Chapter 16 [Recovering the Relic]

[reefwood]

Apr 9, 2011 17:19:10 GMT -5 michael said:

Ha, yeah, I don't know why I never thought of Nim's ridiculous spellcraft score. If you use Identify, I'm pretty sure it's impossible for you to fail unless it's an artifact, so Analyze Dweomer would be pointless to get. The only other useful spell would be Greater Arcane Sight, which will automatically tell you all magical effects on any item, artifact or not. It would be 2,250 gp for a scroll, though, and would only get used when we're looking at artifacts. Unless you can't identify the other items we brought up with the relic, I don't think it's worth it right now.

Legend Lore is more for flavor than practicality in most cases, but it would be fun to have. (Great legends about the person/place/thing are brought to mind, even if those legends have been long forgotten or never widely known.) It would be 1000 gp to get a scroll of Legend Lore scribed by a bard. You could still scribe that into your spellbook even though a bard made the scroll, right? I might end up getting that one.

Yeah, Nim could use a scroll made by a bard. The main difference for scrolls is arcane vs divine. There are other prerequisites too, but Nim meets them all. One thing that would change for using a scroll from a different caster type is the caster level, but that doesn't affect this spell anyway.

However, the scroll would actually cost 1,450 because of the expensive material component and focus:

Components V, S, M (incense worth 250 gp), F (four pieces of ivory worth 50 gp each)

Additionally, if Nim wrote this into his spellbook, the four pieces of ivory (200 gp total) would need to be obtained as a one-time thing as well as a dose of incense (250 gp) for every casting.

Apr 9, 2011 17:19:10 GMT -5 michael said:

I could prepare Wind Walk up to 4 times if I used all of my 6 & 7 level slots, and it's Brion + 4 others per casting.

It might be worth it to use teleport instead of Phantom Steed, just to limit the number of people on horses; the air above the swamp is still dangerous, and if you're hit on horseback, it's a ride check to stay in the saddle. People in Wind Walk form can outrun just about anything, but the rest are in quite a bit of danger if something comes at them.

What about this?

Teleport x4
-Othur
-7 miners

Wind Walk x3
Brion
-Hunter
-Duncan
-Cohort
Sahme
-Paulson
Nimarius
-Bodyguard
-3 miners
Ghoul
Skeletor

Nim can have Wind Walk cast on him but remain in solid form so he can ride the Nightmares with the Erinyes and guide them.

This is a much safer way to travel, but it also uses 3 level 6 spells. Depending on what happens when we're back in New Briar, though, that might not be an issue. We may get to rest before more tasks anyway.

If we wanted to to one less Wind Walk, we could have cohort, Nimarius, Sahme, and Paulson riding. Nim can cast Phantom Steed once, cohort can teleport himself, and the others can ride the Nightmares.

I'll let you all figure out the details for getting back, but one thing to add is that Orthur would not leave any miners behind unless it was absolutely necessary. He would be fine with teleporting some or all the weaker miners back to New Briar even if it meant he had to stay in the swamp with the squad, but he wouldn't return to New Briar without them unless there was an immediate danger that could not be overcome.

Essentially, he won't agree to an exit that takes him out of the swamp before his crew...but if the squad is being overrun by uber monsters, he'll flee without the crew for the sake of the mission.

[icnivad]

Hm. You know, +1 arrows of spell storing are 160gp apiece and might prove to be pretty powerful tools in a jam. We could stuff them full of fireballs whenever Sahme has some extra spells left before sleeping. By contrast a 10th level wand of fireballs costs 450gp a charge. And the arrows can be used by non-casters. Another useful spell might be Vampiric Touch, which would give temporary HP to the user, or Scorching Ray which deals 12d6!

[reefwood]

Apr 10, 2011 18:43:30 GMT -5 icnivad said:

Hm. You know, +1 arrows of spell storing are 160gp apiece and might prove to be pretty powerful tools in a jam. We could stuff them full of fireballs whenever Sahme has some extra spells left before sleeping. By contrast a 10th level wand of fireballs costs 450gp a charge. And the arrows can be used by non-casters. Another useful spell might be Vampiric Touch, which would give temporary HP to the user, or Scorching Ray which deals 12d6!

A nifty idea, but there are a couple problems with these particular examples...

1) The spell storing special ability can only be used on melee weapons. Not arrows. Although, there are melee weapons that can be thrown (dagger, hammer, etc), but they don't have nearly as much range, and they would cost 8,000+ gp each.

2) The spell storing special ability only functions with targeted spells. Neither fireball or scorching ray are target spells. They produce an effect, which can be shot at a certain place or person, but the spell itself does not automatically target someone. Target spells have the "Target" line listed in their info, like magic missile.

[icnivad]

Damn, I missed the bit about not being able to put them into ranged. I still might try to give Skeletor a weapon of spell storing so he can use Vampiric Touch at the beginning of a battle.