| tacticslion |
12-14-2015 07:00 PM |
I'm "back", Baby! (Not that I ever actually left...)
So, I'mma just copy/paste a post I made at another site, as it's easier to start catching you (all?) up that way instead of rewriting it again.
Regardless, I'm going to put the bulk in spoilers swap tags, for two reasons: first, because it contains spoilers for a pre-published "adventure idea" in the World of Aldea supplement. Second, because it's really, really freakin' huge. You've been warned.
I'm going to try to redo the formatting - sadly it doesn't carry over with a copy/paste because that post is relatively old (more than a few days) and I can't edit it any more (it's locked after an hour) - but I might make a few mistakes along the way. Sorry!
It starts out much more in-depth than it finishes - sorry, but I was distracted, and currently still am.
I will put a second post I made over there with a much shorter, spoiler-free version of the story, after it. I'll just post it after and let the system meld the posts together, because that'll make an obvious break/easy-to-locate difference.
My wife's character is named Brianna Lancaster. She is a vata'an - a kind of (usually) pale, white-blonde, (half-)elf-like race that crops up randomly from humans and has natural arcane abilities. They are descended from the (now-extinct) Vatazin race. There is a sorcerous version created by the sorcerer kings called "Vata'sha" with (usually) midnight skin instead. Their skin tones are rather black and white (hah!) in the Core book, but specific individuals are substantially more varied in description in other books with no explanation.
Hope you enjoy!
Story Time!The prestigious (and expensive) Briarwood Academy, in the town of Briarwood, near the city of Aldis*, was home to an extremely dedicated... and usually wealthy... student body.
* The country of Aldis is "the" country of the setting, with others, like Jarzon, Kern, and Rezea, bordering it. The name "Aldis" is shared both by the country, and it's capital city. So Aldis's capital is... Aldis.
Brianna sat, enjoying the day, and eating lunch in companionable silence with her stoicly grim friend Jann (actually also named Brianna, but nicknamed Jann for various reasons in an effort to avoid confusing the two)*, and Dorian** - the latter of whom was also absorbed in a book. The view from the quad was gorgeous, and fair. Jann quietly hummed to herself weaving flowers in the vata'an's hair, as she tried different styles and looks. Brianna's ever-excitable, energetic, and equally-justice-loving but far more adventurous and eager friend, Alysha***, came bounding up to the table, eager with "news" for her fellows.
* Brianna "Jann" is a hardy, flower-loving swords-expert from a deceased family who's aunt's entire life-savings had gone into purchasing her an education in the very exclusive Briarwood Academy in the town of Briarwood, near the capital. She is grim, having lost the rest of her family, and most of her village to a Kernish raid when she was little.
** Dorian is a shy, bookish fellow, and a caria... though he's found exactly zero other guys with whom he can relate - and the few who he might be interested in, he can't come close to doing anything about due to his excessive shyness. Doesn't stop Jann or Alysha from trying to get him to hook up, though! Brianna is much more patient, having been relentlessly pushed toward some romance as well, despite her current lack of interest.
*** Alysha is the great granddaughter of one of the former queens - Queen Fashi - and the child of two nobles. Though a swordswoman, like Jann, where the former wields large and heavy blades, Alysha prefers lighter, faster weaponry. Skilled with a rapier and diplomacy, she's always dreamed of the romantic imagery of the Rose Knights - those elite few of the Sovereign Guard - and longs for a life devoted to the Sovereign. She excels at her classes, and the future title of "noble" is all but guaranteed.
The friends were their own little circle of folks - not exactly misfits, as Brianna was far too lovely and capable, and Alysha far too outgoing; but not exactly "social" either, what with the excessively bookish and awkward Dorian, and the ever-protective and usually-grim (except when teasing her friends) Jann - the fact that both of the latter came from relatively financially-poor families and were here through "barely afforded" means (a scholarship for Dorian, and a sacrificial aunt for Jann) didn't help. They had other friends (or at least acquaintances and/or crushes, in Dorian's case), of course, but these were their best friends. A solid cadre of folk to talk (or not) with, to eat (or not) with, and to generally enjoy being together. Of the four, Alysha was almost always the one to press them into doing... anything. Though Brianna occasionally found something she wanted to attend, or Jann something she wanted to witness or practice, Dorian would otherwise just retire into his room to read and study (and, incidentally, hide from any of his crushes).
