Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

Larric infers that "Merric" was Lady Tamarin's husband. Apparently people keep hitting on the widow. A shame, but not his place to get involved in her affairs or deliberate lack thereof.



OOC:

Weird. Rhyming names! Well, it's bound to happen; I picked Larric semi-randomly, because I needed a two-syllable name that sounded vaguely Anglo-Saxonish. Anyone else who has to keep doing the same thing will rhyme eventually.

Also OOC:

So, to visualize the layout of the castle, something like

O=o

with the large O being the big potato-shaped hill the actual castle is on, the little o being the smaller hill with the bastion, and the = being a connecting drawbridge? I assume that climbing up to the bastion on foot isn't especially hard, and that its hill is not artificially steepened.

Clever.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

On the name thing, it's not so much coincidence as that there was a relatively small pool of roots of names- only one strand of the broad cultural mixture we have now in the West- and an enormous number of minor variations of each, most of which could be easily mistaken for misspellings, and some of which probably were.

Shape of the castle- yes.

There is some glaring, her followers and his look daggers at each other, but he eventually signals for the drawbridge, just before she has to either shout at him or draw her sword.

The drawbridge is lowered; it has a very new look about it, and creaks slightly as the party pass over into the main body of the castle. It was a small concentric, defence towers and buildings, barracks, stables, guest quarters and storerooms on the inside of the outer wall,
a cleared space between that and a slightly higher inner wall with another set of buildings- kitchens, more storehouses, most of the services of the keep, blacksmith, farrier, stables, armoury, well, built along the inside of the inner wall, and three large buildings more or less in a triangle in the centre, hall, keep, temple.

Nobody is separating anybody from their weapons, there are too many people who seriously feel the need of one for that to work- might or might not matter, but they want to be armed, or rather don't want to be defenceless. In fact, there's the sound of clattering and twanging that has quite a few people on edge, but is actually an improvised school of arms running along the outer side of the hall. Even by torchlight.

The temple has a new roof patchworked on where the old one was blown off, and it's into that roughly bunch of grapes shaped building that Tamarin leads you, to where she and her household were found room; most of the temple is being used to house people now, the altars are clear and still there, and there are a lot of people offering up prayers- the twentieth cataphract are being cursed on a regular basis.

There are the major corridors, all under the same vaulted roof, and smaller buildings within the building for each of the gods, each with associated storerooms and side chapels and robing and meeting rooms and what have you; she's in the main side chapel of Chelet god of family and community, says 'Wait here' and goes off to find someone of rank who can sort the situation out.

This would be the point at which William sidles off to listen for the gossip, right? Anyone doing anything else while you wait? (Get back to Rohal in a moment.)

[Kaelan]

Consider William slinking.

I'll inform larric before shooting off - we can trade info later. I'd rather gather info before the rumour mill gets distorted by our presence.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric nods. "Have fun-" a strange quirk hits the corner of his mouth- "Do something I wouldn't do."

After William leaves, he tries to guide Sir Alfred to some place where he can lie down, or at least sit down, undisturbed- he needs one.

OOC:

Can we hold off on anything major happening until Sorchus comes back to weigh in?

I assume Eliska has opinions, an angle, or both, about the disposition of Sir Radulf. But he didn't tell us what she actually thought about the matter last time, just that "we need to get a discussion out of the way." The possibly relevant opinions boil down to Larric and William (who've said their pieces; I can only assume that William's preference for turning over an un-interrogatable corpse has been overruled by the group consensus), and Alfred and Eliska. Alfred would have made his opinions known even if he's not in good shape to defend them right this minute, so I'd like to hear from Panzer.

I'm not clear on what Eliska thinks, though.

[Kaelan]

Well as radulf is here I suppose that turning him into a corpse now would be bad form.

[Simon_Jester]

Yeah.

