The Journey of a Thousand Miles (Jade Regent AP)

Game Master Sensen

Thanks for the bookkeeping, Yuto! The boots are a +1 shortspear as stated in the post.

I think we can definitely afford to pay to have those items identified in the town? @Gm what would the cost of that be and which items do those become?

I'm back, everyone! Posting will resume its normal schedule now!

@ Andy: Truth! :D

GM, Ritti is still waiting for a response on the bottom half of this post.

Whoops. I'll reply to this when I get my post up.

Items:

I'll just assume that you have enough magic folks to identify the stuff now that you're back at the caravan, for simplicity's sake.

- Asvig's spear is a +1 shortspear.
- Snorri's stone is a nacreous gray sphere ioun stone.
- The arrow is a greater magical beast slaying arrow.
- The scroll is summon nature's ally III.
- The dagger is known as Deadly Kiss, and has the abilities described in the image.
- The shuriken are earthfire shuriken, though I think you identified them, I could be wrong.
- The necromancer's wand is a wand of command undead with 11 charges remaining.
- Kimandatsu's wand is a wand of flame arrow with 9 charges remaining.
- Kimandatsu's bracers are lesser bracer's of archery.

I think that's everything?

Sorry, been moving slow. Thanks for the well wishes. I'm doing fine, back at work, just soreness now and I'm forbidden to lift, push, or pull anything in excess of 10 lbs. for a couple more weeks.

I finally have Atsuko converted and leveled up short of the gear changes involved. I was planning to make those spellcaft rolls today, but the handwave is better since Atsuko is +7 Spellcraft and it probably would have been hit or miss with some things not getting identified.

@Ritti: Funny piece of trivia but Atsuko actually has a slight edge over Ritti on Disable Device, including traps. But only because she has a set of Goggles of Minute Seeing. When I originally built Atsuko I figured it was likely she would be on DD duty so it was a contingency, she had a low dex. I'm more than happy to let Ritti do all that stuff though and devote my resources to other things. So, would you like the goggles? I suppose an extra +5 on checks puts you pretty close to auto-success, so depends on how much of a challenge you want? If you don't want them, I might sell them off. I'll be losing money on the gear switch, and it will help soften that blow. Atsuko can still competently back Ritti up without them if it ever comes up.

There are several things Atsuko can use from the list of newly identified magical items: Lesser Bracers of Archery and the Magical Beast Slaying Arrow are great now she's doing archery. She can also take both the wands. Her UMD probably isn't high enough yet to use them right away, but soon.

Atsuko can also take any and all scrolls that have spells on the wizard, sorcerer, bard, and witch spell lists. She can now cast those spells 1/day from the item without consuming it, just uses a comparable daily spell casting instead. It's time to start building a library! Sadly, Summon Nature's Ally III isn't on those lists. She would be able to UMD the scroll eventually, but it would be several levels before I'd want to risk the roll. If she whiffs it, the scroll is ruined. I think it's better sold, should bring in a bit more gold, maybe ~200?

I'll post the level up details this evening when I'm home. I forgot to bring the notes with me to work. How are we doing HP when we level?

I'll also get gear figured out tonight.

Added prices and updated descriptions, as well as throwing in Ritti's 'trade' goods (cloak of Elvenkind and Bracers AC1) onto the list.

I'm not sure if this is an error but the value and sale price are identical (instead of halved) on a few pieces of the ogre-mage's gear.

@ Atsuko That is a curious fact! I appreciate the offer but you should sell the goggles for your own benefit. Ritti's rolls are already plenty high... and I'm tempted to buy a few potions of Cat's Grace for the trip in case I need to goose her DEX-based abilities even higher.

To that end, GM, how do we go about buying magic items in town?

Looking back up the loot list there are a few items that seem to have neither been sold nor claimed. Cure Moderate Wounds, Dispel Magic, and Remove Disease off the top of my head, maybe a couple more. Are those free to be claimed?

