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The City of Pern (D&D 3.5)

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Moving this over from the zetaboards site and jumping headfirst into things.
To those not in the...

Sikle

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Moving this over from the zetaboards site and jumping headfirst into things.
To those not in the know, this is a Dungeons and Dragons role-play thread. Please be respectful of the players whom are myself, Jiven, Maelgrim, Garahs, Shouryuu, HighMongrel and Phoenix (Assuming they kept the same names) and not interrupt us too much.
Questions, comments and concerns can be fielded by myself or any of the other players through PM.
If and when sign-ups are open, the topic title will be changed to reflect that becoming
The City of Pern (D&D 3.5) -Open-.
At that time you are welcome to fill in the supplied character sheet, which is a PDF with fields that can be edited. Foxit is very user-friendly for this but there are undoubtedly other similar tools.

With that out of the way, let's begin.

---

The city of Pern is a grand locale. Indeterminably huge and ever-expanding. Smog endlessly billows from countless belching smokestacks dotting the roofs of factories. The river upon which it borders, draining out to the ocean nearby is home to a rich, bustling and very active port, however there are no fish.

For miles out the waters are muddled and filthy, barren of most life because those self-fame factories that draw in countless of the destitute and meager and enrich them, at the same time robs them of clean, cheap water or the ability to grow fresh foods.

But where there is difficulty, where there is hardship, there is also opportunity. A man with a bright idea can find himself out of the gutter and rich as a king, if only to lose it to foolishness the very next day.

However in this land of steel and smoke more than just the plants have wilted. For many the sense of wonder has faded, replaced instead with an urgency to find his next copper, be the next trendsetter. Magic is frowned upon by the lording governor of the city, a relic of the past he believes best forgotten, too difficult to master and impossible to sell to the working class en-masse.

This attitude is not, of course, shared by all. The divine spellcasters who can take a flask of mud and make it into pure, clean water are still revered, if not for the reason they wish to be. The artificer who's matched his magic to machinery has often found himself placed quite highly in almost any place he could choose to work.

But the wizards have been pushed aside, a relic of a bygone era and sorcerers certainly don't seem far behind, saved only by the fact that most of the ones born in the city have never learned of their gifts, of their heritage beyond a rare, twinkling light. Not reviled but certainly not respected, our party of mumblers and hand-wavers have learned first-hand the difficulty of trying to find a quest in a city of industry.

Sitting together at a table at a rather ramshackle bar, a few bottles of wine between them and many a glare focused upon their Orc ally's back they are approached by a man dressed too finely for such an establishment bordering the slums.

"I had heard" The man's voice is smooth and deep. "There was a group looking for work to be found here."
 
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was mostly the second one though. Really, what kind of lousy city was this? The entire city could use a breathmint. It was a like big dirty Red came along and keeled over from perpetual flatulence.

If that wasn't the worst, people kept assuming that he, the great and powerful Rasvimrach, was one of their familiars! Ok, so maybe his stature wasn't terribly impressive yet at one and a half feet standing. And yes, the maidens were more prone to 'oohing' and 'awwing' over him instead of staring in awe. They didn't make any sense, but it was a work in progress! At least he got a book out of it and was reading through it while the rest drank their odd smelling juice. Why would a dragon kidnap a princess though? They probably weren't very tasty. Maybe it was a prestige thing? How many princesses were around anyways? Too bad the second half of the book was missing...

Oh, was that guy talking to us? Well, if no one else was answering and it was important to show initiative...

"Hello! Yes, the Fellowship of the Dragon is looking for a job! Who are you and what is it that you require?" Heh heh, early drake gets the treasure.

(Yeah, I'm a problem. O:) )
 
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"ha, work. Sit down, sit down, let me grab you a drink. I insist."

It seems the orc meant it a bit more literally then most as he reaches over the bar and grabs a bottle, not looking at the label. The barkeep would be more irate at this if not for the fact that the orc had been doing it since his first drink, and he drank a lot. The fact that he tossed some coin over after every bottle didn't hurt either. Realizing that they didn't have enough chairs at the table, he proceeds grab the closest one, regardless of it's current user. The sharp complaints are cut off by the memory of the orc's little arm wrestling tournament paying for his current binge, though much grumbling did occur.

"Now sit down, let's talk business."
 
"Ah-em yes, yes thank-you." The man nervously replied as he was... Accosted by an overgrown lizard that talked, and an unusually polite orc.

