It's pretty much up to you how you want to spend it. Though there might be some raised eyebrows if you blow it all at the track. ;)
Do any of the checks we are rolling require funds or just the check.
I think we need to take out the spots we found, especially any thing that flies and the siege weapons. Whatever we can do to get that done and stuff inside is good.
I am pretty useless on any of those checks. I've got a +4 Survival and none of the others. So I'm going with someone and aiding. Looks like we can make two checks a day.
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25k gold. 5 party members. So...each of us gets 5k. And I’d say spend 4K on the character and 1k on city defense.
I’d spend 750 on a wand of healing and 350 on wand of message. Healing to get soldiers back in the fight and message so leadership can get orders around faster. That would leave me with 3900 on things to buy. Probably get my AC up, as Grum got clobbered last fight. Would buy an amulet of natural armor and make his armor have another +1, so he can get up to AC26.
20,000 gp. Not sure where you're reading 25k, Grum.
I don't know - the 20K is to shore up the city, not line our pockets. We need to pay people to shore up physical defenses and make sure the area around the city has clear firing lanes - trees and bushes growing up next to the walls are a great way to sneak in close and lob alchemical surprises up at defenders.
I don't know what I would shop for otherwise. I can see the argument for the rings of sustenance, but I'm not expecting to keep them after the battle is done unless there's no one to give it back to...
We also have quite a bit of money from the hobgoblin camp, and items to sell.
If we use the 20K for city defense, there are several items within that budget that would be extremely useful. If not immediately available, they could be commissioned. I will take a look tomorrow.
We have 29,402 in coin and sale value of items. That comes out to 5,880 each just on our own.
Then there is the 20K stipend. I think we could logically pay for the Rings of Sustenance out of that (we would need 4, so 10,000 GP), but let's see what else there is.
Scrolls such as Wall of Stone might be beyond the ability of local casters, but we can ask.
A Rod of Mortared Walls is interesting. 8,000 GP.
The Marvelous Pigments that we have could be very useful.
A Mallet of Building could speed things along a bit. 5,000 GP.
If the battle will use the mass combat rules, the Horn of Assured Victory could be useful. 13,000 GP.
The Lyre of Building seems the best option for this scenario. 13,000 GP, so you would not normally expect to find it in a city smaller than a Metropolis. However, even a Wiz3 or Clr3 with Craft Wondrous Item could make one in 7 days (Spellcraft DC 7 for a CL6 item, +5 if they can't cast Fabricate, +5 for accelerated, makes DC 17 - and you can take 10 on these Spellcraft checks so only need a +7).
Finally, the Banner of the Ancient Kings could actually come in useful in the battle, but the 30' radius of Flagbearer is probably too small to really help. So I would say no on that.
Any thoughts?
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Great thoughts there! 4 rings of sustenance leaves us with 10k left. Then a Rod of Mortared Walls makes it 2k left. After that, 2x wands of cure light wounds to get soldiers quickly healed up and back into the fight for 1.5k. That leaves 500 gold. And for that, I'd say 10 healers' kits. Exactly 20k gold.
It leaves the city with a way to fix walls each day and get soldiers back into the fight. It also leaves the city with our group able to react at a moment's notice, regardless of when the attack comes.
And on top of that we'd have the 5,880 to spend on ourselves.
Looking it over, I really do think that the Lyre is way better than the Rod (faster construction, plus the ability to ward a 300' radius for 30 minutes against everything up to Disintegrate) so I would prioritize that if there is someone in town who can craft it (even Wiz3 or Clr3, as long as they have Craft Wondrous Item and Spellcraft +7). I assume there is someone in town who can play it. Benedict could craft it but I am not sure he will have enough time.
Let's say we split the cost of the rings between the PCs and the stipend, but we get to keep them afterwards. Sort of halfway between Aerel's position and Grum's.
Stipend: 5K on rings, 13K on Lyre, then the remaining 2K as Grum says.
The four PCs who do not have Rings of Sustenance each chip in half the cost of their own rings and get 4,630 net, while Grum gets the full 5,880.
Meanwhile, having crafted the Manual of War, Benedict will make sure to offer it to the other PCs for temporary Fighter Bonus Feat retraining.
With a particular focus on how Advanced Armor Training (for William) and Advanced Weapon Training (for Grum) can get us skill ranks for these tasks.
For today, I might suggest that Amkarang lead and William aid on an Intimidate check to train the militia.
As to Aerel's thoughts on paying the citizens to work on preparations, I kind of assume that is represented by the skill checks. I could be wrong.
I didn’t mean to take a position, so I won’t be hurt if my thoughts are ignored. Aerel would not complain aloud, it was the player talking.
That said, I’m all for the proposed plan. Any thoughts on what Aerel should do with his share? I can stock up on potions, of course, but if anyone has a suggestion for the sneaky git to make him more effective when he drops the hammer, I’m all ears.
