As You Command OOC

[MrAbdiel]

Set it up for a dramatic IC reveal of what's in the box. But after that, it's time to SCHEEEEEEME.

And scheme and scheme.

[Waistcoatwill]

If the lock isn't totally mangled Cypher will have a go with his lock picks. Has enough post combat time passed for any of his Inspiration Points to have refreshed? If it looks battered beyond the reach of lockpicks he'll power attack it with his whip-blade, but feel embarrassed about it.

[MrAbdiel]

He can take 10 for like 25 right? If that's not enough to pop it, I wouldn't be too embarassed!

[Waistcoatwill]

Sure, but he's the kind of person to look at cutting the Gordian knot as barbaric cheating! Once a day (for 1IP) he could boost that open lock by another +8, but he tapped out during the fight.

[JbeJ275]

If the lock isn't totally mangled Cypher will have a go with his lock picks. Has enough post combat time passed for any of his Inspiration Points to have refreshed? If it looks battered beyond the reach of lockpicks he'll power attack it with his whip-blade, but feel embarrassed about it.

Yeah. We’ll say IP refreshes at the end of combat. Your regular result having taken ten was enough to pop the lock though.

EDIT: Sharkan did you ever give me that detect motive I asked for?

[Darius Vibrtrar]

I did earlier and got a result, but here is another one.

(1d20+3)[4] sense Motive

LOL

[Waistcoatwill]

Wow, does he trust her so much he won't let Cypher do a detect thoughts interrogation when they get home maybe? We have a proper live wire in our midst!

Cheers JBE. Inspiration is one of those things where they didn't spell out the mechanic fully. Officially they reset at the start of an encounter, but they never defined whether that was combat encounters only or also social/exploration encounters etc. It possible to end up with a weird situation where a Factotum planning a big heist or something over weeks has to keep a supply of small rabid animals to fight to keep his skills and spells available.

A lot of the abilities are limited to a certain number of times per day, so any reset mechanism shouldn't be too problematic, but feel free to tinker if you think he's getting too much use out of inspiration. I've seen threads online recommending limiting it to one point regained per X unit time out of combat too.

[Darius Vibrtrar]

Naw. Feel free!

[MrAbdiel]

Good heals, Maiabel. Lamorak is topped off with the one cast!

[Waistcoatwill]

Naw. Feel free!

Fancy a joint effort with Sharkan's charming good cop to Cypher's intimidating bad cop? Does Sharkan have the aura that gives a penalty to saves? Might make detect thoughts more reliable.

[Darius Vibrtrar]

unfortunatly not, Sharkan is a sup friendly man eater.

[MrAbdiel]

Fancy a joint effort with Sharkan's charming good cop to Cypher's intimidating bad cop? Does Sharkan have the aura that gives a penalty to saves? Might make detect thoughts more reliable.

Lamorak has such an aura. Or two!

[Waistcoatwill]

Nice, the bonus of having two folk with levels in Paladin of Tyranny! This might have been beneath the boss previously, but I suppose we haven't had any new recruits for a while?!

[JbeJ275]

So are you talking to Aulani on deck in front of the pirates and others? Or taking her into a room below decks to interrogate her?

[Waistcoatwill]

Cypher didn't prep detect thoughts for the battle, so ideally he'd wait until we got back to base, lock her up (semi comfortably since she is a potential ally), then do it the next day.

Edit: He is in full librarian mode looking over the crown and trying to figure out where he has heard of something like it before, so would be far too preoccupied to pay much attention to her currently.

Paranoid characters are fun, but it's also fun when a spanner gets thrown in the works for thr party. No sense stopping her from potentially getting up to mischief completely. It'll all be Sharkan's fault anyway!

[Darius Vibrtrar]

Hrm, It would be a public inquiry, but not in the middle of opening the box, the discussion can be in front of the pirates, but not a distraction from whats going on.

[Waistcoatwill]

Well that sounds epic! Thank badness that uppity fish didn't splash off with it!

[MrAbdiel]

Okay! Sorry for slow response. Lamorak is obviously very interest in this infinity crown and acquiring its gems - but as a man with a history with cursed items, he's not going to whack it on his dome right away!

I think all that needs to happen before we return to the castle is... maybe negotiation with the pirates, and the interrogation of the prisoner - both which may or may not be happening abstractly offscreen?

