GM Phntm888's Rise of the Runelords Campaign

Game Master Phntm888

Sorry guys - smashed my toe something awful about a week ago, and it messed up my attendance. Will post soon! Still here and alive, I swear :)

Ouch! I hope your toe is better soon!

Sorry to hear about your toe Rasmorn. I hope it wasn't too badly hurt.

Broken up through the joint, so will be laid out for a few weeks at least, maybe longer. Fun times! At least there are lots of goblins to kill to fill the time.

Important rules question for this situation, regarding Web and fire; relevant rules text here:

The question is, does the fire spread naturally through adjacent squares of the web, or do you have to ignite each five foot square individually? If I didn't move my flaming sphere this round, would only the one square be burned up, or would the adjacent squares now be on fire?

Hmmm...that is actually a very good question. I am going to go FAQ hunting to see if that's answered there.

I can tell you that for me, it would probably be easiest if only squares the web passes through catch fire, but it also makes more sense for the entire web to catch fire. I'll see if there's any official word - if not, I'll make a decision.

At the risk of being a party pooper...

Since Rasmorn is casting from a scroll with a caster level higher than his own, he has to make a caster level check or risk a misfire. Failing the check means the spell fails and is wasted. Unless he has some kind of trait or ability that I don't know about that guarantees successful usage of higher-level scrolls!

If the user meets all the requirements noted above, and her caster level is at least equal to the spell’s caster level, she can automatically activate the spell without a check. If she meets all three requirements but her own caster level is lower than the scroll spell’s caster level, then she has to make a caster level check (DC = scroll’s caster level + 1) to cast the spell successfully. If she fails, she must make a DC 5 Wisdom check to avoid a scroll mishap. A natural roll of 1 always fails, whatever the modifiers. Activating a scroll is a standard action (or the spell’s casting time, whichever is longer) and it provokes attacks of opportunity exactly as casting a spell does. If the caster level check fails but no mishap occurs, the scroll is not expended.

Shoot. I forgot about that, despite having to do the exact same thing in a face to face game on Sunday. Rasmorn, I need you to roll a CL check of DC 6 in the Gameplay thread, please. Thank you for pointing it out, Isabella.

In another forum game the party wanted my cleric to use a scroll of break enchantment to break a curse that was too tough for my remove curse spell. I pointed out that I'd have to make the caster level check and with my usual dice-rolling luck I would certainly fail, which would cost us the price of the scroll for nothing. For demonstration purposes I made a roll on the spot and rolled a 2, which would in fact fail. The party decided to have a higher-level NPC cleric use the scroll for us. :)

I found a discussion about it on the Rules Questions section of the forum that seemed to devolve into the usual forum bickering, but didn't provide any direct answer. For ease of running, I'm going to say the fire does not spread.

The good news is that the nettles are damp enough it won't start a fire, they'll just smolder and produce a lot of smoke.

Posting is still unreliable, and we've got a combat coming up. I'm going to hold off until tomorrow before moving things along.

Yay for the site being up! Unfortunately, I'm actually going to be largely unavailable from now until Sept. 1st. I'm going on a trip, and am unclear how much if any availability I will have. Please bot me as appropriate.

We seem to back and working reliably?

Still here!

Okay, due to the site constantly being up and down, I'll hold off on updating until Monday at the earliest. Since it is a holiday weekend, I may not update until Tuesday, depending on how many people are able to post.

So, are you guys going to attack the goblin dogs, or try to sneak by them?

Dunno - Laufey, how do you feel about this fight?

I was hoping for a bit more input from people about it, but I'd tend to think just avoiding the dogs is better if they're securely tied.

Out of curiosity, who's still here and checking?

Me!

me too, though somewhat lightly - new job, less access during the day

Stiiiiil heeeeere

Still here.

Okay, great. That's perfectly poor timing on my part, then.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

I will be going on vacation out of the country starting tomorrow evening for a week and a half. While I will have my phone and Wi-Fi access, I will not have a computer, nor will I likely have computer access. Therefore, while I will endeavor to get one last post in before I leave tomorrow, the game will be going on hiatus as of 4 PM EST tomorrow, Wednesday September 12, until Saturday, September 22. Or possibly the day after, depending on how jet-lagged I feel.

