DM Pendin Fust Wrath of the Righteous - Group A (Inactive)

Game Master theheadkase

Thanks, Thom.

Kiel, I know you've got other stuff going on, but any word? To be completely honest, the pace is really a bit frustrating. Is there anything we can do to help?

I don't know how the other players feel, but if it weren't for our friendship off the board, not to mention how much I really like this group of characters (including Nebbin) I have to admit I would probably drop this game. Momentum is king in PBPs and we just don't have much of it. It's one thing if you say you're going to have to go on haitus for a month but absent that, I think we need a few posts a week, at least.

You're absolutely right Jacob, I've let these boards fall to the wayside far too often.

I'm going to keep up the posting, and make much more effort to let you all know if I'm going to be absent.

Have him PM me!

The treasure from the rest of the rooms that you would have searched (if any of these are duplicated please ignore):

6 tomes of history/tactics worth 50 gp each
1 manual of war
1 scroll of restoration
Documents with regards to Mendevian troop movements, tactics, resources, and war plans.
6 ivory figurines depicting nude humanoid females with disturbing animalistic features worth 45 gp each.
6 wardstone shards, embedded in the walls. (more on these later)

So we never ended up discussing this loot, all.

I assume we should hold on to the scroll of restoration.

I don't think the manual of war can be used by any of us, so we can hopefully sell that. We can get 970 gp for the figurines and tomes of history/tactics if we sell those.

We also have two unclaimed +1 weapons, the horn of clarity and the masterwork short swords on the loot list, that can be sold, I think.

Since none of us are fighters, the manual of war is indeed useless to us. The Horn of Battle Clarity seems like it might be useful to Nebbin most of all, given its bonus to Barbarians. For the rest, unless the +1 weapons are of special materials or will be useful to someone, I figure we can leave them in the sell pile. Maybe the Queen brought enough of a baggage train to let us do a bit of trading for magic items. Also, maybe we should present the documents to the Queen?

I added the Scroll of Restoration to Thom’s list.

Also, on that loot document, I added a column entitled “Sell Value”. Everything not accounted for on someone’s character sheet (and deemed worthy of bringing in to sell) has and its sell value entered into the corresponding cell. I only did the gear from this last run (from the Vermlecks forward).

That puts us at a total of 13,423g.
This doesn’t account for any actual gold we found .. just the sell-back value of items we’ve found.

Secondarily, it doesn’t account for any of the items listed as found at the Riftwarden Cache or Faxon’s office. Have those already been sold off? Or do we need to work those into this total, as well?

So that total, is that being divided up by 4 or 5? (basically, are we giving Aero his cut?)

Of particular note from Faxon’s chest and the Riftwarden cache are the 8 potions of Cure Serious Wounds, 4 potions of Lesser Restoration, Wand of Bless Weapon, and a slew of sellable items (broken Phylactery of Faithfulness, mwk scimitars and longsword, etc).

And speaking of Aero, Pendin Fust, what's your latest thoughts on bringing in a fifth? I let Lekku know to reach out to you, but I wasn't sure if that's something you two connected about at this point or not. You still wanting to bring in another character/player?

I would say we should divide four ways. Aero's gone, though I could see a segment being set aside for his care. I think we don't need to complicate matters, though.

I'd say give each of us 2 CSW potions and a lesser restoration one. Thom can probably use the wand.

I don't think Nebbin would be super interested in the horn of battle clarity, so I'd say we could sell that too.

I'm still for having a fifth, though I'll obviously defer to Pendin.

So if we add the Horn, 2 mwk scimitars, some other doodads (all detailed in the Sell Value column), the total for sell-back value comes to ...

17,520.5g

Which is 4,380.125g broken 4 ways
and 3504.1 broken 5 ways.

Once we know if this is right, and which division of loot we're using, we can begin spending our cash!

Anything with a direct cash value (gems, coins, some art objects) should be just put on the ledger. The items this has already been done for are highlighted in blue.

I think that anything marked as 'taken by Aero' should be just written off, unless it is something we really need. IC, we think Aero might want them when he recovers. OOC, we know a new PC with normal WBL is going to show up. In terms of cash, a reasonable option might be to give him a fifth of our current cash reserve (from the ledger), but not a share of the new cash (from selling items).

