There's a little Excel spreadsheet of equipment that I made here. If you are blessed with OpenOffice, I have the .sxc file too, but be warned, you have to right-click and "save link target", rather than just clicking on the link (at least, my browser tries to display it, which looks like a mess of junk). Anyway, the link is here.

I have grand delusions of sometime setting up a kewl little spreadsheet thing that would track all the equipment, weight carried by everyone, etc., but this is all I'm really capable of tonight. I'd like to have a version of the equipment list in a plain text file too, but getting all the tabs to line up to look nice is slightly more work than I want to do right now.

First, if anyone wants to comment or point out mistakes and omissions, please let me know. (I know that I haven't included the excellent ogre mage swag in it yet -- that's first on the list.) In particular, here are some questions you could help me out with:

In a DM post on 12/28/03, Kevlor mentions (to Grell, I think) to keep in mind the holy oil and scrolls we'd already gotten. By oil, I assume he meant the oil he gave to Barik, but what scrolls is he talking about? Does he mean the fireball scroll Drusilla got from the alchemist? I didn't find any other scrolls that were gotten in Two Towers...

Also, I couldn't find where the DM mentioned how much the water keg weighed. I put in 40 lbs., since that's about what 5 gallons of water would weigh, but that doesn't count the keg.

I have the weight of quivers of arrows wrong at least one place. I'll check in the PH when I go home, but they're 3lbs each, either short or long, right?

"Shadowsomething" in the file means Linnam's horse, whose name I'm unable to recall.

Barik has two torches and a flask of oil that aren't on the equipment list, because I didn't know for sure where they originated. I believe Kray's stuff breaks down like this:
keg of water - Drusilla (on her horse)
10 flasks of oil - 9 on Linnam's horse, 1 on Barik
10 torches - 2 each to Linnam, Barik, Drusilla, Grell, and Alonzo
grappling hook and 200' silk rope - on Linnam's horse
3 quivers of longbow arrows - Bishop (in addition to the 8 he had on his horse at the time)
2 quivers of shortbow arrows - 1 each to Barik and Linnam [this part I'm sure of]

If that makes sense to everyone, I'll edit the equipment lists appropriately.

Keeping track of consumables like arrows is tricky. And particularly rations, which I have been ignoring entirely. (Not many days have gone by, and we've had some meat to supplement our food supply, so these probably won't matter so much.) I recall that in our assessment at Argunn Lode, it seemed like we had more than enough.

Without horses, we're going to have to dump a lot of stuff. A lot of Barik's stuff is heavy and replaceable (mining equipment, for example.) Also, we have 3 grappling hooks and a total of 500' of rope. I'm not sure how we could possibly need all that. I'll come up with what Barik wants to part with tomorrow...
posted by Scholeologist at 5/15/2004 07:39:00 PM

[Bob's TB] I'm working out a (pretty comprehensive) equipment list of bits and pieces we've acquired here and there, to be put up shortly.

[Barik's TB] I wonder if Drusilla's cycles of mood are some strange effect of elven physiology -- are they all that way? Or maybe it's some sort of curse.

In any case, this group is clearly not up to stealth missions. I don't hold out high hopes that we'll be able to sneak past Taur'egk's defenses...

Barik runs toward the noises, putting an arrow to his bow. He follows the direction of Grell and Dru until he gets past the big tree on the right. Then he bends right, passing to the right of the little trees in the way, hoping to flank/surround whatever Linnam's tangled up with.


posted by Scholeologist at 5/15/2004 04:36:00 PM

Maybe the critter noise was actually Linnam's carefully-disguised and encoded message to Spade!

I hate to break it to you, but sending encoded messages to Spade has exactly the same effect as talking to him in Aramaic. I know he looks scholarly in his glasses, but while he is ferocious, courageous, loyal, and true, he is not capable of solving word puzzles. Or, for that matter, understanding what the word "word" means.

He is, however, irresistably cute.
posted by Scholeologist at 5/15/2004 12:15:00 PM

I'll post later on the "Jacob's guilty pleasure" thread. No time now...

As far as the game goes, while Linnam's casing the joint, Barik will move (quietly) to the rear of the party. If our order is like it was, let's protect the spellcasters with Grell and Bishop in front, and Barik in back.
posted by Scholeologist at 5/14/2004 01:19:00 PM

Woo-hoo! I am Barik, the Purple Avenger! Okay, okay...before Strae tries to sue me for trademark infringement, I prefer Barik the Blurry. (And multiple LOLs for Strae's cloak covetousness.)

Not that I expect it, but just in case I look for pockets in the cloak, in case the ogre mage had anything small stored in there.

I vote for tracking the ogres back...if I were an ogre mage, my iron key would certainly be to my chest o'goodies at home. And "not exactly on course" is close enough for me. If we spot serious resistance (I sure don't want to fight another one of these today!) or it takes us too far afield (like, we're going to lose a whole day) then I say break it off, but until then...I'm thinking it was a heck of a fight, maybe there's some powerful treasure to be had.

Of course, if it's just more coins, it's not clear what we could do with it...maybe bury it somewhere and hope to collect it later?

Like Linnam says, it definitely doesn't make sense to try to lug barding and saddles around. The best barding is still on Darkstar anyway.

Barik can easily put 10 lbs worth of stuff he's got now in the DBoH, and carry it (along with whatever else we want to put in it.) I'll put my equipment list of stuff that was once on poor Lightfoot up tomorrow to help us decide what to take and what to leave.
posted by Scholeologist at 5/13/2004 07:48:00 PM

Good golly, Linnam, that seems like -- pardon the pun -- overkill, doesn't it? :)

If the body-scattering job takes more than a couple of minutes, Barik says "Surely, all these pieces are scattered enough? If we take the head with us, I can't imagine he can grow one of those back."

