Mangroves of the Desert (Inactive)

Game Master Herkymr the Silly

Paizo is having a sale in partnership with the humble indie bundle so the hamsters that run the web server are working overtime. Probably going to be like this for a while.

Thank you, Quinten. That description is helpful. I may or may not actually use it right away. I will definitely use it at some point.
Shadara, I'm going out to Bend as well. I doubt we would have the opportunity to see each other while there, but it would be cool.
I'm there for the next couple of days. Perhaps on Thursday night I can post, if not I'm hoping to post on Friday.
Also having problems getting into the paizo site. We'll just have to wait it out and hope they get things resolved soon.

Paizo site has been qonky no worries about posts as long as you keep us in the loop

gragh.. once you have put in your dice numbers click preview and get a result/ then use that result to better write your post. Thus my spoiler gave me all my rolls but my post to you only reflects what happened minus the rolls.

Jerram and Richard: I need you both to post I have no idea wha is up i Rl or other wise due to lack of communication.

Do you have a way to contact Jerram outside these boards? I remember him saying that he uses another service to watch for updates here but sometimes misses them.

Do you have a way to contact Jerram outside these boards? I remember him saying that he uses another service to watch for updates here but sometimes misses them.

Ya, you may want to send Jerram a text message, Herk.

will do. I know he went on RL vacation for a week and has been playing catch up with school and such but we will see.

RICHARD???

Work has been hectic for the past month. they had me in training and would often just pass out when i got home and started writing a post.

It's good to see posts from everyone again. Hopefully, we can come up with a natural way to have Graghhh join the party.

I thnk I have one. Just need a bit more time with it

Richared: thanks I was beginning to think you had disappeared or been attacked successfully with magic missiles (9th level caster)

Just got a new (used) computer, took me until this morning to get things backed up and mostly transferred to the new one. Hope you're ready for some Ugmug.

Herk, I saw an opportunity to use Ugmug to introduce Graghhhhhhhhhh to the group and I'm gonna take it. Hope you like it.

Or maybe not

Thanks for finding a way to bring me into the group. It is a busy time at work right now, so I've had some long days.

i'll ps tomorrow had family stuff come up and left town late yesterday just got home

I need the following rolls from you as a group as well as anything you might use to enhance the rolls.[magic+aid other etc.) THESE ARE NOT THE ONLY ROLLS TO BE USED! decide who will make what roll and let me know as well.

acrobatics x3
climb x1
percep x5
intimidate x4
stealth x7
heal x3
bluff/diplomacy x4
knowledge nature x3
kn arcane x5
kn local x3
kn dungeoneering x2
kn engineering x2

YOu may substitute other know skills if you explain why you sub them,

I will post later. Today's the procrastination day for my classes. Gotta finish everything by midnight. But I call for sure the climb and acrobatics checks. Haven't looked at the rest yet, but with a climb speed and my monk stuff, I know I got those.

I'll take the Perception rolls:

First Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32
Second Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (7) + 14 = 21
Third Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25
Fourth Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23
Fifth Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26

I can also do Knowledge (local):

First Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (14) + 17 = 31
Second Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (15) + 17 = 32
Third Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (20) + 17 = 37

For the knowledge (dungeoneering) rolls, assuming they take place within 60 minutes, I'll cast Investigative Mind to roll twice and take the highest result:

First knowledge (Dungeoneering)
First roll: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (18) + 11 = 29
Second roll: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26

Second knowledge (Dungeoneering)
First roll: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13
Second roll: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

I'll also activate Investigative Mind for the Knowledge (engineering) rolls:

First knowledge (engineering)
First roll: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25
Second roll: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

Second knowledge (engineering)
First roll: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29
Second roll: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29

That leaves:

acrobatics x3 (Jerram)

climb x1 (Jerrm)
percep x5
intimidate x4
stealth x7
heal x3
bluff/diplomacy x4
knowledge nature x3
kn arcane x5
kn local x3
kn dungeoneering x2
kn engineering x2

Shadara has a +6 on intimidate, the highest among us unless Ugmug is participating or Graghhh has ranks in it. Jerram has the highest Stealth at +14, but I believe Shadara can get higher bonuses if she uses Ki points to turn invisible.

