Whoever they are, they were watching you the whole time, so stealth is kind of moot.
But to answer your question, think of those token icons as being 5ft across. That makes the initial distance between you and the barrels about 20ft.
Additional info: each corner bunkhouse contains stairs down to the courtyard. The door is on the long side of the building.
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You were both actively "on alert," so I'd allow the use of that ability in this instance.
An intruder?
Goradh. As if summoned by your words, a rattling noise pierces the silence behind you.
When you whirl around, no one is there. But wait...did those barrels just shift slightly?
Goradh. As if summoned by your words, a rattling noise pierces the silence behind you.
When you whirl around, no one is there. But wait...did those barrels just shift slightly?
BOOSH! New developments!
May I have your passive perceptions, please? :D
May I have your passive perceptions, please? :D
Good question. The ramparts make a square, and at each corner is a signal horn. One blast for "friends are here, open the gate," and two for "everyone wake up. we're under attack!"
I just want to say how happy I am this is happening. Great start, guys.
Belmouth, also known as the "Golden Delta"
Its nickname refers to the vast wealth that flows through port on a daily basis.
Conveniently located in the geographic center of all five nations, this town serves as the primary trade hub of the Kingdom.
It is also the front line in a constantly escalating battle of financial brinkmanship. Officially each House is allowed a certain amount of military presence there; a balance necessary to minimize intimidation and theft (in theory). However, there exists a large pool of unaffiliated mercenaries in town who make a healthy living from jobs the nominally law-abiding Housemen cannot afford to be seen doing.
The racketeering culture is so pervasive, merchants can expect to be courted by dozens of shadow-buyers, and the most important sales criteria in Belmouth is the buyer's capacity to protect the merchant from reprisals.
It's a nice enough place otherwise.
Added a description of the battle to the first post of the IC thread.
For obvious reasons, I was vague about appearances and weapons used.
You guys wanna describe that stuff to each other here?
For obvious reasons, I was vague about appearances and weapons used.
You guys wanna describe that stuff to each other here?
Mood Music
It has been a long summer in Redwain, and for the people of Har Hend this has meant harder living than usual. What few crops that could ordinarily survive the great waste have all withered in the preternatural heat. Giant sand storms have raged for months. Worst of all, with wild prey populations dwindling, creatures from below the sands have begun attacking human villages.
If there could be said to be an upside, it's that there's been no shortage of work for mercenaries like you. For the past month you've been stationed in the western waste as part of a small garrison protecting one of Baron Hend's thorium mines. While ostensibly your outfit is there to fight off the ever-increasing monster raids, you've heard rumors the Baron fears an attack by the other Houses. The war in Redwain has been cold a long time now, but over the years a number of dubious disasters have befallen your nation during times of such vulnerability. Of course, no links to rival Houses were ever proven, and this is the only reason those events never reignited the conflict.
Now, with lines of communication cut off by the storm, and the sand creatures providing a plausible scapegoat, the stage is set for Har Hend's enemies to make a move.
These thoughts weigh on you as you maintain vigil atop the garrison's walls. The torches in the quarry to the south have been out for hours, the miners all having retreated to their bunker for the night. Full dark seems to heighten the howl of the wind around you, and the stars are hidden by the swirling sand. Uneasily, you reckon any approaching forces would be invisible until they were practically at your gate.
Your only companion on this watch is a man you met two days ago in the mine. When a tunnel wall collapsed, spilling a hive of cave worms onto 20 hapless workers, the two of you held the creatures off by yourselves while the miners escaped. Upon hearing accounts of how finely you both fought, Commander Dundach insisted you each serve your next watch together, that you might better aquaint yourselves in service of future missions.
However, three hours into the shift neither of you has spoken more than a handful of words.
Perhaps it's time to humor your commander.
Escape from the Cave Worms:
You were assigned detail along one of the deeper, fresher thorium veins. This is always a hazardous position, as it's the job with the highest risk of cave-ins...and always the first to encounter any native inhabitants.
After a whole morning clearing out a new chamber, one of the workmen's pickaxes struck all the way through the wall. Within seconds the fracture blossomed across the entire surface of the vein, and the rock crumbled away like glass from a shattered mirror, filling the air with choking dust. When the rumble of crashing stones subsided, all was silent. A momentary wave of relief washed over you. The collapse would not spread.
Then came screams.
The lantern beams of twenty terrified miners swiveled about wildly in the dark, and everywhere they shined had appeared a squirming mass of rock maggots each the size of a small dog. Hundreds more began to pour out of the colony tunnels exposed by the miners' axes. You can still hear the sickening wet plops as they hit the floor.
