GM Peachbottom's War for the Crown

Game Master Peachbottom

I'll be travelling a bit for the holidays, not sure if I'll be able to post.

No worries. Thanks for letting me know. Happy Easter to anyone celebrating.

Right on. Happy Easter, everyone!

Didn't hear anything about enemies being finished off, and you never know who's only a few Hit Points away from waking up!]

If you want me to track enemies hit points into the negatives I will, but otherwise, you can assume that any enemy brought to 0 is dead. With the exception of if the an enemy has a method of healing (like regeneration) or if you state that you want to keep one alive for whatever reason.

Obviously Lir would love the belt, but I’m afraid she’s been too greedy lately. I’ll let the group decide who gets it and not put up a fight for it.

Since we’re returning to the surface, we can probably sell some things, and redistribute the spoils more equitably. I suggest we subtract the sale value of things we aren’t selling (like the ring Henrika kept) from each of our shares— that way, no one will feel like they aren’t getting an equal part of the loot. It might be that anyone else who wants a belt of dexterity can afford to buy one with the gold!

That’s also true! Will give the loot sheet a glance when I’m done with work and see where things end up.

Once you get out of the warehouse, you will have some downtime to buy/sell, etc. My last post should be the last of the treasure you receive before your downtime.

You can go through the treasure sheet and finalize what you want to keep or sell. Anything you want to sell, just check off the "sell" box next to the item and I'll calculate the final amount once you are ready.

Currently it is looking like you'll each receive around 2570 gold (plus or minus a few gold) if divided evenly. If you want to redistribute another way, you can do so however you want. Just let me know if there is any way I can help facilitate that.

Looking at the items we found and presumably don't want to sell (and leaving out the alchemical items, scrolls, wands, and potions that we could theoretically all benefit from), we have:

Carried by Henrika
noble's vigilant pillbox (1,800 gp)
ring of protection +1 (1,000 gp)
masterwork longsword (157.5 gp)
TOTAL 2957.5 gp

Carried by Ichabod
darts (2.5 gp)
TOTAL 2.5 gp

Carried by Liraela
masterwork lamellar leather (105 gp)
wig of disguise (900 gp)
+1 silver dagger (1,161 gp)
Envoy Ring (priceless)
masterwork thieves' tools (50 gp)
poison pill ring (10 gp)
belt of incredible dexterity +2 (2,000 gp)
TOTAL 4,226 gp

Carried by Trevor
+1 breastplate (675 gp)
1st-level pearl of power (500 gp)
ring of protection +1 (1,000 gp)
+1 rapier (1,160 gp)
bottles of fine wine (20 gp)
masterwork dagger (151 gp)
masterwork rapier (160 gp)
masterwork short sword (155 gp)
TOTAL 3,821 gp

Carried by Tychus
masterwork studded leather armor (87.5 gp)
silver raven figurine of wondrous power (1,900 gp)
+1 handaxe (1,153 gp)
Dignity's Barb (priceless)
wrist sheath (.5 gp)
gold ring (300 gp)
TOTAL 3,441 gp

Carried by Xallis/Navia
brass chatterbox (150 gp)
TOTAL 150 gp

Maybe we could all look at what we're carrying and decide if we really want to keep all of it or if we could sell some things? Or, if we don't want to sell anything, if we can redistribute a bit so everyone's character gets some cool toys to play with? One way to do that is to consider everything "for sale" and for us all to "buy" the items we want to keep using at sale price from the list with our share of the treasure. Does that seem unfair to any of us?

For example, Henrika is carrying the noble's vigilant pillbox, and I don't think we should sell it, but there's no reason that it couldn't go to someone else. So I'll put that up to the party, and subtract the value of the ring and the masterwork longsword (1,157.5 gp) from her share of 2,570 gp, leaving her with 1,412.5 gp. Once we're done dividing up all the items, we can evenly distribute the gold from the "sale price" of her items to everybody.

(It might be that no one wants to "buy" the pillbox, but also no one wants to sell it, in which case it's just a party item that any of us can decide to carry and use. Although, if no one wants it enough to buy it, maybe we should just sell it. It's useful, but so is gold.)

I'm also ignoring the relics in this, but maybe it would be kind to everyone if they were also assigned an arbitrary value, comparable to similar magic items? Say, 1,187.5 gp for Dignity's Barb and 1,000 gp for the Envoy Ring?

I think Liraela also said she was giving up the hat of disguise when she took the envoy ring because they have similar abilities. I don't think anyone else claimed it though.