None of us have ranks in Heal. Jerram has the highest Wisdom modifier at +4, so he should take that roll.

Richard has a +14 bonus to Bluff. Quinten can gaurantee success on an Aid Another to boost him to +16.

Jerram and Quinten are tied on Knowledge (nature). Thematically, it makes more sense for Jerram to take the roll since he's done more travel. Quinten will use three rounds of Inspire Competence to give him a +2 Competence bonus.

Richard and Quinten are almost tied on Knowledge (arcana), but it makes sense for Richard to know more than Quinten about magic, so he should make the roll. Quinten will use five rounds of Inspire Competence to give him a +2 bonus.

Here are my recommendations:

acrobatics x3 (Jerram)

climb x1 (Jerrm)
percep x5
intimidate x4 (Shadara)
stealth x7 (Jerram or Shadara)
heal x3 (Jerram)
bluff/diplomacy x4 (Richard, with +2 from Aid Another)
knowledge nature x3 (Jerram, with +2 from Inspire Competence)
kn arcane x5 (Richard, with +2 from Inspire Competence)
kn local x3
kn dungeoneering x2
kn engineering x2

I would include Graghhh and Ugmug in this list, but I can't see the skills for either and don't know if Ugmug would help us. Perhaps he'll intimidate anyone who is interrupting his play time.

While I had fun making the rolls above and have built Quinten to be more of a skill monkey than combatant, I hope we aren't reducing the labyrinth to dice rolls. Play-by-post games are slow enough that going from hallway to hallway and room to room as we might in real life would be tedious, so rolling makes sense. However, it would be more fun and better for character development to narrate most of the action but stop for two or three challenges that we need to resolve in character.

Thats my intent Quinten is to make use of rolls but narrate a good portion of it. Still working through in my mind how all to do it. Suggestions?

I looked at what Quinten stated and the info associated with it. I would have put in more info, but it would be nice to get the info sorted into neat groupings with buttons like everyone else seems to be able to do, but all that works for me is

We're all using the spoiler tag, so spoiler=skills, or spoiler=abilities. Closing those tags you just use /spoiler (with brackets of course). So those would look like this when used.

Gragggh you wont know speciicis of what they are used to accompliash intil we get the narration started.

Herkymr, I wouldn't focus as much on rolls but on letting the characters be who they are from a story standpoint. Alternately, reduce the number of rolls so you have less to think about and write or have each of us write a section where a skill we're good at comes into play. For example, Quinten might recognize that part of labyrinth resembles an area of Fifth Port the guild expects its members to know, Shadara might activate distant buttons with throwing knives to lower a bridge across an otherwise impassable chasm, Richard might detect a beast's hunger in time to warn us about an ambush, Jerram might dodge through a hall filled with swinging blades to retrieve a key, Ugmug might smash a door to pieces because it failed to obey his command to "Open Sesame," and Graghhh might use his knowledge of ropes to help us escape a binding or undo a knot-based trap.

This approach will give you less to think about than trying to apply 42 separate rolls. If we're the ones doing the writing, it'll let us tell you something about our character, and if you're the one doing it, it'll let us see how our character is coming across.

Toward the end, go back into mechanics mode for a fight. That's something we can all participate in, and it's the activity Pathfinder focuses on, so it should be fun. From an in-character standpoint, it'll also give us a chance to bond with Graghhh. I don't know much about fighting in or out of character, but I think I'd appreciate someone who helped keep me alive.

Graghhh, to give a spoiler a name, type "=name" after the "spoiler" in the opening brackets. So a spoiler labeled skills would be [s p o i l e r=Skills]Your skills[/s p o i l e r] without the spaces. Similarly, a named dice roll is [d i c e=Name]1d20+X[/d i c e].

I like what Quinten said about letting us write our stories so we can show who our characters are. Thanks for clarifying the whole spoiler thing. It makes more sense and will be easier for anyone to look at my stats in my character profile.
I would like to have a chance to do things because they are what the character would choose to do instead of splitting up the options. That might leave someone with a "leftover task." Perhaps it isn't suited to them very well. Perhaps two or three of us trying to accomplish a certain task would give a better chance of us completing it anyway.
Maybe a character fails to even think to look before they leap, so a sense motive or a bluff might not apply in a specific situation, so I like the idea of giving us enough info to write our stories and let our characters' personalities drive the story through the labyrinth.

