I don't supposed it would matter to them if I offered to pay some of them to carry my box for me?
This is a pain in the ass, and there's not much I can do about it.
Is it possible to get word through to the captain of my new ship? I need to find out whether or not this is affecting our departure time. Can I wait it out, for instance, or do I have to get that crate of gold converted into another letter of credit in order to cross without cargo?
I believe the ship is scheduled to depart tomorrow. It's not a cargo ship but a passenger liner, so it's less likely to be delayed--although they do have to take on food, water, and supplies. It would probably be best if you can figure out how to arrange for dock workers to carry your "cargo", but at the moment things are rather in chaos here, and even finding an office while wandering the dock with a crate might prove challenging. You've also got the problem that (I presume) you do not wish to be separated from the crate, so you will be wanting the dock workers to carry it to your ship while you are with them, and your porters to take it to your rooms (it's unlikely that the ship's captain will allow dock workers aboard during the current crisis). The dock workers are more likely to view it as cargo, which they store in their warehouse until they have someone available to take it to the ship, where they turn it over to the ship's crew for storage in their cargo hold, and that does not work for you at all.
So you'll have to figure out how to talk to someone about it. It might be that you can arrange to, shall we say, pay for the services of the dock workers and have your own porters do the work. But you'll have to get hold of someone there.
You probably can cross the dock without luggage and board the ship to talk to the officer on watch, but it would mean leaving at least your crate and maybe your sacks with your porters.
It also might be easier to board later in the day. There being no real light out here, the protest will probably disperse around dusk.
--M. J. Young
The 'waiting until dusk' seems like the best option at this point. I'm not willing to bribe some malcontent mooks to let someone else do their job for them. I'm not willing to leave my ... what is it, 150 pounds of gold? F'ing 2oz coins... unattended. And shooting my way through is just more trouble than its worth. Screw it. I'll wait. Dismiss my workers, tell them to come back around sunset, and spend the day sitting there on my crate, all Jedi like, just watching them. (Of course, anyone who tries anything untoward will get a sword in the face.)
The number of protestors declines as night approaches, although there are some fresh arrivals late in the day, apparently coming from other jobs to join the protest, or perhaps sleeping late and coming late to the party.
As the sun sets, there are still thirty or forty protesting dock workers within view of your position. No one has bothered you to this point, however.
Your workers return, but they are still uncertain about crossing the dock while there are protesting dock workers.
--M. J. Young
They could wear bandanas around their faces so the protesters won't know who they were.
They could just man up and go do an honest job for an honest pay like these jerks aren't willing to. (I've become very anti-union these days. It's a big change...)
We could wait a little longer and see if the cold wind of the ocean at night is enough to send them all home.
In the meantime, I want to try something. I've got several hours of just-sitting-around during the day, so I want to try something. Why not? I've got time to kill, and the worst that can happen is I pull a muscle and I have a healing spell for that, so here goes: You know how Psionic Haste is sort of a manipulation of your adrenaline to slow your flow of time? And you know how an adrenaline rush can also make you absurdly strong for a little while? I wonder if I can pull a low-psi-bias adrenaline manipulation technique in order to boost my strength enough to carry my crate myself. I'll put my hands on the object to be lifted - the crate - using it to sort of center myself, close my eyes, breathe, focus for about a minute, and then go...
You don't hurt yourself, and you actually start to get the crate off the ground, but it's awkward and very heavy (one hundred fifty pounds of gold plus the weight of a wooden crate strong enough not to break under that weight).
For what it's worth, you don't really feel that you were able to tap into your reserves. You'll have to rethink how to do that.
You do persuade your carriers to carry the crate for you. When you're half way across, a couple of workers come over and ask who you are and why you are loading cargo. They do so a bit beligerently, but they are not brandishing the clubs which are hanging loosely by their sides.
--M. J. Young
I explain that I'm a passenger on the ship, not part of the crew, and that they're not loading cargo, they're just carrying my luggage, which is a bit heavy for me to carry myself, as they might know if they'd noticed me attempting to lift it myself not too terribly long ago. I'll also explain that, for what it's worth, the ship I'm recently retired from always paid a fair wage for fair work, and always used properly maintained dock hands.
