So here we go! Please check in to confirm you got your invitation, and we'll get the party started shortly!
Checking in... curious to see what the team looks like.
Checking in, ready to bash some hobgoblins.
Check in, I'll alias when I get to a desk.
Checking in and really looking forward to playing!!!!
Woo! We're all here!
If you guys want to check into each other's backgrounds to see about possible interactions before the game begins, please be my guest. If the site cooperates and things generally go as planned, I hope to have the first post in the game thread up tonight.
|
So far we have...
(1) Grum: 20ft movement speed, two handed sword power attack
- Use magic device
(2) Benedict: 20ft movement speed, shield and sword
- Face skills
(3) Lissa: 20ft movement speed, tower shield and sword
- Minor magic in forests
(4) Chang: 50ft movement mounted, shortbow
- Speed/scouting
() Amkarang? Can't find you in the recruitment thread
So what I'm seeing is a slow moving core for the party, with Chang to provide covering fire/ride down enemies we can't catch.
Though now that I see Chang's character, I'm really tempted to take mounted combat at lvl3 and become a mounted character too. Just to make up for the 20ft movement speed. So rather than being the 'weak' point in the line, I'd be a line breaker.
I'm willing to take any last-minute suggestions on Benedict. I am a little concerned at the lack of wilderness skills in this party -- only Chang has Survival. Should I put a point into it? Could shift the point from Craft, which would mean starting with scale instead of chainmail.
Benedict does keep Armor Training 1 and 2 (despite not having heavy armor proficiency), so his speed will increase in the future.
If additional Survival is desired, Lissa would be a good option too, should she be so inclined. (Observation only, not a suggestion.)
I have my character posted under my default alias. I've put my stats into my bio. As for movement and abilities, I have a 30' speed and primarily use a meteor hammer in combat, although to get the most out of the double weapon I don't move much.
Here's Lissa's alias. Her fey magic is tentatively CLW, Create Water, Detect Magic, Read Magic. Willing to swap that around if people think something else is more useful on the party healer.
Game thread is up! Feel free to start wandering around the Market Festival at your leisure!
So I did make that switch of Benedict's skill point from Craft to Survival, and the armor from chain to scale.
If additional Survival is desired, Lissa would be a good option too, should she be so inclined. (Observation only, not a suggestion.)
I might pick it up at level 2 but I'm strapped for skill points as is and Lissa isn't exactly drowning in woods lore in her background.
Okay, since we have a full house (metaphorically speaking), we can start moving things forward. I need all five of you to congregate at once of these four locations: Oreld's Fine Shop, the Phaendar Trading Company, the Riverwood Shrine, or the Taproot Inn. Once all five of you have found your way to the same place, the next scene will begin!
Let's all end up in the Inn?
Sounds right.
The Inn is fine by me.
Pleased to meet everyone! This looks like it will be a blast!
DM Shisumo, how much for the bag of apples and does it look like the Inn has a Stable?
The inn, alas, lacks a stable, although it does have a hitch out front. And as it is early spring still, the only apples available are ones magically preserved since last fall, and are therefore scandalously expensive at 1sp per bag.
Oh well, I promised Feng an apple and an apple he will have. Jie purchases the bag with a wry look on her face.
200 XP for each of you for this encounter.
Looting the hobgoblins turns up:
set of Medium studded leather armor (x2)
longsword (x2)
longbow (x2)
quiver with 20 arrows (x2)
light steel shield (x2)
masterwork backpack
heavy crossbow (with 20 bolts and 10 masterwork bolts)
clearly labeled potion of guidance (x8)
a wand
a scroll containing three different spells
dried goat meat, sheep’s cheese, and a jug of sheep’s milk worth a total of 5 Provision Points
(A Provision Point is enough food for one person to eat for one day - this will become much more relevant soon.)
|
|
Well...
I'd like to ask for:
(1) 1x longsword (backup weapon)
(2) 1x longbow with 10 arrows (ranged weapon)
(3) The wand and scroll (use-magic-device)
I already have a fighter's kit (This kit includes a backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a flint and steel, an iron pot, a mess kit, rope, soap, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin) so anyone lacking this could get the nice backpack and rations.
Lissa has detect magic and read magic once we get to the woods, until then we just need to carry stuff. Grab whatever and we can, loot the town as we flee and sort out in discussion what to do with it once we get to the woods.
Sounds like we're going to be doing the live off the land and raiding farms thing, so getting out of town with as many tools provisions as we can is probably important, we likely won't be back for a while.
Lissa and Grum are both described as taking the scroll and wand, just FYI.
It looks like Grum and Benedict have claimed the hobs' swords, and Grum has also claimed one longbow. Benedict has a shield, but that leaves a shield and a longbow unclaimed, in addition to whatever you want to borrow from Aubrin (who is clearly incapable of using most of her gear and knows it).
Jie will take the remaining longbow and shield.
Too bad that Bluff didn't work. We didn't have a great opportunity to plan it in-character so I just went with what I thought best; a fairly plausible way to draw off some of the hobgoblins in a direction we weren't going. And we did learn a couple of things (that they are taking slaves rather than just killing everyone, and that there are people in the cellar).
