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

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OK, looks like we are fighting.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Oct 10, 2022 at 3:29 AM, finished with 11 posts and 6 votes.
  • [X] Offer to make a stand with the aid of the Yarar travelers, longbows and chainmail should make quite the unpleasant surprise to these hunters
    -[X] Give the order for our men to make ready for battle against shapeshifted men in the form of wolves, then switch to Indomitable Presence and Stance of the Defending Shell.
    -[X] Inge will cast Mage Armor on herself, Zaia, and Swift Pebble. Zaia will drink his Mutagen (+2 Natural Armor, +4 CON, -2 CHA), give Roland an Ablative Barrier extract, and drink a Shield extract before combat begins.
    --[X] Inge will use her Light spell to provide us with greater light and Zaia will distribute Sunrods to our men so they won't need to worry about trying to fight while holding torches.
    -[X] Tom will use his Tactician ability to grant everyone the Shake It Off feat for 5 rounds when combat starts, Wanderer will Rage as a Free Action, and Cor Eso will begin using the Drums of Haste. He'll cast the spell on Roland, Silver, Wanderer, Swift Pebble, and Tom first, then cast it twice more to affect Inge, Zaia, and the rest our men. He'll use it once in five of the Yayar warriors, if they consent, then save the final use for later.
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Arc 16 Post 13: By Strange Tongues Called
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    • By Strange Tongues Called ​

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

    Curses, the word sends a shiver down your spine as the threat of death and maiming alone does not, but you will not let fear rule you, not by night and not by day. A poor fit for dealing with wolves on the prowl, be they on two legs or four. Motioning to the hillock you had made camp on you say to the Yayar: "Hold the ground yonder, I know not how swift these two-skins are but I would wager they would be a good bit less bold in the face of three feet of pine arrow through the gut."

    Ainar draws his the lion skin mantle a little aside and draws his sword a few inches from the hilt, enough to reveal a gleam like silver. "The Moon Eaters do not fear your arrows, tis only the bite of silver they fear and the kiss of fire."

    You hear Zaia murmur something to himself in his own tongue, but pay it no mind.

    "Silver I do not have, but fire I can manage," you say drawing Durendal, a tongue of fire defiant in the dark.

    Seeing this the head of the riders seems heartened calls out to his folk in their own lilting quick footed tongue and they follow along to the foot of the hill. There isn't enough room for man and beast along its crest, far from it, but all the men with bows stand vigil there as Tom calls out for the others to take up the stakes he had carved as soon as you rode onto the plains. True those had been prepared to see off folks like your new allies, but they will serve just as well in the face of rampaging wolf-men or so at least you hope.

    "Do you need healing?" Zaia asks, reaching for his satchel adorned with ribbons in a riot of colors only he knows the full meaning to. The red ones are for healing, that much you recall.

    For their part the riders to not know what to make of the old man, at the very least they do not seem to have the same clear mark of a sorcerer as the Anwa... but it is hard to miss that he is the only one here without armor or weapon. The eldest among them atop an elk with whose coat is the same color as his hair and beard shakes his head and calls what seems from the tone a warning. You are already regretting not bringing Esha along, though if you had who knows how they might have taken her presence,

    After conversing with his fellows further Ainar refuses the offer: "We will see to our own wounds strangers."

    Before you can think how to reply a fork of lightning races across the sky though there is not a drop of rain in the air and by the fierce light you see them. Wolves they are, but not as you know them backs arched in unnatural arcs as though ready to spring and tear at the throats of their foes, fangs yellowed and dripping in preparation for the feast and eyes... Even so far as you are three hundred feet from the foot of the hillock to the nearest of the beasts you can see that their eyes are not those of beasts but men.


    And of men are their voices as they call out in the tongue of the Yayar or perhaps one close to it, but which none of you can speak. It sounds like a challenge or perhaps a warning, drifting off expecting an answer.

    You look to Ainar for answers.

    "They give you a chance to flee if your beasts will bear you, but you should leave anything too heavy for their backs behind..."

