A Kingdom in the making (Inactive)

Game Master Wrath

Let's see if we can establish something real quick.

Is it agreed that the 1000 gp credit at Oleg's will be used as a party fund for purchasing items that contribute to the party? Or do you guys just want to make it simple and distribute the gold. As I understand it, that goes to 200 gp each.

If the gold is not split up but used to purchase items for the party, I'd suggest that we put it in things like wands that can be used to affect more than one person, such as Haste.

But then, it may be easier to just split the gold up so that Elsbeth can buy her scroll of Expeditious Retreat and everyone else can get whatever they want. I'm flexible either way. But I do think we need to make a firm decision on this before we move on.

Wand of haste would be incredibly useful. I think pool it, get group beneficial items then split whatever is left.

A half used wand Haste and a half used wand of Cure Light Wounds would go really far.

Well i tried to take scrolls useful to everybody, and spent 100 gold, so can put the remaining 100 of Elsbeth share in the party pool.
Or leave the scrolls and pool all the money, i'm fine either way.

Haste is a 3rd level spell. As such, a wand of haste fully charged will cost 13500 gp (sorceror cost). Even 1/4 charged (the minimum i usually drop to) that's more than you can afford.

The wand of cure light at half charge is only 375gold.

Gandal, those scrolls are all available, as is the scroll case. If you're worried about dipping into party funds, you have more than enough personal gold after the kobold den to buy it I believe.

Also, check through the level 1 spell lists for wands that people might find useful as group stuff. Wands of enlarge person and Grease are always useful, especially if you only get ones with half the number of charges. 25 castings of enlarge person can make fighting types much more deadly over many battles.

I haven't looked through the APG, UM, or UC books for options yet. If someone has time they can do that too. The joy of a PbP is that we have the time to get this sorted before too much happens.

Also, the idea of the wine was good. Remember you also have three silver stag pendants. They may come in useful for any plan to get in to the Stag lords base of operations.

Gandal - Sleep scroll may not be all that useful now. You're getting to a level where many of the things you're going to tackle have more than 4 HD and sleep won't work on them. I don't want to see you spend cash on something that may just fizzle.

Cheers

I'm too much used to the videogame version of such items.
If the rod of enlarge person at 25 charges is avaible it is a good idea for 375 gold, if that is its cost, also i can drop the sleep scroll and the enlarge person scroll, since i have 25 charges of it in the rod.

So in the end i'm taking:
Enlarge person rod - 25 charges - 375 gold (bought with own money)
2x Expeditious retreat scroll - 50 gold (bought with party pool)
2x Summon monster 1 scroll - 50 gold (bought with party pool)
another scroll case - 1 gold (bought with own money)

Can't think of anything else, let me know if i have to buy more helpful items

Just a quick update:

* Its pretty hard to get a kid officially registered in germany
* There's a lot more to do than you can manage if you want to actually see your baby
* The newly-made grandparents rock
* my daughter is not doing too good. Not life-threatening but she needed medical attention for most of the week.
* With any luck my wife and her can come home tomorrow or the day after
* Still need to ask you to be patient. Once life normalizes a little, I'll read up

Sorry to hear that your daughter has been having a rough time this past week. That's a real shame. I hope things get better and that you get to bring your family home real soon.

Wish you and your family good luck.

Mate, you take whatever time you need to for the family. Hoping it all works out soon bud. New babies are a beautiful thing, once you get past the sleep deprivation. Keep us informed when you can, but not at the expense of time with the family.

Cheers

Sleep deprivation is a wonderful thing. Makes you feel all... fuzzy-wuzzy. As is having poop in a diapher (she doesn't do that very often,we need to keep track to be sure she is not totally congested)

Anyway, I sneak away an hour or two for myself every so often. I'll try typing something coherent after reading only the most recent posts.

If it's not too late, since the pendants of the staglord are symbols of leadership, Lev isn't going to wear his right away. He does recommend that Alandra wears one as our leader.

This does present a problem: Elsbeth's words suggested that we were strangers. I was under the impression that we were planning to pass as bandit's already associated with the Staglord's men, since we have three of their pendants.

yes, thought of that. But Alandra said to pretend she was a crimelord and Elsbeth her second in chain. This is why i asked what Elsbeth was supposed to say before.
But even with a 3 on the die, i scored a 17 and with Wrath's bonuses (don't know what they are) we should at least manage to get closer.
This is why Elsbeth specifically mentioned the alchol

Don't stress too much. Elsbeth romped in her roll. At +14, she will be hard pressed to fail initially. This will get you close enough to let them see ala ndras pendant and then you can go from there.

Basically, they heard alcohol and ignored everything else.

I know this is metagaming too much, but i'll really need to know exactly what to say from now on

Alannah's prompting Elsbeth to show the badge.

I remember we only have 3, not one for each of us. Alandra got one and Lev another. So who has the last one? I never noticed anyone saying "give it to Elsbeth" but i never asked for one also now that i think of it.

Elsbeth, let's assume that you have the third badge, just for convenience sake. Since you're one of our 'face' people, it makes sense.