I need to count up the crossbow bolts Lucius has used and subtract them from the spreadsheet - He's put a real dent in the supply of holy and evil outsider bane bolts. I don't think we should sell those off in any case, though. We have an excess of mundane and cold iron bolts we can sell off, though.

I agree with motteditor about potions - we have a lot of smaller healing potions we're not going to get around to using. We should sell the small ones and keep two CSW each for emergencies. In combat we each have enough HP that nothing smaller is going to be helpful and out of combat were have Thom's spells and wands, and even Lucius's infernal healing.

IIRC, Soairse traded off spellcasting for her archetype, so I don't know that we can use the wand of bless weapon. Crafting Mastery only lets Lucius craft, not repair, magic items, so he can't fix the phylactery of faithfulness.

In all honesty, my mind doesn't natively speak "excel/ledger" very well. Could someone with a firmer grasp on the ledger sheet tracking shift all of the relevant "direct cash value" items over to the ledger sheet and mark them appropriately blue? Then I'd be more than happy to update the running sell-back total to remove those items.

Selling the Wand of Bless is probably best, and I'm guessing the price of that is just 8/50 the price of the similar-but-full-capacity wand?

Good deal on the potions thing. Everyone sell off their small CLW potions. Thom does't have any. :)

And I'm down with splitting the sold loot 4 ways and splitting our cash 4 or 5 ways ... whichever makes more sense.

Skimming through the spreadsheet, the only 'cash equivalent' not already on the ledger is the 350 in onyx gems. I'll shift those over in a little bit. There are a few art objects we can sell for full value, but I prefer to sell those off for gold, because I can't imagine trading a goblet for rope, I can imagine using gemstones.

I don't think we need to formally split any remaining gold: it can remain a party fund. The 'split four ways' amount, though, provides a good guideline for what you might spend on your character without overstepping.

I'm going through and marking Aero's stuff on the loot spreadsheet as gone (and hiding, but not deleting) the rows. He still has the +1 morningstar the mongrelfolk chief gave us, a relic of the first crusade. Given the mongrelfolk's role in the supporting attacks around the garrison, this should probably be returned to them.

That doesn't really make a difference to the amount of wealth we have, but it's good karma.

I also made a payout of ~20% of the ledger value for Aero's care - it was just over 800 gp. Not enough to retire on, but enough to feed him for a very long time.

Lekku did indeed PM me. I believe he is building his character and profile and was supposed to get back to me. I'm planning on him arriving as part of the Queen's entourage/army.

Lurkin'

I'll have something for you real soon.

I see our new teammate has been introduced. Welcome to our little wrecking crew. :)

Do we want to see how much time we have to prep and do crafting before making final loot decisions? Or should we go ahead and figure out what all we want/need from Lucius?

Lucius doesn't have a clue how to lead an army either. He just has a lot more misplaced confidence.

So, we have a few days to equip and prepare. Is it inappropriate for me to suggest that we try for 4 days of prep (which gives us each one full 8-hour stretch of crafting from Lucius, allowing him to make 1 item for each of us that has a 1,000 base price maximum)?

Assuming you're fine doing all the hard work while the rest of us get hot baths and massages, Lucius. :)

If prioritizing item creation becomes important, Thom's top item is +1 full plate. if we have more flexibility than that in terms of how much we can accomplish in our short time, I can reevaluate.

So, I took another swing through the loot doc. I removed all the Sell Values from items that were marked in blue (to be reflected on the ledger sheet), and added anything else that looked valuable enough to sell.

New Total (rounded down to the nearest gold): 17,680g

4-way Split: 4,420g each

_____________

EDIT: If the above is correct, and assuming we go the route of "Lucius can make one item for each of us" during our prep ... then Thom can purchase mwk full plate and have Lucius enchant it to +1 for 2,150g. Then he can pick up a +1 light quick-draw steel shield for 1,209g. He'd still have 641g of his loot distribution left.

Then he could sell back his half-plate and mwk steel shield for 460g to donate to the group gold on the ledger sheet.