Anything in the party treasure pool can be assumed stored somewhere safe. As long as it isn't abused, I'm not going to make a big deal about where they actually are or when you can access them. Anything you don't want to carry but may use later, you can keep it in the party treasure for as long as you want.

Some groups I've played with also established a party pool of a small amount of gold that can be used benefits for the whole party or for costly components for spells like restoration or resurrection. Its up to the group if you want to do that also.

Another way to mitigate group expenses that I tried recently that is working relatively well is, spending group money on "credit". For example, if the party spent 1,000 gold for a restoration spell, I could add a line to the treasure sheet for -1,000 gp. And then the next time that treasure is sold, I could subtract the total credited amount out of the total sales amount before dividing it between the players.

I always love having a party pool! Strongly in favor of that. Probably the easiest thing is to make it another share, or we could set a target amount and all contribute to bring it up to that value. Buying a wand of cure light wounds out of that is a great way to start benefiting from it.

I've never seen the "buy on credit" idea before. That's brilliant!

Trevor moves his former MW rapier to party loot.

If no one minds, the cleric will take one potion of cure light wounds, one potion of delay poison, and the wand of create food and drink, 10 charges.

Obviously Lir would love the belt, but I’m afraid she’s been too greedy lately. I’ll let the group decide who gets it and not put up a fight for it.

I feel much the same. I'd love the belt but I've already had a few things.

I figured you'd be the one that fights me over it! We'll get the loot together soon and figure it out.

I've never been good with spreadsheets or math, I'm more of the loot collecting type, so if anyone wants to do all of the 'hard work' for that I wouldn't complain.

Ok, so after selling your treasure, the party receives 15,596.3 gold. (I made a new tab on the treasure sheet for Sold items, just in case you want to still make any revisions.)

Not including the belt of dexterity +2, Tychus had more treasure so I gave the belt to Liraela for now. (Feel free to change if you wish to do differently).

Since it seems like the party wants to try to distribute the gold and treasure evenly, I calculated the following:

Afterwards, excluding relics and consumables, the six of you had the following treasure (calculated with the sell value).

Henrika = 1,157.5 gold
Icabhod = 0 gold
Liraela = 3,826 gold
Trevor = 3,741 gold
Tychus = 3,141 gold
Xallis = 150 gold

Then I gave each of you gold to add up to the highest person’s total (Liraela at 3,826 gold)
Henrika +2,668.5 gold
Icabhod +3,826 gold
Liraela +0 gold
Trevor +85 gold
Tychus +685 gold
Xallis +3,676 gold

After that, you had 4,655.8 gold remaining.

I divided that amount by 7 (since you also seemed to want to start to establish a party fund), which is 655.11 gold. I gave each of you this amount plus put this amount into a Party Fund as well.

The final amount you each would receive is:
Henrika = 3,323.61 gold
Icabhod = 4,481.11 gold
Liraela = 655.11 gold
Trevor = 740.11 gold
Tychus = 1,340.11 gold
Xallis = 4,331.11 gold
Party Fund = 655.11 gold

Does this sound fair to everyone?

Some clarifications on your situation. The government in Oppara is in shambles but there is not chaos in the streets. You can definitely roleplay taking precautions in case the Brotherhood of Silence is still looking for you. But you can leave the inn and travel the city is relative safety.

You are not prisoners in the inn. There are no guards. Martella is treating you to a nice place and just wants to know where to be able to find you. As a luxurious inn, fine meals are served each day and Martella is picking up the tab. There isn't really a reason for you to resort to eating trail rations.

All minor magic items are available in Oppara. Anything you can afford right now would fall under the minor item category.

Does this sound fair to everyone?

Oh, excellent! That sounds awesome to me. Thanks so much GM!

Can I suggest we each contribute an additional 16 gp to the party fund to bring the total to 750 gp, and buy a wand of cure light wounds? Topping everyone off after a hard fight goes a long way toward making sure no one falls.

GM Peachbottom wrote:

Does this sound fair to everyone?

Oh, excellent! That sounds awesome to me. Thanks so much GM!

Can I suggest we each contribute an additional 16 gp to the party fund to bring the total to 750 gp, and buy a wand of cure light wounds? Topping everyone off after a hard fight goes a long way toward making sure no one falls.

I second Henrika's contribution idea. I'll remove 16gp from my share of the loot for the wand.

Thank you again, GM Peachbottom.

Does this sound fair to everyone?

Ah, that's perfect! I'll update my sheet with the belt and gold now, after donating the 16 gold to the party fund.

Oh, excellent! That sounds awesome to me. Thanks so much GM!

