GREYHAWK: The Golden Era CY963: A1-P1-S2 [RESTORED CAMPAIGN THREAD]

[akahdrin]

Kasnik snarls back, "I am not daft little pup. I think you may be thinking of yourself with who is acting like a fool. I have seen these tactics used before, I have seen malevolence longer than you've been alive, and I will not tolerate it in my presence. We will all be judged by the actions in which we carried ourselves. I will not be an accomplice to your malice as what you do does reflect upon me if I allow it to happen. There is a better way. He needs to not think he is in danger, he needs to know that his actions have determined his fate. If we need information, we can always just find a wizard to get the answers we need instead of the terror are you attempting to inflict onto his mind to achieve the same goal. Your methods have done more than offend me, they have shed you in a light unbecoming to a child of nature. If they saw you right now, they would be disgusted with your behavior. We will not be finished here until you are not the one interrogating and you back off."

During the altercation, Kasnik's steed has arrived and pushes his way into between Vale and the green man. The horse cocks his head and exhales loudly while stamping his right hoof. Kasnik does not mount his horse, but leaves him there to act as an additional barrier.

OOC: I am assuming during that speech, my horse has arrived as that was clearly a lot of speaking. Detect evil does not allow me to see auras of good, which you do not have anyways. As far as I know, you are both CN or CE and you are hiding your alignment by the way you are acting. Your knowledge of paladins, very common knowledge, will inform you that most are lawful good. It will also tell you that breaking the law and threatening an evil act is not the best idea to do in their presence.

 

[Sylvar B.]

OOC: Sylvar is Chaotic Good

Sylvar approaches Vale and Kasnik unarmed, his arms wide in a reconciliatory stance.

Gentlemen, lets us not resort to violence, we are not animals, and I believe we are all after the same thing. Vale, I am all for roughing a man up and causing discomfort in order to get information, but threatening a man with his life and severe bodily harm is not within my comfort. I must side with Kasnik. Under normal circumstances I would not object, but there are other means and we are in a place where lying is not permitted. Surely we should try those first, if they don't work we can try more severe tactics.

Perhaps we can try hypnotizing the man. He won't be going anywhere and we will know if he is lying.

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

Clash of The Righteous

GM: KASNIK: Actually, you CAN detect auras, you're just not very good at it currently. I will post my updated Detect Evil document to the group OOC chat on Facebook Messenger here shortly, within the next few minutes. Since this argument clearly took more than 24 seconds (4 rounds) I took the liberty of rolling Kasnik's Sense Motive on everyone in the room. They were all failures, even when I re-rolled the two results of "1"; However, the two results of 23 were, ironically, on the Green Man, and on Vale. [23 is only 2 points shy of being able to see the complete aura!] Although you can't read the auras, you do NOT detect evil ANYWHERE within your range of detection, including moments when you change the focus of your cone by scanning the room; also, you suddenly get a "gut feeling" that neither Vale, nor the Man in Green, is wantonly evil, and although you have acted correctly by challenging Vale and protecting the Man in Green, something tells you that of the two, Vale is by far the more righteous, even if his zeal DID momentarily get the better of him. You know from long years of experience that Dwarves can be grumpy, cantankerous, and stubborn, but that this is often a harsh exterior which hides a good heart. Something inside you (let's call it "Valerian's Enlightenment") tells you that such is the case with Vale, and that he, being a servant of The Silver Father, will face adequate consequences as it is, and that you should forgive him for his lapse in judgment. Of course, this does not mean that you should not be vigilant against relapses in the future; but you know from experience that anger and frustration can harden one's heart, and cloud one's judgment. One outburst of anger does not make one evil. You know very well that evil grows best through unchecked repetition. Luckily, that particular "weed" will not have a chance to grow here, under your watchful eyes.

Respen locks eyes on the green rider, and speaks an elven incantation toward the prisoner in order to hypnotize him. Perhaps it will bring peace to the matter.

Respen casts Hypnotism on the Man in Green, but the man's mind, clouded by fear, refuses to embrace the spell's pull toward complacency; at one point, the Man in Green locks Respen's gaze with his own, saying nothing outwardly, but conveying a sense of both anger and fear, as he realizes that you have attempted to enspell him.

The Man in Green is currently cowering, trying to crawl towards the corner of the room, to avoid what he senses to be an escalation of the conflict. There is no window nor door nor other form of egress in the direction he is crawling; only the safety of the corner.

[Everyone: What do you do?]