Of course, if we were going to kill our unarmed prisoner, we'd have done it before we got to Qulan, and William had plenty of opportunities to argue for it over a day and a half of IC time and a month and a half of OOC time. My impression from the general... vibe of the group is that the other party members disagree with William about this. The fact that we're now at Qulan suggests that they either talked William out of it, talked him into holding his peace about it, or just said "no way" in convincing enough terms that William gave up on the idea.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Men at arms are not at the bottom of the social ladder,and are actually in very high demand at the moment; being a fairly chunky type, by the time William had made it out of the temple complex he's already had two job offers. If his armour had been shinier, could have been three.

The overriding source of court gossip- everyone's worried about their next meal, obviously, but the big thing happening is the succession. Arquin deVerett had no children- two mistresses, yes, one of whom claims to have borne him a child and the other to be pregnant at the moment, and nobody entirely believes either claim, is sure that they're both being used as pawns.

Neither would really be appropriate now, with so much damage to be repaired and a fair probability of more to occur. There's no Count- that news hasn't reached the place yet- and the likelihood is that one side or other, of the approximately eight there appear to be, will sieze the title by force.

The constable is the leading brutalist candidate, who appears to favour going for it and sorting out all the problems afterwards; the verderer would be the popular choice, as the most likely to do something useful, but he's not in the town at the moment- he's chasing bandits around the Orhan Hills. There's the baron's extended family, there is also a rumour that the dead Count's daughter has been seen on the road heading this way.

There have been a few brawls and a couple of duels, no wholesale violence. Law and order is a problem- there has been a breakdown, the yeomanry are playing vigilante, enforcing their own justice, which most of the lords resent more than the actual criminals. Who, specifically, is William going to go to for more detail?


Rohal; running free in wolf form, there are others around- but you're not sure they're charmable. Not this one, anyway. You come across a scene- relatively high in the woods, a small hollow, a pack circling around two fighting-
a rogue male, deformed looking, almost a caricature of a wolf, all jaws and bright, crazed eyes, being faced down by an alpha female; she is something special, mount honeycomb does have a permanent snowcap, and she must be from the high woods indeed, pure, snow white and the moisture is practically condensing out of the air around her.

They circle for a moment- there is something seriously wrong with the male, and the rest of the pack sense that; not quite rabid, not quite that bad, but close. She doesn't quite stare him down- might have, could have, but pushed too far he won't submit, he'll snap, and they both know it.

Eventually, he does. Launches himself at her. Doing anything?

[Kaelan]

First off: rohal, can I have a puppy?

William will be trying to get the buzz from the guards first, and then try to listen in to the servant gossip. He may try to get intel from the watch later, in particular what the view on our first employer was.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Alfred would prefer to keep Radulf alive, what with the political fallout from killing another nobleman, especially one who's unarmed. It'd also stain his name further, murdering an unarmed man. While he doesn't care too much about the stain, his father would and he would rather keep his father appeased. I assume that if Alfred was in any condition to speak intelligibly, he would likely have put his foot down on talks of killing Radulf by appealing to his maul. Also, if Bryan's horse is alive, I assume the party has it. Alfred may not feel right about taking the horse of a fallen comrade.)

[Simon_Jester]

I'm sure Alfred got the chance to express his opinions clearly during the part of the ride before he was wounded by D. From the sound of it, he's conscious, he can talk, it's just that he's so sick and headachey (so to speak) that following a complicated conversation and responding in kind is out.

I think we had Alfred lashed up on Old Paint Bucket and Radulf slung over Bryan's horse- that's how we had it before Bryan was killed, and I see no reason to change the arrangement now if we could avoid it.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Yeah, he's currently acting out Monty Python and the Holy Grail in his head or something. Man, I kind of wish they had the budget to do the ending they originally planned for the movie - swallows dropping coconuts on the French. I suppose the whole Arthur being arrested bit was funnier, though.

As for the horses, Alfred would probably feel a bit wrong switching horses and having Radulf slung over Old Paint Bucket. That's not really relevant anymore, I suppose, what with us arriving at our destination already.)

