Megadungeon Four (IC)

[Malimar]

Travelling from far and wide for their own varying reasons, Grunfold (Moranica), Kaiser Genji (Scotty88), Michel Fir (jvluso), and Adrian Smith (monkeyboyinc) have found themselves in the great city of Endeesy. It can't compare in magnificence, wealth, or amenities to the other capitols of the world. It offers only two things: first, almost anyone can find a way to fit in in this city of misfits; and second, even keeping the king's peace is almost beyond the military's ability, so non-violent offenses that might be crimes in other nations are overlooked here. So Endeesy, like its predecessor the Disreputable City, has naturally become a hub for pirates, smugglers, and adventurers alike.

But Endeesy has even more to offer than even the Disreputable City did in its heyday, for the lands north of the city are peppered with unexplored caves and ruins both ancient and recent, filled with fruits ripe for the plucking by those adventurers brave enough to seek them out.

That's where you come in, finding yourselves in the grand Adventurer's Guildhall. Barely more than an oversized tavern, really, the draw of the Adventurer's Guild for adventurers is that here one may encounter like-minded adventurers with whom to form a team, and then one may consult the Bulletin Board by the door for a myriad of opportunities. (The draw for everyone else is, of course, that one may post a bounty on the bulletin board and eventually it will be done, if the reward is high enough.)

Currently posted on the corkboard, there is a map:

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...and a number of bounties (in no particular order; spoilers'd only because they take up a lot of text space):

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By order of Terek, Second of His Name, King of Gus, Vice-Admiral of the Dread Fleet, Ninth Count Rogan, and Emperor of the Mongrelfolk:
The king desires, to be brought before him for marriage, the most beautiful woman to be found in the all the reaches of the cosmos, whomsoever she may be.
The reward to any man who brings such a woman to the King shall earn the eternal gratitude of the kingdom and ten thousand platinum coins, or some equivalent favour.
Addendum from the Dowager Queen:
This woman must additionally be clever, competent, capable of defending herself in battle, and should preferably bring an alliance to some powerful nation.
If these conditions are met, the queen will see to it that he who completes this task shall have his greatest desire fulfilled to the greatest extent of possibility.

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Sir Peph of the Kingsguard offers a bounty to any who would explore the ruins of Mat~sya and the Disreputable City on the slopes of Mount Dis. Somewhere, deep within the ruins, is rumoured to lie the tomb of Gus Dreadworm, bloodthirsty pirate king of legend.
Return with specific instructions, or preferably a map, and Sir Peph will part with his +1 cutlass and ten thousand gold.

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Sir Randolph of the Kingsguard offers the following standing bounties:
1,000 gold for the head or plate and horns of a brass dragon.
1,500 gold for the head or horns and frill of a silver dragon.
2,000 gold for the head or horns of a copper dragon.
2,500 gold for the head or crest of a bronze dragon.
7,500 gold for the head or barbels of a gold dragon.
Juvenile or younger dragons shall earn half the listed bounty, while old and older dragons shall earn twice the listed bounty.
Additionally:
500 gold for the head of a metallic half-dragon of any race.
250 gold for the head of an individual of any race partially descended from a metallic dragon.
750 gold for the head of any Dragonborn of Bahamut, who are always metallic.
Moreover:
2,500 gold for a live chromatic half-dragon individual of any race.
1,250 gold for a live individual of any race partially descended from a chromatic dragon.

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By order of Terek, Second of His Name, King of Gus, Vice-Admiral of the Dread Fleet, Ninth Count Rogan, and Emperor of the Mongrelfolk:
As befits a state of war between two nations, the king offers a standing bounty for the destruction, capture, or other removal from engineer hands, of any engineer-controlled submarine.
This shall earn a captain a letter of marque and official status as a privateer for the kingdom of Gus, with all the rights and responsibilities due thereto. Additionally, a reward of 1,500 platinum coins per submarine shall be granted.
Additionally, engineers, sea- or war-forged, or githzerai, captured while working for or with the engineer nation against Gus, shall earn a bounty of 25 platinum coins per captive.
The heads of engineers, sea- or war-forged, or githzerai, killed while working for or with the engineer nation against Gus, shall earn a bounty of 10 platinum coins per head.

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As many may already be aware, the countryside has been plagued by foul and fiendish beasts, issuing forth from the caves and mines of Mount Dis. As a protector of the Realm, I feel it my duty to investigate, but other duties keep me occupied between N.D.C. and the Omorashi border. As such, I issue the following bounties:
> For concrete, verifiable information regarding the ultimate source of the infestation: 2,500 gold
> For a detailed map leading from the surface to the ultimate source of the infestation: 5,000 gold
> For the temporary or permanent stoppage of the infestation, by any means: 50,000 gold
Bounty posted by Sir Nakazawa of the Kingsguard
Additionally, Sir Ravenwood of the Kingsguard
offers gold for detailed maps of the complete
cave system, for other use. A copy of a map
for each level or section shall be rewarded
with 1,000 gold pieces.