"Luggage, huh?" He looks you up and down. "All right, you can go."
You reach the ship and board with no further incident. The officer on watch asks who you are and who these are with you, noting that no arrangements were made for you to have servants aboard, but permits them to carry your luggage to your stateroom (easier for him than finding a deck hand to do it). You pay your men their agreed wage, and get your first look out the porthole that views the darkening harbor.
You have a hammock and a chest of drawers, the latter secured to the interior wall. There is also a dry sink with a recess in the counter in which a pitcher fits rather securely, and pegs behind a curtain designed for hanging capes or cloaks.
--M. J. Young
I'll secure my chest of gold with any handy bit of rope - on a ship you really ought to make sure everything is bolted down - and pay my men their wage. For the deck watchman's security, I'll check in with him again as I see them off the ship, so he can be sure they came and went in a reasonable amount of time.
Once that's done, I'll enact one of the Holy Ground spells I already have, the one to do the circle around my bed - or, in this case, hammock. I probably won't need it for very long, but I need a working Holy Ground for my Remove Fatigue and Freshen spells, so I might as well set one up while I've got time.
The officer on watch apologizes that you have missed dinner, and asks whether you would like the doctor to pull together something for you.
You establish your holy ground.
Mid-morning there is a check to confirm that you and the other passengers are all aboard, and the ship is underway by noon.
--M. J. Young
If it's not too much of an imposition, then yes I will accept the doctor's hospitality.
With my holy ground in place, I'll keep myself alert and fresh the entire trip.
Other than that, I suppose I'll pass the time playing my flute, something I've been neglecting lately and mean to brush up on.
Your three weeks to Galva are uneventful, peaceful and enjoyable, and although it does not have all the amenities of a modern cruise it is certainly set up for the comfort of guests.
On the twenty-first day you arrive at Galva. You have accommodations aboard the ship, of course, but Galva is something like a Carribean resort town, with casinos, beaches, restaurants, outdoor feasts, local dancing, and more. You have five days here.
--M. J. Young
I'll spend some time learning a local dance, something I can impress my bride-to-be with when I make it there.
Of course I'll indulge in some outdoor feasts, especially if anyone is roasting a boar (or equivalent animal) -- food of the gods!
I'll stay away from the casinos. If I do badly I squander my life savings. If I win the weight of my winnings would sink the ship (2oz coins? really?).
One thing I would like to see is if Galva has any local martial-arts talent. Caribbean-style cultures might have something akin to Escrima, and if I could get an introductory lesson in that while I'm in town that would be fairly shiny.
In short, I'll pack as much as I can get my hands on in five days, especially when I'm only required an hour of rest a night.
Roast boar for certain. Enjoy it.
The locals do invite tourists to try the basic dance moves, but they don't really "teach" in the sense that you would know much about the style. Still, you pick up a very basic skill at Galva Native Dance. It will be difficult to improve this unless you can find an instructor elsewhere.
You manage to watch an exhibition of their Doshi Do martial arts style, a movement-based defense whose attacks are evidently based on pressure points and vital areas. You might be able to teach yourself the basics of it, but no master will take a student who is a tourist passing through.
If you're happy with that, we'll continue the journey.
--M. J. Young
Works for me. And yes, I will try to copy out what I saw the masters doing. Combined with the martial arts I already have, I should be able to work out the basics.
That said, onward!
The techniques are elusive, and very foreign to anything to which you are accustomed. You play around with it for several hours, but cannot find the stance or basic movements needed for the style.
It takes 23 days to complete the voyage, during which you are treated to excellent food, wine, mead, and ale, on board musical and dramatic entertainment, and of course the fresh air of the oceans to which you have become accustomed.
You pull into Durnmist close to the scheduled arrival date.
