Whenever there's game I especially want in on, I feel obligated to expand more on the eternal question of "Are you a good fit?" It seems, to me, that this is most important when entering into a standing party. Hence, I think that there are two fronts to this particular answer:
Why I'm a good fit as a character:
I touched on this in my Philosophy spoiler, but I always thought it was important that a character can do two things: That is, to deal damage, and to mitigate and/or heal damage.
The Light Cleric seems to be a very good answer to that. Not only can it heal damage with all the aplomb of any cleric, but it also has access to two of the best offensive spells in the game. Fireball is, of course, the gold standard of attack spells, and that answers the Crowd Control question. On the reverse side of that coin is Faerie Fire. It works on crowds, true, but it's just as fine if the party is facing one large boss. It's a wonder how quickly something can go from scary to not-scary once all attacks are at Advantage.
So too, I took Inspired Leader, which, at level 6 with a minor Charisma and 6 party members, accounts for 42 points of damage that we just don't have to worry about. That's like an extra 6 1st level Cure Wounds spells that everyone starts with.
Lastly is the 6th level Light power, where I get to Flare but for other people. The Big Bad Booty Daddy just got a crit on you? No, he didn't. =-D
Why I'm a good fit as a player:
With over 15,000 posts you know I'm not going anywhere. ^_^ Also, I've found that I myself prefer to recruit people with GM experience, and I'm GMing a Savage Worlds Rifts game right now. (I'm always looking for players, if anyone is interested.)
And as far as notable posts, well, someone called me their MVP forever.
(Heh. Of note, I almost went with Noble Background with Retainers and the Chef feat and I'd cook up a storm for the party. But after the whole Necro kerfuffle I tossed it as being to "fiddley".)
'Wow. This is _really_ good scuttlefish,' Isagoras thinks. 'And I greatly admire the cut of that squire's jib. He's certainly going to go places. Especially with that hot-betty of a wife,' Isagoras muses while Karl fills in his erstwhile master.
"Then you'd think he'd at last thank us for the favor instead of marking us for future inconvenience," Isagoras remarks as they make their way back up.
"Can it do what it says it can? Oh, I believe so. But will it? I would fall to the old hat of Occam's Razor on this one. That is, if it wanted to kill us, and it seemed to say that, and it _could_ kill us, wouldn't it have?
I'd presume that it as yet lacks the power it needs to become corporeal. Hence, no, we are not in immediate danger."
Isagoras greets Charles Martel and his wife and explains that the noises were just the common fauna that inhabit such shadowed places, but as all returned un-killed, as is well that ends well.
"Mind you, we've still not completed our mission here. Shall we anon, or should we rest a moment to lunch and gather our wits?"
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Isagoras uncharacteristically yells, hoping to stay Wolfram's hand. "Wolfram, hold a moment."
His friend so forewarned, he turns to the fog-human. "We are those that did not even meant to be here. We are in this swampland looking for something much different than your childe. Whence we came across thy offspring we simply took it as another of the myriad swamp-dwellers that we must needs negotiate by or else risk it coming for our own necks.
With that said, can you, in your obvious and acknowledged wisdom, really say that this was a good plan? To place all thy hopes and plans for this 'new beginning' upon a thing that was slain by what amounts to innocent bystanders? Is it truly worth thy while to enact punishment upon a beast that kills your pet by what amounts to happenstance? Ha! You should be thankful! We have saved you, O, great amounts of time and energy that would otherwise be invested in what appears to be a plan made of sand and built on a house of cards! No thanks are necessary."
Isagoras strokes his beard.
"So too, even if you do not believe what I say that the base of your 'new beginning' was not a greatly fragile being that would only have disappointed you when you needed them most--a statement that can be made about children in general, methinks--and hold that it was, in truth, a being of both great power and great promise...then do you truly think it wise to attempt to strike out against its slayers?
Are you so well ensconced in thy position that you have power to throw away against those CAPBABLE of overcoming so puissant a beasts? Are we, in that light, the kind of enemies you want to make? If we stand victors over a thing you say is not weak, but rather very strong, how do you even know you would be victorious in a struggle betwixt us?
I would council that you simply chalk this up to lessons learned and let us be about our way. And if not? Well then my pious mace-wielding friend is all to eager to see the test of thy mettle!
Before answering, Isagoras wracks his brain, searching for any kind of clue that would tell him what it is that has suddenly appeared before them.
Common Knowledge!:1d4 ⇒ 4 Common Knowledge ACE!!:1d4 ⇒ 4 O what is this nonsense?!?!!:1d4 ⇒ 4 I KNOW! I KNOW EVERYTHING! I AM EVERYTHING!!!:1d4 ⇒ 3 WILD Common Knowledge!!:1d6 ⇒ 5
I was thinking about Lowering its toughness, but it gets a free roll to shake off the effects, and this thing has shown Wild Card class traits AND a resistance to magic, so that wouldn't be much bang for the buck. Boosting someone's trait for 5 rounds will be more effective.
