GMDQ's Skull and Shackles (Inactive)

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I'll be travelling from Thursday until the 25th. I don't know if I'll have the ability to post or not. I will post when I can.

It's the holidays. Craziness and travelling are the norm. We'll be here :)

Official "I will be slow or not posting the next few days because Christmas" message. Whatever and however you do this time of year, may joy and light be with you.

Merry Christmas to you this weekend. Let's all try to stay warm and safe in the face of the weather from the north.

From an entirely meta perspective, if this is unpleasant and unfun, please let me know. I know DQ has some familiarity with the adventures as published, and I know that both of you are experienced players. Some I'm trying to keep things interesting with some tweaks that are still technically within the rules. But I don't want you to think you are being cheated or for things to be so frustrating that it isn't fun.

I do own the adventures though I haven't read them in a while. I also don't blame you for adventure design. So I'm sure there's a point to this :) But I kinda itch for a good straight-up fight right now. Phase spiders are a gimmick fight to teach about readying actions. Not sure what's going on right now. So I'm gonna be patient for a bit.

Want to note that it's been a long time since I looked through this book, and while I remember some overarching plot threads (which will have no impact on my gameplay), I have almost no memory of the Island of Empty Eyes in particular, and I definitely don't remember the encounters at all. The only upcoming event I remember--and I can't remember when it comes in--is when we have a chance to fight Harrigan again (there's one fairly depressing scene I took note of because I wanted to be sure the party had the means to handle a certain non-combat situation). And anything after that is a complete blue.

In short if you run everything 100% by the book I would be surprised and have no idea what's going on. This said, as GM I also took ample creative liberties throughout (the whole adventure on the shark island to steal the ring was in lieu of an insane ship-based fight I had no interest in running, for example), and fully support your right to do the same. But I would hope you take those liberties out of inspiration and not trying to compensate for me, as no compensation is needed. This said I know you often like to tweak adventures and make them your own anyway, so go for it.

I will say I do get frustrated when presented with something where as far as I know we've done everything to solve a mystery and we're still mired in a mystery. I fall into the thought cycle of "Am I stupid? Am I just not supposed to know what's going on? How can we handle this if I don't know what's going on? What am I missing? So am I just stupid?" I also know what it's like as a GM to feel like I am doing everything I can to present obvious avenues forward and the PCs are just blithely, completely overlooking it, and so am sympathetic to any possible frustration you might be feeling as well. Sometimes it's a good idea for the PCs either way to walk away if they can and deal with it later. ((I'm also right now playing a Lego game of all things, very early in, and cannot figure out for the life of me how to open this f*#*ing door, in a game that's supposed to be kid-friendly, so I feel like I am just indeed stupid these days.))

Anyway, I'm playing Sal, who is a hothead, so if I'm RPing her, she is going to get pissed off not being able to confront what is affecting her allies, so I am also allowing her to vent on my behalf. And she's not a booklearned person who tends to just deal with what she can perceive. As an FYI, she is this close to going outside, quaffing one of her potions of enlarge person, and just using her giant adamantine ranseur to attack the foundations of the building to force it to collapse. And if she sees nothing upstairs, that is exactly what she is going to do.

That's fair. You know I tend to overcomplicate things. In any case, Sal running up the stairs should move that along. I'll try to post that tonight.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I just needed to share that I have discovered the true purpose of the Marvel Universe, which is to unlock Aunt May in Lego Marvel Heroes 2 and then, as her, go on a GTA style rampage in Ghost Rider's Motorcycle.

OMG. That sounds amazing. When I was a wee lad I read a comic where Aunt May became a Herald of Galactus and found this giant chef who cooked Galactus giant twinkies to eat.

That sounds like true comic perfection. She may or may not know Peter is Spider-man. It doesn't matter. She now has the power of Ghost Rider.

The best part is when some idiot taxi driver eventually runs into her and forces her off, she just beats the taxi with her handbag until it explodes. As far as I can tell, Aunt May's handbag is equivalent in power to Captain Marvel punching something, which seems about right.

