Homebrew system thread II, part 2

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

There's not enough time for that; the options are a controlled (maybe) detonation now or an uncontrolled detonation in about a minute's time. If you're going to explode, at least look like you planned it that way.

The druid- still standing up- doesn't even do anything that demonstrative; just kind of squints at it. Then the bastard renegade son of a rainbow and a volcanic ash plume and a rainbow shatters it's way out of the ground, gouts of fused earth and broken rock fly past over your heads, a thousand voices scream, faces and images form in the plume, shards of broke black stone dart into the earth around you, the underground stream the well tapped into boils and the rground ruptures in two more places, and the wall of sound, from steam scream through spirit wail to shatter to crash to earthshaking rumble-

eventually it fades, the rubble stops bouncing and the blast of mystic energies dissipates into the background. Either you were lucky, or you made your own luck, because most of the blast and shock washed around the outcrop you're hiding behind. Jangled nerves and hair standing on end, absolutely. Injuries, not so much.

First thing anyone says is Aburon, 'I hope you were taking notes; you're going to have to end up with most of the credit for this. My reputation's dodgy enough as it is...'

[Simon_Jester]

Larric gets heavily and uncomfortably to his feet, shaking his head and trying to parse that- he may ask Aburon to repeat it.

"I won't lie and said we didn't get a hand, but I'm no bard. If you don't want more reputation, I won't go out of my way to give it to you." He glances around at the others, asking an implicit question.

[Kaelan]

Dusting himself down:
"Say elf did it. We go somewhere safe for that lot now?" indicating the slighty (il)legal pile of bottles and herbs.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric looks at the ogre and chuckles. "You're smarter than I look. 'Elf magic' would explain a lot."

Looks at the chemicals. He thinks professionally, remembers some of his old tricks. "I don't know how long it would take, but I think that stuff can be unpoisoned, with time to work. Some of it, anyway. It'd help if we had some proper shelter, but..."

Looks at Rohal. "No cabins or the like nearby. Not here."

[Fiji_Fury]

Dale (presumably still steaming from all the magics they were just exposed to) shakes his head.

"That blight upon the world needed to go. Perhaps this place can be settled by Elves, perhaps it will merely heal of its own time and accord. Either way, a great evil has been cleared away. I care little for fame, but Sir Alfred may have some benefit and do some good with a reputation for daring and great deeds. That lot which you all helped to rescue from the underground fortress had an ill-seeming fate ahead of them, including your Baron. This land may yet need nobles of good repute whom others will listen to."

[Kaelan]

In need of nobles eh?
"Lord high protector Dirt" has a nice ring to it....

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Presumably the ogre isn't saying that out loud?

East from here are Alfred's family lands- quite a long way, more than a day's dragging a large wooden slab covered in things that must not be allowed to hit the ground; south- east Qulan, nothing within convenient reach dead south- the river, and Sheldayne about three days' careful carrying.

North- east is along the line of the foothills that ring the mountain, so actively dangerous going that way. Which is the way the druid's going, incidentally. His response to dale's comment is 'If you think about the ordinary, mundane politics, you'll probably figure out why they're doomed. I wouldn't do too much wandering around the countryside with that-' Dirt's door shield- '- if you bump into a bunch of heavily armed maniacs on your way down the mountain, tell them you're with me, they probably won't eat you.'

That, then, be that. What is the party doing, anyone want to ask the druid anything before he strolls off? Where are you planning to do with this toxic alchemical waste, anyway?

[Kaelan]

No (sorry, should have prefaced OOC).

Running under the assumption that ogre's ideas of nobility tend to run 'Chieftain' and 'everybody else' the entire concept of Nobility is alien to poor Dirt. No doubt over time he'll get the gist of some of it.

As for the chemicals, Dirt is operating under the premise that Larric will be rubbing his hands with glee as though Christmas has come. Dirt will be looking thru the plant material to see what he can recognise and use\plant in the near future. As for transportation

"Cut tree to make carry poles for door yes?" hefting his axe and looking for suitable candidates on the edge of the woods for the role. As for bushman, Dirt will keep quite - he only brings trouble whenever poor Dirt see's him so the sooner he leaves the happier Dirt will be.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Dirt's time as a gardener among the svartalfven (the especialy loony ones at that) should have told him a good deal more than that; no need to ask questions, just mouth shut, eyes open. Of course entirely inappropriate learning might have occurred, the southern dark elf 'system' being about as screwed up and obviously heading to crash against it's own contradictions as it gets, but the priniciples would be familiar.

