Remove ads

Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

Voting is open
Reader mode
Goldfish said:
[X] Visit the Temple of Elnu next, as they are known to co-sponsor the Hunters alongside the Temple of Ikomi.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There is no Temple of Elnu in Orinilu.

DragonParadox said:
The city was once ruled by the Priest Kings who bowed to Elnu and dictated the fortunes of high and low alike according to the tides of prophecy, that was not to last however. It was little more than a generation ago when after a disastrous drought and an invasion of nomads which left the hinterlands burning and the very walls of the city under threat the populace rebelled and 'cast out' the last heirs of the priest kings.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
[X] Try to get the priests of Ikomi involved in building some kind of trust

Fortune favours whoever she damn well wants, today.
 
Well, it definatly could went better. But this is DragonParadox' quest, some complications are inevitable.

[X] Try to get the priests of Ikomi involved in building some kind of trust
 
Remove ads
Arc 15 Post 37: Crimson Lies
  • Threadmarks
    • Crimson Lies ​

    Eight of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

    It is well into the afternoon by the time you make it back into sight of the river ever watchful that someone might think to fall on the foreigners in some dark secluded place if they should see you as more wealthy than you are well armed. Thankfully the worst you face is taunts and jeers hurled by roof-traders and one pot that you dearly hope was filled with water that narrowly misses Zaia's head.

    The scholar looks up serenely to meet the gaze of the half-grown boy who had tossed it. "A pity, that one seems to have spirit, but I would wager his parents will try to whip it out of him for the waste of a piss pot." He even seems to mean it.

    As for the guards at the narrow bridge, they let you through without even a perfunctory request for a bribe, too eager perhaps to discuss your folly to have taken such a host across. 'The gods of wine and song must watch for you strangers, spill a cup for us,' one of them calls, all but naming you fools, but your errand is too urgent to stop.

    You make it to the temple and thence are ushered into the company of the high priest at once.. Though the man is open to attempting mediation his own news is strange as it is worrisome.

    "A herald came from House Koire while you were away saying that one of their weavers had contacted the blood whip, though the timing of such a fearsome illness after the talk of magic lies like a stone in my stomach."

    "Blood whip?" Zaia asks, ever curious to learn new things, even the most gruesome.

    "An illness of the lungs that kills perhaps three in ten, though the manner of it is such as to awaken the fear of the people and make the imagination of the poet soar. The sufferer coughs blood you see and when they are near to death they spew forth so much of it and so violently that it may lie 'like the very marks of divine scourges on the walls'."

    "You do not seem troubled..." you note, unable to keep worry out of your own voice. In all the wars you had fought you had seen more men die of sickness than of the foe's blades.

    "Ikomi will guard her own," the priest replied calmly

    "But only so many in one day," Esha notes dispassionately. "If there is sickness many will come to your door seeking healing and from that shall come your peril."

    "Our walls are thick and out guards leal," the high priest proclaims. Then in a more apologetic manner, at least so much as a man seated on what might as well be a throne could be apologetic, he adds. "Yet if you go into that house how we may not admit you into the temple again until we are certain the plague has not found host in your flesh, such is the law of the temple."

    So the priests and the city at large dares not send anyone too senior and high ranking to see what is going on in the Koire Manse, you curse inwardly. "The hunters have surely not had any time to enter the manse though?"

    "Bring one to me with pledge that they have not and I shall use what authority I have to sway them to common cause."

    So to translate the priest is willing to to anything but actually endanger his own skin even though he admits to possessing a cure for the plague that is supposedly ravaging the manse

    How do you find the watching hunters?

    [] Deploy the otter-kin who would learn stealth, between their keen senses and mind speech they should be able to pick out any watchers

    [] Have Inge show herself very openly as a priestess of Ikomi and hope one of the watchers approaches her

    [] Use bird spies, it risks the least but also might miss the most

    [] Write in

    OOC: Well you rolls are getting better, at least so much that you were not waylaid in Farshore.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Damn, whoever is orchestrating this plot is smart. Playing the plague card is.an easy way to buy them more time for whatever it is they're hoping to accomplish.

    I'm not very eager to risk the Otter-kin when we know so little about what is really going on here, and we've already seen how little influence Inge's status can have among the Hunters and clergy of Ikomi.

    I don't know if we'll be able to see anything worthwhile using aerial observation, but it's a good place to start. We can use the birds for initial scouting, then have Inge get a more thorough look using her Eagle Eye spell. Focused Scrutiny should work really well for this, since it provides a +10 Perception and Sense Motive bonus vs whatever she's focusing her attention on. That's much better than the +6 bonus from the most expensive mundane telescope available.

    [X] Eyes in the Sky
    -[X] Use bird spies, it risks the least but also might miss the most
    -[X] Ask Inge to use her Eagle Eye spell along with a dose of Zaia's Magian Wine and a Focused Scrutiny extract to better observe goings on within the Koire estate, based on what she learns from her birds.
     
