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

Game Master increddibelly

yah, me too. I've been barking like a hell hound since friday.
I'm convinced that some day, all of humankind will eventually succumb to a multi-resistent version of the common cold - we already can't cure the current strands before a new one pops up, and eventually a strong one will pop up and we're simply going to eat it. who's on top of the food chain then, biotsh!
but until that day, I'll just bark like a hell hound.

Welcome back, Aerent! Hope you enjoyed yer vacation. *grins*

And sympathy on sicknesses. Been a lot of it going around lately. Hope y'all get better soon.

Okay, sorry for the absence folks... I've quite literally been bed ridden since Sunday. Suffice it to say, the anti-biotics have finally kicked in and I'm feeling much better today. Now to catch up and post!

Hi, Cala! Glad to see ya've gotten better.

Other than the weapons we have on board the ship, do we have any other metal we can use to trade with White Tusk?

...the anchor?

Is there any armor in the cargo we're carrying, or just weapons?

I think a few weapons would do fine, this is a steal with how much that item is worth

Lol. the anchor

Two longswords, that should be about 8 lbs.

On different news, next week I start a teaching contract that is full-time until the end of June. This means I'll probably be able to post only once or twice a day after 3pm EST from Monday-to-Friday. I'll be less frequent in my posts, but still present.

Yeah, but as a lawful character who agreed to deliver the cargo, Aerent isn't cool with handing over the swords.

But I'm not going to let the party get screwed over either. Aerent has some metal he can trade.

True, but with the proceeds we can easily purchase new swords and replenish the stock and pocket a tidy profit.

My compliments on not being comfortable with selling the Cardinal's gear, Aerent. Thorn would've loved your sentiment. However, Cala has an excellent point as well - and missing out on an opportunity like this, could be taken as a sign of weakness... Choices, choices...

Since you didn't rob the crew of the Blade of st. Martius, your other options are your own (backup-)daggers / swords / arrows, or perhaps some of the crew are willing to sell their rather meager daggers for a steep price? Besides swords and axes, there are a few creates of chain shirts and shields in the Frosthamar's hold as well.

There's weapons you can use in the crates below, so you wouldn't be 'naked' and you'd still be able to deliver them and keep your promise.

Also, grats on your contract Cala :) what will people be learning from you, if I may ask?

Thanks IB :) I teach history and business at the high school level. I'm looking forward to it.

cheeky folks, those Yutak!

No worries, I figured out how Aerent can make it work. :)

I'm with Cala, we can throw in a few gold pieces to refill what we took from the stock. We're making a killing anyways

Meh, wrong thread. These forums are a right b*#$# to navigate on a phone. We need apps in 2013.

Meh, wrong thread. These forums are a right b%~!@ to navigate on a phone. We need apps in 2013.

Agreed.

it's too late now to edit, but Oret is obviously strong enough to hold a wheel. you'll also get taught.

Okay, I just caught up. The bit with the captain and the "commodore" aboard the Blade of St. Martius -- that was flippin' brilliant. Perhaps the best solution to the ship problem I've read.

Great job, guys.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

waheyyy villains, that's high praise!

Sweet, good work too Talon and Sindran on that one.

Sorry for the absence last night, I fell asleep earlier... still fighting this damn infection.

oh about 90 percent of the credit goes to sindran, i just helped to fill a role

Sorry to hear that, Caladwhen. Sickness sucks. =/ Hope it disappears entirely soon.

And aww, shucks. Thank you for the compliment.

Full disclosure: I was thinking of James Norrington and the Pirates of the Carribean the whole time.

Hmm. I forgot about that +2 skill points per level house rule. Haven't implemented it since level 1. Did everyone do that? Maybe I was the only one who did it. Might add my remaining 4 skill points if they're still applicable.

