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>>90974614
For this campaign we’ve been using the ACKS II playtest rules, in the system’s default setting of the Auran Empire. Just like my storytime last weekend, I’ll be mentioning mechanics when it helps explain things, it’s how I roll. This is a long one, fair warning.

PCs:
- Ravus Faeles: thief, trap specialist and party leader
- Slav: thief, lock specialist
- Janus: assassin, a thief/fighter class
- Orenthal Jelani: freebooter, a thief/fighter glass cannon class, from the Ivory Kingdoms
- Colth: elven courtier, a thief/partial-caster

My notes for session 1 are sparse but it was just Ravus and Slav doing a B&E of a small mining settlement’s bank. With a mere 5 hp between us, we did it as -thieves-, quietly breaking in through a blocked-up grate and completely avoiding combat. It was a tense session. We had to balance being fast enough in- and out-of-character to be gone before the guard patrol showed, while not missing traps or easy loot by going too fast, and not making any noise to draw the guards early. Slipped up once and almost got nailed by a poison dart trap, but we cleared out most of the vault and bailed in time, we both leveled, good times.

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>>90974674
Ravus and Slav celebrated with a 2-month bender across the Empire where we blew most of our newly-stolen cash. (Wasting cash for no in-character benefit gives 90% of its value as reserve xp for your next PC so you don’t have to start over at level 1. We figured life would be short as thieves, so we ended up buying a lot of reserve xp.) We’d given our band a name: the Scattered Sons. Since incorporating as an adventuring party, we had done no dungeon delving. And that was not about to change.

We were no longer just a pair of grubby thieves--we’d added more grubby people to our group. Three full members (the other PCs, above) and a half dozen henchmen who were a mix of fighters and thieves. Plus a priestess. That fucking priestess. Very Lawful, slumming it hard by even associating with us, we’d left her to hang out in the nearby town of Siadanos. Because the rest of us were casing the Imperial frontier fort of Turos Tem, hoping for our next big score.

>DM: “There's also the nearby dungeon of Sakkara that you guys hear rumors about while at the fort, you could go poke around there if you want.”
>Party: “Beastmen will eat you if they catch you. The Legate will just hang us. He might even give us a trial first. We're staying right here.”

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>>90974687
We spent a whole game session and a full month in-character just in casing the fort and preparing for the heist. We intended to do it as -thieves- again so we went all-in on the recon and planning, which ended up being a lot of fun. The DM was using a very detailed module (AX1 Sinister Stone of Sakkara), so he let us know there would be no asspulling on his part—we’d be up against the module as written, full simulationism.

The fort was sited at the top of a tall stone plateau, with 15’ stone walls and 3 gatehouses. We could come in during the day for business, but had to be out by nightfall when the gates were shut. It was way understaffed with less than a hundred troops at the moment. That meant their guard rotations were a lot lighter than they otherwise might have been. Our casing of the place pointed to three buildings as likely to have decent loot inside: the headquarters with the fort’s payroll, the legate’s villa, and the magister’s arcane lab. The payroll sounded like the best bet for a big haul, and importantly we could get a look inside the HQ without it being suspicious. Between a few looks and buying some drinks at the tavern, we found that the payroll was kept at the rear of the HQ on the other side of a locked iron gate, with the key kept by the quartermaster. It was also guarded by a pair of hard-looking troops, clearly some of the fort’s seasoned veterans. But once the fort was locked down at night, that went down to just a single elite treasury guard, and the normal crowd of people in the rest of the HQ dropped to a pair of patrolling guards.

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>>90974711
We decided we’d need to get the quartermaster’s key. Otherwise we’d be spending a bunch of time trying to pick the gate’s lock right out in the open. Slav’s “useless” general proficiency of Craft: Lockmaking got put to full effect here. Ravus lifted the key while the quartermaster was in the bathhouse, and after a couple failed attempts, Slav got a good wax mold made. The key was quickly returned with the quartermaster none the wiser, and we made a proper copy of it later.

We’d need some sort of distraction. Didn’t take us long to think of one, either: we’d start a fire. The granary was a prime option...
>DM: you realize that would almost certainly cause the fort to fall to beastmen, and the whole Borderlands region following suite afterwards? I mean do it if you want, but you’re getting an alignment change to Chaotic
And quickly ruled out in favor of the easily-burned hay supply in one of the cavalry stables. (We’re not -evil-, we just want to get rich quick with low risk of death...)

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>>90974753
To stay unnoticed during the heist, we also got disguises set up. Ravus put the word out he needed a henchman good with disguises, and was able to find a thief in Siadanos who fit the bill. Secondhand imperial-style armor and gear was bought for the two fighter henchmen, and clothes that would pass for off-duty soldiers for the rest.

We’d also need a quiet way in and a fast way out. Visitors were logged when they arrived and left, so trying to just walk in and hide until nightfall would get noticed. Wagons at the gate were too carefully checked for us to try smuggling people in, and tunneling in was completely out of the question. But we were pretty sure we could just climb the wall at a less-patrolled spot between the towers and drop a rope ladder for our people who weren’t skilled climbers. It would mean ascending the plateau at night, but with enough moonlight we could probably pull off the climb unnoticed.

We went over our equipment with a fine-toothed comb to carry ONLY the essentials: disguises, armor, a few choice weapons and tools, the copied key, rope and a rope ladder, a couple flasks of military oil and LOTS of large sacks. We needed to be able to carry a lot while not getting slowed down. Then we dropped some cash buying every light riding horse and light warhorse in Siadanos and saddles for them too. The night of the heist, one of the henchmen would wait with them saddled at the bottom of the plateau for a quick escape.

>Preparations complete

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>>90974775
>Heist begins

After sleeping all day, we set out in a humid night with a half moon and 5 PCs and 3 henchmen began scaling the eastern end of the bluff. This took them hours; even with our skilled climbers setting up lines for the rest to follow, we still were trying to do it in the dark and stay quiet about it. But eventually we pulled it off, and the party was atop the plateau, taking a breather and donning disguises. We got the party over a shadowy spot of the east wall without guards noticing. We left the rope ladder tied to the wall and tucked out of sight for a quick getaway, then dropped into the courtyard.

The party waited in a quiet spot while Ravus and Janus walked over to the west end of the stables, waited for the coast to be clear, and then tossed a torch helpfully lighting the nearby pathway up into the open hay loft. Then we tossed two flasks of military oil up there for good measure and hustled off.

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>>90974791
We rejoined the rest of the party by the granary while flames started pouring out of the stable. Slav saw the pair of roaming guards from the HQ run out to join the rest of the fort in responding to the fire once the general alarm got raised. With the coast mostly clear, we scooted into the HQ. The treasury guard was still at his post, and he twigged to something being off about us. No surprise round for us; but Janus the assassin won initiative and popped the guard in the dome with an arrow, rolling a crit (using the optional crit rules) and scoring big with the best result possible: “Target saves or is stunned for 1 round”. The rest of us ran up and encircled the dazed guard to club him unconscious with our weapon hilts, thanking our luck for the easy takedown.

The key had us past the door in an instant, and we left one of our fighter henchman (in the same armor) standing post in the guard’s old spot. Everyone else went into the trapdoor behind the statue, we shut the gate and the trapdoor behind us, and then tied and gagged the guard once we were out of sight.

It was looting time.

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>>90974816
Inside the basement treasury room were about a dozen locked chests. Ravus as trap expert went from chest to chest doing a one-round hasty trapbreaking check for each—there just wasn’t time for a more methodical inspection. Slav the lock expert followed right behind him, doing hasty popping of the chests’ locks. Meanwhile, Orenthal Jelani cracked the more troublesome locks with a crowbar and mallet. The closed trapdoor, empty building, and chaos outside meant noise was no worry this time.

Inside the chests was a mix of gold, silver, and copper coins. A lot of them, thousands of gp worth, the fort's Imperial payroll and the soldiers' individual secured personal savings. We started dumping handfuls of silver and gold into sacks as fast as we could, we’d count it and split it later. The copper coins weren’t worth the time or weight—we had to get moving. Everyone grabbed a sack, we left the guard down there, and shutting the gate behind us we booked it to where we’d entered the fort.

Ravus zipped up the interior of the wall and dropped the rope ladder for the rest to get up, then tossed the regular rope off the other side and tied it off. But while he was doing this… he got spotted. Two off-duty soldiers coming around the wall spotted us, saw us (a bunch of guys they didn’t recognize suspiciously climbing a rope ladder up the inside of the wall while carrying a bunch of sacks), and started shouting. Ravus tried to play it off and rolled pretty well for reaction, but my actual words were not helpful.

>what I meant to say: “the legate sent us up here to throw water down on the stable!”
>what I actually said: “the legate sent us up here to throw fire down on the stable!”

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>>90974835
Janus, Orenthal Jelani, and Colth decided they’d deal with the problem more directly, and dropped the troopers with a volley of arrows, ending our short-lived bloodless streak. We got everyone over the wall, ran around the base of it to the south side, and then hauled assscooted around the base of it, and hauled ass down ramp toward our waiting horses. The southern gatehouse guards spotted us, but were already too far away for them for them to make accurate shots. Stopping just long enough to drop some caltrops behind us (though with our fast light horses and the chaos at the fort, pursuit was unlikely), we mounted and vamoosed.

We rode all through the night until we got to Siadanos, with just a couple negligible traveler encounters on the way that we blew right past. It was a sizeable haul: 10,800gp in total. Even after taking expenses off the top, it was 1,755gp to each PC. Janus leveled to 2nd, Colth and Orenthal Jelani almost did, and Ravus and Slav hit 4th.

Ravus’s priestess henchwoman was furious, quitting on the spot as soon as she found out about the heist. Served me right hiring a Lawful hench in a thief party, but at least she said she wouldn’t be reporting us to the authorities. Ravus, feeling generous from success, gave her 500gp for the poor, or to buy incense for the temple, or whatever, as long as she said some prayers for him too. (Me buying more reserve xp.) She responded that if she ever saw him injured on a battlefield in the future that she'd remember to heal him, “though I'll make it hurt after”.

Feeling bad about the two troopers, Ravus changed out some of his coins and hired a couple messengers to deliver packages to the fort’s legate and centurion, sending 6 months of pay to each for the soldiers’ families. It would probably just end up pissing them off all the more; but with luck at least one of them would be honest enough not to pocket the money themselves. (Either way, it still counted as reserve xp.)

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>>90974855
After boosting the Turos Tem treasury, we rode off a day or so later for the city of Cyfaraun, the regional capital of the Borderlands. We pooled 5,000gp between us to buy a villa in the Plaza district to serve as the public headquarters for the Scattered Sons adventuring company (and the less-public hideout of the newly-founded Scattered Sons criminal syndicate). With a hideout, we could now start doing hijinks. Since these are important within the campaign and will be mentioned a lot, it’s time for a RULES EXPLANATION:

Hijinks in ACKS II are basically a bunch of different abstracted crimes that thieves and the like can do during downtime with their thief skills. If successful, they can net the perpetrator cash, rumors or blackmail-worthy secrets, treasure maps, and so on. If they fail by 14+ or a nat 1 on the roll, the perpetrator gets caught and charged with a crime, with a roll for severity depending on the type of hijink pulled. Typically the riskier a hijink is, the more it pays out for a success, a major hijink gone wrong can lead to the perpetrator getting killed, or worse. Overall they are a great way for thieves to get extra cash or otherwise accomplish illegal activities for other ends, as long as your luck holds out.

