Basilfield's page

"There! Some scaly beast!" Stam draws his sword and moves to interpose himself between the creature and the rest of the party.

Stam allows his delay from last round to lapse, thus leaving the initiative order unchanged.
Standard & Move actions: Move to I9, drawing my sword along the way.

Basil, noticing Stam's reaction, turns his head, raises an eyebrow, and walks around the tree, with a look of curiosity on his face. He absent-mindedly leaves his hand on the trunk and traces a line along the tree trunk as he walks toward the noise.

Move to J9 behind Stam.

If allowed Knowledge Nature check at +9 for strange creature near the tree. (1d20+9=24)

"I'd just like to touch this regal old beauty"

Basil walks towards the tree, raising his hand reverently to touch the trunk. Move to L7.

"You know? I've never been in these parts? I need to get around more."

Josric wrote:

"What was that!?!"

"Har! I think the hob and his crows have you spook-ED! 'Twas a shadow, nothing more."

Despite his words, Stam's hand lingers near the hilt of his sword, and his grip on his shield tightens.

Move action: move to R9 (from T12).
Standard action: Ready, drawing a weapon if an obvious enemy (attacking creature) becomes visible.

notices that Stam is twitchy, follows to Q10, looks away from the tree reluctantly

"What's the matter, Stam?"

Day 2 - Sunset

Clearing map.

Posted so the map will be handy!! :)

Basil unconscious follows Stam, ending up at T13. Basil admires the tree, smiling.

Josric offers a quiet prayer for the animal's soul, then turns to Basil.

"I am sure the trap could be brought with us, though what use would it be to us?"

"I am not entirely sure. It might come in handy. I don't want to leave it out here for another animal to stumble across or for another creature," glares at hobgoblin to set. Maye we should just disable it."

Basil stands, dusts his hands and murmurs,

"Well, that's a shame. Still, will make a good meal for some other creature, now."

thinks

"Say, can we take this trap with us?"

It really is rather hilarious that we could not free that poor fox.

OOC - sorry for the delay

"Better make sure the fox can survive long enough to recover from that trap before letting him go, Basil," Morganna points out.

"So we better head on to that tree, shouldn't we?" Morganna suggests to the others.

"Josric calmed the poor thing as he walked by earlier. Hopefully the poor thing can survive my ministrations."

After Basil and Morgana reach the fox

"Let's see..."

Basil kneels down and speaks softly to the fox in an unknown language ooc - Druidic

ooc - I assume a strength check is a simple roll against my strength ability score and apply modifiers?

"Morgana, please help, be ready to wedge the trap open if you could. I don't want to move the creature until I heal it."

Basil attempts to gingerly open the trap. strength check (1d20-1=10)

“I promise you,” he continues, “should he take any action to bring harm against any of us, I will kill him myself.”

"Well, Josric, I trust you, of course." glances at the Hobgoblin "I just hope we don't regret trusting that creature."

changing topic

"Does anyone here know how to disarm the trap that the fox is caught in? Hmmm.... Maybe that could be a first test for our new friend? Have the Hobgoblin release the fox."

"Okay Basil how about we go take a look at that poor fox and let these gentlemen decide about this fellow's fate," Morganna suggests to the druid gesturing towards the still trapped animal.

"Very good idea, Morganna. Let's take a look at that poor fox. Perhaps you can keep an eye out while I try to free him? You'd better stay here and keep an eye on old Josiah [defend], Burrow. Don't want to frighten the fox."

Basil turns to go....

Josric lets out a small sigh, looking towards the hobgoblin sympathetically, "my friend makes a good point, how do you feel about earning your meals rather than trying to take them?"

Basil stops and looks at Josric incredulously.

"Josric, I was going to keep quiet, but you are allowing your kind heart to cloud your vision. This..." gestures towards the Hobgoblin "... this, mushroom stomper, just tried to kill us and, need I remind you, used an innocent creature as a lure for its own meal. I'm with Josiah. Kill it. It will attack us or betray us at first opportunity. I tell you what: I will perform a proper burial service for it, if that makes you feel better. Though the creature doesn't deserve it and we can't really spare the time."

Basil turns to Morganna.

