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Best of luck! I'm okay taking a break, but knowing how way leads on to way, it might be the end of this adventure. I like the characters and will be happy to continue with another GM. Otherwise, I'll keep the character around and perhaps run her in another campaign.
Saniana spits. "Their miniature kin likely serve as such small creatures do, helping keep other pests in check, helping create the detritus that helps keep the forest fertile. These, however, do none of that and only pose a risk to large creatures, so I think they can be destroyed. Since it will upset the mites, I'm even more willing." Saniana wants to scout ahead before her Shillelagh spell lapses. "Be ready to follow. I'm not likely to take them by surprise." She covers her light spell and leaves just enough light leaking out to see the immediate area so she she can follow the tunnel.
Dax follows closely.
Saniana tries to stab the centipede with her spear before stepping back to let Beorn in on the fun.
Cat 1: claw/claw/bite
Cat 2: claw/claw/bite
Saniana completes her summoning spells and two common cats appear near the centipedes Cat 1: claw/claw/bite
Add flanking bonus if appropriate. After finishing her spell she gets out her short spear to chuck at the vermin next round.
Saniana moves up to where she can see into the room with the centipides. She begins her summoning spell, which when completed after her standard action next turn, will summon 1d3 cats, which will be around for two rounds. She leaves Dax to watch the passage from the other part of the lair. "When the mites are away, the cats will play," she says with a gleeful glint in her eye and then begins her summoning spell.
"There goes our surprise. Let's gather our forces and then go after them."
Saniana shifts closer to the only escape route while Dax burrows under the other mite . "That's it Dax! Don't let them get away!" Saniana attacks with her Shillelagh, but can't get a good opening.
Dax tries another bite. He tickles a little harder.
Saniana, not wanting to alert any other mites, gestures to Dax to get the one to the southwest while she advanced on the other. She attacked with her shillelagh. Saniana:
Dax:
Saniana gives the rope a few tugs, a prearranged signal for the others to start down. Once she knows others are on their way down, she continues toward the room from which she hears the conversation. There she waits just out of sight, listening for signs that the mites are alerted to their presence. Once she hears evidence that they have noticed her or when someone is one move action from the room behind her, she will continue into the room in hopes that she and Dax can deal with the threats before they scamper off to give a general warning.
Before descending, Saniana casts Light on a pendant and tucks it under her hide armor until needed. She will rely on her low-light vision initially. Then she casts Resistance on herself and then turns her club into a shillelagh. With a fierce look on her war-painted face, she starts climbing down into the hole. Dax peers out from under a loose flap on her backpack.
Saniana dismounts and moves forward stealthily with Dax toward the entrance Rosetta points to. Once at the hole, she retrieves 50 feet of silk rope and asks one of the stronger folks to hold onto it once she climbs down. She has Dax jump in her backpack for the ride down. "I'll climb down, using the rope in case I slip. Hold it taut. Once down, I'll report what I see. Anyone want to climb along, just be careful. The tunnels will be scaled for little ones, so it might be cramped." She tucks a sunrod in her belt for quick access in case she needs light quickly. She wait for others to be ready and then heads down.
Saniana will order enough scroll scribing paper and ink that Harrolayne and she can create her scrolls once Oleg gets back.
Before the attack, Saniana will ask to use some of Harrolayne's paints to paint her face with streaks of red, yellow, and green. Saniana says, "I've prepared a spell that can help someone get free of anything that tries to entangle or snare them, which I'll try to reserve in case we fall afoul of one of their traps. Otherwise, I'll cast Shillelagh just before we head in and am prepared to summon small creatures that can fight within the cramped spaces we'll find ourselves in. I also have light. Dax and I can lead the way in with you big people following as best you can once we give the signal or if we start fighting something." Goodberry supply from the day before:
If you provide the casting, Harrolayne can do the actual scribing. Save your feats for something else. I had not realized the scroll could be scribed by someone other than the one who knows/prepares the spell. That will save money and we can assume we spend down time while in between exploration sessions. As I read the rules, it would cost 12.5 gp per scroll and take 1 day for each scroll. There nothing urgent about having these, so we don't need to delay the mission to the mites lair, although I suppose there is no rush to get to the mites either. If we are waiting for the trade mission of Oleg to get back, I expect there will be quite a few days for scribing, provided Harrolayne has the materials on hand. Edit: Obviously, this is low priority and if Harrolayne has more urgent things she wants to do with down time, she need not do the druid scrolls until her own work is done.
