Hey - no worries, Arcos!
Just be safe and stay sane dealing with all those headaches. We will cover for you and understand you have bigger things to worry about.
Appreciate it! I think I’ve sorted out the worst of it, but I’ll be able to get back to normal in a few days.
Fhingle not wanting to be part of the torture that he thinks is happening stays to keep a look out, knowing full well what some people are capable of.
O:-)
(And Lubella would never give Aldy the chance.)
Not sure if we should question both prisoners before trying to charm one of them. Given the negative channeling, the woman is likely to be a cleric, and thus have a good Will save.
As alluded to IC, I wouldn’t be surprised if they both have good saves. She’s a cleric, he probably has more HD. That said, might be faster try just try the spells and, if they don’t work, try the more mechanical approach. And the ‘noble’ may have more info.
Also... have we searched them yet, behind the holy symbols?
Last thought... with the shapeshifter... it’s a little bit of a risk to Aldren, but he would be willing to be in the room alone with the shapeshifter, looking like one of the women/clerics, and try to bluff him before casting charm person (hopefully negating the -5 penalty to DC). Actually, I should have thought of that before. It’s exactly what he would do.
With Heroism, Lubella's Diplomacy is +15. Each aid gives +2 (not sure how many can help). I will probably have to roll fairly well, with my track record on that front being not very encouraging. :)
Apologies for my absence, spent the last couple of days helping my 300+ people company move to a work from home system for the next 6-8 weeks. It has been... impressing.
Talvek, glad all is okay. Yeah, my husband and I (and most of our friends) are all mandatory work from home for the foreseeable future. Add to that our son's daycare is also closed for two weeks (as are museums, libraries, etc.), we're eyeing the bourbon, wine and earplugs pretty hard.
Thoughts on Gameplay Thread
1. On the interrogation, one hiccup just came to me as I woke up (which is kind of pathetic that this is the first thing I think of but there we are...) I don’t want to metagame but I think it’s fair Aldren could put this together. Charm person only works on a humanoid. We don’t know what the shapeshifter is, but it’s probably safe to say he’s more “monster” than “person”/humanoid. I think he’ll be immune.
2.
Anyone have something that gives a competence bonus? She'll need others to aid her efforts as well.[/ooc]
I used to have guidance but nobody was using it so I stopped memorizing it. :-(
3. In light of #1 and Aldren's inability to help much with #2, I'm thinking he should stay with the woman. He can try to bluff some information out of her, and if that doesn't work or runs its course, go for a Hail Mary with charm person.
Talvek, Be safe and do not over extend. We will likely go to work-from-home soon. So far the kids schools are open. Co worker in Seattle has her kids home for six weeks. :(
Other PCs should be making Spellcraft checks to try and identify the magic items. I'd hate to miss out on getting information from the prisoners because we didn't make use of an available buff.
@Aldren: When you're ready to try Charm Person, Lubella can try to demoralize the target first with an untrained Intimidate check. The odds won't be very good — with Heroism her total modifier will be +3 (including the -4 for being smaller than the target). If, for example, the woman has 5 HD and a Wisdom modifier of +3, it would be a DC 18 check. So Lubella would have a 30% chance of making the target shaken, for -2 on saving throws.
Thanks, Lubella. Good option.
Open to thoughts on strategy. Unfortunately, we are all lacking on intimidate which seems like it would be the most useful here. I was tentatively trying to avoid threatening her as much as possible, try to bluff that since she wasn’t going to talk, there was no use in keeping her longer, tell her I was going to put a bag on her head so she couldn’t see where she was and cast a spell to confuse her memory of us, but then that spells winds up being charm person. The goal behind the ruse would be to minimize the chance of the -5 penalty on charm person, which an intimidate check would probably apply, but maybe we’ve got the -5 no matter what, in which case we should definitely try it. Then, if it fails, knock her out and try suggestion on the shapeshifter.
If all that fails, we have another option...but y’all are going to hate Aldren for it.
I will be away and unable to post for the period beginning Wednesday the 12th until Monday the 23rd - holiday, and not expecting internet service.
Can we assume that Sidius will Evil Eye the woman's saves?
yes, bot away. :)
Botted! :) Hopefully I did that okay; tried to read some of his past posts.
Off to bed for me for the night.
Lubella, if we can, I'd like you to stay in the room for a second source of "Sense Motive" on her. Just because she's charmed doesn't mean she can't try to lie to her newest BFF (or maybe that's just my own devious GM-side kicking in).