[Simon_Jester]

There wasn't any reason to do it, anyway- Old Paint Bucket was carrying you just fine, and it wasn't as if you needed a better horse just to get from A to B while in poor physical condition.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

That reminds me, I had meant to hand out XP, and make an individual award this time- Larric 6, William, Alfred 5, Eliska, Rohal 4.

Alfred is conscious but not coherent, dreaming of giant birdhouse towers in the sky for the purposes of training european and african swallows, depsite europe and africa being a brane away;


the guards William is talking to, one thing is worrying- they're all in different livery and with different heraldry, a couple even in the red brown and green of the king's army, most in the green and blue of the barony; it looks as if the system has broken down and gone back a stage, from reasonably organised bastard feudalism to the pure state. Everybody's aligned with somebody.

Most of them are suspicious verging on paranoid, a little of each other and definitely of outsiders.
I'm going to talk numbers for a second- in the barony and it's dependents, there are maybe twenty thousand people total, plus an unknown but not massive (yet) number of elves, and assorted strange and dangerous things.
The old nobility, the feudal warrior class, make up perhaps one in forty; deducting the too old, the too young, the unfit or otherwise unsuitable, in time of more or less peace, to maintain order and justice the barony could put about seventy to eighty armoured knights into the field (leading and backed by about two thousand mounted men at arms, foot spearmen and archers).
When every lance counts, second third and fourth sons and daughters- the bars are mainly cultural and glass ceiling, not legal- get dragged forwards and thrown on a warhorse, maybe double that.
As many as possible were called for, some ran and hid with the Baron, a lot of those who stood and fought died. There are not actually that many left about the place, around forty- barely enough to fill the usual offices of court and keep the wheels turning.

The men William finds to talk to can between them say virtually everything about who died and who lived, and why. The Constable- keeper of the castle and defender of it- is only popular with his own men, but he has the largest single retinue; partly because he had the good sense to be way the hell out of town when the Striking Phoenix actually hit.

Detrick is less than perfectly popular, too; he's too lenient on the outlaws, a lot of them say. Not a hard enough hand, doesn't suppress disorder enough. Good fighter, not a coward, but not exactly a straight arrow either. When William mentions the "rumour" about his having an affair with a witch, they're not surprised- it's just like him.

[Simon_Jester]

A question about what you can spend XP on.

Points can be spent on skills as at character creation, that part I understand fairly well. I've seen points paid into Advantages- can things like Supernatural Awareness be improved, sharpened, as the game goes on?

And what about the base ability scores, particularly the ones for magic (like Passions and Wits)? Are those fixed?

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal will enter the ring. Trying to get a better read on the male.

IC: Is she on the side of good, or has she used her powers to make him this way?

[Agent Sorchus]

I'm of the opinion that Radulf is right, turning him over to the verder or one of his allies is less than perfect. Of course he does need handed over to the court. Here is the kicker, between him and us we have enough smear in the form of the witch to hand someone in court a weapon to wield over the verder. That can get us a fair bit of favor, but we need to figure this out quick now that we are here.

Of the people mentioned handing a weapon over too the Constable is less than ideal, it sounds like he is a pragmatist and not liable to return the favor. The verder is a possibility, but only slight since he is away. The Baron's family could be gracious enough since they presumably only hold a chance of claiming the title because they are here and would be favored over the constable by the majority or the men at arms. Of course the rumor of the Counts Daughter is a good bet for similar reasons, namely that she isn't here and as such is in a weak state compared to the other two, and she has some legit reason to hold the throne, and as an individual is more likely to return such a favor rather than having a blind eye turned towards you by an entire family.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

I will say that Eliska is thinking like a Krylanyan: schemy and amoral... [sighs] but I'm not sure how practical.


In order:

1) Wait... Radulf is right? When he said what? And about how much? I'm not sure we've been reading the same pages.

