DM Rambler's Giantslayer (Inactive)

Game Master Scribbling Rambler

Eldan is a rail-thin elf, standing almost six and a half feet tall, waist-length jet black hair, violet eyes, and a complexion so pale it borders on white. He prefers to wear a simple outfit of sturdy boots, leather pants and belt, a simple white shirt, a cloak, scarf, and gloves when required by weather, and a wide-brimmed hat.

Eldan came to Trunau approximately 20 years ago with his parents and sister. His mother and sister have since moved on while his father was killed on patrol by an orc raiding party.

Attempting to follow in his fathers footsteps, Eldan tried to join the militia, but it was discovered very quickly that martial prowess was not in his blood. He was introduced to Agrit, which proved much more to his liking and ability.

During his very brief tenure with the militia, he earned the nickname Whitecrow, which is how most of the residents of Trunau refer to him. When not studying he can be found doing his shift on the wall or practing archery in the Commons. (He's really not very good at it.)

Hi! I'm in New York currently but I'll try to work on creating my character as much as I can tomorrow so I don't slow you guys down too much... I'm thinking a fighter- or barbarian-type character since we have a lot of spellcasters already.

Also useful would be a rogue type. Or a bard of course, my usual favourite.

Also useful would be a rogue type. Or a bard of course, my usual favourite.

wistfully ... "I could have been a bard..."

humming ... "and Ziggy played guitar ...." trails off

Helen, if you prefer to play a spellcaster (with healing?) then I'm quite open to parking Ziggy and taking a roguish character instead.

It's alright, I'm happy to play a rogue (that's what I usually do anyways).

Also if anyone has any name ideas that are better than my placeholder, Ricky Blitz, feel free to share them!

Yvonna Tinkle.
Amanda Huginkiss.
Ida Wanna.

This is probably the wrong crowd to ask for helpful advice.

Nighy Finn-Bach?
Hanson Pawketts?

Actually I really enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora and "Locke" is a pretty cool name for a break-and-enter guy.

A few things for you to consider/let me know about...

Are you a member of the militia? If not, what is your job?
Do you have family? In Trunau?
Where do you live? (There are a couple of boarding houses in Trunau, as well as the longhouse where unmarried militia live, and Ramblehouse)
Which other characters do you know? (If you're all natives, you would at least have seen each other, but might not really know each other)

Ahoy, maties! After painstakingly typing out an entire character sheet modeled after Craig's (thank you!), I've finally finished this roguish, swashbuckling hobbit. Her parents were killed by giants when she was a kid so she ran away and learned how to fight and pickpocket like a regular ragamuffin. She's staying in the Ramblehouse, waiting for a new adventure to come her way.

Cool.
So I was mistaken before. Still waiting for Ziggy.
It's possible I'll start things off tomorrow, but more likely Wed/Thurs.

Trixie Hobbitses.

Trixie Hobbitses.

I thought she was going to play an aasimar...

Ziggy's been in Trunau a little over 2 years. Originally drawn to the stories of the battlefield and the glorious victories that many of the returning veterans tell, she began to study the arts of war. He was exceedingly average in that, and perceiving that glory is not a common result of "average", looked for other ways to contribute.

She began to study healing arts at Sanctuary, and the majesty of Iomedae soon enthralled him. She found she had a talent for the priesthood, and has been pursuing her calling ever since.

He still finds time to venture to the Commons to join in festivities, hear tales from far-flung fields, and occasionally to join in the songs and merriment on his guitar. She's also a fair dancer.

I'll try to finish up the character over lunch.

Here I am. Hopefully all my linking does not make my profile too much harder to read.

I have been in Trunau a little over 2 years. I had just arrived from Glimmerhold, where I met the most fabulous dwarven warriors. Though they thought me odd, my interest and enthusiasm to learn the martial arts must have won them over, for they taught me some of the tricks they use when they fight orcs and giants. That was fun.

The whole time, though, I could tell I wasn't fitting in. Maybe it was my height. In any case I moved on and eventually came to Trunau.

I signed up immediately for training with Jagrin Grath. I just loved all of the tales of thrilling battles against unimaginable evils, victories over impossible odds, and the camaraderie of the field. I wanted to do that! After months of unpleasant and tiring work, Jagrin suggested that I would be more useful healing than hurting.

That's how I ended up at Sanctuary. I still take shifts on defense, but Jagrin was right. My talents are divine!

Zepfina's family have always had an adventurous spirit, but it has seldom worked to their advantage. Her namesake uncle disappeared years ago investigating a ruin known as Quasqueton, and is presumed long dead. Her parents were only slightly more conservative, and left her with her Aunt and left with a trade expedition headed to Lastwall.

Unfortunately the expedition was ambushed by giants while crossing the mindspin mountains. Most of the merchant company were killed horribly. What few survived did so only because they ran and hid, and the giants were not interested in chasing them. The staggered back into Janderhoff only two weeks after leaving, and Sepfina's parents were not among the survivors.

