As the men approach you, toothed clubs raised, you draw your saber, the blade gaining a dull glow in response to being drawn. The men whisper to each other at this before taking defensive stances.

They are standing in front of the only entrance into the innards of the ship. In your right hand you hold your Fraying Saber, in your left is a lantern. Your pistol is unloaded and your rifle requires both arms to operate.

What do you do?
>Engage
>Retreat
>Other (write in)

>>31026059

>Other
"Who are you two and what are you doing here?"

>>31026147
Begin loading our pistol while doing so, roll dat intimidation
Count this as a second for linked post if nobody else wants to fiddle with our pistol

>>31026049
IT'S BONERS TIME!
actually, do bone mages ever make boner jokes?

>>31026059
>>Engage

>>31026210
please note that the first line on that post is bugged, there were tags in there that were ignored and it came out saying BONERS when it should have said BONES

>>31026059
put out the lantern, toss it at them, and then pull out your pistol and shoot one.

Also, for some reason we never use disjunction on people even though it lets us paralize them at a distance, we should rectify it, after shooting one disjunction the other and then cut him down with your sword

>>31026192
>>31026147

I can get behind this. Tell them to stand down.

>>31026301
At your current skill level disjunction is touch only.

5 minutes remaining for votes.

>>31026301

Combine these, actually.

Although we can't use disjunction in combat.
>>31026192
>>31026147

>>31026328
thanks for the correction. Can a weapon be used to deliver touch spells?

>>31026340
Actually, one of the abilities in the Speaker tree allows you to apply spells to objects as a single use charge.

>>31026373
oh sweet... so, something we will unlock later than.

But right now, we CAN use it in battle, right? We just have to touch them with our body to deliver the spell?

This actually is useful here because we were asked to bring back the criminals alive for interrogation. If we disjunction them, they are paralized and out of the fight, while still alive.

>>31026147
>>31026192
>>31026301

Hah, actually...

Question them as to their identities while loading our pistol and quietly casting our heat dissipation spell. If they decide to attack then throw the lantern (lit) at them (provided we won't set off the coal reserves from here) and use disjunction on them (if needed) to buy time to draw our sword to whack'm with.

I just had hilarious idea
>Put hands up in air, empty
>say "I am unarmed, I need to speak with your leader. look my hands are empty, you can tie me up".
>Enemies get in range
>Touch attack, paralyzed with disjunction
ho ho ho
Don't actually do this though, they are more likely to run us through then take us prisoner.

>>31026435

Trying to take one of them alive, of course. Forgot to include that.

Alright, counting and writing.

>>31026435
the reason i said to turn it off, is that a laterns is full of oil, that oil will spill as a patch on the floor and then catch on fire at once. If it isn't quenched in time it can spread out of control and burn the ship down.
Although in retrospect, I probably exaggerated the severity of the risk

ps. last thread op said there are badass normals, and he was surprised nobody batted an eyelash when that captain from a few threads ago, who wasn't a mage, knocked the bullet out of air.
I didn't realize the captain did that by being badass normal, I thought he had an enchantment on the sword that did that.

You raise the lantern up to head level to try and get a better look at the men standing before you. Their faces are partially obscured by bull skulls that they wear as helms.

“Who are you, and what are you doing on this ship?” You speak loudly and clearly, trying to maintain an air of intimidation.

“The Prophet has declared this ship to be of vital importance to our people,” one of the men says, his voice quivering slightly.

“Don't speak to the outsider!” The other man shouts at his compatriot, before charging at you. You blow out the lantern and throw it at the man charging at you, reaching for your pistol as soon as the lantern leaves your hand.

Roll 3d10, best of 3.

Rolled 8, 8, 6 = 22

>>31026793

Rolled 8, 8, 7 = 23

>>31026793

Rolled 9, 9, 3 = 21

>>31026793

>>31026917
>>31026867
>>31026824
Writing.

>>31026538

Its a coal burning ship, so I assumed it was iron.

>>31027189
oh, i didn't even think about that. in that case it would have been the better idea to leave it on. eh, we did good enough

The lantern connects with a hollow clang against the man's face, the metal base striking first. By the time the lantern falls onto the deck your pistol is in your hand, still unloaded. The other man, the one that spoke first, has begun charging at you, club raised.

You deflect the club with your pistol, catching it with the barrel in between the teeth. With a deft swing, you slash at the man with your saber, glowing green in the night. The man drops the club and staggers back, the power of the saber eating into his body rapidly.

The other man, witnessing the nature of the wound on his ally, runs to the railing of the deck and calls out into the blackness of the night.

“Cord! We need your strength!”

There's a faint splashing sound you can hear from the water before you feel a heavy impact on the deck. Looking around, you see a large man standing next to the railing. The man is clad in heavy bone armor on his limbs, his chest bare. His face is obscured by a tusked skull, and in his hands he carries an iron axe, rusted and covered in old blood.

What do you do?

>>31027394
Load the gun and shoot him.

>>31027451
I can support this
Cord sounds like a guy we don't want to melee with.

>>31027394
I forgot this:

>Mana: 27/32

You got 7 more mana last thread because of the Shaper level up, bringing your pool up to 32. The charsheet has been updated to include this.

