Adventures in Oakstead

Game Master Foxy Quickpaw

Sorry for this mistake!

No need to be sorry. It is just my urge to correct it, if your imagination obviously deviates too far (for my taste) from what I imagine.

Tarjun seems less and less eager to help Gertrud stab cute little rabbits in the heart.

"I can try," he says half-heartedly, then starts humming under his breath. "Near the village, the peaceful village, the foxes sleep tonight..."

Casting Sleep on the fox, DC 14 Will

Alternative ending: The fox has 4 HD. Tarjun sings himself to sleep as he is the creature with least HD closest to the origin of the spell.

LOL! Gotta remember the area of effect before casting a spell!

Facepalm. That's the actual outcome! Tarjun, you need to roll a save and we need a retcon! The fox has 1 HD and we only have 3HD. The spell sends 4HD of creatures to sleep.

Jewel's Will save....: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6 LOL!

As Tarjun triumphantly reaches into the hole to evict the fox from the trap, Jewel sinks to the ground and into a sweet slumber.

Tarjun when turning back from his heroic deed of saving the fox puts his arms akimbo. "Hey! Are you telling what I'm doing is so boring, it puts you to sleep?"

Will: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19

"What the hell's wrong with her?" Tarjun looks down at Jewel, asleep on the ground, with confusion written all over his face. "This ain't time for naps-naps!" He shakes her slightly until she awakes. "Jewiiiiiiie! Wake up!"

Jewel wakes up to Tarjun's rough treatment wondering what happened. Then she remembers.... "Tarjun! You gotta be more careful with your magic! Remember that spell affects an area, not just one target!"

"Yeah, but I only told the foxes to go to sleep," Tarjun explains matter-of-factly. "I didn't mean you! Didn't even think you'd fall asleep, it wasn't that strong magic! ... Look, I'm sorry, alright?"

He extends a hand to help his sister up. He does look rather guilty about accidentally targeting her but also a little proud that even his spell-savvy genius of a sister couldn't resist one of his little magic tricks.

New villager: Owner/Operator of the General Store (and Caterer?)

6. The General Store of James Gordon, that is also placed at the creek.

From the campaign description. That's why I'm asking - I wouldn*t need a new villager if the general store would do. He just would have to leave his well hidden store and make an appearance. ;)

@Tarjun
I don't know what you want from Gordon. My thoughts were about the everyday food and Dwayne has to pay for that. On second thought he even has to pay for the boar and the barbecue. The whole village is basically there because of Dwayne.

I was feeling a bit lost, so I re-read your previous post, and oh, right, we don't have to figure out how to get a large pot of stew, we have to figure out how the workers get their daily food. Got it.

I don't know how that'd work for lumberjacks, but my grandparents and great-grandparents owned a farm. When there was work to do, the men would leave very early in the morning, and stay in the fields for at least half a day, so they got lunch... Thanks to their wives, mostly.

My grandma used to pack my grandpa's lunch (like, a big sandwich). Sometimes, if the men were able to actually come home for lunch, she cooked a meal for him- the other workers could be invited for lunch as well.

If the lumberjacks have trail rations, I can only assume that it's been prepared and packed for them by their spouses/siblings/loved ones/themselves, since they can't exactly buy a ready-to-eat sandwich. And if large pots of stew are involved, they probably got invited somewhere.

The idea behind the village is the sawmill as a start, built into the woods. Then you need lumberjacks, who cut down trees as seasonal workers.

And last you got some people for support of this. A farm, a butcher, a general store. And a few people to operate the sawmill out of season.

In this setting, the lumberjacks are fed (indirectly) by Dwayne. It's part of the pay. I just didn't think about how that is done in practice, as the sawmill and the lumberjacks were only decoration for the kids adventure. Until they spontanely grew up and did adult stuff and all the decoration became relevant and needed details.

LOL! Sorry. I just figured that the lumberjacks were seasonal and stayed in something like a barracks. And Dwayne either someone that grew up here or that moved here, confirmed bachelor/businessman. They'd either have a cook with them or one of the lumberjacks that could cook. Or a wife of Dwayne or one of the lumberjacks? As for food supplies? The wagons for hauling off the lumber would haul that in when it returned from wherever it took the lumber.

That's actually a good idea, Jewel. Dwayne could simply be the one that goes and buy all that's needed for cooking at the local grocery, and pay for the services of a seasonal worker who was hired specifically to cook the meals of the lumberjacks.

That could be a working system.

Dwayne makes money with the wood. And he pays for everything. All others are suppliers for that.

And as a general store isn't a big business if you only have 20 to 30 potential customers, the general store here is even a little more general. It offers two meals a day on rough benches on a porch with a roof.

Bueller?

@Jewel
You want some fighting action?

Not really. Don't really know what I want.

Sorry, I've has a lot of work for the past two days and couldn't get a post in. Will do so tomorrow.

