wanderingwolf

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

Scene:

On the bank of the river, a seemingly silk-clad elf and a ruddy-faced fisherman exchanged words in the waxing sunlight of morning. There was something about the elf, it could have been his elaborate dress or the way he moved his head to the side as he requested the fisherman's 'littlest of fishes' that made the old codger grin and push up his tri-pointed hat. "You lerk like a fancy 'chaise longue' escaped from the pal-lace!" The dirt-covered man shook his head, unable or unwilling to conceal his laughter. "Ooh, that's good. Tell you wot, Ah caught this one early, but hadn't throwed it back yet." The fisherman gestured to the bucket at their feet, in which swam a healthy looking fish. He looked carefully at the elf's manicured fingers. "Take the bucket. I'll bum one off Iyani, there." The fisherman gestured to his acquaintance with another laugh, stepping away from Tanraeth. As he left the elf and the bucket in his spot, Tanraeth could hear him say, "Iyani, wait 'til you hear about this feller!"

Tanraeth now has one live, green-pearlescent, fish swimming in a bucket. It looks up at him, gaping, as if joining the fisherman's jest at the elf's expense.

Jenk, taking full advantage of his bubbling scale's abilities, was successful in catching one more fish in his phase bolts which shot out in rapid succession. Once the goblin was finished with his onslaught, he would be able to gather the three fish he had caught in this way, or what was left of them after his phase bolts did their worst.

Saur redoubled his efforts, sliding through the water with ease. Thanks to his keen senses and patience, a group of confused fish swam dangerously close to the primed kobold, in an attempt to flee Jenk's ire. In one quick movement, Saur released the coiled energy in his body and surged forward toward the school. In the moments that followed the kobold was able to lay hold of two fish, stunned by his speed. Even though fishing underwater slowed movement, Saur's efforts had been rewarded.

 With a whistle, Alandri beckons her assistants to the shoreline. As the four returned, all bearing fish in various numbers, her gnomish eyes widen in excitement. "What a haul! You all have done so well!" Her gaze falls to Tanraeth's catch, then back to Tanraeth's clothing, and nods her head in understanding. 

On the shore, Alandri organizes the fish buckets into living and holey fish ('Still good for stew', she thinks). Alandri reaches into her pack as she approaches Saur, eye to eye, "You have done such a wonderful job," her purple locks fall every which way as her energetic movement punctuates her declaration. "Please, take this badge as a thank you for how you've risen to the challenge today. Your technique was inspiring. You caught more fish this morning than I do in a day." As the gnome hands him a Lion Badge, she bobs her head in thanks to Saur, a sort of nonchalant bow. 

Alandri assesses the fish Jenk caught with a nod, "I might have to get me one of those pitchforks! Thank you for all your help today." She hands Jenk a Lion Badge.

As she meets Starfinger's gaze, Alandri hands him a badge as well, "Your trap was a sight to behold; not a single timber, yet just as effective. You're quite resourceful; thank you."

As she turns to regard the group, she stops short, finger raised to the air, "I almost forgot!" She reaches back into her pack to distribute an additional Bubbling Scale to the entire party. "This is for tomorrow! See you then!" The gnome waves at each of you before beginning the trek back to her shack just up the embankment, one bucket at a time.

The party now stands on the banks for the Vanji river after this morning's exertions. It's not quite noon, but you all remember that Teacher Ot is expecting the group in his office at midday to begin your next lesson. The city streets of Nantambu are full of activity now, with carts and mules, merchants, and students from the Magaambya going about their business. The school at the heart of the city is about a twenty minute walk away.

What do you do?

End Scene

Storyteller's Aside

@vertigo Tanraeth caught one fish! "Caught" is a loose term... Tanraeth gains a Bubbling Scale.

@Digizel Saur critically succeeded! At a higher DC, he gets two more fish, for a total of four fish. He has earned Alandri's trust and respect. Saur has earned an additional Hero point for a total of two. In addition, he gains a Lion Badge and a Bubbling Scale.

@rush99999 Jenk succeeded! He gets one more fish, for a total of three holey fish. Jenk gains a Lion Badge and a Bubbling Scale.

@clanjos Starfinger's total is two fish! Starfinger gains a Lion Badge and a Bubbling Scale.

NOTE: A Lion Badge is a talisman worn on the armor. I'm going to adjust the rules for the badge so that the wearer is not required to be an Expert in Will saves, otherwise no one in the party could use them (and you may need them! (**FORESHADOWING**)).

