Act V: 'Into the Sewers'

[Priest]

OOC:   Roxborough: as the first one into the sewers please check for Tracking. Either accept the average (3) or roll 6d6 and count up the number of even rolls. The higher the number of even rolls (Successes) the better. Everyone: Don't forget you have style points available should you feel you need them.

[carnage_lee]

Nellie recoils from the stench which seems even worse than before. Wishing that she had thought to ask for a mask or some other means of rendering the noxious vapours as innocuous as possible.

Nellie thinking:   "I bet [b]McTavish[/b] would have had a handy contraption ready and waiting to be snapped up.

Taking a half step back wondering if she could indeed venture underground. Nellie nods at the suggested order of the party, thankful to be behind the barrel of Roxborough's formidable weapon.

[carnage_lee]

Wellington

The terrible stench from the sewers below fill his nostril once again,Wellington half automatically slips into an esoteric Hindu meditation technique in order to ignore the assault to his olfactory senses. With some small amusement he notes Miss Bligh's and Klevendon's reaction.

Wellington thinking:   "What did they expect, a Rose garden?"

He eyes the rotund hunter with a shrewd eye, his lack of exclamation at the odours emanating from the manhole is quite exemplary.

Wellington thinking:   "How does he manage it? Is he that excited by the prospect of 'bringing something to ground' that he can shrug off external influences? Or, is it something else.. the man spends months in the wilderness perhaps he too has benefited from the teachings of a different culture?"

Snapping out of his musings Wellington focuses intently on the task at hand..

"Yes, your order makes perfect sense old boy" Wellington responds, glad he had the foresight to make sure his trusty revolver now resided in the pocket of his 'hunting' gear. "What do you see there?" he asks noting Roxborough peering intently downwards into the man-hole.

[Tabs]

OOC:   I note that I have 8 Style points, can you tell me how to use 'em again, please?

Klevendon switches to breathing through his mouth as Roxborough instructed. He returns a rather frightened and, probably, pathetic gaze at Wellington, wondering what the Detective is thinking?

[carnage_lee]

Style points are similar to 'Hero Points' or 'Fate Points' and other similarly named games features...

(from the rule book)

Spending Style Points
Style points may be spent during play for a variety of benefits.

Bonus Dice: The most common use of Style points is purchasing bonus dice for a particular action. You receive one bonus die for every Style point spent. These bonus dice are only good for a single dice roll, after which they are gone. Additional Style points have to be spent to get bonus dice on another roll. Bonus dice may also be purchased to improve the average of a dice pool
(see Taking the Average, above). You may not buy more than ten bonus dice on any one action. Bonus dice may be bought after the initial die roll is made.

Example: Victor is trying to escape a deathtrap. He must quickly solve a puzzle in order to get out alive. His modified Enigmas dice pool is three. That doesn’t give him much of a chance, so he decides to buy some bonus dice. Victor spends three Style points to get three bonus dice, bringing his dice pool to escape his bonds to seven. Taking the Average of his dice pool nets Victor three successes, which is equal to the Difficulty rating of the task. Victor succeeds in solving the puzzle without rolling any dice. He runs away just in the nick of time!

Boosting Talents: Talents may be temporarily boosted with Style points. Your character’s Talent is improved by one Level for every two Style points spent. The improvement lasts for the duration of an entire combat, or an entire scene if it is a non-combat Talent. After this time, the Talent reverts back to its normal Level. Your character must have a Talent in order to boost it. You cannot boost a unique Talent or improve a standard Talent beyond its maximum Level.

Example: Seamus is in deep trouble. He wandered off alone and now there’s an angry bear charging him. If he is going to survive, he has to make every shot count by hitting the beast where it hurts. Called Shots to hit vital areas penalize the attacker’s dice pool, but Seamus has the Accuracy Talent, which reduces this penalty by two. Seamus wants to reduce this penalty as much as possible, so he decides to boost his Talent. He spends a whopping six Style points to boost his Accuracy to its maximum Level, which allows him to ignore up to –8 Called Shot penalties for the duration of the combat. If he can do enough damage to the bear before it gets to him, he just might have a chance.