"Shall we go, Morganna?

Basil,

I apologize for not participating in this discussion more fully. I just want to check quickly that you mean this will assign 6 of Burrow's tricks known.

1) Attack
2) Down
3) Fetch
4) Heel
5) Seek
6) Track

As you really haven't had Burrow participate thus far, I approve the addition of 6 tricks to his arsenal.

No need to apologize! I was the one who let the topic drop. I only just thought about it again today. You have stated the six tricks correctly. (I mistakenly said '5' in my post above.)

These all require Handle Animal DC10 checks.

Burrow also has a 7th bonus trick for being an animal companion.

7) Defend - this one does not require a Handle Animal Check.

So all seven of his tricks are assigned. Thank you!

Jason - to complete an old thought.....

but what are you specifically wondering about re: Handle Animal?

and to incorporate one of Tom's thoughts...

I would suggest one of the general purpose "suites" of tricks (see Handle Animal) like Hunting or Combat Training. Training a companion takes 1 week worth of work per trick; tricks taught individually require separate checks, but the suites require only one check.

In addition to the bonus trick of Defend that I already have identified, I would like to request that I be allowed to assign Burrow the General Purpose Hunting "Suite" from page 98 of the Core book, which says,

Hunting (DC 20): An animal trained for hunting knows the tricks attack, down, fetch, heel, seek, and track. Training an animal for hunting takes 6 weeks.

That will assign 5 of Burrow's normal tricks, leaving one trick unassigned for now. I understand if it is too late for such a change or if you would prefer to substitute something else but as it currently stands, I guess should be rolling DC 25 everytime I want to ask Burrow to come to my side. :)

"Bit scratched, damn birds." Josiah grunts as he ties up the hob.

Basil briefly eyes Josiahs scratches and decides that they are relatively minor for now. Basil moves to stand adjacent to Morgana, unconsciously imitating her by leaning on his quarterstaff as well. He listens to the exchange between the party and the hobgoblin. He also blows on his whistle summoning Burrow to draw close.

Basil says to Burrow when the Badger draws near: "Thousands of hobgoblins? What a silly story! Burrow? What do you think of that?"

Basil looks around, again, to see if there are any other hobgoblins, perception after hobgoblin defeated (1d20+8=15).

After looking around, Basil asks, "Is anyone hurt?" while glancing at the spot in the tree where the hobgoblin was hiding, to see if the creature damaged the tree.

Can Druid heal plants? If not, they ought to be able to do so. :)

I see people declaring that either drawing or sheathing a weapon is a free action. At the risk of getting a whack on the back of the head from the other players, but at the gain of clarifying my noob understanding of PF, I will observe:

Page 186 of the Pathfinder Core Rule book says that either drawing or sheathing a weapon in combat is a 'move' action. Again, I am new, so please bear with me, but doesn't that mean that you can draw a weapon and attack (with the free 5 foot move) or draw a weapon (converting your standard action to a move action) and then move?

trees, leaves, branch, duck!, where is that hobby bastard.

Basil stays in place. He also does not really wanting to be out in front of his better armored comrades, so he waves at Stam to go around him.

Basil also remembers Morgana's warning about the possibility of other Hobgoblins and looks around [perception check]to see if there are any other hostiles in the area (1d20+8=11)

whew! I hope I am getting these low rolls out of my system. ;0

"Into the trees! It may offer some protection from his bow!" Basil tries to assess how much cover the trees might offer from arrow shots.

Double move to AA-11. Will travel along row 14 to attempt to avoid potential attack of opportunity from the crow.

Jason Lillis wrote:

Got it. No worries, we'll take care of Basil.

-JL

Yikes. In my home games, when someone says "we'll take care of it," that usually means "it" is about to end up in a ditch outside of town.

Lol!

Tom Baumbach wrote:

So PbP combat: Should I wait to post my action until the hobs go?

Feel free to post your move. I was out last night, sorry for the delay.

-JL

I will be gone until Saturday 9/26 afternoon.

But in specific answer to your question: Yes, if your companion hasn't learned a trick and you try to get them to do it, it's a DC 25 Handle Animal check.

