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

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

To help along with the math. With the rex we established that we can move at hustle speed without issue(well or to say it averages to that with all the terrain and not having a proper saddle.)

So 60ft per 6 seconds, that is 600ft per minute or 36 000ft per hour.

With some rounding that comes to 6,82miles or 10,97km each hour.

If we leave the rounding(to the nearest full number) till the end let's see how long we can travel with different times taken.

Time/miles/km
8h= 55/88
9h= 61/98
10h= 68/110
11h= 75/121
12h= 82/132
13h= 89/143
14h= 95/154
15h= 102/166
16h= 109/176

I don't think more than 16h is reasonable to expect so did not include math further. If you want to handwave some rules to make things bit easier, you could assume that the group manages about 10h on average given forced march checks and Tals ability to remove fatigued condtion.

I'm sure we did a post on this re Rex but I can't for the life of me find it. I thin we settled on 12 hours. Anyway, thanks for the above as I can use it to work out how long the journey will take.

So if we work on roughly 80 miles per day, and the elves have taken you on their super-fast mounts for a day or so, you should only be a few days away. I think we've hung about in the plains for long enough.

Ok, so, the shulassakar of Krezent are characterized as pretty rigid and unbending, BUT I don't want to be the "a++!#~+ paladin" who ruins the group's ability to move forward. I don't want to agree to a shady deal, but if that would mean "you are stuck, adventure over," I don't want to ruin the game for everyone.

Thoughts? Feedback?

I hear you. It wouldn't terminally finish things if you refuse. As ever, there are nuances...

I'm good with either way. We can try to intimidate this guy, maybe.

Take the cargo and dump it overboard. Then you wouldn't actually be smuggling.

I guess that's one thing we could do, if we never want to come back here again...

Nice curveball, Aubrey.

I was hoping it would be something like that. Perfect.

Since answers didn't come up the first time and we are now at a settlement again about our loot.

List of things we got:
1) +1 dragonhide breastplate (small)
2) 3x +1 chainshirt (small)
3) cloak of resistance +1
4) headband of inspired wisdom +2
5) a scroll of owl's wisdom (CL3)
6) 9x potion of Cure Light Wounds (CL 1)
7) 3x oil of magic weapon (CL 1)

Alright, so I think we can keep the potions and oils, without really having any reason not to. Then it comes a bit more complicated.

@Rehil: Do you have interest in keeping the headband? Both Tal and Wultram have ones that take up their slot. Value is 4k.(of coarse that also means by selling we only get 2k)

Then we have the cloak of resistance. They are pretty much the most essential pieace of gear ever. So keep it. Who gets it we can decide at later point and just deduct the value from their share. Though we might wanna do some rough calculations what is the value of our current gear+loose money.

Now IF we assume that we follow that plan. Values are:
1) 1700
2) 3750
4) 4000 or 0
5) 150

So total is 5600 or 9600 if Rehil doesn't want the headband. So sell value would be 2800 or 4800.(Assuming we can't bargain for better, be it via store credit or something else.) If we divide that by 3 that comes to 933,333333333(and so on) or 1600 for each of us.

EDIT: And just as an example. I ignored all the really small value gear. So if it ain't masterwork or magical I did not include it.(I also ignored potions and such as I see that as more group gear than personal.) But with very rough math I get about 5000 total and then 2765 money. So if we round that up to include the excluded gear Wultrams wealth is at roughly 8k atm. This does not include the stuff earlier discussed in the post.

Rehil doesn't care much about the headband.

Agree we should keep the oils and potions.

Wow 10 new posts IC since Friday! Will update today.

Sounds good to me with the equipment. I've already got high saves just for being a paladin so someone else can take the cloak.

If I did the math right, my equipment value is almost 11000gp.

You can probably flog the stuff you don't want in Gatherhold, though you might not be able to find all that much to buy.

Speaking of buying stuff. I think the only thing that I really want(with current funds) is to get +1 fullplate(pretty sure chances of finding one of medium size are slim to none here) for skelly so it can actually do some tanking outside of being a HP sponge. The stuff for Wultram is mostly on the expensive side.

That being said reason for the actual post. You guys think we should invest in some wands? CLW is always handy to have around in case Tal runs out(though I don't that is gonna happen until we join up with rest of the group.) endure elements might not be a bad idea either. Or does anything else come to mind that would be a group expense thing?

