Yes, welcome back! Sorry to hear about your troubles.
Anyone talked to Jarrek's player recently?
He did fire off a message recently in one of the games we share. I sent him an email to follow-up here. We shall see! *summon karlprosek*
Sorry, guys, I didn't see any new posts on my profile. I'm here!
Man, I hate it when that happens. Good to have you back!
Just waiting to see what everyone else does before posting, since I'm last in the init order, but chances are that Svarog will keep running to block the half-orc's escape if he hasn't escaped before Svarog gets there.
Reorg happening at work, so today was wall-to-wall meetings, and also ran late. I'll try to get something up tomorrow.
Moved.
It’s probably a good stroke of luck that the new PC isn’t present for this amazing display of martial prowess against a prone, laughing opponent. Just saying. XD
Seriously. Two big, tough guys just missed a dude laughing on the floor. Embarrassing.
He's mostly stopped laughing by now.
...I think we may, as a party, be the Golarion manifestation of the Keystone Kops. -_-
I started hearing Yakety Sax in my head when Kira missed. We're like the Three Stooges up in here.
This is the kind of luck with which I'm very familiar. I hope I didn't infect the whole party.
Looking at the loot list we've got a wand, a potion, 3 magic scrolls, and now a magic belt that all need to be Identified. I highlighted them in yellow on the loot list.
There's also a CLW potion that isn't marked as taken.
DM, can we say that Jarrek spent some time during our last downtime to look at the wand, potion, and 3 scrolls? If he can Take 20 he'll get a 25 on the check.
Sure. I'll get that up tonight.
Trianne would gladly offer her services or assistance in whatever item identification still remained. She does not expect compensation for what she has contributed thus far, but if offered or pressed, she would add the unidentified scroll to her collection, whatever its content.
Depending on the nature of the wand, she would likely recommend that it remain in the party's stable of items, but she would not offer to take possession of it.
Seriously, she's been with the group for less than a day game time. Split the spoils among yourselves.
Did the math to sell all outstanding loot and distribute gold. Did not sell any potions, scrolls, or wands but I did sell the Sovereign Glue, Universal Solvent, and Belt of Tumbling.
If we split it 4 ways it's 984 gp, 7 sp, 3 cp each (with .75 cp per person left over).
Just for general knowledge, if we split it 5 ways it's 787 gp, 7 sp, 9 cp each.
I'm on vacation the next ten days or so, and will be slow to post.
Back from vacation and helping my daughter move to a new apartment. I'll try to get something up tomorrow.
Sorry I've been posting so sparsely lately. I am traveling a lot for work and don't have the opportunity to post when I'm out and about. I'll be out for the next week.
Thanks for the heads-up. Good luck with work!
I'll be camping this weekend, and busy for the next day or so getting ready--so no posts (or at least no substantive ones) before Monday, probably.
DM, I have a question since we've encountered smoke damage. Could the PCs say they got some bandanas or scarves or other pieces of cloth from the field hospital, soaked them in water, and are now carrying them or wearing them to use as a MW tool on saves vs smoke inhalation damage? That seems like a common sense tool they could easily make.
I've been refreshing this page all week, and for some reason none of the new posts showed up. Aggravating. They suddenly just all showed up today.
Frustrating and weird. I wonder if that's happened to anyone else?
On occasion, yes.
I'll be camping again starting this weekend, but this time I'll be gone for a couple of weeks. I may have limited access here and there; with only my phone most of the time, though, it's going to be tough to check the module and edit the map.
I will not have access to email for the next 2 weeks. Feel free to bot Haftor.
Shouldn't be an issue, since I'll be gone for the next ten days or so myself.
Back from vacation, slowly working through two weeks of accumulated emails at work, and getting ready to leave for a conference next week. I should have time to post tomorrow.
Of course, I didn't have time to post due to getting ready for the conference, and then the boards went south. Back from the conference, though, having survived the terrible burden of Palo Alto's weather. Honestly, I don't see how people can live without Upper Midwestern temperature swings.
That sounds really tough, DM. Palo Alto in the summer, whatever will you do. ;)
Hopefully the boards stay up this time.
Oh, so the afternoon crash was *your* fault!
Actually, what Svarog is suggesting is that we block off escape through the south gate with fire, as Jarrek said, then either circle around to the northwest gate from the outside to catch the orcs coming out there, or just run straight for it while the orcs are occupied looting, and use the towers to force them to come at us one at a time while we shoot them from high ground (the tower tops?).
The south gate is currently held by the militia, but as noted before there's a low barricade and field hospital in the area marked with the B. You'd be hard-pressed to create a fire across the front of the barricade that would be deep enough to keep the orcs from crossing it. Then you still have to come up with how you're going to drive them.
