GMDQ's Skull and Shackles (Inactive)

Game Master tumbler

Also related: as I asked previously or so I thought, what's our next project? That'll determine the Labor we need, which might influence who we keep around the keep so to speak.

Rum distillery (need a source of molasses...)? A lumber mill to provide supplies for the dry dock?

Do y'all magic-types want to plan for researching spells and crafting magic items? We could convert the observatory to book repository with the idea of eventually upgrading it to a magical repository.

I'm not planning on doing research, but I can't speak for the rest of the team. Thren definitely wants to leave the observatory as an observatory, other than to make room for her to sleep and get the hatch to the outside fixed (so she might get to sleep under the stars if she wants!).

We never really did figure out what resources we can harvest from the isle itself because we got sidetracked by a couple of cyclopes. So the lumber mill's an interesting idea.

Or, do we want to do something boring like living quarters or kitchens first?

Just spitballing ideas.

Things you did observe: the island is clearly mainly trees. The question is are there more large creatures you'd be disturbing if you began a full scale lumber operation.

The cliffs are also a massive source of granite.

And of course there are lots of fish and other seafood.

Coconuts and other tropical fruit, possibly.

If you're getting the mirrors, a little time needs to be put into fixing the lighthouse (but it's mainly operational once the mirrors are up, since you cleared away the vines on top of the cliffs.

Right now the people's living quarters are very bare bones--they're just piling blankets and cloth on top of the giant bunks, or sleeping in corners.

You do not currently have a kitchen or intentional dining area. This limits what Kroop can cook.

If overhearing you discuss it, your crew, including Sandara, would advise you to not start producing trade goods until you get recognized as free captains, as that provides you some degree of protection and standing.

I am going to then suggest we get going on converting the bunk area below the lighthouse to lodging. We need 3 goods (we got that) and 6 labor for this. I suggest Gorton and my followers supply that labor (if my math's right they equal up to 6). The next thing after that would be kitchens.

Shelter and food! Sounds good to me.

Always a good starting point.

I don't know...I feel like I'm being too sensible....

BTW I apologize if any of my posting comes off like yelling at you. I'm more frustrated with myself than anything. Trying to find a way to best manage these sort of scenarios and keeping you engaged... something we're a few years in and I feel like I'm letting you down.

(That said, I do need a finished crew assignment list so I can finish up the new crew roster.)

Ok, since we need that crew roster, here it is:

Current Crew Summary
"Chief Officers" PCs
Prosperity "Lark" Greenwood - Captain
Threnody Nocturne* - First Mate
Emberar "Sunstruck" Lealtus - Second Mate to Sailing Master
Corwin Corke - Master-at-Arms ?
Kahuranga - Seacaster

Returning Crew
Lee O'Neld - Quartermaster (Halfling Sorcerer 7) (and the ship's celestial ratter, Muffin)
Sandara Quinn - Ship's Healer, Assistant [cohort] to First Mate (Human Cleric of Besmara 5)
Belina - Sailing Master (Half-Elf Ranger 2)
Crimson Cogward - Master Gunner (Human Ranger 1/Rogue 1)
Yamtisy - Bosun (Half-Orc Expert 4)
Xosrov - Rigger/Lookout* (Half-Elf Warrior 3 "Magpie Crew")
Conchobar Shortstone - Rigger/Lookout* (Gnome Bard 2)
Barefoot Samms Toppin - Rigger (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Maheem - Rigger (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Heavy Huldren - Rigger (Human Commoner 9 "Constable")
Randiel Cutter - Rigger* (Elf Expert 2 "Old Sailor")
Anatoly - Rigger* (Half-orc Warrior 3 "Magpie Crew")
Jack Scrimshaw - Swab (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Tilly Brackett - Swab (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Rosie Cusswell - Swab (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Badger Medlar - Swab* (Half-Elf Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Shivikah - Swab* (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Giffer Tibbs - Swab* (Gnome Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Gywn Ironfist - Swab (Expert 1/Warrior 1 "Shipmate")
Beryl - Cook (Gnome Expert 2, Cooking)
Mellissiel - Rigger* (Elf Expert 2 "Old Sailor")
Brent Kerkland - Swab (Expert 1/Warrior 1 "Shipmate")

