Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Kaelan]

"Still not seeing a reason to burn down the building before moving in. The cover of smoke might even help. Any body willing to act as the pin cushion."

Mulling the thought over and looking at the armoured members of the group and laric. "how about a decoy to move thru the smoke. Do you think that you could move a suit of armour through the smoke"

[S.L.Acker]

OOC:

Bryan thought the drumming was coming from within the building. Remember he has average human ears, no magical senses, and he'd likely think of setting a trap inside of a building.

IC:

Bryan looks to Larric and the elves and asks, "If he's not in the building where do you think he's hiding and how might we take the upper hand away from him? Normally I'd be for going out of our way to ride around this and ignore him, but that just means we have even less of an idea of where he might be in relation to us."

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

[Immediate response to Chiela]

Larric scratches his chin and nods at Chiela. "I think you're right, and I might be wrong about that being the decoy. And... there's something blanked out in there, a-" he doesn't have a word for 'destructive interference,' but if he did he'd use it because that's probably how he sees a suspicious blank spot- "mask, a cover, yes? I'm sure you can see it-" indicating the elves, not specifically excluding any though he doesn't know if they all have magic radar- "and I don't think it'd be there without a reason."

[then, to Bryan and Kaelan]

"Trying to smoke him out might be a good idea after all. But I don't think I can juggle armor from a long way off, any more than I can juggle houses up close."

[ECR: Can Larric rig a fire arrow from mundane chemistry on short notice? Or would he have to mix up something fresh, and have it take too long? I'd like a ruling on that, even if it's "flip a coin."]

"But if we're going to go poking at the place, whether we heat the oven up first or not, hm. Some of you, some of us?" Again, indicating the elves.



OOC:

If the elves aren't thinking "we'll never convince them we're not trying to get them all killed if we don't participate in the dangerous part," then it must be their turn to flunk Human Perception.

OOC MK II:

That needs an acronym. Magic radar...

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Yes, Larric can make a fire arrow on relatively short notice; not a very good one, you're talking lashing some dead leaves around an arrow with strips of grass and doping them in something nasty, but possible. [Bitumen painted on to cloth, held in place with wire, normally.]

Manipulating a suit of armour could be done, but it would mean pushing and pulling on so many separate things simultaneously, it could only be done at relatively close range- [Power in yards, on a good success, power in feet on a mediocre or bare result]- it would cost a lot of power, be obvious to someone who can see the winds of magic that that was what was being done, and to all practical purposes he'd be going in with it.

The drumming is coming rom the buildings, probably inside- actually the smoke is coming from the cottage, bit of a giveaway that.

'If he's not in there, he's close enough nearby to move to it when we start going forward- and to draw him out, one is enough.' Chiaela says. Closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, realises she can't ask anyone else to do this. 'I'll go- who's coming with me?'

[Kaelan]

William will smile at her:
"what's the pay?"

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Mental gears clash, and she looks at William as if he's utterly daft, or possibly she is; says 'Do you think I would be doing anything this dubious and dangerous if it was about money?

Do you think you can buy survival, do you think any of your people who died over the winter would have lived if they had had more money? You are the sort of human who used to make me think he had a point.' nodding in the direction of the farmhouse.

Well, that went down like a lead balloon. Spoiler

Rohal is the only one who makes Perception better than their Sleight of Hand and notices that, while William was reacting to Chiaela ranting, one of the elves picked his pocket, took most of his money and left a small bag full of rocks.

[S.L.Acker]

"I'll go, I have at least a chance of not having mince made out of myself with my armor. I might also get lucky enough to keep a spell or two away from myself," says Bryan with a sigh, he doesn't really want to go. However he'd rather go than let somebody less defended do it. Alfred would also be better to have in reserve coming in with his maul after things start.

[Kaelan]

William gives her back a look of scorn.
"No, I think you're doing this because your people screwed up and left a dangerous lunatic running about. That you're doing this as some form of political damage control, because if another non-elf race catches him first he'll be paraded around the public square and then executed."

Building up in volume.

"And more importantly I object that you feel like treating the rest of us as disposable beasts of burden to use at your whim. You only agreed to help once it became apparent that you might actually get hurt as well. That fort was under attack for days, and we damn well know you knew about it and you did nothing. The only reason you brought us along was to act as your bait."

Up to a yell.

"And yes, money does buy survival. The people who had money are the ones who could buy stock piles of food, weapons, men to fight for them. Get your pointy elvin head out of you elivn ass. You may flit about the trees living in lala land, the rest of us are scraping by in the mud trying to live. If you want me to risk my short life for your benefit you can be damn well sure that I want compensation for my troubles."

