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Saturday, December 6, 2014

CotMA Vb - Spies like these


Cast

Midymnoios Moncheri - Paladin of Athena, called One Hand after losing his left to a carnivorous fly.
Segestes One-Eye - Barbarian warrior of the Harii.  Came south along the Amber Road.  Lost an eye fighting kobolds.

NPCs
Akus - a slinger (and failed mage) hired as muscle
Jumilanas - a mercenary crossbow man hired as muscle
The Egyptian - Landlord of the 'Old Fish', cheapest lodgings in Scodra
Ikexanlas - The town physician


   The lamp lit their faces along with the bowl and beakers on the small table, while the rest of the room was shrouded in shadow.  The open window let in the quiet sounds of the night on the gentle breeze.  And the moon's radiance lit the clouds without trickling down to illuminate the ground below.
    "Ravens beg wolf for meat" said Segetes, as he mixed the wine and water in the bowl.
     The paladin smiled, "Rather than hunting for themselves or waiting for the wolves to finish? That's a good way to put it.  I suppose we should have expected the attention when we brought back the gold.  Still, they're not wrong, with Myrphines and Thekitor's deaths we do need help if we are to go back down after the kobolds."
     Placing the bowl back down after his drink, the barbarian suggested, "Spears not enough, we must find the little schuppig Miststücks' nest.  For that we need hunters."
     Picking the bowl carefully with his crippled hand, Midymnios nodded, "A hunting party with those who have skills we lack.  Still there was something about that Carthaginian mage that wasn't right, I wouldn't trust him."
     "Sirras, I like. Still he a local thief, probably set us up for an ambush," responded Segestes,
     "The other four as equal partners? But only agree to escort them once, and do not show them the map!"
     "Smart", grunted Segestes as he drained the bowl.


Need to replenish the party after the last excursion.  The characters are still too low a level for henchmen other than 0 level men at arms.  They did manage to retain the two surviving men at arms, even though the hirelings leveled to 1st.  The good news was that after coming out with an abundance of gold and sliver, plus Myrphines spectacular demise, there was no need for them to advertise for help, it would come to them.  The bad news was that I already had the idea that people now wanted to spy on them.

I had already generated a dozen new characters, removing the fighter types that left me with two clerics, two thieves, a mage and a warlock.  I needed to make four rolls for each potential new PC, 
1st - Are they spying for someone?  With the excitement of blowing up the inn, I placed that at 50%.
2nd - Do Midymnios and Segestes realize that they are spying?  Used Mythic a difficult task 35% chance of success.  Neither one of them has enough Wisdom to modify that.  As a paladin, Midymnios could use his Detect Evil ability; but I decided that under ACKS Spell Signature rule, that would make his eyes glow gold and be obviously rude.
3rd - Does the current party like the new character enough to associate with them?  I used the Henchman and Hireling reaction table.  2d6 higher is better.
4th - If they are a spy and they are allowed to join, who are they spying for.  I came up with this employer table.


EmployerThievesNon-Theives
Local Thieves Guild01-3001
Nearest Town's Thieves Guild31-4502-03
Next Nearest Town's Thieves Guild46-5004-05
Local Ruler51-7506-45
Ruler of a Nearby City76-8046-60
Ruler of a Nearby Tribe81-8561-75
Merchant86-8776-80
Overlord of Local Ruler88-9281-85
Other NPC93-0086-00

With the parameters determined, here's the actual rolls.
NameNationality/ClassSpying?Suspect 
Spying?
ReactionEmployer
SugerneosMacedonian/Thief42 Yes66* No923-Local Guild
IgazesEpirot Greek/Warlock14 Yes47 No735 -Local Ruler
DjauEgyptian/Cleric32 Yes64 No997 -Other NPC†
JugerconMacedonian/Cleric80 No87 No**8
BoodesCartheginian/Mage50 Yes31 Yes7
SirrasIllyrian/Thief02 Excp Yes27 Yes10
* - Doubles in Mythic trigger random events.  The Random Event rolls were 03 - Remote Event (Something that the party does not witness directly, but will effect them later), 97 - Transform, 78-Masses.  I determined that this referred to the Tax Collectors replacing the slain bandits in the Castle.

** - An Exceptional Yes in this case would have left the characters convinced that he was a spy, despite the fact that he isn't. 

†- In this case it will be the Egyptian Wizard Pantarious, the advisor to the Roman Legate in Apollonia

This should be interesting, half the characters are spying on each other.  Still, their employers also make good patrons.  Going forward I'll adapt the ACKS Hijinks rule for spying.  After each adventure the spies will need to make a Hide in Shadows roll (For non-thieves they'll need 18 or higher).  Failure means they have been caught doing something suspicious while trying to report to their respective employers.  Bookkeeping is done, back to the dungeon! 

1 comment:

  1. This is fantastic. I am bookmarking this post for use whenever my PCs are in a similar position of recruiting hirelings after making some sort of public display (which, being PCs, they will tend to do).

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