" I see you weren't entirely mistaken. "
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 19:54:51 No. 6108825 Report Quoted By:
" Oh yeah. This is totally fool-proof. Trust me. We're going to be rich - honestly, you should be paying <span class="mu-i">me</span> for a chance to get in on this "
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 20:08:57 No. 6108841 Report <span class="mu-i">Is it always this warm out here? The sun bakes the sand and you with it, until somewhere along the wandering paths you end up more sun-scarred sand than human being.</span>
---
But it was not always like that. They tell tales this place used to be comforting, even, all shade and shadows and running rivers. Check nooks and crannies of old places, you'll forgotten buildings stick out of the sand. The bones of old peering out from the veil of time, and we the little scavengers among them. Wonder what one might find, if one goes a seeking in a place like this.
Maybe that's why you signed up for a Scavenger Company? They pay is good. The work is ... interesting. The people are rough sort, but neither the worst nor the best. And yes, a fair few of them spend more time fighting than they do guarding scholars or trading old detritus in trade-camps, but the difference between a scavenger and a mercenary is . . . slim at the best of times.
--
>Sign up, sign the contract, sign on. Check the Company muster, then fill out your relevant papers here, below. We'll need a name to call you, and you'll have to tell us a little about what it is that you do.
#Name
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#--?
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!--?
--
Don't worry if you've never done something like this before - you'll learn quick. It's a kind of play by post multiplier narrative chess game, where the world tries to kill you.
There's a loosely coherent story, too, but you don't need to be too deep in the details to tag along.
>https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=art%3F Oh, and dice a dice+xd6 in the options field - you'll want to know that to do the job you pick. <span class="mu-s">There'll be some details later, but for now, just get settled in.</span>
Phridon !!i3QRqrs+o0C
Rolled 2, 3, 4 = 9 (3d6) >>6108841 #Phridon
-
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
-
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
-
Uniform, DR2
Shortblade, Sharp
Spear, Reach 2, Impales, Throwable
Shield [18HP, 3DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets (actually, there's like 1 coinbit in there)
Whitebone Needles (Wards-12)
-
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Iconotheurgy 12
#Spears 13
-
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Hopes and Fears 1
!Well Read
>Raise 6 Troopers equipped with spears (spearchads ww@?) >Hire a Specialist who assists in Binding, Warding, and Abjuring. >Keep the bad luck at bay (+3 coinbits). [Iconotheurgy 12] >Buy some cool books (-2 coinbits). Icarus
>>6108841 > Kit Selection: Thaumatheurgy Kit > Weapons Training; Rope > Whispered Secrets: Of Edges and insights > Raise a banner: Spears > Hire a specialist: Binding, Warding, Adjuring (x2) > Receive your dues: Keep bad luck at bay (Iconotheurgy-12) > Spend your bits: Hire a second specialist #Icarus
=Metrics=
Vitality 12 // Stamina 12 // Focus 12
Action 9 // Speed 2
=Stats=
Will 10 // Health 10 // Grit 10
Sense 10 // React 9
Lethality 1d6 // Threshold 1d6
=Kit=
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Weaver's Whip
Whitebone needle
1 Bit
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
=Secrets=
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Iconotheurgy12
#Wards12
#Rope13
#Analysis12
=Traits=
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Edges and Insights 1
=Bannermen and Support=
(x6) Spears-11 troopers
(x2) Binding, Warding, Adjuring specialists
Jove
Rolled 6, 6, 3 = 15 (3d6) >Raise Blades>Hire Logistics >Enforce Discipline, Influence 11 >Feed my squad a little better. -2 coinbits
Anonymous
You're a madman and I love it, CC
Edward
Rolled 3, 3, 1 = 7 (3d6) >>6108841 >Alchemineering Kit >Powder Training >Of Masks and Mettle >6 Troopers, equipped with Muskets 11 >1 Specialist, who assists in Logistics and Procurement >Honouring the timetable, harsh though it be (Tactics 11) >Fall in love Hurry up. I have to see her again.
#Edward
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
Morale +1
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Harquebus [4d6 Impact, Terror, Malfunction 16+, 3AP Reload, -1Acc per step, +1 Club in melee]
One Memento [Locket with her picture]
1 bit
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Alchemineering 12 [First Aid, Salt, Gas, Smoke, Fire, Oil, Salt, Acid, Stimulant, 1AP=1 point or huck 1d3 with major action]
#Muskets 13
#Small Unit Tactics 11
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Masks and Mettle: If you start adjacent to an ally, they add +1 to all skill tests and speed. Spend 1 AP on behalf of ally
Zivka
Rolled 5, 6, 6 = 17 (3d6) >>6108841 >>6108841 Zivka
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield & Axe
Ranging Kit
Tattercloak Quiver
Weather Cloak (Morale 1, Weather Resist 2)
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
1 Coinbit
More Pockets
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Animalfriend 12
#Bows 12
#Axes 13
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Hopes and Fears 1
> Rally six scarred Spearkin (and our dog) > Beseech one Elder, of Refit, Repairs and Refinement > Mind the beasts and men and unruly tribes folk. (Animals 12, Influence 11) The march is long, but the rewards will be worth it. I had this terrible dream, of being cornered by an overwhelming foe….
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 21:30:09 No. 6108903 Report Quoted By:
>>6108891 It's a sickness of the mind, softsoul. But that's okay. If you're along for the ride, perhaps we're both mad - and if so, what worth is it to be sane?
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Rolled 1, 3, 1 = 5 (3d6) >>6108841 >Gain Trapping Kit >Gain Powder Training >Gain Of Hopes and Fears 1 >Raise a Banner of 6 Troopers equipped with Muskets >Hire a Specialist who assists in Refit, Repairs and Refinement >Run long duration perimeter patrols (vs Influence 11) >Splurge on one of those fascinating books #Scarlett
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Harquebus (4d6 Impact, Likely to Terrorize; Malfunctions 16+; Reload 3 AP; steps give -1 Accuracy; +1 Club in melee)
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Trapping Kit
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
1 Coinbit
A Fascinating Book
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Gearwright 12
#Muskets 13
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Hopes and Fears 1: Add Rank to resist terror; Major action to reroll Will for nearby ally; +1 to Influence and Thoughts
!Well Read
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 21:54:54 No. 6108931 Report Quoted By:
" Sir, we've got the last one stowed for now. My hands still itch "
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 22:05:09 No. 6108938 Report Quoted By:
" Like we thought? "
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 22:22:02 No. 6108950 Report >Six Banners Raised, proceeding to Encampment.
Luz
Rolled 4, 5, 4 = 13 (3d6) #Luz>Keep bad luck at bay (Iconotheurgy 12) >Raise a banner of 6 muskets >Hire a 2nd Theurgic specialist to assist
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 22:37:17 No. 6108961 Report Rolled 6, 3, 4 = 13 (3d6) >>6108860 A few warding gestures and some salt in the right place and all the worlds ills stay away a little longer. You feel cold at night, out here. Colder than you should. Those dreams keep coming back, the ones you can't remember, except for the taste of fear at the back of your throat and the snap-to-waking with a hammering heart in the morning.
Yesterday, someone <span class="mu-i">almost</span> died when they slipped and tripped over their own spear. Close call. The edge puncture through the collar of their uniform instead of their neck.
Some would call that bad luck.
You know better. It could have been so much worse.
>Accidented avoided >+1 Reputation, note it as a Stat >>6108864 Sure, if you shant test 3d6 as instructed, recruit, then Command will gladly roll those bones - but now we test against half skill [6]
>>6108887 They're a sour, sullen lot - the ones that aren't eager to please and new. It's an electic mix, all old eyes and new hands. You do your best and some of them show promise. Though "You", "do your best" and "Show promise" are terms that work hard in the stretching. It's really more a case of you desperately trying to keep up with the master-at-arms daily instructions and everyone else giving you the side-eye glance.
Run a few more laps, why don't you, Jove? All those extra rations you're feeding people are cutting into your stamina.
Look on the bright side: your example makes everyon else look like enduring heroes out of myth.
>-2 Stamina >+2 Reputation, note it as a Stat >>6108899 Getting there on time is half the challenge in modern management theory, and getting everyone else to roll out of bed, pack up and get moving is harder still. You win absolutely no favours with ANYONE for constantly reminding them all that they have a place to be. On the other hand, you shave three days off of the journey out which is food not eaten and water not wasted.
>-2 Reputation, note it as a stat >Company stores are better off >No one is out of water or food. Yet. >>6108900 AH VOID--SHIT--HORSE--DUNG--SONOFAGOATHERDER--- WHY DO THE HORSES OF SUCH SHARP TEETH
>-3 Vitality, -3 Stamina, -3 Focus >-1 Speed >+2 Bandage alotment >-2 Reputation, note it as a stat >Gain: !I'll Walk, Thanks, as a trait. Given the fact that all of horse-kind appears to have declared war on you for all eternity, you're going to have to get used to taking the slow route on your own feet.
You ignore any fatigue and stamina from having to foot it somewhere. Fancy.
>>6108927 Someone . . . is out there. You don't catch them - quite - but you catch <span class="mu-i">sight</span> of them, sharp spears sun-touched in the shimmering distance, small formations of fast moving troops. When you get there, they're gone. Camps tossed over by careful hands, no trash left to identify, and yet their presence unmistakable.
Someone is out there.
Crawling closer bit by bit
>Company alertness raised a little >Recon-in-Force scouts briefed on imminent danger; all patrol dangers lessened. Icarus
Rolled 4, 6, 3 = 13 (3d6) >>6108950 >Duty List: Protocol Observance - Sprinkle salt around the camp's perimeter and over resting places - make sure every man's pillow is adorned with a light dusting of protective sodium. (Iconotheurgy 12) > Personal: Buy a Wrackstone. (-1 Cointbit) Icarus
Rolled 9, 8 = 17 (2d10) >>6108962 About what I expected.
Now for the stone.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 22:41:14 No. 6108965 Report >Seven Banners Raised, proceeding to Encampment.
Zivka
Quoted By:
Rolled 5, 6, 4, 6, 3, 2 = 26 (6d6) >>6108965 Zivka
Vitality 9 Stamina 9 Focus 9
Action 9 Speed 1+1
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9, Reputation -2
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield & Axe
Ranging Kit
Tattercloak Quiver
Weather Cloak (Morale 1, Weather Resist 2)
Good Boots
4 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
More Pockets
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Animalfriend 12
#Bows 12
#Axes 13
#Filching 10
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Hopes and Fears 1
!I’ll Walk, Thanks
AAAAAHH
> Write a letter to my Uthani kin. The search for a home continues, but at least we are paid. Gain one Coinbit, spend my two on Boots. I’ll clearly need it.
> Take a tracking hound, and search for our missing supplies. Animals 12
Logistics 10
Caedo !sJQRTYJUqI
Rolled 1, 3, 6 = 10 (3d6) >>6108841 > Kit Selection: Thaumatheurgy Kit > Weapons Training; Rope > Whispered Secrets: Of Masks and Mettle > Raise a banner: Blades > Hire a specialist: Triage, Surgery and medical matters > Receive your dues: Enforcing discipline among the ranks (Small unit tactics-11) > Spend your bits: Splurge on one of those fascinating books #Icarus
=Metrics=
Vitality 12 // Stamina 12 // Focus 12
Action 9 // Speed 2
=Stats=
Will 10 // Health 10 // Grit 10
Sense 10 // React 9
Lethality 1d6 // Threshold 1d6
=Kit=
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Weaver's Whip
Whitebone needle
1 Bit
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
=Secrets=
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Iconotheurgy12
#Wards12
#Rope13
#Small Unit Tactics 11
=Traits=
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Masks and Mettle 1
!Well Read
=Bannermen and Support=
(x6) Blade-11 troopers
(x1) Young but well adjusted expert in Triage, Surgery and medical matters
Luz
Rolled 1, 2, 4, 3, 2, 1 = 13 (6d6) >>6108965 >Thaumaturgy 12, Warding 10?, Engage in Protocol Observance >Insist that your papers are in error. I met a wave haired desert wanderer named Joe who taught me Mistbreathing. Keeps you from dying of dehydration in the desert. CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 23:05:58 No. 6108985 Report Quoted By:
>>6108951 A single lonely cloud squirms across the vast skies, and just for a moment, it blots out the distant black spot that hovers there in front of the sun itself. Everyone breathes a little . . . easier.
Then Asog tangles in his own rope and almost breaks his own neck, and it only stops being a cavalcade of sprains and broken fingers because by the time he trips all over the Ashfingers and their tent repair work he doesn't have that many more fingers left to break. Straight to the medical tents with him and the four others.
Some might call that awful luck.
You . . . Oh, you know better.
>Accident avoided >Specialist *not* dead, what a boon >>6108864 Insisting it's good fortune to inscribe the right prayers in the sand outside the tents every morning and every night, you've instructed the troopers in the right careful moments and the symbols they draw have surely warded away the ill sting of bad fortune. Surely. <span class="mu-i">Surely</span>.
The recent spate of insomnia that the doctors are unable to do anything about is . . . unrelated mass psychological hysteria, from sun exposure. Surely. <span class="mu-i">Surely</span>
>Everyone is *tired* >>6108979 Now there's a term you don't hear every day. Still wet behind the ears, huh? And that ain't even an insult - I wouldn't go insulting people like you. It's apt to be frightening. Might be something was off about your paperwork . . .
>>6108963 Oh <span class="mu-i">no</span>, softsoul. Why'd you have to go and find some of the pristine ones? Who even sold you this? Did you see his face? Did he even have one? Oh <span class="mu-i">no</span>
--
While the remaining Company musters and everyone else finds their bearings, we'll leave things off here for you to chatter amongst yourselves, carry out some duties and get your bearings. <span class="mu-s">There'll be some more information later</span>.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 23:09:25 No. 6108989 Report >Eight Banners Raised, proceeding to Encampment.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2M0ihaSP Sun 22 Sep 2024 23:15:43 No. 6108998 Report >>6108860 >>6108927 >>6108951 >>6108977 Right, you <span class="mu-i">bookworms</span>, perhaps you can riddle us this while we're whiling away the idle hours waiting for the Coldeyes to find out where in forsaken creation half our supply train went off to.
What manner of ill beast is described as a spiteful amalgamation of insectiod horror and imperial ambition?
What government rules that distant realm Vanadia, back over the other side of the Leviathan Sea?
What do you call the true name of the Sun?
If there are three powers in a room - an Emperor, a Magnate and a Priest - what do these grand Powers offer one soldier with a sword to defend from their peers?
What weighs more, memory or gold coin?
Hmhm?
Well you're such smart recruits, I'm sure you'll figure it out.
Ah, of course:
What's more important - knowing how to build a bridge or knowing how to bandage a wound?
>What a frightfully well-read Company >Logistics difficulties reduced one step, because 'surely' the paperwork is all in order. Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Rolled 2, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3 = 23 (6d6) >>6108989 >Write a letter home (to Kalcmiri) >Gain Poetry 12, Well Mannered, and Weaving 12 >Perimeter Patrols (vs Influence 11, Well Mannered) Perhaps the locals might have seen something.
#Scarlett
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Harquebus (4d6 Impact, Likely to Terrorize; Malfunctions 16+; Reload 3 AP; steps give -1 Accuracy; +1 Club in melee)
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Trapping Kit
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Gearwright 12
#Muskets 13
#Poetry 12
#Weaving 12
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Hopes and Fears 1: Add Rank to resist terror; Major action to reroll Will for nearby ally; +1 to Influence and Thoughts
!Well Read
!Well Mannered
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Quoted By:
>>6108999 also vs Logistics 10
Luz
The Malichnid Princesses terrorize the Inky depths.
Wicklighter
Rolled 1, 6, 1, 5, 4, 5, 2, 1, 3 = 28 (9d6) >>6108841 >>6108998 >Alchemineering Kit >Blades Training >Of Malice and Mirth >Blades Banner >Specialist in Training and Discipline >Enforce Discipline (rolling vs Blades 14) >Spend Coinbits: Combat Lessons >Personal Action: Write a letter home to Rikovol >Duty: Disciplinary Action Review. Extra drill for the Ironwroughts! (rolling vs Blades 14 and Discipline ???) #Wicklighter
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Alchemineering Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Longblade - +1 damage, Sharp
1 Coinbit
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 9
#Filching 10
#Alchemineering 12
#CQC 12
#Blades 14
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Malice and Mirth 1: If unengaged, add rank to first skill test. If engaged, add rank to all Reaction tests
!Rikovan: Can spend Focus as I would Stamina, and always regain at least 1 Focus when I Recover
Wicklighter holds those around him to the same rigorous standards of discipline that he holds himself to. Unfortunately, instead of coming off as a reasonable leader who wouldn't do anything he wouldn't ask of his subordinates, he usually just comes off as a bit of a freakazoid.
