Random DM nagging.

[Anastasia]

Having buffs listed in #evil works. We started off doing that but it's fallen by the wayside, may be worth taking more note of.

Yeah, let's try this again. I'll tinker with it a bit tonight and see if I can find a satisfactory way of resolving that.

I'm happy to control NPCs in battle. As a suggestion if you put a little tactics note in their sheets just so we can have a goto easy/IC strategy for them?

That's not a bad idea. I'll add it to sheets real quick along with a note on if they can be controlled that way. A few I may prefer to run myself for various DM reasons.

[Anastasia]

Added autobattle settings. Let me know what you all think.

[Anastasia]

Shrine: K:R

[18:23] <Merc> roll d20+12 K:R
[18:23] * Hatbot --> "Merc rolls d20+12 K:R and gets 17." [d20=5]

The Shrine is to an unknown power of some sort. You don't know anything more.

Treasury: K:P

[18:24] <Merc> roll d20+13 Spellcraft
[18:24] * Hatbot --> "Merc rolls d20+13 Spellcraft and gets 14." [d20=1]

Ithea thinks that larvae may have been kept here, but knows nothing else. Merc knows that Hatbot is a son of a bitch and the stats reflect it.

Prison cells: Spellcraft

[18:24] <Merc> roll d20+23 K:P
[18:24] * Hatbot --> "Merc rolls d20+23 K:P and gets 41." [d20=18]

The doors and rooms prevent teleportation and ethereal access of all types. They are reinforced to be powerful and nearly indestructable from the inside. From the outsider they're doors like any other. It's competent work, though nothing exceptional on that front. There is one unique twist - for each day a prisoner stays entirely in the cell, they become more and more convinced they'll never escape. It's a subtle effect that allows a save, but it chips away the will of long time prisoners.

Given we sometimes use #evil as a gaming channel, that particular channel might not be the best choice. Use one of the lesser used channels or make a dedicated channel for that and stuff like planar details.

A fair point. Hm. Let's use #thecauldron for it, as Seira was the queen of buffing and making me keep them straight.  I'll also start putting planar conditions in there. Make sure to join in there at the start of every session, guys, or just stay in there if you're connected all the time. Whatever.

Unless a single str check got one through all nine barriers, (and I was understanding that it was a str check at each barrier) that's kind of tough even for a raging Willim, and I knew each barrier hurt you too. Why would I send someone to force his way through each barrier, not knowing how much strength it would take when we had a lot of casters who were capable of dispeling barriers and that had already been suggested?

I would have mentioned it when we got down to fewer barriers, but Elrisa got pincushioned when there were still half of the barriers up and died the very next round. After that, well, I did give a physical demonstration trying it, and Willim was able to pick up on it too.

Even if I had mentioned it at the very start of the fight, would it really have made a difference? I personally don't think so, but I can keep it in mind for other fights.

Would it have mattered? I don't know. Could it have mattered? Yes.  What I'm really getting at here is better IC communication. Knowledge is power, and you guys having knowledge gives you one up on your enemies. When I went on about stopping teleportation after today's session, that's a direct application of it. The heroes have the knowledge that teleportation is a problem, so take steps against it. If you have knowledge about a battle situation that the others don't, share it.

The idea of some way to share party knowledge checks between each other without having to speak crossed my mind. You'd need some sorta magical item for it, though, but it's an idea and dropping results in #elysium would at least make sure everyone sees them.

I don't mind helping with Adrian. I can post more quickly in fights than general play since we can pre-type stuff, so it doesn't matter too much if I type slower, and he's pretty simple to understand. He's really about the only NPC I would volunteer with right now though.

If Eb/Cor want to take charge of all the NPCs in general, that's fine too.

Well, I asked them since they've done it before and are generally the fastest typers of the bunch. If you wanna try Adrian feel free and we'll see how that goes.

[Merc]

...I didn't realize until your post, but I switched treasury/prison when copy pasting. Whoops. I guess you can just assume I'd rolled phenominally well for spellcraft and badly for K:P so you don't have to change answers. >_>

[Anastasia]

Let's just roll with that then, yes.

[Anastasia]

Da Jarl is posted. I'd had him acting like a sixth default giant in a few ways, he now uses this stat set.

[Corwin]

Shrine: A small, strange shrine is found deep underground in the fortress. The symbols within are strange, being that of a dead trees and branches. A K:R check is permitted here, post the results here.

[06:36] <Jaela> roll 1d20+22 K:R
[06:36] * Hatbot --> "Jaela rolls 1d20+22 K:R and gets 38." [1d20=16]

Prison cells: The majority of the fortress is cells, all empty now. There are various dweomers on the doors to make escape difficult, and they are all dimensionally sealed. Spellcraft can be made if you desire to know more.

[06:36] <Jaela> roll 1d20+22 K:P
[06:37] * Hatbot --> "Jaela rolls 1d20+22 K:P and gets 37." [1d20=15]

[Corwin]

Once it's time for us to return, I'll send everyone back with the loot via two plane shifts and use the last to go to Arvandor and look for a cleric for an appeal. If it's possible, want to do that today?

