[LPF] Ryall's Estate

[jkason]

Roll Call:
[MENTION=41485]InVinoVeritas[/MENTION]
[MENTION=6673727]Qik[/MENTION]
[MENTION=75065]jbear[/MENTION]
[MENTION=93930]Systole[/MENTION]
[MENTION=6666944]maquise[/MENTION]

Dane Ryall's cart is, like the man himself, none too impressive. Nor is the dilapidated horse harnessed to it.

"This is Maisy," he says, patting the horse on the rump, gaining a weak whinny from the horse and a small cloud of dust from its rear. "I had to sell her daughter to get the last o' the money to buy the house, so poor girl's a little overworked, but she's still got life in her."

Now that the group is starting on its way, Ryall seems to have gained some energy. He smiles as he opens the rear gate on the cart; the hinges squeal for oiling. It will be slightly cramped, but you should all be able to fit in reasonably.

GM: I'm not sure how many 'ground rules' I have, since this is my first time at this. While there may be a time or two when I make secret rolls for you, you should feel free to roll all your checks yourself, either using ENWorld's dice roller or the roller at Invisible Castle. In the latter case, please make sure to use your character's name for the roll, and provide me a link in this thread. You also don't have to wait for me in the case of investigative rolls. Feel free to roll checks with skills you think might yield information, and I'll dole out what's available as applicable. Since I don't think any of you took initiative feats or traits, I'd like to do group initiatives for combat if no one objects. Basically, we'd have individual initiative for surprise rounds and the first round (i.e., when people are potentially flat-footed). Then once everyone has acted, PC's and NPC's will act in groups, with PC actions taking effect in the order they're posted. It's seemed to speed up combat a bit in the games where I've encountered it; and you can still post a delay action (either for a PC who hasn't posted yet or for NPC actions during their initiative). Also, if you could please post a link to your character sheet on the wiki in your first post here, I'd appreciate it. I'll try to collect those in this first post after an edit so I'll have a handy reference.

Characters:

Kazanto, merfolk oracle (flame mystery)
Hlaalin Felanin, human alchemist
Relic Nevyn, human wizard (air specialist)
Daylily Falshenaya, elf barbarian
Quioan Scorchsong, elf wizard (tranmutation enhancement specialist)

 

[Qik]

Walking through the tavern door into the bright midafternoon sun, Quioan squinted, pausing a second to let his sensitive elven eyes readjust to daylight. Smiling at the sight of Dane Ryall's cart and horse and his obvious pride in the pair, he made his way over to the back of the cart. With a word of thanks to Dane for opening the rear gate, he made his way to the front of the cart, unshouldered his pack and his bow, and settled in expectantly, intent to get under way.

OOC: Group initiative sounds good to me. Quioan's character sheet is here. Nice to finally have this underway; looking forward to it, all!

 

[Systole]

Daylily exits the tavern, gnawing on his last skewer of rat. He notices the cart and horse, and suddenly looks more than a little uneasy. For her part, as soon as Maisy sees and smells the barbarian, she immediately becomes nervous and stamps her feet. Cautiously, Daylily approaches the cart, but as soon as he gets within a foot or so of the rear gate, Maisy whickers and starts, and the elf scrambles away with exceptional speed.

From several yards away, he straightens up and announces, "I am will walks. Yes. Walking. Is for strong warrior to walkings. And for to watch for enemy and monster and horse. From ground. Yes."

OOC: Daylily will stick with his Desert Runner racial, thank you very much. Link to sheet: Daylily Falshenaya (Systole) - Living Pathfinder RPG Wiki

 

[Qik]

OOC: Systole, for some reason the link you provided takes you to a blank page.

 

[jbear]

Relic strides out of the tavern towards the others near the cart. He gets himself up next to Quioan with relative ease for an old man.

He settles in, a grin from ear to ear that makes his face seem almost boyish waiting for the group to set off.

OOC: Here is the link to Relic: http://livingpf.wikia.com/wiki/Relic_Nevyn_(jbear) This is my first Pbp game so, while the RP side seems intuitive, I don't know how combat works exactly. So, hopefully I'll get up to speed quickly once that occurs.

 

[maquise]

Hlaalin follows, getting in with Relic and Quioan.

OOC: Hlaalin Felanin

 

[Qik]

Quioan is quietly relieved at Daylily's decision to jog next to the cart rather than ride in it; he had quite worried that he would have to sit in close quarters with the elf for the day's journey.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

With a bemused smirk, Kazanto leaves the Dunn Wright Inn and slithers alongside her erstwhile companions wherever they may lead her.

 

[jkason]

The cart isn't an especially comfortable ride, though it is slightly less cramped with Daylily choosing to jog alongside. Things become extra bumpy as the well-cobbled inner Venza gives way to more and larger potholes near the outskirts. But once the transition is past, the dirt road Ryall drives Maisy along isn't appreciably worse than cobbles, and while it isn't the artistic architecture of the city, the green canopy over the forest road leading into the baronies certainly isn't bad so far as scenery goes. That it does a reasonable job of shading the party during the hottest part of the day is an added benefit.

Except for the occasionally unexpected dip in the road, the trip goes by uneventfully. Ryall, for his part, seems in bright spirits, apparently now confident that he'll soon reclaim his home. He even shares the sparse lunch he packed for the trip. It isn't very flavorful, but does stave off hunger pains, especially for Relic, whose stomach had stretched back out with all of his gorging at the Inn.

Late in the day, as the shadows begin to grow long, Ryall points to a curve in the road up ahead.

"There," he says, his bright mood tinged a bit with anger now as he adds, "The clearing where that scoundrel took my house is just up ahead."

A minute or two later, the bouncy cart comes around the bend, and there is indeed a clearing: a wide, bright patch of grass with a little vegetable garden off from the road. About an acre, all told.

What there is not, is a house. There looks to be a small, square section of leveled earth where a house might stand, but there's no structure to speak of.

"No," Ryall says, dejected. Maisy slows to a stop when her master's hands go slack on the reins, content to nibble at the grass on the road's edge. "That monster done moved it again."

 

[Qik]

Quioan leaps gracefully out of the cart, landing deftly on the dirt road. Truth be told, he's surprisingly unphased by the house's absence - it certainly seems in character with what he knows about the building so far. Setting his hand lightly on the dejected commoner's shoulder, Quioan tried his best to lift his spirits a bit. "Don't worry, friend Dane - there's still the chance that we can learn something about this mystery of ours."

Moving from the road to the edge of what he takes to have been the yard, Quioan first looks over the area, studying it, trying to internalize its finest details. Once he reaches the limits of his mundane abilities, he begins murmuring the incantations to one of the first spells he ever learned. As his arcane words and gestures begin to take effect, he can sense a new awareness spreading outward, in the direction of where a house may once have stood; tuning into this awareness, he tries to discern the presence of any magical auras which may have been played a role in the house's disappearing act.

[sblock=Actions]Perception check to study the area: 1d20+4=22

Casting Detect Magic. Going to concentrate for three rounds on the area where the house was likely to have stood.

Knowledge (Arcana) check to determine the nature of any perceivable magic: 1d20+6=18
Spellcraft check to determine the magical properties of any items/objects I may happen to pick up on: 1d20+6=26

Let's hope I don't waste that 20.[/sblock]