Seriously, what kind of psychopath's morning routine puts jogging five laps around the camp and twenty minutes of sword practice /before/ eating breakfast? There's something wrong with that man.
Bulwark
Rolled 2, 1, 3 = 6 (3d6) >>6108841 Smiling. He always smiles you know. That shit-eating grin strune across his face, whenever he's not wearing full armour that is.
Breacher Kit
>Powder Training >!Of Steel Hearts >Raise a Banner of Blades-11! >Hire a Specialist in Refit, Repairs & Refinement! >Keeping the gear stowed and the blades sharp (Armsmaking-10) >Hire a professional (Logistics & Procurement) #Ser Stalwart (Self-Proclaimed)
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 1
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 8
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
+Breacher Kit, 4DR
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [30 HP, 5 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets (1 Coinbits)
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Harquebus, 4d6 Impact, Malfunctions on 16+, 3AP to reload, Doubles as a +1 Club in melee
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Muskets-13
#Armsmaking-10
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Armoured Advance 1: Intentionally body-slam targets upon entering their tile, deal 1d6+1 per straight-line movement prior
!Of Steel Hearts 1: If end unengaged, regain Vitality equal to rank. If end engaged, gain bonus damage reduction equal to rank
!Extra Rota
Jove
Rolled 2, 6, 5, 6, 1, 5 = 25 (6d6) >>6108989 >Write home to mum in Reikan, and no peeking if you like your eyes (pick Carousing) >Join the Scarred Spears looking for our supplies. (vs Influence 11 and Logistics 10) >Must 'ave amnesia, they forgot that Oi's 'im. Guards told me gate's closed. Greased the 'inges wivvem. Sold a man an 'eadache once. 'eisted a university by 'iding me rustic charm. Don't remember it all. Gets a bit fuzzy 'round the Crow... the...
... any'ow! 'sno one loik Jove but Jove!
>In another time, I did some high-stakes tinkering. You don't get away with stunts like mine without spare materials and an (occasionally blind) eye for workplace safety. Jove, Striker 2 Sapper 2
RES 10
STA 6 SPD 3
React 2 Resist 1 Rebuff 1
Sense 1 Authority 2 Cunning 1
Brawn 3 Manipulate 1 Edge 2
Blades 2 Gearwright 1 Unarmed 1 Streetsmarts 2
!Deep Reserves
!Flourish
!Consummate Professional
!Patch Job
[R] Woodbreaker: 2H 1W 1Reach, Crits Cleave
[H] Rikovol Pressed Helmet, 2 Barrier, Fragile
[Tools] 3 bits, Boostgear 3/5 Fuel, 2+2+3 Boost
QuickreteTank Mod
Messer
Nugget of Palatine Armour, 3Mag Metallic-Terrene, 1Limit, 2Strain
#Jove
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 10 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10 Strength 11 Reputation 2
React 9+1
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Wispcloak, Major to hide, halved move-do penalty
Halberd
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
A coinbit
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Gearwright 12
#Polearm 13
#Carousing 14
-Traits
!Armored 1
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Hopes and Fears
Ser Stalwart
Quoted By:
Rolled 6, 6, 3, 3, 1, 5 = 24 (6d6) >>6109041 More smiling.
>Write a letter home (Reikan)! >While I'm doing my own personal paperwork lets get to work fixing some other things such say... Arms Procurement! (Armsmaking-10, Refit&Repairs-10, Fresheyed Archers) #Ser Stalwart (Self-Proclaimed)
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 1
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 8
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
+Breacher Kit, 4DR
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [30 HP, 5 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets (1 Coinbits)
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Harquebus, 4d6 Impact, Malfunctions on 16+, 3AP to reload, Doubles as a +1 Club in melee
-Secrets
#Strength 11
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Muskets-13
#Armsmaking-10
#Carousing-14
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Armoured Advance 1: Intentionally body-slam targets upon entering their tile, deal 1d6+1 per straight-line movement prior
!Of Steel Hearts 1: If end unengaged, regain Vitality equal to rank. If end engaged, gain bonus damage reduction equal to rank
!Extra Rota
!Armoured 1
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:Qno8MkT/ Mon 23 Sep 2024 07:54:40 No. 6109210 Report >>6108977 Finally, someone who knows the right end of a sharp word and can get some of these mudfeet to fall in. Good work, Caedo - you might even an officer's stripes if you keep this up.
>Some of the slackers work a little harder >Gain +1 Reputation, note it as a stat >Lose 2 Vitality, from temporary bruises acquired busting up a gambling round gone bad >Gain 1 Stamina >Gain 1 Focus >>6109021 By all the stars in the endless skies <span class="mu-i">someone</span> on this field of must and dust seems to know the bleeding end of a sharp and the blunt end of a hammer. Are you sure you're in the right outfit, here, Wicklighter? Might'n be your menace-making murderhands could command a sizable premium in more lethal operations. Well, I won't commit on Rikovian traditions. You people travel a lot, yeah? I can respect it. No, I won't be joining you for morning laps, but maybe there's something in this Path some of these people can learn from.
>Some of the troopers learn a thing or two >The Master-At-Arms, a quiet, taciturn and slim looking Vanadian with a hat askew on her head invites you around for a few extra practices matches some of the odder evenings. You almost don't get hit. >Gain +1 Speed OR +1 Reaction >Unfortunately, you don't get much sleep because the tryhards keep coming at you to prove they are, in fact, that hard. -2 Stamina. >>6109041 Stalwart Bulwark, is it? Your parents must just about have loved you something fierce. Good eye for packing the right crates. Who'd have thunk we still had so many spare uniforms stuffed in the water barrels? Who'd have thunk we were so low on water?
>Gain an additional water skin >Find a very nice uniform, +5 Temp Vitality >Some of the troopers patch their gear CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:Qno8MkT/ Mon 23 Sep 2024 08:14:31 No. 6109212 Report >Ten Banners Raised
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:Qno8MkT/ Mon 23 Sep 2024 08:41:08 No. 6109214 Report Feels like you've been walking for <span class="mu-i">days</span> which is always the trick around here. The landscape changes by subtle degrees. It's all sand and endless shimmering horizons and you don't notice the hypnotic lull. Then you cross a dune and bypass a rocky cliff that sticks out like a broken tooth and then - well - then you suddenly enter a place of almost shade and green things. Mushy sand from some wetness in the deep earth. Bricks, long stained by the wind, but orange clay still almost faintly homely. This place is impossible to see at distance, hidden by some quirk of sand dunes and the undulations of the landscape. You practically fell right into it.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:Qno8MkT/ Mon 23 Sep 2024 09:02:03 No. 6109220 Report >>6108963 Where did you find such a thing, friend? Why would you hold on to it? Do you not know the difference a slim bit of jewellery will eventually make to your life, your fate, your very sense of self?
I would fear what you become, eight score years hence, but never to worry: Most never live so long.
These are the kinds of things you find the Wastes, and put back down, and forget you ever found. They pay good, grand sums for these in distant ports and distant shores. They raise men above men, they say. The great equalisers of station and stature.
Out here, cracked and broken wrackstones are ten to the hand, each one as useless as an empty water-skin and as enticing as a gut wound.
But sometimes . . . Oh, sometimes you find the ones are broken yet, by the wind and the world. Hold it in your hands. Feel your bones bend <span class="mu-i">different</span>.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:Qno8MkT/ Mon 23 Sep 2024 09:10:18 No. 6109221 Report Quoted By:
>>6109021 They don't like it. But they do like that the payment for profit is sweat and toil - it has a certain fanciful karmatic weight about it. And we can't exactly be punishing people for showing inititiave, anyway - half the Company would be punished all the time.
An outfit like ours don't hold much with the whip or the lash. Too easy to slip away in the night, and too easy to stab your tormentor. No one signs up for this kind of work with the expectation that they'll be beat about by their peers - but two more hours a day of grueling extra work still brings the message home that some things are not entirely acceptable.
Everyone watching takes note. Weigh the odds and ends. Some turn it into a sport - tagging along. Not much else to do here, on these endless lingering evenings, than beat about with swords and footwork.
>Well, they're been disciplined - but they're a hardscrabble lot with excellent stamina, so the one that ends up worse for wear leading the exercise is Wicklighter ! Impressive, the way some people just put on armour and keep going. Phridon !!i3QRqrs+o0C
Rolled 3, 6, 2, 2, 5, 4, 2, 6, 2, 6, 4, 1, 5, 1, 5, 5, 2, 3 = 64 (18d6) >>6109212 >"Hi...Dad...doing great...hmm, no...doing good...making lots of...friends...and some...money...Love...Phridon. Ok, that should do." Write letter to senpai in Pyther. >Duty List: Protocol Observance. [Iconotheurgy 12, Warding 10] Can we tag along with one of the formations in addition to the above actions? If so,
>Join the Windswept Blades on their diplomatic forays. [Stamina 12, Blades 14 (me), Blades 12 (troops), and Influence 11] #Phridon
-
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
-
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
Reputation 1
-
Uniform, DR2
Shortblade, Sharp
Longblade, +1dmg, Sharp
Shield [18HP, 3DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets (actually, there's like 1 coinbit in there)
Whitebone Needles (Wards-12)
-
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Iconotheurgy 12
#Blades 14
#Religious Ritual 11
-
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Hopes and Fears 1
!Well Read
Zivka
>>6109214 If Scarlett agrees, I’m happy to investigate.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:Qno8MkT/ Mon 23 Sep 2024 11:21:31 No. 6109252 Report Rolled 5, 2, 2 = 9 (3d6) >>6109045 While your past record is impressive and all, simply telling everyone what a charmed and concussed life you used to lead was doesn't much tell us what you're trying to draw from the experience.
What you should consider is the skillset you're insisting you have or whatever equipment you might have brought with you - we can make some allowances.
>>6108979 Unfortunately, you don't seem to have any papers that prove anyone wrong, so surely, you cannot have what you claim to have.
>>6109008 Well, three out of six ain't bad for the average academic.
--
Phridon !!i3QRqrs+o0C
>>6108998 >What manner of ill beast is described as a spiteful amalgamation of insectiod horror and imperial ambition? Malichnid? But it could also be a colorful way of describing the Wasponi.
>What government rules that distant realm Vanadia, back over the other side of the Leviathan Sea? The Vanadian Republic. They're a union of city-states or somesuch and all like...democracy?
>What do you call the true name of the Sun? The Empyreal.
>If there are three powers in a room - an Emperor, a Magnate and a Priest - what do these grand Powers offer one soldier with a sword to defend from their peers? Glory, coin, and divine favor, respectively.
>What weighs more, memory or gold coin? Memories command greater weight, being fragments of ones soul.
>What's more important - knowing how to build a bridge or knowing how to bandage a wound? Bridge-building is a grander undertaking. I would assign it greater import.
I swear, I actually read all those books and don't just have them sitting in an untouched stack so I can affect the appearance of a true intellectual. Honest.
Icarus
>>6109220 #Icarus
=Metrics=
Vitality 12 // Stamina 12 // Focus 12
Action 9 // Speed 2
=Stats=
Will 10 // Health 10 // Grit 10
Sense 10 // React 9
Lethality 1d6 // Threshold 1d6
=Kit=
-Equipment-
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Weaver's Whip
-Gear-
(x1) Bit
(x1) Fully Inert Blackstone // (x1) Whitebone needle
(x2) Bandages // (x2) Torches // (x2) Bags of Salt
=Secrets=
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Iconotheurgy12
#Wards12
#Rope13
#Analysis12
=Traits=
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Edges and Insights 1
=Bannermen and Support=
(x6) Spears-11 troopers
(x2) Binding, Warding, Adjuring specialists
> Take the Fully Inert Blackstone. Oh Command.
I have such sights to show you.
(Don't fret. I'll have this truly daunting mountain of recordkeeping streamlined down into something sleek and unobtrusive before the violence begins in earnest.) Jove
>>6109252 'at's easy. Can't be a bombshell w'out Oi's put together roight, see? Same w'an actual bomb, an' stunts, an' me gear. Oi's the very image o' a Consummate Perfessional. Almost wot the 'ighbrows call Workplace Safety, only it's in the name o' may'em, mischief an' menace.
Edward
Rolled 5, 2, 3, 3, 5, 4 = 22 (6d6) >>6109212 You may call me Edward, sir. There is no S in the name.
>Write a letter home, to distant, rainy, Illios My dearest Anne,
I miss the sea. It is so weird to...
>Arms Procurement. There are villages nearby. Surely I can convince these good, kind, backwards people to part with some supplies in a mutually beneficial application of the principles upon the wealth of nations is built. The invisible hand always finds a way. Attempt to bolster my Muskets skill while I'm at it.(Influence 10+2 Fast Talk) #Edward
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
Morale +1
–Stat
Reputation -2
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Harquebus [4d6 Impact, Terror, Malfunction 16+, 3AP Reload, -1Acc per step, +1 Club in melee]
One Memento [Locket with her picture]
1 bit
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
+2 Fast Talk
#Alchemineering 12 [First Aid, Salt, Gas, Smoke, Fire, Oil, Salt, Acid, Stimulant, 1AP=1 point or huck 1d3 with major action]
#Muskets 13
#Small Unit Tactics 11
#Boating 12
#Sea Navigation 12
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Masks and Mettle: If you start adjacent to an ally, they add +1 to all skill tests and speed. Spend 1 AP on behalf of ally
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6109214 >>6109245 I do agree, please investigate
Facsimile
Rolled 5, 3, 4 = 12 (3d6) >>6108841 Command, could I spend my spare bit on that Gleamsprite's Flutter that Icarus found? If not, roll me up a new set please!
>Mobility Kit >Gauntlets >Of Malice and Mirth 1 >Raise 6x Bows >Hire a logistics specialist >Keep gear stowed, blades sharp, Gearwright 12 >Gamble gamble gamble, -2bits +lucky token, +debt >Buy that Gleamsprite? #Facsimile
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 10
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Boostkit, Fuel 4/4, Speed 4
Wispcloak, +1 reaction, major to hide in terrain/cover, move and do at half
Lucky Token
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Empty Pockets
-Secrets
#Gearwright 12
#Filching 10
#Close Quarters 13
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Malice and Mirth 1: Add rank to first skill test if starting unengaged, add rank to reaction if ending engaged
!Sizable Gambling Debt
Zivka
>>6109275 Surely, wound care is more important. Only one trade saves lives!
Phridon !!i3QRqrs+o0C
Quoted By:
>>6109327 A single treated wound may save a life, but a built bridge leads to the flourishing of hundreds, perhaps thousands.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6109327 You don't think bridges save lives? Have you ever lived on the other side of a river from the only clinic or garrison in a hundred miles?
Edward
Quoted By:
>>6109329 I don't understand what the problem is. Do you not have boats in your home?
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 15:38:00 No. 6109332 Report Quoted By:
Rolled 3, 6, 3 = 12 (3d6) >>6109214 >>6109245 >>6109304 The hounds growl and paw the sand, but the troopers spread out under the shade of the trees and check the perimeter. The wind has died down. The air is . . . Thick is the wrong word, but somehow <span class="mu-i">weighted</span>. Six more steps towards the old crumbing walls and it feels like sixty. Scarlett crest a slight rise first and ducks under a old leaning tree. Catches their breath.
Spots a boot, half buried in the sand. Mass produced leather hardheel, type seven, surplus supply from some Reikan force on the Continent. Same boots issued to new recruits.
Catches Zhivka's eye. Points. No one wants to be first but someone eventually has to be. It's not the only pair of boots half buried in the sand, nor, alas, is it only boots out here . . .
>Sense 10, Hounds +2 CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 15:50:22 No. 6109336 Report Recent. Looks like they died tired - water skins are empty and they're short a lot of equipment. Might have tossed it running. >..? >Better check the village >Better report to the Company >Better search this area proper, we might be missing something
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 16:00:30 No. 6109340 Report >>6109323 It's not yours to buy and it wasn't offered to you, recruit - don't go desiring the acroutements of your fellows, that's avarice. These things have a way of finding who they're meant to find, more's the pity.
>>6109303 That's what the Commander swears by too, though he's not Illosi. Grease the wheels, he calls it.
This village back a ways - what four hours or so? - was pretty quiet coming out and might be more quiet now you're coming back from long patrol. But the people there usually keep a thing or two hidden away for a rainy day. They had a large, half abandoned the Commander's been renting as a supply depot.
The trick of it is that sort of thing's bound to draw in hagglers from other villages - if you beat it back there aways it'll be a few hours on foot, but you can call it a patrol and maybe you'll find a market in the making?
>>6109297 A <span class="mu-i">demolitionist</span> is it, by Jove? Figures that skull of yours is thick enough to use a a battering ram. The trick of such consumate professionalism would be something rather akin to this:
!Consumate Professional 1: Sense against an environmental danger and you get additional Def and DR, shareable with 1 AP as you point it out to others.
>>6109294 Thanks. We hate it.
