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Outrail posted:There's something fishy about that answer. Other than that he ate normal food like anyone else. Just kind of a genuinely weird old mage. Goran has the sense that he was used to leaning on his decrepitude to get away with this sort of petty bullshit. Did some mage stuff like go out and look at the stars at night, but nothing particularly weird comes to mind.
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Mar 26, 2021 07:18
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 01:43 |
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HBar posted:Sounds like the mage is a likely accomplice and needs to be scrutinized closely. Maybe the thief has dietary restrictions, or maybe they thought flour would be the safest thing to steal because it's hard to notice small amounts of a bulk food going missing, and plain bagels were the most palatable thing they could make with it. Or the most innocent explanation might be that the bagels were just part of a prank idea that didn't work out. This is two different mages. Alfredo was not involved with that, but he would do stuff like swap around the spices and pots and pans and other tools, hide the archeologists' ink, when he showed up to the islands he ramped the boat up over a sand bank and into the actual camp itself. That kind of thing. Now that Goran thinks about it, around the time the food started disappearing it was actually Cannius' men who proposed several ways to try and catch the thief. They may not have been aware it was -- and Goran reaches for a name -- Dr Night. Who was some kind of specialist in stars. Maybe it was Alfredo doing it as some obscure joke, hiding bagels in someone else's tent? or maybe it was Night being a senile buffoon? The chef doesn't particularly care but if it had gotten much worse then it could have been dangerous to the expedition. He doesn't have any particular fondness for Cannius & his hirelings, to the point where he didn't really bother to learn their names. e: now that you have a name, gonna add it in to the vote:
Unlocked lead: SniperWoreConverse fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Mar 26, 2021 |
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Mar 26, 2021 07:36
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We might need more supporting evidence before we confront Dr Night, so I’m thinking Alfredo for now. He might know where the maul was supposed to be, and he’d likely have taken notice of the other mage on the trip. But if we approach him as Very Serious Investigators, he might try to mess with us. So maybe we want to look ridiculous when we approach him — put our shoes on our hands and tell him we’ll turn the world upside down if that’s what it takes to find the culprit, or something like that.
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Mar 26, 2021 18:05
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SniperWoreConverse posted:when he showed up to the islands he ramped the boat up over a sand bank and into the actual camp itself. Lol, legend
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Mar 26, 2021 21:14
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1 C - Tonje If she didn't do it then she probably knows who did.
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Mar 26, 2021 22:21
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the vote was pretty clear about living it up, but a three way tie with three votes  so  ... E wins. "Who is this 'Cannius Corno,' anyway?" Goran doesn't know much about him. He's some kind of travelling writer, been all over the world, written many popular books. Never lifted a finger to do any work or even to fight monsters, as is appropriate. He wore a robe made out of peacock feathers and a velvet mask at all times. Ostentatious, mes amies, but played it close to the vest. The chef himself opens a bottle for you, and you ruminate with the rest of the crew, trying to figure out a way to get a bead on the guy. You could hit up the kinds of places nobles hang out, although those same places are going to emphasize discretion, which means you need to figure out some angle you can work. A waitress chimes in.  "Mon-Sieur Goran mebbe doesn't know, but I do. Your author's not in Xoma. There was a detective asking around for him, very suspicious, asking what kind of guy he was, asking who he had with him the last time he was in the city, everything like that. Well I do know because he's made it a point to come here every time he's been to the city, he's always a perfect gentleman, and he always pays extra. Quite the romantic."
