DM Jesse's Kingmaker PbP (Inactive)

Game Master Jesse Heinig

Oh, for the old days of henchmen and hirelings!

I agree that things will likely go the way you guys are saying but in and out of character, I would like to here what they have to say. It adds some real weight to the decision if they have a chance to say something. Makes them less of an encounter and more of a moment. Its more work for the DM but he is doing a great job and I encourage it, even if we still decide to end it here.

As for Vance and the others currently awake. I think we might actually be safe from most of them. Maybe we can work a deal with Vance to come back, stay close and watch over one or two of the inexperienced for a while and rotate. He gets help to watch his back, carry elk and what not, and we slowly build a scouting force for the future.

And the DM mentioned the wagon would take too long.

Or yeah. We could hire them.

Oh, for the old days of henchmen and hirelings!

Hirelings are cheap.

Maybe ask Oleg to send an offer letter to folks back closer to civilization next time you get back. :)

In fact, this has come up specifically in this context!

EDIT: And like Cassandra said, maybe offer to pay people. Diplomacy rolls are great for making friends, but you need to motivate them with stick and carrot. Your stick is "if you do banditry, we will execute you." Your obvious carrot is "if you decide to become our allies, we will pay you, house you, and feed you."

If you folks remember the old Temple of Elemental Evil module, the militiamen guarding the village of Hommlet are specifically described as a group of bandits that were routed by Rufus and Burne, then offered stable jobs. They became Burne's Badgers and are the guards of the castle that's under construction when the adventure starts.

Actually yes, offering to hire them is a great idea. Aside from the pay, there are other possible perks like not having to sleep out in the wilderness, depending on what we hire each one to do.

We just need to make sure that we'll have the continued cash flow for this part of the adventure to keep up our end of such a deal :)

At first I thought the italics meant something sinister but then I remembered reading about the Six River Freedoms. I really like them and I hope they play more of a part in the dealings here.

If we can successfully get Sareah, Cobb, Vance, Hatch, and Laric back to Oleg's, I recommend we hire on as many as we can. Hatch should be a fine porter, for example.

Ok, to make sure I'm clear:

* Executing the gladiators and the sycophant.
* Do you want to question Kressle, or just execute her?
* Are you going to rest overnight or head back to Oleg's immediately?

At first I thought the italics meant something sinister but then I remembered reading about the Six River Freedoms. I really like them and I hope they play more of a part in the dealings here.

They do mean something sinister. Wait for it.

The Six River Freedoms may or may not play a part in this game, depending on what you ladies do! Remember, the Stolen Lands are not yet a kingdom -- the River Kingdoms are more like Pitax and Daggermark, so far. Once you start making your own kingdom, you will decide how much or how little you uphold those ideas. :)

*We will also execute the arsonist.
*We'll interrogate her first and then execute.
*I vote for head back to Oleg, or at least leave the woods and camp on our previous camping spot.

Anyone else? :D

^that.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ok, I'll assume that the party is ok with this plan. If anyone has any objections, just make a clarifying post and I'll tweak if needed.

I'm fine with it. :)

I'm good too; sorry, was out and about most of the day and then crashed on the couch for awhile once I got home!

So...anyone got any big holiday plans for this week? Or just plans if you don't celebrate? I figure we're in the holiday slowdown zone at this point, but that doesn't mean we can't chat a little here in the meantime :)

Not much for me for this week except for Christmas Day itself. So mostly quiet here. So I am up for talking. But kinda wish we could continue the pbp to see where the story takes us.

I'm working on Monday & Tuesday, then on Weds. it's a six+ hour drive. Will be spending X-mas eve and day with the in-laws, doing some gaming with pals. Will try to check in and not leave you all hanging. Sorry I was slow this weekend. :D

No worries DM, as I said I kinda figured things would slow down for most games for anywhere from just this week to possibly all the way through New Years; I know a couple of players in other games I'm in have already said they'll be traveling extensively until after the new year.

As for me I need to get to work on the pretzel kisses I usually make (melt a Hershey kiss and smoosh it between two square pretzels) since I plan to take some to my family gatherings as well as to where I used to work. I'll probably work on doing that today/tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday.