Stronghold team:
Carlos the Knife - Labor/Swab+ (Halfling Warrior 1)
Mary Dregg - Labor/Swab+ (Human Expert 1, tailor)
Finch Lucktoe - Labor/Rigger+ (Halfling Expert 1)
Derrick - Labor/Swab+ (Human Expert 1, Carpenter)
Ursa Gildax - Labor/Swab+ (Dwarf Aristocrat 1, Sales/Bookkeeping/Recording)
Gorton the Hammer - Labor (Half-orc Expert 4 "journeyman carpenter")

For the time being, Thren's followers will help get the stronghold going alongside Gorton, Doc Imogene, and others who are already there.

Thanks for this.

Couple notes:

As a reminder, while he hasn't discussed it formally with you yet in character (I'm trying to resolve a few situations before I get to it), we agreed on this out of character before we recruited the newest players: Lee is going to stay at Ghoral Rey once you get there and do some magical research (speaking indeed of magical research). In case KeefX is able to return in a year or two, I don't want to take too many liberties with his character, plus it's hard to NPC-run a mid- or higher level spellcaster amid juggling all the other NPCs (unless I just throw fireballs at everything, which may do you more harm than good. :) ).

His working with Ursa is a possible way of letting her (or someone else, if you prefer) take over the Quartermaster's position. It could also be another PC.

It is also a good idea to have a ship's carpenter on board, or the first time your generally good Profession Sailor checks fail, you could end up adrift/marooned/wrecked with no way to fix things up. (Plus said individual is always in the background working on leading key maintenance... without them the swabs won't know what to fix or how.) You've assigned all of your carpenters to the island. While IIRC Lark has some repair skills as Captain he also has other things to pay attention to. You can decide not to have a ship's carpenter, of course, but there may be consequences.

All right, to address these issues:

Derrick can come aboard again as Ship's Carpenter. That puts two to work at the stronghold, one aboard ship for now, as Doc Imogene can stay there.

Urza can become our Quartermaster. That gives us....

Returning Crew

Sandara Quinn - Ship's Healer, Assistant [cohort] to First Mate (Human Cleric of Besmara 5)
Belina - Sailing Master (Half-Elf Ranger 2)
Crimson Cogward - Master Gunner (Human Ranger 1/Rogue 1)
Yamtisy - Bosun (Half-Orc Expert 4)
Xosrov - Rigger/Lookout* (Half-Elf Warrior 3 "Magpie Crew")
Conchobar Shortstone - Rigger/Lookout* (Gnome Bard 2)
Barefoot Samms Toppin - Rigger (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Maheem - Rigger (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Heavy Huldren - Rigger (Human Commoner 9 "Constable")
Randiel Cutter - Rigger* (Elf Expert 2 "Old Sailor")
Anatoly - Rigger* (Half-orc Warrior 3 "Magpie Crew")
Jack Scrimshaw - Swab (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Tilly Brackett - Swab (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Rosie Cusswell - Swab (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Badger Medlar - Swab* (Half-Elf Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Shivikah - Swab* (Human Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Giffer Tibbs - Swab* (Gnome Warrior 2 "Wormwood Crew")
Gywn Ironfist - Swab (Expert 1/Warrior 1 "Shipmate")
Beryl - Cook (Gnome Expert 2, Cooking)
Mellissiel - Rigger* (Elf Expert 2 "Old Sailor")
Brent Kerkland - Swab (Expert 1/Warrior 1 "Shipmate")
Derrick - Labor/Swab+ (Human Expert 1, Carpenter)
Ursa Gildax - Labor/Swab+ (Dwarf Aristocrat 1, Sales/Bookkeeping/Recording)

Stronghold team:
Carlos the Knife - Labor/Swab+ (Halfling Warrior 1)
Mary Dregg - Labor/Swab+ (Human Expert 1, tailor)
Finch Lucktoe - Labor/Rigger+ (Halfling Expert 1)
Lee O'Neld - Quartermaster (Halfling Sorcerer 7) (and the ship's celestial ratter, Muffin)
Gorton the Hammer - Labor (Half-orc Expert 4 "journeyman carpenter")
Doc Imogene
Kroop

Now, can we make a team of Laborers successfully from Imogene, Kroop, Mary, Finch, Carlos, and/or Lee?

