[OOC] Death & Taxes

Nekurr would probably argue that is it fun and you can ... "guess" who will win... but I believe in the end tronus will just drag him by the tail

To be sure, it's strictly social pressure to stay. You're a novelty here for many, and (if your suspicions are right that there's something dastardly going on), a potential threat to at least some. Leaving would upset both camps. :)

bound to happen 😂

So, at the moment, it sounds like Nekurr and Hildar stay here, while Nera and Tronus leave under some excuse (illness, etc.)? Or is the plan for Nera and Tronus to insist on investigating the hog situation despite the mayor telling them to drop it?

Emsquared's on vacation, so we can by default leave Bruv at the festival unless em gets a chance to say otherwise.

Nera's a master liar, so she may have different plans. ;P Somebox?

Yeah in that case Nera will go with grumpy Tronus, she'll let him go off for a second before interjecting that it's his bed time. Perfect cover up.

Hey, folks! Just a head's up that I'll be on vacation this coming week (Saturday to Saturday). I'm not sure what the Internet situation is going to be yet, so my posting may be reduced.

Hopefully I'll get a post in before I leave tomorrow morning.

Hey, everyone! Let's give Somebox until this evening to try to get Nera to avoid a scuffle.

In the meantime, it's August! +5 XP to everyone. Let me know if you buy anything new.

That puts me on 15 spare XP so I'm taking the following talent:

Tier 3: Heroic Will (Intellect, Willpower)

Apologies for taking so long! I was going to make a post but got tied up again and now I need to go to bed! I don't mind if we have to deal with the consequences of Tronus playing to his character, makes for interesting situations.

I'm going to bed, too. :P If you get a chance, you can try the Deception check. Otherwise, it's going to be initiative for Tronus and Nera (probably Cool for Tronus, Vigilance for Nera).

I'm bank for now. I have too many T1 talents, so I probably should get a T2, but I'll have to think about it :D

I'll put me at 10 floating, I'll bank until I look though my list for my build.

Banking, here.

Moving discussion here, as it's gotten lengthy:

I haven't gotten the impression that Nekurr or Hildar is as cautious about the villagers as Bruv seems to be. So far, the spiders are associated with three things: The pig, the owner of the pig (the weaver), and a book on the mayor's shelf that was not as dusty as other books found there. You have no idea if the mayor has even read it; maybe he invited the weaver over for tea, and she stuck it there and said "hey read this later." (Just saying that y'all have jumped to some conclusions that may not bear out. Or they may. That's the fun of an investigation. :) )

If you think Nekurr would respond to Bruv's warning, though, he could drop his current augment and put up a Barrier. It'd be Hard (PPP) for one that covers all three of you, Formidable (PPPPP) if you want to add the Sanctuary effect (so that anyone antithetical to your faith gets repelled). Or Hard (PPP) for a repel spell that only affects Nekurr. All of these would get +3 setbacks if you try to cast without speech or gesture.

But a word of caution: Theoretically, let's say you put up a divine barrier and suddenly, all the villagers are repelled from you as worshippers of a dark god. What do you do? Slaughter the whole lot of them, men, women, and children? They'll suddenly know you're a magic-user who is actively opposing the biggest event of their calendar, and they likely won't take kindly to that fact. (All this is theoretical. Y'all don't have enough information to conclude that anyone here is actively evil or following a dark god, even if you might suspect it.)

What you absolutely know at this point is that there is a sleep-inducing substance in some of the food and drink that Hildar and Nekurr have consumed, so it's not a spoiler to say that a Resilience check is coming up. If you drop the Augment, that check becomes harder.

At the end of the day, do what you think your PCs would do. Would they go along for the ride and try to glean more information about the villagers and their religious beliefs? Or would they go on the offensive based on what clues they've gathered so far and disrupt a public festival? No judgment, just wanted to lay out the possible ramifications of each approach.

Tl;dr: Cautious approach would be for one or more of you to put up a Counterspell maneuver to gum up a theoretical spell coming your way. Let the pageant participants recite their lines, then analyze what they say with Knowledge (Lore) or Knowledge (Forbidden). Nuclear option would be to try to put a Barrier-reflect against theoretical bad guys, possibly repelling them, and causing a huge scene.

I'm playing Hildar's current disposition based on his reaction to the Mayors social checks so he's pretty much thinking the Mayor is a decent guy at the moment and he's sure hes not involved in anything too nefarious......

His current standing is he's not going to cast anything straight out but he would be ready. Who knows, the ritual could cast a spell that protects the village from the spiders and the Weaver is trying to disrupt it for some reason (i.e. they are the only spider cultist) so us countering it could play into her hands

We can probably wrap up this session at this point. Everybody gets +15 XP for surviving the festival! But a couple of questions for you all:

1) I don't want to deprive Nera of a chance to sneak around. Somebox, with Nera aware that the festival is likely nearing its completion, what were you planning to have her do? Maybe we can let her do some minor roguishness while the others walk back to bed.

2) Everyone else: Where are you sleeping? Tronus seems to have conked out in the barn. Are the rest of you doing the same? Assume that the mayor is walking back from the festival with you, and he will try to talk you into using his spare rooms, as you're distinguished guests. He might see it as an indication that you don't trust him if you stay in the barn. (And you may not trust him. But sleeping in the barn will tip your hand that you don't trust him.) Just let me know, as I'll need to know where you are when we pick up the final chapter of the adventure.

I think Nekurr will just sleep where they point him. Given he failed the roll so badly, it could even be under a tree on the festival grounds if the villagers forget about him :D

it looks like I have 25 XP banked now, so that's 15XP for a lv 3 skill + 10 for a T2 talent.
I was thinking level up divine to 3 and add a signature spell:
* Augment seems like useful particularly with easier additional targets, but it is PPP for 2 targets and already PPPPP for 3
* Healing (wounds and strain!), which I never used, scales much better with 3 PCs healed for just PP, with an extra P to add range :D