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A Villain In A World Of Heroes

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I am reminded of a DM that gave us a random encounter of hellhound puppies.
we slaughtered them, while the DM was going on about how puppylike each one was and how pathetic its death was (and by that I mean terrifying monster that nearly TPKed us and we couldn't hold back)
 
Kinematics said:
Totally should have gone for the wildebeests... At least that wouldn't have looked like were playing him for a fool with the lies (as long as it was done properly, and not played calm/straight). Of course with a roll of a 2, it might not have mattered.

Anyway, we have to respond to the concern. Whether honest or a lie, we can't play the stoic unless we want to get kicked out.

We can't really say, "I'm trying to find a secret hideout." And saying we were looking for someplace to live is fishy; why would we need to lie about that? Hmm.. We could possibly try to draw sympathy on our abysmal dice luck...

[] Allow the facade to crack, allowing a certain degree of upset frustration to leak through.
[] "I'm trying! I really am... My home is gone, and I can't stay here forever. I didn't have enough money to afford an apprenticeship. I figured I could get some books, to learn something from, or learn fighting or magic so I could fight. If I could hunt, well, I know how to work leather, some..."
[] "But it just keeps failing! I can't understand all the fancy words in the books, and my fighting skills are horrible, and I nearly got myself killed just trying to use magic to clean a room up!" <nearly in tears by this point>
[] "My dad... my dad is dead, but I have to keep trying.. I have to show him he can be proud of me.. that I won't just end up dead in a ditch, or sold to a.. to.. that I can actually take care of myself!"
[ "If I fail at one thing, I'll just keep trying something else; but I'm not giving up. And I did get a pelt!" <pouty defiance>
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It's something, but needs work. Too blatant, I think.

I want to know how he could help us. I get the feeling it's not just being a barmaid.

Those parts are specially useful:
"But it just keeps failing! I can't understand all the fancy words in the books, and my fighting skills are horrible,[...]."
"I figured I could get some books, to learn something from, or learn fighting or magic so I could fight. "

We may be able to get free old books/some lessons, specially good for upping our literacy.

We should metion that we are actually good at magic, tho, who knows what kind of information a friendly, kind bar owner might have. We should pass the impression that we don't want the simple life, that we have some actual talent but are ultimately just an orphan trying her best. We are not a kid, but a young teen.

Should probably end with something like:
[] If you really want to help, show me how tonight, now I've gotta go!
 
Dark Ness said:
I didn't mention this in the story post because Carlo wouldn't have, but the ice spell is very bad for pelt hunting. It didn't really matter for the feric wolf, since it was so big and you could only take some of its pelt anyways, but could you imagine hunting, say, rabbits with the ice spell? There wouldn't be much pelt left.
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That's true, but we can say that we didn't know that when we bought it. And as you said, Carlo wouldn't think about that, so it's in character. We never tought about what it might do to the pelt.
 
While my first draft needs refinement all around, the main stumbling block is the idea of apprenticeship. If Cedra had the money for apprenticeship, why wouldn't she try to sign up for one? It's a natural course of action in a mercantile economy.

Is there an age limit? In many cases, craftsmen won't take apprentices older than about the age of 12, and Cedra is 14.

Is there another leatherworker in town? Is there any reason Cedra might explicitly not want to apprentice to them, given she already has some basic skills? (eg: rivalry with her father, or anything similar where they generally wouldn't want to submit to working for the other?)

Anything else? Even if I leave out the phrase entirely, it's still something Carlo will almost certainly question her about, if she admits to having difficulty learning on her own.

Edit: Gender biases?
 
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There are other leather workers, but you don't know them very well. They might reject you, but since you already know most of the trade, it isn't that likely. Honestly, if you really wanted to, you could step up your own shop. You aren't the best there is, but you are good enough.
 
Dark Ness said:
There are other leather workers, but you don't know them very well. They might reject you, but since you already know most of the trade, it isn't that likely. Honestly, if you really wanted to, you could step up your own shop. You aren't the best there is, but you are good enough.
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Hmm. That's an idea. Perhaps she wants to build/rebuild her own shop? A few gold will buy an apprenticeship, but it won't buy a shop (I assume?). And going to work for someone else as a menial laborer will get you a pittance in actual pay. You need to go serious entrepreneurial if you want to earn money for something that significant. Carlo should certainly understand that.

So if she wants to earn enough money to really set herself up (and not just as that "good enough" shop, but something to make her father proud), she needs to do the work that would normally cost most of her profits. And, being young, time is far more available to her than coin, and first-hand experience (eg: hunting pelts) is just as important.

Thoughts?
 
Elder Haman said:
Well... we do have a pelt.

Why don't we go the defensive route and show him the Ferric Pelt? Be mysterious about how we killed it.
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We also have a sword, and magic. A wolf is much larger prey, so the pelts should be salvagable, but it may make him concerned, though it should be enough to back up our story if we want to stick with it.

