I have a decently detailed idea of exactly what the Void is (or as detailed as you're gonna get with Lovecraftian Beyonder-type things). Likewise for Tyrus's ancestry and whole... deal. They'll continue to come up as we move along. :)
Are the new World Weariness Rules not linked somewhere here? I'll fix that. I'm thinking about relaxing it again, so that the effects only take hold once World weariness exceeds each multiple of max HP. I'll throw those up tonight, I think.
I've added the rules on World Weariness to the Eldreon Info documents folder linked in our campaign header. I decided to condense them down and simplify them yet further (tinker tinker...). The scale now looks like this:
(numbers are percentages of character HP)
0-100: No Effect
101-200: -2 to Charisma
201-300: -2 to Wisdom and Intelligence
301-400: -2 Penalty to Reflex and Fortitude Saves
401-500: -2 All mental stats
Feel free to comment on it. Now that Luca has access to magical healing, I imagine these will start to come up more often.
That means we'll need to track HP and World Weariness, right?
Like HP 20/30 | WW 55 means 183%
No, only max hp matters to world weariness. So 30 max hp against 55 ww would be in the second bracket.
Mm. Truthfully, I've always been a bit regretful we didn't have the chance to use world weariness in the past - it's clearly something you've spent a fair bit of time thinking over, and it's a shame to not use things created for a game, y'know? XD
@Luca: yeah, I agree.
part of the reason I thought heal would be more useful in this game was that while it is Cure's poor cousin, at least it doesn't cause world weariness.
@Mercy:
Sorry - what I mean by that tag line was
"Currently have 20 HP. Max Hp is 30. World Weariness currently at 55. 55/30=185%"
If the character was then healed another 10
HP 30/30 | WW 65 means 216%
If the character then spent enough time on rest and rec to lose 20 world weariness
HP 30/30 | WW 45 means 150%
Is that right?
And as we've found out with Tyrus's skills, Heal has come in VERY handy. And as I've often said, I'm using this campaign as a guinea pig, a stress test of sorts. I'm sure you'll help me explore other ways in which magical vs non-magical healing can be explored. We'll be using World Weariness a lot more going forward now that Luca has a magical healing effect.
@Tyrus: Ah, yes indeed that is correct. I should have actually done the accompanying math before commenting.
Also, I'm about to stick a very early written draft of the "concept" behind item creation into the Info Documents section. No actual dice roles guidelines but it'll give you an idea of how things would go. Kinda like the spell creation rules that way. We'll try them out/flesh them out as we go. As for the effect of the Magical Item Creation feats, they would only enhance the ability to make things, not allow it in the first place.
I'm interested in what I've heard about these Conduit Feats from Planar Adventures, but I need to get my hands on that to see if they're worth serious consideration. In the meantime, I'm still working on a few other ideas. ^^
I am celebrating my 7 year anniversary with my girlfriend and may be somewhat unavailable for the weekend, please DMPC as needed.
Having looked through Planar Adventures... the Conduit feats are interesting, though I feel many of them could use a bit of a buff - especially the Planar Infusions. Alas, none of them quite fit what I'd like to do right now. XD
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
At long last I've ironed out what I'll want to see for the research on this new spell.
The added zombie-raising bit certainly raises some interesting possibilities. Still, given that the zombie is uncontrolled and is meant more as an interesting side-effect (and one you'd assumedly not want to see happen often), I'd say this spell can stay at level 2, as it represents a personalized upgrade to an existing spell.
We'll also assume that Tyrus has been idly considering a spell of this type for awhile, so the cost in time can be a bit lower as you're drawing upon expertise you already have to address a problem the group has been facing for awhile now, and the effects are right in your wheelhouse. The cost to finalize research will likewise not be particularly high - I'll roll 10d20 for the cost in silver pieces (representing necessary materials).
I'll require three rolls, which can only be taken during relatively non-threatened and unbothered downtime. You cannot take 10 or 20 on these rolls. The DC value represents that required to get the behaviors you want. Failing by 10 or more will introduce a penalty into the spell. Exceeding by 10 or more will introduce a boon (or allow a reroll of a different roll). I'll describe the likely areas of effect along with the rolls.
Heal DC 16: You know the pathways to deaden pain, but to also trick the brain into a state of ferocity, possibly before danger has even presented itself... that could be more complex than meets the eye.