>>6109275 Now five out of six is real academic work and no mistake there, book mind. You've got the making of a Free College mail-in diploma and no mistake!
Alas, there isn't any Wasponi around here - and Malichnids, <span class="mu-i">blessedly</span> are more the types to be in aggregate further inland.
But imagine that. We've got ourselves a <span class="mu-i">thinker</span>.
>+1 Thoughts to you >+1 Paperwork Admin to the Company. >>6109224 "Diplomatic Foray", frankly, is Company-Speak for wandering to small outlying homesteads six hours by foot or more, politely knocking on the door of clannish smallholders and nomad tent camps who do not like outsiders, and then offering to mend fences and round up sheep. Commander Isenfrii swears by it, calls it a hearths and minding campaign, but it's the worst sort of warfare: the kind that risks splinters, angry parents thinking you're here to seduce away their children and having to field a barrage of curiousity from people who do so very rarely get visitors.
It's a long treck. But after spending two days chasing down lost ungulates the tent-leader of one of these mirage like camps only glares at you when you show up. Which must be somehow better than the spitting. Asks if you can bless the tents. The winds been howling hot lately.
You do so.
He ain't convinced that's a proper rite.
You part amicable ways.
>+1 Coinbit >+1 Reputation >+1 Stamina >-1 Grit - what a long haul. Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6109336 >Better check the village Facsimile
Rolled 7, 4 = 11 (2d10) >>6109340 Who, me? Coveting my neighbor's possessions? I wouldn't dream of it - to filch such a precious, pretty, nightmare rock... inconceivable!
Those grapes were probably sour anyways.
>Buy a different wrackstone Zivka
>>6109336 > Back Scarlett. Investigate the village. CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 16:32:56 No. 6109349 Report >>6108962 >>6108979 Luz, Icarus and Phridon sketch out a sigil on the sand with sticks and lines of salt and good natured haggling. Professionals don't catch religion. You shouldn't really <span class="mu-i">believe</span> that invoking these different signs grant amensty from transgressions celestial and pardons for crimes profane.
But . . . you shouldn't really assume it <span class="mu-i">doesn't</span>. It's the Wastes. Ill fortune and worse luck stick to your like bad breath and morning hair, the gaps between intent and action grow vaster, the shadows are too cold, the sun is too warm and sometimes, when you blink, the brief flashes of light behind your eyelids show distant galaxies.
There are . . . signs to be made. Assurances to offer. Little rituals, practiced and rote, that we perform to buy a measure of consideration from things that have no compasion. To the smallholders and villages of this place, these sort of things are so mundane part of life that they do not even enter theology. You wipe your shoes before going inside, you sleep at night, you eat your porridge with salt and you bleed four drops - and never more - on the north facing wall of your hut every six days and then the Wind doesn't steal your fondest memories.
Surviving out here long enough is part practice and part forensic theology, figuring out what parts of old scattered miracles still hold sway and what part you can ignore.
For now, a small dispute must be settled. There are wards and signs to make.
But do we perform the usual checks, unsure they work? Or do we step up our efforts? Ill luck has been prowling lately. The wind is hungry. And recent reports put riders on the horizon, hostile or not so.
Of course the eternal issue is that one cannot barter for free. View it from the other end: Is this what we are going to waste water and salt and time on? Old superstition and half remembered prayers from a language no one even speaks any more?
>...? >Better try the Sunward Prayer - this is a wasteland desert steppe, and the sun does rule supreme here. Nothing to advanced, but mind your vowels. Simple, easy, we know this by rote. >We might want to dig into the water rations and offer some to the hungry ground and the restless Animant King, and all the hierarchies that they command. It'll cost water - and rations - and inevitable someone is going to break a leg, but on the other hand, it might be safer at the moment to pay the trespas toll for setting foot on the earth >Maybe the wind - what's the one, Ashon? Ashi? Ashir? Ashoniti? - should scatter some ash and smoke across the wide horizon. We'll have to light a few pyres and burn something precious, and that might not be the best of ideas. Still, no one's ever gotten in trouble for minding the wind. >Maybe we simply dip the good luck charms in the water barrels and distribute them around, tell everyone to whisper a prayer to whatever they find appropriate? We don't have time for rites and rituals right now - it's time to *move* CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 16:48:46 No. 6109358 Report >>6109345 You're treating things that should make you consider caution with a lackadaiscal attitude that is going to get you smeared over multiple walls or cause you to experience a sharp, sudden stop to your vital processes.
If you let the Wastes and the Wrack too deep into your soul, recruit, you are never going home again.
Icarus
>>6109349 > Hm, well. Of course, there are *other*, less popular Icons waiting out there in the long quiet. > Appealing to Probos to rig the scales of fortune in out favor may allow us to sidestep many minor hardships. > Begging for the willful guidance of the King of Kings Shaunt may reinforce the troop's discipline or imbue the officers with heightened authority. > By presenting a gracious invitation to Tr'drak, perhaps we may be blessed to march in the shade - briefly shrouded from the Eye and the notice of others. Caedo !sJQRTYJUqI
>>6108998 At first glance, perhaps a spitescorp but at the point where we are you could be describing any kind of insectoid and be right
They call themselves Republicains yet we know that Prime Minister Ghellis probably named himself despot for life. Whatever all this nonsense means it hardly makes it democratic. Should've just stayed a monarchy
The Empyreal
Worldly power, material wealth and spiritual fulfillment.
Whichever is in more quanttity at the moment. Both come and go anyway.
These answers are mostly wrong anyway
>>6109210 We'll see
>>6109212 >Personal activity: write a letter home to Pyther (Pytherii yes sir) "Dear Professor Magister..." +1 Rope Skill, Religious Ritual 11 #Caedo
=Metrics=
Vitality 10/12 // Stamina 13 // Focus 13
Action 9 // Speed 2
=Stats=
Will 10 // Health 10 // Grit 10
Sense 10 // React 9
Reputation 1
Lethality 1d6 // Threshold 1d6
=Kit=
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Weaver's Whip
Whitebone needle
1 Bit
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
=Secrets=
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Iconotheurgy12
#Wards12
#Rope14
#Small Unit Tactics 11
#Religious Ritual 11
=Traits=
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Masks and Mettle 1
!Well Read
=Bannermen and Support=
(x6) Blade-11 troopers
(x1) Young but well adjusted expert in Triage, Surgery and medical matters
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 17:42:01 No. 6109387 Report >>6109347 >>6109341 Better check the village - no good leaving someone in trouble.
It's a quant place, sticking to the windsafe side of a large rock eruption like a barnacle on a ship. Though tell the truth, it's probably only Edward around here who even knows what a proper barnacle is meant to be.
Few kids running around when you went trough here last but an hour later and road-sore, you find nothing. Scarlett and the spearmen are flagging, though Zivka manages recently well, all things considered.
>Scarlett Fatigued! >Spearmen Fatigued! >Zivka's Fine Walking, Thanks. Usually, places like this, they have a . . . eh let's not use the word <span class="mu-i">watch</span> or <span class="mu-i">guard</span>, no, that's too formal, too structured, but they have youths with clubs hanging about coincidentally at the roads leading in a ways, the places where strangers meet family, that little subtle perimeter between "out there" and "in here with us". They're not meant to frighten anyone off, just keep an eye on things. Long way to the nearest legion post out here, and all praise be to the Pytherii polity, they probably have enough troubles lately of their own that their overwarked Dispatched Legion troopers don't need to come a-checking for local trouble all that often.
Point being someone should have been here to wave a sullen looking hand at you and beg a few scraps of water and share some news.
There's no one.
Ringposts for animals are empty, though the through is gone, curiously enough. That same tension in the air back a ways. The scraghounds have their heckles raised.
The village proper is still down a fair bit, but there's a building owed by some well-to-do who-even-knows out here, set aside for itself. Quick peek through the windows and a rap on the doors gets nothing, place is deserted.
The wind howls.
This . . . this might not be as normal as it should be. Still, these people keep a bevy of holidays and holy days and other things. Pass-me-down things to do and not do when the mood strikes. Two months ago half the towns we passed through were deserted, it was all kinds of eerie, and then as it happens it turns out that was because everyone had trekked to one of the larger villages for a come-every-century feast and weren't we the fools for coming into the market square guns out swords up armour on and frightening the children half way through their snacks. Egg on our face, tell you what.
Maybe we don't go repeating accidents of improper decorum - Scarlett's WELL MANNERED enough that if we send her in first, she'll charm anyone we come across and we can avoid an incident.
'Course wise then we'll have to send her in first. Maybe tag along a few troopers, for company.
Otherwise maybe there's some other way to figure out what in the Void is going on around here?
Frankly, recruits, I'm out of ideas. This was always going to be a four Banner-leader job, but you're half of the hoped for strength and <span class="mu-i">way out</span> on your lonesomes . . .
>... ??? CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 17:43:41 No. 6109388 Report >>6109373 Those answers are mostly right - and Spitescorps to the score is what you find prowling for your meat.
And stands to reason, eh? Coinclink and memory are both money, but they only weigh you down when you have 'em in <span class="mu-i">excess</span>
See, Caedo? Make an officer of you <span class="mu-i">yet</span>. You're the thinking sort.
>+1 Authority. That's a stat. Edward
>>6109340 Market in the making, perfect. It'll be full of opportunities for someone with entrepreneurial spirit. Do we have anything surplus to trade? No big deal if not, I am confident in my ability to haggle my way up a series of trades, the process is just easier and faster with some seed money.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 17:51:04 No. 6109396 Report >>6109363 Strange patterns to think - strange friends to know by name. We might, at that - but if we go paying homage to Distant Icons we might draw in more than we expect.
Still. Could be done. Modify a larger seance, brush up on your barely remembered Aikani pronoucations, crack a spear and break a shield and bow to the Monarch Who Wills or the Endless Friend.
You're presumably . . . the <span class="mu-i">specialist</span>
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 17:53:56 No. 6109399 Report >>6109394 The troopers' potfill a larger round of seeding if you hadn't been so damn sure insistent on <span class="mu-i">time to march</span> - it's done you no few favours in the friends department.
Though for all that they grouch at least a few of them can figure out the ideal, and aren't we all looking for that one lucky chance to score it big? Beats rinsing Fasci for more coin. Swear they're good for it but we know that's a lie.
>You don't have the rep to really round out a collective or get the quartermasters on your side, but enough pass around gets you one-half Grand Coin, which rates about one-fifty coinbits the standard issue so don't you go be spending that on yourself now, those blade-bound are real into this "receipt" thing. Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6109387 With no signs of conflict or death around, I'm of the mind that those who lived here left voluntarily. How late in the day are we at now? If we've got time, I say we take a break in the shade by the trees or against the building to catch our breath. Afterwards (or if we don't have that much time, skip to) I can go on ahead with a few handpicked tag-alongs who are by my estimation more socially conscious. On the way, I'll give them some pointers for how not to offend these villagers should we happen upon an innocent festival or what have you.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 18:00:25 No. 6109406 Report >>6109401 Sensible and mannered. Sun's dipping, so you'll have to overnight village wise or somewhere rough, it's hours ways back to Base Camp. This is the Descending Glory hours, the long slow orange flicker in the skies, the gradual lengthening of shadows.
Been out here all day. Maybe the villagers - once you find them - won't mind sharing some of their water or supplies? Could be we could use some, starting to build up a sun-headache.
Still no problem calling a rest for a few hours. Good place for it, really. Someone's bound to show eventually.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6109406 Can we expect to reach the village proper after an hour's rest before it gets dark? If not, I say we head straight there, otherwise we can rest here before going on with my initial plan.
Icarus
>>6109396 > Icarus puts his support behind contacting Probos. The theurge is a little foggy on the details of the procedures for invoking this icon, but he's pretty sure he can play things by ear based off half-remembered rumors and a few wild guess-timations.. "Why yes, the shattering of dice with hammers and painting of playing cards is an absolutely integral part of the appeasement ritual.
What's that?
No-no, of course you wouldn't of heard of it before, its a foreign method with a markedly higher success rate.
Where does it originate... uh, its an old Kalcmiri tradition.
Yes, you know how they are with their symbolism and purple prose and such.
You say you grew up in Kalcmiri, never heard of such a thing?
Oh, well, no see that makes sense because of... its, ah the thing, you know...
Look, just trust me, I'm a professional. Now put on this crow mask."
Facsimile
Quoted By:
>>6109358 Command, I WILL experience that sharp, sudden stop to my vital processes that you so elegantly describe IF those debt collectors catch me unprepared. Don't judge me, for my bones are brittle and my pockets empty.
Anyways, I have a feeling this Legion Grain will be cheaper than settling my sizable gambling debt - or maybe I'm just paying a different sort of cost.
>Take Legion Grain, gain Wrackstone 11 #Facsimile
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 10
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Boostkit, Fuel 4/4, Speed 4
Wispcloak, +1 reaction, major to hide in terrain/cover, move and do at half
Lucky Token
Legion Grain, 1AP to deform or major to shape something
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Empty Pockets
-Secrets
#Gearwright 12
#Filching 10
#Close Quarters 13
#Wrackstone 11
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Malice and Mirth 1: Add rank to first skill test if starting unengaged, add rank to reaction if ending engaged
!Sizable Gambling Debt
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 18:54:56 No. 6109444 Report >>6109409 An hour? Recruit - it's .... ten minutes down the road, and that's if you're slow.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Quoted By:
>>6109444 Good to know, guess we'll take an hour's rest before investigating the village. If it's that close, can we see any movement over there, or is it obstructed by terrain?
Phridon !!i3QRqrs+o0C
>>6109349 >Better try the Sunward Prayer - this is a wasteland desert steppe, and the sun does rule supreme here. Nothing to advanced, but mind your vowels. Simple, easy, we know this by rote. Can't go wrong with the good ol Empyreal, if you ask me.
THESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESUN Labrys !Eaz15XcaLg
Rolled 3, 3, 3 = 9 (3d6) >>6108841 >>6109387 #Labrys
-Metrics-
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat-
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit-
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Trapping Kit
Bow, Impales
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets-
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Gearwright 12
#Bows 13
#--?
-Traits-
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Hopes and Fears 1
-Bannermen and Specialists-
(6) Pikemen (Pikes 11)
(2) A Duo charged with Triage, Surgery, and Medical
>Duty: Keeping Gear stowed and Blades sharp (Gearwright 12) >Spending: Hire a professional (-2 Coinbits) "With friendly hands and faces, backed with steel and threats, even a dungeon can be a safe haven."
Edward
Quoted By:
>>6109399 One half grand coin will be more than enough. I was half of a mind to start trading upwards from my 1 bit anyway. Let us demonstrate the art of the deal, shall we?
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 19:41:56 No. 6109472 Report Quoted By:
Finally, a proper lot of modern marching troopers around here. Say what you will about the indefeatigable pike, you get enough of your friends pointing that lot in the right direction and you might straight take on the world itself.
>>6109452 Unfortunately we're direly running out of equipment and supplies, and you'll have noticed we're short on arrows. Sorry, shooter, you'll have to make do with a shortbow and a few crooked arrows.
No thanks to having lost the supply train somewhere back down the road, we're starting to run out of feathers for caps and caps and left handed wrenches. And biscuits, which might actually matter !
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 19:43:57 No. 6109473 Report Finally, a proper lot of modern marching troopers around here. Say what you will about the indefeatigable pike, you get enough of your friends pointing that lot in the right direction and you might straight take on the world itself.
>>6109452 Unfortunately we're direly running out of equipment and supplies, and you'll have noticed we're short on arrows. Sorry, shooter, you'll have to make do with a shortbow and a few crooked arrows.
No thanks to having lost the supply train somewhere back down the road, we're starting to run out of feathers for caps and caps and left handed wrenches. And biscuits, which might actually matter !
--
>Duty listings, final call, finall, anyone not currently attending a Duty Listing can do so now, final call. . . Labrys !Eaz15XcaLg
Quoted By:
Rolled 5, 6, 3, 5, 5, 3 = 27 (6d6) >>6109473 #Labrys
-Metrics-
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat-
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit-
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Trapping Kit
Shortbow
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets-
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Gearwright 12
#Bows 13
#Poetry 12
#Glass-Blowing 12
-Traits-
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Hopes and Fears 1
!Extra Rota
!Well-Mannered
-Bannermen and Specialists-
(6) Pikemen (Pikes 11)
(2) A Duo charged with Triage, Surgery, and Medical
>Personal Action: Write a letter home to Kalcmiri (Gain Glass-Blowing 12) >Duty Listing: Arms Procurement (Gearwright 12, Refit 8+2, Bows 13) "Oh dear. We can't deal with some of our most important troops, and me, not having biscuits, can we?"
Facsimile
Quoted By:
Rolled 3, 4, 4, 2, 5, 6 = 24 (6d6) >>6109473 Yes, I know I'm not a company certified smith - no, honestly, I'll just sort of bend it back together! Look, I'll grab just some stout wood from that tree and - what? Of course it's safe.
