Aegis:
He's just the mercenary, not the quartermaster.
He might get some waking up if he parties with Dilandua for long enough... act like the hired help, get
paid like the hired help... ;)
quote:
Aegis doesn't have a clue when it comes to the animals.
None of us do (unless Reanna has some talents she hasn't owned up to)... Another reason Dilandua is leaning towards "Option B".
quote:
If anything, he might have a mild preference for St. Remy based on:
(a) knowing a good whore or two there, and
(b) the mages might be pushing to make town, leading to them being exhausted and inattentive.
Strategically Dilandua agrees. Realistically... I'm not sure Dne (or the
mule horse) can press (be pressed) hard enough to get us there
before them (by at least two days*).
Realistically, we're likely to barely hit town at the same time they will, which is absolutely terrible for ambushing unless your plan is to burn down a portion of Saint Remy to cover our tracks. I mean Dilandua isn't against that per se, it's just crass and unprofessional... Dilandua prides on being a lot more precise and surgical than that (not that there are a whole lot, or even any, 'kill notches' on those spears yet, but when they get put there, it'll look better if they are 'proper assassination' tags rather than sloppy 'murder hobo' Xs).
But if it's what the group wants, call it
Option C. (It's also fine if Option C is "sneak in, kill them in their beds in the tavern, sneak out", just Dilandua will laugh at the idea that we could pull that off without making
all the ruckus.)
* I say two days so we can be roughly a day out of town to set up the ambush (so no one just "randomly stumbles across us" also in case someone escapes, the farther they have to go to find safety, the easier to catch them), and so we have a day to set up an ambush spot. Putting in clothesline traps and shallow pits to hinder our victim's escape is the work of a day.
Honestly we can also discuss this periodically on the trip... though I suspect we'll have a "...and X days later you're in Saint Remy..." without much time to discuss it inbetween.
Reanna Draegan:
Change the mule to a Saddle horse...
Yes, horse. I typed 'mule' again didn't I? Lack of sleep rears its ugly head.
To keep the saddle horse at Move 4 we have to keep the load at or below 176, so you might need to carry a bit more of your own gear... Note the Horse is at 4.8 Move at Light Enc (176 Lbs).
BEWARE, RABBIT HOLE OF RULES DISCUSSION PAST THIS POINT:
[EDIT]
I get into some interesting ideas the longer I rambled on this...
So for anyone interested in the
TL/DR: AND WE CAN GET THERE IN 24 HOURS skip to the bottom.
[/EDIT]
If gwythaint is going on ye olde standard of "takes one week at donkey cart speeds", that means at a Move of 3 it takes 7 days.
If that's a travel time of 8 hours per day, that puts Saint Remy roughly 168 miles away on a decent road.
At a Move of 4, we could get there in 5.25 days. I expect the mages to be at this speed,
if not better.
Normal means of 'going faster':
Each of these things is
optional;
Hiking to march faster,
Navigation/Area Knowledge to cut corners,
Going Without Sleep.
For the first two, on a successful skill roll they gain +10 Move, on a failure -10%, on a critical failure -20%. Hiking is personal, Navigation affects the entire group speed.
Skipping Sleep: there are two sets of rules,
Basic and the simpler
DFRPG.
Basic is complicated, but essentially if we press on an extra 2 hours per day, we gain some extra miles, but will be down 2FP that can only be recovered with a full night's rest and an additional 1 hour of rest.
DFRPG rules just charge a flat -3 FP for each full day's rest missed. Pushing on for the full two days get us there at the end of the third day, but leaves us needing to rest for a full 16 hours to recover.
I recommend not skipping rest (by itself).
Costly Methods of going faster:
If we each pick up scrolls of Quick March (or rather each of you slow pokes and one for the horse at double cost) for $80 per scroll ($160 for the horse), we could double our travel speed for $400/day (Move 8). Each day we can afford this, we beat them by that one day. Alternately, with 3 scrolls (one for Dne and a double cost one for the horse) we can be at Move 6, at a cost of $240/day.
If we could afford to hire a Guide (with Survival skill and a Move 4, $200 for the week*) we could increase our travel speed by half (marching for 12 hours instead of 8 per day, you just have to have a point in Survival, not roll it). This means we get there in 3.5 days.
If the Mages are
sleeping in and
only moving at a 4, we beat them by 2 days.
If we can afford a Guide ($200) and to push an extra 2 hours per day (or one day overnight), we can get there in 3 days (2.5 days). That gives us a half a day/full day to laze about recovering from the forced march (-6FP from lost sleep) and means we can tell the guide to peace out for a day or two (we'll need them for the walk home, I mean we paid him for a full week right?), head out past Saint Remy half to one day's travel and prep for the ambush.
For $680 we can get there in one day... (4 scrolls + 1 horse scroll, Guide, march all night).
I recommend the Guide+Push Extra Hours option, unless someone has the cash lying about for the $680 option (Dilandua could actually go in halfsies on this if someone else could also). Also note, this means we'd need 5 days less food...
If someone knows a Druid or Wizard who can cast Quick March we can drastically cut costs here ($40 per Quick March, $80 for the horse)... it means Guide+Quick March+Push Overnight costs $240 and we get there in about 24 hours...
Granted we could also hire 2 Laborers and a Guide for a 'day' at $120 each, get them Quick Marched $40, for a total of $480. We'd need to supply them with food (6 meals each) for $36, three waterskins $30, two frame packs $200, one four person tent $150, and three bedrolls $60. This costs $956 ($1,116 total for the group), gets us there in 1 day, without needing a horse, gives a lot of flexibility in how much we carry on the return (we could hire a laborer or two extra on the return trip). Paying them for the return trip costs $108 per day (wages and rations), for 4 days, is $432.
Total cost of final option there and back again (baring hiring more porters): $1,548
That's just under the cost of outfitting a saddle horse.
That leaves $52 to split on ropes, food, etc. Or we chip in another $8 and the Guide can carry out some loot too (small pack worth).
* This is quadruple price based on a full four 8 hour work days.