Aubrey's Other Eberron Campaign - The Unbinding (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

My current goods came to about 3500.

These purchases are no-brainers

Wand of Invisibility 4500
Wand of CLW 1500
+ 2 to armor 4000
curve blade +2 8000
CLoak of Resistance +2 4000

33000 Available wealth
25289.1 Spent
6710.9 Cash left

Any suggestions for how to spend it? I'd like to keep a reserve of cash of a 1 or 2 thousand. It might come in handy later.

Wand of Invisibility 4500
Wand of CLW 1500
+ 2 to armor 4000
curve blade +2 8000

Well since you asked for suggestions, this is mostly stuff just top of my head.

-Belt of STR is 4k, You would get +1 to hit and +2 damage(cause two handing), actually if you do not intend to get a special ability on your weapon it could even replace the increase from +1 to +2. Naturally getting both is not a bad idea either, just figured to point the possibility of getting more bang for your buck. Of coarse if you go for finesse then dex belt is better idea.
-Sandals of quick reaction 4k, since you do have sneak attack, the ability to get full action on surprise round can be pretty nifty.
-Eyes of eagle 2.5k, +5 to perception is pretty self explanatory
- Amulet of Natural armor+1 2k
-Ring of protection +1 2k
-Handy haversack 2k, it is always nice to be able to carry more stuff.
-+1 bow, to get rid of that pesky DR/magic
- Bracers of lesser archery 5k, +1 competence bonus to attack rolls is nice, though given the price the above should probably take precedence.

Just a heads-up - I will be on holiday for one week from the 1st of April. It is unlikely I will have much internet contact.

OK - Vaard need to choose his gear as a priority.

Thanks for the good ideas, BC.

I was thinking about the belt and ring already, but they're so done.

Eyes of the eagle is good but I think as a party we're pretty solid on perception.

Amulet of natural armor. Obvious choice, I hadn't thought of that.

Handy haversack -- always nice, but Cole and Nalverren have planty of capacity and Rehil's not overloaded yet.

+! bow, thought about it, but decided to just keep the 10 +1 arrows Aubrey handed out.

Bracers of archery, too pricey.

The sandals. I've never had a pair; never even considered them. They're not too pricey, and I kind of like the idea of being fully actionable in a surprise round. Let's see how they work out.

Aubrey, that will leave 2710.9 in gold. Is it OK to take that out in 100 gp gems and 110.9 in a variety of coin?

Yes.

I still need to complete my gear, i'll do my best to get that done tonight.

owned:

250 gp masterwork chain shirt
150 gp masterwork large steel shield
750 gp two potions of Cure Serious Wounds
100 gp two oils of Magic Weapon
2000 gp Ring of Protection +1
1800 gp Reagent (from skull bombs)

No value:
Alchemist's Kit
Formula Book (no additional formulae have been purchased)
Filter Hood

sell:
+15.0 gp Shortbow
+22.5 gp Sword Cane
+12.5 gp Studded Leather
+30.0 gp Common Thieves' Tools

Total value thus far: 5050 kept + 80 sold = 5130

Purchase list: 27,870 max
300 gp Thieves' Ring
250 gp Sleeves of Many Garments
250 gp Traveler's Any-Tool
4000 gp +2 on my armor
4000 gp +2 on the shield
2500 gp Bag of Holding (Type I)
6500 gp Reagents to create Cannith Goggles (lesser)
2800 gp Infinite Scrollcase

3450 gp Reagents for Craft List

21,250 gp so far

CRAFT LIST:
1100 gp Dedicated Wright (2 days) require GM approval
1100 gp Furtive Filcher (2 days) require GM approval
1250 gp Iron Defender (2 days) require GM approval

bedtime for me, more to follow tomorrow

As GM said, 3 pints of blood is a lot, so I will probably forego shadow kender and metal pup for a bit.

Anyone have any ideas as to what else I should get? I can spend 1 MP per day to make progress on wands, so I will probably do that (so up to 7K in wand progress possible).

Also I will take the remaining amount of Tal's wealth in reagents, that i may craft things that do not have dragon-voodoo on them for Tal while we are on the road.

OK, Vaard hasn't posted for about two weeks. I'm going to be on holiday for a week after tomorrow. If there's no activity after that, I'll have to assume that Vaard is maybe going to retire to Krezent.

Sad to hear that. :(

I'll have my equipment later today.

Tal's Equipment

Stuff in Yellow is new stuff. Not sure Naverren can make the ring. May have to trade crafting material he swipes for it later on when we can do trading. Everything else he should be able to make. Phylactery is the only one that's even marginally difficult (+5 to DC for not being a 10th level cleric).

Definitely can't make the ring.

