MoF's Hells Rebels

Game Master MordredofFairy

@Aldous - good luck!

Thanks!

I'm headed out of the country until Monday, and I'm not sure how easy it will be to check in. Please bot if needed.

I struggled with the map. The one I originally had intended was not satisfactory. In the end, I ended up making a rudimentary one with Tiled.

After trying a couple programs...but I am not truly satisfied. It seems like a lot of work to find and combine tilesets in a way that lets one be properly creative, and I did not properly get into layers yet(so that explains the item background being nondescript grey.)

If someone is using a (preferably free) tool for making tactical maps, I'd be interested in hearing recommendations.

That said, I have little excuse for the past week. Things were stressful, I was not feeling up to it. Alas, apart from finally getting the map done on the weekend, I did start writing the post and mailed it to myself. Unless all hell breaks lose, I should be able to finish at work tomorrow.

Making maps is a tricksy topic. One thing I've been thinking of is using some game editor to make 90% of the work and then move over to an image editor to add the correct details and throw some tint and stuff over it. Haven't actually tried yet though.

Mapping is the eternal bane, I think.

The best programs cost--which is entirely understandable--or have learning curves that come close to requiring a freaking college semester to handle.

The free ones are either pathetically limited in what they can produce, or worse yet, abandoned in half-finisned states.

That said, I d9 have a couple of programs that might be what you want. They're older than dirt (so your system might need some tweaking to even run these) and I'm pretty sure none of them is in development anymore, but they're free--legally so, I might add--and relatively capable. Just have to bestir my lazy self to dig through my USB drives to find them, get them onto my tablet, get them uploaded somewhere, and so on.

@Boros: The google-fu is strong with me. If you can remember names for those programms, I may be able to aquire them without the USB-search - all the more so if they are free.
I may also cave in and aquire(legally) Dungeon Painter Studio or Campaign Cartographer/Dungeon Designer.

Just want to scout the free options first-

@Miranda: Fair enough, though I had not considered that a "easy-to-identify"-trait, there are plenty of tieflings, plenty of halflings, and quite some half-tieflings. Not all of them can use their maw to bite people, but quite a lot may cause a dentist nightmares.

I interpreted your attempt as a "Minor Details only" to get that +5 on the check on top of the spell, trying to not look like Miranda, but not truly hiding your nature/race.
But that is, of course, fully within your possibilities. A halfling, then? A gnome? A Human child? I suppose I defaulted to the "minor details" since you did not provide an explanation of what else you meant to appear as, which may, depending on what you attempt to pretend to be, well garner a different reaction.
If you meant to stay a half-tiefling, but only swap around all your defining features, thats fine too, but would not qualify as "minor details only". Just let me know what you were going for.

Eh, if I could remember the names, I'd certainly tell you. But I haven't used these in so long that I really can't recall them. So I need to consult the USB drives anyway, lol. And if I'm going to do that, then I might as well just go ahead and do the rest as well.

I do know, however, that one of the programs in question likely isn't available for download anymore. It was once hosted on WotC's own D&D site, back when 3.x was still the system in use (and well before 4e was even a rumor). It got hosed--along pretty all of their site-based 3.x materials--by their switch to 4e and the site-wide reorganization that accompanied it.

Ah yes just concealing those features and appearing as a slightly odd halfling is just fine.

@Easy to identify - True! But my thought was that since all tieflings are more or less random, the more telling features you have to go by the more of the population you can disregard. So while there might be many halfling, red-eyed or toothy tieflings there are probably much fewer halfling, red-eyed *and* toothy tieflings : )

I think most sub-scenes are about to wrap up, scene with Aldous coming later or early tomorrow...I suspect when Aldous went in, you arranged to meet up afterwards, possibly so he could tell you what he learned, or to conspire what to do if he does not come back.

The latter is the case. I can add a second scene later/tomorrow(with Aldous one) moderated by Rexus, but you may want to consider your course of action with that bit of knowledge.

