5E Adventure's in Midgard – North (Reaver's Spring)

Game Master Tareth

Gunnar: If you wish to try and reduce the wyvern's flight speed down to 0, then it will take at least two spirits successfully maintaining a full grapple (no other attacks) all the way down to the ground. Of course, the beasts will be trying to break free and shake them off each round

As it is, they are at half speed and can only make one attack per round rather than two until they can shake off at least two of the 'riders.'

I doubt the warriors would be satisfied with anything less than hanging on and hacking at the wyverns with their various weapons, even if plummeting to their deaths fouling the creatures' wings may be the more tactically superior option for us.

Aterro, do you get two attacks with the attack action?

Why yes, yes I do.

Thanks for catching it, bro!

Hey all, I've lost power this morning. Will move us along once things are back on again.

Oof that suck Tareth, lets hope for a speedy respark of that ol electricity, as its super cold in some places still

Yikes, hope you are staying warm!

@Tareth: Same here. The weather has warmed up a bit here in Alabama, but I'd still not want to be without heat. Hoping you and yours are alright.

@Scramsax: Now I really wish I had gone with playing Raseri. Didn't know she'd become a crafter of artifacts in Midgard. Now the question is who's selling her wares and how did they get them?

It was a Midgard game too if thats what you mean. Dalliance isn't that far from where Raseri was in Queen Sarastra's Summer Court, inside the Shadow Realm. There's a neat little map in the world book with all the shadow fey settlements, which shows it just downriver.

Yeah, its fun to explore the pre-game story of Zove with Scram. I had mentioned Dalliance in Zove's initial backstory and always thought it sounded awesome. I might stay in Dalliance (in his mind) with her a bit and do more with Carnadine and Raseri. Maybe I can reach some kind of closure on their adventure (which you guys deserved).

Aw, thanks! You're making me blush. :)

I'm looking forward to seeing what you've got in mind.

Thanks all. We're keeping warm. Gotta love a wood stove in these situations. And I've got the generator fired up so all our Christmas leftovers are staying cool. Fortunately the temps are actually pretty mild, unlike any of you in the central and eastern part of the country right now.

This was more of a surprise wind storm. Forecast went from 30 or so mph winds up to 55-65 mph. At last count we have about 100K out of power, so it might be a day or two before I'm totally back up and running. Especially since a downed tree up the street is the likely culprit. Gonna take a bit for them to clear it and repair the lines. Course this is still much better than 2021 ice storm when we were out for 9 days because our power line was ripped off the house and it was in the teens and twenties much of the time. That was all kinds of f'ed up.

Oof. That sounds fun.</sarcasm>

Glad to hear you're doing alright. Am I right in guessing that you're in Texas?

I have been there. THe worst is when your toilet freezes

I had the ol' heater go out once, but not more than a few days. Luckily never had pipe issues...*shudders*

Hey all! The electrons are flowing to the house once again. They got our power back on late yesterday. After getting the place back in order, a nice, long, hot shower and a decent nights sleep, I should be able to get a post up later this morning. Sorry for the delay.

I am looking to have Ingryd fall atop the one she had struck with a dive and then fight it on its back. If I need to I can grab it and ride it to the ground. WIth tooth and nail should I have too

Ingryd: Since the falling wyvern is just falling and you were already in melee with it, you can catch it. So can Aterro.

Scram: Gunnar had the carpet at a 60' range. He'll need to pilot you above and much closer for you to make the leap. Basically I'd do the same thing as for the berserkers. Gunnar makes an INT(Arcana) roll to match speed, distance, etc. It is a bit harder now because the wyvern is aware of you all and actively looking for his own advantage on the carpet. So it is DC15 for the Arcana check. If Gunnar is successful, you have Advantage on your Grab check which is STR(Athletics) or DEX(Acrobatics) vs the Wyvern's STR(Athletics). If he fails, you have Disadvantage.

But, this round Gunnar dropped below wyvern B (to get close to the falling berserkers and plans to dive after the other wyvern (C). However, the carpet moves 35' per round. The wyverns move 70' per round, so unless you can slow the one down, it will reach Luthael well before the carpet is in range. Remember they both shed their 'riders' so they are back to full speed.

