oops -- belay that until I get that DM email (DMail?)
posted by Scholeologist at 5/22/2004 01:09:00 PM

"I have healing potions, and Pelor's Holy Oil, if Bishop needs more than the salve."

While Grell is attending to Bishop, and Linnam is checking out the other room, Barik goes to cover the southern passageway. And though the back and forth of Drusilla and Slthm amuses him, he can't help but be consumed with curiosity as to who he heard...

"I'm just going to take a look down here..." Barik looks down the southern tunnel. Making sure he's not _too_ far away from the rest of the party, he takes a few steps in...
posted by Scholeologist at 5/22/2004 12:55:00 PM

I don't think I can close to the ogress last round, can I? It looks too far away.
Assuming that's true:

For the last-round move action, I come around the table, sort of cutting off the
ogress from retreat (like
that's gonna happen!) From the map, I'm guessing I'm pretty close to the westward
tunnel. If I can sneak a peek down it, I do. (I stay out of the ogress's
threatened squares.)

And, in reply to Linnam: "And swift are the arrows of Amn!"

For the current round, I throw one of my axes, and draw another one to replace it.
Attack +8(-range penalty, maybe: range inc. = 10'), +5 damage. I don't think the
ogress has actually connected yet, but Barik's pretty sure he can't take a whack
from her.

Yay displacement! Though it's freakin' Barik out a little bit -- I've heard of
getting bitten and not knowing it, but knowing it and not getting bitten? It hurts
my head... :)

And yay x3 critical hits! You know, when you're giving them out they seem so much
more worthwhile than when you're taking them...

Grell, generally the rule is that you get an extra attack at +6, so it would be +6/+1,
and when you get up to +11, you get three attacks: +11/+6/+1.

posted by Scholeologist at 5/21/2004 11:46:00 AM

So the normal ogres are dead, right? Barik engages the weasel.

If the weasel's close enough that a 5' step last round and a 5' step this
round lets me full attack him, I do. If he's too far away, then I'll just
attack him with the waraxe. (Barik's damage is only +3 vs. weasels, but
you already knew that.)

Barik tries to keep the weasel from being able to get to Bishop, since
Grell probably could use some backup..."That spike attack might settle her
down a bit, Bishop!"

posted by Scholeologist at 5/20/2004 09:23:00 AM

Yes, it is this sort of luck that I was worried about. If you miss shooting arrows or lighting
oil from a distance, it doesn't hurt so bad, because it doesn't matter then what the blind
ogre rolls (Barik's AC is 17+4=21 vs. giant, and the ogre had a 50% miss chance, so he rolled
pretty well.)

It occurs to me, after losing half my remaining hp, that Barik's invisibility and blurriness did
him no good, since the ogre was blind. Sigh. (Just so you know, Barik has 18 hp left, according
to my sheet. If he gets hit again, he'll either retreat or fall down and bleed, whichever seems
most prudent.)

Well, it's not like it's all bad -- the other guys did well, and the ogress is "only" a barbarian. :)

Barik proceeds to full attack the near ogre -- and I wouldn't mind a cleave on the weasel
(if I should be so lucky.) Attacks (not counting blindness) +8/+7/+3/+2,
damage +5. (And, for the probability geeks, I think there's approximately a 15% chance I get a
critical hit. Well, assuming I don't fumble one of the axes...man, D&D odds are hard. Okay, a
better than 12.5% chance for a critical.)
posted by Scholeologist at 5/20/2004 05:09:00 AM

Not Nemesis from Alpha Flight? :)
posted by Scholeologist at 5/19/2004 10:05:00 AM

Barik's heart is weary of this fighting, and he wishes to bury the hatchet -- in the nearest ogre's skull.

If I can charge, I will (it looks like Bishop is blocking me). Not counting the possible charge, my waraxe attack is +10 hit/+5 dam. Heck, since he's stunned, I'll Power Attack and make it +8/+7.

Before that, Barik says, quiet like Linnam -- "The ogre westward is a she -- probably his mate. Hope she's like these and not him!"

[Barik TB, regarding the sound to the south] I said it was unthinkable -- it is unthinkable...perhaps a slave?

