Things to do in Loftwick when Al's dead

[Dell]

First order of business is to find a temple, cathedral, whatever we can, that can raise Al. Looking for one with a similar ethos would be best, as that would help keep the cost down. After that, what do we need to do in this town? I'm assuming that we're going to wait here until Al is healed, because it's not like we have anywhere else to go.

Anything I'm forgetting that we can get done in the week or so that we're in town waiting for Al to recuperate?

[Ginger]

Since it's such a large city, we can probably find a +1 bow, or have one commissioned.

[Dell]

Okay, so we're going shopping while we're in town. What do we need to buy?

Strengthy bows for Raven and Otto
Pearls for identifications
Mules or draft horses for travel.
Bullseye lantern
Chests and Iron boxes, to carry our loot.
Gems (easier to transport than gold)
Holy water, maybe?
Do we need tools? Pickaxes, prybars, things like that?
Standard travel crap - rations, blankets, tent...
Get the Nerullite symbols removed from armor and shields.

Should we hire people to handle our caravan? We had trouble handling the mules and the horses and the fighting all at once. Also, they could do all the labor after we get back to the temple - carrying furniture, digging out the silver inlay...

[Ginger]

I'm worried about having a blacksmith take the Nerull symbols from our stuff.
1. It's a signal to anyone who's looking for us that we're the guys who looted the temple.
2. It might make a blacksmith think that we're secret Nerull worshipers.

Raven can just pay for access to a forge and use his blacksmithing knowledge to do it himself. It's much more secure.

[Ginger]

I wouldn't hire anybody until we figure out what's up with Al, Garvin and Frank. We don't want to have disgruntled hirelings or ex-hirelings wandering around town badmouthing us while we recruit.

[liato]

My understanding is that we don't want any of them to keep adventuring with us anyway, right?

If that's the case, just pay them whatever they feel is fair to settle accounts. Then let them go on their way. We obviously care that they are bad mouthing us so we should pay them so they fell like they don't need to do that.

If we hire people we shouldn't expect them to go into the temple. We probably shouldn't want them to anyway. What if they touched or even looked at anything.

I think hiring 2 people to take care of the animals, set up camp, and cook would be worth it. We need at least 2 because I know I wouldn't want to stand outside an evil temple by myself.

And whatever salary they quote us we should offer them more.

It cost 15s to hire Ed and 1gp to hire level 1 adventurers as guards.

We should be spending at least 1 gp per person. That's a lot of money for someone who is never expected to fight and should be worth a lot of loyalty.

[Ginger]

So, do we want to hire one guy to drive the cart? Will we need anyone else?

[Dell]

Al, Frank and Garvin need to stay with us at least until we get back to Longspear. For one, we're safer with them around. For another, they're safer with us around. Think about it - if this evil wizard and his Nerullite buddies get ahold of Frank or Garvin, they're going to torture them, and they will tell them EVERYTHING THEY WANT TO KNOW ABOUT US. We need to keep them with us until we get back to Longspear.

Plus, we still need a cleric. After Liato gets trained for 4th level spells, he'll have access to Cure Serious Wounds - then we can get rid of Garvin.

For the caravanners we hire... figure they'll be away from home for a month, maybe a month and a half. I say we can go up to ten gold a week per man, with a bonus paid at the end if they do a good job.

And we'll have to be sure to let them know that Morningstar Security pays their employees well, unlike some other companies that we may or may not have been a part of.

[liato]

Do we need a whole caravan?

Why don't we hire 2 and see how that goes. It would be nice to have someone to sing our praises in town other then ourselves.

If we get a couple trustworthy hirelings they could take care of all the stupid stuff we have to do in town like restocking the supplies and such.

Are we really afraid of this nerullite wizard? I mean don't you think he has better stuff to do than hunt us down? Like maybe summon a demon or something to hunt us down for him? That's like a constant stream of experience.

Do we want to scry this guy?

Do you think Dread and San are still looking for us? I mean we're not really looking for them.

[Dell]

As long as we're in evil wizard's hometown, we might as well look for him. I mean, he had to retreat to somewhere. Maybe he came here. Then we can have a big battle and burn down another orphanage.

Remember, if we do something bad, we're Blue Sun. If we do something good, we're Morningstar. This is phase one of our reputation repair program.

[Ginger]

Well, we'll have to stay here at least a week. Their local wizard might be like the Silent One and have weekly office hours. It'll also probably take us a week to shop around and find the best price for our goods, and it'll probably take a week to get our items identified. If we can find the pearls, it's stupid to not identify our stuff, at the very least the ring, gloves and clasp.