>Duty Listing: Arms Procurement, target Stern Ravens, smooth some kinks out of their gear with Legion Grain (Wrackstone 11, Refit 10?) Caedo !sJQRTYJUqI
Quoted By:
>>6109388 Right
>+1 Authority added to sheet Jove
>>6109473 >Join Perimeter Patrols Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Quoted By:
>>6109520 You might want to roll, otherwise you risk getting tested against [6]
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 21:17:42 No. 6109523 Report Quoted By:
Rolled 4, 6, 5 = 15 (3d6) >>6109520 Fair enough, Jove, so that'll be a how-the-wind-goes sort of patrol, eh?
--
<span class="mu-s">Muster Order</span>
. . .
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 21:25:05 No. 6109526 Report Quoted By:
While <span class="mu-s">Jove</span> wanders off to get hopelessly lost and <span class="mu-s">Fascimile</span> breaks some more expensive military equipment and puts our pike formation out of order pending a dire lack of pikes and functional armor, we have some <span class="mu-s">business</span> to attend to. And let's not disturb the Iconotheurgic Specialists. They're doing something with dice and hammers. They must probably know what that's about.
Jove
Rolled 4, 1, 1, 2, 6, 6 = 20 (6d6) vs Logi 12 and Influence 11
Crushfists !dLoHn7SP2o
Rolled 2, 1, 3 = 6 (3d6) ```
>>6108841 >Mobility Kit, blades, Of Cold Winds, Raise Blades, Hire a refit, repairs, refinement specialist >From Rikovol +1 CQC "To his lordship Sword Saint Sato..."
>Keeping the gear stowed and blades sharp (gearwright-12) >Get a better pair of boots #Crushfists
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 3
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 10
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Boostkit, Fuel 4/4, Speed 4
Wispcloak, +1 reaction, major to hide in terrain/cover, move and do at half
Better Pair of Boots
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Gearwright 12
#Closequarters 14 (Rikovol)
#Pathfinding 10
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina and 1 focus (Rikovol)
!Of Cold Winds 1: Unengaged +speed. Engaged +dmg```
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 21:47:23 No. 6109537 Report >>6109527 14 minutes too late, <span class="mu-i">demolitionist</span>. You're off on your own, wandering in the desert, no backup, no map, no canteen, no nothin'
Them's the breaks.
--
<span class="mu-s">Marching Orders</span>
So, here's the map - no big wrackstorm lately, so ain't nothing shifted too much and the readings look somewhat stable so everything should be mostly where you hope it is.
What you are going to do is this:
You are going to pick a destination and make your way there. That's a test of your most applicable skill <span class="mu-s">and</span> our company Logitics.
You are going to nominate someone to <span class="mu-s">take point</span>, either yourself, brave and bold, or any of the troopers who - well - fair bit less likely to fall into an ambush. You might want someone with good SPEED? Keen SENSES?
You are going to suggest a <span class="mu-s">rough</span> marching order for the banners. Maybe you want all the guns up front, or you want all the blades close to hand.
It looks like this:
>Navigate to Rallypoint Midnight Blue (Navigate 12, Logistics 12, I roll 6d6) >I think the Reckless Ashfingers can take point, they're twitchy >I'd like us to be defensive - can we get the spears on the perimeters and the archers bundled near the middle of the column? --
Once you all organise your maps, hash it and the wind as its say, we'll see where we end up. Yeah, this means you might all submit plans and who knows which one takes precedence. It might also mean you hear some good words from some clever soul and decide to go with <span class="mu-i">that</span>, which ought to be a treat.
--
Recruits <span class="mu-s">Edward, Scarlett, Zhivka and Jove</span> needn't worry about THIS part, because Scarlett and Zhivka are off on their lonesome who even knows where, Edward took off with half our pay-chest towards that village an hour and Jove is <span class="mu-s">completely bloody lost</span>.
Scarlett and Zhivka can finish up their plans for the village.
Edward might want to make a Navigation test.
Jove . . . You should pray.
Why in name of all the high heavens didn't you at least pick a map before you done a-wandering straight off in a random direction?
Maybe if you have enough FOCUS you'll find your way back around - you should probably test that, and anything else that comes to mind.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 21:56:27 No. 6109539 Report Quoted By:
We're fresh outta pikes, citing unlicensed repair work.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 22:01:21 No. 6109543 Report >>6109536 You hear that "WAIT FOR ME" on the winds? Yeah, me too - run fast.
Edward
>>6109537 Does Sea navigation apply? A desert is a sea of sand, if one looks at it a certain way.
Crushfists !dLoHn7SP2o
>>6109543 Thats because there was an error sorry about that.
>Mobility Kit, GAUNTLETS, Of Cold Winds, Raise Blades, Hire a refit, repairs, refinement specialist >From Rikovol +1 CQC "To his lordship Sword Saint Sato..."
>Keeping the gear stowed and blades sharp (gearwright-12) >Get a better pair of boots #Crushfists
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 3
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 10
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Boostkit, Fuel 4/4, Speed 4
Wispcloak, +1 reaction, major to hide in terrain/cover, move and do at half
Better Pair of Boots
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Gearwright 12
#Closequarters 14 (Rikovol)
#Pathfinding 10
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina and 1 focus (Rikovol)
!Of Cold Winds 1: Unengaged +speed. Engaged +dmg```
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 22:11:01 No. 6109548 Report >>6109544 If one looks at it a certain way, you riding off with two mules and eight months pay in a saddle bag is the score a life-time, so maybe we should be careful about what sort of perspectives we're using.
Sea Navigation works at sea, Queensman. Get yourself an admiral's hat or stand on a boat and it'll tell you exactly what you ought to know. Unfortunately semi-solid sandy ground ain't the sea, so you're down to luck, hope and your Senses if you ain't got else.
Maybe pick a destination, likewise, though it's apt to be the village.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 22:12:03 No. 6109549 Report Quoted By:
>>6109547 Good man. We can find it in our magnimonious heart to forgive such a thing and I'll even deign to remember your Rikovian cognonem and treat it with the respect it no doubt implies I should, given your chosen style of combat.
Phridon !!i3QRqrs+o0C
>>6109543 Command, I believe my Reputation should be +2, given
>>6108961 and
>>6109340 CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 22:25:41 No. 6109557 Report Quoted By:
>>6109551 Seeing as you're so very on the ball, the first mark of a studious well read type, consider it done and corrected. All the troopers appreciate a pedant.
Well, no. But they do appreciate someone who <span class="mu-i">pays attention</span>.
Edward
Quoted By:
Rolled 3, 3, 6 = 12 (3d6) >>6109548 Score of a lifetime? That's outright thievery, sir, a grave accusation and I shall not have it! There are far better ways to make money without resorting to banditry.
Besides, how could I carry it back to Illios by myself?
I am heading to the village, yes. The explorer's blood that runs in my veins and my Senses 10 will see me safely there and back in time for tea.
Luz
>>6109252 >Joe gave me this chit. Said it went with a blade, but that the blade got sold to Red Market types in exchange for spider food. Lent me a little spider too. Some sort of webspinner. She gets all over the place though, hard to know where she's at. Free spirited that one. And takes to the desert like she was born to it. CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 23:12:22 No. 6109582 Report Quoted By:
>>6109576 Ah, one of <span class="mu-i">those</span> people, eh. This is why sensible outfits have background checks, but of course if we were sensible we wouldn't be marching with the Ice Smile himself.
Well, Luz, congratulations - you can count yourself cursed; add Mistbreath 12 as a Secret.
What does it do? How do you use it? That's a secret too - but we'll let you in on it a little later; there's a whole manual of arms that might show up.
You might want to grab along that ritual knife as well, it'll . . . come in handy.
>Glistening Knife, +1, Sharp, Storage (=Secret) Rion
Rolled 5, 3, 2 = 10 (3d6) >>6108841 #Rion
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
BoostKit: Fuel 4/4 Speed 4
WispCloak: +1 Reaction
Bits of kibble: Animals like more
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Coinbits: 1
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Gearwright 12
#Close Quarters 13
#Pathfinding 10
#--?
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Cold Winds 1
!--?
>Mobility Kit >Gauntlets >Raise: Troops with Bows >Hire: Training and Discipline >Buy: Kibble feed >Dues: Perform perimeter patrol (Pathfinding 10) >Duty list: Perimeter patrol (Pathfinding 10) Let's go and find those supplies >Insist on error: For i clearly an moth school Martial artist Whom has seen the raw potential of the world. Luz
Quoted By:
Sea Sultans are also little imperial creatures of the deep. The principalities of Spiderdom are numerous.
Rion
Rolled 2, 4, 6 = 12 (3d6) >>6109583 Duty list: Perimeter patrol (Pathfinding 10) Let's go and find those supplies
Now with actual dice
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:NodE12/+ Mon 23 Sep 2024 23:23:28 No. 6109592 Report >>6109583 This is why sensible outfits have background checks. When the Client said she'd bring along some associates, we should have asked more questions.
Be nice to the Rikovians. I don't want none of your intercine show-boating under my watch.
>+1 Sense, +1 React >-1 Grit >!The Flow: When you Defend, you perform multiple Step-Dodges. When you attack, targets get -1 skill. Rion
Quoted By:
Rolled 6, 1, 6 = 13 (3d6) >>6109583 >>6109590 One more time.
Jove
Rolled 4, 6, 4, 4, 3, 3, 4, 1, 5 = 34 (9d6) >>6109537 Tell no one your next move, not even y'self.
>Focus 12, orient self >Thoughts 10, find way to friends >Sense 10, notice odd things off the beaten path Luz
Rolled 2, 6, 1, 4, 5, 5 = 23 (6d6) >>6109537 Seeing as we are undergoing a water shortage, propose going to the Oasis first to refill our water. I'm sure it will take something to purify out the Wrack so discuss bringing such things along. Then march west behind the wall to protect us from wrackstorms coming off the fields and make our way to the digsite. Have scouts check out Shadetree along the way. Let the pathfinders take point.
>Navigate to the Oasis (Mistbreath 12, Logistics 12) >Nomiate that person calling themselves Crunchfist to take point >Blades at the outside, less mobile troops such as the muskets and 'pikes' in the middle. Screen with any pathfinders or adventurous mobile types. >>6109349 >Assist in asking Propos for assistance. We've been having a spat of bad luck, so why rely on luck. Sing a cheerful gambler's ditty about how you win some and you lose some and really it's all about knowing when to stand, fold, and run while helping the others rig cards and dice and chanting a silent canticle in my heart about eliminating doubt and finding comfort in certainty. While I'm at it, use my ritual knife to shave my 1 coin so it always lands on heads. Collect the scraps for melting into a new coin. Ask the others if they want me to help them with their loose change. Luz
Zivka
>>6109537 I support Scarlett’s heroic sacrifice, command, and while she handles that I’ll see if the dogs can scent anything useful amongst the derelict- being the only entity not fatigued.
Zivka
Quoted By:
Rolled 4, 4, 2, 1, 2, 6 = 19 (6d6) >>6109543 >>6109628 Suppose I should also roll for what I just said
3d6 vs 12 (Animals)
3d6 vs 10 (Filching)
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6109628 I would recommend against scrounging through someone's property. It puts a damper on relations, which are rather important when we have low supplies and may be facing a guerilla style opponent.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Quoted By:
>>6109637 In fact, I will do everything in my power to stop this short of fighting him. This kind of banditry is the opposite of what we need right now.
Wicklighter
Rolled 1, 2, 2, 6, 1, 5 = 17 (6d6) >>6109210 >-2 Stamina. Oh well, I've gone with less. >+1 React #Wicklighter
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 10 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 10
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Alchemineering Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Longblade - +1 damage, Sharp
1 Coinbit
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 9
#Filching 10
#Alchemineering 12
#CQC 12
#Blades 14
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Malice and Mirth 1: If unengaged, add rank to first skill test. If engaged, add rank to all Reaction tests
!Rikovan: Can spend Focus as I would Stamina, and always regain at least 1 Focus when I Recover
>>6109537 >Navigate to Rally Point Shadetree (Thoughts 9, Logistics 12, 6d6, I don't think I should really be the one navigating). If these are prearranged rally points, there's a decent chance of finding our people at one of them. >Say, Command, !Of Malice and Mirth 1 gives me a +1 to my first skill test when unengaged, yes? And I'm technically unengaged right now, right? I don't suppose Thoughts 10 is on the cards, is it? >Let's have the Sharp Sharps take point. Seems like a good idea to have somebody careful but not overly twitchy going into danger first. >Spears on the perimeter, swords and muskets near them, and bows nested in the middle. Rion
Quoted By:
>>6109592 I'd never act on grudges too good for that besides i punch they punch. If they start something it's on them
Palm of Raging Fire !Nqmso.ZjH2
Palm of Raging Fire !Nqmso.ZjH2 ID:5IMaBNWA Tue 24 Sep 2024 10:50:41 No. 6109840 Report Quoted By:
Rolled 2, 4, 5 = 11 (3d6) >>6108841 Name
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 8
#Influence 10
#CQC 15
#Alchemineering 12
#Pathfinding 10
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Cold Winds 1
!Hot-blooded
>Take the Alchemineering Kit, Gauntlets, Of Cold Winds 1, take remedial combat lessons and end up a little concussed (-1 Thoughts), hire a medical specialist (for my concussion) >Write home to Rikovia, tell the SCHOOL OF THE UNDEFEATED OF RIKOVIA that I am doing fine and honing my fists. >Do a job: Go patrol! That too can count as training! (CQC 15) CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 12:52:00 No. 6109872 Report You hear that on the winds? It's the sound of a sprinting last-gasp recruit running to catch up with the sweep patrol.
Fall, in Palm. Maybe you'll get along with Crushfists, you both being so handsy.
--
Luz <span class="mu-i">briefly</span> considers using a Secret he was <span class="mu-i">specifically instructed to wait to be told how he gets use out off to lead a gaggle of people straight off into nowhere and consequently contrive to get everyone lost.
Wicklighter whispers a blade-prayer and takes over the management of this march order because completely disregarding Command instruction is no way to lead an outfit. Do that again, Recruit, and it's going to get worse for you than mere sass. The Commander runs a tight ship, despite the evident lack of ships.
The Sharps are pretty glad about being up front - less dust that way - and we string out the troopers in the rough resemblance of a spikey hedgehog, all bristling bows and spears and blades along the line of march.
The Stainfingers draw the short straws and form up the rear. They're going to be choking on everyones footfalls for the next long hours. We might want to consider cycling them out and around, or they'll be so sand-sore they'll be good for very little if we ever need them.
--
<span class="mu-s">Rally Point Shadetree</span> is the first point of navigation strung out behind us. Should anyone get lost, that would be the first place to try to navigate to - a few secured tents and buried barrels of medical kit might save a life.
The issueas it happens is twofold:
First, the rally point is empty so no missing supply clerks or lost wanderers here.
Two, eight sealed barrels have been pulled out of the ground beat to bits with breaker tools. A few smashed bits of equipment and some shattered gear is all that remains of this fallback, which tells us all
Three: Rally Points like this are small, marked out places near land marks. But they aren't exactly easy to find unless you know they're there. If someone's been smashing up our kit, cutting into our navigation, they must have found out or been watching us while some troopers set it all up. Chilling thought.
Everyone calls a break and catches a rest. Stretching a little. Raging Palm sourced a few last-minute pikes earlier, so the Stern Ravens catch up with us ten minutes later. Looks like we have a pike formation again.
Phridon briefly considers whether his reputation is as good as thought, and realises that it is, there's simply some small notational difficulty on this interface. What a strange thing for someone to think. Have some more water. That's probably sunstroke, seeping in.
<span class="mu-s">March-Break</span>.
You can suggest a rough marching order, as per
>>6109537 . You can also get up to no good thing otherwise, using one applicable skill and the Company ratings. Might be there's some clues or left over equipment here, or someone you want to give a talking to.
The troops are resting in the shade of the cliffs and enjoying being out of the sun.
>1/x??</span> CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 12:55:57 No. 6109876 Report Quoted By:
Rolled 1, 2, 2, 4, 1, 2 = 12 (6d6) >>6109603 >>6109449 >>6109429 <span class="mu-i">Oh, you gotta know when to fold them, and when to be bold'en, and when to run . . . AWAAAAYYYY</span>
>Before the march... They say it's an ancient prayer 'round the tables in Kalcmir, but though Luz insists Icarus is less certain. But then Icarus is insistent that the Crowmasks are paramount for the ritual, because Probos - like all gamblers - desire shiny things. Should it be magpies, then, Phridon chimes in, shaving coins to help Luz, and well, maybe, but do you ever see magpies out here?
Anyway, lets crush these dice with hammers and sprinkle some water on the sand and be on our way . . .
