The Dark is Rising - WotW Part I (COMPLETED) (Inactive)

Game Master Darkness Rising

I too assumed that Tkaara had knocked out the guard, but I managed to retcon the post.

Also @Felrin: Hopefully, we won't see Curse of burning sleep in play, but read about it in the next day's papers while we're drinking tea.

Mitran officer burned alive in his sleep, police clueless.

or even better

Mitran Paladin found burned alive in his sleep, scandalous photos of underage wizards found in his belongings

Nope. You were fighting the other one and erevan missed it.

Ah, I thought that this one already had like 7 points of damage. The only change for my attack would be reducing the attack by -2 if I do not get the flanking bonus. I hope that an 18 is enough, otherwise we are going to be in big trouble going forward.

Although, I am guessing the guard still saw some butterflies or stars after taking 9 points of non-lethal, even if he did not black out.

@ Etna - a comment on your attacks. You should note that the attacks are against the guard's Touch AC, so that DMA does not accidentally use the regular AC. Also, unless you have Precise Shot, you should be taking a -4 for firing into combat. Really, the -4 and the touch AC just about offset each other in this case. Although, I doubt that your roll hit the guard unless he has a really bad Dex.

Mitran Paladin found burned alive in his sleep, scandalous photos of underage wizards found in his belongings

I was young, I needed the money, OK? Now let us never speak of this again... ;)

@ Etna - a comment on your attacks. You should note that the attacks are against the guard's Touch AC, so that DMA does not accidentally use the regular AC. Also, unless you have Precise Shot, you should be taking a -4 for firing into combat. Really, the -4 and the touch AC just about offset each other in this case. Although, I doubt that your roll hit the guard unless he has a really bad Dex.

Right, thanks. Updated now.

Tkaara Fiakben wrote:

@ Etna - a comment on your attacks. You should note that the attacks are against the guard's Touch AC, so that DMA does not accidentally use the regular AC. Also, unless you have Precise Shot, you should be taking a -4 for firing into combat. Really, the -4 and the touch AC just about offset each other in this case. Although, I doubt that your roll hit the guard unless he has a really bad Dex.

Right, thanks. Updated now.

I usually play either casters or melee, so I always forgot about that -4. <.<

Unless you are planning on becoming a ray specialist, it will only affect you for the first level or two when you have few spells and fall back on Acid Splash and similar spells.

Erevan - it may not matter with the rolls you got, but if you 5-foot step to S20 you'll get a flanking bonus - I tried to set you up for that and still get my full attack.

Unless you are planning on becoming a ray specialist, it will only affect you for the first level or two when you have few spells and fall back on Acid Splash and similar spells.

Ray specialisation sounds like an evil sorcerer to me... Spamming this and this will win a lot of fights in a hurry!

Tkaara Fiakben wrote:

Unless you are planning on becoming a ray specialist, it will only affect you for the first level or two when you have few spells and fall back on Acid Splash and similar spells.

Ray specialisation sounds like an evil sorcerer to me... Spamming this and this will win a lot of fights in a hurry!

Without a doubt. But, that then leads back to the question - What type of caster do you want to be? A ray specialist? A blaster? A battlefield controller? A summoner/conjurer? Something fun and unique? Any are viable options and can make for a great character. You just have to decide, based upon your limited feats, what you want to become when you grow up. (Or grow infernal as the case may be.)

Personally, if you are evil, while Ray of Exhaustion is fun, there is a much better spell.

Fleshworm Infestation

Yeh, it is a touch spell. But, it just has EVIL written all over it.

Yeah, ray focus is not what I'm shooting for, but I'll take some of the rays. *Cough*Enervationspam*cough*

Speaking of the evilness of Fleshworm infestation, feel free to give me advice for the expanded Wishcraft and Heart's desire abilities.
Basically, I can force someone to tell us their deepest desire, and I can pick the spells I want as bloodline spells. Unfortunately, aside from the fact that they have to be 1 level lower (thus bringing to the awkward situation to acquire an extra cantrip at level 3), tehy can only be used to fulfill someone's wish. I could pick all extra buffs and always use your wishes as triggers, but that's not so flashy. :P
So I'm open to advice for spells that could fulfill classical wishes that can be triggered with Heart's desire and similar.
The only one I thought about, for now, is granting the classical too-specific wish for beauty ('I want to be beautiful: skinny legs, thin waist et cetera) with a literal Excruciating Deformation.

But I'm sure that I can find a lot of other evil-er, Evil Genie-er and troll-er options. :/

@Felrin: Hope I made it clear that I was simply giving you a hard time, though I would point out that, at this level at least, the Doctor does benefit most from flanking, having both the same trait you do and sneak attack on top of that.

