Discussion Thread for the game; can migrate out of character/point of order talk to this thread.
Dotting.
Love the family tree! Gives an immersive level of detail.
Also enjoy how Kragg is an earth kineticist and Vargas a shadow mystery Oracle. Both lines of the family have been marked by delving too deep.
Thugromm--
Eight generations back Bruidon Storm fathered two children-- Valmar Stormhammer who was the founder/patriarch of House Stormhammer and Tareth Thunder.
Tareth Thunder then father two children, Morton Thunderbar who was the foudner/patriarch of House Thunderbar, and your own 6 generations back grandfather Melkit THunderhammer, the foundner/patriarch of House Thunderhammer.
Of these three houses (Stormhammer, Thudnerbar, and Thunderhammer), Thudnerhammer has slowly become the most powerful/weatlthy/sucessful of the three.
The Stormhammer's most recent head, Valmoki, had essentially ruined their house.
The Thunderhammer fortunes have slipped across the past few generations, but you are hopeful when your father passes command of the house to you that you can change that direction.
Still working the Blackstone/Oldstone lines, will update when I have them hammered out a bit.
Alright. I'll alter the background to insert this information in.
Deep beneath Gold Peak, Kragg was hard at work. He stood alone in the unfinished tunnel. Unlike his kinsmen, he was well dressed. His clothes were immaculate. It had cost two hundred crowns, but it was worth every copper to him. Mining was dirty work, but that was no excuse to be filthy. Most of his fellow miners were strong of arm, something they could boast of due to the physical demands of their work. Kragg, though, was different. His mining pick hung from his belt. It was unused. Ornamental, really. He crossed his arms and imagined the ground moving, and it did. It listened to him.
A bird sat on his shoulder. He had named it Khazuk. It was his lifelong companion. An imaginary friend from when he was a child...until it wasn’t imaginary anymore. He had found it deep in the mines, or it had found him. Regardless, it was one of his few true friends. It told him to stop, and he did. It was wise. Khazuk *knew* things. About engineering, dungeoneering, and the various rules of nobility. Things that he was expected to know but didn’t. It whispered secrets to him. Some people whispered that this was proof of Darkstone blood, but Kragg didn’t mind. They were just jealous. Right now Khazuk was telling him that if he kept taking stone from one point that the tunnel would become unstable. With a nod Kragg shored up the tunnel, with his mind. The stone listened to him. Proof of his Oldstone blood. Proof of his nobility. Untouched by dirt or sweat, Kragg worked until he became mentally exhausted. And work he had cut out for him. His clan had big plans for Gold Peak. Once the King returned from the war, the hold would flourish, and Oldstone would be ready.
———-
Kragg drank. He drank harder than he had in many a year. King Nimbus had been captured, and his army defeated. Something bad to be done...but what? Could the city even defend itself? He wondered who best to talk to.
There was Vargas, of course. He was Blackstone, which made him kin. Even though that wasn’t the kind of kin that was spoken of in polite circles. But the spy was pleasant enough. He had manners, and he had information. Maybe he knew something of what was happening? The information probably wouldn’t be free though...
Or perhaps Rubius, the hill dwarf. The one with the large cat. If anyone knew what was happening outside the hold. If anyone knew that it would be him. Rubius had worked for Oldstone before. If he could find him, he would surely have some answers. Well, if he could find him. Khazuk didn’t like the cat though, it made him nervous.
So who then? Kragg took another drink. Ungebrochen! The scholar knew everything. Even more than Khazuk! Well, everything academic, that is. Surely something like this happened before. Ungebrochen would know how the ancestors overcame this.
Kragg got to his feet so that he could go bother the scholar. And as he did so he decided to also stop by Thurgrom. The dwarf was a Thunderhammer! A true noble, he thought, somewhat bitterly. Unlike the Clan of Stone he didn’t toil away in the mines, dreaming of gold. No, he was of the Storm. But, unlike his other kin, Thurgrom would at least talk to him. Maybe he’d know of what the houses planned to do? Thurgrom was a dwarf of action, who was already making a name for himself as a warrior. Surely he’d know if something about this was going to be done. Kragg downed the last of his drink and got up.
