Ack! Forgot Poshment.Just a quick check in to make sure that folks are okay with the following defaults assumptions sans Numalar.
MARCHING ORDER
Durgan, Serena, Angus, Alia, Scarlet, Erevenywg, Illthir, Zokon (who occasionally ranges ahead being a ranger and all)WATCHES
1st - Durgan + Zokon2nd - Serena + Scarlet + Angus
3rd - Alia + Illthir
Nobody forgets Poshment Underhill! For better or for worse.
I figured he was dressed up as Angus?
So what's the plan? Have Durgan the boatsmith(?) hammer out a raft? Walk around a bit? In, and out-of-character discussion welcome.
Well, the skill is Craft (Ships), and although Breadth of Experience doesn't help there, anybody can do Craft skills untrained. Durgan's Traveler's Any-Tool should help. Alia has the highest Int, I think.
Once the raft is built Durgan can use Profession (Sailor) to steer it.
Happy to give that a try.
Tada! I have crafted a vessel with my smithery skills!
I'm slightly worried that building a river-worthy vessel capable of both getting across the river and carrying our mounts might take a bit more time then we have.
Really don't have much of an alternative though. That'd probably be to travel along the river until we find a place to cross.
2 natural 20's.
Thats like a natural 400, because they multiply with each other.
That, and I can make the Bow of the ship faster with Craft(Bow), right? :P
I mean, I am a master craftsgirl, if we weaponize the ship everything will be done much quicker!
(That said, yeah, spending several days to find a way to cross does not seem like such a hot idea, either, if we can take the direct way.
Heck, I could use my Estoc to cast Monkeyfish, swim across with a rope, and we can use a rope-pull-system and a simple raft to move back and forth across the river.
But Natural 20's in sequence tell me I need to build an Arc! Kind of. Not some 0815 obvious solution to our problems at hand.
Hmhm maybe a slightly down-scaled boat could be an excellent idea?
With rope and so on we only really need to move 1 horse across at each time and a raft big/stable enough for that can't be too hard to lash together can it?
I mean I'm starting to agree with Alia and Drugan. Those 20s must be a good omen or something! The dice wills it!
The Boat.
I'm busy most of today. Will try to post later tonight. Figure out what sort of boat or 8-lane suspension bridge you would like to build.
I like the boat you posted. 3 consecutive 20s gets us that.
Durgan will be flipping burgers and singing "I'm on a Boat."
Or if not, and we want to pretend verisimilitude is a thing, then the Team Boat that Alia posted in Gameplay.
I second the Yacht.
That said, the Team Boat does not need a roof or anything to start with. Basically it's a better Raft with horse-powered propulsion that can be steered.
While making the system work is tricky, I think 3 natural 20's should work in our favor there. Functionality is more important than looks or convenience.
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale
a tale of a fateful trip,
that started from this tropic port,
aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailin' man,
the Skipper brave and sure,
five passengers set sail that day,
for a three hour tour,
a three hour tour.
The weather started getting rough,
the tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
the Minnow would be lost.
The Minnow would be lost.
Functionality is more important than looks or convenience.
That and cup-holders--lots of cup-holders.
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale
a tale of a fateful trip,
that started from this tropic port,
aboard this tiny ship.The mate was a mighty sailin' man,
the Skipper brave and sure,
five passengers set sail that day,
for a three hour tour,
a three hour tour.The weather started getting rough,
the tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
the Minnow would be lost.
The Minnow would be lost.
So we changed from Kingmaker to Serpent's Skull?
Yep Little Buddy!
So to be clear, in order to build a raft large enough for eight people, and seven horses you are looking at a pretty huge watercraft, probably with rails to secure the horses to. The party can find enough flax in the reeds around the water to weave the hundreds of yards of rope needed to tie all the denuded trees together into a vessel as well as the trees needed to be used as rollers (as you will need some way to move such a large vessel into the water). This of course will take some time.
