So, I was going to be doing a mass message in all my games on Monday, telling you I was going camping for five days...instead I get to put out a mass message today, letting you know I'm in the hospital. :/ Kind of major, but I'm just being admitted for IV fluids and observation for now. I've got my laptop with me, and should, for some strange reason, have more than enough time for posting, but if interruptions do arise, that's why.
Sorry to hear that. I hope its nothing to serious and you feel better soon :(
Believe it or not, I actually kind of guessed that was going to happen given the earlier comment about the map, combined with the sense motive. Except, I was thinking it was going to be one giant hole and that the elementals would try to drag us under.
I just figured that I couldn't pass that sense motive and Evelina is ditzy enough to think that was a good idea, so I might as well be the sacrificial lamb to keep things moving. Also, I would be lying if I didn't say that I was hoping my reflex was good enough to avoid it.
Best wishes for fast healing! Hope you feel better soon!
Just to let you know, I'm going to the doctor in the big city so I'll only be able to post by the end of the day! Nothing serious at all so no worries, I'll be back!
So, I was going to be doing a mass message in all my games on Monday, telling you I was going camping for five days...instead I get to put out a mass message today, letting you know I'm in the hospital. :/ Kind of major, but I'm just being admitted for IV fluids and observation for now. I've got my laptop with me, and should, for some strange reason, have more than enough time for posting, but if interruptions do arise, that's why.
Yikes! Get well soon. And feel free to share as much as you are comfortable sharing. We are your friends here. I am happy to listen.
Guys, I'm pretty worried about Astrid/Rennaivx since she hasn't posted any news since her mass post in any of her games. This could mean that she is in some real trouble in the hospital.
______________________________
Astrid was the one who spotted the bandits but I think it is pretty safe to assume that she'd have shared this knowledge with you and I need a course of action to move you along, be it attack, sneak them, talk to them, etc.
@Evelina: You are fatigued until you warm up and heal your nonlethal damage. You already took care of the warm up part.
I am worried too. Out of game I am not sure how we can help except to send well wishes and hope for news.
In game Freyja has posted some contingent actions and also recommended we do what healing we can BEFORE we proceed down the path.
I am sorta imagining Freyja stepping out onto the path into plain sight as she begins singing for her surprise round action. That way we might have a chance to parley in the unlikely chance they will talk. But if others have other more sneaky ideas I am happy to listen.
I'm fine with that plan.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Here's some good news. I didn't die! :D
That was the first time I've ever been hospitalized, or been quite that sick, and boy...I overestimated how much mental capacity I was going to retain. Between pain, morphine, very restricted eating (not even water the first day), and poor sleep, I was lucky to even fully realize what Olympic event was running on the TV in the background, let alone intensive storytelling. But fortunately I got to go home on Sunday afternoon, and time and doctors are managing to slowly patch me back together. Being able to eat actual meals again doesn't suck for my brain capacity and energy, either. ;)
Hurray for not dying. Now get better and post. :)
I'm gettin' there, I'm gettin' there. :P
If I'm not wrong, I think I remember you mentioning about healing Astrid (at 2hp) but I do not recall any concrete action or rolls towards really doing it.
I'm moving the story forward but feel free to heal before we reach the lodge.
I cast CLW on her right after the snowman explosion for 6hp. I'm now down to 1/2 spells.
Edit:. I see. She was injured again by the raider, sorry.
Theoretically Astrid should be able to heal Astrid ;)
@GM: When we move forward can you let me know if/how many hours pass, so I know if I heal any of the nonlethal damage?
Also just a head up, I am going to be travelling from Wed (18th) and won't be back until the following Wed (24th). I'll have my laptop with me, so I may still post. But I might be preoccupied or have terrible hotel wifi, so feel free to skip/bot me if it keeps things moving.
Astrid was injured by the trap (Arvanya healed her) and then by one of the ice elementals. Since then, I think none healed anything.
@Evelina: Since you left the creek, you already walked 4 miles, thus also 4 hours, so your total non-lethal damage is just 2 now.
Also, MAP is up! Just remember that if you plan to move stealthily, remember to give me the appropriate rolls!
In case anyone has noticed arvanya keeps referring to herself with the wrong character name, I notice now that I have several female characters all named with an "A"--Arvanya, Anthuria, Avrora, Amaria. They're all in my keyboard word bank and get spit out when I'm hasty. I really need to get more original....
