All's Well that Ends in a Well

Game Master Choon

True. But so are many casters. And plain barbarians xD

On another note: The final week of my Thesis time is there, so I'll enforce myself a low post rate until I'm finally done.
Two/day during my train rides for my two games.

Feel free to bot me where necessary.

@Choon: How did we come out of the fight hp-wise? Just as we were, worse, better? I'll use my healing-stick and heal skill to throw around some hp so that everyone is at the very least 2/3 hp if anything nasty happens during the night.

Synthesis isn't really unreasonable. I do tend to avoid summoners altogether, though.

I'm a bit unsure about where exactly Simon is saying he wants to sleep. Is he in the tunnel or out in the hallway?

I love the summoner-class for the creativity it allows one. Nothing, really nothing binds the description of the Eidolon and if it gets old ... just change it on your next level up.

@Positioning: Simon don't want to sleep in the undead-room but would be ok to sleep up in the corridor beside the secret door. I had a discussion with Dulkk about that. The idea was to position the watch outside the door, to keep an eye on the corridor and prevent anyone from sneaking up on us and force the door shut, trapping us inside. I would just put down my bedroll at the watchpost, while the rest sleep inside ... since you all seem ok with the though of sleeping inside a hideous tomb *shiver*
;-)

Wheew, thats some loot there! Christmas is early it seems ;-)
Bids on the keen dagger. 17-20 crit here I go.
Other stuff isn't crucial for me.

Heck, we're fortune that the undead didn't attack us with some of those o.O

I have class in a minute but...that's a lot of spray cans...

Hows your feeling ... Should we take the loot and battle the gargoyles on the way out, selling the stuff, get some new toys and return stronger or dig deeper first?
Anyone remembering the time for our boat to get delivered?

I'd like to at least clear this floor. I'm still mathing but right now our haul isn't that great once divided up. We got lucky with some of the equipment but cash side we're not even at 1000 gold each. Sure I could use that for an alchemist shopping spree for small stuff but that's not enough gold for much of an upgrade for anyone I don't think.

Memory says it'd be a few unspecified weeks for the boat. I believe we're on day 2 adventuring, so we got some time.

Anyone have opinions regarding the party fund idea?

Sounds helpful.
Could be used on clw-wands and such things or as a kind of credit-source that can be used to get those "last 107gp" for your 1000000g item.
All in all I am for a need-first approach on items in general.

I personally think that as long as we're all planning on adventuring for a while longer, we're probably fine using gold however benefits us the most.

Meaning I'd be perfectly happy sharing.

I'm posting the items over here to make claiming them easier. I'm including suggestions and such as well as the price if sold. Please speak up of course, they aren't demands or anything. If not mentioned then I will assume no one wants and they will go into the cash pile, with gold to be split evenly

• MWK Light Steel Shield
  79.5 Vuzi you want this? 5% Arcane failure on your somatic sorcerer spells, but the MWK makes the for no Armor Check Penalty
  
• MWK Heavy Steel Shield
  85 Simon? This would take the place of your Heavy Wood Shield but reduce your ACP by -1, and is enchantable
  
• MWK Heavy Mace
  156 Cash
  
• +1 Arrows (QTY 18)
  360 Simon - Only one of with a bow
  
• +1 Keen Dagger
  4151 Simon - His build is Crit based
  
• +1 Keen Throwing Axe
  4154 Cash - Normal Kukri has better range then this Keen weapon, but the +1 does make it magic and can bypass DR. Still I imagine most would rather buy the magic weapon of their choice then hold onto this
  
• MWK Shortsword
  155 Cash
  
• MWK Morningstar
  154 Vuzi? Skeletons tend to require bludgeoning weapons
  
• Silver Dagger
  11 Either Cain or Simon on the front line, else someone in the back. Not worth the gold to sell on the if it means not having a silver weapon on the day we need it
  
• Composite Shortbow (+1 STR)
  75 Cash - Cain has bone bolts, kind of a step backward and off theme for Dalkk, and Simon doesn't have the STR for it
  
• +2 Warhammer
  4156 I'd love to keep this as a melee weapon for when the dwarf says stop, but I think it's a little pricey for a 'back up'
  
• Cure Light Wounds Potion (QTY2)
  Not Selling - Well enough in Cain's hands
  
• Remove Disease Potion
  Not Selling - On the off chance that we need to remove a disease mid combat I think it best to keep it off the front line
  

GM Choon your initial description included "several suits of chainmail, a breastplate, a full suit of dwarf-sized half-plate". Are these still available for us to collect and resell, or was it retconned out with the fantastic haul of magical goodies?