Getting out of a cube is getting someone out of a pin.

So it is Jewels roll plus her CMD against the CMD of the cube. The roll is abysmal, but so is the CMD of the cube. But the CMB of Jewel is not written in the profile and something seems off with the BAB. At third level it shouldn't be 0.

Unless we are using fractional base bonuses the BAB of a 1st level Witch/Cleric/Mystic Theurge is all 0....

You can use fractional bonuses if you like. But on the other hand, it ruins your +2 on will saves from the cleric at level 1. Some calculations are necessary to decide..

I just looked what are the capabilities of Caspar and can't find it. But I found that we have some other nice stuff:

Chest Contents: Two scrolls of ghostbane-dirge
A magical net Ghost touch
12 undead bane arrows
A wand of cure light wounds (32 charges)
Wand of magic missile (8 charges)
+1 disruptive club.
Another scepter. This one in silver with a large perl as knob.
And last but not least a book describing a ritual with a scroll of atonement between the pages.

Not sure what is already used, bet we could make use of some of those.

The disruptive club would be a good idea! If only Tarjun could move a toe.

@Tarjun
It is paralyzed for rounds, and we're out of combat. So...

Thanks! Thought he had to remain like this for a while. I was waiting for a signal that the paralysis had worn off

We are far too weak, even to fight a CR3 monster.

So, 1) level up to 4.
2) As a sidequest: come up with a cool item that you can use for this fight, that is unusual. So, no +2 sword of jelly-bane, but something either new, that I don't know, or something with an uncommon way of using. (Like a potion of acid resistance and a mythic enlarge person for Tarjun to get large and the only thing the cube can swallow, to then beat it down. Only to give you idea of unusual. I don't think Tarjun would like the idea anyway.)*

*You'll have to give it back at the end to the dwarf anyway, so it can be crazy expensive.

I don't know which solution would be best. A sidequest sounds kinda cool!

Jewel?

It is s figurative sidequest for you to find something cool. Not a sidequest for gameplay. If you find Mary Poppins' umbrella to be the tool of choice, then the heap of treassure will contain that umbrella.

Even at level 4, do we stand a chance against this jelly? With a level in Oracle, Tarjun could get some cool spells, but I'm not sure it'd be anything crazy.

Unless he manages to petrify the jelly into wood with the Lignification revelation, and then Clara sets fire to it!

At least he'd get a few HP to not dissolve immediately when swallowed.

Is there a spell like Resist Paralyzation? Acid and/or suffocation will kill anyone quick if paralyzed!

Freedom of Movement.

LOL! I've been playing since 1977 and this is the first time Maze has ever been played out. Great!!!

Also, I'm currently running a half-in person, half-discord chat WotR. The enemy in one encounter was a high level demon lord that had access to Maze. Next time I run an enemy with that spell I'm going to play it like this.... with a few additional twists thrown in. Thanks!

You're welcome. I guess it worked out nicely, because I spun the idea with someone who doesn't play the game. And in the end I had to find something to make it work mechanically. Only then maze came into it.

Reminds me of a really old adventure in Dungeon magazine. The party runs into a Titan that sends them all into a dream world. It seems like the real world though and the encounters "hurt" like real. If they fail they repeat it with the resources depleted but with the knowledge of what's coming. If they succeed they advance to the next dream. They have to complete all of the dreams, don't remember how many, to finish and break out of the dream. TPK only means that they fail and have to repeat again....

Once they "win" they wake up. No resources used. Nobody hurt. They get XP and a reward from the Titan.

Let us return to that idea of leveling up. Another skillpoint definitely nets us a reroll on the knowledge. Now I just need something cool for that new level.

Clara will become a sphere walker.

It's been a long time since we've leveled up, and I don't remember the rules we had fixed clearly: do we level up normally except for HPs?

Everything normal. With the exception that you can choose at the start of your career to take half average HP rounded up.

Also prerequisites for prestige classes are just suggestions.

Thanks! I need to think about it, but Rage Prophet would probably be the best fit for Tarjun.

Continuing with MT and focusing on learning about magic.... Not sure when I'll have time for it though. Prepping for a trip to Atlanta. Might have time while there. Otherwise early January.

Forgot about something : we get a feat (3rd level) and we up a Stat (4th level), right?

Yes. Standard. As in the book.

Thanks!

Edit: I forgot I had remembered to pick a feat... :')

So, we sleep it off, try to get some spells back?

Depends. If you want to deal with the master of the house, then yes. If you want to be gone until he returns in the morning, then no.

I don't know about Jewel, but I think we should try to escape!

I agree, but I don't see any way that we could over-power "Frank"....

We could try to wish ourselves out again. But unless we word it a lot more carefully we might just 'pop' back upstairs. Or into some place even more dangerous.

Jewel is also very interested in Frank. Since Clara was able to identify what he seems to be, as well as how he isn't just that. Maybe because of how she sees animals?