I also neglected to mention that Atsuko has a level of Oracle, so she can also dabble in divine spells. I'll need to look at the rules for casting higher level spells using items before I know how flexible that will be though.

I'd say that the scrolls are fair for claiming, sure, assuming they've not been claimed.

How are we doing HP when we level?

1/2 HD +1

Cool stuff.

Regarding the last few items, the Necrous ioun stone, assuming it isn't crackes or flawed, is worth 10k as is the deadly kiss +1 dagger.

Selling both seems to net us each 2030 more gold for shopping. I also don't think the +1 shortspear is that useful and gets us 230 g more each. The necrous stone is potentially usable vs incorporeal creatures but we might be better served just buying ghost touch oils for the rare encounter there.

If Yuto's figure of 7k each is correct, then selling those 3 items would land us on 9.26 k each unless someone passes part of their share for moral reasons or taking hugely expensive stuff or such.

If it matters to someone for shopping, Andy can craft woundrous items starting now but I'll prioritise myself a bit first as he seems to be below average on his gear worth and claimed treasure (He was made with level 3 starting gear, since then I believe he only got a +1 amulet, a +1 ring and a +1 backup sword across all found treasure). I think I'll at least craft a belt and headband for him before starting orders.

@Ritti: Sounds good, I'll sell it. If you do need a skill boost for something, there's still Inspire Competence available.

Also, there are some purchased items on the list that seem to be unclaimed? Wand of Endure Elements, Wand of CLW, Traveler's Any Tool. Should Atsuko take those? She has CLW on her spell list of course, and the Endure Elements wand shouldn't be much of a problem to UMD.

I wasn't able to find the Flame Arrow wand on the list, but Atsuko will take it if it's unclaimed.

Since I'm doing so well picking through the loot list, I don't mind taking less in gold. The items I'm claiming do subtract from the total amount of gold being split after all.

@ Atsuko If I need Inspire Competence... we are in serious trouble. :D

On the Loot list, you have already claimed the Wand of Flame Arrow (row 201).

It looks like the Wand of Endure Elements was bought as a team item. It just looks like no one is holding it yet.

I noticed that you didn't lay claim to the Greater Slaying arrow... someone should definitely grab that, IMO.

@ Andy Just my thoughts here, so take them or leave them as you choose... I'd be in favor of selling the Ioun Stone. It is cute and also highly situational, but the cash I think is worth more to the team. Same goes with the Deadly Kiss dagger. While I'm a thief, I don't like the idea of using poisons. Could it be helpful, yeah, but I'd avoid it in general. So if the Deadly Kiss is used strictly as a +1 dagger... it is worth 10k but being used like a 2k dagger. Again, I see that money being better spent going to the team.

I may kick some cash back to the party as I shouldn't get a share of the sales of the Cloak and Bracers that I threw into the pot. But I tend to not overly worry about WBL too much as things tend to balance out over time. That said, if you want to make yourself some nice gear, I can't object to that. And if anyone wants to buy an item that they need a little help paying for, I'm happy to pitch in cash. Depending on what's available in town, I really doubt I'll be spending more that 5k GP of whatever my share is. There are very few 'must have' items on Ritti's wish list at this point.

This might be a question for Yuto as a loot sheet designer... Is there a way on the Ritti tab to add gear I purchased pre-game so that that it shows on the Statistics tab to accurately reflect my combined 'character wealth'? I don't want to start tweaking the loot sheet and potentially screwing up the functionality.

Figured out a simpler way to represent our true wealth, just need to add 16K to my figure and Atsuko's figure on the statistics page. That puts our wealth in a relative scale.

So currently we are at:

Yuto 28,138
Torra 25,551
Andy 26,577
Ritti 31,612
Atsuko 29,247

@Atsuko, feel free to pick up all those items, no one else is going to make use of the archery stuff and feel free to pick up any spell trigger item not intended to heal the party.

