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We don't know where they're being hauled off to, but chasing them in hot pursuit is just going to get us all captured with them. Elise as the little sneak has a good chance of gathering some intel on her own, and a good chance of escaping on her own with said intel. I believe that the plan is that with Elise healed up as best as the berries can provide she does her thing while Demayo and myself do ours. The chain is a hunch. It goes somewhere; we don't know where.
My observation is that the waterwheel is clearly an ancient structure, its just spinning, and it appears that the wheel turns the chain which should drive something above. But the waterwheel is spinning free right now, suggesting that it has some kind of clutch that is currently disengaged. I'm assuming, Dave, that the "chain" is more like a drive chain (motercycle/bicycle or timing gear) than a simple round link chain (padlock-style). Otherwise I can't fathom a reason why the chain would be there. Basically, the thought is that the chain goes SOMEWHERE and that if the chain is a drive chain and it isn't driving anything upstairs then whatever is upstairs is probably not very interesting for the Orcs and might be a "safe" place to break into the upstairs.
My mental map has the space upstairs of the chain connecting somehow and probably not directly to the "prison guard room" (with the stairs up/down where Matt and I fought Orcs on our own) and the prison platform connecting somehow to the "prison cell platform" (where we fought Trolls). I'm also just guessing, but it makes sense, and I think that at the bottom of the crevass in the prison cavern is probably the very same river we've been floating on. That would be too convenient. In any event, I'm glad to be coming full circle back to the hanging prisons because it is in the webs below them that Winterloin dropped his equipment, that bodies remain to be exhumed/looted/reburied, and if we can get back to this room we have a couple of good tunnel hideout positions from which to formulate a plan or base a rescue. Plus I could ferry back up to the food room for supplies.
Another mental map question I have regards that side room at the top of the stairs with the window overlooking the waterfall. Why is it there? What is it there for? What is it perfectly situated to watch? Maybe that room was for watching the waterfall for foreign objects to raise an alarm or net to catch them below and protect the waterwheel. Maybe there was some water-level control function performed from that room, since seasonal meltoff might be expected to change the water level or flow rate in this underground river. I'm imagining that from this room you can see the waterfall AND see the outflow tunnel and thus divert excess water to the outflow tunnel. Perhaps thats the whole point, in which case some controls should be in that room somewhere, either to control water diverted or engage/disengage the wheel or both, or maybe just to signal to someone in a different room. Its not like we bothered to look for anything. And one of the two outflow tunnels leading away from the waterwheel area likely heads outside. Somehow. Perhaps in a way that cannot be survived by us. But the Dwarfs clearly used this underground river for transportation as well as for work, and if they used it for transportation then there is sure to be a safe waterborne path outside of the mountain. My thought is that the Dwarfs mined ore from where we saw the Orcs, transported it DOWN the tunnel to the waterwheel, and put it on BARGES to go outside. That the worked stone side of the prison level is Dwarf construction and connected to the waterwheel region, and the unworked stone side of the prison level represents Orc tunnelling; that entire undermountain represents a Dwarf mine that was cross-tunnelled by Orcs.
At close of last session:
Elise is "berried up"
Mal cast Light on a small stone or sling bullet (Elise's choice) for Elise
Demayo and Mal heading down to the waterwheel and Elise following/tracking the prisoners
Mal's to-do list:
Inspect chain at waterwheel -
- what kind of chain (drive chain?)
- link wear consistent with use as drive chain
- rust on wheel/chain/etc?
- why do wooden docks not rot away, but wood slats from waterwheel are absent or rotted off?
-- maybe the docks/jetties are stone, not wood, and error of assumption is due to models used not reflecting reality
Light and Flight for Demayo
- Freddie go with Demayo
Mal goto overlook room
- whats the point of the window?
- wear evidence on floor as evidence of past furnishings
- stone, worn consistently, esp by metal shod feet or metal studded sandals, should show wear
Current flow in water
- brisk/sluggish?
- predominantly to the wheel, or to the tunnel?
- where does water go once past the wheel?
- depth of water?
- accessable water exit tunnels, perhaps fly up one
- sluggish water could be swum by a sable and scouted
Minimum 3hr rest to recover PP
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Vol 1 Issue 8: 19 Apr 2008
It was a productive session and a lot was accomplished. Not, no surprise here, without a lot of risk to everyone.
The core of hearty adventurers still present: Joe, Sean, Matt, Forest, Gene, and Dave. Still absent: Gerry & Steve. We're hoping for their return soon. Perhaps for May's session.
At the end of March's game, we left our little band deep in an underground cavern in a battle with Orcs and Trolls. We had whittled the opposition down to a single Troll and less than a dozen Orcs. No problem for Steve, but a challenge for everyone else. We'd consolidated our position on the platform on "our" side of the cavern with only Winterloin (Sean) battling on the wooden bridges.
In a pickle between the Troll and several Orcs, Winterloin attempted to cut the ropes of the bridge while standing in the middle of it. Each line cut destabilized the bridge further, with more enemies falling to their doom below. Finally, he managed to hack enough bridge supports that the Troll fell off also, but that big beasty managed to catch himself on the side of a cage and started swinging. Not so lucky for Winterloin, as his attempt to tie himself off to the bridge for safety failed and he fell screaming into the black abyss. Goodbye, Winterloin. We'll miss you. Got your other character ready?
That left us with a raging battle on the platform, Demilo (Joe) partly surrounded by Orcs and with Reuben (Gene) slapping him with heal spells. Matt the Halfling had jumped down and was whipping daggers into other Orcs while Elise (Forest) was going all Jackie Chan on them with her puissant skill in unarmed combat. Who knew she had such skill? Into that mess, a well-timed and accurate fireball (zero friendly fire casualties) scorched 5 Orcs, much to Reuben's delight (I think he likes barbeque pork) and the return of the swinging Troll all helped encourage the few surviving Orcs to attempt to flee back to the other side of the cavern. Wounded, some bleeding, most scorched, many stunned, all of them failed to safely navigate the damaged and wobbling bridges. All fell ungloriously to their dooms below. Goodbye, Orcs. We won't miss you.
The Troll was missing his club when he climbed back onto the ledge with us, and Demilo was still dueling an Orc. The Troll took him by surprise and sent him flying into the black abyss below. Goodbye, Demilo. We'll miss you. Too bad your other character got left at home.
A little Shock Bolt, some sling stones and daggers, the Troll was previously wounded by Winterloin. It didn't take much to convince him to leave back to his cave, and it didn't take much to convince us to leave him alone.
I set off down below, still flying, to attempt to see how deep the chasm went and if the bodies of Winterloin and Demilo could be recovered. Or looted. Both fell with magic items that we'd surely need later on. Or for their new characters. Flying around with a torch I found that 100' down from the platforms where we fought was a solid layer of heavy hawser-grade spider webbing with some curious holes in it. Wrapped in the webbing were bodies, Dwarf sized, and from one body I found an interesting ring. I pocketed it for later examination, and then much to my surprise heard screaming from below me. Winterloin! Calling my name! Miraculously alive!
Turns out he and Demilo had fallen through the layer of webbing I'd been exploring (the curious holes) and into the space below. Below this web was about 50' of light webbing and then another layer of heavy hawser-grade webs. There they stopped. They managed to regroup with each other down below, light was dropped to them, and we began a rescue attempt. I would descend again with a bunch of rope and by rope or levitation get them safely out of the webs before they were attacked by spiders. Some monsterously HUUUUUGE spider must be responsible for hawser-grade web lines.
That would have worked well, except that they didn't want to wait to be rescued. Instead they set off wandering around the web looking for trouble. Or a way out. Or Winterloin's dropped gear. I think they were hunting for a clue. But they definately found trouble in the form of 2-foot diameter giant spiders (just little babies compared with what must have made the main cables of the web) that they managed to defeat. So when I came back with rope and all to rescue them, they were nowhere to be found. In searching for them with the narrow beam of Projected Light I was ambushed by another spider, which felled me instantly with a paralytic poison. Fortunately, Freddie the Sable was able to get ferocious like a rabid caged animal and convinced the spider through some rather aggressive diplomacy to leave me alone. Shortly afterwards, I was rescued by Reuben and Elise who had jumped off the into the black abyss to escape the return of the Troll.
Eventually all were happy and together again on the web; Matt overcame his psychosis against spiders for long enough to climb down and we dropped a rope so the boys could climb back up to us. At which point the spiders attacked in mass and Matt ran screaming and crying like a little girl off blind into the black just running to escape the spiders. I guess he really does have a psychosis. For once, we flee sanely from certain death. All followed Matt, our new Leader. Steve and Gerry floated along behind us tethered like balloons labelled "Press Start to Join Game".
This led us to a narrow tunnel full of webs, more spider fights, Demilo dropping like a fly, a vain attempt to rest interrupted by spiders, and everyone fleeing deeper into the tunnel-maze where we found, eventually, The Caverns of Mushrooms.