>>31027394
it is POSSIBLE that he is also a mage (unless he is just a dude who likes wearing bones)
No taking changes, load the gun with the marrow shots and fire

>>31027451
Seconding this. If these guys want Cord around for his strength he'll probably fuck us up if we engage in melee

>>31027561
Pistol doesn't have a marrow chamber anymore, you swapped it out for a seismic charger and put the chamber into the rifle.

Unless you mean switch to rifle.

>>31027595
1. is the rifle currently loaded?
2. I remembered, but I assumed the seimic charger used marrow pellets too

>>31027566
>>31027451
>>31027478
Also, declare what you want to try to shoot with, pistol or rifle, and roll 3d10.

Rolled 7, 6, 2 = 15

>>31027643
mmm... vs a boss, go with a rifle shot.

Rolled 1, 1, 1 = 3

>>31027643
pistol

>>31027640
The rifle isn't loaded.

Nah, SC just takes extra mana from you to use.

Rolled 8, 10, 9 = 27

>>31027643
Pistol

>>31027664
wow
this is impressive

Rolled 8, 10, 5 = 23

>>31027664
>>31027643
Fuck

>>31027664
Ouch

>>31027664
You are so god damn lucky I don't do crit fails.

Rolled 10, 7, 8 = 25

>>31027664
Gwahahahaha

Hot damn. And here I was, thinking the 3d10 system was proofed against that stuff.

>>31027643
Pistol, rifle might be hard to aim at the speed we want to.

Rolled 9, 2, 3 = 14

>>31027705
PRAISE THE ALMIGHTY SAUCY

Rolled 10, 2, 5 = 17

>>31027664
checking... looking... huh, it seems the roll was actually legit.

>>31027705
If I was lucky I wouldn't have rolled that in the first place.

>>31027705

Heh, you should've taken it.

>>31027769
>>31027669

I agree, lets shoot the fuck out of cord.

We'll capture the lesser guy.

Rolled 4, 4, 4 = 12

>>31028012
big guy like that, he might survive the first shot and end up captured anyways.

... say QM, is there a way to tell at a glance that someone else is a mage? Like, sensing their mana?

>>31028036

Well yeah I doubt it'll take him down, but I also doubt there are many people that can take an armor-penetrating pistol shot to the midriff and ignore it.

I think we have the saber in our other hand too.

You load your pistol as fast as you can as soon as you see Cord and his axe, the thought of being in close combat with that monstrosity of iron sending chills up your spine. In your haste you drop the lead ball you were trying to load. You curse and bend down to scoop it back up and load it.

In the blink of an eye Cord has closed half the distance between the two of you when you have the ball finally loaded. Dropping your saber, you grab your other hand in an attempt to level the pistol quicker, pumping mana into the seismic charger to make the shot as hard hitting as you can. Unfortunately, as soon as you have a bead on Cord, he has completely closed the distance between the two of you and raises his massive axe. On reflex, you Reinforce your bones, hoping to stop the axe from cleaving you in twain.

In a blur, the axe comes down on your shoulder, cracking and even digging partly into your hardened skeleton painfully, blood erupting around the wound.

However, it's still not enough to bring you down.

Gritting your teeth, you press the muzzle of the pistol against Cord's chest, right above his heart and fire, blowing a massive hole clean through his torso. You hear a sputtering coming from under the skull mask as Cord breathes his last and collapses into a pool of his and your blood.

Breathing heavily, you cast disjunction on his corpse and being to patch yourself up as best you can with Salve, using the bones as fuel for the spell.

By the time you are suitably patched up, although poorly, you notice that the other man has ran off somewhere.

You unsteadily get to your feet.

What do you do?

>>31028143
Go looking for him, perhaps rouse a few sleeping sailors.

>>31028143

Go after the other man, we can't let our only living lead get away.

First look over the rail for where Cord came from though.

Rolled 2, 1, 9 = 12

>>31028143
>On reflex, you Reinforce your bones, hoping to stop the axe from cleaving you in twain.
Remember your gloves young padawan, double shield charm

Rolled 1, 6, 4 = 11

>>31027538
what about the +5 implant we bought?

>>31028227
You never got it put in, although after this job is done you're free to do so.

>>31028227

We never implanted it.

>>31028143
what happened to the guy you hit with your sword earlier? dead? is his corpse still around and usable? (we will have to loot him later)

Load BOTH your pistol and rifle, keep them both loaded for rest of encounter (why didn't we have them loaded to begin with? if for safety then we need to put a safety on them that is easier to undo than loading a bullet)

>>31028246
>>31028256
the only reason we didn't specifically go and have it implanted is because we assumed that it was implanted immediately after purchase. This need to explicitly state we are actually doing so should have been made clearer at the time

>>31028259

Well last we saw he was unarmed and getting eaten alive by the fray effect.

>>31028259
He bled out. Fraying modules ain't nothing to fuck with, especially if you don't have the bulk to absorb the effects from reaching your internal organs.

>>31028304
Noted.

>>31028324
alright, cool.

Well, we can look his remains later. for now search the rest of the ship for crewmembers and intruders

>>31028193
>>31028197

I approve.

>>31028193
>>31028197
>>31028349


I guess you're gonna search the ship then. Writing.

>>31028324
Is there any danger from keeping both our guns loaded at all times? I'm assuming they can't ND since it uses our mana.

>>31028374

Oops, I mean I approve but go into the boiler chamber afterwards. The ship's still off right? Then go to the cargo chambers, seeing as only.food shipments have been disappearing.