Other than the cold iron scimitar, the main thing Saniana would like would be some first level druid spell scrolls for spells that are useful but difficult to predict a need for, allowing her prepared spells to be focused on combat situations. Some spells she might like a scroll for would be the following: Air Bubble
These would cost a total of 300 gp. Maybe when I level up, I'll take scribe scroll feat to facilitate this in the future. The only other items would be silver weapon blanch to treat some sling stones so she can deal damage to creatures with DR/silver.
From the standpoint of the formula's I added, it would be better to add new treasures at the bottom rather than at the top. But I'll use Kas's suggested resolution of party splits and create a new spreadsheet that I think we can use going forward. It will have a way for us to indicate who claims or possesses items for the purposes of who has what, but it will also do the calculation I would suggest we maintain as a way to gauge relative balance of treasure division. I'll provide a link to my shared drive and the GM can put a post to it in the header if desired. I'd suggest we take Kas's apportionment as provisionary, allowing us a rough sense of what we could spend if we want to put in orders for the next caravan run, which I'm assuming is how we'll arrange for purchases. Perhaps Oleg has an agent he trusts to fairly sell his goods and to purchase items he needs. The only thing Saniana wants right now is a cold iron scimitar to start building out a collection of weapons that have materials that will penetrate various DRs. No need to wait for that before setting out to deal with the mites, since they have only a little DR and very few hit points.
I'm going to be camping Friday through Sunday. 'Bot me if necessary.
"Well, I say we claim what we can use, and sell the rest and keep the cash in a safe place as our bank account. As we each need to purchase something, we check with the others and if all agree, we draw the needed cash from the account and make the purchases. We can keep track of who has spent what and try to make sure everyone is getting a fair share, but we're all in this together so what helps Beorn or Rosetta to be more dangerous in battle or Harrolayne or I more effective with our magics, well so much the better for us all. We should probably save as much as we can, however, since eventually we may need to purchase building supplies for future settlements." Saniana looks over the store of items pulled from bandits and other finds and picks out the masterwork sickle and backpack as useful. She suggests that we try to secure some cold iron weapons for fighting fey and, goddess forbid, demons and such. "Mites are probably too puny to worry about cold iron. Step on them and they will probably expire. Tomorrow, I'll see what kind of weather we have coming up and once we know there will be no storms, we can find that big tree."
I finally got a moment to go over the loot spreadsheet. The only item Saniana would care to claim would be the Masterwork Sickle, since she has a non-MWK sickle now. She could also use the masterwork backpack since she's near her carrying capacity and could use a little extra. It's more cost efficient to keep an item than to sell it for money to buy something else. She also has the music box worth 90 gp which is a vanity item and so if we are dividing gold, consider that in the total and she'll take 90 of her share as the box. Useful potions like the Pass without a Trace, Jump, and Invisibility should be kept with the party and used when it will help the party achieve a goal. I'd suggest we give the cloak of resistance to whoever has the lowest save average or else choose someone at random. Everyone can benefit from that and we'll probably find more. Harrolayne appears to have the lowest saves on average. I'm cool with any of the systems for dividing loot. As I said before, priority items can go to those who can use them and the rest can be available for people to use to buy items each can use, with the assumption that no individual draws more funds than his/her share of the total, at least in the long haul. The method I think is both fair and flexible is keep track of the value of items kept (full value) and of items sold for cash (half value). Divide that total by the number of PCs. If a PC keeps an item found, subtract the full value of that item from the his/her share. I modified the loot sheet to include a column on the right with the value of each entry. If it is an item that was simply taken by a party member, the full value of the item was put in this column. If it is an item that will be sold, then the half value was entered. To the right of that is an indicator of the party member who claimed the item (first initial). If no one has claimed the item, the letter P was entered for Party. To the top right I did a total of the worth of all items in the column I added. This divided by 5 would be the shares of this for each PC.
This shows how much of the unclaimed loot each PC can spend. This is just a bookkeeping service to give us an idea of how the loot has been divided and which PCs might not be getting their full share and which might be over their share. I suggest we just keep track of this as a way to keep tabs on how the loot is being spent and distributed, not as a hard and fast determination of who gets what. When a PC wants to use some of his share of the shared loot to purchase something he or she will use, there is a column at the right for purchases and another column to indicate who made the purchase. The table at the top right then keeps track of those purchases and subtracts the amount from the PC's share. Anything like the wand of cure light wounds or healing potions that will be shared as needed don't need to be accounted for or if purchased can be charged to the party rather than the individual who carries the item. So looking at the results of all this, if Harrolayne or Saniana wanted to get something like a masterwork weapon, a wand, or magic armor, they would probably have the funds to do it, provided others are okay with them drawing from the party funds to do it. We could set aside a portion of the total value of the shared loot to save for future needs. I might make a new version of the loot sheet if this system seems helpful, just to make it more compact and flexible going forward.
