OOC I

[Luis]

Personally I think we should help Quintos, get the elf and when we find the time kill whatever else was in the cave but warn the priests to put some guards in front of it so as not to let anyone in until it's safe.

[zebediah]

I think we should also ponder on what TK has just posted on the IC thread:

Later that Evening

The companions ask around about some of the rumors they had originally heard. Other than the merchant Sindar finding someone to deliver his package it seems as if all the jobs are still available.

Shit, I keep meaning to do thise but haven't gotten around to it yet. I remember someone had asked about checking into some of the old plot hooks. Essentially, every plot hook I have given you guys has a 10% non-cumulative chance per day of being taken care of by some other party. I start this a week after play begins, so am making three rolls for each (for the 8th-10th).
Old Mill: (1d100=34, 1d100=75, 1d100=76)
The Beast: (1d100=57, 1d100=67, 1d100=93)
Vanishing Townspeople: (1d100=79, 1d100=96, 1d100=79)
Caldwell's Castle: (1d100=26, 1d100=37, 1d100=62)
Package for Sindar: (1d00=1, 1d00=1, 1d00=1). Huh. What are the chances of that?
Evil Caves: (1d100=83, 1d100=20, 1d100=47)

Helping Quinthos and chasing Elwyn/Bargle are nice adventures story-wise but if we don't take on these quests now other will. If others try and fail we will get a chance to play hero later on.

I'm not changing my "vote" yet as I also want to see what frobozz will propose about Elwyn, but if most of the team decides to go for some of the original plot hooks while we can that would make sense to me.

[frobozz]

Ok, here are Lanny's thoughts on trying to capture Elwyn straight away in Penhaligon. It has some merit, I think, but you still might not like the flavor of it (more espionage, less combat) which I totally understand. Anyway, here is the basic idea:

Things to Consider:

1. Where exactly were Elwyn's men planning to deliver the chest? Surely the farmer leader knows this answer, and was not just planning to wander around aimlessly with the chest until Elwyn magically appears. Charm the leader and ask him where he's going with it!
2. The farmers, travelling on foot, are expected back to a known location by a certain date with the chest in tow. PCs can learn the location from the leader and get there ahead of time to set a trap.
3. The leader was recruited in Penhaligon. He had "never been" to the redoubt, which was "somewheres on the Highreach River". So would Elwyn come back to Penhaligon to retrieve the chest? If not, how else would Elwyn get the chest??? Of course, there might be another middle man... or maybe the farmer leader has a means of communicating with Elwyn that we don't know about (although the medallion is no longer in the picture). Again, charm him and ask him if he can communicate with Elwyn!
4. PCs can take the place of the 5 farmers and go along with their new "best friend" to the dropoff point. Btw, 3 PC spellcasters know "Charm Person", and three know "Sleep", just in case the charm wears off... ( a charm might last for days!)
5. Farmer leader might have access to a trusted location (temple or hangout of Leptar devotees?). PCs dressed as farmers enter trusted location following their "best friend" with a fake chest in tow and await Elwyn. Maybe some of Penhaligon's town guard are involved in the operation as backup.
6. Catching Elwyn by surprise (and possibly by himself), in an urban city, would likely be much easier than catching him with all the magic and evil creatures in his redoubt, no doubt.

OK, so I might have made one or two assumptions here, but if we were in any way interested in this type of strategy/tactic, we probably could not wait until returning from Quinthos's place to do it, because by then, Elwyn would already be aware that something happened to his crew. We could still go after him later by going to his redoubt (once we know where it is), but our primary element of surprise would be gone, and it would probably be a much more difficult task to actually defeat him in his redoubt.

Having said all of this, and whether or not you even think this idea has any merit, it might nonetheless be a little too "cloak and dagger" and not enough "dungeon crawl" for some personal tastes. I totally understand that, and that is why I thought that the barrows 1 day north of Penhaligon might make a nice dungeon crawl while we are waiting, or if all else fails.

If the crew helps Quinthos, Lanny would want to stop at the caves first, to make certain that they found everything there was to find about Bargle and Elwyn (although it would also hopefully give us enough XP to get us all at least to Level 2 before taking on the ogres.

