Might and magic, Lords of the Contested Lands

Game Master Chyrone

Sure can.

Looking like we can wrap up this town fairly soon then, and maybe head back to the castle to get Ryan settled before heading out again on further adventures.

Astella, Brunhild.

With the tranquility of late, i'm looking to open up to increase the party to 5.

It'd be fairly easy to set up a meet, and hooks for joining up. For example fulfilling a role in the support of the growing functioning of your lands. Maybe they are both skilled to have around and looking for somewhere to settle.

Like with kingmaker, that could be a role in a variety of things, not already provided by the locals. Maybe aside from a priest post, as the faiths already have a long standing presence.

It would also mean point buy increases to 18, for you as well naturally. Class promotions provide ability score increases as well.

I am hoping one or both of the other two will still hop back into the seat.

I've talked to Chyro a bit over some concerns and will jump back in shortly when I can. Real life has been very busy, but I'll give it a shot.

Sounds good to me. It’s a good time in the story to introduce a new player

Sounds good. If someone wants to play Ryan, that would be very convenient... although it's tough because I think our party has been trying to be very lawful good lately, and he's more chaotic, like my character. Could clash with the party.

Line's tossed, lets see if the fish will bite.

Renovate the castle, help the town, and resolve all of our individual character sidequests?

Those three are included. Atm you're scoring points with the locals, awkward as it may have been with the city guard back at the station.

What happens after the renovation turns turbulent in the source material. :)

On the sidequest investigations, to add this here instead of in the gameplay thread, that is actually something I talked to Chyro about. There have been long sections in the investigations in which we seemingly had no way forward except sending in Astella by herself to do her stealth/thievery thing on her own. With everyone else just... standing around making perception checks, which I don't find that appealing (I don't want to sound too negative but I think most of us can understand others wanting to be involved/useful in some way).

Estelle only really has diplomacy and perception as a skill to aid in any investigation at present. That is kind of a result of her classes but also of us being both really low level and having lowish point buys. Her increase to 18 will hopefully help out slightly here as she will put everything into intelligence to get more skill points. Maybe she's then be slightly more versatile in those going forward, though I suppose it depends on the type/design of investigation.

My vote would depend on what that setup is and to what degree we can contribute. We are also operating under having very little finesse abilities and no jurisdiction; rushing in got us arrested, yet working with the town guard seems to void all or most of the rewards we could get from them. As such they feel both very hard and/or not worth doing at present. I was reminded that the areas we chose to visit might not correlate to our level, which Is fair enough I suppose. Though as such I feel we might be best served coming back later.

I'll add that not all investigations are immediate.

Taking a video game as an example, you take up the task, and progress in finding what you are looking for, is down the road.

In this case, Zahfir has one such thing.

And speaking of the best, and nigh only merchant of quality magical items in Stone City.

Zahfir picture. But his outfit is ocean blue.

Hmm. Okay, chance at magic items means I am in. Let's try the sidequest.

... and it sounds like we're willing to go to the meeting ourselves rather than sending the guard, correct?

Also, since point buy went to 18 instead of 15 I boosted my strength to 14 (was 12).

I'll go and boost Estelle's intelligence up to 12.

Gives her 4 more skill points; I'll go with spellcraft, knowledge: arcana, knowledge: engineering and intimidate to have some expanded options.

I'd pick climb but with the -6 penalty from heavy armor she will never be good at such :') Aside from that climbing roofs in the middle of the city without stealth seems very liable to call the guards.

sorry all. I haven't been giving this game the attention it deserves, nor Daniel the love he deserves. I'll be making a more conscious decision to actually have him voice his agreement at a minimum. I bought sticky notes.

There was an ability score bump?

@ Daniel, yes point by is increased to 18 points.
And completing a class promotion quest awards an increase of an ability score.

@Astella I am not sure when we get the stat point increase; I put some of the skill points of Estelle's increased intelligence into Knowledge: engineering.

There is no problem adding the point buy increase now.

Brunhild currently has 1123 gold. Have a rules question...

Craft Bow after buying masterwork tools: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 3 + 2 = 22

So she can do it...but can she make her bow masterwork, or does she have to make one from scratch?

If she makes one from scratch: 100 (longbow) + 200 (strength) + 300 (masterwork) = 600/2=300 gold. Then selling her current bow for 150 gold, meaning 150 gold cost.

If she can upgrade her current bow: 150 gold for doing it herself. Same cost. Just not sure on the rules for what is allowed there.

If all of the above is alright, I'll get a post up describing this.

------------------------

Also, because we are so low on money. I have an idea on how we can get a magical weapon for cheap. And it can help us in the future too.