Thanks, Lathiira!

If we need more bodies at the stronghold we could include Larry, Barry and Owlbear. That's where they are right now. We can leave them there or swap them for some of "experts." (Maybe Randiel, Gywn and Mellissiel.)

Barry - (Half-orc warrior 5, "tavern champion")
Larry - (Half-orc warrior 5, "tavern champion")
Owlbear Hartshorn - (Human Fighter 2)

Also missing from this list is Rotgut (Half-orc alchemist) - GMDQ just reminded us about him, but it was on the previous page of this discussion thread.

With Imogene and Gorton we're awful close to a team of Craftspeople (size 3). I'm not sure if Randiel or Mellisiel would work as a third since they're only Expert 2.

Carlos, Mary, Finch, Gywn and (Randiel/Mellissiel) could make a team of Laborers (size 5).

Let's swap Randiel, Gywn, and Mellisiel to the stronghold for Larry/Barry/Owlbear to the ship. Rotgut can come aboard.

Gorton himself counts as a team of Craftspeople, that's what you "won" by participating in the tug-o-war.

You've got the other Team of craftspeople from Luna (whose names I need to look up), though you need to convince them to stay (which you can do with some good bribes).

FYI: Lee, Kroop, and Imogene can join teams of Laborers or provide specialty services/specific die rolls. I also just remembered that Imogene's feverish passion for building the drydock comes from her feverish passion to fix up the Fearsome Tide, so you could just assign her to that as her own project, borrowing labor when she needs it.

THANK YOU!!!!

Thanks for typing up these lists, Lathiira!

So long as we can make a team of Laborers and a Team of Craftspeople (aka Gorton), we can proceed with construction of Lodgings (that's sufficient Labor for the task). As such, we should be good to proceed when we get back with assistance from Lee, Imogene, and/or Kroop. Assuming we don't/can't get that team Luna left with us to stay on, of course. If they stay on, we can discuss what else we want to work on with them.

Ship's Crew (hopefully final version!):

Stronghold team:

Thank you very much!!! If everyone is happy with this, I will work on the new official roster this weekend, with new and improved disposition notes.

I am sorry I have been sick this week and got cranky. I advise not getting a chronic inner ear condition.

Looks good to me.

GMDQ - feel better soon!

Also, no need to apologize for asking us to contribute. I feel like I've been in the mode of quick posts only for a bit now. I've not been doing much of the "paperwork" that keeps things organized in the long run.

I see that "Bureaucrats" is one of the Team types. If only we could get some of them...

Please get better soon. I don't take it as you being cranky at all. Though yes thermopyle, you need to put some meat into those posts they're a bit scrawny lol

I've been swamped with work and some sort of sinus issue. Also a little afraid of rocking the boat, but I'll try to do better.

Hope you feel better, Kahuranga.

And it's a pirate ship, it's meant to be rocked a bit. :)

Okay! I have updated the Besmara's Whim crew sheet. This is always accessible by clicking on "crew" in my statblock or by going to the campaigns tab and clicking on the appropriate link.

If you see anything glaringly inaccurate please let me know. I have added the dispositions of the NPCs, and noted with a + how many successes have been achieved to shift a character's disposition (you need three successes or minor favors, or one major favor). Hopefully the increased transparency is helpful to you without spoiling anything.

I know it's a lot of reading but the character descriptions may in many cases help hint at what may help you get along with them. (And I wrote all this stuff up so I hope somebody's reading it!)

Let me know if you have any questions..

As for in-game action, I'll see if anyone has any other preparations and then move us forward tomorrow or the next day (I anticipate a busy day at work tomorrow).

Yay! Thanks so much, DQ! This seems SUPER helpful.

