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I updated the fog of war a bit to reflect what Danash would see moving to that space. Nemib can still take a round 2 move after the verbal exchange.

ROUND 2
--------
">" is up!

>Helina (round 1 + 2)
>Nemib

Valerulo
Lodric
Danash

ROUND 2
--------
">" is up!

>Helina (round 1 + 2)
>Danash
>Nemib
>Valerulo

Lodric

Ok, the forums are acting weird while posting, so folks might see some appear/disappear. It certainly didn't like editing a post that contained a quote as it lost some of the end tags.

Woosh. Lodric fires another arrow from around the corner. It disappears into the night. Ffft. The guard continues to move toward the house as the arrow buries itself somewhere in the dirt.

Lodric watched. Waited, trying to control his breathing. If the guard was alone? It made sense to quietly remove him. But if there were more? Well, then they might have to see the extent of the opposition before they acted.

Lodric scans the area and doesn't see any additional guards to the one in the SE.

The guard is just outside the 30' radius of the bonfire, putting him in dim light/concealment.

Concealment 20%, low: 1d100 ⇒ 13

The window Danash is next to is still locked, correct?

The lower window next to Danash was unlocked by Lodric. 1 blue rectangle, even one with a dividing line for spanning, is being treated as a single window. No double hung windows here :)

Ok, we'll come back to the "behind the house" portion for now.

Danash joins the rest of the group by the mansion window as the SE guard starts moving closer. Light flickers erratically as shadows move from within.

[b]ROUND 2[/]
--------
The party is up!

>Helina (round 1 + 2)
>Danash
>Lodric (Hiding to ambush?)
>Nemib
>Valerulo

Yes, at this point I'm keeping track of rounds. "Dungeon turns" are being tracked since the scenario is living vs. static.

@Heliona - Ok, I rendered another slide to give a view of the backside of the mansion. There is a stable in the back with several horses that you would see as you move. Go ahead and adjust your token on this slide (in case the details change anything).

Standing adjacent to the tree and corner, it'll just give cover to you.

@All - Assume dim light unless you're near the fire pit (30'/60') outside.
Inside the mansion is also dim light unless noted - candles are lit, but no overhead chandeliers or torches.

Nemib runs out from behind the tree, thin limbs like brushstrokes of shadow. A final stroke unfurls his rapier toward the guard. Following his lead, Lodric fills the space the wayang vacated and draws an arrow.

dim light concealment, 1-20: 1d100 ⇒ 82

Twang. Thud. A wooden shaft buries itself in the guard, its feathered fletching splayed.

The guard goes down.

Valerulo proceeds forward, notching a bolt.

ROUND 1
-------
UP:
Danash - hold
Helina

[dice=Hit Guard to the South]1d20+6+1

[dice=Damage]1d8+3+1

Can Lodric see the guard to the south? There is a tree between him and the guard. From where I see the map, I think that Lodric can use it as cover to fire at the man. But I don't want to assume

Scrambling to his feet, Lodric rushed to stand next to Nemib. The guard to the north was only a problem for whomever had to clean up the mess later. He made a mental note not to anger the elf, after seeing what she could do. Knocking an arrow, he tried to draw a bead on the second guard...

The tree is small in that spot so approximating a 5-6" diameter trunk. Visibility won't be an issue. With it between the two, it would provide cover.

ROUND 1

The party is up!

Crack. The stillness of the woods is broken. Valerulo pauses, unslinging his crossbow while Helina and Danash break away. Helina takes off towards one of the guards, her large feet thudding against the ground, leaving heavy depressions in the wooded floor.

I believe this has to be a charge to make it there and attack, prompting the +2 to hit/-2 to AC.

Helina catches the watchman off guard, bringing down her axe before he can shift adequately for the onrush. Bones crunch. Blood sprays in an arc under the moonlight as the body falls in a thud.

Danash glides toward the mansion, taking position between the western wall, the tree, and the thin wayang. Another thud and the rustling of leaves. Lodric scrambles to his feet, pivoting his head erratically to see what he might have alerted.

"We've got trouble!" yells a voice in the distance.

As soon as the crack sounds Helina moves and moves really fast. Without a word she runs at the guard on the flip top behind them.

Bull rush - 45' move x2 knock back on the guard - The aim is to send him over the claff, as the bigger map shows he is very close,1d20+8

I like the cinematic idea, but the edge is further away than that. The area map is 1 square = 50', which is why I backfilled the battlemap with additional grids. I'm assuming you'll want to make this a regular attack, but feel free to re-take the action.

