Homebrew system thread II, part 2

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Might work- tactically speaking, the running away is the important part. Don't get trapped into a fight, even with squishy humans; the group's taken down things individually much more powerful than you are by ganging up on them, process works the other way too.

Herbs- Dirt, not unless someone's willing to take big risks as far as precise application and dosage go. The rest are going to have to follow pretty close behind anyway.

Not much point looking for somewhere to rally here within the horizon- start counting in miles, they'll be well ahead and you don't have that many to waste. If this works you'll catch them up anyway.

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: True.)

He decides to stop looking and scratches his chin. "Well, best be off, then. If the plan works, we'll have fairly good odds still."

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

"Keeping in touch, good. Let me think a moment." Larric sets furiously to think.

OOC:

If he'd had just a FEW days to play with Light magic...

IC MK II:

Are alchemical fireworks a known quantity- drat. I suspect it'd be too hard to shape up a signal rocket. On a timescale of minutes that'd probably not work without much more extensive magic than Larric's got; on a timescale of hours it'd materially add to the delay. He'd actually think of that before 'whispers in the wind.' He takes a few tens of seconds to assess, concludes (unless he knows something I don't) that he probably can't improvise it in time, and starts thinking in terms of transmission-by-sheer magic.

OOC MK II:

Is that workable?

IC MK III:

Begins remembering anything he's read on the use of 'air-magic' communication spells- the preservation and transmission of pressure waves, possibly using a runic focus at either end, think magic walkie-talkies.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Alchemical fireworks can be done and occasionally are, putting one together by magic to extract and refine and mix the ingredients of the powder would be- hm, the stuff itself should be possible with Substance, hardest part of the process'd actually be the rocket casing; that probably wouldn't be feasible in the time to hand.

Air, with a focus- Larric's Wits magic at the moment is what, twelve- should be good for seventeen hundred yards if the process flows smoothly, and would be really useful if he can wak and scribe at the same time.

[Simon_Jester]

I'd came to the same conclusion about the rocket casing, also noting that Larric has essentially unbeatable hangups about transmutation of the elements at this time, whether Substance magic allows it or not.

Walk and scribe? He probably can, with sufficient care- I know I can. He walks fast while thinking and slow while scribing, it averages to 'slow and steady' instead of brisk, he'll probably have to trot a ways to catch up.

Before departing, he rummages up two rags, one wet and of irrelevant condition, one as clean as he can reasonably find. Also some sticks. He sticks the dry cloth in his belt, slings the wet one over his arm, walking slowly and making notes on an empty page of his slate book in chalk. That's his end. Uses the wet one to clean the surface before the first go, and gently dab away any mistakes he spots before empowering the focus. Then tosses it.

Then he closes the book, and this part is a little trickier- charcoal on the cloth, with the closed slate book as a working surface. He may outright stand still for this part; he'd rather lose a few minutes' walking time to catch up later than get this wrong.

Magic walkie-talkie assembled. Range: "Oh, better than half a mile."

[Fiji_Fury]

Remember that we did send a messenger ahead to the Baron before coming out here to wage battle. The further atrocity committed by de Berrey is boiling Dale's blood.

"I'll pace Dirt as far as possible. Dirt, you can hit and fade back to my position if you outpace me but need nearby support. Between us we can tie them up long enough for another wave of help to reach us, and by that point it will probably be time to disengage and let the archers take out de Berrey's men. The snake himself... he may cut and run if things go badly for his force. It wouldn't surprise me if he sacrificed some of his own to slow us down while he and his hand-picked flee further." (Tactics skill 11... rolled a 5, therefore a capable, but not perfect idea from Dale)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

So the pursuit team consists of Dirt, Dale, (one of whom should be given the device), the two remaining horsed men at arms; everyone else following as best they may.

There are a fair few of the main body pale and wobbly, a couple of the men at arms (suffer major Athletics failures and) fall out, and end up chucking their guts up by the side of the road- obviously breathed in more of that anaesthetic cocktail than was good for them.

Problem is that you're not much more than a medium-long day's walk from Qulan anyway, and unless you can come up with something or get help from someone genuinely demented (and who have you met that was genuinely demented in a good way?) you'll have to move at the jog at least and hope they're just walking- or dawdling, not entirely likely- to get there before them.

Actually it is necessary to pass Norden lands on the way- you're heading south and Lillehammer is south, just figured that out myself- and unless they bluffed their way through, not impossible, they would most likely have had to make a wide detour round, which means you should be in with a chance- doing anything as you go by?

