The Standing Stone OOC Thread

[TheFallenOne]

Many a scary tale is told of a headless horseman riding forth from the mist, but rarely does the story begin with one.

If one ever came to wonder what the combination of a remarkable inn and unremarkable hamlet looked like, Sevenecho would be the answer. For many years the Worried Wyvern stood where the North Road from Procampur and Stormcrest Trail from Tsurlagol meet and it has become a popular resting place for everyone traveling these parts, offering a soft bed, quality food and drink and many a tale of lost dwarven treasure or local legend of the drowned lady, a lost spirit said to sing in the night by a hidden pool of lost love and words unspoken.

But what comes out of the mist one autumn morning is no mere phantom. The headless rider must have been dead for a day by the time the horse he is strapped to stumbled here, scared and exhausted. Although noone remembers his name, he is known around here. He was a farmer, living on the edge of the Brynwood, a large and thick forest to the north bordering on the Earthfast Mountains. The forest is home to Ossington, a remote settlement of perhaps 80 human and halfling farmers. Only about once a month someone from the isolated village is seen to trade goods, but now it has been three since they've been last heard from. The headless rider gives suspicion there might be sinister reasons for that silence, and perhaps it is time for someone to travel north to investigate...

The Party

Player	Characters	Race	Class	Alignment	Colour
Jeff the Green	Rook	Kenku	Incarnate	Chaotic Neutral	Midnight Blue
RaggedAngel	Damien Swiftarm	Human	Warblade/Swordsage	Lawful Neutral	Dark Green
Sallera	Sei	Human	Warlock	True neutral	Teal
unseenmage	Draruuc	Goblin	Artificer	True Neutral	Sienna

IC Thread
Act I: Comes a Horseman
Act II: Song of the Executioner

Formatting and posting guidelines

• Speech is in your character's colour with quotation marks. Thoughts in your character's colour, italic, without quotation marks.
• In IC posts, all mechanics, OOC comments/questions and dice rolls are placed in a spoiler at the bottom of the post.
• If you're waiting for an answer, reaction or piece of input from someone before posting IC again and it doesn't come in a day or so, point it out in the OOC thread to keep things moving.
• In combat party and baddies act interchangably. When it's the party's turn you all post and I sort events out in the correct order.
• When it's your turn to post do so within at most two days, one is preferred. Take longer than that and you get NPCed.

Rule 0
The DM says what goes and doesn't go. He has the final say on the matter and is free to change or interpret the rules as he likes and throw increasing amounts of DM Lightning at you if you object.

Rule -1
Rule 0 should be employed for the sake of consistency, plot, balance and above all Rule Ω. Inconsistent rulings or even attempts to frustrate your players make you a Bad DM. You may have absolute authority inside your game, but you can't force others to stay there if they don't like it.

Rule Ω
We're all doing this to have fun. Act accordingly

Character Initiative
Rook [roll]1d20+3[/roll]
Damien [roll]1d20+7[/roll]
Sei [roll]1d20+2[/roll]
Draruuc [roll]1d20+2[/roll]
Baddies [roll]1d20[/roll][/table]

[TheFallenOne]

Alright, IC will come when I have a stable internet connection again. In the meantime you can figure out what your characters have done so far. How long they've been in Sevenecho, whether they interacted with each other in any way etc.

I still have to sort through Draruuc's arsenal. It might be nice of you to cut it down a little, it does look excessive.

[RaggedAngel]

Good afternoon, everyone! Damien will speak in dark green.

[unseenmage]

Alright, IC will come when I have a stable internet connection again. In the meantime you can figure out what your characters have done so far. How long they've been in Sevenecho, whether they interacted with each other in any way etc.

I still have to sort through Draruuc's arsenal. It might be nice of you to cut it down a little, it does look excessive.

Can do. I know more about what works and what doesn't Alchemically now than I did when I built him so that should help. I'm also working on figuring out how fast he can replenish a given alchemical item for each one I care about.

I cleaned up his item entries some, removed extraneous stuff and reorganized some. I had 4 lines in the equipment section as a reminder for myself about how to use Minor Schemas that got moved to a more appropriate spot.

I hope it helps.

Edit: Draruuc will speak in Sienna, if that works for everyone.

[Jeff the Green]

Hey everyone!

Rook will speak in Midnight Blue, appropriately enough.

Also, since it may not be immediately obvious from the build stub, I thought I'd go over what he brings to the party.

Spoiler

Show

Out of combat Rook is an exceptional scout and a passable face. He's also really good at pickpocketing and has a number of drugs and poisons he can slip into glasses. In combat, he primarily uses his beguiler spells, but he also has a handy trick with the dusk gloves chakra bind: as a swift action he can blind an enemy until the start of its next turn (so no AoOs and flatfooted) and give concealment to everyone else until the end of its next turn.

Of course, when he shapes other soulmelds his capabilities can change quite dramatically.

Also, as a kenku, he can mimic any sound (and throw his voice with ventriloquism) and if he Aids Another or is Aided he gives/receives a +3 bonus rather than +2.

Finally, his familiar has the same scouting potential, with the added benefit of being fairly mundane-looking.

