Thanks! I'm absolutely stoked, mildly freaked out, and juggling three or four 'possibles' for the next round...
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Cool. Have fun!
Oh, sorry Rags. Look after your wife and make sure you've got your support network on the case too. Looking after a grieving spouse is hard in all sorts of ways, some of them unexpected. Take care.
Happy new year everyone. Here's to a 2012 that's better than 2011 in every particular.
Hi Rag, sorry to hear about your wide's nan. I knew you had a relative in hospital but not the details. I hope you and your wife can support each other through what will be a hard time. Take care.
Congratulations!
Happy holidays on and all!
Happy holidays everyone. Enjoy! Alinya is leveled up, just need to update her profile. Oh, HP:
Merry Christmas to all of you! Have fun.
Yuriel is updated. Chose Improved Defense (feat); Shielded sides (utility); and retrained Steel serpent strike to Shield bash because I think I might actually use shield bash.
Doh - forgot to level up! Tonight then :)
Nice! Have a lovely time. Where is the cruise cruising?
I want a party of 5, and we have 1 person with a statted character, so go ahead. Sweet, I'll break out hero labs this afternoon then :)
Hey, I'd love to play if there's still room. Character 1 would be a dwarf ranger, and I'll see how long she lasts before thinking about characters 2 through 7! Let me know whether to start statting up :)
Cool, nice to see character carried into mechanics! And now Calla isn't the slowest anymore.
Hah! Thanks, that does indeed make more sense. Right, we'll pretend that Call wanted to make sure she was slightly north of the main group, to protect people. Yeah, that's the ticket, it was all planned.
Okay, sold. So we're running to the Northwest, in the same direction as the few remaining elves. Calla's got a couple of powers that will help. Speed of thought, that works as soon as she rolls initiative, and lets her move 5 squares. And quick formation that will let the whole group shift 2 squares, if Calla can get an attack in.
...And then there's our cowardly clever cleaver friend... Thanks. Just... thanks :)
Good stuff Aardvark. Question: would we be better off heading for the crodlus in the north east? With run actions and action points we could more or less get there in the first turn, and we're pretty high up the init list. My concern is that without mounts we'll never get away, and might just die in the desert if we do. Stuff I don't know - how easy or hard is it to steal and ride the beasts? If needs a lot of skill rolls then not worth it. If it just needs us to get there the at least some of us should go for it.
OK, here is what I think we should do. 1 - Arakan / Irivis use their high bluff skills to ramp up tension between the elves and the human/mul warriors. Convince our guards that the ritual will hurt them too. 2 - Around twilight, attack one/two of the guards in some ranged sneaky way (Irivis, Jareen - looking at you) and convince them it's the ritual starting early, and starting to kill them. 3 - Best case is our guards head off to stop the ritual. Anyway, we then set fire to the bush-gate. It burns quickly, and we help it by fanning the flames and smoke outwards. We try to spread burning / exploding goo-filled branches outwards too (thinking Project Object, or Concussive Blow from Call, may be other options). 4 - Now we have twilight, smoke, scattered small fires, and an escalating battle between the elves and the human/mul warriors. We break out and head straight to the warrior's camp. 5 - We continue to do whatever we can to increase the confusion - summons, illusions, bluffs and trickery. Anything to keep the two groups fighting. 6 - We grab supplies and crodlus, and we head north while everyone is still fighting behind us. -- So that's my suggestion. I'm sure the group can improve it :) I'd like to be able to stop the ritual, but I think it's too risky, and hopefully the human/mul warrior team will win and put a stop to it anyway. I'm not sure if we have means to start a fire. I hope out of the 15 NPCs here with us that one of them will have the Psionic Spark wild talent.
For a weapon keyword power, all you need is a fist. It will not get the proficiency bonus to attack, and only do 1d4, but it's a weapon. Oh! Thanks Aard, that makes sense. It's amazing how many underlying assumptions I have left over from 3 / 3.5 / PF. Possibly because I'm still playing PF in other threads :) Do you think we should try to disrupt the ceremony rather than immediately flee out of range?