Know(Arcana) DC 12: You're modeling this on a spell you know to exist, but don't actually know yourself. You have confidence you can duplicate most of it and get away with merely a slightly more complex incantation.
Know(Religion) DC 20 OR Spellcraft DC 25
If Religion: Your experience with Applied Theology gives you the theoretical framework wherein you could apply limited mental control of the target should their own cognition fail (IE, in essential brain-death despite the body's continued operation).
If Spellcraft: There are some interesting principles at play here. Maybe you can formalize and generalize them enough to be of some worth to the other wizards you may come across in your travels.
What do you think? Seem fun enough to take a crack at it?
Is the ability summary you posted (copied below) satisfactory to you as an addition? Gives you enough to do? I imagine we'll add to it/upgrade it a bit as you level up.
If you're fine with that for now, go ahead and add it to the class template!
-------------
The Void Looks At You
Prerequisite: Void Caller archetype, Summoner 5
As a standard action, a target you can see is afflicted by a penalty (as the Evil Eye Hex of the Witch), with a Will saving throw equal to 10 + 1/2 the Void Caller's Summoner Level + their Cha Mod reducing the duration to 1 round. This is not a mind-affecting effect, but it is a supernatural curse effect and does not work on creatures immune to curses.
As a swift action, you can cause one target suffering a penalty from this feat to also suffer the effects of Look Into The Void (with the same saving throw as this feat), but each target can only suffer a successful use of this secondary effect once per day.
It should be enough for now, at least. ^^ It fulfills the basic criteria of "something that can be done each turn" and "meaningfully contributes without being overpowered", which is about 95% of what I was looking for. XD The randomness of the condition and the fact that it gets a second save helps prevent it from being too much, I think.
I'm 100% happy to roll with it for now - and thanks! This should really help Luca's character development. ^^
RE Conduit Feats: I saw the healing one and went "Oh."...
@Mercy: looks good. Does the payment need to happen in advance? This is for a spell I am taking in place of one of the two free spells he gets per level, right?
RE the adventure:
I looked at the map, and to me it looks like we have now gone everywhere. I have the feeling I am missing something, though.
@Mercy, can you toss me a clue?
Otherwise I'm thinking we can stop exploring, maybe move camp, and look at starting to scavenge what we can. We'll need to be very diligent about guards, I think, which means a fair bit of sleeping. I'm worried either the birds, the orcs, or both might try to invade.
Nope, the research payment would only happen after you've made rolls and decided to go through with it. This would also finalize which bonuses/penalties the spell would receive. If you opt to NOT complete research on the spell, essentially you'd just have to wait awhile and try again.
So far as the adventure goes, you have indeed explored the majority of the available obvious spaces, with possible exceptions (I think, I might have to check these) being the auxiliary labs and the top of the walls where towers exist.
It might be helpful to remember that the stated reason for coming here was archealogical - to bring back artifacts and information that would help a later expedition come in and continue research. To that end, you have noted a number of items and Luca has been taking down a lot of notes on the Makon writing in the area, as I recall. You have also, of course, encountered some of the temple defenses.
Luca is hoping her as-complete-as-possible collection and translating of the writing will be worth something. XD
Tyrus was a-hunting monsters until his spells run out, mostly because Kien keeps disapproving at him.
If there's areas left, he'd be interested in checking them out now. Can we see the top of the walls from the top of the pyramid?
Otherwise happy to start finalising our notes and picking up easily moved items.
There'll be a question on "easily moved" with some items.
We also need to decide IC what to do about the gate.
Tomorrow Tyrus will have appraise, so hopefully that'll make things easier!
@Mercy: consider me very interested! Should I roll here now, or in gameplay tomorrow, or what?
The spell research rolls could technically be taken at the temple, but they represent at least one entire days devoted effort (for this one I'll say it's one day). So basically you'd be staying wherever you're camping, probably asking the other two to make sure you aren't disturbed while you experiment. Or you could wait and do it back in civilization (however much Keldradt passes for that).
Yes, you can definitely see the walls from on top of the temple (which isn't a pyramid - that's a different structure. More like this kind of structure). You would easily be able to see that the tower structures have an interior to them.
Hang on; transcription or translation?
I thought Luca was just doing her best to copy it down, and sort of translating things occasionally as she went as part of that.