So, I'm going to give the group homework. You guys decide whether or not you're going to attack the dogs or leave them be, and then we'll either have the fight or bypass it when I get back.

So, what do you want to do about the dogs?

I figure if they're securely staked it's a fight we can avoid. It could just consume resources better saved until later when a fight can't be avoided. We could try tossing them some food to see if that will keep them quiet.

I'm fine with trying to bypass them. I could throw up a silent image of the hedge walls at the entrance to the dog area, so they can't see us going past, if we think that would be helpful and worth the level 1 spell use.

If we can bypass them, we should.

*Pout*

Okay, so I have 3 votes for bypassing them and a pout. Bypassing the dogs it is.

My attack rolls this fight have been 3, 3, 6, 7, 8.

The RNG has not been kind to you in this battle. I hope it has brought you boons in other games, however.

This is pretty common for me.

Over in a Hell's Rebels game, my frontline paladin averages a 7 on d20 over every combat we've been in.

In a War for the Crown game, during the initial social scene (where you're supposed to run around influencing people), I failed every roll for seven rounds on a character with Skill Focus: Diplomacy.

And in another game I just got critted and killed outright!

Sorry, came home to sick dog on Thursday evening, so I've been dealing with that.

Incidentally, I've been thinking of adding a fifth player. One of the things I've noticed in the games I've been running - and some I'm playing in - is that combat seems to slow the game down in general. So, I was thinking that adding a fifth person but not modifying the combats might make combat go a little quicker, maybe another archery-type character or another melee combatant. What do people think?

Sick dogs are no fun, sounds like you had a long weekend. I think adding another player is a good idea, someone to replace Yasu or Wenona.

I'm happy to have another player, I've noticed a 5 member team works a little better without overpowering the game.

I tend to like 5-players teams too. A little more wiggle room to play "character" instead of "crunch" because you're not as pressed to optimize for every role in the party.

I'm for it, yes. I'd say a melee or switch-hitter type would be a good addition.

Okay, it looks like everyone's in favor of doing so, so I'll re-open Recruitment and we'll see about getting someone. In the meantime, let's try to get this combat wrapped up.

The re-recruitment has ended, and we have 5 possible options. I have linked to each of them below. PM me which one you think would be a good fit with the group. If you want to tell me why you think they'd be a good fit, you can. I'd like to choose one by Friday, so if you can let me know by then, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

Galdon Strife
Arkon the Thunderer
Sven Juttebar
Faolan, son of Birger
Cade Goodbarrel

Welcome, Cade!

Good evening all and thank you for having me. I have been playing this character with a bit of a dirty mouth. I wish not to offend anyone so please tell me if this will be to much. I am on here to have fun and I do not want to take the fun away from anyone else. Gaming is fun and it should always be that way.

Welcome aboard Cade! I'm not bothered by a foul mouth.

Okay, so. I have a question for the party in Thistletop, and then a question for Cade.

For the group: Once you finish questioning Gogmurt, do you want to fall back to Sandpoint for the day, or do you want to press on?

For Cade: If they decide not to fall back to Sandpoint, do you have any preferences on how we work you in?

I personally do not have a preference but would lean towards what ever is going to be easiest for you as the DM to write me in.

How late in the day is it? My initial inclination would be to press on, as we've already made quite a bit of noise (both metaphorical and literal) and I don't really want to let whatsherface know what's going on and have time to prepare. That being said, I could easily be persuaded otherwise.

It may pay to return to Sandpoint for better equipment. If the only way in is across a rope bridge rigged to drop we should have ropes and climbing gear instead.

Any further questions for the goblin? What do you want to do with him?

Sorry, didn't have time to reply to your post when I read it, then forgot it was waiting. I think Laufey would be hesitant to return all the way to Sandpoint. It would give Thistletop's denizens too mucgh time to notice something was up.

More likely she'd want to spend a night recovering close by and press on as soon as possible in the morning.

Remember that Thistletop is already relatively nearby to Sandpoint, being only a couple of hours travel.

Do we want to strip the goblin of his magical cloak/armor? It feels weird to make a surrendered and apparently helpful creature strip like that, but I wantz all the magic...

I'm going on a trip from Friday night to the following Thursday night. Not sure how much if any I'll be able to post. Bot as needed. Thanks!