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Post by reefwood on May 23, 2010 23:13:41 GMT -5
Game Night
Just a reminder that we are playing the next installment of War Stories on Tuesday at 7pm. Please have your character leveled up ahead of time or feel free to show up as early as 6pm to finish things up before the game. Things in the game will pick up at 9am on Day 18 with everyone rested and spells prepared for the day.
I think the only thing left to decide before leaving the cave is whether or not to take additional troops. Once that is figured out, you will set out after the orc horde. Woo!
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Post by reefwood on May 26, 2010 5:15:34 GMT -5
Chapter 7: Mini Post-game
Great job guys! I will make a story recap in the Chapter 7 thread, but to answer the questions that came up at the end of the night...
From the last battle, there are 6 orcs and 2 wolves still alive and stable but unconscious. The orcs are ones with greataxes. Among the dead are 4 greataxe orcs, 4 archer orcs, 2 Medium wolves, and 1 Large wolf....when Grolton sees the Large wolf, he recognizes it as a dire wolf.
From the first 2 battles of the day, there are 6 orcs who are unconscious but stable and 2 conscious horses.
It is a little after 2pm on Day 18, and you have ridden about 20 miles....15 through the mountains and about 5 into the forest.
The story recap will also list obvious equipment, but if you want to search the orcs, that will take time, so it will depend on what you want to do in the immediate aftermath of the battle. Stay and search the orcs? Ride away with some of them? Something else? However you decide to act will determine what, if any, additional info you receive.
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Post by michael on May 26, 2010 14:24:11 GMT -5
I say we drag the orcs over to the area we have the horses, then search them.
As far as what to do with them afterward, I would make the argument for killing them. If Grolton is determined to let them live, I would suggest hobbling them by chopping off a foot, and probably their right hand as well. (I'd do it reluctantly. For a warrior, death is almost certainly preferable to such a crippled existence.) To make sure I don't kill them, I could chop, then cast stabilize immediately afterward.
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Post by Rabbit on May 26, 2010 14:44:26 GMT -5
Sahme would also lay out an arguement in favor of killing the remaining orcs.
"They faught a good fight, sir. But we bested them in mortal combat. It is right and proper that they die and we live. To do otherwise goes against prudence and the will of Gorhm."
If we are unable to convince our commanding officer to approve dispatching the remaining resistance then maybe we just take the survivors with us back to the cave... if that is where we are going.
A think a quick search of the bodies is a good idea as well.
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Post by reefwood on May 26, 2010 19:12:09 GMT -5
I say we drag the orcs over to the area we have the horses, then search them. The horses are about 100 feet away from where you were hiding, right? There are 14 orc bodies that are scattered appox. between 50 to 250 ft from your hiding spot. 10 weight 200 lbs and 4 weigh 180 lbs. If you decide to move the bodies, let me know how you want to do it. I don't want to get super precise with numbers, but it is going to take some effort and a little time, so I don't want to say that it just happens. As far as what to do with them afterward, I would make the argument for killing them. If Grolton is determined to let them live, I would suggest hobbling them by chopping off a foot, and probably their right hand as well. (I'd do it reluctantly. For a warrior, death is almost certainly preferable to such a crippled existence.) To make sure I don't kill them, I could chop, then cast stabilize immediately afterward. If you chop off a hand or foot, that will require cutting through bone. I'd say bone falls in between wood and stone in terms of hardness and hit points. An attempt to do this will require at attack with a slashing weapon. Stabilize will keep them alive if they survive the attack, but the attack could potentially kill them, and it could require more than one attack. Chopping bone deals regular damage to the person, but the bone hardness reduces the damage to the bone, so you will be doing more damage to the person than the bone. Not to say this can't work. It really just depends how many hit points they have when you start chopping. Sahme would also lay out an arguement in favor of killing the remaining orcs. "They faught a good fight, sir. But we bested them in mortal combat. It is right and proper that they die and we live. To do otherwise goes against prudence and the will of Gorhm." If we are unable to convince our commanding officer to approve dispatching the remaining resistance then maybe we just take the survivors with us back to the cave... if that is where we are going. There are 12 orcs still alive. I'd say with using two hands, a rider could hold 2 unconscious orcs on the back of his horse by laying one of top of the other. That would be 6 orcs. The orc horses could each hold 1 unconscious orc by placing the orc in the saddle. You'd have to roll a 50% to see if he stays in the saddle while unconscious, so he may fall out and take damage a few times until succeeding, but it is possible. And if the horse started moving differently at some point (i.e. running, up a slope, etc), you'd have to roll the 50% again. That would bring the total up to 8 orcs on horses. This still leaves 4 orcs, and you would probably be moving at a slower pace with the extra weight on the horses. You could revive some or all the orcs and see if you can march them to the camp, but they do outnumber you and on foot would slow you down even more. A think a quick search of the bodies is a good idea as well. If you decide to search, just let me know when and how. If you waited until the orcs were together, the search time would be faster, but then you would have to wait until they were all moved. If you start searching them now, it will take longer to search everyone, but you might actually get it done sooner. Just depends on how you decide to move the orcs and how long that will take. |
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Post by icnivad on May 27, 2010 13:54:20 GMT -5
Replied in the other post before seeing this one. Sir Grolton would still be adamantly against killing them in their sleep. "They were good enough to spare our men that did not die in battle, we should offer them the same kindness. It is the only honorable course."