Gatherhold is a Large Town which means it has a 'base value' of 2000gp - that means that there is a 75% chance that what you want under that price is available (you roll per item you want to buy). 2,000gp is too low for a +1 set of plate but it's within the limit for a masterwork set of plate mail. It's purchase limit is 10,000gp, which means that the most you can sell an individual item for is 10,000gp - I'm not aware of anything you have worth more than that, though I havenm't tracked it assiduously. From a game world perspective they could easily salvage medium armour from soldiers' bodies for resale - there was enough fighting around here.

The problem with non magical full plate is that it has to be fitted for particular person, and given Skelly isn't welcome in town that is not gonna work.(not to mention I don't think we wanna wait for that unless the lighning rail wait will take time anyway.) Magical resizes to fit the wearer as long as they are the same size category. Also technically by strict RAW it would take half of eternity cause of how the crafting rules work.

btw Aubrey, what is your policy on custom magical items? I was just thinking if that is an option Wultram might in the future make/commission something that would make leaving the undead behind easier. And while at it perhaps something that would allow moving corpses for later use. This isn't relevant for quite some time, but I figured better ask if it is even theoretically possible before I contemplate on possible mechanics to suggest.

We had a pretty good run on the Plains. Riding a T-rex (and trike), running from the stampede, running with the elves on their cavalry charge. Great moments.

The problem with non magical full plate is that it has to be fitted for particular person, and given Skelly isn't welcome in town that is not gonna work.(not to mention I don't think we wanna wait for that unless the lighning rail wait will take time anyway.) Magical resizes to fit the wearer as long as they are the same size category. Also technically by strict RAW it would take half of eternity cause of how the crafting rules work.

btw Aubrey, what is your policy on custom magical items? I was just thinking if that is an option Wultram might in the future make/commission something that would make leaving the undead behind easier. And while at it perhaps something that would allow moving corpses for later use. This isn't relevant for quite some time, but I figured better ask if it is even theoretically possible before I contemplate on possible mechanics to suggest.

I wouldn't worry about tailor-making the plate - an undead won't really notice if it chafes a bit, and anyway I wouldn't make it a problem if it wasn't undead. Plate mail IRL is obviously a bespoke item but I'd handwave that for game simplicity here (it's kinda Eberron to have off-the-peg plate mail, maybe with 'House of Cannith' stamped on it).

Re the magic item(s), if you give me a concept I'll think about it.

We had a pretty good run on the Plains. Riding a T-rex (and trike), running from the stampede, running with the elves on their cavalry charge. Great moments.

Yeah, I was quite pleased with all that. I rather regretted that Rexy bought it - he was sort of a mascot as well as a mount. Ah well....

Yeah I would have totally commissioned a saddle for rex if it survived sadly it was taken excatly to 0hp in the round we managed to win.

Regarding the armor, I suppose true enough especially with the gamberson underneath. Still didn't want to assume stuff not in the rules. But yeah might very well get one in this case.

On the leaving behind I am still working concept wise and I might just go with perfectly mundane method on it.

Regarding the transporting of bodies. I was thinking basicly something akin to bag of holding/portable hole, just that it is limited to spesific type of item.(in this case corpses.) And naturally with an opening that would allow for larger objects. Probably something mechanics wise it would be holds X medium bodies, large counts as 2 medium, huge as 2 large etc. Technically I could use existing extradimensional containers, but those would get a bit fiddly since you would have to start making all sorts of assumptions on what sort of dimensions do skeletons take vs bodies suitable for zombies.

I think all of the existing items that are limited to certain types of items stored are for weapons or ammo, so not sure if those would be any use in creating a baseline.

This would be mostly beneficial in those situations that I can't bring undead with me or can't have them carry the bodies.

