D&D 5E [5e] QL's Al-Qadim Game
- Thread starter Quickleaf
- Start date
Quickleaf
Legend
Well, he can take an action, or speak certainly. But with conditions, provisos and quid pro quos. And, of course, a sword of wounding jabbing perilously into his back.
You're so poetic on Wednesdays.
Alrighty team, seeing as Amina has totally caught a singing bird here (well done Shayuri!), I think it may be a good time to kinda solidify what we're going to pursue, so we're not chasing every little lead we have. I feel, at least, that we don't really need to visit the last merchant: They're telling us what's been stolen and where, and the Sheikh already gave us a nice map of the location of the raids. If anything, Foxbytes suggested that we get us some camels from Suelasta there to prepare to head out into the desert, and I think that's a good idea.
The question is where to go after, and we've got some choices.
If I may be so bold, and the noble Quickleaf (May The Dice Ever Favor Him) can correct me if I'm wrong here, these are currently the threads we have discovered:
1. The Sea Mage Siblings & The Mixup Over Najiyah – This was unfortunately before Vlad and Shayuri joined our troupe, but the short of it is that Najiyah, a Vizier, was accosted and publicly accused by a pair of Sea Mages that she had ties to The Brotherhood of True Flame and was poisoning the mind of the city's Sheikh against their kind. They spoke of almost like a shadowy war going on between the Brotherhood and other mages, sounded like bad stuff. Najiyah, Kaniel, and Akilah managed to calm them down together and bring them to the Sheikh’s Palace, who was … less than thrilled about that, but they’re safe there now. The Brother of the Sea Mages is a little ... aggressive, but the Sister seemed amiable to us and our cause. Now, we haven't talked about it ICly? But considering Ankabut's connection to her Sea Mage father, this may be something interesting for Najiyah and her to investigate and ask the party to pursue, as it may lead tooooo …
2. The Brotherhood of True Flame – We know these guys are up to no good, and the Sea Mage Siblings seemed to think that they were in Tajar. This may be something worthy of tracking down: Salahuddin and Najiyah especially should be particularly interested in dealing with these folks, as Salahuddin represents another element that they try to subjugate (Air) while Najiyah is the type of mage they try to “recruit” (Fire). Our two Genie-touched Magi would probably work very well together in trying to suss out and deal with this cult, and indeed they threaten all of us (Akilah’s father, Ankabut is here to put down the Brotherhood, and Kaniel knows removing them would help all of Zakhara).
3. Tracking down The Raiders – As before, we basically know where these raids happened, we know who was affected, and we have a general idea of what they stole: If anything, it may be worth it to just hitch up some camels, pack plenty of water and some salt, and head out to an Oasis where the raids happened. Search for clues, talk to the locals, maybe even get ambushed along the way so that the raiders come to us. It’s clear these folks are doing … something. But I’m not sure how much more we can learn in Tajar from merchants as opposed to out in the desert where this all happened. Kaniel, in particular, has a vested interest in seeing if these raiders are why the Jann have not sent tribute to The Grand Caliph, and would be particularly interested in getting out into the Desert (seeing as that’s more his element anyway).
4. Confronting the Thieves at Rawun’s Well – Ankabut has uncovered the location of the people in grey robes who have been following us. I’m pretty sure this concerns all of us: do they want the book that we procured? Do they know who we actually are and what we’re doing? It seems wise to confront them sooner rather than later, now that we have the drop on them and not vice versa. Either Salahuddin and Najiyah can take a more diplomatic approach (seeing as working together I’m pretty sure they can out-charm anyone in the entirety of Zakhara), or maybe Ankabut and Kaniel can scout it out while Akilah leverages some guards in case things go awry? Regardless of how we approach it, I feel this is important enough to warrant some immediate-to-soon investigation. These folks clearly mean bad business, and if it turns out they don’t, maybe they connect to one of the other plot threads above.