 

[Diarmadhim]

Making a patting motion with my hands palms down and extended before me, I attempt to refocus the situation. "Gentlemen, let us get back to the matter at hand - what this man," I motion toward the crawling and cowering man, "was doing." Kneeling about three arms lengths away from the man I ask, "What exactly was it you were doing? As you can see, my companions are in no mood to banter. Please enlighten us, lest their patience escape them again. Currently we have reason to suspect you might be in league with fiendish orcs... I'm sure you can imagine what the law will do to one that aids the Pomarj against the good folk of the region. Better to be upfront and honest lest you cause yourself additional hardships than what you have already faced. What say you?"

OOC: Intimidate roll of 26, Sense Motive roll of 24.

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

The Man in Green Finally Speaks

Kneeling about three arms lengths away from the man I ask, "What exactly was it you were doing? As you can see, my companions are in no mood to banter. Please enlighten us, lest their patience escape them again."

The Man in Green (To Dewydd, in Common): "My real name is Oswald Poppentart..."

As the Man in Green says this, he is horrified to see puffs of green, stinking vapors coming from his mouth!

Realizing what is occurring, he stops speaking, and curls up into a ball, and begins to cry. "They'll kill me if I tell you the truth! The Dwarf's threats are child's play compared to what happens to betrayers of The Order! They are fond of saying that physical pain is a blessing, for it means that your soul is intact!"

As this is happening, Father Xavier returns. He looks upon Kasnik's horse with disdain. "I don't know why you felt it necessary to summon your horse into the sanctuary, but if you don't mind, I believe that the situation no longer calls for its presence."

Father Xavier looks at the man, and says: "You've caused quite a stir here, young man. Now that I am here, I can see that your aura does not carry the taint of evil, per se, but it is burdened by greed, selfishness, and deceit. The path you are on leads down a slippery slope, I'm afraid. You must tell us the truth. We will offer you asylum here, in this temple. Whatever this "Order" is that you're afraid of, I can say with certainty, that their leaders would think twice about trying to get to you HERE. Understand now that this is a Temple dedicated to St. Cuthbert The Just, and we have an order of our own. It's called The Order of The Flaming Mace; it's an order of Holy Knights, sworn to the service of St. Cuthbert. We are strong, and this place is heavily fortified, both by mortar and stone, and by enchantment. As long as you are here, you are safe. And think upon this: you could live here, comfortably, and in peace, safe from your old life, and your old enemies, as long as you agree to take the oath, and study the scriptures of Cuthbert. We have many among our monks who were once common thugs such as yourself, whom have learned the path to peace, through study and prayer. The choice is yours."

The Man in Green looks around the room, his eyes filled with fear. "How do I know you're not trying to trick me?" he says.

[Everyone: What do you do?]

 

[Diarmadhim]

"Did you notice how when you lied to us puffs of green, stinking vapors spewed forth from your mouth? That shows you were lying to us. Notice none of us have had the same happen? That means everything we have told you has been true. Continue."

 

[akahdrin]

Kasnik's horse nods and nickers to Father Xavier and leaves without Kasnik directing it to. Bowing his head to his steed and in a gentle voice, "Thank you my noble friend, I can always count on you." His horse neighs and lowers his head to Kasnik as he passes. Kasnik reaches up, scratches him on the back of the neck and whispers a blessing upon him.

With his weapon now lowered from Vale and he gently nods at Dewydd. He then turns around after sheathing his sword and extends a hand to the cowering green man to help him up. "Stand, I will not let anyone harm you. I expect answers, truthful ones. It is the least you can do for someone who just sparred your life. If 'The Order' is truly the cause of your fear, then something will have to be done about that and I will personally see that their evil power is extinguished from the land. However, to do anything to them, we need to have vital information." Placing his fist to his heart, "I swear to Valarian that I am not trying to trick you. If you give us the information needed to defeat them, you won't need to change your beliefs, only your own morality. If you decide to help us, sanctuary could be provided until it is over, but you will not be allowed to leave until after your atonement to those you have wronged."

Thinking to himself, **No one should be forced to follow a god even if it is for their own salvation. This would not be a willing change like I had where I felt the gradual love of Valarian that finally overwhelmed me, but a forced indoctrination only to save his own life out of fear. It would not be genuine. I will have to keep an eye on this form of conversion from this possible 'cult' of St. Cuthbert.**

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

GM: Kasnik, make a knowledge Religion check, DC 6; the oath of the Cuthbert Monks is pretty well-known / common knowledge among clergy and templars.

 

[Aust Thale]

Vale Responds...

~ Oh for the love of toads. ~

Vale feels an acrid taste of ammonia on his tongue. Bitter.