Most of the party PCs started doing carousing (a low-risk and low-reward hijink) for info about the city’s underworld situation and if they could score some cash by fixing gladiator fights. They got the skinny about the quiet ongoing turf war between Cyfaraun’s two major syndicates: the Argollean Family, and the Sand and Bones. The Argolleans had the line on smuggling and were the more genteel syndicate, a who had some sort of a thing for elves. Sand and Bones were a newer group, very much on the brutal side, and specialized in racketeering and “other, nastier” methods.

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>>90974884
Carousing for info was nice and all, but Ravus decided on something riskier. He’d go big or go home: word was a group of adventurers had just recovered a prize piece of ancient elven artwork, and he was going to lift it. (Doing a stealing hijink for valuable goods.) Since this was dangerous and could result in him getting killed if caught, he spent almost all his cash to first enjoy a week of the best licentious entertainment Cyfaraun had to offer. (Banking another 900 reserve xp.) He needn’t have worried though, because his luck was good; 17 days later, Ravus was handing that art over to an underworld fence for a whopping 5,600gp.

That last hijink singlehandedly made Ravus a -5th- level thief. One who had somehow managed to not personally use a weapon during his entire career.

Aside: our group didn't really use to require PCs to pay for reserve xp in previous campaigns, but it was actually fun deciding how we wanted the PCs to blow all that money, even though it isn't going to benefit your PC it's still going to impact the setting. In Ravus’s case, he was a proper thief, and that meant he was superstitious as it comes. He’d had a nice streak of good luck lately, and decided he’d better take some steps to keep that going. So he made an extremely generous anonymous donation of half his recent take to the priestesses of Calefa, the setting’s goddess of fortune and wealth (and the dead), split between the main temple and the caretakers of the lesser shrines. (With that additional reserve xp banked, I had enough to reroll as a level 4 thief on PC death. Which, as you’ll see, played into my risk tolerance…)

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>>90974920
Despite those donations, Ravus’s luck did -not- stay good. Not even a few days later, he woke up in a dark room with water being tossed on his face, tightly bound to a heavy wooden chair in an underground room, gagged, and with a bullseye lantern being shone in his face. The last thing he could remember was an instant of being jumped and put into a sleeper hold... and it soon became clear that it had been by the Argollean Family's best kidnapper. The Argollean Family, as in the biggest syndicate in Cyfaraun. It didn't take long for his captor to speak.

“I suggest you listen to my offer and then take it. We bought your skin from the Prefect for a bargain. So now you owe us… and, as per the agreement, you owe him also, through us. I'm going to ungag you, and you'll tell me which debt you'd rather pay down first... or neither, in which case I'll let my associates do their thing.”

"Which of these debts is larger?"

“Ours is likely the shorter outing. You're welcome to pay us the money you just cost us, plus a ‘processing fee’… let's say 6,000gp, and then you'd just owe the Prefect. But your talents could be useful in other, deeper, parts of the city to pay off the debt to the outfit. Which is why we bought your debt in the first place. After that job with a certain elven antiquity, you came to the attention of a few people.”

“And what does the Prefect want from me?”

“Nothing too big… something about clearing the beastmen from Dragon's Tor. You DO run an adventuring company, don't you?”

“...”
>(It's more of a shell company...)

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>>90974941
Aside: We were tracked down by a temporary player taking the role of the investigating officer. While we didn't exactly leave a lot of tracks, we did leave some witnesses who could attest to there being an elf, a dwarf (henchman), and someone from the Ivory Kingdoms (basically: Africa) among the group—in total, fairly distinctive. He figured out right away where our immediate destination after the heist would be—Siadanos was the only really good option as far as a nearby town. Once he confirmed that we'd gone there first and had already skipped down, he didn't have a lot of clues since we'd just laid low a few days while we were there, so he just reached out to the Imperial criminal contacts in the regional capital city and asked if they'd seen a group matching our description.

This is where we could have exercised some more discretion; rather than just riding into town as a group all at once we should have traveled solo or in pairs, and generally laid low for a while. But we didn't do that, instead we'd splashed around a lot of money since getting into town. And I’d sold the Argolleans an elven artifact that I’d stolen from an adventuring company; so when the inquiry came, why yes they HAD heard of a Ravus Faeles.

Kidnapping hijinks can’t be used against a PC or suspicious character per the rules, but the DM decided that this was a special case, and I wasn’t acting remotely cautiously. Not unreasonable. So I got pinched walking around town. The temporary player (friend of ours) was EXTREMELY smug about how little time it took to track us down.

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>>90975044
The first thing Ravus did once untied was track down a certain someone. He’d previously tasked his venturer henchman Azourol the Glib to hunt down some hard-as-nails men who could serve as bodyguards and toughs for the Scattered Sons. Technically he’d found that sort of seasoned warrior for hire… but it was a paladin, paragon of Law, the sort who the Scattered Sons wouldn't normally even want to be in the same room with. But that was exactly the man Ravus needed now. Because between the map and bit of info his captor had handed him for his new job, he was going to go deep underneath the city where the dead walked—the sort of thing he and his crew preferred to stay well away from.

He hit things off well enough, but the paladin could see exactly who he was dealing with. “I won't sign on with your outfit. Ammonar has tasked me with the holy mission to purge the wretched undead creatures that lurk in the deep bowels of this city. But, I myself need someone to watch my back in those depths... so pay my expenses for the month, give me a full share of any treasure we find, and we’ll make the descent together. But afterwards, our paths split." Ravus couldn't have asked for a more agreeable deal if it'd been handed to him on a silver platter. “Oh—I suggest you and your men bring fire. Lots of fire.”

Azourol got an order that very hour to buy up every flask of military oil in the city. And every flask of holy water too, for good measure.

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>>90975087
Two days later, Ravus and the other PCs, a trio of henchmen, and the paladin were readying for the descent. The paladin was just looking to find anything undead and end its existence, but the rest on a specific mission of retrieval. A wealthy and probably perverted patrician had gotten a map to a tomb containing a chthonic item called the “Cauldron of Nasga's Plenty”, and wanted it. Badly.

The party headed down a hidden sewer entrance. The fire proved immediately useful as a green slime attempted to drop on us, but we just stepped back and burned it away. The party got down to the area of the map and poked around in the area they'd been directed, finding the graves of servants and retainers of an ancient pair of apparently incestuous elven siblings. While Ravus scouted ahead, the others began looting some entombed bodies on the wall; in the process they noticed that the plaster of the wall was oddly bloated with water, and surmised it was a false wall. With four crowbars between them, dismantling the false wall took only a couple turns, and upon returning Ravus asked the paladin to sense for evil in the room it led to.

“...yes, there's evil in there. Two strong auras.”

Thus forewarned, the group was able to be well-prepared. They got out the holy water, Colth cast the spell Bane-Rune on their weapons (making them effectively magic weapons vs a specific creature type, in this case undead) and inspired courage, and the fighter henchmen who could go berserk did. They breached, and found a pair of mummies locked in embrace (gross). The mummies seemed surprised by their entrance, and the group made the most of it, crashing into the room, with arrows and holy water flasks soaring through the air.

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>>90975219
The female mummy was the first to go, cut down before she could even react, the hail of enchanted arrows and holy water tearing her to bits, including a crit arrow backstab by the assassin. As the male mummy turned to attack, several of the party were paralyzed in fear, but the berserking fighter didn't even notice as he drove home a halberd thrust for a max-damage 13 point hit. The mummy finally was able to strike back, but the paladin kept it hemmed into the corner, and a 4th level paladin just laughs when a mummy hits him for 5 damage.

Spotting the Cauldron in the room, Ravus quickly popped it into a sack before any awkward questions might be raised by the party’s temporary member. A second volley of holy water then melted the mummy.

The rest of the loot in the room was a bit over 5,000gp, making it properly worth our while. (Janus leveled to 3.) The paladin, who had proved to be an outstanding help during the delve, was himself very pleased at the day's work. He shook hands as the party departed the Nethercity and went on his way, and stated he'd be willing to work with them again should they decide on any further delves down there.

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>>90975240
The Argolleans were paid off, but now a much trickier job awaited. Ravus started hiring mercs while the party worked on getting information about Dragon's Tor and the beastmen who'd taken up residence. He got most of a platoon of heavy infantry and a platoon and change of light infantry on payroll—after hearing it was hobgoblins at the Tor, he made plans to bump that number up as much as possible. He let the Argolleans know he was doing preparations for the Tor but it would take a bit of time to raise more troops. The Argolleans let him know that the Prefect had decided on a different job for him instead: to stop the ongoing decapitations of vagrants in Cyfaraun's undercity, which was starting to make the Prefect look bad. (Nice of them to mention that before Ravus wasted his money hiring troops.)

In the meantime, he also spied out some information about the syndicate situation at the city of Siadanos to the south, hoping to absorb one or more of the gangs there once the Prefect was off his back. But before that, Slav came to him with a treasure map he'd recently found.

“A hippogriff nest nearby, a mated pair on an outcropping on the southern shore of lake Lamin. You know what that means, Ravus—hippogriff eggs, for the taking!”

Ravus grinned. “Why settle for only the eggs, when we can triple the take if we take both the eggs and the hippogriffs themselves? We'll make a fortune, and I might have a plan already...”

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>>90975317
Ravus spent the rest of the month failing a hijink to kidnap people for ransom, Orenthal Jelani spent it failing a hijink to find treasure maps, the Colth spent it failing to find a spell formula for Slumber, but at least the Janus and Slav pulled off some small-scale thefts from local merchants. The next month arrived, and that worst thing for the pocketbook came with it: payroll and living expenses. Ravus decided it was time to press forward with the plan he and Slav had been working out: time to rob that hippogriff nest.

The nest itself was in the SE corner of Lake Laman just south of Cyfaraun, on a tall rocky outcropping. Their map described a mated pair of hippogriffs located there. A mated pair meant eggs, worth almost 8,000gp each. And live hippogriffs were worth over 8,000gp a pop themselves. It would be a haul, but it would take some planning. And some major investment.

Their first step was dropping almost a thousand gp on poison. Hellebore: 225gp a dose, but in only 1d3 turns after ingestion, it would have some serious effects take hold. Ravus had already acquired a couple doses in the previous month, and his venturer Azourol the Glib scoured the city until he was able to get his hands on a couple more.

Their next step was spending even more money: 500gp in getting a sage on retainer for the month. But they needed information, it wasn't like Ravus knew anything about hippogriffs. Were the things active at night or just in the day? Would they eat a hunk of meat or only live prey? What kind of prey did they prefer? How was their sense of smell? The sage couldn't tell them about whether they were diurnal or nocturnal without a sample to identify the type of hippogriff, but the rest she could answer just fine. Live bait was best, and so while Janus chartered them a small sailing boat for a trip to the rock, the two thieves grabbed a couple kids.

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>>90975343
Down Lake Laman went Ravus, Slav, Janus, and six henchmen, the ship's captain needing only a day to get them to their destination. They dropped anchor, and spent the next day and night watching the rock. The good news: the hippogriffs hunted during the day, and didn't hunt over the water, so they were left well alone. The bad news: there weren't two adult hippogriffs. There were five. Clearly, the eggs had already hatched. The plan was going to get much trickier to pull off.

Well, Ravus hadn't sunk 1,574gp into this venture to turn back now. That evening, they hauled their bait up the easier rear slope of the crag, and tied them to stakes on top, specially prepared with the poison doses. Despite the kids' endless bleating getting on his nerves, Ravus wished they'd gotten their hands on a couple more of them before heading out, because with five hippogriffs, he'd rather the chance to poison more of the creatures than give two of them a double dose. But even though they'd been able to buy the kids for a small enough sum—3gp each—time was valuable. They'd just have to make do and press on.