[frobozz]

Lanny's suggestion for a new marching order based on Marodin at the front (includes hp rolls from level 3 and also armor upgrades for Tratiln and Meagnor):

1) Thordin (AC2, HP17) / Marodin (AC1, HP17)
2) Lanny (AC1, HP6) / Bregalad (AC2, HP6)
3) Drudsa (AC10, HP8)
4) Grey Jake (AC6, HP10) / Saul (AC6, HP11)
5) Tratiln (AC3, HP7) / Meagnor (AC3, HP7)

or

1) Thordin (AC2, HP17) / Marodin (AC1, HP17)
2) Lanny (AC1, HP6) / Bregalad (AC2, HP6)
3) Tratiln (AC3, HP7) / Meagnor (AC3, HP7)
4) Drudsa (AC10, HP8)
5) Grey Jake (AC6, HP10) / Saul (AC6, HP11)

Shift any other rows around? Any other thoughts or suggestions?

[sulldawga]

I like the first marching order. I think we want to keep our rear protected in case of ambush...

[Bouv]

I like the first. Tratiln has decent AC, a sleep spells and isn't too bad in combat.

Lanny definately has a good plan. Part of it would be determining what the drop off was and when. If it was just to more of Elwyn's goons or a temple to his Immortal, it may not be worth it. But if it's for one of his higher ups or Elwyn himself, maybe so.

[frobozz]

Hmmm... In re-reading all the posts from today, I think I might have just made things too complicated with my own post, given that we were already close to a consensus of sorts. Therefore, I think I will withdraw my plan (although I appreciate the support, Bouv!). Maybe some of the questions Lanny would have asked the charmed prisoner could instead be asked by Fr. Varis and his men during their interrogations. Lanny does still consider the Elwyn/Bargle/Third Power track to be their primary mission, with everything else being a secondary mission.

Lanny would like to officially change his vote to "caves first then elves".

The Score:

caves first then elves: 4 (Drudsa, Lanny, Meagnor, Tratiln)
elves first: 3 (Bregalad, Thordin, Saul)
caves first: 2 (Grey Jake, Marodin)

If there is no objection, Lanny will go ahead and ask Quinthos to accompany the party to the caves and to be ready to depart on Thaumont 12. Lanny has a +1 Charisma modifier. We'll see what happens!

[rremedio]

I like the plan. The only issue is that things might become much complicated if Elwyn send someone else to take the chest from the emissaries.

Why didn't the stupid Meagnor inquire the emissary about his delivery details?

Drudsa indicated that he would rather go after the older plots, and I think he has a good point: In practical terms, we may be able to cover a lot of plots near the town in the time we would take to complete Quinthos quest (even if fighting the ogres may be more profitable than some of those plots, we are not sure and it will take from five to ten days, if we do the "grand tour" with caves, ogres and orcs).

But at this point, I think Meagnor would be more interested in helping the elves anyway.

About the marching order: I'd rather have Meagnor in the middle, but I think the first one is better. Meagnor and Tratiln have less hit points than the thieves, but they are harder to hit. So I vote for the first choice. Of course we should switch if we know that there are enemies ahead. And maybe Meagnor can be placed in the middle after Tratiln gains second level.

[Finglas]

Bregalad the elf

Thank you for coming up with a plan, Frobozz. Not all battles can be won with just hit points and AC. At those times, ingenuity such as yours can save the day!

Bregalad just has a hard time turning down someone in immediate need (and Quinthos definitely fits that description). That's why he was eager to aid Aleena and Zahara. It also gives him the courage to face fearsome beasts, knowing that others' lives depend on it. Adventuring for gold and experience and fame is also fine with him, but he feels an elf's life is not worth sacrificing for those reasons only. Hasty humans seem to view things much differently, though. But then maybe that's what makes them great, and also the dominant race in the world!

So, Bregalad's dilemma now is that he wants to stay with the party, and at the same time he wishes to help Quinthos. Maybe both things can happen! It will interesting to hear Quinthos' response.

Ah, and your new marching orders look good. I agree with the others: option 1 one seems better. Thank you for your contributions to this campaign, Frobozz!