There were Dwarves that he had to see.
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Awesome starter post, Kragg.
Rubius is also all ready to go. GM, I took giant as one of my extra languages. Any others likely he would have encountered growing up in this setting? Orcish, goblin, sylvan, etc? Anything related to wandering the wilderness would make sense for Rubius.
Oh, I totally forgot about languages!
Pretty standard for this setting-- the region has Orcs and goblins, and any underground languages would pre appropriate as well.
The one finicky difference I forgot to mention-- because in the history of the setting dragons ruled the world in a big empire in the second age (the Dragon Empire is rough equivalent to Rome), draconic IS common.
So anyone who has chosen Draconic as an additional language should pick another.
Do deurgar and drow exist?
——
Also I have this ability:
“You can move up to 5 pounds per kineticist level of rocks, loose earth, sand, clay, and other similar materials up to 15 feet as a move action. You can search earthen and stone areas from a distance as if using the sift cantrip.”
Earth Blast further indicates that Kragg can shape earth into clumps or shards. And kinetic blade let’s him shape earth into weapons.
Given that he can move 15lbs of earth/stone 15ft as a move action, can he use this with Profession masonry? A move action to shape stone into the right shape and another move action to place the stone?
If so, then when traveling he’ll use this ability to create shelters to sleep in. No tent needed when you can make yourself a durable little building.
Duegar and Drow do not exist.
Replacing the "niche" for Duegar are some of the more "exotic" dwarf types-- cave dwarves, ash dwarves, and also evil fire/frost dwarves.
There are no drow, the elves of the world are divided by subraces as:
Tower/River elves (high int/dex, centered in/around a wizard tower in a town called Riverport)
Mongrel Elves (high Charisma/dex, most integrated into human society)
Plains Elves (high Cha/Str, occupy the areas roughly equivalent to both Southern Europe and Asia; very focused on mounted combat & nomadic lifestyle
Southron Elves (high Cha/Wis, from the "Burned Lands"- these are dark skinned elves [human African skin tones] from the Africa equivalent, but migrated north into the Empire lands as well
And
Pygmy Elves (size small, deep forest/wilderness elves)
There's no direct "evil" elf to replace drow, but elves are much more varied on alignments so that there are evil elves of all the subraces.
Linguistically, Elves speak Elvish, Sylvan, and then local regional dialects.
And yes-- I assume you could combine that earth shaping ability with a craft (mansonry) roll to determine how fine of detail/functional of structure you are able to shape.
OK Durnim is ready for review and genealogy link to Cirrus and Nimbus families.
With the "feat tax" alternate rules we are using Power Attack becomes an option anyone can use in melee based on their BaB, so you can select a replacement 1st level feat for that.
Doin Cirrus fathers Coin and Barin Cirrus.
Coin Cirrus fathers Elaina Cirrus who marries Duram Nimbus, father of captured King Dak Nimbus. (This one is super convoluted because Elaina's Mother Kellya Nimbus was Duram's father's sister, so Duram & Elaina were already first cousins when married).
Coin also fathers Cal, and Finnagree Cirrus, and Cal Cirrus is the father of Cam Cirrus, the head of House Cirrus.
Melatar Cirrus marries Dainam Hornblower, who give birth to Dirnim Hornblower.
Updated more lineage sheets; still have some names to fill in in the intervening generations, and they are all works in progress as more characters & NPCs are added into the world.
If there's any part/connection on one of the trees where it looks like there's "more" there, there probably is- these interconnect out to many different little branches, and I can expand on these other branches as you meet the relevant characters, and to fill in any questions you have.
Also--
Looks like everyone is complete/nearly complete. I'll keep reviewing for any clarifications, and keep filling in anything you missed as you catch it, but I'm going to push ahead with the opening post.