--M. J. Young
What I do upon arrival depends entirely on when precisely I arrive. Do I have some time before I am scheduled to meet with the matchmaker and my bride-to-be? (By the way, did we finally decide on Arabelle or Arabella as the 'right' version of her name? I know this was somewhat contentious at the time...)
If I do not have time, I will go to the local Sardic Shipping office and arrange to have my letters of credit on deposit, along with my chest of gold which I don't really need to have in cash now that I've arrived - minus a bit for living expenses. I'll spend some of my money on a fresh suit of clothes, and show up to my appointment.
If I do have a measure of time, I need to do the following things, quite probably in this order:
1: Find the City Guard offices, and put in my application for work.
2: Find the equivalent of a real estate office, and try to find out how much it costs to buy a house here in Durnmist. If I'm going to be married, we need a place to live.
3: Find a local orphanage. Now that I am about to be living a settled life - and one that should, but cannot, include kids - it's time to look into proper adoption.
And then a fresh suit of clothes, and show up to my appointment.
I did not think our discussion about the name was at all contentious. It happens that my sheet for her says "Arabella" at the top, but I do not know whether that is because that was what I had put originally or because I had changed it. I don't know that it matters to me, if you have a preference, and I can make it whichever you prefer. On the other hand, I'm sure to forget sometimes--as Kyler and John 1 how many times I mixed up his Mariska with his Miralla when I was typing.
You are well ahead of schedule. One hundred twenty-three days ago it was suggested that it might take as much as six to nine months for you to make the round trip to Sardic and back, and so you agreed on a wedding date one year in the future--which assuming a 360 day year (which we will henceforth assume) gives you 237 days until the wedding.
Of course, they do not know on what ship you are arriving, so they do not know you are in town.
It would be midday by the time you arrive, and since you are not continuing with the ship you will have to disembark and find lodging somewhere. There is no problem with you taking a few hours to get organized and returning for your luggage, but they will not want anyone boarding after dark, so it advised that you make your arrangements by then.
Which reminds: how are you planning to move the crate?
--M. J. Young
Arabella is fine with me.
Shades of Bacchus, I forgot about that sodding crate... FINE. I'll hire two more mooks to help me schlep it down to the Sardic Shipping office, where I'll convert the whole bloody lot into platinum pieces or letters of credit or travelers checks or whatever it is people actually use on a daily basis here, considering I can't imagine anyone actually carries these silly two-ounce coins. Pieces-of-eight only weighed nine-tenths of an ounce and they were made of silver... But whatever. I'll hire two random mooks and pay them on arrival.
With 237 days, I should have more than enough time to have a job, a house, a household pet (I'm partial to cats), well under way before then.
I want to start with getting my job on the City Guard. If they need me to attend Basic Training or anything like that, having two-thirds of a year to get it over with in will certainly be a boon. I'd like to take whatever sorts of testing and training they require, with an eye toward starting as high-ranked as possible and rising quickly. Becoming a very young Sheriff is easier to explain than how I manage to get the part later with a hundred years of seniority, after all.
Edit: One thing I need to do BEFORE I go getting a job in law enforcement: I need to find someone who can handle my emeralds! My deal with the Captain to sell them under his license for a percentage apparently fell through, and now I'm left with a sack full of quasi-contraband material I need to fence. I wonder though - could one of my Purifying spells be used to create a sort of semi-cut emerald that might be saleable? This is something I may experiment with...
You pay a couple of dock workers to deliver your crate to a hotel a few blocks from the waterfront. They check the contents to ensure that it is not illegal, and reseal the crate.
The ownership of emeralds, cut, uncut, or raw, is not illegal. The problem lies in importing them, because there are import tarriffs on commercial imports. Since you are carrying the stones as luggage, no one has bothered with them, and now that they are in Durnmist you are free to own them and deal them as you wish.
--M. J. Young
Ah, well, that makes a difference then.
Once I'm settled into the inn - and I'll be staying here until I have a house, or until getting a job with the City Guard forces me to leave - I'll set up another of my usual eight-foot circle bedroom holy grounds.
