Scummer D&D for newbies!

[Ether]

https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1160408

Note the lack of crossbow. If you guys fight anything immune to Mind Affecting, I'm just gonna total defense it until I have buffs. Have fun actually being useful, suckers!

[Ether]

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.

[Ether]

Raia can buy banded mail for 250gp fairly trivially now and get +2 AC that way.

[Ether]

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.

UPDATE: I lied, shields and deflection are different bonuses. This doesn't really matter, but yeah.

[Ether]

Yeah, I just couldn't let FALSE INFORMATION stand.

[Ether]

To distribute: 27g, 34 yellowish gems (11 I found, 11 Erwin found, 12 post-dungeon loot), Magical Heavy Steel Shield, Magic potion, Magic Ring, and a Magic Bag. 5 greataxes.

Sigma has identify now, so what's the deal with the magic stuff?

[Ether]

Yeah, 187. We should sell the shield, Sigma and Raia are the only people who can even carry it and they both use two-handed weapons. Can't afford to animate it for a long time.

Oh, and some ceremonial daggers, I forgot that bit.

We should do identifications, go to Dr. K, appraise things as accurately as possible, and then get Fiona to sell them at +16 diplomacy. (The ring/potion/bag aren't being sold, to be clear.)

EDIT: +16, she has negotiator still.

[Ether]

We distributed CLW scrolls to Hellion, Fiona and Raia at the start...how many of those do we still have?

Raia still has two Protection From Evil scrolls as well. She can scribe level 2 spells now, so that's fun.

[Ether]

Jeez, did we really use 8 of them? Damn.

The trolls are disturbing; even one of them out-CRs us by a fair bit, and the prompts imply there's more than one. We'd also need to equip ourselves with fire/acid gear, and neither me nor Fiona is a blaster. Maybe there's something in the divine spells, Hellion and Raia at least get 2nd level spells now.

[Ether]

Prompt 3B talks about troll problems.

[Ether]

Yes, I have them.

[Ether]

Good news! Fiona rolled a 30 on her diplomacy check, and Ernis rolled a 1 on appraising the jewels and tried to rip us off while actually being ripped off himself, and Rose nailed him doing it and we bargained the CLW wand down to 500gp.

We landed 2380gp for the jewels + axes + shield, and after the wand that's 1880 gp. Erwin's sitting this out since he got 4000gp gloves, so the rest of you get 313gp.

The leftover 2 gp is a good meal for 4 people, so, uh, I'll drop that and another 1.5 of my own money taking us all out to dinner.

EDIT: I'm hanging on to the Ring of Featherfall for a bit. I don't really want it, but it's 2200 gp and it feels like a waste to sell it at half price, so I'm hoping we get the chance to exchange it later for something of similar value, if everyone's okay with that. (I don't think it's useful for any of us, but Rose at least gets Spider Climb next level.)

[Ether]

Well...1 gp of my own money. I don't think Sigma eats.

[Ether]

Some details about Act 2:

[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...

Spoiler: Claire please don't hurt me

[09:34] FakeGod: I heard you guys wish to haggle
[09:34] FakeGod: Are you the one haggling?
[09:43] Telephone Cat: I think Claire is, her diplomacy is 6 higher than me and also the person we were selling to last time hates me.
[09:43] FakeGod: Fear not, for you will be dealing with a different merchant.
[09:44] FakeGod: Ernis Garbard, at your service!
[09:49] Telephone Cat: She will do the talking. I will be standing by with my I-Didn't-Dump-Wisdom-To-5 sense motive.
[09:50] FakeGod: Ah, the good cop and the bad cop routine.
[09:55] Telephone Cat: What happens if Ernis starts telling Fiona that he's an orphan and needs this money so his family won't starve, and also his family incidentally is made up of crazy fish-cultists who are definitely sympathetic characters and not evil? Someone's gotta keep
[09:55] Telephone Cat: her in line.
[09:56] Who: If you believe the starving family line though you can just offer to summon up food
[09:56] Telephone Cat: Not at level 3.
[09:56] Who: Isn't create food an L2 cleric spell?
[09:56] FakeGod: Sorry, but they only eat gold pieces.
[09:57] Who: Like, unless he's in serious debt with the mafia or something, no merchant who's selling you magic items will ever be at risk of starvation
[09:58] Who: If he's in serious debt with the mafia, offer to hunt them down the mafia and kill their families until they leave the merchant alone
[09:58] FakeGod: His wife has a condition that requires magical healing that costs 10000 gp each day.
[09:58] Telephone Cat: It's called heroin addiction.

[Ether]

The more I think on this, the more prepared I am to bribe Firebringer to take Craft Wondrous Items. With 7 of us splitting wealth, I really do think we need this. Raia's scrolls already saved our lives last time, items aren't just a luxury.

[Ether]

Rose was less of a doormat than I thought she'd be, I think I just felt obligated to go along with her CN designation. It might have been more in-character for her to sign it and then just completely disregard it. But I wanted to keep talking.

I feel like I opened more rifts with the party than actually making friends. x_x

[Ether]

Out of character I just want to say that Raia is completely adorable.

[Ether]

If FakeGod will not give us fort saves, then we will make our own.

[Ether]

Unlike Rose, I have accepted my contract and seen it through.



No glasses, though, I don't think I could fit them.

[Ether]

By the way: remember when Alexander offered us 500 gp apiece to clear out the mines? Yeah, neither did anyone else. Go add 500gp to your character sheet if you haven't already.

[Ether]

Okay, so I'm genuinely worried about a TPK right now. I'm just gonna run my mouth, I guess.

Sigma, the person with the best chance of surviving this wreck so we don't all start at level 2 with no loot, is currently at 8 HP, and the only way to heal her is to spend a ton of wand charges + my one potion of RLD. I...think we kind of need to just eat this cost, and get more wands next time. In retrospect, Erwin and Fiona have enough UMD that we could just get an RLD wand at the next town, and I feel dumb for not having done this already. Oh well.

We are out of spells, Sigma's burned her healing devotion, almost everything daily is out. FakeGod seems very amused at the thought that we'd just rest now, and the other party didn't do it, but the other party nearly TPK'd and they probably had more resources than us, so it's hard to see a way out.

If nothing else, there's a woman with invisibility wandering around and we don't know if she's hostile or not, but if she is she can probably slit at least one throat without any trouble if we sleep. We could try to hole up and look for a door she'd have to open first to tip us off, but we are in a cave system and I am not sure we will find any doors. We could set up some ropes she'd have to pass through? My familiar can be awake for some of the watch to try to smell things coming, but he does need to sleep too.

We don't actually know for a fact that she's a threat, but aside from her and the nyctars we don't even know what's down here. Something nailed that nyctar down, and there was a transmutation aura on it to boot. Bleh.

[Ether]

[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

[Ether]

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

Shortbow goes to Fiona, she should have had one instead of a crossbow anyway. Chain shirt should be Achan's. Gloves should be Achan's. Breastplate is pointless, light mace is pointless unless we need to get through bludgeoning DR.

The onyx is ominous--those are associated with necromancy. It's also ominous that Rikadin came down here yesterday and is already a ghoul--ghoul fever is fast, but it's not that fast.

I asked Postie if I could take the ring of deflection, and she agreed. (There's another magic ring that we looted off the captain before, by the way, we should identify that if we can.) So...Postie should still have 19 AC, and I should have 17.

We should figure out what second level cleric spells can help here. Remove Dead is third level, unfortunately.

The CLW wand is almost out of charges, but Raia does have a few scrolls of it (and 2 scrolls of Protection From Evil).

[Ether]

Oh, and since Fiona gets the shortbow and I am no longer 3 pounds away from encumbrance, I might as well take her crossbow.

I will still mostly TD unless I'm clear of danger, though.

[Ether]

Yeah, I bought a mithril chain shirt before we joined the expedition.

I've added the thunderstone.

There's a 1st level spell that delays the progression of a disease for 24 hours, buuuuuuuuuuuuut it's from Spell Compendium. If FakeGod allows us to make an exception for it, we should probably cover Erwin and Achan. Me and Hellion, we're squishies, we can suck it up and try to stay out of everyone's way, but their attacks are dex-based and ghoul fever damages that.

[Ether]

With fractional saves in play, Erwin's fort save is actually +5, and he should have just barely made the save. (By the same rules, his reflex is just +7. He has a +1 base right now from three levels in bad will save classes, so that's +3 for mind-affecting spells and -1 for everything else. Sigma's saves are correct and no one else multiclassed.)

