Session 1: The Dwarven Monastery

[jhrrsn]

Moving slowly but deliberately, Aoife checks her straps and takes a half-step forward to size up her opponent.

Greygrim, huh. Why do you stay here, rotting in the dark halls of my ancestors? Those grisly little buggers can't provide much sustenance for you.

OOC

I felt pretty good about my goal when we drove that spider off at the beginning of my session, having given Aoife a chance to shine with her combat prowess. I'm not sure those, maybe it's not well-written enough to support that. Aoife wants to get stronger - she's not suicidal! Having said that, she's also not going to be the first one to start running

[Marullus]

As Allric's rousing speech is punctuated by the untimely escape of the Kobold, the old wizard falls tersely silent. That's why you never work with a rabbit in your act, he thinks.

The wizard flourishes with his hand, casting the glowing motes into the chamber like he's lobbing torches, a brazen display of magical power to set the stage with this creature and hopefully discomfit it. He causes the three glowing orbs to catch and hang in the roofless air to better illuminate the chamber, his apprasing eye looking for anything that might serve as an advantage in the pending conflict. The third mote he ensures hangs directly above the creature but out of it's reach, fully illuminating it to their sight while allowing the party a bit more obscurity in shadows.

The wizard otherwise remains silent, looking instead at his Companions as Aiofe begins talking, watching carefully what Galen and Thag might do faced with an evil that communicates and giving a knowing look to Rabon, that he should prepare to size any advantage.

I am deliberately deferring to see what Thag, Galen,
and Aiofe do with their goals and beliefs.

[Ludanto]

Greygrim narrows his eyes at you. His poor grasp of the language belying his obvious intellect.

"Good hunt here for Greygrim pack. Greygrim territory. Why man-things not leave? What man-things want? No good hunt here for man-things", he growls impatiently.

[Marullus]

With the added light, what more do we see about the creature? The room (and its options)?

[Ludanto]

The scouts were pretty thorough. Huge, smart wolf. Stairs. Railing. Pillar. Fallen pillar. Rubble. Holes in roof. Rusty mushrooms (yes, the right ones). Nothing new in the light, really.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Rabon knows that fighting risks bloodshed on both sides and hopes to avoid such a conflict if possible. We didn't see signs that this was your territory.or we would've brought you more than that runt. Maybe that gigantic spider we scuttled from the tower out there. If this is your territory, we did you a favor, right?

What we want ain't much to something as big as you. Just them mushrooms. As many as your pack will spare.


And now we see that I am not very good at manipulating people. That is about as good as I get, I think...

[Ludanto]

"Mushrooms are good food for Greygrim and pack. Greygrim like mushrooms. Greygrim... will do man-trade. Kill Ancipa the eight-legger. Greygrim give mushrooms.", the great wolf grumbles at you.

It's hard to tell if a wolf is being sincere...

[Rusty Tincanne]

Rabon looks to the rest of the party, his anger making it difficult to care about their opinions on the matter, but he knows he would need their help, so does want to feel this out a bit more. Maybe the wild can sweeten the deal. How can we kill something we chased away. And we need rest first. Let us camp here, then give us safe passage back to its den?

[Ludanto]

OK. This looks like it might be a conflict. What's the plan here? Are you trying to talk it out of its mushrooms? Or are you just going to get fed up and start stabbing things? I don't want to overdo the conflict rules, but this seems like where they would happen.

[Marullus]

Allric doesn't have any stake in fighting. Rabon also is here for profit. I think we're both fine getting the shrooms, but that's boring and makes this a short adventure so I don't like it as a player.

I'd like Galen, Thag, and Aiofe to chime in -- they believe in eradicating evil, not bargaining with it for profit. Berry is changing his goal so taking a stand one way or the other on how his youthful idealism interacts with articulate evil matters, too.

[BillTheGalacticHero]

If the wolf is evil then we should attempt to defeat it. Bargaining with it and then returning at some future time to fight it just sounds dishonorable.

If we do fight it I will lend my sword to one of the other fighter types, that will give them +1D for one type of combat, then using the fancy whetstone will give us another +1D for this combat.

[Rusty Tincanne]

I figured the first thing I had said would trigger a manipulate or persuader conflict, but you offered a compromise right off. So I was seeing if the wild would give more concessions without a conflict. But I am interested in what the others want to do. Rabon is already angry, so a fight isn't out of the question for him - it further fuels his anger.

