Doug M's Way of the Wicked (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

Bref hates dogs he loves to eat horses

How is that special tribe doing in Runelords Bref?

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As we leave the building

Ghost Sound seems like a possibility, besides chanting what other sounds could we use to attract attention?

I was thinking of trying to get their attention through some chanting and maybe some yelling about summoning dark demons from the pits of the Abyss, maybe a Hezru or something horrible that would cause the commander to want to run up there. My magic may be useful for creating those noises.
An illusion would be useful as well but the range is too short to be affective.

Minor image has too short of a range...only 35 feet at out level :(

Prop the headless body up and let them shoot at it for a while in the partial darkness.

Prop the headless body up and let them shoot at it for a while in the partial darkness.

That together with Ghost Sound would be fun!

If only we had Animate Dead Hero!

Also can Jax or Dren use Disable Device to set up a alchemist fire trap for those who manage to get through the door? I have three alchemists fire.

If we cast Fly on Edmin or Grumblejack is it ok for Cуровую to use a Fly on herself please? I mean she has the Fly skill at least and can use the wand of Fireballs and Invisibility to gain aerial advantage.

Do we really need to save it? I feel weird asking permission when it seems like a logical action for her to do.

I mean it will last 100 rounds I don't know why I have to save it, it should last until the end of the battle.

Or the end of the party.

Some info that got burried on the posts.

Current weather conditions are cloudy with not-so-distant thunder -- it looks like a storm is on the way, likely to arrive quite soon. The sky is completely dark. Most of the courtyard and the walls are pretty well lit by torchlight, however.

We Fly up against the sky and over then?

Speaking objectively, casting Fly on Grumblejack seems like the most efficient way to go here -- it eliminates the problem of him spending rounds taking his stuff off and putting it on again, and his high Str means he can carry a bunch of stuff (or people).

Based on DM and the Judge's thoughts I guess we put Fly from the Scroll on Grumblejack.

Hey is there a large rock for the catapult he can carry nd drop on someone as we go?

Please say yes, please say yes. They will think we have a working catapult and send men to take it out!

There are rocks, but you're going to be cutting it pretty close on encumbrance.

Okay then -- Fly and Bull's Strength on Grumbljack, Levitate on Edmin it is. Not everyone has put down their weight. With armor and gear, most of you are going to be around 200 lbs., give or take. With 800 lbs. of encumbrance Grumblejack can carry four of you, I'm pretty sure. Less sure whether Morsum can carry two, but rather than spend a couple of days figuring out everyone's exact weight I'm willing to handwave it. Please mark off the appropriate scrolls/spells.

Now: are you going with any spells like Darkness or Obscuring Mist, or just taxiing down the runway, fastening seatbelts and taking off?

Er ... Cуровую does not Bull's Strength memorized :( just FYI.

Last question about the rocks, could Edmin and Grumblejack throw one each as we depart so it looks like we have a working catapult the troops have to come up here to deal with? It does not even have to be precision attacks.

Now: are you going with any spells like Darkness or Obscuring Mist, or just taxiing down the runway, fastening seatbelts and taking off?

Fly is one of our secret advantages, once we let that secret out we can not hide that advantage, I do not think the majority of the fort can fly, we should keep that secret and our mobility as hidden as possible. Let them believe we are hiding or Invisible.

I almost forgot, I saw this picture of Ragnar a few hours ago.

Ragnar Al'Roth pic

Ragnar as puppy pre evil days (same dog)

xen comes in at about 190, he weighs 170 with a haversack, mithril shirt and a spear and two daggers on his immediate person

Huh, nobody has Bulls Strength? That makes it a little bit iffy -- Grumblejack can't get off the ground with more than 430 lbs (460 for his 21 Str, minus his own gear), and Morsum can only carry 400 (20 Str). I'm not sure you're going to be able to fit the five PCs who aren't Edmin into those two boxes.

The Judge doesn't have Bulls Strength?

