GM Ridge's "Throne of Night" (Inactive)

Game Master Ridge

Sorry for the absence, folks.

As we're about to head out into the wilds again, I was curious how everyone felt about the cheese factor of purchasing a haramaki for Modnar. I'm not a huge fan of finding ways to put armor on a wizard, but that 12 AC is really worrying me.

No problem, Modnar, you're not nearly as late as I am. I'll probably post on friday and try to get you guys some exploration action, sorry

Perhaps not purchasing a haramaki but we could make one for you. IC you work with Kragg to design a set of armor that is not restricting to you and call it good. Seems more logical than the gnomes having one for purchase.

Sounds logical to me...good idea.

Both I & my computer seem to have come down with something. I will try to post later today.

Sorry for my absence of late (again). My posting should be more regular as the end-of-semester hustle has abated.

No worries. If anyone should apologize for tardiness, it's me. But hopefully it will pick up a bit on my end too

GM Ridge, given that we have not yet reached third level & the ''black blade' has not yet shown up, have you any objections to Anka not being bladebound?
It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I am already realizing that I am over committed in terms of time & adding what is very nearly an additional character is not going to help that.

While I liked the concept of the bladebound, and didn't mind another 'voice' in the party, she's your character so feel free to remove the archtype if you wish :)

Link to post that Dolgrin has for hex maps.

Sorry for delays.
Mother's Day was more than one day this week.

Okay. Post up, but now that you have a better idea where you are (Essentially 'I' on the Map), let me know which direction in general you'd like to go.

I suggest moving north-west towards K then J, then return to Fastervault via the Lake of Diamonds ('cause what dwarf can resist shiny shiny diamonds ).

Good for what ever the group decides

I'm fine with that, but was unsure as to how specific the map we had for the forest was, since each of the hexes are approx 8 miles across. Thats why I mentioned following the stream/creek.

right, good point. oops.

If we do not know enough about the network of caverns to have an idea of the entrance to the fungal forest on the west side, Hannarr would second following a river or stream - more likely to lead to some settlement.

I third following a watercourse if we have one.

@Everyone

If we are following the stream then,how about this? Most likely heading towards the lake.. so that would be hex's 1116 or 1216; I'll roll a 1d2 with 1 being hex 1116. We follow the die roll for the stream. We're exploring the hexes as we go so there will be opportunity for us to locate a trail leading from water to a direction you want the group to head into.

Any civilization within the forest would have some set routes for trade among themselves. My thoughts anyways....

Unless we run into something that needs to be dealt with we can clear a hex a day(real-world time) . survival rolls, Ridge consults his notes, and we move on if nothing or we adjust to his new direction. two weeks to get here and two weeks back we only have a couple of weeks we can search anyways (roughly 5/6 hexes)before we have to return back for Kingdom duties.

Big animals/threats don't necessarily have to be in adjoining hexes, some hexes would just be area we are passing through, that begs one other question are we spending the time clearing hexes or are we traveling through for the moment just looking for other civilizations? 1 survival&perception check or 3 checks to 'claim/clear' the land

Probably just created more questions than answers...

um...poke, poke.

I'm still here

here as well

I know it rings empty after so many, but apologies. I had a post eatten, and thought I'd get back to it later. Cue a friend flying overseas and family and all sorts of stuff and I've lost track on whether we're on round 2 or 3

I'm guessing 3, positioning and I've posted 2nd attack since.

I think we're waiting on the wolves' second round?

Big animals/threats don't necessarily have to be in adjoining hexes, some hexes would just be area we are passing through, that begs one other question are we spending the time clearing hexes or are we traveling through for the moment just looking for other civilizations? 1 survival&perception check or 3 checks to 'claim/clear' the land

In my opinion, going out we should just stick to movement. On our way back we could do the more thorough exploration, assuming we don't have cause to hurry on our return.

I think I'm going to be really ambitious and go for more than once a week as Anka suggests :o

I did not foresee see Anka eating that

She's the closest thing the party has to a wild card. And she does have a cast Iron Stomach...

True true. I suppose there's not point in having it if you don't use it now and then.

But if she has dreams of giant polka dotted elves chasing her through a rainbow forest, she's only got herself to blame ;)

I do need that second save though before we continue

Once we are done with Anka's bout of spores are we still on track for exploration? Lost how many days it was and what hex we are in an if there is anything you need from me?

