OOC Discussion 2

[drpete]

What's new?

[bobloblah]

Oh, not too much. What's new with you?



Galen's intent is to hold his Contemplated spell until making it safely back to town, then casting Detect Magic on the masks. He'll also take the party's injured under his care (i.e., Healing) for next few days. He'd also like to try and buy some Comfrey with the money from Solaine.

I also think we should consider selling some of the masks if they turn out to valuable and or enchanted.

[kalstone]

Solaine potentially would be interested in holding on to one of the masks, compensating the party for what it would have sold for. I nominate Steel to do the selling since he has the bargaining proficiency.

[drpete]

There are a bunch of these masks, and selling a magic item, though possible, is very difficult, as is identifying one. There are methods, but there's no spell for it, or anything.

[bobloblah]

Yup, understood. I figure that, whether they are magical our not, we can probably get decent coin for them in Adamas. That might be worth the trip.

[Dogma]

posted this in the other thread but I'll add it here too...

as for selling/buying stuff in Adamas...do we want to travel there ourselves or keep using the shop keeper in town as our agent? If we want to use him as our agent I think we need to formalize the deal somehow...

It would allow us to spend more time expring the mountain and less time travelling around.

[kalstone]

I'm torn on the issue of these masks. It's obviously too costly to identify them. There's no one in Muntberg who could do it anyway. Without knowing what they are, we may not be able to sell them for much. Whoever our agent is, either the merchant or the caravan, they would take a cut from that too. I'm thinking that experimenting with them to determine their properties is the way to go. It's a big risk though.

[bobloblah]

There's also the issue that once we use them, we can no longer get XP from any gold earned by selling them. I would expect that, even without knowing their exact nature, they're still worth a fair bit, even just as objets d'arts. If we know they're war masks, perhaps we should keep a couple for Solaine and Ranulf and then sell the others? I admit I'm anxious to sell at least some of them, as I see it as a pretty good haul in terms of XP/gp, but I'm fine if no one is down with that.

[bobloblah]

drpete...I'm still thinking about the idea of setting up supply caches throughout the dungeon. If we were to buy small chests for food storage would that help protect them from vermin etc?

That sounds like a good idea, but should we maybe wait until we're a bit deeper into the dungeon? We do have a pretty good camp set up a short walk away.

[kalstone]

I agree that selling most or all of them is the way to go. I just thought we could get a better price if we knew what they did. I didn't realize that using them meant we forfeited any XP. We need the XP more than the gold.

[drpete]

Couple things.... generally, selling magic items is possible, but can take a loooooooong time. Generally, the base value of anything fancier than a scroll or potion puts it in the category where it will take *months* to sell it, even in a class I market. Adamas is technically a class II market, so you are talking about a 5%/month chance of selling *one* magic item of typical magic item value. It will take about a month to find a buyer in the 2000 gp range for one mask, if you'd sell a magic item for that price.

To be honest, I'm going to figure out what's going on in that table, to possibly smooth out the steep jumps, but I'll let you decide what you'd part with 'em for, and determine the demand based on that and the general relationship expressed in that table. The system is really, really trying to make deciding to go sell a magic item a decision to take an extended time away from regular adventuring, so consider that as you ponder whether you want to move to Adamas to spend six or more months selling these masks.

Camp: As for the base camp, one problem it definitely has is that 2 lvl 0 mercenaries are probably not enough to keep it safe from the kinds of things that wander around that dungeon. If there are giant ape men, giant snakes and wyverns, you may need a bigger garrison to really feel secure there.

Food Caches: Something like a chest would definitely help, but you probably need to find relatively clean areas in the dungeon to really feel comfortable with that, too. By default, standard rations go bad in a day, and preserved rations go bad in a week. If you find good spots to store things where it might be protected from harm and vermin (including these centipedes, rats, and whatever else there is in there) I'm fine with that, but you'd need to genuinely clean out that old orc lair or that nasty old storeroom to make it a place you'd really want to store food for any length of time. If you imagine storing food in an old subway tunnel... sure, putting it in a box helps, but it's still pretty vile down there. If you actually found a climate controlled room down there with a fridge and a sink, it would feel less gross to leave food in there.

[Zorroroaster]

Although selling the masks nets us much needed xp, if it's a long chancy process to even sell one, we would probably benefit more from the more immediate effects they might provide.

