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 It's hot, baking hot. It's the height of July and you're somewhere in the middle of the Nevada Desert staring at an old dormant volcano in the beating sun. The camper van Air Conditioning struggles valiantly, but its a losing battle. You probably told your employer/sponsor that he could wait a few months for it to cool down, at least a little, but he would hear nothing of it.  Elias Zandi. He'd made a fortune in something innocuous, fertilizer or something, but he always seemed to lurk around various auctions for ancient artifacts or pieces of history. Now that you've spent several days driving in the desert, you've come to know him as a fast talking, somewhat fidgety old man. Even more so now, stopped in the middle of the Nevada brush.  "The dormant volcano!" he starts. His voice is wheedling and clipped. "A very important place, you'll see. The real beginning of our journey! I mean, you won't be the first people through. When I found this place I got some local Spelunkers to investigate. Turned out poorly. They knew their caves, but ancient ruins? Nothing! So I looked for expertise, minds of the highest caliber! As for the caving, well I'm sure Ms. Renholm will be more than capable."  Susan Renholm had near completely silent through most of your journey here. She introduced herself as a Spelunker... and not much else. She had left first for the volcano, 'checking on the equipment, makin' sure the opening's still clear.' apparently. Adrian Nash, Mirabelle Voss, and Silas Vanderbelt sit patiently in the camper van, roasting slowly. Nothing to do for the moment but wait. And we're off! get your character's voice, introduce yourself, let's start this explorer thing.
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May 4, 2017 16:52
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 04:06 |
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 Mirabelle Voss Fate Points 3/3 After about an hour of watching the same dull repeating desert terrain roll past the camper van window Mirabelle broke out her tools and spent the rest of the journey fiddling with her gear. It was always a good idea to have something to work on when things (or people) got boring. She realized she had never thought to desert proof her goggles before, but now after a few days tinkering she's pretty confident she could go diving in the sand dunes of the Sahara without even a grain of sand getting anywhere it shouldn't. Or maybe it would, it's not like she could test it. Whatever, fixing stuff was fun too. Sitting patiently inside this oven was, however, decidedly not fun. "Augh! How much longer are we gonna have to wait?" She exclaims while fanning herself with a notebook. It didn't help stave off the heat one bit. "We should've gone with Susan right away, I bet it's so much cooler inside the cave." She puts down the useless notebook, gets out of her seat and walks over to the air conditioner and just considers it for a moment. "But as long as we are stuck here I might as well make this thing run effectively." She produces a screwdriver and begins removing the cover. quote:Mirabelle Voss
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May 6, 2017 01:58
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Silas Vanderbelt Silas sat nervously in his spot in the old camper. He had to resist the urge to pull the stone-and-glass abacus out of his pack and fidget with it. It wouldn't do him any good here on the surface...but there was something soothing about the soft click of the beads against the polished stone. He kept opening his mouth, finding that he couldn't think of what to say, and closing it again. Curses, he was absolutely terrible at anything resembling small talk. His salvation came when one of his travelling companions; Mirabelle, if he recalled correctly; started fiddling with the van's air conditioning. Silas coughed gently as he came up behind her. "I can't claim much expertise with this system itself...but I'd be happy to hold a light for you if it would be helpful."
