600.01
Cast of Characters [NPCs]
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Darthesthra Krysblade, Chieftess of the Drow
Diomedes Thunderblade (War Leader, Drider)
Shasassa Leaps-Through-Webs (Political Liason, Drider)
Zhaphis the Dagger (Chief Wizard, Drider)
Throws Thunder (Kroxigor)
Komadi ("Chief" of goblins)
Gavin Suntail (Centaur Herd Leader)
Greth Stonebreaker (Wemic Herd Leader)
Wood Hoof (Earth Pony Herd Leader)
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Feytala (Favored Goblins): 3 votes to go
Borys (Favored Lizard Men): 1 vote to go
LAYF (Favored Drow): 1 vote to go
Madmartin (Favored Drow): 1 vote to go
Nolandking (Favored Drow): 1 vote to go
TTW (Favored Drow): 2 votes to go
Astrosteve (Favored Drow): 2 votes to go
Kida (Favored Ponies): 2 votes to go
BadgeAddict (Favored Frogs): 1 vote to go
Moose (Favored Frogs): 3 votes to go
Jib (Favored Frogs): 3 votes to go
TTwig (Favored Frogs): 2 votes to go
Burns (Favored Centaurs): 3 votes to go
Davecom3 (Favored Wemics): 1 vote to go
Nikohl (No Vote Yet): 2 Votes to go
D43dlock (No Vote Yet): 4 Votes to go
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Racial Talents: Spider Standard (resist Torment), Smite Good (3d3), Step Sideways (see/enter Spirit World)
"Lawful" Races will attack you on sight
Celestial Event: PCs may have a chance to be Destiny Bonded to do acts of "Great Heroism"
Arcanely Boosted, but Lloth has turned her eyes from you; almost impossible to contact Her
Underdark Connections: Village population "begins" inside a massive volcano on a floating island
Social Aspect suffers a -2 to effective Level [Racial, permanent]
Warfare suffers a -1 to effective Level [Racial, permanent]
Technology suffers a -3 to effective level (due to Arcane Boost)
Arcane Caster Levels: 14 = Level 2 spells; currently Level 0
Divine Caster Levels: 6 = Level 0 spells; currently Level 0
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People: ??? [Godlike Blood Enemy, currently unknown]
Fire Giants at volcano's base [Neutral Positive]
Grippli of Original Tribe [Very Positive]
Lizard Men of Original Tribe [Very Positive]
Ponies of Original Tribe [Neutral]
Wemics of Original Tribe [Neutral]
Centaurs of Original Tribe [Neutral]
Goblins of Original Tribe [Neutral]
Places: Sulfur Lake [Home Village]
Things: The Rhinocodiles (Ambush Predators)
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VillageDefense 2 (5.5/50); Militia 1 (2.75/15); HomeFamily 1 (3/15); FoodWater 1 (3/15);
Dungeoneering 2 (7.75/50); LegendsLore 1 (3.75/15); MazeLoot 1 (5.25/15); DungeonCombat 1 (3.75/15);
Warfare 1 (7/25); Group 1 (3.5/15); Single 1 (3.5/15); Magic 1 (3.5/15);
Technology 2 (5/50); Tools 1 (2.75/15); Gears 1 (2.75/15); Tinkery 1 (2.75/15);
Personal 2 (7/50); Occupation 1 (3.5/15); Skill 1 (3.5/15); Hobby 1 (3.5/15);
Spiritual 3 (5/75); Divine 1 (2.75/15); Healing 1 (2.75/15); Shaman 1 (2.75/15);
Social 1 (15.5/25); People 1 (10.5/15); Goods 1 (6.5/15); Diplomancy 1 (6.5/15);
Sorcery 5 (7.25/125); Libra 3 (5/45); Ley 3 (3.25/45); SpellSchool 3 (3.25/45);
Mystery 2 (5/50); SI 1 (2.75/15); SA 1 (2.75/15); FH 1 (2.75/15);
Date: 600.1
Action Points: 48
Successful Actions: 8; Failed Actions: 2
Gifts: Greater Casting [Sorcery 4] (Cast high powered spells at great risk; costs a great deal of magical energy)
