AP #67-72 - Reign of Winter: Misfits Unchained (Inactive)

Game Master Wilmannator

Thanks for the answer on those! So I don't know what you guys want to do, but I will go through the consumables and gear I have and see what I could sell in order to get some of the specific things listed above.

I organized the Loot sheet tab in a way that shows what order all our buffs would be cast in - in order to maximize buff durations. The only question would be when to cast protection from evil - there would be a chance it would run out before we got to the dragon if we were to cast it upon entry to the tower. (broken record alert: please see the tab for reference - add any other buffs you want that I didn't put in there)

Thanks for the reminder about the statues - Might have to rely on IMQiS to tell us what they are, and how we could defeat them. Good to know I could have Onyx on the bottom two levels, hopefully that will get us to a point where it is "cleared out" before we pick a fight with a dragon.

I can always see if I could get Ringeirr or someone to take Onyx away from the tower for me once we clear those levels so I wouldn't have to worry about any other enemies coming in behind us and killing my mount as he waits for us below. That might be more story/flavor than anything mechanical, other than knowing I won't have him for the dragon fight (or whatever fight is on the 3rd floor)

Thinking about the statues - Aoife got us those winter guard uniforms. Those should definitely come into play here. I wonder if wearing them will 'deactivate' the statues. IMQiS isn't sneaking in past them either without something. We may have to deal with the statues either way. - but we should definitely be disguising ourselves with the winter guard uniforms. Would love to hear more thoughts on that from others.

If somehow it doesn't work to have Onyx involved with the tower fight, I am ok with that. That's the price of having a large mount as a medium sized cavalier. :) (Pooka FTW!)

Once you've had time to look up the statues:

• They are pretty dim witted.
  
• They will have some simple instructions placed upon them about who to and not to let in.
  
• They have no special senses to detect whether something they see is actually what it appears to be at first glance.
  
• Clearly, children can get past.
  
• Since the Winter Guard are made up of all different races, probably anything in a Winter Guard's uniform can get past. Anything.
  
• Likely any Jadwiga can also get past.

@Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight: As Ishbaad said... and I don't know how you missed this... but he's an adult dragon and with the time and research and knowledge you collectively have, I've given you my blessing to look up his bestiary entry. He does not have scent or see invisibility. He does, however, have blindsense (so 50% miss chance, but he knows where you are), which by no means negates the usefulness of invisibility.

I didn't... but I didn't confirm what we knew. It is also possible that this is a non-standard dragon :P

So, this dragon is only large sized, which limits some tricks... but makes it a little easier to dispatch.

Each Tengu had: leather armor, dagger, short bow and 20 arrows

You believe that it will take about 10 hours to scrape off all of the gold veneer and pry out all of the semi-precious stones, and it will only net you about 100gp.

GM Damo wrote:

@Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight: As Ishbaad said... and I don't know how you missed this... but he's an adult dragon and with the time and research and knowledge you collectively have, I've given you my blessing to look up his bestiary entry. He does not have scent or see invisibility. He does, however, have blindsense (so 50% miss chance, but he knows where you are), which by no means negates the usefulness of invisibility.

I didn't... but I didn't confirm what we knew. It is also possible that this is a non-standard dragon :P

So, this dragon is only large sized, which limits some tricks... but makes it a little easier to dispatch.

Each Tengu had: leather armor, dagger, short bow and 20 arrows

You believe that it will take about 10 hours to scrape off all of the gold veneer and pry out all of the semi-precious stones, and it will only net you about 100gp.

Am I in the magical wyrmhole library room?

Such a strange cross-pollination post. I feel like something is shorting out in my head... ;)

Once you've had time to look up the statues:

• They are pretty dim witted.
  
• They will have some simple instructions placed upon them about who to and not to let in.
  
• They have no special senses to detect whether something they see is actually what it appears to be at first glance.
  
• Clearly, children can get past.
  
• Since the Winter Guard are made up of all different races, probably anything in a Winter Guard's uniform can get past. Anything.
  
• Likely any Jadwiga can also get past.

Eeeeeeexcellent.

/rubs fingertips together

This makes Aoife's snatching of the guard uniforms even more awesome.

At this point, I believe my decision will be to ride Onyx right into the building, hoping that by me wearing the uniform, the statues will ignore my mount, since they can clearly see I am a winter guard riding my mighty steed.

