Completed [Play-by-Post] Magic World/BRP: "In Search of the Sorcerer"

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

OK. Who ascends first, who is second? How do you want to signal for the others to come up?

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Spoiler

Did we want Cormac to cast moonrise to bring with us for some light to draw attention to our group? If so here is my roll. [1d100] Moonrise = 57 vs 120 something = Success.If I cast moonrise I'll go second.

 

[L'ennui]

Spoiler

Urash will walk up with the non-sneakies and stay in the back, just in case.

 

[Grimgravy]

Spoiler

Perhaps the signal for help could be Cormac sending his light up into the sky and back down. That gives a visual cue to the sneaky group, so they can plug their ears to try and block any fey music compulsion.

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Spoiler

Spoiler

Perhaps the signal for help could be Cormac sending his light up into the sky and back down. That gives a visual cue to the sneaky group, so they can plug their ears to try and block any fey music compulsion.

I can wave, it around like with the griffin fight.

 

[nikolokolus]

Moving along?

In the interest of moving things along, it seems as though you all have some kind of a plan, but I don't want to assume.

From my reading this is what I have (let me know if it's wrong):

• Rhenmyr and Borric ascend and flank the ruined broch from the ridge about a minute ahead of the rest of the group. Are Borric and Rhenmyr together or split up?
• Cormac will follow closely behind Borric and Rhenmyr and see if they get into trouble. If so, he's going to cast Moonlight and move it in a certain pattern to summon the rest of the group to hurry. Do you have another pattern for "all clear" or some other message?
• The rest of the group is going to be clambering over the steep rocks in the dark. According to plan you are about 5 rounds of movement away from the summit. You can get there without having to make a climb check, unless you want to speed it up. In which case if you try to get there in 3, you'll need a climb check, if your climb checks you fall a number of feet equal to the amount you roll over your climb check (a jump check can mitigate 10' of falling) If you fumble a climb check you fall to your death.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

Borric and Rhenmyr will split and approach from different flanks. Rest of the crew will approach directly.

 

[Grimgravy]

Spoiler

My understanding was that Borric and Rhenmyr would be support, climbing but remaining below the crest and moving to support the main group at Cormac's signal. We were going for diplomacy first, right?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

Yup. Fey diplomacy.

 

[Wayward Son]

Spoiler

Yup yup

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Spoiler

I thought Cormac was going to walk up with the light already going to keep any fey attention on the group and off of our flankers. And to show we are not trying to hide. (Except for our flankers...)

 

[Siveon]

Spoiler

Marcán was going to lead with whoever chooses to be the light-bearer and do the fey diplomacy check, I think.

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

OK. Got it. I was in a slight hurry while I was skimming and missed something.

Borric and Rhenmyr move up the mountain and split off to the sides to take up positions on the arms of the arrrete looking down into the shallow depression. Meanwhile, Cormac stands up and casts his spell. A ball of pale white light fills his hand and then ascends aloft a few feet over his head. The troupe follows behind him, with Marcán close to his side and the remainder a dozen or so paces behind.

The narrow track up the mountain is slightly treacherous going, but with the pale light cast by Cormac's globe of light, loose stones are avoided and castrophe averted. The group crests the summit and stands about 40 yards from the base of the tumbled broch. A smooth sonorous voice cuts through the whipping wind from inside the broch, but you can't see the source, "Come forth friends, the party has ended, but perhaps we'll warm ourselves with a nip of brandy and some idle chat?"

 

[Siveon]

"Idle chat would be nice, friend." Marcán walks forward, cautiously.

 

[L'ennui]

Urash follows, observing the surroundings in search of danger.

 

[Helly]

"We do appreciate both alcohol and companionship. Travelling is a thirsty business after all!"

 

[nikolokolus]

You approach the gap in the broken walls of the vitrified tower, the voice with no visible source talks again, "Come closer. I promise I won't bite . . . much." Suddenly a spark of light flares to life about the size of a candle next to a large piece of broken masonry near the left-hand wall, inside the foundations of the tower.

Gradually, like a figure emerging from a bank of fog, a man-like figure, leaning against the block begins to materialize out of thin air. In the wan light cast by Cormac's spell, you see he is holding a long-stemmed pipe to his lips and is pulling on the flame held at the tip of his fingertips. He ignites the bowl to a cherry-red and blows clouds of smoke out of the sides of his puffed cheek. His black eyes glitter in the light of Cormac's spell as he shakes the flame out and smiles broadly -- a toothy, slightly unsettling grin on a vulpine face that looks half-feral in the hellish red light cast by the pipe. The "man" is lean and tall and attired in very strange garb. He is wearing a wide-brimmed hat, with a tall cylindrical crown, festooned with a strange white feather. His bright red, double-breasted, coat is festooned with garish brass buttons and a sports a high collar. One leg wears a tall riding boot of a style you've never seen before and the other terminates in a goat-like hoof.

"I know one of you banished my little friends." He looks knowingly at Cormac and grins, "But I was growing weary of their antics anyway. However, you lot have my undivided interest. What brings your kind out on the high moors, so far from home? Seems an odd time or place for a pleasure hike."

 

[Siveon]

Spoiler

Can Marcán try and see what sort of creature he's talking to? I.E World Lore check?

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

Can Marcán try and see what sort of creature he's talking to? I.E World Lore check?

Answer

Certainly

 

[Siveon]

Spoiler

World Lore Check (63) vs [1d100] = 2

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

World Lore Check (63) vs [1d100] = 2

CRITICAL SUCCESS
Marcán is dumbstruck with the sense of being thrust into a faerie story come to life. Your mind reels with excitement and dread as you recall the tale of "Auld Widdershins," a dangerous fey from Otherworld, who steals children and replaces them with changelings. He's also a trickster who loves to strike bargains that inevitably lead to men's doom. He's not described as "evil" so much as he is described as tricksome and prone to cruel jokes, seeking to tempt mortals into becoming greedy or rapacious. The cleverest of heroes in the stories invariably find some way of beating him at his own game and using his pacts against him . . . you find yourself wondering at the veracity of such stories.

 

[Siveon]

"Indeed. We don't make this way of the lands often, but like most travelers we are after something. I hope you'll forgive our hasty intrusion."

 

[nikolokolus]

The tall man's grin widens until his face is practically split in half, "After something you say?! Well then perhaps this is your lucky day? I know many things and have seen many strange goings-on. I'll bet you your life that I know what you're looking for. So what do you say? Is it a wager?"

 

[Siveon]

Marcán smiles back, "If you know all of what I've been looking for, and put your own life in that wager, then you got a deal."

 

[nikolokolus]

The man rocks backward on his heels, tilts his head back and peals of laughter erupt from his throat. He doffs his hat with an extravagant flourish and bows low, "Ah laddie yer warmin' me heart. Alas my own life isn't in the offing and it wouldn't be worth much tae the likes o' ye anyway. Yer after a wee bonnie lass ain't ya? I could tell it the moment I looked in your eyes, but you're after something else tae . . . I can smell it on all o' ye -- Something rare, something not o' this earth. but that's not all. There can be more, whatever any of you want you can have it now -- by all the powers above and below, I'm bound by word and honor to grant it . . . whate'er your hearts' desire can be yours for a pittance. A mere trifle. Yer immortal soul becomes mine in thirty years time. Now. Who wants to make a deal?"