[5e] Courts of the Shadow Fey (Inactive)

Game Master mishima

Such an interesting party!

Feel free to make crunch changes until after the first fight or so. I'll be digging deeper into the crunch over the next few days.

In particular, how you spent your starting wealth. I was really hoping some of that could anchor your characters in Zobeck to some extent. We can flesh out some of those downtime-esque pursuits here.

If you would like to make some character connections before starting, you can but not necessary.

Finally, I had the mind to be using just a single google spreadsheet for everything (xp, treasure, hp tracking, etc). The campaign tab is inconvenient for me. If sheets doesnt work for some people, let me know...I'll still probably be writing out most things in posts as well.

I'm fine with tracking things on a spreadsheet. I'm also fine with you just telling us to level up as opposed to tracking xp.

Yeah, I don't usually track xp. This adventure has tons of branches and player choice optional stuff though (and I just feel like doing something different).

Fair enough!

Thanks for having me. :)

I would like to point out that Raseri is technically the pawn of two woodlands mistresses, the hag and the lady of the forest. It was the hag she made a deal with and she owes the lady of the forest a favor for rescuing her and teaching her. I don't think I made it clear enough in her background that the deal was with the hag, which is on me.

I'll be working on crunch as I am able. I think I'm going to go with my original build idea for the simple reason of it being closer to what I was picturing. I know the Forge domain allows the cleric to enhance weapons and armor, but it doesn't get proficiency in martial weapons and I like the idea of a Northlander swinging a maul about as it crackles with lightning.

Anyway, will at least have some crunch tonight.

Very happy to be selected.

I don't see Carnadine as a local business dhampir. I see him as a noble representing his father and liege, a vampire count of Morgau. He would be visiting Zobeck (for months) to meet solicitors and nobles to further business interests in Zobeck.

Are any characters involved in Zobeck businesses which would connect with Morgau? Or businesses in general, because a vampire count would want to just make money, too.

He would also connect with any Ghost Knights or nobles of Morgau who happen to be in Zobeck, too. Perhaps, he's also involved backdoor diplomacy between the court of Morgau and other nobles who would not travel to Morgau.

cheers

Lexi is a more of a independent contracter than a business owner =D

Thanks for the invite, Infinity! I'm glad to be joining the party (and Kjeta's happy to bring the refreshments!)

While Kjeta grew up in Kubourg, I'd already put in her background that "More recently, Kjeta heard Ninkash’s call the spread the Good Brews within the bustling city of Zobeck. She arrived half a year ago--riding among her kegs on a wagon pulled by her donkey--and has quickly built a reputation as one of Zobeck’s finest brewers. She is becoming a noted presence at many street faires and performances."

So she's already got a business in town. I'd pictured it just out of the wagon and donkey, it probably makes sense to have (or be part of) a local brewery as well. The brewery could be independent, or could be connected to the local temple of Ninkash.

DM: please let me know if there's a version of that that works particularly well (or poorly).

Fellow players: I've been around the city for at least six months. Happy to make it more like 2 years, if that fits better. (Time flies when you're a dwarf.) Possible connections would be (1) around her presence selling ale (or enjoying ale) at various faires and performances, (2) having fought off the selang together back in Kubourg...or feel free to suggest your own.

I don't know if she knows either Raseri or Hrungnir yet, but I expect some good RP opportunities with her fellow dwarf, and her fellow cleric.

Raseri, what god to you worship? I've just begun getting to know the Midgard lore, but it'll be interesting to know the relations between our faiths.

BTW, tomorrow's insanely busy at work, and Tues/Wed is Yom Kippur, so I may not really be able to get much of a meaty post in until Thursday...but if the action starts before Thurs, I'll try.

Oh! DM, do you mind opening Gameplay for dot-and-delete? It helps me keep track of if there are posts for me to read and respond to.

Thanks!

If there’s no player characters with connected business interests with Carnadine, maybe the connection is with the father of the daughter who Lexi is protecting.

Carnadine, as far as local businesses that might connect with Morgau...