Regardless, Barik says "Well fought, brave friends! I have only heard rumors of a fiend like this -- and in that story, there was only one survivor. Perhaps some of our fortune comes from luck, but much more comes from our teamwork and the fantastic skills and spells we can bring to bear."

For the record (and for distribution of CLW spells), Barik has 29 hp left (and a net of 25 pts in damage). That Cure Serious Wounds he took was most invigorating (note the freshly braided beard), so it might make sense to heal Grell and Barik in equal amounts or something (I don't know how Bishop's doing -- but I think he's suffered the 17hp or so from the cone of cold).

And let's keep an eye out -- those ogres were fighting something before we ran into them...
posted by Scholeologist at 5/13/2004 12:53:00 PM

'most anything I do provokes an AoO right now.

I'm just curious/wondering...in general, can't you take a 5' step back and then shoot arrows to avoid an attack of opportunity?

(In looking up in the PH to make sure this wasn't a stupid question, I just saw that "If you have the Two-Weapon fighting feat, you can draw two light or one-handed weapons in the time it would ordinarily take you to draw one." So, for a _heck_ of a long time I've been drawing first one axe, then the other, and I didn't have to. I hope Barik has a better head for tactics than I do.)

If I'm close enough, I drop my bow and charge at the tiger, slicing at him with my waraxe. If I'm too far away, I move towards him and shoot an arrow (at him but not into melee, if I can).
posted by Scholeologist at 5/13/2004 03:28:00 AM

The map was in one of Jacob's recent posts (9:00 am), but it disappeared, I know not where.
posted by Scholeologist at 5/12/2004 10:18:00 AM

I'm guessing it's the Chicken of the Sea mermaid's angry father. :)

Barik doesn't shoot the frost arrow until he sees something. I guess that might be some kind of "ready action" thing -- like, um, "Barik's ready to fire the frost arrow at the blue guy if he sees him."
posted by Scholeologist at 5/12/2004 09:33:00 AM

Hey now, that's Bishop talking. Not everything is the blasted dwarf's fault. :)

Barik's thoughts are parallel to Linnam's, except that he's not worried about Bishop being bigger than him. Maybe a good knock on the head is exactly what Bishop needs...

"Grell, I greatly appreciate your offer. I would also appreciate it if you'd come on back toward us...no point in us getting too separated."

Barik stays where he is, back to the tree, frost arrow on the bowstring. He's deeply apprehensive that the ogre mage is going to try to gut one of the spellcasters from behind, or Grell before he heals up. Therefore, he's trying to watch everyone's back at once, ready to shoot any big blue things that appear near them.

Since Linnam is trying to listen, Barik stays still and similarly tries to Spot/Listen.
posted by Scholeologist at 5/12/2004 04:40:00 AM

The rest of us should cover him/ help Grell. We're fixing up the line, not full-on retreating (which we could hardly do anyways-- I'm sure the bad guys are faster.)

Close, but I'm/Barik's a bit more serious about pulling back than you think. Like you say, Barik's been nailed pretty bad, and (even with his healing) Grell can't be much better, and he's off on his own going toe-to-toe with one of the ogres. Bishop is charmed, so our whole front line isn't very useful.

In addition, Barik has reason to believe that the ogre mage can turn invisible (and possibly fly) all day if it feels like it, and it clearly regenerates. That means that there's a pretty good chance that we won't be able to kill it.

Our best chance, Barik thinks, is to kill off the ogres so that the ogre mage thinks maybe it's not worth it to pursue us, at least not right now. (If we'd been lucky and hit the ogre mage some more, our best chance would've been killing him before he could react, but that didn't happen, and he's essentially undamageable now.) Our second best chance is just to get the heck out of there and perhaps the ogres have other business to take care of rather than wiping us out. (I think we can move the same speed as the ogres, if not the mage.)

In either scenario, pulling back from the ogres and using missiles rather than trying to move through their long reach seems like the best idea. If we manage to kill one or both of them off this way, splendid -- if not, we'll at least be in a better position to run.

So, yes, Barik wants to pull back and quaff, and wants cover while he's doing it. He also wants the party as a whole to keep from getting separated, and disengage towards the southwest. Once that happens, unless the ogres are both near death, he's seriously considering retreat (in the direction we want to go).
posted by Scholeologist at 5/11/2004 08:06:00 PM

There is no other portable healing around other than Grell’s right hand (or do you use your left?)

I'm just guessing, but I bet Grell goes both ways. Not that way... :)

Yeah, I'll drink the Cure Serious Wounds potion and only retreat half as far.
posted by Scholeologist at 5/11/2004 08:32:00 AM

Barik retreats from the ogre, south west.
"Regroup! Southwest! Everyone!" Barik keeps his eye on Grell, who (other than himself) seems the most likely to get dropped. If that happens, Barik will switch directions toward him, yelling "Bishop, Linnam! To Grell!"

Parenthetically, I note that Alonzo had some healing potions (one each Light, Medium, and Serious wounds) at one time, and somebody might still be carrying them around. Barik wouldn't mind one or two of them right now... :)
posted by Scholeologist at 5/11/2004 05:31:00 AM

If I can get a clear shot (that is, without a -4 or more for shooting into melee or cover), I move toward the ogre mage and fire another frost arrow (I have two left). If the chance of hitting him is worse than that, I'll just fire a regular arrow.


posted by Scholeologist at 5/10/2004 03:38:00 AM