In terms of what you should be saying, keeping it simple is the best way to go. We're obviously posing as people who are already affiliated with the Staglord, given the pendants. We know (due to Bergan) that alcohol is set aside to be given to the Staglord by at least one other bandit group: that's our in.

We don't necessarily want to meet the Staglord right away; the goal is to get a general idea of how many people are there, the best ways in and out of the fortress, and where the Staglord is customarily situated. If we're going to get in a fight, we want to do the best we can to place ourselves in the best position for one.

So we just came back from our typical banditry activities, and we've brought alcohol to give to the Staglord. Other than that, we're just trying to fit in with the others and gather as much information as we can.

Does that make sense?

Yes perfectly. I tried to say the as little details as possible just for this. Next time i'll clearly assert that we are associates of them. Of course i could add we started working in Restov and no one of them yet encoutered one of us.
That should explain why i said we are from Restov and why we have the pendants.
But if you have something else in mind better tell now.

Just read the update, but have very little time.Should wait late evening (my time) to post an adeguate answer.

I'll try and update tomorrow.. these last few days have again been quite intense. Hopefully I'll get my "functional" 6 hours of sleep for a change tonight.

I though we were supposed to take the staglord by surprise, not the other way around :-(

If I shoot him in the back of the head it'll be a surprise

If i do a strip-lap dance for him, that would be a surprise too....but not of the kind i meant

We combine the two and he'll go with a smile on his face.

Anyway, going onslaught is out of question. Should we simply try and keep the ploy?

ill update in game tomorrow. Tired from work and lack of sleep. My young fella is still getting sick and that knocks me arounda bit.

Nice and tense at the moment though. Will be interesting to write it up.

cheers

I think we're still in pretty good shape, actually. If Lev's bluff fails and the Staglord comes roaring up at Lev, it'll be the ideal time for Alannah to pin-cushion him. If the bluffs work though, we can work on getting him crazy ass drunk and then take him out.

Assuming, of course, that he's not more capable drunk than dealing with withdrawals. Hmm.

From a gaming perspective, I know that "drunk out of your shoes" usually translates to "sickened". IDK what "strung out" is going to be modeled after, but sickened is a nasty condition and I doubt it would be much better.

Okay, so things did spin suddenly out of control. But I'm with Wrath, this whole situation is very exciting.

I completly agree. And sorry for Elsbeth shouts at Lev, if she was to keep our ploy that was the only thing to do.

Gandal, I think since we're so close to wrapping this module up and starting the next one, I'm happy to see if your friend has someting to bring in. I'd rather not have a Paladin though, since they can be hard to meld in a group (especially given Elsbeths unique little problem with souls).

Barbarian or cavalier or fighter all work for me in terms of front line fighter if he's keen.

You mentioned he wasn't so good at english, and that has me a bit concerned. However, you have been more than exemplary in posting rate and characterisation. If he's anywhere near your level of comitment and ability to run a character, I'm more than happy to have him.

On that note, since we're most likely about two weeks at most from wrapping up the first module in this AP, which of you fine folks are looking to continue on? I understand that life gets in the road sometimes, so if things are tough and you need to drop out I'll not be offended.

Of course, I'd prefer all of you to keep on keeping on, since I know you and your characters so well now. You're all good people, and its nice to play with good people.

Cheers

I'm in!

I'll try to stay as long as needed to, this is my first and longest game, i'm in.
Will tell him he has two weeks to wrap up a PC (so probably a dwarven barbarian).
Are PC creation rules the same as for us?(with exception of starting level perhaps)

I'm really enjoying this game, you're doing a great job, Wrath. Great characters and players all around. I'm definitely sticking with it.

Yes, I would love to continue.

Sorry for disappearing the last few days. There's been an unexpected death and the funeral was today. Flying home later and will try to be back to my normal posting by tomorrow.

In other news, I've really had it with 2011. Bring on the new year and better times.

Thank you for your patience one and all. It's been a bit tough, but I reckon I'm through it. I may still only be able to get a post in every second day for a little while, but I shouldn't need more large breaks like the one I just had.

Cheers

Welcome back, Wrath!

I lost power over the weekend due to the October storm that pummeled New England and there's still no internet access at home. Fortunately, there's no such problems at the office.

Well I think that played out nicely Mark. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I've left enough little threads and gaps to keep things running for Alannah too. Now I just have to work out where to go with it.

Cheers

That was excellent, had a blast with tthe scene from the moment Alannah first laid eyes on Akiros. Amazing opportunity for character development and I realize she's got quie a bit to tell her friends now.