[Ether]

[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

[Ether]

[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

Anyway, let's see. The villagers kept getting dragged from their homes, and Rikadin seems to have been intentionally reanimated as a ghoul--she wouldn't have had time to succumb to the disease naturally. So...yeah, we're not out of the ghoul woods yet--even if the ones in the cellar were most of them, Everlin was a recent victim, not the ringleader.

Raia still has those two Protection From Evil scrolls, which would help if we have time to cast them--but only she can use them without UMD. (She can also cast them normally, of course. It's a pretty good buff for first level. She should use it on herself first, probably.) They're +2 to AC and +2 to saves against evil creatures. Remove Paralysis is also an option in an emergency...I haven't really looked into what other second level spells are on the table.

There are also nyctars, probably. Those I can at least color spray...uh...assuming they can see, which I think they can, since 20 foot blindsense doesn't seem far enough for them to survive without it...but they have blindsense, so it's a one-round stun. Stun does lower their AC, though.

[Ether]

No, but it's 1 minute/level--that is, 1 minute total since it's a scroll--so it's something to be used right in or before a battle. Using it is DC 21, so I would recommend doing better things with your actions.

EDIT: Actually no, I lied, there is a mishap chance. I'm kind of confused on how this interacts with UMD, since the mishap page seems to assume anyone using a scroll is a caster, but it's a moot point anyway because DC 21 in combat is still a bad idea.

[Ether]

Random psionics nerdery:

So psionics buffs have this really irritating tendency to be Range Personal, whiiiiich on a puny d4 psion gets old fast. (Well, kind of. In theory, a psion could still manifest in heavy armor, and it has Vigor to shore up its HP, and their BAB is low but they could use ranged touch attacks or boost strength, and at higher levels all of them are gonna take Metamorphosis. But eh.) Their potion analog, psionic tattoos, does allow people to get access to personal-range powers, though.

The upshot of this is that for 150 gp a pop, Raia can get an Enlarge Person analog (Expansion with the 10 minutes/level augment) that works for 30 minutes. Unlike Enlarge Person, Sigma can use this too. (Compression, annoyingly, only gets boosted to 1 minute/level, so the dexes are on their own there.)

[Ether]

[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!

[Ether]

Okay I AM WRITING THIS ALL DOWN.

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.

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

[Ether]

WE ALL LIVED HAHAHAHA.

We were probably one step away from a TPK. I kept the boss stunlocked juuuust long enough for Sigma to take it out, and it passed its last save (and that was also my last spell). Sigma attacked it again and critted twice, but if it had lived long enough to take its turn, it could probably have killed both of us and Ilyich with an iceball and taken the stragglers to pieces from there.

[Ether]

Ideeeeeeeally I want to roleplay with the terrified villagers before making this decision. (And I strongly believe we need to get Sigma an RLD wand sooner, not later, and we need more CLW wands ourselves...and, I dunno, I'd feel kind of bad about looting a priceless artifact, but I think that's me talking and Rose wouldn't necessarily care.)

Searching the roll20 logs is a bit annoying, so I'm reposting this here for reference:

Spoiler:

Aetis (GM): Well done on finishing Act 3 successfully, first of all. I didn't fudge any dice rolls, but I did go bit easy on you guys for the final fight. (because you guys waited a day, there were supposed to be demon guards, instead of nyctar bodyguards for the Magius demon)
but with people being unable to make it for weeks on end, I thought it was fair enough
I need to roll loot, which I will do so in a moment, but first, what happened:
The Magius Demons are servants of the Demon Lord Dagon, and they seek to expand his domain whenever possible by opening portals in aquatic areas to the Abyssal Seas.
They do so in many ways, but one of the methods they employ is creating a planar breach using death and sacrifice of many innocents in one area.
The Magius Demon successfully took over the nyctar tribe that was living here through subterfuge, and proceeded to transform the bodies of nyctars he has won over into more savage like forms.
Aetis (GM): Many nyctars resisted the mental dominion, but they were subdued and put to sleep, and fed to trolls to increase the numbers of the trolls.
The last of the resisting nyctars, Silverwing, was seen nailed at the cave system entrance. If you recall.
Ether: Yeah...
Firebringer K.: What would have happened if we saved Silverwing?
Ether: How much of this can we learn in-character? I figure we can find out about what magius are, but...
Aetis (GM): You can figure this out through searching around the area more and looking up what Magius demons do typically.
Afterwards, the demon sent its nyctars after the cave dwellers to kidnap as many as they could for the sacrifice, and the human population of the town got depleted quickly.
Some of the survivors decided to join the demon and convert to worshipping Dagon. Others were slaughtered after taken to the island.
There are still around a dozen or so villagers barricaded and hiding at the village, if you look carefully enough.
Ether: I think we're gonna look pretty carefully, yes. If nothing else, we are adventurers and we loot everything.
Is the argentisri here?
Aetis (GM): The trollbane blade, (+2 Flaming Trollbane greatsword) is what was keeping the trolls out initially, but the Magius demon realized that the antipathy effect can be used to not only keep the trolls away, but to give them rudimentary commands through rule of fear.
It gave the blade to the nyctar leader to use. (Deathshriek)
Argentisri bloomed at some point, but the Magius demon used its magic up to fuel the planar breach.
None of it remains.
Ether: Yeah, makes sense.
Postie P.: fffffffffff
Aetis (GM): Had you guys gone ahead to Raintree without defeating the Magius demon here, the planar portal opens fully, which allows Dagon to move his demons through to invade the material plane. This takes a quite of bit of time, and has no big effect on Act 4.
However, Act 5 (when you return to Barrelsford) starts off in a very worse position.
I won't tell you what it is in fear of spoilers.
Ether: So...the ghouls were desperation-cannibals and the Everlin ghoul animated Rikadin?
Aetis (GM): Yep. They force fed Rikadin human flesh to speed up the process.
Now, you have a choice to make.
Ether: The sword?
Aetis (GM): You guys can either leave the sword here, which exerts its antipathy troll influence in the area and troll surge ends soon. (lack of more nyctars to feed help)
This means Raintree village will have its usual market access, which is rather sizable.
You will also receive 100 story xp for doing so.
Ether: As long as nothing else is going to take the sword the moment we walk away from it, this is probably what we should do.
Aetis (GM): You may also take the blade with you to Raintree. Unbreakable +2 Flaming Trollbane greatsword is quite powerful weapon in its own right, and it may have additional effects that it will display in Raintree.
However, this means that trolls will be able to occupy the cave systems and eat whatever scraps of organisms they find, which means the troll surge lasts longer.
This means that during Act 4, Raintree market will be restricted heavily.
afterwards, it will return to normal, as the trolls die out
Postie P.: Yeah, I support leaving the sword here.
Aetis (GM): for what it's worth, the RL party left the sword here, while the mafia veteran party took the blade with them
there are pros and cons of doing either decision, so please decide as a party on what to do with Gundabog's Blade
I'm going to give you guys the link to the Raintree campaign now in the OP of the MS thread

[Ether]

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

And Erwin's stuff.

Andrius should probably have first crack to get himself equipped, we can retroactively say what we found from there. I...can't find what paladins start with, but yeah, none of the classes start with much.

[Ether]

I was arguing for leaving behind the sword before, but the veteran group makes a compelling argument for taking it:

If we leave it, it'll almost certainly be gone by the time we come back for it. It's metagaming, but it's not like it'll just have vanished into thin air--it'll be gone because someone took it. Whose hands do you think it'll wind up in?

I think we should very seriously try to figure out how to get more healing in Raintree.

[Ether]

Yeah, if you didn't have Scribe Scroll I'd write this off as a suicide mission and say we still needed to leave it anyway. But even with that...assuming we rest in the sanctuary before heading to Raintree (which FakeGod is assuming we'll do, although I'm not sure how we deal with the ghoul fever issue), that's 40 scrolls produced in a day. The wand had 50 charges and we used every single one. We are now about to face stronger monsters that can do more damage, and we are underleveled to boot.

Scribe Scroll is huge. But on its own, it's still not quite enough, not without more downtime than we're going to get.

[Ether]

Another thing to do if we take the artifact:

There's only a 1/20 chance of any given item we want being in the Raintree market if we let the troll surge keep going. We have lots of loot burning a hole in our pocket, but most of it isn't really useful to us. We should each make a shopping list covering everything up to 4000gp that we could possibly want, because only a tiny fraction of it will be available to us. (If you want help with that shopping list, I can do my best.)