I got a bit preoccupied with trying to create a Starfinder character but I'll go over the list later today. Thanks for the work on items and sorry for my slow response. FYI: Saniana is cool with Harrolayne claiming any items she can use, even if before her time.
"We should all have a weapon made of cold iron. Perhaps we can special order it and wait on attacking the mites until we know we can dispatch them effectively. I'd like some cold iron sling bullets and a cold iron scimitar. I can attack them with my shillelagh spell, and do more than enough damage to deal with their resistance to other types of weapons, if need be. They're pretty easy to kill, according to an uncle of mine who had some fights with them long ago, as he recounted at every opportunity!" "Their lair will also be sized for wee creatures like me, so if anyone can make yourself smaller with a spell, that would be aces. Lacking that, we should be prepared to summon small creatures that can move ahead of me into the lair. I can lead the attack and Dax can help me as well, of course. Those who are plus-sized will have to squeeze through the narrow parts of their tunnels, I guess." "If we're special ordering things, we should also see if we can get a scroll or oil of daylight, since that will make it harder for them to see, if we can afford it."
"Mites have faces so ugly, even their mothers can't love them. They don't take baths, they just count on the fleas and ticks on them to eat the filth they accumulate all the time, wallowing in their wretched lairs." She goes on like this for a while. She asks Oleg if he has any vermin repellent, since she knows mites are fond of such creatures and may keep them as pets.
Saniana gives Svetlana a hug (her legs at least) and sets about offering to help set the table or stir the stew. She also takes a peek into the barn to say hello to whatever animals are there, including Porthos. She gives Giacomo a hug also. She then looks at the map and remarks, "We are making progress! What next? Perhaps it's time we took care of that mite infestation and see if they have our lady's ring."
Saniana too reassures Myvas. "You are a remarkable creature and we will do what we can to protect you, provided you return the courtesy and treat those around you well. No one but us knows you are here and we will keep it secret. We are clearing out the area of bandits, so those who would do you harm will soon be gone. We will check back as we can to see how you are doing. Good luck." She bids Giacomo a fond farewell, sorry to see someone her own size leave. Once on the job of surveying, Saniana always finds something of interest to keep her happy, even if the others see nothing but uninhabited hills. At the discovery of the grave, she suggests, "We should clear the area and keep it clear as a gesture of respect for the dead. It may prove beneficial if we ever have to deal with barbarians from Numeria. We can show them that we respect their heroes. Maybe that will give us a leg up on convincing any that might consider our settled lands ripe for a raid that they should leave us alone." "We might even send a messenger to arrange a treaty saying we will protect the grave from looters if they agree not to raid our land."
"He is young, Garuum. He has much to learn. We would not suggest you share this area if we thought he was going to hurt you. Of course, if you decide you don't want to be his friend, we can find another home for him. But like you, he needs company and help."
Saniana fishes in her bag pouch for some goodberries to help Ubagog heal up .
"That's what friends are for! We're glad you're all right. In fact, we brought another new friend of ours to help you against such things. Garuum, meet Myvas. Myvas, this is Goruum and Ubagog. If you can help catch fish for Myvas, he can keep watch for enemies and help you fight them. How does that sound?"
Saniana serenades the retreating boggards with a chorus of raspberries and then goes up to Gorum and says, "Are you hurt?"
Saniana hurls her magic thorn javelin at the boggard stuck to Myvas. "Leave our friend alone!" she screams as the throws.
Another javelin appears in her hand. Seeing that others would be able to assist Myvas and Beorn, she runs toward Garum's hut to confront the boggards there, with Dax at her side. Dax gets close enough to try to bite the boggard at the water's edge.
Saniana rides Glyph closer and then dismounts. Dax jumps down as well. Saniana: DC 20 She dismounts, but not very quickly. She touches her oak club and says, "Bata chun dhéanamh!" and feels a surge of energy rise up from the earth and fill her club with magical power. Dax moves a little closer to the action but sticks next to Saniana.
Saniana spurs Glyph through the underbrush . DC 11 to cast spell while on a moving mount.
