Elven team in Campaign Elves vs Dwarves -- Dwarves and Gnomes Keep Out (Inactive)

Game Master Chainmail

All set as far as i can see! :)

I'll be able to post some time this afternoon, but if y'all want to move forward, feel free to act for Telethethal.

Just make good use of that reach. :)

Afternoon is fine.

So apes then Telethal? :D

Seltyn to go. May want to reconsider given new information.

Well, i have to wait til the apes go, anyway.

Plus, the last ape is running, right?

badass spear throw tel! do it!

I considered it. :)

I think the moment's passed, though.

This is an interesting situation. You have the advantage of a language that these humans do not understand. Obviously speaking in a different language when you have shown you understand common could be taken badly. Finally, there is the matter of the expectation that you join these humans and take a pledge or oath.

I would hope everyone would have some input on this decision/story point. We are by no means in a hurry to rush this either (some may not want to spend their weekends on PbP).

Hey, sorry for the unexpected absence. weekends are always dicey for me, but yesterday got crazy when my wife's car officially went Kapoot.

I'll try to catch up in the thread

Everyone let me know if Telethal's chronic inability to get along socially gets old. I figure if you're gonna tank int and cha and play the outsider, you might as well play it.

Then again, I don't want to turn every encounter into a bloodbath.

Plus, did I miss something Marl? you seemed to indicate that Ingwe is safe somewhere, which kind of changed the game in my mind.

You've got it. Apparently he's safe, with this dryad we've been talking. I'm not sure how this bond thing works, btw, so let me know if I'm overplaying it or underplaying it.

As to telethal, I dont mind it. My struggle is with Mar's low cha, being put in a position of having to talk to others and try and convince them. I dont wanna make him a bumbling social idiot, but I wanna be true to his score.

Yah, charisma is the most abstract of the ability scores, in my opinion. It can mean a hundred different things to a hundred different people. That's like... a million things. (I'm fairly certain that math is solid.)

Low charisma can be played a million different ways. one of my friends generally considers himself to be charismatic enough, and his persoanlity leaks into his characters, so when he plays a character with a low charisma he always just explains that his character understands people and is well spoken but has some deformity or scar that makes him handicapped in social situations :P

I think you are both doing fine with the low Cha. When you have a low score it needs to have consequences. The consequences of the low charisma are the most abstract (doesnt affect a save, hit points, skill points or fighting skills). Marlamin and Telethal can clearly make their points to the group. Antagonizing the humans is something a low CHA barbarian would do.

Seltyn, if the roof of the cave is high enough, you can ready an Enlarge Person until Telethal gets to E-10, then he can act as a choke point (with hella-reach) until people can get out. Then people pretty much have to take him down to get to y'all. Could be crazy painful for Telethal, but could get everyone else out safely.[/ooc]

Cave is roughly 10' high. Merk follows Seltyn closely. From his comments earlier, you know he has figured out that you are a caster.

Recap of earlier events:
This group admits up front the Coastal Kingdom has told them bad things about elves they did not want to believe.
A religous disagreement occurs, those are always messy.
To add to the tension, the crossbowman returned from the jungle encounter with two empty crossbows and started to reload them when he was back in the cave. Was that normal or hostile? Talon immediately knocked an arrow in his bow. Was that normal or hostile?

Tensions are at their highest and a surprise round between the parties is definitely out of the question.

So let me just make sure i understand what's going on here. they're basically buffing and sticking to our soft folk like glue, but they're not going to take the first swing?

or are they just getting into position?

I'm thinking Seltyn should say something like "everyone out of the cave" in elven, then everyone except me take withdraw actions to get as far out of the cave as possible.

Elorin and Marlamin are going to only be able to make it to the antechamber, and everyone will have to pass by Merk (who I'm guessing is their strongest melee combatant), but there's really nothing for it.

Telethal can move back to create a choke point and begin attacking Merk or readying actions to attack outwards.

Best I can come up with if this thing is going to turn sour.

My only other thought is that Telethal can try to grab Amys and use her as a hostage, but NPC's rarely act like they actually value each other's lives that much, often choosing to instead continue attacking the closest pc.