Basically you could...

Wait - Maybe see what tomorrow brings. He might be in danger, or he might not be. But surely as a hardened barrister he would be very resilient and not spill any beans if they were to, say, physically torture him.

Storm - Rush right in there, fast in, fast out, you estimate to have about 40 rounds before reinforcements can arrive, after an alarm is raised.

Stealth - the doors are probably difficult to get past, but if you manage to take out the roof guards, going in from the top could be possible. But the careful approach takes longer, and if you are noticed, you could get cornered.

Other... - Hey, prisoner transfer for cell block 1138 from Detention Cell AA-23... Just kidding, but I'm open for suggestions of all sorts there.

Basically it'll be that time when you'll need to make up your mind on a potential approach :)
No hurry, I can keep Aldous busy and you can settle that in-character, but voicing thoughts and discussing OOC could maybe help formulate a plan of action there.

I've been giving everyone else time to do their weekly things with the plan to send in the rat/rock dove to quickly scope things out once they weren't all doing things. :)

Storm seems like a bad idea; we still have no plausible way of getting any number of people out. Especially in broad daylight.

But waiting for tomorrow might be leaving too much to chance.

Maybe sneak in during the cover of night? If we do it quietly, without raising tons of alarm, we might be able to simply sneak past the guard patrols by utilizing our eyes in the sky.

@Nissim/Varuzhan - You know of/have some nice knock out poison or similar substance?

Relying on pure weapon damage to KO someone in pathfinder can be a tall order; but augmenting the strike with some substance of choice can speed up the process.

Or maybe we could feed the sentries some oil of taggit somehow?

Drow Poison is best poison.

But drows are hard-ish to find up here!

.

...

That said - I do believe they are Chaotic in pathfinder so maybe they do want in on an opportunity to poke thrune in the eye?

Dibs on not being the ambassador though!

Back on the poison topic though I really like the Pernicious Poison spell in a spell-storing weapon that you then poison. That way the poison really stings!

A pity that both the set-up and poisons themselves are so expensive otherwise I'd totally make (another few) characters that play around with it.

Don't forget Pernicious Stab to go with that.

That said, I never was a big fan of the poison pricing. I mean, there's poisonous plants and mushrooms all over, and many things were used as verminicide(or for homicide) since quite a long time ago.

To make it so that it's all but unaffordable to "common folk" is a failure imho. It should not be cheaper to hire a squad of hitman over one dose of poison - especially considering you'd have to overdose significantly do even have a chance of dying(e.g. average adventurer can safely(=no chance of dying) eat about 3 times the lethal dose of arsenic if I remember right)

I think the theoretical idea is that it simply "binds" part of a characters WBL, which, since it is "consumable", should be returned in treasure over time.
That scales awfully, though, and does not make much sense except in niche applications.

That said, I think poison should be more easy to aquire and not be limited by price, but rather...association.
Many people will not approve of using poison in combat. It's dishonorable and all that, and "ends justify the means" only goes that far.
At the same time, those really needing an edge, or not worrying about being honorable, will have a means of doing so by using poison.

That would go both ways, but I'm willing to cut poison prices by a variable factor between 10 and 100 if the group wants.
The cheaper it is, the more present it can be. It also represents "homebrew" variants that have a similar effect.

(Also, I know that more things are priced...unreasonable, but poison was brought up and poison always irked me a lot, because even if I had a character that was willing to use it, it never seemed like a reasonable choice, first because of price, later because of DC, making it a pure "plot tool" for GM's to use or hand out.)

The unchained rules really help on the actual poisoning, if you have taken a look at them : )

And I don't think anyone would like a dose of arsenic following those rules; especially not three doses.

