Some of the mites were already wounded when the fight started, Kryolani.
Also, as a side note, you may want to know that Kryolan is currently at -9 hp. His Con score is 12, but 2 points have been taken away from him by the tick, thus, essentially, unless he rolls a very high roll next turn, Kryolani is going to die at this turn if no one heals him in the next round (not the one for which you've already posted, the next one). Thankfully, he doesn't go first in initiative order.
Have no fear. I wanted to try and daze the tick this round but now that Rok and Serolt are focusing their damage on it, I can spare my action to heal you.
It looks like we'll survive but I don't want to jinx it. :)
What I do not like1. - I do not like the fact that we have , something which complicates things for me a lot. I would rather have no animal companion at all, but since Euan really wanted to go druid, I needed to indulge his request. This is my mistake of course, not yours, because I should have been more resolute in saying "no" to you when you asked me to play a class that included an animal companion. This is my first long term campaign on these boards, and I wouldn't want to complicate my life further adding animal companions to keep track of. Now, I don't know how to get out of this mistake.
Roksana's horse has only been involved when the horses of the rest of the party have also been accounted for, and as far as I can tell accounting for Regin would take up as much time as accounting for Reknar would have if we had kept our fifth player.
Given the wilderness setting of the AP, I find it hard to imagine that it wasn't balanced around the idea of at least once animal companion, and from what I can see we've just barely made it out of many of our battles, so Regin's existence isn't tipping the balance in anyone's favor.
So I guess what I'm trying to discover say is, what exactly is the issue here? It's hard to really respond to this without knowing exactly what about animal companions complicates the game any more than a standard PC.
3. - I do not like your characters. Don't get me wrong XD I'm not saying that I don't like Serolt, Jacobus, Kryolani or Roksana; what I mean here is that I think you could improve your characters a lot with a little bit of additional work on them. You have great character concepts, but I still feel like you've not developed them enough for my tastes. We need to work on them together. For example, I would like to know which deity Serolt believes in, what he thinks about Erastil, what Roksana thinks about Gorum, which deity (if any) Kryolani worships and so on. This is something which, again, we can fix quite easily. First off, I would like Kryolani to actually have a background and personality in his character's sheet. This is my mistake once again though, because I told you that I would have given you several tips about how to improve your characters and I didn't.
It's difficult to really get any solid backstory in when we're moving at the pace we are. when your posts can sometimes be multiple days worth of information, it's hard to get a conversation going without feeling like it might slow the pace down or force too much backtracking.
Why would Roksana discuss her views about Gorum? She's a follower of Hanspur and as far as I can tell we have not seen anything relating to Gorum at all. Our PC's are still largely strangers to one another and they're only beginning to form friendships, I rarely talk my friends about my parents in real life, why would Kryo open up about his? Without being able to maintain a natural conversation between PC's, there's no real good opportunity to bring that up.
I'd also like you to consider that we're only level 2. In a face to face table this would only amount to a handful of session where we become accustomed to our PC's. We have time to develop these personalities and relationships, why rush that?
All of your answers are good Xynen!
As for the animal companions, the thing about them that makes me hesitant is not the possible advantage you would gain from them. Believe me, I always love when the party is strong and can overcome encounters with relative ease, because I prefer to focus more on story than combat. A strong party makes combat encounters last less, so from this point of view I'm completely in favor of mounts! The thing that scares me is the thought of having to keep track of them. I'm always forgetting something in my posts, regardless of how much effort I put in every single post of mine. I fear that, with two animal companions, I would risk to make mistakes more frequently, ie. forgetting to roll for them or to actually make enemies consider them as part of combat. It's all about easying my GM duties. I do not consider a mount different from a PC: thing is, I've not recruited 6 players for this reason precisely, and that's because I sometimes have some difficulties in keeping track of everything, and the more PCs there are, the more chance I have to make mistakes, ignoring important things during a combat. In PbP I have to bot your characters frequently, and the things that I could forget about your animal companions at any time scares me. But I'll live with it and try to avoid mistakes at the best of my abilities.
As far as devoloping your characters goes, maybe I've been a little bit unclear in my first post. I'm not talking about creating an encyclopedia about what your characters think about every single thing in the world. All I ask for is for you to give me some details that could help me in creating some personalized quest, encounters and storylines. For example, now that I know more about Kryolani's heritage, I've already written down a storyline related to him. I really like to tailor the story I tell on my PCs, but I can't do that without knowing some additional pieces of information about their past and personality. It's not something I would like to do soon. All I was asking for was a chance to chat a bit about them with you as players, and see if you can work together on creating some storylines and hooks which could help me to further immerse them in the campaign. But as I said above, nevermind, I've just been too demanding and I apologize for that, I'll find another way :)
There's one last thing I need to add. I realized that some of you feel that the fast pace I'm giving to this game is somehow preventing them from roleplaying some interesting scenes. Well, that is not what I want. To me, a fast-paced game is meant primarly to allow the chance for more interactions, not to limit them! It's very important to me to have understood that you were feeling somehow limited in your interactions! From now on, I'll be much clearer in my posts about what I do expect from you. Posting frequently doesn't have to mean necessarily going fast. If you roleplay for several RL days, I'm perfectly fine with it, as long as you write good posts and not liners. Actually, I love reading RP posts.