[Anastasia]

Shrine: A small, strange shrine is found deep underground in the fortress. The symbols within are strange, being that of a dead trees and branches. A K:R check is permitted here, post the results here.

[06:36] <Jaela> roll 1d20+22 K:R
[06:36] * Hatbot --> "Jaela rolls 1d20+22 K:R and gets 38." [1d20=16]

This is a subsect of the dark cult of Anthraxus. They hold to destroy all live and all that is beautiful, offering it up ruin to him. Anthraxus is the former Oinoloth, deposed quite some time ago. He remains a reclusive but powerful force, though little is known of him now.

Prison cells: The majority of the fortress is cells, all empty now. There are various dweomers on the doors to make escape difficult, and they are all dimensionally sealed. Spellcraft can be made if you desire to know more.

[06:36] <Jaela> roll 1d20+22 K:P
[06:37] * Hatbot --> "Jaela rolls 1d20+22 K:P and gets 37." [1d20=15]

I presume this is for the treasury. Anyway, you can tell that larvae were held here. They are often used as currency among the yugoloths and other fiends that inhabit these foul depths.  From the looks of it, there were quite a few here, worth far more to the daemons than all the treasure they left behind.

[Anastasia]

Once it's time for us to return, I'll send everyone back with the loot via two plane shifts and use the last to go to Arvandor and look for a cleric for an appeal. If it's possible, want to do that today?

We'll see how it goes, I won't know if I'll be up to it until morning.

[Corwin]

First, a reminder:

[00:51] <Ilya> roll 1d20+21
[00:51] * Hatbot --> "Ilya rolls 1d20+21 and gets 40." [1d20=19]

GI roll for recalling any rumors of dragons from my travels, posted per your request, Dune.

Next, question:

Since the rest of the fortress is devoid of resistance in wake of your attack, the following areas are of note. If you want to mess with any more areas in depth let me know.

Shrine: A small, strange shrine is found deep underground in the fortress. The symbols within are strange, being that of a dead trees and branches. A K:R check is permitted here, post the results here.
Prison cells: The majority of the fortress is cells, all empty now. There are various dweomers on the doors to make escape difficult, and they are all dimensionally sealed. Spellcraft can be made if you desire to know more.
Gray wellspring: A small spring can be found in one room. It seems to be the same water-ice that flows from the waterfall above.

-Let's break the shrine? I can do it after precasting GH and using the domain power of Protection.
-Do we have any indication as to the general area of how many prisoners the cells held recently? Who they were, what happened to them, any paper trail of transfer to other holding facilities?
-Is the water in any sense viable for crafting horrible weapons for us?

Next!

Various matters from around the horn:

1. Anyone have a better idea for keeping track of our buffs? I'm more than open to ideas here.
4. Back in Balmuria 1, I had PCs control NPCs in battle, so that I could focus on the bad guys and keep things going better. Eb/Cor, would you two like to try that again? You two are generally the fastest, so if you're willing we can try that out again and see if it helps anything. I was rather overwhelmed with all that was going on plus various interjections about this or that thing or buff. It would help me focus on the battle and bad guys instead.

-I've been using #evil for that, actually. But we can move to the channel you suggested.
-Not a problem, especially with your autobattle settings for their preferences. Which one would you like me to control?

Onwards!

2. I'd like to reiterate that you should have your actions ready and typed out when your turn comes, so we can keep things moving as fast as possible.

I have been! >_>

Yeah, this is really for Yuth. Yuth, you take more time to line in combat than the rest of us put together, and you really shouldn't since you're a fighter.


Next x2:

The doors and rooms prevent teleportation and ethereal access of all types. They are reinforced to be powerful and nearly indestructable from the inside. From the outsider they're doors like any other. It's competent work, though nothing exceptional on that front. There is one unique twist - for each day a prisoner stays entirely in the cell, they become more and more convinced they'll never escape. It's a subtle effect that allows a save, but it chips away the will of long time prisoners.

The idea of some way to share party knowledge checks between each other without having to speak crossed my mind. You'd need some sorta magical item for it, though, but it's an idea and dropping results in #elysium would at least make sure everyone sees them.

-Are they in any sense better than our own cells (the creepy mental enchantment aside)? If so, let's boost our own accordingly.
-Acting out on meta bothers me, this would encourage it.

Last one!

I presume this is for the treasury. Anyway, you can tell that larvae were held here. They are often used as currency among the yugoloths and other fiends that inhabit these foul depths.  From the looks of it, there were quite a few here, worth far more to the daemons than all the treasure they left behind.

By larvae you mean converted souls? Were they from the prisoners, or of general people that ended up in Hades after death and deserved to be there?

[Anastasia]

Dragon stuff later.

-Let's break the shrine? I can do it after precasting GH and using the domain power of Protection.

Goes without incident. If the shrine has any power, it has no obvious effect on you.

-Do we have any indication as to the general area of how many prisoners the cells held recently? Who they were, what happened to them, any paper trail of transfer to other holding facilities?

