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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
"I guess." Len demurrs, thinking about the giant, ragged swath of rubbery scar traced across her belly. Few people seem eager to hear about how she lost three feet of intestines.
"If you're up for travelling, sir, may we blow this popsicle stand? Harold, Flare, and me were glad to help you, but we have some business in Porto Gideon that shouldn't be unattended for long." To change he subject, she also gives him the report of how things are hanging outside the gates with the zombies.
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You know, I used to hate Elan, but I kinda like this new "Roy Jr." direction he's got going. Just to throw that out.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
As Len asks for permission to leave, Titus stares at her blankly. He clearly doesn't understand until she begins to talk about what's going on outside. "Oh...you mean you wish to part ways?" He seems disappointed. "But, I need you with me when we turn him in!" He pauses. "Bah! Fine! Do what you will." He finally says, angrily.
He turns his back to Len as he looks to Shimar, then to Drahlo, and then Lucian. "I suppose you three are eager to leave as well. Fine then. Let's all get clear of this place, and then we'll discuss your pay."
As far as your situation goes, Titus makes it clear that you shouldn't go anywhere on foot - the fields seem to be far too infested with the undead. He firmly believes that you'll have to escape on horseback, and your horses were last left outside the front gates. Because it's been some time since you last assessed the area, you decide to return to the surface to take a look.
It's dark outside, with the only illumination coming from a few torches from within the town, and a touch of moonlight from above. You hear groans outside the front gate, and you would guess there are at least twelve of the creatures between the entrance and your horses. Drahlo, who can see rather clearly under such conditions, confirms there is in fact almost twenty, and twice as much within only a slightly larger proximity.
Although they move slowly and are little threat to a skilled warrior, both the Magistrate and Flare are incapacitated; which will slow you down considerably. Titus says that if Harold and Drahlo carry one, and Len and Shimar carry another, himself and Lucian can try to occupy the undead long enough for everyone to get everyone onto horses and escape. He awaits opinions from the rest of you.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Harold Betruger
Harold thinks about that.
"Well, they move slowly. You'd think if you could get them to walk into some kind of a bonfire or a ditch, they'd be pretty well managed. They're not winning any awards for tactics, clearly. Almost wish this little keep had a moat. Besides, shouldn't the Magistrate have had some horses? I wonder if we can find them..."
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
"His stables were outside, I think - separate from the keep itself. Beside one of those neglected cabins." He ponders a moment. "But, as for a bonfire..." He smiles. "I have heard tales of mad alchemists creating liquids that produce flame, stored in bottles and dropped from parapets like boiling oil onto forces besieging their lord's keeps. The magistrate had a long shelf with a number of strange liquids; do you think there is any chance he has something we might be able to use?"
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Harold Betruger
Harold scratches his chin.
"That's a nice possibility. My only concern is that wandering burning corpses might cause something of an environmental hazard, what with the grasslands and forests about. Keep 'em away from that, and I think we might have something there."
He shakes out his sleeves.
"Any volunteers to help me search?"
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Jeremy, obviously not confident that he can help, silently sticks to the side.
"I'll come along." Lucian steps forward. "I'm no expert, but I've some knowing 'bout this 'n' that." He looks around. "Anyone else?"
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Len peers over the battlement walls, wrinkling her nose in disgust; down below, the twisted charicatures of life groan and shuffle aimlessly against the gates. They have become less nightmarish to Len now that she has seen them up close; in fact, its somehow hard not to feel bad for them and their clumsy helplessness.
"I'm into this plan." Len agrees, a little saddnened by the thought of the crowd below her obliviously continuing its flimsy mimicry of intelligence as they burn to death. That said, Len has long since learned not to let her compassion for an enemy blind her better judgement; these things are dangerous and have killed innocent people.
She goes to help Harold search.
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Search Check?
Search [roll0]
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
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Okay, does anyone have any appropriate knowledge, craft or profession skills, whatsoever? Make checks if you can. Otherwise, just make INT checks.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
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In light of that new house rule, I am so taking ranks in alchemy next level.
Int Check: [roll0]
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Shimar
The barbarian keeps an eye on the magistrate during the time, and wasn't too excited about randomly trying potions that might as well kill you. He remained with the magistrate while the others were looking around.
