Chapter I: Damring Fortress, Part 2

[Keehnelf]

Half-buried under the metal, no title is visible on the book's cover, but it bears an embossed image on the cover that is impossible to mistake--the Pilgrim, one hand raised before him.

[Keehnelf]

Looking more closely, the birds were most certainly attempting to unearth the book. There is no sign of an amulet in its immediate vicinity, or another area where the birds had been active.

[Simon]

Well we should definitely take this, but I also think we should get Raizenbrayne in here to see if he can do some sort of hermetic-metal-detector bit to locate the amulet.

[Keehnelf]

Is it Harlan's plan to try and unearth the book the rest of the way to take it, or to try and pull it free of the pile?

And are Agrom and Raizenbrayne still waiting out in the armory?

[Simon]

It is Harlan's plan to have absolutely nothing to do with this creepy book until his wizardly friend has a chance to inspect it for ensorclement.

[Keehnelf]

Smart Halfling! There's a reason you've got a Will of 5

[Starbeard]

It seemed to me that both Raiz and Agrom had followed Harlan enough to sort of see what was going on, but as yet aren't interacting with the scene, but that could just be assumption on my part.

Raizenbrayne's humour perks up a bit at the sound of the crow chorus. 'Hah! See, I knew they could talk! Crafty little passerines. Harlan! What's that you've found? Do you need any help looking for anything?' On spying the book, Raizenbrayne's sense of curiosity swells beyond his sense of ill-health, and he moves up to Harlan to get a better look at it. Crawling up to Harlan, he looks around at the heaps of rubbish. 'Have you found the amulet? It must be here, it simply must! If I can only get a lead on its aetheric signature; but I can barely make out the signature of the book right in front of me… If it has any mystical power at all, I just might be able to sift out its presence from whatever else is in here.' Raizenbrayne attempts to sense it properties with his Wizard's Sight, but his thinking is still so foggy from the snake's venom. It is difficult for him to keep much focus on the material world, let alone the immaterial one. The minute aetheric scents floating around the room just confuse his senses.

Sitting and pondering his inability to focus, his attention is drawn back to the book. Raizenbrayne wipes the cold sweat off his clammy forehead, gazing at the tome but afraid to touch it after his recent strand of poor luck. A cold shiver of numbness runs down his spine, and his thought wander toward camp, some boiled tea remedies and a warm bedroll. Knowing that the party simply will not set camp until they can get a dependable reckoning of this new turn of events, the wizard braces himself and resolves to put all his effort into sensing any aetheric activity surrounding the book, hoping to glean its purpose or contents. He once again calls upon his Wizard's Sight, but this time the wizard contorts his pale face in concentration, straining in the effort to repress the bilious retching in his stomach caused by the activity.

Okay, so I understand I may be stretching too far, but I'm hoping to allow a brief discussion on whether it would be best for me to call my Wizard's Sight trait to help in a test in examining the book, or test against it (for a possible check) in trying to search the room in general. Or—if we have the extra turns to burn—both?

[Keehnelf]

It's currently turn 6, so three tests will get you to your next Condition. And I'd definitely allow either of those directions--Wizard's sight seems totally appropriate in this context for either the book or the amulet. So that's the input from me about those choices, which doesn't get you very far toward an answer.

p.s. I am looking through the rules again to try and find more solid info on timing for recover--the section of lifestyle in the revised PDF does indicate that healing conditions in town takes longer than it does in camp, but in my sporadic searching I haven't found a good guide to what they do actually take yet.

[Simon]

If I'm counting right, our next condition will be Hungry and Thirsty, which is manageable assuming we get a moment to snack. Harlan, thought terrified, is probably getting a wee bit desperate to have something of value. If he comes back from this empty handed, Crobart will be waiting for him with his custom made finger-hammer, a tool of exquisitely crafted cruelty which Harlan has no desire to lay eyes on again. I'm okay with taking the next two turns to get everything we can out of this room. Could be a terrible idea, but I think Harlan's goal and belief kind of demand it.

Harlan anxiously rubs the slightly disfigured joint on his right ring finger. C'mon Raize, what do you see? Turn this room inside out! Magically...or...esoterically or...I dunno how you do it just do it! And show a little more caution than you did with that blasted circle. I don't think my heart could handle another fright like that.

[Keehnelf]

Total change of topic, and this is the only time I'll issue a reminder of this sort: I mentioned that the snake's body could be turned into loot and nobody indicated that they were interested in doing so and taking it--is this because no one wants it, or was it overlooked?