I like Durnim’s build. Haven’t seen a rage prophet in awhile. And kudos for not taking the lore Oracle sidestep mystery route.
And GM thanks for letting Profession Masonry be practical for adventuring :)
With the "feat tax" alternate rules we are using Power Attack becomes an option anyone can use in melee based on their BaB, so you can select a replacement 1st level feat for that.
Doin Cirrus fathers Coin and Barin Cirrus.
Coin Cirrus fathers Elaina Cirrus who marries Duram Nimbus, father of captured King Dak Nimbus. (This one is super convoluted because Elaina's Mother Kellya Nimbus was Duram's father's sister, so Duram & Elaina were already first cousins when married).
Coin also fathers Cal, and Finnagree Cirrus, and Cal Cirrus is the father of Cam Cirrus, the head of House Cirrus.
Melatar Cirrus marries Dainam Hornblower, who give birth to Dirnim Hornblower.
How does Melatar Cirrus relate to previous Cirrus?
EDIT Replaced Power Attack with Furious Focus and modified equipment
Melatar is second cousin's to both Cam Cirrus and King Dak (all sharing their grandfather Doin Cirrus).
This makes Durnam second cousin once removed to the King and the head of Cirrus house
Durnim, for throwing.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/weapons/weapon-descriptions/sphinx-hamme r-dwarven/
Range: 20ft (40ft due to being a cloud dwarf)
Damage: 1d10 x3 crit
Can be used as close combat weapon and thrown weapon without penalty
Get a blinkback belt and QuickDraw, so you can use iterative attacks with it being thrown. This way you can enchant one weapon for use in close combat and range.
——-
You can also trade fast movement for +10ft throwing range
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/archetypes/paizo-ba rbarian-archetypes/hurler/
This means with the hammer above your throwing range will be 60ft
——-
And finally...warsighted Oracle might be useful to you.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/archetypes/paizo-oracl e-archetypes/warsighted/
Gives martial flexibility. Move action for any combat feat you have prereq for. So right now it’d give you feats like Precise Shot so you can throw into combat without penalties.
——
Anyways, done with unasked for advice.
Wow. Thanks. Advice taken.
cheers
My pleasure!
And btw, for later. Once you have a blinkback belt and a +1 sphynx hammer.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abi lities/distance/
6000 gold. Doubles your throwing range. So your 60ft becomes 120ft.
It’s way down the line. But this will eventually make you able to smack enemies with your hammer quite effectively.
Oh! And finally, is anyone planning to take craft wondrous items? Because then for 7k gold you can further get this:
BELT OF MIGHTY HURLING, LESSER
Price 14,000 gp; Aura moderate transmutation; CL 8th; Weight 1 lb.
This thick leather belt is buckled with a bright bronze clasp in the shape of a fist. When worn, it grants its wearer a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength and allows him to apply his Strength modifier as a bonus on attack rolls instead of his Dexterity modifier when making ranged attacks with thrown weapons. Also, the range increment of any weapon thrown by the wearer gains a +10-foot bonus. Treat this Strength bonus as a temporary ability bonus for the first 24 hours the belt is worn.
So: for full THOR bonuses.
(1) Magic Tattoo Blinkback Belt (10k gold)
- So it doesn’t take the belt slot. Can do iterative attacks and hammer comes back to you
(2) +1 Distance Sphynx Hammer (8k gold)
(3) Lesser Belt of Hurling (7k gold with crafting feat)
- +2 Str and Str to hit. Also adds 10ft
With all of these out together? Range becomes 140ft, Str to Hit and Damage, can use iterative attacks when throwing. Makes raging extra good for you.
I'm willing to take craft wondrous right now on one of two conditions:
1. Someone else takes a crafting feat that I can benefit from too. This could be at a later level like 5 for craft arms and armor.
or
2. Party members pay 60% of retail cost instead of 50% so I can earn a little to make up for my missing feat.
I'm happy to do either way as its a fantastic way for teamwork to benefit the party. But it can be kind of tough to bear the feat cost all alone. So if the party's not that into crafting, I'll just skip it.
