Sure, makes it easier for me to be vague as well :^)

And to clear up any confusion I might have caused with the map; it's the path of the tracks, not the party's trajectory. I assume you're near the intersection of the trail and the road to Termalaine, per my narration.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:42, Fri 22 Oct 2021.

If Astre is creeping up for an up-close look, I assume he's going to be out of telepathy range, right? I sense we have a minor case of crossed wires here.

In my head-canon your group is at least a mile off from where the figure is bundled up, all parties safe from each other. Otherwise, you'd all be out on the ice already. Which I've nothing against, for the record. But you'd probably want to succeed some Stealth check for yourselves if that is the case.

Oh, wow, that's way further away than I thought we were from the water.  Yeah, wires all crossed up there.

What's everyone else's say on this?  Do we want to be nearer the water or further out at this point?

In reply to Mallory Bonheur (msg # 38):

How close do we need to be for Astre and Mallory to communicate telepathically?

100 feet.  If we're up on elevated ground or at least have a clear line of sight to the water, we'd absolutely be able to at least see the cloth bundle at the water's edge even a mile away since it's apparently a bright-and-clear evening.  But Astre is well outside of communication range at that point.

Mallory being able to recall Astre to his pocket dimension has no range limit though, presumably so long as they're on the same plane of existence.  So Mallory can still Hold her Action to recover him in the case of danger, but whether she could realize something was dangerous at that range is another matter entirely.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:08, Sun 24 Oct 2021.

In reply to Mallory Bonheur (msg # 40):

Hmmm . . . 100 feet is pretty close. How long would it take for Astre to fly back to within range and communicate with Mallory?

Ranged travel distance is a different and more malleable mechanic than Per-Round-Movement, which is designed for combat rather than travel.  But in the case of the latter and subtracting the 100' bare minimum range, it would take Astre approximately 65 rounds to cover 1 mile of flying distance (assuming he's Dashing every round).  So around 10 minutes per trip.

To potentially make this situation easier to manage, Mallory (who is fairly fed up with the idea of being out in the cold as much as Torgrim is) could just recall Astre regardless of his desire/safety and that way he can communicate what he found immediately, allowing the Party to decide what they want to do about the bundle of cloth from where they presently stand.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:29, Sun 24 Oct 2021.

Sounds like we're going with the "Party is a Mile Away" approach then?  Astre's on his own for the moment in that case, which works just fine by him.

Actually, I'm a bit confused on the current time of day.  We ended up leaving Targos later than intended and, given the mention of the stars and moon being visible currently, I was under the impression we were well into the evening at this point?  Or is there being no daylight a weird northern/Auril-induced weather thing, like the arctic areas only getting a brief period of daylight amid tons of nightfall?

My timeline could be off. I figured the troll butchering would have started early morning, as much as there is a morning in the perpetual night, and probably finished about midday. They’re not Huge, so it really shouldn’t take more than six hours to pull them to pieces, especially with more than two people working on it. Then they’ve just been walking for a few hours.

Unless my timeline is completely off.

In reply to Mallory Bonheur (msg # 44):

I wrote Rhydd's latest IC post (recommending seeking shelter) based on the same assumption -- that the in-game time was now into the evening, with the temperatures starting to plummet.

If that is not the case, I'll need to edit. :)

Rhydd is right that temperatures are starting to fall, but Farwalker's timeline is the most on point.

It would currently be mid-afternoon (somewhere between 3-4 pm), and the nightsky is very much a phenomenon of Auril's making, similar to polar twilight in the real world. I don't have the module in front of me to verify, but I believe there's a four hour period of civil twilight between 10 am and 2 pm. You left Targos at Thulsun (early afternoon) and it would now currently be Tharsun (late afternoon). For more information on the hours of the Forgotten Realms, see this article.

While we haven't done any diligent time-tracking, I've been trying to keep an internal clock ticking starting from the onset of the day. Here's how I envisioned things:

Dissection of Trolls: 8:00-12:00 or so.

Affair with the Stable Master and Frida: 12:00-13:00.

Trek to the halfway-point between Targos and Bryn Shander: 13:00-14:00 (you would still have some residual light at the end of this).

Off-road shenanigans: 14:00-15:30 <- you are here.

And you Americans will have to forgive me my use of military time. It's how we Norwegians do it. To us, this am/pm nonsense is every bit as fantastical as the above article :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:42, Mon 25 Oct 2021.

Thanks for the clarification.  Overall, we don't have to worry about retconning comments either since all of them remain reasonable even with the current hour:

• Farwalker noting it's still daytime and thus feeling it's okay to continue tracks, both factually and based on her attitude toward the trek.
  
• Rhydd planning ahead for the coming nightfall makes sense, especially given the unclear duration Farwalker intends to be roaming.
  
• Mallory and Torgrim both not wanting to be out in the wilderness any longer than necessary and treating the timing as if night has already fallen which, functionally, it has in terms of temperature and visibility.

Assuming we turn around right now and head straight for Bryn Shander, that would likely put our arrival around 17:00 - 18:00 and well within being actual night for where we are in Icewind Dale.  If we continue to explore any further into the mountains, Rhydd's precaution of camping would become an inevitability.

