I think that sounds like an acceptable plan, I guess.

Oh, I'm not the only one...

3rded by the way.

My wall is about 1-1:30.

Sallies. I get a little drowsy around 4.

And before you do the whole "But you slept until noon" nonsense, bah. I was up by 9 that day.

That was a fine encounter. The party wasn't in real danger past the first couple rounds, and while YOU were very nearly killed, a perfectly acceptable encounter COULD open with just flat out one of the PCs dying. Such an encounter would likely not be very fun for the unfortunate player, but the encounter could still be completed successfully, is my point. This encounter didn't really stretch you- it stretched you to avoid having something tragic happen.



I should have created a third type of construct, or designed the room such that you guys had to disable two cannons to be successful. Simply put, I don't design rooms around the strategy about "bunch around the entrance and cleave down everything that waddles near the stalker and the pokeygirl", and the few encounters that don't lend themselves to that strategy tend to get an ass full of wizard spells. This encounter would have been much harder if you had all approached in construct form, but actually faster and easier if like, TWO of you were in construct form and the others physical. For a reasonably straightforward approach, it was probably a bit undertuned for you.



Yea, remembering the protection spells was clutch. While it was a bit frustrating for such an encounter to be exploded, you DID roll very well on inits (and my monsters rolled rather poorly), which widened the difference that your superior strategy had already granted you. That being said, the stakes WERE still high, and each one of your rounds was selected well- it wasn't for free that you had such dominance over the enemy. I believe this was a very good encounter, even if you guys blew it up- you blew it up with excellent preparation.



This was absolutely the hardest encounter the party has ever had. Part of it was that you didn't manage to disable the dragon in any way with spells- a big part, really. I was extremely pleased with this, and I had no intention of pulling out any stops. I suspect a pretty big deal was the general inability to deal with the dragon's sand trick- freedom of movement, in ring form or spell form would have made a big difference. This was a brutal battle tactically, and you guys fought through it well.



I didn't decide it was reasonable. I decided it was what Rim-Thul the cruel had at his beck and call at that moment, and figured it would evolve naturally, and it did. You were in less danger than the blue dragon fight I think, because escape was at hand. Simply put, if you had pulled back away from the house, the casters would have had a hard time actually following and being effective, especially with the tall sand dunes. It wasn't intended that way, and only Ash really used it to basically become immune, but still. Again, we saw a lack of good disabling spells land, but even without them, you were able to push most of them over without TOO much danger. I thought this was a good fight.

Octessa's "intervention" wasn't really as such. If you'll recall, she and hers mostly handled Vix-Thur- whose presence, and ability to affect you, was 100% bullshit, game mechanically. He's across the continent and draining your stats with some awful magic missile knockoff? WHAT THE FUCK! So her contribution there was more putting the fight back to being between you and Rim-Thul. And, you know, his party of casters and summoned minions.



I like your plan, I think. I may decide to tell you what you find before the actual game, so we'll be on the right page. I'll provide you with a bit more leads into all these things, at least.


Also, I can honestly stay up until literally whenever. Gaming is about as mentally stimulating as an activity can be without involving bodily fluids. However, I do try to end the stuff early because so many of you are early birds. I underestimated the combat's length- in fact, there was a small (but increasing) chance of a few enslaved brass dragons heading by each round of the fight, as some were in the area. I stopped rolling after about round 5, when I realized that adding a brass dragon, even a weak one, would make the fight last forever (and not really provide much challenge- the brass dragons were similar to the ones that you crushed alongside the blue).

I haven't noticed any posts for sweet lewts OR an update from the last session. Granted you have some time before the next session, but wouldn't it be nice to just post everything now? That will give you at LEAST an extra 20-30 minutes to WoW it up before heading over to Mike's on March 3rd or whatever.

Yes, this is something I wanted to mention but forgot. I know a ring of freedom of movement is exceptionally tough to come by, but I think our priest needs to have this spell as one of his pre-fight buffs for one or more of the party. We could also investigate some scrolls that could be used in a pinch.

As a fun fact, when you guys first escaped from Rim-Thul, he was level 12, and had a ring of free action. When you just killed him, he had only levelled up to 13, but still ofc has that sexy ring. So, you definitely have that ring now.

This wasn't really an argument. It was more of a suggestion that your gaming group would probably enjoy some easier combats. No, we don't need to take on 8 level 1 orcs, but we could enjoy something easier. One of the quirks here is that at various times I talk to most of the other players. When a couple of them say "Man, it sure would be nice to have some easy combats here and there," I tend to repeat that suggestion back to you.


Given she was looking for that exact ring in Emerald, that ring should go to Alenka. If we can find ourselves another one, it should go to Mr Teleport. Unless someone wants to make a bid for it. As "Voted most likely to be defeated by a grapple" I wouldn't mind it, but hopefully flying and my charms will keep me out of that situation.

Really? I figured that our other up-front fighter should get it before me. Not that I'm not concerned about being grappled, but I usually have several buffs up that help keep me from being easily grappled.

