A plan takes shape
Subject A plan takes shape
At lunch, Salix addresses the group. "I did find out that almost nothing is grown in or around the town. All produce, and presumably that means feed for the animals and probably most of the animals themselves, are shipped in from elsewhere. That definitely explains some of the high prices.
"I don't understand how a city can function like this, at least for very long. Whatever this Mayor's plans are, it's going to be harder and harder to keep this city viable if the evil that is killing the forest continues to spread."
(OOC - the first paragraph is info from Mark - except he didn't specifically say the part about animals. The second paragraph is Salix's conjecture.)
From: Karl
Subject A plan takes shape
"No more splitting up if we can help it," Salix says. "Whatever force is out there has likely bested the Stormfather, and he was more powerful than any four of us put together. We don't stand a chance if we split up."
Salix, who has looked heartsick ever since arriving, looks even more crestfallen. "I had hoped the Stormfather was silent because he was here undercover somehow. It was foolish to hope that. I have no doubt he has been taken by the Mayor or some force under his control. I only hope we can reach him before . . ." Salix sits heavily, his head in his hands. After a minute, he gets control of himself. "Unless someone has a better plan, then getting ourselves "disappeared" might be the only way we're going to get any information. I doubt the people here are going to be willing to talk openly about their suspicions, not when people are being taken in the night and sold into God knows what."
From: Karl
Subject A plan takes shape
(OOC - Assume my last turn came after this, and add the following)
"Harp, I'm afraid we don't have time to do an extended investigation. As was said, you could work for months as a mercenary and not find out a thing. Or worse, you could be "disappeared" alone simply for asking too many questions. Or at the very least, there's no guarantee you won't get stationed somewhere useless to us. It's more likely you'll be set to do something odious which you will have to refuse. I don't see how you could go a day in this town's army without blowing your cover.
"No, whatever we do, we have to stick together."
From: Ashley
Subject A plan takes shape
"I wasn't able to get a name either, but from what I hear, he's the most powerful mayor this town's ever had. He has a big fine house in town that's protected by a bunch of guards, some of which I've heard are pretty nasty. He doesn't even spend all his time there, either -- he has a another big place a few miles east of town that's got its own set of guards. Those places seem the best bet to find something, we just have to be careful how we approach it. This Mayor guy's bad news, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if we somehow managed to avoid him completely. Though somehow I don't think that'll happen."
From: Porter
Subject A plan takes shape
"Our group is small enough that we still might get 'dissapeared' even with us all sticking together, if we wandered around at night."
From: Karl
Subject A plan takes shape
"Well we can't just sit here and wait for someone to come tell us what's going on. I don't think we'll get much at all out of the populace. Asking a lot of questions is going to get us 'disappeared' too, so we might as well get it when we're expecting it? Or what do you think about trying to take a look at one of the Mayor's houses?"
From: Josh
Subject A plan takes shape
"Perhaps his goal isn't to run the town, but to sacrafice the town to destroy the druids."
From: Porter
Subject A plan takes shape
"The elf makes sense," Mund says without the usual derision that accompanies the word elf. "Let's stick our noses where they don't belong."
From: Josh
Subject A plan takes shape
"I didn't see much when we walked around town. There were some elves around, but they didn't look to be friends of the nations. Other than that, I wasn't able to learn much."
When they speak of getting captured, Kal speaks up.
"It may be that getting captured is the only way to learn something, but to me it seems a pretty dire method. Why should we rush to it? Let's just stay together, and poke around where we shouldn't. If we figure out something without getting disapeared, all the better. If we get disapeared, nothing lost. Right?"
From: Porter
Subject A plan takes shape
"Why would he want to do that?"
From: Karl
Subject A plan takes shape
"I don't know what the town would have to do with the druids, exactly, but it's clear he is out to eliminate the druids, at least insofar as they are a threat to him. Whether that is his primary goal or not is still unknown. He could be destroying the woods here to lure the druids to destruction, using the town as an expendable tool. He could be destroying the town for some other purpose and only taking the druids that threaten him. He could be destroying both town and woods for some other darker purpose. I don't think we can guess which it is without more information."