Just so I'm clear, these apply to all of us equally? We don't track influence with each NPC individually?

I'm pretty sure that would be a nightmare, but I just wanted to make sure.

Yes, all influenced earned, even if technically by an individual, applies to the party as a whole. Now, I tend to try to bear in mind WHO earned the most influence insofar as whom the NPC may approach with a concern--for example, Lee exclusively worked to get to know Kroop and earn his trust, so Kroop tends to go to Lee with requests*--but only one of you need influence them for the party to benefit, and you can of course also work in tandem. The gist is, you are all senior officers, so as long as they feel like they have the ear or aid of one of the officers, their morale is improved for serving the ship as a whole.

* And influence earned by past PCs still affects the rest of you, so that now that Lee is an NPC, Kroop doesn't suddenly lose interest.

And I just realized I still left off Rotgut. :( Poor Rotgut! I will add him and update.

Don't feel bad, I did too.

Now back from Endgame. Epic is too mild a word. I am in a very happy place right now.

Good to hear people are liking it! I haven't seen Captain Marvel yet, so... *shrugs*

Neither have I. Didn't need to in order to watch her pummel bad guys though.

I'll second that, I really enjoyed Endgame, especially as a payoff to years of following all those characters.

Indeed. I'm sad that for a couple the story is over. A few could use more storytime. But that fight at the end rivals Helm's Deep, which is my favorite mass combat scene in movie history.

Captain Marvel, for those who haven't seen it, is a super fun movie. It's not a thing of epic proportions, but it's a great story with a great character. While YMMV, it's one of my top favorite MCU films, next to the Winter Soldier, with having both a high entertainment factor and a good main character arc, without being utterly exhausting or having to have a lot of confusing plot elements to keep track of. I strongly recommend it.

Endgame for me was a wild ride. It was brilliant in its execution, all those plates they kept spinning to perfection. It was, like a wild ride, exhilarating during the watching. Afterward, there's a lot of bits I can't wrap my head around, a few things I thought were wastes of time, and other things that downright f!*&ing pissed me off royally (the main one of which happened right at the end so it was the thing I walked out of the theater thinking of as the takeaway, unfortunately). And of course other stuff that was utterly wonderful. There is one character whose whole story arc I thought was fantastic. Everyone else felt like a set piece being shoved back and forth into place, or who started to have a good story but they didn't have time to really get it told. It is absolutely worth seeing, and many "yaaaaaaaay" moments throughout, but to me it's also exhausting such that I now think of it as more like a thing I had to get done so I could move on with my life, than anything I will ever desire to watch again. If you loved it, I stand by you that there was much to love, and none of the criticism I note is intended to rain on anyone's parade (though I know Lathiira can take it :) ). But oddly even though there really is a vast amount of stuff in the movie that I really, really enjoyed, what I mainly feel is less joy than relief that it's all over.

For me hereon out I plan to--though I will be fully honest there's only about a 30% chance I stick to this--treat the mega crossover events like I do the comic books--avoid them like the plague, and focus on the solo stories, and anything I need to know for plot development from the mega events, I'll just read in recaps later. I don't need three hours of adrenaline rush from a film. I just want a fun couple of characters and a good, simple story to enjoy.

Yeah, rain on my parade, I've seen it twice, won't change my feelings about it :)

Let's see where they go from here. It's going to be rather difficult to top the Snap and Thanos. Of our original six Avengers (no, not counting Coulson as one), I'm not satisfied with how some of the arcs ended, others I am (Hulk needed something more for me, as did Thor and Natasha). Some of the other characters I wanted to see more of, duh. Some plot points needed some work. Not perfection...but no story has ever been written that cannot be improved. Let's enjoy what we got, because the epic has finally reached its end.

Absolutely.

It's going to be rather difficult to top the Snap and Thanos.

That's kind of why I personally want to stick to the small-scale solo and street-level stuff, after having seen the big amazing finish. If they work too hard to top themselves at some point it's going to produce the reverse of what they hope for. Looking forward to the Disney+ stuff (and hopefully once the terms of the Netflix contract fully expire we'll see new Defenders stuff on that channel) and sequels to Captain Marvel most of all, and the rest I will probably not follow so fanatically as I have been. (Which, mind, fanatic levels will still be fairly high, relatively speaking.)

