PDA

View Full Version : McMishra's Scrollcase [Campaign Journal][3.5]



Doc Roc
2010-06-05, 02:19 AM
So a while ago, I decided that I should play an artificer. A lot of people advocate to me the use of scrolls and charged items. Others argue against them. I've played a lot of games where I did very little crafting, but I had never sat down and tried to build a character around WBL abuse or scroll usage.

However, I've always loved the Unbound Scroll PrC, found in the Dragonmarked source-book for Eberron. It's thick with flavor, and relatively powerful. In fact, I was hoping it was stronger than straight artificer. I sat down, and stretched my op-fu. A lot. I managed to get it to the point where I was crafting for 15%gp/0.60%xp of market value. For those who build artificers, this is recognizably a massive reduction. For those outside of the cadre already devoted to the class, I can offer some simple illustrations:

I am ECL 10.
Scrolls of third level cost me 3 xp.
Scrolls of second or first cost me no xp.
Scrolls of first level are completely free.

I have effectively 150,000 gold worth of scrolls, spread across three scroll cases and a portable hole. I have three quills of scribing going almost all of the time. I even have a top hat, and a monocle! All of this said, so far, I've been less effective in net than a wizard of equivalent level. That may change soon, but we'll see.

This is the story of Erza McMishra (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=213856) and her five hundred scrolls (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0As_BikElOhRUdFFFUDYxOUtQZHY0ZzhmOXBOMjF5W VE&hl=en#gid=0).
Call her Bree though, her parents were expecting a boy.

Doc Roc
2010-06-05, 02:20 AM
Table of Contents
Day 1: Bree's Day Out (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8637312&postcount=3)

Day 2: A City Of Obnoxious Wonders (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8686238#post8686238)

Day 2, Part 2: To The Ruin of Smurfs (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8764836&postcount=25)

Day 3: A Good Day To Gnome (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8837195#post8837195)

Telem's Journal:
Entries here. (http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/the-war-of-prophesy/wikis/wot)

Ali's Journal:
Entries Here
(http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/the-war-of-prophesy/adventure-log/)


Out of Character thoughts so far
Why did I make a scrollificer? I have no clue. This is easily one of the fastest burn rates for consumables I've ever heard of, much less actually been responsible for. It completely blew my mind. The first encounter cost me almost 12k of my 150k of scrolls. Admittedly, I was a little spendy, and that includes using Leech Ghost Skill to make my party have decent UMD scores. I'm going to have to make some little competence items for UMD, maybe +3 or +4 for them, so that they can reliably activate low level scrolls. Right now, even with HAX on my side, it's looking grim. I've come to the conclusion that scrolls just aren't sustainable, even with the full terrible weight of my optimization skills brought to bear. At this rate, Bree will be bankrupt in 12-13 sessions.


***

Ghost writings has largely alleviated this problem now. More on that later, but it looks like I'm pretty much set. I did blow a scroll of Streamers, but honestly that was just for the heck of it, and sort of as a reminder that really, yes, I can ruin your day.


***

So on request, I've added a link to some more meaty breakdowns of what bree's current scroll set (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0As_BikElOhRUdFFFUDYxOUtQZHY0ZzhmOXBOMjF5W VE&hl=en#gid=0) looks like, what I've used, and what each thing costs. Better, it'll be updated continuously, and you should be able to use the revision tables to diff the sheet. I'll still keep a running log of what scrolls I've burned, but in case I forget one, you should be able to find it this way.

A little explanation: On sheet two, there's some notes, and the reduction constants. If anyone is curious, I can give a run-down of where each little bit of goodness comes from, but most of it is evident from the sheet. Worth noting: Extract Demon Essence is definitely worth the two feat tax it takes to get that sucker, and unbound scroll is indubitably a great class for this level range. I'm really pretty delighted with it.

On sheet one, there's the whole scroll library, complete with number of instances and the creation costs for each set of scrolls. You may notice that there's some weirdness in that first column. Unfortunately for me, I made some poor decisions when I was first doing up a way of tracking spent scrolls, and as you can see, they get their own entries with leading Ts in the is_spent column. Ideally, I'd macro-out their creation, but that seems almost over-kill.

Doc Roc
2010-06-05, 11:28 PM
Had our first session. Boy was it strange.
The game is run over gametable and vent, and I'm old friends with the GM. I'd never met the other players, and they were a little livelier than my usual group. Very chipper, dealt well with adversity. Which is good, because our first encounter was rough. First, some background:


The War of Prophesy (http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/the-war-of-prophesy)
From here on, the journal will be in character.