From: Kevin
Subject A plan takes shape
"Salix, I agree with Kal and Mund. Just getting ourselves caught serves no purpose. I would rather do this on our terms, at least as far as we can, than on their terms - we don't even know what their terms are yet.
Lets take another day nosing around. A few of us can head to the mercenary guild and see what's happening there. Maybe Surin can make a few contacts with some of the less savory folks in town. These new rules gotta be causing them some stress. Maybe we can take a walk by the Mayor's house and get a feel for the security there.
Did anyone see any body selling any jewels? Allistair was looking for a pearl to he can see about these passes."
From: Derek
Subject A plan takes shape
"Do we want to try something with stealth first? We have various abilities of invisibility, flight, and shape-changing that could perhaps be used to check out the mayor's place."
From: Karl
Subject A plan takes shape
"Well, I'm not seriously suggesting we turn ourselves in. I just think we need to look closer to the source, and that's *going* to arouse suspicion. I don't think this mayor is the type to just sit back and wait to see what we're up to, which is why I'm very worried about us splitting up again. What if Surin simply doesn't come back from his 'poking around'? We'll be right where we are now but with one less man, and Surin could be. . . well, probably nowhere good.
"But I agree we can probably take another day to poke around and see if we can find out anything more specific.
"As for IDing these passes, I'm thinking that's a waste of time and money. We've seen them being checked, so it's unlikely they give off information automatically. They're probably just enchanted to prevent counterfeits. Ally, are you seriously concerned there's more to them, or just curious?"
From: Porter
Subject Big and small
How small can you go with that magicking of yours? Can you turn into a mouse or a fly?
From: Karl
Subject Big and small
"I'm not sure what good my shape-changing will be here. It's likely that an animal of any significant size is going to be more conspicuous than a normal human poking around."
(OOC - Mark, have we seen *any* animals since we got here, besides the wasps? )
From: Karl
Subject Big and small
"I can only take a wild shape that is roughly my own size. Stronger druids than I can be smaller or larger, but I'm still really new at it."
From: Mark
Subject Big and small
I think I mentioned that there were dogs. There are also the common city vermin, rats, mice, cats etc.
What was missing was the large farm animals usually associated with towns, cattle, sheep, goats, etc.
From: Derek
Subject Big and small
Allistair shakes his head. "No, nothing that small. Maybe something as small as a dog, or a large cat."
OOC: By combining reduce person with polymorph, Allistair could make someone two sizes smaller.
From: Porter
Subject Big and small
"A cat maybe could get into places without causing much alarm. Plus, they're nice and quiet."
From: Karl
Subject Big and small
Can Salix change into a large dog? Would it be a conspicuously large one?
Does Wild Shape work if he is reduced by Ally?
From: Mark
Subject Big and small
He can change into a large dog. By game standards the normal dog is a small creature. A riding dog is a medium creature. Examples given are a St. Bernard. They also list Huskey but I think that a Huskey would be a small dog. A medium dog would be a Great Dane, Irish wolf hound, Newfoundland, etc.
Does Ally have reduce person? I know he has enlarge.
let me do some research.
From: Mark
Subject Wildshape
Salix can change in to a normal or medium sized dog. A large dog would stand out very much. It would take up a 10X 10 square.
We have to be careful when we talk about large and small. In D&D, those terms have defined sizes already. So a large dog would actually be a medium creature. A normal dog would be a small creature.
From: Kevin
Subject A plan takes shape
"Well, maybe Kal can go around with Surin, if that would be OK with the two of them. Kal moves as good as any one of us except Surin, he can wield a blade and he can cast enough to get through most problems.
Mund, Ragnar, Ran and I can check out the mercenary guild."