The Disney+ stuff might draw my interest given that it's taking the characters as we've seen them. I'm most interested in how they'll handle Wanda, I figure Winter Soldier/Falcon will be a buddy thing. Loki, not sure how I feel there.

For some reason, I am keenly interested in the What If?! series. I am also very curious about WandaVision, though for Vision as much as Wanda. I am not sure either about Loki, but he has a big enough fanbase it will probably be a draw. I almost wonder if Winter Soldier/Falcon will be akin to a recent comic, but I don't want to say which one for fear of spoiling anything. And it seems like this will all be the first of many.

I'm not sure if we are avoiding spoilers or not, so I will. I think I might be more interested in the series than in the movies. I found myself wondering during watching Endgame whether I would have enjoyed it as a series more than as a movie. I definitely liked Infinity War more than Endgame. Endgame seemed to gloss over several things that left me feeling robbed, and also robbed some previous stories of their impact, which I'm guessing is what is bugging DQ as regards the thing that happens near the end of the movie.

appreciate the lack of spoilers

No problem. Besides, if we provoked you with spoilers, you might decide to cut us all down and take over the ship or something LOL

I have now survived my first week back on daytime. So far...too much stocking apparel.

Wow, is your schedule changed for good, or is this temporary?

Guess I didn't mention what's been going on. Here's the story:

Back in February, right after inventory, the store manager came to overnights. This is really odd: he's supposed to work once/month on overnights, never does. He meets everyone individually to inform us that corporate has declared that any store not doing $60 million/year in sales will lose its overnight shift and integrate them into daytime. This had serious ramifications.

1) The 2 O/N ASMs (Asst. Managers) and 4 daytime ASMs all had to interview for positions during the day; only 4 got to stay. My bosses both made it with different roles.

2) Maintenance associates went straight to daytime, including their supervisor.

3) The mod team associate went to days, took a while for that to work right.

4) That leaves the two O/N support managers, who were hourly supervisors. We didn't have anything waiting for us so we had to pick what we wanted like the stockers.

I was one of those support managers. I originally said I'd go to the mod team if nothing else came along. Then one of the daytime ASMs told me to put in for the open position for Department Manager of Infants, Infant Apparel, and Girls Apparel. I got that position. So I'm learning how the process works. Meanwhile, we're trying to trucks turned over. I spent the whole week catching up my neglected apparel areas. I still need to redo my baby furniture and rework some backstock apparel.

What does this mean? I'm on days permanently. I took a pay cut and demotion. I went from the highest tier of hourly supervisor as a support manager down one tier. Pay wise, if I were in a service area like sporting goods I'd be higher up but still the same rank. I had the advantage over all applicants because I was a displaced hourly supervisor, but my attendance is good and for some odd reason the ASM over apparel likes me.

But good grief, we've killed about two dozen pallets of apparel this week and then some.

Yeesh, Lathiira. No, I hadn't been aware. good luck.

On the road just through tomorrow. May or may not be able to post.

Corwin, taking 10 can happen in routine, non-stressful circumstances (unless you have Skill Mastery, I believe). Hanging over a shark feeding frenzy when time is of the essence is not routine circumstances. Others, however, can assist you in numerous ways. I'm sure you guys can think of something.

fair enough!

Daytime got a real lesson (and still is) about how much work my poor overnight team was doing. The daytime superviser thinks most of them are too slow, but I'm not sure he's cognizant that we still got things done for the most part.

Me, I went from infants to toys to furniture to garden center to housewares to infants again today. I put in some serious miles.

Lathiira, sounds like you got your 10,000 steps for the day. Plus another 100K for good measure. ;)

Best wishes navigating what sounds like a tough situation. Take care!

Does anyone want to kibitz on the idea of Lark lighting up a torch vs. chucking a tanglefoot bag at the priest? I really cringe at 50% miss chances...

Y'all need to see.