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

@Vertigo Thanks for that! Looking at the mechanics, it looks like you get a Shameless Request, which can lower the DC of a check by -2 for an 'outrageous request,' and we'll say that the outrageous thing in this situation is that a silk-clad elf is asking a fish-gut-clad fisherman to 'touch the gross stuff' for them. The check for this particular request was 12, so that lowers the DC to 10! Tanraeth/Elaeshor succeeds!

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

@Digizel Are you thinking that Saur will continue his stealthy approach with a second try? If so, you can set another stealth roll with a +1 and a higher DC this time. If you want to try something new, let me know!

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

@Vertigo I'm having trouble finding the feat you mentioned "Nudging Whisper." I'm looking in PC1 and PC2 and on archive of Nethys, but I've had no luck. Could you give me the source?

I have yet to look at your post, but I wanted to get up to speed here first.

Firefly - Second 'Verse

Alright crew, we're enroute to our pitstop location where the crew will truss-up the China Doll, then we're on to our destination!

Firefly - Second 'Verse

Bring me that Sky

As Cal entered the bridge, the pilot turned in his chair to look over his shoulder. With a nod, Cal crossed and situated himself in the Captain's chair. Setting a brand new brimmed hat on the console before him, Cal announced to the bridge, "Elias gave us the green light. You good?"

The massive pilot gave his customary high-octane cheer, belayed by the man's sinister tattoos.

"What about you, SAM? Everything buttoned up?"

A cool lilting accent filled the bridge, "Abby just closed up the cargo bay, Cal. We're ready for the next stop before our dog-leg." The speakers crackled slightly, distorting the electronic tones of SAM's last syllables.

The pilot looked up at Cal, his brow furrowed, mouth forming a question.

He raised a hand to interject, "We're gonna set up the trussin', get our ducks in a row before we haul out," with the other hand the Captain punched in the clearance code for undocking, raising the traffic controller to seal the deal. "Little Moriah, this is China Doll; we're loaded up and shippin' out. Thanks for the warm welcome."

The view cam on Cal's console sprung to life as a uniformed figure with short-kempt, brown hair issued a few short phrases, "China Doll, you are cleared to disembark. Come back soo--" The last was cut off as Cal flipped a switch and palmed the comm to his crew. "This is your Captain speaking. We got a couple new faces aboard; Abigail, why don't make your way over and strap them in. We're on our way to a pit stop where I'll need all hands to suit up; fresh-faces included. Hope everyone got their fill of society; won't see such for a while, and Tiānxiǎodé we're plum out." (God knows)

The comm barked as Cal let off the thumb hold, hanging it back on the bulkhead. "Take us out," the Captain bade his pilot. Boone went to work at his console and the China Doll sprung free from the Skyplex, drifting for a moment. The large man's hands edged the equipment and the Firefly's engines warmed, the thrum permeating the ship as the main engine came to pace. Leaning forward, the pilot took them out and away from their berth slowly, until they passed the floating satellites which denoted the safe distance to burn.

After a moment, the Captain strapped himself into the chair, the viewport filling with the emptiness of space.

"Do we have everything?" came SAM's query in her Earth-That-Was Bostonian accent.

"Dāngrán, fǒuzé wǒmen jiù xiànrù kùnjìngle," came Cal's reply. (Of course, or we're up a creek.)

"Xiàng qián!" SAM replied, the smile almost visible in her voice. (Onward!)

Cal turned to Boone, "You heard the lady" His view swept back to the viewport, "bring me that sky."

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

Hey all! I'm back in the saddle and will be reading through the game to see what's happened while I was away. I'm planning on getting replies up today, but I'll say today or tomorrow to pad myself.

Also, Patientbean has recovered and may bring Fleur back to the adventuring group!

Thanks for everyone's patience. I know this was a long break.

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

@Digizel Sure. At this point, the three of you (Saur, Stargazer, and Jenk) have spent most of the morning catching your respective fish for Alandri. Tanraeth still needs to reply and roll for his manipulation to have someone fish for him. To allow him more time to RP and roll, I'm giving the three of you one last shot to either RP with Alandri or keep fishing or call it a morning and sip some coffee before Alandri officially packs it up.

Alandri is very happy with all three of you for catching 2 fish each. Ecstatic. There's no need to keep pushing yourself, but depending on what you want to do now, I could set a higher DC and perhaps you could learn something or do something to award yourself some little extra something.

