I'm totally excited to see how this trial plays out! Off to a great start already!
I had thought I'd indicated that Akiros also had insisted that he stand trial for his crimes as well, but I'm fine to leave it as it is. More then enough juiciness already ; )
I eventually decided that it would be a distraction from the main event. He can always be tried separately. I presume that Verik would argue for a separation, at a minimum.
Working on my response to this today...just a lot to sort out as to how he'd approach this.
I eventually decided that it would be a distraction from the main event. He can always be tried separately. I presume that Verik would argue for a separation, at a minimum.
All good, totally cool. Not feeling a strong need to have Akiros tried at this moment, but if anyone else wants to go there, that's fine too.
Nice one Verik!
Yeah it's pretty zany but after knocking this around in my brain for the last few days, it actually makes sense to Verik's mind with the way this thing is structured. It could backfire badly too, but hey I'd rather try something interesting. So not to meta-game too much but just go with it as much as you can if Verik calls you up for testimony :)
Just a thought that I'm not sure how to move this in a way that keeps most everyone from being sidelined. Verik isn't really going to counter Vinodragov's accusations against the Stag Lord, other than to try and keep alive the annoying "seed" of doubt that the Stag Lord and Nikolai Rogvaria are not interchangeable names. Everything he plans to do will be for his own part of the defense. He plans on calling forward Akiros, possibly Zander, and Nikolai himself for interaction, though probably not Jemini. He'd call on a few NPC witnesses that could back up a commonly held view or two, but I can always play the responses in my own post.
Good news! Bad news! News!
I was offered a position today as a Homicide detective. It's not final, as my current captain has to approve the transfer, which is far from a given. If I am able to make the transfer, it will be effective November 10th. Once in Homicide, I would drop even further in time as compared to now.
However - you guys are my #1 priority in my games. Even if I have to drop some games, you are the ones I will fight to keep. We've built a great game so far, even if I have been a lot less accessible this year than I was before.
Congrats, Isaac, way to go! I hope it all works out in the manner you most desire.
Wow - good job and congratulations (assuming it works out). I think what you meant to say is "once in homicide, the subplots of this pbp will take on a different note". ;)
Way to go Isaac! I'm happy for you for the opportunity and here's to hoping you're captain signs off on the transfer!
Wow, that's amazing Issac, congrats! Couldn't have happened to a better bloke.
And even if this game does slow down, it will be worth whatever wait to keep playing it. Oh, and thanks for making us #1! ; )
I hit you up with praise in another thread, but I don't want anyone here to think I am stingy with the well-wishing. :-) Good Luck!
Well, barring unforeseen circumstances, I will be in Homicide come November 10th. I will start on evening shift with three days off. Depending on our child care situation and how many murders start dropping, my time may go up or down. I expect that it's going to be all-or-nothing for days at a time for me.
Dragons? Uhhh... (Verik starts looking for that pesky Black Arrow from Bard the Bowman that was laying around somewhere...maybe Reggie ran off with it yeah)
That's awesome Issac. Whenever you're available will be good enough for me. I find your promotion quite interesting and amazing, as I have always held the belief that, for several reasons, I would have made an excellent detective, had I gone that route in my life. (Didn't because I knew the politics of being on the police just wouldn't have been for me, unfortunately.) I still dally with the idea of being a PI on the side, occasionally.
But a few game questions:
-How many Guardsmen are there?
-How many would be in or near the hall at present? And how many might Akiros have been able to bring outside with him after ensuring the doors were sufficiently guarded?
-What are their stats and how are they armored and weaponed?
-That's it ; )
You all have a total if about 50 guardsmen throughout their posts in the city, most of whom were called up for this event. There are at least a dozen in the hall and probably an equal number in the square, with a few more inside the castle. There are about 100 soldiers in the population, but they would be camped with Varn and his men or simply in their normal civilian attire, as theyto are not doing drills today. It'll take a few minutes for them to get scrambled, but they should follow procedure and report to the nearest command center. Who knows what Varn's men will do, as they have not drilled for something like this. Your soldiers and guards are all 1st-3rd level NPCs of the warrior class. They are all equipped with leather armor and have either spears (guardsmen) or longswords (soldiers).
