I am ready to move on.
I do not think we should sell the Holly Bush, and I think it should go to Za Minyhil or Ntuni. Having a non-healer with an emergency, oh no, all the healers are down, let me get them up, option can be very powerful.
I also thought someone wanted the wolf fang, and if someone does, I think they should take it.
But, if people want to sell them, that's fine.
Side note, do Hero Points come back for each challenge? Do we each have one if they do?
I think we should keep the Holy Bush as well though more for IC reasons. It's a gift of nature as far as Ikto would see it and something to be planted on the School grounds if no one else wanted it.
Yeah, I'd be happy to take the bush if no one else wants it!
I will allow you to earn a free Hero Point at the beginning of each chapter, not each task. You can also earn them by doing something heroic or going above and beyond.
I am bad about remembering. I will should give one to Ntuni for smashing the pugwampis and her damage on Umbo the mushroom monster.
I will assign the Holly Bush token to ZM. Does someone want the Wolf Fang?
You should have view only privileges on the Loot Tracker, not editor access. Let me know if that is not working correctly now.
Okay, Ikto's brain just went BOOM. He hasn't even revealed what he is to his fellow students yet then ... what do you know?
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I propose we discuss the letters here instead of OOC in Gameplay.
At our level, I doubt we'll have bigger than +7 bonuses, but Aid another is great at this time. This means we can all chime in to whoever is doing the checks that have +7s. It says only 1 check for each letter, but no limit on aids. I propose everyone aids, unless there's a chance for a crit fail, which gives a -1 penalty.
Before anything, we should all go together, because this is a TTRPG, where it's a bad idea to separate the group.
For 1), I have a +7 Society, which is probably the check for Decipher Writing.
For 2), this sounds like the typical ask around. Someone ought to know how to understand these instructions. I can aid with a +4 diplomacy.
For 3), this sounds like the typical Religion check, where the one rolling the main check decides whether the described method is an actual religious ritual or just a superstition. I can aid with a +3 religion.
For 4), maybe it's a prank from the pugwampis trying to annoy us. So maybe leave that one for after all the others have been delivered? Of course, there might be information vital for this task, so there's a reason to open it now as well. I could roll Society/Crafting to try to infer something from the handwriting, paper and ink (aid is welcome), if there's anything to tell. If anyone has a divination spell, it'd be welcome.
First of all, this is a cool challenge and I am excited about it.
I want to start off with a reminder that we don't have to deliver them all, as a hopeful frustration remover if rolls go poorly. I'm also running with the assumption that the 12 letters we can properly ID we can easily deliver. Doc can correct that if I am wrong.
I want to start with 4. The letter that was addressed to us. One of us takes it, I'll do that if no one else does, and then we ignore it. The task is to deliver the mail, not read it. We can read it after we are back, just in case it is some kind of trap.
For group 1: I totally agree with M'baba. While Decipher Writing can be used with four skills (Arcana, Occult, Religion, and Society), from reading over the skill, it does seem like Society is the one that we will be using in this case. I could assist M'baba with my +5, but someone else might be better.
For group 2: M'baba's strategy is probably the best. That said, I think the idea of IDing places from the air is just so cool that I want us to do that. But, the more grounded idea is probably the better choice.
For group 3: I don't see the need for rolls for two of them at all! Gozreh is simple. While we are already flying around, or even before we leave, we put the letter on a kite, fly the kite, cut the string, and done.
For Nethys, we can cast 5 spells on the letter. Four of them will need durations given the 'at the same time' element. I can handle Light and Telekinentic Hand The first lasts until daily prep or recast, and the second is sustained. Between the rest of us, we only need to find three more, the last one of which can be any attack spell, something that I think Za Minyahil could cover easily being a Magus.
For Mazludeh, I can envision two rolls - one to write the message on an egg, and the other to try and get a snake to eat it. That one might be hard, given that I am not sure how easy it will be for us to find a snake, and we might want to hold off on that until the end.
I am also not sure that everyone should Aid each check. Aid doesn't stack, so if someone gets a +1, only a crit either way would change it, and given the nature of PbP, each of those everyone rolling Aid could take a day or two to do, and with as many rolls as it might take, that could add up really quickly. I do think at least one person should Aid each roll, and maybe we can figure that out and then do all the rolls for each group at once.
Those are my thoughts on this challenge.