>Collective Thaumatheurgy 12+1 >Company Warding 10 >This is a standard ritual, no modifier good or ill CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 13:02:04 No. 6109880 Report Quoted By:
<span class="mu-i">Luz strikes a match and the masks burn. Little coils of smoke shear off and away into the high skies. The sun stares down, kindly. >That . . . seems to have worked . . . alright? >Is anyone feeling worse? >No? >We might be fine. >Probonic Invocation added to Thaumatheurgy Manual - you'll notice this later.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 13:19:55 No. 6109884 Report <span class="mu-i">Meanwhile, elsewhere</span>
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 13:29:00 No. 6109889 Report >>6109628 >>6109637 After being admonished not to steal anything - NO, NOT EVEN THAT - Zivka slinks inside the larger village and checks it. Two of the troopers form a backstop and her hound paws in, scenting the air, glad to be out of the sun.
No one's shown up for the last hour, so this might be the only way to get some information.
The building is one of those common types around here, wind-worne bricks and homely corners. Brushed by a hundred hands through the years. A large centrals square room with a few alcove splitting off and a stairway that leads to the roof. Looks well to do, internal furnishings decided. Not. . . disturbed.
The opposite, really. There's a central table of smooth wood with ceramic plates set out for a family of eight, six central pots with a few berries and roots in (local delicacy) and one singular loaf of black bread based on some crushed agricultural product.
Nothing has been touched. But they've put out the good cutlery, it's silver all the way around and sixteen pieces no less. That's impressive, for a place like this. Tempting to filch a few, they'd go for near a coinbit each.
So, what's this then? They prepare what looks like a light meal, pour some water in jugs and pots, lay out the bread, break out the biteroot and the salt, set the plates, decorate the table with a few figures of saints far and fancy, and then . . . collectively get up, walk out and walk away?
The bread is clearly still good. It looks soft, even. Freshly baked. The hound picks up the scent first but as it whines near the alcove in the back there's a small fireplace built right into the wall, which has the low trace of recent fire and bread. Clever artifice really, vents the smoke right out.
Alright, scratch the prior: They spend hours making bread from good stock, laying out plates, finding the nice knives, gathering roots and stingberry, set the chairs, dust the place out and over with the broom in the corner and THEN leave. . . ?
... ???
That frankly does not make it one bit less confusing. It's might be ritualistic but it's also <span class="mu-i">economics</span>. Let's not disdain the hard working frontier settlers, they're literally the salt of the earth, but socioeconomically they can't exactly go around throwin away perfectly good meals on a whim rather often. There's enough food here to feed eight people and be a feast. So where's the feasters?
One of the troopers eyes the bread. He does not lick his lips. But, well, I mean, the implication is there that that's what he'd like to do.
You've got hours till the dark comes in, a ready set table, free roam of a fairly well to do house which clearly has bits worth taking and no trouble. Not the worst thing to have found.
Any other genius plans?
( One of the troopers checks the roof: That's empty too )
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 13:38:10 No. 6109896 Report Quoted By:
From outside the building, a few soft footfalls - one of the troopers stick a head out the door and waves down Edward, rolling up leading a mule loaded down with far too much money.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Wait a second here.
>>6109214 7 men
>>6109336 6 men
>>6109387 7 men
>>6109884 >>6109889 6 men
Did we lose somebody in our initial clearing search and then pick someone back up? And then he disappeared again? Something's not right here. Head back to Zivka and do a headcount.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 13:44:15 No. 6109901 Report >>6109897 Sun-induced paranoia is getting to you, recruit. Everyone is right where you left them - look, count it - we've brought six troopers along and two dogs in excess to Zivka's trained scraghound, and now here's you and Ziv and Martik and . . .
. . .
... Okay but if you <span class="mu-i">find</span> Edward that almost makes up for the fact that you seem to have shed two men and a hound over the last hours. Come on now, what?? That dog was right behind you! But as you peer over and around it certainly isn't <span class="mu-i">now</span>
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 13:58:14 No. 6109905 Report >>6109599 Friends, friends, just find your friends, easy, simple, they're marching in column, so watch for the dust cloud and . . .
You get turned around - somehow you get turned around - and the sun beats down and the lengths grow longer and you backtrack your own steps and find that they lead you in a circle and the Wastes have you in their grasp and you do not have Compass to guide you out and you try to nav by the sun but doesn't help this time and then, oh no, you are off the beaten path, you traverse a dune and step past a rock and quite without meaning to you step into somewhere Else.
The ground beneath your feet shifts. Crunching. Tiny crystals broken by your boot. Sharp, if you're not careful. The sand here drinks blood on slips and tumbles. Bad place to be.
You glance over your shoulder -- no -- it's behind you too. This is how it always happens. Okay, no panic, there's training for this. Orient yourself, breathe out, breathe in, mask on (you did bring a mask, right?) and then simply retrace your steps and be <span class="mu-i">very certain</span> about doing so.
Jagged pillars of warped crystalised stuff cast twin shadows from distant stars across the ground.
The light shimmers different.
A backpack lies in a small undisturbed space, cast off by -- ufh. Poor fellow. Must have been out here during a storm.
You can hear the sharp barks of distant hounds, low, in the back of your mind. A soft laugh. The rattling of a gamblers dice cup.
Mask on.
Don't panic.
Step carefully.
Retrace steps with intent.
And then .... six times out of ten you make it out okay.
Unless of course you do something <span class="mu-i">else</span> ?
Zivka
Rolled 3, 4, 4 = 11 (3d6) >>6109901 Bloody hell.
Set the dogs to the scent of the missing men. Let’s track down our friends- and give these wizard kidnappers a right talking to!
Animals 12
Edward
>>6109901 Why does everyone keep assuming I am deserting? I am here to trade! You have to have something to give if you want to take, civilization cannot advance if everyone wants only to take - no offense to the Uthani, their quaint culture is so fascinating!
Now, you say there's no one in the market? How dreadful, we should investigate forthwith!
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Quoted By:
>>6109945 I support this plan. Let's make doubly sure that we aren't bleeding off stragglers on the way.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6109948 Please don't walk into the market by yourself with all our wages. At least wait until we do some tracking first.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Quoted By:
>>6109950 Actually I think this is another case I feel obligated to put my foot down. Do Not Allow Edward to wander into the village alone with the mule load of valuables. I'm sure the troopers would also take issue with this.
Edward
Quoted By:
>>6109950 It's only half our wages, not all of them. And it is nothing but a stroke of luck that I ran into you. We should, naturally, all stick together in the face of unknown shenanigans until they become known shenanigans.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 15:09:14 No. 6109960 Report Foot comes down. A few specks of sand puffs up. It's probably hard to shout down a fellow who has about as much authority as yourself, but Scarlett makes a try of it.
Edward
Quoted By:
>>6109960 To the village, old chaps!
Jove
Rolled 1, 5, 3, 6, 3, 2, 1, 2, 4 = 27 (9d6) >>6109905 Lookit this numpty touching wot 'e oughtn't. Oi don't truck wif Uvva business, but Oi should see if 'e's wunna ours.
>Thoughts firmly on mundane matters. Focus 12 >Stay put, look at the guy and his bag. Senses 10 >Understand what this indicates about his business and origins. Thoughts 10 CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 15:24:48 No. 6109973 Report Rolled 4, 4, 3, 5, 3, 1 = 20 (6d6) The same path walked before follows the same route. The same dead dog lies in the shimmering heat. One of the scraghounds sniff it, disinterested. The flies buzz away in a cloud.>Senses 10, +2 Hounds >Thoughts 9, Well Read
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 15:40:56 No. 6109981 Report Like most problems, it starts with a corpse.
Zivka
Quoted By:
>>6109981 ‘Cover me.’
Taking one of her many (four) medical Bandages, I try to steal her life away from death. The other two with ranged weapons can stand watch!
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 15:56:59 No. 6109991 Report Quoted By:
plucking of the first finder. They say there's a merchant in a scarf that trades sand for souls. They say there are leviathans, roaming the deeper wastes, vaster than forests.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:xDkDVyc9 Tue 24 Sep 2024 16:11:05 No. 6110000 Report >>6109968 Something seems faintly familiar about the mae of that man's boots and the lines of his uniform. Poor fellow. Some other fortunefinding luck seeker. Must have tried stringing out his wind-shelter or tent beneath the crystal pillar. Rookie mistake. You can still see the metal bit meant for security a flap punctured into the crystal facade, but the wind must have roared out quicker than he thought. He's gone to Wrack now.
The stories always draw them in. The daring and the soon to be dead. They say there's a star out there in the sands, for the plucking of the first finder. They say there's a merchant in a scarf that trades sand for souls. They say there are leviathans, roaming the deeper wastes, vaster than forests. They say there's a lost city, the only city, the one city.
They say a lot of things. You ain't seen none of that lot in all the time you've been here, and most of the scavenge is just archeological artefacts, weird bits of rock and natural ressource deposits mapped and sold to the highest bidder for later exploitation.
That backpack looks vanadian make. Army isse. Probably full of expensive kit worth bringing back to camp. Or coin. Coin is nice. Any lonely soul with boots that good out here could afford the fine stuff, though apparently not caution. Judging by that, that man was light infantry, of some description. Which is curious because your thoughts turn back to the fact his uniform otherwise seems so faintly familiar. It looks . . . No. It <span class="mu-i">is</span>, you can tell form the cloak and the colours. That's a Pytherii style longranging uniform. That dead poor ill fortunate is a well equipped and well stocked long-ranging scout. By your guess from some Nobled House of the Pytherii realm. That would explain the expensive looking boots too. What the void is a Luperni or Cesteriphon or Cerco doing out <span class="mu-i">here?</span>
The wind is picking up. The dice rattling a little harder. Your long lost brother looks out at you from the sands to your right and then ceases to be and wait do you even have a brother?
Could chance it. Get that backpack. Guy might have more stuff on him.
Could try not risking things more than you've already risked today.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6109973 I actually have Thoughts 10, gained the +1 from Of Hopes and Fears
#Scarlett
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Harquebus (4d6 Impact, Likely to Terrorize; Malfunctions 16+; Reload 3 AP; steps give -1 Accuracy; +1 Club in melee)
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Trapping Kit
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Gearwright 12
#Muskets 13
#Poetry 12
#Weaving 12
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Hopes and Fears 1: Add Rank to resist terror; Major action to reroll Will for nearby ally; +1 to Influence and Thoughts
!Well Read
!Well Mannered
Jove
Rolled 2, 3, 5, 2, 5, 2 = 19 (6d6) >>6110000 Ah ye. Mum an' Pa Jove got very busy, let me tell you. Fing is, -Oi's- the long-lost, so this 'ere can sling 'is 'ook.
>Jove knows 'oo Jove is. Focus 12 >Get the pack an' leave. 'Oo wants to look loik a 'Ouser? Don't 'ate em, just don't loik em. Focus 12 Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6109981 Ready my weapon to fire on any that would attack us. (React 9 + Muskets 13)
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6110023 I am not rolling because I presume such a roll would only be necessary were I to shoot, correct?
Containmentcommand !!8Fvg26VLY1I
Containmentcommand !!8Fvg26VLY1I ID:XHPtIgcW Tue 24 Sep 2024 16:54:34 No. 6110029 Report Quoted By:
>>6110015 You’d assume so, but if you remember the fatigue you’ll find it all shapes out rather like it’s meant to.
>>6110024 Correct !
Caedo !sJQRTYJUqI
>>6109872 >NEW MARCHING ORDERS AFTER WE'VE RESTED >>Navigate to Rallypoint Midnight Blue give Rion the Pathfinding/navigating stick >>I think the Blue Rats can take point, they're Lucky 1 time out of 10 >>I'd like us to be marching in the same way except the Rearguard should be cycled Caedo !sJQRTYJUqI
>>6110064 >>6109872 and most importantly
>GO SLOW Caedo !sJQRTYJUqI
Rolled 4, 6, 3, 2, 1, 6 = 22 (6d6) >>6109872 I wish I had stats for you Command alas I can't find them. Rion has Pathfinding-10 and Wicklighter has Logistics 12, that's what we'll use and were going slow for this
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:aVeo20Ue Tue 24 Sep 2024 17:43:24 No. 6110067 Report Quoted By:
>>6110065 >>6110064 No bones thrown makes it against for 4, unless you rectify this within the next six sandblown minutes.
>>6110066 Ah, good. Thank you kindly. As for statistics, we can find those - worry not. Rion’s fine with taking the lead? How noble.
Edward
Quoted By:
>>6109981 I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with Scarlett and ready my gun while Zivka investigates. We don't have nearly enough people for a proper line, but by golly we can try! (React 9 + Muskets 13, !Of Masks and Mettle bonus to Scarlett)
Wicklighter
Rolled 1, 6, 4, 1, 2, 1 = 15 (6d6) #Wicklighter
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 10 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 10
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Alchemineering Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Longblade - +1 damage, Sharp
1 Coinbit
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 9
#Filching 10
#Alchemineering 12
#CQC 12
#Blades 14
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Malice and Mirth 1: If unengaged, add rank to first skill test. If engaged, add rank to all Reaction tests
!Rikovan: Can spend Focus as I would Stamina, and always regain at least 1 Focus when I Recover
>>6109872 While we rest, let's see if we can salvage anything of the broken gear, or anything hidden or missed. We're low, and every bit matters. No point letting it just lie out here, anyway.
>Filching 10 (11?) and RRR 13 I'd like to check the grottoes next, but splitting up and venturing into deep, dark caves seems like a bad idea when there's /clearly/ something malevolent acting against us. Not to mention how long that could take. Instead, it's possible that the old fort would serve as a landmark that the lost might hoof it towards.
>>6110066 Me? That's the company's logistics.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Tue 24 Sep 2024 23:23:57 No. 6110254 Report Quoted By:
>>6110242 We could task a few formations or squads to do it carefully, or send a runner to the main camp and request that Commander Isenfrii send some people to do it. It makes sense to do so - we haven't explored the cave systems, but if someone was hiding out here, this would certainly be a good place for it.
The issue is there's rather a lot of them. Some small, some barely more than a dent in the rock. Odds are we won't find anything, but it pays to bare careful.
Detach some units, if you'd like, or send a runner. Worst comes to worst, it's something else to consider.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Tue 24 Sep 2024 23:35:55 No. 6110261 Report Quoted By:
Rolled 1, 5, 4 = 10 (3d6) Zivka unrolls a roll of spare bandage from their belt, ducks low and sprints out into the cross-roads, sliding down next to the woman. Up close, she seems . . . younger than expected; not a child, but not a matronly elder either. She offers a weak smile and her eyes a dilated wide, a yellow cast to her skin. Some poison of some kind working her way through her system. The bandage won't help, but she does have fairly significant bump on her head and a matted bit of blood in her dark hair that Zivka wraps it around. That's not from her fall here. That's . . . well, it's always hard to tell but it seems like a club wound. As if someone battered her over the head. She's been out in the sun here for hours, hasn't touched the food on the table. She's trying to say something but she's parched and dehydrated and sun-scorched besides, so it all comes out in a croaking moan.>???
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Tue 24 Sep 2024 23:46:53 No. 6110265 Report Quoted By:
Zivka leans in. Offers some water. The woman lunges suddenly, clasps a warm hand around Zivka's wrist and rallies whatever mental fortitude she has to deliver a fairly important warning because whatever else she tries to say it ends in the word <span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-r">TRAP</span></span> and that's as much warning as Scarlett gets before a shape rises on the roof across the road and the whistle of an arrow thrums the air -- two load shots return fire as Edward backs her up but this is a killing ground; one attacker ducks back out of reach and another drops - was that a hit?? how do you tell?? - the Scraghounds bark and roar and snap. Martik, quick on the uptake, hurls his spear and it slam into the facade on the other side of the road and then he goes for his belt long-knife - - ->!!!!!
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Tue 24 Sep 2024 23:57:58 No. 6110272 Report The troopers yelp and unsling their shields, try to get something solid between themselves and the incoming rain of sharp, lethal things - Ekin shoves Edward out the path of a projectile and flinches aside but another slaps into his shoulder and he yells in pain as Scarlett ducks low.>OH VOID >AMBUSH >AMBUSH!!! >FOCUSED TIME
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6110272 Are we being shot at from behind as well? That trooper has an arrow sticking out the back of him, and those white lines seem to be coming from the north.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 00:08:24 No. 6110280 Report Rolled 6, 5, 6 = 17 (3d6) >>6110020 You can crunch your way across the sands. Sometimes, your boot goes right through a surface that's more crystal than it is anything else. You have to pry your feet out with care. Your leathers are torn to shreds. It's starting to dip into your socks, which, heavy though they are, won't stand to this abuse for long.
It takes an hour to walk fifteen or so meters. You pass yourself. You think. Or maybe not. Could all be a mirage. You can taste almonds at the back of your throat. You didn't put on a mask. You didn't ward yourself. You didn't whisper any prayers of protection. You just walked right in.
