Intermission 7 Page 8
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After an hour or so in the forest, Paws announces that the dungeon is just a short way ahead, then turns off the road. Before anyone can ask him where he’s going, he leads the party to a shady figure that seems to be waiting for them.
“This is a member of the bandit group that hit the caravan. I sent word ahead that we were on our way and invited her to give us her side of the story before we talk to the merchants.”
“…Sent word ahead HOW?”
“Hi there! I’m Ricki!”
“Good for you.”
“I’m gonna get straight to the point. If Paws is working with you, then none of you are exactly cozy with the Empire. Well, these merchants? They’re imperials through and through.”
“Everything on those wagons was headed straight to the Capital, and from there to the Guard, who will use it to oppress people.”
“We, on the other hand, are just trying to survive out here in the woods. Those potions, weapons, and whatever else could mean the difference between life and death for us.”
“So yeah. Seems like a pretty obvious choice to me why you should be helping us instead of some rich imperials.”
“Of course, that’s the same thing you’d say if you were actually planning to use that stuff to rob more people in the future, imperial or otherwise.”
“Careful Kamau, we can see your co—”
“It’s not a cop thing, I’m being pragmatic.”
“You don’t know for sure I was gonna say cop.”
“The bottom line is, we don’t know this person, so we should be careful about taking her word on anything.”
“Hmmm…”
“Okay, so let’s look at this from another angle. What’s in it for US if we help you?”
“If we had the money to pay you we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. But if you help get our people out of there, and bring us enough of the goods off the wagons to make this whole fiasco worth our time, we’ll cut you in on our operation.”
“Usually when we get stuff we don’t need, we sell it to Paws. If you set up a dead drop for us, we’ll start making more regular deliveries.”
“That’ll translate into a discount on lots of basic gear.”
“Well, we’ll have to see what’s going on in the dungeon before we know if we can help. We’ll come back and find you if we have the stuff you want.”
Ricki decides not to commit to anything just yet. There should be some merchants on guard near the dungeon itself, and she wants to talk to them first before picking a side here.
I don’t think either side is going to be clear choice over the other here. I think there will be moral grounds for both sides. I wonder if we can appease both sides though…
“I think there will be moral grounds for both sides.”
OR both sodes will turn out to be total assholes, and we’ll get to keep all their stuff for ourselves.
The Lord of Owlbears approves this message.
so.. murder everyone and loot everything?
I don’t think so. Remember Manny?
I’m really curious what the other party will offer for help. Here, we have a discount at Paws (and guesses: maybe some work force? or new items? or refill for some limited items more often?). But even a discount would be a thing. I have no idea if we ever get an access to another shop. Probably won’t. But this discount sounds like a discount for unlimited time (but we don’t know that!).
So.. the other side. The Guards/Merchants/Empire.. our team is on very bad terms with the Empire. We’ve got a pack of monsters, a detention-sentenced runaway thief, a death-sentenced runaway traitor.. Whatever we do, Empire won’t stop chasing them, officially. So any rewards will be either immediate (items, cash, thankyougoodsirandbye), or will be unofficial (single use favor and we’re still enemies? covert quests that the guard can’t do? story options?)..
and the other sides are Merchants.. maybe that’s how we can get another shop (but do we really need one?) or simply new shopping options at Paws (but different than we’d get from the bandits, like choice between weapons from one side, and potions from the other side)?
Killjoy. Manny was totally doable.
A win-win would be good.. so.. kill everyone?
They sound a bit sus.
Note that Paws isn’t pushing us for one side or the other yet, but dealing with both. Which means either Paws just cares about money (which is bad for us… What if he sells us out someday?) and/or that neither side is actually angelic.
Still, the fact the this gang is a) of a different color than those in the Warrens, and b) not going all “we mug’em”, seems to imply that they may be different from the oppressor gangs in and near the Warrens. Yes, oppressors, because, for the oppressed, it likely makes little difference if it’s the Guard or bandits doing the oppressing.
The question of why a dungeon has formed here is still hanging in the air, and it’s likely the real reason both sides are here – expect omissions from both sides, and twists. There may even be a third option. Let’s keep an eye out.
A true merchant sits on the fence ready to deal with both sides
We should probably get Lara out of her robes before meeting with the imperial merchants since they mark her as an arachnomancer and are super illegal in the empire.
Well, she does have armor. Up to LSN whether she wears it or not.
Also, I do doubt whether the merchants are really all that hidebound Imperial.
The Merchants know they’re screwed without external help, so I don’t think they’d be picky about who helps them..
True, that story could be all lies OR the merchants would rather save their own skin, loyalties be damned
Johnny: “We should probably get Lara out of her robes”
Siv: “Well, she does have armor.”
LSN: Lara Wearing Bat Armour@ko-fi
(Is that what “quoting out of context” means?)
Yeaaah that’s exactly why you want to get Lara out of her robes.
Somehow it is not likely that DrowGirl Monthly is a thing around here
… I forgot… rule 34…
“If you help get our people out of there, and bring us enough of the goods off the wagons to make this whole fiasco worth our time, we’ll cut you in on our operation.”
Don’t you just looooooove it when the NPCs are being vague in what they want you to do?
Can we please have Ricki ask for clarification, e.g.: How much is “enough of the goods”? And help your people how? Do we need to free them (possibly from locked cells or cages)? Do we need to make sure they don’t get killed by the opposing side/traps/…? (aka “babysitting mission”, I -hate- those in most video games, the AI of the “baby” characters is usually written so badly they run headfirst into a group of enemies and get themselves killed.) Or should we help them carry stuff?