No records or anything like that were found. If they existed and were taken away, there's no sign of them.

-Is the water in any sense viable for crafting horrible weapons for us?

Are you going to inspect the water? K:P check goes here.

-I've been using #evil for that, actually. But we can move to the channel you suggested.

Please.

-Not a problem, especially with your autobattle settings for their preferences. Which one would you like me to control?

My first instinct was to say Elrisa. Whoops. Dana maybe, she's simple enough to run.

Yeah, this is really for Yuth. Yuth, you take more time to line in combat than the rest of us put together, and you really shouldn't since you're a fighter.

On one hand, Yuth has been doing a lot of combat maneuvers and trying to avoid the usual lethargy of charge+attack+full attack. I encourage this. On the other hand, do try and have options ready on your turn, or ask me questions before your turn.

-Are they in any sense better than our own cells (the creepy mental enchantment aside)? If so, let's boost our own accordingly.

Not in any particular way, no.

By larvae you mean converted souls? Were they from the prisoners, or of general people that ended up in Hades after death and deserved to be there?

There's no way to tell that from the evidence you have. Could go either way.

Edit: Larvae are the petitioners of Hades, and can be converted souls. However, some of them are just the poor, unclaimed saps who ended up here after death.

[Anastasia]

On another subject, this came up today and provoked a clarification in the resurrection rules.

<Jaela> Thanks
<Jaela> I'm basically asking him for a couple rolls, if it wasn't clear
<Jaela> If that fails, that fails
> A couple of rolls of what?
<Jaela> Resurrection?
<Jaela> It's basically the same roll except with lowering chances, right?
<Jaela> Or did I get it wrong?
> Once a roll is passed or made, it applies to all resurrection chances until he is revived or passes into the Realms Beyond. - You do understand this point, don't you? He can cast resurrection a hundred times and they still used the failed roll. You can't game the roll with different circumstances.
> I figured you were still looking for a miracle spell.
<Jaela> I misunderstood how it worked. I thought the cumulative -15% applied to each res attempt.
<Jaela> In this case, yes, I want to try a miracle
> The -15% is meant to apply to if you die, get raised and die again.
<Jaela> Okay

In essence, once the resurrection roll is made and failed, it's considered failed for all further attempts until the soul passes into its final reward. Different circumstances and chances do not allow a second check, nor does improving the odds past the roll allow a second resurrection work in this manner. For example, once Elrisa failed that first resurrection roll, she can't be revived until her soul passes into the Realms Beyond. This does offer a second chance, albeit at much lower odds. A miracle spell or divine intervention can bypass all of this, but that's rare indeed.

[Corwin]

-Is the water in any sense viable for crafting horrible weapons for us?

Are you going to inspect the water? K:P check goes here.

[10:29] <Jaela> roll 1d20+22 K:P
[10:29] * Hatbot --> "Jaela rolls 1d20+22 K:P and gets 26." [1d20=4]

I guess this will be left to someone luckier.

-Not a problem, especially with your autobattle settings for their preferences. Which one would you like me to control?

My first instinct was to say Elrisa. Whoops. Dana maybe, she's simple enough to run.

I don't particularly need a simple character to control. I'm perfectly fine with mages and the like! Anyway, okay.

Yeah, this is really for Yuth. Yuth, you take more time to line in combat than the rest of us put together, and you really shouldn't since you're a fighter.

On one hand, Yuth has been doing a lot of combat maneuvers and trying to avoid the usual lethargy of charge+attack+full attack. I encourage this. On the other hand, do try and have options ready on your turn, or ask me questions before your turn.

This is why cheat sheets exist. After all, all the combat maneuvers use the same CMB, we moved to this specifically to simplify using them and streamline the process. The only possible question as relating to maths is whether haste/heroism/charging/whichever would give you a possible boost, and that can and should easily be handled by a note on the sheet. And if that doesn't help, one can always roll "1d20+25 bullrush (+2 for charge, +1 for haste)" and just let you arbiter this.

I'm not asking for anything I haven't done myself:
Full Attack (Gae Bolg, longspear form): +22/+17/+12, 1d8+12/1d8+12/1d8+12, x3/20, 20ft [+2/+2+2d6 vs fiends, +9d6 vs undead]
Full Attack (Gae Bolg, longspear form, GMW, Haste): +25/+25/+20/+15, 1d8+14, x3/20, 20ft [+2/+2+2d6 vs fiends, +9d6 vs undead, +9 Divine Might]

This lists my basic and most common attack modes, and I keep an offline cheat sheet with more modifiers, which I update each battle with Knowledge Devotion and other factors. In short, it's not that I calculate everything quickly in my head and know all the relevant rules, it's that I take the time to prepare and keep notes to not make people wait on me each turn.

[Merc]

Are you going to inspect the water? K:P check goes here.

I guess this will be left to someone luckier.

[10:15] <Merc> roll d20+23 K:P on water
[10:15] * Hatbot --> "Merc rolls d20+23 K:P on water and gets 37." [d20=14]