It's an awkward situation because I have no idea how much money we actually have. So much of it is wrapped up in loot, which makes it hard to split.

Anyway, as a sample, here's what I'm thinking with Rose. A lot of these would be really great in bulk, too. Quantity over quality; I'm still brainstorming:

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

I think the masterwork tools might be available anyway? I'm not sure, this might be a magicmart-specific restriction.

[Ether]

FakeGod says we can't scribe scrolls en masse.

I can't see what else to do.

[Ether]

I don't want to screw us over in a future act to buy more time now.

But yeah, I can't see any other choice.

[Ether]

Okay...it looks like scrolls can have multiple spells on them, but since you're expending the spells as you scribe them, we still can't produce 40 CLW spells in a day. Raia only has 7 spell slots.

So a CL3 scroll Raia spent 375 gp on would produce about 66 hp total, from four CL3 Cure Lights and three CL3 Cure Moderates. (Or 70 hp for 450 gp if we pulled out all the stops and threw on Cure Minor Wounds too. A scroll needs one constant CL regardless of how many spells are on it, and casting orisons at CL3 is shaky.) A CL1 scroll would be 87.5 gp for 38.5 hp of healing.

A CLW wand like the one we burned through has 275 hp in it, so yeah, this isn't a solution.

Firebringer, is there any way I talk you into going leopard? I can go with mechanical arguments, but I could also just post a bunch of leopard pics, because leopards are in fact way cooler than dinosaurs.

[Ether]

When I saw the nature of the fight, I knew it was something we could probably handle as a group without Sigma, but I felt like I'd made my bed and it'd be shitty to only ask to join after having the luxury of that risk assessment. I felt too guilty to ask and didn't realize it was an option until Postie said she was running and FakeGod asked, "To get Rose?" Even then, he didn't let me enter the fray until Achan tagged me in.

My vote was to hold out and wait for Dunnstral, even if that meant missing the session, not for you guys to risk your lives while I stayed safe--but I was outnumbered and everyone else wanted to play. On the information I had, which was expecting more ghouls, I'm still not sure I was in the wrong.

[Ether]

black onyx gem
blue gem (sapphire--I think it's worth 1500?)
three yellow polished gems (mediocre appraise check said 100 gp, but doublecheck this)

I am not really sure what these are worth; we should look it up in Raintree.

1090gp
350 - masterwork breastplate
305 - masterwork light mace (or we could let Raia hold it for DR-breaking)
2315gp - +1 longsword

Total: 4060
(Half: 2575--the 1090 is why this isn't actually half)

650g
155 - MWK Padded Armor
153 - MWK Light Wooden Shield
4250 - +1 Shadow Chain Shirt (+5 to hide)
308 - MWK Light Flail
335 - MWK Bastard Sword
322 - MWK Silver Dagger (possible DR-breaker again)
10800 - Ring of Animal Friendship
150 - Elixir of Love
375 - Scroll of Deep Slumber (Fiona or Rose could use it, but it's shit)

Total: 17498
(Half: 9074)

So...that's 21558 in loot, or 11649 if we sell it all at half price, not counting the jewels or Erwin's stuff or the money from selling the mithril to Bao. (Generally with Fiona's diplomacy we can do .) I'm not gonna divide this up yet, we'll deal with that in Raintree, but there's a ballpark estimate.

Scrolls:
Scroll of Magic Weapon (Raia--for DR/magic)
Scroll of Cat's Grace (Hellion or Fiona--3 minute dex boost)
Scroll of Heroism (Fiona; this is a 50 minute buff; we could also maybe cut a deal with a wizard to make some more for us in exchange for time alone with it)
Scroll of Cure Minor Wounds (Raia or Hellion, or we can just sell it for 6.25gp and go out to lunch)
Scroll of Longstrider (Hellion--one hour of +10-foot movement; self or animal companion only)
Scroll of Bear's Endurance (Raia, Hellion or Fiona--3 minute con boost)

I am not sure if we keep these or sell them:
2700 - Wand of Web, 30 charges (This is an awesome spell, or it would be if only we could use it. We could give it to Fiona, get her some UMD buffs and let her try? It'd probably work about half the time. It's only DC 13, though, since it's a wand.)
150 - Scroll of Spectral Hand (None of us can use this, which is a shame; it's a good spell. If you hold onto it for my backup wizard, she'll like you better. Wizards like it when you give them scrolls.)

Keep these:
+1 Shock Greataxe
Horn of Goodness
Wand of Fox's Cunning, 19 Charges (awkward...boosts my DCs, but only Fiona can use it. It's 1710gp, it could possibly save our lives in a boss fight, it's probably worth it to just hang onto it.)
2000gp - ring of protection

Some of this (including Erwin's 1402.57 gp) should just retroactively wind up in Sedgar's hands. Even though it is strategically advantageous to buy his full plate for him, it is also kind of silly.

[Ether]

Sigma can't change her armor, but she can and should have it enchanted. It's 1000 gp for a +1 enhancement.

Achan can't use the shadow chain shirt. It's too heavy; gotta sell it.

This isn't a full shopping list, buuuuuut let's see how we roll on these:

Communal:
Wand of Cure Light Wounds (we will buy seventy of these fucking wands, LESSON LEARNED. Or at least buy two and make Sigma buy a separate RLD wand.)
+5 magical item of search

Rose:
+1 mithril buckler (or a mithril buckler and a way to upgrade it)
Headband of Intellect +2 (I doubt I'll have 4000gp to drop, but might as well find out if it's a possibility)
a +1 upgrade to my chain shirt
Cloak of Resistance +1

Stuff other people should get:
Wand of Repair Light Damage (we don't have a wizard or a shaper, sooo UMD it is. Note that only one of us actually has UMD unless Achan takes it this level.)
Gauntlets of Ogre Power +2 (4000gp, though)
The difference between 300gp masterwork weapons and 2000gp magic weapons is +1 to damage and getting around some DR, but at least upgrade to masterwork if you haven't
Probably more backup weapons
Composite bows, because you never know
+1 enhancements to armor, probably
Cloaks of resistance
Pearls of power for Hellion/Raia
Probably some CMW potions (I am not sure if this is communal or not)
Protection from Evil potions might also be a decent idea in a pinch

[Ether]

Hmm.

Firebringer! Could you craft us a +5 Custom Item of Search? It'll take 3 days, cost you 100XP, cost us 1250gp, and then we get better loot after dungeons and it pays for itself.

[Ether]

It's time for some PARANOIA:

[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.

He talks about meta domination but I don't know anything about that. Sooooooo.

On the fireball front, even one minor ring of energy resistance is 12,000 gp. And that just covers one element. So, uh...try not to all cluster in together if we can help it while still protecting squishies, and close in on whoever's doing it or whoever its friends are so it won't want to blast them? And...I guess try to have a good reflex save and enough hitpoints to tank a 6d6.

[Ether]

UPDATE: So, uh, it took an attempted ragequit to finally calm down. That's embarrassing. (But to just get it down on the forums, it looks like we're staying where we are.)

[Ether]

Yeeeeeeeeeeah don't do that guys.

Anyway, quick reminder for everyone to add 300 XP to your sheets. (100 for leaving the sword last time, 200 for delivering the mithril.)

[Ether]

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.

(We should really handle the selling/buying in the middle of the week instead of waiting until the end, which'll mean scouting out the merchants at that point too.)

[Ether]

On Raintree:

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.

On the hammer mercenaries:

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.

Rorfe, the one who met us at the gate and escorted us to the town center, is a bald albino hobgoblin. He's doing racial profiling, but he still let in Fiona knowing she was a half-elf. It's not clear whether full elves are out, or if there's some separate unspecified race he's trying to keep out.
Raine, first lieutenant. She's not rude, or at least not for people who roll a 30 on diplomacy, but she immediately assumed Fiona's got a problem with them after just a polite question. She's the only NPC who drew attention to the fact that the troll surge is over, and seemed interested in the news. She appears to be a gun mage.
Regus, first lieutenant, second in command. Annoyed with us from the start, refused to talk anymore after what seems to be a contradiction on the timeframe. Which is weird, because anyone in town can tell us when they really arrived.

On fey:

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

On the lynchings:

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.

Fiona Lockhart: Was this recent?
Guard: Yes. It was few days ago.

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.

On Caligri:

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.

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.

Inn NPCs:
Seisha: Overworked barmaid, didn't want to talk about the lynchings but to be fair she was busy
Willow: Owns the inn, she's nice. She said she'd sing a duet with Fiona tomorrow.
Hoosin: Just some random kid in his early teens, orphaned in the attacks a few weeks ago and hired out of pity. Did there used to be a different chef?

