Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Looking back at this, Panzer, I think ECR has a point: if you advocate bricking up the entrance while refugees are still escaping the fortress, it's a very morally ambiguous thing to do based on the very limited information we have available. Especially since there's that whole "feudal loyalty" thing going on. If your feudal lord is down in a dungeon fighting for his life, your duty is not to wall him off to die for the greater good, it's to damn well go down there and give him a hand.

This reminds me of that whole "burn down the nonexistent forest to kill off the nonexistent evil elves" thing.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Yes, hence the whole "his sense of honor overrides utilitarian concerns" bit. He can brick the place off afterwards, anyway.)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Yes, that- I was interested in what Alfred's reasoning was and how he was trying to convey to the rest of the group that this idea had crossed his mind. Without it occurring to them that he was losing it.

There should be maybe three thousand people down there- some will not be coming out by the sounds of it, but roughly from half to two thirds of them should be recognisably alive; how entombing them counts as a utilitarian concern at all was puzzling me, especially when you put the pieces of the puzzle together and work out that the pit full of monsters Peltar mentioned is in all probability the northern svartalfven community the group you fought last night were trying to defect to.

Ogre night vision- it's reputed, but that has more to do with their being scary monsters than the facts. They have physically larger eyes than humans, that pull in more light and may make better use of it; their vision in low light is very good, but they're just as screwed in complete darkness. Fifi is infrared- sensitive, though.

At the moment, on the basis of the gate the fortress maintains, Alfred is going to need to do some good acting in order to make it in. (The gate is supposed to keep out those not in need- over time the fine edge of discernment has blunted to the point that it will allow those able to fake it convincingly.) Larric and Tamarin and her two yeomen should, her two footmen are going to need coaching. Rohal- another trip to drama school may be in order, or think medical thoughts. Dirt could probably make it, Fifi'll be fine. Verone?

[Simon_Jester]

Sorry I didn't catch this sooner- do you mean Larric will be able to get in without trouble? Or do you mean Larric will probably be able to get in without trouble once he works out the secret?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Working out the secret is as easy as finding someone with their head vaguely screwed on to ask- and there's one now, a priest of Ikhran, looks thin, worn down, but basically with it- the first thing he does is look past you, go over to the fellow- religious who was shepherding (or trying to) the kids, pick him up, then realise you're there and say 'Ah, hello?'

He seems to know more than most, and can explain that the cavern is actually more or less imaginary, that the fort is clearly at vast depth and the passage down is entirely magical, that you'd have to dig through something like a mile or more of rock if you wanted to get there the hard way but that the portal the fort opens to those it senses can be vastly shorter than that; the trick is to make it think it wants to let you in. Feel like someone in need of a hole in the ground, basically.

deMarail apparently made sacrifices, in the sense of giving things up and making do the hard way; Kardren made sacrifices too, but in the sense of 'oh dark spirits, accept this victim'. deVerett seems, according to the priest, to have lost the least- but what coin he paid for success in, hard to say.

'Wonderful place- never really got the chance to explore, it's a maze, it's easiest for a thaumaturge to find their way around by the feel of it, the architecture is incredible; not human, not entirely, must have been a joint effort, the entire thing's a giant rune pattern, designed for a relative handful of the very powerful. What's to be made of it now though-'

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal- another trip to drama school may be in order, or think medical thoughts.

OOC: I might be having a long and drawn out brain fart, but I'm blanking on the reference.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

I was about to start wondering where everybody was...

Essentially, Rohal is probably the sort of person (Werewolf) the fort was meant to keep out, but if he does a good job of acting he should be able to fool it and make it in; considerably less likely people (Kardren's court wizard Hilarion, for one) managed to do so.

On the other hand, thinking about helping and healing people would probably work as a pass too.

Everyone heading in, or trying to?

(White Haven- what's Verone doing, thinking?)

[Panzersharkcat]

He'll try to. He'll probably fail at the acting, though.

[Feralgnoll]

OOC Gaming epiphanies. So great.