I think we can cut off the bowstrings from the longbows and use that to bind their hands and feet. we have two new horses, too, that we could probably strap several to with armor straps. I think we could use sending the next day to have some of the troops from the cave come out to collect the bodies and horses. Or, as a bird, I could probably reach the cave a lot faster than we can on foot.
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Post by reefwood on May 27, 2010 14:17:17 GMT -5
Recovering from Injury
With the debate about prisoners, I decided to go over the recovery rules to both inform myself and possibly shed some light that may help the PCs decide what to do. The simple answer is that the orcs might have a chance of waking up every hour, or they may never wake up. If they do wake up, it may be a while before they can do much, or they could be fully functional right away. The outcome can depend on multiple factors such as character level, the type of damage, current hit points, and/or any care they receive.
Also, I somewhat updated the related posts in the Pathfinder Rules thread.
And if you want a more detailed explanation, keep reading...
A creature below 0 hp is dying until stablized. All the surviving orcs are stable. A stable creature below 0 hp makes a Con check (1d20 +Con mod -negative hp) vs DC 10 every hour to wake up. However...
- Each failure inflicts 1 pt of damage if the creature has not been tended. The lower hp makes the next Con check harder and can lead to death with enough failures. Success makes the creature conscious, but another Con check is needed to heal naturally. This second Con check can be attempted once per day after resting 8 hrs. Success puts the creature in the clear. Failure inflicts 1 pt of damage, but the creature remain conscious.
- If the creature has been tended, failure does not cause damage and no Con check is needed to heal naturally. The creature will eventually wake up - either with a successful Con check or when rest brings it to 0 hp or higher.
- With or without being tended, a conscious creature below 0 hp is disabled and more damage from strenuous effort or an outside source (i.e. weapon, falling, magic, etc) drops it back to dying (unconscious and unstable).
A creature with more nonlethal damage than current hp is unconscious, but stable as long as current hp is 0 or higher. When the nonlethal damage is equal to or less than their current hp, they wake up. If the amounts are equal, the creature is staggered. Once current hp is higher than the nonlethal damage, the creature is fully functional again.
A creature with nonlethal damage who is below 0 hp must meet the requirements of both conditions to wake up, but they occur independent of each other. Success on the hourly Con check means the creature can wake up, but it won't wake up if the nonlethal damage is higher than current hp...which will always be the case below 0 hp. Essentially, the nonlethal damage has to be completely removed for a creature to wake up while below 0 hp, but a successful Con check is needed too. It doesn't matter which happens first, and both are occuring at the same time - each hour is a Con check and nonlethal damage heals each hour. A creature in this position just won't wake up until both happen.
Bringing this back to the orcs... let's say there is an orc who is a 5th-level character with 40 hp.
If he took 52 pts of nonlethal damage, that means he is at 28/40 hp with 40 pts nonlethal. Nonlethal exceeds current hp, so he is unconscious, but he is above 0 hp, so he was never dying. He will heal 5 pts of nonlethal damage every hour. In 3 hrs, he heals 15 pts of nonlethal, so the nonlethal drops from 40 pts to 25 pts, which is now lower than his current hp, so he wakes up.
