For the spell, do we need to actually ask questions, or could we use terms like "Describe" to gather information? Also, making an intelligence check to try and remember whether the spot where we found the body looked like the murder scene
Spoiler
Int-check: (1d20+2)[13]
__________________ 4-day weekend with no wi-fi. Posting will be via cellphone - sporadic and short. Back on Tuesday!
DM: "Why do you have so many characters?"
Me: "Because I never embraced the strategic value of running away."
Right now, Aquarius's lead on "Maria" the scuv agitator who may have received one of the copies of the letter, and our annoyance at "Maria" the boy's killer aren't really tied together, as I doubt Aquarius shared a detailed description and name with us all when Mal and He compared notes about bumping into each other at the Savant's Repose earlier.
Selena is interested in following up on this current plotline as she is hoping to head off citywide unrest in her hometown, and she is angry at someone wasting a young life.
As a frequent helper of several guildies, she should be familiar and accepted by the guild as ally even if she refuses to swear in to permanent membership.
Serious questions here:
- IC - How well does Fade know and trust Theyva?
- IC - How much power does she have over sending him out of town?
- IC - Who would want Fade and friends out of town on a wild chase?
- IC - Who would send a crew to chase rumors of an artifact they knew NOTHING about?
- IC - Who would go on a mission for a person who refused to give them any info?
- OOC - We can come up with workable answers to all these if you care to specify that this mission is a legit part of the campaign, not just a distraction.
1- He'll know of her as high up in the organisation, there is a suggestion that she's being groomed by Coursan for command.
2- Some: she's high up in the guild, and she is only asking him to gather information and then look for it if he can, since he's a library type/scribe he can't really refuse the first, but the second is fine.
3- That's up to you to decide.
4- She has only said she knows nothing more, why would she/they want it if they didn't know what it did?
5- Not you?
Sure work out your answers or ideas to the rest, and it is up to you whether you do the job, now or later, or not.
This feels like a case of player assumptions driving a bit of paranoia. It seems like just because the NPCs aren't acting the way we expect, we jump to conclusions about what they are hiding ... which may or may not be accurate. Everyone has a different level of expected NPC response, so I think we all tend to assume things when they act different than we expected. Maybe y'all are getting some good clues via PM; in that case, I'll be quiet.
As for this situation, I guess I'm not sure that 'Fade and Co' are all that important in the grand scheme of things ... I realize we're a bunch of 3rd lvl characters, but given that we aren't playing E6, I'm not sure that translates to a power block that must be removed from the city.
However, for the sake of group speculation, I'll take a swing at our current problem.
The thing that stood out to me was her approach - both who she asked for help (the old librarian); her manner (imperious ... 'don't lecture me ... just do it!'); and her twice-given insistance ("Give me a list of everyone involved). So first, I don't think Thevya sees sending Fade out as 'stretching resources,' ... she's just asking one old clerk to do research the item, and assemble a team to go get it. Heck, from her phrasing I don't think she even expects Fade to go ... just to hire some folks to retrieve it for him.
Second, she did the classic bait and switch to distract us from the details - "Don't ask questions, I told you everything! Hey, don't you work for me? What's with the lecture!" Suddenly, we're the bad guys who should know our place ... suspicious indeed!
Third, she asked for a list of folks helping out ... at least twice. Normally, guilds like this would be just as happy not having to pay anyone for thier efforts ... or at least as few people as possible. But she left it open ended - "Get me a list of everyone involved so we can make sure they all get paid." Might as well have thrown out the villanous "I will make sure you all get what's coming to you!" Add to that she said we could keep whatever we find ... WHAT? I would expect a standard guild to say something like "Flat rate for procurement of the item; 70-30 on whatever else you take." But take whatever you want AND make sure we know who was there so we can ensure you get paid more? Not bloody likely ...
Long story longer, here's my crazy supposition - Theyva is tired of being groomed for command and would like to be in charge now. She may or may not be involved with the attempt on the Archa, but regardless, this might be a good time to take advantage of the situation. She's nervous, not sleeping well, and tired (orchestrating an overthrow can be tiresome!) so she might need some insurance, in case she gets caught. She found reference to something that will help her get what she wants - maybe the Ice Heart gives immortality, maybe it gives the power of winter, maybe it creates diamonds, maybe it's a gift for some demonic power in exchange for gifts ... who knows?. So she picks a little-known contact to find out some more information (which might explain why she was perturbed about Fade's involvement with the authorities ... or maybe his involvement makes him a potential patsy ... I dunno). Regardless, if she can get a hold of this powerful artifact with just the help of the librarian that's pretty efficient, and probably a coup in and of itself.
Now, look at the her request for a full list of those involved ... 'for payment, of course.' That sounds like a list of people she needs to take care of after she has hands on the Heart. If it were me (and this was an actual plot, and not just Starbin thinking out loud) I'd use the list to find leverage points on all those folks ... so that when they returned, I could ensure their cooperation / silence - either bribe them, blackmail them or kill them.
But that's just some wild speculation. I'm sure there is nothing nefarious going on in the game originally entitled Political Shennanigans ...
__________________ 4-day weekend with no wi-fi. Posting will be via cellphone - sporadic and short. Back on Tuesday!
DM: "Why do you have so many characters?"