OOC
(I wonder how this is going to go down.....)

[Simon_Jester]

Larric glowers at William, but doesn't say anything quite yet. He's half wondering how the elves will react, too- watching them closely.

[There's a joke about stalking horses, or "good minion, bad minion" in here somewhere, but it's not coming to me]

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Round three, then- and the fifth draft of it;

'How do you think your people ended up in this nightmare? There are aspects of life you cannot buy and sell- friends, kin, comrades, culture, civilisation- without that divine spark there's no point even in survival;

do you think it was an accident you had monsters turned loose on you, that they were allowed to go that far- that Tol Authran thought you deserved to be put under the harrow?

I will not stand by and see one of our own reduce himself to where you are- I thought your people at the fort could cope with him, but I overestimated them- too few with the light and too much mud.

'You are in the mud and will never get out,' she's pointing a finger at William, singling him out from the rest of you, 'because it is in your soul and you will never rise above it- I would use you as a beast of burden but you're not good enough.'

'Come on,' she adds to Bryan, and turns towards the farmhouse, 'At least you're trying to be a hero.'

Oindal has been trying to attract your attention for a couple of seconds- 'Why is that vole staring at us? And laughing?'

[Kaelan]

“Ha. Culture is getting killed for somebody else’s gain. As for your so called civilisation. I’ve seen craftsmen work themselves to death on goods that they will never benefit from just because some uptight ass who’s never worked a day in his life was born on the right side of the bed.”

Waving his hand at the village.

“This place is devoid of life. No doubt from your ‘brother’ elf work. Where was your divine spark then, your culture and civilisation? You think that the people who lived here had any say in what was brought down upon them? Do you even think that for a moment Tol Authran knew who was being killed, outside the handful of ‘civilised’ people who were making a name for themselves?”

“I’ve been in enough wars to know that Hero’s are more fiction than fact. Propaganda and myth to get young boys killed. In your own words you condemn yourself by you arrogance. Bryan has too much experience to be a hero, he’s doing this out of pragmatism. Don’t insult him with you petty platitude.”

Readying his axe and tightening his armour he speaks to Bryan.

“Byran, if this goes south fast, which I think it will, shout out. I’ve got your back. Don’t trust these elves; they’ll drop in it as soon as it’s most beneficial for them.”

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Manipulating a suit of armour could be done, but it would mean pushing and pulling on so many separate things simultaneously, it could only be done at relatively close range- [Power in yards, on a good success, power in feet on a mediocre or bare result]- it would cost a lot of power, be obvious to someone who can see the winds of magic that that was what was being done, and to all practical purposes he'd be going in with it.

OOC, in Larric's voice:

"If I'm going anywhere near Invisible Bastard 'with' a suit of armor, I damn well want to be on the inside of the armor, not the outside. At least I get some protection out of it that way."


IC:

At that last- "Will, you're an ass. Shut up and go, or shut up and stay. Your choice."

He turns to the elves' leader.

"I think I'd better get in closer, which of you will be-" he stops, mentally rewinds a moment, looks rather silly- " wait... vole? What do you mean?"

Larric looks veery closely at the vole. At worst, he will look foolish, at best, this might be somehow significant if the elves aren't just being crazy.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

I should point out that NPC opinions are what I reckon it would make sense for them in their position to think, not necessarily the truth- she's quite wrong about a couple of quite important things.

The vole, 'Someone's looking through it's eyes.' Oindal suggests, and Larric can see that he might be right. It looks far too intelligent and alert- but only for a split second as it registers the party examining it, the brightness in it's eyes fades, the animal intellect realises it is a prey animal in front of a group of omnivores, and runs for it.

'What does that change?' Oindal asks. 'He knows, but he could still be anywhere. Or I could have been wrong.'

[Kaelan]

OOC explanation for Williams actions.

He initially started travelling with the party as he was broke, the village they were staying at was turning into a hostile place and he figured that travelling in a group to the city was safer than going it alone. The potential offer of a reward for Radulf was just a bonus – neither here or there.

He can’t stand nobles. He feels that their scum who treat everybody else as rungs on the ladder to their own advancement, and he knows that any form of wealth forms a safety buffer. Unlike Larric, who merely lost his entire property in the war William was conscripted into fighting. As this is a medieval setting I take this to mean that the life of a conscript is not a fun life to live. His experience has also left him with a jaded view of magic and mages in general. Part of him can actually sympathise with wanting to burning a witch at the stake.