    "Tribute, they are asking for tribute," Hengo cuts in. Anger makes his beard bristle and his back straighten. A merchant will count his coins before his children, the old saw comes to you, but you shake it off. You have played the merchant more than once yourself and truth be told you can well see why a man might be wrathful at the prospect of the swat of his brow being stolen.

    The lead wolf snarls again and Ainar's mount tosses his head, horns slashing at the air. "Then he says he will take... he will take our lives from our bleeding flesh."

    Odd... not that a man would hesitate in speaking of such a threat at a time like this, but the pause did not seem to be weighted with fear, but more with, uncertainly, a furtive look around to see if any other ear could catch the word.

    Alas Hengo seems distracted now, telling his own men how to fight, he had not caught the look, perhaps not even the words.

    What do you do?

    [] Prepare for battle
    -[] Write in

    [] Challenge Ainar on his account

    [] Ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, warn them off

    [] Write in

    OOC: Welp that was an interesting moment to make your sense motive roll. Up to you guys if you want to follow up on it.
     
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    • Huh, maybe this isn't quite so clear cut as I was assuming? Werewolves potentially being non-hostile is strange, but a lot of that comes from expecting them to be standard Chaotic Evil and thats.not necessarily the case in this setting.

    @DragonParadox, is there any reason we can't confront Ainar while Swift Pebble attempts to communicate with the Werewolves?

    [X] Challenge Ainar on his account
    -[X] Ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, warn them off
     
    [X] Challenge Ainar on his account
    -[X] Ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, warn them off
     
    No reason to fight on two fronts at the same time

    Ask the wolves while Ainar doesn't know. Then with newfound information we can challenge him
     
    Goldfish said:
    Huh, maybe this isn't quite so clear cut as I was assuming? Werewolves potentially being non-hostile is strange, but a lot of that comes from expecting them to be standard Chaotic Evil and thats.not necessarily the case in this setting.

    @DragonParadox, is there any reason we can't confront Ainar while Swift Pebble attempts to communicate with the Werewolves?

    [X] Challenge Ainar on his account
    -[X] Ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, warn them off
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    Not really beyond the costs of the actions individually
     
    Okay, changing the wording of my vote a bit. Roland should be able to silently make that request of Swift Pebble while simultaneously speaking to Ainar.

    [X] Mentally ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, to learn what is happening here while verbally challenging Ainar's translation.
     
    [X] Mentally ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, to learn what is happening here while verbally challenging Ainar's translation.

    Teamwork and dream work.
     
    [X] Mentally ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, to learn what is happening here while verbally challenging Ainar's translation.
     
    [X] Mentally ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, to learn what is happening here while verbally challenging Ainar's translation.
     
    [X] Mentally ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, to learn what is happening here while verbally challenging Ainar's translation.
     
    OK then vote closed.
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Oct 12, 2022 at 12:31 PM, finished with 13 posts and 7 votes.
    • [X] Mentally ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, to learn what is happening here while verbally challenging Ainar's translation.
      [X] Ask Swift Pebble to speak to the wolves with her mind, warn them off
    Click to expand...
     
    Arc 16 Post 14: Unspoken Words, Unwelcome Arrow
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    • Unspoken Words, Unwelcome Arrow ​

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

    "Ask them what they really want," you say to Swift Pebble, though you do not have much hope of ending this without blood. Men are hard enough to hold fast when their blood is up. How much more troublesome then would it be for those who bear the shape of beasts. "Hold steady unless they charge you say to the archers, your own bow strung, arrow in hand. 'T would be folly to loose into the dark."

    "Here let me," Inge says softly as she grasps for that arrow and sets about it the cold light of Ikomi. Clever, you mentally cheer, though now you had best put your own shaft into the back of the lead wolf to guide the others in. Maybe from now on you can have her light up a handful of arrows for every soldier since the light, unlike greater magics, does not run out.

    Your thoughts are not allowed to linger long because Swift Pebble has words and they are not those Ainar had brought: "They say Golden Pelt killed a... Big Beast... er Great Spirit, words slip like water, a Wolf that was more than a wolf, that had been keeper of the spring whence their ancestors took for the first time the Red Water, the Blood of the Earth."

    "They claim he murdered one of their spirits,"     you send back quickly.

