I have the same understanding as Seline:  Approach the orphans in our normal guise - "Hi we're heroes and we're here to help."  They give us some type of info about other orphans being taken by Oswald.  With this knowledge we then have an idea where Oswald is, don our 'slavers and slaves' disguise, and try to infiltrate his group.

In reply to Seline (msg # 221):

I think that is accurate.  At this point, you don't have a way of contacting Oswald, so you're not ready to try your plan of posing as slavers.  You need to talk to the Orphans Guild in hopes they can point you in the right direction to find Oswald.  You are, of course, welcome to try other means of locating Oswald (the Orphans are just a logical first step).  The Gambinis weren't able to get you onto Oswald's trail, but they were able to direct you to the Orphans.  Rotter is a big city.  There may be others you could talk to to get leads on Oswald.  You might consider consulting a sage (the usual generic repository of information).  You might also try the law enforcement community.  I don't believe we have discussed the legality of slavery in Rotter yet.  If it's illegal, the City Guard may know something (they may know something even if it is legal -- kidnapping orphans certainly sounds sketchy at best).  You might try talking to another crime syndicate.  There may be magical means of locating Oswald.  You might want to hire a wizard to use a spell to find him.

If you don't want to go the Orphans route, just let me know what you would like to try and we can see how it turns out.

A city-based campaign can sometimes be difficult for players because you don't know what resources and contacts you have at your disposal.  You may feel like you don't have any options because we haven't establish you know the right person or entity.  If you find yourself feeling like that, just ask.  For example, if you are interested in hiring a wizard to find Oswald, but you don't know where to start, just ask me if your character knows a wizard who might be able to help and we will take it from there.  Similarly, if you want to try the City Guard, you could ask me whether your character has a contact person with the City Guard and we will fill in the blanks as appropriate.

In the worst case scenario, where you have absolutely no idea how to proceed and feel stuck, you can always ask me whether your character knows anyone who the character thinks might be able to help in the situation.  We can work from that.  Rotter has lots of resources and your characters know lots of people beyond the NPC list we have established so far.

Well, I know Dreya doesn't have any contacts.

I was just confused and it wasn't coming out clear in the game feed after a certain point.

I am fine with the plan that our characters all hashed out. I was just confused. Thank you for lining it all out.

Concur with the plan.

I think starting out with the orphans is fine.  One question; assuming nabbing orphans for slavery is illegal, wouldn't the Gambinni's know something?  They may not be involved, but wouldn't the crime families at least keep tabs of all under world activities (somebody knows a guy who heard something from his cousin...)?

What about Hugh's contact?  I think that got us started on that, but I haven't looked back on that post.

As for legality of slavery, even if it was (were?) legal, there could some sort of beauracracy involved - there are sanctioned slavers that are allowed to conduct business, but slaves can only be gathered from outside Rotter, there needs to be a bill of sale, there's registration and paperwork (and more importantly taxes to be collected). This would be similar to a letter of Marque distinguishing a privateer from a pirate.  What Oswald is doing could be outside any sanctioned slave trade.  Of course slavery could also just be illegal.  I don't know if I'm overstepping my bounds by suggesting this.  If so, just let me know (subtly,  like "Elwood, we are all dumber just by reading this post").
This message was last edited by the player at 05:01, Fri 20 Jan 2017.

On to the warehouse!

I hope people don't mind me "forcing" them to go all the way into the warehouse.  I thought about stopping at the elevator and asking who is getting in, but we could end up spending a week just getting you to the RP encounter with the kids.  A little railroading seemed to be a better option.

Works for me!

A lot of GMs would have just said "You followed one of the youths as he took you to his leader."  I liked the added descriptions.

Agreed, no arguments.

Yep! Loving it over here!

So, kind of a funny story...I keep having Dreya stumble over Elwood's god's name because that shit really happens to me. Every time it comes up in a post, I swear my mind stutters over that damn word. In fact, I did growl out a "For fucks sake!" the other day.

So I decided to make it a character thing. Trust me, the poor wee druid isn't being intentionally rude.

Long work day. Post tomorrow!

Sorry about the name.  When I asked the CK about deities, he more or less let me make up my own.  Heaven help me the only thing that popped in my head was Flying Spaghetti Monster (I really, really suck at making up names).  Next time I'm just going to name my deity Bob or Buster, or just completely rip off one of the gods from Steven Erikson's/Ian Esselmont's Malazan series.

As for the name Elwood, I had just recently watched "The Blues Brothers".  You know, my character's a cleric - he's on a mission from God.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:35, Fri 03 Feb 2017.

In reply to Elwood (msg # 235):

No need to appologize AT ALL. You have given my crazy mind great fodder to work with for Dreya, since it helps me make her even more socially awkward and just plain weird.

The band, Elwood. The band!

Hugh has decided to drop out of the game.  He said he has enjoyed the game, but real life distractions are preventing him from putting in the time he thinks the game deserves.

I will be putting out a call for a replacement player on the TLG forums.  In the meantime, I will run Hugh as an NPC until the encounter with Oswald is completed.

Oh no! We are dropping like flies! No worries, I, for one, fully intend on sticking around. It is addicting!

I'm still here, myself :-)

I say we engage Oswald. No time like the present.

I'm in a couple other RPOL games,  but this one is my top priority.

Yay that Anthony and Elwood appears to stay for some time to come!

I know I am totally hooked. You guys couldn't get rid of me so easily even if you tried, lol! I am really enjoying Dreya and all her idiosyncracies. Never expected to have a white knight swearing an oath of protection, that's for sure!

Considering she has a -1 to her strength mod, I can't wait until Dreya gains enough XP that she can throw her weight around a bit more by flinging spells about rather than always having to hide behind a meat shield. But...thus is the role of a support character and not a tank, right?

But, I like playing characters with flaws... It feels more realistic. I don't overly enjoy power gaming.

I'm sick at the moment.  I'll try to get an update to you by the end of Saturday.

Get hale soon!

And no rush.

By all means get well.   I don't know of you have the flu, but the strain going around is pretty serious.