Dungeons & Dragons Experiment discussion

The wheels of the carriage creak as the horses pull it along the roll. You and your fellow adventures sit, uncomfortable, on the back of the carriage but at least it's better than walking. Thanks to recent events, most of the crown's resources have gone into keeping the orcs at bay which means there aren't enough personnel to help the citizens of the realm with their troubles. This is where you come in. Although the crown doesn't have people to spare, it does have quite some gold and being paid to catch a thief or help clear out a rat infestation is some quick cash. Sure, you would rather be doing other things and furthering your own goals but hey, everyone has to start somewhere....and with some money.

Now, you are heading to a town named Cobblestone to take care of what seems to be a rat infestation. Apparently the innkeeper has been hearing noises coming from the cellar and, because he pays his taxes, he reckons that the crown should be the one taking care of this issue. The crown has better things to do than to argue with an unreasonable innkeeper so they are paying you to take care of the problem.

You reckon that you will be arriving soon and you look toward your fellow travelers. Hey, you don't have to be best friends but at least you should get to know somethings about the people you will be spending a day in the cellar with. You opened your mouth and say........

"Nice weather we're having, huh?" Cricket said cheerfully, to his companions, trying to start a conversation. He smiled. "Too bad we'll be spending the day in the dark. "Not that the dark really bothers me, being a gnome and all, but you get my point."

"I for for one don't like the dark. Too many things that lurk there hidden and ready to kill you. At least it is rats though. Could be worse." Says Titus looking around.

((Sorry, Iike I said, Sundays are busy for me. If you like, feel free to drag my characters along on Sundays because I won't be on. Also, I hope nobody was offended by my go to bed joke? I just thought it was funny, because it was late and Q said "You open your mouth and you say...))

"Though it might not be pleasant, when duty calls, I answer. Dark, light, snow, or flame. A cry for help cannot be ignored, insignificant though it may be."

The carriage slows to a stop and all of you hear the coachman getting off and walking around the carriage to look at you all. He looks up at all of you through a what you can assume is his face as this dwarf seems to be more beard than dwarf.

"We've arrived at Cobblestone, lads." The dwarf said as he climbs onto the back and starts to unload some of the merchandise that was in the carriage with you. "Small little town, isn't it? Wouldn't be half-bad if it wasn't so close to orc territory."

You are able to see from the carriage the town square. A well stuck in the middle of an empty wide space. Or at least, it would be empty if not for all the "stores" of this town. There were quite some people with a table and some wares settled all around the well.

To the west and the east of the town square, there were some building which seemed to be houses. To the north, there was a large church and what seemed to be the entrance to a crypt. To the south, there were more "proper" stores and the inn that you were hired to liberate from rats. Besides that, the town didn't have much more. It seemed this was most of the town.

"Thank you, kind Sir! I can carry my own equipment if you don't mind." Cricket says looking around. He stumbles from the carriage, the running board of which is almost too high. "The tables... Is that how most business is conducted here?"

Thundertongue emerges from the cart, but steps off the running board as it starts to creak under his girth. "Perhaps they are afraid that anything more formal would catch the eye of thieves." he wondered out loud. Towering over the gnome, he said "The orcs might not dare a frontal attack yet, but it's possible that thieving crews occasionally strike by night". Turning to their dwarf guide, he asked "How are the orc - villager relations in this particular town?"

Titus gets out from the cart and takes his backpack from the dwarf with a grin. "Do you know of any alchemy shops in the area? I would like to try and buy some healing potions."

"Woah! Hold on with all the question, mates." The dwarf says cracking a grin. "I can tell you guys are new to the frontier even without being the one who brought you here." He looks at the gnome and nods toward the tables. "That, my less bearded cousin, is the poor man's market. Not everyone has the money to get a store, but everyone has something to sale or trade. Besides, have you ever tried trading at a store? You would have better luck wrestling a dragon. Here, you can trade if you don't have the coins."