Now first bit of the hard part. I decided that I'd go back through the recent posts and gather what we know together.
First up, Aubrey, I love the amount of tactical information you manage to pack into highly descriptive posts. I need to start reading them less like 'story' and more like 'clues'. Second, very nice work Aardvark for asking the right questions, especially about the brush blocking our way. Wall o' text (tm) already, so I'll go have a cup of tea and then come back to plotting.
OK, easy bit first - rolling for a wild talent. Object projection - I can teleport an object that I'm holding up to 10 squares away. Cool, and could possibly use it to help with the distractionating. Hard bit (braining about a useful plan) to come later. Think you're all asleep now so no rush.
Will give it some more thought. Aardvark has certainly done well in exploring our resources and expanding our options. It seems clear that we can come up with a better plan, and Granny is available for us to test ideas with. We've also got time for a bit more discussion, with a few hours till darkness. Thanks for the info on improvised weapons. All Calla's powers have the weapon keyword, which I assume means she needs at leas a big stick to use them. I'll roll a wild talent, and post for Calla (and Yuriel) when I get back from breakfast in an hour or two. I'm thinking eggs, and coffee, and am unable to think further about anything else :)
Cool. Calla had a few questions for the others / for her Grandma / or for the other captives too. How do the rules for improvised weapons work in 4e? Is it realistic to think of making one from any of the resources we have to hand. Not thinking of an A-Team style miniature tank with rocket launcher made in a shed (though that is traditional for prisoners). More, a club with thorns.
Decided that roleplaying Calla as shocky and useless probably wasn't helping the group have fun :) So she's feeling more proactive again. Aardvark, is there anything in Arakan's recent spoilers that he could usefully share? For me the key to effective escape is
My first coupla goes at that last post involved Alinya diving straight in in to lay hands on Rholf's weapon... Yay for preview, she's not that forward ;)
The idea I came up with is to persuade the rest of the NPC captives to sacrifice their lives for us. They could charge the guards and elvish wizards, dying on their blades, and creating enough confusion for us PCs to steal mounts and get a head start. Yeah, so basically my grand idea is to use Calla's family as canon fodder to give us nothing more than a half-chance. The 'grab disguises and bluff' idea is far less evil :)
Gah sorry Aubrey, I should have spoilered that last post but it's too late to edit it now. @Rev Rosey - that will be cool. I forwarded the 'sheep drama' scene to my wife and got a genuine lol :)
@Rev Rosey - yes really! Particularly liked the Mikelmerck vignettes. @Aubrey - have a good circulate and see you soon.
All right, that all makes sense. I think Yuriel will have to shield bash the door down - don't see how you'd use a spear against a door...
Aardvark, could Yuriel use his Swiftcurrent power to move directly up the tower? I'm not sure if the tower walls are considered 'difficult ground' for the power. If not, what rolls do I need to make to scale the tower? Swiftcurrent: I can shift up to my speed over ground or liquid terrain. I take no penalties for squeezing during this movement, can move through enemy spaces, ignore difficult terrain, and take no damage if the surface or substance you move across would ordinarily deal damage to me.
Aubrey, that was a bit of a shocking start - curious to see where things go and enjoying myself. I was reasonably confident about surrendering, but there was still a small voice worrying 'has Aubrey gone all The Killer GM, is this an early TPK?'. Nice! Rev, I bookmarked your blog. Went to read the finger story and was still reading 30 minutes later. Have a nice week, everyone.
... otherwise Jareen could take four attacks before his first turn. I decided for simplicity that Calla hadn't yet seen the northern group.
Sorry Aubrey, possibly got carried away improvising. Seemed reasonable that the caravan leader would have a whistle or a bell or something like that. No other players have reacted yet so we could easily change Calla's actions, or change the outcome. As a style, do you generally prefer 'intent posts' rather than 'action posts'? Different DMs have different expectations.
Excellent. I love starting with a bang. Also - woah, that's a lot of bad guys!
Ah that's a nice take on it. So Calla is prattling on about how great it is that the slaves are free like your typical I-just-read-Ayn-Rand teenage libertarian in reverse. Meanwhile her folks are trying to rebuild after their whole livelihood has fallen apart. Sounds like tension to me :) So is the caravan on the way back from Balic, or somewhere further afield? And what's in the third wagon that everyone's being so secretive about?