Oh, and I forgot Grell in my Dukes of Hazzard re-creation. How do ya like Roscoe, big guy? :)
posted by Scholeologist at 5/19/2004 09:30:00 AM

Hmm...if Linnam is Hannibal, Grell _has_ to be B.A. Slthm could easily be Murdock. So that leaves Bishop to be Face, which I guess makes Drusilla the babe-in-distress of the week, and Barik her gruff but kind uncle.

Hmf. If I'm going to be the uncle, I wanna be Uncle Jesse. Linnam and Bishop can be Bo and Luke, Dru is Daisy, and Slthm is Cooter. :)



Uncanny, isn't it?
posted by Scholeologist at 5/19/2004 09:24:00 AM

Fine, let's do the invisible Barik and Linnam sneak into the sides of the room, Slthm and Dru blast 'em thing.

I'll stop whining -- apparently I can't get my ideas across. I'll just disagree, and hope this all comes out ok.

Barik puts on the blurriness cloak, then draws an axe in each hand. "Blurriness power -- activate!"
posted by Scholeologist at 5/18/2004 11:44:00 AM

I don't understand what was wrong with the ruse plan. I know I'm biased, but still, this current plan seems to require more luck. Not to give the DM ideas, but...

a) Four people have to sneak up to a door quietly enough that it'll be surprising when the door opens.
b) The whole goal is to get four of us in a small room with at least 2 ogres (maybe 3), and duke it out.
c) The other exits to the room go places they know about, and we don't.

Other than trying to achieve some surprise, this seems to pit our brute force against theirs -- and they're ogres. The ruse idea starts by pitting their wisdom against our sneakiness -- and again, they're ogres...

Rather than come up with a convoluted plan to get us all into the room, why not a plan that puts them in the narrow hallway, or even outside it? Maybe I'm missing something -- why are we so all-fired to fight them in their house?

I don't want to make it seem like I only want to go with my plan, but the other plan seems to be getting more complicated instead of less, and I'm a little worried that if things go wrong, they could go really really wrong. If we're going to do it that way, let's not worry about trying to get the spears while invisible, or trying to hide the bar to the door...I don't think there'll be enough time, and I'm not clear on how it would work anyway. And losing our invisibility just to get an arrow shot doesn't seem worth it -- Barik will go in with his axes armed, ready to behead stunned/blinded ogres.
posted by Scholeologist at 5/18/2004 03:44:00 AM

I kinda want to wait and hear Grell's opinion (I suspect he'll be the healer administering the salve to Linnam).

"This third voice need not be an ogre, Linnam. One set of tracks is from someone shorter than I. It would be unthinkable that a dwarf might be here, except as a captive, but there are less upstanding folk that might consort with ogres.

"Too bad Drusilla doesn't have one of her disguise spells, or she could pretend to be the blue devil and walk right in.

"They don't know we're here. If they're arguing, they're probably arguing about whether they should come out and investigate, and which of them has to go...

"Hm, looks like four beds, six chairs...odds are one of the passages leads to the blue fiend's private room. I sure hope he didn't have a mate. The other passage might be where the short one is...

"I like the idea of opening the door from a distance, or at least unseen. I'm not keen on anyone trying to sneak around a couple of ogres through the doorway, though. Is there no way we can get them to come out? Lighting them on fire in the passageway really seems like a good idea to me...

"Perhaps a ruse? Why not oil the passageway, then have Drusilla, and Slthm call out to anyone in the cave, claim they ran into some ferocious weasels and killed them but are dangerously injured and need help. Surely the ogres will see this as an opportunity, and come out to finish them off. At which point, Drusilla and Slthm let loose their blasts, we light the oil (if it hasn't lit already), perhaps cutting them off from retreat, and our warriors make sure to finish them off.

"The risk, then, is that one of them might hang back and bar the door when we strike. I don't know about this little fellow, but he worries me...perhaps Linnam, invisible, can sneak in when some of them come out? I guess this is back to the sneaking past them invisibly again, but Linnam looks skinny enough..."

If no one's keen on this, Barik will go along with some variation of the other plan, although there seems to be some weird pieces in it...it seems to require more stealth (from people other than Linnam) and puts our spellcasters in the front. And if you're walking up to the door invisibly, why cast a spell to open it? Why not just open it?
posted by Scholeologist at 5/17/2004 06:08:00 PM

This is Barik's idea if the recent tracks seem to be leading in...