Most of the stuff not claimed and not sold is just healing stuff and other generally useful stuff that is to share. This should not impact the wealth of any particular character, but feel free to say it is you who is holding them. Anything no one is actively stating to hold, you can assume Yuto is carrying around in the party bags.

I'm not sure if this is an error but the value and sale price are identical (instead of halved) on a few pieces of the ogre-mage's gear.

This is because Large weapons and armors' value is twice the usual value of a Medium one.

This might be a question for Yuto as a loot sheet designer... Is there a way on the Ritti tab to add gear I purchased pre-game so that that it shows on the Statistics tab to accurately reflect my combined 'character wealth'? I don't want to start tweaking the loot sheet and potentially screwing up the functionality.

The way I usually handle this is to set your initial coin in cell J2 of your tab. You can also list the items you started with and buy in the L:M columns to help you track stuff. The gold noted in those will be automatically subtracted from the initial gold and shares to help you know how much coin you have remaining. But you can instead track coin in your profile if you prefer of course! :D

Ok, I have set the spear and the dagger to selling (it is a nice one but if Ritti is not into poisoning is better sold). Same for the ioun stone.

I have consolidated the sell, that's 45.482 gp. So, as Andochtuir advanced, that means 9096,4 gp for each character!

Enjoy! :)

As for claimed items, Yuto is well over the group, just because he has two intelligent items, and those do not have value by the rules. So, I will be just taking whatever no one else needs.

Maybe if we ever find a heavy armor, j#$!

@ Atsuko

On the Loot list, you have already claimed the Wand of Flame Arrow (row 201).

Ugh, I mixed up the two "arrow" items. Found and claimed them both now.

@Atsuko, feel free to pick up all those items, no one else is going to make use of the archery stuff and feel free to pick up any spell trigger item not intended to heal the party.

Is there someone else who can use the healing items? Andy? I did claim some of them, should I un-claim them?

Although I might go scroll or spellbook shopping, I don't think I'll be buying much right now actually. I feel like I have my bases covered with a couple more small items and the trade of items like +1 seax for +1 bow. I'll take another look, but off the top of my head the items I'd like to get, like a tuned bow string, are well out of price range now and will have to wait for the future.

EDIT: Ah, looked up the rules for using scrolls above character's caster level. It doesn't really pencil out for Atsuko to bother with divine spells. A caster level of 1 that won't be advancing isn't going to be reliable for anything that matters much.

Level 7 = Level 6 Bard

BAB +1
Fort, Ref, Will +1
HP +8
Performance Rounds +2

Class Abilities:

Suggestion

Versatile Performance (Dance)

Comparative Arcane Studies

Feat: Precise Shot

2nd Level Spell: Allegro

New Language: Erutaki

Skills: +1 Perform (Dance), Perform (Oratory), Linguistics, Perception, Spellcraft, Survival, UMD

Background Skills: +2 Craft (Calligraphy)

Looking at the last two selling & buying sessions, it seems that we don’t have to worry about settlement size or having to roll for item availability. Is that correct? That isn’t a complaint! :) I’m all in favor of buying any cool stuff we can afford.

@Atsuko sure, I can claim some of the healing stuff to use if you do not want to use it or can't use it well.

Note to self to update Andochtuirs skills tonight, I think they might still have the level 5 values, need to recalculate the total amount of SP he should have.

Stuff that Torra would like to buy, if available:

Amulet of natural armor +1 (4.000 gp)
Eyes of the Eagle (2.500 gp)
Incandescent blue sphere ioun stone, cracked (500 gp)

I believe the nacreous ioun stone is neither cracked nor flawed, for the record. I'm pretty sure it's just normal.

Torra: I think you can find all of those items in Kalsgard, yeah.

Can I also say that your status spoiler is so much simpler than the one I have for my Wrath of the Righteous game? You all just have so many fewer fiddly details.

Ritti goodies… Let me know if any of this isn’t available. This actually exceeds my budget BUT my final shopping list will be a subset of these items.

