Monster Mashup - Table 2 (Inactive)

Game Master CaveToad

We haven't done anything with the bodies and that would probably take a while especially the Giant and Wyvern.

"I also agree, we have lingered here long enough and I am sure someone will want their jeweled gadget back."

"Oh, yeah, seeing as I'm the one who has been taking the most damage in fights I guess I might as well cast this. It only lasts four hours, but we'll be travelling less than that anyway." Xanya says and casts Ablative Barrier on herself.

If we don't encounter anything more this day Xanya plans to give an infusion of Crafter's Fortune to Quassine so he can make more stuff faster

From Earlier

Quassine smiles, "Thank you Sister Xanya for keeping the darkness on me. And I will cast prestidigitation on you?" Quassine casts prestidigitation on Xanya first, then everyone else. "Everyone fights better and stays healthier when they are clean."

Present

Quassine casts Mage Armor on himself before the party sets out for Cliffort, "Anyone need Mage Armor?"

"A casting of that is always welcome. If you listen to me when combat starts I can help you evade attacks for a short while. The road back should be uneventful, but fortune favors the prepared. Thank you brother Quassine."

Quassine nods, "Anything reasonable for my brothers and sisters." Quassine casts Mage Armor on Goliath after prestidigitation casting is completed. "Also brother, how much of this gear can you carry since you are already carrying quite a bit?

######################### LIST #################################

Centaur: Medium Breastplate, Masterwork Lance, Longbow, 40 arrows

Fire Giant: Large Half Plate, Large Greatsword, Large Composite Strength longbow (+10 bonus) (Goliath's claim), 40 large arrows.

Gnolls: Longbows, Leather Armor, Greatswords, 40 arrows

They all have Bedrolls, Flint n Steel, Waterskins, Mess Kits, Sacks

#######################################################################

"Also, Brothers and Sisters, do you have claim to any of this because I would like one of the remaining longbows and arrows?"

@CT, is that 40 arrows each?

Simon nods with the suggestion, happily taking the prestidigitation.

"It's always nice to be clean. I wish we had the baths we had back in our home. Magic might get us clean, but there's nothing like a good, warm soak. It's good for group bonding to do things together like that too. Speaking of! He places an arm over Xanya's and Quassine's shoulders, subsequently meaning Kiki is nearby. He looks up at Goliath smiling to include him despite not quite being able to reach his shoulders.
"We completed our mission! We should all celebrate together for a while after we set up camp. While we're still out in the country, right?"

When the topic of Mage armor comes up, he casts it on Aster and himself, and anyone else who needs it still.

Simon suggests we keep the bedrolls to add on top of theirs.

Quassine nods while testing out one of the longbows, "We could add their bedrolls as cushioning or if the are better than ours, use them. However, I am going to strongly suggest I cast prestidigitation on them as well? Quassine smiles.

Also CT, are all the bows in good shape or rather, what is the condition of all of the equipment that isn't masterworked?

Simon nods quite vehemently and casts Prestidigitation himself, helping Quassine to clean them off.

"I would definitely not use these as they are. Even now I'd prefer them underneath ours, but yew it's worth the extra cushioning. Makes everything easier..."

He swishes his tail back and forth happily as they work.

I have 500lbs of carrying ability. I have listed carrying stuff for the party but don't know how much any of it weighs. My gear is 102lbs. If someone wants to figure up the tent and all the gear I will carry what we can. I have to add the bow and large arrows to my gear so that will be a bit more weight to mine.

"If needed I could carry some of the stuff. It would mean burdening poor Cryxial and slowing him down, but maybe I could just drop an extra bag if we end up in combat. As for claiming the gear, it's all kinda too big for me."

"Simon, I really like the partying idea. Goliath, would you finally join us? I'm sure Cryxial wouldn't mind standing guard meanwhile."