Seems like a good set of upgrades, and Thom should be good until I can find him that Legendary Item bastard sword from Ragathiel. :D

We also had a few days or a week before the Queen arrived that Lucius could have used.

Cool. I'd forgotten about that.

Ross, do you just want to handle all this in Discussion? Or would you like some of this discussion about crafting (and the actual crafting) to be in an RP format?

Regardless, here’s Thom’s creation wish list, prioritized:

+1 Full Plate (2,150g = 1,650 mwk armor + 500 Lucius crafting)
+1 light steel quickdraw shield (709g = 209 mwk shield + 500 Lucius crafting)
+1 Ring of Protection (1,000g; Lucius crafting)

Once we determine how that will shake out (not sure how much of that Lucius is up to making when combined with the rest of the team’s requests), I’ll determine leftover gold. Then I’ll also put the gold from selling back his current armor + shield on the loot tracker/ledger doc.

OK, adding 4,420 gp to my loot, along with 2 CSW potions and a lesser restoration one.

I'm then going to subtract 2,000 for upgrading my earth breaker to +1 (based on the earlier discussion.

A masterwork composite shortbow (+4 Str) would cost 675, but seems like something Nebbin should have (I'll assume someone would point out he should have something like that), even though I don't know how much he'll use it. He'll pick up 20 arrows and 20 cold iron arrows too.

That leaves him at 2,111 gold total. Thoughts on what else he should get? I'm assuming someone will suggest an armor upgrade for the poor lad, but I'm not sure yet what his best option is. I figure probably a mithral medium armor, but that's too expensive for him at the moment. Maybe get a mwk light armor now? If so, I have enough that Lucius could enchant it, but not sure it's worth it if I'm planning to get rid of it relatively quickly (then again, since he's enchanting it for half-price, which is what I'd sell it for, there's no loss of money by doing that...)

So, let's assume Lucius is willing to do that, Nebbin will get masterwork leather lamellar armor and have it upgraded to +1 for a total of 710 gp.

Ross, do you just want to handle all this in Discussion? Or would you like some of this discussion about crafting (and the actual crafting) to be in an RP format?

Let's sort out what we want here and I'll translate that into a single IC post, including the retroactive insertion of crafting into the downtime ahead of the Queen's arrival. I imagine he'd be exploring his abilities creating small, generic items like the rings of protection first, and his own barbed pentacle of Asmodeus once he has a bit of practice. In the few days before their mission is when he would be working on specific items for his specific allies.

DM, can Lucius take 10 on crafting? Crafting magic items would seem to fall into "not in immediate danger or distracted". If he can take 10, then he automatically hits DC 20. That's exactly enough for him to craft a ring of protection +1 or amulet of natural armor +1 in a single day.

The DC to do the same for a barbed pentacle of Asmodeus is 21. But we're Mythic now, which means we have Mythic Surge: even a 1 on that 1d6 lets him succeed. So he can make the barbed pentacle in two days, rather than three. (The leftover 4 hours are wasted.)

Likewise, the DC to make +1 armor is 8, and rushing accomplishes nothing, so he auto-succeeds on creating a suit of magic armor per day.

You've got at least a week and a half and probably 2 in game time to do what you do.

Okay, we definitely have crafting time while waiting for the Queen. Enough so that Lucius would have been able to make a few things, find his confidence, and then, and this is important, tell his peers about it.

And enough that, even without rushing, we can convert our entire gold stash into magic (if necessary). So our budget is purely monetary.

The following is subject to revision if the GM says no taking 10 on magic items.
Day
1: ring of protection +1 (practice)
2: ring of protection +1 (verification)
3: Start barbed pentacle
4: Finish barbed pentacle

At this point, he'd show off what he'd done to the rest of the party (which is good, because he'd already spent 3,500 common gold on ingredients.) He'd be itching to work on a circlet of persuasion (3 days, 2,250 gold), but knows he can't take that much wealth.
Thom would ask about armor and a shield (does he already have a masterwork shield that would need to be upgraded)? Would someone suggest better armor for Nebbin? Does Soairse need anything besides a ring of protection and amulet of natural armor?