If i understand your spreadsheet correctly, you are keeping 475 gp on your person and Nalverren is collecting 10,750gp value in magical unguents, reagents, et cetera on your behalf?

I can Forge Ring in two levels but that might be forever in real time. but hey, you can hunt! hah

Yep, you read it right. I figured we could probably trade the reagents plus 400gp to a ring maker for an already made ring. Once we get out of dragon town.

OK, signing off for a week.

Hey, folks. Just a heads up. My wife and I are leaving on Thursday (4/6) and will be out of the country (sipping margaritas on the beach) until next Tuesday (4/11). Likely won’t have a lot of desire to be on the boards. Bot me as needed (though this overlaps nicely with Aubrey's, so it's likely not an issue). :)

Sounds fun.

Are you quite sure you'll be able to get back into the country?

You mean can I scale a 30ft wall? :D

Better question. Do I want to get back into the country? (Though I guess my kiddos would be pretty sad if we didn't come back. And I guess I'd miss them too.)

WOw. Vacation without kids!? Sounds funner.

Couldn't agree with you more. We're pretty stoked. :)

just one more day
just one more day
just one more day
just one more day

Please accept my condolences, Wultram.

Thanks.

Condolences here as well. Sorry, been swamped at work.

Sorry to hear it, Wultram.

Hrmm, I think I still need to get around to updating my equipment from the wealth boost we got a few real-life weeks ago. I'll try doing that this weekend. Although I'll be out for almost the entire day tomorrow due to a conference.
And my late condolences to Wultram as well.

Hi Vaard, not heard from you lately - glad you are back! Hope things are OK.

OK guys, we seem to be flagging a bit in terms of posting. Is everything OK or is there a problem?

I posted, just busy.

Just waiting for the smart guys to tell me what to do.

I posted recently, and i believe we have sorted out the creations of this downtime?

OK, cool. I feel I should check from time to time, plus I had a bit of discontent voiced in my RotRL game. It seems we have sorted that by adjusting things a bit, so I just wanted to make sure people are happy with the direction of this game.

This is still my favorite game. Onward!

And, how do we get to the veins?
1. Randomly walk down?
2. Stake out the barracks and follow groups of guards to see where they end up.
3. Acrobatics!
4. Why did the smart guys go to the library again?

Well, like, duh! It's obviously 3.

Yeah mostly just being busy and not having anything of substance to post. And no I do not have any major issues with the game.

I can't get the game play thread to show. The page keeps coming up blank. I had to go to Rehil's page and reply to one of his posts to see the game thread.

I'm not having problems now. Hopefully they've fixed it.

Hey Aubrey, sorry for not posting before as I didn't have anything meaninful to say unless a fight was about to break out.

Almost forgot, I will be camping till Wednesday. I'll try to check things but truth is I don't think I'll be able -what with being in the middle of the mountain-.
Please do bot me if needed!

No probs. That said, I'd prefer it if you are around that you comment. Roleplay requires the characters to interact.

We've got too many strong silent types.

Yeah leaders of this place have just passed the shaman on Wultrams shit-list.

Sorry everyone, new contract, and I have to drive 4 hours to reach it Monday and 4 hours to get home Friday. Was sick Thursday, so all in all, sucky week. Should get better next week, and the week after. Got a hotel room for the whole month now, so I can drive in on Sunday nights and back on Saturday mornings, meaning I'll get more rest and not have any more 14 hour days. Had 33 hours Wednesday evening before getting sick.

The joys of contracting. Hope things get better.

Just a question, does the 26 diplomacy do nothing? Tal was pointing out that continuing to let your pride cause strife with an outsider who has said he will hurt someone if forced to is not enough reason to place those in the city in danger. He also gave the Warden an 'out' to save face, by claiming an older law. If the skill rolls aren't going to help, I am wasting points putting points into Diplomacy. A 26 should have helped, not hindered.

You assumed it was pride - it wasn't, he was simply doing his job in ensuring your safety in the depths, so your argument both demeaned him and failed to understand the actual problem. And then you effectively threatened the citizens of the city if you don't get your own way. Nevermind where that leaves your vows as a paladin, I think you'd need a seriously impressive Diplomacy score to get away with that, especially to the guy whose job it is to ensure the safety of those citizens.

It's all a bit late now, but you really played these guys about as badly as it is possible to do. They are all Lawful Good - lawful, as well as good. So telling them you think their laws are stupid and don't apply to you and then threatening mayhem when they tell you that actually they do expect you to behave reasonably is about as hostility-inducing as it is possible to get for these guys. 26 on Diplomacy really isn't enough for that. Diplomacy is a funny skill and often hard to adjudicate - on the one hand, it's a good roll (though not out of the park) on the other hand what you actually said was really unacceptable to them. Personally, while you may get some leeway because of the roll you probably won't achieve your ends with it. It isn't like Charm Person, it's not about saying something terrible with a winning smile and expecting them to just roll over, you have to have a reasonable argument. That one really wasn't appropriate for the audience.

