Deception, fight or flight

[Kugald Daas]

Hi all,

Well, it seems we are in a seriously bad situation.

A larger boat is heading towards you making the most of the slight winds gusting in from the north. With it's sail unfurled and from this distance all you are able to tell is that it looks to be a warboat. There is perhaps a kilometre or so between you and the approaching warboat with the distance slowly closing.

As I see it, we have three options:

1) Deception, we pretend to be fishermen and hope we can deceive the Ibanvaalese on the warboat. Risk: The Ibanvaalese don't buy our disguise, arrest us and we die in the dungeons of Froyaheim.

2) Fight, we wait until the last minute, pretending to be fishermen, and then attack the Ibanvaalese unexpectedly, kill them all and then run. Risk: We have no idea how many Ibanvaalese are on the warboat, but it is almost certainly more men than we have.

3) Flight, we immediately make for shore, jump out of the boat and run through the fields and try to escape. Risk, the Ibanvaalese on the warboat catch up with us and catch us. We run into Ibanvaalese patrols on shore.

None of these are particularly good options.

I figure we should talk them out OOC before we do anything in the main thread.

Thoughts?

- Kerry

[Jurri Grebel]

Those all sound pretty bad. The only other potential option I see is if Algared's got some suitably impressive bit of magic that might change the odds. They probably are prepared for the other three, but maybe not 'witchcraft'...

[GM]

As this conversation is in character I have moved this topic to the 'Meadhall' please continue the conversation there..... ta

[Jurri Grebel]

Not that it makes much difference, but from my perspective, this wasn't an in character conversation.

[Kugald Daas]

As the original poster, I DELIBERATELY posted it in the out of character chat because I intended the discussion to be out of character.

- Kerry

[GM]

I don't understand why this conversation needs to be out of character.

You are discussing the options available to your characters for them to act upon, something I think your characters would be doing in reality and so I thought the ideas and convesations that would be aired should take place in an in character forum.

I have placed the thread in the 'Meadhall' so as the views and ideas aired are not for public viewing.

[Algared]

Damn it all, I never got notifications and the meadhall hall button was never highlighted.

Though if this is considered IC discussion wouldn't it have been better in the IC section still not sure why we have an ic section not seen by guests and a In character conversations section that is seen. I saw Johnathon's post abut our options and waited for others to post, but this whole discussion remained hidden. It was still hidden and was was only found because I went hunting for it after reading reading Kerry's post in the main thread.

[GM]

Damn it all, I never got notifications and the meadhall hall button was never highlighted.

The original thread was started in the OOC section. I merely posted there stating that I had moved the thread to the meadhall.

Though if this is considered IC discussion wouldn't it have been better in the IC section still not sure why we have an ic section not seen by guests and a In character conversations section that is seen. I saw Johnathon's post abut our options and waited for others to post, but this whole discussion remained hidden. It was still hidden and was was only found because I went hunting for it after reading reading Kerry's post in the main thread.

I thought I would give the characters an area where guests may view their posts and also an area where their thoughts/ideas/conversations would remain private seen by only the other characters. So that they remained in game only. I have no preference where a characters posts I am just offering some choice.

I posted some time ago if there were any alterations or additional sections that you as the players would like me to make and there was no response so I made the changes I thought were needed and left it at that.

If there are changes any of you would like me to make then please feel free to send me a PM or post away in the OOC area, that is what the OOC section is for.

[Algared]

Hi Neil,
My comment wasn't a comment about the place the posts are. But rather that I had not been able to see a new post was there ie. there was no red circle.. most annoying and more likely a glitch with the forums themselves than anything else.

I posted my vote in response to the survey, I ticked other. Since I try to log in daily and peruse the forum list for the red disk indicating a post is made, though if I get an email I try to log in and read the post. I hope that makes sense.

[GM]

Not taking anyones posts as an attack - just trying to let everyone know why I do what I do (not an easy thing sometimes )

Not every idea I have is a good one (worse luck) and if there is someone out there who has a better idea of how to format/organise this forum then I am all ears.

[Barak Daas]

OT: Three (In character, Out of character and Meadhall) non-main-thread discussion forums are too much, IMO. One should go. To me In Character and Meadhall overlap.

[Barak Daas]

So, in the out of character mode...

My intention was for the boat to go in to the thran - so to appear to be going about legitimate business (and encourage the warboat to pass us by) then to leave again as soon as the warboat had moved up river sufficiently and before too many villagers had arrived to threaten our safety and prevent us from leaving.

Then to drift down to the first bit of decent cover we could find to hole up for the day (set the boat adrift to be found at a later point in the evening before we leave overland).

As such I think we don't unload any of our gear from the boat, or pull the boat too far up the beach... in fact there is no need for all of us to go out.

