$1000 + Portal IC

[Mr. Mud]

Joe follows Arcanous, and salutes the noble man, and introduces himself.

[Slayn82]

Ramos removes his mask, and takes out his gloves, before saluting both man. "Please excuse us for our delay, we were checking the market for what resources we could muster for better act. I am Ramos, chemist and mechanic. At the service of Duke Rilgar, and pleased to come to this fine city. Once again, excuse our small excentricities.

((In the market, Ramos traded salt and spices for gold, enought for 300 gp, and decided to keep the matches with him for now. Looked around for a hand of the Mage, half disgusted by the idea of having someones dead hand around his neck, but appaled by the idea of a way to manipulate objects from distance. In the end settled with 2 potions of arcane armor and 2 of cure light wounds. The remaing 100 gold pieces lay in a small plastic bag inside a beltbag, under his white labcoat)).

[Narazil]

Søren

Søren is standing cig in mouth and glass in hand, and talking with the nobleman. He looks up and raises his glass as you enter. Søren has appearently switched clothes, and is now wearing a nobleman's outfit, with a masterwork longsword hanging from his belt, and a large ring on his right index-finger.
"Hi again, guys. This here's my cousin sir Rodir Stuar, as you all of course remember. He's graciously let us use this room as our meeting room for the time being."
Søren turns his face away from the noble, towards the rest of the group, winking with a wry smile.

[Mr. Mud]

Nice to meet you, sir. Joe extends his hand to the nobleman, and smiles.

He looks at Søren, and returns the mischievous smile. He sheaths his pistol that has been residing in his left hand for some time, and takes his pack off and stretches.

[root9125]

Excellent. You all have what amounts to a base of operations, a nice place to sleep, and a noble who likes you.

Also, you have large cash reserves, and 2 days, 6 hrs before the zombies attack. Looking at the country's map it seems obvious that the zombies are coming from the north.

Today in town, a zombie corpse floated down the river, only to reanimate and kill some peasants after being fished out of the river.

[Mr. Mud]

Hmm. I've only a few gold pieces. Anyone else think we should have a collective money pool? He stares disappointed at the 200 or so gold pieces in his hands.

Also, we should probably go check out the zombie, and see what we're up against. Who wants to go?

[Tyndmyr]

Travis nods agreeably to the nobleman, and extends his hand in greeting, saying "Thank you, sir. A place to organize a defense is most welcome."

To Joe: "I don't believe funds will be much of a concern, but if you need something, don't hesitate to ask. As for the zombie, I've got my monster manual packed, I think I'm good there. Someone should probably keep an eye on the river though, in case it's used as an avenue for attack or scouting. I'm off to recon the enemy as soon as we're done here."

While talking to Joe, Travis casually unloads, removes the capacity limiting plug, and discards it from each shotgun in turn, then reloads them, and slings them again on his back.

[Slayn82]

Ramos nods in agreement - Well, before we split, i would like the party to evaluate the trap ideas i have been presenting and if you have some insight of your own, feel free to talk. I will work in the manufacture of some explosives

He then searches for a quiet corner, well iluminated but without any fire nearby, and starts working.

((Engineering/chemistry roll - choosing 20, taking +2 for equipment bonus - Total 29, total time 1 h for five units? Its just a reasonably quick mix, the trouble is in the detonators. seems reasonable?))

He manufactured some simple explosives, using diesel oil, sodium nitrate and sulfur in bottles. Other required materials were disponible too ((but i feel a little weirded giving such a list)). Ramos then smiled: it wasn't the ideal, but it was effective, and at least, the sodium nitrate would turn the mix a little less reactive than amonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO), preventing some unplanned misfortune. Now the planned ones...

They would work well as primary detonators for the remaining chemicals at the right time. But it would take some eletric detonators or a very hot flame to start it. He had cooper wires around, and with a wooden plank, a battery and some nails he could make a control for the explosives. Well, the effort in making with his friends those small rockets back at the university had finally paid off. But he was not planning for safety anymore.

That was one reason why he had a can of insecticide spray with him all the times. That was one of the cheapest kind, manufactured in China. It was very irritant, just entering a room when that thing had just been aplied would make people water their eyes. So, Ramos was pretty convinced that it would be a solid substitute for pepper spray when put right at someones face.

Well, he had been a boy scout when young, and as they say: be ready and always alert.

[Mr. Mud]

To Travis: And I'll come with you. In case you run into any trouble, two of us should best any zombies that come at us. He looks down at his cat. Right How'?

