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Post by Mr. Trommer on Mar 6, 2006 14:40:46 GMT -5
After the mission to save Farvale failed the "A-Team" retired to Loftwick. The "B-Team" arrived in town a couple of days later. The company spent a good chunk of the cash (9,000 gp) to the Acedemy of Loftwick to identify have Dell and Winthrop join and get the vast bulk of remaining 30 or so magic items identifed. Once that was done the items were collected after paying some extra for the acolytes that died in the identying process. The party then allocated them to all the various members before returning to Farvale. Cedrus was given possession of the Rod of Resurrection. That will come in real handy.
The Company now totals 11. So the corporation has grown. The thought was to get a commision as a miltia unit but that wasn't a good fit for us. We did accept the task of travelling in to the mountains on a diplomatic mission to the Giant King. At least that is what I think we agreed to. I don't pay too much attention to the details. I leave that to Raven, Dell and Otto.
So we were able to slip into the mountains and make our way along. We are on a diplomation mission after all. We had our first diplomatic encounter after we saw some smoke on the horizon and came to a village under attack. We were easily seen and from the village a diplomatic emissary came out to greet us. The negotiations did not go well for them. Otto was extremley forceful in getting his point across to the frost giant and his mamoth. The remaing ten orges and four humans in the diplomatic party were also dealt. Our presence scared off the evil doers that were herding the villagers in the mountains. So we now have the grateful villagers to talk to and the deceased as well
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Post by Ginger on Mar 6, 2006 17:13:53 GMT -5
Now that we have 3 clerics, they can combine to ask the deceased 4 questions each. I suggest we see if Big Johan is taking orders from anyone and what he knows about the Giant King.
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Post by Ginger on Mar 6, 2006 17:38:14 GMT -5
Searching through Gador’s desk reveals several incriminating letters from the Volenta family offering to pay Gador double value for any shipments bearing the Colnet seal, an agreement for the kidnaping of Brannod Colnet, a letter offering the opportunity of an alliance with someone called Nosnra, who is gathering the might of giantkind, and several letters from, apparently, Gador’s relatives, two brothers who write that they will come visit soon, since Gador doesn’t return their letters. Here's the key passage from the looting of Gador's room. We should see what Big Johan knows about Nosnra.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 6, 2006 21:19:41 GMT -5
Now that we have 3 clerics, they can combine to ask the deceased 4 questions each. I suggest we see if Big Johan is taking orders from anyone and what he knows about the Giant King. We should first ask the villagers what they know about Big Johan and his band. If they know where they were being taken. Where Big Johan's base is located? Have they seen other giants recently. Also whether they have heard of any giant king and where he might be located? Possible questions for Big Johan. -where were you taking the villagers? -where is your base? -who are you working for? -where are they located? -who claims to be the king of the giants? -where is he located? -why have the giants, orcs and undead attacked Farvale? If Johan's base isn't too far out of the way and we think there might be something useful there I say we break out the dog figurine and have it do some tracking. It should be pretty easy for it to follow the scent of the mastadon. We should give the carcass of the mastadon to the villagers - it should feed them for a month. And collect the caltrops. They worked pretty well. And if Winthrop agrees I think general policy should be to cast strength at the start of the day. At his level it will work at least as long as we are traveling each day. Anything else that lasts hours that we should just cast at the being of the day so there is no chance of being caught unprepared?
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Post by Ginger on Mar 6, 2006 21:43:16 GMT -5
I'd suggest casting Strength on one or two people each day, one in the morning and one on someone else at noon. That lets us keep one or two in reserve and will also save us an hour of traveling time each day (if we were to cast 4 strengths per day).
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 6, 2006 23:15:36 GMT -5
Since strength takes 10 rounds to cast it does not tend to be useful as a reserve spell. Once you are in combat it is too late. So I say use all of the strength in the morning and at noon. You could rotate things according to who will be on watch at night but I think most encounters are likely to occur during the daylight hours.