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Sir Winden of the Kingsguard seeks the flesh of a recently-slain Shrieker Mushroom, as it is the primary ingredient in the only known remedy for an intractable plague of Spelunker’s Itch currently seizing the city of Endeesy.
The flesh of the Shrieker is worth twice its weight in copper coins to Sir Winden, or 1 gold piece per pound. The average Shrieker may contain upwards of 150 pounds of flesh.

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The proprietors of the Tiv-Beckett Cold-Iron Mine seeks adventurers to clean out the primary mine system, which has become unaccountably infested with monstrously huge centipedes and other vermin.
To that end, they shall pay one silver coin for each dead centipede.
To any adventuring party which engineers some permanent solution to the problem, they shall give a complete set of weapons or armor forged of cold-iron, one item of their choice to each member of the group.

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Sir Bill of the Kingsguard seeks a worthy mount:
Some flying beast,
alive and unharmed,
large enough to comfortably carry a full-grown man,
young and intelligent enough to tame,
healthy enough to live for quite some time
The quality of the beast shall determine the amount of the reward.

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Seeking the following effects, in any form – spell, scroll, wand, wish or limited wish, or miscellaneous:
Animate Object and Permanency
Stone to Flesh
Awaken Construct
See Pumayyaton the Sculptor. Rewards include a powerful elephant statuette, a taciturn yet loyal Dread Guard, a snarky yet effective sword, or elegant custom-crafted statuary.

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GLADIATORS WANTED
SEVEN DAYS A WEEK
PROVE YOUR METTLE
EARN FABULOUS PRIZES
ENTERTAIN THE CROWD
INQUIRE AT THE SAINT AROSSI TEMPLE OF KORD AND ARENA COMPLEX
NO ENTRY FEE

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CREATURES WANTED
WE NEED LIVE, DANGEROUS BEASTS
TO CHALLENGE ENTRANTS IN THE ARENA
REWARD FOR EACH MONSTER
INQUIRE AT THE SAINT AROSSI TEMPLE OF KORD AND ARENA COMPLEX

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REWARD:
Information sought leading to the whereabouts of a band of evil adventurers who broke into the monastery on Perch Hill, terrorized the monks, and murdered Prior Trakis, a paladin of the faith. See Abbot Waxter at the Monastery with any information.
Be on the lookout for a group consisting of:
> an orc-descended man, in possession of a horse
> an engineer man
> an Omorashi human woman
> three additional human or elf men
Be warned: these individuals are armed and extremely dangerous. They may be in league with an evil erinyes devil – this creature is very powerful and should not be engaged without proper training. They may also be in possession of copies of several volumes of the Evil Encyclopedia of Evil – if found, these books should not be read and may be returned to the Monastery for an additional reward.
Authorized by Pelor’s Archbishop of Shell, Jov Sauart

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Lord Yuz-Perry, First Viscount Noodleton, seeks Aid for his Township:
The Don’t Drink This River, also called the Poison River, has been foul and fetid since the Colonization of Gus, hence the River’s Name. However, in the past few Months, the Horribleness has seen a marked Increase. A Man can no longer venture within a Mile of the River without becoming nauseated. Crops have begun to wither and die on the Stalk. Even Wells accessing Groundwater far from the River have become tainted and unpotable. Moreover, perhaps unrelatedly, Serfs and their Livestock have begun to vanish from their Fields, even in broad Daylight. (warning: wrackspawn demons)
Anyone who can venture to the Source of the River and render its Water fit for Consumption shall earn the undying Gratitude of the House of Yuz-Perry, as well as a Grant of Land and may choose among the Viscount’s many Daughters and Sons for their Hand in Marriage.
By order of Terek, Second of His Name, King of Gus, Vice-Admiral of the Dread Fleet, Ninth Count Rogan, and Emperor of the Mongrelfolk:
The King endorses this undertaking, and has ordered one thousand platinum coins laid in escrow, to be awarded to whomsoever achieves this task to the satisfaction of the Viscount Noodleton.

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Interested parties seek copies of any volumes from the Evil Encyclopedia of Evil. Bring these documents to the temple of Quasxthe; ask for Viblet Kewne. The reward shall be 1,000 gold pieces per volume.