Early the next morning they were treated to the sight of two hippogriffs descending on the bait almost the moment they set eyes on them. The kids on top didn't stand a chance, and were quickly torn apart and devoured. The other three hippogriffs flew off to hunt while the first two retired to digest their mutton.

>>90975467
aww they became a lot less likable when killing kids :(

>>90975501
Killing kids is based and anakinpilled

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>>90975467
The party waited a day, and the next morning, saw only three hippogriffs head out to hunt: two of the smaller ones and one of the bigger ones. As soon as they were out of sight, the party zipped over to the cliff face with a big supply of rope, nets, and a block and tackle. Ravus scaled the 40' sheer face and dropped a rope down for the rest.

Inside, two hippogriffs reeling from the effects of the hellebore. The double dose hadn't given double the effect, but made it harder for their bodies to fight it off, and both of them were stretched out sick on the floor, unable to fight the intruding party or even flee. All the more welcoming was the sight of a trio of eggs sitting in the larger hippogriff's nest—the word about a mated pair wasn't wrong, it just hadn’t been complete.

The party quickly set to work setting up the block and tackle—even the smaller, adolescent hippogriff was still 750lbs, and they needed it to be intact at the bottom of the cliff. This took them 7 agonizing turns to work into the rock, but their lookout never saw any flier return from hunting. While working, they discussed the idea of waiting to ambush the returning hippogriffs with their bolas and nets one by one, but decided that a bird-horse in the hand was worth two in the bush, and anyways these things looked mean enough stretched out helpless on the floor, no need to needlessly tangle with them when they weren't.

The block and tackle finally ready, they secured the adolescent in a net setup for lowering, and carefully got the 50lb eggs down the cliff and into the boat. After short discussion they opted to leave the adult female behind. This was a superb haul as it was, and next year, the female would have more eggs for them to take. They even left her valuable feathers unplucked--she'd need those feathers to keep hunting if she was going to lay more eggs for them.

>>90975501
>>90975518
>I swear current year /tg/ is retarded
Look up "mutton", anons

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>>90975542
Back in Cyfaraun the party sold off one egg and the adolescent for 16,540gp, a full 15,470gp profit after expenses, with two more eggs to sell in the following months as market demand permitted. Ravus leveled to 6th, Slav to 5th, and Janus to 4th. It was such a good haul, they even considered sharing the future payout from the other two eggs with the rest of the party. Well, they considered it, at least.

Ravus, high on success, decided to blow the bulk of his initial share on an act of generous public works (to lock him in at 10,000 reserve xp, enough to start as a 5th level thief), and took a stroll to see just where it might be most noticed. Well, it'd be most noticed in the slums of the Sand and Bones territory, but then the Sand and Bones guild would notice it too, and that would end poorly, to say the least. A visit by the servant quarter tenements certainly let him hear some suggestions for improvements in their area. Namely: for the perpetual vagrants to clear out of the nearby Undercity. "It's got really bad with them recently, they've even started floating down the canal missing their heads."

Oops. It had been almost 2 months since they'd paid off their previous debt to the Argollean family. Time to get the crew together to pay off the other debt by stopping those vagrant decapitations, lest he end up in a dark room with a lantern in his face again. (Ravus ended up blowing the money on ale and whores instead.)

>going to take a short break since I've dropped a ton of posts so far. I've got some more of the group's capers mostly written up that I can keep going with if people want

>>90975564
Animals were definitely harmed in the making of this campaign film

>>90975626
Your story time is being watched, and I imagine people can wait a bit for a break.
As just another random anon, I'm at least curious.

>>90975564
Hot

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Hurry up OP

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>>90975626
>The Scattered Sons and the Cult of Dirgion

The Scattered Sons spent the rest of the month tidying up a few loose ends before tackling the headless vagrant problem. Ravus failed again at a kidnap-for-ransom attempt, but his fighter henchman with berserkergang got enough experience from shaking down merchants to get to level 3 and more than double his hp. Importantly, they managed to get some rumors about the cause for the murders: apparently there was a cult operating down in the Undercity.

The party heading into the Undercity consisted of:
- Ravus, thief 6, with henchmen of a fighter 3, fighter 2, and thief 2
- Slav, thief 5, with a dwarven delver 1 hench (basically a dwarf thief)
- Janus, assassin 4, with an assassin 1 hench
- Colth, elven courtier 3, with a loremaster 1 hench (basically a mage)
Not especially brimming with combat power and not a magic item between the bunch, but you go to war with the army you've got.

The group went in a couple hours before dawn, wearing vagrant disguises. Coming in through the sewer, they saw a choke point in the hallway ahead. Ravus was suspicious, so he and Slav checked for possible traps. Nothing found, but a Listening check heard voices up ahead. And while they were spending a couple turns doing that, Colth was looking around bored, and felt a draft—there had been a secret door there the whole time. A bit more examination found a button that appeared to activate it, and finding themselves sans a 10' pole, a polearm was grabbed to safely poke it, and the door slid open...

...revealing an altar made of skulls and rotted heads, with two black-clad figures kneeling before it. One in full plate armor, and the other in a dress with a bat perched on her shoulder. The party had figured all decent people would be asleep at this hour, but overlooked that their targets weren't -remotely- close to what would be considered “decent people”... and half of the party was caught by surprise. As was the enemy caster.

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>>90976041
Ravus fortunately was on the bounce, and first to react. While he’d have liked to uphold his only mildly-tarnished reputation for never getting involved with the dirty business of killing things, a free surprise round was a siren’s song. One shot later, and the cultist caster died from a 3d6 backstab for 17 points of damage.

As Ravus’s cleave shot bounced off his armor, the antipaladin bolted down a side passage, smearing poison onto his blade as he went. Unfortunately, the half the party caught off guard included the beefy fighter hench Ulmar. It would be Ravus's -other- fighter hench who would be rushing after the antipaladin to engage him in melee and stop his tactical retreat; Rewoc Quickhands, the level 2 fighter who, while having a nice high AC of 8, had only 5 hp. Behind him came the assassin with his polearm, but Janus’s player is the unluckiest of the entire group (I'll note that he has never donated to Calefa) and as usual he was rolling like shit this session.

The rest of the party piled in after them in the following round, with Rewoc, the antipaladin, and Janus all swinging wildly (garbage rolls here), and an enemy caster appearing behind the antipaladin and blowing a foul black powder as part of a death spell at Rewoc, but he ducked behind his shield unharmed.

Flasks of military oil were tossed and a torch thrown to light them (and curses leveled at Slav who hadn't packed any), but that only caused part of the hallway to burn since the flame didn't reach the splashed antipaladin or occultist.The courtier inspired the members not yet in melee, and the loremaster cast Bane-Rune on Ulmar's polearm, but the tight hallway meant that Ulmar and Janus couldn't both get at the antipaladin with their polearms, and nobody else could shoot into the melee to assist Rewoc while he held the line.

Then, it was time for initiative again. And the high roll went to the antipaladin. In a moment, he would singlehandedly turn the tide of the combat.

>>90974614
>Trying to guerrilla market with 4 days left on the kickstarter
You've been improving over the past ~25 days but still, just buy a fucking ad already.

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>>90976057
As the antipaladin's sword sped toward Rewoc, where a single hit would spell certain death for the brave fighter, his foot slipped on the oil he'd been splashed by, and in the process of catching his balance, his hand caught the edge of his sword—he’d rolled a nat 1. His sword, that he'd coated with rockfish venom. In ACKS, if you roll a natural 1 with a poisoned weapon, you tag yourself with the poison and must save against it yourself or suffer its effects. And he completely blew his save. An imminent date with 4d6 damage loomed on the following round.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX5JfOaOs2c

Rewoc, meanwhile, was unable to land a blow on his thoroughly armored (and now thoroughly frightened) opponent without a crit, so since an attack penalty wouldn't matter, he decided to try something different: he made a force back maneuver against the antipaladin. And he got his crit. The antipaladin was rammed backwards into the burning pool of military oil, burning from the fire without and the poison within.

The whole absurdly lucky turn of events made one thing abundantly clear: you can -never- donate too much to Calefa.

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>>90976065
Janus charged forward and slew the enemy mage, finding a room further on with several cultist enforcers and another mage—a group whose morale shattered at the sight of the dead antipaladin. But as they tried to escape, the party chased down and killed two of the enforcers and the mage. Only a couple of the cult managed to successfully flee from their den. After that came the cleanup. The loot present didn't amount to more than a couple grand (for some reason, the Lawful temples of Cyfaraun don't have a black magic spellbook buyback program), so we thought about selling the antipaladin's magical armor and shield since those were at least 5/6 of the value of the loot they'd found. But, with the party/syndicate's rapidly rising status, we decided we would probably start needing properly kitted-out muscle soon.

Rewoc was awarded both the armor and the shield for his valor in holding the line—and he made a pledge of loyalty and gratitude on the spot, his stature seeming to swell as he swore to put them to good use defending his brothers in arms (and crime).

(By which I mean: he leveled to 3 with an elan result on his loyalty roll, went from 5 hp to -25 hp- with a great hp roll, and took Fighting Style: Weapon & Shield as his class proficiency, so that his AC in that plate +1 and shield +1 is an exceedingly solid 11.)

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>>90976084
>The Scattered Sons and the Law

Their debts now considered paid, the Scattered Sons got back to the best way of making money: crime. Several high-skill thieves (spies, level 4) were vetted and hired into the syndicate, and a slow trickle of these would continue to be hired as opportunity permitted. Rather than try to expand, the party opted to keep it a small but elite gang and stay out of the way of the city’s larger syndicates as much as possible. Getting forcibly taken over or wiped out entirely were very real dangers if they attracted the wrong sort of underworld notice before they could survive a gang war.

After yet another failed try, Ravus finally managed a successful kidnapping, netting himself 8,000gp and a pile of xp from the ransom of a mage from the Tower of Knowledge. But Janus, (whose luck I have previously mentioned) trying to likewise kidnap someone managed to roll a nat 1 and be caught. Not only was he caught, but he was caught absolutely red-handed. His 1d4 roll for favorable evidence was only a 1, and his 1d8 roll for unfavorable evidence was a frigging 8. And the charge was kidnapping, so there was a very real chance of a PC being legally tortured and proscribed.

The Scattered Sons dropped everything to assist. Hiring a high-end lawyer and lavishly dropping bribes into the court system wouldn't be enough, even with that the 2d6 roll was still going to be made at a -4. So some contacts with the temple were appealed to, in light of the good work the assassin had done in wiping out a chaos cult and saving vagrants, getting him some attestations of good character. But it still wasn't enough, so they began visiting the witnesses before the trial, making Racketeering hijinks to convince them how they must have not seen things correctly. A couple witnesses saw reason and changed their story, enough to make it a flat roll, and luckily no-one else was caught in the process. The roll was made…

>>90976065
>antipaladin botching the attack and anticlimatically poisoning himself

Holy shit what a dumbass

>>90974614
>Ever been part of a thief campaign, /tg/?
Never a good one, desu.

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>>90976102
...and it was an 8. Despite all their efforts, they still couldn't swing an acquittal with the sheer amount of bungling Janus had managed to do on that hijink. Conviction on a lesser charge meant a fine and whipping, but oh well, the scars would heal. The whole affair cost the Scattered Sons a whopping 2200gp in fines, bribes, and lawyers, along with lost opportunity costs. That's loyalty for ya.