I am pretty sure Judge has it available that's why I offered to cast Mage Armor with the wand while he Buffed Morsum to speed things up a few pages ago.

Cуровую and Jax have it in their spellbooks but not prepared.

Just checked -- yes, he has it. Judge, if you have no objection, can I assume you cast it on Grumblejack? (Casting it on Morsum would in theory work too, but I'm honestly not sure how Morsum flys with wings *and* carries four people -- nobody would be able to climb on his back, so he'd have to carry two in each arm somehow. So in return for not getting overfussy about who weighs how much, I'm going to say that it should be Grumblejack.)

So, for your boarding passes I'm assuming the following (corrections welcome):

Business Class (Morsum) -- Judge and Xen, one under each arm
Coach Class (Grumblejack) -- Zimu on his back, Jax and Dren each under an arm
Grumblejack also tows levitated Edmin, who is carrying Ragnar

I think that should do it. Now, please, everyone: (1) mark off those spells, and (2) tell me what else (if anything) you're doing before you depart. There's been a lot of discussion; finalize it now, please.

Xen will tap Edmin with one more wand charge 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3 that should fill all his available actions

Last question about the rocks, could Edmin and Grumblejack throw one each as we depart so it looks like we have a working catapult the troops have to come up here to deal with? It does not even have to be precision attacks.

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

Now: are you going with any spells like Darkness or Obscuring Mist, or just taxiing down the runway, fastening seatbelts and taking off?

Fly is one of our secret advantages, once we let that secret out we can not hide that advantage, I do not think the majority of the fort can fly, we should keep that secret and our mobility as hidden as possible. Let them believe we are hiding or Invisible.

What is Latin for 'Hail DM those of us about to die ... would rather not.'

There were plans for hurling rocks before take off and casting Darkness and possibly Ghostsound and propping up dead bodies to be targets.

There were plans for hurling rocks before take off and casting Darkness and possibly Ghostsound and propping up dead bodies to be targets.

Right. My question is, which (if any) of those things are you doing?

Darkness, obscuring mist and Ghost sound (which would be spells by Jax, Dren and Zimu (or is it Judge that has mist)

Remember that Dren is a small halfling andhas no armor. His weight in in the 35lb range right now.

Dren casts Levitate, changes size and then casts Ghost Sound. His sound is of a group of people chanting dark and evil words. Mentioning dark lords of the Abyss, making up some if needed, and mentioning the opening of a Gate for the Hezrou to come and vanquish their enemies.

He will then start to bring out his wand of CLW.

Darkness, obscuring mist and Ghost sound (which would be spells by Jax, Dren and Zimu (or is it Judge that has mist)

Jax has a Scroll of Obscuring Mist that several of us can read.

1d100 ⇒ 98

Huh. Okay then, 1d6 ⇒ 1

! Well.

! Well.

-

Xen break out the good wine we've hidden! No the really good stuff!

Darkness, obscuring mist and Ghost sound (which would be spells by Jax, Dren and Zimu (or is it Judge that has mist)

Okay, are we confirming Darkness and Obscuring Mist? Darkness, Jax can cast as a SLA. Since it's already dim light, it'll put you in an inky blob of blackness, meaning you can't be targeted directly and a 50% miss chance. You'll have to stay within 20' of the object radiating the darkness, mind. Since everyone but Edmin has darkvision, probably not a problem.

Obscuring Mist, are you sure you want to use that? Remember, it's stationary, so it would stay on the top of the tower after you leave.

So unless I hear otherwise, I'll assume Jax casts Darkness (in addition to the other spells) and nobody casts Obscuring Mist (not clear to me what the reason for it would be, though I welcome explanation.) And then off you go.

Oh it's localized, bleh no range on it? I'd say scrap that

Edmin holds Ragnar and waits.

Posting from phone so this may be a little off, I am not saying these are the groups actions, I am saying I think these are the actions.

We prop up the plundered bodies so it looks like there are targets here on the roof (if we use Obscuring Mist this is NOT needed) and we all keep an eye out for the return of Princess Monk or the trapdoor to be opened.

