Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Larric is judging Sir Alfred by his actions more than his (invisible) skill scores. He knows Alfred has a nice, loud, impressive speaking voice*. The problem isn't Alfred's presentation, it's that half the time the words coming out of his mouth don't make any sense.

*That may not be true, but it seems in keeping with the character to have a big booming voice, possibly played by Brian Blessed.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Healing madness and not paying attention will do that.

Also, now I feel compelled to have everything Alfred says written in all caps. "IS THERE ANYONE IN ROME WHO HAS NOT SLEPT WITH MY DAUGHTER?!!!")

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Don't give in, but I'll always imagine him that way.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

That could result in people's opinions of Alfred changing in all sorts of interestingly inconvenient ways...oh, goody. Actually it's not too far off anyway, thinking about the duel.

The initial shock is overcome quickly, and there is not much moral reluctance to go, more like dubious physical ability. Fifi has the sense to duck, and stay hidden; Dirt can tell her all about it later.

The initial moment of fear changes quickly- partly defused by the characters, by Larric's smooth tongue, Alfrted's presence and wahteer Dirt decides to do- appropriate, I hope-, partly by the people here being desperate-when someone puts two and two together. It's a ten year old boy. Walks up to Dirt, starts pulling on whatever he uses for leg coverings. 'Could you carry my grandfather? Promise you won't eat him?'

Soon there is quite a lot of that- people asking for help, much shouting, mostly at each other. The commotion attracts attention- somebody is pushing his way to the front to see you, and people seem to be getting out of his way.

It takes two attempts to work out why; he's in a terrible state. Used to be about Alfred's shape, broad, strong, the family always were the most physically imposing of the nobility; it's Lucien deMarail, baron of Karvalheim, or what's left of him. He looks as if someone left him in a kiln to dry.

'We are all going to get out. No-one is getting left behind. There's nothing here for us.' Turns to the party. 'I implore your aid- help me get my people to safety.'

He does mean help, by the way- walks over to one of the more dazed and confused men at arms, picks him up and slings him over his shoulders. Turns back to look at you.

[Panzersharkcat]

"Where is Baron deVerette?" he asks as he starts helping people move out of the place.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Panzer, just to make sure you remember, Baron deMarail is deVerett's equal in rank, definitely his rival- one of the four most important men in the county before the Twentieth invaded. He probably didn't like deVerett before, and judging by the attitude of those of his knights we've found, he likes the man even less now.

Despite that, the question doesn't seem unreasonable to me, I'm not facepalming or anything, I just want to make sure you remember.

IC:

Larric looks at the knight he's following, looks at the crowd of refugees. Contemplates the nearly-mile-long climb back to the surface (no one's gotten to telling him how short it really is) The magic and strangeness and thing they actually want to accomplish up ahead.

Part of him wishes that Sir Alfred had said something like "We shall return to aid you, milord, but we promised to go find our own baron."

Part of him wishes he could say "no." It might be his right hamstring.

Larric is not a particularly strong man, and he fully expects it to be a long damn climb, so if he's carrying anyone out, he's looking for a child. Toddler-age to about ten, maybe, factoring in that this is a badly malnourished child who can't make the climb, with parent(s) who are in no shape to carry even a child up the ramp themselves.

OOC Mk II:

Actually, this would be a very sensible moment for Verone to part ways with us- he's too interested in the fort itself to be bothered hauling people up a long climb. What happens to him after that is an open question, but it's a logical place for him to go, given the nature of the man.

[Feralgnoll]

OOC: I will be at Kublacon this weekend so my participation will be scarce.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: I think it's mitigated a bit by the fact he's already helping people move out.)

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

I have no criticism of Alfred's actions as such. It seems a reasonable question, if a bit more direct than some knights I might imagine would go about it. And, yes, hopping to is probably an effective way to make deMarail happy. Although, mind you, we could burn a lot of time and energy that way...

Larric is a little discontent but that's probably what he gets for thinking with his muscles (which aren't nearly as developed a computing machine as Alfred's or Dirt's). I've already got a bit of a surprise planned for him if he goes up and comes back down.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Lucien deMarial reacts quite badly to that question, but being a nobleman doesn't take it out on you- much. 'He held the centre of the fortress. Insofar as any of us held it at all.

You understand that we all of us took different sides over the summer, and once down here, for a brief time it was a matter of wonders, then of survival, then it occurred to him first that perhaps we should fight out the war we had all been headed towards.

He was bidding fair to win, damn him- until the great beasts and their servants tried to break in. It was my men who took the shock of that; he tried to seek advantage from that at first, before his wizards persuaded him we were all in danger.