Muleback Cords – 1000 GP
Boots of the Winterlands – 2500 GP
Scabbard of Vigor – 1800 GP
+1 Butterfly Sword – 2310 GP
MW Butterfly Sword – 310 GP
Sashimono of Comfort – 2400 GP
Wand of Mage Armor – 750 GP
2x Potion of Cat’s Grace – 600 GP

So I'm looking at the following right now.

Items sold:
+1 Broken Back Seax (1,170)
Belt of Giant Strength (2,000)
Goggles of Minute Seeing (1,250)
MWK Short Bow +3 Strength (300)
=2,720

Items Purchased:
+1 Composite Longbow +2 Strength (2,600)
Belt of Incredible Dexterity (4,000)
Efficient Quiver (1,800)
Wayfinder (500)
Ioun Stone: Dusty Rose Cracked Prism (500)
Snapleaf (750)
Wand of Gravity Bow (750)
MWK Cold Iron Longsword (330)
MWK Cold Iron Katana (400).
I decided why choose? Besides Atsuko does tend to be the cautious type. She's excited about the new Katana, but a Longsword feels comfortable in her hand at present.

Scrolls:
Web (Witch 2)
Euphoric Cloud (Wizard 2)
Burning Sands (Wizard 1)
Communal Resist Energy (Wizard 3)
Stone Call (Wizard 2)
Lipstitch (Witch 2)
Levitate (Wizard 2)
Ghostbane Dirge (Bard 2)
Commune with Birds (Bard 2)

All this leaves me with 886 gp.

Since the casting from scrolls is 1/day now, 2/day at 10th level, and 3/day at 14 level (I doubt we go to 18th level in this AP), I'm going to approach it like a sommelier with a big wine cellar. If it's a special moment, I'll find something that is an excellent pairing with the situation at hand. That means cultivating variety.

There's another wand I'm eyeing, Predict Weather, which gives a 48 hour forecast. It' a 1st level Bard spell, so 750 for a wand. What do you think? Worth it? Worth it enough to be called a group item and those who can chip in some?

@Atsuko If you're selling your strength belt anyway, could I buy it off of you for that price? Saves me some time on the crafting.

Amulet of natural armor +1 (4.000 gp)

The amulet costs only 2000 gp! :D

There's another wand I'm eyeing, Predict Weather, which gives a 48 hour forecast. It' a 1st level Bard spell, so 750 for a wand. What do you think? Worth it? Worth it enough to be called a group item and those who can chip in some?

Mmm... not sure, in paper it should be useful. But narratively, it can be problematic. I mean, most of the times it is not going to help us to know the weather, and in some cases it might derail some scripted event.

I lean more towards a second endure elements wand, as we are about to pass a lot of time in the freezing north and we cannot craft wands that I know.

@Andochtuir: Sure, that's fine with me, if it's alright with the GM.

Also, I looked into the spare unclaimed things more carefully, and checked on what alchemists can do.

You have Endure Elements on your list, and Alchemists can use wands. You should take it. I can try UMD, but if a fail a roll, the wand shuts down until the next day I believe. Since multiple characters might need the casting at given time, you're more reliable there I think.

It turns out that Alchemists can't cast from scrolls without a UMD check. Unless I've missed someone who has access to divine spells, I should take the scrolls of Cure Moderate Wounds and Restoration I have CMW on the Bard spell list and it's 2nd level. I can straight up cast it from scroll in an emergency, or I can use my 1/day from Comparative Arcane Studies to cast it without using up the scroll. It might be helpful in downtime situations when you've healed you limit on someone and they're still down HP or similar situations. I don't plan to take CMW as a spell known.

I will eventually be able to UMD the Restoration Scroll, but it will get used up. Still it's a handy spell to have, probably worth more keeping it than selling it, which would bring in 350 gp. The other possibility is that I think you can add to your formulae book from scrolls right? If you can do that, you should certainly keep it.

All right, let's see...