He turns to the man in the corner. Nice Stuff you got there. If you need any lighters or gunpower, I've got some bullets and a utility tool. But those suckers look pretty dangerous already! he says with a devilish smile.

[Narazil]

Søren


"How are we on Intel? Have any of you attempted recon? If not, I say we go talk to Poppy, a local Gnome Wizard, third level. She might be able to use a scroll of Alter Self, so we can turn into an Aasimar or something, right? I play play by post, I don't have the PHB memorized."
Søren smiles wide, then looks at Travis. "If the river's a problem, why don't we put up a divine defence underwater? I've made good friends with the local Clerics."

(OOC: If Rodir's in the room, I don't say the following)

"Oh, that reminds me. If a cleric asks for Eldin Delwoor, that's me. Don't ask"

[Acanous]

Putting his hat back on with a flourish (For such hats are meant to be flourished), Acanous turns to Slayn.

"I like the idea of explosives, Especially if we combine them with some potholes and ditches to roughen up the terrain and funnel the undead into kill zones... But we'll need some intel to deploy them effectively."

Then to Soren
"Which you seem to be adept at gathering. We still don't know for sure what direction the Undead are coming from, weather the river current is strong and fast enough to carry away any undead who try crossing it- I assume so if the zombie had to be fished out before it could attack anyone, but confirmation one way or the other is crucial. If you could find any of that out while talking to people, it'd help a great deal."

Nodding at Travis and Joe
"If you two are off to gather intel on the zombies, I'll see about rounding up the local militia."

Acanous tips his hat in somewhat of a salute, then rounds about on his new follower
"Which is where I'm going to need your help. I need to know some things about this city, and someone who'se worked as a messenger like yourself should know them. First, who is captain of the guard, and where can I find him?"

[Narazil]

Søren


Søren nods at Acanous. "Remember to remind the captain of the guard you're working with Sir Tim The Enchanter, Rodir's cousin." Søren grins wide.
"I'll go talk to the Wizard, any of you have a pair of binoculars, a camera and/or a looking glass? I'll do the recon. Who wants to go check out the zombie? Better yet, bring it back here. I have a few thousand gold if it's needed at some point, by the way."

You probably all notice Søren's personality seems more forceful, and his cloak looks awefully familiar. He takes off the cloak and tosses it to Acanous. "You might need it."


Acanous

Spoiler

Show

Cloak of Charisma +2. (Duh)

[Acanous]

Acanous nods, donning the cloak.
Oh, I'm gonna put this to some good use

[Slayn82]

Ramos stared in the air, his face showing his puzzlement.

If they found the zombie in the river, and it wasn't animated, there could be trouble. The river comes from east, judging by the way the logs are represented in the map, and the enemy is said to come from north. What is the exact path of the river? Maybe this could be an evidence that they split their forces? No time to lose, lets go to the chief of the militia, and get some oficers to help us. Im still looking for a proper place to work in my crafts, preferably near the sawmills, they can help me to find it, and skilled metalworkers.

[root9125]

You manage to find the chief of the militia without much trouble. He's a nervous old human, and his "army" looks like the Young Adult chapter of the Helm's Deep Defense Force. That is to say, they're underequipped and undertrained. Any of them can take a single zombie, but there's no one here that you'd expect to stand in a breach and cover a fighting retreat, or even to take on a horde and come out standing.

"Ahem, what can I do for you gentleman? I've been expecting you. I have a few year's military experience, and these men, such as they are, should be able to assist you in your mission to defend our city."

Also, apologies, but the river runs north-northwest and east-southeast.

[Tyndmyr]

Travis nods, "Good idea on the river defence. I'll leave it to you to start organizing the defensive strategy...I should be back before nightfall with information. I've got some masterwork mail if that's any help to you. Two shirts. Feel free to use them as you see fit."

He tosses one of the spare civic keys to joe, saying "Just in case we get seperated, or it comes in handy. Let's drive as far north as we can before using the bikes. The rack's big enough to hold two if you've got a bike handy."

OOC: Am carrying all guns, currently wearing flak jacket and BDUs.

[root9125]

Tyndmyr (and anyone with him):

Spoiler

Show

Given that you're driving until you either see zombies or can't make it back before nightfall, I'm giving you the following information. Don't read unless you're doing that.

Spoiler

Show

You drive for about 4 hours, straight to the north. You see the river sometimes, other times it's bent so far away from you that you can't see it. About three times there's a set of rapids that would be uncomfortable to be put through, and one that looks Class V+.

Eventually, you see something odd on the horizon. It's a mass of zombies, mostly humanoid, but several look taller or stronger. You also notice that an unreasonably high percentage of them are skeletons, armed with bows. At least 3 creatures of uncertain stature are flying above the undead army. Consulting your books, you find they're moving below their normal move speed, at a mere 10 ft / round.

