The Gossip Board

[Dracos]

I'm going to go ask that cleric about the items we are allegedly going to hunt down.

Could we just get a board blurb?  Seems like a rather short scene if any of us really do it.

[Anastasia]

Okay. You guys can ask the cleric about it, then choose to suppliment it with Knowledge: Arcana and Knowledge: Planes checks to learn more.

From the priest: The Icedrop Mandala is a forgotten palace. In it lie treasures of great Cold, or so the stories say. Thousands of years ago an ambitious Prime Material Wizard transported the entire palace from the Prime to Cold. After his death it was abandoned and the rumors of great treasure began. The Crown of Cold grants great mastery over ice and the robe of frost bestows complete immunity to cold.

[Dracos]

<Dracos> roll 1d20+6 K:P
<Hatbot>
ACTION --> "Dracos rolls 1d20+6 K:P and gets 25." [1d20=19]

Kam has been doing a lot of reading lately.  Clearly this has helped.  He is pondering any details dangers traveling to the area and about the area mostly, though of course he probably only read myths about the place. :)

[Carthrat]

Soo I have a few hundred gold lying around and we're heading a plane of elemental cold. Any chance of getting something to ride for the interim whilst my real mount is being prepared?

[Carthrat]

Like... a mammoth. Or a riding sled, with accompanying dogs. Mush!

[Anastasia]

<Dracos> roll 1d20+6 K:P
<Hatbot>
ACTION --> "Dracos rolls 1d20+6 K:P and gets 25." [1d20=19]

Kam has been doing a lot of reading lately.  Clearly this has helped.  He is pondering any details dangers traveling to the area and about the area mostly, though of course he probably only read myths about the place. :)

The Para-elemental plane of Ice and Cold is a vicious place. You'll be entering a region known as the Precipice. When you pass from Air to Cold, you will find yourselves in a region of bitter ice and eternal snowfall. Great mountains of ice rise up like the hands of a frozen god, frost and cold mephits dancing in the festivities. Far above you Air will form the sky, making sure cruel winds constantly fly about.  Unlike Air, there is gravity and an objective sense of down.

For dangers, the first and foremost is the cold. Non-magical winter clothing will reduce the cold damage to a mere 1d6 per round. Magical effects, cold resistance or sufficient fast healing is required to prevent your swift deaths from cold. Nikkolai's Planar Attunement can shield against this cold.  Second of all, it's not very bright. There's bits of refracted and reflected light from Air, but dimmer than even Shivra. Further, with the constant snow-winds, visibility is poor. Often the only thing you see are momentary glimpses of the great mountains ahead.

There are far greater and more unique dangers, like fabled regions of 'true cold' where even thoughts, light and concepts freeze. However, these are a bit outside of Kam's knowledge and hopefully you won't have to deal with them. Right?

(Non Kam people since he rolled, if you want to roll for more info or explore a concept he knows about, feel free.)

[Anastasia]

Soo I have a few hundred gold lying around and we're heading a plane of elemental cold. Any chance of getting something to ride for the interim whilst my real mount is being prepared?

Yes. First of all you can get a heavy warhorse for 500 GP. For more unique methods, you could rent a sled+dogs for 1000 GP, with a 750 GP refund on returning the dogs and sled intact. Alternately you could just buy one for 850 GP. Woolly Mammoths are possible but expensive and require special training. If you want to pursue one it costs 7,500 GP. The stats are in Frostburn if you're curious.

[Anastasia]

Oh yeah. Everyone, update party status and go ahead and max out your HP in #elysium's topic. I'm assuming overnight rest+healing does the trick.

[Carthrat]

Ok.

I want to negotiate with.. uh... the mammoth dealer... is there, like, a ranch or something? Anyhow! I'll negotiate with him to try and rent a mammoth, or buy one with an eye to reselling it, should it survive. Same thing to me. I assume that'll have an up-front cost, but I'll get some money back when I return with it.

But I don't have that kind of money lying around, since I'm going to invest it into my horse! Therefore, I'll also talk to the tinker; I'll ask if I can pay him 17500 now and leave my keen sword as collateral (8k). I can then use the remainder of those funds to fund said mammoth. On my return, I can then sell the mammoth again.

So basically, the transactions would go like this.

-Pay portion of the mecha-horse fee; leave magic sword behind as a deposit on paying the rest.
-Use remainder of funds to buy mammoth for upcoming trip.
-Upon return from upcoming trip, resell mammoth, as previously arranged.
-Use funds gained from reselling mammoth to finance rest of horse, along with whatever else is necessary to fill any gaps.

If there's a simpler method please let me know. Mammoths are insanely badass, though, oi. o-O

Hmm. This also does rely on a mammoth being immediately available. They're kinda huge- I assume I don't actually fight from the top of it, and more dedicate my efforts to controlling it? Y'know, it is kinda huge, could more than one guy fit on it?

[Anastasia]

Ok.

I want to negotiate with.. uh... the mammoth dealer... is there, like, a ranch or something? Anyhow! I'll negotiate with him to try and rent a mammoth, or buy one with an eye to reselling it, should it survive. Same thing to me. I assume that'll have an up-front cost, but I'll get some money back when I return with it.

But I don't have that kind of money lying around, since I'm going to invest it into my horse! Therefore, I'll also talk to the tinker; I'll ask if I can pay him 17500 now and leave my keen sword as collateral (8k). I can then use the remainder of those funds to fund said mammoth. On my return, I can then sell the mammoth again.

So basically, the transactions would go like this.

-Pay portion of the mecha-horse fee; leave magic sword behind as a deposit on paying the rest.
-Use remainder of funds to buy mammoth for upcoming trip.
-Upon return from upcoming trip, resell mammoth, as previously arranged.
-Use funds gained from reselling mammoth to finance rest of horse, along with whatever else is necessary to fill any gaps.

If there's a simpler method please let me know. Mammoths are insanely badass, though, oi. o-O

Hmm. This also does rely on a mammoth being immediately available. They're kinda huge- I assume I don't actually fight from the top of it, and more dedicate my efforts to controlling it? Y'know, it is kinda huge, could more than one guy fit on it?

The gnome's willing to go along with it, he's happy to build anything pretty much. You can sell an intact mammoth back for 5000 GP, making a net cost of 2.5k. You'd be controlling it since it's a huge creature; the entire party could ride on it if they wished.

[Carthrat]

I'm for this. Are we for this? >_>

[Zephyrus]

Anything that makes travel faster is cool with me, to be honest. Since I ended up having to cut into the party's expenses unexpectedly, I have no problem with the expenses.

[VySaika]

Mammoth riding sounds awesome. And as always, I'm down to pull translation duties to help Knight give the critter more complex commands if she wants.

[Dracos]

I dunno if it really makes it faster.  It's not a real mount that can be fought on.  It's somewhat expensive.

It's also kinda cool.  I mean you don't often see woolly mammoths getting used in games.  So neutral, leaning toward it.

[VySaika]

Knight should be able to lance things from it's back just fine, I'd think? The rest of us would need to bail to fight, though it might be good for Nikki to stay on the mammoth to cast from as well.