Expedition: Earc/Guhra's Tower - 15 July 2021

[Bluehorse]

post moves to town.

[Zhym]

Shouldn't we be making in-town posts, well, in town? It's going to get messy in here if we're posting in-town actions and trying to count and divide loot all in the same thread.

[Bluehorse]

Bianca

Happy to be back to safety in the town, she spends the first day in bed. She feels physically and emotionally exhausted and is happy to doff the constricting armor, though she keeps it in her room for now. The following day she looks refreshed, but uneasy as if something is bothering her. She spends an ample amount of time scribing the spellbooks and scroll into her book of shadows, making sure to record details of the books themselves and journal about events since arriving in Gaul. She visits with the others, especially Winnie about what she learns from the books. She seems eager to leave for the grove and asked to be excused everytime a return to the tower is brought up.

To Issachar concerning his invitation to his holy place. "I'm honored by your invitation... and i would like to join you there and visit your brethren and learn of your god and your practices, and hope it leads to good relation between your brothers and my sisters as you and I have shown is not only possible, but in our mutual interest. Can you offer me some assurance of safty? Your order disapproves of our craft, does it not? Would i be granted the same insurence as a diplomate or liaison from anywhere else? Would your brothers try to put me, my sister, or my order on trial?" She was sincere and hoped her heard her as such. She was interested, but not so much to risk feeling her neck stretched or the fires of a stake in town square.

[Marullus]

I moved that before I saw the conversation here,
but I am still going to sequester it here. I ask that you not move to "I am spending days copying spell books" posts and "I kept my armor" until there is agreement about spell books and armor. Please divvy. Then return to town.

Bianca and Winnie recall that the leader of their coven does indeed have a familiar, as is common for witches.

You notice Goode Dogge Artefact and Curiositie Shoppe in town , construction still underway with a dozen dwarves busy about the place. It may help with your locked chest problems.

[Zhym]

Two things we should figure out in advance:

First, can we have Olaf do the thing with taking the black magic not-natural-gem to the temple of (Eruanna?) to find out if it's tainted with the infernal, possibly to be destroyed, before we split loot?

Second, should we decide together whether to pay to have the small lock chests opened so we know what's inside before splitting loot?

[Rusty Tincanne]

Winnie is in favor of knowing what the gem and the locked chests contain before splitting loot. She is suggests Earc take coin off the top to be compensated for the healing potions, and the same for Olaf for the cursed sword.

[Zhym]

I don't know if we'll want to move that to the thread for Fingers's new shop, but he charges 100 gp per chest or 20% of its contents to check for traps and pick the lock. The customer chooses which before opening.

I've created a spreadsheet with all the loot. Here are the value subtotals for each category as I broke everything down:

Coins: 1422.67 gp (1406 gold, 32 electrum, 6 silver, 7 copper)
Gems: 2812 gp
Miscellaneous Non-Magical Stuff:* 314, sold used
Magic Supplies: 1,000 (ink)
Magic Items: ????
Mystery Items:** ????

That's a total of 4548.67 in cash equivalent (not including the inks), or about 568.58 divided eight ways, before reimbursing Earc for potions.

* Mostly non-magical weapons and armor, plus the 40 lbs of silver medical tools a
** The magic black-cut gem and the two Ellurian chests

Splitting loot is going to be easier if people will (1) tell what thy know about the magic items and (2) say what magic items they're interested in.

Here's what Olaf knows about the swords:
Ellurian steel longsword with supple blue dragon-scale hiltwraps (+3 longsword)
Ellurian steel longsword with red-steel folded into the bladework (+1 longsword)
Ellurian steel bastard sword which glows faintly with its own soft yellow light (Cursed +2 broadsword)
Ellurian steel bastard sword with a blue sheen in its folded-steel blade (+1 broadsword)

The cursed sword is unusual. It:
- is far better than a normal weapon (+2 bonus)
- compels its owner to use it as weapon-of-choice
- resists being sheathed until it has drawn blood
- improves the wielder's vision in darkness (ignores -2 in darkness penalties)
- makes the wielder sensitive to sunlight (-1 to hit outdoors during the day)
- feels like it is coursing energy through your whole body (and causes hair loss)
- Is cursed (owner will have to get a Remove Curse to be rid of it)

Has anyone tested the shortsword, armor, shields, etc?

