It has been fun. And see you all around : )
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Sounds like a plan. I hope it works out : )
Hmm. I like my character but I'm not sure she is the right one to pull this one forward. I *think*, bit sad as it seems, our best approach would be to put the game on ice and see if we want to pick it up come October (or whenever time allows again). Then we can fuzz a little with things, adjust the composition a little and maybe grab a few more people. Thoughts?
Hmm. I'm not sure... (In fact another game I'm in just opened the very same discussion!) From personal experience I know that it is possible to run a game very slowly. But that has also meant that it's so much harder to pay attention which is such a shame. I think I'm going to sleep a little on my thoughts and see if I can make up my mind.
Jhaelwyn sniffs the air and looks around at the bones. "Welcome to the pantry. Nothing alive? Good sign. The mantids idea of animal husbandry is that of a sailor; keep the dinner alive and fresh..."
She picks up one of the preserved pickaxes and inspects it. Her wild gaze lingers on the makers mark for a long while before she passes it around for the others to look. "These marks were on tools out of Hafton. Good quality too. Worth keeping in mind if we need craftsmanship." "But let's look a bit closer. The mantids don't value gold or trinkets and other looters wouldn't have come before us. Maybe for dinner. *snicker*"
"Eggshells and misery..." The sour elf mumbles and leads the way west.
So they don't like cold huh? I wonder how we can use this to our advantage - except obviously being more brazen at winter time. Maybe if we could get the Dragon to tickle a volcano or two to cause a volcanic winter? If we knew of it before hand we could stockpile food as well which would no doubt be valuable then!
"Yes we should probably freeze them. Chase the warmth from the land ..." The elf first mulls things over with herself then shares her conclusions (spoiler above). "Let me look for tracks. But I don't think so. Far too old, they aren't here now, just saving it for a freezing day..."
"Scorching heat and noxious fumes can be scratched from that list." Jhaelwyn notes with a coughing laugh.
"*Cough*" Jhaelwyn moves to cover her mouth with a strip of cloth. Then she glares at the eggs. "Did those blasted things hatch from here? Dumb minders; digging too deep and greedily. Or just moved here to incubate in the heat? Do they need warmth? What if we froze them all ..."
Jhaelwyn nods and mumbles only to herself for once. With spear and blade in hand she carefully creeps forward. She didn't expect any mantids to be still around - but they were sneaky blighters.
"No mantids right here and now. Other horrors? Can't say ... Oh surely a delightful surprise!" The elf carefully steps forward with her spears ready.
"It was hidden behind a fake wall? Oh you meant *other* then that?" The elf snarks but peers into the tunnel with a frown. She touches her preserved Mantid claw and sniffs the air, looking for any resonance (Using Seek Prey which is basically Detect Undead but Mantids instead).
"It's ... Strange. We should have a closer look. Carefully though ..."
Jhaelwyn's eyes narrowed and her lips curled into a small smile. She did love a good mystery. "I don't think mantids build hidden doors. But walls? Like bees? Te-he. Imagine that." She sobered up and started looking over her spears, selecting one that could serve as a drill. "We should be careful. It *could* be full of mantids on the other side. Nasty blighters..."
"Tar? Yes, it is supposed to be here. Nasty black tar. Don't touch. Or do. I have bandages and a knife. But there's supposed to be more... Somewhere. Or, hah, did the mantids eat it?" Jhaelwyn muses and takes careful steps, never moving closer to the tar then absolutely necessary. She had head that dragonfire was exceedingly painful - but boiling tar was probably pretty close.
"Yes." Jhaelwyn quickly turns back to the familiar comfort of the tunnel.
"No mantids here now. You can tell by the lack of screeching vermin... They certainly have been here, but the dirt and rock is unhelpful..." Jhaelwyn reported and glared at the pesky sun. "The mine looks to be in good shape. Except no miners of course ..."
The weather-bitten elf pulls her cloak closer to herself and cautiously approaches the cave. Her soft steps are barely audible, though that can't be said about her muttering. "Dumb mantids, where are you?"
