Tricksy Calafour
Last we left our band of her...advent....those guys, they met with Keith Kent, some chick, and City-Slicker. Keith is dead set on us going into the library to kill the librarian (who also happens to be a Calafour user).
We haven't made it to Glasgow yet, and the party is still wanted by everyone. TJ can't have us walk into town and try to find a safe house with the Mastersens, our employer, but he can send to us another Kent brother. Keith explains everything we're supposed to do in a fit of exposition: apparently, Keith's brother, James, has strong influence over the thief's guild and knows all about the Ca-librarian. James and Ca-librarian combine to form the brotherhood of not-so-subtle evil. He also twirls his mustache during his off time. Finkle (the gnome who wants to be an inquisitor, Phil's gnome) is having a field day in his head filled with tongue spikes and broken fingers.
James Kent: out of time!
The librarian (who's name we never find out) is a respected townsperson and has two young apprentices working with him. He's also apparently The heroic option of busting in and massacring the evil isn't available.
Keith's big plan: the party goes and attacks them at night while he hides in a local inn. After all, he doesn't want to sully his reputation. Of course, the last Kent we trusted ended up evil and betraying us. James at least asked us to help kill an orc army while Kent is asking us to kill a possibly well-meaning librarian. My suspicion meter went up almost to full. The only thing that kept me moving with this plan was that City-slicker was there. TJ would never let his trusted NPCs fall for one of the bad guys! Along with that, Keith (TJ) knows the city and we don't. So instead of questioning Keith and the chick with him at all, we rest and get ready for the morning.
We get a chance to play through some of the rests. John goes on watch with Keith, and I go on watch with chick.
We travel at the right time to arrive at Glasgow at night, and Kent lets us in thanks to a contact he has with one of the gate's guards. Kent books it to the inn; we book it to the library.
The house that Calafour built.
We make it to the library under cover of darkness. The city guard pays little attention in their normal rounds, and people wander the streets. Van and crew make it to the alleyway and to a back door. Nothing stirs inside the library. The door has a simple lock. Van's pick is in the door. City-slicker now mentions that he refuses to enter the library with Finkle's orc in tow. We're left with a choice: either Finkle (our only healer) or City-slicker (a two-weapon fighting ranger).
Finkle stands on his principles, always. This is where I have to give Phil credit. Finkle is a bass ackwards gnome with his own sick sense of right, wrong, and who's really a Calafour user. He's accused a small boat captain, a duke, and numerous people before I even arrived in the game. Backing down is not an option for Finkle, and he always focuses on doing things the legal, pacifist way until violence comes towards him. City-slicker claims that the orc will turn and side with the Calafour user, and Finkle insists that the orc is his paid employee: The three chickens and day and all the sheep he can carry sates the orc. The city guard approaches.
They sit and argue for a little it, and Van unlocks the door and goes in followed by Randall.
Finkle stands on his principles and Zanfree goes in.
Gnomes stand principles as hard-headed as the rocks they stand on.
We sneak our way in, and the paladin comes in to blow our cover. After a few less-than-surprising kills, the party minus cleric gets inside the library proper. Inside an obscuring mist. This was one of the more clever moves that the Ca-librarian did. Then one of the more clever moves that TJ did with the map was drawing what we could see.
We trade grueling blows back and forth, and Randall finds the Ca-librarian hiding as far away as he can. Randall and Zanfree duck behind a table, Van gets behind a pillar.
First death of the night: Randall by fireball. Zanfree and Van were lucky enough to live.
TJ learned decently well in wizard school. The Ca-librarian learned how to disable: one of the many things that makes wizards great at mid and high levels. He even knows how to pick the right save. When Van came rushing up and stabbed him, the Ca-librarian feebleminded Van. Being put into tard-ville, Van can do nothing but stumble around.
The wizard then gave up on pure disable and threw around lots of fire spells. Fire + books = really evil fire.
Back outside, the city guard approaches and spots Finkle and his monstrous companions. Finkle's one rule, standing on his principles, kicks in. The guard interrogates him, and he tries to put them back on duty by pointing to the burning building. He gets arrested and complains to the guards throwing around claims that he'll get them fired, take them to court, make them wear fuzzy hats, etc, etc.
This is where the night got cold.
TJ pulled each one of us out for our talk with the inquisition. We went through standard procedure: spikes put in our tongues and our fingers were broken. There were plenty of claims made about us: We burned down the library with Calafour; we performed some sick ritual on chick-with-no-name Kent; and we had magic items in our backpacks for quite some time. Probably benign stuff. I still don't know how we didn't notice them over a week's worth of travel.
After we were busted out by a Glasgow guard (one of Keith's friends), we made our way out to the woods.
In true wolviepris style, it's time for ratings:
1: Seth as Pius: Pius was in the front taking care of business. Granted, he was lucky half of the time, but he plays his paladin to a T. He's up in the front, valiant, and fights only those that can defend themselves. While his character wasn't in the forefront, it wasn't needed as much tonight.
2: Will as Van: I stayed in the front and had the most essential skill set to the night: sneaking. This got us into the library and started the siege. If I wasn't so hasty, I might've been more useful. The one thing for these games that I need to work on is taking the initiative particularly in social situations. Van does have the skill set for it, but it's useless unless he gets immersed into the world. It's time to get him in and involved.
3: John as Randall: John was as classy as ever. He stuck to the various plans and took some initiative but still died. With some more cover and patience, he would still be alive. Yet, as a Calafour hunter, he went down in a blaze of glory.
4: Phil as Finkle: There are times that Finkle's actions as a character do make him more real and add a flavor that wouldn't be there. Tonight, it went from flavor to difficult to manage. The orc situation was weird enough as it was and didn't seem necessary. Why not just take him to be jailed for great justice? In the party's hour of need, he stood back and watched. Great for intra-party conflict. Great for challenge. Not what will get us out of trouble.
