Hanging around, quite busy, waiting for more input
IT BE OK. CUDDLES STILL THINKS YOU BE ANGEL! :D
Hey folks. Back from the holiday. In answer to the questions earlier: we flew, my kids are five and three, they did have lots of fun, and the five-year-old even went on some rollercoasters with me. : )
And I have no problems with things moving slowly; I have just enrolled in a new university degree so will have plenty to keep me busy!
Okay, I vote when Angel gets back, we keep following southwest. Just a gentle bump to keep this active. :-)
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Ok guys. So here is my deal. I'm being a moron on a lot of things, and have been withdrawing from life as at times I am wont to do.
Not fair to you guys, nor my other campaigns. I am going to do better at this, and not be so distant.
My life goes in phases of me taking on entirely too much on at once, and then crashing and burning and hiding. Again I apologize for being so absent lately. Suppose I could say that it has been my way of coping with a great deal of what has been happening.
"CUDDLES STILL LOVES ABSENT OVERLORD! AND TREE. TREE TASTE GOOD. "
-Posted with Wayfinder
Damnable orc thats chopping for fire and makin axe handles, eat a damn bush but stay away from the fledgling wood! :D
Cuddles looks forlornly at his toothpick then hands it, slobber end first, out to Harsk.
I know what you mean about withdrawing from life; I've been there many times. Just keep looking after yourself.
I'm patient, and waiting. Take your time.
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Hey all.
I feel like I do a lot of apologizing the last couple of months. At least.
Talked to choon/cuddles this morning and just wanted to let you all know I am still alive, and that I am going to keep the game going. I can come up with plenty of RL excuses why I have been gone, but frankly right now it is not fair to you guys.
Probably will not happen during my day at work today, but tonight when I get home I will put some things together so that I can get the ball rolling for everyone tonight.
Thank you all for your patience.
No worries! Take it easy Angel. We all have challenges in our lives. : ) Look after yourself first and foremost.
--Mike
The last time Tassadan (Cander) posted on the boards was in August, and the last time Cuàn (Leandric) posted was October, so they might well be absent. Without their email details it'd be hard to get onto them.
Its all too common and by far the most unsettling part of PBP is the sudden and abrupt disappearance of folks from the boards. I always wonder if they are okay but its just the nature of things.
For my 2 cp its easy to transition folks like that in this kind of adventure to head off and check on something else or to return to Brevoy for some reason but in my experience if you haven't seen someone pop in in over a month it means they aren't reliably coming back. My archived games speak to this reality sad though it may be. ; )
Truth.
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In order to try and expedite some things:
If we can come up with a standard marching order, and also a standard watch schedule, that would help to speed up some of the play.
Currently we have I think 4 players, between Cuddles, Harsk, Anton and Katya.
If you guys can let me know what shifts you want to take when sleeping, and if you are not planning on taking a shift on standard rotation let me know.
What I would like to do is have it so that I can basically set up each day finishing knowing what everyone is going to do as a normal. That way if you guys have any deviations, we can state that when it comes up, and then we can do rolls and move on.
I want to try and eliminate as much drag on my end as possible.
Cuddles can take first watch and be in the middle of marching order as he isn't the most observant, but is a melee character.
It might be helpful for Cuddles to take mid or mid last not needing the consistent rest per se and having Darkvision. Harsk can do last watch needing to prepare spells and we are more likely to have some darkness then? Anton should take first and Katya mid first? My 2 cp.
Sounds good to me.
Works for me.
Fine by me too.
As for marching order, I think Harsk should go first unless we need a stealthy approach.
Normal order: Harsk, Cuddles, Anton, Katya. (Katya can hold her own as a rearguard and protect the squishy Anton.)
Stealthy order (bonuses in brackets): Katya (+3), Cuddles (+1), ten feet of empty space, Anton (+2), ten feet of empty space, Harsk (-1)
That effectively gives Harsk a +6 to +7 bonus on his check vs. stuff in front of us, and only puts him a double move or charge away from danger.