Quick confirmation to make sure we are on the same page. Being mounted and attacking a medium or smaller creature gives me the higher ground modifier, correct? It wouldn't give me higher ground against a troll who would I would then be nose to nose with.

What I picture with all this talk about Ishbaad riding Onyx trough the town and into the tower.

Love that movie. Also, you have a spare uniform to drape over Onyx... just in case...

Yes to the higher ground thing. Not sure if that's the right description for it, but you do get a bonus.

I looked up the rules, then did some searching on the forums. The general concensus was "Use common sense".

You won't hurt my feelings if I give myself a bonus and you take it away because it doesn't pass the common sense muster. I think we are good though, just want to make sure we are on the same page before the fit hits the shan.

:)

No idea why that is so fun to type. I am a strange one.

If you are sitting on a large thing, you are on higher ground than a medium thing. You get a bonus for being higher. All good. I think there are RAW, so no need to use common sense.

Found the reference!

Mounted Combat

When you attack a creature smaller than your mount that is on foot, you get the +1 bonus on melee attacks for being on higher ground.

Ishbaad what was it I was supposed to do? I have this string tied around my finger .... take out the garbage? No Valentine's Day - got that already ... hmmmm. Oh yeah - look at the loot sheet.

brb

Awesome - that is perfect! How much are we short for the supplies?

Gravity bow x2 is 50 gp, 25 gp per scroll right? So I will chip in my remainder after the 50, and I can figure out something to sell if we still need some more..

Just let me know what I need to spend.

That crossed post is what happens when you are trying to work too much!

Ok - Here is the scoop.

Heroism
Blur
Haste

Haste is a 1 cast fits all. 37.5 gp apiece gets us one scroll (at the discounted price) which we can have cast on us right before we ambush the dragon. It only lasts 5 rounds, so it would be the last thing we cast before we initiate the combat, or potentially it could be something that someone casts in the surprise round that, with luck, we initiate and the dragon does not participate in. /snicker

Blur and Heroism can also be both put into scrolls, but must have someone cast them on us. These are 1 person per scroll - so don't feel like you have to use gold or sell items to get them.

The nice thing, because of Damo the Herald's generosity, is you can sell an item for the normal half price, and buy this at half price, so you aren't 'losing' any gold value. Think of it as a rare opportunity to "change out" your consumables (or other gear) for 'free'.

Lots of air quotes there. Sorry about that.

Heroism lasts for 50 minutes (10 min/level, minimum level 5 caster)

Blur lasts for 3 minutes (1 min/level, minimum level 3 caster)

So the heroism gets cast before the tower entry, and blur gets cast in the scrum before we initiate the fight with the dragon.

Sound good? Make sense?

Ok, price. What you have all been waiting impatiently for.

300 gold total gets everyone their own scrolls of blur and heroism, and gets a party scroll of haste.

at least 37.5 each for the party scroll of haste. The balance is up to you if you want to do it. (75 for blur, 187.5 for heroism)

For me personally, if I 'sell' a potion of cure moderate and my potion of spider climb, that gives me the necessary 300gp.

Clear as mud? Asleep from my novel? If not, check out the Alts. I wrote a book. Sweet dreams!

I just want to say that the 'to slay a dragon' tab on the loot sheet is totally awesome. Incredible work. It's amazing the round by round buffs are worked out, so we know exactly when to buff before specific encounters. I love it all and I'm good with it!

I just want to say that the 'to slay a dragon' tab on the loot sheet is totally awesome. Incredible work. It's amazing the round by round buffs are worked out, so we know exactly when to buff before specific encounters. I love it all and I'm good with it!

Thanks!

/blush

Just want to say that, with blindsense, don't count on a surprise round unless you can approach in the surprise round from > 60ft away.

Also on 'air quotes'. They are only air quotes if you say them while speaking. If you do them while writing, they are just 'quotes', and far less hateful (useful, even).

As for the potions of spider climb, Solveig will explain that those were given to you by the Heralds in case you wanted to approach the dragon's lair from the outside of the tower.

**Resisting urge to view and analyze loot sheet tab**

Okay, it sounds like things are going reasonably well. I'm going to kick off the tower scene as soon as I can this morning. I will give you one more day (until Wednesday morning) to finalize your dragon purchases and you will have until whenever you get to the top of the tower to finalize your tactics.

It is definitely time to move along now, though.

@Kuragin: We can continue to retro that scene with Sergei if you like. Please make of him any requests you will (I think you're both caught up on what happened to each other now).

@Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight: When you have a clear set of instructions for the goblins, let me know.

