@Kazador: Basically Túrion is trying to say that by all means, shave off your beard and hair in shame afterwards and consider yourself dishonored for all eternity - but you came here to take your revenge and retrieve the stuff from the vaults so you better not go die in a blaze of glory!
He already has to apologize for the friendly fire stuff, so what's one more insulting speech :/
Thanks folks! I've been focusing on learning how to make hard encounters that don't have to kill for a while. Still getting the hang of it. The centipede wasn't my best work. XD
Turion: I love the way you're urging Kazador to fight smarter and harder. Take a hero point.
Also, random thoughts on flaming sphere and greater: I tend to think of them as big balls of fire occupying almost a whole square. But given that they don't hurt someone adjacent and only she'd light like a little torch, they are probably only a few cm across. Still hurts quite a bit though.
I use hero points a little differently. This info has been added to campaign info. I'll provide it here as well.
Disclaimer: My hero point mechanic is different than the RAW. You can only have 1 hero point at a time so it's up to you whether or not saving it is worthwhile. Further, I'm house-ruling that using a hero point deals 1d6 of damage to the user as pushing yourself past your limits takes a physical toll. Hero points may only be used in combat for one of the following purposes.
Uses of hero points:
Act Out of Turn: You can spend a hero point to take your turn immediately. Treat this as a readied action, moving your initiative to just before the currently acting creature. You may only take a move or a standard action on this turn.
Bonus: If used before a roll is made, a hero point grants you a +8 luck bonus to any one d20 roll. If used after a roll is made, this bonus is reduced to +4. You can use a hero point to grant this bonus to another character, as long as you are in the same location and your character can reasonably affect the outcome of the roll (such as distracting a monster, shouting words of encouragement, or otherwise aiding another with the check). Hero Points spent to aid another character grant only half the listed bonus (+4 before the roll, +2 after the roll).
Extra Action: You can spend a hero point on your turn to gain an additional standard or move action this turn.
Inspiration: If you feel stuck at one point in the adventure, you can spend a hero point and petition the GM for a hint about what to do next. If the GM feels that there is no information to be gained, the hero point is not spent.
Recall: You can spend a hero point to recall a spell you have already cast or to gain another use of a special ability that is otherwise limited. This should only be used on spells and abilities possessed by your character that recharge on a daily basis.
Reroll: You may spend a hero point to reroll any one d20 roll you just made. You must take the results of the second roll, even if it is worse.
Good reminder. Been quite a while since anyone's gotten one of those.
I try not to throw them around willy-nilly like I do high CR encounters. ;)
Also next three days I have national guard drill. Going to suck...will be outside in the snow day and night. Might have a place to charge phone. So if I don’t post it’s due to phone being dead.
Given the above (my condolences BTW) I'm not sure we'll be hearing from Kazador until Monday. Normally I'd say BOT him to keep things moving (because I'm a impatient jerk) but this is kinda a critical character point for Kazador and we're going into a weekend where things usually slow down anyways so I think waiting is just fine.
Ah good point, Fyrtor. Ok I'll give him until Monday.
I agree, this quest is kind of central to his character, and this seems a pivotal moment. We should definitely wait for him to get back from National Guard duty.
Thank you all for you’re understanding. In a sleeping bag right now, trying to warm up. Feet feel like ice. Stupid army keeping us outside like this. Telling us to expect several inches of snow. Bah. Luckily still have power on phone.
—-
As a note, I have 0 idea where I’m going with this character development. Will Kazador be on a quest for redemption? Will he become like a warhammer slayer? Will he sink back into his alcoholic stupor? I’ve no idea, and will play it by ear. Whatever happens though this is a lot of fun. :)
If you are going for Slayer, I'll heavily recommend
as inspiration. I mean, honestly, that fully reads like a Dwarven Barbarian PC's curriculum vitae in a d20 roleplaying game.
Kazador, are you not taking any actions this turn?
In case you're curious, the "old Dwarven dialect" in the impassioned call to arms that Mel just delivered is real-world Anglo-Saxon. The passage comes from a poem known as The Battle of Maldon, which records an actual battle fought in that place. It's generally regarded as the single clearest declaration of the Anglo-Saxon heroic ideal -- and its flaws.
If you would like, you can read the full poem in translation. It's not terribly long. The gist of it is that in August of 991, a group of Vikings under command of Olaf Tryggvason landed on the island of Northey, and the local Anglo-Saxon defenders (under the command of Earl Byhrtnoth) promptly bottled them up there.
A parley was called, and Olaf complained that it was dishonorable not to meet them in open battle and fight like men. And so Byrhtnoth let the Vikings leave the island, and fought a pitched battle against them. He and his forces were wiped out almost to the last man.