"Well, he hasn't been back in here, or any other places he usually heads to, and between us," she leans in conspiratorially, "waitresses talk, and the 'tective didn't ask just me. Rumor's around town that he got a bad turn from some witch. Mebbe a curse." Witches are not something to goof around with, and Bridgette catches your expression. "Now I don't know all about that, but must be somebody's got it out for poor old mister Corno, otherwise why'd he start with the new getup?" "..." "Yes it's a drat shame anyone'd try to drag down a gentleman like that. Probably for his money." She pointlessly wipes off a nearby clean table and continues, "Yes ma'am, I hope he doesn't need any brave warriors to help him out, but it'd be just like in one of his books, wouldn't it? Ta' have a simple waitress let the heroes know." "So what do you mean by eye-guy?" "You know, one of those with the eyes." "...no?" Goran does know and sauces up a picture on a plate for you. "Madame."  "Goran that's obviously a monster, quit pulling my leg." "Non, Xoma is the city of all cults, from all over the world, and in Xoma such a one can be a citizen." "Well then tell me how you can sling sauce like this." "Practice, madame. Practice." The Culinarians' doesn't have any more information than this, so you pay well, like Corno, and flatter the staff that you'll recommend them to your mistress, like Zlata would, and then you bail.
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Mar 27, 2021 14:27
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A, mostly because I want to hang out with a giant floating head with weird eye'd dicks for hair.
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Mar 27, 2021 15:12
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No idea, so we might as well keep learning what we can in Xoma before we run off on a hunch.
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Mar 27, 2021 23:06
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Outrail posted:A, mostly because I want to hang out with a giant floating head with weird eye'd dicks for hair. Good a reason as any
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Mar 28, 2021 00:15
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B
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Mar 28, 2021 06:40
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no vote I am not convinced, but the more I hear about it the more fantastical the players seem and the hotter the trail feels.
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Mar 28, 2021 06:56
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"Has anyone considered this is dumb as hell and we're going about this all wrong? We shouldn't be lumping all these different things together, we should be breaking them down into easy bits, starting with what's in front of us and moving out from there. Plus it might not even be just one person! It could be a group working together." Dag fancies himself a bit of a strategist and is a drat good scout. At least he's pretty decent at looking at the whole picture and seeing what needs to happen where. "So we've got a few leads that are probably still here in town: The apprentices, the docks, Tonje, Olly, Alfredo, Friday. We've also got Corno's mage, hunter, and the detective. Maybe any or none of them is in Xoma, but we can start tracking them from here." "Corno himself is missing 'for sure,' if the waitress is not full of it, and we'd have to leave to try and sneak into the islands, so ignore those for now. Olly is in the cartographers' guild, and Alfredo is either in the there or the mages', and probably corno's mage is in the guild as well, so that's basically three birds for two stones." "We should split up and see what there is to see. Who's best for what? We don't want to tip our hand and show we're tracking a thief" It's good thinking but really the expedition was exciting enough to attract a lot of professional attention, and you can always claim Zlata needs some or another kind of work done, so unless somebody blows the deal it shouldn't be too difficult to seem unrelated to the crimes. Unless the the culprit(s) are particularly paranoid. Or clairvoyant. Or witches or something. Suerius is the closest thing you have to a fancy educated lad, so you can have him check out the scriveners' and Friday. Dag is obviously a scout and can check the cartographers without any suspicion, looking for Olly and maybe Alfredo. Von looks like a goddamn bounty hunter and can easily make up an excuse to try and track down a detective to collaborate with. Rachna volunteers for the mages guild to check up on Night. Or Alfredo, if he's not a cartographer. She's been looking for a new cloak anyway. Misha will go to the hunters because she can talk shop about bears or whatever. She's not all in like Mary is, but it's better than nothing. This leaves you to hit the docks or try to find Tonje, and then you can swing back to the archeologists guild and invite some of the novices back to the Spectacle and gawk at Otis. Get em a little buzzed and try to pump them for information, and wham, bam you have the whole case cracked wide open in one day! Well, maybe. There's a few problems. If anything goes south that means anyone's on their own. Dag's hosed if Alfredo did it and decides to attack. Probably Von can hold his own but Rachna is gonna be really dangerously at risk if she runs into an angry mage. If it's some kind of crime syndicate at the docks and you get jumped it might not play out so smooth, either.
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Mar 28, 2021 10:56
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A
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Mar 28, 2021 12:31
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B
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Mar 28, 2021 20:39
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B
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Mar 28, 2021 20:45
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B I'm tempted with A but the last thing we need is a dead retainer.