Also, everyone, feel free to whisper any questions you'd like Aldren to ask. I'm tentatively thinking of the following:
1. Why are you trying to kidnap them? (just asked)
2. What does the key go to?
3. Do you know anything about the two boys who disappeared?
4. Do you know anything about a guy with a silver-topped cane?
5. Do you know anything about the slashings?
To save time and trouble for our poor GM, I'm probably going to try to combine these into one or two posts as much as I can.
Anything else to add?
EDIT: A second chance to roll a 1 on Sense Motive! :(
I think that covers my questions.
Yeah. On the other hand, first time I tried to bluff with this character, it was the CCG thugs in the alley with Rexus. I rolled stupid low, trying to walk right up to them and pretend to be another CCG thug. We were all convinced I was going to get dropped in round 1. Amazingly, they also rolled crap and the bluff succeeded. You never know.
FYI, my intent for my next post is to wrap things up with the woman, go into the other room, have Sidius hex Margap, maybe others can try to demoralize him, then cast suggestion on him as previously discussed, for him to answer "my friends' questions". <fingers crossed>
If it works, should open up questions for all of you. OOC, Aldren has stolen enough spotlight, and IC he probably recognizes he's too emotional right now.
Based on the gameplay thread, I’m assuming the party (other than Aldren) knows where the Lucky Bones is located. Maybe ask about traps? Secret doors? Otherwise, I got nothing.
I suggest that Aldren leave at least one 2nd lvl spell slot open the next day, so he can meditate and memorize a second Locate Object later, if necessary.
Unfortunately, for clerics, it's a 3rd level spell. Top-shelf resource at my current level. But yeah, that's my intent, but if the first doesn't work, Aldren is going to take some convincing to 'bother' using it for Rexus instead of something to help with flushing out the Lucky Bones.
Tentative Plan for Next Day's Spells:
. . 3rd — Locate Object, suggestion[D] (DC 18), [open]
. . 2nd — hold person (DC 17), invisibility[D], protection from evil (communal), [open]
. . 1st — bless, charm person[D] (DC 16), murderous command[UM] (DC 16), protection from evil, weapons against evil
. . 0 (at will) — detect magic, guidance, light, stabilize
We do know where the Lucky Bones is, Lictor Octavio told us:
"The ruins of the Lucky Bones stand at the southwestern edge of the city, surrounded by warehouses."
Sidius knows (and usually prepares) Cloak of Secrets -- which could help with future interrogations.
Then again, it also doesn't say that it does anything about the volume of the conversation, just the content, so we might need to mix it with some ghost sound white noise.
I'm not fully familiar with the status of the things with the hellknights. Could they help us with the Lucky Bones? Or one of the rebellion cells/teams?
They said once we clear it out they will move in then they will help out.
The Order of the Torrent armigers are recuperating from their captivity, so they may still be fairly weak (we only rescued them a day or two ago). They also don't have any equipment — that's probably still in the Holding House.
Does the rebellion or any of the teams have equipment they could lend the armigers, or is there anything that hasn’t been sold? (When I tried to click on the loot sheet, I got a message it had been deleted.)
I was planning to have Aldren save up to finish repairs on the Wasp Nest (should have done it when I leveled him but I forgot), but he has 100gp he could throw in to buy equipment for the armigers... but that won’t go far. And of course channel healing to heal them, unless it’s more of a plot/realism matter of them needing time to heal.
Unfortunately... if we believe Maglap was accurate on the timing, I just don’t see we have a lot of time to wait. Hopefully finding Rex goes quickly (if not, Aldren’s is gonna kill him). ;-)
The loot sheet went AWOL when we were in Hocum's Fantasmagorium, so we don't have any extra stuff to speak of. :(
Fhingle also has plenty of channels left over, but I assume there are plot/realism considerations.
It does seem that we need to rescue the boys tomorrow.
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I could cobble together a new loot sheet if folks wanted. I've got them in other games, past and present, wouldn't take too long. Couldn't back-populate it, obviously, but we'd have something.
On a completely different note, I touched base with GM Aarvid about this over PM but thought I might do the same here, too. I was reading the 2e CRB the other night and there is a part in the gamemastery section on consent at the gaming table. Nothing too crazy or dramatic, but Fhingle had some in-character thoughts/concerns about what Aldren might do with the changeling woman that seemed like a timely fit, so I just wanted to offer a couple of personal assumptions/rules, and see if anyone felt differently.