Can we cast something to determine if they are cursed or not? At least that way we can test a couple out and perhaps get some kind of idea if they do anything.

What we could do is leave a few untried and hold onto them for the xp gain later. If our front line like Ranulf or Solaine can benefit from wearing one, that would be good.

[kalstone]

Is the caravan from Adamas in town?

[bobloblah]

The only ways to figure out what they are and do is either trial and error, or magic research we are incapable of performing. That includes whether or not they're cursed. I was working on the assumption that we were never going to get full value for them (I'm familiar with the table, as my own players in my face-to-face campaign have sold magic items), but that even partial value for a handful of them was more valuable to us at the moment for the XP. I'm also not sure the table is geared towards pulling you away from adventuring so much as avoiding the Diablo-style run, resell, repeat with magic items. They (i.e., magic items) are hard to sell, and you can't base total character advancement off them.

EDIT: Also, do we want to leave a larger group at the camp, with a smaller group heading to Muntberg? Just a thought.

[kalstone]

I suppose really only Steel and perhaps one other person for escort needs to go back to town. If the caravan is in town, they may be interested in buying the masks to resell in Adamas.

[drpete]

Although selling the masks nets us much needed xp, if it's a long chancy process to even sell one, we would probably benefit more from the more immediate effects they might provide.

Can we cast something to determine if they are cursed or not? At least that way we can test a couple out and perhaps get some kind of idea if they do anything.

What we could do is leave a few untried and hold onto them for the xp gain later. If our front line like Ranulf or Solaine can benefit from wearing one, that would be good.

They could be cursed, it's hard to know... I suppose there are some augury type spells that could warn you not to wear one, but other than that, it's hard.

There are also magical engineering and loremastery methods of finding things out about them.... sages, basically, might be able to tell you something. Or actually having a 9th level mage research them. Other than that, it's trial and error, as Bob says...

The only ways to figure out what they are and do is either trial and error, or magic research we are incapable of performing. That includes whether or not they're cursed. I was working on the assumption that we were never going to get full value for them (I'm familiar with the table, as my own players in my face-to-face campaign have sold magic items), but that even partial value for a handful of them was more valuable to us at the moment for the XP. I'm also not sure the table is geared towards pulling you away from adventuring so much as avoiding the Diablo-style run, resell, repeat with magic items. They (i.e., magic items) are hard to sell, and you can't base total character advancement off them.

EDIT: Also, do we want to leave a larger group at the camp, with a smaller group heading to Muntberg? Just a thought.

Given that the baseline is a month, it would require a fair sized commitment, but the examples show henchmen being used to do it, so that might be possible if you wanted to leave henchmen alone in a city with thousands of gp worth of treasure. In any case, it's intended, I think, to make you wonder about the tradeoff about where you want to spend your time.

Is the caravan from Adamas in town?

One of the two brothers who run the caravan, Aurri Petre, is in town, if you want to see what he would give you.

[bobloblah]

Worth a shot, I think. I suggest we remain cagey, however; tell him we have only one, and tell him we got it somewhere other than Dwimmermount initially.

Initially (as in before this discussion) I was thinking we might head for Adamas, but we could always hold off on that until we've done some more delving. Word is going to get out about what we're up to and that we've been successful once others find out we traveled there. I think that, for the same reason, we might hold off on selling the black skeleton bones. If we talk about our last foray, we can claim we took a pair of skeletons down, but there were many more, they were extremely tough, and, like Typhon's Fists, we could not turn them. Might dissuade others.

Regardless, we can hopefully make another foray after a couple days of healing. It looks like Steel needs at least a week to get his personal automaton up and running, assuming he has the old one to work from (i.e., we'd need to go get it). Otherwise it's two weeks.

Galen is going to want to buy some more lamp oil and some more military oil if we can get it (unlikely in Muntberg). He'd also like to enquire about another war dog in Muntberg.

[kalstone]

Also, Solaine would like a live pig to take back up to the camp.

[bobloblah]

Also, Solaine would like a live pig to take back up to the camp.

Hey, want some bacon?

[kalstone]

I've heard it causes cancer.

It's probably a fatally stupid idea, but if we could make friends with the giant ape he could help keep rival groups from entering Dwimmermount. Maybe he would even protect our camp. That would be worth a 3 gp pig every few days.

When Solaine goes up the mountain with the pig, I'll make sure she says, "Hey watch this!"