DM Fflash's Shackled City Campaign
Game Master DM Fflash

of course there is....

"Well there is a wand there in the pool, but we were warned by the captain to not go in the water and there is something dangerous about it. Epik, can you sense any evil? Dalamus, is there any sort of a mechanical trap?"

I do have fishing gear, anyway I could rig a snare of some sort to fish it out? I also have a net.

of course there is....

"Well there is a wand there in the pool, but we were warned by the captain to not go in the water and there is something dangerous about it. Epik, can you sense any evil? Dalamus, is there any sort of a mechanical trap?"

I do have fishing gear, anyway I could rig a snare of some sort to fish it out? I also have a net.

I have a few grappling arrows that might help as well.

Just in case I'll detect lychanthrope for a round in each room.

of course there is....

"Well there is a wand there in the pool, but we were warned by the captain to not go in the water and there is something dangerous about it. Epik, can you sense any evil? Dalamus, is there any sort of a mechanical trap?"

I do have fishing gear, anyway I could rig a snare of some sort to fish it out? I also have a net.

Can we use the wand of control water to lower the water?

The Black Claws

Nowzai's eyes widen in surprise and curiosity.

Knowledge (arcana): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (4) + 13 = 17 ... preemptively, just in case.

The pool

Malcolm and any supporting: survival or profession fisherman rolls.

Magma: knowledge arcana or religion rolls required

Nemoris: no hits on the detect

The Black Claws

The Captain hesitates again.

Do you need an Engineering or Alchemy roll to put anything together? Is there anything I can create with Alchemy that would allow me to make a sticky substance that could go through water that I might be able to attach to Nemoris' arrow to fire through the water?

Survival Attempts (I am assuming I could try several times to hook it)

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

The pool

Malcolm and any supporting: survival or profession fisherman rolls.

Magma: knowledge arcana or religion rolls required

Nemoris: no hits on the detect

The Black Claws

The Captain hesitates again.

** spoiler omitted **

Arcana1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

Dalamus will carefully inspect around the body of water, and the surrounding walls looking for anything that may be devious.

Perception
1d20 + 12 ⇒ (10) + 12 = 22

Disable Device
1d20 + 22 ⇒ (17) + 22 = 39

Dalamus doesn't find anything that he can disable nor anything of great interest while looking around.

Malcolm tries several times to hook up something with his fishing wire, net and grappling hook. He is able to get the grappling hook to the bottom of the pit, but finds the water resistance too high to manipulate it around with the fishing wire. It's just too flimsy.

"Perhaps we should drain the pool. Either make it evaporate, puncture a hole in the side, or bale it out."

How about if we use rope and the grappling hook and create a kind of dredge?

The Black Claws

Nowzai bows humbly before the Captain.

How about if we use rope and the grappling hook and create a kind of dredge?

Based on how narrow and deep the pool is, you don't think that'd work. Something more solid is necessary.

Dalamus: how would you entertain bailing out? The pool is 10x10 and somewhere between 25 and 35 feet deep. The top of the pool is flush with the floor, and there's about a 6-inch gap to the water.

what are the dimensions on the pool?

what are the dimensions on the pool?

From one post up...

"The pool is 10x10 and somewhere between 25 and 35 feet deep. The top of the pool is flush with the floor, and there's about a 6-inch gap to the water."

sigh...it's been one of those days...

I even went back to the previous page where he had first described the room to see if it was there, I didn't read past him saying Dalamus

Nice Malcolm....Once it is about someone else, you ignore it!!! :)

The pool is larger than I had originally envisioned.

"I have a rope and a grapplig hook, we can try to fish it out with that. It is heavier than the fishing line"

Malcolm Reigns wrote:

How about if we use rope and the grappling hook and create a kind of dredge?

Based on how narrow and deep the pool is, you don't think that'd work. Something more solid is necessary.

Dalamus: how would you entertain bailing out? The pool is 10x10 and somewhere between 25 and 35 feet deep. The top of the pool is flush with the floor, and there's about a 6-inch gap to the water.

We are on a roll, I don't read what was directed at you, and you don't read his answer to me... :)

lol...I actually did read that earlier, but I had forgotten....Touché

As Dalamus is checking around the pool, I will casually push him in and see what happens....thank god I packed popcorn!

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this is a joke

I'll leave the pool post open for you all to work on and move forward to the caves later today, unless you have something else you wish to do? For further actions, tell me what you're going to do and throw the appropriate roll out there. Dredging and fishing are not working with the tools you've attempted.

The Black Claws

The Captain looks at Nowzai, bares his teeth for a moment and snorts, but declines to comment any further.

You didn't answer my question about if I could make anything with alchemy that would help. Either something that would stay sticky through water that I could attach to either one of the hooks or to an arrow or something else.

If that doesn't work, I am going to go back to Nowzai and see if he can use one of the wands of control water to control this water.