The only issue is that all this for a voyage across a river seems a bit of a waste (especially when you look ahead on the map and see you might have to do it again once or twice).
I second the Yacht.
That said, the Team Boat does not need a roof or anything to start with. Basically it's a better Raft with horse-powered propulsion that can be steered.
While making the system work is tricky, I think 3 natural 20's should work in our favor there. Functionality is more important than looks or convenience.
Ah, the earthbound version of a Spelljammer gnomish space vessel with horses for giant hamsters.
We don't have to make something quite so big. A raft that can accommodate one horse and two PCs could make multiple trips.
The plan was to make something large enough to utilize the waterways, but GM seems opposed to that so we'll need to settle for "can we please cross, somehow?".
In which case we can simply scratch all those natural 20's, call it a day, and ask Durgan to prepare Flotsam Vessel the next morning that lets us easily make a couple trips and move everything over.
In that case, I want those 20's to go on record until such time as we have more elaborate crafting equipment available again. E.g. with my stuff left at Olegs, I could easily have made some pitons/nails/tacks to secure wood to each other without needing rope.
Do you mean Hanspur's Flotsam Vessel? I am not so sure about that.
I mean this. People of the River attributes it to a Hanspur, but I am not a fan of magic pop culture.
But yeah, one casting would easily get us across, including horses.
The plan was to make something large enough to utilize the waterways, but GM seems opposed to that so we'll need to settle for "can we please cross, somehow?".
Not at all I just wasn't sure what you wanted to do. I was afraid you were planning on spending a month or two constructing the Titanic 2 only to travel 100ish feet and then scuttle the craft on the other side of the river. Something large enough for everyone is going to take some time to build there's only one tool after all. If we are going for something that can navigate the coast of a lake it's going to be a couple of days of construction with everyone's help.
I apologize for my snarkiness.
Significant real-life events unbalanced me slightly in the past few days.
Indeed the idea was to be able to navigate the coastline, or the rivers as far as they allow. If we would have taken 2-3 days to find a suitable crossing, then backtrack on the other side, I figured we could spend a few days on such a project and not worry about the next rivers we come across by simply disembarking right at the slice of land containing our destination.
I am well aware that that's a grand project, but figured we are well beyond 'average' individuals(not hard with a 30 point buy) and got a couple great rolls there, so maybe?
It's understandable if it's out of scope for now, but a bit disillusioning that a single level 2 spell essentially bypasses our need - that is why I requested that we may 'bank' those rolls, and eventually craft a proper lake-faring vessel with them when necessary raw materials are more readily available - because the vision remains: the Tuskwater is a central lake there, and some of the rivers could well function as replacement roads for the time being, so having mobility on the water would greatly improve our overall flexibility.
Durgan wouldn't mind spending a couple of days for something that can navigate the coast of a lake.
Would a bridge be faster?
In any event, I am a fan of adhering to Golarion lore where possible, so Durgan would be very reluctant to use a Hanspur spell.
Maybe Durgan can take Craft Wondrous Item next level so we can have a Folding Boat.
@Durgan: Well, then cast "Abadar's magnificent Raft" instead - the spell is named for Hanspur, in the riverlands, but I would expect Besmara grants her Shackles Pirates something similar, despite most of them having no idea where the Sellen River flows.
As in, just use a reflavor. Numalar used Windy Escape all the time, which is actually locked to Sylph, by reflavoring it into some draconic variant. Flotsam Vessel is not evil, not locked to worship, and offers too much utility to not be picked up on by other gods worshippers :)
I don't know. What if it is just five or six huge CR 10 advanced tyrannosaurs standing really close together?
Then Zokon, the Ranger*, uses his Wild Empathy and we get six awesome new mounts.
*Not a Ranger.
