Maybe we could throw every damage type we have at it, scan for weakness?
Okay, you, stab it. You, slash it. You, club it. You, burn it. You, ice it. You, hit it with acid. You, call down some thunder. You, use necrotic magic. You, magic missile. You... wait, we ran out of "you's."
Trying to communicate with it costs us nothing. We'd be idiots to not try.
I wanted to kill it to begin with, and I still do...my axe will work great!
Uuummm ... I don't mean to complain, but I guess that is exactly what I am about to do technically. Mended, you know I think you are a great DM! And in this case it's too late already, and I guess it doesn't matter much, but ... some crucial decisions and events happened all during a few short hours today. I was at work and things were too busy/crazy for me to be able to get in a post, and so events took a course that I didn't wholly agree with. Also there was a post from ... someone (Sorry I don't remember who now & since it no longer matters ...) who had asked Luna a question and Luna was never able to give a reply before things moved on. I realize things turned out ... okay, but things might have gone differently if everyone had a chance to make a post before the DM made the decision that the pants had been opened. I didn't see anyone make a post saying that they were going ahead and opening the pants as such. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just seems like equal opportunities for posting should be given before crucial decisions are taken.
And that's my 2 coppers.
I don't think it will help every time but I often use reply to refer back to events that I want to interact with, answer questions and so on.
Luna, I hear you. I agree the dynamic nature of PbP posting timing and availability is a liability of this particular form of gaming. It's the nature of the beast. I apologize if you feel like Luna's toes got stepped on there. That was, of course, not my intention. As for the removal of the pants... ... If you take a look at this post you'll see that Boddynuck is trying to tie a rope around the worm, with the express intent of strapping a large plank of wood to it. Tying a rope to the worm while it's still inside the pants would be pointless, as it wouldn't be able to burrow while still enclosed in the fabric. It was my assumption that in order to tie that rope around the worm, Boddynuck had to let it out of the pants, and hope he could grab it before it got away, thus his Strength check roll, which was awful. Had his STR roll been better, he may have actually grabbed the worm and been able to tie the rope, but as it was, that roll wasn't going to cut the mustard. The dice decided. ;)
I understand this is the nature of the beast to some degree, but that same post also said "if nobody else steps up" And I just got the feeling that no one else was given the chance to 'step-up' first. I was going to if I had the chance to post. Oh well. What's done is done. Just in the future maybe give some more time to allow others to get that chance to 'step-in' first? After all, that is also part of the nature of this beast, saying things like: "Luna sees Boddy about to open the pants, and she quickly reaches in to stop him." for example. But oh well. Moving on.
Just to be clear I am not upset or offended or anything like that. Just trying to make what is hopefully a helpful suggestion for the future.
Sounds like we finally got a 'break' in the case! ;)
Just a heads-up. Busy/crazy day & fighting a migraine. Not sure I'll be able to post anything today. If I feel better this evening I will. Sorry.
Yeah. My character is even the son of a tinker. I made him a forest gnome because the dex bonus and Natural Illusionist fit the character better than a con bonus and Artificer's Lore, but the Tinker ability would fit his backstory and the way I play the character (and the way I would like to play him) MUCH better than Speak with Small Beasts. Maybe I'll have to ask the GM if he'd let me get that ability some alternate way down the road...
Based on how I've thought about his father, it makes more sense for him to be a rock gnome. He never really knew his mother, but I imagine she would have been a forest gnome, making Quint half Rock Gnome and half Forest Gnome, so it WOULD make sense for him to have an unusual mixture of their abilities...
Quint doesn't have artisan's tools though, so he couldn't make use of the ability at the moment anyway, even if he had it.
Okay... A) Website change will take getting used to, but I'm thinking I like it, if for no other reason than it was way past due. B) About the in-game. I really wanted to provide everybody a voice here, because, as both Psalm and Quint pointed out, there is a really real possibility that these creatures are working with an organized hive mind, AND, they can put more than half of the party to sleep with magic, multiple times a day... Before everyone heads to the new gaping hole in the earth, is there anything you want to do to make sure it is easy to wake up people that are asleep?
I hate suggesting things to my players, I really want their play to be their play, but since you'll be "spelunking" anyway, tying a rope to everyone might not be a terrible idea. Obviously that will create some strange and interesting situations in combat, because movement would be severely restricted, but it would also allow for a still awake character to use their free object interaction in combat to yank on the rope and wake people up...
The reason I suggest this is because the worms do have a slam attack. Feeding on brain energy is how they eat, but they do have other forms of attack, problem is nobody has seen that yet in game, so your characters don't know that.
