I keep forgetting to catch up on this quest

>>25052300
Damn, the last thread I read was 7th. I'm going to have to read a lot to catch up.

>>25052153
Last thread we settled on two actions. First, try to convince a guild lord to come to Grists shop to see his superior quality, though that one was a bit sketchy on details. Second we're trying to plant the opinion that Grist should be made guild lord in exchange for his secrets via faking a dream appearance on other guild lords. This should be more accurately described in previous thread than I am capable of on my phone.

>>25052599
I'm likewise going to be contributing sporadically from my phone today so that makes two of us. I support the dream a random guild lord plan and see where that gets us.

>>25052599

Right. Since the dream one is the only one that was detailed enough to act on immediately and it's already been a while since last update, I'll get rolling with that one.

You flit into one of the guild lord's homes in the dead of night, gently waking him and deluding him into believing that you're the voice of he's subconscious and that he's dreaming. This particular guild lord, overseeing the shipwrights, is one of the more powerful, a lanky man with a short beard, and he listens raptly as you elaborate upon why Grist is a good investment for the guild and Vern is insane. He thinks on the proposal, heading to the window and playing with the curtains a bit. You vanish into shadow while he's distracted and he's startled when he turns around and can't see you. He glances at his bed, looking confused, then decides he's too tired to figure this out and heads back to sleep.

Obviously there's no immediate reaction come dawn the next day when he wakes.

>wait to see if the shipwright lord acts on his "dream," or do something else?

>>25052733
Just observe. We've had a recent trend of trying to micromanage everything and screwing up as a result when much less would have done the job.

>>25052965

You begin shadow-stalking him, following him through the day as he oversees the work at the docks, meets with traders who bring word of those who might be interested in purchasing a new ship, and pours over ledgers, occasionally making a note here or there with his quill.

It seems to have worked more or less, though. Vern continues investigating the blacksmiths while the shipwright, Lenten, begins discussing things with the guild lords of the port and the fisheries (unsurprisingly his two greatest allies) that it may be time to "suggest" he retire in favor of someone who won't go quite so insane over one uncooperative blacksmith who's already been successfully shut down and will no doubt end up either bending to the guild or in debtor's prison for lack of business within a year.

The other guild lords aren't particularly keen on the idea, though. They're both of the opinion that so long as Vern isn't doing any significant damage to trade, it doesn't particularly matter if he takes Grist's lack of cooperation so personally.

>wat do?

>>25053215
Well then we'll have to make him hurt trade. Or look the part. I have two ideas to throw out there. First, we can give Vern a new lot of blaxksmiths to suspect. That'll require a new delusion however. Alternatively we could set fire to the workshop of one of the blacksmiths he hss been harassing and convince the victim that Vern is behind. Problem being of course that Vern might have the resources to deflect the accusation, perhaps even unto Grist. So risky move but perhaps very effective. If anyone else is playing I'd love to hear an opinion on this.

>>25053465

So are we going with one of these, then? Or both?

>>25053858
Perhaps a mix. Perhaps if we delusion Vern that a particular blacksmith is heading the attempts to subvert him he'll increase his harassment of that guy, and after he does that we can set fire to that smiths house. That should make it much more plausible when we convince the victim that Vern is responsible.

>>25054068
I like the style of this plan. Lets do it.

>>25054068
>>25054241

You smack Vern with a new delusion concerning the blacksmiths, catching him alone and telling him that one of his blacksmiths in particular is the head of the faction working with Grist to undermine him. Vern orders an immediate search of the blacksmiths shop and the guards are happy to confiscate and subsequently misplace a bunch of stuff from the middle class craftsmen whose property rights they're ordinarily required to respect. Later that night you sneak into the smith's house and use the flint and kindling next to his forge to light his house on fire.

Unsurprisingly this does not go over well with any of the guild lords, especially Vern. Several of them send messengers to confront him on the subject, and he sends responses denying any involvement. An emergency meeting is called to get to the bottom of things. Several accuse him of going insane over these blacksmiths supposedly working for Grist, but Vern says that the fire is proof of why Grist is a threat to the guild and should be taken more seriously by the others. He's always been stubborn, and now he's desperate, making underhanded deals with his blacksmiths and, when one of the smiths had his house searched, Grist burned it down. Possibly as a warning to the others against letting getting sloppy with secrecy, but probably just to make sure whatever evidence was there got destroyed ("wasting his time," Vern says, "guards couldn't find a thing, must've been fiendishly well hidden. I was reconsidering my suspicions and then THIS happened!").

