Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 16, 2018 20:57:26 GMT -5
Upon discovering that the group’s plan to return to the Fulldark Stone and face the blue dragon would involve an encounter with the celestial hierarchs, our heroes responded in typical fashion; they attacked. A teleportation circle and a fierce sequence of battles later puts the caverns (with the glaring exception of the dragon’s lair) firmly in the party’s hands. The leader and another wizard of the hierarch’s expedition fled back to their waiting sky castle, leaving over half of the ship’s complement of storm troopers slowly cooling in the wake of the fight.
The heroes wasted no time resting on their laurels, but instead pressed on and took the fight to the enemy’s home ground. The ship’s gunners stood no chance as members of the group appeared in their midst and proceeded to slaughtering the hapless fools with spell and blade. The tempo quickly changed as the adventures charged into the next area of the ship, as it contained no mere storm troopers but instead the cream of the ship’s crop. A blue genie led the counterattack accompanied by air elementals, wind monks, and a shapechanging giant oni. The fight was vicious: magic, arrows, blades, and bodies flying in every direction. At one point half the party was thrown entirely off the ship! The heroes were not to be deterred however, and stepping over the remains of their foes proceeded to the ship’s bridge.
After painfully breaching the door, the group faced off against a survivor of the earlier fight in the caverns. He did put up a token resistance but quickly capitulated to the might arrayed before him. He agreed to pilot the ship and provide information in exchange for the privilege of a continued pulse. He was immediately given orders to start the ship fleeing from the reinforcements quickly approaching in the form of an even larger ship. The group quickly conceived a plan to enter the captain’s quarters in a pincer formation and put it into action.
The captain of course was ready for the charge, and gave them a very cold greeting indeed in the form of giant ice boulders. Her options, already severely limited by her efforts in the fight for the caverns, were nearly taken away completely when Titus immediately responded by silencing her spells. Only the reappearance of the oni faced earlier kept the group from quickly dispatching her, and she was forced to flee in the direction of the other ship. Eustace took after her immediately in the form of a giant eagle, but lost his focus after taking some hits. He quickly quaffed a potion of invisiblity as he floated to the ground. As the ship left him behind, he quickly made his way back to the cavern. Back in the captain’s quarters a small crisis took place when Ren ignored the pleas of both the oni and the rest of the group while callously pumping spell after spell into the monster until only a smoking corpse remained.
The remaining storm troopers in the hold, morale broken from the knowledge of the slaughter in the caves below and the sounds of their leadership above being killed, fled the ship without facing their attackers at all. The party never even saw them. The group is wounded, low on magic, and being pursued by a force potentially more dangerous than the one they just faced, but they are also victorious. The ship is theirs.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 16, 2018 23:02:03 GMT -5
Ren apologizes to the group for ignoring their wishes regarding the oni. He then promises that the next time the whole group decides on a course of action, he’ll go along. Unfortunately, what little ground he may have gained with his apologies is then lost when he launches into a rant about the foolishness of allowing a shapechanging giant magic user who can fly and inherently cast darkness and invisiblity to sit there and regenerate back to full health while faking a surrender. “He could have hidden here and stabbed us in the back as soon as we lowered our guard!” he yelled at one point. “He could have just gone invisible, survived any hits we managed to land as he flew away, then went to the other ship! We’d have had to face him again at full power!” He soon realizes that he’s only making matters worse, and cuts off the rant. After staring at the ground and muttering to himself for a few seconds, he gives a begrudging “sorry” and walks from the room.
I DON’T LIKE going against the will of the group, and I won’t do it again. But I don’t think I was wrong.
|
|
Fin
Junior Member
Posts: 81
|
Post by Fin on Jul 18, 2018 20:26:25 GMT -5
Titus can understand wanting to wipe out a threat. He does want to be clear, however, that we wasted an opportunity to gain information. Information that could help us in the coming fight with the other castle. We can't afford to waste many more opportunities. In order to make this party work, we all have to subordinate our individual desires from time to time.