@Nemib - Given the updated mansion map with trees mapped out from the larger one, where would you move for cover? The "nearest" would be the trees or inside the mansion, at least from the guards on the map. However, since that's a good distance, I want to make sure. Feel free to move your token to where you want to go.

Update - after checking for miscellaneous items that could serve as concealment, I noticed the artist illustration(simple charcoal sketch) in the book has a tree at the corner of the mansion. I've gone ahead and placed one on the map. We'll say it is big enough for the ~3' tall Wayang. Let me know and then I'll start resolving the party's actions.

@All - I made some (janky) adjustments to the map to allow for more planning/reflect the surrounding larger map a bit more. I also removed the door labels at this point to reduce some of the clutter as additional stuff gets drawn.

Update - just in case, the black lines are just artifacts from copy/pasting the grid section to get the extra map area. Just mentioning it in case it gets misinterpreted as plateau steps.

Hi sorry about that GM I put her back, ok so her plan is to get rid of one of the guards, She is fast and looking at the larger map the guy is close to the edge of the cliff if she knocks him off and the other follows she will keep running with the aim off pulling trhe guards outside away. The rest of the party she hopes can hide and use the distraction to get in side, she will meet up with you once she has lost the guards.

As she can out run them if all goes well.

On a side note I posted my 1st post on Paizo on this day 15 years ago. Holly-molly How the years fly.

No problem. Going forward, please put a post in the game thread, even if it's a simple [ooc] comment saying that you moved your piece. This way I'll know that the move was intentional and not an accidental one. It also makes it easier for me to know how many actions I'm waiting for in the main thread.

It looks like Helina's token was moved since I originally placed it on the map, so we'll go with the yellow dot. There isn't a lot of surrounding space on the map to account for "waiting from afar", so we're just assuming on the way to the rest of the group against the building.

Lodric signals for the rest of the group to follow. Danash moves over with ease. Valerulo and Helina follow close behind. The weight of the 300lb elf crushes a fallen branch, resulting in a loud, dry crack.

I've placed the party's tokens on the map. What's everyone doing?

Lodric slides a thin piece of metal under the pane and pushes back the mechanical lock. Taking some time to find a grip, Lodric is able to open the window to a cozy room ringed with shelves. Books and assorted curios, including a goblin skull and various glassware fill the shelves.

Lodric crept as closely as he could, and tested to see if the windows were locked. If not, he was ready to head inside. It made very little sense to have a room with no way in or out besides a window. This indicated to him that there might be a secret door or entranceway that could be found.

There are doors, just not exposed to the outside. I boxed the doors the party can see through the windows in red; they're just inward facing. I also adjusted the fog of war box a little bit to reflect 60' looking in from the window below.

I moved Lodric's token opposite the window of Nemib. AFAIK the rest of the party is more than 60 away from the villa? Note that stealth checks can be made to move past the guards undetected, but say a pc moves around the corner between the window and the guard for room 1. You can stealth to move there, but there is no real cover. Staying there is hoping the guard doesn't stop to shift their gaze. You'd need something like a cardboard box to attempt the stealth in that case :)

Lodric hunches down, moving cautiously to avoid making any noise. Pressing close to the mansion wall, he takes a knee and examines the paned window. Tracing the frame, he discovers hinges running along its bottom edge, suggesting that the window swings outward. He tests it, but it refuses to budge.

Thanks!

*As a reminder, you might want to decide who is carrying the wand of cure light wounds as well as other gear with the new additions.

@Lodric Aegilson @Valerulo Axillenus - when you get the chance, please update the slides with marching order, perception, etc.

If everything seems safe to enter, he'd prefer to go in through (1) as it is most likely to have something of value, be it monetary or information. Otherwise, he'd go in through (2). If I'm misread the plan, please let me know

Note that room 1 has windows only, no doors. The same goes for 2 and 3. There's a porch with doors to the right of 1. Just making sure unless you intended to break it or had another idea.

@Lodric @Valerulo - Welcome to the game.

For the sake of getting everything back on track as quickly as possible, we'll keep the storyline simple. As Lodric expected, Lodric and Valerulo were hired/sent by the masked patrons to find the original group, convey a message that the Temple of the Holy Order is starting to show interest in the area, prompting additional pressure to finish sooner rather than later and to avoid them on the way back.

We can kick off introductions with Lodric and Valerulo catching up to the party in the woods in "camp" as they plan, if that works for everyone?

