I'd like to wait and see the result of my spout lore roll before we make a decision. Then, assuming we can find someplace out of the way, I'd like for Chance to do a little recon of the area to compare to the map.

If you want to go on to town while he is nosing around that would be ok. He should be able to remain largely unnoticed by himself and can find you in town once he's had a look around.

I agree that we should stash the mace somewhere. If its magic can't be useful to us, we should still keep it away from others. I could drag it into town while waiting for Chance, but I don't feel like splitting the party right after such a dire situation. Who knows what's lurking in the depths of the temple?

That's cool. I thought I'd put the option out there. The spout lore roll wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. Let's see what Chance knows about this place and decide from there. It may be that the recon should wait until we come back.

I don't think any of us will object to dropping him occasionally - even if not strictly necessary :>

My leaning is to try to catch some rest/healing in the gardens (if feasible) or somewhere else outside but nearby and semi-defensible if not.  Thomas and I could possibly fly and try to scout out some of the drainage lines and see if any are large enough for us to get through into the lower part of the temple.  We'd have to figure out how to deal with the guards are guarding the entrance to the well.  Could Chance knock them out?  (I'm not sure if Eryn knows Charm Person - and if there's more than one guard, that might not help much.)

Worst case is we could just rush them and try to take them out before they raise a fuss, but they may be 'good' guards, and we'd have more time to work with if everyone's convinced that no one's ever gone down there...

I agree that we should rest up somewhere. I wish to save the healing potion Westley brought back, but if needed I see that drinking it will take me almost back to full HP.

In-character I sorta suggested that we skip the garden because it's one of the places the enemy may look, but OOC I'll say that I think risking a guard knocking on the door is better than trying to leave with all this stuff in tow in the middle of the commotion. We can lay low until they relax the search.

I don't know Charm, but some of the temple attendants - like the orc - sound more zealous than others. We may be able to convince some of them that we were in the right here.

I do have Alarm to keep us forewarned in the garden, though I would need to prepare it first. I only have Magic Missile and Mirror Image ready at the moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:29, Thu 13 Feb 2020.

I wouldn't count on any of the temple attendants being un-zealous.  If you're going to hang out at a temple half populated by followers of your opposed god, you're doing it because you passionately believe in it or you have no choice - and in either case, we can't count on them taking our side.

Chance, might be able to use some of his Goldenroot.  Assuming there's only a couple of guards, I could transform into a rat or something and get past and then create enough of a distraction to get them to turn around making it easier for you to touch them both.  Then you'd just need to convince them to do something else while the group of us headed down to the bottom level.

Other possibilities: I could possibly hit one in the head with a blunted arrow to stun them long enough to rush them and gag them.  I can also cast 'hold person' or 'darkness', but neither of those will stop them from shouting out.  Creating a distraction to lure most of the guards upstairs/outside might not be a bad idea either.

The good news is that no one other than the head priestesses seem to know the value of the lower level.  If we can get down there and past there without anyone else knowing, that'd be good.

Ilura has one other reason for going to the gardens.  The holy people here likely have access to some sort of divination spells - probably through Luciny.  She'd best be able to protect us from discovery in one of her own spaces.  (And if she doesn't *want* to protect us, Ilura sort of wants to know that...)

The goldenroot may be an option, but touch isn't sufficient to deliver it. Unless I am mistaken It has to be ingested. Regardless, it sounds like we are headed to the garden.

I read this before reading the IC thread. Do I understand correctly that we are headed to town via the drainage tunnel?
This message was last edited by the player at 23:29, Thu 13 Feb 2020.

It says that goldenrod can be "carefully applied to the target" - it would be helpful to understand what that means as opposed to 'touch'.

We're leaving the temple via the tunnel and then heading up to the garden is my understanding.  (I was presuming we could reach the gardens without going through the temple.  If that's wrong, then I'll revise my post.)

My understanding is that the garden is on top of the temple, in which case, theoretically, it should be reachable through the drainage tunnels.

Regarding the poison, I think applied carefully would mean either to a specific place on the target's body, or maybe prolonged contact, or contact under certain environmental conditions. Since it is unclear I decided the easiest way to handle it was to say it had to be ingested. If the GM wants to offer clarification it would be appreciated. I haven't had reason to question it until now.

I found the above information about using Touch vs Applied poisons on people. Goldenroot is an applied poison, so it can't be used by simply splashing it on someone or by stabbing them with a weapon coated in it. Food or drink is the obvious way to get it to affect someone. I would also likely allow other creative ways you might come up with, such as injecting it into them like a flue shot (provided you could locate such equipment), or rub it on them like lotion so it sits for a long time, or maybe even if you can manage to spray it directly into their eyes or something. I would have to consider these alternate methods on a case by case basis.

