DM Alexander Kilcoyne's Sargavan Saga

Game Master Alexander Kilcoyne

*Waves* :)

I've totally quit checking this thread. ;)

I'm still here.

Was just wondering if PoorWanderingOne is still around, not seen a reply from him on the OOC for a while.

Still here! Swamped by homework but It is all done for the moment!

Still here. N'bellocq isn't much of a talker and his background is not a pleasant topic so he has been keeping himself occupied on the archery range during the gossip sessions. But as a player, I have enjoyed these immensely. Being so out of his element, sitting in a palace is not conducive to N'bellocq opening up. His lack of posts have in a way been part of his RP, but ready to go now.

Morvius' ethnicity: Zenj/Kalabuta?

Sorry I remember you asking that while I had Aron here. Hes Zenj yes.

FYI - I'll be out of town tomorrow, so probably won't get a chance to put in an update until Sunday evening my time (in roughly 48ish hours from this post).

Please DMPC me if required to keep things moving.

DM mis-speak, I was sleep deprived and went away from my notes without meaning to :S.

No problem. I always type out my major monologues ahead of time when I'm DMing IRL because otherwise I know I'll either leave something out or say too much, and I hate having to backtrack later and say, "Um, pretend the drow didn't actually say that because you're not supposed to know that yet," or "Oh, yeah, pretend like the NPC told you how to find the entrance to the hidden HQ." (Plus, handy to be able to hand over to the players for review when it's been a while between sessions.)

I just didn't know if it was something we were supposed to notice IC or not. :)

That dastardly Grand Custodian, not employing a magic user for every squad of soldiers!

Well, if they're sending wave after wave of their own men into the ancient temple with no casters, I'm suddenly understanding their 100% failure rate. ;P

Sorry things have been a little slow from my end, i've been dealing with border control issues here and i've been incredibly stressed about it for the past few days. I'm hoping it resolves today but i'll update this evening regardless.

Still waiting to hear from Kieran and Jakob, anyway. I think Poor Wandering One is American, so he's probably doing holiday weekend stuff. Don't know what F. Castor's up to....

Sorry... Last few days have been a bit full work-wise. I shall endeavor to catch up and hold this game up no longer. :-)

Sorry... Last few days have been a bit full work-wise. I shall endeavor to catch up and hold this game up no longer. :-)

Still waiting on Jakob anyway. Just missing my pretend character's fictional boyfriend. ;)

Is Kieran going to spend his travel time scouting on the outskirts of the caravan or walking in the midst of it with those of us who are hoping to avoid immediate immersion in combat? Personally, Tebati would be happy to let the Sargavan soldiers stay on the front lines between ourselves and danger as long as we have the luxury of a bodyguard.

Heh... :-)

Well, a ranger he is not and since for the time being we have bodyguards of a sort, he will be conserving his strength for when it is needed. If there is a fight, he will be of course joining it, but as long as everything seems to be going nicely, he will stay within the caravan rather than scout ahead into unknown -to him, anyway- territory. If, however, there is city- or dungeon-crawling involved at any point, he will probably be acting as a scout then.

Personally, Tebati would be happy to let the Sargavan soldiers stay on the front lines between ourselves and danger as long as we have the luxury of a bodyguard.

N'bellocq has greeted each and garnered their names: Meetsheeld, X'pendabel, Reds'hurt, D'sposable, Tem Porary, and Sue Perfluous

Well Qhude is going to lend them a hand at least :P

N'bellocq's up front, too. :)

Of course, that probably just means that AK will ambush us from the rear... or by bad guys teleporting right into the midst of us.

Ooh, we're in ankheg territory, aren't we? That's always a fun surprise round.

Just realized I never updated her spells learned from downtime to traveling-through-danger mode. Give me a sec. EDIT: Done.

Danger... what danger? Clearly this is just a fluff scene to set the mood for darker things to come...

Edit:

Yeah, well, whether we get attacked in the rainstorm or not, she still needs to have more useful spells ready for the road. I always intended to change up her spells learned when we left Eleder anyway. Can't comprehend languages someone into submission. ;)

I'm wishing I had more scrolls prepared, preferably of Burning Hands.

Remove any references to a bullseye lantern, Albert has a good old hooded one too.