And so Alysha thought it generally rested on her own shoulders to get the group out to doing things. Alysha was a great motivator... all she needed to do was convince Brianna, who could, in turn, convince everyone else! A perfect system!
And so she came! With news! Exciting (if terrible) nnnnooooooozzzzz!
... after some humorous silence, Brianna finally asked - as she knew she'd been supposed to - about the news.
"Bandits!" Alysha explained, breathlessly, filled with awe and wonder and outrage all at once. "There are rumors of bandits! Not just rumors, either!"
A grim look overcame Jann, Dorian managing to entirely ignore what is probably the most significant thing anyone in history has ever said, while a dubious look spread across Brianna's face. There were no bandits this far south - and so near the capital! "I question your sources." replied Brianna. But then, more gently, "But I'm sure if there are, the city will take care of it quickly. Probably by tomorrow!" she said, with a comforting hand to her friend. Ridiculous - bandits! But even if there were some sort of criminal activities, Aldis had the greatest criminal justice system of any country in the world - and one day, Brianna would be part of it. There was nothing to fear here. And that, as it were, was that. Jann, knowing Brianna was right, went back to styling hair. Dorian continued to not know what was being said.
"But that's just the thing!" Alysha explained, fervently. Why didn't they get this? "They're not taking care of it! This is the eighth raid in two-and-a-half weeks!" Arg! Her friends needed to understaaaaaaaannnnnd~!
"Again," said Brianna, now ever-more-dubious, "look into your sources of rumors." That couldn't be true. The envoys or Briarwood guard, or the local magistrate's staff would have handled it. Even the noble. Silly stories indeed. How could Alysha fall for such.
"But it's not a rumor!" Alysha came back in an outburst. Then, settling, looking around, she started more quietly, but no less fiercely, "Look: I know it's not a rumor, 'cause I saw it myself!"
Brianna sat upright at this. "You saw the bandits? Why aren't you reporting this to the authorities?"
"No, no!" Alysha explained, "Not the bandits! The home! Look, I was doing my daily jog, okay? Going on a milk run - you know how much better milk tastes when its fresh - but then I was passing by one of the farms, the house was wrecked! Doors were broken, stuff was strewn everywhere, and a number of things were just... gone! Entirely! There were a few of the local magistrate's men talking with the farmers, but I learned there that it's 'allegedly' been going on for weeks! Asking around a bit, I learned that it has been going on for weeks. The kicker is that the bandits don't take 'normal' things! It's so weird! They act like bandits, but... not! There's lots of stuff they leave that could be, or should be portable, and they tend to wreck things in ways that bandits normally wouldn't when in such a populated area!"
Brianna was genuinely starting to consider the possibilities of Alysha's story. But still... so far-fetched. "Surely, though, the local authorities-"
"Aren't doing anything!" interrupts Alysha. "They're just... just... sitting there with their thumbs up their... noses!" she finishes, glancing up at a disproving Jann.
"But, look," replies Brianna, "even if the magistrate isn't available, surely either his master, the local noble, um... Lord Darrol, right? Yes. Surely either he or the traveling noble, Lady Layanoh* would do something. They're nobles! It's they're job!" Brianna protested firmly, but politely. It would be her job, one day, too. To ensure that others would do the right thing. She would help order and keep all of Aldis in harmony by doing her part as a noble in The System - it worked, after all. She knew it did. Her parents both passed the test to become nobles, and she would too.
* I might be remembering her name wrong. My notes aren't accessible at present.
"But they haven't." explains Alysha. "And someone needs to figure out why." she says, firmly.
"'uhh." Brianna sighs - with a slight edge to it. "And you want it to be us, right?" she says, eyebrow arching high. "We're not the authority, yet. They are. I'm not about to break the law just so-"
"No!" interrupts, Alysha. "No, I don't 'want' it to be us, it's not about me. It needs to be us, because, regardless of 'authority', they're not doing anything about it! So who else?" She looks squarely at Brianna, challenging, yet pleading. A friend in need. "And," she adds quickly, "definitely nothing illegal... nothing is more foolish than fighting shadow with shadow." An old aphorism... but appropriate.