>>31028197
I am more concerned for the crew than catching the last pirate. (and I assume there are a bunch more of them around, no way it was just the 3 guys we saw so far).
Without the crew we can't pilot the vessel, it will crash and sink, we will have to swim back. And might potentially lose some of our gear doing so (if only to seawater related corrosion)

>>31028405
assuming we don't drown and die and game over :P

>>31028388
There's the issue of not remembering if they're loaded or not, although from now on you'll keep your guns loaded.

>>31028434
Ah, a valuable life lesson learned for a budding young mage.
>Always keep your guns loaded dumbass!
that right there, is growth.

>>31028501

I can approve of this sort of character growth.

> Trait acquired: Always Loaded
After an unfortunate encounter that nearly saw your arm go the way of your master's you've learned to keep your fucking guns loaded.

>>31028571
I feel we will have many more of those yet. this is, after all, our very first solo adventure ever.
Maybe next we will learn to actually use the shield modules in our gloves.

>>31028731

We got triple 1s, I think Saucy was rather generous actually.

I would've taken off one of our limbs if I was gm.

Cursing under your breath, you re-load your pistol and holster it. Un-slinging your rifle, you load it before re-slinging it. Never again, you think, will you get dropped in on like that. Picking up your saber, you begin to search through the possessions of the two dead men. Aside from having items made of bone or covered in it, there doesn't seem to be anything of note on them, and even then the bone isn't high grade. On Cord's back, however, you see an odd looking tattoo: a skull with what appears to be a crude looking moon in one eye socket and a sun in the other. Dragging the possessions of the men back to your room to keep as evidence, you return with writing supplies and a new lantern and take a quick sketch of the mark. Checking the other man's back, you see a similar tattoo in the beginning stages of being drawn.

Putting the supplies back into your bag, you re-draw your pistol and head towards the rail that Cord jumped over. In the light of your lantern, you can see a rope tied to the railing, the end trailing down into the water. Pulling it up, you can see that the end has been cut with a sharp object. You begin to search the ship, starting with the crew's quarters above deck. All of them are empty, so you head to the wheelhouse and find that it too, is empty. Heading back to the scene of the fight, you go down below deck and begin searching the rest of the crew's quarters. Most of them are empty, save for one. Inside you can hear two people talking through the ajar door. Extinguishing the lantern, you creep close to the door and listen in.

[1/2]

>>31028895
Well, we also had two 10s to counter balance that
(split between two different posts).
And he doesn't do crits.

he was still generous, I was not complaining about how QM handled it, but joking about our character's in universe knowledge.

Speaking of rolls, what are the voting rules for this quest?

>>31029032
“It normally doesn't take this long to take a ship, does it,” asks one of the people, a man around your age, if a bit younger.

“This one's a lot bigger than normal, so I think it's probably going smoothly, if a bit long,” says the other person, a woman a bit older than you by the sounds of it.

“I thought I heard fighting earlier, though, and then everything went quiet. Wouldn't someone have come down to report in?”

“Yeah, that's a good point. You should go up to check on them,” says the woman.

“Me? You're the one with experience here.”

“Yes, that's why you should go,” she says, putting emphasis on the word 'you'.

From inside you can hear footsteps approaching the door.

What do you do?

[2/2]

>>31029044

Oh, my mistake.

>>31029056
disjunct the guy as soon as he opens the door. then hold up the woman at gunpoint to ask some questions, disjuncting her too, locking both up, and then continue searching.

>>31029056
Wait, let him pass, and then knock him out, tie him up, and stow him away, then we go confront the woman.

>>31029056
Ambush them. Shoot one with the rifle then pull your pistol on the other.

>>31029121
knocking him out carries the risk of either killing him or just causing him pain without unconsciousness.
Even mages are paralyzed by a disjunction (although they recover from it a lot faster than a regular person).

>>31029056

These guys seem to be some sort of cultists, so there won't be any taking them alive via threats.

Pour the lantern oil out on the hallway leading towards the upper decks to trip the egressing member slips, then hide on the other side and as soon as she slips go into the room and disjunction that fucker.

Afterwards go out into the hall and hold her at gunpoint.

>>31029044
I have a 10 minute voting window for whenever I call for a vote, except on the first vote of the night which has a 15 minute window on it, majority rules.

Unless you meant something else, in which case you should probably elaborate on what you mean.

>>31029182
I mistyped, I meant what are the rolling rules.

>>31029056
brace for abduction, find something to tie one up with

>>31029120
>>31029179

Whatever combination if these works best with the time we have.

Well whatever happens, we're arguing fora fucking raise when wwe're done with this.

Taking the man alive seems to be the consensus, followed by confronting the woman.

Roll 3d10, best of 3

Rolled 1, 6, 3 = 10

>>31029319

Rolled 2, 9, 10 = 21

>>31029319
tg dice. the fail train has no breaks

Rolled 9, 10, 6 = 25

>>31029319

>>31029457
>>31029373
>>31029353
Writing.

>>31029474

My control and R keys resent me whenever your quest comes on.

>>31029682
click "Settings" at bottom right of page.
Select expert

threads will auto update from now on

You quickly duck into one of the crew's quarters and wait next to the doorway, waiting for the man to pass by. As he does, you reach out into the hall and pull him into the room. With one arm under his jaw, locking it closed, you put your other arm over his mouth and cast disjunction on him. He spasms and tries to scream in pain, your arms muffling him and keeping him from being too loud.

