Syllen will summon Nav from his pocket dimension and ask him keep watch on the roof. Keeping the murder of crows by the front door, Syllen will tell Nav to inform him if anyone approaches the house. After that Syllen will follow everyone upstairs.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Avery will bring the remain s of the fallen Dero with him, and will search the bodies downstairs for anything of value, or intelligence: Perception: 6; investigation: 5
Xanrym hears no sound as he pokes his head up the stairs, and as the others join him, they easily find Irennaste the only other person living in the townhouse. He’s been tortured again, now with two fingers kissing on his left hand and even more scarring on his face. He’s unconscious.
The corpses of the Derro are quite littered with stolen valuable objects from various sources: rings, small curios, a couple gems. It all amounts to 276gp. Avery successfully brings the corpses of the Derro inside the townhouse, along with the still unconscious guard.
"Keep the derro and the drow separated. Hell, don't even wake Irennaste until we're done with the derro, if he looks like he'll be okay without healing."
Medicine: DC 18.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Coriana - Company of the Grey Chain Wagner - Dragon Heist: Bards. DM - The Old Keep
Khessa is relieved that the fighting is apparently over, but seeing the unfortunate drow's condition, she's almost overcome with... pity?
'Hey, I don't feel sorry for him, do I?' the blonde arcane warrior thinks, trying to convince herself. 'He's just another evil, manipulative drow—one who wanted to rob us as thanks for saving his life! Come on, Khessa, he's a bastard, who must have tortured himself who knows how many other innocents. No pity.'
"Keep the derro and the drow separated. Hell, don't even wake Irennaste until we're done with the derro, if he looks like he'll be okay without healing."
Medicine: DC 18.
If Coriana is unable to stabilize the drow, Xanrym can try to use his Healer's Kit if we don't want to heal Irennaste yet.
Xanrym agrees with Coriana. One problem at a time. Irennaste will either view them as saviors or as the ones responsible for his latest torture, and that conversation could get tricky. As he looks down at Irennaste's maimed hand and watches Coriana's effort to stabilize him, he grips his holy symbol of Fharlanghn and wonders about the morality of leaving Irennaste bound and alone here. Did they do wrong? Does The Company bear some responsibility for his maimed hand? It cost The Company quite a lot to get to the Temple of the Far Horizon in time to have Toska [Tooltip Not Found], and her body was in one piece. He feels bad about Irennaste's maiming, but he really doesn't want to pay whatever it would cost to help this scheming drow regrow his fingers. Or could that kind of help and generosity actually effect some change in Irennaste? He wonders whether some drow can be redeemed despite Lolth's domination of their society? Xanrym heaves a deep sigh and tucks those concerns away for later.
The Company has more immediate concerns, and Xanrym prefers to deal with the unconscious Derro first. Once Irennaste is stable, Xanrym asks, "Syllen, can you revive the Derro? Then we can find out whatever we can from him." He gestures to the corpses and says, "We can show him our handiwork here and send him off when we're done with him. If he makes it back to the Inheritors without being killed in the streets of The Riddle, he will be a very effective messenger about the danger of interfering with The Company. After the fight at the South Gate and this rout, I hope that the Inheritors won't bother us much."
Before they revive the Derro, Xanrym asks everyone what we want to try to learn from him. Some ideas, roughly in order of what Xanrym thinks that the Derro is likely to know:
Who told the Inheritors that Irennaste was alone and defenseless in this townhouse?
What do The Inheritors know about The Company?
Anything the Derro has heard or can tell them about
Fhadheela,
Fhadheela's mission and what she brought back to Pedestal with her,
Xeron's cult,
the Plaguelost,
or Es Sarch.
While Es Sarch upheld his end of their deal (so far!), Xanrym worries that the owner of the Dripstone Inn could be using The Company to destabilize the factions and take over Pedestal himself or even for some secret power. Of course, maybe that's a better outcome then having the Inheritors, the Assassin's Guild, or House Dusklorn claiming sole authority in Pedestal.
That's already a lot of questions—and given the irrationality with which some of the Derro were behaving, there's a real possibility the prisoner simply won't answer any of them.
But if he does, he might also ask information about the Aboleth haunting the waters on the way to Pedestal. Waters we'll likely have to cross again on our return...
"Time to ask some questions of our own," Theldrin says grimly, then adds softly with a sigh as he scowls at Irennaste's missing fingers, "... though in a less cruel fashion I'm sure..."
The Derro awakens and sees all the corpses of his fellows around and let’s out a little chuckle, “Looks like Eamotth will be the last to die.”
Ok I’m going to employ another new sub-system here and see how it goes. It’s a negotiation system with two numbers to track: Interest and Patience, both of which are ranked from 0 to 5.