[Starbeard]

On the snake: for my part it went overlooked. I think we got swept up in the moving narrative and forgot about it as other things happened. I suppose I could carry it in my sack if we did choose to hang on to it. It'd be a shame not to let Harlan cook with it.

I'll go ahead and search against Wizard's Sight for the amulet, and one the party gets a vote from Agrom on whether we should continue to dawdle, I'll take extra time to examine the book.

Am I right in assuming that this would be a Lore Master test? That would be 5D+3D, -1D (for Sick) and -1D (for testing against Wizard's Sight), totalling 6D.

[Keehnelf]

Where's that initial 5D coming from?

[sulldawga]

We have an hour to search the room so do whatever works in that time frame.

[Keehnelf]

Mechanically speaking, this is my read:

Raizenbrayne has 3D for Lore Master and the useful helps in this situation are: Scholar and Scavenger. Harlan has Scavenger but Agrom has neither. That makes 4D if Harlan helps, -1D for Sick for a 3D total.

Currently the only active light is Harlan's candle, which means Dim Lighting for Raizenbrayne as he searches unless someone lights up another torch (he indicated earlier that he has none but no one stated they were lighting one who had an extra).

The base Ob for this search using Lore Master is 3, given that you know a bit of something about what you're looking for, but in dim lighting that would rise to 4.

So 3D vs. Ob3/4, then modified in whatever way Raizenbrayne likes by his Wizard Sight trait. It looks unlikely to pass even with the +1D, so my GM-ly advice would be to take the check and suck it up, but taking the risk is always possible.

It is in your hands to decide course of action and narrate both the attempt and the help offered.

[Simon]

Regarding the snake: I'm with Starbeard. I just got caught up. If we get out of this section all in one piece I'd like to chop it up and preserve it or cook a meal with it. Put it on a spit with some garlic, some olive oil, little sea salt, let the skin get nice and crispy...Do a snake-pickin'.

Regarding our time here: I agree with Agrom and would rather not be stuck here after dark or cut off from any avenue of escape. How that works with turns though is a little hard to determine with certainty though. I guess we'll see how Raizenbrayne's initial survey goes.

Harlan hands Raizenbrayne an extra candle from his pack and awaits instruction. He's scrounged through mountains of garbage for half a good apple and a chunk of three day old bread. He figures he can help find a magical amulet in a room full of rusty buckles, so long as Raizenbrayne can give him a reasonably good idea of where to search. And then, unbidden, the image of the snake rises in his mind's eye: its dripping fangs, its gaping maw. The rush of adrenaline that had carried him up to the crow these last few moments begins to fade, and the cold river of fear that had been running through his heart returns. He breaks out in a cold sweat and begins casting his eye nervously about the room. Beneath any one of these tarnished trinkets could lay another snake, or perhaps something much, much worse. He backs towards the exit S-s-s-sorry Raize, but, err...I think you'll have to go this alone

Just realized that Harlan is still Afraid, an as such, can't help....You can totally have a candle though! This is about to get interesting...

[Starbeard]

Where's that initial 5D coming from?

You're completely right, I had a brain malfunction when I typed that. I had to run off to for work stuff and posted quickly without referencing the book, and completely forgot that the system isn't Attribute+Skill vs Ob.

I was about to say the same thing about Harlan being Afraid, so either way it doesn't seem like I'm likely to pass the test, since the best I can do (with a torch and +1D from my Trait) is 3D vs Ob3, or 12.5% chance of success. If it's alright with Simon and Sulldawga, I think I'll just take the Check for the one test, carefully grab the book and move on.

Here goes: Lore Master (3D) - Sick (1D) = 2D: [1d6] = 2, [1d6] = 4

[sulldawga]

Raiz and Harlan hear some loud gagging noises from back in the armory.

Guys, I am done for now. If I'm gonna have any strength to hike it out of here, we need to go now. The amulet will have to wait. Grab the book and let's go.

I wonder if that's the Book of Empty Hands... Anyway, I vote we leave now and try to get as far away from the Fortress as possible before we camp. If we can make it out of the forest and camp in the fields, perfect. If not, maybe we camp by the Pilgrim statue and hope he protects us.

[Keehnelf]

A question of timing: is Agrom going to grab the book and go BEFORE Raizenbrayne does his LoreMaster search of the room for the amulet, or AFTER/DURING?

[sulldawga]

I was suggesting one of Harlan or Raiz grab the book. Agrom isn't even in the room.

[Keehnelf]

OK--results of Raizenbrayne's roll will be posted in a bit. No time before I head into a meeting, likely be a bit before I'm done.