DM themed play-by-post D&D game : OOC thread

[beowuuf]

Well played sir! I believe with your natural +1 halfling bonus, +1 dex and +2 bonus for being a wizard and yhearing the trap trigger you get a 20 in total. Your character is safe! You can have a weekend free of worry (because I'm sure you would have been very concerned otherwise )

[money]

Just the way i like it

[Ameena]

Errm, I went to the story thread before I came here, so I didn't know about the whole trap thing. Actually, since I wrote Ameena sniffing the cloak before Money posted Falkor moving, I just did it as they were still standing by the door they just came through. Since I've already made my IC post, just say that Ameena moved on before Falkor put his hand in the thingy, and hopefully we'll be back in synch.
Anyway, what I was going to post here...having entered the room, in Ameena's mind she's taken one look and sort of gone "Omg! Stuff! Random junk and stuff that might be interesting! Woohoo!", and her natural murafu curiosity has practically dragged her nose over to the nearest heap of crap. Now, she will happily sniff through every single item in the room, down to the last particle of dust, but considering she's not exactly large, and considering there's a lot of crap there, and that she'll probably try not to get in the way of Westian or Haynuus out of politeness (assuming she doesn't get too carried away in her exploration and forget they're there...but I don't think she'd be that careless), she might not get done before they do. I'm guessing this is Perception to sniff the room. How does that "take 20" thing work? Can I do that? Or does that just score me a round 20 and I don't get to roll to put a score on top of it? Or does it give me a 20 plus my Perception bonus? Which would make 26. If I can do that, I'd like to, to basically say that Ameena thoroughly sniffs every possible thing in the room and discovers anything of interest to her. This includes food and water, any weapons and armour she can lift/move by herself, anything like rope or other stuff that can help people get around, any small bags/pouches, and anything that smells magical (again, as long as she's capable of moving it). Anything she does find she'll do the ratty thing of "heap it in a pile nearby", as long as she can move it. If she can't move it she'll note its location and tell someone else about it when she's done. Oh, and she won't get underfoot of the others in their searches or try to move anything they've already gathered. Were she with a group of murafu, they'd all be sniffing their own section of the room and gathering their own pile, then sort of putting them together and discussing them when everyone had finished looking. Depsite the intensity of her search, in the back of her mind Ameena is constantly aware of where the others are, which things they've already looted (because she can smell them on things they've touched, even if they haven't put it with their own collection of stuff), and the fact that because their sense of smell is nowhere near her own, she needs to check the whole room, because they might have missed something small that was underneath something else, or whatever.

[beowuuf]

No, that's fine, you did indicate Ameena would sniff the cloak then move on, so Ameena is in safety. Whew! Could have been nasty if you'd stayed close to the other door...

And yes, you can take 20, though I have to imagine everyone wants to spend a while in this room, so that's assumed. Mechanically 'Take 20' assumed you have kept rolling 20 times and got twenty on the last roll, basically. RP wise, it acts exactly as you describe - you take a while and sniff out every single corner

Ok, will try to post an update an lunctime about Falkor's action, otherwise as before you have the whole weekend to figure out what you want from the room, and I'll tell you if you find it So far I've got a good shopping list from you lot though, so this should be pretty painless.

I think you could more consider if you want to rest in the room fully, or tool up and move on. Searching is not a strenuous activity, so any discussions (such as sharing information on the door visions, the cloak, or the alcoves previously) can assume to be happening.

[Ameena]

Ameena won't be looking for much for herself (a pouch-belt thingy to put stuff in, some food/water that she can stuff in the pouches, and probably some kind of weapon, preferably a knife or two, or is she not allowed to dual-wield yet, mechanically?), but anything that looks like it might be useful, she'll still gather in case someone else wants it. She'll ignore stuff like jewellery unless it smells magical - she'll just take stuff that she thinks can have apractical use somewhere. And she's down on all-fours, doing the ratty thing of "Sniff sniff, ooh this smells interesting, yoink, stash, back for more" and making a little heap of stuff in a corner or somewhere.
Meanwhile it sounds like Falkor's narrowly missed getting himself blown up or something . Anyway, off to work now. Will be on this evening .

[beowuuf]

Dual wielding inflicts massive penalties to your hit rolls. You can spend feats at 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc to build up your skills at dual wielding if you like, even getting to do crazy stuff.

I remembered the pouchy thing from your description, rest assured there are nough pouches and loose straps for Ameena to jury-rig.

