Off the Beaten Track (OOC)

As for Cook, don't know what the future has in store for him. We'll have to play to find out what happens.

That captain is more experience at this sort of stuff, so it is OK for her to understand the dangers better than the PCs? Let me know if her comments make any PCs feel deprotagonised.

It's fine with me, she is in a position of authority over a few of us. And Rook still thinks she knows a lot more than she's saying, no matter what she claims. He's not going to challenge her on it any further at the moment, though

She does 'know' more... or at least she suspects more (but may be wrong).

You all get the impression that she is genuinely wanting to put a stop to something bad.

However there is one thing I want to remark on the earlier discussion.

@paladintodd, I think Cook should probably be more proactive in demonstrating value and helping out the group if we're going to have a reason to keep him around. As it is he comes across very unreliable. Like if he's just sitting there pointing at the temple and mumbling, that's not going to suggest to me that we should drag the old guy along with us, unless there's a reason to think he'll be more help than liability. As it is, he seems barely in contact with reality, and he hasn't shown that he knows or can do anything useful; it seems like it would be a risk to take him along.

It is a bit of a problem. :(

To solve it: We are going to end up being forced to take Cook along with us. Hopefully he can prove useful as time progresses, but his time with us may be short-lived.

Oh yes, definitely. I completely intended for Albert to make a suggestion that could be shut down by the captain. Though in his mind it would have been awesome if the captain had agreed ;-)

I'm not sure if we're still able to get help from PCs currently in the background, but I was thinking that Albert might suggest using the falcon to see if it can head east while we stand still (after a few loops). But Alycine would probably get that idea before Albert does ;-)
Is this something we can still make use of?

It complicates things.

Given that we all know we are destined to end up going round in circles till we recruit Cook, and that neither Alycine nor Meht can change that fate, let's just not mention them and not think about why Meht does not come up with a good answers (this is not natural, so not his bailiwick).

We can work out the details of those PCs' when their players are able to contribute. This is a necessary burden with drop-in-drop-out games. :(

Why does the Captain think the bandits are turning to the camp? We're they not all defeated at the ambush?

We seemed to have stalled out.

I'm feeling that we've figured out the story direction so I am sitting back with my feet up waiting for the GM to throw us the next thing. (GM: ok, you follow the game trail 4 times but end up back in camp each time. In exasperation, the Captain grabs Cook and makes him lead. You arrive at the temple...). Maybe that's not how this works?

Or are you waiting for the players to do that? We're supposed to be contributing something else to move things along?

They were not all killed. The survivors fled and our group followed their tracks in this direction at first. The fact that none of them have made it back is noteworthy, something must have happened.

Weekends and holidays can mess with things.
Agreed.
Yeah, but I still want to allow the players to a chance to try or do something. The above point about the weekend/holiday slowed that down, though. :(
I allowed the players a chance to contribute, and planned to give them a day (this being a post each day game) before moving things forward.

While the captain is technically in charge (of the caravan... does she have any authority here?) I prefer for the players to take the lead. Having NPCs along is always a challenge, and I have thoughts about separating the captain from the group when we get to the temple... but none of them really work all that well.

I don't think Rook would have any reason to think that the Cook will be any more successful than anyone else in getting through the barrier. This is kinda what I meant when I said that he was coming off as too confused and distracted. From Rook's point of view, he's mostly been speaking in nonsense. I'm not sure how we get to the conclusion in game that he can lead us to the temple, instead of just getting us lost more.

At this point, Rook's instinct would be to urge to write the temple off and return to the caravan, but I don't want to post that trying to shut down the adventure. But it really doesn't seem to be much point to him as presented right now - there's no urgent need to be there that he's aware of, nor any path visible to him.

To recap and make sure I have the story straight:
-- The bandits had a map to intercept the caravan
-- Some of the bandits escaped
-- Captain recognized the bandit tattoo but hasn't said anything
-- It's the Captain that wanted to find the temple

Who's Asha? One of the guards? Maybe the Current Party wiki could have an entry for NPCs?

Is it possible to mark the players currently in the background on the wiki?

Correct. Though the map was from the camp, not the temple. There is no evidence so far that the bandits had been to the temple.
Correct. Some of that bandits that attacked the caravan ran away when the fight turned against them.

We don't know if there were more bandits that were not at the ambush.

Calum and his two cronies might be technically-bandits (we are not sure) and they remained back at camp. No one there knows they are suspect...
Yes, though even mentioning 'a mark' seemed to get her attention.
Another PC brought the temple to light, the captain did not know much about it and spoke more about concern about leaving the bandits at their back, or the craziness bandits might get up to at a temple.

The captain was elevated into the position of caring about the temple to support the players' interest, especially after 'loosing' the player that engendered it.

We can make the temple into as large or as small a thing as we want. Feel free to discuss it OOC. I am tying it to Albert and Cook so far. Rook is welcome to create an interest, but it is likely to have 'treasure hoards', from what you have heard.
She is a guard who was impressed with Meht's heroic performance ending the fight. She is following because he is here.
You guys are welcome to make a NPC wikis. I don't know which NPCs you care about. If you engage with them I bring them into scenes, if you don't they fade away.
A wiki page would suggest interest and I would focus on the ones that get attention there.

You can load the full thread and ctrl-f search for Asha to find all the mentions of her. There is not much.
I have struck out Gusset and Alycine. If Alycine comes back we can unstrike her.

We don't have a wiki entry for Rook.

(the temple)

Sure, riiiight.

Todd is pretty convinced that the Captain lead the caravan to the ambush spot and provided the map to the bandits. When the bandits failed to acquire the human sacrifices she wanted, she had to go to Plan B and hand deliver the sacrifices to the temple herself. It's only a matter of time before she transforms into some hideous monster and begins devouring our flesh.

riiight?

I will give the others a moment to react to Cook's crazy outburst before the captain does. :)

This is supposed to say "unlikely", right? Rook would love to find a big horde of treasure, but he's been assuming that if the bandits knew about one, they'd be going after that instead of caravans. He's mostly been tagging along just out of curiosity, and a vague hope that he can find info that incriminates Calum with these bandits along the way

It is a mysterious ancient temple. Don't they all have hoards or treasure?
'Hoards' is relative, 50 gold pieces would a game-changer for you guys. (Literally. It is enough to take you to another level!)
The bandits don't appear to know where the temple is, and definitely have not braved its depths.
The PCs are welcome to imagine wealth beyond measure, even if the players know it will be bounded by the realities of the game-system. :)