Granted, these are not all of the options available to us nor is this even close to every story thread out there, but these, I feel, are the major ones that we have immediate connections to and immediate reasons to pursue. I think we should focus fire one and, to quote Zoolander, keep pulling the sweater.
On another note, while I’m loving everyone’s characters and the little interactions here and there, maybe it’s just me but I’d like us to be able to socialize a bit more and get into full-on Party Mode. I tried a little bit with the little questions and tidbits walking through Tajar there, and I know we’ve been busy tracking down merchants and questions and all the like, but I know we all have a few bits and pieces that connect our backgrounds (Akilah and Kaniel both have a shared bit of “We were born to one world and now live in another”, Salahuddin and Najiyah both have a connection to Genie kind [which the Genie-Touched background even hints that both of them are slightly awares of that], Ankabut is clearly there to serve Akilah, etc.) that I would hope we get to start exploring a bit. As a player, I love the back and forth and interaction with the team, and everyone has suuuuuch extensive and awesome backgrounds, I’m really hoping we get to explore that dynamic a bit more
Anyway, that’s my thoughts, fellow Arabian Adventurers. Ma taquluh?
The question is where to go after, and we've got some choices.
If I may be so bold, and the noble Quickleaf (May The Dice Ever Favor Him) can correct me if I'm wrong here, these are currently the threads we have discovered:
1. The Sea Mage Siblings & The Mixup Over Najiyah – This was unfortunately before Vlad and Shayuri joined our troupe, but the short of it is that Najiyah, a Vizier, was accosted and publicly accused by a pair of Sea Mages that she had ties to The Brotherhood of True Flame and was poisoning the mind of the city's Sheikh against their kind. They spoke of almost like a shadowy war going on between the Brotherhood and other mages, sounded like bad stuff. Najiyah, Kaniel, and Akilah managed to calm them down together and bring them to the Sheikh’s Palace, who was … less than thrilled about that, but they’re safe there now. The Brother of the Sea Mages is a little ... aggressive, but the Sister seemed amiable to us and our cause. Now, we haven't talked about it ICly? But considering Ankabut's connection to her Sea Mage father, this may be something interesting for Najiyah and her to investigate and ask the party to pursue, as it may lead tooooo …
2. The Brotherhood of True Flame – We know these guys are up to no good, and the Sea Mage Siblings seemed to think that they were in Tajar. This may be something worthy of tracking down: Salahuddin and Najiyah especially should be particularly interested in dealing with these folks, as Salahuddin represents another element that they try to subjugate (Air) while Najiyah is the type of mage they try to “recruit” (Fire). Our two Genie-touched Magi would probably work very well together in trying to suss out and deal with this cult, and indeed they threaten all of us (Akilah’s father, Ankabut is here to put down the Brotherhood, and Kaniel knows removing them would help all of Zakhara).
3. Tracking down The Raiders – As before, we basically know where these raids happened, we know who was affected, and we have a general idea of what they stole: If anything, it may be worth it to just hitch up some camels, pack plenty of water and some salt, and head out to an Oasis where the raids happened. Search for clues, talk to the locals, maybe even get ambushed along the way so that the raiders come to us. It’s clear these folks are doing … something. But I’m not sure how much more we can learn in Tajar from merchants as opposed to out in the desert where this all happened. Kaniel, in particular, has a vested interest in seeing if these raiders are why the Jann have not sent tribute to The Grand Caliph, and would be particularly interested in getting out into the Desert (seeing as that’s more his element anyway).
4. Confronting the Thieves at Rawun’s Well – Ankabut has uncovered the location of the people in grey robes who have been following us. I’m pretty sure this concerns all of us: do they want the book that we procured? Do they know who we actually are and what we’re doing? It seems wise to confront them sooner rather than later, now that we have the drop on them and not vice versa. Either Salahuddin and Najiyah can take a more diplomatic approach (seeing as working together I’m pretty sure they can out-charm anyone in the entirety of Zakhara), or maybe Ankabut and Kaniel can scout it out while Akilah leverages some guards in case things go awry? Regardless of how we approach it, I feel this is important enough to warrant some immediate-to-soon investigation. These folks clearly mean bad business, and if it turns out they don’t, maybe they connect to one of the other plot threads above.