Damage Reduction: Damage inflicted on your character may be reduced with Style points. Your character takes one less point of damage for every two Style points spent. This represents your character’s special status as a player character. Even an absent-minded professor can blunder through combat with nary a scratch. Major villains may also have Style points, making them just as hard to kill as player characters. Style points may only be spent to reduce damage when it is inflicted. If the Gamemaster allows it, however, you may spend Style points to reduce damage later, representing a less severe wound or faster healing ability.

Example: Seamus shot and killed the bear that was attacking him. Unfortunately, its mate attacked him from behind while he was preoccupied. It landed a lucky blow and did seven points of lethal damage. This is more than enough to incapacitate Seamus, so he decides to spend some Style points to reduce the damage. Seamus spends all four of his Style points to reduce
the damage by two points. He takes five points of lethal damage, which is enough to stun him but not knock him out. It also reduces his Health to 0. He’s not dying yet, but if he takes any more damage he’s going to be in trouble.

Other: The Gamemaster may also allow you to spend Style points for other benefits, such as altering a plot point or making a seemingly random event turn out in your character’s favour.

[Papa Gateau]

OOC:   I've forgotten the dice rolling syntax - hopefully thefollowing tracking roll shows up ok - if not I'll hit Invisible Castle

[dice]0[/dice]

[Papa Gateau]

OOC:   I've forgotten the dice rolling syntax - hopefully thefollowing tracking roll shows up ok - if not I'll hit Invisible Castle

[dice]161909:0[/dice]

OOC:   Ok - that's 3 successes - to examine the ladder/rungs

[Priest]

Roxborough,There are small marks on the iron rungs indicating that something, or someone, has recently used them to access the sewer tunnel below, but you had seen the on your previous visit so are not suprised to find them still there. You spot nothing new, but be prepared to make further rolls when you choose.

Below the brick lined tunnel, it central gulley awash with fouls smelling liquid, extends both ways. In both directions you can see, faintly in your lamp lights the openings of intersections However from studies of the sewer map, which Klevendon carries neatly folded and contained within a compartment of his napsack, it would seem that taking an eastward direction towards Fleet Street then onwards to the last known position of the missing sewer worker, would be the best bet.

The Stonway clicks at its normal pace, and its screen indicates nothing moving either ahead or behind them.

[Papa Gateau]

Spoiler:

Priest,
Sorry, I was checking the rungs to see what state the old marks were in or whether there were new ones.

Roxborough checks his compass and waits for everyone to descend the ladder. Once everyone is down and the cover back in place on the manhole, he waits a few moments and attunes his keen hunter's senses to the environment - listening to and tuning out the constant drip, drip of the water, the occasional squeak of rodents and the regular click-click from the Stonway device, allowing his eyes to become accustomed to the dim, dark tunnels, slowly modulating his breath from mouth breathing to full nasal olfactory detection. Once his senses are acclimatised, he turns to the party, points eastwards and heads off slowly in the indicated direction.

[Priest]

OOC:   Papa G: No problem, thought you might be. Had there been any other tracks more than three successes would have been needed. Everyone: You will note that I have slightly increased your number of Style Points as I felt I had been a tad miserly with them. And thanks Lee your posting of the rules for style points saved me a task

[carnage_lee]

Nellie gingerly descends the ladder, trying no to gag at the dreadful stink wafting up and around her. Once at the bottom she moves to one side to let Wellington take his turn in descending into the sewer tunnel. Nellie finds the lantern a little cumbersome and somewhat tiring to hold up at arms length, changing hands every few minutes whilst they wait for Roxborough to choose the direction to take. Nellie does make sure to mark the wall near to the iron rungs of the ladder so that they know this is their starting point.


Wellington
Seeing Nellie make the mark on the brick wall of the tunnel Wellington nods in appreciation."A splendid idea Miss Bly, if you would care to furnish me with your chalk I will take the task of marking our trail."

OOC:   Nellie will concentrate on making sure they have enough light, Wellington will continue to mark their route through the sewers.