I'm going to post a little narrative bit to get you all at the entrance of the tunnel, at that point you can discuss or make any preparatory actions you want before heading underground. :)
OOh!!! Almost forgot. A note about "technology" in Eafphqu. My imagining of this world is that it is a very "dark ages" medieval existence.
I do think that geared clocks and watches are definitely around, but the people who make them are extremely rare, their genius undeniable, and their services sought after by the top .05% of the economic scale. Only the extremely wealthy would have a clock. Only kings would have a pocket watch, and even then its operation would be far from perfect.
Now, having said that, I do very much like the idea of one of the members of the party being a burgeoning artificer. The narrative hook there is just too juicy to pass up, and your characters are destined to be world movers by the time all is said and done. The way the game handles that sort of skill training is through their downtime system. Under "Training" it says that training in new languages or skills could be accomplished during downtime. It also, though, says that the character has to find a suitable trainer, and pay 1gp a day for 250 days in order to add an additional proficiency skill to their list. Since Quint has some decent story elements for his father being an amateur artificer (read: tinker), I'd be willing to let him train with his father, remove the gp cost entirely, and cut the number of days in half. Even then we're talking about 125 days to add proficiency with artificer's tools. Unfortunately, my rule about if you haven't used it you can switch it, applies here, and Quint has already made at least one post describing his ability to talk with small animals, so that ability is stuck.
As always, it's our game, not my game, so please hit me with any variant discussion points you have on this, or ideas, or rules that I might be overlooking. :)
Gaming necessity: travel order/pattern.
Tunnel is 10' wide so you can travel 2 by 2 or single file. Please start the discussion about travel order until we have a consensus; I can't really get to the descent into madness without it.
Thanks!
MW
Since Quint has some decent story elements for his father being an amateur artificer (read: tinker), I'd be willing to let him train with his father, remove the gp cost entirely, and cut the number of days in half. Even then we're talking about 125 days to add proficiency with artificer's tools.
Quint's father is dead, so training with him at some future date isn't really an option. We could maybe say that his father taught him how to use the tools when he was younger, but he hasn't had access to a set of tools (and probably wasn't the most attentive student at the time), so he needs that time once he acquires the tools to re-learn how to use them.
As for the travel order/pattern question, while there's something to be said for tying a rope to everyone, and it's probably a good idea if we end up on a cliff or something, I think we're probably better off spreading out so that we can't all be put to sleep at once, at least if there's room to do so. A narrow passage isn't ideal for that strategy, obviously.
While putting a (half-)elf up front makes some sense, it would also be useful to have a stealthy scout go first to check things out. With a +8, Quint is probably the stealthiest member of the party.
I will be second in line so as to attack quickly. I do not believe we will have the luxury of spreading out, but when we can, we should.
I'll take the rear. I use ranged attacks and will probably survive being jumped.
Jun will also take point or near the front, as a Samurai should.
We should pair up. One elf will get 2 of us. That way we can spread out but still have someone who can yank us awake via a rope around our belts. That should give us enough room to move, spread out and deal with the sleep.
Since Quint has some decent story elements for his father being an amateur artificer (read: tinker), I'd be willing to let him train with his father, remove the gp cost entirely, and cut the number of days in half. Even then we're talking about 125 days to add proficiency with artificer's tools.Quint's father is dead, so training with him at some future date isn't really an option. We could maybe say that his father taught him how to use the tools when he was younger, but he hasn't had access to a set of tools (and probably wasn't the most attentive student at the time), so he needs that time once he acquires the tools to re-learn how to use them.
Ah, okay, forgot that bit of backstory, my bad. Still okay with the halved time and no gp cost though.
Another thing we have to talk about is light. There are those in the group that don't have darkvision (Shenkt and Nikeisha) who are going to need a steady source of light. Who's providing it, and where?
Okay taking everyone's volunteerism into account, I think a good order would be:
Lindaer and Quint (providing Quint the opportunity to scout ahead and then return if desired)
Shenkt and Jun
Gomdebo and Psalm
Boddynuck and Luna
Nikeisha
That order spreads the elf-kin evenly throughout the marching order providing them the ability shake awake any that fall asleep pretty quickly.
Sound good? Let me know about the light soure, and give me a yea or nay on that order, and we'll get things going in the tunnels. :)
@Quint if you're going to scout, please give me a short narrative post in gameplay that explains that and include a stealth skill roll in it. Thanks!
The order looks great!
Just a heads-up everybody. The new website does NOT seem to indicate anywhere that I could tell that I had a new PM! I had to click on "My Account", then on "Private Messages", and then look in my inbox! Ridiculous! Everybody! Please keep this in mind if you are sending any PM's here!
Yeah, that's a major screw up. Hoopefully it'll get fixed - I really hope they bring back the Hello -PersonsNameHere- and the little mail notification envelope next to it.
