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Sorry folks got called into work unexpectedly.
It is now dark, so anyone without some sort of vision enhancement will be considered to be in concealment. As there is very little in the way of natural light, and no light source is being used by either group, I will give them 50%. That means any attack has a 50/50 chance of hitting. I know this might seem harsh, but the other alternative was total darkness (ie. blind) and I did not think you warranted that!!
I have dancing lights prepared. Now it is only a matter of who wants to provide light. If someone else puts up a light then I will use my turn to attempt to trip both foes. Otherwise I can light them up. Which would you rather have me do?
I'm going first, but I can't light it up so I will just have to take the 50% miss chance. Wish presence would help with that.
I think that the first person that can provide light should paint the targets.
I don't think I should have missed. I just rolled miss chance in the last post and 2 is good. Unless you rolled the missed chance and I missed it? Or do they have more then 17 AC in which case I am going to have to reconsider my stance that they will be easy to beat.
Don't know why you want a prisoner we don't have any kind of holding cell and he is unlikely to have any useful information.
I don't see how mercy or practicality is benefited by taking him prisoner.
@Kent: Actually I disagree about the usefulness of the guy. Prisoners can be a pain, but this guys knows exactly what the situation in camp is and in real time. We'll have the "what to do with the maybe-repentant, maybe not bandit prisoner" dilemma again, but I chalk these up to good RP situations.
Even if he does have useful information I don't think we could trust him to tell the truth so the information is unreliable and of dubious quality.
Maybe we can help Oleg build a few cells in the trade post or we can have some of the bandits work off their crimes. But this guy here can give us all sorts of information about the inside of the camp. How many there are, if they have any watch words, etc...
If he is lying... well, that's what sense motive is for.
Ulryk himself has some difficulty just taking life... especially human life. While he did behead Happs, that was actually the first human he ever killed. Remember... he did not even kill the Goblins. (he only killed a goblin dog, which is a animal/beast which he has no qualms about slaying)
I've got to say, I am not too keen on being the only one left behind. In truth, really only our stealthy members should have gone and retrieved Brigid... which makes me think something has gone wrong.
Svetlana's under the assumption that everything is fine with Brigid. She would be O.K. with just Damen or Leorn going with but isn't concern if someone else wants to tag along. Leaving only one back in camp isn't the most tactically sound idea, admittedly, but Svetlana doesn't think especially tactically at this early point in her adventuring career.
Under the circumstances it would be better to press our attack now instead of waiting for morning when they will know that something is up.
Yes, the bandwagon filled up very quickly. Svetlana and Leorn make the most logical choices, since I'm only moderately stealthy when armored. In fact, it doesn't make so much sense for the whole party to wander out anyway in case the camp is ambushed, so I think I'll post about that.
I'd agree with Kent, but right now don't have enough IC knowledge to make the call.
It's not Brigid's situation it's the fact that two of their watchmen have gone missing. I don't know how many watches they have in a night, but I bet the're are more. Right now we have left a hole in their defense time to exploit it.
If Kent plans on attacking now - he should mention such before leaving some of the party behind. Would you rather go into combat without some of the melee fighters?
Opps just seemed obvious to me.
Maybe so and it is very good reasoning on your part, but Svetlana made it seem like she (and the little scout group) were just going back out to get Brigid and come back in the morning. I assumed that's why everyone rushed off before the bandit could even be questioned.
I'd be fine with backtracking and bringing everyone, but we'll have to see what the GM says. It may be too late for that.
Yeah, this seems like one that we should have talked out a bit more before leaving if folks wanted to press the whole attack now. Daniel's call, but seems a bit late to me to backtrack. Svetlana's impression was that Brigid would simply be back in the blind, hiding out, with the possibility that she'd have snuck back down and was walking back (in which the groups would meet halfway). So in that sense Ulyrk read Svetlana's intentions just right. Additionally, I'd say with the non-spoiler information that I was aware of to this point it was *not* obvious the camp was under attack. I'd imagine bandits desert from time to time; this could have easily been an example of two bandits simply leaving.
Maybe Kent has a bit of a problem that he assumes everyone is as smart as him. Kind of makes me wish I had built him as an android now.
Yeah, that's the impression I got from Kent as well. He sort of views everything like pieces in a puzzle or parts of an equation. He naturally assumes that everyone will go toward the logical and best (in his mind) conclusion. I think that also goes a long way to explaining his lack of charisma and wisdom bonus. He's all analytical thinking.