Sounds good to me.
@Aerel, my suggestion for your share would be upgrading your belt to +2 Dex. Benedict would likewise wish to upgrade his own belt (he has +2 Dex, and wants to add +2 Str). But I am not sure if we will have the ability to do that - depends how many other crafters there are in town. This time constraint is really a big deal.
Otherwise, you could save up for Sniper's Goggles. I can see Sneak Attack being a more significant factor for Aerel in the future (if has Accomplished Sneak Attacker by level 11, that's +3d6).
Or adding Shadow to your armor.
The sniper's goggles are definitely on my wish list. I have an arcane trickster that is squishy as squishy gets with a pair of those. They're a beautiful thing.
For now, it sounds like the constraint will truly be crafting time and/or availability. Aerel will do some shopping, I guess.
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Shopping time.
Option 1
Armor goes to +2 (3000 gold)
Belt goes from +2 Con to +2 Con and +2 Str (6000 gold)
Not quite enough to get an amulet of natural armor. But I have 2 potions of barkskin that I've *kept forgetting about* which I can use until then. Those should last me most of the upcoming battle.
Option 2
Wait until after the battle. Save up another 5k gold and buy gloves of dueling. At lvl9, that will give me +4 weapon training. Which is important, because at lvl10 he can take the feat advanced weapon training - > defensive weapon training,, which will give him +3 Shield AC.
I'm honestly not sure what's the best thing to do here. Thoughts?
@Grum, I'd go with Option 1. Again, we'll need to see if there are enough crafters in town to upgrade our stuff.
Longshadow's marketplace:
wand, potion, wand, scroll, wand, potion, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll
wondrous, ring, ring, scroll, armor/shield, wand, rod
staff, ring, wondrous
=======================
Minor
========================
Medium
========================
Major
Here's what's available:
wand of sleep, wand of remove fear, wand of summon nature's ally II, potion of guidance, potion of reduce person
scrolls of mending (divine), magic missile, summon swarm, mage armor, diagnose disease (divine)
ring of retribution (15,000 gp), ring of protection +2 (8,000 gp)
scroll of plane shift (1,125 gp)
metamagic rod of enlarge, lesser (3,000 gp)
wand of invisibility purge (11,250 gp)
glyphbane gloves (9,000 gp)
+3 light wooden shield (9,153 gp)
staff of defense (62,000 gp)
ring of protection +4 (32,000 gp)
ring of greater energy resistance (electricity) (44,000 gp)
carpet of flying 5x10 (35,000 gp)
Okay, I'm going to assume we can sell all the stuff in "To Sell" and clear it out. Most of it was coin. Dargg's cloak and medal are still unidentified I think, though I could have missed it.
Benedict will buy the one available Ring of Sustenance. It will take a week before it has any effect, but it will give him a couple of crafting days before the attack. Since one isn't enough to enable the entire party to get more tasks done, I can't really justify spending any of the stipend on something that is just for Benedict. He will pay for the ring entirely out of his share.
Everybody gets 5,880 GP just as Grum did.
And the stipend for town defense now has another 5,000 left. Maybe a wand of some 2nd-level spell?
Because Benedict will not need to craft the Lyre, he will spend his downtime crafting other things. (As before, getting 2 hours of work done each adventuring day, until the Ring kicks in.) He has the components for a Circlet of Persuasion and will start on that. With accelerated crafting, that is 20 hours of work required (4 hours per 1,000 GP in the base price or fraction thereof). So the first 7 days he gets 14 hours of work done, and then on the 8th when the Ring is working he can finish it.
I guess we should make a couple of more checks today, and then head out tomorrow to hit one of the nearby locations.
Maybe we should get mounts. I like the Mount spell since it makes logistics much easier (and you don't have to worry too much about the mounts getting killed), but some of us might need some heavy horses rather than light, given the weight of our armor. And combat-trained so they don't panic if there is combat.
Heavy warhorse is 300 gp.
Military saddle is 20.
Then we might want either barding or Mage Armor.
Heavy horses will probably be best. While mount is nice each casting from a wand only lasts 2 hours. If I cast it, I would need to cast once for each of us and it would last 16 hours currently. Not sure on gear upgrades currently.
Do we have a map of where the targets are outside of town as well as the mage?
William will help with the survival rolls.
Potential locations to visit:
Warbeast training camp;
Nesting location for wyvern scouts;
Transport routes for siege engines;
Munitions camp outside of Ecru;
Possibly the camp of the commander, a minotaur named Kosseruk (we don't have communiques here, just the hobgoblin prisoner);
The wizard's tower.
I would prioritize the wizard's tower - the sooner we get them on the job, the more they can do to prepare Longshadow for an attack.
But uncovering the saboteurs is also important.
I absolutely would prioritize the wizard's tower. If we can rescue them, we can be fairly sure they weren't involved in the sabotage and could help us entrap the saboteur(s) with relatively minor magic.
