As a side note, if we didn't want to fight the devil a scroll of antimagic field costs 1650 and then a scroll of dismissal is another 700, so 2350 gold in total. Would just need to roll a 7 or higher on my CL check to cast the antimagic field and 2 or higher on the dismissal. This should work the same for the xorn when we get to that point if I can't cast the spells myself by then.
I'm assuming they can intentionally fail their will saves on dismissal so the spell takes effect.
For all we know we gain 10 levels in under 30 days... sometimes that happens in some APs. :)
Going to give y'all a bit longer to work out your plans.
I have to say, reading your negotiations about the otyughs is quite entertaining. Don't think I ever would have guessed that would be something you had to hash out, but it's pretty fun nonetheless.
Isn't it just hilarious what PCs end up focusing on sometimes? Like, you would think, "Oh, otyughs, the PCs will just kill the monsters." Then the PCs are all, "Actually, we can negotiate with them and maybe use them for security. Let's make friends!"
Then, the PCs realize they aren't so good for security, and they have to discuss whether or not to kill them or merely relocate them. It's such a fascinating arc. I wonder how many other groups have had this kind of issue arise?
To be honest, I doubt many GMs would even give the option to negotiate with them. I get the impulse, but otyughs aren't mindless, and if the changelings could negotiate with them, why couldn't you?
Clearly said GMs have never known the wonders of the nation of Erlosung, and its capital Mercy, whose main exports were reformed bandits and butt kickings.
Seriously, not a single devotee of Sarenrae in the party, and yet my Kingmaker group redeemed, like, half the bandits from the first book - plus a few more "enemies" while we were at it. It was a blast.
Murder-hobo'ing is not strong with this one, I see. :)
I like to think that murder hobo'ing is the result of approaching the game from a mechanical point of view. Some would mistake this for a Machiavellian take on ethics and morality, but the players aren't being cynical despots - they're just doing what is 'mechanically sound': we're just killing a nameless mob, right?
It's really nice when a game goes beyond this mechanical approach and both players and DM treat encounters with living creatures as just that: an interaction between two living, breath parties.
I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I love it :)
Excuse me, we had a kingdom and houses. We were not murderhobos, we were the highly aggressive homeowners association.
This idiot spilled coffee over his mechanical keyboard and it might take a day for it to dry up -_- only have my phone atm
Thank you for the heads up. I hope it makes a full recovery. :)
Thankfully it did! It does smell like coffee, however ._.'
I've been having some serious forum issues, but I think it's all 'working' as normal again.
... I hope.
Good to hear from you, Matiscio. I've missed seeing your gameplay posts.
Hey, guys. My wife has just gone into the hospital as we prepare to welcome our first child. Posting may be sporadic, and I won’t be able to do anything on the maps for a while.
I should be back to mostly normal in a couple weeks.
Grats on the little one. Sorry to hear about your future lack of sleep. :)
Thank you for the heads up and congratulations indeed. Take the time you need.
Also, Evander (if he gets back in time) and Gregor, you can both attempt a DC 20 Perception check to notice the current situation outside of Vespam Artisans.
Woo! I hope all went well! Best of luck in the weeks to come.
It has not gone yet. Apparently, being induced is not a quick process, and can take multiple days.
Also, I slept on what is essentially a padded bench last night and I am sore.
Try and get some rest since you never know how long it might take, and good luck!
Ugh, yeah those beds (padded benches :P) are not comfortable at all, add to that all the stress and its not a fun combination. Either way, good luck!
No, literally, it’s the “couch” in the L&D suite we’re in. It’s really a wooden bench with some not quite thick enough cushions on it.
It was more comfortable than I thought it would be, but still hard to get comfortable on and I woke up with back pain.
Yeah, I had something similar from my wife's though it was in her post-op room (both of ours were c-sections).
I hope all goes well. Here's hoping the process is shorter than longer.
Just a heads up, I might be a bit slow and or unresponsive in the coming days. The troubles with my back and the currently ongoing revalidation project are kicking my ass.
Just checking in for Dak. He's still working through some real life stuff and hopes to be back by tomorrow! He thanks you for your patience!
Thank you for the heads up, Dak. (And thank you for being the messenger, Phoenix.)
Posting this to all my games, so apologies if you see it in multiple places :).
Sorry for the delay everyone, my wife was in a pretty serious car accident Tues. She is luckily ok, but have been dealing with the aftermath of that the last couple days and have just been a bit mentally exhausted. Things are mostly cleared up now and I should be good to get back into things again.
I’m glad to hear she’s okay! Take all the time you need.
Hey folks, I’m under the weather at the moment, but I’m hoping to be able to post an update tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.
Ai, sorry to hear that. And good god Dak, I hope everything is alright by now. I've been in a pretty nasty car crash myself and it took me a good while to snap 'out of it'!
Great. Now I wake up with the flu knocking on my door ._.
Yikes. Hope it passes quick!
