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"Ow! Well, THAT won't do! Why don't you go sit down . . .." Ionatan Attempts to skewer one of the goblins by the "wall."
But it appears he's to have no luck at that . . .. Opportune Parry & Riposte:
Panache of 3 if triggered.
"On it!" Nate comes in through the "swept" path, putting his foot in Way's hands as he attempts to go over the barricade.
Nate keeps his mouth shut, and moves to be ready to move through the cleared space once they finish clearing that path. Pulling himself into the corner on the other side of the door, he waits, for now.
No, I have n planned actions, nor taunts, for the goblins while we wait.
"How long can you keep that cloud up? We could use the concealment as time to help clear a path."
Ionatan looks at Way with obvious disdain. "It is a defensive position. They aren't coming after us, they are simply trying to keep us out." Nate moves to avoid a direct line of sight between himself and the defenders.
"Let's give a look to the left!"
As long as the group's okay with waiting for me to post in the weekday evenings, I could. But I'll post pretty late most days.
"So, THAT was exciting. Everybody still have your innards inside?"
Nate starts to move to help with the second combat, but finds himself looking at a green cloud his associates are avoiding, so he draws up short. "Uh, is it safe to come help?"
With Bry having cleared the path, Ionatan goes to assist Way, moving to the skeleton not already iWay's face, trying to prevent him from having to face two ways. He pulls up short at the last moment, though, recognizing the grease on the floor.
"No, Way!" Seeing his companion under such threat, Ionatan has to do something to help get him past it. Desperate, he tries to squirt past the skeleton blocking the doorway.
Either way, the young swashbuckler prepares a Parry and Riposte against the next incoming attack!
As Way goes into the previously hidden space, Ionatan moves up and looks in, without entering. "An altar? Whose it to? I would expect some kind of dragon relation, gven how everything else has gone in here, ya know?"
"Dwarf's got them, of course." --- "I would have figured the fountain would supply water. What's this, then?" --- "No, Way, do . . .. Not till we're ready to move on, man."
"Really? Rat rats, or R.O.U.S.s?"
He shrugs. Draconic:
"We'll give it a try. If the goblins are as numerous as would be required to create trouble for a group so plentiful and powerful, though, our numbers may not be sufficient for your task."
He even manages to sound mostly like he isn't being patronizing. Mostly.
He turns to the group. "If we agree to try to return their dragon, they'll send Meepo with us to track down their goblin opponents and find our lost Deverins. If we don't, they won't help at all, and might well find ways to complicate our efforts. Might."
The young noble responds in Draconic. Draconic: "You want me to say that we might do something? Okay, we might. We are here looking for some other adventurers. People that spoke with you, Meepo told us. What we might do becomes far more agreeable if we are returning a favor."
"Wait, we're going to work with the kobolds to get them their dragon back? Are we sure that's a good idea? As close as we are to people just trying to live their lives?"
He's not drawing blade and trying to execute Meepo, but he pretty clearly thinks this is a bad idea . . ..
That said, I would suspect your game mastery is tiers beyond my own. Meaning I believe your worst character is probably more efficient than most people's strongest. Thank you for the compliment. The reality is that some of my favorite characters have huge weaknesses, and manage (with help, of course) to find success regardless. Mechanical munchkin is easy, really. Personalities are harder. Accepting poor mechanical build choices to match the personality usually makes for more fun, but requires a lot of trust.
"Rocks! That's it! I don't know the ACTUAL trail signs, but there's the whole trail language about how rocks are stacked along the trail. We could put a stack of rocks on the right side of each doorway we go through. Four together on the bottom and one on top, you think? Needs to be the same at each doorway."
I can work with most campaign styles, it is just easier when I know the style first, so Ican build a character to the environment. Nate here's more at home in social and urban settings than wilderness or dungeon crawls. But I understood the "grab a hook and see what you get" concept. That SOP works, too.
"I don't think it has been that complicated, yet, but I do get your point. I don't have any chalk or such, though."
"An undying ancient red dragon? What are you getting into, cousins?" ---- Looking down the recently exposed hallway, Ionatan puts a hand up to keep the others from moving forward. "Is the dust on the ground disturbed? If no one has been through here, we're not likely to find our charges going that way."
