Adventure: Food of the Gods - Part 2 (DM: ryryguy, Judge:renau1g)

[Mewness]

Meanwhile, inside, Papolstaanas finds Castofle still at work in the kitchen. He is covered in patches of coarse brownish powder, holding tongs. He seems excited. "This spice - it's great! It's perfect for this kind of flatbread I'm making out of this special flour - what a pain to make, you have to grind the different grains separately, but - the spice really kicks it up a notch!"

When informed of Balsamae's arrival, the color immediately drains from his face. "H-here? What? Why?" The tongs fall from his nerveless hands and clatter loudly to the floor. "Does - does he know I'm here?"

Papolstaanas has climbed up on a stool to talk to Castofle and cringes slightly at his reaction. "Um, it's, sort of my fault," he says apologetically. "I was just trying to... Trying to find, you know, expertise wherever possible. And I have this, ah, acquaintance, who, who works for him... I thought that--he, he doesn't know you're here, I don't think. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-to--"

He trails off, looking down at Castofle's preparations. "That smells really good, actually," he says distractedly. "You know, I was just thinking, have you tried thickening it? Because when we drank zocalti with him, Hulgrimi I mean, it sort of--this is kind of disgusting, actually--but the liquid sort of came out through his skin. Um, so maybe that's why he has some trouble tasting it, because, you know, part of it escapes."

[sblock=ooc]My understanding--and please correct me if I'm wrong--is that it doesn't really matter, for our purposes, who "wins" the competition, as long as somebody does. Our purpose is to get Hulgrimi out of his funk, so that he starts acting like a responsible leader and pays us the restitution he owes us. If he also decides to deal with Balsamae in the future, that doesn't affect our present mission. Balsamae's crew may see it as a competition, be we don't have to. (And I don't know why Balsamae's crew would deliberately try to prevent Hulgrimi's paying us restitution unless they're actively scouring the area for evil deeds to commit.) I'd still like Castofle to "win," because he seems like a nice fellow, but sabotaging Balsamae seems to me to be counterproductive. It might be useful to find out what he's doing, of course.[/sblock]

 

[ryryguy]

[sblock=ooc]My understanding--and please correct me if I'm wrong--is that it doesn't really matter, for our purposes, who "wins" the competition, as long as somebody does. Our purpose is to get Hulgrimi out of his funk, so that he starts acting like a responsible leader and pays us the restitution he owes us. If he also decides to deal with Balsamae in the future, that doesn't affect our present mission. Balsamae's crew may see it as a competition, be we don't have to. (And I don't know why Balsamae's crew would deliberately try to prevent Hulgrimi's paying us restitution unless they're actively scouring the area for evil deeds to commit.) I'd still like Castofle to "win," because he seems like a nice fellow, but sabotaging Balsamae seems to me to be counterproductive. It might be useful to find out what he's doing, of course.[/sblock]

[sblock=ooc]This understanding is basically correct. Assuming one or the other chefs is able to please Hulgrimi and get him out of his funk, you believe that he will follow through on the right of redress thing, and give you the zocalti you need.

What I was trying to get at (and probably being unclear about it), is that you don't know exactly what the others might try to pull. They might try to whisper in Bwarli's and/or Hulgrimi's ear and pull the rug out from under you. You think that no matter what they might say or do, you should have a claim on the zocalti. Indeed, you do have a real claim. But they could try to make it harder for you to press that claim. (Papolstaanas certainly knows that's just the kind of thing his sister might do, if for no other reason than gratuitous maliciousness. You also know that Balsamae has been trying to get zocalti - does he think there is enough to share?)

There is another "story" reasons you might care. Way back when, Hedra did give you a sort of secondary goal to look for opportunities to secure more zocalti opportunities. Getting a regular supply through Hulgrimi/Newhill, and/or helping Castofle to come up with a recipe that will create a market back in Daunton, would certainly qualify.

Then again, maybe you don't care about that stuff, which is fine.

To get meta for a second, I think this is the first time that I've felt a little frustrated about the 4e "everyone gets X parcels" treasure system. Basically this is a situation where you can either settle for a minimum victory, or go after a more total victory. It might make sense to give fewer rewards for a minimum victory or (probably better) give bonus rewards for the more convincing victory. But no, everyone gets the rewards they are going to get, so that's not a real incentive. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is some absolutely horrible bad thing - I know there are good reasons for it being the way it is. I just find it interesting that it's the first time I've ever felt at all chafed by the parcel system.)

Rewards aside, the total victory scenario might result in other material assistance with the last part of the adventure (getting the zocalti back to Daunton). Nothing required, but could be helpful...[/sblock]

 

[Mewness]

[sblock=ooc]I agree about the 4e parcels thing. Still, given how slow advancement in PbP is, bonus XP for a particularly good success would not go astray.

OK. I still think that sabotaging Balsamae is a bad thing to do, but the point about his people trying to screw with us is well-taken. I would assume, though, that they are unlikely to get anywhere with Bwarli. Bwarli has more reason to trust us than to trust them, and he wants Hulgrimi cheered up for reasons that have nothing to do with Balsamae or us. Furthermore, he has promised to help us get our zocalti by any means necessary if trying to please Hulgrimi should fail. Unless that promise means nothing to him, he's only going to make trouble for himself by changing the terms of the competition to screw us over, since he may end up having to help us rob his boss.

