[5e] Descent into Avernus (Inactive)

Game Master mishima

Team

I'm really bad at tracking wealth, and we got a whole bunch of loot.

Servants make 2 gp a week, right? So, 100 gp? Too much?

cheers

Ah yep, sorry haven't added 'Under the Villa' to the loot list yet. Will repost here in the mean time.

So, besides Kreeg's mundane sceptor (mace), the shield, and the broken ivory dagger, the vault treasure consisted of:

30 electrum ingots (worth 10gp each)
300 gp
200 pp (yes, platinum)
20 azurite gemstones (10 gp each).

In other words,
300 + 2000=2300 in coin
300 gp in electrum ingots
200 gp in azurite gemstones

edit: assuming you guys sell everything and repair the broken dagger (Mending), you are sitting at around 800 gp each at the moment. That is not including the shield (which is priceless) nor the eyebrow ring from the prison Mal has yet to ID. Kreeg's scepter could possibly be sold for a much higher price to someone interested in historical artifacts, it is just an iron mace otherwise.

I don't know. I just see the scene of the two Spartans in 300 fighting side-by-side, switching off opponents, each taking advantage of the distraction.

Maybe we could get a 1d6 weapon damage bonus like Sneak Attack but only when fighting alongside one of our own teammates that we train with? This could be something when we get tier 2? Maybe at tier 3 it increases to a d8?

That's fine with me guys. But just the damage not the advantage.

Totally optional but you could (during training at tier 1) roll percent > 50 % and have a d4 kick in.

Oh, I didn't mean literal advantage. Do you think we will have enough downtime to train like this? I know these APs don't often allow much DT...

We can squeeze some in, even in hell. I'm a big downtime fan. And the longest, most rational 'built in' opportunity is coming right up (relatively speaking).

Good to know. I think it would be a good time for at least the martials to train together... I would understand if Mal and Simon weren't interested... ;)

Good to know. I think it would be a good time for at least the martials to train together... I would understand if Mal and Simon weren't interested... ;)

Would be 'keen' for such a teamwork feature

I take one day off and 20 posts hit. :D

Sorry, mostly me... ;p

Much appreciated really to knock out some exploration that way, this floor is going to go way quicker than expected!

I aim to please! ;p

I'm sorry, I don't understand how I missed the messages. Especially so many. Perhaps I opened a tab and immediately switched to something else? In general, until now I was still waiting for the results of the fireball. Things happen. I'm here.

No problem, as much as I love the site's minimalist design and features, technically its pretty frustrating.

I believe Malaric's player is on vacation until July 10th. I'd love if someone could act for him in combat and perhaps roll some skills out of it. We are pretty close to finishing this dungeon, but if you'd rather all take a break until he gets back I would understand.

He was the most motivated to get Mortlock's childhood treasure from the room back down the scorched hall.

Sorry, back tomorrow

Nat 20 Help will do it guys, I'll write up a conclusion to the Villa and drop some hints at what's next later tonight. Have some son stuff to take care of.

Wheee! I think I can afford the rest of my payment for the breastplate!

Loot info is in the tracker, but will post here as well.

Under the Villa
Vault coin 2300
Vault ingots 300
Vault gemstones 200
Shield of the Hidden Lord (claimed)
Kreeg's sceptor 2.5 (perhaps more to right buyer)
broken ivory dagger 250 (if repaired)
prison eyebrow ring (unIDed)
cultist masks 100

Villa Proper
Amrik's jewelry box 10
coin 85
Apocalypto (unique book) 50
infernal puzzle box
Duke's study books 375

Party Total 3672.5 918.125 gold for each party member

Still a nice haul, despite all we missed. The only thing I regret is not freeing the last two prisoners, maybe the business dealings records.

Did we have a hideout? I kind of forgot if we established something or were just meeting in a seedy bar.

So, ideally, I would love to find our way back into the bath house and drop her corpse in one of her own baths, but that is the vindictive murder hobo in me. ;)

We would also probably have the others that we freed chime in on what we do with the Duke. What do we know about the other noble family? Are they as corrupt as the Vanthampurs?

