In post 497, Ether wrote:Oh, by the way, I checked the ring when I leveled, and it was a Ring of Protection +1. That's a deflection bonus to AC, the same bonus you get from shields.
Postie should probably get it? Erwin got the mithril chain shirt, so Achan's the melee fighter with the lowest AC right now.
Alternatively they're worth 2000 GP, but that'd be more useful once magic items are available.
[16:55] Telephone Cat: What was the deal with the other prisoners? There's a part of me that sort of wants to go back with spells, just to see what a Charm Person or Protection From Evil would do, or if it'd work or not.
[16:55] Who: Oh they're dead now
[16:55] FakeGod: well, you know the strange whispers you guys were subjected to once in the dungeon?
[16:55] Telephone Cat: Yeah.
[16:56] FakeGod: You guys only got a small taste of it, but if you stay there too long, you start to lose sanity
[16:56] FakeGod: you start believing things
[16:56] FakeGod: that these frogmen are actually cool, and that you apparently had a daughter you never had
[16:56] Telephone Cat: Oh.
[16:56] Telephone Cat: Well, I feel shitty now.
[16:56] Who: Did you take them with you when you left the dungeon or did you just leave them behind?
[16:57] Telephone Cat: I think we left them.
[16:57] FakeGod: they beat them up and left them behind
[16:57] Who: They're dead now
[16:57] Telephone Cat: Sense motive can't distinguish between intentional lies and crazy?
[16:58] FakeGod: really high sense motive can
[17:43] Telephone Cat: What can we sell the shield+jewels+greataxes for with +16 diplomacy?
[17:43] FakeGod: ok the magic shield and nonmagic greataxes?
[17:44] Telephone Cat: Yeah.
[17:44] Telephone Cat: Alternatively, is it possible to swap the shield for a magic item of equal value?
[17:45] FakeGod: nah, the merchant has to individually procure the items since most shipment don't come this route
[17:45] Telephone Cat: Ah, damn.
[17:46] FakeGod: depends on the diplo, but most likely 575g for shield, 4 greataxes = 40g
[17:46] FakeGod: Each jewel 20g
[17:46] Telephone Cat: Argh.
[17:46] Telephone Cat: Also, are trolls in this setting Knowledge Nature?
[17:46] FakeGod: yes
[17:47] FakeGod: local also works to some degree
[17:48] Telephone Cat: Will it be possible to trade in items for items of equivalent value later?
[17:48] FakeGod: in a bigger town or with a better stocked merchant, sure
[17:48] Telephone Cat: Wait. Don't we have 5 greataxes?
[17:49] FakeGod: oh
[17:49] FakeGod: 50g then
[17:50] Telephone Cat: Would Raintree be a better market?
[17:50] FakeGod: it is a bigger town, but trade routes to raintree have been disrupted atm
[17:51] Telephone Cat: Ah. Hmm.
[17:51] FakeGod: so I guess you'll find out!
[22:26] Andrius: to go back a bit though, I don't think I looked at the maps more than once in the actual session - I basically said "i don't know where we are" and left it at that
[22:26] Andrius: were there actual other routes/traps that we didn't hit or did we just get lucky with our route
[22:27] FakeGod: you guys took the "natural" route
[22:27] FakeGod: or the route you take if you intentionally do not deviate
[22:27] FakeGod: exploring the north side runs you into the red skinned toa warrior with his goons
[22:27] FakeGod: killing them first gets rid of the reinforcements in the final encounter
[22:27] Andrius: makes sense
[22:28] Dunnstral: what did the red skin guy do
[22:28] FakeGod: he gets 3 attacks per turn
[22:28] FakeGod: that's it
[22:28] Andrius: whoa
[22:28] FakeGod: yeah you gotta focus him down quick, which you guys did
[22:29] Andrius: out of curiosity
[22:29] Andrius: did you think i would kill that first guy we found
[22:29] FakeGod: I thought it could go either way for either of the prisoners tbh
[22:30] FakeGod: it should tip you guys off that something is up that these guys can breathe fine down there
[22:30] Andrius: right
[22:30] FakeGod: and you guys were suspicious of them because of that
[22:30] Andrius: the NAT 20 definitely helped
[22:30] FakeGod: yeah strong sense motives definitely helped out for sure
[22:30] Andrius: and 25ft of rope
[22:31] FakeGod: the other party trusted the second prisoner and ran straight into the 4 berserker ambush
[22:31] Andrius: good times
[22:31] FakeGod: indeed
[22:31] FakeGod: RL party beat them up and put them in the crates with the rest of the human meat
[10:03] Telephone Cat: I dunno. I did find Fiona kind of annoying, both in-character and out, but on the other hand I do wish we had saved the brainwashed prisoners.
[10:04] Telephone Cat: I remember finding it weird out of character that Sigma knocked out the first one so easily if this was a trap.
[10:04] Telephone Cat: Would a Protection From Evil have done anything?
[10:05] FakeGod: Nah, you need something like remove curse
[10:06] Telephone Cat: Even temporarily?
[10:06] FakeGod: mmhm
[10:07] Telephone Cat: Uh...how did we get the girl out of the mines if she can't breathe air, anyway?
[10:07] Who: She can
[10:08] FakeGod: She can kinda breathe air, but she sucks at it. Master Howen figured out after awhile and now dunks her underwater to make her breathe easier.
[10:08] Telephone Cat: Ah.
[10:10] Telephone Cat: Was it possible to find out more about the other prisoners than we did?
[10:11] FakeGod: There is a line that they do not cross in their madness and deception.
[10:11] Telephone Cat: In retrospect Detect Magic could have probably told me that they were enchanted, not transmuted or disguised with an illusion. Except...they'd have also been transmuted over the waterbreathing thing.
[10:11] FakeGod: Their loyalty to Dagon
[10:12] FakeGod: Mentioning his name/insulting him etc gets a reaction out of them
[10:12] FakeGod: Detect magic reveals transmutation aura for the water breathing curse thing
[10:13] Telephone Cat: Yeah, we'd have concluded that transmutation = shapeshifting monster, 100%.
