Anyone have any idea about how to deal with this forest? I was originally planing on conquering it, but I had not realized how big it was. I want to get the Pugwhampi to join us and I want get the freedom to collect samples from the forrest. Any ideas how to do that?
Kill the guardians of the forest and just claim it for ourselves I guess. I think the two druids of our group wouldn't mind having a large forest at their disposal. Else I'd be fine with them letting us into the forest at our leisure, however they seem untrusting towards us.
Though we can't speak for everyone in the group, I believe we have a few that don't mind resolving this reasonably 'peaceful'.
For me I could use the forest for calling animals and finding new companions as well as a meditation spot or special training grounds for my fighters.
Ya I suspect that killing them all would take less time then all this talking. I wish I had a slot for casting detect thoughts.
How about a new tactic we take him hostage and hope that they will attack us to rescue him. I would not mind negotiating, but I suspect it will go quicker and quicker and easier if we do it after destroying all their forces. They are already hostile to us.
Obviously, I've been having issues again. Just want you all to know that I'm still thinking of you guys and the game and everything involved. I went to Brunei and they didn't have any internet! It was sadface.
However, it should also be noted, as I'm struggling at the moment, that I'm clinically and cyclically depressed - though the desire to post and my love of you guys and your characters and the game remains, a lot of my energy and will to actually do the things I genuinely want to do is gone. I think about the games, I read the materials over and over, and I genuinely want to talk to everyone, but I can't make myself sign on or write. I am constantly frustrated by myself, sitting and playing pointless bejeweled games when I know this is waiting for me.
I just can't describe it any better than that.
I am here and settled again with a Visa for another 30 days so hopefully I will be more regular. I understand if anyone doesn't really want to deal with a probably sporadic grumpy druid as I try to get back into my routines and patch myself up.
~L
Let me be the first to say I understand the depression. Few of my friends have or had dealt with it. It sucks.
Secondly, I for one am ok with waiting for you to be comfortable posting. There doesn't appear to be a hurry to need you in game.
Question though: Have you given some serious thought to using not just this game, but PBPs in general as some sort of outlet? Not that it would necessarily make things better, but it could help distract or direct you.
We seem to be a little stuck. But I don't know how I can fix it.
Can we have a sudden attack on us? It is a proven methord to for resolving deadlock.
Regarding the forest, I am unsure if slaying the defenders outright is the smartest choice. We have no idea just how many or how powerful they are.
Instead, I would suggest having our captive healed, and then take him hostage, possibly opening up negotiations, and ransom.
If not, then we start to slowly attack them, but not in a way that commits us entirely.
While the forest, its resources and potential allies would be a great boon, it is not, nor should it not be our primary objective.
We are splitting ourselves on two fronts. Only an idiot or madman does that, and while Vaklam is crazy, he is not that insane.
I perfectly understand the situation Leiara, don't worry post when you feel like you are up to it. I can bot you for combat if you like and you can post in conversation when and where you'd like until you are feeling better.
I have to ask, why are we at war with Varien? I mean we seem to still have alot of stuff to do in our own country and really if we want to conquer Varien I would rather do it by far more covert means. A sort of cold war thing. Did one of these means fail and they declared war on us?
Basically where the story would have begun is you have conquered Kalvian with only a couple of problems left in your own lands. There are underlying factions in your towns just like anywhere else in the world or any setting that unless you choose to specifically stamp out will exist. The forest that never attacked you and was an anomaly to itself so was left alone. Lastly, the mountains as there is little to find there as far as your scouts have found.
You were already pushing Varien back quite easily and ready to conquer them too but then adventurers happened. They seemed to have helped turn the tables and stop your advances quite so quickly. Varien would have invaded if you didn't invade them first. If you fall back they will likely counter attack.
How much our home region have each of us explored?
If not much, I believe I will begin an indepth exploration of Enoch post haste.
Most of you will have done a good deal of exploration of your areas though doesn't mean you turned over every rock and stone. ;)
You know I was this close to casting bestow curse on this guy. Some curse like "I curse you to answer every question put to you honestly and completely".
You know I was this close to casting bestow curse on this guy. Some curse like "I curse you to answer every question put to you honestly and completely".
My imps are still invisibly standing to either side of him poised to strike. Lol.
Now that we know he's a Druid I feel that I should put him in the suit of armor I brought for that purpose. Or do you guys think that might offend him. Are we worried about offending him?