The translation I've given here is basically that of Elaine Treharne from her book Old and Middle English: an Anthology (published in 2000); but I have made a few small tweaks to heighten the drama of the passage at the expense of perfect grammatical accuracy.
That class on comparative dwarven culture has been standing Mel in good stead. ;-)
Ah, Turion. I see that you are also a man of culture.
And Mel, love the post. Very well done!
@GM: Oh, thanks!
Hehe, Kazador, cheers to culture!
@Understanding: I kept the talking brief, because we are in combat and we do, theoretically, have 6-second rounds. Most GM's are fine with stretching that a bit for narrative purposes, but I tried to keep things short and impactful.
If you prefer for Túrion to only see Dwarven culture the way you implied in the inner monologue, I can support that. But what I was aiming for was something very different that actually only uses your weapon as a symbol for yourself(lost and needs to be found again), rather than a mere magical artifact.
Full transcript:
Basically, that the values and rules Kazador follows are based on a social system that was wiped out. These traditions failed to protect the people of his clan. If he is unwilling to change, blindly following what was true in the past, there is no reason to hope he will succeed where hundreds of his brethren failed. => "No, you are not a Thane. Your clan is dead. You are a ghost of Khazad Gravr."
If he means to avenge them, to achieve his goals, he must be willing to adapt. Willing to break the chains of tradition that bind him. If that means doing things that would have gotten him exiled or worse, then so be it. He stands alone, and is the last hope of revenge for his clan. If such can only be achieved by sacrificing his own honor, then he owes it to those already dead. => "A spirit of vengeance. There is no line to hold with your clansmates here. Only Orcs to take your revenge on, by all means that work."
Going down that path, abandoning who you were is hard, but it does not mean you have to abandon your identity - just as a weapon can be broken and reforged, so can Kazador learn to find his new role and place in the world, something he would need to do after his mission is accomplished, anyway, lest he ends up a good-for-nothing drunkard. Abandoning your traditions and rules, while upholding your values and beliefs is the way Túrion suggests. You still get to choose who you will be, and for now, that path lays beyond a few dozen orc corpses before you can call yourself a proper Runewarden again. => "Slaughter enough, and you'll find the one who took your hammer, Runewarden."
All that said, I am fully willing to adopt another interpretation, and/or have a talk about the topic with Kazador, Algric and/or Mel afterwards.
I figure Mel's not going to be able to do any talking this round besides that recitation.
Regarding interpretation of Dwarven culture, I'm obviously pretty free form and game for improvising. There's such a rich range of Dwarven cultures within a broadly similar archetype in Canon and non-canon sources so I'm pleased to follow Kazador's lead.
Misc: I like playing epic battle music for my in-person players. J would definitely be playing some right now for this scene. You'll just have to help me out and imagine.
GM I have a question, so I'm not sure how so many orcs moved so far through the spike growth. They can't see it and so should have dificulty picking a path to avoid the spikes. Regardless they each should have had to move through a minimum of 3 squares with spikes. Reading the spell it says a creature that takes damage must make a reflex save or suffer 1/2 movement speed. Now there are two ways that could be interpreted. One reflex save per spell, or 1 reflex save per instance of damage.
My interpretation is the more penalizing version simply because attempting to run a football feet length area covered in spike sseems like a guarantee of wounds to one's feet and because the penalty seems to mirror catrops which would be handled by square I believe.
If that's not how you want to interpret it, and I can understand for balance reason it might seems too good, but please let me know though so I can plan not to use that spell again.
When I've run it in the past, I've read to spell to mean that they automatically take damage for every square they pass through, and the Reflex save is triggered by taking damage, so it would be one save per square of movement.
On the topic of epic battle music, I think "Guardians at the Gate" on the album "Chronicles" by Audiomachine seems appropriate.
Fyrtor, it's just a symptom of me being unfamiliar with the spell. I think one save per square sounds right. As for them seeing the spiked areas, I forgot about that as well. The one thing I got right initially was them taking damage.
But also we should check that there are plants in an area, yes? Let's say 50% chance that this area is wet enough for fungi. High means fungi.
So I'll let you cast the spell without fungi this time and we'll call it even that I forgot to have their speed and not let them know where to walk the first time. I know better for future rounds now. They can't see where there are and aren't spikes but will have to find out by trial and error. And they'll need reflex saves or suffer halved speeds.
Ok sounds good. Thanks GM
Perhaps I missed something, but why is the presence or absence of fungi relevant? I don't think any of the active spells require plants.
