I swear to Cthulhu, Luca, I will make your character care about something eventually. ;)
Give her another three levels or so. XD She's still intensely insecure, and multiple near-fatal encounters sure haven't helped that any. By that point, though, I expect her to start really coming into her own - and I suspect you'll note the growing confidence.
How old is Luca supposed to be again? Like 14?
Dante, I take it from your posts that you are prioritizing the switch from Magus to Harbinger, I'll try and re-read the issues you raised regarding that soon and get you some concrete answers.
Actually no. I wanted to keep the blade and sacrifice some stuff from harbinger to do it. But it depended on what the blade said about the gestalt. Dante doesn't want to be a part of it. It sounds terrifying to loose oneself in the collective. If he has no choice, if just wielding it ties him to it, then its best to distance himself. However, if the blade were to continue to return to him, allow him to opt out, or offer something in return, then he might consider it. But right now, he's not so curious about it to keep it around considering the danger here. I guess he could leave it behind and not use it until it figures it out but I doubt its just about waiting for the blade to remember.
I have her marked down as 15 - young enough to explain her low strength score and lack of self-confidence, but not quite so immature as to need the Young Creature Template to accurately represent her. XD Needless to say, that number's subject to change if we have enough downtime...
A level 1 spell sounds good.
Not actually that useful - its basically a specialised shocking grasp - but it annoys me that Tyrus has no real way of dealing with undead better than hitting them unless he tries to control them.
I know a couple of you have other goals for your time besides making money:
Dante: Learn more about Keldradt's curse.
Tyrus: Try and locate the person who contacted you in the city.
Luca: ?
Also Dante, as to your idea to make cleansing Keldradt the main goal of this campaign: Certainly an option, but yes that's a big goal. That's easily an epic-level challenge we're talking about and definitely not certain of success. It could also be something you guys come back to much further down the road, if you look.
Well, with one eight-hour block for making money... I suppose Luca could put her Charisma to use and research other things for the party to do. XD
4 weeks sounds good
1 month then.
Will be trying to post your first month soon. I'll be rolling "event dice" for each character for each week. This is pretty open to my whim, but I'll be guided by the results in a manner as follows:
Roll of 6, 7, 8: Nothing much happens.
Roll of 9, 10: A minor good thing happens. (Bad thing on 4, 5)
Roll of 11, 12: A major good thing happens. (Bad thing on 2, 3)
You get the idea. Events are dictated by circumstance - by being in Keldradt and fighting (although I won't actually be fighting) Dante is open to higher risk and reward than Luca and Tyrus.
Given Luca's general squishiness and desire for money, I am quite okay with this. XD
Oh Yeah!
Post upcoming!
What are living expenses for the period, please? Or is this pure profit?
I'll wait for the goals post.
Profit. I factored in some living costs already (Keldradt is not a high-living-cost type of place).
I'm not sure of the exact numbers for costs, but Luca currently has a -2 penalty to her Calligraphy skill because she doesn't have proper tools. If I can get a MW kit, that'll bring her up to +10, which will hopefully be enough to help her get through even in more-expensive areas.
(...She's trying very hard to not be a burden. XD)
Woot!
A month passes by in the blink of an eye. Now, do you stay a couple/few more weeks, or head out on a different quest?
I'm curious about that 'angel', and otherwise happy to get back to a bigger city if we want to focus on downtime moneymaking for awhile. XD What do you two want to do?
In character: Stay. Out of Character: N/A. I don't want to bind us here if all aren't up for this particular challenge. We could hunt undead and salve the mystery or find another more interesting one. Does anyone have strong feelings for one or the other?
Luca's very worried about the last excursion she went on. XD She's too much of a pushover to say "please don't go" on her own... but she does hope you'll let her buff you before you rush out there again.
I think it is a good place to return to at a higher level.
Don't know about Luca's options IC, but they seem best. Stay nearby, get more money, fight something other than undead.
Tyrus is still hoping to find his target, but also is interested in finding the healers that might actually be able to help him. He's cynical enough to think it'll be expensive.
Feel free to assume she keeps the rest of the party informed about what she hears. XD
@Tyrus: Getting back to Gemny (the city you were in just before Keldradt) would cost something like 10 silver a person. But ships going that direction only dock in Keldradt once a month anyway.
Also: Healer's Isle? Do you mean the place your contact told you about?
Yep. That's the one. I probably need to go look up exactly what was said, in my head it's stored as "Healer's Isle".
Roger. Didn't know where the "isle" part came from. The location was a city in Kadesh named Laquar, where there is a college of healing (that I have yet to name).
Alright, the Loot document needs to be updated.
I know we used the Brazier. I think we used the holy water as well.
Tyrus wants a healing kit.
Dante wanted a new weapon.
I think we should maybe look at crossbows? They are very expensive though.
We definitely need more rope, and possibly lockpicks, a crow, a portable ram, a shovel, a pick and a saw.
We might want to look at hiring someone to help with survival and front line fighting?
If I recall, we have no hope of hiring Orcs in town.
