Ruins of Pathfinder: The Quest for Arcadia (Inactive)

Game Master Robert Brookes

Huh. You know I never noticed that about comprehend languages. I'll think on that and get back after a little digging to see if a none else has used it in such a fashion.

I never noticed it before either. But I went to go double check as I posted, to see if there was any magical aid I could provide. Sorry if it kills the skill challenge, though :(

And in other news I just got a message from Dakun; he'll be back to playing next week! :)

Awesome. Shows how well I know my spell list, huh? Coulda been the hero of the hour if I'd thought of that first...

On the construction: Yeah. Well. Crap. Why obvious things like that escape me, I'll never know.

Alright, so my absence has been delayed/cancelled until Dec 5, giving me another couple weeks until I need to worry about that.

Rob if you don't want to get rid of the skill challenge completely perhaps just allow comprehend languages to give say... a +5 or +10 on the roll. He'd still need someone to aid another for the hardest bits and put in the hours to make sense of what he's reading.

I've been slacking off over here.. heres what I did for the last two days:

Arodus 7th: Recruit Elite Soldier Team (Day 1)
Arodus 8th: Recruit Elite Soldier Team (Day 2)

My next week's plans:

Arodus 9th, 10th, and 11th: Recruit Elite Soldier Team (Days 3, 4, and 5)
The next 4 days afterwards I'm going to spend a ring (or two) much as I did previously in order to begin recruiting a team of Archers - it will take the remaining four days.

That is my week's plans! :D

I'll get a gameplay post up tomorrow.

Yeah I'm thinking of giving it a bonus to the check as the writing has been made unreadable through damage more so than comprehension difficulty. I'll update with a definitive bonus tonight when I get out of work.

....I need one of these. How did I not find this when I was making Dr. Logem?! o.O

Though.. an exotic weapon.. blah.. that is probably the only bad thing about it. But.. imagine an Alchemist with Crossbow Mastery.. and this.. I wonder if it works with Bombs?

Anyways, working on my post now - I'll see if I can't get this campaign rollin' again. I think we're all just trying to think of how to start the meeting :P

To the question of comprehend languages ill have it give a +1 bonus to Quint's check per casting (untyped so it can stack) per day. Because the duration is only 10mins (at this level) and can't cover all the text. Cast it more and it will be more help, etc.

Hope that sounds fair!

Will be out of town from Friday until Sunday evening.

Hmm, for some reason I thought comprehend languages duration was 24 hours... Anyway, that's enough so that he can reliably get a 20 on his own.

Seems like we are losing steam, anything in particular you might like to see from a post Lucent?

Yeah we're supposed to be having a Council Meeting since Dwunder's team got back - and we're supposed to decide where to go next. I've been trying to get into the writing mood for Dr. Logem to say something, buuut... its just not coming :(

*Edit* Its not this campaign though - I've just kinda burnt my brain out on too much Shattered Star thinking :P Need to get Road to Damnation moved along too..

I think if its anything, its more of a "We don't have a leader" thing. In Reign of Winter, at least we have Styvanus acting as our group's commander - in this, however, we're a Council of Eight.. none of us have more power than the other, and none have yet stepped up to get the group moving along.

I think THAT issue stems from the fact that we have no one with any real outdoorsy skills - we have an Empress, a Doctor, a Blacksmith, a Trapsmith, a Gunmonk, a Fortune Teller, an Archaeologist, and a Crazy Guy. None of these know enough about the land and how to survive in it to get the expedition along well enough. I mean no one has Knowledge(Geography), I've seen :P

So right now its mainly a "Lack of knowledge of what to do next."

However.. since Dr. Logem is The only one in our group with Knowledge(Nature) at all.. perhaps he is uniquely suited for the task. Rob, would such a check help us figure out where to go next, even though its not a Knowledge(Geography) check? The SRD states that the latter is for "Lands, climate, terrain, and people", which would be better.. but Nature does mention "Weather, seasons and cycles, plants, and animals", which might help in a different way, namely helping us find good places to hunt and forage.