Some possibilities/thoughts that came to me.
1) Well it should be cheaper than unrestricted extradimensional containers of the same space. How much I really don't know. Though it might be simpler to just look at the benefit it gives and price it according to that.
2) As mentioned above it would probably be most convinient to just use creature size categories as the carry limit. So if wanted you could basicly assing a base price for 1 medium creature corpse and explorate from there.
3) You could make the item larger so that you can't just hang it off your belt. (like say a coffin) Or something similar to portable hole that you need to set up first(in that case fold it open)
4) If mid combat animate dead is a concern, increasing the time to use can prevent that.
5) I do intend to invest in crafting eventually.(big reason is to take some weight off Nalverren) So it would be nice to come up with some sort of upgrade system. That being said this isn't really relevant for some time since I figured even the lowest level price would be like 5-10k
6) I belive that when asking for this sort of stuff one should have at least some sort of suggestiong so here goes. Though mind that is purely based on a gut feeling. 1 medium sized corpse should be 300-600gp(depending on what sort of if any downsides exist) with some sort of minium number. It feels to me on a gut level that it is enough that you will be sacrificing other items to get it, but not so much that you would never get one. So if we assume 500 for ease of use and 10k as a base price. That would mean you could fit 5 trike corpses into it. With 10k price tag it would probably be reasonable at 9th or 10th level(assuming normal wbl) A level early if you are crafting yourself. Again this is purely gut feeling and not based on anything but probably something to start from.

MAAaan! You guys are going to be sky pirates without me.

Hey, you CHOSE to go with Wultram and Tal.

Are you inferring I should accept responsibility for my actions. A thousand times no. I prefer to blame Wultram and his stinky undead.

Hmmm. I've heard worse names for a band.

Wultram is going to be hurt that you didn't appreciate his efforts in making us a marauding trio striding across the plains riding a skeleton t-rex. Way better than being sky pirates.

True, riding Rexy wouldn't have been possible without Wultram. Thanks for that, big W.

But I was jonesing pretty badly to be a sky pirate....

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the game. I'm also an incurable whinger who can add letters to his words to pander -- I mean blend with the local hoi polloi.

First of all, no I am not multiclassing to bard. :P

Also you are thinking too small. Skypirates is fine but who self respecting scoundrel will be satisfied with a mere elemental airship? We need to go dragon slaying and get those as our vessels/armada.

An elf with limited imagination?

Just to let everyone know, I will be away from Thursday evening until Tuesday morning - having a long weekend.

I'll post later, too much going on here to consider this at work.

Sorry for going off-grid for a while - I had a few things to sort, game-wise and work-wise. Should be fine tomorrow.

OK, shipping the undead. There are some actual rules on this (not undead, but shipping in general on the lightning rail) in a supplement somewhere. The basic cost is 5cp per 100lbs per mile.

I've googled how much a skeleton weighs and apparently for a human its about 15% of body mass. I've upped this to 20% for a triceratops partly to be a little conservative and partly to lump in the other skeletons too. A triceratops, per the pfsrd, weighs 20,000lbs so a triceratops skeleton will weigh 4,000lbs.

So how far to Vedykar? The table I had incorrectly had the lightning rail from Gatherhold going to Vulyar, but actually it goes to Fort Bones and then Vedykar per the maps (don't know which is correct or not, but I'll go with the map). So I had to estimate how far it is from Gatherhold to Fort Zombie. The defunct route from Fort Zombie to Metrol was considered to be 418 miles and it looks roughly the same distance to Gatherhold, so we'll go with 418 miles. The distance per the table from Fort Bones to Vedykar is 256 miles, so we have a total of 674 miles.

So shipping 4,000lbs of skeletons from Gatherhold to Vedykar should cost (4000/100) x 674 x 0.05 gold pieces, or 1,384gp. It'll take 22 1/4 hours.

Well first I suggest using

This site

Since it has all calculations made for you. I do have the explorers handbook that stuff comes from if you are interested.

That 5cp seems off to me. 3rd class traveling is 3cp per mile per person. Average weight of a person is more than 100lbs and certainly more inconvinient for moving than actual cargo. Granted you can argue that undead are more expensive cargo than normal(at least volume if nothing else, which I would think is actually more relevant than weight.) Just for comparison purposes, for the price mentioned you could buy tickets for 92 persons in the steerage, that doesn't seem to match.

Now naturally they can totally ask that price and I won't complain your game and all. Wultram however will call them out on their b+++%~#!.

The 5cp comes from an official supplement. The lightning rail is the equivalent of an express courier since there isn't anything else quicker other than teleport, and steerage isn't all that different to a cattle truck. However, if we take the distance to Vedykar as 501 miles instead of 674 we get about 1,000gp (1,002gp to be precise) and you can also use your great diplomatic skills to ask for a discount. As a base price to ship a Huge and several Medium skeleton across the country express-style seems about right to me.

The Heights

Atsu moves to block the way, weapon in hand (I assume).