Most of the guild lords favor Vern's interpretation of events. They can have him arrested and subsequently executed inside of 24 hours, and since he's becoming a serious liability to the guild, most of them are of a mind to do so.

>wat do?

>>25054405
>Most of the guild lords favor Vern's interpretation of events. They can have him arrested and subsequently executed inside of 24 hours, and since he's becoming a serious liability to the guild, most of them are of a mind to do so.

This confuses me. You mean they could have Grist executed, not Vern, correct?

>>25054504
Additional question. Is the meeting still ongoing so that we can interfere?

>>25054504

Yes, Grist is the one on the chopping block. Though really they could have Vern executed too, they just won't.

>>25054531

Yes.

>>25054727
Last question. How are the participants of the meeting positioned. Is Vern far enough from others that we could place delusions unheard, or perhaps in a position where we could get close enough in shadow form to whisper the delusion to him instead of speaking it out loud?

>>25054833

They are seated around a table. The guild lords nearest him might hear you if you attempt to delude him, or they might not.

>>25055051
Attempt to delusion Vern, as stealthily as we can, with "This building has been sabotaged and the roof will fall down on you at any moment"

Even if he has no other reason to believe so, that should be a serious enough concern that he HAS to speak it out and then when they inspect the place and find nothing is wrong that should add some doubt to his sanity and strengthen the idea that the entire conflict is going on inside his own head.

>>25055491

As soon as your delusion takes hold, Vern glances nervously up towards the roof. "We should leave, right now, all of us, outside," he says. The other guild lords begin questioning him, but he exclaims in a near panic "I'll explain outside, come!" The others, somewhat alarmed by his sudden anxiety, follow him out.

"Explain all this," Lenten says.

"The ceiling is unstable," Vern says, "Grist's handiwork again, most likely. He must have been speaking with some of the carpenters."

"Sabotaged?" Lenten asks, raising an eyebrow.

"I heard a voice say something to that effect," the lord of the carpenters guild says, "but...It seemed to be coming from thin air. To be honest I thought I might be hearing things. Did you hear it, too?"

"What? No," Vern says, "I didn't hear a voice, I simply noticed the ceiling looked as though it were about to give out."

"How?" the carpenter asks, "it looked perfectly stable to me, and I'm near certain I heard someone talking to you, or near you at least."

>wat do?

>>25055971
Not a goddamn thing. Just make sure we're properly hidden, sit still, and observe. Anything further and we'll just be making things worse.

>>25055971
Oh well, it was a gamble, and sometimes gambles don't go the way you want them to.

So, as far as I can see interfering at this point is only going to cause more harm. If we do nothing, and these guys know nothing or very little about spirits, they MAY just glance over that detail as "odd". So doing nothing is our best shot.

>>25056335
>>25056351

The guild lords deliberate amongst themselves. Vern is unwilling to re-enter the meeting hall so they reconvene in another building, and by the time they've reached it they've wondered aloud about having the local priest of Koril to determine things. It's pointed out that since Koril is mostly a god of trade and travel, unraveling conspiracies is sort of outside his portfolio. They wonder what other gods they might appeal to. This sort of thing is well outside the Red Queen's wheelhouse, but Razag is a god of justice and retribution, so perhaps a priest of his would be useful? But Razag is also strongly associated with Golgoth, and if the common people all know their liege's alliance with Golgoth can't last, surely the gods must as well. Drawing Razag's attention might thus not be very wise.

Ultimately, though, they come to the conclusion that they shouldn't spend all the money paying a priest to sail here from the mainland just to tell them that no, actually, they all just got spooked and overreacted. They send a messenger to the priest of Koril and ask him to help them determine whether or not something supernatural has occurred.

>wat do?

>>25056738
Aww, inviting Razag would've been neat. I wonder if this priest would actually be competent enough to know anything. It might be a bit troublesome if he calls in the actual Koril. He seems to do pretty well for himself, probably a bit out of our current league. Still though, non-intervention seems our best option, since it is always discreet.

>>25056972

The priest listens to the guild lords recounting of the events. The lord of carpenters mentions how he heard a voice speak to Vern, and the next moment, Vern was acting on the voice's warning. Yet Vern maintains he heard no voice. The priest asks for a description of the voice. Upon hearing it described as that of a young girl apparently from thin air, Lenten mentions that he dreamed of a young girl recently...Though it was sort of an odd dream. When he awoke he found himself by the window, where he had walked in the "dream." And the girl was there advocating for Grist.