Findlay Hardy: me, Maxfred, and Paz all sell cold iron weapons

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.
Why didn't Findlay mention that he's crazy?

EDIT: the thing Raine said about them all having cold iron bullets (and presumably therefore guns).

[Ether]

[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

[Ether]

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.

Fiona didn't update.
Raia didn't update.
Hellion didn't update.
Achan updated.
Sigma updated.
Rose updated.

(Also, note to self: I forgot to compensate Hellion for the search item here, but he shouldn't have to pay for a communal item out of his own pocket, that's not his job. When we sell off the loot, give him 450 directly first and hold the rest of the 1250 in reserve to cover that too.)

I didn't write this down and I'm going off memory, but I believe that Fiona and Hellion also still need to add in the 300xp from bonus experience? I can't remember for Achan. (I think he's supposed to be sliiiiiightly ahead of Rose instead of at equal xp, but I'm not confident on that.)

[Ether]

The big takeaway from the solo session is that pumpkin fey used to be human, and were captured and transformed. Raintree doesn't seem to be aware of this?

[Ether]

Right. If even a few people knew about it and weren't actively trying to keep it secret, it would have spread everywhere by now, this is serious.

[Ether]

At 7 people, I am kind of reluctant to do that. x_x

I would like to give Sigma the last 100 she needs if that was somehow a thing, but that's different.

EDIT: To elaborate--adding up the XP of everyone currently alive (and an extra 300 because I think Firebringer didn't add that) and dividing it by 7, we'd have about 5635 per person. I'd rather have some of us at 4th level than no one at 4th level.

[Ether]

[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

I, uh...fuck. I was not expecting this.

This is apparently official until further notice, soooo...sure.

Speaking of this, we really need to deal with a system for coordinating what to buy. The other group just has one person control all the money and make all the financial/loot decisions. For us, if we keep giving everyone separate gp pools, we probably want to set a deadline on letting each person decide what to buy so we can send Fiona and me out to the shops to actually roll diplomacy for it and distribute it before the last possible minute.

[Ether]

I think that's something that works with a pooled treasury, which we aren't using right now--but even then, most of those requests will generally go unfulfilled. (The gauntlets of ogre strength cost 4000 gp. We will probably pull in a little more than 10,000 gp total.) The 3 item limit is kind of weird; we probably want to buy a ton of mundane +2 masterwork tools now that we understand that they're a thing.

For a system like we have where everyone keeps track of their gp independently, this does have the advantage of everyone knowing what their budget is. (It doesn't really account for the fact that some people already have more wealth in the form of better magic items, but that can probably also be dealt with if we cared about that.)

[Ether]

If we are going to seize the means of production and hand power over to one treasurer, then that's fine too, but we should get everyone's approval on that before going forward on it. (Also, if we do that, then I would like to be the treasurer.)

We could also do a hybrid system. Like, I am apparently in charge of Hellion's finances now, implying that I'll get both his shares and mine and take responsibility for equipping both of us, and other people could optionally join in on that too if some people want a private share and some want a treasurer?

[Ether]

Either way, setting a deadline for people to officially post about what they want instead of waiting until Saturday is a good idea.

[Ether]

So 10 AM EST
I can manage that

This game has been going on for months. It has 7 players right now, and even 6 is really crowded. (4 is a more common size for D&D parties.) Even if one of us dropped out, I don't think a slot would open--I wouldn't count on getting into this.

[Ether]

Maybe you can find a group on roll20?

[Ether]

Hmm.

Did you know that merchants also have like +20 to Diplomacy? I didn't. We fucked up and Yann kicked us out. We've got 1825 in gp from the gems, but everything else we're going to need to trade with the merchants, and wondrous items are probably off the table. (Although I'd assume the smiths have any armor and weapons we need. Since we do have some gold, we'll probably want one of you guys who isn't Rose or Fiona to just walk in later when he's not seething and buy two CLW wands.)

So...let's see. We have a bunch of smiths to talk to, and we still need to outfit people with cold iron, get Raia full plate and all that. This would have worked better if we actually knew how much gp we'll have to do this, but whatever.

Please post in-thread what you'd like to buy under the assumption that you have your current money, and what you'd buy if you had 1500 more than that. But we might take liberties with this depending on how things go. Sorry.

[Ether]

Assume that 1500 of the 1825 from the gems will go to buying two CLW wands, and another 202 for the Appraise/Diplomacy items we got before the negotiations went downhill. (I also retroactively bought a spellcraft item, but I'm not calling communal on that, that's mine to pay for.) I'll figure out a way to pay back Hellion, even if I have to temporarily eat the cost myself.

Don't forget that we still need cold iron weapons. Masterwork cold iron will run you from 600 to 700 gp, but it's not like this is the only DR/cold iron we'll see in this campaign if we live--demons have that too. So I'd strongly recommend at least thinking about going masterwork.

[Ether]

Magic/wondrous items will be the trickiest to get. Unfortunately, I don't know magic items very well. Like, the horn of goodness is awesome, but I wouldn't have thought about it on my own.

I do think that having at least non-masterwork cold iron greatswords would be a good idea for people who stab. (Masterwork is 700gp, standard is 100.) We should upgrade Fiona's shortbow to composite and get some cold iron ammo for her/me/Hellion, and maybe also buy a masterwork composite longbow or two for Sigma or Sedgar to use in an emergency. (Cold iron ammo is pretty cheap.)

This is a note to self to still get a masterwork search item. Fiona should get a masterwork UMD item and hold onto that Wand of Web, although it's shaky.

Knowing what we know now about merchants and their ridiculously high diplomacy scores, we probably want to get her a +diplomacy magic item and call that communal too, once we have money to buy things that are communal again. We will win this fucking arms race. All will kneel in diplomasurrender.

[Ether]

Perhaps. But good luck convincing anyone.

[Ether]

Okay...Raia and Sigma bought those wands, they used mostly Raia's money, we can sort that out later. In the meantime, to sort of pay Raia back but also just make things more confusing, I'm gonna just use the 1850 + 125 from selling Raia's banded mail to get her masterwork fullplate (1650). That's 325 left, but we spent 202 to buy diplomacy/appraise crap. I'm going to use another 50 to just get a +2 masterwork Search item. 73 in communal funds left. I'll, uh...I think that's about how much Sigma spotted Raia for, so she can have that?

I'm spending 220gp to get Sigma, Sedgar and Raia two non-masterwork cold iron greatswords and a non-masterwork longspear. 6gp for 20 cold iron crossbow bolts and 20 cold iron arrows. (I'm taking this out of Rose's money but I'd kind of like to be paid back later.) I'm spending 200gp to get myself and Hellion +2 items of Spot and Listen.

I'm forgetting important things, but bleh, it's something.

[Ether]

I'm also going to spend 250gp to buy +2s to Concentration, Tumble, and Knowledge Arcana, Local and Nature.

[Ether]

Right, let's see.

The mayor, Pierre Bertin, lied about there not being any attacks on this town since the wall went up, which...okay, even if he's not evil--and I don't think he is--he's established that he withholds information and keeps things on a need to know basis, so sure. Rorfe lied about not recognizing the feather, and that's bizarre. What would he even get from lying about that?

Pierre Bertin has a daughter, and a wife who died a few years ago. I'm noting it because conservation of detail.

He said that over a hundred villagers have gone missing over the past month, and that he'll ask the captain of the guard for advice. We haven't met Kalianne even once, so what she'll say is unknown.

It's not clear yet how Mackenzie and the elves are relevant. Maybe Mackenzie's seen something at the Oremaker's garden?

Ordboard is weird and I have no idea what he's trying to do. His turning to some random out of towner who just wandered into his shop for help strooooongly implies that he's either full of shit, or he needs Achan for one thing and plans to shank him when he's done. It's interesting that he cared about him being rich before showing him the sarcophagus...I guess that implies it's more likely to be a scam and less likely to be a murder attempt? (Maybe. Vinto targeted rich people too.) Conservation of detail does kind imply that the sarcophagus holds genuine information, though.

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!

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?)

It'd be funny to just go back at midnight with Achan just to troll Ordboard. We could even try to disguise someone as Achan, but I assume merchants have pretty good Spot and Sense Motive checks in their line of work.

It occurs to me that Findlay could vouch for us having come from Barrelsford on an expedition through the caves, lending some credibility to our claims. But eh, fuck Ordboard. Saving the town probably gets us more credibility anyway.