If we're worried about them screwing with Hulgrimi, we could (a) tell Bwarli to be on his guard and (b) have Jynxx hang around Hulgrimi being cute and entertaining and fending off anyone else's attempts to talk to Hulgrimi privately.

As for finding out what Balsamae is cooking up, I'm all for it, although I'm not sure how to approach the problem. I don't know if anyone's likely to be able to get into his confidence, although finding out everything that Castofle knows about him would be a start. If he keeps notes, they're probably in Elvish or Imperial, which is a problem. I suppose Papolstaanas could just try snooping around looking at his ingredients, perhaps while everyone else distracts his thugs.[/sblock]

 

[ryryguy]

[sblock=ooc]Bonus XP is a good suggestion... it can just be a quest, after all.

Another thing: this doesn't have to be some long, drawn out sequence. Just say what you're going to try (if anything), even just a general approach. I may ask for a couple of skill rolls. But it's not something I want to drag out.[/sblock]

 

[ryryguy]

[sblock=ooc]crickets chirping...

If this stuff with the other chef doesn't interest you, just say so and we'll move on. Or, we can go with Papolstaanas' plan above. Also I can present more explicit options or situations if you're just at a loss.[/sblock]

 

[LadyLaw]

[sblock=ooc]Personally, I was trying to keep the other chef from becoming involved. That didn't happen. At this point, I'm not really sure what to do. Az isn't going to want to make waves. She just wants to make sure they complete their contract. Anything else doesn't matter as long as it doesn't delay then. She's annoyed that Balsame is here, but there's nothing she can do about it, so she's reverted to statue mode unless he or his party attempt to interact with her directly.

Jynxx is really the party leader here as far as diplomacy is concerned. She's not going to step on his toes. I was giving him a chance to say something, but at this point I will try to have Az give an IC nudge, since I think she would do that if it looked like he wasn't going to do anything.[/sblock]

[sblock=Telepathy to Jynxx]Maybe you should talk to Bwarli about this. I would hate for this wrinkle to cause us problems.[/sblock]

 

[OnlytheStrong]

[sblock=ooc]

I'm not really sure what Jynxx should say in this situation. My first instinct was to let it ride and hopefully our chef doesn't have his ego ruined by losing... Any suggestions? I am more than willing to talk to anyone, given I know what in the heck I am talking about... [/sblock]

 

[ryryguy]

[sblock=ooc]Ok, here are a few more hints.

Finding out his ingredients (as Mewness suggested) would definitely be a good idea. Stealth or subterfuge is certainly a possible way to accomplish that. Also don't forget there are others besides the chef himself. His pal Devin is obviously a talker, maybe he can be goaded into saying too much? The mercs are none too bright and probably easily tricked (if they know anything).

Conversation with Castofle (which I will post IC tomorrow - also his responses to Papolstaanas) will suggest that if Balsamae has a weakness, it's a towering ego. Perhaps this could be turned against him... maybe offer to have both groups share their ingredients? surely he'll think that his dish will still be superior! Trouble is, he might well be right. especially in absence of other factors. You do have at least one data point he doesn't have - Papol just mentioned it to Castofle...

It's also not a foregone conclusion that he be allowed to cook for Hulgrimi. You could always try to run them off. Though that does seem like it would be a difficult and perhaps risky path - if it comes down to actual violence, everyone likely loses no matter who wins the fight.

The opposite strategy would be to offer to team up. Maximize chances of success by working together. The trouble there will be Balsamae's ego and Castofle's panic. But if you can overcome that it might be the best of all possible outcomes.

Finally, if in the end you don't particularly care who makes the better dishes, maybe you'd still like to swing some sort of future trade considerations (which might interest Az? or perhaps she feels she must be neutral, I'm not sure). In that case, working on Bwarli (or perhaps other villagers) would be key. It's pretty apparent that Hulgrimi will favor whoever pleases him more, but he's not exactly a details guy. In addition to Bwarli, the other attendant (Urtamklatl) was pretty obsessed with tradition. Maybe you can "lawyer" her to your side, or trick the others into doing something to offend her.

You can't really go wrong here (well, maybe if you snap and try to kill everyone ). Just go with whatever seems most fun and in character! Feel free to improvise, make up details about the village or the scene to round things out. This isn't like a puzzle where if you make the wrong move or can't figure out the solution, you lose. You don't have to do all or any of the things suggested here.

It's meant to be a free-form chance for you to decide how the story turns out![/sblock]

 

[OnlytheStrong]

Jynxx looks at Palp and winks, "Perhaps we might aid our heroic chef in his task. Can you sneak past whoever they have in place close enough for a mental relay of what is going on inside? I will try to stand in the same kitchen as the chef cooks, being an eager observer of legendary men. You simply need to be able to take mental note and relay messages to our chef."

 

[ryryguy]

[sblock=ooc]Just quick heads up, I was going to do Castofle's reaction but big crisis at work and I won't be able to post for a while. Hopefully late this evening.[/sblock]