|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 22, 2011 18:33:03 GMT -5
Night 53 - the night before Warrant Officer Shaw is teleported from the Wyrmscale Mountains to the Nemedoran camp outside Verdas. He has spent the past month commanding the remnants of the Red Blade. Only a small fraction of the battalion survived the massacre by the orc horde, and of those who did, more than half have since joined the ranks of the fallen. Despite the hardship, they have maintained a vigilant patrol, and the peaks have seen no new orc activity in several days. The last band appeared two weeks ago, and while hunting them down, the Nemedorans came across a curious, if ominous, finding. The eldest Shaw brother is taking a brief personal leave to join Brion in an effort to retrieve their youngest brother's remains from Longtree. First, however, he assigns a runner to deliver details on the aforementioned finding to Sahme Sweetwater... [ OOC: This takes place the night before the side quest. The details will be presented at the table before Day 54 begins, so you will have time to figure out logistics. Ok. We can make this work. Nim will have 4 Level 5 spells available. Rabbit, what are you wanting to do with the afternoon? Should I memorize teleport? I can teleport with you and 3 medium creatures, or 1 medium and 1 large(which would probably make sense to bring an Erinyes and a Nightmare to bodyguard us). I think there will be plenty of time to do the main side quest tasks (call monsters and Sahme's thing) as long as nothing goes terribly wrong and the focus maintains on these things. Looking at the day backwards, Sahme needs to get to sleep 8 hrs before the 24 hrs is up, so that leaves 16 hrs to do stuff, and devoting 8 hrs to each task should be enough to them done. Oh, and the scrying by Nim to be able to teleport to the location will take an hour. Not sure if that has been kept in mind, but like I said, 8 hrs should be enough time to do that with the rest of Sahme's thing. One last thing to mention that may or may not be useful for planning... you know exactly what you are going up against with calling the monsters, but the challenges for Sahme's thing may not all be as obvious.]
|
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 23, 2011 11:28:18 GMT -5
Brion - Day 54 planning So what exactly does Brion want to do and when? He can begin the day at midnight or 6am. Either way, he has 16 hrs available to do stuff and still be able to get enough rest (8 hrs) to resume duty in 24 hrs. This is the basic outline I have in my mind of his day: - Prep spells for 1 hr - Have Nimarious study the arcane tome by using Spellcraft with read magic (won't take long) - Use wind walk to travel to Longtree with older brother - Search for Preston's body (and Sermon?) - Use wind walk to return to Verdas with older brother - Study arcane tome (with divination spells [casting times?] and Gather Info [1d4 hrs]?)
Re: ScryingThe cleric version of Scry only requires a pool of water, not a mirror, right? Is it possible for me to scry on a corpse? Is it possible to scry on someone that is below 0 hp but stable? (I'm specifically thinking of Sermon, Rabbit's warforged character that was rendered inactive in Longtree.). Also, I've adjusted my timeline I want study the tome after Longtree, not before. I also plan to cast Commune before heading out that morning. It looks like you are right about clerics only needing a pool of water for scrying. That's another change from 3.5. Anyway, you can scry on an unconscious creature, but once a creature is dead or destroyed, the corpse is then an object. Scrying does not work on objects, but there might be some other divination spell that does.
|
|
|
|
Post by michael on Feb 24, 2011 15:15:56 GMT -5
Planning for Day 54
1. Prepare spells
2. Consult with Nimarius.
3. Cast Commune. (You'll want to look at this spell and decide what Gorum might know. I'm going to try to nail down the location of my brother's remains first, then ask some questions about the tome.
4. Cast Word of Recall on my living quarters.
5. Cast Wind Walk on myself and my brother. (How long will it take to get to Longtree at 600ft/rnd?)
6. Search for Preston's body. If I come across Sermon and the other warforged (I don't remember his name) I'll take them back too. (Why leave army resources just lying about?)
7. Return to Verdas
8. Study the tome.
Obviously details of these will change depending on what I learn from Nimarius and my Commune spell, so I don't want to get into how I'll study the tome until I've talked with Nim and Gorum.
