Completed [Play-by-Post] Magic World/BRP: "In Search of the Sorcerer"

[Grimgravy]

Search(47): [1d100] = 85

Rhenmyr continues being useless.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Search(47): [1d100] = 85

Rhenmyr continues being useless.

Spoiler

Wait no assists?

 

[nikolokolus]

Search(47): [1d100] = 85

Rhenmyr continues being useless.

Spoiler

Wait no assists?

Spoiler

Wouldn't be enough; not enough people with 50+ in tracking . . . but there are perhaps other things people can attempt.

Rhenmyr scans the ground around the bridge looking for signs of passage. The path is stony and fairly dry and yields little concrete evidence of passage. Certainly there are mossy rocks that have been scuffed by feet at one time or another, but you can't say when, by how many or even what direction. The wood of the bridge is weathered and smooth and iron hard, clearly it is very old and has seen enough feet to polish its surface, but again no path seems more well trod than any other that you can tell.

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Amon joins the useless persons club with Rhenmyr. Search=[1d100] = 85 vs 46 = Fail

Then Amon attempts to use his vast knowledge of tracking. Track=[1d100] = 1 vs 16=Critical

Spoiler

Finally a great roll! I checked it out in the book and it's a legit critical.

 

[nikolokolus]

Amon scans the crossroads around the foot of the bridge and can't make heads nor tails of whatever signs might be interpreted from the landscape. Dejected he sits down on a heap of stones next to the cairn about fifteen feet down the path in the direction of "The Clipped Legs" or "The Lake of Short Beards" (or whatever it really is) deeper into the forest.

Frustrated, he casually sits down and picks up a rock and tosses it into the ravine. Annoyingly a long strand of hair sticks to his fingernail. He looks at the strand of hair in the dim light and it's a vibrant gold-red color.

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Amon looks the hair over in a bit of disbelief. "I think I found a hair from the woman you are seeking. She must be in that direction." Amon points in the direction of the path he was sitting on.

 

[L'ennui]

Urash snaps from his useless staring at the landscape. "Excellent! Shall we?"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Amon scans the crossroads around the foot of the bridge and can't make heads nor tails of whatever signs might be interpreted from the landscape. Dejected he sits down on a heap of stones next to the cairn about fifteen feet down the path in the direction of "The Clipped Legs" or "The Lake of Short Beards" (or whatever it really is) deeper into the forest.

Frustrated, he casually sits down and picks up a rock and tosses it into the ravine. Annoyingly a long strand of hair sticks to his fingernail. He looks at the strand of hair in the dim light and it's a vibrant gold-red color.

Spoiler

Maybe if I intimidate the strand of hair, it will confess?

 

[Siveon]

Spoiler

Can Marcán cast Understanding to read the runes on the cairn?

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

Can Marcán cast Understanding to read the runes on the cairn?

Spoiler

Yes indeed. You're not under any duress, so it's assumed you can automatically make a casting roll (however, you don't get to tick-off the box next to 'cast sorcery' for improvement either).

Marcán recites a short canto of verse, falls into a trance and when he opens his eyes he looks at the strange runes on the cairn and he quickly susses out their translation. The path across the birdge leads to someplace called "High Hankle" (not high ankle), the path to the south leads to "Dreg" (not Dregs), and the path further into the forest leads to Lankshorn, (not the Clipped Legs, or Lake of short beards). There's also a subtext written into the 'Lankshorn' runes, that is subtle and indicates domain. It simply says, "Lord Fragglehorn."

 

[Siveon]

Marcán shows a dry grin, as he reveals this information to the group. "I suppose this makes me pretty clever. All the more reason to head toward Lankshorn, as that is what Farthingy told us was where we might find Oona. I wonder who this Lord Malbleat is, however, and if he has any connection to Mallowheart."

 

[Grimgravy]

"So, to Lankshorn then?" Rhenmyr resumes scouting when the group comes to a decision.

 

[nikolokolus]

Tally ho

If everyone agrees with Grimgravy's suggestion then just hit 'agree' on his post and we'll move on, if you have an alternate plan (like camping, going a different way, etc.) then do what you need to do.

 

[nikolokolus]

With their first solid lead in days, the troupe peers into the vine-choked forest path that descends alongside the ravine and follows Rhenmyr's lead. Solon interjects by clearing his throat and speaking in his warbly, nasal voice, "Gentlemen, I do not think it wise for us to re-enter this dismal forest. Perhaps this strand of red hair is but a ruse?" His voice trails off as it seems the group is not particularly interested in his theories. Dejectedly he falls in line, but his head swivels back and forth nervously every dozen paces or so.