If he took 85 pts of nonlethal damage, that means he is at -5/40 hp with 40 pts nonlethal and was dying, but let's say he stabilized right away and didn't bleed out anymore. If no one tends his wounds, he will die if he continuously fails the hourly Con check to wake up. If he succeeds once, he can wake up but won't until all the nonlethal damage is gone. Even then, he won't start healing until making another Con check after resting. If he continuously fails this daily Con check, he will die eventually. If he succeeds once, he is on the road to recovery and that first night of rest brings him up to 0/40 hp.
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Post by reefwood on May 27, 2010 16:48:27 GMT -5
Replied in the other post before seeing this one. Sir Grolton would still be adamantly against killing them in their sleep. "They were good enough to spare our men that did not die in battle, we should offer them the same kindness. It is the only honorable course." I think we can cut off the bowstrings from the longbows and use that to bind their hands and feet. we have two new horses, too, that we could probably strap several to with armor straps. I think we could use sending the next day to have some of the troops from the cave come out to collect the bodies and horses. Or, as a bird, I could probably reach the cave a lot faster than we can on foot. One unconscious orc could sit in the empty riding saddle of a horse. You will just have to roll the 50% falling out chance until he stays in, and each falls results in 1d6 damage. It will probably take a few or several breastplate straps to tie 1 orc to a horse, depending on how you do it. I imagine it would take at least 4 straps just to wrap around the body of a horse like a belt, and 1 more if you want enough slack to be able to actually tie all the straps together. Also, keep in mind that you don't know anything about these horses. Don't expect them to be just like your military trained or animal companion horses or have the same stats. They might but might not. The sending can be used to contact anyone you know. If the person is unreachable, it fails. EDIT: The 1st sending will refresh at 5:30pm. The 2nd sending will refresh a little before midnight. And I believe that Brion can prepare this spell too. The troops in the cave are under the command on Warrant Officer Shaw and are doing the mission in the mountains. Not to say that they can't help you, but be aware that they are doing stuff too. Not just hanging out in stasis. The same goes for the main army at Verdas. The offensive siege has resumed today. A fast enough bird could definitely make it back to the cave faster than the horses. You could either make a Survival check to follow the trail back through the mountains (with your speed based on any penalties to Survival you want to take), make a Survival check to wind through the mountains by memory/landmarks at any speed you choose, or make a Survival check to fly over the mountains which would be faster than winding through the mountains by memory but more difficult. |
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Post by reefwood on Jun 8, 2010 11:09:51 GMT -5
Game Night!
Just a reminder that we're playing the second part of War Stories - Chapter 7: The Orc Horde tonight. Woo!
We'll pick things up wherever they leave off online. There's no set up to do, so we should be able to jump right into things. Currently, Sir Grolton is separated from the group and in the future. The future! So, we'll probably catch up Brion and Sahme first if that doesn't happen on here. Also, I'm working today but will definitely be able to reply to story posts and PMs after 3pm, if not sooner.
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Post by icnivad on Jun 9, 2010 1:32:09 GMT -5
Can we chose intelligent items in the magic items part of the package? There are pretty strait forward rules for the intelligent items gp value. If so, can we have an existing item imbued with intelligence? And can an item already given intelligence have extra intelligence or abilities added to it?
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Post by reefwood on Jun 9, 2010 1:57:19 GMT -5
Post-Game (Ch 7: The Orc Horde)
Good job again! I will post a brief recap in the story thread along with rewards by the end of Thursday, but I want to present you with the next set of options.
A few things to mention first... Ch. 7 took place during Days 18 & 19. You will receive 2 days of income pool at 7th level and bump up to 8th-level... Since you spent 2 days out on a mission and were successful, you have the option of taking up to 2 days off (Days 20 & 21). You would receive 1 day of 8th-level income at the end of each day off, and if you took both days off, the next chapter would begin on Day 22... New items you can obtain immediately, but magic upgrades take 1 day per 1,000 gp, so 1 day off would let you fully enchant masterwork armor into +1 armor, whereas 2 days off would let you fully enchant a masterwork weapon to a +1 weapon. Of course, you can make more expensive upgrades if you can afford it but won't have the item back until it is complete. Unless you want to take the item back early, in which case the magic work/cost is wasted.
Now onto the possible scenarios...
