Rise of the New Runelords

Game Master Harakani

1)Looks as Grey.
I'm memorizing Animate Dead tomorrow. If I use it, I use it. If not, I'll convert it into a healing spell.

3)I can remove my armor for travel. It will take me, and someone helping, 4 minuets to don it properly.

4) Forest. Cover is better.

1) No desecrate is fine. It isn't needed.

4) Forest.

Grey: and the 250gp (10HD) of undead are...

five 1 HD bloody skeleton archers (animated by Anglon with Animate Dead)

Also, one regular 1 HD skeleton at no cost (animated by me with Lesser Animate Dead)

Okay.

Question 1 dealt with

2: no answers
3: Anglon will remove his arour
4: 3 votes for the forest.

4 : Add my vote for the forest
3 : I'm not sure mounts are useful in a forest but if you think one casting of "communal mounts" is useful, I'll do it (instead of summon monster II)

Forest it is then!

Mounts
I'm keen to start moving, so going to pontificate more than I normally would.

Mounts will help *if* it brings everyone's speed up. Even one person not mounted is a problem.

Mounts will probably take you to 40ft (a light mount encumbers easily, at 175 lbs).

Communal Mount has a 10 hours duration. Split 7 ways that is 1 hour and 26 minutes per casting (two castings = 3 hours, etc).

As a bit of a trick here, I noticed Denat has Mount. Mount lasts 10 hours and is a 1st level spell. It can only be used by the caster. Everyone who casts that spell doesn't count against the communal mounts. That means less communal castings are needed. Ideally you would use one communcal casting for everyone who cannot cast Mount.

If the horses are loaded less than 175 lbs this will increase your speed by 66%. If 185 or more, 25%. Why increase speed? As per wall-o-text

If you leave now and travel at 30ft (or greater) through the forest the bandits will have a lead that will take days to catch up.
If you leave now and travel at 40ft (or greater) through the forest you might be able to force march into the bandits.
If you leave now and travel at 50ft (or greater) through the forest you should be able to catch up to them over the next day.

The undead are going to be left behind, but they'll catch up eventually.

When you said mount could only serve the caster I thought "that's not right." So, I looked up the spell. Much to my surprise that's how it's written, though I don't think that's the intent. Carrying one of my companions instead of me is also "serve(ing) you(me) as a mount."

Also, that language would make communal mount next to useless as those extra summoned horses would also only be able to carry the caster. That's definitely not as intended.

You're the DM, but i think it's not unreasonable for the caster of mount to allow someone else to ride it. It's probably not an issue in this caster heavy party, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Simon will be more than happy to cast his own mount spell.

Did we check to see if there are any horses in the fort?
Are there?

The undead are actually going in my bag of holding. That's the main reason I bought it.

Communal Mount has a 10 hours duration. Split 7 ways that is 1 hour and 26 minutes per casting (two castings = 3 hours, etc)

2 hours increment if I'm not mistaken.

Anglon: you did. There are not (they were looted or killed and butchered)

Denat: I believe Grey, Denat and Simon can cast Mount.

That means Taerine, Caillus, Arioch and Anglon need communal mount.

Simon: Hmmm... that is conflicting wording. I suppose multiple Mount doesn't break Communal Mount for the situations where you only need a horse for a short time, but for the whole party. I wonder if there is an Errata.

Hey guys,

I'm moving over the next few days, so my posts are going to be minimal. If you need to NPC me to move the story along feel free. Details in the profile. Thanks.

I'll be leaving for vacation Friday and don't know what my Internet access will be like. Please feel free to DMPC me as needed (or if someone else wants to grab Taerine and Thkrull, as I assume the poor GM has enough to handle without adding two characters).

Okay, Simon convinced me.
I have two people casting Mount once each, and no-one in heavy armour.
If EVERYONE isn't mounted there isn't much point.
Simon, Denat, I'll let you switch spells to prioritise Mount if you wish.

If everyone travels 50ft you'll still need 10 hours, so Communal Mount doesn't help much.

Five more Mount castings (and Thkrull gets summoned), a little forced march and you're there.

Without something, you're going to arrive to any empty campsite as they move on.

Sorry to be this blunt, guys.

