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Post by reefwood on Dec 15, 2012 14:23:50 GMT -5
Moonday, Neth 1
Nobles and commoners alike are buzzing with anticipation as Wiscrani theaters & opera houses prepare for a week of shows commemorating Chelish history leading up to Even-Tongued Day (Sun, Neth 14). Town criers who put out a call for actors a month ago are now beginning to hype the upcoming productions. The docks will soon be teeming with ships bringing food & other supplies for the festivities as well as a litany of goods to sell the influx of people visiting the city for the seven days of celebration. The dottari have boosted their ranks with mercenaries to maintain order. The Order of the Rack are training new recruits in order to deploy a contingent of hellknights at every show to ensure that only the most up-to-date histories are presented.
[OOC: The Lord Mayor has a great fondness for the stage. Despite cutbacks in city services, public funds continue to help pay for the upkeep of venues and the support of productions. Plays and operas are predominantly enjoyed by the upper class, though, pubic dress rehearsals sometimes provide entertainment for commoners. However, the Lord Mayor has decided that culture and history should be available to all levels of society for the upcoming festivities. As such, make shift venues have sprung up across the city and countryside in hopes of receiving grants from the city coffers. Also, many two-bit actors are making their to the stage, though, not all will step off it as Theater Mortrescci – vulgarly known as “murderplay”- has become increasingly popular in Westcrown.]
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Post by reefwood on Dec 17, 2012 15:24:51 GMT -5
Part 1 Recap
Moonday, Neth 1 - A female halfling spends the late afternoon observing the patrons of the Barley Bitch. As the tavern clears out, she approaches Renold Hopcrusher to ask if he is the “dwarf who fell into the light?” She then brings in her elderly uncle -Elmar Fenwisp- who seeks blessings from Cayden. Not for himself but for his five grandchildren who will soon attempt a journey to freedom.
The Fenwisp clan hails from the Dhaenfens -swamps about a mile upriver and northwest of the city- where they have eked out a living for centuries by harvesting herbs, mushrooms and other fungi. The grandchildren wanted a different life. They came to the city and entered into contracts with House Ulvauno: a 10-yr indentured apprenticeship for tailoring and seamstressry. Elmar noted, “A good man wrote up the contracts, but good men do not last long in Westcrown.” The contracts ended nearly two years ago, but the grandchildren were not released. It was eventually learned that they had instead been moved to an underground garment factory to toil away against their will.
A plan was now set in motion to bring them home. “Friends” of Elmar would see to the release of the grandchildren in one week, and passage on a ship had been procured that was to depart two days later. The Hopcrusher trio agree to escort the halflings from a sewer entrance along the docks and hide them in the tavern until the ship is ready to sail.
In preparation for the upcoming action, the Hopcrushers purchase a cart (with one wheel intentionally dinged up by Gendrew), Gettle prepares vials of acid, and all three help to empty a barrel to use for hiding the halflings. Also, Gettle takes note of an unfamiliar mercenary-looking fellow who walks the boardwalk every day over the next week. His focus seems to be primarily in looking up at rooftops with some attention drawing his gaze out to the water as well, and all but ignoring the crowds swelling as the upcoming week of festivities approaches.
Moonday, Neth 8 @ 6pm – Elmar returns to the Barley Bitch as the first curfew bell tolls. He details the time and place to meet the grandchildren, and the group waits.
Toilday, Neth 9 @ 2am – The Hopcrushers walk to the sewer entrance with Elmar atop the cart. Gettle is the first to hear metal-on-metal knocking coming from below the entrance. Gendrew and Gettle combine hammer and acid to destroy the lock, and then, Renold lifts the entrance. A woman armored in leather with a cloth headsack covering her face is on a ladder and holds out an injured halfling. Below her are three more halflings lit by a torch on the ground. Shouts and screams echo from deeper within the sewers. Gendrew drops into the sewer to help and quickly cuts down an orc with glowing red eyes. He is soon outpaced by the woman and Renold with Gettle bringing up the rear. Three more people are found cut down in the sewers but one other escapes. Two more orcs fall, but a mighty half-orc cuts down Renold as the heroes decide to fall back upon hearing an eerie whisper approaching from the dark. Gettle keeps Renold alive while Gendrew puts an end to the half-orc. The heroes make their escape as a “whisperer” tears apart the final orc.