"We, that is to say, I, represent Joe and Borks Tool and Dye factory. I am Norman Joe-Tun, the head of employee management." Norman eyed the bottle handed to him warily. It had five outlines of a skull and crossbones across the bottom of the label, three of which had been filled out. Not a brand he was familiar with, but he took a long pull from the bottle anyway.

"We've noticed that a handful of our service employees had gone missing. More than normal I mean, for around here. We sent a boy down into the pipes to have a look-see and not five minutes later he was running back screaming bloody murder about a cranberry jelly.

We figured some monster or another had crawled up from the river, not the most uncommon of things of course, and we negotiated a contract with the Thugs Guild. Two of the men they sent down died, and the last one just says they somehow made the problem worse.

I was hoping I could employ some men of more... Varied talents to go deal with this."
 
Sitting at the table trying to tune everything was a difficult task. Everyone and every thing in the damn place seemed to create some noise that was only magnified by the small size of the establishment.

Closing her eyes and trying to think L'wren sat quietly. She had become accustomed to her small group of friends and wasn't much fond of strangers. So when the man dressed in fancy clothes approached she was wary.

He explained his situation, and as her thoughts began to wander she strayed to the realization that it sounded like a bed time story you told a child so that it would shut up and just go to sleep.

"Monsters..." she sighed "too cowardly to join the rest of us in this hell-hole?" She stared into her mug of ale. It tasted funny, like it was left to sit in the barrel a little too long.

Wishing she could be home again, she looked around the bar as the men continued to chatter away, she was brought back by the sound of a mug being slammed on the table by the waitress.

Money was the only thing that made this city move anymore...so she got right to the point.

"So what's the reward for bringing the scum to you on a silver platter?"...
 
Adah looked away from Joe-Tun to stare morosely at the cheap swill that called itself whisky in his mug, suppressing a flicker of hatred at the man's name as he did so.
Twas no fault of his that he shared a name with the foul beasts that had plagued his homeland since before his grandfather had walked the earth, twas no fault of his that he sparked recollections of that home, lost to him these many months he had travelled with those at the table in this strange place, so unlike his home.
The man spoke of monsters, of scared children and gold. That at least was familiar and his calloused hands reached down to brush the runecarved stone of Covelski's haft half in anticipation and half to reassure himself of its presence.
The Man spoke of monsters and in that Adah Hammerhand was home.
 
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Unlike the rest of her allies who are sitting at the table, Vidalia was hanging upside down on a low ceiling beam conveniently just located above. With her dark clothing and the dim light at her location, she was easily overlooked by the man called Norman Joe-Tun who was startled when she started talking.

Looking 'up' at the man Vidalia gave him a small grin. "You wish to hire us I assume. To do what exactly? To investigate the pipes? To clear it of monsters? To deal with the scum who had made the problem worse? Or all of the above? Each is a separate service that we all can help you with. Like my impatient friend said, how much are you willing to pay us for each service we help you with?"
 
Ericur had little to say, the party having already spoken for him.

---

"We uh, we don't need anyone to deal with the Thugs Guild. Their potential failure was noted in the refund clause of the contract. We just need someone to go into the pipes and clean out the monster. I can't offer you their contract, you understand, mutual exclusivity and all but I'm sure we can come so some kind of agreement.

Maybe... Hmm... Would 300 gold pieces, each, sound fair?"
 
"Hmm... 300 gold each. Well, that's a good price... for hiring disposable thugs I suppose. Right now, you have a monster problem and you DO want it gone right?"

Giving Norman a thoughtful look, the upside woman gave a counter offer. "Since we're risking our lives to go into pipes to clear out a monster others have failed to deal with, very little information about the hazards and monster and you can't offer us a contract, how about this instead."

"You give us 500 gold and 3 sun rods each, settle our bill here, allow us to keep whatever we find down there, not charge us for any damage caused in the process of getting rid said monster and provide medical treatment if any of us get injured. Oh and if there is more than one monster, we'll be asking for additional rewards."

"Of course if you can provide more information about the target and the hazards we might encounter in the pipes, I am willing to bargain down." Giving Norman a small, little smile, Vidalia gives her companions a look, silently asking if they wish to add in anything while waiting for Norman to accept or bargain.
 
"We're willing to go up to 500, and your other requests are reasonable except for the healing, but I can offer you maybe 20 gold apiece for a trip to a temple, but we can't get you sunrods." Norman waved his hands before the party had a chance to protest.