[Waistcoatwill]

@Jbe - weird spell-related question. Hoard gullet (Dragon Magic) says that you can store anything you can safely swallow in a magic extradimensional stomach, including items 3 sizes or more smaller than you. Is the crown diminutive so that Cypher could magically store it in his gob overnight? It isn't spiky, so it should be technically safe.

@Team Thanos - How do folk want to handle loot? It doesn't seem like a "magic marts on every corner" kind of world (at the very least not our grim Isle anyway) so we could just put it all in the Dark Lord's treasury. If we split it up, would it be 4 ways or split it 5 ways with the 5th being for general party funds like healing magics?

[Dusk Raven]

@Team Thanos - How do folk want to handle loot? It doesn't seem like a "magic marts on every corner" kind of world (at the very least not our grim Isle anyway) so we could just put it all in the Dark Lord's treasury. If we split it up, would it be 4 ways or split it 5 ways with the 5th being for general party funds like healing magics?

Honestly, I just figured Lamorak would put all the loot in his treasury and ration it out as needed. An unexpected downside to having one party member being the designated lord is that loot may not be rationed equally. XP

In the meantime, I commissioned an artist to draw some art of Maiabel! Here's the updated picture!

Spoiler: Pic

Show

[Waistcoatwill]

Wow, that's really cool!

[Darius Vibrtrar]

Yea, unless our lord leaves it up to us to divy out loot, well look to him to see how he wants loot done.

[MrAbdiel]

I could do that. I’ve been loosely assuming that the loot we wind up with is the “character budget”, in that there’s a sea of coin being used to maintain the kingdom and pay the army and whatnot that doesn’t need to be micromanaged: but I did assume that!

I’m pretty happy for a 4 way split with an abstract assumption that Lamorak is also taking some additional share in which to debauch offscreen.

[JbeJ275]

I could do that. I’ve been loosely assuming that the loot we wind up with is the “character budget”, in that there’s a sea of coin being used to maintain the kingdom and pay the army and whatnot that doesn’t need to be micromanaged: but I did assume that!

I’m pretty happy for a 4 way split with an abstract assumption that Lamorak is also taking some additional share in which to debauch offscreen.

This is how I’m running things. For instance the pirates have been paid enough to not feel cheated before your share. But money can transfer between them, for instance if you want to richly reward the pirates to give a better chance of their loyalty going forward out of your personal account you could, and if you want to tax your population extra tightly this month for healing potion money you can do that too, though it’ll have equivalent consequences.

[Waistcoatwill]

Shall we give the pirates an extra 1k gp to sweeten the deal a bit? More/less?

[MrAbdiel]

Not this time, I think. They’ll get what they were promised and they’ll like it. We need that money to make ourselves into unstoppable killing machines because we have a lot of people trying to lay us low!

If the pirates get shirty, we’ll find a civilised solution to their grievances. But one day they will look back and think fondly of the days when they had any kind of power in this dynamic.

Rarglebargle darklord

[Waistcoatwill]

I like it! Maybe next time they can go above and beyond and actually impact the raid in some way more profound than towing the prize back home!

[MrAbdiel]

I hope it's no issue, but I sort of warped us back to a semi-scene halfway between the victory and sea, and actually scheming together in the castle. Since the hunt for this missing gal is still on, I thought it'd be interesting to respond to Zukkad's bailing out in the same sort of region. And to do some general, ambient dark-lording.

Oh! And DuskRaven - Maiabel looks awesome. How pricy was the commission, if you don't mind me asking? You're inspiring me to fork over some dough to get Lamorak drawn now, and if the same artist does it, they'll have a uniform style. But you know.. subject to my liquidity, lol.

[Waistcoatwill]

What kind of roll would it be to see if her face reminded him of anyone from intelligence reports now that Cypher is a bit less distracted?

[Dusk Raven]

Oh! And DuskRaven - Maiabel looks awesome. How pricy was the commission, if you don't mind me asking? You're inspiring me to fork over some dough to get Lamorak drawn now, and if the same artist does it, they'll have a uniform style. But you know.. subject to my liquidity, lol.

I'm glad you like her! And that cost me $90. Money well spent, in my opinion. The artist does good work, and that's not the first character of mine they've drawn!