Common Worlds

Garusharp says;
I do suppose that a bit of nosing about is in order. If all you gentlemen can wait I will go have a look at dusk...the most beautiful time of day and night! I will try to find away in and see who is trailing us. Of course I will be scouting for baths while at it.

Can I get a refresher on Pavis' layout:

Griffen Gate - this is a gate/the gate that leads from the old city to the New City? I'm trying to get a battle plan of what a hasty fortification at this gate means (i.e. it faces the Rubble, its where Trolls would attack etc).

Thief Town: its outside the new city, but still within the Rubble? we have to cross the Zola Fel (via the blocked ferries) to enter it?

"...All that means that there is no easy, direct way into the Rubble. Certainly not by daylight.

We never take the easy direct way:
gm: Do you want to get home by taking the garden path through the park, or by the sulfur roads of the seventh level of hell?
pc: what? Seventh level of hell thank you very much! I ain't walking through no park, people get killed in the park.

ARGH.

Once again, I have turned the whole city around in my mind.

Here's what's correct.

You approach from the west.

New Pavis is on THIS side of the river, at the north edge of the old walls.

The WYVERN gate is before you, dug in and manned by a unit of the Marble Phalanx.

to the south, the Hippogriff Gate is barely visible through the ice coated trees of the Garden.

You are on the West, or Manside of Pavis, the same side as Rass Manor.

Skirmisher/Recon patrols are heavier on this side, as it is near the New City. The New City is closed.

Sorry for the confusion. I think I once left my map upside down on a table for a few sessions, and it twisted in my mind.

Greetings
Thanks for the update. While Garusharp scouts, Will and The Mark confer as to possible nearby tunnels. Perhaps we can find a safe way in underground.
Jonathan

By the way what game were we playing??? Oh yea we are about to do something crazy involving jumping into the open mouth of a giant man eating Luner battalion. But who cares we are HEROS! 8)

With twilight upon you, Garusharp gathers his prayers and magic about him and disappears off toward the walls of the old city. Will's blessing offers him further reassurance.

Close up the ancient blocks are even more impressive, bearing thousands of marks of battle and wind scourings. Even in their neglected state, ordinary climbers would have trouble with them, and ordinary men would hesitate because the stones themselves seem to silently radiate a message: "You, pitiful mortal, you may not pass."

In the half light and shadows cast by the setting sun, Garusharp freehands his way to the top of the wall a hundred yards south of the Granite Phalanx pickets at the Wyvern Gate.

Below him a cluster of ruins the size of a normal city spreads out from the gate, then peters out into icy stubble fields dotted with fallen walls. Hills rise within the walls, each covered with ancient fortifications. Some are whole and manned, others ruined and abandoned. Watch fires burn brightly from all the manned towers of the largest fort.

A mile or more away across the city, the icy river gleams by the fitful moon's glow. And across that, there's the distant sense of motion--slow moving cavalry (Cavalry?? they are the right size, but they move strangely) coming from the river and heading toward the northwest corner of the ruins.

Fires burn in distant ruins across the river and before the cavalry.

After taking this in, perhaps 60 yards forward into the ruins some sound and motion draws your attention. Shortly after that, a fetid stink reaches your nose.

In a partially collapsed and burned ruin, twisted, unclean figures move about. You hear guttural orders and see their attempts to start a small fire. Several of them move back and forth between two sections of the ruin. They are obviously where they are for the same reason you are--this is just outside of the perimeter of the gate guards.

Working to get a better view, Garusharp moves along the wall's top. As twilight fades into night, he sees hideous goatlike faces reflect the sickly light of the fire. A forward scout with scrawny little horns that wave about like a snake's tongue capers nearer to you, still unaware of your presence, watching instead toward the Lunar position.

The hair on the back of Garusharp's neck goes up as he hears snips of grunted prayers to their obscene and hideous spirits. Their tongue is a twisted mess of languages, but you pull one word out as it is repeated again and again: Ma-ll-ia Ma-ll-ia Ma-ll-ia Ma-ll-ia.

The mistress of disease.

Their ceremony has only begun. The shaman at the center of the magic lifts a tied dog up, croaks some dreadful benediction at the center of his circle, runs a knife along its side and parades it in a circle around his ritual space. The dog shudders and squirms, whimpering as its blood pours out on the ground, the walls and the other goat men gathered for the ritual.

It seems likely that this is just the first and least of several sacrifices.

Garusharp can stay and watch, return to his comrades, or act.