The dwarf gives Cricket a pat in the back with his hand which was just as equally hairy as his face. He turns to look at the dragonborn. "The orcs don't come around here." He says as he starts tying up his carriage and the horses. "The royal frontier guard does its job decently enough to keep those savages on their side of border. They killed our king's father after all. If our king was just a little bit older and more able with the sword, I bet he would lead the guard himself to avenge his father."

The dwarf, looking happy with himself and his explanation, turns to Titus and nods. "You will be looking for Madame Grace's Potions. It should be near the inn." He says, and suddenly he lowers his voice. "Just between you and me, she is quite the looker. How unfortunate that she isn't half as good brewing as her looks. Don't get me wrong, her potions work alright but they will leave a bad taste in your mouth. Takes quite a few ales to get that thing outta your tongue."

The dwarf returns to his usual tone and claps his hands loudly. "Alright then." He says with a laugh. "I will be off then, my job here is done. I've got some coins that I need to drink up, and you lot got a royal mandated duty to accomplish. If you ever need transportation, just find ol' Umred Beastchest in your local tavern....that's me if you didn't catch my drift." With that last comment, the dwarf walked away from the carriage, leaving the party to their own devices.

((@Kat: The Wildshape Feature (The ability to change into animals) is unlocked at level 2 for Druids. When you level up, you will be able to change into animals (although it does have limits)))

((No way? that's only a level 2 ability? I would have thought it to be higher.))

Thundertongue stood tall. "So we've begun" he said, ignoring the villagers who were gawking at him. "Clearly, we should head towards the inn without delay and seek to complete the assignment which we have been sent here to do"

((If this works, don't wait for me to take you, just head over. Persuasion/Charisma roll, I assume? So this would be a 1d20 roll? 5. So, 5+1(Mod)+2(ProBonus)=8? Did I do that right?))

"Yeah, I'll come with, but lets not start this right away. I want to try and get some healing potions first. Just in case this goes horribly wrong." Says Titus,as he walks to the inn

The party walks into the inn, and is immediately welcomed by a strong smell of ale and some music being played somewhere in the room. It's clearly not a great day for the inn, as most tables were empty and the innkeeper seems really quite bored at the back. From what you can see, he is playing with a set of keys and, if that's anything to go by, the inn doesn't even have that many rooms rented out.

In the few tables that are occupied, most are old men playing cards and drinking. Taking their sweet time in doing so too. The music comes from a pair of musicians that are playing, quite poorly, a pair of dulcimers. You take some time getting used to the awful music before you are able to dare to walk deeper into the inn.

The innkeeper noticed your presence and immediately perks up. He stands up from a chair and walks over to you, with a wide smile on his face and what seems to be a hop to his step. He looks to have been expecting you.

"Welcome, travellers!" He says as he stands in front of you. He looks over all of you and smiles even wider, if that is even possible. "You must be the party of adventurers contracted by the crown, are you not? Well, of course you are. Just look at you. You look ready to kick some vermin butt. I'm Erkan Hibruser. Owner of the Hibruser family inn. Fun for all ages. Of course, we don't serve drinks to the young but there aren't many around here anyway."

"Yeah that's us. We are here to deal with your vermin problem. What is the situation? How can we help?" Asks Titus trying to figure out the objectives.

Cricket frowned at the awful music, wishing he could take over, but knowing he had a job. He listened to his companions, not saying anything. If his questions weren't answered, He would but this all seemed fairly straightforward.

((I feel like a new guideline should be in place. A "pass" action. I'm thinking that if you just want to tag alone and don't have much to do or say during the situation you can just post "((I pass my turn))" or "((Waiting till so-and-so posts))" and we can just carry on. What do you all think? That way, we don't have to wait ages for someone to post something like "My character follows" or wait for them to come up with something worthwhile to post. And it won't force the player to always be doing something. It's okay to just chill out and tag along for a while.))

((Yeah. That's a good idea. I literally had no reason to post.))

((very good idea.))

((waiting for land master then the DM))

Thundertongue looked around the inn for any signs of rat activity.

