Pursuing the Exiled Prince - Game Thread

[Tibbius]

does Cara notice the bald man?: 1d6t5 0

Cara laughs at the waitress' antics, and elbows Aveus, pointing toward Zand. "He really pissed her off," she says.

[gryffydd65]

Zand try's to calm the woman down and with the last of his money orders a glass of wine.

[Tibbius]

As the waitress shakes her head and walks away, the bald stubble-faced man rises from his bench and swaggers over to Zand's table. Although he's not more than average height, he manages to loom over the forester.

"Mr. Black will want to see you," he says. "How about you get yourself up and come with me. Now."

From the stage, Cara watches with concern. The bald man's menacing posture is blatant from across the room. She urgently grabs Aveus' elbow: "Zand is in trouble. I think that job he was on went bad."

Aveus glances over. "Should I ... hmm. A sudden urgency of the bowels perhaps."

Cara turns a puzzled gaze upon the erstwhile apprentice court wizard. "What?"

Magic to loose the bald man's bowels: 2d6t5! 2 [2d6t5=6, 6]

Abruptly the bald man's attention flinches away from Zand to something inward. With a sudden groan he clutches his abdomen and shies away from the table, hastily waddling toward the door. He yanks it open wordlessly and half-sprints, half-stumbles out into the night.

[gryffydd65]

Zand Zand seeing an opening gets up and walks toward the pair. "Come on, we need to move fast. " He heads to the door hoping they follow.

[Tibbius]

As Aveus and Cara follow Zand out the door, they hear a loud female voice: "Hey! Where's my share?!" Glancing back, Zand sees a very chesty dark-haired woman of moderate height, who is hastening toward them from the service bar.

Aveus scrounged up most of the coins when the crowd was throwing money. What does he do?

[gryffydd65]

Zand Zand ushers the two outside. "Quick Aveus, give me some coins to give to the lass."

[Tibbius]

"No, I'll do it, you'll just confuse her," Aveus fussed. Pausing in the doorway, he dispensed a few coins to Dala Bosoms with a haughty smile. "Thank you for your aid, dear ... lady," he said. "We'll be going now."

Hastening away from the Paddling Duck across the night-time square, he hissed to Zand "What the hell did you bring us out in the wet for? There was a nice fire in there, decent wine, and a friendly crowd! What sort of trouble did you get us into?"

rain? [1d6] = 6 yes

"Where are we going?" Cara asked plaintively. She wrapped her fancy green cloak more tightly around her shoulders. It already was beginning to get damp.

[Tibbius]

I'm going to take some time off from the forums. I expect to be back around August 1.

[gryffydd65]

Okay see you then

[Tibbius]

Back on line

[gryffydd65]

Zand Zand looked at the man. Disbelief in his eyes. "I work for the prince. Stay if you must, both of you but you have been seen with me and are considered my friend. "

[Tibbius]

"Fine!" huffed the junior wizard. "All good wishes to his Highness. Where is he?"

Cara interjected, "I too would like to know where we are going. And why?"

[gryffydd65]

Zand "We are meeting him down river. He has come onto some money and we need to leave now." Zand heads to the stream and heads upstream following the directions the prince gave him. He purposely told the others the wrong direction since it is night time and they should not notice.

[Tibbius]

It's slow and muddy walking in the dark and stinging droplets of the rain. Clouds cover the stars. The moon shows as a glowing orange patch of clouds that gives not a shadow's worth of light.

You follow the gradually rising path along the muddy bank of the stream until even clueless Aveus and Cara notice: "Hey, are you going the right way?" asks the courtly woman. "It seems like we've been climbing upward a little."

[gryffydd65]

"This is the right way. Just keep quiet, we don't want to get caught. " he kept on walking not caring if the others kept up.

[Tibbius]

After a while you begin to wonder whether you've missed the cave.

"Did his Mightiness say how far to go to meet him?" Aveus asks. You can't see his face but you can hear the sneer. The wizard has a feline attitude toward dampness.

"My feet are cold and wet," Cara complains. "I know this is no worse than when we were traveling here, but somehow it seems worse because we had the opportunity of a nice bed." Her voice sounds like she's pleading with you for something.

[gryffydd65]

Zand "You can leave any time you want, no one is putting a knife to your throat. He told me about where it is. It's hard to find in the dark and you to complaining about it , doesn't help. " Zand said hoping they would behave.