First, both OOC and IC, I don't see Aldren engaging in any sort of torture. OOC, unless it's an evil campaign, I see that as something that is "off the table" (pardon the pun) and just not going to happen and, even when I'm running an evil campaign, that happens behind the curtain and isn't RP'd. IC, it's also just not something Aldren was trained in; it's not how I see neutral or good Calistrians getting information. (I honestly don't think he'd even be comfortable with it despite his indifference to killing people.) On the other hand, in-character, he's perfectly happy letting most people think he's capable of it, but it's just not going to happen. I wanted to mention it in case there was OOC concern/discomfort about what I might have been thinking/contemplating.
Second, while it was a little light during the last in-game day, I can lay on the jokes and innuendo a little heavy sometimes. It's my intent to keep everything PG/PG-13 (anything more explicit happens behind a curtain or veil), but if I ever do anything that crosses a line or makes someone uncomfortable, please holler. My intent with Aldren is to offer a bit of comic relief. A joke may fall flat, but I certainly don't want folks uncomfortable.
Anyway, that's all I got. Now back to your regularly scheduled pandemic programming.
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You didn't offend me as it is rather hard to do, being a nurse I have a rather twisted sense of humor. I fully understood what you are doing and applaud your RP.
I was playing Fhingle to what I see him as, he was tortured as a slave and used as a conduit to channel Hellish visions and contracts through. He just has some PTSD that he has to work though.
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I've got no issues with the humour, Aldren.
1.Regarding the loot sheet, it seems it went AWOL around the time I split the google slides into campaign/rebellion and another set for combat maps
I am not sure nor do I understand why it would matter since the loot was a sheet and not a slide. But it was gone-gone and I could not find anywhere- even with searching online and local and my archives. Feel free to recreate. It may be helpful going into more dungeon crawls
2. I will admit there are some scenes in this AP that push boundaries and one of the reasons I stopped playing it with my kids.
The torture of the armiger and the more recent twins story I am toning down a bit to keep closer to PG-13. This is more for my comfort level. As Aldren says, let me know if I need to omit more.
3. Process check on amount of role play. This was started as heavy RP game so I am not running as fast as others people may play. Slower pace but more quality RP opportunities. Let me know how we are doing.
I can help re-create the loot sheet, have made a bunch for other online campaigns.
Aldren (and GM Aarvid), I really appreciate you raising the topic of consent and boundaries. So far there hasn't been anything to make me uncomfortable, if that ever happens I will speak up.
Things have been very busy for me lately and I haven't had as much time for PbP games, so far I am still enjoying this one very much, although sometimes I struggle to keep up with the pace. While for some people the Covid-19 situation means they suddenly have a lot more free time, it is rather the opposite for me. =/
2. My main red-line is detailed descriptions of torture, or reveling in torture. I think we've done a good job of avoiding that.
3. Lubella is a roleplay-heavy character, so I appreciate the RP opportunities. The only thing that I'll mention, is that there are times when it seems to take a fair amount of time to get between encounters/scenes.
As Lubella alluded to in Gameplay, I'm struggling with whether we should do the Locate Object spell first, or go straight to the Lucky Bones and try to rescue the twins. Locate Object will be quick to do, although be don't know how long it will take to follow up on whatever we find. We don't have a good idea of how much time we have to find Rexus.
Totally, 100%, emphatically agreed, Lubella. My hope is finding Rexus would go quickly, but it's entirely possible it won't, and he left the tenement a day or two ago, in game time, so I feel like that clock is winding down. Maybe I should cast Augury, ask what the fate of the twins would be if we waited a day?
========
And, on the above stuff, thanks all. Appreciate the check-in. And yeah, without going into detail, I once made a joke about having bamboo stuck under my fingernails at work... only to find out one of our fellows who overheard me was a torture survivor. I felt horrible. Part of why I wanted to touch base and clarify that vis-a-vis Aldren.
I really quite enjoy the RP and Talvek's Judgy McJudgy stuff the previous day has sent Aldren for a loop I'd like to resolve at some point, but I do get Lubella's point that sometimes it can seem to take awhile to advance. Personally, I have a tension between wanting to move things along without wanting to assume another person's actions (or inaction for long enough to let me get everything out). It's why after a couple days with the woman and faceless stalker, I just did a very inelegant dump of all the questions for the charmed woman.
I love the RP and would hate to cut too much, but if there are suggestions or thoughts on moving things along more efficiently, I would certainly be in favor.
And I hope everyone is staying safe. We're in DC, one of the hotspots in the US, but the regional governments (DC, Maryland and Virginia) all seem to be relatively on top of it. I'm just going b&&~%#$ crazy stuck at home with a four-year old.
==Loot Sheet==
Folks want to try this link and see if it works for them and they can edit it?