This is a note to self to either destroy the preserved corpses we found, or take them back to town for burial. They shouldn't stay here.

[Ether]

Oh, one more thing:

It's interesting that the hammer mercenaries are so anti-elf. The villagers connect elves and fey in their mind, and eh, they're panicked ignorant villagers who've just been attacked, what are you gonna do? But the hammer mercenaries specialize in fey. Shouldn't they know better?

Is banning elves a ruling from the mayor, or their own judgment? I wish we'd asked.

Another note to self: get shopping done early in the week next time. Set deadlines, even. Wrangling everyone into a shopping spree when I'm not really in the mood and then realizing that actually I don't care enough to take point and was just hoping everyone else would work it out is a dumb experience for everyone involved. Sorry, FakeGod.

[Ether]

When we identified the six CLW potions, I think we said we'd split them so everyone except Sigma had one. Did everyone actually add one to their sheet?

[Ether]

I should be good. What time?

[Ether]

[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:.

Between sessions people should still take advantage of +2 masterwork items. Cheap skill boosts are awesome. I mean it this time!

[Ether]

In general, I would support a regular RP session! Right now our party is really split up (it looks like Rose, Hellion and Sigma's unconscious body are at the Blue Canary and Raia has tastefully stepped outside, while Fiona/Achan/Sedgar are at Willow's), which makes things awkward. Especially since even though Rose let the Artkey/Sigma fight play out, she isn't just going to abandon her body, and she can't move it, so she's kind of stuck at the bar for the night. (I would like to roleplay with Artkey between sessions, though, if FakeGod's up for that, and if anyone comes to check on us then I'll roleplay with them too.)

[Ether]

I'm guessing that most or all of us will say we're up for roleplaying, and the real issue is setting down a time to actually do it. Presumably this is gonna be something mid-week, so...does Wednesdays at 9pm EDT (6pm for the west-coasters) work for everyone?

[Ether]

We split up the 5800 gp so everyone gets 825, except Achan, who gets 850. At this point, I have seized Raia's and Hellion's means of production and am taking responsibility for buying them shit.

Having seized the means of production, I have 4076gp.

I'm spending 1000 to upgrade Raia's armor to magic. (+1 AC.) Then I'll spend 100gp to have retroactively ordered four divine scrolls of Enlarge Person.

100gp is one thing. I'd...like to order a vest of resistance, but ugh, I don't know what the situation with Ordboard will be tomorrow, and I don't want to lose 1000gp if Achan goes to his thing and we have to rescue him and Ordboard gets pissed. Oh well. Hellion can craft them now, if we have the downtime.

So that leaves me with 2976. I'll spend 150 to buy Raia +2 masterwork items of Concentration, Knowledge Religion and The Planes. And another 100 to buy myself +2 to Diplomacy and Sense Motive. And another 100 to buy Hellion +2 to Nature and Concentration. (Since most of Hellion's items merge with him in wildshape...the end result is that Raia kind of needs items more than him or me.)

Down to 2626.

...Meh, I'll shell out 610 for a cold iron masterwork longspear for Raia. We'll probably fight demons later, it can't hurt.

[Ether]

I haven't done a thorough analysis, but:

-We NEED to interrogate Ordboard. It's not a coincidence that he had the apples. It's not a coincidence that he somehow figured out how to do the ritual at all. Someone told him how to do this, and while he's obviously a terrible person and a murderer, I get the vibe that he was misled about what he was getting himself into. And what he wanted with Achan is also worth asking. We should compile more things to ask him, and then I'm probably gonna send in Rose with a charm spell. Maybe mid-week, if FakeGod's okay with that?
-While we're in jail, we should probably ask Kamak what happened too.
-We should destroy the sarcophagus before someone else uses it to summon a demon. Raine was already musing about how she wanted to try it out. Let's just head off that possibility as soon as possible.

We still haven't identified that body in the well.

[Ether]

So Willow has lied to us point-blank, and Seisha tried to send Hellion alone to his death. Neither of them detect as evil. Rereading skypelogs, Dunnstral posited that they're being threatened/blackmailed, and I think he's probably right.

And now I really wish I were level 6. Mindbender telepathy could do a lot to clear that up. Hmm...I could also use a Message cantrip to accomplish the same thing, just ask one or both of them to give me a signal if they're being coerced. That would only allow 1-way communication, but it's something.

EDIT: Wait, no, it's two-way. Excellent.

[Ether]

By the way, it turns out that masterwork cold iron is +300gp, not +600! The price only becomes a pain in the ass when you try to enchant it. So anyone who's bought masterwork cold iron has saved some money over that, and everyone should really go ahead and upgrade. I'm gonna add 300gp back to my sheet.

Raia can keep holding onto the non-masterwork longspear. Sundering exists, might as well have a backup.

[Ether]

Okay, so I seized Achan's means of production last night. Three to go.

Achan had 3450gp, so that's 5766 in total. I'm gonna officially leave Achan and Raia with 200gp each of disposable income, they shouldn't have to go see me every time they need to pay for coffee. So 5366. Unfortunately, we no longer have a magicmart or crafting, and magic weapons are expensive, so, uh...

I'll upgrade Achan's mithril chain shirt to +1, first off. Then I'm gonna buy him two tanglefoot bags. I'll also get him +2 items to Hide, Knowledge Local, Listen, Move Silently, Spot and Tumble and UMD. 1450 down, 3916 left.

Raia can have +2 to Arcana, History aaaaaaaand Profession Attorney, I just want her to be happy. (I'd get her Spot/Listen too, but Hellion's retiring, so.) And I'll take +2 to Bluff and Sleight of Hand for myself. 3666.

[Ether]

It's not cheese!

Also we still need to go claim those Enlarge Person scrolls and Sigma's RLD wand.

[Ether]

FakeGod said we can talk to Kalianne about getting the stuff we already commissioned and we have a receipt for it.

[Ether]

[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

[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.

(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.)

[13:08] 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

[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

(Then we argued about whether this was realistic but tl;dr the Baqpack has been a ruin for much longer than we thought.)

[Ether]

Everyone adds 400 XP for the last fight (or 600 if you were Raia).

[Ether]

FakeGod confirmed we could have gone back and gotten the RLD wand and Raia's four divine scrolls of Enlarge Person, so let's say we did that. Fiona should hold the wand, since she has the highest UMD.

Sigma should really get a masterwork cold iron greatsword, now that we know it's not 700gp. It averages 1 more damage to DR5 fey than the shock greataxe, which is good but not the end of the world not to have--but DR10 exists. Electricity resistance exists. And demons frequently have both of those things!

[Ether]

10 Blue Gems
7 Yellow-Gold gems

These are worth 550 gp in total. That's 12550. We should probably buy another CLW wand or two before we split the money.

Achan gets the shadow chain shirt, and I'm going to take his +1 mithril chain shirt for myself. (Shadow's a +5 competence bonus, incidentally, not +4.) I'm also taking the headband of intellect, obviously.

I think we should consider selling the maul of the titans. It's 25305--even if we can only sell it at half price, that's still enough to cover all 6 of us getting PfE items, which is REALLY REALLY HELPFUL. (We'd need Gigs to craft them. But we have crafting now!)

[Ether]

The catch with PfEs is that every time you roll a save, you have to remember to add +2 if the enemy is evil, and every time we get into a fight with evil enemies, remember that everyone's AC is two higher. (Although FakeGod already keeps track of ACs when calculating who hits, so that one's just one "also we all have PfE" mention, it's not as finicky as remembering flanking bonuses.)

Items of Enlarge Person are probably also a good idea for Raia and Sedgar. (And Sedgar should strongly consider getting a reach weapon and taking Cleave if he does get one.) The +Search and Diplomacy Arms Race funds are really useful for the party having more money/stuff, and those are less expensive. There are other helpful things Raia can make, buuuuuut asking for the PfEs and the enlarges and the +5 diplomacy and the upgrade to +Search is already 1444xp for her and I should really talk to Gigs before getting ahead of myself here.

What items did we use in the last fight? (Barring my second CLW potion, which I already wrote off.) I know one tanglefoot bag was used, and the scroll of heroism...anything else?

