Keeper's Quest

What do you want to do on the surface? Not necessarily objecting, but Seth has a lot on his plate as it is.

+1 Kelenas

Kelenas wrote:Mh... okay, my preference is:
[1] Go over Jevrin’s pile o’ magical crap, and see to it that the gremlin involved gets the promised Nice Hat.
[2] Question the Mentor and Gnarl about the planning session, specifically if there are any specific resources they need.
[3] See if there are any potential AoIs our minions have found out about.
[4] Go talk to Rollick and visit the surface world.

That look solid, +1 vote.

ShaperV wrote:What do you want to do on the surface? Not necessarily objecting, but Seth has a lot on his plate as it is.

Mostly get a feel for the "other side of the coin", so to speak. Additionally, we might get information on the Wolf Queen, and potential AoIs. It'll take time to finish the planning for our AoI in Skid Row, in no small part due to the subtleties involved, so depending on what we find out we might be able to squeeze in another minor AoI. For example, stealing weapons from the local garrison or militia or whatever and replacing them with wooden replicas. Together with the ones we get/got from the Mongrels, that might net us some decent starting-equipment for our goblins.

It really depends on what we find or see.

Kelenas wrote:

ShaperV wrote:What do you want to do on the surface? Not necessarily objecting, but Seth has a lot on his plate as it is.

Mostly get a feel for the "other side of the coin", so to speak. Additionally, we might get information on the Wolf Queen, and potential AoIs. It'll take time to finish the planning for our AoI in Skid Row, in no small part due to the subtleties involved, so depending on what we find out we might be able to squeeze in another minor AoI. For example, stealing weapons from the local garrison or militia or whatever and replacing them with wooden replicas. Together with the ones we get/got from the Mongrels, that might net us some decent starting-equipment for our goblins.

It really depends on what we find or see.

Hmm. Well, ok, I can go along with that as long as we can avoid turning it into another umpteen-post marathon. I'd really like to get time passing again so we can make progress on our schemes & training, but I see your point about wanting to get a good feel for what the surface is like.

We can also keep an ear open for anything that might impact us but avoid Rollick's notice due to him being only a single tavern owner (not exactly the most expansive spy-network).

I'd rather spend time training. We want to maximize our competence so that we can capitalize on the opening when it comes.

It might be better to wait with personal training until Yoda joined us and can supervise. We could certainly see about getting in some fitness-training for Seth's male body, though.

Kelenas wrote:Mh... okay, my preference is:
[1] Go over Jevrin’s pile o’ magical crap, and see to it that the gremlin involved gets the promised Nice Hat.
[2] Question the Mentor and Gnarl about the planning session, specifically if there are any specific resources they need.
[3] See if there are any potential AoIs our minions have found out about.
[4] Go talk to Rollick and visit the surface world.

This seems to make plenty of sense to me.

+1 Kelenas

ShaperV wrote:Hmm. Well, ok, I can go along with that as long as we can avoid turning it into another umpteen-post marathon. I'd really like to get time passing again so we can make progress on our schemes & training, but I see your point about wanting to get a good feel for what the surface is like.

Yes, because why bother with plot development and character interaction when you can have dull progress reports...

There's a time for time skips and there's a time for plot development. Normally one comes after you've exhausted the other... to make more room for more of the other.

Seth decided his best option would be to start by going through Jevrin’s crap. To that end, he casually ordered it to be taken into once place for review. Normally he would have done it in Jevrin’s room, but he’d promised Tesha a the use of the bed and didn’t want to interrupt her.

So along those lines he found himself, along with Araleth, Gnarl, and the Goblin he’d asked to help yesterday, in the feasting hall of the sub-dungeon.

There was a rather substantial pile of loot sitting on the table, most of which gave him a feeling like something wholly unpleasant was crawling up his spine. The origin for said feeling was the large number of collars, many of which had attached collars, and other more... kinky items.

He had a feeling that most of this crap was tools of the trade.

“So...” he slowly glanced down to the anxious looking Gremlin. “I suppose you are waiting for your hat?”

He nodded vigorously. “Right then.”

Casually he summoned the damaged elven cap and plunked it on the Gremlin’s head. “There. All you.”

The Gremlin cheered giving his new floppy green cap a tug before scampering out of the room. It paused at the door and said, “Thanks master!”

Seth simply nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

“So what am I looking at?” he asked Gnarl and Araleth.

Ironically it was Araleth who answered. “Most of these are Mas-Jevrin’s tools master,” she replied. “This,” she said picking up a small silver collar decorated with runes, “Is a Collar of Sundered Will. Bound inside it is a tormented spirit that aggressively attacks the will of the wearer in hopes of possessing them. While the binding prevents possession, it weakens the mind of the wearer while worn, and when combined with a low powered integral charm spell, leaving them obedient and open to suggestion. Jevrin used these to help control his more willful slaves.”

