Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
-
- Tags
- pathfinder open voting
Well Zaia heard the word 'ghosts' and is concerned by how the sailors will take it. He has no metric to measure magic by.
- Location
- Germany
Even ghosts appearing, regardless if they are supposed to be hostile or not, is a risk I won't take.
Even if it seems too dangerous to just choose it outright, still thinking it's worth getting more info about it and if there is a way to make it less dangerous.
[X] Asking Inge
-[X] What are possible dangers of and bad ends to the ritual? Is there any way to reduce risks? Any way to help you with it?
Because the good outcome of the ritual looks the best, we are not fighting 60 -- 90 warriors and we are not diverting back to not necessary friendly cities to search for a more qualified magician who may not be there at all.
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
By the way - I thought that it is Neytral Good now?
Fixed, thanks.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
It was stupid to try to negotiate with these people, and it would be stupid to try to perform the ritual. Inge is a child, if an unusually intelligent one, and despite whatever power she has, she's inexperienced and has no one here to help her perform the ritual, the very dangerous ritual that invokes potentially malevolent Incorporeal entities. As for the spectres/ghosts/whatever, as Artemis said, we are completely unequipped to deal with even the weakest of them.
There is also the matter of how the crew and our men will react to this whole encounter and our conceding to a bunch of people in canoes. More magic, this time with talk of curses and spirit summoning...yeah, that'll go over real well.
We should just pretend to leave, loop around, then build up as much speed as we can, after waiting for the wind to change in our favor, then blow through this part of the straight. The only reason these people were dangerous is because we were going slow enough for canoes to catch up with the Marcella and practically surround it in the fog. Well, fog doesn't last forever and wind changes all the time.
[X] Feign a retreat then try to push through
There is also the matter of how the crew and our men will react to this whole encounter and our conceding to a bunch of people in canoes. More magic, this time with talk of curses and spirit summoning...yeah, that'll go over real well.
We should just pretend to leave, loop around, then build up as much speed as we can, after waiting for the wind to change in our favor, then blow through this part of the straight. The only reason these people were dangerous is because we were going slow enough for canoes to catch up with the Marcella and practically surround it in the fog. Well, fog doesn't last forever and wind changes all the time.
[X] Feign a retreat then try to push through
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I do not think that it was stupid. We received some information about their position and about Inge's abilities. Maybe Inge will even receive some XP for that check!
You also received the information that your ship is infused with magic from the passage between worlds.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Could it be that we have a potential...
Medival Knight Rider, Ocean Edition?
- Location
- Germany
The ritual doesn't sound too bad actually.
If we can reach Inge's home we could have it done by experienced priests, while the men are on shore-leave rather than watching the magic happen.
If we can reach Inge's home we could have it done by experienced priests, while the men are on shore-leave rather than watching the magic happen.
[X] Asking Inge
-[X] What are possible dangers of and bad ends to the ritual? Is there any way to reduce risks? Any way to help you with it?
[X] If she doubts it's success Turn back and make for one of the other cities, perhaps you will find a more experienced magician there
-[X] What are possible dangers of and bad ends to the ritual? Is there any way to reduce risks? Any way to help you with it?
[X] If she doubts it's success Turn back and make for one of the other cities, perhaps you will find a more experienced magician there
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- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And maybe they have a safer version of such ritual.
That's why I want to seek other magicians.
It's not so much that they have a safer version as the ritual is inherently safer when you are not trying to do it alone. Inge is very open about this, the ritual is dangerous but so is fighting a chaotic battle two on one so she is willing to do it.
- Location
- Washington
Sounds like the magic on our ship be a huge hint to what happen to us which would be real nice cause I like to know if it was just a freak accident or part of something larger and letting that go before we can have it examined seems like a waste
Vote closed.
