DM Joseph Rauel's Crypt of the Everflame into Home-Brew

Game Master Dm Joseph Rauel

Makes sense for Kevan to have it given he's the one with UMD so can actually use it! Could have done with that while we were getting mauled by the shadow.

Makes sense for Kevan to have it given he's the one with UMD so can actually use it! Could have done with that while we were getting mauled by the shadow.

Yes, but you guys just got the wand in this final chamber. You could always go back and finish it off...

I know, was just wishful thinking. I for one am happy to leave it be!

Was referring to the magic missile wand

Out camping this weekend.

Have fun!

Catching up on a few things and making dinner for the kids. I'll have a post up following that.

I have returned with numerous tick bites but alive. So there I was, in the temperate jungles of Ohio doing battle with briar, bush, and insect. Could my partner and I make it? It was questionable at times. Finding our way through the undergrowth in hopes of finding water to replenish our dwindling supply and then seeking out enough wood to bring it to a boil before consumption. Obviously, we prevailed.

I have returned with numerous tick bites but alive. So there I was, in the temperate jungles of Ohio doing battle with briar, bush, and insect. Could my partner and I make it? It was questionable at times. Finding our way through the undergrowth in hopes of finding water to replenish our dwindling supply and then seeking out enough wood to bring it to a boil before consumption. Obviously, we prevailed.

Any undead? Giant frogs? Did you encounter any naïve but well-intentioned holy warriors?

Glad you made it back!

It probably doesn't matter, but it may be helpful to define 'cairn' in this case. A cairn is rocks piled or stacked on top of each other to act as a monument or marker. It can be as simple as one column of rocks (which is what I've been envisioning), or it can be a huge pile of thousands of stones that tunnels and chambers can be dug out of.

I was picturing a viking mound. The word mound was used in there somewhere I think or perhaps I just conjured it.

I am thinking something similar to THIS when it comes to a burial cairn. More of a marker/mound

Going on a family vacation for a couple weeks. Will try to maintain regular posting but may not always succeed and posts will be succinct.

Hey everyone! I need to apologize for my sudden disappearance and for my lack of communication. I am a youth pastor and we left for the first of two weeks of camps. I thought I loaded everything but apparently remembering my bookbag was not in the cards for me. I need to ask forgiveness and hope that everyone is still onboard and good to continue forward. I am so sorry.

Also, I did hear from Herskor and he had some life issues come up and it seems that everything is getting back on track for him. He wishes us the best.

I will get a post up today/tomorrow as I am recovering and doing laundry before heading back out to camp number 2.

Hey DM! I figured it was something like that. One of the things I've learned about PbP campaigns is that they tend to slow down in the summer and around Thanksgiving/Christmas. That seemed counter-intuitive to me at first, but that's when schedules get turned upside down and routines like checking PbP campaigns get interrupted.

No worries! I hope the camping is fun!

Absolutely. All good here and these things happen - hope you had a good time.

Also thanks for passing on the info from Herskor's player. We all know that real life stuff can happen so glad that he's doing ok.

I know I said that I would be posting, but looking at the schedule I do not have that much free time for these two camps. Apparently with the younglings they keep them very busy through the day so they sleep hard at night. Less likely to get homesick.

I'll have my computer with me and will check in here and there, but I won't be on it much.

No worries, enjoy the camp.

Have fun

I have 4 more days of travel and a miserable head cold. Please bot me when appropriate.

Ugh, that's rough. Hope you've had a good time in spite of that.

And welcome back, DM. Hope you had fun at camp.

*rolls 1*

"Mmm, this is really good soup."

Love this! XD

Hey gang, I'll be traveling for the next couple of weeks for a family vacation. I expect to be able to post for the most part, but there will be a couple of times that I'm off the grid. GM, feel free to bot me if my absence is holding things up.

I apologize for my lack of consistency this summer. Things have been busier than I originally expected.

No worriest, GM. PbPs always slow down in the summer and around the winter holidays.

Looking at the loot list again, I've made suggestions - and they're definitely only suggestions! - on what I think we do with the rest of the gear we found, with the rationale below.

Felix had already claimed the longsword and chainmail, and Kevan the ring. No complaints from me on them.

I'm suggesting Kevan takes the wand of magic missile because he has UMD and the rest of us can't use it. Similarly, I think I'm the only one who benefits from the bracers as I can't wear armour. I think Felix should take the bag of holding because at 15 lbs it's actually pretty heavy so he's the only one who won't be encumbered by it.

I'd then suggest selling the rest: the mundane gear, including the heavy shield (maybe this is useful to someone?), the spellbook (nobody can use it), and the horn of fog (gold probably more useful).

In terms of what we might want to buy, I'd usually suggest pooling funds for a wand of CLW but I do already have one, though admittedly with only 10 charges. I'm also not sure what we might be able to find in town but there may be more available when we head to the Big City.

Finally, I can make use of scribe scroll if there are any 1st level spells it would be useful to for us to have on hand - that is presumably why I took it! Very happy to take advice on that front for situational spells as I know there are a lot of people with much better system mastery than me.

I did make an edit. The shield is a +1 Heavy Wooden Shield of Bashing.

So I don't know if anyone will be using the bashing portion of it, it is still a +1 shield and a fun option if needed. Also, with the bashing property the +1 also works for Attack/Damage. So pick up the Improved Shield Bash Feat and can instantly turn someone into a switch hitter depending on the need of the weapon.

That's my 2 cents from behind the DM screen.

