Chapter 2c - Winter 1228 - In Search of a Singer

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Base Camp
21

It's probably not "hideous", not if she can actually speak a common language at a 3-4. The problem is in communicating complex ideas or subtle distinctions. There have been some examples on the main forums lately of posters who have a weak Comm - the wods are clear, but they can't explain what they're trying to say, just can't communicate clearly when you start to question what they meant - and they're native English speakers.

Teaching, writing, perhaps in Council - that's when Comm comes into play, more long-term than "Hey - you! Go to Tanas and find a storyteller who can sing, hire them and get them here".

22

Okay - safe or no, Theodoric has to go with the known quantity, and that's the fishing village. But he makes a mental note to lead a scouting party upriver come summer to find an alternate route.

He'll estimate the cost (maybe w/ a consult from others who have gone, if he has not), put about that much in one bag, with the half that amount in another 3 - he'll entrust 2 of those to the brothers (short term!), so that the fishermen don't see him digging into a half-pound of silver and get any ideas about re-negotiating the price, and so no rumours get spread about the "rich travelers". He wants to make it look like they're cleaning him out, that he can only barely afford this, and he has to borrow from the others if it's any more.

"C'mon lads - we're traveling in luxury this time! A quick hike and boat to Tanas before noon. Got the food, and your short-swords? Let's get moving then!"

(Per +1, Pre 0, Com 0
Leader 2 (combat), Bargain 2 (food), Alert 5 (Awareness), Folk Ken 2 (Kipchak) )

23

"eh, we're set.", "yah, set to go.", as they smile the same enthusiast smile. The potential for a little danger is something they seem keen to challenge themselves with, even if its just to see it though by avoiding it.

"but we don't have short swords", "unless you'd like to lend us some"
"get our Longswords?" Holding up the javelins "think they'll do", "javelins is goods though; can keep a man away with a javelin."

. "yah, like a spear," says Bogdan tapping the shaft of the weapon.
.. "unless he trips huh Bogdan."
... "shut it Godzimir, get the swords"
.... with that grin, "I missed him by miles, because he was face down in mud".

The brothers are set to go.
If Theodoric prefers Godzimir will be extra vigilant, as they're used to switching who is watching and who is making wise cracks.

24

I have been playing this character for over 15 years. I am not going to change how she's played because you think it could be done better.

I should add that I don't "mangle" her words for fun--as someone who's extremely articulate--as in, I get paid actual money to write and speak--I find playing her quite challenging, and indeed painful at times.

Scott

25

Whoa! I was talking about my IC post, not yours!

"This player" = me, not you. That Theodoric's "Latin" was depicted as worse than it should have been.

No one is asking you to change anything, nor even suggesting you should. I was just making an observation on Comm in general vs. Language Ability, as a game mechanic.

Back to the game...

Seems I'm guilty again of making unfounded assumptions about the Covenant - do we have no weapons except what our peasants carry on their hips? Did the Tribunal not send anything along? (Either way, just double checking.)

26

Ah, I see--sorry for the misunderstanding.

Yes, the covenant has weapons. No one has worked out exactly what weapons we have, but the specializations of the grogs would be a good start. I think it's reasonable to assume there are a few extra weapons, and short swords are reasonably common, so we might well have some lying around--even if Bogdan and Godzimir don't personally own any.

Scott

27

The grogs can get short swords by request to Miklos, the Turb captain.

The journey to the fishing village is one you're all familiar with, and you arrive at the village without incident within a couple of hours. Heading to the quayside, many of the boats are obviously already out to sea, but there's a few still present, including one which you can see a man and what is presumably his wife mending nets at.

28

Good deal, thx.

(And, yes, I know that short-swords are far less lethal, about -1 wound level in the hands of the brothers, but I think Theo would rather keep a low profile and try to avoid complications in the first place than have that extra firepower.)

29

(Theodoric speaks Kipchak 4 (bargaining), Slavik 2 (Don Delta dialect) and Greek 5 (Pontic) - not sure which culture would be fishermen, or if he even knows.
Per +1, Int +2, Folk Ken 2 (Kipchak), Don Delta Lore 2 (Tanais and vicinity))

The sun rises white in the winter sky, and does little to warm the day as morning slowly treks toward noon. As the three approach the village, Theo consults with the brothers.