The priest scatters some holy dust across all involved and chants some charm or other to protect them (the charm is in another language sounds kind of like a child's poem, and you suspect the priest doesn't know what the words mean, though you can as daemons understand all languages). He promises to make sacrifices to all the gods he think may help, starting with Koril, asking them to intervene and reveal the true nature of what is happening here. He warns them that it sounds like witchcraft. Unsurprisingly Grist is the prime suspect.

>wat do?

>>25057248
Hah. If we're lucky this guy would perform such rituals alone. If so, we could place a tactically sound delusion on him that I haven't come up with just yet. We should stalk the priest. If nothing else, he might do some more hilarious stuff.

>>25057459
Oh, and just as an aside, anyone that may be lurking should feel welcome to join the IRC at Rizon #Rabaddon. It's more than a little quiet tonight though.

I'm thinking Grist is probably more trouble than he's worth now.

Yeah, I think we blew it guys. When they inevitably interrogate Grist, he's going to give up Mari.

>>25057598
Possibly. But if this priest actually contacts his "god", that'd be raising a big red flag of our presence, so I'd think we want to follow up on that.

>>25057657
If they decide to go after Grist, we kill him. No problem.

>>25057459

You follow the priest into the temple. As it's daylight hours, there's a few worshipers making sacrifices to various gods (mostly Koril). It's mostly deserted, though, and after making his sacrifices and sending up his prayers to Koril, he begins visiting the alcoves containing small shrines of the other gods. He's...Mostly alone here. Once again, it's possible no one will overhear if you try to delude him, but not guaranteed.

>wat do?

>>25057901
Temples tend to carry sound pretty well, don't they? And this guy should be somewhat alerted, so let's just come back later. In the meantime let's go see if the guild actually decided what to do other than call in the resident ghostbuster.

>>25058080

You leave the temple with the intent to come back later. The city guard has been mobilized in the meantime, heading for Grist's house. Whatever the guild lords have decided to do past speaking with the priest, it looks like arresting Grist is a part of it.

>wat do?

>>25058405
Well you don't send in the city guard to deliver a dinner invitation. I'm thinking maybe we can beat them there and murderize him with a hammer or whatever else he has lying around. Or something more fun but not guaranteed to work, when the guards arrive delusion him that "they're going to execute you and your only chance is to try to fight your way out and escape."

>>25058630

So which of these are you going to go with?

>>25058630
>>25058983
Welp, was hoping someone would have an opinion but everyone is just being quiet. If we're able to arrive soon enough that we don't see any guards nearby (ones that are actually moving in on him that is), let's just kill him and be done with it. If they're already close when we get there, attempt the delusion. Don't want to be seen actually killing him.

>>25059043

The guards are in a rush but they're not sprinting. You beat them back to Grist's house, pick up a hammer while he isn't looking and pound his face in before he knows what's happening, then vanish into shadow before the guard arrive. They aren't exactly expecting to find him dead, and most of them immediately spread out to find the culprit while the lieutenant leading the arrest and one of his more trusted men begin looking for evidence. It doesn't take them long to find the hammer, but that doesn't really give them much of a lead.

>now what?

>>25059419
Would've loved to say we're leaving because now Grist is dead and the city itself is getting pretty hot, but looking around for a ship right after the murder of someone that we have been seen associating with is probably not smart at all. There's supposed to be other towns on this island, we should head to one of those, they may have ships.

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>>25059525

There are villages on this island, yes, and some of them do indeed have ships. Fishing ships, which means range is very limited, but they float.

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>>25059613
Can they get us to Shorefall? As far as I'm concerned, that's where we should have been going all along, so if they can I'd say we should go there.

Also, I am barely keeping awake at this point, so I guess if anyone wants us to keep trying to get something good out of this city they'll have the chance. I'll just post my superior map before signing out for tonight.

>>25059864

They might be able to get you to Shorefall, but it would be a perilously long journey for such a small boat and inexperienced sailors. The only safe trip for a fishing boat from here would be back to Westercoast on Dorrik. From there it would be reasonably safe to resupply and head to Vin, and form there do the same and then head to Shorefall, but to get to Shorefall in one trip you'll need a bigger boat. This would also help with killing Jaws, if the fancy strikes you.