The Interest of this Derro is currently 1: Completely against talking to you, but understanding that it’s pointless to antagonise or try to fight you.
The Patience of the Derro is currently 3: Surprisingly high for someone who is about to be killed. The crazed Derro are naturally patient under extreme pressure.
You can all make arguments to the Derro one by one to try and convince Eamoth to talk to you, and as you succeed his interest will go up. If you fail, both his Interest and his Patience go down. Any roll from 10-15 will simply cause his Interest to go down but his Patience to stay the same. You can choose to stop negotiating at any time, but when Patience reaches 0 it’s automatically over. Anyone who doesn’t want to participate can choose to abstain if they wish.
So in short, feel free to make arguments to this Derro to give you information. I’ll decide weather the argument is good (or poor) enough to automatically succeed (or fail) or need a roll, which could result in:
15+ or automatic success: Interest +1
10-15: Interest -1
<10 or automatic failure: Interest and Patience -1
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Coriana starts off trying to set Eamotth in a panic. "I serve the dark things that lurk in the watery depths, if you make me happy with your cooperation, at the end of it, I wont be sending you off to them to help repay my debts."
Intimidation: 11
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Coriana - Company of the Grey Chain Wagner - Dragon Heist: Bards. DM - The Old Keep
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Theldrin is content to stand by and let the others work on Eamotth, as he views neither persusation nor intimidation to be among his strong suits. He listens attentively to how things are going but soon walks over to a nearby window and helps Avery with keeping an eye on the street outside.
Khessa also just waits for the most convincing characters to work their tongue-magic. She just keeps herself ready to react in case the prisoner attempts something foolish...
Coriana starts off trying to set Eamotth in a panic. "I serve the dark things that lurk in the watery depths, if you make me happy with your cooperation, at the end of it, I wont be sending you off to them to help repay my debts."
Intimidation: 22
Xanrym waits to see how Eamotth reacts to Coriana's threat. If he seems disturbed by her reference to the dark things in the watery depths, Xanrym would press with questions about what the Derro knows about the Aboleth in the Sullen Sea and whether there's a safe way to cross the Sullen Sea without encountering it.
The Derro awakens and sees all the corpses of his fellows around and let’s out a little chuckle, “Looks like Eamotth will be the last to die.”
For his own part, Xanrym tries to start with a friendly, if not entirely true, argument. He looks at the corpses and says, "You said that you'd be the last to die, Eamotth. If you mean the last of these, then yes, that's clearly true. But you? You do not need to die today, and you may yet live a long and happy life. That choice is yours.
"Our Company does not care who wins the struggle for Pedestal: we came to this city on our own business. But as you see, we have power of our own, and we will defend what it ours! We were able to take our residence here back from the Blueknight and your kin. The Blueknight fled and left you and the other Derro for dead.
"But that's good news for you, Eamotth. You pose little threat to us now, and I could probably convince my friends just to set you free you if you answer our questions truthfully and tell us something that we don't already know. Then, you would be free to go wherever you want. As long as you don't interfere with us again, we would bear you no grudge. Return to the Blueknight and the remaining Inheritors. Or go into hiding. Or flee the city. Whatever you want!
"It is a small thing: answering some questions, exchanging some information for your life. What do you say?"
Xanrym finally gets around to his question: "The thing that angers me the most is that the Inheritors sought to take someone whom we had rightfully captured. Irennaste was our prisoner, and the Inheritors thought that they could get away with interfering with him. Even after what happened to Bloobbloum's troop at the South Gate! But one thing about the attack on our residence here puzzles me. We only captured the Drow a little while ago, and very few knew that we had captured him or that we were holding him here. We were not gone from this residence for that long -- an hour maybe? or less -- but somehow, you knew right away. How did the Inheritors find out so quickly that Irennaste was here alone? Who told you? Who brought word to the Blueknight?"
Persuasion: 17 (rolled a 16 (in the game log), but Xanrym's Silver Tongue feature bumps that up to 17)
(OOC: Would it be possible for Syllen to roll insight instead of charisma on the conversation to try to understand the parts of the arguments that the Derro is receptive too or as part of his own argument as a way to focus on what the Derro cares about and avoid causing disinterest.)
Eamoth seems suitably impressed by Coriana’s talk, and that opens him up to Xanrym's good guy talk. Syllen can absolutely roll Insight if he wishes.
Theldrin keeps an eye outside, noticing some people watching the townhouse, but nothing malicious, more people growing to respect the place as yours. Khessa also keeps an eye out, but on your prisoner.
After Syllen’s roll, and assuming Avery doesn’t want to get involved, the negotiation will be over.
Also I should probably tell you what the possible outcomes are. Depending on Eamoth’s interest at the end of the negotiation you get one general answer to your questions/request:
I’ll decide in the moment how that plays out narratively. But usually Yes, and gets you a prize, and No, and will likely result in a battle or something else bad.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Coriana will back Khessa up when she goes upstairs.