@Grumbaki - Ok, the Freebooter archetype works.

@Grumbaki @tomtesserae - I'm assuming you've gone through the gameplay thread just to make sure you're ok with the style of the game?

@Helina the Beast @Danash @Nemib - Can someone please summarize what's happened so far for them and the current "plan"? I like to have players do summaries, as it helps to hear the adventure from a player perspective.

@Grumbaki @tomtesserae Looking at the Freebooter's Bane ability, it may overlap with the Bard's Inspire Courage ability. Since it's 3pp I believe, it may be easier just to say no to that aspect. This way it'll be consistent with the existing players while preserving the Bard's role of buffing. Also, it saves some legwork trying to figure out if the Freebooter's Bane is intended to be untyped as written and thus stack with Inspire Courage.

I wasn't happy with the cleric character I was making, so I made a bard instead. He can heal a little. Please look at his character sheet.

** spoiler omitted **...

That's ok. The party has access to a wand of cure light wounds, so that should be sufficient.

In general, the build looks ok, although feel free to make the cleric if that idea has more appeal.

Character ready for review. Trapper ranger who can handle scouting, traps and some ranged damage.

Hi Lodric/Grumbaki. Thanks for the submission. Just to make sure, the Freebooter archetype is 3pp, right?

Just some admin stuff:

Based on the votes, we'll give the party a wand of cure light wounds with:

10 + Add: 1d6 ⇒ 2 charges.

I'll let recruitment go 'til the end of this weekend. If we don't find a 4th by Monday, we'll let Danash add a 2nd character.

I'm going to hold off on the game thread until then - just because the plan can go sideways with poor luck.

<Bump>

Nemib nods as Helina wants to proceed, but also listens to Danash.

“Okay. We have spent this much time avoiding their notice … so it would be bad to throw that advantage away simply because we are impatient. I will sneak up and see what I can learn about the villa, the guards, and any possible entrances or escape routes.”

He then scouts ahead with the magical goggles.

Nemib moves past the western guards to the villa itself, reaching the walls. The building is a two-story villa with high, peaked roofs and numerous windows and doors. All windows to the house are glass-paned.

I've added a slide focusing in on the villa. Nemib is able to peer through the windows along the western side. 1. A cozy room lined with shelves. A large table with two oil-filled lanterns sits in the middle. 2. A mundane room containing several shelves of mundane items. 3. Several beds line the room. A courtyard patio with a tiled floor and a large fire pit emits smoke from the eastern corner.

Using the orb to see through walls caps out at 1/2 normal range vision, so using the windows provides more.

<Update> We're looking to add 1-2 new players to replace a couple that dropped out. The game is about to hit the more tactical/battle portion. Please look at the game thread to get an idea of play style as well.

One last try before we sneak in, I circled a bigger copse of trees in blue that I hope are taller and give something of a view of the top of the plateau, on the near side.

I added a 5 square radius circle. Moving that around is probably the best way to get your visibility from each point. That said, taking the farthest point of the blue trees doesn't reveal any additional guards.

GM How high are the trees nearby? Like towering PNW trees that would let us see up onto the plateau with our orb?

So the 2 trees to the left of the question mark would be "small" and consist of 25' tall trees, while the larger one to the right is ~6 squares and 75' tall.

Ah, I was going off of this post.

The squares are 50', but the iconography doesn't match well, since the outline of a single tree can cover 6–9 squares. Perhaps the better way to phrase it is that a single-tree icon filling 1 square represents a copse of 25'-tall trees, while a tree icon filling 4 squares represents a copse of 50'-tall trees.

I marked a sample 1 square tree in red, and a 4 square tree in purple.

Let's use 1 square = 25', 4 squares = 50', ~6 squares = 75' for the trees. I'm assuming these are deciduous trees based on the map iconography. So yes, depending on the tree, you should be able to get a vantage point even to the plateau.

@Danash @ Nemib @Helina The_Beast' >>>

Since that drops us to three we should find a replacement to keep going. I think it's fine to continue the game thread for reconnaissance/planning, but I think the group should hold off initiating the plan until we have a fourth.

There is the option of having someone run an additional character as well; perhaps if we can't find someone in a timely fashion?

Once the party executes the plan, it'll be largely tactical/combat orientated, so a new player shouldn't have to worry about missing much.

Feel free to add your thoughts and suggestions for a replacement...

Nemib nimbly moves to investigate further. I marked the map to where I assume you're moving to; moving up the plateau is more exposed and a bit riskier. That said, I added one more found guard to the map. It was close, depending on where your target spot was and this saves a bit of pbp time.