Since setting out they have been attacked by an elf using magic who was spending his time killing off a mostly helpless garrison. He has also found out that despite all of the elvin’s claim to high culture they were willing to let this continue until they were actually attacked themselves (remember that William was checking out the hide when they were talking about catching companions). The last elf we met who was trying to ‘help’ ended up trying to get us all killed.

The way the elves have been acting is as though they were the equivalent of human nobility (in actual fact they are probable superior to it, at least in their eyes). They also appear to throw magic without a second thought (again, undoubtedly wrong, but that is how it appears to a non mage).

As such he has a dim view of elves at this moment in time. Should we meet some dwarves however.....

IC
“I’m an ass. Well at least you have the decency to disagree to my face. Not like you’re asking me to go up against an elf hero with several centuries of combat experience and magical training to salvage my broken soul. Like I said, I’ll back up Bryan. I don’t trust these elves until they prove themselves”

Also, is Radulf still bound. I don’t doubt that our mad elf out there could try to magically free him to cause us more headaches. He’s probably got the skill to actually walk up and do it without us seeing him without magic.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

There are reasons, I don't doubt that; and persuading herself that this is about doing the right thing, that there's some kind of noble cause at stake, something worth potentially dying for, is how she's psyching herself up to go and do it. Nobility of rank and nobility of soul are too often two separate things- which is actually what she was on about.
She reacted badly, angrily, because William's comment was so very far away from what she was trying to persuade herself of-

and also, don't forget, that D's objective is to convince his own people that they and the humans are natural enemies, and they should be behaving towards you- exactly as William's just accused the being who's trying to stop him of, actually. Starting a cycle of mistrust, violence, atrocity very much works for him.

(None of you have asked Chiaela about the truth content or otherwise of any of the things Thialathayaran said- bit late now, but if you all live, which I have to say is not looking massively likely...)

If playing in character makes the situation worse- sod it, play it in character and let the chips fall where they may. At least William hasn't been sentenced by his god to do penance by running the gauntlet in a dwarven cavern with his armour polymorphed into a pink frilly nightgown.

Radulf has been patched up, tied up, and is two working limbs short of a full set; he may try to escape but the odds aganst success are high. The vole is nowhere to be seen. Who's going where, still going in? Bryan and Chiela, Larric relatively close behind?

[Panzersharkcat]

"William, shut up. I'm trying to think." He tries to look for places that could potentially hide the elf. There is the option mentioned earlier of smoking him out but he's a little uncertain about it as it may obscure their vision as well. He's also fairly certain the elf himself won't be hiding in a cottage.

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal would have been emitting a low growl while William was talking.

"I volunteer for the scouting mission" Rohal states matter of factly.

[S.L.Acker]

Byran shoots William a look that says something along the lines of, 'For God's sake hold your tongue,' and then follows Chiela towards the farmhouse.

"You know, not everybody feels the way William does. Pragmatist or not I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think it was the right thing to do. I could have said that this job wasn't worth doing and left our mad elf to the rest of the group knowing he'd likely tire of revenge before he tracked me down," he the changes from his sympathetic tone to a more business like one and continues, "However that's not important at the moment. We should likely assume that he thinks he knows exactly what we're planning to do. If William wasn't primed to shoot you, I'd say fake turning on me, use me a hostage and get close to him that way..."

He trails off a moment and then asks, "Would he parley with you? More to the point would he believe that you're actually against us and leading us into his trap?"

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

You can't all go; the longer you take to decide, the more time there is for...voles.

The places he could be that aren't the cottage- the rest of the farm buildings, for a start; a stand of trees, about twelve, a hundred yards away, a small rivulet with deep enough banks to hide in, a hedgerow, another small cluster of them maybe eighty yards past the farmhouse, behind the invisible thing, if it really exists and isn't just a lure.

Chiaela takes a deep breath, forces herself to calm down, and says to Larric and Rohal 'Two is enough to draw fire, and run if we can; more would- well. Perhaps help would be useful, at that. Trail us by about a quarter, a third of a bowshot?'

to Bryan, 'That would be plausible; I was sent after him, once we realised how far he had gone, because we do have a few experiences in common- drew different ideas from them, mainly. We were both at the fall of Alavanirimire, and I came away thinking we had to work to avoid such things, he came away thinking that we had to fight and win.

We have argued it out before; I could pretend that I have been thinking on it and decided his arguments had merit, but I'm not sure I could do it for long. Basically believable as long as he doesn't get a chance to do too much thinking about it. Ready?'

Assuming the answer is yes, she moves off towards the farm.

Anyone doing anything differently from this? Most waiting in cover, Chiaela and Bryan going ahead, Larric and Rohal a little way behind, skirmishing towards the farmhouse?