It was in the middle of the day when the summons came.
First Ungebrochen yelled at the servant to leave him alone, this was a delicate process, it always was, whenever he was mixing nitrat acid with Waterchloric acid. Not a good time for being disturbed at all.
But then again a banging on the lab door. GO AWAY or I will dissolve your fingers, your foot or even your beard!"
But alas it was Swean, the advisor to the countess. And it would be unwise to keep her waiting too long.
With a curse Ungebrochen put a glass stopper to the dripper and cleaned himself a bit. Even using his parfume of honey and cardamon, to mask the ugly smells from the lab.
Marching as fast as possible he followed Swean through three halls and up through seven flights of windy stairs to the Thanehall!
The Thanehall. Shave my beard, this will be bad. No, worse!
Still he followed and finally he reached the countess.
"May apologicies, Goodfrew, I came as fast as I could. Some things take time, and you wouldn´t want the lower halls to explode in smoke, would you?"
As expected the next hour was as pleasant as getting your bottom shaved by a half blind orc with a rusty blade!
He was supposed to join an expedition to find some clues and to find the king. A Great honor.
Well take that honor, dipp it in choclate and stuff it where the sun never shines!
Moving up to his rooms he packed a few sturdy clothes before continuing to his lab and grabbing a few little surprises for the road!
Despite all of my theorycrafting, I have no build plans for myself. But if someone takes a crafting feat, I’ll gladly pay extra to get the benefit from it. It seems fair.
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Cool! Well if everyone's agreed, I'll re-spec slightly for that. All: Hit me up when you want your cloak of resistance, item of +x stat, etc.
With orcs attacking is this at night? Have the dwarves built out rings of light so they can see them more than 60' away while keeping themselves in the dark so the orcs can't reciprocate?
The attack is happening during the day; this tribe of orcs does not have the Sunlight Sensitivity negative trait (most orcs in the setting do not.)
Right now we are at the gates. How about we put the recruits along the wall on the south overlooking the entrance? Clear line of sight for their crossbows. It holds the flank if the orcs try anything nautical, and they can man the second gate when we fall back.
Can’t find the link to the map
GM, can you put the link in your profile below your name, so it shows on your posts AND/OR can you put the link on the campaign info header, so it’s at the top of the page. Both locations work well.
Thanks
Second the link request, though I could find it. It will get harder 20 combat posts later. Unfortunately, Paizo has had a bug preventing editing campaign info for a while.
Hi GM. I would really appreciate some more description.
Is our squad responsible for the entire map of ramparts? If not, do you want to colour the areas that our squad is responsible for. Then, we can imagine other squads outside our area. Plus, if we notice one of these other areas being overrun, you can tell us which area.
How will the water inhibit the orcs? Must they all assault the gate towers first? Is there any chance that they can cross the water? Should we remove or fire the boat and dock?
How tall are the gate towers? How tall is the wall between them? Are there arrow slits inside the gate towers on the same level as the wall in between them? Is that where the portcullis mechanism is? Are there murder holes and pitch gutters with barrels of oil and pitch ready to go?
And where are the tunnnels from here?
Cheers
So, moved some guys around the map. Here's my thought process.
(1+2) They are in the tower. This gives them the best line of sight to fire their crossbows onto the orcs as they approach. If any orcs come by boat, they can respond to them as well by moving down to the south. They're our eyes and apply constant pressure.
(3+4+5) All along the wall. Able to shoot at the orcs as they hit the gate. Furthermore they can fall down to the courtyard if the orcs get around us, or can run up towards 6 to lay down fire on the orcs once we have to fall back.
(6) He can fire at the orcs once they reach our gate. And once we have to fall back from the outer gates, recruit #6 can fall to the secondary gate and close it behind us. With 20ft movement it will take him 2 turns to get to the secondary gate to close it.
This gives us a second layer of defense. And it keeps the recruits much safer.