I'm going to try it with just one of my stones. I'm going to set up a ritual - I'll spend an hour on it. One eye closed in honor of Odin, sword in hand in honor of Thor, one window open to allow in the wind in honor of Loki in his capacity as Shapeshifter. I'll speak appropriate words invoking each god and asking them to remove the impurities from this stone, reducing it to a more useful form. I will kneel in the circle, at the side of my bed as though using it as an altar, and swish an othala rune (which means 'estate' or 'wealth') with my sword (requiring a skill check).
Either way, once I'm settled in - whether this ritual succeeds or fails - my next step will be to try to get my job with the City Watch. I have no other plans and nothing else to do until I have made an attempt to do that. That must be the next thing that happens after this ritual check.
I've got a possible problem on your holy ground consecration.
When you originally created the spell, you specified that it would be undone at such time as you left the Mary Piper. When you cast it again aboard the vacation cruise, I stretched that to "leave the ship". This, though, is not a ship. Can we determine whether the original spell is limited to creating holy ground aboard a ship or not? I'll take the original post or quotations from it that show intent at that time.
It's probably a minor point, but then, if it is not limited to a ship this is probably a new use, and if it is then this is a new skill.
--M. J. Young
It's not - it's just limited to a place. When I permanently vacate, the spell self-dismisses.
Can we find the original creation of the spell?
I realize that it could have been intended that it cover any place, but my description originally stated that it was designed for the Mary Piper, and I stretched it to say it was for any ship. I think I will need to track down the original description you gave of what you were attempting to accomplish, and compare that against the posts that did the analysis of that, before I can answer this with certainty.
If we can't find that original description, I'll probably treat this as a new spell, because I can't be certain whether changing the description once more would alter the chance of success.
--M. J. Young
This was one of the first spells I ever successfully did. The original description included being dismissed from the Mary Piper, but being a ship vs not a ship doesn't matter that much - I didn't claim a bonus for being limited to 'on a ship'. The Mary Piper wasn't a component of the spell. Maybe I invoked Njordr, god of the sea. I'm still in a port city. It still works. If you choose to call this a new spell, do so. If you choose to make this a new use, do so. I'm 1@1 on it. It makes no difference, except that now we have wasted three days with no actual updates on what should have been one dice roll, which you know I dislike. It makes no difference to me what you call it, so long as it precludes this. Always assume path of least resistance unless I stop you on the Behind the Screens and go 'wtf' in which case I'm saying I don't mind delaying for it. In this case, I mind. This is trivial and should not be my entire update for the day.
The first mention of holy ground in the game thread is here ( http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/harrys-game/page/10#post-5360 ). It was originally based on a skill he knew from home, apparently.
I do apologize for all that trouble. The short answer is this is a new use of an established skill; the long answer is behind the screens.
You establish holy ground in your rented room.
Inns here in Durnmist tend to provide housing on a per diem basis; this one charges 3 diktar per day which does not include meals or drink. The innkeeper seems to like you, though, and on the third day mentions that you can probably get a place in a rooming house for something considerably cheaper--probably eight to ten per week, breakfast and dinner included--if you're going to be doing this for a while.
Questions concerning the new spell:
- Does this work for only emeralds, all gemstones, or any rock that might be considered pure/impure (e.g., ore)?
- You are performing it within your holy ground. Is the existence and/or activation of the holy ground an essential element of the skill, or is it only that you will take the bonus for performing this in active holy ground?
- Is the sound vital or not? Are they spoken loudly and/or forcefully?
- You are doing this on a single stone. Is there a limitation on the volume or quantity that can be purified with a single casting, or is this simply a safety precaution in case you botch? That is, would this same spell be able to purify your entire crate of stones, or the gold in a one hundred foot tall statue, or the iron ore in a dump truck, or the oil in a supertanker?
--M. J. Young
I'll thank the innkeeper for his help, and look for one of those boarding houses he mentioned.
Failing that, I'll ask the innkeeper if he would cut me a break on room and board if I work security for him while I stay.