As for spells I'll prepare that morning,
lv 1: Comprehend Languages x3, Hide from Undead x2, Shield of Faith(D)
lv 2: Protection from Chaos/Law/Evil/Good (One of each), Detect Undead, Spiritual Weapon (D)
lv. 3: Locate Object x3, Dispel Magic x2, Searing Light (D)
lv 4: Spell Immunity x2, Death Ward, Remove Curse, Divine Power (D)
lv 5: True Seeing, Commune, Break Enchantment x2 , Flame Strike (D)
lv. 6: Wind Walk, Word of Recall, Greater Dispel, Blade Barrier (D)
|
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 24, 2011 15:45:55 GMT -5
Re: Brion - planning Planning for Day 541. Prepare spells 2. Consult with Nimarius. 3. Cast Commune. (You'll want to look at this spell and decide what Gorum might know. I'm going to try to nail down the location of my brother's remains first, then ask some questions about the tome. 4. Cast Word of Recall on my living quarters. 5. Cast Wind Walk on myself and my brother. (How long will it take to get to Longtree at 600ft/rnd?) 6. Search for Preston's body. If I come across Sermon and the other warforged (I don't remember his name) I'll take them back too. (Why leave army resources just lying about?) 7. Return to Verdas 8. Study the tome. Obviously details of these will change depending on what I learn from Nimarius and my Commune spell, so I don't want to get into how I'll study the tome until I've talked with Nim and Gorum. 1. Wake and prep spells (6-7am) 2. Consulting with Nimarious won't take long. Read magic does 1 pg/min, and there are 30 pgs of text, so 30 min. I will post the findings later today. 3. Commune takes 10 min to cast, and it looks like Brion can ask 10 "yes or no" questions. 4. Word of recall looks pretty sweet! 5. A straight shot to Longtree is about 30 miles away, so that will be 30 min while using wind walk at top speed. Going by air (off the road) will require a Survival check. 6. Preston's body was last seen at the edge of town. In front of the area where the tall grass was matted down. The other warforged is Crow.
|
|
|
|
Post by michael on Feb 24, 2011 16:20:18 GMT -5
Should be 12 questions. One per caster level.
Do I have any notion of how difficult the check might be? On the one hand, I'm not on the road and I'm seeing things from a different perspective, but on the other hand, I'm high enough to see a lot of landmarks.
Also, does my brother have any ranks in survival?
|
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 24, 2011 17:44:34 GMT -5
Re: Brion - planning Should be 12 questions. One per caster level. You're right. 12 questions. For some reason I was thinking that Brion was a 10th-level caster. Not sure where that came from. Do I have any notion of how difficult the check might be? On the one hand, I'm not on the road and I'm seeing things from a different perspective, but on the other hand, I'm high enough to see a lot of landmarks. Also, does my brother have any ranks in survival? The stats for the elder Shaw brother have been left pretty open-ended. I think you said a while back that he was a Fighter, and Survival is a class skill for a Fighter, and he has been part of a group tracking orcs through the mountains, so we can say he enough ranks to Aid Another by Taking 10... or actually, looking at the rules, you cannot Take 10 to Aid Another. I think I played that incorrectly during the side quest. Anyway... the elder Shaw is a higher rank than Brion, but I'm assuming he is a lower level. Let's say he is at 10th-level, so you can give him up to 10 ranks in Survival +3 for training in a class skill +Wis mod. You can choose the Wis mod between -1 to +4, but whatever numbers you select for ranks and Wis mod, those amounts will be applied to his stats from here on out. For example, if you choose Wis mod +4, that will be his highest ability score and need to be set as such if the rest of his stats are ever filled out. Or if you want to build his stats right now, you can do that too. In terms of difficultly, you can assume the Survival check will be medium. Not hard but not easy either.
|
|
|
|
Post by michael on Feb 24, 2011 18:14:08 GMT -5
I'm going to choose a -1 for his WIS, so his survival would be +12.
|
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 24, 2011 18:47:49 GMT -5
Brion - Day 54 (early morning)
6:00am - Wake up and pray to prepare spells.
7:00am - Consult with Nimarious.