Aside: the ACKS rules for trials don't actually have anything about witness tampering beyond bribing the courts, but it seemed reasonable that a successful Racketeering hijink made before the trial date would be able to remove a point of unfavorable evidence in that fashion. Unless the person trying to strongarm witnesses was themselves caught, leading to a whole pile of trouble.

We did something like 6-8 racketeering checks to intimidate witnesses, even Ravus personally did it despite it being better accomplished by the more martial sorts, but only 2 panned out. Just one more, and Janus would have been acquitted. But avoiding the loss of his hands, and all his legal rights, was a pretty good alternative.

>>90976111
It was a hilarious moment at the table, he had a stupidly high AC--when I rolled an 18 to shoot him with my cleave and STILL missed there was a collective "oh shit". And then THAT happened.

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>>90976154
Not so long after, Slav came up with an interesting plan. To get the group launched up the rungs of power, what better way than by getting Prefect Justirius Tavicus Basilio, ruler of the city of Cyrafaun, as an ally—or as a patron?

Now, they might try to go through his underlings, or arrange a meeting with some bribes, and offer to be of assistance. But that would surely mean a long road of currying favor before any benefits might start trickling back the other way. Instead, Slav suggested, why not acquire information on what he considered his most troublesome local enemies and problems, "solve" one of those troubles for him, and then present the fix as a fait accompli gift, given out of respect? Far more impressive, setting the initial tone of a relationship closer to capable equals than of disposable underlings, and with an unstated intimidation factor.

Ravus and Slav decided to handle getting that information personally, being the most accomplished at spying out of the entire Scattered Sons. Their initial attempts didn't meet with any success, but no problem, they just tried again.

And then... Ravus rolled his first ever natural 1 on a hijink, and got caught spying on the Prefect. Which might not be so bad, if he rolled the chance for the charges to be simple eavesdropping. But he did not roll the eavesdropping result. He did not even roll the sedition result. No, no, no. Ravus had charges of HIGH TREASON brought against him.

He was thrown in the most secure part of the Prefect's prison in the Undercity, to await his trial in 9 MONTHS’ time, which would be overseen by the Prefect PERSONALLY.

> If you’ve thought Ravus was leveling too quickly and easily via hijinks rather than from adventuring, welcome to the system self-correcting for all the incredibly high risks he’s been taking

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>>90976175
It was a very bad situation that Ravus found himself in. While he had people willing to give good character attestations for him (a 4 rolled for good evidence), he also had a lot of evidence against him (a 6). A great lawyer and lavish bribes would only serve to even out the penalty from the seriousness of the charge. Ravus was a model defendant, charismatic and able to chose his words diplomatically, but the Prefect was overseeing this trial and Ravus's name had already come across his desk as the head of the Turos Tem heist, which had given the Prefect a major headache not very long ago.

So Ravus was looking at, rather than a +2, a +1 or even a +0 mod on his 2d6 trial roll. And the sentence for “conviction on a lesser charge” in this case was still execution. That meant copping a plea deal was right out. Unless he totally beat the rap (needing a 9+ on 2d6, bad odds sans a bonus), all the trial would serve to decide was -how painfully- he was to be executed.

But it got worse. With the high-profile nature of the case, strongarming witnesses was no-go. At 9 months before the trial, Ravus would effectively be dead to the world for most of a year (effectively a PC death just from how long he’d be out). And after 9 months in a dank cell, “cowering in darkness, suffering the lash, eating prison gruel, and other torments”, his health would surely suffer.

An escape attempt would be perilous. As an accused traitor, Ravus was in the highest security cell (-6 to the check, giving him 25% chance to succeed & 10% to get caught), and told if caught trying to escape, he'd be -immediately executed- rather than it merely harming his eventual trial.

Ravus reached out through his lawyer to request a meeting with the Prefect, to explain things man to man and try to work out a deal personally. (Rather like he'd been trying to do earlier, just now from a very poor initial position.) Unfortunately, the Prefect did not want to talk.

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>>90976198
With some reflection about the situation he'd gotten himself into, Ravus realized his error. After the Scattered Sons' success against the cultists, and his successful kidnapping-for-ransom of that Tower of Knowledge mage, he had not given any further offerings to Calefa, the goddess of luck—and man had they ever had some luck on those jobs, with their enemies practically killing themselves. Clearly, Calefa was punishing him for his ingratitude. He decided what he should do is have his henchmen donate ALL of his wealth to her temple before the trial to win back her favor. (I wasn't dead yet, and was trying to buy reserve xp before the next step. If successful that would have bumped my reserve xp from 10k to 20k, starting at level 6 instead of 5.) However, even trying to offer a bribe to the guards to deliver that message resulted in a swift beating—they'd been made well aware that the Prefect's eye was closely on this case. (The DM was no-go on spending money for reserve xp while in prison, and offered insulting exchange rates of gp:reserve xp instead of the usual 90%.)

Meanwhile, Slav and Janus were trying to figure out a plan to spring their friend. Janus favored performing a recon of the prison, boldly storming it with a lightning assault, and then fleeing Cyfaraun entirely. Or better yet, all of Aura.

Slav's own plan involved attempting a complicated gambit where the Scattered Sons would claim that Ravus was merely a patsy framed by the Prefect’s true enemies for their own nefarious ends, and provide “evidence” to that fact after identifying some likely enemy to pin the blame on. On the plus side, if worked they'd not be hunted by the law. On the down side, the Prefect did not want to talk.

But Ravus, alone in his dank dark cell, had no way to know what they were planning.

Stay in your AI Art containment trashpit.

>>90976240
Butt hurt furry artist

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>>90976237
Ravus, uncertain of developments in the world outside, carefully weighed his decision. A trial had a -chance- of him being acquitted, but his lawyer suggested the odds were about 2:1 against him surviving, and 9 months in this cell was itself almost unbearable. Even if the Scattered Sons were planning some sort of rescue, it would likely take months to plan and prepare, and a violent rescue would be certain to leave some of his crew paying for his freedom with their lives—upon which they'd all be hunted men.

No, Ravus decided, this was up to him. He'd rely on his skills as a thief which had served him so well prior, and trust that Calefa had not totally abandoned him. If she had, at least he’d die on his own terms. So he began scratching into a back corner of the cell wall with a loose chip of stone, while carefully examining guard routines, response times, and every nook and cranny of his cell and chains...

17 days later, the guard came to deliver a meager bowl of slop to the "special prisoner", and found only the following, etched into the wall:

WILL PROVE MY INNOCENCE
MY REGARDS TO THE PREFECT
- RAVUS FAELES

Slav had sent out his people to start carousing for info on the prefect's publicly known enemies, and Janus was preparing to start the recon of the prison, when both were surprised by the appearance of Ravus at the Scattered Sons hideout.

“The Prefect was so kind as to extend me his hospitality, but I didn't want to be the sort of guest who never seems to leave. I’ll need a shave, a bath, a meal, some wine, and a disguise—in the opposite order.”

The other two just stared, dumbfounded.

>>90976264
>Taking another short break /tg/, will be back with another "chapter" in a little bit

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>>90976240
You can't fight the future

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>>90976264
>A Short Expedition
As soon as those immediate needs had been handled, Ravus pulled 8,000gp from his coffer—the entire take from ransoming the Tower of Knowledge mage—and headed to the temple of Calefa.

He'd made, to his knowledge, not just one of the -only- escapes from the most secure part of the Cyfaraun prison, but far and away the -fastest-. Ravus was a good thief—he was a very good thief—but he even he didn’t think he was good enough to escape on his very first try and be breathing the crisp spring air again in only two and a half weeks. It -must- be Calefa smiling on him again, and this time he would be sure to show gratitude.

8,000 gold pieces should certainly be enough to gain Calefa's favor for a while and thank her for the help in his escape, Ravus figured. (And bring me up to 17,200 reserve xp.) While at the temple, he stared into a freshly-remodeled pool with a gold-layered statue atop it pensively. While he had made offerings for good luck, and good luck he certainly had been given, perhaps there might a cheaper way to get his goddess’s favor? He had, after all, donated 10,800gp to Calefa’s priestesses, the Sisters of Mourning, so far. Perhaps some freely given work aiding Calefa’s disciples would suffice just as well?

With some smooth words to the sister-disciples (“pro-bono assistance to offer” opens many doors), he was brought before the revered mother for a meeting. Why yes, she -did- have problems that could be solved by adventurers. The Cult of the Horned Rat, an old cult recently revived after a long absence, was waylaying people at night, delighting in the murder as much as the theft, and those victims’ bodies were regularly arriving at the House of Mourning. The revered mother had been told the general location of their hideout, and wanted them dealt with. Ravus assured her he would take action, and whatever treasures Calefa saw fit for him to find within the cult's coffers, that would be payment enough.

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>>90976394
Back at the hideout, Ravus got filled in on what had transpired while he was locked away. The Horned Rat wasn't the only cult to keep in mind—word on the street is that the cultists of Dirigion were quite upset with the clearing of their little operation in the Undercity, and while there had been nothing in the way of reprisal yet... it would be better to deal with them on the Scattered Sons' own terms.

In the long run, he'd either need to find a way to "prove his innocence" and "clear his name", leave the Borderlands and set up in a different area (painful), or give up his life of crime (even more painful). Colth suggested some crazy scheme involving getting a scroll of black magic to swap his soul into someone else's body (holy hell does that sound painful), and Slav suggested that if they couldn't pin the blame for the spying on someone else, that maybe taking over the gang situation in Siadanos and keeping a low enough profile would work. So Ravus had some options; his fugitive status was a problem to be solved rather than the end of his career.

Events had transpired in the larger region, as well. The Imperial Vanguard adventuring party (the goody-two-shoes example party in AX3 Capital of the Borderlands), had made official claim to Dragon's Tor and attacked the hobgoblins there with a body of troops. Instead of claiming it as a domain, they got repulsed with heavy troop losses.

The hobgoblins, with some ogres and other creatures in their number, boiled out of there in response. That led to a powerful beastmen raiding party traipsing up and down the eastern patrolled area of the Palatine of Siadanos. With few enough troops on-hand to immediately fall back on, the Prefect authorized press gangs to scrape up enough militia to garrison the north while he strips the few troops available to deal with the problem. The Scattered Sons carefully avoided the conscription efforts, bribing the officers off as necessary.

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>>90976403
The Scattered Sons realized there was a golden opportunity here. Was it to infiltrate the beastman raiders and assassinate their leaders to gain political favor? No, no, no. With the Imperial Vanguard licking its wounds, and the Tor's garrison out in the field, they could -sneak in and loot Dragon's Tor the way true thieves should-, rather than try to carve their way through a lair full of beastmen to get it.

Ravus was happy for the chance to get out of town for a while, and the Scattered Sons went first to Siadanos, avoiding as much trouble on the road as possible, then went to the Tor before the opportunity was lost.

>What we expected: 1 week travel, few if any injuries/dead, small expedition cost, $$$$ profit
>What we got: 1 week travel, 1 wounded henchman, 1288gp in expedition costs, 0gp profit

Dragon's Tor had turned out to be guarded tight, with too many troops left behind to try to do a raid, and trained apes who'd be able to smell out any sneaking thieves. The party returned to Siadanos disgruntled. There they learned that the imperial army force sent by the Prefect, with the assistance of the non-bedresting members of the Imperial Vanguard, engaged the hobgoblin force south of Siadanos, dealing them serious casualties and sending them scurrying back towards Dragon's Tor.