Yeah.. but if you mess it up they eat you... unlike this Zokon taming animals .. hopefully more likely to be like this though Shooting rather than punching
I like Alia's idea of pulling the big monster to the bad guys fort.. kinda like wow kingmaker
I don't know... how far is it? Outside of a Charm Monster spell, I don't see a way to do it. Presenting ourselves as prey and having it chase us doesn't sound viable for more than half an hour or so.
The group is a couple of miles south, but in sight of the fort which sits atop the area's most prominent hill at the edge of the lake.
I've updated the Regional Map as well with your current location.
Hmmm, well it could work then.
Aye, we've been in sight of the fort already, and as a player, I know Hydras are not particularily fast usually, more ambush predator than frontline berserker. But we need someone to figure that out in-game, too. And hope for once a plan works out without backfiring on us :)
I know the thing won't do our job for us, but if it manages to scatter some of the recruits and/or throw the camp in disarray, that would be to our advantage...I also doubt it would actually assail the fort itself, but there's been many campfires surrounding it, groups spread out near the actual fort...it can basically stay in the water and forests and snack on those until people start panicking and force a reaction from their leadership. Heck, if we are lucky, Staggie and his LT's ride out to meet it in party-vs-monster combat, and we can help out our multi-headed friend. by making it party-vs-party-vs-monster with staggie being in the middle of the sandwich...
Except that our "friend" is less an ally and more of a semi-controlled juggernaut that could decide that we look tasty as well. Not saying that it is a bad idea, per se, but something to consider in our planning.
Well as long as it eats the stag lord and his goons first :P
(Though I think that he and his cronies might be able to deal with it; they have some clever magic at the very least. Hopefully this won't backfire into a zombie hydra ... :P)
Now how to get it there? A daisy chain of appetizing illusions could work, but I'm not knowledgeable enough on hydrology to know if they avoid civilization or not^^
Do we want to try it?
"We may be able to lure it out and get it to help us.. but we need to think about how fast it can move, how does a person get it's attention and then get away, how do we lead it to the bad guys and then make it goto attack them?" he says off the top of his head
Bandits! Texas-style, smothered in onions and gravy. Mmm, mmm.
Gnomes of course taste best, but you eat one gnome and you're always hungry an hour later.
Oh, I know it's not our "ally" but in the current setup, all collateral damage works in our favor as long as we remain save.
I guess we see what we know in-game and if we can work with that, but yeah, I'd totally try it. It's close enough to be worth an attempt, at least.
Right, so the party gets Posh hammered and drags him in front of the hydra for about two and a half miles, and then....
I guess the next question is who is good at handling animals/magical beasts?
How's the plan coming?
I'm the fastest on foot runner. Do you (the party) want me to serve as bait?
Hmm hmm hmm. The plan feels a bit half-baked, but it's a plan. And that's something!
Is it 12% of a plan? I mean, that's better than 11% of a plan.
There isn't much Durgan can contribute here. Cleric spell list can't even do "illusion of sexy hydra". And no Charm Monster. But if Scarlet wants to be bait, Durgan will be ready to ride to aid her if needed.
Wild Empathy can work on magical beasts with Int of 1 or 2 with a -4 penalty... but again Zokon is not really a ranger.
..... :-/
Yes my wild empathy will be riding away if it gets to close and maybe shooting it
I kid! I kid! I am just as useless at doing anything to tame this beast.
Should we get a plan in place if we have to fight it?
I don't know how our spells would work on it. Would Posh's Blindness blind all of the heads? Can Alia's Frigid Touch stagger it (or more precisely, does it still get all of its attacks with one standard action if staggered)?
Durgan can go into Tank Mode and hit it with an axe, or hang back and use his crossbow.
As a reminder, Scarlet has 40 ft move. Don't be slower than her.
Your horses are likely to turn and run too given that none of them are combat trained. Running toward the lion, pack of T-rexs, or hydra is not really in their nature.
I must admit I've been a bit slow on the whole execution of the plan; I just hoped more people would weight in (and miraculously conjure a more solid plan :P).
But since we're doing it - go us!