Apologies, was busy sketching the map (badly; I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination) that you sent me, then by the time I got it uploaded and posted you had already shared the originalSorry for effectively a double-post there. Perhaps Walker's version will add a bit of a rustic ranger vibe
No worries about the double posting of the Walker's Crag maps (N.B. ping's is much better than mine! )
An update - I've just had a good chat with Tim. He would certainly like to continue, but it may be that it's not possible.
However I can promise that the game will carry on either way!
... was it something I said...?
(just joking, I hope)
Honestly it's just real life.
I'm the one who feels like I'm jinxing things. Aislinn may need to join her distant cousin Rowena into oblivion.
Sorry to hear Tim is bowing out, but of course life is more urgent. Also, thanks for the helpful map!
My apologies (especially to Tim) for not being clear.
(Maybe I shouldn't have started posting about this, but I wanted to reassure players that we would be carrying on, especially after Malacandra hasn't posted for some time.)
Anyway Tim has not given up, but so we will see what happens...
@glee : I assume Walker might know of the size of the dragon (and the crag!) but Ping does not...
Happy holidays to all the adventurers, present and past! Make merry with the wine and feast on your roast boar's head--or the vegan equivalent if 'tis your wont (were there medieval vegans?). And thanks to all for the fun & excitement!
*raises a flagon of mulled cider*
Winter's cheer to you all! May your dungeons be clear and your dragons mild.
(I did actually have a flagon of mulled cider yesterday evening!)
Also, don't deny my my soap, GLee! It most definitely does exist and I refuse to exist in a world where they've only just heard of the rare possibility of soap. Ancient Babylonians in 2800 BC had soap. Walker is definitely having soap with his hot bath! This is a hill I will die on :')
Firstly let me apologise for making an opera out of soap (heh.)
I have introduced the soap theme at least three times over the years that I've run this campaign. It may be noteworthy that the previous occasions involved all male players - who were fascinated to hear about how 'soap' was made and thought it was interesting that I mentioned it. Now we have female players, for whom soap is simply a normal part of life - perhaps there's a conclusion to be drawn...
Season's greetings to all - and here is an amusing card I just received:
Picture shows a couple in the Middle East wearing simple robes.
Wife: Did you put the bins out?
Husband: Yes dear.
Wife: Did you lock the door?
Husband: Yes dear.
Wife: Did you book the room at the Inn?
Husband: Just get on the donkey!
Here's my Xmas meal
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/hzXOk6brRF
Of course I added lots of gravy...
After this I shall watch 'The Great Escape' (not for the first timeand then have a nap.
Originally posted by glee
Ahhahaha, stealing that one!
I gather, from the amount you (glee) are taking over Walker's actions, that we've lost ping too? Rats.
No, not at all!
Ping clearly posted (see main thread 171) what Walker intended.
So the reason I typed the result was two-fold:
- there were no hostile encounters on the way to the Crag
- there was a short moment at the farm to add
Obviously the players can't know everything, so once i know what they intend, I can fill in little bits of the adventure...
From my latest post:
*stealth?
**acrobatics/athletics/climbing?
Also perception or equivalent up ALL THE TIME for Eye, please
oh whew, that's a huge relief! sorry ping, I'm new to this so I don't know how much of our actions need to be delineated by the players before the GM takes action. Very glad you're still here!
The three Scouts all have Stealth - a combination of Hide and Move Silently.
Walker has a fine Elvish Cloak to Hide with and makes very little noise ascending his Crag because:
- he has no metal (well a few climbing pitons - but they are kept wrapped in cloth)
- he knows this climb extremely well
I'm afraid Eye has no non-weapon proficiencies.Also perception or equivalent up ALL THE TIME for Eye, please
However since a hawk can see a mouse at hundreds of feet away, Eye has absolutely no problem watching every movement of a 30 foot Dragon (from a safe distance!)
What with Aislinn's poetry and Walker's puns, I am a jolly happy DM.I am watching that dragon like a hawk. Literally
Choie, Aislinn has used card tricks and her knowledge of Ogre to convert Woody to Neutrality!
So if you keep saying what Aislinn want to do, I'll post the result.
Please feel free to ask in this thread (or PM / e-mail me) if you need to know if some proposed action will succeed.
