[OOC] Into the Unknown

[thirdkingdom]

Two questions for you:
1)By your post it sounds like it is early morning. Is it possible to approach the tower with the sun at our backs?
2)You've drawn in trees around the tower. Is there enough cover to sneak reasonably close to the tower?

[Julius Sleazer]

Two questions for you:
1)By your post it sounds like it is early morning.

Yes, that is correct; that's the time I've put in the most recent timestamp.

Is it possible to approach the tower with the sun at our backs?

Not from where you currently are. Please recall that the bandit's castlet is to the west of Fort Pertinax and Caius's Place, and you guys have gone beyond it. You're to the west of it.

If you wanted to try doubling around or something, though, then yes, you could approach with the sun at your backs.

2)You've drawn in trees around the tower. Is there enough cover to sneak reasonably close to the tower?

Not enough for automatic success, no. Enough for a roll with a bonus for partial cover? Yes.

[Julius Sleazer]

Yeah, I meant the walls of the tower.

Cool. I had looked again at the map I drew late last night, and I realized that the track I drew between the two hillocks could reasonably have been perceived as a short wall or fence of some sort. I wanted to double-check to ensure that my crude drawing hadn't sown confusion.

[Julius Sleazer]

Not enough for automatic success, no. Enough for a roll with a bonus for partial cover? Yes.

...and obviously one or two dudes sneaking up afoot are going to have a greater chance of success than everybody rolling in mounted.

[Julius Sleazer]

We seem to be maybe stalling a little bit. There's a plan of action that Vek has put forth IC. May I please see some votes?

[MonsterMash]

Is Tacitus still with us at this point as another fighter will be a big help?

[Julius Sleazer]

Yep! Sorry I haven't done more to indicate that he's still here. He'll be with you guys for the remainder of your dealings with the bandits/efforts to rescue the noble.


Thanks for the votes, gentlemen. I'll update this evening.

[Julius Sleazer]

So, the party defeated ten 1 HD opponents and one 2 HD opponent.

Total XP = 120. None of the opponents qualify for a special ability/-ies bonus.

That's three PCs getting two half-shares each and one NPC (Tacitus, currently not a PC) getting one half-share.

120/7 rounds to 17.

17+17=34.

34 x 1.05 = 36 (rounded to nearest whole).

Alfius and Cadmus get 36 XP each.

Decimus has a higher XP bonus to earned XP. He gets 37 XP.

Tactius gets 18 XP.

Hello All,

Just making sure that everyone had noticed this XP award? I see on the wiki that at least one person who is normally assiduous about recording their earned XP missed this.

[Julius Sleazer]

1.) I had intended to announce that I will be enforcing the recently-discovered Moldvay rule that you can't move and cast a spell in the same round. Since I hadn't announced that, I allowed Decimus to cast his spell in round two; henceforth the rule will be enforced. If you will recall, the rules in the magic section seemed ambiguous (at least to me all these years), but it's actually spelled out explicitly elsewhere in the book (combat section).

NB: Borrowing from something I read in an AD&D book some years back, I would permit a mage to cast a spell if he himself were on something moving and very calm, flat, and even. A mage sailing on a boat with calm seas? Can cast a spell. A mage in a Wilderlands campaign who's riding on some sort of slow-moving precursor-tech hovercraft? Can cast a spell. A mage riding a horse? No. A mage on a ship in choppy water? No. Incidentally, in-world, this might be where the "witches don't like running water" thing comes from.

2.) I went ahead and rolled Round Three since I wanted to see if the bandits'd fail their first morale check; that would've obviated a bunch of future rolling if it'd happened. It didn't, and I went ahead with PC actions since I had a pretty good idea of what everyone would do EXCEPT Decimus.

So, everyone please let me know what you are doing in Round Four. MonsterMash: please let me know what you want Decimus to do in Round Three, and I will post an addendum. Also let me know what you want him to do in Round Four. If you have any questions that would effect what he does/doesn't do with either of those actions, please feel free to ask!

EDIT: Edited because of this/these typo.

[MonsterMash]

Ok, I'll do an IC post now.

[Julius Sleazer]

Ok, I'll do an IC post now.

Okay, from a narrative perspective, there was nothing in your intention that necessitated a round three combat addendum post, so I didn't make one.

Vek, do you mind refraining from IC (non-sblocked) "if" statements? Thanks for your patience; it's one of my stylistic pet peeves. I know it's a pain remembering stuff like that when you're playing in a bunch of different games.

All: I accidentally rolled the bandits' second morale check early. I went ahead and posted it and revealed it, since the timestamp for the roll is now.

[Julius Sleazer]

In case anyone is going to ask, I would allow the bandits behind the door to shoot through the web at Decimus and Tacitus. The adventurers would have the advantage of partial cover.

