Rise of the New Runelords

Game Master Harakani

Thanks. :)

Were those Kressle's base stats? (Skeletons get a +2 dex for being Skeletons)

They were

Pretty darn good stats for a 1 HD recyclable minion.

As long as she doesn't have that "new skeleton smell".

Ew! :)

Grey is a rather fastidious fellow. Undead are servants for the living after all. He makes sure they're all well cleaned and cured when he animates them. These ones were a rush job, but I'll go into detail about how he prepares them later. Once i have my own lab set up, they'll all end up smelling rather nice.

Grey is a rather fastidious fellow. Undead are servants for the living after all. He makes sure they're all well cleaned and cured when he animates them. These ones were a rush job, but I'll go into detail about how he prepares them later. Once i have my own lab set up, they'll all end up smelling rather nice.

Undead servitors coming to a magic mart near you. Now in Lilac!

I should probably shoot someone at some point. :-)

That's a real gun? ;p

Seriously though, those fireworks have been very useful.

Seriously though, those fireworks have been very useful.

Oh yea. I'm a big fan.

At the risk of a derailment, and with much thanks to Mark...
map so far
The less shading, the more confident you are. Solid colours mean you know there are grasslands/forest etc but that is it. yellow=grassland plains, light green = hills, dark green = forest.

The boss will adjudicate how he wants, but at Int 2, we can't get much from the badger besides "bossman beat badger, badger love cave, fire bad."

How are you guys used to getting answers from animals? I wonder if that differs much form one group to another.

The badger could be awakened, or have had its ability score increase (assuming Harsk was at least fourth level) applied to Int.

But generally we use speak with animals and hope we can get something.

I'm going to have a hard time posting until tuesday. Please NPC Grey as needed.

Hmm. So do we have anyone who can talk to this badger?

If the GM wants to expand the basic/minor magic lists (under evolutions) to include speak with animals, Taerine or Thkrull could do it, but otherwise I've got nothing.

Not sure you can talk to the badger. Harsk certainly could. What you do with it is up to you.

I guess after a discussion to see if anyone has a clever idea we'll switch to the next dilemma which looks to be (A) go home and get badger interrogated (B) camp and refresh, follow other bandits in the morning, (C) Tally ho! After the scoundrels now, without rest, as forced march.

Depending on deliberations options may change though.

I could be wrong but I think we should gather informations.
Maybe we could speak with Harsk and ask him to help us interrogate the badger ?
Unless our priest can bring Harsk back to life (and in chains) ?

I can technically bring him back, but not the way you want.

We haven't spent much in the way of resources, and we have a camp to harry and steal supplies from, yes? Let's do that.

Agreed. Let's push on for the moment.

We haven't spent much in the way of resources, and we have a camp to harry and steal supplies from, yes? Let's do that.

Yes please.

How much farther is it until the bandit camp?

You'd have trouble saying for certain because you're relying on third hand information. Somewhere between thirty and forty miles.

We could force march one hour, heal overnight as we camp, and arrive tomorrow with strength to fight.

I'll help with the magical items, but we oracles don't get identify.

Again, I like Steven's plan.

With the magic items, I wonder if it makes more sense to just tell us what they are (unless there's something special)? Otherwise, I might try to set up an identify "macro" since all of us will likely be able to do it. The odds of not being able to identify something when we've got seven casters seem very low to me.

(I'll do some Spellcraft rolls myself when I get back from some errands.)

With this many casters its a safe bet that with all of us trying we'll be able to identify any items that aren't completely obscure or overly powerful. Glossing over those rolls us probably not a bad idea. DM discretion if course.

Well...I'll probably never be able to identify items apart from detect magic or Appraise checks. The other issue would be if The Boss wants to enforce the material component for identify. That can really hold up progress, but it is the rule, so we may have to start hoarding pearls.

Detect magic is often good enough, though. Taerine has a +10 Spellcraft, which should let her easily ID any item with a CL of 5 or below and give her a chance at anything up to CL 15.

Looks like Denat's got a +17, so can automatically ID anything with a CL of 3 or lower.

