OOC Chat

[Jenara]

I really don't know, the module is really good but seems less defined Than others. Then open method suits the way we work.

[JadedDM]

It was a little more vague, yes. Which is odd, because it had a stronger narrative than Pod-Caverns (which was pretty much just 'go into the cave, kill stuff'). There are several spots in the module where it just says, 'if the party goes here, it is outside the scope of the module and you are on your own.' Like in Black Plume, the mines themselves as well as the sealed off area that Dora mentioned.

Still, a pretty interesting adventure.

[JadedDM]

Is the party heading right back to the entrance or will they explore any different areas? Because, if it's the former, I'll just skip ahead.

[Jenara]

Locky does like the idea of exploring..

Shall we put it the vote?
Jerrard wants to leave.

[Breila]

Babushka would like to explore, but will follow Jerrard (reason/wisdom) rather than Locky (fun).

[HorizonsDream]

Imani will want to leave as soon as possible due to her child.

[JadedDM]

So that ends the module (although the adventure still continues). You guys got almost no treasure at all from that, save for the two items taken from Timur-i-Ling's body (and I wonder...had Locky made her Open Locks check, and there had been no need to search for a key, would the party had even found that much?). But as a consolation prize, the Hungry Shadows will grant the party five light war horses by way of thanks for rescuing their scion (one for Ulster, one for Thuskar, one for Jerrard, one for Imani, and one for Babushka and Locky together).

(Imani doesn't need one, as she has Artemis. But she can sell one or the other later, which will give her at least some pocket change for purchasing supplies, as she isn't sitting on a ton of treasure from the previous adventure like the rest of you.)

Any feedback or anything at this point? Maybe questions you have that I can answer without worrying about spoiling now that we're done with the module itself?

My thoughts:

Well, the party breezed through the temple pretty quickly, although like with in the Black Plume, they were pretty singular in their goal--to find Syriana. I suppose it was partly luck that they found the right direction toward her without too much issue.

When Jenara announced Locky was casting Light and 'centering it on Jerrard' my first thought was to make him go blind. I decided to interpret that to mean his robes, but really, one should always be more careful where they are centering such spells. A better idea, I think, would have been to cast it on his sword. Then he could sheathe it whenever he wanted, if the party needed stealth. His glowing robes are how the Baaz in the Hieroglyphic room knew the party was coming and able to hide before they arrived.

I realize the final battle was a bit anti-climatic, but that was to be expected considering you guys were overpowered for the module. But, now that we're beyond the scope of the module, I will probably start challenging you guys more.

Ulster leveled up, but he only rolled a 1 for HP (thank goodness for CON bonuses). Thuskar, however, is still 5 XP away from leveling.

Anyway, because the group is so big right now, I'm going to skip ahead to their arriving in Alan Ak-Khan Village. It will take almost a week to arrive there. It's a small village of 700+ people, so don't expect anything fancy. Should be able to restock on basic supplies, though. Just let me know what kind of shopping you want to do, or anything else like that.

[HorizonsDream]

Imani is going to sell the war horse that was given to her.
With that money, she is going to buy some supplies two weeks worth of food and water. If there is enough money to get her a new bow, then she'll go ahead and do that too.

[JadedDM]

Imani finds a buyer for the light war horse, and manages to sweet talk the seller into giving her 90 steel for it.

She can secure two weeks worth of food for 16 steel (assuming simple dry rations suffice). She can also buy a new short bow for 24 steel.

As for water...well, that depends. I'm going to start implementing the rules for water from the Wilderness Survival Guide. It's a little silly that all of this time, I've been letting people store seven days worth of water in a single waterskin.

A single waterskin can hold a gallon of water (a pint of water weighs 1 pound, so a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds; a waterskin weighs 1 pound by itself, so a full waterskin is 9 pounds).

How much water a person needs a day depends on their size, the temperature, and their activity levels.

For a human, in the desert (90 degrees or higher), they need 8 pints (a full gallon) a day if they are inactive (that is, resting, riding). If they engage in other activities (such as fighting, walking, running, etc.), they might need up to twice that much. Gnomes and kender only need 5 pints a day when inactive.

