Out of Character Thread.

Thank you for the gifts,  DM!!

I've been playing this lovely have for about 40 years, so i really appreciate this

It's much appreciated.  But I'm going to have to think hard about it.

Also, gives a thumbs up to Mr. Gygax up in heaven. :)

We all salute the Godfather of D&D

Thanks Big Boss! I put my point on Constitution.

Thanks!

Thanks BB and Gary!

What is the moonlight situation?  If we fly at night will there be enough light to at least tell when we clear the forest?

Happy 50th to one of the greatest games created and congratulations to the maker Gary Gygax.

Thank you for the bump Big Boss.

Yeah, the moonlight situation is likely to affect Amara's thoughts on the subject...

Looking up on my FR Calendar, the Full Moon was 5 days ago. It won't happen again for another 23 days.

So, if the phases repeat every 28 days, then we're still approaching the Waning Gibbous.  Which is approximately 75%-80% the light of a full moon.

That might be enough.

Or I can Teleport back to the Tower and fly up with a beacon.

Very likely could be enough - I agree.

In reply to Myarra (msg # 13):

Agreed.

Sorry for my absence, I've been sick.  Being sick sucks.

Of course, coming back from being sick to find a dragon coming after you is ... not ideal.

What Dragon? :)

I've been under the weather as well. Side hurts when I take deep breaths.

We're about to get a lesson in the age old directive "Never Split The Party"

And now we know the ship can move really fast.

OK, I did a bit of updating with Game Map T. The Blue Arrow pointing SOUTH is where the ship used to be.

The White Circle below that is the Stone Statue and the Northern Stone of Balance.

The RED X below "OF" is where Rufus's hideout is (Which hasn't been used since the game was called "The Wish") and that is 25 miles from the Village of Daak. So, I calculated the distance from the ship to Daak being 60+ miles.

I seem to remember there being something here that said the Forest was 120 miles across from L/R, but I must agree that 60 up/down seems about right.

I checked the scale on the official map (one fingernail = 100 miles) and therefore determined that the forest is 200 miles N/S.  Then after reading BB's post went back and realized that I had zoomed in on the forest AFTER checking the scale so I was doing the apples-to-oranges comparison.

Yes, I agree on the 60 miles.  I'll go back and modify my post because what Myarra said is completely wrong.

Okay, post updated.

Extras:

BB says we got to 100 knots at full speed. That's 115 miles per hour or 185 Kilometers per hour.

Also, you need to be within about 1 or 2 miles to be able to see a torch.  You could see one from further away if it was the only source of light, but you need to be somewhat close to pick it out from the stars or other sources of light.

Fortunately, in our case, we don't care what light source we see, as long as we see them, and Daak would have other light sources as well as our two torch-waving comrades.  We should be able to home in on the village if we can get within a couple (5?) miles, especially since BB says we're up about 600 feet.

100 Knots! That's fast!

In reply to Nolan (msg # 25):

Our friend Myarra doesn't do slow dances

Wow, that is fast. How are we going to get to the mines without everyone seeing us?

I figure we synchronize watches ... so to speak.  We attack and start funneling people outside.  The ship swings in, picks up everyone ready, and then flies away for some amount of time before swinging in again.  That way we minimize the people at risk and the ship can always stand off if it looks like it's dangerous at the mine.

I'm sure the actual plan will have more specifics, but that's it in general.

We don't want to take the key out.  The ship will crash if we do.

That's why I'm staying onboard to guard it.

I thought we were landing it?

Okay, well, if we're not - that's fine. Amara's fine with taking a watch. But she IS going to take a bath first.

Can't disagree with that. You take yours first, then I'll take one.  It's been a crappy day both figuratively and literally.

But hopefully tomorrow we can really get started on getting the ship repaired.  Even having been inured to Evil over the years, the plight of the slaves in the mine is really eating at her and she wants to move as quickly as safely possible.  Because, if we all die, nobody is going to save the slaves.

Aliana will volunteer for a watch shift, though she'll also insist in a bath first

So, what is the party doing? Spending the day to clean the ship?

Yes, like Myarra said, clean it enough to be able to repair it

We'll clean the ship enough that we can fly it without getting covered in crap, and so that it can be repaired with the lyre.

We have people out in the woods finding and bringing wood to us.  As soon as we have enough, Amara can do the repairs.

We'll need to do a lot more work to make her pretty, but that can wait until after we take on the mine.

One of my favorite things in the world is to write an unhinged stream-of-consciousness rant.

They give me more pleasure than I can explain.

P.S. I just updated my post for even more unhinge-ed-ness.