EDIT: Never mind, I thought we were talking about Spike Stones, not Spike Growth. The former doesn't require plants, the latter does.
Any ground-covering vegetation in the spell’s area becomes very hard and sharply pointed without changing its appearance.
In areas of bare earth, roots and rootlets act in the same way. Typically, spike growth can be cast in any outdoor setting except open water, ice, heavy snow, sandy desert, or bare stone.
We are in a semi-'urban' setting, not so much outdoor. Unless the Dwarves liked earthy dirt-streets, chances are the floor is worked stone, which does not allow roots and rootlets to fulfill the role underground.
Spike Growth relies on plants, though less so than entangle. Since we are in the dwarves' halls there's a reasonable chance that the area is "bare stone." Spike stones doesn't have the same dependence and so is a better spell despite the modest increase in damage.
Unfortunately, wife and I are down with the flu. Might be able to update tomorrow.
Sorry man, hope you feel better soon :)
Same.
Flu sucks. :(
Get well soon.
Albeit I have to congratulate on your remarkable timing.
I was ill simultaneously.
Gosh, I might need to send Mel around to do Heal checks on both of you. Oh, no wait, that doesn't do anything about disease ...
Treat Disease is part of the Heal Skill. Go ahead.
By the power of the dice, I declare you both heaaaaaaaaaaaled!
I'd like to aid on that check.
Oh dang... maybe I shouldn't try to help...
Aye, aye, feeling better, just keep the blight druid away from me, please!
Aye, aye, feeling better, just keep the blight druid away from me, please!
[dice=Fort]1d20+4+4
LOL XD
So worth checking up on this thread :)
Am healed! Will update within an hour or so.
Am healed! Will update within an hour or so.
Wonderful! I'm glad to hear Mel's ministrations have succeeded despite my best efforts...
So, that spell hit us pretty hard. (All I needed was a 6! Why do you hate us dice?) With Mel out for a while (that will save :( ) and probably Brolin too it might make sense for me to cover us. Then the orcs have to come too us through out mess of battlefield control, or wait us out which works just fine for us.
If you cover us, do it at the end of our turn, so we don't take mis-chance for fighting back(e.g. Kelian).
I'll wait and see how the Dwarfs act before deciding with Nelly. Maybe she gets a flank, or maybe she should withdraw, too, having delayed them, then charge against next round(with 50 feet base speed, they could not catch her with a charge themselves)
DC 18 on a glitterdust spell? Jeez. Must be 10 base + 2 spell level + 6 casting stat + 2 other stuff (spell focus and greater spell focus?).
Still not convinced about the fog. It can't be dismissed, and it's going to hang out there for what, 70 minutes? Sure, they can't target us with arrows, but that works both ways, we wind up losing the option to shoot melee combatants as they approach, and everybody (friend and foe) takes miss chances.
All true, but it's an option. Either way I'm going to take my turn last I think.
You know, I've never really thought about it before, but why does Glitterdust uses Will as its save type?
If it were some kind of mental effect, Will would make perfect sense. But it's not; it's a conjuration (creation) spell that creates actual physical particles. I could see either of the other two save types for it -- Reflex to close your eyes fast so they don't get in, or Fortitude to clear them out. But Will doesn't really seem to fit.
Not complaining. Just musing aloud.
Btw, congrats to our gm for fighting off papa nurgle
Yeah it is a rather odd one. I rationalize it as the glitterdust creates a very high noise to signal ratio so it's very hard to pick out what you can actually see. But if you focus very hard, you can still tell where things are. Now what's weird to me is that an incorporeal creature hit with glitterdust that then flies up out of the area can still be blinded, RAW. I guess they really habe to focus to get all that memory of sparkles out of their incorporeal vision centers...
I would say this is a matter of game balance over verisimilitude but... Glitterdust isn't known for being one of the most balanced second level spells...
Papa nurgle? Oh gosh... But haha. Thanks!
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Sometime before the campaign began, far away from Kazad Gravr, Mel's mother Ariala makes a discovery ...
"What's this?" Ariala says to herself, pulling a sheaf of slightly browned papers out of the chest. She sits back on her heels, knee deep in the detritus of spring cleaning.
"Ah!" she says. "It's one of those papers Melira wrote in college. Let's see ... yes, sophomore decade. What's this one about?" She settles more comfortably and starts reading.
By Melira Elenariel
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the course requirements for Elementary Arcana, part the Third.
Since the dawn of time, magic, the arcane, has coursed through our world, and through us. It is many long millennia since our ancient ancestors first mastered the arts that allow us -- or at least, a properly trained practitioner -- to produce specific magical effects on demand. Any new apprentice learns to conjure light. Any journeyman can walk unseen. Any master can cross the span of a continent in the blink of an eye. And every one of them is confident in their ability. If they make the same gestures, and speak the same words, then they produce the same effect. Every time.