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Please help us,
Our brother Oaen discovered an ancient tomb west of Serpent Pass and, seeking to make a name for himself, ventured to explore it. He has not returned.
Please, find Oaen if he still lives. If he does not, tell us what became of him, and return to us our family’s ancestral greatsword Steak Knife.
Find us at the inn of the Laughing Nymph
Signed,
Raihel and Isaiella Cjoss

Bounties may range from the unambiguously good to the rankly evil, offer rewards ranging from piddling to riches beyond your wildest dreams, and mount challenges ranging from child's play to downright unachievable. None of these factors necessarily correlates with any of the others.

Not every location you visit necessarily contains anything of value. Not all creatures you encounter will necessarily pose a challenge appropriate to your power, or even be hostile. Areas cleared of creatures will not necessarily remain cleared for long.

This is an organic world, with many options and correspondingly many risks. How you choose to respond is up to you.

(OOC thread)

(Please include your character's name at or near the top of every post.)

[Moranica]

Grunfold
"My oh my, this board promises plenty riches. Although some bounties are clearer then others. This last one seems easy enough, although no reward is posted. What do you guys think?"

[MBI]

Adrian
I'm certain a ancient unexplored tomb is likely to contain treasure anyway. Even if it doesn't, we could still sell anything we find to a Pre-Inundation museum. So unless anyone has any objections, I say we go help these guys.

[jvluso]

Michel
That sounds like a good place to start.

[Malimar]

DM
So, having agreed upon it, you're going to set off in search of the ancient tomb?

(We seem to be missing one, I'll see what I can do about that.)

[MBI]

Adrian takes the notice down from the board. He pauses for a second, then takes the second notice too (the one in the unknown language) then shouts to the barkeep:
Adrian
Hey barkeep! Could you tell us where the inn of the Laughing Nymph is?

[Malimar]

DM
The bartender calls back, "It's on Hangman's Wharf by the Temple of Quasxthe." Which should be fairly easy to find; there are only a limited number of wharves in the city, and the temple of Quasxthe is likely to be among the larger buildings in the city, where the cult of Quasxthe is as close to being the official state religion as any other.

[MBI]

Unless anyone has anything to add, Adrian thanks the barkeep and we head towards the Laughing Nymph.
Assuming nothing has interrupted us, Adrian asks " So, does anyone have any idea what this says?" and shows the piece of paper to the rest of the party.

OOC

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What shall we do about Scotty's character? Also, how will secret rolls be done?

[Malimar]

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What shall we do about Scotty's character? Also, how will secret rolls be done?

I sent him a message. He might just be away, or not paying attention.

I generally roll anything a monster does using physical dice, and anything you guys roll using the dice roller in-thread. If a situation comes up where you guys shouldn't even know you're rolling, I'll consult your sheets and roll physical dice.

(Just now, I considered formulating a policy of pulling dice out of my dice jail, where they only go if they demonstrate a clear and consistent trend of rolling incredibly poorly, and using them for all your secret rolls. But, uh, I'm not that mean; I'll stick to using randomly-chosen dice from my Pound O' Dice.)

[Moranica]

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I send those poorly dice over to GITP, so they can put them in the forum roller. In return, I get to use a different forum roller. It works wonders in the games I DM!

[Moranica]

"Let me have a look at it."

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Decipher script (1d20+3)[20]

[Malimar]

DM
On examining it, Grunfold is pretty sure that the message is no language, but is instead a substitution cipher. He also figures out which side up to hold it (the image is in the proper orientation), and that the things that look like commas probably are commas, and the "._." sort of thing is probably a period. Furthermore, he concludes that yes, with the information given and some basic assumptions about Common, it is solvable.

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I know for a fact that it's solvable, because I've seen a player solve it.

[MBI]

Do we arrive at the inn without incident?

OOC

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So was I on the right track when I made a vague attempt at decoding it? And is the first symbol an 'I' and the third word a 'the'? More importantly, when/if I do solve it, do I have to justify how my character figured out what it is? Also, there appears to be a period at the end. Is this code more complex than It seems?

[Moranica]

Grunfold wants some more time with the letter.

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I working on it as well. The I, and and the are indeed logical.

[MBI]

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I working on it as well. The I, and and the are indeed logical.

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I never mentioned an 'and'...

[Malimar]

Do we arrive at the inn without incident?

If that's where you're going, yeah. (The usual procedure is to agree on where you're going, and then to set out with the destination in mind, and only then do I tell you you're there.) The streets of the city itself are fairly safe, and the Inn of the Laughing Nymph is pretty easy to find with the bartender's directions.

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So was I on the right track when I made a vague attempt at decoding it? And is the first symbol an 'I' and the third word a 'the'? More importantly, when/if I do solve it, do I have to justify how my character figured out what it is? Also, there appears to be a period at the end. Is this code more complex than It seems?

Any one letter on its own is likely to be either an 'I' or an 'a', so that's definitely a good place to start. Your decipher script check wasn't really high enough for me to give you many more clues than that.

