Another natural 20 on your timing, Morpheus.
"Morpheus"?! Oh, Morvius he had that much Charisma... ;)
important notice.
On the table, I'd ask each player what issues they were not entirely clear on and what they would love to do most to prepare for ...action.
That doesn't work that well here - but I'll ask you just the same, because if we handle all the questions now, everyone is on the same page, and we won't get distracted later when I go all Medieval on you....
Unless you bring up something, I'm planning to move forward to week 5 by Sunday.
OK- here's my 2¢ worth:
That means some folks will have to share cells ;)
No. Bad idea - Branderscar showed that. Surplus prisoners should be either turned into zombies, fed to the goblins, or sent to Morvius' laboratory for... processing.
Eventually, he speaks:
"Where do you think the candles and lantern oil have been coming from? Not to mention the soap. Oh, and the moisturiser for Sindran's arms. That reminds me - he wants me to stop using goblins, so I need to find something else that matches his skin tone..."
Week 3 - sort out the treasure and allocate it
- Belt of Strength - for Oret
- Elemental Metamagic Rod (lesser) [acid] - for Talon, once he's calmer
- Ring of Mind Shielding - for Sindran, once he's calmed Talon
- Lens of Detection - can I use this as the eye for the golem, unless anyone really wants it?
- Eye of Hatred - for Cala - she can dimension door us to wherever the alarm goes off
- 12 potions of Cure Moderate Wounds - I suggest 2 each for Morvius, Cala, Talon, Grumblejack, Sindran and Oret
- Mithral chain shirt (from the nun's group) - Morvius will snaffle this
- Longsword +1, wooden shield +1, chainmail +1, warhammer +1 (also from the nun's group) - assuming no-one wants these, that's 6,000 gp worth of loot - that would make a nice magic item for someone... :)
Week 4 - fix the pit trap on level 2 (2-1 on the map):
ALSO: KILL THE CELESTIAL - Oret, do you have a plan following the reconnaissance?
Week 5 - magic weapon crafting (see below)
Assuming the smith spends week 3 doing the locks etc. for Sindran, I want him to spend week 4 doing security stuff (see below); and then in week 5 he can craft the heart for the golem.
The smith: I want doors for the entrances to the upper levels (i.e. at 1-1 and 2-1 on the map). Not just any doors, mind you - the sort that make it abundantly clear we don't receive visitors.* I want bars, I want bolts, I want metal reinforcing, I want no external access - they can only be opened from the inside. And when they do open, I want them to make noise. No-one sneaks in.
Magic: the outer entrance to the Sanctum from the balcony (i.e. S-2 on the map) AND the balcony entrance to the upper level (i.e. 3-1 on the map) should both be closed off using Stone Shape. If we ever need them, we can Stone Shape them open again. At the moment, they are too easy to access.
People: I am assuming Sindran and Cala take steps to ensure their organisations are loyal. Anyone else inside the Horn who's not a prisoner should sign a contract in their own blood swearing loyalty to us - I'm thinking of the smith and the turncoat fey.
Goblins: I know the goblins won't sign anything; it's one of the (many) reasons Morvius wants them dead. Sindran is responsible for keeping them in line.
Traps: I've made rock-fall traps on both the outside staircases and a poison trap on the secret door in the caves. I'm fixing the pit trap on the upper level and an acid trap in the entrance to the tavern. I've also put noisemakers in the bushes holding the oozes - there should be some guards stationed within earshot who will run and let us know if anything gets in.
Muscle/labour: If Talon or Oret has some spare muscle, a pit trap in the lower caves (say at C-4) wouldn't go amiss... Also, hunting for wildlife to go in C6, C7 and/or C14 would be helpful.
Finally: The thrones. . In the name of Asmodeus' red-hot jockstrap, won't please think of the children Ahem. It's just that I've used all my actions for weeks 3 to 5...
I haven't put myself on the list for magic items to be made. This should be rectified.
Cala - do you think you could bear to do another +4 Int headband (8,000 gp)?
I will spend another 1,000 gp putting a basic +1 enchantment on my polearm (this will be Morvius' action for week 5).
Does anyone else need magic weaponry or armour?
Can I use the Lens of Detection as the eye for the golem?
Do we have time to take out the celestial before we go on to week 5?
The iron plates - do you mean that we need to take the amulets off Hexor and Vexor to complete the control spell? Or have I misunderstood? Can we make an Int check for ideas on how to do that? Do they sleep at any time?