    "Yes, wrong-killing, but because he used a poisoned blade, the spirit was to be challenged with strength not evil-guile," she explains. From the way one concept flowing into another you guess that making sense of that the wolves are saying is harder than most. Alas you can understand all too well what the shadows stalking forward to the right and the left of the hill mean, encirclement. You are going to have to make the call soon.

    "So there was supposed to have been a fight, a ritual challenge?" You guess. Ainar had said that the Moon Eaters wanted to change his folk into more of their own. Had he refused the honor already?

    "They think of him just as wrong-killer, craven chief..."     The young otter-kin sounds if anything even less sure of herself. "She... the spirit I mean was maybe guarding something and he took it after the poisoning."

    Before you can ask any other questions one of the wolves, black as charcoal save for a reddish muzzle, seeming almost bloodstained before the battle, lunges forward and the beasts of Hengo's men, not trained or bread for war begin to bleat and bark deep in their throats.

    For its part the wolf just snaps its jaw, running a crimson tongue over its fangs, in threat, perhaps in anticipation.

    "Are you sure your lives are all they are after?" you ask, keeping your tone unconcerned, but just loud enough that any of the wolves that can speak the Engur tongue would know you are challenging the rider.

    "Yes, they take and take always hungry!" This time you do not hear any hesitation in the answer, only anger raw and bleeding.

    Whatever feud you had found yourself in, it is an old one and painful. Yet between man fleeing into the night and those who wear the skin of wolves to hunt them could you choose any other way than you have already done?

    The choice is taken out of your hands as one of Hengo's men fires at the black wolf... and the arrow breaks on his fur.

    Damned be all shaking-handed fools, you curse as the pack howls as one and and the hulking figures streak towards you, a mass of fur, fang and fury.

    How do you fight?

    [] The two skins are too dangerous, fight to kill

    [] There is more here than meets the eye, try to incapacitate

    [] Write in

    OOC: Sadly that guard had a really good roll for someone who literally has a -1 to his attack because of the fear.
     
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    • Shit...this is where it would be really helpful to have Esha along. Not much better for harmless incapacitation than a Sleep spell.

    I doubt outright killing them is the best course of action, but these things have a really vicious and difficult to treat curse that I want no part of. If some of them have to die to prevent that, then so be it.

    [X] There is more here than meets the eye, try to incapacitate, but not at the risk of any of our people becoming cursed.
    -[X] Inge will try to Web the Werewolves, where possible, but Zaia will use his Tanglefoot Firebombs to both bind and inflict lasting damage. When needee, Inge will use her Fortune Hex to help prevent injuries, or in the case of successful bites, to give the victim a better chance to resist the curse.
     
    [X] There is more here than meets the eye, try to incapacitate, but not at the risk of any of our people becoming cursed.
    -[X] Inge will try to Web the Werewolves, where possible, but Zaia will use his Tanglefoot Firebombs to both bind and inflict lasting damage. When needee, Inge will use her Fortune Hex to help prevent injuries, or in the case of successful bites, to give the victim a better chance to resist the curse.
     
    [X] Goldfish

    Situation seems more complicated than the first appearance told... usual and pleasant habit in this quest.
    And incident "Some moron shoots without an order" become distressingly common.

    @Goldfish , maybe mention that we share Indomitable Presence to the wolves as well?
     
    Arhin said:
    @Goldfish , maybe mention that we share Indomitable Presence to the wolves as well?
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    I don't think it really works like that, since it is not a magical effect. Just because we use it doesn't mean everyone in the area benefits, if we decide they should. The Werewolves would need to consider themselves to be our allies, or at least not our enemies, but in this case they are definitely our enemies.
     
    Goldfish said:
    I don't think it really works like that, since it is not a magical effect. Just because we use it doesn't mean everyone in the area benefits, if we decide they should. The Werewolves would need to consider themselves to be our allies, or at least not our enemies, but in this case they are definitely our enemies.
    Click to expand...
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    But Warlord so resembles martial magician... :D
    @DragonParadox , could you clarify how does Indomitable Presence works in this (and similar) case?
     
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