GMDQ's Skull and Shackles (Inactive)

Game Master tumbler

Thanks for the feedback -- will bear in mind skill challenges good.

Checking on KeefX and then I'll move us forward.

So: The next five days (days 15-20) have no notable, scripted events (there's one scripted event I'm ignoring because it's stupid and splits the party too much, and you're on good track with your XP earning--btw the boarding exercise is worth 100 each). This is a good opportunity for you to continue explorations, infiltrations, and influences.

It has been suggested to me to throw out some roleplay seeds to spice up/provide ideas for with any activities you participate in, which I can do.

I'd still like your input on how we go about this:

A) One day at a time. I post your work assignments and any adventure seeds for both the day and night, and you can post responses and any desired work activities.

B) Just summarize the whole week at once, and you post up to 10 day/night activities you want to do through the week.

C) Just skim through the week entirely and go to the next scripted event.

D) Any other ideas you have.

BELOW is a reminder influence-wise of where you are with your crewmates.

Remember, no one is considered your ally until they at least hit "friendly" status. Indifferent folk may behave amicably to you but are still loyal or frightened of the officers enough they will consider any trouble you get in to be your problem, and in worst case scenarios, obey the officers if it came to a skirmish.

Helpful folk CAN lose influence with you if you don't pay attention to them or if you treat them disrespectfully, but you don't need to go out of your way to influence them any longer (you can have conversations with them in passing that don't require rolls or count against an influence attempt).

The list below is in an explicit order from who likes you most to least -- so, while Kroop and Rattsberger may be both listed as "indifferent" Kroop likes you a lot more (Rattsberger's on the night shift so of course you've never had a chance to talk to him). The people ergo listed higher on the list as "indifferent" are closer to becoming friendly to you. You can work on any and all of them, but for example you'll probably befriend Kroop much faster than any other "indifferent" character (he is in fact almost to friendly).

I am also adding things you probably have noticed about these people as time has passed.

Sandara Quinn - Helpful (wants a competent crew with good leadership, devoted to Besmara)

Rosie Cusswell - Helpful (likes good food and playing her fiddle)

Crimson Cogward - Helpful (obsessed with Pharasma, lots of bravado, likes tales of fighting and adventure)

Owlbear Heartshorn - Helpful (just likes people paying any attention to him at all)

Cut-Throat Grok - Friendly (No-nonsense, devoted to service of the ship, appreciates those who are respectful to her)

Ambrose “Fishguts” Kroop - Indifferent (Despondent over his life on the ship, but becomes less so when he has someone to talk to)

Jack Scrimshaw - Indifferent - Loves talking about his scrimshaw work and eager about sea life

Conchobhar Shortstone - Indifferent (you raised him up from unfriendly) (really wants to be a pirate, ARR! Loves gambling, pretty ladies and music)

Giffer Tibbs - Indifferent (Unlike most on this ship, reacts openly and positively to acts of kindness toward other people)

Tilly Brackett - Indifferent (Stalwart sailor, misses her husband, likes drinking and cards)

Barefoot Samms Toppin - Indifferent (misses fishing, also the only person along with Giffer who reacts with shock or compassion when someone is hurt)

Ratline Rattsberger - Indifferent (Nimble rigger in spite of loss of several fingers, used to be the ship's ratter before Muffin came on board)

Badger Medlar - Unfriendly (Not much, just quiet and sticks to her work)

Shivikah - Unfriendly (a lot of people kind of avoid her but you've never seen her try to intimidate anyone)

Maheem - Hostile (Very, very loyal to the officers but wants things done by the book and dislikes dishonorable behavior)

Aretta Bansion - Hostile (Bitter and foul tempered)

Jaundiced Jape - Hostile (mute, so it's hard to get to know him, but he is very territorial)

Nam "Narwhal" Tate - Hostile (Jokes with Scourge a lot)

Fipps Chumlett - Hostile (Bully who really, really, hates you)

Slippery Syl Lonegan - Hostile (Psychopath who hates you more)

I like option B personally. Since it's a good 5 days before anything exceptional happens, we can summarize what we're working on, make the rolls, and move along a bit to the next event. We can execute ideas that might require a bit of planning in that period (such as when Thren helped distract the crew so others could go and make Syl's life difficult by stashing swag in her locker).