Zepfina sought out expert warriors, especially those who had fought giants, and trained extensively. As soon as she was old enough, she signed up for another expedition headed to Lastwall.

The caravan reached Trunau without incident.

Not eager to journey by river, forest or plains, she decided to wait in Trunau for their return journey. It has now been just over three months.

She spends her time training with the militia or exploring the nearby hills, looking for signs of giants. Zepfina is eager to deal some retribution to the monsters who destroyed her family, but she is not suicidal or even foolhardy. She wants to be prepared and have every advantage she can get against the giants.

Having spent time in Trunau, she worries about the town's ability to withstand a significant force of enemies. She is impressed with the town's planning and defenses, but it is so much smaller than Janderhoff, and it's all right there on the surface.

She is beginning to wonder how long the trade caravan will be, and whether she will go with it when it returns.

I'm going to assume that Stardust, Eldan, and Tarakona are staying in a boardinghouse near the Commons (SW of the Countinghouse). Zepfina and Slei are both staying at Ramblehouse. And Giles lives on a nearby farm.

Okay?

I've also sent each of you an email with some NPC information. There was a lot of copy/paste, so I apologize for any missed changes, but I also tried to give you each something different. A couple of you even got some mechanical benefit for dealing with various people.

Farmer Giles (Ægidius Ahenobarbus Julius Agricola de Hammo) is not a hero. He is relatively fat and red-bearded and enjoys a slow, comfortable life. But a rather deaf and short-sighted giant blundered on to his land last year, and Giles managed to ward him away with a lucky blunderbuss shot.

The people of the area have reacted in different ways. Some few have applauded his act of heroism, some have doubted it ever happened and others think it does little to make for his crass and irritable manner, even less his strange predilection for talking to his enthusiastically vocal dog Garm.

He is strong of arm and willing to fight when called upon, and despite his rough manners he is loyal to Trunau, with many generations in the ground, and many years of regular service in the local militia.

... his enthusiastically vocal dog Garm ...

Well, there goes our stealth... :-)

Here is how the tug-of-war is going to work...
The 2 teams start out 30' apart, or 15' from the centre line.
Each round, each team will roll for initiative. Your team gets +4, the best initiative in the group (Giles).
Each team makes a strength check. Your team's total modifier is +5 (Eldan and Ruby actually subtract). Whoever won initiative gets a +2 bonus on this roll. You may choose to take 10 instead of rolling. The winning team pulls the losers 5' towards the centre, or possibly even more on a big difference.
Order of posting will be their initiative, your initiative, your strength, their strength. I'd like to get different people rolling, so please don't roll again unless 3 hours have passed since your last one, or everybody else has rolled.
I'm waiting for Giles to check in, then I will start things off.

I didn't realize a cleric cannot cast with a large shield. (I should have.) What's your rule on casting with a light shield? For a buckler, the rules say you can cast, but you lose the AC bonus till next turn. The description for a light shield is not explicit. This discussion has arguments both ways for a light shield.

If it's okay, I'd like to change my large shield for a bucker (or a light shield if I can cast without losing my AC bonus).

Just a note that I am traveling on business for the next 4 days. Should still be able to post but Neil can take my turn whenever I delay by more than a few hours.

You're about to get involved in a bunch of social interaction. For those of you who are new: due to the restrictions of this type of game, it's better to ask a whole string of questions at once, even though your character wouldn't normally speak like that.

Also, I started an NPC folder on the Drive which may interest some of you.

Re: Splitting Up

This format makes it a lot easier to divide the party to do separate things. And doing so means that you may accomplish them a lot more quickly, because you don't need to wait for others.

However, there are a few things you should consider:

• Combat - You should be relatively safe in Trunau. Until you're not.
• Skills - Perception and social skills are going to be quite important while looking for information. Having smaller groups gives you a smaller pool to draw on.
• Limited Information - We should run everything in spoilers, and it's up to you to relay info afterwards.

It's up to you if you think the speed trade-off is worth it.

BTW, I've been playing a few more pbp's lately. One of them, the GM uses Google slides for combat maps, and the character icons are actually moveable tiles, so that players can move the characters around on the map. I don't know exactly how he set it up, but it works pretty well. There are lots of good reasons to use the method we are using, but if you do want to open up movement to the players, you can.

Hey all, please check out this post on the other discussion thread.

I'd like to welcome Porter to the game. His character will be joining some time after we have resolved the situation at the Plague House.

Hi! I'm going to be joining the campaign pretty soon, as a Half-orc Brawler. But if anyone has an objection to me picking a melee-type character, I'd be happy to go with a spellcaster as well.

Nope, that sounds perfect. Gee, I wonder how you'll connect with the party...

Hey all, I added some House Rules to my DM Rambler profile.

Check them out and let me know what you think, though the Grapple rules will probably not change until we play with them a bit.

Yep I like them.

I have put a treasure list from the first adventure on the Drive. Note that I renamed the Drive, and moved some stuff around.