Freeing horses, if done individually, would take one round per horse (remember that B/X has ten second combat rounds, not one minute rounds).

Please let me know if there are any questions.

[MonsterMash]

Damn didn't make my IC post clear enough, Decimus meant to move to where he could lurk close by the door and then use the web over bandits emerging rather than just webbing it anyway.

[Julius Sleazer]

Damn didn't make my IC post clear enough, Decimus meant to move to where he could lurk close by the door and then use the web over bandits emerging rather than just webbing it anyway.

I'm not going to retcon at this point, due to time past and the fact that I as referee did (in my opinion) interpret the text reasonably. Sorry the effect didn't go down how you desired, though.

That said, the bandits are able to fire right out the door. As in, straight ahead. If Decimus and Tacitus move to the side a bit, they'll be fine. In other words, the bandits can fire (with partial cover as an obstacle) through the web, but it's not like they can lean their crossbows out the door and fire to the sides as they could were the portal unobstructed.

I'm going to wait a little bit to hear what you'd like to do now; I'll check back in a couple hours and post.

Also, I think we're at an unusual point right now where we're still in combat, but we don't need to play it out round-by-round right now. The PCs are close enough to the tower that the bandits don't really have a good angle to shoot on them (provided Dec. and Tac. move away from the front of the door). There's no evidence yet that the bandits are preparing to, like, dump boiling oil on the PCs' heads or anything, and anyway, it would probably require some specialized tools or equipment (a pipe or funnel or something) to effectively dump a pot of boiling oil out a narrow slit-window.

Interestingly enough, I was flipping through the 1E DMG last night. "Parley" is listed as one of the forms of confrontation. So, while the bandits aren't going to surrender, it's not unreasonable at all to engage them in negotiations, as Vek has mentioned. Attempting to come to terms with a hostile and cornered foe is a legitimate combat action in this case. As long as the terms offered aren't "surrender unconditionally" or something close to that, that wouldn't be a violation of the rules results so far (two passed morale checks equaling no surrender).

Vek, anything specific you want to say to the bandits, or should I just run with what you've summarized so far?

Todd, plans for the next couple minutes of game time?

MM?

[Julius Sleazer]

Awesome, thanks for the quick turnaround on the reply, MM!

Vek, Todd: I'd mentioned waiting a couple hours. I'll do so, to give y'all a chance to respond to the brief questions directed at both of y'all in the above post.

We're at kind of a standoff situation right now with, while still in combat, nothing requiring playing out round-by-round right at the minute that I'm seeing.

I guess this basically is a siege at this point, which may be a first for me in many years of D&Ding.

[thirdkingdom]

Awesome, thanks for the quick turnaround on the reply, MM!

Vek, Todd: I'd mentioned waiting a couple hours. I'll do so, to give y'all a chance to respond to the brief questions directed at both of y'all in the above post.

We're at kind of a standoff situation right now with, while still in combat, nothing requiring playing out round-by-round right at the minute that I'm seeing.

I guess this basically is a siege at this point, which may be a first for me in many years of D&Ding.

Can we assume that Alfius and Cadmus are able to free the horses and rejoin Decimus relatively quickly? 'Cause my thought is that we can offer to free the bandits from the web.


By setting it on fire.

[Vektunaxa]

Vek, anything specific you want to say to the bandits, or should I just run with what you've summarized so far?

I'm okay with summarizing the parley. My concern was that the bandits would kill the noble if they thought we were trying to rescue him or her. If we claimed to be assassins looking for the noble, and we're killing anyone in our way to get them, it removes 'killing the noble' as a negotiating tactic. (I don't know what to do if they offer to kill him for us, but (a) that removes their payday and (b) they're the one who will end up facing the noble's family.)

We follow up by demanding vengeance for them attacking us on the road yesterday. If it seems that we're after them personally, there is more middle ground for negotiating.

Using the stables for firewood is a start to this plan. We can smoke them out.

[Julius Sleazer]

I'm okay with summarizing the parley.

Oh, I definitely don't want to summarize the whole parley; I was just talking about a post summarizing Aflius saying what you had already posted as intended speech.


All:

1.) Is that an actual vote to start burning the stables?
2.) And, yes, spoiler alert, you guys will be able to set loose the horses.

[Vektunaxa]

No, I think we need to blow some smoke in first before we go all in setting thing on fire. Alfius is just looking for wood to start a fire, which he'll place under a window so the bandits to see it billowing in and decide whether to concede.

It's a stable, so there ought to be plenty of wood and straw.

[thirdkingdom]

No, I think we need to blow some smoke in first before we go all in setting thing on fire. Alfius is just looking for wood to start a fire, which he'll place under a window so the bandits to see it billowing in and decide whether to concede.

It's a stable, so there ought to be plenty of wood and straw.

Agreed.