Panic?
That's one hell of a lot of baddies.
Realistically, get back behind the walls and try to focus fire on one group at a time.
... otherwise Jareen could take four attacks before his first turn. I decided for simplicity that Calla hadn't yet seen the northern group.
Grumpy bosses are no fun. Still, did you get a nice new work laptop?
Unfortunately not that *big* at the moment, but pretty much every power I have is at least burst 1.....
That should at least buy us some time....
Nothing bursty at all. If Jareen concentrates on taking down the sniper minions, Irivis best off cursing and blasting the skirmishers. Assuming she can roll worth a damn.
It's on the mend, but finger fractures are slow healing due to it being hard not to use the things. I'm keeping it splinted at night and restricting what I do with the right hand. Oh, and lots of drugs.
The full story of how is here - about three posts down.
Read your blog... I love Terry Pratchett too!!! I have all but his latest book and my wife bought me an autographed copy of Going Postal movie for my birthday...
We have many copies of quite a few as son and husband also read him and we can never find the one we want. Such a wise man - aside from being hilarious.
Aubrey, that was a bit of a shocking start - curious to see where things go and enjoying myself. I was reasonably confident about surrendering, but there was still a small voice worrying 'has Aubrey gone all The Killer GM, is this an early TPK?'. Nice!
Rev, I bookmarked your blog. Went to read the finger story and was still reading 30 minutes later.
Have a nice week, everyone.
@ Art - really? That's wonderful.
@ Aubrey - I've been wanting to get into a game of yours for years and I had this vision of it ending before it even really began. Irivis is feeling cranky, but I'm having a blast.
@Rev Rosey - yes really! Particularly liked the Mikelmerck vignettes.
@Aubrey - have a good circulate and see you soon.
@Art - wait long enough and Mikelmerck may emerge as a homebrew campaign. I'm enjoying it too.
Gah sorry Aubrey, I should have spoilered that last post but it's too late to edit it now.
@Rev Rosey - that will be cool. I forwarded the 'sheep drama' scene to my wife and got a genuine lol :)
If only we had a rudimentary lathe... kidding kidding old DND joke...
I can make my spirit companion appear outside the tower, fly etc. but it has to stay within 20 squares of me by the end of hte turn... so I'm good for a distraction at the least...
The best I can come up with is to use Gorad's spirit companion as a distraction and try to nobble a couple of guards to swipe whatever they're wearing. Then "escort" ourselves out under orders from someone extremely superior. We'll need a lot of luck and some good bluff and intimidate checks for that to have a chance of working.
I can do the pet at max range and hope only a few investigate or I can do the pet right in front of the guards so we can grab all from behind. Presumably we are going ot have to take all 5 out as any returning are going to be suspicious.
I have the 'skills' to talk us out of just about anything.... if I can manage a roll above 6.
The idea I came up with is to persuade the rest of the NPC captives to sacrifice their lives for us. They could charge the guards and elvish wizards, dying on their blades, and creating enough confusion for us PCs to steal mounts and get a head start.
Yeah, so basically my grand idea is to use Calla's family as canon fodder to give us nothing more than a half-chance.
The 'grab disguises and bluff' idea is far less evil :)
Irivis has decent Bluff (as you would being an arcanist in Athas), but her skills aren't great. She'll probably just do her best to back up Arakan's fast-talking and do some furtive blighting. She's good aligned and won't be happy with using cannon fodder.
It would be nice to see some more attempts by the others. Roll a check to climb or dig, you may not have the skill at a decent level, but there's no harm in trying at this point.
Arakan may not be in good standing for what happened at the camp, but only he and Irivis have actually tried to do anything beyond knowledge checks. As far as he's concerned, everyone else is dead weight that he may not be willing to carry.
I don't mean to come off as a pain in the behind, but I'm out of ideas, sometimes brainstorming amongst a group helps. Also, I'm a little irritated that everything I try fails, due to bad rolls not anyone else, but that hardly anyone else tries after I fail as if I'm the standard for what is achievable.
|
It would be nice to see some more attempts by the others. Roll a check to climb or dig, you may not have the skill at a decent level, but there's no harm in trying at this point.
Arakan may not be in good standing for what happened at the camp, but only he and Irivis have actually tried to do anything beyond knowledge checks. As far as he's concerned, everyone else is dead weight that he may not be willing to carry.
I don't mean to come off as a pain in the behind, but I'm out of ideas, sometimes brainstorming amongst a group helps. Also, I'm a little irritated that everything I try fails, due to bad rolls not anyone else, but that hardly anyone else tries after I fail as if I'm the standard for what is achievable.