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May 6, 2017 18:58
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Mirabelle Voss Fate Points 3/3 Mirabelle was fully engrossed by the apparatus in front of her when the sudden cough came from behind her, making her jump. She whips her head around and stares at Silas with wide eyes. "Oh, it's just you!" The look of shock fades into relief. "You've all been so silent lately that I thought it was a D'ni zombie or something. Huh, I wonder if that's a thing..." She shakes her head. "There's no need to hold a light, I've got these." She taps the goggles on her head and beams. "Mark four. I made the first prototype when I was six by attaching the base of two wine bottles to a pair of reading glasses. Couldn't see a thing and then the frame snapped in half! I've made some improvements since then. Anyway, here!" She shoves a tangled pile of tools Silas's way. "You can hold these for me, that'd be really helpful." Mirabelle turns around, puts her goggles on, toggles a switch on them and then starts poking around inside the air conditioner. "I haven't really messed with AC units before, but they're like refrigerators, right, so I just gotta get to the compressor and tune it up a bit. Let's see, it should be... Got it! Hand me the needle-nose pliers and a screwdriver. A flat one. Okay, stand back a bit, the framework probably won't electrocute you but no guarantees." The air conditioner begins rattling loudly, then it makes a thunk and finally resumes the original windy noise but at a higher pitch. "That should do it! Though we're still in the desert so I dunno if it'll be enough. Here, let me take those back." She takes the tools back and puts them away in her purse. "Thanks, uh, Silas was it?" She looks over his shoulder at the third member of their group who seemed to have fallen into a coma. "Hey, Mr. Nash. Did you come all the way here just to sleep or what? Susan might be back any moment, you know." Engineering: 4dF+4 4 vs passive opposition 2, success! Placing situation aspect Supercharged AC on the scene. I get a free invoke on it.
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May 10, 2017 22:25
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Adrian Nash Adrian peers up from his book, annoyance flashing across his face. "I'm reading. God knows I couldn't sleep in this heat, anyway." He relents a bit when he feels cool air rush past him and mutters a half-hearted thanks. Adrian, much like his other colleague, isn't much for small talk. He continues to sit, slumped against the wall of the camper and grumpily reading, only occasionally prying himself away to glance out the window to see if Susan was on her way back.
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May 11, 2017 04:25
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Mirabelle's tinkering elicits a bit of an annoyed reaction from Elias. "Hold on, this is MY camper you know, you really ought to ask if you're going to start-" A thump starts the AC up again, but cooler and more powerful. "Er- well I want you to be aware you're responsible for any damages." Still, the wait is more bearable now that there's something resembling a cool breeze in the car. Adrian is the first to spot Susan trudging back from the volcano.  "Looks clear, none of that gas from before." She states to Elias. Elias practically leaps out of his seat, though the plastic sticks to his back for a bit. "Excellent! Lets get our things, everyone. Ah... but how about the crevasse nearby, Susan?" She shrugs. "Not any different either. We'll need to visit there and get some of the equipment we left behind from the last try." Elias insisted you all get large camper backpacks, filled with food, bedding, clothes... and a gasmask and extra filters. Susan, who is definitely the athletic sort, has a bag of even more filters on her. What else did you bring on what was explained as a couple week expedition? Appropriately strapped, you walk out towards the volcano, but Susan leads you a bit to the side.  A hole seems to loom out of the ground. It was hard to see while you were scant yards away, but from here you peer down and see... carved steps and holes in the sandy rock. Frayed and torn ropes hang from worn wheels, but at the bottom what looks like a wild patch of flowers has flourished in the protected cleft. Susan is already climbing down a convenient looking set of steps, followed closely by Elias. He's produced a worn and battered journal from somewhere and is flipping through it. "Ah, good, good! You said a member of your team found that abacus here?" Susan nods. "Excellent! I hope there are things that are still here... Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself." He snaps the journal shut. "I haven't had the chance to examine it, but I believe this is an abandoned home of D'ni survivors! Of course... it's a bit picked over I think, but I hope you don't mind if I take a look around, do you?"  