It's a tough call, but as you know the best way to disable a wizard is to grapple him. Usually the wizard stays back from melee range, but someone can get through. A Still Dim Door almost always works. A Still Silent Dim Door is typically foolproof.

You are less likely to be grappled, but it is far worse for you if you are. You have no chance of breaking free, you have fewer hit points, and you can take almost no other actions. So that's my opinion, but I assume I get the 5th such ring anyway so I don't really care.

Ha. Well, good point. My point was, I typically have Mirror Image up, along with a few other buffs. Maybe there's something else I can cast to further help me. Although I still think the priest needs to have a couple Freedom Of Movement spells on hand for each battle. Should be easy, as there's no significant material component.

By the way, my assumption is that this would not help us get out of the sand. I'm not sure, though.

Obviously it prevents the problem in the first place by not being grappled, but I'm just wondering what would happen if the priest cast it while already buried. It allows movement in water, but it doesn't say anything about dirt. At best I think it would allow an automatic success on the roll to move 5 feet, but that would take a DM ruling in the unlikely event it should ever come up again and play out that way.

Noted, and some of your encounters won't be so damned hard. Remember that you went from Proditial region (guaranteed challenge) directly to a "boss fight" with a character you had been fucking with for several levels, one known to have several allies. I think that level helped, by the way.


That being said- players don't always know what they want. I know it can be frustrating to have your characters a couple bad die rolls ahead of the grim reaper, but at the same time, many fights you walk into knowing you will win, and being mostly concerned about doing awesome damage, or preserving resources. That's fine but remember that such an encounter can still take an hour, and if you spend 45 minutes of that figuring you are pretty much safe, it can become a lot less fun, as optimizing your battle choices and tactical decisions has "efficiency" as a reward instead of "victory".



Note that all Dim Doors are Still by default- their component is only V. Silent Dim Door is 100% your best go-to for escaping, because even if there is a silent copper piece around, or the grappler muffles you (when you are pinned, hand-over-mouth is a free action, and prevents verbal component requiring spells).

Subtle spells allows you to still silent all sorts of stuff, one of the reasons I wrapped those two up together.

Freedom of Movement would help you when buried in loose sand, which is what had happened. I would assume in such loose sand you have a movement of 5. This is a house rule, as "loose sand" isn't a thing in the book. I assume that sand was loose because a dragon the size of half a unit Voltron (lions, not cars) put you there with a burrow speed, so I can't imagine it's the same thing as being buried under 20 feet of rock or something.

Will it happen again? Well, I thought it was fun. Look for Grappling Burrowers COMING TO A FLOOR NEAR YOU!!!!

Yeah, I understand players are often like women, not knowing what they want. It also wasn't complaint of what happened, merely a suggestion going forward. I guess you say "I didn't care if it was an appropriate difficulty, I just figured what Rimjob would have." That never seems to go the other way, you know?

I was unaware Dim Door was verbal only. Shows how much I pay attention...

The only Voltron is the lions. The cars don't merit the title.

I am most assuredly already aware.

You did grab the rapier and a pretty good staff by walking in after the previous party had failed to loot stuff. That was just "what did these guys miss after chasing Rim-Thul off".

Our priestly friend does not have Sending memorized. I'm sure he swapped it out for something useless like Dimensional Anchor, which was the one that kept Rimjob from escaping... ok, so probably a good call on his part.

So the wizardly friend has up to one hour to learn as much as he can about this box. Maybe I can roll a knowledge arcana check to boost his check on some roll. Hopefully it won't take an hour. I mean, aside from the goody-goody who sits in the front row, who actually studies for an hour?

What I said to Mark yesterday was, if we're able to sit down and study the box for an hour, really getting a good look at its workings, both physical and magical, are we going to learn some good stuff and not be subject to a single Knowledge: Awesome Slavery Boxes roll where it's pass/fail?

I want to see our damn haul! That said, Goonies is on Encore right now. This might be the name for Alenka's orphan guild... if we don't get a recap soon.

Too much waffling. You guys going to study the box or not?

Yes. Up to one hour, but if the roll takes place after 5 minutes, then it goes boom after 5 minutes.

money, cash, hoes

The dwarf looks eagerly at the box, his eyes calculating. Morgrim takes a breath, controls his heart. The octagonal room he sits in has the scent of myrrh, and is visibly the cleanest of the rooms. While in the first few moments after the death of Rim-Thul the cruel, the party had stayed together, sweeping the luxurious house for the brass box, but now they were spread in the nearby rooms. Keichi was observing, but silently, and from outside the indigo room. Morgrim hadn't heard him in a few minutes. Alenka was last spotted wadding up the designer Kuromeran silk that covered the walls in the previous room, and was checking the walls for traps. Ash was still concentrating on his recently cast detect magic, ensuring that the ever eager duelist did not stumble into the one of the few traps she couldn't detect.
Of course, rogues can detect all manner of traps by triggering them. And, Xennish Parry Ball is here to help! 8% is a lot!
Rigby, of course, was helping. He was so helpy, right now, in fact, that Morgrim had to look around him to continue his examination of the box. Even more helpfully, Rigby faded to invisibility again.