How much time do we have until the other castle arrives? We need a long rest, or some other method of healing up/getting spells back. I'm also worried we don't have a lot of healing potions left.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 19, 2018 8:02:17 GMT -5
How much time do we have until the other castle arrives? We need a long rest, or some other method of healing up/getting spells back. I'm also worried we don't have a lot of healing potions left. The other castle is currently following at the same rate we’re fleeing, Ed said that it would take them about 10 minutes to get to us if we stopped. The castle apparently is exhausting to fly and our captive pilot is about toast though, so we probably can’t keep ahead of them for too long. We should probably heal him to give us more time. I don’t think we’re gonna be able to keep this thing. I would say that we have options for how we lose it though. We could bargain with the hierarchs for its return, or crash it if they won’t play ball. I’m sure there other options too. Any thoughts?
|
|
|
Post by Wolfgar on Jul 19, 2018 22:10:00 GMT -5
Things to do while we have the ship - gather portable magic items
- gather portable valuables
- take spell books, library books and laboratory equipment/supplies
- check for secret doors and compartments
- take cannons
- short rest
- identify magic items
How much damage do the cannons do? What is their range? Is Chun big enough to carry and wield one by himself? Wolfgar has some spells he can use to cast Prayers of Healing. Each will take 10 minutes. And a short rest will give us back hit dice worth of hit points. Is there anyway we can escape from the other cloud castle? Disable its magic. Incapacitate the driver. Hide is a bank of clouds. (Anyone played Ace of Aces? I don't cloud castles can do barrel rolls.) Squeeze through a tight valley. Go into an asteroid belt. Hide in the gullet of a large monster. How high can the castle go? How low? Anyway to increase the speed?
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 19, 2018 22:45:33 GMT -5
I like the list of priorities. My guy will get back enough spell slots for a teleport with a short rest, and I have a scroll too. We should be able to transport ourselves and whatever we can grab. Definitely need to heal our pilot immediately and keep him going strong as long as possible. When he lags, maybe send my guy’s owl with a letter of terms to give back the castle. They may offer us something cool, or clemency, or at least give us an opportunity to stall some more.
|
|
Fin
Junior Member
Posts: 81
|
Post by Fin on Jul 20, 2018 10:45:49 GMT -5
Great idea to have Chun carry a laser cannon. Right out Vance's "The Dragon Lords."
After we get some spells and healing, agree with all on gathering items. Can we also take potshots at the other cloud castle with the cannon? Titus has pretty good range on his bow as well and is willing to take a few shots if feasible. Maybe it will slow them down?
If not, seems like best option is to find a place to land and head out undetected. I'm pretty sure we can't take these fools without a long rest/spells/max hit points. If a short rest gets us some spells back, maybe a teleport and/or invisibility will do the trick...or we don't even need to land. We could simply teleport away, assuming we can all go together.
Isn't there a map of this area in the control room? Can we ask the 1 HP dude flying this thing if he knows of any likely spots to put down? Also ask him what vulnerabilities these things have in terms of doing something to incapacitate the other side somehow.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 20, 2018 13:16:52 GMT -5
Great idea to have Chun carry a laser cannon. Right out Vance's "The Dragon Lords." After we get some spells and healing, agree with all on gathering items. Can we also take potshots at the other cloud castle with the cannon? Titus has pretty good range on his bow as well and is willing to take a few shots if feasible. Maybe it will slow them down? If not, seems like best option is to find a place to land and head out undetected. I'm pretty sure we can't take these fools without a long rest/spells/max hit points. If a short rest gets us some spells back, maybe a teleport and/or invisibility will do the trick...or we don't even need to land. We could simply teleport away, assuming we can all go together. Isn't there a map of this area in the control room? Can we ask the 1 HP dude flying this thing if he knows of any likely spots to put down? Also ask him what vulnerabilities these things have in terms of doing something to incapacitate the other side somehow. I definitely like the idea of asking our prisoner/pilot about vulnerabilities. Even if we don’t use it now, these guys are out to get us (or at least Eustace). Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be able to shoot anything at them. Ed said the castles move at 60’ per turn and they are 10 minutes from us if we stopped completely. That comes out to 6000 feet between us, I doubt the lightning cannon goes that far. We should definitely look into getting Tidus a bow that will :)
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 20, 2018 13:53:56 GMT -5
The most ideal outcome in my opinion is that we somehow shake pursuit and keep the castle. If we can’t make that happen, I really dislike the thought of them winning it back. I figure there’s 3 ways to avoid that.