It's all A's and K's for me - I feel your pain. ;)
I did notice once at least and was wondering if you had a nickname for yourself.
I sorta like the idea of waiting for someone to need to use the privy. Its already been an hour or so. With a group of men how much longer can it be until someone needs to go? Is this worth trying or do we risk giving ourselves away by waiting?
This plan sounds like fun; however, two thoughts come to mind. First, whether we risk giving ourselves away, we have no clue. It seems reasonable that a group of women hiding in the woods might be noticed after a while, especially if the raiders become suspicious that their fellows haven't returned and look outside.
Second, we pretty thoroughly interrogated the raiders on the trail. Are we likely to get any more information from another interrogation?
My goal was to take one or two out before we have to face the lot of them inside. That is all.
There are a set of double-doors to east and west and a single door to the northwest. In the stable, there are two sets of double-doors. I've added 'door icons' to the map to make it easier to see it.
I fear once we open the doors we effectively pull the entire lodge and perhaps endanger the hostage. Any other way in? Windows? Any other ideas?
I am still in favor of setting up an ambush at the outhouse if there are places we can hide.
Well, there are indeed many windows which might be locked or not. Just remember that without knowing the layout of the lodge you might end up entering in a more problematic/dangerous place.
Guys/Girls we need a decision so I can move us along. So far, it seems three of you voted for an invasion (Arvanya, Astrid, and Evelina), so we'll follow this... even so, I still need to know the door you'll storm.
The proverbial pbp door! I vote the back. Kick ass and chew bubble gum.
While I liked the idea of the privy ambush I will happy go along with the majority.
I will say that I think the fact that they included the ice thickness to let us know its been an hour or so was a clue to set up the ambush. Of course I m not sure.
Lets roll. Freyja will want to begin singing right before the door is opened. Of course it might be barred from the inside... If locked maybe we were not suppose to set up an ambush but were suppose to wait for the door to open.
I am also fine with busting in the door if that is preferred to drawing them out.
While much of the time I'd be into flushing them out somehow...come on, warpriestess of Gorum. If there was ever a kick-in-the-door type, it's Astrid. C'mon, get to the smashing! ;)
Finally, the much elusive combination of wifi access and free time when on vacation.
Also, I am sort of chuckling that after all the back and forth about kick in the door vs. lure them out, we finally decided to kick in the the door...and then immediately switched to luring them out. Ah sweet indecision... ;)
For what it's worth, I actually did like the idea of luring them out with a fire. I just didn't get a chance to say so before the final decision. Also in all honesty, I mostly just voted for kicking in the door since I knew I might not get to post for a few days and didn't want things to get stuck on a tie while I was gone...and because Evelina has all the Wisdom scores! :)
We had surprise and need to take this guy down. I am not at all clear why people are not attacking/charging/moving to engage. If he acts first in the regular round he will likely sound the alarm.
I got the impression we were trying to draw him further from the door for a better chance to take him down before he is joined by others. Just going along with what was posted thus far. *shrugs*
I got the impression we were trying to draw him further from the door for a better chance to take him down before he is joined by others. Just going along with what was posted thus far. *shrugs*
That was my thinking - if we're fighting a group, it doesn't much matter if it's inside or outside, and a fire could quite likely draw everyone out at once, which might work to our disadvantage. But if there's someone already out here, already alone, and we can create a distraction that'll bring him to us still by himself, that works in our favor. (Plus, I was a dork and didn't have my bow in hand, so there wasn't much else useful I was going to be able to do with a single move/standard action anyway.)
I also thought you were storming in but then I double checked your posts and wasn't sure anymore... then I looked into the map and you all have moved your tokens to take position in front of the porch. Either way, I believe the outcome will be pretty similar, just the scene of the battle will be different.
Yeah, I am pretty sure storming in WAS the plan, then everyone got confused...or at least no one wanted to run in first ;)
Meh, alls well that ends well.
Long term we need to work on being on the same plan, anybody's plan, but the same plan. :)
I think a good idea might be posting in the discussion thread about your plan, in a way the other players can vote. For an example:
Arvanya wanted to storm in, so after her post, she come here and add "Storm in 1/5". The other players could then add another option (like "Waiting for them to come out 1/5") or repeat one of the options (like "Storm in 2/5"). Since we are a group of five, whenever one of the options reach a '3/5', I move you along.
