CH. 11: The Show Must Go On

[JadedDM]

Haahqae (Grand Market)
Kendra walks off and Camilla waves to the gnome before hurrying after her, wanting to talk more about learning to fight.

Gobax then claims he is going to find a sack for the collections and runs off again to go speak with his dwarf friend.

Kendra Greylock (Grand Market)
Kendra walks away from Haahqae and the goblin to take a look around. Camilla hurries after her. "Did the army teach you how to fight?" she asks, glancing to the long swords on Kendra's belt.

Tulbas Erogund (Mageware Shop)
Magnus nods. "Even an apprentice is capable of researching new spells or spell variations. But it requires massive coin, time and resources that most apprentices do not have access to. Perhaps some day you will have the money and your own personal lab to devote to such things."

Arulia Seroth (Thoron's Blacksmithy)
As Arulia begins to start up the smelter, the man says, "It's my own fault. The army wanted to buy the ore in my mine. I could have made a lot of coin that way. But I was stubborn and refused. Didn't want them to use my iron to make weapons and armor for their soldiers. So they just took the damned thing instead, and all I got was what little ore I was able to smuggle out. Don't even know why they bothered asking if they were just going to seize it anyway," he grumbles.

Grubnick (Grand Market)
"Hot damn," Delharn replies, handing the goblin a small, empty sack. "This could be a real opportunity. We can take out a lot of soldiers and the prefect. Even if he never shows, if that's one of his elites...taking her down could be a real blow, too. Hmm, only seen a handful of humans working for the prefect so far...and they've all been foreign. This one looks local. Guess he's branching out."

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra keeps her eyes out for anything usual as she slowly walks around the performance area and where the audience will be. "No," she says. "I was apart of the Holy Guard before the army took over," she explains. "And even then they didn't really teach me much. I had to find someone that would teach me how to fight. Why do you want to join the army so badly?" she asks. "Is it just for the money?"

[TristenC]

I guess she's a local, yeah. Let's just make sure the prefect is the main target and I guess go after as many of the regular soldiers as you can next. If that one really is loyal to the Prefect, she'll be defending him so it'll work itself out. I'd better wait until she's done looking around to lay any 'surprises'. We might have to forgo that part of the plan if there's too close of a watch. No need to botch the whole operation...

[Haahque]

It only takes a very short timeframe for all three of the people Haahqae was talking with to decide that the conversation was over and leave. Leaving Haahqae quite alone and with a fair amount to think about.

First of all, it strikes him that of his loyal band of good friends, all the male friends appear to be incompetent fools (Tulbas not showing up to practices, and also getting himself captured by walking alone at night, Gregeddin attacking the prefect) and all the women seem to be distant and often absent (Kendra and Ismene only ever do anything with him if he personally goes and asks them to, and seem rather capable of forgetting he exists rather quickly). This is rather a worrying trend. If even the loyal, well intentioned friends treat him like this, that's one more reason why he should do more work alone and not rely on groups that will likely betray him for no reason.

As for now, there's nothing for him to do except get in some last minute juggling practice. Soon enough people might start arriving for the show, and he'll have to stop so as to not give any of it away.

[spyguy1503]

Ne-Chanz speaks to his hostage. "Quiet your people. How many warriors are among you?"

[djhyland]

"I'm sorry that the army took your mine," Arulia says. "And I appreciate not wanting to supply them. They're not here for the good of anyone but themselves and their Dragon Queen, and we're nothing to them. But I suppose that they're about the only ones left to buy anything. If not to them, who do you plan on selling your metal to?"

[BishGada]

"OK then. Impaired movement now. Would slow be an abstacle too, or only if the hands or legs are tied?" Tulbas asks.

============================================================================
(OOC: Can you describe the rules for spells or magical items research? I thought it's only possible at level nine or so. Also, is there a difference if you research something completely new, or a variation of an existing spell?)

[JadedDM]

Haahqae (Grand Market)
Haahqae resumes practicing his juggling routine. Just an hour and a half left to go before the big show...

Kendra Greylock (Grand Market)
"I wanted to join the Holy Guard, too," Camilla answers. "But they don't exist any more. The army is the only way I could learn to fight now." She adds, "The money would help. I won't have to get married if I can bring in enough coin. If I could join the army, I could protect the town and help my family pay the bills."

Tulbas Erogund (Mageware Shop)
"No, the slow spell does not impede casting, only your speed," Magnus says as he ties Tulbas' hands' together. He then begins tutoring him on casting while unable to move his hands. As many spells require somatic components, this means having your hands bound, broken or otherwise disabled can have a big negative effect on a wizard.

In fact, Tulbas only knows two spells that do not require hand movements to cast. They are Light and Blindness. But Light requires material components, so he would still need to have some hand mobility in order to dig the component out of his pouch. Still, at least he isn't totally helpless when his arms are tied. If he is ever captured again, he could blind his captor and try to escape.

"Do you have any questions?" Magnus asks after they are done. "If not, there is the final lesson, impaired concentration."