[beowuuf]

Hopefully the narrative will settle down so Ian's cool post will tie up with everyone's actions

I'll post some boring stats on the items you might find in the charcter sheet, once everyone decides what they want, they should stick it on their character sheets.

I'll keep track of people's carrying capacity, and let you know if you get into the yellow or even into the red!

[beowuuf]

I think Falkor falling through the door of the equipment room is a good little end point for this next chapter, which was still the introductory chapter. Some exploration, some danger triggered by Falkor, some further exploration, some more dangers triggered by Falkor. The party have reachd a temporary point of safety, and are apparently about to explore the dungeon proper. Maybe a recap since that's 6 pages of story and 13 of OOC posts!


State of the party:
- while Ameena and Haynuus are manifesting it earlier, all the party are hungry, thirsty, and despite waking up recently feel tired.


Things to consider:

- what have you done with the torch?
- is Falkor going to keep wearing the cloak?
- are you going to rest in the small room? Would you go as far as an extended rest/sleep?
- will anyone scout the stairwell, or will you descend as a group?
- apart from Falkor and Westian's magical discussion, is there anything else you need to decide or speak of as a group?
- what are your goals as a group?
- do any of you have individual goals?


Things the party know (recap, some things known by only a few people until discussed by the group):
- Haynuus knows the SAR rune
- Westian and Falkor (after discussion) will know the LO, UM, EE, DAIN, NETA, and SAR runes
- all the party know (or should after discussion) that they are in Mt Anaias. The grate in the original room should not have been in such bad condition, and should have led to the 'hall of champions'.
- in the original rooms, there were no fresh scents, though there were traces of 'normal' traffic so Mount Anaias has been visited relatively recently as is normal these days. Certainly a few weeks and no more than a month ago.
- there are things called 'scraps' that killed most of the Trolins from the group you met. The Trolins were originally being chased by 'metal men' called 'blackskulls'. Ameena has smelled a faint but large metal presences in the previous rooms. is this from these blackskulls coming in, or something else?
- the alarms of Anaias have drawn attention once, a magic-using human. Sadly, the people in the group who saw it would have no frame of reference to know if this was Theron or not
- the Trolins did talk about half-orcs, but that could have been confusion over the machinations of Falkor and Westian!
- the party obviously have suppressed memories, however it seemed to affect different people differently. You all seem to be unable to recall the very recent past. Falkor and Westian have magical knowledge years old, oddly surpressed even when they can recall the lessons around it. Ameena seems to have no knowledge of the people she would have met relatively recently. Haynuus seems the least affected with mental blocks.



Items you have/might investigate:
- torch from previous room
- cloak
- pouch of dried herbs
- backpacks x 2 + 1 makeshift repaired pack
- sacks
- pouches
- various straps to form belts from
- a few ten foot poles and broken ten-foot poles
- 3 small knives (as daggers for small creatures, or throwing knives for medium)
- 2 large knives (as daggers for medium creatures, not suitable for throwing)
- 3 normal ropes (@50 ft each)
- some thin rope (@25 ft total)
- two mirrors
- canvas sheets (around five 1ft squares, three 10 ft squares)
- stakes (around ten)
- two hammers
- bundle of torches (five of them)
- flint and tinder (two sets)
- two botas filled with water
- one bota with a leak, no water.
- four - six sets of iron rations, enough for one meal, perhaps two.

[Ameena]

Let me see...as a murafu, Ameena's dietary requirements are perhaps a little different to those of the others - most humanoid species seem to eat in meals - that is, they'll have dinner, lunch, etc - a big load of food all in one go and then go for hours with no food. Murafu are like rats in this respect - they prefer to eat small amounts often, as this keeps up a more constant flow of energy for running around and stuff. So Ameena's really gonna be feeling from the hunger thing - maybe that's another reason she didn't really notice the poison cloud thing (see IC post). As for water, she possibly gets thirsty slightly faster too. She'll be wanting a good long nibble on some food, and then to keep some with her for later. Think of it as constantly snacking between meals, but without the meals.
She can make herself a pouch-belt from the junk. Since I read the IC thread before this one, I didn't know there were any actual straps, but we can say that Haynuus and Westian gathered those for their pile and she hasn't noticed because she was too busy with her own exploration.
She probably has the least requirements, equipment-wise. Once she has a pouch-belt, she'll be able to carry small trinkets and stuff. She'll want a knife, in case they come across anything nasty. I've already mentioned food...and some small kind of water container - dunno how big those waterskin things are. Of course she's still wearing her cloak. That's probably about it, inventory-wise.
She's gathered her own pile of stuff and she could start picking stuff out of it for herself, but since murafu don't work that way, she'll show it to the others and try to discuss with them as to who can use what.
Those "scraps" creatures, I'd figured from the troll's description that they were mummies - he said something about humanoids covered in scraps, or words to that effect. Haynuus, keep hold of that torch .