But those rules also mean that slapping a lesser restoration on and calling it a day isn't really viable anymore - so everyone sorta have to be okay with potentially spending some time and energy on being poisoned and thus I'd only recommend it if everyone being on board with it. Because I bet we get to taste some somehow eventually :P

(Also - Treacherous Toxins only steals 1d6 of the sneak attack dice. If only it weren't capped : / Poison Focus is nice though : ) )

Aye, also note that Treacherous Toxins specifically mentions it can't increase the save DC past the cap. So raw, even if you manage to apply multiple doses of the poison, the save DC would be capped unless those doses push past it by sheer number.
(Yeah, I'm spontaneously reading it like that to make Pernicious Stab still be meaningful in some way :P - good find though).

@taste it: sure, but poison as-is is a GM toy anyway. I'm just giving you a chance to play with it, too :) Plus it can be a moral dilemna, of going the easy way(and using poisons) or the hard way(and not getting bad rep among the common folk)... :)

Poisons quite honestly suck. By the time you can reliably make or afford them on a regular basis, the overwhelming majority of foes you'd want to use them on have saving throws that are high enough to shrug the effects off.

And that extends to most of the alchemical stuff in general, really. Anything that doesn't do straight damage on impact is effectively gimped by a save DC that just about anything can make with ease. So they're most useful at the levels where you can't even afford to actually make use of them.

For that reason, the GM of another campaign I'm currently in--where my character is a morally flexible sort who doesn't flinch at fighting dirty and fighting to win--approved a heavily modified version of Poison Focus:

It's pretty much Power Attack/Deadly Aim for a Craft skill. I'm kind of hoping that he'll approve an extension of that to alchemical products in general.

As said, since the crafting DC does not rise by itself(unlike AC usually does for CR) that is a non-penalty. You could just as well add a flat DC based on level.
But then scaling breaks the other way...because if you manage to keep the cheaper poisons competitive, the expensive ones will absolutely wreck everything you meet that is not immune.
It mostly is a balancing issue, with few if any elegant solutions.

Unchained rules are a good step in the right direction, but does not address some core problems. *shrug* that said, I'm leaving all that to majority decision.
My suggestion was to make them more accessibly, but handle it like a war crime(you're all fine as long as you don't get caught...and if your enemy does it and is exposed, you get the sympathy, no matter if you are any better or not) - seemed fitting for the AP. But as said, I'm not set on that handling. Just be mindful that mechanisms that can significantly increase e.g. DC's of poisons could backfire - as usual.

Treacherous Toxins also have a bit harsher requirements, 5 bab, so there is that. But once you have it, it is sorta neat. Sorta.

The only way to *really* make it work that I've tried is Vermin Shaping into something like a giant black widow and having a decent Con to start with. When your poison is free, really dangerous and with a nice scaling DC it is actually worth it!

Lots of stuff are still immune to it though : /

Aye. And then you can also throw in Feral Combat Training for Slams and go Flurry with your Cave-Druids Strong-Jawed Carnivorous Crystal Ooze.

J/K but yes, I agree, transforming into or summoning something that has inherent poison seems to be the most efficient way to handle things.

I do have a Vishkanya Unchained Rogue(Underground Chemist) with VMC Sorcerer(Serpentine) I really want to play at some time.
I figure with some Feat choices(as discussed), inherent scaling poisons(two), Sticky poison(Archetype), and Deadly Cocktail(Talent), some fun could be had.
Sticky Poison could be a stretch RAI, but the poison was truly created by the character, so technically it should apply ;)

It's not purely optimised(such as flavor-VMC instead of Eldritch Heritage) but the closest I managed to get on making a poison-use character that I would enjoy playing - (plus with decent Con and Cha it doubles as a regular dual-wield melee rogue or potential social char so if poison is not an option it still functions normally)

I've always made it so that straight up buying poison was overpriced. That if you made it yourself, it was significantly cheaper, as you can generally make poisons from some really mundane stuff. This didn't extend to constitution poison.

