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Well, I had submitted Kalig as possibly filling either role, as she's a good all around support character. There are probably more efficient healers than she is but she can do the job. Still, would have been nice to know earlier or I would have submitted the other option I mentioned. I don't have time right now to change my character though.
This is DeathQuaker, I'm going ahead and submitting Kalig here. There's probably still a few tweaks I need to make on the sheet, but she generally should be set. Tweaked some equipment and fixed some math errors.
This is DeathQuaker, I'm going ahead and submitting Kalig here. There's probably still a few tweaks I need to make on the sheet, but she generally should be set.
Okay, now that I've read the GM's pushback in the game thread: I brought up the point of "please don't assume consent" not due to the specific details of that moment but because you are increasingly pushing the boundaries of assuming what a player's character does or says "in the interests of moving things along." I completely, as a GM and longtime PBP player, understand wanting to keep things moving. However you absolutely can do that without describing what somebody else's PC does or says. You can choose to describe a scene without inferring a PC's thoughts or actions while still moving things forward through your own NPCs' actions or asking the players questions. Furthermore, this is play by post. We are not in a rush. There is in fact time to ask a question on occasion and wait for an answer. If you do the damage first by making an assumption you shouldn't and just hope a player THEN says, "I don't like this," that doesn't undo the damage you did. Doesn't it make more sense just to ask first and avoid the damage in the first place? Yes, it takes a little more time. But if common courtesy and promptness are in conflict, my preference is to err on the side of courtesy. You can ALSO make choices about what you do and don't describe while remembering you are in a globally public room full of strangers of a potentially wide variety of ages, cultures, and experiences. You chose to write the scene you did. Shelyn and the priest you made up didn't force you to write it that way. You could have chosen to describe a moment of no touching and a rush of light and the scent of roses, which also would have been entirely appropriate for the religion. You chose to describe something in a way that seemed explicitly intent on making it dance along lines of acceptable behavior. You chose to describe something your own prose suggests you KNEW could be uncomfortable (Your words: "Their position held a certain intimacy, one the druid wasn't convinced was entirely necessary.") You chose this. Furthermore, you know not just from my application to this game, but also in the last game you and I are in together is that all I ask is people talk to me first before they describe affection or intimate action regarding my character. I am absolutely 100% certain I am not unreasonable in making that request, given we are in a public space among total strangers. In before: why don't I send this message as a PM? To invite fellow players to a conversation about what they find acceptable in terms of assumed action on the part of. They may all indeed disagree with me, but I feel like we as players should collectively have a say about what is and isn't assumed about our actions. I would like to give this game a chance and stick with it, as I really like the player group and I like the emphasis on character interaction and development. I am however increasingly worried that I and my own character are going to increasingly lose agency. Are we in a collaborative game together, or are we just passive participants in the development of your fan fiction? So should I give this game another chance or should I just leave now?
Yes, I do think we all went over together, so by all means, Danton, stir it up. (Kalig's not arguing with him as she wants to get healed.)
Kalig, absolutely not taking the free (relatively speaking) offer of healing for granted, does her best to stay silent and still during the Shelynite's ritual. But she involuntarily snorts--loudly--at the rather generous description of "not a conventional beauty." Kalig is by any standards significantly homely, at least purely on a physical level. Not so much mountain or storm, but more algae on bubbling swamp mud. She is sort of proud of this. She likes her too wide jaw and too close eyes and jutting crooked teeth and black eyes and sun-spotted grey flesh. She knows she will be remembered. But she recognizes the priest seeing her as a part of a force of nature, which she certainly accepts. As such she does her best to regain her composure. She is too amused, however, to take note of the specifics of his spellcraft--or perhaps it just looks too different from her druidic practics to make sense of it. The kiss on the forehead is a bit much, particularly given that a true goddess of love or her servant would confirm enthusiastic consent to receive affection. A mischievous part of her wants to ask the elf if he'd like to cuddle now he was done, but she manages instead, "Thank you. You might want to wash your face, though; I have been literally covered in rat shit all day." She allows that to sink in, and adds. "I will repay you as soon as I am able." She nods to the others. "Thanks for your patience. Perhaps a bath before we go to the noblewoman's house for dinner?"