I've had similar bouncing around n myhead. Think I will use a modification on this to accomplish our task.

I need a few more responses though before I can work the initiating magic......muwahahahahahahahhaaha

music playing in my head while i laugh

I hope everyone had a happy and safe fourth of July. I'll try to get my post up later today.

How do I share music on here? Sorry I'm not as tech savvy as everyone. My character will hopefully make more sense with his associated songs...or not. He may not be exactly as he appears.

There's nothing wrong with asking questions. It's fun to help.

To share music, you need a link to the song. Generally, I go to YouTube and do a search for the song by title. To create the link itself, use [u r l=webAddress]songTitle[/u r l] without spaces. For example, [u r l = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfSpQVINZvE ]Far[/u r l] would produce Far.

Thank you Quinten. I've played a couple of games with herk and some other friends in person, but I'm not as familiar with the online set up. I'm not nearly as studied as it appears most of our group is in paizo or in this type of game, so I appreciate all the help. I'll keep asking questions and maybe we all learn something new.
Going to try a few posts to make sure I get it right, then perhaps I'll post a few songs and maybe I'll even get skills, abilities, background story, etc. a little easier to deal with.

the funny farm
might even use it

Just a warning: If you want to get to know Graghhh better, you had better listen to his songs, some listen to at least a minute anyway, then you'll see that he isn't quite what he first appears. I will post songs to let you know what frame of mind he is in at different points along the way. This ought to be fun.

I know shadara and jeram have been real busy so I have been a little lax on posting.
I also know that richard is probably busy as well thus he lack of posts.

I'll wait til monday july 9 and then move on without peeps.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30 +15 more if jumping
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16 +15 more if jumping
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25 +15 more if jumping

Climb Take 10: 10 + 16 = 26

Stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (1) + 14 = 15
Stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23
Stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19

Heal: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19
Heal: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Heal: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28
Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19
Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (4) + 13 = 17

acrobatics x3 (Jerram)

climb x1 (Jerrm)
percep x5
intimidate x4 (Shadara)
stealth x7x4 (Jerram or Shadara)
heal x3 (Jerram)
bluff/diplomacy x4 (Richard, with +2 from Aid Another)
knowledge nature x3 (Jerram, with +2 from Inspire Competence)
kn arcane x5 (Richard, with +2 from Inspire Competence)
kn local x3
kn dungeoneering x2
kn engineering x2

I saw Jerram's post, posted, then saw Quinten's. I'll post another to help make it flow together a bit better.

Hey, everybody, just to let you know in advance, in a few days I will be away and unable to post for probably about 5-7 days. I'll post a couple more times, and then I will be gone until about the 14th or 15th. After that, I'll be able to post more frequently again, so I'd like to do something right away and not hold up the group next week.

So here is my contribution to the rolls needed as stated above
stealth: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30
stealth: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19
stealth: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20
bluff: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9
intimidate: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
intimidate: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
diplomacy: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

They don't necessarily need to all be used, Shadara or Richard could take more of the rolls, especially if they roll better and Herk allows us to choose the better roll, but I thought I ought to at least make an attempt.
That leaves us with the following rolls to be made:

intimidate x2 (Shadara)
stealth x1 (Shadara)
bluff/diplomacy x2 (Richard, with +2 from Aid Another)
kn arcane x5 (Richard, with +2 from Inspire Competence)

Plus, I don't know if it helps, and of course, it is up to Herk, but I thought I could submit a couple of other rolls in case he will allow us to choose the best rolls...?

Anyway, here are a few and if we don't use them, oh well, at least we have them anyway. Also, you can see some more of my skills stats, since I haven't fixed that yet in my character profile.

acrobatics: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
climb: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
knowledge dungeon: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15

I previewed and like that I did stealth rolls. I would like to see what's in store. I'd like to do something with those rolls.