Any thoughts on what Benedict should have said? This is certainly a ploy he will try again, it's basically what he is built for, so when there is time to talk he would welcome feedback.
|
Well, if you peek under the spoiler in the game, you'll see why the bluff didn't work - the dice were shockingly unfriendly to you in that moment. However, you didn't get the believability bonus you were hoping for because you actually said things that were a bit unbelievable: first, you tried giving orders to him as though you outranked him, even though your rank insignia and his were identical, and second, you questioned his looting when "loot the area for supplies" is one of the general orders the whole Legion has been given. I didn't penalize your Bluff either, but the end result is that the hob thought you were attempting to claim authority you didn't earn in order to keep him away from something valuable in the front room. This is certainly an acceptable thing to attempt in hobgoblin society, but his response - to kill the guy who hasn't proved his greater status and take his stuff - is likewise an acceptable thing to attempt. And so here you are.
That all makes sense. I am pleased that even if the Bluff wasn't particularly credible as being true, it was fairly credible as being hobgoblin-like. The player and the character will both get better at this with experience. And, the dice will sometimes fall in Benedict's favor.
Seems good!
|
|
Lissa' probably right about the maps, but there are a lot of tiny locations in this sequence, and I was hoping to avoid them. I'll see what I can do.
160xp each for the fight, and I will get you a loot list later tonight.
Also, you now have followers! While they are accompanying you, on the second or later round of any combat, you can make a Diplomacy or Intimidate check, DC 12, as a free action to get an Aid Another bonus to your AC or your next attack, to have someone hand you something, to have someone make a First Aid attempt, or to have someone drag a fallen ally away from a battle. With a DC 17 check they will make an attack for you, but even the warrior is likely to go down fast if someone actually attacks them.
Currently you have five followers: Jet (aristocrat 2), plus a warrior 1, expert 1, and two commoners 1.
Oh boy, let's keep them alive. Ap giving out followers has me thinking we'll want more than aid another out of them, eventually.
Correction - the expert 1 is actually an aristocrat 1.
Loot from the pantry and kitchen:
Water keg (worth 3 Provision Points)
Additional foodstuffs worth another 5 Provision Points
longsword
longbow and 20 arrows
studded leather armor
light steel shield
wand
wand
elixir (x2)
set of juggling balls
Yeah! A weapon! Jie will take the longsword unless Lissa wants to claim it as spoils.
All you. Lissa wants a bow, her cold iron arrows and ???. By the time we get to the woods we'll have a bunch of stuff I think, so if you can use something between here and there go nuts. We can ID things very slowly in the woods, and sort again if needed there.
"Whatever you can carry" is less relevant when you have a gaggle of refugees trailing behind you.
Lissa wants a bow, her cold iron arrows and ???.
Aubrin still has all the cold iron arrows you gave her before, plus another 15 of her own. She also has five +1 arrows if anyone wants to take those.
The foodstuffs Farrow and Clidon were selling constitute an additional 10 points' worth of Provisions.
Jie has her shortbow and the longbow she looted cannot be used on horseback so if Lissa still needs a bow she'll gladly let you have that one. As to where we should go next, I guess the question is how many of these sites do we want to hit. The Smith seems like an obvious choice (We be Fighters. Need Weapons), but roleplay wise Jie really wants to visit the Shrine.
Jie's earlier suggestion of going clockwise sounded good if we can hit everything. The Trading Company/Smithy is a priority, but almost directly across the Green, so we'd pass by another location to get there if we took the alleys.
I'd like to keep trying to rescue civilians until the pressure gets too intense.
So Jie's original suggestion was to do a counterclockwise sweep around the town, meaning your next stop would be the Riverwood Shrine, then the Trading Company, and lastly the alchemist's shop before making for the bridge. That's the plan?
Jie votes for hitting the Shrine next. If Benedict can do his 'hobgoblin form' thing again, he can pretend we are prisoners / slaves, at least to the casual eye. Jie would like to at least find some bread or some sort of food that can be used to feed the birds at The Shrine before we leave, however. A loaf grabbed from a table would suit her. She would like to ask them to fly over and take a look at the bridge and then tell her what they see there. The most appropriate place to try this from a religious standpoint would be the Shrine. The most appropriate place from a tactical standpoint would be the last place we visit before going to the bridge. But Jie is going to stick to being theologically correct.
So Jie's original suggestion was to do a counterclockwise sweep around the town, meaning your next stop would be the Riverwood Shrine, then the Trading Company, and lastly the alchemist's shop before making for the bridge. That's the plan?
Yes. Onward to shrine and engage hardmode.
Sadly, Benedict's Alter Self is 1/day. He does have a mundane disguise kit and some skill at using it, though it would take 10-30 minutes.
Sadly, Benedict's Alter Self is 1/day. He does have a mundane disguise kit and some skill at using it, though it would take 10-30 minutes.
Yeah, that's probably too long. So no 'Wookie Gambit' we'll just have to stick to the back alleys.