I could easily cast 3 more "Mount" spells if needed (instead of comprehend languages, protection from chaos and grease)

I can cast mount more than once as needed too.

We should have bought horses.

The speed for the communal mounts is 40 miles per day without hustling. In three hours, they'll have taken three points of lethal damage if we ride them hard. It seems like mount ought to serve us pretty well here, right?

Also...we are spending a lot of time talking about mounts and waiting for folk to agree on each action. Would it be faster (and more fun) for us to agree on a general course of action in principle, and then not have to wait for evey player to consent to acting on that course?

Frex: Caillus and Taerine had a brief scene while moving on towards our bandit camp. One at a time, the other players consent to that same course of action, which is the action we're already on. We could just move forward until someone actively decides to do something else. If that creates conflict or disagreement then, we'll RP through it. If there's no disagreement, we don't have to wait a week for everyone to post that we're all doing the same thing we set out to do before our interruption.

Does that make sense to everyone?

The speed for the communal mounts is 40 miles per day without hustling. In three hours, they'll have taken three points of lethal damage if we ride them hard. It seems like mount ought to serve us pretty well here, right?

Also...we are spending a lot of time talking about mounts and waiting for folk to agree on each action. Would it be faster (and more fun) for us to agree on a general course of action in principle, and then not have to wait for evey player to consent to acting on that course?

Frex: Caillus and Taerine had a brief scene while moving on towards our bandit camp. One at a time, the other players consent to that same course of action, which is the action we're already on. We could just move forward until someone actively decides to do something else. If that creates conflict or disagreement then, we'll RP through it. If there's no disagreement, we don't have to wait a week for everyone to post that we're all doing the same thing we set out to do before our interruption.

Does that make sense to everyone?

I support that.

Likewise

I want to make sure that players have buy in, and that they feel like their decisions matter.

There are a series of major decisions I am reluctant for "first cab off the rank" to make because (A) they are major decision points with significant follow on effects (B) one of the best things for a group of "academics" to roleplay about is when there is a significant disagreement over a course of action.

But I have been a bit frustrated by the time it takes to get an answer sometimes. I can work with this - but I'd feel better if whoever makes the decision can somehow tie it into their position.

If Caillus says "As General I say we ignore all this and head straight for the bandit's keep." then I have trouble seeing Lissalans arguing overmuch anyway. It will also mean that people will be roleplaying their positions, which is probably worth trading off for academic debate.

Is that okay?

I like that. Right now we have either several trying to assume leadership, or none really aggressively doing it, so tying that behavior to areas where we ARE leaders helps us get to know each other.

In the mean time, we can hustle the communal mounts to our destination, yes? Is anyone upset if they take up to 14 lethal points in five hours?

I like that. Right now we have either several trying to assume leadership, or none really aggressively doing it, so tying that behavior to areas where we ARE leaders helps us get to know each other.

In the mean time, we can hustle the communal mounts to our destination, yes? Is anyone upset if they take up to 14 lethal points in five hours?

Nope. I care not. They're not real horses and I probably wouldn't care even if they were.

Problem; unless I am totally mis-remembering, don't the mounts from the Mount spell get dispelled if they take damage?

edit: Just checked the spell description & it says nothing about that, so 'Game on!'

Mount: How about Denat casts 2, Simon casts 1. Taerine can try to summon Thkrull when you get there (or he can hustle to catch up). Anyone in heavy armour has stripped off enough to make it light.

Problem with hustling the horses is that they then get a point of lethal damage and are fatigued. A second point makes them exhausted and useless... but I believe the rider takes non-lethal and has the same problem.

A character can hustle for 1 hour without a problem. Hustling for a second hour in between sleep cycles deals 1 point of nonlethal damage, and each additional hour deals twice the damage taken during the previous hour of hustling. A character who takes any nonlethal damage from hustling becomes fatigued.

A fatigued character can't run or charge and takes a penalty of –2 to Strength and Dexterity. Eliminating the nonlethal damage also eliminates the fatigue.

If you don't want to force march you'll need to hustle the last two hours.

That said - it's a brilliant idea.

Oh, and the undead can just hustle the entire way without a problem... they can't catch a hustling horse but they can jog it into the ground.

But there are rules for additional hours. I'd say a mount is fatigued at the end of the hustle. They don't have to stop hustling after one hour.