What are we going to do with Auch? (the simpleton)

Equipment from the fort so far

- 2 extra horses (malnourished and not well tended. They were in the fort when you arrived)

Auchs has,

- his toys (noy worth much to anyone except him)
- potion of cure moderate wounds
- Potion of restoration (he was given both of them by Dovan but never really understood what they were for, he was just told to be careful with them)
- Silver staglord pendant (25gp)

Dovan had

- Masterwork studded leather (needs some repair and cleaning after Lev's handiwork)
- +1 rapier
- 3 daggers
- silver staglord amulet (25gold)
- 2 x Turquoise earings (130 gp each)
- 28g and 2 plat in coins

Akiros had
- Mikhail's long sowrd (+1 and has a glowing red light when wielded. Cauterises wounds but doesn't do extra damage. It means this weapons damage can count as fire damage though. Unique item)
- Mighty composite longbow. (Not magical but provides a +2 strength bonus to damage)
- Masterwork chainmail (Also taken from Mikhail)
- Heavy steel shield.
- 20 arrows and 3 +1 magical beast bane arrows
- Silver holy symbol of Erastil
- Ailver staglord amulet (25 gold)
- 80 gold in change

- He used two cure light wounds potions during the battle.

Stag lord had
- +1 leather armour (Leaves the chest bare but provides fulol protection)
- Masterwork longsword
- +1 mighty composite longbow (+2 str)
- Amulet of natural armour +1
- Stag's Helm (unique magic item - +2 competence bonus on perception checks, once per day can be used to make an insightful shot on any ranged attack as a free action. Followers of Erastil can use this three times per day)
- 2 potions of cure moderate wounds.

Other bandits had (2 in fort)
- Shortsword
-leather armour
-longbow and 20 arrows
- One had a masterwork guitar, and was fairly good with it, right up until the owlbear tore him in half.

A large chest contains
- 141 gold
- gems worth 216 gold
- Pewter belt buckle representing entwined succubi (30 gold)
- Silver charm bracelet (60 gold)

There are also sundry items such as ropes, spare arrows, bows and shortswords. Most are poor quality though.

All stuff for range or melee fighters. Elsbeth will take her share of coins and buy something more useful to her i guess.

Aside from it being a good idea to have a melee weapon for opponent's who close with her in combat, there is no way that Alannah would willingly part with Mikhail's sword.

Okay I'm just resummarizing from Wrath's post, here's the stuff that seems most significant that I think we should divide up sooner than later (except possibly for the coin):

Potions:

3x Cure Moderate (Split between Front-liners, perhaps? 1 for Lev, Anya and ?)
1x Restoration (Maybe Alandra can carry it and save it for a rainy day complete with curses or level drains)

Coin:
2 pp (We could presumably split this at Oleg's for 2 gp each)
249 gp (Split up between us that equals 49 each)
Gems: 216 gp (Split up that equals 43 each)
(+1 gp each person after gems broken down to gold and added to the leftover bits of gold from the first pile)

Items of value: (We could just plan to sell these and split up the difference later)
Pewter Belt Buckle = 30 GP
Silver Charm Bracelet = 60 GP
3x Staglord Amulet = 75 gp (total)
2x Turquoise Earrings = 130 gp

Magic Weapons
+ 1 Rapier (Anyone have an interest in this?)
+1 Red Light Long Sword (Alannah)
x3 +1 Magical Beast Bane Arrows (Alannah perhaps?)
+1 Mighty Composite Lognbow (+2 STR) (Lev could get some use out of this unless someone else wants it)

Magic Items
+1 Leather Armour (Anyone? No good to Lev.)
+1 Amulet of Natural Armor (Lev could use it but it could go to anyone who doesn't already have a magical amulet. Elsbeth, since there's nothing else in here for her?)
Stag's Helm (Actually, Lev would rather like to have this. This would be his first choice item.)

The rest of the loot is pretty much up for anyone who wants it or we can just plan to sell when we get back to Oleg's. Anyone want the guitar, or should we just sell it?

Alandra doesn't want any of that stuff except the potion.

Alandra doesn't want any of that stuff except the potion.

Which potion? The Restoration or one of the healing?

The amulet of natural armor +1 would stack with the bracers of armor +1, raising elsbeth's AC to 12....so pretty mush unuseful the same. Maybe better it goes to someone whose AC will go up to 18 or 19.
I'll look if there is something for her at Oleg's

just remember you haven't finished clearing this place yet. There is still a basement with "someone/something" in it. More than likely there'll also be more equipment stored in there that the bandits had no immediate use for. Given none of them were casters, and that at some stage they probably murdered or robbed some casters in this region, there's better than even chance Elsbeth and Alandra will find something of use below. (Hint hint).

I have to adjust loot in the game to suit the players and classes, plus the fact that there are more PC's than the game is designed for. I'll have that all sorted by the weekend.

Also, I've started putting info about kingdom building in my GM profile. If you click that you will currently find the list of kingdom running roles available and what happens if they're not filled. I also have listed some NPC's who may be convinced to step in to roles that you guys can't fill.

I'll let you know now, the Sword Lords are going to recognise Anya as the leader of this fledgeling nation, for their own reasons. This is despite the fact that from a game mechanic Elsbeth is probably the better choice. I hope that's not going to offend anyone. It isn't about players or builds, but about the realities of the backgrounds and the way this game has panned out. Anya brings a number of benefits to the role that the Swordlords see as useful, and some things that will be introduced later as well. She also gets bonuses to some checks that Elsbeth wouldn't, purely because she's a "local".

Elsbeth, however, has numerous roles she could fill quite successfully listed in the proifile.

Posting from work, so can't update in game thread. Will do so when I get home.

Cheers