DM Barcas - Kingmaker: Rivers Run Red

Game Master Isaac Duplechain

Hey Steven and all, my apologies if my 'aid' there was ungainly or ill conceived. Was just trying to alter the stage a bit there so we can allow Nik and Aki to be part of the scene without having to do some reexplaining or whatever.

Posting later tonight for Jemini's response and I'll take a shot in character at the proposal of text for the sending.

I'm holding off my post until tomorrow incase anyone else wants to throw down on the Nyrissa reference.

Hmmm, question though. If we've been preparing for a Troll invasion, how could their entire army be one day's ride away and Sanctuary not been aware of it??

They (we) should have known they were coming days ago.

I just don't think we have any steady presence of scouts or settlements south of the Gudrin, so it's plausible they come out of that swamp area between the Tuskwater and Candlemere and swing north and boom. From our prior two adventures south and east, it only took an easy travel day from Sanctuary to reach the Gudrin River and the old ferry crossing.

We have the wargs as scouts on that plain, but I dunno about the swamp.

Fair warning: if Nikolai dies in this encounter, I'm replacing him with a floodwalker.

That's what you get for making me fight deadfall dwellers outside a sunken temple.

Heh does that include prehensile witch hair attack for the win?

The worgs are harrying the enemy, that's for certain.

If we're expecting a Troll army at any time, I guarantee Akiros (or any quarter decent general) would have scouts at least 2-3 days out in Every conceivable direction the enemy might come from.

Keep in mind that it is a sneak attack with a relatively small force, from difficult terrain. Any scouts who happen to spot it may have difficulty evading the wyverns. The number of scouts that the country has isn't terribly high considering they have mustered just 600 soldiers - a few dozen Wardens at most, covering threats from all directions. They'd been giving reliable reports during the last several months, but they've all been saying that the trolls have been keeping to themselves. Only within the last few days - after your departure - have the trolls emerged from the deeper swamps, where it is far easier to hide.

The floodwalker will, in fact strangle the shiznit out of anything with her hair.

I just designed a CR 13/4 mythic advanced brain collector. Y'all be glad I'm on this side of the screen with you. : )

I just designed a CR 13/4 mythic advanced brain collector. Y'all be glad I'm on this side of the screen with you. : )

Nice! Is that akin to old edition Intellect Devourer, Mind-Flayer, or something completely different?

Great Nikolai post. I was going to wait on Verik reaction until after he sees what both Jemini and Akiros do with that in the room.

Brain collectors,are older school than intellect devourers, iirc.

Brain collectors,are older school than intellect devourers, iirc.

Oooohhh look at that - D&D Castle Amber style!

Darn it Khal - you put Nikolai up there and he has IMO a great and unexpected post, but you almost shut the scene down with Akiros there passing the time with who takes the oath before moving on. I don't like to retcon and it's like Verik was either asleep or ignoring Nikolai. I'm glad Akiros acted before Verik, but let the oath decision point play out a bit.

By the way, I do very much like Akiros' words for the sending and I think we should go with that - one minor word change maybe which I'll do as Verik in character.

Ya, I see that now, but didn't take it into consideration properly before posting. I still would have Akiros act pretty much exactly the way he did. He's had one thing on his mind for the past hour and a bit, namely getting home to Elspeth, and Sanctuary, in time. Now he just found out that he's already a day late. He's always been practical, straightforward, duty bound man or few words and direct action. So now more than ever he has no time for long speeches, extended debate or anything else that makes it longer till he can get home.

All that being said, I totally coulda, and shoulda, waited some more before posting. My apologies.

Just to be clear too, that's all from Akiros' point of view. I love everything all you folks write. This has been in my top most fav games ever right from the get go, and it's never disappointed since. I especially liked how both Steven and Cromlich picked up, and rode right along with the whole tie in to the Cog's "crossed swords" speech.

Spot on, that!

The floodwalker will, in fact strangle the shiznit out of anything with her hair.

Yeah, all I can think of is one of Jimmy Fallon's skits when reading this.

Elsir listens for Berrin's return, hearing nothing for several long moments. After thirty seconds, he hears a mental response. 'S@+#! You scared me! I hear you. How do I respond? Thinking hard? You picked the wrong guy for that. I will get the defenses--" Berrin's reply is cut off by the limitations of the spell, but at least they have confirmation that Berrin heard their warning.

Oh yeah that's Berrin all right! Sigz would be proud...

@Khaladon - I'm all in for the way Akiros is concerned/worried/anxious about getting to Sanctuary, and also in the more general sense that he's still a man of direct action that is not entirely comfortable with everything he has become. The aspects of his becoming an "agent" of Iomedae and what exactly that means for him are still rough around the edges...and not entirely clear to Akiros himself yet. Which is great, because I would imagine it gives you some good avenues for how to grow and develop his character. I dig it as a player.

And yeah to your point both the Steven and Cromlich posts with their character declarations and potential "crossroads" being crossed were very cool to read.

going to get a Verik post in on the scene tonight - had to think about it a bit but I know my interaction now.

DM Barcas wrote:

Elsir listens for Berrin's return, hearing nothing for several long moments. After thirty seconds, he hears a mental response. 'S@+#! You scared me! I hear you. How do I respond? Thinking hard? You picked the wrong guy for that. I will get the defenses--" Berrin's reply is cut off by the limitations of the spell, but at least they have confirmation that Berrin heard their warning.

