JZ's Carrion Crown - (Wake of the Watcher) (Inactive)

Game Master JamZilla

Checking in; I'm definitely eager to see what happens next too! :)

Sorry, just got back from yet another trip out of town. Working on post!

Kaz, those closing posts of yours were absolutely stellar, dude. Awesome job!

Yeah, well...get what you can out of Kaz while he is in his element, 'cuz you're certainly not getting much out of him in a fight...

But thanks.

Well as much as combat is a necessary and fun side of the game, hopefully there is enough roleplay and non-combat elements to keep it fun for everyone

Reply from Derlith coming imminently

Kaz is not celebrating the verdict yet - but his player will now say "Woot!"

That was awesome! We're awesome!

Yes Indeed

Also, this seems somewhat apropos based on your last Gameplay post, GM :)

Ok, I have lost track of rewards...and I definitely wanted to do some shopping before we leave Lepistadt.

What did we get for bringing the books?

What is the Judge giving us for the defense?

Lol I confess I have also lost track of it. I will search the thread

Ok so you received 1,500gp for delivering the books and then Darramid/Jon offered you the same amount each for agreeing to defend the Beast.

Awesome!

Wait is the original amount 1500 in total or 1500 each?

In all cases it is 1,500 each.

There was a question over the fact that the original 1,500 for delivering the books was for Raj and he did not travel this far. But we can handwave that and just give it to Vermundr if it's easier so everyone is on an even keel.

That works! I'll try to give the loot list a look later and see what we can sell while we're in the city.

Hazel that con drain you picked up is a real bummer :(

As long as the GM is alright with it I think you guys could enjoy the recent set of spoilers we have written.

Of course!

Nicely done, GM and Zed both.

We also had a pile of gear to sell, did we not?

Yes, I will work on it tonight but I've got some other PbP stuff I'm working on as well so it might take me a bit.

And regarding the Con drain, is there any chance of finding someone in the city to fix that?

So basically we're up 3,000 gp each, +whatever ancillary goods we got from the encounters? Is that correct?

I don't recall seeing anything especially pricey but every penny counts, right?

You got a load of disposable stuff as the bulk of your look so far

Yeah, the bulk of what we still have to sell actually came from our escapades into the chymic works! Okay, here is the list as it stands. We've got plenty of healing potions to go around, plus a few miscellaneous magic items if anyone is interested. If there's anything that you want, please speak up and I'll remove it from the list. I left the poisons we found on there for now but I'm going to guess that we'll probably sell those too, heh.

Regarding the cash items, can I assume that we'll automatically get half value for everything GM?

Didn't Kaleb offer the party a dagger for helping out? I assume it was masterwork at least from the description.

^Good catch, I'd forgotten about that but he sure did make that offer in this post! Unless the GM says otherwise, I'll add it to the list.

Normally I'm not big on crafting feats because I feel they're a bit unbalanced but this AP is pretty stingy on loot.

Did I never actually give you that dagger? Oversight on my part.

It's a +1 shapeshifter-bane dagger (I need to check the book to remind myself if it's silver as well)

Being open and honest about loot, the opportunities to spend lengthy time crafting magic items is going to be few and far between in this AP

I know the loot list only includes this book, but did you keep or sell the Warden's sword from book 1? That's quite a significant piece of loot in terms of how much it's worth etc

I think we have not sold off the loot form Book 1 yet. The discussion is around HERE .

May I make a suggestion? I think Hazel needs a full restoration (280gp minimum +100gp of diamond dust) to remove her Con drain. When we total up the loot sold, let's take that off the top before dividing. It pays to keep one of your healers healthy...

WE should have a nice haul, all together.

I would add the antitoxin, thunderstones, acid vials, tanglefoot bags, water breathing potion, dust of tracelessness, sunrods, weapon blanches, and bloodblocks to the group kit. WE might have to look into a pack animal for that, soon...

One of our fighter types should carry the bulls strength potion. I think we should each carry a CLW and CMW potion.

Would Zed like the disguise kit? If not, anyone object to Kaz holding on to that?

Someone should also hold on to a set of MW thieves' tools. Do any of us have disable device?
(EDIT: Ah, crap - that's me!) Ok, Kaz would like a set of MW tools...

Actually we did divvy and sell the Book 1 loot (including the longsword) as posted here. Would it be easier for someone else to handle the loot list in the future? I feel like I'm either not being clear enough about what we have or I'm handling it in too simplistic a manner.

I agree on the Restoration. I was trying to find a good way to do it but it looks like the best way is just paying for a spellcaster to cast it, straight-up, if we can find a friendly 7th+ level cleric.

I agree with your suggestions.

Your loot handling is good Hazel, no worries.

GM is there anybody in town that can enchant items? Finding a tetsubo is highly unlikely I would imagine.

I'll help with some of the loot accounting when I get home tonight, Hazel. I can't fiddle with google docs while I'm at work.

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With regard to crafting, there are rules buried within the magic item section of the PRD for crafting magic items whilst on the move. I've had to familiarize myself with them for a Reign of Winter game I'm in and it's not too bad. I think it might actually be worthwhile if, for instance, Zed is mechanically built around his tetsubo.

Basically, it boils down to making 2 hours of progress/day instead of the normal 8.