Final added spells for scribing:

Ashen path, detect thoughts, skinsend vs DC 17 at +16*, 3+: rolls: 3d20 ⇒ (2, 11, 10) = 23

@Drinking his potion of heroism CL 7 with alchemical allocation (level 2 extract that allows gaining a potion benefit without using up the potion), he has +16 spellcraft and can't fail the checks. Costs another 120 gold.

Total gold: 750 leftover + 9096 = 9846.

Scribing + MW tool scribing: 520 g.
CL 7 (?) potion of heroism: 1050 gold**.
Cl 7 potion of Life Bubble (?) 1050 gold***.

Belt of giant strength (crafted or bought from Atsuko): 2k.
Headband of intellect (crafted, UMD skill): 2k.
Boots of the winterlands (crafted): 1,25 k.
Masterwork tool UMD (scrolls) 50 g.

I'll wait with any further crafts until I know how much time we have during the downtime weeks and whether the above potions are available or craftable.

**I am unsure of it Andy can craft the potion himself after adding it to his spellbook. The rules state that the created potion must be of a high enough level to cast the spell and it can't be higher than his own caster level. Andy's CL is 6. The alchemist heroism extract is gained at level 7/CL 7, but for wizards and other arcane casters heroism is CL 5 or 6. So... RAW it seems he can make a CL 6 potion of heroism, so long as it is on his spell list. However, I'd understand if that was considered a bit cheesy. If he makes it himself, the CL is one lower at six and it instead costs 450 gold.

***This is bought only if one specifically made by a ranger or hunter is available in the town. For them, it is a third level level spell rather than fourth and thus works for alchemical allocation. However, I understand if that is disallowed as it is sorta cheesy or too rare to find. Not many rangers or hunters will be alchemists.

Yep, you can absolutely sell the belt to Andochtuir, Atsuko.

I'll give Torra the chance to respond before I post.

GM. am I clear to make any/all of the purchases above?

@Gm when you have a moment, could you perhaps give a ruling on the questions on the potions Andy might buy or craft in this city as outlines in my previous post above? As said there I am fine with if either is not possible.

Oh, sorry about that. Yes, Ritti and Andochtuir can make any or all of those purchases, funds permitting. Kalsgard's the last big settlement you'll be in for... quite some time, so you'll want to stock up on expensive items while you can.

A question for you all: how do you feel like leaning into the horror of the Crown of the World a bit? I'm debating using the sanity rules as you go further north and into the dark terrors of the frozen wastes. There's some elements of dark fantasy, cosmic horror, and psychological horror that's possible up there, and I'm pondering whether or not to include them.

Ritti's gear is updated.

I'd be fine with horror/sanity stuff creeping in!

Big thumbs up for horror! I know I'll regret admitting that...

I'm down for some spoopy!

That sounds good to me! Never played with horror rules before so interested to see how that goes.

On the level up, I finished updating Andy's skills.

On the shopping, his final shopping list is this:

Budget: 9846 g

-Belt of Str +2 (from Atsuko) 2k
-Headband of Int +2 (crafted, ranks in Fly) 2k
-Boots of the winterland (crafted) 1,25 k
-Eyes of the eagle (crafted) 1,25 k

=6.5 k.

Potions:
-Potion of heroism CL 6 (crafted) 450 g
-Elixir of vision = craft : 125 g.
-Potion of keep watch (craft): 50 g.
-Potion of darkvision (craft, cl 3): 150 g
-Potion of magic circle vs evil CL 6 : 900 g.
-Potion of crafter's fortune 50 g
=1725 g.

> Left: 1620 g

-Craft potion of ant haul (25 g)
2 x spring-loaded wrist sheathe (10 g)
Smoked goggles (10 g)
Potion sponge with touch of the sea (27g)
=72 g.

> 1548 g left.

If anyone is wondering why I'm buying so many potions, the alchemsist unique level 2 extract 'alchemical allocation' allows you to gain the effects of a potion without consuming the potion. This turns the long duration potions into essentially passive buffs. The other potions are for utility.

