Orphans

[GM / Malinous]

You've noticed (I don't recall if I remembered to drop the hints I intended to where I intended to) . . .

(1) You frequently see orphans carrying little tokens with a mark of a skull on it.

(2) Orek Vael had an earring bearing a picture of a skull over crossed bones.

(3) You may have noticed that the orphans call their Jacks game "Skull and Bones."

(4) You've also met two (older) blood-bonded ork mercenaries [Skull & Bones] who were protecting The Dagger as hired bodyguards.

Throwing that out there.

Not relevant to this thread:


[And I forgot little boy blue on the NPC list, along with, wasn't there a dAGGER I think I forgot too. The deceased NPCs I keep forgettin g. . . this is totally unrelated, but wanted to post it while thinking of it, even though it belongs in the NPC thread :-p.]

[ehren]

When we have a chance, over drinks, ask Orek about the earing. "Hey, I noticed you have a peculiar earring, and I've noticed some of the orphans I treat at the Hospital have something similar. What is the significance?"

[Mawaris]

Quoting from the thread where we went to The Dagger's office, for reference (bolding and color added for emphasis):

Nov 12, 2011 21:07:40 GMT -5 GM / Malinous said:

Well, you're not actually sneaking, yo'ure trying to avoid being noticed, which is slightly different.

Anywho, you notice that most of the kids are wearing some piece of jewelry featuring crossed bones and a skull. Symbols you recognize as being common to many orphans you've seen before.

And it's apparent that the kids (say age 9-12, 3 at each door) are at least supposed to be watching hte doors.

Mostly they're playing a game involving little crossed bits of wood tied together with twine and a stone disc with a crude skull carved into it. They appear to be flipping the coin into the air and trying to pick up as many of the crossed wood bits as possible from the ground before catching the stone disc! Obviously if they drop the disc, they lose.

So #1 was dropped in at that point. I don't think #3 was mentioned there, but it does have the skull and bones bit. On #4, I notice in the fight thread that they were referred to as Skull and Bones, but they were never introduced as such (it wasn't really a "hello, who are you?" kind of conversation).

#2 I don't think has been mentioned before. Descriptions of him don't mention his physical appearance.

[Mawaris]

Do we know from knowledge of the city what any common causes of orphanism are here? Or what the procedure for handling them is?

I don't think I have a relevant Knowledge skill for that, but here's a perception check if it's necessary:
rolls: d12e Perception => 10

[ehren]

We can also swing by the Fishbarrel Inn, and ask Uld what he knows of the pair. Then we could go and try to find them and talk to them (do this last).

[GM / Malinous]

I also cleaned up some stuff and made some comments on face book. I know we know Orek has slightly glowing eyes, but I just searched the last 90 days of the forums, and there is no discussion of Orek's eyes in them. But most likely I forgot ---

As for Skull and Bones - at one point we discussed asking Uld if they would be willing to talk to us without attacking us, so we would have picked up that those are their actual alias's at that time.

But individually it's all minor details, so would easily slip the character's minds.

[Mawaris]

Jan 29, 2012 16:25:35 GMT -5 GM / Malinous said:

I also cleaned up some stuff and made some comments on face book. I know we know Orek has slightly glowing eyes, but I just searched the last 90 days of the forums, and there is no discussion of Orek's eyes in them. But most likely I forgot ---

This came up in my fight at the Tournament against Orek. I scanned him with Astral Sight during the fight after that was mentioned.

[ehren]

And I looked at him after our fight... so we know he has a similar pattern to ours.

[GM / Malinous]

General information: Orphans are provided food and shelter, but only minimal oversight in large orphanages in the Kear. Generally they are left to their own devices and are often suspected of being petty thieves and pickpockets. However, while they do tend to run in packs, there has been little of the more violent and predatory behavior. you might expect from from those sorts of youth in an Urban environment.

There are, perhaps fewer orphans than tn ir used to be, bit funding is correspondingly light. In the history of the Kaer they have always been less trouble than has been traditional, which means they were never a funding priority.