That definitely works

Repairing the ship and building the braces will be 2 different jobs and will require 2 separate Lyre performances.

Been very busy at work this week and I have to go in tomorrow as well. Will be updating this Sunday, so be sure to get your posts in, if you haven't already. :)

Is this what the party wishes to do? Split the group up and go to Elturel to speak with Lord Dhelt and the other group go to Soubar to get the ship stained and sealed?

If so, who is going in each of the groups?

Nolan plans on staying and working in the tower, but I'm assuming Aliana would take Byron, since he has the best chances of talking with Lord Dhelt. The rest of the party could go to Soubar to get the ship detailed.

Aliana and Vernon via Vernon's Ring.  If anyone else wants to go with us they are welcome to.  I'm pretty sure Myarra wants to stay with her ship.

I will stay with the ship as well.

XP thread has been updated.

Sorry, everyone - I had a medical procedure and it's taking me more time than expected to bounce back - I'll try to post later today

I'm so sorry my friend.   Please take care of yourself

No need to hurry Amara. Take your time and come back when you can. :)

OK, what's the party doing?

Aliana, Byron and Vernon are going to Teleport to Elturel to talk with Lord Dhelt about the refugees.

Amara, Myarra, Roenthelm, Twiggy and myself are going to fly to Soubar to get the supplies to outfit the ship to take on refugees and to get the ship sealed and stained?

OK, I need a percentage % roll from Aliana or Byron...whoever rolls first.

I will update tomorrow afternoon to give everyone a chance to agree or disagree with the planned events.

19:04, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 29 using 1d100. – 29

I am fine with what we're doing.

I'm good with the current plan.  One question how are we going to get back from Elturel?

In theory, I could Teleport us back

Well, you're going to use one to get to Elturel. If you don't have another one, you'll have to spend the night there and return the next day.

We can do that. Though in theory i can manage 2 of them

I'm cool with Nolan's plan.

My apologies,  remind me who that is?

BB was playing Vernon at the time, but I do believe the old man with his sons is named Jameson. We all moved him here from Triel.

Aliana can swing by if Vernon wants to

It was Byron's idea. Basically something to do while you were in the city.

Ah, okay,  I'll wait for Byron, then, and will return to him

Sorry....too late. My fault. I started on a long post and by the time I was done, you had commented in the OOC.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:39, Wed 13 Mar.

No worries.  We can visit again with Byron, perhaps when the biys are home from work.
That is, if Aliana survived that long.  :)

It is good to have friends in high places.

Hmmm,  I'm going to have to find the words to Friends in Low Places and convert it for this game.

I'm not sure how to say this.

Does anybody know how much money I'm supposed to have?

I just realized that the treasure thread has lists of all the stuff we've found and sold, but I don't think I've been told how much of a cut I was supposed to get.

This is really embarrassing. Somehow acquiring wealth just hasn't been that big a deal.

I've lost track of my money as well, I'll admit

If I remember correctly, several of you donated money so items could be bought for the party. One of those items was the Lyre. Either way, we can take the money from party treasure, since everyone in the party will be benefitting from flying on the Mariasha.

OK, is there anything special anyone wants to do for the day, or can I update to the next day?

I'm fine. I'll keep working on the ship until the yard crew calls it a day.

Nolan will pick up a bunch of spell components that he needs for his projects. Nothing big and quite common.

The ship has a cargo hold cover. You can see a picture of the ship in the Forest Waystone thread at the bottom. There's no way to load/unload the crab without a crane.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:47, Fri 22 Mar.

My guess is the crab made the hole in the bottom of the ship.  That's why it was found over on the shore and the ship crashed on the island.

There must be a thrilling story behind it all.

And yes, one of the niceties we're missing is a cargo crane.

I'm out of town this weekend with access limited to my phone.   I will not be checking in very often.

OK, Byron. I'll NPC you, if necessary.

I'm okay with taking it easy for a bit

The important thing to take away from the posts in Elturel is that it does not appear that the Centauri are dealing with Lord Dhelt.  Or, if they are, he does not seem to be taking them seriously.  These people are a serious threat to us because they inhabit positions of real authority.  We can't simply kill them with impunity, no matter how much I wish we could.  We can kill the bounty hunters they send after us, although we really need to try to run them off first, but things are going to get increasingly more dangerous until we take out that damn mine.  Then we need to deal with Amara's family. I'm hoping simple slaughter will be possible there.

I know we have preparations we need to do first, but it's getting more grating by the day.  A couple more days to get the ship ready (deck-based weapons and netting in the hold to keep the ex-slaves safe) and then we really need to strike.

