I'm assuming most people are busy due to father's day weekend, so I'll wait until Monday before having Isroth/Al'cazar do something that may move the group further, if no one else gets there first.
@Ferit: Made it so you can move yourself on the Roll20 page. Had forgotten to give permissions to a few of you. Feexed!
Thank'ee
Sorry for the delays guys! Had a rather busy weekend. Will be moving us along here in a few.
Crusty
Can you put a spoiler translating your thick accents?
thanks
Yeah I can start doing that - though you guys are gonna be rid of Fenster soon enough, and its unlikely you'll have to worry too much about it afterwards.
I'll make a translation of Fenster's previous sayings since you guys have started interrogating him too. I'll get that done and update the gameplay thread once I get back from my walk. (Which I'm about to head out for)
Damned power outage earlier when I got home. Its not fun coming home to a house with no AC (And the inability to see well enough to take a cold shower due to no lights) after having walked 2.5 miles in like 105-110 degree weather. >.<
Anyways! Here are translations for Fenster's previous dialogue.
"Oye, you don't need to shout, I got enough of a headache. I get what you're saying - I figure that the beating you gave me was worth my usual fee."
"So, whatcha want from Ol' Fenster?"
"About the pretty one you're talking about, Natalya, I happen to know where she's been hiding that pretty little ass of hers from her Tower Girl friends. Her place isn't far from here under the bridge - seen her sneaking about all sneaky-like, but nothing escapes my good eye! If you want, I can show you to where she's hiding, if you leave us be after I show you."
"Don't know nothing about no slavers, but I do know who's making the people disappear - Me!"
"Was a joke - though I do wish that I was the one making people disappear. No, its the little blue dwarfs I've been seeing sneaking about all sneaky-like at night - creepy little buggers, eyes as pale as my bad eye and about as short as the shorty over there."
"Haven't seen them for days now, and I haven't followed them to see where they're coming from. Ain't going to either, they're too creepy for me."
Will be updating in full tomorrow.
Alright, loot tracker is updated with the magic items you guys have gathered - it doesn't seem like anyone wanted to loot anything non-magical from Fenster's lackeys (As each are wearing Mwk Leather Lamellar armor), so I didn't add those.
Hoosible, I've added the Blood Reservoir to your claimed loot since I did mention that if no one else stepped up, it would be yours.
So we now have a +1 Studded Leather, Amulet of Natural Armor +1, and 5 Potions of CLWs that are unclaimed as far as the magic items go. I'll let you guys decide who has what. I know half of you are evil bastards, with one being particularly greedy (all in character of course ;)), but I'm sure you guys can come up with a way to distribute the loot fairly.
If not, we can do a loot share system where we gather up all the loot, calculate its total worth (half price for mundane and magical items, since thats all you can sell them for), then split it 8-ways. Those who want to 'buy' the magic items out of their share can do so, though you may have an "IOU" to the rest of the group if the magic item you want is more than your share. I'll go more into detail about this if you guys want to go this route - though honestly I'd rather you guys distribute the loot yourselves :P
Working on the update, and I'll have it up in a bit!
I like buyout systems, but if everyone can play nice we can divide loot the traditional way. I'm not interested in the armor, but the amulet would benefit Ferit (and everyone else).
I think we should divide the potions among the combatants, have any who are interested figure out a way to decide who gets the amulet, and do whatever with the armor, but if it's sold, Radyx will be expecting his fair cut.
In the old days of organized play, when two people who didn't know or care about each other sat down at a table at a convention, and both people wanted the same item, you rolled off for it.
I have no problem simply rolling a d20 against whoever else would want the amulet. High roller gets it, reroll ties.
I'm fine with that, probably could play it off in-game as a type of "paper-rock-scissors" style of decision making. Which fits Radyx's high risk style.
Updates up!
I'm completely fine with you guys doing rock-paper-greataxe for your loot distribution.
Unfortunately, I generated Valko entirely by random roll, which landed me with the Avarice Drawback. If we do an even split at all times, that means my drawback will be in effect 100% of the time.
Double-whammy: Aid Another is about the only thing Valko can reliably contribute to an actual fight, and that Drawback puts the nix on it.
Unless Crusty wants to let me trade it out or drop the Drawback and a trait, then I'm fine with that.
Feel free to either drop the drawback and trait or roll with it the best you can - Valko being grumpy at his companions fits his personality quite well I think, but its more important that you enjoy your character, so its up to you on that.
Team A:
Wilhem and his guards
Valko
Isroth
Al'cazar
Team B:
Radyx
Ferit
Charbonardent
Hoosible
Team A: Goes in the "north" door forcibly, drawing off the guards in the other room and dealing with whatever surprises await the group there.
