Dice Avatar Legends: The Forbidden Scroll OOC

[Eonivar]

I’m a People Person
When you watch someone interact with another person, roll with Focus. On a 7-9, ask 1. On a 10+, ask 2. Take +1 ongoing to act on the answers.
• Are you lying right now? <-- Specifically this one
• What are you most afraid of?
• How are you vulnerable to me?
• How can I get you to mark the condition ______?
On a miss, you can’t get a good read on them; mark a condition in frustration.

Yeah this could work…I will have Sesi interact with the Fire Sage for you to trigger it.
you roll 2D6 plus your FOCUS score...you ask the number of questions with the result, even if the Fire Sage is telling the truth, the +1 Ongoing could be very helpful here in actions of making sure the Fire Sage is set free.

 

[Eonivar]

I updated my text about the move above...

Question for jaydude , I presume our team had an original plan for them to infiltrate, get the scroll, and then leave that would have been made before the session started? What is that plan? Or are we kind of stuck and have to make new plans?

 

[jaydude]

Question for jaydude , I presume our team had an original plan for them to infiltrate, get the scroll, and then leave that would have been made before the session started? What is that plan? Or are we kind of stuck and have to make new plans?

Niuan has a friend who might be willing to help you all get out of the Fire Nation, but you can certainly have had an escape strategy of your own in mind when you planned your break-in. Anything in particular you were thinking of?

 

[Eonivar]

Oh yeah, also I have suggestions for Rykon for Zuran's Connections as a Successor

Yuza has major concerns, fears, or
grievances with my lineage—and with me, by proxy. (I do not see Sesi being concerned with this...and maybe more of Yuza feeling this way based on what I have seen and read, Random Word can tell us if that fits or not with Yuza)

Sesi seems free of their past in a way I wish I could
let go of mine; hearing them talk about the future feels amazing! (keyword here is SEEMS for Sesi, because they had a very rough past and their balance is between Forgiveness and Action, but I see them as at least on the surface very carefree in that regard, Sesi is an idealist and is looking towards the future)

Those seem to fit the personalities of the characters from what I have read. If you have any other ideas I am open, these are just suggestions

 

[Eonivar]

Niuan has a friend who might be willing to help you all get out of the Fire Nation, but you can certainly have had an escape strategy in mind when you planned your break-in. Anything in particular you were thinking of?

I presume at least Sesi came in on a ship. Whether it was a small ship of their own or something arranged I am not sure, jaydude what would it be here?
Sesi has the skills and ability to sail a ship. So I presume that is a possible out. I also presume that our two Fire Nation friends met up with Sesi after that to do the heist.

 

[Random Word]

Yuza isn't a revolutionary. She's here because she's assigned to protect Zaran, and Zaran is something of a revolutionary. Yuza just quietly likes that the things she's being told to do now don't make her work so hard to keep the bad feelings in a well controlled box.

How exactly a rebellious noble met a southern Water Tribe infiltrating the capital city for presumably subversive ends I have no idea. Neither of you would be predisposed to trust each other, so something big must have shoved you together. Maybe there's a subversive organization or powerful individual that helped Sesi get to the capital for some purpose, and also recruited Zaran, and introduced you to each other?

 

[Eonivar]

Yuza isn't a revolutionary. She's here because she's assigned to protect Zaran, and Zaran is something of a revolutionary. Yuza just quietly likes that the things she's being told to do now don't make her work so hard to keep the bad feelings in a well controlled box.

How exactly a rebellious noble met a southern Water Tribe infiltrating the capital city for presumably subversive ends I have no idea. Neither of you would be predisposed to trust each other, so something big must have shoved you together. Maybe there's a subversive organization or powerful individual that helped Sesi get to the capital for some purpose, and also recruited Zaran, and introduced you to each other?

Those are all very valid questions. I presume some sort of powerful individual set them up here, maybe Sesi was sent as the way to get them out because I do not think Sesi would desire to visit the Fire Nation currently without a very, very good reason, and I do not think Sesi would have known the other two from their past unless they had gone outside of the Fire nation. It's possible Sesi was with others and circumstances beyond their control brought them to the Fire Nation and then they were separated from the others. (The "That's no island...that is the Fire Nation..." reason.)

 

[Eonivar]

Those are all very valid questions. I presume some sort of powerful individual set them up here, maybe Sesi was sent as the way to get them out because I do not think Sesi would desire to visit the Fire Nation currently without a very, very good reason, and I do not think Sesi would have known the other two from their past unless they had gone outside of the Fire nation. It's possible Sesi was with others and circumstances beyond their control brought them to the Fire Nation and then they were separated from the others. (The "That's no island...that is the Fire Nation..." reason.)

