DM Immortal's Blood Red Roses: A Skull & Shackles Campaign

Game Master imimrtl

I'll give it a shot...

Attempt at identifying wand via "Spellcraft"
1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

Don't know if that works or not.

"Sounds good, Sandy - hopefully we won't need it; but it's good to know you got it," I tell

I nod my head a bit, pondering this news while looking over Ratline.

"Can we rig a stretcher or a cinch or something to carry him? Anyone got a bedroll and some rope - maybe we can jurry-rig something," I say glancing at the others.

"Thing is - we don't have much time; water's rising... looks like maybe about fifteen, maybe twenty minutes at best and we'll be under. So we got to leg it if we don't want to leave Rat to drown here."

I put up my weapons and do what I can to get Ratline comfortable with some rope and/or blankets (assuming anyone brought bedrolls) and hopefully make something that we can lift him up and move him without too much damage.

As soon as that's done I'm ready to hustle out of here and get the hell back to the ship.

I don't have a bedroll, but I do have some rope. Let's get to the entrance first before we worry about climbing up. If the water is rising like you say we need to hustle to keep from getting trapped here underwater.

Whenever we're able to move, I'll happily follow. I've been ready to leave these caves since last week. So whenever we're allowed to go, I'm more than ready.

So marching order, how bout Sko and Variel, then Rain with her pole-arm, Dhaavan ratline and sandara, Valeros with Flynn at rear-guard?

You left Seijiro out of that marching order :( ... how about putting him in 2nd rank with Rain.

Well, I said it before. I don't like rearguard duty so much. Also, most of the tunnels are 10 feet wide, I thought, so there's no reason to march single file, but 2x2. In which case, as it seems we have an odd number of folks, we can leave the order pretty much the same, except we put it Sko/Variel, Rain/Jiro, Rat, Dhaavan/Sandara, Valeros/Flynn. Anyway, that's my counter suggestion. Anyway you slice it, hopefully we'll be leaving today. See you all later!

I don't think Rat can be alone in the marching order, he's not capable, is he? If someone needs to float him out or just escort him, Jiro will volunteer to do so. Move him back to be with RaT instead of Rain I guess.

Ratline is still unconscious so he will need someone to carry/drag him. Let me know what you guys are doing and I will update accordingly.

Ratline is still unconscious so he will need someone to carry/drag him. Let me know what you guys are doing and I will update accordingly.

Right - well, I had hoped that we could jurry-rig something to carry him, but that doesn't seem to be likely at this time.

"Well, we can't get to the entrance and take Rat without carrying him there first. I hoped that we could make some sort of make-shift stretcher with ropes and bedrolls or blankets so we could carry him with some ease."

"But you know what? It's not a problem at all. I'll carry him myself, no worries... Unless someone wants to give me a hand?"

At which point, I intend to pick him up and sling him over my shoulder. I have no idea of his weight - I'd rather we did it as a team, but I say let's go forward.

I do my best to lift him, but he is probably a little too heavy for me to handle alone (though I'm sure at his relative weight, as he is missing two limbs, and I don't even know his base weight).

Even so, I am ready to proceed and want to advance; so I will fall into step next to Sandara. I will not be at the end of the marching order, because if I am carrying him, it may be dangerous for me, as I will be encumbered and will have difficulty fighting.

At this time I will follow Variel, Sko, Rain and I guess I'll be flanked by Sandara, with the others behind me - or in front of me.

Either way, I am ready to go.

Seeing that Flynn has Ratline and that everyone else is mobile, Variel will lead with Sko out of the complex. Variel will try to make sure they go back the way they came so as to limit the unexplored and possibly more dangerous areas. The rest follow in line behind and hopefully everyone makes it out ok. Variel will continue to cast light as needed to keep everything visible during the exodus.

Dhaavan will follow behind Sandara and Flynn as they carry Ratline out, walking along the path they came. while walking, Dhaavan tells Jack

Jack flits off down into the chambers adjoining the path we take, looking into the room, then darting to where it meets with the outer path, looking for shiney's, esoteric lore stuff, and danger waiting to ambush us!.
Stealth: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (18) + 18 = 36
Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Remember that Ratline is a halfling so you shouldn't have a problem carrying him.

