The intention is that the first anyone in this encounter is aware of me is as a giant hulking arachnid. Like I said; act appropriately. Even if you did suspect I was a shapeshifting gnome and not just a giant spider, you don't know me. There's certainly no "nod and a wink, say no more" between any of us (to my knowledge), yet.

@Reth: If one was prone and the other not, I'd target that one (hence the "I'm not sure" advamtage roll). If both were prone or neither, it makes no difference. I wasn't sure if either were prone or not, hence the optional advantage.

In Dungeons & Dragons, “act appropriately” might include an option for  “Kill the  unsolicited giant spider.”
This message was last edited by the player at 23:36, Sun 04 Oct 2020.

In reply to Basilisa (msg # 64):

Which was why I was asking. Fortunately, Wild Shape would only result in him getting knocked out and not his actual health taking the hit, so... you know.

Yeah, the Marvel Superheroes “Classic Misunderstanding” trope.

Um, yes? I'm not sure what you think it has to do with Marvel, but Lathalan has the right of it; unless anyone can deal 50-odd damage in one hit, worst case scenario for me is that I start taking death saves (and even then you'd have to be dealing 30-something damage). More likely is that I drop out of Wild Shape and revert to a spluttering, indignant Gnome if I take enough damage, or I run away and introduce myself later.

Either way, this is not a particularly risky play for my character and having a poisoned, unconscious prisoner to interrogate is worth the small risk to himself. Compare this to riskier attempts to subdue the thugs like hitting them with a big hammer or a pointy thing or some kind of mind-bending or flamey death spell, which could easily kill them "by accident".

It's worth bearing in mind that as much as we're all playing characters, we're all Players here too. "It's what my character would do" is a defence that usually only goes so far. To clarify; I'm giving explicit permission to anyone that wants to attack me in this scene to do so as a "it's what my character would do"; I've presented a scenario where I think it might be appropriate. All I ask is that you don't abuse that permission and act appropriately as both a character and a fellow player.

I do have a question for GM; are we playing this as a "strict initiative order" style game, where we wait for whoever's next in line to post and for you as GM to post results to each character turn, or would you prefer us all to post our actions for the round in whatever order and you post all the results after, or some other method? We seem to have stalled a little waiting on Reth, who might in turn be waiting to see what happened to the thug I attacked. Just looking for some clarity on what's expected. Cheers.

Marvel heroes often fought the first time they met, happening enough that it became a cliche referenced in numerous comics, plus a few films & TV shows in years following.

To everyone else: Anyone pool together for that 50+ Challenge? ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 16:18, Mon 05 Oct 2020.

Okay, sorry for being gone all weekend.

To address a few things here:

Raelan rolled Stealth and got 22, which (without checking) I assumed was higher than everyone's passive perceptions. Meaning that none of the characters saw Raelan go over the edge. The players did, however, which is why I didn't hide the fact in my post.

Character-on-character violence is acceptable as long as everyone is okay with it OOC and we try to generally get along. Some suspension of disbelief is okay if it means the game runs more smoothly.

Please post whenever you feel like it and I'll arrange the actions into initiative order. Just don't post twice before I get the next round up, please. Combat is chaotic and best laid plans of lower initiative characters may not line up. I'll try and ask what you want to do, or have your attack target the next likely enemy.

We didn't see him go over, but he did reveal himself in quite the stunning fashion.

Thanks for the clarification on the other subject though. Good to know we can just post and you'll help organize the stuff.

To clarify, Rethsiren isn't leaving melee range (if the bad guys are still capable of attacks of opportunity), just backing up a couple of steps.

Also, feel free to post OOC if you aren't sure of something IC like whether the thugs are standing or prone. You can also make an assumption and I'll probably roll with it. Since we aren't using maps there do need to be some assumptions.

So... to clarify, the thugs surrender before we cast our spells?

Correct. So you need not cast your spells if you would like to keep the spell slots.

I’ll hold onto the spell slot, then.

As will I.

Thalia, you have a 1d6 bonus if you need to question our captive.

I doubt it, but Reth doesn't see any symbols of the Drowned King anywhere on the two, does he? As a deity known for having followers who throw sacrifices from cliffs.

In reply to Basilisa (msg # 77):

Unfortunately,Thalla is the 1% of barbarians not skilled in intimidation :)

Does Reth need an Athletics check to haul around the unconscious/dead thug? And does he notice which it is while he's at it?

In other news, the mad gnome is the only one with the lad who was almost tossed off a cliff. That... might not be ideal, lol.

Reth...are you a renegade priest trying to reform your brutal and bloodthirsty religion? 'Cos if you are...er...awesome!

Hmm... I wouldn't say that. He wouldn't see it that way. It might turn into that in play, though, for all I know. We'll have to see :) But as someone who found Holmgar when pirates tossed him overboard, he's a bit twitchy about stuff like that. Much prefers offerings of animals or nonliving objects- it doesn't actually say 'sacrifices' in Holmgar's deity desc, after all.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:19, Sat 10 Oct 2020.

So have we officially lost our knowledge cleric, then? Reth's wanting to trade out some spells tomorrow if we have.

We had a Knowledge Cleric?

I'm afraid we have. I'll reach out to make sure but I think we have lost Masque.

Does Thalla still have him grappled or not? I mean, Reth will happily take a shot at him before he reaches Basilisa and has probably been waiting for the opportunity, but if Thalla's closer it should probably be ladies first, right? ;)

Ah, I had forgotten about the grapple. Let's assume he wriggled free? Looks like Thalla has it pretty close to handled with her hammer.