I still think I should be able to chuck oversized swords without attack penalty and at normal melee damage due to throw anything, but CT is the boss there (the rules are sadly scattered all over the place, so kinda hard to link, some is under the feat itself, some is mentioned in the trick from combat stamina(that's what have me the idea) and some is under "weapons"). It makes no sense that Xanya can throw boulders and houses, but not swords. Though the -2 penalty per size increment is probably fair making a large one -4 total. @Kiki: You probably want to remove your armor and get mage armor instead as your armor doesn't have high enough dex bonus to get maximum benefit from your rage. Xanya will cast mage armor on Kiki if she asks for it, though I guess Quassine asked first.

Simon nods as Samba hops out of his frame on Simon's wing, taking up a place on top of his head.

Not to mention Aster and Samba too. Samba's a better watchdog than some of us are. We'd love to have everyone involved, one big pack family.

He smiles as he scratches the parrot under the chin.

Goliath indulges with the rest of the group. He needs to help Xanya with here ability to handle oversized objects ;) ;) You know him being a large ogre and all and her being small.

"Oh, Goliath, you are so big!" Xanya exclaims. Her voice drops to a whisper. "You know they say size doesn't matter, but you being this big sure is nice."

Of course as a large ogre he also does deal more damage in combat and got longer reach, this could be referring to that.

Simon is more than willing to participate in that training. One size category can make all the difference in a 'grapple.'

@CT, is that 40 arrows each?

yes 40 arrows each.

All gear that is normal is in ok condition, nothing fancy, probably worn and not that well cared for. Gnolls aren't particularly fastidious, and its lucky you do some cleaning of their bedrolls, probably fleas and lice.

The group takes some time to travel into the evening, and manages to find a suitable spot later on to settle in for the night. Everyone is in good spirits, and after firewood collected, a meal in the cook pot, and the campfire blazing, the group relaxes and enjoys the night for a bit in celebration while some of the minions keep watch. Into the wee hours the group celebrates until they get drowsy and the fire is a nice bed of glowing embers, and everyone turns in to their beds, extra cushy from the additional bedrolls.

Day 10 - Morning

Morning creeps in and the group perhaps sleeps in a little, but gets at it soon enough as the sun creeps into the sky. There is work and travel to be done. Collecting and distributing the spoils of their battle, the group starts their trek back, covering much of the same ground as their way here.

Reselect spells/abilities etc as needed. New day.

Before they fall asleep for the night Xanya somehow manages to ask Quassine through her haze of emotions and exhaustion if he wants an extract of Crafter's Fortune to keep going with his crafting projects through the night, if so she'll manage to make it before falling asleep, yet again promising to take the last watch.

In the morning Xanya is extremely happy. Her entire body still aches from the activities of the day prior. The battle had been intense and she had come fairly close to passing out and their celebrations had been rough for her little body as well, though she managed to accommodate what she set out to in the end. Still, the aches just reminds her of how much she actually felt yesterday, and still feels. "Ah, it's great to be alive!" She exclaims with a wide smile. "We accomplished our initial goal. But we shouldn't let down our guard. Who knows what the hellhounds might cause to come after us to retrieve the scepter. We should stay on our guard on the way back."

After preparing a couple extracts for the day (Shield and Bull's Strengthx2 already prepeared, add another 2xshield as well as CLW) she walks over to Goliath and Kiki and touches them affectionately, letting her magic wash over them. "Here, let me protect you with mage armor. It'll only last half the day, but I'll be able to recast it once we reach midday and still have a trick or two up my sleeve. Also, you can have these extracts of shield if we do end up in danger they could prove useful." She also casts Ablative Barrier on herself.

Once the spells expire after 4 hours Xanya will recast Ablative Barrier on herself and Mage Armor on Kiki and Goliath, letting Simon and Quassine tend to themselves. If nothing happens by midday this will leave her with 1 casting left of level 1 and 2. I assume Kiki ditches her armor in favor of Mage Armor. She'll have 1 open 1st level extract in addition to the ones already prepared. Hopefully her skilled riding will be enough to protect Cryxial. @Goliath: Do you want an extract of Bull's Strength as well or do you have your own?

I have it prepared once.

once Xanya casts mage armor Kiki removes her leather armor "ahh, thank you, I can get aut of this thing, even with that cleaning magic, it still smells of monkey."