Greymarks do tolls and taxes (Volstaff is the Master of Coin for the city) and deals with dhampir under the table in the hopes of furthering his lifespan.

Zeerghasts are another influential family and merchant house involved in the creation of the Arcane Collegium. They have family ties to Morgau though no one says so openly.

As a trade hub, the normal businesses are varied. The Honorable Order of Weavers, with its mysterious clockwork spiders doing the needlework, is fairly well known. There's book shops and botanicals, money lenders...pretty much anything but slave trade.

On another note, winter is the season Morgau typically engages in warfare since of course the cold doesn't bother them. You might be involved in some plot along those lines. There's money in war.

Then there's gangs, whorehouses, narcotics, gambling, pit fighting etc but that might not be your style.

AdamWarnock, thanks and sorry, it sounded like the woman was using you to get a favor from the hag.

Kjeta, gameplay has been open...dot-delete away. :)

If you don't want to be independent, you might belong to the Brewers Sisterhood which is headed up by another dwarf cleric of Ninkash.

There are 24 breweries spread out across the city, some connected directly to taverns and some not. Competition comes from imported Morgau and Rothenian wines. Kobolds brew 'Dog's Breath' in the ghetto. ;)

If you want to have a building with helpers brewing around the clock, we can work out a monthly cost (probably 10s of gold). If you just want your wagon, that's fine/cool too.

Also Carnadine, how is your PP 15? Im missing something maybe.

Also Carnadine, how is your PP 15? Im missing something maybe.

Typo or unedited copy-paste?

Thanks Infinity for the ideas. I'm think it's going to be securing import and export deals. Trying to hook up with PCs first. If there's no connection, then we'll imagine something.

I just know import/export of Kjeta's brew won't work. Deimus doesn't appear to have anything to import either.

@Hrungnir and @Raseri, do you have a weapons and armor business? Enough to export?

If there isn't a PC opportunity, we can connect with Lexi's patron.

cheers

Thanks for the selection! I’m travelling today, but will get to it as soon as possible. I’ll see what kind of links a Kobold tinker, activist, society pillar, and political pain in the butt can have with other characters.

@Carnadine: Sadly, no. By his background he used to, but he sold it to finance this trip to find his fey love. So at the moment he has what he has on him and nothing else.

Kjeta, I think your wisdom stat should be 17, not 18. Your point buy before race mods is 8.14.14.8.15.12, then dwarf gives +2 con and +1 wis for 8.14.16.8.16.12. Then 4th level bump to make wis 17.

I assume you took an ability increase instead of a feat at 4th? Feat not indicated on sheet anyways. You might reconsider, take one that gives +1 wisdom like Observant.

Also I keep getting 69 for your hp somehow...12(lvl1)+33(rolls)+(6*4).

@GM Infinity: No worries. As I said, that was on me. I'll try to make things a little more clear in a bit. I'll try to have my stats up tonight. Tempest Cleric of Thor (who should get along well with Ninkash given the mythology) with a variant of the Fey-Touched Background to let her have proficiency with smith's tools.

Anyway, gotta finish up some house work so it's clean when my landlady has the appliance repairman and the electrician come take a look at some things.

Same, actually had a surprising amount of work today but will get some more gameplay posts up in a few hours.

So...one thing I like about Eldritch Knights is Weapon Bond allowing them to summon their weapons. Is there anything in 5e that does the same to armor?

Okay, Sheet's mostly ready. I still need to do her gear, but most of the crunch is there along with a (hopefully) more coherent backstory. I should have time to get her geared up tomorrow.

@Carnadine: No, she's a freelancer that fills in at other forges when they have big orders or does one-off jobs for locals and merchants passing through in need of a quick turn around.

@Kjeta: I know I answered already, but I figured that I could expand that a little more. Raseri is a priestess of Thor, and venerates him above the other two gods she pays homage too, Sif and Volund. Raseri herself looks young, though she's in her mid twenties, so it's possible you had a girl that looked 16 come up to you and ask for your strongest and by the end of the incident the two were friends, though Raseri would probably come off more and more oddly the more you get to know her.