You've given yourself a lethal dose of Shimmering and about six days to live. It's unfortunate. But that's how it goes sometimes.
When you get your hands around the straps of the backpack, your little finger on your left hand breaks off in a rain of crystalized rainbow shards. The backpack itself fits well on your shoulder. Like it was meant to be there. Like it was always going to be there. As if it had no choice. Unlike you rapidly disintegrating integrity the backpack is not Wracked, not so changed, no shimmering. It's not animate, no mind there for things to cling too. It takes longer for the Else to seep in.
Vanadian style, but the man - up close - yes, he's a Luperni, one of those Pytherii Nobled House, all trade estates and families and deals and money and plans. What's he doing out here? This isn't their territory, not by a long shot, and though they pay their operatives and agents well they don't pay them suicide-by-shimmer money. What's left of his clothes are fine. He hasn't been here long. Let's call it two days? Though measuring time this way is hard. What's a Pytherii doing with a Vanadian military backpack? Why is he dead? Questions - questions - the other Jove here with you shrugs. He doesn't know either. Sometimes, you just find mysteries in the sands for no good reason. A bead of sweat rolls down your forehead and turns to rock by the time it clings to the end of your nose. You shake your head and a spray of tiny pebbles land in the sand around you.
Maybe six days is optimistic.
>. . . is it? CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 00:15:16 No. 6110282 Report Quoted By:
>>6110280 You push out the way you came in - straight ahead. It's the most reasonable cause of action in situations like this. It's not like it can get any worse. Your sword breaks away into a flutter of ants. You aren't surprised. You don't even own a sword. It might not even be yours. It's probably the blade of some other Jove, one of the ones wandering besides you, pointing the way out. Somewhere beyond the quick four kilometer march you came in by.
Yeah.
. . . Six days was optimistic. Something <span class="mu-i">catches</span> in your throat as you breathe in, a rigidity that wasn't there before.
Well.
Hm.
Hope mum's alright. Commander's a good sport. He'll make sure she gets any overdue wage and pension and whatnot. You got a feeling you're not going to get to collect on that stuff.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 00:19:57 No. 6110287 Report Quoted By:
Just gotta . . . find a doctor . . . medical . . . specialist . . . company . . . emergency warding by professionals . . . abjurat. . . mhm. . . well . . . maybe past the . . . next . . . dune . . .
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 00:37:21 No. 6110295 Report <span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-b">OI. What's that?</span></span>>We'll continue on our way to Rally Point Midnight Blue, unless adjusted.
Luz
Rolled 2, 5, 5 = 12 (3d6) >6110295
>Twist the man's luck so that he becomes fated to survives this wrack and emerge as one of the wrack-wrought. <Mistbreath 12
Voice of Self-Preservation: "No, not that one. That doesn't even make sense".
<Probonic Invocation
Voice of Self-Preservation: "No, not that one either. You don't have a skill value for it or understand how it works. Try again".
>Iconotheurgy 12 Voice of Self-Preservation: "Fine. Go ahead. Remember to wash your hands afterwards".
Luz
Quoted By:
Hey look, it's another 12. I've been told that's good. Living on the edge like.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 00:54:48 No. 6110305 Report ... <span class="mu-i">huh</span>. Strange lucky find, Rats. Anyone speak ... code? This doesn't look that complicated, it has a repeating pattern. Must have been done in a hurry.
Anonymous
>>6110295 > Icarus absolutely insists on not allowing Jove past the camp's outer perimeter. The wrack-cursed fool is emitting absurd levels of background Potentiality. To the point that the phenomena is literally visible to the naked eye, you can see the rainbows refracting off the geometry of his soul. He needs to be quarantined away from people, and object with overly colorful histories, and errant NOTIONS. Icarus might be able to siphon away the Potentiality diluting and decohering Jove's very existence using his Fully Inert Blackstone, perhaps saving his life. He'll also need to go through decontamination to ensure that nothing exotic or *transcendent* gets tracked back into camp. Icarus will also need wards, and salt, and water, and perhaps assistance for the other Iconotheurges. Anonymous
Quoted By:
Rolled 5, 4, 5 = 14 (3d6) >>6110306 Probos, Join me in admiring the bones roll.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 00:58:05 No. 6110308 Report >>6110274 You spin around (1 Speed) and check behind you (1 AP, Sense) and get a good, solid read of the situation (1 AP, Thoughts)
Looks like they're behind you too - except that lot of them forming up near the entrance to the village itself appears to have short, wicked looking blades.
1 Speed
5 AP left, Scarlett.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6110305 It's a shame I'm not with the camp right now, otherwise I might decode this as:
CadreCommand expect she's embedded with the Isenfrii Fr
Company and have hired them to extract a fireglass node.
Houondmaster wants her alive but the Company is expend
the Windsworn by edge of the low gradient shimmerfiektby the
village of Clayin, brief them on the acquisition protocol and
double their usual fee. They can have anything that's not the
Atlas. Lunar will be with them. She'll have more information.
CadreCommand suggests getting the team to sabotage the caches the
Company has been baying out. If can avoid a diplomatic
incident that would be preferable, so let them eat dust and
choke out. That way we don't have to explain half a theusand
corpses - onc they tire out, possibly extract the Atlas without
the Windsw Your prerogative. If that doesn't work, Lunar
takes local orders. If at any point it appears they're attempting
The Luperni must be getting lazy, only using a two-separated substitution cipher.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 01:10:23 No. 6110315 Report >>6110306 >>6110301 You're right - better safe than sorry. This looks like a truly <span class="mu-s">staggering</span> amount of Threshold contamination - he's bleeding fractal lives and shimmering into pregrets.
We'll need to call a <span class="mu-s">HALT</span> if we're to set up a proper ward circle. Anything less and there's feedback risk. Or we might draw the wrong kind of attention.
It'd be kinder just to slit his throat and be done with it, but we might have the specialists to affectuate a emergency grounding of all this errant intention toxicity.
Icarus
>>6110315 Ultimately up to the boss.
Our Itinerary will get pushed back if you try to save Jove, but on the other hand - assuming he survives - you may end up with a freak of nature that's much more (or less) than human on the company's payroll. Having a wildcard is always useful.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 01:28:05 No. 6110328 Report >>6110322 Sacrificing lives for the sake of a timetable isn't Commander Isenfrii's preference. Rumour has it that's why he mustered out of the army.
Our current tasking is a long range patrol. We're not on a schedule, as such. Though . . . If we linger here, and we know there's oddities around, it's likely this will come at cost of other things. If anyone is out at Rally Point Midnight maybe they need our help? Seems unlikely yet stranger things have happened.
It's all theoretical anyway. We'd need some way to ground the bleed, something to siphon the Potential to and something to fight the Wrack. It's complicated work with a slim chance of success.
Wicklighter
>>6110314 While Scarlett would've beaten him to it, Wicklighter's been scratching the cipher into the sand (with the help of some shields as a windbreaker).
"This letter confirms it!" Wicklighter shouts gruffly to the other officers, interrupting the proceedings over the Wracked man, "Someone's on our trail, and they want us to starve out instead of having the will to strike us down themselves! The Windsworn! They must be who wrecked that last rallypoint cache! Chances are the other caches are gone too, and our stragglers we're out looking for are already dead or-"
Wicklighter pauses, then swears up a storm. "Someone left just before us, headed to the nearby village with half a chest of coin! Edwins or something! It might not be too late for him and however much of our pay he has with him! If you thaumatheurges really want to make a go of saving that poor bleeder, we'll split, but either way we've gotta doubletime it to that village!"
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 02:15:46 No. 6110355 Report >>6110335 <span class="mu-s">!!!</span>
Curses and stinking corpses, swordthoughts, you're <span class="mu-i">right</span>. If we gather around for a proper ward and getting Jove square away, we're leaving anyone in that village to fend for themselves and that includes eight months pay on a mule for trading purposes. That's going to be a right nightmare. How will we settle Fascimile's gambling debts without that?
The troopers won't like it one bit. Good work on that cipher. Must have been written quick, it was relatively simple to crack. Mind like a blade, yeah?
Listen, <span class="mu-s">recruits</span> this might get dicey - the longer we wait here, the better we can set up a ritual. But we're not making it to that village OR the rally point if we're sitting here doing medical work.
We might need to make a few decisions or, or, worse come to it . . . split up. We could send some of the fleeter people on ahead; archers, blades, spears, they're fast enough on their footwork. Anyone tag along as a leader. Then the thaumatheurges can ward things proper and try to stabilize Jove.
Or, then again, what are the odds the village is in trouble? Bet you Edward and Scarlett and Ziv's slumming it with the locals, charming sons and daughters, drinking ale in the shade <span class="mu-i">right now</span>.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 02:18:07 No. 6110358 Report Quoted By:
<span class="mu-i">meanwhile, elsewhere</span>
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 02:20:00 No. 6110361 Report >>6110355 <span class="mu-i">right now.</span>.
Look, just because we've found one weird cipher in a backpack luckily is no reason to go panicking. Support team? Code names? CadreCommand? This is all starting to sound a little abstractly political. I'm sure it won't be so problematic.
Maybe we can simply take it easy, crack a water barrel, sketch a eight layer ward and try to fix whatever happened to Jove. Camp out here for the night. There's not much shade but there's not much anything, really. Good wind cover through the nearby dunes. Should be fine.
Icarus
>>6110328 Bah. No need to overcomplicate things.
If my Fully Inert Blackstone can't serve as adequate containment for the ambient Potential in and of itself, why not just channel it into a random boulder or shrub.
Choose a suitable (non-human) corporeal vessel, ward that thing to the Voidstar and back, carefully pour the nightmare reality acid into it, and then run like hell.
> Something to fight the Wrack Eh, lets just force-feed Jove a couple fistfuls of salt, dust any crystal grains off his clothes, dump a bucket of water over his head, and assign him a month of latrine duty after the procedure is through.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:2L+FNb/Q Wed 25 Sep 2024 02:44:14 No. 6110377 Report >>6110370 Yeah that sounds like that'd do it. What's the worst that can happen?
If we have a Blackstone that actually functions with a high enough absorption level that might ... might! ... work.
Luz and Phridon gets ready, you find a barrel of water we get some salt on the man and we get him a new uniform and burn the last one, we link and force a transference . . .
Are you . . . sure about this? Hmh... Well. You are the Specialist. And that Probos Invocation worked . . . fine. I think?
>Here's half the manual for field Iconotheurgy >What's the process and the rolls for the procedure you describe? >Don't worry about AP cost - you can concievably work over a long enough time line. >Any other Thaumatheurges with good ideas can chime in too. Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
>>6110308 >1 AP: "Everyone follow me! Inside and bar the doors!" >1 Speed, 1 AP: get inside the building to my 23 ish (East, right from the player perspective, also to the right of my character facing in the pic I am replying to, pic related) >3 AP: Close and lock/bar the door once everyone that is coming inside is inside #Scarlett
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9(7) Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Harquebus (4d6 Impact, Likely to Terrorize; Malfunctions 16+; Reload 3 AP; steps give -1 Accuracy; +1 Club in melee)
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Trapping Kit
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Gearwright 12
#Muskets 13
#Poetry 12
#Weaving 12
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Hopes and Fears 1: Add Rank to resist terror; Major action to reroll Will for nearby ally; +1 to Influence and Thoughts
!Well Read
!Well Mannered
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Quoted By:
>>6110425 Once everyone *that is not an enemy*
Zivka
>>6110308 Zivka
Vitality 9 Stamina 9 Focus 9
Action 9 Speed 1+1
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9, Reputation -2
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield & Axe
Ranging Kit
Tattercloak Quiver
Weather Cloak (Morale 1, Weather Resist 2)
Good Boots
4 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
More Pockets
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Animalfriend 12
#Bows 12
#Axes 13
#Filching 10
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Hopes and Fears 1
!I’ll Walk, Thanks
Haha!
> 1AP: Tell the scraghounds to sprint off and find help. > 3AP: Cut the woman loose, and pick her up. > 5 AP, 2 Speed: Hustle into the building. Spend Stamina if absolutely necessary to make the distance- I shouldn’t think it’s that far, however.
‘No one touch the furniture! And *don’t* eat the food!’
Wicklighter
Rolled 5, 6, 5, 3, 6, 5 = 30 (6d6) >>6110361 Maybe so, Command, but I'd still rather not risk it. If they're fine in the village, we can warn them about the danger and either bring them back to the contingent or stick around for strength in numbers if they've got urgent business.
I'd like to propose a marching order.
>Leave behind the Stern Ravens, Quiet Stainfingers, Reckless Ashfingers, Solemn Powderhands, Haunted Sharpshooters, Fresheyed Archers, Sunstained Spears, Bound Blades, Slick Slicers, officers with Thaumatheurge kits, and any officer who doesn't witsh to join me >Bring along the Sharp Sharps, Ironwrought Banners, Coldeyed Archers, Windsore Archers, Windswept Blades, Slick Slicers, Eager Edges, Blue Rats, myself, Crushfists and any officer who wishes to join me >Navigate to Unremarkable Village (Crushfists Pathfinding 10, Logistics 12, a Pathfinding 10 is probably better than Thoughts 10 or even Thoughts 11 for navigation) >Crushfists can take point. He's fast, and it makes sense for the pathfinder to be in front anyway. Right behind him should be the Coldeyed Archers, whose initiative may be needed >Swords up front, they'll be handy if worst comes to worst and we run face-first into an enemy in the village Wicklighter
Quoted By:
>>6110436 Ha, there go my dice
Zivka
>>6110433 Spend three stamina to make cutting her loose and picking up separate actions, as I’ve been told that otherwise, it will go rather awry.
Jove
Rolled 1, 2, 3 = 6 (3d6) Jove is Jove, an' there ain't no Jove but Jove.>Rally all tautological stubbornness. Jove knows 'oo 'e is, an' 'e don't will his redefinition. 'oo is the Wrack to compel 'im? Didn't even punch 'im! Focus 12 >But the wiggly-finger funny-talkers can 'elp too Oi guess.
Wicklighter
I don't suppose anyone wants to propose a similar marching order to mine on the off chance that the second go around doesn't have diabolically bad rolls?
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:iL1op1Mn Wed 25 Sep 2024 10:16:07 No. 6110585 Report >>6110441 Have you? Strange voices you’ve been listening to, softsoul. We certainly have said not a thing.
>>6110536 It’s a larger operation where the outcome is the average of all the effort invested. Done this way, you can compensate if you see others make a mistake or try to account for difficulties if you spot someone has a good idea but bungle the execution.
Rion
>>6110451 "Great job Jove but do try being bit more specific. Generally holding on to what and who you are is good. But more detailed you can be could help you to keep the smaller bits you of you unchanged."
Rion
Rolled 5, 2, 2 = 9 (3d6) >>6110436 Hop on with the boys.
Using (Pathfinding 10)
Time to help where i can.
Icarus
Rolled 4, 4, 1 = 9 (3d6) >>6110377 > With salt and water, Icarus carves the configuration displayed in the image into the earth, fills each line with salt, and then soddens the salt to water. Essentially, the hope is that this ward construct will help the Casters (Iconotheurges) to Shunt the excess Potentiality from the Source (Jove) into the Vessel (Blackstone) in a relatively safe and coordinated manner. Any other theurges who wish to enhance or build upon this outline are welcomed to. Any assistance will be appreciated, but gawkers should stand well clear... in fact, you may want to avert your eyes and find something extremely sturdy to stand behind - just in case.
Mobile Wicklighter
Quoted By:
>>6110585 Understood, Command. Hopefully the others can help me (and poor Crushfists. On whose behalf I rolled so terribly) out here.
>>6110593 Oh yes, /that/ way is south. Right you are, coppersoul, right you are.
Jove
Rolled 3, 2, 3 = 8 (3d6) >>6110590 Ye, doc? Awroight.
Jove's a thug. Jove always pays 'is debts, except to society. Jove don't care to list 'is vices, but a good scrap's among 'em an' the stimmies ain't. Jove learned prim an' propah speech from a boss o' 'is once, but 'e didn't loik it. Made 'im fink different. Jove don't much loik finkin' inna first place. A future legend just does it all roight, see?
>Wrack may not loik it, but this is peak performance. If it really finks it can improve on perfection, why don't it make anuvva Jove an' we settle this propah? Focus 12 (Incidentally, manifesting such an incredible if slightly lesser specimen should soak up a good deal of Potentiality.) CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:YMkDkjs/ Wed 25 Sep 2024 11:46:47 No. 6110616 Report Quoted By:
>>6110603 Well well well. If that ain’t a classic Hoodin Transference Circuit with double-layered external wards unless I miss my read. Didn’t know we were dealing with a [i:lit]scholar[/i:lit]. I tip my head to you in respect as I run for cover.
