Kingmaker

Game Master Rackal28

Their relationship is the the thing I love most about them <3

Oleg may seem mean at first but he's really just a big ol' teddy bear~

Sorry it's taken me a while to get a post in. I got into a home renovation project over the weekend and it took a whole lot longer than I had figured it would.

Meneas for MVP. Sad dice roller...

Yeah, that was startlingly lucky.

Yeah you needed two successes to find the place so you'll get a second chance when you go back if you want to look more throughly.

Any reply from Oleg/Svetlana concerning Signy's request?

Ya dun got spotted! Red alert! What will our brave Signy do in this precarious situation?~

Uh-oh. If anyone had message, that's usually a good means of keeping in touch... but I don't know if spiritualists actually have it on their lists, and I'm pretty sure divine casters don't. Oh well.

Oh no!

Yeah, we probably don't know that Signy has been caught. Since Meneas is taking first watch, he'd probably notice that she hasn't returned as expected. Brental has a few tricks to help, but not if he doesn't know that there's a problem yet!

I'll wait for Signy's response.

I do have message on my spell list, but haven't learned it yet at this point :/

Reading through there, there's no reason to think Signy would have departed without telling us, so I think it's reasonable for us to have agreed on something like "after 10 minutes if she's not back..." - I don't know, we can imagine she did the "spur of the moment" thing but I doubt we wouldn't evolve the plan before kicking it.

Message is incredibly handy and I use it all the time when it's available on a character's spell list. In this case it wouldn't matter because the distance it can be used across increases by CL and wouldn't yet work across anything more than a short distance.

I would think everyone else would be aware of what Signy is doing. I specifically worded the post to solicit opinions with "if" she does this, etc. in case there were other characters who had an opinion on it.

@Rackal: I need some more information about the setting before I decide what to do. What is the distance between Signy and the sentry who spotted her? Do I understand correctly that all the bandits are either inside the fort or on the walls? How high are the walls? How far did Signy travel from the cave to reach the bandit fort? Your post implies Signy is at a higher elevation than the fort if she's able to see inside? Is she on a bluff overlooking it, or are the walls really low like barricades?

Oh Brental would have encouraged Signy's scouting and then held on from resting until she returned.

Nevertheless, the cavalry won't go investigating right away. So probably yeah, after 10 minutes or so, when she doesn't return, we'll go looking.

Pretty much, yes.

Well lets say you're around 400 feet from where you camped for the night. And there are no walls for this area actually as it's just a camp and not an actual fort. Signy is at a lower elevation compared to the sentry on the platorm. If you need more information I encourage you to look at the brand new map I have set up on roll20 to give you a better idea of your predicament~

Neat. So it would take Brental 5 rounds (30 seconds) of full-tilt, noisy running (4x movement speed of 20 ft) to reach Signy. Vodnykel could get there twice as fast if there's some kind of a signal, and I'm sure that Meneas on Veil could make it the fastest (less than two rounds). It's also technically a base DC 40 Perception check to see something 400 ft away (+1/10 ft), especially if Signy was already hiding with that 20 Stealth. If she draws attention to herself and we're paying attention (which we probably would be), we could feasibly notice it right away and start going for it.

Just saying :)

It is certainly possible~

Sorry for the long wait. I got my 1st Covid-19 shot on Thursday and it gave me a real whammy the next day, headache and brutal fatigue. Getting back to normal today.

Huzzah! I got my vaccine two weeks ago Friday and it knocked me out for at least 24 hours. Congrats, and I hope you're feeling better.

I'm having some difficulty parsing what everyone wants to do going forward. So if everyone could just post here what your vote is (attacking the bandits or fighting the mites) by the end of the day I'd like to get us moving forwards~

We're waffling. I was trying to help by being more decisive, and I think it backfired. I initially wanted to go after the mites instead, but then the message I was getting in-character was no, let's take care of the bandits.

We need a clear way to resolve things like this where we are conflicted, whether we designate a character as a nominal leader who makes the decision, do voting like this where majority rules (though that can be tricky with a 2-2 split), or give a basic idea of our character's thoughts on an issue and let the GM decide. I'm open to other suggestions.

I vote we attack the bandits.

I'm with Brental, myself.

That’s what Lorna conveyed as well. We really can’t afford to just let them be at this point because they will likely attack Oleg & wife with numbers.

Well as I said, Signy will go with a majority for either choice. Turns out it's unanimous actually so we go after the bandits.