[Tyndmyr]

Those with me, and root:

Spoiler

Show

I'm going to use my rifle scope to get as good of a look at the fliers as possible. I'll thumb through my various monster manuals, libris mortis, etc, etc looking for a match.

I'll also try to get a rough count on total zombies, total skeletons, and most importantly, the bigger, unusual types in their midst.

Then I suggest casually to joe, "Well, it looks like we've found what we came for. Shall we head back, or pop a few rounds at them from long range first?"

[root9125]

Tyndmyr:

Spoiler

Show

Thumbing through your books, you don't think they're undead of any kind. Perhaps clerics bolstering? They look to be climbing or falling at a 45 degree angle only, so you're pretty sure they're clerics who've cast Air Walk.

[Tyndmyr]

Root, those with me:

Spoiler

Show

"Ah...clerics. At least one of which is level 7. No doubt they're fairly high up in whatever hierarchy exists in the opposition. Might be more lower level ones as well. Hmmm. I vote we pop a few, then hit the gas outta here. Wind walking clerics won't be able to catch us, and the undead certainly won't be able to either."

Travis shrugs, spins the car around, gets everything ready to bail, then gets out, lines up his rifle, and waits for the first undead to cross the 360ft line before firing.

Edited to fix spoiler fail.

[root9125]

Tyndmyr:

Spoiler

Show

Assuming you're shooting the clerics untill they drop? You're out of their range by far. If so, read the following:

Spoiler

Show

You shoot and shoot, expending 20 shots until the first one drops. Heh, obviously there's no Protection from Bullets in this world.

Shooting and shooting will eventually knock all the clerics down, at the expense of ~20 bullets per cleric. You can see four, but can only shoot two before they get the point and fall back behind the front of the army.

The undead in front start running, quadrupling their previous speed.

If instead you begin by shooting the undead, as stated:

Spoiler

Show

You shoot, and shoot, and shoot, but it takes 2 shots before you can knock down the first one, and it makes no appreciable difference in their lines. There are a LOT of them.

[Slayn82]

Ramos looked at the faces of the militia members in his front, and started thinking what would do. He decided to share his plans for the mechanism with the chief of the militia and some of the officers. To add to it, he showed the engine of the vehicle, and explained that the engine teorically could fight for a few hours without serious trouble. So he asked for the recruitment the most reputable alchemist (probably Lavender, Lvl 4 Halfing Adept), Poppy, female halfling Wiz3, and between the notable experts, anyone that understood of ironworks, carpentry and whoever repaired the mechanisms of the sawmills.

Looking closely, his list was composed by a bunch of halfings and dwarfs. Well, at least they are hardworking people.

Brave mans, i recognize your value and courage in facing the task of defending this city. As such, i am your companion, and i must add to your efforts as much as possible. First things first, let's evaluate our enemies weakness. The zombies are undead and mindless, so they only follow their victims and kill. This means that they can not adapt very well to circunstances. So there goes the mechanical trap, we shall lure the zombies to it. But i will need help to have things in proper order for the incoming battle. Send some man to the sawmills to gather all the dry sawdust they can find, and keep ready shovels and hoes. I will get in the market some metal recipients to proper chemical work.

[root9125]

Ramos: You get general assent from the crowd. Five men walk off to bring dry sawdust, and find you later in the market with dozens and dozens of pounds of the stuff in large burlap bags.

The alchemists are few and far between, but most every profession has a few experts. As it turns out, the adept is skilled in alchemy, but the wizard is not. You're able to gather five people, each of which, you can tell, has at least a +8 modifier to their skill check. They should easily be able to help you produce what you need.

You've also got three foremen of ironworks, two mechanics from the sawmills, and five of the town's foremost carpenters.

[Tyndmyr]

Root, those with me:

Spoiler

Show

OOC: Actually, not firing just yet...giving Joe a chance to weigh in on the wisdom of this strategy before popping off rounds. If he's ok with it, I'll start by popping a zombie or two.

I don't really think it will stop the army...not in the slightest. I merely think it might confuse them, and or make them stop to try to figure out what happened. More importantly, since rules are known to the characters, I'm aware that sweet, juicy XP is earned by killing things dead. Or dead again, as the case may be. Starting that process as quickly as possible probably won't hurt.

If nothing unexpected happens after shooting the first zombie, I'd probably try to take out a cleric. A single one, then run the hell away. I have no desire to end up in melee.

