Douglas Muir 406's page

Heavy housecleaning today with Mrs. Muir, so no posts. Will have some stuff up tomorrow, including a big "do you pull this off" die roll or two.

Doug M.

Heh.

-- So, Plan Morsum? Or Invisible Body? Or something else? (Note that the Judge becomes nauseated and visibly distraught when summoning Morsum.)

Okay, fair enough. Round 12 it is.

note it takes 3 rds for xen to id the magic per detect magic, so really it is rd 9-11 enjoys chat and rd 12 enjoys moment with trident

IIUC, strictly speaking you know that it *is* magical in one round, and the additional rounds don't really add anything. Am I wrong about that?

I laid out my complete suggestions above, well before the captain came on board. DM did you not see my post?

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I saw it. What I didn't see was a consensus from the party around it.

So far I see two votes for the Judge's plan, which is basically "summon Morsum belowdecks, have him carry the dead body upstairs and jump overboard". I'm open to your plan too, or indeed to anyone's plan. I just want to see a consensus if possible. (If there's no consensus, then we just have people act in initiative order.)

Incidentally, Bag'o'Bones died in Round 5. Searching him, dragging Grumblejack over to the halfling, and generally discussing what to do next surely took at least two rounds, so you're likely in Round 8 now.

To be sure the captain did a LOT in a number of rounds, I would think Morsum or Jax (throwing an invisible body) overboard would have happened by the time the captain came back on board. Or at the very least it would have happened as he sushied the poor dolphin.
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Round 5 -- Captain jumps, crits, and kills the Speaker.

Round 6 -- Captain swims back
Round 7 -- climbs on board, crosses deck to dolphin
Round 8 -- kills poor dolphin / removes a potential enemy while gaining some fresh meat for dinner
Round 9 -- has pleasant chat with Xenfal
Round 10 -- enjoys a moment of good cheer with his new magic trident

Eurovision tonight, guys. So regular posting may be interrupted, because you have to drink when you're watching Eurovision. (How much depends on how bad the songs are. but they're not generally good.)

Well, the Judge had his whole Morsum thing. I'm kind of waiting for you guys to come up with a coordinated plan? But if "cast invisibility and make a distraction" is the plan, okay -- go for it and we'll play it out.

You totally believe him.

"Ahhh... yes." The Captain picks up the trident and examines it closely. "Yes, pretty thing. You belong to Captain Odenkirk now. I'll use you to hunt seal... and then, perhaps, one day I'll sell you." The Captain's eyes seem to positively glow with greed. "A nice pile of gold you'll bring, you lovely pretty! Gold for Captain Odenkirk, yes! Ha ha!"

And now we see the Captain's lighter, gentler side.

Frosthamar Cruise Lines: specialized attention for *you*!

No time to check captain. My captain has ordered me to check on our crew. However, he is much more capable than I in checking these things.

Captain Odenkirk hefts his axe. "Your master has paid for you to be delivered. However, he did not specify that you arrive in one piece. Check for magical loot now, witch-man, or you will feel the kiss of Woe-Bringer here. And the hungry sea will have a snack to follow its fish dinner." The Captain smiles, obviously pleased at the prospect.

You can make a Sense Motive if you like, but he appears to be entirely sincere: if you don't do as he says, he's going to cut a hand or a foot or something off you, and throw it overboard.

Point of clarification: we have two different plans on the table right now for disposing of the body. Time is limited, and if the Captain figures out that you killed his shaman... well, yeah, that's pretty much Jade Regent right there. It's, let's say, unlikely that you could win a fair fight with the Captain and the entire crew; and even if you did somehow, you can't sail the ship.

So while looting is always good, you really need to come up with a clear and workable plan pretty quick.

Team Downstairs: as noted, Detect Magic shows no magic items except some of his bones. Do you take them? And, are you going with the "invisibility on his body" plan?

Also: it looks like you've put aside the "search the Captain's cabin" plan. But just for the record, the only locked door on the ship (that you've seen) is on the door to his cabin. So if you ever want to get in there, you'll need some way through that.

Xenfal gives the Captain wide birth as he climbs back on. He will pull his knife out of the corpse of the speaker when the judges pet brings it on board, he will cast detect magic on any thing he gets.

Captain Odenkirk walks over to the largest piece of the Speaker's body and gives it a hearty kick. Then he turns to Xenfal. "Well, witch-man? Your kind can smell sorcery, I know. Any magical loot?"

Xenfal, your Detect Magic shows that his trident -- which is a gorgeous looking thing -- does indeed seem to radiate magic. Do you tell the Captain, or attempt to dissemble?

