Ring Of Thieves
First I would like to thanks S. John Ross for allowing us to use this game here as long as we do not fully reproduce but keep it to just the paragraphs as we go through his adventure game RING OF THIEVES and here is some recognition for his hard work.
QUOTE |
THIS ARCHIVE IS FREEWARE This ZIP archive may be freely distributed, provided it remains intact and unaltered. The contents are Copyright 2000 by S. John Ross; all rights reserved. These files may not be used for any commercial purpose without express license from Cumberland Games & Diversions. |
Message Edited... JB: Cleaned up and made the Thread 'pretty'. |
Lucas Marks
A curly haired, green eyed Halfling with a confident gaze and a boyish grin. Popular with the ladies despite his minute stature, Lucas is stubborn, gently sarcastic, fun loving adventurer with a fondness for warm weather and thick ale. He is a thief but tries to get his money through honest mercenary work when possible.
Unfortunately Lucas is rotten with anything mechanical; he operates at half dice when dealing with locks and traps.
Cliches: Fun loving Mercenary (3), Halfling burglar (4), Ladies man (2), Outrageous Story teller (2)
Three lucky shots which he bought using his extra point for having a hook and tale. This means on three occasions he can boost his roll by one die once using one of his lucky shots.
I will now post the intro thread once we have 5 responses to what ever action is required. I will make any necessary rolls post the result along with the next part of the story. My input will be in italics the rest will be from the Story itself. If you see room for improvement in what I am doing feel free to mention it. I will try to post at least every 2 days over the holidays and every day or more often till then.
Meet Lucas Marcs Our young Hafling hero or so we hope. He is a young Rogue who has become more than a bit smitten with his full time compadre Patricia Meadows who is 22 year old human adventuress. Together you have seen the strangest corners of the world.
Your Unlikely association began in the City of Chamlek, when you tried to pick one another's pockets in the streets"¦ After some embarrassing laughter, the most important friendship of your life began. With each passing season, your friendship grows stronger, a relationship built on mutual admiration.
Our story finds you both in the great Northern city-state of Hultog, in the middle of a cruel winter. You arrived just a week ago. Seeking a new source of revenue and shelter from a blizzard here in the mighty river-city. Unfortunately, you"ve found only uncaring crowds, cold winds, and the tireless presence of the Merchant Oligarchy's finest lawmen"¦
Until yesterday.
While pursuing the dockside curiosity shops for foreign tidbits, you were ambushed. Five men, dressed in identical grey robes and wielding long knives, demanded money and jewelry.
You were prepared to run for it, to lose them in the twisting alleyways.
But Patricia was in a testy mood Her short sword leaped from its scabbard live vengeful lighting, and two grey cloaks were bleeding and screaming before the others could react! The grim melee that followed was a good deal less clean, but no less decisive: two more grey suits down ( one by your blade, the other by Patricia's), with the last one running for dear life.
Your not sure if it's safe to say that you love Patricia, but you certainly do. Your just not sure its safe to say it.
You gather up the spoils and vacate they alley, making a celebratory supper at the Cup and Talon. Upon a close examination of your spoils, you are shocked to find a magical ring among the coin, a simple band of brass, gleaming with a purple radiance!
Wit your coins spent of the feast and a room for the night, you tuck the ring in the side of your shoe. You"ve settled into bed with Patricia for the a well deserved rest. After grumpily fighting over then covers, sleep finally comes, and the icy, river scented air creeps in past the shutters "¦.
Upon awakening, the first thing you notice is the open window of your room. The shutters creak slightly, swinging listlessly in the dawn, and the icy breeze raises Goosebumps on your skin. Outside, a few lonely snowflakes drift silently over the rooftops.
The second thing you notice is that Patricia is gone. Her side of the bed is empty - and you know you didn't go to sleep with the window! You sit upright in surprise, and meet and wave of nausea. You collapse, straining for breath, back into your pillow. The bed is empty. Tricia is gone. Your head hurts. The window is open.
Your having the worst hangover of your life, but you didn't touch more then a single flagon last night. Very little is making sense.
And Patricia never gets up before midday unless you make her. Your getting genuinely worried. If she's got into any sort of mischief"¦You fight to make sense of the world through a wall of pain.
Roll against fun loving mercenary cliche to to fight off effect of hangover. 10 or better required.
Our Fun Loving Mercenary is (3) so we roll 3 times
Rolling the die.
Roll (1) - 5 : roll(2) -1: roll (3) - 5 Totaling 11 "¦"¦
We shake the Hangover and onto 8
_____________________________________________________________________
With a Herculean effort, you shake free of the fog of sleep and nausea. You stand uneasily and it feels as though the room itself is bucking angrily beneath your feet. You try to make out details, and your eye catches a small piece of paper on the window sill "¦.
The paper is ready to fall, tipping in the breeze. It bumps along the sill and then sails up into the air heading for the Hultog rooftops!
Difficulty 20 roll against our Halfling burglar cliche if we succeed to 34 fail we go to 51.
______________________________________________________________________
I did not pre-read this but I am hoping soon we start hitting a whole lot more decision making hang in there all.
We need to decide how import ant is this paper as our skill in thieving is 4 that means a max roll of 24! Do we want to use a luck point and increase our skill by one die to 5 dice for this roll? That would leave us with two more luck rolls.
It is good to see something starting here again. What happened to the others?
QUOTE |
We need to decide how import ant is this paper as our skill in thieving is 4 that means a max roll of 24! Do we want to use a luck point and increase our skill by one die to 5 dice for this roll? That would leave us with two more luck rolls. |
This paper may very well be extremely important, of course it could also be a cookie recipe, but the only way we will ever find out is to attempt to grab it.
I say go for the paper.
Darkscribe thanks for the reply as for death I did place this in the start.
QUOTE |
Death should we be over come or take a nasty plunge I will go back to the previous point of where we could have made a different decision. I will try to keep it flowing with out redoing more than required. |
Onward we go then after the note using one luck point.
Halfling burglar (4)=1 die
Roll = 26 (I am using a die roll program now so it will be just total of the die rolled)
So onto 34
You reach out, fighting the fierce pain that shoots through your arm. Your fingers nimble grasp the edge of the paper before it can sail away over the city. You unfold it and it reads:
The ring is ours. We'll be back tomorrow to take it. If you cooperate, the woman might live. - W. Grey. Guild Master.
Guild Master? Hultog has never had a real ""Thieves Guild" that you know of. A few gangs here and there, of course, but the Oligarchy guard is tough on attempts to really organize - at least that's what you heard. That's why you've been operating elsewhere when you actually bother to steal for real living.
You read the note a few times. You aren't about to sit around and trust these guys!
The room is a wreck. Debris is scattered every where: clothing belts, pouches, and all of your "Professional" gear. The place has been ransacked! Now you're really worried.
Searching the room closely you find a vial, with traces of yellow fluid still in it. Lifting it you feel a wave Nausea come over you. Rearing back you run to the open window for fresh air. Certainly this was how it was done without rousing you or patricia. Who ever had done this was careless; they had left the label on! It reads:
Grymray's Apothecary and Potion House,
Number 15 Short Alley, Prices reasonable Safety assured.
You sigh at the irony of the last line. It was clearly wasn't safe for you or patricia! you feel your heart clenched with fear for her safety.
Looking back over the note; if the thieves' guild of some sort really has been reformed, they have to be contacted. You can use that to pin them. Now... How to pursue them? It certainly looks like they might have com in through the window. You could go out and scout for a trail (go to 22) or you could go down into the tavern and ask around for leads (go to 90).
So do we jump onto the roof beyond the window for a looky poo or see what scum be can find below?