Is'Merith - Campaign Thread

The party moves around a warehouse on the corner, the dockworkers following behind him with the crate, one of them is lifting whilst the other waves his hands around in strange patterns, muttering various words before nodding and helping with the carrying. There, 50ft away is dock 5. In front of dock 5 is a ship, 3 floors tall, with 3 large masts swaying in the hot wind. the outside is made of red stained mahogany, then waxed down with care, the masts appear to be made of oak. A great silver figurehead of a woman dressed in robes reaches out towards the horizon on the front of the ship. Each of the 3 decks below the top are lined with row after row of timber frames that appear to be windows, each sealed with timber trapdoors about 2ft by 2ft in size.

You see about a dozen men and women manning the top deck of the ship and two men standing guard at a portable timber staircase located at the base of the dock, leading up to the top of the deck. The men are dressed in silvery blue half-plate, they each have a long, slim and light curved blades that look like a two handed scimitars strapped to their backs. On their heads, they wear blood red silk turbans, then pantaloons of the same colour, but gilded with silver. On their feet, they wear elegant white leather boots with silver embroidery.

The doors to the captains cabin are opened, so the party, along with the crate enter. A man behind a large oaken desk is standing with his arms opened wide. He is dressed, once again in blood red silks, a turban on his head and a rat on his shoulder. He carries no weapons from what you can see. Daedarai doesn't necessarily recognise him, but knows this is the thieves guild leader Kyle (his surname remains unknown to Daedarai).

Whilst the guild always remains in the docks, it's face changes regularly as other guild ships from the world over periodically come and go. With every ship, comes a unique set of papers for the captain, whose identification along with his appearance changes with each new shipment. The ships themselves always contain a crew made up mostly of honest sailors. They never see their captain, nor do they need to and this keeps things simple. See, the guild in Is'Merith are in fact the dockworkers for the most part. No-one would ever suspect an honest worker to be a guild member and the further out of the centre of town, the better.

"Welcome! Welcome everyone" chuckled Kyle, his rosy cheeks complementing what appeared to be a genuine smile of joy. "Please, have a drink, or a smoke." He gestures to a rather large cabinet full of different expensive alcohols as well as a silver container full of cigars. "Alejandro I take it by your presence that you have accepted a position working with us?" I have received confirmation that the man in the crate is indeed a Free Army Service member. Your contribution to the guild will be invaluable.

His face suddenly becomes more stern, "but what I could do with is a little more information as to why he attacked YOU, my lady. It is... Strange for an agent whose purpose is to keep civilians in check and to prevent chaos to attack an outsider. My question is, why is this so, please, take a seat and take your time. Think carefully about any details you might be able to give. Perhaps even your instinct as to what might have happened"?

Alejandro looks in surprise at Daederai. He thought the forger was recruiting the outsider elf, not him.

However, never one to pass up hospitality, he gratefully selects a cigar.

[sblock=OOC] he will position himself briefly with his back to Kyle and try to sleight of hand a second one for later, all innocent baby faced gnome of course[/sblock]

He looks around for something to light the cigar with as he waits for his money and for Shen's tale.

[sblock=OOC] while he does so he wants to see if there are any strange things in the room, and he whispers to Archibald to check out the rat[/sblock]

Archibald jumps onto the table and sits watching the guild leader and his pet.

The rat quietly prepares to climb off Kyle, who almost instinctively raises his hand to the rat and places her on the table, not looking away from his guests, he continues conversation.

She walks up to Archibald and begins sniffing around him, before going to a plate on he desk and collecting a piece of cheese for the little mouse. Archibald scurries back to Alejandro and quietly whispers in his ear. "Oh Al, I'm in LOVE, what beauty I've never seen before, what charm, oh and she is so SMART too; And her hair smells like cinnamon.... CINNAMON AL. AL? AL? Are you listening to me? Do you think a mouse like me and a rat like her could ever...?"

Alejandro notes that this she-rat is well looked after and doesn't look at all like a sewer rat. She is white with black and brown splodges, her hair is clean and she appears to be a healthy weight. As for her apparent cinnamon scent, he can't really tell from here, and he doesn't know how the party's host would respond to a request to sniff his rat... Alejandro will probably have to take Archibald's word on it.

Alejandro sighs inwardly, stroking Archie just so in the spot behind his ear to calm him down, as he waits to hear from Shen. His interest was piqued earlier when she mentioned the old ruins under the Undercity. He has explored the top level a little but he feels there is more to find down there, and not necessarily that which you'd be happy to find.

He would like to know more and sits puffing on his cigar.

