Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

'Alien? You're not exactly helping your own case, you know.' the lead ranger smiles, though. 'That's exactly the way he would put it, except the other way around.

Here in these lands- we are different, no doubt of that, but in Kuquan, for the most part, as long as you don't bother us with your religion we have the basis of a healthy synergy- perspective and energy, eternity and urgency. Dleamthayaran came from that perspective to a different world, fell into it, was converted by it- into the mental world of the southern lands, different and therefore, of necessity, hostile.

He believes, now, that hate is inevitable, bad blood breeds faster than goodwill, that the breakdown of synergy is inevitable- and he will do his best to make that happen.

With so little of your normal structure in place to stop him, he may well succeed- will do so, unless stopped. He has closed himself off, and he would have you believe that we are indeed alien. Not entirely untrue, but definitely massively unhelpful.'

[S.L.Acker]

Seeing the Elf smile the mercenary holds his tongue and doesn't say anything until the speaker is done, then he responds, "I must admit, that if we were more similar situations such as this would be less common. However I'm not so inflexible as many, I would much rather leave myself open to what may come. A man selling his skills to the man with the right coin and a good situation learns quickly that no opportunity should be wasted; also not to jump into anything.

I've also learned to trust myself, and I think your plan is a sound one. I support continuing on as if we were simply lucky at this juncture. I think that if we are wary we should be able to turn his initial attack and allow you time to deal with your bitter kinsman. Of course any information on what we should be wary of is going to help this plan work more smoothly."

[Agent Sorchus]

Mock yawning a little, Eliska, "If petty vengeance is what he is going to be after let him come. The sooner too, since his pain while driving him fast will blind him. Of course that is probably easier said than done."

"Unless he isn't quick enough to consider us the villains he is after. He might just run straight into the fort in a rage. I don't expect him to be so dumb but your thoughts on this would be appreciated."

[Simon_Jester]

Larric shakes his head. "...Milady, your words don't sit well with what we know he can do- and I don't think his idea of revenge is liable to be 'petty.' If he were a fool, he'd be years dead before any of us were born."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

'How to explain it? Now, and for the next little while, he will be thinking of what he has lost, and thinking like a warrior, of fighting and, yes, a little of vengeance.
When the urgency in him dies down and he starts feeling what he has lost, then yopu will be right, in grief he will be slow, and and blind, and foolish, probably a little while after he gets to tapdance on your dead bodies. Don't count on his coming apart in time to save you.

You should probably stop him escaping, by the way.' she says pointing back to the camp, where Radulf appears to be negociating for his release with a couple of the locals.

[Kaelan]

With all the banter going back and forth williams eyes begin to glaze over.... they come back into focuse as the conversation draws to a close.

"Tell me again, are none of you elves here are able to track him down? If we're going to play cat and mouse I'd rather be the cat than the mouse. This plan you're putting togeather appears to be far to complicated and I doubt our friend out there is going to help. Why don't we track and run him down like you would any other single foe?"

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

Larric, beginning to feel well and truly run ragged, dashes for Radulf's impromptu and irregular parole negotiations, so as to cut them short.

OOC:

Re: Kaelan

Curse all rogues with poor situational awareness... Come on, surely you can read what he writes better than that?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

One of the elves gets the nod from the leader, and runs with Larric down to stop Radulf. He has more breath to spare, says as they run

'That, amongst other things, is what it means to be a hero; to always be the one on the spot, to have to run from one crisis to another, to always have the weight of others' need of you bearing you down...it's one of the main reasons Dleamthayaran went mad. That much at least is the same for you as it is for us. How do you want to handle this?'

[Simon_Jester]

Larric isn't out of shape by modern standards, but he is by the standards of medieval warriors. At the pace he's taking this, he's not gasping but he's short of breath, so his reply comes out in bursts.

"Was making it up as I... go along... try to talk them out of it... knock him out if I... have to. He's trouble."