I also have never really liked this idea that poison was 'bad' to use. Whether evil or dishonorable, or whatever, I've always found that I really supported the use of strength poisons, in particular, to bring down threats. If you can sap their strength, you can remove their teeth and keep people from getting hurt. Letting people get hurt, to me, is dishonorable :P

I'm good to send in the birb and/or mouse whenever we'd like. I'm just holding back until folks are ready. I -also- haven't been reading people's spoilers because I've been lazy. :|

Works been running late again lately, I am inredibly tired but posted anyway, because we'll be on a family visit over the weekend and I have no idea how much time I will have to post then...and wouldn't want to delay until monday again *smile*

@Lily, if you mean to send in your second scout, for example before going to the meeting, do let me know. I kept it vague on purpose because depending on what you find out, that part may need to adapt to what you know.

Ah, I wasn't aware this was day two. Nevermind.

Stuff about poisons.

This is interesting, Boros. I may nip it for my games in the future. How does the feat scale? Does it seem balanced in play?

Boros Black-Hand wrote:

Stuff about poisons.

This is interesting, Boros. I may nip it for my games in the future. How does the feat scale? Does it seem balanced in play?

You're welcome to take it for a spin, hope you enjoy it.

I haven't the foggiest clue about the actual game effect, lol. That character has a very particular combat style which in turn relies on an equally particular plan for feat selection; he won't actually be able to get that feat for another two levels.

At a glance--and I'll allow as to how I'm not the most experienced at that--it seems balanced enough. Sure, it is possible to stack Craft skill bonuses high enough that the penalty doesn't matter (or at least, matters less), but it takes a bit of effort that comes at the expense of development elsewhere. And it doesn't make the effects of the poisons any more potent. I'll actually have to get the feat and start using it to know more.

It's too bad the character in question doesn't have more feat slots available, as I could see that modified Poison Focus acting as the intro feat to a small chain of poison-related feats that make poisons into something worth the investment.

Mm I missed commenting on your poison feat Boros. Like the gm said, I'm not sure penalties to craft does so much since it is so easy to boost. On the other hand I don't really see anything wrong with a feat that actually just makes poison better without a drawback :P

Speaking of - Path of War has something similar in the Steel Serpent Poisoner's Stance. It is a lot nastier though (+1 dc per 2 initiator [aka caster] levels) and I've never seen much complaints of it. Though I haven't actually gotten to try it either, so I'm not sure how it works in game :P

Mm I missed commenting on your poison feat Boros. Like the gm said, I'm not sure penalties to craft does so much since it is so easy to boost. On the other hand I don't really see anything wrong with a feat that actually just makes poison better without a drawback :P

Speaking of - Path of War has something similar in the Steel Serpent Poisoner's Stance. It is a lot nastier though (+1 dc per 2 initiator [aka caster] levels) and I've never seen much complaints of it. Though I haven't actually gotten to try it either, so I'm not sure how it works in game :P

** spoiler omitted **

Well, there is one definite balancing element in that feat in that, in order to get the higher DCs for created poisons, you need actual ranks in Craft (alchemy). You can, at most, up the DC by +7 in the end, but you'll need 20 ranks to do it. By that point in the game, overcoming a -7 penalty to nearly any task is a minor issue.

Mm true. Though usually the poisoning characters want that skill anyhow, if only to pretend to be able to make poisons (realistically though it takes sooo long!).

But mostly I really do think anything that helps poisons don't need much/any drawback really, seeing that the poison mechanics are probably drawback enough. Unchained changes that a little bit of course : )

Aye, as mentioned, the penalty is a non-issue since the DC does not scale up. I mostly mentioned that as the design basis was something like "Power Attack" or "Deadly Aim", where the penalty is applied to the attack bonus, and as such very noticeable.
A -7 penalty to the task of attack means, on average, that one or two of your iteratives that would have hit fails. As such, it's represents a need to weigh your options.
Here, it seems an afterthought to not make it a positive without drawbacks.