Where does I fit? Well, that's the thing. Unlike I wasn't kidnapped from the traveling circus, or a caravan. Instead, I've been working for Tel---

I've been working for Te--

I've been working for a gentleman who insists rather vehemently that I not use his name. We'll call him Big T, shall we? I used to practice trying to say his name in my dorm room back when I labored happily in the ivory tower, in this case as an arcano-mechanics post-doc in the Lady's College. It's a fairly renowned university in Irisesh. It's been a while since I worked there though. Left a simulacrum to finish my thesis, figure they'll never know. Told it to claim it had just put on some weight. Most of the professors barely recognize me anyway. Well, other than Sal, but she's an old friend. Was an old friend, I suppose. I'm no longer sure I'll see her again before the world ends.

Big T is quite certain he can prevent it, but I lack his faith. Largely because he's willing to use some'ne like me as a primary instrument. That speaks to nothing but madness and desperation. I'm likely as any to just crawl into a whiskey keg. More likely, actually. It had gotten to the point where no one could get better than 4-gets-you-5 odds that I wouldn't, if offered a chance. Not that anyone minded. I don't make scrolls when I'm drunk, which means I don't summon demons. Well, I didn't. I picked up a few autonom quills, so these days I just set them to scribing inside my top hat. Call it a day.

Met my party today. Dunno why it's called a party. One of them :: a word is scratched out :: chaps has sworn off material goods! And me a master-maker, practically. None of them had ever used a proper scroll before, which they neglected to make obvious before the going got hot. Not their fault though. I was very drunk. In fact, looking back, I think they did tell me three or four times. At least the purposeful pauper is a druid though, and she tells me her order don't much like neophytes carrying wealth. So I suppose that in a sense, it's less a lack of wealth, and more a lack of angry druids riding up on us and ours as dire bears.

Iosef, my boss's boss's boss snagged me from where I was on sabbatical from Big T's employ, after accidentally igniting the embassy of Surm. Did I mention that a few of my scrolls are cursed? I should mention that.

Some of my scrolls are cursed, and one of them opened a portal to what seems to have been a lake of magma somewhere in hell. This went over poorly, given that it was supposed to be a map. But I figure, magical maps are better than maps, though there has been a bit of a sea change in that school of my thought after the river of lava decimated my favorite crepe shoppe.

So Iosef grabbed me while I was cooling my sweet little gnomish heels, and dragged me back to base. Apparently I was due a remedial course, though Iosef repeatedly suggested that a proper remedy would be a killing cure. I can take a hint. So I tippled up a bit less than usual, and sat down to meet my new mates. We've got some flavor of monk, a swashbuckling madman, and druid with no affection for worldly effects. And we've got a map, and we've got about 10 miles of underdark to cross through without getting murdered. Big T is not the best boss I've ever had, but he's not the worst. He hasn't directly thrown me out of any towers yet. Does help that he's sort of rather kind of a bit of a mindflayer, or rather lives in one, and thus lacks a tower to toss me out of. He's threatened to eat my brain, but I've got some contingencies laid against that. I'm not sure it'd be unwelcome, really. I've been a good gnome, and I've got three and three ways to get free. Hubris, really, though.

Big T could certainly lay me steady in the grave if he meant to. He's the most powerful psion I've ever encountered by a very wide margin, and seems to have ready access to at least Eighth Circle forms. I'm terrified of him, when I'm sober. Which is never, because the only thing that scares me more than him is being proper afraid. I hate the loss of rationality. Good thing that later in my day I'm going to get hit with a panic inducing eye ray. I have the best luck.

So after some questions, he boots us out on our way, punting us out of the demiplane that the mindflayer citadel seems to occupy, or at least the intensely warded sanctum, and into the underdark. Things were mostly uneventful at first. No one tried to eat any rock mold or put crystals in their mouth, and we didn't hit a earth node or anything. All of this I'm grateful for, but it's not much. Because about 20 minutes in, after snagging some glowshards to guide us through the black hell of tunnels, we hit two cloakers and two gauths. To my delight, none of my new-found friends know what these buggers are. And I can't tell them fast enough to keep them from charging in and clumping. I find out a little later that two of them have no ranged weapons, and that the druid has no ranged spells prepared except call lightning, which mysteriously worked underground.

I didn't fair a lot better, as I laid down wall of thorns on the first cloaker. Unfortunately, before he died, he managed to crush one of our mates to gibbering and leave the freaking dinosaur wretching. I'd never seen a raptor hurl before. It was terrible. My turn came a little there-after, as two gauths stuck their heads in, one after the other, and rained eye rays on our feeble flesh. My feeble flesh, specifically, and my brain-meats to name a actual bit of anatomy. Hit me with a panic-ray, the name of which escapes me. I don't remember much except running. To my horror, I made it almost 280 feet before I shook it off. Had to fire off a scroll of celerity, and one of teleport just to get back, then had to top it off with a scroll of good old Black Tentacles. The gauths were less than delighted, and hammered me with almost enough pain to kill me. I was stable, but out. The hammer-heavers managed to kill them before they could get around to finishing me. It was a horribly close call, and we only got through due to bolt after bolt of electrical fury from the druid.