Me: "Because I never embraced the strategic value of running away."
a'Lan, the others do raise a good point - how out of the ordinary is the request for a list of people who helped? I mean, I can see it in a "good" light, or at least a better one (get them hooked on the gold from the guild and eventually they become members), but I would think procedure would be one of the things I am familiar with.
It is unusual, but when she's giving you free reign to bring people in then it wouldn't be crazy suspicious (although everyone at the table will be aware that 'payment' is not her primary concern).
And yeah, the rules are basically not to draw overt attention to the Guild or get them any powerful enemies. You are not an assassin's guild, nor a burglar's guild, nor a pick pockets guild (though can be involved in all three if necessary). The rules are more, guidelines. But she means don't go crazy and loot everything on an island, just cos she said you could keep what you find.
But Starbin's got the right idea: it could be paranoia, or there could be some other undercurrents going on. Your characters need to decide who to trust, what to do, who to kill.
I honestly don't know what is going on at this point. I accepted the mission but was never dismissed before my superior. I guess, I could write that I leave the room once dismissed, and relay things to you guys. It is also important, though it was never answered: what time do we have in game? This affects what I do and in what order.
I'm very sorry, I was under the impression we were waiting on Phaedrus, having missed that post somehow, though I think I responded to the question in the spoiler. Apologies.
Time frame wise I think you ought to be directing your focus towards this goal, since she is quite senior, and will be miffed if you take months to do anything, but it isn't a panic oh Sh** THREE DAYS!!! or anything.
But yeah, it's up to you to go out and tell them how much you want to, and what to tell them etc, your impressions and decide what you're doing.
Oh, in the genre of getting Maria in the bag, we can pick out a well known landmark in a quiet area nearby the savant's repose. Then I can park on a nearby roof (within 30' of the door she is most likely to use) and use attraction on her to steer her to choose to walk past that landmark where you guys can set up a good ambush.
You guys can carry crystalena and be parked on the other side of the building, so if she leaves that way, you can let me know to follow to a backup spot, and if something goes awry, we can tell the other what's up.
Three throws, three touch attacks, three contests. It's not the total that matters, it's the number of contests won a round, not the total score that matters.
Round 1: Two of Cal's rolls were higher than Aquarius', so Cal takes the round
Round 2: Two of Aquarius' rolls were higher than Cal's, so Aquarius takes the round.
Round 3: Again, Aquarius got two higher, so he takes the round.
Round 4: Aquarius, this time getting winning all three contests.
Fade seems to think she's a resource to control the scuvs.
I think she killed Ben and should be punished.
I would not mind killing Ben's killer (Seal's comfortable with death) but I don't want to risk killing the wrong person.
How can we interrogate her? Threaten to turn her into the police as a citizens arrest and demand justice for Ben's life? None of us are guild members so we don't officially have anything to lose, and if the guild is involved with her, they should have chosen a better patsy. (Or Ben had it coming).
Cal has no idea what Maria has or hasn't done. He is willing to work with the team, but given third-person descriptions of previous interactions with her, Cal doesn't have a real opinion on it.
This is partly because I (as a player) didn't really follow most of the interaction (got a bit confused) and lost situational awareness on it all. That being said, I'm guessing she's dirty on some level, but not sure what that means. I'd hazard a guess that she didn't do the killing herself, but might have tipped off the people she's working for about Ben ... she strikes me as more of a sell-out and would-be player, than an actual player.
My two cents!
__________________ 4-day weekend with no wi-fi. Posting will be via cellphone - sporadic and short. Back on Tuesday!
DM: "Why do you have so many characters?"
Me: "Because I never embraced the strategic value of running away."
Ben gave her name and description as his killer. Only possible misinterpretation would be an evil twin or a doppleganger/disguise (not ruling those out though).
You two down with:
Faster Party member hangs out half a block behind inn's back door with Crystaleena while I go in and use Bluff (popping my stone to give +10) to be nonchalant as I search for Maria, then Bluff + Concentrate try to sneakily give her a compelling attraction to see the shrine to the firefighters of '03 in Cold Alley.
Other party member is half a block ahead with the rented mulecart, watching the guy in the back. If he sprints away from the inn, to run around the block and meet the slow cart a block towards the river, you start slowly driving towards the river.
If he sprints towards the inn, I messed up and Crystalena is begging you guys to rescue me.
Because I forgot to pick up my Cleric spell from the research at the temple, I am deciding that I want to take 20, for a grand total of 28 to the spellcraft check to learn a new cleric spell.
What I want to learn is the Command spell. From the PHB and is a level 1 cleric spell.
Because I forgot to pick up my Cleric spell from the research at the temple, I am deciding that I want to take 20, for a grand total of 28 to the spellcraft check to learn a new cleric spell.
What I want to learn is the Command spell. From the PHB and is a level 1 cleric spell.
That's fine, but in future, pick your spell before a situation like this comes up.
I don't see how command could help, but lets not get too far ahead of ourselves. Everybody good with giving Aquarius another chance play sillyspy and looking for an opportunity to ambush her, but failing that, tailing her?
The question was only asked on Friday so I'll allow that it was the weekend so he might not have had time. I'll give him a day and then take over (temporarily) so we can move along
Edited my last reply, then realized it wouldn't mark as an updated thread, so I am updating this one...logic seems to have both worked and gone awry at some point.
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Re: 3.5 Political Adventure OOC