[beowuuf]

Imagine the botas as close to a 2 litre coke bottle size. Pretty large, to contain enough water to drink. Perhaps someone can do something clever with the third damaged bota, since you will have less quantity of drink required. If Ameena is to nibble all day, perhaps she can ask for a single ration (again, smaller creature smaller food need) and be excluded from eating from the remaining rations in group meals.

A ration of food (unless she's breaking it up into various pouches) might require a sack. Certainly, a bota (even one with a small amount of water) would require it's own carrying method for Ameena.

[Ameena]

If the food is something that fills you up pretty fast, Ameena won't need much. Well, she doesn't anyway, being so small in comparison to the others. She'll never eat enough to stuff herself - then just moving around would be uncomfortable (ever tried running or jumping aorund right after you've eaten a lot? Blehhhh). As for water, some kind of small flask or waterskin will do her. As with the food, she'll have a small amount every now and then. Though she'll probably eat and drink a little more to begin with, due to being so much hungrier and thirstier than she usually gets - plenty of food out there in the wilderness for such an omnivorous species. Basically, as long as it's not poisonous, a murafu (like a rat) can usually eat it, even if it doesn't taste too good.

[beowuuf]

Ameena will manage to scrounge up a small hip flask (which, by the smell of it contained something other than water once upon a time) in one of the bottom drawers, if that's the sort of size of water carrier she needs. It has the initials G.T. engraved on it.

[Ameena]

G.T.? Hrmm, why do I feel that's some kind of in-joke/reference to something else? But I can't be arsed to try and think of it now. I'll have that flask already found and in her pile, then. She won't just decide that something now belongs to her - she'll check everything with everyone else, in case it turns out they ned it more or something.
So if they can fix that damaged waterskin, the other three can have one of those each while Ameena can have her little flask thingy, maybe filled with water from the other skins (a bit from each, to balance it out), since the fountain doesn't seem to be working right now.

[beowuuf]

More the start of an in-joke, for absolutely no good reason other than to reference the original DM in a weird way

[beowuuf]

Oh, and Ian, I know the half-orc doesn't have anything like the murafu nose, but while Haynuus was messing around with the water fountain, he detected an odd moldy odour.

[Ameena]

I did think it was maybe the initials of a DM character, but I've only just now thought of Gando Thurfoot .
Hmm, so Ameena finds mouldy stuff on the walls, and Haynuus notices a mouldy smell in the fountain. Ameena would have noticed it too if she'd been sniffing there, but if Haynuus spent the whole time there, she wouldn't have wanted to get in his way, same as she would have avoided Westian too, whilst searching the room.

[beowuuf]

G.T. = Gando Thurfoot? Maybe...

Ameena was clearly sniffing around the entire room, especially the equipment, so no reason she'd have especially checked out the fountain as Haynuss has described doing in detail. The moldy smell isn't coming from only the fountain, it's on the walls too as a separate source.

Remember that scent is like sight (infact in the rules it's described exactly like that). It takes time and perception to notice subtle things over greater things, unless you highlight the area. She might have noticed the smell slightly stronger by the fountain, but that would to be expected due to water. You'd still have needed a perception check or take 20 to have spotted that the fountain was an additional source.

[ian_scho]

My suggestion. Feel free to copy/paste your own ideas over in a new post. The only thing I 'want' is a backpack to carry the crap