Android Kent would have been amusing.
An Android, eh? "We need a fireball - luckily I've got the app for that!" And text messaging would be awfully convenient right now.
So we're having a few teething pains as a party, which makes some sense given the characters. We'll sort it out. My read on Svetlana's intentions was pretty much the same as Ulryk's, but we're committed now. Often the most fun comes from the mistakes we make!
Pity Sending is such a high level spell. But I agree, it's all in fun.
Well I might have been a an Android all along and just don't adverist the fact, but ya too late shame really would have made a great backstory.
Big surprise, Happs and Mel lied. According to Brigid's accessment the bandit camp numbers at least 12, counting the four we've already dispatched. I am glad we didn't just ride in there "guns" blazing.
I wonder who else they are robbing there is no way Olag's had enough to support and keep together 12+ bandits and this place is mostly wilderness do they send raiding parties out of the green belt every now and then?
I guess they must have fairly good survival so we should defiantly attack now before they track us back to our camp.
Yeah, Ulryk asked that very question of the bandit we caught, but he wouldn't answer.
My guess is that previously (and probably currently) they have preyed on trade caravans and the like that want to go between Brevoy, the River Kingdoms, and the exotic goods of places like Kyonnin and Taldor. To reach Brevoy there aren't a lot of options. The worldwound seperates the lands West of Mendev, its got Iobaria and the vast wilderness there to the East. I suppose it could try to go through Numeria, but, I imagine that has its own host of problems.
Tracking at night will be very hard, but I wouldn't want to chance it. I don't think anyone who went out scouting tried to cover their tracks.
Despite my character's great knowledge and my back story of being a world traveler I don't know all that much about this world it begins with a G right?
The plan
1st Damen and Brigrid goes into the camp shot two bandits and run. Hopefully a few bandits chase after him. (Svetlana will cast light on a stone for them to use)
2nd Svetlana casts disguise self on herself taking on the appearance of one of the bandits that ran off going back into the camp with some excuse like she forgot her sword or something I trust her imagination.
Then Svetlana can cause havoc in the camp geting them all fighting each other once again I trust her imagination.
3rd Then if she feels that they are open enough or that she needs help she calls out and casts light and the rest of of the team (Kent, Ulryk, Leon) attack (right after Kent enlarges Ulryk, Leon should cast dancing lights)
4th Damen and Brigrid seeing that their light stone go out will know that the attack is under way and double back.
I only have an hour worth of mage armor left now
One potential wrinkle with this plan is that since both Brigid and I have rapid shot and we both have a damage bonus against our enemies, we could realistically drop 2-3 bandits in the initial salvo. In that case we may just wish to press the attack.
If you bring down 3 bandits and then 6 follow you then we should be able to take the rest especially after the Trojan horse. Think of it this way if you kill all the bandit you draw off before your light stone goes out you have full bragging rights. Besides hit and run tactics are great for archers.
I'm trying to fully utilize everyone.
One more thing when Svetlana casts light the second time it should be on the bandit leader to give a easy target.
Again I have fallen horribly behind. I am sorry about my absense. School and work got together and thought it would be funny if they beat me up together. At least for the week. I will be back to normal tomorrow. But for now, I need to think about what to post.
The big thing i am concerned about is my lack of posting seems to have gotten me forgotten. I am wondering if I am of any use at all in this game.
@Leorn: This game does have a lot of posting, more than most PbP's, but don't let make you think your PC is of no use. If something happened previously you think Leorne would comment on, just say "Earlier:....". It might not change an action but you can still say your piece.
Kent is right about the light spell, only one at a time. Svetlana would know that, even if I did not!
Regarding disguise: The spell would give a +10 to the check, so +13 with Cha modifier. That's the good part. The downside is that there may be no other unknown females in the camp, Kressle and Mel might be it. I'm thinking of actually having Svetlana pop into the camp as Mel and raise a rucus, which would solve the gender problem. More importantly, these bandits all know each other, and Svetlana will be trying to impersonate an individual of some form. Daniel's call on this of course, but if I was DM'ing I'd give the bandits a +6 on their perception checks because the person Svetlana would be impersonating is a "Friend or Associate". Assuming the bandits have a +0 natural Perception check, that's a +6 Bandit Perception Check (minus Kressle, who could easily have a higher bonus-Perception's a class skill for Barbs and Rangers, sounds like she's one of these) vs a +13 Disguise. Do-able, but risky. Svetlana is not cautious by nature and tends to flow with the plan as it develops, but know that the chance of her remaining disguised and undetected in camp is probably 50/50.