@Hrungnir: Raseri's been in Zobeck for seven years. There's probably some rumors about how she showed up one day out of the blue and if you did meet her, you'd probably recognize the fey influences on her thanks to your knowledge, though depending on how pushy you are about things, you might realize that Raseri's ire is like a forge fire. It may be slow to build, but once it's roaring, the heat is almost unbearable.

@Lexi: Do you think your client would have hired two guards? Raseri would make a pretty good, obvious watchdog.

@Everyone: I'm all for any connections y'all want to explore. I love banter between PCs and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of our characters in the next few days.

So...one thing I like about Eldritch Knights is Weapon Bond allowing them to summon their weapons. Is there anything in 5e that does the same to armor?

Nothing in the resources we have available to us, except maybe a spell.

@Raseri: It's certainly possible. You could even be in the box with her. I don't think we would have met, however, as I snuck into the box well ahead of time to basically hide in the corner (I am more or less invisible in darkness).

@Everyone: As far as the person who hires me goes, I didn't really put a lot of thought into them, as they're basically just an excuse to get me to the theatre, so feel free to embellish or add details as you see fit.

As for Lexi's history with Zebeck, she's been in town the last few years after being a refugee from the Duchy of Sylvania (sp?). She met the man who would become her mentor when She tried to rob him in an alleyway, and he spent the next couple of years training her. This is probably her second job (the first was a straight assassination) since he left her to her own devices.

EDIT: I took a look at the spells that we have access to, and as I expected, it doesn't appear to be a way to summon armor. There is, however, a concentration spell that lets you create magical armor around you that lasts for an hour called Armored Shell from the MHH that would give you studded leather with a first level spell slot and a chain shirt with a 2nd level slot. Given that your dex is....suboptimal, I would probably just cast mage armor before you went to bed and then put on your armor in the morning or during your watch.

Kjeta, I think your wisdom stat should be 17, not 18. Your point buy before race mods is 8.14.14.8.15.12, then dwarf gives +2 con and +1 wis for 8.14.16.8.16.12. Then 4th level bump to make wis 17.

I assume you took an ability increase instead of a feat at 4th? Feat not indicated on sheet anyways. You might reconsider, take one that gives +1 wisdom like Observant.

Also I keep getting 69 for your hp somehow...12(lvl1)+33(rolls)+(6*4).

I'm glad to see you reviewing our sheets. I'm new to 5e so expect there to be errors. I'm also very open to suggestions from any and all.

Re: WIS, my tentative plan was to take the ability advancement instead of a feat. Isn't that +2?

For HP, I rolled 33 but I rounded the two 4s up to 5s. Did I misunderstand that part? You said "Roll or average rounded up, whichever better”...but I realize that could mean round up the sum of all the rolls of it's below average. If that's what you meant then I should have 69, as you said.

Rolls:
HP: 6d8 ⇒ (4, 6, 7, 6, 6, 4) = 33

,Then 4th level bump to make wis 17.

Sorry, just noticed this. If you only increase a single stat with an ability score boost, it goes up by 2. you can alternately choose to take +1 with two different stats, or a feat (if the optional rule is being used). Check out the ability score section for each of the classes.

Heh, yeah right on both counts. One of those cases where what I had in mind didn't match what I typed out. Good to go, sorry for my mistake/confusion.

Hrungnir, do you want to summon it (to your feet) or don it?

Heh, yeah right on both counts. One of those cases where what I had in mind didn't match what I typed out. Good to go, sorry for my mistake/confusion.

Don't feel too bad. I had to actually open the book to make sure I was correct before I posted. Too many editions swirling around in my brain.

I'm certainly far from perfect, expect at least 1 glaring rules mistake per week at my best. ;)

Thanks Lexi for looking all that up!

@GM: Donning it would be preferable, but getting it to my feet would be enough. When fey are around, one never knows where prized possessions might end up.

