Dramatis Personae
Beltin (Aasimar Dirge Bard/Cleric 10).
Bradley Weatherby (Human Dervish Dancer 10/Knife Master Rogue 7/Duelist 3).
"Jake" (Human Wizard/Rogue 10).
Grinding and losing rep, Session 11.2 - 08/23/14
Day 15
Bradley Weatherby
While Beltin is busy playing Sim City, BW and Jake make their way to the Sip of Blood and sit down at the bar. BW expresses how the whole church of Nerull and how happy that acolyte kid was about death was just creepy. He went on to explain how though he kills people, he does it for a good reason (lies), not for something as trivial as religion. Those zealots were unnerving, he said.
The whole meeting with the death church made BW question his life and what he was doing. He felt as though he had seen something dark and evil, something far down the path he was walking, but something that was not yet him. He had thought he was evil, but who could be compared to that?
(Note: For all mechanical effects BW is treated as evil regardless of his philosophical navel-gazing).
Aloud he wonders if all religions are just garbage to pull people in and make zealots of them. At this point a man who had been sitting at a table behind them, drinking quietly and taking in the local aesthetic, turns around and throws in his thoughts on how religion is neutral, and that people can interpret the teachings for both good and evil. The man introduces himself as Horace.
Horace and BW end up getting into a lively religious debate, which according to BW's player "lasts as long as it takes." Which, according to a d10, is 6 hours. The discussion livens things up a bit at the Sip and at the end of it they decide to end in a draw.
At this point BW realizes he has been talking to one of the crusaders, a man who is actually fairly high ranking in both the crusade and the Church of Thyr. He had not expected that. BW has made a new friend in high places!
Horace tells him that it seems like he, BW, is at a bit of a crossroads in his life and suggests that he come to a service to Thyr sometime; they have them nightly at the crusader camp in the tent city. BW says he will consider it, and Horace shakes his hand and departs.
From there BW leaves the Sip and heads down to the Dancing Bear and joins in the local adventurer gossip. He hears rumors about all sorts of outlandish things supposedly in the Desolation (like some sort of caravan of the dead that roams the roads of the Desolation on quiet nights... spooky shit, yo), and he adds some of his own stories. He buys some drinks and starts the slow, arduous process of transforming from a mustache-twirling villain to a mustache-twirling villain with a good public relations persona.
Jake
Jake has better things to do than listen to people drone on about religion and leaves a little while after BW and Horace begin to their verbal sparring.
He heads over to Yohann to check on the new recruits for his "mage's college" and finds them quite unhappy about being put through drills by Yohann, but perhaps too scared of the man to stop. Jake says he will take over and begins instructing the recruits on the use of magic.
Several of the recruits seem keen to impress him and show off the "powerful" magic they possess. Someone Ray of Frosts the person next to them. He get Magic Missiled back for 1d4+1. Another one Color Sprays into the air.
They are mostly a collection of opportunists who never cared about magic besides what it could do for them. No real talent though. No discipline, no use for magical theory, only results. Jake is satisfied he can mold them to his will. People like that know a greater power and how to serve it for their own ends when they see it.
One of the overachievers manages to produce a Scorching Ray and then nearly a Fireball, but it fizzles at the last moment. This one Jake asks his name: Roringard. Perhaps there is someone with talent after all, thinks Jake, and he nods at the man and walks to the next pathetic recruit trying to impress him.
He starts them off crafting basic scrolls and imposes brutal discipline on those that screw up. One of the recruits starts making a scroll of read magic and gets bitch slapped. The lesson carries on for a while and then Yohann insists it is his time to take over and Jake lets him. He may have a strike force of low level Magus when all is said and done.
Day 16
The day proceeds much as the former.
Jake
Jake spends much of the day drilling his forces and training them in magic. Roringard continues to stand out as his top recruit.
At one point Jake has reason to head back to the market for supplies and sees the false wizard he dominated still at his stall, looking as though he had been there all night compulsively working without sleeping. Jake just walks on.