Deep in the Caverns of Mushrooms, filled with gigantanormous mushrooms the size of a Hutt, we found an underground river (cold water!), and had to make a serious choice. This time, unlike every time before, it was a serious discussion instead of a blind leap of faith without a parachute. Do we go on, or do we go back?
Option #1: I offered that we could go back to the spider web, and I would be willing to fly (alone or with Matt) back to the ledge where we entered the enormous cavern and from there walk the half-mile or so back to the Room Of Unlimited Food. We could resupply indefinately and fight like guerillas against the spiders. Matt supported the idea of finding, cataloging, indexing, and looting all of the bodies trapped in the spider webs. I still hadn't told anyone about the ring I'd found.
Option #2: Everyone gets wet. We make coracles or rafts out of giant mushroom caps and take a dip in the 55deg brisk moving underground river and let it take us somewhere else. A little aerial scouting showed that the river tunnel was safe for at least 1200-1500 feet, so maybe we could assume that it would be safe indefinately. Whats the worst we'd find? Waterfall, maybe some carniverous fish, maybe a giant ichtheosaurus, maybe Nessie?
Spiders or Water. Nobody has an irrational fear of water? We chose the water route.
The core of hearty adventurers still present: Joe, Sean, Matt, Forest, Gene, and Dave. Still absent: Gerry & Steve. We're hoping for their return soon. Perhaps for May's session.
At the end of March's game, we left our little band deep in an underground cavern in a battle with Orcs and Trolls. We had whittled the opposition down to a single Troll and less than a dozen Orcs. No problem for Steve, but a challenge for everyone else. We'd consolidated our position on the platform on "our" side of the cavern with only Winterloin (Sean) battling on the wooden bridges.
In a pickle between the Troll and several Orcs, Winterloin attempted to cut the ropes of the bridge while standing in the middle of it. Each line cut destabilized the bridge further, with more enemies falling to their doom below. Finally, he managed to hack enough bridge supports that the Troll fell off also, but that big beasty managed to catch himself on the side of a cage and started swinging. Not so lucky for Winterloin, as his attempt to tie himself off to the bridge for safety failed and he fell screaming into the black abyss. Goodbye, Winterloin. We'll miss you. Got your other character ready?
That left us with a raging battle on the platform, Demilo (Joe) partly surrounded by Orcs and with Reuben (Gene) slapping him with heal spells. Matt the Halfling had jumped down and was whipping daggers into other Orcs while Elise (Forest) was going all Jackie Chan on them with her puissant skill in unarmed combat. Who knew she had such skill? Into that mess, a well-timed and accurate fireball (zero friendly fire casualties) scorched 5 Orcs, much to Reuben's delight (I think he likes barbeque pork) and the return of the swinging Troll all helped encourage the few surviving Orcs to attempt to flee back to the other side of the cavern. Wounded, some bleeding, most scorched, many stunned, all of them failed to safely navigate the damaged and wobbling bridges. All fell ungloriously to their dooms below. Goodbye, Orcs. We won't miss you.
The Troll was missing his club when he climbed back onto the ledge with us, and Demilo was still dueling an Orc. The Troll took him by surprise and sent him flying into the black abyss below. Goodbye, Demilo. We'll miss you. Too bad your other character got left at home.
A little Shock Bolt, some sling stones and daggers, the Troll was previously wounded by Winterloin. It didn't take much to convince him to leave back to his cave, and it didn't take much to convince us to leave him alone.
I set off down below, still flying, to attempt to see how deep the chasm went and if the bodies of Winterloin and Demilo could be recovered. Or looted. Both fell with magic items that we'd surely need later on. Or for their new characters. Flying around with a torch I found that 100' down from the platforms where we fought was a solid layer of heavy hawser-grade spider webbing with some curious holes in it. Wrapped in the webbing were bodies, Dwarf sized, and from one body I found an interesting ring. I pocketed it for later examination, and then much to my surprise heard screaming from below me. Winterloin! Calling my name! Miraculously alive!
Turns out he and Demilo had fallen through the layer of webbing I'd been exploring (the curious holes) and into the space below. Below this web was about 50' of light webbing and then another layer of heavy hawser-grade webs. There they stopped. They managed to regroup with each other down below, light was dropped to them, and we began a rescue attempt. I would descend again with a bunch of rope and by rope or levitation get them safely out of the webs before they were attacked by spiders. Some monsterously HUUUUUGE spider must be responsible for hawser-grade web lines.
That would have worked well, except that they didn't want to wait to be rescued. Instead they set off wandering around the web looking for trouble. Or a way out. Or Winterloin's dropped gear. I think they were hunting for a clue. But they definately found trouble in the form of 2-foot diameter giant spiders (just little babies compared with what must have made the main cables of the web) that they managed to defeat. So when I came back with rope and all to rescue them, they were nowhere to be found. In searching for them with the narrow beam of Projected Light I was ambushed by another spider, which felled me instantly with a paralytic poison. Fortunately, Freddie the Sable was able to get ferocious like a rabid caged animal and convinced the spider through some rather aggressive diplomacy to leave me alone. Shortly afterwards, I was rescued by Reuben and Elise who had jumped off the into the black abyss to escape the return of the Troll.
Eventually all were happy and together again on the web; Matt overcame his psychosis against spiders for long enough to climb down and we dropped a rope so the boys could climb back up to us. At which point the spiders attacked in mass and Matt ran screaming and crying like a little girl off blind into the black just running to escape the spiders. I guess he really does have a psychosis. For once, we flee sanely from certain death. All followed Matt, our new Leader. Steve and Gerry floated along behind us tethered like balloons labelled "Press Start to Join Game".
This led us to a narrow tunnel full of webs, more spider fights, Demilo dropping like a fly, a vain attempt to rest interrupted by spiders, and everyone fleeing deeper into the tunnel-maze where we found, eventually, The Caverns of Mushrooms.
Deep in the Caverns of Mushrooms, filled with gigantanormous mushrooms the size of a Hutt, we found an underground river (cold water!), and had to make a serious choice. This time, unlike every time before, it was a serious discussion instead of a blind leap of faith without a parachute. Do we go on, or do we go back?
Option #1: I offered that we could go back to the spider web, and I would be willing to fly (alone or with Matt) back to the ledge where we entered the enormous cavern and from there walk the half-mile or so back to the Room Of Unlimited Food. We could resupply indefinately and fight like guerillas against the spiders. Matt supported the idea of finding, cataloging, indexing, and looting all of the bodies trapped in the spider webs. I still hadn't told anyone about the ring I'd found.
Option #2: Everyone gets wet. We make coracles or rafts out of giant mushroom caps and take a dip in the 55deg brisk moving underground river and let it take us somewhere else. A little aerial scouting showed that the river tunnel was safe for at least 1200-1500 feet, so maybe we could assume that it would be safe indefinately. Whats the worst we'd find? Waterfall, maybe some carniverous fish, maybe a giant ichtheosaurus, maybe Nessie?
Spiders or Water. Nobody has an irrational fear of water? We chose the water route.
Vol 1 Issue 7: 29 Mar 2008
Well, we did it again. We managed to stick our appendages into a hole and we'll be lucky to pull back a bloody stump. If we can pull back anything at all. We had it good for a while: warm beds, a roof over our heads, a year's supply of food of a wide variety (except no cooking oil), and hot running water. We had it all. We had all-you-can-drink DWARVEN ALE by the 55-gal keg! We were (relatively) safe, for days, with our greatest danger being no more than staying in the mineral hot springs for too long.
Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way
Apologies to Mary Hopkins. Okay, to be honest we were short on some stuff. Like firewood. And fresh meat. And fresh water could only be had as snowmelt. So it wasn't perfect. But it was sure a heck of a lot better than anything else we'd experienced for weeks... or months.
But when we last left our intrepid adventurers they were fleeing for their lives, running with their tails between their legs, routing away from a seemingly endless horde of orcs and trolls that was pouring out of a little hidey-hole like too many clowns stuffed in a Volkswagen. Except that by the time WE were running, so were THEY.
Once again, a battle without loot. Groundhog Day again.
So we took off running, with our only goal being to make it back to the steam vent hole. Running cross-country. In the winter. Did I mention the snow? No? Into a blizzard where we couldn't see more than a few dozen feet in front of our faces. It was miserable. Three days, minimum. No food. Water? Snowmelt. I don't know how the woodsmen did it, but the rest of us made it back by my use of Heat Solid to give us a little warmth so we didn't completely freeze to death. It snowed FEET of SNOW every night of the trek back to the steam vent hole, and the first night back in the hole it snowed another three feet. The entrance was almost snowed in. We had nothing to eat but mule: steamed, boiled, baked, or raw. Yeah, it was pretty raw.
By the time we got snowed into the steam cave, I swear I heard the whistle of a train. I was looking for the tracks. I was feeling like we'd managed to railroad ourselves pretty good.
Choo! Choo!