I snapped. I'd had it. I pulled out some bad juju, and made some of the bones we found give up their ghosts. Took five or six tries, but I got a few rogues out. Big T seems to use the same course quite a lot, and replaces or revives the monsters whenever someone makes it through. Not often. Turned my head to binding these gabbering spirits into tattoos, using the rather puissant techniques I had gleaned. Leech Ghost Skill, technically, but that name lacks romance. Fair enough, I guess it does bind a howling horror helplessly hence to hither, wot with hither being the flesh of my allies, so that they could use the broken spirits as a pool of arcane knowledge.

God I love my job.
So, we set up kip there, to rest, and so we could share out the loot. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a few scrolls of Heart of Water written. That'd be lovely. I'm going to see if I can't free myself up for some more aggressive field control. More importantly, I need to make sure someone reliable in the group has my In-Case-Of-Wipe scroll case. God, I worry about that. Quite a lot. I don't want to get my spirit stuck down here, be bound up into a tattoo decades later by someone who had happened to study a spell that I stole to put in the Library. That'd be too much irony.

Well, at least I might have the bound elemental whale in my top hat for company. He's quite charming, all told. I let him stick his eyes out now and then, and he trades me stories about the elemental plane of water. I hope I get to go there. I don't want to die underground. Don't tell my mother though, she'd be utterly ashamed. Had an argument with one of the hammer-heavers. He wouldn't let me bind a ghost to him. I was horrified. It was pretty bad, he was easily angrier than anyone had been at me recently, which was a bit of a feat considering I'm now guilty of mass property damage, and considered Unperson in Surm. Ended up lending him my much beloved figurine of the griffin just to make sure he'd have a source of flight.

Maybe when we get surface side, I'll knock him out and graft some wings to his broad supple back. Maybe old Mum wouldn't be so ashamed of me after all.

PId6
2010-06-06, 01:16 AM
Very entertaining so far. While reading it, I keep getting flashbacks of literature lectures with the words "UNRELIABLE NARRATOR" screaming out to me, but that might just be me. :smalltongue:

The idea of a scroll-abusing artificer is interesting, but yeah, it doesn't seem too sustainable. You seem to be basically playing a wizard whose spells cost money at this point. You do have a much wider selection of spells on a daily basis, but the cost is very daunting.

Also, no scrolls of Polymorph?

Doc Roc
2010-06-06, 03:28 AM
Well I am running 5 levels of Unbound scroll, so I have enormous cost mitigation, no daily spell limit, and totally mindboggling spell selection. I also have some ability to reuse scrolls, about 7 times a day for 3rd level or lower due to sanctum spell hacks. But basically, I had to work incredibly hard just to get her to approach a wizard in power levels. Scrolls are pretty definably not the way to go unless you are:

Desperately bored
OR
Playing a short-term game
OR
Trying to fill two or more party roles at the expense of your character's long term health. Which is the boat that I am in.

Doc Roc
2010-06-12, 01:41 PM
Today I made an ass of my self, and got Raizen to eat a scroll.
It was a good day. Explanations are in order, however.
I think the core point is that today was better than yesterday. And that Raizen ate a scroll.

We made it past the Gauth's lair, and a bit deeper into the twisting passages. Most of them looked like they had been carved by beholders in the usual way, but after a while we rammed into a set of bizarrely well-made passage ways. Mostly composed of piping and machinery with finely made catwalks stretched over them, these corridors match the work of the Suulan empire, similar to the fragments which formed the basis of the Iriseshi Great Arcana. These looked more like steam-tech than the powerful magic I had come to expect from their works. It was interesting to see a side of the culture... what's left of it... That I had never seen before. An image of the Suul as great architects instead of great arcanists, as makers instead of mages. I don't think anyone except maybe Cormick got the same vibe though. I found and disarmed a blade barrier trap that woulda rent my flesh, and I got Raizen to eat a scroll. Apparently some schools of thought revolving around the use of magical devices are.... very odd. I opted not to question it. It was a scroll of heart of water, which I also had up on myself, alongside overland flight. I was feeling pretty cocky.