The darkness could help the disguise, it's likely hard to tell features in the night, even if by torch light. That being said, don't they have a watch word? Thus far no one has supplied that information to us yet and they could easily discover you as a traitor by not knowing the password. Might be better to leave off the part of the attack in which Svetlana goes intot he camp disguised. I think it puts her at undo risk.
I'd rather have Leorn and Ulryk with bows ready and begin firing from the other direction once Damen and Brigid draw off the other bandits. Leorn's dancing lights could help out there as well (we'd be in darkness, while they are illuminated)
While neither Ulryk or Leorn are as good with a bow as Brigid, we can still cause some damage I suspect.
I guess we should just skip the trojan bit, shame that. You might want to put a rank in disguise next level to bring your check up by 4.
I'm a bit worried that if we attack the camp immediately after the others have been drawn off Damen and Brigid won't have time to double back.
Leorn don't worry so much about falling behind you might notice that about half the posts come from me.
For all we know Damen and Brigid will end up having to fight the bandits they draw off. We don't know how the dice will go.
As for the enemy closing with us. You've got grease I suspect, that should slow them down, plus we'd have range. If Leorn uses dancing lights in the camp, that will make them illuminated while we have a 50% miss chance against us due to the shield of darkness.
If they do try to close, Svetlana and Leorn both have whips, plus Ulryk has quick draw and can bring a weapon to the ready. You could always enlarge me at that point as well.
Not really worried about them closing I have enlarged person prepared and plan to cast it on you right before combat. I suspect that you will teach them the error of their ways.
The best part is if the battle seems to be going against us we can just cut and run. It not that hard to lose people in the darkness and they might not even give chase given that we have just tricked them that way.
@Daniel: Ulryk raises a good point about the darkness and general conditions. The disguise never specifically mentions it, but it seems to make sense that the conditions would aid in successfully disguising one's self. What's your take as DM?
For the plan to attack the camp, let's either go simple or complex. If we want complex (i.e. Damen and Brigid launching in arrows, light spell signals, those two running off and leading the bandits around, etc.) then let's send in Svetlana in as the disguise/bluff sabatoge unit. We may also be overthinking this whole thing; we're great at ranged combat and Kent's grease spell helps keep it that way. Svetlana is plenty helpful as a healer to and as folks close on us we should be able to handle things. Either way can work, we might be overthinking this though.
RE: A skill point to Disguise. I probably will next level, but it's tough as a cleric with a 10 Int. I already use my favored class level for a skill point instead of a hp. Definitely more things I'd like skill points for than points to use!
Ya let's just do the bait and leave it at that. We don't want to make Svetlana being captured to become a running gag.
It's funny, I almost used the Helmuth von Moltke quote in my post as well Svetlana.
You added your skill point for being human just making sure.
@Ulryk: It's one of my favorite quotes, and can definitely apply here.
@Kent: Yes I did, Cleric (2), Human (1), Favored Class (1), points into Stealth, Sense Motive, Bluff and Diplomacy.
@Daniel: Well, we weren't expecting Areanna back. Svetlana assumes that the bandit camp leadership is wondering where Happs, Mel and the rest are and IS expecting them back. But if you are saying that there would be substantial additional penalties in your opinion then that's something we should be aware of.
@Daniel but but that would be metagaming!
For the bait team I'm guessing you will be shooting a surprise round then the first round you shoot then move away need to give them a little time to chase after you. You might take down as many as 6 bandits before they even chase you. If they don't chase you we might want to try that again ;>
Currently they don't havre any reason to think there is more then one of us.
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@ Svetlana - I'm not saying anything. The choice is yours, I am simply stating what 'might' happen if Mel was suddenly found in the camp during a time of heightened security. People would notice and questions would be ask, even though they were expecting the group back...or so you assume.
@ ALL - So it looks like you have your plan..are you ready to set it in motion?
Kent Ready!
@Daniel: That sounds reasonable. Svetlana would certainly expect questions to be asked!
I think we're ready; you can move us along to about a 1/4 mile of the bandits camp. Along the way, Svetlana will make the case that if we are doing the "shoot and run" bit with Damen/Brigid, she should also try to infiltrate the camp as Mel. But not being big on planning in the first place, she really won't make a big fuss about it if others don't want her to go in.