersharkcat]

He twitches. Resisting the urge to lift him by the neck and shake him like a maraca, he responds, "Have you stopped beating your wife?" Without waiting for a response, he leans in right into his face and says, "Don't ask loaded questions and do not *ever* imply I would sneak around like a thief. Treachery is a weapon one should never rely on."

[Feralgnoll]

OOC: Sorry for delay, Wednesdays are terrible for me.

IC: to Larric "The Dark Elves hunted down and killed the Alchemical Creatures. They used their own natural warbeasts against them. They routed the Alchemical creatures and their masters and gave chase."

Then will proceed to scowl at Radulf.