"Hmm?" Realizing those investigating had decided to open another door, Ionatan moves into position, blade ready. "And through Door number three, we have . . .."
Nah. I just tend to sit back and let others have fun poking and prodding if they seem to be enjoying it. Trying to open a door this way just isn't really Ionatan's style, ya know? FOR THE RECORD: That is NOT a complaint, or a request to change how things are being run! It is simply a note about the character. I have other characters who would be all over trying these doors, or trying to draw everything they see. Just not this one. <grin>
"We're looking for living, breathing people. If they are dead, well, we can check those spaces later. Let's move on."
Sitting at the end of the scree slide, Ionatan takes a few moments to collect himself, carefully NOT looking over the side at the fall he could have taken. As he starts bringing his pack around to reach inside of it, Dario tosses him the end of a rope. "Thank you." Loud enough to be heard, but far more subdued than you are used to from Ionatan about pretty much anything. After working his way back out of the hole, he carefully coils and binds the rope before handing it back to Dario.
Last night I posted before making dinner, tonight I post just before going to bed. Sorry about the wait. Thank you for doing the "this is easy" mechanics and trying to move the story along for everybody.
Ionatan begins scrambling over the debris, but the loose arm strap from his pack catches on something, and he gets pulled over sideways as he tries to move forward.
Quick marching order thoughts for everyone else to abuse Dario
Dario
(Nate and Bry could swap of course)
"I'm good, Way, thank you for asking." He gives the dwarf a confused look as he describes his perceived beauty of this continually sinking keep. When Bryndis provides the contradictory opinion, he quietly notes "Bry, you are absolutely not wrong, but, for now, I guess it is our little dump. We should try to adopt Muzy's optimistic take if we can." He gathers his things, hanging his pack over one shoulder so it will be easier to drop if something else happens.
"Let's be honest, the people we were sent to find were part of that first adventuring party! Simplifies things if you don't think we're looking for a third, well, fourth, group." Ionatan hesitates for a second, then points at the dwarves before adjusting his count. "I'm Ionatan. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, especially under the 'dire' circumstances, as it were." The wink doesn't make the pun any better, but it does assure you that it was intentional.
The swashbuckler looks to continue his attempt at a rapid descent, hoping to have a chance to skewer one of these annoyances in exchange for the trouble of reaching them . ..
Once on the deck, Ionatan goes to skewer an annoynace.
"By the barrel's dregs!" The young swashbuckler almost leaps onto the rope, skipping both the climbing gear and the belay rope, as he hurries down in something close to a controlled fall (but hopefully JUST safer).
No need to, but sometimes I use a Shadowrun translator for Elvish, and sometimes I use a Tolkien translator. And sometimes I just put other languages in a spoiler without a translation. If I'm doing translator postings, I am always at home taking my time with the post. But, yes, you should do what you think is entertaining and fun, not what we do (or do not).
The amount of material that has been published provides literal mountains of things I haven't seen. Not all of it is worth seeing, of course. That's a different problem. But, yeah, I thought I recognized this as an intro module from one iteration or another when we saw the sketches. A quick Google about the (very) little I remember came up with the name for the module I'm thinking of: The Sunless Citadel, from 2000. Don't worry about digging for new on my behalf. The story we build together will be new and is the part that matters. How many times have you seen The Princess Bride? Does that keep you from watching it again? Same kind of thing.
I'm fine with it. I would also be fine with tackling this dungeon (which looks familiar to me, of course) with just the 4 of us, even without adjusting to have a Trapfinder, but, then, Ionatan likes to live dangerously. <grin> Because we're working with an episodic presentation, it would be easy enough to recruit replacement players between episodes. Big scary things like APs, obviously, provide other points in the story where that would work pretty naturally. As far as Gestalt goes, it gets addicting. A Fighter/Swashbuckler gestalt can swap out Fighter for Duelist when possible. Combining Duelist levels with the more advanced Deeds gets pretty ugly pretty quickly. True Gestalt produces more powerful characters. It just does. Some really good combinations lose out on capability because of action economy (Wizard & Sage Sorcerer). Other options that just feel right actually end up sourcing the same ability from both sides, or stacking abilities that are meant to be duplicative that have different names and implementations (Paladin of Irori and Monk combo has both of these issues). Gestalt can be fun. Not what I had in mind here, though I could adapt easily enough.