: shrugs :

Well Tel, that's really a DM thing, I think that might work! Assuming we can make it work, hostage situations can be messy but it might be a good idea, it will just be hard to make it work. I vote that grabbing amys is a good idea :)

ignore that Dwarf diguise Kal was wearing :P

Suffocation

A character who has no air to breathe can hold her breath for 2 rounds per point of Constitution. If a character takes a standard or full-round action, the remaining duration that the character can hold her breath is reduced by 1 round. After this period of time, the character must make a DC 10 Constitution check in order to continue holding her breath. The check must be repeated each round, with the DC increasing by +1 for each previous success.

When the character fails one of these Constitution checks, she begins to suffocate. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hit points). In the following round, she drops to –1 hit points and is dying. In the third round, she suffocates.

Inspiration for the jungle came from Frank Herbert's Jesus Incident, an awesome book before Dune. With the release of the movie Avatar--the theme is now not so dated.

From wikipedia -
The book is notable for inspiring the Marathon Trilogy, in which an AI, known as Durandal, achieved rogue consciousness during an attack of a colony ship by an alien race.

may have inspired a space movie called Pandorum a 2009 German-British science fiction thriller film written by Travis Milloy.

The book also served as a major source of inspiration for the developers of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

The setting of James Cameron's Avatar bears great similarities with that of The Jesus Incident. The planet has a globally interconnected, sentient plant which all lifeforms on the planet are dependent upon. The planets even bear the same name, Pandora, and each features a conflict between people with technology (Shipmen in the book, the Company/Marines in Avatar), and people subjugated by technology (clones in the book, and native people in Avatar).

Maybe the Rovagug barbarians are like the bad marines in Avatar.

A little post mortem. You are not the first group to attack the jungle (face it, how many will run or make friends with a crocodile), but you are the first group to make a clear moral change of course. Once the humans join up with you it is easy to make a temporary arrangement with the barbarians or tell them what they want to hear.

Obviously having a druid and good religious skills helped make you aware. This encounter is designed for the druid to shine, obviously. Others concluded that the mighty barbarians are temporary allies of convenience that outweigh the greater moral question. Plus, as you have seen, the barbarians swoop in as opportunists when the time is right and everyone is hurt.

Two previous groups in your exact spot in the cave took two completely different ways out. One group swallowed the bitter pill and exterminated the jungle and found a way to use the barbarians for their ends but paid a huge cost in having to atone for horrible crimes against nature. The other group completely lied to the barbarians, pleaded a complete lack of knowledge of the dryad or the heart of the jungle, took some carefully worded oaths, took the magical healing, and turned the tables on the barbarians at a crucial point.

I was initially trying to play it in such a way that we got the healing, led them to the dryad and then killed the human asses to protect the dryad. It didn't quite happen that way and Talon is feeling a little tender about the fact that he so nearly got the party killed. He certainly feels that he should have done better.

I also wonder what would have happened if you had followed Telethal's suggestion, chugged healing potions, enlarged Telethal, and started the fight in the cave yourselves. The problem is, it would have obviously been bloody. Escaping was probably the best option with the information you had.

Obviously the small earth elemental is a huge ace up their sleeve that you couldn't know about. Conjuration magic in the mud pit was only a partial clue.

Yeah. I wasnt as happy as to how it ended. I wanted to try Talon's way as well, and when it turned out we were split, I felt like a bum. Mar had a couple of healing spells left for the day... :-/

Oh well. Mar will just be a little depressed. ;)

In theory it might have worked, especially if we focused fire. But it wasn't worth dying for

Sorry i have been absent for a while. i've not had proper internet. I am moving house this week so my posts will be more regular but will get back to normal as of monday. wow what a revelation, stuck in the middle of fueding gods and factions of humans. wow. so much fun, cant wait to see what happens next.

haha you've been absent? :P

Life kind of went crazy on me. Work got busy. My son got sick. I have vacation starting today. Basically, I can't keep up with all my pbp's for the time being.

If you need to NPC Telethal, that's fine. If -- in the interest of the game progression -- you need to replace Telethal, I'll understand that, too.

Sorry for the sudden disappearance.