DM - to clarify; the creature Astre is seeing transform: is it turning into a different kind of Humanoid, like a Druid's Wild Shape?  Or is its body just warping and changing proportions without altering its species otherwise?

Also, is the drawstring pouch affixed to the heavier clothing, or is it loose on its own?  Astre might try and grab it (or some of its contents) if he hasn't been spotted yet, but otherwise he's going to rely on that 21 Stealth Check to not be noticed.

Er . . . yes to both? You know what, I'll just state it outright for you OOC; they're transitioning from a full-fledged polar bear to hybrid form.


Sure, though there's only one real place to hide out here on flat ice; behind the hide skirt. Can Astre dodge and weave out of sight long enough for Mallory to dismiss him? And have him grab the pouch if you wish :) it's not too large, so he should be able to make off with it.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 19:45, Tue 26 Oct 2021.

Got it, thanks.  There's a difference in how Mallory can interpret what Astre relays to her based on whether or not the creature is just altering its own shape, or if it's turning into a completely different being.  As for being dismissed, that's not necessarily an option right now.  Assuming all this is happening at the same time as the conversation, Mallory is distracted and not keeping an eye out on the lake, so she might not realize to do it right now.



Or the sky, if Astre just snatches the pouch and bolts the moment something breaks the surface.  Cats and birds are skittish like that.  ^^  I suppose it's a matter of whether the creature can beat 21 with a Perception check?

DM Bears rolled 14 using 2d20+8, dropping the lowest dice only.  Werebear Perception Check to Spot Astre (With Advantage due to Keen Smell).

Welp, seems like Astre is good :)

I'm just going to go ahead and roll to see if Astre beats out the reflexive instinct to immediately flee...

Instinct - 10 or lower Flees
Mallory Bonheur rolled 13 using 1d20

And with that in mind, let's use a little meta on that dice roll DM made to do a preemptive skill check to see what Mallory might know of Werebears, for the sake of efficiency.  ^^;  She won't know about it until 10 minutes or so when Astre gets back to her.

Arcana
Mallory Bonheur rolled 11 using 1d20+6

Actually, let me leave one more thing up to random chance; whether Mallory lets Astre return on his own or whether she manually dismisses him herself.

Dismissal - 10 or Lower Dismisses
Mallory Bonheur rolled 3 using 1d20

XD  Poor Astre's having his fun spoiled left and right.  Now the real question is whether or not that Keen Smell and any tracking abilities the Werebear might have could do anything with Astre's scent being on the bag now.  Though I'd imagine if we can see the lakeside from where we are, they can see us as well (especially since we're swinging around lanterns).
This message was last edited by the player at 22:11, Tue 26 Oct 2021.

While this hasn't been established properly on my end, it's been mentioned in some posts that you have view of the lakeside. So that's what we'll go with.

I'll mention this again; if you wish to remain hidden, you must succeed on a Group Stealth Check, meaning at least half of you must succeed. This will be contested by the Werebear's Passive Perception (18). If you choose not to, I'll consider you automatically discovered.

This does entail your characters spot the Werebear first. It's by far the easiest to resolve it this way. The alternative would be contesting Perception checks, which would open a whole can of worms (I can establish a DC to spot the Werebear, but then the same should be true in reverse, and I cannot arrive at the number the Werebear should contest without calling for Stealth).

Farwalker doesn’t really do stealth, I don’t think.

Just calmly marching forward.

Obstinately, Mallory might say.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  I'll let the rest of you count as a Group, then. Not that it matters in any case; you'd still need two successes if Farwalker decides to purposefully fail hers.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:21, Wed 27 Oct 2021.

It seems that Astre has stumbled upon one of Bears' relatives. :)

In the culture/campaign setting of the North, are were-bears considered to be hostile, or is does it vary from individual to individual (some being more grouchy/hostile than others)?

Is a Survival or Nature Check needed for Rhydd to discern how much he would know about them?

Thanks.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:42, Wed 27 Oct 2021.

I think this is a good idea. It'd be novel information, even for huntsman familiar with the region.

In reply to DM Bears (msg # 58):


Hunh. It seems that maaaybe he has heard that there are such things:

13:05, Today: Rhydd Maldhon rolled 6 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 2.  Survival Check re: Werebear.

I'll whip up a post shortly :)


Yeah, you're good. I don't think keeping this information from you is interesting in any way.

EDIT: Just to touch on this, I did a bit of digging, and it seems there is some ambiguity when it comes to items your familiars are carrying when dismissed. This is all the spell offers:


No mention of any items carried or worn either to or fro, so if we take it at face value it'd be only the familiar. Mike Mearls, when asked on twitter, says otherwise. I won't get into the 3d6 thing, as that seems to create more problems than it'd solve, but his answer does indicate that it's not as clear cut as we might otherwise have thought. He further proceeds to state it's up to the DM.

So for the sake of avoiding needless edits, we'll go with Mallory's version of it and say that Astre drops the pouch.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:30, Wed 27 Oct 2021.