Anabella Fey |
Ana was right! No Trunau woud attack the Ivory Hall. Not with Halgra to deal with. Of course...Ana would have wanted to pick a fight after yesterday, too.
Somer Hiondu |
See, if you had just come to my place. Not feeling the love though I hope you all survive this.
Anabella Fey |
Nah, he wanted the young daughter of Halgra to come over to his place in the rumor infested Trunau. Even his extended lifetime would not live it down.
Somer Hiondu |
You have seen though my ruse. Now I only hope I live long enough to try and live it down. My fighting from bed skill is not trained.
GM Fuzzfoot |
Ha! I actually let the dice decide - I was wondering how to deal with so many dead children (had they attacked the Ivory Hall, it would have been bad...)
Still, no one has survived yet, but Mouser and Anabella should at least see morning....
Anabella Fey |
Ana would hunt them and torture them for years if they had touched my precious nephews and nieces. She is very protective of her younger family members. But she has given several sacrifices to the RNG's to protect them from their chance of dying each day.
Anabella Fey |
So tense, and I'm not even part of the fight. Try to keep one alive or something. We'll want some questions answered. Unless someone has Speak with Dead, then you can kill them all. Then again, if we had that, we could have just asked Rodrick what happened.
In other news, Ana is dreaming of peaceful meadows filled with wildlife and flowers while her new found companions fight for their lives.
Mouser Lowhill |
For those of us sleeping, let us know when it is okay to wake up and make our way back to the inn.
Hope you all make it out okay! Gloating about this won't be nearly as fun if you're dead. :/
Anabella Fey |
@Balmir: Picking up equipment is a move action, so you should be fine.
@Somer: Pick Ana up one, too! Maybe she'll stay at your house next time.
GM Fuzzfoot |
I am amazed you all survived that. I cut you a little bit of slack, only because as written, there was practically zero chance of survival.
Well, splitting up ensured TPK if I ran it the way it was written. Not posting any watch also didn't help.
What should have happened is all 4 assassins working together, one location at a time, killing you in your sleep. While sleeping, you needed a Perception DC 25 (which Tam made!). If you have a guard posted, it was only DC 15 (and I gave Derrik and Balmir both guards for their locations, but the rolls didn't beat the stealth!)
Then, all four would have gotten coup-de-grace attacks, which auto-crit for max damage (any one of which would kill you), AND force a Fort save for instant death in case the damage didn't. And that Fort save you made? Poison! (Really?? Yep!)
And even with Tam's roll, Tam and Somer vs 4 assassins would have turned out different, I think (although Color Spray was crazy good here!) Seemed silly to me to kill off the party at the beginning of the AP, though. That is was one seriously dangerous encounter!
Even with my changes, I expected at least 2 of you to die and wasn't sure it wouldn't be a TPK.
So Kudos!
When someone is trying to kill you, maybe stay together and post guards... :)
Mouser Lowhill |
Wow...seriously deadly. I'm glad everyone is alive.
My rogue senses were tingling after the wolves attacked, and it did seem like a bad idea to split up (hence the sneaking home and hiding in the tree all night).
Lessons learned! This AP is playing of keeps!
Balmir |
Yeah, splitting the party does seem to be bad most of the time. I'm very glad we survived. Balmir was knocked to 0 in one hit and then it was just luck (and some GM slight-of-hand, I'm sure) that he survived long enough for the help to arrive.
Looks like we'll have to play this more cautiously.
Somer Hiondu |
Thank you for helping us live and more importantly for establishing that we can and may well be killed. Stakes make the game!
GM Questions:
In the loot what happened to the cool sword thing? Was it a one shot or a coating on their short swords?
Since our sleep was interrupted do we get 1 point of health per level back or just heal up when we see people in the AM?
GM Fuzzfoot |
Ah, those were something called Liquid Blades. They are a 1 time use item, and can be loaded with 1 dose of poison (which was the case here). I had never seen them before, but they are interesting for smuggling in a weapon somewhere.
Somer Hiondu |
Tamxander, should you and I seek out healing? I worry about your health being critically low, you must look terrible.
Anabella Fey |
I could be a conspiracy theorist. ...If I hadn't already met someone who is truly convinced that the world is flat.
The player side of me says she innocent, but really, all the evidence is stacked against this woman. Poor Cham...unless I'm right.
Somer Hiondu |
I love it. Somer will never believe it until there is much evidence but as a player I get it. For some reason I am worried about somehow turning the town against us which is crazy as well.