More importantly, though, is the mechanical analysis. With a +1/4 ranks(levels) you are about keeping track with a slow save progression. With a +1/2 you are about equal to a fast save progression.
Both cases do not account for much of the bestiary being larger than medium, and benefitting from high constitution that will significantly boost fortitude save of those creatures.
But lets disregard that...then we have the point of pricing to consider. But lets take a look at that with point 3 in mind: Effective Scaling...
If you pick up existing options to boost your Poisons effectiveness further, then even with the slow progression the poisons will eventually reach higher DC's than slow-progression targets could overcome.
That turns bad once you realize that there is a good number of poisons that cause paralysis, unconsciousness, or sleep...and some of those have respectable DC to begin with...and that multiple doses is a thing for the cheaper ones.
What I mean is that it does not address the inherent problem with poisons. At the beginning, they will be expensive, unavailable, or weak.
But then, depending on the scaling used, once they do become affordable or craftable, they will either still be useless to a non-dedicated character, or become immensely powerful to a dedicated one, while at the same time being more readily affordable.

I am not at all opposed to poisons being a meaningful option. But at the point where a character literally can't make their save against it any more, the opposite is true. Part of the problem being the widening angle of Fortitude Saves as levels progress(as said, the big bad martial beasties will have ginormous Fortitudes, the squishy old casters abysmal ones), leading to situations where one enemy would laugh it off while it's deadly to the other.
In other words, the inherent problem of poisons is just mellowed, not fixed, by scaling up the DC with character levels. Thats why I am not fond of it.

Unless abused, I will gladly agree that things work better with such a feat than without, but it seems like treating symptoms, rather than tackling the problem itself. Sorry for the rant :)

@Lily: I can see your point...the problem is that poisons often weaken their targets or cause muscles to cease functioning in a very painful procedure. Bringing down a target nonlethally certainly is noble. Doing it in a way that leaves them in days of agonizing pain may be less so. Plus real life poisons often leave lasting damage. Neither is true for all Pathfinder poisons, and I completely agree that some difference needs to be made based on intent and outcome. Tear Gas is a chemical weapon, but it's much preferable over outright shooting people dead. The same could be said for certain poisons as well. That said, it's still not the "honorable" thing to do, so some people would still consider it "bad", but yeah, the potential fallout on public relations definitely depends on the situation at hand and needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis. I did not mean to generalize.

At high levels though almost everything is immune to poisoning - or the nastiest condition they inflict. That's another thing that's problematic for poison. Poor poison ... :P

Aye Miranda. Thats what I mean, effectively. At high levels it will either be useless or wreck people completely depending on target. Which is bad for a mechanic that needs commitment to work in the first place.

Yeah, just imagine how effective 3d4 of strength poison actually is against a wizard. Kind of hard to cast spells when your robe is pinning you to the floor. :S

In the case of Steel Serpent's stuff, I love the concept of steel serpent in PoW and definitely want a character that uses it. The issues that you run into are manyfold, though. Like the fact that it's one of the few disciplines that gets double-whammied by the game: Most disciplines have few saving throws to contend with to be effective, Steel Serpent has many. Poisons are literally useless against basically all outsiders, undead, etc, making it a stance that works really well on paper, against human targets, but makes it fall horrifically behind against more common targets like 'large monster' and half the bestiary that's immune to it.

So the reason it isn't really complained about is the source it comes from, more than anything. Compared to all the other options, it's just an inferior choice unless you want the 'flavor' of using poisons. Like why use a +4d6 strike that gives a dc 14 save, when you can just use a +4d6 strike?

All right! Back to the rescue plan. I think we need to think on that a tiny bit - and planning by pbp usually takes a bit of time so better start sprouting ideas : )

[thoughts]I'm thinking we sneaky-sneak up to the roof sentries somehow. Then we eliminate them discreetly. If we rest after this planning session and strike after midnight, Miranda could make herself plus one more invisible with her unseen focus power. Not sure if that would be enough ...

Then, with the sentries down, we could simply go brute force and have someone impersonate the warehouse guard. We know they are somewhat self-contained so a convincing "I am an evil inquisitor and you should fear me" might be enough to stall/shoo away the dottari if they come as reinforcement.