2) I'm also a little confused by "smear in the form of the witch-" not sure exactly what that means; if you mean "stain the verderer's reputation by association with an unlicensed magic-user," then that might work, in the sense of "doing it will achieve the short-term goal you have in mind." I doubt it will work very well- unlicensed magic-users aren't as hated in Qulan as they are in Carfax, and the fact that Radulf thinks they should be burned at the stake doesn't mean people will think that much less of Sir Lautern the verderer for having carried on an affair with one.

But even though it might theoretically accomplish the goal, I think it's a bad idea, and Larric's going to be strongly opposed to that.

His opposition is partly for personal reasons- strictly speaking, he's an unlicensed magic-user, even though he never has and has no intention of competing with the guild and will be quite happy to put himself square with the guild as soon as conditions settle down a bit and he can straighten out his affairs.

He also wants to play it straight- Catarin, who he sees as a victim in all of this and actively trying to defend southern Qulan from invasion and conquest, trusted us with the understanding that we'd get the attention of someone who actually gives a damn about protecting that part of the barony, because otherwise they're going to wind up effectively in revolt out of pure self-defense and no one wants that. For us to try to use the leverage she gave us as some kind of angle for personal power with the constable, or any other claimant who isn't seriously trying to hold the place together, pisses all over that- we're screwing over her, we're screwing over her friend who's done nothing to wrong us, and we're not accomplishing the objective Larric actually cares about, which is trying to figure out a way to keep southern Qulan from becoming northern Carfax.

3) The baron's family- Baron DeVerett's immediate family has run off with him, his mistresses and supposed bastard son don't represent a really legitimate claim, and if there's any collateral relatives of his who stand to inherit from him, it sounds like their claims are tenuous: third cousin of his great-uncle sort of thing. Which means that in practice, they're very unlikely to hold any real power even if theoretically their aristocratic rump is entitled to the barony.

4) The count's daughter- it's not her barony, feudalism doesn't work that way; if she's in the mood to help organize the place then more power to her but she's not a claimant in her own right. If she could be convinced to ally with the verderer (who can probably be summoned back from his bandit hunt quickly, if need be- I doubt he's more than a solid day's ride away) then that might be the beginnings of a power base.

[Agent Sorchus]

1! Radulf is right that if we handed him over to the Verder or his allies the court will no doubt find him dead in little time. He is wrong in that I expect any of the nobles we could hand him too will also find him dead eventually.

2! it is more than just the witch it includes the alliance with the yeomen. Arguably the yeomen are more the issue here since the nobles don't trust them and the "proof" that the Verder is in league with them will stain him in their eyes more than the witch if I have my rationale right.

Actually this probably cuts right to the thick of the political tensions that we are going to find here. On one hand we have the Yeomen who are doing some good on the forest edge, but for all that good they are building resentment in the nobles who run the court. If this resentment came to blows I don't know that the weakened Nobles would be able to totally put down the yeomen and in the conflict the Baron of Carfax could easily come in and annex the area, for the good of the gentility of course. We have the Verder who is bridging the gap right now, but with the ascension to Baron in the way his connection to the yeomen is still a problem.

We have the problem that the Verder is doing good things (for those of us that care) but building a further conflict in the houses of power. And I have a feeling that he might not appreciate some of our actions during that little spat that started this all off.

3! I think we can agree that the constable is the worse choice IF! we get any say in this. While the Bastard might have an illegitimate claim he won't foster any further discontent in the nobility. I don't see anyway in empowering the yeomen that will solve estranging the nobility and keeping Carfax out.

4! I probably did read wrong that she was a claimant.

But getting her to realize the situation is probably the best thing we can do. OTOH we don't know her. Like at all. She isn't from these parts and she may just think that if Carfax can keep the yeomen in line all the better.

Still if we care (and Eliska does) she is a step up the ladder of the rich and powerful.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: I think that was several pages ago when Radulf tried to talk to one of us. It was either Bryan or Eliska, I think. Questioning the usefulness of bringing him in and if it's worth it.)