I'm then going to subtract 2,000 for upgrading my earth breaker to +1 (based on the earlier discussion.)

I thought the Wardstone upgraded it for free?

After Thom's +1 full plate, +1 light quickdraw shield, and +1 ring of protection—and including the money from selling back his mwk heavy steel shield and half-plate armor—we could craft another +1 Cloak of Resistance for someone. :)

Could go to Nebbin or Turook, maybe?

And I'm going to go ahead and swap those gear pieces out. :D

I assumed I'd still spend the money on it, just for fairness; the wardstone was mostly my way of letting it be mythic without having to technically get a new hammer/get it enchanted first, which kind of misses the point.

If DM Pendin wants to say it's completely free, though, I'll gladly take the 2,000 gp back. :)

Ooooh, is my money good, here?

Assuming Thom bought the armor and shield already, Lucius could start work on the fifth day. Hrmm. An 'off the rack' full plate (we don't have time to have one crafted) needs to be refit for a new wearer at a cost of 2d4 x 100 gp (and an undefined amount of time). Once it's magic, it resizes automatically, but if Thom bought it without knowing it could be enchanted, he might have spent the money already.

In any case:
Day
5: +1 full plate
6: +1 steel quickdraw shield

Can we assume Thom bought it after being counseled by Lucius that it would reshape to fit him during the magification process? That seems smartest. :)

Ooooh, is my money good, here?

Yes, but since Lucius doesn't know Turook until they meet at the Queen's audience, we're only going to have the time before leaving for Drezen (and transit time) to work on items that Turook might request. (Right now we're backfilling the 10-14 days we waited for the Queen.)

Can we assume Thom bought it after being counseled by Lucius that it would reshape to fit him during the magification process? That seems smartest. :)

Of course. I just wanted your opinion on if Thom would have rushed for the armorsmith on day 1.

Nah ... Thom's a team player, so he'd definitely hit Lucius up for advice on the best way to approach it.

Secondarily, if it comes down to a time crunch, we can forgo Thom's Ring of Protection for items for other people. I don't want to be greedy.

... well, not too greedy.

Secondarily, if it comes down to a time crunch, we can forgo Thom's Ring of Protection for items for other people. I don't want to be greedy.

Lucius has already made two. Take one of those.

(Right now we're backfilling the 10-14 days we waited for the Queen.)

Ah. Well, I've got most of my gear, but Thom suggested a Belt of Giant's Strength +2. I can afford it off the rack, but it's also not something I absolutely need to be viable.

Also, are there any small items (Alchemist's Fire, Pots of CMW, etc.) that you guys would recommend? I'm not sure what your experience has been like, to this point.

Is 4,000g going to take a full 4 days of crafting? If so, then crafting some smaller (but just as useful) defensive items maybe the way to go for Turook ... ring of Protection, cloak of resistance, etc.

DC to rush it would be 23. Take 10 + minimum mythic surge is only DC 21. I'd have to actually roll, which means 50% chance of failure if I take 10 and roll surge, and a slightly smaller chance of failure if I roll both (but then with the risk of failing by 5 or more and making a cursed item.)

So to avoid wasting 2,000 gp, the belt would take 4 days, which we don't have at this juncture. Lucius could make it his 'on the road' project, which would take 16 days unless they cut into travel time.

Yah, I certainly wouldn't want to gamble with that much money at this level. And crafting on the road ... is that even a good idea/possible?

Also, are there any small items (Alchemist's Fire, Pots of CMW, etc.) that you guys would recommend? I'm not sure what your experience has been like, to this point.

A couple flasks of alchemist's fire and acid are never bad to have: they're cheap and sometimes you really need energy damage or a touch attack. On a metagame level, acid is better than alchemist's fire because we've run into a lot of tieflings (who are immune to most of Lucius's magic, incidentally), and tieflings resist fire but not acid. Holy water is probably useful too, but we haven't fought many true demons yet, other than the set-piece with the Wardstone. If Lucius weren't an Asmodean, he'd be carrying some already.

Having a couple potions of cure serious wounds and a potion of lesser restoration would let you match the 'oh s++~ kit' the rest of the party already has. An oil of align weapon might be helpful if we encounter something where just cold iron isn't enough, but I see Turook has two oils of bless weapon already, which does all that and more.