Then I suggest we go look for the gnoll cave where the captain said to look/

I wonder what it would take to put together a 25-30 foot pole that could reach the bottom. With that and a grappling hook, or some type of bucket I'd bet we could scoop the wand up. Can we tell if we're moving the wand at all with the grappling hook? If it's moving a bit, then we have a chance at getting it into a larger object and hauling it up.

I'll try to remember if I've seen a bucket, pan, or anything else we could used to lower into the water. Might also be worth seeing if anyone else has anything that might be useful. My best bet with what I have equipped is to tie my crowbar into my backpack to hold it open, and lower the whole contraption down with a 50ft length of silk rope.

Survival Check:

1d20 + 12 ⇒ (19) + 12 = 31

"Hmmm that is a good idea Nemoris, there was a lot of weapons and equipment around this place, I wonder if there are any spears or polearms of any sort in Triel's room we could use? I think I remember it having a lot of weapons or one of the rooms having weapons"

I will go look for that before going to get Nowzai

A few survival checks

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

Per alchemy discussions earlier, you have to have purchased the ingredients in order to craft something ... you could have bought the stuff for a tanglefoot bag etc. You have to have the tools as well (you may have those). It's not a license to Macgyver ... that's survival. :)

Weapons and equipment were listed in the original armory descriptions. There are 2 armories ... north and south.

Per alchemy discussions earlier, you have to have purchased the ingredients in order to craft something ... you could have bought the stuff for a tanglefoot bag etc. You have to have the tools as well (you may have those). It's not a license to Macgyver ... that's survival. :)

Weapons and equipment were listed in the original armory descriptions. There are 2 armories ... north and south.

Just because I don't remember the alchemy discussion earlier, and that was fairly cryptic, you're saying don't bother with trying to cobble something together ever, or more like, don't try to build things that don't exist? Not a biggie if this won't work, just don't want to waste more time trying to figure something out if it's not going to be allowed. Thanks!

Oh, and not that it matters, but I do have masterwork artisan tools :)

[ooc]If you want to cobble something together, then do it and tell me what it is. If you want to reduce it to a dice roll, play by the rule set. The question was Can I use craft alchemy to come up with something? The answer is "not without ingredients." I won't create ideas for you. If you want to say, "My best bet with what I have equipped is to tie my crowbar into my backpack to hold it open, and lower the whole contraption down with a 50ft length of silk rope." that's thinking something through.{/ooc]

ah, ok, cool. I was afraid I was getting in trouble for trying to think up stuff and that I couldn't macgyver things :) Well, how'd my attempt with the rope, backpack and crowbar go?

If it helps to have the thought process behind it, the crowbar would be used to 1) weigh down the backpack so it'd sink easily, and 2) keep the opening of the backpack open, tied into the front. I'd try to toss the backpack on the other side of the wand from where I'm going to pull it up, and then I'd drag it along the bottom, going nice and slow once the backpack hits the wand. Hopefully I can scoop it up, if not, pull the backpack up and try again (or if I can manage, go over to the other side of the pool (which I think would swivel the backpack around) and then pull it in again from that side.

I can roll a few checks if one isn't enough too!

Asking if I can create a sticky substance with Alchemy is a idea, I didn't ask can I use alchemy to help with this problem, if I had said that I would agree with you that I am asking you for help, I didn't do that. I asked you if I could you a skill in a specific way, ie create a sticky substance with alchemy. Since there are no rules what so ever in any book I can find for creating such a substance, I asked you the question because it's your call as the DM if something is possible. I didn't know you needed me to actually know chemistry to use a skill. In that case, I would like to distill the sap from a pine tree or similar type of tree that I am hoping is in the woods outside the cave into a variant of Pine Tar that is sticky even when wet and use that and attach it to a long pole I will also cut down while I am out in the woods gathering the sap.

When we had talked about Alchemy before we had talked about the fact that I spent 100gp on a kit and that you agreed that it would have some fairly common ingredients used to create things, nothing exotic like Drow Poison but that you would decide based on my request if I had what was needed until I go back to town and created a true list of ingredients. So by me asking if I could create something, I thought that would fall under you telling me if I had the required ingredients

Or as I also mentioned I will just go get Nowzai and ask him to use a wand of control water to control the water since the name is right in the wand I think I am able to deduce that myself.

D&D isn't perfect but I use the rules as written to the best of my ability. Crafting (to include chemistry) is done by knowing the end item, having the ingredients i.e. spending the money, and then executing the process (i.e. time). It's not for throwing something together out of a chemistry set really quickly. There are end items that equate to "sticky stuff" ... I gave you one example, a tanglefoot bag. Your 100gp alchemy kit will not allow you to make glue in a few minutes, no.

My goal isn't to be difficult, it's just to keep things clean and within the rules and fair, without me just giving you an answer. Think through something that makes logical sense and I'm sure we'll work it out.

Nemoris: The rope doesn't have enough leverage to drag the bag. If you had a 30+ foot pole or something similar, you believe your plan would work.

Malcolm: Pine tar: it's a jungle. Survival check to discover something similar. Also, feel free to talk with Nowzai at any time. We're in flex time.