[Ether]

Spoiler: Locations, clearing the huts

[22:26] Dunnstral: I dunno we learned that there's
[22:26] Dunnstral: the oremaker's garden
[22:26] Dunnstral: and the crypt of explorers
[22:27] FakeGod: crypt is not one of the reachable locations this Act, unfortunately, because it is too far away from Raintree
[22:27] FakeGod: Oremaker's Garden is not too far and you can totally visit it!
[22:28] Dunnstral: Apparently there's a waterfall near the lake by caligri so maybe we'll go there after caligri
[22:28] FakeGod: waterfall is not too close to the lake but it's not that far either
[22:28] FakeGod: the huts you guys cleared out were close to the lake though
[22:29] FakeGod: but you guys already beat up the fey and recovered the bodies
[22:33] Telephone Cat: Would things in the town have gone differently if we hadn't done the huts?
[22:34] Dunnstral: spoilers
[22:34] Telephone Cat: Yeah, but potentially a moot point.
[22:54] FakeGod: Number of rippers and bonebreakers in pretty much every encounter in the campaign goes up at a rapid rate if huts are left alone
[22:54] FakeGod: as days pass
[23:01] Telephone Cat: Knowing what we know about bonebreakers, that's interesting.
[11:10] Telephone Cat: Huh. I just checked the logs again.
[11:10] Telephone Cat: The huts and that whole area were covered in illusion auras...I missed that bit.

(This bit was from before the act ended. I'm still not clear what the illusions were? We know now that the bonebreakers were coerced victims, and probably not cultists.)

Spoiler: Lake encounter scaling, nighthowl fey

[01:47] Telephone Cat: What are the Night 0 and Day 1 boss fights like?
[01:47] FakeGod: Night 0 = no hags, 4 Bonebreakers in the 2nd half
[01:47] FakeGod: Day 1 = 3 hags, 6 bonebreakers
[01:48] FakeGod: Day 2 3 hags, 8 bonebreakers
[01:48] FakeGod: night 1 = 3 hags, 6 bonebreakers, 12 extra nighthowls
[01:48] Telephone Cat: Nighthowls?
[01:48] FakeGod: you never encountered the 3rd type of pumpkin fey
[01:48] Telephone Cat: Oh, were those those things that winked out when we opened the hut?
[01:48] FakeGod: they are vicious flying pumpkins that are greedy for light
[01:48] FakeGod: yes
[01:48] FakeGod: they only appear in night fights
[01:49] FakeGod: that are outside the town
[01:49] Telephone Cat: Ah, so Night 0 huts would have those. What are they like?
[01:49] FakeGod: low hp, high speed
[01:50] FakeGod: flies down to light sources and swallows them, and then explodes in a small radius for 2d6
[01:50] FakeGod: they come in swarms of 6 or more
[01:50] Telephone Cat: Neat.
[01:50] Andrius: need more bonebreakers at the lake
[01:50] FakeGod: pretty terrifying because you end up fighting rippers in the dark without lightsources
[01:50] Andrius: I don't think we had enough
[01:50] FakeGod: which mean they no longer need flank to SA
[01:50] Andrius: oh
[01:50] FakeGod: and they start outputting record damage
[01:50] Telephone Cat: Oh god.
[01:51] Andrius: i mean i fought ONE at night
[01:51] FakeGod: good work man
[01:51] FakeGod: doing Pelor's work
[01:51] FakeGod: also Pelor seems to be real and Andrius just rolls crits when he needs them
[01:51] FakeGod: every time Who prays to Pelor he gets shit rolls
[01:51] Telephone Cat: Is there a way to preempt the nighthowls before they explode?
[01:52] FakeGod: fireball them/shoot arrows?
[01:52] FakeGod: or throw your torches away
[01:52] Telephone Cat: How low is the HP?
[01:52] Andrius: from now on
[01:52] Andrius: all my PCs will worship Pelor
[01:52] Andrius: best deity
[01:52] FakeGod: they have 4 hp, no DR

(In the GIF/Raybells replay, they dealt with the nighthowls by throwing a torch at a bonebreaker and rolled a 20 on the throw. It caught fire. Then all the nighthowls tackled it and exploded for 24d6.)

Spoiler: Caligri

[01:56] Telephone Cat: Who did Caligri kill for the summon?
[01:57] Telephone Cat: Also why did she leave the journal at Baqi's?
[01:58] FakeGod: one of her patients; out of guilt
[01:58] Telephone Cat: Also also were there any NPCs we talked to who were personally involved in the lynches?
[01:58] FakeGod: nameless mob
[02:00] Telephone Cat: Did she recover faster than Ordboard or Raine, or would they have come to their senses after summoning given the time, if they'd succeeded?
[02:01] FakeGod: they would come to their senses after some time
[02:01] FakeGod: (given they succeeded)

Spoiler: Caligri snaps!

[12:12] FakeGod: I think not saving the town by Day 4 means one of the crazy scenarios happened and pretty much everyone in town is dead or soon to be? which means Caligri snaps
[12:12] MariaR: like I might've kept him alive if I was at the front with Rose to glitterdust/grease the room
[12:13] MariaR: cause I was 100% greasiung it
[12:13] Telephone Cat: Yeah, figuring out how to keep the wards up in the replay is gonna be a major challenge.
[12:13] Telephone Cat: Ooh, Caligri?
[12:13] FakeGod: MariaR you should take charge of your own destiny
[12:13] FakeGod: you have to fight Caligri at the lake if she has snapped at that point
[12:13] Telephone Cat: Oh shit.
[12:13] MariaR: Oh I just was staying behind cause
[12:13] MariaR: the way you were talking fg
[12:13] MariaR: my thoughts were
[12:14] Telephone Cat: How much does she know about what's going on, and how is she getting information and/or food?
[12:14] MariaR: "if I don't stay here and stop this fight the guards and mercs are gonna brawl"
[12:14] MariaR: and then look a hag in the room!
[12:14] FakeGod: LOL
[12:14] MariaR: that's why I was asking
[12:14] MariaR: if my dip rolls with the guards/mercs
[12:14] FakeGod: she's stuck at the lake but hags/demons have been making feys off corpses/townspeople nearby
[12:14] MariaR: did anything or they were kinda meh
[12:14] FakeGod: she can do basic math and hear people scream

Spoiler: Felice/Seisha, Hoosin, Willow, Mackenzie (Mackenzie is also dead by the way)

[10:44] Telephone Cat: Okay, out of character: why did Felice want Hellion dead? What determines when/if she steals the sarcophagus and when Raine gets it, if it stays intact?
[10:44] Telephone Cat: How would PCs find out about the smugglers being alive?
[...]
[11:35] FakeGod: Felice generally sends PCs toward Drunken Baqpack because she wants to keep the hags in check
[...]
[11:35] MariaR: Was there anyway for us to catch Felica
[11:36] MariaR: when she was spying on us
[11:36] FakeGod: yeah just roll better spot next time
[11:36] MariaR: FEELS BAD
[11:36] Telephone Cat: But...she just sent Hellion alone.
[11:36] Telephone Cat: That's not keeping hags in check, that's keeping Hellion in check.
[11:36] FakeGod: I mean if Hellion dies, hopefully Hellion's friends retaliate
[11:37] FakeGod: Lilith in the veteran party not only beat her hide with her spot, but proceeded to sneak up on her and capture her
[11:37] Telephone Cat: We could have found out about her later, too; Willow presumably knew. If I'd tried the message thing on Day 1 instead of Day 2, then that would have probably worked.
[11:38] FakeGod: Willow does not know 100% but she has her own suspicions regarding Seisha
[11:39] Telephone Cat: What happened to Hoosin and Mackenzie? Whose fault was the elf ban?
[11:39] FakeGod: Elf ban isn't really official; some of the more vocal and misguided townsfolk are behind the anti-elf sentiment
[11:40] FakeGod: Hoosin gets kidnapped and killed by a hag in late Day 1
[11:40] Telephone Cat: Wait, so why did Willow lie about the book if she wasn't being blackmailed?
[11:40] FakeGod: she does not like to reveal her fey-capableness under the current circumstances
[11:41] FakeGod: Mackenzie was picking ore-flowers at the Garden in Night 0 and when she gets knocked out by a hag
[11:41] Telephone Cat: Would Fiona asking have worked?
[11:41] FakeGod: Fiona asking?
[11:41] Telephone Cat: A PC on friendlier terms with her.
[11:42] FakeGod: oh
[11:42] FakeGod: yes
[11:42] FakeGod: hag proceeds to take Mackenzie's form and pretend to be lost, gettting the elven rangers to pick her up and return her to the town (you guys see this at the morning of Day 1 at the town gates)
[11:42] Telephone Cat: Ohhh.
[11:42] Telephone Cat: Well, fuck.
[11:43] FakeGod: if real Mackenzie isn't rescued from the Garden by end of Day 1, then her body gets absorbed by the flowers at the Garden and is lost
[11:43] Telephone Cat: Are there prompts to go to the garden?
[11:44] FakeGod: yeah, all of the smiths can give you that prompt
[11:44] GuyInFreezer: We also wand-silenced Felice
[11:44] FakeGod: if the hag's ruse is revealed at the gate (or if real Mackenzie is later rescued), then Rorfe gets angry about the elves and starts suspecting the they are working with the feys too
[11:45] Telephone Cat: Didn't he already suspect that?
[11:45] Telephone Cat: Are forest hags technically outsiders or fey?
[11:46] FakeGod: they are technically monstrous humanoids
[11:50] MariaR: I KNEW
[11:50] MariaR: IF I ASKED HER IT WOULD'VE WORKED
[11:50] MariaR: BUT THEY SHOT ME DOWNNNN