We haven't made it to Glasgow yet, and the party is still wanted by everyone. TJ can't have us walk into town and try to find a safe house with the Mastersens, our employer, but he can send to us another Kent brother. Keith explains everything we're supposed to do in a fit of exposition: apparently, Keith's brother, James, has strong influence over the thief's guild and knows all about the Ca-librarian. James and Ca-librarian combine to form the brotherhood of not-so-subtle evil. He also twirls his mustache during his off time. Finkle (the gnome who wants to be an inquisitor, Phil's gnome) is having a field day in his head filled with tongue spikes and broken fingers.
James Kent: out of time!
The librarian (who's name we never find out) is a respected townsperson and has two young apprentices working with him. He's also apparently The heroic option of busting in and massacring the evil isn't available.
Keith's big plan: the party goes and attacks them at night while he hides in a local inn. After all, he doesn't want to sully his reputation. Of course, the last Kent we trusted ended up evil and betraying us. James at least asked us to help kill an orc army while Kent is asking us to kill a possibly well-meaning librarian. My suspicion meter went up almost to full. The only thing that kept me moving with this plan was that City-slicker was there. TJ would never let his trusted NPCs fall for one of the bad guys! Along with that, Keith (TJ) knows the city and we don't. So instead of questioning Keith and the chick with him at all, we rest and get ready for the morning.
We get a chance to play through some of the rests. John goes on watch with Keith, and I go on watch with chick.
We travel at the right time to arrive at Glasgow at night, and Kent lets us in thanks to a contact he has with one of the gate's guards. Kent books it to the inn; we book it to the library.
The house that Calafour built.
We make it to the library under cover of darkness. The city guard pays little attention in their normal rounds, and people wander the streets. Van and crew make it to the alleyway and to a back door. Nothing stirs inside the library. The door has a simple lock. Van's pick is in the door. City-slicker now mentions that he refuses to enter the library with Finkle's orc in tow. We're left with a choice: either Finkle (our only healer) or City-slicker (a two-weapon fighting ranger).
Finkle stands on his principles, always. This is where I have to give Phil credit. Finkle is a bass ackwards gnome with his own sick sense of right, wrong, and who's really a Calafour user. He's accused a small boat captain, a duke, and numerous people before I even arrived in the game. Backing down is not an option for Finkle, and he always focuses on doing things the legal, pacifist way until violence comes towards him. City-slicker claims that the orc will turn and side with the Calafour user, and Finkle insists that the orc is his paid employee: The three chickens and day and all the sheep he can carry sates the orc. The city guard approaches.
They sit and argue for a little it, and Van unlocks the door and goes in followed by Randall.
Finkle stands on his principles and Zanfree goes in.
Gnomes stand principles as hard-headed as the rocks they stand on.
We sneak our way in, and the paladin comes in to blow our cover. After a few less-than-surprising kills, the party minus cleric gets inside the library proper. Inside an obscuring mist. This was one of the more clever moves that the Ca-librarian did. Then one of the more clever moves that TJ did with the map was drawing what we could see.
We trade grueling blows back and forth, and Randall finds the Ca-librarian hiding as far away as he can. Randall and Zanfree duck behind a table, Van gets behind a pillar.
First death of the night: Randall by fireball. Zanfree and Van were lucky enough to live.
TJ learned decently well in wizard school. The Ca-librarian learned how to disable: one of the many things that makes wizards great at mid and high levels. He even knows how to pick the right save. When Van came rushing up and stabbed him, the Ca-librarian feebleminded Van. Being put into tard-ville, Van can do nothing but stumble around.
The wizard then gave up on pure disable and threw around lots of fire spells. Fire + books = really evil fire.
Back outside, the city guard approaches and spots Finkle and his monstrous companions. Finkle's one rule, standing on his principles, kicks in. The guard interrogates him, and he tries to put them back on duty by pointing to the burning building. He gets arrested and complains to the guards throwing around claims that he'll get them fired, take them to court, make them wear fuzzy hats, etc, etc.
This is where the night got cold.
TJ pulled each one of us out for our talk with the inquisition. We went through standard procedure: spikes put in our tongues and our fingers were broken. There were plenty of claims made about us: We burned down the library with Calafour; we performed some sick ritual on chick-with-no-name Kent; and we had magic items in our backpacks for quite some time. Probably benign stuff. I still don't know how we didn't notice them over a week's worth of travel.
After we were busted out by a Glasgow guard (one of Keith's friends), we made our way out to the woods.
In true wolviepris style, it's time for ratings:
1: Seth as Pius: Pius was in the front taking care of business. Granted, he was lucky half of the time, but he plays his paladin to a T. He's up in the front, valiant, and fights only those that can defend themselves. While his character wasn't in the forefront, it wasn't needed as much tonight.
2: Will as Van: I stayed in the front and had the most essential skill set to the night: sneaking. This got us into the library and started the siege. If I wasn't so hasty, I might've been more useful. The one thing for these games that I need to work on is taking the initiative particularly in social situations. Van does have the skill set for it, but it's useless unless he gets immersed into the world. It's time to get him in and involved.
3: John as Randall: John was as classy as ever. He stuck to the various plans and took some initiative but still died. With some more cover and patience, he would still be alive. Yet, as a Calafour hunter, he went down in a blaze of glory.
4: Phil as Finkle: There are times that Finkle's actions as a character do make him more real and add a flavor that wouldn't be there. Tonight, it went from flavor to difficult to manage. The orc situation was weird enough as it was and didn't seem necessary. Why not just take him to be jailed for great justice? In the party's hour of need, he stood back and watched. Great for intra-party conflict. Great for challenge. Not what will get us out of trouble.