Awesome, thanks!
Now just a couple more ; ) :
-Do you have a specific breakdown of what % of 1st, 2nd, 3rd lvl there are?
-At least some of the soldiers (and possibly some of the guards??) would be archers too, yes?
-How many rangers does Zander have? Level etc? How many might be in the city?
-Would you mind adding this info to the campaign tab?
Dragons? Isaac, you have my full attention my friend.
-I'm assuming that Akiros would know how long (in rounds) it would take for his horse to be brought to him, but I have no idea. Much of his battle strategy would depend on whether he is mounted or not.
-So could you give me an idea how long it might be?
-As Prefect Marshall, and expecting, or at least aware of the distinct possibility of trouble at Nikolai's trial, it makes sense to me that Akiros would be fully armoured, but without his shield (and not his mace, but that doesn't seem too important). If that doesn't work for you though, please let me know.
-So just to be clear, during the battle, we will be controlling our PC's only? I mean, I'm sure we can give general orders to the NPC's, but we won't directly control any of their actions?
-How big is each area, feet wise? Need to know to have an idea what Akiros can or cannot see. Or, for this battle at least, can we assume that he's getting constant reports from the Guardsmen?
Akiros can see his immediate and adjacent areas. The horses and weapons probably won't arrive for at least 5 rounds, then only when dramatically appropriate. Akiros and Berrin will be the best-armored by virtue of their usual clothing choices.
And yes, you're only controlling your PCs.
Please can we get a map? I don't need it to be updated, but I really would like to visualize the basic premise properly.
I made a mockup map in google drive, hope it helps.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtnJ__8jG2ICdDUtSDB4d3hGWVo3Xz lVYVpTMEpxRlE#gid=0
Ah excellent - that will do. Thanks
"People of Stormfare! Do not panic! Stay in your seats! Remain inside the Hall where you will be safe! Guardsman! To me!"
"Stormfare"
LOL
I did see that as well.
Ooops!
Mariansu on the mind much? When I was typing it out at some ungodly hour of the night/morning I had a feeling something was off in the post but was too lazy to doublecheck. : p
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Well as long as you don't shout out "For the glory of Izmir!" when you take on a dragon it will be fine - don't want to bump Sir Damian out of line with greatest devotion to Iomedae now!
Also I don't think Na-Calanon is going to suddenly appear in our world to help us with this horde of youngling reds (though that would be a crazy good cross-campaign mash-up hehe).
So the way I see it, Verik is too far away now to try and get to the Square areas and support Berrin, Akiros and Jemini there. That's actually a nice group of you out there along with Zander who can cover you from above.
For now I'll look to support Taisper and Nikolai and stay with them, though I'm wondering if we all need to get to the Entrance to be effective - I guess a couple of rounds will make that clear though. Verik's spells were set for trial-time so beyond healing and a couple of buffs he has very little to try on a dragon.
You'll have something to do in the Hall. I promise.
Oh no really that's quite alright to be bored in the Hall locations! Roof repairs are really expensive you know, very bad for Oleg's treasury records...
Anyone in the groups want to talk tactics? We're at a pretty severe disadvantage here with ranged and reach-weapon firepower, with the exception of Zander.
Yeah, while I was careful to say what I had on me (all my armor, my morningstar, etc.), I did not say I had my bow, so all I've got are some very limited ranged magics.
I still need to re-read the tactical post DMB put up so I can make sure I understand just what the heck is going on right now, but after that I plan on turning invisible, buffing up, then getting as close to a bunch of the enemies as I can and setting them on fire with Blistering Invective. I will then club them to death while they burn. If there are dragonriders in my range, so much the better; they're my real target.
With bane and favored judgment and judgment surge, I'm pretty effective against humans, so I'ma focus on them. I'm useless against red dragons, especially since all my heavy-duty magic damage is fire-based.
Still perusing my character sheet, though, to see what else I can come up with...