((Investigation/intelligence roll, I assume. O.O Just rolled a natural 20. 20+1(Mod)+2(ProBonus)=23. Holy Tamole...How do I always get high numbers on little stuff like this?))

((For next time, when you roll a 20 just leave it at that. No need to overkill the critical roll. 20 = You did it.))

As Thundertongue looks around the inn, he notices signs of droppings and gnaw marks on the furniture. He had to crouch quite considerably to get a good look but he is certain that rats have been here. From what he can gather from the signs, the rat come up here to collect food but then carry that food all the way up to the back. To a door, behind a large counter where drinks, glasses and utensils are stored. As he looks at the door, the innkeeper opens it.

"It seems your dragonborn friend here is quite the tracker, isn't he?" Erkan says as he leads everyone through the door. "You won't have any problems, then." Through the door, there is a staircase leading down. You are certain that it should be dark but you suddenly notice that a small light comes from the walls. You notice some shiny gems of some kind. "Useful little things." Erkan says as he notices you looking at them. "Bought them from a dwarf. Apparently they use them to light their underground mines and such."

Once you get to the bottom to the stairs, you enter a large cellar. Large barrels line the walls, and it's clear that this is where the drinks are stored. Erkan leads you all to the far wall and points to it. "Sorry about the mess, the last fellow that tried to deal with my problem wasn't so successful." He says, he points to the huge hole in the wall that leads into some sort of cavern underground the inn and apparently, underneath the town.

"It all started with this small holes." Erkan points at a small hole in the wall that could probably fit a rat. "I try closing the holes but for every hole I closed, two more would appear. So I paid someone to come and take a look. That fellow said that he could get on the other side and burn all the rat's nest and it will be solved. He came back crying something about huge rats a few minutes after entering through the same hole he made to get to the rats."

Erkan chuckles and shakes his head. "I just want to get rid of the noises and the crap and the gnawing." He says as he looks at all of you once more. "It's bad for business. No one wants to come to a vermin infested place."

"Sorry... you said something about huge rats? You kind of glossed over it in favor of mentioning the obvious decline in business and dissing on your former hiree... Did he by any chance tell you about how big they were? Also, how long ago was this?" Cricket asked nervously.

Thundertongue looks on the ground and walls of the gaping hole for unusually large rat fur, or any other sign of giant rats. He smells the air around the tunnel, trying to tell if there are indeed any nearby. He briefly holds a hand up, signaling for silence as he strains to hear anything.

((The next post will signal the end of his listening, just mention that you gave him a minute. Rolled 16. 16+1(Mod)+2(ProBonus)=19. I swear I'm not making this up, but I also understand that rats are nocturnal and possibly quite a ways underground. So I might get nothing, even with a high roll. I'm also fine with intuition; not finding any evidence, but having a gut feeling that something's not quite right. I'm up for whatever you think is best.))

After a minute of Thundertongue listening. Titus speaks to the group. "Lets come back here once i buy the healing potions. now we know where to go and what the situation is." He then turns to the inn keeper. "Is there anything you can give us or tell us to help with dealing with the rats?"

Erkan looks at the small gnome. "They can't be bigger than you." He says. "Anyway, I was expecting you all to be hardened adventurers and such. I hope a few larger than average rats won't make you turn heels. Anyway, that was.....two weeks ago? Three? I'm not sure. Somewhere along those lines."

As the dragonborn looks for signs of large rodents activity, he notices that from the hole toward the inn, all tiny rat tracks can be found but as soon as he looks on the other side if the hole, it's clear something larger than your average rat accompanies them. It seems like a huge mammal of some sort that keeps watch while the normal rodents go collect food. This is all evidenced by the large tracks on the edge of the hole, as if something large had been waiting.

Erkan looks toward Titus and Arīa. "I'm afraid I can't help you there all." He says as he shrugs. "Personally, I have not seen the rats. It's just the tracks and the noises and the signs of rodents. Hell, I haven't even gone through the tunnel myself, but I reckon it goes all around the town square."