One generally does tend to find periods at the ends of sentences . At least, sentences that are neither interrogative nor exclamatory, anyway. And in a bounty, there tend to be many imperatives and few to no questions or exclamations. No, I think it's exactly as complex as it seems.

And no, you don't have to justify it further. Any work you do on it falls under the purview of your character doing Decipher Script; this way is just more interesting than "I roll Decipher Script. I got an <x>." "Okay, here's the translated message."

[MBI]

Are the small dots supposed to be commas? Because they look more like full stops to me. And do the rules for double posting apply to these kinds of threads?

Edit: I mistaken period for colon. Silly me.

[Moranica]

"An inn, good, I could use a drink while I work out this cypher."

[MBI]

OOC: Pssst... You forgot your speech color. Also, do you have Microsoft PowerPoint? I'm working on a PowerPoint which may help us decode it.

In character:
Adrian
Didn't we just leave a bar not long ago? And I don't see how alcohol could possibly help you think.

[Moranica]

"It works wonders, my boy! I'm close!"

"Got it!!"

[MBI]

In the time before you edited that post, Adrian asks the bartender if anyone by the name of Raihel or Isaiella Cjoss (how do you even pronounce that?) are staying in the inn, and if so, where may He find them.

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Also, on Grunfold's character sheet, it lists him/her gender as 's'. what exactly does that s stand for?

[jvluso]

Michel
You got it? What does it say?

[Moranica]

"Well, it's a long story, but it asks us to get back a frosty dagger which is in an armory of King Terek Rogan the 1st. Sounds easy enough."

[Malimar]

DM
Let's say Grunfold found a block of wood or other hard surface to write on, and worked on the thing as they walked to the Inn of the Laughing Nymph. So he got it as the party was walking, and then they arrived.


The Inn of the Laughing Nymph is easy to identify: it's by the Temple of Quasxthe, one of the larger and more imposing edifices in the city (all black stone and betentacled gargoyles), and has a sign hanging down depicting an attractive, fey-looking female laughing with her head thrown back, at some presumably hilarious joke.

So the party enters the inn, and the bartender answers Adrian, "Aye. They're, uh..." He points to a pair of human girls who look to be in their late teens, sitting at a table in the corner. They both look like they've been crying. "...there."

Raihel and Isaiella are just pronounced exactly how they look, and "Cjoss" is easy to pronounce: it rhymes with "cross" and "boss" and "toss".

[MBI]

DM
Let's say Grunfold found a block of wood or other hard surface to write on, and worked on the thing as they walked to the Inn of the Laughing Nymph. So he got it as the party was walking, and then they arrived.


The Inn of the Laughing Nymph is easy to identify: it's by the Temple of Quasxthe, one of the larger and more imposing edifices in the city (all black stone and betentacled gargoyles), and has a sign hanging down depicting an attractive, fey-looking female laughing with her head thrown back, at some presumably hilarious joke.

So the party enters the inn, and the bartender answers Adrian, "Aye. They're, uh..." He points to a pair of human girls who look to be in their late teens, sitting at a table in the corner. They both look like they've been crying. "...there."

Raihel and Isaiella are just pronounced exactly how they look, and "Cjoss" is easy to pronounce: it rhymes with "cross" and "boss" and "toss".

OOC: Wait, so does that mean they haven't been drinking? Thats a shame, I was going to make a joke about Kaiser being out cold from drinking so much.

[MBI]

No, seriously, have they been drinking or not? That question wasn't supposed to be rhetorical. That cypher sort of messed up the order of the posts I think.

[Moranica]

"I see, who wants to talk to these cry babies."

[MBI]

OOC: Can we assume that Kaiser ran off and got drunk anyway? It would explain his absence. We could also leave him a map to the tomb after we find out where it is in case Scotty did want to join in. Also, he's the only one with a decent charisma score .

Adrian
I suppose us two should talk to them. No offence Michel but someone with four arms may be a bit intimidating. Go see if you can wake Kaiser up. Maybe buy a drink if you feel like it.

And also, their brother is missing, maybe dead! They have every right to be worried!

OOC again! I'm Glad that Cypher confusion is out of the way. Hopefully gameplay can speed up a bit now. I'm having a hard time imagining Michel's voice. Can you give me a general idea what it sounds like?

[Malimar]

DM
You could have brought bottles of booze with you and drunk it on the way. That's plausible.

The girls seem to realize that they're being talked about and/or pointed at, and look up. Then they start whispering to one another. Then one of them, looking faintly hopeful, calls over,

"Are you adventurers? Do you have news of our brother?"

[Moranica]

"Indeed, we are my ladies. Adventurers, roaming the city, looking for work."

Grunfold has gotten into quite a meladramatic mood with all the drinking going on.