And it would figure that Aunt May given the right access could handle Galactus better than anyone else. I sometimes think the wrong people definitely are given powers...

IIRC Aunt May in one reality was herald of Galactus. She found someone to basically make him Twinkies to help the universe. So she already has handled him :)

IIRC Aunt May in one reality was herald of Galactus. She found someone to basically make him Twinkies to help the universe. So she already has handled him :)

I was responding to Tumbler posting that very fact above. :)

Well, I've now also unlocked Captain Carter and Black Widow, and then of course used Black Widow's powers to make a custom Dottie, and for good measure unlocked Squirrel Girl, so I believe with them plus Aunt May I am now fully equipped to take over the Multiverse for the greater good.

It does sound like you have the entire team necessary for that very deed. The bad guys should just all retire now. There's no hope for them. Squirrel Girl alone, let alone Ghost Rider Aunt May, Nat, Dottie, and Captain Carter? Ouch.

On the road through the weekend and may be spotty. Please bot as needed. Riori will try to get some food and water into the captive. Sal will insist he nonetheless remain bound until he can be proven safe.

Sal is still half tempted to hack at the entire compound's fortifications with her adamantine weapon while enlarged, which may compromise future building/re-building plans.

@Lathiira, obviously I got online so you don't need to post that I will be away. ;)

Sandara will be trying to use spells like remove disease and restoration on him to fix him up. And Thren won't want him untied either.

The castaway has a couple of kinds of madness. While there are rules for treating/recovering from Madness, I can't find rules for diagnosing them, so I'm going to rule that that takes some observation and interaction with the subject and a Heal check.

Worst case...aid another, and some inspire competence :)

Hi all. Moving discussion of madness to discussion. Rules for madness in Horror Adventures is about the same as in GMG. (Link is to Archives of Nethys, which is the Paizo-endorsed rules archive and unlike that other resource does not have irritating ad-tracking and popups). There is an alternate sanity system that is also in Horror Adventures that is intended for Lovecraftian/CoC type adventures which this is not.

There is no rules basis for this, but I would argue on logic that if his physical ailments include malnutrition, starvation, and dehydration, alleviating these things alone could not cure a severe mental health affliction but should make it much easier to cope with, as indeed starvation and dehydration alone will make you hallucinate and emotionally unstable. Mechanically I'd say it should either lower various DCs or grant a +1 to Heal check to treat.

I respect that they've made the rules hard for dealing with madness as they don't want to make light of how difficult it is to cope with mental illness (and indeed IRL many mental illnesses have no cure, just ways to treat them so someone can cope with them and manage their issues). On the other hand we're in a game of pretend and it's an overly complex mechanic for something that could take more focus than the pretendy funtimes call for.

Without the existing mechanic I'd just say the person's Wisdom is at 0 from Wisdom damage, and using spells or rest to restore Wisdom plus additional rest and time makes them coherent, even if traumatized in a roleplayed but not mechanical effect kind of way. It still takes time but is a lot less die rolling.

In a way, the simplest thing would be for the GM to say, "This guy is too far gone to have a coherent conversation with, whether you abandon him or treat what you can and drop him off at the nearest city with a temple or asylum capable of treating him is up to you, but it's a moot plot point to focus on him right now."

Anyway, all of this is just me rambling and I'm fine with leaving Sandara behind at the ship to look after him while we continue to explore the island.

I would say it is not completely moot to deal with this fellow. He has been on the island for a while, and he likely knows things that would be useful.

He can't currently have a coherent conversation, but given some time he could be brought around. And even in an incoherent conversation he might say something useful.

I was going for a Ben Gunn sort of situation with him, but if it isn't fun to talk to him there are certainly other ways to deal with scouting the island.

Sandara can stay behind, try to deal with his scurvy and general malnutrition, whatever she can do to make him at least a little better. We can always scout more of the island away from the fortress we want to flatten in the meantime.