Admittedly, I should have been paying more attention. A f'ing temporal filcher snagged me while I wasn't looking, and shoved me into the future like a tugboat ramming a galleon. After that the little tart vanished without so much as a goodbye kiss. I hate filchers. I hate them so much. Meanwhile, my friends had been in talks with a myyyssssssterrrious :: the writing here seems to be covering a long string of profanity :: figure. Turned out to be an Elan named Yuri. Good times. I hate Elan. Something about the fact that they're immortal and I'm not. Or maybe it's just their statuesque good looks. I want to be statuesque, but I'm given to understand that gnomes aren't really built for it. Ah well. They rapidly offered up more critical offenses, like not telling me about their secret sciences or suggesting that my entire culture is in grave error. And calling me an idiot. It was fun. I really made those suckers angry and I have just absolutely no regrets. It's not like they were going to do anything other than maybe rap my knuckles with a ruler. We had what they needed, which was raw brawn and arcantric muscle, and they had problems for us to solve with said attributes. You can always tell. It's like the smell of raspberries, except harder to get out of your clothes.

Need.
Don't matter what, but need's got a smell sure as any.

I tossed out some quick-potions of haste, and handed them out. To my horror, no one used them. I didn't even know what to say. Raizen tossed his into Cormick's pack, where it will gradually denature. My only consolation is that in three hours, Raizen is going to have to explain to Cormick why his precious religious artifacts now smell exactly like drunken yetis drenched in maple syrup. Oh I look forward to that. It'll be great. In fact, today was pretty awesome.

So, Boris, Yuri's boss, yaks for a while. Tells us more than he meant to, namely that they have some way of manipulating the stuff of life which doesn't hinge on known arcane theory. In other words, telling me that I need to find a library, and a cover story. He also tells us that a bit to the north, Iosef made a huge bloody mess that I'm rather impressed with, in the form of an enormous crater and some thoroughly toxic sludge. To my delight, he even accidentally left us some aberrations to kill. A Vendri... Ventriculous? Vendraculous? I can never spell that word. The one that's like a shambling mound with tentacles and insect swarms. Turns out that it isn't too good with flesh-rending arcane energies directed at it by yours truly, and that insect swarms hate the Streamers spell. Which is great, cause I love that thing. The monk and the rogue found out that their weapons were useless against the swarm, and relatively useless against the enormous plant-hulk, but Druidetta whipped out some fancy fireworks. She also got nearly chewed to death by wasps. Less awesome.

Did I mention that I got to cast fly on a dinosaur? I did. After that, the rest of my life seems a little pale, honestly. Well, other than the tremendous amount of property damage, the drinking, the parts where I wasn't in class or working on my thesis. And the monk actually used the statue I've lent him. Though he renamed Ereia... Named her... Hass... Umm, what was it... Hasselhoff! What a weird name for a griffin. A much better day, all told, than yesterday. They tell me there's a good chance that I can teleport out of this city, which is awesome.

imperialspectre
2010-06-13, 10:00 PM
Quite hilarious. Need more.

Fizban
2010-06-13, 10:29 PM
The in character part's a good read, but from the class and scroll specifics I figured we'd get a breakdown of what got used when and such to see how it works. Any plans for that in the future?

arguskos
2010-06-13, 11:27 PM
1. Hilarious. Doubleplusgood.

2. Needs more detailed breakdown of what you're doing and when, so we know when and what is going on, behind the character.

Doc Roc
2010-06-14, 12:16 PM
Okay, let me link you out to my spreadsheet for spells in the first post. I'll start adding some more detailed OoC stuff if people want. I didn't think people'd want to read me rambling, so this is sort of gratifying. To answer some immediate stuff:

My core attack spell is darkbolt, snatched at a lower level from the teflammar shadowlord's list. My core buff spells are haste, snatched from combat trapsmith, and improvisation. Improvisation becomes incredibly good instead of merely just good when it costs you less than a GP to make.

PId6
2010-06-14, 12:31 PM
That's... a lot of Streamers... :smalleek:

Doc Roc
2010-06-14, 12:42 PM
Consider that they make touch attacks at +10, where my RAB is merely +7, and that they are some of the game's best damage and action denial. I'd be stupid not to bring them, particularly now that I know my party basically has no ability to reliably do damage at range.

9mm
2010-06-14, 01:16 PM
*snerk*

ah the joys of a top-hats.

also it is hilarious comparing your journal with Ali's...

Salbazier
2010-06-14, 01:51 PM
From what book are streamers and leech ghost skill? :smallconfused:

9mm
2010-06-14, 02:17 PM
From what book are streamers and leech ghost skill? :smallconfused:

leech ghost is from ghostwalk. forget where streamers are.

Claudius Maximus
2010-06-14, 02:22 PM
Streamers is from Shining South.