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Mar 29, 2021 03:04
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A, git in there
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Mar 29, 2021 07:24
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B
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Mar 29, 2021 19:48
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You split the team in half. You'll go with Suerius & Dag to check out the cartographers', everyone else will hit the mages'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJi07UHka9c  The guild's busy, but not because of the cursed islands. "Here for the guard job? There's still room aboard." "Well, no we actually need work done for our boss, and had heard you had a few good men, Alfredo --" "'S booked. Captain Achaab needs him if he's going to have a good chance of navigating the northeast." Suerius chimes in, "Well, can we ask him a few things about his last job then, w--" "Look, I'm not trying to be brusk, but this is a big deal. If Achaab can find a route that bypasses the barbarians it's going to be a big deal. Alfredo's getting ready to set up the sails and do other enchantments, they leave in a few days, and they could be gone for a year or more. Besides this kind of a job is a dream for a pilot like him." "Alright so we need a surveyor too, they say Olly's pretty good." "This, we can work with." She waves you over to a little meeting room. A minute later a man comes in, introduces himself as Olly, and asks what you need. The first thing's info, and you lean on the fact Zlata funded the expedition to ask how it went and if he feels like taking other jobs like that. "Nope! I'm going to take it easy for a little while, but it's a good thing she got other experts in." He begins to explain what happened and it goes something like this: "Corno's men" are probably not "his." Olly got the feeling that the nobleman set up a contract with Nalini to get some cash and used whatever dregs of society he happened to have on hand to make it happen, without having to do much himself. That said, they weren't such a bad bunch, mostly. A few escorted him around while he mapped out the islands, made sure no dangerous animals came out, that sorta thing. There was some infighting between them. They had an armored up guy who was one of those overly confident guys who thought he knew more than he did, and he tried to angle the contract around before Nalini shot him down. They also had a legitimately insane person Olly knew personally from back in the day, that guy was a huge problem back at the home farm, talking to animals and stuff, but he didn't do anything particularly notable during the expedition, which suits the cartographer just fine. Their huntress was fairly decent. Olly confirms the weird dream situation, with nightmares early on, but explains that he thinks the curse part of the islands is actually just local to the bigger island, and the smaller one with the ancient site is likely unrelated. The actual way to get up to that excavation is pretty difficult and they had to construct docks and stairs, it's otherwise an almost sheer rock face except for one small part around the eastern side of the place. That side's a kind of gravelly narrow beach, but you'd have to carefully climb the cliffs to get up or down anyway. There was no dream mumbo jumbo on the smaller islet at all. What else? Tonje and the archeologists did a hell of a job all the way around. Really excelled at the last leg confirming there was a site there and getting it prepped for more excavations. Very professional. They did a pretty good job on the larger cursed island too, despite the danger. Yeah, almost all of the expedition was actually on the larger island and there seems to be a warren of caves under there, there's a couple points on the surface where there's passages down below. The part with the real ancient artifacts was very short and when it seemed like the place could be a pretty big one Nalini called it off to come back with the real pros. After she called it the cooks, Olly, and Alfredo started packing up camp and getting ready to bail, and the archeologists and Friday and Tonje made sure the site was secure. Corno didn't do anything, but the guards helped with manual labor. What about Alfredo? Yeah, he's a joker when it's not a problem. If things get serious he's serious. If he's being serious then it's a serious situation. Mostly he's in it for the glory, uncovering unknown places and that kind of thing, Olly thinks he was originally from Bartertown or something. He's been all over the place, travels light. No debts, ever, he lives in the guildhall even though he could afford to rent. That little boat's his home, if he has one. Cooks were his kind of people, get the job done, keep all the ducks in a row, don't start trouble or get involved with problems. The food was pretty good even though a good portion was grilled scorpions and stuff like that. Friday's a knowledgeable kind of guy, pretty refined. Seemed to pick up that the curse was real pretty fast, and was worried it was getting stronger the more they messed with the place. Talked like he knew rich people. Olly politely declines the offer to resurvey Zlata's estate. It's too far away and he's not interested in getting abducted by barbarians or any of that. In fact he's pretty adamant that the curse expedition was not worth it and he's going to be sticking to small time jobs. Nothing huge, but easy, consistent cash. ---------- You meet up with the rest of the crew to get the mage situation and it turns out the only thing anyone was able to bring back was Rachna's new fancy cloak.  "What the gently caress is that!?" "Shut up Diot, it's lucky." "Whatever, what's the story?" "The story's nothing. The guild never heard of a Dr Night and Alfredo wasn't in there either. Total dead end." The situation looks like this though: unless Olly's lying, whoever stole the thing seems to have waited till the last second to snatch it. Maybe it was opportune, maybe it was when everyone was busy getting things buttoned down to leave. So who would have been able to smuggle it back without getting caught? But if the islet had that stony beach maybe they stashed it and came back in secret? Maybe the whole thing's a wild goose chase?
