Act 1: The Ixian Prisoner Scene 2: Once More into the Breach

Two and a half days after you leave the gates of Keshan you see in the distance wide fields being tended by scores of laborers. When you get closer to the fields you see that these are not simply farm hands, but massive gangs of slaves, numbering fifty or more, chained together working under the watchful eyes and whips of slave drivers as the work the all but barren soil outside the city. There is little to gain by working this ground but it helps to sustain the City of the Slave Princes, keeping the thousands of other slaves destined for sale alive and fed until they can be sold.

The city of Ix itself is surrounded by a high wall. The ancient walls do not appear to be made of stone, but the look as if they have stood for many generations, defending Ix and trapping the captured slaves inside of the city. From what you know of the city, largely relayed to you by the agents of the Despot of Keshan, Ix is divided into four Quarters, the Military Quarter, the Government Quarter, the Thieves' Quarter and the Merchants Quarter. These four districts are not divided by walls but by wide boulevards a hundred feet across that are heavily patrolled by city guards.

The Despot's agents suggested that you attempt to enter from the West Gate into Thieves's Quarter as that should be the easiest to gain passage into as it has the least patrols. When you approach the West gate you see a handful of guards at the gate, but the tall wooden doors are open and they appear to be only giving each group of travelers a cursory look over before ushering them into the city. Waiting patiently in a long line of ragged looking travelers you eventually get inside the city walls when the sun has almost set. The lengthening shadows of Ix are a relief after three days out in the desert sun, the Thieves Quarter is a squalid place, filled with people off all races, each one more suspicious and filthy than the last. Many of the buildings look like their timbers are about to break as they have rotted through.

Now that you have gained entrance to the City of the Slave Princes the question remains, where is Janissary Captain that the Despot sent you to retrieve, and how are you going to get him out of Ix?

Travel within Ix is difficult. It is a maze of buildings and people and it is heavily patrolled, which is especially dangerous to people there without official business. To facilitate your travel through the City of the Slave Princes I am going to outline the five basic options you have at any given time below. To expedite the decision making process (which we all know can be slow in Pbp) I'm going to implement the following:

Deciding a Course of Action

If you want to take a specific course of action the Post and Nominate it as the Party's next move. Once something has been nominated the other Players can Second it or Nominate a different option. You may Object to a course of action, but you must explain why you are opposed to it and must Nominate an alternative.

Once a course of action has been Nominated and Seconded, then thats whats going to happen. My hope is that this will be faster than waiting for everyone to reach a consensus. In the event that someone Nominates something and no one posts any responses I will enact that course of action as if it had been Seconded once I feel that enough time has passed (probably 2 or 3 days).

Courses of Action

Travel in your Current Quarter: Provided you know where you want to go within your Quarter this will get you where you want to go, provided you are able to muscle through the crowds and avoid the Guard. Pertinent skills are Athletics, Stealth and Streetwise.

Travel to a Different Quarter: Crossing the broad and heavily patrolled streets that separate the Quarters without the proper papers is difficult, but it can be done with a combination of wit, cunning and a silver tongue. Pertinent skills are Diplomacy, Intimidate and Streetwise.

Find Directions: Asking the locals for directions can be a risky proposition, to many questions can lead to a door in the face or arouse suspicion and cause a run in with the City Guards, but those with a winning smile or urbane ways might be able to get some useful directions. Pertinent skills are Diplomacy and Streetwise.

Gather Information: A few drinks and a friendly game of dice may be just what is needed to make right friends or hear some rumors of the goings on in Ix, these might point you in the right direction or could lead to an unexpected opportunity for those willing to lend a patient ear or lie through their teeth. Pertinent skills are Bluff, Diplomacy and Streetwise.

Evade Pursuit: Mercenaries, Gangs and the ever-present City Guard roam the streets of Ix, should you encounter any of these foes flight is always an option. If you can out-run, hide from of navigate away from your pursuers then you can continue on your way. Pertinent skills are Athletics, Stealth or Streetwise.