[Simon_Jester]

General strategy:

Larric thinks we should stall for time tonight and keep watch on Radulf ourselves, if possible. In the morning, Sir Alfred will hopefully be more himself and we can include him in our council of war peace pancakes! politics.

This will help, Larric thinks- he's the noble, it's supposed to be his job to sort all this out. Also, more pragmatically, Alfred has the rank to talk to almost anyone else here on more or less equal terms, which makes it harder for someone with a retinue and an officious title to steamroll us into an impossible position.

God I wish Tasoth was still playing. We need a talkyman.

1! Radulf is right that if we handed him over to the Verder or his allies the court will no doubt find him dead in little time. He is wrong in that I expect any of the nobles we could hand him too will also find him dead eventually.

Unless, of course, someone decides to use him as a channel to negotiate with Carfax for support, in which case Larric is going to be really mad at whatever wanna-be Machiavellian came up with the idea in the first place.

Oh, by the way, his title really is spelled "verderer." With two 'ers.' I'm sorry, but it's making my brain itch.

2! it is more than just the witch it includes the alliance with the yeomen. Arguably the yeomen are more the issue here since the nobles don't trust them and the "proof" that the Verder is in league with them will stain him in their eyes more than the witch if I have my rationale right.

Actually this probably cuts right to the thick of the political tensions that we are going to find here. On one hand we have the Yeomen who are doing some good on the forest edge, but for all that good they are building resentment in the nobles who run the court. If this resentment came to blows I don't know that the weakened Nobles would be able to totally put down the yeomen and in the conflict the Baron of Carfax could easily come in and annex the area, for the good of the gentility of course. We have the Verder who is bridging the gap right now, but with the ascension to Baron in the way his connection to the yeomen is still a problem.

We have the problem that the Verder is doing good things (for those of us that care) but building a further conflict in the houses of power. And I have a feeling that he might not appreciate some of our actions during that little spat that started this all off.

Then again, think about it from the yeomen's point of view. The nobility failed to defend the barony (and the county, and the kingdom) against the Striking Phoenix, failed to do anything as this army of orcs and demons laid waste to the countryside. Now things are in chaos, bandits and rogues roam the landscape, and the yeomen seem to be the best organized force left around that's actually doing anything to keep the place from turning into complete chaos.

Meanwhile, the nobles are at each other's throats- we've reports of succession squabbles among the Kardrens down in Carfax, no one candidate winning because their baron is missing too. Trying to support someone they like better, against the man the yeomanry trust, sounds like a bad idea- all that gets us is close ties to a single faction of nobles who probably can't defend the territory, and probably can't even defend themselves against their own rivals trying to do them in to become the latest king of the rubble heap.

Being affiliated with, and strengthening the hand of, the man who is actually trying to hold the yeomanry and the knights together in common cause, at least until winter's over and we can try to kill each other after the spring crops have been planted... I think that makes more sense as a long term plan for survival.

3! I think we can agree that the constable is the worse choice IF! we get any say in this. While the Bastard might have an illegitimate claim he won't foster any further discontent in the nobility. I don't see anyway in empowering the yeomen that will solve estranging the nobility and keeping Carfax out.

The bastard is a small child. There's also no evidence he's even related to Baron DeVerett.

But even if he's the puppet on the throne, someone holds the real power, and everyone will know they have it, which puts us right back at square one with whoever's got the power behind the throne.

All else being equal, I think we should try to hold out, either until Sir Detrick the verderer gets back and we can at least *talk* to him about all this, or until a neutral option suggests itself.

4! I probably did read wrong that she was a claimant.

But getting her to realize the situation is probably the best thing we can do. OTOH we don't know her. Like at all. She isn't from these parts and she may just think that if Carfax can keep the yeomen in line all the better.

Still if we care (and Eliska does) she is a step up the ladder of the rich and powerful.

Eliska cares, Larric doesn't- Alfred, I dunno, he seems pretty secure in his own status and doesn't seem like a social climber. William probably doesn't like this whole 'selling out' idea, but that's just a guess. I doubt Rohal cares, not that he's likely to weigh in since he decided to go howl.