But they are wrong. Or, at least, not as right as they believe themselves to be. As I intend to show in the remainder of this paper, the nature of the arcane in our world is mutable. The apprentice can indeed conjure light; the journeyman can spin a cloak of invisibility, and the master can carry them all three from Lywelas to the capitol of Iustia in the blink of an eye. Those spells work reliably -- for now.
It is not in the moment that spells, or the arcane, change; it is over vast stretches of time. Let us take, for example, the spell commonly known as glitterdust. Under current practice, the mage casts a handful of mica into the air with one hand, while gesturing with the other to indicate the target area, and speaks the invocation that conjures glittering specks of dust imbued with the might of the arcane throughout the indicated space. These settle and cling to anything in the area, and often render the targets temporarily blind, though it is possible that a strong-willed individual may shake off the effect before the spell naturally expires.
However, the spell has not always worked in quite the same way. It may not even have been known in the First Age; or if it was, then no record of its existence then has come down to us.
It is only in the Second Age that we can be sure that glitterdust was known amongst our ancestors. The ancient master Niryn, of the early Third Age, reports in Ars Invisibilitatem et Contrariae that:
Yea, and during the Second Age it became known amongst the learned that an admixture of mica, laid upon by the Art and cast unto a space, might cling upon the forms of those therein, and by that means reveal their presence. The walkers thus afflicted do often find that the bright and sparkling motes darkeneth the sight of their eyren; and this becometh a great calamity unto them, for that they standeth shewn to all and sundry, while that their own eyren seeth not the light of Sarenrae, and thus blindness maketh all the world invisible unto them. My own master, Gariveth the Golden, imparted this spell unto me, and spake wisely saying 'Thus do the tables turn upon those who would cheat the sight of their fellows.'
Yet it is strange, for my master did teach unto me that the dimness of sight should last a variable passage of time, from 12 to 30 heartbeats; that few but other practitioners of the art could resist the blindness; and that no creature stands immune to the particles. But in my experience, it lasteth a set span of time which groweth in proportion to the skill of the caster, the servants of the gods more easily resist the blindness, and some powerful creatures may win free of the effect altogether.
Later in the Third Age, it is well documented -- and numerous surviving grimoires attest -- that none can resist the basic effect, and that any creature of strong will may resist the blindness entirely, but that once subject to it there is no remedy but to endure the blindness until the spell expires or is dispelled. But Master Niryn's claim that the blindness lasts for the full duration of the spell seems to have raised no comment among his contemporaries; which is very peculiar, for current practitioners can well attest that a strong-willed individual may often throw off the blindness well before the motes of dust fade out.
What can account for these discrepancies? It seems clear: the magic changed its nature. Although it may be stable for long periods time, magic is not static and unchanging. How could it be? The arcane, by its nature, changes the nature of the world. Is it then so surprising that it can change its own nature, as well? Perhaps the only real surprise is its mutability is so little remarked.
"Oh, Melira," Ariala says fondly. "Always so confident."
At the end of the essay she finds some notes from the professor.
The "since the dawn of time" opening is seriously overused, and makes implicit claims of universality about the subsequent paper. Avoid that rhetorical gambit at all costs; it's trite and overplayed. Although you've clearly done some serious research, your evidence is much too thin to support your conclusion. For starters, to seriously support such a large claim you would need to show a pattern of change affecting far more than just one spell. For another, you would need to account for alternative explanations for the discrepancies you have found. For example, perhaps Master Niryn misremembered things his master told him -- Ars Invisibilitatem et Contrariae was composed in his dotage, after all. And particularly in older texts, we are reliant not just upon the words of the author, but on the fidelity of the transcription. The more times a text has been copied, the greater the chance that the scribe may slip and introduce an error -- then faithfully transcribed by subsequent scribes, who may introduce errors of their own. I advise narrowing your claims to something more readily defensible. Also, bear in mind that as you are not a trained practitioner of the arts -- nor show any particular facility for them -- publishing a paper along these lines would likely gain you nothing but derision from our wizardly colleagues. See me during my office hours if you wish to discuss the matter. B."
Several words in a language Ariala doesn't know have been scribbled at the end. "Melira! Really," Ariala says, knowing they must be something rude in some dead tongue. She smiles fondly. "I hope you're well, out there in Brookside."
She packs the essay away again and continues with her spring cleaning.
Haha. Aweseome, Mel!
That is great Mel :)