The fungi are all relatively small, most of them fist- sized lumps, heavy for their size and for a plant- and actually Dirt's got a fairly good idea what they are, he's seen things like them in use in the caverns. They're mining and refining fungi. Plant them on a seam of ore and they'll gradually erode it, leach it away and separate out the useful bits that they were bred to feed on. Ingredient gatherers for most of the witches' brew in the jars.

A few minutes with an axe and a couple of saplings should do.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric's unsure, looking at the goods.

The climb down the mountain- did we have to negotiate any particularly narrow or steep bits? Talus slopes, that sort of thing?

"I'd almost rather work up here in a tent than try to get this down the mountain without breaking anything... ugh, no, I'd almost have to have an outbuilding with a chimney to do it the way I think. And doing it proper could take a looong time. Most of this will have to be broken down to atoms before anyone gets close to it. Hang on, I need to try something up here before we run off with anything." the alchemist checks his magic gas mask and gloves, trying to stay poison-proof. Picks up a modest-sized vial more or less at random and walks a good way off.

He doesn't open the bottle. Holding it in front of his eyes, Larric takes a quick sweeping look, a micro-act of Insight/Substance assisting mundane alchemical knowledge. What's he looking at, what might it be for? Then he starts charming at it, getting in at the complex organics and breaking them up into less vicious components, shuffling to precipitate out poisonous solutes,* raising an eyebrow if he runs into any minerals he hasn't managed to isolate in the lab (very possible, his 'let's discover the REAL elements' work hadn't got far before the Striking Phoenix showed up).

When it's reduced to things that are safe, or at least only mildly poisonous (probably soda water if it started out as an organic compound, or water with a pinch of mineral salts at the bottom otherwise)

How tiring was that, roughly how long would it take Larric to be rid of the whole lot at that rate?
______________

*At this point, I must confess a problem: for in-character reasons, Larric has a mental block about actual transmutation of the elements. No good trying that. Arsenic stays arsenic, for instance. That may get resolved later, but not now.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Doing that, Substance and Insight combine- has to try the Insight twice before it works properly, considering how many of them there are, he'd run out of mana before doing them all- and it isn't one of the horrible ones; it's a growth promoter. It'll trick the muscles and bone of an animal into thinking it's still an adolescent, and get them to grow again. In sufficient concentration that it would probably be lethal in itself until diluted down by a factor of a thousand or so, and it would probably cause all sorts of cysts and tumours in addition to the desired effect.

Most of what was in there is either ingredients for drugs or the drugs themselves, and this is one of the latter. Probbaly matched to a specific type of creature.


Yes, there were narrow and steep parts, but the hill as a whole is gentle enough that alternative routes could probably be found. You won't have nearly as big a monster problem to worry about on the way down; if you actually move.

Rohal (any sign of Feralgnoll, by the way?) will point it out. 'The...whatever was in the mountain, whatever took the towers' outpost over to its' own ends- probably felt that happen. Do you think they might come looking?'

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Out of curiosity, are we speaking "not enough mana by an order of magnitude," or more like "by a factor of two?" How hard do you think magically dissociating that many toxins would be?

[This is partly me with my playtester hat on, we are doing that in theory ]

IC:

"Aye- and we only have so much light, best to make some headway while we can. I might be able to do this better in shelter, but..." he looks at the people who would have to carry the thing- he's willing to take his turn at one of the poles, but it'd have to be, say, him and Rohal at once to spell Alfred, let alone Dirt. "Are we sure we want to take this thing with us?"

If the party consensus is "aye," he'll put a lot of his remaining mana points (~10 remain, so something like four sounds about right) into tightening up the longest-lasting Air/Substance-based antipoison spells he can manage on the carriers. Filtering of the breath, so far as possible- a direct splash would be a killer almost in spite of anything I expect that Larric could do, but fumes from a single bottle falling to the ground might be survivable.

I don't know if Dale would be up for the carrying, since he's got a wounded arm. Larric himself will be inquiring about burn ointments... That leaves four people, for four mana, sounds fairish.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: I forgot to ask him about SDN today when I was at his going away party. I think he's being kept busy with moving and Army stuff.)