You do not see anything out of the ordinary on the way back. The tunnels have started to fill and it is good that you left when you did as you are getting close to the ceiling by the time you make it back to the cove. The churning waters are difficult to swim in but you all manage to secure yourselves to the rock while you figure out how to get everyone out.

FYI: I gave you guys all the loot that was in the caves save what was on the Queen. I just had it all in the cauldron instead of having you all search for it.

"Jiro, Rain, You two are riggers, an i seen ya up the catwalk. Ya think you can handle climbin up the way with some rope to lend to the rest o us to climb up on?"

- How far is it up the rock face, and do we have nay climbing kits per-chance?
- If i recall, this area is almost down a hole where the water s, so there's no way to say Sail out, of here, so we need to climb up, or swim under where the water is coming from?
- If i'm wrong about the scenery, can we get another description of where we are, and what we see in the current conditions?

Variel will try to climb out being deliberate and taking his time. Hopefully there are enough handholds that this approach works. If he is unable to make the ascent in this fashion, perhaps someone more nimble can do it.

Take ten to climb for a result of 16 carrying the rope with him. At the top fasten the rope and have Jiro climb up to then aid in the rest being brought up. If Variel can not take ten then have Jiro go first climbing with the rope. Ten have Variel climb with the ropes assistance. Once two of us are up top then raise the others to get everyone out.

Ninja'd by Dhaavan but the same principle applies.

Seijiro will try to climb up as well, but if he can't manage it, he'll fall back into the water, pushing away from the wall as he falls so he takes little to no damage.

taking 10 on the climb if possible would give Seijiro an 18 on climb. If he can't take 10, then tell me how many rolls I need to get up the wall plz Here are a few to kick things off (don't recall how deep this was)

climb: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21
climb: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25
climb: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

You both are good with your 10's as climbing up was a dc 15. Dhaavan, you have the lay of the terrain right. It is a literal hole in the ground...a really really big one. The two of you can get up and lower ropes to those at the bottom. What are your plans once you get to the top. As a reminder to the west is the sea and wrecked ship. To the north is the encampment.

Here is the island map again.

Thanks for the help Jiro. That sure made it easier hauling everyone up with both of us rather than trying just myself to get everyone up. The way you climb I would think you are half simian.

Once on top of the hole, Variel will take a quick glance around. Remembering the sunken ship that they spied from the structure above...
Let's check out the ship quick since we are over here already. Who knows what we may find that can help us get rid of Plugg and Scourge when we get back on board.

Actually, my earlier suggestion was to take the tricorner hat; swim out pass the reefs which are close to the island, and once we swim past the reefs we “morph open” the hat into the boat, then get into the boat, sail around the island while we’re past the reefs until we get to the north side. Once we’re at the north side of the island, we can simply sail through the opening in the reefs, get the other boat, pick up our gear and water barrels then take both boats back to our ship; nice and easy.

All it would take is for us to swim past the reefs. I don’t how far the reefs are, or how much area we need to cover to swim past the reefs, but if we can take 10 on the swim check, we should be able to get there – pop open the boat – and sail around the island to the north side.

I mentioned that earlier; but all we need to know is the swim check needed. If we can make the check fairly easily, we can be back at the ship in a matter of posts.

We just need to know the distance that we have to swim; and if we can do it. If we can – it should be pretty quick and we won’t even need to climb out of the cliffs, but can swim there directly without having to climb.

So the question is: will we need to climb out, or can we just swim out – bop the hat into the boat, then sail around the island and get back to the ship?

Fine plan but let's look at the sunken ship first.

I think we should collapse the 2nd boat before we get in sight of the Man's Promise - no need to alert them to the fact that we have a 2nd boat or what the hat does...

I don't know, I say we should pass on the sunken ship. We have a time limit to get back to Plugg. There may be something of use there, and then again, there may not be. If we don't get back to Plugg, he may sail without us.

Actually...

"Dhaavan - do you think you can get your mate Jack to take that Anchor Feather token all the way back to the ship? In a pinch, he could carry it and use it to anchor the ship and prevent Plugg from leaving, assuming he hasn't done so already... Hell, maybe Jack could even do a little spying around, and let us know what's going on, if possible."

