Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

New Math is so passé; the real problem these days is teaching the poor souls how not to use a calculator when (this being America) all the No Child Left Behind-based test-fetishizing curricula want to teach them to use a calculator. this may be the wave of the future, except for the relative cost and weight of computers versus pilots.

Me, I don't know when I'll have time to get around to fixing my slide rule...

IC:

To Lisanna before the dust cloud: "The place isn't so bad off; the people are all tied up in knots but the carpenters have everything else in hand. I guess I didn't see it like it was, though-" dust cloud!

Larric turns toward the cave entrance, crossbow out but held in a leisurely, unsoldierlike fashion. Quick scan of the dust cloud- Insight, Substance, and raw perceptive ability- to make sure it's not some deceptively cunning stroke of chemical warfare he'll need to counter and/or flee.

Assuming the answer to that is "no," he calls out: "He's leading with dust bunnies, must be down to the bottom of the barrel!"

If the answer is "yes," then he'll have to think of something else.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Just step away from the protein depolariser...

The dust cloud has a very sour and strange taste to it, revolting and almost certainly poisonous; but a moment reveals that there's no centre to the field, and there's an underlying smell of rot and death that the sharp sourness utterly overlays-

the dust is almost certainly the powdered remains of what were creatures, constructs and reanimated dead, having been blasted and reduced to that by whatever magic left the dust permeated by the smell and taste of powerful acid. It's not intended to be dangerous to you- but probably best avoid breathing too much of it anyway.

[Simon_Jester]

Can't hurt to think positive-pressurely. Air magic- Larric tries to set up enough of a pressure gradient to manipulate the fumes a bit. Bottling it up around the cave entrance is a favorite- if the people responsible for creating those monsters come out that way, he's hoping to give them a nice big lungful. If there's too much vaporized ugh to contain, he tried to direct it away from the party and the Baron's troops.

Anyone who gets to close will get shouted at.

"Stand clear, that's some foul stuff over there."

[Kaelan]

Resiting the urge to quote hamlet, Dirt will examine the skull for race, gender and tone. Looks like the cave might have appreciated some music after all...

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

That's the aftereffects of powerful zap cloud Dirt's walking into, right? It is vile, but seems to be not much more than highly unpleasant so far- even someone with his metabolism will start to feel ill before long, but just being exposed for the length of a suitable dramatic gesture should be endurable.
Human, male, mid- thirties, quite well nourished, but too thick for much use, a sort of clunky B flat tone. Probably need to be scraped down if it's to be much good.

The pressure gradient holds it back to a degree, Lisanna moves to talk to deVerett- she is after all now the acting court sorceress, although that may change. If anyone's listening, he's considering sending someone back down to look. She's telling him it would be suicidally stupid.

[Simon_Jester]

If Larric doesn't need to keep conjuring to hold his spell up (I presume there's no active resistance, so he might be able to tie a knot in it and call it done for a while), Larric will be telling Dirt off.

"Sir Alfred breathed in a cloud of poisonous monster-bits because he hadn't seen it happen to anyone. What's your excuse?"

He's genuinely worried; he's starting to like the big guy and doesn't want him dying of Zombie Lung Flu or whatever.

[Kaelan]

"Dirt know how to close mouth and stop breath."

[Kaelan]

OOC

The impression that I had was that the skull had been spat out some distance from the cave.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric throws his hands in the air and stalks away, hoping Dirt doesn't end up poisonated.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Apparently he doesn't, although it does tickle enough to give a hint that standing around in it would not be good- the cloud of dust is actually starting to drift away and settle now, and most people are sensibly avoiding it.

Lisanna is pointing out to deVerett that the entire company of perhaps six hundred souls between them have about as much food and water as would keep a mouse alive, and heading for civilisation is a priority. deMarail's men are heading for home via Auvaine, they're just as short of everything. It's probably going to be a day to the edges of really green land- well, considering not long after morning when you got the cavern then a lot happening, they'll still be travelling when night falls.