Go wild, or sit back, as we await Tanraeth's move.

Essentially I want to keep you engaged as we wait.

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

Sounds good! Just an FYI, I'm headed out on a work trip to Montreal this weekend and all of next week. I may have time to write some posts while I'm there, but since it's a work thing it's a little uncertain. I'll check back here as I am able. I return week after next.

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

Scene:

Tanraeth did, in fact, see other fishermen and women on the river bank. There were three setting up, but an older fisherman with a corn-cob pipe and a green, triangular hat sat on a metal bucket and already had a fishing rod in the water. Tanraeth noticed, as he approached the man, that he was humming some kind of tune as he puffed acrid smoke from his pipe with one hand, the other resting on a well-worn wooden rod in the crisp morning air. The man looked up as Tanraeth approached, "G'day." He tips his wide, triangular hat warily at the elf who looks sharply out of place on the river bank among the fishing folk. 

A quick glance up and down the river tells Tanraeth that others will be similarly situated in about ten to fifteen minutes, but this fellow had apparently come out earlier than the rest.

Saur, having received as much information from Alandri as possible, took some time for him to situate himself in an advantageous position to capture fish. As he waded into the shallows, he noticed a group of particularly large macaren, Alandri's highest priced catch at her stall, swiming in his direction. After a few more minutes, the small group of fish approached the kobold, two swimming lazily within five feet of him. Even as the minutes stretch out, his training has taught him an iron calm in the anticipation of the catch, and as these two fish wander closer, they don't seem to register the kobold's legs as they swim directly beneath Saur. With a deft, practiced movement, his hands dart into the water and back out again. In the morning light, two iridescent orange fish the size of Saur's torso gape and thrash suspended from their tails above the river!

As Jenk dives into the river, it takes only a moment for him to get his underwater bearings, so familiar is he to hunting like this. It takes him a few minutes to find the spot pointed out by Alandri as the closest choke point of where these fish swim through this part of the river. Thusly situated, Jenk goes to work, his bright blue scales allowing him much longer time beneath the surface than he was accustomed to.

Swimming to the spot takes Jenk some time, and he sees Alandri also approaching, her feet garbed in some sort of flipper which propels her faster toward the spot. She darts toward a fish, manipulating something that looks like a whip, and after a quick twirl, the whip snaps out, catching a fish in the mouth. Alandri pulls the fish toward herself to hold in both hands before swimming back to the river bank, kicking by her flippers.

Pitchfork in hand, Jenk spots his quarry, a group of slow-moving fish swimming in his direction, and sends out a phase bolt at his prey. The flurry of bolts stutter out of his holy trident, energy blinking in and out of existence as they make their way toward the group, bubbles flying in the wake of this attack. One fish is caught, and then another in the volley, and float to the surface. 

Starfinger took some time to carefully plan his approach to the group's task. Hiking up the river a bit, the tripkee found the spot Alandri had pointed out as a good choke point for the fish swimming up river in the morning. From his vantage, he could see Alandri working swiftly under the surface of the water, the gnome darting gracefully. He could also see Jenk swimming, pitchfork in hand toward the same spot he was situated above. Employing a technique passed down from his ancestor and using nothing but the natural world around him, Starfinger fashioned a fine trap with which to catch his quarry. As he squatted above his trap, he noticed quite a commotion as light flickered beneath the water's surface, sending two large, bleeding fish to the surface. In the ensuing chaos, several fish darted in all directions and a veritable trove of fish flooded into Starfinger's trap as the surface roiled above what appeared to be Jenk's doing beneath the water.

A large fish sputtered first into his trap, which Starfinger, once it was calm, returned to the water with care. After some time went by, his trap filled again with the current and two medium-sized fish swam into the trap, unable to get out again.   

End Scene

Storyteller's Aside

@vertigo Go ahead and roll something to engage the fisherman to fish for you, or approach another fisher person to do so, if you would like someone else to get their hands dirty.

@Digizel Saur succeeded! Thanks to his Forager feat, he gets two fish instead of one!

@rush99999 Jenk critically succeeded! He gets two fish, albeit a little holey. Good idea to burn a hero point.

@clanjos Starfinger critically succeeded! His patience paid off, with two fish caught in his trap.

If you like, I'll give you a chance for extra credit or engagement with Alandri. There might even be a hero point or XP in it for you depending on your character's performance.