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Mar 30, 2021 14:24
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A B
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Mar 30, 2021 18:07
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CD
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Mar 30, 2021 18:10
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AD
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Mar 30, 2021 19:43
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BC
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Mar 30, 2021 20:33
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Alright we're gonna split up the team and hit every angle simultaneously. Gonna take a minute to reticulate the splines. 🔃
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Mar 31, 2021 10:24
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 Lightning round question: You've got Vail, Von, & Dag, who are all elves. You've also got Suerius, Rachna, and Misha, who are all dragonfolk with breath attacks. In order to figure out what happens next I have to know: What's the dragonfolk's breath? Write in. According to Zlata, who in actual reality does know a lot about this kind of thing, there are exactly 400 different kinds and each one corresponds to a specific ancestor from the dawn of time. Having this game be part of a mess of interconnecting threads and a lot of active players and PCs made it kind of more cumbersome than I thought it would end up, and it's looking like I accidentally set up a situation where some people's choices mean basically all the threads need input from all the other threads to resolve. This doesn't mean anybody here is directly interacting with PCs but I do need to know in order to update.
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Apr 2, 2021 18:12
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Gold, Darkness and Garlic
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Apr 2, 2021 18:14
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Neurotoxin LSD Nails (Human) Dopamine Seratonin Cysts
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Apr 2, 2021 18:16
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Mind control Expanding foam insulation Vacuum.
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Apr 2, 2021 19:30
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Light, darkness, and vacuum.
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Apr 2, 2021 20:47
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Charm breath Totally normal but blue-green-colored Fire breath Spice breath which can be used to induce sneezing fits and paired with fire breath to make the fire stronger and smell great
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Apr 2, 2021 22:21
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Also: what this means is that we "succeeded" in our game of detective whack-a-mole, to some extent. Fingers crossed!
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Apr 2, 2021 22:24
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Glitter Bomb breath
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Apr 2, 2021 22:28
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Farts, Mint, and Binaca breaths
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Apr 2, 2021 23:55
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Lux Animus posted:Also: More like letting it play out that the crew was some vague superposition of skills until something forced it to collapse down into concrete characters also means it's possible that a lot of things get collapsed all at once
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Apr 3, 2021 01:28
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I'm vetoing fart breath that's some deviant art bullshit
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Apr 3, 2021 01:29
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Ice, fire, lightning Let's put some bog standard possibilities in.
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Apr 3, 2021 03:43
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Misha has pretty strong poison. Suerius has blue fire. Rachna has vacuum. I'm planning on running this as being a little like Kirby.
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Apr 3, 2021 13:24
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SniperWoreConverse posted:I'm vetoing fart breath that's some deviant art bullshit SniperWoreConverse posted:Rachna has vacuum. I'm planning on running this as being a little like Kirby. Won't do farts but will do vore, curious :benshapiro:
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Apr 3, 2021 17:53
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A LITTLE like Kirby. Besides, eating living creatures is something for sicko barbarians
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Apr 3, 2021 18:12
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Volmarias posted:Won't do farts but will do vore, curious :benshapiro: Poop
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Apr 4, 2021 07:13
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