I fully expect a translation could take a while. How long will it take to copy it accurately enough to have a stab at translating it later?
This is also something we might be able to put multiple people on.
Edit: I just looked up transcription, and I'm no longer sure that word means what I think it means.
...She rolled pretty high on Linguistics, so whatever she's doing, she's probably doing it well. XD But just straight copying would, for now, probably be better.
Even just copying it is a sizable task. We're talking about a room roughly 8 feet high, with three 50-foot-long walls literally covered in writing. The Makon script is pictographic in nature ( think ancient egyptian ) but that's still a LOT of information.
Mm. Hence limiting it to what's practical to copy - preferably the start, to give some context to what it's about and help others decide who much they want to get the rest of it.
Given the orcs outside, a total transcription seems... impractical.
I think pictographic is actually worse. I thought the room was fifty feet high... Levitate looks sort of... decadent now. Screw it, doing it anyway ;P
What's the point of mastering the fundamental powers of reality if you can't show off now and then? o wo
You may have been thinking of the entire pyramid, which is around that height - but the whole thing isn't hollow. You're just in the hidden basement level.
If this is the plan going forward, I'll just roll several days worth of checks in my next post. Speak up if there are other things you want to do!
Several days of rolls is fine by me. XD
Kien is fine with this as long as the orcs aren't doing anything suspicious.
I think we decided it wasn't going to work, and we needed to get out.
I'm prepared to try talking to the orcs first - maybe we can find common ground?
It might be possible to fake our own deaths if we have some dead orc bodies to use sculpt corpse on.
@GMBP: if Tyrus wakes up with Proficient Makon, can he read the walls? How fast?
@Luca: wasn't trying to jump in on the void. If it isn't just the beginning of a fever, the extraplanar character was meant to represent the lingering effects of the Makon Priest's extraplanar patron.
I did have dream-fluffy growl to drive it off (not so much out of team loyalty as territoriality).
Mm. Mostly, Luca just has a bit of a panicked reaction to anything that even vaguely resembles trying to go after dark, forbidden knowledge. She's, uh, rather intimately acquainted with how badly that sort of thing can wreck a life. XD There's a reason man is not meant to know certain things... or so she thinks.
Wizards in general probably disagree. XD
For sure.
I'd forgotten how often Luca had been targeted by those in pursuit of power in the past. I think it works well.
@Mercy: Tyrus needs to spend the gold to actually get his spell set up, right?
Now he is trained in Appraise, can I have Tyrus work out what is valuable, how much it weighs, and how much taking it will turn our 'patron' against us?
Updated loot what we found so far...
Gemstones in the ceiling
Bronze doors
Silver lines in the floor and walls.
The scrollcases
The scrolls in the scrollcases
Selling copies of the writing (have to be careful about the deal we made with Horl, which promised exclusivity on certain things - see below)
The gems in the rotted regalia.
The devil eater's belt and headband
the pedestal the blood statues had inside them.
Adding to this the shards and bell.
Thinking taking the doors or silver lines is "dessecration". Valuable gemstones in the ceiling might be the same, but we can record which came from where and give him first pick. Frankly; gemstones.
The scrolls and cases make sense (though we need to be careful not to hurt them while travelling)
@Kien: Frankly, what's Kien able to carry and still move at least 20ft? The rest of us are puny.
Kien's got a lot of muscle (str 18) and doesn't carry a whole lot of gear, so I imagine he's got quite a bit of extra capacity. I figure amongst the four of you (we'll continue to include Dante) you could haul another 200, maybe 250 pounds? Does that sound high or low? I'm just kinda guesstimating.
Appraise values and such incoming shortly, as well as your judgement on what it's 'safe' to take.
Let's not forget dragging stuff behind us. ^^ Or pushing it ahead. That's a 5x multiplier on someone's normal lifting capacity (at Str 18 you can drag 1500 pounds), so as long as we can figure out a way to do it at all, we can haul quite a lot of stuff back.
I actually calculate carrying capacity on my sheet under "gear". 300 pounds heavy load.
So you guys probably have more like 300-350 pounds of possible haul weight before even worrying about anything like dragging a sled (I'll remind you that you're in the middle of a jungle - sled might be hard to get places).