Alrighty, still not done with gear, but I've got enough play Ras. :)

Going to post in the game tonight. I gotta get ready for work now.

Awesome, glad you went Tempest.

We must be using a different Heroes. My page 20 has info about gnolls and as mentioned I can't find 'fey-touched' when I text search. At this point its fine, backgrounds are pretty much freely created and the feature is cool...I just hope you have the right book (and I am not completely blind or going crazy).

looks like he's using This, and should be using This.

Aha...yes, quite so. That was one of the earlier splats that got rolled into the Midgard Heroes Handbook. Apparently that background didn't make the cut. But as mentioned no worries, its totally fine.

Blame whoever decided to make two different products such similar names. I'm good if you want me to change it.

Okay, I'm officially in the thread! Woo! :D

I've been thinking and I'm going to swap War Caster for Skilled. It makes a little more sense and I can grab War Caster next level.

Deimus, I know you are still working on it, but you have a ton of gp. Would you like to do something such as own and operate a kobold bar featuring yourself and other musicians?

Speaking of a ton of gold, I still have over 300gp. I'm planning on spending some of it on a few things that make sense (changes of clothes, maybe a small pack animal and cart for hauling finished goods,) but I don't know what to do with the rest. I don't really see Raseri wanting to settle down, but maybe she has a forge-cart? I could see her having that.

As for crunch. I'm done. The last tweak was to replace Umbral with the Northern Tongue since it made no sense for her not to speak it. I think I may have 1 too many languages through.

Anyone have suggestions for Kjeta's crunch?

I'm happy...but also uninformed, as I'm quite new to 5e.

DM, I like the idea of her having a brewery.

You said

"If you want to have a building with helpers brewing around the clock, we can work out a monthly cost (probably 10s of gold). If you just want your wagon, that's fine/cool too"

I'm happy to invest some coin in a business. I don't need it to ever become an actual source of income...but it seems that it a great brewer sets up shop and loses 10s of GP a month for too long, she's gotta be Doing It Wrong.

Maybe it's more like an initial expense that gets recouped over time?

You're good Ras, 2 from human 1 from background. Just noticed minor typo on PP and in your tag for perception, should be 15...left off prof bonus maybe. Correctly +5 in your skills list though.

Kjeta, yeah I had some notes for that somewhere, let me take a look.

Pretty new myself, but it looks good to me. I don't think we're going to be hurting for healing. :)

The way I understand it, the cost is the cost of doing business. Basically you would see how much you make each month via a roll and then see if you beat the cost of your business. At least that's the idea as I understand it. There's some detailed rules out there for running a business in 5e. I know about Durnan's guide to Tavernkeeping, but thats for a tavern and not for a straight up brewery.

That said, if you do decide to run a business, I know of a cleric of Thor that wouldn't mind helping a dwarf out.

You're good Ras, 2 from human 1 from background. Just noticed minor typo on PP and in your tag for perception, should be 15...left off prof bonus maybe. Correctly +5 in your skills list though.

Fixed. This is the reason I'd rather let the computer do it for me. It's much less likely to screw something up. :P

Hehe, those are some cool business rules but I'm not going that detailed for reasons that will become clear. ;) Also, I own in a business in real life and come here to escape after all.

For a brewery, operating costs would be 60 gp per month for everything (lease, payment for 1 hireling labor)...but lets say the temple of Ninkash and your own powers offset typical operating costs by 33%, so its 40 per month.

Your initial investment (actual expenditure) would be a license from either the City Council or the Brewer's Sisterhood (or both). Say a few hundred gold there (more hundreds more awesome brewery), 100gp minimum. That gives you some measure of status in the city.

You could be breaking even with 20 kegs sold every month (at 2gp each), or maybe you don't yet have the capacity to make that many kegs in that amount of time (your choice). Maybe you are making profit and thinking about expanding. That kind of stuff is purely up to you. If you really want the hassle of tracking it, could just do something simple like a 1d3 for loss (-40), breaking even, or double (+40).

