A Push of the Fates.... Zakhara... You Jewel!

Game Master Insnare

Sure, a fireball has a saving throw but ice storm does not. So if fireball was cast at you from a staff you would get a saving throw vs staff it has a save for half but Ice Storm does not have one. :)

AD&D2e rules

Ahhhhhh!!! I didn't look at the Ice Storm spell, but my question still holds about what saving throws vs a Staff would look like.

Yes, exactly. It is spell or whatever dependent.

Ok, assuming that this isn't a trap or a curse and the DM isn't just messing with us, a tome of clear thought requires some downtime (like a month, I think) but it increases one person's Intelligence by one point, permanently.

Now the kicker (if this is the real deal) is, Fadilah may be a mage, but intelligence doesn't actually affect her spellcasting in any way. This item might be better for a different party member.

I do not know if I should be proud or hurt by this. :)

For Ibn Taaib, intelligence only matters for his skills. As our resident loremaster, Fadilah or Frackit would make more use with it than me.

I'm not even sure that Paritosh is literate!

if none of us need intelligence boosts we could sell it.

but I could use it.

We should definitely use it and not sell it.

I could use it as well. My Int is 13 right now, so it would give me a boost rather than just being an in-between point.

Between that and the bow though, definitely rather have the bow.

What does a 14 give you that a 13 doesn't? Another language?

Intelligence also plays into proficiencies; going from 13 to 14 gives you another nonweapon proficiency, and improves the rating of all of your proficiencies that rely on that ability.

For Fadilah, going from 16 to 17 also means gaining one proficiency, but the difference is that Fadilah already has a lot because her score started pretty high.

Go for it, Frackit.

The tome of clear thought in 2e works a smidge different than versions in more modern ones of the game. After reading the book over the course of 6 days, the character's intelligence score goes up by 1pt. If the character continues to in their free time the mental exercises over the course of a month their intelligence score goes up again. Their maximum potential intelligence goes up as well. This means PCs can get a total Int score of 20 instead of just 18.

Huh, I was under the impression that you spend a bunch of time over six days reading the book, and that just teaches you the mental exercises that you have to practice. Then you engage in the program of mental discipline for a month, and after that, your Intelligence score goes up by 1 (without regard to usual limits).

BUT! Your game, your call! I'm sure nobody would complain about gaining two points of Intelligence.

There are still some things we couldn’t identify. The bronze plate mail, the slippers, and the broach.
I will comb through the posts and see if there is anything else.

Regarding Azaltin being the lich from Ravenloft, I strongly doubt that. That guy was from Grayhawk, not Forgotten Realms/Al-Qadim.

He also has a different origin story. It’s probably just a similar exotic name.

Also I believe Nerim is Azaltin, pulling off a variation of the King Incognito trope.

Who has the intelligent sword that creates an oasis? That's magical, right?

Nura has an intelligent magical sword.

I’m not going to lie, I’m getting some mixed signals here (especially after Fadilah’s latest post and Zairiah’s “back the crazy people” bit) and we seem to be sleepwalking towards this fight. Are we on board or what?
I asked in-character about whether to engage, but I didn’t get clear answers from Zairiah, Fadilah, or Nura. I don’t want Frackit to feel like he is doing this to repay a debt, either, so I would like our out-of-character consent. Also Paritosh is wounded, which I think we forgot to address.

Engaging this enemy is a Big Deal (tm), and I won’t subject the party to a possible TPK unnecessarily. We can inscribe a warning on the gateway, alert the Jann about the threat and warn them to not let anyone near lest they have a death cult on their hands, and maybe come back later when we are stronger. That would satisfy Ibn Taaib’s paladin code, as a knight of Kor must prize wisdom and prudence over rash zealotry.

Our of character, it matters as well. Consent in rpgs is paramount, and in PBP moreso, since posts can be lost and some voices can’t be heard. I don’t want that to happen, or for anyone to feel pressured, possibly resentful, or frustrated that they have to go along with a course of action they don’t want to commit to.

Can we please have a vote here?

To help orient this discussion, let’s talk about the factors at play:

Pro fight
• It’s there. Completion of a dungeon presumes ending all the challenges, and this is the last challenge there, assuming we don’t want to take away the cursed coins or pick the roses of forgetfulness
• Gemstones: The statues’ eye gemstones are worth at minimum 6,000 gp. Frackit can possibly get them polished and push it up to 8,000-10,000 gp. This is besides other possible loot.
• Common Good: This might attract more victims or serve as an epicenter for a death cult that harms the region. The Jann would be grateful as well, as this might have been one of the constructs plaguing them. Ibn Taaib’s oath pressures him to suppress evil here and now.