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>>90976465
Before they headed back north, Ravus decided to scout out the situation with Siadanos’s underworld, to see if it might be a more suitable location for their own syndicate activities. He’d also heard something about large amounts of coin from squeezing the merchants supplying the border forts, and lucrative crimes were always of interest. But while he and Slav and Itrea were collecting rumors, Janus decided to make a bit of money on the side. One afternoon, he showed up at the party’s makeshift headquarters with a blindfolded and bound kidnap victim. But what he’d gotten proved a surprise.

The scarred, smooth-scalped man who he’d captured? Ravus had heard about him recently. The kidnapped man was part of the local crime scene. Specifically, he was the -leader of the criminal underworld in Siadanos-. Ravus’s eyes lit up. Ransom? No, no, no. This was time for a gang takeover. But all of those thoughts vanished upon the victim regaining enough consciousness to mutter “When the Family finds out about this...”

-That- made this another matter entirely. With one of the Argollean underbosses, there was only one real option. Turning to Janus, Ravus said with a pointed look, “You’ve brought trouble on all our heads. Make it disappear—quickly.” Janus’s mouth spread into a wicked grin as he looked at the underboss and fingered his knife. “Siadanos has quite a lovely swamp nearby,” Slav helpfully added.

Later that day, the party quietly got the hell out of Siadanos.

>>90976505
>Back in a bit for the next part: The Scattered Sons and the Wererats of Cyfaraun

Keep going OP, this has been great so far
Ignore the seething redditfags like >>90976061 and give us more

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>>90976505
>The Scattered Sons and the Wererats

The Scattered Sons were back in Cyfaraun, and Ravus was going stir crazy. A thief kept from crime makes a miserable sort of fellow. Ravus, having escaped from prison not even a month ago, still had charges of high treason hanging over his head; even walking through Cyfaraun sans disguise could land him back in that lightless cell—to say nothing of getting pinched for even the pettiest of crimes. Badly needing to get out of his safehouse, but denied his rightful criminal opportunities, Ravus decided to do something best avoided normally: adventuring.

Earlier, Ravus had asked the revered mother of the Grey Sisters for something that might get the favor of Calefa, the luck goddess, without draining his coffers from donations. And the revered mother had asked him to deal with the Cult of the Horned Rat in the Undercity. She described it as an old cult, recently revived after a long period of quiet, now waylaying people at night, seeming to delight in the brutal murder as much as the theft. They were rumored to be able to see perfectly in the dark and able to appear and disappear from areas thought inaccessible. Well, the Scattered Sons had some practice dealing with cultists, and Ravus had already donated over 10,000 gold pieces to Calefa’s followers to make sure his luck held good (when he was buying reserve XP), so wiping out a cult to secure some good fortune seemed simple enough.

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>>90976768
The first step was information. With several of the syndicate’s spies carousing for rumors, they learned that the old cult, before the Captain of the Underwatch killed everyone at their shrine, had been comprised of wererats. It certainly explained the earlier claims about the cult’s abilities, but tangling with those sorts of creatures was not quite “simple enough” as Ravus had earlier thought. Still, the idea of going back to staring at the walls all day was somehow even worse, and if his luck was good enough, his troubles might just fix themselves. More troubling was that nobody seemed to know just how big the cult was, just that for obvious reasons it was impossible to infiltrate—but based on their activity there couldn’t be that many of them…

Meanwhile, Colth the elf went to the Tower of Knowledge to buy spells, and spoke with the provost in charge of elven texts (“learning spells in human tongues is degrading”). Asking about the possibility of getting a cure disease spell in case of lycanthropic infection (“going to human temples for curing is degrading”) got the provost’s attention. It turned out he had some knowledge of the cult’s location—he informed Colth that they’d made their lair where there was a rumored stash of sealed or hidden elven texts said to have secrets to immortality, in the warrens under the northern part of the Old City. With Colth having gotten the cult’s location, the company could press forward rather than continue hunting for rumors—and those elf books would fetch a pretty price from the Argolleans…

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>>90976802
The second step was preparation. The need for silver or magic weapons to fight lycanthropes was easy enough to learn and remedy. The party bought out the city’s supply of silver daggers and arrows, and Janus the assassin found a weaponsmith able to craft three custom silver-coated polearms for the company’s heavy hitters. And a sprig of wolfsbane for each person, as a cheap backup option.

Then came the matter of getting access to the lair. The Scattered Sons knew of two entrances to the sewers. One was on the opposite side of the river and useless to them, the other under a temple that they’d had temporary access to for their previous job hunting cultists. They could go through a sewer outlet along the riverbank, but that would mean trekking a long way through the sewers and potentially meeting all sorts of trouble along the way. Instead, the company tipped over a merchant’s cart to cause a noisy distraction, while Slav’s dwarven delver henchman broke loose two of the bars in the sewer grate nearest the lair, then reset them into place. The result was effectively a secret door, immediately dubbed “The Shit Gate”. Anyone looking would think the grate was normal, but its bars could be quickly moved in or out of place to squeeze through.

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>>90976816
The last thing they needed was more muscle. The sort skilled at cutting down monsters. Someone willing to take a mission to kill chaotic creatures with no sure loot at the end. Someone like... that paladin. So Ravus and Janus tracked down a certain old acquaintance. “Frankos! Hope you’ve been well. I’ll spare the pleasantries, since we’re here on business. We’re planning to wipe out the Cult of the Horned Rat, and we’d like you with us for the mission. I know you said earlier you specifically crusade against the undead... there might be undead there... but I’ll be straight with you, it’s probably a pack of wererats. What do you say, can we count you in anyways? We’re not sure if there’s any treasure involved, but we’d of course cut you in on any we do find, and pay you a month’s retainer fee.”

Janus added with his best attempt at a honest smile, “Why, I’ll even donate 200 gold pieces to the temple of Ammonar.”

Frankos sat quietly for a moment. “Wererats are indeed most likely. I’ll need a silver-edged dagger. Get me one, and I’ll help.”

Ravus grinned. “We’ll do you better than a dagger. We’ll commission you a custom-made silvered sword and resize a masterwork set of plate armor and shield for you. Glad to have you back with us for this.”

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>>90976845
Soon, the Scattered Sons were ready to launch their attack. Nine of them would be going: Ravus and Slav the thieves (level 6 and 5, respectively), Janus the assassin (level 5), Colth the elven courtier (level 4), and their henchmen: Rewoc and Ulmar the fighters (level 3), Ursus the loremaster (level 2), Fing the assassin (level 1) and temporary member Frankos the paladin (level 4). While more people would be welcome, the Scattered Sons’ other henchmen were hired as specialists more than combatants, and more noise meant more likelihood to alert the cult. The company would instead hope to get the element of surprise to eliminate any potential numbers advantage held by the wererats. Learning from the last time they’d tried to raid a cult at night and found them all awake and active, the company planned this assault to commence at high noon.

At 11 in the morning, the Scattered Sons proceeded through Cyfaraun to The Shit Gate. One peculiarity of The Shit Gate was that it was located almost at the base of one of the city guard towers. So the company brought along several of their syndicate thugs carrying sacks of copper coins, whose contents they began throwing everywhere, causing a large commotion as a crowd quickly swarmed in to get what it could. While the guards were distracted, the company slipped through The Shit Gate into the sewers.

“I’ll be making my own donation to the temple for that,” Frankos muttered from within the sewer as he looked back at the surging crowd.

“Merely giving alms to the poor while on our way to rid the city of evil,“ replied Ravus cheerfully. The paladin did not appear convinced.

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>>90976857
The trek through the sewers was uneventful until they had nearly arrived at their destination. A large ominous patch of black mold completely coated the passage. The company did not like the look of it, did not want to waste time experimenting with it, and withdrew to approach from another tunnel they’d passed earlier. This way was also blocked, by a mass of sewage and rubbish. Again, Ravus opted against trying to pass through directly. He tied a grapnel hook onto a rope, and Ulmar the fighter flung it into the mass to snag on a piece of timber. The company hauled on the line and dislodged the blockage; within the mass that began to float their way they saw over a dozen wriggling grub-like creatures. Rot grubs. Thanks to the prudence they had shown, they had little trouble tossing lit oil flasks to burn the grubs. A skeleton floating in the pile held a silver dagger and a small topaz in its hands, but Ravus forbid further probing of the rubbish. They had a job to do.

At last back on a patch of dry land, and where they’d been informed the lair could be found, the party began to look for its entrance. Colth, as an elf, was naturally the one to find the lair’s secret door, simply walking along the walls while everyone else was picking a portion to examine closely. After the thieves listened at the door and Frankos sensed it for evil, they found nothing, and decided to open it. Behind it was... a wall. Ravus and Slav gave a quick check for traps, and then had Colth check the area for another door. And another door there certainly was. Again, nothing could be heard or sensed behind it. But to Ravus, a secret door behind a secret door could only mean one thing: they’d found the lair, and combat was imminent. It was time to make their final preparations.

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>>90976873
The party's casters got busy. Soon Janus, Ulmar, Rewoc and Frankos’s weapons had Bane-Rune cast on them against lycanthropes, and Colth inspired courage. The company took their places in battle formation in front of the door.

But before they could open it, they heard a sound from the south, where they’d come through...

They Scattered Sons began shifting their formation to meet the approaching creatures, and then saw it was eight wererats. Each was transformed into ratman shape, and the large one leading them held a gleaming sword, all approaching openly with no effort at stealth. The wererat leader spoke as the company came into view. “So you’ve finally arrived. You can join us the easy way, or the hard way, but either way the end result is going to be the same.”

“Maybe we should hear him out—” Slav began. Colth, knowing full well that the only transformation elves receive from lycanthropy is going from living to dead, instead answered for the group by shooting an arrow at the wererat leader, which thudded into the wall next to him. “Have it the hard way, then,” the wererat said, and the two groups rushed toward each other.

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>>90976895
Slav shot his own arrow as the company began to charge southward to meet the wererats on a strip of dry ground, and was almost left behind from the group’s movement as he stopped to pull another arrow from his quiver. Seeing Slav exposed, Rewoc “Quickhands” doubled back and placed himself between Slav and four of the wererats, his sword ready. Now unable to reach Slav, they instead slammed into Rewoc, but their claws and sword found no purchase on the nimble and thoroughly armored fighter (AC 11). Janus and Fing joined Rewoc up north, while to the south Ulmar entered a berserk trance, and alongside Frankos began a melee with the other four wererats. Ravus, Colth, and especially the unarmored Ursus attempted to stay out of the way while looking for opportunities for an unengaged wererat to send an arrow into.

Frankos’s sword dealt grievous wounds against the wererats, and none could land a blow against him (AC 9). Ulmar was savaged by a pair of wererats, a claw piercing his neck (near max damage crit), but gave back better than he got, cleaving straight through one and striking deeply into the other with great sweeps of his polearm (max damage roll, cleave). Then, a moment later, he repeated the maneuver against the other two nearby, blood streaming through the air around him (crit, cleave). With the nearest wererats now choking on their blood, Colth and Ursus moved in to pour healing magic into Ulmar, closing the wound in his neck (a pair of max CLW rolls).

To the north, Ravus could see Rewoc standing like an invincible wall against the wererats, only landing the occasional blow amidst all his dodging, but driving them into a fury with their inability to so much as scratch him. Slav joined the melee, but neither he nor the assassins had much luck in their own attacks. But with Ulmar and Frankos now able to join the fray, the company’s victory seemed certain. Then Ravus heard something behind him.

