Thanks!
I think we are a bit stuck with the separated party and the increased guard activity, at least for me at least.
Once the guards back off a bit, and we are able to try a couple late night excursions, I think we will get back to usual pasting habits. I think we are just biding our time until then.
Alight group, how many days to we want to let pass before doing an evening excursion I to the castle?
Hey, I'm back! But as for me, I'm just trying to in character hook back into the party and get an excursion going into the castle ASAP. Just waiting for a reply from Mordesel, or someone else sharing his room. I forget who these roommates are, will have to check.
Anton just continues with his corruption of Yalana so that she will be a suitable blood doll when the time comes (e.g. when we level up). He also continues to gather information on the various activities (guard or otherwise) going on in the area and reports to the others during the occasional 'lunches' they have together, or using Message if it's more important.
He had planned to join Ye Merrie Men to have another ingress into the castle, but that's been delayed indefinitely (until their show is back on and/or they come through town).
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Anyone have UMD trained? We could try a sculpt corpse (1st wizard spell) scroll on a body to make it look like Dane, half eaten by an ogre or something like that.
Otherwise, since the guards aren't at the inn overnight anymore, we'll need to all gather at the inn after curfew and somehow gain access to the passage, but we'd also need a way to keep the innkeeper and his ilk away and/or unconscious and unsuspecting.
No UMD here.
I think gathering at the in the next night, and heading for the passage is the move to make.
UMD +13 here :D
Found it. So since Mordesel is at least temporarily indisposed, looks like Sion's would also be included in Dane's night conversation if you'd want to jump in Sion. Also, the "dead Dane" idea is awesome, doubly so since Sion's got that UMD locked down.
Sounds like it, DM!
Do we want to check around and see if we can afford a as cult Corpse spell, or if one might even be available?
I suppose I just don't know what else to really say. I said I'm making a bee-line for the Rookery. We've got a map and a fairly clear idea of where on the map the Rookery most likely is, at the top of the tower. So honestly, I've just been waiting for something to happen. If something interrupts my travel up the tower, by all means let me know, but otherwise I'm pretty sure the party had a clear objective and we're just following it with no detours.
To me, this has mostly been a problem of everyone's waiting on each other. The GM's expecting the players to have more for him, while the players are expecting the GM to have more them. I guess it might help if we all had expectations more clearly outlined for each other. Like I'm getting the feeling that you're waiting for all of us to individually post our agreement to the goal, whereas from the previous leg of the game we're used to majority consensus and lack of dissonant voices to mean that we all agree implicitly.
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I suppose I just don't know what else to really say. I said I'm making a bee-line for the Rookery. We've got a map and a fairly clear idea of where on the map the Rookery most likely is, at the top of the tower. So honestly, I've just been waiting for something to happen. If something interrupts my travel up the tower, by all means let me know, but otherwise I'm pretty sure the party had a clear objective and we're just following it with no detours.
To me, this has mostly been a problem of everyone's waiting on each other. The GM's expecting the players to have more for him, while the players are expecting the GM to have more them. I guess it might help if we all had expectations more clearly outlined for each other. Like I'm getting the feeling that you're waiting for all of us to individually post our agreement to the goal, whereas from the previous leg of the game we're used to majority consensus and lack of dissonant voices to mean that we all agree implicitly.
Ok...that's cool. I can run with that assumption...my apologies for not picking up on that. I have excuses, but I won't air them, as they have nothing to do with you guys. ;)
With four people, I'd go with the rule of two. If two people agree on something, and you want to advance the action, DM, I'd do it.
Hey Sion! You should totally get in on this defenseless old guy killing! I'm paranoid he may be a lot more doom-magey than he looks.
Happy birthday Eldon! I hope your real life is full of nothing less than the finest of pillaging and destruction of all that is good and right in this world! ;)
So Eldon, I was thinking, perhaps to help regalvanize this game (seeing as we seem to be down to three players), perhaps we should recruit a couple more? I'm thinking some fresh blood may help at this point, at least once we get to an area where new recruits would perhaps make sense, or see if anyone's interested in taking over some of the existing characters. Thoughts other current players, GM?
It is really hard to keep a game going with just three. Perhaps some new blood would get the game firing on all pistons again.
It does make things a little interesting with only three people, but we seem to have many of our bases covered. And when we can bring Grumblejack with us it adds to our capabilities (maybe we need to get him a hat of disguise so he can pretend to be something smaller). There are certain situations where things could get very hairy very quickly though (unless the ELs are reduced a little by the GM).
Still, I'm good with getting some new blood. I'm just not quite sure where the best place to do so would be, considering we're in the middle of a secret mission. Maybe it would have to wait until after the bugbear assault, once our plans have come to fruition and we are more open about our activities.
Or, as Dane suggested, someone take over an old yet existing character (after a fashion). They could modify a few things (or more if they pick someone who hasn't really established themselves much), and since we're on the Vampire path, there wouldn't be many feats to swap out, so it could be a little easier for them. It's probably less fun for the new player, but I've seen it happen.
Two things Durova would like to do, if they were closeby would be to drop the arsenic into a stewpot or two, if we head by the kitchen, and to sabotage any siege engines located in the castle, if we knew where they were located.
Well, there's two ballistae on the gatehouse itself, on the third floor (room 33). There's also an onager on the roof of the keep (room 48) that are visible on our map at any rate. Kitchen's a bit harder to say, not specifically marked in any way. But there is a chimney I believe, marked on the keep going from the ground floor to the second floor. Rooms 10 and 31 respectively. Since fire is kind of important for cooking, it's probably one of those two rooms.