Between my meat-shields and castings of Haste, I think we're actually good on that end... but if you guys think we need more, I don't actually object. XD Luca is very squishy and appreciates large, sturdy things between her and foes.
Loot table definitely should be updated, yes. What is a 'crow', Tyrus?
As to the bits about hiring additional party members, I will post more on that tomorrow. Suffice to say you have options that extend to both ic and ooc arenas.
crowbar... not sure what happened there.
Should we add the pretty stuff the martyr had?
Problems:
The loot table doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Those tools are heavy and none of us has good strength.
None of us can use lockpicks.
I agree we need someone but are we really going to higher someone in character after Georgi?
What about a fourth PC? Some kind of rogue?
As for filling out the party, it's something I've been considering quite a bit.
-You can hire NPC's as and when you want.
-You can decide to take on a permanent NPC party member.
-We can recruit a new PC character to join the party.
If you guys decide on bringing in another PC, I'll throw up a recruitment thread soon. We can pick them up pretty much wherever.
A new PC definitely wouldn't be a bad thing. I think our primary needs are in skill and recovery... but I'm interested to see what other people might come up with. XD
If we end up with a divine healer we'd finally get to use the World Weariness system. We've gone all this time with pretty much 100% nonmagical healing!
And repeatedly come very, very close to dying. 8D I genuinely shudder to imagine what would've happened if we didn't have so many disposable bodies to soak up the damage.
(But hey, that's part of the fun, I guess. XD)
I think we all missed something too. In the rules, if we are in an area of danger or under duress, natural healing is halved. That would have made a difference.
Nooooooo... I'm a bit worried a healer'll make Tyrus redundant - white necromancy aint so great.
That said, a new NPC makes a lot of sense.
Ideally someone older, with survival, though I'd be interested in creating a 'WANTED' ad in character...
I wouldn't mind potentially getting more than one person.
If they're going to get an equal share, they need to pull their weight!
@Luca: Once Tyrus starts being a proper necromancer, we can hopefully shore up the disposable body wall ;)
Once I hit Level 7, you'll see some real fun. o vo But yeah, between the two of us, we ought to have enough disposable buddies to go around.
I'd be open to bringing in two. And this is how I'm imagining it going: You guys to an area where you want to take the time to find a new companion. In Character, you won't approach it that way. You'll meet them like you'd meed any quest-giving or quest-helping NPC (like you met Georgi, or Gundar, etc). Except this time they'll be a PC and they won't leave you when the quest is done.
So, they'll have an initial reason to adventure with you which will guide their own character creation. If you decide to take on the new characters immediately, and want to go to the Makon temple, we might tell applicants to create treasure hunters who have the same expedition in mind. Following that, deciding to stick with you after the initial mission is a trivial bit of roleplay.
I like it. Since Dante is out of commission then either Luca or Tyrus would hear of some others looking to head to the temple, right? We might not have to leave at all then. Just long enough to sell the stuff.
Indeed. o wo~ And we can always sell that Mensha if we need some extra cash for one reason or another.
Yep. And the temple thing was just an example. You guys could go pretty much anywhere and we'd arrange a meeting for you with whoever we recruit.
Also, I did cycle another week, Dante, so you're back up. However, that being said, I'll be out of town starting tonight and won't be posting on Friday.
I like it.
This is a point in the story where we might well hire some mercs on.
We're likely to have bonded with them after the temple run, but if they've dropped out that makes sense as well.
I'm tempted to suggest putting up posters this week, and grabbing everyone next week.
Out asset would be knowledge of the temple - doubt we'll want to say "our necromancer and demon summoner'll pull their weight..." That can be a pleasant surprise :)
So have we settled on opening up another recruitment for 1 or 2 more players?
I'm happy to go with whatever the rest of you want. Personal preference is for at least one more member - ideally a player with a decent history on this board, since I feel like they're less likely to disappear.
Yes.
Sounds good
Roger, I'll get a recruitment post up soon. Maybe tomorrow, certainly by the end of the week.
Are we going with the "looking for folks to come along on the Makon Temple job" as well? If so, I'll just keep rolling downtime by-the-week for you guys.
Yeah, that should work well enough. ^^ It's a good plot hook for new people, and that definitely tends to help.
In gorgeous calligraphy, the scroll reads;
ATTENTION TOMB ROBBERS
Are you sick of fighting the Undead?
Looking for a challenge with the same risk, but more chance of a payoff?
Looking to get out of Keldradt for a while?
A small group of magicians is seeking partners in an expedition.
Desirable traits include; experience with tomb robbing, animal handling, combat training, and survival skills.
Remuneration is negotiable, but likely to end up in a major city.
Interviews to be held on DATE at PLACE.
Group is 3rd level, has a Magus, a Wizard and a Summoner.
Rogue and Fighter types preferred.
Clerics are possible, but group has a Healer and the campaign uses the world weariness system.
Group is keen to get trustworthy people with an open mind (there's an aberration summoner and necromancer already).