Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Panzersharkcat]

Yes. He's certainly not about to let him go because he did kind of attack them. He may as well make himself useful. Anyway, he asks Dirt to help translate.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

"Do you want a slave? This is not a trick question..." Hah.

IC:

Larric, in a stunning display of either futility, naivete, or a deep and unjustified faith the polyglot nature of all foreign beings, calls out to the goblin who looks like he's about to jump off the cliff: "You there! Get back from there, what are you doing-"

This is probably not going to work, but he's not about to tackle someone standing on the edge of a cliff as a way of stopping them from going over. At least, not for a goblin.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Dealing with the Svartalfven, no, it isn't. Avoiding "do you want to be a slave- no, well, sucks to be you then" is often a more pertinent question.

They do have a thoroughly evil reputation, and the main reason they still exist as an independent body is that they are less painful to keep down- literally as well as figuratively- than it usually proves to go in and burn them out. Clashes do occasionally happen, and this is one of the stages in their civilisational cycle when they are to be expected.

Interestingly, the slave appears to be speaking something probably descended from or a garbled pidgin of Sun Olenic, one of the tongues of the sky- worshipping kingdoms that existed in this physical space before the Terminal Empire. Probably easiest to communicate in svartalfven. Reinforces the impression binding him already gave, anyway.

One of the goblins does leap to his doom, shouting something- goblin isn't quite the same as orcish, for one thing it actually manages to have even more rude words, although most of those are specifically about orcs, and it's simpler on the whole- very few adjectives. 'You die ill' is what the gobbo jumping seems to shout at the rest.

[Simon_Jester]

"Gods-" he looks about, Larric knows effectively nothing of dark elven culture except the rumors, he's trying to find someone who has some idea what the hell just happened and Dirt's busy. Is Verone around? He might know at least enough to make an educated guess- if there is, at least, a correlation between knowing the two cultures.

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal will drop him with an arrow.

[Simon_Jester]

Drop who, the goblin who's jumping off a cliff? Or the other running human minion/slave?

[Feralgnoll]

I was thinking the one jumping, but I could as easily hit the other, which makes better sense actually.

[Simon_Jester]

It seems rather superfluous to shoot someone with an arrow for trying to jump off a cliff, yes.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

The last one running away tries to dodge out of the way, but succeeds in actually moving into the path of the arrow- is hit in the upper half of the lower back; through the armour and into the guts then, and a gush of blood- probably a lethal wound, although not a quickly- killing one.
The minion falls, struggles, tries to get up, fails, starts to crawl away. The other minion lets out a kind of strangled moan. Actions?

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal will trot over to the minion he just downed, and examine the wound. If its is lethal, he will put the creature out of his misery. If not he will stop the bleeding.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Gutshot. Possibly healable, might be fading slowly enough for that to work, but- without that, the minion is motally wounded, leaving a trail of blood behind him as he makes for the edge of the cliff.

Axe to the back of the head, and an end of it.

One human prisoner, five goblins and number likely to diminish in the near future; one of the gobbos has sat down with it's head in its' hands, two are arguing, two have apparently heeded Dirt's command to 'Sit.'

[Simon_Jester]

[thinks]

Larric is starting to lock up- the fight itself arguably less brutal than the aftermath and nothing makes any damn sense... Rohal laying into the running men like that, which is disturbing in its own right to him.

He might do or say something, but it won't be informative or consequential just yet. Sorry.

[Panzersharkcat]

He says to the arguing goblins, "Shut. Up." He turns to the others and says, "I gave the orders to secure the prisoners. Now go!"

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Well, yes, it was pretty brutal.

What it seems to have done is drastically reduce your chances of getting anything coherent out of the human prisoner you do have, who screams a little, swears at you in a long diatribe, then stops talking entirely.

(Just as well nobody can translate, at this point. Phrases like 'barbarians', 'animals', 'no better than they are- worse, more wasteful'- 'murder for fun'- psychopaths'- things like that.)

Tamarin takes her helmet off, looks almost pale enough to be in shock herself; wanders over to the rock, sits down with her back to it and to the scene, closes her eyes and starts trying to breathe normally.

Telling the goblins to shut up doesn't actually help anything at all. One of the arguing ones now has a dagger out, is looking at it, looks trying to build up the courage to commit suicide.

Verone, Dirt? The linguists of the party?

Nobody's even said they're stripping the bodies of the dead so far, by the way. About half an hour to sunset when all this is done.

[Panzersharkcat]

He walks over quickly to try to seize the dagger from the goblin. Assuming he succeeds, he'll turn to the others and say, "Keeps your minds on your tasks and bind the prisoners. I will have a discussion with Rohal about shooting men in the back later."

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Larric isn't stripping bodies, it really isn't something he's going to do quickly after a fight even if Alfred shouts at him. Rohal took his shots for whatever reason, and aside from that no one's even shown up... gah.

Middle of the week- I think we need a little more time to catch up with events.

[Feralgnoll]

OOC: I'm confused about why everyone seems to be upset with Rohal. I stopped a runner from going and telling the other dark elves of our location and disposition. Even if there are no other dark elves, a group of anything could snag him and interrogate him.

IC: Looks around, cleans his ax, and makes sure his bow isn't damaged from hitting the one in the face. Walks back to see the whole group looking his way... a confused look crosses his face.

