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Post by Bolo on Jul 25, 2018 18:07:56 GMT -5
Eustace is fine with negotiating a very transactional trade of cool stuff for uncrashed castle. He's not particularly interested in any long term deal with the CH, because he kinda wants to keep pissing them off whenever he feels like it, and because in any case he's pretty sceptical about their reliability as negotiating counterparts.
If we do end up making a deal, we should get to keep anything we want from the castle, as a starting point. If they want the castle back, they need to offer something good *in addition* to what we'd get by looting and crashing.
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Jul 25, 2018 22:38:28 GMT -5
Absolutely. I would want to see at least 2-3 very rare magic items on the table in addition to everything we loot before I would seriously consider a trade. And an agreement to stay out of our way.
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Post by Bolo on Jul 26, 2018 16:18:10 GMT -5
I don't actually care that much about an agreement to stay out of our way, because I don't trust them to keep such an agreement, and because they would probably want us to agree to keep out of their way too, which Eustace has no particular intention of doing.
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Fin
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Post by Fin on Jul 26, 2018 16:20:00 GMT -5
Titus is not in favor of negotiations now as we are in a position of weakness, or at least we believe we are, which is in effect the same thing. We should only negotiate from a position of strength. It’s the Melian dialog: the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. We have few spells, are low on HP and one of our boss wizards isn’t even with us. What do we have to offer in negotiations? How can we enforce compliance? What happens if the other side calls the bluff and comes in guns blazing- what then? Our only choices are either to fight or run. I’d prefer to fight but think running now makes the most sense. If the party persists in this negotiation nonsense, Titus will take a page from the Ren playbook and take matters into his own hands.
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Post by Ginger on Jul 26, 2018 16:55:38 GMT -5
Right. We want them to stay out of our way while we loot their ruins with impunity.
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Post by Bolo on Jul 26, 2018 22:52:47 GMT -5
Eustace is fine with not negotiating too. Loot then crash and burn sounds good to him.
Bear in mind that Teleportation Circle takes 1 minute to cast, so the driver will need to keep driving while it's being cast. My guess is that this means he's coming with you when you step through the circle to the lantern. Otherwise the timing might get tricky.
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Jul 26, 2018 22:55:03 GMT -5
Titus is not in favor of negotiations now as we are in a position of weakness, or at least we believe we are, which is in effect the same thing. We should only negotiate from a position of strength. It’s the Melian dialog: the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. We have few spells, are low on HP and one of our boss wizards isn’t even with us. What do we have to offer in negotiations? How can we enforce compliance? What happens if the other side calls the bluff and comes in guns blazing- what then? Our only choices are either to fight or run. I’d prefer to fight but think running now makes the most sense. If the party persists in this negotiation nonsense, Titus will take a page from the Ren playbook and take matters into his own hands. You make sense. They would almost certainly attack us if any kind of exchange were to take place, and we are in bad condition at the moment. Does everyone agree to the plan for looting/rest/teleport/crash? Should we put it up to Ed to see if we can handle all that out of session? It would be nice to get the list of loot and experience so we can jump right back into the originally scheduled dragon hunt next session. Or whatever the group decides to do.
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Jul 26, 2018 22:58:47 GMT -5
Eustace is fine with not negotiating too. Loot then crash and burn sounds good to him. Bear in mind that Teleportation Circle takes 1 minute to cast, so the driver will need to keep driving while it's being cast. My guess is that this means he's coming with you when you step through the circle to the lantern. Otherwise the timing might get tricky. If the driver does come with us, he’s gotta be blind folded at a bare minimum. He gets escorted out of the lantern control room immediately and put somewhere secure. Assuming he does seem inclined to join us. Ren would want him dead before we let him go if he doesn’t. We can come up with a way to confirm loyalty after we rest up.
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Post by Bolo on Jul 26, 2018 23:33:15 GMT -5
How far is it to international incident territory? At 60' per round, a 1 hour short rest will carry the castle about 7 miles. Or more if Ren participates in the looting or anything else before sitting down to rest. If that's at all a concern, I think burning the scroll to get out sooner might be worth it.
I don't think Eustace is any safer when you guys are in the castle than he would be if you were at the lantern. Either way, if something bad happens, he's pretty much on his own.