"I think we should assume that they've heard us -- what do you think, Linnam? If so, then they'll be ready behind that door, and may burst out at us at any time. If we mean to go in, and I'd prefer that than having them attack us later, then I'd like to either bash that door in or pull it out in a hurry. If we put oil on the hall before the door, we can set it alight if they try to come out. If they just hunker down, we can throw oil and alchemist's fire further in the cave, maybe smoking them out.

"Someone else might have a more...immediate idea for getting the door down. The one I have is this: if we can get a rope, or several, attached to the door, we can rig up two of the blocks so that a rope hitched to Darkstar, or even just a few of us, will easily bring it down. Getting that set up won't be exactly fast, though, and if they see what we're about, they might jump out early. And I'm not sure how we can get the ropes fixed to the door...suggestions?"

(Apparently this is what happens when you've been staring at the equipment list too long.)
posted by Scholeologist at 5/17/2004 07:59:00 AM

Moving off blogger: depends on how much hassle it is. I can work with the new interface, but if there are errors like I was having yesterday posting, then I'd definitely vote for a move. I don't want a move to force someone into doing a lot of system admin and stuff, though -- the game already takes enough of our spare time. :)

Linnam's healing: "Hmm. I know you'd rather wait and conserve our resources, but if this key goes to something in the ogre mage's lair, something that might have other traps, I'd rather you be in shape to try to deal with it. I can't imagine anyone else would be suited to the task. I suppose we can wait and see what the cave holds."

Are the tracks walking the weasel (which sounds like some crude euphemism...) going into or out of the cave?

If out, I propose trying to track the isolated pair down and getting rid of them before they come back. (By the way, I am so loving the Track checks. Someone restrain Barik from looking for tracks everywhere.)

If the tracks are going in -- uh, lemme think about it.
posted by Scholeologist at 5/17/2004 07:32:00 AM

Updated the equipment list. Updates by Linnam and Grell taken into account.

Grell, I had 2 CLW for you also, but I wrote that they were used because the DM said we didn't have any healing except for the potions Barik has, and the salves Bishop and Linnam have. I changed them back to unused in the spreadsheet.

As far as the scrolls go, it's fine with me not to know about stuff -- as long as someone remembers what they are, and that they have them. :)

The avalanche-blocking-the-road idea was, I'm pretty sure, Linnam's, although I suppose a dwarf can't in good conscience dislike any plan that involves moving a lot of rocks quickly. Even so, here's a list of equipment we might be better off leaving behind...

• 10 ft pole (actually, I had been operating as if this got left behind at the gnolls anyway, after the last horse-kill)
  
• 200' hemp rope (we've got loads of silk already)
  
• silk rope? We've got 50' lengths with Bishop, Linnam, and Barik, not to mention another length of 200'.
  
• grappling hooks? We have four -- are we all going to scale up Taur'egk's castle wall? Other climbing equipment (climbing kits, pitons, light hammer) add up to 21 lbs.
  
• block and tackle? Other than moving stuff around, these aren't immediately useful, and they're heavy. And we've got Grell for heavy lifting anyway. :) Other mining equipment includes a crowbar, spade, warhammer/sledge and pick; the total weight for all this stuff is 43 lbs.
  
• Linnam's spare longsword (heavy to lug around if you've got a better one)
  
• Food and Water? The keg is 50 lbs (found where Scott mentioned it), and we've got two waterskins of 4 lbs each. Do we need all that? What about rations (which still need to be figured out -- but incidentally, Jacob, I think the 12 rations you mentioned might be the same as the two weeeks rations you found on the Orc In Black)? It's less than a week before Hextor's Flail rises -- mebbe we just need enough rations to get there?
  
• Money? The copper for sure, but it's not like we're likely to buy anything from Taur'egk.
  

Whatever we decide to drop, I suggest we bury it/hide it/keep it in the ogre mage's chest so that we have a chance of collecting it on the way back. No point in just leaving it on the ground.

The spreadsheet has some tentative suggestions of what to put in the duffle bag and what to get rid of, and includes total weights for each character. This is a little deceptive, since it only includes the items in the list that have their weights entered, but it might help you figure out what sort of load your character's carrying.

posted by Scholeologist at 5/16/2004 11:03:00 AM