I agree that Option B sounds good. There are several activities I'd like to try that I can line up in summary fashion.

This is a good opportunity for you to continue explorations, infiltrations, and influences.

I think Lark is going to try some influencing, but I wanted to ask you about exploring. Basically - what’s left? I’m sure you can’t just give away everything we may have missed, but are there any areas that Lark knows he hasn’t explored (other than the officer’s and captain’s areas)?

My impression is that we’ve been through the bilges, the crew quarters, the galley and quartermaster’s areas, and the surface of the upper deck. Lark thinks it would be worth his life if caught in officer country so he’s intentionally avoiding those spots. Now that Lee is on good terms with Grok he doesn’t want to invade her space again. Is there anywhere else that Lark is conscious of having missed?

No, you haven't missed anything, per the layout of the ship. You are right trying to break into the officers' quarters or the captains' quarters would be very risky. I am not looking at skill DCs etc. at the moment, but it is not impossible---well, getting into the captain's quarters may be impossible. You can try, if you want--and if you opt not to, that is your choice.

You can also loot lockers, although I also understand your not wanting to do that.

There isn't MUCH but the option is available, and especially if there's anything you want to know about the Wormwood and its layout, etc. this is the time to take it in.

I think option B is our best bet.

Probably we should pick a couple of crew members and concentrate on shifting their attitudes. Maybe concentrating on some 'indifferent' crew and improving them? I'd like to try Kroop, but he's damaged pretty badly. The usual relationship building may not find any traction on him. Maybe some lateral thinking is needed for him.

KeefX, have Lee do a Sense Motive on Kroop, with a +2 to the check.

That's the plan I'm working toward, KeefX, hence my choices for influence this week.

Awesome post, GMDQ! Thanks for putting all that together.

Thanks!

If we had gone back and forth that would have taken a week or more to do.
The condensed version was still entertaining and we covered a lot of ground quickly.
Well done, GMDQ.

Thanks!

While we're discussing equipment, I've noticed you folks haven't updated your character sheets with the pirates' kits you got from after the reefclaw fight, and possibly after some other gear you've found.

PLEASE DO THIS. This is for your sake, as well as mine, as I check your sheets occasionally to check your resources and abilities. If you don't adjust your sheets, I can't also adjust accordingly. Likewise, you may wish at times to check each other's sheets to see what you have, and if you don't keep your sheet updated, you're not going to be able to cross reference resources easily.

Here's an example: none of you have added your pirate's coats to your sheet, including the +1 armor bonus it gives you. So if I look at your character sheet, and see your armorless AC, I will presume it is the correct AC and you may get hit by an attack when you shouldn't.

Because I don't know what you decide to equip or not (for example, Lee might have chosen not to wear his pirate's coat since it gives him a 5% spell failure chance, and doesn't stack with mage armor), I will always assume your character sheet is correct. So if it's not updated, I'm going to probably give you lower AC and saves, etc. than you really have.

You should probably also record, in addition to what's on your person, stuff you keep in your locker, or have stowed with the quartermaster, etc.

To be clear: I AM NOT TRACKING YOUR LOOT. That is your job. The game so far has been pretty sparse loot-wise, but that will not always be so (it'd be a piss-poor pirate adventure if you didn't get much treasure). Discuss amongst yourselves how you would like to track your gear. My suggestion would either have one of you track party treasure in your profile, or store it in a publicly shared GoogleDoc, and link it in your profile/alias name (much as I have the tactical map linked under my name).

Back to your regularly scheduled piracy!

