RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Longman's hex-based exploration PBP campaign

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Letters from Rillow

Post by Longman »

See post above

Thanks for pointing out that letters sometimes get replies. There is not one from your father, but he is a very slow, deep thinker. There is mail from Rillow Ember, after your last message. You wrote a letter after the undertaker episode, I recall.

She doesn't know anything about remedies for poison. It sounds like what happened to Wen the thief was arcane (human) magic. That means there is still an arcane magic practitioner around somewhere on this side of the river. Rillow's guess: it was the undertaker.

Rillow has asked that you return and see her, with all the items you took from the tree-house. She says to be wary of them - arcane magic from the old kingdoms will be unstable after all these years, and may do anything. It is probably best destroyed.

Rillow also says:

It appears I have made a mistake in relation to the sale of those gems, from the skull cups that you brought me. These should have been destroyed too. The merchant who we did sell them too has gone missing, and now there are reports of a shape-changer in the streets of Brant, who takes the form of a great cat. My assistant is trying to find out more about the matter.

I must also tell you that the Sun Elves grow increasingly intolerant of my activities. They do not see any value in pursuing our lost territories on the mainland, and care only to withdraw to their isles and isolate themselves further. I am under instruction to end my involvement in your magical learning, until a decision can be reached by the High Council, a thing which may take years. I must speak with you about this matter in person.

Fare well, and keep an eye on that mouse. The love of such creatures for magical items can lead even the best of them to make bad decisions.

Rillow.
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Longman »

Woe wrote:I think it was only 16 days since they left. Talin meant to pay the fair amount. Game time slowed down immensely once they hit the dungeon.
OK. Lose 16gp. Did you actually pay for Anna last time though? I thougt you just came back into town to buy rations and then left again. I may have missed it. Like you say there's a detail backlog to clear.

If it's too much hassle, just lose 16gp and we'll end the scene with Anna's Da pestering you for more money, and you wisely ignoring him.

See my other post above about Rillow.
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Woe »

In the future, Anna payment funds will be to Pa's AA sponsor. :lol: He also gets the local coinage, nothing old/new from the current run.

Rillow's message received. The trip to Brant would be about a month, round trip. Ouch, especially since Coll wants Talin heading north. I think I'm going to split the party (grr...). Talin and Kilian can hang out in Red Oak, learn more about the human land rush east, and possibly take a ROR squad to go investigate the lands northerly of the Swell. Tiana and Freya can head to Brant, learn more about runes and magic and stuff, and maybe even get a lead to convince Coll that the Old Man is related to the other areas. Darn I wish I had gotten a read on the location they were teleported to.

Um... so... splitting the party. Do you want to do that as two threads, or just play one and you dump the events that happened offline from the other thread? I'm good with either approach, as long as nobody dies in either. Ever. :)
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Longman »

The travel time to Brant will take about two weeks in a coach (36gp again). You could get back in 2 weeks as well. I think that's roughly what we did last time, right?

But you suspect you will be there for a week or more, so it may be a bit over a month for the whole trip. In the meantime there is still a bit more stuff to do in this thread, before we split.

Wen the thief is visited by Anna and Tiana and describes the effect of the paralysis. The tiny runes on the lock leapt out at him in a form he describes as being like a "snake of energy" and bound his body. He could still see and hear but could not move a muscle. It lasted for 6 days. He cannot remember the runes.

Abigall the mousegirl reports several magical items on this side of the river. Passing a blacksmith's shop, she notices an old spade head lying in a scrap pile that is clearly quite magical. She also declares that a very old gravestone in the Churchyard, from the 1100s, is also extremely magical. Both are of the arcane variety. That's all she has seen from the pocket of Tiana's coat, so far.

Kilian and Talin see the new Prester Christopher who is handling his new role well. He says the old Prester was in the middle of a vehement rant about the evils of Boldenwald and how resettlement was a bad idea, and all of a sudden he keeled over and blood started coming out of his nose. He has been pretty much a vegetable ever since.

2 items remain: visiting the bandit prisoner, and talking to the Corporal. I will let you respond to this post before moving on to those 2 items.
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Woe »

Kilian will buy the spade along with other scrap metal for no more than 50sp (or 1gp or whatever seems reasonable). One spade of slaying earth elementals, coming right up! It'll eventually go to Brant. The tombstone can remain for now. It'd be unseemly to tour a graveyard during the day, and even worse to do at night. There might be ghouls! ;)

Six days. Poor guy. He is lucky he didn't dehydrate! Does Wen volunteer anything else that happened post-mission, of the ROR or resettlement?

