Sic Semper Tyrannis! (Thrune's Hell's Rebels Revived)

Game Master GM Aarvid

I don't know if there's anything useful to be learned from the business documents, but perhaps Arcos would be the best person to determine that. I assume that Profession Scribe might be applicable.

Now's the time to decide what we're taking with us. Lubella wants to take the coins and ledgers (leverage over Kossrani), but others might want something else.

I'm figuring that we leave the thugs tied up in the barracks. I imagine that someone will come along for a pickup or delivery and free them. I'm worried about releasing any right away; I'd like to be well on our way before the alarm is raised. Thoughts?

Also, is Talvek in disguise? If not, could someone use the time while Lubella was away to create a makeshift disguise for him? It take 1d3 x 10min, so Lubella might not have time when she get back.

Also in favour of leaving the guards tied up in the barracks. Talvek is in disguise, but it's not a very good one. Will try to make a better one while Lubella is gone.

Hi all. I've just been slammed with an emergency project that is likely to last through the weekend. I'll try to keep up but please bot as necessary.

No worries Aldren. A bit of book keeping until weekend.

Boat Ride for 10 passengers (10gp)

I guess we should take the masterwork stuff, and the bow. We'll have to watch how we dispose of it. Does Aldren want the mwk Heavy Mace? How about the mwk Chain? My suspicion is that no one else might want those.

Is Forvian Crowe someone we would have to recruit as a team using a rebellion action?

He, and his team are a special case.

Yes, you would have to recruit him with the recruit action...but you automatically succeed. They are just not available for a week while they recover.

I'd take the masterwork chain.

If it hasn't been done already, Aldren would have case detect magic on the items (just in case).

And he'll happily take the mwk heavy mace. Thanks.

I'm assuming that the mwk chain is Kossrani's chainmail (medium armor).

LOL. Just finished reading the gameplay. Well, Aldren just picked a dandy time for a dalliance.

Welcome back. Yes, all of the better items were Kossrani's.

Bolidino's funeral can be a multi-faith service. Aldren is welcome to say a few words if he wants. She's proposing to hold it the following afternoon, so the body doesn't start to smell.

Lubella will say something similar to what she said at Nan Comerivos' funeral.

Definitely.

LOL. I imagine Aldren was probably passed out in bed after being up for 24 hours, but lounging and eavesdropping works too. :-) Just let me know when I should head back; otherwise I'm content to read and follow everyone elses' posts.

Also, to everyone else, sorry to have "split the party"; I was expecting a quiet day back from our successful raid. Just to be true to the character concept, unless Aldren was going to have a fling with another PC, I think he needed to do this and thought it would be good timing. I wasn't expecting a cave-in at the Wasp's Nest. Again, sorry! :-) I won't make a habit of it

I don't think it's a problem. Aldren needs his R&R. :)

For what it's worth, our previous Oracle cast Decompose Corpse (which she had selected as a spell known!) to make Nan's corpse less unpleasant to deal with.

That is similar to Laria's thoughts. But since party no longer has it available,it may have to be purchased as scroll or service.

It's on the cleric spell list, so Aldren could memorize it in the morning.

As long as we get him buried within 24 to 48 hours, shouldn't be too much of a problem, particularly in a relatively cool space underground. I base that on many years of knowing nothing and a little bit of Google, so... If the family is fine with a skeleton, Aldren will memorize and cast it, but otherwise I don't think it'll be too terrible.

If it is another invisible creature (I remember the goblin-fey things from the stables above the livery), my only thought it a detect alignment spell, but I've seen GMs handle it differently in terms of how those interact with invisibility.

GM: On the assumption an invisible creature is present and in the cone of a detect alignment spell, would it work to detect the presence of the invisible creature?

Yes, detect alignment, or other detect spells work fine as long as the invisible object or creature is within the cone. Invisibility does not negate anything except visible detection.

