OOC Discussion 3

[thirdkingdom]

Okay. We are currently in room #20. dr. pete, have we looted the corpses in room # 21 as well, or examined the room itself. According to your IC post it sounds like we were *just* in Room 20. If everyone is okay with pressing on immediately, I propose we enter Room 21 and search any bodies found within/the room itself before re-entering the east-west axis of the grand hallway. After that . . . assuming there is no visible orc sign I say we peak into room # 25 then continue south to 31, investigating the secret door to 33 and 32.

Does the above sound like a reasonable plan? Obviously, if we see a flashing neon sign pointing the way the orcs went we should follow that, instead, but absent any tracks the above is, I think, a decent proposal.

[kalstone]

Sounds good to me. We may want to check in room 22 as well.

[drpete]

I've been basically assuming that you stayed in room 20 with the door closed for the post-combat period, so we'll go ahead with room 21, first, then...

[thirdkingdom]

Sounds good to me. We may want to check in room 22 as well.

Sure.

[drpete]

I'll assume the standard door procedure applies...?

Where to first, 22 or 25?

[Dogma]

I vote 22 first...

[thirdkingdom]

I vote 22 first...

Sounds good to me.

EDIT: assuming we can't tell which way the orcs went.

[Stirling]

Choosing which room was ' in the absence of any tracks'.
We're there any? I would be surprised not to find a blood trail, body drag mark in the dust, oily prints. No lights and sounds anywhere?

Keep in mind when crossing the hallway that unseen snipers could be hiding by the status to hit us at range, so quickly through doors please.

[thirdkingdom]

dr. pete, I've got a quick question. I'm trying to do a back of the envelope XP calculation to figure out if we've got enough loot to level up anyone right now. I see that Emm and Audi are referred to as henchmen. What share of party treasure are they currently getting? Am I also correct in assuming that Climent is *not* currently a henchmen and is receiving a full share of party treasure?

[drpete]

Yeah, that's right. Emm and Audi were hired as lvl 0 henchmen, but Climent just "joined" as an npc member of the group.

I'm pretty sure there are 10 full xp shares (counting the henchmen as 1/2 each)

[thirdkingdom]

So, it looks like we need the equivalent of 1100 more XP to get Solaine up to 2nd level.

I'm curious as to why, after almost a year of play, the XP totals are so low. Not being critical, it just seems awfully unusual.

[Zorroroaster]

I think part of it is the nature of PbP... Some of the other games I participate in have mechanisms in place that award extra XP as a way of offsetting the slow pace of character advancement.

I mean, how long in RL would it take to clear a level of Dwimmermount? A few sessions? If you are playing weekly, that would mean characters levelling up maybe once a month-ish.

The problem though, with gaming the levelling too much is that characters can end up OP for the material if it's not handled carefully.

[drpete]

I'd say the group has been fairly cautious, and spent much of the time before our last wave of new recruits sort of going back to the area in the northeast multiple times. Once they finally got a treasure pile there, it was not as big as they hoped, and it nearly killed Solaine.

I'm hoping that giving some xp for magic items will move them into use (improving the group's effectiveness) and help with the xp pace issue.

My sense from this outing is that something might have "clicked" since the rate at which you're exploring rooms has gone way up. This might just be from finding the map, but it seems like you've seen more in this delve than in the previous ones.

Also, this is only the third trip into the dungeon that got past the entrance, I think...

[thirdkingdom]

Aight, here's what I think we should do:

Climent is just dead weight at this point, unless someone takes him on as a henchman. I think we would be within our rights to deny him a share of the treasure at this point, actually, given that Plud specifically asked him to ask during the orc fight and he did nothing.

However! In order to henchify him we need someone at level 2. So, I think that if no one levels up from this delve we cut him loose, regardless of whether or not we give him a share of the treasure. If that's the case it may be worthwhile to sell the spellbook we've got, depending on what's inside.

Long term, I think we *really* need to get someone who can cast Sleep. It's such a game changer at these lower levels and will allow us to last substantially longer in the dungeon than we are now.

But for right now I think the goal should be to explore as much as we can during this delve as quickly as possible to try and maximize profit while minimizing wandering monster attacks (which are usually treasure poor).

[Stirling]

I think parties often miss items of value because it is difficult to either ' cash them in' or role play the nature of the acquisition. For example the Oracle has got to be worth $$$ to high level scholars for its' ability to bring revelations and answers. But that takes time to organise. Still how much would it be worth, not just in $$ reward or sale value but in the relic being recovered and brought back to the chapel?

Also, this black skeleton ink, stuff...is that a dwarven, kobold invention or something more divine/ nefarious. What is it worth if we can halt production or take over ptofuction of said skeletons?

[Zorroroaster]

I think one of the defining features of ACKS is how carefully thought out the economics are, which has an impact on character advancement.

[drpete]

There is a lot of stuff that "could" be looted from here that would be worth a lot of money. A giant Turms Termax head might be, to certain people, but *probably* not the churches. The churches today would say that Turms tried to call himself a god, filled the world with horrors like beastmen, and they fought against him. He is definitely not the head of the modern church, and they wouldn't set up a giant head of his in a place of honor.

Big things you want to loot, we'll need to find some kind of logistics for. It's not going to be "we tie a rope around the 2 ton statue and handwaved getting it down the mountain". If you want to do that kind of thing, you'll probably need to think about hiring squads of laborers, who will then see inside Dwimmermount. If you get something big and valuable out, though, there would be good money in it...

This discussion reminds me of a beginner module where the most valuable thing in the dungeon is a statue near the entrance. (That said, those statues may be valuable, but they are not the most valuable thing in here...)

[thirdkingdom]

There is a lot of stuff that "could" be looted from here that would be worth a lot of money. A giant Turms Termax head might be, to certain people, but *probably* not the churches. The churches today would say that Turms tried to call himself a god, filled the world with horrors like beastmen, and they fought against him. He is definitely not the head of the modern church, and they wouldn't set up a giant head of his in a place of honor.

Big things you want to loot, we'll need to find some kind of logistics for. It's not going to be "we tie a rope around the 2 ton statue and handwaved getting it down the mountain". If you want to do that kind of thing, you'll probably need to think about hiring squads of laborers, who will then see inside Dwimmermount. If you get something big and valuable out, though, there would be good money in it...

This discussion reminds me of a beginner module where the most valuable thing in the dungeon is a statue near the entrance. (That said, those statues may be valuable, but they are not the most valuable thing in here...)

Which, of course, requires us to clear the first level of threats so as to drastically reduce the chances of wandering monsters.

[Dogma]

Clement can always have an 'accident'...it's a dungeon..people die all the time in dungeons.

of course, then we could have a "I know what you did last delve" situation developing...

[kalstone]

To find another mage for a henchman would probably mean going back to Adamas. Climent may not be Mr. Right, but he's Mr. Right Here.