As for Prester Will... hmm... that's odd that he ranted against resettlement and then struck by the gods to be silent. Either it was the One God but that'd be weird because the old Prester surely knew the desires of OG; or it was a more malevolent source. Or he could just be getting old. What does Christopher think, not just about the act itself but whether divine magic exists in the world? Kilian won't come right out and ask, but he's looking for some proof of the Old Gods (or the One God, or pretty much any sort of existence regarding the Divine Planning Department). Ay kin drop inta "arr pee mode" if ye wan'. Also, what does Christopher think of resettlement and the soldiers/new town growing east of Red Oak?

The prisoner and the corporal will probably start with just Kilian and Talin. Tiana has a coach to arrange. Anna and Bruce can come or go as they please right now -- it's break time for them.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Longman »

The town blacksmith is surprised when the dwarf tries to buy the spade head and other assorted scrap metal.

Er....I have an actual spade, new made, if you want. Half a gold. Or a rake, too, same price. Then he gets suspicious. You're not buying this for the Ranger's smithy are you? Get your own scrap!

Kilian has previously messed about in the ROR smithy so this supposition is not unreasonable.

- - - -

Wen doesn't know much else except the brewery where he works has been super busy with all the extra soldiers around.

- - - -

Christopher hardly knows what to say in response to all the questions. He certainly believes in Divine magic - mostly in the miracles of Holy Rolar (healers) and Esbe (prophecies). But he doesn't think there was anything Divine about the old Prester's collapse. He just thinks that "evil" has come to take the old man, but doesn't specify what kind.

As to the resettlement, he thinks it's a bit odd, because there is actually plenty of underused land on this side of the river, so he can't see any huge reason to rush into claiming such dangerous territory on the other side. And he is a firm believer that hags exist over there, so he's worried what will happen when people inevitably run into one.

He suspects that the King of Brant is alarmed by the thought this his neighbors to the south and north are getting ahead of him in the reclamation race, and he doesn't want to miss out, even though there's not actually much to gain at this point. So there is a competitive element in the reconquest.

Post on the bandit to follow once you have dealt with Kilian's attempt to persuade the smith.
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Woe »

"Wot? Ye nae dinkin' I'ma buyin' dis for Ranger work, are ye? No, dis be for me own projects. I haf a few ideas I wanna test out ta see how metals fare against gump blood, 'yvern spittle, golum plazmah -- ye know, yield strength. And I haf a few ideas dat might get de Izod impact strength im'poved too, but I'm nay as shure about dat." He leans closer, just a bit. There's no point really since the only ones around are the dwarf and the smith. "Ye know Izod, de master smith? 'e taught us a 'ay to measure da strength of metal 'en it gets struck by a cantilevered beam. I donna need no ROR smithy for dees tests. It be engineerin', nay smithin'." He stops and thinks a bit. "Ye are right, d'ough. De 'angers might get me dere scrap for free."
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

Red Oak map
Red Oak loot
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Longman »

sound of DM making reaction roll on 2d6. Result: Acceptable!

Er...Izod impact? Um...yeah, I know about that. All my work has excellent Izod impact, naturally. I don't think those old bits of scrap will stand up to much pressure unless you recast them, but if you're wanting them, you can have them for a silver each. Take what you want.

You now have a magic spade head. (Don't bother about the price).

Will post soon on the bandit and corporal.

You having fun or is this too slow? I am enjoying it, myself.
Woe
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Woe »

Longman wrote:sound of DM making reaction roll on 2d6. Result: Acceptable!

Er...Izod impact?
Clearly the smith has not been keeping up with his readings of academic journals from Dwarven scholars. Even though he's from the lowland hills, Master Smith Izod proposed a technique over a hundred years ago that involves measuring the impact strength differently than... dare I say it... "would be a decent dwarven smith if he were a dwarf" human smith named Russell working with an elvish sage named Shar-Pey. The dwarves have standardised around the Izod test because frankly, how could a human and elf understand smithing better than a dwarf?

Kilian will do what he can to explain this to the smith in under five minutes. I haven't heard Kilian explain anything in under five minutes, so this is likely a lecture doomed in failure.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izod_impact_strength_test

:)
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

Red Oak map
Red Oak loot
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Longman »

Yeah I totally knew about that! :oops:

So did the smith.

(Just take your magic spade head already.)
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