Likely he has gone back to ol' Vargy and told him that it is a might group, that killed an ancient wyrm. We should avoid them at all costs.

That and we have a number of prizes to deliver to Mazzahs.

Not all that long ago, we recovered two primo sets of armor from a fallen paladin (Sir Guy) and a fallen paladin or fighter (unknown). Sir wears Sir Guy's armor but we never allotted the other set, which is dedicated to Crom. According to LL, both Ynes, and Sol would be good candidates for this set. However, it would need alterations to fit the headswoman and Sol would have limited access to his thief abilities while wearing it.

Now, I happen to believe Safherd's all the thief we need AND that Sol the player would have been happier as a straight fighter (for survivability). What do you think, Sol?
This message was last edited by the player at 13:29, Sat 04 May.

Sounds good to me! Thanks Barny!

My thought was that if we ID the cairn this dude is coming from, we'll know where to find him in the return. I missed the earlier post about daylight encounter, my bad for not reading the assignment before posting.

Sir Dryvyk will pay for Andryr and himself to have their armor embellishments with dragon parts.

Yah, don't know that he's coming from a cairn as much as he's coming from an encampment/ruins/northern holdfast.

In reply to Labyrinth Lord (msg # 804):

We can't very well take on three evil factions at the same time without being properly dressed for the occasion. The sooner we commission our new costumes, the sooner we can get back to regularly scheduled butt-kicking.

Helix it is.

I’m afraid I might have been unclear with regard to precisely what I was asking.

Does the party want to return to Helix immediately after the dragon is butchered?

-or-

Do they want to remain on the Barrowmoor longer in order for the manticores to receive the same treatment as the dragon?

In other words, the amount of time which the party remains on the Barrowmoor could prove relevant.

Yes. Maybe even an emphatic yes in this case. I only ever wanted to harvest the scales from the dragon. The manticores I would leave to rot.

Not counting the squire, we have 7 PCs and 2 NPCs. I know LL is very gracious and generous, but I think if we have the opportunity to drop an NPC, we should. One may well decide to depart of her own accord, the fickle Safherd who has given old Barney the fish eye more than once.

Sir Dryvyk wants nothing to do with the manticores.

Extra hirelings can become part of the camp entourage under Ol'Gib's careful management. Useful and available whenever needed.

Dax, Andryr, Ynes, and Barney are  the ones who seem to hit most consistently. Mathematically, it'd be nice to get Sir Dryvyk leveled up. More encounters needed!

Safherd doesn’t inherently trust Barnabus, an opinion she has made plain more than once. She holds to the idea that he would be willing to sacrifice other members of the company for his own material profit. It is ultimately up to the priest to change that perception, through actions not words, should he be willing to do so.

That said, she does trust other members of the party and would have to consider the impact of her leaving on them.

Speaking strictly in game terms, the company would not have obtained what they did from Bato’s tomb without her.

So, in short, Safherd will remain, though she could be subject to another morale roll if she is treated like an expendable asset.

Ynes has ample opportunities as a sellsword on the frontier. If the group consensus is that downsizing is wise, it is she who will depart.

Solomon, if you wish to go to a strict fighter build, the course I would offer is you creating a new character as a 4th level fighter. Possibly Solomon’s aforementioned brother. If that is of interest, send me a PM.

To be clear, I don't necessarily want to part with/from either Ynes or Safherd. I do wonder if some contraction might be in order, though. Just generally in a stocktaking frame of mind at this stage of the campaign. Maybe we could keep Ynes as the camp captain have her nearby for emergencies.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:27, Sat 04 May.

Safherd has proven her use in the tricksy side of things many times, but Ynes' ability to land heavy blows at critical times has also been valuable, even life-saving I would say.  Plus, the two of them offer such witty observations and dry repartee that I would be greatly saddened to see either of them leave!

EDIT:  As I previously stated, I am good with also butchering the manticores, but will bow to group majority on the issue.  It is not particularly important to Mal, so if most want to head straight back to Helix then so be it.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:35, Sat 04 May.

Take their heads as tokens? As far as Sol goes, have to think a day on it I think. Single class is nice though.

Trophies, you mean.

No, I don't think that will save much time. We all know from personal experience how long the seemingly simple act of decapitation can take for a human head. And let's not pretend we have our trusty bone saws with us.

In terms of risk and reward, this is full of risk (we've been sighted/we've been in one place for a day) without a meaningful reward.

For purposes of clarification,  I wouldn’t use the term spy or even scout in reference to the unseen horseman. Probably the most appropriate term would be outrider.

Outrider noun

out·​rid·​er (ˈau̇t-ˌrī-dər)

1. A mounted attendant

2. One who escorts or clears the way for a vehicle or person

3. Forerunner, Harbinger

Yes! That's just the word for this occasion!

This is what I had in mind!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f86R_Z0_xI

If the manticores will not yield any useful guts or such, then we can probably simply cut of the tail of the one that did not spike the party, while Dax scrapes up the remains of Ocai, and then we can head back to Helix.

I have to say in all the years of playing, I cannot recall fighting manticores so I have no idea if there is anything else of worth to collect.

Okay, it sounds as though the general idea is to leave the manticores be and return to Helix. I think. I’m going to assume as much and move everything forward accordingly unless I’m told anything to the contrary by tomorrow.

To reiterate: I don’t really feel it’s my place to give an opinion on the wisdom of the party electing to or to not downsize. I only volunteered the information on who would depart, which is based on a sober assessment of the party’s capabilities. The final decision on Ynes remaining or leaving rests with the adventurers.

If there is a strong push to make Ynes the hirelings’ captain, we can discuss the possibility.

Downsize? Why would we? Safherd (particularly) and Ynes have both shown their worth, it would be madness (IMO) to ask them to leave.

Also, I had never rolled for Lander's secondary skill...

15:07, Today: Lander rolled 22 using 1d100.

Yes, that's right - we have another butcher! If you thought elves only ate salad...

I love it!  Butcher twin powers - activate!

Triplets!

Why would we downsize?

No real compelling reasons, Lander. More like we used to need the NPCs because of the number of PCs. It would go to reason that now that we have a full complement of pcs, that we might not need all of the NPCs.

Safherd has been indispensable (unavoidably so with the departure of the PC thief some time ago). She could always choose to dispense with herself or even open her own dispensary.

Sol, if you're going to stay fighter/thief, I think the Crom armor should go to Ynes after it has been refitted.

I'm thinking my twin brother Max MacKane might replace me. Just need to change his name and tweak him a bit is all to make him a fighter.

I think the real reason the possibility of downsizing is being considered is because it brings with it the possibility of making incidents like the encounters that took place during the party’s recent camp out far more exciting.


Solomon, I’m not entirely clear on what this means. If you’re planning to take up a new character, you’ll need to create one utilizing the guidelines in the Character Creation thread. The new character’s experience points will ultimately need to be adjusted to equal what Solomon would have exited the game with.

Okay, still just a tweak! ;-)

You want to keep Sol as an occasional NPC in Helix? If so, I'll need a new 'character sheet' to open up. If so, please leave Sol with me for a day or so so I can use him as a template for his twin brother Maximillian. ;-)
This message was last edited by the player at 20:44, Mon 06 May.