(Khazuk the Bird) I moved my familiar to the south-east. By being on the highest point, she can look around to see if any undefended walls need to be defended. Dwarfs 3+4+5 can then fill in those gaps. And, by the way? Khazuk is now a girl. Because my six year old daughter insisted.
sorry if I wasn't clear; your group is responsible for this whole map- the other groups are at the other entrance points, which are separated by several kilometers or more- if another entrance is being overrun you won't be able to get there in time, and once they are through one rampart you'll need to fall back to the tunnel ring to avoid the possibility of being cutoff and surrounded from behind.
Gold Peak is set up like this with tiered defenses- there are outlying farms and villages (already evacuated), then these style ramparts that guard the entrance points (all slightly different, but similar moat and Fort constructions.)
The entrance to the tunnels from this rampart is a ladder down from inside that larger building accessed off the courtyard; I dropped a maker by the door.
The tunnels have barricades set up a ways back, in a tighter ring around the city; then the city itself exists largely deep inside the mountain.
It's cold being winter, but the water is not frozen, so for the orc to use that as a crossing point they will need to swim and risk hypothermia, or to bridge the gap with something.
This does mean the main "thrust" of their attack is likely to come for the bridge.
The courtyard is 10 feet below the main ring of the wall, setting that level 15 feet up from the ground level. The parapet towers are another ten feet above that, and the walkway between the two by the gate is 5 feet above the main wall and below the towers. There are ladders in those little brown trap doors atop the towers to get up and down.
The gate mechanisms are under those towers there, and not pictured, and there are arrow slots to be able to fire as anything coming through the gate, but not to fire out onto the field from inside.
The crenalations on the wall will allow you to fire ranged weapons with partial cover (+2 ac).
you have 6 barrels of pitch available- 3 lined up on each tower and aimed so it splashes in a cone down to hit the spaces in front of the tower and the gate; they are on a mechanical tipping mechanism, so it takes a standard action to "fire" the barrel, then two moves and a standard standards (split among any number of characters) to reload that barrel mechanism.
The boat we will assume is not present, but the dock is solid slash immovable; the ladder up from it has been retracted though.
Think I got all the questions there, but if I missed any or if any more come to mind let me know.
This is all pretty epic :)
Also the maps are beautiful
Yeah, it looks really nice. :)
I take it the draw bridge is operational and up? Is there a "key" we can pull to make it nonfunctional if it overrun?
Draw bridge is up, but there is no quick disable mechanism, so if they get through without smashing it and the gate, they will be able to drop it.
Np, GM. This is all really epic and exciting. There are always questions the GM doesn't think to answer until the party starts asking them.
How high is the bridge above the water-line? I'm considering summoning a giant frog to lurk in the water.
STRATEGY
If the drawbridge is up, then the water protects the walls and gate towers equally. If the walls are equally protected, then why are all the PCs all bunched up at the gate tower?
Shouldn't we spread out? If I was assaulting this place, I would go where there are fewer dwarves.
cheers
Due to lack of siege equipment aside from ladders their tactics seem to be:
(1) Take the gate House
(2) Bring in the cavalry from the back once the gates are taken
(3) If that fails bring in elephants
But...yes. We could move Ungebrochen to the others walls. No need to put an arcanist anywhere near close combat, especially when he can be in charge of the secondary gates if we have to fall back.
If you are really worried about flanking then who would you suggest be pulled away?
Also...ready to start this siege soon! :)
Point although if they are planning to get mounts and bigger into the fortress the gates make more sense. Of course we could surrender the first gate, fall back and just make it one big trap.
STRATEGY
The orcs need to first cross the water, whether at the gate house or the walls.
Assuming that they have a solution to Cross The Water, where would they most likely cross the water? Probably, where there is the thinnest defense, right?
Plus, they only need to kill our 12 dwarves, before they can take their time to enter the area.