Ok, can we just assume that Walker is taking a couple of seconds every minute or so to look through Eye's eyes? Or that Eye would alert Walker somehow? (Not familiar with 1E so don't know if familiars can communicate with me or if I need to look through their eyes)
No problem at all - Walker and Eye are permanently magically linked and bonded together.
Eye will certainly instantly alert Walker of anything Walker needs to know.
Happy New Year to you all!
(It is jolly enjoyable to see how my campaign is playing out - I can tell you that this party has come up with stuff I didn't expect.
)
Turning to the campaign, here are some results players can use in the game thread...
- since Walker has made his Rock Climbing roll, the rest of the party will make it to the top of Walker's Crag safely* (and quietly
- there is plenty of cover at the top of the climb and the Dragon has not stirred
- once this Potion of Goodberry is poured out, 8 Goodberries will appear. Each one will Cure 1 hit point (and up to all 8 can be pressed on at once for an 8 hp hit point Cure.)
N.B. If not required for healing, each Goodberry can be eaten to give a full nourishing meal.
*Both Marron and Aislinn are superb at Climb Walls already, so Saradoc can use both the climbing rope and the assistance of the other Scouts to ascend easily.
DM, if you would be so kind, could you send me or post an updated map or just directions of where the dragon is and where the best cover is? Walker would be leaving it to the team to do whatever tactics they already know as they work together, but I would point out where there are approaches that would be easier to make unnoticed.
Happy to help - map will be posted in main thread. (N.B. Hopefully my DM skills are considerably better than my artwork!)
Cover explained in main thread also...
What sort of scale are we talking about here? I mean, between we came up the cliff, and between us and the dragon, depth of cover, etc? Thinking for ranged attacks (and breath weapons!!)...
The Crag is about 30 feet high and about 200 feet across. (So the party are roughly 70 feet away from the Dragon's head.)
The trees grow closely together, so there is excellent cover all the way from where the party are to the tail of the Dragon.
Since Walker has encountered Red Dragons (hence knowing their language), his experience suggests that a young Dragon would breathe fire up to 60 feet in front of it's mouth.
Good to know, thanks
I hope the party don't mind that I've given their reactions to Aislinn's interesting action.
Given that the players wouldn't know what I know
Hi, all, my apologies for my extremely low profile over the last several weeks. I've been a bit overwhelmed by the boring things of normal life and gaming took a bit of a back seat.
I am grateful to glee for the sensitive balance of his patience and his gentle nagging. I have been playing board games with him for over half a century. He is a good friend.
I was privately amused by the incident of the stealing of two sheep. Refer to http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/brows...v=t18180114-62
This is an account of a trial at the Old Bailey in 1818. The co-conspirator who didn’t turn up for the theft (of two sheep) but instead gave evidence for the prosecution was my great-great-grandfather.
The death sentence for the thief wasn’t carried out, instead he was sent to Australia where he eventually gained his freedom.
Oh wow, that sheep story is brilliant! One for the family records
Hope you and your "boring things of normal life" are going ok.
Nice to meet you
Thanks to all for their patience - I know Tim is a jolly experienced roleplayer and well worth keeping in the game.
We've discussed things and Tim + I will keep Saradoc going between us until Tim has more spare time.
I will continue as Marron because a) a Cleric is jolly useful and b) I can throw in occasional bits of information via Marron (i.e. better roleplaying)
Having read this a second time, I just gave thanks that the death sentence was commuted - otherwise we wouldn't have had Tim!
I hope the party enjoyed the Dragon combat!
It was excellent that they were so well prepared.
Even a young Red Dragon can do a lot of damage with either its Claw / Claw / Bite or fiery breath weapon.
When effects like Dragon Breath (or spells) are involved, there is often a 'saving throw' for less damage. Here there were cumulative bonuses (from the Protection from Fire, the character's Dexterity and the fact that the Dragon could not aim.)
The wolf saved us haha. RIP [as yet unknown to me name] Wolf.
That fog was genius. I think I was a bit useless with my staff
Ping,
Don't worry about your staff!
Let me explain...
Originally I intended to have the three Scouts as the party, but as the adventure developed it seemed like a good idea to add a chatty character (Walker the 'Talker'!) who was going to be played by me.
I didn't want to overshadow the player characters, so made Walker interesting but less powerful than the Scouts.