Jhaelwyn recoils with a hiss and reaches for her spear. Though since the moment is fleeting she let's it go again. "Hmrhm." "I can take a look. A quick little look yes!"
"Hmm hmm" Jhaelwyn's eyes bounced between Gork and the tunnel entrance and back, no doubt also finding the problem Drekisal had noticed. "Can we - hmm - shrink you Gork?"
"The bricks and stones could be reshaped to a form more fitting. A fort? Or a statue of dead mantids. Hi-heh. That'd be nice ..." Jhaelwyn notes. "The mantids might thing they have devoured anything edible here and moved on to ripe hunting grounds. After all, there is little sense in staring at an empty bowl."
"Bury all our scraps so the mantids don't pick up the scent. Could be ... unfortunate. And hide our trail." Jhaelwyn suggests. "Carve some stakes at camp, make a defensible position. Yess let them impale themselves! We have to work quietly though..."
I think it's the one at JJ15 (look at the grid map). Might also be HH18 but that one is further away.
I'll just count those craft-rolls as her future projects then. Seems easier that way : )
"It takes time, but there are enough doses for now. More then enough. We have many sacks left to work on as well. Maybe we should use it to poison the mantids? Eh-heh." "I am not sure my large eared companion. Or should I have used round? But that might confuse them with a human. Hmm. But they should breathe and everything breathing fears smoke. Except dragons. But they're not one and the same.."
So that's 15 shiny new doses. I assumed that we have used that many to inoculate our soliders and ourselves in our previous battle - so we're back where we started. I'll keep better track of the doses used from now on. On the bright side the mantid stew looks surprisingly edible ^^
Since we had a week let's say Jhaelwyn was busy making those venom sacks into antivenom at the speed of 1 per day.
Additionally since we haven't found a useful way to utilize the perishable mantid bits she'll happily throw a profession:chef roll into the mix and cook a "delicious" feast out of those :P
"A mine? Our mine. Mine. Heh. That will do nicely."
"The Nodes I will do for free. I graciously only require the joy of watching mantides explode. A-hah!" Jhaelwyn swallows a laugh. "All the traps are quick to deploy. The grunts can do it. The less bright one might have a few less fingers at the end of the week, but that was bound to happen anyway."
I think the intact venom sacs are used for that, though I'm not sure if I've seen a specific ratio. But the antivenom stash do sound like something we would want to keep in the sheet in the "party" slot just so we know how much we have.
Oh and just to add to the barrage of posts - if there's some more loot I have missed feel free to add it. Ditto if there's something in the sheet you want to add! Or if there's something that isn't working do tell me : ) Cheers and happy easter! Even if you don't care, I hope you are somewhere where it at least earns you a day off ^^
Aight! Added the mantid bits. As you can see, most of them are "rotting bits" which only really lasts 2 days after harvest. I'm going to remove them in a week ooc or so, but I thought I might as well include them here if someone wanted to craft something! Harvest Parts (Item Creation) You can extract the choicest parts from a monster’s carcass to use as resources when crafting items. "Prerequisite(s): Craft (any) 1 rank or Heal 1 rank. Benefit(s): You can attempt a Craft or Heal check, as though making a trophy, to gain usable resources from a creature that has been dead for less than an hour. Only creatures with a CR of 1 or higher yield usable parts. The value of the parts you harvest is equal to the creature’s CR squared × 10 gp (increases to CR derived from class levels or templates do not contribute to this value). This value can be used only as raw materials for crafting alchemical, masterwork, mundane, or magic items. Items crafted using creature parts must be made of a suitable material—typically bone or hide, with metal only in extraordinary cases. No more than a quarter of a crafted item’s cost can be supplied with harvested parts. Harvested parts remain usable for 2 days before they rot (unless used to craft objects or somehow preserved). Creature parts that are harvested in this manner can’t be bought or sold in most settlements." Re-posted the source-feat. Note the bolded bit; so we probably can't make use of all the rotting bits since we probably don't have enough regular bits. Question @GM) Do you read that as "a quarter of the finished cost" aka "half the cost can be icky bits" or "a quarter of the crafting cost" aka "a quarter of the cost can be icky bits"? Question @Team) Do you have any small objects you'd like to make during the two days after the first raid? If so feel free to use up the rotting bits at whatever rate GM decides : ) Oh and don't forget the option to make cheap personal scrolls! I'm thinking of looking up how much gold Jhaelwyn actually have left and make some Bear Traps or something if I can. Feels good to snare the mantids with their own claws :D