So, I would suggest that our strategy needs to be:
1. Protect the walls equally. Meaning, spread out. If no one wants to, Durnim will captain the wall defenses.
2. Preserve dwarves. Meaning, we should be finding ways to create as much cover as possible: arrow-slits, one dwarf holds a shield in front on another dwarf to give more cover, etc.
That's my two coppers
I totally agree about the shield strategy. We've got to preserve dwarves. We don't have many. Let's see what their tactics are like. They might fire a bunch of missiles or just bum rush the walls. They are orcs after all. I say we start with the shields and firing from max cover.
Maybe Kragg and myself in the right top corner. He is our artillery with range and hitting power. I try to keep him upright once the orcs work that out? I have a few useful options such as grease to slow things down if directly assaulted.
Well Kragg is equally good in close combat and range. +7 Hit, 2d6+8 damage. AC21, DR2. Will have 6 Nonlethal damage, which means that he goes unconscious at 27 wounds. So I think that he could hold fairly well in close combat. He’ll hold anywhere he is assigned to.
Also with 120ft range he just needs line of sight on the map, doesn’t need to be placed anywhere specifically close.
Yes, the bridge is up- but that's still the shortest path at ground level to cross the water.
How high is the bridge from the water? I'm considering summoning a giant frog in the water to harass them.
Durnim will be on the walls with Argrim (#3).
GM, can someone aid someone's AC while taking total cover? So, on the wall, an exposed and firing character can be +4 AC = +2 for the crenelations and +2 aid? While the aiding dwarf has total cover?
I would suggest that DAA (Dwarves-at-arms) #1 and #2 should be inside the tower at arrow slits with improved cover at +8 AC, so AC 23 = 15 +8 cover.
cheers
You can only aid another in melee combat for AC.
I will allow a dwarf in total cover to use aid another for attack by acting as a spotter, however.
Orcs are on the map!
The bridge (if down) sits just a few feet above the water- less than 5.
And I missed the question in gameplay, but you think elephants could be panicked by fire- but it would all depend on how well trained they are which you have no way of discerning.
I thought volley fire would be good. Little did I realize how helpful it would be in mass combat!
Crunch time! As the familiar is the "smart" one using this to post.
Vargas' shot strike true, slamming into the first bow orc's shoulder. The bolt of his dwarf recruit also finds flesh.
A 14 hit. Total of 10 damage. Orc is still up.
Unbrochen's recruit piles on, then Rubius' first shot drops the orc, as he casually switches to the next target, which ends up with two bolts in it, including the recruit's shot which caught him in the face.
Orc takes 3 more damage, for 13. Orc is still up. Rubius did 9 more damage, orc dies. HP is between 14-22 with ferocity.
Orc 2 takes 10+2 damage for 12. Is still up.
When Kragg and his recruit focus in on the same target, they quickly drop the second orc.
The Javelin orcs advance; we are to Thurgrom.
Kragg did 14 damage and his recruit did 7 damage. Orc 2 took 26 damage and was still up. Took 7 more and died. So Orc 2 had at least 27 HP with ferocity.
Overall? My guess is that we are looking about AC14ish. Guessing Con12-14, so that means each has about 10-16HP. That would explain why dropping them is hard.
---------
We've got about 20 more to go. Luckily hitting them doesn't seem to be an issue. And they've got a few more rounds to go before they reach us, so we can thin their numbers out...but we're not going to stop them from reaching us.
Awesome! I'm loving this. Tawny would love to get his claws into the orcs that remain after we thin them out. XD
Seconded! This actually feels like a desperate defense. A huge wave of orcs, charging forward. Each one needing four crossbow bolts to take down. Giant walls, barely defended. The last few warriors, little more than recruits, holding against all odds. The same scene playing out on every front. A city full of civilians facing genocide.
Imagine being one of the dwarves at the gate house, seeing the horde pouring down...
...and best of all it feels winnable. Even outnumbered 4 to 1 or more...they need about five rounds to reach the gate. So we can do this.
————
Speaking of which...if it will take 4-5 rounds for them to get here, should we combine them? It would streamline the initial stage of the assault.