One bit of strategy we haven't discussed, I don't believe Sleep discriminates between allies and enemies, and we've already demonstrated that they're not immune to it. It simply targets creatures with fewer hitpoints first, so if we get in close with the enemy and take away enough of their hit points that we have more, other worms that try to put us to sleep will put them to sleep first. It's certainly not a "Plan A" strategy, but keep it in mind for the plans F-Z files.
Jun is just going to forge forward and kill them all. It is the samurai way, after all.
As well as the barbarian way...this group tends to overthink these things, a bit. My character certainly would not be a strategic thinker.
As well as the barbarian way...this group tends to overthink these things, a bit. My character certainly would not be a strategic thinker.
Yup, typical of most Barbarians. Thus the rage abilities. Rage & rush in without thinking. ;-)
Spreading out is solid, so we can't all be hit by one spell. Intermingling should also work for our Close Combat Monsters. Beyond that...I think we've done what we can for level 1 characters fighting a saveless spam of spells.
It might be a sandbox "anything is too much choice" problem vs. a linear approach the next lead is here.
I can't think of anything characters of our level could do beyond hoping we could get additional personnel. Which is valid.
Psalm is a studier but 1- so far no one has shared additional resources and so on. 2- Our actions might be why the worms are acting in new ways; causing sinkholes and that might get worse quick. These are leaning him toward lets go to it now.
The idea is that you wind the mechanism like a watch (or perhaps a mechanical kitchen timer is a better analogy), tensioning the mainspring. The device has a catch to hold the mechanism in place. Once combat starts (or when you think it is about to start), you release the catch (an object interaction, which you have to do on the first round of initiative if you're surprised, but can do out of initiative if you're not), after which the device gives you a kick (using a portion of the stored energy) every 6 seconds until A: there isn't enough stored energy left in the mainspring, or B: You reactivate the catch (at which point you would probably wind it again to have it ready for next time).
The kick required to wake you from magical sleep would require a significant amount of energy relative to keeping a watch running (which is simply an issue of offsetting loss to friction over time, which is minimized by good watch design), so I figure such a device would probably only be able to run for a few minutes before it needs winding again, but that's plenty of time for a typical combat encounter. A mechanical kitchen timer takes more force to wind and runs for less time because it needs more stored energy to create audible ticks and to strike a bell at the end, which is why it's actually closer to what I have in mind.
While it's running, obviously, you would want to make sure that the kick doesn't happen right as you're trying to release an arrow or cast a spell, but since the kicks would occur at a very regular interval, you would be able to predict them as long as you remain conscious, and time your attacks to happen right after.
A more advanced design could include a gravity-operated catch mechanism, so that it would only give you a kick if you're not standing upright. This version of the device would be slightly more complicated, but wouldn't need an interaction to "arm" the device when you go into combat, and (because it only gives you a kick when you fall prone, vs. every 6 seconds whether you need it or not) would need winding less often.
It just occurred to me that I DO have the alarm spell as a ritual.
The following is definitely NOT Rules as written. But its kind of maybe sufficiently in shtick that it might work as a ritual :-)
Can I slightly modify that spell so that I put it on a person and it goes off if they fall asleep? Or if they hit the ground? Or the like.
Sorry Boddy, but doing that would require changing the spell significantly. The language of the spell is very specific about what it can target. "Choose a door, a window, or an area within range that is no larger than a 20-foot cube." It is also a fixed location, not mobile, like a character is. That might be something that could be researched for future use; however, for the time being, I think you all have prepared as much as you can. I'll be working on an encounter post here immediately.
If we survive this . . .
I just realized. Yes I know too late. If sleep targets lowest hit points first we could bring baby chicks from the local farm.
Canaries in the mine.
I suggested essentially that with the pets we already have with us, but the GM vetoed it.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
It would have been more fluffy to bring in a mob of farmers with torches and pitch forks. Not to do any fighting, really. But instead to just light the caverns for us and to absorb the sleep spells.
I can see it now... Lindaer stands on the back of a wagon addressing the nearby townsfolk, getting ready to rally them to their cause.
*Ahem* "People of Midvale! Who here could use a really good nap!?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Fear not, folks, your brains aren't as delicious as ours!"
...does anyone have a good song for Irony? Because I feel that moment deserves a Theme Song.
...the sadly ironic part is I can't think of a better one, hence why I asked.
Note to self, for invincibility against melee give a dog a sleeping potion and drop its body in front of me. Or tell gnome companion to take a nap a second. ;P
That might actually be a really solid tactic, unless the enemy had a reach weapon. If they didn't it would at least buy you some rounds worth of actions while they either grappled and moved the sleeping thing, or took the time to kill it, and thereby turn it into an object. Neither of those would take too long with a dog. ;)