As for who should talk to the villager... I think it should be Vidar. He is a foreign emissary of the church (explaining his non Ibanvaal origins) who has been visiting the up river thrans (i.e. a sort of diplomatic fact finding visit that churches so delight in) who had commissioned us locals to take him back to Froyaheim quickly. With luck none of the "locals" will need to speak and give away the fact that they are not local. And the reason why he has landed hear... well obviously he wanted to bless the villagers / or needed food / or was feeling sea sick and needs to stretch his legs for a couple of minutes...

[Kugald Daas]

Kugald is in full agreement with Barak (that seems to be happening a lot lately )

[Barak Daas]

What is the idea of bribing the longshoreman? Do you think we'll sneak past the thranhold unseen?

If we do come ashore here we'll have to put a lot of distance between the thran and us very quickly...

[Kugald Daas]

The longshoreman told us that we were lucky we stopped here, because just 2 leagues further and we would have ended up in the Dagen's hands. My thinking is that if we can dump the boat with him, it will be less suspicious than a boat left on the side of the river. We are going to have to leave the river at some point.

TTYL

- Kerry

[Algared]

"We have a problem, if we dont head south the comments about returning the boat are a complete sham and will raise the alarm, if we head south we are following the warboat. to the north though the hills are clearing retreating from the backs and with them so are the trees. The hills seem closer here so hopefully the woods are as well. If we have to fight I'd rather take my chances with facing a few of the Dagen's men than with a warboat loaded with them. But if we fight here I am also certain the locals will try hunt us down simply to preserve their own lives and assure the Dagen that they were not a party the attack."

[Barak Daas]

I think we sail after the warboat, but slowly, making sure we don't catch up. We can probably deploy a sea anchor if necessary. However a broad fishing boat should be slower than a sleek warboat anyway. We can probably reef the sail without it being noticed from the warboat (they havn't got telescopes after all).

Once we're out of sight we land, hide or sink the boat and head to the west as fast as possible - we need to get out of cultivated lands as soon as we can.

[Barak Daas]

My thinking is that if we can dump the boat with him, it will be less suspicious than a boat left on the side of the river.

Okay I see your point. I still think knocking out a stave, pushing it back on to the current, and letting it capcise or sink is the best bet. It could be seen to be accident or if not it won't give away where we came ashore. There is no way that they won't be aware sooner or later that a boat full of suspcious people have been on the river.

[Barak Daas]

PS we need to sort out the time line on the date thread. Barak can sort the sail whether we're ashore or afloat. But we can't be both on the river and being shown woods."

BTW I think we should stop telling the locals our plans - we don't know they can be trusted.

[Jurri Grebel]

I think we should stop telling the locals our plans - we don't know they can be trusted.

That's the trouble with being behind enemy lines. You can't trust anyone. At the same time, the surest way to gain allies is to extend trust.

Jurri has left open the possibility of a meeting in the hills. Either we can go there, prepared for the worst but willing to take a risk to establish some trust, or we can use it as a diversion and assume that's where the enemy will be headed.

Personally, I'd rather try the meeting. We could run into an enemy patrol at any time. These folk might help us as long as we don't directly endanger them. We may be in enemy territory, but it's occupied territory; we have plenty of friends about, too. They just have to stay here.

[Barak Daas]

I agree we will not get anything without trust - but we've been pushing our luck ( or GM tollerance) recently ;-)

BTW regardless of what we do with the boat, I think the attempted bribary and admission of theft marks us as spies or worse...

We could try for killing the garrisson here it's 1:1 (ish). It's not my recommended action though.

[Jurri Grebel]

Whether it's this garrison or otherwise, I think we could do worse than to pose as the Dagen's soldiers. It might allow us some freedom of movement we don't have right now.

Neil: Do we know if the enemy uses any particular badge, flag, or other device to identify themselves? Can any group of armed men convincingly claim to be the Dagen's army? I'm only talking about physical appearance, not accents or code words, etc.

[GM]

The best forms of recognition during this period was to hang around other members of your clan. The biggest difference between you and those from Ibanvaal are your accents and your dialects.

Any group of armed men can attempt to be that which they are not, but the rub will come when/if you are challenged by some authority.

No one need where badges of identity, due to everyone being formed around the clan. Such that you would know everyone in your immediate warband and should you find someone that you do not recognise then with but a few questions you would be able to determine if they are who they say they are.

[Barak Daas]

In otherwords, unless we get pretty good Ibanvaal accents and a lot of insider info on the local Ibanvaal clan we might as well pretend to be visiting Halean priestesses.

I'd also stop using the names "Kugald" and "Algarad" - there is an outside chance that you'll be recognised as close relatives of the Jahl. There is nothing the Dagen would like more than a couple of decent hostages of the Daas.

[Barak Daas]

If we make it to the hills, I don't think Barak will hang around to see what sort of reception paty Jorst will bring. In fact now, Barak will want to avoid those hills altogether. Jorst dosn't appear to be someone to be trusted. Perhaps Borygg can scare him in to silence (I am sure they'll have some mutual acquaintances ;-)

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