Quint, since you can make any knowledge check untrained, can you give the Geography one a spin, while I do Nature? See what Rob deems worthy of our rolls.

(Also, writing this explaination is getting me back in the feeling of this campaign - maybe I should go play some DF and see if that helps? :P)

Also, it seems the only two in our group with the Survival skill is Rogath and Dakun - with Rogath being better at keeping us from getting lost, and Dakun better in the rest of that skill.

Also I think that any future exploring teams will need Dr. Logem.. if only for the fact he can identify plants and animals. I'd say Quint should come too, due to his ability to make untrained Geography skills, but the book he's studying might be more important.

*Edit*: Actually, despite how tempting it may be to continue it, the book can wait. We have more pressing needs - like survival. Quint's knowledge skills would be more useful in the front right now.

Also I would like to add that Knowledge(Dungeoneering) is used for identifying stone/metal/minerals - that might end up being the more important skill right now.

Looking to see who has THAT, then we have Angrin and Quint. That skill could be used to identify good places in which to begin digging - in Dwarf Fortress, one of the most important steps to choosing a settlement location is good mineral, ore, and stone deposits. Things like Iron, Flux Stone, Coal, etc are extremely important for a strong fortress.

...I would like to add that (From my knowledge of DF) chalk is a flux stone - found in sedimentary layers. What is also found in sedimentary layers?

Iron. And Coal. Iron + Coal + Flux = Steel

We like steel, yes? Perhaps we should explore that chalky area more.

This is out of character though, I don't know if Dr. Logem would know this kind of stuff. Someone with Dungeoneering might though. Angrin, Quint, can you two give those rolls a try?

...also I've just come to the realization, as mentioned in Road to Damnation, that I possibly should be talking about this stuff in character, rather than out of it - at least some of these things.

Heh. Musings getting away from you there, Doctor? I've been trying to puzzle out ways for Maven to initiate something, but I find myself at odds with her character in most of my ideas. they just wouldn't be very...Maven.

Right now it isn't so much about knowing what region to settle in as discussing your IC findings and determining your next course of action. You've scouted out about 24 miles of land and know that the western hills are tough terrain but full of exposed granite for mining.

Furthermore, you know there's a race of winged humanoids on the landmass who have made contact. That's probably something worth discussing.

Some of you also know that there is the legendary Hammer of the Dwarvish Lords somewhere here in Arcadia that could bring about a new reign for all dwarvenkind, if only you can sort out the info from Halsiig's journal. Discussing that could lead to further plans.

Right now your situation is as such:

1) Out of salvage in this hex, so if you perform any actions other than "struggle to get by" you're going to be burning supplies that (without trying to make more) you're not going to be able to harvest back.

2) No shelter, if a storm comes in there's no way or where to weather it.

Things you could do:

1) Send dwarven scouting parties out (multiple ones) to look for a hex with the "resource" trait so you can find an abundant source of game to hunt in order to set camp in a region where performing the "live off the land" action can help diminish your consumption greatly.

2) Send teams to salvage the north and south hexes. As these take full days to perform the activities they will potentially need to establish beach camps to defend themselves.

3) Pack up camp and move inland with the entire 300 dwarf contingent to search for a suitable place to strike the earth! and build a home.

4) Figure out what else is in Halsiig's journal.

I'm all for moving the expedition inland, away from the beach, then sending out teams if we find nothing noteworthy. The mountains and tough terrain are practically screaming for us to settle there, and 24 miles doesn't seem such a long trip, even for our whole camp. On foot, it might take a few days of course, but the alternative is to starve on the beach, at best.

Whether we scout north, south, or anywhere else, it seems clear there's nothing more to be gained on the beach, so I think we should migrate westward as close to those mountains as we can possibly stand in one trip, then scout our surroundings and dig in.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Not that Maven will propose the idea IC, but she'll definitely go with it.

Logem raises some good points and suggestions. I'd definitely like to see everyone else's input on them as well.

