Filnefillan''s CON is back up, residual blessings of the Memorial. Every player is healed back to full normal health, having received the equivalent of Cure Critical Wounds, Remove Disease, and Restoration. The magic of the memorial will likely remain potent for a fortnight.
A bit stuck here in RL - made my oost, but the leveling up might take a day or so...
Questions about loot--
--Are the writs of credit something that we can/should cash out here, or are they things that we need to go to certain places to cash out? Also, what are the amounts?
--Did wearing any of the unidentified magical items [Silver Amulet, Silver Headband, Magical Studded Leather] give me a clue to their enchantment? If so, how would I use that? Would it give me a plus something on a new spellcraft roll?
Will we have trouble using trade ingots... do we have to get them converted to plates or anything?
Does all loot sell for 1/2 price here other than cash and gems, or is there a different exchange rate?
Here are rolls to identify our as-yet unidentified magic items:
The half-orc warrior has a bandoleer of three small potion vials, each bearing an identifying mark and again Kalizar's personal rune.
A steel vial with a bull's head on it, a glass vial with a honey colored syrup inside, and an iron flask with a small hand inside a bigger hand etched upon the stopper.
Sorry for the delay, I am dealing with some interviews and related disruptions, trying to get back into the work force, can't make it on contract work with the costs of meds, real life, etc...
While I get the story for my part back on track who has the updated Loot list, treasure, identified items, and pending items?
Loot list is HERE
Sounds good to me. :)
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I edited the Loot sheet to go ahead and identify some of the items on the list.
Regarding the letters of credit/on deposit. These writs are a medieval parallel to wire transfers. Important trade coasters or merchant guilds, like the East India Company for example, will offer documents assuring payment of the pro-offered funds without having to deplete the local bank/kingdom of it's coinage or risk the transfer of such goods in distant transportation. The long list of lost treasure fleets attests to why such endeavors were risky, and that was without monsters or magical thefts.
As these documents are payable to the presenter you have a few options regarding cashing them out:
1) You can appear in person to the kingdom/coaster involved and request the value offered.
2) You can attempt to present them to a similar location or organization and sell the writs to them for an equivalent amount, less a transaction fee. Many kingdoms, churches, guilds, or coasters will trade in such writs to gain leverage or influence over the guarantor.
3) You can hire an agent you trust to collect the funds on your behalf, again for a fee. Lord Burne, Canon Terjon, etc. as possible examples.
The ingots are similar to the writs, they do not actually carry a full coin value in weight, but are more tangible than a scrap of paper. If you have ever noticed in old films or stories of a person biting a coin it is to assure the item isn't plated. The same with merchants maintaining scales and government stamped weights, to alleviate shaving or plating of coinage and devaluing the currency of the realm. The above cash out options are available to ingots, as well as the below suggestions.
1) Ingots can be used as actually coinage, though at a loss of face value according to the current value of exchange, with a small transaction fee.
2) Ingots can be exchanged for more portable currencies, such as trade gems, jewelry, artwork, etc, with a small transaction fee.
Thoughts or suggestions?
I may just be being lazy, but I'd be willing to present the writs to the church, let them take their cut and cash out. Similarly the bars could be presented to the jeweler here in town. I am not sure he would give the best rates though. Potentially we could carry them with us and cash them out in a bigger town potentially.
The church would be a good place to put it, as would be Lord Burne. Both hold excellent authority, and it would show we have faith in them.
Now that the magic items I was wearing are identified, they are also up for grabs. Zokama will keep wearing the black studded leather if no one claims it, but only until she can buy a mithral chain shirt.
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I looked over the loot list. Not a great deal jumps out at me for Musami. I was using the black heavy steel shield so I have recorded it on the list, but I will hand it over for sale (I can't remember where we got it from. I would hate to have someone's granddad's shield on walking around town). I will be buying/making a new one with my own personal (made up) heraldry on it.
I see quite a bit on the list for Fil. Lots of magic.
The diamond dust for sure. The masterwork Rapier so he can get rid of the "clunky" longsword. Fil would love the arrows (different DR's for later), scrolls and spellbooks. Goggles of Minute Seeing are very handy. Seriously, this is a treasure trove of things.
He'd love the Wand of Shield, but, frankly, it would be better to give that to someone else potentially.
Buying a horse and cart, and then hiring a reputable courier may be wise.