Cricket nodded. "I'm worried that they may have gotten larger. Anyway, I agree with Titus. We need to buy potions at least." He looked up at the Cleric. "At this moment, I've fifteen gold on my person, which you have permission to use, if need be."

((Q, how big are we talking? Is this like, DnD size type Huge, or just huge for a rodent, like a capybara?))

Thundertongue was quite offended that this peasant would even suggest them running away. If he knew who he was talking to...
he thought. I can probably move forward alone, I’ve done most of the work thus far anyway.

“Every minute we wait is another minute closer to the night, when they will be active, watchful, and on the hunt.” He said, setting his longbow against the wall so that he could pull off his pack. “If you feel you need to find something more, go quickly.” He pulled out a torch and lighted it. “I’ll be back in an hour to guide you along whatever path I’m able to scout out.” He grabbed his longbow from where he’d rested it and slowly stepped into the tunnel.

The landmaster wrote: "((Q, how big are we talking? Is this like, DnD size type Huge, or just huge for a rodent, like a capybara?))

Thundertongue was quite offended that this peasant would even suggest them running away..."

((We're dealing with R.O.U.S' s here. Probably the size of opossums.))

((I referenced it, as opposed to directly quoting it. But, yeah. Maybe. Ha ha! Anyway, leave stuff for us to do, please. I'll probably be done with you guys, but I'm a forty pound gnome with eight hit points and nine strength.Also, I intentionally chose skills that wouldn't be great in combat, because Cricket's not a fighter. As of yet, anyway. I've gotta take precautions.))

"ok lets run over to the alchemy store." Titus and Criket leave going to the alchemy store.

"Alright, then. Come to me when you guys are done." Erkan said and he followed Cricket and Titus back up the stairs.

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[Alchemy Store]

As soon as Cricket and Titus walk through the door, a bell rings and smell of herbs and other interesting smells invade their noses. From the back, there is the sound of a small explosions and a startled yell. Before they could react, a human woman comes out with her dark hair as if she had just been blown away.

"Oh! Welcome." She says as she tries to tidy up her hair. "I'm Madame Grace, what can I help you with today?" Even as messy as she was, it was clear that this woman was a beautiful young adult with sparkling green-bluish eyes.

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[Tunnels]

The dragonborn and the half-elf walk through the tunnel. It seemed to be a long dark tunnel, that got darker as they walked deeper into it. There were no signs of recent rat activity but they had clearly walked through here. In fact, they were some rat corpses marking the way, as if they had gotten hungry and decided to eat themselves over the food that they had robbed.

It wasn't long before they came to an intersection. The tunnel kept going straight forward, but there were two side tunnels that went off to the left and the right, in a "Psi" formation. The two side tunnels didn't seemed that different from each other but the one in the middle seemed to lead somewhere brighter as you can just make out a small light at the end of the tunnel.

((The tracks are of a large rodent/small mammal. Looks like just a bit smaller than Cricket.))

Cricket smiled at Madame Grace. "We are here to inquire about healing potions and the like. What do you have in stock and for how much?"

Titus let Criket do the talking. Titus had almost all of his skin covered up from his garb. but his eyes looked at the beautiful young woman in front of him. He wanted to flirt, but he knew that this was no time for that.

((I’m glad cricket ended up going to the store. As newcomers on errand from the crown, I would think that she would almost definitely raise her prices. But leaning on his knowledge and experience as a shopkeeper, he might be able to refute that. We’ll see. Also, you guys can decide how much you can get done in an hour. Just head back when you’re done and we’ll say its the right time. You good with that Q? And one more thing, how tall/wide are these tunnels?))

Thundertongue surveyed the corridors before turning to Aria “The trick with mazes is to always stick to one wall. We’ll go left.” He held out his bow to her. “Two hands are needed for a bow and I’m guiding with the torch. You’re obviously part elf, I assume you can use the weapon of your people?” He asked expectantly.