Well, the idea is that you're more capable folks than Andorans in general. That, and you should be self-sufficient for most of your career...so you should indeed take 2 bonus skill points per level

As Talon suggested, these bugbears are more of a primitive leadership motivation. Aerent, perhaps you, as a godly weapon impersonated, should try and convince them?

if you ever feel like stuff should just 'work' one way or another, e.g. like Talon just did with the Bugbear cultural attitude, just post like that; as long as you post about feelings / reactions, and I can post about facts, then your story gives me plenty of room to steer the story, and I promise I will run with it.

odd indeed. But, since it's Sor2/Drd2/Wiz2 and since it's not going to kill any of my good guys in one strike, go ahead and use it like you said:

Searching the boards some, the assumption is that bonus spells land in slots equal to the highest level spell that the spellcaster can cast at the time

thanks for posting the changes here, that makes it easier on me :)

Hopefully I'll be back in game. I'm sorry I've been out, I was out of town and family was in, but finally things have settled down. I also started pole vaulting which hopefully won't detract from time with you guys :P.

Arryn, you have a PM about those stats.

Caladwhen Lv 4

BAB +1
Will +1
Spells: +1 1st and 2nd

Hit Points: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Stat: +1 Charisma (18)

Favored Class: +1 skill point
Skills (8):
Appraise +1
Diplomacy +1
Knowledge Arcana +1
Knowledge Geography +1
Knowledge Nature +1
Linguistics +1
Perception +1
Spellcraft +1

New language will be Goblinoid. I figure Cala is a language sponge, picks them up really easily. Spending time with bug bears, she's already got the jist of it.

To confirm - are you all OK with (a) murderizing Kargeld & crew ASAP instead and then working your own way to Aldencross / Balentyne, 3 days by boat, who knows how long on foot through the jungle?
or (b), would you prefer to be travel by boat to (somewhere close to) the beach and then dispose of the sailors?
or (c), none of the above, but [....]?

HP doesn't love me.

nope. but 20 hp at level 4, that's pretty average for 4d8.

I'd like to move things forward, but that's because I'm terribly impatient by nature. Problem is, there's only one plan on the table right now, and that plan is -I think- based on the players having an incomplete picture; in other words, the characters would have more knowledge about the situation, than the players did, at the time when the plan was suggested.

The characters are clever enough to realize that killing Kargeld & crew first thing in the morning, would leave the ship without a crew; and with quite some distance to travel yet, I'm pretty sure at least Cala with her supernatural intelligence would probably suggest to wait until you're closer to the beach.

I will go forward with whatever you come up with; but since I neglected to give information, I fully intend to prevent any unfortunate situations.

So, if no change of plan or alternate suggestion appears, we'll move forward with Oret's suggestion, i.e. kill the captain and his crew first thing tomorrow, preferably with the help of some bugbears.

From there, you have about 30 days to conquer fort Balentyne, and without the experienced crew, at the very least 3 of those will be spent getting there - but likely a few more days.

okay, I'll shut up about this now. AFAIK, you're all still in Sakkarot's tent discussing things. If you decide upon a final plan, please post it in the Gameplay, and I'll roll with it.

I would prefer to let Kargeld deliver the characters as planned, then kill the sailors there. The characters don't gain anything by killing them early, and without the experienced sailors, the time frame gets tighter and makes taking the Fort even more difficult.

I'm just not sure what the characters gain by killing them now.

Impatience ain't necessarily a bad thing. In this case, it pushes me to post more. :P

Creepy, Caladwhen. Also similar apologies, been having the most annoying headache the past few days and it's been a bit hectic. I'll post later-ish to tomorrow-ish, can't right now due to me having to run over to places with no internet connection. Bluh.

And no worries about forgetting the geography. Do we know how long it is from the beach to Aldencross when walking? Going to pretend that I piped up when Sakkarot was about in some handy spoilers later.

I'd suggest (b), yes. I'm quite confident that we can take Kargeld if we surprise him. Thooooough, hang on a tick, does Sakkarot have any bugbears capable of sailing the ship? If yes, then I'd vote for (a) and have some of Sakkarot's men commandeer the ship for us instead. Solves it neatly.

Arryn should probably get started on sneaking about to find out where he stashes the gold, if we don't know already. Disposing of all the sailors is another thing we have to think about, something trickier since we've no engine this time for Sindran to explode. Though considering their performance in earlier battles, I'm not too much impressed with them.

Need to gather information about Fort Balentyne and Aldencross. A knowledge check from Caladwhen should take care of that, but asking about the Bugbear Camp and particularly Sakkarot, who I really like, should prove useful.