What if the letter addressing us has further instructions about the whole task?
What if the letter addressing us has further instructions about the whole task?
While that is certainly a possibility, it's not really very likely, IMO. After all, we were just ICly given the instructions about the task, and deliver mail does not need a ton of extra things to be explained, and there is also no guarantee that a group of students would pre-sort the mail.
That said, if you feel Ntuni would take the letter and open it, then by all means do so!
I think I would, yes.
I'm worried there is some catch of "do not deliver this letter", or "you need to do so in this particular order".
Any thoughts on how to proceed here? No rush or pressure, just making sure you are working it out, or don't have questions.
I think we have a solid base plan, from the above posts, though I do hope some of the others chime in when they can with any other suggestions.
Speaking of suggestions, here is what I think we should do.
The last letter is delivered, as it is addressed to us, or at least to whoever does this given mail run, which happens to be us.
We get a kite to fly the Gozreh letter and then cast five spells to do the Nethys letter before we leave campus. Za Minyahil could do Telekinetic Hand, Ikto (or I) could cast Light, Nyandra could Detect Magic, while I Read Aura, and then any of us could use at attack cantrip.
That would be three.
We do the Society checks on group one. It looks like M'baba is lead at +7, and I can Aid at +5.
For group 2, M'baba's idea is likely best. Nydandra has the best Diplomacy, and half the group has +3 or 4 for Aid checks. If we go with the more fun scout from the air Survival idea, Ikto's +7, backed up by Ntuni's +6 is very strong.
Once we know where groups 1 and 2 go, we fly and deliver those 20, and then come back to campus and try to figure out how to do Mazduleh's.
The last letter is delivered, as it is addressed to us, or at least to whoever does this given mail run, which happens to be us.
Agreed and Ntuni will open it and read it.
We get a kite to fly the Gozreh letter and then cast five spells to do the Nethys letter before we leave campus. Za Minyahil could do Telekinetic Hand, Ikto (or I) could cast Light, Nyandra could Detect Magic, while I Read Aura, and then any of us could use at attack cantrip.
The instructions are about casting it at the same time, but within the rules it is impossible as we can't ready an action to cast spells in 2e. We have 6 characters, but Ntuni can cast no spells and the only one M'baba knows that is targeted is telekinetic hand, so we do as you've pointed out with the exception that Za Minyahil will cast the attack cantrip.
I agree with the rest of the plan
I will tell you what the letter says in Gameplay. Continuing planning as needed. If you can't get to 5 spells, there are some other spellcasters around that could be asked to play a small part.
Sounds like a plan, stan!
The last letter is delivered, as it is addressed to us, or at least to whoever does this given mail run, which happens to be us.Agreed and Ntuni will open it and read it.
We get a kite to fly the Gozreh letter and then cast five spells to do the Nethys letter before we leave campus. Za Minyahil could do Telekinetic Hand, Ikto (or I) could cast Light, Nyandra could Detect Magic, while I Read Aura, and then any of us could use at attack cantrip.The instructions are about casting it at the same time, but within the rules it is impossible as we can't ready an action to cast spells in 2e. We have 6 characters, but Ntuni can cast no spells and the only one M'baba knows that is targeted is telekinetic hand, so we do as you've pointed out with the exception that Za Minyahil will cast the attack cantrip.
I agree with the rest of the plan
That is one way to read 'at the same time.' I'm seeing it more as 'the letter needs to have the effects of five spells on it. Doc, can that be clarified? Is it we need to simultaneously cast five spells (and if so how will the mechanics for that work, as Ntuni quite correctly pointed out that RAW that cannot be done), or is my interpretation correct?
Effect of five spells is fine with me. Not sure how you do that otherwise in a four-man party which is what this adventure is built for.
Sorry to miss posting last night, had a late meeting with dinner that ran really long. Back at it later today.
'Tis cool! :)
Let me know when you are ready to make the checks for the illegible or badly addressed letters.
I worry that you we have lost Nyandra again. It has been almost 3 weeks since her last post. She is the team leader in Diplomacy. I can make checks for her to Gather Information if you wish, or someone else can take point if you prefer.
@DM DoctorEvil: How locked into "the book said you can only to this" are we?