Metagaming a bit, we're going to blow through the town's GP limit very quickly.
Hey GM Darkblade, out of curiosity what is Tomi's crafting skill bonus? Could I potentially set him a task and have him making weapons/armour while I am out and about? I can contribute when I am in town, but doubt I would have the full week to dedicate to items. I am looking at a warhammer and a heavy steel shield for myself with a view to crafting items for the party perhaps. Zokama's mithral chain shirt for example.
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I made a shield design for Musami.
Tomi has only one rank in Craft Blacksmith, the same for Craft Weapons. He does not yet have a rank in Craft Armor, Brother Smythe not yet having the time or need to train him towards that end. (Most of the armor around town is in leathers, handled by the Borton Brothers, and wooden shields crafted by the cabinet maker William Skings.)
To date you have nearly hit the town's GP limit, cashing out the ingots would probably put it over the top. That said caravans and visiting merchants can supplement it a bit, but much more in and around town will cause a rise in inflation and pricing as villagers scramble to have coins for things they cannot barter for/with.
As for purchasing magical items or buffs, Lord Burne might craft a few scrolls, the Church has potions and such, Kalizar has an eclectic, mixed inventory, but you may need to contract with someone to make purchases from a nearby market and have them delivered, for items not likely to be available, unless you wish to travel there yourselves.
I will leave such decisions to the group of course, and fashion the story around your ideas.
Ok, lets not ruin the economy of this town.
You'd need considerably more coin to ruin the economy, but you could artificially change the pricing structure for a period. Greyhawk was created before the idea of GP limits came about, so it was always assumed you had an adventure, traveled to a big town to spend the coin, and once broke went on another adventure. The treasure tables through around dozens of gems, buckets of +1 magical items, and literal tonnes of coins for heroes to find, be they in chests, bags, boxes, or bins. Encumbrance was still an optional rule, and many tables ignored it. I often wonder how many gaming groups in 1st edition AD&D had their own equivalent "Nodwick" to lug the haul back to town.
For my group, a friend and I came up with the "Bizarre Bazaar," a store run by a "Jack Nicholson as the Joker" sounding proprietor to clean up the sudden influx of wealth in an area. It would appear either as a caravan, a strange shop in some forgotten back alley no one noticed, or even a magical door in the back of a hidden closet in one case, to cash out the monies for useful items instead. To today's kids the BB would be the Diagon Alley of our games, which if you knew how to find it, or summon it, could readily trade out the ton of +1 magical items you carried about for bigger and better toys, or as the place to dump all those tens of thousands of copper pieces you found in the dragon's hoard for instead a few select gems or maybe a fancy new tiara, for the next tavern wench you were wooing. Far fetched and obscene to the modern gamer's sensibilities sure, but then again we were teens and it was all for fun.
Still here, just waiting for the weekend to level up and post (tonight, here in Oz...)
I do not want to drive the scene at the Inn too fast, Braggi and Musami seem to have some good points to make. I also want to know how Navith will move into the party further.
I am really enjoying the interaction between the group right now.
Navith, you are in Oz too? I am in Brisbane, well just outside Brisbane in a town where politicians are not at all trustworthy.
Is there a town where the politicians *are* trustworthy?
Yeah, it's called Hades.
So, a few months ago our mayor was charged with fraud and his replacement has also been charged with fraud. The latest of these was using public funds to buy artwork for his home among other things. As a result the state government is dissolving the council entirely and it is being run by administrators or something.
NSW, outside Sydney in the Blue Mountains. Our dodgy mayor was a few decades back if I recall...
Sadly this is not something limited to Oz. Here in West Virginia we are looking at the potential impeachment of all five of our supreme court judges, for maladministration, corruption, incompetency, gross immorality, or similar high crimes and misdemeanors. Where can one seek justice when justice itself has been rendered unjust...
Here in Illinois, our rec center manager stole a quarter million dollars gambling and buying iPhone apps. All because the city council didn't want to pay for a second person to check the books.
Oh well.
In game Fil is not retiring, but has laid claim to a room.
Government oversight can be hit or miss even when someone is checking the books. I had a job for a few years as a Fiscal Coordinator for a 501c3 mental health service center which received large government grants. I was originally brought in as a financial auditor. The last accountant they had stole over twenty thousand dollars which the previous audit missed, until the checks started bouncing. The excuse offered was that due to their existing mental illness the bookkeeper had simply "forgotten" they double and triple paid themselves, bought personal items from petty cash, and were issuing travel vouchers for their own personal expenses. After that I was hired partly because I was not receiving mental health services, as an added precaution...