Anti fight
• Not the Quest: We completed this quest by finding the scrolls and books this Haroushen asked for. This is not our main objective nor is it worth possibly risking our lives.
• Strength: Let’s admit it, we’re not optimized for this fight. We need magic weapons, spells that could help us destroy the enemy, and raw numbers on our side. The living idol is strong, and we’re not equipped to handle it. Fighting will be a gamble. We did just get a bunch of magical items, but have no clue what they do. For all we know, Ibn Taaib’s unidentified sword might fly out of his hand and stab him.
• Ignorance: We don’t know the full strength of the enemy. That might apply to other challenges, but we’re looking at an enemy that killed 50 explorers, god knows how.
• Readiness: Besides weapon and spell selection, one of our frontliners is wounded and we haven’t healed him. He is also charmer, which might cause issue later.

Both as a player, and as a PC, I'm 100% in on attacking the thing if that's the direction Sheikh is headed.

If we wipeout, it wouldn't be my first TPK, and I doubt it will be my last.

As for Paritosh being injured, yes. He is. And as a rough and tumble desert warrior, he's not the sort to run around begging to be healed. Nor does he realize that he is at 46% of his possible health. All he knows is that he's mobile, and injured, but ready for more challenges if they come his way. He could wax poetic about living on borrowed time having nearly died from poison, and that his debt is to Sheikh, but there it is...

I'm all in, provided it's a rash decision by Sheikh to rush in. If it becomes a drawn out tactical in character discussion, odds are Paritosh will be talked right out of it.

I'm fine with taking some hits and running away. I will note that this specific encounter has a very high chance of removing at least one of our melee fighters from play. Since we can outrun it, anyone who isn't in melee has a pretty good chance to escape.

I just bring up this caution because I don't want anyone to be surprised if we wind up biting off something too big to handle and characters get killed or otherwise rendered unplayable.

I said what I thought the first time I was asked. I'm backing you up if you want to try it, but if the new people weren't here, we would have definitely walked away without engaging in this fight, just like we avoided it on the way in.

My character is not all in, but killing the evil thing is a good thing if we can pull it off. It's a commitment to support and to try not a vote to fight to the death.

What's the Rod of Smiting basics

@Frackit:
Here is the rod of smiting
The idol is counted as a golem, so 2d8+6 per hit, instakill on a natural 20.

It seems Nura voted with her post.
I’m glad everyone more or less consents to the fight. I’m happy with this group and campaign, and wouldn’t want there to be some sort of pressure. I really do intend to stick for the long haul!

That is, of course, assuming I don’t croak. xD

@DM: I think we can proceed. Fadilah consented to use her ice storm staff ability (though we are all hoping it does anything to hurt the thing).

Ok, dancing swords typically you fight with them for four rounds and their bonus goes up one point per round, so +1, +2, +3, +4. Then you loose the sword and it dances and fights on its own for four rounds, following the same pattern. Then it comes back to you and you need to hold it again. It'll fight something up to 30' away from you and uses your level for its attacks.

Now, enchant weapon gives a weapon a +1 bonus, and this stacks with an existing bonus, to a maximum of +3. So the dancing sword goes +2, +3, +3, +4 while it is under the effects of the spell.

I do not have access to my DM stuff at work. I will look at it when I get home.

So if I summon it to my hand again it would lose that bonus?

Basically, the first round of attack is +1(2because of Fadi), +3 in round 2, +3 in round 3 and +4 in round 4. In the fifth round it needs to return to your hand where it would be back to a bonus of +1(2) and then you fight with it in your hand until it goes back to +1 again and then you can let it fly. If you move more than 30 ft from it, it falls to the ground and goes back to +1.

That makes sense. What happens if I summon it back to my hand while it is dancing? Does it keep the bonus and still increase until its max (and then resets) or does it lose the bonus and act as a normal +2 sword?

The sword is a named sword in that it is called Zephyr of the Moon, which means it is semi-autonomous. Once you release it, it keeps attacking until the enemy has been beaten. In the text, it does not say whether you can just summon it back.

Now that THAT's over with, here is what we were fighting.

Note specifically:
* Immune to weapons below +3
* Immune to all spell except rock to mud, stone to flesh, and disintegrate
* Hits for 4d8 + save at -4 or be charmed

So that's why I was worried.

Winning the initiative was really the key to victory. By the Loregiver, success! And of course your excellent strategy.

Okay, time to decide what goal is next. Here are the things we need to do:

--Report back to Hanoushin
--Take Siti (Doppelganger) to find Yodfah (probably with Hanzala and the Brotherhood of the True Flame in the Weeping Desert) [secondary goal that we moved past before is to also kill Yodfah for killing my best friend, but I swore off the revenge in favor of keeping everyone safe last time we had a chance to find him, so we would revisit only because Siti wants to talk to him... but there are possibilities there to put things right and perhaps take over his trading empire with Siti's assistance...]
--Take the healing water to cure the Grand Caliph in Huzuz (we also have a second waterskin full that we could sell)
--Take Qasim (Glass Man) back to Muluk
--Restore Lyda to her proper size, and take her home
--Uday/Ualda cure the lycanthropy (12+ level cleric required) [and/or let her be tried for her crimes in Lyda's village, but I think we were leaning towards healing? We never resolved this, so just brought her along.]
--Deal with the undead beneath the tombs where Yodfah tried to kill us.