Salbazier
2010-06-14, 02:42 PM
oh, no wonder. Thanks :smallsmile:

Doc Roc
2010-06-14, 09:05 PM
It's no coincidence that both are on the ToS ban list. In fact, I harvested big chunks of Bree's build and load out from it. A bad thing, I suppose, but funny as heck. Leech Ghost Skill is, more specifically, from the ghostwalk WE.

Tavar
2010-06-14, 09:07 PM
And apparently necessary, considering the help you're getting.

Doc Roc
2010-06-14, 09:09 PM
And apparently necessary, considering the help you're getting.

Well, things haven't been as bad as Bree thinks they are. The rest of the party has been quite useful, but some of it isn't exaggerated. The GM has opted to use less in the way of flying monsters, though, and things should be better now that we're out and about where people can use their various tricks.

Jarian
2010-06-14, 09:40 PM
And my players think their opponents are optimized. I find myself going ":smallconfused:" every time I read one of your tricks being used in a real game. I can't help but wonder how much the average encounter CR is inflated to make up for Streamers abuse alone.

We won't even touch on mass-producing spells from PrC lists. Or Leech Ghost Skill.

It must be fun to be you. :smallwink:

Doc Roc
2010-06-14, 11:21 PM
My GM is probably one of the few optimizers who can top me reliably. In fact most of what I learned, and the methodology I know came in large part from working with him early on.

And yeah, it's fun to be me. :)

PlzBreakMyCmpAn
2010-06-16, 03:31 PM
Didn't read the rest. You know I helped with a BG handbook that has waaaaaay more WBL abuse. Check it out. I really should finish the 2nd part of it...

Doc Roc
2010-06-16, 04:27 PM
Didn't read the rest. You know I helped with a BG handbook that has waaaaaay more WBL abuse. Check it out. I really should finish the 2nd part of it...

You sure know how to make a lady feel special. Somehow, I don't think Tleilaxu_Ghola would take infinite wealth or cross-setting magical locations lying down. I don't have an inclination to write a hospital into my backstory. Also, check the resources segment for Unbound scroll. You missed the library listed there.

Doc Roc
2010-06-23, 01:08 AM
Lot of setting information (http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/the-war-of-prophesy/wikis/npc-revelations) came out recently, and it's been kinda a bit of a struggle to figure out how to deliver that in character. Bree's not overwhelmingly engaged in the world around her, so even though she gathered up the bulk of the information, it's not really what she cares about.


IC
***

Today has been eventful. I can't wait to find a place to kip up. I'm really burned out, and I've spent way more resources than I really meant to. I just get so carried away by opportunities to reach into my bag of tricks. I really do love my job. So on the way back from killing the tentacled terror tussock, we run into this beautifully complex vat. I don't know what else to call it. It was a vat. Every known language has a word for vats, did you know that? It's one of those singular conceptions that's just ubiquitous. One of my professors suggested that every culture has mad scientists and that mad scientists have a inherent propensity for vats. I buy that. Bought that, more precisely. I keep a vat in my library, after all.

Then we saw another, and another, until we'd passed five or six of the suckers. Finally, Cormick and I got curious enough that we kipped up, dropped out of the air, and dickered around to look at one. Beautiful work, but I realized that I didn't have anything other than a couple wrenches and two keys on me. Not enough to even get at any of the piping. Raizen was even more frustrated by this, but I think he just wants to take things apart. I may just be projecting though. After playing with it for a while, we bothered to ask a passing elan. It turns out that it's some sort of algae, basically, that serves as a way of farming food without dirt. Given my hatred for dirt, I was hypnotized by the possibility. While we were chatting, I also found out that there's no way I'm getting into the library legitimately, which was a real heartbreaker. Fortunately, I love doing things the hard way, or I wouldn't be a gnome.

The other thing that happened while we were chatting was that an enormous beholder in heavy armor with a variety of lensing arrays rolled up, with a strange little hobbly nobbly blue critter riding along with it, almost like a pilot driving an air-ship. Cormick was kind enough to inform me that the blue was just another kind of gobbo, a rare mutation found in many tribes. Supposedly smarter, and natively psionic. Despite the supposed racial enmity, gobbos are some of the only critters I haven't folded, spindled, or mutilated by accident or even on purpose. My understanding is that they hate us with an unholy passion, while we accidentally subject them to industrial accidents without noticing, in true gnomish fashion. Here, though, the blues seem to serve as an engineering underclass, kept in line by the fact that their lifestyle here is wildly better than the one they could expect out on the surface. Getting a bit ahead of myself though.

