One they are safely outside the kobald mine and riding he takes a look in the sack and pulls out the personal journal "Wonder if this might have anything interesting to say?" he mutters out loud and opens the journal attempting to read it.
I must admit that Cael's loot logic evades me. SImply figure sell price for everything, add in the coin, then divide by 4. Yes, four, because that's what the campaign is designed for as far as loot. Then if anyone wants an item they can just pay the sell price for it out of their share.
was just dividing up the gold found in actual peicies of gold plat and silver instead of just a gold value..... yes on the rest of it once we get to the trade post. hmm only diveide by 4? your pc type char doesn't get anything?
Technically, only Adriana would get any benefit from the bracers. All the rest of us are wearing armor which gives a higher armor bonus than the bracers. They don't stack with existing armor.
"So, now that they're taken care of, should we head back to Oleg's and maybe get a real night's rest and some actual meals?"
hmm only diveide by 4? your pc type char doesn't get anything?
You misunderstand. Divide by four and everyone, including Adriana, gets that much. Since the treasure is set for four characters this brings it to five characters without me having to actually increase the loot numbers.
The bracers stack with Armor Acalon. I think they are a deflection bonus. Which means they wouldn't stack with other items or abilities that grant deflection bonuses. Standard armor is not deflection based.
Acalon is correct. Bracers of Armor are an Armor bonus which doesn't stack with regular armor. They're meant for people who can't wear armor like monks and arcane casters. Other folks gotta be content with putting bonuses on their armor, amulets of natural armor, and rings of protection. Any way we can move this discussion to the OOC thread and get back to the RP? :)
"Oleg's sounds great! Will be nice to have a meal with no rabbit and that is not cooked over a campfire." lets his horse follow behind the others as he reads the journal.
O gm, anything interesting in this thing?"
hmm only diveide by 4? your pc type char doesn't get anything?
You misunderstand. Divide by four and everyone, including Adriana, gets that much. Since the treasure is set for four characters this brings it to five characters without me having to actually increase the loot numbers.
Ahh... well that changes things a bit. I'll get new loot data into my spreadsheet tonight. Sorry it's taken so long to get around to it.
There is indeed some interesting stuff in there. I'll get that to you as well as XP numbers tonight.
The ride back to Oleg's doesn't take nearly as long as the trip out did, and there are far fewer distractions. Within a few days, the fort is once again within view.
Ok, looks like you get an additional 200 xp a piece and I've posted a new map of the area as I believe you've uncovered it so far. Not much to look at. Hopefully every hex isn't as hard as the mite cave, eh?
Cael takes a look at the journal but it's hard to get much out of it as he doesn't recognize the language.
Taking 20 would make it take 20 minutes/page. But would succeed. If you want to do that, I can assume you spend the trip back doing just that.
Taking over the journal after Cael has no luck with it, Cain spends the rest of the trip back pouring over its contents. He can tell after a short study of it that it is written in Undercommon, which is odd for a kobold. This begins to make more sense as he reads through the pages.
In summary, this is what Cain gleens, communicated to the rest of the party at intervals while traveling.
Tartuk's Journal:
In fact, Chief Sootscale is not the actual leader of these kobolds. Their true leader is a frighteningly intelligent and manipulative kobold sorcerer named Tartuk who came to the tribe a year ago from the east. Tartuk is a destructive force—a murderer and a maniac who finds a perverse glee in manipulating his kin into self-destructive spirals of fear and madness. He’s ruined two kobold tribes already, and hopes to add the Sootscales to his list soon. Tartuk’s appearance is as unusual as his loathing of kobold kind—his scales are a deep purple, unlike any other kobold. In fact, Tartuk was not born a kobold—he was born a gnome. He was killed in a fight against a group of ogres who were tormenting his village, but his accidentally heroic sacrifice was enough to give his village a chance to defeat the ogres. The village, sorrowed by Tartuk’s death, unanimously voted to restore him to life—so they decided to use a scroll of reincarnate that had sat in the village treasury for years. In an ironic twist of fate, poor Tartuk came back as a kobold. Scandalized, the village didn’t know how to react. Tartuk did—he hadn’t meant to give his life to save the village (he’d actually been trying to surrender to the ogres and offer to help them destroy the village in return for sparing his life, but the ogres crushed him before he got his offer out), and now they’d turned him into one of the most hated of monsters—a kobold! The fact that his new scales were the same deep purple as his hair in his previous life served only to ensure Tartuk’s shame. Enraged, he fled into the woods, only to nurse a deep grudge. He found a tribe of kobolds, joined them, used his magic and manipulative lies to rally them, and led his new army in an attack against his old village. The resulting battle was furious, and only Tartuk survived. That was fine with him. Since then, the mad kobold has drifted through several River Kingdoms, periodically haunting towns and
murdering gnomes he finds and at others insinuating himself into kobold tribes, taking them over from within, and then driving them to extinction by forcing them into wars they can’t possibly win. The Sootscales are but Tartuk’s latest project. He uses a combination of lies, magic, and his favorite tool—a non-magical statue of a devil—to seize control of a tribe. He’s become quite skilled at convincing tribes that the statue is magic and that it will curse the entire tribe if the chieftain doesn’t follow its commands— commands, of course, that only Tartuk can hear.