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

To Chiaela: "A quarter, for choice- I may be shooting at him as you run away. I'll want to hit, and I'm no great archer."


And yes, Larric is in the trailing group, crossbow loaded. He's going to be reluctant to actually enter the building without more information- as noted, if no one's shooting at us from in there, it's a sign that he wants us in there, which means he's probably sitting on the other side of the hill detonating the claymore and sniggering.

[OOC: What, claymores haven't been invented yet? What do you mean? Bryan's sword would make a charming fragmentation bomb... ]

Anyway, on the approach, Larric will have his crossbow at the ready and his wits trying to probe around, through, past, whatever, that shield. Insight magic. He'll be trying odd ideas- see if it looks different with the mind's eyes squinted, tilted at right angles to normalcy, crossed, look for any kind of time-dependency, a vibration that can be synchronized with or a pattern that might open a crack if you hit it right. Generally getting creative, in hopes that the screen of nonvisibility wasn't set up to do more than deflect attention.

Underneath- he's looking mostly with the mind's eye, to see if there's anything impressively magical under there that might go bang.



OOC:

Now that's trusting, Bryan. Though yes, we probably need a new plan. At least the argument we just had tipped us off to the fact that he was spying on us. Thank you, William.

“I’m an ass. Well at least you have the decency to disagree to my face. Not like you’re asking me to go up against an elf hero with several centuries of combat experience and magical training to salvage my broken soul.

Larric, for one, isn't. Like he said, "Shut up and stay, or shut up and go. Your choice." If William wants to say 'to hell with this' and march off, Larric won't try to stop him.

He's far more convinced of the elves' sincerity, worked with them on the tree in such a way as to have a degree of respect for their honorable intentions. He's probably interacted with elves often enough in the past, professionally in the "Goodman alchemist, mix me up this, that, and the other thing" capacity, to have formed an opinion of them. He doesn't know anything to speak of about their culture beyond what can be called general knowledge in Kuquan, but he thinks of them as, well... people. Just people who live a long time and get about as funny in the head as you'd expect a two hundred year old man to be.

That's probably as inaccurate in its way as thinking of them as eldritch monstrosities would be, but it doesn't translate into reflexive distrust.

[Panzersharkcat]

For lack of a better plan, Alfred goes along with it. He tries to prepare defenses for the area they are in, as well as a challenge and answer for when the scouting party gets back. It would be "Old Paint" and "Fire." This so harm is minimized in case the elf attacks while the others are away.

[Agent Sorchus]

"Look it doesn't matter how much the elves are making you mad, only that there is an ELF already gunning for our necks. Their assistance might be nice no matter how minor it might be, or how little they know of religious significance. I actually wonder why we even bothered stopping at the waypoint for travelers, the delay might've just allowed him to lay in weight easier and gave us nothing of any significant value."

Eliska is going to be watching the prisoner verrry carefully right now rather then go in and set off any traps.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

3 AM here, and too tired to do this justice- but Alfred looks the area over, for vantage points and traps, good and bad ground to fight on, fixes the position of things in his minds' eye so he can find them in the fog, if (when?) it comes down; anything more definite- you have minutes, maybe, no time to really prepare or do anything other than maybe pull up and move a shrub or two.

As Chieala and Bryan move forward, all senses at maximum alert, Larric and Rohal behind them, expecting to be shot at at any moment, expecting fog, glitter, blinding light- nothing. D. seems to be letting you get right into the trap. By the time you get within a hundred yards of the farmhouse, the sound of hammering is clear enough that there's more than one at work; metal being bashed, loud and fast- and in the yard between the farmhouse and the barns, out of direct sight from the road, there's a very large blind spot.

Rohal can catch a faint scent of it as it drifts through flaws in the wind; hot metal, and cold, sharp air. How close do you want to get?

[S.L.Acker]

Bryan moves after her, feeling exposed by the lack of certainty in where the enemy is. Worried about a death that he can't see coming. However he keeps his eyes peeled and his feet moving as he sticks close to Chiaela. For better or worse he's trusted her this far and his hopes are on this plan working.

As they draw in closer he pays attention to the way Chiaela reacts. She's more likely than himself to spot something dangerous so he follows her lead.

OOC:

It might be safer than the alternative. It might have at least gotten me to within sword range before things went sideways.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric mumbles with discontent at the blind spot, still poking at it with Insight magic.

OOC:

...Hot metal?

Maybe someone really is doing metalwork in there. The nose knows, perhaps... does Rohal tell Larric?