Hunger in the Darkness - Expedition to the Mines of Zolurket (Inactive)

Game Master Mark Sweetman

Hopefully I'm aiming for more of an 'Oldboy Corridor Fight' or 'The Protector Bone Breaking Montage' feel (would give links but Youtube is blocked at work).

The gambling stuff is fine - if you want to drop past a bookie before you go it can be arranged after the meeting with Sangvit. I am all for additional turkey trimmings like that :)

Love is ready for inspection.

Bits of note.
Skeleton key and Handy Haversack are only non alchemical special items.
Traits/talent/feats all straight forward.

NOTE TO ALL companions
Love is not, repeat not a great fighter. He will get decent in time but he is not there yet.

Open to suggestions or comments. Try not to point and laugh it bruises my fragile male ego.
:7)

Long awaited and long promised Crunch review is underway. For my ease, I'll do you each one at a time in a single post.

Padrym Steelribs:
1. A few traits and feats are a bit unclear in presentation. Eg. Tunnel fighter is listed twice - once in the Feats & Traits and once in Special Abilities. Would it be possible to have the split so that the Feats and Traits aren't duplicated in the Special Abilities section?
2. For my ease of reference, could you group all the racial abilities at the top, then have the Magus ones following? - would just be a bit easier to follow from my side.
3. Could I get the 'Current Notes' section or the like right at the top of the profile? - just needs HP and daily consumables (like arcane pool and spell slots) in it so I can get it quick and easy.
4. I'm guessing the Spells Known is only the ones you have memorized - what about the spellbook? I can't see where that is recorded.
5. Also couldn't see reference to your languages?

Cynara:
Everything looks in order.
As per the mention of organic levelling, can probably take out the XP reference ;)

Khepri:
Everything looks in order.
You should probably also know Kelish as a language (Humans get Common plus their regional dialect for free).

Ernst Lowfield:
1. I'm assuming the I's in the skills are for ranks? (which is fine)
2. Have you listed your languages?

Dolgrym:
1. Equipment looks ok (you can remove the scribed scrolls and prices for things at your leisure)
2. Rest looks pretty good as well.

Feigr:
All looks good.

Wow - I'm impressed, that was a lot less painless than I expected. Thanks for making things easy on me.

I still need to finalize gear, but that's it.

Padrym Steelribs:
1. A few traits and feats are a bit unclear in presentation. Eg. Tunnel fighter is listed twice - once in the Feats & Traits and once in Special Abilities. Would it be possible to have the split so that the Feats and Traits aren't duplicated in the Special Abilities section?
2. For my ease of reference, could you group all the racial abilities at the top, then have the Magus ones following? - would just be a bit easier to follow from my side.
3. Could I get the 'Current Notes' section or the like right at the top of the profile? - just needs HP and daily consumables (like arcane pool and spell slots) in it so I can get it quick and easy.
4. I'm guessing the Spells Known is only the ones you have memorized - what about the spellbook? I can't see where that is recorded.
5. Also couldn't see reference to your languages?

1. Cleaned up Feats Traits and Special Abilities

Ernst Lowfield:

1. I'm assuming the I's in the skills are for ranks? (which is fine)
2. Have you listed your languages?

Wow - I'm impressed, that was a lot less painless than I expected. Thanks for making things easy on me.

1. yup ranks will be noted by roman numerals.

Appears to be good to go.

I've got Cynara's gear generally finalized, with one minor issue. This is a really stupid couple of questions--first, we're using Table 12-4 Wealth by Level, right? Second, unless I've badly miscalculated I've still got just over 1000 gp left over, even after buying a CLW wand. Should I spend that on +1 armor?

WBL for 3rd is 3,000gp, so looks about right.

+1 armor, cloak of resistance +1, potions of lesser restoration - all good choices.

OK, all set.

Idiot! You're a healer! Remember that you're here as a simple healer, and simple healers don't know about OpSec!

A time traveling healer no less! ;)

Nope, just using the closest terms I could think of on short notice (two ranks in Profession(Spy) has to be good for something, after all).

Cynara wrote:

Idiot! You're a healer! Remember that you're here as a simple healer, and simple healers don't know about OpSec!

A time traveling healer no less! ;)

Wait...time traveling ..... healer... blue square avatar.......

Doctor!

DM, I'd meant to ask earlier, but would you have a problem with me taking the Stonesinger dwarven racial trait instead of Stonecunning per the APG? Seems to make more sense for an arcane caster...

Padrym Steelribs wrote:

Cynara wrote:

Idiot! You're a healer! Remember that you're here as a simple healer, and simple healers don't know about OpSec!

A time traveling healer no less! ;)

Wait...time traveling ..... healer... blue square avatar.......

Doctor!

I'd be seriously hosed over as the Doctor; if they're more than 30' away I can't see anything, so the Weeping Angels could do pretty much anything they wanted to outside that range.

Dolgrym - that's fine. I don't have any problems with anyone taking any of the alternate racial traits.

Cynara - inconveniences matter not.... if you had a sonic screwdriver and a bag of jelly babies you could do anything!

Dolgrym - that's fine. I don't have any problems with anyone taking any of the alternate racial traits.

Thanks DM, I'll note that change on my sheet this evening...

Ok folks, we are about to strike out into the big bad wilderness - so it's prudent to get a few things squared away.