Beltin
Beltin doesn't do too much and just spends some time mingling among the common folk. At some point during the day a courier arrives with a message that he is requested at the Dancing Bear.
He goes and meets the bartender, a man named Floyd. Floyd is the consummate professional and offers him a finely made mixed drink made from the highest quality alcohol the south can offer. Beltin politely sips it.
Though he is obviously a hell of a bartender, something about the man also speaks to a more brutal nature, as though he's the kind of person who could break a child's arm at his employer's request while never losing his polite, ingratiating, faux-servile smile. He's the kind of man Beltin has met many times before, and he's clearly dangerous.
He tells Beltin that he heard of the marvelous new jail that he had helped to create as well as the real estate business he ran on the side. Floyd explains how though they have brought materials to construct their establishment, it would be a time consuming process, and they would like to move out of the temporary tent phase as soon as possible.
Floyd tells Beltin that if he and the architect of the jail would be willing to help out the Hospitality Guild with this matter, they would be well rewarded.
Beltin refuses.
Floyd never loses his smile, and though it was never exactly warm to begin with, it now takes on something approaching icy. He asks if that's how it will be, will Beltin go down with the Sip of Blood or will he listen to reason and do business with the inevitable winners of this hospitality related pissing match between their competing taverns?
It's not too late to make the right decision, says Floyd. Beltin walks out.
Beltin is now hostile with the Hospitality Guild!
Bradley Weatherby
BW spends some time mingling and talking to people, grinding rep where ever he goes. Which isn't into the Sip of Blood. He can spot a loser when he sees it.
He goes and sees Jim and Joe just to shoot the shit and play some cards and then he heads over to mingle among the crusaders and join in among the activities at the Dancing Bear. People who hear the unsavory rumors surrounding him begin to doubt them.
"I know BW," they think. "He is a hell of a guy."
BW is now friendly with the Camp! Well, the new Campers. The old timers know a snake when they see one, being snakes themselves.
BW decides that he needs a proper base of operations and decides the office and basement of the Bender Brothers Inn will work perfectly, especially as it has an alchemy lab setup. Being a part owner, he will just go in and take it.
He approaches a civilian carpenter who was busy working on some permanent structures for the crusade and offers him an outrageous sum of money to drop what he is doing and make him some fine home furnishings. The man accepts and begins to work on them.
After that BW decides he needs some new clothes. Though his suit is in perfect condition due to magical cleaning and mending, it makes him feel dirty being in one suit for so long. He doesn't like to slum it. He finds the best tailor in town, brought in with the crusade, and commissions a new suit.
Not just a regular suit, but the kind of things that make upper nobility jealous. The tailor originally suggests something in the 300 to 500 gold range back in Bard's Gate (higher here of course) and BW sneers, telling the man that he said quality, not something for impoverished, rural yokel nobles.
He demands it be something worth 1,000 gold (obviously more here) back in Bard's Gate and demands to know if the tailor is up to it. The tailor says he is. BW says good and leaves with some vaguely defined threats about what will happen the clothes are not up to specification. Come back in a few days, says the tailor.
That night BW tracks down Horace and attends a service to Thyr. It takes place in a large tent filled with crusaders and is filled with militaristic jingoism and talks about how the Desolation must be brought under the rule of law. It is led by an incredibly stern looking man in full armor. He does not look like the mind of man to mess with and Horace explains he is now the acting commander of the crusade.
Afterwards BW tells Horace he didn't care much for it, and Horace confesses that neither does he, but the the way of Thyr isn't really about the sermons. It's about walking the path in your life, putting down evil and helping the common folk against injustice wherever you see it. Shit like that.
BW tells him he finds that more appealing; he may seriously be considering a conversion. At least one for show to increase his rep further. BW spends some more time talking to people and making himself liked before making a show of giving a large donation to the church, all the while looking as humble as could be about it.
To be continued...