We have a number of spellcasters in the group - it might be worthwhile for us to consider someone taking Craft Magic Arms & Armor and another to take Craft Wand or Forge Ring. The on-the-road-crafting is far too slow for one person to work on everything, so if it's something we want to do, splitting it up across several folks is likely the only viable way to do so.

Given we're level 5 now, though, it'll be a bit before the opportunity to pick any of these feats up comes around again. =\

I would be willing to pick up a feat, but I don't have the INT score to ever pull off a great spellcraft check. I can get simple things.

Same as Zed, Hazel's only got an average Int score so she wouldn't do super great on Spellcraft checks. However, she's got more feats to play with since she gets Bonus Feats (must be combat feats) every 3 levels. So it wouldn't be too big a hardship for her to use her 7th level feat to pick up a crafting feat if need be.

I'll do it. I have a strong Spellcraft rating and I'm a full caster anyway.

I'll do it. I have a strong Spellcraft rating and I'm a full caster anyway.

Ok cool. I'll try to give you heads up when you'll get a chance to dedicate some real time to it, or when it's going to be an extended period of 2 hour stints.

I'll pick one up too when the next feat becomes available. Hard to believe we're only half way through Book 2 at this point. The Trial of the Beast feels the longest of any AP chapter I think I've played. =)

I'll pick one up too when the next feat becomes available. Hard to believe we're only half way through Book 2 at this point. The Trial of the Beast feels the longest of any AP chapter I think I've played. =)

In a... good... way...? And not in a dragged out slog kind of way hopefully.

Whoops - Sorry, Hazel, I did miss the previous gear sale in my feeble search fu.

I can certainly look at a crafting feat for Kaz in a couple of levels.

You've done an excellent job with it so far, JZ, and I think it's been quite enjoyable. It is still suuuuuuper long, though. It's probably exacerbated by the pbp format.

ALL of Book One took about 49 pages and 9 months to complete. We've been in Book Two for nearly 11 months now (and something like 36 pages) and we're only halfway through! =)

In a... good... way...? And not in a dragged out slog kind of way hopefully.

Wouldn't trade a minute of it! This has been a blast!

You've done an excellent job with it so far, JZ, and I think it's been quite enjoyable. It is still suuuuuuper long, though. It's probably exacerbated by the pbp format.

ALL of Book One took about 49 pages and 9 months to complete. We've been in Book Two for nearly 11 months now (and something like 36 pages) and we're only halfway through! =)

14 months per book on average seems like a good pace :'D

Ive seen untold numbers of games fold way before this so kudos to all of you. Long may it continue!

It's been tons of fun! And keep in mind our pace has slowed somewhat since hitting Book 2 due to various RL reasons for people, so it's not surprising that it's taking us a bit longer than Book 1 did.

Well we're still averaging 8 posts a day. Which, when you think about the inevitable slow down on weekends is a pretty rapid pace when I look at some of the other games I have been involved in.

I'll pick one up too when the next feat becomes available. Hard to believe we're only half way through Book 2 at this point. The Trial of the Beast feels the longest of any AP chapter I think I've played. =)

That's fine then. I think you have a better spell selection when it comes to making healing items or meeting the requirements for a lot of wondrous items and weapons anyway.

I agree with your suggestions.

Your loot handling is good Hazel, no worries.

GM is there anybody in town that can enchant items? Finding a tetsubo is highly unlikely I would imagine.

Hey, this started getting lost in other discussion. But yes, you can certainly get it enchanted here, Lepistadt has a population of just under 10,000 so it is a fairly good sized and cosmopolitan settlement.

Since some APs pack more content into each book than others, I tend to view progress by levels more than books. For my own games I try to aim for one level per 3-4 months on average as that seems to help maintain a healthy progression without feeling overwhelming. Regular level ups are also a good way to keep the players invested and moving things forward.

Here's the section on 'crafting on the road' Vala was talking about:

The caster can work for up to 8 hours each day. He cannot rush the process by working longer each day, but the days need not be consecutive, and the caster can use the rest of his time as he sees fit. If the caster is out adventuring, he can devote 4 hours each day to item creation, although he nets only 2 hours’ worth of work. This time is not spent in one continuous period, but rather during lunch, morning preparation, and during watches at night. If time is dedicated to creation, it must be spent in uninterrupted 4-hour blocks. This work is generally done in a controlled environment, where distractions are at a minimum, such as a laboratory or shrine. Work that is performed in a distracting or dangerous environment nets only half the amount of progress (just as with the adventuring caster).

That said, I don't know that crafting feats would be terribly useful in this AP. From what I've heard the problem with crafting feats in Carrion Crown isn't the lack of downtime, it's the compression of the timeline relative to the amount of content the story includes. Even if we could squeeze in the two hours of crafting per day, you're talking about 8 days just to craft a basic +2 stat item. The entire trial (half of this book) took place in 8 days.

There are some ways to accelerate crafting speed but they're pretty niche and I don't know how much folks are willing to invest just to stretch our pennies. For example, Cooperative Crafting doubles the effective progress you make each day but that's another feat you'd have to burn. You can pick up a familiar with the valet archetype since they get cooperative crafting for free but that requires your class to have access to familiars or for you to burn more feats on getting access to a familiar.