Dren is casting Ghost Sound making it seem we are still here on the rooftop (he can make the noise equivalent of up to 20 men).

Edmin, Morsum and Grumblejack each hurl rocks in the same direction to make it seem there is an operating weapon up here so it looks like the ground troops need to take out the ballista.

In the same round, Jax uses Darkness to cover our Fly off the roof. Can we Fly up and over so that the night sky is our background giving penalties for being spotted, in other words trying to use the lighting conditions to our advantage in slipping away.

If Cуровую is not allowed to cast Fly on herself can Grumblejack or Morsum carry her, Cуровую does NOT have any Str and I don't think I cold hold on properly.

I think Obscuring Mist was never intended to move with us, rather it was to make it seem we were still up here and planning something so the troops focus on this rooftop while we make our escape, in any event it was to keep them from seeing a globe of Darkness Fly off. It is still a valid idea.

The Judge said ignore burning down the horses after DM made a suggestion and Edmin and others made no comments when I offered to use that as a distraction so are we not using that diversion? That too I think is a useful action.

Did I miss anything?

Sorry that I did not post earlier, busy day with the family. I have posted the scenario several times and I am not sure what got mixed up, but here is the plan as I understand it.

The fly spell allows 60' speed, 40' with a medium or heavy load. Grumblejack is size large - at least that is what I have understood for the past year. Thus, he, with 21 Str, can carry 920 (460x2) pounds as a heavy load. Morsum is flying and has enlarge person cast on him. His enlarged strength is 20, thus, he can carry 800 (400x2) pounds as a large creature. This is because large creatures can carry double the medium amount. Morsum will fly at 20' with medium encumbrance (we can speed this up by using the Fly spell on Morsum and not casting Evolution Surge, but I do not think that this is necessary with the Darkness).

Bigger and Smaller Creatures: The figures on Table: Carrying Capacity are for Medium bipedal creatures. A larger bipedal creature can carry more weight depending on its size category, as follows: Large ×2, Huge ×4, Gargantuan ×8, Colossal ×16. A smaller creature can carry less weight depending on its size category, as follows: Small ×3/4, Tiny ×1/2, Diminutive ×1/4, Fine ×1/8.

The plan is:

Levitate on Edmin who will carry the puppy - levitate is limited to 500 pounds, this combo should be less than 500.
Evolution Surge(flight) + Enlarge Person on Morsum - he will carry Judge and Xen (combined weight around 400)
Fly on Grumblejack - he will carry Jax, Cy and Dren (who will be small) (combined weight also around 400, perhaps a little more, but not much since Cy is fairly light and Dren is small).

We are casting Darkness on Morsum's backpack. This should create an area of even darker darkness about us making us nigh invisible against the dark cloud covered sky.

Propping a body up against the parapet of the tower will simply make a target for the trigger happy guards when the darkness suddenly disappears. Ghost sound will also be used to make it sound like we are still on the tower roof.

There should be no need to cast Bull's Strength. If necessary, we will use an additional Levitate on Jax who can carry Dren. I think that reserving my last Level 2 slot for Haste if necessary is a better choice than Bull's Strength at this point.

With Morsum's slower speed, we should all be able to make it to the Gatehouse in 3 rounds, possibly 2, if we use double moves to fly.

I would love to stick a fireball into the stables, my only concern is the few remaining fireballs we have left. If there was another way, then we should definitely light them up. I would have summoned fire elementals in a second, just as I discussed doing in town a few weeks ago before the attack. Unfortunately nobody noticed, or mentioned, the stables until I was already in the 1 minute summon Morsum routine.

If others want to light up the stables, then by all means pop a fireball in there. Just make sure that we have enough fireballs and damage capabilities to hammer the commander and the rest of the troops when the need arises.

1) Oh! I completely missed the rule on large creatures getting double encumbrance. Okay, Bulls Strength not needed. My bad.