IC Rohal will continue to give aid to people as a way in.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Think in terms of entering the Justice Zone (Red Dwarf reference.) A confused, senile, easily baffled Zone that's forgotten most of it's trial procedures. (I could do so much more with this, if I thought you were up for it and I didn't want to get on myself.)

Tamarin prods Alfred a little. 'You're a knight, a protector of the weak and a defender of right and justice- this should be as easy as getting up in the morning.'

It's quite worrying how easy it isn't, but reciting various precepts of the knightly code seems to work. Rohal slides through on a wave of hippocraticism, without much trouble- although the nose, once inside the tunnel- spiralling downwards- well.

There are three- no, four- dominant scents. There is the ancient magic of the fortress itself, which is like listening to music played on a different tonal scheme entirely; everything different, an order and structure and it's own rules but not those you know, parts guessable but some things in there- like the magic of the gate itself- utterly unfamiliar.

There is a large pool of nonhumans, mostly svartalfven and their slave races; the countess is somewhere here too, her sharp bright polyvalence and dark trail is unmistakable, and another large single factor. No easier way to describe- he, or it, smells like a living volcano.

[Simon_Jester]

For Larric, curiosity is a need, it's what drives his vocation- and he has a promise to keep down there. He tries concentrating on that.

[Kaelan]

Dirt will wander in with the rest of the party. As a side note what are we doing with our prisoner. I'm guessing having a slap up banquet is out of the question.

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

If asked, Larric would say "Leave him up here, set a man to watching him?" He nods in the direction of Dame Tamarin's men-at-arms.

OOC:

It's not that big a deal if he runs away, you know. It might be very bad for him, he'd likely be re-enslaved by the northern dark elves or something, but it wouldn't really affect us.

[Panzersharkcat]

If asked, Alfred will say, "Just let him go. One less thing for us to worry about."

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Alfred has rank; theoretically he is supposed to be in charge. If he's not, Dame Tamarin is, and while she's a good human being, she's both a DM-run character and about as temperamentally suited for a command role as a head of lettuce.

Alfred is supposed to think of these things without being asked. You know how you're in a "Reserve Officer Training Corps?" This kind of thing is why they train officers. It's what they're for.

Of course, Alfred may not aspire to run anything and be well satisfied with hitting things with a big hammer. Larric, for one, is beginning to catch on to this.

...

Entirely separate from that, I question the wisdom of the decision- while having the prisoner run off doesn't really hurt us, just saying "go" to a man who has nowhere to go is a kind of unthinking cruelty... hang on.

IC:

Larric's eyes widen. "Milord!? He's spent his whole life as the black elves' slave, he's got no more spirit in him than a whipped dog. Would you do this to a dog?"

[Panzersharkcat]

If the topic of the prisoner is broached would be a better phrase. Anyway, he says, "Fair point." He turns to one of Dame Tamarin's men-at-arms. "Secure him. We'll find something for him to do when we return to the city."

(OOC: I'll probably have that guy be a free man, theoretically, but work for Ridebert instead.)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

'Um...right. To what?' is the reply. 'We've got rocks.'

The two men at arms look distinctly leery of going down, they can see what kind of people are coming up out of there and they're not sure they ought to go. They'll offer to stay up here and watch him.


White Haven, if you're out there, I need to know what Verone is doing. He could go into this business, react to it and come out in any one of so many different directions- I can guess what's happening on the basis of how the character's been played so far, but if you want to carry on with him I really need input.


When those who are going, go- it's a long way down a granite spiral, broad enough for two four- horse chariots to be driven, and eerily quiet. There are faint phantoms of people moving the other way- but you are in only conceptual space, and walking through it it's possible to feel what that means. Try not to think about what could happen if the fort decides it doesn't like you.

Moving out of phase to them, your going down and their going up, you can see them faintly, they can see you faintly; some gesture at you, some wave their arms and seem to be screaming at you to go back one good point; relatively few of them are wounded. There are some, being helped along by their friends, but not many. Most look wobbly, distorted, out of focus. This may be because they are, even if it doesn't show in the flesh.

All of you experience a different number of turns round the spiral; for some it feels as if you have walked that distance and more, for others it's barely one or two turns. Decide for yourselves where on that you fall.