I think everyone else is waiting for Arkan to give up with futile randomness.
We have a plan: Distract the guards as best we can, and leg it through the bushes..... The question is, when.... Under cover of dark, if/when they start with mechanizations etc etc....
That certainly is what Jareen is waiting for...
p.s. Unless we are reading things completely differently, where does climbing up the inside of the tower leave you? Apart from in the air and still inside the tower.... The guards are *outside* the tower, are they not?
|
I think to be fair to Aadvark, he's exploring the possibilities rather than deciding on a single plan and sticking to it come what may. I'm not always going to hand you the necessary information and skill rolls on a plate and just wait for you to roll. And things are a bit slow right now, with limited contribution from a few of you.
The tower is open at the top... open to the sky... able to exit on any side, like the one away from the guards.
The digging could have led somewhere, we don't know, we didn't go far with two bad rolls.
Both in and out of character I do not see 'rushing the door' as a sound or valid plan of action. In my mind there must be some other way, but we wont know until we try.
|
|
Oh, I'm not saying we are not being a little slow. I'm also not trying to put Aardvark down, watching Arakan's antics is certainly amusing.
But only one plan so far has seemed sensible, most people seem up for it, but everyone is waiting for *something*. I'm not even sure what.
What I meant by the tower though, is I'm picturing a tower in an open plane. Being at the top is just going to draw attention, and once you get down the outside wall you have all the same problems.
Arakan seems to be focusing on getting us 6ft forward, where as Jareen etc al, are focusing on getting us from 6ft to infinity..... Assuming that first 6ft will be dangerous, but doable. I think that is where the disconnect falls.
Decided that roleplaying Calla as shocky and useless probably wasn't helping the group have fun :) So she's feeling more proactive again.
Aardvark, is there anything in Arakan's recent spoilers that he could usefully share?
For me the key to effective escape is
1 getting a head-start somehow (stealth, subterfuge, or battle)
2 surviving a journey across the desert (supplies, destination in reach)
3 staying ahead of pursuit (probably means stealing their mounts)
Cool. Calla had a few questions for the others / for her Grandma / or for the other captives too.
How do the rules for improvised weapons work in 4e? Is it realistic to think of making one from any of the resources we have to hand. Not thinking of an A-Team style miniature tank with rocket launcher made in a shed (though that is traditional for prisoners). More, a club with thorns.
Improvised weapons do not get proficiency bonus and only do 1d4 for one-handed, or 1d8 for two-handed.
So instead of the +3 for blades or +2 for most other weapons, you get no plus, and most likely do less damage.
Also, Calla/Yuriel, just a heads up, it's your turn in my Fog of War game.
|
|
Oh, I'm not saying we are not being a little slow. I'm also not trying to put Aardvark down, watching Arakan's antics is certainly amusing.
But only one plan so far has seemed sensible, most people seem up for it, but everyone is waiting for *something*. I'm not even sure what.
Well, what I have been waiting for is for someone to articulate a plan. There's been a bit of in-character discussion but nothing very plain on what you are planning to do to get out.
|
|
Well, what I have been waiting for is for someone to articulate a plan. There's been a bit of in-character discussion but nothing very plain on what you are planning to do to get out.
The plan as I see it is:
Wait for a good time (twilight? just after dark? when the guards are at the far point of their rounds? Some peeps have been watching the guards movements I think).
Run, via the bushes. This may require some prep.
Us wiz bang figures cause 1 or many distractions.
RUN! Hard.
It isn't much of a plan I'll admit. But it seems to be all we can come up with.
|
|
It isn't much of a plan I'll admit. But it seems to be all we can come up with.
OK, I've dropped some hints but people seem bent on ignoring them (with the possible exception of Aadvark). When Grandma was saying it was crap plan, that was also a hint. You haven't even addressed getting out of the tower in your plan, or getting past the guards. There's been barely any attempt from most people to use your skills to find out relevant information. It strikes me that no one wants to take responsibility for taking a decision, or trying to find out about the situation, or to assist those who maybe want to try. Even when you are given the information, you seem to ignore it. This isn't "futile", it is the game and how it is played when your characters are challenged in a particular situation like this. I am not planning to spoon-feed you the answers, so please pull out your collective fingers and work it out. I'm not trying to be mean, but this requires a bit of collaboration, brain-storming and application, or this game will likely end when your characters get fried while sitting about passively in the tower when the ritual goes off. At the very least, agree that the plan you outline above is the one you as a party intend to follow.
Will give it some more thought. Aardvark has certainly done well in exploring our resources and expanding our options. It seems clear that we can come up with a better plan, and Granny is available for us to test ideas with. We've also got time for a bit more discussion, with a few hours till darkness.