Nimarious casts read magic and opens the arcane tome. Studying the pages, he comes across runes linked to several schools of magic. Not complete spells, though. It is almost like some kind of arcane shorthand with other symbols mixed evenly throughout. He is able to identify markers of the following schools (and sub-schools) on these pages:
1: transmutation
2: conjuration (healing)
3: illusion (glamer)
4-5: transmutation
6: abjuration (force)
7: divination
8-11: transmutation
12-16: conjuration (healing)
17-19: transmutation
20-22: abjuration
23-26: conjuration (healing)
27-30: illusion (glamer)
[OOC: Nim was actually busy until about 7:30am with studying and calling monsters, but I forgot to mention that, so I don't mind fudging the timeline a bit. It is now 7:30 after the 30 minute consultation.]
|
|
|
|
Post by michael on Feb 24, 2011 18:59:14 GMT -5
Ok, onto Commune.
Q1. Are the remains of my brother, Prentice Shaw, within 840 ft of where I cut him down?
|
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 24, 2011 19:00:33 GMT -5
Re: Brion - communeOk, onto Commune. Q1. Are the remains of my brother, Prentice Shaw, within 840 ft of where I cut him down? A1. Yes
A2. Yes A3. Yes
A4. No
A5. No A6. No
A7. No
A8. No
A9. They are beyond your understanding
A10. No
A11. No
A12. Yes
|
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 25, 2011 13:08:40 GMT -5
Day 54
12:00am – Nim and Sahme wake up. Nim studies dimensional anchor (1 hr) and writes it into this spellbook (4 hrs).
5:00am – Nim preps spells.
6:00am – Nim casts command undead on the Giant Ghoul and succeeds. Then, he casts planar binding two times and calls a total of 4 Nightmares that are killed.
6:45am – Nim uses a wand to cast desecrate, followed by animate dead (48 onyx) and command undead on the 4 Bloody Skeleton Nightmares. Then, he casts planar binding two times but is only able to call 1 Erinyes, and it is killed.
7:30am – Nim casts animate dead (18 onyx) and command undead on 1 Bloody Skeleton Erinyes. Then, Nim, Sahme, and the B.S. Erinyes mount the B.S. Nightmares and fly to the Red Blade camp in the Wyrmscale Mountains while staying clear of the Rift. Nim leads the way with assistance from Sahme.
12:30pm – The squad arrives at the Red Blade camp and follows the map to the mountain cave. Nim leads the way with assistance from Sahme.
1:00pm – The squad arrives at the mountain cave and enters. Nim leads the way with assistance from Sahme.
2:00pm – The squad reaches the chasm. On the far wall, a huge dragon head is carved out of the stone with sigils at the back wall of its open mouth. Nim recognized them as some form of Draconic and translated them as: “the fury within to release the fury within release,” so Sahme fires his breath weapon into the open mouth. The back wall dissipates to reveal a smoothly carved tunnel that is blocked by a cave-in up ahead. Nim and the B.S. Erinyes enter the tunnel while Sahme flies down the chasm. Sahme does not find anything of note in the seemingly bottomless chasm and flies back up, but the wall reforms before he reaches it. This side of the wall also has sigils, and Nim translates these to say: “the fury within to release yourself release.” Back on the outside, Sahme uses a fireball on the wall to no effect. Then, he uses another breath weapon, and the wall dissipates again. Next, Sahme and the B.S. Erinyes work to clear a 5 ft opening through the cave-in.
2:10pm – The squad reaches the other side of the cave-in. The tunnel slopes sharply for 20 ft and then goes straight down. The downward tunnel opens into a wide cavern. The stone statue of a huge dragon is seated in the center of the cavern, and there are 4 huge marble slabs (black, green, white red) set into the wall. The statue comes to life when Sahme enters the room, and a battle ensues. The statue attacks with breath weapons (fire & cold) and claws. Sahme notices another set of sigils on the underbelly of the statue. He sends a fireball at the base of the statue. It seems unaffected, but the red marble door dissipates when it is hit by the powerful blast. Sahme enters the new tunnel, and the red marble slab reforms behind him. He finds a single staff inside and casts scorching ray on the red marble slab. It dissipates, and he leaves the tunnel. Nim casts acid splash and ray of enfeeblement on the black marble slab to no effect. Sahme smashes a flask of acid on the same slab and nothing happens. The squad retreats back up the tunnel after their summoned creatures are defeated by the statue. Sahme uses the staff to cast form of the dragon I on himself and uses a breath weapon to dissipates the smooth stone wall with the sigils. The squad exits the dragon head opening and heads out.
2:30 – The squad exits the cave and heads back to the Red Blade camp.