For reference, he's still got that crossbow in his hands- but not cocked to fire. He wasn't going to do that until he had an idea what the hell was happening when he ran into the bushes after Alfred, and since it turned out to be "nothing much," he never got round to readying it.

[Kaelan]

OOC

Trust me, I am reading all of the post!
Also, I’m a watchmen learning to be a rogue. Watchmen are meant to have poor situational awareness or else PC’s would have far too much trouble!

IC (sort of, more an explanation)
Williams not use to verbal sparring with nobility and their ilk. Mostly this stems from ill treatment in the past, and the often correct assumption that most of what is being said is lies and self justification.

As far as he was concerned a ‘noble’ had taken charge of the situation and Radulf was secured on his horse.

In the interim he will ready his crossbow just in case – I’m sure the healers in the party can put Radulf back together again if need be. Part of him is actually hoping Radulf makes a run for it so he can attempt to plant a bolt in his back.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

It's probably going to come to that. he sin't glib, but he has rank to pull, and is evidently able to spin enough of a line that he manages to convince oneof the travellers to part with a horse- a halfway decent one, at that.

Larric's not an athlete, much, but evidently the wind, or the slope, or something is with him; not quite enough to get close enough to manhandle Radulf before he gets on the horse (not that that would be likely to be a winning proposition anyway, really), but close enough to shout, cast or shoot with a reasonable chance of hitting him rather than the horse.

Three questions; what's Larric doing, what's everyone else doing, and when this is over, have any of you thought about buying a better horse?

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

When Larric realizes Radulf's closer to getting away than he'd thought, he'll stop and cock the crossbow as fast as possible. If Radulf hasn't already mounted when he's got the crossbow ready, he'll yell "stop, or I'll shoot!"

If Radulf doesn't stop, he'll shoot. He's kind of forthright that way.

And no, Larric hasn't thought about buying a better horse. He rides like a sack of potatoes, anyway.

OOC:

OOC

Trust me, I am reading all of the post!
Also, I’m a watchmen learning to be a rogue. Watchmen are meant to have poor situational awareness or else PC’s would have far too much trouble!

All right, but if you'd meant to play a dimwitted donut-dunker, you should have warned us.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

He doesn't stop. A couple of the refugees move to stop him, he digs his heels in, Larric takes the shot- and connects, hitting Radulf in the leg, wounding him, but he holds his balance and starts to ride away- the elf looks at Larric with an arrow nocked in his own bow and a raised eyebrow.

Assuming Larric gives him the nod, he looses; hits. Upper arm, and a bad one from the way Radulf tumbles off the horse.

He'll need to be picked up, patched up, probably best tied across one of the riding beasts now, he's not walking- might ahve to wait a day or two for him to be compos mentis enough to be tried, come to that.


The elves plan to walk with you, just follow the road. Nothing much more to do here, unless there's anythign to be bought, sold or asked of the refugees and travellers.

[Simon_Jester]

Right now, the idea of having Radulf healing-magicked into unconscious delirium for the next twelve hours sounds just lovely...

Eliska?

[Agent Sorchus]

I'm probably not going to magic him, unless his wounds are truly life threatening. I'll give his injuries my best medical opinion before using magic.

[Simon_Jester]

Umm... in this case, it would probably actively make it easier to keep him under control- being healed by magic knocks you out as it is, and if the caster is deliberately encouraging that effect to keep him under for a day or so...

Put it this way, Sorchus, this time I have no idea what your reasoning is, and I'd like to know.

[Agent Sorchus]

I've a mind that I shouldn't be using up magic just to keep him in control when we have a psycho elf out for our blood. I only have so much mana to go around. Sides, while he does get the magical knockout; after the penalty goes away (and I trust this bastard is decent at ignoring the penalty anyway) he can run again. Rather I want to have us actually work towards a more permanent solution, like actual having us have a guard for him all the time.

[Panzersharkcat]

Anyway, when Alfred reaches Radulf, he gives him a good kick in the ribs for good measure. He hauls him back to rest of the party.

