Errant Road- discussion thread

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Alberich
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Alberich »

Graybeard wrote:The problem is that the Eisenfaust is big. Their members certainly number in the dozens, and probably hundreds. Played anything near straight, the outbreak of full-blown gang warfare, which is what we're starting to see here, would involve getting nearly that whole membership mobilized, with all of the -- considerable -- magical resources they can bring to bear. They would not be screwing around with party-scale skirmishes. They would be at war, and their priority would be to [/i]win[/i] the friggin' thing.
That's exactly what should happen. The logic of the situation -- given the nature of the Ralkin, the speed with which their strength is increasing, and the competence of the Eisenfaust -- requires it.

The Ralkin are also big. They sent, what was it, about sixty top-quality mercenaries with two strong mages under Captain Averis for their Southern Continent expedition, and I don't think they were sending everything they had by a long shot. Jack's posts indicate that they have been hiring mercenaries and recruiting at breakneck speed (thanks to Logan's massive financial assets), and it looks as if their weaponry (thanks to Jade) is about to take a quantum leap of quality. And they're running some kind of training base out of town to help swell their numbers of trained men. They're up in the scores and possibly in the low hundreds by now.

The thing is, though, just because there's a full-blown gang war, nothing requires you, me, or any of us to write the whole thing in detail. It should be epic - this is wrapping up a long plot after all - but most of it can, and should, take place off panel. (Just as the Ralkin buildup has been shown with a few illustrative posts by Jack, plus people talking about what's been happening.) Apocalypse Now didn't have to show the entire Vietnam War - just the parts the main character had to see to carry out his mission.
Graybeard wrote:The more so since the Eisenfaust brain trust would certainly not trust Udo, Drusia, etc., and would insist on fighting their own battles.
Would they? Consider - you've got an enemy force in town. You've been guessing, and now you know, that they are an enormous threat and need to be taken down ASAP (because their power and popularity are growing at an alarming rate). You now know that their top men are powerful mages. And the people who've brought you the information...have also brought two elves, as well as some other people who have the right kind of skills for a magic fight. Even if you know nothing else, you know elves are powerful.

So what would a rational Eisenfaust do? Like good opportunists, I think they'd want to take advantage of these powerful (and inexpensive! and expendable!) assets -- by letting them take part in the most dangerous part of the battle, the raid on Aleron's HQ. And if they didn't "trust" them to be strong enough to do it, perhaps they'd find a way to test them first...

And provide them with some assistance in getting to the fight, and a limited amount of help in the fight, and maybe some backup in case they got the worst of it. But why risk your best mages against Aleron and Eli if a group of suckers valiant volunteers have just offered to take point on that one? This way, we can have our epic battle with Aleron, and have a logical reason why we weren't overwhelmed by the Black Guard's massive conventional forces on the way there or killed on the way in (because the Eisenfaust helped us get there, and the Ralkin forces were mostly busy being attacked by the Eisenfaust).
Browncoat
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Browncoat »

Alberich wrote:
(In my posts I deliberately left it vague whether Angrist had managed to rejoin the group or not, so that Browncoat could have Angrist get into any hijinks he wanted on the way to camp, or just stick by us. But if he's having wacky adventures in town he should definitely meet Khoo's crazy girl...).
Thanks for that. Part of why I had Angrist separate was to open possibilities for chance meetings like that. Also, it gives him a chance to learn the lay of the land.
Since I feel like I'm still something of a newbie to this campaign, I'd prefer to leave initiation of any 'chance meetings' to others.

Personally, I feel like things would be more interesting if we did have a case of the right and left hands being unaware of the plans of each other. But that's just my opinion.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Jack Rothwell »

I'll use this thread as a place to give everyone a rough idea of what the Ralkin currently have under their control to give everyone a clearer picture (myself included) of where they are in the city and what resources they have at their disposal, and how they compare to the Eisenfaust. As it's been shown Logan Enterprises are part-military/part trade even before the aggressive expantion so currently he has/The Ralkin has...

-Substantial investments in the grain, cattle, alcohol, arms, etc trade passing through the port.
-Several legit business within the city, and a small highway town called Logan's Rest five miles away from it which is essentially a cash cow.
-The Black Guard (some two hundred soldiers in and around the Port, four outposts to hold them)
-The additional financial backing and political contacts of John Mirrilum, a dusty 'old money' guy who, like Logan, is dancing to The Ralkin's tune.
-Several warships and storage areas in the waterfront district.
-Control over the Brambrook area, and growing verbal support from the citizens of the city.

That's not counting any additional victims Aleron picks up for the Artifact, and whatever they can add to the mages tightening grip on the Port, of course, there's no reason for the good guys to go ploughing through every outpost or burning down every business to put a stop to them... well, if someone was to create a character called Mary Sue, you could give it a try... :)
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Graybeard
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Graybeard »

This generally looks just fine, except for one fairly important thing.
Jack Rothwell wrote: -Several warships and storage areas in the waterfront district.
The "warships" part of this ... could be a problem.

Two issues. First, if you really do mean warships, rather than some small, privateering vessel, the manpower required to man the things and keep them afloat and functioning would be rather difficult to conceal. Lorrel is a fairly free-wheeling, anything-goes kind of place, but it isn't that anarchic. Having such things at work in the "waterfront district" would be a matter of clear public knowledge.