Rook has been in town a few days, telling stories of the Shining South for free drinks and meals (some of which are even true), and learning about the Vast. While he's not necessarily the best story teller, they're a novelty to his audiences because he perfectly mimics the characters' voices and sound effects. He's fairly cagey about his own background, revealing only that he's from Halruaa.

To encourage people to think of him as much as a Halruaan as a kenku, he's fairly free with magic, using his illusions to spice up his stories but being sure not to upset anyone by using his enchantments.

[Sallera]

Sei has only been in Sevenecho since the previous evening, when she was quite embarrassed to find out from the locals at the inn that the "ghost that drowns people" she'd been sent to deal with was nothing of the sort. This incident, along with her official garb, certainly got her noticed, but not in the way she would have liked.

Rook would have attracted her notice; Sei isn't averse to a good story, and probably hung around in the background listening for a while. Draruuc, if he isn't disguised, would have caught her eye, but with all the odd things he carries, she'd have dismissed him as a merchant. She probably hasn't interacted with Damien yet, unless he approached her; he doesn't stand out quite as much as the other two.

[unseenmage]

Draruuc looks the part of the wild goblin stuffed into adventurer's clothes.
He spits and curses (in goblinese) and is just generally grimy overall.

He hasn't ruined his reputation in this town minor settlement, that he knows of, so he's not disguised. Yet.

Draruuc hasn't been in town minor settlement long. A week maybe.
He's grown lonely and uneasy about traveling alone. And bored too. So he's looking for an adventure, and adventurers.
He'll be very interested in asking around about trouble in the area and listening in on the conversations of folk who look interesting. And asking around about interesting folk.

As a matter of fact, I'd say that he's desperate enough for conversation that he'll even get bathed and groomed and spend a few nights in the common room of whatever passes for a tavern in this the famous local inn.
So yeah, he'll be out and about and as friendly as he can be. Which isn't much, but it's clear he's trying.

Edit: I reread everyone's sheets and backstories quickly and I must say, I feel kinda outclassed by the richness of my fellow player's imaginations.
Here's hoping I can keep up and learn from you all. Thanks for having me.

Edit again: Entertainingly, at the same time Draruuc got accepted into this adventure the OotS avatar for him was taken on in the request an avatar page. It's a banner day to be a Goblin Alchemificer.

[TheFallenOne]

Can we please not call Sevenecho a town? It's about as unremarkable a settlement as it gets. It's just a couple stray houses arrayed around the well-known and popular inn. Mostly homes of the innkeep's older children who married, a hunter who makes his living supplying fresh meat to the inn, a small goods shop and that's pretty much it. The only remarkable thing here is the Worried Wyvern. It can house up to a hundred guests, has a famed wine cellar, its own small brewery, smokehouse, stables, all you can ask for for a comfportable stay really.

[unseenmage]

Would it be too early to wonder IC or OOC what such an opulent inn is doing in such an out of the way area?

Then again, I suppose an opulent inn is just the thing to flourish where the modern comforts are hard to come by.

[Sallera]

Crossroads inn. It's well placed to be the halfway point of a lot of journeys through the area.

[TheFallenOne]

Exactly that. Lots of people passing through here.

Alright, unless someone wants to establish prior interaction I'll start off things this evening. Unless internet gets jumpy again.

[unseenmage]

Exactly that. Lots of people passing through here.

Alright, unless someone wants to establish prior interaction I'll start off things this evening. Unless internet gets jumpy again.

Sounds good to me. I'm eager to get started.

By the by, TheFallenOne, will I be directing the homunculi and the dog or will you?

[RaggedAngel]

I'm cool with getting things going tonight. And I think it makes the most sense for Damien to not know anyone when things start out; he's a bit of a wandering swordsman at this point in his life, and he likely just rambled into this "town" by pure happenstance.

[TheFallenOne]

Sounds good to me. I'm eager to get started.

By the by, TheFallenOne, will I be directing the homunculi and the dog or will you?

They're your creatures. But if for some reason you can't instruct them they will follow their last orders, for better or worse.


IC is here!

[unseenmage]

They're your creatures. But if for some reason you can't instruct them they will follow their last orders, for better or worse.


IC is here!

Was just checking. Some DMs prefer to hold the reins so to speak. Thought it best to find out at the onset.

And also, huzzah! IC thread!

[Jeff the Green]

What time of year is it, and is fog and frost normal?

[TheFallenOne]

It's autumn. Misty late nights/early mornings do occur sometimes.

[Jeff the Green]

So then frost is somewhat abnormal?

[TheFallenOne]

oops, that word doesn't mean what I thought it did. Should just be morning dew.

[Jeff the Green]

Ah, okay. That makes more sense.

[RaggedAngel]

IC post is incoming! I'll admit, I wanted to see what you'd all say before Damien does anything; he's an observe-first act-second kind of guy outside of combat.

[unseenmage]

Sorry RaggedAngel, Draruuc's not a hobgoblin. Just a plain old run of the mill goblin goblin. Much less impressive; less intimidating that way too.

[Jeff the Green]

Well, that's what I get for forgetting to subscribe to the IC thread.

