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

Game Master Darkness Rising

So, how do we do it? Something like this?

1)Finish examining the guards' movements.
2)Wait for the most opportune moment, exit the building and move to the warden's tower
3)I cast ghost sound to direct their attention away from us while we enter the tower
4)???
5)PROFIT!

This way, we should roll stealth only once, yes?

Sounds like a workable approach, Asmodeus willing.

Between an ogre and me in chainmail, not a great bunch of stealth artists.

Seems workable, hopefully the distance and other noises will help.

Probably the best ghost sound would actually be the sound of louder than normal crashing waves. The guards will not really be able to see the ocean from this height, and waves would be something normal. We just make them louder, like a series of big breaks coming in.

Real life sidetracked me a bit. Will be able to put up a post tomorrow.

Wow, look at those numbers! The RNG really, really doesn't like us! Out of 10 rolls, 8 were for the party, and 5 of those were 3 or less! And the only 2 that weren't for us were a 17 and an 18. Hopefully we roll better in actual rounds or we're screwed. :P

Ah, found it!

Now I'm asking myself why I was convinced Hecate had this drawback. :/

Ah, found it!

Now I'm asking myself why I was convinced Hecate had this drawback. :/

Heh - interesting. Very in keeping with Hecate's (current) cautious approach. Don't think our DM permitted drawbacks when we made our characters, might have taken this: I can think of a number of other traits I would have liked to take!

ALSO: go you! Disrupting that spell could well have saved our lives!

@Hecate: I'm fairly sure that DM Asmodeus allowed Drawbacks: I'm positive that the Doctor has the Condescending Drawback (quite appropriately :P). I didn't take one because because no one fitted Etna/they were too little impactful and looked cheesy. Going back, maybe the 3rd Party Pampered Drawback made sense, but when I made Etna I didn't go trough 3d party material.

Drawbacks were allowed.

Realised as soon as I'd posted that I did in fact take a drawback (sheltered), just forgot all about it (note to self: read character sheet periodically)! Anyway, moving on...

Er, sleep has a full-round casting time, so technically the warden's spell should not have gone off until the beginning of his next turn...

Wasn't a cast it was a scroll. Activating a spell completion item is a standard action I believe.

Or the casting time of the spell, whichever is longer.

Activating a scroll is a standard action (or the spell's casting time, whichever is longer) and it provokes attacks of opportunity exactly as casting a spell does.

Of course, if you'd rather avoid retcon and just want to say this guy has an ability that lets him cast this particular scroll quickly, feel free to Rule-0 my butt. In the long run I am sure it will make little difference, I just like to make sure that if there is any deviation from the rules it is because of Rule of Fun rather than simply a mistake. :D

Yeh, to the best of my knowledge, creating the scroll uses up any material components, but using the scroll itself still takes as much time as casting the spell normally. Otherwise every caster would have a whole pouch full of level 1 or 2 Enlarge Person spells to just drop on their fighters during the surprise round of every fight.

If you want to rule otherwise, that is fine, but it makes Summon Monster and a lot of other 1 round casting time spells much easier to use.

Apply the Vegas Rule and move on? Saves a pile of retconning and a wasted few days of RL sorting it out. Will post my action on that basis.

Also, just as a note, by RAW the DC for the Sleep should be 11. Unless he has a special ability, such as the Scrollmaster archetype's Improved Scroll Casting ability, the DC for the scroll is 10 + spell level + the minimum ability necessary. So, for Sleep this would be 10 + 1 (sleep is a level 1 spell) + 0 (minimum Int/Cha for sleep is 11 for a +0 ability modifier).

I cannot find where it specifically says you don't use the scriber's Int/Wis/Cha, but to do otherwise would render the Scrollmaster's 10th level ability redundant, and, thus, completely useless. The description discusses using the minimum Caster Level, but in every game I have played and all the discussion boards, it is also the minimum ability modifier that is used.

If he scribed it himself, wouldn't he be entitled to use his own Int score?

For what it's worth, I'm happy to roll with the outcome as played, and just go with RAW from now on. Far too much retcon involved otherwise.

You are correct, it is a full round cast. I will retcon the spell choice shortly so we can move on.

