Ok, that works just fine. I was simply worried about the issues of managing said team if I didn't keep them with me but it sounds like that's not really an issue.
In that case, since my team will at one point or another leave the main settlement, I would happily take a team of soldiers at the moment. They could be upgraded to archers at a later date. Easily fluffed as Gair eventually getting around to crafting bows for the team.
Um, well if I'm going to be taking them hunting I would very much prefer a team of Archers though they are rather expensive. Though fairly efficient on a cost to bonus ratio.
I agree that the soldiers aren't ideal. I would suggest that if we go the archer route, we start with soldiers and then upgrade them to archers - in the meantime, they can earn capital towards their upgrade or something else.
Regarding the size of scouting parties, I think we set the teams going in the background. The soldiers or archers could be set to hunt or forage or build or whatever else (I'm thinking of the idea of soldier as some Native Americans did - when not at war, they were used for community improvement, rather than being barracked and in training). Gair could go out with his scouting party and the archers could be set to something else.
Also, Cueta will need something to do when she gets back. She could potentially take a team scouting or tag along with Gair's group, if she's wanted. She's probably not interested in hanging out in town, as she would see her skills better used doing things like threat assessment (i.e. scouting).
Post in the discussion thread coming up soon.
Excellent Ceuta, you would be more than welcome. I was thinking that the scouting party could definitely use another member at the very least.
I am good with how ever you all want to spend the initial capital. I will want some of it back Later I am thinking of building a boat for my brother to fish from and will need some sailors.
How would I go about building a boat mechanically?
I've been thinking about this too. I was thinking I'd build a large canoe, with the cost (and Nerk's permission) equal to a rowboat. I can use craft (carpentry) to build one, and will probably take craft (shipbuilding) at some point. If you want to go in on the canoe's materials, we could both use it until more are built. If Nerk allows it, the canoe would be 1/3 of 50 gp in startup materials and then built via craft checks.
Just came across the Voyageur 3rd party class when I checked the SRD for canoes. It seems ideally suited for our scenario, but I haven't really looked at in depth. I'm not likely to use it, but it may be of interest.
Anyway, building a rowboat/canoe would work just like Cueta said. The precise methodology would depend on what tools you have available, but all a simple dugout needs is wood, fire, water and a good scraper. Like a stone axe head.
Just came across the Voyageur 3rd party class when I checked the SRD for canoes. It seems ideally suited for our scenario, but I haven't really looked at in depth. I'm not likely to use it, but it may be of interest.
Anyway, building a rowboat/canoe would work just like Cueta said. The precise methodology would depend on what tools you have available, but all a simple dugout needs is wood, fire, water and a good scraper. Like a stone axe head.
That's a pretty great class for this campaign. Its also pretty cool flavorwise - the designer new his colonial rivermen pretty well.
Regarding the canoe, when we're a little more stable, I plan on building one or more. I just can't see spending the time right now though, when we have so many other concerns.
Alright, we should get the recruitment of our teams started right away. As we can convert our initial capital freely, it's easiest to just think of it as 600gp total.
Purchasing a team of Craftspeople and one of Soldiers costs 420gp, leaving us with 180gp worth of capital. Thus far it sounds like we are agreed on these purchases at least. Both will be completed in 2 days.
What else would we like to purchase with the remaining capital?
Something to fish with? That would tap into a different food source.
Well, we could afford either a team of laborers, guards, or sailors at 120gp or less. Sailors may be a little weird to have without a boat, though.
You mean like sailors?
I just noticed that a Garden is exactly 180gp, it's not quite as diverse as fish as far as food goes but since the salvage seems to be going well, perhaps the fish angle could be looked into with some of the resources you lovely people bring back?
Plus I think there might be something to be said for having our own personal food source, one that can be shared as needed but also used to keep fed any more exotic expeditions we might want to embark on in future :)
Plus I think there might be something to be said for having our own personal food source, one that can be shared as needed but also used to keep fed any more exotic expeditions we might want to embark on in future :)
That's a good point.
Well guys, its been fun, but I don't think I can keep up with you, and I feel like I am just holding you back. I'm simply just too busy to keep up with a game like this. Be proud of yourselves for that, because this is the most active PbP I have seen in a while.
Feel free to keep Garrak on as a resource and NPC.
Have fun
Awww. Are you sure you won't have more time in the future Garrak? If you're just busy for a little while, hang in there!