And yes, if you bring the driver along, it's blindfold time, and/or summary execution upon arrival, although Eustace isn't keen on the latter unless the guy is clearly uncooperative.
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Fin
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Post by Fin on Jul 27, 2018 10:42:17 GMT -5
Ageed. The driver can either cooperate or die. His call.
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Jul 27, 2018 14:31:18 GMT -5
How far is it to international incident territory? At 60' per round, a 1 hour short rest will carry the castle about 7 miles. Or more if Ren participates in the looting or anything else before sitting down to rest. If that's at all a concern, I think burning the scroll to get out sooner might be worth it. I don't think Eustace is any safer when you guys are in the castle than he would be if you were at the lantern. Either way, if something bad happens, he's pretty much on his own. And yes, if you bring the driver along, it's blindfold time, and/or summary execution upon arrival, although Eustace isn't keen on the latter unless the guy is clearly uncooperative. I was looking at the map, and I figure at 7 miles per hour we should hit the sea wizards territory in about 3&1/2 months or so. Fulldark and the sea wizards are literally on opposite sides of the map. If some international power is running the sapphire mines, maybe they’ll complain but otherwise I don’t see a problem. Am I missing something Ed?
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Post by Wolfgar on Jul 29, 2018 12:25:49 GMT -5
Questions for the pilot - What is his name again?
- Did they come to the Full Dark Stone (FDS) because the Lantern was there or was it accidental that they showed up while we were there?
- What does he know about the Lantern?
- What does he know about the Empire's plans regarding the FDS? More broadly?
- Why did they need two castles here?
- What did they learn from Corm?
- What did they take from the FDS/Corm's lab and where is it?
- What did they do with Corm's servants?
- What did they learn about the FDS, the blue dragons, the caves/mines, the door with the sigils?
- Did they take any treasure from the dragons? If so, where is it?
- How many dragons remain?
- Have they communicated with the dragons?
- How big is the crew of the other castle? Who are its officers and what are their capabilities?
- Is there anyway to communicate with the other castle? Magic devices? Semaphore flags? Flares?
- What about communicating with central command?
- Are there any secret or concealed rooms/compartments aboard this castle?
- Are there stores for food/other items we might want?
- Would he be willing to switch allegiances to us?
- What are his abilities? What level spell caster is he?
Does Corm have anything he can tell us about the Empire and its plans? What would his plans be now that he is free?
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Post by Ginger on Jul 29, 2018 13:59:08 GMT -5
Questions for the pilot - What are his abilities? What level spell caster is he?
Does Corm have anything he can tell us about the Empire and its plans? What would his plans be now that he is free? I can use my rarely used Battlemaster fighter subclass ability to know the character levels and remaining HP of anyone I interact with out of combat for a minute. I will do that for Corm and the driver.
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Post by Ginger on Jul 29, 2018 16:41:14 GMT -5
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Jul 29, 2018 21:08:29 GMT -5
@ Fin Have you considered this: media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_RevisedRanger.pdf ? I’m sure Ed would be fine with it, he said several times that you could switch classes. Are you considering that? Looking around, I did see a lot of complaints about rangers. One guy said “ranger took over the bard’s old role of being underwhelming and progressively more outclassed as levels advance”. Ouch. Pretty much exactly what you were pointing out. Which way are you thinking?
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Fin
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Post by Fin on Jul 30, 2018 4:41:20 GMT -5
Thanks. I’ll take a close look at this. Great list of questions from Wulfgar.
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Fin
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Post by Fin on Jul 30, 2018 11:46:01 GMT -5
I would add only: do you want to cooperate or die?
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Jul 31, 2018 22:42:01 GMT -5
I’m already looking forward to the xp haul for the last couple sessions, and I started looking at leveling. I’m definitely giving up my next ability score increase in favor of the resilience feat and picking constitution. That gives you a +1 to whatever attribute you pick and allows you to add proficiency bonus to saves that use that ability. Not only is constitution the second most common thing to save against, as a caster it also effects concentration checks. Pretty big deal to get a +4 on the roll to save the spell that’s keeping you flying. Something for the group’s other casters to think about.