We can also pull out all of our mundane books if we want to reinforce Kinematic's vote regarding us trying to learn on our own.
 
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So... tell him we are looking at setting up our own shop, so we figure we need to get our own pelts first. Show him our sword and Ferric Pelt. Say "See, I totally got one."

Have him thinking we are a crazy kid who is going to get herself killed, but is at least crazy in a comprehensible way?
 
There is an issue with that.

Here is a wolf pelt.

Here is what you have (assume it is a bigger then the wolf pelt and the same texture/color)

It is going to be obvious that whatever you killed, it was a lot bigger then a normal wolf.
 
Elder Haman said:
So... tell him we are looking at setting up our own shop, so we figure we need to get our own pelts first. Show him our sword and Ferric Pelt. Say "See, I totally got one."

Have him thinking we are a crazy kid who is going to get herself killed, but is at least crazy in a comprehensible way?
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Right. Everything we have really lends itself towards that story. (except possibly the pelt; need more thought on that)

We need to learn how to hunt our own pelts if we want to save money, as well as learn just what makes a pelt good or bad. What makes it good quality, and how hard is it to get?

We need to learn magic if we ever want to do enchantment work; and a variety of magic, at that. We're not going to let anyone accuse us of selling a fake "fireproof" armor.

We need to learn fighting to understand what makes good armor. The armor we have is serviceable, but, honestly, kinda crap. If we want to make something better than what the average grunt would buy, we have to know what it is that makes it worth buying.

We need to learn anatomy to help in understanding not only how to get a good pelt, but to apply that knowledge across various other creatures. There's not just 'one' type of leather. Plus, help not get killed when hunting, and a better understanding of what makes armor effective.

On top of all that, we need to learn about business, accounting, and general relations. We need to get on good terms with merchants, and learn how to protect against thieves.

We need to learn so much that it's honestly a bit overwhelming.


In addition to getting Carlo on our side, I can see this as providing an excuse (business? training? contacts? lots of reasons) for going to the city the hero was at. Heck, I can see it being a springboard for how to actually connect with heroes in general, in the longer term. The great villain of the land is also the best damn leatherworker around, and knows everyone. Well, if she can quit failing when trying to learn anything, and not kill herself trying...
 
Dark Ness said:
There is an issue with that.

Here is a wolf pelt.

Here is what you have (assume it is a bigger then the wolf pelt and the same texture/color)

It is going to be obvious that whatever you killed, it was a lot bigger then a normal wolf.
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I think that, with the proper sacrifices to the Dice Gods, we could probably pull off a bluff for this. Just say that it was a very long wolf.
 
Elder Haman said:
Well we did it. So...

Is Carlos going to try and steal it from us? Forbid us from hunting wolves anymore?
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I think, considering that he doesn't know about our Wolverine-esque regeneration, that he'd think that we did it without getting injured (which we did, anyway, but the other wounds we got might have cancelled that impression out, considering that we aren't telling him about anything else we did yet). He'd have to be pretty stupid to want to fight us head on...
 
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On the other hand... it might attract unwanted attention...

Also, I want to say that having a base of operations to serve as a front is totally important. So actually owning a leather working shop would be a major asset.
 
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So, can't we just tell him to mind his own business? It's not like he'd be able to prevent us from carrying on as is. Perhaps he'd be a slight nuisance, but in that case, I'm sure we can relocate to another town. It's not like we wont be able to survive the trek by living off the land and the monsters who roam it.

We could also just tell him that we finished the trial(I'm sure he'll know what we're talking about) and are going to kill the hero come what may.
 
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Elder Haman said:
I'm kind of waiting to see if @Kinematics comes back with a new plan based on the recent discussions.
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Heh. And I was hoping someone would put up an alternative that I could crib some lines from.

I started writing a revision last night, but didn't finish before bedtime. Let me try again.

[x] Allow the facade to crack, and a certain degree of upset frustration to leak through.
[x] "I'm trying! I really am... My home is gone, my family is gone, and.. and I can't stay here forever. If I want my father to be proud of me, to be at peace.."
[x] "I'm going to be the best! I have some training, but that's not enough to be a master craftsman, and I won't sully his name with some crappy amateur shop."
[x] "I figured I could get some books, to learn something from, or learn fighting or magic..."
[x] "But it just keeps failing! I can't understand all the fancy words in the books, and my fighting skills are horrible, and I nearly got myself killed just trying to use magic to clean up a room!"
[x] "I'm not going to just end up dead in a ditch, or sold to a.. to.. I can actually take care of myself! Even if I fail, I'm not going to give up!"


Still not entirely happy with it, but this is an emotional response, not a cataloging of what she's training and why (in order to justify her actions), but still gives enough info that Carlo should be able to get the overall intent.
 
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