Instantly you sprung into action. Slicing through piles of the worms' soft, plump bodies, you made your way to the rubble, where several miners were trapped up to their waists. The worms were agitated now. All over your armor you could feel the frenzied gnashing of mandibles meant to eat stone. In that moment it seemed sure you'd be overwhelmed, but then there was your new partner, deftly slashing the creatures from your body.
It took both of you pulling with all your strength to free the last miner, and by then the cavern was near filled with blind, hungry mouths. Carrying the man between you, you pressed through the pulsing swarm. Only by following the panicked shouts of the miners you were able to find the exit.
For five heroic minutes, you held back the surging tide of pale flesh while the miners placed charges, and sealed the opening. This dig would go no further.
Afterward, the men whose lives you saved took up a collection to thank you for your efforts. They were not rich men, but they managed to gather 100G for each of you.
It has been a long summer in Redwain, and for the people of Har Hend this has meant harder living than usual. What few crops that could ordinarily survive the great waste have all withered in the preternatural heat. Giant sand storms have raged for months. Worst of all, with wild prey populations dwindling, creatures from below the sands have begun attacking human villages.
If there could be said to be an upside, it's that there's been no shortage of work for mercenaries like you. For the past month you've been stationed in the western waste as part of a small garrison protecting one of Baron Hend's thorium mines. While ostensibly your outfit is there to fight off the ever-increasing monster raids, you've heard rumors the Baron fears an attack by the other Houses. The war in Redwain has been cold a long time now, but over the years a number of dubious disasters have befallen your nation during times of such vulnerability. Of course, no links to rival Houses were ever proven, and this is the only reason those events never reignited the conflict.
Now, with lines of communication cut off by the storm, and the sand creatures providing a plausible scapegoat, the stage is set for Har Hend's enemies to make a move.
These thoughts weigh on you as you maintain vigil atop the garrison's walls. The torches in the quarry to the south have been out for hours, the miners all having retreated to their bunker for the night. Full dark seems to heighten the howl of the wind around you, and the stars are hidden by the swirling sand. Uneasily, you reckon any approaching forces would be invisible until they were practically at your gate.
Your only companion on this watch is a man you met two days ago in the mine. When a tunnel wall collapsed, spilling a hive of cave worms onto 20 hapless workers, the two of you held the creatures off by yourselves while the miners escaped. Upon hearing accounts of how finely you both fought, Commander Dundach insisted you each serve your next watch together, that you might better aquaint yourselves in service of future missions.
However, three hours into the shift neither of you has spoken more than a handful of words.
Perhaps it's time to humor your commander.
Escape from the Cave Worms:
You were assigned detail along one of the deeper, fresher thorium veins. This is always a hazardous position, as it's the job with the highest risk of cave-ins...and always the first to encounter any native inhabitants.
After a whole morning clearing out a new chamber, one of the workmen's pickaxes struck all the way through the wall. Within seconds the fracture blossomed across the entire surface of the vein, and the rock crumbled away like glass from a shattered mirror, filling the air with choking dust. When the rumble of crashing stones subsided, all was silent. A momentary wave of relief washed over you. The collapse would not spread.
Then came screams.
The lantern beams of twenty terrified miners swiveled about wildly in the dark, and everywhere they shined had appeared a squirming mass of rock maggots each the size of a small dog. Hundreds more began to pour out of the colony tunnels exposed by the miners' axes. You can still hear the sickening wet plops as they hit the floor.
Instantly you sprung into action. Slicing through piles of the worms' soft, plump bodies, you made your way to the rubble, where several miners were trapped up to their waists. The worms were agitated now. All over your armor you could feel the frenzied gnashing of mandibles meant to eat stone. In that moment it seemed sure you'd be overwhelmed, but then there was your new partner, deftly slashing the creatures from your body.
It took both of you pulling with all your strength to free the last miner, and by then the cavern was near filled with blind, hungry mouths. Carrying the man between you, you pressed through the pulsing swarm. Only by following the panicked shouts of the miners you were able to find the exit.
For five heroic minutes, you held back the surging tide of pale flesh while the miners placed charges, and sealed the opening. This dig would go no further.
Afterward, the men whose lives you saved took up a collection to thank you for your efforts. They were not rich men, but they managed to gather 100G for each of you.
You are a citizen of the Kingdom of Redwain.
Yours is a nation defined by rivalry and intrigue. Composed of the combined lands of five Great Houses, Redwain is not so much a single country as it is a collection of loosely-allied city states.