Eventually the man goes slack in your arms and collapses. Looking around the room, you tear a blanket from one of the beds into strips and use them to bind and gag the man to prevent him from biting his tongue.

Heading back into the hallway, you approach the door, gun raised and dagger drawn. Creeping up to the occupied room, you peer through the crack in the door. You can see the woman inside, sitting on a chair and staring idly off into space.

You kick the door open and lunge at the woman. Before she can even respond to your sudden entrance you have your arm around her throat, blade pointed against her neck.

“Sorry about this, but I need some questions answered and you have the answers to them,” you say in a low voice, doing your best to menace the woman. You press the muzzle of the gun into her temple for good measure.

What do you ask her?

>>31029830
wtf? They did away with the expert quick select option.
fuck.

well, in that case just check the box for "auto update by default". under monitoring.

Also, i suggest going through all the setting and customizing them, lots of really cook options

>>31029859
wtf is going on
where's the crew
who are they what are they doing
why do they keep stealing food

>>31029859
There's so much to ask.

The origins of the attacks, who leads them, their purpose

>>31029859
"Was cord your leader?" - throws her off by basically implying we killed him, and that we already know some things.

>>31029859
>Why are you doing this? Simple piracy? I heard some talking and it sounded like you had a cause. Try selling me on it.
I don't expect to be sold (although who knows), but hearing more about it will reveal all kind of interesting backround info.

oh... and actually, can she pilot the ship. without the crew we basically need to somehow turn it around and return. How the fuck did they loot it so damn fast?

>>31030056
>>31029945
>>31029908
Writing.

>>31029945
Go ahead.
Rather, ask if he was leading this raid, the Prophet is their leader.
>>31029908
These too, except the first.
Tell her the line has been cut and we killed all the rest of them but she may still be able to save herself and her comrade. Press for where they came from.

Then wait for a response.

>>31030056

I want to know how they got all the crew off before we heard anything.

“We are the Brotherhood of the Eternal Skull,” she says quietly, “And we are led by our prophet, Denal.”

“Why are you taking these ships? How are you taking these ships?”

“We take these ships because our prophet has commanded us to do so. We take them by getting on board and then forcing the crew to sail to our port,” she says, quickly regaining some of her composure.

“Why would the crew follow your commands like that?” The woman chuckles a bit at this.

“We usually just threaten them with violence, although occasionally we have to kill one or two of the non-essential crew to get them to cooperate. One time we killed almost half the crew before the captain's eyes,” laughter creeping into her voice before you press the tip of the blade in just a bit harder, causing her to shut her mouth quickly.

“So where's the crew, then, if you need them so badly?” Panic begins to seep into your mind.

“Down in the hold with the rest of us. Although even if you stop them and free the crew, if we take to long “He's” gonna come looking for the holdup,” the woman says, getting a bit cocky.

“He? Who's “He”,” you ask urgently. The woman begins to laugh hard.

“”He” is Cord, one of our prophet's chosen warriors, and he will slaughter you and the rest of this crew!”

You lock your arm under her jaw quickly, stifling her laughter and quickly disjunct her. Her muffled screams echo out into the hallway before she blacks out from the pain. Binding her with strips of blanket similarly to the man, you carry her over to the same room you left him in and dump her onto the floor.
[1/2]

>>31030675
While the crew is being detained, you know that they are needed alive by these invaders, which gives you some relief, along with the fact that their trump card has been dealt with already. Heading down into the hold, you spot the crew, each man bound with rope. Some are bleeding from minor wounds, although you do spot one man slumped on the floor in a pool of blood. Looking carefully at him, you can see he's still breathing, but for how much longer you are unsure.

In the front of the amassed crew you can see a man more ornately dressed than the others of the cult, complete with a bone covered staff. Aside from him, there are five others of his group surrounding the crew, each one similarly dressed like the men above. From where you are hiding by the entrance, you cannot hear what is being said by the man with the staff.

What do you do?
[2/2]

>>31030706
Shoot, the man with the staff with our rifle from where we are.

>>31030706
How long does it take to reload the rifle?

>>31030706
Go for the headshot with our rifle?

>>31030771
>>31030764
>>31030752
I get the feeling that this is pretty much going to be the only suggestion.

Roll for it.

Rolled 3, 10, 3 = 16

>>31030867

Rolled 5, 7, 2 = 14

>>31030867

Rolled 4, 4, 10 = 18

>>31030706
>Shoot the leader from our hiding spot and run. Hopefully they will run after us to avenge their profit.

>>31030867
Never mind the votes been decided. rolling

Rolled 8, 9, 3 = 20

>>31030867
Pew pew!

>>31030706
>Bonestaff
they have a bonemage. target priority number 1. snipe the bitch.
with him dead we can try to intimidate, by saying we killed cord, we will take alive those who surrender. disjunct those that come at you (their screams will break morale)

Rolled 7, 4, 4 = 15

>>31030867

>>31030917
>>31030915
>>31030899
Alright then. These aren't the best, but at least they aren't a nat 3.

Rolled 9, 8, 9 = 26

>>31030954
One day we'll get a nat 30 and it will be for something really pointless

>>31030954
can we just drop the nat 3 already
I'm sorry
please let me forget

>>31030954
so, do you only count the first 3 rolls?
do you average them?