After that, traps on the siege engine routes sounds fun. Stealing munitions from their stash might be good, especially if we can mislead them into thinking someone else did it - in fact, the distraction might be more valuable than the munitions.
I'm good with wizards tower, after that I think the priority should be the wyverns and siege engines. It might be best to spend a day or two out of the city if we can string 2 or three sites together. And we tell em we are attacking something else.
Maybe, but that could give the saboteurs free reign in Longshadow while we are away.
Decisions, decisions.
I do like the misdirection idea.
Do we have anyone in town we implicitly trust?
That's up to you. Whom do you trust? Whom can you trust?
The time constraint is really weighing on me even more now that I see the distances.
The warbeast camp, at 35 miles NNE, is 7 hours on horseback (about 5 mph, though we only make half that speed if it is entirely trackless hills). Maybe we could hit that and the wyvern nest (which is sort of on the way at about 20 miles N) on a later 2-day trip.
One of many things that would be much easier with a standard party (Communal Phantom Steed, for example).
We are at 9 days before the attack. Best-case scenario:
Days 1-2 to river crossing, wizard's tower, and munitions camp.
Days 3-5 prepping and trying to catch saboteurs.
Days 6-7 (if we are done with prepping) hitting warbeast camp and wyvern nest.
Days 8-9 buffer for things going wrong.
Day 10: Party!
Of course, there is a lot that could delay us. Terrain making travel take longer, or horses getting killed; sabotage making prepping take longer.
If there's anyone we can trust, we need to put them onto the idea that they have rats in the woodpile, so to speak, so they can watch for them and maybe learn something while we are away. I have no problem setting a trap and waiting overnight to see who I get to shoot. I take sabotage of my work quite personally.
How about the refugees we rescued along the way? Nibbitz seems fairly smart and perceptive. And the others are at least extra sets of eyes.
Nibbitz sounds good, but some locals would be better because they would blend in - of course, they might give someone the benefit of the doubt, too. Maybe we can put them up to being
Yeah, I think the refugees are a good choice. We've been with them for the duration, and the chances of them being sympathetic to the Legion is pretty low.
If Grum can't teleport William out of there, then Benedict will use Total Defense and move in on the non-grappling one. Eating an AOO.
These things have very high CMB so a hit is a near-certain Grapple, at which point it is a matter of trying to survive the damage long enough for the party to kill them.
Yeah, ranged weapons will probably be our best course of action. My reach weapon might help some but their reach is even longer than mine.
Waiting on my turn until I see how or if William moves.
Are we just waiting on Amkarang?
Hey, y'all, I wanted to let you know that my access to the forums may be reduced over the next week as we take a little road trip. Most years, I'm actually more available because I'm not at work, but if you are trying to get a response from me and not getting it, that's probably why. I'm always open to having my character botted to keep the story moving forward, so if you feel you must, go for it. Normal posting delays (i.e., work and general normal RL) will resume a week from now.
I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the update!
By the way, I need to give you all experience for the river crossing battle.
6,400 for the nuckelavee
4,800 for the troop
1,600 for the hobgoblin engineer
I undergo surgery on Thursday to remove a lump from my abdomen. I will be in the hospital a night or two, supposedly, and then at home on drugs. I don't know what my posting will look like so please bot me if needed.
Wish you well! Hope everything goes for the best.
Best of luck to you, and hope for a quick recovery!
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Given Benedict's less-than-stellar offense, this fight might take a few rounds (he can flex into Power Attack if the foe seems easy to hit).
I will try to post promptly as soon as my turn is up so that everybody else is not kept waiting for too long while Benedict fights Not-Grum.
Although since William had no specific task for today, he might happen along...
Hey folks, starting Thursday I'll be on a camping trip for a week. I may have signal where I am but I'll likely be unable to post much for the duration.
FYI, I'm on vacation this week, and while I can make posts from my phone on occasion to keep momentum up, I can't make a map for this encounter. Hopefully it won't be necessary. I'll try to be as descriptive as possible.
So the fact that we knew they were there made no difference? They still got a surprise round and we were still flat-footed?
I understand you were uncertain as to how to resolve it, but I am wondering what more we could have done given the situation. Is there any way we could have avoided the surprise round?
Their stealth rolls were higher than what most of you could even roll. Aerel could have made it, but he was hanging back.
Even though you conceptually knew they were there, you didn't see them until they jumped out from hiding. If you had, it would have come down to an initiative roll and no surprise round.
When I had a similar situation in PFS (invisible foe known to be somewhere in a room), I proposed sending summoned monsters into the room to "trigger initiative."
I know it sounds like metagaming, but the in-combat/out-of-combat distinction is quite arbitrary in situations like this.
We would need a way to reliably summon monsters with senses that could locate invisible or well-hidden foes. We do have a wand of Summon Monster II, and wolves do have Scent, so that could be an option in the future I guess.