[sblock=OOC Shen]Shen, your feeling at the time was that the old man was keeping an eye out for your question, just waiting to shut anyone down who started asking. The fact that he waved you over so promptly... And that look in his eye.... (Insight roll total 19) It was as if he thought you were someone else, with the murderous glare in his eye SCREAMED the word GOTCHA! Finally I found you![/sblock]

Face glowing, Shen flits to the cabinet, looking for anything she doesn't recognize. She finds something brown labeled in a language she doesn't know - maybe dwarf? - and an elven wine. May as well have the best, fitting her new station. "You all want something?" she asks the room. She pours the drinks in whiskey glasses, all in imprecise but generous portions.

Shen sits down with her two drinks and tries the wine first; it's sweet, with a slew of flavors she doesn't really know, and she's almost not sure it's alcohol, but it's expensive and elven so she forces herself to like it. She freezes midway through a swig, as Kyle addresses her directly.

"Um...well, like I said, I was asking 'bout work, mercenary-type stuff. Trying to break into the business. And about that desert, 'cause I've been around some badlands, but there is nothin'[/] out there. You know, I heard this story before I came, about some sorta war, and how they killed off whatever was out there? And how there's ruins under the city, and cursed treasure...or maybe it was just death and no treasure? Anyways it sounded interesting, and I got to thinkin' if there is a curse, maybe it's got some to do with the wasteland out there, I dunno." She pauses for a moment, thoughtful. "Come to think of it, when I started askin' about the war and the free army and all's when that guy got his hackles up. So he starts lookin' conspiratorial-like, and he says 'hey girlie, what're you asking, I'm gonna shut you up.' Shut him up though." She pauses to point between her legs, raising her eyebrows, then points at Alejandro's spiky mess of a stick.

She tries the other drink before continuing. It's very strong and warm, probably a whiskey. Tastes sort of like moss, or dirt. Must be dwarven after all. "Kinda funny though, he had this look, like he knew who I was. Ain't been here or ever met him before, so he must've though I was someone else.

"So, it that stuff true? About the ruins or whatever?"

[sblock="OOC"]Also, feel free to narrate as if Shen poured a drink for you.[/sblock]

[sblock=OOC]I just need to clarify out of game that Shen initially would have approached people asking about the DESERT first, the barrenness of which was something she wanted to investigate further. THAT was fine, but as soon as she started dipping into questions about how she heard the barren lands were once fertile and started prattling on with all of this outsider knowledge about the Free Army and their "scorched earth" tactics, that's when Shen saw the look of crazy in the old mans eyes. It was like what she had heard wasn't actually common knowledge... Will do a big post tomorrow. Will wait for Daedarai to post. Will introduce Pathfinder within the next 2 big posts. Radecus will be introduced when he has a character .[/sblock]

[sblock]Edited the relevant section, hopefully that matches up better. Leaving the previous explanation to Alejandro as-is, it's close enough. Looking forward to our new member![/sblock]

Daedarai took a few minutes to collect himself. He knew that they would have a conversation with someone, but he didn't expect it to be the guild leader himself. This was an opportunity to make an impression. He tried to make himself look impressive as his new partners proceeded to accept their hosts generosity. Taking an offered drink from Shen, he listened intently to her story.

After she finished, he offered his thoughts. “Stories of treasure are common place. Every drunk in a bar has a tale of hidden golden riches. The war seems like a trigger. That moved you from idle talk to threat in that man's eyes. I wonder if the two are related though. Is it possible that the treasure is from the war somehow? Maybe a hidden cache of the FAS? Maybe it contains information about the war that they don't want to get out.”

[SBLOCK=OOC]I'm going to stop there. How much do we know about the war? It was 700 years ago, but with fantasy lifespans, that doesn't seem long enough to be completely forgotten from history unless it had help of some kind (which is intriguing). Do our characters know what war she's talking about or that the desert used to be fertile and was destroyed? I wrote the above assuming ignorance.

As for conversations and narrative flow, the few times that I've tried PbP before it's been difficult. You just work within it the best you can. For my character, the players have my permission to write his minor interactions into their post to establish a flow. If you want to hand him a drink or start a conversation, that's fine. You can even have him say a few things. I would just ask for major things to allow me to answer or control (with the exception of the DM when he moves the narrative along). I trust that everyone wants a good story and to have fun. My biggest advice is to not worry about the quality of each individual post. It's a trap to think that each post needs to be x number of paragraphs with so much description. That can paralyze folks from posting and the game will grind to a halt. Just have fun with it.[/SBLOCK]

The more Shen went on, the bigger the man's eyes became. At the end of her speech, he could only whisper, "Between the desert and the city... Desert and FAS? Ruins?" He opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a signal whistle, blowing it in rapid succession a number of times (Daedarai interpreting it as a summons of a guild member). Suddenly, he stopped, "I'm so sorry I've been rather rude", he goes to a chest beside his desk and opens it, taking out a small sack of coins, counting them out "75 gold to each of you for your assistance, with much bigger payments soon to come".