Man I really wish I had prepared detect thoughts.
Now that we know he's a Druid I feel that I should put him in the suit of armor I brought for that purpose. Or do you guys think that might offend him. Are we worried about offending him?
Man I really wish I had prepared detect thoughts.
I'd rather use him as a messenger. His attitude toward us has changed enough that he may be able to convince the leader to listen to us. For the moment we are trying to convince them we're not sadiaic monsters.
Once we set up an arrangement we can slowly set up contingencies to take the place over in its entirety.
Keep your friends close and enemies closer.
Well if we are going to make this forrest a protectorate then we are going to need to have contract.
Rights
You have the right to complain as much as you want
You have the right to our mail service
You have the right to our protection
You have the right to indoor plumbing
You have the right our newspaper published by my spymasters
What you give up for those rights
Any of the ruling council and their guests has the right to free passage though the forrest.
Leave the Pugwhampi alone. They are Min's responsibility.
More ideas?
How would you guys feel about inviting there leader onto our ruling council.
Well if we are going to make this forrest a protectorate then we are going to need to have contract.
Rights
You have the right to complain as much as you want
You have the right to our mail service
You have the right to our protection
You have the right to indoor plumbing
You have the right our newspaper published by my spymastersWhat you give up for those rights
Any of the ruling council and their guests has the right to free passage though the forrest.
Leave the Pugwhampi alone. They are Min's responsibility.More ideas?
How would you guys feel about inviting there leader onto our ruling council.
The contract is mostly just to get our foot in the door. Once we're in we can slowly pick off the opposition until we're properly in charge.
Well we are both legalistic, if we come to any agreement we are going to have to abide by it or suffer rather debilitating effects.
Edit: o.k. maybe you arn't
I like the idea, though picking of the opposition one by one will take a while. A nice suggestion to get rid of any opposition would be to drop hints of great treasure to be had for the adventurers.
We could let them take out our inside troubles if possible or wanted, so no blame can be placed on us.
Even afterwards killing the adventurers ourself to get in on the good side of the ones we actually hurt.
The heros went to the other landmass.
Hmm then it is an idea for another time.
Well we are both legalistic, if we come to any agreement we are going to have to abide by it or suffer rather debilitating effects.
Edit: o.k. maybe you arn't
I'm a devil. I can follow the letter of the law and still get what I want. :-)
Well of course I am going to take 20 on a Lingustics check to make a contract with hidden loopsholes that only we can exploit. But we still have to agree on what the contract should be about.
Edit: shame about the heros leaving. I was looking forward to making them my unwitting pawns. By the time they get back or we expand out to them they will likely have gained a bunch of levels.
Well of course I am going to take 20 on a Lingustics check to make a contract with hidden loopsholes that only we can exploit. But we still have to agree on what the contract should be about.
Edit: shame about the heros leaving. I was looking forward to making them my unwitting pawns. By the time they get back or we expand out to them they will likely have gained a bunch of levels.
The devil is in the details. :-)
I gotta admit, these negotiations are rather boring as Vaklam could not even come close to caring.
Can I just take off and go back home and begin exploring Enoch?
I gotta admit, these negotiations are rather boring as Vaklam could not even come close to caring.
Can I just take off and go back home and begin exploring Enoch?
This is pretense. I imagine violence will break out soon enough.
You can leave if you like, nothing is keeping you here, Vespoya can get you out.
Is the illusion imprisoning us?
Edit: he has given us a surprisingly good deal. It almost makes me think he's scared of us. I guess that would make sense. I am very inclined to take this deal it gives us just about everything we were going for out of this forrest expect for control over it's magic, but if all the magic is coming from him it likely that he controls it. The only way I'm likely to get control the magic of the forrest is to mind control him and I'm not good at enchantments.
@Leonard: I have noticed that we have very similar specialities. If we are going to get along without stepping on each others toes then we are going to have to define some clear areas of areas of specialization.
I propose that that you are in charge of active spying while as I'm in charge of passive spying and research.
This means that you hire the agents to investigate things devils tend to be good at that.
Well as my people datamine all the information they can get including your devils reports in order to teste more information out of it. Also research team that make new discoveries.
Does this division of labor work for you?
@min
I didn't realize how similar we were when making this character either. The division of labor you propose is fine.
The illusions are not forcibly imprisoning you but imagine being in a maze that had no exit. So I guess it could be keeping you in a sense.