Qulan itself, a little past mid- way through the next day, depending on how slow the progress of the injured and enfeebled is. Anybody got any bright ideas? (How's Feralgnoll getting on, by the way?)

[Panzersharkcat]

As he's played, Alfred is a singularly unambitious man- maybe less so than Larric or Dirt. It seems to be an accident of birth that gave him any power at all; he'd probably be quite content as a man-at-arms in someone else's retinue by all appearances...

(OOC: That would be fairly accurate. The most he'd strive for is to be the enforcer to somebody high up. Darth Vader to Palpatine or Subutai to Ghengis Khan, so to speak.)

"Sir Alfred breathed in a cloud of poisonous monster-bits because he hadn't seen it happen to anyone. What's your excuse?"

(OOC: He was also practically on top of the thing when it exploded.)

How's Feralgnoll getting on, by the way?

(OOC: He's at Fort Knox right right now. Something to do with Cadet Command.)
He gladly stays away from that cloud. Because he is supposed to be good and honorable, even if he occasionally has a predilection towards burning down non-existent forests, he will not say to kill the injured and enfeebled. He looks around to see if there's anything to use to quickly build something to carry the injured.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

One of those non- existent forests would come in really handy about now, especially if it was even a little existent. Remember the terrain of the entry to the cavern- dust and rock, broken mountains with the odd scattered shrub? It hasn't changed, unfortunately.

Protecting the weak and weakened doesn't even require that much theoretical dedication to good, just a sense of self preservation- leaving the weak behind is an option that worryingly, looking at deVerett makes it seem entirely probable he would- but Lisanna and most of the remainder of the rank structure about him would not countenance it.

(Incidentally, I hope you've noticed- if Alfred's not afraid of being accused of making his way to authority by climbing up a woman's petticoats, there's a fairly obvious option.)

All there is to work with is rock, though- there are some mines and outposts further into the badlands, but whether any of them have enough of anything to support this many people or make that a sensible direction to go in is seriously doubtful. The only people nearby enough to borrow anything from are the svartalfven, and their help is, well, even more doubtful.

Dirt would be as well to hide Fifi, by the way, in case some of deVerett's people start thinking she may be edible. What's actually happening at the moment is basically hurry up and wait, as almost always happens when a large group of semi- organised people are trying to go somewhere;

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Feral is at LTC right now and he says he won't be able to log on for a few months. I have nothing to add in-character at the moment.)

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

One of those non- existent forests would come in really handy about now, especially if it was even a little existent. Remember the terrain of the entry to the cavern- dust and rock, broken mountains with the odd scattered shrub? It hasn't changed, unfortunately.

"We could send riders ahead to ask for food and water, from Qulan or the villages between them and us. That would help."

Also, water, hm. Larric doesn't trust his own skills as a dowser very far. Or at all.

OOC:

Protecting the weak and weakened doesn't even require that much theoretical dedication to good, just a sense of self preservation- leaving the weak behind is an option that worryingly, looking at deVerett makes it seem entirely probable he would- but Lisanna and most of the remainder of the rank structure about him would not countenance it.

Yeah- the thing about the sort of war-leader who abandons the wounded is that all his other soldiers will be wondering if they're next. And if maybe tossing a grenade into his tent would get him replaced by a safer, kinder second-in-command.

About the only environment where a leader can get away with it except in absolute desperation is that of the commando behind enemy lines. Outnumbered, hunted, with stealth and speed being the only things that can possibly keep you alive- and every man in the unit is a picked specialist chosen for exceptional devotion to carrying out the mission at all costs no matter what. In those conditions, leaving the wounded behind is more likely to be psychologically possible, because you've got soldiers more willing to accept that their lives will be thrown away.

In this case- definitely not, especially since this is a feudal system and a lot of the people here are part of the same extended families. There are lateral ties of blood and friendship here along with the vertical ties of the chain of command, and leaving the wounded behind to starve would betray all those ties. I doubt even deVerett would try it if he wasn't damn sure he could get away with it- would probably mock outrage at anyone who suggested it, just to be seen thinking it's a bad idea.

