Sortie 1: The Cave of the Bree-Yarks

[GreyWolfVT]

I would defer to you all since you have books and a better idea of how this system plays out and works. I'm new but Horris is pi$$ed off at the chief goblin seeing that cup. Best to take the lead before he loses it and charges in axe leading the way for the goblin chief's head.

Algrim starts to turn a nice shade of red like a teapot that is ready. You swear you can see steam spouting out of his ears the grip on his axe is so firm that his knuckles turn white. His muscles tense up and anyone with even half a brain can tell it is great effort on the dwarf's part to restrain himself from charging at the goblin chief and decapitating the chief. His teeth grind indicating his level of anger.

[Q.Q Elf]

just a gentle nudge here. I think we are ready for Conflict, but it doesn't have to be Convince. It can be any Conflict. I don't mean to paint you in a corner with this.

If we are decided, then we need an intent, and a Captain. Then we can get the dice rolling.

[Keehnelf]

Are you of board with a convince crowd conflict with the intent to get them to depose their ignorant chief who makes them slaves to the hurters and leaves them wallowing in squalor?

[sulldawga]

Are you of board with a convince crowd conflict with the intent to get them to depose their ignorant chief who makes them slaves to the hurters and leaves them wallowing in squalor?

This works for me. And you can lead the Conflict.

[Keehnelf]

I think marodin is probably better disposition wise than my character, and you are a rocking scripter

[Q.Q Elf]

GM Voice: Okay, on the Goblin side, I have the Chief (BOSS!) and his 5 Bodyguards. The rest of the Goblins will be the audience, and not providing Helper disposition or dice. Whomever is the Captain, please roll for the group's Disposition, and start getting the actions all set up.

[GreyWolfVT]

I nominate Marodin, as our captain.

[sulldawga]

Ok, first things first. If we're doing a Convince Crowd conflict, then the relevant skills are Orator and Manipulator. We don't have anyone who has Manipulator so any Feint or Maneuver actions will have to use Beginner's Luck. That is based on Will. We can only have three PCs act in any given round so it makes sense to have the three with the highest Will act.

Those three are Marodin, Erinas, and Ahmad. Horris can still help, but he can't act unless one of the first three is knocked out of the conflict.

Next, our goal for the conflict. I think it will be to convince the goblins that their leader is a fraud and isn't fit to lead them. Marodin should be their leader. We do that by showing the goblins A. Zlatkul is weak and hasn't been able to get the Hurters to help them defeat the undead and B. he's an idiot because his relics are actually not from Maglubiyet but from the Lords of Light. For the purposes of this conflict, we'll pretend the Elven stuff is actually Lords of Light stuff. And the icon on that staff looks a hell of a lot like Marodin's holy symbol, doesn't it?

One more thing to remember: goblins don't like Light. So we'll call them the Lords of Power for now. Goblins respect power.

What do you guys think? Goblin tribes are often led by stronger non-Goblins, like an Ogre or Troll. Why not a Man?

[Keehnelf]

That all makes great sense to me-and even if we fail, it'll make a great story

[GreyWolfVT]

I think you make a very good argument. I agree it does make sense. Lets take a goblin leader down a peg or two

[Q.Q Elf]

GM Voice: Haha, cool. Taking over the Goblin mob... kind of Godfather-ish. Goblinfather.

One word of caution. While the Torchbearer book does not seem to assign Alignments to the Denizens of the Torchbearer world, Goblins have always been innately Chaotic, at least in Red Box-speak. They morph between Lawful Evil & other various Evils in the AD&D sphere, however. None of it is "Lawful Good" territory. The Goblin mob is definitely aligned with the god Maglubiyet, and they are also can be cannibalistic amongst their own kind... not to mention Elves, Dwarves, and Men.

At some point, I'll have to whack you with Alignment is what I am saying. That's the nature of Torchbearer, and this is going to be critically important to our Paladin.

[Keehnelf]

With regard to alignment, my sense of marodin's aim here isn't to control the goblins as such-just as a way to weaken and undermine them so they can be used as tools and then destroyed like they deserve.

[sulldawga]

Well, so far I have no evidence that these particular goblins are Chaotic. So far, all I see are some weak creatures forced to ally with evil men in order to live. I plan on helping them remove the obstacles in their path and then seeing how they act. If they have a clear path to Law and Good and are still chaotic, well, then it's the sword for them. But everyone gets a chance at redemption.

I just don't plan on mentioning Law or the Sword until after we clear out the Caves. If they don't ask the right questions, I don't have to lie about the answers.

Speaking of lying, probably should avoid that. Let's not mislabel the Lords of Light as Lords of Power. Let's just call them the Lords.

[Keehnelf]

True enough--the first goblin we talked to seemed relatively reasonable. This chieftain, however, is a serious blight that needs to be eliminated posthaste.

[GreyWolfVT]

The Chief is just full of hot air.

[Q.Q Elf]

Okay, sounds reasonable so far.

Please set Disposition for the group. I have the Disposition number for my BOSS Goblin & his 5 bodyguards/helpers. Also, have the 3 Actions lined up.

I was going to buff the BOSS, but then I looked at your stats for Orator & Manipulator... this will be a close one. Nature will help the unskilled here, I think.

I'm sure it goes without saying, but please inject your Actions with appropriate roleplay-y descriptions since the choices are all abstracted for the purposes of the game. If one of you grab Horris/GreyWolfVT as a Helper, please do so, and let him know how you'd like him to step up and throw in his arguments... or, if we are drafting Horris' as an Orator, then please discuss what he'll need to be doing in that round.

And the Chief has a shiny silver mail shirt that sparkles like moonlight. He can't be all that bad!

[Keehnelf]

It goes without saying Erinas will be peeling that shirt from his dismembered body soon.

[GreyWolfVT]

better yet we rip that shirt of him the beat him to death with it.

[Simon]

Sorry to have been absent for the bulk of this decision making process. Everything sounds peachy to me though. And I'm on board with Marodin's assessment of the Goblins. They dont seem "evil" at the moment. Mostly they're just odd. Ahmad has never seen such a strange creole of religious and cultural practices before. He's definitely curious.

[sulldawga]

Ok, let's do Disposition. It's a Orator roll (+4d) added to Marodin's Will of 4. No one else has Orator so no help there.

Disposition roll for Convince Crowd conflict [1d6] = 6, [1d6] = 5, [1d6] = 2, [1d6] = 1

Two successes for a total of 6. I will assign 2 DP to each of the three participants.

Weapons and armor don't apply here, as this isn't a Kill, Capture, or Drive Off conflict. Order of Might advantage also doesn't apply here.

The room is Dimly Lit with candles so no need for a second torch but we'll still have an extra Ob1 factor.

We also get +1D for being Fresh.

Question for the GM: Is there an optional help skill for Orator other than Manipulator? I might humbly suggest Scholar or Theologian. From p. 32 of the rulebook: "Orators can benefit from speeches written by scholars and theologians"

We have to assume that the Goblins have a disposition at least as high as ours. So I recommend we not come out swinging. Don't want to fall behind quickly. How about:

Feint - Ahmad
Attack - Marodin
Defend - Erinas