Quint's suggested course of action for the current weeks (decoded from his longwinded IC lecture for your convenience)

Day 1
1. Travelling (to Western hill Hex)
2. Defend
3. Salvage (Northern Beach Hex)
4. Scout
5.

Day 3
1. Travelling (to Western hill Hex)
2. Defend
3. Salvage (Northern Beach Hex)
4. Explore (Hex North of Hills)
5.

Day 4
1. Craft (Buildings-large dorm/barracks/communal housing?)
2. Defend
3. Salvage (Northern Beach Hex)
4. Explore (Hex North of Hills)
5.

Day 5-7
1. Craft (Buildings-large dorm/barracks/communal housing?)
2. Defend
3. Salvage (Northern Beach Hex, move on to South Beach Hex when North expended)
4. Explore (Mountain Hex?-Decision pending Day 1 Scout action)
5. Live off the Land (Hex North of Hills?-Pending Day 1 Scout action)

I would suggest at least one PC accompany the Scout mission and if the away team is not part of the Explore action for days 3 and 4 then I suspect the away team will be heading into the western mountains hex to start exploring there and/or diplomatic relations, Strix abduction, initiating war or what have you :p

For ease of discussion would it be possible to add some sort of grid reference system to the hex map? Would be easier to say Hex G9 than the Hex north of the hills hex.

Feels like Quint's got a pretty decent plan for now. I say let's start up his day 1 plan, see what we get, and adjust from there. Definitely need to secure food and building materials so we can get this kingdom rollin'.

:) I figure this initial settlement he's suggesting will end up becoming a mining/quarry town and we'll establish the actual capital under the mountain what with all the people afraid of the sky :p

That's a good idea, actually. Set up a mine town as your semi-permanent camp, then venture off to greener pastures to build your UNDERHALL or what have you.

Thats actually a common tactic in Dwarf Fortress. A 'Temporary' Fortress near the surface as you dig/carve a better one in better rock below. I whole heartily agree with this idea.

Huzzah! So will this be enough to transition into kingdom making somewhat, or how is it likely to work?

works for me. Gotta pull up some stone and ore before a proper smithy can commence. If we can at least find a good source of lumber, I can probably engineer some milling equipment and start outfitting everyone (read: our NPCs) with decent crossbows and spears or the like. As it is, I don't even know if the expeditions has any real weapons left to speak of, and that's not a state to be in when beasts or bandits come prowling.

Well a few of them have some weapons -as Rob is alright with me recruiting a few Elite Soldiers with basic equipment..

I just hope they don't have copper battle axes!

Sorry about vanishing. I've been completely overwhelmed with work in the run-up to Black Friday - much moreso than in previous years.

I haven't caught up on the gameplay thread yet, and probably won't until Sunday sometime, but I endorse the idea of a temporary settlement while we find the perfect location. However, I'd recommend against doing anything with the mountain hex until after the temporary settlement is established enough to be defendable. If there's just the one colony, we could find other mountains nearby by exploring north or south, and if they're everywhere, we should know that before we provoke them.

I think we should be safe enough to scout the hex at least. Otherwise we'd be sitting there for probably a couple weeks while we build fortifications with no knowledge of the mountains, which doesn't seem ideal either. I get your point though :) I put exploration down as pending the results from scouting.

Huzzah! So will this be enough to transition into kingdom making somewhat, or how is it likely to work?

Somewhat, you won't be getting into build points or anything quite like that yet since the size of your settlers is small and your available resources are minimal (One BP costs 4,000gp in resources, for example.)

However, your settlers have a combined craft bonus of +50 which means as a whole they can work to build things exceptionally fast. You'll be using the downtime rules section on Buildings and Teams to construct your initial settlement.

It's going to be hard going, too. Now that you have access to natural resources (stone) let's delve into how to build things:

Let's say you want a shack.