Haynuus, left hand - torch from previous room
Falkor - cloak
Ameena - pouch of dried herbs
Haynuus & Westian (Falkor)- backpacks x 2 + 1 makeshift repaired pack
One for each backpack - sacks
One for each champion - pouches
Ameenas - various straps to form belts from
? - a few ten foot poles and broken ten-foot poles
Ameena & Falkor & Westian - 3 small knives (as daggers for small creatures, or throwing knives for medium)
Ameena & Falkor - 2 large knives (as daggers for medium creatures, not suitable for throwing)
Haynuus can carry two & Westian? - 3 normal ropes (@50 ft each)
Falkor - some thin rope (@25 ft total)
Haynuus & Westian- two mirrors
Haynuus - canvas sheets (around five 1ft squares, three 10 ft squares)
5 for Haynuus- stakes (around ten)
Haynuus can carry one and ?- two hammers
One each, Haynuus the rest - bundle of torches (five of them)
Falkor and Ameena- flint and tinder (two sets)
Haynuus & Westian- two botas filled with water
?- one bota with a leak, no water.
I say we eat half now, rest, each carry what's left - four to six sets of iron rations, enough for one meal, perhaps two.

[beowuuf]

Money was obviously happy to be swayed by your sweet words, so it's just Ameena and OB to respond

[Ameena]

Ameena will be happy with one strap to wear as a belt around her waist, with a few small pouches she can attach to it for general bits of stuff. She will want to carry some food and can put water in the little flask thing she found. She'll take one of the small knives, too (and probably stare at another one and wonder why she has a vague memory of having once skillfully wielded two of the things). But for now, she wants nommage!
What's in iron rations, btw? I know they're basically portions of food which keep you going on the road but don't really taste all that great, but was just wondering what they'd smell like to Ameena.
She'll also ask about the herb pouch and the mouldy stuff, but for now food is her primary concern so she'll leave it a bit.

[beowuuf]

As fat won't go off, it wiil depend on the construction of the individual ration whether it's been left on/on, and so whether that aroma will be strong or not. The meat will either be boiled beef/pork, or something akin to our corned beef. It will have been sealed in waxed thin translucent parchment, so there will also have been that component.

There will be some bread-like component, moer like a thick cracker, which will ave a rye smell to it.

These particular iron rations also have the occasional hard cheese (also sealed), and someone as gone to the trouble of placing sugar-glazed nuts and dessicated fruits for a quick energy component. This is either as part of the original ration, or an additional thing placed there by someone afterwards.

[Ameena]

Okay...so, meaty stuff, bready stuff, cheesy stuff, and fruity/nutty stuff. Om nom nom .

[beowuuf]

@Ian: I just noticed I hadn't told you to add +1 to your melee/ranged bonus, and +1 to your fort save due to your new fighter level. I've done it just now for you.

[oh_brother]

The list Ian drew up is fine with me. Basically all I need at the moment is a club and a share of the food and water, but will carry anything else since Westian will have the second highest carrying capacity.

@beowuuf - can clerics use sharp weapons? I always assumed they could not, but just googled it and apparently from 3rd edition they can. I always found it weird, you are not allowed to stab somebody, but you can brutally beat them to death with a mace. (Apparently it is based on some rule that priests had to follow during the crusades....some people have crazy ideas).

When we have packed everything, had a bite to eat and Westian and Falkor have finished discussing runes then Westian will be ready to go down the stairs.

As for tactics the main options that I can think of are:
(1) Westian and Haynuus take the lead with a club each.
(2) Ameena takes the lead and scouts a bit ahead, hiding in shadows/listening.
(3) We split up (I don't really like this option without a very good reason, and Westian will argue against it if it is proposed).

Any other ideas, or any favourite option from the list above?

[beowuuf]

Yes, clerics are now allowed to use 'simple' weapons, which includes daggers, sickles and spears. And they could take further feats to become proficient with other edged weapons. Plus with multi-classing you can get that proficiency for free too.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wea ... pleWeapons

I think with my similar background to yours in old supplements, my cleric might be proficient, but he would probably have an antiquated superstition in not wielding an edged weapon in anger due to his believe that the soul is a tangible thing inside a person and that an edged weapon might damage it (don't think that was the justification during the crusades, but it was the one I made up). The RP choice is yours, there is no mechanics block anymore. The use of a holy symbol is still required to turn undead in D&D 3rd ed, however as we are in the DM world I will leave this as an RP choice of yours whether it affects you trying fear effects on one. Mechanically, I am removing this as a requirement so you are not stopped from trying to intimidate undead using nothing but your faith. A symbol will certainly provide an aid though!

To yourself and money, as I indicated before your character's talk of runes will lead to shared knowledge. I think I can make an update post just to say that and bring up the unfinished threads. Obviously the main update will be Monday evening, once all of you have decided which of oh_brother's three choices sound the best idea moving forward. Money should hopefully be back and caught up by then.