Can I suggest we each contribute an additional 16 gp to the party fund to bring the total to 750 gp, and buy a wand of cure light wounds? Topping everyone off after a hard fight goes a long way toward making sure no one falls.

Ok. Sure. If everyone contributes 16 gp more, your gold is then:

Henrika = 3,307.61 gold
Icabhod = 4,465.11 gold
Liraela = 639.11 gold
Trevor = 724.11 gold
Tychus = 1,324.11 gold
Xallis = 4,315.11 gold
Party Fund = Wand of Cure Light Wounds (50 charges).

I'm going to have Henrika purchase a cloak of resistance +1 and an amulet of natural armor +1, if that's all right.

Yes, you can purchase both of those.

Trevor braved the cold new world of Oppara and purchased a wand of presrtidigitation (50 charges) and a potion of cure moderate wounds.

Thanks for doing the group fund accounting. And yeah, I'd be more than happy to contribute to a party fund for a cure wand. I'd sooner be caught dead than without at least one Happy Stick on hand.

Also, with the downtime and possibility of getting to know each other's families, what should we do about the more homebrew heritages among us? I'd hate to have a grand tour of the Livara estate hog the spotlight, but I wouldn't want potential roleplay to get the fade-to-black treatment because the AP may not have notes for the occasion. Or is this the sort of thing that should be handled in PMs with the GM?

I don't want to hog the limelight either. :) I'm assuming that we won't roleplay long exchanges without the whole group-- one or two posts should be sufficient to develop our characters and their background. That said, I do enjoy reading flashes of insight about each character's circumstances in their descriptions of what they do during downtime. It's a much richer experience when everyone has the chance to open little windows into these peoples' lives for everyone to see.

I think putting some roleplay interactions between you and your family in a spoiler tag can be useful for getting an idea of who your character is. Those who don’t want to read it don’t have to, but those who do can.

Purchasing a MW rapier for 320

GM Peachbottom wrote:

Does this sound fair to everyone?

Oh, excellent! That sounds awesome to me. Thanks so much GM!

Can I suggest we each contribute an additional 16 gp to the party fund to bring the total to 750 gp, and buy a wand of cure light wounds? Topping everyone off after a hard fight goes a long way toward making sure no one falls.

Sounds like a plan to me!

Purchasing a MW rapier for 320

Icabhod has enough money that he can buy a +1 rapier if he wants to. It would cost 2,320 gold. I know you were saying Icabhod didn't do a lot of damage.

I was planning on being disguised, but I think this opens an opportunity for Lir to lash out a bit with her repressed anger at previous discrimination. Will get a post up later this afternoon.

Assuming that Henrika doesn’t ditch me before she heads to her family’s house. She won’t push it if she seems uncomfortable.

Also, with the downtime and possibility of getting to know each other's families, what should we do about the more homebrew heritages among us? I'd hate to have a grand tour of the Livara estate hog the spotlight, but I wouldn't want potential roleplay to get the fade-to-black treatment because the AP may not have notes for the occasion. Or is this the sort of thing that should be handled in PMs with the GM?

If Xallis wants to visit the Livara estate, he can make a post about it and I'll respond with any NPCs if necessary.

I was planning on being disguised, but I think this opens an opportunity for Lir to lash out a bit with her repressed anger at previous discrimination. Will get a post up later this afternoon.

Assuming that Henrika doesn’t ditch me before she heads to her family’s house. She won’t push it if she seems uncomfortable.

Either way is fine. If you want me to revise anything for Liraela being disguised or not coming, I can. Nothing is scripted here.

When I googled House Karthis I got "House Karthis: a family with strong imperialist leanings, is known for their military experience, charismatic demagogues, and xenophobic zealotry."
So I saw an opportunity to play that up.

I had put a brief next day post but then I decided to delete it to give time to respond. If you saw it, you weren't imagining things.

Will you refuse the call, Falchion Jack?"

Speaking of this, very shortly, you will begin to establish your personas as exceptional leaders of Taldor's future and part of that includes getting agents to assist you at certain tasks. For the most part, these are no-name NPCs (although you certain can give them some names if you want to). If Henrika would like her first agents to be Falchion Jack and crew, I can certainly make that work.

What of the Kastners, good Trevor?

The War for the Crown appendix has this information on Lord Remilliard Kastner. Trevor would know this information and can share any of it. (Its from the same section I got the information about Charlotte.)

Speaking of this, very shortly, you will begin to establish your personas as exceptional leaders of Taldor's future and part of that includes getting agents to assist you at certain tasks. For the most part, these are no-name NPCs (although you certain can give them some names if you want to). If Henrika would like her first agents to be Falchion Jack and crew, I can certainly make that work.

