7 Rabbit seems amused by Mri'Thas's response. "My studies indicate that the optimum group of adventurers consists of five archetypes: the Leader, the Warrior, the Sage, the Healer and the Trickster. During a quest, obstacles may be encountered that can't be overcome by brute force, or even by the superior strategy and insight provided by the Leader and the Sage. The Trickster is needed to provide alternate, unconventional approaches.
Of course, the composition of a group is not always obvious. Sometimes the most surprising person takes on the role of Leader, for example. The Trickster usually appears as a charming rogue, or even a thief, often with an ambiguous morality which must be overcome. However, occasionally a magician will fill the role, or even a warrior who fights outside the normal rules of warfare: I found a delightful example of this in the history of the Imperium, in the tale of the Gordian Knot.
In any case, I was merely commenting that we seem to have many people of both martial and magical skill, who would most obviously fill the roles of Warrior and Sage, but nobody obvious to fill the role of Trickster. But there is no second-guessing the stars: the group should arise naturally, brought together by their own lives' paths through the heavens, not assembled artificially by some task master. Doubtless one of us will be shown to be the Trickster in the course of our endeavours."
7 Rabbit pauses, suddenly struck by a thought. "You said you were brought together to fight the fire that raged here... Thank you again for that, by the way - I was in the library when it broke out, I was worried that the building would be engulfed! But, I've heard that it has some protection against flame, so perhaps it was in no danger. Nonetheless, thank you. Now, a fire - an act of nature, or perhaps I should say an act of the Gods, bringing together unacquainted bystanders against a shared threat: and now you have stayed together, forged by that shared threat into a fellowship! This is a classic Call to Adventure - the patterns are there for anyone versed in the art to see. I will follow your careers with interest!" He smiles happily at them.
"And now that we all are awake," he continues, nodding to Callen, "I can help you to move on to the next stage of that career. Here is the task I have for you:
As I said, I am 7 Rabbit, scholar and astronomer in the court of Choca Paquiliz. My elder brother, 6 Eagle, is... was... IS one of our greatest warriors. Two years ago, he came to the portal to the Shifting Seas on a quest for... well, that's a long story, and it doesn't matter right now. The important thing is that he never returned. I never knew whether he was killed on his quest, or was held captive somewhere, or merely travelled on to farther lands and was unable to send word back to me. But my own duties prevented me from searching after him.
Now I am here, on my own errand, and I have been keeping my eyes and ears open for any news of him. I found nothing, until only a few hours ago, a nobleman entered this very tavern wearing this." He tugs on a chain around his neck, and pulls out a pendant in the shape of a face.
The Laughing Man
"It is called the Laughing Man, and it is a family heirloom. The nobleman was gracious enough to return it to me when I told him this. He said that he had bought it from a shady dealer in stolen goods named Castor. I propose to find this 'Castor' and find out how he came to own my brother's pendant. The ruffian's shop will doubtless be guarded, which is why I am asking your help - it does not need to come to violence, but it might. And then who knows where the search will take me next? I may have need of brave companions.
I do not know enough about you to know your motives in adventuring, yet. For some of you, the excitement of the chase, or the intellectual stimulation of an investigation may be enough. Others may be driven by the desire to do good deeds - I will tell you that 6 Eagle's quest was of vital importance to the future of my homeland, and perhaps the world! And for those of you who seek only riches and glory..." Rabbit places the chunk of gold on the table. "As I said, I have brought some wealth with me from the Golden Kingdoms. I can pay you well for your aid, if that is what you wish.
So... are you with me?"
OOC
I think Mal should tell me how much I should offer exactly, since players giving money to other players is a bit fishy...
OOC
Well, the noble gave you 120 gp...
I was expecting 4 more player for a 5 men party so you could have offered 30gp each. To these characters, 30 gp for about an hour of work is enough motivation. They'd be thinking they can go meet Castor, look mean, and come back in time for supper. But once at Castor's, I have plenty of motivation in store to keep them going; the background of some of these guy has proved most serenpiditous.
I guess you should offer 150gp total, so that's only 30gp from your pocket... It ain't so bad; you got the Laughing Man! I found your PC to be seriously underequipped for a level 2 PC so this item is not part of the standard share of treasure you'll get for the adventure.
Hello all, I'm happy to be your Judge for this adventure! I'm looking forward to watching the always-interesting Seven Rabbit's backstory be explored, and am excited to continue following the Ebon Mirror gang in their further adventures.
JNC, I am hereby officially Judge-ifying your acquisition of the Laughing Man and 120 GP from your encounter with the fop.
__________________ Gary Hoggatt - www.garyh.net "Such heroic nonsense..."
"I am at your service, 7 Rabbit." Kama'zer says to the dwarf with a nod of her head. Brushing back a braid of her long red hair, the Githyanki woman gestures towards the door while saying "Lead on and I shall follow, as will my companions I believe. As to the origin of our group, it actually goes back to before the fire when we all worked together to help another find and recover his kidnapped sister. So it seems that finding and rescuing family members may be our specialty."