"Kipchak, you think? Or are they only out in the plains, and these Slavs? Do you know, best guess?... Smile, and hands off the weapons, we're all friends here... but keep your eyes open just the same..."

He waves and smiles if the two notice before he gets within speaking distance, and stops short so as not to present a threat.

"Morning... and, er, blessings on your house! We're looking for a boat to take us toward Tanas - is yours for hire, or do you know who might be?"

He surveys the boat, seeing if he approves of its general appearance; he knows nothing of the ways of water travel, but is willing to bet that a slovenly boat is the sign of a careless owner, and is half on guard as to why this one had not mended his nets earlier to be out earning a living now.

30

[Yes, the inhabitants of the village are Kipchaks. The village is the closest one to the covenant, and has a reasonable amount of dealings with it - they have at least a rough idea of what it is, including the existence of magi. It's also the place most new arrivals heading to the covenant arrive, to be sent on up the river. All of the grogs have been here before - Theodoric in particular usually gets taken whenever the magi need a translator, or gets sent when the magi have a message to be delivered to the headman. Overall, terms are fairly friendly, albeit people aren't quite comfortable with each other yet.]

To Theodoric's untrained eye, the boat doesn't seem to be gleaming, but it's not filthy either. There's no obvious damage to it, although he can see a few repairs that have been made at some point in the past.

The man looks at you: "Might be. Who's it for? Just the three of you? Or some of them wizards?"

[OOC: Make a bargain check as part of your response.]

31

K, before I make another bad assumption, gotta ask...

I don't know what's standard in this game, but I'm used the SG making all the dice rolling behind the screen. That does 3 things...

    1. It let's the SG control the pace of the game - in this instance, a "Bargain" roll was predictable, so the SG can roll and give immediate feedback on how the Character feels it's going. Or they can just handwave the result and move things forward if speed is desired atm - total control.

And in play-by-post, things move slow enough as it is. :laughing:

    1. If there's "supernatural" interference (one way or the other) or just a factor that the Character is unaware of, then my roll may be irrelevant. Here, for instance, maybe someone unknown to us has threatened the fishermen if they help the Covenant in any way, so no Bargain roll could possibly be good enough, and that is the real adventure - who knows?

More, if it's a "contested roll", my Bargain v. his, my roll is meaningless alone. But the SG can respond appropriately, regardless.

    1. If/when a player gets on a truly lucky streak, or get really lucky on a critical roll - and it happens - there is ZERO question of fudging the dice. (And, otoh, for those rare situations when the SG "needs" a certain outcome, that outcome can't be derailed by extreme dice, so the story continues as planned.)

So the Player includes the skills/stats that they want/expect to use, and the SG makes the roll and gives feedback. (And an OOC or even PM message if something needs to be clarified.)

That's how I'm "accustomed" to doing play-by-post - and with regard to play-speed what I prefer, and I'm rather at a loss how to proceed otherwise. Say I roll average - a 5, +Pres +Bargain = 9... what does that mean in this situation? Spending a full RL day (or so) just for the SG to ask for a roll and then wait for the Player to roll and post "I rolled a 5 +4 = 9" seems a waste of time, and I don't really have any RP to add until I know the situation better.

So... what's expected here? How are we working it?

(If it helps, I rolled a 1,5 for Theo's Bargain - but that's nothing the SG couldn't have done faster, and "rolling dice" is not the main reason why I RP.) :wink:

32

We use Invis castle, and Scott gives us breadth to use and describe events in advance with the tolerance that it can change in retrospect. It also means that he's not making 15x rolls each time he logs in.

33

As Ironboundtome says, we're using invisible castle (invisiblecastle.com/roller/) - please roll and post the link. For stressed situations, I normally roll 2 dice at once - one for the standard roll and the second as a contingency botch/exploder die (subject to modification in situations where there's obviously going to be extra botch dice, in which case just roll a bunch more). If it turns out there weren't enough botch dice, I can always roll extra ones.

I will roll rolls where there's a possibility of you getting false information from the result of a botch (i.e. most lore rolls, possibly Intellego spells), or where letting you know the roll occurred in itself conveys information. On other rolls, I'm happy for you to roll them yourself, as it speeds things up and you're likely to know your character's stats better than me.