I had some further thoughts on this as the gears started turning this morning.

A couple of ideas actually. It's possible that Sesi is a member of the White Lotus and was sent there or was going elsewhere when they got diverted to the fire nation.

It's possible Sesi was on a transport ship with some other refugees bound for the Earth Nation when their ship was accosted by a Fire Nation warship en route and forced to dock somewhere in the Fire Nation, presumably where Zuran's Family Holdings were. After a riot situation occurs at the transport with the refugees, Sesi was able to escape into the town and found through the usual signs another member of the White Lotus...who seeing an opportunity connected Sesi to help with a mission with Zuran and Yuza. Happy to help Sesi agreed and met up with Zuran and Yuza.

How about that? Will that work?

 

[jaydude]

I had some further thoughts on this as the gears started turning this morning.

A couple of ideas actually. It's possible that Sesi is a member of the White Lotus and was sent there or was going elsewhere when they got diverted to the fire nation.

It's possible Sesi was on a transport ship with some other refugees bound for the Earth Nation when their ship was accosted by a Fire Nation warship en route and forced to dock somewhere in the Fire Nation, presumably where Zuran's Family Holdings were. After a riot situation occurs at the transport with the refugees, Sesi was able to escape into the town and found through the usual signs another member of the White Lotus...who seeing an opportunity connected Sesi to help with a mission with Zuran and Yuza. Happy to help Sesi agreed and met up with Zuran and Yuza.

How about that? Will that work?

I'm cool with Sesi being a member of the White Lotus, and well as your idea about how they could end up involved in this.

Otherwise, you mentioned in your history that Sesi wants to investigate why their village and tribe were destroyed. Could it be that their investigation could take them to the Fire Nation?

 

[Random Word]

I'm getting the sense the Sage's plan is for us to simply waltz out of the prison, and the difficulty is going to be getting to the docks unmolested. Is that accurate, and does Yuza think that's reasonable? Was the only thing keeping us in here the gate of our prison cell?

 

[Eonivar]

Otherwise, you mentioned in your history that Sesi wants to investigate why their village and tribe were destroyed. Could it be that their investigation could take them to the Fire Nation?

Yeah that works for me. I will update Sesi’s character sheet with their history and what we discussed here.

 

[jaydude]

I'm getting the sense the Sage's plan is for us to simply waltz out of the prison, and the difficulty is going to be getting to the docks unmolested. Is that accurate, and does Yuza think that's reasonable? Was the only thing keeping us in here the gate of our prison cell?

I'm somewhat on the fence about how hard I want to make actually breaking out of the prison. I don't want to bog down the story with too many confrontations that are unnecessary to the narrative, but I also don't want to portray the prison guards as being completely incompetent.

But yes, Niuan's plan is to meet up with Sun Po, and hope she doesn't ask too high a price for sneaking them out of the city.

In terms of whether or not this is reasonable to Yuza, I don't really want to railroad you towards one escape method or another, so I will point out the other two methods suggested in the quickstart, which I imagine that Yuza would be able to consider if she's spent any length of time in the capital:

• A well-known band of street kids called the Fire Finches know all the ins and outs of the city and could most likely get the PCs out of the city if they earn the Finches’ trust. Any PC familiar with the street kids has heard the Finches have tunnels leading out of the city to the other side of the island, where the PCs could hire a boat to escape.
• The infamous Burning Ember Gang—led by a rough man named Fai Lan—are notorious in the city for flaunting the rule of law; it’s likely they have no qualms with smuggling the PCs out over the nearby mountains, provided the PCs are willing to do things their way and do a favor in return. Of course, favors for men like Fai Lan are very rarely innocent errands...

Otherwise, you're all welcome to propose ideas for your own escape methods. The main thing is that getting around the city unmolested will indeed be an issue, but you're also on a time limit to get out. The authorities are going to start searching for you at any moment, and they'll be tightening the net as the day goes on. By nightfall, the city will be locked down, and the authorities will have a pretty good idea of where you are.

 

[Random Word]

Oh, I was only referring to the prison break part. I get that there's an almost infinite number of ways out of a city. I just didn't know if we were smashing our way out of the prison (which will draw a lot of attention) or if I was missing a more clever plan. Yuza is pretty good at smashing, so she's not opposed to this, but she's not optimistic about the group's chances of putting down an entire prison's worth of guards, let alone the palace and city guard after that. A master of escape and disguise she is not. That's what the Rogue is for .