You’ve got an awry tangle of luck in the north-northeast barrier line. Though I see you’ve improvised a direct Source-Vessel link and shaved time off by foregoing the usual Absorbs. Clever, if a little reckless… If we get overflow or Threads they’ll have nowhere to go. Does maintain the process purity and is easier to sustain so I see the trick of it. Still, there’s a quick fix, we’ll get another two water barrels over here and…
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:YMkDkjs/ Wed 25 Sep 2024 12:30:23 No. 6110633 Report The troopers bust out the shovels and throw up an impromptu blast barrier to dive behind, a few others bring up water barrels and spare bags of salt. Icarus sketches his lines. The wind howls . . .
>You are trying an impromptu field ritual to stabilise a dying man. Any Thaumatheurge that wishes to assist can do so - you might wish to point out how, and read up on the proposed path of solution: >>6110603 Wicklighter and Crushfists are leading the rest of the Company off to the Village to secure the mule with money that Edward brought there - if you'd rather be with them, that's acceptable too and you can note this as a free action.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:YMkDkjs/ Wed 25 Sep 2024 12:34:59 No. 6110635 Report Quoted By:
Rolled 6, 4, 2 = 12 (3d6) >>6110593 Crushfists takes point and the blades fall in behind him, Rion checking a map and reminding Wicklighter to turn theirs around. Ah - right. That's . . . what's down that a way.
The village is not remarkable, nor is it really far. An hour of good march. It's pleasant enough terrain. The Iconotheurges and other half of the Company will catch up and you can all meet in the village. Which is a good plan anyway, thinks Wicklighter, because they're local, friendly and have both shade, shadows, succour and supplies. No bad place to rest. And if we do one of those Hearths and Minding things Commander Isenfrii so likes, it's possible any locals we come across can tell us more about this cipher we found and any movements of large groups they've seen around. Maybe find out who the Windsworn are, if they're dangerous enough to be mentioned by name in encrypted communications.
>Wastewrack Modifier, stable conditions, -6 Phridon !!i3QRqrs+o0C
Rolled 6, 2, 5, 3, 5, 1 = 22 (6d6) >>6110633 Have I ever read about anything of the sort? That man looks wrack'd out, alright. Is there any way in which Icarus' ritual can be modified to be more effective?
>Testing Thoughts 11. >Contingent on the above, I will help out. [Iconotheurgy 12] Sheet's fixed, btw. Idk where the idea that I had picked Blades instead of Spears came from, Command.
#Phridon
-
Vitality 12 Stamina 13 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
-
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 9 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
Reputation 2
-
Uniform, DR2
Shortblade, Sharp
Spear, Reach 2, Impales, Throwable
Shield [18HP, 3DR, +2Def]
Pockets with 2 entire coinbits!!!
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Whitebone Needles (Wards-12)
-
#Thoughts 11
#Influence 11
#Iconotheurgy 12
#Spears 14
#Religious Ritual 11
-
!Through Clenched Teeth 1
!Of Hopes and Fears 1
!Well Read
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:YMkDkjs/ Wed 25 Sep 2024 12:55:25 No. 6110640 Report With a snapped command from Zivka the scraghounds tear off, bearing a message, barking loudly to draw arrow fire as trained many times. The sleek furry things are hard to hit at the speed they're leaping, and they bound down the side-passage and clip through an alley around the spearmen forming up behind you.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:YMkDkjs/ Wed 25 Sep 2024 13:04:41 No. 6110644 Report Quoted By:
We slam the doors. Bar them. Good, solid wood. The world narrows to a point. One of the troopers shouts out he's found the stairs to the roof and sealed the internal hatch. A few loud THUMP THUMP THUMP noises indicate the boots the men above are bringing down, but the noise fades quick. They saw our guns. Our spears. They have no desire to attack a building sheltered armed opponents in a fortified position. Taking anything by storm is a bad idea, to be used only if you have no other option. They could smoke you out, perhaps. But . .. the building is nicely decorated. Stout stone walls. Very little wood. Wouldn't burn well. Of course, enough combustibles against the side of the door and the smoke will do you in. But that takes time. So for now, you live. You catch your breath. The adrenaline pounds and then it settles.
Zivka
Quoted By:
*’Don’t touch the damned food!’*
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:YMkDkjs/ Wed 25 Sep 2024 13:17:02 No. 6110651 Report A few more seconds pass. A trio of thumps roar out again, the roof-men testing the hatch. It holds. It'll hold for hours. They had bows, not axes, and breaking something like this with your bare hands is the work of stubborn fools like Jove and six hours of splinters.
Zivka
Quoted By:
>>6110651 > Give the woman some of my water. What the fresh hell is going on here?
Edward
Quoted By:
>>6110651 >First Aid the wounded (Alchemineering 12) Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Quoted By:
>>6110640 Ah, such a shame the inhabitants we had zero clue or inclination were actually present in the village we thought was a total ghost town only bid us enter the warehouse we had no reason to believe was secure and plenty to believe was a liability only revealed their presence and bid us enter after we had already entered another building. If we *had* known it was a stout, secure long-term warehouse with friendlies inside who would help us I'm sure the calculus would have been different. No matter, the building we did end up fleeing into with the best information we had at the time seems plenty sufficient.
>>6110651 After she is provided water, ask the woman if there is a reason, perhaps some kind of spiritual or ritual thing, that we shouldn't eat the food and water on the table should our hunger and thirst grow too much while we are here.
Also reload my weapon.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:YMkDkjs/ Wed 25 Sep 2024 17:02:58 No. 6110724 Report Fortunately, bandages are standard issue though when Scarlett starts talking to herself we know a simple bandage won't be enough to fix. Ziva offers some water. The woman takes it. Cherishes it. Slumps a little in the chair, not as rigidly poised now that she realises you aren't like the last lot. She doesn't look like any village local. They do bread their hair, like her, but they don't wear travel clothes with deep pockets and a few tactical inserts of metal to ward of the errant blow. >We exhaust a bandage, though luckily Zivka brought extra. >We exhaust some water >The house seeem defensible enough, though there's no way to know what they're doing out there.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:moE+C7N+ Wed 25 Sep 2024 18:04:48 No. 6110743 Report Quoted By:
>>6110436 >>6110593 Leaving the Iconotheurges to their doing and the slower elements behind, Rion beats a steady pace towards the distant village. Civilization has its draws. As you close in on it, an hour or so later, the road you've only been dimly aware of beneath your feet slowly solidifies and the endless craggy landscape and soft sand yields to human hand. Slowly. Very slowly. Some walls are crumbing. Fences are broken. The sand rolls in. The cliffs loom. It is a harsh place out here, beautiful in its way, austere, but not exactly welcoming. Though it may bend to human artifice and will, it will slowly seek to slip free too.
It's been a steady clip. Can't say anyone is running out of water or falling over from heatstroke yet. Maybe all the marching out and the heavy work has done you all some collective good.
Swaying on the soft wind, a few fields of some vegetable sprout. Hardscrabble things. Chewy. It's a wonder they can even coax it from the earth. But to Stalwarts eyes it looks a nice enough feast, if one had inclination towards an agricultural lifestyle . . .
There's usually at least someone tending the fields but today it seems abandoned. Maybe they're all in the village. Edward went on ahead, after all, to make markets. Maybe he drew them in, all curious.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:moE+C7N+ Wed 25 Sep 2024 18:12:57 No. 6110744 Report And then, bounding up the path at speed, a scraghound with a Company collar, a soft silken touch to its fur and an arrow sticking out of its back leg comes bounding at speed, tumbling in the sand, and then rolling to its feet again to keep going. Dedicated little thing, aren't they. Once you train them and they bond, they're friends with you for life.>Marching officers can respond? If they'd like to?
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:moE+C7N+ Wed 25 Sep 2024 18:27:52 No. 6110750 Report Quoted By:
Rolled 2, 6, 6, 5, 3, 6 = 28 (6d6) The troopers dive for cover and spread out over the landscape, dipping into what shelter is available. A few of them wander off to form a proper perimeter guard and leave the speciaists to work. Aleksin checks the calculations. Someone else brings up another water barrel as Icarus digs out the lines in the sand and carefully readies them for work. Theoretically this is all sound. A perfectly normal transference field. >. . .??? >Warded, +1 >This Is Not Going To Go Well, -10 >Massive Shimmer Exposure, -10 >Warding 12, Specialists 10, Good Back Up, +2 >Loose Conditions, -4 >Warding 12 - 21 (Personal), Warding 10 - 21 (Company)
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:moE+C7N+ Wed 25 Sep 2024 18:54:25 No. 6110761 Report Quoted By:
Success! We're still alive!
>>6110637 >>6110603 >>6110301 The bound up wards and the salt lines held, and vented most of the feedback into the loops to contain it and bleed it slowly. Top notch theoretical sigildry, people. Unfortunately, the wind changed a little and the flurry of sand it kicked across the ward-lines got caught in the matrice and blew out the inhibitors so the water barrels started absorbing vast Threshold locality and flash-converted to two pairs of fragmentary steam-bursts. Luckily, it was all vented away from the practicioners and harmlessly into the desert. If anyone had been standing nearby that would have been like being hit with cannister shot. A bad time.
And look, the blackstone at the centre. It's faintly humming. That's new? That's . . . unprecented! Its absorbed true and pure Potential itself, the very stuff that dreams are made of! Can it even hold it? How? It's . . . changing colour?? Blackstones don't do that, the blackness is because they absorb so much-- nevermind the physics. We're alive!
>>6110610 >>6110451 Unfortunately, the patient keeps insisting on doing something he has no understanding of, in relation to a thing he has no comprehension of, for reasons he cannot conceptualise and instead of prayer, warding, salt, or seeking assistance with the specialists who has this as a job, this enormously underqualified amateur keeps trying to think he can somehow command the forces of the universe with enough moxie and willpower. And while that's certainly impressive and all, it gets you absolutely not one single shred of leeway out here.
The field collapses back down, the wards are blown out, and Jove has been split out across a multitude of dimensional fractals, his voice reverberating in echo with himself, each blurry hand only tangentially related to the material mundanity we find ourselves embedded with.
Let this be a teachable moment for the Company at large. As the scouts keep saying:
You take the long way around Shimmering Fields.
And if the Iconotheurgic Abjuration Specialists would allow themselves the time to add a few words, it might be something akin to "there is a reason we train for five years to do what we do and have specialist equipment. You can't copy it with raw guts and a plucky attitude, though it's commendable to try. You simply do not know the forces you are dealing with and they do not act like you think they would".
But that's a very long winded way of saying MAKE NO OATH, SWEAR NO DEAL, so we'll simply let it slide.
If you ever find yourself in a situation like this:
WEAR YOUR MASK
CHECK YOUR FILTERS
EAT YOUR PILLS
THINK QUIETLY
And once you're out of it, GET THEE TO A SPECIALIST. The more you feed the Wrack, the more it is fed. The more you are aware of it, or have it in your soul, the larger the hold grows. Acknowledging it at all is the first step towards the root it'll take in you.
Someone get a stretcher for Jove. We'll... well. Maybe it wears off?
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:moE+C7N+ Wed 25 Sep 2024 19:10:15 No. 6110768 Report >Icarus acquires a Energised Blackstone >Well well well >Haven't had one of these around here for the last three centuries and a half. You know that's Contraband under the Accords Sunlit? Not that there's anyone around to enforce it, haven't been for a few centuries but it's the principle of the thing. It doesn't seem so different from the blackstone you held an hour ago, before this whole affair began. Except . . . for the one thing. You can hear a very subtle humming and feel the most gentle of all pressures.
And it has one specific and somewhat relevant effect.
Blackstones absorb elemental energies. Then they release them. You never get out more than you put in. Well.
Except if the Blackstone is energised. Then the relationship between input and output gets a little . . . variable.
Icarus feels strangely certain with a little bit of Focus he can probably nudge the output up, spending Focus to bolster what gets slung out. Perhaps if one took a Major Action using Focus alone, to release energy, something curious would occur?
--
>>6110610 Jove gets six months medical leave, a full pension and his backdated wages. And the subtle issue of most of your hands never doing what you want them to do and not being where you want them to be.
You can muster out, and we will inform you how to send in another recruit, or you can pretend that everything is as it should be and continue as is, but it might not be a very pleasant path.
Jove adjusts their existence . . .
>-2 Health >-2 Stamina >-2 Focus >-2 Grit >-2 Lethality (it becomes1d6-2) >+2 Threshold (It becomes 1d6+2) >+2 React >Gain a trait !On Borrowed Time Sorry fella. Some things you don't sleep off.
>Gain a trait !Uncontrollable Splitting, 11 Sometimes you just ... have more Joves.
>Gain a trait! !Multiplicities 2 Sometimes you just ... have more stuff.
The Company Doctors recommend you go take a long lie down and the early cash out bonus.
--
The company specialists brush up on their ward work. Impressive showing.
Luz, Icarus, Caedo, Phridon gain +1 Wards. This means your ward with kit is 13, and without, your Ward-Secrets are now considered trained, so gain access to the Secret at 10.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:moE+C7N+ Wed 25 Sep 2024 19:25:13 No. 6110769 Report The world feels fraught. Sandpapered over. A Jove breaks out of the ward and sprints screaming into nowhere, disappearing in the distance both literally and metaphorically.>... well now what?
Icarus
>>6110769 Hm. Probably best to cleanse the area.
We're likely going to be operating in this area for a while yet.
Don't want to add Otherborne visitations and Extraplanar scavengers to our list of concerns.
Should be reasonably light work compared to what we just went through, uninterrupted too judging from the combative cacophony emanating from town.
The sounds of violence will draw in those inclined to violence, and ideally leave us in peace while we patch things up here.
Crushfists !dLoHn7SP2o
Rolled 1, 3, 3 = 7 (3d6) >>6110744 >>6110744 >Tell 1 Blue Rat to take care of the Scraghound >The rest need to get ready for anything >"Hey you over there! Come over here for a sec. You're not in trouble (yet) we just want to talk (for now)!" (Influence 10) #Crushfists
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 3
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 10
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Boostkit, Fuel 4/4, Speed 4
Wispcloak, +1 reaction, major to hide in terrain/cover, move and do at half
Better Pair of Boots
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Gearwright 12
#Closequarters 14 (Rikovol)
#Pathfinding 10
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina and 1 focus (Rikovol)
!Of Cold Winds 1: Unengaged +speed. Engaged +dmg
Edward
Rolled 6, 5, 4 = 15 (3d6) >>6110724 This is a very simple application of the classic "So you are besieged by an overwhelming number of savage, bow-wielding natives" principles. Every man who spent some time in Her Majesty's service and was trained to embark to distant shores knows how to deal with a situation as common as this.
>Prepare our defenses. Cover points of ingress, place people in the proper places to deal with possible incursions, try to find a way to look outside without being noticed, figure out best way to sortie if needed. (Small Unit Tactics 11) Scarlett, if you make some traps, I can improve on their payload after I'm done coming up with our plan.
#Edward
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
Morale +1
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Harquebus [4d6 Impact, Terror, Malfunction 16+, 3AP Reload, -1Acc per step, +1 Club in melee]
One Memento [Locket with her picture]
1 bit
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Alchemineering 12 [First Aid, Salt, Gas, Smoke, Fire, Oil, Salt, Acid, Stimulant, 1AP=1 point or huck 1d3 with major action]
#Muskets 13
#Small Unit Tactics 11
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Masks and Mettle: If you start adjacent to an ally, they add +1 to all skill tests and speed. Spend 1 AP on behalf of ally
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:moE+C7N+ Wed 25 Sep 2024 22:47:12 No. 6110845 Report >>6110826 One trooper's watching the stair, and the man you just finished bandaging can grab his long-knife and shield and make a go of it. One more to watch the doors, and then Zivka, Scarlett and a Woman Who Hasn't Introduced Herself But Is Smiling At You.
You can lock this place down well. It's actually a good, fortified postion. The question is . . . well . . . the chairs, Edward. The table. The cutlery. When you "prepare your defenses", are you going to use all this readily provided material? It's a good, solid table. They're good, solid chairs. Make excellent barricades.
And yet . . . Hard to see how that doesn't disturb the array of food prepared for visitors.
Well. It's probably just superstition and local tales.
Wicklighter
Quoted By:
Rolled 1, 4, 1 = 6 (3d6) #Wicklighter
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 10 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 10
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Alchemineering Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Longblade - +1 damage, Sharp
1 Coinbit
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 9
#Filching 10
#Alchemineering 12
#CQC 12
#Blades 14
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Malice and Mirth 1: If unengaged, add rank to first skill test. If engaged, add rank to all Reaction tests
!Rikovan: Can spend Focus as I would Stamina, and always regain at least 1 Focus when I Recover
>>6110744 >>6110778 Wicklighter hustles forward with the Blue Rat, helping him and taking an assessment of the wound. Hopefully it's just a flesh wound, or otherwise something he can fix quickly. He's never gotten on /great/ with them, but the scraghounds are ever so useful, and trained animals are never as easy to replace as you'd hope. Especially out here.
