The Gossip Board

[Anastasia]

I have no objection to buffing up sending. Teleport I care very little about, as I wasn't planning on giving it to you guys much except as a plot/dramatic device.

[Carthrat]

Is that a y or an n on the teleport? NPCs exist, etc.

[Anastasia]

For now it's a 'I'll talk to you in PM because I went through four revisions of this post and holy fuck I can't quite find the words'.

[Anastasia]

THINGS TO DO IN THE QORRASHI CAMP:

1. Tell a story, get a story told back. It's a quid pro quo, you tell a story and you'll get one told back.

2. Eat, drink, sleep. The Qorrashi lack alcohol, but they have small quantities of non-frozen water if you need that, as well as non-frozen food. They're happy to share them with travelers who can appreciate ruined, unfrozen food.

3. Visit the local apothecary. He is a Qorrashi wiseman, offering potions of first and second level spells for sale at 110% of SRD standard, and third level potions for 125% SRD standard.

4. Barter. You can try and trade something you have for something else - this requires a gather info mod to find something you want and to get attention for your own item. Things that interest the Qorrashi (K:P check here) will get a bonus to the GI check.

5. Buy and sell with the Elder Qorrashi. You can sell any item of up to 10,000 GP value to him, he'll accept any non-fire, non-dedicated to Cyronax item. He also has a few things for sale:

Ice Axe: 12 GP. 1d6 x4 martial weapon. Grants a +2 circumstance bonus on climb checks in mountainous and icy terrain.
Snowshoes: 25 GP. Wearing these greatly reduces the penalties to moving in snow. Snowy terrain is considered normal for you and not difficult terrain while wearing these. They take a minute to put on and a full round action to remove.
Freeze Powder: 133 GP. As per Frostburn. (Alchemical equipment section.)
Ice Chalk: 25 GP. As per Frostburn. (Alcheical equipment section.)
Scroll of Detect Fire: 50 GP.
Scroll of Arctic Haze: 410 GP.
Ring of Floating: 4,000 GP.
Ring of the White Wyrm: 75,000 GP.

[Carthrat]

I'll trade a story for a story!

[Anastasia]

Give them a story then. Get talking(Typing!) and then you'll get one back.

[Dracos]

I'm always slow on these.  Weekends being the best time and all.  Dunno if I should put this over on the play boards really.  Kind of difficult picking out a good one for a story but I think this one works.  Too bad Kam wasn't alive for Adail's feat, or that would've made a fun story to do.  A battle story of course for Kam.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kamvakua nodded to the request, sitting with them, huddled close in a circle, thankfully with cloth over the icy benches.  He leaned near in a conspiratorial fashion, quietly starting as he eyed the Quorrashi that had chosen to join him; "There is nothing quite like a Yugoloth ferryman.  Their trips are voyages brushing very edges of mortality."

He leaned back.  "We were in the Abyss, having cause to head to the 36th level and retrieve a dangerous treasure that had been lost there.  One of the few ways to get from the 1st level to anywhere is to ride along the river Styx, and so we sought a ferryman to take us, for the river Styx is no ordinary river.  It is something grander and more horrible than you would ever find in this land of comforting snow," He tugged his furs closer to keep the warmth in.  "Fully the length of fifty men across at even its narrow points, and so deep you could not hope to see the bottom, at some times peacefully calm and others raging fiercely, tossing any boat along it about like a toy.  It's true horror though was something deeper, for a single gulp of its waters would erase your very memories, to even have a few drops hit you was to risk your mind, and to be submerged in its waters was to be no more."

He smiled a bit, "So of course, we dared not brave its waters blindly.  We did not have a ship ourselves, so we traveled into one of the daemonic cities, hunting down and finding a demon known for honest business, even though he was a Yugoloth.  The least bad of terrible options.  We secured his services with gold coin and soon found ourselves rushing from the city with all haste.  They didn't like us very much there..."  His eyes glanced about the party in a playful hint, "I wonder why."

"The yugoloth though, he was tall and thin, wrapped in black and looking like death warmed over.  He never spoke, not with his mouth.  His shallow tones instead came right into your mind, rippling down your spine and peering into your thoughts.  Thankfully, he didn't talk much.  He had a small raft, maybe twenty feet across each way, but sturdy enough as he took us down the river with all swiftness, leading us through the turns and fogs and twists with the steady hand of one who lived upon the shores.  It was enough to relax one even in face of the hellish landscape.  At least we'd paid for a competent one."

"The fog though, was getting thick rolling over the boat as he said with simple calmness, 'Prepare for Descent'.  The bastard had lead us a quick way of course and we didn't have much time to ready ourselves as we heard a thundering roar growing in the distance, water churning as we all grabbed on tight to raft...as it flew over a waterfall, slamming down as it began a long and tumultuous fall, the lethe water spraying all around us as floating above now that we could see were these horrific creatures, fire spewing from the back of human looking skulls as they screamed and twirled, charging right down into us as we tried to get standing, tearing at us to rip the flesh right off our bodies with their teeth.  We struggled to standing, carefully trying not to fall off into the deadly drench behind and below us as we fought them off."  Kamvakua paused a moment.