It sounds like Ingryd is on A and everyone else is on C yeah?

Aterro: Yep, I think that is the case for the moment.

Thanks for the speed on the carpet--I wasn't sure what its size or speed was. Hopefully using a full round action (not a thing in 5e, but combining an action to control the carpet with a move to maybe have it dash?) and aiming down allows us to pick up some extra speed and save some of the berserkers.

Hey, out of curiosity, would anyone here be interested in helping me brainstorm for a game system I'm working on?

I'm yur huckleberry.

(I've taken a shot at game design myself.)

Should I ride the Wyvern down and try to aim at the other one after Lutheal or just double move down to try and help Lutheal?

Ingryd, the Wyvern you are on is dead and has three berserkers on it…I am thinking you could grab at least two of them and dive after the last Wyvern making a beeline for Luthael. With a 60’ fly speed you are significantly faster than the carpet, but we are both probably slower than the Wyvern…but if Luthael’s fireball brings it up short, we may get a chance to catch up…

Just my 2 cents, but do what you want.

I am having Gunnar do what he would do to honor the warriors, not necessarily the totally optimal action anyway—makes a better story imho.

Good point.

Happy New Year. I hope 2023 is good year for everyone. Cheers.

Happy new year to you as well!

Happy 2023 everyone! May it be at least as good as the last year.

@GM, this build has a lot going on, and I'm still getting used to many of the aspects myself. Hopefully together we can clear something up:

I just wanna give a shout-out and proper recognition to the MVP of the fight, which is Gunnar casting his FLight spell. That one spell TOTALLY changed this fight from some bumbling around cluster frag, to an honest-to-goodness fight where we were able to rise and meet the enemy on even footing. If we were all stuck on that carpet, with them able to circle and breath at will, this would definitely have gone much, much worse.

*claps Claps CLAPS!*

Good job Gunnar.

(Makes me wanna get boots of flight!)

Very kind of you, Aterro. Gunnar has found one of the best ways to live through a fight is to enable the melee warriors to interpose themselves between himself and the foes. It only works if you guys take advantage of it, which you both did with aplomb!

Pretty beat tonight, will get a post in the morning.

If resting, can Scram get Find Familiar at this point? Gunnar scribes, memorizes tonight, casts into Scram's ring in the morning?

Posting here in case anyone wants something, and just to have it as reference. You would see Scram going through this again at some point (unless it all disappeared?)

Lost and Found Loot

Costume jewelry
Real jewelry (250 gp worth)

Elven shirts (colorful variety)
Nurian jacket ('My mummy is a mummy!' embroidered)
Itchy scarf
Grandmother's lemonade cap

Possibly common magic items:
realistic glass eye (Ersatz eye?)
small orb with cardinal directions (orb of direction?)
sweating candle (candle of the deep?)
sweet perfume (perfume of bewitching?)
talking doll (talking doll?)

So, I know Arianna had one of the gnome-loons, who had the other? And do we still have them after our flight and fight? I would dearly love to ask them some questions and enact justice.

DM, can we say Scram has Find Familiar at this point?

Sure, there's time for Gunnar to have shared the spell.

Gunnar would have made that the priority for last night after the berserkers departed.

I was wondering If we got a long rest?

Quick question, how many did Scram see with Invictusol? How many total in the group?

There are nine survivors still with Luthael.

*Reads Scram's latest post.*

*Applauds*

Huh.

I echo Arianna's sentiment.

I haven't been that confused/entertained by English since that time I entered the Palindrome and fought Dr. Awkward for the Staff of Fats and the Drowsy Sword.

Reminded me of the movie Snatch

Sorry all, between the website being cantankerous and a busy work schedule this week I haven't been able to move things along. Will try to do so later today.

shuffle-taps his way

XD

I like Brother Tavis. He seems like the kind of guy that'd be a great grandpa, the kind that brooks no nonsense and teaches you the really important things in life.

In a completely different vein of thought, I've been pondering how magic works in the game world for a bit. I know that the mechanics are supposed to be an abstraction, but there's a part of me that despises the magic system in PF1e, and isn't too wild about the one in DnD5e either. I think I finally figured out why.