"Diúracán troma," Saniana says with fierce expression, holding out a free hand, into which appears a javelin made of a long, sharp thorn.
"Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have someone my own size around and if you can dance, so much the better. It's just we have to be careful out here, with so many bandits and other threats around. Also, be respectful of Myvas here," she says, pointing to the green dragon, not any bigger than Giacomo or Saniana. "His egg was apparently stolen and hatched out here in the forest. The thief paid for his crime with his life and now we are hoping Myvas can relocate near another local we've met, friendly boggard who is living by himself at the edge of the swamp. We think they might be able to help each other out until Myvas can fly and look for a more suitable forest to inhabit. If you know any tales that might amuse and educate a young one like him in the virtues of fair play and cooperation, feel free to share." She then leads Porthos over to the other horses and her own reindeer mount and makes introductions.
"Well, Porthos here confirms you've been traveling many days from the north, so that part of your story checks out. Tell us more of how you came to know about us. Have you a letter of introduction at least from the Lord Mayor or one of his subordinates? We must be wary for the bandits here might well have sent one to infiltrate our group to learn more about us. So if you want to share our supper, tell us your story while we prepare the meal."
"We were given documents to verify our designation as representatives of Restov. I suggest you produce yours or we may think you are actually a spy of the bandits we are trying to discover and drive away. Once that is taken care of, if you are really at our service, you could start your service by helping to skin those coneys." Then she gestures and her voice changes to sounding like horse whineys. <Porthos, where have to traveled from with this fellow?> she asks the pony. From nearby, a badger waddles up next to the gnome and takes a threatening pose as if waiting for an order to attack.
As Giacomo approaches, Saniana takes up a position between him and Myvas, holding her club in readiness, not so much because she expects trouble from a Halfling troubadour but to show Myvas we aim to protect him and to keep his reaction limited. "Stranger, kindly keep back until we have confirmed you have no hostile intent toward our friend here." While doing this, she tries to get a read on the Giacomo. GM: I have not looked at this result.
Beorn is willing to try to help "raise" this creature "right" but I am unsure if he can be a strong enough influence on him while adventuring unless the little dragon comes with him, and that is not really reasonable. Thoughts? Having a dragon friend as we build a kingdom would be ever so cool. I read a little about green dragons in one of the books on dragons and it says of all the chromatic dragons, they are the most likely to be affected by diplomacy. They are usually lawful and they can be raised into a non-evil alignment, but it would take some work. In character, Harrolayne or Kas would most likely know such things. Saniana doesn't have knowledge (arcana). Harrolayne does speak draconic, so that might help the diplomacy if she speaks to the dragon in its own language. There is still the mystery of how the egg got into the forest without anyone noticing an adult dragon. Perhaps when we examine the body of the victim.
Saniana is flumoxed about what to do with the little guy. She hates the idea of just killing him, but she knows that he will likely become an increasing threat as he gets older. She hopes that befriending him while he's young might make him see reason and convince him to migrate to somewhere more remote where he can grow up without being harassed by the colonists. But then, he might prove a threat to some other communities. What to do? She looks to Beorn and Kas, who seem to have a better handle on moral issues. Meanwhile, she plucks a goodberry from her pouch and offers it to Myvas. "Goodberry? They're surprisingly filling." Then she gets an idea. Speaking more to the humans in the room she says, "I wonder if he relocated to Garum and Ubagog's pond, if they might help each other out until Myvas is able to fly to a more suitable forest realm. The other bogards are less likely to bother Garum with a green dragon around and Myvus would have good fishing grounds. We could warn settlers away from that area so no one would bother either of them." Then she steps over to the body and begins to remove valuables from him in preparation for moving him to a place where they can bury him.
"Hmmph. Myvas, the great. We are wardens for this forest and we are responsible to see that the forest contains no threats to all the new settlers that are going to move here in great numbers. Now lots of people would see a green dragon as a threat. And while I'm sure you would put up a magnificent fight, you are too young to survive a concerted attack by well trained humans and elves and dwarves. Now you can't fly yet, but what if we make sure you are safe until you can fly? Will you then look for a forest that is more ancient and more suitable for one such as you will eventually become?"
Saniana edges into the lair of the dragon, fearing it might be unreasonable. She knows little of dragons except the tall tales she has heard and those never speak of wee dragons no bigger than her kin. Still, it is outnumbered and so maybe it can be reasoned with. As she speaks to the dragon, she tries to get a look at the corpse to see how it died. and "My name is Saniana Quickly, master dragon. What is your name, if it is not rude of me to ask?" She follows this up with another question, "What is one so young doing all by himself? Where is your mother? I hope nothing happened to her," although Saniana actually did hope that if there was an adult green dragon in the forest, something indeed did happen to it, something that either killed it or drove it away.