[10:13] FakeGod: Either way, killing the prisoners don't detract anything from the experience I think
[10:14] Telephone Cat: Well, in-character we still think they're...something seriously messed up that we couldn't let down our guard around, probably.
[10:14] Telephone Cat: Even Fiona turned on the second guy after her sense motive check.
[10:16] FakeGod: I do agree that Fiona should be more suspicious and less inclined to trust strangers, especially after the last set of NPCs they met spiked their drinks and slit her friend's throat
[10:17] Telephone Cat: I mean, she's not WRONG that we just stormed into the kuotoa's home and attacked them when they tried to run away.
[10:19] Telephone Cat: Hmm. What would have gone differently if we'd let them or the berserker slightly later escape?
[10:20] FakeGod: The latter groups are warned and they form up kill teams to find you guys and kill
[10:20] FakeGod: There are lots of side corridors they can use to flank and trap you guys in a room.
[10:24] FakeGod: so instead of just the first shaman group, you find the room empty (except Bengi, who try to trick you guys into staying this time), as every other monsters in the dungeon (minus the final room) move to trap the PCs in that room
[10:41] FakeGod: I also thought that scouting ahead with stealth characters would have been very strong if you guys decided to go for it in that particular dungeon, because kuo toas lack darkvision
[10:42] FakeGod: their locations are revealed ahead of time by lights, and makes scouting very easy and way less risky
[10:43] FakeGod: The intertwined side corridors make it relatively easy to navigate around kuotoa enemy groups, along with presence of closed but not locked doors
[10:43] FakeGod: Plus, you guys feature 2 rogues and a beguiler in your party, and are well specced for stealth
[10:44] Telephone Cat: Well, we did send Postie ahead...
[15:23] Telephone Cat: Can I ask if the flanking maneuver the trolls did was meaningful or just encounter design?
[15:55] FakeGod: meaningful; wild trolls would not coordinate themselves in a huge encircling wave after waiting for nightfall
[15:56] FakeGod: everything about that encounter just screams intelligent design and very unlike normal behaviors of trolls
you find a mwk shortbow, mithril chain shirt, Magic gloves, 890g, black onyx gem, MWK breastplate, a MWK light mace, and a potion of cure moderate wounds
[12:53] Telephone Cat: So, uh...
[12:53] Telephone Cat: Rikadin came in here yesterday, how is she already a ghoul?
[12:55] FakeGod: There is one known method to speed up the process, which is to consume human flesh.
[12:55] Telephone Cat: That's...concerning.
[12:56] FakeGod: But I admit your character do not know what exactly took place here.
[15:24] Telephone Cat: Also I like how I spent the week panicking about how to fortify a base against invisible non-undead creatures who would attack us in the night and we would never ever get to have spells.
[15:25] Who: The reason resting was dangerous wasn't because of being attacked during the night, it was because of later on
[15:25] Who: Had you not rested Rikadin would have been still alive and not a ghoul
[15:25] Telephone Cat: Yeah, figured.
[15:26] Who: Had she not started off surrounded she would have been a very serious threat that fight
[15:26] Telephone Cat: She still had invisibility spells, right?
[15:26] Who: I don't think so, I think she just had a lot of damage
[15:26] FakeGod: It was actually a potion of invisibility.
[15:26] Telephone Cat: Ah.
[15:27] FakeGod: She only had one, and she didn't want to waste it unless she had to.
[15:28] FakeGod: I think forging ahead/resting both had their drawbacks
[15:29] Who: I think that Sigma is a large enough proportion of your combat power that forging ahead would have been better
[15:30] Telephone Cat: Oddly, even though none of my spells do anything against undead and I am slowly succumbing to their accursed taint, I still feel less fatalistic than I did when I had no spells at all. Go figure.
[15:30] FakeGod: yeah well, if he went alone, he'd been kited by Rikadin ghoul and killed in most likelihood
[15:30] Who: Erwin and Achan didn't need rest
[15:30] Who: Rose was the one who needed rest, and she didn't do anything that fight
[15:31] Telephone Cat: Well, no, we also needed an animal companion, even if he wound up frozen here eventually.
[15:31] Telephone Cat: He was still a part of taking down the named ghouls.
[15:31] FakeGod: but they have no way of knowing that next fight was undeads, so Rose not having spells was huge, considering that Ether has been a significant contributions to the fights so far
[15:32] Telephone Cat: Was there any way of predicting ghouls in advance?
[...]
[15:36] FakeGod: anyways, I think it would be rather difficult to see the ghouls coming, unless you guys could talk to Rikadin at a length beforehand
[15:36] FakeGod: wow Who
[15:36] Who: I'm complimenting my party what do you want from me
[15:36] Who: *the rest of my party
[15:37] Telephone Cat: There are definitely some things I really envy about wizards, like their itemcrafting. And I might still play one if Rose dies--there's a lot I like about the shaper build, but I think I'm mentally downplaying some of the problems, even if they aren't the
[15:37] Telephone Cat: same ones that would get to Who.
[15:37] FakeGod: one of the ways that you could have played it out was trying to sneak Rikadin past the expedition
[15:37] Who: What problems?
[15:38] Telephone Cat: Practically all their stuff is personal range.
[15:38] Who: Oh psions?
[15:38] FakeGod: having Rikadin as friendly helps IMO
[15:38] Who: We got her past the expedition, she just ran off
[15:39] FakeGod: nah, she still saw you guys as allies of the expedition
[15:39] Who: Yeah there are problems with psions. I thought you meant you were downplaying problems with wizards.
[15:39] FakeGod: she's ditching as soon as she had the chance
[15:39] Telephone Cat: Yeah...I thought we were going to have to deal with the expedition way longer than we did and behaved accordingly.
[15:40] Telephone Cat: No, the problems with wizards are not something I've downplayed at all.