Coriana - Company of the Grey Chain
Wagner - Dragon Heist: Bards.
DM - The Old Keep
Syllen will summon Nav from his pocket dimension and ask him keep watch on the roof. Keeping the murder of crows by the front door, Syllen will tell Nav to inform him if anyone approaches the house. After that Syllen will follow everyone upstairs.
(OOC: Conjure Animals last 10 minutes.)
Avery will bring the remain s of the fallen Dero with him, and will search the bodies downstairs for anything of value, or intelligence: Perception: 6; investigation: 5
Xanrym hears no sound as he pokes his head up the stairs, and as the others join him, they easily find Irennaste the only other person living in the townhouse. He’s been tortured again, now with two fingers kissing on his left hand and even more scarring on his face. He’s unconscious.
The corpses of the Derro are quite littered with stolen valuable objects from various sources: rings, small curios, a couple gems. It all amounts to 276gp. Avery successfully brings the corpses of the Derro inside the townhouse, along with the still unconscious guard.
"Keep the derro and the drow separated. Hell, don't even wake Irennaste until we're done with the derro, if he looks like he'll be okay without healing."
Medicine: DC 18.
Coriana - Company of the Grey Chain
Wagner - Dragon Heist: Bards.
DM - The Old Keep
Khessa is relieved that the fighting is apparently over, but seeing the unfortunate drow's condition, she's almost overcome with... pity?
'Hey, I don't feel sorry for him, do I?' the blonde arcane warrior thinks, trying to convince herself. 'He's just another evil, manipulative drow—one who wanted to rob us as thanks for saving his life! Come on, Khessa, he's a bastard, who must have tortured himself who knows how many other innocents. No pity.'
If Coriana is unable to stabilize the drow, Xanrym can try to use his Healer's Kit if we don't want to heal Irennaste yet.
Xanrym agrees with Coriana. One problem at a time. Irennaste will either view them as saviors or as the ones responsible for his latest torture, and that conversation could get tricky. As he looks down at Irennaste's maimed hand and watches Coriana's effort to stabilize him, he grips his holy symbol of Fharlanghn and wonders about the morality of leaving Irennaste bound and alone here. Did they do wrong? Does The Company bear some responsibility for his maimed hand? It cost The Company quite a lot to get to the Temple of the Far Horizon in time to have Toska [Tooltip Not Found], and her body was in one piece. He feels bad about Irennaste's maiming, but he really doesn't want to pay whatever it would cost to help this scheming drow regrow his fingers. Or could that kind of help and generosity actually effect some change in Irennaste? He wonders whether some drow can be redeemed despite Lolth's domination of their society? Xanrym heaves a deep sigh and tucks those concerns away for later.
The Company has more immediate concerns, and Xanrym prefers to deal with the unconscious Derro first. Once Irennaste is stable, Xanrym asks, "Syllen, can you revive the Derro? Then we can find out whatever we can from him." He gestures to the corpses and says, "We can show him our handiwork here and send him off when we're done with him. If he makes it back to the Inheritors without being killed in the streets of The Riddle, he will be a very effective messenger about the danger of interfering with The Company. After the fight at the South Gate and this rout, I hope that the Inheritors won't bother us much."
Before they revive the Derro, Xanrym asks everyone what we want to try to learn from him. Some ideas, roughly in order of what Xanrym thinks that the Derro is likely to know:
While Es Sarch upheld his end of their deal (so far!), Xanrym worries that the owner of the Dripstone Inn could be using The Company to destabilize the factions and take over Pedestal himself or even for some secret power. Of course, maybe that's a better outcome then having the Inheritors, the Assassin's Guild, or House Dusklorn claiming sole authority in Pedestal.
That's already a lot of questions—and given the irrationality with which some of the Derro were behaving, there's a real possibility the prisoner simply won't answer any of them.
But if he does, he might also ask information about the Aboleth haunting the waters on the way to Pedestal. Waters we'll likely have to cross again on our return...
Syllen nods before holding out his hand and creating 10 berries.
“It would be best if we find out what the Derro knows sooner rather than later.”
Syllen will give one of the good berries to the Derro, restoring one HP.
"Time to ask some questions of our own," Theldrin says grimly, then adds softly with a sigh as he scowls at Irennaste's missing fingers, "... though in a less cruel fashion I'm sure..."
Avery will keep watch on the street, to make sure they are not interrupted
The Derro awakens and sees all the corpses of his fellows around and let’s out a little chuckle, “Looks like Eamotth will be the last to die.”
Ok I’m going to employ another new sub-system here and see how it goes. It’s a negotiation system with two numbers to track: Interest and Patience, both of which are ranked from 0 to 5.
