DM Greg's Red Hand of Doom

Game Master Algar Lysandris

I ll resume the game in a day or two ( have to take bospital and doc appointment first and i have little energy for it)

Understand GM Greg... get better when you can.

Indeed: feel better, as you can.

Borrum is going to kill various woodland creatures as they travel north to help cull the weaker creatures from Swirls Mist available selections.
All Borrum can say is he is a Team Player if asked.

Alternatively, the Green Faith may send a special companion to him to help rid the woods of the great menance that is slowing moving north though the woods.

I personally think these could be two separate events in the woods, but what does Borrum know of nature.

No problem, ER visits have been happening here as well.

I like your ideas Borrum, they amuse me.
Perhaps you should Axe these hapless mooks a few questions.

Hoping you feel better soon Greg.

... well played, Swirls. Well played.

Rigo is far more practical than the rest. There's no profit in stopping to deal with deserters and looters. Plus it endangers their mission.

So expect him to b&#*$ and call everyone else unprofessional for messing around with lowlife scum.

Yeah, Swirls Mist was entirely willing to let them pass but I was slow on the draw. I was hoping to show that IC with Swirls mist seemed to silently agree with Rigo. Even when the lizard man is still upset with the cat man for his treatment of the Druids animal companion.

I'm assuming its Galdamor's Adherence to Law and Marru's to his promise to defend the people of this land that they don't let the looting stand.
Then you have Borrum who is just itching for a fight. Though Galdamors reasoning could easily also be the less savory urges the god of Tyranny and Subjugation inspires in his favored.

In game Swirls mist isn't going to question it in front of enemies. Could be good discussion fodder as we travel up the road though.

Exactly. Galdamor can let looters and deserters go free. They need to help in the coming fight or be hanged.

Alrighty, though you might consider doing swirls mist a favor and saying that.
Also telling us to keep them alive if we can as corpses can hold no battlements. (well not unless you feel like Animating the dead.)

Out of character it should be mentioned that it is entirely possible Elsir Vale's Militia is a volunteer based military due to the sedate nature of the area.
As such Desertion would likely not apply, Looting during war time would likely be nearly as bad for repercussions though.

Dunno how we are going to actually enforce them going to help after a sound beating without dragging them there in chains.
Suppose we could get their full names and have Swirls Mist Sand call the Lion Guard we encountered at Drellin's ferry. Let them know that there is a group coming of conscripts caught red handed in looting. Running a second time means once this is all over we track them down and make sure death is agonizing.
Still seems unlikely to stick though.

I wait to see their reponse to our threats and questions.

Not necessarily itching for a fight... but not going to back down from one. Borrum is more keeping a posture of 'Don't do something stupid, looters. You don't want any of this.'

A God of Tyranny and Subjugation??? No that is how the damn Hieronians think... Hextor is a god of The Mighty are the Rightful to Rulers of the Lesser People, as the Mighty understand how to rule Effectivly and Honorably.

His followers have conditioned and perfected thier skills over many years of organized control in both thier own personality, the troops and people that they lead, and the organizations that they are members of and support. It is only when upstarts think they know a better way for the people, then a true follower of Hextor, that trouble starts. A follower of Hextor knows that when signs of these upstarts begin to appear, they must squash them like the little bugsand rodents that they are as quickly as possible. By having strick laws in place, your subjects and allies know what is expected of them and the quotas they must meet to keep thier protectors in a position of power, so that they may be there to protected from the outside evils of the world.

I suspect Swirls Mist has incountered aa Hieronian or Cuthbertian follower at some time, who has spoken ill words of Lord Hextor and spread this misinterpetations of his true dogma.

That does sound entirely possible, I refer to him as such here due to hextor having the Portfolio of Tyranny in his Wiki. Also Domination domain.

Though Benevolent Dictator Hextor would certainly be easy to sell Swirls Mist on what with his rather primal spirit worship. It isn't much of a stretch to point out that natures survival of the fittest is one of the core tenants of the Scourge's religion.
*shifty glance*
Not to say that there are not other interpretations of that idealology but such is life.

Old 3.5 PC of mine was a Cleric of Hextor with a harpoon and a zombified dragon mount. We went to a floating sky fortress of good and said PC caused all sorts of 'Technically legal' maneuvering. After all not all might is in the body, cunning bring its own rewards.

Hrmm.. will have to bring this discussion up in character once we finish Diplo-midateing these hapless looters into something useful or rendering them the broken shards of pig iron they prove themselves to be.

With the L3 AC increases my Ape has finally become less fragile and quite a bit nastier in combat.
41hp isn't a terrible number though not amazing for a front liner.

@DM Greg Would you be alright with me trading one of the apes base feats for something else?
I'm hoping to grab Combat Reflexes
Also planning on giving this one Simple Weapon Proficiency as a feat due it now having 6HD.
With the way the last two apes have gone I think finding ways to fight people at a slightly bigger distance would be very helpful.

