OOC III

[Zhym]

Marching order looks okay to me—though we're in worse shape than I thought if Angus is one of the best front-line fighters.

[media_junkie]

I'm agreeable with the marching order.

[onlyme]

Dandelion is also fine with the marching order...

[Inferno]

It is possible for the groups to diverge. I'll post an update tomorrow assuming the entire group is exploring the tower together unless I get a strong indication otherwise.

Maybe the scouting party of elves and hobbits sets out to investigate the area, while the armored warriors and spellcasters clean out the tower of the animal pests?

[Zhym]

I'm not a fan of splitting up into different groups. We aren't strong enough to divide our forces, IMO. Besides, any group needs to be large enough to wake people up after Arnulf snooze missiles us.

And in meta terms, it's fun having everyone together.

[media_junkie]

I'm leaning towards cleaning out the tower before we think about splitting up. Once we start to investigate the orc camp/city then yes it would make sense to have the silent ones in a different "advanced" group for scouting.

[Marullus]

I don't have a problem with any of the plans. I'm glad to lead the sneaky-group to scout southwards. This leaves the sturdy-group with Chet to talk to spiders, but no Neutralize Poison spells should it go poorly. I thought clearing things first was just simpler - we have five new first-level characters (assuming Dandelion and Galen didn't level from last run). From an IC perspective, Hellebore was motivated to see everyone work together on the easier task first before we run into an orc patrol.

[Zorroroaster]

Hey, don't confuse Snooze Missile™, with Arnulf just being...Arnulf. Snooze Missile is having a tank draw aggro in order to target as many low HD bros as possible. In this case he was just putting stuff to sleep because it's fun.

[Zhym]

Ah. That's the difference between a Snooze Missile and a Snooze Bomb.

[Inferno]

Ok. Happy to stick together and do pest control.

[Zorroroaster]

We need to come up with a name for the Invisible Sneak Attack.

I was thinking "Silent But Deadly."

[Zhym]

No good. As long as Arnulf is in the party, its meaning would be ambiguous.

[Zhym]

oh.

Previous ruling was that she could end an enchantment by investing the same casting time she used to create it. (That was your ruling for Entangle.). That's no longer true?

Just send Arnulf to trip over it. Or Chet to punch it.

[Zorroroaster]

Or Chet to punch Arnulf into it.

[AleBelly]

oh.

Previous ruling was that she could end an enchantment by investing the same casting time she used to create it. (That was your ruling for Entangle.). That's no longer true?

Just send Arnulf to trip over it. Or Chet to punch it.

That was a judgement call, but the spell description for Snare specifically says that it lasts until triggered. Hellebore cast the spell to one side of the arch to keep it from automatically ensnaring the first person that leaves. She would obviously have informed the others where it is.

[Zhym]

OK, my plan is to send the next update tonight. Unless another PC plans to scout the City of Orcs with Chet now, I have the entire group heading to town no-go from the map recovered from the orc patrol awhile back. The more detail you provide on directions (for example bearing, how far you're willing to go before contemplating another direction, etc) the better.

This is where having the party ranger be in chain mail was kind of dumb on my part. If I'm not mistaken, a ranger would be a little better at finding the way than most. But if we want the first group to be quiet, that's not (currently) Angus.

Having the quiet group go first also limits Angus's ability to look for any signs of the passage of others, which might be useful in finding Town No Go.

I don't know if the benefits of Angus's pathfinding are greater than the advantages of having a quiet lead group, but it's something to think about.

Also, how will the lead group tell the following group if it finds something of interest—or gets attacked? How far back will the noisy group be? One good thing about having Angus in the second group is that it would allow the first group to be about as far ahead as they want to be, especially if they leave a few markers on the way (scratches against trees, that sort of thing).

[Storm11]

The eagle could be of great use here, if Chet is with the second group he can understand the birds messages.

[Zhym]

Oh, and it might be useful for at least one member of the advance group to be invisible.

[Storm11]

Can we do that? That would be great.

[Zorroroaster]

We have the technology.