Anabella Fey |
I think this whole incident might break Ana a little on the inside, who's always had a proud outlook on Trunau and all its citizens in general. Poor Ana. But it's good character growth, though. And here I thought Trunau would be Helm's Deep in orcs right now by how the player's guide sounded. Awesome.
GM Fuzzfoot |
Don't worry so much about the Hopeknives. I am not sure who decided to give this town that level of darkness, but the folks here only carry it knowing that in the case of last resort, they can choose their own way out rather than be tortured, maimed, and worse by the orcs that are, I suppose, just truly despicable. No one seems suicidal, and in fact, I would find it hard to believe that the only human settlement to withstand the orc hordes was made up of fearful, take-the-easy-way-out people.
Perhaps family and friends just need the comfort of knowing that if the worst happens, they won't needlessly suffer.
For our purposes, though, I have no intention of getting that dark or graphic, and so if you get captured, we don't even need to know which choice your character makes (if they are even a citizen).
I am all for flavor and character development, but we don't really need to give this particular topic much thought. If you are from Trunau, you had a hopeknife ceremony. Whether you carry it or not, it won't matter - there are no hopeknife police or anything...
Anabella Fey |
Besides Ana. She would be a Hopeknife police in an instant if they asked.
I got the jest from the Player's Guide that young adults (around 12-23 for humans) carry them around with pride as a sign of coming into adulthood. While outsiders think it strange or morbid, it explained that it was a symbol of how Trunau lived life: living life to the fullest today, because tomorrow could be death. With the constant Orc attacks, I could see many a person using it to escape the rape and torture involed with their victims, and Trunau's children have been raised with the mindset that that is completely normal. Still young, Ana is still pretty starry eyed over it all.
Mouser Lowhill |
I'm also not super worried about the hopeknife thing...I think we're all just enjoying some RP related to how serious everyone is about the militia and town culture.
In case anyone hasn't noticed, Mouser is not.
GM Fuzzfoot |
At the top of the page, there is a link to a google slide for keeping notes. I have been making some, but feel free to add your own.
Somer Hiondu |
Brina could be a difficult conversation, someone with higher charisma should take the lead.
On a side note, what did we do with the bodies of the assassins? I hope they were not just left in my house getting blood and stink everywhere.
GM Fuzzfoot |
As far as I know, there are just dead assassins lying about...
We can assume you asked someone to clean them up. Meanwhile, party treasure should also be addressed - do you want to just sell everything for half price, or do you want to keep some select items? Otherwise, you also have a pile of assassin gear...
And at these early levels, you probably want some treasure...
Somer Hiondu |
I would be happy to carry a cure light and an antitoxin with the other potions distributed to the party. The rest of it can be sold from my point of view so up to the rest of the group.
Mouser Lowhill |
Agreed. I think as a general rule we could say we sell anything of value for half price unless someone steps up and claims it.
Somer Hiondu |
I think it is a great idea and was thinking of doing the same thing at level 2 as Somer reawakens his lost skills.
GM Fuzzfoot |
I will certainly allow crafting feats. Can't guarantee the downtime.
Anabella Fey |
I'm sorry, but I will be leaving the message boards for a while. A previously short venture these past two days has now turned into a full-time position, one that will be taking most of my free time to keep up. With so much time gone, I'm going to have to prioritize what I can keep up with, and playing the great games here is not. So I apologize, but I will not be able to continue for the forseeable future. Please bot/exit me as you see fit.
-Blue Drake.
GM Fuzzfoot |
Thanks for letting us know - we'll miss you. Good luck!
Somer Hiondu |
Sorry to see you go. Good luck and i hope it goes well.
Somer Hiondu |
Wednesday afternoon I will be heading to Disney World until the following Tuesday. For some reason my wife thinks taking an 8 month old to Disney is a good idea.
I will still try my hardest to get on once a day but you know how a vacation can be. Feel free to bot me if needed to keep things moving.
Somer Hiondu |
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Everyone please assume that Somer brought you up to speed on the information of the tryst at Plague House (why would you have a tryst at someplace called Plague House!)
I suggest that that should be our next stop though I would prefer to have Tam and my health topped off first if possible. Plague House sounds like it could be either sickening or dangerous to me.
GM Fuzzfoot |
The Sanctuary will perform any spellcasting services or potions as they are able, but at normal costs for said services. You are more than welcome to rest a day or two as well. They will provide Heal check boosts to max out your recovery without cost.
Somer Hiondu |
If we are at Sanctuary I would think one 3rd level channel positive would top us off. Not sure how much gold we would get from the stuff we sold but I am sure we could cover it.