[Priest]

OOC:   Its a long, mostly boring, arduous, and far from pleasantly smelling task, searching the sewers. London’s sewer system is truly vast. The main sewers alone stretch for over 450 miles, and the minor sewers, many of which are too narrow to explore, extend for 13,000 miles. There are also a number of subterranean rivers flowing beneath the streets of London, many of which connect to the sewer system (or double as sewers in their own right). Of course you are well aware of this from the map. In order then to facilitate this hunt, we shall use the following; For each two hours of searching, a character may make a Skill roll of his choice or a Perception roll. Simply roll dice equal to the appropriate rating. The characters may Take the Average if they prefer a steady but slow rate of progress. The player should explain exactly what Skill he is using and how it aids the search. Survival, for example, covers tracking and includes knowledge of stalking prey. Stealth might be used to guide the party forward slowly but quietly, thus allowing the party to progress without risking scaring the beast away. Larceny could allow the characters to pick the lock on a grate separating two sewer tunnels, thus opening up new avenues of exploration. Perception may locate spoor or scratch marks. Three important but simple rules apply. First, the Gamemaster should encourage the characters to be creative in their choice of Skills. Second, no character can use the same Skill or Attribute roll twice during the hunt. Two characters could each make Survival rolls, for example, but one character could not make two Survival rolls. The latter stops the character being a one-trick pony. Third, each character makes one Skill roll in turn, thus ensuring everyone gets to participate. The order in which the characters make the rolls is their choice. Whatever the skill used a TN of 5 successes is needed. (This number can of course be increased by use of Style Points) This TN 5 need not result from one roll but may be totaled over several, just remember each roll is two hours spent searching

[carnage_lee]

Nellie Bly

Holding her lantern aloft, Nellie also looks out for any signs that may indicate that they are on the right track. Stretches of tunnels are broadly similar in construction using her Perception she starts to notice subtle changes is the appearance, 'an odd scrape here' or patches of newly exposed brickwork as if something large brushed against the walls.

OOC:   Nellie Perception 8 [dice]0[/dice]

Horatio Wellington

Brining up the rear, Wellington marks their progress marking each intersection, so that the group can reverse their steps and make it back to their base at The King's Head. Tracing their route on the map he starts to analyse their progress using his well honed deductive powers (Investigation) to make reasoned assumptions about where their quarry might be.

OOC:   Wellington Investigation 8 [dice]1[/dice]

[Tabs]

OOC:   Hey! I'm on me iPad,--typing is a chore--so I'll post later on today when I can get to a keyboard.

[Papa Gateau]

Roxborough leads the party through the tunnels - pointing out marks or spoor of various different quarry, stopping occasionally to refer to the map.

OOC:   Tracking[dice]0[/dice]

Roxborough thinking:   Ah Miss Bly, she really is delightful creature; pretty, confident, knows her own mind and certainly not put off by venturing down in the filth of the sewers. Quick on the uptake too, noticing all the right things, would definitely make a good tracker with the right instruction. Maybe once all this business is done, she might like to come and hunt with me on the plains of Africa.

[Tabs]

OOC:   Thanks for the rules posting, carnage-lee.

Klevendon wonders if Roxborough is as good a hunter as he believes himself to be. "Is he on the right track?" he thinks.

OOC:   Survival 4 +5 Style points (1d6=4, 1d6=3, 1d6=6, 1d6=2, 1d6=1, 1d6=3, 1d6=2, 1d6=2, 1d6=3), 5 successes!

[Priest]

The results of Klevendon's successes;
For what seems, in the gloom, a veritable age in which you have switched from a hot sweat to a cold sweat with alarming regularity, you squelch onwards following the confidence exuding Roxborough.

Beyond his carefree step, you see a still shape, little more than a dark shadow within the tunnels gloom, but something about it makes your blood run cold and small tingles to play up and down your spine.
The party halts, listening, yet no sound out of the ordinary can be heard. Someone, probably Miss Bly, plays her lamps on the ominous shape.
The sight revealed brings a hiss of exhaled breath from the assemblage, in the yellow beam of the lamp, a male human body can be seen, partialy naked, lying huddled, unmoving against the brick wall. From what can be seen it would appear to have portions missing...

The Stonway clicks on its beat as regular as it is monotonous.

[Tabs]

"Don't look, Miss Bly!" says Klevendon, possibly needlessly,--he seems to recall saying something similar before in the museum--he can barely bring himself to look anyway. "Mr. Roxborough, is it anyone we know?"

[Priest]

OOC:   Whoever looks at the body in detail, needs Perception successes, the more the better.

[carnage_lee]

Horatio Wellington

Horatio steps forward towards the body, bent upon examining it. "If you would be so kind as to keep the light steady.." he utters gruffly, stooping to better start his examination.

Wellington - Perception 8 (+1),[dice]0[/dice]9 dice rolled / 1 Style pt spend