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

Game Master mishima

This is interesting... We don’t have a boss, and we’re not a democracy...

I demand deciding when and where to camp...by combat!

If we do, better do it here. The only think that I'm worried about is that those giants are twitching and we know things come back to life here. Raseri would love to just make a break for it and not even bother with the ballista, but I can see the use in having it.

I would also add that we are also against the clock on our resources. If we can manage it, a long rest here would be grand and we can just make a beeline down the road after that.

Just when I stopped jonesing for Winds of Winter...read Knight of the Seven Kingdoms recently and it was fantastic. Not ready to take the history plunge with Fire and Blood and similar though...

On the long rest, Ill just say that its pretty unlikely. Also magic works differently here...you can certainly try though, comes down to dice being rolled as always.

On the long rest, Ill just say that its pretty unlikely. Also magic works differently here...you can certainly try though, comes down to dice being rolled as always.

In that case you can change Kjeta's vote to a whistful "let's get packing!"

Of course, what that looks like isn't clear to me.
1) Avoid this portal and keep walking?
2) Risk the portal?

I lean toward #1 (since, after all, a giant just tried to push us into it). What do yall think?

If we want to investigate the portal, I spose we could dangle a rope in and pull it out...and then maybe dangle one of us in, on that rope, and pull it out...but I'm also 100% OK with just skipping it.

I’m traveling the next two days on business, so whatever. Cheers

I definitely want to avoid the portal. Fey being Fey, we should assume that it's not free, and we have no idea what the price might be.

Throw the giant bodies in. They will come back to life anyways. Make it the problem of whomever is on the other side, and not ours.

The way I see it, there are three separate issues:

1-Do we need a long rest, and can we get a long rest?

I think a long rest would be nice, but I don't know that we absolutely need it, and I don't know that we'll get it.

2-Do we need a ballista, and can we carry a ballista?

I think, again, that it's a nice to have, and it would make an impression, but the cost of waiting is perhaps too much.

3-Do we use the portal?

That's a definite no for me. We should avoid taking it at all costs.

So, to sum, my brain tells me to push on as it seems the safest move. My heart, however, tells me to get the ballista and get the long rest because it has more risks, thus more rewards. So, because it's a game and not my life, I would push for the riskier options (long rest and ballista). That being said, I'd go with the majority. Deimus would as well.

Throw the giant bodies in. They will come back to life anyways. Make it the problem of whomever is on the other side, and not ours.

I like this!

Inspired by Raseri and the letter þ

The neophyte linguist in me is cackling in glee at that one.

Hey gang, I'm heading in vacation for 3 days, likely somewhere with zero cell reception or wifi.

I hate to miss this scene, but DMPC me of needed.

Alrighty, probably rolling inits in a few hours when I update. Thanks for letting me know.

Lexi, in my way of thinking, the gloom stalker ability is pretty much just like if a normal person stepped into darkness with a non-darkvision observer. In that situation, the person stepping into darkness would be effectively invisible.

In both situations, the stepper needs to roll hide to be unheard. But its kind of a pointless distinction most of the time from the stepper's perspective, because regardless of that roll the stepper is an unseen attacker and has advantage on attacks vs observer.

When it does matter, however, is in the first round of combat to determine surprise. Surprise requires unseen and unheard (hidden).

Let me know if this goes against what you are thinking, or if I'm making a weird interpretation. It honestly hurts my brain sometimes.

No, that's pretty much my take on it too.

I was just asking to see if he had something like blindsight, or see invisible, since I would assume that, since it mentions invisibility, see invisible would bypass it.

Meant to post more gameplay last night, then promptly fell asleep on the couch with the rice maker left on all night. Apologies, likely cant get to it until after work today.

I'm home for a few hours, then flying for business tonight through Thursday...but expect to be able to get in at least brief combat posts daily.

I'll post here tonight, assuming the plane's wifi isn't broken.

This is a question I have:

When a spell gives a save at the end of your turn, what happens on the first turn?

One possible answer is that you make the save first on the creature's turn, when the effect is applied. In this case, Deimus misses the DC and loses his action, then at the end of his turn, he rolls again to see if he remains affected until the end of his next turn.

If that's the case, then I should probably have rolled twice when I posted. The first to indicate what happens between the creature's turn and the end of mine, the second to indicate what happens between the end of my first turn and the end of my second turn.

Am I right? If so, then perhaps it's best if I had rolled twice in my first post?

(I hope I'm clear. This can get very confusing very fast...)

Yes, that's absolutely right Deimus. The first save (the only one you rolled for) happened on the ghouls turn during its attack. Its just like spells. Oversight on my part, I apologize.

If you succeed at this one, you were paralyzed during Round 2 but snapped out of it and can act normally here during Round 3.