[Tibbius]

It's pretty dark now and it's pretty wet as well, and the prince's directions as you remember them seem both vague and inaccurate to the land you're traversing. You should have passed the big old bare-branched tree by now, it was supposed to be overhanging the trail so that you'd have to go off around it, just twenty minutes from town. You've been walking nearly twice that long. It can't be this much slower just because it's raining - can it?

At least Aveus and Cara are quiet now.

[gryffydd65]

The trio continued up stream. Zand was starting to get worried. "Look for shelter of any sort, we need to get out of the rain. "

[Tibbius]

Cara survival [1d6] = 1, Aveus survival [1d6] = 3

The two castle-dwellers do their best to look around but even in the darkness and now-heavy rain it's obvious they have no clue where to find shelter. It's up to Zand to guide the party into some place dry.

If you can't find dry and warm, you'll need to make an exposure roll (I'll roll for Aveus and Cara):

Spoiler: Exposure.

Show

On any night you sleep in desert, mountains, rain, or snow, roll against Foraging or wilderness survival. Any success means you're fine. Failure means you lose one Toughness. A Blunder loses two Toughness. You can die from exposure. You gain an advantage if you have a tent.

[gryffydd65]

Zand looks around for shelter or even smoke to follow.
(1d6)[4]

He hopes his luck changes.

[Tibbius]

Zand looks around for shelter or even smoke to follow.
(1d6)[6]

He hopes his luck changes.

It might. He has Foraging, so he gets to roll 2d6 for these kind of tests. Does that help? (1d6)[6]

If that doesn't work out, here are exposure rolls for Aveus - (1d6)[1] and Cara - (1d6)[2].

Zand found shelter. Describe it.

[gryffydd65]

A shallow cut cave with low over hang poked through the rain. Zand motioned the group to it. " Huddle together for heat unless you know some spell to keep us warm."

[Tibbius]

Aveus chuckled. "Let's break some branches from that dead bush nearby, some of those look thick enough for a fire, do you think? I have a spell that should light even wet wood to a good blaze."

Aveus fire spell - (2d6)[5][3](8)

Within a dozen minutes a smoky but warming fire burns beneath the overhang, with rain occasionally sizzling and spitting on the glowing red branches. You begin to feel better. Eventually you doze.

The night passes restlessly. Before dawn the rain stops. The sunrise is warm over the ashes of the fire. Looking around, you see verdant bushes and grasses across the stream, a rocky slope above you. There is no sign of any other traveler here.

[gryffydd65]

Zand thinks back to the directions wondering if he took the wrong branch of the stream . "We need to figure out where we went wrong. The prince is expecting us to find him."

[Tibbius]

Cara pouts and rubs her eyes. Aveus yawns.

"We left town so fast, we didn't bring any food with us," the wizard grumbles.

[Tibbius]

I don't think I've asked yet - how do you feel about these rules?

[gryffydd65]

I like that weather elements play into it. The rules are fine.

Zand looks around. "I will try and spear some fish for us. See if you two can find fruit."

[Tibbius]

Zand using an arrow to spear fish: 2#1d6 1 6
Cara foraging for berries: 1d6 3
Aveus summoning breakfast: 2#1d6 4 2

As Zand used his worst-fletched arrow to spear fish from the stream, Cara wandered around unsuccessfully looking for berries and Aveus crouched scratching mystical sigils into the dirt with the tip of a small knife. After a while, Zand came back to the embers of the fire with three decent sized fish, Cara returned empty handed, and Aveus woefully settled onto his buttocks.

"I couldn't find any," Cara complained.

"It seems the spirits are not kind to our stomachs," Aveus grumbled.

"Thank you for spearing the fish!" said Cara.

You roasted the fish in the embers, then broke fast.

The sun rose as you ate and after a while your stomachs were content and your lips were greasy.

"I'll try to summon an image of the prince," said Aveus.

Aveus scrying the prince: 2#1d6 1 6

He walked down to the stream and cast sand into the water. Instead of sinking, it swirled to form an evanescent grainy image of a man walking, burdened by a heavy chest, along a muddy road.

"The prince is headed somewhere," said Aveus, "without us."

[gryffydd65]

"We need to finish up and find him. Let's stay near the water and continue following it. We need it for the food and water and for Aveus's gift." Zand says as he looks at the others.