Revival of the Runelords

Game Master Cellion

First things first: losonti/Astrid has informed me they and their SO have viral bronchitis so will probably be out of commission for a little while. They have given permission to bot as needed.

That does complicate my next question just a bit: between Astrid and Kellek we could have quite a bit of divination at our disposal, right? OOC I think that's a much more fruitful line in inquiry than trying to track the giants since they were probably on the move for a few weeks--that trial will have gone cold further up the line.

We've got the keystone they giants' leader wanted (or at least the pieces of it) so I think our first step should be to find where they came from, and we can ask them what their problem is.

Colvyn's suggestion of using Speak with Dead is also a good one.

Unfortunate news about Astrid. Hopefully they're able to recover quickly.

In the mean time, I think you'll all be welcome to use Astrid's spells if you want to do some divination or speaking with dead. Feel free to roll for her if you do so.

First things first: losonti/Astrid has informed me they and their SO have viral bronchitis so will probably be out of commission for a little while. They have given permission to bot as needed.

Get well soon, Astrid.

That does complicate my next question just a bit: between Astrid and Kellek we could have quite a bit of divination at our disposal, right? OOC I think that's a much more fruitful line in inquiry than trying to track the giants since they were probably on the move for a few weeks--that trial will have gone cold further up the line.

We've got the keystone they giants' leader wanted (or at least the pieces of it) so I think our first step should be to find where they came from, and we can ask them what their problem is.

Kellek doesn't have a ton of divination (if only because it tends to make GMs' heads spin after smoke erupts from their ears). He can of course buy some scrolls or copy spells from college library spellbooks depending upon his share of wealth... which I will try to calculate later today.

Speaking of which, I am assuming that Ziva came in with standard character-level appropriate wealth, so are we dividing the shares (after items kept) 5-ways and dropping Kargas' share? 4-ways ("Screw the quitter! More money for us!")? Or what exactly?

Speaking of speaking of which, I really don't remember selling loot at least as far back as the hearthstone entry (aside from the headband Kellek sold to buy spells with). Is that how far back the items that Kellek is selling go back, or do they go further back? Or perhaps less far back. Is the loot sheet up to date or did other items get taken by folks for personal use? Inquiring mages doing their taxes want to know. ;)

Brother_Guiness wrote:

I have adjusted the spreadsheet based on what people have selected. We are missing a magic silver necklace ID/value, but other than that it looks like we have a total of 45242.5 gp for items sold + loot. That gives the 5 of us 9048 gp and 5 sp each. Please feel free to check my math.

Astrid, would you like the +1 ring of protection when Guiness upgrades?

That makes it easy. Add 40 gp per person to the 9048 gp and call it good.

I am pretty sure the loot sheet is up to date. I had divided the coin 5 ways.

Ah! Totally missed the totalling post.

Kellek is forced to invest in a reinforced floating disc to drag the 900+ pounds of money back to Sandpoint. ;)

The party should form an LLC and open a joint investment account in Magnimar, so save Kellek the trouble

Tomorrow is Easter and my wife's family celebrates so I'll be occupied for part of the day, but I'll try to get a few divinations for Astrid going in the afternoon.

Happy Ramadan, Easter and Passover, everyone!

I should have Kellek's spell purchases up by tomorrow after the holiday.

Happy Ramadan, Easter and Passover, everyone!

What a weekend! I'm doing a lot better today, enough to be back at work. Trying to get caught up on games during my free time.

Kellek rents some time with some university spellbooks to copy down the following spells:

2nd level: alter self, misdirection
3rd level: aqueous orb, nondetection, tongues, water breathing
4th level: animate dead, dimension door, scrying,
5th level: beast shape III, lesser planar binding, magic jar, overland flight...

Which means he'll be back in about 6 days.

Rather than redividing the loot 4 ways (since I assume Ziva is coming in fully loaded), would we want to put the 5th share into stuff that's beneficial for the party as a whole? Scrolls of remove blindness, restoration, etc, plus diamond dust. Unless that's too complicated. I'll have my shopping done tonight regardless so we can get moving.

Ziva won't need (and wouldn't accept) a share of the treasure, but a party medkit is a good idea.

@Cellion, Kargas gets a 23 taking a 10 on Lore (Giants), could he check the dead for tribal markings and maybe try to figure out where these giants came from?

So the Divination spell refers specifically to events or results that occur within a week, which is why I was focused on a handoff of the recovered keystone. No idea if that will work. We can also use Commune to get 10 yes-or-no questions, I do have a few thoughts on that, which I'll post shortly.

