Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Simon_Jester]

everyone has clothes, unless they prefer otherwise. Some even have two sets. I usually only sweat things that have some rules effect, anything that involves more book- keeping than it adds meaning is bad, and I know the actual system needs a little pruning, which is why I'm doing the deriveds behind the scenes.
The threshold is actually a skill of 10- so good job, Kaelan, sneaking that crossbow in that you shouldn't actually have had- my fault really, I wanted to start in media res. Incidentally, none of you actually have the ability to manage a riding or pack animal, technically speaking, but I'm not going to sting you for something I should have caught earlier- and Simon did mention.

Well, he only shot once and it bounced off the mark harmlessly, so in the grand scheme of things the Crossbow That Should Not Be came to nothing.

Bryan and Alfred have palfreys, not trained war horses- they'll have to dismount to fight. Larric has his mule. The rest of you are on Shanks' Pony- your own two (occasionally four) feet.

Mule's packs are loaded down mainly with what's left of Larric's alchemical/magical supplies and library; he travels on foot, carrying a relatively light pack- traveling kit and money- on his person.

Alfred has a very well made suit of plate (one of the derived values that's happening behind the curtain is 'fortune'; it's a product of the attributes, and any really significant bit of gear gets a fortune roll made for it. The better the success, the better the quality. Or the other way round.) a maul that seems to fit his hand perfectly, and a fairly flabby and docile hack of a riding horse that looks distinctly out of place under such a knight.

Panzersharkcat, I find myself tempted to call (him?) Rocinante, but that would probably be wrong.

Larric has the bookbinding essentials- a roll of snips, scribes, probes, ink, quills, thread and glue, two larger rolls- unshorn sheepskins with pouches sewn into them, gives them some weatherproofing and padding- of laboratory glassware and clay pots, stands, some flasks of common substances, a remarkably patient pack mule and a club.

I think I shall try to appropriate a crossbow from the field of today's little skirmish, unless someone else yanks it out from under me first.

[Kaelan]

If memory serves me right (without re-reading past posts) there should be at least 2 crossbows present. One from the killed crossbow man and one from the crossbow man who surrendered.

[Simon_Jester]

Well yes, but crossbows are moderately valuable plunder; if someone runs off with the other crossbow while Larric is fooling around with those greaves, there's nothing I can do about it, now is there?

[Panzersharkcat]

Panzersharkcat, I find myself tempted to call (him?) Rocinante, but that would probably be wrong.

He'd probably have his own half-disparaging name for it. Probably as soon as I find the correct Swedish phrase for "old paint bucket." Google Translate tells me "gammal färg hink" but I have no idea how accurate that is.

[Feralgnoll]

I'm here, I was having some internet troubles and my internet provider would not let me onto the site. But I'm reading up and keeping track, just waiting for my intro? Or Is that on me?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Well, you were in the house, disappeared for a bit and now are here again, so talking to the other characters would probably be a good thing. Rohal will have heard most of that, so is reasonably up to speed.

Somewhere, incidentally, is Radulf's horse and those of the rest of his party; departing at high speed actually, you can hear the distant sounds of the appointed horse- holder deciding discretion is a good idea and bolting for it with as many of them as he can manage, and in all probability the northern knight- Sir Bors- has realised that too and is pursuing them, trying to make something out of the day at least.

Things still to resolve before you head off; Eliska- what is she doing and saying to the two priests?

Fallard- any business before heading north? Possibly helping Alfred, actually. Healing shock is a little more profound than that; more like going through cold turkey for a heavy wound.

Mechanically speaking, when hit you take wound levels and a penalty to actions; resist injury reduces the penalty, and on a very good success reduces the actual severity of the wound. Natural healing times are fairly nasty- and I've just realised that in my notes it's based on earth times, week, month, etc. Hm.

Healing magic removes the wound levels entirely, but actually makes the penalty briefly worse; doubles up, and then wears off at the rate of a point an hour- so Alfred is going to be going from bear with a sore head right now, to merely splitting headache in about four hours, to tolerable in eight, to fine in twelve.
The record is minus two hundred and thirty- two. I advise not trying to break it.

What I want before you all hit the road is for Tasoth and Agent Sorchus to tell me what if anything else they're up to, and then it'll be time to see if any of you know your way around the county well enough to actually get where you're going.

[Tasoth]

((Completely up for helping Alfred))

Having been in the aftermath of a fare few fights and the resulting clean up, Fallard spots the glazed look of someone worked over by healing magic on Alfred. Figuring its always the right time to make a good impression, he does what he has to to acquire the right ingredients to make a tonic to take the edge off for Alfred. He even manages to sneak in a quiet thanks to Aunt Murielle. He also figures it would be smart to stock up on ingredients to make emergency poultices or antivenins for the journey.