Going after the siege weapons right now runs some risks however, as the gatehouse is separated from the rest of the castle by a long bridge, meaning that we'll be cut off on the wrong side of the castle to escape if we do go across. Raising an alarm once we're there could prove really bad. Same goes for the onager as that's at the top floor of the keep, centralized and hard to leave if we're being assaulted from the base levels.
Going after the onager will also lead us past the prisons, and I'm guessing the dwarven workers (room 35). We could walk right past them, but if we wanted to do anything with them, that'd be the time. Perhaps we should go to the central keep and just work our way up? Kitchen at the bottom, dwarves in the middle, onager at the top?
Now mind, Dane's probably going to keep trying to deviate to find the illusory Mrs. Mott in this place, so I can't promise I'll follow such a plan to the letter, but I'd say the ballistae might be best for another night since getting out when an alarm over the fire we raised and the captain we killed is quite likely. Dane may well attempt to interrogate the first lackey he finds at this point for that effect.
Sorry I dropped off the map a bit there as well, kind of burnt out on gaming for a bit. Should be steadier now.
Hello all,
I do not know if this game is still active or not, but I thought I would come back and apologize for my disappearance before. I am so sorry, and especially sorry that it came without letting you know. Some problems came up and I couldn't deal with both, but I should have let you know.
That being said, if this game is still going, I would love to join back in--if you'll have me. I understand if Mordesel is not available anymore or if you don't want to have me back in, but if you would I would really appreciate it.
I absolutely detest when people drop without any message whatsoever.
With that being said, we are down to three players, so adding Mordesel would be perfect to get back up to par.
Also, we are now 4th level, Mordesel, so you need to work in a level up when you can.
Thank you very much! And once again I am very sorry. It won't happen again. I'll still wait to hear from the other two before I make it official, but for now I'll make that stealth roll in Gameplay and start catching up on what I've missed.
As far as level goes, I looked over my profile and I was level 4, I just forgot to put it in my stat line. Fixing that now.
I'm all right with the return of Mordesel. Saves us from having to spend time recruiting and also puts another body between the enemy and us folks that like to stay in the back (not to mention doesn't need the GM to modify encounters to deal with a smaller party).
As far as the gatehouse, Mordesel will share what he had and his plan eventually--either in the tunnel after this foray, or some convenient time during--but now is not a good time in game. Instead, I'll share it here so that I don't forget later.
There are 2 guards that watch from the walkway above the bridge (24), but no guards either on the bridge (18) or in the gatehouse proper (19). The winches are up above there (25) for both the draw bridge and the portcullis. I propose that when we are ready to start the invasion, we take the gatehouse and clear it out. Then we set up here (24) using it as a choke point while we keep the gate open for Fire Axe. This also bars their use of the murder holes, ballasts and anything else in the gatehouse.
That makes good sense, Mordesel. I think that's a good plan.
So . . . The kitchens . . . ?
Anybody?
My last gameplay post was following Mordy to the kitchens. I still plan on doing that.
Well, it may be time to stop and ask the question. Who is interested in saving this campaign, helping it keep going? Who would like to just say, let's cut the life support and let it die?
Just to be clear, I'm in for trying to save this campaign. I might even try if I'm the only one (though I highly doubt I'd have any success at that point).
Sorry about that. Been a little busy at work. I understood that the next place we went was the kitchen (although as he had said, Anton would also like to damage/destroy their long-term food stores, but I think that's back near the passage which we might not be leaving by).
Don't know what happened to Dane though. It's been nearly two weeks since his last post. His being the tank and primary DD, I've kind of been waiting for him to lead the way.
That said, things are happening...
Yay! Can't wait
Let's do it! To the kitchen...
Much like this.
I just had a thought. Nearly getting caught by the captain made me wish for one of our heavy hitters. While I am a martial character, I do not believe I can always hold the front line on my own. I also saw there was a discussion about recruiting to get us up to four. And I totally agree
In addition, I have been recruiting for a Way of the Wicked campaign that I'm going to run. The are way too many great characters for me to take then all.
Which brings me to my proposition. There is one character, Lisbeth Steelsong, who was in a game before. Her group got to the trials under the mansion before her GM dropped the game. She has an excellent posting history and an interesting character. I was thinking that we could invite her to come take over one of our missing players, then when the opportunity presents itself, she could switch out for a character of her creation (I'd imagine Lisbeth). What does everyone else think? Would that work?
That would work for me. We constantly seem to swing from a playable four to an untenable three. If we could stick at four or better, things would go a lot smoother.
Agreed. I was chuckling at how, just as Dane disappears, the fellow he was searching for, Mott, shows up.
If we go with Lisbeth, she might want to go to a 25 point buy instead of 20 (which is the other option to the rolls for this AP) and then level herself up and take those Vampire Feats (hopefully she doesn't have a feat plan past 1st level).
So she doesn't end up with a profile she doesn't want, I would suggest she copy/paste the information on the character she's temporarily replacing (maybe Dane or Sion if she wants to stick with AntiPal?) into a spoiler in her own profile and just change the profile pic to match the original character. Once she can play Lisbeth, she can return to the original image and delete the other character's information.
Maybe if we finish up this mission sooner (so pop into the kitchens to do whatever to the foodstuffs currently there and then either head back to the passage to spoil the stores in there, or head out the front gate). New Lisbeth could have been sent by whatshisnameIforgot and can be waiting either in town or near Grumblejack.