Lore (Giants): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30

"Oh hey that's Gurnir, he used to come to poker night on Wednesdays..."

CW and I have been chatting about this on Discord. They're better at asking questions for divination and the like than I am, so I'm going to defer to their suggestions.

Great thinking Kargas/Ziva.

What Kargas would have recognized by examining the tattoos and minor personal belongings of the giants is that they're from a variety of tribes. Several appear to be minor tribes that he doesn't know of, but he does see the symbols and typical accoutrements of the Long Watch, Rain of Embers, and Wolf Watcher tribes. Though these tribes are geographically separated, they're all located on the Storval Plateau. It's quite unusual to see them working side by side with one another, but not unheard of. Sometimes a powerful leader will unite several tribes together for a particular goal or campaign.

Unfortunately, the Storval Plateau is hundreds of miles across, so this doesn't narrow it down very much except to say that the raiders didn't come from close by. (See map in Handouts, on the last slide)

With a 30, would Kargas know the approximate location(s) of giant settlements in the Storval Plateau region that are closest to Sandpoint? It might be worth just dropping by to interrogate a living giant directly.

Ideas for a Commune spell:

1. Is the keystone the giants stole magical?
2. Are the giants who attacked Sandpoint serving the same master as Barl Breakbones?
3. Is the giants' master also a giant?
5. Will the giants' plan be thwarted if the keystone is hidden away?
6. Where is the red dragon's lair?
7.
8.
9.
10.

Suggestions for other questions welcome! Once we have a semisolid lead I think we'll be okay, but getting to that point is proving to be a little difficult.

Question 6 won't work as asked, since it's not a yes or no question. We could run through a list of likely locations, though.

With a 30, would Kargas know the approximate location(s) of giant settlements in the Storval Plateau region that are closest to Sandpoint? It might be worth just dropping by to interrogate a living giant directly.

Yes, you would definitely be able to navigate to one of the giant villages within the Storval Plateau. You'd know that not all giants on the Plateau are even evil or hostile. Some have dealt with smaller races before in trade, though such giants tribes are a small minority. You'd be able to find a hostile or non-hostile tribe based on your knowledge.

Okay, what if we just got some instructions from Kargas about a non-hostile giant community in the area and went there to ask questions? Then the divinations can be used when we have a more focused idea of who/where/what/why.

Seems like a plan. Anyone else want to second that? If so, I'll pick us up in gameplay with the assumption that you're heading out several days later once Kellek returns.

How do you want to make the journey to the Storval Plateau?

That works for me, though Guiness would be impatient to find more clues as to what the giants are up to. He will train the infantry to better defend the town in the case of another attack.

Turns out Kellek doesn't need floating disk or animate dead they came with a couple of his captured spellbooks, so he could be home a day early if that matters.

He's currently packing five spellbooks only two of which are his own. ;)

Spell list updated.

I don't think I've got much in the way of overland traversal spells for anyone but me personally. We could always take the river up as far as we can and then hire some poor horses to take us the rest of the way.

OK, I'll give you another day in case other folks have other strategies on how you want to make it to the Storval Plateau. Then, if I don't hear otherwise, I'll go with Astrid's plan.

Can we get most of the way there by teleporting to someplace we have been? Maybe Turtleback Ferry or that Black Arrows fort?

I suppose it'll depend on where Kargas' recalled giant communities are, Turtle Ferry would leave that lake & the Iron Mountains between us and the bulk of the Storval Plateau though.

If magical travel isn't viable just yet, Astrid's upriver plan is fine.

Kellek doesn't have any issue with teleporting everyone, but there is the question of all the gold. ;)

Kellek doesn't have any issue with teleporting everyone, but there is the question of all the gold. ;)

We can always make a deposit at the inn. Kargas will keep an eye on it.

As for questions to ask, I don't know what else to ask that can be answer with either yes or no.

If someone can cast speak with dead, we might get better answers.

It's definitely possible to teleport to Turtleback Ferry. Kargas would know of giant communities near the Storval Stairs - an ancient set of massive stairs that serve as an access from the lowlands of Varisia to the Storval Plateau. While there are other ways to get up onto the Plateau (such as via Kaer Maga or skirting around the Storval Deep), this seems the closest to the giant communities he knows about.

Seeing as there's still some discussion about gold, speak with dead, and divination (?), I'll wait a bit more. Let me know if you're ready to proceed with the teleport + overland travel route.