OOC: I'm posting this simultaneously in the Tavern thread and in the new adventure thread so we can transition there.
"Pleasure to meet you 7 Rabbit. I find myself in a similar situation for I am seeking news of my errant son. We did not end things on the best of terms and he took up a life of adventuring and I fear piracy. Now that I find myself with time on my hands I am wandering the world like him in hopes of one day finding a clue to his fate. I will help out of a kinship for your plight." offers Callen.
7 Rabbit beams and tucks the gold away. "Thank you! Thank you so much. The truth is, I don't have that much gold to spend - the Golden Kingdoms are named that because of the richness of our golden fields of corn. I was a little worried."
To Callen, he continues, "I will certainly keep my eyes open for your son, but as a stranger here myself I'm afraid I don't have many insights to offer. You will have to tell me more about him when we get the time.
But right now, let us begin with this one clue we have towards my brother. Do any of you know of this man Castor, or have any general knowledge of his social class that might be helpful?"
1 - Castor is a fence who specializes in buying stolen goods with an artistic value and reselling it to nobles and merchants looking for something exotic. It is a low volume high profit margin affair.
2 - His cover is as an innkeeper in a high end establishment half an hour from the Docks.
3 - Like any fence, he needs underworld protection. His muscle come from Rinch the Riser's gang. They are a vicious and fearsome lot and their leader has the reputation of being impossible to kill (He is rumored to have been slain twice and both time to have come back from the dead, hence his nickname).
DC 20
Rinch has been creating wave in the underworld of late. There are wild rumor that he is taking crazy risk, is involved with necromancers and even that he herd packs of zombies! These rumors stems from the recents zombies attacks in Fisherman's Alley and at Vena's Grace hospital. Words on the street is that he was behind it. Associates are becoming very worried.
At this point, I am only waiting for Voda Vosa to post, make sure I have all my players.
The job being accepted, and 7 Rabbit's question having been answered (though not yet IC), there ain't a whole lot more to do but go to Castor's to kick things off.
I'll wait a bit for Mri'Thas to post and perhaps Ts'Iri to make an IC post about what she knows but otherwise, this evening (in about ten hours from this post), I will move the scene to the front of Castor's (It is the actual name of the Inn, btw).
You then can write transition posts and start figuring your approach.
Last edited by Mal Malenkirk; 20th September 2009 at 06:16 PM..
Castor's is a small but well-maintained inn. It is not luxurious enough to really stand out in the commercial district but is certainly beyond the means of a sailor; This establisgment caters to the naval officers and merchants.
The building is three story high and has an adjoining fenced yard and you need to go through a gate to enter the inn through the side. Both entry are guarded by a well dressed thug. That being said, the establishment is clearly open for business and the guards let in anyone who doesn't seem like a troublemaker.
Surprisingly, the group does manage to avoid the 'troublemaker' label and enter the inn without problem. You can see that the bar of the establishment is making great business; the room is packed and pricy liquor seem the norm. A simple query learns them that Castor is the shady looking dark haired man in the corner with the two bodyguards and the two pretty blondes.
You may want to create token for your characters and email them to me. Otherwise I am known to be Lazy and you'll end up with a token that is simply the first letter of your PC's name...
I put Castor on the Map, I haven't gotten crazy with tokens yet because, hey, this isn't a fight.
It's a skill challenge. The goal is of course to get Castor to tell you where he procured the Laughing Man without starting a gang war.
As the group approach his table, a bodyguard nudge Castor. The two thugs place themselve between their boss and the party. Castor give them a look over and a shrewd expression appears on his face.
-''It's not often that two of my items come back at the same time on two different new owners. This is going to be interesting.''
Skill challenge
8 Success before 4 failures. BAse DC 16
Failure likely means a fight since I don't expect you will back down!
This must be completed in less than '4 rounds' Everyone gets one roll per round. Not every roll needs to contribute to the success/failure tally; you can elect to assist another check instead.
Usuable skill for success/failure in the first part of the challenge : Diplomacy, Streetwise DC 16
Support Skill: Intimidate (basically looking tough!), Insight, Diplomacy, Streetwise DC 11, grant +2 to the first ally who claim it.
Other skills : Use your imagination. One in particular can unlock Intimidate as a skill counting toward the tally as well as grant a permanent bonus for the challenge.
Do roleplay what your character are saying; particularly good argument can yield a +2 bonus.
Last edited by Mal Malenkirk; 21st September 2009 at 03:57 AM..
Ts'Iri IC post about what she knows. This'll happen before we get to Castor's
"Castor? Let me think...