TFO, if you want to make skill checks on Rook's behalf, I'm not including bonuses from soulmelds because they change so frequently and I'm prone to forgetting. Instead, any effects are listed next to the soulmelds, and I will remember to update those when I shift essentia/reshape melds.

[unseenmage]

A couple questions, is my 40 lb. Alchemist Lab sufficient for Draruuc to put his Infusions and Homunculus to work each evening crafting?

Would it be possible/necessary for Draruuc to get someone from the trading post to act as a runner between himself and the trading post for supplies.
Mind, if the Alchemist Lab is enough the runner idea is a non-issue.

I'm trying to reconcile the mechanic of having to pay one-third of the item’s price to craft while on the road.

Upon further reflection though, Alchemy is the art of making one thing into another so it stands to reason that an Alchemist's Lab weighs so much because it enables the crafter to make sticks and stones into the alchemical reagents he'd need to produce Alchemist's Fire etc.

Just curious what everyone else's thoughts were on the matter so i don't step on anyone's toes mid narrative, y'know.

[RaggedAngel]

Sorry RaggedAngel, Draruuc's not a hobgoblin. Just a plain old run of the mill goblin goblin. Much less impressive; less intimidating that way too.

Sorry about that, unseen; I'm usually better about keeping races straight. I blame the fact that I'm running a Red Hand of Doom game, and I've typed out the word 'hobgoblin' approximately a billion times in the past few months.

[TheFallenOne]

A couple questions, is my 40 lb. Alchemist Lab sufficient for Draruuc to put his Infusions and Homunculus to work each evening crafting?

Would it be possible/necessary for Draruuc to get someone from the trading post to act as a runner between himself and the trading post for supplies.
Mind, if the Alchemist Lab is enough the runner idea is a non-issue.

That entirely depends on what you're making. The lab should have a decent supply of alchemical stuff, but it can't provide other things like vials and flasks for acid.

A runner? When you haven't a clear picture yet where you're going and will be looking at multiple days travel once you get inside the wood, where it seems something nefarious is taking place? Capital b Bad Idea.

Sorry about that, unseen; I'm usually better about keeping races straight. I blame the fact that I'm running a Red Hand of Doom game, and I've typed out the word 'hobgoblin' approximately a billion times in the past few months.

It should be noted in my other game there is DM Lightning for mistakenly calling something a hobgoblin.

It was truly bizarre. They cleared out a tribe of common goblins with some bugbears and blues. Repeatedly the players insisted on calling a common goblin a hobgoblin, no matter how often I said that there are none.

[Jeff the Green]

Sorry about that, unseen; I'm usually better about keeping races straight. I blame the fact that I'm running a Red Hand of Doom game, and I've typed out the word 'hobgoblin' approximately a billion times in the past few months.

You should probably try not to make that a habit. From our Ravens Bluff campaign:

Also, the next player to call a goblin or bugbear a hobgoblin receives 1d6 DM Lightning

And we really did, too!

Gah, DMed.

Edited to add:

That entirely depends on what you're making. The lab should have a decent supply of alchemical stuff, but it can't provide other things like vials and flasks for acid.

You could probably get Rook to lend you some. He's got twenty doses of dreamlily and twenty of Mordrei'in that can be put into a larger flask and dosed out when needed. (Also jhuild, but that comes in a larger container as it's basically wine, and blister oil, which you probably don't want mixing with your alchemical products.) Though that assumes that they're the same sort of flask.

[TheFallenOne]

aw yeah, first ninja of the game! Just to show you who's boss.

That DM Lightning got handed out twice. And I only introduced it when my repeated 'guys, there are no hobgoblins' were fruitless. It was like a contagious halucination.

[Jeff the Green]

aw yeah, first ninja of the game! Just to show you who's boss.

That DM Lightning got handed out twice. And I only introduced it when my repeated 'guys, there are no hobgoblins' were fruitless. It was like a contagious halucination.

The worst part was that when I got it I knew you'd warned us about one of the goblinoids and that someone else had gotten zapped, but I somehow had it in my head that it was bugbears.

[unseenmage]

That entirely depends on what you're making. The lab should have a decent supply of alchemical stuff, but it can't provide other things like vials and flasks for acid.

A runner? When you haven't a clear picture yet where you're going and will be looking at multiple days travel once you get inside the wood, where it seems something nefarious is taking place? Capital b Bad Idea.

Point taken.

Was trying to get a bead on how Draruuc would react to the situation is all.
He's pretty dependent on that Alchemist's Lab and I was involved in a thread a couple days ago where the idea of an Alchemist's Lab running out of craft juice came up. The idea was presented that the player could always make more go-juice for his Alch. Lab but then they'd be paying 1/3 of 1/3 and where does it stop.

With all that crawling around in y head I figured it just best to ask.

Thanks in advance for your (and everyone's really) patience. I'm sure I will be curious about many things.

Edit: I plan on making mostly Alchemist's Fire, Acid, Explosive Packs, and maybe more Shapesand if it turns out to be useful enough. And maybe Black Lotus Extract but the ability to make poisons with Craft Alchemy is possibly a 3.0 holdover. My research isn't done yet.