I know that the range of Jack from Dhaavan puts him out of range for much of his powers, but I also know that Jack could easily fly there and back in less than a half hour. I assume that the Feather Token has an activation word, and since Jack can also talk he probably could say the word to activate the token; but only if we needed to... Or at least fly back fast and then let us know if we have to hurry, or have a moment to rest easy and actually check the sunken ship.

But if there's any underwater combat afoot in the sunken ship (as opposed to the usual 2 dimensional and easily plotted combat) - I think I'll be one of the guys hanging back and relaxing on the beach ;)

I think we should collapse the 2nd boat before we get in sight of the Man's Promise - no need to alert them to the fact that we have a 2nd boat or what the hat does...

Works for me - I'm down either way. But can we fit Rat and Sandy and us in the same boat? If yes, I say hell yeah, one boat it is. But if not, well, I would think that a second boat we "liberated" from some useless villagers that we easily defeated in an well-embellished bloodbath by us may show our prowess to undecided crew who don't know who to join with.

But yeah, one boat is the good move, unless we are unable to fit them in it, of course.

You can swim out passed the reef and use the tricorne hat for the boat if you want. Don't worry about rolling. Just let me know if you want to check out the sunken ship or not.

probably obvious, but vote s for the sunken ship.

Well, I guess I'll help with the sunken ship - but only if we have time. Like, how much time do we realistically have to to search this thing and get back to our own ship? If we got the time, sure, I'll do what I can to scope things out, no worries.

But I don't want to delay our journey to our own ship if we actually think that Plugg may be sailing off without us. Other than getting left behind on the island, I'm totally down with the plan. But if it looks like we don't have the time, I'm going to vote "no" on exploring the sunken ship. But again, that's only if we don't have the time.

How long before plugg said we had to be backon the boat and he sails on? and what time is it now? If I recall it was 48 hours, so we had that day till about now, then we have tonight and the rest of till the time we arrived on the island. So what time do we need to be back at the boat.

RE FLynn's suggestion, would Jack be able to use the feather token?

"Yeah, what sort o' connection is there wit that lost boat, and the rest. Plugg be damned, we got time right? long as we don't run into too much trouble," Dhaavan sort-of chuckles nervously. He's certainly very curious, but out of spells. But the rest of us have a few left, right?

"And after checkin that out we can use cover of night to sail back into the beach and get to the dingy what Plugg sent us out in without 'em noticing?"

We left the ship fairly early on day one - I want to say around 11:00 AM. We got the island and camped out and spent the night. We woke up and walked down to the waterline and searched the cove long enough for the tide comes in.

Now, I don't know what time it is in game - but remember, we still need to get back to the ship. The following are some basic assumptions - if the map is "to scale" and we're sailing outside the reefs - that is - the grayer part of the water, it looks like there is roughly 10 miles to travel over water. Problem is - even a sailing ship gets average speed of about 2 miles an a hour (row boats can average 10-15 miles a day, maybe less with currents) - which means that depending on the current time (and water currents around the island) we could be pushing it; as it may take us about 5 hours alone to get to the north side of the island (though it may take less, it's just a guess until we hear from the GM). On the other hand, that's a lot better than 36 hours of walking. Of course, all of this assumes that Plugg wasn't planning on slipping away at nightfall, or maybe even giving us more time to at least come back with the water. But I thought I'd toss it out there, just to chew over.

Jack, as for the anchor token - it would certainly delay Plugg one more day, if we can get it to work. I don't know about the rest of the party, but having one more day to rest up at that village, for example, than waking up and stabbing at the ship before dawn and advance with darkness than to deal with Plugg directly would certainly be helpful to me at least (via HP and other abilities). Also - even if you can't use the Anchor Token for Dhaavan - you could at least fly over to the ship, see it's general lay and progress of repairs, than give us the tip on how seaworthy it looks, and if it looks like they're reading to set sail and how much time we have... anyhow, that's just a suggestion.

which is why i asked the GM what time it was, and when we had to be back, and asked him if Jack can use the feather token.