Arulia Seroth (Thoron's Blacksmithy)
The man looks at Arulia blankly for a moment, then sighs. "Damn, I hadn't even thought of that. I was going to sell them to Karn...but now it looks like I will have to sell them to the army. I should have just sold them the damned mine then. This was all for nothing." He shakes his head in shame.

Grubnick (Grand Market)
Delharn nods. "Okay, we can keep an eye on her then. Hmm, maybe I can distract her while you set up the traps, so she won't notice you."

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Haven Sewers)
"HEY, SHADDUP!" the guard yells. The other dwarves suddenly go quiet and stop panicking. "Me can no hear big, scary cow man with all that yellin'."

He then answers Ne-Chanz's question. "We have...two warriors. No more than two. Are no threat. No hurt us. Give you our treasure if you leave."

"Hey, no give over treasure! It not yours to give!" objects another gully dwarf. This one wears what looks like some kind of crown made of chicken wire and papier-mâché.

"Me not get paid enough to die for you!" the guard objects.

"You no get paid at all!" the man in the crown retorts.

There's a few moments of silence before the guard then says, "Me want raise then."

"No raise! You sleep on job! Now big scary cow man kill us all!" the man with the crown objects. The two continue to bicker and argue over this, nearly forgetting about the minotaur and half-elf holding a sword to the guard's throat.

Shima, meanwhile, remains hidden in the shadows of the hallway, avoiding being seen by the gully dwarves.

[BishGada]

Tulbas considers way to improve material accessibility even when tied. "No, I'm ready for impaired concentration Master."

==================================================================
(OOC: Good work with the gully dwarves. It's hilarious reading. )

[Chris1234]

As Felran isn't speaking up for himself, Shima steps forwards, "Oi! You lot! Shut up!" He points at Felran and continues, "If this nice fellow were to show you somewhere better than this to sleep tonight, would you go with him?"

[HorizonsDream]

"You only get a steel a week while in the army," Kendra points out. "I'm not really sure how much you are going to need to help take care of your family." Kendra lets out a little sigh. Her family was in the same boat, but at least she was making enough money to take care of them now. "If you want to join, I'm not really one to stop you," she admits. "But did you see the looks the people gave me as I walked down the street?" she asked. "The people don't trust the army, and if you join, they aren't going to like you very much. Are you going to be able to handle that?"

[JadedDM]

Kendra Greylock (Grand Market)
Camilla shrugs. "Nobody likes me anyway. Besides, there ain't any other army I could join to teach me how to fight 'round here."

Tulbas Erogund (Mageware Shop)
Magnus goes over several ways that a wizard's concentration might be disrupted while spellcasting. When casting a spell, one must focus entirely on making the proper gestures and speaking the correct words exactly so. A disruption while casting, such as being attacked, surprised or distracted, causes the spell to fizzle out and fail. This is why a good wizard will always be careful. There's an old parable about a kender defeating an archmagi with nothing but a handful of pebbles and very good aim.

But there are other ways a wizard might be unable to concentrate. If he is ill, fatigued, hungry, tired, thirsty, drunk, hung-over, dizzy or winded are all examples. In these cases, a wizard can try and focus anyway, pushing aside whatever pain or discomfort they are in and casting the spell anyway. It takes a great deal of concentration to do so.

When they are finished, once again Magnus asks if Tulbas has any further questions.

(OOC: Basically, you need to make an INT check with a penalty, depending on how bad the condition is.)

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Haven Sewers)
The gully dwarves turn their attention to Shima who steps out of hiding. "Now you let new person in here!" the man with the crown cries, ignoring Shima's question. "You terrible guard!"

"But look, he dwarf, like us," the guard replies. "Maybe he here to save us."

"He dress all in black. Look real shady. Probably evil killer, come for us while we sleep at night! This all your fault! You fired!" the man with the crown says.

"You no fire me...me quit!" the guard retorts.

"You no quit...me fire you!"

"You no fire me...me quit!"

They start going back and forth like this.

[Chris1234]

Having had enough of this already, Shima let's them decide their own fate, "You, 'guard', you want saving so stand on the right." He points to the guard and points to the right, adding to Felran & Ne-Chanz, Let him go, guys. He can have his weapon back later."
Then raises his voice so that any who want to listen can hear, "You lot, if you want saving, stand on the right near 'guard', here." He points again to the guard and points to the right.
Just is case there's a language barrier here, Shima says quietly to Felran & Ne-Chanz, "Just going to say it in another language."
He then raises his voice again so that any who want to listen can hear, saying in dwarven, "You lot, if you want saving, stand on the right near 'guard', here." He points again to the guard and points again to the right.

Shima counts in a normal conversation volume slowly down from 300, "300,..299,..298.."

[spyguy1503]

"Look, you have to leave. I don't want to hurt you, but you must go. Pack as quickly as you can, and get out."

[HorizonsDream]

"What do you mean no one likes you?" Kendra asks. "I would suggest knowing a little before actually joining," she points out. "Being a young woman, joining an army full of draconians, could be equally as dangerous," she points out.