This is a capital letter Investigation if you wanna look around. This abandoned crack home has the following aspect: DUSTY AND ABANDONED. The SUPERCHARGED AC aspect remains in the scene. Your first looks: Adrian Nash wanders into one of the rooms, quite well sheltered from the elements in its current location. He's surprised to find a large, brownish tapestry hanging from a wall in the back. It's covered in ornate, branch like designs around the edges, surrounding a pictograph story. In it, figures are looking at books with symbols of trees on them. Then those figures appear to be ruling over others. Then a dark cloud covers the figures and their subjects. In the last image all the figures lying down, dead. Needless to say, it matches none of the local Native American styles or traditions. Mirabelle Voss finds herself examining the ropes and metal wheels scattered around the abandoned home. It's certainly in disrepair, but Mirabelle's Mechanical Intuition tells her that it used to be a system of pulleys, probably for moving heavier things in and out of the hole in the ground. Silas Vanderbilt follows Elias into a different room, apparently the one where his strange Abacus was found. It looks like an abandoned study. Desiccated and sandblasted papers lie scattered in the corners of the rooms... But Elias Notices one of the papers looks newer than the others. He picks it up and sees... a list. Its in a language he doesn't recognize, but besides each entry is a D'ni number. On the other side of the page it looks like someone's been doing some scratch math in D'ni. If you'd like to continue poking around, please declare actions and couple that with questions you want answered. M.c.P fucked around with this message at 07:56 on May 11, 2017 |
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May 11, 2017 07:54
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Silas Vanderbelt Silas' eyes light up at the sight of what looks at first glance to be a D'ni grocery list. He pores over the suspiciously new sheet of paper, muttering sums to himself. He thinks about digging the abacus out of his pack...but its snug in its wrappings at the bottom of his load, underneath the cases of protein bars, 4 identical bland hiking outfits, and water purification tablets. This should be simple enough to work out in his head..he hopes. Going to attempt to discover what the list is for. Are the number sequential? Are the numerals in the scratch math the same as the numerals in the list? Discover number list (+2 from number stunt): 4dF+2 1+3 = 4 jivjov fucked around with this message at 02:23 on May 15, 2017 |
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May 15, 2017 00:07
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Silas steps outside into the light and looks the paper over. A portion of it cuz this poo poo is hard The numbers are certainly not sequential, though each word is connect with a number. Without understanding the words, Silas can't really figure out any correspondence between them. Checking the back though, he does begin to realize that, indeed, the numbers on the front are repeated on the back. In fact, it looks like most of the scratch math was finding combinations of numbers that add up to nearly the same sum. Checking back on the front Silas notes some groups of words were circled or connected with lines. The same groups as this mysterious mathematician had found in their sums. M.c.P fucked around with this message at 15:31 on May 15, 2017 |
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May 15, 2017 15:01
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 Mirabelle Voss Fate Points 3/3 "Damages? Whatever do you mean Elias? It wasn't working very well so I fixed it." Mirabelle responds nonchalantly while flipping through a thoroughly uninteresting magazine she found lying around in the camper. "You should try to not complain so much or people might start thinking you're nothing but a grumpy old geezer." Using my Provoke stunt Okay, Fine! to attempt to figure out Elias's aspects since that may be useful at some point in the future. Provoke: 4dF+3 3. Elias opposes with his Will, and if he's extra vulnerable to being called a grumpy old geezer I get a +2. At least that's how I think this works. I'll probably throw my free invoke or a fate point at this if he rolls higher than me. --- What else did you bring on what was explained as a couple week expedition? Besides the tools of her trade, some light reading material mostly: Big tomes of technical know-how she brought just in case she absolutely had to look up something esoteric, though she left those in the camper since they're way too heavy to lug around; a pile of notebooks that she's filled with her own designs, schematics, calculations and such; and some sci-fi classics that she's never gotten around to finish reading. The gasmask she was asked to bring she fashioned herself of course, but she made sure it was compatible with the standard filters just in case. --- Mirabelle is standing in the shade at the bottom of the cleft, her head turned upwards at the defunct pulley system which she's fixed with a scrutinizing glare. While a pulley is a very useful building block it was kinda hard to get excited about something so basic. But just because the mechanism itself wasn't anything new to her didn't mean she couldn't learn something from it. She takes a closer look at the ropes and metal wheels and the mounting points in an attempt to figure out the history behind the machine. Engineering (Discover): 4dF+4 5. Assuming an opposition of Fair (+2) that means I excel at +3! My three(?) questions are: About how old are the wheels and ropes? How much weight could the pulley system handle? What caused it to break, was it normal wear and tear, prolonged exposure to the elements or something else? I also get to choose between receiving a fate point after the scene or a hint. I think I'll take the hint if you've got something in mind otherwise I'll just take the point.