Shack
Cost to Create 3 Goods, 2 Labor; Time 3 days; Size 2–4 squares

Upgrades To Lavatory, Storage

This no-frills wooden shelter contains a simple table, pallet bed, and stool. One person can build a shack with simple tools and basic materials. For an additional 1 point of Goods and 2 points of Labor, you can construct a brick or stone hut instead of a wooden shack.

It's resource-intensive to get a good start. Thankfully you don't actually have to dig into your own personal resources to build it since you have abundant natural resources to tap.

Using the rules to earn goods, the settlers can make a Craft check to earn the resources (representing working in the quarry and building parts of the stone hut together).

With their +50 craft modifier, the settlers can take a 10 on the check for a result of 60, generating 6 units of any kind of resource (3 goods/3 labor, etc) with one "Craft" action per day. This allows them to harvest the necessary resources to build a shack in a day. And that is with just 1 action of the many the settlers as a whole can take.

Let's dream a little bigger:

House

Create 32 Goods, 1 Influence, 31 Labor

Rooms 1 Bedroom, 1 Kitchen, 1 Lavatory, 1 Sewer Access, 1 Sitting Room, 1 Storage

A small cottage that can house up to two adults or a new family.

If you assigned 4 actions of resource gathering like this now that you have access to an area capable for quarrying stone, you can generate 24 units of goods per day (or labor or influence, a quarry can't really produce magic, per-se).

In 2 days time you'll have generated enough units of goods to build an entire house.

Now, let's cover one important ground rule for using your settlers to build things:

Time: Earning resources with downtime is measured in a single day's successes. If you're earning resources for the purpose of crafting something (such as quarrying rock to build a house) the object's creation time is considered part of the time spent gathering the resources.

So, it works in your favor to have a plan. Quarrying stone and setting it aside as surplus goods can be handy if saving for a rainy day, but it means you'll still need to spend time building that something later.

In some building entries there's a "time" requirement listed. We're ignoring that for Quest for Arcadia, since it's considered the time to recruit the necessary help to build, which you already have on hand.

_______________

We'll switch to Kingdom Building rules at your decision. Once you've set aside at least 4,000gp worth of resources (combined goods, labor, magic, influence) you will have earned 1 Build Point. Once you're comfortable with the amount of BP you've got in your treasury, we can start moving onto the massive efforts of kingdom building.

Remember, though, you're only 300-ish dwarves strong. Not much of a kingdom... yet.

Also, I know Thanksgiving has slowed everyone down thanks to the holiday mess. I'm hoping to see a little more interaction in the gameplay thread with what Quint's discussing, especially since there's some more information for you all to unearth as you discuss things.

Hmm alrighty, sounds interesting. I shall have to crunch some numbers and figure out what sort of buildings will be the most effective. I'm thinking we mainly want to construct several large, communal shelters to start with and then can look at some of the more important pieces of infrastructure.

You say we'll be using the downtime rules to earn resources, but normally that only halves the cost, you still have to purchase them. Will that not be the case here? Otherwise that 24 goods per day would use up 12 goods of other supplies to obtain.

That won't be the case, yeah, because of your access to the stone. If you intend on building things not made out of stone and earth it will be halving the cost instead.

But then if we find a hex with a lumber/forest resource same deal for making things out of wood? Sounds fair :)

Hey guys, just a heads up: December is shaping up to be a real bear at my office as law firms get in their billing in advance the end of the fiscal year, so I've been pulling overtime and generally working harder than usual. As such I've been pretty burned out when I get home so I may miss a day or two of posting here and there up through New Years. Please bear with me and any slowness to respond to stuff.

No worries, Rob. PBP is a pacing game that should not be rushed. Do what you gotta do, and the game will be ready once it's all sorted out.

Okay, back from this ridiculous week at work and going to put together a post. I'll still be slow through December, but I'll have a little more time to handle things while in the office.

So it's been a few weeks and everyone has certainly had their own chance to chime in on this. What would you all like to do for your next course of action?

Well I think Quint's suggested actions for the espedition for tomorrow (and at least part of the next few days) will stand. For Quint's personal actions he can't really study the book while the expedition is travelling, so he will go back to earning influence and labour so he can put his team of bureaucrats together.