So thats how we got from fighting for our lives to the steam cave. From there to Utopia, it was only a few short steps:
1. About 75 feet down the hole, the tunnel narrowed and ended in an iron grate. Reuben managed to jump on it like a fat guy until it fell out of the wall.
2. Another 25 feet past the grate was the water level. A nice 110-degree natural mineral hot springs. Underground cave system. Worked stone. Collapsed tunnels. Lots of stuff to explore.
3. We picked the closest tunnel, went up a half or two thirds of a mile, and found a collapsed wall into a Dwarven storeroom full of kegs and casks and chests of magically preserved foodstuffs of all sorts: dried meats, salted meats, whole grains, ground grains, lentils, ale, sugar, you name it. Everything dry, nothing fresh, and the only liquid was ale. No cooking oil.
We could have holed up there for however long we needed. Want light? We could have ferried food up the hole to the cave entrance, which we DID for the horses and mules. Except the one mule we already ate. BuUurp!
But we're ADVENTURERS! We're in a DUNGEON! We had 200 years combined D&D experience in the room, half of it as dungeoncrawl.
We could have explored a little more. We sorta did. We picked a hallway and a direction. We'd already gone almost a mile in a straight line underground, so checking out any of the other two tunnels leading out of the main cavern would have meant almost a mile of backtracking to get anywhere. So we went forward. Onward! Downward!
At the end of a looooong tunnel, a few hundred yards further (enough to make me think we're now a full mile from the start cavern), the tunnel exited into a huge cavern, hundreds of feet off the floor, and about 75 feet straight down from us were lit torches and prison cages and suspended rope-and-wood bridges straight out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Without the snakes.
It was actually pretty cool.
Until the trolls and orcs showed up.
But you had to know this was coming, didn't you?
So now we find our intrepid adventurers fighting for their lives, sloughing off Fate Points like dandruff flakes, hacking our way through orcs and trolls in that fiendishly bloody and self-destructive way that only Rolemaster characters can.
We got to the tunnel entrance and were curious about these 9 prison cages hanging down below and the rope bridges, so we sent the hobbits down for a little scouting. It seemed safe. So everyone wanted to go down and have a party. On our side of the bridges we found a big platform with a cave/tunnel leading further back. On the far side of the bridges was another big platform with a door and above it a window. I went over there to scout, and I heard some voices/noise. Flitting up above the door, I peered into the window and found orcs. Several orcs. I didn't take a careful count, but instead went back down to the platform so I could try to signal someone's attention and communicate my find.
My luck: Matt saw my signals and came to ferry my message back to the rest of the gang: orcs upstairs, many, 5 or more. Seeing that nobody cared, I magically locked the door. Or maybe I did that first. It was locked, when from the tunnel on the other side of the big cavern out popped a troll. They have a Cave Troll! A Cave Troll? Two of them. Plus orcs. I knew it would only be a short matter of time before reinforcements would start pouring through the magically locked door and catch us from behind, time that our warriors needed to deal with the threat on the other side of the bridges. So I teleported back up to the window and started pissing away fate points and casting spells.
Did I say 5 orcs? I meant 20. 21, actually, but who is counting? Lesser Illusion with 100% Audio to distract them. Marginally successful. Dodge a knife: minus one fate point (or take a 10B). Sleep VII. Three drop right in front of me. Dodge an arrow: minus one fate point (or take a worse hit). Sleep VII again. Two more drop. Now Matt and I, Matt who scaled the stone wall like a mad miniature pirate with a magical knife in his mouth and leapt insanely in front of me to fend off 6 orcs with nothing more than his cutlery collection, are almost surrounded by the last 6 orcs. Our backs are to the wall. No, our backs are to a WINDOW! Matt takes hold of me, and I leap out the window like a flying leaping suicidal thing. Except that its less than a 10' move for me, and all I'm really doing is activating my Flight ring. Hovering outside the window, watching the rest of the orcs pour through the now-broken door below me, I rain Electrical-C crits down on the orcs left in the room until it was time for us to regroup back with the rest of the gang. We left devastation and twitching fried electrocuted bodies behind us as we flew back to the "start" side of the cavern, whereupon we discovered that the big buff tough warrior types had managed to fell one of the two trolls. With a little help from mean old Mister Gravity.
So thats about where we are. One troll and a dozen or so orcs, plus the threat of reinforcements.
The one thing I can be pretty sure of from the heroics that Matt and I performed on the far side of the bridge: none of the orcs in that room left to call for reinforcements. That we saw. They didn't think they needed to. I'd cast an audio illusion on the stairs leading UP that sounded like a battle that direction. No need for them to go up for reinforcements, with a closer battle at hand and a crazy flying wizard at their window.
But still no loot.
Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way
Apologies to Mary Hopkins. Okay, to be honest we were short on some stuff. Like firewood. And fresh meat. And fresh water could only be had as snowmelt. So it wasn't perfect. But it was sure a heck of a lot better than anything else we'd experienced for weeks... or months.
But when we last left our intrepid adventurers they were fleeing for their lives, running with their tails between their legs, routing away from a seemingly endless horde of orcs and trolls that was pouring out of a little hidey-hole like too many clowns stuffed in a Volkswagen. Except that by the time WE were running, so were THEY.
Once again, a battle without loot. Groundhog Day again.
So we took off running, with our only goal being to make it back to the steam vent hole. Running cross-country. In the winter. Did I mention the snow? No? Into a blizzard where we couldn't see more than a few dozen feet in front of our faces. It was miserable. Three days, minimum. No food. Water? Snowmelt. I don't know how the woodsmen did it, but the rest of us made it back by my use of Heat Solid to give us a little warmth so we didn't completely freeze to death. It snowed FEET of SNOW every night of the trek back to the steam vent hole, and the first night back in the hole it snowed another three feet. The entrance was almost snowed in. We had nothing to eat but mule: steamed, boiled, baked, or raw. Yeah, it was pretty raw.
By the time we got snowed into the steam cave, I swear I heard the whistle of a train. I was looking for the tracks. I was feeling like we'd managed to railroad ourselves pretty good.
Choo! Choo!
So thats how we got from fighting for our lives to the steam cave. From there to Utopia, it was only a few short steps:
1. About 75 feet down the hole, the tunnel narrowed and ended in an iron grate. Reuben managed to jump on it like a fat guy until it fell out of the wall.
2. Another 25 feet past the grate was the water level. A nice 110-degree natural mineral hot springs. Underground cave system. Worked stone. Collapsed tunnels. Lots of stuff to explore.
3. We picked the closest tunnel, went up a half or two thirds of a mile, and found a collapsed wall into a Dwarven storeroom full of kegs and casks and chests of magically preserved foodstuffs of all sorts: dried meats, salted meats, whole grains, ground grains, lentils, ale, sugar, you name it. Everything dry, nothing fresh, and the only liquid was ale. No cooking oil.
We could have holed up there for however long we needed. Want light? We could have ferried food up the hole to the cave entrance, which we DID for the horses and mules. Except the one mule we already ate. BuUurp!
But we're ADVENTURERS! We're in a DUNGEON! We had 200 years combined D&D experience in the room, half of it as dungeoncrawl.
We could have explored a little more. We sorta did. We picked a hallway and a direction. We'd already gone almost a mile in a straight line underground, so checking out any of the other two tunnels leading out of the main cavern would have meant almost a mile of backtracking to get anywhere. So we went forward. Onward! Downward!
At the end of a looooong tunnel, a few hundred yards further (enough to make me think we're now a full mile from the start cavern), the tunnel exited into a huge cavern, hundreds of feet off the floor, and about 75 feet straight down from us were lit torches and prison cages and suspended rope-and-wood bridges straight out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Without the snakes.
It was actually pretty cool.
Until the trolls and orcs showed up.
But you had to know this was coming, didn't you?
So now we find our intrepid adventurers fighting for their lives, sloughing off Fate Points like dandruff flakes, hacking our way through orcs and trolls in that fiendishly bloody and self-destructive way that only Rolemaster characters can.
We got to the tunnel entrance and were curious about these 9 prison cages hanging down below and the rope bridges, so we sent the hobbits down for a little scouting. It seemed safe. So everyone wanted to go down and have a party. On our side of the bridges we found a big platform with a cave/tunnel leading further back. On the far side of the bridges was another big platform with a door and above it a window. I went over there to scout, and I heard some voices/noise. Flitting up above the door, I peered into the window and found orcs. Several orcs. I didn't take a careful count, but instead went back down to the platform so I could try to signal someone's attention and communicate my find.
My luck: Matt saw my signals and came to ferry my message back to the rest of the gang: orcs upstairs, many, 5 or more. Seeing that nobody cared, I magically locked the door. Or maybe I did that first. It was locked, when from the tunnel on the other side of the big cavern out popped a troll. They have a Cave Troll! A Cave Troll? Two of them. Plus orcs. I knew it would only be a short matter of time before reinforcements would start pouring through the magically locked door and catch us from behind, time that our warriors needed to deal with the threat on the other side of the bridges. So I teleported back up to the window and started pissing away fate points and casting spells.