The final actions- I already know we have a countess, and know her by reputation; he will undoubtedly be trying to ooze his way into her confidence. I hope she eats him. He s still gathering his people to leave, somewhere near the centre of the fort.'

[Simon_Jester]

Larric works his jaw a little. He's met the countess and knows his own baron by reputation. And this man seems like a decent sort of lord, whatever mistakes he's made.

"Begging your lordship's pardon, if it's any consolation, he'll have a lot of things to worry about up outside. An awful lot. And... what you said... " Larric looks sad, but at what is probably not obvious even to him "...she very well might, in the end."

[Panzersharkcat]

"Being referred to as deadwood does not bode well for him. In any case, I have a duty to find him. I will do what I can here before I must leave. If I return, I will finish the job."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Lucien deMarail (forgive the earlier typos) is the most openly royalist of the three barons, and has the most faith in the system, if you want to put it that way; the only one who pays more than lip service to the concept of noblesse oblige. Partly this is due to living in close proximity to dwarves- the attitudes bleed through. deVerett runs an open enough system that some of his followers and supporters may hold closer to the old codes than, well, he himself appears to.

I'm not sure anyone's explaining to Larric that it isn't a mile or more down would actually help; it "is" as far down as it lets you sweat to get to it, and the fact that it takes him more time and energy to do that than it does most people isn't going to help make it less.

The fact is, it can be a damn' long way up and down. How did Alfred find it- and is he saying that loud enough for deMarail and most of the people in the cavern to hear?

[Panzersharkcat]

He's saying it only to deMarail. Probably not loud enough for everybody to here, apparent Brian Blessed-ness notwithstanding.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Just to clarify, Panzer-

The entrance to the fortress is basically a magic portal that moves you from the cave up near the surface, down to the underground bunker complex which is under something like a mile of rock. It simulates traveling down a spiral ramp. The ramp is sort of like a holding pattern (load screen? ) that the fortress holds you in while determining whether or not to let you in.

The more you think and act like someone the fortress wants inside, the faster your journey is. If you're thinking "argh you bastard deVerett, I'm going to come in there and kill you," the fortress would probably keep you spiraling around in a holding pattern until you died of thirst and/or boredom.* If you're thinking "I will go down and render medical assistance to the poor unfortunate people in the fortress," like Rohal did, you get in pretty fast.

So the question is, how strong was Alfred's sense that he ought to be in the fortress? The stronger it is, the less distance he travels. And how closely do Alfred's motivations line up with those the fortress wants to see in people coming into it? That has an effect too.

Larric's problem, for example, is that a large fraction of his sense that he ought to be down there is curiosity about the fortress. And if the fortress is running a TSA-style scan of your thoughts to decide whether or not it lets you in, "I want to learn the fortress's secrets" is one of those things you do NOT want to say while waiting in line. It gets you the extra-double-plus-groping and interrogation, or in this case a climb that makes you feel like you just hiked down a mountain.**

So ask yourself- how long was the trip for Alfred? Is he going to be willing to make the (possibly very long) climb up to the surface bearing people on his back, before he accomplishes any of his other duties? How would his knowledge of what is entailed in all this affect what he says and does?
____________

*It might have more... direct ways of making its displeasure known to someone who wants to attack the people it's protecting, but let's not think about those right now.

**Come to think of it, that may be another way for Verone to part ways with the party- for him the climb is like ten miles down, or the fortress just plain spits him back out since it detects tons of curiosity but no hostile intent, or something like that.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: His thoughts are entirely of the mission. He has no other reason to be there. He's hardly curious about its secrets and he has a secure enough amount of money so looting things is not too high a priority. It'd probably be only a moderately long trip for him, maybe longer because he expressed desires to have it sealed.)

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

I don't know how a fortress that's supposed to be impregnable would view being sealed off from the outside. That could be both good and bad at the same time.

Of course, the real question is- if your thoughts are entirely of the mission, how does that square with your present plans? Do you begin looking to help people up the ramp, at a considerable cost in time and effort per person? Or do you promise to come back later? I'm not clear on your intentions. Inquiring barons will want to know...

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: I do a little bit of helping before promising to come back later. The helping is partially to get the Baron off his back if he gets annoyed about not helping. The impression I want to give is that I did what I could but I kind of have a duty to my own lord to fulfill and I will come back if I survive.)