Oh yeah that's Berrin all right! Sigz would be proud...

I am :)

Hey guys, sorry, I got some stuff going on right now. I'll post soon if I can, if I don't, please don't wait for me. Cheers.

Verik of Abadar wrote:

DM Barcas wrote:

Elsir listens for Berrin's return, hearing nothing for several long moments. After thirty seconds, he hears a mental response. 'S@+#! You scared me! I hear you. How do I respond? Thinking hard? You picked the wrong guy for that. I will get the defenses--" Berrin's reply is cut off by the limitations of the spell, but at least they have confirmation that Berrin heard their warning.

Oh yeah that's Berrin all right! Sigz would be proud...

I am :)

Sigz! Good to see ya there!

Sigz! Good to see ya there!

Good to see you too. I'm just watching atm :)

Sooo... Does the general just order you lot about or do you want to discuss tactics?

Btw. Hi everyone, how's things? Kingdom hasn't fallen apart yet I see, not for Isaac's lack of trying I hope :P

Things are good. Glad to have you back. As always, a spot in my games is always open to any PC on hiatus. Berrin's one of my favorite PCs.

Woooooooowwww! Well-timed cameo appearance from Berrin - love it!

Not sure if I can sneak something in here during work, but I'll give it a shot if I can.

Thank you Isaac. Glad to be back :)

And Verik, it was planned ;P. Sort of..

Nikolai's OOC input: A couple of castings of spiritual weapon and a haste spell should help us drive off the wyverns quickly. I'll have to reserve my rage rounds for trolls and others, but between smiting and raginf, we can cut through big ticket items. The lizardmen and kobolds won't breach the castle walls, and we'll have fewer casualities if we kill the larger things while we have daylight.

Also, where in that mix is the troll king and how many archer do they have?

"I have a plan: attack." Tony Stark

Prepared spells updated for the 28th and on my profile for review.

Impossible to say from here where Hargulka is. Just too many trolls. Maybe if you fly or get closer.

I keep all my hiatus PCs updated periodically as to the goings-on of the game.

Updated my spell list.

I'm assuming that Verik would have eventually told us about something as important as Hargulka having magic that protects him from fire. If that was a mistake on my part, my sincere apologies.

DMB, what is the bridge made of? And do we have any idea how to destroy it? Or do we need K Engineering checks?

Also, is it safe to assume that the two opposing centaur tribes on the lower (south?) side of the river cancel each other out, so that we have an extra unit of centaurs we can deploy?

Fire would destroy it in due time, or dismantling. Siege weapons could do it.

The centaur advantage is there. Check the tactical board. Your three allied units outnumber their two.

Sorry, I edited my post and changed my question when I rechecked the map. My bad. Guess you saw my post before the edit. : P

Ok, next question, do we Have siege weapons??

No and no. The centaurs are settling old debts and will focus all their attention on centaurs until the others are out of the picture.

Not only that, but Nikolai did swear that mercy would be hard for anyone who sides with Hargulka. It would take an unconditional surrender for him to insist the other centaurs show any kind of clemency.

*Dang* I forgot to have Berrin bang his head when he was getting out from underneath the table...

Were we gonna drop an extended fly on Nikolai? That's a great way to get rid of wyverns. He'll get one them as soon as he gets hasted and flied. If he crits once, he could conceivably do a wyvern in one round.

Keen edge would help with that, if we have one, but I haven't seen reference to it.

Steve, I don't have Keen Edge, unfortunately. I only have one casting of Haste as well and that will likely be saved vs. The troll king and his lieutenants.

Still a bit of a ways to go before we finish this battle and get some downtime, but based on Isaac's prior reference on WBL for 7th Lvl (24000gp), I updated Verik's profile for the "Verik's Current Crafting Schedule" spoiler. There you will find notes on possible crafted items for several members of the party** that have expressed a specific need in the past, which Verik and Elsir could get crafted up in the interim period. Verik will be taking 'Craft Magic Arms and Armor' for his 7th character level feat.

Feel free to peruse it and have me change/add/remove something in the list as you see fit. Perhaps even for those that are over WBL, the interim time between chapters will allow for everyone to have something crafted for flavor and fun.

** List doesn't have Elsir as I'm sure he's got his own idea of a list somewhere with crafting feats. For Berrin, I suppose a WBL assessment can be calculated to see how he stands, and what he's interested in. No point in putting Taisper or Zander on the list at the present time.

@Berrin: Just for fun, added some crafting ideas for Berrin in my "Verik's Current Crafting Schedule" spoiler section on the profile.

Sounds cool, I haven't really looked into Berrin's wbl and thought about equipment but I know I want an adamantinum plate, there's just something about having DR/- that tickles my fancy.

Just went over Berrin's equipment and I believe he's good for lvl 7 WBL, the total gp value comes out at 25465.61 gp. Please correct me if I'm wrong, especially regarding the calculations for Berrin's wedding ring.

I believe that I count at half value anything that Verik crafted for you, which would be a reduction of 3500 gp.

Well that might be enough room then to get Berrin one item enhanced or what-not during the two-year advance.

Ok, that puts Berrin just under 22k wbl giving him room for 2k of enhancements, barring any loot from the current scenario. I'll give it a thought.

First we have to all survive this war though, yes? ; )