Also, influence update since we did a lot all at once:

Grok is now Helpful. Kroop is now Friendly.

Jack, Tibbs, and Conchobar are still indifferent but need only 1-2 successful checks or other appropriate gifts/favors performed to raise them up.

OK, I will update my character sheet, but probably not until tomorrow.

Lathira & Keefx, I'm happy with either a designated loot-keeper or a public Google doc. I lean a little toward the latter so we can share the work. What do y'all think?

I favor the Google doc as well.

Sorry for rushing y'all past the weapon discussion, but I realized the thing asked for would probably be a rapier and Krine doesn't have any in stock (and there are possible alternate solutions to that problem). Rather than prolong it, I just made a call. I also needed to get in that big Part 2 introduction post while I had time.

As always we can backtag and retcon as well.

If you want a template for loot tracking to steal, here is an example from another game (DON'T EDIT THESE, THEY'RE SOMEONE ELSE'S):

Option 1 -- This one is more simplistic, but gives you the total treasure value and then splits it amongst party members.

Option 2 -- This one is more complex and allows for some more specific book keeping as to what is found, sold, kept, etc. It of course also requires more bookkeeping.

I know in fact all of you are more than competent with things like spreadsheets, so of course you can make your own as well.

I was going to say that the issue with spreadsheets is that everyone needs an app to edit them, but then I realized that you can create and edit spreadsheets in Google Docs.

Do we want to create a Google Doc repository and keep, at least, a spreadsheet of loot in it?

Does everyone have a Google account (gmail) to attach to the doc repository?

This is much belated, but everyone should have a gmail address. Maybe they can PM you their address, if you're willing to set one up.

In other news, I have to wonder if I'd have this much luck playing a cleric were she actually my PC. That was crazy! Maybe when y'all hit 7th someone should take her as a cohort.

All,
It's that time of year again and I'm on the road visiting family.
I'll continue to check in as often as possible but if an evening passes without comment it's because I'm enjoying some cheer.

Happy Holidays, KeefX!

Thanks for the heads up and enjoy your family time.

This combat has a hard ending point one way or the other (but I have to see what happens because the post-combat results are contingent upon various events and choices). If we don't hear from you KeefX, I may bot you as needed to get us to the end, but once we hit that stopping point we will all be in a good spot to take a holiday break. Also, I've got some freelance work that's just come in.

You guys have been doing GREAT posting to this very long scene on a regular basis and I really appreciate that.

Happy Holidays KeefX, we understand your "issues" and appreciate them.

On a separate note, I think in future encounters where you may have NPC allies assist you, I will have you control them in combat. You know them well enough now and see how they act, I feel okay giving you their stats should the time and opportunity arise. And I think it will be more satisfying to you should your allies be effective in assisting you if you are controlling them rather than I am. You all can volunteer who plays whom at the time. I will still roleplay their personalities etc.

This will also make it easier for me to focus on enemy tactics.

That sounds like a good idea and a good way to offload some of the management work.

That sounds fine to me.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XO2fMdZ5OwKg9JKiCkYF4esVUGImxKUSfl2 GeS0PlrY/edit?usp=sharing

Here is a preliminary loot document. Anyone with this link should be able to edit it. It's basically a replica of one of examples GMDQ provided earlier. All comments and suggestions are welcome!

It only has loot from the Man's Promise so far. I have the best of intentions to go back over what we got from the bilges, dire rats, etc.

KeefX - I went ahead and gave that armor amulet to Lee since he'll have a harder time with armored clothing. Just let me know if you'd rather work it out IC or some such.

I've added Lee's (non-armored) waxed coat and Lark's armor and sword to the loot doc. I wanted to quickly give it a little more of the feel it will have as it continues to grow. Lark's stuff is in italics since it's contingent on Grok having it in stock. Also, I guessed at the cost of the waxed coat.