Between Cash and what I anticipate us reselling we're actually looking at closer to 2000 GP each, or 1650ish Each and 1650ish to the party fund.

Nice one Dulkk, such post really helps to bring us forward.
I'm 100% on your page with the anticipated stuff.
On the arrows ... 360g is quite some money for a backup weapons that provides such a small damage bonus. Guess we can sell them without much though. Maybe I'll hold onto ... 4 or so for emergencies ...?

You can assume Maglin did something similar with the warhammer as with the throwing axe.

I don't have any use for any of it, but I do love some good old fashioned gold. I wonder what to spend it on?

But I'm thinking we're going to be down here a bit longer first.

I'd vote to keep the arrows, at least more than 4. 360 gold nets everyone an extra 72 gold. You keeping them means that on the day that melee is negated that I'm not the only one firing at full speed/full length. I think Cain can fire at throw distance, and the others have to deal with action economy. Plus it provides another DR bypass option. I don't think it'd be worth it to have bought them at full price, but the sell price is so low its not worth it much to sell either I don't think.

You may add 5 suits of chain mail, a breastplate, a full suit of dwarf-sized half-plate to your calculations

Good lord Choon, you're melting the heart of this good-aligned Catling with that undead *haha*

Any way one could help him *NOT* being a danger for anyone unable to reliable force-control him? So that he is more or less his former self ... with a little smell-problem (nothing 10 tonnes of perfume cannot solve) and rotten-apearance (solved by a golden mask and very expensive clothes) ...?

An undead merchant sounds like a fun and very useful connection to have :-)

EDIT: Looking at Animate Dead 3rd level spell you can create undead that remains under your control forever without a saving throw / day but you must pay gp/HD of the undead.
Maybe a custom spell that let's you sacrifice some fancy spell component and then ritual-transform a controlled undead to your permanent undead?

Think about it guys, our very own merchant to trade away all the goods we dig up down the dungeon ;-)

5 suits of chainmail can be sold for a total profit of 375 gp.

A breastplate is another 100 gp.

Half plate is 300 gp more on top of that.

That's 775 additional gold, not nothing.

I don't know that Vuzi would want to sacrifice her HD controlled running a merchant offscreen. I also don't know how well she'd be able to actually do that.

Yeah, how would the townsfolk react to a ghoul coming from the dungeon waltzing into town

Loot added to my excel sheet, will transfer to L'nshpad of Holding when energy allows.

To clarify, did Cain give the potion of Remove Disease back to the rest of the group?

With an eye roll yes
He also took the dagger
He can't bypass dr/silver yet but he will soon

I'll take the shield. I already have a mwk silver morningstar so that can be sold.

I'm at a loss how we can save Vance. Animate Dead seems to talk about creatures that aren't currently animated. I can resurrect him, but 10,000 gold diamond and several more levels from now whew. At least I can work toward that unless: The creature can have been dead no longer than 10 years per caster level or 70 years for an oracle.

Noted about shield and morning star, ty.

I was thinking Ulman Dark could do it. Unless some finds a way to cast inflict wound spells he wouldn't make it that long anyway. He said he knew someone, which makes me think he's turned sometime this century. At best he earns his keep and saves money enough to make this happen.

More importantly though, if he has a vested interest in being controlled by you, he'll likely be super forthcoming and compliant about being chained up overnight or whenever your spell is likely to wear off.