@Everyone I would like to, if possible, use the remainder of my gold to craft a Boro Bead in week 2, but I am 452 g short to do this. Is there anyone I could borrow part of this from or do I have permission to sell some consumables less likely to be used, like the scroll of animate dead?

If it is part of the AP setting, let the horror come to us!

I used once the horror rules but I was not very successful. They are either too crippling or non consequential depending on party composition. And they did not help bring the sense of horror over the group. It is very hard in a game that is designed for the players to be heroes and succeed against insurmountable odds to feel horror.

I have had more success by tweaking the atmosphere of the room and intonation of voice. But that is not a thing in the boards regretfully :D

@Everyone I would like to, if possible, use the remainder of my gold to craft a Boro Bead in week 2, but I am 452 g short to do this. Is there anyone I could borrow part of this from or do I have permission to sell some consumables less likely to be used, like the scroll of animate dead?

I haven't decided yet what to buy, I can lend the gold to Andochtuir.

I noticed Yuto didn't sell Ritti's gear. So if you sell the cloak and bracers then split the profit 4 ways (since Ritti shouldn't get a share), that would give each of you an additional 437 GP, 5 SP.

Then Andy just needs to borrow around 15 GP and Yuto can buy better gear.

@Andochtuir: Torra has plenty of gold left over, so you can craft whatever you like, she'll lend you the money.

Interesting. these are the sanity rules, while these are the madness rules. I'm thinking of restricting it to while you're in the Crown of the World, a place where reality grows thin and Things stalk the long nights. The dead, aberrations, and more! Plus isolation. That's always fun.

EDIT: This is something you might want to consider as you figure how we're proceeding.

EDIT 2: Once you get into the Crown of the World, crafting items is much harder due to frequent interruptions - it takes two days of effort per 1,000 gp of a magic item's price.

I've been squirreling some of Torra's deep-seated issues, but this upcoming part sounds perfect for unearthing them. =^.^=

I spy, with my little eye... tasty psychological dramas! XD

All right, thanks everyone. @Torra, if I might borrow 315 gold then, that would allow me to get everything from the list and have a potion of Ashen Path as well in case we run into issues of sight-obscurement. I'll repay it asap.

Sure thing!

@GM Can I ask how many days we have until we enter the zone where crafting becomes more difficult? Starting from before be leave Kalsgard, Andy only needs 7 days to craft most of what is on there. Working at +5 spellcraft DC for 2k progress/day, which he cannot fail for any of the items, the only item he can't make in the first week is the Boro Bead. Which would take 4 days of extra time assuming he can still add +5 dc to the crafting dc to make double progress in a day as stated in the craft magic item rules.

You've had a week since leaving Kalsgard and then two more days since - though those two days only count as one. So you've had eight effective days.

Can i request my starting position to be at the front/next to Yuto, rather than behind everyone, as Andy is supposed to be our secondary tank? While he isn't at fast as the others on move speed, it doesn't seem to make sense for both ranged damage dealers to rush ahead of him that much. I can't really protect anyone far in front of me and i assume our characters would have basic understanding of each other's tactics.

Well, I specified Atsuko as staying within bow shot of Ritti, and otherwise the idea was to hang back and let Ritti check things out. Given what was said on the subject, the map placements make sense.

Longbow range is 100' in the first increment so Atsuko hardly needs to be breathing down Ritti's neck to do what said she would do. It's just the map is kinda small.

Probably the best fix is for Atsuko (won't speak for Torra on any of this) to use her move action to move back. She didn't use the action. After all, Atsuko has no interest in closing the distance since she's using a bow, and they are advancing.

That's fair, I just figured that since we are in a defensive position and presumably know the direction Ritti and Shalelu are coming from, that we would start with the frontline in front.

With sufficient distance, the best thing is to have ranged out front to respond earlier, then move back. It both gives ranged attacks an earlier shot, and forces those advancing to cover more ground before they can attack.