[S.L.Acker]

Bryan, nods at what the elf has to say. Like most people pushed to the end of their rope he's most dangerous just as everything breaks. He's in thought, trying for all the world to think like an elf with lifetimes of experience over him, and in this state he almost manages to miss the elf mentioning Radulf trying to escape.

By the time he acts the fleeing man has already been shot off of his mount and a debate has started over healing him or not, Bryan would like the knight as easy to move as possible and he says, "Why not heal him up a bit wrong? Leave a knot of muscle and scars in his arm so it doesn't move right, leave him lame in the healed leg. Doing this gives us all the benefits of healing and none of the drawbacks."

He's willing to bet that the others wouldn't expect something like this from him based on the way he's acted so far. However this isn't needless killing, or a chance to build a business lead with a stranger. Besides, if the elf should attack again a wounded, but alert, Radulf could spell trouble.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric looks genuinely shocked. "I... that's not right. That's just not right." He shakes his head. "I can see keeping him dancing with fairies in his head instead of dancing the Escape Shuffle with us, but you... you just don't do things like that to people, not when you just need them not making trouble for a day. An honest hanging, that's under the law, that's one thing, but twisting people up for good like that on account of you couldn't be bothered to tie them up properly... that's not right, no sir."

[S.L.Acker]

Looking to Larric Bryan says, "I think I've shown that I'm not some bloodthirsty monster, I am however a realist. Radulf here has made trouble at every turn and we haven't seen what he's really capable of. Besides, if we don't heal him and just use herbs and bandages he could end up a cripple anyway. We're just ensuring a favorable result and getting him mobile again.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Can't take time to draft another reply IC, need to get back to bed. Points that would go in that reply:

-I don't think Eliska giving Radulf enough of a dose to put him under for the rest of the day would drain her reserves that deeply- remember, mana pools are large and recharge slowly; she hasn't used that much of hers since we started play. If a fight with Invisible Bastard drags out long enough that she hits the bottom of her mana pool, after he's had that much time to shape the battlefield, we're probably already dead.

-Doping him is also an option; I'm sure Rohal can come up with something, or what's Apothecary skill for anyway?

-Larric is really pretty serious about this. It may come across as impractical or hypocritical, but he's actually more willing to walk alongside the horse Radulf is slung over and knock him over the head every time he starts stirring, knowing that there's some risk of doing more harm by accident, than he is to sign on with deliberately doing permanent harm by medical means (so to speak).

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Oh, don't you fuss about that. Alfred would be perfectly happen to punch him every time he looks like he's going to start trouble. Preferred option would be doping him, though.)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Actual incidents permitting, you're maybe six, seven hours from Qulan, at mule plodding pace. Doing it properly would mean wibbling time would be much longer than that- closer to forty- eight. Unless something goes wildly wrong and you end up going over the Grumbling Falls in a raft, you have time, some time to spare, and a side order of time.

Adding and subtracting from mana pools- Eliska still has twenty of twenty-four, Larric is, after some rest, on thirty-two of thirty-six.

[Kaelan]

Back again - curse the time zones!

Anyhow, whilst the rest of the party are discussing the pros and cons of magic (both making William slightly uncomfortable) William is going to go talk with the people waiting prior to our moving out. If we are only 6-8 hours away from Qulan the question that begs to be asked is why are they still here?

Given that the passage we took has been closed off for some time I would of assumed that most would have headed off towards civilisation sooner rather than later. Apart from the diehards merchants who have to cross over why are the rest still waiting.
Also, he’s going to get a feel for what the situation and current news in Qulan is. If more people are travelling this way by the day I should be able to get a sense of what’s happening in the city before we arrive.

Of course this then follows onto question 2. If we’re a day away at the plod, we can’t be more than ½ a day away at the rush. That been the case there is no way that the ruler in Qulan can’t know about the situation here – thus why has he been ignoring it?

OOC - back to lunch\work