There may be some errors. For example, there were times when healing potions were given out which may or may not have been accounted for.

Still, I think you will find some useful things you forgot about.

I've assumed that you now have time to appraise and identify everything.

There are a couple of magic items which say "more stuff". The party has identified the other powers, but I didn't want to type them all out on the document.

Brinya's Hope is the hopeknife she gave to you. As well as being a +1 dagger, it glows with the same light as a torch. Once per day, it can gain the ghost touch ability for 1 minute, which causes it to glow like a daylight spell, and the wielder gains a +3 bonus to CMD for disarm or sunder against the knife. Slei could use it as a Small shortsword.

Uskroth's Armour is +1 half-plate which re-sizes itself to the wearer. Once per day, it can be commanded to bestow a righteous might effect on the wearer for 5 rounds. This includes DR 5/Evil for a Good wearer, and vice-versa.

I just added a summary of the investigation to the Drive.

You may not have realized how all the facts added up, but your characters would've put this all together, especially with the aid of Kurst and the Council.

So far I have seen 2/6 characters ready to go.

Regarding Small-Sized weapons...

I'm okay with a medium weapon being treated as a small-sized weapon that does the same damage dice and is generally the same type of weapon.

So Slei could use a medium dagger as a shortsword, or a medium shortsword as a longsword, or a medium light mace as a heavy mace...

(This is in spite of a shortsword technically being Piercing only)

This might help when your trying to outfit her with magic weapons (for example, she could use Brinya's Hope as a shortsword).

Based on the recent posts, here is a bunch of loot that people might still want to take.

FYI, there is a new gameplay thread here.

It's not really necessary for everyone to be leveled up or done shopping before we start the meeting, but I am waiting on one thing before we get too far in.

I've converted the treasure list to a spreadsheet and tried to update the item assignments according to what I've seen posted, and the info from Neil. I put it in the same folder as Neil's notes, so everyone should be able to see and update it. Please let me know if you can't.

The items have been sorted by their new owner. Sold items are listed on a separate sheet. (If I have sold items you want, let me know, and I will "unsell" them. I am trying to guess what people don't want.)

Some additional notes:
1. I assume we can (or have someone) extract the pearl of power from the moonstone necklace, and move it into a cheap (but solid) necklace.
2. I assume the moonstone necklace sells for half the appraised value (so 750 gp).
3. I am okay with Eldan keeping the pearl of power.
4. Wizard scrolls have been assigned to Eldan, cleric wands and scrolls to Zigil.
5. Healing potions have been split up among the non-ziggy party members.
6. I've sold lots of stuff that I didn't think we'd want (alchemical equipment, non-MW tools, weapons, and armor, signet ring, noble's outfit, jewelry, the disguise kit, etc.
7. I upgraded Zigil to the MW chainmail, but will change if she becomes a paladin.

Please add your name in the "assigned to" column for things you want. If I've given you an item you don't want, clear the cell with your name.

The daggers (one silver, one Brinya's hope) have been assigned to Slei. Let me know if someone else really wanted the silver one.

The necklace still sells for full value.

Charm Person and Cause Fear are both in Eldan's prohibited schools, which is why he left them before.

The belt of tumbling gives a +4 bonus to Acrobatics checks when moving through a threatened area. I can think of a couple of characters who that would be really useful for.

Note that the MW morningstar could be used by any medium character, as it's a simple weapon.

There are still a few other useful unclaimed items, like alchemical weapons and some cleric scrolls. And you may want to keep the map rock.

Oh, Agrit agrees to enchant a weapons for 1,000 gp each. Which is cost. It takes her a day per weapon, so she agrees that she is available for up to 3 before the meeting with the council.

I'd like to keep any loot and shopping discussion off the new thread, so it's just the new adventure.

The final tally is not in yet, but it looks like everyone except Grodar has around 1300 gp. Grodar has 966 gp. I think if Grodar needs more money to enchant an item, the group would be happy to chip in.

Giles has the hammer. Slei has the Brinya's Hope. So I think Eldan, Grodar, and Zigil should be purchasing Agrit's services to enchant a weapon. If Eldan doesn't want it, then perhaps someone should have some armour enchanted.

Ok, Druid it is....
Here are hit points for levels 2 thru 4 (keeping myself honest)
hit points: 3d8 ⇒ (7, 8, 2) = 17

Zigil will get her MW longsword enchanted to +1.

Here is my suggestion on how to apportion some of the remaining items. I'm mainly interested in selling more stuff because I'd like to get my armor enchanted as well. Any changes?

And, while I'm posting:

I think I should point out that Grodar is not proficient with either the bow or the orc double-axe. He is, however, proficient with shields. And morningstars.

Hit points for Dog: 4d8 ⇒ (8, 7, 1, 1) = 17

I have just been going with average rolls for hp. Hope that wasn't wrong.

I don't need any money since I took the items most needed by me. Please go ahead and redistribute my share.