Granted, these are not all of the options available to us nor is this even close to every story thread out there, but these, I feel, are the major ones that we have immediate connections to and immediate reasons to pursue. I think we should focus fire one and, to quote Zoolander, keep pulling the sweater.
On another note, while I’m loving everyone’s characters and the little interactions here and there, maybe it’s just me but I’d like us to be able to socialize a bit more and get into full-on Party Mode. I tried a little bit with the little questions and tidbits walking through Tajar there, and I know we’ve been busy tracking down merchants and questions and all the like, but I know we all have a few bits and pieces that connect our backgrounds (Akilah and Kaniel both have a shared bit of “We were born to one world and now live in another”, Salahuddin and Najiyah both have a connection to Genie kind [which the Genie-Touched background even hints that both of them are slightly awares of that], Ankabut is clearly there to serve Akilah, etc.) that I would hope we get to start exploring a bit. As a player, I love the back and forth and interaction with the team, and everyone has suuuuuch extensive and awesome backgrounds, I’m really hoping we get to explore that dynamic a bit more
Anyway, that’s my thoughts, fellow Arabian Adventurers. Ma taquluh?
Thateous
Explorer
I will gladly rp with anyone who wants a kiss on the forehead... as far as next steps, I'm ok with confronting those shadowing us and then rooting out any brotherhood members in tajar before heading out to confront then in the desert.
Sent from my SM-G935P using EN World mobile app
Sent from my SM-G935P using EN World mobile app
VLAD the Destroyer
Adventurer
I think confronting the men following us is a good idea. Rooting out the brotherhood might be good but the sheikh did task us with finding out about the raids so that might take priority in my mind.
Amina's reaction was legit priceless I have to say, though maybe buy Kaniel some falafel first, lol
Hm, well that's at least 3 for confronting the men following us (as I agree as well), and I think whatever we learn from them may help gauge our next response as it is. Shayuri, seeing as you've caught that Scout, Amina can maybe inform the party of this and we can excuse ourselves and go deal with "important business"?
How would we want to approach this? With authority, subterfuge, stealth ..? Akilah and Najiyah can Sister Power it up on these folks, flash some badges and demand they explain themselves? Or maybe Salahuddin and Najiyah can work some charm and magical enchantment to get some info and walk away unscathed without them being the wiser on what just happened? Or have Amina and Kaniel try and stealthily scout out this Rawun's Well and see if we can figure out who and what they are first?
VLAD the Destroyer
Adventurer
Salahuddin has an invisible flying scout so we can check them out first then decide on an approach.
There were two things that Ankabut was not expecting, to roughly equivalent degrees. The first was the sun suddenly falling from the sky and incinerating the world. The second was a kiss on the forehead from Akilah. Well done, sir, you have flustered a woman who makes a career of killing people.
So, I'm glad this came up. My initial idea was to have Ankabut go and 'tidy up' these men while you guys settle things with the merchant.
However, she (and by extension me) is having second thoughts about that. She might very well be able to take them, but we'd then learn nothing of their motives. Ankabut has been assuming they're just thieves who wanted the book and are as happy with foul means as fair, but she's not certain of it...and others in the party are FAR more effective at finding things out than she.
And of course, there's the somewhat metagame but still important consideration that everyone will want in on the fun.
So now I'm thinking she knocks this guy out, drags him to the Viziers to face justice, and tells them what she knows.
Thateous
Explorer
I'm a Hakima. Lies make my ears sizzle. Good luck keeping anything from me. Truth domain all the way.
Sent from my SM-G935P using EN World mobile app
Sent from my SM-G935P using EN World mobile app
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