Also, we can retry every day until we figure it out, so chances are we're going to eventually get there (I don't think we can take 20, though, since there's a chance we could fail to notice a cursed item). (Again, though, it's up to the GM -- it's easy enough to create a "macro" that has each of our Spellcraft checks and just paste it in for each item we're trying to ID. Just feels like it would be more work for him.)

Fair enough then... I know people put points into spellcraft and didn't want to just skip it... but you make a good point.

So...can we have the in-character conversation about how to divy things up AFTER the OOC conversation? And can we get past these decisions in 24 hours so the game moves forward?

Obviously potions should go to folks who don't have healing spells, and the weapons might be fodder for resale. Unless the eidolon is any good with martial weapons.

If I'm gonna be in the thick in melee, I wouldn't mind the armor or the amulet. I feel alright about my saves.

Now, that's based on utility, which isn't the only way to divvy up treasure. Other ideas?

Simon is a fan of practicality and whatever makes us stronger as a fighting unit.

Mr. Helt's suggestions largely mirror my preferences.

Works for me. Here's what we've got (and our characters w/ classes), so I'd say people could put in their claims of what they want?

potions of cure moderate wounds (3)
potions of pass without trace (2)
+2 heavy crossbow with 26 bolts
screaming bolts (4)
tanglefoot bag
+2 studded leather
+1 battleaxe
amulet of natural armor +1
cloak of resistance +2
antitoxin

Arioch -- bard
Simon -- Gunslinger/wizard
Taerine -- summoner
Denat -- wizard
Grey -- wizard
Caillus -- oracle
Anglon -- cleric

So, by that measure, give the CMW potions to Simon, Denat and Grey?

Taerine will likely stay out of melee combat, so she might actually be a decent choice for the heavy crossbow and bolts if no one else wants them. She could also possibly hold on to the antitoxin since she'll likely be free to deliver it to someone who needs it.

I'd say let's just dole out the PWT potions randomly at the moment and they'll be available for whatever we need them for. Not sure who's really our frontline combatants yet, but it does make sense for them to get the armor, cloak and amulet.

My guess is we'll want to sell the battleaxe (Thkrull can't use it) unless someone wants to claim it.

I'd also advocate for splitting any treasure eight ways, with the final share going toward party funds to buy Wands of CLW, raise dead spells and the like.

What she said.
The only thing I would even use is the crossbow, and I might not even use that.

I actually think Taerine is the perfect choice for the crossbow. Summoners are fantastic because of action economy. The crossbow is great for finishing weak enemies so the team can mark them off the list, and sometimes, the limited summoner spell list results in "i watch my eidolon attack". Certainly Taerine will always have a plan for each round of combat, but a +2 crossbow really adds an option.

Agreed with the team fund. We could give the axe to Simon until we can sell it. He at least has profiency, unless an archetype says otherwise.

If we don't give Taerine the crossbow, I say we give Caillus the armor and Taerine/Thkrull the amulet.

Who feels their saves suck?

EDIT: After wising up and looking at my character sheet, the armor helps me notta, and I'm the one with sucky saves. So I'll ask for the amulet or cloak. If Caillus gets the cloak, it throws another +1 cloak into the pool.

I like the ideas presented so far & the reasoning. My saves are fine, I feel.

I'm fine with those ideas. (I'll ask for the next crossbow we find ;) )

Technically the kingdom hasn't kicked off, but unwanted items can be donated to the kingdom for Build Points on a 4000:1 ratio.

There are also rules for selling off magic items in kingdoms. If you can get back to the staff of teleport then in theory you can flog the axe for cash, then use the cash to build things you want.

Do not underestimate the rate at which this group can build things.

So what's the final list? I'm on my phone and can't make detailed posts, but if someone wants to suggest the final list in character we can move this along.

That sounds good to me.

Now we probably need to figure out watch details. Unless we have spells that can handle that for us?

You need 9 hours to rest and get spells back.
If casters are taking a 2 hour watch you'll need 11-12 hours.
There's an extra hour (ish) for setup/takedown - unless someone has a spell.