@Everyone: Hold onto your butts!

Oh, by the way. Changed my mind a little on moving along this morning. I'll give you all a chance to react to the graffiti and resolve any loose threads before heading to the tower. Expect to start the tower either late this afternoon or early tomorrow morning.

@Everyone: Hold onto your butts!

This is my favorite quote/movie line to drop ever. And the older I get, the more obscure it gets, which makes it even better.

Is that what Aoife needed the red paint for? Excellent!!

I hope it WAS her!

Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight would have helped! ;)

Quick note for everyone - I really didn't want to detract from the graffiti, because it is awesome, but I also didn't want to miss an opportunity for that post. I had been marinating on the scene where Ishbaad puts his armor on for a while now.

So - Please don't let it distract you from responding to the graffiti!!!

Also - side note, The post would have gotten verbose and over the top had I tried to include Onyx. I'll make sure I do that moment justice when we set out.

One of these days I need to update the Wiki also...

And I agree with IMQiS! That was freaking awesome! (thats why I don't want my post to detract from that moment...)

Ok, some prep notes.

Let's give Kuragin the wand of CMW. Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight will be too busy chucking bombs to heal... or dying.

Before we go in, he will be drinking his mutagen for DEX. He will also be drinking a False Life, Bomber's Eye, Expeditious Retreat, Cat's Grace, and if he knows them, Targeted Bomb Admixture, Reduce Person, and Fox's Cunning, and since he has Spider Climb, can have that drank as well. There might be more. :)

He'll be buffed to the gills!

We've got tons of alchemists fire, and he doesn't need any of the stocks we got. I've still got 4 left.

If we're not going to be using his resist energy potions or extracts, I'd like him to be able to purchase a couple of new formulas.

- Blur (2nd)
- Fox's Cunning (2nd)
- Targeted Bomb Admixture (1st)
- Reduce Person (1st)

I just need to know if I can find someone who I can copy from, if I need to buy scrolls, or what I need.

I am not assuming at all that I can get any of these, yet.

Ice also has his own potion of Fly that he can use (he'll use alchemical allocation to spit it back to preserve it, so a second person could drink it after him... or he just keeps it?)

He's got 3 potions of Enlarge Person that can be used by someone, 8 CLW, and 3 CMW. If anyone needs a magic weapon, he does have an oil of magic weapon, but that only lasts a minute.

I am still thinking about the goblins... where to send them, and what damage they could do. I could have them attack the forest, but I was thinking that'd be a waste because the fey would just slaughter them. I'll be posting something for Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight soon.

@IMQiS - That all sounds awesome. Love it!

Per Damo's response to my questions earlier in this thread, we can get what we need.

Are you planning on chipping in for the "party scroll" of haste? (which Kuragin will cast on us before we rush the dragon) Also, It's totally up to you, but IMO a scroll of heroism (that Kuragin could also cast before we even enter the tower) would be valuable, and give you another bonus against the fear effect of the dragon (not to mention anything the witch will throw at us)

Yea - I think the only way we all survive this is if we are all buffed to the gills - and on top of that keep our poop in a group. :)

EDIT: Ishbaad will happily take one of the enlarge potions. Planning on using that before we rush the dragon.

If you have the money, you can get someone to copy those formulae from (you can copy spells, right?). With your contacts in the Heralds, half price.

Random thought for GM Damo: With the extensive list of buffs we will have active, would you prefer we kept the list somewhere else? I'm not sure it will all fit in the tagline.

Could make an OOC post in the gameplay thread with a header like: Active Party Conditions so that it could be searchable. I could post it, and spoiler each of us so it doesn't take up a ton of space on the thread also. Then every time it changed, I could just updated it. I can keep a "master list" to make changes easy, just update then copy/paste into the thread for a posting trail. Would probably make sense to do it in a google doc so we all (read:you) had easy access to it.

What do you think? Obviously the intention is to make your life easier. Let me know if you think this would work or if you have something else in mind...

Just thought of an alternative prior to hitting submit post - we could all have our individual conditions in a copy/paste OOC spot that is like a footer at the bottom of each post we make. Spoilered for post length/visual.

For everyone else, if you don't already save all your info offline, it would be a good idea to do so since so much will be affected in this fight. It might be easier to have a "right before the tower" reference point, so it is easier to go back.