Hey Aubrey, that's all good. I'd much prefer to work collaboratively on Calla's background and have her well integrated with the story - it's what I'd do in a round-the-table campaign anyway. So if her family is from Tyr, then the caravan is probably attached to either House Vordon (iron traders, still powerful), or House Ianto (former slave traders, now trying to diversify and re-brand). House Ianto probably has more scope for plot and incident. They are looking to relaunch business through 'speculative cargos'. What are Calla's family transporting on this latest trip? Does she know? Rather than a stint in the Balic Legions, perhaps some incident on the most recent journey has led to the recent tension with her family? Or perhaps it's just to do with growing up... and the incident is just about to happen. How does all / any of that sound? Oh, and part of my reason for switching to a Balic background was the meta-gamey desire to get streetwise as a class skill. Tyr backgrounds have that too :) So she's a naif about some matters, but knows where to go in a market to get the best deals, and how to find crew, and which areas in Tyr to avoid... but inexperienced and young. She's never had the chance to make her own decisions, or set her own goals. Ingenue.
Jareen looks very good, lots of ways to cause chaos and confusion. I'll look into melee training - thanks Aubrey. It might replace Pursuing Step which looks good but possibly quite situational.
I would be deeply uncomfortable with dying kids, whether through violence, poverty, or neglect. Most other things I can probably handle if it serves the story. On a related aside, I doubt I'll ever reread Dust of Dreams by Steven Eriksen, even though I loved the Malazan series over all.
Heh! Well, I'm off to bed soon so that will be the end of the cross-post-chain-link-affair. I like the idea of being part of a larger house, and that would explain why she has the training to be a controlled battlemind rather than the self-trained wilders that are common on Athas. Perhaps an unfavored cadet branch of the family, because I don't want to start off with lots of cash and resources and magical equipment and servants and ... 'Quick' was intended as more of a use-name than a legal surname. I like giving non-nobles from pre-industrial societies descriptive surnames. Feels authentic - in the same way that my surname (Cooper) is descended from a simple professional description. Um. Possibly overthinking this. Time for bed!
Cross post due to slow typing and multi-tasking :) Happy to keep the things that resonate and tinker round the edges. I like the idea of starting in the family caravan, recently coming to see that she might not have to stay in the family caravan. Yes, I'll absolutely provide all the power descriptions, bonuses, rolls, etc. Just wanted to get the basics up quickly. 'Quick' is one of the four basic types of battlemind (the others are Harrier, Resilient, and Wild). As the name suggests, they focus on using psionics to move quicker than possible for a natural warrior. But it feels more plausible than the outright teleportation or elemental bending of the other types. Longsword was what the Character Builder chose when I hit the 'auto-gear' button. No problem looking for something more thematic. At the very least it will be wooden with sharpened bone inset.
On reading a little further, I'll probably tinker with Calla's background a little. If we are all travelling with a caravan then she can be a bit more grown up and a paid guard, as I won't need her to storm off in a huff pre-adventure. Any thoughts about whether we are with a large well equipped caravan from a great trading house, or a smaller outfit?
Hi guys, nice to have you aboard! Don't worry about stepping on Yuriel's toes, there's plenty of scope for an extra defender... Though the the frost wizard would fit well with a Armand and Yuriel's watery / stormy theme.
Sweet. That's a good outcome from a random bout of insomnia. It's 4am here and I bet I'd never have seen the post by the morning...
Hi Aubrey, just seen your post on Fabes' thread - had lost the dot... I'd like to sign up as I agree we had a good thing going in that group. I'll have a think about a controller or a defender, and put something together this weekend.
<- is worried by The Defiler's evil laughter
That's a lovely view, Kruely. I had a few days in BC earlier this year and really liked bits we saw - and the people.
Good to know he's OK and well and all, just busy.
Yeah we still have a defender, a leader, a controller, and a striker actively posting - even if Seljak is on hiatus :) The perfect dream team!
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