I'd suggest going to Aldencross first (if we have time) to gather information and hire some expendables that we may want to keep or kill if that's not feasible.

Creepy, Caladwhen.

My last post? Heh, that was the goal... a streak of megalomania suits well this character I think.

Need to gather information about Fort Balentyne and Aldencross. A knowledge check from Caladwhen should take care of that, but asking about the Bugbear Camp and particularly Sakkarot, who I really like, should prove useful.

Which knowledge score? I guess it doesn't really matter, I've got at least +9 in all of them.

Anyway, I'll post based on this new information.

find out where he stashes the gold

noted.

Do we know how long it is from the beach to Aldencross when walking?

it's just a few miles along easy paths; the local populace loves to hang out at the beach in summer days.

a streak of megalomania suits well this character I think.

I'm sincerely afraid to disagree with you. You already make my skin crawl at level 4, and this path potentially goes on to level 20. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to deal with you at that level ;)

Need to gather information about Fort Balentyne and Aldencross.

Yeah, about that. Have you read that little black book of military trivia lately?

Which knowledge score?

That depends on what sort of answer you're hoping for.

knowledge local - who's cheating whose wife, who's cheating with cards, who makes the best stew;
knowledge history - who's the boss around here, what did he do to become boss?
knowledge engineering - where'd you best put a pickaxe to use to work your way through that wall there?

*('care bri-ar', the huge uncharted rainforest in the northeast of Andoran; the edges are being harvested, providing Andoran with a thriving woodcutting/carpenting business)

Alright, point taken! Just having a wee bit o' fun, but I'll dial the megalomania back... lol

Anyway, I'll roll some knowledge checks.

You already make my skin crawl at level 4,

Now, that at least was intended.

I'll dial the megalomania back...

Oh noooes! please don't do that, that wasn't my intention :) The above was just my sarcastic way of saying that I very much enjoyed your villainous monologue!

at that level

-> I meant 'at level 20', I did not mean 'at this level of villainous bad-a$$-ness' because stuff like this greatly adds to the story.

On that note - I'm all for handing out rewards, if you come up with an awesome in-character post. Examples of posts that I think deserve a bonus are 'Aerentix the Blasphemer', 'Commodore Sindran', and 'Caladwhen's Cackle' just now - and those are just the latest three off the top of my head.

Bonus XP would be an obvious choice, but since we don't deal with XP in that way, bonus XP is not an option.

I'm considering Villain points (similar to Hero Points except not so flexible) as a reward option - spending one villain point would allow you to fudge a roll if you *really* want it to work.

How would you feel about adding Villain Points?

Villain points intrigue me and I would like to see them in play, but I'm pondering on how much influence they should have on the game.

While influencing rolls and, say, being able to get that one last spell would come in handy during dramatic moments, I don't really want to depend on them. However, I do trust the GM to do it fairly enough and don't see a problem with it.

It's a nice incentive to do well however you look at it.

P.S. If we use this system, whenever I use a villain point, I would like to totally make it so that it looks divine intervention from Sindran's Fire God. Skadoosh!

Have you read that little black book of military trivia lately?

Oh, hello convenient source of information.

And we (possibly) still have that nifty Window from waaaaay in the beginning. Might prove useful in taking the fort, yeah?

It's a nice incentive to do well however you look at it.

see, that's really my point. I've seen some very memorable posts in our game, and I want to reward that in a way that doesn't overcomplicate things.

I wrote:

Have you read that little black book of military trivia lately?

Oh, hello convenient source of information.

yeah, let's just hope it's a recent edition ;) or, perhaps it's just a nice storytelling hook for me to semi-subtly feed you information you'd get for free anyway :p

And we (possibly) still have that nifty Window from waaaaay in the beginning. Might prove useful in taking the fort, yeah?

I think you do. Not much else left IIRC, but a Window should help.

I'm considering Villain points (similar to Hero Points except not so flexible) as a reward option - spending one villain point would allow you to fudge a roll if you *really* want it to work.

How would you feel about adding Villain Points?

I'm all for it. I use a similar reward system for my table top game using hero points.

I like Villain points, they sound like it'd be a fun addition to the game.

Fine with villain points.