Fetzen

Blades of the Blood Coast

Lorcan feels like a total loss anyway at this point

Blades of the Blood Coast

If it's about bandit clothing and blood stains it would have been logical to inspect everyone obviously associated with those wearing those items, the whole party so to speak :P

Blades of the Blood Coast

I had settled for what to try in the post before either writing it down or doing the roll. Then I wrote the post after the roll, not before. So I knew I had to come up with something that would not be very well suited for success. That's why I wrote that comment in the first place. Basically Lorcan is bursting in shit talk.

And like said, so far noone has presented any better alternative :P

Also... Lorcan is convinced about what he says. For him the guard's whole approach is just so horribly superficial it's screaming in his face to be addressed.

Blades of the Blood Coast

As long as the guards don't attack us, something I clearly can't see any reason for given that Lorcan has only tried to talk to them, we get at least some entertainment for our money.

Also: What would an alternative route have been to 'help them out' ? Would it have been better ?

I'm sorry that my post was doomed to end in failure from the very beginning as I saw that '1' from the guild's dice roller :/

Blades of the Blood Coast

I meant just away from the group :) Your post gave the impression to me that you assumed he'd be in listening range to the others, or is it me who's mistaken ?

Blades of the Blood Coast

Lorcan let go of an internal sigh. So exactly what part about them had put them above the threshold from which on the guards of this place considered an individual to be a potential 'ruffian' ? The Skayleigh darted a quick glance over towards those of their party that had been allowed to enter without harm and a spontaneous suspicion came into mind:

"Erm... excuse me, but is it a mere coincidence that we four clearly represent the more muscular part of our group ? Is that the criterion for you to decide who's to pay the tax and who isn't ?"

He had been a bard long enough to have some training in spontaneous talking, even though this time it was not so much meant for entertainment but for an actual conversation with some degree of sincerity.

"As someone who clearly is on the less agile side of things I can tell you that small people have their own methods for causing turmoil that are on equal terms with what 'ruffians' can do: A foul word here, a dagger there, a well placed spit in one's face or maybe even some scheming and you have people go after each other just as well. Of course you are not the city council, but I want to be honest and express my doubt about the validity of the chosen method. I do not believe it brings more security, but on the contrary..."

When referencing to 'foul words', Lorcan had a bit of a hard time not to look at a certain Burrahob. He did not want to cast anybody in a negative light here, but maybe for the others it was already obvious enough whom he was talking about.

"You are depriving the city of able bodied men and women since not everyone of them might be willing or able to pay the tax others do not have to pay in the first place. Yet at the same time you do not look at anybody's mental state or personality which, in my opinion, is the very first thing to check if you want to scan for potential troublemakers."

Lorcan took a deep breath before he continued.

"So, how long do you think will the city's economy be able to feed off such an imbalanced, greatly biased workforce ? And how long do you think will it take until the city council realizes that the current tax system does hardly improve security at all ?"

There were a few other things in Lorcan's mind still. That they could just wait for the next shift and make another attempt, speculating on none of the new guards having been told about their ugly faces, for example. Or that maybe he'd be able to convince Raddek and Reyvadin to carry him into the city in a plant tub in order to save 2 silver lordlings. Or did potentially malicious plants have to pay taxes in this place as well ?

Rolls

Persuasion: 1

Does anybody know how frustrating it is to have to try and wrap such bad rolls into posts that make sense somehow ?

Blades of the Blood Coast

Now that has thoroughly derailed for me... I hoped that writing 'but it dawned upon him that he'd have to recite it far away from the others' would be enough of a hint that Lorcan would not be so stupid to blast it out in front of everyone right away, but merely think of it or at least wait until he'd be out of immediate acoustic range.

Now see what has happened. He's absolutely screwed now

The Prince's Royal Guard

Manald Halung

Down in the dungeons ?

It took a mere moment for the lycanthrope to understand that this could only mean that not everything had gone according to plan this night. There simply was no reason the beastman could imagine that would make any of the persons mentioned spend his or her good night's sleep in the dungeons instead of some more comfortable place, unless something serious had happened. His own departure from the dormatory had only been caused by special circumstances as well after all.

What could that special reason be ? Another open attack at night would have resulted in general alarm, but such was nowhere to be heard. Also any issues in the city not related to any attackers would probably be delegated towards the mayor and his subordinates instead of bothering the military presence here. So all that was left to think of were more assassins. It would make sense to gather in the dungeon then, a more controllable position than being spread thin throughout the entire building. A development he might have missed in the meantime!

Manald hurried down the stone staircases, the claws on his feet preventing him from slipping more than once as he paid little attention to the placement of his huge feet on the steps. If the whole affair had been a big waterslide instead of a staircase... he'd have used it happily anyway. Unfortunately 'dungeons' only gave a rough indication that his destination had to be somewhere 'downstairs', but the exact path to the Captain remained unclear until he started asking the guards. Those however did not seem to be very fond of his appearance and it took a rather annoying number of presentations of his insignia to get some definite information. At least that meant that security was working here, or was it ? What if assassins had indeed managed to enter the castle as well ?

Manald could not spot any more dubious persons with suspicious demeanor, clothes or behavior down there however, albeit he spared himself from looking into each and every cell. He walked through as many hallways as he could before coming to the firm belief that he had seen everything at least once. The overall situation seemed calm enough to Manald that he deemed his further presence down here unncessary. Also the whole affair had taken so long that entirely continuing on his own would have been quite inefficient. Maybe others already had more of a general idea what was going on, or at least they would be able to tell him that they had no clue so he'd be able to tell them to be careful!

Also... would turning into full wolf have made the whole process a lot faster ? Just releasing an infernal howl straight from hell and scare off any intruders even if they're two levels above because they don't know that there's a 'friendly' lycanthrope around ? And many others would have gathered to investigate, so he'd have had an easy time getting an initial head count! The idea sounded tempting, but the imagination of just how disgruntled many of the castle's legitimate inhabitants could be after such a course of action did not.

So, an uncomforting bunch of both minutes and guards later, Manald found himself in the spymaster's quarters on a mere two feet, as usual. Firmly believing that more had happened than just himself encountering two assassins on the open street, the beastman addressed the other person:

"I want a full report! Have 'my' two assassins been the only ones ?"

Blades of the Blood Coast

We have a kind of druid who can probably talk to trees so why stop at human characters?

@Penny

Which character do you mean ?

Blades of the Blood Coast

My favorite thing about Lorcan is that he just comes up with diss tracks for everyone he doesn't like, seemingly regularly.

@DrRtron

Well I'm glad there's somebody who likes them :)

I hope the party won't get any bigger, it's already quite time consuming to come up with a track for everyone