Let me suggest a slightly different path? I figure Jack must refuse the call to join Henrika directly, in order to remain true to his Falstaff-inspired character. Soon, maybe even as part of his robbing senators' houses, Jack will get arrested and thrown into prison. This will leave the rest of his gang aimless and exposed, and they would be excellent recruits as agents to Lady Martella's cause.

Eventually, somehow, Henrika will get Falchion Jack freed, and a more penitent John Falchion will be ready to serve her and her patrons more directly. If you're willing to allow Henrika to take the Leadership feat at level 7, he would make an ideal cohort. (I'm thinking he's a Dirty Fighter.)

I'm hesitant to go down the Leadership feat route, just because we already have a large party. If you took Falchion Jack as a cohort, Trevor might want Malphene Trant as a cohort, and someone else might want one, and soon we'll have a lot of people on the map.

But...I'm not saying no. If you, or Trevor, or anyone can convince me that it'll be manageable, maybe we can do it. Regardless of whether we go the cohort route or not though, we can definitely keep all the favorite characters around in one form or another.

The rest of it, the part about Jack getting arrested and the gang becoming recruits all sounds great. I'll work that in.

Liraela, I know you originally expressed concern about people being hostile to Liraela for her race. If I ever take things too far, let me know and I’ll reel it in. My intent is not to give Liraela a hard time but to highlight awful personality traits of other characters.

I'm hesitant to go down the Leadership feat route, just because we already have a large party. If you took Falchion Jack as a cohort, Trevor might want Malphene Trant as a cohort, and someone else might want one, and soon we'll have a lot of people on the map.

That's an understandable concern, and I totally agree with it being a logistical nightmare. :) I planned Henrika out multiple ways depending on how things shake out, so it won't screw anything up for me if Jack is always an NPC.

I once played in a high-level version of Wrath of the Righteous with lots o' Leadership, and one idea the GM used was allowing cohorts and fighting NPCs to occupy the same space as the PCs, treating them as if they were adjacent to the character they shared space with, kind of like mounts or familiars. It worked pretty well to address these problems with crowding the game map, and the only issue I remember was that we would forget that we could occupy the same space of other characters' cohorts when they maneuvered around to try and flank, and occasionally cohorts would get lost under PC's tokens. I think the GM also doubled the number of opponents, because there were six PCs in that game too, and they occasionally shared spaces in the same way.

No this kind of stuff is perfect for character development! My main concern was actually her race being detrimental to “main quest-relevant” NPCs’ relations. Side characters reacting within the bounds of their established character traits is completely fine and wanted.

Besides, I have a spicy response planned for when I get off work (~2 hours) that may or may not involve my Fascinate performance.

I'm hesitant to go down the Leadership feat route, just because we already have a large party. If you took Falchion Jack as a cohort, Trevor might want Malphene Trant as a cohort, and someone else might want one, and soon we'll have a lot of people on the map.

"...no!"

"...no!!"

She is a descendant of Lady Alcina Dimitrescu!

Apologies for the double post, had a lot to fit in there and wanted to make sure it all went through!

I would be honored to have such noble allies as yourselves in this War for the Crown.

She said the thing!

Princess Eutropia wrote:

I would be honored to have such noble allies as yourselves in this War for the Crown.

She said the thing!

Hey, that’s the name of the show! ;)

This is probably one of the first links I shared. The picture I used for the Gathering Intelligence sheets is of your meeting with the princess.
Link

Somebody ask what the dog's name is. Do it.

This is probably one of the first links I shared. The picture I used for the Gathering Intelligence sheets is of your meeting with the princess.

Link

Ha, Merisiel and Alain didn't get very dressed up for the meeting. Why, they didn't even change their clothes! ;)

(Sorry, I couldn’t find much about Xallis’ background to write about. Feel free to flesh out the visit yourself.)

It's okay! I'll throw in a little extra in my post tonight and flesh them out a bit. Maybe PM you with some extra details.

Somebody ask what the dog's name is. Do it.

It's very tempting...

So sorry for my slow posting again the last few days, PC is back in the shop. GPU won’t stop heating up and crashing. It’s surprisingly hard to post from my phone, but I’m getting one up now.

Oh I know how hard it is to post on the phone. It sucks. Sorry to hear about your computer.

I'll give you all the rest of the weekend to talk to the princess. Once your meeting with the princess is over, you've completed the first book of War for the Crown. Congratulations!

You can all start leveling up to level 4. And we'll start Book 2 next week!