"I can still see you. You'll need to actually move."

The flows of magic here were hard to perceive. Not on the box- the box gleamed brightly under detect, glowing with enchantment bound with elements of necromancy. The magic being woven from the box was both too strong and too tightly patterned to be cast as a spell. The challenge was in seeing where the magic was going directly after leaving the box- for each strand of magic faded so quickly that it couldn't be traced easily.
Hanzo is eating a fucking sock as I write this. Fucking dogs are fucking crazy.
"Maybe each strand controls a dragon?" Rigby opined, having become just interested enough to hold off his obvious mission of destroying the box.
Ash, staring at the walls as Alenka strips them of their valuable cloth, and the paintings, wonders if there is anything to eat. A salad, in fact, would be nice.
Keichi was accustomed to this. The pixie and the dwarf, often joined by the elf, made gestures and motions, and then could perceive a kind of overlay on the real world. Then they would talk about it. He never questioned the results, and he assumed it was similar to how his own thoughts could be manifest through focus and determination, meditative techniques taught to him over the powerful smell of salmon in between meals and chores. But, he could feel his ki. He could focus on the concept, and he could feel the reality as it applied to him- but, that was a feeling he trusted. When they cast a spell, mastered in a time older than the stones of Caligo, that gives them an impression, how could they trust that? Did they just all speak the same false language of colors? Had they deluded themselves into thinking that this mush they were describing was reality?


"It's the room." Morgrim decided. "The strands go out to the room, and then into the... curtains?"

"Assuredly, into the horrible odor that he keeps here, probably so he doesn't smell his humanness constantly. Probably hard to work if you have to constantly oh hey Keichi. I meant, uh, Voriphans."
(Be polite, little pixie. I'm like three hit dice away from being able to full attack you with blind sight after teleporting to you as a swift action.)
Rigby went to gently pull away some of the indigo curtains about the room, but then realized that he was forgetting something very important.

"Alenka! We need your help."
No, Miss Thatcher, I expect you to die...
With Ash, Keichi, and Rigby at a distance that they considered safe, Alenka takes down the curtains. The walls, painted a fuschia, have intricate designs on them, painted in gold- draconic in their lettering, but the message is only one of magic. The pattern... each set could evoke a word if thought about from different assumptions....

Then it clicks.

"The box isn't finished. It's missing some valuable crystal. Unbound! The dragon is curled around something absent, that is something Rim-Thul didn't have, so he rigged it up because it was almost done. The room allows it to function even though it is incomplete. Scratch out these glyphs and the dragons will be freed. Or just take the box out of the room. Rigby, you should totally go do that. Be the first to touch the box. Or, hey, we could go open one of those gold cages instead."

Excellent.

I say that we first commit the glyphs to memory, then scratch them out. I first thought that we should write them down, but that would be bad if evil people come and snuff us out and then take our phat l00tz.

As far as the box, since it's almost-but-not-quite finished, what does everyone say if we teleport with it to someplace where we can learn more about it (since it won't function outside the room)? I'm not married to this decision, as we've probably figured out just about everything we can about the box itself. But maybe someone (artificer? Octessa?) can determine more about this crystal....what it is, where they're found, who else might have one....and then we have some leads as far as where we can continue our mission to obliterate these boxes. And maybe find where Rimjob's bosses are looking next.

Bam, bitches.

I say, yes, memorize and erase the crap on the wall to free the dragons, destroy the faggoty pixie cages, sodomize the DM with grilling tongs, loot the place, relocate to some secure place that isn't Zem Tower (maybe the inn in Emerald), rest, have the priest contact Octessa, and go from there.

The first problem is whether we can all teleport before resting. If not, it's 8 hours here in a rope trick. So... until we are ready to go, the permanent illusion I cast will be of nothing. I won't make it a large image of Rimjob in the process of being drawn and quartered by teams of unicorns that are just barely strong enough to get the job done (so it takes longer) under the text "Thus Always to Slavers" with pixie wings on the A and elf arrows sticking out of the S until we are ready to go.

I debated an image of the party standing over the fallen Rimjob, but I'm guessing we don't need any more accurate descriptions of us going around the bad guys' guild meeting.

Unfortunately, I'm one level away from being able to teleport us all right now. So we'll need to rest.

I do like the idea of the permanent illusion of ourselves over a vanquished Rimjob after we bug out. But maybe we can change ourselves so that we look like a party consisting of a gnome fighter, a kender wizard, a half-orc priest, and a retarded half-elf rogue. All with gigantic packages that we used to violate Rimjob's corpse.

I'm confident kender wizards don't exist, the rest is good. Maybe I'll throw in a half dragon / half mind flayer ranger to really fuck with people. His animal companion will be a puppy gnawing on a unicorn horn.

...

This whole "take what you need" stuff is for the birds.

Just a note for those of you who wear armor... Do you recall there are house rules for all of this? It's easy to forget if you go from one sort of armor to another. It's not the same as what is in the book.

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I haven't added a single attribute point.

Oh well I guess...