I like Telethal, will vote with all my heart to keep him

I know how the real world works. Don't sweat it. If you feel you won't be posting in a while, just give a quick heads up. Obviously Telethal's input has been great, and the combat power of his build is undeniable.

I hope the content of the campaign hasn't been a factor.

I don't think so. It's been a lot of fun. Sometimes you just zig when you should have zagged.

For me, its more like you zigged when I would have zagged. which is kinda the point.

And to everyone, chain included, thanks for being patient when I'm not sure of the rules.

For me, its more like you zigged when I would have zagged. which is kinda the point.

Difficult terrain, then bottlenecked when we were too weak to fight. Their barbarian made a critical save, ours didn't. Were the opposite true, we'd be chilling with the dryad right now.

If we go back to the cave, it'll be different.

i think the content has been great. we could not have known this, but had we played our cards different, things could have come out different and that's ok! we were told from the beggining this will be a campaign where pcs will die. I really am not disappointed that we just had our asses handed to us. doesn't happen enough in rpgs haha!

The dwarves are will be caught up soon, so we are in a temporary holding pattern.

Fair enough, so long as there is movement then all is good.

I'm a little disappointed we haven't been able to really get Telethal going. I had enlarge person prepped just for him, but never was in a position to use it. In spite of the evocation "blaster" thing, I'm all for buffing the reach fighter and letting him do the damage.

Oh, well. One of these days, "Telethal" will be "Twelve-feet-tall," and show us what he can do with a 20' reach.

Oh dear god you have no idea how much that scares me. It would be impressive just to see what he could do with the ranged polearms. Don't forget, not only does his strength increase, but his polearm damage would increase by one step also...

A glaive enlarged goes from 1d10 to 2d8 -- a solid upgrade.

Oops, i swear i didn't mean to cause a rebellion. yikes, hehe.

wow seems us diplomats do make a difference in the right circumstances. especially seen as i'm a bit of a "Antony Stuart Head, in a inexplicably popular tv show." when it comes to fighting.

ok moving went well, still little to do but mostly done. i will rest for tonight and post as elorin tomorrow.

The survival of the elven race depends on it. But, don't feel pressured...

hehe, cheers Seltyn, no pressure there.

Nay fair maiden, why would we put pressure upon you to do well in the diplomatic side of this next adventure. Was it not you who got us into this fine situation to begin with? If I wasn't a better elf, I would suspect that you bribed that man with favours of some kind :D

Elvish singing and dancing for all.

Hey, i'm back. So help me make sure i'm caught up in terms of gear purchases. Each of us has 150g? Or the group as a whole does?

Telethal could use either a great sword or a falchion. I'm leaning towards falchion for the criterificness of it all, but i'm fine either way. I also think it's time to start getting tactical with his reach. So if I could replace his longspear with a guisarme, that'd be awesome.

Telethal already has a dagger and a spiked gauntlet (not to mention a bite attack when he rages), so he's good on the "tight-space-weapon" category. He also already has a short bow... which is a decent enough weapon until we can afford composite longbows. Though if we can afford that, Talon should definitely get first dibs.

We each get 150, so a composite's probably a little out of reach right now. You can afford the other weapons, though. :) Good upgrade.

Greatsword's a little better until you get improved crit, then the falchion is a little better, if the math wizards around here are right. Cheaper, too.

Well, I kind of dislike the 'weapon dance' that two-handed fighters, barbs, and switch-hitting rangers do when it comes to great swords and falchions. I agree that numerically it's slightly superior, but I think that kind of flies in the face of a natural progression of weapons training. I mean, wouldn't' your character have been training for a few levels to be able to learn how to cut better with that falchion? instead of all of a sudden realizing that not only is the falchion more likely to cut deeper, but also having the ability to make the most of it despite not having really trained with it in-combat? oh well... i'll step off this ole soap box.

i think I'll go with the Guisarme and falchion for now. When Enlarged (if I ever actually get to drink that potion or accept that buff from Seltyn), my weapons will both be running on a 2d6 base damage.. which is nothing to scoff at. :)

So we each only have 150g? or did we have some left over that I was unaware of? (I just want to make sure I'm fully up to speed before I pick gear.)