I'd like to gleam off of him any stock piles of supplies he had before his demise. If he was planning on making a trading post down here then his stock may very well be down here at least in part. Its even a viable thought that he left it or other property on the surface somewhere. I'd like to get a line on it before he meets his end.

Maglin could probably find out more about the time of his death by running History checks on his clothing. Worse case we can interview him for recent events he recalls before coming down here and compare them to local Intel from the surface to establish how long hes been a corpse.

He could also just tell us what year he died in, I bet that'd work.

I'm going to sleep IRL will post in the morning.

He could also just tell us what year he died in, I bet that'd work.

I'm going to sleep IRL will post in the morning.

+++Facepalm so hard at myself+++

Well sure, if you wanted spoilers

Made some assumptions to try and keep the watch discussion brief. Cain's PsiCrystal and Vance will be up this entire time.

Comments concerns complaints are of course welcome, just throwing something out there to keep pace.

1st Watch (3 to 4 Hours)
Dalkk crafts (1 hour) and preps Mutagen (not sleep dependent but takes an hour) while keeping watch
Simon and Emily keep watch
Maglin gets his 2hrs and 1 hour spell prep
Cain and Vuzi both get 1st half of sleep

2nd Watch (4 to 5 Hours)
Maglin stays up with the PsiCrystal and Vance. If backup is needed wakes Dalkk, Simon/Emily, Others in that order
Vuzi and Cain finish their sleep without interruption

3rd Watch (3 to 4 Hours)
Maglin up
Vuzi and Cain up and plenty of time to prepare anything they need to prepare
Dalkk and Simon/Emily finish their sleep without interruption

Depending on how tight we make it, we get full nights of coverage, full nights sleep, all in 11 to 12 hours. Considering how densly packed this dungeon is shaping up to be I think we're fine with a 12 hour adventuring day. Including coming from town I think today took about 9 hours?

The plan works for me Dalkk.

Looks like "tomorrow morning" means "the morning of the day after tomorrow...anyway, I really need to learn to stop saying "I'll post in the morning."

The trip from the town to the dungeon takes the better part of a day.

Maglin definitively does not want to die. He's just sad and upset and, having just woken up, isn't thinking clearly.

Journal entry to come after he wakes up and maybe interacts with the others a bit.

Also, as usual, very interested in feedback.

I honestly don't know how effective Maglin's dream post is, because I always know what's coming. Ideally, however, you should be fully engaged throughout and reading quickly.

I'm fairly certain that the overall structure is about right. The ending is probably good.

Let me know what you think.

@Nightmares: I told you not to sleep in that room ;-)
That's a really terrible one and written very well. Claustrophobia incoming and sadness at the end. Good thing I read it at the morning rather than before sleeping ^^

I don't think we got a firm answer on status of our HP after the last conflict. Dalkk is running at about 50% atm. I don't want to over use your wand Simon, but I could use another good dose. I can make myself another potion tomorrow but it might be a good idea to do one now in case of ambush

Consider yourselves at 36.7765%... :P

50% is fine.

Update to come this afternoon after work.

You said that I used up all my power points yesterday
My primary use of power points is to not expend health

Yup. You are also on the front line and were in a position to take more hits than most.

And I also have dr good AC relative to their To hit....
Whatever
Fine
But never again will I accept a skip of a portion of the fight

Ohhh. I completely forgot about your DR. My apologies. You're good. Tired, but uninjured. I said as much in the summary as well now that I review what I posted.

And I also have dr good AC relative to their To hit....

Whatever
Fine
But never again will I accept a skip of a portion of the fight

Really dude? Your upset that we skipped over a slog fest of combat because you lost some HP after a major battle? Were you really so looking forward to typing out "Cain strikes the nearest enemy" another dozen times over the next week just to avoid the possibility of taking damage?

I don't believe in GM by democracy but I appreciated the battle skip once it was clear our win was more a matter of time then anything for whatever that matters.

