DeepThought Forum

It is your choice.

I consider the gaming table sacred space and nothing from the outside gets in.

You are a very good player and I welcome you to play.

All you need is a web cam and a mic (usually included with the web cam).  I've been doing once a month live sessions with Nerdarchy on Google Hangouts.  It works well.

I'm thinking some carefully scheduled live sessions may be an option.  Just thinking and asking.  For my game y'all are signed up for, we can run it play by post here on the forum.  But if there is enough interest in live play, I'd run it like too.

Are the usual suspects here amenable to using scheduled Google Hang-out sessions to run game sessions live?

Or lock it away in a storage vault with the r est of the recquisition.

But he kept it in his office.

Then 'gave' it to us.

Huh.

I pick through the remains of my quiche and let my thoughts wander.

I manage a somewhat lukewarm, "Acknowledged." and avert my gaze to a point on the wall just behind Karlach.

Arcanist. Type unknown.  Martial.  Veteran.  Well armed and armoured.  He has the advantage of command. 

Tactical assessment: low probability of success in open or one-on-one combat.

Strategic assessment: alliance, subterfuge, sabotage, assassination ... at range.

Critical resource: time.

Immediate pathway of least resistance: mollification.

"I apologize for speaing out of turn.  It has been some time since I have served on a mission team.  I shall not err again."

Another furtive glance to Karlach, and then I shift so that I am sitting even more at attention and I fix my stare on Oleg.

Otto, guide me.

"You and I are the last two original members of our mission team."

"We were gathered and sent under strict orders of secrecy.  We were given strict orders to maintain that secrecy."

"We have left multiple witnesses in our wake.  The two guards.  The farmers."

"We have no means by which to ascertain the veracity of the sending that withdrew our commander or what has befallen her since.  Sendings are not a secure means of communication and no effort was made or even provisions given for determining identities and securing lines of communication.  Lines of communication which we were led to believe would not even exist."

"We should all be dead.  Enemy agents engaged us at our rendezvous point, apparently waiting our arrival after the loss of our commander.  After the sending which took her away."

"These agents were able to subdue us and presumably extract information from us about our mission.  Yet we remain alive."

"Soon after we are given under a new command.  We have no way of determining the veracity of his credentials and no provision for an adequate protocol."

"He dismissed a member of our mission team with no regard to mission security."

"He has no apparent knowledge of a mission critical order to maintain secrecy and discretion."

"He claims to be well known and easily recognizable in this area.  To have a personal liability who can easily be exploited by enemy agents.  And he expresses no intention to mitigate these weaknesses."

"We left additional eyewitnesses in the aftermath of the encounter at the inn.  Not to mention the attention that the conflagration itself has and will attract."

"Additionally we are easily identifiable by the presence of the spectre, who haven already demonstrated earlier the ability to be concealable, has made the notable decision not to do so in a populated area."

"We are now dining in public accommodations of unknown alignment and allegiance under the possible gaze of enemy agents; at the very least creating more eyewitnesses that under proper protocol would need to be neutralized."

I pause.  Knowing that a "so what?" is the most likely response, I push on, keeping my gaze fixed on the dwarf.

"We must acknowledge that the secret nature of our mission has been a failure and either dispense with all pretense towards it, or go to ground for an adequate amount of time so that we might properly prepare and emerge with new cover and a new plan of approach."

I pause again.

"But first we must verify that our new commander is not in fact an enemy agent, and if he is we must move to neutralize him immediately."

Go big or go home.

Maybe I'll be seeing you soon, Otto.

How did you get your orders?

Who gave them to you?

Why wouldnt you be informed of a mission critical order to be clandestine?

Who is your intended?

How can we secure her against being used as leverage against you?

How do we confirm the veracity of the sending that called away our original commander?

These are questions I would ask if I were asking questions.

The inn's quiche is enjoyable.

"Now," I say over breakfast in the private dining area, neatly cutting into my gammon steak.  "Explain to me this secret mission business.  You were told to hide your allegiance to the military?"

I stare at Karlach for a long moment, attempting to cover my exasperation.

But I hold my tongue.  This is Oleg's to sort out.  And a good measure to determine just how incompetent these commanders are.

I scan the rooflines looking for likely spots for sniper nests.

Where would I want to be if I needed to shoot everyone coming out of the tavern?

Hells, Otto.  Master Karlach.

I half-turn to my three subordinates and raise an eyebrow at them in question.  "What is this of which she speaks?" I ask calmly.  "And why am I only hearing of it now?"

I raise an eyebrow.

"Huh," I think to myself.