Including the 6,000 gp of magic items we picked up from the nun's group, how much cash do we now have?
Thank you for your suggestions, Morvius!
I'll wait until enough time passes (after we assault the lillend) or if Talon instigates another episode until I pop up for counselling.
Also, I believe it was suggested that I build a moat using my Stone Shape. I'll close off the doors as you suggested unless someone says otherwise.
For your people and the contracts--paperwork? Proper infernal paperwork? I can do that, though I may need to research/ask about blood-signed binding contracts.
Sindran needs to replace his Chain Shirt with something more lightweight.
Phew. Dungeon keeping is such hard work.
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I love your idea of using the Lens as the golem's lens. Also, I think a magical lens should work far better than a mundane glass lens.
You can chase celestials whenever you feel like it; that's something that you'll have to decide to go and actually do. The world will not wait for you, and you'll need to maintain the ritual.
The iron plates you found are wondrous items that grant summon-monster-like control over Hexoraticus and Vexorandian. They have half of the other amulets around their necks, and must remain near your halves of the amulets at penalty of slow disintegration, which is a major annoyance.
Upon death, they reform next to the amulet at the next full moon.
you have around 33k in cash, give or take a few.
Dang, we still have that much? How should we distribute it in the form of magic items amongst us? I know I got my lovely magic armor, but I haven't been keeping track of everyone else's magical gear.
there was a reason I wanted to smack the imps goblins around (beyond the obvious, I mean)!
Has it really been so long...?
Excuse me, I'm going to go and do some quiet reminiscing
I just discovered a Dungeon Keeper app, released by EA. Went through the tutorial only, so I don't know how it compares to the original game, but still...fun times.
Okay, just trying to figure out how to post after such a long hiatus.
Incidentally, everything they say about living through renovations is true... as in it sucks unimaginably.
It appears the plates were found, which is great.
We apparently have more money? Well, Caladwhen was working on the last batch of items before that little tidbit of news drop by... guess we can start thinking of new ways to cash that in?
Oh, boy, a Blazing Robe! Cheers, Caladwhen.
I'll take a Mithral Shirt, though perhaps our smith can craft it.
Oret may want to invest in Bracers of Armor to boost his AC even more.
A Headband of Alluring Charisma +2 would also boost my spellcasting.
If you have/can learn the appropriate spell, why not craft a Handy Haversack? Never worry about loads again and take things out as a move action!
If you ever need to move in an emergency, Quick Runner's Shirt is here for you.
Some defensive items you may want:
Holy crap I want a quick runner's shirt. I could run up to somebody and still get a full round attack off.
Ditto - nothing like pouncing with a flurry of blows to ruin someone's day.
In addition, I approve of the suggestion of Bracers of Armor, and would also be good with a Ring of Protection.
Just confirming - Cala just gave Oret an Amulet of Mighty Fists +1? And he's getting the Belt of Giant Strength +2 from the treasury?
It was free on gog.com last week. That is pretty cruel to tell you *now*, but then again I am your GM, so some cruel and unusual punishment is to be expected.
Thankfully I'm on Linux, so your Jedi mind tricks are wasted on me ;)
Sindran - I can craft armour, and we have a sack of mithral from Grumblejack... Do you want some sort of magic bonus on it? I know you're not planning on being a front-line fighter, but in Soviet Russia 4-dimensional combat, sometimes the front line finds you!
Cala - Good to see you back! Our flat is due to be completely renovated this summer so I will no doubt be sharing in that pain later. Are you ok with making another +4 Int Headband?
Also if there's any cash left over then a Cloak of Resistance wouldn't be a bad idea - I seem to have a habit of failing saves...
I'll post on the game thread later today - things are more hectic than usual for a Sunday
Who's going on the away party? I'm assuming Oret and Talon definitely. Sindran will be going as well since, you know, lillend and nature people. Vulnerable to fire. I'll bring Grumblejack along for a test run in combat.
While I'd like someone to stay as the base party to do the rituals and just in case any emergencies happen, the away party and base party can signal each other with the rings.
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Also, just want to make sure you caught this.
One of the tasks you set your minions out to do, is locate an heir to the Victor in Farholde.
As it happens, the acting commander of castle Hamorhall is quite proud of his ancestry, and thus this task is completed quite quickly. Sir Valin Darian commands the garrison in the castle, since the army's commander has gone off to war against the Bugbears.
since that's quite relevant to having a chance to close the ritual.