Everyone, remember to update your sheets with your stuff! And give me an indication if you are

Ameena and Falkor, your small knives only do 1d3 damage but are otherwise daggers to you and are fine (including throwing them). If you take the larger knives, you will do 1d4 damage with them, but you will take a -2 penalty on your hit roll unless you use them two-handedly (they are awkward to use for your small size but luckily have long handles as far as you are concerned).

[Ameena]

Regarding tactics, I'd alreayd had my own idea as to what would probably work, and it turns out to be a sort of combo of the first two possibilities put forward by OB - my idea was to have Ameena scout ahead, checking for traps, sniffing for mobs etc, but then if she finds something that she can't deal with (some nasty critter or something heavy that needs shifting, etc), she can just slip back behind Haynuus (and Westian if he's in front too). Alternatively, if she scents something bad coming, she can hide somewhere nearby (if that's possible at the time) after informing the others of what's approaching, so that she can allow the beasty to get past her in order to jump out and backstab. Of course, this tactic might be dangerous if there's more than one, or if they find her before they reach the others. Meh, I'm sure we can shape our tactics to fit each encounter.
I hadn't thought about updating my character sheet with inventory items, but I'll do that once we've actually dished out the "loot" from this room so I know what I've actually got.

[oh_brother]

Yeah, that sounds fine with me. Ameena can scout and the other three can follow quietly behind.

The loot seems to be basically group stuff (ropes, food, water, flint and tinder, etc.) so it is just a matter of who is physically carrying it. The only real exceptions to that are the knives - certainly Falkor and Ameena should take their pick as they currently have no weapons (other than Ameena's teeth/claws). I think the list Ian made is fine, but if anyone wants to rearrange the items just say. Otherwise by the next update we just assume we have what is on the list above? As for the poles...maybe we should leave them for now? Come back if we need them? They are pretty cumbersome.

Edit: forgot to mention that Westian will help Haynuus if he is really determined to get some water. I rolled a 12 + 2 = 14.

[beowuuf]

Ian's list seems to be accepted at the moment, so feel free to put on what he suggested. Remember Ameena has her water flask aswell. If money has a change of heart on the tooling up, everyone should be able to swap things about easily

Everyone can list what's left of the food as 'meagre iron rations' except Ameena, since she is going to be nibbling constantly, For now, she's got a full ration. Depending on how much she nibbles though, she might have less than the rest of you come the next meal time!

Ameena as scout - sounds reasonable contingencies. Remember she has normal eyesight, so will be going in semi-blind or blind if she isn't within some form of light. That said, she is quite fast if on all fours and has good stealth, so I can't see a problem with it! Her scent ability will let her detect things 30 feet away (assuming no good/back wind, and at double or treble that range if they have a very strong odor like a skunk's musk, etc). However, it will take her a move action to detect their direction afterwards.

Westian and Haynuus make a good front line combo as their darkvision/low light vision give them better sight in torchlight than normal people/creatures. Ameena's ability definitely is attractive for extending that sight even further (going to where the fighters can see and trying to detect anything beyond that range). Also the scent ability of good to detect hidden enemies closer, and enemies around corners.

Don't rule out Falkor's aid, as long as he can see the area he can plant quick flares of light or distracting sounds, and he can even perform a limited telepathic 'call and return' message to tell Ameena what the others see, and ask what she's seen in return if the party are worried about tipping off a hidden/unaware creature.

If you lot can figure out a standard operating procedure after the next few encounters that you think works, it will certainly be a good shorthand for exploring and let us get to the fun 'things going badly for the party' bits quicker


For this situation, certainly Ameena could scout to the bottom of the stairs, hoping her stealth means no one hears. As long the room below isn't illuminated, or a creature with darksight is just standing looking at the time, she would probably be fine, and have the chance to sniff around the immediate area and catch wind of an enemy. Even a hidden one! If there are no enemy ready to leap, then the other three can come down and you could go from there.

Anyway, I will resolve any pouch identification and fountain playing around with possibly separately, if you all have a plan for going onward after a rest, then I can do a major update tomorrow evening/night.

[beowuuf]

@oh_brother: If Haynuus is determined to get the water, he's just got himself a +2 to his strength check thanks to Westian's aid!

[ian_scho]

A strength check to try the hairbrained scheme of destruction of the wall. (1d20=9)

I'll update my char sheet with the stuff Haynuus's carrying later today!