[root9125]

Tyndmyr:

Spoiler

Show

Assuming it happens, you, a CR 1/2 character, just took out a CR 1 and a CR 9. Wow.

You gain... some insane quantity of XP. 600 + 10,800 = 11,400 XP. So, basically, you level up 4 times, and have more than a fifth of the next level, too.

[Acanous]

Acanous casts a glance up and down the lines appraisingly.
"Well. Firstly, I think a cheritable donation is in order. we're going to need to get you and your men some better equiptment. Standard issue is fine for everyday affairs, but for defending in a siege, we're going to need something a bit better."

Acanous takes a count of the men at arms, and verifies with the Captain of the Guard, writing down thier currant inventory.

"Secondly, some information; what does this city have in the way of a sewer system? Are there any tunnels or openings which traverse the walls?
The River- is there a suitable barricade we could use in case that becomes an avenue of assault, or are we going to rely on retreating deeper into the city?"

Acanous dusts himself of, streightening his hat.
"Next, Militia. Is there a local Fighter's Guild, Adventurer's Guild, or even minutemen who we can rely on to bolster our forces? Any Mercenaries within a day's hard ride? Even anyone locked up for petty crime could be useful, if they're natives and have something to lose."

He leans in towards the captain
"Drill your men hard over the next couple of days. It'll give them something to do and keep morale up. Plus it might save thier lives. In the mean time, the other two towns that were sacked, what direction were they from here? We should concentrate forces along the perimeter most likely to be assaulted. With a few men to watch the other walls, and the drills helping the men practice getting from one defensable location to another, we should be in better shape."

Turning back to the troops;
"Men, I don't know you yet, but during the coming battle, we're going to get to know eachother like brothers. I am Acanous the Red, and it's a good day if I'm only outnumbered five to one. With you all standing with me, we're going to make this look easy. The bards will call this battle 'Death's Folly' for attacking such a stalwart and battle-ready force."


(Diplomacy to influence attitude) (1d20+8)[20](28)

You have been charged with defending your city and it's people against an unknown foe. This menace has sacked two other cities looking for strong men who can put them back into the ground where they belong.
Here, they find them.
Now, making a battle LOOK easy and actually being easy are two very different things, as I'm sure you're all well aware. So while I'm going to be doing my part to ensure you're as well equipped as possible, and your honorable captain is going to give you the best preperation you can get, I need each and every one of you to give your ALL. Listen carefully to your captain, watch eachother's backs, and put your best efforts into preparing for this battle. When you're telling your grandchildren about this fight, I do NOT want them to hear that we were caught unprepared."

(Rally check) (1D20+3)[19](22)

In somewhat of a stage whisper;
"Captain, let me know which men put forth the best effort. After the siege, thier ale is on me."

[Narazil]

Root:

Spoiler

Show

Seems like I'm left off to my own devices again. I'll go seek out Poppy, if she's available.

[Slayn82]

Ramos instructed the wizard to prepare spells she possessed among resist elements, mending, cantrips, invisible servant, levitation, mage hand. Also, he made a test with the wizard, asking if the engine of his vehicle, at full rotation, roaring loud, was good enought to provide distraction for a spellcaster, or prevent hearing a little and trouble spellcasting.

He explained to them the principles of the engine using the spare one, and that the problem was how to connect an axis in the vertical position, when the machine was projected to use an axis on the horizontal. The said axis would have to be made of metal, and connect with the 4 cilinder motor of 150 HP, and have chains or barbed wire atached to project the kill zone.

The portable DVD player, with an slasher movie (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), would be put at high volume and work as the "bait". The motor would need a form of protection to prevent the chains from damaging the engines in the shutdown.

And we had to make the gears out of wood probably, given the little time, and work in backups or revest it with brass, iron and lead. Some way to transport it, as low cart, would have to be assembled, possibly with a ramp or plank to move the machine to the backcart of his Volks Transporter.

Ramos looked around the sawmills for a stone building for a good place to store the bulk of his explosives and other heavy things, work as an oficine, and of course, it would have to remain well guarded.

For the alchemists, 2 different tasks: first to calcinate half of the sawdust to fine coal, that would be used to make powder. It would take around 6 hours to conclude. Second, either to convert the sulfur to acid, or to convert some of the oil in biodiesel, something simple but that would need large amounts of alcohol. He had his distiller ready for this purpose, once it was properly assembled by a few man. Of course, after this battle was over, it could be donated to a local brewery.