As to the spell:
1: Any rock that might be considered pure/impure - this would be the same spell I would use to purify iron ore, for instance.
2: Existence and activation are essential.
3: Sound is vital, but not volume.
4: Like all of my other purity spells (notice how I was able to purify all the food in the cargo hold with one casting), the limit of the spell is contingent upon the holy ground it is cast in. It affects a sphere with a radius equal to that of the holy ground. It could, theoretically, purify all the gold in a 100' statue, if I bothered to consecrate a 200' holy ground around it, but that sort of thing isn't terribly practical anyway...
It strikes me that this potentially creates a variable. That is, either you can control which objects within the spell area are affected, or you are removing from the spell area any objects you do not wish affected. In particular, your crate of gems must either be removed from the 8' diameter circle of holy ground, or you must include that you can exclude that from the spell's effect, limiting the effect to the specifically identified object. The latter seems to me to be what you intend; that would mean that you have an area of effect (the holy ground) within which you have separate control over what is affected.Like all of my other purity spells (notice how I was able to purify all the food in the cargo hold with one casting), the limit of the spell is contingent upon the holy ground it is cast in. It affects a sphere with a radius equal to that of the holy ground.
Is that correct?
--M. J. Young
Actually it's the former - I have to stash my crate in the corner in order to avoid purifying them all. This was never an issue before because the only thing I'm controlling is what class of object I'm purifying ("gems", "wine", "food", etc) not which specific items of that type I am purifying. I cannot control which objects of that class are targeted within the spell area - if its of the class I'm specifying (again, this is where that 'divine magic reads your intentions' thing comes into play) it is affected, or at least targeted.
Stupid question I should have spotted previously. You wrote
one window open to allow in the wind in honor of LokiDoes this mean that the spell can only be done inside in a room that has a window? (That would permit a cabin on a ship that has a porthole, but it would not permit a tent, any building with windows that do not open, a sub-basement, a grove in the woods, the open desert, et cetera.)
Next question: you say you will kneel by your bed as if it were an altar. Does that mean you must have a bed which rises a noticeable height to a flat top (and thus not a hammock nor a sleeping bag), or what are the parameters of this necessary element?
--M. J. Young
The hell with it. It's not that important. Do something that advances the story. I give up. You know I hate it when you do this. I've begged you enough times not to do this. You continue to do this. I give up. Short of saving someone's life, nothing could be worth this. I've been stalled for a week on one nitpicking question after another. I do not care. Drop the spell and move on.
As you activate the holy ground, you feel an overwhelming presence of power in your room; you can sense, if not quite see, the glow.
You perform the sword flourish as you pray, remaining on your knees for the full hour.
As the time approaches the end, the stone glows brightly for a moment and then dims to a clear smooth form. Its shape is a bit ragged--it does not have the symmetry of a cut stone--but it otherwise is a clear crystal whose flaws are devoid of dirt or impurities, gaps perhaps of air or vacuum within the clear stone.
Now, how do you propose to get a job with the city watch?
--M. J. Young
First I plan to spend a moment indulging in a nice big cat-grin that my spell worked. Then I plan to thank the gods for their gift and deactivate the holy ground.
Then I plan to do the obvious: go to the nearest guardhouse and ask what's required and where you have to go to do it. I'll leave my weapons and valuables behind.
As an aside, thank you for you use of the word 'pray' in your description. Considering the whole 'prayer vs spell' debate that erupted not so very long ago, I appreciate it.
As far as I can tell, "pray" is a somewhat archaic term for "ask" or "petition". Paul uses the Greek word in connection with asking other people to do things for him; William Shakespeare uses it in similar ways. Even if we allow that it became specialized to any conversation with a deity, your prayers count as much as mine, the Jews, the Mormons, the Muslims, and anyone else who would address a spirit being to request help--no matter what my opinion of that spirit being is.
But you're welcome.
Incidentally, did you ever read that book I gave you at Ubercon?
You find such a place easily enough. They ask who you are and what experience and previous employment you have.