From what Barcus is hinting at, I have a feeling you'll have plenty of humans to bane and judge and such inside the hall...
After this fight Verik pretty much needs to always take Instant Armor spell from APG anytime we're supposed to be in non-combat civilized areas ;)
That's a nice visual by the way of clubbing the baddies to death while they burn...with spikes no less. Kind of like a really twisted whack-a-mole game.
EDIT -- oh that's right I just remembered -- go go Zander frostbow! Hmm if you tag those reds with it, does that perhaps work as extra damage?
go go Zander frostbow! Hmm if you tag those reds with it, does that perhaps work as extra damage?
Yup! Red dragons are vulnerable to to cold, so those arrows will do half-again as much damage on top of whatever cold damage they do normally.
A creature with vulnerabilities takes half again as much damage (+50%) from a specific energy type
I was pleased too, to hear that they were reds (as pleased as one can be if a near dozen dragons are buzzing your castle.) I just got to roll better than 6's and 7's and hope a supply of arrows arrive.
And here's me wanting a flaming sword... *chuckles*
Quite a bit of updating. Too bad all those guards died.
Off to put on my costume and hand out Halloween candy.
Question: Since Akiros's 'Surprising Charge' is an Immediate action, could it be used to move Akiros before the Dragon hits him?
And Barcus, any answer to my question about the spells? Might be time to use one soon.
Normally, you could, but under these slightly-unusual rules and the fact that you're surrounded by chaos and difficult terrain, all it would do is take you halfway to where you needed to go. You can use it to move a full area in half the normal time, though. If you'd devoted half a round to movement already, I'd say that you could skitter off into the next area.
Hmmm, wello, could it then be used to, say, dodge Akiros back out of the dragons reach and then back in again? Or something like that?
It's fine if the answer's no, I'm just reaching for ways to have Akiros survive this battle! Or even the next round ; )
If you want to "ready" an immediate action (even with a lot of conditions) like that, just let me know. Immediate actions are difficult to adjudicate in PBP.
For instance, you could say that you want to move away (though it'll cost you a move action to move back) if he attacks you a second time, or if you take more than 20 damage from the attacks, or whatever the case may be.
Hmm, ok, so are you treating it more like a teleport or something? Because couldn't he, technically at least, say, run 20' in a circle around the Dragon and arrive back where he started?
Although, as I think on it, that doesn't really seem to be in the spirit of the ability. It IS called Surprising Charge after all.
but cool, thanks, I'll see how best that might work and post it up with his next post.
Yeesh. Okay so Berrin and Akiros are fighting in the Central Square, Jemini is now engaged (and strafed) in the Southern Square, and there's a dragon that has landed at the (now uncovered) Entrance. Zander can't cover Berrin and Akiros well as a dragon is now up on his Northern Battlements.
Nikolai and Taisper - Verik has 40' movement and so can get all the way to the Entrance if that's where you both are going. Then he can buff and heal with you. I don't think I can help either of you very well from the South Hall, so making a full move for me is probably the best action after you two go.
Heads up, I'm going out of town this weekend and I highly doubt I'll have access to the interent from friday evening to sunday afternoon GMT.
Okay. I will GMPC you if I need to.
Meanwhile, Verik and Taisper are up.
Also, Nikolai's post was a bit fast and loose with the rules. The area is too crowded to charge, so it would normally take a double-move to get into attacking position. Also, I'm pretty sure that his claws do not do 1d20 damage.
We'll roll with it, but no more charging unless there are 0 civilians in your area.
So Nikolai charged and hit the medium dragon who landed at the Entrance, and is now in the Entrance square correct? I'm assuming that's where the fight is. That would mean that both Taisper and Verik could each get to the Entrance this round, but that would constitute a double-move for each of them and provide no other action this round.
Another assumption then for Verik on spells - I'm thinking AE channeling and buff spells like Bless and Prayer can only affect the location where they are cast, whereas if I wanted to throw out a ranged attack spell like Spiritual Weapon, I could do that from a one-step location difference (North Hall to Entrance for example).