Part the Fourth or Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend
HOLY NUBS! It's been awhile. At this rate I'll be updating at the same rate as Viladin (zing!). I kid, I kid. These posts are little more than me vomiting out words when I have a free moment between work, school and crying over the land before time on vhs. What Viladin, and by extension all the fine folks who contribute to FFd20, do is far more nuanced and time-intensive. Im stoked every time i see a new update, and my group is very interested to see how the Sword Saint gets updated, as it directly applies to one of our characters. And can we take a moment to talk about the new Turk class? I always knew that shinra or a shinra-like entity would exist in the game im hostin, and you cant have shinra without turks takin care of the dirty work, so im very excited (and relieved) to have a source to pull from.
So, when we last left our ragtag group of heroes they had just staggered back to town after what couldve been a serious whuppin. It was a very eye-opening experience for everyone involved. I had warned them that this game wasnt going to be a walk in the park like the beginner box before it (told em to think less dynasty warriors, more dark souls). But to have the two tanks go down in the very first combat encounter was an unintended side-effect of house rules and die rolls. Well, you live and you learn, and that experience taught me as a GM to pay closer attention to creatures beyond the standard CR when prepping. So theres that.
Now that the boys are back in town, I figured Id give the players a lil down-time. As I mentioned before, I dont ask the players to micromanage or relay information of their food, drink or sleep cycles until theyre in a survival situation. While it certainly has the potential to heighten the role playing experience, Ive found as a player that such things are tedious and distracting, stopping the flow of information between GM and players to let everyone know your char has eaten lunch that day. That being said, I still wanted the players to think about the day-to-day minutia that their chars go thru when theyre not adventuring, so I had them each select a profession and craft of their choice (if they didnt have one already). I figured itd keep the players grounded, reminding them that theres a world beyond monster killin and allowing them to step into their chars a lil bit, as well as supplementing their individual income without breaking the bank.
Following is the chars, their professions & crafts:
Lowkey the Dagroon, Farming & Cooking
Elyot the Sward Saint, Blacksmithing & Weaponsmithing (i think?)
Cid the Mako Weapon Specialist, Engineering & ... more Engineering (im bad at this)
So the W. Mage, Healing & Alchemy
Draco the Arcane Bomber, Fishing & Cooking
Bonus! Rian Libra the Eldritch Raider, Librarian (GET IT? IM GENIUS) & Traps
On the technical side of things, I first had the players roll a d20, add their profession skill to whatever they rolled and then i just multiplied by 10 or something to get the total gil of what they worked that day. It IMMEDIATELY became apparent that this was a half-assed (not to mention unbalanced) way of doin profession checks and was not going to work. I needed to think of something new for profession and crafting whenever we played next, so thatll get covered in the next post. As far as story goes: Lowkey went to work on the farm, Draco caught a big-ass fish, Elyot worked with his NPC father as a blacksmith, So made chump-change as an ER nurse (a big reason I saw the need to alter the checks), and Cid... chose not to work.
Instead, he opted to create a reloading modification for his crossbow, an idea I helped him form while the first encounter was under way. As I understand it, loading or reloading is a move action (im new and dont have a head for rememberin copious rules, plz correct if wrong). Between Cid whiffing throughout the entirety of the groups first battle and his frustration at not bein able to move and shoot in the same turn, as well as trying to get him and the other players into their chars a lil bit, I told him durin the encounter that his char starts to look at his weapon mechanically, the way an engineer would. A tool or machine aint workin the way an engineer thinks it should, theyll take it apart until it does what they want it to do. Between game sessions I came up with a few ideas, and on game night I gave him an option of two devices that he could attempt to make: The first would allow reloading as a standard action with no chance to fail the reload w/ a ten-bolt clip, thus allowing a lil more versatility in combat. The second (and the one I figured hed go for) would allow reloading as a swift action but with an 80% success rate w/ a ten-bolt clip, meaning every time he reloaded hed roll percentile. If he failed, the weapon would jam until the next turn, at which point he could attempt the reload again. I gave him a series of checks over the course of the in-game week, each check adding a lil bit more difficulty, until he succeeded. And succeed he did! With not one but two nat 20's. On the first one I made the creation process shorter by a day, but the second I figured Id offer sumthin more substantial, so I allowed that first clip a +1 to hit in the next encounter. Overall, the group felt that it was a good way to spend a week and they enjoyed the chance to earn some extra money, setting the precedent for work-weeks in between quests. Oh, and the party took the time to repay the Old Wagon Driver for the cure potions (threw it in for continuity).