Asking because with the undecipherable letters, I understand we not being able to make the check again. We've tried and failed and no matter how much more we butt our heads, that will not change. However, is anything keeping us from looking for a librarian or whatever in town and ask him/her to also try to decipher it them? If we think we have the time for it, I think we should try.
About Nyandra, yes, a bot and some rolls now would be great. If we don't hear from her in a couple more weeks we can think about a way for her PC to fade into the background. If possible, despite the shortcomings of not having a PC great at Charisma, I'd rather keep at 5 than re-recruit.
I echo the concern with Nydanra.
In regards to what Ntuni said, I'm of two minds there. On the one hand, asking others to help translate makes sense, and on the other hand, it's our task, we're not expected to be able to deliver everything, and there is the whole PbP issue of something that would take 5 minutes on TT could take a week in this format. I'd lean towards just letting the rolls ride. However, if it was allowed, and the group wanted to, I'd be fine with outside help.
I am fine with continuing at 5 in the worst-case scenario that we have lost Nyandra.
Yeah, I think I'm in agreement to what Ntuni and Iovia are saying.
I did deliberately put some of Za Minyahil's trained skills in social ones despite being an INT-focused character specifically because I figured we'd need as many social people as we can get, no matter who's good at it or not.
I am fine if the initiates want to try to take the illegible letters to another source, but this would be a form of Gather Information check requiring a Diplomacy roll and would take more time per letter.
I will usually allow one of each kind of check rather than everyone on the team trying individually, again other can aid.
It appears the die roller wasn't particularly kind to you on Nyandra's Gather Information checks either. I will bot her till the end of this chapter, and then we will see if she (hopefully) has returned.
Ikto has diplomacy +4, which isn't terrible
I think either Ikto or M'baba for the GI of the librarians? Their mods are the same, so it isn't really an important decision for us to linger.
Things have slowed down quite dramatically. I will make the rolls for one of the two of them tonight if we don't see it beforehand.
What are your plans after that?
I allowed one check for this also, since either tack could've been taken.
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I'm having trouble keeping track of which letters we've already accomplished and what comes next.
We have 12 letters that are easy to deliver, but we've not dealt with them yet.
Of the 5 letters that needed to be translated, M'baba translated 1 of them, leaving 4 untranslated. Of these 4, M'baba tried to gather intelligence on 3 (you still need to make one more check, as there were 4 letters, not 3), with one success. So we now have translated 2 out of the 5 letters.
Of the 4 letters with unusual addresses, Nyandra found 1 of them. We still can try to find the other 3 with a survival check while flying.
Adding these together, we have 15 letters that we can now deliver, 1 that M'baba still need to make a GI check, 2 that are completely undeliverable, and 3 that we can still make a Survival check later.
Aside from these, we have the 3 letters to the gods.
Apologies, I'm having some RL challenges, hence my slow posting. Hope to have it resolved in a few days. Please bot Ikto as required
Sorry for rmy delay in updating. I was in Nashville for a meeting and did not have my equipment. Forgot to say something before now. I am back home, and will get updates done tomorrow AM.
Very sorry about my gap in posting here. I THINK I have most things resolved now.
I'm trying to catch up, but does anyone want Ikto with any particular group/task if he isn't already in one?
Glad it is resolving. Need a group to go see the priests and a group to take to the air to look for the landmark-addressed letters using Survival. Feel free to join, or start, either.
Thank you very much
Magic School African City Bollywood dance numbers out of the blue?
I am.. down with this. :)
So...who's got the best Survival out of us to lead the search?
So...who's got the best Survival out of us to lead the search?
Ikto is +7. Ntuni is +6 but is away delivering the routine ones. Iovia and Nyandra are best support with +4 each
I really do not want to do the out-of-town ones without our fighter back in the group.
For two reasons, if we happen to have an encounter, from an IC perspective, having the fighter is very good, and from an OOC perspective if we have a fight not having N'tuni's player unable to play for an extended amount of time.
I'm fine with a we deliver the three other in-city ones, then a fast forward to N'tuni back and we roll onto the flying Survival checks and finish with our diplomacy task.
I think if we're flying the chance of encounters SHOULD go down, knock on wood.
My concerns are less an in-air encounter and more something happening at or near a delivery.
Hey, my posting is a little spotty lately because my baby is sick (again). Will be back to posting regularly in a few days.
Good luck with sick baby. That's no fun at all
Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. I got food-poisoned.