There is a related issue for you, in that right now the orcs and others in this area are dispersed, offering you the opportunity to defeat them in detail. You have so far fought and killed nine orcs, in two groups. Had you faced all nine at once, you might not have survived--as it was, the five gave you problems (though if Jarrek had realized the number of enemies present, he probably wouldn't have rushed in and gotten mobbed). If you try to draw out the all of the attackers, the combined force may well be too much for you to take on.
DM C - how easy would it be for the other disbursed ords to see us moving across the courtyard and into the buildings if we fought from building to building?
Group - any magic that would obscure or conceal us?
OK, I hadn't realized that was the field hospital. Svarog's plan was just to use the existing fires to give the orcs no choice but to use the north gate if they wanted to escape the fires with their loot, and make them come at us one at a time there, but if there's so many, that probably won't work - one more falchion crit and we're toast.
I have no concealing magic, though maybe we could throw something wet on the fire to make more smoke temporarily. But then we'd suffer the smoke effects, too. Maybe we can smoke out the orcs if the wind is blowing in the right direction. :P If they were taking penalties and we weren't, Svarog might even smile.
If we could figure out a way to break them up into smaller groups, or even just one orc investigating at a time, that would be ideal. Unfortunately, my tactical knowledge is exhausted. Unless we pile up something the orcs would want, and wait for them to come claim it out of sight of the other orcs. :P
I guess our only option is to keep hunting them in the houses they're in? Though they might pincer us if they heard us fighting other orcs.
At your level, orcs are pretty swingy, and that makes adjusting for increased party size a little more complex. Between ferocity and falchions, they take a lot of killing.
Nothing to obfuscate with here, and the middle is murder. My recommendation would still be to set up in the NE tower, and/or nearby buildings/rooftops. Have someone move along the NE ridge line to locate and bait the northern orcs back to that tower courtyard. Our terms, our location. Once they’re dealt with, we can manhandle the other squad however.
With a base move of 35’ and Windy Escape at her disposal, I’m thinking Trianne would be the best choice for rabbit. (Plus she’s so purty. :P) If things get dicey, she’s got a Vanish scroll on hand and is well within arrow range for support from the tower whenever.
I’m certainly open to other suggestions, not knowing what you all are capable of tactically.
I'm about equally suited close in or at range, and I'm out of spells. I have a few Fervors left, which are good for 1d6 healing.
All the big guy has at range is a sling, so he'll have to stand in a door or something as we lure them in.
About the tower, too- don't forget somebody told us there's a giant out there lobbing boulders at the wall. If we draw too much attention we might get rocks thrown at our tower.
You also have 4 javelins for each orc you killed.
Oh, good. He's got a fair amount of javelins, then.
Clarifying Trianne's suggested movements to the others which would have been clearer on the scene with hand signals, pointing, etc.
I positioned Trianne to match my in game post.
Haftor and Kira were to move through the house where we are located with dead orcs, the doorway affording them some cover against the tower (not knowing there were orcs in the other houses yet).
Svarog would swing wider to the right circling the right (orc-filled) house on the SE side. Jarrek would follow/lead and be at roughly the same location as Trianne, offering some ready support to Svarog.
Ghost Sound if you want! With this many Orcs about though, it could get messy...
There's enough background noise that the orcs in the other houses probably haven't noticed you yet.
Thanks for the labeling on the map - for some reason I thought the orcs were in other buildings.
Is the drummer looking down at what's happening on the ground? Would it be possible to enter one of the houses and deal with the orcs there without an alarm being raised? Of course, if it was raised, we'd essentially have the same situation of someone blocking the door while we ranged types fired at whoever was in the doorway.
Maybe we can just set fire to the houses and bar the doors. I bet orcs aren't so tough when they're falling out of windows. :P
The drummer isn't looking over the side of the tower facing the party.
Think the map got shifted slightly after I tried to zoom in with my phone post Haftor's last inquiry this morning. Have corrected it within acceptable margins.
Haftor, the drummer is on the solo, free-standing tower at the top/center of the map, and we now know there are orcs in both buildings adjacent to that tower. Our plans still keep us on the cleared side of the large fires for now.
Got it. The map makes more sense to me now.
Not that we have this much knowledge, but tactically this house is a nightmare. Three entrances with two facing the worst possible direction. Maze inside. Yeesh. Presuming Haftor or Kira can peek out and alert to the two side doors, funneling them through the door farthest from the tower won't last. They'll spill out the other doors.
Bait them into a chase and ambush? I've got nothing else. Going to be messy.