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May 16, 2017 15:30
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Elias rolled a 4 on Will, Sockerbagarn uses his Free Invoke to beat it anyway. Elias would normally be unfazed by the cheeky teasing, but he looks just a bit annoyed at Mirabelle's casual gutting of the system. "Grumpy and old irregardless, Ms. Voss, but please remember I'm bankrolling this Entire expedition. I think I deserve a little say in it, hm?" Sockerbagarn reveals an Aspect of Elias Zandi: I'M PAYING FOR THIS --- Mirabelle wanders around the small cleft, examining the pulley system. Some things stand out to her. The main damage to it is the ropes, which seem to have just given out after staying taught and neglected for a long time. None of the frayed ropes indicate they've been cut or anything like that. The wheels are well anchored in the rock, but show plenty of signs of aging and even rust, which was likely hard to come by in this desert. Oddly enough, the ropes lying below them don't have nearly the same amount of wear. At best guess, the metal pulley wheels are nearly a century old, but the ropes don't look like they've sat around for more than a few decades. Mirabelle follows the wheels and frayed ropes to a wooden platform, half buried in dirt. Its frankly surprising workmanship. The wood has been well treated and the rings are solidly placed and well balanced. The pulley systems itself is also well designed, and Mirabelle finds a couple stone blocks which might even be part of a counterweight system. You could probably move some heavy furniture if you really wanted to. Since Sockerbagarn excelled, he gets a hint Heavy furniture... It occurs to Mirabelle that this is a fairly large dwelling, but its utterly bereft of furniture. Tables, chairs, beds, anything like that. Surely all the paper wasn't from someone working on the floor, right?
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May 16, 2017 16:13
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Adrian Nash Adrian carefully examines the tapestry, making sure not to damage it as he glides his fingers over the elegant designs, trying to decipher the story it portrays. He can't help but admire the craftsmanship: the tapestry is excellently woven, although the fact that it hasn't crumbled to dust is itself a testament to its quality. He hesitates as he reaches the final pictograph and a slight sense of dread comes over him; it's clear that the D'ni people met some sort of end, but this story seems to tell of some great disaster. Perhaps plague, famine or cataclysmic weather? Notice (Discover): 4dF+3 = 3 Can I determine the source of the disaster using other details on the tapestry?
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May 19, 2017 10:05
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Adrian notes the tapestry is quite dusty, but quite well kept. Part of it is its placement in a relatively cool room away from the wind and sun, but its really quite well made. Which led to quite a bit of detail in the pictographs themselves. Details like clothes, symbols... Not very helpful without context, unfortunately. But on a second look the dark cloud has a symbol on it.  Some of the people, the subjects in the second pictograph, have that symbol as well. Somehow they were connected with this disaster. Okay, that's the first round of information. If you want more info, you need to Change the Situation by: 1. Using an action to make a change in the current scene. 2. Spend a fate point to declare a relevant minor detail. The "head off to do some research and clue finding" option isn't quite available. Elias really wants to get going to the true goal. If you're satisfied with the information and want to figure out what all this is about, then post about the question you're trying to answer here and what aspect or skill that will help you contribute. M.c.P fucked around with this message at 11:49 on May 19, 2017 |
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May 19, 2017 11:43
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Silas Vanderbelt "50....92...107...122" Silas mutters to himself as he tries to suss out the relationship between the numbers. He quickly runs through months, or rather vaileetee, of the D'ni calendar, and the hours, or rather pahrtahvotee, of the D'ni day...nothing was lining up. Refusing to become frustrated, Silas committed what he could of the list to memory, and carefully folded the paper and tucked it into his notebook for future reference. Hopefully his subconscious mind would continue to crunch numbers and he'd have an epiphany later. Pondering the nature of sums of numbers, and their relationships to words, Silas wandered in search of Elias. Sticking close to the bankroller of this expedition would likely lead to future expeditions. Perhaps ones with less....oversight.