All the militia was put under instructions of hygiene, each one taking a warm bath, with good soap, their injuries would be avaliated, and would only drink water properly treated from now on, being this water boiled and after cooling, treated with sodium hypoclorite. For easier control, the water was kept in properly cleansed closed barrels. Ramos followed the same patern, and provided for the man of the militia to be well feeded, but only of well cooked foods. For easiness, he provided the militia with the 2 Pressure cooking pans.

The remainder of the sawdust was mixed with sulfur, and either oil or fat, and put in barrels. Those were the dispositions for day one, and they probably kept Ramos way overworked.

((well, and for today. see you guys tomorrow, maybe near midnight. Good Sunday for you all))

[root9125]

Narazil:

Spoiler

Show

She is, indeed. She's working with Ramos, so he'll see but not hear you. Convo by PM?

Ramos:

Spoiler

Show

Good one! I see what you're going for and will have to ask you to make a craft(woodworking) or other appropriate skill check. I'll take 10 on the checks for the other workers, allowing them to succeed under your guidance. Feel free to take 10, or 20 if you have the time.

[Slayn82]

(( i will take 20. With assistants, proper equipment, that goes to 20+7+2+2 = 31. Details expected as follow, sorry for all the walls of text

Pole will be made of wood, and reinforced with brass. The chains will be of steel or iron, probably like the ones from the slaves. I consult the assistants, and we decide to scrap the razorwire, because probably it would get entangled very easily when shutting down, and the material would not be all that resistant. I kick myself for not caring to bring steel cables. Since its the most easily assembled part, we shall make an spare.

I will design the gears, the woodcrafters will make models of then from wood, and the metal workers will make then by casting them in brass. Liberal use of chainsaws and other tools that i brought with me will ease the fabrication.

The casting will probably be repeated a few times, 3 usually is the charm, but brass is a good material in this case because it can be cooled reasonably fast. The resulting gears will have their shortcomings, of course.

First, because of the limitations in the casting process, i will have to design the cogs in a way a little less eficient, using more cogs than if i had better materials to start.

Second, even with the projected overdesign, some material fatigue will come to apear in the material probably, but those are not a serious concern, because i will not expect the machine to work for weeks or months, like the standard engineering process would result, only for hours. The diesel engine will consume at 150HP a lot of fuel, around 30 L per hour, and with only 180 L of fuel to spare (well, actually 176 + whatever i still have in my Volks Transporter, capacity 90L, and 8.5Km per liter), the plain fact is that i would run out of fuel for it way before any gear would show some sign of fatigue. So, from this angle, sucess.

Thus, the need of the manufacture of spare biodiesel, with the help of the alchemists. The militia would confiscate any alcohol disponible, with promise of later payment by me, or if it turned out there were too few, the alcoholic beverages, that would be processed in the distiller, made of cooper and cooled by air, and the resulting alcohol would be used to manufacture the biodiesel. Yes, with some time we could convert the motors to run on the normal oil, and then with magic availiable the engine could be kept at top conditions without trouble. But not now, because such work would take at least 4 days, maybe 2 with some parts from the other vehicles. Ramos expected to process in a day at least 100 Lts of Biodiesel. It was always fun to try to guess what was in the smell when it burned. That would take around 20 Kg of NaOH.))

((About the Sulfuric Acid, i settled by the burning of sulfur and sodium nitrate, in a recipient, with the resulting vapor reacting with water to result in a low concentration sulfuric acid (35-40%). With glass recipients, it will be of low return, something around 5 lts per hour. Too slow for my tastes.

ImportantSo i think about manufacture 2 lead chambers and 5 lead storage recipients, using the availiable lead and my welding tools, each one with 80 Lt capacity. Lead has a low point of fusion, is one of the cheapest metals since ever. This process will allow to manufacture Sulfuric Acid in industrial scale. In game terms, i guess it would allow me to manufacture acid under the rules of the D20 modern, taking 1min to fabricate a flask for 1D6 damage, at DC 15. Yay, industrialization. Each one of the lead chambers should take around 1h to manufacture, and the storage chambers should take around 1h too for all the 5, provided i have acess to enought lead.In this case, im taking 10, for 10+7+2+2 = 21

Yes, working with those people will have a lot of impact. From the mechanic that see a chainsaw or an adjustable spanner, to the alchemist that see how to manufacture loads of acid very fast (and very hot too), or the guy who uses an pressure cooking pans. Or seeing the engines, and learning how to manufacture biodiesel. Looking at the faces of those people and see their reactions was one of the strong reasons Ramos came throught the portal. At a brief interval, Ramos decided to share with them a frugal coffee break, with coffee, crackers, butter and condensed milk. And then mentioned the seeds and plants in a box in his vehicle.))