(1) Any-Tool

This implement at first seems to be nothing but a 12-inch iron bar lined with small plates and spikes. It can be folded, twisted, hinged, and bent, to form almost any known tool. Hammers, shovels, even a block and tackle (without rope) are possible. It can duplicate any tool the wielder can clearly visualize that contains only limited moving parts, such as a pair of scissors, but not a handloom. It cannot be used to replace missing or broken parts of machines or vehicles unless a mundane tool would have done the job just as well.

The any-tool counts as a set of masterwork artisan’s tools for most Craft or Profession skills (although very specialist crafts such as alchemy still require their own unique toolset). It is an ineffective weapon, always counting as an improvised weapon and never granting any masterwork bonus on attack rolls.

(2) Sledge

Have the Any-Tool transform into a sledge. It's now an improvised Earthbreaker.

(3) So that gives us a magical weapon for 250 gold. -4 to hit for being improvised. It does 2d6 damage. Give it to Daniel to make use out of it.

(4) When this is all done? It's still a useful tool for our castle. A tool for any occasion. It should come in handy!

Astella already has a Traveler's Anytool, so if the DM is okay with your reasoning, happy to lend it to Daniel.

I wasn't aware crafting could produce masterwork quality items, so this was useful for me too, for future use. :)

Create Masterwork Item
You can make a masterwork item: a weapon, suit of armor, shield, or tool that conveys a bonus on its use through its exceptional craftsmanship. To create a masterwork item, you create the masterwork component as if it were a separate item in addition to the standard item. The masterwork component has its own price (300 gp for a weapon or 150 gp for a suit of armor or a shield, see Equipment for the price of other masterwork tools) and a Craft DC of 20. Once both the standard component and the masterwork component are completed, the masterwork item is finished. The cost you pay for the masterwork component is one-third of the given amount, just as it is for the cost in raw materials.

Action: Craft checks are made by the day or week (see above).

Retry? Yes, but each time you miss by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again.

I'd say yes, you craft the masterwork parts, as it looks to be separate before assembly. I doubt your order lacks means to maintain their bows in the monastery, so you've got your workspace.

Turning the tool into a sledge would not bypass DR magic.
For that purpose, a weapon needs to have a +1 enhancement bonus.

Would oil of magic weapon work on it? Sure. But by itself it is not sufficient to bypass DR magic.

I'll have the warehouse map up in the weekend.

Sorry for falling behind. Youngest daughter fractured her wrist (it's not too serious, but she got out of her sling today and into her cast). Work has picked up, and...well, life. It's been busy. I've fallen behind on a bunch of games. I'll still here. My apologies on being slow.

Sorry about your daughter. Hope her wrist mends well.

No worries.

May she have a smooth recovery.

Our battlemap is currently on the slides, since the building has more than one floor.

I hope you're not waiting on me?

Hey everyone,

I am in a bit of a busy period the coming six weeks, as I have to write and perform a scientific study for my work with a number of hard deadlines. This week especially though I need to spend the week away on training next to this. I tried to but can't find time/energy to write next to it. I'm sorry and hope to be back next week.

Don't worry. Good luck.

Well team,

We've got 2 people with submissions.
An illusionist and a druid.

Preferences?

Why not both? More people posting would be welcome. And it is play by post, which has a high rate of dropping out anyway, so might not be too much of an extra burden.

Welcome, Severa and Strom.

Strom, the way specialization points work, is akin to background skill points.

You devide them over the skills of your choice, and the number of assigned points, like normal skill points, cannot exceed your character level.

And you are not forced to grandmaster 2 specifics.
By level 13, you could also grandmaster once, master a second, and expert a third.

Thank you! Now that you mention it, GM, I seem to remember having read that about the limitation for level, in which case Strom does not yet have Weapon Focus for his chain-flail.

Do you have us waiting in the wings or should we go ahead and post something to gameplay?

Hello all! Thanks for the invite.

I'm also happy to join the gameplay narrative however GM finds best. I know I was instructed to make a level 3 character so that implies waiting at least a tiny bit before joining the currently-level-2 party.

Now that you mention it, GM, I seem to remember having read that about the limitation for level, in which case Strom does not yet have Weapon Focus for his chain-flail.

A heads up, if you may have read past it, in regards to the masteries and level ups.

For each skill, and grade of mastery of it, there is an instructor.
People accomplished in their field, that they function as a mentor for the finer tricks of the trade. 4 talent ranks in a weapon? 'Tom, the expert of maces' (who lives in [insert country/city]) will teach you, and it takes one day of your time.