Taking a Course of Action

When a course of action has been Nominated and Seconded its time to roll determine success (or failure, always an option). In a perfect world you would each decide your what Skill you want to use and roll it. If for what ever reason you can't post then I'll roll it for you, these will be public (they are your rolls). To help me determine what to roll I need you to each prioritize the following Skills and put that in a Spoiler on your post while we're in the City of Ix. In the event I have to roll for you (which I will do if you havent posted when I come to post my Game-post after something has been Seconded).

Skills

Athletics, Bluff, Diplomacy, History, Insight, Intimidate, Stealth, Streetwise.

If for any Course of Action you feel you can justify using a Skill that is not listed as a Pertinent Skill for that Course of Action then post and roll it. If its even slightly feasible I'll allow it and your creativity and ability to role-play the skill will determine the DC. You can also choose to Aid another instead, but know that in order to Succeed on the Group Skill Check your going to need atleast 3 successful Individual Skill Checks.

As you travel in the City of Ix you'll learn more about the city and discover more locations within the Quarters of the city. Heres a basic rundown of each of the Quarters that you've gleaned from the Despot of Keshan's hirelings.

Military Quarter

This quarter is filled with armories and barracks for the City Guard and the Slavers, many of the Slaves are also quartered here, under heavy guard. There is littler commerce here and consequentially few inns or taverns. Most people you will encounter here are soldiers or laborers.

Government Quarter

This quarter is predominantly made up of large ornate official buildings, temples and warehouses for goods other than slaves. The Government quarter is heavily patrolled by the City Guard.

Thieves' Quarter

Filled to bursting with flophouses, seedy inns and decaying squat-houses the Thieves' quarter is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Merchant's Quarter

This is where the Slave Princes and their wealthy merchant underlings live, as such it has a large Guard presence, second only to the Government Quarter. It is by far the cleanest quarter and the broad streets are lined with trees and respectable shops, inns and other establishments.

Feeling himself becoming overwhelmed from being surrounded by people in masses he has not been a part of since he first left home on a quest to avenge his master, Rune has to take a moment to think what the best course of action is. Rune has always found himself being able to relate to those who fight constantly or conversing with those with cunning guile that obtain information from the shadows. Hoping to find aide for his ever active quest in freeing his maker's hometown, Rune decides to try his luck within the thieves' quarters first and then the military quarters. I vote for gathering information in the most discreet route possible, first from the thieves and then from the barracks. Anyone wish to agree with me, or does anyone have any better ideas?

If my action deems itself as being seconded then these will be the skill checks I will roll to gain information and traveling.

If in Thieves' Quarters already

Dice Roll: 1d20+14
d20 Results: 10 (Total = 24)

Athletics Check to travel

Dice Roll: 1d20+10
d20 Results: 17 (Total = 27)

Streetwise check to gain information
If in another quarter, then will travel to thieves' quarters

Dice Roll: 1d20+17
d20 Results: 12 (Total = 29)

Intimidate Check to enter a new quarter

"Finding some intel is a wise course of action my friend," Irimus says, eying the squalor around him as he sets eyes on the unfamiliar city. Looking about, the bard closes his eyes for a moment, mouthing a silent prayer as he tries to fortell the events surrounding their next move to guide them in the best course of action. "Finding info is indeed wisest, for we do not wish to end up lost amidst the maze of bodies and buildings. Let us find a bar of some manor and I shall offer to perform in exchance for food or drink. While I do, keep your wits about you, and I shall influence those about us to make them more apt to loosen their tongues," Irimus says.

Proposing to use the Call of Friendship (arcane power) ritual to help us find any info we need.

The warden checks his gear making sure everything is bundeled up tight and secure. His hand lingers on his hammer at his side whiile he keeps his shield firmly attached Alright well if you need people shoved or moved out of your way I'm your man he says sticking a meaty thumb towards his face. sneaking around a city smooth-talking the locals isn't my strongest suit with that Greil casts a wary eye around at the citizens of the city and tries to keep his wits about him.

