Adjo's Journals (17 of N)
Dec. 10th, 2008 10:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
So. Capricious. Kind of a dick. And yet, considering the trials of dealing with my own grogs, I can find some empathy for the poor man. I’ve only had to deal with these ungrateful ninnies for a few weeks and I’m pretty much fed up. I can only imagine that being surrounded by slack-jawed yokels for millennia whilst carrying out important arcane endeavors would tend to make one a bit short-tempered.
But the man sets a fine table even if his decorating sensibilities leave a little to be desired. He takes us to a charming dining room dominated by a Dragonborn smeared out over the far wall slowly continuing to expire. So that’s Taras being pissed off. Then Capricious mentions he’s a Paladin of Bahaumut and Thrace is starting to run through her attack responses. Luckily we calm everyone down and have a nice supper (and try not to look at the wall).
It turns out that we weren’t even really supposed to be meeting with Capricious. The Imperial representative was a guy named Thenian(?) and he’d survived the last thousand years by slowly turning himself into a lich of some sort. But shortly (and suspiciously) before we arrived this paladin of Bahaumut and his buddies show up and kill the “vile undead creature”. Thenian summons Capricious and asks him to take over his job as he’s getting killed. Capricious agrees and also kills Sir Rush-To-Judgment and his pals.
There follows a long digression in which we learn many interesting things. Probably the most interesting thing we learn is that the reason the Empire fell was because the cult of Orcus had infiltrated the entire Imperial government/bureaucracy. In order to prevent them from completing some dreadful ritual, the last Emperor basically instigated a huge civil war and in the chaos the cult got swept away. Along with civilization as we know it, but hey.
Capricious doesn’t know exactly what orders Thenian was going to relay to us. He does know the release codes for Dauntless (which he’s already given) and he found some odd-looking symbol among Thenian’s notes. He also knows that Thenian kept a log that is very likely to contain something useful to us, but the book was stolen by Sir Little-Too-Eager’s buddies. The book was then sold to the captain of a flying boat. The boat was hit by Scro pirates (Scro you ask? Spell it backwards. Even in the vastness of the cosmos, creativity is in short supply.). The pirates sold the book to some Yuan-ti snake cultists (as if they’d be cultists of puppies) and the cultists are now slowly making their way towards one of their outposts. They will, however, pass through a region of asteroids and the Dauntless is fast enough that we could catch them there, be pirates for a day, and steal the book back. Oh, and while we’re there, if we could also grab this Sword of Salin that happens to be on the cultists’ boat and return it to him, there’s some magical trinkets in it for us as a bonus.
Or, considering Capricious already knows all this and has terrifying amounts of power (much of which is focused on teleportation effects), he could just go get all this stuff himself, but that’s not his idiom. Sending mooks out to see how they do is. He is, however, dismissive of our capacity to retrieve these items and recommends that we go be farmers. He hints that even if we are, somehow, successful the contents of the book may only lead to more trouble and disaster for our world and things might be better off if we just left well-enough alone. Classic reverse psychology and Shay falls for it at once.
There follows a long discussion about what to do. In the process, I discover that flying boats do visit our world from time to time (mostly in the wild regions beyond civilization). Apparently you can make arrangements for passage on the boats (“hitchhiking” they call it). That’s how Sir Inflexible-Moral-Codes-Can-Be-Sub-Optimal and his pals got up here.
Also, in a shocking display of personal history I did not need to know, Blaze has “daddy issues”. Considering that her real name is Lucius and she looks like a man, I might suggest she has “gender issues”, but whatever. If we survive long enough, I’ll be sure and turn her into a real little boy.
In the end, we decide to do “what we all do” and implement our standard “just kill everyone who isn’t us” plan of attack and raid the Yuan-ti ship. Capricious escorts us back to the ship where two of his minions, a red-haired tavern wench and a lab assistant who must’ve gotten caught in a terrible accident as the left half of his body is living metal are coming down the ramp. They’ve been topping off the Dauntless’s ammunition stores.
We take a short flight to the attack point during which Dauntless displays a number of colorful images and songs to help explain the realities of the new medium we find ourselves in. The material is a bit elementary, but we have a wide range of intellects to consider. It seems it’s all part of some educational curriculum called “Spacehouse Rock”.
Luckily, our standard plan seems perfectly adaptable to our current situation. Dauntless slams into the Yuan-ti ship (surprise! It looks like a giant snake!) and clears the deck. We rush out the assault port and kill everything.
During the fight, I am less than thrilled to discover that the etheric medium conducts my arcane energies slightly differently than it does in a terrestrial setting. Most of my magic simply fizzles or goes awry. Re-calibrating to account for the new medium is a difficult process made all the more difficult by the Yuan-ti marines who continually menace me unhindered by any of the front-line fighters who might interpose themselves and give me the chance to do something effective.
I also discover that these “rifiles” hurt. A lot.
In the end, of course, we are triumphant. The Captain of the ship attempts to flee, but Dauntless just guns him down. We recover the sword, a caseload of books (including the one we were seeking) and a couple chests of gold. We return the sword to Capricious’s lab assistant, claim our rewards and are now winging our way home. I’m most curious to examine our little library. The Imperial representative’s book is important of course, but who knows what wonders could be contained in the others. Most likely they’re all “Have you accepted the Snake God into your heart and cut off your sinful limbs today?” drivel, but there might well be some great stuff in there. In particular, I notice a book with an odd four-…or maybe five-sided symbol on the cover. Doubtless there’s something of interest there.