Coolness, thanks for your help with these questions!

free action: push Burrow to 'Stay' (1d20+7=16)

move action: move to N9

Basil starts to pull his quarterstaff from his back, but decides to stop and examine the fox instead.

Standard action - I examine the trap and use Heal skill (treat deadly wounds) Heal fox while it is still in trap (1d20+11=12) OOC - yowch! the poor fox!

2) I'm not much of a rules lawyer, but what are you specifically wondering about re: Handle Animal?

Ok, here's a question, if I want Burrow to follow me, that seems to be a *push* on the animal (page 97) in the book. So, I have a DC25 just to get an animal companion to 'come'. Seems steep. Or would that be, perhaps, issuing a 'come' command in a combat situation, such as we are currently facing?

Don't forget the +3 class skill bonus for a total of +7.

Ah yes, thanks!!

2) I'm not much of a rules lawyer, but what are you specifically wondering about re: Handle Animal?

My apologies, I am not trying to be a rules lawyer. I was just having a hard time understanding how the mechanics work for giving direction to an Animal Companion.

It appears that a Druid's companion starts off with one bonus trick and the Druid has to make a Handle Animal check to see if the animal performs the trick.

For example, I would like to start off with the trick of 'Defend' which has a DC=10 for a trained trick. My check for defend would be Animal Handler rank 1 + Charisma modifier + Link modifier = +1 - 1 + 4 = +4 against a DC10.

My check for any other untrained trick would be a DC25, which essential means no chance of success. Just making sure that I understand how it all works...

Jason -

Love the map of the lake area - how did you do it?

We need to figure out my ability to communicate with Burrow.

Now that I've read the Core Rule book a little more closely, I notice that the badger starts off with the Link trait

Link (Ex): A druid can handle [DC=10] his animal companion
as a free action, or push [DC=25] it as a move action, even if she
doesn’t have any ranks in the Handle Animal skill. The
druid gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all wild empathy
checks and Handle Animal checks made regarding an
animal companion.

I am going to post a few questions on the forums to clarify further how handle animal stuff works.

Core rule book says that Burrow has 2 HD to start off with. Would you like to roll his hit points or shall I?

You make camp by the firepit for the night, which passes peacefully. At first light, you gather your things, eat a brief meal, and begin your trek into the wood.

Deduct 1 ration from your total, or make a survival check(each 2 points past 10 will count as food for one other party member).

As a group, you find it is not difficult to keep track of Milon's directions, and it is only a couple hours before you reach the lake. As you walk along the shore of the lake, you come across a curious sight: Not far from the edge of the forest-shrouded lake, a fox with large ears and bright orange fur lies bleeding, its hindquarters caught fully in the jaws of a crude iron trap. (Lakeside map.)

Please indicate one standard round of actions, including a Perception roll.

Survival (1d20+12=13) OCC: Arggh!

Basil looks at the foxPerception (1d20+8=15)

Basil signals Burrow to stay put. Basil walks with Josric to I12 and says "Josric, your kind heart speaks well, but let me approach the animal first and see if I can attend to its wounds."

"I am comfortable in the forest day or night, but I think it wise to wait until morning. I feel the need to meditate and refresh myself before we travel further."

Basil walks to the edge of the forest, pulls out his wooden tube and blows again. Shortly thereafter, there is a rustling in the underbrush and Basil fusses over Burrow, who is unseen in the branches.

"Burrow will stay nearby in the woods and keep an ear open while we sleep."

"That monastery may hold more things than just wolves, Basil do you know anything about the past of this area and by that I mean both this forest and that monastery?" Morganna asks curiously.

Would Knowledge/Arcane or /Local still apply for such a check?

OOC: I have only Knowledge: nature

a little sheepishly

"Morganna, I have to admit, that I am not all that familiar with what he is talking about. Aside from keeping an eye on these nasty lumberjacks, I've pretty much kept to myself over the years. I've heard Laurel talking about the old witch from time to time, but I figured that she was merely exaggerating."

shrugs

"Guess I've lived a sheltered life afterall."

OOC Question for the group:

Do you have any preference for spells for Basil for the next day?

I am inclined to take healing spells, but I can take an offensive spell such as 'Entangle'

Basil looks to the sky, trying to gauge the time and the amount of light left in the day.