[15:40] FakeGod: you can save the expedition if you can somehow convince the captain to camp inside the sinkhole, rather than above
[15:40] FakeGod: it's rather difficult, since the captain is aggressively an idiot, but not impossible
[15:40] Who: But then you'd have to deal with them for the entirety of the act
[16:55] Telephone Cat: Hey, FakeGod. What was the deal with Everlin's symbol?
[17:17] FakeGod: Well, it's been twisted and damaged and no longer functions as a holy symbol for Pelor; Everlin now receives her spells from a very amused and obscure ghoul deity
[17:18] Telephone Cat: Can those of us who took Religion learn more information from this?
[17:20] FakeGod: that was the information you would have gotten from making KRels
[17:20] Telephone Cat: Ah.
[17:22] FakeGod: is there anything in Skype? Should I go look at it?
[17:23] Andrius: not really
[17:25] Dunnstral: Is the amulet still there
[17:25] Dunnstral: raptoran looks kind of interesting but I'm not sure on it
[17:26] Telephone Cat: Yeah, you're probably okay.
[17:26] Telephone Cat: Amulet?
[17:26] Dunnstral: the holy symbol whatever
[17:27] Telephone Cat: And raptoran doesn't really seem like there's any payoff until higher levels.
[17:44] Telephone Cat: Hey, GIF! You around?
[17:45] FakeGod: Skype was alright
[17:47] Telephone Cat: Also, this is kind of meta knowledge, but I'm pretty sure black onyx is a material component for Animate Dead.
[17:47] FakeGod: You are correct.
[17:48] Telephone Cat: So that's probably a more likely explanation for what happened to Rikadin.
[17:49] FakeGod: So, to give you guys a clearer picture of the campaign, I'm going to explain a bit.
[17:49] Telephone Cat: Uh...maybe. That's not really for ghouls so much, there might be a higher level spell that does that.
[17:49] FakeGod: Raintree is on the other side of the Tittering peaks, and if you can clear the peaks by going through the caves, then once you emerge, you can get to Raintree within 12 hours.
[17:51] Telephone Cat: How much of the aboveground area is likely to be covered in trolls?
[17:51] FakeGod: Very likely and above ground at the moment should be not be considered passable. Even the merchants are afraid to send shipment through the land routes in fears of the trolls.
[17:52] Telephone Cat: Wait. So do we have to go through that after we clear the caves to get to Raintree?
[17:52] Andrius: ok yeah a wider 'how do we get places' is helpful ty FG
[17:53] FakeGod: no, Raintree side entrance isn't troll lands
[17:53] Telephone Cat: Yeah, I wasn't 100% clear on the geography.
[17:53] Telephone Cat: Ah, okay.
[17:53] FakeGod: you are home free after you get out of caves
[17:53] FakeGod: You guys have not reached the center of the cave dwellers yet, and you can choose not to. With good enough spot checks and knowledge local, you can skirt the village and get to the other side, from which you can make for the Raintree entrance of the caves
[17:53] FakeGod: without much trouble.
[17:54] FakeGod: This would mean that you'd begin Act 4.
[17:55] FakeGod: Alternatively, you can continue to explore deeper into the caves to get to the bottom of it and finish Act 3 proper.
[17:56] Andrius: well we are supposed to be finding that plant
[17:56] Telephone Cat: We're supposed to be doing that, yes. I am a little pissed at the guy who hired us for that.
[17:57] Telephone Cat: But yeah...if the other group cleared this all, I think we can probably do it too.
[17:57] FakeGod: If you decide to skirt the village and decide not to explore deeper into the cave, then you guys have the option to avoid further conflict and make it to Raintree. (where Act 4 takes place)
[17:57] Telephone Cat: Right.
[17:58] Telephone Cat: The veterans did all of Act 3 in one in-character day without resting?
[17:58] FakeGod: Yes.
[17:59] FakeGod: There are some consequences should you choose to make straight for Raintree, one of the biggest being that trade routes will still be disrupted when you guys get there, which will affect what items you will be able to buy.
[18:00] Andrius: I think Erwin would complete the contract re: the plant, even if he disagrees with the methods of the contractor. Though he WOULD be more critical with future jobs we consider.
[18:00] Telephone Cat: I guess...I'm kind of skeptical that there are any NPCs left to save, so if we cut and run, we're giving up a.) the argentisri and b.) experience we should really have before Act 4, it would be really nice to have 2nd level spells for it.
[18:00] FakeGod: Among other things, yes.
[18:01] Telephone Cat: And if Hellion lives to level 4 then he will be one level away from having wildshape.
[18:01] FakeGod: But your characters would know that this option exists, so I'm telling you
[18:01] Telephone Cat: Noted!
[18:01] Andrius: makes sense, ty
[18:02] Andrius: I mean given most all of us are now diseased, if we go deeper we're going to want to go fast, which seems possible since the other team did all of this in one straight shoot
[18:02] Telephone Cat: Right.
[18:02] Telephone Cat: From an in-character perspective, I think Rose wants to cut and run because she has a fucking zombie plague, but out of character I think we've already let enough Act 3 stuff slip through the cracks.
[18:03] Telephone Cat: We need more cool stuff.
[18:03] Andrius: yeah Erwin 1) thinks he's sick 2) concerned for all of you 3) does want to finish the contract just to be done
[18:03] Andrius: but is practical enough to know we're already here
[18:03] Telephone Cat: Uh...is preserving the argentisri once we take it a concern, by the way?
[18:04] Telephone Cat: Assuming there even is argentisri still.
[18:04] Andrius: can hellion make a heal check on his disease?
[18:04] FakeGod: Preserving it isn't a concern.
[18:04] Dunnstral: I made a knowledge religion check
[18:04] FakeGod: Hellion can make a check yes.
[18:04] FakeGod: I think GIF's cleric made the heal checks for the veteran party to beat the disease once they finished Act 3.