Unfortunately the Ape base feat are not for change. Sorry Swirl..

If he survives, maybe you can retrain him to combat reflexes.

Hrmm... entirely possible. Might also consider trading Zen archery if that ends up becoming a possible. Know there is some feat to increase my effective druid level for my A.C. seems to have much more value what with how quick I am burning through animal companions.

Have a happy weekend and an excellent Easter! God bless you guys! :D

Hey Borrum I just had a thought as I realize your character is in possession of a Ring of Sustenance.

The ring says you gain all the effects of an 8 hour rest. So were you to sleep for a full 8 hour period you would gain the effects of four times that in natural healing.
Natural healing for such a period would be 3xHD far as I can tell.
(effective 24 hour rest for 6 hours and another 2 hours (effective 8 hour rest.)
Borrum could get 6xHD with someone providing longterm care.
The Druid/cleric spell Healthful Rest would double that, As would the L2 cleric spell Summon Elysian Thrush.
Using 3.5 non-multiplicative rules (unsure if it applies to anything but attack damage/crits) That would mean our Dwarf friend could heal 72HP damage.

A L2 spell is kind of expensive but healthful rest looks like something I might need to think about picking up. Everyone in the group would be able to recover 12HP a day without any real issue. And borrum would be able to pull 36HP.

There is also a feat which doubles natural healing from complete warrior.

Flavor wise a contingent of Hextorian warriors capable of sleeping off all but immediately lethal wounds in a single night is both impressive and terrifying.

Fair enough. I take that on traveling north (as the last town on the road before us has a direct path to Brimdol) we will move at a significantly increased clip? I will hope that the roads being packed mean that people are actually listening to the warnings we have delivered. Which means the Red hand army will slow as it has to actually rely on its supply train (slowed by the destruction of the skull gorge bridge) in order to feed themselves as the other villages follow Elsir vale's example. That should also mean that the Lion Guard has likely reached Brimdol by now. Might need to prep a casting of Whispering sands and have a chat with our prospective boss.

Not discouting the suborn ones that are staying despite everything yes most of the people West of Brimdol are evacuating toward the city.

I am leaving the rest to your own assumptions :)

I shall hope that advanced warning helps some, otherwise we squandered days of (in game)time for nothing.
Being that both the destruction of the Skull gorge bride and the aid of Warklegnaw the giant were rendered moot thanks to the Village council of Drellin's ferry not wanting to listen to the group of scouts they had sent out to determine danger and disbelieving the reality.

Hopefully the addition of 3.5's magic cellphone spell will help us lessen necessary travel.

Once again that is all your assumption but all those action did result on a delayed attack on drelin's ferry

Pretty sure we all go after the bad guys. Man are those some really rolls for Init.

Somehow missed leveling up. Will level up shortly.

Ah, ok, I leveled, I just didn't update my alias. Updated for level 6.

@Swirls Mist: Couple of questions about your last set of actions.

1) How did you cast two spells, Shillelagh and Winged Watcher?

2) Are you sure Shillelagh will work as you are thinking? Animal Companions get Share Spell which allows a spell cast on yourself to also affect the AC, or to cast any spell with a target of 'you' on your AC. Shillelagh has a target of 'One touched nonmagical oak club or quarterstaff', which does not meet either criteria for Share Spell.

I remember when I played 3.5 much more, we never let Shillelagh work on an AC like that.

Winged watcher is a 'Swift' action spell.
So I've spent a Swift to assume bird form for up to 6 rounds, a standard to buff my AC's club, and a move action to cling for dear life to its fur.

I'm casting Shillelagh on the Oak club that my ape is currently wielding. Clubs and quarterstaves costing nothing means that the time to craft one is a total time of 0days.
So carrying around an Oak sapling and bashing people with it means I can affect it as though it were a big club.
(Already asked DM Greg, was why I added the bit about the Ape picking up a small oak tree earlier.)
Swirls mist is in base to base contact with the Ape so touching the club should not be an issue.

Worst case scenario Swirl's mist issues his command, assumes bird form and casts Shillelagh on his Apes club from the apes shoulder.

Kewl.. did not know Winged Watcher is a swift action.

And my question about Shillelagh is not about how you got the club, but if the spell works as you thought it works.

Share Spells (Ex)

At the druid’s option, she may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) she casts upon herself also affect her animal companion. The animal companion must be within 5 feet of her at the time of casting to receive the benefit. If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the animal companion if the companion moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the animal again, even if it returns to the druid before the duration expires.

Additionally, the druid may cast a spell with a target of "You" on her animal companion (as a touch range spell) instead of on herself. A druid and her animal companion can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion’s type (animal).

Shillelagh

Transmutation
Level: Drd 1
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: One touched nonmagical oak club or quarterstaff
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Will negates (object)
Spell Resistance: Yes (object)
Your own nonmagical club or quarterstaff becomes a weapon with a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls. (A quarterstaff gains this enhancement for both ends of the weapon.) It deals damage as if it were two size categories larger. These effects only occur when the weapon is wielded by you. If you do not wield it, the weapon behaves as if unaffected by this spell.