One of Kalig's eyebrows raises higher and higher as he rants at her. Once she's sure he's finished, she simply nods at him and says, "Okay." She's not sure where he got the idea she was fussy; she was just providing standard care for infection and fever the same as anyone taught field medicine would do. If it makes him feel better by giving up dibs on the healing spell, she is certainly not going to complain. At an opportune moment, she too compliments Albin on the roses. "They clearly appreciate your attentions." She gives him a rare, approving nod. "I have always appreciated roses as a sign of nature's force and favor. Beautiful, resilient, and will tear the skin off your hand if you're not careful." She says this with what one might call a reverent humor, though her regard is absolutely serious.
May be a little slow this weekend, bot/push forward if needed pls.
Kalig asks the woman's name directly since she does not pick up on the prompt but isn't seeming snobbish or secretive. Kalig's own survival had often been dependent on learning to read body language, but in case it wasn't obvious, she certainly prefers the direct approach to what she saw as often pointless social niceties. Indeed, the way in which she had prompted the woman was a hope--in vain apparently--to have as short a conversation as possible. The only reason Kalig cared about her name at all was so she could let the shrine know who had referred her. Certainly focusing on the acolyte's state of mind was a waste of time for them both, as far as she was concerned. And speaking of not wasting time, she leaves once the woman tells her her name with a curt "Thanks." After the caravanners are ready, she heads on with haste to the Shrine with the others. To the priests she replies, "[Insert Woman's Name Here] referred us. I am Kalig and this is Khavel. The Devy woman had us investigate the tower collapse. We all were attacked by rat swarms, as you might smell. I am trained in basic healing arts, but Khavel and I got bit enough we've been infected by the rats, and I don't have any antiplague tinctures. I am looking for a quiet, clean place we can recover, away from inns whose guests might fear we were spreading plague. Can you help?"
Kalig nodded in thanks at the young woman with the rainbow scarf. "Thank you, Miss... " She leaves time if the woman wants to supply her name. "I am Kalig, called 'the Tireless' by the Circle of Four Winds. We'll find it. We'd best tell our friends where we're going first, and I expect you have other things to do." She also remembered the presence of the apothecary... and the fact that a single vial of antiplague costs 50 gold pieces. So that was not an immediate option until they'd sorted the iron chest situation. She'd hoped a temple might at least give her a quiet bed to rest in for a reasonable price if she couldn't afford magic; inns generally did not like sick guests making their lodging look like plaguehouses. Either way she needed to regroup with the party first, who were finishing their conversation with Lady Devy. She addresses Quintus, Niccan, and Danton quietly: "There's a temple here... for the roses and art goddess, I think... where I'd like to see if we can take care of the rat bite infections once and for all. But I know we've a lot to discuss with the lady, and wonder if we should press on a bit with you further before seeking help or contending with the various things we found underground..."
Begins the digging as promised with the expeditious excavation spell to get started, and is surprised, pleasantly so, as all hands gather to create the resting place for the dead. While she leaves the formal prayers to the towns' priests, she kneels and lays her hands on a mound of dirt destined to cover the corpses. She prays quietly. "From earth you come, to earth you return. Be cleansed and return to new life." After the sordid and dirty matter is settled, she approaches one of the other priests who have assisted with the task of consecration. "I and the dwarf..." she points over to Khavel. "We've infected rat bites. Is there an infirmary here?" She is not in the mood to report to the lady and trusts those in her party to do the business bit while she takes care of, you know, not dying.