(I guess the magistrate is in the negatives, but stable. Would breaking his fingers, for example wake him up, or couse him to go to unstable again?)
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
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When you're in the negatives, you're unresponsive. Critical condition, if you will. If I ruled breaking someone's fingers were kosher, then you could just slap your fallen comrades until they were fit for battle. What happened earlier to Harold was an exception - there wasn't any more combat to be had, so I didn't think it would be problematic.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Harold, accompanied by both Len and Lucian, returns to the laboratory and begin to go through the various jars and vials found on the old, dusty shelf the party earlier found.
Most of the liquid is cloudy, murky and unpleasant on the eyes, although there are a few jars that contain clear and lightly-colored liquids as well. Some appear to have old, worn labels attached - the rest do not have any, whatsoever. (taken from earlier text)
There is nothing to suggest any of the liquids here can produce any kind of useful effect. The labels you have to work with and their containers are as follows:
Preservative - an opaque red jar
Intensifier - a clear bottle with light green liquid
Corn Syrup - a brown bottle tightly stoppered
Dragon Bile - a black bottle tightly stoppered
Rock's Cough Medicine - a black bottle tightly stoppered
Nutmeg - a tiny clear vial, with just a drop left
Wyvern Poison - a large clear jar
Revivify - a tiny clear vial, filled with a glowing blue liquid
Red40 - a clear bottle of red liquid
There are seven other containers, unlabelled:
A black jar that exudes a peculiar odor, smelling somewhat like almonds
A clear jar filled with what appears to just be water
A small bottle with a sweet smelling liquid inside
A dark brown bottle filled with a murky liquid
A large jar filled with a cloudy, bluish liquid
A jar filled with a light green liquid that smells somewhat of rotting beef
A vial of a deep red liquid
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Drahlo looks at the abominations against life below, frowning at their prospects. "I'm unsure that it would not be wiser to leave after healing... Titus is still very badly injured. But if they continue approaching as they are, we will be overwhelmed by morning." He sighs.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Len pores over the bottles one by one. The idea crosses her mind of how much little kids love sweets, and that if someone were to make drinks out of corn syrup with only subtle changes to the flavor and how much they seltzered it, why, they would profit massively.
Back on task, Len continues to debate with Harold over who should do the smelling of vials before seeing revivify.
"Check it out."
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Harold Betruger
Harold makes a face. "Normally, Lady Len, I'd agree. But we happen to be dealing with a man who animates corpses. Something marked 'revivify' could mean a variety of things, only a few of which are pleasant. Frankly, the only promising thing I see here is the "Dragon Bile." Sounds flammable."
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Len pockets the revivify vial, careful to grab it with the hem of her cloak and keep her fingerprints off. "Its for Titus."
She sighs unhappily, suspecting that Titus' genteel staus might work against him in the eyes of the law, since that could be construed as a criminal motive for him to topple Thaddeus. In any case, she feels like a traitor for ditching on the knight, but it would only weigh down his case to have Flare, Harold, and her legal baggage associated with him. In the end, nobody would win, but that does little to soothe her guilty conscience.
However, Len does stop on the way back to return the suit of armor, knowing that its loss would be pinned on Titus. That, she isn't okay with.
After taking everything of interest*, Len goes back to the vantage and speaks to the grim paladin. She gives him the vial and speaks briefly** before waiting to see what Dragon's Bile does to undead.
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You can decide what to take, Sken. I don't know what that all means and don't have the skill checks to help.
**Spoiler
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"Sir Titus, I'm worried about how the law will react to our actions here." Len begins, knowing about how well that will go over.
She quickly explains to Titus about the incident with Maximillian last time they were working on Claudius' behalf and how grudgingly "appreciative" the courts were. She concludes firmly that having Harold, Flare, and her alongside him on trial will hurt his case simply due to the law's opinion of them, and, given enough leverage, be a way to let Thaddeus go free while jailing Titus for treason!
"I searched the lab, and I've found some evidence that will back up your testimony concerning Thaddeus' necromancy. Along with Jeremy here, who was detained without any conviction, you might have a fighting chance at discrediting Thaddeus and achieving your goal. Your honor:"
She hands him the revivify vial, again swathed in cotton, and indicates Jeremy, in that order.