"But it wasn't going to be as easy as all that.  Of course not a one of them attacked our ferryman, calmly standing in the middle of it all, ignoring the whole thing.  A shadow approached along the water while we were distracted by the skulls, and out of it, leaping right over us, nearly taking Knight's brother arm right off at the shoulder, blood flying everywhere was...a giant lethe shark.  The thing was huge.  A good twenty five feet long at least with jaws that could crush a man in just one bite.  He splashed down behind us, sending that damned water everywhere too and swimming around, taking his time hunting us as we were trapped there on that raft, falling down toward who knows where."

Kam stood up, pulling out his spear and holding it up readily.  "So there we stood, wondering when it was next going to come, and from where, each of us fending off as best we could the skulls and their friends, some ape creatures that felt like blasting us as they flew along above the waters.  I lift my spear...and it comes again, leaping for knight this time and nearly managing to catch her right in its jaws as she dove under it.  I cut it as it flies overhead, slicing a long bloody streak along its side.  But it's not done yet by far.  It comes around for another pass.  It seemed to have a taste for knight as it flew at her...and I harpooned it, the sheer weight of the thing nearly tearing my arms out as I yanked it back and slammed it into the raft.  A lucky thing that the raft stayed together, the weight of it smashing down, nearly knocking us all down as we leaped on the creature, hacking and slashing it to bits."

"And the ferryman in all this simply told us to hold tight...  as not moments later we smashed down into the water, sending up a huge spray of it as we landed, lucky to still have our lives."

[Dracos]

Aside:  Does the resting in Quorrashi camp cover a recovery cycle?  *eyes hp slightly, and abilities*

[Dracos]

So just asking here for later curiousity.

In a non-hypothetical fashion, I get cold resistance 10 next level.  What would that mean?  Pretty much everything on Energy Resistance assumes if you're getting it innately, it's simply raising by intervals of 5 or 10, and if you're getting it magically, highest one only (no stacking).  These seem to be 2 innates, which isn't really covered well.  Blindest reading is Cold Resist 15 and the class feature gets ignored, but wondering what it ends up being here.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#resistanceToEnergy

[Anastasia]

You don't get cold res 10 next level, you get cold res 5. That aside, I'd rule they stack.

[Dracos]

Coolness.  And right, number failure on my end.

[Anastasia]

Since Kam has some frostburn damage and a good knowledge roll about it was made in session, here you go.

FROSTBURN DAMAGE AND YOU:

So Granny comes scrying along to see how you're doing and what's this? The goliath's gotten himself frostburn damaged! By drinking coldfire, no less? Granny thinks Missy is rubbing off on you! See, Granny knows about Frostburn damage. Granny knows it's the sort of thing little Missies and reckless sorcerers get themselves into! Do you see Adail with Frostburn damage? He's such a wise, mature musteval! You'd do good to listen to him! You can't live up to a celestial while you're alive, but you can learn from them! Do you see him going around and drinking from strange fountains?

Ah, where was Granny? Frostburn damage! It's like being cold all over and you don't get better! You won't heal naturally! It's like the vile hexes a fiend can lay on you, where the wound just won't fix itself! You need magic to heal the damage, a million nights of rest won't make it better. But it gets worse, Granny knows! Unless it's warmer than freezing out there, the priest is going to have to struggle! Oh, they'll struggle! The basest acolytes won't even have a chance, and even skilled priests can stumble, fail and sputter out! The best way to fix it is to get somewhere warm and let a cleric mend you right up! Since Granny is sure you're near nowhere warm, good luck with that!

[Sierra]

Mari has extra body heat, right? Maybe Kam just needs some personal attention to get warmed up!

No, seriously, that's all I've got, guys. Don't look at me, I'm not the team mage.

[Zephyrus]

The only solution I can think of is me using Fire Shield and jut hugging the hell out of Kam.

As Dune pointed out, this would give Kam fire damage. This *can* be offset by healing, but it will take effort and is time consuming.

[Dracos]

Mari has extra body heat, right? Maybe Kam just needs some personal attention to get warmed up!

No, seriously, that's all I've got, guys. Don't look at me, I'm not the team mage.

Kam approves of Mari's plan :D

Technically, we've got two real options:

Option A (Which I assumed I had to go with and was already plotting on):  Kam heals up everything but the frostburn damage.  This puts him at a mighty 55 hp.  75 when raging to his death.  Basically 2 hard hits or 4 weak ones...or a fireball.  Basically, this leaves Knight taking main tank/frontline duty entirely for the rest of the dungeon.  Kam needs to be extra careful.

Truthfully, I think this is kinda more epic.  And despite my massive get killed count, I'm mostly fine with trying to survive.

Option B) We try and get him healed here.  We're talking a 1-2 days sitting around in front of Palace Deathtrap.  Prolly better for my chance of survival at the cost of everyone else's.  Here we got the fire shield of 'why am I doing this, ow!' or the Fiery Hug of Doom (What an awesome way to Go :P).  It's overall the delaying/cautious choice somewhat in line with what we've been making the way up here (Outvoting rat usually to do it)

Given my tendancy to get killed, what are others opinions, stated that way :P