“Gentlemen,” he speaks levelly, stepping forward, “I can see that the two of you do not have the friendliest of histories, but throwing insults at one another will not solve anything.” The paladin looks at each of them in turn with a steady gaze, “Perhaps if you discuss your issues rationally, you could find some solution that will satisfy you both.”

aside to Josric Thank you for your help. My reason is clouded whenever I am near these people and I doubt that will ever change. One day, I hope to stop their excesses."

For GM

He takes another pull from his bottle and looks around the group once more before his eyes fix on Basil. At the sight of the young man, his eyes narrow, and the bottle slowly found the dining surface. "And why are you here, you little forest lover? Come to try and shut down my operation again? You'll remember the last time we sent you packing, of course. Brought Judson and some Ulfen oaf along to hold you up on the way back to yer hut in the trees? You know, I think that region is about where our next contract is going to be drawn from. You've got some damn fine bark over there. The whole lot'd make a pretty pile of sawdust at the end of the day." Gearing up for a bit more verbal abuse toward the party as a whole, he picks up the bottle and takes a long pull.

Basil grows angry and doesn't notice the rest of the group start to leave.

"Your bluster is fueled by your cheap booze, you barren seed. You take more than you need and never restore! If you or your men were able to walk or cut in straight line, then I would be concerned for the forest."

All,

Sorry I didn't get the post up today. Turns out I had a lot of errands to run. I'll post it in the morning.

-JL

I have an idea for RP ....

Not sure if you are looking for suggestion and you probably already have some ideas, but I am just tossing things around.... I won't be offended at all if you prefer not to use my idea. I am still kinda new to pbp ..... :)

Guess I should have taken care of this sooner, but how do y'all handle rolling?

Invisible Castle.

Gives you results in the form of links that you can cut and paste into your posts. Any questions and we will try to help.

Josric simply waits, quietly observing the pair of locals speak with the woodcutters. He does internally wince at the bluntness of the words chosen by Josiah, and Stam’s standoffish stance, but waits for some form of response before interceding – after all, perhaps this is the local custom…

Sense Motive 1d20+5=16

As Josiah speaks with the lumber camp person, Basil leans over to Josric. He sounds a bit desperate.

"Josric. You are a champion. Can't you do something?"

"Watch it, Nature boy. Sticks break, you know."

"Watch it, Nature boy. Sticks break, you know."

Playing catch up a little... :)

Basil smirks, "why, Josiah, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me..."

Basil follows the group to the lumber camp, being polite, but mostly keeping to himself. Once out of the town, the group notices him hold a small wooden tube to his lips and he blows. A few minutes later, there is rustling in the bushes and a rather large badger waddles out of the brush and eagerly greets Basil. Basil fusses over him as one might a loyal dog. Apparently the badger's name is Burrow. As the group walks on, Burrow follows behind on the path about ten paces behind. Once the group reaches the lumber camps, Burrow disappears into the woods again.

Upon seeing evidence of the camp's harvesting, Basil grows anxious and his face grows clouded. When the group stops, Basil leans on his staff and looks a bit pale.

Basil's attention snaps back to the group

Oh, no need to stock up on food overmuch. I think that Burrow and I can find food enough, even for this crew. You may not feast, but at least you won't perish. Besides, from the looks of it," glances at Josiah playfully "some of you could stand to lose a pound or two."

You can take this time to ask any final questions of Laurel, but I will assume that you are headed to the lumber camp shortly and post your travel and arrival there later this afternoon. Regarding travel/food, I will assume that you will use one trail ration/day, or that one of you will make a significant enough survival check to provide food for most/all, though this will slow you down a little. You can cover 24 miles per day on clear surfaces, but most of the forest will be trackless, bringing you down to about 12 miles per day if there are no tracks. As you are mostly racing against time to beat the effects of the Blackscour Taint, I will present travel options when necessary and ask for your input.

Basilfield will use his survival skills, and, if everybody is nice to me, and participates in the evening and morning leaf dances, then I can also create food and water....

glances at the Paladin - okay, okay, I am kidding about the leaf dances.... :)

** spoiler omitted **

Basil frowns ........