The gear in the seaman's kit was chosen by Grok (okayed by the captain, of course). I was going to have Lee go to Grok, tell her the issue and see if she can help me find a replacement. Hopefully it comes out as an even trade instead of a purchase.

I'd probably have a separate sheet for each of us. Over time, we'll add all sorts of things to our personal piles of loot, and knowing I used my potion of cure moderate wounds and that Lark has used his but Lee hasn't will be easier if we all have a separate sheet. Then, a spot for communal loot (including things not yet divvied up) on a sheet would be easier to deal with. "Oh crap, Thren got skewered again. I'm grabbing that scroll of cure unlucky tiefling we got from the last ship and using it, since I'm carrying it."

Hope y'all had a merry and bright holiday.

Thanks for making that sheet, thermopyle! I will add the link to the campaign's profile and my alias.

My take on things:
--- The loot tracker be used as just that: to track treasure acquired during adventuring, so you can be reminded as to whom received what (in another game we'd forgotten who got the bag of holding and that was rather important, so it was good we could reference that). As thermopyle set it up for all of you to edit, this should be easily maintainable. It does not necessarily need to reflect purchases. This is simply to remind yourselves who got what -- once you have it on your own person, it is up to you to remember what you did with it. And thus...

--- You still track individually YOUR OWN gear, including gear recently purchased by you individually, according to your own character sheets. I will always reference your individual character sheets, not the loot tracker, to see what is on your PCs' persons and what you do and do not have. If you want to do this BY creating your own Google Spreadsheet, that's fine, please just link to your gear tracking list on your character's profile.

If you choose to do something else, please just be sure we are all on the same page, and I am aware.

==========================

As for available gear in Grok's shop:

Clothing: Grok will likely simply give Lee a coat, although I'd say one is worth, say, about 2 sp. She will urge him to keep the armored one just in case he decides a very slight risk in disruption of casting is worth the protection.

Grok has both "basic" (1 sp) and "fancy" pirate clothes (30 gp) available. The "fancy" clothes, similar to a "noble's outfit" would look odd unless matching jewelry is also purchased separately (you can imagine general mundane jewelry is available as well). Some of them are recently looted from the captured ship so have a Rahadoumi style to them. She also has hats, worth anywhere from 1 sp-20 gp, but does not have any of them tailored to accommodate a person with horns on their head. While I'll also note this in the RP thread, Grok would note to Thren that if she dresses too akin to an officer she may at best be seen as putting on airs and at worst advertising dangerous ambition that would make her a target.

Armor: I double checked. There are masterwork leather armors and masterwork bucklers. There are ordinary leather, studded, chain shirts, bucklers, plus a few medium/heavy armors none of you are currently proficient in (breastplate, banded mail).

Ordinary Gear: As stated before, you can get pretty much any ordinary gear worth 10 gp or less.

Weapons: You have enough money to afford weapons now! Grok has some short swords, cutlassses, saps, and daggers (Krine keeps the other weaponry in the armory and is responsible for it). Grok also has of note: a masterwork light crossbow, a masterwork sap, a few masterwork daggers, and a masterwork warhammer. She also has a +1 short sword and a +1 dagger but you'd likely have to trade something equally valuable to get one of those (the only thing you have worth that much is the amulet of natural armor+1). She has bolts and arrows (though oddly no bows) and six +1 arrows.

Other stuff: She has a number of commonly available alchemical items (think acid, alchemist's fire, holy water, etc.) as well as some common low level potions and scrolls (CLW, etc.). The best potion she has is a potion of haste. By all means if you have something specific in mind, ask.

If you wish to purchase any of the above items, just state that you do so. I trust you to check the cost in the PRD and adjust your character sheets accordingly.

OK, thanks for the review of what was in the shop. How much does jewelry cost? I think I might pick up something to give to Sandara in the way of jewelry, just to say thanks. I have bought the basic items I listed, a suit of studded leather armor, and adjusted stats accordingly (or will double-check, as I thought I did this the other day).

