The Crucible of Freya (Inactive)

Game Master Grimmy

You see what happened is, you guys reached enough xp to level up while you were fighting inside the keep. So when you got to a safe camp, a told you to level up. But I forgot you may want to attack the keep again in the same day.

Yeah, with us winding down it seemed like the best choice. That said, with Firean and Cullen out, that takes some of the immediate pressure off. At least for Leo Sam and Kev I imagine.

We might change our mind of course but the more I think about it, the more I think it'll probably be fine to wait until morning to make our attack. Leo regains spells at dawn and I'm pretty sure he was tapped out completely by the end of our last visit. We're gonna want him back in top form.

Sound good guys?

I vote for resting.

That will work!

Fine by me, if we restart in the morning after new spells then I like it simplified. Frankly if we hadn't taken a break I doubt we would have attacked again on the same day with limited healing.

Cheers

True, true.

I agree, waiting until morning is the soundest strategy :)

Ok the monster tokens are up on the battle map.

Map looks great DMG! Intimidating but great.

Refresh my memory, the outer wall is 15ft high? How high is the roof of the single story part of the donjon?

Curtain wall is 15' plus crenelations. The long, "squat" section of the donjon is 20 feet, the square two story section is 30 feet. I guess the first story of the donjon is double tall. The watchtower is 3 stories, 10' each.

That's the best I can make sense of it, there definitely seem to be some discrepancies between the map and the illustration.

Thanks a bunch!

I dropped in some labels to mark those heights.

Sorry for not posting this weekend, I'm very busy with school halfterm, dogsitting a puppy and my parents over for a few days. Please post for Jerrid if necessary, I should be back in action by Thursday.

Cheers

My apologies as well, very busy weekend for me but I should be back to normal now.

No sweat, we always find our pace when the time is right.

A big show will have me quite busy next few days but I'll be popping in to see how the plan is forming.

Now the map doesn't show the treeline and surroundings of the keep but you have a thirty foot clearing to cross to get to the wall from the trees.

I thought there were rules for it but I'm coming up empty, how much length do you lose to knotting a rope for climbing? half?

So rather than play out the whole discussion. Does anyone have another idea for entering the keep than climbing in Cullen's window with a distraction, clearing it, barring the entrances and at least checking the well to see if it's passable to the donjon? We'd certainly have the element of surprise on those in the tunnels below.

I think it's the best way to avoid getting pincushioned by all the archers with vantage points.

There's a decent chance we'll be seen before everyone is up but a couple smokesticks on the ground should keep us from taking too many arrows.

With a knotted rope, the DC to climb at half speed is 5. Even Leo should be able to make that. Might take the slower ones (Jerrid, Vhillish, Kev), two rounds, but those with 30ft movement speed (Janna, Myself, Leo once he loses some gear) should be able to make the ascent from ground to inside in a single round. A silk rope should hold at least 3 people at a time so that puts as at 3 rounds to get everyone inside once we reach the base from the trees which will take another 1. Not too bad by my estimation.

Let me know if you see any holes in my though process DMG.

Math looks good to me. Course you would have to get a rope up there somehow.

The irony is I had to level up to 17th my cleric for Rise of the Runelords this afternoon and prepare his full spell list for the last few encounters (he casts mass fly on the party for instance).

I missed a session the week before and they told me after that all I'd missed was 10 rounds of combat. And now we have access to ninth level spells...

Here we are trying to get up a knotted rope with a DC of 5! I much prefer this level of play to the ridiculous stuff we are getting up to on Monday evenings.

Cheers

Having home interwebs headaches folks - and not getting a chance to post at work (good news is I'm still gainfully employed in the ailing oil industry... bad news I've more responsibility (cough) workload (cough) in my new role)

Might be a tardy in posting for this week coming...

Move things along if needbe whot!

No worries Deputy. I've got the Vhillish bot all warmed up in case it comes to that!

I'll do my best to uphold a proper level of conduct from our most officious of officers!

Are we waiting on Sam or are you just tied up with your show DMG?

Hey Guys!! Sorry I have been pulled into a whirwind vortex of work. I am not home on my gaming laptop at the moment but I will read the posts I missed and see if I can manage an update without my pdf's.

I say let's see if the covering fire guys take out the remaining orc and skeleton in 1 round because if the do we don't need to set up a whole combat for this. We can move along to the inside.

I have been very busy at work, My free time right now is Friday, can you guys survive without Janna till then? Of course you can.... but I am afraid that overall attractiveness of the party will drop significantly without Janna.

I'm sorry about my abscence guys. Things are not quieting down at work like I expected them to.

There is a chance I'm going to have to retire from the game.

I am just not getting any time at home at all.

I have down time at these jobs and internet access but I'm finding it's really hard to make meaningful gameplay posts without being at home on my gaming computer with the pdf's and everything. Even if I brought my computer to work or got everything I needed into cloud storage, it is just very hard to make a good gameplay post from work for some reason. I am always on alert, thinking about the job and I can't pull my thoughts away from that enough to really get my head back into the gaming space.