GM: Does the feather token anchor the ship, or does it just conjure an anchor that you can use to more a ship which lasts a day? cause if it's the latter, even if jack could use the token, Plugg could jsut pull the anchor up. I'm not sure how the token resolves here...

You all have time you think to check out the ship should you wish.

I look at the sky and sigh.

"If you feel it is a good idea to go looking in a sunken ship, I suppose I will come, too. Though of course; some of our group is wounded and many of us are already without the full use or range of spells or powers. Further, we yet have Plugg to deal with, once we return. Please remember this when we advance..."

"I think it would be better to get Rat back to the ship and take what we can there by Plugg's life, as there may be trouble there, and no promise of reward. However, I will go after this instead, as the party seems resolved on it."

At this point I guess I will follow whoever is on point.

Status Check time! since we're concerned about health and resources.
I got a Cure Light Potion
0 Lv 1 spells
2 acid orbs left
2 alchemist fires
and my full 17 HP.

We got the rest of the day and plan on kiling plugg soon as we get back t the ship, right? which means we sleep and fill up on spells and stuff, and kill him in the morning. =]

Seijiro has a Thunderstone, 2 flasks of acid, alch fire, tanglefoot bag, a potion of invis, but no healing potions left. Has full hp remaining.

Shield and frostbite for spells, full hp, one potion of cure mod left, one arcane pool point left, plenty of alchemist fire and acid flasks. Agree with Dhaavan that we explore now, rest for the night and mutiny in the morning at full strength. Mutiny works better on a full nights sleep and full stomach.

If we are worried about being hit by something down there, why doesn't someone take one of the invisibility potions we have and search that way. No real risk and information can be gathered and possible items acquired.

If this is what we are doing then Variel will head out to sea helping those with less ability to swim, Dhaavan or Ratline or Sandara perhaps.

not sure invis would work underwater since you would leave a visible 'bubble' that moved around.

I'm down with fighting Plugg in the morning; but the question is - will he eagerly accept us back on the ship without a fight? We may get back to the ship and find him pointing weapons on us and try to fire out at us as we approach or attack us outright when we get back on the ship, trying to rob us or anything. If that happens, we're in hot soup. If we survive the night - we may have a chance. That's why I've been kind of nervous about going off on other side quests.

But as Caesar once said "The die is cast"... so; let's go check out the sunken ship. Who knows, we may get lucky :)

Edit: Didn't someone have a ring of swimming at one point?

Maybe we should leave folks like Ratline on the beach until we search the ship, then come back and get them after we search the sunken ship? In which case, we can leave the NPC's to "guard" the members of the party who can't swim. Does that plan sound reasonable to anyone?

Since all can fit in the hat/boat I figured it would be Sandara and Ratline who hold the hat/boat steady while we search. it prevents having to face the breakers again and is quicker.
Jiro, didn't realize that invisibility let a visible bubble underwater...interesting...thanks.

I'm not sure if it does or not - that's the way our group plays it - but Imm might have a different take on it.

Well, I thought Rat was still unconscious. But either way we slice it I'm guessing he'll be out of commission, because even if he was up I don't think he can do much anyway, given his missing limbs. Also, we're dealing with a lot of NPC's at this time, so I kind of also figured it would be a simple way to just pencil them out of another potential combat without having to worry about NPCing them.

Tactically, it also makes sense to leave the NPC's on the beach, in a way. After all, before we send out a boat with our crew over the water, it would make sense that we first send out a "strike team" to scout the ship out. After all, the GM hinted the Grindy's were gone mysteriously. Maybe they're hiding in the ruined ship? So if we wanted to avoid getting our boat attacked, we send out a few PC's who are able to move forward, have them scout the ship for enemies/supplies - then when it's good, we yell to the NPC's on the beach "All Clear" and they can follow us nice and easy with the hat-boat/supplies/wounded.

Granted, that seems a bit convoluted, in a way, but we're likely looking at NPC's for a while, at least until Val and Sko can get back online. So this side quest can give us something to do while we wait for them to become available again, and gives everyone a plausible excuse to have the party split up between players that can post and those who need to be NPC'd. But that's just a suggestion.