I don't have a specific list of jewelry available and while I could randomly generate one for you, it seems easiest to say --- spend as much as you want. The best jewelry, such as what would be worn by a noble, starts at 100 gp apiece and can go considerably higher. Lower and middle class jewelry is a few sp to a few gp. There's even simpler shell jewelry that is rather cheap.

Is our XP total of 2,310 still accurate?

I have been thinking about taking Improved Unarmed Strike for my 3rd level feat. It would be amusing for everyone to take that feat, actually.

Yes. You're about 700 xp to next level.

Gonna be on the run a bit for the next couple days. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Happy New Year to everyone. Celebrate for me-I work tonight.

Happy New Year!
I'm calling it an early night because I hate being out on the road with amateur drinkers.

I'll move us on tomorrow, but I wanted to talk about Lathiira's suggestion of using hero points as a healing surge. I think that's a good idea, and I do not anticipate breaking things since hero points are rare and need to be spent wisely. Does the suggestion of healing a number of hit points equal to your level seem fair? Your level + your Con mod? Your level + 1d4?

I would rule if we agree on this, this has to be used while you are conscious, after you have taken damage, on your turn (it can't negate damage as soon as it's happened). Once you're unconscious or dying, you can't activate this use of hero points. You can of course use the "cheat death" option listed under hero point uses, where you spend two hero points to avoid a killing blow should those circumstances arise as written.

Note you will be leveling soon.

And per my prior comment upthread, I will ask you folks to control Rosie in combat so that's one less piece I have to juggle. You can discuss amongst yourselves as to who controls her. I will roleplay her outside of combat. Here are her relevant stats:

She would let you know what gear she has, and would probably be willing to share/trade her alchemical items. She will not give up her weapons save if she get better.

I'd say if we use hero points for a healing surge, go with level plus Con mod. The 1d4 option doesn't really add much in the way of drama or thrills, and if the Crankipator rolls a d4 for that the way it does for magic missile, we'll all get '1' when we use it. Yes, I know the wand doesn't always roll a 1, but you get my point. I agree with when it can be used, just we'll need to know for clarity's sake what type of action it is to use it for healing. I don't think it'll break things either, as let's face it, this party has face skills and will develop arcane might eventually, but we're not stupendous in combat nor do we have healing of our own without the generous assistance of NPCs.

I like the hero points for healing using level plus CON mod.
Doesn't seem unbalanced. Makes hero points more flexible.
Can the healing surge be activated whenever the player wishes? In the middle of conflict?

I want to research a spell for Lee but I'd like some input regarding level and limits.

The thought is to have a spell that tells you where you are from two places that the character has visited. That way, you can figure out where you are with a little geometry. I would limit the spell to only working on a single plane. Also, the spell would not tell you how far apart your points of reference are (but that would be easy enough to find out).

The spell would make maps much better, in general, all over the world. Navigation would still require the accurate use of the spell-derived data and access to decent maps.

How about the healing surge can be activated as a swift action?

For a triangulation/LORAN spell...

Hmm. Well, "create treasure map" is 2nd level, which is where a map of loot a creature knows about shows up on a scrap of its skin.

Locate creature is 4th level and Discern Location is 8th. Both of these are to effectively scry upon others, so the level/difficulty incorporates your tracking another, possibly nonwilling target. Oddly, these aren't described as being used to locate yourself --- but actually, I don't know why they couldn't, really. Know Direction (which is simply "find which way is north" is the only self-location spell there is that I can find with a quick search, and is a 0 level spell.

If we did not rule that locate creature or discern location can work on the self... then for a magical location spell, I'm not sure you'd still need to involve geometry at all, as cool as it might be. If you had, say, a magically prepared map, you could cast a spell on it and via the magic of magic itself, your location could simply appear on the map, within plus or minus some error.