((I am okay with the tree limb. I kind of imagined Fallard using a shillelagh for his club.))

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Right, that all makes sense. She'll be able to tell you, amongst other things, something about the lie of the land- the Corrow flows north out of the woods, along the side of a low range of hills, curves round the end of them and flows south from there in a miles wide U shape, joining the quiet branch of the Moshar river. Some five miles above where they join, the river splits into two branches which later come back together, and if this sounds unlikely and artificial, you may be right.

There is a major town there, Seldayne, about three thousand people- it was hit, and they may be having troubles of their own. Seld Island, the land between the two branches of the river, is a favourite place of refuge- there's a bridge over the quiet branch and ferries over the roaring branch, but there are also many people in various states of despair, disrepair and outright anger.

Straight north, there is a road of sorts to Edric's Elbow, the sharp bend above where the river divides and where there is a ford- there's also a fort, Caer Edric, who knows who holds it now- too far north for men from Carfax, almost certainly, but, be wary.

[Simon_Jester]

Just to double-check that, I tried to sketch a vaguely schematic map.

In this map, Edric's Elbow and the associated fort are near the northernmost point on the Corrow, Downstream of that (to the south after passing round the river bend) is Seldayne, and downstream of that is Seld Island. A few miles south of that in turn, you reach the confluence where the Corrow joins the Moshar.

Am I correct?

The other interpretation I can see is that Seldayne is between Coroghan and Edric's Elbow, with the Moshar being near the bend at Edric's Elbow- though the confluence is still downstream of Edric's Elbow.

So, supposing we built a raft and floated north, with the current down the river, around the bend, and to the Moshar (which flows south), would we see:

Forest -> Coroghan -> Seldayne -> Corrow River splits to flow around Seld Island -> Corrow River branches converge -> Edric's Elbow -> Moshar

Or would we see:

Forest -> Coroghan -> Edric's Elbow -> Seldayne -> Corrow River splits to flow around Seld Island -> Corrow River branches converge -> Moshar

Or some variation on the theme?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

No; oops. Edric's Elbow and Caer Edric are on the Moshar. Let me try again, sketch out a bit more of the local terrain. Yoiu're looking at a more or less north-south running range of hills, prevailing wind is from the southwest. Where the air sheds it's water to clear the hills, that's where the forest is, and what water the trees don't take up flows north along the western side of the hills to form the Corrow. Coroghan is on the part of the Corrow where it's just starting to curve round.

The range ends when it meets the Moshar valley, which runs more or less west to east until it meets harder rock and is turned to north- south, that turn being Edric's Elbow; the Corrow takes the same curve on the inside, and converges on and flows southeast into the quiet branch of the Moshar at a shallow angle, five miles below where the river splits and twelve miles below the bend. Seldayne is on the west side of the quiet branch, not far below where the Corrow joins the Moshar, Seld Island is the land between the two branches of the river.

That could have been clearer. I do assume your characters know what they're doing, and land navigation can probably come off survival at a slight penalty.

[Simon_Jester]

Thank you very much.

To digest the information for everyone, and to make sure I've got it... If I understand correctly, the two obvious paths are:

1) The road to Caer Edric, starting from the west side of the town we're in and running about twelve miles north-ish to the bend in the Moshar river. The fort covers a ford in the Moshar. We don't know who's holding the fort, but it probably hasn't been captured by the villainous southerners.

2) We could in principle follow the Corrow river downstream to where it joins the west branch of the Moshar. From there downstream to Seldayne. That trip would be... I don't know, probably a good half day's walk (you don't need to nail that down, ECR, just eyeballing it from your description and a guess of the lay of the land). Seldayne recently got pillaged by rampaging orcs, and to cross the Moshar there we'd need to not only pass through the town, but also cross an island likely to harbor refugees and who knows what to take a ferry across the east branch of the Moshar.

Ultimately, either way I'm pretty sure we need to cross the Moshar to continue north to Qulan, the capital of the barony.

This route would be a fair distance out of our way, so Larric favors going straight to the fort at Edric's Elbow.

[Kaelan]

Well yes, but crossbows are moderately valuable plunder; if someone runs off with the other crossbow while Larric is fooling around with those greaves, there's nothing I can do about it, now is there?

As such do you not think that there most likely not both in williams hands?
Pending ECR approval william will hand one over as a long term investment. The investment being and extra crossbow being fired improves his chances of survival in an engangement

[S.L.Acker]

Having collected his things and donned his armor Bryan meets back up with the others at the town square. Picturing what he knows of the region in his head the mercenary guesses that the overland route is going to be a better option than heading down stream. His mount won't enjoy it, but if haste is the order of the day it's the correct route.

Looking at the others he says, "So what route do we take? The river route is less riding, but my gut tells me it will take longer. I personally favor riding and getting this task done and settled; it's safer to be rid of this burden and the sooner we complete the task the sooner we get paid."