In the peddler interviews, Lubella is going to be trying to establish where everyone was prior to the collapse, and if anyone noticed anything unusual. She hopes that by cross-referencing the observations with people's locations, she can figure out if there was anyone else in the Wasp's Nest.

She also wants to find out if Bolidino had any known enemies, or if anyone had a motive to harm him.

She can take 10 on Diplomacy and Sense Motive for a total of 18 for either.

And Aldren has a sense motive of +9. I'd be inclined to roll. Lubella will have a baseline if she's taking 10, so we'll see how often Aldren can roll higher.

As for motive to harm Bolidino... don't ask about Aldren's last conversation with him. I'm completely innocent. I swear. o:-) And I have an alibi as pure as mud.

Which reminds me - due to the timing of this. You indeed did not get the peddlers report nor the Rebellion actions/events resolved.

As it stands now, the Peddlers are "disabled" in game terms. So they will not be earning any funds this next week until they are restored.

==Upkeep Phase
Attrition: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Nursery 1d6 ⇒ 6
==Activity Phase
*Earn Gold: 1d20 ⇒ 8+4 = 12gp

Do we have any idea about what would be required to restore the Peddlers?

If you spend gold equal to your current minimum treasury value (10gp), you can restore the disabled team to full health.

We'll do that then.

Edit: Rebellion Actions

I'm presuming we can't upgrade the Peddlers at the moment.

1) Recruit Supporters EDIT: Strategist bonus action (+2 on the check)

2) The only thing we can really do is recruit another team, I guess. Forvian Crowe's team isn't available yet. Perhaps another Peddlers team??

I would say the peddlers have to be restored first. So upgrade next week.

Restoring them does not take an action, so you can recruit supporters and another team. You have a few other choices, although most of the ones not requiring a team are not particularly helpful to your cause at this point.

Vendalfek actually can spread disinformation as if he was a rumormonger team. Although the little bugger has not yet returned.

To Spread Disinformation, you have to make a DC 20 Secrecy check, and there's a penalty for failure by 5 or more, so it's rather risky at this stage.

Agreed. Supporters and adding another team are definitely the best options.

Seeing as we still don't know what happened with the collapse, recruiting another team also seems risky at this point, so I would go with supporters.

I have a question for all but particularly the other players.

I have something in mind for Aldren that involves a little bit of misdirection with the other PCs but I don't think is actually contrary to the party's interests, it's just Aldren doing a little bit of scheming and thinking how to use information in a particular (and somewhat dramatic) fashion. It is not a backstabbing of the party, casting spells on party members, or killing or harming someone we've decided to let live.

That said, I don't want to create any discord with players and I know in some groups there can be hurt feelings when players feel lied to. If you'd like Aldren to just share his plans, I can do that, or if you'd like me to roll bluff and disclose based on a sense motive check, I can do that. Or, if you're willing to trust me, we can just RP it out. I can also just share what I'm planning to do OOC but also didn't want to do that in case someone wanted to keep it a surprise.

Cheers.

@Talvek: With the bonus action from the Strategist, we have two rebellion actions, and only one can be Recruit Supporters.

@Aldren: I don't mind, as long as it doesn't derail other characters' plans. I would hope that it doesn't create a problem that would require significant game time to "fix" (this part of the AP seems to progress quite slowly).

@GM Aarvid: Are there any checks that Lubella can make to determine the nature of the magical poetry, or is she stuck without Read Magic?

@Lubella: alright, anything I can do as Spymaster?

@Aldren: I am fine with plotting and scheming, could turn out interesting and fun.

(this part of the AP seems to progress quite slowly).

@GM Aarvid: Are there any checks that Lubella can make to determine the nature of the magical poetry, or is she stuck without Read Magic?

She can tell there is magic on the document (which I forgot to ask, is she keeping or leaving in the stack downstairs?). She cannot make out anything special about the poem itself. Does she do anything else with it?