With the week done, Montblanc summons the PCs to his office. The party arrives and Montblanc informs em of a job of a different sort; a requisition comin from another member of Clan Centurio. The request is to find a old-looking statue of questionable origin in a cave just on the outskirts of an abandoned town, secure it and bring it back to the guild for inspection. Naturally, the party is curious as to why their fellow guildy cant accomplish such a task. Montblanc can only respond that their guildmate insists theres other time-sensitive things that need to be taken care of, and so a request is made for someone reliable to see a job thru to the end. The party is more or less satisfied with this explanation and theyre prepared to set out, but Montblanc stops briefly stops them. He says that, considering theyre a team now, they need a team name. Being that theyre all of different races, some wielding magic and others with blade and lance and shining armor, they need a name that evokes majesty and wonder... SPARKLE MOTION. (Honestly it was just sumthin I thought of between sessions to mess with em. Donnie Darko is one of my favorite movies and they all took it like champs, so the name stuck)
So the party sets out, a lil more sure of themselves now that theyve been thru combat and have a better understanding of how pathfinder works and their individual roles. I give the players a chance to make some small talk on the way to their location, mostly just to see what they do in character. A short discussion of workin as a team plays out; not much, but its always difficult to get into character when youre startin out and you gotta give em props for tryin. The party reaches the town, deserted and half-buried in sand, before movin on to the cave. Theyre immediately cautious, and Lowkey voices his concern that he wont be able to use his dragoons leap in an enclosed environment. Elyot takes out his hooded lantern and shines it into the mouth of the cave (theres a phallic joke in here somewhere, I just know it!), but in doing so he awakens a handful of bats who proceed to swarm out. The party makes short work of the bats, eager to vilify themselves after the first combat encounter.
They proceed into the cave, fanning out a bit and checking some side tunnels, when the PCs notice something not unlike the low ember of a dying campfire light up in the back of the cave... and then another... followed by like six more HOLY HELL ASS BALLS. They woke up some fire beetles. Not incredibly threatening, but after last game theyre not takin any chances. Cid works on getting line-of-sight on the beetles while the rest of the group defensively backs up in order to close ranks. It's here that I notice another potential issue, one that some people may disagree with my methods of handling, but I guess we'll see. With so many beetles in an enclosed environment, it becomes very obvious that a well-placed lightning grenade from Draco could damage or kill most of them in a single go. I knew it was a possibility, but faced with the sudden reality that they could take out the majority of these mobs with little to no effort didnt sit well with me. I asked for a short break so that I could research and they obliged. After looking up explosives and AOE magic for about 10 minutes, I... got flustered and made an arbitrary dc. Basically, when he throws his bombs he rolls a dc10, doesnt make the dc then the bomb is a dud. I knew I didnt like this setup as soon as I had the player do it, but the party took it in stride and I made a mental and literal note to fix this before next game (explanation in the next post).