Seth winced. Nasty.

Moving on she placed it down on top of two other identical collars...

“Next is a Cursed Ring of Seduction,” she slowly picked up an attractive looking ring, a gold band with a ruby in the center “This ring’s powers are based on perverted secrets stolen from a temple of the Goddess of Love. It is charmed so the wearer does not wish to remove the ring, and gives them a slowly growing emotional dependency and mild physical obsession with the gifter. It is subtle but powerful.”

Next she lifted a plain looking belt, slowly ever so slightly. “This belt is is one of Jevrin’s most prized possession, a Girdle of...”

“Masculinity and Femininity?” Seth guessed off the top of his head.

“Yes,” she replied with a blink. “Your reconize it?”

Seth smirked, thinking back fondly to the number of times he made proper use of said boobie trap to give boobs to the boobs. “I’m well acquainted,” he replied, “But explain it anyways.”

“They’re relatively rare,” Gnarl replied, “As the amount of magical power, talent, and coin needed to create them is great and unless magically recharged, are only good for one shot. As they have no practical use few warlocks ever bother to create them. That said,” he grinned, “They make a great gag gift.”

“This Girdle has long been without a charge,” Araleth said blandly.

Seth nodded. “What’s next?”

Slowly, Araleth picked up a large obsidian shaft covered in... oh dear god.

--- --- ---

About 20 minutes later Seth felt a severe migraine coming on. Jevrin had over one hundred thousand gold in twisted, kinky, black magical slaving artifacts and potions. Sex toys with compulsion spells, collars that shock the wearer if they tried to use magic, aphrodisiacs, will suppressed herbs, magical piercings, powerful slaves that remove body hair and massively boost physical sensitivity with the mild side effect of being potentially lethal... and the list goes on.

Slowly Araleth picked up what looked like a giant blunted corkscrew, “This is...”

Seth has no idea what it was for, and frankly he had a strong feeling that ignorance was bliss. A sensation that he’d been experiencing over and over again this past half-hour.

“Can we skip to the useful items?” Seth all but begged, “You can just make me a list of Jevrin’s kinky shit collection. Right now I’m more interested in the items that I can actually make use of...”

Araleth lowered her head. “This one is sorry Master...”

“Don’t be,” he replied, “Just tell me what you’ve got...”

She nodded and turned to Gnarl.

“Well, seems this Jevrin had several enchanted daggers, including a rather expensive ritual model I strongly suggest you hold onto... they’re very useful! A magical ring of protection that I’d very much like to petition for the use of, two magical staves of varying degrees of usefulness, a Ring of Casting I’d also like to petition for the use of, and an Amulet of Macho Appeal.”

“What does the Ring of Casting do?” Seth asked.

“Just gives the caster an enhanced mana pool. Rather superfluous to a keeper such as yourself, but potentially very useful to a someone like, say, yours truly...”

Seth nodded. “How about the amulet?”

Gnarl picked up a large hunk of bling that looked like it fell through a time portal from the ‘70s, and held it out. “Rather fetching piece I might say...”

Seth sighed. “Anything else?”

“His books,” Gnarl replied, “Most of which are heavily encoded...” he then muttered, “and the instruction manual for the dolls...”

Seth paused a moment. “What.”

“The instruction manual for the dolls...”

“There’s a manual...”

“Four copies...”

Seth took a deep breath, fighting down the urge to have a psychotic episode.

“You know what...” he said, the tension evident on his face, “I’m thinking I need to stretch my legs a bit. How about you and mentor ready up a report of what you came up with yesterday...”

“Not much, sire,” Gnarl replied, “Just worked out the details of your plans... nothing to concern yourself with.”

“The Elves come up with any information that could be used to create Acts of Infamy yet?”

Again he shook his head, “Hard to do without boots on the ground...”

“Alright then, Seth said, trying to ignore the pit of rage in his stomach, ‘Tell Rollick to see me in the throne room... he said he was getting clothes together for me... so time to see to them...”

This did of course leave Seth wondering how to do his grand approach to the surface world.

How did he get there and how did he present himself?

[ ] Walk into town from outside?
[ ] Just come up from the basement and have the old man make excuses for him?
[ ] Come dressed like a wandering adventure? He was sure he could borrow some leather armor and had the magical sword.
[ ] Just wear the clothes he was given.
[ ] But first have a psychotic episode in the training room...
[ ] Fiddle around with the loot?
[ ] Write in

[x] But first have a psychotic episode in the training room...