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I would like to thank you for the patience you had during these days. I was undergoing a deep crysis about my attitude towards PbP in general, and you had to suffer the worst of its consequences. Thanks to your answers, though, I've learned several things and found some new, important motivations to keep it going. So, thank you for the time you've devoted to this game. I promise that, now that my mind is clearer, I'll try me best to make this the best PbP experience I could create for you :)
For the record, I've been REALLY enjoying the pace of this game so far. Can't speak for anyone else, but I like that we seem to be an active bunch.
I feel like it's helped me get to know Roksana as a tempermental, no-nonsense warrior, Jacobus as a by-the-books law-and-order type, and Serolt as a man who's in this as much to get away from existing civilization as to create a new one.
I'm working on an update guys. I just wanted to congratulate for the awesome roleplaying posts!
Oops, Kryo and Jacobus crossed posts as to how to handle the 'old lady'. :(
GM or another player, take your pick and just go with it.
A quick tip for the casters in our party: remember that, since Adventurer's Armory is a legal source in our game, you can use alchemical substances to enhance some of your spells. If you do not own that handbook, you can take a look the rules for it by clicking on this link.
Now, that was an epic post Euan!
Thanks!
The story is stolen shamelessly from an AP I ran a few years ago now. :) But it seemed to fit Serolt well enough!
Bravo! I'll get the songs, but Serolt has to do all the story time from here on out :)
GM Giuseppe, Regin gets a free trip attack with his bite.
He has the feat Weapon Finesse (link) so he uses his Dexterity to hit instead of his Strength.
What does he use on the CMB for the trip? I assume it's Strength as the feat doesn't reference maneuvers. That said, it seems weird to use Strength for one thing and Dexterity for another in the same attack. Still, in my campaigns I'd stick to Strength for the maneuver.
But I leave it to you. What would you like me to apply? Strength or Dexterity? For reference, Regin has a 12 Strength and 21 Dexterity, so it makes a pretty big difference.
Strenght for maneuvers. Normally, if a character has Weapon Finesse, that doesn't allow him to use his Dexterity to his combat maneuvers. So this rule will apply to Regin as well.
By the way, since Regin gains feats as you advance in levels, I would like to take a look at this feat for him from Cheliax, Empire of Devils (which is in our legal sources): Fury's Fall, allowing to add the Dex bonus to a character's CMB. I would rule that the feat is available to Regin.
Cool on the ruling - as expected. :)
Thanks for the feat tip! For that I'll need Improved Trip too. Not sure how much investment I want to make in his trip attack. But we'll see how he develops...
Ooooh, by the way, how is my disease going? Any ill effects yet?
Gonna move you forward in my next post. Do you agree with Serolt? Do you want to take Mik-Mek home before returning to Oleg? Would you trust his guide through the wildlands? He says he knows the way...
Oh, also, map updated. You can see The Greenbelt again now :)
I say we follow Mik-Mek, even if he leads us astray. We're explorers! :D
Besides, he can't read a map so he couldn't just point you in the right direction :D
A quick heads-up for the diseased: remember that you heal 1 point of ability damage/day naturally.
Quick question: giving Kryolani's and Rok's current conditions, would you like to change your plan and return to the trading post or are you sticking to the plan and travel to the kobolds' cave?
That's a good question. Problem is Mik-Mek.
We'll discuss it in character pending Rok's save.
Oh, how far away are the kobolds? My impression is they are one maybe two hexes away. Is that a fair assessment from talking with Mik-Mek?
Yeah, waiting on Rok's save (or not) to decide but I think we'll head back to sick people can fully recover.
Thank you for having kept track of Mik-Mek rations Serolt!
quick heads up and apologies, stuck with kids today, wont be able to post for another 5-6 hours. Figure Kryolani is still a little hung over from sickness anyhow.
Can we know the strength loss of Kryo and Rok or would that be considered metagaming?
I don't trust these 'whispering kobolds' and do NOT want to follow them into their lair. We could say that Kryo and Rok or too sick and need 'fresh air'.
Thoughts?
I don't think we should know the actual extent. Sufficient to say they're both very weak.
We know Kryolani can barely hold up his head and Rok refuses armor and claims to be unable to fight. That's enough for any conversation you may want to have. :)
Serolt is following though. What choice do we really have? Feel free to bring it up in character though. Happy to have the conversation.
You're actually already in their lair I'm afraid XD
You're actually already in their lair I'm afraid XD
Yeah, I noticed we never got a choice about that. :)
On hindsight, that may have been a good 'break' for our input. But I know you were just trying to move things along so I'm not blaming you of anything.