Seems pretty cut and dry that it should not work.

Huh. well that is unfortunate. I guess I forgot the last sentence on the spell. We can go ahead and scratch that spell as one I'll be using then.

No way my wimpy stats will be making use of such a trick for quite some time (L8 when I get large wild shape that is)
though if we end up encountering other druids I'll likely end up purchasing oils of shillelagh from them to get the same effect and step around that limitation.

Borrum is correct unfortunatly ... Sorry Swril if you want to have an other Memorized spell (go ahead) and if you want to change your action do it.

*shrug*
Thanks, I'd figured I just lost the action, but I rewrote to do something else useful.

Would you permit me to use wood shape to rapidly craft a Longspear for my ape?

sure no worries you had days to do so...

Hrmm.. not bad for a first attack.
Now to see where all the other hobgoblins are now that Swirls mist/ ape are over the top of the wall.
And hopefully Wood shape completes the hole in the wall letting everyone else see as well.

FYI: Game will slower in pace for the next 3 weeks (3 days weekend coming up and crawling with work)

Sorry gang

Making a posting in all games I'm running and playing in.

For those who have noticed that the last 3-4 weeks I've been spotty and somewhat irritable, I apologize. There's a lot of work things going on, and also some RL things going on. As of this morning, the surgeons confirmed my wife needs a fairly serious operation, which is now scheduled for the end of the month.

I will continue to be here, but, especially toward the end of May, I'm likely to be very very spotty and cranky. Sorry in advance. Please bear with me.

If things get to the point where I need to place things on hold, I'll let you know, but I don't think it'll get there (assuming nothing bad happens).

Making a posting in all games I'm running and playing in.

For those who have noticed that the last 3-4 weeks I've been spotty and somewhat irritable, I apologize. There's a lot of work things going on, and also some RL things going on. As of this morning, the surgeons confirmed my wife needs a fairly serious operation, which is now scheduled for the end of the month.

I will continue to be here, but, especially toward the end of May, I'm likely to be very very spotty and cranky. Sorry in advance. Please bear with me.

If things get to the point where I need to place things on hold, I'll let you know, but I don't think it'll get there (assuming nothing bad happens).

Peace to you my friend. As I remember, I will keep you and your wife in prayer.

Good luck to you and yours Mdt.

don't worry if you need i can bot you

Hope all will go well for you and your family mdt.

Good luck with everything.

That always sucks. Hope it all works out well and we can have our Grumpy cat man back at full force one day.

You gave this description

On the morning of the 4th day June the 22th after ridding for two hours the party can see up ahead a crude, Ten foot High palisade of logs that has been erected across the road, extending forty feet to either side and completely blocking all passage. A squat, twenty foot tall watchtower looms in the middle of the palisade. You catch a glimpse of movement up in the tower and see a Hobgoblin sentry.

And then linked this image

Swirl M: the fort looks something like this: http://www.gamersplatoon.com/forums/showthread.php?10140-Thoughts-about-the -upcomming-Fort-Knox-Clan-Tribe-Fortress . So you might shrink one of the log. i am no construction expert but considering the reinforced bars behind it won't acheive the effect you are intending. Do you want to do something else ?

You made no indication of there being a second floor rather than a catwalk/gangplank as indicated in your image. I took that to be the case because you made no mention otherwise when you described the terrain after my ape climbed over the wall with me on his shoulder.

Secondly I in bird form flew down to touch the door. Was there a convenient hole in the wood? Slats? How are they holding up with an ape on them?
I'm trying to take the information you give me and roll with it on best guess rather than slowing the game even further by asking questions.
Were this a face to face game I'd be quite happy to get my questions done and move on but PbP format makes that sort of in game prepared-ness take ages. Just look at how long it took us to get everything ready for the Bridge fight.

At this point we've had a round of reactions already so I'm just going to move on but next time I get mobbed due to information I should have access to before my action takes effect I'd like a chance to change my action to suit.

So would Swirls mist know when his companion is in range for Companion spellbond to work? I'm trying to figure out if my ape is within 30ft of me right now. The ape is going to step back by 5ft so I feel like it will put the possibility there.

he is barely @ 30ft from you

Wow are those ever some crap rolls.

Marru's attack mises because there are no one that isn't engaged in combat

Just curious.

Was this because I mentioned I'd try to hit non-melee'ers if there are any (though I noted I'd go for melee'ers, if that wasn't possible), or just because the negative four penalty?

Also, are there any other penalties I should know that I'm taking, or no? Just so I'm aware of the situation.

Thanks!

you miss because of the -4 penalty that is all unfortunatly

No problem. Good to know!

dead at work this week, bot as needed, should be able to post again regularly starting Saturday

Wife doing okay?