--M. J. Young
I started into it, but I also got a job and haven't had time to read anything lately. I still have it. There are some things I agree with, some things I disagree with, some things I agree with but don't think they require a Christian context to be agreeable but would apply equally to any kind of faith. I want to do a complete written deconstruction so I can discuss it with you intelligently by the time of next Ubercon. I will probably make it the next book I read, with that in mind.
Incidentally, I beg your indulgence to cancel the boast I set myself at last Ubercon - not because I don't think a Guide to the Gods is possible, but because I don't think it's necessary. Unlike D&D supplements, there really are no additional rules I could possibly add to expand on the game; you've pretty much got everything covered. It would just be a big book of mythological fluff, and there are plenty of those around. The only thing I could possibly add would be a list of suggestions for prayers and sacrifices appropriate to each deity, and that wouldn't make for a very thick book.
I explain to them that I am John Sevenwind, formerly of the good ship Mary Piper out of Sardic, come to Durnmist to settle down and raise a family - I am, in fact, engaged to be married this very year. I have experience in seafaring things like navigation, and also some mean skill with both blade and pistol. I am likewise not without experience in both crowd control and diplomacy, and have tried my hand at criminal investigation on at least one major occasion, which led to the exoneration of an ill-accused shipmate, and on another which led to the rescue of another man. (Both stories upon request - I would claim Storytelling in the neighborhood of 1@7 or 1@8.)
Edit: Update. I read your book today. All of it. I still want to do a deconstruction before I attempt to discuss it, but I can now honestly say I have read every bit of it.
I look forward to your thoughts on the book. The next Ubercon won't be until the fall, though, so if you're intent on having this discussion in person we'll have to wait. I'll also have to figure out how to slot an hour or two for that--you might have to join me for lunch or something, as my schedule there tends to be a bit tight. In fact, as you well know, I often wind up administering game stuff over meals, too.
"Navigation? You're a navigator?" The man seems truly impressed. "We certainly can use an educated man such as yourself in our investigations department, Mr. Sevenwind. Sevenwind--I don't recognize the name. Where is your family from? Here, let me get," he stumbles through the drawers of a desk, "the paperwork. Let's see. You told me your name--here, I'll let you fill it out, a man of letters doesn't need a scribe to help him fill out paperwork, does he?"
The questions are pretty typical: Name, current address, previous address, next of kin, do you have a criminal record, and in what jurisdiction(s), age, height, weight, previous experience, education. You get the impression that it's mostly pro forma, but that you do have to provide answers which might one day be checked.
--M. J. Young
I'd be glad to join you for lunch. Maybe we can make time for some discussion before then or, if nothing else, you probably have my email, and I am on Facebook.
"Far away," I say. If he has a map I'll indicate the same 'ass-end-of-nowhere' area somewhere out West that I pointed to when Captain John asked a similar question.
I'll fill out the paperwork. John Caldwell Sevenwind, currently living in a boarding house on Fleet Street, previous address Mary Piper, next of kin none surviving, no criminal record, age 25, height... how do they measure height here? I'm 6' 0", weight... I've probably lost a LOT of weight and then regained some in muscle, so I'll say I'm probably around 245lbs, previous experience as described.
English measurements are good.
Adding the middle name to your sheet. Just for my sake, do you pronounce that "Called" or "Cad"? (Both are in common use.)
He asks if you can be back at nine tomorrow morning. The division captain has gone home for the night and won't be back until sunrise, and he'll want to go over the paperwork and maybe clear a salary for you before he says yes or no, but he's going to want to say yes, and might want to start you tomorrow, if he can get everything approved.
--M. J. Young
I pronounce it Called.
And yes, I can be back, assuming the house I'm staying in has an accurate clock or a reasonably reliable breakfast schedule.
That done, I'll have to bless me a Hallowed Ground to consecrate this bedroom for my use, and begin my usual rotation of Remove Fatigue spells (it occurs to me that I really have only actually slept once in last year-and-change, which is nice).
Sometime during the night, I'm going to try my Purify Minerals spell on a handful - let's say a nice round three - more emeralds.