Other NPCs:
**Rashid -- honor bound to the party for a year and a day; He is in Muluk minding our ship.
**Silverthroat -- with the party's caravan. He is the one that led us in to find the healing water.
**Mahara -- the mystic we saved from the Dao. He's with us in case that jerk genie shows up again.

DM... am I missing any NPCs or Quests?

Anyway, I think that Lyda's village is only a couple of days away, so we could take her home... not sure if we can restore her size or not.
We could try to take Siti to see Yodfah on the way back to report to Hanoushin, if we think we can survive that.

Also, are there any side quests that were introduced with the intro of the new characters... something you guys need to do to fulfil your back stories?

I say the best option now is to return to whoever gave you this quest and see if it’s completed or if there is anything else.

Regarding my backstory, I need to visit a major city to see if I can stop this caravan of the dead that has been haunting the region where my tribe lives, to see if it can be stopped before it becomes too great of a threat. I would vote for anything that would take us to Muluk or Huzzuz (curing the caliph sounds like a great next step).

@DM: How is XP calculated? Is it gold for XP or milestones?

We also need to give some tribute to our jann hosts. Pick some magic items that you won't miss. :)

Good point. We need to identify the rest of the items first. The slippers, armor, and scarab we didn’t manage to identify yet, but they might be dispensable.

It is a long way back to Muluk... we will go there, but we should do other things on the way back.

Yes, there are a bunch of things to do. And there are some more adventures along the way. Iyda's home is about three or four days from where you are now.

Regarding XP, I shall be dolling out XP soon. I am going to give it out in two different piles. XP is calculated by monsters killed, gold and adventure completion. Gold XP from actual gold is given as it is gotten but gems and jewelry and stuff like that's xp is only given once things are converted to cash.

Over this weekend I will calculate the XP probably by SUnday morning my time.

Definitely need to cure the Caliph. But that should be after we give alot of things over to those closest too us

Are traveling rules enforced? Rolling survival to avoid getting lost, counting rations, random encounters every day/night, the works?

Or are there other costs for long travels?

The group is travelling in a caravan. Rations are not as important and water has become moot because of at least one or two of the magical items the party has.

I do have the party roll for direction sense and survival so as not to get lost. I do roll for random encounters to spice things up and I have some more adventures for along the way on deck.

Hi, I have not dished out XP in awhile, so first I will hand out the XP allotment for the whole party and then I will dole out the XP for Nura, Zairiah and Fadilah.

Whole Party XP:

Netari the Succubus, defeating her: 2900 XP
Defeating the Skeletons and putting them to rest: 175 x20 = 3500
The Living Idol: 16000 XP
Completing the Part 2 of "The 11 Baneful Gates" = 5000xp
= 27,400
divided by 6 = 4566 XP for everyone

Zairiah, Fadilah and Nura

The 11 Baneful Gates pt 1 completion(making it to Al-Anwahr) 1000 xp
Now and Zin The Loregiver outfoxes Apostasy part 1 for ending the Tent City's Heresy: 1000xp
Giant Cobra 420 XP
Werefox 2000xp
Freeing the Zin without hurting them 5000xp
Bloodworms 420 x 6 = 2520
Manticore 975
Burying the dead =300
Automatons x 2 = 650 x2 = 1300
=14515
divided by 4(Agrammar's share)
= 3628

Once the party gets to a major city you can offload a lot of things and have more XP.

I would end up at 18,566 XP, so that's a level up for me!

1d10 ⇒ 9
Doubly sweet.

Congrats to everyone else for the excellent rewards.

I leveled up to 6, but don't have time to look up all the changes right now... can't really remember where I got it last time. It isn't in the Al-Qadim stuff, but I know I found a generic reference last time. I'll try to get it done before Monday.

https://purpleworm.org/rules/

I will take a gander through the Al Qadim stuff for merchant rogues

I did an P audit and I'm already at 5th level with 14,000 so add in the 4,566 would put me at 18,566 with 20,000 needed for 6th

Hp: 1d8 ⇒ 6

I had 14,000 XP, adding on 5,023 XP (that's with the 10% bonus for my high stat), I'm at 19,023 XP, which gives me 5th level.

I go on travel tomorrow, but I'll get myself leveled up.

HP: 1d10 ⇒ 10

Hit points: 1d4 ⇒ 3

I updated the campaign log with this adventure, everyone. If anyone has any additions or comments, please let me know (either by commenting on the doc directly or dropping me a post here).

Also, don't forget everyone that your Station is equal to the initial roll or your level, whichever is higher.