Kalig, mostly quiet for once, doesn't interact much until it is time to take care of the dead. And then, she just very directly asks the farmer looking on, "There are dead bodies below of those tortured in the tower. We aim to bring them up and bury them. Is it a trespass on someone's land if we dig a hole here?" Kalig had a limited respect for most people's ideas of land ownership for, as a druid, she knew they belonged to the land and not the other way around, but she also knew people got very territorial and did not want to visit the town's jail again.
I don't think anyone suggested it? I am only pushing this for *me* because I think it works for my character. If it didn't, I wouldn't. Also realized I made an error in my previous quote, when I said "Quintus is full divine" of course I meant you, Danton. Sorry about that. We need our resident Abadaran!
Niccan if I may, I think I will take the trapper ranger level. With Quintus as our full divine and you also having inquisitor levels, and Quintus available for a lot of combat magic, I think Kalig's going to be more melee/skill support/all-rounder. Which suits her concept: she is meant to be the adaptable and well-versed traveler. The ranger level will help her in all kinds of ways and I don't mind delaying getting wild shape (especially since Kalig in a past life used to be an urban druid who didn't even get it until later anyway). Now if you just want to take investigator because you think it works for your concept, cool, but just noting if trapfinding is a major consideration, I think it works for me beyond simple party optimization.
Kalig nods at Danton. "I can dig that pit with magic once we get to some workable dirt. We can widen it with manual labor if needed. And then report to the Devy woman." She shrugs. "We may or may not trust her, but I'm not sure if I want to make that my problem. I didn't see she's responsible for this, certainly, and as someone who's sort of the town's alderman or whatever, I doubt she hired the kobolds. As to cause of collapse, we know the kobolds blew up at least one wall. They are the likely culprits. But we should tell them about the body. If they wanted us to investigate further, Hunclay's home might be a good start before going into the woods to track the kobolds." "As for the chests... while we are not obligated to tell them about it, it's also going to take a lot of work to get it moved--and then if we were to either just take it, or angle for keeping much of it, where are we, stranded travelers with no passage home, going to keep and carry it all? We can hire a cart and horses, but then that will make our newfound wealth rather obvious, won't it? Though it may make us less rich, the path of least resistance, if not ethics, suggests we tell the woman and ask for a share. If the rest goes to the good of the town I've no objection. If you want to keep it all for yourself, so be it, but you can carry it all yourself too. Of course, I have the key, and if the Devy woman insists it's all hers or something, that is a bargaining chip." She closes her jaw firmly, and then shivers involuntarily. Kalig's personal order of priority is ask for a healer's services, if they can spare some of their newfound treasure for it.
"I think the dead mage is likely Hunclay. He didn't answer his doorbell, and they mentioned he would have come out to see the ruin of this place they said he hated, but was strangely quiet. It may not be, but how many other old experienced wizards live in the area? They don't tend to be common. [b]"As for why the kobolds, I believe they wanted to come for the vault we found. They blew their way into it and just couldn't figure out how to lower the bars. How they learned of the vault is the question. From Hunclay himself? Or from someone else, and Hunclay went to investigate perhaps when he heard noises coming from the tower? That we don't know, but I am absolutely certain he was killed by the collapse, so either he did something to cause it, or the kobolds did not long after he arrived." She frowns as they reach the northern dead end. "Must be how they got in here. And explains why they ran out instead of went back the way they came. I wonder where it might lead... if the tower foundations are behind us..." Kalig tries to get a sense of where they are in relation to the terrain above and also assessing the general terrain of the area to think where an underground burrow might continue without being flooded, etc.
When they come to the final room, she wrinkles her nose at the stench. "Not pleasant, but since we are here... may as well see if any of these furs might still be of value, or if there's anything else hidden here, besides a poison-dart-mounted muskrat." Using her shovel and keen senses, she pokes and prods at the piles to see where traps might be, and then once safe, looks for anything of value.