2) Throwing rocks off the roof is not going to harm anyone (everyone is under cover now). It's probably not going to be very convincing, either. (a) the dwarves were working on it, and some dwarves are still alive, so they'll know you couldn't possibly have got it working by now. (b) even Grumblejack can't throw anything that remotely resumbles a trebuchet shot. That thing is designed for defensive fire against massed troops assaulting the walls and counterfire against enemy siege engines; it can throw a 100 lb. rock well over a hundred yards away. Heaving some rocks off the walls is just not going to make anyone think you have it working. It's like throwing cannonballs to try to bluff that you have a working cannon.

Guys, on DM's Balentyne map where are we headed? Fly up against the night sky to have the night's darkness cloak our Darkness, then main gate fortification right? I am trying to figure out where the Rookery is, please keep an eye out for ravens (or crazy Princess Monks).

DM, when we sent the magical Raven with a message, we did not see where it flew to? I assumed it would fly to the Rookery. And has anyone had enough time to figure out the potions we found, Cуровую made a roll but not sure if enough time passed.

Guys what spells do you need Cуровую to cast for the group before arriving at the gatehouse (Invisibility, Disguise Self?)

I suppose if you wanted you could make our heavy hitter had invisible

My intention is to go to Gatehouse level 3. If we are able to take this quickly, then we can send the flying Morsum and Grumblejack to the top of the tower, level 4, which looks like where the rookery is. Also, I will send Morsum with several torches to light up the stables.

The first goal is the take over the gatehouse. We really need to get the second floor as that is where the catwalk accesses it from the castle. It also appears as though there are ballista on the roof of the gatehouse. I hope that we are able to turn these around to fire at anyone trying to cross the walkway or the main drawbridge/entrance. In addition, since there appear to be murder holes, there should be oil casks of some sort stored in the gatehouse somewhere. If we can get these, the flying Morsum/Grumblejack can drop them near the main gate or onto the stables to help with any fires we are able to create. If necessary, Dren can cast Levitate on Cy and she can just go straight up. Fireball has a range of like 500 feet for her, so she should be able to just levitate up 100+ feet to where nobody can see or hit her with arrows, and then pelt anyone she wants with her fireball wand.

I suppose if you wanted you could make our heavy hitter had invisible

If there is an invisibility left, I think it should be saved. It would be better if we are to send flying Morsum into the stables on a burn and destroy mission. That way he will not be seen and can light fires at will.

Okay, so two rounds have passed and you're mostly buffed, prepped, and ready to fly. That's good, because the Lawful Good soldiers of Talingarde have a Christmas present for you.

sssssssssssFWUMPH a fireball flies across the sky (from the direction of the gatehouse, more or less) and hits the roof that you're on. 1d5 ⇒ 11d5 ⇒ 5 It hits the southeast corner, with splash damage on adjacent squares. Hmm... since we haven't set fixed locations on the I'll say there's a 15% chance that 1-2 party members are down by that corner of the roof.1d100 ⇒ 28

It's not a fireball like the spell (though it looked a bit like one, flying across the sky a second ago). It's more like a mass of rags soaked in oil and pitch. When it hit, it splattered, spraying flame all around it. The whole southeast corner of the roof is now on fire. In game terms, it doesn't do as much damage as your fireball, but OTOH it persists, and will set stuff in or around it on fire.

None of you were close enough to be seriously splashed or set on fire, though a few flaming drops do land on you, eliciting several distracting seconds of slapping at smoldering sleeves and dancing around flaming smoky splashes.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

The Judge whispers to the others using Message - I assume this is still up as Cy cast it a long time ago and can catch 5 people, essentially everyone except Grumblejack with a single casting.

Whisper-Message: We make as though we are leaving. We fly northeast and then circle around. It will take a little longer, but should give us a better chance of surprise. That Mitran wench is calling positions.

Assuming that Darkness has been cast by Jax.
The Judge then calls out loud, and assumes the monk can hear him.

We go north, we got the wand and wizard's spellbook. That is what we were paid for.