Ashshar move is a bit problematic. The crate is 10' in the air, it's maybe 5' high as well, so the cable will be at least 15' in the air. I know we agreed that Ashshar was a big lad, but he's not that big, and I'm also not sure how he reaches the cable from AF24 as its about 25' away. However.... Ashshar is on the poop deck, which raises him up maybe six or seven feet. He could try something like a daring leap from the deck to the top of the crate and then maybe consider trying to cut the cable from there (assuming he has the requisite Acrobatics skill and wants to try it)...?

I would totally be all over that.

Ah Pythagoras... even in fantasy, I cannot escape you. *grin*

That is a very good point that I did not consider.

The ability has a 30' reach, and Ashshar can move at least 30' during their turn(only 20' was used from the initial post). That should put them within enough reach(AD-24) to sever the rope (~15' to box center?), presuming that the deck is ~7' up and the crate is 10' off of the ground.
Hah! take that middle school math word problems!

So they just need to be able to put the rope within range of the 30' reach of the Mythic Power. Is my math correct in that given those two criteria of their move, and the Power's reach, the rope should be able to be severed?

—However, if I'm bringing too much physics into the fantasy, I'll substitute all of that for the bland-but-functional "Running Leap Slash" at the rope.
Ashshar Acrobatics: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28

I didn't realise about the 30' reach, so you should be fine. I can put it like you've done something really cool like throw your weapon and have it return to your hand. Very surprising all round, and so apposite...

No worries. I'm a fan of "the unseen strike", so having that tidbit glossed over is fine.

*innocent face* Oh no! The rope broke! *absconds*

@DM: Based on the map it doesn't look like we've been boarded so... I'm not sure there's anything for me to do now that the ship is pulling away?

Nothing specifically combat related at this point - if you want to delay to see what happens, that's fine.

I am back after a wicked work gauntlet for the last few weeks. Updating now...

This is Wultram.

Well as you can see another new account. Sorry about being gone but I was moving on the weekend, and someone did not know that using a vacuum on a computer can cause static electricity that can cause problems. Got the thing back from 'repair' today, it is beyond screwed so had to get a new one. I think the email I used to create the account doesn't exist anymore(as in the suplier of said email doesn't operate anymore) or my memory is just f~~%ed so here I am. I will try to catch up to things asap

And yes the nick is most certainly related to current situation.

Tough break, Wultram.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

I have come to a reluctant decision. You will have noted that I am really struggling to post in these games at the moment. I'm not suffering some sort of existetial crisis, I just don't seem to have the time. I used to post a lot at work but that has become quite unconducive these days, and at home I can't just disappear into my garrett and post when I come home in the evening as I have family responsibilities, plus I'm tired. It's not fair on you guys to keep you hanging around, and it's not good for the game either as enthusiasm wanes and we find other stuff to do.

So I am afraid I'm calling time on my games here at Paizo. I just can't run them anymore. This is a painful decision because I have a group of really outstanding players with whom I have shared the strange thoughts that lurking my mind (and not been run out of town for it... again) and who have also contributed mightily to the games, shaping them in ways I never considered, surprising me and making them much the better for it. It's tough because some of us have invested years. But I guess life moves on.

So I thank you all, players past and present. It's been a real blast.

While I am really sad for this to end. Yeah life happens. Also I really apriciate you coming clean with it instead of just disappearing.

Thanks for running a game I have enjoyed for years.

Also thank you to the rest of you for the best pbp I have experienced. It has been a pleasure.

Aubrey, for me you're the gold standard of DMing. Thanks to you and all the players for making this a rich game. I will miss it.

I'm very sorry to see you go, but I understand how sometimes life goes that way. Best of luck in all of your endeavors!

I understand completely, I've been holding on by my fingernails these days posting on the Boards.

Best of luck Aubrey, I think I speak for all of us that if you ever change your mind, we'd be happy to pick up where we left off :-)

*salute* It's been a pleasure, sempai.

*MANLY POSE* I shall learn from your example and carry it forward!

*MANLY TEARS* ...and as time passes, I- I- will never *sniff* forget! *turns away to save face*

Thank you, guys - I really appreciate the kind thoughts. It's a real frustration for me as I have stories I wanted to tell. However, what I will do is post what 'probably' would have happened in the game, so at least the outline of what was intended can be appreciated.

And I'm sure I will lurk around, and I may dip my toe in the water again, maybe not with something so epic (I would want to finish before I die of old age) but perhaps some smaller scenarios or ideas. And if I do, you will be the first to know.