As the group makes their way back to the tavern, the hooded figures keep an eye on the sewer entrance for a few moments but soon dart off away from the docks. Also, Gettle spies a hooded observer on a nearby rooftop who then slinks away upon being noticed. The halflings are brought in through the back entrance of the brewery and quickly shuffled into a Hopcrusher bedroom. Elmar is greatly saddened that one grandchild was lost and by the news of those who fell bringing them thru the sewers. Yet, he is much more grateful that most survived the ordeal. He thanks the Hopcrushers profusely, as do the exhausted & shaken grandchildren, and promises that they will always have friends in the Dhaenfens.
[OOC: Elmar is clearly over 100 years and in last stage of life. The grandchildren are young adults between 20-30 yrs.
House Ulvauno is a lesser noble Taldan house that is beholden to House Rosala, which itself is among the lower rung of the most prestigious houses in Westcrown. Ulvauno's primary business is in the production of garments replicated on a mass scale, such as uniforms.
Loose Ends
1) Does Gendrew want to draw up work contracts for the halflings while they stay in the tavern?
2) Does Renold want to magically (or otherwise) attempt to repair the damaged sewer entrance?
3) Renold needs to make a Fortitude save for playing in the sewage. This would not have had any immediate effect during combat, so I saved it for now. Let me know if there are any special modifiers (i.e. +2 vs poison, etc).
Let me know if you want anything else added to the recap or if I left out any loose ends.
Rewards
Each PC receives 450 XP and 2 hero points.
The orc encounter was supposed to be CR 3 (800 XP), but you got into battle faster than I anticipated and wound up facing one more orc as a result, which would have made it CR 3.5 (1,000 XP), but the woman mostly cut down that one, and you only had to face the orcs one at a time, so I settled on something in the middle (900 XP). Also, each PC received 100 XP for agreeing to help the halfings and another 50 XP for overall ingenuity (i.e. cart & barrel to transport halflings, “loose wheel” cover story, figuring out a way to open the sewer entrance w/o NPC help, etc). I usually won't explain the XP breakdown, nor will you continue to receive bonus/story XP for the same kind of things each time but wanted to give you some insight on how this will work.
One hero point was earned for agreeing to help the halflings. The other was earned for overall heroism such as helping without payment and delving into the sewers (the orcs would have come up). Much like XP, you won't receive these for the same things each time. In fact, it may even be rare to receive one per session. The only hero point guarantee is 1 at each level up. Also, you cannot have more than 3 hero points at a time, so right now everyone has 2 or 3.]
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Post by icnivad on Dec 17, 2012 16:10:26 GMT -5
Sounds great. And great work team for the plan, I think it worked out awesomely!
Renold would like to magically repair the sewer entrance. Mending is a level 0 spell and can repair 1d4 points of damage each casting. I'd wander by sometime during the next day, and wait for a time that no one is around to cast the spell a few times.
Since you are using a slightly modified list of hero points, would you mind posting which actions are allowed somewhere? I'm at 3 now, so I'm more likely to use one next session.
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Post by Rabbit on Dec 17, 2012 16:27:25 GMT -5
Yes, I imagine that later that night once things had clearly settled down and the group had discussed the more pressing business Gendrew would have produced the contracts (one for each halfing) and asked them to sign them. I imagine Gendrew would have done this without consulting the other Hopcrushers first, but he certainly wouldn't be hiding it either.
"It's for our good as well as yours," He says, "If you are discovered here these contracts show that your presence is both legitimate and legal."