The problem with that way of using the skill is that you require the Player to be a diplomat and have a high diplomacy skill. The Player should say the best he can, and then the roll should indicate how well he got across what he was trying to get across.

What this tells me is that it doesn't matter what my diplomacy skill is, I am going to be judged based on how good a diplomat I, the player, am. Which means I'm wasting points in Diplomacy, since it's useless as what I type is what drives the diplomacy, not my character's skill in conveying what the player wants to convey.

Diplomacy isn't a wonky skill, it's a skill that represents how good the character is at diplomacy, not how good the player is.

Oh I am certainly aware that Wultram was playing it wrong tactic/strategy wise. He simply considers their whole society something despicable and behaves accordingly. They do not deserve his respect or politeness. In his mind they are the worst type of stick up their ass lawfull stupid paladin LG types. (Which honestly is like only a step below the actual truth of the matter.)

Regarding the diplomancy roll, well I would say even disregarding certain details. The npc would most likely count as hostile, wich has a dc of 25+cha mod. Though the DC would need to be minium of 31 for a roll of 26 to actually worsen things. So on the part of the argument that it should not worsen matters has a pretty solid foundation.

Tal (and Wultram) are choosing to be confrontational with the powers-that-be. They are also causing a party split, as it happens, because the rest of the party were happy to have a guide along - and Eyalteph was about to say yes on that basis before Tal piped up with his apocalyptic talk of bloodshed and war.

In the end, how the NPCs react is down to me, not the players. Eyalteph was about to say yes, so it wasn't like this was a foregone conclusion. But diplomacy (with a small 'd') is about roleplaying as well as a single skill roll. If you want to put it in terms of a skill roll, it should be noted that there are circumstance modifiers which come into play. Being threatened by a bunch of smelly strangers dressed in rags - you haven't been given your new gear yet - who needed a lift out of the jungle imposes something of a credibility problem on both Tal and Wultram. Eyalteph's really not that scared. The fact that half the party clearly doesn't agree with Tal and Wultram also imposes a penalty, since they are hardly united in this tactic. The fact that the law says that visitors don't go down into the depths without an escort imposes a penalty. The fact that the authorities in Krezent pretty much detest Tal and (especially, as a necromancer with a bad attitude) Wultram imposes a penalty. I probably don't need to go on. Most of these arise from previous impressions that you have given through the way Tal and Wultram have acted. So it's not that Diplomacy doesn't work, but if you want it to work then you have to act, well, diplomatically - and that is the one thing that Wultram and Tal have failed to do.

Yeah it is partly my fault, had i not been distracted with real life matters and got a decent post in, this may have gone better. Especially if the two that we already know have a bad reputation here (of their own crafting) didnt go in.

Tal's post was good, but i understand all the valid modifiers in play.

Wultram is just stirring the pot, in my opinion, being a bit of a shithead in the situation. But i wont fault someone for playing their character per the circumstances, and we've been dealt some bad ones.

To that end, it probably would have been better if Nalverren's attitude wasn't "i'm smart, so you should let me in your secret tunnels".

So anyway, is there a way to the prophecy bits without these tunnels?

Yes, this isn't a complaint about bad roleplaying, I understand why the PCs want to act like this (although I wonder slightly at Tal's interpretation of his paladin vows - I would have thought he wouldn't have been so blase about innocents getting injured because Wultram was having a hissy fit, and indeed trying to use it as leverage). You just need to understand that acting like this will have consequences.

On the Prophecy, there are various places where it shows up. The books you read will have made that clear.

This is why the skill should be used, and not what I posted.

Text is hard to interpret, in the best of times. Trying to play an alien mind, as well as diplomacy, is extremely difficult, and I'm getting frustrated with this as what I said, in my mind, was Tal trying diplomatically to point out that Wultram is off his rocker and that he was offering a way for the NPC to save face rather than forcing the issue to a fight, which Wultram is happy to give him.

The GM interprets that in the worst possible way, rather than the best possible way, as it should have been based on the diplomacy skill which I sank a ton of freaking points into and the roll which was good.

I'm done. I will never try to use diplomacy again because no matter what I, the player, am trying to do, whatever I type will be interpreted in the worst possible light, no matter how good I roll, and what I intend, or how good my character is at diplomacy doesn't count for squat.

From now on, I'll just keep quite in character and be a heal bot.