"It's not that I'm trying to be cheap, please understand, but there's only one alchemist in the city. Jigger and Hix, they focus mostly on small things like antidotes and cure-alls. If we wanted as many sun-rods as you do, we'd have to sell off half the factory just to cover the fee, and that's only if we could convince them to make them. There just aren't very many people in the city who make things like that anymore."
 
(OOC: I think I bargained for too little :( anyway, I'm going out. So someone bargain for some touches at least)
 
"These pipes... surely something so important to your work has maps? papers that chart their routes? We shall require a copy along with the loan of whatever light source your usual workstaff use for navigating the runs, failing that at least a quart of oil."
 
"Looks pretty good so far. 500 each, information, insurance, and non-responsibility. Some minor healing after the fact too. Yep, all alright, but... hmm,"

The orc plants his elbow on the table in thought.

"To be honest, I'd probably do this for fun, but that's not good business is it. Without some compensations, you wouldn't really be able to trust us to get the job done after all. But you know, straight payment doesn't really mean much anymore given how quickly it can be lost"

"Hmm, you said your from a tool and dye factory right? While I don't think any of us has much use for normal tools or dye, I can imagine it's a pretty good business right now. Pretty consistent too, people don't just stop needing tools, and clothes don't stop being coloured. Perhaps we can work out a small bit of profit sharing? Nothing big of course, and of course of of net profit."

"Oh, and these pipes, they aren't the tiny maintenance ones you gotta send kids down right?"
 
Rasvimrach watched his companions bicker about additional payment in amusement. They were focusing too much on money for the first job they were getting instead of using the easy job to simply build up a solid reputation. Take the job, hunt the dessert and devour it. Simple, right?

And any additional treasure they got from it would help with the rest.

Well, for now he'd simply watch the potential employer in case they went too far and then try stepping in again.
 
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L'wren was no good at bargaining, so she let her companions take over that part mostly. Its a good thing they did too, she wouldn't have asked for so much, she always seemed to cut herself short if she tried.

"Did the thugs say anything of the beast? I don't want to get down there and find out we're dealing the Devil himself...not that, that bothers me anyway, I'm just curious" She quickly added.

There were some monsters she just couldn't stand to look at, and some she had read about that she hoped to never met. But, the one monster she feared perhaps more than any other were the Gnoll. When she was younger a group of them ransacked her village while she was asleep, few actually got hurt but of those few was her sister. Nothing serious, but because she was a child they frightened her. She knew that if she ever faced them she would be able to fight, but the memories of that day, her sister and the house in shambles would be with her forever.

"A warrior can't fear such stupid creatures" She thought to herself, not meaning any offense to her orc friend, she had only known him a little while but knew he was different.

"A map would be nice.." she continued "I'd like to avoid falling into god only know what down there, and the location of the beast would be nice if you have it. Unnecessary wandering is something I'd like to personally avoid"

She took a long drink from her ale.
 
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"I think you mistake how much influence I have." Norman meekly responded. "I have a budget I was allotted to attempt to hire some individuals to take care of whatever is holed up in the drainage pipe. As for your other questions, the pipe is just a twelve foot high by fifteen foot stone semicircle that leads to a hole, maybe five feet across. There's a handful of access grates that feed into it, and that hole it drains into leads to to another pipe and eventually leads out to the river. The grates on every hole means that whatever the beast is, it's in the straight section directly beneath our factory."

Here he paused to take a long drink.

"We can loan you" Here he stressed the word loan "the hooded lanterns our maintenance crew use, but we're down to three, the rest were, well, eaten or otherwise lost down there. We have enough oil if any of you would rather bring your own. So far as information goes, it's some kind of jelly according to the runner we hired, and some thugs hitting it with swords somehow made the problem worse. I don't really know anything else."
 
Out of character here.

So how do we want to go about doing this? lets pool knowledge and resources and plan something out.

From my end I already have a lantern and as a dedicated fighter type I've probably got the most HP so maybe I should go in first?
 
Out of character.

First, I think we should close the deal. I'd say accept what they are offering for a reward.

As for searching the sewers, I think I should take point for scouting. As a tiny creature, I'll have no problem maneuvering out of everyone's way and if the sewers are a stone structure, I can move along the walls or ceiling. If this thing is immune to acid, I'm going to be mostly useless for the actual fight aside from healing with my wand.
 