Orek tells you that when the Kear wasfounded, Orphans were far more common and, at first, the gang activity and predations on the smaller children was a growing problem. However, a pair of older Dwarf adolescents - in their early 20s, who were the children of a great hero decided to do something about it and United the children into more of a benevolent Orphan mob with a shared group identity. The original deadbeat went by the handles skull and bones and, while most adults left their lives with the orphans when they reached adulthood, Skull and bones stayed involved to handle truly menacing threats and provide guidance.

When the dwarves died of old age, another pair that had been carefully groomed tooktheir place and adopted the names. And thetradiyion has continued. Thus, the Skull and bones you met are basically the elders/wisemen of the orphans, who do their bestrode fill in some of the parental role.

Others, like Orel, often wear an outwards symbol of their past as an orphan. While he and other such adults are no longer involved in orphan activity, the symbol (a) lets passing orphans know that he is not a threat and (b) conveniently protects Orel from pickpocketing.

[GM / Malinous]

(Skull and Bones don't run the kids as pickpocks, its not Oliver Twist or anything- theyare just available as needed and they y work their jobs to help buy the orphans apprenticeships)

[ehren]

So, if we start funneling them money we could end up with a fairly large spy network? We give Skull and Bones some of our adventuring/crafting money, and in exchange they (1) don't pick our pockets & (2) have the orphans keep thier ears to the ground for information we'd be interested in.

And, we can offer medical treatment...

[ehren]

The Great Hero the Dwarf children were related to... would that happen to be the guy who sacrificed himself at the door of the Kaer, and we are trying ot pick up his lost belongings?

[GM / Malinous]

Feb 2, 2012 10:48:08 GMT -5 ehren said:

So, if we start funneling them money we could end up with a fairly large spy network? We give Skull and Bones some of our adventuring/crafting money, and in exchange they (1) don't pick our pockets & (2) have the orphans keep thier ears to the ground for information we'd be interested in.

And, we can offer medical treatment...

That makes sense to me.

[GM / Malinous]

Feb 2, 2012 10:49:26 GMT -5 ehren said:

The Great Hero the Dwarf children were related to... would that happen to be the guy who sacrificed himself at the door of the Kaer, and we are trying ot pick up his lost belongings?

I thought about it, but nope. that was a different great dwarven hero. The one who's belongings we're recovering has a family with more social influence. The descendants of the dwarf whose things we are retrieving move in the same Social circles as the Goldhearts, and may be related at least on the edges through marriage.

[ehren]

Is there any way we can get back in touch with Skull and Bones in a non hostile environment and let 'm know our plan, and see if there is any way we can help these kids out?

Also, when we finally leave the Kaer, have plans been made about what is going to go on? (IRT Therea (I think we are still techincally subjects and the Dwarven Compact hasn't been pushed around here yet), land outside the Kaer, reassembling society/getting in contact with Landis, etc)

[GM / Malinous]

(1) We established back when in a previous thread that Skull & Bones are non-hostile, getting in touch with them shouldn't be too hard between the options of (a) Orek; (b) Uld and (c) just passing a message through the next orphan we see wandering the street!

(2) On hopes Thera didn't survive the Scourge! It could happen!
I have to check, but I think the Compact was developed during the Scourge, so we haven't heard about it yet. Between the pull-out/sealing of Thera and general chaos, things haven't been organized thoroughly. Technically, given the location of the nearby Kratas as a major city and potential capital, most counselors are assuming the goal is to reassert loyalty to whatever government survives in Kratas under positive terms, and Kratas will be in charge of our diplomacy with other realms.

In other words, most counselors are assuming most cities will survive the Scourge, and it will be business as usual.

Most also assume Kratas was the privincial capital. But they don't think about it too hard. I mean, obviously, there *was* a Theran provincial capital, so we all remember it being Kratas, duh!

Certainly not that unexplored collection of small hamlets in the NE!

[ehren]

Certainly not... so maybe the Earthdawn will bring news and the council compact when the Kaer gets opened.

What small hamlets to the NE... there isn't *anything* there. Just look at the maps that were drawn before the Kaer was closed.