There'll probably be one last run out to some of the stores with my parents, but since I've got all my shopping done I'll really just be along for the ride since it's a good excuse to get out of the house.

Christmas Eve will likely be spent with my in-laws, though I might be able to swing the gathering with my extended family that day as well, depending on when things start. Christmas Day will be spent in Nashville with the extended in-laws family and then we'll come home and go to my parents' that night to eat and open gifts there. I think this'll be the third year in a row that we have Christmas tacos - it's becoming a tradition!

Sunday I think my F2F gaming group is going to get together and go see Star Wars, which should be fun.

And then I've got my friends' annual Christmas/New Years party to go to on the 2nd.

Other than that? The usual mix of video games, PbP, and job hunting! I've been on a Fallout kick lately which prompted me to finally finish up my playthrough of FO3 + the DLC and now I'm working on playing FO: New Vegas. I think we'll probably be getting FO4 for Christmas but my husband already called first dibs on playing it so I'll likely stick to NV and then move on to something else after that (not sure what though).

So if some pretzel kisses happened to show up in the mail, the group might fortuitously get some kind of Christmas bonus award. Just sayin'. Also I could tell you hilarious stories from the development of the original Fallout, as I was on the dev team.

For me it will be hard to post from X-mas eve until the new year, but I'll probably be able to post a bit between 28-30.

Hey, I'm always up for amusing stories though I must admit I've never actually played FO1 or 2 - though I do own them through uh...Steam or GOG I think, and plan to give them a try eventually. I suspect I'm one of many younger gamers that hopped on the fanwagon thanks to FO3.

And...what sort of bonus award are we talking? >.>

I'm not even sure I know what pretzel kisses are... but I'd love to hear Fallout development stories.

Update: I made the decision to have Cassandra follow two gods, Erastil and Tulis, early on but forgot about alignment. One is lawful good and the other chaotic good so I have changed Cassandra's alignment to be neutral good. Not really an issue since she isn't a cleric but it will be. I plan to take a level of inquisitor mostly for the conversion inquisition. Let's me use Wisdom in place of charisma for Diplomacy, Bluff and Intimidate.

I just realized this would open up grand diplomat as an option if the DM allows Wisdom instead of charisma for the position as well.

Swiggity Swag

Masterwork handaxe 2
Dagger 4
Potion (unidentified) 1
Shortsword 10
Longbow 10
Arrows 200
Trail rations 20
Silver earrings 1
Wooden music box 1
Bottle of potent green liquor 8
Crate of furs 3
Silver 321
Gold 185

Cassandra is taking a dagger and, possibly, the music box because she is oddly fascinated with it. Oh and 5 rations. Ran out on the way to Oleg's. That or she can hunt. Really good chance to at least find some for herself but speed is reduced.

Suggestions:
Keep the potion
Divvy 5 rations per person left behind plus one bow, one knife, and 20 arrows per person.
Was there tents back there? One tent or bedroll to them as well.
Sell the rest that isn't claimed.

Sell:
Masterwork handaxe 2
Shortsword 10
Longbow 7
Arrows 140
Silver earrings 1
Bottle of potent green liquor 8
Crate of furs 3

Silver 321 + Gold 185 = 43.42gp per person + whatever we can sell the above for.

Looks good to me; Kor already has a dagger but a second one can't hurt. Sadly she can't make use of a longbow, but she does have her crossbow at least.

Might as well get those rolls to identify the potion done, as you have two days of travel time back to Oleg's!

Since Carinna is in a constant struggle to keep in light load and she already took a longbow from the first bandits, she will not take the dagger, longbow and arrows.

I agree with the distribution though.

The longbow, dagger, and arrows are meant for Vance, Cobb and Sareah, not any of us. That way they can start learning to survive on their own.

Whoops, misunderstood you there. That also works then!

I've started a potion list on my character sheet. Since I'll be making so many and we're gathering cure potions, I want to make sure I know who has what. I've made single potions of enlarge person, mage armor, and cure light wounds, and we've picked up three more cure potions. I don't believe we've used any yet.