1) Defend against the orc horde: This would take place only hours after the last session ended, so during the night between Day 19 & 20. You will have time to obtain new items but no time for upgrades to be complete. No rest or preparing new spells either.
2) Into the city: Urban warfare that you can join on Day 20, 21, or 22. Just depends on how much time you want to take off.
3) Out of the city: Tired of orcs? Tired of the city fighting? Then, sign up for another special assignment! This can start between Day 20-22...your choice. EDIT: This will take you away from the main army.
It'll be at least a few weeks before I can run the next chapter, but the sooner you all decide on a course, the sooner I can get started on it. Also, feel free to let me know if you have any particular interests within those options. For example, Rabbit mentioned the idea of having grunts again...maybe even magic grunts...and even if grunts are an option, not everyone has to have them. And if there are any elements from previous chapters that you would like to see more of or expanded, I'm certainly open to that too.
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Post by icnivad on Jun 9, 2010 2:44:41 GMT -5
My vote is to take the full two days off, then something else outside the city. I've enjoyed these special missions.
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Post by Rabbit on Jun 9, 2010 11:39:43 GMT -5
I would also prefer to take the two full days off.
I could go with either 'city warfare' or taking on a special mission away from the main army (about equal interest).
[edit:] in a story telling kind of way I like that we don't really resolve all the overarching stories (be it a ghoul infestation of a nearby town, an approching orc army, seige, or whatever). Individual soldiers don't really get to see things start to finish, they just complete their orders and move on to the next objective. Not having 'chapter ending' closure helps give a sense that things are bigger than any one character(s). Yep.
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Post by reefwood on Jun 9, 2010 18:45:25 GMT -5
Re: Intelligent ItemsCan we chose intelligent items in the magic items part of the package? There are pretty strait forward rules for the intelligent items gp value. If so, can we have an existing item imbued with intelligence? And can an item already given intelligence have extra intelligence or abilities added to it? YES to obtaining an intelligent item. YES to turning an existing masterwork or magic item into an intelligent item , or turning an existing masterwork item into a magic item and at the same time (if you can afford it, or if not, then later) turning it into an intelligent item. NO to upgrading an already existing intelligent item, in part because the description says "Intelligent items must have an alignment, mental ability scores, languages, senses, and at least one other special ability. These statistics and abilities can be improved during creation, increasing the item's overall cost." It seems to imply that once an item is made intelligent, those qualities cannot be improved later. Although, other magic qualities the qualities of the magic item (that is now intelligent) can still be improved, such as the magic enhancement bonus to a weapon, but this will increase the Base Magic Item Value which seems like it would increase the Ego Modifier too. That's the short of it, but I'm still looking into how intelligent item creation would work in general and in this campaign. The actual gold piece amounts are straightforward, but the caster level requirements seem to be nonexistent, even though the "Intelligent Item Powers" section mentions "item's caster level." I'm going to look through more of the magic section and check out the Pathfinder erratas to see if they provide more details, but I have a feeling that an intelligent item requires a decent caster level to create. EDIT: The erratas don't have any changes/updates to the Intelligent Item section, and from looking through a couple messageboards, it seems like Pathfinder does not have much in the way of intelligent item creation rules. I suppose this is because they are such rare and unusual items that more than likely it would be DMs introducing them into a game. The 3.5 rules on intelligent item creation say that a caster level of 15 (CL 15) or higher is required. That's the only special requirement, and the rest of the requirements seem to be based on the magic item being imbued. If you want an +2 intelligent longsword, you need a 15th-level caster who can also craft a +2 longsword. It kind of seems like intelligence is added when the item is first made. I feel like setting the caster level at 15 - in addition to perhaps wanting to grant intelligent item access to only the highest level casters - probably made it easy for the game designers to avoid determining more specific requirements. That high of a caster probably doesn't have any problem having access to the spells that can be used to give an intelligent item most of the potential qualities. Or maybe you're just so powerful in general at wielding magic that you can do this sort of thing? The examples in the 3.5 DMG are all CL 15, except for two that require the wish spell. Those are CL 17, but I'm don't even see why one of those items would need that spell. Anyway, I am still open to the PCs obtaining an intelligent item, and intelligence being added to an already existing magic item, but I will probably have to determine some house rules for