I wasn't wanting to build something in a few minutes, I figure we have the time to spare to build it if we couldn't think of something else, I will just go talk to Nowzai

"Hey Nowzai, sorry to interrupt your discussion, we have found another wand but it's at the bottom of the pool that the captain said not to go in to, I was wondering if you would be able to use one of the wands of water control to lower the water to a safe level so we can retrieve it or if you have any ideas on how we could retrieve it without the wand."

Nemoris: The rope doesn't have enough leverage to drag the bag. If you had a 30+ foot pole or something similar, you believe your plan would work.

Perfect, I'll see if I can find a few polearms, spears, etc. or if not, maybe I can snag some sticks from the forest and rig a pole that's long enough. Hopefully with my woodworking/bowmaking expertise I can attach those together in a way that will hold and give me enough leverage to scoop up the wand!

More survival rolls?

Survival Checks:

1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17
1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21
1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32
1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

"Hey Nowzai, sorry to interrupt your discussion, we have found another wand but it's at the bottom of the pool that the captain said not to go in to, I was wondering if you would be able to use one of the wands of water control to lower the water to a safe level so we can retrieve it or if you have any ideas on how we could retrieve it without the wand."

Nowzai frowns, rubbing his chin while thinking.

Knowledge (arcana): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26
Spellcraft: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26

What do I know?

Since we are in flex can you move us on to the gnoll cave?

SURE!

Western Caves

The cavern proceeds to the west and up ahead it opens into a dry, musty cavern. Peering into it, you see nothing of consequence, except a larger opening to the northwest.

Rubble-filled cave

Taking the right most tunnel out of the partially collapsed room, you see the floor of the cavern is nearly covered by a partial cave-in that created a huge mound of loose debris in the center of the room. A few hands and legs protrude from the rubble. It blocks the passage out to the east.

Northwestern Cave

Taking the left most tunnel out of the partially collapsed room, you discover the tunnel wraps to meet the rubble filled cave, ahead. To the southwest, the cave system opens up into a large dark cavern

Map here

** spoiler omitted **

Nemoris will finish building his contraption around the same time Nowzai gets to the pool. Which plan do you wish to go with?

I would like to ask the Captain what he meant by dead things walk there, when he spoke about the gnoll caves, what kind of dead things?

I also think we should have Nowzai come with us when we explore the gnoll caves since we have no idea what we could be facing and I think he would have a good chance of assisting us with any dead things we might run into.

"Nowzai, do you think we can trust the captain and his men if we let them go to not hinder us in any way? I would like to have you join us as we explore the gnoll caves, the captain saying that dead things roam there worries me. If you have concerns about them, let us know, I would prefer to have you with us then guarding them if possible"

"Dead things ... dead hyoomans, dead kobolds, dead giants, dead monsters. They walk ... bones and dead skin and maggots."

"Dead things ... dead hyoomans, dead kobolds, dead giants, dead monsters. They walk ... bones and dead skin and maggots."

Hmmm...yeah I think Nowzai should come with us for sure, that sounds bad.

"And the gnoll lives there? Do you know if he is a mage or a priest of some sort? Does he control the undead? Is he an undead?"

There are a pile of bones in the NW Caves. i will move to the square currently above the NW label and peer at the bones.

Perception check
1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

"And the gnoll lives there? Do you know if he is a mage or a priest of some sort? Does he control the undead? Is he an undead?"

"Gnoll was priest. Some hyooman god. Not like red priestess. Different god. Gnoll wanted to be dead and be strong for ever. Dead things work for gnoll."

"Nowzai, do you think we can trust the captain and his men if we let them go to not hinder us in any way? I would like to have you join us as we explore the gnoll caves, the captain saying that dead things roam there worries me. If you have concerns about them, let us know, I would prefer to have you with us then guarding them if possible"

"Give me two-hundred gold, and I can have them guarding us," Nowzai replies, completely serious.

To the group, "Regarding the wands, I think we can utilize them to lower the water in the pool. With just a cursory inspection, I also theorize that they can be more efficacious in concert with each other. Dalamus, do you have the skills to activate wands and such?"

"Their fee is only 200 gold? For how long and do they require anything else?" Malcolm pauses and thinks, "Really either way I am not sure I am comfortable with them watching our backs, I would rather allow them to leave in peace if you feel that we can trust them not to join the gnoll or double cross us in any other way"

"Well, their fee is five hundred, but I don't have all that much on hand. I think I trust them as far as the money goes; they're quite thoroughly mercenary. As a point of the surrender, the Captain did say he would not take up contracts against us. For what it's worth, there's no allies for the gnoll here."

"Well then I say we let them go and focus on finding the last wand, I don't really want to pay them 500 gold. Since the captain broke his bow and arrows, I am honestly not even sure what assistance he would provide."

"The armory had some weapons remaining."

That is true, I still don't want to pony up 500 gold personally, I will leave it open to a vote, I am voting against it, I would rather they just go in peace.