Net time +30 minutes. Game time: 10pm.

If it helps, here is a snippet about the adventure from a review site:

The party goes on to raid the manor house. In high school I used to play Danger International. Every adventure ended with a raid on the bad guys base. We’d plan our assault, come up with some goofy idea, and then execute it. That’s what’s going on here.

---

If I remember my history correctly, this module was maybe the first OGL product released by Atlas just days into the 3e boom. John Tynes, whose name already shone with the reflected glory of Unknown Armies, later said that the adventure was an explicit attempt to create a black-ops/Danger International/action movie scenario. I still have fond memories of this one, too.

Consider this the planning phase. It's up to the party to decide how to approach the task.

Nemib would get back to the group and inform them.

He very quietly tells them everything and adds: ”Any ideas?! Let me use the binoculars to find out more!“

I did not want to assume that I had the binoculars before, but I would use the GM to see if I can learn more with those God what is hiding there.

I went ahead and updated the map using 60' darkvision x 4 ~ 240' for the binoculars. Thus, extending 240' from the path, assuming constant/frequent checks to look. Assuming walking (150'/minute) in difficult terrain (x2), this takes about an hour. A telescope action takes 1 min to assemble/disassemble/move,so we'll go with an additional 30 minutes. We'll say this puts at 9:30 in the evening.

Nemib does not see any secret entrances/caves along the path.

This will place the party at the end of the marked path.

"Did you notice if they were guarding an entrance of some kind, or an easier path up to the plateau?

The guards appear to be using natural terrain locations for their posts, i.e., a more horizontal bit of rock, a section with more stable footing, as opposed to any additional paths.

Note that the orb acts like binoculars in addition to letting you see through objects for a short time. It essentially acts like a telescope, up to 4x vision.

I'm going to assume Nemib leads the party 30' ahead, with the rest in tow, using Nemib's previous rolls.

I've added a marker to the map to show the party's current location.

The action is currently on Nemib.

@Party - since the party no longer has a healer, I wanted to present the following options:

1. Each character gets 2 potions of healing.
2. The party gets a wand of cure light wounds. Probably 10-15 charges.
3. Someone controls a 2nd character as a healer.

Vote for your preferred choice; I'd like to implement the changes sooner rather than later.

Yes, we'll use 1 square = 50'. For precision, can you use the line tool on the map to show your proposed path for walking the perimeter?

@Party - As a reminder, you might want to think about the equipment provided as well.

I've added slide 9 to show the party's location in respect to the villa. The party is in the bottom right hand corner, coming from the south and east. The forest and surrounding area is dim light. The maximum distance a human can see is 100', although there's a 20% chance of concealment due to the light. The villa is ~900 feet from the Dream River. The plateau is ~50 feet up from the river. The plateau is bordered on all sides by a decorative stone wall three feet high, with a gap where the trail goes through.

That should help visualize the planning.

How the party approaches this is up to the group; when ready, let me know when you want to execute the plan.

I'm going to drop out of this one guys, I keep getting lost in the flow of the adventure.

I hopw you guys have fun!

Not a problem. Good luck in your next one.

Heading back to the trail; not much more to discern here with the rolls.

The trail along the Dream River is anything but, combining game trails and creative pathfinding, including switchbacks up carved rock. The ribbons of sunlight that broke through the canopy have faded, de-saturating the earthen colors to muted browns.

Eventually a building perched atop a slim plateau on the side of a mountain comes into view.

Helina rushes ahead, following the trail as it winds through the trees. It leads her into a small clearing just beyond the edge of the woods.

A crude campsite lies here, its fire reduced to a faintly smoldering bed of coals. Two bedrolls have been laid beside it, along with the scattered remains of a recently abandoned camp.

It quickly becomes clear that the occupants did not leave willingly.

Two young men lie dead among the trees. Their robes identify them as acolytes of the Holy Order. Both appear to have been slain by sword blows. Their weapons and valuables are gone, and a closer look reveals that their ears have been removed after death.

The fire still smolders, sending thin wisps of smoke into the still air.

Whatever happened here, it happened recently.

Hello, this is an FYI that I will be away in nature this weekend (Saturday Sep 12-Sunday Sep 13), returning early evening Sunday (US/Pacific) time.

I will catch up and resume posting Sunday evening.

As it is just the weekend, I expect minimal to no disruption but do bot me as necessary.

No worries. Camping/fishing/hiking/boating?