Because it's not a good idea for Seth to run around while pissed off, as it'd probably affect his social - and other - skills. Hard to be charming or think clearly while you're inwardly gnashing your teeth.

Then:
[x] Work out the best way to make our appearance without drawing too much attention to us with Rollick. Hopefully something that will give us ample opportunity to go around, look at things, and ask questions, without raising too many eyebrows.

I also want to distribute the loot so it can be put to use, like giving Gnarl the two Rings and possibly one of the staves if it's useful, or one of the enchanted daggers to Tesha, but we'd need to know more about them first, and I don't think Seth's currently in the mood for that.

[x] go to the training room, lock the door, warn everyone way from it and have a psychotic episode.
[x] have the that silver collar set aside for a certain wolf queen other then that we can dvide the loot when we calm down
[x] Come dressed like a wandering adventure? He was sure he could borrow some leather armor and had the magical sword.

The above, but also ...

[] hang onto the collars and artifacts that could be used just to restrain people. For example, if they've only got that effect, the collars that shock them when they try to use magic could be handy.
[] after our psychotic episode, let's have Araleth brief us in further detail as to just what she's capable of - in short, why the Ring of Casting?

She turned to Gnarl as in to indicate for him to take over. I'm sorry if that was not clear.

Ah. Gotcha. Didn't parse that.

Rage in the training room, then head topside with faux-adventurer gear.

Why do you people want to jump the gun by dressing like an adventurer, rather than at least trying to see what we're dealing with, first?

changing

[x] go to the training room, lock the door, warn everyone way from it and have a psychotic episode.
[x] have the that silver collar set aside for a certain wolf queen other then that we can dvide the loot when we calm down
[x] get a report from Rollick on the situation in the village then decide what the best method it for the circumstances.

[x] go to the training room, lock the door, warn everyone way from it and have a psychotic episode.
[x] have the that silver collar set aside for a certain wolf queen other then that we can divide the loot when we calm down
[x] get a report from Rollick on the situation in the village then decide what the best method it for the circumstances.

[x] go to the training room, lock the door, warn everyone way from it and have a psychotic episode.
[x] have the that silver collar set aside for a certain wolf queen other then that we can divide the loot when we calm down
[x] get a report from Rollick on the situation in the village then decide what the best method it for the circumstances.

Well, slept it over a bit, and here's my thoughts in regards to the magical items/loot:
- the rings of protection and casting go to Gnarl; don't see a reason to deny him the former, and he is pretty much our only spellcaster, so the latter makes sense
- the staves, depending on what they do (should probably get details on that once Seth has had time to calm down), should probably one go to Gnarl as well, with the other to Seth, or both to Seth if Gnarl already has something better with the goblinstone-staff of his.
- keep the Ritual Dagger (for now, at least), then give Tesha first pick from the others (though we should likewise see about getting details once Seth's not pissed off anymore), and see about distributing the rest amongst the DElves or Mongrels, depending on who needs them more or can put them to better use
- keep the magic items that could be useful for restraining prisoners and hand them over to Hedwig. She's our (un)official prison warden and torture/interrogation specialist, so she'll probably know better how to use them than we do.
- let Hedwig pick one or two of Jevrin's remaining magical items (like the various sex-toys) if she'd like to as a reward for her services until now, then see about selling the rest. Either through Kath, if he normally has such items amongst his inventory, or directly to the slavehouse. And in the latter case, take coin, not flesh. We'd have to wait for a few days though until the heat from our encounter with the Aron guy dies down sufficiently.

how about we use a chunk of the money from the sale of the items to the slave house to gear up the mongerals?

Possible, though I'd rather just give Nati and Gellor the money, since they'd know better how to put it to use, both in what equipment they can best make use of, and in how they can get it discreetly.

I didn't say we picked what was bought. i was thinking "take a chunk of the funds and hand it over to the mongerls to pay for better gear."

Ah, alright. Sorry I misunderstood you, then.

It was 30 minutes before Seth left his personal training room, exhausted both emotionally and physically. He’d gone through about half of his mana, but in the meantime had made some progress at getting used to his sword, abet from hacking mindlessly in a rage at the targets until they dropped.

He was sure that with a miniscule application of his somewhat dwindled mana reserves he could regenerate himself physically to prime physical condition, he chose not to. He had a strong feeling that with restored physical vitality would come a restored mental acuity, and with that he would lose the numbing emotional fatigue he’d gained from his, for lack of a better word, tantrum.

A somewhat expensive tantrum at that. It was both a blessing and a curse that the the room automatically repaired itself with use, and while useful indeed, the cost was normally on the high side of uncomfortable. He’d virtually leveled it. Twice.