 

[jaydude]

Oh, I was only referring to the prison break part. I get that there's an almost infinite number of ways out of a city. I just didn't know if we were smashing out way out of the prison (which will draw a lot of attention) or if I was missing a more clever plan. Yuza is pretty good at smashing, so she's not opposed to this, but she's not optimistic about the group's chances of putting down an entire prison's worth of guards, let alone the palace and city guard after that. A master of escape and disguise she is not. That's what the Rogue is for .

Okay. I might give you a fight with a couple of prison guards just to give everyone a taste of the combat system here, but ideally I'd like to get you out of the prison quietly.

Thinking about it a bit more, I can probably use the same way that Niuan got inside.

 

[jaydude]

Hey Rykon , you keeping up with this?

 

[Rykon]

Not yet, I've been swamped the past few days. I'll catch up soon.

 

[jaydude]

Not yet, I've been swamped the past few days. I'll catch up soon.

I'll hold things for a moment to let you catch up. Otherwise, you can let me know here if you feel the story's moving in a direction that doesn't make sense for Zaran.

 

[jaydude]

Random Word
Just saw that you rolled. Disregard my last!

 

[Random Word]

Would you prefer we roll in OOC? I don't mind rolling here if you don't want mechanics and drice rolls in IC.

 

[jaydude]

Would you prefer we roll in OOC? I don't mind rolling here if you don't want mechanics and drice rolls in IC.

I'm cool with whatever you guys want to do. I only rolled here because I didn't think you were going to do so in the IC thread.

 

[Random Word]

if Sesi and Zaran want to get in on the ambush, go ahead and make rely on skills and training rolls. Sesi gets a -1 modifier, Zaran gets a +1. Niuan won't participate, but if both of you get 10+, the guards will be knocked out without complications.

Ooh, I will abide by your judgement here without further comment, but requiring three 10+ results for something as in-genre straightforward as cleanly knocking out some mooks to steal uniforms seems unusually harsh. It's very hard to get 3 10+ results! Especially when RST isn't where the rest of the group is strong. I'm sure Zaran, for example, would prefer to be able to Trick to get a bonus at least before trying to RST.

I'd like to at least request the others get circumstance bonuses to their rolls for Yuza planning and executing the ambush extremely well. Her coordination and leadership ought to count for something, and the fiction supports the guards being significantly impaired by being blinded. I don't think it would have been entirely beyond genre constraints to have Yuza single handedly knock out the guards, but it feels better story-wise to make it a team effort.

 

[Rykon]

I had actually been planning on going with Trick at first, but I did keep from going completely all in on Creativity for situations like this since I haven't played anything resembling this system before. I'll hold for the moment.

 

[jaydude]

Ooh, I will abide by your judgement here without further comment, but requiring three 10+ results for something as in-genre straightforward as cleanly knocking out some mooks to steal uniforms seems unusually harsh. It's very hard to get 3 10+ results! Especially when RST isn't where the rest of the group is strong. I'm sure Zaran, for example, would prefer to be able to Trick to get a bonus at least before trying to RST.

I'd like to at least request the others get circumstance bonuses to their rolls for Yuza planning and executing the ambush extremely well. Her coordination and leadership ought to count for something, and the fiction supports the guards being significantly impaired by being blinded. I don't think it would have been entirely beyond genre constraints to have Yuza single handedly knock out the guards, but it feels better story-wise to make it a team effort.

Hmm, you know what? Given the case you make here, I'll allow for a clean knock-out of all the guards without needing any more rolls.

I will point out that if anyone actually rolled 7-9 here, that basically just allows me to add in an additional consequence for your approach, which the player can mark 1-fatigue to nullify.

 

[Random Word]

Very true, but with Sesi's -1 it's quite likely she'll get a 6-! It's a bit tricky to resolve the results of a multi-person roll like that in PbtA, because the result becomes very ambiguous. I think that's generally what the Help action is for.

 

[jaydude]

Hey all. I'd now like to bring your attention to a mechanic that's a significant part of this adventure, and that is the Clock.

The Clock is essentially a four section timer that marks the amount of time you have before a serious - and typically bad - event happens within the narrative. In this case, each section represents a time of day - morning, afternoon, evening and finally night - and the serious event is the city getting locked down and the authorities getting enough of a bead on you to force a confrontation. When I had Niuan warn you to get out of the city before nightfall, he had very good reason to do so.

A section of the clock will fill up whenever you hide for more than a few moments, take a long but safe route to somewhere, or otherwise do something that takes a significant amount of time. An event representing an increase in pressure on you to escape will happen each time a section's filled up.

Right now it's early morning IC, and no sections of our clock have been filled up. I am however planning to skip to you all entering Harbor City with my next post, at which point the first section of the clock will be filled. I'm just making sure you understand how this is going to play out.