Given that Arioch used no spells & only a couple rounds of Bardic Performance, he will volunteer for a long watch. Harakani, what is the minimum amount of sleep you need to avoid taking penalties?

That could work for this night, but I find it's best to set up a standard rotation, so we don't need to figure it out every night. Makes life a LOT easier for the GM, too (and with this big a PBP, I think that's really important for Harakani).

It'd be nice to cut down our resting time -- I think a version of a stone of alarm would be really smart, then we can all just go to sleep and have that be for a solid 8 hours. As Harakani notes, we can craft that really easily (probably with the proceeds from this first fight), so I'd recommend we do that first thing when we get a chance.

Might also be worth considering if we want to have a few players split up the other crafting feats so we can develop our own magic weapons, armor, etc. Given that Taerine's not a main combatant, I'm certainly willing to take one, but I've also got a very limited set of spells I can use.

That could work for this night, but I find it's best to set up a standard rotation, so we don't need to figure it out every night. Makes life a LOT easier for the GM, too (and with this big a PBP, I think that's really important for Harakani).

It'd be nice to cut down our resting time -- I think a version of a stone of alarm would be really smart, then we can all just go to sleep and have that be for a solid 8 hours. As Harakani notes, we can craft that really easily (probably with the proceeds from this first fight), so I'd recommend we do that first thing when we get a chance.

Might also be worth considering if we want to have a few players split up the other crafting feats so we can develop our own magic weapons, armor, etc. Given that Taerine's not a main combatant, I'm certainly willing to take one, but I've also got a very limited set of spells I can use.

Others can provide the spells.

A few thoughts: can Legion competently perform the task of making and breaking camp? Certainly the PCs won't be idle, so lifting and such can be done by the humans. But overall, can we agree Legion would save us a lot of time, help us establish an efficient routine, and not tax their master?

We are all spellcasters, but I believe only the arcane spellcasters must have a full night of rest and then spend an hour studying, right? Divine casters memorize/regain slots as a ritual that occurs the same time every day. Now, is that right or does that confuse 3.5 rules?

If I have that right, we can simply make sure divine casters and non-eidolons take most of the watches. Yes? I agree that having a static watch set for all camping is wiser than having this conversation nightly. However, over levels, we'll make adjustments because we'll change in terms of needs or abilities. Nap stack, for example will change our camping dynamics considerably.

My next post will have suggested distributions of magic item.s We have strong personalities, cool characters and lots of leaders. So in no way am I suggesting that I decide who gets treasure, I just want to save time and if we agree, cool. If anyone has other ideas or input, we want to be fast, but we want the game to be fun for everyone. Good?

Here's my suggestion based on some level of utility. If you read this before I have edited it, know I am double checking my work. :b

Arioch -- bard amulet of natural armor +1
Simon -- Gunslinger/wizard +1 bsttleaxe, potion cure moderate, pass without trace
Taerine -- summoner +2 heavy crossbow and bolts (Thkrull?)
Denat -- wizard potion cure moderate, tanglefoot bag, antitoxin
Grey -- wizard cloak of resistance +1, potion cure moderate
Caillus -- oracle +2 studded leather armor
Anglon -- cleric cloak of resistance +2

Well....that sucked. The armor doesn't help me any, but it doesn't help anyone. Grey has poor saves, but chose that in order to have his high Int score. So we can give him a +1 resistance bonus, give Anglon a +2 resistance bonus, and that way everyone gets at least something marginally useful. Not really Caillus, but I'll take care of that when we have a little down time.

It's out first batch of treasure, so I know it's not ideal, but we'll probably turn the axe and armor into build points or other items fairly soon, right?

All cool?

I'v got a cloak of protection +1 already. If you want me to take the +2, then someone else can have my +1.

Works for me, both the camping and treasure (Thkrull's fine without magic for the moment). And you're correct about the divine casters only needing an hour, which maybe they can take while the arcane folk set up and take down camp with Legion's help.

FWIW IMO, having someone take some charge of treasure distribution really helps in a PBP, where it's harder to have a quick conversation as you would around a table. Looks like we're all mature adults here, so if someone has a problem with something, holler, but I think trying to do it quickly is key.