Hmm, not looking good for dwarf crew, though I have the feeling the army going to fasturvalt part might be an exageration.
This is a tricky situation.
I don't think Lord Geirni would believe us if we told him ourselves, and carting this Drow back to Fasturvalt is probably what he wants. The whole thing could be a scheme meant for us to go back to Fasturvalt where WE would get in trouble.
How about Glenda uses her touch of truthtelling, and if it works we tell him to repeat everything he just said?
The Drow probably has a point about Vothys. We might need help there. We could try contacting the Dragon and his troglodytes?
Yes, it does look rather grim. Bringing a captive drow into a city that's under drow management spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E, and I doubt that even if we overthrew Geirni we'd manage to set up enough resistance. Though we'd have to ask Iverna.
Unless we take up shovels and pickaxes and make our own way into the Azathyr...
Don't be too dismayed. I mean, it is a game, and you are heroes. All things are possible. I won't just slaughter you out of hand for opening the wrong door. The campaign is a sandbox, and I've put a few extra things in the sandbox to offer some more options. There are lots of choices with real consequences for the setting and its inhabitants, but you can find ways to succeed as long as you aren't complete idiots. I mean, you probably shouldn't walk up to the walls and moon the drow or something.
I was assuming that Glenda had cast her truthtelling spell. She said she was going to.
Yep, I even updated my sheet to have it prepared twice. Basically if he fails his Will save and it get thru his spell resistance, it has a visible effect (so we know it worked) and he cannot say anything that he knows to be untrue. (He can choose to not say anything at all.)
Sure, sure, no dismay. Just a complicated situation.
But mooning our enemies is a long standing Dwarven tradition :D
Moon them after you get through the gates.
Okay, so if he's already speaking the absolute truth, we need to rethink how we're doing this.
Marching up to Vothys will obviously get us killed, hell even marching in that direction might get us killed with the orcs coming. We either need help or be higher level.
At this point we either head back to Fasturvalt and warn Lord Geirni (which will probably get us kicked out of town) / help them fight off the orcs, or we leave them to their fate and seek help elsewhere (trogs/dragon?)
If we really want to be a thorn in the drow's side, we use our dwarven prowess and collapse the passage we're in, forcing the orc/drow army to dig it out or go through the lake/jungle. If someone brought pickaxes that is...
It seems like we are stuck. What do you guys need? I know the reputation of sandbox games to bog because we aren't sure which direction to go.
I follow the direction of my liege!
Your liege was swamped with work :| sorry, I'll make a post as soon as I get back to my PC.
Real life kind of got in the way for me. I think we are stuck on the moral issue of if we go back and warn the Gnomes. If we fight and try to defend them in what sounds like a one way ticket to death. Or if we leave them to their fates and move on.
That's great. Moral dilemma is what I was going for.
I was just waiting for the others to chime in- didn't want to be table captaining.
You did an amazing job setting up a moral dilemma here, GM. An in-character vote shall (hopefully) solve this issue!
While I personally feel bad for leaving the gnomes to their fate, Dasur is true neutral and sees it as the gnoes making their own bed. Dammerhall, and fulfilling his so-called prophecy is more important at this time.
Back after holiday induced craziness due to month end at work and short work week. 3 day weekends are nice at the time, but create insanity afterwards.
I enjoy games with lots of moral dilemmas. It is best is the heartstrings are being played. I also get to vote both ways :D
So looks like the the vote is currently:
Dasur: Use secret tunnel, go to Vothys
Nalnera: Defend the gnomes
Glenda: Defend the gnomes
Snorri: Defend the gnomes
Dagmar: ?
We could also ask Iverna's opinion, of course, but it seems the majority are in favor of helping the gnomes.
Thoughts? Opinions? Guessing people are just busy, but just wanted to see if there was any other discussion before making a decision. Seems the "save the gnomes" have it unless our Liege decides differently.
While I'm here: Kingmaker is getting its own PC game
It's going to be finished regardless of whether or not the Kickstarter is successful, they're just looking for money to add more features.
Oh man I really want to throw money at that! Also my roommate found this And it is the best explanation for why gold is needed for crafting.
Were you intending for Dasur to really not understand emotion?
Wow, I really liked that magic is gold and vice versa explanation!
Dasur does not deal with the subtleties of emotion very well. Nalnera's anger is exposed and easy to see- he undertands that. However, the passive-aggresive comments and actions of Malathorne back in Fasturvalt were completely lost on him. Surface emotion is as deep as he sees, and as far as he could tell Malathorne seemed nice.
Morality is grey to him, because it cannot be defined clear-cut.
For instance: A sentient creature is in pain, and wants the pain to be stopped. One could bandage its wounds to stop the pain, OR one could kill it and stop the pain. The former is considered "good" and the latter "evil", and he does not understand why because the result is the same value- pain = 0.
This is further complicated that in the same situation that killing someone that is suffering is considered a "mercy" and thus good, even though in other situations (such as the one mentioned previously) it is evil.
Even if you try to explain it to him, it will still come down to the fact you can't quantize morality, which makes it incomprehensible to his mind.