Re: new player possibility On one hand, I think we are gelling as we are and it might be good to just try to keep moving with who we've got. I don't mind speccing some disable device into my build. On the other hand, the goblin applicant is a good player. As I don't think we'll level often in a module, it might be suitable to have someone come in as a trapbreaker without counting on future build plans. I am not too worried about the monstrousness as we're a wildly diverse party anyway and it just adds to the outsider nature of the group (Abadaran being the exception that proves the rule). Real question is: can we bring them in *soon,* before the party gels further together, in a way that does not disrupt the flow of the game. The GM has been busting his humps to keep my stubborn character from going back early, so it feels like going back to town to recruit trap help is not an option. That would leave running into the goblin where we are, perhaps as a kobold captive (which also makes it less unusual to find a goblin...). I wouldn't want to wait until we're done with this dungeon because that negates the point of wanting someone who can use disable device right now and if it's not till we're further in we may as well do the level dip plan anyway, which is not anathema to my character otherwise.
Nearly unbalancing herself as she scoots backward from the body, Kalig describes kobolds using Orc expletives that one dare not translate. "The kobolds trapped the body," she then adds in common Taldan. "After stealing the rings off him first, of course. I'm sure he died during the tower's collapse. Which means that they came through here afterward, and it's reasonable to surmise they expected someone to come looking for him. Someone they'd think was worth using up a vial of alchemist's fire for. Anyway, I wouldn't bother freeing him. Although we could try to trigger the trap in his sleeve and burn the corpse that way, since we've been trying to dispose of corpses thoughtfully when possible... but that could risk using up a lot of the air down here." She stands up, brushing herself off. "Anyway, he appears to be quite old and in a mage's garb. I don't think it's a stretch he was probably this wizard that lived next door. The question is... was he rooting around in here and did he cause the collapse, or was he coming for the kobolds and the kobolds triggered the collapse via one of their many traps to stop him? Or was he working with the kobolds, they both did something that triggered the collapse, and that's why the ones that escaped ran to his doorstep?" She glances down at the corpse again. "With foes like that, I need to understand traps better..."
Kalig kneels by the hand. "Let's see..."
Going to be busy this week, may post slower than usual but I am here. Kalig is very pragmatic (she is TN) and wouldn't want to be wasteful of a life, but I don't think she'd consider this wasteful necessarily.
"By all means, then."
"It's not kind, but... I could summon a creature to run over it... I'd have to lose my preparation for the pit digging spell, but I think we're past a need to dig things at this point. Silly me, thinking I'd need to dig while investigating a collapse."
Could we use monster summoning to trigger the tripwire? That's brilliant. I didn't even think of it. I could spontaneously convert Expeditious Excavation into Summon Nature's Ally 1. Would that be okay? Or does someone else have a summoning spell saved for the occasion?
Yes the main point of the dip was to get DD as a class skill. But of course for Kalig the ranger abilities dovetail with druid pretty well too. Don't want to step on your toes Niccan if you want to got that route though.
Better to ask forgiveness than permission. Go for it. It's fine with me. We're not designed to be a very subtle group I don't think. I also am not sure from an in character perspective who we'd be afraid of alerting, as we killed all the rats and we saw the kobolds who came here flee toward the wizard. (Ooh, do you think he hired them?) Btw, Kalig gets a +2 to find hidden things, including traps, for a total of +10. She hasn't been involved in the trapfinding since Quintus and Niccan have been so proactive at it I just figured I'd take a step back, but she can help if need be. Depending on how our party evolves she could dip in a class that offers disable device, maybe this whole ordeal inspires her to study trapmaking and she grabs a level of trapper ranger or something.
Sorry to see you go, but thanks for letting us know, and hope you find a game with a pace that better suits you.
"Before we go trundling off... what if we do trigger the trip wire, and it traps us inside? Should one or two of us stay on the other side just in case?"
She also retrieves the cold iron dagger before leaving. If it relocks the chests in, all the better to keep it safe till they can retrieve it.
