OOC Discussion

[Grognardsw]

Madam Eva's Tarot Card Reading - I thought it may be easier to dissect this here...

She points to the cards at the top of the cross. "The Strength card is a symbol of great power," she says. "It tells of a powerful force for good and protection against the forces of darkness. It lies with a fallen prince of old. The brother of dark is light and he rests in this place. The suit of Swords forebodes ill. It is a dark shadow of evil over that place. You fight under its influence there."

Her bony finger moves clockwise, indicating the Hermit and the Five of Wands. "This tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient may help you understand a foe. You should seek for a carefully hidden place of great worldly wealth. I see a blazing fire protecting the place. The Wand sustains your strength here, but holds you from your victory, taking more time than it otherwise would."

Madam Eva continues to the bottom of the cross, where the Queen of Wands accompanies The Devil. "This symbolizes the object of your search! Ah! I see darkness and evil behind this card! It is a powerful man whose enemy is light, and whose powers are beyond mortality! The Queen of Wands reveals where he may be found. This is in the mother's place. This place, too, is under the influence of the Wand. "

She then regards the Sun and the Ten of Cups. "This card is good for you. It is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of light—a weapon with a vengeance. This is in a place of dizzying heights that all are loathe to travel. The road winds ever upwards and the rocks themselves live here! There is a very good influence there. If you are there, the powers of good will aid you."

"And here, at the center of all, is the root card," she tells you, indicating the card in the center of the cross. "Out of darkness and chaos, this card finds the reason and foundation for darkness and chaos. This card shows the purpose of all things. It is the key to life and death and else beyond. This card tells of a tool of evil. Darkness surrounds and protects this tool, giving comfort to black hearts and protection from good."

[Zhym]

FYI, once the two groups have had a chance to catch up, I'll move the threads into the main forum. But moving the reading here is a good idea anyway.

[Zhym]

What do you all think of this?

I will NPC characters during combat. I will attempt to play characters consistently with how they've been played, following any "standard actions" posted with the character's sheet. In critical situations, I may ask other players to declare an inactive player's actions. There is, of course, no guarantee that characters won't die while being NPC'ed.

That's what I set up as the policy when the game started, but saying you'll make moves for a player and actually doing it are two different things. There hasn't been a need to NPC a player yet, but I wanted to ask your opinions on this—if you're gone for a couple of days and would miss a combat move, would you rather I made one for you, or would you rather be idle for that round?

[Computer +1]

I'd rather you NPC me

[Grognardsw]

NPC, though if I was away I may state it differently depending on where we are at that particular moment.

[Eulalios]

Unplanned absence: please Npc on your best guess.
Planned absence: I'll provide instructions for better guessing.

[Eulalios]

The thing I personally hate about npc'g for absent players... It makes the game feel a bit like solitaire.

[Bouv]

NPC

[Zhym]

NPC it is, then.

I was just re-reading the MM description for horses and noticed this:

Warhorses fight on the second and succeeding rounds of melee, as long as their rider remains mounted.

That'll be the rule going forward.

I'm off to read up on mounted combat to see if a fighting horse affects how well the rider can attack.

Oh, and I rolled up HP for Snowflake and Iluq's horse. I'm treating Agrippo's "pony" as a medium warhorse for HD and carrying capacity purposes (otherwise it couldn't carry Agrippo) and a pony for movement, morale, and attack value; it has 8 HP. Iluq's light warhorse has 10 HP.

[Grognardsw]

Would it be possible to use Locate Object spell to find the weapon of light referred to in the prophecy? Or to locate Strahd's library to find his journal?

[Zhym]

I'm going to say that a "weapon of light" is too vague a description to be known or familiar enough to locate using that spell. Likewise, believing that Strahd kept a journal doesn't make it known or familiar (and you can't use the spell to locate the library because a room isn't an object). You can, however, use the spell to locate the holy symbol because Ismark has given you a good description of it.

[Grognardsw]

Iluq you want to do Locate Object to find the medallion? It sounds like it could be most useful.

[Zhym]

Note that Locate Object has a range of 6" + 1"/level. Iluq would need to be standing within 130 feet of the medallion (assuming he's indoors) to get a read on it.

So if he casts it right now, Iluq can get a pretty good idea whether Ismark just lost the damn thing between the couch cushions.

[NJWilliam]

Iluq doesn't have it memorized, now, regardless. He'll pray for it after he rests though.

[Zhym]

FYI — tonight's update, if there is one (it depends on whether everyone posts moves today) will probably be the last until next weekend.

[Eulalios]

I'm feelin' kinda puzzled here. Looking at Tibbius' spell list here's what I'm thinking:

Strahd probably is a high-level wizard as well as a vamp. should note I've never owned or read the module, just guessing here. Probably has clairaudience and clairvoyance available on the Koljavich house, while he's awake. Probably lairs in the basements of the castle, so he could be awake and casting during day hours. Maybe the creepy fog is UV-1000 so that he can walk while the sun is up ... there? ... somewhere.

Phantasmal force might be handy to fool surveillance. What we really need is a way to ambush and dominate Strahd, while he's on "our" ground. He keeps coming to the house, can we trap him here? Maybe a few folk with ProtEvil could herd him into a Web? Blessed arrows? Maybe a Web between crossbow bolts? Could we de-sticky the web so it doesn't foul the crossbows? Then Flame Arrow once the arrows start to wrap the Web around him?

[Grognardsw]

I think those are good ideas wherever we fight him (or other undead). The medallion and sword of light and other references in the tarot reading probably are our best bet of defeating him. Not to meta-game, and I've not played the module, but I doubt the module is designed to confront/beat him in town.

His motivation remains a mystery. Assuming he summoned us,then tries to kill us...

It occured to me, can the cleric speak with dead with the dead burgomaster? He may ave insights.

[Zhym]

No comment on the merits of your plans, obviously, but I should point out that you'd need to disinter the Burgomaster to ask him any questions. Speak with dead requires having the body or remains around.

[Eulalios]

If Tibby uses his scroll of polymorph self to assume the appearance of a spectral troll, or an invisible stalker, will he then be invisible for the duration of the polymorph?

EDIT: What happens when an invisible stalker casts mirror image? Does the result affect only those who can see invisibility?

EDIT 2: How about the other order? Mirror image, then polymorph self -> invisible stalker? Do we wind up with a plurality of blurry green elves, and one invisiTibby?

[Zhym]

If Tibby uses his scroll of polymorph self to assume the appearance of a spectral troll, or an invisible stalker, will he then be invisible for the duration of the polymorph?

Sure. Invisibility is part of the invisible stalker's form, so if you polymorph into one, you're invisible.

EDIT: What happens when an invisible stalker casts mirror image? Does the result affect only those who can see invisibility?

You'd have from 1 to 4 exact duplicates of an invisible stalker—the mirror images, like the original, would be visible only to someone able to see invisible creatures. But note that there are other ways to detect people who are invisible, especially smell and sound. The mirror image is a perfect image of the caster, but the spell description says nothing about sound or smell. So a Mirror Image while invisible would be effective against someone who can see invisible, but not against others, who would be using sounds, smells or footprints in the dust—none of which Mirror Image duplicates—to approximate the caster's location.

EDIT 2: How about the other order? Mirror image, then polymorph self -> invisible stalker? Do we wind up with a plurality of blurry green elves, and one invisiTibby?

The effect would be the same regardless of the casting order. The images change as the caster changes. As Tibby shifts into an invisible stalker, so would all of his mirror images.