So, as we move towards the university, where Boris keeps his office, we keep noticing maybe one in twenty of the streetgoers is a blue, not an elan. They seem to be doing a lot of the engineering work, ranging from the municipal necessities to the more esoteric. So, Cormick and I get curious, and corner one as he's pushing his cart along. He won't really answer any of our questions, in large part because I forgot to change my face to something slightly less offensive. I have to tell you, it was pretty funny but really frustrating. So I sent the rest of the group ahead, cracked my knuckles and fired up my trusty hat of disguise. It was time to impersonate an Elan! To my delight, the blue was deeply obsequious. I may have taken a bit of advantage of that, but I really wanted to figure out where the glassworks were, and where I could find a proper toolshop. Besides, maybe he knew something about what Iosef had done. Mostly, though, I wanted some shiny new wrenches after I lost my old set in a drunken bet. It's not the same if you make them yourself. I never get the handle quite right. Last one was just a little weak, too, and it snapped while I was working on some steam piping. Not my finest moment. However, the poor blue had no idea that I was clumsy, or that I was a gnome. I was able to get him to take me into what they call blueville, as best as I can translate, where the majority of the gobbo population lives on a day to day basis.

Once in there, I was able to pick up a fresh set of tools at hardly any cost. Elans really terrify these guys, and I'm starting to think I should take them a little more seriously myself. But thanks to that same mix of respect and terror, I wasn't able to get a lot of information out of them. So I headed out of blueville into the city proper, which seemed different now that I knew it was basically built on the back of a servitor race. Taking a minute or ten to switch my appearance again, I ducked out of an alley as a blue. Ran into some elans just a few moments later, and hugged the wall. Apparently it was a convincing act, since I was pretty terrified myself. Eventually, I found what I was looking for, a reasonably exposed lone blue. We chatted for quite a while, and I learned a good bit about where the status of the blues sits, and how the city works. But it wasn't enough. So I ran the old "Can You Read This?" scam, insisting that I'd nicked some scrolls from that stupid topsider gnome, but couldn't read gnomish. I guess he wasn't expecting the sepia snake sigil I'd tucked into the sheets, because he went down like a sack of potatoes. I dragged his bulky blue bod into an alley, and I must admit that I then strangled him till he was unconscious. I can only hear so much smack about gnomes. Then I fired up one of my little wicked prizes, a scroll of mind rape. Still have one. Always carry one.

Picked his brain for all sorts of juicy bits, and dredged him like a shallow pond. Just for kicks, I decided it'd be funniest if I swapped his memories around to make him a catalyst for the non-existent rebellion. He'll sabotage almost every piece of mechanika that he touches. Cruelty pays, though, since I got deep dirt on the shape of the city. Fun time was over though, and it was time to head back to the group. Took me a couple hours, but I shaped my face like an Elan's. Found Raizen first, buying fish, and I couldn't resist pranking the salty codger. So I goosed him. Great traditional greeting, and the look on his face was solid gold as I ran the old patter. Eventually it was time to swap back to proper gnomish shape. Apparently Boris had refused to pay us properly, insisting that just letting us live was enough. The others were pretty happy to hear about the knowledge I'd picked up from my poor blue victim. I may have left out the part where I completely ruined his life, but I suspect that it was fine with that left out. I doubt Ali would be overwhelmingly joyous about that bit. I think my favorite part of the day, though, was that Ali had picked up a simple set of tools which someone had cleverly integrated into a single device. Said it was an Elanese Army Knife, but for me? It was a tiny godsend. In the days ahead, it would prove to be one of my most reliable tools.

Next, I try to get into the library!

sofawall
2010-06-23, 07:49 PM
So after the most recent update, do you have a revised estimate for burn rate of WBL?

Doc Roc
2010-06-23, 08:25 PM
Burn rate is down to ~22 sessions before burn out, 33 or so if I can get regular rest to use ghost writings. That ability + sanctum spell chicanery is amazing.

This means that I'll probably be able to level up in time to rebuild my bag of tricks.

Gralamin
2010-06-23, 09:02 PM
Good to hear more of Bree. But pulling a scroll of Mindrape on a random civilian? Thats a bit overkill. Hilarious, hilarious overkill :smallbiggrin:.

Doc Roc
2010-06-23, 09:50 PM
Good to hear more of Bree. But pulling a scroll of Mindrape on a random civilian? Thats a bit overkill. Hilarious, hilarious overkill :smallbiggrin:.

Over-kill is my stock in trade, and I am happy to deliver.

Olo Demonsbane
2010-06-23, 10:16 PM
Could you explain how ghost writing and Leech Ghost Skill work? I've heard mention of the second, but have never seen either of them used before.

