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Rule of Three for the Price of Two (updated 14Aug06)
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<blockquote data-quote="Monty Tomasi" data-source="post: 3007033" data-attributes="member: 40137"><p>It's takes a Knight to catch a Knight. Any child playing on the streets of The City of Doors will tell you that. In order to beat a Knight of the Cross Trade a cutter's got to be able to think like one. Being able to think like one makes you just like them – with the difference being how many rubes you've peeled. Even if your current score is none, some day that may change.</p><p></p><p>Alright I'm being a little bit narrow-minded and harsh, but the manner in which our employer procured our services has been bothering me the entire time that we've been travelling across this accursed cube in the plane of Acheron. I mean, what's a blood to do beside admire the scenery?</p><p></p><p>So I started to try to think like our employer. I use that word in the loosest possible sense as he's not paying us and we have no contract aside from blackmail and possible other means of coercion. I'll peel a clueless green Prime as fast as the next sod, but this character had a certain style that really rubs the wrong way. You know – this is probably the way a Baatezu feels trying to share a table with a Tanar'ri in a dive in the Lower Ward. Something is wrong at a fundamental level.</p><p></p><p>So having established this rather uncomfortable mind-set (which admitedly is not as bad as trying to think like a modron) I asked myself: how is this sod going to keep tabs on us? If it was me I wouldn't want a bunch of berks running around bringing back this Lothar without at least some inkling of what they were up to. So then it hit me... you get someone on the inside.</p><p></p><p>This left the rather uncomfortable notion that one of us is either not whom he or she claims to be. Or that they lied about why they've come along. Suddenly it's no longer a quick peel and then away with the booty. </p><p></p><p>This is what we call in the business... actually I probably should not be putting all of this in writing. Never know who might read it. Suffice it to say that this type of game is referred to in some circles as: “having tea with the Yugoloths”. It's all sweetness and light, all the while they're messing with your mind in so many ways that the moving to the Pandemonium will probably seem like a nice retired plan where the locals make sense and the beer is cheap.</p><p></p><p>Right – I'm getting far too introspective and for a man in my line of work 'introspective' is a big word and should not be treated lightly. We put words like in a nice teak wood cabinet with frosted coloured glass and stare at it admiringly when we're feeling all intellectual and Guvner-like.</p><p></p><p>Gulkatesh tribe of goblins, Black-Arrow tribe of orcs – that's where the action is at! Fortunately for us we saw very little of either. Our motley crew of spell-slingers and sword-muscle lay in wait at the edge of the mountain in which the Gulkatesh tribe eked out their subsistence. Yours truly had written an hofficial document (if it sounds like it belongs in the Lady's ward with the toffs it gets an 'h' on the front) stating that Mr. Lothar the Shiv had also been selling weapons to the Black Arrow tribe.</p><p></p><p>The plan was to use this document to convince Lothar to come with us quietly. Arms-dealers lead an exciting and often rather nervous existence, especially when they it comes to light that they have been selling to both sides of a conflict. Does not matter if that is pure screed, the planes are about belief and who knows... maybe he has been selling to both sides?</p><p></p><p>The first problem with our little ambush was that we were rather close to the gobber encampment in the mountains and when we saw with Lothar coming with a goblin escort we quickly revised our plan. Dashing down the mountain as stealthily as we could we positioned ourselves... well as we each saw fit to be totally honest. No fancy plans or coordinated strikes with fireballs and all that Morvun and Phineas music. We go in for the rush and hope to survive long enough to bring the other side down.</p><p></p><p>Sure enough the goblins spotted Steun de Aarde who was cunningly concealed behind a rock. The fact that there were two rocks, one covered in chain-mail kind of gave the game away. Their horn-blower reached for his horn and got rewarded with an arrow through the throat courtesy of Ash, our whisper-gnome friend. Then Pandemonium broke loose and people started running backwards and forwards trying to stop the goblins escaping or blowing the horn to call for reinforcements. As well as rushing to catch up with Lothar the Shiv.