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>>90976916
The secret door to the north of all the fighting was opening. And more wererats were pouring out of it to charge into the fray. Ravus decided discretion was the better part of valor, and dashed south out of the way.

Seven wererats swarmed from the north, crashing into the ongoing clash and surrounding the company there. Another wererat, wearing robes, skulked at the edge of the melee. While Rewoc seemed uncaring, Slav and the assassins were not nearly so well armored, and though Janus slew one of the new arrivals, Fing fell as a wererat -bit out his eye-.

Ulmar, now with a clear path to the enemy, leveled his polearm and charged headlong into the robe-wearing wererat, his polearm punching clear through the ratman’s chest and into one of the wererats in the melee. Frankos took Fing’s spot in the battle line, and the melee continued.

Suddenly, a loud canting voice from the north was heard, a sickly smell of ozone swept through the chamber, and most of the combatants froze—swords or claws locked suddenly in place (cone of paralysis into the melee). Slav, Rewoc, Ulmar, Janus, four of the wererats, and the sword-wielding wererat all stood unmoving, with only Frankos still able to fight, alone against a trio of wererats.

Ravus looked toward the source of the chanting and saw yet one more wererat to the north, this one dressed in a fine robe. The true leader of this pack of wererats—the big cheese. It must have held back from the fighting until the company had been locked into melee and it could settle the battle in its favor with a single well placed spell. The wererat leader called out to the company in deep, booming voice:

“Elf, you have served my purpose well, and so I have an honorable compromise. Just walk away. Leave the ensorcelled ones to join our ranks as the capable men I’ve needed, and I’ll spare the rest of you. Just walk away; I will give you safe passage in the sewers. Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror.”

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>>90976925
By way of reply, Frankos reached over to grasp Ulmar on the shoulder, and used his day’s Lay on Hands to break the paralysis, while Ursus and Colth ran forward to bring their own healing spells to bear.

“Very well, you had your chance.” The three wererats surged forward against Frankos, and their leader began to gesture as his chanting began anew, readying the spell that would seal the company’s doom.

The world seemed to move in slow motion for Ravus. The wererat grew larger, and larger, until it was all he could see, and its booming cant all he could hear. In his whole life, he had never felt so calm, so distant. He could feel the pulse of his heart. He could feel the very grain of the bow in his left hand. He could feel the burn of the arrow as it passed against his wrist—straight and true.

The cant changed abruptly to a screech of pain as an arrow seemed to sprout from the wererat's chest, and the world surged back into focus and speed. It had surely been a fortunate shot, and fortunate timing, for he had been the only one who could act, and failure would have been death, or worse, for all of them. The revered mother had spoken truly—Calefa smiled again upon him now.

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>>90976935
As the wererat leader began chanting again, Ravus and Colth sprinted forward. Each loosed an arrow, and again luck favored Ravus—the wererat shrieking in fury and pain as another silver arrow pierced its arm, disrupting its spell yet again.

Ulmar and Frankos were locked with the wererats in front of them, but Ulmar changed that as his polearm split the skull of the one in front of him. Ravus shouted and pointed. “ULMAR! THIS ONE! KILL HIM!” Ursus risked a dangerous overcasting to cast on Janus the healing needed to break free of the paralysis, and Calefa must have smiled on him too, for Janus’s polearm swayed as his limbs unfroze.

The wererat leader fled for the secret door as his last unparalyzed minions were cut down by Frankos. Colth and the berserk Ulmar chased after him, just barely able to catch up—but able. And with the wererat hemmed in against the lair door, Janus and Frankos also ran in to put an end to things. But the wererat leader wasn’t finished yet.

“If I have to die—I’m taking you -with me-!” He roared as he began to cast a final spell. This time, Ravus’s luck couldn’t save them—he was around the corner with no shot to take. The air again filled with the stench of ozone, and none of them were fast enough to stop it.

A blast of black sorcerous energy caught all four, burning with malignant force. The energy washed over them, through them, and then... they were still alive. Barely—but barely was enough (sorcerous blast; everyone who would have died from a failed save made their save—though some of them had just 1 hp left).

When a mage is trapped in a tight corridor with four skilled enemy fighters next to them and has failed to stop them with his magic, there can be only one real outcome. This was no exception.

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>>90976974
Colth used his last spell to get Fing well enough to be “walking wounded”, and the remaining wererats were swiftly executed—a total of 17 slain, all told. Slav winced at the sight of it once the spell wore off, but not as much as Colth winced when he saw the human form of the wererat leader. It was the provost in charge of elven texts from the Tower of Knowledge! And his apprentice was the other robed wererat! He’d deliberately brought the party here, to try to turn them into wererats to get skilled warriors and thieves in his cult! “But even if he’d succeeded in infecting us... why did he think we’d agree to join his cult?” Ravus wondered aloud. All he got in reply were shrugs. Most of the corpses were doused with oil and burned.

Naturally, the Scattered Sons next ransacked the wererat’s lair. The paladin was able to locate the cult’s chaotic altar, which was swiftly smashed and doused with holy water to remove its taint. As expected, the “stash of elven texts” turned out to be a lie, but the wererats had been busy looting the people they’d been murdering at night, and there was a considerable amount of loot to be had. 9,327 gp of loot, a partial map of the Undercity, and a rarity most welcome for the Scattered Sons: magic items.

A ring, a wand, a circlet, and the sword held by the wererat champion. The circlet was recognized by the loremaster as a circlet of comprehend languages, the wand’s runes were then read as soon as Colth put the circlet on—and revealed it to be a wand of detect magic, and Ravus took the sword to test out against a trio of giant rats in the lair—a sword +1 which was particularly easy to land critical hits with. After Janus made it clear he wanted to keep his polearm ("give it to someone who actually can consistently roll above a 5 on attacks"), they gave the sword to Ulmar—along with a month’s bonus pay to both him and Rewoc for exceptionally meritorious performance in the battle.

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>>90977006
Possibly of even greater importance was finding the provost’s journal, detailing his own and the cult’s activities, and a pair of keys with it. “I have a plan, and it ends in us getting loot,” Ravus told the other three stakeholders quietly. “But we’ll need to move fast—tonight.” Clearly, this had put things good between him and that sweet goddess of luck—the true prize of this whole venture—so it was time to do something that would take a bit of luck to pull off. Besides the plan for that night, he had plans for the next two best things they’d acquired today. Not the money, not the magic items. The journal... and the -lair-. Ravus had plans for those already.

As they left the sewers, loaded with what loot they could carry, and to the temple with Ulmar and Fing to spend some of their haul on spells to make sure they didn’t have -more- wererats in the future (and to restore that horrific-looking lost eye), Ravus bid Frankos farewell. “Pleasure working with you again. We probably wouldn’t have made it without you. In fact, keep the armor and shield—as my thanks.”

“Though I cannot say I approve of your band, neither can I deny that you advance the cause of Law. Even if your reasons are self-serving. But you are an -idiot- if you think I don’t know who you are, Ravus—and that you are wanted for treason. You can consider it my thanks for striking a blow to Chaos that I won’t report your whereabouts to the authorities.”

“Never crossed my mind that you wouldn’t know,” said Ravus with a smile that wasn't half as authentic as it looked.

>Next up when I get back: the Scattered Sons and the Tower of Knowledge

holy shit this is a long writeup.
and it's still not done OP?

>>90977178
That's right, I've got another portion mostly-written when I'm back at my desk to post it, and then there's some more that I might write out for this thread, a big heist and some of the major moves for the domain side of the game that we were making.

>>90974941
>(It's more of a shell company...)
lmao OP this is great stuff

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>>90976925
>The true leader of this pack of wererats—the big cheese

This was an awesome read OP. How do I do something like this for my own group? How did you get everyone to make thief-type classes?

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>>90977023
>The Scattered Sons and the Tower of Knowledge

“This is a terrible plan, Ravus.”

“It’s going to work, Colth.”

“Slav, tell him how bad this plan is.”

“I think it’s a great plan.”

“One does not simply walk into the Tower of Knowledge and loot it.”

“That’s oversimplifying things.”

“We’re going to get caught.”

“We’re going to get a big score. This is a job for just a few guys. That means just a few shares, and Janus is out after I told him there’s not going to be any chance to stab something this time.”

“Really gotta wonder about that guy sometimes.”

“Can’t blame a man for loving his work.”

“Look—just three shares, no up front expenses, we walk in, we walk out, and nobody even knows it went down. Come on Colth, are you in or not? If not the money, think about the magic items we might just -overlook- if not for you to point them out to us, or a spellbook that we just -didn’t realize- had spells in it.”

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>>90978680
The thought of a free spellbook for the taking, more than anything, had the elf begrudgingly agree. Ravus first called his thief henchwoman Itrea and gave her some detailed instructions, upon which she dashed off. Then Slav and Ravus began going through the provost’s journal, looking for information about the interior of the Tower of Knowledge. Though their skills as thieves meant they could decipher his shorthand, there wasn’t much in it that would be useful. There was quite a bit there that Ravus planned to use for another plan of his, but time was of the essence here. The only people who knew the provost and his apprentice were dead were the Scattered Sons. Every day they waited might change that, and ruin the whole plan.

Since Colth had visited the Tower before, they’d have to just lean on what he knew. He gave the interior layout as best he’d remembered; the short version was they’d need to get downstairs. They had two keys they’d pulled off the provost’s corpse. They’d just have to figure out where they went when the time came.

Itrea came back a few hours later. “Yeah, the two stiffs were right where you said you stashed them. I got a good close look, should be no problem. Slav will have to be the guy in the fancy robe just by his height, you’ll do for the other one boss. Should even be able to use what they were wearing, once the blood gets scrubbed out—I’ll put a few stitches into the sash to cover the parts you sliced open.”

“Hey, what about me? I’m not going in as the only guy wearing his real face.”

“We make you a different elf then. One with pointier ears.”

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>>90978696
It was an hour before midnight when the three approached the Tower, disguises finished. Walking in just like they owned the place, they looked for the big bronze gate Colth had seen before. A pair of guards waited behind it, paying little attention. Here was where things could first go wrong. They had a large bronze key and a smaller iron key. Presumably, they’d let themselves in with the bronze key, simple enough, but the normal procedure might be different. There might be an expected greeting that would clue the guards in, or even a password, or—but they’d just have to chance it. They walked on up, popped the key into the gate, and opened it up...

And the guards didn’t even look their way. Pulling the door shut and locking it behind them, the three burglars were now committed. They headed toward the center of the Tower, casually looking for a way downstairs. First, they came across a library. Ravus wasn’t especially interested in reading, but books were often worth serious money... then he saw they were all locked into cases chained to the wall. He reminded himself the rule of biggest import: stick to the plan until the plan fails, find the target, don’t get distracted.

On the other side of the library was a staircase going up and down. The trio headed down, and found a hallway with a large locked iron grate in the floor. Below it, the sewers. Slav stooped, held up the iron key next to the lock, then nodded. As the Scattered Sons’ master lockpicker and qualified locksmith, if Slav was sure, then they had a match. But that was something for later. For now, the group followed the hallway as it turned, then became a dead end.

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>>90978719
“I’m positive he said his office was downstairs,” whispered Colth.

“It’s probably behind a secret door. Or... these are all mages. Cast your detection spell, I’ve got a hunch.”

Colth cast it, and his eyes got wide. “Not just one door—there’s a bunch of them, look to all be magically sealed up. And based on the pattern, there’s a spot where one should be. That must be it.”