Just trying to be helpful :)

@Ishbaad Of course. I am already assuming he's spent the money (reminder, subtract from his gold total). I was expectig to be buying everything you suggested. (total, 300gp)

@GM Damo - wanted to make sure how you wanted me to do that... do I just do the normal scribing + 50% (so, 15gp for 1st level, 60gp for 2nd)?

Cyrus'd!

Taking full advantage of the 50% off! w00t!

I may take a few more at that price... I'll list the full list here when I am done with it.

@Ishbaad: Already thought of that! I'll have a 'buff tracker' alongside the combat table post. It will specify at which round each buff expires. Please do keep track of your stats in your taglines, though. I'll be using those to attack you with (and save you with).

@Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight: Yep, normal fee * 1/2. They're giving you half off on things that will help in the fight against Logrivich... so please use your best judgement here.

I am all in with the 300. Will see what I have to sell, but shouldn't be much. Awesome work with the buffs and spread sheet Steve! My wife saw it and said, 'What is that?' 'Oh, we are trying to kill a dragon in Damien's game and this is a spreadsheet Steve made on the sequence.' <the look was unreal I got>

@Jorvik, lemme know how much you need. IMQiS has been actually pretty frugal, so has extra cash. He also is still trying to impress Jorvik that he's a "Good Goblin" (and he's still a little scared of Jorvik).

@all -- do we want Logivitch gone when we start the assault, or are we going to deal with as it happens? Need to know ASAP.

I can save the goblins for a later thing.

I want logrivich in the tower. I don't think he will join our fight on the lower portion, and I don't want him returning when we are in his lair. Then he has the advantage of being outside, in flight, which limits our action economy (not everyone could engage him) and he has the flexibility to escape, defeating the purpose

-Posted with Wayfinder

Formulas actually purchased:
- Blur (2nd) (30gp)
- Fox's Cunning (2nd) (30gp)
- Targeted Bomb Admixture (1st) (7.5gp)
- Reduce Person (1st) (7.5gp)
---
Total 75gp

Getting him updated now...

Question - has any more time passed for Kuragin to cast another round of dispel magic?

setting up buffs:
Heroism (50 mins)
False Life 1d10 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10 (6 hours)
Spider Climb (60 minutes)
Mutagen (+4 DEX, -2 WIS, +2 Nat Armor) (60 mins)
Elixer of Hiding (1 hour)

Damn... his DEX is going to be capped for AC purposes by a good deal. In the final fight, I expect him to have a DEX 28 (+9) but he can only take +6! But, still better than switching to a lesser armor -- he needs celestial armor... or Mage Armor. May go that way in the future...

Before we go up to face Logrivitch, he will add:
Cat's Grace (6 mins)
Fly (6 mins, through alchemical allocation, and his Enhance Potion discovery)
Reduce Person (6 minutes)
Fox's Cunning (6 minutes)
Expeditious Retreat (6 minutes)
Blur (6 minutes - Enhance Potion)
and right before we enter: Targeted Bomb Admixture (6 rounds)

If the group thinks we can blast through this all in 6 minutes, I will drink the minute/level stuff earlier as well.

My profile has been updated (or will soon be updated) with only the long duration things.

Also, I am expecting to blow through all of my hero points getting extra bomb attacks on Logrivitch... just sayin'

@GM Yeah, we can continue with Sergei later as retro. The approaching dragon-fight is too exciting now to think about hanging out in a cocoa-place.

About the turn sequence: Witches don't have mirror image on the list, so Kuragin cannot do that step. They neither have Blur, so who will be casting those on everyone? IMQiS could cast it from a wand (but not scroll), if we could get one with just a few charges. Jorvik has it on Skald list, but he needs to make a caster level check (but I think only "1" fails)

Same with haste. I think only alchemist has in the list, but they can't use scrolls. (but then again you guys have so many classes I might be missing something).

Witches seem to be missing all the cools spells... I'll add False Life to enchance my changes to survive. Kuragin buys that in a scroll (cannot copy from a book).

Just wanted to say Kudos for the graffiti posts. All three of those were awesome. The one on Logrivich's tower was the crown jewel.

Hopefully he doesn't notice the paint on your gauntlets....

...

Or hopefully he does? ;)

I'll try to get my buff post up tonight.

@IMQiS - don't forget the buffs that were given to us, particularly the cold resist and protection from cold. Cold resist can be taken now, protection from cold shouldn't be taken until just before we kick off the fight with logrivich.

So I got a little sloppy with my book keeping after when I thought we were done.