[Bouv]

So it looks like we have somewhat of a gameplan coming together. Here's what I see is going on.

1. Going back to the caves for a bit
2. Helping Quinthos

However, we need to decide if we want to go through with Lanny's plan (depending on what the captives say) which might be a hamper on what we do. However, I'm fine with waiting on Elwyn as I feel we should at least get the elves up to Level 2 before going there.

So I would recommend at least 1/2 day if not a full day in town to:

Get Tratiln his armor & Marodin his hammer
Possibly equip Quinthos, depending on his gear and his plans (wait outside with the horses or coming in with us?)
Possibly equip the Cleric NPC
Have Tratin and Drudsa check out what they have in their new spellbooks and possible scribe those spells into their own books, and then rememorize any spells they need (hence a full day - read magic won't be handy against a troll!)
Have Meagnor talk to the captives to find more about the drop off (via charm person

[zebediah]

Looks good Bouv, maybe the previous charm is still in effect (can't recall if that is the case or not) and if it is it should not be difficult to obtain a confirmation of the place where those guys would be taking the chest.

Don't forget that spellcasting inside town is forbidden, so if we need to use charm person again we'll probably need approval from the guards, maybe even from the Baron himself. That might also complicate our spell study if we need to leave the city limits before we can cast read magic...

[rremedio]

Well, Meagnor kind of delivered his "friend" to his enemy (a cleric of a clearly antagonist church). I don't know if this would brake the spell.

[Bouv]

Also, is there anything along the lines of bolt cutters or hacksaws available?!

I'm just thinking we may want to open that gate we came across in the dungeon somehow before we go down to level 2 just in case we need to make a hasty retreat and that's out only way.

And Tratiln is ok with going outside the town gates to study if need be.

[rremedio]

Don't forget, however, that each hex=3 miles.

So that would be a little more than 1 day to the village in the middle of the map plus less than 1 day to Quinthos village. Two days total to go. We could deal with the caves, the ogres and the orcs and return in less than 10 days.

Well, these calculations are off. I misunderstood the correct place of Threshold in the map. It will take around 3 days to the village.

[thirdkingdom]

I'm going to assume that Read Magic can be cast safely in town as long as it's done in your rooms and quietly.

[rremedio]

So it looks like we have somewhat of a gameplan coming together. Here's what I see is going on.

1. Going back to the caves for a bit
2. Helping Quinthos

However, we need to decide if we want to go through with Lanny's plan (depending on what the captives say) which might be a hamper on what we do. However, I'm fine with waiting on Elwyn as I feel we should at least get the elves up to Level 2 before going there.

So I would recommend at least 1/2 day if not a full day in town to:

Get Tratiln his armor & Marodin his hammer
Possibly equip Quinthos, depending on his gear and his plans (wait outside with the horses or coming in with us?)
Possibly equip the Cleric NPC
Have Tratin and Drudsa check out what they have in their new spellbooks and possible scribe those spells into their own books, and then rememorize any spells they need (hence a full day - read magic won't be handy against a troll!)
Have Meagnor talk to the captives to find more about the drop off (via charm person

Meagnor will also buy some equipment and try to sell stuff (or maybe we can use them to equip Quinthos...it's an armor/sword/bow kit). If you guys want another Read Magic spell, Meagnor can help.

[thirdkingdom]

All of the above looks fine. I will let everyone know what spells are in the spellbooks when I get home this afternoon. Remember, however, that it takes y'all a minimum of 8 hours before you have a chance of learning a new spell.

In addition to the spellcasters doing their thing I am guessing the Grey Jake will spend another 8 hours practicing with the short sword. I also need to indicate on the map where Thordin's spring is.

[zebediah]

Maybe Drudsa will get lucky by spending the whole day glued to the book.

[rremedio]

Just noticed that Meagnor's horse doesn't have neither name nor hit points. Can you roll it for me, TK? I will think about a name.

[Bouv]

Just noticed that Meagnor's horse doesn't have neither name nor hit points. Can you roll it for me, TK? I will think about a name.

Ditto for Tratiln's riding horse.