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal tries to sniff and see if his party members scents are giving off any emotions. (fear, trepidation, anger) to combine with his human perception.

[Panzersharkcat]

Alfred is annoyed nobody is securing the frigging prisoners. Don't need extra scents for that.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Up to the rest of the party to provide their own reactions, but for the NPC's, Tamarin is clearly pretty badly affected- she did well, on reflex, and is starting to shake now it's over. The yeoman archers are discussing it-

'I'm not sure I can go along with trying to free the slaves by shooting them, that's all. I mean, when they say liberty or death, it's not supposed to be the same bloody thing now is it?'

'Ah, now are we really trying to do the noble thing at all? Evil pointy- eared bastards probably had them trained like dogs, loyalty beaten into them, not much you can do to set free a slave that's been trained out of wanting to be free. And they were trying to kill us or worse.'

'Ah, but not very well.' (Imagine west country accents here.)


The two men at arms Tamarin brought with her can do the tying up the prisoners bit if nobody else will (Dirt?), although with the goblins I would say it's not quite over yet.

The one who was trying to commit suicide succeeds. The one who was arguing with him about it looks at the blood and faints.

Four of them willing to submit, although 'willing' may be an overstatement. After they're tied up, what then?

[Simon_Jester]

[I was working on this before ECR started posting, it's compatible with what he said]

OOC:

OOC: I'm confused about why everyone seems to be upset with Rohal. I stopped a runner from going and telling the other dark elves of our location and disposition. Even if there are no other dark elves, a group of anything could snag him and interrogate him.

The... casual certainty with which Rohal just shot two running men in the back really should strike you as a bit funny. The only way what you said and Rohal did really makes sense is if "NEVER ALLOW ANY WHO SEE US TO LIVE" is your top priority, which makes a lot more sense for a marauding horde of barbarian thugs than it does for... nominally civilized people on an official mission from the local government.

Especially when dealing with, well, escaped soldier-slaves of the dark elves. I mean jeez, they come up to the surface, their brutal, unforgiving and uncaring masters get killed, and immediately they're slaughtered out of hand when they try to run away from the scary people who just put down two of the Master Race without taking more than a scratch or two?

How much does it suck to be them.

It's kind of disturbing to me, and probably a lot more disturbing to Larric, who just saw Rohal do it. Remember the way Larric behaved to those bandits we caught earlier? The whole "not slitting their throats or shooting the ones who tried to run away" behavior? That's really a lot more his style.

IC:

Rohal tries to sniff and see if his party members scents are giving off any emotions. (fear, trepidation, anger) to combine with his human perception.

"Trepidation" describes Larric rather well- he's actually wondering whether Rohal's about to flip out and go "he'll rip your lungs out, Jim!" on the party again, weighing whether to reload his crossbow now on the off chance that he might need it again in a moment.

After a few seconds in which the werewolf doesn't seem to be getting more feral*, he decides against that, and heads over to the goblins. Verone is apparently still picking up fragments of hat over by our shooting position- useless as usual, Larric thinks uncharitably. Alfred is bellowing, Dirt is... who knows? And at this particular moment Larric wouldn't put Rohal within ten feet of anyone he didn't want dead.

What the hell am I doing out here again?

Just to make the shouting go away and be doing something with his hands, Larric tries to round up a couple of Tamarin's men-at-arms/yeomen, who at least talk a sensible dialect and frame of reference even if they're ruggeder than him, to try and deal with the goblins- make sure they're not carrying any knives, take knives away from any who have them and are considering falling on their metaphorical swords. Tie their hands, that'll do since no one's going to be running at speed over this country in the dark with their hands bound.

Also, Larric tries to figure out what the hell is going on, with the suicidal goblins, although now that he actually thinks about it he realizes it's not likely any of them speak enough Kuquanese to carry on a conversation with him. He'll ask, though, loudly and slowly:

"Do any of you speak Kuquanese?"

That alchemical tang you mentioned- does Larric have a sense of what it might be at all? He wishes Dirt were here, the ogre seems to know a lot about the dark elves, but he seems to be over by the human. Or even Verone, who at least talks elvish well enough that he could probably ask the goblins vaguely intelligible questions.
______________

*Although the idea that he's actually more personally vicious in human form is supported by the evidence and he's kind of trying not to think about that right this minute.

[Feralgnoll]

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. My apologies. I had planned for Rohal be more merciful. He snapped a bit.

IC: Rohal will assist with whatever the party needs doing, while wondering why Larric is eyeing him.

[Panzersharkcat]

Satisfied that they're finally securing them, he tries to get Dirt to translate for him while interrogating that goblin.

[Simon_Jester]

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.

Satisfied that they're finally securing them, he tries to get Dirt to translate for him while interrogating that goblin.

Er. To clarify: we have one very traumatized live human slave to interview. We have three dead human slaves, two of them shot by Rohal which helps explain why the last one is traumatized. We have four captured goblins. One goblin threw himself off a cliff in despair; another cut his own throat, and we have no idea why.

If you want to know why goblins are committing suicide, ask them, I guess. If you want to know pretty much anything else, I doubt the goblins will be very helpful. You be the judge.

So, who exactly are you interrogating again?

[hides the forest to avoid arson]

[White Haven]

((Assume Verone is translating at request. Sick as a dog at present, about to go faceplant again in the hopes of actually sleeping. Urr....))