The DC is 17 because it is (10+1+5+1)

10 Base + 1 Level of Spell + 5 Ability Modifier Intelligence is 21 + 1 for spell focus (enchantment)

Magic Items

Saving Throws Against Magic Item Powers
Magic items produce spells or spell-like effects. For a saving throw against a spell or spell-like effect from a magic item, the DC is 10 + the level of the spell or effect + the ability modifier of the minimum ability score needed to cast that level of spell.
.
Staves are an exception to the rule. Treat the saving throw as if the wielder cast the spell, including caster level and all modifiers to save DCs.
.
Most item descriptions give saving throw DCs for various effects, particularly when the effect has no exact spell equivalent (making its level otherwise difficult to determine quickly).

-------

-------
Scrolls do specifically say that the CL can be changed, but CL has no effect on the save DC, just on the effects of the spell - damage, duration, range, etc. Therefore, the default rule for magic items should be adhered to as quoted above.

Gah, can't help thinking Sleep would have been easier to deal with (slap!) - invisibility is going to be a pain...

I agree completely, and the warden probably does too.

Noooo, I wanted to slap people :(
Well, with the retcon the Warden didn't use our scroll of Sleep.

Also, doesn't the good doctor have Scent? Could we use that to discern where the warden is?

I may have missed it, but are there windows in the room? The warden wouldn't survive the fall (Feather fall and similar notwithstanding), but if he jumped out of the window he would alert all of the guards.

I carefully looked at the room and specifically asked about the windows. I do not think there are any. Otherwise, Tkaara would have moved to guard one of them, or at least sent someone there to guard them.

No windows in here.

Happy Halloween to all of you that celebrate the holiday....

Indeed. Spent it carving pumpkins with the boys (I'll be cleaning pumpkin out of my cordless drill for a while), then getting the younger one kitted out to look like a blood-soaked serial killer. Once he was off with his friends, his older brother and I watched a movie and handed out candy. Very different from the early years of costume and candy mania.

Spent all day and night scaring the hell out of strangers at Six Flags. Good times. :)

Been sick most of the day, bad sinus infection. I am going to try and get some rest. Maybe give an update tomorrow (Sunday) night or Monday. Please bare with me.

Hope you feel better soon, DMA. We'll be around. Because we're in prison, and all.

@DMA:Ouch. Take you time: as Felrin said, we aren't going anywhere(until a certain old wizard stops chickening around...)

Your the DM, just fudge your Fort save behind the DM screen and you should be fine.

*Cheers for Erevan*

Likewise; you had some crappy luck with the dice roller in your last few posts, but it came through for you when the time was right!

@DM Asmodeus: Just FYI, I already rolled a 29 on Appraise and a 21 on Spellcraft (spoilered in the mechanics section), so that should be enough to get most of it.

So, let's see...

Things to do:
1)Heal Tkaara in some way
2)Check the other doors on the warden's floor (loot *.*)

Once we're done, do we want to burn the tower down to create a diversion? Or would that be detrimental to our plan of killing everyone in the prison? If we start the fire in the warden's bedchamber, the guards could very well think it to be an incident at first, and don't sound the alarm as soon as they see fire.

Thoughts?

I like the idea of a fire in the tower, to draw guards towards it as a distraction, while we make our way away from it. Plus, lighting things on fire is a good idea.

On an unrelated note, I'll be at a local con (with the good doctor!) starting tonight through the weekend, so my posting will be slow to none.

I am going to CarnageCon this weekend, so posting will remain slow. Had day 1 of a trial today, so I am a little drained. Fortunately, it just gets easier from here. Tkaara has one more CLW spell she can cast, then she is drained. She is a bit fragile at this point.

Personally, I am not a great fan of lighting the place on fire. If anyone is on the road nearby, they could alert guards or patrols from nearby towns. Tkaara would prefer getting out of her without alerting anyone, except the metabolically challenged guards left behind. That way, the alarm will not be raised until well into the next morning.

I agree that, while entertaining, starting a large fire might end up causing more harm than good. Don't know how close the prison is to the nearest town, but if villagers saw a blazing inferno in the tower they might send someone to investigate sooner rather than later. I say best bet is to kill/incapacitate EVERYONE in the prison, then leave quietly. That way no one knows immediately that we escaped, so no immediate pursuit and we can hopefully make a clean getaway.