Team B: After giving Team A time to go in and cause a scene, Team B: goes in the side door, either forcibly or with tact (Valko). If able to slip in, they begin moving methodically in a different direction through the building if possible, leaving Wilhem's guards OR Isroth and Al'cazar to hold that exit. This way, the two squishiest ones have plenty of beef to cover them from the odd man not drawn to the chaos going on elsewhere in the building caused by Team B.
I know it's never a good idea to split the party, but with a group this size, we basically have two parties. Wilhem has a healing wand, Hoosible has some cures, we got 5 CLW potions we just acquired floating amongst us (need to officially decide who has 'em), we should be okay barring crazy rolls (just jinxed us, hehe).
Not adamantly attached to this plan or the party make up, but presenting it here for discussion.
Also, should we be doing the roll off for the amulet...
Shouldn't we have a plan to sack the two guards first? Maybe they could be questioned first.
If they're inside I doubt we'd be able to get to them before they could make some noise. What's everyone's stealth? I've got just my Dex for +3. I suspect at least one of our armored fellows has a negative.
No one has a sleep spell?
I think splitting the group to cover both exits is a good idea. We don't really know what's inside, but we don't want Natalya to slip out the back while we're fighting with the guards.
Hoosible has a net -1 stealth, including his ACP. Plan sounds reasonable to me.
Huh thats odd, none of these posts since Charbonardent's post at 1 pm on Thursday showed up. Was wondering why everyone was so quiet.. o.O
No one has a sleep spell sadly, Char. Isroth has Enlarge Person and Toppling Magic Missile prepped. As a result, if you guys want to take out the guards, it'll have to be the old fashioned way.
As for the group splitting, I have Team A going right up the steps and into the front door, while Team B will approach stealthily, away from Team A's light, and enter the side door after Team A has entered the front door, aye?
If this is the consensus, I'll have Team A moved onto the battlemap and we can proceed.
=========
As for the loot, it looks like Radyx is winning the Amulet of Natural Armor so far, unless anyone else wishes to roll for it? Al'cazar feels he doesn't need a puny magic trinket to help him, so he's not rolling, and Isroth.. Isroth has his own reasons.
If team B is to be the stealthy one, then shouldn't Hoosible not be in it? Could easily swap him and Wilhem (who has +3 Stealth at least).
Wilhem will cast Mage Armor on himself before approaching (ups AC to 17)
Charbonardent has a -4 as far as stealth goes (Due to +1 Dex and -5 ACP). So Hoosible is the least of your worries, besides slowing the stealthy group down to 15 ft per round (at a double-move rate), since you have to move at half speed to stealth without penalty.
Actually, just realized something. Hoosible has a -3 from his armor, a +2 from his dex, AND a +4 for being a shorty, for a net +3 Stealth, unless I'm missing something somewhere that gives him another -4?
===============
Radyx: +3 Ranks/Dex, -4 ACP = -2
Charbonardent: +1 Dex, -5 ACP = -4
Hoosible: +2 Dex, +4 Size, -3 ACP = +3
Ferit: +4 Ranks/Dex, ACP already included = +4
As for those not joining the stealthy group:
Valko: +7 Ranks/Dex, no ACP = +7
Wilhem: +3 Dex, no ACP = +3
Isroth: +2 Dex, no ACP = +2
Al'cazar: +2 Dex, -5 ACP = -3
So, the sneakiest people are (In order of sneakiness):
Valko
Ferit
Wilhem
Hoosible
Isroth
So, if you guys want to go the route with the sneakiest people in Team B, the first four would be the best - Of this group, Ferit's the best in a fight, though Wilhem will have the highest AC due to his spell.
I'm not rushing anyone in their decisions, just helping you guys plan. What are your thoughts?
Also, feel free to hop on the Roll20 page and have live chat with each other - if you guys ever are on at the same time. I'll be on all day (on and off periodically though), so I'll try to help.
That's right, thanks! Shortness For The Win!! Other than, you know, walking at half the speed most of y'all do. What could go wrong, as long as we never need to run from anything....
...on second thought, time for Hoos to start buddying up to Char, Radyx, Al'cazar, and Ferit, in the hopes that they'll toss him over their shoulder if we ever find ourselves about to high tail it.
And I swear, when he gets to be 4th level the first zombie he's animating is a dog, pony, wolf, or other medium steed.
Er mah gurd!
New Dwarf Fortress Update is up! AFTER TWO YEARS OF WAITING!
Alrighty guys, since I haven't been hearing from you guys much.. unless someone tells me otherwise, I'm going to be moving us forward tomorrow morning with Radyx's original plan unless told otherwise.
Sounds good to me.
Been waiting for that already :P
Working on the update now. Feel free to join me on the roll20 link for chats, I'll be there for a while today.