[Panzersharkcat]

Not that I can think of at the moment except maybe try to grab a few guys when we swing by Lillehammer, if they can be spared.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Probably just as well all things considered; put all things to speed, make the best time you can to Qulan, and also probably best for Alfred to avoid the tongue- lashing his mother would undoubtedly give him for having let things come to this situation. I imagine the court sorceress would also have something pretty incandescent to say about it.

Driving on, then-

Dirt and Dale are making very good time, running really; how far ahead the deserters and de Berrey are- as the countryside wakes up, there are people starting to populate it and get on with the day, some on the road; most of them are not best pleased to see a running Ogre, and some spears are tentatively levelled and signs of the divine made in his direction, but most of them outrun.

Will be out of sending- thing range well before they catch up to de Berrey, whose troops apparently moved off quite soon after the night attack, and hopefully aren't moving very quickly- if they were pushing it they could actually be there already. If they're just walking along, should catch them.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Hm. You seem to be waiting for something to happen, for me to push the action on, and I'm hoping that you get the hint and look for more cunning and indirect ways round the problem than setting out on a five hour chase where your enemies have at least a three hour head start.

You gave so much away by not taking the initiative...

Up at the head of the problem, Dirt, Dale and the two light horse are closing rapidly- they hope. No sign of anyone fallen out, no sign of them, they were passing in darkness; do find something, though. A horse that looks worryingly familiar- the horse that your runner was sent out on, wandering by the side of the road, looking lost. Blood on the saddle.

[Fiji_Fury]

Dale will stop to inspect the saddle and horse. How fresh is the blood? Is the mount injured? Can he detect any sign of where the body and the letter are?

This is a disappointing development. It changes the reception de Berrey will have in Qulan to a relatively open-armed event. If two riders and Ogre and a stranger barge up to them when they approach the Baron's lands and forces... deBerrey will lie. He will lie well. Given the fact that we have an angry Ogre with us, he'll likely be able to turn tables and have not only his own men but the Baron's as well initially put us in irons (or kill us out right. Angry Ogres are generally regarded as monsters after all, and who would work with a monster?).

"I had not expected them to be this far ahead of us. We are almost certainly beyond the range of our signal, and the more we run, the greater our separation from Sir Alfred."

This is not really a race anymore. deBerrey will reach Qulan ahead of us. The snake will hid behind the Baron once he gets there and ingratiate himself to the court as much as possible. Words of rebellion, chaos, uprising and Sir Alfred's complacency are likely to be offered. That son-of-a-bitch needs to be confronted, but this is no longer an armed battle.

"Sir Alfred must be informed that his message was intercepted. deBerrey will drip poison into the Baron's ear against Lilehammer and Sir Alfred and we'll need to still arrive swiftly, but to offer evidence and condemn deBerrey, not to do battle. I will ride back to our main party using the mount to inform Sir Alfred. I suggest the three of you accompany me or at least hold position as our vanguard, keeping watch for any more deBerrey's treachery. If you press on at this point, you might do no more than exhaust yourselves or charge into a trap in Qulan."

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

We lost a lot by giving up the initiative.

On the other hand...

We also lost a lot by not knowing the actual distance to Qulan. A five hour walk is considerably shorter than I thought it would be; my impression was that it was far enough that a fast force of horsemen and quick-moving ogre would be able to catch up with a marching platoon of infantry with time to spare. Please remember that you have a map; we don't, so we depend very heavily on your descriptions to get a sense of relative distances and times. Since we've spent several days moving around in open country on roughly-defined bearings, it's easy to get confused about just how far from 'home base' we are.

If I'd known how short the distance was, I would have had to come up with something else entirely.

IC:

Larric's problem is that he has literally done everything he's in a position to do. He can't teleport the distance to Qulan, or at least if such a thing is possible he doesn't know how to accomplish it. He's not an accomplished enough wizard to fly it, or at least that was my impression. About the best he can do is march to Qulan with the main body of the party's forces.

[Seriously, I'm racking my brains here and nothing comes to mind. I'll keep thinking when I have more time to work with]

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

It is quite possible that the forward group will make contact with de Berrey's group before they reach Qulan- you're certainly covering ground; marathon running rather than marching pace, Dale moving faster than he had thought possible, Dirt eating up ground, and if anything it's the horses that are falling behind. (none of the athletics rolls were higher than four. The dice say this is going to work.)

Once they are caught, though, four against thirty, for the time it takes the rest to catch up at what will be at best jogging pace? That- remember what the commander of ground forces attached to the Spanish Armada said? "So, in effect, we are setting out in the confident hope of a miracle."

Possible, even with their lead, the forward four may actually beat them there- getting past them would then be the hard part. Holding them for the length of time, for miles of marching, that it would take- a gamble like that may pay off, it may not.