Arrival is in a cavern, hot, dry air, rough rock on three sides and smooth polished stone on the fourth, a gate set into it- open, and people milling around, trying to get orgnised to move, going back for what they've forgotten, looking for others, most dazed and confused.

[Panzersharkcat]

"Just watch him to make sure he doesn't run away. If he does, find some rope to tie him down or sit on him."

[White Haven]

((Probably should have spoken up a while ago, but I've been pretty bushed of late and to be honest I was hoping to change my mind. I really like Verone as a character, and some of the stuff I've seen in the game has been quite nifty, but for an assortment of reasons, I'm just absolutely unmotivated to actually play as a part of it. Since this is at least partially a testbed thread for a gaming system, I'd be quite willing to go into things in more detail as a post-mortem with you in private, ECR, but what it boils down to is that I've no real remaining urge to be a part of this game. I'm quite certain that Verone can find a way to bow out of the party voluntarily or not, given the presence of an ancient magical fortress and all its wonders at the party's disposal, but if there's any further use for him, feel free to keep him alive as an NPC or whatnot, I'm not possessive about things. Have fun, all of you, and I wish you all a great continuing game.))

[Feralgnoll]

You will be missed

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Si. S'a pity.

IC:

Even Larric is going to have his curiosity triggered. He will take notes. This is too important for the slatebook, for this he'll break out some of his very limited and less reusable writing paper (or paper-equivalent).

That said, the magic of the fortress would have to be decayed indeed to consider "I really want to know a bit of how this thing works" a satisfactory reason to let someone in easily. For Larric, it's a damn long walk.

"I thought he said it felt like less than a mile down..." the alchemist groans, massaging his calves.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

That is a shame. Verone can bow out without short term difficulty, but there are a couple of long term plots that he was starting to feature in- the rise (?) of the Scruffy New Order, the tower at Carfax, and this business- I hope there was some fun at least in it for you, and do PM me your thoughts.


The cavern itself is busy, but most of the people are looking much the worse for their time here- the first out, and the ones you met on the way, seem to have been the physically healthy ones, or at least those who endured the best. The ones still here, from deMarail's group anyway, are the unhealthy. Some are helping each other, many are not. The noises are back to front; the children, who would normally be crying, are huddled and silent, the adults are crying. (Although initially supposed to be a warband, some of the families of the people ducked in here after the twentieth were heard to be on their way.)

More in a mercenary frame of mind, most are leaving a fair amount of things behind, stuff they cannot carry. Place is going to be a looter's paradise. The group attracts some attention- some pointing and screaming about ogres, for a start. Actions?

[Feralgnoll]

Looks around and puts hands out in front, as if "no no he is a good ogre"

whispers to Alfred "you are the people person..."

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

Is he? The alchemist speaks up.

OOC:

(Fellowship-powered Persuasion, with a slight boost by way of Oratory. Possibly Banter instead of Oratory, if that makes sense; the tone is compatible with trying to make it a bit funny. But the people are sullen and miserable, so that might not be a good idea. I don't know exactly how it would be pitched, since I'm vague on the boundaries of what the skills mean and Larric's got a better picture of how they feel than I do)

IC:

"We're not here for trouble;" Larric nods up at the ogre and smiles reassuringly at the crowd. "He's just along to-" very short pause, perceptible to someone who's paying attention but probably not to someone who's half-deranged from mind-twisting drugs- "to help carry things. He'll keep to himself, you just go on about your business, up and out, that's the ticket, it's a fine sunny day up there, nothing dangerous to be seen, a sight more food up there than down here. Though you may want to wrap up, if you've any blankets or whatnot. It's a bit chilly, you see..."

He leans over a bit, and in a low voice that carries a bit less than a whisper would, to Dirt- "look like you never had a mean thought in your head."

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: In some ways, yes. Alfred's oratory score is 12. Larric's is a 7. However, Alfred has only his base score in persuasion. Larric's is a 13. The one people skill thing Alfred really excels at is interrogating people.)

"You have my word that the alchemist speaks true. The ogre will not harm you."