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May 21, 2017 22:25
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 "All set here!" Susan walks up to the ladder leading out of the small cleft, holding a set of ropes, picks, and a few head mounted lamps. Elias Zandi smiles and calls out to the rest of you. "Well, an interesting aspect. That tapestry was a curiosity, wasn't it? Ah, but I hope you'll excuse my impatience. The real treasure lies further beyond!" He clambers out of the hole in the ground, rather sprightly for a man his age, and makes for the defunct volcano in the distance. From Discord, I'm under the impression you don't have much else to do here. Moving to a new Scene. You draw close the towering mountain, and see a dark cave marked by a pole with a chemical flare stuck to it. Susan pulls out a rough piece of paper with what looks like a hand-drawn map, and Elias begins consulting his own journal. Susan turns to the rest of you. "Got much spelunking experience? We're gonna be breaking one of the rules, it's a nearly 40 hour walk underground, so we'll be camping and resting down there. And this map is anything but complete. Stay close, because I can't promise you'll be safe if you wander off." Piece said, she turn on her lamp and begins to walk forward. But just a bit further in, Silas sees that the cave is not entirely natural. Just a little further in he notices branchlike patterns decorating the stony sides of the cave. They lead his sight upwards, and he sees the following carved into an overhang of rock.  But the others have gone on ahead. Lessee, the caves are DARK AND TREACHEROUS, and there are SIGNS OF D'NI CIVILIZATION. Furthermore, we'll be down here a couple scenes and I'll use the environment as active opposition. You travel along what appears to be a volcanic fumarole, but these tunnels split and diverge often. Susan keeps her eyes on her map, and as you pass each fork you notice marks carved into the cave and dim chemical flares. Of particular interest are what can only be rest stations. Perfectly square rooms with stone benches and alcoves. They don't have much in them, but their very presence is intriguing. Hopefully you don't get lost down here.
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May 22, 2017 08:24
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Mirabelle Voss Fate Points 3/3 Susan's question whether they had any spelunking experience elicits an eye roll from Mirabelle. What exactly was supposed to be so difficult about spelunking? Oh no, it is possible she might step on a loose rock and trip and scrub her knee while walking, slowly, underground! Come on. She doesn't bother to voice her opinions though, instead turning to the others as they make their way down the cave. "Elias. You gave me the impression that the D'ni had died off ages ago, but to me it looked like that those survivors were still alive within the last hundred years, judging by the state of the pulleys. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are still alive. I didn't see any bones or remains or whatever, and more importantly I think someone moved all the furniture out of the cleft just a few decades ago. You didn't find any anywhere right? I think that's the last thing they used the pulleys for as they abandoned the place. Maybe they found a new home... or an old one? What do you all think?"
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May 25, 2017 21:39
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Yeah I was probably unclear earlier, lemme try something a bit more purposed Elias thinks of how he'll answer for a little bit. "Well, I'm certain the vast majority of the civilization has died off. But collapsing civilizations always leave a few people, right? It could be looters or locals taking things though... I say, is that what I think it is?  You've come across a door, set deep into the rock of the uneven cave after a couple hours walking. it appears to be made of solid stone, but not quite of the same type as the surrounding rock. A brownish type that is surprisingly smooth. They push open with little resistance.  Beyond is a chamber carved from the rock, perfectly symmetrical and shockingly clean. The light from the ceiling is hard to place, and more of what must be D'ni script covers the walls. Susan stops at a further entrance and looks through. It's a vast, open cave. An abyss of a room that plunges deep into the earth. A few bats fly in circles above you in the light of your lanterns, squeaking. To your right, a small path with no hand rails leads to a spiral, tracing like the line of a screw around the enormous cylindrical cave until it enters darkness below. From here you can see the carved stone seems to have crumbled at points. Susan produces some ropes and frowns. "Few of my people got hurt here. We got to get to the bottom though. If anyone has any ideas, I'm willing to listen." right, keeping the aspects DARK AND TREACHEROUS and adding AGING D'NI ARCHITECTURE. How do you get to the bottom of the shaft?