Tucked into the back of the journal is a single scroll of fly; his journal indicates that when he grows tired of his life, he intends to use the scroll to fly up as high as he can, effectively committing suicide when the spell expires in 5 minutes and leaves him at a height of nearly 2,000 feet, well out of the safety range for the spell’s expiration.
"A purple scaled gnomebold. That's a first. I think we should mount his head on a plaque and hand it in Oleg's tavern." Cain chuckles with mirth at the thought.
Shakes his head when Cain finishes the story. "Well at least his end was good for us, even if once again that was unintentional. Well as Acalon suggested a good meal is waiting for us I believe that is the trading post just coming into view." He urges his horse into slightly faster pace as they approach the post looking it over for any signs that something might be unusual.
perception
1d20 + 12 ⇒ (1) + 12 = 13
If all looks fine he yells "Hello the post, Oleg, my friend, hope you are ready for visitors for supper."
ba hope nothing is wrong cause I sure wouldn't know!
All in the trading post is indeed fine. A few traders are present, as well as the usual guards and of course Oleg and his wife. As you come through the gates, he comes over to greet you and help with the horses. "Everything went well I assume?"
Greets Oleg with a big grin "We had a fairly productive outing was even able to make friends and influence Kobolds." He reaches out to shake hands having palmed the ring they found and speaking quietly so that Oleg's wife does not overhear "We might even have found something that was lost, is this what you were looking for? breaks the handshake leaving the ring behind.
Oleg gives Cael a wide smile as he sees what he's been given. "It is indeed. Many thanks." He places the ring into a pocket and motions to the side of the trading post wall, near to where the guards have set up their camp. "I think you'll find that there are a few other tasks that people could use some help with as well."
I'm not sure we're waiting on any one in particular, maybe my loot calculations (which I haven't gotten to, sorry).
"Oleg, do you have any mining tools in stock? How quickly can you get some (more)? Also would you be interested in substantial quantities of silver nuggets, or have any contacts who would be?"
"You folks looking to start a mining operation?" Oleg asks with a grin and a big clap on Red's back. He turns and starts to lead the man towards the storage shed. "Let's see what I have. I'm sure we can work something out."
Well then I'll wait till Red has the treasure divided out and everyone decides if they want to buy anything before I move on.
Okay, so the last time we did a loot split was over the bandit camp fight... back in June. Got to dust the cobwebs out of my brain and the spreadsheet here. And I just finished looking over that battle, and we never finished the splits (it's also changed since you said to split by 4 and give an extra portion to Adrianna). Wow, that's a lot of text to go through. I'll get it soon.
Wow that was some valuable stuff. Had to compute the value of the sickle (6gp x 2 (cold iron) + 300 (MW))/2 = 156gp and wand (750gp x 3 CL) * (28/50 charges) / 2 = 630 gp. Also the bracers are 1000 gp / 2 and the dust is 1200gp / 2. This includes the pathetic loot from the mite burrow, we get a total of 587 each (total / 4 but given to 5 people). If we keep the dust and/or wand as a group item, that will radically change the amount each.
And since I noticed that we didn't deal with the bandit camp split, we each got 285 gp from that one.
Now what is everyone going to keep? Adrianna indicated she kept the earrings from the bandit camp, and we have someone possibly keeping the bracers? Once I get all the keeps, I can get everyone's totals from Oleg (cash and credit so far in the game).
Due to RL issues (amoungst them trying to negotiate buying a house and moving) I'm going to have to take a hopefully short hiatus from the boards. I'll be back as soon as I can manage it, but right now, I barely have time to keep up on email on a daily basis.
Just checking in, how's the house-buying coming along? Got a chance to interview with a Federal investigator a couple weeks back, they sure had a lot of questions about you, and I was sure to tell them EVERYTHING.