They would be the standard work contracts that the Hopcrushers would have other employees sign.
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Post by reefwood on Dec 18, 2012 16:19:47 GMT -5
Re: Loose Ends1) Does Gendrew want to draw up work contracts for the halflings while they stay in the tavern?Yes, I imagine that later that night once things had clearly settled down and the group had discussed the more pressing business Gendrew would have produced the contracts (one for each halfing) and asked them to sign them. I imagine Gendrew would have done this without consulting the other Hopcrushers first, but he certainly wouldn't be hiding it either. "It's for our good as well as yours," He says, " If you are discovered here these contracts show that your presence is both legitimate and legal." They would be the standard work contracts that the Hopcrushers would have other employees sign. Sounds good.
2) Does Renold want to magically (or otherwise) attempt to repair the damaged sewer entrance?Renold would like to magically repair the sewer entrance. Mending is a level 0 spell and can repair 1d4 points of damage each casting. I'd wander by sometime during the next day, and wait for a time that no one is around to cast the spell a few times. We have to be better about reading spells before deciding to use them. Did you see the casting time? It takes 10 minutes, and repairing the sewer lock would require about 30 castings, so this effort would take 5 hours! I'm fine with waiving this ONLY in this instance and having it be 1 standard action per casting, so that would take 3 minutes. However, there is still a choice to make: a) Cast early where there will be fewer people and mostly 1-2 blocks away at the docks. Cos with the early curfew, people get rolling around dawn, and right now the docks in particular are even more bustling than usual. b) Cast at night with a light source to keep the shadow beasts at bay. That being said, I'm not stating whether light actually works, but that is what people generally believe, so no one with good sense would go out at night without light. Of course, we're doing this online, so you don't have to worry about the city guard or shadow beasts taking you away, but it still has to be kept within that scope.
3) Renold needs to make a Fortitude save for playing in the sewage. This would not have had any immediate effect during combat, so I saved it for now. Let me know if there are any special modifiers (i.e. +2 vs poison, etc).Still waiting on this. No hurry but just making sure you saw it.
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Post by Rabbit on Dec 18, 2012 16:37:27 GMT -5
2) Does Renold want to magically (or otherwise) attempt to repair the damaged sewer entrance?Renold would like to magically repair the sewer entrance. Mending is a level 0 spell and can repair 1d4 points of damage each casting. I'd wander by sometime during the next day, and wait for a time that no one is around to cast the spell a few times. We have to be better about reading spells before deciding to use them. Did you see the casting time? It takes 10 minutes, and repairing the sewer lock would require about 30 castings, so this effort would take 5 hours! I'm fine with waiving this ONLY in this instance and having it be 1 standard action per casting, so that would take 3 minutes. However, there is still a choice to make: a) Cast early where there will be fewer people and mostly 1-2 blocks away at the docks. Cos with the early curfew, people get rolling around dawn, and right now the docks in particular are even more bustling than usual. b) Cast at night with a light source to keep the shadow beasts at bay. That being said, I'm not stating whether light actually works, but that is what people generally believe, so no one with good sense would go out at night without light. Of course, we're doing this online, so you don't have to worry about the city guard or shadow beasts taking you away, but it still has to be kept within that scope. In the morning, once the curfew is lifted, we could roll the cart back out and once we got over the grate act like the wheel has broken. Then Renold could pretend to be casting repair on the wheel when he is really casting it on the lock. Nobody really pays a bunch of noisy dwarfs any mind, do they?  |
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Post by icnivad on Dec 18, 2012 16:52:40 GMT -5
I like Rabbit's plan. Let's go with that. Yeah, I didn't realize mending took so long, I'll pay more attention to that in the future
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Post by michael on Dec 18, 2012 17:21:29 GMT -5
Gettul would like to go back into the sewers, actually. He's got an intellectual curiosity about the Whisperers. He just wants to inspect the area where the fight took place to catalogue things. Did the Whisperer take the corpses? If not, does it look like they were eaten? Or were they just dismembered for the sake of killing? Basically, I want going to go play scientist. (He'd go in the daytime, with Expeditious Retreat cast on him, of course.)