I wouldn't say fun is the issue in an immediate sense. But I am personally at a loss of what to do. I had been hoping giving him food and rest would make him feel somewhat better and we could chat with him within the next 24 hours to have at least a vaguely productive conversation. But I am interpreting from what you have been saying, that no matter what we do within the next in-game day, he is going to be uselessly incoherent until we can get our hands on a bunch of restoration spells and diamond dust (or even higher level spells), which will take a lot of time and significant investment that we just don't have at the moment. If I am following you correctly, he is ergo untreatable from our position, and therefore untalkable-to. So it isn't that I don't want to talk to him, but I understand from you that there is no useful point in doing so.

BTW I was planning to have Riori take restoration next level but she doesn't have it yet and I think we're not quite to leveling for a bit.

Meanwhile Sandara's high enough level to cast it but hasn't got the diamond dust.

Riori is high level enough to cast it but as a spont caster doesn't yet known the spell.

Sorry, I didn't see any of the gameplay posts since Saturday, or forgot about them.

I'll catch up.

Also sorry, I completely forgot about the diamond dust requirement. I houseruled that away years ago in my face to face group.

Ok, we can play as much of the Sandara and Ed show as you like. But for the sake of simplicity, let's say that you are feeding him and giving him a place to exist that isn't provoking him. Every day that Sandara tends him she can make a Heal check and a Diplomacy check (with assists if other crew members are involved.).

Successes will generate bits of useful information.

That sounds good to me. We'll undoubtedly return to the ship if we can before trying the fortress again and can see how he's improved then.

ETA: And no worries about not seeing the posts, the site has been generating a lot of 504s lately thanks to the horde of D&D 5E fans abandoning ship after WOTC tried (and failed) to get rid of the OGL and SRD. I have no doubt you tried to check at some point and couldn't get in and/or therefore the new posts notification botched.

Works for me.

I also find the diamond dust annoying. For this spell at least. Let's see what we can do the old-fashioned way :)

I find the material component over-much for restoration, at least for the non-level drain component.

Also, apropos of nothing, I've been having fun making custom digital minis of my characters. Here's Riori and Sal.

Really like Riori there ;)

Thanks.

I just learned after the fact that phase spiders are magical beasts and not the vermin I assumed, which Sal has as a favored enemy and could have shared her bonuses with hunter's bond during that fight had I known.

GM can you please do me a favor and let me know when something's attacking us that is animal, magical beast, or aberration? At least ask for an appropriate skill check to recognize?

I'll do my best!

That's all I ask! :)

BTW, I have

(1) Added Ed's loot to our sadly neglected loot tracker. I added the purchase value of the items on there just so we can keep track of what they are worth (though we might be nice and give some of them back to Ed later. Or we might not).

(2) Since right now we are not giving Ed or letting him keep anything, I realized Riori has no amulet, so it is okay if I gank the extra amulet of natural armor +1? I feel like more AC is never a bad thing

Go for it! I'm copying from his spellbook after all. Admittedly, that isn't using it up.

As for the loot tracker's neglect...let's get more loot so it doesn't feel left out! ;-)

I think that's a solid plan!

I figure Riori can "borrow" it and even perhaps pay him for it later as things warrant.

Works for me. Sounds like an excellent rationalization for some piracy ;)

Also speaking of rationalizations, if no one else needs it, Thren would like to "borrow" Ed's ring of protection as she lacks one. Since she is the only one of the PCs without it, and given her history of disastrous ideas and luck?

Having perused the loot tracker, there are items that are highlighted and others unassigned. I don't suppose my partner in pillaging remembers what the story might be for any of them?

While I had no memory, I searched both the IC and OOC discussion threads for "kukri" (as that is an unusual word) and the best I could find is Lark proposed to either sell them/turn them to Plunder.

I can't find an actual resolution as to whether that was agreed upon, but my guess is since probably Lark's player marked them green that they should be considered sold/spent.

I also noticed from rereading through some of the Yoha's Graveyard Adventure that the party completely missed, as best I can tell, that this particular collection of treasure was completely skipped past:

I think I intended the magic greatclub as treasure for Corwin, whose player left the game before we actually got to it. The easy, but not lucrative, solution would be just to say that the party gave the club, if not all of the above, to Corwin as a parting gift. The Taldan Captain outfit could have been make wholed and given to Kelizar along with the gift of the ship that y'all gave him.