[Dead Greyhawk]

liato said:

It cost 15s to hire Ed and 1gp to hire level 1 adventurers as guards.

I, foolishly, had thought that you would have brought Ed, a healer and a scout, into the Company as soon as possible rather than treat him the way you did. Note that I did not "trap" Liato in the same situation as Ed was in, and that I "forced" Dell upon the party. We'll see how Otto works out.

Just to clarify somethings here with respect to the expected expenditure on henchmen and hirelings. Quoth the DMG on p. 25

Each player character will automatically expend not less than 100 gold pieces per level of experience per month. This is simply support, upkeep, equipment, and entertainment expense. These costs are to be deducted by the Dungeon Master automatically, and any further spending by the PC is to be added to these costs. Such expense is justified by the "fact" that adventurers are a free-wheeling and high-living lot (except, of course, for monks). Other miscellaneous expenditures by player characters encompass such things as additional equipment expense for henchmen or hirelings, costs of hirelings, bribes, costs of locating prospective henchmen, and so on. To such costs are to be added:

MAINTENANCE OF HENCHMEN 100 g.p. per level per month*
MAINTENANCE OF STRONGHOLD 1% of total cost of stronghold per month

*This is in addition to all treasure shares

Additionally, men-at-arms (that's the 1-6 GP a month expert hireling) are 0-level, not 1st level. For those hirelings that are actually level 1, quoth the DMG on p. 35

Initial Payment: Not less than 100 gold pieces per level of the applicant must be offered. This will give a base 25% interest in accepting the position.

Additionally, quoth the DMG on p. 36

Equipment Of Henchmen:
All henchmen will come with nothing except the (normal) clothes they wear. Although they will have a few copper and silver coins, they will have nothing of value - no armor or weapons, nothing! Their wretched state is, in fact, one of the prime motivations for their seeking employment with a successful adventurer.

Hired help doesn't come cheap. The big advantage to Al and Frank were their acceptance of the party's offer for free. Even with Garvin and Jareth, they were cheap for the taking. From here on out, I've got the DMG open for price guidance.

[Dell]

Dead said:

I, foolishly, had thought that you would have brought Ed, a healer and a scout, into the Company as soon as possible rather than treat him the way you did.

Yes, but wasn't our way much more entertaining? And you did stick Dell with a massive debt to Elmo, which I've been worrying about for ages now.

Anyway, just hiring some bearers and maybe a teamster shouldn't be too hard.

[Dell]

Here's how we handle this town.

There is no mention of "Blue Sun," "Morningstar Security," or any other kind of name that we plan to use. No volunteering information. That means that if someone asks us what we're doing in town, we don't say "Well, we were invading this Nerullite temple, and our friend got killed, and we encountered this powerful evil mage, and..."

Our story is: we're travellers who were assaulted by cultists in the mountains, and had to come here to get our friend revived. This is our story - we were attacked, we defended ourselves, we retrieved some goods from said cultists, and went to the closest large town to get our friend and partner revived.

We're under the buddy system while in town. Under most circumstances, we stick together, but when that's not possible, here's the buddy list:

1. Winthrop and Raven

2. Liato and Garvin (and Al, when he's revived)

3. Dell, Frank, and Otto

All major shopping trips will be taken together. Otto should be the front man - he's local, so not only will they like him more (give him better prices) but he won't be as memorable as the rest of us.

[Ginger]

We can say that we are merchants from that town that the giant thought we were from. We were attacked along the way by orks, who killed our friend. We had more rugs and things, but they were ruined in the attack.

Does that sound good? We want it to sound like we're regular merchants on a routine trip, to explain why we have tapestries and rugs.

[Dell]

It sounds good... but the idea of orcs being able to kill us is kind of embarassing.

[liato]

I don't think we need this much secrecy and lying.

That's right, I, for a change, don't think we need to lie.

More than any other adventure we've been on we are truly heroes for this.

People hate and fear Nerull and worshipers. Nerull worshipers are actively hunted by the authorities everywhere. In the battle of good vs. evil, these guys are on the forefront of the evil side. We are, despite our worst intentions, pretty darn good coming out of this thing. Not only did we find and cleanse a temple, we have proof of it.

Unless you think that Loftwick is a secret Nerull base with a demon worshipping leader of the mage guild (and I know there is precident for that) our best defense is to let people know exactly who we are. We are the group of adventurers who helped rid evil from their land.

Our story should be:

"Please help us. We've just come back from fighting a nerul temple. Our priest and paladin are currently cleansing teh temple and we need to get healing and supplies so we can go back and help them.