</p><p></p><p>Yours truly was smart enough to get some Divine protection and I picked up the horn with no worries of getting struck, but by then the main fight was already over. Good Morning put on a very impressive display of speed, even over-taking Lothar in the midst of his bid to escape. The rogue modron then reduced Lothar to the size of Ash. Lothar and Sephus jumped the now reduced Mr. the Shiv, wrestled him to the ground and eventually restrained him.</p><p></p><p>Of course there was the usual clean-up service afterwards. It's terribly poor show to leave corpses lying around with anything actually valuable or useful. If the planes were littered with corpses with all their possessions still on them then how would any dragon, despot or even deity hoard all their wealth in one place? The planes would be a total mess.</p><p></p><p>Lothar started blabbering on about us working for the Dragon or working for the Mountain. Seems something got knocked loose in his brain-box in the fall, but he soon calmed down. I can only presume that the Dragon links somehow to the draconic bodyguards of our employer that Ash seems to know something about. As for the Mountain, he could mean the Dwarven Mountain. If that is the case I'd rather not tangle in an affair involving a Moutain that's kip no less than three Dwarven powers.</p><p></p><p>So now we have Lothar as well as his agreement to come with us peacefully. I told him we needed him for a job and would pay well for it, but we need to check out some of his credentials first. We also have the agreement of our guide to take us back to the portal in the Outlands located next to Torch.</p><p></p><p>Sephus seems to have the right idea in mind as she's been trying to charm our dear Mr. the Shiv to get some information from him (I presume). But I can't help but feel like a pawn waking up to the fact that he's a small piece on a multi-dimensional chess set. The rules of this game seem far from simple. Perhaps I should get an artisan friend of mine in the Cage to make little figures of all the players to help clear things in my mind. Sometimes I find that helps. Other times just sticking needles in the figures works better.</p><p></p><p>Good Morning, I forgot all about giving you any advice this time. Hopefully the above will make you sufficiently paranoid never to trust any sod for the rest of your existence and if that is the case you've taken your first step towards becoming a true planewalker. If not.. well sod you in that case, I don't know why I bother why I waste my time. Fortunately for me, I have another able and talented student.</p><p></p><p>-------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p></p><p>Our GM is at GenCon (grrr) and hence why not much of an update. The grrr refers to envy of him being there and me not <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" /> Next year perhaps.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Monty Tomasi, post: 3007033, member: 40137"] It's takes a Knight to catch a Knight. Any child playing on the streets of The City of Doors will tell you that. In order to beat a Knight of the Cross Trade a cutter's got to be able to think like one. Being able to think like one makes you just like them – with the difference being how many rubes you've peeled. Even if your current score is none, some day that may change. Alright I'm being a little bit narrow-minded and harsh, but the manner in which our employer procured our services has been bothering me the entire time that we've been travelling across this accursed cube in the plane of Acheron. I mean, what's a blood to do beside admire the scenery? So I started to try to think like our employer. I use that word in the loosest possible sense as he's not paying us and we have no contract aside from blackmail and possible other means of coercion. I'll peel a clueless green Prime as fast as the next sod, but this character had a certain style that really rubs the wrong way. You know – this is probably the way a Baatezu feels trying to share a table with a Tanar'ri in a dive in the Lower Ward. Something is wrong at a fundamental level. So having established this rather uncomfortable mind-set (which admitedly is not as bad as trying to think like a modron) I asked myself: how is this sod going to keep tabs on us? If it was me I wouldn't want a bunch of berks running around bringing back this Lothar without at least some inkling of what they were up to. So then it hit me... you get someone on the inside. This left the rather uncomfortable notion that one of us is either not whom he or she claims to be. Or that they lied about why they've come along. Suddenly it's no longer a quick peel and then away with the booty. This is what we call in the business... actually I probably should not be putting all of this in writing. Never know who might read it. Suffice it to say that this type of game is referred to in some circles as: “having tea with the Yugoloths”. It's all sweetness and light, all the while they're messing with your mind in so many ways that the moving to the Pandemonium will probably seem like a nice retired plan where the locals make sense and the beer is