I'm not going to be too anal retentive about rations and the like, so for the most part you can assume that those are fine. If they start to become an issue (such as getting your pack camels stolen, etc) then you'll get a fair chance to rectify it before you start taking any detriment from it.

Marching Order:

Since the decision is to strike across the mountains, it will just be the six of you on the journey - plus your camels.

I'd assume for the most part you would march two by two? - also one of you will need to be leading the pack camels by hand.

You will have three camels (two laden and one spare) strung in series so that all three can be led by one person.

Watch Order:

I'd suggest breaking into three watches of two. For the most part I am pretty lenient on memorizing spells, etc - so a wizard could take the center watch and still renew spells come the dawn.

Once confirmed, both the marching and watch order will be thrown up on the Campaign Info page for reference.

I'd rather march in the middle and since I have darkvision (like most of the party for once) I can take a middle or late watch and leave the early watch for those without.

I'd rather not lead the camels as I'm built to rush into battle and would have to let them go.

How about Feigr and Khepri up front, Padrym and Dolgrym in row two, and Cynara and Lowfield bringing up the rear? We can probably pair up the watches in the same order since it gives us someone with darkvision in each group.

How about Feigr and Khepri up front, Padrym and Dolgrym in row two, and Cynara and Lowfield bringing up the rear? We can probably pair up the watches in the same order since it gives us someone with darkvision in each group.

That works for me

That works for me, too; Cynara has darkvision, but it's short-range, and Love probably has a pretty good Perception check to compensate.

Sounds good, Feigr on both points.

Excellent - I'll take that as the March and Watch Order:
Feigr and Khepri
Padrym and Dolgrym
Cynara and Lowfield

Who has the camels?

None of us have Handle Animal, so either Cynara or Khepri.

I am happy with the watch order, 60' darkvision and a good perception to keep all you sleepy people safe. Just thinking though that you might want your trapfinder closer to the front once we are out of the wilds.

Early warning that I'll be on a business trip to China from Sunday afternoon through next Friday. I'll try to keep posting, but if you need to DMNPC me to keep action moving, please go ahead.

Not a problem Feigr.

Where in China are you off to?

Dalian

Looks like a fairly nice city, even if you're only going for business.

On another note, I'm experimenting with maps - though won't have an example up until later tonight. The release of the Gamemastery Flip-Mats and Map-Packs in PDF has me tinkering ;)

Test Map - this is just a play around mock-up, so doesn't reflect any actual game encounter.

If people could have a look over it and provide some feedback, that would be grand :)

Stuff I think would be useful:
1. Text Boxes for the letters in a different colour / background so they are a bit more visible.

2. Borders for some of the individual character portraits might make them stand out a bit more on dark backgrounds.

Quite happy with how the first attempt worked out in the end.

I agree with the notes, it does look good!

Looks very good.

Very nice, well done!

Looks very good!

Very nice.

Suggestions.
1. Dont sweat the letter colors if it's a pain we can figure it out.

2. If you can make the character portraits round it will make the map lok cooler and make it easier to see where folks are when standing near each other as well as letting us see what kind of terrain we are standing on.

But these are just tweakes. The map is playable as is.
Very good work.

All I've done is taken snapshots of the PDF of a couple of Gamemastery map pack tiles and imported them as an image into Powerpoint. Same with the character portraits.

So the letters are an easy update - just need to change the text box settings. Same for the avatars - I can round off and put a border on them in paint or the like.

Only need to build up the Master Powerpoint format once anyway - and can then use it thereafter. So would aim to get it right first time :)

Thanks for the positive feedback, I'm going to pick up some more map resources and get set for the first ambush, I mean combat. *whistles innocently*

Behold! - it's a dodgy representation of the map that Sangvit gave you.

The edge of the mountains is the dotted brown line.

Sangvit is following the black tracks to Tar-Urkatha, while you guys are striking along the red ones.

Sorry for the messiness with the Severed Paw conversation - thought I'd be able to resolve in backchat, then realised there was another gumdrop I wanted to add to the pile. Won't take long to sort out though hopefully :)

that is a lovely dodgy map ;7)

Good work.

I also want to applaud you on this ambush. It is rare to see GM's having the intro fight encounter, if that is what this is, feature an enemy using tactics. Stampeeding a herd through your enemy is classic and rather effective.

Well played sir.

DM VotV: I messed up my skill ranks--I should have one more at each level (the ones at second and third levels are FC bonuses). How about if I pick up one more rank in Sense Motive and either convert the other two to hit points or take two ranks in Diplomacy? (Even though they're class skills for her, taking any ranks in Handle Animal or Survival at this point kind of violates the character concept for me.)

Cynara - No issues at all with those skill additions.

Love - teehee, I'll take the compliment, but this is less tactics and more wrong place, wrong time for you guys.

Tactics will follow though, hopefully I'm smart enough to keep you on your toes ;)

All fixed.

I will be getting married on Saturday, and as such my posting rate will drop slightly until Sunday evening. Feel free to DMPC me along if necessary.

Congratulations! Short honeymoon, taking it later, or other?

We're going to save up and go somewhere nice for the 1 year anniversary.

We're going to save up and go somewhere nice for the 1 year anniversary.

Congratulations!

Ya, congratulations!