(Incidentally, I hope you've noticed- if Alfred's not afraid of being accused of making his way to authority by climbing up a woman's petticoats, there's a fairly obvious option.)

What, routes to power?

[thinks]

Hm. Yes, I can think of two options for securing political status that match that description. One of which might actually be practical since the lady appears to be interested. Although she seems to be too rugby-oriented to be big on petticoats.

Alas, Alfred "I will pay for the damages!" Norden appears to be un-schemy.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Unfortunately, the group's mounts are the only things with four feet left, all the others having been eaten; that puts you on point for that. Strictly speaking the best rider among you and the best mounted would be Tamarin, who got slammed against the shelter wall by the blob hard enough to put dents in her back-and-breast. 'I'll go.' she does say.

Lisanna can do water, but only well enough to generate about a pint a day for this many people. It's the essential minimum, but not really enough. Dirt's touch of plant magic could in theory be used for Create Vegetable, but barely enough to feed the party reliably, never mind everyone else; there are a few priests of various stripes who might have some gift, but probably not up to the scale of the task.


deVerett would be temperamentally capable of such a thing, after all ducking into the shelter could be said to have been exactly that; as a matter of practical politics, though, it would be suicidal to do it again.

[Simon_Jester]

I wasn't thinking "create water;" I was thinking "dowsing-" find water, there's got to be some around here somewhere, even if nowhere especially nearby.

Also, yay, something for the party to do! Panzer, Kaelan, how do your guys react?

[Panzersharkcat]

"I will join you. I will try to gather whoever we can to bring back sufficient provisions for all." After all, I don't think four people can carry the provisions for 200 people very quickly, even with horses.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Two hundred? I've heard "six hundred;" I've also heard "thousands."

It's good to have you back...

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: I somehow divided by three in my head. Possibly because I don't associate the word "company" with anything larger.)

[Kaelan]

Well, talk of food aside dirt is going to eat the meal he has been preparing (typical humans, never saving food when it’s around). At the moment dirt’s not too fussed about food, most likely due to the fact that he has 600 happy meals walking around him at this moment of time (present company excluded until they die). Given how most humans feel about this he’s not going to mention it just yet.

In typical ogre logic he says “If food no here, we go to food. If hungry, move fast. If slow no eat” Of course given the distance he can travel in a single day Dirt can range over quite a large distance.
Due to fact that we’re in the hills what are the options of climbing to a reasonable vantage point to survey the area for woods, rivers and other signs of habitation. If we can sight a stream or river within several miles of where we are it would go a long way to solving a lot of the immediate problems?

Addressing Larric “Can you no send magic message to city? Maybe write sign in sky saying ‘we here’? Now we find ‘Baron’ we go hill. Hunt bad animal now, yes?”

OOC
What. You mean that we’ve got to do more work than just finding this bunch of deadwood the countess wants to burn ......

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

He racks his brains. "Erm... just give me ten leagues of copper wire, a crew and a week to set it up. Oh, and another week to work the knots out of the apparatus. Although that would work anyway, magic or no magic*" He pauses. "I might be able to think of something, but being sure it'll work would take longer than walking back."**

*This will be badly misunderstood by everyone around him.
**Given his current power level, sending such a message might well be within his capabilities in principle. I just don't think he'd be likely to come up with it in practice.

He looks around. Do people look especially badly fed right now? Have people had a meal recently? Does it count as 'breakfast' given how messed up their circadian rhythms must be?

More generally...

Larric agrees with the ogre logic, except for the bit about happy meals, and with the slight wrinkle of "try to bring the food here," which is the sort of thing that works a lot better for a 'civilized' community of tens of thousands than it does for a tribe of hundreds. Although I'm sure it'd translate into ogre logic without trouble if anyone cared to make it.