So for example, in this contested bargain roll, you will roll Theorodic's bargain, and provide me with what Theodoric says (hence "give me a roll as part of your response"). You have the opportunity here to tweak how Theodoric says what he's saying to fit in with the roll (although I'd usually only bother with this for extreme rolls, and it can be hard to imitate extreme success). I will roll the fisherman's bargain, and determine how he responds to Theodoric.

34

K, works for me - and thx for link to die roller, good to know, will have to play with it.

(And my internet was down since last post - will catch up now.)

35

Theodoric waves off the peasant's unfounded fears - or understandable prejudices. He always found, and in general observed, that working alongside magi takes more than a little getting used to, and even then it's often an uncomfortable task at best.

"No, no - just the three you see here. But the wizards will know of your help, and look kindly on you and yours. We can help launch the boat too, and are not afraid to get our feet wet or lend a hand to an oar - no special needs or demands, just three simple men looking for a ride to Tanas... altho' we might buy a bit of lunch if you have some'at to sell..."

He holds his hands out wide, showing them empty, then tucks his thumbs into his belt with a friendly smile.

(T rolls a 9+2 = 11 invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4468296/ )

36

The fisherman nods, and looks a bit more enthusiastic - although not too enthusiastic. "Bad luck, sailing with wizards is."

He runs an appraising eye over the three of you:

"You have sailing experience, then? And you just need to be taken to Tana? No waiting around, no unexpected detours? I'll need to bring along my crew to sail the ship back again. Fifteen pence."

[The fisherman's bargain total is a 10, so Theodoric has a slight advantage, but nothing significant. He thinks he might be able to get him down a couple of pence if he haggles, but probably no lower.]

37

At the first question, Theodoric glances over his shoulder to the brothers, but doesn't bother to ask. At the rest, he nods in affable agreement - until the final price, when he puts on a bit of a scowl of concern.

"Fifteen pence... that's, hmmm... five apiece... a bit steep for a half-day's boat ride, and us along only half the way at that... ten would be more affordable - our purse has to take us far, and back again... and you can fish on the way back, or as you please..."

He pulls a soft goatskin purse out; he has a couple, and the brothers more, but he pulls out the one with the closest to fifteen pence in it. He slowly shakes out ten into the palm of his other hand, a few at a time and counting out loud as they come, frowning as he hefts the remainder which is clearly around half, and then holding out the ten shiny silver pennies to the man in his open hand, and making sure the woman can see them as well.

He waits to see if the other is tempted by the sight of the hard coin, or at least offers to come down, expecting that a small reduction might be forthcoming. Whether a lower offer or no comes back, he'll accept that without further haggling, just so he can tell the magi he tried...

"... I suppose since you have to come back, not completely unfair... done," and steps forward to shake hands. A few pence is not worth any ill will of the other, and it's not his money. Having given it a try, his conscience and pride are clear.

He gestures to the others to get their gear in the boat, and waits until the local seems satisfied, then he clarifies the earlier small point of confusion...

"But no, no sailing experience - I meant we're willing to help, that our feet are not afraid of water nor our hands of hard work. Tell us what to do, and we'll help as we can. These winter days have grown short, so the sooner we arrive, the more daylight we'll have before dark."

38

The brothers smile and nod, both trying to look unintimidating and friendly. They are keen to be in the city though,and that probably comes across in their body language too.

39

The man purses his lips. "True, but there will be the three of us sailing you, and there's only so much more time to fish before the sea freezes." He glances at the woman who's obviously still repairing nets. "But I am not an unreasonable man. Thirteen pence."

The man frowns a bit, but then smiles, not entirely pleasantly. "No matter! You can watch the nets! I'm sure I can offload a small catch at Tana."

[Fun fact: the Sea of Azov is sufficiently shallow and has a low enough salt content that it can freeze for months at a time in winter.]

40

Thirteen pence it is then, and the coins are carefully counted out from the start, laid out on the weathered gunwale of the boat one by one in a row.

When it's time to launch, he organizes the brothers to put their shoulders to the task, and leaps in last - he had said that his feet weren't afraid of the water, but he also knows how cold it must be, and is not excited about having wet boots for the entire ride if he can help it. If it comes to that, he'll take them off, roll up his breeches a bit and go barefoot in the icy seas, and keep at least those dry for the trip.