((Taking into consideration that this is all happening simultaneously, it's really easy to keep track of time. They can just say they go and they past the next scene getting over there.))

[Alchemy Store]

"Healing potions, you say?" Madame Grace says while taking her spot behind a counter filled with bottles with different kinds of liquid. She takes out a large book and starts running her finger across the pages, muttering to herself.

"Alright! You are just in luck, I've received a shipment of potions of healing just yesterday." Madame Grace gives both of them a warm smile and closes the book. "I've got around 40 bottles of those at 62 gp per bottle. Now if you want something smaller but just as good, you can try my own little recipe."

She takes out two bottles. One is a regular potion of healing. A glass bottle with some red liquid. The other is a smaller bottle. Even though the liquid seems to be of the same color, it does seem like this one was created with a homemade recipe.

"This little bottle is mine." She says. "It doesn't carry quite a punch like the regular one but it will still help with your wounds. This one right here is 30 gp per bottle."

---------------
((The width is just large enough for 4 people to walk side by side, at least where you have been passing by. The heigh is just tall enough for your character to stand up tall.))

[Tunnels]

You keep to the left wall. You notice that the tunnel is curving, as if trying to straighten itself out until it's parallel to the tunnel you have been taking up until now. You walk for some time, the tunnel now taking a darker tone as the only source of light is coming from your torch.

You arrived at another intersection. From here, you could keep going forward, noticing that the path seems to be curving even more and if you follow, you would reckon that you would be able to reach the straight path that had appeared before. The other option is a path to the left, from which the smell of something rotten comes. You notice the rat corpses go into that direction while the other way is pretty clear, at least for an underground tunnel.

((Should I identify this to make sure it's real? Does it just happen, or must I have the materials required on my person?))

((What do you want to identify?))

((The contents of her potion. I haven't commited to anything yet, though.))

((You can try and figure out if it's a legit potion of healing from sight, smell and taste....Although she is not going to let you taste it without buying it first.))

Thundertongue unsheathes one of his machetes. “Hold the bow at the ready” he instructs. He takes just a few steps into the dark tunnel, and tries to perceive what is beyond.

((Phones going to die, rolled a 13. So 13+2+1=16. I’m headed home, give me 30ish minutes))

((Alright. I'll make a perception check. Regardless of whether I fail or not, I also try to haggle the price down.)
Cricket picks up the smaller bottle and peers at the liquid through the glass. He watches it splash against the sides. "Will you take 20 gold?"

((Sorry, I meant to specify, but I forgot in my hurry to post. Like I said, my phone was dying. Tundertongue stepped just barely into the left tunnel, the one with the smell of rot. He's trying to see if he can hear/see/smell/feel any particulars.))

((Rolled a natural 1 on my check. Ugh.))

((Do you have any proficiencies that you can use, at least?))

((no a one is an auto fail. also batman it is your turn on steam punk))

((Oh yeah, I forgot. Welp, don't get yourself thrown out))

((@Batman: Roll for the haggle. @Austin: What you going to do?))

((Wait for bat man to buy it.))

((4 to haggle....))

[Alchemy Store]

As Cricket takes the bottle and shakes it, he doesn't see anything different between the two bottle. As much as he is concerned, this could be just a smaller bottle with the same content.

"You want me to lower it 10 gold pieces?" Madame Grace asks shocked, while slowly taking back the bottle in fear that he would break it. "You do realize that this was made with my own sweat and blood right? I can't just go under appreciating my own work."

She looks between the two customers and sighs. "What do you need it for?" She asks, her expression dropping to a serious one.

------------------
[Tunnels]

Thundertongue looks into the left tunnel and sees a lot of movement. This is clearly where the rats are hiding. It smells and looks like where they eat and sleep, and he can imagine that it gets worse the farther they go. Sure, there is still the other tunnels but this seems to be the main nest of the rats.

Arīa feels the same way as she looks there but she can also sense something.....not at all right. She can sense the rats but it seems like they are being led by something. Something....intelligent. Something unnatural.