He's a little concerned when he realizes that of our party, only Tamarin and Alfred are well mounted. Then he realizes Dirt has comically long legs and could probably cover as much ground as a horse and rider with little trouble, Rohal can go into wolf form and lope along as fast as necessary, and he can at least beg a ride on Old Paint Bucket and hopefully not fall off too much. So the group can probably manage a brisk pace if need be.

The idea of trying to ride You Bastard occurs to him, but only briefly and under the heading of "experimental ballistics." Bad idea.

OOC:

Hm. Does a human who's just been attacked by a misery elemental count as a happy meal to an ogre?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Clearing up the numbers thing, first; three groups went into the shelter, all very roughly a thousand strong, fighting men and followers and nobles hiding behind said fighting men. (the ready mobile force from each Barony, in other words.)

Of those, maybe three hundred of deMarail's people, and they really are in wrecked physical condition, made it out. They would, and do, need immediate help- probably needed it a month ago.

More or less six hundred of deVerett's group, actually the largest of the forces to reach it, are emerging, and thanks to Lisanna's efforts to keep them alive and healthy with the magic of the shelter are the best off, although still pretty wretched in an absolute sense.

Very few if any of Kardren's people are still human and still sane, never mind fit, and even fewer of them are going to be going home at all.


Dirt got enough of a sight of the landscape on the way here to have a rough idea, and the best way to go is actually the way you came. Southeast is the Chura, one of the two artery- rivers of the county, and hard to miss; but actually closer to the southwest are the Orhan Hills, which are pretty mounainous but not as broken and barren, and the downlands around and to the south of them are green and relatively fertile. There will be streams and ponds, and there are farming villages in the hills which might be able to help.


Oh, a brief aside on the subject of magical messaging; it's a fairly obvious application and one for which there is demand, so a number of ideas have cropped up over the years. Unfortunately most of the working answers have been religious; being able to talk to the gods, or at least such of the extended array of lesser and minor servant beings as answer, beats telegraphs and field telephones into a cocked hat- but the problem is always the source, relatively few deities and even fewer priests resist the temptation to edit.

Most attempts to get round this have been individual, and solutions involving something as simple as one wizard scrying on another, who holds up a signboard with messages, and then doing the same in reverse, have been known to work. Talisman based ideas, paired items one able to correspond with another, for personal contact beween non- wizards, yes- particularly on the battlefield.

Mass communication's not been explored much. There's fertile ground there.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, it sounds like Panzer's decided he has nothing to say again. Maybe we'd better get moving and wake him up when we have something to hit again.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Two framing questions first;

Is there still a problem about length of threads overstressing the hardware, would it be advisable to move to a new thread? I know it used to be pg 50 and we have a couple longer than this is now, just wondering.

Secondly- with three active players, and getting a lot more views than posts, there must be somebody out there who'd like to join in and give it a shot. It's a good point for it to happen really, the cavern opening.

[Oh, and happy meals; one semi- serious point, the rules aren't likely to change- arguably aren't diversified enough, not enough functional difference between religious, animated by the will of the gods and channeled, magic and thaumaturgical, arising from the wizard's own mind and will, magic-
but the established list of powers is only the established way these things are taught, and the post- Terminal Empire modern formulation is deliberately and purposefully weak on the subject of mind control. Happiness and Misery are it, and they're pretty blunt tools.

So yes, a human who had just been got by a misery elemental and reduced to a state of existential, suicidal despair would probably be quite happy to be eaten. It'd be doing them a favour really.]


Most of your assorted followers and hangers on- let me see, Tamarin's four are on foot, the dark elf prisoner- ah. I knew you were missing something, and speaking of mind control, the two footmen who were left there look at you as if you were daft when you mention him. 'Who?'

Eventually, after some comedy- and Rohal's nose- they are persuaded he existed; which raises a problem. 'Someone made us forget about him? Walked up to us, hit us over the head with invisible mental planks, and carted him off? I don't bloody believe it.'