From what I got from the Elturel post was I think Lord Dhelt didn't know the Centauri's were even in the city. From what Aliana saw, it looked like they might have picked up this new Centauri from the docks with how happy they were to see him, which tells me one huge thing: They can't Teleport.

I think we should hurry up with the preparations on the ship, so we can go to the mine. We should buy a bunch of food, medical supplies and other stuff for helping out these poor refugees and then take them to Elturel as planned. I don't remember if I said it or another party member, but I think we should inform the dwarves of the mine, so they can take it over, or else we'll be doing this same thing a year from now, if not less.

OK, do you guys just want to focus on getting the ship fixed and not looking for any trouble? I can then write an update for the time it takes for the ship to be finished and outfitted with the gear.

The Ballista will have to be bought at a different town, unless you have Amos build you one, which will take at least 2 weeks. Also the plank fitted for the ship will take another couple days, unless you plan on carrying all the refugees on deck yourself, which will be a huge chore.

Nolan and Amara can go back to the Tower and Scry for the rest of this day and unless Aliana has another Teleport, she'll have to get a room at an Inn with Byron until she has the power again the next day.

Is everyone OK with this?

That works for me.    If i use a turning attempt to power my spells, I can Teleport us back today

Sounds good to me

Me as well.

Out of Character, Lord Dhelt is a Level 17 Paladin and leader of the Hellriders! So, I would be surprised if he couldn't see Vernon. *Laughs*

Looks shocked.  I NEVER look for trouble.

A few thoughts ...

The limiting factor right now is how much more scrying needs to be done before we feel ready to go.  I'm trying to keep the time needed to outfit the ship as short as possible, but if we have to wait another week for the scrying, we can fit in more details.

I think just getting some henchmen/hirelings (or whatever the term is now) and equipping them with crossbows is probably the way to go. If we can mount some simple shields along the edge so they can use them for cover, that would be great as well. Even barrel lids should provide at least a +1 to AC against ranged weapons. Going with Roen's thoughts, maybe we can get some dwarves (I leave the diplomacy to the others) to sign on. They help defend the ship and we give them the mine once we kill the dragon.

Ballista are great weapons, but they're really slow to load and operate and, depending on the rules used, require professionals, so any of those would have to be 'nice to have if we have the time'.  We've already exposed ourselves in Soubar ... not that we had any choice, but I'd prefer not to give the Centauri any more chances to find out about us.

Furthermore, the ship is for getting away, not for fighting.  If things get bad outside the mine, the ship should simply lift up a few hundred feet and wait until we can clean up the mess below.

We do need some kind of movable gangplank/walkway.  We could get away with hanging cargo netting over the side, but I don't want to make a bunch of injured refugees climb ropes. I'll need to talk to Timber and see what he can do.

Other than that we'll need cargo netting inside for people to hold on to, and mattresses (or a lot of straw) for cushioning the floor.

We should probably pick up a few cure potions/remove disease/restoration scrolls for those that are the worst off, but we should be able to do most of the healing once we get to the city.

And on a completely different thought ... we should get a scroll of Magic Aura to use on Byron's Disruption sword. An undead dragon might be able to sense what the sword is and it would be a good idea to hide its capabilities.

Byron is perfectly ok with staying overnight.

In reply to Nolan (msg # 83):

Out of character,  is there a game mechanic here, or just "DM's choice "?

Big NPC's like Lord Dhelt is taken right out of the book. It was totally unintentional on my part to use Elturel and that Elturel is a very important place in the FRGS. So whatever happens in the books with that place will eventually happen in this game. I use the FRSG and look up each town to see if they have any important NPC's and then I use them. If they don't, I make up something.

As for him being able to see Vernon, I roll a 1d00% and anyone who got 3% or lower could see Vernon. So far, it's only been 3 people: Amara, Lord Dhelt and the Dwarven Crypt Keeper.

2 Barrels (For water filled with Magic Decanter)--4 Gold
100 Bedrolls--10 Gold
10 Buckets--5 Gold
5 nets--20 Gold
(2) 10' ladders--1 Silver
(10) 50' Hemp Ropes--10 Gold
(100) Clay Mugs--2 Gold
(100) “Portions” of Poor meal which include bread, potatoes and Apples--10 Gold
Hay to cover the lower decks--2 Gold

Total: 63 Gold 1 Silver

This is what Amara and Nolan bought while in town. I'll edit the list if there was anything else you wanted to add.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:52, Mon 25 Mar.

I was looking over our treasure list and we have a couple scrolls with healing spells on them. Do we want to purchase more for the refugees? Amara and I could have done that as well while we were shopping for the general equipment.