Hit Die 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

Plotwise those missed prisoners didn't add much, and there was a high chance they would be killed by invisible imps before you got them out...so don't feel too bad. Likewise the records left behind were only her legitimate business dealings, nothing incriminating (they were the trigger of the nasty gas trap).

The closest thing to a hideout you have is back at Zodge's post. Malaric's knowledge of the city can get you there (or anywhere you want to be) with relative ease through a combination of sewers and sidestreets. This time I'll assume you cover her face or something. ;p

Will get something from Fisk and Satiir in game.

Satiir's patriar family (Hhune) is powerful, but not necessarily corrupt. Your character passed the history check to know a little about her back in the underground prison.

Hhune is another well known patriar family in BG with a long history. They are known for their close ties to the Tethyr nobility, specifically Queen Anais Rhindaun who maintains a sizeable military south of Amn. Less spoken of, but perhaps more noteworthy, are their particularly roguish methods of information collection and political manipulation.

Okay, despite the terrible fumes, we may want to wait until the cover of night. However, maybe Mal can get us close enough to the Hhune compound for Satiir to go home, but would impress on her the need to leave any mention of us out of her tales of escape. As for Fisk, Mal could probably get us close to wherever he wants to go. Perhaps he has a place that we can lay low as well, and maybe we can meet his boss.

Right, well Fisk has already stated in game his goals and such. He wants the puzzle box to be taken to his mistress in Candlekeep, Sylvira Savikas. He believes she can safely open the box and acquire the incriminating contract Kreeg made within. He mentioned she has been studying all this devil activity for months. Fisk also mentioned she was willing to pay for the box in gold or magic items.

Satiir is more concerned with the shield. It belongs to her family and (despite Simon's social roll) still expects it back at some point. Whenever/however she is cut loose, she will need some major reassurances on that front to cooperate with any of your demands/requests (such as leaving you all out of the story).

The Duke's fate is really whatever you guys want to make it at this point. Authorities or the press could be directed to the hidden stairwell in the kitchen that leads to the cult hideout. Whether or not the Duke ever confesses matters little. Zodge would certainly be interested to know the threat to his organization has been neutralized.

Oh, right, Candle Keep is kinda far. We should open the box first, before handing it over to her.

As for the shield, I will leave that to Simon to decide. Donal doesn't trust the thing, but doesn't know enough to have an opinion. He feels that the family failed to protect it, if they were sealing it away... But Simon is pretty scary with the shield in his hands...

I am sure that Zodge would freak out if we brought the Duke there. Vanthampur is probably too dangerous to leave her alive, but if we completely discredit her, maybe she will at least be slowed down enough to not be a threat for a while. Given Donal's position with the church, though, he does what they cannot do... After that, we can tell Zodge that the threat has been handled.

That's all sounding good to me. What's everyone else thinking?

Hi team

Hiding from the family to read and post. I don’t think we should try to open the puzzle box. It already zonked Simon. So the next step is a trip to candlekeep. Does the Duke have a ship that we can confiscate?

I was thinking about giving the Duke to Mortlock with his toy. Mal can spread the rumors for people to find the secret cult stuff in the villa, so she would be done politically. But a mother son reunion might take care of her.

We all need silver weapons, so plan your purchases.

Mal can ID the magic when we get safe.

My two coppers

Cheers

1. I can offer the Eltan's House as a temporary base! I mean - to spend the night and so on.

2. Let the box be opened by specialists, whom we will not feel sorry for. In Сandlekeep.

We don't have much "evidence" without our testimonies

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but along with what Mal said about getting eyes under the Villa there's also the testimony of Satiir. She was kidnapped and imprisoned by the Duke and devils. Those things together would certainly be enough to end the family politically.

Fisk might also testify under the condition of anonymity, but it isn't his priority at the moment (the box is). He would be less credible as well, since he isn't part of the aristocracy.

giving the Duke to Mortlock with his toy

I like that idea as well, but my vote doesn't count. :)

Eltan's House would work as a safe space, and would be closer than Zodge or a tavern in the Lower City. There's also Mal's Book Shop and Grim's Temple.

Ill get some NPC voices in game, but would like to switch to Downtime mode soon to wrap up everything in Baldur's Gate. We seem to have 2 votes to kill the Duke, 1 for giving to Mortlock. Let's try to pin something down on that first.

