Way of the Wicked - the Fall of Andoran (Inactive)

Game Master increddibelly

What is my role right now?

You were going to kill some ravens... I haven't forgotten you, but I only have two hands and one brain :-)
You're up next though.

Letho - before I forget, could you please put your character sheet into your description?
If you click on your name, and then on Oret for example, you'll see what I mean. I had to go look up your initiative modifier in my mail - it's easier if the details are available here ;)

Oh I mean I wasn't sure if I had something to do after that. I figured the worst thing that could happen is I have to take out a few guards on the way, I can't imagine it being guarded too heavily

edit: read gameplay thread. oh joy lol

yeah, the rookery is surprisingly eventful. I'm glad you decided to go alone, this may get interesting...!

over 1500 posts :) that's a nice milestone.
As I said before, I'm going AFK soon. We probably won't start the siege of Balentyne before that, as it'll be a shame to rush that scene.

TBH you've done quite a lot to reduce the defenses of the fortress. I think you're ready. However, there are still a few loose ends, loose ideas some of you have suggested.

I do hope we can close off all the loose ends this week, before Thursday, so that the last thing we do before I go off is shoot the fireworks in the air, call the bugbear army and start the siege.

I do love cliffhangers ;)

I think the battle in Courier's Lane is almost over. My only hope is that one of them will escape, somehow. We'll finish the battle until either side stops resisting, either by choice or by lack of hit points.
I never hope to have such an unlucky streak again - none of them actually succeeded at anything...

Do any of you have anything left to do, before we send the signal to Sakkarot?

Hi guys, my apologies about my absence the last week. There is a lot going on work related which keeps me busy till late.

Secondly, I have to admit that I find it quite difficult to connect to the gameplay and the story. Altough I DM for over 15 years now PlayByPost is new to me and I clearly need some time to get used to it. (Now I sound like an old guy :-))

Give me some time...

Never say never! I'd like to get back to town to corner the good Father in preparation to impersonate him tomorrow (and also to order the acolytes to gather as much holy oil or any other kind of oil that the Father will subsequently 'bless').

Is there still a plan for the play Sindran?

Oh, and don't worry Letho... PbP is a different animal than tabletop. You may just need time to get used to it.

I think everything will be over by the actors arrive, but don't worry—I have in mind a play of a different kind.

And Letho, I echo Caladwhen's sentiments! PbP is quite a different beast. I'm sure that if I tried to tabletop, I'll start out quite awful at it as my only experience is in online roleplaying. They're very different approaches using different mediums. But either way, just have fun!

Correct me if I'm wrong:
Once the rangers are dead (which seems inevitable, the way things are going), you'll all return to town?

Wednesday morning, the memorial service.
Sindran is planning to 'replace' father Donnagin, by entering in disguise and then simply killing him in his sleep. You've all become pretty good at that, so I'll be happy to handwaive it.
Once Sindran takes Father D's place, and appearance, he has such a cool story prepared... You don't need me to interfere. The show is all yours!

You've prepared very well for the siege. I think the plan was to shoot the fireworks in the sky once the memorial service is started, and at that time, Cala's Golem will attempt to open the gates.

Now, I'm going to focus on my my expert-level tetris again: kids + holiday + car boot equals math + art + much yelling...

We'll pick the story up again in two weeks!

Have fun, DM! :D

I don't see anything else we're going to do so, yes, returning to town. With Captain Varning's body in tow for Caladwhen, of course.

Oh, since I'm going to decide when the service starts, I'll have the fireworks to signal you all when I'm keeping them distracted. That fine?

Sounds good Sindran.

I wonder if we can get some RP in while our lovely DM is gone. Talon is still a little rough when it comes to our newcomer. Also he's taken a bit more of a liking to Cala

Sounds good Sindran.

I wonder if we can get some RP in while our lovely DM is gone. Talon is still a little rough when it comes to our newcomer. Also he's taken a bit more of a liking to Cala

Uh oh, that could be trouble.

Seriously though, I'd be down for some role playing. Has the battle with Varning totally wrapped up?

I imagine so. Someone just needs to deal the finishing blow to Varning and then deal with the scout right next to me, because Sindran is lazy. We could just handwave it for now since they're pretty much doomed.

And I'm up for the roleplaying. Hey, we might even get to see Caladwhen at work with Varning's corpse!

Talon Dalkar wrote:

Sounds good Sindran.

I wonder if we can get some RP in while our lovely DM is gone. Talon is still a little rough when it comes to our newcomer. Also he's taken a bit more of a liking to Cala

Uh oh, that could be trouble.

Seriously though, I'd be down for some role playing. Has the battle with Varning totally wrapped up?

Hey now, just because I want the human race annihilated doesn't mean i haven anything against elves lol

Your agenda wouldn't extend to half-humans, would it? *whistles innocently*

Ooh that's actually very interesting Sindran, I'll have to think on that...

He would just have to exterminate half of your race. ;)

Before I decide what I want Aerent doing, can I get confirmation of the golem's commands?

Definitely going to sneak in via the secret tunnel during the night, just not sure what I'm doing after that.

The Golem was set to open the gates and portcullis first and foremost, and then lay waste to as many guards as possible. The golem is set to do it at a prearranged time (just before the attack by the Bugbear forces) as both a major distraction to our goals inside, as well as getting the gates open for us.

Does that help?

Cala's original commands weren't very specific, but I'll go with cala's intentions instead of the literal text.
Just don't phrase your Wishes this way, or I'll go crazy with them ;)

Understood ;)

We did discuss bringing Varning's body back for Cala, so I don't think it's a retcon to say we did it. Fine with leaving his gear intact for now. Aerent wants to keep his keys though.