>Alchemineering 12, or Alchemineering 13 if I count as unengaged. Since, you know, I'm not engaged. CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:moE+C7N+ Thu 26 Sep 2024 01:18:15 No. 6110918 Report Crushfist sets out to find out who these locals are but ends up having to jump in front of a Blue Rat with his knife half draw, swinging his shield his shield like a battering ram to connect to the face of one the archers. The unfortunate skinny looking farmer is knocked on his end, blinking, half concussed. Crushfist goes for a wrist-lock, stops the Blue Rat Trooper from doing something they'd all regret later. He mumbles a faint "Sorry". Eases off the throttle a little.
Zivka
>>6110724 Use !Of Hopes and Fears to encourage and rally the men, despite being trapped and the temptation of the feast. The Scraghounds *will* find help- and when the rest of the company arrives, we’ll have our bloody dues!
3d6 vs Influence 10, +1 for Edward?
Volunteer to sit at the table, yet conspicuously touch nothing.
Zivka
Quoted By:
Rolled 1, 2, 6 = 9 (3d6) >>6110924 (Dropped my dice)
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:moE+C7N+ Thu 26 Sep 2024 01:35:47 No. 6110929 Report Scraghounds - the feral ones - come in packs. Small ones, a family or two. Average sized groups. A few families. And the large ones. The roaming enormous prowling packs. They boil out of the deeper Aikan wastes, none two quite alike, part hound, part wolf, part something else. They're an endless bane of the smallholding farm frontier villages and hamlets that dot the landscape out here. A bit like the sand. You'll always find a few, prowling about.
Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
Rolled 6, 5, 1 = 12 (3d6) >>6110724 Set up Pressure traps by the entrances with my Trapping Kit. Pay mind to allowing Edward some way of peeking outside if he finds a way. (Gearwright 12)
Jove
Rolled 6, 5, 4 = 15 (3d6) >>6110826 >>6110845 >Simply offer a performance of dance to the hospitable host, - OI
>- who can hardly refuse the gesture, being treated so graciously even in their absence. SHADDAP STRATAJOVE
>Naturally, some furniture must be rearranged to make room. OI PUT YOU AWAY
>If some uncouth ruffians then upend the relocated feast as they kick in the door, who could blame you? ...
>One might even be so bold as to volunteer to dispose of the food spoiled by the floor. It just ain't roight...
>>6110768 >On Borrowed Time >It's the same picture. >Jove's library days return and begin to take form! Oh, the indignity! Uncontrollable Splitting 11 (It's Jove but more polite and putting a lot more forethought into mayhem) #Jove
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 8 Focus 10
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 8 Grit 8 Sense 10 Strength 11 Reputation 2
React 11+1
Lethality 1d6-2 Threshold 1d6+2
–Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Wispcloak, Major to hide, halved move-do penalty
Halberd
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
A coinbit
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 10
#Influence 11
#Gearwright 12
#Polearm 13
#Carousing 14
#Uncontrollable Splitting 11
-Traits
!Armored 1
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Hopes and Fears
!Multiplicities 2
!On Borrowed Time
Wicklighter
>>6110929 Wicklighter isn't used to being shown affection by scraghounds. Letting a big one put its mouth anywhere near his hands is sort of setting off his fight or flight instincts. He holds still, though. He's heard from the people who actually keep these things that this is good and lets them get used to you. That's not the worst thing ever.
Hm. If this /is/ Zivka's, that would... hm. Hmmm. They went MIA on perimeter patrols, but her hound turns up near this village. What takes a perimeter patrol to a village that's already got a warehouse rented by the company? That's one of the-
Well, hm, no, they were also looking for the missing wagons. It's as reasonable to come here looking for that as it is to go to a rallypoint looking for stragglers.
Still, it was running at a dead sprint. Towards them, and they're going towards the village, so it was probably going /away from/ the village. Or they could just have chased it this way. Though it'd take a hell of a run to herd a scraghound at full speed in any direction, intentionally or otherwise.
So, what, it just got loose while Zivka was at the village, took off? Would it be running so hard if that was the case? He... didn't really know. He /imagined/ a scraghound wouldn't sprint in a desert unless it really had to, so probably not. And there's no way it's run /through/ the village, it doesn't look nearly tired enough to have run that long. And Zivka seemed like she treated her hound pretty well, so it wouldn't run to escape her, would it?
...Shattered shields, all this deductive reasoning was /not/ what he signed up for. More fool him, really.
Right. Facts. So Zivka's hound has just turned up going away from the village. It was running, and proooobably hasn't been keeping that up for long enough to exhaust it. Zivka's hound is well-trained and loyal and probably wouldn't have run off without a reason. 'Probably' is good enough to be careful right now.
Maybe Zivka died and it wandered off? Found itself near the village, got chased away? Maybe. Seems... mm. It was already running when these farmerfolk saw it. Someone else could've chased it away and it just... kept running until it met these two? Mm. Not entirely out of the question.
What else? It's not chasing anything, or the farmerfolk would've seen it as well as the hound. The hound was just running.
There's also the possibility he doesn't want it to be. This is recent. Not too long ago, Zivka's hound had /some/ kind of goal in mind that it ran to fulfil. What?
Tracking? No, there's no point if the hound follows tracks faster than you can keep up.
Find and retrieve? /What/ exactly would there be to find in the sands, and why send a hound running after it- the hound wouldn't be running anyway, would it? Unless it knew where it was? But then Zivka would want the hound to lead her to it, or would otherwise... mmm. It's /possible/. Stick it in the skull for later.
Wicklighter
Quoted By:
>>6110929 >>6110983 No wait, there's a way to test that right now, isn't there? Just /let the hound go/. See if it heads anywhere with purpose, try to follow it. If so, it's got somewhere to be. If not... well, then back to thinking. It's worth a try, at least it'll strike out an idea.
Wicklighter slowly withdraws from the scraghound after a tentative ruffle on the head. "Go on!" he encourages it in a very put-on playful voice—one wonders if Wicklighter ever naturally sounds like this. "Where do you want to go, hound?"
Markhan
Rolled 2, 2, 1 = 5 (3d6) >>6108841 #Markhan
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 12 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 1
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 9
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Kit
Breacher's Kit, 4DR, 2DR on Limbs
Shortblade, Sharp
Halberd, Two Handed, Sharp, Impales, Shatters
Shield [30 HP, 5 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 10
#Polearm 13
#Small Unit Tactics-11
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Masks and Mettel 1: If you start *adjacent* to an ally, they add +1 to all skill-test and speed. Spend up to Rank AP on behalf of ally (caps per ally)
!Armored Advance: Intentionally body slam targets when entering their tile, deal 1d6+1 per straight line movement prior
>Breacher Kit >Polearm Training >Of Masks and Mettle >Raise a Banner: Pikes-11 >Hire a Specialist who assists in Refit, Repairs and Refinement. >Receive your dues, get paid 3 Coinbits while I: Honor the timetable, harsh though it my be (test Tactics 11) >Spend Coinbits, bring another lost soul. 1 more man can't *seriously* muck up a line of pikes, right? CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 09:42:44 No. 6111117 Report >>6111036 A pike formation proper is ruefully hard to do wrong, conveniently. Practically unheard of! Though I'm sure the Troopers will find a way.
Good on you, Markhan, for taking the time to make sure all the laggards and slackers get mustered up and out in time. The Stern Ravens were a bit bungled up for lack of armor - your speedy arrival with some spare supplies will alleviate that for now.
>We've FINALLY repaired some armor on our dinged pikes and fixed some gear on our blade. Good work, refitting all that stuff. >+1 Stamina, for a quick march >-2 Rep, for forcing everyone else to keep to the timetable, add it like a attribute. They might respect it but they don't like it. >+1 Small Unit Tactics, for keeping men moving >+1 Influence, to nudge them along. While you get settled in with the dust-plume of everyone else,
>>6110929 >>6110918 you can issue some general orders or get things shaped up. If you like. It appears Crushfist and Wicklighter have found a pair of locals hunting our dog, and that that same dog is one of the missing Company mascots. There's a village down the dusty road that might hold more answers.Maybe the locals have some insight.
This whole situation is making my palm itch, though. And not in the "I touched the wrong crystal" kind of way. The way I see it, right, Sir, right, if'n there's a village down thataway and we're strung out along the road to get there AND a good lot of us are still an hour behind. . .
Well, fifty sudden archers and we're all fertiliser for those fields to our right. but then again I'm inclined to paranoia as a professional instinct. I'm sure the locals are perfectly nice.
>The response force is currently strung out on the road, taking a few breaths, grabbing some water. >You can issue a general command, get up to no good thing on your own, or help the Company specialists do something you feel now might be a good time for. >Maybe things get more exciting soon? CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 10:39:05 No. 6111140 Report Quoted By:
Rolled 4, 6, 1, 6, 1, 1 = 19 (6d6) While Crushfist and Wicklighter fuss over the scraghound and the locals, the rest of the column shakes itself into a slow, gradual march again. Having stolen a few minutes of respite from the sun in the avenues of the cliffs and shadows of old crumbled buildings, everyone is feeling ready for a few more minutes of dusty road.>...
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 10:43:09 No. 6111145 Report Quoted By:
With its leg bandaged and friends nearby the scraghound rolls around in the dirt, bites at its own tail and chases a flittering insect for a few prowling steps. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was like all other dogs in the wide world.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 10:47:29 No. 6111147 Report Quoted By:
The lead spearmen stops short, confused by the sudden eruption of noise. Rion and Raging Palm jump for the scraghound, trying to get ahold of its collar. But it's fast and it's not stopping, it slips right through their grasp -- but stops. It does not enter the village.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 11:02:52 No. 6111152 Report Quoted By:
Probably saves his life, turning around like that. Score one for man's best friend.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 11:16:03 No. 6111156 Report !!!!
Wicklighter
>>6111156 Oh, we were much closer to the village than I thought. Funny thing, navigating by drawn map.
Alright then, blades up. It'll be a lot of running for those at the bac- oh no, wait, they're over there too. Good! Windsores, ready bows to the southeast!
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 11:43:17 No. 6111168 Report AMBUSH!!
--
Void take it all what is happening?? Quick!!
GET INTO POSITION!!
You've had some mild forewarning of impeding trouble, so you're not taken totally by surprise. Things are still chaotic but you might be able to save this one yet.
Get into POSITON by picking a point nearby allies. This is a free action. You are sprinting there - you might not end up exactly where you want to be.
Then take SOME SORT OF NORMAL ACTION, NON-OFFENSIVE ACTION - you have 9 AP, but don't need to spend it all on this pre-positioning phase. You can't attack, so don't bother - but now might be the time to shout orders, take cover, form people up, defend, sense and think, grab things from your kit, so on.
You **MUST** spend 3 AP to READY YOUR KIT.
>>6108841 So far, Command has been very lenient on what was in your pockets on the assumption that things might wish to change. Now it's blades up and shields out. Now it starts mattering. If you want to have something else than what you had, finalise any adjustments NOW.
When you respond to this post, include an up to date character sheet.
That way, you won't have to *keep* reposting it every turn. It'll be linked to the start of the combat.
Being a persnickity little pedant, Command will notice that unless you READY YOUR KIT and update your papers, as instructed, you'll spend the first two combat turns stunned, confused and defenseless because you're clearly taken by surprise!
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sSQ_Mz4QhY If you are an Iconotheurge stuck behind the map, or a bunch of hapless explorers stuck in the village, the above does not apply. Yet. You have bigger problems.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 12:06:31 No. 6111172 Report >>6110826 >>6110924 >>6110958 Scarlett follows Edwards instructions and prepares the doors and stairs and other entrances to be a mean surprise to any intruder. Snapjaw traps and a few bits of string, a little pressure in the wrong place.
Edward can't do much else, other than shout verbal instructions and get the wounded spearman back in the fight. Hard to set up an obstacle or block the doors when the largest table and all the furniture in the room are set up to prepare for a feast.
The Woman sees the hustle and bustle of hectic activity and slides off of her chair. Crosses to an alcove in the corner with intent and roots around, searching. With a yell of triumph she spins around, showing off a bottle of dusky looking liquid slooshing inside a container. Hah! Score! She pops the cork and takes a chug, then winces and wipes her lips.
" Hey, it wasn't on the table so I take it that's fine, ritualistically speaking. Man I hate being under siege. Reminds me of Wellmoth. It's all the waiting, you know? You start hearing every little creak of the old place as the sure sign of sappers. I don't think they'd try sappers but the Windsworn are a peculiar lot, they might at that. "
She throws a glance at the hatch in the floor that leads to the storage basement, cool and out of the sun. Pops it open and squints down into the darkness. Any hope of an exit is dashed - four empty barrels and the scent of flour. The village must have dipped enormously into their pantries to produce all this bread for the strange not-guest feast. The Woman shuts the hatch with a sigh.
"
" Alright, so much for that. "
" The Scraghounds *will* find help " Zivka interjects, trying to force certanity into her voice. Martik nods. They're good, clever things.
" *And* when the rest of the company arrives, we’ll have our bloody dues! "
" If " the Woman takes another swig, winces, shrugs. Offers the cactus juice to anyone else interested.
" If! " Zivka snaps back
" Yeah, *if*. I'm all for hoping for heroic rescues but my last lot turned out to be a sun-bedraggled group of mercenaries and waste-walkers, you're not exactly knights in shining armour, no slight, plate would be boiling around here. How's about we rescue ourselves, rather than sit around waiting for someone else? "
Edward risk another peek out the door. No arrow this time. One of the six guards outside, other side of the street, behind a few barrels for protection against musket fire, give him a cheery wave. Edward brings his gun out. The guard jabs a thumb at the nearby rooftop where four more archers are perched, weapons ready. You really want to do this? Come on. Take your one shot and then you know we'll simply rush the building before you reload. The silence look communicates a lot. Edward frowns. He's Illiosi! He could get off TWO shots before the building was stormed.
Scarlett pulls him back inside.
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 12:20:27 No. 6111176 Report " Weren't you moaning and groaning and floored five minutes ago? "
Zivka
>>6111176 ‘You should all at least rest first, until you’re not so [Fatigued]. No sudden dashes until then!
I’ll keep watch, and we can rotate who helps me. Bit of silence will help you think, too.
Of course- I’ve a feeling that help is on the way. Shan’t trust a fucking horse as far as I can throw it, but dogs have never failed me!’
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r
CompanyCommand !!8Og8gGv6k3r ID:3GwNKn5J Thu 26 Sep 2024 12:29:22 No. 6111179 Report Quoted By:
>>6111178 " Sure, wake me once you've come up with a cunning plan or the Windsworn are here to slit our throats and empty our pockets "
Eyeing one of the nearby sleeing alcoves, she slides into it. Positions herself a little. Grumbles about the rockface - all the pelts and cushions are missing.
Wicklighter
Quoted By:
>>6111168 #Wicklighter
-Metrics
Vitality 12 Stamina 10 Focus 12
Action 9 Speed 2
–Stat
Will 10 Health 10 Grit 10 Sense 10
React 10
Lethality 1d6 Threshold 1d6
–Alchemineering Kit
Uniform, DR 2
Shortblade, Sharp
Shield [18 HP, 3 DR, +2Def]
Empty Pockets
2 Bandages, 2 Torches, 2 Bags of Salt
Longblade - +1 damage, Sharp
1 Coinbit
-Secrets
#Thoughts 9
#Influence 9
#Filching 10
#Alchemineering 12
#CQC 12
#Blades 14
-Traits
!Through Clenched Teeth 1: When you Recover, always regain at least 1 Stamina
!Of Malice and Mirth 1: If unengaged, add rank to first skill test. If engaged, add rank to all Reaction tests
!Rikovan: Can spend Focus as I would Stamina, and always regain at least 1 Focus when I Recover
>Sprint into position somewhere between the northernmost Blue Rat and the trio of them. >3 AP: KIT READIED AS ORDERED SIR >1 AP: Blue Rats, Form Up! >1 AP: Blue Rats, Shields Up! >1 AP: Windsore Archers, Form Up behind that low rock wall just next to you! >3 AP: Embed within the Blue Rats. With me now, bladeslingers! Some of our banners are closer to forming up than others, but they all should probably form up. There's no 'close enough' formation that soldiers adopt. But that's why there are other officers. So he doesn't have to try and direct every banner on the field.
Phridon !!i3QRqrs+o0C
Rolled 3, 2, 1 = 6 (3d6) >>6110769 I concur with Icarus. Let's clean this mess up. In addition to that, I'm just going to think *harder*. Is there something, anything, no matter how fringe, theoretical, or debunked about Blackstone's ability to absorb? Something even tangentially-related so that we're not completely in the dark.
>Wrack my brain even harder. This cannot be the first time this has happened. Even if it is, someone somewhere must've theorized that something like this is possible. Surely. Right? [Thoughts 11, !Well Read] Scarlett !!V6gJpnd0vLG