    Goldfish said:
    Focused Scrutiny should work really well for this, since it provides a +10 Perception and Sense Motive bonus vs whatever she's focusing her attention on.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I thought about otter-kin... but yes, this is cheasy.

    But... are you alcoholize child with wine? Where child protection service is looking?! :p

    [X] Goldfish
     
    Last edited:
    Vote closed.
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Aug 17, 2022 at 12:05 PM, finished with 5 posts and 4 votes.
    • [X] Eyes in the Sky
      -[X] Use bird spies, it risks the least but also might miss the most
      -[X] Ask Inge to use her Eagle Eye spell along with a dose of Zaia's Magian Wine and a Focused Scrutiny extract to better observe goings on within the Koire estate, based on what she learns from her birds.
    Click to expand...
     
    Arc 15 Post 38: Under the Moonlight
  • Threadmarks
    • Under the Moonlight ​

    Eight of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

    The night is thankfully clear with the pale eye of an almost full moon illuminating the city, plenty of light for birds to see. The citizens be it in garb colorful or drab avoid the gate of House Koire, knowing full well that the plague spares neither rich nor poor its dark touch, but some there are who linger close. Temple guards with shields blue and white to mark the sea, called froth by priests worried about whatever wickedness might lurk within... but also other folk.

    From the air, either a bird's eye or Inge's own boosted up by the temple roof itself as well as the will of Ikomi it is easy to pick up the hunters, men or perhaps women who are skilled enough at hiding in the crowd and warding off the suspicious of their fellow citizens but between knowing what they are observing and the height they are all marked by the third hour after sunset. Or at least you think that is all of them. Five seems about on par with the team Anisi had gathered and given how few take up the silver star of the hunter since the fall of them temple of Elnu they must be a significant portion of the hunters in the city.

    You even catch sight of the rude fellow who would not give his name, hidden under a blanket in a wheelbarrow which had apparently been abandoned not far from the garden wall at the back of the manse, the workers perhaps scared off by rumors of plague.

    As you and Zaia weigh if you should try to approach them again or wait for them to make their move and then follow Inge gives a sudden wordless cry.

    "Something... something came out of the house... it took one of the hunters. I couldn't get a good look at it in the dark, but it didn't... it wasn't human. It had roots or tentacles like a squid. There was... a lot of blood. I don't think he lived, the hunter I mean."

    "They are moving," Esha cuts in. "The hunters are many things, but they are not fools, they would not approach from many directions unless they had some means to speak to each other from afar and to mark if one of them is killed."

    What do you do?

    [] Circle around to where Inge saw the hunter die, it may be the long way but it gives you the chance to confront or follow the monster

    [] Move through the front gates, one way or the other you need to get to Odorin and keep him safe, both from the enemy within and from the hunter with their blood up

    [] Write in

    OOC: I was really busy today, but I did not want to miss a second update in two days. You have with you all the people you had previously as you did not vote to go back to the ship for anyone
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Tentacles are always a bad sign...

    Tentacles and people getting mindwhammied, that is a really bad sign... :eek2:

    I'm all for circling around to the scene of the crime. The Hunters will get there before us and likely take the brunt of whatever monsters they encounter while attempting to retrieve their fellow. I'm not saying use them as meatshields, but purely as a coincidence, let's use them as meatshields.

    [X] Circle around to where Inge saw the hunter die, it may be the long way but it gives you the chance to confront or follow the monster
     
    [X] Circle around to where Inge saw the hunter die, it may be the long way but it gives you the chance to confront or follow the monster
     
    [X] Circle around to where Inge saw the hunter die, it may be the long way but it gives you the chance to confront or follow the monster
     
    [X] Circle around to where Inge saw the hunter die, it may be the long way but it gives you the chance to confront or follow the monster
     
    Arhin said:
    @Goldfish , maybe try to save Odorin while we still can? Or you consider it too dangerous?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I want to save Odorin, he's a very useful contact we've gone through significant efforts to cultivate, but we still know too little to just rush in right now with the forces available to us, IMO.

    If the Hunters didn't end up being such asshats, we could have teamed up with them for this. Now they get to be the ones to attract monster attention so we can get a better idea of what we're dealing with here before endangering ourselves.
     
    [X] Circle around to where Inge saw the hunter die, it may be the long way but it gives you the chance to confront or follow the monster
     
    [X] Circle around to where Inge saw the hunter die, it may be the long way but it gives you the chance to confront or follow the monster
     
    Goldfish said:
    Tentacles and people getting mindwhammied, that is a really bad sign... :eek2:
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    *remebering first tentacle encaunter in ASWAH*

    *underwater battle is almost won*
    DP: Do you want to stay?
    Players: LOOT!!! EXPA!!!
    *some slightly ominous signs*
    DP: Are you sure that you want to stay?
    Players: Loot? Expa?..
    *a lot of very ominous signs*
    DP: Are you REALLY sure that you want to stay?
    Players: ...we'll better be going...
     
    Unfortunately the update will be tomorrow

    I still need some time to get the monster's sheet done. Really this should have been done already, but I was on holiday so I kept putting this off
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Voting is open
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top