>>31030954
>These aren't the best
the average of 1d10 = 5.5 (because you can't roll 0)
the average of 3d10 = 16.5
Those three rolls are 18, 16, 14, average of all 3 is 16. which is just so very slightly under the average roll.

>>31031177
I take the best of the first 3 unless otherwise stated. Of course, if you manage to get a nat 3 like what happened earlier it will affect the outcome of the roll, but it won't fail it automatically.

Holstering your pistol, you draw your rifle and pop in a marrow pellet, bringing your total down to 2. Your gut tells you that the man with the staff is a mage, so you want to make sure that when you hit him he goes down and stays there. Powering up your rifle for the first time, you feel the relatively heavy mana drain from it, similar to the drain from the saber. Powering up the new seismic charger accessory ups the drain even further, but is still well within your limits. Lining up a shot on the mage through your scope, you fire your rifle.

The kick on the shot is powerful enough to nearly push you onto your back, but it doesn't matter as the ball sails through the air and nearly blasts the man in half at the torso, a chunky red spray shooting out of his back. Everyone else in the room stares, stunned at the mage as he falls over. The rest of the cultists are in shock momentarily, before their eyes snap to your position. Some of the less disciplined men charge towards you while the majority stay near the crew, intent on using them as hostages.

What do you do?

Mana: 25/32 (4 shots remaining in rifle before it needs to recharge)

>>31031293
Take out our pistol and step forward, shooting one of whom is charging us, then slicing the others after we fire

>>31031293
Reload the rifle and snipe the guys trying to take hostages. Use the pistol and sword when the guys rushing you get too close.

>>31031293
reload the rifle, fire at those charging, draw pistol and fire, draw saber

>>31031293
"Run away", quotes are there for a reason.
half are focusing on the hostages, well, they other half will chase you out the door and spread out in a search pattern, easily taken out one by one (or in small groups). while the ones holding hostages will get sloppy with nobody to bluster at.
we can re-sneak at them later

>>31031350

This, then reload and advance on the rest of them. Inform them we've killed Cord and captured the rest of them. They are to surrender or they'll die the same way.

Regular shot will be fine for these guys too I imagine

>>31031350
do we actually have any training, at all, with a sword?

>>31031447

Lets take out the chargers here and now, demand the surrender or the others, then if they refuse we can walk out just to fuck with them.

>>31031480
I'd think we can do bladework pretty well considering we used the dagger to fight the guy that had the sword originally

>>31031221
ah, best of 3 rolls.
so, each 3d10 roll is a straight up sum?
what is the DC for a success/failure

>>31031496
I thought that was lucky rolls

>>31031480

I believe we're pretty well versed in standard combat with a variety of weapons. Better than an average nook anyway.

>>31031523
I was under the impression that this quest actually had a good dice system in place and rollin gud couldn't make you suddenly do thing you don't know how to do, just like rollin bad can't make you forget shit you should have on lockdown.

>>31031504

Depends on the action, man. Sheesh.

you know, I think we should sell that sword we got and get another.
It is very strongly enchanted, but it is enchanted with an outdated and inefficient effect. That while very cool, causes undue harm to the loot (bones) of the target. Pulse would give us nice clean lopped off bones.

>>31031547
we deflected one sword blow using a blade. You don't need weapon training to get lucky and deflecting a single attack. (although it would certainly help a LOT if you are trying to do so reliably).
Also, there is "a few days of being taught the basics" and "trained to some level of competence". The former will let us get lucky once. the latter is required if we plan on fighting multiple opponents at once.

>>31031523
>>31031496
It was a combination of the two, actually. Since Relor is a Slayer spec she forced you through a basic close combat training program of her making.

>>31031547
That's actually kind of the intent. Rolling 1d20 etc feels way too swingy for me, so rolling multiple dice at once will at least keep the results semi-consistent.

>>31031350
>>31031351
>>31031402
>>31031447
And I'm not really seeing a consensus here, besides reload rifle and shoot, but even that doesn't have a consensus with the target. So what would you like to shoot? Hostage takers or chargers? There are 5 men total, 2 are charging and 3 are staying with the crew. Link your votes here.

>>31031679
Shoot the hostage takers until the guys that are charging us get close, then finish them with our pistol and blade.

>>31031679
Blam the hostage takers.

>>31031679
shoot the attackers. with all of them dead we could just tell the hostage takers "let them go or i shoot you" they reply "we will kill hostages" you reply "some, and then you die."

>>31031730
second

Rolled 1

>>31031762
>>31031730
>>31031720
>>31031699
I guess I'll just flip a coin for it.

1- hostage takers
2 - chargers

>>31031679

Shoot one of the chargers, slay the ither one with blade, reload pistol and rifle, demand surrender of the hostage takers (informing them that we've killed Cord) shoot them if they won't.

>>31031854
Also, roll 3d10, best of 3

Rolled 8, 3, 3 = 14

>>31031902

Rolled 5, 6, 2 = 13

>>31031902

Rolled 7, 9, 4 = 20

>>31031902

>>31031966
>>31031963
>>31031911
Alright, writing.

By the way, this will be the final update of the night.

>>31031983
Awesome.

Thanks for running, always good fun. Gotta get my ass to bed after this.

So, I *would* say that we should return to port after this...but if we did that then we'd miss our opportunity to get into their port undetected. Also, it's likely they'll realize someone is onto them if this group doesnt come back.