"Try to get Thaddeus on using the undead as slave labor; Its the most serious offense you can hope to prove. And, if you think its true, you might be able to convince the courts that he had some shady plans with Jeremy.
I wish we could be more help. Good luck."
She walks off, expecting either bewildered gratitude or thundering condemnation (Total Defense: +4 AC) from the paladin. Either way, she has leveled with him and that what counts.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
"Bah!" grunts Titus, in response to Drahlo's concerns. "I'm fine. The true question at hand is if you're all ready." He stands about, looking rather gloomy, until Len returns with the others.
He silently accepts Len's words, offering her a nod after she hands him the vial. "It'll have to do."
Lucian gives little input towards Harold's choice; he doesn't seem to have much of an idea about any of the contents found in the various vials and jars. You return to your meeting point, at which point he finally begins to deliberate. "So, what are we going to do, then? Just throw it into the grass and hope it erupts into flame? Open it up and try to catch a handful of them with it? There's not a lot here, and they're not exactly within a fair distance."
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@Tamale (and, well, everyone else too): You're not on the battlements. You'd have to leave the main structure and enter the yard (which extends, say, 100ft before it reaches where the gates would be) to climb the steps (maybe 20ft outside the front door, to either the left or right) that lead to the battlements. Alongside the walls are the various shacks, etc (that looked abandoned). Sorry for not being precise in the description. I'll affirm that you do have a position on the second floor, however, which does indeed grant you the vantage point necessary to view the surrounding area well enough.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
"Is there any reason why we couldn't build our own bonfire in the yard, light some torches, and then light them up one by one?" Len suggests. The dragon's bile plan sounded a lot smarter before he described it like that.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Shimar
Not really understanding why they would like to set everything on fire, the barbarian sits down, near the magistrate, and starts humming a barbarian song about how Il Kan Desuwffy killed the demon elk in the beginning of the time. Of course noone understands what he is actually humming.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Lucian scratches his head. "I dunno, Len. To set up an actual bonfire, doesn't that mean we have to step outside? With those things?"
Titus seems a bit disatisfied with how things are turning out. "Actually, I wasn't so intent upon making a bonfire. It only inspired the idea of using a wizard's lab to create a sudden...well...explosion, I guess. But, tell me more of what you had in mind."
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Harold Betruger
Harold pinches the bridge of his nose.
"I suppose a cauldron of boiling oil would have been too much to hope for..."
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Drahlo silently watches the scene below. He looks up as if he has an idea for a moment, but waits to allow the others speak on the fire idea first.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Shimar
Feeling somewhat easier outside the "dungeon", he continues humming, laying on the ground, next to a wall, resting his legs on the magistrate.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
"Oh, right. A sorcerer doesn't need firewood does he?" Len's hopes of burning the zombies one by one fades. She sighs, and then glances at the front gate.
"Well, how about we get this show on the road?"
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*Len does whatever is asked of her by Titus to get to the horses and out of here*
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
"Given up on that already, have you?" Titus seems a bit bemused. "Very well then. Anyone else have any ideas?"
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If you have anything to suggest the party does (methods of escape, have the NPCs carry the unconscious folk, or anything else), now is the time. Otherwise, I'd like marching order. The doors fit people to exit two-by-two.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
"Perhaps we get on the roof and rain arrows on them before we leave? They cannot reach us after all, and each one destroyed is one we do not worry about on the way out."
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Titus offers Drahlo a nod. "That could work," he pauses. "although, I am not sure how many arrows it would take to fell the walking dead. Nonetheless, I do not carry a bow."
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Len forms up alongside Shimar as per the plan, depriving the barbarian of his footrest as she lifts the magistrate.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
Shimar
When Len takes the magistrate from under his feet, after a few moments of hesitation, he finally helps Len picking up the man.
How 'bout just running away from these things. They don't seem to be really fast, if you ask me.
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Re: DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1
"That's what we're doing, Shimar." says Titus with a touch of impatience. "There are more than a handful of them, however, which is why I'm going to try to hold them back as you make for the horses. The dead will never tire in a chase, but on our mounts they will simply lose sight of us." He turns to Harold. "Are we moving, then?"