Thanks for the info on improvised weapons. All Calla's powers have the weapon keyword, which I assume means she needs at leas a big stick to use them.
I'll roll a wild talent, and post for Calla (and Yuriel) when I get back from breakfast in an hour or two. I'm thinking eggs, and coffee, and am unable to think further about anything else :)
OK, easy bit first - rolling for a wild talent.
Object projection - I can teleport an object that I'm holding up to 10 squares away. Cool, and could possibly use it to help with the distractionating.
Hard bit (braining about a useful plan) to come later. Think you're all asleep now so no rush.
Now first bit of the hard part. I decided that I'd go back through the recent posts and gather what we know together.
The prisoners are herded into the tower. It is nothing much more than a shell open to the sky, with rough, slightly inward-sloping walls perhaps twenty feet high and a sandy floor. There is one way in and out: through the gap in the wall where the doorway has collapsed, which the raiders block with thorny brush once the last slave has entered.[...] you have a big circle around the tower. Connecting to that (like a Venn diagram) is another, somewhat smaller circle to the north - the main ritual circle. Interconecting with this second circle (but not the first) is a much smaller circle.
[number of NPC captives] About fifteen.
[number of enemies] human and mul warriors mounted on crodlus, and elf runners on foot. There's maybe ten of the former and perhaps fifteen or so of the latter. There are five guards on the entrance to the tower. Of the strange veiled elves, there seem to be four of them.
[Hint from Granny] I can't see us all being able to climb out the top, so we are looking at the door for most of us [...] we distract them somehow
The mounts from the caravan have been taken - they are down at the camp, where the goods are being looted. The enemies' crodlus are in the same place.
[We are] a few days south of Grak's Pool - that a fortified oasis. If we get out of here, we should head there. But the water isn't free - Grak's a mercenary sod. And we'd need to get past the canyon lands between here and the road - you saw that they are a maze.
First up, Aubrey, I love the amount of tactical information you manage to pack into highly descriptive posts. I need to start reading them less like 'story' and more like 'clues'.
Second, very nice work Aardvark for asking the right questions, especially about the brush blocking our way.
Wall o' text (tm) already, so I'll go have a cup of tea and then come back to plotting.
For a weapon keyword power, all you need is a fist. It will not get the proficiency bonus to attack, and only do 1d4, but it's a weapon.
EDIT: Maybe the thorns (5-6 inches in length) can be used as daggers, daggers that can be lit on fire, or torches, or bolts. Regardless, as soon as we get out we need to wrest weapons away from guards if possible. Or disrupt the ritual.
For a weapon keyword power, all you need is a fist. It will not get the proficiency bonus to attack, and only do 1d4, but it's a weapon.
Oh! Thanks Aard, that makes sense. It's amazing how many underlying assumptions I have left over from 3 / 3.5 / PF. Possibly because I'm still playing PF in other threads :)
Do you think we should try to disrupt the ceremony rather than immediately flee out of range?
OK, here is what I think we should do.
1 - Arakan / Irivis use their high bluff skills to ramp up tension between the elves and the human/mul warriors. Convince our guards that the ritual will hurt them too.
2 - Around twilight, attack one/two of the guards in some ranged sneaky way (Irivis, Jareen - looking at you) and convince them it's the ritual starting early, and starting to kill them.
3 - Best case is our guards head off to stop the ritual. Anyway, we then set fire to the bush-gate. It burns quickly, and we help it by fanning the flames and smoke outwards. We try to spread burning / exploding goo-filled branches outwards too (thinking Project Object, or Concussive Blow from Call, may be other options).
4 - Now we have twilight, smoke, scattered small fires, and an escalating battle between the elves and the human/mul warriors. We break out and head straight to the warrior's camp.
5 - We continue to do whatever we can to increase the confusion - summons, illusions, bluffs and trickery. Anything to keep the two groups fighting.
6 - We grab supplies and crodlus, and we head north while everyone is still fighting behind us.
--
So that's my suggestion. I'm sure the group can improve it :)
I'd like to be able to stop the ritual, but I think it's too risky, and hopefully the human/mul warrior team will win and put a stop to it anyway.
I'm not sure if we have means to start a fire. I hope out of the 15 NPCs here with us that one of them will have the Psionic Spark wild talent.
Sorry - been a bit absent yesterday. Nativity hell and now classes all day.
The current plan sounds workable. Main proviso is that Irivis isn't stealthy, so when she starts moving around she will attract attention. Mind you, she'll do that when she starts blasting bits out of people and brush gates as well.