I thought for sure that I posted the following on July 3rd in the morning but checking today I cannot find it. Here it is again.
----
Hey Guys,
Back for a short time. I leave tomorrow for a location that will not have good wifi, guessing here, until wednesday. I am going to assume that my Ki points are full and that the seven rolls would be different uses of stealth where other combat moves would render me visible again. That being the case I would only take 4 of the stealth rolls and leave the other three for Jerram. Hope that this helps and does not hold anyone up. After wednesday I should be back to nearly normally ability to post. I am goning to process stealth rolls as moving but if stationary add another 20 points. On a side note, I need to verify that I have the correct numbers in my online stats sheets. I found some inconsistencies and so I hope to get them updated in the next week or two.

dice rolls
intimidate rolls
1 : 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7
2 : 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
3 : 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
4 : 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Stealth Rolls (this is a +10 and adding a Ki point for each roll for invisibility which gives me a +20 to all rolls while moving and +40 to any stationary rolls. Each use of invisibility lasts up to 5 minutes or until I attack.)
1 : 1d20 + 30 ⇒ (15) + 30 = 45
2 : 1d20 + 30 ⇒ (7) + 30 = 37
3 : 1d20 + 30 ⇒ (9) + 30 = 39
4 : 1d20 + 30 ⇒ (10) + 30 = 40

i enjoyed that queinten

Thanks. I'm glad it was a good read.

I am seeing that everyone is really busy with summer. Im glad that RL is happening.

I suggest we take a hiatus from game until end of sept 1st when things usually slow down ish for most of us.

Opinions and yeahs or neahs..

Richard I would expect you to give me a short background on your character by then and to decide if you really want to stay in game enough to post consistently. I hope you decide to stay.

I'm in the "nay" camp, but I think it's safe to assume I'm the group's least busy player. I've been holding off on posts partly to encourage others to step up.

If a break makes more sense for the other players, I'm okay with one. However, I'd encourage you to make sure you have ways to contact those players outside these boards. That way, you can remind them when the game starts back up. A message here could work, but I'm not sure how effective it would be. Personally, I'd go weeks without visiting this site if I wasn't in this game.

I have a way of contacting all but richard and you. SO I am not that worried over it if that is what the group decides. I would still like to continue and have time to right now but get less and less as the fall gts moving.
Group will decide but We need to get posting to keep this going. I would hate to see this game fade out from lack of posting. We've been going long time now and I have great aspirations of a longer going game still.

so Quinten.
I sent a text to everyone I had numbers for and most have promised to post in next day or two atleast in discussion.
Thanks for staying on top of it. I really appreciate your thoroughness and constant help to keep things going.

If no one does anthing by tomorrow night when i go to bed 10pm utah time then I will move us on with just you doing the labrynth and all others botting for a few posts. I REALLY REALLY hope it doesn't come to that but I can't let you get disillusioned with having to wait.

I am ok with continuing to post. Had computer down for most of this week and just got functional last night. I guess part of my understanding was that once you got the rolls for this labyrinth it was going to be a GM narrated story without much if any interaction. I do not see a slow down in my work over the next 6 months so I cannot use that as a reason to agree to a hiatus. I do need to catch up on the in game posts and will endeavor to do that this weekend.

I have really enjoyed this format as it is hard for me to be able to dedicate large blocks of time consistently for a RL game. I would even posit that if a couple of people need or want a break we could always run a sub mission with the remaining or just NPC the others. I have other ideas as well on ways to give people breaks but keep their characters in the game.

I would like to continue posting as well. We once again are getting more staff at work and I got my shifts stable again so things should be easier.

And I had been working on Richards backstory a bit but old habits returned and after I write something I end up not liking it and erasing it. I do have an idea for that and I'll continue to work on it.

I won't be any less busy in the future than I am now, so I'd say keep going is as good for me as anything else.

Sounds like for the most part we keep going then. Lets all try to get a post about once a day please it will help things go.

The labyrinth will be a collaborative story telling. I will use some of the rolls and may ask forothers to determine who is going to tell us what the area looks like and what you did to accomplish something. Good example is Quinten's post about the doors. THat is kinda the idea although there are going to be things I will have to tell and describe/

I was house sitting all this week, and I'm making preparations to go to Hong Kong very shortly so updates from me will not be as frequent for a while.

not an issue. You very easily could be off training with Vitras for the next however long. Whats going on in Hong Kong?