Nerk: Before we can start building things out of stone, we'd need quarriable rock, people to cut it, transportation, etc first yes?
Well in a few weeks, I am done with the semester, but a few months after that, I'll be in grad school. So while there would be a few months I could keep up, I'd be able to post even less after.
Congrats on Graduating and Grad School!
We will miss you.
Just curious, grad school in what? I'm in a Master's program in chemistry, but given the nature of my studies there is a lot of sitting around and waiting for processes to complete. Plenty of time for posting on boards.
PhD program in Bioinformatics and Genetics.
Vallen: if you're after cut and dressed stone, yeah, you're out of luck. The streams spilling through your hex produce plenty of nicely rounded rocks, though, for rougher work, and someone (Horn'Tos?) can probably work up some kind of mortar.
Sorry to see you go Garrak.
Salvage crew are we just ignoring the moving boats for now?
At this point, I'm pretty happy with the five remaining players in our group. (I was happy with Garrak, too, but his reasons for bowing out are good, and I'm counting on him to be able to turn me into a half-orc) We seem to all be into it and having a good time, and I hope we're striking the right balance of challenging and fun.
Given the complexity of everything we have going on, situational houserules we've made and so on, I'm hesitant to try to bring in a replacement for Garrak. On the other hand, it's your game as much as mine, so I definitely want your thoughts.
I am cool with either adding in another person or keeping it at 5. Having a full arcane caster around is handy though but we could just NPC Garrak along when needed.
We'll miss you Garrak, best of puck in Grad School!
I'm fairly content with 5 players. I agree that there would be a fairly rough acclimation period for anyone new attempting to join our ranks.
Of course that said, if we do want a sixth now would be the time to do it as it's only going to get harder to catch up. I'll agree that an arcane caster would be helpful.
I'm fine with 5. Good luck, Garrack!
I won't be back until tonight- Sorry I have to leave when action is happening in Newspring! Feel free to keep going, Vallen will assist Gair of course.
Five works for me too. Garrack you are obviously a lot smarter than I am. Good luck in grad school.
Kal'Tos the canoes full of natives were headed out of the area there was no way we could have interacted with them. The four of us in a rowboat chasing canoes with six people paddling we could never catch them. especially since Zik and I are only 3 feet tall.
I misunderstood then. I thought they were heading towards the beached boats.
Ban and Kal'Tos - how should we approach this camp? We should probably leave Zik, the dog, and hide the boat if possible. Since Ben and I have stealth, perhaps we should stagger ourselves. One of us 30' feet in front of the next, and then Kal'Tos 30' behind. The idea being that scout 1 can collapse to scout 2 if there is any trouble, while Kal'Tos can come up to scout 2.
Or we have one person scout with the others 30ft behind them?
Or we have one person scout with the others 30ft behind them?
Works for me. Ben, you have better perception and stealth than me. Want to take point?
sure
Arrrgh Nerk I was attached to that sailor! I was going to save him and ask him all kinds of questions! I didn't even know his name...
This is what I get for getting attached to npcs.
On the matter of stone masonry- Okay that's what I wanted to know. So a bit of rough stone, could build a frumpy house or wall out of it. We have plenty of wood to work with right now, we can stick to that. Hopefully Vallen can make his own mortar, I made him a prodigal stone mason/sculptor and such.
Sorry, Vallen, of course you can make mortar, I wasn't looking at your sheet. With your skills and tools, you could be building pretty much whatever you want.
Oh interesting. Hmmmmm temptation to start a team of stonemasons instead of carpenters.... What say the rest of the group? Wood is definitely going to be more plentiful and stone will likely cost more/take longer.
Fine with me, Vallen!
Works for me, it's really just a cosmetic choice in the end. I'll happily deffer to dwarven expertise here!
We are going to have 2 longboats soon even when the Lillend takes theirs with them so sailors would be good.
By the way the longboats could they be fitted out with a mast and sail? Not right away but later on after we get back to the Newspring?
We are going to have 2 longboats soon even when the Lillend takes theirs with them so sailors would be good.
By the way the longboats could they be fitted out with a mast and sail? Not right away but later on after we get back to the Newspring?
You're more optimistic than I...