The Interest of this Derro is currently 1: Completely against talking to you, but understanding that it’s pointless to antagonise or try to fight you.
The Patience of the Derro is currently 3: Surprisingly high for someone who is about to be killed. The crazed Derro are naturally patient under extreme pressure.
You can all make arguments to the Derro one by one to try and convince Eamoth to talk to you, and as you succeed his interest will go up. If you fail, both his Interest and his Patience go down. Any roll from 10-15 will simply cause his Interest to go down but his Patience to stay the same. You can choose to stop negotiating at any time, but when Patience reaches 0 it’s automatically over. Anyone who doesn’t want to participate can choose to abstain if they wish.
So in short, feel free to make arguments to this Derro to give you information. I’ll decide weather the argument is good (or poor) enough to automatically succeed (or fail) or need a roll, which could result in:
15+ or automatic success: Interest +1
10-15: Interest -1
<10 or automatic failure: Interest and Patience -1
Eamoth Interest: 1 Patience: 3
Coriana starts off trying to set Eamotth in a panic. "I serve the dark things that lurk in the watery depths, if you make me happy with your cooperation, at the end of it, I wont be sending you off to them to help repay my debts."
Intimidation: 11
Coriana - Company of the Grey Chain
Wagner - Dragon Heist: Bards.
DM - The Old Keep
Theldrin is content to stand by and let the others work on Eamotth, as he views neither persusation nor intimidation to be among his strong suits. He listens attentively to how things are going but soon walks over to a nearby window and helps Avery with keeping an eye on the street outside.
Perception: 18
Khessa also just waits for the most convincing characters to work their tongue-magic. She just keeps herself ready to react in case the prisoner attempts something foolish...
Xanrym waits to see how Eamotth reacts to Coriana's threat. If he seems disturbed by her reference to the dark things in the watery depths, Xanrym would press with questions about what the Derro knows about the Aboleth in the Sullen Sea and whether there's a safe way to cross the Sullen Sea without encountering it.
For his own part, Xanrym tries to start with a friendly, if not entirely true, argument. He looks at the corpses and says, "You said that you'd be the last to die, Eamotth. If you mean the last of these, then yes, that's clearly true. But you? You do not need to die today, and you may yet live a long and happy life. That choice is yours.
"Our Company does not care who wins the struggle for Pedestal: we came to this city on our own business. But as you see, we have power of our own, and we will defend what it ours! We were able to take our residence here back from the Blueknight and your kin. The Blueknight fled and left you and the other Derro for dead.
"But that's good news for you, Eamotth. You pose little threat to us now, and I could probably convince my friends just to set you free you if you answer our questions truthfully and tell us something that we don't already know. Then, you would be free to go wherever you want. As long as you don't interfere with us again, we would bear you no grudge. Return to the Blueknight and the remaining Inheritors. Or go into hiding. Or flee the city. Whatever you want!
"It is a small thing: answering some questions, exchanging some information for your life. What do you say?"
Xanrym finally gets around to his question: "The thing that angers me the most is that the Inheritors sought to take someone whom we had rightfully captured. Irennaste was our prisoner, and the Inheritors thought that they could get away with interfering with him. Even after what happened to Bloobbloum's troop at the South Gate! But one thing about the attack on our residence here puzzles me. We only captured the Drow a little while ago, and very few knew that we had captured him or that we were holding him here. We were not gone from this residence for that long -- an hour maybe? or less -- but somehow, you knew right away. How did the Inheritors find out so quickly that Irennaste was here alone? Who told you? Who brought word to the Blueknight?"
Persuasion: 17 (rolled a 16 (in the game log), but Xanrym's Silver Tongue feature bumps that up to 17)
(OOC: Would it be possible for Syllen to roll insight instead of charisma on the conversation to try to understand the parts of the arguments that the Derro is receptive too or as part of his own argument as a way to focus on what the Derro cares about and avoid causing disinterest.)
Eamoth seems suitably impressed by Coriana’s talk, and that opens him up to Xanrym's good guy talk. Syllen can absolutely roll Insight if he wishes.
Theldrin keeps an eye outside, noticing some people watching the townhouse, but nothing malicious, more people growing to respect the place as yours. Khessa also keeps an eye out, but on your prisoner.
After Syllen’s roll, and assuming Avery doesn’t want to get involved, the negotiation will be over.
Eamoth Interest: 3 Patience: 4
Also I should probably tell you what the possible outcomes are. Depending on Eamoth’s interest at the end of the negotiation you get one general answer to your questions/request:
0: No, and
1: No
2: No, but
3: Yes, but
4: Yes
5: Yes, and
I’ll decide in the moment how that plays out narratively. But usually Yes, and gets you a prize, and No, and will likely result in a battle or something else bad.