Crunch complete, just need to choose some more spells...
+18 HP (2 x 5 HD, +2 toughness, +2 favored class, +4 Con)
+2 BAB
+1 Int
+1 F/R/W saves
Amended channeling/day as it was incorrect, from 8 to 7 - I probably used my Wis mod instead of my Cha mod to determine it. Also I think I channeled 9 times during that day, so will try to get a better count on my alias!!!
Channel now does 2d6.
Skills:
1 rank:
Kn. Religion
Kn. History
Handle Animal
Spellcraft
Sense Motive
Perception
Intimidate
Healing
A lot of things have happened in Hommlet which may have been forgotten or overlooked recently. To recap I offer the following rough timeline.
1) The druid Jaroo was kidnapped by a shape-shifter who imitated him for an undetermined amount of time. He is ultimately discovered by Cedryk and confronted, though he escapes to points unknown. Jaroo is found dead, killed at or shortly after the party first arrives in Hommlet.
2) The couple Meridosen and Zert came to town, apparently spying on the comings and goings of travelers and adventurers, dissuading them from investigating the moat house. The party becomes suspicious of them, they attempt to frame the party for colluding with the faux-Jaroo, and flee town. They were loosely connected to Turuko and Kobort, who moved out of the Inn when the couple left, to points uncertain.
3) Shortly before the party arrives in town Brother Hiram Smythe, the town blacksmith and apprentice druid of the Old Faith, is lured to Jaroo's grove where he is attacked by a werewolf. He fights off the beast but is bitten in the process. It is believed the faux-Jaroo only pretended to help cure him while waiting for him to turn and then releasing him out into the town to sow chaos. Cedryk and the party actually interrupted this and ultimately helped prevent the man from infecting anyone else with his affliction.
4) Caravans are being raided, with many people taken prisoner. From the most recent some of the prisoners are sent to the moat house, while several young women are carted away towards Nulb. The party rescued some survivors who are now waiting at the Church for transportation back home.
5) At roughly the same time the memorial at Emridy Meadows was damaged, releasing the dead and plaguing the outskirts with restless zombies and skeletons. Who the original desecrating group was is unknown. A later band led by an undead buckveer priest tried to finish the job and recover something hidden beneath the structure. They were only mostly successful thanks to the actions of the party.
6) A farmstead was raided, burned to the ground a month before the party's arrival. It was just nearly two days walk away, reportedly attacked by hojebline, according to the warrior Zert.
7) The week before the party arrived another farmstead was sacked, though the family escaped to town and are staying with relatives. This farmhouse was a few miles from the moat house.
8) Two nights after the party arrived the town miller and his family were killed. The Town Council hired the "Regulators" to investigate the matter.
9) Two nights after the miller's slaughter was discovered the Kindlehopper farm was attacked, their daughter raped, and her tongue cut out and nailed to the farm door. The Regulators were investigating this incident as well.
10) When the Regulators were formed Turuko and Kobort joined up, who according to Xaod, were staying as he was at Terrigan's Tent Tavern. It can be surmised the pair helped deflect the investigations into town activities for persons unknown. The pair learned of the party's intentions to investigate the fallen memorial and tricked their own group into rushing there ahead of them, ultimately decimating the ranks of the Regulators, save for Xaod who was saved by the party. The pair then fled with the undead buchveer priest, along with several mystic gems of unknown properties.
11) Upon returning to town Xaod went back to Terrigan's. The party stayed at the Inn of the Welcome Wench. It appears Xaod has since vanished, to points unknown.
12) Someone poisoned the town mayor Kenter Nevets with a poisonous curse similar to the infection Filnefillan experienced from the strange slime found growing in the moat house dungeons. The mayor was cured with a combination of disease and curse magic while Filnefillan was cured by a burst of divine energy released when the memorial at Emridy Meadows was partly repaired.
13) Lord Rufus and Brother Smythe are in Verbobonc, attempting to cure the latter to return him to Hommlet to head up the Old Faith in town. Canon Terjon was with them but returned magically to enact the cures for the mayor, at Lord Burne's insistence.