Quassine parties hard and welcomes any night time activities that may or will occur. For anything sensual, he keeps the girls between him and the guys. Quassine was originally from a culture that found it unacceptable for any type of contact with a man during a sensual setting and Mind Flayers don't have no so such thing for they find sensual activity inefficient. Quassine gets his (2) hours of rest and before Xanya falls asleep, "Yes please Sister, I will accept Crafter's Fortune."

After getting up, Quassine works on the acid bombs.

Craft Alchemy: 1d20 + 14 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 14 + 5 = 33

He completes one and starts on the next flask when he notices that the portable lab is almost out of ingredients. If there is any time remaining, he cleans up the longbow he took from the equipment pile after the last battle. He wakes individuals who wanted to wake up early and the rest all at once. Then he does his morning preparations along with giving everything and everyone a magical bath.

"I agree sister, it is great to be alive! And I am glad we are returning to report our findings. The portable lab is almost out of ingredients. And I also agree, we shouldn't let our guard down nor I think we should not enter Cliffort until the Marshall and his team look over the scepter to make sure there is no automated spells on the scepter."

Before setting off back to Cliffort on Day 10, Quassine will cast Mage Armor on himself. Everything pretty much remains the same.

Day 10 - All day

After morning preparations and packing up the camp and significant pile of captured armaments, the group sets their sights once again on the distant horizon. The travel the entire day is without event or any real excitement. The group is wary of attack, given that a hell hound escaped. You make solid progress all day retracing your route. As night comes you realize you are not that far from the hillside ruins that you delved into a few days ago. The next day will take you very near them again.

Food updated. Regional map updated.

Discuss plans, Quassine can continue to craft if there are raw materials left etc.

Goliath helps set up camp as usual. Has some food and water then takes his first watch as normal. He has normal conversation and engages in other activities before sleeping again.

The trip back shouldn't take as long. Quassine and I were the slowest but we both got faster going to 40ft movement. On the chart that means we cover 8 miles more a day. So if it took us 4 days to get here it will only take 3 to get back. We also have the plan to return so until we have a new task we can move things forward beside for tracking food, crafting and random encounters.

Food still includes Simon. He hasn't been eating for the past couple days or so. I believe we've mentioned it before.

He's actually been snacking on the food without you knowing about it. ;) kidding, fixing it now.

I will adjust travel times too since you are faster now. You probably made it to the dungeon by end of day 10 actually.

We will camp there after a quick scout to make sure no new inhabitants have moved in.

You scope out the dungeon once again, quickly. Kiki skitters quickly inside, and the group checks and finds no obvious signs of tracks or creatures in the initial area. Kiki does a very quick sweep, stealthily covering the underground ruins in short order. Nothing appears to have changed in the short time since your departure. You know that places like this won't stay uninhabited for long.

You camp for the night, which is uneventful in terms of danger or harsh weather.

Day 11 and Day 12

The following days you spend travelling swiftly. The group makes good time again, the days and days of hiking, strengthening you. On Day 12 you are close to Cliffort again, and while the terrain is hillier and more wooded, you have paths and trails to rely on as before and the travel is not as bad. Late in the evening, you see the lights of the lakeside fortress...

You had a plan to not necessarily enter due to precautions with the scepter. You recall there are marshals or a watch of some sort that kept a small unit at the ferrying area. Hopefully they may still be there.

After an uneventful watch and other nightly activities Kiki turns to Simon " You got a whetstone with the stuff you got from the dwarfs, cause I noticed that my blades are not as sharp as they could be, and I need every bit of sharpness with how small they are"

"We made it. I do not speak the new common so well yet. Perhaps one of you should let them know we have returned and have a weapon of power from the enemy. The marshal should come and perhaps bring a sage of sorts so we don't endanger the city by entering with it. Let us set up camp here as we may be here a day or so."

Goliath begins to set up as some or one of the others that speak better head off to the lakeside fort.

@CT, is that Dungeon or Underground Ruin marked on our map. Is it the red dot along our path on the map?

Quassine smiles and nods to Goliath, "Yes Brother, that was my intent. To notify the Marshals and have them or their sages review the scepter before entering."