If you can tell me why they (the original D&D developers) picked 'shocking' grasp instead of any of the others, you can have the other elements. That means actual research, though...
Oh, oh! I know the answer to this! The answer is there is no direct answer (that I can find anyway). You'd probably have to actually ask one of the developers directly, if they even remember, but it's most likely a mixture of balance reasons and design choice..
As far as I can tell, the main reason the Magus has Shocking Grasp is because of this. This can be inferred from paizo's section on Designing Spells from Ultimate Magic.
An example is that several touch spells on the wizard spell list are missing on the magus spell list. This can be taken as intentional.
Fastforward to Paizo's magus, a touch spell is specified to use their spellblade, but they had to pick out a touch spell. They could have put corrosive touch, or chill touch, or all the touch spells into the magus spell list for them to use, but they chose shocking grasp. Why? You'd have to ask them, but it looks to be most likely a balance choice.
For shocking grasp, it's pure damage. If they picked out those other touch spells, then they'd be able to deal damage and apply effects like fatigue on the opponent at the same time.
I found this out while looking to see that if I applied a metamagic changing the damage type of a fire spell, do I still get to apply all fire-related feats/skills that don't specify fire damage. (The answer is they don't change their descriptor so it's still a fire spell.)
(This means that if Talon casts Shocking Grasp, somehow changes its damage type to Cold, he still gets a +3 bonus against metal armor.
Subject to the GM, of course.)
you made me lol so hard I spat wine.
I aim to please - but are you sure you quoted the right bit?
Also - since it's now week 5, do I now have my shiny new +1 Polearm of Sudden Death to Other People? And presumably the smith is now hard at work on crafting the golem's heart...?
Quiet in here - don't tell me you all have lives! Nasty things - make you late for gaming; overrated in my opinion...
*sigh* so ronery...
You there Cala?
Not a problem - I had a crazy busy time just after Christmas so I understand. It was more an excuse to post that clip
Now that I think about it, there are some beguiling similarities between the two characters: both convinced they have more charisma than they actually do; both prize intellect highly; and neither cares in the slightest for anyone else.
Morvius is DEFINITELY the better-dressed, though...
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So - week 5 is coming to an end, with two obvious issues sticking out:
- the lillend should be killed
- there's a shape-changing, serial-killer invisible dog-thing in the lower levels, doing very clever, subtle assassinations.
(oh, and the ritual shouldn't be interrupted - obviously)
Your characters should be starting to feel stressed for time, that just means I'm doing a good job of putting the pressure on.
However, for the players, I'd like this to be more of a game than an actual job, so I recommend looking at that POSEC method on the wiki page.
I'd like your opinion on how we should proceed:
By now I'm getting a feel of how long a week of game time lasts in real life, and it's a rather troubling 1:3 ratio. At this rate, we'll be close to 2016 before we hit the end of the book.
For that reason, I'm considering cutting some of the resource-draining encounters and compensating by leaving out some loot (net result: resources drained, no time wasted), and I'm thinking of skipping a few encounters that didn't work very well for my tabletop group (result: no time wasted on meh encounters.)
That could cut off about 10 weeks from the 31 weeks in the horn by a few bits of narrative.
Or maybe you don't care how long it takes, and you'd like to see every damn bit of it.
Could you tell me how you feel about that?
Rather than clog this thread up with well-meaning but impractical comments, I've put some thoughts into a PM for you to ignore at your leisure :)
If you really think there are some completely meh encounters feel free to skip them. Although I believe the drag is mostly our fault through slow posting.
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Okay, with my contract ending and the basement nearing completion, my life is approaching something towards normal... my apologies again for the prolonged radio silence, and thanks so much for your patience.
I'm going to catch up over the next day or so, and begin posting with regularity again starting this week. Also, with March Break upon us I actually will be at home towards the day, so I can't think of a better way to spend some of my spare time ;)
Hi everyone! Sorry about the lack of posting. This thing called life is really needy and clingy.
Sad to say it's draining a lot of my resources so I can't put as much attention to the game, so I'm quite happy to hear any suggestions on possible actions.
GM, I'm fine with cutting out those weeks. I think you'd know best considering we don't know what's up ahead anyway, and we are rather slow at this point.