Arrg! I never said Nalerna pointed her axe at Dausr! She shifted her stance while angry but I never said she raised her weapon or pointed it at Dasur.
Oops, I must have misread that... sorry!
We should have this discussion ICly. Glenda would argue that you can, in fact, quantize morality, because you can measure it in a repeatable, reliable fashion, known as detect evil.
Be happy to have the discussion IC!
I see this leading to experiments where we see how many evil acts (kicking mushrooms? I don't know) it takes for someone to detect evil.
Thanks for the map!
Oof, six days?
Well we can try to collapse the current tunnel instead, but it will be difficult and dangerous even for dwarfs.
We might as well stick to the plan, though i don't know how much time this will buy us...
Erebos can mark the entrance on your map, so you can get some rough estimates. Let's say the army staged ready to come out of the secret entrance. If they were stopped at that point and had to backtrack and come through the Jungle hexes, that would add about 20-25 days to their travel. It might be true that the army would move even more slowly than a small group of dwarves, so maybe as much as 30.
Of course, perhaps they would choose just to dig out. That timeline would be pretty unpredictable.
Which is why Dasur does not like this plan... Too many variables, risk, and it does not serve the ultimate goal.
Opinions, anyone?
Otherwise we can just go to the secret tunnel.
GM should we be concerned about how much food we have or is that not something you really care for tracking? Could influence our decision as well.
I'm OK with the plan, if the plan is, right now, going to the tunnel, blocking the entrance and moving to Fasturvalt to deal with Gerni.
At this point in the campaign, we probably should be keeping up with food supplies. There is plenty of water. Also this area fairly close to the lake has a fair amount of fungal growth and insects that feed on it, including some cat sized crickets and even bigger spiders who feed on them.
Once you run out of food, you don't suffer any penalties for 3 days. Iverna has a decent survival bonus if you need to resort to half speed travel and foraging.
Sorry for the delays. I had to finish moving and had some stuff happen that ate up my Saturday. I am fine with what Snorri is suggesting. I have a decent survival.
Mmmm giant crickets on a stick!
I'll try to get a handle on our food situation later, unless GM beats me to it.
All right, to the secret tunnel!
Let's collapse some rocks!
We mentioned food but i don't see any exact numbers.
Given Iverna's timeline we would have brought at least 20 days of food for the entire group, because the tunnels take 15 days to cross before we enter the jungle. Then the jungle is another 15 days, but food is plentiful so we would have counted on foraging.
We have been traveling for 5 days, so that leaves 15 days of food, not counting our personal trail rations.
This is not counting our new Drow slave companion, which i assume we're going to feed.
sorry for the lack of posting, moving and work is leaving me rather drained.
For other checks Dungeoneering tends to cover the subterranean area and should be able to help figure out where best to start with the vines. Survival should be helpful, I wanna say it should be but my sleepy brain is not coming up with a lot of good reasons.
I have no craft skills but I can help with a engineering.
Note in case we get into another fight soon: enlarge person gives me a -2 to AC, and since I'm not fighting with a two-hander, the size bonuses are a bit wasted. Another color spray may fill that slot better.
Malathorn carefully ponders his answer. "By the beards of you ancestors, dwarves, is there nothing I can do to prove my worth!? Malathorn is operating mostly without interference. He has his orders, whatever they are, and will carry them out. Likely only the Baroness and possibly her lieutenants know exactly what he is supposed to be doing. Urgent messages could be sent through magical means. I suppose I could attempt to deliver him a message personally, but that would be done only under the most extreme circumstances. Your efforts at the secret tunnel might be enough to warrant such a breach."
You were using Malathorn not Erebos. So that is the source of my confusion. Nalnera would prefer to use his actual name.
Yeah, I screwed it up. I just wanted everyone to be on the same page.
Note in case we get into another fight soon: enlarge person gives me a -2 to AC, and since I'm not fighting with a two-hander, the size bonuses are a bit wasted. Another color spray may fill that slot better.
Aye aye captain!
Without Urkrim around, Enlarge person has become much less useful sadly.
Everything okay, GM?
I now I have not been posting like I should. This summer has been rather brutal at the warehouse and leaves me with the minimal amount of energy. Sorry
Sorry, I think I was waiting for something, but I don't even remember what it was. I'll get a post of talking to Geirni in the morning.
I apologize as well for being spotty, exam season is unending.
Still here, just waiting to proceed :)
I'll be travelling Friday and Saturday. Won't be able to post until late Saturday.
I love it when Snorri makes speeches.
Thank you ^_^
I wanted to get one last Snorki in before he left.
This section is set up to be very sandboxy, but I think to keep things from grinding to a halt, each player should talk about what they want their dwarf to be in charge of. Designing fortifications, training militia, or whatever. Then we can pull those together into a montage scene and not spend 2 weeks in real time preparing.
Might take me a little bit to read everything and get a post up. I hurt myself last week and missed a few nights of work and I am trying to catch up on all my games. Sorry!
Hope you're doing okay Nalnera!
GM, Dasur will use Knowledge: Engineering to design fortifications, traps, etc.
I thought about using Knowledge: Arcana and Nature to try and weaponize the nearby fungus, but that's a bit of a stretch.