"What this about bandages?" asks Dorian, coming out of his book.
Ignoring him, Brianna steeples her fingers, convinced. "Okay, fine. If neither magistrate, nor local noble, nor traveling noble are currently acting on this, we'll do something." She looks at Jann who nods firmly and grimly, and Dorian, who just kind of shrugs his ascent.
"Yes." says Alysha.
"So, the first step is to bring this to the attention of the authorities." says Brianna.
"Whaat?!" asks Alysha in confusion, "But, I thoug-"
"And we have to do it in a way that gets their attention and makes them listen." She stands, firmly, and looks around, searching for the local noble's son, Dain Vechevni - he and his posse had made several invitations to Brianna and Alysha (though not to Jann or Dorian) which they'd declined, and were very popular and influential. But, much more valuable and important than any of that nonsense: they were contacts - people who could be used to get the attention of valid authority.
Brianna stood, and walked confidently over to them, as they were lounging, chuckling at some joke or another. All but one of Dain's posse of six was present, including Yarrin (that lanky and tall grim blonde guy), Gogo (the self-chosen name of an exceptionally outgoing seafolk), and others*.
* I've... kind of forgotten them. I believe that one was a Rezean with adept potential (I think he was missing), one was a daughter of a wealthy Jarzoni expatriate, and one was the rhy-bonded daughter of a city-Roamer from Aldis. I... could be wrong about that, though.
"Lancaster!" Dain radiated a smile, mirrored by Gogo. Yarrin blushed somewhat, but grimaced a bit. Eyebrow arched, Jann grimaced back, a tad bit more. They proceeded to have a minor ellipses-off during the ensuing conversation. The remaining two female faces dimmed, though one replaced it with that kind of smile that's both rueful, but not really able to hold it against someone. The last just put on an entirely fake smile. Both had just been... leaning... across the table toward Dain, though now their postures were more upright, and partially turned away to see the newcomers. "Jarlane." he added slightly more cooly to Alysha, to which she responded with a single nod. The eye of the fake smiler twitched slightly. "To what do I owe the pleasure? Changing your mind? Joining the cool kids?" His smile grew. Faker's eye twitched again.
Finding he was (pleasantly enough) being ignored, Dorian returned to his book.
Putting her personal distaste aside, Brianna smiled, though with an expression of serious professionalism. "Actually, a serious matter has come to our attention." Brianna calmly and smoothly went right into it.
"Oh! Right to business, alas..." muttered Gogo, eyeing Dain out of the corner of her eye.
Brianna, ignoring this, smoothly continued, sitting across from him, between the two girls. "I'll get right to it." she said, seriously, "There is a serious problem plaguing Briarwood of late." she explains, to somewhat bemused expressions of Dain and crew. "There is a plague of banditry causing mischief and mayhem and they must be stopped immediately."
Though it was subtle, the entire tone of the meeting just... switched. Like turning off a warming shas crystal, leaving nothing but a cold breeze, the company suddenly became chilly. Yarrin almost lost his ellipses-off with Jann, the fake smile stopped trying entirely, and both Dain and the rueful girl's smiles became plastered on. The change was almost imperceptible... but palpable. The only one still smiling broadly was Gogo, with the exact inscrutable expression as everyone else. The sudden change was noticed by both Brianna and all of her friends, in spite of the efforts of Dain and his crew. Dorian continued to pretend to read, but was paying sharp attention, now, while Jann subtly tensed, ready to spring into action if need-be. Alysha casually rested a hand on the hilt of her rapier - no biggie.
Hair on the back of her head rising, realizing they could be in extremely deep trouble, she decided to forge ahead, but changing plans on the fly. Getting from Dain to his father to get something done legally was "out" - and suddenly it made sense why the magistrate, having been put into position by Lord Darrol, would be likely to look the other way of the wrongdoing of his superior's son... so that left the unknown quantity, that vata'sha traveling noble. Her new goal.
