Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: The first goblin he was trying to interrogate before Rohal went and shot some guys. If he can't get anything out of him, he'll move to the human, all the while thinking "Why must you make my job harder than it needs to be?")

[Simon_Jester]

OK, so if Alfred is "interrogating" the goblin, what is he trying to learn? What questions does he ask?

And if Alfred/Dirt are talking to the goblins while the human is being watched by others, Larric will head over to the human, hoping to bring Verone along as translator.

[Feralgnoll]

OOC:

OOC: Then I am a victim of not understanding the background of the enemies. I thought them to be willing/brainwashed servants of the dark elves.

Well, it's a borderline case- what's the difference between "willing servant" and "unhappy slave raised from infancy until Stockholm Syndrome" sets in? Still, you must admit how it looks, to someone who is neither all that accustomed to, nor all that enthused by, casual murder.

OOC Casual Murder to one is mopping up to another. (I swear I am not this heartless IRL)

Rohal provides overwatch for the party watching for reinforcements.

[Panzersharkcat]

Same stuff as before he was interrupted. Stuff like what are you doing around here and whether you've seen what happened at those battle sites nearby.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, do bear in mind that threatening to kill the goblins probably won't work because they've pretty much lost the will to live.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: He can play good cop if needed. Do remember how he interrogated the assassin. He treated him with a good amount of kindness when asking.)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

One thing all of you notice is that Tamarin's retinue, the two foot soldiers are much more brutal and pragmatical about it than the yeomen. The footmen's view is it's kill or be killed, they lost, fuck 'em. They bind and disarm the goblins, and they are not gentle about it.

The yeomanry are thinking about things like loyalty and obedience and the meaning of arms. 'Who do their fighting slaves fight? Mainly each other, isn't it- they don't come out that often, and did you hear him? He doesn't speak proper at all, he speaks old, very very old.

'The masters use the minions to fight each other, so they can't be loyal to the system, to the nation or country or whatever they call it, just to individual masters.

Sort of like having an attack dog, really- it takes a long time to break a well trained attack dog of an old loyalty and train it to a new, and usually a few bites along the way. How long do goblins live? Not long- might not be worth it, poor little buggers are probably brainwashed or cursed to just pine away and die when their master croaks it.'

That's the sum total of what passes between the two of them, anyway. Might be true, might not.


The goblins- legally speaking, goblins are vermin. They occupy the same ecological niche as monkeys, but are much less charming and very substantially more destructive. They are sentient by any reasonable definition of the term, but 'intelligent' is much more debatable- and they are rarely on anybody's side, even their own; they certainly do themselves no favours most of the time.

Trying to get information out of them- strangely, the main factor is Fifi. They're terrified of her. She pops up and does her usual friendly trying to say hello, and they scream and huddle together even closer. Another one tries to commit suicide by banging his head on the ground; the footmen stop him.

This is depressing to a young carnivorous plant, and she sulks a little. They think that means she's about to bite. They talk. Actually they scream 'takeitaway, no no dark powers pleasemakeitgoaway-'

A little judicious intimidation and plant- waving (pointless to show kindness to a goblin usually, they assume the world's out to get them and it's all a trick- and they're not usually wrong, they will always, always bite the hand that feeds them) gets what little they know- oh, and all of this takes some time, so those who aren't directly involved'll be making camp during this, as the sun goes down.

They were treated like mushrooms as usual, but the young master and his friend were clearly not above board- sneaking off, with a heavy load of things like a cooking pot and a dismantled spinning wheel- a few randomly grabbed bits of a household setup; things no-one sane would take into the wilderness. Spent a long time sneaking around past the Spiral Forest, trying not to get noticed by the elves there- actually past the point of no return as far as rations and things went. Didn't turn for home.

The two dark elves were clearly not that old and not that experienced, and trying to play the part- probably bricking it and putting on false bravado. It got them killed.

The goblins don't beg for mercy, the only thing they could reasonably expect is a quick death, and that mainly out of efficiency.

[Kaelan]

OOC
Sorry for the lack of post, but I've been puking my guts out whilst running about at work juggling eight things at once. I can remember the days when sick leave was an option...
Now I'm better and only juggling six things, but am posting this in a lunch break, so please excuse the spelling mistakes that may (will?) occure.