Some examination of the spot found a way to slide the door open, now that its arcane lock spell had ended upon its caster's death. Pulling it shut behind them, the three saw immediately they’d come to the right place—on the wall was a life-sized tapestry of the provost himself, looking to be worth 250gp... and totally unable to be hauled out of the Tower without arousing suspicion. Even worse to see was a larger tapestry that had to be worth four times as much, but was also four times as big. About a dozen glass jars with embalming fluid, snakes and frogs inside were on a shelf; about a dozen stoppered bottles with blood-colored fluids, each labeled “lycanthropy” on another; and yet another shelf with vivisected frogs.

But not everything in the office was so hard to carry. Colth began checking over the 7-foot tall bookshelf filled with various scrolls and books for what was valuable, and an unlocked chest held 460 platinum pieces—worth 2300gp. Colth didn’t take long to make his assessment. “We take all the books. They’re worth like 3 and a half thousand gold between them, plus some notes the guy made personally. I don’t see any of them that won’t sell. Spread them out so we have like 8 books each and it shouldn’t look too odd.”

The two thieves quickly bagged books while Colth checked the room for secret vaults or panels that might hide more loot. “Okay, we’re looking at about 6 grand here. That's a nice night's work, gentlemen. Now let’s get out of here, nice and easy.”

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>>90978748
Getting out was even easier than getting in, now that they knew their way. The guards again didn’t even give them the time of day as they unlocked the bronze gate, locked it behind them, and headed out.

They safely got back to the Scattered Sons’ headquarters and divvied up the loot. 6050gp total, which meant each got a nice cut of 2017gp for what was possibly the easiest, quickest heist they’d ever pulled—though Ravus paid Itrea a henchman’s share from his own cut for preparing the disguises, even if she hadn't come along for the heist proper. (Always best to let your people know you appreciate them.)

It was only after Colth started whining about the lack of spellbook, and how they really needed to track down the provost’s house to pay a visit there and find it before the other members of the Tower realized that he was dead and beat them to it, that Ravus realized something:

“Oh, shit... when we left, did anyone remember to close the secret door?”

(We had not, in fact, remembered.)

>>90978779
>That was a particularly tense session for a number of reasons. Being in the stronghold of powerful potential enemies openly, avoiding combat, having to trust one's disguise and hope to not get made by a missed cue or bad response, was very different mentally than infiltrating by stealth or raiding with intent to kill anything encountered.
>Beyond that: we only had a sap and dagger each for weapons and no armor (we went in with minimal equipment, to let us haul out loot and to not look out of place), none of us was a "real" combatant if we got into a fight with guards or other guardians, we had no backup, AND we could potentially have a run-in with a mage who knew the people we were disguised as and could catch or kill us all with one good spell. Running would be hard, since we'd locked ourselves in and only had the 1 key. Adding to it all, we normally did VTT but that session was all theater of the mind.
>But up until we left the door open everything went smooth. None of us had the slightest inclination to try going back in after we'd left to shut the door though. Even for us, there's a limit to just how much we'd push our luck.

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>>90978790
>Ravus Clears His Name

Ravus had been hiding out with a bounty on his head as a wanted fugitive for a little while now, with only a couple breaks to stretch his legs and nearly get killed or worse. (Getting caught spying on the prefect of the entire city of Cyfaraun can do that to a guy.)

But, after the Scattered Sons put the Cult of the Horned Rat to the sword, Ravus had found something very interesting in the pile of looted goods: the journal of the cult leader, a provost of the Tower of Knowledge. It detailed his obsession with obtaining immortality, to the point of using black magic and even turning himself into a wererat and forming a wererat cult so that they could search for ways into the Nethercity. Ravus could hardly believe the journal the first time he’d read it—the provost had just -written everything down-? Ravus was hardly someone to have a problem with illegal activities, but to actually create incriminating evidence on yourself like this…

Well, the provost had died before this detailed collection of self-incrimination ever was able to trouble him. The journal had a few worthwhile tidbits in it—such as mention of “storied treasures beneath the Solar Citadel”, which somehow Ravus had missed hearing about in all his time in Cyfaraun. But overall, it was mostly the rantings of a madman willing to do anything to figure out how to live as long as an elf. Which meant it was perfect for Ravus’s purposes.

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>>90978818
Ever since his start as a young footpad, Ravus had been exceptional for having precise, steady hands. Whether it was disarming a hair-trigger trap or drawing a map perfectly to scale, Ravus was the man for the job (I rolled the Tomb Raider starting template, it included Trapfinding and Mapping as the starting proficiencies). He hadn’t had need to make a map in some time, but it was those same exacting, unwavering hands that now took a quill in hand. Not as good as an artist, but good enough in this case. The sun was nearly set when Ravus came out of his room, triumphantly holding the provost’s journal—the finished journal. The journal that contained in its final pages the account of the provost hearing of a tome with the secrets to immortality kept within the prefect’s office, of his black magic used on a thief to force him to find that book, and of how he raged when that thief was caught in the act. All of it, carefully detailed, in the provost’s handwriting—in freshly dried ink.

Jonas met him in the hallway. “Ravus, just wait until you hear what I discovered by spying on the prefect’s younger brother. Colth we might not want to demand hush money from someone so—wait, what’s with that smile?”

“Jonas, today rather than demand a gift from the prefect’s brother, we are going to give him one. That blackmail you’ve found? We will clean it up, as a small act of kindness to him. And he will present this journal of the deceased provost to his brother, as a small act of kindness to us.”

The next day, an officer of the city watch came by the Scattered Sons headquarters. “Have any of you seen Ravus Faeles around?”

“Nope,” Slav replied from his stool, completely deadpan.

The officer raised an eyebrow, clearly not convinced. “Well if you -do- see him, tell him his charges have been dropped, and he’s a free man.”

“If I ever see him, I’ll let him know.”

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>>90978855
Ravus was so thrilled with this turn of events he could hardly decide how best to celebrate. There were so many things he'd been missing out on while in hiding. He finally settled on a nice, simple kidnapping.

A mere week later, he had a 5,000 gold piece ransom in hand—enough to get to level 7. He promptly spent well over half of the ransom on commissioning the finest stonecarver in Cyfaraun. It was time to patronize the arts. Ravus ordered the craftsman to make a large marble pillar with a bas-relief carving of the Scattered Sons in the middle of destroying the Cult of the Horned Rat, to decorate a prominent intersection within the Plaza District. “You can come by the headquarters to take our likenesses for it whenever is convenient; our men will be expecting you. You got all the notes? Read them back to me.”

“The most prominent part of the piece should be you about to shoot an arrow into the wererat leader while he’s readying a spell; Mister Jonas should be slicing a wererat in twain with a polearm; Mister Rewoc should be holding back half a dozen wererats with a shield—as you can hear, Mister Faeles, I have everything down just as you described, even the part to make Mister Colth’s likeness with pointier ears.”

“Good, he’ll appreciate that.”

>need to step away for a while, but I've got one or more of the party's major heists I can go into if the thread stays alive long enough for me to get back to it. Along with some posts that might be interesting about the various legal and illegal businesses and other sorts of high-level projects that Ravus began setting up around this time as he positioned himself to become one of the Cyfaraun power players.
>I hope you've enjoyed it if you've read through this far, it's been the most fun campaign I've ever been in

I m not buying your game, you're only astroturfing here because you've been banned everywhere else.

>>90979040
If campaign stories like this thread are what astroturfing looks like, then bring on the shill threads, I'm ready for the next Shadowrun Storytime or All Guardsman Party to show up

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>>90979040
That's clearly not the game's author, the DM is using a bunch of variant spells and classes, either custom or 3PP. But, even if it was, this is great stuff, an actual story about people actually playing an RPG, rather than fuming about ones they don't like on an anon message board.

So here's a question for (You), anon: when is the last time you played in or run a great session or campaign?
I'm going to guess the answer is "NEVER", because with all likelihood, you are too personally repellent to attract or even join a group, you like shitty, gay RPGs, and rather than work on fixing either of those, you make retarded comments (with no factual basis) about other people actually playing and enjoying RPGs, which are ostensibly a loved hobby of anyone who reads this board.

>>90978894
Here's to hoping the thread remains then; I'm curious about those heists and you've presented the rest nicely. It's quite nice to hear of the campaign so far, so hopefully you'll enjoy many others over time too.

So was there any actual in-game benefit to donating to the luck temple or was that all in-character justification?

>>90983803
There was mention of what amounted to spending gold 'just because' to get a benefit (if you needed to make a new character, they could start higher than just level 1).
There were multiple things they spent 'just because' funds on, though luck temple donations were notable. Various parties/celebrations as well.
Have seen things like that in other games too.

>>90978007
>How do I do something like this for my own group? How did you get everyone to make thief-type classes?
I would just tell them that's what you're going to run. I rerolled as a thief after Slav's player suggested it when my dwarven vaultguard died, and then after we did the first heist we convinced the rest of the group to join in.

(That poor vaultguard, I found his death fairly funny. I don't die too often because I tend to play cautiously enough and typically keep a few aces up my sleeve. But I completely didn't think about how zombies can still make a charge attack even if they're slow, and got knocked into negatives by a charging zombie thanks to trying to "kite" them with a sling from less than 60' away. Oops. He survived, but with a mortal wound dropping his CON by 1/3, so no more +1 bonus for him there. And then the next session a giant rat crit him for -exactly- his new hp total, and that mortal wound roll resulted in him being stone-cold dead.)

Great stuff OP. I've rolled a thief before in an BX campaign but it was pretty underwhelming, mostly failing rolls for my thief skills and being shit in combat.

>>90986145
Thiefs have had it rough. They're pretty fun in acks though.

>>90975672
what got deleted here?

>>90986460
Why, what's different about them?

>>90986598
Well, in addition to hijincks (which can make them assloads of money), they were given additional skills and their skills were recalibrated. They don't suck anymore

>>90986598
>>90986717
Also, they have "shadowy senses" basically human echolocation and sharper hearing, so that they don't have to use a torch while scouting ahead in a dungeon and instantly give their location away to monsters.

That paladin is a total bro

>>90974855
>She responded that if she ever saw him injured on a battlefield in the future that she'd remember to heal him, “though I'll make it hurt after”.
kinky

>>90985971
Thanks. How detailed was the location you guys were using? How were you deciding what crimes you would do?

>>90975542
>After short discussion they opted to leave the adult female behind. This was a superb haul as it was, and next year, the female would have more eggs for them to take. They even left her valuable feathers unplucked--she'd need those feathers to keep hunting if she was going to lay more eggs for them.
Sounds like a good way to have a mother hippogriff gank your ass in the future

>>90978894
>I hope you've enjoyed it if you've read through this far, it's been the most fun campaign I've ever been in
I surely have, reading actual plays in the Auran Empire feels pretty strange.

>>90991613
Why what's weird about it?

>OP here, working on writing the next parts

>>90988805
Our DM was using AX3 Capital of the Borderlands for the city of Cyfaraun and said it is very detailed, he's a very low-prep DM so he was mostly running the material straight from the book with just a few tweaks. AX1 Sinister Stone of Sakkara was used for the initial fort heist and is super-detailed, we even had the answer for the quartermaster's bath schedule there lol. And then the delve for the cauldron was using part of AX2 Secrets of the Nethercity. I don't think he's actually used anything else beyond that.