"Fine then, old tree, old witch, got it. Are we ready to go yet?"

Raises eyebrow at Josiah "I am not so eager to tangle with Ulizmila. If old rumors (OOC - meaning common folklore known to everyone) are true then there may not even be safety in numbers. Laurel, if you think that talking to her is necessary, then things must be desperate."

comes to sudden realization

"I wonder how fast this Blackscour might spread? It may also affect the local plants and animals. I think that Josiah is right. Let's get started."

what is the BBCode to use different color text?

Basil shrugs

"I am sorry, Laurel, but I've never heard of such things. But that is not surprising. There are many things in the wide world that I have not seen."

Basil looks curiously at Morganna.

"What do you think, Morganna?"

looks around the room with a raised eyebrow

"Shall we accompany these armored oafs as they stomp through the country side?"

What I need are elderwood moss, pickled rat's tail root, and seven ironbloom mushrooms. You got that? I figure if grandmother's book has them, then they've got to be somewhere in this blasted vale."

Basil wrinkles his brow.

She finally turns to look at you and exclaims, "Good Gozreh, there's an army in my shop! Carpenter, what the fiends are you... Basil? I never thought I'd see the two of you walk in together. Basil, I hope you're here to deliver some cuttings from the forest for me. I've been so busy here, I've not had a chance to go out and gather any myself. I tell you, this blackscour taint is an absolute nightmare."

With a somewhat hurt voice

"Basil? Why so formal, Laurel? I thought that I would always be 'Stick' to you.

resume natural voice

You really must be worried! Anyway, I've brought you the usual handful of moss,"

Basil gives her a handful of crumbling material from his pouch,

"though I thought I would check with you before I looked for anything more specific."

Basil looks around and notices the rest of the "army", raises an eyebrow, and decides to continue speaking.

"Blackscour you call it? What causes it? What additional cuttings can I bring for you?"

"I've been thinking about the malady ....

...and it appears to be outside my admittedly limited experience." Basil shrugs.

IC Question: is the line moving? Do I know the person in Roots and Remedies?

"Ooh a druid?" Morganna openly queries.

Noticing the others she blinks and looks around.

"Sorry my name's Morganna, I'm a herbalist by trade and was visiting here along with some fellows with an interest in trade. When I heard about this and that you had someone working on a remedy naturally I came along to see if I could help," she explains although most aren't listening.
"So its not a curse at least not magical, is there anything you've heard about that might be the cause of a natural based ailment causing these sort of symptoms?" she asks the person she thinks is a druid.

Basil looks at Morganna for a few moments, not unkindly, then smiles and says, "Please call me 'Basil'. Druid is such a blunt term, Morganna. I prefer to think of myself as a 'friend of the wild'. I've heard stories about the plague in recent days and I've come to town to see if I can help and to see what I can do to keep things from....spreading.

I've been thinking about the malady ....

OOC: I will wait for DM to interpret result

Morganna,

Have you been able to get Invisible Castle to work? Is it a network problem with the website or figuring out how to post the results?

Ask OOC questions here.

Got a couple more, so holding off on changing it for 2 players. Playtesting a psionic next to core classes.

-JL

Thanks for running this, I am enjoying it already!!

Josric’s eyes narrow slightly at Josiah’s words, but he otherwise remains calm in the face of his confrontational manner, “I have been spared the effects of the disease so far, I am here in the hope that I can be of some assistance… What about you - have you a reason to be here? Or have you simply come to revel in the town’s suffering?”

Basilfield walks past the end of line, glancing briefly at Josric, as he overhears the conversation with Josiah.

"Who most?" Basil mutters softly, quickly finding the smallest child in the line, an infant wrapped in his mother's arms. Basil approaches, whispers to the mothers, who reluctantly, then hopefully uncovers her child's head from the blanket. Basil then touches the child's head with his hand.

Basil then mutters again, pulls a hand full of berries Goodberry (2d4=8) from his side pouch. Making sure that people watch him, he eats one, then offers the other seven to the smallest children in line, starting at the front and then ending up at the back with the other new comers.

He looks up, a bit surprised, at the others at the end of the line, but quietly joins the queue as the last person.