Hey guys, I apologize for the hold up. I plan to have a post up by sometime later today. Sorry for the delay.
Tossing out a reminder to all my games. I will be off to Disney World next week with my family and the extended family starting Saturday morning through the following Saturday night. As such my posting will be limited to non-existent. Please bot me as necessary. If you need something you can try pinging me on Discord for a quick response but I can't guarantee how quickly I will be able to reply.
I will try and check in if I can in the morning or at night but not sure how that will go.
Have a good trip!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Regularly scheduled programming will resume tomorrow. :)
Dropping a note in all my games, I am back from my week long vacation. Hope everyone who celebrated had a good Thanksgiving. Going to be working on catching up on things but I got sick over the weekend so moving a bit slower than normal. In any case, I will get caught up ASAP.
Okay, I'm moving the planning over to the Discussion thread, since that's what it's for. What do we want the message to say?
I know the general message we'd like to convey is that we are happy to defend the citizens of Kintargo, and we are unable to attend the ceremony due to our work of protecting the city. How exactly do we want to write it? Do we also want copies to give out in the crowd?
OK, we might as well advance all our various ideas since there's a good chance they'll all bear fruit of some sort (or, one of the many will, so it's good we had many?).
We might as well have a few hundred of the crude masks, which are probably just flat sheets of paper glued together and then cut to vaguely resemble a raven's beak with eye cuts and a splash of two different shades of silver/gray. Our "fans" can wear these, and we can as well.
Then we might as well pen 40-100 copies of our official reply to Thrune.
What if we pen two replies? A first one delivered that is polite and one that doesn't obviously refute him but is a bit coy about accepting the praise.
He did write that he "wishes to honor you for your service in safeguarding the streets of our wonderful city. Your efforts in bringing the murderer Varl Wex to justice are an inspiration for all of Kintargo."
Our first reply could be something along the lines of we appreciate that he's apparently seeing the light in what is for the good of the City, and if he's truly earnest about wanting to make Kintargo better, we and the crowd gathered would love to hear what other plans he has. Unfortunately, giving the Ravens only one day notice to attend an event made it impossible given how short of notice it was ~ we don't have time for awards when we're trying to clean up the City when nobody else seems to.
Then we have a second letter which we can deliver based upon how we see events unfold from wherever we are observing - "Oh look, a second silver raven is coming with another message"?
I think Evander you should take a first stab at something short and sweet here given the Reverend's acumen.
I think that all sounds like a good plan. I'm a bit at a loss though for the best way to word our message.
The message can just be a passive jab at him.
"Though we the Silver Ravens humbly appreciate the recognition for our efforts, the need to clean up the things plaguing our fair city prevent us from attending ceremonial events. No good deed goes unpunished."
Something along those lines.
"The Silver Ravens do what we can to quell the troubles afflicting Kintargo, but sadly this does not allow us time to hold ceremony or receive awards for our good deeds. Please forgive our absence here, as our presence about the city is required."
"We, the Silver Raves, humbly appreciate the recognition of our efforts in protecting the citizens of Kintargo from all threats, both from within and from without. Alas, our duties leave us unable to attend this ceremony, but we thank the loyal citizens of Kintargo for their support, and beg their forgiveness for our inability to attend this ceremony."
How does that sound? All gratitude to Kintargo's citizens, and asking their forgiveness for not showing up, with no mention of Barzillai.
Still reading along. :)
Sorry, been having a dreadful week and now even my weekend is filled with work. I'll try to sit down either later today or tomorrow and post my thoughts on what's what!
Hope things improve for you, Matiscio.
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So we should probably talk about when we should pause for the holidays. I assume we should put things on hold between Christmas and New Year's, but I wanted to go ahead and mention it in case any of y'all will be indisposed sooner. We can pause sooner, if needed, of course, but I mostly want to make sure we're on the same page and have a plan in place.
I vote for Evander's message.
As for the holidays, I'll be around but posting will definitely slow closer to Christmas day, so a general break whenever works for me.
Alright. We'll plan to break from the 24th through New Year's. If we need to pause sooner, we can play it by ear.
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If everyone's good with Evander's message, I can move us forward to the event. I'll also need disguise checks for everyone along with any buffs or other preparations you would make before attending the event.
Alrighty. We'll go ahead and pause here till after New Year's. Let's plan to get started back on the 2nd.
Feel free to discuss the current situation during our downtime, but please don't feel obligated to do so. Also, y'all will be leveling again very soon, so you might want to think about what you're going to do with your next level if you have time.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's everyone. See you next decade. :)
Hope everyone had a good New Year and Holidays! Just dropping a note that I am back to a normal schedule again so can resume consistent posting.
For the magic items, I obviously don't think we should keep them but it would be great if we could at least sell them and get some cash.
After that do we have anything else outstanding? We fixed the pump and moved our people over right? Nothing otherwise specifically that we had pending at this point?