As far as deciding on crimes, usually we had our syndicate feeding into adventuring and vice versa, so we'd get rumors or maps for things that we'd set up a big heist session for. Otherwise it was balancing risk vs reward, plus whatever a given character had a bonus in; we also laid off of certain types of hijinks after pulling several successful ones in succession, since the DM would increase the difficulty for doing more of those for a while as the heat went up.

>>90991613
It's been a fun setting.

Hurry up with the next part of the story, OP.

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>>90995298
Agreed. Bumped.

>>90974614
>>90974614
Took me ages to read, was worth it though. Thanks OP, now post the next part.

bump

>>90993447
>Why what's weird about it?
I rarely read about played campaign in the Auran Empire setting, that's all.
In the past I read more about ACKS rules being used in old D&D settings.

Is there any more of this garbage story, OP? You're an obvious shill but i enjoyed it in spite of that

>>91000548
>>90995298
>>90995665
>>90996974

OP here, work "emergency" came up and will take a bit of time to resolve, but I should be posting more soon enough

>>90975501
How would they like it if someone killed their kids? That's why I hate hippogriffs

>>90974687
Where are these maps from?

>>91005249
the module AX1: The Sinister Stone of Sakkara

>>91005211
I mean, those eggs might have been made into very expensive omelettes...

Just read the whole thing, brilliant stuff.

>>91001431
Looking forward to it

>>91001431
bumping this then because I want to read the rest

>>91001431
Who cares about your emergency, post it

>>91011477
what he said, storytime is more important than whatever your boss wants

>>90976465
>>What we expected: 1 week travel, few if any injuries/dead, small expedition cost, $$$$ profit
>>What we got: 1 week travel, 1 wounded henchman, 1288gp in expedition costs, 0gp profit
sounds like my entire last campaign

>>91001431
bump, hurry up OP!

>>91018222
sorry anon OP is too busy handling boss's emergency (he needed his dick sucked ASAP)

>>91018944
>>91018222
>>91014156
>>91013248
>>91011477
>>91009563
Thanks for keeping this alive, things have finally calmed down on my end, so I will get a couple drinks and start working on punching out the rest of this.

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>>90978894
>Ravus the Legitimate Businessman

Word of Ravus’s impossible escape spread among the underworld. A number of skilled thieves showed up at the Scattered Sons’ hideout looking to get hired. (So did a bunch of two-bit yahoos.) The syndicate decided it was time to start plussing up numbers. Ravus also decided they needed someone with a better head for numbers for some of his future plans and spent some time interviewing for a very important position: a bookie. One who was happy to keep his mouth shut.

With the last few scores and a couple of decent months of hijinks for the syndicate, Ravus had been stacking the wealth up. With the bookie’s help he started putting together a few “business enterprises” to put these to good use. The first: expanding the syndicate’s operations with a second hideout, a conveniently located warehouse that the gang could turn into a tavern and gambling den after they helped convince the previous owner to sell. Expanding would crank up the chance for heat coming from the other syndicates, so the wannabees from before got hired to buff out their numbers and supply extra muscle.

The second: supplying illegal contraband, specifically poison. By putting out discreet bounties for trained venomous creatures, from giant snakes to giant spiders and even a carrion crawler, Ravus secured a source that could be (dangerously) milked every few weeks. Normally, finding a place to put this little shop of horrors would have been a serious problem, but that second hideout had been picked for a reason: it sat directly over the now-empty wererat den. A little bit of work let the Scattered Sons have a hidden trapdoor that dropped directly into the underground lair, a perfect site to run the operation from within the city without the law finding it.

>>91024460
Welcome back anon, I've been waiting the continuation of your story.

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>>91024460
Getting the venomous critters was a pain and cost a cool 3110gp, but the bookie's numbers showed that they'd completely recoup their cost within only a few months and be pure profit from there out. Ravus's venturer henchman got busy selling poison to criminals throughout Cyfaraun, and when that market was saturated, Ravus had him start riding around the rest of the Borderlands to sell it in smaller settlements as well. (And hired a few bodyguards to escort him, Ravus knew better than to let him go around with that much valuable product alone.) Once it’d paid the cost of investment off, being the Borderlands’ main poison supplier would let Ravus pull in 1870gp every month (assuming no disruptions...).

Ravus had more ideas though, and since the rest of the PCs had chipped in for buying the new hideout, he still had enough cash to get them rolling. The next business was setting up a subsidiary adventuring party. Ravus paid for a bunch of criers to shout the praises of the Scattered Sons in ridding Cyfaraun of cults and wererats (this was a business expense instead of being for reserve xp – at this point I had ~20k in reserve xp anyways and could start as a level 6 thief if I died, so it was time to shift to spending money for advancement instead of insurance). Soon enough, enough fresh young adventurers looking to make it big like the Scattered Sons adventuring party were signing Ravus’s contracts of employment. The new faces wouldn’t be joining the Scattered Sons directly, they’d be forming the Three Glories adventuring party, working underneath it. The Scattered Sons would supply them with intel (gathered by the syndicate’s rumormongers and treasure map-hunters), set them up with site-specific useful equipment like holy water or poisoned arrows to improve their odds, guarantee they got paid at least enough for their living expenses each month, and pay out for death and dismemberment. All for the low, low cost of half their net profit.

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>>91024837
Believe it or not, Ravus was actually offering them a fairly reasonable deal, considering the up-front costs he would be footing for the party and the boost that his intel and equipment gave their chance of survival. The money and chance for magic items they'd bring back if they didn't die was only one factor in Ravus's calculations—even more important was developing a useful bunch of combat-hardened employees he could task for various jobs.

Ravus still wasn’t done, though. In the previous months he and Janus had kidnapped several other people: a Tower of Knowledge mage, and the head cleric of the Solar Citadel. The Cyfaraun elite were starting to panic about the “surge of kidnappings” and were paying out for guards and other protection, so the Scattered Sons decided to shift to other hijinks for a while. But Ravus got to thinking. If people wanted protection, what could be better than to offer big, ferocious guard dogs for sale? And if those guard dogs considered the Scattered Sons to be their playmates and treat-givers while they were being trained as pups, he could effectively get paid twice for the same scam. The venturer got another job: hire every single dog trainer in the Borderlands, and buy up every mastiff or other “war dog suitable” half-grown pup there was. With the 200 or so pups this ended up with, Ravus had to buy a farmhouse outside of town for the project—but after the unsuitable pups were discovered and resold, in about 6 months there’d be a full company worth of guard dogs ready (120).

But Ravus still wasn’t done, and he had cash enough for one more venture...

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>>91025174
While the Scattered Sons adventuring company was considered a legitimate business under the law, that was unlikely to hold up for too long if someone was digging into the Scattered Sons criminal syndicate activities. And all of Ravus's other ventures were tied to it. He needed something that stood alone, an actual legitimate business that could just operate as an income stream for him. He decided on getting into arbitrage trading.

The problem was, he didn't actually know much about the demand for goods around the Borderlands. He hadn't cared, and even his adventurer-merchant henchman hadn't really had the chance to learn all those details. He offered to go out to learn what was good to buy and sell, though it would likely take months of hustling rumors out of merchants at cities all around the region if they wanted to have a really choice route.

Ravus had a better idea. He was a thief. Hell, he ran a whole syndicate with 25 thieves under him. Why didn't they just steal that information?

>>91024780
Glad you and others are enjoying it, thanks for keeping the thread alive.

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>>91025425
So that month, several thieves did spying hijinks against the Cyfaraun Merchant's Guild. Two of them were successful and copied down key ledgers containing the entirety of the guild's notes on local prices for goods at each of the settlements within the region. (The GM let me see the list of demand modifiers for each city.) Ravus and his bookie then pored over the data, and found the ideal trade route to set up. A couple fast ships between Cyfaraun and Siadanos along the river would be ideal to take advantage of price fluctuations without oversaturating the market. Repurposing a light galley from its duties as a warship to haul cargo in its belowdecks troop bay instead -should- work out superbly.

“Okay Azourol, we’ve got it all worked out. You’re getting a promotion to captain this venture. Go to the docks, commission a galley, and name it—”

Janus, Colth, and Slav burst in. “Ravus, we heard you’ve got another one of your moneymaking schemes in the works—and you’d better let us get in on this one!”

“...two galleys!”

OP here, going to do some holiday stuff, will be back as soon as I can to post the last big heist and a few other bits

(Ravus ended up getting 2 ships built in the end, with the other PCs chipping in 4,000gp each and then getting paid 400gp per trade run as investors. Again, multiple angles here, since these ships were well-armed to repel random encounters, but that also meant he had a decent small military force on one of the main rivers which could come in handy one day.)

>>91025174
>what could be better than to offer big, ferocious guard dogs for sale? And if those guard dogs considered the Scattered Sons to be their playmates and treat-givers while they were being trained as pups, he could effectively get paid twice for the same scam.
lmao

>>91024837
>All for the low, low cost of half their net profit.
oy what a bargain

>>91024837
>The next business was setting up a subsidiary adventuring party.
How did you guys actually handle how they did? Run separate sessions as the other party or something?

>>91025174
>In the previous months he and Janus had kidnapped several other people: a Tower of Knowledge mage, and the head cleric of the Solar Citadel. The Cyfaraun elite were starting to panic about the “surge of kidnappings” and were paying out for guards and other protection
>If people wanted protection, what could be better than to offer big, ferocious guard dogs for sale?

lol, not just taking advantage of market conditions but creating them yourselves

>>90983803
I've never played ACK, but I've read the books. Like in many OSR games, you gain XP for gold retrieved. You can then "waste" gold for no in-game benefit to pass 90% (IIRC) of its value as an XP to your next character if the current one dies (again, OSR... dying is easy) so it doesn't have to start at level 1.

Just read through the whole thing. I love how blatantly selfish your party is, it's refreshing (and often hilarious).

>>91030199
ACKS has abstract rules for when you want to quickly resolve various things like battles, dungeon delves, and so on and don't need a fine granularity. You wouldn't normally use them for PCs (unless they wanted a result for something without actually playing it out), but to quickly figure out how an NPC party's delve went, or a pair of NPCs had their battle resolve, it lets you quickly figure out proper odds and roll it out.

>>90986598
>>90986717
>>90987696
In addition to this, in ACKS II the spell list got revamped, and certain spells that made thieves superfluous like Knock and Find Traps were removed.

post the heist OP

>>91025819
>OP here, going to do some holiday stuff, will be back as soon as I can to post the last big heist and a few other bits
>and then OP choked to death on Thanksgiving turkey

>>90979040
being banned from reddit is a mark of good character

>>91039345
Stuff got crazy busy this week, sorry anon. I should have time tomorrow.

I see ACKS I bump

>>91043729
Assuming you're the OP, will you post here or make a new thread (this one is a week old anyway) and link it here?

>>90974614
>NOOO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND I ABSOLUTELY *MUST* SPAM OR I'LL DIE NOOO
Kill yourself.

>>91044341
OP here, if the thread stays alive I'll post it here. No use splitting this into multiple threads at this point, since I've written almost 30 fucking pages and 17,000 words of campaign log so far. I know I'm long-winded but I didn't expect it to be -that- long.

In regards of ACKS, did they send out the minimalist rules PDFs yet?

>>91046197
Kickstarter processes payments a week or two after a project ends

>>91046197
Give it about another week or so

>>91046197
just to people on the acks patreon which i assume includes op's group

>>91045113
not gonna happen OP, this thread has been around long enough to autosage

>>91045113
this one has been archived on sup/tg/, so the next will likely be too as long as you make it.

Awesome stuff OP the board has been in desperate need of a decent thread for a while