I recently purchased a wand of CSW as well.

OK, that's a lot of healing you can do. Updating again since Aliana can Teleport again.

And I used the extra time and materials while using the lyre to make shields - how many did I make? 100?

Let's get 3 meals for each (300 meals) - I think we're going to need to feed them more than once.

Let's add:
* 1 Wand Cure Light Wounds
* 100 spears - so that they can each have a spear and shield for defense
* 5 lbs soap
* Beans (cheap protein)

Remember that getting the folks from the mines to Eltural will only take a couple of hours. And once there we can heal and feed them with a lot less drama. Not that we shouldn't have some stuff pre-arranged, just that a city should be better equipt then we could be. So as long as we can stabilize folks and keep them alive, that should be enough. We can heal them of whatever ails them once we're safe on the ground. Lord Dhelt and the temples of Eltural should lift a bit of the load. They're supposed to be Good aligned after all.  Nothing says 'serving the public good' like, you know, serving the public good.

I think we should skip the beans because that means making a fire and I wouldn't attempt that on the ship. Also, I'm not comfortable with arming them at all. That's just asking for a Mutiny. And let them wash themselves in the river at Elturel. We just don't have the facilities onboard the ship. And lastly, I think BB said you could only play the Lyre 1x a week per job? So, fixing the ship was the job.

Yeah, I said 1 project because the rules about the lyre go into a "Grey Area" that I didn't want to deal with. I read a bunch of stories/posts about people trying to abuse the powers of the instruments, so I made it "one project" per performance per week. I still haven't made up my mind yet if it can be performed by one person, then give it to another after who have the same performance abilities. To me, that's leaning towards the "Abuse" of the lyre.

Hm. Interesting. My reading is that it can continue to be used, provided the materials were there. So I wouldn't think shields would be a big deal to add to the ship repair job. Now I agree that handing it around would be cheat-y, but if you say one thing, you start to get a bit absurd. So then just one shield? No one would use it that way. They'd always use it for big, fancy things...

As far as mutiny -  They aren't going to immediately mutiny after we rescue them. We need them armed in case one of the soldiers get on board. We can't have a slaughter.

I can see your point on beans - but this is a time when people are used to keeping care of fires - they had fires on normal ships, even though they were the most dangerous of things to get out of hand. Or we could simmer them while we are flying there, put out the fires, and have the beans ready when the people get on board.

If I've magics left, I can Create Food. It's not exciting cuisine, but it's probably better than mine slave dining options

It's not my call about the ship. It's Myarra's, but I vote against arming the refugees and making a fire to cook. If they've survived escaping with us and on board the ship, they can survive another couple hours eating carrots and potatoes and drinking fresh water until we get to Elturel where they can cook all they want at the campsite next to the river. As for arming them, if they pick up weapons in the caves, then so be it. They have a right to defend themselves. I just don't think we should do it because we don't know any of these people.

The Lyre is BB's department, but with us discussing the description of the Lyre, it winds up being part of all those stories he was talking about with people arguing this and that and I don't want it to go there. The Lyre repairing the Mariasha was HUGE, but asking for more on top of that? I'm not going there.

I'm with Nolan on the use of the lyre. BB gets to dictate its capabilities. Yes, I have a few quibbles, you all know me too well to think it could be otherwise. But they're not important. Getting the Mariasha repaired in such a short time was already near-miraculous.

I think that arming the prisoners is a bad idea. We have no idea if any of them have scores to settle with each other or who might be thinking they can use the situation to get back on the Centauri's side, or foment a mutiny to steal the ship for themselves.  The last is unlikely, but I put nothing past a DM who thinks he can make a situation more amusing.

I just think adding armed unknowns to the mix is asking for unnecessary trouble. It's only a couple of hours to Elturel. Let's just concentrate on getting them there and let Lord Dhelt deal with sorting them out.

Likewise, open flames on wooden ships should only be allowed under very tightly controlled conditions.

So, let's keep it as simple as we can. Nets and padding for safety in the hold, water and rations (or magically created food) for the short time of the flight.

But we absolutely should have a wand of cure light wounds to make sure the badly injured are stabilized until we get them to the clerics. Maybe a couple cure disease spells or even restoration scrolls just in case. If we don't need them this time, we'll just use them on ourselves on a later adventure.

My more pressing concern is hiring some guards. We, as the adventurers, should be in the mines, killing dracoliches and cult members. We don't have enough people to assault the mines and guard the ship at the same time. BB said we could get a couple of the old party members (whose players have left) to help out and we should be able to hire a few trustworthy hirelings, or even just get a few hunters from Daak to help us out.