Perception:
Dice Roll: 1d20+12
d20 Results: 18 (Total = 30)

Looking out for anyone watching the group too closely

Athletics:
Dice Roll: 1D20+14
d20 Results: 4 (Total = 18)

to push or shove people as needed as we make our way around town (if necessary)

Powerful Athlete roll:

Athletics:
Dice Roll: 1D20+14
d20 Results: 18 (Total = 32)

Silently Orion follows as they make their way through the Theive's quarter to a promising and unsavory looking tavern. As the others buy drinks and make talk with the patrons Orion simply listens. In Keshan he kept to himself, contemplating in solitude in a garden of the Despot. It has been a long time since the monk has been out in the world of men, though he has not forgotten of it's temptations and sufferings. And so he just listens to the tales that are told to them, and wonders about the hearts that tell them.

I'd like to make an Insight check for dual purpose. First is the veracity of any information we're given. Second is that I'm worry about people selling us out, by giving us bad information leading to us getting caught or just straight up turning us in.

Insight:
Dice Roll: 1d20+17
d20 Results: 14 (Total = 31)

The squalor and crowding of the Thieve's quarter is overwhelming compared to the lush decadence of the Despot's Palace in Keshan. The smell alone is almost enough to turn a man's stomach, but the denizens appear to have grown accustomed. When you pause in the middle of the avenue to get your bearings you are rapidly crushed by oncoming waves of foot traffic from every direction. Soon you are forced off to the side of the road and you collect your breath and decide to venture further into the Quarter to find a tap-house at which to begin to get the lay of the land.

As you walk the streets you see all manner of refuse and vermin, humanoid and otherwise. You carefully avoid a patrol of four City Guards who are marching down the middle the street. They are given a wide birth by most people, but one wiry man with a black/grey beard stumbles into them, apparently drunk at this early hour, one of the Guards grabs him and shoves him to the side where he scrambles to his feet and runs off with more dexterity than you expect from a drunkard.After cautiously working your way past the guards you find a small public house that looks promising, its just off the avenue and looks like a safe place to stay for a couple hours.

Walking into the establishment, Irimus heads for the bar, and the others head for a long table where a number of other patrons are seated drinking and eating bowls of porridge and fried sausages and potatoes. When the bard offers his services in exchanges for breakfast for him and his companions the bartender looks at him with a skeptical eye. You suspect that he knows that you're here for more than his meager offerings of food (you still have a little of the fattened look of Palace living on you), but he's smart enough to know that a good Bard is worth his weight in ale so he points Irimus to a stool by the hearth where he can play.

The Bard sings, not an epic song of heroes and great feats of strength, but the trials of a common man, saved from death by nothing but the aid of his friends and neighbors. These words, laced with a subtle magic makes the other patrons receptive to inquiries of Irimus and his companions who sit at the breakfast table.

After Irimus has played for half an hour the bartender brings out five plates and five bowls and afresh pot porridge and platter fried sausage and potatoes for you, and gestures to Irimus to keep playing. Just then the door opens and you recognize the man who steps through, the black/grey bearded drunk who stumbled into the guards in the street. He sits down at the far end of the table and calls for a plate of food. When Rune begins to get up to go an talk to the drunk, Griel quickly grabs his comrades shoulder and hold him in his seat, shaking his head ever so slightly left to right.

I'm going to roll Diplomacy in secret for Irimus and Boone, if you have a chance to post before I finalize the results of this Gather Information event tonight then we'll go with your rolls regardless. Irimus must use Diplomacy to use Call of Friendship, I chose Diplomacy for Boone because its tied with Bluff, one of the other Pertinent Skills for Gather Information.If we go with mine I'll let you know what they were.

If you want to use a Skill that isn't listed at Pertinent then go for it, but I want you to know how it works. Two things effect how I'm going to treat the result, your OOC explanation of what you want to do and your Role Play of it. The better your explanation and the more the use of the skill makes sense to me, the better, same for your Role Play.

Those will effect two things, first the DC that you are rolling against, the more logical and better played the easier it will be. The second is the result, Succeeding on non-Pertinent Skill can result in a Success just like a Pertinent skill, or it can confer a +2 Bonus to the other Party Member's checks. Remember that you need to get 3 Successes so be careful about doing to many Aid Another and non-Pertinent skills at the same time.

Kidd's use of Perception and Foucault's use of Insight are both good examples of how to use an un-listed Skill.