Saniana studies what she can see ahead, to see if she detects any trace of aberration. Then she glances back out the cave opening to see what reaction the others have to this. Then curiosity overcomes fear and she calls back, "Do monsters usually heed your warning? Most monsters I've encountered eat first and rarely speak with their food."
From day before
From current day
Saniana exults in the majestic beauty of the forest, her favorite place in all Golarian. Her face drops at the sight of the cave. "I prepared a spell to detect aberations today. Looks like it will come in handy." She dismounts, leaves Glyph a feedbag of lichen, and calls Dax to her side. She casts a spell that makes light shine all around her club. "Shall we see what lurks within?" Then she casts another spell, and from that point on focuses on the path into the cave, on the lookout for her most hated of foes, aberrations.
A sickle? don't you druids use such to harvest mistletoe and such? Perhaps he was also a druid? "We do, but like most druids I have known, I don't rely on my sickle to protect me from the dangers to be found in an old forest like this. If I hadn't been able to talk Tusky into moving on, I was ready to hit him with a variety of weapons," and she gestures to her belt loaded down with a scimitar, club, sickle, shortspear, sling, and for good measure, a scythe.
That was well done San.Beorn compliments. Though I do wonder about sending our troubles south to be troubles for other settlements. He looks a little conflicted. Lets burry that man and bet back to our new friend. anyone recognize him? "At this point, I suspect there are more bandits than settlers that far south and into the forest. Tusky might do some of our bandit clearing for us." Regarding the man, she searches through his pack for any indication of his identity. "He's got a lot of gold but little to protect it with. I wonder what he was doing out here. A sickle is not much of a weapon for taking down wild boar."
<Humans and their kind are a determined lot. If one fails at a task, they will send two more. If two fail, they will send four. They multiply quickly and before you know it, you will not even want to live here because they will civilize this place. You'll be much happier if you go south and stay well away from this place.> As she speaks, Saniana approaches the body, double checking to see if it might be alive, glancing at anything in the gear that might let her know who he might have been.
Those watching from the distance might experience a moment of concern for Saniana as she dismounts from her reindeer and approaches the boar which towers over her. She squeals and snorts and capers about a bit, holding a conversation with the brute in animal-speak. At some point, she reaches in her bag and hands him a goodberry. Animal Speak: <Tuskgutter! Old friend. How good of you to remember. You are looking stronger than ever. How did you get that newest scar?>
She continues in this vein, finding ways to let him brag and learning about him. She will begin to work in explaining that the two-legged's like her and her friends will be coming in every greater numbers and that no matter how glorious a fighter he is, enough humans can bring him down. She advises he move south where there will be fewer settlers. If she can she finds out if he knows of any other humans who roam the forest near here, thinking he might know of the bandits who have a fort somewhere in the region.
I'm at the start of my long day, but I should have time to get in a post. Now that the boar is friendly, I'll see if I can convince him to relocate, although the charm only lasts 2 hours, so that might be a temporary solution. Edit: Since Saniana has some time while the boar is charmed, could she take 20 on a wild empathy check and make the friendly attitude long term?
After her morning meditation and spell preparation, Saniana explains her ideas on how to find and deal with the large boar. "I've prepared a spell that will help us locate the boar. Once we find it, I'd like to attempt to warn it of the risk it faces, remaining in the area. Since I can speak with animals, I might be able to convince it to relocate further from this region. I would need you to back me up by not threatening it, at least until I've had a chance to convince it to relocate. If that fails, I can try a spell that could charm it." Once she is near what she thinks is the boar's lair, Saniana sits on her reindeer, holds her hands to the forest, facing the stone tower, and says, "Seall dhomh càit an torc a tha." Then she concentrates on the suspected location. If the boar is in the tower, she will activate her ability to speak with animals and then ride Glyph closer, attempting to get within 30' of the entrance to the tower. If the boar has not noticed her yet, she will call out a greeting. In animal-speak, she says, <Tuskgutter, greatest of his kind, I, Saniana, wish to warn you of impending settlement by humans into this region. If you do not leave the area, you will be hunted down and killed.> Assuming she can keep it talking for the required amount of time, she will attempt Wild Empathy to produce a friendly reaction.
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