However, we can always head back out though, right? I mean if the group decides to do so.
Of course.
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Argh! Cross-posted again. :)
I'll post again.
GM: I know you've told us not to roll 'uncalled for' checks but keep in mind that Jacobus would want to 'sense motive' on anything the kobold says.
Jacobus' sense motive modifier is +8.
Please let e know if he's aware of anything when the kobold speaks.
FYI, I'll be out and about all day today and may not able to post until this evening. Please bot me as necessary.
Sorry for the single post today guys, but I've been very busy and the next post is a complex one-I don't want to risk to make some mistake. I'll post tomorrow morning!
It's all good, plus with Jacobus out, it's no bad thing to slow down a touch for the day, methinks.
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So we not only survived but also got some decent loot.
All of that without fighting, thanks GM! :)
Kobolds are awesome. I say we retain them as scouts-for-hire, or something!
Hello everyone, I'm having some issues with my ISP and will likely have difficulties posting over the next day or so while it's sorted. Bot me as needed.
Fabian there would be no sense in continuing the exploration (apart from what specified below), since you already explored all of the surrounding area, and you would significantly extend your travel if you plan to reach another area to explore it. Traveling from the Sootscale Caverns to Oleg would take about 21 hours of travel, equivalent to 2 days and a half. The only unexplored hex you may want to explore as you return Oleg's would be the one where you met Davik Nettles: exploring that hex would cause you to spend the whole day exploring it, thus extending your travel period to 3 days and a half. Let me know what you would like to do. You could also opt for exploring the hex of the Sootscale Caverns, extending your travel period to 4 days and a half.
In summary:
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Traveling straight back to Oleg: 2 1/2 days of travel.
Exploring the Sootscale Cavern's hex and then heading back to Oleg: 3 1/2 days of travel.
Exploring Davik Nettle's hex and then heading back to Oleg: 3 1/2 days of travel.
Exploring both the Davik Nettle's hex and the Sootscale Cavern's hex, and then heading back to Oleg: 4 1/2 days of travel.
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Let me know your decision :)
Traveling straight back to Oleg: 2 1/2 days of travel.
Exploring the Sootscale Cavern's hex and then heading back to Oleg: 3 1/2 days of travel.
Exploring Davik Nettle's hex and then heading back to Oleg: 3 1/2 days of travel.
Exploring both the Davik Nettle's hex and the Sootscale Cavern's hex, and then heading back to Oleg: 4 1/2 days of travel.
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Let me know your decision :)
I say we head straight back to recover, claim our rewards, and resupply.
Like it or not, Oleg is the only place to resupply when needed.
We can always hit these two hexes when we go south next time since we sort of have to travel through them anyway.
So unless anyone poses a better idea, I say we go straight back.
I'm fine with that suggestion Jacobus.
Hey Giuseppe, I'd like to groom Mik-Mek to be a follower when I take leadership. As I mentioned before, I'd like to have him be someone who "holds down the fort" back at wherever we make our base, and attends to my business while I'm out, rather than have him actually adventure with us.
If this is ok, it'd be cool if he could be a cleric of Apsu, but that I leave entirely up to you.
We need to finalize loot splitting. Jacobus wanted to take the seven +1 flaming bolts and the MW shield unless there were objections.
If not, then I'll write these in to my PC sheet.
There were other neat things in the loot pile.
Serolt: are you keeping track of loot?
I'll take the wand and the bracers, if only because I don't think anyone else CAN use them.
I've got the loot covered. All you need to do is indicate, in character, that you're taking stuff. If someone else has already claimed it I'll let you know - otherwise you can assume you got it and it will be reflected on the treasure sheet next time I log in.
The safety for this is on occasion I'll call for folks to check the list to make sure they got what they thought they got. The default is that no one got it, so we'll not have a situation where two people get the same thing. That would be caught by me as I process requests.
So just note claims in character, and check the treasure sheet from time to time for stuff you may want. I've got the rest covered. :)
As I am now unconscious, I have three days of not eating till I start starving to death (I assume they can pour water or soup down my throat to extend this a little). While starving, I'll take 1d6 non-lethal a day until I hit zero, then I'll take 1d6 regular damage till death. These hit points cannot be healed till I eat something.
All I really need are two rolls of 10 or above in a row to overcome the disease and start mending. C'mooon dice!
Yeah, I would think we can pour soup down your throat.
Also, I'm (tomorrow - first opportunity to change it out since you lost consciousness) going to switch out my spells. You should be able to choke down a Goodberry or three, and that's tasty food. :)
Guys I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought you would press forward even if Kryolani was unconscious. What would you have done instead? Without a way to magically heal Kryolani's disease you could easily be forced to wait for a few weeks in the kobolds cavern until Kryolani gets better...Let me know and I will change things accordingly.
No, no, please don't change anything. This is fine. Serolt would have done something differently if given the opportunity, but I'm in every way totally fine with the current outcome.
Either way we have good role play fodder. :) Let's press on.