Doderic? You wanna chime in on either thread before I move stuff forward? (Maybe about another 3-4 hours from this post)

Out of character, I just want to be clear that mass revivals like what Moira is asking for, outside of specific miracles or similar efforts by past heroes, adventurers or Chosen, is practically unheard of. Death in Faerun is pretty permanent most of the time. Resurrection magic is mostly available only to the very rich and powerful - usually the mid-upper nobility, and usually carries with it political issues of its own. There are religious, social and economic reasons such magic isn't cast regularly (the biggest being the supply of single diamonds worth 500gp and up is limited and watched. Getting one or two now and then is fine. 14 at once would raise a lot of questions and inflate the price massively. More so for 1000gp and so on.)

Moira would be aware of this, and I want to be sure that her most recent post and threat was made with the knowledge that the vast majority of nobles would have the same reaction as Semiri (though perhaps with considerably more diplomacy).

In this game, I do intend for death to be, for most part, costly. Simply being able to fork up the gold, outside of major cities like Waterdeep, is not going to be enough. Perhaps for Raise Dead, if the party is near a major city. Resurrection and True Rez are going to be far trickier. Mostly because I do want to acknowledge the rez mechanic, with people in-world making use of it, but also want to avoid the 'revolving door of the afterlife'.

This is a good time to mention that if you guys do die, finding a diamond worth 500gp on the market is not going to be easy, especially outside a big city. And finding someone to cast the any spell higher than 5th is also not meant to be common. At least with your current power and influence.

I know with the raise dead scroll and Veradda's note, it might seem like raising is pretty common. Its not. There's a reason Veradda has you bring her body all the way to Yartar instead of just Waterdeep. And Claire's raise dead scroll + contract is not something given to just anyone with money. What this says about her dad, I'll leave it to your imaginations for now :P

I didn't exactly intend to have Moira make her comment as a threat, mind you, which is why I didn't roll for Intimidate.  She's not saying that she'll go around bad-mouthing House Nandar for not helping - just that such a view among the population, nobility especially, would naturally develop if Moira manages to pull off the whole effort without their help.  It's a bad look even if Moira refused to comment on Lady Semiri's refusal at all.

But for the scope of it, yeah, this is The Big Thing™ and I've more or less set it as Moira's driving motivation for the campaign as far as she's concerned, hence her statements of being willing to dedicate the rest of her life and businesses to achieving it.  Go big or go home, as it was.  :3
This message was last edited by the player at 08:07, Wed 14 Aug 2019.

I like it! It's a very measurable goal, and one that fits well with Moira's character. Reminds me of that Japanese guy who became a hunter and killed ten bears for each villager in his home town that was killed by one.

Strictly speaking (and those who understand divine magic better than Moira would be able to hash it out) there's ways of reducing the overall cost at hand.  "Speak With Dead" is a much easier spell to manage for a lower-level NPC Cleric and can be used to confirm whether or not a given Nightstone villager even wants to be revived.  Some of the older folk or those who were unhappy with their lives might be keen on staying in the afterlife if it's a better outcome for them, after all.

Assuming cooperation with House Nandar is gained for funding, and depending on how quickly resources necessary can be scrambled, we could get away with casting the 5th level "Raise Dead" instead of "Resurrection" if things can be arranged to get done within the next six or seven days.  Beyond that we're outside "Raise Dead"'s 10-day limit and would have to rely on "Resurrection".  But "Raise Dead" would basically cut the cost in half to begin with (on top of any further discounts from villagers who don't want to come back to life) and be easier to swing in general given its lower casting requirements and more affordable diamond cost.

Working on that sort of limited time frame would probably be implausible though, barring some extremely good rolls or DM mercy.  At the very least, it would either require multiple NPC Clerics to cover the total amount of necessary spell slots assuming they can manage to pull double-duty by casting first thing in the morning, Long Resting through the middle of the day, and then casting again in the evening.  Or, as would be more likely, reviving as many as possible within the limited time span and then resorting to the more costly Resurrection for the rest who they couldn't fit in within time.  Either way, reduced costs in general.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:12, Wed 14 Aug 2019.

This is definitely the sort of argument (perhaps accompanied by a religion check or similar) that might help your party's position with Serimi and Goskin if said IC *cough*

You guys are basically doing an investor/charity pitch. Lol.

I'm partly hoping Goskin himself could present some of that point since he'd have a better understanding of the church's personal resources and casting capacity.  Though whether he feels convinced enough to even bring it up is the real rub.

I love this plan and idea... I also agree that the more time wasted the more costly. Speak with Deads could certainly decrease the costs, as well as getting things done quickly.