Spoiler: SACRED ARTIFACT LOOTING WE'RE DOING THIS

[11:59] Telephone Cat: If we popped into the caves right now, would the sword still be there?
[11:59] MariaR: oh is this the fight where you were like
[11:59] MariaR: "if you guys didn't do that thing in act 2"
[11:59] Telephone Cat: Act 3!
[11:59] MariaR: "this fight would've been way worse"
[11:59] FakeGod: oh yeah if you want to collect the sword, you may (!!!)
[11:59] Telephone Cat: Oh, nice.
[11:59] MariaR: Okay ACT 3
[11:59] MariaR: same thing
[11:59] MariaR: wait the sword is still there wtf?
[11:59] FakeGod: Elleran gets to face Magius demon + his demonic bodyguards on top of whatever is at Barrelsford atm
[12:00] FakeGod: sword is still there; it's only been like 3~4 days in game time
[12:00] MariaR: How long would we have to wait for the sword to be gone
[12:00] Telephone Cat: And all of the trolls are definitely dead and this won't surge them?
[12:00] MariaR: Also 3-4 days? Holy we did a lot
[12:00] FakeGod: no troll surges here
[12:00] MariaR: uhhhh idk about that
[12:00] MariaR: wtf
[12:01] MariaR: THERE'S LIKE NO DOWN SIDE TO LEAVING IT THEN
[12:01] MariaR: Just rush this act and easy as pie
[12:01] FakeGod: that is correct!
[12:01] FakeGod: if you don't need any items, then just take the sword and beat shit up
[12:02] Telephone Cat: Does the sword cause any fun interactions in Act 4?
[12:02] MariaR: isn't that the proof
[12:02] MariaR: we give to oldboard
[12:02] MariaR: that he begged about
[12:02] Telephone Cat: Sort of, but if we had the sword, the troll surge would still be on and Ordboard wouldn't have anything to sell.
[12:03] Telephone Cat: So we wouldn't really have gotten into that position anyway.

Spoiler: More timeframe/who dies when stuff

[12:03] MariaR: Is there like a list I can check out to see that says
[12:03] MariaR: "if you do this ___ doesn't die or "if you do this ___ dies"
[12:03] MariaR: on this act cause
[12:03] MariaR: I'd love to read that sometime
[12:03] FakeGod: uhhh let's see
[12:04] Telephone Cat: Yes I want this.
[12:04] FakeGod: Mackenzie dies at the Garden if you don't rescue her by end of Day 1
[12:04] MariaR: Honestly didn't even know there was a garden
[12:04] FakeGod: Hoosin dies by end of Day 1 if there's isn't any additional measures to secure the inn from fey
[12:04] FakeGod: Oremaker's Garden is a popular place for the smiths in town
[12:04] Telephone Cat: Additional measures?
[12:04] FakeGod: or like, kidnap Hoosin or something
[12:04] FakeGod: I dunno
[12:05] MariaR: I'm pretty sure we didn't think we had any infulance at all by the end of day 1
[12:05] FakeGod: Ordboard kills his neighbor at night 1 during ritual
[12:05] MariaR: to even ask for extra help
[12:05] Telephone Cat: Can we catch them in the act if we're at the inn? Like, it is happening when Fiona and Willow are singing or something?
[12:05] FakeGod: yeah
[12:05] FakeGod: well, slightly earlier
[12:05] MariaR: WELP
[12:05] Telephone Cat: Oh.
[12:05] MariaR: SO IF YOU LET ME GUYS GO TO WILLOWS AND HANG OUT
[12:05] MariaR: LIKE I SAID
[12:05] MariaR: I COULD'VE SAW IT
[12:06] MariaR: how tf does the hag get in
[12:06] Telephone Cat: ...You know, I predicted Hoosin being the next to die after Maxfred. x_x
[12:06] Telephone Cat: It could disguise as a mercenary or just be invisible, it's really weird that it went in under all the mercenary's noses, though.
[12:06] FakeGod: if Ordboard is arrested with lot of noise and visibility, then Raine attempts to take the sarcohpagus
[12:06] MariaR: I mean I expected him to die too but I didn't think it'd be so early
[12:07] Telephone Cat: Why did Felice kidnap Seisha?
[12:07] Telephone Cat: Er.
[12:07] Telephone Cat: Willow.
[12:07] Telephone Cat: Seisha doesn't exist.
[12:07] FakeGod: if Ordboard plot is stopped quietly, then Felice takes the sarcophagus
[12:07] MariaR: so Achan being a coward and letting us storm into the store
[12:07] MariaR: was helpful for once
[12:07] FakeGod: Felice charms/suggestions Willow because Willow would be useful someone to have at the dinner party at Day 3
[12:07] MariaR: GOOD TO KNOW
[12:08] FakeGod: sorry Day 2
[12:08] Telephone Cat: Hmm.
[12:08] MariaR: Would we have been able to hear it if we stayed at the inn that night
[12:09] FakeGod: possibly
[12:09] MariaR: given we still had hellion at that time
[12:09] MariaR: I'd say so
[12:09] FakeGod: if you go downstairs then I may ask for some skill checks to see if you noticed it
[12:09] FakeGod: fake Mackenzie plot revealed or Sarcophagus being decently protected but not taken by Raine leads to crazy Rorfe
[12:09] Telephone Cat: Oh man.
[12:09] FakeGod: Raine taking the sarcophagus leads to crazy Raine
[12:10] FakeGod: either way, Kalianne dies
[12:10] Telephone Cat: What's Rorfe like?
[12:10] FakeGod: crossbow sniper build
[12:10] FakeGod: Deadeye Shot + Crossbow Sniper + Dead Eye
[12:10] FakeGod: 25~ damage per turn
[12:10] Telephone Cat: Can he even learn the ritual that fast?
[12:10] MariaR: I feel like to take the mercs side you have to meta cause I don't see
[12:10] MariaR: any group
[12:10] MariaR: just siding with the mercs because there assholes willingly
[12:10] FakeGod: Rorfe doesn't have anything to do with the sarcophagus
[12:11] FakeGod: Keira convinces him that fey have taken most of the townspeople
[12:11] Telephone Cat: Wtf is Keira's deal?
[12:11] MariaR: revenge
[12:11] Telephone Cat: Well I mean I know that.
[12:11] FakeGod: she wants the town to burn because they killed her brother
[12:11] MariaR: they took the only thing she cared for
[12:11] Telephone Cat: I argued it extensively!
[12:11] MariaR: so she'll do the same back
[12:11] Telephone Cat: I mean like what she's doing and who she's in with and who she isn't in with.
[12:12] FakeGod: Mayor dies if wards are dropped by beginning of Day 2, or at the dinner party depending how the assassination attempt goes
[12:12] MariaR: I feel like the mayor thing should have a way more impact cause
[12:12] MariaR: it seems really hard to keep him alive

[Ether]

Gundabog's Blade is still in the caves, and we should go get it. It was protecting the village, but there is no village now, there's just a tiny handful of survivors who were also victims of Dagon. And coincidentally, Raintree has a lot of free housing right now...

EDIT: Also I've taken my Mindbender dip, so I'm just gonna go ahead and drop 250gp on +2s for the knowledges I am now trained in. Also UMD. My UMD is still terrible, but it's trained, and you never know. (I'm also officially claiming the 327gp Hellion had left, +22gp for selling crossbow/armor. Raia's already added his spot/listen items.)

[Ether]

+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.