Kalig sighs audibly at the bickering over the coin but says nothing. She thought that likely trying to lug six heavy iron chests out of the place would no doubt garner attention and they would be unlikely to just waddle off without no questions asked, but she decided that was not her problem for now. Instead she just answers Niccan's question, "I've done all I can. At this point it's wait and see if we erupt into a delirium of fever or not, which could happen a few hours from now or a few days. May as well keep moving until then. Let me see what I can see. Point out that tripwire to be sure I don't step on it." Following any directions provided her, Kalig stands at the edge of the tunnel away from triggering the wire to see what she can see with her darkvision.
While the others struggle with the chests, Kalig tells Khavel to sit down and she checks on their infected wounds.
Kalig is obviously more attentive to the dwarf than herself, taking extra time to clean the wound and makes sure he takes the proper dose of the willow bark tincture. Not that she has a self destructive tendency, but she seems to lack anxiety over her own conditioning. Nature will be kind... Or it won't. Such is the way of things. When the treasure cache is revealed, Kalig looks oddly disappointed. Perhaps she was hoping for something they could immediately put to use. "If it is all just money, then the amount and weight we cannot easily carry with us. I'd suggest we therefore leave them locked for now. Obviously the work it took you to take care of one suggests no one who comes along is going to run off with it all. So if we wanted to continue on, we can safely leave it here." Klaig stops to consider. "Unless this of course is what the Devy woman was hoping to find. In which case it would make more sense to take it back to her now. But I have a feeling you all would rather seek further adventure." She gives a half smile.
This is *not* a suggestion, just a "share my similar experience" note: the thing where the person who aided another always rolled higher happened so often in my RL gaming group, I just houseruled that people have to agree they are aiding another first, and then whoever rolls highest is the main roll and the other rolls are the aid that have to beat DC 10. Otherwise it never failed that the aider would always roll 20 and the person making the attempt would roll no higher than 5.
Shaken loose from his petrified condition, Niccan chuckles at Quintus' words. "I've never heard a Bard sing of a heroic rat.... That would be a funny tale!" He moves with his friend into the next room. Kalig chuckles softly. She mutters, more to herself than anyone, "A funny tail..." As they walk into the next chamber, she takes it in and eyes the big hole in the wall. "So someone... the kobolds maybe... dug their way in here. Which may have led to the collapse. Question is, why on earth would you want to break into this godsforsaken place?"
She squints at the door and looks for signs of activity in the room. That the door they came through was picked open isn't a shock given the creatures that came through here would want to move forward. But that wasn't nearly so interesting as the odd floor tile by the iron chests. That strange crack in the floor wasn't just a crack... Kalig moves over with a speed spurred by a rare curiosity, brushing off the dust on the floor. The blade-shaped indentation becomes more evident, and she smiles. "A ha!" She pulls out the notched cold-iron knife they had found earlier. "Shall I try it?"
Kalig finds herself exhaling breath she did not know she was holding. "Well done. Let's go." She looks at her arm. "There is swelling that isn't going down on me or Khavel's rat bites. We need to find a clean spot as possible so I can change bandages. And then I can focus better on what comes next."
Awesome, thanks. Also, forgot to post this earlier: kudos to Niccan and Quintus for the puzzle solving! Sorry I got confused about who was where; I thought Quintus had gone with Niccan for some reason. No selfishness on that, I don't think... I agree working the mechanics to narrative and vice versa is a big part of the fun of RPGs. ETA: Danton, good luck with your travels! I just returned thankfully from mine.