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Post by venger on Aug 1, 2018 8:08:05 GMT -5
Splitting this into two posts-- How much damage do the cannons do? What is their range? Is Chun big enough to carry and wield one by himself? 8d6 lightning damage, fires 1/3 rounds. 300' range. Chun could wield the cannon, yes, that seems cool enough to allow. How high can the castle go? How low? Anyway to increase the speed? The castle floats like a cloud, ascending to where the air grows thinnest and never touching the ground. The magical pipe organ (requires attunement) casts Control Weather, regulating speed. Speed is increased or decreased 60'/round every 1d4 x 10 minutes by changing the strength of the wind, to a maximum of 300'/round. Every hour of use drains Constitution by 1 point. 0-1 (Calm) = 60' 1-2 (Moderate) = 120' 2-3 (Strong Wind) = 180' 3-4 (Gale) = 240' 4-5 (Storm) = 300' 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? Not so much. To the north sprawl the territories of the Celestial Hierarchy. Scattered villages of downtrodden peasants ekeing out their meager existences in the mud beneath their sky wizard oppressors. To the south are the "Yellow Lands", a flat, dry waste of silty, yellow earth & salty, ochre dust; once the domain of a powerful chronomancer. Beyond that, the Certopsian Desert whose nomadic peoples live under the burning lash of the Fire Wizards' Cabal. To the east is a large stretch of land containing Grim-Shackle Dungeon, a "wizard-prison" where the ruling wizard-lords place their enemies and defeated rivals. These are also the territories of a few "lesser" wizards, foremost of them Mangesha the Mind-Mage and a group called "The Fingers of His Dark Hand", warlocks & demonologists pursuing their own ends in the shadow of the great mountain. Stavek claims these wizards will pay tribute to the Celestial Hierarch when their lands are annexed by the Hierarchy. To the west is an unmapped wilderness, ostensibly full of monsters, from whence the trollish-wizard Korm dragged the giant skull of his master. Also ask him what vulnerabilities these things have in terms of doing something to incapacitate the other side somehow. A Control Weather spell could be used to becalm the cloud castle. 10 minutes to cast, 1d4 x 10 minutes to change the "wind stage." Are air elementals actually invisible? Obviously either "those weren't actually air elementals" or "those particular air elementals were invisible" is an acceptable DM answer. Yes & no. The DM variant angle is accurate. Elementals are effectively invisible within their own element. 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"? (1) I would say the former, as invisibility ends when you take an Action to cast a spell. (2) If it blocks all magical effects, it's fair to say it blocks magical telepathy. If it helps any- as far as Eustace can tell, the air elementals have sped away after the castles. Unless he is looking for trouble, none should find him. 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. There is only one "Sea Wizard", an archmage who (unlike most of the despotic wizard-lords) takes a fairly hands-off approach to the ruling of their wizardly domain. The "free" Port Catoblepas is considered a neutral city, nominally under the protection of the Sea Wizard and his appointed governor. 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 castles should move at the same speed, the only variable is how long (1d4x10 minutes) it takes the wind to increase or decrease from a Control Weather spell. How far is it to international incident territory? There is a large stretch of territory between the two domains. (see above) The last such flying castle encountered was over the village of Drist Gors, within the territory of the Sea Wizard, and provoked no reaction.
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Aug 1, 2018 14:02:17 GMT -5
Ok, if everyone agrees to it, this is what I’d like to do: Ed said we can resolve this scenario outside session because it doesn’t involve combat. If the organ is only draining 1 point of Stavek’s constitution per hour, then we have plenty of time to short rest, find secret rooms, take both cannons, loot everything, line the castle up to crash, and escape. Stavek and Korm can both go with us as long as they are properly blindfolded and guarded. We can ask them questions at our leisure once they are safely in our custody on the lantern. Eustace can meet the rest of us there after looting the bodies at fulldark, unless he doesn’t want to mess with it on his own. Is anyone opposed to doing it this way or see something that’s being forgotten? If not, then can we get xp and a loot list, Ed?
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Post by Wolfgar on Aug 1, 2018 14:48:40 GMT -5
I don't see any reason to hold onto the castle long term. So I am fine with this plan. I would suggest we leave the castle intact. Destroying it might bring the full wrath of the Hierarchy down on us. Also if it is intact then we can use clairvoyance on it to see what they are up.
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Aug 1, 2018 17:51:29 GMT -5
Part of the benefit of crashing the castle is that they will probably spend a while recovering it. Not gonna want to let anyone else salvage it, I’m sure. That keeps them from returning to fulldark and getting in our way to take down the dragon. Not quite as effectively as a nuke, but....