So, here's what I have:

enlarge person: Cassandra
cure: Carinna, Korinne, Valeska, one more (Telmarni?)
mage armor: Valeska

Does that sound right?

I think so... the only one used is the shield of faith potion that Carinna used before the big fight.

I would not mind a cure potion. :)

Hm, I just realized. What are the stats for the horses by the way? Are they regular horses or are they trained for a purpose?

Regular, non-combat-trained, not-heavy horses.

I'll update the swag bag when I have a free sec at a PC (currently using my tablet, which isn't very good for that sort of data entry).

Thank you! I finally finished updating Telmarni's character stats since we started. Added the horse and the tent! And cleared up her profile a bit. So should be slightly cleaner.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Merry Christmas yesterday! Wishing everyone well and may everyone have fun! :)

Just to stay in touch: I'm on vacation at the moment. I was supposed to get a new PC for Xmas but there were complications and a new desktop may not be in the cards for a few days. But, I can probably make updates via my laptop for the time being, if folks are available to carry on. :)

I'm around if we've got enough to keep posting but if not, I'm content to wait until after you get your shiny new PC and the rest of the holiday madness dies down :)

And on that note, I hope everyone here had a Merry Christmas/Happy <Insert Holiday of Choice>/Happy Friday :)

The holidays are over. Let us carry on.

Well, I do know some folks find themselves busy on through New Year's but technically yes, the holidays are over :)

I re-read that and it sounds meaner than I meant it to be. I meant my holidays are over and I am back at work where I post most often. So I can carry on.

I'm also free to post, at least until 31st.

Sell:
Masterwork handaxe 2: 306
Shortsword 10: 50
Longbow 7: 262.5
Silver earrings 1: ?
Bottle of potent green liquor 8: ?
Crate of furs 3: ?
Silver 321
Gold 185

Total 835.6 + the other stuff
GP per person is at least 167.12gp

Decided the arrows weren't worth it to sell so how about we just leave them behind at Oleg's just in case?

With that in mind Cassandra intends to get:
MW Artisans Tools 55gp
MW Survival Kit 50gp
10 Durable Cold Iron Arrows (crafted so half price) 10gp
2 Alchemist's Fire 40gp
2 Acid 20gp
1 tanglefoot bag 50gp
1 thunderstone 30gp

Total: 255gp
Hopefully the fur, liquor and earrings are enough to cover the deficit here. If not I'll just take the first three.

Is this alright DM?

EDIT: Foobared the math.

No worries Cass; I hope I didn't come across sounding offended or defensive because that wasn't my intent! Also, I'm fine with the selling of things that you've laid out :)

I am fine with that as well. Though I think we could pool resources to see about getting a wand of cure light wounds. I think three of us can use it without problem. Or at least two.

That is 750, which is most of our funds, and would take a week to get there since Oleg only has non-magical gear up to 500. Lamric might have something or could give us a deal but I don't think its worth it as a player. Unlike most games, we actually have time on our side for the most part and can rest to heal. I think we can subsist on healing potions and spells for a while. Its something to think about for the future but not really feasible or necessary right now in my opinion.

A partial charge wand would be the exception.

I'm in agreement with Cassandra on this one; a partial wand might be nice but otherwise we've got a fair bit more time and leeway (at least in this Book I think) on how and when to take care of things and explore so I'm not quite as worried about healing as I would be otherwise :)

You have plenty of time to explore now. Personally I would recommend that you make a few more cure potions and you concentrate on exploring the hexes between Oleg's and the bandit camp, at the very least, so you have that terrain well in hand. That should give you a week for Tamric to head out and back with any special requests.

Oleg currently has a purchase limit of 500 gp but this will go up over time.

No partially-charged wands available in current stock though, sorry. ;)

Right, with her part of the share Carinna will buy:

Current coins: 18 gp, 4 sp, 6 cp
Share: 167 gp, 1 sp, 2 cp

Purchases: mwk buckler (155 gp), cold iron arrows [5] (5 sp)

Are these available at Oleg's?