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Mar 7, 2006 9:02:46 GMT -5
Given that we are in mountains I had figured that a Web Spell probably wouldn't work well with the terrain. Also it doesn't work against giants. So I had already intended to take four strength spells. I wll leave it to the recipient to decide when they want it. I could even go as far as a fifth Strength spell if it helps.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 7, 2006 10:30:36 GMT -5
With any luck Otto should reach 8th level in the next week or two and not need magical strength. So that should free up one more spell. Until then Otto would like his at the beginning of each day.
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Post by Dell on Mar 7, 2006 10:49:52 GMT -5
If Winthrop is looking for a good second level spell to take, Dell recommends Stinking Cloud. Since you have the ioun stone that lets you not breathe, you don't have to worry about it affecting you.
And when you hit 8th, we'll need to find a Druid to train Otto in the use of his spells - Dell misses the taste of the Goodberries. And having access to Detect Poison would have saved us some money - and saved some apprentices their lives.
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Mar 7, 2006 11:13:30 GMT -5
I will have to check and see if Stinking Cloud is in one of the books I have with me. I may have to borrow Dell's. That is a good idea as is Otto's for using "Fido" to track the mamoth back to its source.
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Post by Ginger on Mar 7, 2006 12:29:41 GMT -5
If we're fighting large groups of giants, I'd love to be able to shoot at them while standing in the middle of a stinking cloud, where they can't get me.
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Mar 7, 2006 12:48:04 GMT -5
We could give it a try. Although the height of the cloud might be less than the giants head. We'll have to check the dimensions of the cloud to see if that will work.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 7, 2006 13:04:50 GMT -5
If we're fighting large groups of giants, I'd love to be able to shoot at them while standing in the middle of a stinking cloud, where they can't get me. They can still hit you with rocks.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 7, 2006 13:16:18 GMT -5
Winthrop - I did a quick scan of MM, FF and MM2. Falcons (small) travel at 36" as do hippogriffs. Do you think you can carry someone while polymorphed? A pegasus travels at 48" but I don't think we have seen one. Also nice is a cheetah which for three rounds can travel at 45".
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Mar 7, 2006 13:52:43 GMT -5
Thanks! That is good to know. Well we did see the ass end of a bunch of Hippogriffs leaving Karmuk's tower. I have no idea if having the forms allows me to carry someone. That is an excellent question to get a ruling on. What do dragons fly at? We've seen a few of them.
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Post by Dell on Mar 7, 2006 14:07:58 GMT -5
We could give it a try. Although the height of the cloud might be less than the giants head. The cloud is 20' by 20' by 20'. If I recall arightly, giants are around 18' tall, so the cloud should affect them. I think our main giant-killing tactic should be for Winthrop to Dimension Door Otto and Al up to where the giants are, so they can kill the hell out of them. Dell will supervise.
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Mar 7, 2006 14:41:24 GMT -5
Now that is a neat tactic given the range from which we get thrown at.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 7, 2006 15:05:47 GMT -5
This is certainly worth trying. If we can get behind them then they have to split their attentions. And if they turn to us then the archers to move up and shoot them in the back. How often can you dimension door? Probably not worth memorizing an extra spell.
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Mar 7, 2006 16:10:50 GMT -5
Once per day up to 540 feet.
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Post by Ginger on Mar 7, 2006 16:33:08 GMT -5
I love the dimension door plan. Anything that confuses the enemy and breaks up their lines should be cool. I'm much more worried about giant boulders than giant melee combat.
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Mar 7, 2006 16:41:49 GMT -5
I know we should define the questions we want to ask the villagers here. were we going to get answers back or was that going to be on Sunday?
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Post by Ginger on Mar 7, 2006 17:29:38 GMT -5
The questions for the villagers are the same questions we have for Big Johan. If they can answer any of them first, we won't need to ask him. It's likely they'll know where his base is.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 7, 2006 18:01:31 GMT -5
Thanks! That is good to know. Well we did see the ass end of a bunch of Hippogriffs leaving Karmuk's tower. I have no idea if having the forms allows me to carry someone. That is an excellent question to get a ruling on. What do dragons fly at? We've seen a few of them. There is a limit to the size When this spell is cast, the wizard is able to assume the form of any creature, save those that are noncorporeal, from as small as a wren to as large as a hippopotamus. So dragons are out. But the description also says Naturally, the strength of the new form is sufficient to enable normal movement. And since normal movement for a hippogriff includes being able to carry someone, I would assume you could.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 12, 2006 20:20:44 GMT -5
How fares the mission?