Did I say 5 orcs? I meant 20. 21, actually, but who is counting? Lesser Illusion with 100% Audio to distract them. Marginally successful. Dodge a knife: minus one fate point (or take a 10B). Sleep VII. Three drop right in front of me. Dodge an arrow: minus one fate point (or take a worse hit). Sleep VII again. Two more drop. Now Matt and I, Matt who scaled the stone wall like a mad miniature pirate with a magical knife in his mouth and leapt insanely in front of me to fend off 6 orcs with nothing more than his cutlery collection, are almost surrounded by the last 6 orcs. Our backs are to the wall. No, our backs are to a WINDOW! Matt takes hold of me, and I leap out the window like a flying leaping suicidal thing. Except that its less than a 10' move for me, and all I'm really doing is activating my Flight ring. Hovering outside the window, watching the rest of the orcs pour through the now-broken door below me, I rain Electrical-C crits down on the orcs left in the room until it was time for us to regroup back with the rest of the gang. We left devastation and twitching fried electrocuted bodies behind us as we flew back to the "start" side of the cavern, whereupon we discovered that the big buff tough warrior types had managed to fell one of the two trolls. With a little help from mean old Mister Gravity.
So thats about where we are. One troll and a dozen or so orcs, plus the threat of reinforcements.
The one thing I can be pretty sure of from the heroics that Matt and I performed on the far side of the bridge: none of the orcs in that room left to call for reinforcements. That we saw. They didn't think they needed to. I'd cast an audio illusion on the stairs leading UP that sounded like a battle that direction. No need for them to go up for reinforcements, with a closer battle at hand and a crazy flying wizard at their window.
But still no loot.
Vol 1 Issue 6: 16 Feb 2008
Last night was such a disaster on so many different levels that it pains me to dig into some of this but I must.
1. First off, I'll ponder what I consider to be my biggest disaster of the night: the poor and premature timing of that "airburst" fireball.
The story I gave last night was to put a game face on what was, realistically, a stupid thing to do and was an over-the-top example of using "player knowledge" out of character. Guilty. The problem for me that I've seen time and time again where a fight starts that we shouldn't have allowed to start in the first place, on poor terms for us, the fight is beginning to go badly, we're facing "countless hordes", AND on top of it the hour is getting late. At the start of this campaign there was the idea that a game session would run until perhaps 10pm or 11pm, so the "extended sessions" place me in a terrible personal bind. My wife expects me home at a "reasonable" hour, is willing to be flexible enough to accomodate an "occasional midnight", but I knew she would be livid if I pushed last night beyond midnight and had agreed with her in advance that if I couldn't "cut myself off" and walk out at a reasonable hour that I might need to drop out of the group entirely. I was feeling pressured by the time and my wife, not the severity of the battle, and panicked.
What I should have done was left early, fled the scene, made a personal escape, or something natural. Hid in the snow. Flew away. I could have held that fireball an extra turn or two and the battle would have progressed naturally to the point where I could have easily used it with no question of circumstance and then bagged it for home. I could have voiced my true intentions instead of "gaming" the game. I was, in fact, cleaning up in the kitchen around this time with the vain hope that I might be able to head home soon so I really wasn't paying as close attention to the game as I should have.
I didn't do what I should have done, the scheme backfired, and here we are. I'm sorry to have offended you, Dave. You were absolutely right: the stunt was completely out of character and based on player knowledge. But it wasn't motivated by a desire to "kill orcs". It was motivated by a desire to end the fight quickly so I could get home. I should have just been honest about my intentions instead of trying to gimmick the game mechanics to the detriment of everyone else's enjoyment.
If I am to continue with the Rolemaster group, I must be clear up front that I'll need to bag out by 11:30pm at the very latest.
I would like to continue with the Rolemaster group. Petitions on my behalf can be emailed to wprentice AT usa.net for my wife's consideration.
So with the optimistic hope that my wife can be convinced to give me a second chance, and with the hope that the group sees fit to extend the same, I'd like to consider some other thoughts.
2. I really wanted the Familiar to help serve me as an extension of my eyes. I'm not very stealthy, but a small animal could be very helpful in that regard for me. My intention was to have the animal roaming around on foot with us to help with scouting. Someone made a joke about hunting the sable, which I took personally and seriously. As a result, I never followed up with my plans. I immediately began seeing the sable as a liability around "people threatening to kill it". We have to trust each other. I think the sable could be very useful. At the very least, if we let him roam 100-200 feet ahead of the party he might have clued us into the disaster we encountered last night. As I talked about with Joe, I would like to work with Joe to get him a Familiar as well. It will take me crafting a lot of scroll spells for him to work with to bind an animal to him, but this could be a very important asset for us. Bottom line is that because I mistook someone's joking comment as a serious threat, I failed to trust the rest of the party and thus failed to use what could have been an important scouting resource.
3. The steam vent demands deeper exploration. I'll volunteer to fly down to scout it, or I'll volunteer to cast Flight on anyone else who desires to go this instead of me. I dropped a rock with Light on it down the hole, it disappeared into mist, and then splashed in water. Thats all we know. How deep is the mist? How far to the water? What temperature is the water? The steam vent may be a backdoor entrance to whatever complex the defended cave leads to. By my recollection, it is a 10hr trek from the battle site back to the steam vent cave. That puts it on the other side of the same mountain that the defended cave is at. It is winter, so the water doesn't need to be boiling hot for steam to come out. A natural underground hot springs would have plenty of steam, and naturally be shrouded in mist. Anyone ever visited Chena Hot Springs? I think we need to do some serious underground cave exploration in the near future.
1. First off, I'll ponder what I consider to be my biggest disaster of the night: the poor and premature timing of that "airburst" fireball.
The story I gave last night was to put a game face on what was, realistically, a stupid thing to do and was an over-the-top example of using "player knowledge" out of character. Guilty. The problem for me that I've seen time and time again where a fight starts that we shouldn't have allowed to start in the first place, on poor terms for us, the fight is beginning to go badly, we're facing "countless hordes", AND on top of it the hour is getting late. At the start of this campaign there was the idea that a game session would run until perhaps 10pm or 11pm, so the "extended sessions" place me in a terrible personal bind. My wife expects me home at a "reasonable" hour, is willing to be flexible enough to accomodate an "occasional midnight", but I knew she would be livid if I pushed last night beyond midnight and had agreed with her in advance that if I couldn't "cut myself off" and walk out at a reasonable hour that I might need to drop out of the group entirely. I was feeling pressured by the time and my wife, not the severity of the battle, and panicked.
What I should have done was left early, fled the scene, made a personal escape, or something natural. Hid in the snow. Flew away. I could have held that fireball an extra turn or two and the battle would have progressed naturally to the point where I could have easily used it with no question of circumstance and then bagged it for home. I could have voiced my true intentions instead of "gaming" the game. I was, in fact, cleaning up in the kitchen around this time with the vain hope that I might be able to head home soon so I really wasn't paying as close attention to the game as I should have.
I didn't do what I should have done, the scheme backfired, and here we are. I'm sorry to have offended you, Dave. You were absolutely right: the stunt was completely out of character and based on player knowledge. But it wasn't motivated by a desire to "kill orcs". It was motivated by a desire to end the fight quickly so I could get home. I should have just been honest about my intentions instead of trying to gimmick the game mechanics to the detriment of everyone else's enjoyment.
If I am to continue with the Rolemaster group, I must be clear up front that I'll need to bag out by 11:30pm at the very latest.
I would like to continue with the Rolemaster group. Petitions on my behalf can be emailed to wprentice AT usa.net for my wife's consideration.
So with the optimistic hope that my wife can be convinced to give me a second chance, and with the hope that the group sees fit to extend the same, I'd like to consider some other thoughts.
2. I really wanted the Familiar to help serve me as an extension of my eyes. I'm not very stealthy, but a small animal could be very helpful in that regard for me. My intention was to have the animal roaming around on foot with us to help with scouting. Someone made a joke about hunting the sable, which I took personally and seriously. As a result, I never followed up with my plans. I immediately began seeing the sable as a liability around "people threatening to kill it". We have to trust each other. I think the sable could be very useful. At the very least, if we let him roam 100-200 feet ahead of the party he might have clued us into the disaster we encountered last night. As I talked about with Joe, I would like to work with Joe to get him a Familiar as well. It will take me crafting a lot of scroll spells for him to work with to bind an animal to him, but this could be a very important asset for us. Bottom line is that because I mistook someone's joking comment as a serious threat, I failed to trust the rest of the party and thus failed to use what could have been an important scouting resource.