3:00pm – The squad returns to the Red Blade camp to make a brief report, and then, rides back to Verdas.
6:00pm – Sahme and Nim grow tired from being awake too long (-2 Int/Wis/Cha).
8:00pm – The squad returns to Verdas. Sahme goes to sleep and wakes up 4 hours late for duty. Nim studies reduce person (1 hr).
9:00pm - Nim becomes drowsy from being awake too long (-6 Int/Wis/Cha) and writes reduce person into his spellbook (1 hr) goes to sleep and wakes up in 2 hours.
11:00pm - Nim writes reduce person into his spellbook (1 hr)
10:00pm – Nim goes to sleep and wakes up 15 min late for duty.
Mission Score
125+ pts = Superb
100 pts = Great
75 pts = Good
50 pts = Fair
25 pts = Poor
Nightmares CR 5 x4 = 20 pts
Erinyes Devil CR 8 x1 = 8 pts
Dragon Statue CR ?? x0 = 0 pts
Total = 28 for a Poor rating (1 AP)
This side quest was not intended to help advance your level by much, if at all, and a Poor rating does not mean you actually did poorly in terms of completing your tasks. You did great with those, and the gains were immediate. All the rating means is that you didn't defeat too many creatures, but you do still earn 1 AP. This can be added to the APs to help gain a level (4 APs) but will not apply to rewards or promotions.
B.S. = 0 AP + n/a = 0 AP
S.S. = 0 AP + 1 AP = 1 AP
N.S. = 0 AP + 1 AP = 1 AP
Spoils
Staff of Flaming Scales (CL 11, 6/10 charges, 5 lb)
- scorching ray (2 charges)
- fireball (3 charges)
- form of the dragon I (4 charges)
3x divine scroll of entangle (CL 1, 0.1. lb each)
3x divine scroll of find the path (CL 11, 0.1 lb each)
3x divine scroll of insect plague (CL 9, 0.1. lb each)
3x divine scroll of plant growth (CL 5, 0.1. lb each)
2x effusion of acid breath* (0.2 lb each)
1x effusion of cold breath *(0.2 lb each)
1x effusion of electric breath* (0.2 lb each)
*Each dose does 6d6 of the corresponding energy damage (Ref DC 15 half) at a single target within 30 ft. Each dose can be used 4 times and lasts for 24 hours.
Spellbook #1 (99 pg)
3rd - dispel magic, displacement, fireball, haste, heroism, hold person, lightning bolt, slow, tongues, vampiric touch, suggestion
2nd - alter self, blur, darkness, detect thoughts, false life, fog cloud, glitterdust, invisibility, locate object, mirror image, misdirection, resist energy, see invisibility, shatter, summon swarm, whispering wind, darkness, gust of wind, pyrotechnics
1st - alarm, mage armor, grease, magic aura, magic missile, obscuring mist, shield, silent image, summon monster I, true strike, unseen servant, ventriloquism, charm person
0 - acid splash, arcane mark, bleed, dancing lights, detect magic, ghost sound, light, mage hand, mending, message, open/close, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic, resistance
Spellbook #2 (96 pg)
5th - cone of cold, dream, hold monster, persistent image, polymorph, summon monster V, telekinesis, dominate person
4th - arcane eye, black tentacles, charm monster, dimension door, enervation, fear, fire shield, greater invisibility, ice storm, scrying, stoneskin, hallucinatory terrain, minor image, wall of ice
Spellbook #3 (72 pg)
7th - limited wish, spell turning
6th - antimagic field, contingency, disintegrate, forceful hand, greater dispel magic, mislead, true seeing, veil
5th - teleport, wall of force
Penalties
Being late for duty results in a 5% per hour reduction to the next rewards package. Sahme will be penalized 20% for being 4 hours late, and Nim will be penalized 5% for being 15 min late. Although, the spoils gained probably more than make up for it.
Also, Nim took a -1 penalty to his Spellcraft check for studying learning while Tired, but it wasn't enough to hamper studying a 1st-level spell.
Income, Time Off, Promotions
None of these things could be earned from the side quest.
Misc – Notes & Corrections
Rest
When you are Tired, you need 8 hrs of rest to be fully functional again. Once you are Drowsy, you need 9 hrs. Once you fall unconscious, you need 10 hrs. All this is outlined in the Rest post. Sahme can't really do anything to reduce his late return to duty, but Nim can opt to not put reduce person into his spellbook in order to wake up on time.