Please accept these valuables we salvaged as restitution for whatever evil deeds may have been occuring here, known or unknown, due to Nerul's existence. (like we're going to be able to sell the big stuff anyway)

Our friend was killed in this service and we need to know if anyone can help restore him. Again, we were hoping the valuables we've retrieved could serve.

We need to get back to our friends as soon as possible if you have any information about this temple or big bad evil wizard we fought and you think it would help us we'd appreciate that. "

I think we'd be much safer if people knew who we were because then the guards would be inclined to protect us. And would you want to mess with someone who just came back from a nerul temple and lived?

Is it possible that the nerul wizard could come and ask around about us? Not if we tell them that there's a nasty nerul wizard looking for us. Remember, that dude is EVIL he's not going to be sneaking into a town to ask around.

So we need to let people know exactly who we are here.

[Dell]

liato said:

Is it possible that the nerul wizard could come and ask around about us? Not if we tell them that there's a nasty nerul wizard looking for us. Remember, that dude is EVIL he's not going to be sneaking into a town to ask around.

So we need to let people know exactly who we are here.

Well, what are our facts? The wizard is very powerful, and he buys his supplies in this town. So that would mean he comes here regularly. As powerful as he is, he's probably got plenty of good connections in the area. If not with the local royalty, then with the local assassin's guild. So calling attention to ourselves might be like calling down the lightning.

We can do it your way, though, if only because Dell likes to say how things would have worked out much better if people had only followed his plan.

[liato]

Well as soon as I train I'm going to be immune to lightning so I don't mind calling it down.

From what I remember, people are really really scared of Nerul and his followers. From what we've seen in the temples I can understand why. Isn't a crime pretty much everywhere to worship Nerul?

If the wizard does buy his stuff here it is unlikely anyone knows that he's a nerul worshiper. I think we'll be more likely to get useful information about him than he will about us.

I think we need to talk to the head priests first and see what they know about nerul worshippers. It will make a difference if it's a known problem or an unknown problem.

Then, based on the priests advice we can talk to the town ruler or not. Either way, we need to get back to the pelorites with supplies ASAP.

[Dell]

liato said:

Then, based on the priests advice we can talk to the town ruler or not. Either way, we need to get back to the pelorites with supplies ASAP.

We aren't going back to meet the Pelorites - the Pelorites are going back to wherever it is they came from. We're going back to collect the stuff that we didn't get when we left - the furniture, the inlaid precious metals, and all that. Then when we get back to Longspear, we split those profits, and then we go on vacation.

That much of the plan is clear. The only question is, what's going to happen in this town to ruin our plans?

[liato]

So you don't think we're going to find the lifeless bodies of the pelorites? Or maybe the undead bodies of the pelorites?

[Ginger]

Think about how skeptical the Pelorites were when we announced that we'd cleaned out a small Nerulite temple. They asked us a dozen times how we managed to find it, and probably still don't believe our story. We are a bunch of foreigners claiming to have fought Nerull on behalf of Pelor, who isn't worshipped in this area. I think that we should just keep our mouths shut and try to leave as quickly as possible.

[Dell]

ArrowGuy said:

They asked us a dozen times how we managed to find it, and probably still don't believe our story.

That's because our story was a lie. That just shows us that the Pelorites aren't stupid.

We should probably tell the priests that we were fighting against Nerullite cultists, if only because it might let us get Al raised for cheaper. And notifying the local royalty or sity guard might be a good idea. We should introduce ourselves before we get arrested for having a huge battle in the streets. I think it would be nice of us.

[liato]

yeah, I agree in the telling the truth.

I think here's my general rule. If we did something good then tell the truth. If we are doing something that's probably bad, we should lie.

[Dell]

liato said:

I think here's my general rule. If we did something good then tell the truth. If we are doing something that's probably bad, we should lie.

Dell prefers to lie all the time. To party members, and everyone else.

We just have a tendency to volunteer too much information to people that don't need it. Like our enemies. You weren't there when we told the priest of Hextor that we were in town to stop him from collecting the chalice. Or when we told Gador that we were in the hills trying to rescue the guy he had taken prisoner. A certain amount of what I like to call "OpSec" needs to be implemented.

So we can say we were fighting Nerullites. We can say that we encountered a powerful wizard there. But we can't say how we knew there were Nerullites there. Nor should we say where we're going next (fortunately, we don't really know) or who any of our powerful enemies are, or any details about what we've done.

Sound good?

[liato]

I have been there many many times when we revealed too much information.

The key is to always be asking questions and avoid answering questions. When we do answer questions the answers should be as short as possible.

[Ginger]

We know that the Nerulite mercenaries attacked groups they came across, since the orks told us so. Can we say that we were attacked by a patrol group of mercenaries and then followed them back to the temple? Is that good?