Also, doubt Felrin will be the one going for Gang Up, considering that pesky Int 13 prerequisite. :P

Yes, it was clear, not to worry. I just wanted to make sure all us melee types knew that we all are pro-flanking for various reasons. If I'd had another few minutes when I posted that, I was going to say the same about sneak attack - but Felrin gets two claw attacks once he's in position, and there were two guards there, so it seemed like he might be more helpful on that side.

In the end, the guards were turned into a bloody mess, and that's really what we're all after, right?

And on the Int 13 thing - what do you mean, I don't get it? ;)

Felrin, don't worry. Intelligence is overrated. Who needs any weapon more complicated than a club anyway.

Clubs are tricksy things, I prefer my own two hands.

(Though I am hoping to lay my hands on a heavy mace, for some good two-handed Asmodean smashing.)

I will process everything out shortly. This should end combat and we shall move forward to experience and loot.

We will be on the medium advancement XP track not a big fan of DM Fiat leveling.

Of the gear we've recovered, Felrin would like:

1 chain shirt
1 heavy steel shield
1 leather club (he'll imagine it's a mace)
1 longbow
20 arrows

Any objections? He can't use a longsword, and I think there's enough armor and bows for any who'd like to have them and are proficient.

He'll also take a guard's uniform, in order to pass himself off as a guard as much as possible.

I believe Felrin has the veil at the moment, since he pulled off the Asmodean holy symbol just before the fight, but if someone else would like to carry the veil, they're welcome to do so.

Might want to get that uniform prestidigitized.... kinda bloody right now. Lol.

Also fyi the leather clubs work like a regular club but they are non-lethal only.

Isn't there already a word for a leather club that only causes non-lethal damage? I imagine they are avoiding simply calling them 'saps' because of the inane decision someone made to make them martial weapons...

I almost want the Doctor to end up getting one of these, just because it is so cool looking! :D

Nice, but first we have to get the guard to finish relieving himself. At least with Tkaara's intimidate roll, I imagine that is what he will be doing first.

Very busy morning, I will not have time to post until tonight. Keep going and I will catchup.

Also where did you get the bucket of water? Even if you did it is not enough to wake up the guard. He has suffered 9 lethal damage and 9 non-lethal damage so he is at -5 hitpoints.

It is either going to take some smelling salts or some magic to bring him around.

@DM Asmodeus: No problem!

Regarding the guard: Maybe we could heal him? We're a little tight on resources, but I think that the information we could obtain from him should be plenty useful.

That, and I want to see his reaction at Tkaara's 30 in Intimidate.

Does anyone have any Heal skill? Not sure how else to wake him up. I would hate to have to waste another CLW - plus, then I would have to come up with a logical reason for whatever power is granting Tkaara her powers to want to heal the guard.

We also have the potion on the veil, not sure what it is, but it might be a CLW potion.

I have a +3 to Heal, so I can try. I can also cast CLW 2x/day, but I'm not inclined to use it on the guard.

Will have a post up later.

Agree, all we need is for him to wake up. I have +2 on heal. I think that the Doctor also has +3.

I can cast CLW 5x per day, but because of the way I am running Tkaara, it seems less plausible that whatever divine power is granting her powers would be likely to use it for this purpose.

*whispers* Are we certain he's THAT sort of doctor...?

*looks around nervously*

*whispers* Are we certain he's THAT sort of doctor...?

*looks around nervously*

How do you think he was able to test his hypotheses if the patients were unconscious. Of course he should be able to revive the guard enough to talk to us.

You've caught me Hecate. I'm actually the sort of doctor who travels through time in a big blue box. :-P

Like DMA said, Heal checks alone won't bring him back to consciousness in the state he's in. Lacking smelling salts (a really useful item!), we may need to cure him. Too bad the guards didn't have a skin of wine or a jug of applejack: THAT may have done the trick.

I thought they were drinking as part of their card-playin' and carousin'. Is there no alcohol at hand?

And my hope with the DC 20 heal check was to Treat Deadly Wounds, which actually does heal HP damage, and with a high enough roll can heal several points. It wasn't clear to me how far below zero his HP were.

If Tkaara feels she can't heal the guard, and the party decides it's a priority, Felrin will do it. I guess I can go either way.

Problem with Treat Deadly Wounds is that it takes an hour. I do not think that we have time for that. One option is that we could bind and gag him in a cell and then, if we find stuff below, come back up to question him.