Another idea is to get a bunch of grunts with reach weapons and combat reflexes. But that's probably for the future still! Link to loot-sheet! I'll go through it and see how much material we managed to scavenge from the mantids and add it there for now : )
"Magic is good. Yes. Clever for an ogre? Yes!. And traps; maybe magic traps? Those are fun... Bear traps, caltrops and Nodes of Blasting. Those are *really* fun. Deploy them in front of the troops and pepper the scum with arrows." Jhaelwyn grinned widely and gesticulated wildly, first going through the motions of setting traps and then wringing her hands in glee. The thought of dead mantids really appealed to the elf. She has some suggestions as to do after they have slain the pesky bugs. "And we shall bring poison; tasteless poison. Poison the bodies left behind for a second harvest of mantids."
My posting time was a bit squished this Easter. Though I'll make up for it by fixing that sheet tomorrow :-)
I'm thinking that it might be worth setting up a google sheets spreadsheet to keep track of loot and such. Would that be something you guys are interested in as well : )?
Jhaelwyn sharpens her arrows, spears and then knives. And then again. Being confined to a cosy camp wasn't bad, but she longed for the hunt again.
"Caltrops to break their charge? Or a puddle of grease maybe. Pits and traps and snares would be nice!" Jhaelwyn speculates in how to cut down their casualty rate. The thought of the annoying bugs rushing into traps filled her wit glee. Killing mantids was a fun job after all!
We could just dump Surtur at basecamp and every time you decide something you just have to phrase it as "Surtur said" or something. And then we really don't have to bother with if it is actually true or not because it's all coming trough his trusty kobold oracle :D
"Mm..." Jhaelwyn softly hums to herself as she cleans her tools and packages the last of the scavenged bits.
Mm spell research. Could the harvested parts from the feat be used to pay for spell research? And I'll try my best to pay homage when I can of course :D
"But let's leave a little for them. A nice little gift ahah..." Jhaelwyn grinned widely and briefly touched one of the dead mantids and channeled magic into it. "Don't touch this one! Or maybe you should? It could be a valuable lesson ... It's a gift for the hungry mantids!"
Burning them could be an idea though I'm slightly worried that they then will try and track down and eat the tasty bits we took with us. Maybe burn the most of them and leave a few as distraction? And I'm sure there's some way to make an edible tracking device in Pathfinder!
I'm okay with NPC Surtur but Drekisal calling the shots. Seems like a working arrangement! Or someone re-rolling if they want. Though I myself like Jhaelwyn and no responsibilities :P --- Also it seems like the mantids will happily cannibalize themselves. Might be worth investing in some ingested poison in the future? We could try and weaken the mantids for future hunts.
"We shouldn't linger too long. They will soon be back. And in greater numbers. Maybe we should lace the bodies with poison? First we'd need to brew it ..." Jhaelwyn offers as she gathers together the diced bits and wraps them tightly in mildly scented cloth. "They are a hungry race and will happily eat their dead. Their living too if needed... Better they feast on the carcasses then us!"
"We shall. But for now ... Let's get to the best part! The juicy bits yess"! Jhaelwyn grinned and readied her favorite mantid-carving knife. Sword. Saw? Something!
Hmh. Might be worth considering recruiting someone for the leadership role. Thoughts? Or maybe just bow down to our kobold overlord :P
So! So hopefully the Mantids individual CR is 1 or more :P Whiiich might be doubtful. But if it is we can try and make something fun out of them. Anyone want a new hat :P?
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