~ Perhaps it is the truth-sayer effect of the temple. Not enough for smoke, so perhaps not enough of it was a lie? Lucky for the green fellow that the orc was here. I would never allow Gus to torture anybody, though, nor eat testicles. I don’t think he would even like them. ~

The acrid taste dissipates. Vale allows wisdom to prevail. Vale feels embarrassed at the green fellow’s cowering. Perhaps the orc had a point. Vale didn’t count on being met with such fragility.
He works to the side of Kasnik and Dewyyd such that he can see the man, but he keeps his distance. “Ye are a lucky wee man, there, Greenie. The old big fella here has your back. He appears as righteous as he is sanctimonious. As to the Order that vexes you, I’ll reserve my ire for them and not you. Nobody’s touching your testicles. And nobody will kill you here. That was intended to scare you, not send you cowering to the corner. Get up man. Have some respect for yourself. ”

GM: "Nobody’s touching your testicles. And nobody will kill you here. That was intended to scare you, not send you cowering to the corner. Get up man. Have some respect for yourself. ” -- Ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Reminds me of the used car salesman in True Lies.

He turns to Kasnik such that the green fellow can hear him, “That’s as much of an apology as I am going to give the wee man until he earns it. I have no quarrel with you, Orc. That said, you can take your sanctimony and shove it up your horses rear end. And while you are there, try your best to pull your head out. I was wrong, but you drew on me first. If you raise your sword to me again, you had better use it. Or I’ll knock your fuzzy orc eyebrows into next week. So be about your snuggling and cuddling of this poor fella so we can be about our way. ”

Vale begins to walk out of the temple, but he stops and turns toward Sylvar & Dewydd, Edward, Denby, Harold, and Father Xavier and says gruffly, “I regret my actions. I should have warned you that I was going to try and intimidate him, and I should have not said anything about his testicles.” To Father Xavier, “I hope that your friend recovers and is himself. Well met.”

He lowers his head, clearly embarrassed. Like most things, he attempts to shake it off quickly.

~ If nothing else, perhaps it was compelling for the green man. Perhaps he will be afraid enough to behave (stick), and persuaded enough to talk (carrot). ~

“I’ll meet you back at the inn. Max and I need to catch up. If you still want my assistance with the other thing (clearly a reference to speaking with the dead regarding the red orcs and Vaelik). I’ve spent enough of my day with green men and green orcs. ”

As he is walking out gruffly both in parts embarrassment and other parts indignity, he stops abruptly, realizing that the party is missing a member, “Sylvar, where did your friend Lathir go?”

OOC: Vale's personality is equal parts Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, and Wilford Brimley. Vale is a dwarven neutral good cleric with chaotic good tendencies. Sorry, forgot about that before; I was thinking he was straight up Chaotic Good. He is as affable as any dwarf, but his natural state is grumpy. He is military-minded. And no, his natural tendency is not to harm unarmed combatants. That's outside both neutral good and chaotic good tendencies. But playing a prank on or tricking enemies, even a humiliating one, is allowed. Until the cowering started, Vale thought he was doing just that. He's duly embarrassed, but he's a dwarf, and it is just as much common knowledge to Kasnik that dwarves are difficult and stubborn as it is to Vale that paladins have a thing even tolerating a minor impropriety in either the law or 'good', whatever the hell that is. I mean, he's an orc who's had a Pauline conversion on the way to his Damascus. And Vale is a dwarf whose parents were turned into undead and nearly ate him; he has a few issues that allow me to role play him. The two characters are going to have to figure out how to get along. As to Respen, he is Chaotic Neutral. Kasnik is simply going to have to deal with it. Respen came from far away; it's not like he can go back.

 

[akahdrin]

As Vale is leaving, Kasnik doesn't look at Vale and says, "Best to hold your tongue dwarf. Goading and threatening a paladin is not wise. Clanggedin Silverbeard expects better from his children. We both know this."

He then turns his head down while towering over the dwarf, looks at him, and says in a cold voice, "If you desire honorable combat, I will give it to you dwarf, but not here in this holy place."

Kasnik again looks away from Vale and says indifferently, "I'll leave the loathsome behavior to you. You seem to have mastered it. Get some rest dwarf, tomorrow is a new day."

OOC: Common sense would dictate that playing pranks or harassing on an orc, let alone an orc paladin wouldn't yield good results in any form. Clanggedin embraces good, law, strength, war, and dwarves. Vale appears to uphold none of them, ignoring the law, putting good on the wayside, using strength to intimidate, and not being a good representation of what dwarves are. If Kasnik was a cleric of Clanggedin, he would be ashamed to be a part of his order if they all act like Vale. Kasnik will not have to deal with it as it is not a problem with him, but with Vale.