@Vaklam a bit surprised you didn't ask me to identify it. I can identify any non-artifact at a glace and I think I would identify most artifacts to.
Min kinda weirds out Vaklam, seems too alien to him. Leonard's part devil, which at least is normal to him.
Plus I have two rolls between me and my familiar.
Case in point. I Kodo rolled a 20 and I rolled a 2. lol.
I am starting to think that I over did it with my knowledge skills. A check of 60 does not seem to get any more information then a check of 30.
With divination magic and knowledge skills there's a diminishing return. The dm is only going to tell you what he wants to regardless ofmthe check. The DM isn't just going to hand you the module. Besides, what fun would that be?
Instead they'll tell you just enough to maintain some of the mystery.
Besides, knowledge 30 will tell you about rare monsters. Knowledge 70 will tell
You about a specific rare monster.
I think I over min-maxed. I am now not optimized. Too many meaningless numbers. I was just looking in the epic handbook. Knowledge skills seems to be the only skills that they negated to do anything with. :[
Well the problem is I can only give you so much info on something. For example the golems I've given you everything you could possibly know at this point in time about them with just studying them. Yes you could have probably got all of that on a check of 30-40, you've basically have your character at the point of passing all knowledge checks on a 1. So there is that I suppose.
Highest knowledge check I think in the book is something like 34, with identifying a level 9 spell.
Does that mean that I could tell what buff that Eladrin and the other guy had up? Looking that the knowledge skill section it says
Identify a spell effect that is in place Arcana DC 20 + spell level
Which incidentally is weird because I don't know what arcana sight is for then.
Also was not able to figure out really anything about those witches even though
Know hidden organizations, rulers, and locations Local DC 20
It's like my spy network doesn't know what it's doing. I guess they might be using stealth/buff to increase the DC . But sense stealth/buff is not a witch class skill and they are not dex/cha heavy. I still might beat that even if they have a +20 advantage.
Well that is to know if they exist, which you do. Passing that check does not give you everything about the organisation, you might know common location of activities I guess from that but it doesn't tell you how they operate.
Also I'm guessing arcane sight is to make sure you know its there, as it wouldn't be obvious. Though you could easily pass the knowledge roll to know what he had, it was see invisibility. Vespoya just had a bunch of defense boosts like mage armour, nothing too important.
Ya you're right there are extreme limits on how much knowledge knowledge skills can get me. I know it's I bit late but would you let me trade in my feat breadth of experience for leadership? I am feeling that I would get a lot more information from having a super-spy cohort then +2 to all my knowledge skills.
Maybe a Bard James Bard.
Yes by all means.
@Leonard: You might want to assign your accuser devils to some missions this week. I suggest
1.Transporting our war supplies and messages
2.Spying
Possible spy targets
a). The heros they may be out of our reach, but is still good to know what they are up to.
b). What renforcements are the enemy geting and where are they coming from.
@Leonard: You might want to assign your accuser devils to some missions this week. I suggest
1.Transporting our war supplies and messages
2.SpyingPossible spy targets
a). The heros they may be out of our reach, but is still good to know what they are up to.
b). What renforcements are the enemy geting and where are they coming from.
They have standing orders to do those things.
Yes by all means.
How do you feel about a bard/paladin Double-Ganger? He is currently working with my spy saboteurs. He will have a great buff and disguise skill.
^ Yes that sounds fine.
Does anybody have any last minute missions they want to assign? If not I will roll over one week of activity and tell you the results. I will also update anything major that happens in the world. I'll do it tomorrow night GMT so get in any last minute orders if you'd like by then.
Guess I'm waiting for my new recruits of the Dragonborn coming in to do missions, dont want the frontline to weaken quite so early.
In other cases it would be just me crossing around the country looking for rare and uncommon animals for my grand plans. Ideas for later on when we have settled in would be having a grand fighting tournament to attract strong fighters to my side, building a second dojo hopefuly inside the protected forest and probably continued sabotaging operations with my new recruits in cooperation with Min and Leonard's intelligence network.
Liopleurodons are kinda big, I'm guessing I can't take one as an animal companion right? Else we would eventually have a kind of Godzilla on our team.
I think we are coming to the end of another dramatic day. That means using Automatic Writing again. Anyone have any ideas for 8 yes or no questions?
Something I really want to get my hands on is the Codex of Infinite Planes. Would be nice to get that there is something that I could use my vast checks on. That thing has the highest DC's in the game I think.