For what it's worth, while I don't know about an air bubble per se regarding invisibility, the rules do seem to suggest that though people can't see you - if you are standing in water, they can see where you are standing because the water itself is displaced. Makes sense that they could see water displaced around you while swimming. Eh, who knows - I always thought invisibility was kind of vague how they wrote it. I guess the GM will tell us his ruling when he can.

Anyway, whatever we do - good luck.

The reason I would suggest to head out with everyone is that if someone should go unconscious we have the boat near to place them in to prevent drowning. If the queen escaped and the rest of the Grindylows are there, we will need all of us not just a strike force.

The reason I would suggest to head out with everyone is that if someone should go unconscious we have the boat near to place them in to prevent drowning. If the queen escaped and the rest of the Grindylows are there, we will need all of us not just a strike force.

"Aye, a fair point, I'll grant you. But as it stands, we already have a lad out. Also, my chief concern was that if enemies are there we may end up defeating them, and maybe even easily. But even so, they may also attack and capsize the very boat we sail upon. If the boat is damaged or sunk, then we have a long walk to our ship... Maybe we could jury-rig something with some logs and rope to make a crude raft to sail out to the hulk and explore it, rather then risking the boat itself to possible enemies?"

"But on the other hand, perhaps it would be better to avoid the wreck altogether. For myself, I don't know what the safest choice is, but I'm only mentioning the chance for our boat to be damaged only because I don't want to be stranded here, and I don't know the strength or durability of this magic boat that we will be sailing. If this venture results in a fight which ends up sinking our boat, that could be bad for all of us."

I pause, thinking a moment.

"Also, consider this - whatever items of note or use may in that hulk below... there is a good chance they shall remain even after we leave this island. Very well; if our plans go well then we shall return to our own ship and kill Plugg and those scum who allied with him then take the vessel for ourselves and then seek adventures. Excellent!"

"But if we are successful with Plugg why couldn't we than turn the ship around and come back to the hulk and search it a day or so later, hell - even a week, if need be? Only when we search later, with the ship with us, we would be well armed, well fed, and well rested."

"I just don't know why we couldn't come back and search the wreck later, once we settle that hash on the ship and take her for our own. But if everyone feels that now is the time, I shall go with the group's decision."

Right, so basically, out of game, I'm kind of in a conundrum here. With many of our players still AFK, searching the ship seems like a cool side quest - but (and this is "but" is simple meta-game thinking) if we all go out there, whatever challenge is there would likely be upped by the GM to compensate - which means he'd have to micro-manage more, and I don't know if he has the time for extra micro-managing. If there are less PC's it seems likely there would be less villains for the GM to manage, which would make things much easier. We'd also not have to worry about those who can't post.

From an "in game" perspective, well - yeah, I kind of already said it, I guess. I'm not too eager to search that sunken ship because "in game" I'm more worried about getting back to Plugg and dealing with him as quickly as possible and with our abilities as good as they can be. As for the ship, sure it stands to reason there could be cool stuff on it. But I also figure (both in and out of game) that that's okay, because once we beat Plugg (if we beat him) we'll have a full ship, be fully rested, and be in a much better position to sail back and pick up the loot. I doubt highly that if there is anything down there it will go anywhere in the time that it take us to get Plugg, defeat him and take the ship. But anyway, that's my "in game" thinking.

The main things is, at this point I'd personally rather do whatever it takes - be it searching the sunken ship or going back to Plugg - so long as it results in a further advancement of the story/game. Most of my suggestions could go either way mainly because I'm kind of spit-balling ideas, hoping to come up with something that will make things easier or more comfortable for the GM so we can move on. I don't know what the best option is right now, but if it means we search the ship, I'll happily do it, if it means we go back to Plugg and do the ship later - I'll do that. Either way, I just kind of want to do what we can to move on. So I'm up for doing whatever works best for the GM. Once we gives us the tip - I'm down either way.

We could have Rain wait with Ratline, as Rain's being an NPC and Ratline is our cold, which settles the numbers thing and such. and that frees Sandara up to come along with her Channeling/Cures in case we get too beat up, and Valeros doesn't have the cures for it. Touch of the sea would be really helpful for our combatants.