If Claire wanted to use the scroll/contract on her dad or mom, we'd only need 13 Speaks/Raises done by the Waukeenar and Nandars.

Not sure what Thente brings to the table in terms of skills for this skill challenge, but I'll do my best!

---

I hadn't thought about that scroll in light of high-level magic availability and resources, etc. That IS a big deal. What the heck was her dad doing in Nightstone?? :)

Claire... are you secretly a princess or something? :)
This message was last edited by the player at 17:34, Wed 14 Aug 2019.

Claire, U'lin, you guys wanna add your own rolls to the challenge?

I'll likely push things forward in a few hours. Maybe 12 hours from the time of this post.

If Doderic wasn't going to contribute a specific roll of his own to the conversation, could I roll my Persuasion at Advantage, basically taking his presence as moral support for the Help action?  :3

With entirely passive actions, I'm going to say no to that :<

Now if Doderic was a fwuffy mascot on the other hand...

There's actually two little known rules regarding Halflings.  First is that we're all each other's emotional support Hobbit and naturally grant Advantage via proximity, similar to a Kobold's "Pack Tactics" ability.  Second is that if the entire party consists of Halflings, we gain the ability to join together like Voltron.

*shudder*

Gosh, I sure wouldn't mind if I were. I could think of a couple of things I'd like to do with an army or something!

Halflings? ;)

And I know passivity isn't the way to go, but I'm completely spent, so Doderic is as well. (It took me a few days to even realize we're all at that meeting...)

No issue Doderic. Was worried you were refraining from joining in because you didn't see an opportunity. If you are busy, it can't be helped.

In the case of the skill challenge, I am tracking successes (persuasion checks mostly) with the DC being affected by other checks (insight, things said during the speech, knowledge checks to figure what they are talking about...etc).

Case in point, Moira's most recent post "unlocks" extra info she can use to adjust her case and dial-down the DC. I wasn't planning on something this elaborate, but given the degree of Moira's plan and the impact it would have, I feel it's only fair to represent the challenge (and reward) for it.

Honestly, all of this is surprisingly nerve-wracking.  I love it.  :3c

To what, sorry?
Oh!  I thought 1C was for the other characters only, so I wasn't reading it, to prevent inadvertent metagaming.

I thought that the Black Company/Waukeen meeting was not including U'lin.  Moira was keeping that close to the vest, and I also thought that thread was just her private atonement of breach of contract, and she was due her privacy :)  No?





IF he has been there, sorry for silence!  Let me know the preference, and I can join/speak up or stay out as preferred.

Interesting point. Moira, what are your thoughts on this? I'm fine with assuming U'lin is not with the party as of yet. This has no bearing on the current skill challenge beyond reducing the impact each successful skill each has.

EDIT: also I'll advance U'lins thread in a bit :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:32, Fri 16 Aug 2019.

Moira certainly would have kept any mention of the Zhents specifically to herself.  Though U'lin could have reasonably been informed about the point of the meeting with the Grand Trabbar and Lady Semiri (getting things squared away about Nightstone), even if he was spared the finer details.  That would be more out of consideration for him; he'd be welcome to attend if he cared to, but could just as easily do his own thing in the meantime if he didn't feel it was any of his business to get involved with.

So, that's up to you, U'lin.  Would your friendly Firbolg have cared to sit in on a housekeeping meeting, or would he have been more interested in pursuing his own affairs and meet up with the party afterward?

OOC question on the 1C thread meeting for me... Has Moira disclosed the Zhent presence to the Grand Trabbar already in her note? I know that she is holding it close and hasn't said it explicitly to Lady Nandar, but just wondering if the Trabbar knows.

EDIT:

GM - you only want Moira to respond to the thread 1C right now, so let us know when we can kick in on it as well.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:32, Fri 16 Aug 2019.

Oops. She already has, so the rest of you- please feel free to chip in. "Only Moira" meant only Moira gets to make the extra persuasion roll!

I believe she did disclose it to the Trabbar, seeing as she hopes to leverage the Temples influence and antipathy towards Zhent principles to drive Kella out.

So if I add my own persuasion to this round it won't' do anything?

No I meant that only Moira gets an extra persuasion roll, because the first one doesn't "count" to the successes since it just unlocked more info.

Just post friend :)

Moira pretty explicitly trusts the Church's integrity and would have told the Grand Trabbar everything, on the basis that she assumes anyone of his higher rank within the clergy can't possibly be corrupt given the nature and practices of the faith.  She intended to lay all the cards out for House Nandar as well, but has only withheld information on the matter specifically because Goskin warned her otherwise.