Am adding in my campaign world a demiplane of Acheron called "Thatcher's Skirts" now. Heat, I know... so, so, so well... it's annoying when PCs seem like they need too much handholding to pull them through an area. I ended a whole campaign because players weren't engaging at all and just waiting for me to push them through the dungeon. At the same time, I recognize if players are clueless--and we will be--sometimes they need a clue anvil to get going. (It just shouldn't be all the time.) I will endeavor not to be clueless, and apologize for when I am. Let me make a request straight up: the thing that's been holding me back is just wanting to find the right time and safe space to make the Heal check to add the +4 bonus to the Fort saving throw when disease onset kicks in. The issue is technically, you do not attempt this check until right before the subject attempts their saving throw. So could I do a treat disease check *now*--fluffing it as ongoing infection prevention treatment, like cleaning and changing bandages and maybe providing some willowbark for fever--so as to (hopefully) be able to get the +4 bonus later when it's time to attempt that saving throw? That would negate the need (for now) for rest or leaving the dungeon. We're going to need two saves to recover from Filth Fever completely, so to be able to get the jump on this so it isn't overshadowing the whole crawl would help a lot.
As the door does indeed seal Niccan and Quintus in, Kalig examines the door. She has not prepared detect magic, but she tries to guess if there is a magical mechanism or if it is simply a mechanical one, asking Khavel aloud her thoughts as he might know better.
Also, what is the floor made of?
Kalig nods at Niccan. "We'll go, but also watch the door. If it seals after you close it, we can try to bust it open with the pick and crowbar from the other side."
I understand your impulse GM Heat but disease, particularly Con loss, at 1st level can lead to the failed Fort save 'death spiral' Kalig mentioned. Your description of the time it took us to build the bridge suggests we are already approaching later in the day anyway. Which means we are only a matter of hours from the disease triggering. Continuing forward would mean we are likely to hit end of day while we are in the dungeon--assuming there is a lot more dungeon to explore. My sense--which could be wrong, but don't know how IC to get a better sense--is we have a long way to go and that if we continued further, we'd be stuck in the dungeon when the disease onset triggers. PCs often make decisions about what to do next based on urgency. Right now, the sense of urgency I am experiencing--and I am biased--is the disease my character and Khavel are experiencing. I do not feel a sense of urgency about finishing the dungeon in a particular period of in-game time. The best sense I have is the foreboding evil will be there for us whenever we get to it. If I have the wrong sense of urgency, then I need some more guidance. I am not the kind of player who insists on PCs resting everytime they cast a spell. As a GM, I hate that. I have not suggested once we are low in resources, so I don't understand why you would insinuate otherwise. I just want to be able to make my Heal check and saving throw so on can get on with it and not stall the game anymore over it so we can finish exploring. TL;DR I want to give you what you want but can't right now because I am afraid the disease is going to get in the way. I need help figuring out how to move forward in a way that makes sense for my character. PS I am so sorry if I am being a pain in the ass. all of the above is to clarify what I was thinking. Just don't want to die.
There's an iron curtain in the UK? My god, are you looking through Margaret Thatcher's skirts? ;) (That is a a bad joke about "the Iron Lady." yes, I know ol' Thatch hated the "commies" even more than Americans are supposed to.) Kalig's suggestion to go back is based less on available healing and more on, if we are reaching a point of no return, perhaps we ought to return while we can. Also, Kalig needs a restful safe spot to do the treat disease action for her and Khavel, which is far less likely to lie beyond the magic door guarded by the giant pit of acid. (And cure spells do nothing for disease.) And I can't speak for the others, I know I would be able to focus on the adventure better if we can get that taken care of first.I would like to not be taking Dex and Con damage for the rest of the adventure, especially since Con damage is a fast track to death. I know you are anxious to keep us moving, but we could do a quick summary/handwave and get back going. Plus it gives you an option to put Khavel on a bus so you don't have to keep botting him.
Thanks. Though, regardless of what the internet would have you believe, we have a reasonable number of federal holidays. ;) some employers like stores are allowed to make customers work on them (according to FLSA I think they have to get overtime), but I work for a university which observes all federal holidays but two, and we earn two "floating holidays" for those. This is separate from vacation earned, which IIRC maxes out at 4 weeks.