So when you say you want two weeks worth of water, the question is--are you assuming Imani is going to remain largely inactive or largely active? if the former, that is 1 gallon a day (meaning she'd need 14 waterskins). If the latter, 2 gallons a day (28 waterskins). Either way, it might be advisable to secure a small barrel and fill it with water. A small barrel weighs 30 pounds empty and can hold up to 55 gallons of water (more than enough for one person, although not nearly enough for the whole party--not for two weeks, anyway).

Of course, don't forget your horses and donkey need water, too. A horse drinks 4 times as much as a human. As does a donkey, although they can be kept on 3/4 that amount for up to three days at a time without suffering any ill effects.

Blah, blah, blah...long story short, you need to drink at least a full waterskin every day. It's just not efficient to carry a ton of those on you, so it's better to invest in some barrels and let your mounts or Dekker carry them. Then you can just refill your one waterskin each day from the barrel. Which Locky can constantly refill.

Although this will severely weigh down your horses.

So it might be better to just keep the one barrel on Dekker, like we already have.

P.S. Imani is now in light encumbrance, and her horse can only move half-speed when she's riding her. The latter isn't a big deal, though, because of Dekker. You might want to move some of Imani's food over to Artemis' saddlebags, though.)

[Breila]

I liked the module, too bad we couldn't explore more of the mine. But this group is very purposeful, and we are permanently short of supplies, it would not have been fitting to look on.

There's one thing I found puzzling, though: Why didn't the fungus staff react as it usually does?

Now, to the shopping:
For safety's sake, Babushka will propose to buy a second barrel for water. Dekker should be able to carry it. Great that Locky can refill it every day!
She will also buy two week's supply of dry rations and another bale of hay or other fodder for their mounts, all this to be carried by dekker except two day's worth of food and a waterskin (in case they are separated).
She will also buy a new sling.

All the thoughts about supplies and water are familiar to me, when planning our pilgrimage hikes, I have to look where to get supplies and water... this year will be easier than two years ago, where we had to carry our day's supply of drinking water on our backs because the karst mountain had no sources. Luckily, it was not a hot desert, so one gallon was enough for two people...

[JadedDM]

Re: Treasure...actually, you guys missed quite a bit of it in the rooms you did explore. It really helps if you guys loot bodies or search rooms when in dungeons.

This is just the treasure you missed in the places you actually went (not counting the rooms you never saw, for instance):

Remember the zombie dervishes? Each one had a decorated buckler worth 5 steel, as well as a handful of coins on them.

In the entry hall at the Black Plume (where the party spent the night...twice), you know, with the sleep gas trap? I mentioned there were these large stone statues of sphinxes. They were way too big to carry out, but their eyes were gemstones worth 100 steel each (eight statues, each with two eyes, so 1,600 steel total) that could have been easily pried out.

In the Guardroom (the one with the winches and the dead headless skeletons hanging from the ceiling?) were a light mace, 5 steel pieces, silver bracer worth 10 steel (engraved with Sargonnas' symbol), Spear +1, and a silver ring worth 3 steel pieces. Any of those objects could have been found if someone had just stated they searched the room.

Had the party defeated the dark dwarf, he was carrying a Ring of Fire Resistance, a Broach of Shielding, and a Short Sword +1.

In the Hieroglyph room and the tomb of the Sarcophagus Legion, the party fought some Baaz. Each Baaz had a little money, plus food and water on them. But nobody thought to search their remains.

Speaking of the Hieroglyph room, the Baaz had been prying out the gemstone eyes from the totems. Each gemstone (20 in all) were worth between 10 and 100 steel pieces.

So, yeah. That's just the stuff from the rooms you actually visited. There was way more in the rooms you never saw.

Re: The Fungus Staff...you guys should really get it Identified someday, to understand its full effects. Although that's incredibly expensive. Too bad Jerrard never learned that spell. Then it would only cost 100 stp (for the pearl) instead of 1,000.

I sat down and did the math. With all of the other equipment Dekker is carrying, a full 55 gallon barrel of water would push him over his maximum carrying capacity (500 lbs). A second full barrel would crush him, literally. We're going to either need a second draft animal or just be content with a single barrel (and it can't be completely filled, unless we can shed another 78 lbs from his gear--even then, he'd only move at 1/3 his normal speed).