Also, regarding the pace of the AP. There is a fair amount of book-keeping on this one. We can hand-wave more of it, if all agree (or not). I have tried to keep similar pace to the original game with equal level of posting. We can accelerate the role play for more roll play, but I would want to hear a response from all 4 players.

1= Pace is too fast
2= Pace is just right
3= Pace could go a bit faster (waving some rebellion stuff)
4= Pace could be much faster (rebellion stuff fades into background)

I am going to assume recruit supports and a team of sneaks is the next (unless you wanted more peddlers?) Outlaws you can get for free next week from the ones you rescued from Sallix.

Given what's happened, we shouldn't leave the magical poem lying around (or the other documents). Maybe Laria has a secure place for it when we're not examining it?

My suspicion is this might be a relatively slow part of the AP, due to the nature of the 2nd lvl stuff, discrete combat encounters separated by a fair bit of downtime.

I would rate the pace at 2.5. Perhaps some of the rebellion stuff could be moved ooc where appropriate, but I really like the feeling of building a movement, rather than just moving from fight to fight.

Sneaks is fine with me. Recruit Supporters is a given every time.

My next Gameplay post will be the funeral service, unless someone else wants to do something beforehand.

As a gauge, tonight's post was about what I would consider '2.5' (a bit more in action and Rebellion bundled together).

Every time the rebellion gains a rank, each PC gains a boon (see the table in the Player's Guide).

At rebellion rank 2, each of us gets a bonus skill rank. Lubella will take a rank of Knowledge Local, representing local contacts in the growing organization.

At rebellion rank 3, we each receive a gift of a single potion of 300 GP value or less. Lubella will take a potion of Cat's Grace (good for an key boss fight).

The pace is just right for me.

I'll look into the rebellion boons when I get home and have access to HeroLab.

I'm good with the pace. A nice mix of combat and RP opportunities. I'm finding myself with too much time for additional bookkeeping re the rebellion, but if others are up for managing it and just yelling at me when I need to make a roll, I'm good with that.

Fellow players, I could use some thoughts on choices for level 3. I'm looking at options that will keep him viable at range since he has so few hit points. A couple options are taking feats that will make his channel a bit more flexible (i.e., something that will let him harm evil outsiders and heal good outsiders), summon good creatures as a standard action (giving Lubella and Talvek flanking bonuses and hopefully soaking up some damage), or increasing the DC of his enchantment spells. I've never really thought of clerics as summoners but I've given up on the idea that Aldren is going to be much of an optimized build, so any advice or perspectives as to what would best benefit the party would be welcome.

That speech was great, Aldren! Talvek was trying to convey a very similar sentiment, but is a lot less gifted orator.

@Aldren: Standard action summoning is very useful IMHO. A well-placed summoned creature can prevent an enemy from moving through a choke point for a round or two, which can be crucial.

@Aldren - agree on the standard summons for a cleric.

@Lubella, the potions are gifts from supporters, so you do not necessarily choose them (although you can put in requests). Some things, especially at higher levels, may not be available in town. :)

"Admirers among the rebellion’s supporters supply gifts and tributes to each PC. At rank 3, the gift is a single potion worth 300 gp or less."

For the training of +1 skill point, keep in mind, you can place it on any skill, but you cannot exceed your class maximum. So if you are already have 2 ranks in a skill, you cannot add this to it. Let me know your selection and I will update my records.

Lubella will put 1 rank in Knowledge Local (she had none right now).

She will request a potion of Cat's Grace.

And also, I will assume you are keeping track of rumors and potential actions/missions on your own (as well as your own personal ventures).

If you feel you are getting sidetracked, I can summarize open rumors from time to time.

Gah. The summon feat I was looking at won't work. It has to match my aura, and I'm not good so summoning celestial beasties won't work. Maybe later.

I’ll put my bonus rank into disable device, and I’d like to request a potion of Cat’s Grace as well.