Without breaking stride, Captain Odenkirk walks across the deck to the starboard side of the ship, where the friendly dolphin is holding the half-drowned Swine-Olaf out of the water and nudging him against the hull.

The Captain leans over the side of the boat.

1d20 ⇒ 18 1d8 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12 The Captain's axe splits the dolphin's skull. "Haul in that grey-fish. We'll have some fresh meat tonight."

The Captain glares at Sir Edmin. "The fish-men have never bothered us before!" He scowls thoughtfully. "First the thieves of Customs, now this... Truly we have brought ill luck on board."

Meanwhile, up above, the dripping wet (and still pissed off) Captain Odenkirk is climbing back up onto the deck.

Searching Bag'o'Bones: who is searching the body? Also, does anyone want to dig and rummage in his lair? At a minimum, whoever does that is risking a nasty case of lice.

Detect Magic shows that the bone he had in his hand radiates faint magic, as do one or more bones in his greasy leather sack.

Meanwhile: "Friends, you will have to dispose of this body, or conceal it. What do you plan to do?"

With one exception: a single dolphin is lingering in order to 1d20 ⇒ 10 rescue lucky Swine-Olaf! The kindly cetacean pushes the drowning sailor back towards the Frosthamar.

The Captain, still treading water, turns and roars at the surviving tritons.

"You miserable fish! Get away from my boat, NOW, or I'll fillet you just like this fool, and fry you for dinner in oil! GO!!" 1d20 ⇒ 16 And the fishmen do just that -- they turn and flee.

The Captain begins swimming back towards the boat. For a guy wearing armor and carrying a massive greataxe, he swims pretty well.

Meanwhile, the Captain has fallen into the water. 1d20 ⇒ 10 It doesn't seem to bother him much.

Off on the other side of the boat, Swine-Olaf 1d20 ⇒ 5 is drowning.

Bag'o'Bones is as difficult in death as in life; though scrawny, he's stringy and tough, and it takes an annoyingly long time to get his head off.

Whoops, this belongs here in gameplay.

You drag the ogre over by the halfling's crate. "This will slow the effect of the creature's poison. It won't cure him, but it will give his body time to heal naturally.. Did you cut its head off, by the way?"

The Judge is correct. You can take 10 as a standard action when there's no pressure. You can take 20, but it takes 20x the normal time -- usually 20 rounds.

Well, one round is spent pulling Grumblejack over to the crate. The halfling murmurs something singsong and reaches out through the little feeding-slot.

"This will slow the effect of the creature's poison. It won't cure him, but it will give his body time to heal naturally.. Did you cut its head off, by the way?"

"I know a charm that can slow the workings of poison. Bring him over here."

Meanwhile, Sir Edmin is pulling himself back up on deck. (This doesn't require a check if you do it as a FRA.)

The four surviving fishmen, and their dolphin friends, seem confused and dismayed! They're not taking any actions this round.

"Lady, I will bear whatever is needed to bring that brute down. If he lives, he will leave a trail of treachery and blood and horror across the seas." The faint voice pauses. "But I forget my manners. I am sorry. Lady, my name is Nymphotis Cleadhoe, formerly of the Borough, now a wandering singer of songs. My friends -- among whom I hope I may count you -- call me Nimpy."

Jax's attack on the lizard: 18 sneak attack -5 DR = 13 points of damage. It completely ignores the electricity.

Second attack, once again 18 - 5 = 13. Total 26 points! Okay, that's enough to make it lose its grip on Dren -- it's unconscious or dead.

oooh, it has a +4 Will save so it fails by 1!

Confusion check: 1d100 ⇒ 74 that's do damage to self. Hmmm... okay, I think I know what will happen. But first --

Okay! The lizard tries to save: 1d20 ⇒ 12

She really was a good girl. No whining, no fussing. We walked for several miles altogether and she was just solid. She got a little cranky towards the end of day one -- low blood sugar, fatigue -- but that was totally normal, and quickly solved by pizza and bedtime.

Also, I bought her a LEGO Creation set to build a little car, and she totally nailed it.

None of you has any idea what's going on. However, whatever the lizard just did, it was a FRA. So you can attack it if you like. (Or try to talk to it; that works too.) Note that it's clinging to Dren's chest, so a 1 on a melee attack will hit him instead.

What the heck? Well, Knowledge checks for three of you. No, wait, four! The halfling has a rank. Here goes.