It was more that A) it came out of the blue
B) it would make later fights harder
C) arguably trivializes the one thing I built the character to be good at

I would agree with you if there was a real consequence. Hell I have open unmade Extracts which would of been impossible to make mid fight and should be able to use now to help heal. Making a single 1 would of taken 10 uninterrupted rounds of combat so for sure its not something I would of or could of done. I'm sure that if this were an in person game that it wouldn't of happened, but concessions get made both ways. As it is, we won and at worst you took 18 hit points and had time to heal. We get a but load of xp and loot, and the worst of it is a few expenses of cure light wounds? Seems like a hell of a petty thing to lay down "I will never again accept' type statements.

Maglin somehow managed to use seven shifts, drink a cognatogen, brew up another infusion, and cast a smattering of spells including his second copy of mage armor. This doesn't really break my suspension of disbelief, although I'm not exactly sure why. And I don't mind it at all, I think it improved my play experience.

Cain would have performed better than any of us in the skipped stage of the fight. But none of our performances mattered, because we were sleeping immediately afterward, and we'd already won the fight. if we hadn't been planning to rest afterwards I would not be so appreciative of the skipping to move things along as I am now.

I would appreciate any suggestions on which spells to prepare. I'll probably go with a similar loadout as yesterday's. Not sure how good invisibility will be, another web might just be better.

Edit: also, sorry I've not been pushing the action with my posts. I'm enjoying nighttime, disheveled Maglin quite a bit, and I feel like I understand him better than ever. Plus I want to take my time so I can enjoy writing out fun things like journal entries.

I enjoyed the nightmare post very much.

Not sure how many you get but Protection from evil, mage armor and grease are always good, and if you have any spare feather fall and silent image are handy for emergencies
Invisibility is a tad lacking at this point, given that you don't have much direct offensive capability or trap finding, so using it for sneak attacks or scouting are not very effective

The webs and summons both proved exceedingly useful yesterday

I haven't updated my selection for the day yet, I'll try to do that tomorrow afternoon.

I haven't updated my selection for the day yet, I'll try to do that tomorrow afternoon.

Same, hospital stuff is impacting vision for some reason, should be temporary, makes posting a struggle when I can't read, will try to get something up today

I ended up switching out invisibility for web. I considered switching one of my two greases for protection from evil, but because Vuzi can cast protection as well and nobody else can cast grease, I decided against it. I've also switched out the light cantrip for detect poison, since light is extremely redundant.

Is anyone using the heal skill while we rest? It's basically free, right?

RE: Heal Skill

As I understand it in order to benefit from faster healing the person performing the check needs to tend to the others for a full 8 hours while they sleep. With shift watches that'll prove difficult. In this case though I suppose Maglin could of attempted the roll on Simon and Dalkk. Maybe Dalkk/Simon could of attempted it on Cain and Vuzi and Maglin would take over? It'll prove to be far more useful when recovering ability point damage.

On healing though, did Simon use enough to fill everyone to full health? On that note how many charges remain? We brought up when we should head back to town, but perhaps the biggest factor is how much healing we have left? If we can I think we should rely on Maglin or Dalkk for potion making to preserve the wand. Thoughts?

I also think that our potion making should be used to heal when possible, and that healing is probably going to be the limiting factor in how long we can stay down here. I'd bet we can take the gargoyles out front before that happens, so I'm not really worried about being trapped.

Oh man, I'm really enjoying this game.

How's the real life heal skill treating you, Dalkk?

Edit: I'm having difficulty listing my most recent posts. Is this true for anyone else?

It's a beast man, I failed a hell of a Fort save. I haven't had a follow up with the surgeon yet, but the wound care nurses say all things considered I'm healing at record speeds. If I can keep this pace up then they think I'll be back to myself in about a month. If not, longer. I'm very eager to get back to work and my normal life.

The hardest part of this process though is mental, no physical. I've healed off stab wounds and shit like that before, but I lost all my memories when I was younger and woke up in a hospital. After that fall out I developed a real fear of hospitals, doctors, and the like. The physical healing I can handle, but things like swallowing my pride, managing my ego, not assaulting members of the medical community are the tough parts.

Heh. Maybe whoever dies next should build a herbalism bond Druid XD