Black Spine: Adventures under a Dark Sun

[humble minion]

Garak listens to Ursus' suggestions, and nods absently in agreement. He seems preoccupied, and continually runs his fingers gently over the stone carvings of the temple.

"These are strong stones" he says. "The roots go deep. They will hold. Ristu can call the sand-tides back from the temple - the earth is close to her*. The walls will shelter the people of the village, and I would like to look upon this ancient place without its cloak of sand."

"But the gith worry me. Gith are like fire - they flicker around the edges of civilisation, scorching the unwary but no danger to the strong. They burn up their fuel and then are gone. These are organised, disciplined - a rock to be hurled against the walls. I know not what hand does the hurling, but it is a question that must be asked. I fear for the villagers if we try to face the gith in open battle. Many will die, and die needlessly, even should we prevail. We must shatter the rock, break the order and discipline of the gith before they assail us. Grykee, taking those prisoners, has the right of it." He gives her a brief, respectful nod. "Knowledge is our best weapon here. The gith army must have its fault lines - we should bend all our efforts to find and exploit them."

OOC: Sorry for my erratic recent posting schedule. I'm in the middle of a messy move, and probably will be for another fortnight or so. I will keep up with the thread, but I may be a little slow for a while. If combat or other time-limited scenes come up, I will make the time to post.

* - ie, Ristu can clear the sand away from the temple using a Move Earth spell, making it much more defensible

 

[Paxus Asclepius]

OOC: If someone can tell me how to put up an AutoREALM map, I can show you the temple, so you can decide where you want to move the dunes.

 

[evileeyore]

"Okay. Things have changed somewhat. Tenpug expects a share of the metal salvaged from the Gith army. It is from this that his artisans shall craft the trade goods with which to pay us. I have haggled an upfront payment of two hundred silver pieces, with ten thousand in craft goods after the village is saved, presuming enough salvage."

She sighs wistfully.

"Tenpug claims that neither he nor the villages hunters have any information concerning the Gith. Only that they began raiding two weeks ago, thats about the time Rakskon was sent out. I discerned no lies in Tenpug. Nor did I detect any overt dessembling from Rakskon on the way here. I presume Rakskon has reconnaissance not yet shared with Tenpug."

She pats Uden's knee at his frown. "That means I don't think Rakskon lied either."

"So do we continue with this mission or scrub it in the face lowered money? I figure as long as we are here, and its not a bad fee... We might be able to sweeten it from Gith loot that isn't metal..."

She trails off and sits silently for a moment.

"I do already have two informants. I shall atleast glean as much from their thoughts as possible."

"I have a bit of a plan in mind, but it will require both refinement and more information to work. I figure that if I can get a few Gith from each tribe to start sabotaging each other tribes supplies we can begin breaking down whatever alliance is going on here. Couple that with a hit and run on any supplies we can steal or taint, along with some other hit and run operations we might be able to destabilize the entire army. Cause them to fight amongst themselves, weaking them and then we finish off or atleast drive off whatever is left."

"We'll also need to fortify this village somewhat, if we decide to this. I have a few notions about that."

"So do we do this?"

 

[Cerebus13]

Ursus

Rubbing his scalp for a while Ursus seems lost in thought. Finally he says:

"If the Gith really do number as many as we have heard from different sources I don't think this village will stand much of a chance against them without some sort of organized defense. I don't like sticking my neck out for people I don't know very well, but I think we may be their only hope." Ursus cracks his knuckles, "One way or another it is going to be a great fight, so I vote that we help them out."

 

[humble minion]

Repost:

Garak will spend some time wandering around, talking to the villagers, looking over their fields and tents and so on. He'll be looking for signs of poor farming practises, any indication that slaves are kept here, signs of brutal punishments or bloodsports, defiling ash, and so on.

If Tenpug's village appears to be a sturdy community - healthy and concerned for the common good - Garak will feel obliged to stay and help, regardless of the details of payment. In the desert, his life was saved through the mercy of a stranger. The earth spirits demand he offer no less to others.

OOC: Posting this in the right damn forum this time round. That'll teach me to post on four hours sleep. Anyway, carrying on from Paxus' reply in the other thread...

IC: "I will stay, and fight beside these people," Garak states quietly. "They are worthy stewards of the earth, and deserving of protection."

"If it is payment that concerns you, consider this. These gith have so much metal that they are literally" - he hoists a bundle of steel-tipped javelins as an illustration - "throwing it away. Even Hamanu cannot boast footsoldiers armed with steel, yet these gith have four metal weapons each, and partial armour. This metal must come from somewhere - some buried cache from ages past most likely, as gith do not mine or work the forge. What spoils we gather here, what payment Tenpug and his village can offer, will be kank dung compared to that." He shoots a grin at Grykee - acknowledging he is manipulating her, acknowledging he knows she knows this, but defying her to challenge his logic.

 

[Keia]

Arriha: Aarakocra Air Cleric 1 / Nomad 9 PP's:61

Arriha listened to the others offer their arguments, then spoke again, "I think what I said before still has weight. We've never been rich, so we shouldn't let that cloud our judgment. I don't mind defending these people . . . but I don't think we have enough information. Either from Ralston or the gith, we should gather what they know. If that is not enough, then we strike out at the gith and recover someone tht does know something."

 

[evileeyore]

"Good, now that thats settled, I suggest we rest up, this afternoon we can begin implementing our plans. Garak who is on first rotation with our prisoners?"


OOC: I seem to have lost track of the current game time. So I'll edit the above if 'afternoon' is not a reasonable end to a rest period...

Also I was planning on using Aura Sight whilst walking around with Tenpug. Did I notice anyone/thing out of the ordinary?

 

[Paxus Asclepius]

You saw nothing out of the ordinary; I believe it's early morning now, so you should be able to siesta and rise by the afternoon.

 

[humble minion]

"We might want to do some of our investigating first, so Ristu and I know better what spells to ask the spirits for after resting. Can you at least begin to interrogate the prisoners, Grykee? If you can get the location of the main camp, particularly the leader's quarters, I can scry on them before sleeping."

OOC: I've got a scry memorised, and I might as well use it. In the meantime, Garak will cast cures on all those who will not be completely healed by a rest (18hp each, thanks to the treatment by the village's water cleric). I can swap out spells for 4 cure light wounds and 5 cure moderate wounds. One additional cure light wounds I will cast on Kejo, sacrificing Remove Fear.

 

[Cerebus13]

Ursus

"I'll take the first watch on them. I'm too restless right now to get to sleep so I may as well do something interesting to occupy my wakefulness. We need to being fortifying this village as soon as possible. The first order of business should be making the temple more defendable...because that will be the place to hide all of the non-combatants. Moving the dunes back from the roof will be a good start, but any other little tricks we can come up with will definately help.