Aye, I feel you Sindran. I just backed out of nearly half of my PbP's so I could deal with life. Don't worry though, this game is far too fun for me to give up on ;)
So what are some of the immediete goals Talon can help with? He has his library work (once Cala stabilizes him, hopefully) and the crude traps outdoors on his schedule right now.
Sad to say it's draining a lot of my resources so I can't put as much attention to the game, so I'm quite happy to hear any suggestions on possible actions.
GM, I'm fine with cutting out those weeks. I think you'd know best considering we don't know what's up ahead anyway, and we are rather slow at this point.
I know the feeling Sindran. Luckily, I'm finally free of a lot of my time commitments now, which brings me back to the game. As to your suggestion IB, I'm for cutting any 'meh' encounters, since all encounters in the PbP world can take weeks to finish in some cases.
Anyway, I want to post this evening before I go to bed but I'm having difficulty making order of the last oh... say fifty posts? ;P
Can someone give me the Coles notes version of what is happening at this moment? I think the last think Caladwhen was doing was attempting to mend Talon's somewhat fractured mind, while creating some new items with the new pooled loot.
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- Talon is mending the library
- Talon is fixing traps all over the place
- Cala is crafting (by my count, two more weeks of crafting have gone by but we haven't seen the results yet. please pick two items and I'll do the bookkeeping.)
- Oret is patrolling
- Sindran and Morvius have been busy with the stealthy invader - but there's a plan to deal with that threat now.
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We've hit a rough patch - but I'm very happy to read all of your comments that you're committed to this game. I want to thank you all for that respect and patience.
I think I've found a way to keep the momentum going storywise - I just ask from you that you try to post a relevant roll in your posts. That sounds a bit vague, but if you're talking about patrolling or looking around, it'd be nice to roll perception so I have something to work with. I'd just rather not roll for you, but I will if that's blocking progress.
and finally, in respect of tomorrow's Blackadder quote's day, I leave you with this:
"I'm sorry I'm late."
"No, don't bother apologising. I'm sorry you're alive."
Yes, I thought I'd have more time this week... but the ongoing renovation work downstairs is taking more time than I had expected. I've spent the last two days painting baseboards and door jams. To say it is monotonous work is unfair to the word monotonous.
In any event, thanks for the update IB, gonna run with it.
Thanks, IB! And this makes sense.
Morvius, I've a lot of peasants you could get a brain from, if the source or quality of the brain doesn't matter. Otherwise, how delicious would it be to use the lillend or one of her minions for the golem?
Sindran - the idea has a great deal to commend it; given that you and Cala are about to do diplomacy checks to kill the dog-thing, why don't Talon, Oret and I do an expedition against the lillend at the same time? That way, you'll still be in the Horn and we won't have to worry about missing any rituals.
It would also mean that we could get all of this done in Week 5, instead of letting it fester on.
Unless you especially want to be involved in both activities of course.
Who's being tasked with the Assassin Vines, by the way?
As long as there are no Kn: Nature rolls required, Oret's willing to transplant the vines. Not sure to where, though - they don't seem to be good for much except for grappling small creatures (they're only CR 3).
They can cause plants around them to entangle foes, so near other plants wouldn't be a terrible idea. Thoughts?
They can cause plants around them to entangle foes, so near other plants wouldn't be a terrible idea. Thoughts?
Hmmm - I would suggest either with the oozes in room 2-12 (just to make things even more deadly for intruders); or part of Talon's deadly hell maze of fearsome terror (which is outside in the Caer Bryr: plenty of plants nearby!).
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As long as there are no Kn: Nature rolls required, Oret's willing to transplant the vines. Not sure to where, though - they don't seem to be good for much except for grappling small creatures (they're only CR 3).
They can cause plants around them to entangle foes, so near other plants wouldn't be a terrible idea. Thoughts?
I'm confident that Oret could out-monk a young weed.
And, even Oret would've noticed that plants tend to grow in the Caer Bryr. In this fertile soil, or whatever is causing plants to proliferate in these parts, the assassin vines could quickly become assassin trees.
Given your group's characters' intelligence, I'm sure someone would come up with 'a pot (*)' as a suitable destination; after which 'a large pot' and 'a large pot, with a chain so we can move it' are not far fetched.
(*) not sure why I chose the pink tub. Perhaps it makes the assassin vine seem fluffy, and dangerously cute. Then again - we're evil masterminds; it's nobody's d@mn business why we pick any particular colour for our portable pet plants' pots and we'll be quite happy to feed anybody asking impudent questions to our plants as a lesson against wasting our time thank you very much.