Well, pooh. Nobody likes to see this happen, but, at the end of the day, nobody likes feeling stuck in a game they aren't enjoying. Given that we knew there would be multiple hooks, and our choice would determine what kind of adventure we ended up in, I'm not sure about expecting one type of adventure over another. To me, writing can take place within any adventure, if the group wants to have that kind of game. Some adventure types do lend themselves to less writing very easily, though, and dungeon crawl is one of that type.
Unable to resist the ribbing, Ionatan looks Bryndis in the eyes. "You could just ask us to give you some time alone with Ceru. I'm sure we would all be happy to oblige without needing all this rigamarole." "But, honestly, if we're going to lower one set of gear down, why not lower them all down. Send, say, the first two of us down, then the gear, then the rest?" He follows along with the plan.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to tie him up over there? Further from the road, closer to water . . .."
Pulling my pack off the donkey and carrying it is going to encumber me, as well. But I pretty much have to. I mean, I can leave behind a few things (Why does everyone need an iron pot?), but that will just change how far into the encumbrance level I am, not being there. So, in any encounter that matters, my first action is going to need to be dropping the pack, because too many of my class abilities don't work when encumbered. <shrug>
Okay, trying to understand the intent, here . . .. Any time a character receives positive energy healing, via a cure spell of channel energy, the character rolls a Con saving throw. The DC is 10 + the level of spell/ability used. If you make the DC, the character is healed and makes a small but audible burp. If you don't make the DC, the character is healed and makes a loud, almost obnoxious belch. If you fail the DC by 5, the character is healed, and makes a loud, almost obnoxious belch, and takes 1 point of nonlethal damage. If you fail the DC by more than 5, the character is healed, and makes a loud, almost obnoxious belch, takes 1 point of nonlethal damage and is sickened for one round. CON SAVE - Do you mean a Fort Save, or a Con attribute check? Because a Con attribute check is going to be failed more often than made at higher levels. DC10 + level of ability/spell used - So HEAL is a DC 16 Con attribute check or something goes wonky? And the failed attribute check can leave the individual with a condition the Heal spell specifically clears from the target? Is a Level 17 caster using channel (for 9 dice of healing) using a level 1 ability, or a level 17 ability, or a level 9 ability? This proposal explicitly makes the more powerful healing spells more problematic instead of more beneficial.
I'm currently actually sick. Fluid coming out of both sides kind. Maybe that has reduced my comprehension, but I couldn't keep up with the assortment of desired responses to being healed. Complicating healing isn't flavor. Flavor doesn't alter mechanics. Making it so that one of the purely positive mechanical items in the game is suddenly not purely positive is a very significant change to game balance.
Ionatan adjusts his position, moving to relieve pressure from the less capable women in the group, trusting that Bry's got herself sorted. "You good, Way?"
Opportune Parry & Riposte:
"Ahhhhh! What in the name of Cayden's droppings is THAT! Ow, you little &@$*#!"
"But I don't chop wood! Not how I fight!" Ionatan goes to stand before trying to perform the least functional attack possible against these things, poking it with a pointy stick.
"Now, you're not going to do that so easily again . . .." Opportune Parry and Riposte:
All the food conversation started after I went to bed, and I just got online tonight, so . . .. Bought a Swashbuckler's Kit, and plan to just hang the pack on the donkey. (Not that he can do that after we climb down the rope . . ..) Ionatan needs to stay light on his feet.
"Let's camp well away from the edge. Don't want anyone falling in by accident, and we don't want a fire to draw the attention of anything down there which we might want to surprise tomorrow."
Works, but it looks like the final watch doesn't fight very well. <grin>
"Evidence they went down, at least. I say we camp up here and rest, being at our best when we start the climb in the morning. Are we doing 3 or 4 watches? I'll take one in the middle either way.
One of my favorites is GROSSLY expensive for what it does, but it is SO MUCH NICER for the player. A Quiver enchanted with a permanent Abundant Ammunition. 3#. Mandatory that it holds only mundane ammunition, but it never runs empty. Ever. A high-level Fighter (Rapid Shot and Manyshot) can throw 6 shafts downrange a round. No normal quiver is going to last 4 rounds. Fancy back-width quivers might make it 10 or maybe 13 . . .. Not that it is up Ionatan's alley. |