There was also the one person that Renold had healed. He was alive and stable when we booked out of there. It's likely he was killed by the Whisperer after we left, but maybe not. (And if not, well, that's more valuable information about the creatures.) I'd also use the possibility of a survivor to try and convince Renold we should go back, and loot from corpses to convince Gendrew.
I don't know if this is something you want to play out at the table, (assuming he convinces anyone to go with him, because Gettul's not quite foolish enough to go alone) or if we can play it out online. We can still use the whole cart over the manhole thing as two of us go in. I'd also want to go as soon as possible. Basically, when Renold wakes up and gets healed and briefed, I'd urge him to go back with me so we can learn more about this.
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Post by reefwood on Dec 18, 2012 19:05:25 GMT -5
I like Gendrew's plan too.
Going back into the sewer would be more involved and probly require doing at the table. Which would be fine. Although, you'd know that going into the sewers during the day would be a VERY obvious and forbidden act.
EDIT: Also, the person who was roused by Renold's burst was then cut down again by the half-orc, so you left not knowing whether this person was alive or stable. Not to sway you either way with this but just making sure we're all on the same page.
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Post by reefwood on Dec 26, 2012 20:58:53 GMT -5
Part 2 Prep and CorrectionI don't know if this is something you want to play out at the table, (assuming he convinces anyone to go with him, because Gettul's not quite foolish enough to go alone) or if we can play it out online. We can still use the whole cart over the manhole thing as two of us go in. I'd also want to go as soon as possible. Basically, when Renold wakes up and gets healed and briefed, I'd urge him to go back with me so we can learn more about this. Any idea if the group wants to go back into the sewer during the daytime? This doesn't really require any extra prep on my part since I already know what is or is not down there, but it would be good to know if I need to allot time for this. Also, I do have a correction to add, which we can go over more at the table, if needed... You saw 2 active and 3 inactive people in the sewer, along with 4 orcs and 1 half-orc. The inactive people were: one with the orc sword in the chest, one with the two-axed half-orc standing over, and one alone in between. The last one was not there, so you really only saw 4 non-orc people total: 2 active and 2 inactive. Additionally, from talking with the halflings (some of this was said at table but some left out and some was wrong), you learned that they were rescued by 5 people. One halfling rode on the back of each rescuer. When the orcish pursuers caught up to them (about an hour into the escape), the 5 rescuers split up into 3 groups of 2, 2, 1 - each rescuer still had a halfling on their back. The groups of 2 continued running while the 1 slowed down the pursuers. The injured halfling was with the 1 (woman) and thought there may have been many more orcish pursuers than rescuers, and this halfling passed out when he got hit with a crossbow bolt. Of the pairs that continued running, one pair got split up in their haste, and of that pair, only one rescuer (with halfling on back) regrouped with the others. The halflings don't know what happened to the 5th rescuer/halfling duo.
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Post by reefwood on Jan 1, 2013 21:02:19 GMT -5
Intermission
Toilday, Neth 9 – Gendrew writes up contracts for the four rescued Fenwisps to work at the Barley Bitch during their stay. In the morning, the Hopcrusher trio rolls their cart over the damaged sever cover while Renold magically repairs the broken lock. A couple days later, the halflings depart for their river journey to return home to the Dhaenfens.