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OOC

Yeah, deal looks good. Oozes don't tend to be immune to acid luckily, though I'm thinking we might actually be dealing with one of those splitting ones. As for marching order, I've got low spot/listen so I shouldn't be in front/back, though maybe one in.
 
OOC: Anybody in disagreement about closing the deal?
Props to HighMongrel for figuring out the monster type.
 
OOC: Ya let's close it. I just wanted some sort of light source. If someone can prevent it from getting me, I think I can kill it easily. Btw I would be walking/crawling along the ceiling so the chances of you guys getting ambushed from above should be lowered.
 
ooc:
Seems good, gotta admit I'm not especially suited to fighting oozes; only thing I've got that isn't blunt damage is my fists and Ooze tend to eat those.
On the other hand they hit HARD so I might be able to one shot it provided its not one that splits when hit with piercing as well as slashing.
Not got great spot/listen boni; only a +4 each so probably not much help there.
 
OOC

Interestingly, most oozes don't have acid damage when hit by a natural weapon, only with prolonged contact like a grapple, or an actual attack by the ooze. Also, oozes don't tend to have DR so damage type doesn't matter too much. Splitting oozes tend to split when hit by slashing and piercing though, but it still halves their health, though doesn't do damage. Not sure our character know any of that though, unless we've got someone with knowledge dungeoneering.
 
OOC

Thanks, I'm pretty out of practice dealing with oozes, never fought them in my games; DM preferred Dinosaurs and Golems.

I picked up Versatile unarmed strike so I could deal with anything, my character generally rocks a warhammer (which funnily enough is nowhere near as damaging as his fists) so blunt-force trauma isn't in short supply.
On a separate subject; do we have anyone with buff spells/looking to make magic items? One of the possible abilities of the class I took opens up the option for making magic items and it'd be useful to know the score on that vis a vis the group.
 
OOC: I think Phoenix had some plans for potions.
Also, if everyone could post their updated character sheets in their next response, I would appreciate it.

IC:

"I think we've got a deal." Erikur said. "Do you want us to take care of it now, or later?"

"Now." Norman responded. "Definitely now. If you'll follow me?"

He led the party out the bar, and further into the slums. Before them, on an old, creaky building not too far from the river was the sign for Joe and Borks Tool and Die factory. A thin trickle of smoke wafted lazily from a lone smokestack. The inside was dark, a central furnace casting everything in a dim light, and numerous grates semi-clogged with grease and iron filings could be seen on the cobblestone floor.

"This is the access grate" Norman pointed to one of the over large grates a few yards away from the furnace, covered in coal-soot and ash. He held up the three lanterns he was loaning to the party. "and if at all possible we'd like to get these back. Are there any questions?"
 
OOC: I don't need a lantern, so unless he paid us before, my sheet shouldn't have changed. Character
Also, depending on how far we advance in this campaign, I might play around with creating wonderous items.
Going to assume the walls are stone until told differently since it's underground.

IC:
Ras didn't bother with the lantern and instead flew leasurely into the entrance, taking care to note the size and construction of the passageway. He went as far down as the first turn before U-turning and flying back. "Yup, it's a sewer! I'll take point since I'm the best!"
 
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As you travel down the grime encrusted passageway you hear the sound of water dripping, however the path you walk on is relatively dry.

Something cracks beneath your feet, and you are struck by a sense of dread as though you are being watched.

OOC: Roll for a spot check everybody. For those who are new, that's a twenty-sided die (D20) plus your spot skill.

Erikur rolled [blockquote]Rolled 1d20+1 : 2 + 1, total 3[/blockquote]
 
Adah readies Colvelski and his covered lantern, walking a short distance behind his draconic companion with eyes and ears alert to protect him from both the perils of this place and his own hubris (well deserved as it might be)

dice_warn.gif
This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+4 : 17 + 4, total 21

ooc: Having trouble posting my character sheet as its too large for a forum attachment, does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?
 
While Sukk is eager for battle, he finds his attention wandering as walks. Questions like, why so dry, enter his mind. Regardless he still makes a token effort to look for what they're expecting to encounter given that his vision in the dark is better then most (90ft darkvision)

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20-2 : 7 - 2, total 5[/blockquote]
 
OOC: Post it on google drive like I have?

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+6 : 7 + 6, total 13[/blockquote]
 

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