Joana wrote:

Personally, Tebati would be happy to let the Sargavan soldiers stay on the front lines between ourselves and danger as long as we have the luxury of a bodyguard.

N'bellocq has greeted each and garnered their names: Meetsheeld, X'pendabel, Reds'hurt, D'sposable, Tem Porary, and Sue Perfluous

Oh no, I sure hope that Reds'hurt gets that lantern lit soon! I've never seen her before this episode, but she's had meaningful interactions with main characters and seems very sympathetic, so it would be horrible if anything happened to her. <bites nails> Wait, why am I doing that? I don't even bite my nails!

Hey, now, Unwe might just be the future Mrs. Qhude (assuming she isn't eaten by lions). ;)

"Why to see the flowers of the jungle my dear. Here is beauty unfettered, if a little red in tooth and claw."

I didn't see who this was addressed to within the post, but I'm assuming it's in response to the question Ansha posed about why she left the palace...?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Only questions I see asked are yours, and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with lions or whether Kieran sees anything. :)

Depending on initiative, or however you're determining what happens when, Tebati won't waste an action on casting light if Jakob gets his done first. Don't know if Unwe would bother fiddling with the lantern right away either if his spell goes off while she's trying to light it.

Yes it is an answer to your question, Ansha. Sorry.

Hmmm If there are already multiple light sources going then Jakob will cast Bless instead

Hmmm If there are already multiple light sources going then Jakob will cast Bless instead

At this point we have none; it's just a matter of who goes first. Either of our spells ought to be quicker than lighting a lantern in the dark and rain. Of course, if you're on the far side of the wagon from where Unwe is, we might need the extra illumination Tebati's spell could provide anyway. AK will have to tell us where everyone is in relation to one another....

Suddenly Ansha throwing a sunrod seems a lot less critical.

Also, yay! We get to see the little maps like in the Trial of Combat again! :D

Unwe hastily attempts to preserve the fire but it sputters its last, the fire extinguished down to its embers in a hiss of smoke. Suddenly, the only light source around the caravan is Albert's bullseye lantern and the dim light of the moon above

Is the moon shining through a gap in the clouds? I assumed with a heavy rain we were operating in darkness rather than low-light-vision conditions.

Also, yay! We get to see the little maps like in the Trial of Combat again! :D

There were maps? Oh, that was when Tebati was running her race, wasn't it? I didn't look at them since my character wasn't there.

EDIT:

Suddenly Ansha throwing a sunrod seems a lot less critical.

Eh, light only provides a 20-foot radius of illumination (40 feet for elven eyes). We have several wagons to defend; we're going to need more than one light source.

Jakob: In your Expendable Items, there's a "Torch Wand of Cure Light L". I assume it's a mix-up and thought you'd want to know. I shall now return to anxiously watching whether Unwe (a.k.a. the possibly future Mrs. Qhude) survives the lions or, you know, whatever surrounds you. :)

Hmmm - it would appear that the Qhude - Unwe ship has already been loaded, said it's farewells and sailed for foreign shores.... clearly long-lasting Bas'o relationships are forged over unfilled lanterns as young lions threaten in the night :P

Hmmm - it would appear that the Qhude - Unwe ship has already been loaded, said it's farewells and sailed for foreign shores.... clearly long-lasting Bas'o relationships are forged over unfilled lanterns as young lions threaten in the night :P

Apparently it's late here and I need to go to sleep, because that just made me laugh until my stomach hurt. :D

Silly when tired and oh so easily amused. Still funny today, though, although perhaps not laughing-to-the-point-of-tears funny. :)

I sometimes put up spoilers with relevant knowledge checks with DC's that you look at if you make the check, but I often don't have the time anymore. Please be proactive and feel free to roll checks you think may be applicable in any circumstance, knowledge use in combat is a free action usually.

Btw, whenever she addresses her goddess, she's speaking in Polyglot. Probably not an issue, as our whole group speaks Polyglot now and I imagine most other people in this part of the world do as well, but just in case we run into someone who doesn't understand it, it's easier to specify over here than every time she casts a spell.

Everyone but Qhude is affected, being just out of the radius. tebati could step NW as a free action to catch him in it though. I'll zoom the map in more once they attack I expct.

Seems metagamey, considering the confusion and darkness and rain and wind, for her to be able so exactly to measure the distance between herself and Qhude on the far side of the wagon. On the other hand, if he's the only one excluded, I'll feel guilty every time he misses by one point. (Plus, easier record keeping if everyone is under the same effect.) I leave it to DM adjudication.