[18:05] Andrius: I think ill have Erwin think he's sick until he obviously doesn't develop symptoms later in a heal check or something
[18:05] Telephone Cat: 'Cause we came here on the assumption that it was just friendly nyctars who don't know the true value of that flower, and that assumption was wrong. If there's an evil undead priest or something, it's entirely possible that he or she already claimed it.
[18:19] Telephone Cat: Well...even without a roll, it's clear this isn't just a random ghoul outbreak, this is calculated. The corrupted nyctars were kidnapping people too.
[18:20] Telephone Cat: So looking at that journal, it implies that nyctar aren't normally 8 feet?
[18:20] FakeGod: Yes.
[18:21] FakeGod: They are normally about 4 and a half feet tall (medium size)
[18:21] Telephone Cat: Hmm. The nailed down one was also large.
[18:21] Telephone Cat: That's interesting.
[18:21] Andrius: oh man
[18:22] Telephone Cat: The veterans had mentioned saving it before...I guess I have to ask about this one after the act.
[18:22] Andrius: what if we find some evil druid
[18:22] Andrius: err, I mean evil pokemon trainer down in the cave
[18:22] Telephone Cat: Also I was still running on the assumption that Captain Cowbells at least fucking knows at a nyctar is supposed to look like. That's hilarious.
[18:22] Telephone Cat: "That down there...is a NYCTAR" was, like, the one time he gave us any useful information at all.
[18:23] Andrius: I disagree - him being a blatant idiot was VERY USEFUL
[18:23] Andrius: we just failed to act on it and leave the party
[18:23] FakeGod: Could have killed him, ya know.
[18:23] Telephone Cat: We didn't have time!
[18:23] Dunnstral: bull rush him into the pit has my vote
[18:23] Andrius: in hindsight id either ignore him and grab rikadin or stage a coup and have try and get the other guards to ignire him since he's an idiot and going to get them all killed
[18:24] FakeGod: hindsight is 20/20
[18:24] Telephone Cat: I did want to mutiny, but I didn't count on them all dying horribly ten minutes in.
[18:24] Andrius: there's also that yeah
[18:25] FakeGod: "It's a trap!"
[18:25] Andrius: its ok after enough of these terrible ideas we'll get the idea that we just do things our way
[18:25] Telephone Cat: So, like, I slept under the stars and gossipped with a guard about his incompetence, and then three seconds later everyone was dead.
[18:26] FakeGod: Very efficient work by trolls if I do say so myself.
[18:26] Telephone Cat: It was.
[18:27] Telephone Cat: His debut established him as a complete idiot who would inevitably turn the entire underground against us, but morally he hadn't reeeeeeeally done enough to justify murdering him in cold blood, at least not yet.
[18:27] Telephone Cat: Maybe I'm just a bad PC.
[18:27] Andrius: oddly efficient, I might add
[18:27] Andrius: suspicious, even
[18:27] Telephone Cat: True.
[18:28] Andrius: I feel like Erwin's desire to kill him stems from the old ways and he struggles with turning the new leaf over when killing his problems has always worked better
[18:31] Andrius: but yeah no real moral reason to kill him, only to get rid of the incompetent derp
[18:31] Telephone Cat: Shanking the captain during our brief time together probably wouldn't have improved things any, to be fair.
[18:31] Telephone Cat: It would have just turned twenty-three level 1 warriors against us, and they'd probably still have died.
[18:32] FakeGod: Seduce him into a secluded bush nearby, shank him and take his place?
[18:32] FakeGod: The veteran party was discussing what LLD would have done
[20:01] Telephone Cat: Hmm. Rikadin appeared to be okay (or at least just dead) until she suddenly went GHOUL FORM after Hellion's heal check. What happened there?
[20:02] Telephone Cat: She wasn't walking around being a ghoul until we finally approached her, and the cleric was in disguise too.
[20:03] FakeGod: That was mostly just theatrics and decisions made for ease of interface by the DM.
[20:03] Telephone Cat: Oh, fair.
[20:04] Andrius: darn DM theatrics
[20:04] FakeGod: I didn't want to confuse you guys that Rikadin was saveable at that point, so I replaced her token with a monster one
[20:04] Andrius: glad you did
[20:04] Andrius: given my first move was to attack it
[20:05] FakeGod: that fight can get massively difficult since Rikadin ghoul has levels in Scout, and with skirmish, she can penetrate Sigma's tankiness with sheer overwhelming numbers
[20:06] Dunnstral: what does that do
[20:06] FakeGod: Sigma is your winning condition against most of the other ghouls (minus the inflict spell incoming from ghoul Everlin), so losing her probably means TPK
[20:06] gigabyteTroubadour: it's like sneak attack kind of dunn
[20:08] FakeGod: Dunn, if you noticed, ghouls don't actually deal that much damage with each hit; their main strength lies in their paralysis, which Sigma was immune to
[20:30] Telephone Cat: ...I should probably figure out an in-character reason for Rose's 180 on going forward.
[20:30] FakeGod: you mean not cutting and running?
[20:37] Telephone Cat: Yeah.
[20:38] Telephone Cat: To be fair that was kind of based on a misunderstanding. I thought that whichever direction we left in, we'd have to punch through trolls, so we might as well do it before we use up all our resources.
[20:42] Andrius: I'm going to have a hard time as well
[21:25] Telephone Cat: Are there any nearby non-meta hints that going deeper will clear the trolls?
[21:43] FakeGod: yes actually
[21:44] Telephone Cat: Could we find one before the session?
[21:44] FakeGod: if you pore through the Everlin's diaries long enough, she talks about a statue located at the village center
[21:44] FakeGod: it is a statue of Gundabog the Trollslayer
[21:45] FakeGod: she also mentions that that statue is the reason why the trolls have stayed clear of the cave system
[21:45] FakeGod: but she does not go into detail about it
[21:45] Telephone Cat: Interesting.
[21:46] Telephone Cat: Is the statue still there? (Or is that in a later map?)
[21:46] FakeGod: in a later map
[21:46] Telephone Cat: Hmm.