Arc 2 Post 4: Veiled Words
Veiled Words
The Thirty Eight of Elnu-eza [Elnu Ascendant], Year Unknown
Blood still drips from the child's hand as she speaks and in your mind there hangs still the memory of her all-but collapsing after dealing death to the undead. Even if you were inclined to allow her to work her magic and summon forth the dead for counsel or for aid, she is but a child and you will not see her suffer in your defense, certainly not for the sake of offering Antonio some power or enchantment. "We should turn back, return when the wind is with us with men at the oars, they would not trap us so easily then," you say in French to Antonio.
The merchant looks around him, weighs his odds and, to his credit, nods, saying to the girl: "We go back then, I do not wish to trouble the living, much less the dead in our travels. Our cargo will sell just as well in Ibanora or Orinlu as in the Sunset Islands I am sure and mayhap there we will have our answers."
"I can do it," Inge insists, but you can hear the uncertainty in her voice and in that you are not alone, to judge from the look Zaia is giving her. Seeing that her words will not sway any of you she turns to the leader of the strange men and repeats what she had been told. The answer she translates in return makes for ill hearing. "He says he does not trust us for we are strangers here and so our leader must give pledge under the eyes of the Owl that you will leave and not seek to pass the ship through the Mouth of the World," she hesitates a moment and adds. "He is not sure which of you is the leader of the ship."
Your stomach lurches unpleasantly when you realize that you had pushed Antonio into swearing a false oath, to a foe unlooked for is it may be, and for a moment you consider taking on the burden upon yourself, but then he says still in French. "Then it shall it be me for certain for I am much the better liar." The words are light and spoken with a smile and so you can find no fault in them.
Slowly and absent any of his guards the white haired elder climbs onto the deck of the ship and strikes the deck of the ship with his staff, the timbers hum, the air is still... and for the fourth time in your life you feel magic in the air, sticking your tongue to the floor of your mouth, as though a distant piercing light which the eye cannot see, but the mind can still perceive is upon you.
You shall not lie.
Weight of that compulsion is almost suffocating.
"Step back, he does not wish to hear from you," Inge whispers.
As you do, hand instinctively gripping the hilt of your sword, Antonio remains in place and through some deftness of the tongue that you in that moment lack he tells the old man what he wishes to hear, he lies without a care for strange powers. In all your life you have never thought to feel such envy towards a man swearing a false oath.
***
The Thirty Ninth of Elnu-eza [Elnu Ascendant], Year Unknown
The Marcella turns about slowly and it sails against the current back eastwards until sunset, then Antonio asks the girl. "What say your birds? Are there any other watchers in sky or sea?"
She looks to him for a long moment as if frozen in place, unable to believe the implications. "You want break vow?"
The captain shrugs. "If a man makes me swear an oath with steel to my throat then he aught to expect it to last as long as the chill of it upon my skin."
Inge is not listening, she has already left to her cabin in the patter of hurried feet. Antonio sniffs and sets back upon his task, turning the ship about and setting men to the oars. That night you pass by the straights in the moonlit dark and into the wide western ocean. A brisk breeze is upon your face and the freedom of wider waters all about you... but by the next morning Inge still has not returned to the deck.
You seek her out and find her curled by the window, looking out with hollow eyes at the waters. "Don't want to come back home a liar, a coward," is all she says and to that you have no answer to give, all the reasoning you had prepared crumbling like dust, for that thought is as familiar to you as waking in a sweat, the clash of steel and the moans of the dying still echoing from dreams not quite past.
As you sit there in silence the ship rocks hard against the motion of the waves, then it is still and all is quiet.
"Better than not to come back at all," you answer both for yourself and for her.
What do you do for the next month as the Marcella sails west?
[] Get to know one of your companions (Obtain character sheet if successful)
-[] Antonio (DC 26)
-[] Zaia (DC 22)
-[] Inge (DC 17)
[] Spend time with Jon Lorson, these may yet be his last days and you are the closest thing to kin he has on this ship
[] Practice the tongue of the Sunset Islands with Zaia and Inge (DC 15 Intelligence check for Basic proficiency)
[] Write in
OOC: Yes, that was Zone of Truth and you failed your save, but fortunately Antonio did not fail his.
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