Since We all get 2,971 since last loot dump, I only spent 1,500 on a +1 adaptive.

So I have 1,471 left. All good IMQIS but thank you!

Spell holes: Mirror image, blur, haste. All of those are on the Skald list, though I am not of level. I have UMD +6 if that helps.

Positioning looks good, hopefully I will get a decent int and be able to fire off an AoO.

Ah ha!

I found it. I knew you didn't have to use UMD if the spell was on your spell list if you didn't happen to be high enough level.

Reference from the section about scrolls, see activating a scroll.

So Heroism is a 2nd level bard spell - so it is on your list. There are probably technicalities about the fact that it would be prepared by a wizard, so it would have been done at caster level 5. (this is the worst case scenario for the DC of your check)

According to the rules, since the spell is on your list, you can make a caster level check in place of the UMD check. You only have to make a UMD check if the spell is not on your list. In this worst case scenario, the DC of your caster level check is 6 (CL of the scroll +1)

In other words, you only have to roll a 4 or better on the die to activate the scroll

Best case scenario for this is if it is a bard scroll, that would be caster level 3 - in which case you would only fail on a 1 (which is an autofail anyways).

Failure using the caster level method means you have to make a DC 5 wisdom check. Only if you fail that do bad things happen.

More thoughts -

If no one can cast blur, then I would recommend just getting a potion of blur instead.

Sorry for all the confusion on this, I didn't know those things wouldn't work as scrolls. I only chose scrolls over potions because of the cost, and Ishbaad didn't have much gold left.

Ishbaad will trade out his scroll of blur for a potion of blur. Just gotta figure out where to get the gold from... :)

If no one can cast haste, then we might just have to live without that one. That was going to be for right before the dragon fight anyways, so we can worry about that later.

Hit me up on text/googlechat/email - or anything if you are confused or have questions about the whole scroll/potion thing. I didn't mean to make something that would be confusing right before we started this tower fight, and so if its a big deal we can just pretend it never happened. :)

I would like to think that it is something we would have discussed before getting to the tower entrance.

"What do you mean you can't cast these spells from these scrolls? I should have gotten potions!? Argh!"

;) I could be wrong... :D

Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight can UMD the scrolls if needed. It is a caster level +20 check, so for blur DC23... Well within his reach. May take a couple of tries, though. Need a 6+ on the die.

My stat block might be messed up, but I will fix in the am.

Heroism is on Witch list, so no trouble there.

@GM Damo, it has been asked a few times... Was there any time while waiting for our gear the Kuragin could have cast dispel magic (not on the day we are attacking Logrivitxh)?

Saw those, but hadn't done a proper post since.

There were two 'free' mornings prior to the dragon fight. Kuragin, please cast your maximum compliment of 3rd level spells for those two days.

On the morning of the dragon fight, Kuragin will have an option (upon seeing the success or failure of the previous rolls) to memorize one or more remove curses for the morning of the fight. Keep in mind that this will affect how many spells you get to take into the tower, so it is perfectly reasonable to not cast that spell at all that day. Up to you.

Kuragin, to keep it all above board (and because you have a decision to make about how many to roll), please roll the caster level checks for those. I don't mind telling you that it is DC 20.

Thank you, Damo.

Does that mean I can also craft 2 days of potions? I think I can get 2-4 done, depending on level. If so, I will create some.

@Kuragin, please make your attempts on the first two days... we may get lucky. If you decide to memorize any dispels on the fateful day, save 'em we might need 'em. But if you don't, that's cool, too.

Actually, since you're approaching the tower closer to dusk, you can get 3 days of potions in.

Oh, and forgot to correct it earlier, it's remove curse not dispel magic that is needed here.

Cool.

For potions, he makes the following (he can do 4 if they have a base cost of <250. Costs below are crafted costs.)
Day 1) Reduce Person X2 (CL1) [25gp each] , Enlarge Person x2 (CL 4) [100gp each]
Day 2) Lesser Restoration (CL3) [150gp]

(not doing day 3, because he wants to have a full complement of spells)

So, this costs him 250+150=400gp.

Eventually, I foresee him having a huge supply of potions, especially 3rd level ones, and all of his level 2 extracts being Alchemical Allocation, so he doesn't use up the potions unless absolutely necessary, and they'll be used at his caster level!

The two potions of Enlarge Person he gives to Ishbaad and Aoife. As level 4, they will last 4 minutes.

For the record, I had moved 5' in surprise round, then moved with the next round's action.