The map, I am genuinely hopeless at image manipulation, no photobucket- I have to do something, you're right. I may have to learn how to do it as I go along though, from a blind spot, so this is going to take a little while. I'm seriously tempted to simply copy the existing map and snail- mail it. (Hand draw it in mspaint and up on Googledocs, would that work? Reduces the problem to making sense of Googledocs.)


The problem is, and I have to admit to this one, that when I looked at the map at first it did appear workable, in terms of angry people chasing not angry people. Hot pursuit, of marching men at normal, expectable rate, it could be done. Then I started thinking about de Berrey's actions. He's not going to be waiting around, is he? He knows or at least it would be prudent for him to think you will be after him, he's offended you enough, that's why he moved off before dawn. If he's pushing the pace at all, even if you are doing it better than they are (and you are, actually), then it does get a lot more marginal, to the extent that if you do catch him you'll be doing it essentially in sight of the walls.

Also it was for in character reasons that made sense that you decided to chase him in the first place. Even if it wasn't going to work it's the right thing to do.

He didn't kill the messenger, incidentally. Body's findable, not far off the road, follow the foxes nibbling at it. Interesting in a horrible way- remember that poor child, the acting treasurer's grandson that was murdered, almost torn apart? Dirt was there. The messenger looks a lot like that. If it was a summoned creature as you were starting to suspect, it's the same one or at least the same kind. Someone did de Berrey a favour. Wonder if he knows it?

Oh, there is one option for help at least- remember that PM? Think about who I mentioned in it, and where they are now. As a credible, believable witness at the very least.

[Simon_Jester]

It is quite possible that the forward group will make contact with de Berrey's group before they reach Qulan- you're certainly covering ground; marathon running rather than marching pace, Dale moving faster than he had thought possible, Dirt eating up ground, and if anything it's the horses that are falling behind. (none of the athletics rolls were higher than four. The dice say this is going to work.)

Once they are caught, though, four against thirty, for the time it takes the rest to catch up at what will be at best jogging pace? That- remember what the commander of ground forces attached to the Spanish Armada said? "So, in effect, we are setting out in the confident hope of a miracle."

The plan was- wound a few, then fall back. But if that happens within sight of the walls it won't work;

Possible, even with their lead, the forward four may actually beat them there- getting past them would then be the hard part. Holding them for the length of time, for miles of marching, that it would take- a gamble like that may pay off, it may not.

The map, I am genuinely hopeless at image manipulation, no photobucket- I have to do something, you're right. I may have to learn how to do it as I go along though, from a blind spot, so this is going to take a little while. I'm seriously tempted to simply copy the existing map and snail- mail it. (Hand draw it in mspaint and up on Googledocs, would that work? Reduces the problem to making sense of Googledocs.)

If you can get it into ANY form of digital file, send it to me as an email attachment and I'll figure out what to do next; you have my address. If that's the problem- I'd be asking someone for the use of a scanner if I were in your shoes. They're designed to be operated by people with an I.Q. of 80-90, so it should be manageable without being ridiculously difficult.

If it was a summoned creature as you were starting to suspect, it's the same one or at least the same kind. Someone did de Berrey a favour. Wonder if he knows it?

Oh, there is one option for help at least- remember that PM? Think about who I mentioned in it, and where they are now. As a credible, believable witness at the very least.

...Now THAT Larric might actually think of. Hang on, I need to roll his general intelligence check, aaaand.

[rolled a 1, no seriously. Weird.]

Larric's trying rather hard to keep his brains in order. He's not all that athletic by medieval standards, but he's well rested and not totally unfit. He's got the knack of his various professions for concentrating on things for long periods of time, even apparently tedious or unproductive lines of speculation, until something cracks.

After about the first hour of his brain skittering around in circles-

Calves grumbling, Larric picks up his pace slightly to catch up with Sir Alfred- who's still riding Bryan's horse as far as I can remember, although he MIGHT be with the group on foot instead of leading it on horseback like a normal knightly officer. Gestures him to pull a bit ahead of the marching men.

"I've been thinking- what if this doesn't work? Muscle might save us, Dirt and Dale might catch up with them and slow them down. But if that doesn't work, we need bigger magic. Who did we just call on to help us with the door of poison? Maybe we should angle through your home town, and see if Lisanna can get word through to Qulan. What do you say?"

OOC MK II:

As an intellectual exercise, I often use Larric dialogue as an attempt to force myself to explain things in words of two syllables or less. It's not that he has a small vocabulary, it's that there's a disconnect between his spoken and written vocabulary because of his background.

OOC MK III:

What we REALLY should have done was sent a messenger to the men of the greenwood before going to bed for the night, so that we wouldn't be in a position to be politically outmaneuvered by de Berrey.