Aerent is going to sneak in through the secret tunnel late at night. He plans to disguise himself as a servant and visit the kitchen where he gathers some food and drink then heads toward the gatehouse. Hopefully, he will get a chance to put out the fires heating the sand, maybe kill some guards.

Are the people heading to Balentyne in favor of investigating (and fighting) the archons in there?

I'll get to work on a map.

Thx DM, you da best

That won't get you any bonuses.

Bluff: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

somebody's confident...!

while the current stealth mission allows me to switch back from vacation mode, I'd like everyone to know that I've never split the party as much as in this game - and I intend to keep you more together for the next.

I love stealth missions, but they're generally more fun when the rest of the crew also has something to do - which now isn't the case.

Bear with us; soon, you will unleash a bugbear horder upon an unsuspecting country, and every soldier in Balentyne, every last man, woman and child in Aldencross, and their brother, their uncle, and their neighbour's dog will know that their country is about to be overrun - and they will all try to stop you.

No worries... I'll just kick back with some popcorn for now :)

Ya it happens, I'm sure when open combat breaks out I'll have a mini spotlight lol

well, thanks for understanding. With a little give and take like that, I'm sure we'll take over the world at some point.

although, on second thought: for us to take over the world, we'll need a lot more take than give. obviously.

Apologies for the slow posting. University work is kicking my butt to heck. I'd say hell, but if that was true, I'd be around a lot more.

Re: Litanies.
Hm. I'm used to abilities that either require an attack roll from the caster, or give a save to the target; but litanies apparently need neither, they *just work*.
That's unfortunate. Only few spells allow that.
But to top it off, they require a swift action to cast one, so you can do even more in the same round.
If this were my tabletop game, I'd say this is broken. But I don't want to do it like that here.

Can I ask for all your opinions on Litany Spells?
would they become more fair if we houserule them and add a ranged attack / will save? or do they not need fixing?

In my experience, the 1 round duration makes them so situational that they aren't that unbalanced. Even the more powerful ones only last 1 round. And they do allow SR, so they start becoming much less useful in a few levels. So I don't think they need to be changed.

That said, I totally understand your position and respect your opinion. I have no problem if you decide to house rule litanies so they function differently.

I tend to agree with Aerent, insomuch as the litany spell has a highly specific intent and extremely short duration. More importantly, it doesn't prevent spell-casting, just defensive spell-casting. To somebody like Caladwhen, this could be potentially devastating, but to tougher combatants like Father D or say Talon, it simply means they might have to resort to other means for a single round (i.e melee).

Having said that, I appreciate what you're saying IB, and wouldn't take issue if you felt this needing a slight intervention. A swift action and no save does make it extremely effective for the situation it was designed for, perhaps even a little too effective.

Been following your adventures and this is a great RP group!

I think Talon could use a new Avatar ;)

Trying to do some coordination:

DMI, Aerent would like to head over to the area around 3, 4, 5, and 6 to try and figure out what's in those rooms. He's got the keys from Varding if any of those fit the locks.

Also, can Aerent tell how many soldiers are on duty in the gatehouse and on the bridges? Areas 18, 19, 24, and 25.

Aerent would be willing to shoot the flare. He's going to (try and) be inside the gatehouse when the golem attacks, so he'd be in a good position to fire it.

cool, Aerent!
Those rooms are the officers' quarters; I'll need one stealth roll for each room you're trying to get into. Varning's key does fit on one of them.

There are some soldiers on duty, but as you know by personal experience, they will need to come at you in SERIOUS numbers before they pose any threat. However, their numbers have been seriously reduced due to the arsenic poisoning.
I'd like to think that there are soldiers on duty, but they are no longer a problem, because they aren't strong enough by themselves, and there simply aren't enough of them left to cause enough trouble.

Stealth checks, eh? Well, that's going to be ... interesting. :)

Stealth: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (20) - 2 = 18
Stealth: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (5) - 2 = 3
Stealth: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (2) - 2 = 0
Stealth: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (7) - 2 = 5

I'll go ahead and add some Bluff checks in case they're needed.

Bluff: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18
Bluff: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14
Bluff: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12
Bluff: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15

Just let me know what happens!

moved Aerent's nosing around on to gameplay.

Oret will do what he can to disrupt any efforts against the golem, so that it has a better chance of taking out the gates. He'll hide until such time as they rally against it, then he'll do what he can to take out the group flanking with the golem whenever possible.

Stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19
Stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21
Stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25
Stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

Good idea Oret.
The golem starts in the laboratory(40); I think you'll follow it's path?
40 -> 39 -> 36 -> 34 -> 31 -> 27 -> 32 -> 24 -> 25 -> gate.
At 30ft / round that'll take about 25 rounds if there are no interventions.

I think the path would go from 27, up the stairs south from 29 to get on the wall, to 24 (thus bypassing 32).

I'm assuming that the golem won't likely cause much alarm until it emerges from the keep? If that's the case, Oret will be hanging around in the courtyard (27) assisting where needed until the golem emerges from the keep. At that point, he'll do what he can to help the golem along.

Of course, if the golem will need simple things like doors opened, etc., Oret will be more than happy to precede the golem doing those sorts of things where needed.

Excellent.

Cala, Talon, and Letho? Where will you be hanging out innocently, while we all count down until the mayhem starts?

Wherever I'm needed. I was worried about the golem as well, mostly if they had some sort of spellcaster who could disable it. When the mayhem starts I want to get some minor illusion magic on me so it looks like Satan himself is leading the army lol

Hehe :)
Would anyone like to tell Talon where to go?

Intelligence: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17

Nope, not Sindran.