Then Quassine approaches the Marshals or Guards at the Ferry with his hands up and before entering within sight and/or the light, he begins speaking in New Common slowly with an accent, "Well met Guards and Marshals of Cliffort, Patrol 2 is back with news of what I appraised to be a ritual based Siege Weapon from an Enemy Patrol we wiped out. We need you or your sages to confirm and determine if it is safe to enter Cliffort for further study and discussion. To me, it appears to be safe but need second opinion. If need be, please contact Marshal Hawke."

Quassine does not do anything with the Scepter and it is still with Goliath for safety reasons. In addition, he makes sure the Marshals and Guards of Cliffort or still manning the Ferries and/or docks.

I assume further study of the scepter while we travel will reveal nothing new?
While they travel Xanya responds to Kiki with interest. "Sharpening the blades is always a good thing, but I've found that if I do it, it'll only apply for a short while. Have you found a way to make it different Kiki? Maybe you could show me or do it to my lance as well? Finding new ways to better fight off our enemies is always a good thing. I think I've figured out to put even more effort behind my charge than what my rage provides so I'll have an even greater chance to defeat our enemies before they can harm some of you." Xanya barks out a laugh. "Haha, though so far I guess I've been the one who has suffered the most damage eh? Well, so I can survive the most damage then."

Xanya walks up together with Quassine to the guards, shrouded in darkness she is still smiling with glowing eyes, giving her an eerie appearance. "We were successful! And we found more than what we expected in this artifact. Please make haste in summoning whatever marshal is on duty and preferably some sage or other knowledgeable person about magical weapons as well. We don't want to waste time waiting while our enemies creep closer. The sooner we figure out what to do next, the sooner we can get to it." Xanya says eagerly even if her language is not as clear as she could wish in the new language..

diplomacy with guidance: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (9) + 16 = 25

As they draw close Xanya drops the extracts of shield, instead leaving more slots open and preparing one of comprehend languages.

@Quassine: Yes that red dot is the hillside ruins.

The group approaches the area that had been used for loading of passengers. Now only a token unit of dwarven guards sits there with a marshal on duty. They appear alert and see you coming from a distance. You suspect by now the Cliffort residents, at least the marshals and guards are slightly used to some of the groups by now. Natural distrust runs high perhaps, but so far the powers that be have shown willingness to make it work. As Quassine and Xanya approach in their shady globe, the marshal, a slim woman in her twenties steps forward. Her hair is silvery and she has almond eyes, and her skin is pale, almost white. She certainly has elven blood and likely some upper planes heritage as well. She has a fairly noble bearing about her. She wears the typical cloak of the marshals as well as a smaller cloak of white feathers.

"Hail travelers."

She steps close, and listens to Quassine and Xanya speak (perhaps not so eloquently as typed) in New Common, their grasp of it coming, having practiced whenever able, but still having difficulty with uncommon words, and complex sentence structures, tense, and so forth. None the less, they make themselves basically understood.

"Allow me to congratulate you on your mission. I will inform Head Marshal Hawke. May I see the item?" As she waits for your response, she pulls out a small horn and blows a series of notes on it. Before long you see a raven flying in from the direction of the twin guard towers. The raven lands on her shoulder and she begins writing a note on a small piece of paper.

The unit of dwarves is fanned out behind her at about twenty feet away. You would also be shocked if they didn't have their hands on the hilts of their weapons and readied crossbows easily in reach. At least they don't have them pointed at you. Progress is progress.

Xanya smiles at the woman. "Thank you fair marshal." She then turns to Goliath. "She congratulates us and wants to see the item. I see no reason to hide it from her, even if artifacts are not her area of expertise, we are going to do better this war if we can win the trust of our allies." Xanya then turns back to the woman while waiting for Goliath's response to the woman's request. "I am Xanya and this is Quassine, Goliath, Simon, Kiki, Cryxial and Aster. Who do I have the pleasure speaking with? I'm sure we can only benefit from getting to know more about each other and the things we are doing. What has been going on in our absence? What do we know of the the other groups? Is magical items perhaps within your area of expertise?" Of course trying to formulate such complicated sentences and word structures might not work all that well for Xanya, but by experimenting with the language she is able to make more progress in learning it than she would otherwise.