Reached a point for the next level gain?
Instead of spontaneously knowing things, in the middle of nowhere, you spend a full day training with instructors. Retired or settled seasoned adventurers, who work as local mentors. Head for the nearest town or city, (Their instructors are relative to a settlement. Cities and capitols are nigh always able. A hamlet, though, likely hasn't a tutor skilled enough to teach a level 10 adventurer, for example.)

On to the questions of posting,
Keep it in spoilers for the time being.
Severa is currently in the Avlee embassy, over at Government plaza.
Currently under tutelage of elven ambassador Nathan Elstar. He has two people for support in his duties, so feel free to RP the last few days of your apprenticeship.

Strom,
Darius, when in Stone City, resides in a humble abode in a zone that focuses on the agriculture for the city's food supplies. It is through effort of clerics of both The King of the Deeps (the city's patron deity, see the guide), and of Vayne (spirit of flora), that a zone was successfully consecrated to farm upon. They maintain daily consecrations, to be sure the taint of the land does not undo it.
The zone is large enough to provide basic needs, such as wheat, hops, a variety of vegetables, and a herd of cows. Stone City imports additional foods from the other nations. Imagine a medium sized hovel, with a fenced backyard and herbal patch.

Oh, and if you are wondering why the some Stone City dwarves and Avlee dwarves have different accents in my typing, the first have a scottish accent, Avlee has the irish. But as i have mentioned to our dwarven monk, no need to adapt your own writing. Accents come thick and light.

Fun! I'll throw in a spoilered gameplay post for Severa now.

Welcome Severa and Strom! Good to have you with us.

I'm still slammed with work at present, will try to post tomorrow.

I took liberty with Darius to establish a connection. It's not something I normally do. Hopefully that's okay in this situation.

In this case, i can see the scene of a get together with the Avlee born folk happen. Even old Darius would enjoy a good stiff drink. As far as being fast friends right off the bat, we'll have that be friendly air for the time being.

Darius is an old independent wanderer, in that he goes where-ever he feels his next task lies in waiting. One of those stubborn, yet well intentions bearing men. Friendly, but he needs to get a good read on people, before ol' grandpa calls you a personal friend, and shares his life's story.

I'll resume his conversations from here. I have a post to put up. :)

As a heads up…will be slowly writing this to all groups. I will be taking a much needed vacation (burn out is real…everything these days feels like it’s a drag) starting 6/6, will be traveling for a month in China. Will have internet connection but this will obviously impact posting. I know that I’ve been slow for abit but I’ll try to pick up the pace

Enjoy! I have been to China. It can be beautiful, it can be contradicting (wealth distribution). But it is an experience altogether.

Enjoy Grumbaki!

I enjoyed a brief trip to China (Sichuan province) in 2019 and really liked the spicy food.

Great to see you Caster! Glad to have you in the campaign :D

Yeah, China is great. My wife is from Sichuan. We are going to see her parents (and so they can see our newest baby). While she really wants to see her family, I’m personally looking forward to the food the most. :)

Totally jealous of a month off. Have a great time. :)

Posting this in all my games that have activity: won't be posting today because my right eye is swollen up so that I can only see a blur out of it, and even though I can still see and type, it's obnoxious and giving me a headache. Will be back when this goes away, hopefully tomorrow, and sincerely apologize for the absence.

Don't rush yourself, make sure you feel 100% before all else.

Sorry to hear that, Astella! Somebody cast lesser restoration.

Some time and lots of extra allergy medicine has helped. Still slightly puffy, but I can see just fine now. :)

Excellent! Sounds like a perception penalty reduced from -4 to -1.

apologies guys. I forgot to mention I would be away for a few days due to a really close friend of mine getting married. I'm back now though.

I take it that it was a great event. :D

Welcome back.

Sorry for this extended absence. The mental health break was very much needed. I think that working odd hours for nearly two years (mornings, night, weekends, while caring for a baby fulltime) had finally gotten to me. My daughter breaking her wrist was just the cherry on top. But I'll be trying to pick things up from here.

Hate to ask, but could I have a quick idea of where Brunhild currently is, and how best to jump back in?

Good to hear you're feeling better. Last you mentioned, Brunhild is spending time crafting her mwk bow, and waking in the evening.

It's a bit silly how invested I am getting in obtaining this goat milk. But it's the quest at hand so I'm going for it!

In so doing, I have discovered that it's really hard to make friends by the formal rules! XD If someone starts indifferent to you, you can use diplomacy to make them friendly. You can't try to improve their attitude again for 24 hrs. But their attitude improvement typically resets after 1d4 hrs so they're indifferent again the next day! The only reliable way to improve their attitude by two steps is beating the diplomacy DC by 5 (or saving their beloved pet or whatever). The things I learn!