The nose says, believe it- that party of elves he came across, escaping scouts that were stalked, ambushed and dropped by a svartalfven party? The scent around the area is very similar- a few animal overtones missing- to that on the group of svartalfven. What to do about that, up to you. The two defectors from Kardren's group are being taken in by Lisanna for further study, unless Alfred objects.

Just you lot then, really. Weather's being stubornly uncooperative- it would be nice if it would rain, but it's not being that generous- cold and gloomy, without any of the upside.

There's the trail left by deMarail's men, but it bends to the east, further than you need to go; and about two hours before sunset, you notice and head for the chimney- smoke of a habitation. As you get closer you realise it's exactly what you need; well, most of you need anyway.

Apart from a sign along the lines of 'death to greenskins', looks quite habitable- large farming village, probably supports the mines and things in the Orhan Hills. Oh, and two very shiny looking white horses in the village square, such as it is. Plan?

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Two framing questions first;

Is there still a problem about length of threads overstressing the hardware, would it be advisable to move to a new thread? I know it used to be pg 50 and we have a couple longer than this is now, just wondering.

PM PeZook. He'll know.

Secondly- with three active players, and getting a lot more views than posts, there must be somebody out there who'd like to join in and give it a shot. It's a good point for it to happen really, the cavern opening.

I have to point out one thing- the expected ratio of views to posts is not 1:1, nor even 3:1.

To take myself as an example, I got called away as I was going to post this, had to close up and spend an hour raking the yard. So I've viewed this page twice within the past two hours then, for obvious reasons. I also tend to look at the page in response to more or less every post that gets made, to read it if not to reply to it; since there are 2500 or so posts, that accounts for 2500 views all by itself. Factor in all the times I had to look at the previous page to make sense of the current one, the times I went and sorted back through several pages in one go to find the right spelling of something, or trying to remember whether X happened after Y or before, or how the rules work... it adds up.

I don't know exactly how many times I've opened a page of this thread, but it's a lot. Not twenty thousand- but if someone told me it was five or seven thousand I wouldn't exactly be shocked.

[Oh, and happy meals; one semi- serious point, the rules aren't likely to change- arguably aren't diversified enough, not enough functional difference between religious, animated by the will of the gods and channeled, magic and thaumaturgical, arising from the wizard's own mind and will, magic-
but the established list of powers is only the established way these things are taught, and the post- Terminal Empire modern formulation is deliberately and purposefully weak on the subject of mind control. Happiness and Misery are it, and they're pretty blunt tools.

So yes, a human who had just been got by a misery elemental and reduced to a state of existential, suicidal despair would probably be quite happy to be eaten. It'd be doing them a favour really.]

Ah, but by that argument a normal human would not be a happy meal, in which case Dirt is not surrounded by hundreds of same. You can't have it both ways.

IC:

Most of your assorted followers and hangers on- let me see, Tamarin's four are on foot, the dark elf prisoner- ah. I knew you were missing something, and speaking of mind control, the two footmen who were left there look at you as if you were daft when you mention him. 'Who?'

Eventually, after some comedy- and Rohal's nose- they are persuaded he existed; which raises a problem. 'Someone made us forget about him? Walked up to us, hit us over the head with invisible mental planks, and carted him off? I don't bloody believe it.'

The nose says, believe it- that party of elves he came across, escaping scouts that were stalked, ambushed and dropped by a svartalfven party? The scent around the area is very similar- a few animal overtones missing- to that on the group of svartalfven. What to do about that, up to you.

Larric: "I'm not about to go arguing with a whole cave full of black elves and fire-monsters to get him back. And I don't think he'd thank us if we did."

Apart from a sign along the lines of 'death to greenskins', looks quite habitable- large farming village, probably supports the mines and things in the Orhan Hills. Oh, and two very shiny looking white horses in the village square, such as it is. Plan?

Larric turns to Sir Alfred. "Horses mean lords, wonder what they're doing up here?"