Ferrucio de Angelis |
Heh...I think it was actually you who outlined our plans, in this post here.
1. Ferrucio makes disguises for you tonight and tomorrow.
2. Tomorrow at twilight, Dracius leads you to a place which he suspects may be ripe with the shadow beasts.
3. You leave part of your trophies for Bluehood, with a note that more will await if she talks to you.
4. You attempt to track her down and receive info about the Bastards of Erebus.
What has ended up happening so far:
1. Ferrucio made disguises overnight; I got such high rolls I didn't bother taking 20 on any of them the next day.
2. We went out seeking information on the Bastards of Erebus during the day.
3. It's now evening...so I figured it was time to enact Item 2 above--go out and find some shadow beasts, slaughter them (hopefully!) and take their carcasses to Bluehood. Having said that, I'm also just good dropping off our current carcass and seeing where that takes us, without riling up the shadow beasts in Westcrown.
4. When we make the drop, Dario does the dropping and Ferrucio does the following and shadowing of whoever comes to pick the package up.
Then tomorrow, in daylight when the tieflings' darkvision won't give them an advantage in a fight, we go and scope the temple with Bishop playing the rube captivated by a worldly woman's charms.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Dario Westone |
I thought the development with the tiefling trumped our original plans. We don't have any timetable for seeking out a shadow beast and making the drop for Bluehood. Those can easily be done tomorrow or even the next day. This 'invitation' to the Temple of Erastil seems to be time limited. Is she expecting Bishop tonight?
DM Flykiller |
The wording was 'tomorrow', so it all really depends on when Bishop's gambling adventure occured. And that depends on when Ferrucio handed out the disguises and the group left to search for information. If it happened on Day 2 morning, it fits much better into the timeline, without disrupting your prior plans.
Ferrucio de Angelis |
The wording was 'tomorrow', so it all really depends on when Bishop's gambling adventure occured. And that depends on when Ferrucio handed out the disguises and the group left to search for information. If it happened on Day 2 morning, it fits much better into the timeline, without disrupting your prior plans.
Yup, that was my understanding: here's my interpretation of the timeline.
DAY 1
~6pm: Ferrucio starts measuring his companions up for their disguises.
~10pm: Ferrucio finishes the disguises and turns in for the night.
DAY 2
~9am: Ferrucio starts scouting around for information--presumably this is when the other folks head out too.
~7pm: present time; prepping for a trip to find Bluehood, perhaps hunting some shadowbeasts.
~8pm: make the drop and follow the courier, see if we can draw Bluehood out.
DAY 3
~11am: begin to scout the area around the old Church of Erastil.
~12pm: Bishop heads in with Illithia while the rest of us keep watch.
###
From a completely metagame perspective, I am concerned that we might not be able to handle the Bastards at our present level and would be happy to receive whatever XP I can get, even if that means chasing down shadowbeasts.
DM Flykiller |
Don't worry, I don't intend to lead you into a TPK without at least giving you a warning that it can end badly.
Aside from the Bluehood sidequest, Dario was also presented with a quest to investigate the book-stealing bandits on the highway, and Dracius was presented with another lead during the information gathering, but he is strangely quiet about it.
Dracius Ludio |
I think Ferrucio's suggested timeline's pretty much dead on -- although Dracius would have brought up the whole goblin issue (and is about to in the IC thread -- sorry, again, more time at the clinic with the wife, IRL)
DM Flykiller |
Not too lucky with the rolls, I see. Time to introduce some house rules.
1. Bonus damage from Smite Evil can apply to incorporeal creatures if
you hit through concealment.
2. Each of you should have CLW potions. As a standard action, you can soak your weapon/ammo in it, to make it count as +1 against evil creatures for the next round. (similar to Bless Weapon spell). Miss chance still applies. The potion is consumed by this action.
Darkvision in this case does not save from miss chance, as it persists even in normal light.