Lorna can actually try to catch the attention of the people on the fort with her phantom, incorporeally manifested (pretending to be a ghost). This way, maybe you guys can sneak behind and try to go for Kressle's neck directly?

I like the idea of Lorna creating a distraction, Signy sneaking into position, and Meneas, Veil, Brental, and Vodnykel taking advantage of the distraction to get into position. None of the last four are stealthy. I would be happy to enter initiative slightly delayed to avoid having four plus creatures rolling untrained Stealth. The chances of success go down dramatically the more people roll Stealth.

That is, distraction increases the DC to notice by 5, +1 for every 10 ft away. If we could stay far away enough to not tick their passive Perception with regular effort, however far away that is, then I'm happy to do that and then mainly roll active Stealth if they have reason to actively look for us (e.g. not trusting the ruse).

Yes, indeed. A decoy is a very good idea. I do intend to use my challenge on Kressle, if she survives long enough for it to be practical, and go straight for her, because, uh, obviously. Challenges aren't terribly useful if you're not hitting their target.

A ghost spirit thing is certainly more distracting than an arrow!

Signy will use the same approach, but will wait until Lorna's spirit has started causing mayhem.

Hi guys! Posting it on all my pbps.

Our offshore team at work is very affected by the pandemic at the moment and with the fiscal year approaching to an end, our reduced capacity is terribly affecting my time. For the next several weeks it will likely impact me in such way that I simply won't be able to keep up with the forums, things normalizing only as we start approaching mid June.

For the games where I play, GMs please feel free to bot the characters. If you don't desire to bot me for so long, I completely understand, apologize for the late notice and wish you all the best of fun. If you hold me around, though, I should be back after this storm.

For the games where I host, my sincerest apologies to the players - I won't let you hanging so if you stick around until my return we will give it continuation as normal. Otherwise, please message me and once I'm back I'll recruit replacements.

To everybody, I'm sorry for the late notice and I hope we will continue playing together once I'm back!

Cheers,

Archlich

Hope you're doing okay, Archlich.

Okay, so I venture that Lorna's exemplar would open up on blue with:

improvised earth breaker +4 (2d6+7)

while Lorna takes 1d6 damage from the exemplar's manifestation.

Rackal, it looks like Archlich gave you explicit permission to Bot Lorna for as long as you see fit. I for one would like to keep this going.

Fair enough, I'll bot Lorna going forward unless anyone else has a problem with that?

Without further ado then I'll have Lorna and the bandits go then it will be Brental and Vod's turn.

Also if anyone has any advice to give on how to keep the pace of combat up I'm happy to hear it. This has been going a little slow for my taste.

Generally, in combat, if someone hasn't posted in the last 24 hours, I bot them. YMMV, of course.

Botting within 24 hours seems perfectly reasonable.

I kind of like block initiative, where one side goes, and then the other side goes. Brental, Meneas, and Signy are almost at a place where we could go one after the other. If you switch the initiative of Orange and Red for Blue and Blue-Red (who are dead), then the three of us will act in a block and all other characters (including Lorna) will go in their own block. That way everyone can act simultaneously instead of waiting for each other, and the GM can bot someone who doesn't act.

Yeah, usually there's some sort of agreement on a wait time past which the GM will bot the character to keep combat moving. It could be 24 hours, or 48 hours or whatever.

Block initiative works out well for PbP. Sometimes it's used for all combatants, sometimes it's used for mooks but with a more powerful enemy, like say Kressle in this case, acting on her own initiative. It's something we could experiment with to find a system everyone likes.

Since we originally recruited five, do we want to grab another player after this fight? I hope Archlich is able to return in June, but it feels weird to bot Lorna for *that* long. I wouldn't mind a fourth to come along with us for now.

Cant move and do a full attack I'm afraid so no The second hoof attack cant happen but bandit leader kill never the less!

Also how is everyone else feeling? Should we recruit a new player or bot Lorna? Or I could throw in an NPC if you guys dont want to wait for a recruitment.

I'm fine with holding Lorna's spot and botting her for a while. We could also recruit one and Lorna could go back to hang around at Oleg's for a while, which would save having to bot her a lot. You wouldn't have to run a totally new recruitment to pick up a new player. There are plenty of apps submitted from the first one. Somebody would be willing to join from among them.

I'm flexible. Whatever works best for everyone is fine with me.