IC
Dirt will be looking at the survivors, and put away his medical equipment after Rohal has administered is own version of first aid, unless any of the elves are in a position to be saved.
After the prisoners are tied up he will talk with the rest of the party & Humans. His advice, after translation and broken tongue is as follows:
"The best option will be to take the human on as a slave with a promise of release next summer based on how is acts. He will need the time to learn how to function up here, or more importantly unlearn what he has been taught by the elves."
"You can't save the goblins, not unless you want to make it a lifetime job. There nature, gods and upbringing keep them in this fashion. It sucks, but you have to kill them. I can either make it quick with a knife, or painless with a poison meal. The other option is to let them go, but they will turn on us as soon as the odds are in their favour."

In the interim Dirt will act as a translator for anybody who wants to talk to the prisoner, but he will point out that our new prisoner is not too fond of Rohal at the moment. Afterwards Dirt will tend to the dead, as we don't want to attract any carrion to the area. He won't be looting the bodies, so if somebody wants to search them they best do it before Dirt puts them in the ground. Spoiler

Minus a couple of elf bongos & fifi snacks he will make tonight when on watch

[Panzersharkcat]

He nods. "They cooperated. Make it painless for them." Referring to the goblins.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric concentrates on calming the human minion down a bit, which is as much a matter of tone and not-visibly-killy as it is anything else. He'll be listening more than he's speaking, which means Verone's translation will mostly run from the minion to Larric and not the other way around.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

It is very tiring work getting through to the human- dumb insolence for the most part, most questions about what they were doing here are replied to with 'ask the master' and 'Don't care any more.' Tamarin helps, and apparently as stand- in matriarch convinces him to open up a bit- she can't really play the part at all well, but tries.

When it all comes together is, as Dirt is starting to prep them for burial, valuables and all (someone may want to do something about that, such as not throw it all away), Rohal's nose finally clicks, works out what the odd thing is. One of the dark elves, the one who had the whip and rapier, doesn't smell male.

You'd think you'd have noticed something that obvious, but removing the torso armour and clothing, double mastectomy. Her pelvis must have been broken and reset to change her walk, too- and from the looks of some of the secondary scarring, it wasn't voulntary. If it had been an intentional realignment, it would have been done with a lot more care. This was more of a mutilation, of an unwanted or inconvenient daughter.

No wonder the pair of them were running away from home. They had left the southern caverns, looking to make a new life in the svartalfven stronghold rumoured to be in the north- around about here, in fact.

Of course; that's one of the reasons the fortress has never been found, look at this morass of broken rock that's called the badlands, it's probably like this for a long way down; if there are svartalfven about here they probably made their homes in the holes in the ground left by the bombardment aimed at the fortress during the first age.

It's behind it's own shields, their thaumic signature confusing the issue, their shields, and the nasty habit of stabbing up anyone who sticks their head down the wrong hole in the ground. That makes sense now. It's not necessarily an answer you'll like, but it does make sense.

This pair must have been at the end of their tether when they came across you; decided to gamble, and try and behave- bluff you into literal submission- in a way that they thought would make it more likely for their new community to let them in, to treat them as honourable (on their scale of values) and estimable svartalfven instead of enslavable refugees themselves.

They gambled with their lives and lost. That's svartalfven for you. It's turning full dark as this concludes- actions?

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal grimaces as the coins drop in the bucket.

[Kaelan]

After spending so long in svaralfen society Dirt has more sympathy for the goblins. Might change after a couple of years.

After the bodies are buried Dirt will make the goblin's some food with some additional special herbs, and try to make sure no one else samples it first.

Then it's time for bongo practice in the morning.

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

It is very tiring work getting through to the human- dumb insolence for the most part, most questions about what they were doing here are replied to with 'ask the master' and 'Don't care any more.' Tamarin helps, and apparently as stand- in matriarch convinces him to open up a bit- she can't really play the part at all well, but tries.

Since Larric was aiming at bringing the fellow down from the edge of panic, and wasn't over-concerned about getting information out of him, sullenness doesn't bother him very much.

As to the rest... ouch.

Of course; that's one of the reasons the fortress has never been found, look at this morass of broken rock that's called the badlands, it's probably like this for a long way down; if there are svartalfven about here they probably made their homes in the holes in the ground left by the bombardment aimed at the fortress during the first age.

It's behind it's own shields, their thaumic signature confusing the issue, their shields, and the nasty habit of stabbing up anyone who sticks their head down the wrong hole in the ground. That makes sense now. It's not necessarily an answer you'll like, but it does make sense.

Larric's going to chew that over...

OOC:

...Gotta go, need to renew driver's license before business hours end.