"Well, what is the alternative? Stop the exploration here? Maybe we could get more information about the family in town. And Khavel and I could treat our fevers. But if we want to finish the job, is this the only way forward?"
I will be slower than usual during the long Labor Day weekend. Will post when I can, but please bot me if necessary. If combat happens, if Kalig can't get into melee and/or a fight erupts with undead, she will cast magic stone and fight with her sling. If the party decides to rest, she needs to do her heal checks to help with her and Khavel's disease saving throws when they kick in.
Kalig the Tireless lives up to her name, and despite sweating profusely from a rising fever, nonetheless pulls her weight without complaint or lagging. And perhaps Kalig shall add "the Sure-Footed" to her epithets as, while no athlete, she manages to cross the makeshift bridge without embarrassing herself. Once across, she adjusts to their surroundings.
Kalig shakes her head. "We are in no hurry, I can't easily jump with this stuff I'm carrying, and I'm not risking losing my feet to a pit of acid for some woman I just met who's obviously never worked a day in her life and a town I hardly know. As it is, I'm already at risk of dying from rat bites for these people. No, we approach this like thinking people. We go back outside, find some broken rafters and stone blocks from the upper tower's collapse, and bridge the gap." She turns to leave. "And yes, I can create water if need be, but let's not plan to get coated in acid." She turns to go back out the way they came to look for suitable material to jury-rig a way across the trough of acid. "You can come with me, or wait here," she calls back to the group, not intent on asking their permission to go. "Or go on ahead and I'll catch up." She'll go back to the surface and use pick and crowbar to pry loose suitable materials from the collapsed area to throw over the trough to cross it safely. She can throw the materials down the hatch and use rope and her cloak to drag the materials to where they currently are.
"Sorry, Niccan, I didn't mean to exclude you from a possible healer," Kalig says earlier, as she works on cleaning wounds perfunctorily but as swiftly as she can. "I saw you as more of an explorer, but of course one can be both." As they proceed down the cavern, she stays quiet until they get to the slime blockade. "Does it burn?" She asks. "And can we get far enough back in time that if we do burn it, we don't choke ourselves to death?"
Sorry to hear that, I hope your grandfather has all he needs to be as comfortable as possible.
"Let me look at the wounds before you begin healing, as I don't think anyone is bleeding to death." Kalig makes everyone sit in as clean a spot as she can find and looks at everyone's wounds, including her own.
Kalig frowns lengthily at some smears of dirt, blood, and redness around her own wounds, but says nothing, and pokes and prods at the others, warning them to tell her if they start feeling feverish in the next day or so. She helps clean their wounds if they allow before Khavel begins healing. She mentions, "I also have a goodberry left, which won't do much but can help a wound close." She herself looks much better after Khavel heals her, but is not pleased at the sight of the wounds. "I have a mind to burn the corpses. It would prevent spread of disease and hopefully cleanse some of the pain caused by whatever the heck that thing was. It's all stone down here, do you think fire would risk the place further collapsing? And is that a bad thing?"
Kalig stands in the hall, muttering some very rude curses in Orc as the desire to heave subsides. She nods weakly to the others standing further in, amid the horrific pile of rat bodies. "If I'd thought to expect that this morning, I would have prepared myself very differently. But we never know, do we..." She looks herself over, covered in rat bites, and kneels down to pull out the healer's kit she did at least have the presence of mind to request earlier. She does not reenter the chamber but speaks loudly enough for the others to hear: "We need to regroup in a safe place. Niccan warned us of disease spread by rats earlier. I'd like to check your wounds and look for signs of infection, and we need to bandage ourselves up. The only healing magic I have is the one goodberry I have left, but I hope Danton and Khavel may be able to provide."