Librariomancy Perks: [Libra 3] Minor Library (+5 to any roll utilizing something involving research)
Ley Line Perks: [Ley 3] Ley Line Siphon (draws additional magic power from the land)
Spell School Perks: Specialization I [Spell School 3] (General Fire spells)
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Scrying the Strange Unknown Creatures (75+): 61 + 15 (Sorcery 5) = 76 (Action Succeeded)
Researching the Levitation Gases (70+): 55 + 15 (Sorcery 5) + 6 (Libra 3) +5 (Minor Library) = 81 (Action Succeeded)
Resource Gathering of the Caverns (65+): 9 + 6 (VillageDefense 2) + 2 (FoodWater 1) = 17 (Action Failed)
Ambush 1 by the Rhinocodiles (60+): 64 (Success)
Ambush 2 by the Rhinocodiles (60+): 72 (Success)
Yearly Reaction Roll (Fire Giants, 60+) 99 + 3 (Social 1) + 2 (People 1) -4 (Social Penalty) 104 (Critical Success)
Yearly Reaction Roll (Grippli, 60+) 98 + 3 (Social 1) + 2 (People 1) = -4 (Social Penalty) 99 (Critical Success)
Yearly Reaction Roll (Lizard Men, 60+) 95 + 3 (Social 1) + 2 (People 1) -4 (Social Penalty) = 96 (Critical Success)
Yearly Reaction Roll (Ponies, 60+) 61 + 3 (Social 1) + 2 (People 1) -4 (Social Penalty) = 62 (Action Succeeded)
Yearly Reaction Roll (Wemics, 60+) 87 + 3 (Social 1) + 2 (People 1) -4 (Social Penalty) = 88 (Action Succeeded)
Yearly Reaction Roll (Centaurs, 60+) 82 + 3 (Social 1) + 2 (People 1) -4 (Social Penalty) = 83 (Action Succeeded)
Yearly Reaction Roll (Goblins, 60+) 33 + 3 (Social 1) + 2 (People 1) -4 (Social Penalty) = 38 (Action Failed)
Goblin Reaction Effect (50+): 79: Stays Neutral
(Reaction Rolls count as actions, simply due to the day to day process of interaction. A success keeps them at the current level; your actions in-game influence advancement. A failure has a 50% chance to drop the reaction by one notch on a nine-notch scale, with Neutral being in the middle. A Critical Success will advance it one notch. A Critical Failure will drop it by two.)
ok ok so when I rolled I forgot it'd take it into consideration, but since it already added the action points and EXP... yeah, going to keep it this way)
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56 Drow, three of which are Driders
40 Grippli, 12 of which are Toxic Skinned
11 Goblins
11 Lizard Men (1 Kroxigor, 6 Saurus, 4 Skinks)
8 Ponies (1 Unicorn, 5 Earth Ponies, 2 Pegasai)
11 Centaurs
11 Wemics
Food Supply: Approximately 4 months
The Current Date: 600.01
Things Incoming: "Event 1" (600.02)
Storylines Running: Escape From The Pit
The month is spent moving in to your new digs, and slowly, a small stone stockade is erected around the central chamber, which you call Sulfur Lake. The lake is thick with various minerals that make the water unsafe to drink or even swim in, though the Grippli seem to be able to handle it. The Lizard Men on the other hand, do not take to it well. They don't like the situation but they're not going to protest it. Once the stockade is in place, the Drow begin harvesting the Shadofrond as much as they can and by month's end you have enough food to last a good four or five months before the centaurs have to resort to using their Regrowth (at a severe penalty, since your Racial Powers don't include them). You manage to gather about two thirds of the Shadofrond (the rest being too old or brittle to be of use).