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Post by Ginger on Mar 12, 2006 21:00:43 GMT -5
Big Johan's base was attacked and looted. Dell was the hero of the hour, so I'll refrain from telling the tale. We assaulted the giant's stockade under cover of invisibility and night. We broke in through the kennel/barracks and have slain a dozen dire wolves. The giants are having a feast in their great hall, and have not detected us. We're now waiting outside, thinking about how we're going to kill 40 giants.
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Post by Dell on Mar 13, 2006 11:44:47 GMT -5
We're now waiting outside, thinking about how we're going to kill 40 giants. My plan is to throw Otto in there and then close the door until the screaming stops.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 13, 2006 13:07:19 GMT -5
Big Johan's base was attacked and looted. Dell was the hero of the hour, so I'll refrain from telling the tale. We assaulted the giant's stockade under cover of invisibility and night. We broke in through the kennel/barracks and have slain a dozen dire wolves. The giants are having a feast in their great hall, and have not detected us. We're now waiting outside, thinking about how we're going to kill 40 giants. So Big Johan's base is separate from the giant's stockade? Do we know what kind of giants we are facing now? We do know that these are evil giants that there is no use parleying with? Assuming not... Does anyone have Haste? I was thinking that if we could cast haste on Otto, Al, Diego and Raven and then slow on the giants we could deal a lot of damage in a hurry. With luck each fighter could kill a giant per round. It might be a good idea for Raven to give his potion of giant strength to Al or Otto so one of them could maximize his melee combat damage. Meanwhile Winthrop and Dell can do coordinated fireball strafing on the guys in the back. They wouldn't stand a chance.
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Post by Dell on Mar 13, 2006 14:32:17 GMT -5
Do we know what kind of giants we are facing now? Hill Giants, mostly - there are a couple of other types - it is assumed that these are visitors. We do know that these are evil giants that there is no use parleying with? "Know" is a strong word - we do, however have an awful lot of evidence indicating that they aren't friendly. Does anyone have Haste? I was thinking that if we could cast haste on Otto, Al, Diego and Raven and then slow on the giants we could deal a lot of damage in a hurry. Due to the risk of instant death, and by special request of Raven - who is apparently the leader - we don't ever use Haste. We've got two basic first round strategy options - the "Winthrop" or the "Dell". In the Winthrop, obviously, we go in all spells blazing, going for as much damage to as large a number as possible right away - fireballs, lightning bolts, wands of steam, etc. Using the Dell philosophy, we would go in and try to gain a tactical advantage by using slow, stinking clouds, and confusion spells to gain control of the area so they can't attack us with their full force. There are two exits to the room that the giants are in. We are at one of them - if we can block the other, we should be able to channel the giants to us - at which point, they run into Otto and Al guarding the door and are gutted. As has been repeatedly illustrated, we don't want a situation where a dozen giants have an open field of fire on anyone, or where a bunch of giants can surround one of our guys - so having everyone rush into the room and start attacking seems hasty.
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Post by Ginger on Mar 13, 2006 15:06:20 GMT -5
I'll describe the room: It's a large banquet hall. There are about 50 beings inside. 10 of them are orcs, who are unarmed servants. They dash in and out of the room to the kitchen. We're waiting in a darkly lit corridor which splits off from the corridor which leads to the kitchen. Pavel snuck into the room, as an orc, and told us what's in there. There are 10 ogres, and about 20 hill giants. At the head table are the leaders and visiting giants, of various types. There is a fire in the middle of the room and a hole in the ceiling directly above it. I think the best idea is to use Wall of Force to block off the head table while we kill the rest. Once everyone else is dead, we can negotiate with the leaders through the wall of force.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 13, 2006 20:08:05 GMT -5
I worry that there might be a trap door somewhere in the room that they can use to escape. So if there is room you may want to use a hemi-sphere instead of a wall. But I do like the idea of dividing and conquering.
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