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I prefer skipping the assassination of the lillend for progress' sake. You have made good effort to prepare yourself for the fight, and I'd prefer to reward you for that effort rather than lose precious momentum by sending half the party out in combat.
Instead - I think it'd be way more fun, for all of us, if Sindran were to post a detailed report about the encounter with the Lillend and a few of her consorts in gameplay.
Yeah Sindran - blank piece of paper...Go Nuts.
For now, all we need to know is that everyone came back smiling and there was
(by my count, two more weeks of crafting have gone by but we haven't seen the results yet. please pick two items and I'll do the bookkeeping.)
Yeah - next on Oret's list is Bracers of Armor, but he's already gotten a couple somethings, so I think it's someone else's turn.
Morvius, a plain Mithral Shirt is just fine, no bonuses. If I need the bonuses, we can just add it later.
By the way, I just figured out the question to something that was bugging me:
If I set someone on fire, and they turn invisible, do I still see the fire?
The above is super helpful for when we need to attack invisible opponents because, well, we'll have a pretty accurate guess of where they are.
From the Invisibility description in the Core Rulebook Glossary.
An invisible burning torch still gives off light, as does an invisible object with a light or similar spell cast upon it.
From the spell Invisibility:
Light, however, never becomes invisible, although a source of light can become so (thus, the effect is that of a light with no visible source).
Fun fact: in fires that contain carbon (e.g. coal, wood, oil, plastic, gasoline, the usual stuff), some of the liberated non-combusted carbon particles sort of clusters into soot that becomes incandescent. This means the soot glows really bright, which is the usual yellow we see, and our eyes see this glow.
And guess what most living beings are made of? That's right, you carbon-based lifeforms! Carbon!
So flame is basically a body of incandescent gas. We see the glow (light) it gives off. It is not energy, it is glowing gas that emits light and heat.
It is true that some fires cannot be seen (very pure gases such as hydrogen gives off flames that are almost invisible) and also fire always needs oxygen, but Pathfinder has Magic so there.
Also, here's a comparison between a candle lit on earth and a candle lit in a space shuttle. You'll notice the latter is a floating flame ball with no yellow light (hydrogen and carbon burn blue; if you've got a stove, you see that the flames burn blue and not yellow) because of several things but basically boiling down to that it doesn't produce soot.
(Why they produce different colours and are of different visibilities are another thing entirely, but suffice to say it has to do with the burning molecules causing a release of energy in the form of light (cosnervation of energy), and how different levels of energy causes different light frequencies. See: stars. You can tell how efficient something is burning by how much blue colour there is versus white. In regular life, different flame types are really only because of impurities in the fuel and how much soot it produces.)
Anyway, going back to Pathfinder. An invisible light source is invisible, but the light still shines and illuminates the area. Likewise, an invisible creature standing in a pool of water will leave hollow spots in the water.
This brings up the question of whether or not the flame becomes invisible, as a light source, or if it should be visible because we mostly see it as light.
But at the very least, in a partially lit or dark room, a creature on fire would be pretty visible. In bright light? Maybe not so much.
But there would be a patch from which screams of pain and the crackling of flame could be heard. Maybe some smoke. Oh, and the delicious smell of charred flesh.
Aren't you learning so much about fire?
By the way, who should I assume will be accompanying the lillend expedition? Obviously me, and I'll bring Grumblejack. Morvius might go just to get the lillend's brain. And maybe vengeance, I guess.
By the way, who should I assume will be accompanying the lillend expedition? Obviously me, and I'll bring Grumblejack. Morvius might go just to get the lillend's brain. And maybe vengeance, I guess.
Yes, count me in - and I'm taking some of those poison-fish with me:
Wouldn't it be very efficient to catch a bunch of those poisonous fish from the caves below, and apply them to the top of the waterfall? Hmm, yes, it would.
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If I set someone on fire, and they turn invisible, do I still see the fire?
you don't see them, but you will see flickering flames. Also, youd hear the flickering and screaming, and then there's the smell of burning flesh which is hard to hide.
If this ever happens in our game I suggest we treat the situation like the glitterdust spell.
Urgh. Sorry if you're waiting for my post. There have been difficulties in the form of a crappy laptop and me losing changes to my post over and over again due to said craptop.