Dhaavan would like to use either the Boarding Pike, or the bow and Bracers of Archery for this fight cause I'm out of spells and the range would be good so we doesn't need to waste any mobility spells on him, and he'll be able to contribute. the rest of the party will have a much better time fighting with their own weapons that trying to use a bow underwater, though someone else may want the pike.

"Personally I'd say that every bit or resources we can find would be useful in taking on Plugg. He has a definite advantage, and if we can rustle up a few more useful items from the loot in that wreck then all the better as we'll have a better chance against him." Dhaavan replies regarding the coming mutiny. "We got time now, and i'd much rather have every advantage possible going into this. Plugg was the favored mate of Harrigan, and if even Peppery differed to Harrigan, then I most certainly don't want to underestimate the Captain, nor would it be smart to not take them what Harrigan put his faith in, even Plugg, seriously."

I'm ready to go with whatever. I just need to know a plan. Are you spending the night and going in the morning? Are you going to the sunken ship first and then to the Man's Promise? As soon as I get a clear response and plan of action I will give you the results/details.

Wait, are we able to spend the night on the island before we go back to Plugg, or do we have to be back to him tonight? I thought we had to go back tonight - but if we have one more day - hell yeah; let's do the sunken ship. But I thought we had to get back to our own ship by nightfall. That means every spell, point of damage, power or ability - one more fight just depletes us more. So if we can sleep on the island and get back to Plugg the next day (after rest and refreshing spells/HP, etcetera) - I'm totally down with exploring the sunken ship now.

How long before plugg said we had to be backon the boat and he sails on? and what time is it now? If I recall it was 48 hours, so we had that day till about now, then we have tonight and the rest of till the time we arrived on the island. So what time do we need to be back at the boat.

as i mentioned before, we had 48 hours to return to Plugg and the Man's Promise. As such, we had day one till the next morning (24 hours) at which point we woke up and went to the fort and saved our friends. we have till tomorrow morning to get to Plugg and the boat.

So i think the best plan is to go to the sunken ship now, then sleep or get closer to the ship, and then we go to the Man's Promise in the morning. Eazy Peazy!

Do we want to leave Rain with Ratline, and Bring Sandara along to the boat? Valeros would make a great scout and Variel has cool swimming abilities too. We could bring Rain along, cause she can swim, but then that's another PC that is NPC'd and I think we could do without...

Looks like the had and ring both give competence bonuses to swim checks, so no stacking. sad-face...

does anyone else besides Rain have Besmara as their patron? just asking because only rain can make the hat a boat if that's the case, unless I misunderstood Imm's description of it.

Besmara is my patron and I believe Valeros's as well. So the hat should work for me if needed. I agree that we should have enough time to search the wreck, sleep and still get back to the promise in time. I am fine with Dhaavan using the bracers and a bow to help out from within the boat...providing we don't need someone in the water. Also whoever can use the pike should take it with them. Piercing with reach could be really useful underwater if we need it.

To make things simple, why don't we have everyone along, but not have Rain or Ratline involved other than to hold the boat. In regards to Flynn's metagame concern about upping the difficulty by having NPC's, who knows what the difficulty is anyways and in my experience NPC's do not increase the difficulty as they as perks from doing well in other areas. This is of course up to Immortal but not something I am too concerned with. That is of course until the Aboleth shows up.

Ok so Valeros, Flynn, Jiro, Sko, and I go down while Dhaavan covers us, Sandara is ready to heal if we need it and the rest stay in the boat to maintain its position. Sounds like a god plan, but you know what they say about plans and the enemy.

Cool! When Plugg said "you have 48 hours" I didn't know he meant that literally - I was thinking he meant sundown on the second day for some reason - not literally 48 hours from the time he sent us off. Okay, well, that clears things up a lot.

Well, if the GM's up for it, then - let's go for the sunken ship, than.

I look at the ship and shrug.

"Alright, it seems that we will be going after the ship, than."

Rain and Ratline stay up on the boat, Valeros and Sko can post when we get there, and the rest of us are on board. so we're going and all on the boat, which Rain and Ratline will remain on, while the rest of us, 7 of us go and check out the boat. Dhaavan may be suited to provide ranged support form the boat but we wont know till we get there. SO lets go everyone is on the 20-man boat and we're good.