[21:47] FakeGod: also not having any NPC guides really curtails all the cool info I put in the campaign :(
[21:47] Telephone Cat: Would it make any sense for us to be trying to sneak out, but come across the statue or what's left of it and find some reason to rethink our plan from there?
[21:47] Telephone Cat: Sorry about that. x_x
[21:48] Telephone Cat: I like knowing the information! But rescuing people from horrible fates is hard.
[21:49] FakeGod: well, if your character is worried about possible troll encounters on the other side's cave exit, and smart enough to realize that the sinkhole drop alone isn't enough to keep the trolls at bay and that there must be something keeping the trolls away outs
[21:49] FakeGod: ide of the caves
[21:49] FakeGod: then the mention of this statue at the town center could be definitely worth investigating
[21:50] FakeGod: alternatively, there may be survivors holed up at the town center that need rescuing?
[21:52] Andrius: "good job Andrius you did the right thing"
[21:53] Andrius: also uh are we on the map with the status
[21:53] FakeGod: no
[21:53] FakeGod: you are at Everlin's place atm
[21:53] FakeGod: at the outskirts of the town
[21:53] Andrius: ok so we cant just RP finding it to save time
[21:53] Telephone Cat: We should loot it more.
[21:53] FakeGod: oh dear
[21:53] Telephone Cat: Assuming it has not yet been fully looted.
[21:53] Andrius: we cant loot w/o FG
[21:54] Telephone Cat: He's right here!
[21:54] FakeGod: town center isn't hard to find; you just declare "I go to the town center" and I say "cool changing map"
[21:54] FakeGod: and voila
[21:54] Andrius: don't make me log onto roll20
[21:54] Telephone Cat: I just figure we should probably have that change of heart before the session actually starts so we can get on with it, it doesn't have to be now.
[21:54] FakeGod: didn't you guys already loot Everlin and Rikadin? rest of the house won't contain much
[21:56] Andrius: if I go make a roll for wine tasting will you tell me if the wine is good or bad
[21:56] Andrius: since ether rolled a 5
[21:56] FakeGod: the wine is rancid
[21:56] FakeGod: you can try it
[21:56] Andrius: well if its rancid why bother
[21:57] Telephone Cat: Are you saying the wine isn't made of fermented argentisri?
[21:57] FakeGod: that would be hilariou
[21:57] Andrius: "would be"
[21:57] Andrius: I'm off to roll20 to roll then
[21:57] Andrius: I was baited by the dm
[21:57] FakeGod: wat
[21:58] Andrius: i have to know if the wine is fermented argentisiri
[21:58] FakeGod: it's not
[21:59] FakeGod: I must go League now; my squad calls me
[21:59] Telephone Cat: That's what Trevil really wanted, we were just assuming he was going for the int enhancement. But no, the man just appreciates good wine.
[21:59] Andrius: I JUUST GOT ON
[21:59] Andrius: FGGGGGG
[22:00] FakeGod: lol
[22:00] Andrius: i rolled a 6 without any bonuses b/c idk whats relevant
[22:00] Telephone Cat: Anyway it doesn't matter if the wine is rancid, we can just cast Purify Food And Drink on it and then it won't be rancid anymore.
[22:00] Telephone Cat: We live in a world of magic, people!
UNDISTRIBUTED, we'll sell/split this in Raintree:
1090gp (I think the captain's 200 gp is in this pool? I didn't take out my 33.33, at least)
black onyx gem
blue gem (sapphire)
masterwork breastplate
masterwork light mace (or let Raia or Sigma hang onto it for DR/bludgeoning? It is good to be prepared)
+1 longsword
UNIDENTIFIED:
Captain's ring
650g, three yellow polished gems (looks like yellow topaz worth about 100 each, but doublecheck this in town)
MWK Padded Armor
MWK Light Wooden Shield
+1 Shadow Chain Shirt (+5 to hide)
MWK Light Flail
MWK Bastard Sword
+1 Shock Greataxe
MWK Silver Dagger
Ring of Animal Friendship
Scroll of Magic Weapon
Scroll of Spectral hand
Scroll of Cat's Grace
Scroll of Heroism
Scroll of Deep Slumber
Scroll of Cure Minor Wounds
Scroll of Longstrider
Scroll of Bear's Endurance
Wand of Fox's Cunning, 19 Charges
Wand of Web, 30 charges
Horn of Goodness
Elixir of Love
mithril buckler
+1 mithril buckler
headband of intellect +2
+1 mithril chain shirt (or someone willing to enchant mine)
cloak of resistance +1
cloak of resistance +2
amulet of health +2
+2 masterwork search item
+3 magical item of search
+4 magical item of search
+5 magical item of search
+6 magical item of search
+2 masterwork spot item
+2 masterwork listen item
+2 masterwork sense motive item
+2 masterwork sleight of hand item
+2 masterwork knowledge arcana item
+2 masterwork knowledge local item
+2 masterwork spellcraft item
+2 masterwork concentrate item
+2 masterwork tumble item
item of continuous Reduce Person
item of continuous Protection From Evil
[18:34] FakeGod: oh man are you guys ready for midgame of D&D???
[18:34] Telephone Cat: Huh?
[18:35] Telephone Cat: FakeGod most of us are level 3. x_x
[18:35] FakeGod: lv 5 is where the first significant AOE abilities are finally out and dominate the meta
[18:35] Telephone Cat: I am not ready at all ugh ugh ugh.
[18:35] FakeGod: prepare for massed destruction
[18:35] FakeGod: fireball is actually REALLY GOOD at lv 5 and 6
[18:36] FakeGod: also melee builds that could kinda fake it at early game really start to fall behind around lv 5 and 6 when full BAB builds get their secondary attacks
[18:36] Telephone Cat: Ohhhhhh dear.