[Simon_Jester]

Ok, so you, what, carry one invalid up in your arms, then go off in search of deVerett? What are your... search criteria? In the sense that Larric is planning to carry a child because he doesn't have a lot of faith in his own strength for much more than that given the length and strenuousness of the climb?

Rohal, Dirt, what are you guys doing?

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Carry two invalids while thinking of the need to get them out and then fulfill his duty to his lord. He'd also ask for directions when he gets back but that won't come to him until later.)

[Kaelan]

OOC
hectic day of work followed by a day of travel that ended with an idiot driving into the back of me whilst at a roundabout (2 miles from home).

Currently undergoing death by paperwork as it was a work car and not mine. Will post as soon as I get ontop of it (most likely tomorrow). In the interim Dirt will be keeping quiet and observing what is going on in the area, given how high strung everybody is an ogre getting involved is most likely not going to help just yet.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Bloody hell. You're all right?

Apart from having to deal with the paperwork, of course...the idiot who drove into you is almost certainly not a patch on the idiots who call themselves an insurance company. I am not prejudiced against them; there's nothing pre about it. I haven't found one yet who had any wit as an organisation. And with work involved, too, the stupid may approach epic proportions.

Good luck sorting it all out, and feel free to daydream about desk numpties being fed to carnivorous plants.


There are far more people to be helped than the group really has time or the ability to retain feeling in your legs long enough to actually assist; fortunately, most of the trips up are fairly quick. Most of these people had such miserable experiences that the fort doesn't want to keep them around, they are a negative factor now- they want to go, and it speeds their passage out.

Climbing back down again is the hard part. You do meet two other people who are doing the same thing; one of them, some of you may recognise. Young man, multiple layers of green and brown rags, borrowed wizard's staff with an axehead grafted on to the non- fancy end, hawk perched on his shoulder. Seems to be wandering up and down the spiral as if it was only a couple of steps.

The other is a young woman, long blonde ponytail, outwardly calm and poised but her eyes look about ten times older than her face. Takes a moment to pick up on, but Alfred may recognise her and Tamarin certainly will- deVerett's court wizard's apprentice.

[Kaelan]

OOC
I'm good, rear end of the car not so good.... (the crumple zone worked a bit too well).

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Once upon a time, long ago and across the sea, I was that idiot. She had her cruise control set to fifty miles an hour on a sixty-five mile an hour interstate, it was dark, I tuned out mentally for a moment... eyes wide, brakes squealing, wham, trundle to the roadside on momentum...

It was a low-relative-velocity collision; my engine block took a lot worse of it than her rear end. Total constructive loss on my old station wagon, cracked up bumper for her. I still jump a little at the sight of rapidly approaching tail lights.

I've learned quite a bit as a driver over the past six years, and I'm still one of the 25% or so of Americans who will identify themselves as a below average driver.

IC:

What first confuses Larric is that the way up the first time is a lot shorter than the way down was. That just makes him think of what the Ikhrani said, "distances are funny that way" sort of thing.

What really rattles him is that the second time he goes down is shorter than the first time was. Because what's really on his mind this time isn't "unlock the secrets of the fortress," it's "bring up that nine year old." Remember Rohal 'sliding through on a wave of hippocraticism?' Something like that. Less like climbing down a mountain, more like climbing down the stairs of a small skyscraper.

He's at the bottom almost before the first renewed twinges set into his legs- looks about himself in surprise, for a moment seems almost as out of it as deVerett's mentally baked followers. Internally, he takes it as... in some sort of nebulous, pantheistic sense, as a sign from the gods.

I don't know how long this goes on, how many trips we make before Alfred gets tired of it- from the sound of it, only the one trip.

IC MK II:

I don't know the man in brown and green and Larric stay out of phase, but if they meet face to face outside the aether, Larric's not going to be able to resist saying something along the lines of "Hi, Aburon." Probably just as well if they do stay out of phase, because that might be a paradox right there.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Actually, you almost certainly are going to come face to face; the first thing that happens, though, is Lisanna Harrivell- the court sorceress, now, as a result of fiery death- and Tamarin hugging each other, as hello turns into explanations turns into you're wearing black, armour, why, oh no.

They obviously knew each other before, and while they are talking the druid wanders down the spiral, glances around vaguely- his familiar scans the chamber; seems to see mainly through the hawk's eyes.

Larric fails to resist temptation, and does his bit for paradox.

'I should recognise you by your fingers, but I don't- where have we met?' he askes Larric. He seems an amiable enough sort, but it's possible to tell why the Countess picked him as a follower, there is something of the wild animal about him. At the moment he's tired, confused, still slightly in shock, and just doing what needs to be done.