[NOTES: I totally rolled crap this game. I did get to set a few pirates on fire though, so that's something.]
later
Tom
So. Capricious. Kind of a dick. And yet, considering the trials of dealing with my own grogs, I can find some empathy for the poor man. I’ve only had to deal with these ungrateful ninnies for a few weeks and I’m pretty much fed up. I can only imagine that being surrounded by slack-jawed yokels for millennia whilst carrying out important arcane endeavors would tend to make one a bit short-tempered.
But the man sets a fine table even if his decorating sensibilities leave a little to be desired. He takes us to a charming dining room dominated by a Dragonborn smeared out over the far wall slowly continuing to expire. So that’s Taras being pissed off. Then Capricious mentions he’s a Paladin of Bahaumut and Thrace is starting to run through her attack responses. Luckily we calm everyone down and have a nice supper (and try not to look at the wall).
It turns out that we weren’t even really supposed to be meeting with Capricious. The Imperial representative was a guy named Thenian(?) and he’d survived the last thousand years by slowly turning himself into a lich of some sort. But shortly (and suspiciously) before we arrived this paladin of Bahaumut and his buddies show up and kill the “vile undead creature”. Thenian summons Capricious and asks him to take over his job as he’s getting killed. Capricious agrees and also kills Sir Rush-To-Judgment and his pals.
There follows a long digression in which we learn many interesting things. Probably the most interesting thing we learn is that the reason the Empire fell was because the cult of Orcus had infiltrated the entire Imperial government/bureaucracy. In order to prevent them from completing some dreadful ritual, the last Emperor basically instigated a huge civil war and in the chaos the cult got swept away. Along with civilization as we know it, but hey.
Capricious doesn’t know exactly what orders Thenian was going to relay to us. He does know the release codes for Dauntless (which he’s already given) and he found some odd-looking symbol among Thenian’s notes. He also knows that Thenian kept a log that is very likely to contain something useful to us, but the book was stolen by Sir Little-Too-Eager’s buddies. The book was then sold to the captain of a flying boat. The boat was hit by Scro pirates (Scro you ask? Spell it backwards. Even in the vastness of the cosmos, creativity is in short supply.). The pirates sold the book to some Yuan-ti snake cultists (as if they’d be cultists of puppies) and the cultists are now slowly making their way towards one of their outposts. They will, however, pass through a region of asteroids and the Dauntless is fast enough that we could catch them there, be pirates for a day, and steal the book back. Oh, and while we’re there, if we could also grab this Sword of Salin that happens to be on the cultists’ boat and return it to him, there’s some magical trinkets in it for us as a bonus.
Or, considering Capricious already knows all this and has terrifying amounts of power (much of which is focused on teleportation effects), he could just go get all this stuff himself, but that’s not his idiom. Sending mooks out to see how they do is. He is, however, dismissive of our capacity to retrieve these items and recommends that we go be farmers. He hints that even if we are, somehow, successful the contents of the book may only lead to more trouble and disaster for our world and things might be better off if we just left well-enough alone. Classic reverse psychology and Shay falls for it at once.
There follows a long discussion about what to do. In the process, I discover that flying boats do visit our world from time to time (mostly in the wild regions beyond civilization). Apparently you can make arrangements for passage on the boats (“hitchhiking” they call it). That’s how Sir Inflexible-Moral-Codes-Can-Be-Sub-Optimal and his pals got up here.
Also, in a shocking display of personal history I did not need to know, Blaze has “daddy issues”. Considering that her real name is Lucius and she looks like a man, I might suggest she has “gender issues”, but whatever. If we survive long enough, I’ll be sure and turn her into a real little boy.
In the end, we decide to do “what we all do” and implement our standard “just kill everyone who isn’t us” plan of attack and raid the Yuan-ti ship. Capricious escorts us back to the ship where two of his minions, a red-haired tavern wench and a lab assistant who must’ve gotten caught in a terrible accident as the left half of his body is living metal are coming down the ramp. They’ve been topping off the Dauntless’s ammunition stores.
We take a short flight to the attack point during which Dauntless displays a number of colorful images and songs to help explain the realities of the new medium we find ourselves in. The material is a bit elementary, but we have a wide range of intellects to consider. It seems it’s all part of some educational curriculum called “Spacehouse Rock”.
Luckily, our standard plan seems perfectly adaptable to our current situation. Dauntless slams into the Yuan-ti ship (surprise! It looks like a giant snake!) and clears the deck. We rush out the assault port and kill everything.
During the fight, I am less than thrilled to discover that the etheric medium conducts my arcane energies slightly differently than it does in a terrestrial setting. Most of my magic simply fizzles or goes awry. Re-calibrating to account for the new medium is a difficult process made all the more difficult by the Yuan-ti marines who continually menace me unhindered by any of the front-line fighters who might interpose themselves and give me the chance to do something effective.
I also discover that these “rifiles” hurt. A lot.
In the end, of course, we are triumphant. The Captain of the ship attempts to flee, but Dauntless just guns him down. We recover the sword, a caseload of books (including the one we were seeking) and a couple chests of gold. We return the sword to Capricious’s lab assistant, claim our rewards and are now winging our way home. I’m most curious to examine our little library. The Imperial representative’s book is important of course, but who knows what wonders could be contained in the others. Most likely they’re all “Have you accepted the Snake God into your heart and cut off your sinful limbs today?” drivel, but there might well be some great stuff in there. In particular, I notice a book with an odd four-…or maybe five-sided symbol on the cover. Doubtless there’s something of interest there.
[NOTES: I totally rolled crap this game. I did get to set a few pirates on fire though, so that's something.]
later
Tom