You quickly steady yourself and reload your rifle, taking aim at one of the men heading for the crew. Bringing your rifle up, you fire at him with a basic shot, feeling the kick of the rifle work your already sore muscles, your wound from Cord aching particularly bad.

The ball impacts the man in the stomach, red spray shooting out on impact. Slinging the rifle back over your shoulder, you draw your saber and pistol again and stride out to meet your attackers, Reinforcing your bones as you do so. The men reach you at the same time, attempting to overwhelm you with their numbers. You fire your pistol at the man on your left, missing him but causing him to stop his advance at the cost of lightning shooting through your nerves from the pain of your wound.

The other man sees the brief expression of pain on your face from firing and charges in, attempting to take the initiative. He succeeds in landing a blow on your thigh with his club, the teeth cutting into your flesh painfully. You grit your teeth at the pain and skewer the man with your saber, green lines racing outward from the wound at eating away at the man as he shrieks in pain.

The other man resumes his advance on you, somewhat fazed by the fate of his ally but still determined to press on. He too manages to land a blow on you, this time layering the blow right over the wound you treated earlier, causing you fresh agony and rage. Dropping the pistol, you lunge forward at the man, his grip on the club causing your wound to tear open further. You grab him by the throat, your arm weaving through his as it finds purchase. As soon as you feel his neck in your hands you squeeze in, attempting to rip into his throat rather than choke him. Panicking, he lets go of his club and falls onto the floor, massaging his throat for the brief moment he has before you separate his head from the rest of his body with your saber.

[1/2]

>>31032611
I am concerned about further raids from them. I am more concerned that just returning to port would be a breach of contract since we didn't sail the whole way and back... it depends on what exactly our contract said. but i think we are 1 day into the route and have a bunch of prisoners, we can justify unloading them and then finishing the route without them

>>31032627
With the two aggressors dead, you begin walking towards the remaining men, each one with a crew member held as a human shield towards you.

“Come any closer and we'll kill these fools!” One of the men shouts, not even trying to hide his panic.

“Give up,” you shout at them, the events of the night taking their toll on your normally collected demeanor, “Cord is dead, all your other comrades are dead or unconscious, hells, even one of them ran off with whatever you came in on!”

The men look at each other briefly before letting go of their hostages and allow you to bind them with some of the rope they brought to bind the crew.

After patching yourself up, again, you and the rest of the crew resume normal operations, attempting to get the ship out of the area as fast as possible, you taking up position near the back of the ship while others watch all other directions. The rest of the days of the journey are uneventful, and you make it to the destination. All that's left is the return trip, you reflect as you fall asleep the night of your arrival.
[2/2]

And that's it for the night, next thread will have a brief respite in the port you arrived at before heading out for the return journey.

As usual, Q and A for the rest of the thread.

>>31032646
how much did we loot off the pirates?
did we find anything of interest on the guy we thought might be a mage?
was his staff a mage's staff?

>>31032701
Only loot worthy shit was what the mage had on him. I'll post the stats of his goodies at the beginning of next thread.

>>31032724
what about the skeletons of those we killed? IIRC that gives us marrow and stuff

>>31032646
thx for running budi

>>31032740
+1
thanks for a good quest

>>31032738
You ended up losing a good chunk of it to heal up, but you still did get some. I guess I'll add them to the inventory.

>>31032724


We didn't loot Cord's bone armor? Might be worth a pretty penny to collevtors of tribal stuff. Just making sure we harvested all their bonestoo.

>>31032809
Cord's armor is being submitted as evidence, but you'll eventually get it back.

>>31032724
>Only loot worthy shit was what the mage had on him
so he WAS a mage... good call on our part to use the high powered shot.

also, note to self, when getting back to town
1. get implant implanted
2. replenish stock of marrow shot (we are down to 2 and haven't replenished any since quest started, and it is fairly inexpensive consumable)

>>31032978
Yeah, he was a mage but he was only 0/0/1, meaning he had 0 Slayer, 0 Shaper, and 1 Speaker.

Also, I'm not certain which people prefer when handling mediocre rolls.

A.) "Safer" outcomes where Volkov won't press in very aggressively, meaning not much happens but he takes much less damage. (EX: Vice-captain fight)

or

B.) "Aggressive" outcomes where Volkov is much more likely to accomplish something but will receive more injuries the worse the rolls are (EX: This thread).

I would assume people like the second interpretation more since shit gets done but is riskier.

>>31033187
I would like a combination of the two, but it might get a little convoluted for you, what I mean is, in situations similar to ones he's dealt with in the past, and has gotten seriously injured, he'd go with the safer options.

Such as versing someone again, like Cord, who is huge and has a heavy melee weapon that they're swinging around Volkov would be a little more on the safer side.

But say, he would go up against some sort of Papal Shrimp and rolled mediocre, he'd be a little more reckless as to not being familiar with his enemy.

>>31033375
Fair enough.

Also skill tree sheet incoming tonight.

>>31033471
Now that I'm thinking about, on the flip side, if he had better rolls against familiar opponents he should, realistically do slightly better then those rolls entail, due to prior experience, and against foes he's not familiar with do just as good as or a little worse then the dice entail, due to not being familiar with them.

At this point, however, that would change the mechanics of what you're doing, and since it's based solely on my personal opinion and how I'd do it, please don't feel the need to change them as I am not you and it's your decision.