Summoned Creatures
Anky #1 and Salamander #1 cannot be summoned again until 2:12pm on Day 55.
Undead Control
Giant Ghoul (command undead spell @ 6:00am for 12 days)
B.S. Nightmares #1 - #4 (command undead spell @ 6:45am for 12 days)
B.S. Erinyes #1 (command undead spell @ 7:30am for 12 days)
Bloody Skeleton Nightmare
We forgot to make fly checks for these creature, but they need to make one to hover like they were doing in the battle (DC 15). Their fly skill modifier should be: +3 Dex +4 good man. -2 Large = Fly +5.
Armor Damage
Sahme has a +1 mithral shirt. Mithral has hardness 15, and each +1 enhancement bonus adds +2 to hardness. Armor has hit points equal to armor bonus x5, and a chain shirt has an armor bonus of +4, and each +1 enhancement bonus adds +10 hp. Therefore, Sahme's armor has hardness 17 and 30 hp.
When Sahme rolled a natural 1 on his saving throw against the breath weapon (18 fire or cold?), I selected his armor to be damaged because it was the top item he possessed on the list for this sort of thing, but I was supposed to choose the top 4 items and roll randomly to see which 1 was affected. Also, energy attacks do half damage to most objects (unless the item is easily damage by the type of energy: fire vs cloth), so 18 / 2 = 9 pts energy damage, and this is not enough to overcome hardness 17, so the armor did not take any damage.
Chapter 15
The next chapter will begin on Day 55. Nim will wake up at 12:15am 11:00pm on Day 54, and Sahme will wake up at 4am. Brion will most likely wake up at 6am again, unless he goes to sleep early or gets to sleep late.
|
|
|
|
Post by michael on Feb 25, 2011 13:57:18 GMT -5
Sounds like a fun session. Congrats you guys.
One thing I noticed was that Nim and Sahme both got up at the same time, and both got tired at the same time. Normally, a person needs 8 hours of sleep a night, so we get tired 16 hours after we get up. But if Nimarius only needs 2 hours of sleep a night, wouldn't he not get tired until he's been awake for 22 hours?
|
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 25, 2011 14:20:56 GMT -5
Sounds like a fun session. Congrats you guys. One thing I noticed was that Nim and Sahme both got up at the same time, and both got tired at the same time. Normally, a person needs 8 hours of sleep a night, so we get tired 16 hours after we get up. But if Nimarius only needs 2 hours of sleep a night, wouldn't he not get tired until he's been awake for 22 hours? The ring allows him to gain 8 hrs of rest in 2 hrs, but it doesn't mean he can stay awake any longer than usual. Getting tired is left fairly vague in this system. It happens. There are penalties for it and ways to get around it, so it exists, but some of the finer details are left open. I'm guessing it's just one of those things that may not come up all the time, so it's left to DMs to handle on their own, if they choose. I usually don't bother with it, but if players want to squeeze every hour out of every day, I want there to be some structure and limits that make sense. Also, Sahme and Nim got tired at the same time because they are both creatures who need 8 hrs rest AND have the same Con modifiers. |
|
|
|
Post by icnivad on Feb 25, 2011 17:39:22 GMT -5
Yeah, I would opt without Reduce person, if it meant I would be late for duty. Can I study, but not write it into my spellbook?
|
|
|
|
Post by reefwood on Feb 25, 2011 18:51:16 GMT -5
Re: Nim - learn now, write later? Yeah, I would opt without Reduce person, if it meant I would be late for duty. Can I study, but not write it into my spellbook? YES, that seems fine. Nothing says that you need to write the spell as soon as you learn it. The closest rule I can find is that once you decipher magical writing with a Spellcraft check or read magic, you don't need to decipher it again later. Therefore, it makes sense that once you learn a spell with a Spellcraft check, you don't need to learn it again.
|
|
Ok. We can make this work. Nim will have 4 Level 5 spells available. Rabbit, what are you wanting to do with the afternoon? Should I memorize teleport? I can teleport with you and 3 medium creatures, or 1 medium and 1 large(which would probably make sense to bring an Erinyes and a Nightmare to bodyguard us).