I think I may start working to earn influence and labor as well, in a different form. I'm still trying to pin down ways to work it out descriptively, among other things.

I think I may start working to earn influence and labor as well, in a different form. I'm still trying to pin down ways to work it out descriptively, among other things.

As a blacksmith, fluffing that out would be easy enough. You could be using your skills to help people mend their equipment, for example, in return for either. Warriors would love a blacksmith that keeps their equipment maintained - thus, Influence. Other types of artisans would promise their own labor in return for maintenance on a wide variety of metal objects as well. Thus, Labor.

I hope to get caught up on everything that has happened soon. I have a lot to comb through.

Yeah, I suppose that's a good start. I was also trying to think of a way to start working Torag's good word into it, but that's as good a start as any. Perhaps it'll come together after a little development.

Group-wise, is moving into the hills and building a settlement there the plan? Are you going to send scouts to reveal any adjacent hexes?

Day 1

1. Travelling (to Western hill Hex)
2. Defend
3. Salvage (Northern Beach Hex)
4. Scout
5.

Day 2
1. Travelling (to Western hill Hex)
2. Defend
3. Salvage (Northern Beach Hex)
4. Explore (Hex North of Hills)
5.

Day 3
1. Craft (Buildings-large dorm/barracks/communal housing?)
2. Defend
3. Salvage (Northern Beach Hex)
4. Explore (Hex North of Hills)
5.

Quint's suggested actions from upthread. To elaborate and answer your questions...

Day 1

Action 3 - A group of approx 50 dwarves are to be sent north from the current hex to begin scavenging the beach there with enough guard-dwarves to protect them while they do so.

Action 4 - A small group of the stealthiest and most wilderness savvy dwarves (led by some of the PCs I would suggest, but I don't think this was discussed) is to travel northwest ahead of the dwarven caravan and circle around the explored hex in order to locate additional resources (primarily food and lumber), and see if they can obtain any intelligence on the Strix location, numbers, etc without being spotted and/or engaging.

Action 1 - The remainder of the expedition will be packing up camp and hauling all the salvaged goods and supplies to the western explored hex with the aim of establishing some shelters and a defensible location in the granite-rich hills.

Day 2
Action 1 - finish travelling to the hills
Action 3 - Continue salvaging the beach

Action 4 - Assuming the success of the scouting mission we should have a better idea of what is available nearby and what sort of a threat the Strix pose. Quint's preliminary suggestion is that the scouting group head to the hex north of the hills hex and begin exploring that location as there was previously reports of plentiful game in the area. If a more promising location is revealed however then we may move the group there instead, but either way, the scouting group will change to an exploring group.

Day 3
Action 1 - Begin construction of large shelters to provide mass housing for the dwarves with the stone provided at the location. (Still need to crunch numbers for this, which I had forgotten).

The following days should follow much the same plan with the salvage and exploration teams moving to different hexes as appropriate. once we are situation in the hills hex we can send groups to ferry whatever the beach teams manage to salvage on the sleds.

God, I am so sorry. I know I need to post here, but things just keep comming up and its not fair to any of you guys. Work has been crazy. My wife and I are getting ready to move again in the next few months. I'm doing crossfit five days a week and that takes up a ton of time too. Really I'm sorry and I will try to knock out a post soon-ish.

Having the detailed outline if Quint's suggestion I am going to go with that when I update the game tonight, provided no one else voices any alternatives.

I'm down with that - Quints suggestions are good. I'll volunteer Logem's services for the small expedition to the northwest.

Yep yep; signing off on Quint's plan as outlined. Dwunderbran will delude himself into thinking he is Grand-Protector of the camp as it goes momentarily mobile.

Ok, was terrified for a minute there. Any post that begins with "Sorry guys" starts a sweat.

Was seriously about to scream "NOOOOOO MINEKO! DON'T DO IT!!! DON'T LEEEEEAVE US!!!"

Then kept reading...and everything was okay.

Don't scare me like that!