The entire ensemble will then fly north east for two rounds which should put us north of the gatehouse by about 50'. We can then circle back and attack from the front on flying rounds 4-5. Grumblejack, with Cy calling positions, will lead towing Edmin/Ragnar. Morsum will also hold the rope so that Grumblejack can pull him as well.

Grumblejack can fly 80'. I do not know how towing Edmin and Morsum will effect flying speed, but assume that since Edmin is simply floating, and Morsum can fly at 20' (40' double moving), the towing should allow us to all move at 60' or so. I rather doubt there are any rules about large flying monsters (Grumblejack) towing slightly slower flying/levitating monsters (Morsum and Edmin).

The plan since the monk is calling positions is to appear to disappear/fly away. We can then circle around, since fly/levitate/darkness are all 5 minute spells, and attack the top of the gatehouse from the top. It will be nice to have that oil/fireball launcher.

Okay, then. Liftoff! The whole party floats up into the night sky, enveloped by a mass of darkness like black fog.

Weeeee!

Dren savors the darkness, not wanting to go back into the light.

You swoop off and up, rising in a great arc over Balentyne. Because of the magical darkness around you, your view of the scene below is dim and vague. But you're able to see lights, and people scuttling quickly across the courtyard, keeping to cover.

You swing south and west towards the village... and then, after a minute, you turn. You fly in a semicircle around Balentyne, over a hundred feet up and a quarter mile away. If anyone is watching, they would see a clot of darkness like a small piece of black vapor detached from the low-hanging clouds above. (Is anyone watching? You don't know.)

And now you are over the river -- you can hear it running in the deep canyon below you. You turn north. Now you're flying back towards Balentyne, coming at it from the side. Dimly, ahead and below, you can see the gatehouse, the bridges, the white water much further below. And now you begin to descend, arcing steeply down towards the top of the gatehouse...

Dren casts Bless just as we start descending.

Everyone has a +1 morale bonus to hit and saves vs. fear. Also If anyone was still hurt on the ride we would have healed you with additional wand charges if needed.

Not sure that I would have had the group fly around that long, but it works.

The Judge looks down at the top of the tower and smiles seeing the unsuspecting guards below and determining how many there are and which ones should be attacked first.

Do any look like sergeants or leaders of any sort? Is the Monk woman there?

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

Jax casts mirror image on himself.

If you are, yourself, flying, then you can cast freely. If you're riding on something, then you would need to make a Concentration check to cast anything -- just as if you were riding a horse.

Perception 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

DM would the Princess Monk see us take off? Because if she would see our plan in action, Cуровую would dearly want to send her a token of her esteem so she retreats again, in this case a Force Missile. This is just so the Princess Monk does not see us depart the tower and warn the fort.

Force Missile 1d4 + 1 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 1 + 3 = 7

Not sure if this is allowed out of combat, can Cуровую ready a spell (Fly) but not use the spell if it is not needed?

Also did enough time pass for her to identify the potions.

I doubt it because as I keep saying it takes 3 rds w detect magic to be able to begin to identify an item. No one used that time

I think I am up to two rounds with Detect Magic but now we have to Fly off and I need to remind the Princess Monk that we know she's around.

Dren will just wait until the first round of us landing then. I don't have combat casting and don't want to take a chance of losing the spell.

[rolling offscreen]

Okay, the top of the gatehouse has a number of people running around on it -- two dwarves, four soldiers, and an NCO. And at least one of the rolled okay on Perception, because there are shouts of alarm as you approach.

Tactically, there are two ways you can play this. (1) Just land. Since this requires a double move or greater, you won't be able to act on Round One (though you can still ready actions). The soldiers will be able to attack you, though they'll suffer the miss chance from the Darkness. (2) Swoop around to pick an ideal landing... in game terms, wait one round so that you can land on a move action and still act. That has obvious advantages, but it means the soldiers have a full round to do stuff before you land.

I'll assume (1) unless I hear otherwise -- if you want to go with (2) instead, shout out. Also, feel free to roll initiatives.