While harvesting, you scry the strange tracks you found. The creatures' front legs are lizard like, with talons, while the rear legs are solid, much like elephant legs. Whatever they are, they are the size of small ponies (maybe about the size of Diomedes). During the harvesting, some of the creatures managed to get the drop on you in near-silent ambushes, and you lose two Ponies and four Grippli in two separate ambushes before you're able to build "gates" in the wall to stop them from bashing through. The creatures look like a cross between a rhino's heavy hide and muscles, and the powerful biting jaws of a crocodile, hence the name "Rhinocodile". They are capable of a berserk rage and appear completely resistant to domestication. They are meat eaters, which makes you wonder why they were down here in the first place since there is literally NO meat down here. Fortunately you manage to kill them all, and will not be bothered by them again unless they are somehow also tunnelers and there's more where that came from.
Exploring the tunnels, you find several that have collapsed due to cave ins, as well as the remains of several large piles of bones. Whatever creature these bones belonged to is unknown, but from what you can piece together, they're two-legged, almost as tall as you are, and use metal tools (at least, you infer tool use from the rusty metal objects laying about the bone piles). The only other object you find of note is a small brass bell, undamaged by the cave in. The bell has the number "13" etched onto it, made by what appears to be long claws rather than tools. Most of the tunnels leading up and "closer to fresh air" have collapsed in this manner; the ones that have not are almost straight up and almost out of reach. You CAN smell fresh(ish) air coming down; something is blowing or transporting the air down here through another means, as you're at
least a mile below ground, if not a little more. Where is the fresh air coming from?
Think of the caverns as a series of large rooms in the shape of a "6" on a regular six sided die (each of the dots is a room, with Sulfur Lake in the center, twice as large as any given room). Two are Shadofrond storehouses, one is for the Etand root
which I just now realize I originally misspelled, given it's just a reversal of the name "Dante", but fuck it, two and the lake are living quarters (with the Drow living over the lake in small stone alcoves connected by stone paths, and for now the rest are unused. All of them have tunnels, mostly caved in from ancient collapses.
Harvesting the Etand Root proves difficult. You lack any of the special tools needed to harvest it properly and manage to harvest about one third of it, with the rest being wasted, eaten by the lizard men, trampled by the centaurs, or just plain badly picked. Fortunately this includes seeds and new roots; if you establish a proper means of watering the stuff and keeping it bathed in a aura of background magic, you should be able to easily recover. Which begs the question... Etand Root needs an aura of background magic to function properly... and you -barely- detected it when you scanned the area for magic afterward. The traces from the detection spells constantly have the number "13" as a motif. There's lots of talk of the place being owned by some other race, given the bone piles, but given the cave ins are
old, these chambers may very well have been forgotten.
Finally, through trial and error, you've managed to learn quite a lot from the study of the "levitation gases" that are keeping the barren rock suspended in midair over the inside of the volcano, but that they are also resistant to magic because the volcano's one huge node for the Elemental Plane of Fire (indeed, a
Gate is in the center of the
botttom] of the volcano's magma lake). The gases are coming from the Plane of Fire to seep up through the magma, interact with volcanic minerals and magic radiation from deep within the earth, and are holding the floating island in place. Effectively, a piece of the interior of the mountain cracked and fell off, but fell onto a "levitation gas" cushion and was held there for the fire giants to take potshots at with boulders. You are able to manipulate the levitation gas to a rough degree, shaping chunks of it with basic magical skill, but you don't have the skill yet to finely-tune it and do anything else with it but make temporary platforms (which is how you got off the barren floating rock in the middle of the volcano in the first place).
You will NOT be able to refine it into a paste or compress it into a solid form; dwarven technology and tools are needed for that. The gases, being magical in origin, are resistant to magic itself.
WILL YOU...
A) Make an example of a Centaur or Wemic (or Pony or Goblin) to keep the rest of the races in check?
B) Attempt to "butter up" or bribe the Fire Giants? They seem to like you.
C) Clear out a cave-in and go exploring?
D) Attempt to scry the meaning of this "13" that keeps popping up?
E) Focus mostly on trying to de-mineralize the water of Sulfur Lake so you can establish working farms?
F) Focus more on breaking the slaves (the goblins and ponies) to do your bidding?
G) Search for traces of where the Rhinocodiles were coming from? They're not heat resistant...