1d20 ⇒ 12
1d20 ⇒ 16
1d20 ⇒ 2
1d20 ⇒ 2

The lizard, which is clinging to Dren's chest, suddenly pauses and freezes in place. Then it flexes, stretches... and retches like a cat coughing up a hairball.

HWORRRRRK *gak*

Of course, come the day, the Captain could crit and do 73 points of damage against one of you. So there's that.

(Being a DM has its ups and downs, so it's important to always focus on the positives.)

"You threaten MY SHIP, fish-man? You dare threaten ME?" The Captain soars through the air, axe in hand. "I'll KILL YOU! ARRRGGGGH!!!"

6d8 + 33 ⇒ (7, 8, 6, 5, 7, 7) + 33 = 73

SHCHUK

The Captain hits the water with a tremendous splash. A moment later, there are two gentler splashes as the two pieces of the speaker fall into the water, one on either side of the dolphin that he'd been riding.

See, I figured the Captain would probably hit, and wound the Speaker, but not kill him. Then you guys would have an interesting situation with the Captain in the water, and all. But it seems Captain Odenkirk is -- as they say in Homeland -- not a man to challenge lightly.

well.

Confirm crit: 1d20 ⇒ 7 yep, that'll do it. Greataxe is triple damage, right? Yes. Yes, it is.

Meanwhile, Captain Odenkirk has had just about enough of all this. He roars at the men, "Get up, you miserable maggots! Attack him!" Two of the sailors stand up and throw whatever comes to hand -- an axe and a knife -- at the speaker.

1d20 ⇒ 14
1d20 ⇒ 19

Apparently, whatever the speaker did to keep himself protected has worn off. It only lasted until he took a certain sort of offensive action -- in this case, trying to wash you all overboard.. So, in addition to the 14 points he's taken so far, the speaker now takes another 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5 more.

But the Captain is far from done! He lets out a blood-chilling war scream and charges across the wet, blood-stained deck. When he reaches the edge of the ship he simply leaps off it. Acrobatics check...1d20 ⇒ 11 yep, he's good. As he soars through the air, he swings his two-handed axe and 1d20 ⇒ 20

...

"I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have no idea what a monster you've just removed from the world." The halfling's voice is weak and feeble, yet he speaks firmly and clearly. "Yet he was only the servant of a greater evil still. Captain Odenkirk is a man of blood and greed, who has bargained with forces of darkness. Will you act against him as well?"

Just 1 point of damage! And you made your save, so whatever the lizard does (Grumblejack doesn't look so great), he's not doing it to you.

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Well! A certain four and a half year old girl had a trip on a train, a trip on a subway, a long walk through downtown Frankfurt, and then a trip to the zoo. Her favorite thing: the flamingos. (because they're pink.) Also good: getting a two-scoop ice cream cone all to herself to eat as slowly as she liked; bats (not scary! really!); ring seals; and baby crocodiles. Also, the lady at the hotel desk gave her a lollipop and a little bouncy ball.

The day ended with pizza and french fries and reading a book. And then she slept for eleven and a half hours, straight.

posting from a crap hotel keyboard (no wi-fi in room). also, 4 year old asleep in room, so can't spend much time in lobby posting. more tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the lizard gets its attack on Dren! Unfortunately, I'm on a keyboard with no brackets tonight, so I can't roll dice. Dren, would you roll for me? The lizard attacks at +8, and if it hits you'll need to roll a save.

Judge, treat the glop as a tanglefoot bag with a Silence spell (DC 15) cast on it.

Yeah, not very nice.

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He steps up to the old man 5' if needed and slashes downward with the scimitar, inspired by the ragged halfling's words.

As noted, a scimitar is only d6, not d8. But it doesn't really matter, because you still do a crazy $&8#load of damage on a crit. Poor old Bag'o'Bones had many virtues, but high hp were not among them -- 5d4+2d8 and no Con bonus doesn't leave much.

Jax suddenly lunges forward and stabs the old man in the throat. Electricity arcs and sparks around both of them; the old man's wild mane of hair stands out in all directions as he writhes and spasm. Then he collapses: clearly and utterly dead.

got him down to -20some with a single crit!

Reflex: 1d20+4

Sir Edmin grabs the deck railing and avoids being swept overboard! However, he is now hanging off the side of the boat by one hand. (The other hand is holding his axe, of course.)

Judge, good point. Your water elemental did hit the Speaker, and it does get an AoO -- go ahead and roll it.

Then we can start Round 5, and you all get to act -- but first I'll need that AoO from Dren, and then the lizard gets its attack in. And Sir Edmin's Reflex save; if he fails that, he'll need a Swim check right away.