1. Trade it back for something 2. Set it to crash after we leave somehow 3. Let them take it back and then have a summoned creature set off the nuke, annihilating both ships. I’m quite fond of this option.
With any of these courses I would want to loot whatever we can first. The planning is probably gonna be key since Ed isn’t likely to let the pursuit go on forever. The way I would prioritize the work:
1. Heal the pilot. Him healthy = more time to loot 2. 2 people start detaching the forward cannon. Sure it takes time 3. Ren start a short rest to get a teleport back so we can escape 4. Everyone else who isn’t guarding the pilot grab stuff in the order given earlier
Anybody see anything else we need to do or have any thoughts on how to best get it done? Would you prioritize differently? Where is the nuke?
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 20, 2018 13:59:26 GMT -5
Also, poor Eustace got ditched. You’re invisiblity will last for an hour, wanna just hole up and take a short rest, maybe teleport back to the lantern? Or head back to fulldark and loot the bodies we left behind? You should still be close to there, we had only been in motion for a couple of minutes when you went after the captain. Can you think of a way to rejoin us?
|
|
|
Post by Bolo on Jul 20, 2018 22:21:28 GMT -5
So far, no, I'm not seeing a good near-term way for Eustace to rejoin the party. I believe he has a 3rd level slot left for a Fly spell, so he could get back to the captured castle that way, if it stopped to let him catch up. But casting a spell would end his invisibility, so he'd likely get ripped up by the air elementals.
My inclination would be for him to head back to the cave on foot while invisible, loot the bodies if the area seems clear, and then take 10 minutes to cast Leomund's Tiny Hut as a ritual before taking a rest inside the hut. After a short rest, he'd be able to regain a 5th level slot, so he could Teleport Circle to the lantern at that point. But as we will be in telepathic contact the whole time, he can stay flexible about that until we see how the castle pursuit resolves.
He's open to better ideas if anyone has one.
|
|
Fin
Junior Member
Posts: 81
|
Post by Fin on Jul 21, 2018 6:25:54 GMT -5
I don’t like the idea of leaving Eustace out there on his own. How about we use Jake’s sequence of events and add looking for a Wu to crash the castle. Just before impact we teleport back to the lantern and live to fight anoher day.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 21, 2018 20:30:07 GMT -5
I don’t like the idea of leaving Eustace out there on his own. How about we use Jake’s sequence of events and add looking for a Wu to crash the castle. Just before impact we teleport back to the lantern and live to fight anoher day. no nuking both? :)
|
|
|
Post by Bolo on Jul 22, 2018 14:52:25 GMT -5
Are air elementals actually invisible?
The Monster Manual describes them as "a funneling cloud ... with a vague semblance of a face" and has a picture of one. The stat block says nothing about invisibility. Compare the entry for invisible stalker which explicitly says "Invisibility. The stalker is invisible."
Obviously either "those weren't actually air elementals" or "those particular air elementals were invisible" is an acceptable DM answer.
|
|
|
Post by Bolo on Jul 22, 2018 15:24:05 GMT -5
Thinking some more about Eustace's situation ...
Rary's Telepathic Bond lasts for 1 hour, so it will end before Eustace can complete a short rest. He can't reestablish it, even though it's a ritual not requiring a spell slot, because the rest of you won't be within range (30'). His invisibility potion also lasts 1 hour, and it ends sooner if he casts a spell. So to expand on my previous plan:
Eustace can head back to the cave on foot and loot the bodies if the area seems clear, all while remaining invisible for self-preservation. He can then take 11 minutes (not 10) to cast Leomund's Tiny Hut as a ritual before taking a rest inside the hut. When he casts LTH he'll become visible. He presumably knows whether this will happen at the beginning of the 11 minutes or the end, but I don't. At some point during his rest, he'll lose the telepathic connection to the rest of the party. I suppose he might lose it right away upon casting LTH, if it's considered a "magical effect" that can't pass through the hut. Either way, his plan for what to do after resting needs to be determined before he completes his rest. My best thought so far is still for him to use a regained 5th level slot to Teleport Circle back to the lantern, but he'll be on his own at that point, so there's not as much room as I had previously thought for him to change his action based on the outcome of the castle chase.