I also just want to note in rereading this thread how BIZARRELY this group, in any of its iterations, seemed to go out of its way to ignore or never discuss what to do with treasure it found (or often, key items would be taken but unwanted items didn't get sold). I know obviously the party did get some money and plunder and spent it, but I have a feeling there's likely other items that have gone ignored/unresolved. I would propose that rather than try to figure out what happened to all the old treasure, our quartermaster does an audit and proposes we have 3 (or so) more points of plunder than we thought we did.

Especially as I really don't understand some of Eli's rationale in how he laid out the original loot sheet, I am going to start a new loot sheet, beginning with our adventure here in the Island of Empty Eyes, and we can try to do better going forward.

I also have NO idea how many points of Plunder we have currently (last reckoning I can easily find is 25 points as of September 2021 (over a year ago). I think we spent some of it. 1 point of plunder is worth 1,000 gp (we can always cash exchange between the two). Can we say we have about 17 plunder plus the 3 I mentioned above for 20 points? I am not trying to be greedy, I just know we should have some cash assets and it is going to be a pain to figure out what they all are, especially as some of our previous players who agreed to take up loot tracking after Lark left never did so consistently. As GM I knew I would lose track and counted on players to keep track. Now as a player I may as well make it my problem. ;)

Okay, here is a new Loot sheet that just starts over.

I honestly doubt our current tally of 5,814 existing GP as our cash assets is accurate but it's a place to start. It's not an excessive amount of money for our level anyway. Actually I should probably subtract from it Sal's purchases from awhile ago, if that isn't reflected.

Once GM approves/confirms how much Plunder we have, I will add it to the sheet.

By all means if you feel any corrections need to be made please advise. :)

We don't want to lose the link to the old Loot Tracker as it has some notes on things we put in the armory and the like, but can we have this new link put in the top of the description or campaign tab or somewhere?

Many thanks.

I'm with you on the assessment of this. Because we didn't figure out what to do with stuff it's kind of lost. So that pile of loot becoming plunder suits me fine; some of it may have gone to pay the crew too.

As for Sal's purchases, I can speak for those: they came from the sale of the ring of the iron skull; combined with the potions I picked up for her, that pretty much used up its value nicely. We also have the prize from the Regatta of 8,000 gp that is unspent. I knew we might need money to get a fort going after all. That can go into the tracker too.

Ok, thanks for looking into things!

Also...we spent that 25 plunder btw. We got some gear, mainly a wand for Kahuranga and Thren's rapier. We have had a tendency to use up plunder as fast as we get it for supplies. So we, going into this, are pretty much broke other than the 5K listed in the old sheet and any items we didn't sell off.

I added the Loot Sheet link, but I think it is not an edit level link if that is what you want.

Let's say that with the 8000 from the Regatta you have 11 Plunder. There is a lot of loot to be had here on the Island, so you should end up in a good position.

I have attempted to catch up, but if I have missed something let me know.

Thank you! Yes, at the moment it's a "viewers can comment but not edit" setting. I can change this as needed later, but wanted to restrict group editing until I was sure it was set up properly.

I've added the 11 Plunder (which counts the 8,000 gp purse from the Regatta as 8 Plunder). I was pretty sure not all of the party's plunder was spent, even if they did spend a chunk of it. (And fine to spend it! No point of it if we can't use it.)

I reviewed. We spent that 25 plunder I can assure you! We've been running on empty as we haven't been pirating and it's not like the Regatta was meant for picking off fat merchant ships :)

Also note: we have 10 plunder from our fun little raid on the Chellish ships before getting to the island. There's also loot we didn't claim from that raid, off the bodies of the captain and first mate, found here:

Captain's loot

I know I claimed the belt of dexterity and the mithril chain shirt. Sandara's got the +1 mithral breastplate (she's still got her mithral shirt too). Any more of this claimed I don't recall? That can be added to the stash at need, though someone might want to get the headband out of there too. Let's not fall back into our old ways of forgetting about loot!