Which leads to the second point. Unless they were used very discreetly (and discretion doesn't exactly seem to be the Ralkin way), the Eisenfaust aren't, by any means, the only outfit that would take umbrage at having these things around, and a couple of them would have the firepower to quietly put them out of action if they ventured out of port. We've already seen one of those major players, the seafaring outfit from up north called the "Seeadler," and while they tolerate pirates and privateers as long as they stay out of the northern waters, actual warships would be a different matter. There are at least two other forces that would have major problems with Ralkin warships, unless their activities were confined strictly to sailing back and forth between Lorrel and the Southern Continent, and in one case, possibly even then.

Everything else looks like it can be accommodated, either by working deals with the Eisenfaust (they don't really care about shipments of grain, cattle, etc., and payoffs could take care of the alcohol and arms part, which they definitely would care about), or just having the activities in question occur outside the Eisenfaust sphere of control. There are plenty of nooks and coves along the Farrel coast that the Eisenfaust don't routinely patrol, since not much goes on there. But on the waterfront ... well, we may need to discuss some things.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Jack Rothwell »

The ships are public knowledge, and have been for quite some time. They're decommissioned, renovated and have only been used to transport troops to the southern continent and knock off a slaver ship so far, they're not ten cannon monsters designed to wreck havoc wherever they go. I can't back-track on the Black guard's ownership of them and besides, they won't be playing a part in the current story anyway.
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Graybeard
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Graybeard »

Ah. Okay, if those are the ships in question (I remember them being mentioned), no problem. It sounded as if you were starting to equip them with ships of the line -- and that would have been a problem.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Thought I'd list a few locations in the Port which might be revisited at some point during the story, for the sake of completeness and for helping my forgetful self remember what exactly has been created and/or destroyed during our shenanigans in the Port. If any of the info in the links is useful for the knowledge vault feel free to copy/paste Grey.


The Red Rose

A gaudy, upmarket brothel owned by the late Alec Fredriel, recently shut down by his disgruntled ex-employee Gabriel Averis. It was a 'high-class' establishment on Holden street with a loud and tasteless interior. It catered to 'cat-girl-fetishists' as well people with a more normal itch to scratch. The owner and his cronies engaged in a few immoral practices to 're-educate' the more unwilling merchandise.

The Dancing Troll

A well-kept, small waterfront tavern typically host to sea-farers. Owned by a middle-man by the name of Anderson.

Viktor's Bullet Emporium

An all-purpose weapons shop on Lambeth Lane on the East side of town.

Eastbourne Street Traders

A general store owned by a man called Harry Sanders, he also runs an export service with his nephew, Gary.

The Gallows

A five-building prison compound, where a riot and jailbreak recently took place.

more coming...
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Logan Enterprises

A tall, stone building in the financial district from where Lucas conducts his business affairs.

Weatherby's Manor

A palace of a house belonging to Logan's former business partner, found on Betrand Street, near yurlang pier of the waterfront district. Currently under some serious renovation after a little 'disagreement' between the Ralkin and Jargalan.

The Clark

Captain Rigby's waterfront tavern, formerly his ship.

Brambrook

A dirt-poor area of the Port now enjoying a some prosperity thanks to funds from Logan's company.
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Graybeard
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Graybeard »

Thanks, I'll wikify when there's time.

A few other named places in Lorrel that you should know about:
  • Geno's, a semi-decent restaurant visited at the very beginning of the game; under the influence of the Eisenfaust (the contact between Elke and Jamie was initiated there, and Mr. Jones, Big Boss of the Eisenfaust, has been known to eat there on occasion), but not an actual Eisenfaust cover operation
  • World Traveler Inn, an inn/lodge where the party of adventurers once spent a very weird night. Somewhat more tightly linked to the Eisenfaust than Geno's, to the point that a declared Gewehr member who checked in might never check out. Under new management, as the Eisenfaust rubbed out the previous proprietor when he turned out to be on somebody else's payroll too, we've never learned whose.
  • Poundstone Clinic, a real live clinic/emergency room for both conventional medicine and magical first aid/healing. NOT affiliated with the Eisenfaust, and remarkably enough, entirely on the up and up, it was opened as part of an exchange program between Farrel and Tsuiraku, and practices thoroughly honorable medicine. At one time I had high hopes for this place as a story component (and contrast to Rabbitfoot's operation), but the adventurers headed off in a different direction. No problem. Note that an attack on this place, whether through violence, spellcraft, stealth, corruption, whatever, would probably lead to a violent response by the Lorrel Powers That Be, and it wouldn't be out of the question for the Tsuirakuans to bring seriously major magic to bear as well.
  • Pampered Purser and Buggered Bosun: Moderately seedy hotel and restaurant, respectively, down the street from the World Traveler Inn. Never really explored, but not intended to be under the Eisenfaust thumb (or anyone else's).
  • A warp gate. Travel to and from Tsuirakushiti and Emerylon are known to be possible here. Of course, it is run by the Tsuirakuans (who are starting to develop indigenous portalmages to take over day-to-day operations), and as with the Clinic, violence here would likely produce a drastic Tsuirakuan response.
There are others but I'll have to work them out one by one, will be out of touch until late tonight.
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Alberich
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Re: Errant Road- discussion thread

Post by Alberich »

One of them is the Upscale Looking Inn that we don't know what it's named, where Argus and Rose consummated their relationship, and Harker spiked Tim's drink and forced a sleeping draught on him with their acquiescence.
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