[Panzersharkcat]

"Tis an idea. It's not as if we have much option at the moment."

(OOC: What I really should have done was just friggin' kill him when I had the chance.)

[Simon_Jester]

Yep.

Larric's learned an unpleasant lesson twice now. To wit, he's surrounded by treacherous gits.

[Kaelan]

So our messenger is not going to get thru. Just can't seem to get the help nowadays. As we're so close to our friend the Baron there are other options available.

At the moment Dirt's been travelling at a gentle jog (so as to allow the horses to keep up). Picking up the pace to a fast marathon run he'll be leaving behind the party, but it should enable him to overtake de Berrey's party and reach the Baron first. Assuming the baron's men are not in the habit to talking to ogres and travelling with them, a large ogre carrying a door for a shield with a plant pot should have been strange enough to stick in their minds from our last meeting. Dirt will be at least recognised enough not to be shot on sight.

This would be time for an ambush of our own. Along the lines of "Errey men gone bad. Burning villages and take food for self. Sir Alfred chasing 'errey. 'Errey coming here to burn next village and take food. No know baron here. We hide and hit first yes?"

If memory serves the Baron has slightly more men than 30 and they would most likely relish a fight against mortal foes who they stand a good chance of defeating. If anything it would salve their ego.

[Panzersharkcat]

And off we go back to Lillehammer, Alfred composing his thoughts on the way as to the message he would have Lisanna magically transmit.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Since when was Dirt unable to pronounce his B's? (What accent group does that? I've described orcs before as having essentially Brummie accents.)

Anyway, the forward group are going to have to get past de Berrey's men somehow- by which point any message should have been recieved at the castle. Dirt's setting the pace but Dale and the horsemen are more or less keeping up. Round or through?

The main body- you don't have to double back, I'm assuming you have this thought as you're approaching the place and can do it with minimal detour. de Berrey's men seem to have made a wide detour, they weren't close enough to attract attention anyway.

There is something going on at the toxic hole, and it's got spectators. Glowing lines on the grass- quite a lot of air and fire in there, looks like a one shot ritual using a self destructing circle, and intended to implode in on the hole and it's contents.

Lisanna is there setting it up, flowing, curling patterns sliding into place, traced in the air by a green glittering crystal blade she undoubtedly acquired in the shelter; moving as if she's dancing with it (which in a way she is), poised, elegant.

Looks at you. 'You're not just here to watch the fireworks, then. I've set aside everything that I recognise as having some value, but something else has gone amiss.'


Simon-emailed you a document, if that is the right address, that bears some resemblance to a map. Not a scan, a redraw on office. Make any sense to you?

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

"Something amiss for you, or did you mean us? I know we've got trouble; a pack of robbers trying to yank the boy de Berrey's inheritance out from under him." Larric's eye is half on that circle and the dynamics of its planned implosion, but he can carry on an intelligent conversation even if it means not looking at something interesting that's happening.

OOC:

Works. The map is legible, although-

In all honesty, I'd recommend making "go find someone with a scanner to scan my hand-drawn and labeled maps" a medium-term goal, something to worry about in a week or two. Much less labor-intensive, in terms of hours you personally would have to put in, than trying to make decent maps in an Office draw.

[Fiji_Fury]

If given the choice of "through" or "around" deBerrey's men, Dale would opt for around. If we were all Ogres, crashing through them would be delightful. Since that's only Dirt though, going around may make more sense. Less apt to be stabbed in the face/back by doing so at the very least.

[Kaelan]

Since when was Dirt unable to pronounce his B's?

de Berry is too long and fancy a name for a man Dirt doesn't respect. Only people and creatures of renown get full grand names. Hence he's been reduced to 'erry. Soon to be reduced to 'ry in the near future if not a#.

[Panzersharkcat]

He gives that hole in the ground a good berth. "We are in the process of intercepting him but we need to relay a message to the Baron, magically if we can, warning the Baron of the thief's attempt to flee to him."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Map has been snail mailed to more computer minded person- Kaelan, heads up, should get to you at the speed of Royal Mail. Some time in 2016, then...and then I'll have to annotate it and mark in where Lillehammer actually is.

When the situation is explained to her, Lisanna asks 'How urgently, precisely? At the moment this is, ah, rather- don't stand on that line. Really. If there's even minutes to spare I'd rather finish this and have it done, and no longer a hazard, than break off half way through.

How? Hm. It could be- can be- done, there are some things not precisely tied to time and place; it would be quite a production though. Another reason to finish this first, then. If you wouldn't mind shuffling back out of the blast radius?'

[Panzersharkcat]

"We can spare a few minutes." He backs further away.