Yes, they certainly could be fitted with masts and sails. It was fairly standard equipment, so they actually probably have masts and sails. Obviously, the sails from the Lillend's boat were used to create shelters. Otherwise, you guys wouldn't have had to row so much.
you just had to go and knock holes in the boats didn't ya :(
Sadly they won't sail anywhere but to the bottom of the ocean with holes in them. I"m sure they can be repaired, but maybe not today? If you're going to return for another salvage operation (perhaps with the whole group?) Vallen and Cueta could make on-sight repairs and use those boats to haul salvage.
Vallen has artificer's touch, which allows him to cast mending at will (1d4 hp repair to objects). However, given the complexity/damage Nerk will probably have Vallen make a carpentry check, or the damage will be too severe to fix with such a low-level spell.
Nope.
Mending would do it (several castings, but so?)
And they could probably be patched pretty fast.
Craft: carpentry or shipbuilding. DC 15 check every hour. 2 successes per boat.
In that case, we could recover the longboats when we make a second trip out there. Unless you're anticipating rescuing the folks who came in the longboats and having them use the boats to escape.
Well, I think if the possibility exists that there are people from our boats that have been captured by cannibals, we have to explore it. Though I'd really like to everyone together to do so, time may be short.
@Kal'Tos - I agree about Zik. I don't like the idea of leaving him for awhile. On the other hand, I don't know if taking him into a potential combat situation is advisable either. I guess it is really the best option among two bad ones that we have to choose.
What if:
One of us works on patching the boat, one of us scouts ahead one hour and back, and one of us goes back and retrieves Zik. All told, we would each meet up at the beach in 2 hours accomplishing much. Of course, splitting the party may be a really bad idea...
I don't know if they were captured by the cannibals. The took all the stuff from the Harpy with them. I don't know that the native would have taken it all they would have just taken things that they could see an immediate use for or thought were cool liked.
We know that there are cannibals nearby, both boats have been holed, but made it to the beach somehow, that a large group of people made their way into the forest, and that people have gone east in canoes.
There's a few different possibilities that I can think of, but the worst goes something like this: The survivors of the Harpy beached here, were soon overtaken by cannibals, marched off into the woods and are currently being put into the stew-pot. The cannibals took the goods with the people, and not knowing how to operate the larger longboats, holed them to prevent escape until they figure out how to use them. Some of the cannibals are now scouting the coastline looking for other ships (perhaps they communicated somehow with the Harpy survivors, or they just suspect it, or they saw other ships). You are now walking into a nest of hornets.
The best case scenario that I can think of: the survivors of the Harpy made their way in the boats to the shore, where somehow both boats were damaged. The survivors ran into a group of really nice natives, who took the survivors back to their homes for feasting and dancing. Some of the natives took to canoes, being made aware of the possible presence of other ships, and are now looking for us to provide us with a home as well. You are now walking into a celebration.
Cueta, being the cautious type, believes what happened is option 1 and hopes for option 2. DM Nerk, being the constantly surprising sort of GM, probably has option 3 up his sleeve, which I have't even considered.
Or the survivors got to shore and left the boats, which the cannibals damaged to prevent people from leaving.
Or the survivors got to shore and left the boats, which the cannibals damaged to prevent people from leaving.
And then followed the group into the forest because they're cannibals and are hungry, and were either beaten back and left in canoes, or some left in canoes while the rest add our compatriots to the stew-pot. I guess they could also have just shown a surprising lack of curiosity and holed the boats while going to get their buddies and come back.
Certainly a better option than #1, but only if we can get off the beach before they come back, and we have two boats to repair or a lot of people to get into our boat.
If the cannibals were the native in the canoes and we don't know that they were. and if they captured the survivors of the Harpy, where are the canoes of the ones that are holding the survivors captive? If they came in the canoes that left then there wouldn't be enough to hold the survivors captive. There had to be quiet a few survivors. they managed to strip the ship of useful items in a couple of days and when they left the beach they left a clear trail to follow.
If the cannibals were the native in the canoes and we don't know that they were. and if they captured the survivors of the Harpy, where are the canoes of the ones that are holding the survivors captive?
They took the canoes with them? Portaging them back to their village along with the goods and the people? They made the survivors carry the goods that they stripped off the boat before they went ashore?
I dunno. Cueta is the cautious type - she'll always take the long and safe route. I'm hoping I'm wrong - certainly wouldn't be the first or last time, today even!
Kal'Tos, shall we follow the trail or wait for Ben, or follow the trail after a certain amount of time if Ben doesn't show?