Passionately, she begins a speech of the necessity of Dain and friends, and Brianna and friends working together to do absolutely whatever it took to ensure that the city no longer suffered under the predatory eye of the bandits and their destructive ways. She informs them that she has an idea, and that their wealth and importance are able to help her to accomplish: they need to get the attention of the traveling noble and give all of the information they have to her, and become heroes, hopefully even giving the bandits a chance to come clean and become respected and valuable members, instead of reviled jerks that no one likes.
Fires up the fascinate, and suggest (and mass) feats, - non-arcana skill-based abilities - by powering up her Diplomacy. She also makes an untrained Bluff check against their Sense Motive checks. Diplomacy roll: natural 20. Not enough on it's own. Will saves to oppose her DC: three 1s and a 4... and one 20. One failed will save against Jann's intimidate later, and she, too, is following the group.
As Brianna exhorts her friends, and Dain's group, they travel all the way to the noble's mansion - a house kept for any traveling nobles that rest in Briarwood - and meet the guards (two of the Sovereign Guard). After a little persuasion from Alysha, the guards retrieved the noble. The door opened, and all anyone saw was armor, axes, and the tallest and most terrifyingly muscled man any of the students had ever seen.
He permitted them to enter, and a young vata'sha, barely older than the characters who'd come to her, timidly came forth to listen. The mountainous man of muscles and death stood behind the students.
With a brief introduction by Brianna (who led off with a "this is important, yet we must show both mercy and strength, helping mend all the ruined lives" type speech) she yielded the floor.
More cajoling by the noble (with, Brianna noticed, mountainous muscle man's encouragement, and silent suggestions) and a little more by Brianna and Alysha was needed, and one final use of her suggest feat (which went unnoticed by all but Mr. Muscles) but in the end, confessions were wrung from Dain and his group, and the entire story - bored young noble-heirs with nothing better to do decided to cause some mischief. Sorry for what they'd done, they were overcome with guilt when chided and shown the harm their actions had caused to innocents, and were sentenced to hard work to help in the recovery and restitution (and more!) of those who were harmed.
And the mystery of the "Briarwood Bandits" was solved almost immediately by high sense motives, low bluffs, one phenomenal diplomacy roll, and poor will saves. Excellent.
Brianna would go on to learn that Yarrin was the bastard older son of Darrol - making him Dain's older brother, but unrecognized - and a man who was never given love or care. Unlike the others, he'd joined, not from being bored, but bitter and frustrated with his lot in life. So, though she didn't have or want any romantic interests, she became something he'd never truly had, even among Dain's group: a friend. She sponsored his way through rehabilitation, school, and personally paid for all the things he'd need to get onto the polo team. Gogo, in the meanwhile, was so impressed with Brianna that she briefly pursued a relationship (she was turned down, which phased her not at all) and then pursued an alliance (which was mostly one-sided, which didn't phase her at all), and settled into a relationship with Dain. The others slowly just... went their own ways, as the cohort just... broke apart.
Of course, the traveling noble, the Mr. Muscles, Alysha, Jann, and Dorian, and, perhaps, some others would become vital, reoccurring figures in our game. But that is not today. Today, Brianna and friends, the noble, and Muscle Man just... went to lunch. And Brianna's circle of friends grew by two.
(And Mr. Muscles ate an enormous burrito given him by an excessively smitten Brianna while intimidating rambunctious students into behaving.)
---------- Post added at 07:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 PM ----------
So, that was a lot bigger and a lot more in-depth than intended. Feel free to make your campaign recollections even bigger! Or much, much shorter! For example:
So my PC, after refusing the quest hook for a little while, decided the best course of action was to get the attention of legitimate authority to let them handle it. Instead, she chose the exact people who (secretly) were the problem-causers to talk about solving the problem.
Due to a momentary misunderstanding, she saw through their attempts at covering, and used mad-awesome Diplomancy to walk them up to the authorities and got them to confess on pain of "those other people are really seriously hurt by your actions"... all while being a school-girl working on earning her nobility.
^ This is also an acceptable length of story-stuff. Fun times...
|