In terms of things I'm uncomfortable with, I'm just fine with what we've established.
When it comes to RP, I've found myself having some trouble keeping up with it. I think if we worked to make it a bit more efficient in between scenes I could definitely keep on top of it more.
With the corona business, I had a bit of a scare a few days ago when I woke up with a bad fever. Turned out I just had strep, but I joked with some friends and family it was the only time that having strep has been good news.
I can edit the loot sheet. :)
In real-life matters, I'm in Vancouver, BC. Considering our close connections with China, the situation isn't too bad (not that I'd consider it fantastic). If you're interested, you can see the current situation here (for reference, the provincial population is 5.1 million). My in-person gaming is on hold, although one GM is working in getting the campaign onto roll20.
I am in St Louis so we have seen a smaller number of cases so far. Fortunately my frequent trips to Seattle stopped or I’d be flying up next week. Working at home with 3 kids all on e-learning makes for busy days. The weather was finally nice today and again tomorrow before the rains return. It was nice to see neighbors walking around...at socially responsible distances.
Looks like I can edit.
As for me, I'm stuck in work from home mode - except that, so is my wife, we've got no daycare and a 2 and a half year old. So.... we're trying our best to tag-team her and work responsibilities and generally, it's not the best. (And the daughter's picking up on our stress and the change in routines and that's not helping).
That said, also in Canada - Ottawa, in this case.
omg, I hear you, Sidius. Don’t know if your toddler is out of naps yet (I can’t rightly recall at the moment) but every time someone says “enjoy the time with your kids, you lazy s$$&!” I want to slap them....hard. I love my son more than anything, and I was NOT meant to be a stay at home dad (particularly when I’m on call for clients and am glued to my computer at any given moment). Zero downtime, even during lunch. On Monday, we hit 5 timeouts. I mean, we all signed up for this, but still... to paraphrase a great comedian, “take my child, please.”
3. Lubella is a roleplay-heavy character, so I appreciate the RP opportunities. The only thing that I'll mention, is that there are times when it seems to take a fair amount of time to get between encounters/scenes.
I agree as well. I am working on speeding this up. Ironically, rather than a bunch of single threaded missions, collectively there are about 4-5 of the story-lines active at the same time...so you are making 20% progress on 5 plots rather than 100% on one at a time. As we close out some of the loose ends, the others will move faster.
I can edit the spreadhseet - do you mind if I add some auto-calculation stuff on it? And do we also want to track weight?
Week 2 of WFH - my company luckily saw the writing on the wall and moved us all to WFH within a day and a half with some incredible coordination and organization. I live in the Netherlands, which has a very high population density, and testing is limited to only people with severe symptoms, so who knows how many actual cases there are out there. We're in semi-lockdown, with a total lockdown not being ruled out by the government. My main concern is that if a total lockdown happens I will be separated from my partners, as I live alone.
Please, edit away. I borrowed it from another campaign. There is a second sheet with some charts on wealth by level and so forth that you may find helpful for some calculations.
Sorry to hear about the potential separation. :( That would be very hard. The Washington, DC region is in much the same situation. All non-essential businesses have been closed (although restaurants are allowed to do curb-side takeout and delivery) and we're being "advised" to stay home, which most people are doing. In Maryland, gatherings larger than 10 are now illegal, but nobody is really enforcing it. Unfortunately, I'm afraid too many people are ignoring the warnings (Spring Break just happened and a lot of college kids still went to party), so all the isolation from the last two weeks will have been for naught.
*shrug* Bourbon helps.
...or that they won't ramp up testing so that we'll just get another wave in a month or two, even if this does succeed. I'll say that most people around here seem to be respecting things -- if you're taking a walk, for example, people go wide around each other to ensure distancing -- but there are always *some* boneheads who won't listen. (There was video of students at Queens University [in Kingston] being about as useful as the Spring Breakers who went viral, for instance - although that was a week ago now).
The province of Ontario ordered all non-essential closed - but their list of essential is pretty long. In terms of what's immediately relevant, grocery stores, pharmacies, take-out and delivery restaurants -- but also liquor (and cannabis) stores, hardware, etc.
City of Ottawa just declared a State of Emergency, so we'll see if that changes anything.
As for myself, we're in a stricter version of isolation because we came back from Mexico -- so our grocery shopping has been the no-contact "curbside pick up" variety.
And, she's still napping... mostly. That 90 minutes is so, so precious to our sanity.
If we were to do the Locate Object spell, we wouldn't be able to follow up if there was any complication.
I know. To my mind, there's no clearly better choice; just offering a personal opinion. Happy to go with the consensus.