Radyx, I had assumed Group 1 was going to enter the front door and cause the guards to be distracted by them, aye? However, the guards spotted them and came outside before Group 1 got a chance to get inside and cause a ruckus.
Unless you wanted group 1 to go in sneakily as well?
Post coming up soon. Expect combat!
(Yay for beating people up that we don't like! Ferit and Radyx are gonna be so happy)
Just remembered that Wilhem (Aka Thron) had mentioned over in his Rise of the Runelords campaign that he was going to be out of town this week.
As a result, until he gets back and can let me know he's able to post again, I'll be DMPCing him and his guards.
Also guys, just found out from the PFSRD that you cannot take a 5-foot step while not being able to see due to darkness. I will allow anyone blind (Whether or not you're actually blind or just can't see due to darkness) to take a 5ft step but they must succeed on a DC 10 acrobatics check, much like you would need to make if you were moving at full speed. I reckon that its similar, as you're attempting to move 5 feet quickly but safely.
As a result, Charbonardent, I had you draw your sword and your torch, but not move, since I didn't want to risk you falling prone for something you (or I) wasn't aware of.
Bahpiugapoirupaiogudr
Hate missing things I should not have missed. Its relatively minor, but blargh. The hooded lantern on of the thugs is holding (The one that went inside) has a 30 ft radius light spread, not a 20 ft one like Renfeld's torch. Not a huge deal, but I still hate missing those kinds of things.
But then again, I'm not insanely used to working with such adverse lighting conditions, so it's relatively reasonable mistake I suppose.
I'm a bit confused as to what's going on now as well actually. Maybe an in character post from Valko can clear things up as to what arrangement he made.
Not surprising at all considering it makes sense for everyone besides Valko to be confused, since he alone made the 'deal' with Natalya.
Basically though, he just saved everyone a whole lot o' pain and suffering through his excellent Diplomacy check. Not everything has to end in violence :P (Don't worry, you guys don't lose out on Exp for his course of action)
Valko'll be able to explain well enough in an in-character post come his turn.
Going to be doing the round recap shortly!
Just remembered that Wilhem (Aka Thron) had mentioned over in his Rise of the Runelords campaign that he was going to be out of town this week.
As a result, until he gets back and can let me know he's able to post again, I'll be DMPCing him and his guards.
Uh what? I appreciate you botting me until I get back, but I am not Thron, I am peanuts :p No singular reason for my absence, I should have thought to let you guys know, but had too much other crap going on, and then my computer played up. Should be good now; well, once I've read about 50 posts.
Sorry, I had gotten you two mixed up XD
Don't mind me..
For the sake of keeping things moving along quickly, does anyone have an issue with me keeping Ferit's Initiative as-is on the order? If I plop him between the Sczarni Brute and the Thugs, it just means one more delay (Even though in this case, Ferit already posted his action).
I kind of hate myself for causing that since I was the one DMPCing him. I'm almost tempted to follow Thron's example and have players be in one initiative order, as well. Basically roll for all the PCs, add them up, then roll for all of the enemies, add them up, and then whatever team rolls the best gets to go first.
Thron, is that how you determine what team goes first with yours?
In another game I play we do something similar. I think that he just rolls once for each group of bad guys (since each group has the same initiative modifier for each individual member), and then once for each PC. Probably not going to work as well in this game with so many PCs and often multiple different types of bad guys. Also adding them up and then comparing is just going to favour whichever side has more people in it (which is probably going to be us)
Even better then, is that I could add them all up, divide them by how many people there are in each group and take the average.
Total: 52 / 4 = 13
Total: 96 / 8 = 12
In this case, the Thugs won out because of their higher average per thug, though the group with the higher numbers has a better chance of rolling higher. I'm still curious how exactly Thron does it though.
That's how Thron and Jelani do it and it definitely speeds things up.
If it works for you, it gets my vote.
I roll for each of the enemies, and the PCs, then add them and divide by number of PCs/enemies to get the average for each group, like you just said. If you only roll once for each group and take the highest, the PCs almost always go first. That's how I used to do it. Taking the average works better. I'm totally fine with implementing that system here, it speeds things up considerably and saves you work during recap time, because you just take the actions in the order they were posted.
Alright then! I'll tally up the intiatives and get us started on this track this round.
Hoosible, your action would be before the thugs then, so feel free to take your turn now.
Based on who rolled what, I'm expecting it to go:
PCs
Natalya's Group
Sczarni & Tower Girl
In less than 24 hours I'll be heading out for three weeks of international travel. There will be times when I'll be able to post, but other times I may not be able to. Please bear with me, and/or bot me as necessary.
Those who have not posted for this round yet will have until tomorrow morning to post before I DMPC 'em.
What kind of ranged weapons do the dead thugs have?