Let's see what Aoife, Thag, Berry and Galen have to say. Especially Galen, since he hasn't been showcased at all yet.

[Marullus]

If the wolf is evil then we should attempt to defeat it. Bargaining with it and then returning at some future time to fight it just sounds dishonorable.

That's awesome grist. What's Thag's IC post?

If we do fight it I will lend my sword to one of the other fighter types, that will give them +1D for one type of combat, then using the fancy whetstone will give us another +1D for this combat.

I would say not to worry about not fighting. Everyone needs an action before anyone can repeat, so Thag will still need to act (and is still one of our better fighters,
even with Exhausted.)

[shroomofinsanity]

what proof do we have that this wolf is evil exactly? If we assume he is linked to the outside wolves, then he could I theory just be a smart wolf, and wolves have to eat. Hunting prey doesn't make them evil. We were also told that greygrim does not have a solid handle on the common tongue, that's another mark towards just smart wolf and not werewolf. Berry is willing to try a verbal conflict to try and reach out to greygrim and persuade him to cut that deal. I will gladly rp it if we are agreed,
Don't want to drag everyone into something they don't agree with just yet XD

[jhrrsn]

Yeah... Aoife isn't a crusading paladin, she just wants to get powerful enough to have her revenge. I think we probably need to fight it if we want to get these mushrooms, but driving it off is still consistent with Aoife's belief. Killing this wolf wouldn't bring her closer to avenging her family, driving it off is sufficient to gain the material reward.

Also my goal isn't 'kill something worthy', it's 'test my strength'. I wrote that with Aoife's motivations in mind.

[ffilz]

I'm also having trouble getting whether the wolf is evil. If it's just an alpha wolf doing alpha wolfsih things (even if it's a werewolf), who is Galen to think it's evil.

What I'm not quite sure of is what the setting is from that perspective.

At the moment, if there's a way other than killing it to attain our goals, which seems to be the case for most of us, then we should not try to kill it.

As to Galen's belief, part of confronting evil is to sort out just what is and is not evil, and how to deal with evil (confront != kill/destroy...).

i.e. at the moment, Galen is leaning towards were wolves are not evil, and need not meet destruction...

[Ludanto]

What's "evil"? If a wolf steals your livestock, is it evil? What if it's smart enough to know that it's stealing? What if it knows, and is also kind of an a-hole? Barring direct magical origin, it's evil if everyone thinks it's evil, I guess.

[Marullus]

If the wolf is evil then we should attempt to defeat it. Bargaining with it and then returning at some future time to fight it just sounds dishonorable.

So, this looks like the key to moving forward. Does Thag think the werewolf is evil? He's the linchpin to our approach. I'd like to see Bill try to explore this IC, then we can go from there.

Galen's stakes likely should include "free passage through all of this manor" if he still wants to map it. We can't agree to get out of its turf. Aiofe is just as happy to drive off the wolf (and/or take the offer and test her mettle against the spider) and Allric and Rabon are happy getting the mushrooms from that bargain. Our cleric is sympathetic to the wolf and will struggle IC with the definition of evil.

I think we're good. Lets go back IC and let the characters work it out. If Thag believes that cursed monsters like werewolves are evil and attacks, then we're in for that. Otherwise it is between driving it off from the manor and taking what we want (and mapping/exploring the place before its return) or bargaining for free passage/mushrooms in exchange for killing the spider. That should be IC.

[BillTheGalacticHero]

In my training, my mentor, Kane the Witch-hunter, had told me the werewolves are in the same league as cultists - one preys on the mind and soul of the weak and innocent, whilst the other preys on the flesh of the weak and innocent. Thee wolves outside may be normal wolves corrupted by thee beast, but even if we destroy it, if they have developed a taste for human flesh they would need to be destroyed as well. Or at least captured and taken and released far, far from civilization.

I will go with the majority of the party, but I fear that if we negotiate we must to return to avenge the death of an innocent.

OOC

Did we see anything here like human or demi-human bones? But I'm thinking they might be downstairs in its lair.

Have we heard rumors of missing people from this area?

[Ludanto]

Thag remembers something about missing children, but nobody was offering a reward.