I'm unsure of how or what to do, but here's what I want to do:

1. I'd like to fill out the bestiary.

2. Ritual summon stone/sand elementals to help our cause.

3. Talk to the spirits about caverns, caves, passages close to the Sandstone to which we could connect; in case of emergency. Source of water/food(if mushrooms/criters). Expand into at a later date. Find allies to help our cause. Find creatures to serve as mounts in the bestiary.



But i'm guessing I can only do one of these things, yes?

Yep, pick one for now... (Note: depending on what you choose, it might not get done right away, but at least you'll have started it...)

Let's try out number 3. Seems like the things to check first.

what do i invoke?

To "Talk to the spirits about caverns, caves, passages close to the Sandstone to which we could connect; in case of emergency" ?

yes

This is a level 2 thing to do, so Mark 1 light stress, and roll 2d6 (not 3, because it's level 2)

20:12, Today: Graithar rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,2.  Commune with spirits of the earth.

Average roll.

A small earth elemental of only about three feet in height appears before Graithar... but it seems to have trouble maintaining its form.

It informs him that there are indeed various tunnels around here... some are filled with water, but there's one that might be good for his purposes of making for a good emergency getaway tunnel... "...the one complication that might not make it perfect is that at the far end, there's... there's..."

The earth elemental collapses into a pile of stones and sand. End of ritual.

Still, Graithar knows more than he knew before... it can be done... although there might be some complication at the far end...?

Probably a new ritual would have to be done to get more information (like, which direction, exactly, to dig in)... but Graithar will have to rest up for that.

---

Meanwhile, spending a little money from the hoard, Rasal equips the barracks. The barracks are now ready for use...

(I have updated the SANDSTONE thread-- the Barracks are now ready for use. You can use them to recruit help on your next Downtime phase.

Everyone ready for the next Raid phase?

If so... what shall it be? Attacking the Duchess at the Ruined Castle...? Or will you hold off on that, and try diplomacy with her at the next Downtime phase...?)

oh this is OOC btw. But yes i'm ready to continue.

Tch good catch. I have now posted in the Downtime thread, too.

But, so, like, what's the plan?

1. Aggressive action toward the Ruined Castle//Duchess?

or

2. A new raid to increase the hoard (and try diplomacy with the Duchess afterward)? You'll need the hoard to be bigger, after all, if you're going to recruit more helpers and pay them steadily...

I'll follow Rasal on this one.

Do we know anything about the Duchess, other than that she is a ghost?

What I put on the FACTIONS thread was:


TIER 2 FACTIONS:

Duchess in the Ruined Castle: A powerful spirit haunts this castle (far southeast), ruined in an unremembered war. Within the halls of the castle also roams a possessed suit of armor - her son's soul bound to it. She sends the suit out in the land, in search of her husband, dead for generations.

("Thank you for choosing T.G.I.Friday's" voice): "Okay, so hey, how we doin'? Anything I can get anybody...?"

I think this is our key.  Maybe if we can solve the mystery of the husband (the Duke? the Consort?) then we can earn some favors from the Duchess.  Or we put her to rest, the ghosts vanish, and we have a spare castle.

Either way this is my official proposal for the next excursion.  Unless we need to do more research first.

So it sounds like your proposal is to show up at the castle in your next downtime, and offer to solve the Duchess's problem?

Because you're gonna need to do more research before you can just go try to solve that right away...

Sorry, took a while before I had both time and brainpower at the same time.

If the Duchess is going to be a lengthier project, and more focused on Downtime than Raid time, then I'll save that for later and just find another tyrant minion to rob now.  Or sabotage, if we know a good target for that.

Ooh, maybe military supplies?  I'm going to guess that this mostly means heavily armed forts, and that's probably beyond our capabilities at this time, but those forts need some kind of supplies from outside.  Food at least, and probably also raw materials (I'm assuming there are smiths on the inside, but metal still needs to come from somewhere else).  Given the option I would rather raid a mine than a farm.

Everyone else okay with this too?

Sabotaging the flow of metal from mining to the Tyrant's forces sounds okay, but it probably wouldn't disrupt anything unless you put a stop to it for the foreseeable future somehow...

...Or you could just try to rob the military payroll at some point in its trickling-down? THAT'd do a lot of damage, for the Tyrant's soldiers to stop getting paid on time...

What do the rest of you think?

Yes, that's definitely what I meant, thank you for clarifying ;)

Okay... any objections from anyone...?

It's a win-win. We get money and seed unrest and possible desertion. I'm all for this.

Oh wow, a new post. I was thinking about asking about retiring this game today...

But if y'all are still up for continuing after all...

Lady Chessintra, are you still with us...?

It... seems not...?

If she doesn't reply by this time tomorrow, someone nudge me, and we'll carry on just the two of us... Unless y'all want me to advertise again...?

Im here, my computer died on me and trying to get a new one.