* As a quick aside, Id like to just restate that we're all very new at this, especially me. When I originally had proposed the idea of hosting the game to my friends, Id had no idea that so many of them would be interested. Additionally, the mage classes are some of the most intricate and rules-intensive classes in many tabletop RPGs, and the arcane bomber combines them with the also very complicated chemist. What Im sayin is, Im not tryin to handicap Draco (or anybody for that matter), Im not tryin to be a dick by nerfin him, and Im certainly not tryin to break the game. But sometimes, when a game is goin on, stoppin for long amounts of time is a real mood-killer. Some of these rules I make up on the fly and some of em I ponder for a week or two between games. Some of em will work out and some of em really, REALLY wont. Ultimately, if my players are havin fun and I feel like Im doin right by em, then I figure a bent rule isnt gonna hurt. IGNORE ME! *
Draco throws the bomb, its a dud, we rp it out a lil bit and the party goes on to murderin the beetles. Cid gets a sweet crit on one and the bolt passes thru its body and pins it to the ground, and Elyot destroyed one with the power of darkness, so that was cool. The ground is splashed with quickly dimming neon-orange blood and the group is feelin good. I believe at this point we had a hiatus that lasted several weeks, but when we came back to the game the group was rarin to find the macguffin and be on their way. Elyot moves to an offshoot tunnel as the rest of the group is checkin out where the beetles came from. As Elyot is shining his light around, his beam glides over what appears to be a large amount of junk at the far end of a wall. Wagon wheels, chairs, doll, moldy or rotten food, all bound together in a pile with a kind of stringy, nearly translucent substance. He traces the lanters beam up the wall of garbage when he sees something move on the cave ceiling. It blinks its miscellaneous eyes at the introduction of the light cast on it, and methodically lowers one set of legs to the ground, finds its balance, then proceeds to lower the other set.
Elyot is calling for the group. Lowkey admonishes him for not waiting before exploring further, but it doesnt matter now. Elyot sets the lantern down so that it shines into the cave where the thing is as the rest of the party moves into position to see it. The creature looks like a mix between a crab and an insect, but giant and with a purple carapace. Its a cave fisher, but they dunno that. Elyot had taken a moment to relearn his encroaching darkness ability, but the CF is able to make the saving throw for half damage and now Elyot is a target. The CF shoots out its filament that acts like a tow-line and entangles Elyot. As the party moves in to help their teammate, theyre greeted by two giant centipedes that scurry along the ceiling and floor with little clicky tika-tika-tika-tika sounds. Draco chucks a bomb and does significant damage to the CF and a centipede, while the rest of the party engages closer or tries to free Elyot before the CF can reel him in. Elyot gets free and is ready to rip some shit up as Lowkey keeps the CF at bay. Draco hurls another bomb and the CF is on its last legs, but its a crit from Cid that finishes the creature off. (I always let the players explain how they kill things, and with a crit it gives em the chance to be a lil more over-the-top.) Cids bolt strikes the CFs underbelly, but the combination of precision and cavitation caused by the speed and rotation of the bolt rips the creature open, causing the steaming innards to spill out (perfectly cooked by Dracos grenade).
All thats left is a centipede, and Elyot is still frustrated about gettin strung up. The party helps facilitate his kill a lil bit, but a good roll splits the centipede almost all the way down the middle. It twitches in death and I play some victory fanfare music. Cid tries some of the CF meat and it is DELICIOUS, like fresh-cooked lobster. The only way it could be better is if they had some melted butter. Elyot searches the trash pile and locates an old, football-sized statue of an unrecognizable creature. (Heres the part Ive been waiting for). Elyot approaches Lowkey to let him know he thinks he found the object in question. I slide Lowkey a folded note saying simply, "That annoys you." Lowkey gets sassy, at which point I slide Elyot a note sayin the same thing. Elyot leaves Lowkey (who at that point stops feeling frustrated) approaches Cid and Draco, asking if anyone recognizes what the statue might represent. I hand them the same note. Now its just sass flyin left and right and I LOVE IT. Whenever someone goes more than 5 or 10 feet away from Elyot (carrying the statue) they immediately feel fine and cant remember why they were mad. Of course, they all have to walk home, and theres no reason why they wouldnt head back to the city without one another, so their entire walk back is just snide comments whizzin back and forth that the group later assured me was all in good fun (they were quite convincing).