Hit points? Short rest

1d8 + 1d8 + 1d8 ⇒ (6) + (2) + (5) = 13

Will post later

Grim, you spent 3 HD under the Villa just after the capture of the Duke...and 2 HD back after the initial fight in the statue room. Thats actually 1 more HD than you had available...even with the refresh from leveling up to 4th. I think maybe that level up might have confused things, your status line should be x/4 instead of x/3.

Also remember you can add your con mod to each individual HD roll as well. For example, it wouldn't be 3d8 or 3d8+2, it would be d8+2, d8+2, and d8+2.

On a long rest, you only get half of your HD back.

None of this will matter right now and just saying for rules sake, as you'll soon get enough long rests to recover totally...but please try and keep track of your HD. Or I can add a spot on my tracker for it if you would rather, I know when its months and months RL time between long rests it gets hard to remember.

However, before the short rest, you can channel divinity to recover a 1st level spell slot. (Tasha's, that DM allowed you to use before.) Could that have been where the extra d8 came from?

Like I said it really doesn't matter at this point, but bear in mind that burning a channel is also a once per day thing at this level.

You can expend a use of your Channel Divinity to fuel your spells. As a bonus action, you touch your holy symbol, utter a prayer, and regain one expended spell slot, the level of which can be no higher than half your proficiency bonus (rounded up). The number of times you can use this feature is based on the level you’ve reached in this class: 2nd level, once; 6th level, twice; and 18th level, thrice. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Ah, I didn't realize that... Good to know!

EDIT: What I find irritating is that they did not update Arcane Recovery nor Natural Recovery, making clerics better at sustained spellcasting in addition to everything else.

Yeah, I disagree its a big discrepancy though...consider on the other hand AR/NR can do more than just one slot and has a higher level cap (5th slot as early as 10th instead of half prof bonus, which even at 20th level is just a 3rd level slot). Channel Divinity is useful for other stuff, and wizards have ritual casting. I think its pretty fair overall.

Like, here at level 4 a wizard could AR for 2 level 1 slots or a single level 2. Cleric could only get a level 1 slot. At level 10 a wizard gets 5 combined levels of slots, while the cleric only gets 2 level 2 slots at the most...and has to lose uses of channels to do so.

Also, speaking of Tasha's, I was going to let you guys remake your characters if you want to using any of the race and class options, including the totally custom lineage. Having now spent some time with the book its all pretty solid imo. Assuming we follow the current path, that will be shortly after your business in Candlekeep. You'll be 5th at that point and I am going to try and recruit 3 more for a party of 7 as we descend into hell.

There is still a lot to do before chapter 1 concludes, but something to tinker with if you feel like crunching some stuff up in the mean time.

Clerics and Druids also have ritual casting. I feel like Clerics already get better access to armor and sometimes weapons, have healing (granted it is more useful for the party) as well as sustainable damage spells (and radiant, at that) that do damage at the start of turn for a minute (i.e. Spirit Guardians), whereas wizards in particular have one-shot spells, regardless of AoE.

I think it bears closer looks, but as I rarely play casters, I am looking from an outsider look in... I am a fighter guy, myself! But good point, I hadn't thought of that!

As for custom lineages and stuff, that is interesting, though I do not see myself changing Donal any. ^_^

Hehe, not trying to argue so please don't think of it that way, but wizard rituals are incomparable to cleric/druid rituals imo. Remember wizards are the only class in the game that don't require those spells to be prepped. They are simply always on with infinite uses, much more similar to class abilities than spells. Those level 1 rituals are the bread and butter for wizard: 1 hour 30 lb telekinesis (unseen servant), detect magic, identify, floating disc, alarm, find familiar, comprehend languages. Its just a great list of things the class can do if there's 10 minutes. Getting all the rituals in the spellbook is always a top priority for me.

Order of the Scribe is also no joke as a new subclass. Being able to change a damage spell into any other damage type for nothing? Fire damaging magic missiles? Necrotic or lightning type fireball? Without any cost whatsoever like metamagic? Rapid production of scrolls/spellbook entries...ritual cast without the added 10 minutes. Wizards definitely got a boost in Tasha's as well, even without all the new spells.