The week (Neth 8-14) of plays commemorating Chelish history goes smoothly for the most part. Dottari and city-funded mercenaries help maintain order in the theater districts and keep tourists safe. Enforcing the curfew proves to be the most difficult task, but there are no reports of disappearances during the festivities. Order of the Rack hellknights and armigers attend the majority of performances to ensure that only proper history is presented. Historical errors are found in one play. The writer is sentenced to a year of imprisonment in the Citadel, and the performers who spoke the falsehoods receive 3-9 month sentences based on the level and amount of inaccuracy. Also, renegade street performers put on treasonous displays during the evening bells and quickly disappear into the shadows. A few are captured and found guilty of being rebels from Andoran.* They are hung in public on Even-Tongued Day (Sunday, Neth 14). However, little is done by the Dottari or Order to curb the increasing banditry in less prosperous neighborhoods and outside the city walls. Additionally, the handful of Theater Mortrescci performances are well-received. There is no shortage of blood spilled, though, no well-known actors are bled dry.
The days following the festivities see Westcrown mostly return to normal levels of activity. There are still more mercenaries than usual hoping to find new work, and hellknight raids increase, in part as training exercises for the influx of recently recruited armigers.
*Andoran is a nation that -like Cheliax- was once a part of the Taldan empire. When Cheliax broke free from the Taldor, it took control of Andoran (along with other Taldan territories). 60 years after the death of Aroden, and decades after House Thrune won the crown, Andoran revolted from Cheliax and won its own freedom. The noble class was cast aside, slavery was abolished, and Common Rule was established upon the belief that all people are equal.
[OOC: Part 2 Recap coming in the next day or two.]
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Post by reefwood on Jan 2, 2013 17:13:01 GMT -5
Part 2 Recap
Wealday, Neth 17 - Larko praises Gendrew for helping the halflings, recommends the chowder at the Silver Fish, and leaves a pouch with six Chelish gold coins from the pre-Thrune era. The Hopcrusher trio make their way to the eastern shore. The streets are less crowded during the post-lunch work hours. Most people move at a calm pace with the sun shining overhead. Although, the trio does observe a dottari shakedown and hellknight raid.
The Silver Fish is a restaurant located in a neighborhood with many holdings that were once owned by the merchant family Vizio, which departed Westcrown when their patriarch passed away over the summer. A third of the shops and homes now sit abandoned. When presented with the pouch of coins, the restaurant host seats the trio in a private dining room. A cloak and satchel hang on the wall, and there are four seats at the table. Halfway through their chowder meal, there is a knock at the door, and a young Chelish man enters. He introduces himself as Javi (Falcon). He is the mercenary that Gettul observed looking at rooftops in the days leading up to the halfling rescue, and he reveals that he was the one keeping an eye on the dwarves that night.
Javi leads the trio to an abandoned house and informs them that he is part of a group hoping to help those overlooked or ignored by the Wiscrani government and authorities. They are led by a half-elven woman named Rielle (Mother). Javi, Rielle and her younger sister (Moon) began organizing about a year ago. Moon led the rescue with the most capable members of the group, but most did not escape the sewer. The remaining members are committed to the cause but have only joined within the past few months and have little experience. The group is hoping to bring the dwarves into their fold. However, Rielle is late to this meeting, and a youth (Shadow) soon arrives to inform Javi that she has been arrested by the dottari, and that hellknights are trying to gain custody of her. Moments later, a squadron of hellknights is seen approaching the building. Javi advises flight over fight, and Shadow shows the dwarves an escape tunnel into the sewers. The youth muses that its presence may be some clue as to why the Vizio family departed.
The trio overcomes noisy fungus, undead, and goblins while successfully locating the Aroden symbols which point the way to the safe house – an old shrine of Aroden that had been converted to a temple of Iomedae but sits long abandoned. They see a pair of familiar faces -Larko (Woodsman) and Fiosa Dewlily (Torch)- and are introduced to most of the remaining members of the group: Big Brother, Little Brother, Hammer, Madame, Quill, Rose, Sparkle, Whisper, and Whittler. Moon fell ill after the rescue and is not present. The group is grateful for the dwarves' help with the rescue, Fiosa in particular, and impressed at their ability to navigate the dangerous sewers. However, the main topic of discussion is how to free Rielle: legal assistance, bribery, and an assault on the dottari are all mentioned, but more information on her status and whereabouts is needed before any plan can be decided. Most of the group departs for the evening, but the trio spends the night in the temple.