Great Journal, by the way, quite enjoyable to read. :smallsmile:

Doc Roc
2010-06-23, 10:19 PM
Ghost Writing eats a swift and a use of my least dragonmark ability, in my case arcane mark, to allow me to copy a scroll of 2 or lower level temporarily. If I had a better dragonmark, I could intermittently manage copying higher spell levels, but frankly, the pay off doesn't seem worth it given the feat and skill investment involved. As it stands, I can use my signature scroll of dark bolt seven times a day without serious worry.

Leech Ghost Skill takes a ghost, and turns it into a tattoo. The tattoo's bearer can then use the skill ranks of the ghost instead of his or her own ranks.

PId6
2010-06-24, 07:04 PM
Huh, Mindrape really is the answer to every problem.

Doc Roc
2010-06-24, 10:38 PM
When it's not the answer, it'll find the answer for you.

Eldariel
2010-06-24, 11:43 PM
What a delightful diversion here! I finally managed to scrounge up the time to read through what you have scribbled thus far, and found out that I quite appreciate a first person Journal and that tricks still make for intriguing story and exciting reading.

And TG is your DM? This should prove to be a very interesting game to follow.

sofawall
2010-06-25, 12:10 AM
I've played with TG as a player (with Doc Roc as DM, actually). I can't imagine him as a DM.

Doc Roc
2010-06-28, 06:05 PM
New post going up sometime tonight, but some IC info first.

Party is steadily becoming more cohesive, which is super good. Burn rate of resources is dropping tremendously, though I nearly had to use one of my fleshshivers. Long-term sustainability is basically not possible. I'll only be able to rebuild 24k of my market capital for scrolls when I level up. I think we're looking at about 30-40 sessions, likely, though 12th level is where the craft reserve starts climbing considerably.

This is unlikely to be enough, but may extend Bree's life-cycle considerably, and I'll keep tracking the math as best I can. I'm starting to consider shifting my crafting focus a bit, so that I can offer some more sustainable tricks like minor schemas.

Part of the issue, though, is that ghost writing is making it so that many of the traditional crafting outs are basically worthless for now. So things like minor schemas need to be at least fourth level, making them very pricey, and effectively a deferred investment in many senses, since I'm not going to be out of level range where 3rd-and-down is sufficient.

In net, I do not think I can recommend scroll-crafting for particularly long-term campaigns. In the short-term, it is extremely good, particularly when backed by the excellent Unbound Scroll PrC. However, in a couple levels, I'll find that I can't use ghost writing reliably in ways that are combat relevant. And that will be all she wrote, I suspect. Ghost writing has been wildly more useful than I expected, saving me almost 4k this session alone, I think. We'll see if it's enough, and if it remains enough.

I hope you enjoy this rambling about sustainability!

Aharon
2010-07-01, 07:49 AM
Nice one. I enjoyed reading it :smallsmile:

A question about Leech Ghost skill, though. It has Target: Ghost Touched. Did T_G waive this, or is there a post-Ghostwalk-WE version that doesn't target a ghost?

Doc Roc
2010-07-02, 08:30 PM
IC: Day 3

Today was the best day ever. Today? Boris got blown to hell, and I didn't even have to do it myself. In fact, pretty much the entire bloody city was reduced to beautiful, heart-lifting, leaving-my-gnomish-eyes-starry rubble! But I'm getting ahead of myself like always. And my, there's bloody plenty of distance to cover. Best to start at the start, I suppose.

So, the very best part of the day was the hot bath. No gnomish gel loves anything so much as a hot bath and actual food. Better still, I managed to gab with some merchants, and get a lead on a nearby drow city. Strange sounding place, and I don't have proper directions, but I bet I can find it. I also got a lead on another Elan community, one called Verl. Their symbol is a great eye, which would become starkly and hilariously relevant. As of this point, all I know is that the Eye is a common portion of prophesy. Prophesy I should have paid a lot more attention too, even though there was drinking to be done.

How was I to know that today would be a day of jubilation? Well it should have been a clue when the fish was good, and Rai was quiet. Even the booze was good. But I had no idea that today there would be ruination dealt by the heavy hand of my dear employer. I'd never seen him work before, so this was something of a stunner. I'm still honestly reeling. So to the meat of the matter:

Today, as we were strolling towards the surface-ward exit of Taamengrad when the invasion defenses kicked on. Beautiful stuff. The siege engineer in me was just delighted. So they flood the city with Solid fog, using formian queens as ways of reliably providing telemetry, and then deactivating the blocks if troops need deploying, or alternatively using targeting information to direct their beholder tanks. We hid, at first. The battle sounds were a huge tumult in the white fog, shocking in their loudness with the preternatural stillness of the magical fog. So here we are, me crawled into a barrel, and we get word from the formian queens that our little splotch is about to get hit by incoming troops. So I do what I can to prep, knock back a scroll of improvisation, and get ready to line up a shot.