A rules question for you GM, If I ready an action to attack and use divine strike on the attack if it hits, can I use it on an attack that hits on my next turn?

Divine Strike has to occur during your turn, it can't happen during your reaction unless you somehow get a reaction during your turn. When you Ready, you do the readied thing during your reaction (and thus give up any chance at OA for example).

Ah, I got ya. Thanks for clearing that up.

Will get a longer post up in an hour or 2.

There are times I feel like I'm indulging my maudlin side way too much with these posts. Hopefully it's enjoyable to read at least.

I liked how you tied in other PC quotes :)

I enjoyed it!

Thanks. That does help me feel better about the wall of text I pumped out.

You've become much more elf-like ... you feel you might rather even write poetry than work a forge..

This bit made me chuckle because I play an elven bard that also knows her way around the forge in the Hoard of the Dragon Queen game I'm in. She even fell into a fey mood. I'd like to see Hrungnir try and top that! :P

I enjoyed the introspection, too. I thought one of Carnadine's previous posts that upset the Thorsdottir was when he suggested to her to pretend or fake it until she felt it. Think it was earlier in the campaign, but I can't find it.

cheers

Glad to see the advice I got from my first Team Leader put to good use!

So, is Hrungnir now a dwemer?

Woah, rad ES artwork. And yes.

You mean this post?

That was when we were looking for the gate and Raseri had a bit of a family reunion. It's also when Lexi gave her advice to Raseri. It did upset her, but just because of that. It's the same post that I pulled Carnadine's words from.

And yeah, when Raseri starts venting, things are probably going to get a little violent. There's a lot of emotion mixed up in there right now.

Yep. That’s the first one. Just hope we can target that vent explosion toward a bad guy

Cheers

Oh don't worry, Raseri isn't close to that far gone. You'd have to push her pretty hard to get her to snap like that, and I don't get the impression that Carnadine would go for that kind of psychological torture.

And cause I missed it earlier, I vote that Hrungnir looks like the guy in the armor. I don't evil vizier is a good look for him. :P

Update coming in an hour or so, just realized I need to completely redo the map. Complex situation so will impart some meta knowledge shortly as well...

No worries. I don't think any of us are going to blame you for having to think through this one since this is just a bit crazy.

I randomly drew some squares earlier without realizing the distances didn't make sense. Updated now and should be good to go.

Yeah, just realized that this post came before the gameplay one. Whoops. :P

Okay, so since we rolled initiative, do we realize we're in combat yet, or is this to make thinks a little easier to keep track of?

Lexi sees the enemy 60 ft behind you, and also sees them through the road beneath you. She chose to tell you about it, so no surprise...but I suppose it is up to you to interpret the appearance of the Master of Roads and elementals on a moebius strip of road however Ras might.

Init was rolled because Lexi foiled their chance at surprise, combat has begun but since you won initiative, there are no clear signs of battle yet I suppose other than what Lexi has to say.

Okay, thanks. I'll have an in character post up in a bit.

Weird and incredibly long day at work. Will update in next few hours, apologies for delay if you were waiting on me.

I'm a bit confused. Given that Lexi figured out how to phase through to the other side, can we simply just follow her? If not, do we have any advantage on our rolls from seeing her do it? Or is it still a DC 20 Search action if we want to go the short way?

No, Lexi was able to do that because she got the Shadow Touched condition from the dragon hoard. Raseri can do it from her background feature that interacts with shadow roads.

Kjeta can move left and right and will loop into the bottom segment as the numbers on the side indicate. You could also teleport if you had such abilities, counting the space through the road as 5ft.

You can see through, but not pass through, the road by spending a Search action and succeeding at DC 20 perception...darkvision is required for that.

Kjeta, looking left from where you are you can see the enemies. You would need to spend 8 squares of movement to get in melee with one.

Thanks!! Post coming.

I just re-read your tactical notes--thanks for posting them! Some followup Qs:

I'm thinking of casting Hypnotic Pattern, which has a 120' range. It *sounds* from what you've written like
1. I can see them
2. If I move 50', I'll be in melee range
3. At present, they have total cover from me

Is that all correct so far?

Could I cast HypPat effectively from where I stand? ...Or from after a 25' Move action?

(Also, I'm pretty sure HypPat doesn't benefit from being cast w a L4 slot, right?)

You just need to be at least 60 ft from them to cast, since that is the limit on visibility here. It cant go through the road, but yeah from where you are its fine. They dont have total cover, they would only if you tried to cast through the road...which you could only even attempt if you saw them through the road...which you dont. :)

I hate to bring it up but...do I have to make another Concentration save?

Yeah, this one is only DC 10 though.