There's a huge disconnect between the narrative of the game and the game mechanics.

Basically, to cast a spell as a PF1e wizard, you prepare it, grab some materials, if their called for, say some mumbo-jumbo, move your fingers and hips, then blammo! You have magic. It's like that with basically every class. Some just know the spells, but you still have that basic formula and, to me, it makes the casting classes feel all the same, just tweaks to their spell lists.

This got me thinking in a few different directions, with one of them being how would magic like what's described by the mechanics actually look?

So here's the basic deal of how PF1e style wizards would work in the game world.

-Wizards prepare a spell by copying runes/circles/emojis to a strip of paper. Material components are used up during the copying, or ignored until the spell is cast.
- While copying the runes/circles/emojis to the paper strip, they also imbue it with a bit of their essence/mana/soul. You can only do this so many times.
- When a wizard casts a spell, he says the words, if needed, waves his arms around and waggles his fingers, if needed, and pulls out the material components, unless they were used up when prepping the spell.
- The arcane energy of the spell burns the paper to a crisp.

By having the wizard connected to the strips of paper once they are prepared, you have a natural limit to how many he can have ready at once since it taxes him. More experienced wizards can manage more spells because they've gotten more efficient at channeling the power or have expanded their capacity to support those connections. You'd get a mix of spell levels since a wizard is going to naturally want a variety of spells at his disposal, and would presumably have enough common sense not to use a sledgehammer when he should use a flyswatter.

It also neatly sidesteps the question of arcane-induced brain damage that the only other way I've heard this spelled out in the narrative raises.

Thoughts? Am I crazy for thinking this is a good idea? Lemme know.

I honestly don't understand what you are saying (tired, drunk, etc), but did you ever play White Wolf's Mage: The Awakening system? I instantly go there when I think narrative spellcasting.

Best literary examples are from Jack Vances Dying Earth series.

I honestly don't understand what you are saying (tired, drunk, etc), but did you ever play White Wolf's Mage: The Awakening system? I instantly go there when I think narrative spellcasting.

I have not played that, but I am playing VtM5e. I actually like the storyteller system behind it.

As for not understanding it, if you're referring to me being drunk or tired, I haven't had any alcohol in a few years because of medication I was on, so it's probably me being tired. If you're referring to yourself, well, only you can know that, bud. :P

Best literary examples are from Jack Vances Dying Earth series.

I probably need to read the books. I was under the impression that was where the original D&D spellcasting system came from. Just my vague impression from what I've heard is that when a caster memorizes the spell it burns into their brain, then when they cast it the spell gets used up and leaves nothing behind.

I guess what I'm after is something that ties the flavor and mechanics more closely together, and this was just an idea that I wanted some feedback on. Maybe I'm weird and think the mechanics behind spellcasting are too abstract and wanted to make them less so by tying them more closely to how the world the game is in works. I could do it like I described above, but something about that doesn't feel right to me. I liked writing them down on stirps of paper that burn when you cast the spell as that has potential for some cool imagery and feels more like wizardly magic, heck there's even some real world precedent in the way the Celts and Norse treated writing from what I recall.

I'm probably rambling. If I am, tell me to shut up and try again after I get some sleep.

You aren't wrong the Game Master and Player honestly have more a free collaborative reign on how this is supposed to work.

Unless your playing in organized play games, then you've got no freedom for that kind of stuff. It's good for getting people into the hobby and on a regular playing schedule, but my experience with PFS has been a mixed bag. Sometimes you get a great GM that's really good at fleshing out the scenario, then sometimes you get a lackluster GM and it's a bit of a slog.

Then sometimes you get "That Guy" as your GM.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there.

As far as homebrewing something, there's a lot of options. Rune and Ring Magic from the Kobold Press Deep Magic book (which I am planning on getting the second volume of when it comes out.) Word casting from Ultimate Magic. Sphere casting from Spheres of Power. Heck, even something as simple as converting slots into points and having different spell levels cost different amounts of points would be a simple and effective homebrew, and all of those options have some flavor built right in. I was just trying to come up with something for the existing system.