...bile-soaked gobbet of mycorric flesh...

Nice!

Can anyone besides Anka read elven?

With comprehend languages yes!

Not me, several things yes but elvish no.

nope

Modnar can read Elven as well, without magical assistance.

I've marked the hexes we have explored in yellow, and any hexes we have learned something about but not explored ( like the ski'raal village ) in red. Added a little dwarf smiley for our current location.

Big question for you Ridge...

Is it possible to fast track our expansion from Fastervault to location I. Standard rules says it will take 12 months to expand that far even though it is solid rock barring 3 branches of roads. I just cant see doing kingdom building and expanding while still worrying about dwarves above and now slaves below. The timing just seems too skewed to me.

Hannarr I like the smiley face dwarf but aren't we suppose to be a sour grumpy group? :)

I can understand that, Kragg. I can play fast and loose with the time if need be. You guys are dwarves,and they take time to do things right if they need to

Well, to be fair, the smiley isn't actually smiling. It was that or the dwarf with a beer stein and I didn't want to play favorites between Zuth and Ardwal :>

Regarding exploration times: What if we just hand wave the tunnel system somehow? Make them unsettlable/unexplorable. Or make the tunnels connecting two controlled settlements automatically pacified/controlled but grant no particular resource benefit as a balance.

I saw in another thread that some folks did something just like that, Hannarr. Any connecting tunnels were considered explored as soon as the areas they connected were explored. Or exploring tunnels took only half time.

That sounds like a perfect solution as then we could claim and build on that hex right away.

Sorry Hannarr, you marked the map right but between looking at it in the am, and being lazy and NOT looking at it in the evening I made an assumption based of the text of the letter mentioning the writer was looking in the northern part of the lake and was far from that Skis'raal village; he's actually closer than we are :-)

How are we set for supplies?

should be good for about a week and a half more I believe based on previous post in discussion

16 hexes equals 16*12hrs/hex = 192 hrs travel time without being in a forced march or 24 days

Someone feel free to check my math please was looking here and here for my land movement numbers.

That looks right, thou I think Ridge mentioned game specific travel times somewhere earlier. I was calculating based on exploring and clearing each hex as we go - otherwise we will miss clues to the drow surveyor and the Xan

Then we'd double it to 48 days if we are clearing.

I was using THIS (scroll up a bit for the chart) as reference, which suggests 3 days to explore a hex. 16 hexes between current location and Skis'Raal village x 3 days per hex = 64 days, or roughly nine weeks. We can speed that up by just exploring the 10-11 hexes adjacent to the lake then speeding through the hexes between the lake and the village.

That would be (10x3) 30 days to the tip of the lake, then (6 hexes x 12hrs / 16hrs travel time per day) 4.5 days to the village.

err oops, 3x16 is NOT 64.

Hannarr will stick to history and leave math to the smarter dwarves.

Ok I'm having too much fun playing with the map! I've noted the explored hexes in green now. I've marked Hannarr's proposed route in yellow, and what I think is Ulfgar's proposition in orange ( please correct if I didn't get it right)

My guess work on timeline and supplies looks like this:

Left Fastervault with 42 days of supplies
days 1-7 travel the tunnels to point I
day 8-10 explore 1217 - fought scorpions
day 11-13 explore 1116
day 14-16 explore 1216 - fought veggie wolves
day 17-19 explore 1215 - found scroll - present - 23 days supplies left

The 'push forward' plan:
day 20-22 explore 1114
day 23-25 explore 1014
day 26-28 explore 1013
day 29-32 return to point I
day 33-39 return to Fastervault
*With Ulfgar providing forage we could probably push on even one more hex to 0912

The "secure a foothold" plan
day 20-22 explore 1115
day 23-25 explore 1016
day 26-29 explore 1017
day 30-32 explore 1117
day 33-39 return to fastervault
* Again, with foraging we could likely hit 1015 as well.

Neither plan leaves us in danger of running out of food. The big difference here I think comes down to what we perceive our goal of these first few forays to be. I don't see our job as exploring and pacifying every inch of the fungal forest, but rather staying goal driven: set up a forward outpost, establish contact with the other races, and foil the drow a every turn. The second route does clear more ground but doesn't move us closer to any of those goals.