Greil keeps his grip on Rune, If you don't want your food, you can just pass it over here The warden says with a smirk. no need to get up and return it releasing the warforged's shoulder the goliath says in a hushed voice, That there bearded guest is much more than just your average drunk. His tussle with the patrol involved an exchange of sorts. With him the stumbling drunk receiving a package from the armed guards. he pauses swirling his spoon around his bowl. Now we have in our sights someone who has connections, how can we get access to them? cracking his neck he scoops another spoonful of porridge, and Rune, pass me your sausage already!

Bluff check to make his story about rune returning his food believable:

Bluff:
Dice Roll: 1d20+5
d20 Results: 15 (Total = 20)

Realizing that his rather large friend has noticed something about the importance of this drunkard, Rune decides to contemplate his next action properly and sit back down. You hardly need to ask Greil, you know for a fact that such mundane things as eating and drinking are incompatible with my body, so here you go. But for once, please do not be so crass as to chew and guffaw at the same time like you normally when you're famished, it's rather repulsive. As the plate is passed toward Greil, Rune takes a look around the tavern in hopes of overhearing some tidbits or noticing some discreet glances that last longer than a moment.

Bluff Check (to pass off that this is a normal occurrence in our group for the returning of unsolicited food):

Dice Roll: 1d20+10
d20 Results: 14 (Total = 24)

Bluff Check
Streetwise Check (to help gather information in the tavern as described above):

Dice Roll: 1d20+10
d20 Results: 11 (Total = 21)

Streetwise

You eat your breakfast in quite, listening to your comrade recount tales of honor and valiant men. Strange tales in a land that knows little of either. You spend an hour sitting and listening to the bard's songs and the grumbling of the patrons. Their complains are nothing you haven't heard before in any number of run down taverns; the guards cost to much to bribe, the beer is watered down, some merchant or another sold someone a fake something. The more morsels of information learn, the less interested you are in what these people have to say.

When Irimus finally ceases playing, he begins to move to the table to have something to eat. Before he gets a chance to sit down the bearded man at the end of the bar motions for him to join him. With his mouth full of sausage, Griel doesn't get a chance to warn the Bard about his suspicions. Irimus sits down next to the man, who orders him a beer and begins to talk, "Names Wallac, I haven't heard songs like that in many years. Tell me where did you learn them?"

Without waiting for Irimus to explain the bearded man begins to recount what must be the majority of his life story. It isn't a pleasant tale, but he recounts it quickly and begins to tell you more interesting things about life in the City of Ix, How to recognize a couple of guards who are easy and cheap to bribe (Bjenk, a red-bearded Dwarf with a lizard-skin cape and Nouri Al-Shenp a Human who wields a distinctive Axe with a Orc femur for a haft), when to know to stay off the streets (If you hear drums, get inside, the Elite Guard is marching through) and finally that for some reason the Slave Masters in the Military Quarter have been having more trouble than usual with the slaves over the past few weeks. Usually there is little unity among the slaves, each looks to make his own escape but recently there have been more riots causing great billows of smoke visible all over the Ix, though it is unclear to Wallac why.

Rune, Greil and Orion all succeeded on their Checks, so you have succeeded in finding some local rumors with your Gather Information.

Irimus's Call of Friendship Ritual was completed successfully with a 23, meaning Wallac is friendly to him for 1 Hour and will spend up to 25gp on his behalf though will do nothing that puts himself at risk.

You can now take another Course of Action, take advantage of Wallac's friendship or both.

Bjenk (Red-Bearded Dwarf with Lizard Cape) and Nouri Al-Shenp (Human with Orc Femur Axe) are easy to bribe and are regularly on Patrol in the Thieve's Quarter.

If you heard loud Drums get off the street to avoid the Elite Guard.

There has been an increase in Slave Riots in the Military Quarter.

Greil swallows his sausage hard. Grunting as he forces the meat down his throat he takes a swig of ale as he keeps a cautious eye on the bard and the bearded stranger. With his food finished the goliath takes out his shield and checks to make sure everything on it is still useable in battle. As he performs maintenance on his shield he perks his ears trying to catch anything going on in the bar or directly outside that could be of impending danger

He sits fairly still though internally he is waiting for someone else to initiate the next move for the group.

Perception:
Dice Roll: 1d20+12
d20 Results: 1 (Total = 13)