Can't you five-foot-step and full attack? If not, no biggie, but that was my intention.

I don't mind bringing someone else on, but nor do I mind going at it with just the botting - a month is a long time, but... eh, I don't mind either way.

Huh I never knew you could do a 5 foot step and full attack but I looked it up and you're right, it's a little late for me to retcon it now but I know for the future also because of my mistake you'll get a little bit of extra loot after the fight by way of an apology

No worries - you said it didn't change things here. xD

I think we're technically waiting on Signy? On Roll20 Signy said that they would tend to Lorna. She's got Cure Light Wounds on her spells known and is right next to the spiritualist.

I think we're still technically at the end of Round Three with Signy, though Brental and the Orange bandit have already taken their Round 4 actions. Here's what I have tracked so far:

Surprise Round

I was keeping track of some stats in this battle, and here's some fun stuff. We hit them 16 times, while they hit us 6 times. We did a total of 132 damage, while taking a total of 50 damage (37 from them, 13 from Lorna's exemplar).

At this point, between the Happs and Kressle fights

There was a reason Signy kept saying "maybe the mites right now..." :)

Very good point! Seeing Kressle + four the night before I was feeling confident. Showing up to find more was nerve-wracking!

Must remember from here on out: don't feel invincible just because we did this!

I was at about 50/50 on the chances of there being more bandits the next morning.

I tend to underestimate the value of pets since I don't use them and there aren't any in my other campaigns. It makes it easy for me to forget about them.

I probably overestimated the value of Lorna's exemplar. I didn't realize how few rounds it would stay active.

If we didn't have pets to soak some damage and add some to the amount done, at least one of us would be dead now, maybe more.

In all, I was expecting things to go a little worse for us than they did.

Wow, I am looooving the stats Brental <3 I love to create lists myself in excel so this is absolutely beautiful to me. Well done.

The fight was indeed CR 5 and nope I did not edit it at all that was the encounter as written with having the bandits tipped off so they had some reinforcements =P

Still you all did very well. I'm honestly pretty impressed. You have some nice rewards coming to you for your efforts~

Yeah, I'm glad the nat 1 wasn't on my charge vs. Kressle. I suspect she might've packed a deadlier punch than the others.

She was quite a bit stronger than most that's true

She could have really messed you guys up

A brief moment of GM appreciation: I really appreciate the characterization of the NPCs so far! It's fun to have someone to really play off of instead of feeling like every interaction is the same. It feels real. It almost makes me feel bad about unceremoniously killing so many of them.

It's also giving me a good challenge playing a lawful neutral character. I'm most used to playing characters on the NG/CG side of alignment who are reticent to violence and more prone to diplomacy or subterfuge. I'm still getting to know Brental, and hope that my characterization of him is consistent so far. I don't want him to go grim-dark, but he is realizing the direness of the situation at large and much has been said and done that is counter to his values. I'm trying to toe the line between gentle and humorous with those he cares for and curt and cold with enemies.

---

Rackal: I remember you saying that there were some in the original recruitment that nearly made the cut. It's fine if you don't want to say who else publicly, but do you have a sense of who you'd most like to bring in? I know there are a few that stood out to me (and would probably complement the party). We could potentially set up a Discord chat to discuss some things if anyone else is interested.

Also, would you mind adding a link to the loot sheet in the campaign info?
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zNwHCDvfyirGTqD4cEaH8JF7tfMr2X4lMdD KRYsflhc/edit#gid=0
I think I've been tracking everything well, but I want to make sure we all have access to this resource.

Awwww wow, that was super sweet of you to say poly! I try hard to make everything feel as real as possible, especially the characters so that means a lot to me to hear you say that :)

I, personally, love the way you've been playing Brental he's cool and collected, very mindful of his actions, and always willing to make decisions or point out possible solutions (which I am super grateful for as a DM)

I'll be happy to add the loot list when I get home. Work time for me~

As for new players I can ask someone or have an NPC join you guys I'd be happy to discuss further if you like but I don't really use Discord.

Oh! Also if you get the chance you can add thr following loot to the lost as I assume you will loot the bandit corpses.

Potion of cure light wounds x1
Studded Leather Armor x1
Masterwork Handaxe x2
Dagger x4
Leather Armor x8
Longbow x8
Arrows x153
Short sword x8
Trail rations x16
165 gp

Oof, I had a few busy days there. Back to the regular routine now.