[IC] Death & Taxes (Session 4)

I figure Tronus is just waiting to see the lady twitch before beating her unconscious again...

Well at the moment I'm considering summoning something to eat all of the spiders, like a pair of large beetles or frogs or something until enough of them have been cleared to get in at the remains....or what's left of them

OK, mcneils5, just upgrade your Arcana check automatically for that summon (changing a P to a R) to reflect the potential dangers of stirring up a spider nest.

Not planning to have the weaver come to unless an appropriate die result suggests it (a despair, say). So no one should feel obligated to stand guard over her. I'd rather have folks explore and have fun than feel stuck doing boring guard duty.

And Em, let me know if you still want to open the back door. Not suggesting it's a bad move, mind you, but wanted to make sure you realized you'd be leaving the house if you go that route.

No, I'll not open it if it just goes outside...

And particularly when Hildar looks like he's brewing something up, Bruv would prepare himself for that.

Ok so base difficulty is Easy, +1 for additional summons and another +1 for Medium Summons for 2 sil 1 bug creatures to pop into being and clear the spiders....summon ally is tagged on for free due to the wand.

Total difficulty would be 1 x Red 2 x Purple.....ok, that's a net 2 Success, 2 Triumph, 1 Threat and 1 Despair. Ok, so the bugs go to town on the spiders, can one of the Triumphs be that they unearth something like Ilse's signet ring or something else we can use for a positive I.D.? Other Triumph that they work really quickly maybe? Thinking so I don't need to maintain the spell for too long

GM edit: Setback from failed fright check.

lol, rolls like three are so fun to interpret...

Yes, what a roll! :D Hildar is still frightened of the spiders due to the failed fright check. Adding that setback in yields 2 threat.

Wow! Bunch of despairs coming into the narrative at the same time (the mayor sensed Bruv's spell when he got the despair trying to subdue the weaver). Hildar's despair made them show up now rather than later. 2 Threat means that enough spiders escaped the beetles to be a potential nuisance down the line. Triumphs for a positive ID on Isle, and for the beetles to finish up in one more minute, which probably won't affect you unless things escalate very quickly.

Anyone is welcome to try an Average (PP) Knowledge (Geography) check with a boost for being in your wheelhouse as investigators, but a couple of setbacks for the unusual situation. That would give you a better idea about jurisdiction.

Augment is fine, too, but not if Bruv wants to do the Geography check.

CESN, it's a weird English way of saying the same thing: "See if you can find Skeeter" and "See if you can't find Skeeter" mean essentially the same thing in this context. Sorry if it was confusing! English is weird.

2 threat from Hildar will be to suggest enough time has passed that Anzila may start to come to if further negative results warrant it.

So, two ideas currently on the table: Confront the mayor (through the closed door?) or hide and see what they do when the come in?

I don't see how we can all hide, particularly with Anzilla stirring...

I think Tronus stays watch over Anzilla, someone goes to secure Skeeter, the others confront the Mayor.

That's my $0.02, combined with my thoughts in the OOC.

Don't discount hiding flat out: The crawlspace and junk room do give you places to hide, and you have Nera on your team. She is augmented, has 3 ranks in Stealth, has Knack for it for Stealth, has Natural in Stealth, and has the Paragon Heroic Ability for Stealth that has not yet been used. That means she rolls YYYG+BBBB (boosts for assistance, plus them being fixated on Anzila) vs. their group Vigilance: RRPP. Paragon means for 2 Story Points, she can then remove a purple or black die of her choice after rolling (completely ignoring its symbols). Or she can just re-roll the whole damn pool with Natural, then use the Heroic Ability. Just saying that she is kind of built for just this sort of situation. :)

Also, Hildar can make up to three of you completely invisible with a Mask spell, but that's a tall order at PPPPP+Blk for fear.

Otherwise, yeah, there's a confrontation coming!

Yea, and with enough Threat or a Despair, Anzilla wakes up and starts screaming about us having assaulted her... and/or they just wake Skeeter up and he does the same.

Us going on the offensive (which is to say, taking control of the situation, rather than react react react) is my preferred approach here. But of course if everyone else wants to hide, that's what Bruv will do.

Did she identify us by the way? We were 2 skeeters and 2 birdmen right?

CESN, Anzila did not ID you. She failed to see through the disguise, so for all she knows, you're Skeeter and some bird-men.

Revealing yourselves to the mayor will mean either pretending to be Skeeter and the bird-men, or dropping the mask spell and revealing yourselves as Argus investigators.

Map of the house below:

Summarizing the various options on the table:

Bruv: Go on the legal offensive and demand the mayor surrender as a suspect in the murder.
Hildar: Give the mayor the benefit of the doubt and open a parley with him.
Nekurr: Hide and hopefully get a clearer picture of what the heck is going on.

There's also the question of whether you keep up the charade of being Skeeter and the bird-people. Probably won't be feasible once they discover Skeeter's unconscious body (assuming he's still there — a SP might indicate he got up and went elsewhere if you wish).

Remnant, want to weigh in? What's Tronus's inclination?