I just think wizard has enough going for it to be ok. The Achilles heel imo is a DM that doesn't drop spellbooks or allow time/gp to purchase copy/spells. I don't play blasters though so I suppose I'm coming from a utility/problem solving point of view.

edit: and yes, I'm heavily biased and misguided no doubt. Wizards and rogues are about all I play. :)

Oh no, by no means am I trying to start an argument. Wizards have that advantage because they don't get access to ALL the spells in their list. Because of this, I like that they have to hunt down their spells, in order to get all their ritual spells.

And, you are totally right, in that low level wizards have to rely on those rituals, provided they have the 10 minutes it takes to cast them. (I played one wizard in 5e so far and I had fun with this... a halfling dancing around in a circle singing Ring-around-the-rosie to summon his unseen servant and the like.)

As for Order of the Scribe, that opens up a whole can of worms regarding power creep that has bothered me for a long time.

Many book mods drop a fair amount of spellbooks, but rarely do they include a lot of rituals, if any. I tend to forget to drop them in my home games, though how I try to deal with that is I make finding a particularly rare one a quest for any wizards in my games.

Anyway, I love the discourse! ^_^ I try to take a holistic approach when dealing with issues of the game, taking the whole into account, but granted a lot of my knowledge is lacking as I tend to play martials and 1/2 or 1/3 casters, as most.

Actually I was thinking about taking Order of Scribes, because Mal's focus on Darkness and Charm will not be very effective in hell.

Need to read the custom lineage rules to somehow get Mal to keep his Darkvision. Found it.

GM, would you mind a little game mechanic slight of hand? The custom lineage gives a feat, which he could tale Eldritch Adept to give him Devil's Sight. However, I want Mal to start 1st level as Rogue for the saves and HP, so he doesn't meet the spellcasting prereq until 2nd level.

If not, I'll get regular Darkvision and rethink the feat. Thanks

cheers

Mal, what level 4 ABI would go along with that?

Mal, what level 4 ABI would go along with that?

Probably stat bump. With point buy, I race to 20.

On second thought, scrap that ask. I’ll need the feat for +1 to get to 20 with the 4th ASI

Thanks

Noted. I'm chronically underslept as late. I have a tracker I failed to keep updated. Will do a better job on it.

That said, really enjoyed that chapter we just ran through. Different environments and feel helps keep the game feel fresh

Hi GM

I've taken a look at transforming Mal from Sorcerer to Order of Scribes for 5th. Essentially, the mean-looking/acting halfling abandons his face role. Would appreciate your feedback.

Mal, looks good. I'm sure you were going to add this, but one thing I would appreciate is the spellbook list showing cantrip and leveled spell selections, as well as a daily 'prepared' list (like you normally do for your casters showing R and c etc). Adding Identify and See Invis is also ok.

Sure. That's all on the MW Character Sheet, but I'll add it to the Profile for easier reference.

cheers

Mal, looks good. I'm sure you were going to add this, but one thing I would appreciate is the spellbook list showing cantrip and leveled spell selections, as well as a daily 'prepared' list (like you normally do for your casters showing R and c etc). Adding Identify and See Invis is also ok.

Cost for periapt of wound closure: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Cost for cloak of protection: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Well, that guarantees I cannot afford both... In fact, I can only afford the periapt... >.<

If you'd like to meta a tad and make the cloak your reward from Candlekeep, that works for me. Your adamantine armor will also be ready before you guys leave, which is also a major uncommon.

I have effectively disappeared for a few days, long story short, some insanely long days and a need to recover SOME sleep. Will catch up today over the next few hours.

If you'd like. Donal is just expecting to go to war, just in case Portyr has problems with the Dukes... but it is not integral to the character. In fact, neither are.

I am actually debating on the periapt...

How do you feel about a custom item? Here is what I am thinking:

Shield of Faith
Armor (shield), uncommon (requires attunement)

This enchanted vambrace is engraved with imagery
of Torm, the Protector and his heroes through history.

The wearer can use a Bonus Action to summon a golden
shield. If you want to add some unknown abilities,
I have some ideas, but am not sure if it will push that
into Rare territory.

I'm more or less okay with what I have but silvering this sword is becoming a must