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Fin
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Post by Fin on Aug 1, 2018 18:15:08 GMT -5
Hmm. Wulfgar brings up some salient points. That said, it seems the Hierarchy is already pretty pissed off at us. We've killed a ton of their Stormtroopers, a couple of monks, an oni, a mage or three and highjacked one of their castles. Is crashing said castle really going to be the tipping point? I'd suggest we're probably already there. So taking one of their rooks off the board by crashing this castle will benefit us more than it will upset the Hierarchy, no? If there's a hole in that argument I'm willing to listen. One possible option would be rather than crashing the castle, booby trap it to go nuke soon as the Hierarchy climbs back on board after we make our escape. We might take a few of them with it. Otherwise I'm on board with Ren's plan.
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Fin
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Post by Fin on Aug 1, 2018 18:17:27 GMT -5
Eddie, would you be open to using the updated Ranger class per Dave and Jake? If so, I would like to try. Still debating whether to stay with the Hunter conclave or the Underdark conclave. What do you think?
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Aug 1, 2018 19:04:07 GMT -5
Eddie, would you be open to using the updated Ranger class per Dave and Jake? If so, I would like to try. Still debating whether to stay with the Hunter conclave or the Underdark conclave. What do you think? I read the revised ranger description, but I’m not all that familiar with the 5e ranger in the first place. It was my go to class in 3e. Is the revision actually better? Do you feel like using it will fully address your concerns?
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Post by Bolo on Aug 1, 2018 20:23:19 GMT -5
Ok, if everyone agrees to it, this is what I’d like to do: Ed said we can resolve this scenario outside session because it doesn’t involve combat. If the organ is only draining 1 point of Stavek’s constitution per hour, then we have plenty of time to short rest, find secret rooms, take both cannons, loot everything, line the castle up to crash, and escape. Stavek and Korm can both go with us as long as they are properly blindfolded and guarded. We can ask them questions at our leisure once they are safely in our custody on the lantern. Eustace can meet the rest of us there after looting the bodies at fulldark, unless he doesn’t want to mess with it on his own. Is anyone opposed to doing it this way or see something that’s being forgotten? If not, then can we get xp and a loot list, Ed? Eustace is fine with looting the bodies at Fulldark, resting briefly in a tiny hut, then proceeding on his own to the Lantern. He doesn't care much what you guys do to the cloud castle meanwhile. Crash it, abandon it, whatever, so long as you loot everything that's magically interesting and not nailed down. Is the magical pipe organ nailed down? Could we take that too?
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Post by Ginger on Aug 1, 2018 20:32:50 GMT -5
Given that we spent so long, it’s not inconceivable they spent 10 minutes casting a Telepathic Bond while waiting for our assault. We should try to do a short rest before interrogating him.
We should figure out whether they will go back to Full Dark after we leave, or if they will just leave or go back to resupply.
Maybe we should just teleport circle directly to full dark and rest there to directly fight the dragon?
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Ren
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Post by Ren on Aug 1, 2018 23:25:17 GMT -5
Is the magical pipe organ nailed down? Could we take that too? I asked Ed specifically about that, and also about the thing that controls the air elementals. He said both are too integrated into the ship to be removed intact. Bummer.
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Post by Ginger on Aug 2, 2018 10:02:38 GMT -5
Eddie, would you be open to using the updated Ranger class per Dave and Jake? If so, I would like to try. Still debating whether to stay with the Hunter conclave or the Underdark conclave. What do you think? I read the revised ranger description, but I’m not all that familiar with the 5e ranger in the first place. It was my go to class in 3e. Is the revision actually better? Do you feel like using it will fully address your concerns? It includes damage bonuses against favored enemies, which is cool. Also beefs up some of the survival special abilities which add good flavor.
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Fin
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Post by Fin on Aug 2, 2018 16:29:29 GMT -5
I have to figure out how to leverage this character- for example, I can move, shoot, move, shoot again if I have Longstrider up and use the new move bonus. Getting extra spells as an Underdark Conclave Ranger is cool. Plus advantage on initiative rolls, Hide in Plain Sight - I could see Titus being a kind of Fin character, sort of. I’d like to at least try. Having another serious ranged attack option is good for the party too.
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