Goliath strides forward and presents the staff.

"Here it is. We don't believe it safe to be in the city."

Xanya responds to Goliath's comment, though she seems to be arguing back and forth with herself, partially agreeing with him, but also coming with arguments from the opposite direction. "We don't know if it will be safe in the city. But most likely it'll need a ritual to do anything at all. They can't have expected to sneak it into the city I don't think. I think it's much more likely they planned to use it to breach the fortress somehow. Then again it could be wholly activated from a distance. This is why we need some expert to help us figure out how it works. The sooner we figure out what it does and what activates it, the sooner we can be sure that we are safe, that you are safe and figure out how make sure we all do stay safe."

Quassine bows and eloquently replies back in the best New Common he can, "I not hide it from her. Make sure it are safe before take it out. And well met, Marshal. Yes, I think it needs ritual but must make sure to not hurt Cliffort and people. Me ... I agree, some sort of break fortress wall or defense magic item ... scepter ... with sitting ... stand. It made good and worth a lot of coin with no magic. Enemy has lots of coin or gem to make this. The group who own this, was strong but weak than us. It be ... was ... a Fire Giant, Horseman, Poison Lizard that flew, and Hyena mans ... men."

She listens patiently as Xanya and Quassine explain the situation. When Goliath steps forward, opening the protective box, revealing the scepter, she nods and examines it without touching it.

Responding to conversation and Xanya's politeness. "I am Marshal Hessalatonica." She writes a few more things on the tiny scrap of paper, and secures it in a tiny tube and attaches it to the raven. She releases it with a whistle, and it flies off towards the tower.

"I have studied some arcane lore and spellcraft, but this will be beyond my ken and authority. Head Marshal Hawke will make the determination, perhaps even with counsel from the Thain and his advisors, and certainly from Loremaster Cronin. "

"Your people have been doing well here despite prejudices by many. I have heard there are plans by an enterprising individual to open a pub catering to your people. Imagine that with impending war. Some are always out to make some coin I guess."

"The one known as Tolhemia Brass has been helping to organize within the walls, working with the Guard and the Marshals to prepare the town for defense. She and the others from your group have been helpful here."

She tosses her hair back, and tilts her ear and an eye to the sky, ever watchful and scans the horizon. "They say it won't be many days now before the giants will be upon us if your groups are not successful. This is good news that you have eliminated one group. Let us hope the others are as successful."

In response to Quassine, she replies, "Yes, we had heard of many such creatures in their forces. I have no flown a patrol myself lately, but others are flying farther away, looking to see if there are any other movements. If they are using powerful magic to assault us, we will need to be ready."

Xanya waits impatiently while the marshal talks, she shifts in the saddle restlessly. She does want to listen to what she says, but she's also very eager to move on. "It's good to hear that things are moving forward and Tolheima is managing to help out. She always was one for organizing. Have you heard word from any of the other groups? What happens next? Will Hawke and Loremaster Cronin come here and we'll just wait or is something else happening?" Xanya asks curiously.

Quassine again humbly bows to Marshal Hessalatonica, "Well meet ... met Marshal Hessalatonica. My sister always in a hurry, she does not disrespect. She even hurries us." Quassine laughs but covers his mouth to make sure the good Marshal does not receive an unwanted shower of Mind Flayer spit. "At same time, we are in hurry to find our father."

The marshal replies. "I understand your haste, however we must wait until we receive signal or word of what to do next. As you say if this is a dangerous magical weapon, now is not the time to make poor choices without thought. Head Marshal Hawke, as you can imagine is very busy. I wouldn't doubt but that he would consider this development quite important, but if he is in audience with Thain, he would take some time perhaps to complete that task."

"We are aware of another group that have left recently. A group with the goblin, and medusa and minotaur, and the frog man and the green girl left only yesterday morning. We try to keep tabs on who comes and goes, but once they are in the field, we have no contact, and our riders have not seen any of the other groups. Also yesterday a group with the catfolk, hobgoblin, dwarf, illithid and gargoyle returned. I am sorry I don't keep track of all the names. "

There is only so much small talk before we grow tired of it... I know several people haven't posted in a while though... I wouldn't mind if we fast forwarded a bit until something happens.

