[OOC] Death & Taxes

Belated October +5 XP coming your way! Mea culpa for letting the month pass without noticing. Deadlines are terrible right now.

Just waiting on Tronus's Coerction check to see if the one remaining weirdo responds to a more forceful approach after his friends have been beaten and all have been disarmed.

Seeing as the one left is batters and it's still a rough roll I'm more inclined to plant him head first through a violent thrashing.

Banking the XP.

Oh that's enough for Enduring T4

I'll bank now as well

I'll spend 10xp for a second rank of discipline.

I'd say we go and check it out, but defenitly not with Zymph leading. That's asking for a trap given my vigilance roll. It will have to be the villager that is afraid of dying. I mean, look at Tronus and he will know fear :DI was thinking about tying them properly at the mayor's, since he is probably with the spider lady doing something to the little girl, so he won't mind. But waking up Galbernost is tempting, I think we got his trust and he is not totally confortable with the missing tax man situation if I remember correctly. He could heal them and guard the others.True, I agree with McNeils and I think we need to get the level of detail just right:
1) Are the creeper and the spider pig related?
2) Is the winner girl in danger?
3) Was the tax man caught up in this creep stuff
4) Are they ready just going out for a night drink in a dark, suspicious cave?
5) Are those dark god involved in this celebration?

I think we will need to go to the spot also

I definitely think we need the vials/herbs in can we also get whammied by poisoned blades.

Zymph besides giving the location has worn out the slack on his rope. Galbernost being told to watch people tied up that threatened suicide and might be part of a group sacrifice by outsiders at most I think would remain neutral until he say something either way.

Now suspect: If 'everyone' is suppose to be breathing in this junk and having nice dreams it's suspect people are out and about doing shady stuff that.

I'm ok with throwing out we have the suspicion of Dark Magics being used which is a napalm option to tell the higher ups.

Even in a drunk state they opted for immediate threat of suicide when caught which doesn't sit right with the story stated of just being goofballs doing goofy things. Once we have an antidote that works, maybe check on one of the sleepers (that attacked us they aren't innocent civilians) we should use on Nekurr to get him back to his normal level of being him, once we know the location we can always stab Zymph with a laced sickle to shut him up (Tronus will volunteer since it's not very neighborly of a thing to do).

OK, so is it fair to say the consensus at the moment goes something like this?

1) Bring the three costumed figures to the mayor's manor and secure them.
2) Grab the medical items from the pantry.
3) Fetch Farmer Galbernost to keep watch over the trio, explaining to him the events of the evening and the suspicions you've developed. (But Tronus and Bruv would remember that the young pageant loser, Melchic Grimbly, is at the Galbernost house, too.)
4) Head to the hootenanny/potential dark ceremony with the guard as your guide.

Just a couple of thoughts: Unless the guard is in on all of this, Zymph and his associates are your only source of information for where the party is being held. Thus, even if you don't take Zymph as your guide, you're still likely walking into some sort of trap, since the guard is clueless. Again, unless the guard is lying and is secretly allied with Zymph and the other Night Creepers.

Second, the poison has been established to be a strong soporific. So they didn't try to commit suicide so much as they played possum by putting themselves to sleep.

If I'm outlining the nascent plan correctly, any of those Fortuna questions might be able to clarify your plans; you can always get more specific, but at a risk. E.g., "Is anyone in danger at this night party?" is a different question from "Is the pageant winner in danger at this night party?"

Emquared and Somebox seem to be away at the moment, but let's hear from mcneils5 and hopefully refine the plan today. Then we can do the prep stuff as more of a montage rather than playing it though blow by blow.

I don't think we should involve any other townsfolk (like Galbernost).

They're more likely to turn on us/help they're own than help us.

I'd say take Skeeter to the shin dig. Maybe swing by Jacey's on the way? Turn the other two over to the guard to do with what he will. We know where they all live, as it were...

That rundown looks good from Hildar's perspective but I do agree with emsquared, leave the others with the guard and get Zymph to lead us to the meeting/party/foul ritual

sounds like a plan :D
I think the question should be...



Is there a dangerous secret about this founder's night the villagers are hidding?
(give or take)

Hey, folks! I've got a writing deadline this Monday, along with a bunch of job applications due then. Advancing to the next bit of story may have to wait until Tuesday. We'll see how things go. Sorry!

As some of you might know I've become very busy over the last year which has been affecting my participation. At this point I'm thinking it might be better if I drop out, I'm having trouble keeping up with any of the posts.

Sorry to see you go if you do. Who will be the one to walk in the gray areas of the law while Tronus looks the other way conveniently? Don't point at Nekurr I'm just glad he can walk someplace without misfortunes randomly happening to or around him. *Rubs bridge of nose*

Well obviously you need to do what ever is best for you but hopefully things will level off for you soon and you can come back!

So, I survived the first of the month! Happy November: +5 XP to all.

Second, Somebox, I'd hate to see you leave, but I do appreciate your letting us know. So many people ghost on PbP, it's always refreshing when someone bows out with class. But if you need to make this a temporary exit, I'd be happy to honor that. You're a delight to GM for, so let me know if you think you really need to cut completely.

Finally, I'll update the game very soon. We're headed for the final part of the adventure, so things should be interesting!

Huzzah! I'm banking my XP at the moment.

Friendly genre reminder: Remember that we're mashing up fantasy and mystery, and mystery stories tend to require interrogations (or at least parleys) with POIs. So talking to the woman may be risky (she can lie to you, try to get you to do things, etc.). But she's also a source of potentially useful information. (Why is she in a cage? Why were Skeeter Zymph and his crew out and about? Whom was Melchic Grimbly fleeing? Why did he flee to the Galbernost farmstead?)

The alternative is to treat this as a standard dungeon crawl and try to avoid any potential dangers (like the woman), storm or sneak through this house in the hopes of finding physical clues, and try to determine what's going on that way. That's valid, too, but the answers you get may not be as helpful, and there's no opportunity to ask follow-up questions of, say, a piece of physical evidence.

Third option, I suppose, is to storm through, find the hootenanny, kill everyone, and sort it out afterward. That way will likely have consequences from your boss, though. :P