Our standard battle plan seems to have become 'Lucius talks his way in and provides a diversion, then kick in the door and kill everyone when something goes wrong'.

I'm not sure what else to say. We have limited assurance that future adventures will resemble previous ones.

And crafting on the road ... is that even a good idea/possible?

Pathfinder has explicit rules for it: spend 4 hours of assorted downtime crafting (basically making the assumption that it's being tinkered on at meals and breaks or while on watch), get 2 hours of progress (because it's being broken up into little snippets.)

Unless you're traveling 16 hours a day and are 'eating in the saddle', it doesn't really have a cost (other than money).

You can add another 4 hours, but they have to be consecutive and dedicated, which would cut into actual time for travel. (Unless you don't need to sleep for some reason.)

In character, though, for that level of sustained tinkering over time means it would have to be something Lucius is particularly interested in. I don't think a belt of giant strength satisfies that. On the other hand, that would be a good time to work on his circlet of persuasion, which he can finish in 10 days on the road, and makes sense as a passion project.

I'm not sure what your experience has been like, to this point.

It's all be very confusing. Lots of killing and being scared.

On a metagame level, acid is better than alchemist's fire because we've run into a lot of tieflings (who are immune to most of Lucius's magic), and tiefling resist fire but not acid.

Having a couple potions of cure serious wounds and a potion of lesser restoration would let you match the 'oh s$&* kit' the rest of the party already has.

Those are good points. I hadn't thought about Tieflings, (and hey, that's just field recon stuff, right?) The potions suggestions help, but yeesh, those CSW pots are pricey.

The potions suggestions help, but yeesh, those CSW pots are pricey.

As a Ranger, Turook could buy scrolls at half price? (Small mishap chance, though.)

I've updated my gear loadout - added some of Ross's recommended pots and flasks.

I've also better organized my bio and updated gear and currency.

Those CSW potions are spendy, but the hope is that you never actually use them. But if we need them (because we need to revive Thom, or you're in a bad way and Thom has bigger problems), it's good to heal 3d8 + 5 instead of 1d8+1.

If we're travelling overland, we may need to buy horses.

Turook rides mules.    8D

So, given Saoirse already has a +1 cold iron longsword, a +1 blinding heavy steel shield, and a +1 breastplate, I don't think I really need to focus on raising those items higher yet, nor do I think Lucius can yet. So! Lets get Saoirse some utility stuff.

Wishlist:
Amulet of Natural Armor +1 1000 gp
Cloak of Resistance +1 500 gp
Handy Haversack 1000 gp
Headband of Alluring Charisma +2 2000 gp

All of that takes 4.5 days. If there isn't enough time for all of that, Saoirse can live without the Headband but it would help her pretty significantly.

The headband of alluring charisma has the same problem as the belt of giant strength: the DC makes it take a longer time. But yes, Lucius would love one of those as well (especially since Head and Headband are different slots in Pathfinder, meaning he can wear it with the circlet of persuasion.)

The haversacks didn't even occur to me, but we could definitely use them, for everyone. However, they take 2 days each to make, so I'm not sure they're the best use of Lucius's time right now.

The cloak and amulet should be doable, though. (A ring of protection is better than a amulet of natural armor at the same price, so I'm prioritizing those, but you'll get an AC bump one way or the other.)

Day
7: +1 armor for Nebbin (Motteditor, mithral chainmail? Chain shirt?)
8: ring of protection +1 for Soairse
9: cloak of resistance +1
10: cloak of resistance +1

At this point it becomes important if the Queen arrived after a week and a half, or two full weeks.

This gets us to the point where all four existing party members have a +1 deflection bonus to AC, magic armor, and a cloak of resistance (Thom has a +2 already, right?)

Additional days would probably result in amulets of natural armor for Thom and Soairse (Nebbin already has one and Lucius is wearing a necklace.)

GM, I don't suppose Lucius can make a ring of natural armor?

I think just the lamellar (leather) armor. Will trade it in eventually for mithral chainmail, but that's beyond my cash means at this point.

Is one of those cloaks for Nebbin?