[Alethan]

The shortsword is +2, but that's it as far as Earc knows.

[Alethan]

Issachar should have info on the flail, armour, and shield ( I think?) he picked up. And I think the dwarves picked up the shields to carry back for weight purposes so that info should be available. But if not then Olaf might just pick them up.

I'm good with removing Olaf's curse off the top. Nobody should be stuck with a cursed weapon.

If Halfpint wants the +2 shortsword, she should take it. Earc would request his shortsword back from Winnie at that point. Unless she could provide him with a Find Familiar spell...

[Bluehorse]

I'm such a dork...

Bianca hands over a healing potion she forgot she was carrying to Earc to replace one of the ones they used before.

[Stirling]

Issachar

He has a heavy two-handed flail +1 and banded armour +2, he did not take a shield.

Would be great for other characters to buy the swords but can anyone afford them? And how do you quantify the value of the spells and books? Hagaseths one with the 5th level spells must be worth 2000gp+ in spell knowledge. Do you trade those in to one of the religious institutions for shared xp value or count their value against other objects?

Issachar agrees to creaming of the top gp to cover the renewing of the healing potions each and the npc expenses.

[Rusty Tincanne]

@ Bluehorse: the scroll has the same spells as the older spellbook. If you use the scroll it crumbles, so Winnie would recommend Bianca leave the scroll be.
I think that spell books and inks (combined) are comparable to a magic weapon or armor, because that is what they are for a wizard. But only combined, because of the costs of transcribing. But I'm open to different opinions.

[Zhym]

That leaves us with the chainmail "woven fine as linen" and the two shields yet to ID. Bianca put on the chainmail and picked up one of the shields.

Bluehorse?

[Bluehorse]

Ellurian steel chainmail woven fine as linen (Chainmail Armor +3 and Shield +3 (7 lbs, 3lbs))

The matching shield is also a +3

[Zhym]

Daaaaaamn. Olaf's going to want to get a good look at that chainmail and the shield, at the very least. Professional interest.

Which shield is that? The kite shield or the heater shield?

That just leaves the other shield to suss out. Or are both shields +3?

[Marullus]

You test the shields with some sparring.

A finely-embossed kite shield, the edges embellished with thick metal plating and decorated with engraved words. (+2)

A mighty rounded heater shield, the edges embellished with double rows of metal studs and decorated with feather-like metalwork. (+3)

[Marullus]

First, can we have Olaf do the thing with taking the black magic not-natural-gem to the temple of (Eruanna?) to find out if it's tainted with the infernal, possibly to be destroyed, before we split loot?

The Templars examine the gem and find it free of infernal taint, returning it to you. They add that it is indeed magical and probably needs to be re-set into jewelry to be effective.

Second, should we decide together whether to pay to have the small lock chests opened so we know what's inside before splitting loot?

As above, the new shop will open them for 100gp each. The guard tower will pick the locks for 150gp.

(Disclosure: Since the shop is also Zhym's PC, I will handle the transaction through the NPC shopkeep.)

If you're handling transactions out of the group total before the split, it looks like:

• 100gp for healing potions
• 600gp to uncurse Olaf from the sword
• 200gp to open the locked Elurian chests

As an option (to make splitting easier) I will allow you to give the 1,000gp gem to Piedmont and he'll broker all the transactions and include two study checks for other items as well.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Quick question about the cursed sword: could Olaf invest his item XP into it to remove one of the curses? Or would he need to spend way more than that because of how powerful it is?

[Marullus]

I can negotiate with the sword's owner, once decidied, but typically a Created item cannot be imbued.

[onlyme]

Halfpint is certainly interested in the short sword.