Oh thank the divines that the dicebot backed me up on that one (at least for this round).

Oh thank the divines that the dicebot backed me up on that one (at least for this round).

Starting to worry less about Unwe surviving the night to begin your epic romance and more about Qhude.... ;)

Well in for a penny in for a pound I say ;)

Always better to get splatted attempting something risky and foolhardy then play it safe.

Barbarians are one of those classes that, if you play them right, you just have to accept that they're unlikely to make it to level twenty. If you love them, set them free.

But they keep the party cleric on her toes in the meantime....

Well this particular gambit would probably get a bit safer if I make it to 3rd level, as Improved Grapple is on the feat shopping list - but you can only make lemonade with the lemons in hand.

There is method to the madness of course - as hopefully I can keep that Earthbreaker out of commision, but yes it does require a degree of unhinged thinking to get the best out of a Barbarian :)

DM AK - a quick question on grappling.

If I understand it correctly I get a +5 on my next check (Round 2), assuming that the biggun does not successfully break the grapple?

The reason that I ask is that way back in the combat trial it was indicated that the +5 was only if he did not attempt to break the grapple, which I didn't question at the time - but after checking I'm not sure if that was correct.

Just figured it was worth querying before it potentially comes up in game so it doesn't hold anything up.

AK, will you be enforcing the recent casting limit in this game?

If a [spellcaster] has cast spells recently, the drain on his resources reduces his capacity to prepare new spells. When he prepares spells for the coming day, all the spells he has cast within the last 8 hours count against his daily limit.

I've argued rather vociferously against this rule elsewhere on the boards, as it seems set up to prevent abuse by high-level PCs but actually weighs heaviest on low-level PCs who end up with no spells the following day when they get attacked at night, but it is RAW. It weighs more heavily against divine casters, as well, since they are limited to receiving spells at one certain time of the day and don't have the option of resting and learning spells at a later time; they just have to go 48 hours without replenishing spells.

Sorry, weirdly I never got notices about new posts to this thread for the last 6 or so- just happened to notice Joana posted 3 hours ago while in the discussion forum.

Yeah Qhude you were extremely lucky- that was a very risky maneuver without Improved Grapple. Not only would it have dramatically failed due to the damage while attempting it, you would have been left barely standing.

Weird, I swear i've seen it phrased differently elsewhere Qhude- but yeah it seems your correct.

I never enforce that casting limit strictly. As long as players don't try and abuse this to try and cast long duration buffs (hour/level) before sleeping or other shaky abuses I never see a need to enforce it. We had this discussion in my KM game a little over a year ago.

Aye - after reading up a bit more I realise exactly how risky. I never noticed the following sentence until after DM AK inferred to its existence If you are hit by the target, you take the damage normally and apply that amount as a penalty to the attack roll to perform the maneuver For some reason my head thought that if you got hit by an AoO you just soaked the damage and carried on. Serves me right for incomplete rules knowledge.

Lucky crazy Barbarian is lucky... and crazy. Of course the biggun will probably just break out of the grapple in Round 2 and it shall all be for naught...

Four more approach rapidly from the south- and poor Unwe receives a full opening volley of four javelins hurled at her. The ranged weapons clearly suffering from the rain, two of them fall woefully short and a third sails over her shoulder harmlessly. The final javelin is a near perfect throw that catches her just below the neck where her scale armour ends. The Zenj woman crumples, falling to her knees and then collapsing with blood streaming from the wound, the weapon having gone clean through her.

"Noooo!" As young lions roar on the shore, a Bas'o ship crashes on a spear-like rock in the reef of life, due to the lighthouse's unfilled lantern. The captain shouts his futile defiance, voice torn from his mouth by the wind ere it be heard.

a Bas'o ship crashes on a spear-like rock in the reef of life

Tres amusing - but don't give up on us yet, Unwe's stable and will be sporting a fancy new scar when she wakes up. Qhude prefers models with battle damage anyhow ;)

Waiting for Tebati's standard action.

Its very strange to me to 'fight defensively' without actually making an attack but I believe its rules legal.

Although the soldier covering your flank in medium armour and a shield with total defence is a bit miffed you ruined his tactic :P.