Now we've reorganised with Malacandra departing and ping coming in, Walker will become stronger (on par with Aislinn and Saradoc) and Marron will be more of a support chap.
Oh, no worries, I guess the dice were just not with me that day haha! It was just amusing because I had my game with Dr C online yesterday morning (we play via Discord and Fantasy Grounds every Sunday morning) and my dice just absolutely HATED me. I don't know what I did to annoy the dice gods but wow every single roll was terrible. I think it must have carried over into here as well. They are clearly omnipresent!
Actually our dice rolls were reasonably balanced
- Red Dragons are jolly hard to hit (thick hide, you know
- Marron only hit once (and that was with a Stealth bonus
I hope nobody is repelled by the idea of taking 'bits' of the Dragon.
(I do not want to offend!)
It makes sense in a magical world that certain ingredients taken from magical monsters could create magical items.
What I've done many times before is to say that the party generally take 'bits' from the monsters, without specifying what they were.
(Dragonskin and Dragon teeth are an exception!)
So the hair of a Giant will help created Potions of Strength
Therefore please feel free to just put that the party take the skin, teeth and 'bits' of the Dragon (and then decide how to dispose of the rest of the body!
Nothing offensive thus far glee, set your mind at ease!
Ha I guess I was probably the only one to get the "hey idiot don't forget to smoke the dragon meat!" message from On High.
On High speaks "Of course I like to give the impression that everything is carefully planned well in advance.
Indeed I had thought that only a flying monster could invade Walker's Crag (giving the party a jolly good mission involving climbing etc.) and so had chosen a suitably balanced Dragon (so far, so good.
However, when I checked my faithful Monster Manual 1 (printed in 1979 and still the only source I use for monsters
Since then my every waking hour has been spent on researching ways to dispose of a huge amount of potentially rotting meat.
(Fantastic flocks of vultures; huge herds of hyenas; crows, jackals + scavenger beetles all swam before my eyes.)
Sadly most of those would stick out in an English countryside.
So I began the process of thinking of alternative methods of 'disposing' of it all.
Well I kid you not - I went for a haircut last week and my barber casually said "Would you like some biltong?"
Ta-da!
And that, adventurers, is how the story came to be written .
Last edited by glee; 12 Jan 2023 at 04:37 PM.
Just to cheer Aislinn up:
- her Wolf has undoubtedly saved lives (or at the very least avoided horrible damage to the party)
- in the main thread there is a hint where Eye came from (post 142)
Oh that's okay, thanks glee. I know the wolf's helpful but Aislinn only knows what she can see, and she does feel responsible because she hasn't yet figured out that the wolf isn't just living in some alternate plane (although I rather like that idea!) popping up when she summons it. So she's basically seen it appear and get killed pretty much instantly, which--while it buys them some time--wouldn't seem to her like a very good deal from the Wolf's perspective.
Hope it's okay that I gave her a convenient slate pencil. It just struck me that someone with her particular skills/interests would probably find it useful. She might not recall using it for less-than-noble reasons, but even if her memory is bad, old habits die hard.
I do appreciate it when players know something that (for some reason) the character doesn't - and the character is played without that knowledge (if you see what I mean!)
So I trust everyone can see that choie is doing some real roleplaying (but I can say no more ...
As for minor items like paper and pencil, everyone is welcome to assume they can have them (it's a nice bonus if they come up with a reason as Aislinn did.)
When Marron next posts, he will offer the party paper, because he has used scrolls - on which the magical writing fades when cast.
What do you all think, fellow players and GM: would it be possible for time to be a leeetle more stretchy, maybe stretching out for some characters while moving more quickly for others? Assuming it doesn't totally screw up the action or greatly hinder the plot, which of course must take precedence.
My thinking is just perhaps sometimes the PCs are doing slightly different things and maybe there's a way to let them move at their own pace, at least for a very little while? Like, naturally there's stuff that can be expositioned away via NPC/Word of God (Marron's observations, scroll-finding/note-writing, etc.). But simultaneously, since Walker and Aislinn have a brief secondary task, could it take a little longer to play things out on that end? It just struck me that, while I can't speak for ping, the short walk and brief interaction between Walker and Aislinn would be a good way to give the party a chance for some interaction.