[18:37] FakeGod: Dunn pulled a neat trick of dipping cleric for some desperately needed self healing and applaud that
[18:37] FakeGod: but he threw away his midgame
[18:37] FakeGod: and 2 handed power attack scales to infinity
[18:39] Telephone Cat: He delayed his iteratives by one level, and Knowledge Devotion covers the attack loss, I think "throwing away his midgame" isn't really fair.
[18:40] Telephone Cat: Also again most of us are level 3, we aren't making level 6 for a loooooong time even if we somehow don't die.
[18:40] GuyInFreezer: Its also less PA damage though
[18:40] FakeGod: 1 BAB loss is like 6-9 total damage loss per turn
[18:41] Telephone Cat: Bah.
Guard: This town is governed by a mayor.
He has been criticized lately for not being prepared enough to defend the town, which led him to hire these mercenaries for protection.
Desc: Raia, the village of Raintree was settled when there was a need for place for adventurers to stay when a series of old crypts opened up decades ago nearby.
Desc: Crypts proved to be full of loot, and town prospered serving to the adventurers. It attracted a number of craftsmen, especially dwarven smiths.
Currently these craftsmen are the major industry of the town, but there are a sizable number of people living off the woods.
It has been a human heavy village, racially, but other races are not too uncommon here.
Desc: There is also a elven village not too far from here (few days travel? the actual location is hidden), and there were some clashes between the Raintree settlers and the elven rangers in the past.
But nothing too serious.
That is all you remember.
Yann Ordboard: I believe this is what you're looking for.
This sarcophagous was salvaged from the old crypts themselves!
You will not find anything like it anywhere else!
Hurry and purchase it before it is gone.
Desc: They are a group of somewhat well known mercenaries that specialize in hunting fey creatures.
They are known for their effectiveness, effciency, and ruthlessness.
Fiona Lockhart: bows Nice to meet you Raine name's Fiona, Me and my friends got here a this evening and I was just curious what are hammer merc's technically?
(Do I need to roll something)
Desc: Roll diplo.
[Fiona rolls a 30]
Raine sighs.
Raine: Look, if you have a problem with us, then you will have to take it up with your mayor or my superior.
I don't have time to explain ourselves.
Raine: We specialize in battlling fey, obviously.
All of us are armed with cold iron weapons, including bolts and bullets.
Regus: We have been here for about a week now.
Raia Rashidi: Then do you happen to know anything about the lynchings that happened the other day?
Regus: The lynchings took place before we got to this town.
Regus: They do not concern us.
Guard: The fey attacked people indiscriminately.
Guard: Some people were killed but many more were dragged away into the woods.
Guard: We don't know what happened to them.
Guard: The pumpkin fey.
Desc: Rose you know that Pumpkin fey are vicious evil things that like to prey on unsuspecting people. There are many different kinds of them, but they all share resistance to physical damage that is only bypassed with a cold iron weapon.
Guard: About from a month ago? [...] Also, dangerous feys begin to be spotted all around the town, and they even launched a wide scale assault at the town.
Paz Romero: fey?
the pumpkin heads yes I see them everywhere in the woods
they viciious
Paz Romero: stay away
Sigma: Where did you get this mud from?
Paz Romero: woods
Sigma: I thought there was fey in the woods, are you ok out there?
Paz Romero chuckles
Paz Romero: pumpkin heads try but they don't catch paz
paz too stealthy
Guard: The townspeople were pretty angry over the fey attacks couple weeks ago.
Guard: These people were branded to be fey lovers and got strung up.
Guard: Most of the guards were at the town perimeter erecting that wall for protection and couldn't stop the lynches.
Guard: It's pretty sad what happened but I guess I can't blame them.
Guard: No trials or investigations.
Desc: Raia, you notice that most of the people look like just regular townspeople. Many of them look like they may have had mixed elf lineages for their ears are bit pointy and they have slightly elven features.
The boy at the far end does not look like an elf though.
You notice that there is a small wilted flower at the bottom of his feet, along with a note.
Desc: Note says "I'm sorry I couldn't be here for you, brother. I will revenge you without fail."
Note is unsigned.
Desc: Rose, with a 25, you also find a black feather stuck near platform near the note.
Even the guard at the gallows explicitly called them victims of a witch-hunt, and he felt safe saying it out loud to some random strangers he'd never met before. It's not like the whole town is in full ALL WHO SYMPATHIZE WITH THE FEY MUST PERISH mode. Buuuuut, on the other hand, there was a lynch mob and some people were in it. We've probably spoken to some without knowing it.Fiona Lockhart: Was this recent?
Guard: Yes. It was few days ago.
I checked back in Barrelsford, but we just don't know that much about Caligri. (Including her race, since someone asked. There's a portrait of her in Prompt 3A but her ears aren't visible.) This is the second time she's been referred to as a healer--keep in mind that we were looking for her in the first place because she can heal an aboleth's curse.Guard: Of course everyone knows about the sorceress Caligri. She has been a kind figure in the past, and never refused anyone seeking her medicinal help. But in the recent times, I don't know.....
Guard: About from a month ago? people who went to her for help never came back. Anyone who went to her cottage by the lake were never seen again. Also, dangerous feys begin to be spotted all around the town, and they even launched a wide scale assault at the town.
Guard: People are saying that Caligri has gone mad, and that she is consorting with these fey to drive the townspeople out.
I'm not sure what to believe.
Wait. What?? How did I miss this yesterday? Claire and Gigs both did a doubletake at the time and I don't even remember it. Holy shit.Findlay Hardy: me, Maxfred, and Paz all sell cold iron weapons
[22:42] FakeGod: 4-5 weeks ago was when people going to Caligri went missing
[22:42] FakeGod: 2-3 weeks ago was when the mass fey attack on the town happened
[22:42] FakeGod: few days after was when the lynchings happened
[22:42] FakeGod: 1-2 weeks ago was when the mercs arrived
[22:43] FakeGod: I think that's it?
[22:43] Telephone Cat: Oh, huh. Those bodies have been up for 2ish weeks?