This alliance is still young, and fragile. You remember the stories your father's grandfather told about the Red War, when the Houses nearly destroyed each other in their attempt to dominate the realm. He would swear and spit as he recounted the horrors perpetuated by your neighbors. Though you were raised to believe the Final Accord that ended the fighting was a noble act, and the peace that followed was proof of its soundness, his generation would never give up their bitterness. To great-grandad, the past sixty years have only been an intermission in a war that will never end.
Faithless doubters aside, life in Redwain has been undeniably stable. The Final Accord united the land under a single King, chosen by all from the only House that had remained neutral during the conflict; House Brescia. The first Brescian King was beloved for his just and impartial leadership, and each of his descendants have ruled in that tradition ever since. Your current King, Rothas Brescia the Fourth, is no exception.
Though the old animosities live on in new, subtler forms, Rothas IV has been remarkably able to maintain balance in spite of them. Political negotiations in Redwain often happen through a combination of extortion, blackmail, and shifting alliances, but House Brescia's characteristic integrity keeps the King immune to such chicanery. In local parlance, "As hard as bribing a Brescian," is another way of saying "impossible."
Rothas' rigid moral code has made him a respected judge and mediator. When two Houses disputed ownership of a new platinum mine, he made them share in the profits. When a Duke's ambassador caught a council advisor embezzling from the treasury, and tried to coerce Royal favors out of him, the King deported both of them. If an egalitarian solution was impossible in an argument, Rothas could always grant one side their wishes, and assure the other of his deference on the next issue. Obviously, The King cannot oversee every dealing, and much still transpires without his knowledge, but all agree that it is his steady hand that keeps the realm in harmony.
While you are aware of these things, the manuverings of faraway courtiers have never concerned you. You have spent your life never travelling far from your house's borders. Someday you will be called to serve, but you're content to wait until then.
These are the Great Houses of Redwain:
Har Hend
Sigil - a striking scorpion
"By Claw and Venom!"
Led by - Baron Balloch Hend
Located in the center of Redwain's vast desert region, Har Hend is a House of hardy survivors and fierce warriors. Their words evoke the attitude necessary to survive in such a harsh climate, through whatever means. Their control of Redwain's mining industry has made them the richest of the Houses, though you wouldn't know it from appearances. Castle Hend is a spartan place, and most of that wealth is used to bolster its impressive military.
As a respected fighter, you would most likely have made your living escorting trade caravans through the desert, protecting miners from the hordes of creatures that live far below the sand, or as an officer, endlessly drilling with your men in the wastes.
House Freewind
Sigil - an osprey clutching a fish
"Clear Eyes, Swift Wings"
Led by - Marquis Cadell Freewind
On the southern Peninsula sits House Freewind, whose naval fleet more than makes up for their relatively small territory. Port Freewind is practically the sole supplier of fish to the Kingdom, and every aspect of life in the March revolves around this. In fact, most citizens spend more time at sea than at home. The people are practical, but carefree, loving nothing more than to zip around the continent on a variety of adventures.
If you choose House Freewind, you might have a small fishing trawler of your own, or you might be a deckhand on a Great Whaler. You might be an ice harvester, dragging huge icebergs from the south arctic sea, or perhaps a sailor on a military vessel, ensuring the safety of these ventures for others.
House Longmark
Sigil - a deer's skull & skinning knife
"A Call for All"
Led by - Duke Eaden Longmark
The Longmark clan was the first family to rule Redwain, and are actually the progenitors of all the other Houses. These days, they keep to the forests and mountains of the north, acting as the spiritual leaders of the Kingdom, as well as its primary huntsmen. Whether tracking game in the woods, or meditating in their mountain temples, the Longmark people live in quiet solitude. Their House Words have a double-meaning, that honorable service to Duke & Diety is expected, and that purpose can be found in anyone or anything - even death.
In Longmark, you might be a ranger, providing game for the people, or a river-trader, sailing down the Emerald Channel and returning with goods from the Delta Port. You might also be a monk or priest in the mountains, guiding pilgrams to enlightenment.
House Osmere
Sigil - a glowcap mushroom
"Undarkend by Night"
Led By - Count Gormont Osmere
Osmere is the most mysterious of the Houses, almost entirely self-sufficient on an island of its own. The Glowcap Swamp provides all the amenities Osmeri life requires, along with some unique extras. Their fortune is in rare plantlife, crucial in spell components and potion-making. Most Osmeri have some amount of magical training, and all value cleverness and lateral thinking. Their House Words and Emblem are an illustration of this; that illumination can come from things other than fire, and that a problem without an obvious solution is never insurmountable.
As an Osmeri, you could be a Reaper, making expeditions to retrive mushrooms and herbs from deep in the swamp, an alchemist, mixing potions to be sold on the mainland, or a career scholar, studying history and scrying around the realm.
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