Sure, a couple grand to fix it wasn’t too much, but the way he’d been spending money, it would be best to lay off on the enraged target exploding for a bit.

With a clank the wooden door opened and he stepped out to find Araleth waiting with a pitcher of water.

“This one thought that he master would be thirsty from his... exertions,” she said in her gentle eager to please voice.

Seth resisted a sigh. He was starting to think he should just give up on trying to convince her to to use first person pronouns. He wasn’t a quitter though, “Thank you Araleth,” he said with a sigh, “And it wouldn’t hurt you to say I, you know...”

For a moment Seth detected what almost looked like the beginning of a scowl on Araleth’s face, but she quickly bit down on it, and instead replied to him.

“This one realizes that her Master is kindly and fair, and is eternally thankful for it. Master even has seen fit this her freedom, should she desire it, but she does not.” she said with an almost blissful smile on her face, “She is content in her servitude to her Master, and only desires to thank him for his kindness by giving him her absolute submission,” her lips turned slightly downwards for a moment before added, “She also believes that it would reflect poorly upon her Master in the eyes of others for his property to show him anything but the utmost deference.”

“Damn it Araleth...” Seth facepalmed.

For a moment Seth could swear that was a victorious smirk under her smile but chose not to make mention of it. He did however accept a water glass and continue on his way.

Once he’d finished he quietly popped himself over to the secondary dungeon once more and stepped into what currently passed as his throne room.

He idly noted that the gaudy throne had been instead replaced by one of roughly hewn stone. While appearance wise it was a step up, he had doubts to its comfort. By the smug look on Gnarl’s face he had few doubts as to its origin. Even more unexpected and possibly unwelcome was the one eyed Goblin in the Jester’s hat prancing in front of his throne.

“All Hail the Slaver Smasher!” the goblin proclaimed, “Upon Master’s lands the elf did poach! His slaving ways he believed beyond reproach! But his lesson was learned with a most swift approach! Now His prized Goblin Stone, Master wears like a broach!”

He now knew first hand why people kept bards and jesters around, both for amusement and because it was kinda pleasing in that special smug asshole way to have people sing songs about your deeds, both great and otherwise. Maybe this Jester thing might just work out.

“Not bad,” Seth replied, after a moments thought, “Not bad at all.”

Quaver, if he remembered his name correctly shrank slightly. “I apologize if it was unsatisfactory master, but I’m still trying to set up a proper band with which to accompany the songs of your mighty deeds and serenade you with music to calm the savage fury of your mighty soul...”

Well, consider my head inflated thanks much. “No, really, I’d give it a... say... 7 1/2 out of ten?”

Seth’s Self-appointed Jester smiled in satasfaction, then Seth looked over to Gnarl and Mentor. “So, is Rollick ready?”

“Of course, Keeper,” Mentor replied, “He knows better than to disobey your will...”

Gnarl nodded, “Been complaining a bit though. Claims that he has pumpkins to prepare or such nonsense,” The goblin snorted with concept. “Pumpkins, not good for anything besides smashing!”

“Let him in...”

Moment later the door opened and the fat cook entered looking a bit nervous and holding a bundle.

“So whats this then?” Seth asked, “Is everything ready?”

He nodded. “Yes sire, I have here a traveling bindle and a couple changes of traveling clothes... so you can blend in, sire...”

Seth nodded. “Good. I think I’ll be coming up for a proper visit today... So what’s the best approach to getting into town without raising suspicion?”

“Come up from the South, sire... via the King’s Road.” he replied.

“And not just through your shop?”

He shook his head. “Too many sets of eyes. People’ll wonder how you got there. No. Best to come in from out of town.”

Seth nodded once more. “Alright then... and how are we playing this again?”

“Y-you’re my distant relation come up from the south to learn the ways of the trade?” Rollick asked.

Seth paused for a moment and shook his head. “Nah Maybe a bit of that, but I’m thinking more seeking adventure and fortune. Less of me having to hang around in your kitchens making pies,” he paused, “Not that there’s anything wrong with pies.”

Rollick nodded. “So I should expect you sometime soon Master?”

Seth nodded. “Yes. I think I’ll hope onto the road a couple miles to the south and walk my way up...”

Rollick nodded. “Shall I make preparations, sire?”

Seth nodded again. “Go ahead...”

Rollick bowed once more and started to back away, not turning his back on his keeper for even a moment...”

“Oh, and what shall I call you?”

[ ] Seth, just Seth...
[ ] Make up a name...
[ ] You'll think of something...
[ ] Actually, Seth had more questions or something else to get done... WRITE IN!

[x] what's a typical name for sons in the area?

[x] what's a typical name for sons in the area?