OOC V

[zebediah]

I'm happy with the current plan.

[sulldawga]

I thought it was agreed that we clear the basement entirely first?

We can pause and figure out whether to rest, return to town, or go into the tunnel afterward.

[Alethan]

I thought it was agreed that we clear the basement entirely first?

We can pause and figure out whether to rest, return to town, or go into the tunnel afterward.

Isn't clearing the basement the current plan?

[sulldawga]

Yeah, I think we're going in circles now.

Pretty sure everyone is cool with the current plan, i.e. clearing the entire basement.

Move along now, nothing to see here.

[riftstone]

I just went through the map again for this floor we are currently on, and it looks like you are right on, frobozz.

[frobozz]

I just went through the map again for this floor we are currently on, and it looks like you are right on, frobozz.

Thanks dude for doublechecking. Yeah, I think my main mistake was just superimposing the outline of the first floor on to the map of the second floor before actually finding the connection to the wizard statue room. But no worries, I'll get it right. I'd like to know the exact square footage of this place if it is going to be our future residence!

[sulldawga]

We have surprise on the dwarves. Let's rush in. If they look like bad guys, we whack 'em. If they look like good guys, we shake hands.

We can let our resident dwarf go first and decide if they're bad or not.

[frobozz]

For this round, Lanny will preserve his invisibility, thinking it more beneficial to the group to have an invisible scout. However, I do know that we have two more Invisibility spells at our disposal, so if someone else wishes to take a turn at the "invisible scout" role, Lanny might choose to attack during this fight. Just keep in mind, to remain invisible, you cannot attack, and you have to remain within the radius of the light source (otherwise you will be visible to creatures with infravision).

If anyone wants to take on this role, let me know, otherwise I am content to have Lanny remain invisible for the time being.

[zebediah]

TK, sleep affects everyone in the area, friend or foe, correct? I don't have my books with me and for some reason I was thinking it would not affect the party but now that Frobozz brings up this point I don't actually know where I got this notion from.

If the effects are not selective Drudsa will limit himswlf to remain on guard with his sling ready to shoot any fleeing dwarves.

[thirdkingdom]

I'm at the gym right now, but I'm also positive the spell description states that it affects "enemies" within range.

[frobozz]

Here is the spell description from the DD Rulebook:

Sleep
Magic-User 1, Elf 1, Sorcerer 1
Target: Creatures in a 20’ radius
Range: 240’
Duration: 4d4 x 10 minutes
This spell puts one or more creatures to sleep. Roll 2d8 to see how many hit dice worth of creatures are slept by the effect. Go through all the living (not undead or non-living) creatures in the area with fewer than 5 hit dice or levels, starting with the closest to the target point of the spell. If there are enough hit dice left from the roll, that creature is slept with no saving throw and their hit dice are taken from the running total. Once there are no more creatures left with fewer (or equal) hit dice to the number of hit dice left over, the spell stops.

To me it sounds like the spell affects all creatures indiscriminately, radiating out from a central point. So, for example, if it were cast on the duergar leader, then the duergar leader would be the first one to be affected, followed by the PCs fighting the duergar leader. Then, since everyone else is mixed up in melee, I figured it would just be randomly determined which other creatures (whether good or bad) would be affected.

Anyway, just my two cents. I figured these suckers deserved a fighting chance. Either way, I don't think they are going to be around much longer, especially if Thordin has anything to say about it.

[thirdkingdom]

You are right. I was thinking of the B/X version of the spell.

[Alethan]

Anyway, just my two cents. I figured these suckers deserved a fighting chance. Either way, I don't think they are going to be around much longer, especially if Thordin has anything to say about it.

For every head severed by Thordin, Rhys is fumbling his sword...

[thirdkingdom]

Anyway, just my two cents. I figured these suckers deserved a fighting chance. Either way, I don't think they are going to be around much longer, especially if Thordin has anything to say about it.

For every head severed by Thordin, Rhys is fumbling his sword...

Actually, if I recall correctly, Thordin has gotten more than his share of the party's fumbles in the past. I've just started using the fumble table, though, which does include a 25% chance of no negative consequences.

[sulldawga]

They are evil. We should refuse their surrender and kill them all.

[sulldawga]

If we're Lawful, we can't accept a surrender, loot their stuff, ask them questions, then kick their swords back to them and say, "Nah, just kidding. Let's finish this."

Either we kill them or we accept their surrender and let them go. No more of the 21st century morality. We're not a medieval police force.

[Alethan]

If we're Lawful, we can't accept a surrender, loot their stuff, ask them questions, then kick their swords back to them and say, "Nah, just kidding. Let's finish this."

Either we kill them or we accept their surrender and let them go. No more of the 21st century morality. We're not a medieval police force.

Everyone in the party is Neutral.

That said, I agree. If you accept their surrender, then you can't just go and kill them after interrogation without taking a level hit and changing your alignment to Chaotic.

And, if you accept their surrender, you'd better know what you're going to do with them after you're done interrogating them - let them go, turn them over to the city constables (for...?? being in a dungeon under a small keep)

[thirdkingdom]

I can tell you right now they're going to insist on being set free in exchange for information.

[sulldawga]

If we're all Neutral, then why do we keep insisting on bringing back captives to be tried in court in Threshold? If you end up Chaotic after doing a bunch of evil deeds, then when does our party end up Lawful for acting like Threshold SWAT?

Not to mention, Marodin has mentioned a few times that he's the Champion of Men, and would want to kill any dark dwarves on sight.

Thordin should have to be forcibly restrained from killing the duergar.

There's some serious cognitive dissonance going on here. The Murderhobo Guild is going to kick us out pretty soon if we don't get our act together.

[frobozz]

I think we really need to establish an SOP for dealing with surrenders.

The problem seems to be that each PC has a different idea of what "accepting a surrender" actually entails.

If the enemy helps you by granting you information, it makes sense in turn to grant them a concession of some sort. That can range from freeing them outright, to taking them prisoner, to simply allowing them their weapons back to simply have a fighting chance to survive. The party has promised them nothing at this point. Now, Lanny WOULD have a problem with just slaughtering them outright once they have dropped their weapons in surrender. He would have an even bigger problem with interrogating the prisoners, and THEN slaughtering them outright with no chance to defend themselves. That is NOT what he is proposing here. So, there we have it. I don't really see this as a 21st century morality issue, just different interpretations of battlefield honor.

To simplify things in situations like these, I think we just need to decide whether it is necessary and prudent to question the particular enemies that have surrendered (or that have been slept, held, etc.). If not, then we should just continue the fight against them until they are dead. If so, and if we deem that they have cooperated, then we should be prepared to grant the enemy a small concession in return. Just my two cents.