Problem with Treat Deadly Wounds is that it takes an hour.

Rats, missed that in the fine print. Should have known the barrister would catch it! I think gagging him and leaving him here sounds fine, we can keep moving and try to get info out of the next guards we kill see.

Hecate's not convinced that you're the sort of doctor that, you know, heals people... No offence ;)

Also, I'm not happy spending CLW's on a guard, or taking time to interrogate him. Let's just go through this place like a hurricane and keep moving before they realise that we're out.

Let's just go through this place like a hurricane and keep moving before they realise that we're out.

+1!

If we find smelling salts or really strong alcohol or a healing kit, we can come back if time allows. Otherwise, I am fighting with a leather wrapped club, so we will likely have more KOed guards before we are done.

I am fine with continuing on if everyone else wants to do so. Even with a big chunk of his damage being non-lethal, it still heals at a rate of one per hour, much too slowly for our purposes. If we did heal him at any point though, keep in mind any hit point healing heals an equal amount of non-lethal, so it would only take about three points to bring him back to consciousness.

I will be away from my computer for the next three to four days. I will strive to post, but no promises. Please DMPC my character as needed.

Sorry for the delay. Work was really long and stressful yesterday. I am working on the thread update now.

Felrin, don't worry. Intelligence is overrated.

There you go, see? You've got Ottakar to do your thinking for you... :)

I figured that was a given. Can't expect you bunch of chimps (Hecate excluded) to think for yourselves, can we? :P

I figured that was a given. Can't expect you bunch of chimps (Hecate excluded) to think for yourselves, can we? :P

Just look at the world, frequently a pretty smile will get you much further than a wise comment. . . Especially when enhanced by silver lip gloss.

Regarding the Take-20 that DMA mentioned in the IC.

I know that many players love to just take-20 on most anything. As DMA has indicated, this can take quite some time to accomplish. Also, for me personally, I hate Take-20. With very rare exceptions, everyone fails sometime. Perception is a pet peeve of mine. How often to we see people looking for their sunglasses when they are on their head? Or going crazy trying to find keys which are right where they are supposed to be, but covered by a hat or gloves. If people want to take-20 on these, and DMA is fine with it, they I will not argue against it. I just find that it takes some of the mystery out of the game as one player, in this case probably our inquisitor or oracle, will max out perception and end us with a +15 or +20 by the mid levels so that the chance of failure is near zero with take-20.

The way I tend to handle perception in the game I ran was when a player rolled a natural 1, then they pretty much auto-failed so that they just ended up missing whatever was hidden - door, trap, clue, etc. Personally, I think this makes things more realistic and eliminates effectively removing an entire element - searching - from the game.

Just my 2 cents.

I agree that Take 20 is overused by some players. I think it has limited application, but should be possible. The situation we're in now, where we are reasonably confident we have time to do a thorough search and really don't want to miss anything, seems like an appropriate one for Take 20. People do fail to find their glasses when they're wearing them, but Take 20 seems like it allows for that moment where you lift your hand and find them on your face. And sometimes you want to be sure as sure as possible you find what you're looking for.

Having said that, I think when a player plans to Take 20, the DM can ask if they really want to take that long, or can assume the player has thought about taking so much time and impose whatever consequences flow from that.

Yeah, I took 20 on perception almost by reflex: I didn't consider that it would take that much time. :/
Best that we forget about it now that we are so time restrained.

On an unrelated note, Champions of corruption got remanded another week. :(

Just look at the world, frequently a pretty smile will get you much further than a wise comment. . . Especially when enhanced by silver lip gloss.

I HAVE looked at the world, and I find it lacking. Isn't the point of this AP to impose a new order?

All - I don't mean to dominate the posting, but since I'm in the lead I figure I'll try to keep us moving. Let me know if it's causing things to move along faster than you want.

Fine by me, let's keep the narrative tension going!

Na - post all you want. I am checking all the time, and respond when necessary. Lets just keep things moving.

Also, the original recruitment was posting at least once per day Monday-Friday, more is preferable. So, most people should be checking at least once or more per day and posting as needed, but at least once per day.

Oh yes, I usually check several times per day. Just waiting for an appropriate point to post. Please, Felrin, lead the way!

Hey everyone, I have two openings in one of my Mummy's Mask games. Will be replacing a wizard and a rogue. Thought I would ask here before I openly recruit.

Here is the gameplay thread for it:

Mummy's Mask, Table #2

The characters of Amal and Malik are being replaced due to poor posting rates. It would be great if a player could take one of them over and as soon as the group gets back to town you could bring in your own character to replace them.

Let me know.