This pair must have been at the end of their tether when they came across you; decided to gamble, and try and behave- bluff you into literal submission- in a way that they thought would make it more likely for their new community to let them in, to treat them as honourable (on their scale of values) and estimable svartalfven instead of enslavable refugees themselves.

They gambled with their lives and lost. That's svartalfven for you.

Alas, bad gamble.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

The goblins duly expire; they eat sullenly, as if expecting it, and you're almost sure that as the first of them keels over he says 'I told you so' to the rest.

Something like what happened to the female dark elf would not have been a random act of cruelty- could be undone by friends and family if it was; would likely have been a deliberate, legally enforced mutilation, a punishment laid on the family she was part of, humiliate the matriarch by pointing out how unable to defend her children she was. Everyone she knew and worked with would know that, too.

This is the system at it's worst, sadistic even by their standards, near the point of collapse as it frantically tries to maintain itself by increasing, spiralling acts of brutality and repression; this is how matriarchs fall and anarchs rise.

hopefully the northern caverns are in a slightly less psychotic state.
Spoiler

They are, because they're not on their own recognizance; they are ruled over by a being powerful enough to compel them to something resembling good order and civilisation. Being under the care of a baalrukh is a definite improvement. In fact, for the next few years the four body problem of northern, relatively civilised svartalfven, southern about-to-implode svartalfven, moderate local elves, bloodstained incomer elves, would be wonderful political theatre- if you weren't in the middle of it as the distinctly not- fixed balance point. This does produce some very odd alliances and friendships, and in many ways the northern svartlfven are actually the most trustworthy of the lot.

Slavery is actually illegal in Kuquan, and the dark elves deal with this by being outlaws- no rights before human law and liable to be shot or stabbed on sight. The few that want to leave their own culture behind and blend in go before a human magistrate and take an oath of composition, accepting the law of the land. The prisoner doesn't know that, but you do- how you're going to do this, tricky.

The dark elves and the dead humans, and the goblins that are still within shovel's reach, will be buried with their armour, weapons, personal effect and packs, then? Who's keeping watch?

[Simon_Jester]

Larric's watch is before Dirt's, and I for one will leave it at that. I say that more for OOC reasons than anything else.

[Panzersharkcat]

He starts assigning watches in two hour shifts with two hours before sleep starts to bury the dead. Larric, himself, Verone, Rohal, and Dirt. Each of them partnered with somebody else. Dirt has Dame Tamarin as watch partner.

[Simon_Jester]

Is Sir Alfred going to give Rohal that talking-to?

[Panzersharkcat]

Yes he will. He also assigned him the crappiest watch shift as punishment. Anyway, he takes Rohal aside and asks him why he shot them and general talk about not shooting people in the back. He won't ream his ears out or anything, though.

[Kaelan]

Last watch joy! Almost as good as first dog all night in.
You do know that this means that you're trusting Dirt with breakfast right?

If nothing happens during the night dirt will wake the party at the appropriate time with breakfast and a bongo reveille.

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal will give a mix of answers to Alfred about how wolf packs work. And apologize for the slip into wolf thought.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Ghoulies and ghosties and things that go KABOOM! in the night, then...

Yes, around here it is definitely kaboom. No mere bumpage for a band of heroes. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be happening to you, at least not directly.

More or less the middle of the middle of the night, half way through Verone's turn to stand watch, something quite visually spectacular takes place- five or six miles north, behind cluttered rocks (in this place, as ever), there appears a quickly swelling glow of light, red- orange, a fire growing to a pyre the size of a city- but no smoke, and strangely, no sound. It flares, pulses, flickers like a flame, moves towards the cooler end of the spectrum then fades away, all in less than a minute.

It is definitely magical in nature, and I presume the rest of Verone's watch is going to be spent not watching at all, but frantically scrying, measuring, and sketching runeforms on stray bits of parchment trying to establish what and why and most importantly, how.

The men of Tamarin's retinue can keep the system straight, I'll describe the morning in a moment.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

That might actually wake Larric, I don't know what a big pulse on his metaphorical radar would do.

Sorry, just thinking. Don't really have any actions planned.

[Feralgnoll]

Do the sleepers get perception checks to wake up? And will this fatigue us for the next day?

[Simon_Jester]

Remember, it's winter: the night is more than twelve hours long (and pretty cold, for visualization's sake). Being woke up in the middle of the night won't stop you from going back to bed for another four to six hours.