He gives the aye.

(OOC: Also, did we already solve the Oindal thing? I was reading from back when Bryan died and there was something about the elf being blackmailed by the orc. Incidentally, I think Alfred's finest moment was kicking Dleamthylanananananaabbavikingwhateverhisnameisspelledbecauseiambatmanandmadeentirelyofmoney in the balls.)

(OOC: Something else I just thought of. Did we ever tell Bryan's parents what happened to him? If not, then the first thing Alfred will do when he gets home will be to write to them.)

[Kaelan]

Dirt will rustle thru his supplies to see if he can knock up a salve for burns. Also - there are 5 people who require protecting (waving Fifi for Larric to include).

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

First, mana costs; would vary by circumstance-a simple "what's in it" would effectively be a free action, costing a fraction of a point that rounds down to zero; if it fails- roll over your skill- the retry would require a point, mostly to clear away the mess made the first time. On the odds you'd run out of power before you got through more than a fifth or sixth of what there is to analyse, from the reattempts.

Figuring out what the contents actually do in the cases where it isn't obvious- the ones that are compounds rather than ingredients- that probably would be a use of consequences or animal, and a point. Group them together, do a batch at once, I don't think I'd assess the normal multiple target modifiers for but there would be some penalty, perhaps minus one per additional flask or jar.

The elf business- ask Larric. He's the one who got the explanation from Njal, and it's up to him to decide how much to pass on- how much the rest of the party needs to know. (Considering that it involves very high politics that are way above your pay grade at the moment, and would be very difficult to even talk about without attracting assassins and lunatics...worth discussing at some point, but doubtful whether that point is now.)

making your way down the mountain is uneventful for the first couple of hours- as uneventful as a walk in a haunted wood is ever likely to be, anyway. There's no point starting at every shadow; there's one nasty moment when Alfred stands on a rabbit, thing ran out in front of him, and nearly falls- but not quite. Just kept balance. Fifi eats a large insect that was about to sting Dirt on the corner of his eye. Larric, moving a few paces ahead, finds an arch of rotten tree- roots that wouldn't take a human's weight- and narrowly avoids further injury. There are moments when to get it over a rise or fall in the ground, you have to all get under it and lift it or lower it- it's a day of hard work, made harder by the need to make no mistakes.

Remembering the timing, (move up close, lie up overnight, go in in the morning) it's actually noon or so when the first horrible thing happens, or looks to be about to happen. There's a sort of thick silence in the air, and a general absence of background noise. Faint flickers of movement- too big to be small things. Sense of being watched.

[Simon_Jester]

(OOC: Also, did we already solve the Oindal thing? I was reading from back when Bryan died and there was something about the elf being blackmailed by the orc.

Larric knows, or can deduce, what is going on there. He hasn't chosen to say anything about it. If party members ask we can RP that out when the time comes.

(OOC: Something else I just thought of. Did we ever tell Bryan's parents what happened to him? If not, then the first thing Alfred will do when he gets home will be to write to them.)

Do we even know where Bryan's parents live?

Remembering the timing, (move up close, lie up overnight, go in in the morning) it's actually noon or so when the first horrible thing happens, or looks to be about to happen. There's a sort of thick silence in the air, and a general absence of background noise. Faint flickers of movement- too big to be small things. Sense of being watched.

If Larric's part of the team carrying the door at that time, he motions everyone to put the thing down carefully, unslings his crossbow from his back, and begins loading, watching the undergrowth and trying to zero in on the flickers of movement to get a sense of where he ought to be looking. Pulse of Insight magic if things are too hard to see.

If not, he does all the same things, except he's not directly involved with the door full of poison.

[Fiji_Fury]

Dale, who is utterly exhausted after all of these events, takes note of the atmosphere because he is somewhat understrength to be lifting the doom-door.

"Too quiet. We're being watched."

He roughly slings the shield into position (using his hurt arm) and draws his sword (magical one) with his good hand. Scanning the surroundings for threats, he'll also carefully step toward Larric.

OOC: That shield, by the way, is a keeper. Anti-magic barrier is a good thing to have around.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Looking at the terrain around, you're in a relatively clear part at the moment- it really makes no sense for you to be doing anything other than looking for the easiest going and you're on a ledge on the windward side of a ridge now, probably where the air sheds it's dust and rain to clear the line of the hill; still fairly high up the hills.