Its just an RP toy and a way to care about Zobeck based on gold you decide to give up. Not a huge deal really, since 40 gp is going to be chump change very soon. However, if we ever have something like 'King X is having a banquet and selected Kjeta as her brewer supplier!' we can bust out the blessed prof rolls and have a chance to make real gp.

Cool! I'll pay 100 GP for my brewery (and might toss in more, as I earn it). We can just say that she breaks even on income for now, or is reinvesting any profit (including setting aside some premium kegs as gifts).

Here's a sheet of my purchases to date, btw.

I'll add it to my profile.

Awesome, very much appreciated.

As an activist, Deimus would want to have a place where his clutch can hang out and not get in trouble, as well as a place for other Kobolds to discuss and relax.

So I was thinking a tinkering shop that doubles as a coffee shop. It would have the equivalent of an espresso machine, some tables and some games like Mouse Trap. He sometimes plays the clarinet for his guests.

The shop side would have all sorts of old things and equipment to tinker with.

Deimus had some apprentices, but he has not seen them return since his transformation. Same with his band members. He’s working on regaining acceptance.

Would that work?

Awesome ideas Deimus, loving it. At work now, but in general its the same deal I gave Kjeta. Pay a license to City Council or kobold mafia or something, minimum 100 with more 100s granting more status and features. RP monthly costs as you see fit, losses or gains of 10s of gold...ballpark monthly it would be 60 for one permanent hireling and all other costs.

For game purposes, I'd like this to be already established, like at least a month its been going.

Ok, thanks, so how about this:

The Clutching Drake
The 'Drake' is a three-story house on the Kobold district (does it have a name?). The ground floor hosts a coffee shop equipped with a renowned espresso machine that Old Deimus himself created. Coffee was fast becoming a fashion in the city and the Drake was the only place that catered its finest to Kobolds. Deimus's hope was that his special blend espresso would become fashionable with Humans.

The basement hosts a separate access to the back of the building and serves as Deimus' tinker shop, where he lets the younger Kobolds hang out and tinker to their hearts' content while their older clutch mates enjoy beverages and play games upstairs. These days, he has working on building sophisticated games combining mechanical traps, which are sold in renowned shops.

The top floor is where Deimus lives, which also serves as his personal shop, where he tinkers at a new espresso machine, and now his own new body.

In the past months, the Clutching Drake had built quite a reputation, but Deimus's recent demise has brought things to a low. Deimus is working hard to rebuild the place's reputation as well as his own status among the Kobolds and the city's elites.

Deimus uses the profits generated to further the Kobold cause and build up his political status. He sees the two going hand in hand. Kobolds pay close to nothing to enjoy his coffee, play games, and discuss clutch and politics.

I would use 500 gp to justify the place, plus 100 a month to justify a permanent hand and expenses.

Anyone have suggestions for Kjeta's crunch?

Only thing I really see that you'll want to do is invest in some strength, especially if you're going to wear heavy armor; with an 8 str, your carry cap is 120 lbs, which seems like a lot, but (for example) plate armor is 65 lbs. Add in your weapons, shield, supplies, and it adds up pretty quickly.

Also, I would drop prayer of healing for another spell, as it has a 10 minute casting time.

So, this is about the time I get home and am in a postable state Tues-Fri...6 CDT. Will have some gameplay soon.

Deimus, that's great. That is the sort of thing I was hoping for, thanks for embracing it.

The district is called the Kobold Ghetto. They have their own weird political order of sorts, multiple kings/queens and a 'king of kings'.

They are nocturnal.

Mining gangs, street gangs, silver syndicates, and of course clockworker kobolds are all present. The clockworkers are a subunit of the Geargrinders Guild and are responsible for all the gear-work doors, bridges, gates, lifts, etc. throughout the city. They are sort of like a maintenence crew and wear dusty grey-green uniforms that make them unnoticed by most.

There's also the Cartways, a subterranean transportation system used before the Stross Revolt. Now its in total shambles of course, black market and wild taverns down there.