Also, the "rich and powerful" at the moment are at the top of an anthill that's just been upset very badly- damn near pasteurized. Trying to cozy up with the broken remnants of the old power structure isn't necessarily a good idea if you're feeling really ambitious.

Frankly, if you're ambitious and deadly in this county the smartest thing to do is probably to enlist with the Striking Phoenix. They just might hire Eliska...

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Can I leave some of those skill points in reserve? I know what I want to do with SOME of them:

1 pt: Increase Animal Handling from 9 to 10: to pay for the mule, so to speak.
1 pt: Increase Persuasion from 12 to 13
1 pt: Increase Human Perception from 8 to 9
1 pt: Increase Politics from baseline of 3 to 5: baptism by total immersion!

Two points still in reserve, I don't know what to do with them yet. Candidates include Resist Persuasion, boosts to magic, further boost to politics (up to 6 would be half a point, beyond that it's 1 XP per point gained though)... [thinks]

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: He doesn't care currently. He will in time because, as I've said before, he will eventually turn into a Florian Geyer type of man who will fight on the side of the peasantry.

Anyway, one more into resist magic to make 12, one into resist injury to make 13, and burn the remaining three to boost intimidate to 10.)

[Simon_Jester]

(OOC: He doesn't care currently. He will in time because, as I've said before, he will eventually turn into a Florian Geyer type of man who will fight on the side of the peasantry.

Bearing in mind the likelihood of this campaign lasting that long, if you have plans for character evolution, you might want to have him make some tentative steps in that direction sooner rather than later...

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Oh, that's kind of why I wanted to find Bryan's body, actually. I have a short eulogy for him in my head to kind of point to the fact that he is steadily becoming less of a jerk-ass.

EDIT: Oh, right, and if Alfred dies, I can always have James Hagen step in. He'd already be at full-on white knight status.)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Right- XP; to raise an attribute from below average for the species is 3 points, from average to normal maximum is 4, above the normal limit for the species is 5 points per level of attribute. Used to be 3-5-7, I decided this was fairer and made better play wiht the law of diminishing returns that sets in at high skill levels.


Rohal's assuming a lot, that the white she- wolf actually has powers of that nature and kind- of course, he can see a little way into the unnatural, and yes, yes she has power. Mind affecting? probably only in the 'oh, wow' sense- she's a winter wolf, and looking closely a couple of the pack are her get, probably the only way they can keep up with her- the rest are trying.

The interesting point here is that werewolves in human form are, well, human, but in wolf form it varies a lot more; size, strength, speed- by normal lupine standards most werewolves are huge. Rohal does have a presence there.

The smell of the two of them is different- very much so. There's something sharp and sour, something solvent- like, about the wild- eyed male- if not sick in the head then very possibly sick in the body, burning himself up inside; reconstructing the scents both of them have left, he came to her looking for help, but there's an underlying falseness about that that may be a consequence of his being ill, or may be what it seems- a lie;

she decided that there was something badly wrong, the pack wouldn't have him, and the only thing she could do for him was put him out of his misery- and that is how they got to be where they are.

He's fast; there is something about the way his joints articulate, the muscles under the skin move, that is just... uncanny valley territory. Enough not like a proper wolf to be really disturbing. Some kind of mutant? Accidental or deliberate?

There are only about two moves in it. He's not being cautious, throws himself at her trying to bear her down; she ducks and sidesteps slightly, in a fluid move- strictly speaking, she's probably a lot further from natural than he is, but she is so in a way that makes sense within itself and holds together; once he commits himself, moves aside- grabs him by the throat as he passes by and rolls into it with him, and starts to freeze him.

That is where Rohal slides past the rest of the pack and enters the ring. What's he doing?

Oh- a side note on communication in wolf form- body language, scent. Information is hard to communicate, feelings are relatively easy.