[Ether]

If no one has any objections:
Achan gets the +1 shadow mithral chain shirt. (I take his +1 mithral chain shirt, then sell my existing non-magical mithral chain shirt.)
Fiona gets the cloak of charisma.
Rose gets the headband of intellect.
Raia gets the rod of maximize. (Converting a spell into Cure Serious Wounds means 30 HP back in one round, which is potentially lifesaving. Although the party's lack of blasting spells is suddenly a shame.)
The swan boat token is weird, but it's pretty cheap and I don't think any of us can swim and you never know.
The potion of barkskin's not bad, it's 30 minutes of +2 AC, we might need that.

Sell the shields. (The mithral heavy shield is awesome for a psion or erudite, or a non-gish cloistered cleric, but we don't have those. For other non-arcane fighting types, you might want an animated shield eventually, but that's like another 8000 or 9000 on top of the +1/mithril price.) Sell the throwing axe. Sell the maul of the titans, it's $$$ and we can and should get Gundabog's Blade anyway.

1170: +1 heavy steel shield
1020: mithral heavy shield
308: masterwork throwing axe
25305: maul of the titans
In total, that's 27803gp, or 13901 at half price. (Of course, I'd like to do better than half price. Fiona's got higher diplomacy than ever.)

Then there's the stuff we never sold from Act 3 and we should still sell that, too, I'm just listing the above stuff to give people a chance to comment.

We should buy two more CLW wands because you can never have enough, and communally cover any +search and +diplomacy items, then split the rest (and the Act 3 stuff).

[Ether]

It's been confirmed that FakeGod won't be available to roleplay this week, so if we want to do something, there's no need to wait for him. (And we should do something!)

Sell:
1170: +1 heavy steel shield
1020: mithral heavy shield
308: masterwork throwing axe
25305: maul of the titans
1100: Rose's old mithral chain shirt

And catching up with all of the stuff we never sold in Act 3:
305: masterwork light mace (I was going to keep it for DR, but nah, Raia's morningstar covers that too, and the others can get something better)
350: masterwork breastplate
2315: +1 longsword (with Gundabog's Blade, Sigma and Sedgar both have magic weapons, and Raia and Achan can't use it anyway)
5000: +1 Shadow Chain Shirt (+5 to hide; this is the one from Act 3 that wasn't mithral) EDIT: I miscalculated before, this is 5000gp, not 4250
308: MWK Light Flail
335: MWK Bastard Sword
10800: Ring of Animal Friendship
150: Elixir of Love
375: Scroll of Deep Slumber (exchanging this for a different scroll would be awesome, but...)
6500: Horn of Goodness (redundant with getting everyone PfEs)
2200: Ring of Feather Falling

57541 in total; 28770 when halved. Some of that will go to communal stuff before we split it, though. (In particular, getting everyone PfEs is 12000, and there's no haggling on that.) Then there's the 12550 from gold and gems.

(This is keeping the masterwork silver dagger for DR-breaking; we should look into having DR-breaking options for other people too. Since Raia's backup character is a necromancer, we're keeping the Spectral Hand scroll too.)

We are gonna roll to try to sell things for better than 50%, and then to buy things for less than 100%, or get exchanges or something. If Fiona gets two +3 insight/competence items to diplomacy, max diplomacy ranks, and Friendly Face as her fourth 1st level spell known, and my Aid Another...her bonus to diplomacy should be +36, meaning that even on a 1 she'll still beat our previous attempt to haggle.

[Ether]

None of us can fly, and getting down that sinkhole was a DC 5 climb check and we just didn't realize this at the time, so it doesn't really seem that important to keep it. Did you want it?

[Ether]

I mean, there are places where it's useful, like as a failsafe if you're flying. Buuuuuuut we can't fly.

[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

Okay, so that's 47074 total in loot+gp+gems. 1350 was spent on skill items, 12000 on getting everyone Protection from Evil, 1500 on two more wands of CLW. 32,224 remains. Split it 6 ways, and Fiona/Sigma get 5370 apiece, and Sedgar gets 3370 (and an item of Enlarge Person). Please think about what to spend it on!

[Ether]

PfE is a +2 resistance bonus to saves, which doesn't stack with the cloak/vest of resistance, so grain of salt there. (With the caveat that PfE doesn't give you any saves against non-evil things. Also, if you do take a cloak/vest, you probably want to go vest; my impression is that more good items are cloaks.) The armor upgrade is probably a good idea, though.

[Ether]

+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.

Okay, apparently there was a miscommunication here.

Fiona's down to a +5 item of diplomacy (meaning she rolled 41 on that check instead of 42), I'll stick with +4 to search because I feel bad for Gigs, and we have 770 less money this way in total, so -128 each. Claire/Dunnstral should add 5242 instead.

[Ether]

I do want to drive home that going Fighter 3/4 isn't a great idea.

You'll get one feat from those two levels, and you won't have it in time for Act 5. By level 7, you'll have gotten one feat, 2 skill points and have 65hp total.

Feat rogue 2 gives 14 skill points with a better list, shores up your reflex saves, and of course has two feats. (It also gives you Spell Reflection 2/day, which isn't great on your touch AC, but hey, it's free stuff. Fighters don't have any class features at all.) You only come out with 61 HP that way, but that's still a ton.

For other stabby types, the real downside would be the BAB lost, but you've already done the cleric level, so unless there's a different medium BAB class you're hoping to get into later, this is pretty much a pure advantage. Please do think about it?

[Ether]

I was thinking we'd grab it even earlier--like, take a day trip to the caves as soon as we've cleared things up with Margaret so the survivors from Act 3 will definitely have a place to stay, and then grab it at the time. (If it's possible, I'd also like to check out the spot where Ordboard and Caligri found the sarcophagus years before, while we're there. This seems like something that is going to matter.)

In-character, Rose might be kind of manipulative about arranging the whole thing, neglecting to mention to either Margaret or the party that she's in a hurry to grab the sword until they're already there, and trying to make sure Sigma's the one getting it unless she's confident Sedgar is staying with the party.

I'm assuming that all roleplay sessions are gonna be player-only for the time being. We should have one, though.

[Ether]

My computer has just disabled its Internet connection and then botched my attempt to restart it twice in the past two hours, and I'm worried about whether it'll actually be reliable enough to handle the session. We'll see if this keeps happening, I guess.

[Ether]

Spotting Sedgar 1138 to equip himself so he can get +STR. Raia also gets a Periapt of Wisdom; more purchases to come.

[Ether]

1500 on two more wands of CLW.

Raia and Sigma should hold these for now, by the way, just so everyone in the party who can use a wand can activate one in a pinch.

[Ether]

If Claire does make it, I would recommend that she buy a wand of Inspirational Boost. Ray of Enfeeblement would be a cheap offensive wand, although she'd need to UMD it; the draw is that it doesn't have a save.

I'm gonna drop 7415 to get myself a +1 mithril buckler and a lesser metamagic rod of Sculpt Spell.

Achan gets a handy haversack so we can stop caring about weight for any alchemical stuff he might want to throw. 3 more tanglefoot bags on top of his current one. (2150.) I'm gonna ask some veterans about the logistics of having lots of daggers with drow poison, and also other things with throwing potential, I'm just sleepy right now. I'll probably also buy a bunch of situational scrolls.

[Ether]

No, that was specifically called out as a variant. Normal drow poison is injury-based.

[Ether]

Yeah, it is. Apparently the veterans are super into the normal kind of drow poison. Forcing a DC 13 for 75gp a pop seems...extravagant to me, but there are places where forcing two or three of them on one specific character who really needs to go unconscious could help? I dunno.

[Ether]

I have claimed Claire's money. As usual, she keeps 200 and the silver/copper to throw around. As for the rest:

Claire gets a wand of Inspirational Boost. She gets a +1 mithral shield. She gets +2 items of Perform (Sing), Spellcraft, Knowledge Arcana and Bluff. (I think she has Diplomacy and UMD already. I don't know what other knowledges she took when leveling up; I'd get her +2s on those two if I did.) She gets two scrolls of Blur. -2965. -3715.

Raia gets some CONTINGENCIES. Two scrolls of Protection from Evil, two (divine) scrolls of Magic Weapon, two scrolls of Lesser Restoration, two scrolls of Align Weapon, one scroll of Remove Paralysis, one scroll each of Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Remove Blindness/Deafness, and Mass Resist Energy. -2350.

[Ether]

I will also buy myself +2s of Hide and Move Silently! Not that I'll really need Move Silently by the time I really get into this, but.

[Ether]

My share in party stocks is back to 50%. I've passed 1543gp to Dunnstral and Claire.