Gemstones in the ceiling - 3-8
Bronze doors - 20 - 200
Silver lines in the floor and walls - Unlikely to be retrievably without irreperable damage
The scrollcases - 5-30
The scrolls in the scrollcases - dependant on contents, probably at least 5
Selling copies of the writing (have to be careful about the deal we made with Horl, which promised exclusivity on certain things - see below) - Sum total of writings, 5-10
The gems in the rotted regalia. - (The regalia is most valuable as a whole item, despite its damage) - 5-30
The devil eater's belt and headband (as previously state) - 20-70
the pedestal the blood statues had inside them. 10-50
Shards - 1-5
Bell - 1-10
And one thing you left out: the rest of the info - temple layout and description, definite location, info on the orc activity in the area, and description of the traps and defenses encountered, etc - probably another 10-15
In short, you've found a lot of valuable stuff, especially when you count its historical value.
Prying loose gemstones from the temple grounds would probably also count as desecration - though you could possibly keep the gemstones secret and sell them elsewhere, or claim that they were lying loose rather than embedded. Getting the doors down and transporting them is probably not feasible with your current resources - they would weigh near to a thousand pounds each.
Those doors are potentially worth five times our wealth by level combined. Thousands of pounds bedamned, someone work something out! ;P
In all seriousness though, this list is awesome.
FRAGILE
Okay, scrollcases and scrolls are a given. 10-30
Regalia, belt and headband are in. 25-100
Pedestals and shards should be okay 11-55
Bell is heavy, but movable. 1-5
So far: 46-185
That is a minimum of probably 48, or about 12 each, which is 12 gp, or about 1200sp.
HEAVY
Bronze doors 20-200
Bell 1-10
I wish we could take those doors, but carrying them is just not practical.
Well, Fluffy could help with dragging things and Luca has 0 qualms about making it labor like a mule. o wo Although yes, it would help if we had a path instead of pure rough terrain most of the way back. XD
You have a path maybe a quarter of the way. The rest is hilly jungle terrain.
We'll say the bell weighs twenty-five pounds, including the knocker inside.
Guess we're good with Tyrus's pack up and go plan, so I'll move us along tomorrow.
Yup. I don't think we're likely to debate too much over a plan as long as we have one. XD
I think I'm falling into the trap of "My character is a strong and silent type so I don't post very much". I will try to remedy that by posting stuff about what Kien is doing and thinking.
We're not exactly moving at an inspirational pace, either. Things should get better once we get through with the current adventure. On that matter, the next post WILL be up today, but later in the evening (eastern time zone).
From the sounds of it we're looking st fragile + bell, heading out one daybreak.
Are we leaving the portal behind, or breaking it? If breaking, Tyrus would want it lightly disabled just before they leave.
So, not sure if this is ok.
If Tyrus memorises three more false life spells, then he can get 3x(1d10+10) hp. On average 45hp. He has 27hp, so maybe 72?
Hustling doubles speed, but does 1 damage, doubling for each hour.
1 hour = 1 damage = 1 total
2 hour = 2 damage = 3 total
3 hour = 4 damage = 7 total
4 hour = 8 damage = 15 total
5 hour = 16 damage = 31 total
6 hour = 32 damage = 63 total
There's an implication you can mix'n'match speeds.
To match his companions 30 speed, Tyrus would need to hustle every second hour (20+40)/2=30 - this assume you can do walk & run to hustle, and stretch the walk distance.
This means he could keep up for 8 hours at the cost of 15 damage, which is covered by false life.
If everyone was prepared to hustle 2 hours (3 damage, fatigued) then he could keep up by hustling 5 walking 5 (31 damage, fatigued).
I sort of like the idea of Tyrus using magic and letting Kien walk him into the ground to escape the orcs.
Is everyone (especially @Mercy) okay with this?
I'd flavour it with him eating every stimulant in his kit.
Plan sounds good to me, it's a perfectly valid use of temp hp. And you're spending significant spell slots on it, so it's not like it's free to you.
Well, I don't have a negative in Constitution, so Luca can at least mostly keep up...? XD And there shouldn't be any problem with changing speeds regularly. That's completely realistic.
Maybe I'm explaining this badly. It's more there is no "half hustle".
hour 1: Luca moves 30, Tyrus moves 20.
hour 2: Luca moves 30, Tyrus moves 40
In theory Luca and Tyrus have split up after hour 1, and he catches up on hour 2.
I think what it is meant to represent allows you to stay together.