As long as the ship stays up in the air when not actively loading (and one of us should be escorting the prisoners out as large groups), it should be safe enough. We just need to do our due diligence.

Plus, we really need to start studying the map Amara and Nolan are making and planning how to actually get the prisoners out and kill all the cult members ... or encourage them to run far far away.

Perhaps we can convince Rufus and Lorrik to help on board as well? We could also ask Gunther to help with trying to find an alternate way inside the mines?

I'm sticking with 1 project per performance, but since posting on RPoL is slow compared to actual table top role playing, I'm going to change the time from 1 week to every 3 days.

Is there anything special anyone wishes to do? If not, I will update the day.

It looks like the group at the ship are ready for things to move on. We're just waiting for the scrying to be done.

Got it. Was trying to give Amara options. I just didn't want to assume.

Sorry... still dealing with healing complications... I think I have a surgical adhesion, but the Dr seems to not want to give any opinion... I'm beyond annoyed... But am often ending up too exhausted after what needs to get done in a day to consider doing anything else...

Anyway, I hope everyone in the path of the total eclipse got a chance to watch it! It was pretty awesome! You could see a giant solar flare from where we are :)

In reply to Amara (msg # 104):

We traveled a bit, but got a great view!
We may have seen the solar flare, depending on what it looked like

We set up a pin-hole system with a board which allowed us to watch in safety.  In our area about 85% of the sun was covered and the light was noticeably dimmer.  But it's quite amazing just how much 'daylight' the remaining 15% was capable of. Seemed more like an ordinary overcast day, even if it did come on and leave a bit quicker.

It looked even better from the desert. I used my welding helmet to look at it, but once you've seen one, you've seen them all.

I guess we're just waiting for the ship to return from its flight testings?

Can somebody help me out with the name of that item?

Would that be sending stones?

Magic Item Compendium pg. 184

The problem with sending stones is that they only come in pairs and can only be used once a day.

The Farspeaker Amulet (Magic Item Compendium Page 99) is more expensive at 6000gp but more useful.

One person has the master stone, and up to four other people have axillary stones.  Three times per day the stones can be activated for up to 10 minutes, allowing all five people to be able to communicate with each other.

Just looked it up and Nolan can make that. It will take him several days to complete, though.

Oh that one does sound much better. It was very hard to keep up with all the different magic items in 3.5

Tell me about it! LOL

OK, I looked up the item and Nolan can build it, but it's going to take some time:

5 days 236 xp 2,400 gold

If Nolan wishes to build this item, what is the party going to do for 5 days?

I'd be building the item. *Laughs*. As for the rest of the group, I'd hope they would be making plans. We still need a way to get all those people on board the ship and we also need a way to get inside the mines without everyone in the area knowing about it.

OK, do you guys want a boring 5 days, or do you plan on doing things for 5 days?

Aliana doesn't mind a short vacation, but will join the others if they get ambitious

Scrying as much as possible - the outside of the mound looking for another way in, the area looking for a good place for the ship to rest, etc.

I'll talk to Timber about additional work on the ship that can be done over the next five days.

1) Gangway that can be extended/retracted from the ship.

2) Shields that can be temporarily fitted along the sides to give any guards we have a little extra protection.

3) Assessment of the spars, masts, and other wooden parts of the rigging to see what needs to be replaced.  Actually, why does a ship that flies on magic even have rigging?

4) Get an estimate (price and time) for a cargo crane to move cargo (and giant metal crabs) to and from the ship.

#2 I hope after the mission is completed.
#3 Probably to make it look less suspicious? I don't know
#4 Cargo cranes on the ship? I don't think it will fit and it might decrease the max speed of the ship.

Installing some shields is to give our people something to hide behind while they're protecting the ship during the raid. Even a +1 to AC is a 5% better chance not to get hit. Depending on how many of our friends volunteer, we can install a few brackets along the sides that we can slip a tower shield into. Certainly not movable and not something we'd want permanently.

I've seen small cranes on ships (real world and fantasy). They're to help get things into and out of the hold.  They don't need to be able to handle really heavy loads, hopefully the port will have a large crane if that's necessary. But smaller places ... or questionable places might not have anything and I don't want to be lifting thousands of pounds of weight on my back while climbing a ladder if I don't have to.  I'll see what Timber has to say about how realistic it might be.  This is definitely something for after the mission, if at all.

just letting people know that i am still here. i've had a difficult year so far with the death of a dear friend, my wife crashing her car (She's ok, just the car is written off).

My plan is to try catch up on posts on the weekend and then i'll be back posting by next week

So sorry to hear about that, Kalliyan!