Without Cander we are really missing our outdoorsman. : \
That also works for me. I find it funny that we still think stealth will be possible with Harsk. :P
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Katya mentioned something in her post that I was also going to bring up to you guys because I was apparently having a brain lapse.
When you guys are travelling through hexes, you have to let me know if you are going to just go straight through or fully explore them. Fully exploring a hex usually takes an extra day, and can also turn up interesting finds, but is something that you will have to do. Also can affect your ability to keep a trail.
Hah! With the variability on a d20 it may well turn out that Harsk is the stealthiest of all of us. ; )
Angel, will you let us know when we're in a new hex so we can make that choice? Otherwise it's hard to tell what's 'new hex encounter' vs. 'random encounter'. : )
Otherwise, that all makes sense. I suggest at the moment that if we're following a trail and trying to make sure the bad guys don't send a sizeable force to destroy Oleg's, that we make a beeline for their camp and don't explore until we've spent some time fortifying.
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That I can do. I really have sat on my hands, and I have not gotten the nice neat map for kingdom mapping.
I did update the Kingdom mapping map, and have the hex marked as the one you guys just fought the spider in.
You were following the trail to the southwest, and the Northeast also had a trail you could follow.
Will have a post up tonight, so that I can have all my resources on hand for you guys.
I'm fine leading, I will never be stealthy so it IS a lost cause ;) and I agree that we need to deal with the camp first and explore second.
Seconded - we find that camp and wing it from there!
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This leads me to another question. Currently we have a Warpriest, a Wizard, a Fighter and a Monk. We have the martial fairly well covered, arcane covered. Seems what right now is missing is outdoorsman types, skill based characters, and perhaps a more divine healing based character.
Now that I am back and mostly functioning, would you guys like to stay at four, or would you like me to recruit and add one or two more characters to fill the gaps?
To answer your actual question, I'm keen to recruit 1 or 2 more characters.
I'd be interested in recruiting a face character; without Leandric our highest Charisma score is Anton's 11. If you look ahead, that could mean that we're recruiting for someone to be our monarch, in terms of kingdom roles.
Skill gaps:
- Nobody has any ranks in Disable Device, Handle Animal, Knowledge (dungeoneering, engineering, nature, planes, religion).
- We're poor in Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive, and Stealth.
- We only have one decent character for Survival.
Random thoughts about what might be suitable:
- Bard: good support and plenty of potential as a ruler.
- Cavalier: more martial power with all the face skills available.
- Cleric: although skill points will be thin on the ground for a cleric.
- Oracle: plenty of synergy around a good Charisma score.
- Rogue: handy skill monkey and you can make a charismatic rogue. A rogue ruler could be an interesting way to play it.
- Sorcerer: could be a nice combo and complement Anton's more analytical approach to magic.
All of this is just off the top of my head so feel free to disagree and I am quite happy to change my mind about any of the above! Let me know what you think. : )
Another random thought: we could possibly do with some ranged support. Katya is heading towards a trip build, IIRC (it's been a while!). I could re-spec her if Angel will let me, but it's worth having a conversation about our tactics at some point. Now's a good opportunity.
I think if we added ranged then keeping Katya in a trip build will work great with Cuddles and Harsk as a main vanguard of a 5/6 person group. If we remain small I agree that it might be worth the respec.
I plan on multi-classing Inquisitor. I will get many skills and some "face" things out of that in some senses though my CHA will still be low.
Would you want to do a full open recruit, Angel, or would you want us to fish around the community for people we already play with/know?
I am content either way
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Do any of you know people that you would be willing to have apply to play?
Knowing that we are looking for ranged/skill/divine/face support characters, if any of you know people that might wish to join, that would be great. I figure you guys can do some travelling, and they could arrive at Oleg's at some point. Seems to be the resupply point for everything around these parts.
Sorry guys, been a busy couple of days. Car issues and imtermittent electricity have put me on edge. (Mike may have heard about the immense sudden shift in Adelaide's weather recently - this time last week, the hills were ablaze; now it's pissing buckets.)