creation. Not that you'll be creating them, but what you have access to is based on the caster levels which are tied into starting & rewards packages. And since intelligent items are very rare (less than 1% of all magic items have intelligence), there will be additional restrictions that don't have anything to do with item creation...such as, only PCs can obtain an intelligent item and only one. Off the top of my head, I see that CL 8 is required to create a magic item that boosts a mental ability score, CL 12 is needed to boost two ability scores, and CL 16 is required to boost all three ability scores, so it will probably fall somewhere in that realm for the mental ability score part of it. Other powers that have a similar magic item equivalent will probably have to meet the same CL as the magic item it mimics. If you want the item to cast spells, that will be simple and just need a CL that has access to the spell, and skill ranks will require a caster of a level high enough to have the amount of skill ranks put into the item, but these two things will probably be impeded more by cost than CL. Another thing to note is that the magic item component and the intelligent item component are two separate things, but you need former to have the latter. Not all magic items are intelligent items, but all intelligent items are magic items. Intelligence is something that a magic item can have, but you can't imbue an ordinary pair of boots with intelligence. It is kind of like how a weapon needs to have a magic enhancement bonus before it can have a special ability. A masterwork longsword can't be turned into a flaming longsword. Going back to the separation aspect, it seems like the caster level for the item itself is based on the CL of the magic item. I think that's what "item's caster level" refers to in the "Intelligent Item Powers" section. Not the CL needed to make the item intelligent, especially since there don't seem to be any rules about that anyway. That +2 longsword requires a CL 6 (+2 enhancement bonus x3 special requirement for magic weapon = 6), so if becomes intelligent and gains the ability to cast cure light wounds, it would cast that spell as a 6th-level caster (1d8+5) and not based on the CL of the intelligent item requirements...which for this spell, casting it at a higher level wouldn't even give the spell anymore power anyway. Turn that weapon into a +3 longsword, and the CL increases to 9, which still only heals 1d8+1, but you get the point. The increasing caster level would at least continue to improve caster level checks to defeat Spell Resistance, and there may be other things that improve with a higher caster level even if the power of the spell doesn't.
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Post by reefwood on Jun 13, 2010 16:04:53 GMT -5
Chapter 7 - post-game #2 Now that you are back with the main army, you have to return mission equipment and can have all unknown spoils identified. Mission equipment to return: Sir Grolton - exotic military saddle Brion - heavy horse, riding saddle, amulet of sendingI believe Sahme owns his own horse and military saddle, so as far as I can recall, he didn't take any mission equipment. All the remaining unidentified vials are potions of cure light wounds (1d8+1). Is there anything else you need figured out?
Chapter 8 - pre-game My vote is to take the full two days off, then something else outside the city. I've enjoyed these special missions. I would also prefer to take the two full days off. I could go with either 'city warfare' or taking on a special mission away from the main army (about equal interest). There are two votes for 2 days off, so let's do that. This gives 2 days of 8th-level Income Pool to each PC: [(level 8 x5) +Prof(military)] x2. This also gives you 2 days to work on other things, such as Grolton taking 24 hrs to gain a new animal companion. You can also complete up to 2,000 gp worth of upgrading to an item in 2 days, and as 8th-level characters, you can have up to 4 items being upgraded at once. Also, you can leave an item behind that will take longer to upgrade but will not be able to pick up the item until returning to the main army. Which segues nicely to the next topic. Looks like interest is swaying toward the special mission. I already have an idea in mind and will start fleshing it out. As always, I want PCs to level up before presenting details but new equipment doesn't need to be set in stone until we get rolling with things. Seeing how it might be at least a few weeks before I can run this one, we might be able to start online, but either way, this will probably be a two-session chapter. Also, Rabbit was interested in having grunts. Anyone else?
[edit:] in a story telling kind of way I like that we don't really resolve all the overarching stories (be it a ghoul infestation of a nearby town, an approching orc army, seige, or whatever). Individual soldiers don't really get to see things start to finish, they just complete their orders and move on to the next objective. Not having 'chapter ending' closure helps give a sense that things are bigger than any one character(s). Yep. Glad you're enjoying this aspect of it. If you did try to "totally win" at everything, you might wind up dead a lot more  Plus, it is handy as a DM because it gives me easy reason to shift you to new scenarios. And you all are starting to eke ahead of the pack. In a few more levels, you might start to get famous. For better or worse 
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