The man moved back to a bookcase behind him, sorting through them until he found a big brown leather bound book about 8 inches thick. "Let's start with immigration from two years ago....hmm"; everything went quiet, as Kyle flicked through page after page, running his finger down a column, which at the top read "Professions". He only stopped after going through about 60 pages. " In over 2 years, not a single druid.... Hmm".

At this point, a beautiful black haired half-elf woman enters the room, followed by a short and stocky Halfling male, both in leather armour of some kind. Kyle holds his finger up to them asking silently for their patience as he takes another big heavy tome off the shelf. This tome is titled "Archive records, council meeting agendas and outcomes"; he looks up momentarily "Of course, we have not stolen the real thing, but we do find ways to make copies of this information"; he smiles as he says this and goes back to the book. "It is when we find patterns, that having such information on hand becomes most useful". He begins to nod with more certainty as he flicks through result after result.

"Yesss, request to fund construction of aquifers branching out from the cities wells, denied, put forth by the Is'Merith Agricultural Society.... They put similar proposals in 6 times, then tried to start off with more subtle requests, soil sampling and the such, they were denied. Again Kyle looked up, "their society was abolished only 8 months ago. That could be a lead.... Around the same time was a vocal minority in the noble houses... Er, the, Silverfrost's", he looks towards the new half-elf in the room, raising his open palm towards her "everyone, this is Mina, Mina this is Shen, Alejandro and Daedarai; Mina, we may have found something to assist you in your enquiries, we can discuss this later". He moves his hand over to the Halfling, "And this is Isaac, a skilled swordsman who is also quiet and light on his feet when he needs to be and as capable as any member in deceiving others should the need arises".

Kyle moves around to the front of the table with one of the drinks poured by Shen, "You will all learn how I run the guild in time. I try to minimise the spread of information by creating separate cells or taskforces within the guild. Some debate, this increases the chance the enemy can recognise the people out on the field, watch their patterns, predict where they will go next, but I think the benefits outweigh the negatives.

He pauses slightly after a drink of the Dwarven spirits in his hand, "The task of exploring this current issue will be up to you people before me. I will give you more details later after more browsing. I've included Mina here as a specialist in Is'Merith History as well as all matters involving Is'Merith nobility; Mina, start training them up in noble etiquette as if they are servants and bodyguards for yourself. Daedarai, you need to organise false ID for everyone, you're all outsider "Commoners" except for Mina, who you should make into a Noble Outsider from the city of Trobar Shon, 3000 miles due south-east of here. Just ask and whatever expenses you need paid in creating said documents will be covered by the guild. These will NOT work forever in the Inner city. FAS are always looking out for our agents and treat outsiders who pop up randomly in the inner city as highly suspicious...

Daedarai, I understand this may take you a week or two to do. In that time, any FAS related heat on you all will have died down. I'll arrange all the flashy effects, fancy carriage and clothes and the such to get you into the inner ring in style. As these matters are FAS related, they are considered high risk and pay as such. As you are all members, you each receive free food and lodging with the guild either here or at a number of locations known only to senior members", again, he pauses and looks at Daedarai, "Of which, you are now one, I'll give you the details afterwards to commit to memory".

Until the preparations are complete, you are free to use our training facilities and travel around the markets and auction houses here, the smaller one is run by us, but as guild members, you can make purchases beforehand of our "acquired gear" at half the brand new standard. The risk is of course that you might still get a cheaper deal at the auction, but then again, you might not. Don't worry about the gear being recognised however; anything you purchase comes from at least 400 miles away at any one time with any identifying marks or hallmarks removed. We do NOT sell local gear to locals... Too risky. Otherwise, you may be able to get your hands on a second-hand suit of half-plate, or sometimes a silvered weapon;" He looks at Alejandro, "A gnomist trinket, cheap jewellery, unidentified bottles of unknown substances and sometimes, a mildly enchanted magical item". He pulls the collar of a white cotton shirt from under his silks. "This shirt for example along with a pair knee-high socks I wear under everything are clothes enchanted with prestidigitation. They never get dirty or wet and they put out a constant cool temperature." He smiles with pride as he picks up his rat, placing her on his chest whilst leaning back, patting her like she was a baby.

"So, any questions before you leave? I will call you all again later, but for now, you may want to rest and speak to your new companions..."

[sblock=OOC] Enter Mina! Enter Isaac![/sblock]