That said, Tkaara, by all means heal yourself. The Doctor can still CLW himself if he needs to (hasn't had a scratch yet), and most of us are still in top shape. I say we finish looting the tower, ambush the patrolling guards, then pick off any remainders in the towers. As long as we face them in small groups we should be fine.

And like Felrin said, Con this weekend, so may be a bit slow posting. Happy Gaming, all!

Okay, no fire. :(
In that case, after we look in the remaining room of the tower, how do we proceed to kill the remainings guards?
It seems there are still 4 groups remaining: 2 that move around the walls,1 on the inner gate, and1 on the outer one.
I'm looking at the map now, and there is something I don't understand: if the guard's route is circular, how can they walk between the warden's tower? It doesn't seem that it's connected to the walls. :/

I still lean towards the fire as a distraction while we try to get out of the place, since the alternative involves several small fights, any one of which could easily attract other guards and turn into a big fight. Lighting the fire and escaping also gets us out sooner (and onto the next phase of the adventure).

If there's a strong feeling against it, I'll follow along. At this point we seem to have 2 for and 2 against lighting a fire.

Erevan, Hecate - do you have a view on the matter?

Depends on how much attention it attracts - just the guards is fine, but if there's any village nearby that's close enough to see the flames, that would be completely counterproductive as it would draw investigation.

Don't we have a map of the region? If there are no villages in sight (say 5-10 miles or so) then burn the place; otherwise, stealth is the way to go.

Group,

I am going to have to put this game on hold for a few weeks. As some of you know I run a Christmas business and this year it has hit full steam way earlier than I expected. We have had over a hundred orders per day over the last few days. While good for the business it is not so good for gaming. Or my free time.

I will pick the game back up as soon as Christmas is over. In early January. I hope to find each of you still around.

Sorry but sometimes our fun has to be put on hold for real life.

See everyone then.....

Sorry to hear it, but I understand the reality of it.

Perhaps while DMA is racking up the orders, the Forsaken can come up with a plan to move forward once the new year comes around?

Oh, okay. :(
In the meantime, I'll be here shredding the penny dreadfuls. If I tear them in small enough pieces, I'm sure I can build snowmen out of them. :P

@Plan:Yeah, I agree that it's best that we decide on something in the meantime. I'm in favor of starting the fire mostly because I want to get out of Brandescar as soon as possible. <.<
Also, we have few spells left, so I don't know if we could be able to take on all of the remainings guards. We're also almost out of healing: a couple lucky strikes on us squishy ladies and we'll be meeting Asmodeus soon enough.

Regarding the nearby villages being alerted: if we only use the fire as a diversion, the guard will still extinguish the fire. They will probably realize soon after that it was staged and that we escaped: that won't be that much of a problem, as we only need a little advantage on them. I think our mutual friebd said that where we had to go wasn't very far?

I am both delighted for you and sorry to hear that, DMA! Good luck with all the business and enjoy your non-denominational Winter gift-giving season! :P

@Felrin: It was a pleasure getting to meet you in person this weekend, and running an adventure for you! Sorry I was so dead tired, hope that didn't make me make too many mistakes. :D

All: Seems most of us want that fire, so I'll concede, much as I want to make all these people pay with my own two hands. 3:D

Also great to meet you, Doctor! You held up quite bravely being as short on sleep as you were, and my friends and I all commented afterward how much we enjoyed your characterization of the NPCs. The insufferable Asmodean solicitor, the money-grubbing slave merchant, the timid yet defiant slave girl - all were very memorably depicted, making the whole thing a very rich experience.

My son especially liked that, immediately after we saved the slave merchant's life, he offered to give us the information we wanted for only a few hundred gold pieces!

Thanks everyone. If early orders are a sign this is going to be one hell of a season for Santa Letters....

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I'll try to keep in touch if I don't get buried in orders.

Billy

Heh - no problem. Life has taken some strange twists for me, so having this slow for a bit is not going to kill me. If you get the chance to post from time to time, great, otherwise, I will be here when you get back.