Questions first...
Garusharp is still on the wall and the broo are below hm?

From this position does he have a clear shot at the Shaman? Or does he need to move or maybe even go down to get closer?

Do the Broo seem to be hiding from the Luners?

Most likely he will act, he just needs these questions answered.

Yes.

Not a very clear shot. But getting lower doesn't make it better, unless you get very close. At the moment the cover and distance are a significant problem. Plus, since he has started his ritual, magical protections are probably in force.

Yes.

Garusharp will try to get unnoticed down the wall (if this envolves killing the scout so be it). His intent is to get close to the Luners, harass them and hope some come after him. These men he hopes to lead to the Broo. Of course he will use stealth and chance.

Garusharp will try to kill the scout from above as silently as possible, with a shoot to his windpipe. Once this is done he will use the cover of the broken city to dance through the shadows until he has range for the Luners. He will look for the most annoying place to rain arrows upon them and will even hesitate long enough to fire a second volley just so they know where it is coming from. Once they are after him he will head through the rubble toward the Broo firing arrows into their ceramony to get their attention. The whole idea will be to see how well he can dance the thin line between notice and absence, he will try to mimic the light and dark who is his god!

Vanesha will be proud of him.

Are you sure that Lunars set to guard a gate are going to be eager to move forward into bad ground in the dark into a possible ambush?

Well of course they are willing to go out into the dark to get into it with the unknown enemy. It is for the greater glory of their empire to go forth and spread the word of the goddess to the ignorant folks. So I guess this means Garusharp can set himself up in no mans land and shoot unimpeaded in both directions. :lol:

Ok lets try this approach...
Garusharp has to get down no matter what, so he will at least do that. He will first harass the Broo if he thinks it will have any affect on their ceramony. If this is not going to deter them then he will immediately go back to the first plan and sneak up on the Luners. If the luners are not willing to come out and fight then he can and will spend that evening making them hug the earth as flaming arrows land among them (he will bring the ambush to them). If they want to guard a gate then he will make them earn their coin to do it. Oh and at some point early on he will send a couple over the wall to let his friends know now is the time to try their insane ploy of charging the gate.

How is he going to determine this?

The experience you have with ceremonies of any kind is just this: Once you start one, it is bad to stop. the more important the ceremony, and the longer it has gone on, the worse it is to have it interrupted.

How close do you want to get? Sniping range, or do you want to enter their camp? The latter is much harder, of course.

It seems most likely to you that entrenched and fortified guards will either return fire, close up behind shields and cover, or send magic. Or all three.

I get it that you want the lunars to attack the broo. But why? Aside from getting them to stop a horrible ceremony?

Actually I am not trying to try to get the 2 sides (broo and Luner) together- you have made it clear that wont happen so I am just going to snipe at the Luners in anticipation of the attack from my friends.

If Garusharp thought that his interference in a Broo ceramony would have an affect he would try, but it sounds like they will try their best to ignore me and hope their magic hields them.

Garusharp sends arrow after arrow toward the Marble phalanx. Beyond the lines he hopes his commrads are doing well...

To his left he listens to the Broo and prepares to turn his arrows on them if the battle goes our way.

The company of the Marble Phalanx has withdrawn, as have the broos.

the gate to the Old City lies open now, but the scent of fires still hangs in the still air.

The last light of the sun has faded, and the moon is dark. Rasa is no where to be found, having either succeeded in passing the fight, or having been exterminated.

The Unicorn Riders by and large escaped the attack of the disease spirit. Some of their riders who don't have zebras are ill.

None of the non-combatants came down with anything.

Oshun and his riders are seriously ill.

It is cold and dark, with the only lights coming from the watch fires atop the Real City Walls and from the distant stars.

You can assume that Garusharp rejoins you if that's what he wants to do and the group either stays put or heads into the gate.

What are your plans?

Garusharp will come back out explaining about the horrible things he has seen, just as he notices Oshun...

Can you travel?

Should we go in before more Luners show up?

Where is RASA?

Why do you call that a city, it is a destroyed sewer teaming with the filth of the world?

"Garusharp, it is good to see our expeditionary force <weak smile> returned to us safely. We can ride, but not at our best. The disease spirit was indeed a mighty one."

Oshun would like to first ask for any healers amongst the Yelarnens(?) to either cure or reduce the effects of the malia disease. I'm assuming what is affecting oshun and his, is not contagious. If there is no aid for us we must travel with our severe penalties first and foremost getting to the Pavis Temple to present the strings and ask for healiing assistance there.

Brian