[Panzersharkcat]

Putting on his armor, he says, "I, too, favor riding to our destination. While I do not want to overburden Old Paint Bucket, I also do not want to waste my time."

[Simon_Jester]

"A question, good sirs. How do you think we should transport our friend here?" Larric points at the southern knight.

[Feralgnoll]

As the group is standing around with the saved woman, and captured man, a some what ragged male walks forward after witnessing the events that have taken place. He speaks, awkwardly but politely, as if he forgot the patterns of speech.

"Hail, my name Rohal and I could not help but overhear your conversation. I am going that way. I know the roads quite well. I can be your guide."

[Tasoth]

Approaches the group as Larric posits his question, tucking supplies away into his knapsack.

'Ties his hands infront of him and run a rope from the saddle to him. Let him walk like those we thinks nothing about.'

((So, yeah, did I manage to make something to take the edge off for Alfred? Also, would Fallard have a small kit for minor surgical procedures in his possession? You know, a steel needle, some kind of sterile (mostly) threading, a small blade for incisions and some clean bandage/anti-septic?))

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Yes, you did- the ache in his head is muted now, and his surgeon skill is good enough to justify having that selection of kit.

A digression; The concepts of sterility and asepsis are not widely spread- historically these are developments from the latter half of the steam age, a terrifyingly late date in human history. I have heard it argued (On BBC Timewatch) that, despite occasional honourable exceptions, the median date on which the average patient, seeing the average doctor, was more likely to be helped than harmed by it may have been as late as 1920. Yes, the 9 and the 2 are the right way around.

Here, far away, life magic makes it easier to notice such things, and while there is a significant body of medical opinion still against it- tries to take advantage of the little curls and whorls of livingness- the idea has some adherents.


I presume you're remembering to do this in the right order- get the southern knight out of his armour, cutting away the straps if necessary, mend them later- tying his hands and running a line from somebody's saddle to him, and then throwing a bucket of water over him to wake him up? Dragging him along the track, still unconscious, may have a certain appeal but it's not the best way of getting him anywhere in one piece.

[Agent Sorchus]

Right, family parties delay things uncontrollably.

Eliska steps between the arguing priests," Does it matter what society is or if you can even fight when the argument gets in the way of fixing your problems? At the least you can be gathering your peoples and calming their spirits."

"Or you could try praying to gods that might actually help. Pray for the strength to fight your foes or avenge and find justice for what has wronged you and your people. Does the gardener give up on his garden when the critters of nature seek sustenance from it, or does he build a gate and raise his garden to new heights to resist the losses to nature. And would a craftsmen not try and fix what is broke rather then give up a start anew?"

"Either way the rights of the gods should be used for the good of all rather than wasted in incompetent argument. By the shadows of the towers I would even be willing to send the goddesses blessings down on the town, even if it has been a while rather than sit here and watch a pair of airheads argue."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Hm. I had to think about this one- Eliska's pushing quite hard there, the last bit at least definitely falls under the category of "them's fightin' words." She's not being entirely fair to them- they did try to rally the people, and when that didn't work sent runners to the yeomanry; remember, they're having this conversation after most of the people of the town were too scared or indifferent to turn out and fight.

The younger one, the Ayralli, was just about ready to resign himself to passive resistance, but being called an incompetent, irresponsible airhead is too much crow even for a passive resister to eat. His complexion passes through red into purple and he is probably about to attempt to turn Eliska into a sheep.

The older one, the priest of Ikhran, hold his temper more in control and says 'Hot words from a rootless wanderer with no responsibility. Where will you be when it comes time to back them up?'

[Panzersharkcat]

Alfred puts his hand on Eliska's shoulder, "Quiet, lass. Carelessness like this leads to bad things." He mumbles under his breath, "Like charging into archers."

[Agent Sorchus]

(I'm pretty sure Alfred is out of it from just being healed. And I do like making the DM think about the actions of things.)

Either way: "I may be a rootless warrior, but when it is what my goddess asks of me I'm am ill advised to not accept it. Well if you had half the wit you showed asking for help of the yeomen you'd be more direct with me. You'd actually ask if I can help, rather than assume I'll flutter away on the wind. It is the wind of battle that I hear, and it is the hymn of the goddess to my ears."

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: He's been up and about for some time and ECR seemed to have no problem with it. If he does, I will retroactively make him unconscious again.)

[Feralgnoll]

to all: "If I may. I also have some knowledge of healing. I can attempt to at make a salve. The best smelling herbs are the most potent healers."

[Simon_Jester]

"Pleased to meet you, Rohal, and I'm glad to have you with us. Though thinking of the apothecaries I've known professionally, I suspect your sense of smell is a little different than mine."