If I recall he a fence of high end exotic art pieces that pretends to be an innkeeper. He's got hired thugs from Riser's gang. Nasty bunch and there leader, Rinch, is immortal or something. Can't be killed from what I've heard.
Been some strange rumors about Rinch lately. It's said he's dealing with necromancers, zombies and such. They say he's the reason for the attacks in Fisherman's Alley and Vena's Grace hospital. I hear his contacts are drying up because of it."
Hehe. It slipped my mind that you were subscribed. As you can see, I recycled that map. I am not doing an ambitious 4 level mess this time, though. If VB goes down, I can recreate the Inn (and only the bar at that) easily enough.
Mri'Thas is suddenly taken by the warforged poetical rhythm. "Very good indeed my friend. I was oblivious of your capacity to perform poetical deeds like that"
With the stoical face that characterizes the gith, the mage nods to 7 Rabbits. "As my comrades say, we'll face whatever comes at the best of our abilities."
Mri'Thas remains calmed and silent for the moment been. His eyes goes from one thug to the other, a darting glance, resembling that of a predatory bird. His mind, as sharp as his gaze, analyzes the situation, excruciating the ruffian's words, searching for lies, or misleading information. He knew how people that are lying move and behave. He'll notice that. He was certain.
Mri'Thas: "Useless primates... " Sheng Zim: "Your existence brings the world out of balance. The chaos I bring shall revert it; unfortunately, your soul will be destroyed in the process."
-------------------------------------- Tuk Heavy Hands Apeldan: "Trolls are afraid to cats. Good to know" (Yttermayn's "Saga of the Dragon Cult") Cnosos: "I bet there's plenty of wonderful devices in that ship. Let's scavenge them at once!" (Blackrat's "After Earth") Metliz: Sounds like fun! (Arkandus's "The First") Thok: "Thok eats a lot, Thok big. Thok not good at first impressions." (MnL's "Valley of the Dead")
The hulking warforged has trouble entering the inn because of his bulk and accidentally rips off a part of the oaken door when he forces his way through with his strength alone, the guards moves out of his way in fear which also explains why the party wasn't stopped at the entrance as the massive warforged paved the way for the others. As he still holds the remnants of the door in his hand, he walks over to the table which Castor is sitting and drops the splinters on the table and says, "Sorry! I Can't Promise I Won't Break Anything Else!" then he adds mumbling "... Or AnyONE Else" while moving to stand guard over the wizards and stares intently at Castor.
That's three +2 to bonus, that can be used in a block or split them.
For the sake of RP: Soldier bought you credibility (You can't be bullied around) while the two insight check, whispered to their allies, indicate that Castor was concerned before you arrive and is now more so as he sees ''two of his items'' coming back in front of him with different owners.
This is no reason to press hm too hard; he has a lot of goons throughout the inn.
Woah, I expected to have some time to plan our approach - I was half thinking of breaking in...
Can I use Fevered Certainty of Caiphon to get +5 to a skill check? (I'll wait until we're losing, I just want to know if I have the option...)
For an icon, how about
7 Rabbit pushes his way to the front. "Two of your items?" he asks, brows quirking. He dangles the amulet on its chain in front of Castor's eyes. "Clearly, this is one of them. You weren't expecting to see it again, were you? You thought you'd gotten rid of... the curse!" He lets his voice go melodramatically low. "Did you start seeing the visions before you found some sucker to buy it? You look pretty solid - I suppose you got rid of it before you started turning into a wraith. Well, the poor fool you sold it to wasn't so lucky."
Rabbit slips the talisman back under his cloak. Conspiratorially, he says, "I hear he swore eternal vengeance against you. You should probably keep your windows locked. You're lucky I found you... I might be able to lift the curse, if you'll help me."
Hehe. That religion stuff is pretty clever. I'll accept that as a free support check, which is successful (DC11). So you only used one of the three accumulated support check. I will also accept bluff in that context as a skill counting toward the tally.
1 Success 0 Failure
'Bank' of bonus : 2 X +2 bonus
It was a risky gambit, even using +4 in bonuses, but very clever. 7 Rabbit gains a permanent +2 bonus to all further checks in this challenge as long as he can keep working this religious mumbo jumbo in his argumentation.
Only Kam'azer and Ts'Iri can contribute checks to the first round of the skill challenge.
Castor snorts incredulously as 7 Rabbit starts speaking but slowly the lies worms their way into his mind. A shade of worry appears in his eyes.
-''Are you threatening me, you loony?'' he says agressively. One of the guard looks evilly at 7 Rabbit and waits for a signal to attack that does not come. The other guard on the other seems disturbed by this talk of curse.
-''What'cha want, and why are you wearing this pendant if it is cursed?'' Castor says, regaining his composure.
OOC
You (As in: the whole party) probably need to dial down the agression for the next few lines but you have made him worry and this certainly count as a success.
Last edited by Mal Malenkirk; 22nd September 2009 at 05:55 AM..
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