We open fire instantly after dropping the fog, with me laying down darkbolt fire and ali plastering the zone with thorns. To my shock, no matter how much damage lands on them, they stay upright, going so far as to set up immense circuits of devastating psionic fire and fury while bleeding out from both lungs. I'd heard of this trick though, and fired off a dispel from my scroll, copying it with ghost writing to do so. Being a gnome is wonderful. There's nothing like killing someone by saying no really loudly without spending a penny. As soon as the magic holding them together failed, one died instantly, with Ali dispelling the other a second later. Slick. They were basically delightful little cornucopias of loot. I got a new cloak, a good one! So maybe I lied earlier. The only thing a good gnomish gel loves more than a hot bath and good food is eating good food, the lamentations of psions, and a hot bath drawn before ye.

And there was to be plenty a lamenting psion today! So the next thing we see are these immense creatures, what look like whales made of wax wot been kissed by a fire elemental and subjected to the uhhh.... well they looked awful. Hideous creatures of immense power. Far Realms, I think. A real scare maker, but boy were they slamming at it with the beholder-tanks. So we run, because we're not stupid bodgers. And we run some more. And pretty soon, we realize that the entire city is under attack, as enormous explosions coming from the university start shaking the entire cavern.

So, of course, follow Rule One.
Pillage, then Burn. I grab hands, and teleport us to Boris's office. I was hoping to shove him out a window in the confusion, but it looks like someone already mangled him. He was no where to be seen. So we stole everything, stuffing it all in my portable hole before running like little kids. Outside, we see the battle has reached the square. And what do you know? Iosef's little no-ship has landed there. And we think "Here's our ride out." Except it's Big T, the boss-boss himself. And he's ripping out of the center of the square the biggest bloody eye I've ever seen. And it is bloody, almost like it was just nearly finished, but not quite. Weeping ichorous hundred and twenty foot wide proto-beholder. Terror. It was time to go. We contacted him, and he says "You take another route out. A clever one." Unspoken is that iffen we don't, we die bad and fast. So we kill a distracted blue and steal his tank, running like rabbits for the surface as we use the tank to burn through solid rock. It was awesome. On the way out, it was clear that the city had fallen in such an utter sense as to be worth removing from my maps. I don't think the other realized until later quite how bad it had been. Thus moves the inscrutable dark, and oddly, somehow, with it, Big T. I live in fear, even though I may be jubilant to have seen such wonders and terrors.

Today is a good day to gnome.

Cieyrin
2010-07-02, 09:33 PM
Creative mass combat, interesting vehicular combat, clashes between psionics and magic. Such I haven't seen and would love to see in more detail, especially the beholder tanks. =D

The Shadowmind
2010-07-02, 09:56 PM
Effective little gnome in combat isn't she?
What does the Lady's College in the character sheet represent? I know of the "The Golden Helm guild" affiliation for Crafts magic arms and armor feat for free and 10% exp discount(gnomes only). Or the Darkspire College of Thaun for a 10% gold discount in crafting and the option to be lent a scroll of 750 gp value 3 times a month(Have to pay back). Or the "One and the Five" afflication for 10% gold cost reduction.

Doc Roc
2010-07-02, 10:40 PM
Lady's college is in silver marches, I believe, though I'm AFB. It grants\emulates all item creation feats. I would have liked to taken the others, but I was already built around Lady's College when someone mentioned them to me.

Eldariel
2010-07-02, 11:02 PM
I cannot begin to express my surprise for the lack of teleportation wards in a city with defenses of that level. Or mayhap they had already fallen or been taken out with covert action; it appears the locals weren't very observant with regards to magical guises.

Also, that sounds...like a combat of very respectable power level, to say the least. Verily, Beholder Tanks are nothing to sneeze at and they lost. How exactly are the controls on those things, by the way?

Doc Roc
2010-07-02, 11:04 PM
I cannot begin to express my surprise for the lack of teleportation wards in a city with defenses of that level. Or mayhap they had already fallen or been taken out with covert action; it appears the locals weren't very observant with regards to magical guises.

Also, that sounds...like a combat of very respectable power level, to say the least. Verily, Beholder Tanks are nothing to sneeze at and they lost. How exactly are the controls on those things, by the way?

You'll know next update! The invaders actually used planar breach, I think. This is T_G after all.

Doc Roc
2010-07-12, 02:49 PM
First post updated. Telem now has a journal, and I taste like fringles! I'll pull together an update to the core journal soon. We're still a session behind, but there was no session last week, so we're okay.