Things to Do
A) The party has only explored the ground level and part of the dungeon of the moat house. There remains another level beneath the jail and an unknown part of the dungeon level unexplored.
B) The party is sitting on a rather tidy sum of raw wealth yet to be divided, and a few magical items yet to parse out among themselves.
C) Investigate or learn more about any, all, or none of the other matters as outlined above. They will resolve themselves as they are wont without the party's influence, so it only matters which threads the group desires to pull as to which may change over time.
We need another day in town maybe? Let's divide the treasure for sure.
Fil is Interested in a rapier and some arrows and the arrowheads, as well as the arcane spell info (once copied, we can sell it and all profits go to the other PC's).
As to the threads, I think maybe Meridosen and Zert were working with Xaod, not Toruko and Kobort.
Toruko and Hruggin are likely related to the caravan raids and the Moathouse.
I hate to say this, but I think either Toruko or Xaod are responsible for what happened at the Kindlehopper estate or actually know the culprit.
These are my out of character thoughts. Fil will most certainly take the evening to study and try to learn a couple more spells after treasure is divided and information is shared.
Thank you for the rundown GM.
Question, who is storing the mystic gem?
Musami does not have the gem. He will take none of the loot except the damage chainmail previously discussed (for Tomi). I did wonder if he may have gone after his bully. I know nothing of a lot of the intrigue going on in town since my head s buried in the forge.
Granted I am taking a few liberties with discussing the threads, but I blame it on Jocasta and Cedryk being much more talkative than their in-character observations reflected, to bring everyone back to the same page. What the group does or doesn't do with the info is up to you.
I thought Zokama had the gem.
Out of character, it feels like investigating the looser threads might lead to an unraveling, while approaching an already extant problem half-explored (the Moathouse) seems prudent. Then again, that may be old-school grognardyness coming to the fore.
Grognardyness is fine, I've been one since I picked up the Red Book in 1981.
Braggi is convinced that the moathouse should be explored.
Is there someone who can enchant weapons in town? PC or NPC.
Zokama has the gem.
Another thing to do would be to follow up on the burying the witch story, but that seems low priority from a player perspective, not necessarily from Zokama's perspective, who doesn't know about all of these events.
Who is actually dividing the treasure? When I attempted to do it I was stopped... but agree that it needs to be done.
The Church of Saint Cuthbert, the Rhenee tradesman Kalizar, and Lord Burne can scribe scrolls and brew a few potions but none of them can craft or enchant items. Hommlet is too small a market for need of such skills.
Thank you Zokama.
Fil wants everyone present for the loot division, he sees that as most fair. Especially since Zokama and Navith hardly know the others.
Great idea in character... how does that translate to players? Who is actually doing it?
Honestly you can do it as a player, you have the loot list. I did put Fil's name on a few things he would like to have. Obviously coin divides evenly, but the goods would have to be likely sent away so we don't hit the gold limit.
If it is me, it will take me a while to get to a point again where I have time.
Just out of curiosity, how far off is the next town of a decent size that could take the goods?
For our campaign, distances are somewhat between the many different listings offered in various old AD&D sources.
Travel by horse you have the following rough times and directions:
Nulb, oeridian riverside village, is less than a day away to the NE, Limits 500gp/2500gp {think Mos Eisley on Tatooine, poor criminal den}
Kron, "neblin" natural village, is one day away to the SW, Limits 500gp/2500gp {think Hobbiton in the Shire but with gnomes}
Tulvar, oeridian/noniz/dwurn small mining town, is two days away to the NW, Limits 1000gp/5000gp {think Bree outside the Shire, mixed with a gold rush flavor}
Verbobonc City, large mixed race capital city, is two days away to the NW, Limits 8000gp/50000gp {think Oldtown on Westeros)
Enstad, small olven capital city, is four days away to the SW, Limits 4000gp/25000gp {think Rivendell, only slightly less xenophobic}
Sobanwych, small isolated olven town, is five days away to the NE, Limits 1000gp/5000gp {think of a smaller Caras Galadhon (Lothlórien), and just as xenophobic}
Narwell, large independent oeridian/flannae town, is seven days away to the E, Limits 2000gp/10000gp {think Edoras in Rohan, only with more barbarians and criminals)
Everyone should take a moment to review the Loot Page and consider what if anything they want/need and let their voices be heard. I can't tailor future treasure drops when possible if I don't know what you're interested in getting.