What IS interesting is a Power Modifier that everyone should be adding to Bolt, which is Armor Piercing. For 1 PP, you can give -anything- 2AP. And you can do this up to 3PP. If we're casting Bolt, we should use that.
Having been shaken to his core, Isagoras attempts to steel his inner resolve.
Spirit for Shaken!:1d6 ⇒ 5 WILD Spirit for Shaken!:1d6 ⇒ 5
Recovering his wits, he intones, "The beast does not seem like the sharpest spear in the armory. Let me try to frazzle its primitive brain-stem and see if we can not seek victory in its...confusion!"
In all his years never had he so much as read about so dire a Lovecraftian monstrosity. This, combined with his innate high estimation of the abilities of the iron golems so wisely steered past so recently, makes for a heady atmosFEAR. Already quite stunned to his core from seeing The Chair, all his arcane power fails him as his mind reels from something that surely can not be.
"Oh by Propoket, Imrael, and Dargor the Shadowlord this is a device of unsurpassed evil!" Isagoras blurts out as the nefarious instructions are slowly comprehended. He is a man who knows evil, who has -studied- evil, but this? Something so at once detailed and deliberate to bring suffering on so a sublime as well as scientific scale is something that shakes even his iron will.
"By the Order I am tempted to belay all our actions and bring this thing to a destruction, whatever destruction can be had to it as quickly as can be had!
Charles, you can not let me forget about this thing. Once our current task can be set aside, we must needs bring this thing to an utter ruin. And if I find any member of any civilization that can be tied to this things usage...O, woe betide them!"
"Thy will, my hands," Charles Martel rumbles in response.
"It would appear that, yes, there is something new. And only through change may we learn things. So, yes, let us go see what new change our actions hath wrought."
Seeing no reason to backtrack, Isagoras goes up through the opposite side of the chamber.
1) What are the stats for the Men OWar! at Arms? I didn't write them down and I can't find them.
2) I did a burst because I meant to catch them both, and since he failed his smarts test, I believe that attack from the croc is at -2 (Distracted). Depending on what the hirelings parry is that might matter. (Or it might not. I'm fully willing to concede the point that maybe the attack should have missed, but didn't, and now we just need to roll with it and don't worry about it 'cause the GM will get us back later, bro. =)
3) Yes. If an attacks Raises, you only get a max of the single d6.
4) Is damage a Trait roll? If so, it is also affected by Distracted. (Also, if the Croc is also Vulnerable, we get +2 to hit it.)
"I would that we either exit this room forthwith, or else try to destroy the statues--taking out a knee on each, I should think.
Many are the stories that speak of statues coming to life, as some kind of trap for the unwary.
I would much like to not see these particular ones come to life. So too, if they are as benign as rocks, I do not think any would want to look upon them for pleasure as they are, at any rate."
Apologies. This has been an especially nutso week, keeping me almost entirely offline.
Isagoras runs his eyes over the pillar and wall, his head nodding sagely in confirmation of what the halfling has stated.
"This is, of course, quite impossible. Bone does not form in dimensions long enough to be used as walling material. However, with such gruesome rites, one can not imagine what horrible magicks can be summoned and played with like fools dancing about a volcano's rim.
That the ivory seems to play a role in this awful ritual makes me want to take it with us, this depriving the shrine of its power, but we can tarry on that until we are ready to be quits with this place."
"Ah-HA!" Isagoras cries as his shield and rapier hold the towering horror at bay. "I am not so easily buffeted! And I can sting you with the greatest ease. Like this!" he cries, tossing out an energy bolt at his attacker.
"Hrmmmm," Isagoras says like a smart person would as he stares in a smart way at the etchings. "Hrmmmmm," he says, musing it over like the smart person he totally is.
'Yaaaa, I got nuthin,' he thinks thinkfully. 'Wait a minute, didn't Anya have a tatto like this? That's right. And I spent a month sneaking into the Master of Tongues private books looking for a way in to her Chamber of Secrets.'
"I believe one of the ancient tomes I have perused may have some insight into this...."
Isagoras spent some time pondering the task. He like to pride himself that he knew everything there was to know about everything. But, alas, when it came to the base skills of carpentry and logging, he had to admit that, useful as these things might be now, he did not relish the time and effort it would take to make something navigable.
"Hrmm. Aye, beseems the safer and more sure bet would be to simply walk around."