3. The steam vent demands deeper exploration. I'll volunteer to fly down to scout it, or I'll volunteer to cast Flight on anyone else who desires to go this instead of me. I dropped a rock with Light on it down the hole, it disappeared into mist, and then splashed in water. Thats all we know. How deep is the mist? How far to the water? What temperature is the water? The steam vent may be a backdoor entrance to whatever complex the defended cave leads to. By my recollection, it is a 10hr trek from the battle site back to the steam vent cave. That puts it on the other side of the same mountain that the defended cave is at. It is winter, so the water doesn't need to be boiling hot for steam to come out. A natural underground hot springs would have plenty of steam, and naturally be shrouded in mist. Anyone ever visited Chena Hot Springs? I think we need to do some serious underground cave exploration in the near future.
Vol 1 Issue 5: 26 Jan 2008
Tales of daring-do... yeah, well, about that daring and that do. It wasn't and we didn't. Nuff said. Not satisfied? Well, I don't blame you. Okay, here's the synopsis. How many different variations of "we got our butts handed to us" would you like to hear?
Well, how about the one where Matt and Joe take off back to town for a quick sneaky scouting operation, camp out on top of the Temple with zero rations for 1.5 days, and then Matt decides to go traipsing on his own through town to count Orc heads in person. That was funny. Especially when he got spooked by his own shadow and ran around for a little while.
Important discovery: the Orcs had broken into the Temple. Is nothing sacred? Apparantly not. Yes, Virginia, they have a Shaman.
Reuben (Gene) got a little froggy, went hunting, stalked a column of troops headed to the monastary-town, and managed to get himself captured by Orcs. Orcs accompanied by Trolls. Lots of Orcs. With several Trolls. We wrote him off for dead.
Then Sean stalked the same column of troops. Detecting a pattern? Not quite. He at least confirmed, seperately, that Reuben was taken alive and appeared to be okay. He was not also captured. Good thing. Regrouped, we once again wrote off Reuben for dead. Hey, they have Trolls!
I sketched a smash-and-grab operation to get us back in the Temple, get into the upstairs rooms where we left our loot, and get it out again. Bonus: my guess was that they'd keep Reuben in the Temple if they didn't kill him, with the logic that the Shaman would be the leader of the Orcs and the Shaman would want the best digs for himself so the Temple would be his HQ and thats where Reuben would be if he was still alive. But we didn't know that Reuben had ratted us out to the Orcs, told them that we had a camp on the other side of the lake, and directed them off on a wild goose chase. Okay, so he didn't rat us out.
Instead of a nicely coordinated and organized smash-and-grab into the Temple, Matt went and roused the Temple's guards and burned off all his fate points leading one of them off on a merry chase while the other one rouse a Troll and sicced him on us. That was fun. Not. That left Saraldawan and myself to ditch the fight with the Troll (ask Gerry about how that went) and barge inside to make a run for the loot. And Reuben. Who was using the chaos to make his own escape. Without much success. A little bashy-bashy with the mega-mace and a little blasty-blasty with a point-blank fireball and Reuben was safe. Off to the loot.
No such luck. Looks like the Orcs got everything. Its all gone. Burned to a crisp. All the chests are gone. The gems, the cash, the books... everything. All we really have is Elise's drawings, rubbings, and maps.
Took a straw poll. All in favor, say aye. [EDIT: Sean and Reuben were incapable of raising a hand to vote so we had a voice vote, as both had sustained grievous injuries that would require weeks-to-months for healing] And with that we split back for town. After 5 weeks overland travel living substantially on jerked venison we made it to the fishing village. Another 1.5 weeks overland living on real food. Back to town where we started, and ready to kit out for another trip out. Thats basically where we left it. We're using contacts and making arrangements to meet with people involved with or interested in further exploration, perhaps hiring ourselves out, perhaps a lot of things. Lot of ideas. We've arranged to attend a major (for this town) social engagement, which Dave will arrange for our next game session, where we'll be able to mingle and meet with these potential backers. Plus I'm going to make my own subtle inquiries about the possibility of us swapping some of the magical doodads we've collected for "other stuff". Assuming that the stuff we've collected has historical/archeological/collectible value over and above the face value of "magic item" and can be traded for "multiple magic items".
We may wish to consider the redistribution of some of the doodads we've collected to date. The shield is cool. Would Gerry make better use of it than Sean, who seems to be better geared towards being a two-weapon fighter. Or is Sean going to gear more towards being a sword-and-shield warrior? JoeD has mostly fought as an archer, less so as a swordsman. Would he be better served by a magical missile weapon, and the sword see better use in other hands? Or is it blasphemous to consider redistribution of anything at this point? The idea is that maybe there is something we've picked up that we're just not making good use of that we might make better use of in different hands, or has greater value to use as barter fodder for something special that we would make great use of.
Well, how about the one where Matt and Joe take off back to town for a quick sneaky scouting operation, camp out on top of the Temple with zero rations for 1.5 days, and then Matt decides to go traipsing on his own through town to count Orc heads in person. That was funny. Especially when he got spooked by his own shadow and ran around for a little while.
Important discovery: the Orcs had broken into the Temple. Is nothing sacred? Apparantly not. Yes, Virginia, they have a Shaman.
Reuben (Gene) got a little froggy, went hunting, stalked a column of troops headed to the monastary-town, and managed to get himself captured by Orcs. Orcs accompanied by Trolls. Lots of Orcs. With several Trolls. We wrote him off for dead.
Then Sean stalked the same column of troops. Detecting a pattern? Not quite. He at least confirmed, seperately, that Reuben was taken alive and appeared to be okay. He was not also captured. Good thing. Regrouped, we once again wrote off Reuben for dead. Hey, they have Trolls!
I sketched a smash-and-grab operation to get us back in the Temple, get into the upstairs rooms where we left our loot, and get it out again. Bonus: my guess was that they'd keep Reuben in the Temple if they didn't kill him, with the logic that the Shaman would be the leader of the Orcs and the Shaman would want the best digs for himself so the Temple would be his HQ and thats where Reuben would be if he was still alive. But we didn't know that Reuben had ratted us out to the Orcs, told them that we had a camp on the other side of the lake, and directed them off on a wild goose chase. Okay, so he didn't rat us out.
Instead of a nicely coordinated and organized smash-and-grab into the Temple, Matt went and roused the Temple's guards and burned off all his fate points leading one of them off on a merry chase while the other one rouse a Troll and sicced him on us. That was fun. Not. That left Saraldawan and myself to ditch the fight with the Troll (ask Gerry about how that went) and barge inside to make a run for the loot. And Reuben. Who was using the chaos to make his own escape. Without much success. A little bashy-bashy with the mega-mace and a little blasty-blasty with a point-blank fireball and Reuben was safe. Off to the loot.
No such luck. Looks like the Orcs got everything. Its all gone. Burned to a crisp. All the chests are gone. The gems, the cash, the books... everything. All we really have is Elise's drawings, rubbings, and maps.
Took a straw poll. All in favor, say aye. [EDIT: Sean and Reuben were incapable of raising a hand to vote so we had a voice vote, as both had sustained grievous injuries that would require weeks-to-months for healing] And with that we split back for town. After 5 weeks overland travel living substantially on jerked venison we made it to the fishing village. Another 1.5 weeks overland living on real food. Back to town where we started, and ready to kit out for another trip out. Thats basically where we left it. We're using contacts and making arrangements to meet with people involved with or interested in further exploration, perhaps hiring ourselves out, perhaps a lot of things. Lot of ideas. We've arranged to attend a major (for this town) social engagement, which Dave will arrange for our next game session, where we'll be able to mingle and meet with these potential backers. Plus I'm going to make my own subtle inquiries about the possibility of us swapping some of the magical doodads we've collected for "other stuff". Assuming that the stuff we've collected has historical/archeological/collectible value over and above the face value of "magic item" and can be traded for "multiple magic items".
We may wish to consider the redistribution of some of the doodads we've collected to date. The shield is cool. Would Gerry make better use of it than Sean, who seems to be better geared towards being a two-weapon fighter. Or is Sean going to gear more towards being a sword-and-shield warrior? JoeD has mostly fought as an archer, less so as a swordsman. Would he be better served by a magical missile weapon, and the sword see better use in other hands? Or is it blasphemous to consider redistribution of anything at this point? The idea is that maybe there is something we've picked up that we're just not making good use of that we might make better use of in different hands, or has greater value to use as barter fodder for something special that we would make great use of.
Vol 1 Issue 4: 15 Dec 2007
"Judi's Lasagna"
Yeah, well, the whole "stick around and fight it out" plan actually worked out maybe a little better than I had expected. Except that now we've really kicked over the hornet's nest and stuck our face in it. We still haven't made it back into the Temple to recover the valuables we left behind, and at this point the only valuables that are worth recovering are those of cash value. Even those I think are pretty safe right where we left them.