I don't think riders are fatigued at all. Couldn't find a reference to that.

Hmmm - I was working on if you are fatigued and become fatigues you become exhausted, but you're right. When I look at the wording carefully it could suggest that while the damage accrues the fatigued does not stack.

That would change a lot.

The undead will be in my bag.

Also, as soon as this is all done, I'm going to spend a few days raising up a stable of skeletal horses. Full Run, all day, forever.

For sake of coordination we should post what toys we're on during combat. It'll help everyone I think.

That's what I forgot. My pogo stick!

Grey:
yeah... what I actually did was what someone suggested.
bad guys at init x.

everyone higher than x goes first.

then bad guys

then everyone lower than x and everyone higher than x (everyone) goes.

then bad guys

means I need to give the bad guys an average init, but means no order is required for PC actions.

I will start using the round markers again. people who roll below x "missed" the first round.

I'm still not in a place to really post but thkrull will go after harks exclusively for shooting at taerine. She'll try to support him and others in the fight while staying mostly out of the fray.

Caillus - don't think I'm understanding what you mean by diagonal.
200ft range - 40ft - 60ft = 100ft if you move directly towards the bandits.
What do you mean by diagonal?

Assuming the bad guys are not at a fixed single point, moving a hundred feet in a straight line diagonally (to the outside of their cluster of guys).

So the point isn't that I'm the same distance from the front of the combat, just that I'm the same distance from the combat at large. I don't see Caillus losing 25' in the run to the outside of a circle instead of straight to a fixed point.

It has been a reeeally long day, and if that's incoherent, I take the blame. I just wanna cast a spell with a range of 35 feet on the badger in round three. :b

Caillus: Sure... in this case I was simplifying a little. They were in a 10 foot radius you guys were spread out initially anyway - you've been closing in on them.

Simon: Cast round 2, first shot is this round (round 3)

Arioch: Are you also moving?

Anglon: base 50, double move 100

ok

Hmmm - is Simon holding for the dwarf to appear? At the moment he's out of LOS. He could be in one of four squares.
You'd need to be relatively close to the pit to see him I think. You don't need full sight, just partial - so say within 20ft of the pit.
Alternatively you've got a 25% chance of getting the right square.

Anglon moves up as far as he can using a double move.

I think I'm confused. Just hit someone tactical That I can see with the snapdragon fireworks.

Arioch: Are you also moving?

I flat-out ran to catch up to Thkrull last round. If I have to move to keep behind Thkrull, I will, but to my knowledge, I should be no more than 10' from the Bandits.

As a head's up; My son & I will be road-tripping down to my Father's in Oklahoma tonight, so it will likely be a couple days before I can post regularly again.

Harakani DM, if need be, bot my actions. Basically maintain inspire courage, attack Thkrull's target until they fall down, fallow Thrkull to next target; lather, rinse, repeat.

Thkrull only made it to 60ft - I thought you wanted to be behind him so were at 65ft. A move action will move you to the edge of the stone call area at 10ft and you can still inspire courage.

Simon: if someone goes to the pit edge and attacks the dwarf I reckon you can work out where he is. Otherwise the only enemy in LOS are the fleeing bandits.

Thkrull only made it to 60ft - I thought you wanted to be behind him so were at 65ft. A move action will move you to the edge of the stone call area at 10ft and you can still inspire courage.

Simon: if someone goes to the pit edge and attacks the dwarf I reckon you can work out where he is. Otherwise the only enemy in LOS are the fleeing bandits.

In that case just tag fleeing bandits until a better target becomes available.

What were the Strength and Dex scores of the bandit the Melee skeleton was made from?

For now I'm assuming the standard array, with Strength as the high stat (14)

If that isn't correct, please adjust the attack accordingly.

The Skeleton was made from Kressle, right?

I never decided. I originally had the idea of saving her corpse until I can make skeletal champions, but that will be a while, so it isn't a great use of resources.

I suppose if I get to that point and I still have this skeleton, I can always destroy it, cast Restore Corpse and raise it again as a better form of undead. Its like recycling!

So yeah, it's Kressel.

Congratulations on your new Skeleton!
As you've no doubt noticed this model comes with several improvements over the basic model - specifically a strength of 16 and a dex of 14!