I thought this season would be slow because it always has been before but here we are in november and I just worked an 80+ hour week and once again i am lucky to sleep in a motel, if not right at the job site.

I have to find out if this was a fluke but if the whole winter is going to be like this I'm afraid there's no feasible way I can maintain an adequate posting rate to run a pbp game.

Grimmy,
Take care of yourself first.

We will be here.

Don't burn yourself out.

Yup, you've got to take care of RL first.

Glad you're so busy, even if it takes you away from us for a time.

As Sam says, we're not going anywhere :)

This is hardly a surprise and I totally understand - it takes alot of clear time to prepare a complicated post and keep track of all that is going on.

Its just a game. A very good game with great people but just a game at the end of the day. Some things are far more important. And remember we have played together for quite a while and had some fine moments.

Regards
Andy

I will miss this game if it does retire, but I also understand.

I'll keep Janna in hot stand-by.... yes Janna is hot.

I can only echo the others DMG.

This game has been an amazing source of entertainment and we've had a great run thus far but if it has to come to an end I understand completely. Sometimes life refuses to cooperate.

That said, if you simply need to take a break for a few weeks, that would be great. We have a great group here and I'd be sad to see it die.

Hang in there!

+1 on the above sentiments DMG - this group and your guidance through our (mis)adventures has been some very fine times indeed whot!

Would be sad to see things end, but if its an extended hiatus I'd imagine you'll find most of us willing and waiting should you fan the embers once more.

Take time, focus on life and career and all that necessary stuff... and if you find the time for some indulgence we'll be all the more blessed for it.

Pip-pip!

I will be sad of not completing the adventure but real-life is first. And to be honest, last weeks have not been easy for me in RL so I will benefit from another break.

Maybe this game isn't over and I sincerely hope that we get a restart some time because Grimmy has done a stand up job of DMing. For that reason I am retiring Jerrid in that hope.

However an opportunity came up to play a rogue and join a strong campaign doing Rappan Athuk. I've applied for that and telling you guys so you can understand I'm not baling just want to play.

Cheers

I saw that and debated adding Janna to the mix, but decided against it.

Good idea. I think I will keep Sam as is and make a fetchling rogue for RA.

I've been looking at that one too. I hope you guys get in!

Hey guys! Thanks for all the supportive words. I had a little hospital visit due to lapsing in my medication because of being on the road so much for work. It seems this career I'm in is not the best for someone with my condition. We are meant to maintain a good sleep routine.

I'm back at work now and still striving to find a balance where I can take care of my mental health and make time for my leisure activities, but also my livelihood.

I have not given up on getting our game going again but I can't say for sure that it will work. The best case scenario I can see is if I have a talk with work and establish some limits about what I can do for them. I know the doctors will give me a letter explaining my health issues to them, and I'm sure they would understand, but it is mostly my pride that is making it hard for me to take this step. My first instinct is always to say "yes" every time they call because that is how folks get ahead in the business I am in. But I have to be realistic about what I can handle.

The other thing I am looking at is using the technology that is out their to reorganize a bit so that the game info I need is stored in the cloud and I don't necessarily need to be at home on my gaming computer to keep the PbP moving. That would probably require some other mobile device than what I have now though as well, so it won't be right away even if it is possible.

As for the other game you are talking about, I wouldn't discourage you at all from applying, because I can't promise I will ever get this one back up and running, but also because it probably won't be a problem for either game if you end up in that game and I do get this one going again. You see Rappan Athuk is not a linear adventure path, it is more of a big location based source book that can be tackled in a number of different ways. Yes there are some spoilers but at the rate that PbP goes the likelihood of one game taking you to an area that spoils things for what is happening in the other game would be fairly low.

I do think it is a great idea to submit other characters to that game then the ones you have been running here in this game. I think the likelihood of me getting things together and starting this back up is high enbough to warrant saving our cast for this quest.

All sensible ideas, Grimmy.

Balance in work and life is vital, do what you need to to preserve your quality of life.

Thanks for keeping us informed and I can appreciate how hard it is to say no sometimes.

You take care
Cheers
FW

Just take care first.

+1 As/When/if you return to this virtual tableau DMG then I'm sure we'll all be kicking around in some shape or form.

Would love to continue, but know all too well how RL can make the decision to let go of these creative outlets damned difficult.

Take care - stay healthy and hope we'll be lucky enough to do this again at some time.

Cheers

BD

Thanks for keeping us updated! I know all to well how difficult it can be to make concessions for your own health but you owe it to yourself to make the effort. Any success will ultimately be fleeting if you're running yourself into the ground to achieve it.

Take care mate. We'll be here once you've achieved a better balance.

All the best in the new year for all and belated christmas/holiday wishes !

Ditto - Here's to health, wealth and happiness to one and all in 2016. Fingers crossed we do some virtual gaming with this bright crew also :)

I found a new spell for Janna:

Coin Shot

Railgun time

All the best in 2016 and I hope we get back to our former glory days.

cheers