It's finally here, the skill trees and some of the goodies that they entail.

http://pastebin.com/ep6NtCmk

>>31033187
that sounds like a stance. it can be different at different times based on our approach to things (aka, are we "going slowly and safely" or "CHAAARGE")

>>31033187

Ha, well it depends on what tier the enemy is and our ability to heal ourselves (damn do we need to rank up in slayer for the self-heals).

In general, I'd say just ask when we roll if we want to be aggressive or defensive.

>>31035756

For instance, against Cord (who was a beast, but had a mundane weapon) going aggressive was perfectly fine. Same with all the cultists.

Against the Vice-Captain (who we're only now realizing how deadly he was, if we had been hit by that saber....fuck) or a Papal shrimp who have the ability to essentially one-hit kill us we'd rather play it safe and wait for an opportunity to strike.

So you've done good choosing our 'stance' for the moment but if you're worried about it in the future just ask.

On another note, on a scale of 1-210 how unusual is this cult that we encountered?How about the fact that they had (however weak) a bone mage and bone-enhanced warrior?

When will we get to learn some more speaker spells? We're practically ignoring an entire tree of knowledge, and goddamn but do it want that T4 ability to triple the potency of our modules...

Will we be dropping our prisoners off at this side of our destination, or when we get back to our home port? Can we interrogate them as to the likelihood of an attack before we head out again? Can we acquire some heavy-duty chain (can't be cut by an unenhanced individual) to chain the captives up with on the deck, so we can just stand on deck and threaten to kill them all if we're attacked again?

Will we be facing the Prophet himself on the return trip?

About how long does it usually take mages to 'level up' between the tiers? I presume it's more of a sliding scale than it looks like, as there are shittons of unmentioned learnable skills in any given tier.

>>31035860

1-10* goddamn fucking autocorrect.

Also, what tier of Shaper do we have to be to make/work with the various materials you've talked about (bone/bone enriched steel/boneforge).

I take it from some of the hints in your trees that there's pretty heavy overlap between shaper and speaker if you want to make cool stuff?

How good are those rock-jaguar's bones (the ones from the contract we didn't take) and what sort of things are skulls used for again?

How much marrow/bonemeal does it take to make a marrow charge? Can we purchase raw bone material from merchants? Will we be able to invest money into a business/caravan/bank or generally interact with the economy beyond purchasing modules/equipment? Perhaps we can buy stock in a drake farm (or find an entrepreneurial individual looking to start up a different sort of farm) and receive a dividend of bones every once in a while as compensation.

>>31036079

If we make a set of basic armor out of bone, would it have (or would we be able to work in) slots for modules? So we could make a set of armor with barrier modules on the essential parts that we can activate when need be?

>>31036097

And once we acquire a few levels more in shaper, if we can develop a module that spits out mana from an attached battery when it senses movement we can weld those onto impact modules and create pseudo-reactive armor.

>>31036331

PS we probably want to fast track getting that set up after whenever the Spine-Eater checks up on us again, because fuck was that thing scary, and it batted away our legendary protege master like she weren't no than.

By the way, do mages have any life length alteration due to their magic?

>>31035860
The cult thing is pretty unusual, and at least as far as Volkov knows it hasn't happened before.

You'll learn some spells when you take the time out of your schedule to actually study Speaker.

You'll be dropping off half of the prisoners so that the authorities at the port can begin building a case to get naval intervention in the issue, but you won't have it in time for your return trip.

You won't fight him yet.

It takes a fairly long time to level up just through combat, and as you progress further down the trees each level will take longer than the last, although you aren't too far from Speaker 1.

>>31036079
To actually make boneforge alloy you need to be tier 4, the steel is a tier 3 material.

I wanted the trees to all overlap with each other enough that you could mix up your fighting style however you wish and still have it be uniquely effective.

Saw-Teeth Leopards are used in the making of some unique modules and artifacts, since the base material of what is used has a heavy influence on then outcome.

Usually it takes an average adult's limb to have enough marrow to produce a pellet, so you have plenty of materials to work with. Also yes, you can purchase raw bone from merchants, although rarer/more exotic bones cost a lot more than more common varieties. Even human bone is a bit of a rarity.

As for economic impacts, you'll be able to take part on a larger scale as more than just a consumer in the future.

>>31036097
>>31036331
Possibly, just be prepared for the amount of money it will cost in materials to produce.

Something like that would be tier 4 at the least, but by that point you might need it.huehueue

>>31036360
High level mages and badass mundanes have a noticeably longer lifespan than the average person,

>>31036728

There's a certain minimum threshold that ensures that mechanically a marrow pellet/module/etc (excepting the specialty ones and ones made from especially valuable materials) they all function the same no matter what they were made from?

Are we experienced enough to modify/make another breach mechanism with our bonecharger?

>>31036728

Our ability to use magic isn't effected by encumbrance, right? The Speaker in the ship, for instance, was wearing robes just for effect and because he was too poor to afford armor and not because it'd dampen his casting abilities right?

>>31038685

Also, are there means to prevent that one Speaker power from just fucking up every Shaper ever's day? Some sort of enchantment to at least make it take more effort/time to work at least?

>>31036728

About how much would a suit of standard steel armor with bone inlays and such cost? In terms of our time and money? Presuming we get the armor made elsewhere of mundane steel then insert the bone ourselves.