If it looks like we've totally forgotten the dragon trail, we could get a reminder and leave it up to us to make the right choice about whether to head straight for the possible riches.
Of course if there's something really pressing (esp. combat or some other time-sensitive/quickly paced business) and it's been two days and the PC(s) in question is/are slowing things down terribly, then we should absolutely get pushed forward. It's not fair to make other players wait for any significant length of time.
I'd just enjoy having some more breathing space so that we can figure out how our characters will interact or speak, esp. since we're still kinda feeling things out and unsure of their "voices." (Though it was funny to see Aislinn suddenly blurting out "over to you, Walker!" like a sport commentator, lol.
I don't know, I'm very very aware I'm not in the driver's seat of course. Plus, what to do for Saradoc then? I've never led a game (as that is painfully obvious by now!) so I don't know how a GM handles that divided focus? It wouldn't be fair for Saradoc to just wait around doing nothing.
Hm. This might not have been planned, but is it possible to improvise and have Marron present Saradoc with another mini-task, like writing the note? If the narrative says Aislinn hands Marron the slate pencil before she and Walker head off, the NPC could be used to generate something for Saradoc to do. Like if Marron asks Saradoc what to write or draw. Meanwhile ping and I have an opp. for some interaction--which would be especially useful since Walker is so new, and seems to have some interesting stories to tell.
Or would that make things too imbalanced? I'm not sure how juggling all the PC/plot threads would work. And that would mean improvisation and I'm not sure how much that's allowed (or even desirable) with a plot.
I suspect it was important that we follow the dragon trail, hence Aislinn & Walker's trip got expositioned away, lest we forget that task entirely because finding the ring was necessary (or will be). OTOH, what if we did forget about it?
That's a big mistake (if the ring is vital) and we should pay the price. Narrative could provide a nudge to give us time to remember or make the right decision, but otherwise we're stuck with the dilemma. Like... "Walker remembers the dragon trail and wonders which task to complete first."
If we mess up that decision, well, we mess up and there's either the possibility of having to be reminded about the trail or we just... lose out on that particular clue. Our loss. Ha, I'd probably make a mean GM.
"Later, as the party members walk the plank and are dropped into shark-infested waters, you realize that if you'd only had a ring smeared with sheep blood, such as might have been found in a certain dragon lair you had the chance to discover but didn't, you could've thrown it in the distance to distract the sharks. Instead, you're helpless as the sharks smell your blood instead. One by one, you all die in agony, cursing your lazy forgetfulness."
Well, leaving my malicious cruelty aside... there'd probably be a way to let the party double back for the ring/treasure later though, right? Like if maybe one of the farmers asks about whether there was a trail to find any gold or whatever, reminding us of that missed option?
Sorry for rambling as usual. Just sorta brainstorming. Short version: when there's a break in the action and the PCs have a chance for getting info about each other, what do you all think about the possibility of waiting a little to see if we can pull that off? tim and ping may prefer keeping a unified brisk pace, in which case, ignore!
Actually I just noticed... Walker/ping didn't forget the dragon tracks. In their last post, Walker specifically asked Aislinn to join him to follow them to find a lair or whatever. So we were heading in the right direction anyway, ha!
(TLDR: The subsequent exposition stated that Walker forgot about the tracks, but he didn't.)
I guess my request changes to something simpler... what does everyone else think about following roleplaying opportunities as long as we're headed in the right direction and it doesn't slow things down too much? Or do y'all prefer that we get fast-forwarded to the next plot beat?
Yikes, sorry, I didn't see this before I responded so I had Walker write the note. I assume then, that as Walker and Aislinn follow the tracks, the others are getting the meat and packaging it up, and looking for the farmers arriving at the bottom of the cliff. I am happy to leave/make cloth to make parcels, so Saradoc and Marron could be parcelling up the meat and lowering it down the cliff while we take a detour along the tracks.
I think the main problem is the difference in posting times. So our (Walker and Aislinn's) venture would have taken a while during which the others would have been doing stuff, but IRL we have now done it and are "back". Do you think we should hold off on replying until we hear from the others, otherwise we are unintentionally pushing the narrative onwards just be dint of being active on here!
I'm happy to have some random conversation while we wait for the carts to arrive
Also, OOC, I'm pretty sure that's probably the wedding ring of the shepherd that got eaten. Maybe we should take that back to the farm.
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