I foraged up those healing berries that should be helpful, but right now I think we can save them for later and divvy them amongst some of the "battle line" warriors for future use. I expect that given 8hr of sleep even Saraldawan will have recovered enough PP to be useful. Let him recover PP, and then give him the Holy Mace to double it. Then let him lay about with some 3d10 healing. Rinse and repeat. Given that all of our damage is straight concussion, we should be at 100% in 24hr. That leaves me the same time period to be at 100% with my runescroll magic, which was much more helpful in the first battle than the second. A small pile of Sleep-VII should help. I'll get to work on those as soon as I can, but it would really be helpful if one or more of you guys would take a little Read Runes at your next level.
Finally, for once just once I'd like to cast a decent fireball. Just one. That doesn't risk crippling friendlies in the same blast. The only decent damage roll I've ever done with a fireball was against Sean, and if that same roll would have been done against Orcs it would have been a dose of 20-D all around, and the average crit on the Heat D column is unpleasant at the least. I guess I should just count myself lucky that as a 3rd level character I can reliably get off an 8th level attack spell like that in the first place. D&D this ain't.
Why do we need to take this city and defend it? The only interest we presently have in returning to the Temple is to remove the valuables we left locked up. If the orcs haven't entered the Temple yet, I don't think they're going to. And if they've already made it into the Temple, we can assume the books burned and the rest looted.
So, why would we want to take this city and defend it? Because we want a base of operations in this area. Do we want a base of operations with a big target sign on it? I don't know. I thought that the conventional wisdom we've previously operated with included a lot of escape routes and not getting bottled up somewhere. Easier to get bottled up inside a walled city, or inside the Temple. Maybe this isn't what we want for a base of operations.
I think that the problem is that this isn't the place we want to conduct operations from. Not that we couldn't take back the city. Not that we couldn't defend it. But that doing so doesn't earn us a base of operations that would be useful, because the area we want to operate in isn't right here.
I suggest that the area we want to operate in is the mountains further south of here. Where the orcs that chased Lisa came from in the first place. Where, presumably, these orcs came from. But to operate there, a supply chain that includes the monastary would be useful. Except that we can't man/defend it and use it as a base of operations.
I think we need to determine what greater goal we wish to accomplish. Killing orcs isn't a goal. It is a means to a goal. Lets settle on the goal first, and then work to accomplish it. Whatever "it" is. Killing orcs, for the sake of killing orcs, is pointless. Soon we'll stop seeing them in penny-packets and then we'll be in trouble.
If what we want to accomplish is to conquer and claim this monastary-city, lets do it with enough yeomanry that we can hold it. Bring settlers, bring craftsmen, rebuild the defenses; Do "It" Right.
I think we need to be thinking in terms of planning an expedition to further south. We need to head back to the coast, but not to retreat or to warn anyone. Just to resupply and cash out of this expedition. We've done the job we originally set out to do. Fine. Lets cash out and come back on our own accord to accomplish what we want to. Establish a mission colony for Saraldawan? Claim a fiefdom and establish ourselves as petty barons? Seek out the headwaters of this endless river of orcs? Pick one. Lets do it. Just as long as we are united in purpose.
My proposal:
1. We use stealth and subterfuge to steal into the Temple. Recover our valuables. Recover some of the manuscripts and the temple's logbook. This will probably require the sort of subterfuge and distraction that Dagobert suggests.
2. We return to civilization and cash out of this expedition, turn in the recovered manuscripts/books/etc, and if the gold/gems have academic value beyond face/weight we exchange them for modern currency as well.
3. We take our proceeds and finance, equal shares, our own expedition. Perhaps in three parts.
3.1. Retake the city as a mission colony for Saraldawan, with the church backing a settlement effort.
3.2. Pacify the immediate vicinity around the monastary.
3.3. Explore the mountains further south.
4. Use the monastary as a base of operations for other expeditions by turning it into a spot of civilization in its own right with a seperate trade link back to the port either overland or by coastal boat traffic.
My plan for #1:
1. Distract the orcs away from the Temple. Perhaps away from the city. Perhaps to a seperate doom of Dagobert's devising.
2. The stealthy wallclimbing sorts sneak over the city wall next to the Temple, give the all-clear, and drop a rope to me so I can get over. Joe, Matt, and myself.
3. I'll open the Temple doors. This is a Read Runes job, so that means me or Reuben.
4. We get in, get the stuff, run like the wind, and get the heck out. Leave most of the books. The logbook/journal and the gold/gems are essential. We're only running with a couple books.
5. Backup plan: lock me in the Temple, Joe and Matt E&E from the area, and I make my own escape via magick once I've picked up everything that we need to return with. I can kick open the door mid-flight, take to the roof, and pop a held fireball to cover my own escape. Messy, but I think it would work. We could send Reuben instead of me to do this job, and I backup Dagobert in bringing doom to the Orcs as a diversion, but I don't think Reuben has a strong backup exfil plan.
Then we just need to exfil from the neighborhood and get back to town.
Quote from: Elise Blackoak
I have been thinking a bit on the goal topic and whether we need to make this ruin a base of operations. My understanding of creating a base would include setting up a supply cache and hiring guards to watch over it. Perhaps some extra men to hunt game while we are out, fish in the lake, and repair broken and worn equipment. And having some experience with men they would probably require money, beer, and women to keep them happy. Pretty soon.......well I can see this growing to where we might as well seek applicants for colonists. And we would need to be able to protect all the colonists and so on.
I am not sure that we are ready to assume the mantle of minor lord of this area. I do agree that we need to develop our mid to long term goals as a group. We have had several weeks to get to know each other and I think we have managed to overcome some pretty serious obstacles together. Small personal issues aside, we have done quite well. Unfortunately, we have not found the sort of wealth that we could use to create a fiefdom here. I think we have already discussed that what we have found so far is the property of the expedition backers, to include the special weapons, armor, and shield we are using. This leaves us with precisely our small percent of the earnings, and although we really do not know what that might fetch, it is unlikely to be a grand fortune.
For our own sakes, I heartily urge us to consider returning to the port where we can end this phase of the expedition. The more we find right now the more we have to give away to the backers. We need to be out here for ourselves, and I think that we have proven that we can do this without major backing of other individuals. Let us set up an expedition and sell shares for backing. We need to be in control of our destinies, not serving others.
I would put forth an idea that we find out what needs to be done to claim land here. I would like to continue on south to the mountains and explore there for a bit. But I am willing to listen to any other ideas, too. I really believe that we need to seriously discuss what our eventual goals are and work towards accomplishing them.
Elise Blackoak
Everything starts with what Dagobert succinctly points out: "they still got the loot". Before we can consider a course of action that would take us away from the monastary-town, we need to recover the "loot" from the Temple. At a minimum this should be the gold, gems, and logbook. Anything more is bonus.
I still believe that a course of action based on stealth and deception can be successful, but that a proper distraction such as what Dagobert can supply would be important. Whether we gain access to the Temple by brute force or intellect achieves the same goal.
From there? I don't think it is fair to assume the backers of this expedition have abandoned us. They simply placed their trust and commission in individuals who are now dead. Thus it is prudent to point out that we are all merely hirelings of an expedition, not commissioned to any task, and owe no fealty to any "masters" who may or may not have fronted cash for oxen or supplies. Nevertheless, those same individuals have demonstrated the capacity to front capital for an exceedingly high risk investment (the expedition) with a purely speculative rate of return. Those individuals would likely pay well for whatever material we can return to them, even if only items of academic or historical value. Truth is, we don't know specifically what sorts of items they might find valuable and nor were we commissioned to recover anything specific.
I suggest that we regard these "backers" as a potential source of investment capital for a future expedition, that the level that they may wish to finance will likely depend on their percieved return on their existing investment, and that everything should be considered negotiable. If they're savvy, and I'm sure they are, they have already filed some sort of legal claim to the monastary property itself based on the Ranger's original report so any thoughts of ruling this land as petty lords in our own name is probably moot.
I suggest that we recover that which is ours from the Temple, and defer any important decisions about "what next" until after that has been accomplished.
Yeah, well, the whole "stick around and fight it out" plan actually worked out maybe a little better than I had expected. Except that now we've really kicked over the hornet's nest and stuck our face in it. We still haven't made it back into the Temple to recover the valuables we left behind, and at this point the only valuables that are worth recovering are those of cash value. Even those I think are pretty safe right where we left them.
I foraged up those healing berries that should be helpful, but right now I think we can save them for later and divvy them amongst some of the "battle line" warriors for future use. I expect that given 8hr of sleep even Saraldawan will have recovered enough PP to be useful. Let him recover PP, and then give him the Holy Mace to double it. Then let him lay about with some 3d10 healing. Rinse and repeat. Given that all of our damage is straight concussion, we should be at 100% in 24hr. That leaves me the same time period to be at 100% with my runescroll magic, which was much more helpful in the first battle than the second. A small pile of Sleep-VII should help. I'll get to work on those as soon as I can, but it would really be helpful if one or more of you guys would take a little Read Runes at your next level.