[22:44] FakeGod: ehh maybe like 10 or 9 days
In post 645, Ether wrote:CURRENT GOLD:
Erwin: 1402.57
Fiona: 1300.42
Raia: 758.97
Hellion: 777.37
Achan: 1934.29
Sigma: 1473.11
Rose: 897
Note that my 897 is after buying a mithril chain shirt (1100gp), various potions, commissioning 10 scrolls from Raia, some animal carvings, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. (To be fair, it wasn't all at the standard marked up price, and I had some help.) If you are low on money and haven't made any large purchases, something is probably wrong.
Okay. Right now, aside from goods, we've got 4740 in cold hard gp from Act 3 + Findlay's payment. Before we deal with selling off the rest of the loot, let's just handle that. Everyone gets 677 gp, please update your sheet accordingly.
I, uh...fuck. I was not expecting this.[23:03] Telephone Cat: Do you want me to just take your share of all the money? Would that make this easier?
[23:03] Firebringer: sure
Gamma Emerald wrote:So 10 AM EST
I can manage that
Yann did not try to get Fiona and Rose in on the plan, even before our negotiations went south. (But I think he talked to Achan before he talked to Rose and Fiona, in game-time?)Yann Ordboard, trying to sell the sarcophagus to Rose and Fiona wrote:It has so many uses! I have used it as a table, a storage space, a bed, a door lock, a cooking utensil, and many more!
[01:35] Telephone Cat: Wait. Fuck. Did the hammer mercenaries specifically send him to that inn to lay low? I should have asked.
[01:35] Telephone Cat: I knew I was missing something.
[01:35] Telephone Cat: And I'm sure I'm missing more.
[08:56] Telephone Cat: I'm gonna put off my speculation post until later in the week, in case it helps clear my head closer to the session. The obvious stuff that springs to mind is that it's really really weird that we found Caligri's journal where we did--that that's where that particular trail stopped, not her cottage.
[08:57] Telephone Cat: And also wtf kind of crazy healer would do something this amazingly stupid.
[09:01] Telephone Cat: It's POSSIBLE that she's not evil. I guess the best scenario for Caligri being alive and not someone we have to put down is if she summoned demons at her cottage, they started eating her patients and she couldn't interfere, so she went "oh fuck I've made a horrible mistake" and skipped town to go become a healer someplace where her patients wouldn't all get murdered by demons. But if that were true, then it wouldn't explain the location of the journal.
[09:05] Telephone Cat: The amulet is probably also going to be important.
[12:24] Telephone Cat: Also, I've said this off-hand in the voicechat, but my theory on the Keira situation right now is that she's become a fey (not necessarily pumpkin) with black wings, probably voluntarily. Human to fey transformations have already been established to be possible, so yeah.
[12:25] Telephone Cat: Which, if that's true, raises questions about how she did it.
[12:26] Telephone Cat: But presumably she and her lynched brother had .:connections:.
[00:25] FakeGod: I was amused in session when I thought you guys were going to let Postie spectate a demon ritual
[00:25] Ether: Uh, is there a way to prove it?
[00:25] Ether: I was flipping out.
[00:25] FakeGod: Ordboard's shop may have receipts or commission slips; you can also convince ordboard to just tell Kalianne
[00:26] Ether: Will he, uh, help us?
[00:26] Postie: I was down to see Ordboard make a pact and get killed
[00:26] FakeGod: not without some persuasion!
[00:26] FakeGod: it would have been entertaining I think
[00:26] Postie: Kinda sad I didn't get to interrogate Dagon for information
[00:27] FakeGod: yeah.... I think the party interrupted a little bit too soon, but there's no way for them to know that soo
[00:27] FakeGod: you missed out on Ordboard selling his soul~~~~
[00:27] Postie: Damn
[00:27] Ether: Yeah, but what if he'd sold Postie's soul?
[00:28] Postie: Can you sell other people's souls? D:
[00:28] Ether: It's...interesting that he needed Achan there, on top of having a sacrifice.
[00:28] Postie: True
[00:28] FakeGod: no way; you can't sell other people's souls
[00:28] FakeGod: also, it was just a matter of term; Dagon is a demon, not a devil; he doesn't take people's souls
[00:29] Ether: Did I learn anything off of reading the sarcophagus?
[00:29] FakeGod: Dagon would probably ask Ordboard to do things that would further Dagon's goals
[00:29] FakeGod: I mean you learned how the ritual is supposed to go in non-specifics without details
[00:30] FakeGod: It does seem that Ordboard definitely had more of an optimistic translation of the ritual, since the ritual is more of a "summon Dagon and make a deal", and less of a "JACKPOT here is free gold and xp"
[18:19] Ether: What's the legal status of charm spells? I'm assuming this isn't, like, something where a wizard caught even having it in his spellbook will get arrested, so what's the line?
[18:33] FakeGod: depends on the city; in Raintree, people might call you a witch and get you arrested/hung, while the guard captain (who is admittedly more calm headed and sensible) would give you a stern talking to?
[18:33] FakeGod: Barrelsford for one was always a small town with very minimal magic users, so they won't even have laws against this sort of thing, mostly because they never come up
(Now that I'm thinking about it, I tried Color Spraying her, and she passed the save well enough that she'd have passed a Glitterdust too. But...yeah, I'm throwing this quote in as a "her survival is serious and there will be repercussions" thing.)[13:00] FakeGod: Well, things are speeding up now!
[13:00] Telephone Cat: I wasted three spells on that CLIMACTIC ENCOUNTER.
[13:00] FakeGod: Keira ran away! What a coward.
[13:01] Telephone Cat: Ugh, I should have glitterdusted through Achan.
[13:01] FakeGod: Yes.
[13:01] FakeGod: 100% that was the right move. I'm sorry.
[13:01] Telephone Cat: Or a mercenary should have closed the door.
[13:01] FakeGod: They weren't expecting something like that, unfortunately.
[13:08] FakeGod: Things are getting out of control and apparently town is falling apart and shit is hitting the fan.