Questions for the DM: (1) Will his invisibility end when he starts to cast LTH, or 11 minutes later when the casting is complete? (2) Can the Telepathic Bond pass through the Tiny Hut, or is it considered a "magical effect"?
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 22, 2018 20:08:00 GMT -5
If Eustace goes back to fulldark and it’s clear, then after short rest, Ren can open a teleport to fulldark, Eustace can use it to rejoin the group, then we have Eustace's teleport and Ren’s scroll to use for the group’s escape. The downside being that the telepathy will end before either gets slots back, so if something shows up and Eustace has to hide the group could be opening a gate to enemies. At least Eustace would have a full minutes notice that the gate was opening to be ready to step through with whatever he gathered. It’s a possibile way for rejoining, so I figured I’d bring it up. Probably safer to regroup at the lantern.
|
|
|
Post by Ginger on Jul 22, 2018 20:14:54 GMT -5
Our driver was concerned we were headed towards the territory of the Sea Wizards. If we invade, maybe we can cause an international incident. We would teleport back to the Full Dark Stone and the Sea Wizards wouldn’t be the wiser. That could give the Celestial Hierarchy something to stay busy with and get them out of our hair.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 22, 2018 20:19:24 GMT -5
Our driver was concerned we were headed towards the territory of the Sea Wizards. If we invade, maybe we can cause an international incident. We would teleport back to the Full Dark Stone and the Sea Wizards wouldn’t be the wiser. That could give the Celestial Hierarchy something to stay busy with and get them out of our hair. I like the idea of that. If the sea wizards and the hierarchs get into it, we might have them distracted enough to leave us alone. We may want to discuss some of the ramifications of starting a potential war though. How far do we have to get before the sea wizards take note, I wonder?
|
|
|
Post by Ginger on Jul 22, 2018 21:54:29 GMT -5
Seems like we would need to know from our driver more about the sea wizards. Also, how much the other castle will gain on us in an hour. A short rest allows “nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.” If we do that, we will have to hold off on item collection and ransacking.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 23, 2018 8:19:58 GMT -5
Seems like we would need to know from our driver more about the sea wizards. Also, how much the other castle will gain on us in an hour. A short rest allows “nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.” If we do that, we will have to hold off on item collection and ransacking. Information is always good. Ren is the only one who really needs to take a short rest, and even he can skip it if the group is willing to use up the scroll for the escape teleport. I’d kinda rather avoid using a consumable if we can though. Driver doesn’t get a rest, just healing. No reason they should catch up at all till he collapses, castles are going the same speed at this point.
|
|
|
Post by Ginger on Jul 23, 2018 11:56:23 GMT -5
Are we sure we are the same speed or is that an assumption? The other Castle is bigger, in addition to their healthier driver.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 23, 2018 15:25:00 GMT -5
Are we sure we are the same speed or is that an assumption? The other Castle is bigger, in addition to their healthier driver. Ed said the castles do 60’ per turn, didn’t distinguish between the two. If he wants, I suppose he can say ours is slower because the driver is tired, but I’d argue that the larger one should be slower because it’s bigger. Me being tired doesn’t make my car slower, and it isn’t like the guy is rowing the ship... The only reason I’d see him saying the other one is gaining is cause it helps him advance some story stuff he wants to see happen. Until our guy passes out anyway. Ed?
|
|
|
Post by Bolo on Jul 24, 2018 10:25:30 GMT -5
Eustace votes against creating an international incident. He quite likes being on the Celestial Hierarachy's most wanted list. In fact, if the rest of the party manages to crash the castle spectacularly enough, he really wants to find time to Skywrite "Eustace Was Here -- Resist Oppression" in clouds high above the debris. But being responsible for an invasion is perhaps going a bit far. Under the circs, I'm pretty sure the Sea Wizards would accept the CH's explanation that we were driving, not them.