As to our getaway plan we really haven't got much time to do anything fancy. Just sneak people out and have our eye in the sky guide us away from patrols? Will need some way to make sure they simply can't track us though ... and a way to get that many people inside our hidden base without anyone noticing. [/thoughts]

Hmm. I really feel that the last part - the getaway - is the hardest and most important one. If we do that one really well, we can afford to screw up earlier. And if we do it poorly it won't matter how good the rest is.

Anyone else have any ideas :)?

I... don't really know. Lily is equipped for stealth missions only in that she's well-hidden and the equipment she needs is easily concealed. I can disguise a couple of us and/or prisoners once we're out. So finding a place to transition from 'people of interest' to 'people of disinterest' like a place with a lot of foot traffic, especially at a doorway (say a bar) allows us to dump the trail rather effectively.

Veil would literally let me transform three people into three commoners for all intents and purposes of tracking and spotting us, and going to a normally-crowded place would make it make sense for the dogs to lose the trail. If we get aldous and his girlfriend that will likely be the best course of action. If Lily doesn't even participate in the 'storming' (which seems like a horrible idea) she could get one more just by having people sent to her at a location we choose.

Speaking of Easily Concealed, is it possible for a worshiper of one religion to use another's holy symbol? Like, if we run into a Milani holy symbol would Milani -or- Shelyn get upset when Lily starts using it, even though she still prefers Shelyn over Milani and is in essence just protecting Shelyn's clergy by dissociating herself from them? :P

If every enemy in the blacksite is dead, we don't need to worry about escape plans. Just sayin'.

But, in the really good chance we can't kill everyone off, I think a pre-planned escape route would be good, with a diversion nearby to draw off pursuers. Maybe some of our halfling friends light a cart rigged with gunpowder a block over at a given signal (the arrival of a certain alchemist's rat, perhaps? Or Rexus, stationed at a good vantage point as we pass?)? The ensuing explosion should be enough to draw off any pursuers. Though we'd want to make sure the explosion was in an area that wouldn't kill any bystanders.

Or something similar? We use [something] to draw people away from us and to it. If we were more unethical a rampaging lizard would do the trick.

As for the infiltration, I think going the rooftop sentry route is the best option we've been able to find. Once Aldous is aware of what is going on he can create a loud and emphatic diversion (maybe via Nissim's rat, or someone that is wearing the hat of disguise to appear to be one of the (dispatched) rooftop sentries - "Boss wants me to let the barrister know something.")

Oh, and I love the icon for Bester, GM. He does look like a really nice fellow.

First off: Bad Aldous, bad! How dare you suggest such a horrible waste of precious powder!?! No cookies for you!

That matter taken care of :p, on to business then. Boros is absolute crap for sneaking, so he's out for that end of the plan, unless he uses the party's cloak of elvenkind for a boost. So he'd do best with either aiding a distraction during the escape bit, or being let in by the sneaks to handle guards during the break-in part; a silence spell on his pistol covers a multitude of deaths...

In fact, using silence in general would be a damn good idea. Can't call for reinforcements if you don't know they're needed to begin with, after all.

For a distraction, Aldous' idea about the powder isn't entirely bad, just the bit about the powder itself (seriously, Boros would have a fit at the waste of such precious resources). Instead, we could do a bit of alchemy to make fireworks instead. Just as distracting, with a bit of combat utility in the bargain, a more efficient use of our assets (though at the expense of time to make), and maybe our GM can be talked into seeing fireworks--and other powder-based explosives--as qualifying for the benefits of Boros' Gunsmithing feat (reduced cost to make, reduced time to make, and checkless crafting).

Mm Silence would be sweet. Pity I don't think anyone of us can have it yet. Maybe we could ask Lily really really nicely and she'll pick it the next level?

---

A random thought just occurred. Surely there must be some sort of information exchange between the warehouse and the rest of the world - say to notify them of this new prisoner they just caught.