Sounds good, thank you!

I know I wrote a post in which Chance ignores Ilura and goes after his stuff, but I'll be darned if I can find it. Oh well, I guess Chance did as he was told this time. Y'all don't get used to it.

Maybe he was busy mentally rehearsing ignoring her and once he was ready to act, found her there holding his bag, leaving him feeling rather annoyed - and Ilura rather confused :>


Can we clean up the Character Status thread a little?  Chance is there twice and there's a good chunk of space taken up by characters I don't think we're expecting back.  (I'm fine with keeping them, but it'd be nice if we could at least trim/eliminate the line breaks in those entries to make it faster to get to the relevant stuff.

Also, I don't see an entry for Opal, the gargoyle, so I've added one.

I deleted all of the old player characters except Marcus, since he is the only one who I think might return eventually. I saved their info elsewhere though, just in case. I also got rid of Chance's extra post.

Thanks! :)

I assume you meant 'fought', but on the chance you are referring to the tar demon we faced back in Markhain, that was Hiran's victory. I don't recall it affecting me or my spellbook. If I did describe at as black or tar-colored at some point, however, then my bad!

In any case, outwardly my face is what has changed, along with a little more pale skin. It may make my past battle scars more obvious contrast. You healed the rest away (thanks again!)
This message was last edited by the player at 07:33, Wed 04 Mar 2020.

I thought you had taken Hiran's spellbook and were browsing through it.  If that's not the case, I'll adjust my post so the language fits.  (And yes, I was referring to the tar demon)

Your paler face wouldn't have been noticeable when it was covered w/ blood and gore from the fight :)

I learned from him and have copied some of his research, but he's kept his own spellbook. Mine is a travel journal which is sure to be stained by now, but it's not full of demons (yet!)

Corrected :)

I'll try to remember that +1 in a few years when I actually hit level 10 - if Eryn and Ilura both survive that long... :)

Question: Can you explain more about the nature of the garden?  Are there a whole bunch of areas like the one we're in, or are we in the only one?  I'm picturing around 200 square feet with not much if anything in the way of hiding space - is that accurate?  How far does someone have to come into the garden before they can see all of it?  Is it possible to see through the gate when it's closed?

The area looks similar to the garden in the link below. So yeah, not a lot of hiding places unless you get creative. They would not have to come in more than a few steps to see the entire area. There are a few dozen similar areas scattered throughout the larger garden. Due to the magic of the area, you shouldn't be able to see in or out of the area despite all of the natural peep-holes the shrub-walled area has. However, you shouldn't be able to hear people outside either, so there must be a way to circumvent the magic.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals...c7865242b8934cbe.jpg

Edit: I guess the link isn't working? Does anyone know how to do images in rpol? Otherwise I guess you'll have to copy and paste the link. Sorry.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:45, Sat 14 Mar 2020.

Pasting a link is supposed to work according to the help.  Not sure why it doesn't work.  As GM, you should be able to use the <a/> tag.  I can't because I'm not here.  The <img/> tag seems to work.


In terms of plan, I see a couple of options.  We can try to fight, or we can try to hide.  The former seems dicey to me, as we'd be fighting a whole bunch of elite guards and there's only 3 of us (even if we have hirelings to help a bit) and they probably have back-up.

In terms of hiding, if we send out Westley and Silas, Lady Mirrorsheen and Opal can fly up high - where they're unlikely to be noticed by guards looking for 3 fugitives.  I can turn into a rat and hide pretty easily.  The trick will be hiding Eryn and Chance.  The only thing I can think of is to try to fashion breathing straws and have you hide under the water of the pool.  It's night and it'll be dark, so it should be hard to see you underwater.  We could stick the mace in their too.  In the worst case, we end up fighting anyhow.

Open to other ideas :)

I had imagined the gardens being walled in and had thought about going over the walls. In this case maybe going through them is an option?

Our fairy tried to fly over and it wasn't possible - they kept going up forever, with the quote that made my week

I'm pretty sure we can't go through them either - at least not without defeating some sort of magic barrier.

At the very least, going over or through the wall of shrubbery wouldn't be a simple task. They are designed to magically prevent intrusion and eavesdropping. But, seeing how a group of adventurers is anything but mundane, you may certainly try to bypass the defenses in some way. It would definitely require a roll or two though.