Despite Solon's misgivings, you proceed for several more miles along the silent, eerie path. Disconcertingly, the absence of birds and other wildlife becomes almost oppressive -- the only sounds the whistling of the wind through the beeches, oaks and hornbeams that tower over you and make the forest floor nearly as dark as a moonlit night. The ravine gradually flattens out and the stream widens out into the spongy turf; clutches of reeds and sedges grow up to your chest and the trees begin to thin out a little. You round a bend in the path and ahead you can see the edge of the forest around a large meadow, fringed by scrub and dense hedgerows of gorse. A wooden trackway pitted with rot follows the contours of the meadow for about a mile and in the middle distance you can see wisps of smoke rising from a cluster of huts and other wooden structures. About 200 paces away from where the wooden trackway starts, you see a partially ruined stone cottage just to the side of it, with a collapsed roof, and overgrown with vines and thorny brambles, a reddish glow of light flickers off the ruined rafters of the cottage and thin grey smoke curls above it in the misty air.

 

[L'ennui]

Urash points at the cottage with his staff.

"Seems inhabited. Dare we take a look?"

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

"I would think we could benefit from learning more about what we might face in the future. Let's take a look. I can see what we might be facing first"

Amon casts cloak of night and begins to move forward.
Hide=[1d100] = 73vs 104 = Pass
Move Quietly=[1d100] = 14 vs 68=Pass

Spoiler

If you vote in favor of the player by rounding up to 14 from 13.6 for the special threshold, his hide roll is a special success.

 

[nikolokolus]

"I would think we could benefit from learning more about what we might face in the future. Let's take a look. I can see what we might be facing first"

Amon casts cloak of night and begins to move forward.
Hide=[1d100] = 73vs 104 = Pass
Move Quietly=[1d100] = 14 vs 68=Pass

Spoiler

If you vote in favor of the player by rounding up to 14 from 13.6 for the special threshold, his hide roll is a special success.

Point on Rules and Rounding:

As written in the book, all fractions are rounded up to the nearest whole number, so your roll is a special.

In the gloomy half-light, Amon slides from bramble to bush as quiet as a shadow. He slides up to the edge of the ruined cottage and peers in through a window with a pair of old shutters hanging skew-whiff from a single rotted hinge.

In the rubble strewn floor of the cottage, beneath a mostly destroyed roof, is a dancing campfire and the strangest sight you've ever seen. A large "cat", but not a cat in the usual sense of the word because it appears to have grasping man-like paws, a jaunty cap with an absurdly long peacock feather, and a wide leather belt from which hangs a thin, sheathed sword. It is sitting on its haunches holding a skewered rat over the crackling fire and it is contentedly humming an eerie tune, occasionally pulling the rat out of the fire to test it before putting it back over the coals.

It doesn't appear to have registered Amon's presence.

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Amon looks on in disbelief. He then does a quick scan of the area to see if anything else might be nearby in the building.

Search= [1d100] = 71 vs 46 = Fail

After not seeing anything else, he motions the group forward and continues to watch the cat for its reaction.

 

[Grimgravy]

At Amon's signal, Rhenmyr cautiously approaches.

Hide (56): [1d100] = 87
Move Quietly (59): [1d100] = 29

 

[nikolokolus]

While Amon watches silently from the window, the cat-man-thing stands up from its roasting of the spitted rat and stretches its arms. it walks over to the half-ruined wall where the front door used to be to relieve itself against the tumbled masonry. Amon sees the cat-man-thingy crane its neck and peek around the wall before going stock still. A second or two later it vaults silently onto an old beam about 8 feet above its head where the ceiling probably used to be. It clings to the top of the beam nearly invisible in the shadows cast by the dancing firelight below.

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Amon gives a halt sign to the group and continues to watch the cat on the beam.

 

[nikolokolus]

Amon rubs his eyes and blinks a couple of times confusedly. You could have sworn you could see the outline of the feline form on top of the beam a second ago, but it just isn't there anymore. You are certain you were watching the beam the entire time too.

 

[Grimgravy]

Rhenmyr halts at Amon's sign and waits stock still.

 

[L'ennui]

Urash crouches when he sees Amon's halt signal, wondering what is going on.

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Amon, upon witnessing the cat vanish, decides to move back to the group.

Hide = [1d100] = 91 vs 104 =Success
Move Quietly = [1d100] = 32 vs 68 = Success