Remember, water weighs 8 pounds a gallon, and a barrel weighs 30 lbs, so a barrel filled up (55 gallons) would weigh 470 lbs. Dekker can carry 250 lbs and still move at full speed, 375 lbs at half speed, and 500 lbs at 1/3 speed.

It might be worth considering just buying a wagon or cart, now that the party has horses to pull one.

As for the food, all of it together (for both man and beast) will cost her 70 steel (or 14 of her platinum pieces, basically).

The new sling costs a mere 5 coppers.

Don't forget guys, you are responsible for your henchmen's food, too.

If you check out the Character Stats thread, you'll find I am modifying the section on gear, now showing exactly where you keep everything (on your head, in your backpack, etc.) and how much it weighs exactly. This should help make it easier to figure out what is essential and what is dead weight.

Which reminds me, Babushka is now in light encumbrance.

Food is now quantified by 'meals.' It's assumed the party eats at least twice a day. Two meals (that is, a day of food) weighs a pound. Humans must eat two 'meals' a day, so 20 meals would last a human 10 days and weigh 10 pounds. Gnomes and kender eat only half that much. So a gnome/kender only eats one meal a day (they still eat twice a day, but one 'meal' is split into halves, as they don't eat as much); thus 20 meals would last a 20 days (but still weigh 10 pounds). A horse or donkey eats four times what a human does; thus 20 meals would last a horse/donkey 5 days and weigh 10 pounds.

Speaking of horses, I added Ulster's new light warhorse to the Stats thread. He's named her Goldanna, and I'm thinking of having him devote his new NWP slot to horseriding, so he can ride her into battle. Luckily, Thuskar can teach him, because he's completely broke and couldn't possibly afford training...I was thinking of having him learn the lance for his new WP, but that'll have to wait until he has more cash.

[Breila]

Oh, sorry, it seems I didn't read things carefully. Somehow, I confused the carrying capacity of a barrel with its weight. A 55 gallon barrel is probably too big to put on a donkey's back anyway. The picture I had in my head was like a barrel with approximately a foot diameter and a foot high, like what was used for beer in the past, which would have a capacity of about 5 gallons - and could weigh some 55 pounds... couldn't there be containers like that available?

The two week's supply of food would then be one week each for Ulster and Babushka.

[JadedDM]

Alright, I split up the food. Ulster will store his food on his horse, so he isn't encumbered.

A five gallon barrel? Let's see...

If a 55 gallon barrel weighs 30 pounds and costs 2 steel...

I guess a 5 gallon barrel would weigh about 3 pounds and cost 2 silver. (I'm assuming that smaller means cheaper). So a full 5-gallon barrel would weigh 43 pounds.

So I suppose that would work. How many 5-gallon barrels do you want? And do you want to get rid of the 55-gallon barrel they brought with them from the Black Plume, as well as all of those empty waterskins Dekker is carrying?

For a point of reference, a single casting of Locky's Create Water spell yields 20 gallons of water.

[Breila]

My opinion would be that a five-gallon barrel is cheaper than a 55-gallon barrel, but not in proportion. It needs less material, sure, but is almost as much work. Even if we assume that wages aren't what they are today, I think 3 or 4 silver would be a more realistic price.

We should get rid of the 55-gallon barrel, it is cumbersome, keep the waterskins which can be dirstibuted among us and buy enough 5-gallon barrels to hold all the water Locky can create, if that's OK with everyone.

[JadedDM]

That's four 5-gallon barrels then, each one costing 4 silver.

Empty, those 4 barrels weigh 3 lbs each (12 lbs). So full, they would weigh a combined 172 lbs.

So...let me do the math here...carry the two...and it looks like Dekker is now able to move at half-speed, instead of not at all. So definitely a big improvement.

The five waterskins the party looted from the dervishes, I spread them around, as you requested. So some of you have three waterskins now. They're still empty, though. If you want to fill them, let me know. Just remember that each full waterskin weighs 9 pounds, and those things add up.