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Dolph peers through the bright light and blinding beach through squinted eyes trying to find someone friendly, or at least humanoid. If he can see Boethall ministering to Ishirou, he'll move towards them as quickly as possible [double-move on rough terrain, I assume], and explain that more scorpions are coming. If the scorpions overtake him, he'll use his shield defensively [total defence] but keep moving to higher, safer ground.
Is still there! We go back for after we kill these things! Dolph works his way up the beach until he reaches somebody who's on his side. Fighting off the scorpions alone does not appeal to him.
Dolph sloooowly turns to look at the scorpions. He hefts his shield for a moment, readying himself, but then thinks better of it. He's alone, he's not been taught to fight underwater, and he's in these creatures' natural environment. With considerable regret (and faint hope that they can come back for it) he lets go of the chest and moves as quickly as possible up the beach with his shield on his arm (not leaving that behind!). If any scorpions get in his way, he'll bang them with his targ (hence the term "targbanger").
Doing a live game every couple of weeks sounds fun, if we can get the timing right.
Dolph gasps in pain--a truly bizarre sensation when you have saltwater in your lungs--and tries to fight the sudden stars in front of his eyes and keep pushing the chest. He can see down here, but there isn't much to see, so he tries to gage which way the beach is based on the motion of the water and whether the sea bed goes up or down (he does up, obviously), all the while preying to the great gods of steel that this stuff he drank lasts long enough.
Kill off the other characters...? I'm kind of invested in this shield-obsessed weirdo at this point.
Talked to Liz yesterday. She's crazy busy at work, apparently.
A collection of bubbles floats out of the sea containing Dwarfish swear words.
So now that that's sorted out, could someone post a move...?
I spoke too soon! Thanks for clarifying, Scott.
Generally speaking, spells do what they do and nothing more. They're not like science or engineering where you look for secondary possibilities. They're very specifically limited effects. It's a bummer for someone whose thinking is permanently stuck on "lateral," I know, but that's the way the system is designed.
Dolph looks down into the choppy water, drinks the potion, which tastes vaguely of chlorine and rubber, and then fights every instinct in his dwarven body in order to jump into the water. It's a moment or two before he can actually bring himself to "breath" the water, and it feels very strange breathing something that tastes so strongly of salt, but after a few seconds, he gets used to it. He lets himself sink to the ocean floor--which shouldn't be a problem given that his lungs are full of liquid--then finds the crate and starts dragging it in the direction of the nearest beach. Between the crate's buoyancy and his own darkvision, it should be a piece of cake (he thinks, thus tempting fate to fart in his face again, as it has been doing since he stepped onto that godsforsaken boat).
As soon as the shield is free from the hull, Dolph hustles towards the captain's room and locates the chest. He then uses the shield to push the chest towards the big hole in the side of the Jenivere (they have so many uses, everyone should have one). His intention is to dump it into the water and then follow it down so that he can drag the chest up to the beach.
Dolph looks at the potion, looks at the chest, bobs his head back and forth. Hm. S'like I'd be beating the ocean at being, you know, the ocean. Fun.
I don't see no way of getting through that lock, not without picking it. Is the captain's body around? He might have a key. Dolph also takes a moment--of which there aren't many, he knows--to look at the rest of the chest looking for non-steel bits that he might just bust through, wood being more frangible than steel, after all.
Dolph sizes up the lock. It looks solid. He might not be able to pull this off. Do we have a crow bar, something long, thin, and metal?
Dolph hears Viri's call, then looks at the shield, then looks at the door, then takes a step towards the door, then looks at the shield, and silently mouths I'm sorry to the shield, in Dwarfish, before he heads up the hallway towards Viri's voice.
Okay. I'll get ready to pull the shield. You give me a signal. Dolph goes into the galley again and sets himself up.
Dolph will help gather the goods from the storeroom, but just as they go to leave [assuming we get that far] he says, I can't leave my shield. Head up and get ready to debark. We don't have long when I pull it.
Dolph gets down on his knees to close the corpse's eyes... then he takes his sword and tries to see if he can get the armour off in a hurry. He avoids eye contact with Viri or Aria while he's doing it. I don't feel good about this, but we going to need everything we can get.
After giving the door an experimental shove, Dolph shrugs and just starts waling on it with his club. After a few seconds, the door has been reduced to hunks of wood hanging from the lock and the hinges.
Dolph slams this makeshift club into the deck to one side of the scorpion to distract it and herd it towards Aria's staff, but the creature doesn't seem to react either way. Dolph swears in Dwarfish, making a sound not unlike gravel being thrown into a mill.
Dolph, being unarmed, will grab up any stick, chair leg, or cudgel he can find. If he can't find anything, he'll have to go with his trusty stompin' boots. In either event, he'll attack the nearest scorpion, while very briefly explaining: My shield is wedged in the mast. When I pull it, whole boat will collapse pretty quickly. Grab what we can and get out of here!