Finally, for once just once I'd like to cast a decent fireball. Just one. That doesn't risk crippling friendlies in the same blast. The only decent damage roll I've ever done with a fireball was against Sean, and if that same roll would have been done against Orcs it would have been a dose of 20-D all around, and the average crit on the Heat D column is unpleasant at the least. I guess I should just count myself lucky that as a 3rd level character I can reliably get off an 8th level attack spell like that in the first place. D&D this ain't.
Why do we need to take this city and defend it? The only interest we presently have in returning to the Temple is to remove the valuables we left locked up. If the orcs haven't entered the Temple yet, I don't think they're going to. And if they've already made it into the Temple, we can assume the books burned and the rest looted.
So, why would we want to take this city and defend it? Because we want a base of operations in this area. Do we want a base of operations with a big target sign on it? I don't know. I thought that the conventional wisdom we've previously operated with included a lot of escape routes and not getting bottled up somewhere. Easier to get bottled up inside a walled city, or inside the Temple. Maybe this isn't what we want for a base of operations.
I think that the problem is that this isn't the place we want to conduct operations from. Not that we couldn't take back the city. Not that we couldn't defend it. But that doing so doesn't earn us a base of operations that would be useful, because the area we want to operate in isn't right here.
I suggest that the area we want to operate in is the mountains further south of here. Where the orcs that chased Lisa came from in the first place. Where, presumably, these orcs came from. But to operate there, a supply chain that includes the monastary would be useful. Except that we can't man/defend it and use it as a base of operations.
I think we need to determine what greater goal we wish to accomplish. Killing orcs isn't a goal. It is a means to a goal. Lets settle on the goal first, and then work to accomplish it. Whatever "it" is. Killing orcs, for the sake of killing orcs, is pointless. Soon we'll stop seeing them in penny-packets and then we'll be in trouble.
If what we want to accomplish is to conquer and claim this monastary-city, lets do it with enough yeomanry that we can hold it. Bring settlers, bring craftsmen, rebuild the defenses; Do "It" Right.
I think we need to be thinking in terms of planning an expedition to further south. We need to head back to the coast, but not to retreat or to warn anyone. Just to resupply and cash out of this expedition. We've done the job we originally set out to do. Fine. Lets cash out and come back on our own accord to accomplish what we want to. Establish a mission colony for Saraldawan? Claim a fiefdom and establish ourselves as petty barons? Seek out the headwaters of this endless river of orcs? Pick one. Lets do it. Just as long as we are united in purpose.
My proposal:
1. We use stealth and subterfuge to steal into the Temple. Recover our valuables. Recover some of the manuscripts and the temple's logbook. This will probably require the sort of subterfuge and distraction that Dagobert suggests.
2. We return to civilization and cash out of this expedition, turn in the recovered manuscripts/books/etc, and if the gold/gems have academic value beyond face/weight we exchange them for modern currency as well.
3. We take our proceeds and finance, equal shares, our own expedition. Perhaps in three parts.
3.1. Retake the city as a mission colony for Saraldawan, with the church backing a settlement effort.
3.2. Pacify the immediate vicinity around the monastary.
3.3. Explore the mountains further south.
4. Use the monastary as a base of operations for other expeditions by turning it into a spot of civilization in its own right with a seperate trade link back to the port either overland or by coastal boat traffic.
My plan for #1:
1. Distract the orcs away from the Temple. Perhaps away from the city. Perhaps to a seperate doom of Dagobert's devising.
2. The stealthy wallclimbing sorts sneak over the city wall next to the Temple, give the all-clear, and drop a rope to me so I can get over. Joe, Matt, and myself.
3. I'll open the Temple doors. This is a Read Runes job, so that means me or Reuben.
4. We get in, get the stuff, run like the wind, and get the heck out. Leave most of the books. The logbook/journal and the gold/gems are essential. We're only running with a couple books.
5. Backup plan: lock me in the Temple, Joe and Matt E&E from the area, and I make my own escape via magick once I've picked up everything that we need to return with. I can kick open the door mid-flight, take to the roof, and pop a held fireball to cover my own escape. Messy, but I think it would work. We could send Reuben instead of me to do this job, and I backup Dagobert in bringing doom to the Orcs as a diversion, but I don't think Reuben has a strong backup exfil plan.
Then we just need to exfil from the neighborhood and get back to town.
Quote from: Elise Blackoak
I have been thinking a bit on the goal topic and whether we need to make this ruin a base of operations. My understanding of creating a base would include setting up a supply cache and hiring guards to watch over it. Perhaps some extra men to hunt game while we are out, fish in the lake, and repair broken and worn equipment. And having some experience with men they would probably require money, beer, and women to keep them happy. Pretty soon.......well I can see this growing to where we might as well seek applicants for colonists. And we would need to be able to protect all the colonists and so on.
I am not sure that we are ready to assume the mantle of minor lord of this area. I do agree that we need to develop our mid to long term goals as a group. We have had several weeks to get to know each other and I think we have managed to overcome some pretty serious obstacles together. Small personal issues aside, we have done quite well. Unfortunately, we have not found the sort of wealth that we could use to create a fiefdom here. I think we have already discussed that what we have found so far is the property of the expedition backers, to include the special weapons, armor, and shield we are using. This leaves us with precisely our small percent of the earnings, and although we really do not know what that might fetch, it is unlikely to be a grand fortune.
For our own sakes, I heartily urge us to consider returning to the port where we can end this phase of the expedition. The more we find right now the more we have to give away to the backers. We need to be out here for ourselves, and I think that we have proven that we can do this without major backing of other individuals. Let us set up an expedition and sell shares for backing. We need to be in control of our destinies, not serving others.
I would put forth an idea that we find out what needs to be done to claim land here. I would like to continue on south to the mountains and explore there for a bit. But I am willing to listen to any other ideas, too. I really believe that we need to seriously discuss what our eventual goals are and work towards accomplishing them.
Elise Blackoak
Everything starts with what Dagobert succinctly points out: "they still got the loot". Before we can consider a course of action that would take us away from the monastary-town, we need to recover the "loot" from the Temple. At a minimum this should be the gold, gems, and logbook. Anything more is bonus.
I still believe that a course of action based on stealth and deception can be successful, but that a proper distraction such as what Dagobert can supply would be important. Whether we gain access to the Temple by brute force or intellect achieves the same goal.
From there? I don't think it is fair to assume the backers of this expedition have abandoned us. They simply placed their trust and commission in individuals who are now dead. Thus it is prudent to point out that we are all merely hirelings of an expedition, not commissioned to any task, and owe no fealty to any "masters" who may or may not have fronted cash for oxen or supplies. Nevertheless, those same individuals have demonstrated the capacity to front capital for an exceedingly high risk investment (the expedition) with a purely speculative rate of return. Those individuals would likely pay well for whatever material we can return to them, even if only items of academic or historical value. Truth is, we don't know specifically what sorts of items they might find valuable and nor were we commissioned to recover anything specific.
I suggest that we regard these "backers" as a potential source of investment capital for a future expedition, that the level that they may wish to finance will likely depend on their percieved return on their existing investment, and that everything should be considered negotiable. If they're savvy, and I'm sure they are, they have already filed some sort of legal claim to the monastary property itself based on the Ranger's original report so any thoughts of ruling this land as petty lords in our own name is probably moot.
I suggest that we recover that which is ours from the Temple, and defer any important decisions about "what next" until after that has been accomplished.
Vol 1 Issue 3: 03 Nov 2007
"DaveS's Stew"
When last we left our intrepid adventurers they were fleeing for their lives, running ankles over elbows from a screaming band of bloodthirsty orcs. At least 60 of them. Maybe 100. Maybe more. We didn't stop to count.
Ahh, so how did we get to that point? Thats the interesting part.
After recovering everything recoverable from the catacombs beneath the temple we discovered that something in the "magic" of the place got disrupted or turned off by the act of removing valuables from the catacombs. But we proceeded anyways, recovered the goods, and also bypassed the door defenses in the upstairs of the Temple to open the High Priest's quarters and office. Lots of dry boring reading to be had. The cool part is that we can close the doors to reactivate the defenses, bypass them at will, and so forth. Nice defensable hidey-hole with no windows and no way out other than the front door. In other words, a deathtrap. But a very defensable one.
We decided to distribute the enhanced goods recovered from the catacombs on the logic that an enchanted broadsword does us no good in a chest or in a pack, and a lot of good in the hands of a warrior who can and will use it for hacking and slashing. Only Matt could use the daggers effectively as thrown weapons (well, Steve could also but he got dibs on the enchanted plate mail), only Steve could wear the plate mail, and only Saraldawan has skill in the Mace. The Leather was human sized, both Sean and JoeD can wear/use it, and the armor greatly enhances their scouting skills. No-brainer distribution. The broadsword and shield gave us troubles, but we decided to err for the night on the side of 1) putting them in the hands of people who were present to use them, and 2) distributing combat power through the group instead of concentrating it into one lone combat monster character. Accordingly, the loot went the following ways:
Broadsword to JoeD (Several people could use this; perhaps better used elsewhere as JoeD is dominantly an archer)
Shield to Sean (Several people could use this; perhaps better used by Gene's Dwarf)
Mace to Saraldawan (any spellcaster could use for part of abilities, but as a Mace only he can use it)
Leather to JoeD (Halflings could also use if armor was resized)
Leather to Sean (Halflings could also use if armor was resized)
Plate Mail to Steve
Daggers to Matt (Steve could also use)
At this point we decided to do some exploration of the countryside and embarked on a three week expedition around the neighborhood. We took horses, mule, and pony. No oxen. They were left to graze in the town with the water building wide open and the gate barred with a Wall of Thorns.