Lines of sight are fairly long- good bow country. Someone moves out into the open below you on the path, blocking your way- it's one of them. Low to the ground, there's a moment of wondering what sort of mutant monster it is- until the mental picture comes into focus. One being, mounted.

Not on a horse, on something with much more lethal tendencies- it's an orcish war pig; they usually have about the same resemblance to even a normal boar, which are fairly large and vicious animals, as a thoroughbred war- horse does to a Shetland pony. Frequently smarter than their riders.

This one? Maybe, but doubtful. For one thing she remembered to bring her friends. 'It is good that you are prepared for trouble. Not so good that you appear to have a death wish.' At least a full arvan, probably more, emerging. Mixed men on horses, orcs on boars- dull, mudwashed, un- eyecatching armour worn under greyish- green landscape coloured overcoats and cloaks, only a few flashes of colour.

The speaker has an odd, almost toneless, certainly non- native pronunciation- learned the language from a book maybe? Oakleaf green skin, long jaw- orcs vary so much, but having been around the animals of the woods the adjective 'wolfish' leaps easily to mind.

Dark or black orcs are really the species' equivalent of the neandertal; the evolutionary path not taken, the superior individual- stronger, faster, larger brained, more independent. Needing each other less. Outcompeted by the pack of cheaper moderns huddling together. Looking at the Sargeant-Major, you have to wonder how. She has a presence, a lethality that is almost serene for how little effort it needs to make itself felt. She looks exactly the sort Colonel Calvern would pick for that job.

Remember what- or who- Njal was running away from? Yes. 'Have you come across a druid? Above middle height, looks somewhat wandered, much more dangerous when he starts talking?'

[Simon_Jester]

Ah, Striking Phoenix!

He makes a leap of Logic/Creativity and decides that these must be the heavily armed maniacs Aburon was talking about. Rather alarmed at the obvious scariness, but he figures that the same approach he took with the mistress will probably work with the retainer.

Honesty: presume she has bigger problems than pausing to kill him, as long as he doesn't look like he's about to pick a fight. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.

Larric holds the crossbow in one hand, pointed at the ground. With the other he waves at Dale to do the same.

"Aburon? Aye, he went that way." The alchemist gestures with his free hand to the northeast, the direction the druid was headed off in. "The explosions this morning- the big one was his."

[Panzersharkcat]

"Oh, wonderful," would be Alfred's thoughts.

(OOC: I'm not sure we actually know where Bryan's parents live, come to think of it. Oh, well. Also, 1453rd post. Yay for fall of Constantinople, I guess. Also, I just realized we'll have been doing this for a year and a week come tomorrow.)

[Kaelan]

Keeping the shield balanced on the ground Dirt will look around for the rest of the ambush party.

"Always say bush man bring trouble. Go to pile of smoke up in hill, but not too close. You may turn into human..."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

The rest of them are- well, some of them won't be here; their march- order doesn't work that way, there are always outriders and flank guards.

Fortunately, none of the twenty- five troopers present ("Only a handful of them- we'll do it properly anyway. It's good practise.") are mind readers. They're also not fidgeting. Not even the boars.

Occasionally their eyeballs flicker in the Sargeant-Major's direction; they want to be told to kill, she's not giving them the word. They're not normally this obedient to orders, but they're not going to cross her, not even joke about it. There's something spine- shiveringly unnatural about a well disciplined orc; I'll grant you, though, that this has been a day of many abominations.

'First the explosions, then he moved along the hill line- move out.' the last to her own troopers, and nodding in the direction of the next hilltop along. 'One thing; have you come across one of the strays of the regiment, junior officer, orc, mottled grey- green skin, bluegreen overcoat, possibly airborne?'

[Panzersharkcat]

"Yes. I don't remember ever catching his name but he was Air Experimental Unit, I believe. He was with us several days ago helping us bring down an elf by the name of Dleamthayaran and some of his companions."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

There's an evil gleam in her eye that suggests you might just have dropped him right in it- in serious trouble. Expression doesn't change much, but obviously because she's not letting it. 'Where, exactly?'

[Simon_Jester]

Larric-

[rolls 1 on d20 for Human Perception, rolls 10 on d20 for Logic/Creativity bastardized general intelligence check]

[He's not saying anything]