Act I, Part One: Knowledge Aplenty
GustavAccompanied by Friedrich, you leave to visit the earl and talk to him about the town's general situation. Situated in the center of the town, the fort in which he resides is considerably smaller than Castle Altburg - and, perhaps, considerably more sensible. From the looks you get at it, it could be manned by only two hundred men and is in an excellent shape. There are vigils on the walls when you approach.
[6] [?] The earl is more than happy to speak with you. He invites you in and before you know it he is telling the story of why he accepted to have the Inquisition set up its base within his domain. Havdvard is situated just west of a pass through the mountains, and was apparently originally established to keep watch on the border. In order to keep the westernmost parts of the region secure, a series of settlements were established to the north and south of the town itself. These hamlets, surrounded by defenses disproportionate to their size, were tasked with sounding horns whenever something came down from the mountains.
Two years ago, one of the hamlets' population disappeared completely in one night, without any horn ever being sounded and leaving no sign of struggle behind. At that time, the earl requested assistance from the west. A year ago, a different village within the same region lost all of its population in the same phenomenon. He finishes his explanation by stating that he was left puzzled, and that he needs the Inquisition to aid him before something happens again.
When you leave the place, after a long, long discussion, you realize that you don't really know what to think of the earl. He kept talking and feeding you information so constantly that you never really got to ask your own questions or try and guess his motives. He seemed honest, though - or at least, you don't think he had a reason to lie.
When you return, Ramsay gives you a brief rundown of his thoughts on the troops. He says the town is remarkably well defended for its population, and that although few of the soldiers have had real training they appear to have experienced a few fights before. [?] He also noticed a large amount of horses and stables in town, and suspects that quite a cavalry could be formed from the garrison.
-----
FriedrichYou go with Gustav to visit the earl, where you listen the story and also have a hard time pinpointing what the man's personality is like. You do not meet anyone with a profession similar to your in the earl's entourage - it seems the town is too small to require some sort of dungeon master or a similar legal enforcer. The earl must be responsible for justice by himself.
[?] You settle yourself in the dungeons, which are in an extremely poor condition. You find one room which looks halfway decent; however, the rest of the underground appears to be flooded. You bring a lamp down there and gaze deeply - the abyss looks back at you. There's no telling how deep it goes, or how much work might have to be put into drying the place.
-----
Davian[1] The walls seem... Solid. You note they do not fully circle the town - there are no fortifications along the river, apart from Altburg. There appear to be some soldiers, but you can't get a good estimate on them. You can't easily judge how well-armed the populace is.
[4+1] The folks around here are well willing to talk to you. The big thing they have in mind is a story about how the people living in two nearby hamlets disappeared without a trace, and how they're all convinced there's sorcery at work there. However, some of them discuss other things - for example, on a smaller scale, people have been disappearing every few weeks. There are suspicions that there might be a murderer in town, which is unusual for a population of that size.
-----
Faran[5] The locals are very talkative. They tell you of stories about large groups of people disappearing, and some of them discuss worriedly that the trackers and hunters who were brave enough to go up in the mountains have started telling tales of strange sounds in the night, and that some of them never came back from their journeys.
[?] You search all you can, but you can't actually
find a seedier part of town. No place stands out as a good location for the criminal class to prosper. You return to the castle puzzled.
-----
Renacido[2] About a third of the space within the castle is occupied, mostly by the barracks and the living quarters for the civilians. Overall, the remaining space is absolutely massive, but it's not in a very good state. The dungeons are almost completely flooded, and it's impossible to tell how much space is wasted down there. The upper levels seem insecure, with the floor rotten and creaking too much when you step on it. A few of the outer rooms have crumbled walls and are open to the weather's punishment. You can't get a good estimate of the amount of rooms currently available, but you know there aren't that many.
The castle does not have any facilities to provide you with resources, but if you could whip it into shape it would possess some fairly formidable defense, and plenty of space for the Order to use.
-----
OsciaThere are three points that stand out from the townhouses in Hadvard: Castle Altburg, a truly massive structure that dwarfs everything else in size, the earl's fort, the second biggest building and the only other one entirely made of stone, which sits at the center of the town and is surrounded by its own walls, and the temple, which can be found at the northern end of the city and is probably the place where an assembly of townsmen would be held, if there ever was any.
The only thing to be seen around the town is a vast plain of grass, where horses and cattle graze peacefully. Far in the distance, you can see a dense forest of tall trees, some of which are evergreen, but you can't get a close look at the wilderness.
-----
Geldryn ((The conversation with the priest was done in detail over PMs, at the player's request)).
[5] When you arrive at the temple, which is completely void of any peasants at the current hour, a bald, robed little man welcomes you with enthusiastic respect. He appears to have all the authority and charisma of a mouse, and claims to be the town's priest. He starts rambling about how he is so proud to be the religious authority of the first town officially visited by the Inquisition, and starts yammering about how he has kept his flock well within the bounds of the faith. He cuts himself short when he hears of your title, however, saving you from a potentially infernally long and utterly empty discussion.
You ask him if the temple has any resources or texts to share, or if he knows of any promising youth.
[3] When you mention resources, he starts wringing his hands together and explaining that the temple does not collect a dime in the region due to its poverty, and instead chooses to function entirely on charity.
[6] Texts, however, he believes he can do something about. He brings you into the back of the temple, which is his residence, and reveals a (proportionately) huge library, containing at least a hundred books and texts. He claims with pride that his family has been one of the only literate ones in the region for generations, and that they have been collecting religious texts from all passing merchants. None of it is related to heretical magic, and almost none of it contains mentions of holy magic, according to him. He does assure you, however, that here you can find the largest quantity of religious texts or books relating to the region's history.
There seems to be no index and no obvious classification of the text, and not all of them appear to be of equal quality. No actual librarians ever went through this place - it was the hobby of middle class, religious people, and as much as the man would probably like to give you a guided tour, you're not sure he can tell the idiocy apart from the quality, either. These are probably the only books he ever read, after all. He agrees to let you and the loremaster organize it, however, and is willing to let the Inquisitors access it.
[4] On the subject of promising young men, he says that he knows of a few folks who might be zealous enough to be considered to be priests, but mentions that they have no formal education. You're not certain his education was all that formal, either, after the library episode. He offers to consult with them and send you the ones who show interest when he is able, and states with an odd reluctance that he could probably teach them how to read.
[?] When you return to the castle to organize the archives with Sandrogar, you are faced with a problem: you have almost no written texts in your possession. Ironically enough, the only things you have to put in a quickly arranged bookcase in the elf's quarters are books related to engineering and mathematics, which the engineer brought with him from his homeland. The books are all in dwarven runes, which [5+1!] you can read without a problem. The things are all rather boring, but you suppose they could be put to use in training engineers of some sort, which is probably why the dwarf brought them.
[4] The Loremaster agrees to help you organize the priest's library with amusement, [3+2] and you make good progress, going about a third of the way through putting some order in all of it.
-----
Turn's events: Nothing of interest.
Author
Topic: Inquisition - IC thread (Read 6831 times)