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Three days clockwise around the lake to a river. A day and a half upriver to a ford, where I (Malasion) almost drowned, was "rescued" by Elise, then felt the need to "rescue" Elise myself, and now no longer drowning simply flew the two of us to safety. A little magic later, and my wet things were dried off nicely. Apparantly this whole episode was quite a fiasco for some folks, as almost everyone ended up soaked trying to "rescue" me when all I needed was a chance to get my head above water for long enough to fly out. Someone on a horse with a rope to toss me would have done a lot of good. From now on I fly instead of swim, give the choice. More points of Lofty Bridges next level.
Four more days downriver to the beach, and a couple days lounging on the beach before heading back inland. Back to the lack, again clockwise and another four days to the foothills. A long look south, a discussion about chasing orcs to the mountains, and then finishing the circuit back to home base to restock supplies from the cache in the Temple.
Thats when we ran into a spot of trouble. Seems that our old friends had returned for a dinner party in our absence, and us being poor hosts (and absent) they set up shop and helped themselves to our oxen for dinner, the pantry being otherwise bare. Aerial recon showed multiple campfires spread through the central city area but well away from the Temple itself, presumably safe.
Two plans were offered:
1. Stealth approach. Scale the city wall behind the Temple. Sneak onto the wooded grounds alongside the Temple. Stealth or invisibility to the front door, me to wizard the door unlocked, and someone(s) to go get locked inside for a spell. Move everything we want to recover to the front door, and then sneak everything out under their noses. Easier said than done, yes. Windows or a chimney would have made this an easier job. A little B&E on the Temple would certainly be facilitated by some major distraction elsewhere to keep the orcs occupied. Further recon of the town would be needed to get a headcount of the orcs before proceeding. Exit strategy of magic walls to slow/occupy orcs advancing up the Temple's main staircase to attack us. Minimal crew on the grounds, all of them either climbers (scout types) or fliers (me). Pitfalls: I'm not stealthy at all, and we'd be dividing our strength into a "diversion" crew and a "B&E" crew.
2. Beth walks up through the front gate and taunts the orcs into following her, and we setup an ambush around the corner to kill anyone who chases her. Rinse, repeat, kill them all then walk in the front door at our leisure.
We chose the second plan. Beth taunted 25 orcs into chasing her. By the time we'd taken them down and either killed them off or chased them off to the point that we could disentangle ourselves from melee and exfil from the area, reinforcements had arrived to the tune of an uncounted mass of 60-100 orcs. We fled for our lives with the orcs in close pursuit.
We pretty much failed to adequately plan our ambush, rules of engagement, and exit strategy. We should have waved off and ran away from the group chasing Beth in the first place. When she saw how big the mob was, she should have waved us down and not led them directly to us. But this wasn't talked about, so she just followed the only part of the plan we'd discussed. Then we stuck it out in melee for far too long, at least 2-3 rounds, when we could have fled and only had a handful of orcs close behind us instead of a huge mob of orcs close behind us.
We'll pick up next time right where we left off, according to Dave, just like a two-part cliffhanger on TV.
When last we left our intrepid adventurers they were fleeing for their lives, running ankles over elbows from a screaming band of bloodthirsty orcs. At least 60 of them. Maybe 100. Maybe more. We didn't stop to count.
Ahh, so how did we get to that point? Thats the interesting part.
After recovering everything recoverable from the catacombs beneath the temple we discovered that something in the "magic" of the place got disrupted or turned off by the act of removing valuables from the catacombs. But we proceeded anyways, recovered the goods, and also bypassed the door defenses in the upstairs of the Temple to open the High Priest's quarters and office. Lots of dry boring reading to be had. The cool part is that we can close the doors to reactivate the defenses, bypass them at will, and so forth. Nice defensable hidey-hole with no windows and no way out other than the front door. In other words, a deathtrap. But a very defensable one.
We decided to distribute the enhanced goods recovered from the catacombs on the logic that an enchanted broadsword does us no good in a chest or in a pack, and a lot of good in the hands of a warrior who can and will use it for hacking and slashing. Only Matt could use the daggers effectively as thrown weapons (well, Steve could also but he got dibs on the enchanted plate mail), only Steve could wear the plate mail, and only Saraldawan has skill in the Mace. The Leather was human sized, both Sean and JoeD can wear/use it, and the armor greatly enhances their scouting skills. No-brainer distribution. The broadsword and shield gave us troubles, but we decided to err for the night on the side of 1) putting them in the hands of people who were present to use them, and 2) distributing combat power through the group instead of concentrating it into one lone combat monster character. Accordingly, the loot went the following ways:
Broadsword to JoeD (Several people could use this; perhaps better used elsewhere as JoeD is dominantly an archer)
Shield to Sean (Several people could use this; perhaps better used by Gene's Dwarf)
Mace to Saraldawan (any spellcaster could use for part of abilities, but as a Mace only he can use it)
Leather to JoeD (Halflings could also use if armor was resized)
Leather to Sean (Halflings could also use if armor was resized)
Plate Mail to Steve
Daggers to Matt (Steve could also use)
At this point we decided to do some exploration of the countryside and embarked on a three week expedition around the neighborhood. We took horses, mule, and pony. No oxen. They were left to graze in the town with the water building wide open and the gate barred with a Wall of Thorns.
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Three days clockwise around the lake to a river. A day and a half upriver to a ford, where I (Malasion) almost drowned, was "rescued" by Elise, then felt the need to "rescue" Elise myself, and now no longer drowning simply flew the two of us to safety. A little magic later, and my wet things were dried off nicely. Apparantly this whole episode was quite a fiasco for some folks, as almost everyone ended up soaked trying to "rescue" me when all I needed was a chance to get my head above water for long enough to fly out. Someone on a horse with a rope to toss me would have done a lot of good. From now on I fly instead of swim, give the choice. More points of Lofty Bridges next level.
Four more days downriver to the beach, and a couple days lounging on the beach before heading back inland. Back to the lack, again clockwise and another four days to the foothills. A long look south, a discussion about chasing orcs to the mountains, and then finishing the circuit back to home base to restock supplies from the cache in the Temple.
Thats when we ran into a spot of trouble. Seems that our old friends had returned for a dinner party in our absence, and us being poor hosts (and absent) they set up shop and helped themselves to our oxen for dinner, the pantry being otherwise bare. Aerial recon showed multiple campfires spread through the central city area but well away from the Temple itself, presumably safe.
Two plans were offered:
1. Stealth approach. Scale the city wall behind the Temple. Sneak onto the wooded grounds alongside the Temple. Stealth or invisibility to the front door, me to wizard the door unlocked, and someone(s) to go get locked inside for a spell. Move everything we want to recover to the front door, and then sneak everything out under their noses. Easier said than done, yes. Windows or a chimney would have made this an easier job. A little B&E on the Temple would certainly be facilitated by some major distraction elsewhere to keep the orcs occupied. Further recon of the town would be needed to get a headcount of the orcs before proceeding. Exit strategy of magic walls to slow/occupy orcs advancing up the Temple's main staircase to attack us. Minimal crew on the grounds, all of them either climbers (scout types) or fliers (me). Pitfalls: I'm not stealthy at all, and we'd be dividing our strength into a "diversion" crew and a "B&E" crew.
2. Beth walks up through the front gate and taunts the orcs into following her, and we setup an ambush around the corner to kill anyone who chases her. Rinse, repeat, kill them all then walk in the front door at our leisure.
We chose the second plan. Beth taunted 25 orcs into chasing her. By the time we'd taken them down and either killed them off or chased them off to the point that we could disentangle ourselves from melee and exfil from the area, reinforcements had arrived to the tune of an uncounted mass of 60-100 orcs. We fled for our lives with the orcs in close pursuit.
We pretty much failed to adequately plan our ambush, rules of engagement, and exit strategy. We should have waved off and ran away from the group chasing Beth in the first place. When she saw how big the mob was, she should have waved us down and not led them directly to us. But this wasn't talked about, so she just followed the only part of the plan we'd discussed. Then we stuck it out in melee for far too long, at least 2-3 rounds, when we could have fled and only had a handful of orcs close behind us instead of a huge mob of orcs close behind us.
We'll pick up next time right where we left off, according to Dave, just like a two-part cliffhanger on TV.
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