Dolph looks around quickly to see if there's anything of similar thickness that he can jam into the space where the shield is so that he both frees his shield and avoids destroying the boat. If he can't see anything, he'll step out of that room and find the others so that he can warn them before he pulls the shield.
That's great news. Thank you! That description of a wooden shield was back when I paying for it with minimum gold, before I found the "heirloom" trait.
Scott, I know I've already asked for a lot with this shield, but I had thought it would be a steel shield given that it's an heirloom and wooden shields don't generally survive more than a few battles. What do you think?
I'm not going to lie to you, says the dwarf. You're on the list. Dolph steps gingerly forward, not wanting to jar anything, and carefully attempts to lift the table off of Sasha just enough for her to scurry out.
If and when she's safely out from under the table, he then tries to get a quick read on how to extract his shield without the whole ship being destroyed in the process.
While Viridian is dealing with the cloth and the boat, Dolph and Aria head down to the kitchen to rescue the crew member, and if that doesn't take too long, we meet up with Viridian at the door of the supply room.
The way I've been handling it in other PBP games is that we establish Initiative order and then, in every round, individual players states their actions as "intentions." Then, the DM places those actions in order into a Round Summary post, making adjustments as necessary to take into account what's happened. You have to trust the DM to do things like resolve Attacks of Opportunity, but there will be a minimum of those in this game, and it's useful to post a couple of options if your actions are at all conditional on other things. It's also a bit of work for the DM, to be sure. I take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to make up a round summary when there are two full teams of characters on the (virtual) board, and you don't get the benefit, if you're late in the initiative order, to adjust your actions according to what's happened, although I kind of like that in a chaos-of-combat kind of way. It does mean, though, that everyone can post in whatever order they like, and we don't end up waiting on one player who was held up for some (usually quite legitimate) reason. If you don't manage to post that day, then your character simply does nothing for the round. That's what I've been doing and, as long as the DM is willing to put in the time, it works pretty well. That's just one suggestion. Anybody know of a better method?
My friends, Dolph calls out, I can see a lifeboat! He points. Viridian, can you get the cloth off the mast, as you say, and then tie to the lifeboat so it does not float away? I also see a way to the upper-decks. We can climb down. I hear someone in the... galley, I think, but there's also something snapping and clawing in the supply room--which is suck because there is probably supplies in there--and there's also captain's room and kitchen. We might need weapons for the thing in the supply room. I should have grabbed mein hammer. This ship is not going to be here much longer. The water will take it away. Aria, you come with me to the below-decks? We go to the galley first. The trapped one is first. If Aria and Viridian agree, then he and Dolph head down to the galley while Viridian deal with the cloth/scarf/rope.
Dolph gives a quizzical look to Viridian--although he very much likes the sound of Lord Targbanger--but then he shrugs and climbs down the rope to the deck. He steps gingerly, knowing that it's unstable, and he tries to listen for the voice that's still on-board.
Dolph ties the cloth to the crow's nest, looking for a spot of the wood that's still secure of course, and then throws the other end back to Aria. You swing down to the deck, and I will follow. Then we climb back up and get your cloth. Yes?
Dolph hears the commotion, spots the sea monsters, and then yells down to Aria. We must get back to the beach! The boat can wait. Don't come up. I'll come down!
If Dolph Makes The Jump: Dolph hustles across the cliff towards the beach, and yells to Aria on his way by: We'll get your cloth later! Dolph promises!
Dolph looks at the crow's nest again, trying to push the myth that Dwarves don't float out of his mind. He crouches and, not so much leaps but rather throws himself hurtling through the air. The top of the mast slams into his chest--that's going to leave a mark--and he drops down to the crow's nest with a thud followed by a series of shivers and creaks down the whole boat (or maybe that's just his imagination). If you can, now throw me your cloth and I will swing down...?
Dolph surveys the situation: the mast, the boat, the water. He cups his hands around his mouth and yells, as loud as he can, from the cliff: Does anybody have any rope?
Dolph synchs his belt and makes a decisive grunting noise (which is actually a complex expression in Dwarfish that translates roughly as The thing I have to do right now is more dangerous than anyone present will admit out of pride, but I will do it anyway because I have no choice, so I might as well treat it like I'm being heroic"). We Targbangers aren't swimmers, but I can climb a little, and I can take a fall if necessary. Let's get to it. And he trudges towards the cliffs, fully assuming that several people will follow him and aid in the task, but blissfully unaware that no one has moved yet.
A mule? He stairs at Viri's curled lip and visibly makes a decision All right. A mule then. I will definitely keep my eyes open for mule. Who is not green. But then, hearing Aria, he shouts Yes, yes! Let us venture back into that great beast and salvage what we can... and keep an eye out for my shield. A Gundatch shield. Circular, with a... Never mind. Dolph goes into the boat and grabs the biggest thing he thinks he can drag up the beach.
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