What are we intending to do with the driver? Kill him? Leave him in charge when we abandon ship? Take him with us as a hostage? Attempt to recruit him as an ally and take him with us voluntarily? Discussion of this should (of course) take place entirely telepathically so he won't know what we're planning.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 24, 2018 12:05:50 GMT -5
Eustace votes against creating an international incident. He quite likes being on the Celestial Hierarachy's most wanted list. In fact, if the rest of the party manages to crash the castle spectacularly enough, he really wants to find time to Skywrite "Eustace Was Here -- Resist Oppression" in clouds high above the debris. But being responsible for an invasion is perhaps going a bit far. Under the circs, I'm pretty sure the Sea Wizards would accept the CH's explanation that we were driving, not them. What are we intending to do with the driver? Kill him? Leave him in charge when we abandon ship? Take him with us as a hostage? Attempt to recruit him as an ally and take him with us voluntarily? Discussion of this should (of course) take place entirely telepathically so he won't know what we're planning. You’re probably right about the international incident. We don’t want to end up with TWO of the powers that be hunting us! How would we ever go to town? That said, the hierarchs already hate us, so we should definitely nuke them. I mean come on, we have a nuke; it would be disrespectful to Ed who let us have it if we didn’t use it to wipe out two sky castles. And then we wouldn’t have to worry about the hierarchs circling around and interfering with our dragon hunt again. Regarding the pilot, I’d say it depends on how loyal to the hierarchs he is. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a wizard henchman around, but not if he’s going to flip on us the second we run into the hierarchs again. Particularly if he’s gotten intel on the lantern. Maybe Wulfgar can commune to find out if this guy will be loyal given the chance? The group is high enough in levels to justify another npc, I think. Bonus points for actually coming up with a good use for skywrite!
|
|
|
Post by Bolo on Jul 24, 2018 12:40:20 GMT -5
Do we have any idea at all what the blast radius of the nuke would be? It's one thing if it takes out a couple of sky castles. It's another thing if it renders everything within a 10 mile radius permanently uninhabitable.
|
|
Fin
Junior Member
Posts: 81
|
Post by Fin on Jul 24, 2018 15:56:56 GMT -5
Titus votes for saving the nukes for something really big. He’s also not in favor of an international incident. He recommends crashing our castle and teleporting away just before impact. He’s indifferent to the fate of the driver; we can take him or lash him to the wheel and let him go down with his shop.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 24, 2018 19:54:03 GMT -5
Not hearing any talk about negotiations. Any interest in trying to trade this thing back for something cool or an agreement to leave us and the lantern alone? Even if it’s just a stalling tactic or a way of getting the nuke in close? I don’t want to actually give it back unless it’s something REALLY cool or the rest of the group all votes for a peace agreement. Actually, it would have to be both to get my vote.
|
|
|
Post by Ginger on Jul 24, 2018 20:10:30 GMT -5
I’m down with negotiating. We could cast a sending, or maybe a mutual clairvoyance.
|
|
Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
|
Post by Ren on Jul 24, 2018 20:12:10 GMT -5
Do we have any idea at all what the blast radius of the nuke would be? It's one thing if it takes out a couple of sky castles. It's another thing if it renders everything within a 10 mile radius permanently uninhabitable. . Somebody may have to check my math, but I’ve got these castles doing 6.8 mph. I figure if we can keep the chase going for at least 2 hours, that’ll give us time to rest, loot, and escape. It’ll also put fulldark and that village outside the kill radius of the bomb even if it is as colossally large as a 10 mile radius. There wasn’t anything else out here when we were doing the original approach to fulldark. And think of it; we’ll be creating an adventure hook. A 20 mile wide dead zone with the wreckage of 2 magical floating castles at the center? That’s totally something our group would go after. We’re just looking out for future generations.
|
|
Fin
Junior Member
Posts: 81
|
Post by Fin on Jul 25, 2018 5:05:52 GMT -5
Still think we should save the nukes for a Papa Roach scenario. I want to waste these castle losers but we need to be full up.
|
|