Oathday, Neth 18 - The trio returns to the Barley to clean up, and Gendrew leads them into Parego Dospera to meet with Durotas Arik Tuornos for information on Rielle. He knows that she is in the custody of the dottari of Regicona Spera under the command of Durotas Saria Roccin, whom he calls a better person than himself but one that needs to delegate her authority across the larger district to many other dottari. Also, the Order of the Rack has gained custody of Rielle and are preparing to move her to Citadel Rivad in a few hours. Arik notes that anything outside the city walls is beyond dottari jurisdiction. The trio decides to ambush the hellknights on the road from the city to the citadel.
After leaving the ruins, Shadow approaches the trio and returns a short while later with Moon, Hammer, and six horses. The small group sets up the ambush at a river crossing. Rielle is being transported in an armored carriage with an escort of 10 armigers and a signifier. The armigers on horseback are drawn off by Moon, Hammer, and Shadow, and then, the trio attacks the carriage. Most of the armigers are quickly dispatched or cowed, but one holds his ground. Only after serious injury does he retreat but promises revenge. The signifier is a worshipper of Asmodeus and left for dead, but Renold heals the fallen armigers before the trio races off with Rielle. She is somewhat bloody and bruised but relieved to have been freed before interrogation at the citadel.
The dwarves and half-elf make their way to the Barley as night falls. Rielle confirms that she was picked up by the dottari after leaving the ruins and adds that she was there to meet a contact. She wants to hold off an saying anymore until she can confirm what she learned but does reveal that it would not be the dottari nor hellknights they face next.
Fireday, Neth 19 - Rielle returns to the safe house.
Rewards
Each PC receives 2286 XP, 1 fame point, and 1 hero point. Also, each PC that leveled up receives 1 additional hero point for doing so. This is what I believe was doled out at the table (and divide by 3 for individual XP):
135 XP for fungus (45 each)
805 XP for undead (268 each)
1610 XP for goblins (536 each)
900 XP for surviving the sewers and finding the safe house (300 each)
2510 XP for locating & rescuing Rielle from hellknights (836 each)
The 900 XP (300 XP each) posted in the OOC thread was for opting to enter the sewer over fighting the hellknights, so with the 450 XP from last time, I get a total of 2735 XP earned for everyone, which would give a total of 4735 XP for Gendrew & Gettul. What do you have, Michael?
Either way, this has gotten me to rethink the use of the medium progression for XP. I have decided that we should switch to the fast progression. This will help avoid needless extra encounters that are only played out to rack up XP and might give you an edge on the occasional minor encounter (which seems fine with the slightly smaller size of the party), but these two things will most likely balance each other out, and I will adjust any major encounters if you happen to reach them at too high a level. This won't change anything for Renold's current XP, but this means that Gendrew & Gettul started out with 1,300 XP instead of 2,000 XP, so they should have... 4,036 XP with 3rd-level reached at 3,300 XP. 4th-level is at 6,000 XP.
Do my numbers add up? Also, I don't think there were any loose ends this time around. Next up will be the Safe House in-character thread that I will try to post by this evening.
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Post by icnivad on Jan 4, 2013 0:32:44 GMT -5
As the one person who is "unaffected" by the change, I would vote that you shouldn't remove XP from the other players. I'm happy if they continue to get that extra edge. Sort of a "grandfathered in" bonus.
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Post by michael on Jan 4, 2013 2:35:10 GMT -5
We're technically losing XP, but it's actually much better for all of us. We're switching over to the fast advancement XP chart. Since 2nd level is reached at 1300 XP instead of 2000, we lose that 700 experience. However, Rabbit and I now have enough XP to level up to 3rd, and we only need to get to 6000 XP to hit 4th level, instead of 9000.
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 4, 2013 12:31:09 GMT -5
So should we be leveling up before next session?
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