Back in town they nearly break down Montblancs door before barging inside. "HERE WE BROUGHT THA THING" is pretty much all theyre able to get out at this point. Montblanc seems less affected than they, but that could be chalked up to his years as a clan leader and dealing with the pressures that come with the job. Still, he seems slightly agitated at the nature of the presentation. Montblanc calls out and a Nu Mou clad in dark leather armor lowers from the ceiling. The party is startled, and annoyed, by this new development. "So yeh fewnd et, didjeh? Hahnd'et ouvehr". The party is wary, but Montblanc informs them that she is Rian Libra, a clan member and the person who requested the job. They reluctantly hand her the statue and she looks it over, turning it up and around in her hands. "Aye, yeh've dewn waill..." at which point she tosses it to the ground, shattering it into pieces on the floor. The PCs are very annoyed by this, one or more echoing the sentiment that if she wanted it destroyed then they couldve done that and saved the hassle. Montblanc simply watches.
"Dohnt'che knohw ehnethen? Brehkin et dewnt dew a'thin!" Rian wanders over to a particular piece that had rolled across the floor, a long gem just small enough to fit inside a closed fist. She picks it up and examines the stone. Its gotta muddy purple coloring that undulates slowly inside the gem with the consistency of dyed milk, and it lets off a kind of reverse-glow. Those clan members in the room who can see a lit candle in the same field of vision as the crystal see the light appear to dim when in a visual proximity to it. Rian takes out a small vial of a bright, clear liquid, unstoppers it and pours it over the crystal. As soon as the liquid touches the gem, the areas where the liquid runs seem to wipe away the darkness inside. She rolls the stone around, making sure the liquid coats the entirety its surface area. All anger had by the the people in the room disappears. "Whehn'a jehm ehs taented, yehve goht teh puerehfy et." she explains. "Butchu dehd wail, here'hs yuor pehy." as she hands the PCs each a coin purse. She grins at the party and says "Ahll beh seeyen yue lehter." as a marble-sized black bead rolls out of her hand, bursting into smoke with a POP-hissss as soon as it makes contact with the floor. Montblanc looks on in exasperation as the smoke slowly clears, revealing a partially open door. "Ive asked her not to do that..."
TBC
tl;dr - Sparkle Motion worked for a week, fought a cave crab and met the coolest thief this side of the Fire Hemisphere.
HOLY NUBS! It's been awhile. At this rate I'll be updating at the same rate as Viladin (zing!). I kid, I kid. These posts are little more than me vomiting out words when I have a free moment between work, school and crying over the land before time on vhs. What Viladin, and by extension all the fine folks who contribute to FFd20, do is far more nuanced and time-intensive. Im stoked every time i see a new update, and my group is very interested to see how the Sword Saint gets updated, as it directly applies to one of our characters. And can we take a moment to talk about the new Turk class? I always knew that shinra or a shinra-like entity would exist in the game im hostin, and you cant have shinra without turks takin care of the dirty work, so im very excited (and relieved) to have a source to pull from.
So, when we last left our ragtag group of heroes they had just staggered back to town after what couldve been a serious whuppin. It was a very eye-opening experience for everyone involved. I had warned them that this game wasnt going to be a walk in the park like the beginner box before it (told em to think less dynasty warriors, more dark souls). But to have the two tanks go down in the very first combat encounter was an unintended side-effect of house rules and die rolls. Well, you live and you learn, and that experience taught me as a GM to pay closer attention to creatures beyond the standard CR when prepping. So theres that.
Now that the boys are back in town, I figured Id give the players a lil down-time. As I mentioned before, I dont ask the players to micromanage or relay information of their food, drink or sleep cycles until theyre in a survival situation. While it certainly has the potential to heighten the role playing experience, Ive found as a player that such things are tedious and distracting, stopping the flow of information between GM and players to let everyone know your char has eaten lunch that day. That being said, I still wanted the players to think about the day-to-day minutia that their chars go thru when theyre not adventuring, so I had them each select a profession and craft of their choice (if they didnt have one already). I figured itd keep the players grounded, reminding them that theres a world beyond monster killin and allowing them to step into their chars a lil bit, as well as supplementing their individual income without breaking the bank.
Following is the chars, their professions & crafts:
Lowkey the Dagroon, Farming & Cooking
Elyot the Sward Saint, Blacksmithing & Weaponsmithing (i think?)