This kind of situation is kind of common in PBP since we always think our posts are pretty clear about our intentions but sometimes they are not. This idea leaves interpretation behind.
Yep. Completely agree. I always understand the intent of my posts. What is wrong with you people. :P
I think that's a good plan for any PbP. I see that players are good at proposing plans, but not usually discussing or voting on them.
Let's start talking general strategies, then.
Arvanya will almost never want to lead the charge, as she's better equipped to shoot arrows from a distance. Auryel could be a good candidate to lead the way, though GM might want Handle Animal checks (I think by level 3 I'll have sufficient bonuses in HA to make such things automatic. Now I'd have to roll very low to fail). Auryel can and should always be in the melee to provide flanking and to trip where he can.
So from now on, unless we state otherwise, I'll order Auryel to attack. The only problem with this fight is that he can't open doors ;).
Astrid's good with leading the charge - it's her style. Now, the fact that she's a d8 Hit Die in light armor for the moment may make this a terrible idea, but she thinks it's great. ;) If there's someone better suited to leading the way, she makes a decent second-in-line too, since she has a reach weapon.
Freyja does not mind going first as she has a good AC, partly due to her Sword and Board weapon set. But she is also a caster and eventually will have some heals. And until 7th level or so she will need a standard action to start a song. That tends to remove her from moving and attacking. This gets better next level but if she has no weapon out she cannot draw, move, and sing all in the same round.
I'm sort of used to the PC's stepping all over each other a bit. In truth, it makes sense that a rag-tag group of strangers don't act like well-oiled combat machine. A round occurs in 6 seconds time, that's not really enough time to collaborate and enact a cohesive plan.
Take now, for instance. I posted that I would release a fan of flames on my next turn and took up position to blast as many as possible. But then Auryel moved in and only succeeded in getting in the way, and Freyja moved to cover Blaze and managed to take up one of my possible re-positioning spots...
This shows the different shapes my 15' cone can take, for future reference.
So... anyone willing to eat some fire and trust your reflex save to spare you the worst of it? Anyway I try it, I'm going to burn either Evelina or Auryel. Otherwise, I don't see a way to get this fan of flames off. =/
Too bad we didn't keep our initial initiative order.
So... anyone willing to eat some fire and trust your reflex save to spare you the worst of it? Anyway I try it, I'm going to burn either Evelina or Auryel. Otherwise, I don't see a way to get this fan of flames off. =/
I volunteer...Auryel! :p
Jokes aside, if you are going to hit someone, maybe roll randomly? Our reflexes are about the same and I am assuming in game it would be an accident. Of course I am sure both of us would prefer not to be on fire.... ;)
...and yeah some stumbles are to be expected. However, I still think Frosty's idea is good one. It will help to add an extra clarity that doesn't always come through in PbP format. For instance, with my positioning, I was mostly concerned about going somewhere that would leave space for all the other melee folks. I totally missed that you had prepared an area effect. In a real life game where everyone is speaking aloud and turns take only a few moments, that would have been much harder to miss.
Blaze wouldn't want to burn anyone save the bad guys, except possibly herself.
I won't target a PC or an AC without permission from the player, though. I did it once with a color-spray and even though that just made them unconscious, it was detrimental to the game overall. Just trying to do as requested and discuss tactics before I forego my original plan and just throw fire...
Hmm, I think I found an angle to make it work, though. Post forthcoming!
Edit: Ok, I figured my way around the problem as soon as I suggested she burn herself, lol!
Regarding the Fan of Flames and Inspire Courage, I could not find anything that says otherwise. IC specifically calls for weapon damage and the kinetic blast clearly states that it is considered a weapon.
Reading both the Infusion in general and the Fan of Flames in particular, I could not find anything that points out that it loses the "considered a weapon", so I added the damage.
Interesting. I agree that its unique.
It's a fun character thus far, though I am already starting to feel a bit like a one trick pony. The good news is she will get some more interesting stuff as she levels up, but for now she is your friendly neighborhood flame-thrower.
I vote we stabilize the half-orc when we can. I couldn't make the spoiler but a long history of gaming tells me that a named NPC is likely important. =D
Some twisted part of me loves when there's a handful of enemy tokens on the board, even if the individuals aren't that strong. I got to put out a group of eight enemy tokens twice in my Hell's Rebels game last night, and the fear it inspires in players is beautiful. :)
I agree Astrid, even when I am missing. :)