And discount for basic items could kind of nice, but it depends on how high that discount is (and how often we are going to buy “basic items”), whether or not that is worth -our- time.
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Also, 2 questions for LSN:
Dungeon Eyes dungeons tend to have a non-specific story intro, then a list of tasks/conditions at the start of the dungeon.
No offense, but you’re telling me stuff I already know.
I did want to try and find out things that we all don’t know yet, hence I asked LSN.
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It’s a longshot (I know that, too), but if I don’t ask, we might not find out about this until later or at all. (We might not find out, despite me asking, but I gotta at least ask.)
Because this time, it could be worth knowing more details sooner than later, as in before we have to decide on option 1 or option 2.
(…unless we get a list of whatever deeds gets us how many “brownie points” for either side at the beginning of the dungeon and it is one smooth fluid course of action that will determine which side “rewards” us at the end – if any – instead of us having to pick one side before learning the specifics of said side.)
Maybe the merchants will offer to trade quality goods.. not some crap stolen from random travellers.. actual good stuff..
I think an even better question is: will that discount be permanent, or timed?
Ricki and Lohk are bald too, you know.
Are they? Did you see their hair? Did you not see their hair? Why do you assume there’s no hair when you don’t see it? Did they ever say anything about their hairy or hairless life choices? Or how do they feel about their hairxxness? Why are you trying to define their hairiness? How dare you xD
Daisy and Molly are (presumably) not bald but hairy. Kamau is bald. The drawing of all of them is just “continuous colour”. Thus we just cannot know whether Lohk and/or Ricki have short, colourful hair on all visible body parts or whether that is there skin colour – or skin and hairs have the same colour and from the drawing it is impossible to distinguish haired parts and hairless skin (for example bald head and furry feet).
You forgot about Ell in WSWFG. And of course The Ancient One in Dr. Strange.
The sell cost is a good question.
I never read Dr. Strange, so I couldn’t possibly forget whoever or whatever “the ancient one” is.
And I did indeed forget about Ell being temporarily bald.
It was a man in the comic book. In the film, it was a woman.
Tuvi went bald the same time Ell did. TUVI is the best bald ever!
Buut speaking of bald women in comics!
Storm during the Genosha story!
Moondragon!
Daria in Operation:Zero Tolerance!
Evey in V for Vendetta!
I heard of a man who could defeat any enemy with just one punch
“a bald female HUMAN”. There, I fixed it. thank you for pointing out to me that I was missing a word there in communicating my train of thought @Jeff.
They seem nice.
I wondered how this would be presented, good idea to put the bandits first. Reminder that Ricki is a thief. She absolutely, definitely, undeniably committed the crime of thievery.
Of course, now that we’re watching, the dungeon business is way more lucrative. She also morally won’t stand for stealing from a Kobold family in front of them, as in the Warrens. Stealing is wrong when you empathize with the victim.
No qualms with stealing from those smug self-assured tycoons of the food service industry, though. They have more food than they can eat.
I’m fairly sure Ricki did steal the fruit (the only “on camera” theft that we saw from her while not under “our control”), because she was famished (she even had the “malnourished” trait to “document” that to us). I’m not entirely sure she would steal if there was no need for it. Unfortunately honest, well-paying jobs for goblins seem to be few and far in between.
To be fair, though, one -could- theoretically argue that “taking everything that isn’t nailed down” in a dungeon (as long as we can fit it into our groups inventory) could also be seen as “stealing” to some extend, at least on some occations. (We certainly robbed the rats in the sewers blind and with at least one of them – the rat, king – being humanoid we can’t even 100% claim that we just took precious things from non-sentient creatures who wouldn’t be able to appreciate them – or profit from having them, like we could – anyways.
We also went on pretty much a killing spree in the Kobold warrens and took whatever possessions of the victims that we were able to take with us.)
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Also, one could also argue that now with having aquired the manor (plus garden and seeds), Ricki could turn her life to a more settled, quiet (and less dangerous) one, of simply being a home owner and farmer and supply people who are in a similar situation as she was, when we met her, with a somewhat cheap source of food, if she was so inclined.
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I am kind of torn whether or not I would like to see that happen. On one hand, it would be nice to know Ricki, Kamau, Lara, Lohk, Macadamia, Botanya and maybe even Cordy to be safe and to be able to live out their normal life span without having to worry about traps, guards, other hostile creatures or even stuff like food and gold ever again. On the other hand, I really would love to find out more about our characters’ backgrounds, and the only way that seems to be happening is through aquiring more wealth, build more “party member upgrades” and do the bond dungeon options, when presented with them. Besides the “peaceful path” most likely would mean that the comic is over, and I’m not yet ready for that.
(I sincerely hope that we get to pick the “we got -enough-, we retire from dungeoneering” option some day in the future, and not have the comic end abruptly, because Ricki dies. I also hope no other team members die, but with Ricki, it was defined that the comic would be over.)
Dungeons are odd that way, at least some dungeon loot is generated by dungeon magic. Usually even when dungeon loot belonged to someone, once it’s in the dungeon then it’s basically lost to them in the same way you lose stuff when the building burns down. The bandits hiding out in the Warrens and the rats in the Vault most definitely had stuff of their own which we fought for, even if their stuff was stolen goods.
In stealing, much as with comedy, you should be punching *up*. Making fun of someone more powerful than you is funny, making fun of someone less powerful than you is mean. You can overdo it, but the important part is that if you do cause real harm then your target has the power to get back at you.
Can we suggest that, since they are short on resources but presumable rich in person-hours, that, if we help them, they contribute some labor to our new cooperative farm and reduce the time or price of building new additions?
One labour translates to just 1 gold. Do we want to give them knowledge about our home base for the sum?