For some reason, the fact that Anton now has the highest charisma in the party has me in stitches. Who'd'a thunk.
Well, the wiz has plenty of skill points to spread around, and gets all knowledges as class skills. I'm likely to drop at least a rank in each at some point, but as for the others? In case you hadn't noticed, Anton's not much of a physical outdoorsy type. (He reminds me of me in high school...)
As for recruiting, I'm not sure. My mind's too fuzzy at this point. There are a few people I'm in other games with that I enjoy playing with. (Can't form coherent thoughts... not a good sign.)
I don't know anyone I'd specifically consider adding to the group.
Ronnie, since Melbourne gets Adelaide's weather somewhere between 24 and 36 hours later, yeah, I've seen the craziness over the last week! I spent most of the thunderstorms pacing around the house looking for leaks in the roof, given we've had two in the last month!
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Given we've lost the trail, does anyone else think that going into the nearest forest hex is a good idea? I can't imagine that the Stag Lord's bandit minions would be hiding on the rolling plains somewhere, so I'm figuring that a trip into the forest hex that I assume is to the northwest of the hex we're in now, and then explore that hex, would be a good start.
If we find nothing, then perhaps we should head back to Oleg's and wait for the bandits to attack. It'll be just like something out of Seven Samurai. ; )
I think that sounds like a fine plan at this point, once we regroup at Oleg's (assuming we find nothing) we can look at being a bit more methodical for rooting the bandits out.
As for recruiting, I am in a handful of games, I can start playing town crier but the couple of folks I checked in with didn't want to add to their plates. An open recruit with preference for what we are missing might be the way to go...
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Ok, that sounds like a plan.
Can you guys five me an idea of where you want to start exploring?
Right now I believe you are two hexes away from Olegs. Travelling through a hex takes a full day, and exploring a current hex takes a full day. I think where you guys left things at, you would have plenty of rations and such for staying out at least two or three days.
Let me know if you are going to want to explore some, or if you are making a beeline straight for the town. I will try and put together a post for adding on a person or two and open it up, probably will give it a few days, a week at most. Figure that I want them to be at Oleg's by the time you return.
Maybe we should head back, regroup, supply up and then head out?
It makes more in-game sense for us to press on. Presuming we're in the hex southwest of the spider lair, I say strike directly west and look for a source of fresh water that the bandits might camp on, then if we find them assess their strength and decide whether to attack. If they are too strong we can head back to Oleg's. If we don't find them at all we can head north/northeast and go back to Oleg's anyway, through the forest hex.
The out-of-game rationale for us to head back to Oleg's is also strong, so I'm comfortable with that if that's what everyone prefers, but my preference is to carry on.
I'm good to carry on. And if we run into trouble, *checks spellbook* ah, crap, I didn't take expeditious retreat!
I forget the rest of you are humans or those with even shorter life spans. Harsk is the plodding patient type but he is game to go on if the others want ;p
Meh, Cuddles will just start devouring the local flora if necessary.
So the plan then is:
- head west into the forest hex (which will take until nightfall, I think?)
- explore the forest hex (which will take one day)
- deal with the bandits, if we find them (which will take probably one day)
- make a beeline back to Oleg's, whether we've found the bandits or not (probably two days)
Overall, then, that makes for either four or five more nights on the road. Anton, Harsk, and Katya are all fine for rations for that long, presuming we don't find any supplies in the bandit camp or hunt along the way, and if we find a river like we did when we camped we should be okay for fresh water, even if we just follow the river out of the forest and then head across the plains (or keep heading north until we find the road and walk along that back to Oleg's).
I reckon we're all right to carry on then. And if Angel needs to introduce a new PC partway through there are lots of ways it can be done. : )
Good luck with the lurgy, Angel. : )
Looks good to me. :)
Just checking in. I've been off board the last couple of days sick, I know angel was sick. Seems like we had a plan but wasn't sure if we were pausing for a recruit...etc... Hi!