And in fact, it might be better to make a wondrous item than research a spell. In this case, I'd say locate creature as the spell requisite to create. I think it's the kind of items certain game developers hate because it "makes adventuring too easy" but it's also exactly the kind of thing a smart adventurer with access to magic would make and its nonexistence for the rule of cool seems silly. It would be a magic map, where when the command word was spoken, your location on the map appears. The map has to include where you are to work; i.e., if you have a magical map of Golarion, but you've been magically teleported to the world of Faerun, the map will be useless (or rather, all it will show you is that you are not on Golarion). I would allow this to be created. Based on initial calculations, you would need to be able to cast the spell, have Create Wondrous Item, and have 6,400 gp worth of materials to make the map (which can come in the form of valuable parchments, inks, etc.; I do not require magic item creation materials to be in the form of raw gp (although if that's what you have, that's fine)).

If you still want to think about doing this in the form of a spell, I'll need a more specific proposal with a spell statblock. Let me know what you come up with. I'm thinking it'd be at least a 3rd level spell, although depending on the desired function that is subject to change.

To locate yourself with geometry, you need not magic but a map, a compass, a sextant, and a successful Knowledge (Geography) or Survival check. (And there's probably someone on the Man's Promise working on that already.)

I'm happy with Level + Con for Hero Point healing. Doing it as a swift action sounds good as well.

When/if the time comes, do we want one person running Cusswell or should anyone available give her an action? It might make sense for whoever is closest to her initiative to take over. Alternatively we could have anyone do it if they check in and see that it's Rosie's turn. Any other ideas?

Let's go with 1 person running her at a time.
We can change up from encounter to encounter.

We'll go with Swift Action to spend hero point to heal level + Con modifier.

Looks like for now thermopyle is running Rosie in combat and you will take turns in future events.

Here's my goof: When I leveled Lark I took resiliency from the Unchained Rogue in the D20pfsrd. It grants (Rogue Level x 2 temp HP) instead of just (Rogue Level temp HP) as it does in the PRD. Lark's character sheet says "unchained rogue" but for the talent it just says "rogue talent - resiliency."

Yesterday, instead of trusting my notes I just checked the PRD and quoted what it says there. If it's all right I'd like to use the Unchained Resiliency for the day and put Lark at 0 HP.

If that's too much of a ret-con just let me know and I'll try to stabilize Lark. I do hope, though, that I can start using Unchained Resiliency starting 'tomorrow.'

Here is Unchained Resiliency from D20pfsrd.com, and here is the PRD Rogue.

Okay, earlier I was reading it as 2 hit points, not twice your level (4 hp).

To be sure we are on the same page:

Here is the Rogue Resiliency Talent in Pathfinder Unchained:

Resiliency (Ex): Once per day, a rogue with this ability can gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice her rogue level. Activating this ability is an immediate action that can be performed only when the rogue is brought to below 0 hit points. This ability can be used to prevent the rogue from dying. These temporary hit points last for 1 minute. If the rogue's hit points drop below 0 due to the loss of these temporary hit points, she falls unconscious and is dying as normal.

(BTW, Unchained is now in the official PRD and can be accessed here. Please bookmark that rather than the fansite.)

In Round 1, you began combat with 15/19 hit points (still damaged by the crashed ship). Crab 2 succeeded on its attack of opportunity against you, and both did normal claw damage (6 damage) AND succeed on its free grab attack wherein it did 6 more points of constrict damage, for a total of 12 damage. This dropped you to 3 hit points left.

In round 2, Crab 1 attacked you with a successful claw attack, dealing 3 damage. This lowered you to 0 hit points. Yes, you can have activated resiliency at this point. Reading the correct resiliency rule, you gained 4 temporary hp.

The crab then did its free grab attack dealing 4 hp more damage, so you are currently at 0 hp.

So yes, at this new math (2 hp instead of 4) you are disabled, not dying. I am fine with making this adjustment.

It is very important to note that once 1 minute passes, if you are not healed by that time, you will lose the temporary hp and drop to -4 hp and will be dying.