[13:08] Telephone Cat: Yeah...
[13:08] FakeGod: Mayor's been assasinated!
[13:08] FakeGod: (it's ok, he has yet to survive in any of the iterations of this campaign)
[13:08] Telephone Cat: Interesting.
[13:09] Telephone Cat: Did other iterations smash the sarcophagus?
[13:10] Telephone Cat: I'm still not sure what to actually do with the information from Ordboard, although it might be enough to get him reinstated and have a magicmart again.
[13:11] Postie: How long does drow poison keep people unconscious for?
[13:11] Telephone Cat: Couple hours.
[13:11] Telephone Cat: Ugh, I wish I could have talked to Willow.
[13:12] Postie: Does the effect stack? So like if they eat 10 apples they're unconscious the whole day?
[13:12] Telephone Cat: I don't believe so.
[13:12] Postie: Darn.
[13:14] FakeGod: Elleran didn't bother with the sarcophagus subplot, (and paid dearly????)
[13:14] FakeGod: Veterans smashed it.
[13:14] FakeGod: Postie you can keep feeding them apples throughout the day to keep them unconscious
[13:14] Postie: What if Visage got "ill" and Kalianne appointed one of us to "nurse" him? >=]
[13:15] GuyInFreezer: I'm telling
[13:43] Telephone Cat: Out of curiosity, what was the DC to talk down Raine without a fight?
[13:47] FakeGod: 30
[13:47] Telephone Cat: How did it go with the veterans?
[13:51] Telephone Cat: ...I wonder if we can get Ordboard, who's familiar with her, to scry on the old woman.
[13:51] Telephone Cat: Assuming he's got/can get the scrolls.
[14:00] Telephone Cat: Man. I really want to know where the Crazy Raine plot would have gone.
[...]
[15:45] FakeGod: wooooo
[15:46] FakeGod: Crazy Raine is fun
[15:46] Telephone Cat: Tell me more!
[15:46] FakeGod: she has higher ranks in relevant skills and actually knows Draconic, so she figures out the ritual in 12 hours
[15:47] Telephone Cat: ...Well, fuck.
[15:47] Telephone Cat: Who's the sacrifice?
[15:47] FakeGod: GUESS
[15:47] FakeGod: well it depends
[15:47] Telephone Cat: She has nameless mercenaries on-hand, but that seems too easy.
[15:47] FakeGod: Raine ritual happens on Night 3, which is right after Ordboard's attempt
[15:48] Who: Ordboard?
[15:48] FakeGod: Fitting
[15:48] Telephone Cat: She talked about using Ordboard, but she'd need Kalianne's permission.
[15:48] FakeGod: Not at that point
[15:48] Telephone Cat: Or Kalianne's back turned.
[15:48] Who: She could get it
[15:48] FakeGod: Her alignment is Evil at that point
[15:48] FakeGod: I have her statblock ready so PCs can fight her
[15:48] FakeGod: she's kinda really strong though
[15:49] Telephone Cat: How strong?
[15:50] FakeGod: she deals like 25 damage per turn from ranged while kiting
[15:50] Telephone Cat: ...Hmm.
[15:50] Telephone Cat: Gun mages can do that?
[15:50] GuyInFreezer: gun mage!
[15:51] GuyInFreezer: Our lunagard party had gun mage
[15:51] GuyInFreezer: She ran away from goblins and got speared
[15:52] Telephone Cat: We could still take the Rikadin CRUSH HER WITH BODIES approach.
[15:52] FakeGod: oh my
[15:52] Telephone Cat: Preferably not my body. 25 damage is enough to one-shot my sad con-dumping butt.
[15:52] FakeGod: Elleran played it really weirdly
[15:53] FakeGod: he basically ignored everything he considered nonessential and didn't bother with Ordboard at all; Veteran party played it bit more on-hand
[15:53] FakeGod: they didn't catch him until morning though after ritual
[15:54] FakeGod: wait this could get into spoilers
[15:55] FakeGod: Imma stop
[15:55] Telephone Cat: Fair.
[15:55] Telephone Cat: Someday. Someday I will learn the events of the ritual.
[14:50] Telephone Cat: Wait. What was the DC to track the inn-people?
[15:17] FakeGod: higher than 10
[15:18] Telephone Cat: Hmm.
[15:18] Telephone Cat: I guess things would have gone better if we'd chosen to sleep there instead of shack up at Artkey's?
[15:20] FakeGod: depends
(Then we argued about whether this was realistic but tl;dr the Baqpack has been a ruin for much longer than we thought.)[15:31] Telephone Cat: Is Ian having been kept alive at the Baqpack when everyone else was turned into fey a plot point or just a convenience thing?
[15:32] FakeGod: oh he wouldn't have lasted much longer as a human
[15:34] Telephone Cat: Yeah, but the raid was like a week ago.
[15:34] Telephone Cat: That would imply that everyone else in that region had been dead for much, MUCH longer.
[15:35] FakeGod: yes
[15:36] Telephone Cat: Hmm. Timeline implies that this didn't happen on the mercenary's watch at all, they just never noticed that anyone ever went outside when patrolling. But the damage had already been done.
[15:36] Telephone Cat: But that's still really weird.
[15:36] FakeGod: ??
[15:36] FakeGod: Townspeople don't go out because it's dangerous outside
These are worth 550 gp in total. That's 12550. We should probably buy another CLW wand or two before we split the money.10 Blue Gems
7 Yellow-Gold gems
[20:58] FakeGod: ok
[20:58] FakeGod: I'll give you additional 5754g when you sell your items
[20:59] FakeGod: still full price when you buy though
In post 942, Ether wrote:+Skill items can also be insight instead of competence. (They can also be circumstance, but masterwork +2s are circumstance and the leap from +2 to +3 would be 850gp. It's cheaper to have competence/insight +4s first before doing that.)
This is important information in our quest to win the diplomacy arms race and loot absolutely everything.
In post 949, Ether wrote:1500 on two more wands of CLW.