I don't have speak with dead prepared as part of my usual loadout, but I have an empty slot that we can put it in. If we do it the next day we could probably interrogate the giant leader's corpse.

It could have been done while we were waiting for Kellek. He did spent a few days in Magnimar

Yeah, by "next day" I meant "the day after the battle." If we waited much longer I don't think there'd be much of a corpse left to talk with.

koff, koff, DRAGON-KOFF! I should get that looked at. ;)

Is there more gold to deal with other than what we already mathed? I just figured that was Kellek being dramatic.

Dragon seems most likely to make their Will save imo...

Let's do both! If the dragon saves, I can cast gentle repose and try again the next week. We're already spending a lot of downtime helping the town recover.

So, questions for speak with dead:

1) What was the objective of the attack on Sandpoint?
2) Who sent you?
3) Where are they?

4 and 5 can be saved for clarifying questions in case their first answer is something like "to get an object" without saying what the object is or what it's for.

How much treasure do you have in your lair?
Where is your lair?

Sorry. Just thinking out loud. ;)

I like the cut of your jib, Kellek.

Got it. Let's move actions to Gameplay.

Question for the thread, since I've encountered a lot of variation on this point at various tables: what are the ethics of dragonhide armor, or things like trophy-taking from "monsters" that are nevertheless sapient?

I tend to come down on the side of "skinning and wearing a sapient creature's hide is bad" in much the same way that a suit of leather armor made from tanned human skin would be ghoulish and appalling. In my own games I have dragons shed their scales over time and brave (or dumb) people can gather those shed scales to make dragonhide armor without actually having to kill a dragon.

From an alignment perspective, I think Good requires us to treat all sapient beings as people and thus the rules of ethical treatment should be applied as evenly as is possible. Harvesting body parts from people for crafting for what have you, is bad!

Kellek (ever the pragmatist) wouldn't have a problem with this particular skin. After all its original owner came here specifically to eat us.

If we were to go about hunting creatures for their bits that might be different. As it is, if the dragon is still fresh upon his return, Kellek will be plundering it for spell components. The dragon's not using them anymore.

The bones and head can be use to decorate the Rusty Dragon Inn

Is that what the place is called? Kellek has only ever thought of it as The Roof and Hot Water. ;)

For the sake of clarity: after the casting of speak with dead failed on the dragon the first time, I'd like to go straight to the giant leader's corpse to do the same thing.

Question for the thread, since I've encountered a lot of variation on this point at various tables: what are the ethics of dragonhide armor, or things like trophy-taking from "monsters" that are nevertheless sapient?

In tables I've played with, dragonhide gear is fair game. Adventurers are pretty barbaric - in some cases literally barbarians - and exceptionally evil foes get no respect in death. I'm not fully up to date on Golarion, but I'd expect that the common people have few qualms about trophies taken from evil creatures, even if they are sentient.

RotRL is one of the older APs (and Paizo has generally softened its world in many respects since) but there's people in Sandpoint that pay for goblin ears, so clearly its not seen too negatively.
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I personally run my world very light on that kind of stuff, but I'm not going to cramp the style of PCs that are trophy-takers, unless they get really gross and descriptive about it.

More to the point dragons don't look like humans.

Humans might not wear humans much because that would be ghoulish, (plus we aren't very warm) but they do wear all sorts of animal bits, and dragons don't look anymore or less human than: cows, alligators, ostriches, or bears. They are all just considered 'beasts' by looks alone.

As a side note, I have always been of the opinion that if you are going to use alignment at all, you probably should drop the Good-Evil axis given all the terrible things that paladins and just regular folks do (like to the previously mentioned goblins) and limit yourself to the Chaos-Law axis like old, colored box set D&D sans the 'A', though even that is a bit wonky.

My real preference would be to adopt the World of Darkness Second Edition games' Nature/Demeanor rules to the system maybe spreading them out along the Chaos-Neutral-Law spectrum. Spells like protection from evil specifically protects you from creatures that are directly opposed to the caster's goals--even if the caster is actually "evil" themselves. No more of this protection from lawful neutral BS. There's no rel nuance in the system otherwise. Evil is just evil and that's not really all that interesting except perhaps in living elemental embodiments of the concept like demons and devils.

Well, this was unexpected but not a big deal. Are we all okay with a change of plan to just head up the Plateau, since we're partway there already?

Sure. What's everyone else doing with their 200 pounds of coins? ;)