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May 27, 2017 08:49
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Mirabelle Voss Fate Points 3/3 Mirabelle shrugs, rapidly losing interest in the conversation as it moves towards anthropology. Was she supposed to have read up on other collapsing civilizations? Bleh, it was like Mr. Nash's lectures all over again. "I guess it could be looters, but it seems like an awful lot of effort to extract almost everything to be found in that hole in the ground and then lug it through the desert. Especially when you already live in a functioning civilization that lets you buy equivalent stuff at a local store for a few bucks." She walks up to the vast drop and gives the path down a stern look, finding that it leaves much to be desired as far as walkways go. "I mean, it's probably not gonna crumble under our feet entirely, but..." She shoots Susan a somewhat manic look. "Hey, gimme some of those ropes. And you brought climbing equipment right? Let's just rappel down, it'll be way quicker AND safer. Probably. I'll set it up for us!" Craft: 4dF+3 5 Crafting a simple system that we can use to abseil the chasm. Creating an advantage. Placing the aspect RAPPEL CONTRAPTION on the scene. Sockerbagarn fucked around with this message at 22:11 on May 31, 2017 |
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May 30, 2017 22:57
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It doesn't take long to find some places to put in anchors, and Mirabelle helps everyone get secured to the ropes. Then its time to head down. And down. And down some more. It's stressful and more than a little frightening, descending further and further into the earth in this ancient shaft. You pass levels of the stone spirals of steps, one at a time. Eventually... you just run out of rope, with still more of the shaft to traverse. Susan shrugs and leaves the ropes behind. "Shouldn't be too much further. Come on, and watch your step." Okay, can everyone make a check to make their way down?
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Jun 4, 2017 11:36
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Mirabelle Voss Fate Points 3/3 "Hmm, maybe I could've skimped a bit on the harnesses to save some lengths of rope... Oh whatever! Dwelling on the past is probably my least favorite thing. Uh, no offense, archaeology persons." Mirabelle follows closely behind Susan as they descend, being extra careful where she places her feet so as not to take a most unfortunate fall. Finesse: 4dF+1 4
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Jun 8, 2017 17:56
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Adrian Nash Adrian rolls his eyes at Mirabelle's apology, which takes some effort considering his laser-focus on the wall that the group is rappelling down. He doesn't do so well with heights, especially heights above a dark, potentially bottomless pit. Athletics: 4dF+1 = 4
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Jun 11, 2017 16:57
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The lovely cave rolls a 1 against Mirabelle. She excels! It rolls a 4 against Adrian, so that's a tie. You may either fail to overcome, or succeed at a minor cost.
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Jun 13, 2017 20:16
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Silas Vanderbelt It had all been smooth going for Silas...for about 10 feet. Then he managed to misplace his foot into a what looked like a foothold, but was instead a small lip of thin rock. With a sharp snap, akin to a branch breaking, Silas found himself stepping into thin air. With a shout, he grabbed at the side wall, dislodging another handful of old stone. Several shouts, and loud crashes of stone, later; a sizable gap separated Silas from his compatriots; with no clear way of how to cross it. jivjov fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Jun 22, 2017 |
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Jun 15, 2017 01:26
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Dark caves rolls a 4, Silas has Fumbled. You may either fail or succeed at a Major cost.
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Jun 17, 2017 16:07
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M.c.P posted:Dark caves rolls a 4, Silas has Fumbled. You may either fail or succeed at a Major cost. Failure should lead to good drama
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Jun 17, 2017 18:18
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I'm really not sure how my new post turned into an edit for my old one...there was a failure roll up in therejivjov posted:Silas Vanderbelt
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Jun 22, 2017 13:31
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