cheap. Right – I'm getting far too introspective and for a man in my line of work 'introspective' is a big word and should not be treated lightly. We put words like in a nice teak wood cabinet with frosted coloured glass and stare at it admiringly when we're feeling all intellectual and Guvner-like. Gulkatesh tribe of goblins, Black-Arrow tribe of orcs – that's where the action is at! Fortunately for us we saw very little of either. Our motley crew of spell-slingers and sword-muscle lay in wait at the edge of the mountain in which the Gulkatesh tribe eked out their subsistence. Yours truly had written an hofficial document (if it sounds like it belongs in the Lady's ward with the toffs it gets an 'h' on the front) stating that Mr. Lothar the Shiv had also been selling weapons to the Black Arrow tribe. The plan was to use this document to convince Lothar to come with us quietly. Arms-dealers lead an exciting and often rather nervous existence, especially when they it comes to light that they have been selling to both sides of a conflict. Does not matter if that is pure screed, the planes are about belief and who knows... maybe he has been selling to both sides? The first problem with our little ambush was that we were rather close to the gobber encampment in the mountains and when we saw with Lothar coming with a goblin escort we quickly revised our plan. Dashing down the mountain as stealthily as we could we positioned ourselves... well as we each saw fit to be totally honest. No fancy plans or coordinated strikes with fireballs and all that Morvun and Phineas music. We go in for the rush and hope to survive long enough to bring the other side down. Sure enough the goblins spotted Steun de Aarde who was cunningly concealed behind a rock. The fact that there were two rocks, one covered in chain-mail kind of gave the game away. Their horn-blower reached for his horn and got rewarded with an arrow through the throat courtesy of Ash, our whisper-gnome friend. Then Pandemonium broke loose and people started running backwards and forwards trying to stop the goblins escaping or blowing the horn to call for reinforcements. As well as rushing to catch up with Lothar the Shiv. Yours truly was smart enough to get some Divine protection and I picked up the horn with no worries of getting struck, but by then the main fight was already over. Good Morning put on a very impressive display of speed, even over-taking Lothar in the midst of his bid to escape. The rogue modron then reduced Lothar to the size of Ash. Lothar and Sephus jumped the now reduced Mr. the Shiv, wrestled him to the ground and eventually restrained him. Of course there was the usual clean-up service afterwards. It's terribly poor show to leave corpses lying around with anything actually valuable or useful. If the planes were littered with corpses with all their possessions still on them then how would any dragon, despot or even deity hoard all their wealth in one place? The planes would be a total mess. Lothar started blabbering on about us working for the Dragon or working for the Mountain. Seems something got knocked loose in his brain-box in the fall, but he soon calmed down. I can only presume that the Dragon links somehow to the draconic bodyguards of our employer that Ash seems to know something about. As for the Mountain, he could mean the Dwarven Mountain. If that is the case I'd rather not tangle in an affair involving a Moutain that's kip no less than three Dwarven powers. So now we have Lothar as well as his agreement to come with us peacefully. I told him we needed him for a job and would pay well for it, but we need to check out some of his credentials first. We also have the agreement of our guide to take us back to the portal in the Outlands located next to Torch. Sephus seems to have the right idea in mind as she's been trying to charm our dear Mr. the Shiv to get some information from him (I presume). But I can't help but feel like a pawn waking up to the fact that he's a small piece on a multi-dimensional chess set. The rules of this game seem far from simple. Perhaps I should get an artisan friend of mine in the Cage to make little figures of all the players to help clear things in my mind. Sometimes I find that helps. Other times just sticking needles in the figures works better. Good Morning, I forgot all about giving you any advice this time. Hopefully the above will make you sufficiently paranoid never to trust any sod for the rest of your existence and if that is the case you've taken your first step towards becoming a true planewalker. If not.. well sod you in that case, I don't know why I bother why I waste my time. Fortunately for me, I have another able and talented student. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our GM is at GenCon (grrr) and hence why not much of an update. The grrr refers to envy of him being there and me not :( Next year perhaps. [/QUOTE]
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