Cid the Mako Weapon Specialist, Engineering & ... more Engineering (im bad at this)
So the W. Mage, Healing & Alchemy
Draco the Arcane Bomber, Fishing & Cooking
Bonus! Rian Libra the Eldritch Raider, Librarian (GET IT? IM GENIUS) & Traps
On the technical side of things, I first had the players roll a d20, add their profession skill to whatever they rolled and then i just multiplied by 10 or something to get the total gil of what they worked that day. It IMMEDIATELY became apparent that this was a half-assed (not to mention unbalanced) way of doin profession checks and was not going to work. I needed to think of something new for profession and crafting whenever we played next, so thatll get covered in the next post. As far as story goes: Lowkey went to work on the farm, Draco caught a big-ass fish, Elyot worked with his NPC father as a blacksmith, So made chump-change as an ER nurse (a big reason I saw the need to alter the checks), and Cid... chose not to work.
Instead, he opted to create a reloading modification for his crossbow, an idea I helped him form while the first encounter was under way. As I understand it, loading or reloading is a move action (im new and dont have a head for rememberin copious rules, plz correct if wrong). Between Cid whiffing throughout the entirety of the groups first battle and his frustration at not bein able to move and shoot in the same turn, as well as trying to get him and the other players into their chars a lil bit, I told him durin the encounter that his char starts to look at his weapon mechanically, the way an engineer would. A tool or machine aint workin the way an engineer thinks it should, theyll take it apart until it does what they want it to do. Between game sessions I came up with a few ideas, and on game night I gave him an option of two devices that he could attempt to make: The first would allow reloading as a standard action with no chance to fail the reload w/ a ten-bolt clip, thus allowing a lil more versatility in combat. The second (and the one I figured hed go for) would allow reloading as a swift action but with an 80% success rate w/ a ten-bolt clip, meaning every time he reloaded hed roll percentile. If he failed, the weapon would jam until the next turn, at which point he could attempt the reload again. I gave him a series of checks over the course of the in-game week, each check adding a lil bit more difficulty, until he succeeded. And succeed he did! With not one but two nat 20's. On the first one I made the creation process shorter by a day, but the second I figured Id offer sumthin more substantial, so I allowed that first clip a +1 to hit in the next encounter. Overall, the group felt that it was a good way to spend a week and they enjoyed the chance to earn some extra money, setting the precedent for work-weeks in between quests. Oh, and the party took the time to repay the Old Wagon Driver for the cure potions (threw it in for continuity).
With the week done, Montblanc summons the PCs to his office. The party arrives and Montblanc informs em of a job of a different sort; a requisition comin from another member of Clan Centurio. The request is to find a old-looking statue of questionable origin in a cave just on the outskirts of an abandoned town, secure it and bring it back to the guild for inspection. Naturally, the party is curious as to why their fellow guildy cant accomplish such a task. Montblanc can only respond that their guildmate insists theres other time-sensitive things that need to be taken care of, and so a request is made for someone reliable to see a job thru to the end. The party is more or less satisfied with this explanation and theyre prepared to set out, but Montblanc stops briefly stops them. He says that, considering theyre a team now, they need a team name. Being that theyre all of different races, some wielding magic and others with blade and lance and shining armor, they need a name that evokes majesty and wonder... SPARKLE MOTION. (Honestly it was just sumthin I thought of between sessions to mess with em. Donnie Darko is one of my favorite movies and they all took it like champs, so the name stuck)
So the party sets out, a lil more sure of themselves now that theyve been thru combat and have a better understanding of how pathfinder works and their individual roles. I give the players a chance to make some small talk on the way to their location, mostly just to see what they do in character. A short discussion of workin as a team plays out; not much, but its always difficult to get into character when youre startin out and you gotta give em props for tryin. The party reaches the town, deserted and half-buried in sand, before movin on to the cave. Theyre immediately cautious, and Lowkey voices his concern that he wont be able to use his dragoons leap in an enclosed environment. Elyot takes out his hooded lantern and shines it into the mouth of the cave (theres a phallic joke in here somewhere, I just know it!), but in doing so he awakens a handful of bats who proceed to swarm out. The party makes short work of the bats, eager to vilify themselves after the first combat encounter.