"Fair enough, but maybe you can tell us stuff while we wait? You seem fairly knowledgeable, any tidbit of knowledge could be useful in the tough times ahead even if it doesn't seem immediately obvious. We don't know much about the history, geography or even the local happenings of the land for example and learning more about the creatures we fight is always useful."

I did put a bunch of skill ranks in various knowledges

While they travel Xanya responds to Kiki with interest. "Sharpening the blades is always a good thing, but I've found that if I do it, it'll only apply for a short while. Have you found a way to make it different Kiki? Maybe you could show me or do it to my lance as well?"

"If I remember it right, there is a trick to it, I think one of the other spiderlings has shown it to me some time ago. It's something quite usefull, oure weapons are small as is and even for poison to work it needs to penetrate the skin and some of the things deep in the forest have skin tougher than armor. The trick had something to do with sharpening in the right patter, I think. but I think I could sharpen your Lance, its an art not a science"

at the gate

After Kiki waited and listend for some time she also asks a qustion "Marshal, could you please tell, where find weapon maker, for my size, bow and smith?"

I think they already said they didn't have wakazakis though.

I was thinking about having one made, if its not finisched bevore we leave/fight again, then probably on our next stop in town

We all can make them if we have the resources. Although Masterwork will require dice roll until we can take enough ranks to take 10.

Simon pays Xanya on the shoulder fondly before transitioning into running his fingers through her hair.

"Patience, Hon. We'll get answers when they get here. In the meantime, maybe we should ask about the temple we found?"

He glances around his companions. If they think it's a good idea to ask about the temple, he conveys what they know about it, in hopes she may know something offhand about any of it.

Forgot to put new common on my languages, because I took another rank of linguistics this level. Fixed it.

Kiki has masterwork transformation

Quassine smiles at Simon, "Like you said to our sister, Patience brother. The siege weapon is currently of most importance and I am sure Head Marshal Hawke and/or The Thain will want a full report of what we have encountered on our patrol. This is when we will or you can tell them about the temple."

Goliath closed the scepter back up and stows it. He takes off the packs and sacks of gear and coin and makes a pile and sits the scepter and his blade against it before flopping down on the ground and leaning up against it looking toward the sky himself.

"Only a few days you say? Best take the time to appreciate the small things then while we wait."

He stretches and lets out a loud groan of relief.

"This unit we encountered and took this item from would have only been a day or so behind us if they were left unchecked. If they were to be the first wave of the siege then I would expect their armies in about three days time maybe four or five at the most. Rest up brothers and sisters."

There is only so much small talk before we grow tired of it... I know several people haven't posted in a while though... I wouldn't mind if we fast forwarded a bit until something happens.

That depends if you make use of it to develop your character, learn information and network with the NPCs :). If you want to charge forward to whatever end it is you think is ahead, by all means. However, you may miss key information and a chance to ask questions and discover side stories and alternate rewards etc. I am sometimes stingy with information unless PCs dig a bit, and don't always like forcing people down one path, to allow the chance to grow parts of their character that they can't on the battlefield. Hopefully revealing this can help you understand some of the pauses that come.

I'm a big fan of sandbox environment in tabletop. I offer a word of caution or advice on it for PBP. Most gamer's think they want Sandbox, but they don't. Most want a semi railroad type story much like Lord of the Rings. While PBP is a good arena for such a game, many players struggle with not having goals or achievable placed in front of them. The hard thing in PBP is you don't really know your players that well and what they want from the game. PBP is much better suited to a railroad game where both the GM and players are responsible for keeping things moving as breaks cause for people to loose interest and this overall is what kills games. This is just my opinion. I have been gaming over 25 years and been playing online PBP and such for 10 years. I'm not going anywhere just throwing this out there for food for thought. I spoke in a thinking out loud manner, but Goliath knows the dwarves are cautions of them. If the marshal wants to reply she will if not Goliath is fine waiting.