If that simply isn't black magic then it feel quite likely that it would involve someone or something walking out of the warehouse and heading somewhere else to report/deliver a message.

Might that give us an angle of attack?

We could say ambush and the messenger if there is one. Much easier to do then strike at the base directly - I guess. Or, if they are using birds, sic Lore on them.

That might give us something to forge entry documents or a meeting or something with. Thoughts?

On that latter part regarding outside communication...wanna make an INT-check or Knowledge(Local) in character?

You may deduce some additional information via thought tangents such as this one. I mean, it seems like a complete lack of outside communication, right? That's kinda strange, I have to agree. Unless...

@Aldous: Glad to hear it :) And sorry for blatant references if anybody caught this one. (I consider that sort of thing an amusing in-joke, if it breaks immersion for someone, do tell.)

Note: I'm going away without internet tomorrow, so there might be a little while until I post again (baring right about now :P). So see ya laters : )

Have fun, Miranda, in the land of no connection!

Work is being mean and expecting me to do things like, work, a lot, at the moment. I hope to get caught up on things tomorrow/Friday.

Things are odd at work, will be starting training soon. I'll try to get a post up tonight in gameplay (sorry for teh lazies).

My schedule will be all sorts of screwed up for the next couple weeks as I have to change shifts to do training for a job they're going to have me do. No idea how it will affect my posting.

Land of no connection was, as expected, a terrible trial :P

Anyhow!

A net isn't actually a super-bad idea since it forces concentration to use spell likes. Though we might want a better plan then throw it and just hope it rolls poorly...

Life and work are in suck mode. No promises, sorry. :(

Hmm. I wonder if we can get a silver-woven net tight enough that the grid acts as a faraway cage for telepathy :P?

(The idea of a net is really growing on me!)

---

Another thought - do accusers have any vices/weaknesses we can exploit? Something they can't resist we can use to lure it in and then end it quickly?

Hmm ...

Maybe we could combine it with the explosive distraction. Blowing up a devil does seem like a decent use of our limited gunpowder supplies :P

Maybe with some (blessed?) silver shrapnel to actually make a decent dent.

Still digging out of work here. I hope to be up and at 'em soon.

Well, if we going with explosives (now or in the future), then I guess I'll call dibs on that niche :D.

With that in mind, a house-/campaign-rule question for Mordred; can Boros get some play from his Gunsmithing feat for the crafting of explosive devices--bombs, fireworks, and other such powder-based equipment--in addition to the existing guns and ammo?

That seems reasonable, yes. The IED's will be crude and somewhat random...(it takes a lot of know-how and tech to make a proper fragmentation grenade(or even any explosive device with an even spread)), but I'm fine with you creating such equipment.

Be aware that the cost will be significant for many such applications due to the amount of raw materials needed, normal "powder" is not a terribly efficient explosive agent(and even if you do research there, we are far, far away from modern explosives).
Also mishaps during crafting could be...dangerous.

@Miranda: Accuser Devils have a vice. They love to learn information, to learn secrets. You could probably lure it, but depending on what kind of info you are willing to provide, that could turn into a gamble IF it gets away...

Just to clarify here, I'm referring to the specific fireworks and explosives found here, not just random containers packed with powder, scrap for shrapnel, and a dangerously-cut fuss; personally, I'd lump that under the category of Craft (trapmaking), which I might take ranks in if the rest of the part thinks it'd be a quality skill to add.

Further, when I refer to Gunsmithing's benefits being applied, I'm talking about checkless crafting, reduced material costs, and less time required to make for the fireworks and explosives.

I know it seems a bit much to try for, but I won't know unless I actually go ahead and ask for it. And the worst you can say is "No," in which case I'm not actually out anything but a possibility.

Regarding the (possible) accuser devil(? Why would a demon be used by devil-worshippers?), maybe we could recruit the little bastard? Aldous would be the best choice to serve as its handler, what with his fence-sitter alignment ;p.