They proceed into the cave, fanning out a bit and checking some side tunnels, when the PCs notice something not unlike the low ember of a dying campfire light up in the back of the cave... and then another... followed by like six more HOLY HELL ASS BALLS. They woke up some fire beetles. Not incredibly threatening, but after last game theyre not takin any chances. Cid works on getting line-of-sight on the beetles while the rest of the group defensively backs up in order to close ranks. It's here that I notice another potential issue, one that some people may disagree with my methods of handling, but I guess we'll see. With so many beetles in an enclosed environment, it becomes very obvious that a well-placed lightning grenade from Draco could damage or kill most of them in a single go. I knew it was a possibility, but faced with the sudden reality that they could take out the majority of these mobs with little to no effort didnt sit well with me. I asked for a short break so that I could research and they obliged. After looking up explosives and AOE magic for about 10 minutes, I... got flustered and made an arbitrary dc. Basically, when he throws his bombs he rolls a dc10, doesnt make the dc then the bomb is a dud. I knew I didnt like this setup as soon as I had the player do it, but the party took it in stride and I made a mental and literal note to fix this before next game (explanation in the next post).
* As a quick aside, Id like to just restate that we're all very new at this, especially me. When I originally had proposed the idea of hosting the game to my friends, Id had no idea that so many of them would be interested. Additionally, the mage classes are some of the most intricate and rules-intensive classes in many tabletop RPGs, and the arcane bomber combines them with the also very complicated chemist. What Im sayin is, Im not tryin to handicap Draco (or anybody for that matter), Im not tryin to be a dick by nerfin him, and Im certainly not tryin to break the game. But sometimes, when a game is goin on, stoppin for long amounts of time is a real mood-killer. Some of these rules I make up on the fly and some of em I ponder for a week or two between games. Some of em will work out and some of em really, REALLY wont. Ultimately, if my players are havin fun and I feel like Im doin right by em, then I figure a bent rule isnt gonna hurt. IGNORE ME! *
Draco throws the bomb, its a dud, we rp it out a lil bit and the party goes on to murderin the beetles. Cid gets a sweet crit on one and the bolt passes thru its body and pins it to the ground, and Elyot destroyed one with the power of darkness, so that was cool. The ground is splashed with quickly dimming neon-orange blood and the group is feelin good. I believe at this point we had a hiatus that lasted several weeks, but when we came back to the game the group was rarin to find the macguffin and be on their way. Elyot moves to an offshoot tunnel as the rest of the group is checkin out where the beetles came from. As Elyot is shining his light around, his beam glides over what appears to be a large amount of junk at the far end of a wall. Wagon wheels, chairs, doll, moldy or rotten food, all bound together in a pile with a kind of stringy, nearly translucent substance. He traces the lanters beam up the wall of garbage when he sees something move on the cave ceiling. It blinks its miscellaneous eyes at the introduction of the light cast on it, and methodically lowers one set of legs to the ground, finds its balance, then proceeds to lower the other set.
Elyot is calling for the group. Lowkey admonishes him for not waiting before exploring further, but it doesnt matter now. Elyot sets the lantern down so that it shines into the cave where the thing is as the rest of the party moves into position to see it. The creature looks like a mix between a crab and an insect, but giant and with a purple carapace. Its a cave fisher, but they dunno that. Elyot had taken a moment to relearn his encroaching darkness ability, but the CF is able to make the saving throw for half damage and now Elyot is a target. The CF shoots out its filament that acts like a tow-line and entangles Elyot. As the party moves in to help their teammate, theyre greeted by two giant centipedes that scurry along the ceiling and floor with little clicky tika-tika-tika-tika sounds. Draco chucks a bomb and does significant damage to the CF and a centipede, while the rest of the party engages closer or tries to free Elyot before the CF can reel him in. Elyot gets free and is ready to rip some shit up as Lowkey keeps the CF at bay. Draco hurls another bomb and the CF is on its last legs, but its a crit from Cid that finishes the creature off. (I always let the players explain how they kill things, and with a crit it gives em the chance to be a lil more over-the-top.) Cids bolt strikes the CFs underbelly, but the combination of precision and cavitation caused by the speed and rotation of the bolt rips the creature open, causing the steaming innards to spill out (perfectly cooked by Dracos grenade).