Charles and his wife, also eager to test their mettle against foreign threats, did not relish the hot, hard work of felling trees and lashing them together, only to face the grim prospect of having the lot come apart due to some unforseen swamp threat and dumping them all in the much as reward for their efforts.
Marching was easy. No reason to shirk from it now.
A great many questions buzzed in Isagoras' mind. Chief among them was how the reproduced without males. Indeed, if they only have one sex, how do they even know they are all females? Why bother with the word if there is no distinction? And how do the eggs get fertilized if there is no way to....
All this curiosity mingled with a mild hint of arousal. He had always considered the idea of a lizardfolk mate an attractive option, as they were so close to being human. However, learning that they had no use for males seemed to dampen the prospect. Still, if they were to be seen what a real man can do....
Realizing that none of this would be helpful to the matter at hand, and that if he started talking there would be no way to stop, he simply nodded at Moves and Wolfram.
"Hopefully without the more belligerent members, those that flee and survive will learn more peaceful ways," he mused.
Isagoras had had some raw steaks in his life, but those had at least -seen- fire, and had been accompanied by salt and sauces well flavored.
He sighs internally and fills his leaf with two fish (acceptable) a goodly amount of fruit of whatever kind, with a few he even recognizes...and brace of the small lizards, securing them by their tails so they don't squirm away.
Bracing himself, and bowing to the reality that he'll need to eat these first before they run off, he pops them into his mouth and starts chewing before he has time to reconsider.
Vigor!:1d6 ⇒ 4
Surprisingly they go down well, their natural flavor being something of a combination of chicken and frog legs.
He chokes them down, bones and all, and rewards himself by tucking into the fruit.
Martina nods a number of times at Isagoras' tale, especially when he tells her about clearing out the Haunted House.
"My order had heard about the haunted house on the coast but never investigated. We tend not to involve ourselves in the machinations of undead, unless they present a greater threat to the community. The ghosts in the house always seemed to keep to themselves. Our focus is more on the various tribes of humanoids that make their home in this area."
"You are correct in assuming that a bear a heavy burden. A few of my companions and I were investigating the lizardfolk in the nearby Hool Marshes. In the past they largely stayed in their swampy home and rarely bothered the good people of the Salt River valley. This changed several months ago when a large group of lizardfolk warriors ambushed a caravan between Saltmarsh and Kimberton. The Baron's men stepped up their patrols along the trade road, but the Wardens of the Stag decided it was time to speak with the chief of the lizardfolk. We had treated with him in the past and felt he would hear us out. We were terribly wrong."
"A group of a half-dozen of us traveled along the secret swamp paths only we know, around the Frostfens, skirting the territory of the Great Wyrm Nuzyandrus, but we were ambushed a half-day from the main lizardfolk settlement. There were more than 20 of them, and they came at us in waves until each of Wardens fell before me. When I realized none of us would survive unless I ran for my life, I tucked my tail and escaped. I only barely managed to reach Sandpoint yesterday, and I plan to drown my sorrow in the brown ale until it is the end of me."
The ranger then sighs and looks down at her beer.
`Did Martina lie to us?' he thinks, silently shocked by this turn.
Isagoras simply nods at the father's plan. He knows it's impossible to dissuade the man once he's got a bit on the bridle, and it's always easier to talk -before- fighting anyway.
At least he's willing to back up his offers of diplomacy with his own actions. Nothing is more grating than someone who wants to do diplomacy but is wholly inept at it.
"Indeed indeed! Methinks we must needs just go until we no longer see markers of a macabre nature and thusly go around nature that is not in a spoiled state."
General Knowledge!:1d4 ⇒ 4 General Knowledge ACE!!:1d4 ⇒ 4 General Knowledge ACE ACE!!!:1d4 ⇒ 3 = 11
WILD General Knowledge!:1d6 ⇒ 1
Isagoras had long studied the more common enemies that would encountered in the field, and this stand of tribal iconology was easily discerned.
"This is a marker placed by ogres in order to delineate their territory. A whole tribe, by the looks.
Mind you, from the look of the other rocks, it seems there are two tribes of ogres here that are fighting over territory. The moss-covered rocks seem to be from one tribe, while the blood-spattered ones are from another.
Very odd.
Though, this would indicate the large footprints are from an ogre.
I would want to hunt them down and vanquish them, but, that is not our mission, and I know how we shirk at that sort of thing."
Isagoras grumbles into his beard as he makes his way with some difficulty through the wetlands.
"Does anyone else find it odd that the greenskins made off with the two menfolk? From what I had thought of lizardmen is that they would kill men but take women captive for nefarious purposes.
For a warband to march off two able-bodied human men without killing them first all but defies the senses."
I have no skill at scouting so I can't speak to that.