>>31038712

Bumping for great answer.

>>31038685
Casting ability isn't affected by encumbrance except in extreme cases, such as wearing so much armor that it's extremely difficult to even move, and even then it's not the encumbrance itself so much as the just the general effort to do anything at all in that situation.

So to answer the question about the mage, it's basically a matter of resources available to him, and he didn't have very much. Not that it would matter, unless he had some serious armor and/or was aware of your presence to increase his defenses/dodge. The rifle would rip clean through even steel plate like it was paper from the sheer force.

>>31038712
Depends on what you mean by that. If you mean a Speaker just trying to turtle behind Barriers while the Shaper plinks away at him, the Shaper will win that war of attrition due to mana costs, or simply by hitting him with a shot so powerful he can't block it.

If you mean like the Speaker trying to disable the artifacts or somehow interfere with them, it is prohibitively difficult to do so in the midst of combat.

>>31038785
Do you mean like getting steel plate like knight's armor? Expensive since not many people actually commission full sets of armor, which means even fewer people actually know how to make it, although there are a few specialists that make armor for mages like that, designed to take inlays and modules. It would cost 25 gold and take a month at the minimum for the most basic set to be made.

>>31041848

I meant the power that allows Speakers to explode bones with mana in them. Shapers stuff is all made out of bones, and most of them have internal mana supplies. I take it from your response though that they can't just explode our rifle for shits and gigs.

A trifling 25 gold for a full set of armor? Well, that gives a pretty good impression of how valuable a gold is.

By the way, are you still trying to do Wednesday/Friday or are you just going by whenever you announce on Twitter?

>>31042457
Oh, They can't detonate other people's artifacts with that ability, it only works on untreated bone or artifacts that have been modified to be susceptible to it.

That's for the most basic armor, which while is better than nothing as far as protection goes, will hinder more than it helps, especially late game.

I'll still aim for Wednesdays, Fridays I think I'll just change to a floating point around weekends, meaning any day between Friday and Sunday, with the specific day that week announced on twitter.

>>31042606

Aah, and I assume it scales at an exponential rate rather than a linear one. Well anyway, great quest. Sorry for bugging you so much.

>>31044665
It's not problem, if someone's asking questions like this it means I'm doing something right.

>>31044815

You're certainly doing something right.

Just wait until we get to the upper crafting levels though, then you'll really see people asking questions.

I don't suppose your willing to part with what special modules/artifacts Saw Tooth Leopard bones are used to make though?

>>31045031
Well, certain bones from certain animals will "tint" many effects if they are used in the making of artifacts. The teeth and skulls of the leopard will cause cutting type effects (Pulse, Fray, etc) to gain a secondary effect similar to Fray in that extra cutting vectors will occur alongside slightly enhancing the initial effects of the module. So, using it to create a Pulse module will cause the cut areas to become jagged on top of being cut easier, while on a Fray module you see a massive increase in the number and depth of vectors caused by wounding.

>>31045354

Aah, very interesting. So a Papal Shrimp impact module would have extra impact then?

>>31046208
Papal Shrimp has various parts that enhance various effects, some of which you have yet to see.

>>31046640
>Papal Shrimp confirmed
Haha yes

>>31049242

I bet its hide is extremely useful for crafting Fabulosity Modules.

>>31049344

>Attaching one of these modules to your rifle will apply a thin veneer of fabulousness to the bullet. Upon hitting an enemy this will rapidly disperse into their body, allowing you to track them effortlessly with our symbiotic Gaydar scope.

>>31049242
>Papal Shrimp running joke
sounds interesting, but I can't find it on google, can someone explain?

>>31049484

Last thread we decided to do some in-universe studying on possible reasons for ship disappearances, we found references to a "Bishop Shrimp" (clearly a Mantis Shrimp analogue) that can punch through wood/steel. They grow continually larger as they age, older (unconfirmed) ones are called Archbishop Shrimp.

And so Anon made a joke that the ultimate shrimp was the Papal Shrimp.

>>31049484
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/30963634/#p30966066
Please don't make me regret this and by that I mean please don't be a retarded name fag that's going to come in here and shit up the quest

>>31049586

Speaking of namefags shitting up quests, do you know of any reliable ways to drive them away once they've found your quest?

>>31049759
Tracking their IP to their house and murdering them is the only reliable way. How you'd go about doing that? I have no idea.

>>31049808

I will take this under advisement.

Saucy is going to have to find some way for us to fight a Papal Shrimp now, and it's going to be terrifying. Here we were thinking that picking a fight with the Spine-Eater was a bad idea.

I guess I'm going to clear this up now rather than later. The Papal Shrimp thing is a joke based on the mantis shrimp. Basically the train of thought went:

Mantis Shrimp ->Praying Mantis -> Praying Shrimp ->Bishop Shrimp and family I had intended Papal to be the highest shrimp and then someone guessed near enough that I said they were correct..

When you encounter it will be another story

Thanks for explanation everyone

>>31050023

And we will fight it, and it will be after the final boss, and it will be a harder fight that he/she/it was.

>>31050023

How active is our master going to be in this stage of our apprenticeship? Judging by the fact that she hasn't even brought up the legendary bone construct that whipped her shit in the city I take it that we're far past the babying stage of our apprenticeship.

Will we need to consult her to learn new spells? Is she capable of training us in new combat techniques that don't use advanced slayer talents?