Ah thanks, I did wonder if that’s what it was when I was struggling to find it (thought it might have been something unique to the module). I guess it could be useful to someone so lay claim if you’d like it.

Yes, I do want Felix to claim the shield. With only four of us continuing on (which I'm pleased about), I definitely want to make sure Felix' AC is strong. Plant Felix in the front to draw the hits as much as we can.

I don't know if I will make use of the bashing quality of the shield, but if I do, I won't have the feats to make it really worthwhile right away. I'm not a fighter that gets a feat every time I sneeze, after all. But the +1 enchantment is immediately useful.

Kevan can be quirky about treasures but with the wand he'd look to give the ring to Felix. Swimming, if necessary, is difficult in heavy armor.

I think a full wand of CLW would be in order.

@DM: Celestial healing is seriously underpowered compared to Infernal Healing, the main difference being its capabilities at 1st level. Would you allow Celestial healing to function as Infernal Healing?

If the answer to the Celestial Healing is a yes then I would suggest a wand of Celestial Healing. Not effective in combat but more effective than CLW out of combat.

I can read scrolls though it will take me a bit before I'm very good at it. But, I could be a backup in a pinch.

I'm all for Felix being able to take more hits! And the shield will certainly make a difference. Felix has definitely done very well out of the loot but that's entirely down to party make-up and the fact he's the only one who can use a fair amount of it. Plus ultimately it's a group game so Felix being stronger is good for all of us.

Will certainly be useful for Kevan to have the odd arcane magic option in case we need it.

I've updated the tracker to take into account the recent comments.

We'd definitely need to be able to sell the horn then to be able to afford a wand, but it's always going to come in handy. And it would be dependent on one being available. @DM are you just using the standard rules? I'm not actually sure how big Kassen is, but I'd guess a (large) village or a (small) small town? Obviously fine if you want to keep this 'behind the screen' but probably useful for us to know how you want to handle purchasing magic items.

That's a good call, DM permitting. I've always been confused by the discrepancy between infernal and celestial healing. Out of combat IH is perhaps overpowered but if CH was introduced as an alternative - rather than nerfing IH - it failed because it's just actively terrible. I get that maybe they didn't want to just replicate it but they could have done something flavourful where IH is better from the start but CH gets better in the long run to reflect an 'evil is the easy route' vs 'delayed gratification' or similar. Something like keep IH as it is but CH is fast healing 2 for rounds/level so it starts weaker, achieves parity at level 5 and is better after, capping it at say level 10. That's probably overpowered but gives a different option. Anyway, excuse my digression.

Thanks Jhessa for helping to organize the loot!

I'm back from my vacation. I've removed the items designated for Felix from the loot sheet and adjusted this alias accordingly.

If there's anything that is currently in the Bag of Holding, please let me know so I can track that.

Also, I just realized that I never added Felix' skill points for his favored class bonus. I'm adding one rank in both Profession (soldier) and Riding to reflect some of the training he's received in Kassen. I'm considering also adding a rank into Handle Animal at a later level to retroactively represent that training, also.

Assuming that we can sell here in Kassen, Felix is selling the following:
- scale mail (25 gp)
- heavy flail (7gp, 5 sp)
- longsword (7gp, 5 sp)
- backpack (1 gp)
- winter blanket (2 sp, 5 cp)
- waterskin (5 sp)

No worries. Hope you had a good trip!

I've also taken the bracers from the tracker and added them to my sheet.

I'll sort my carrying capacity out later but I think I'll be wanting to put my tent, bedroll and blanket into the bag of holding please. Str 8 (or 9 with the MW backpack) doesn't go very far. I'll let you know what I sort out. Maybe a new tab in the loot tracker for what's in the bag of holding?

I think the only things I've got to sell are a backpack (1 gp) and waterskin (5 sp).

Just checking in, how is everyone doing?

Still here. Appears DM hasn't posted in either campaign in 2 weeks. Anyone get a PM?

Thanks for checking in! I'm still here, also.

Summers can get crazy when you have kids. I hope that's all that's going on with our GM.

*waves* Yeah, thought it had gone quiet. I've not heard anything but hopefully it is just general summer madness and busyness.

hanging out.

Seems like we lost our DM. At least we finished the core adventure!

Hope to see you all in another game!

Doesn’t feel great but you never know what’s going on with someone and it’s not ultimately been that long. I just hope everything is ok with him.

So... tomorrow will have been a month since last post and it's looking more likely that we've lost our GM. I have PMed him but not heard anything there, mostly hope he's ok.

If people are still around, what do you think we should do? I think our options are:
- continue to wait, though with less hope
- call an end as we at least got through the main adventure and I had a blast playing with you all
- look for a replacement GM, though that doesn't feel particularly likely given there's always a demand and realistically picking up something going into homebrew is an additional barrier.

By the by, the other table DM Joseph had been running was rescued by a GM who was lurking. We got the short end of the stick, having taken the home-brew path. Their game continues but ours has concluded. Ah well. Cheers.

Any word on DM Rauel? Is he ok?

It's definitely a much bigger ask to pick up homebrew - it's not like we exactly knew where the game was going! And I'm pleased for them that they get to finish the module. At least we got through it and it would have sucked more for it to end just before the final battle.

Not heard anything from DM Rauel. He's not posted anything since the games stopped in July. And I've not had a reply to the DM I sent him to check in either.

Hope the rest of you are doing well and thanks for the fun game.

Ditto. Good luck all, and see you around.