Also CR 1/2 seems too low for these creatures. I could let some shadow rats at you, but I thought it would feel underwhelming :)
Dario, would you object to me steering your character while you're away?
Dario Westone |
My apologies. In the future, you are free to run Dario as you see fit when I'm away or if I cannot post. He'll bus tables and sing for you, but he's got a terrible voice!
I didn't even think about Smite Evil not working on these. I was wondering by Illithia was using her Lay on Hands.
Ferrucio de Angelis |
Yep. I think Dario and I were planning to (read: fervently hoping we would) avoid any sort of confrontation this evening, and just stick to following Bluehood's courier back to wherever he or she is going. I don't plan on infiltrating anywhere or anything, or talking to anyone if I can at all help it.
Dario Westone |
Dario's portion of this should be relatively simple. Write the message, make the drop, walk away.
If there's any encounter, it will probably be with Ferrucio as he tries to follow the courier, or even while he's trying to hide.
Ferrucio, does a half-hour give you enough time to setup? Should it be an hour? Let's hope you don't run into too much trouble because we really don't have a way of staying in contact.
Dario Westone |
Can I get a timeline check again? We fought the shadows during the evening and then Dario made the drop. Ferrucio was mesmerized. Was all that in one evening?
If so, is it about midnight or 1/2 in the morning? And we're talking about getting sleep to prepare for the next day's meeting with the Bastards? Is that happening during the day?
Ferrucio de Angelis |
As far as I understand it, yes, you're right Dario. We're still in the same evening/night as our ill-fated attempt to track Bluehood, and we will be approaching the Bastards' redoubt in broad daylight tomorrow--primarily, I think, in order to eliminate any advantage that tieflings with darkvision might have over most of the party.
DM Flykiller |
Sorry for the delay. For the shadow fight, each of you gets 160XP, so by my count you should be at 1360. This quest is technically not over yet.
Dario, you get the timeline right. The meeting was scheduled in broad daylight.
I will try to make an IC post answering some of your questions soon, and then we're off to the next day.
Also, that's some really impressive roleplaying there, I quite enjoyed reading your posts. Keep up the good work!
Ferrucio de Angelis |
"Yea, let's do it. I got Illithia to watch my back so I ain't worried. At the very least, we can hold out until you get there. Besides, if I don't show they'll think something's up and might come after me anyway."
Ferrucio isn't there right now so is unable to respond, but as a player, I reckon that this:
Bishop, in all honesty, I'd advise you to simply ignore that girl's invitation. Chances are high she mistook you for a rich foreigner and just wants to mug you in a place where the law has no power. She already inadvertently gave you a clue to the place of the Bastard's operation, because you appeared not to be a local and she thought it was safe. I can send Janiven to scout that area instead, and report back, and then you'll plan a full assault."
is pretty much as clear a warning as we're going to get to stay away. Perhaps we could modify our plan to scout the place out before we commit to going in, assess the Bastards' strength for ourselves?
DM Flykiller |
Guys, you're probably wondering where I've gone. Well I still haven't forgotten you, but as of late RL doesn't leave me much time to prepare the game - this custom stuff is always taking longer than expected for me. I've mostly done the prep work for this encounter and almost ready to launch the combat - but always not quite. Looking forward, I can't reliably promise more than one post per week until the end of July, when I'll change a job (and I don't even know which one, in negotiations with two employers ATM).
I would really hate to see this game abandoned and I would appreciate your patience very much for staying with me even at such a slow pace. But I perfectly understand if you want to join a faster-moving adventure as well.
DM Flykiller |
Sorry the RL stuff had me bogged down for longer than expected!
But I finally emerge, and happy to see you all still here!
In the last episode: the party was leaving the rumored location of the Bastards of Erebus when they realized the tieflings are not going to let them go that easily. And Ferrucio stil haven't caught up with them, evidently engaged in some shenanigans of his own...
I am now going to unfreeze time :)