Not a matter of enjoyment, GM Heat, and I recognize it is always very, very hard to find the right balance for what works for your story and the party. I only said anything about the encounter first of all because it struck me (as a former Paizo freelancer) as not something typical of how they would structure an adventure and thought I was remarking on a dev decision, not yours. But that does not mean it is bad, and the previous post was just to clarify my thinking since I'd inadvertently stuck my foot in it from the start. I do think we were very dependent on the dice for surviving, but thank goodness for that crit--and yes, indeed, the excellent of everyone else in the party. Danton's magic/channeling was especially useful and Niccan did great leading the charge in particular, but kudos to everybody for getting through it. Re: Khavel, I remember the player posting something a little while ago about a difficult family situation, and I worry it has gotten worse. :( Totally understandable, but we should carry on without him at least for the time being. My suggestion would be that he volunteers to go back to report to Lady Devy that things are more dire than expected and he gets tangled up by offscreen plot issues from there. If he is able to return we can assess from there, and if he isn't he can be more easily put on a bus. I don't think we need to recruit more players as we still have a cleric and a druid--and given the player's circumstances were emergent, I don't want to write him off permanently just yet. In the meantime, Kalig can adjust her spell choices in future for more healing. I hadn't memorized anything for healing other than goodberry (which is her domain spell so she automatically always has it) but I can plonk in some other healing if needed going forward. Re: the "show me pain" comment, I saw that the offer was probably genuine, but I interpreted it as an invitation to contribute to torture and Kalig wouldn't submit to a request like that either, nor do I think most folks in the party would.
I feel I have to divert blame away from poor Mike Shel who originally wrote Dragon's Demand because this encounter is all me, warts and all. Well thanks for clarifying that as I truly had sworn off buying anything by Mike Shel. Since I made a comment criticizing the combat design, and you said you did it, I figure I owed you a better explanation of my own thoughts: One of my main concerns is we need time to gel as a party before we can get into something this tactically complicated (in my opinion of course). I respect others disagree, and some people like adventures to be constantly on a razor's edge. ETA: This game overall has been very fun so far and this one scene does not impact the positive impression I have of your narrative style. As I wrote in the recruitment, I don't shy away from changing battles, events and even plot points if I think it better serves my own vims as GM. I rewrite stuff all the time for the games I run, especially to adapt it to a particular party make up or to make the plot make more sense. No issue with that as a rule. To be fair, it's not wildly beyond suggested encounter design or anything! If anyone's curious, it's a matter of two CR 2 creatures. Tough, but doable for a group of six newbie PCs. The following is not to argue, per se, but to point out some game design factors for future consideration: Two CR 2 creatures together equals CR 4. Which is considered "Epic" difficulty for a APL 1 fight. In other words, it's the CR intended for a boss fight that you have after you've adventured a bit and found some extra loot. Now, at 6 party members, we are APL 2 (which makes a CR 4 fight merely "hard"), but we are effectively down a PC because Khavel's player has disappeared, which lowers that APL back down to 1. Moreover, the community widely acknowledges swarms have too-low CRs for what they are capable of, particularly for low level characters. I would argue this fight is at a minimum CR 5. I want to make very clear that I don't want to retcon the fight, I accept things as they are, and I completely understand what you were trying to do. I am very glad some folks are enjoying themselves. Again, just noting the design factors for whatever it's worth. Or so I hope! I actually did away with some other monsters down here that felt too much like 'filler'. Maybe that added to me feeling justified, even obliged, in making a rougher encounter. I have faith in you! Your faith in us and what the die roller does--and the d20 is notoriously swingy because no bell curve applies to it, and we are not high level enough to get some crazy bonuses stacking--are two very, very different things. We'll see what happens, but I at any rate I'll be working finding a good roleplaying reason for my pragmatist druid, if she survives, to do anything other than obtain several barrels of oil to chuck through the hatch, and throw in a match, and then walk far, far away from this town. Which is my problem, choosing to play a character who is too practical for her own good, and I expect I'll have to reconfigure my sense of her to make her more agreeable.
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