All thats left is a centipede, and Elyot is still frustrated about gettin strung up. The party helps facilitate his kill a lil bit, but a good roll splits the centipede almost all the way down the middle. It twitches in death and I play some victory fanfare music. Cid tries some of the CF meat and it is DELICIOUS, like fresh-cooked lobster. The only way it could be better is if they had some melted butter. Elyot searches the trash pile and locates an old, football-sized statue of an unrecognizable creature. (Heres the part Ive been waiting for). Elyot approaches Lowkey to let him know he thinks he found the object in question. I slide Lowkey a folded note saying simply, "That annoys you." Lowkey gets sassy, at which point I slide Elyot a note sayin the same thing. Elyot leaves Lowkey (who at that point stops feeling frustrated) approaches Cid and Draco, asking if anyone recognizes what the statue might represent. I hand them the same note. Now its just sass flyin left and right and I LOVE IT. Whenever someone goes more than 5 or 10 feet away from Elyot (carrying the statue) they immediately feel fine and cant remember why they were mad. Of course, they all have to walk home, and theres no reason why they wouldnt head back to the city without one another, so their entire walk back is just snide comments whizzin back and forth that the group later assured me was all in good fun (they were quite convincing).
Back in town they nearly break down Montblancs door before barging inside. "HERE WE BROUGHT THA THING" is pretty much all theyre able to get out at this point. Montblanc seems less affected than they, but that could be chalked up to his years as a clan leader and dealing with the pressures that come with the job. Still, he seems slightly agitated at the nature of the presentation. Montblanc calls out and a Nu Mou clad in dark leather armor lowers from the ceiling. The party is startled, and annoyed, by this new development. "So yeh fewnd et, didjeh? Hahnd'et ouvehr". The party is wary, but Montblanc informs them that she is Rian Libra, a clan member and the person who requested the job. They reluctantly hand her the statue and she looks it over, turning it up and around in her hands. "Aye, yeh've dewn waill..." at which point she tosses it to the ground, shattering it into pieces on the floor. The PCs are very annoyed by this, one or more echoing the sentiment that if she wanted it destroyed then they couldve done that and saved the hassle. Montblanc simply watches.
"Dohnt'che knohw ehnethen? Brehkin et dewnt dew a'thin!" Rian wanders over to a particular piece that had rolled across the floor, a long gem just small enough to fit inside a closed fist. She picks it up and examines the stone. Its gotta muddy purple coloring that undulates slowly inside the gem with the consistency of dyed milk, and it lets off a kind of reverse-glow. Those clan members in the room who can see a lit candle in the same field of vision as the crystal see the light appear to dim when in a visual proximity to it. Rian takes out a small vial of a bright, clear liquid, unstoppers it and pours it over the crystal. As soon as the liquid touches the gem, the areas where the liquid runs seem to wipe away the darkness inside. She rolls the stone around, making sure the liquid coats the entirety its surface area. All anger had by the the people in the room disappears. "Whehn'a jehm ehs taented, yehve goht teh puerehfy et." she explains. "Butchu dehd wail, here'hs yuor pehy." as she hands the PCs each a coin purse. She grins at the party and says "Ahll beh seeyen yue lehter." as a marble-sized black bead rolls out of her hand, bursting into smoke with a POP-hissss as soon as it makes contact with the floor. Montblanc looks on in exasperation as the smoke slowly clears, revealing a partially open door. "Ive asked her not to do that..."
TBC
tl;dr - Sparkle Motion worked for a week, fought a cave crab and met the coolest thief this side of the Fire Hemisphere.