The Crimson Echo OOC

[Inspectre]

While somewhat rare and infamous due to the chelish disdain for them, tieflings are not so rare in korvosa that anyone looking for Silas just needs to know "he's the tiefling guy". Also Lamm probably isn't too worried about Silas himself, given the circumstances of their business together. Given its a disguise party though, Silas is welcome to play dress up.

Elliana will definitely be relieved she does not have to go down into the sewers again.

I will check rhev's build to see if he has any spell suggestions.

I will assume the shawl is kept charged unless otherwise noted!

[PiccadillyPi]

In that case, Silas will hide his Tiefling nature with a disguise - dress up his Rakshasa heritage with some desert flair. I'm sure he has a enough fabric somewhere in his house to wrap his horns under a turban. Can't do much about the hands, but how many people know/think about the orientation of a Rakshasa's hands? It'll be fine.

[Stelio Kontos]

I’ve, uh, got a disguise kit. Would you like to use it? :)

[PiccadillyPi]

Uhh, yeah. Might be good.

[Inspectre]

Having computer issues at the moment, so the next ic post will be unfortunately delayed until I can get back up and running.

[Inspectre]

Okay, so bad news is, my computer's hard drive has a good chance of being fubar'd, and thus will need replaced.
It's been a while since I've backed up my data, so while not a total loss that will be pretty damn painful.
Perhaps the worse news is that it will take three weeks or so for the computer to be shipped out to the repair place, fixed, and shipped back.

The good news is that I have procured a craptop to get me back online and not crawling the walls over those next three weeks, and while not the best machine I have it today and am now more or less operational again.
The better news is that while I have lost some of my data, I did have a backup that will allow me to put together maps for combat, in the event you guys decide to try something other than talking your enemies to death.
I will try to put something together over the next day or so!

[Stelio Kontos]

Condolences on the hard drive, and thanks for the reminder to back stuff up. :O

[PiccadillyPi]

Hope it wasn't too expensive, yeah?

You just reminded me I have to send in my phone to recover some photos.

[Inspectre]

Good news is I had a service plan in place, so there shouldn't be any additional expenses save the three-week wait to get it back.

Better news is I managed to cobble together a map, and put together a quick post moving you guys along into the sewers, where you have run into your first snag.
Hopefully this is sufficient to get the game moving again!

[Stelio Kontos]

Yay.

OOC, I say we cut off retreat (webs work both ways) and take care of the problem.

This is basically at the drug den site, yes, and not some other random place on the way? I’d be a lot less inclined to murderhobo randoms. :)

[Inspectre]

I probably should have made that clearer in the IC post, but yes, Miz is 95% certain this is roughly underneath the back alley shop that is peddling the Shiver, which Gaedren Lamm's drug lab is located under. So presumably, beyond that door the wererats are guarding is the drug lab itself, or at least an attached room to it.

[Darvin]

Just going to get this important disclosure out of the way: I have read the Academy of Secrets module and am aware of its plot twist.

As for this tactical situation at hand, we need to incapacitate these two very quickly. If the lab is warmed that'd be very, very bad. So I kinda want to lead with an incapacitation spell like Hideous Laughter. At the same time, I kinda want to conserve for the main raid up ahead. Alternately he can just cast Web to block off access to the lab (which is the plan anyways) while everyone else deals with these two. What are people's thoughts?

[Stelio Kontos]

I’ve got a Hold Person for incapacitation, if you’ve got a charm... that should do nicely (if they don’t save, that is).

[Inspectre]

That's always the rub, isn't it?

And come on, regardless of whether certain modules may or may not be in play, do you really think I'm not going to rip out its guts, put it in a blender, and then create some sort of horrific zombie-ooze slurry out of it?

[PiccadillyPi]

Me hit hairy men with sword.

[Darvin]

I’ve got a Hold Person for incapacitation, if you’ve got a charm... that should do nicely (if they don’t save, that is).

Charm doesn't work if my allies take hostile actions. It'd have to be Sleep (which has 1-round casting time) or Hideous Laughter. Moreover Dalen has only one Charm spell prepared today (I have five 1st level spell slots and there are five spells I wanted, so no room for duplicates and I must rely on my pearl of power for anything I want to cast twice). I think I'd prefer to let Silas get stabby here while Dalen hangs back and readies an action to cast if they try to retreat.

And come on, regardless of whether certain modules may or may not be in play, do you really think I'm not going to rip out its guts, put it in a blender, and then create some sort of horrific zombie-ooze slurry out of it?

I wouldn't expect anything less

It's just better to be up front with this sort of thing. I'm going to avoid spoiling myself, and where I happen to know things I'll be sure to disclose that.

[Inspectre]

I really appreciate that forthrightness Darvin.

Now then, sounds to me like you're going to rumble with these wererats.
I already have an idea that Dalen is planning on hanging back round one so he can cut off any attempted retreat back into the drug lab by the wererats.
I do need to know what everyone else is doing for their first round though before I can move things along!

[PiccadillyPi]

Is anyone else having trouble reaching this website? Past few days have been very hit/miss for me.

Also: Murderous Command is quite the terrifying spell at first level. No doubt Aliani's moral centre has shifted these past few weeks.

[Stelio Kontos]

I've noticed the occasional 503 error/server too busy, but it always seems very short term and I reload and all is generally well.

I was actually having problems with my computer this week (computer freezing up to the point where even Ctrl/Alt/Delete wasn't doing anything and I'd have to hard reboot). I finally figured out that Firefox was the issue, and finally finally managed to get Chrome downloaded. So, I'll be more responsive now at least.



And no, his moral center hasn't shifted all that much (he actually used the same spell in our very first combat IIRC), but his willingness to show it is certainly growing....

[FredJackson]

I've noticed the occasional 503 error/server too busy, but it always seems very short term and I reload and all is generally well.

Next time you have a problem like this, refresh your computer.

[Inspectre]

Will be updating this thread soon, hopefully tomorrow with the wererats' first round.
Here's hoping we'll get a reply from Steveodore before then, but if not I'll have Miz circle around as best she can in the tunnel to set up flanking for next round.
I'll have to consider whether Aliani's use of Murderous Command goes off or not (same with Dalen's Web) since for the moment the wererats aren't too concerned about this.

[Stelio Kontos]

It's fine if it doesn't; I have faith in the front line to handle things themselves. (As long as I don't have to go up there it'll be great.)

[Steveodore]

My reply is up, though I wonder since Miz remembers the shop, she should have dropped a warning to the team that there is likely to be wererats ahead.

[Inspectre]

Update posted!
Round 2, FIGHT!

(Also, I'd say Miz does remember, or at least mentioned the possibility, so Rhev was ready with his wererat-be-gone to help Silas out with. This poor wererat is so screwed.)

[Stelio Kontos]

Would the whistling for backup have triggered the murderous command?

edit to add: I'll assume not for my action; needless to say I'll need to change up if it did.

I actually need to wait for Miz to go before me in order for this to potentially have maximal effect in the unlikely event it actually works.

[Inspectre]

I will assume not since Aliani would likely have been expecting "Help! Help!" rather than weird wererat whistling TM .

He'll have other targets for that soon enough, or he can get the wererats to stab each other later on.
I will note that since these are wererats, and they don't have silver weapons, them stabbing each other is unlikely to do much (another OOC reason I was holding off on having Aliani use Murderous Command and like as not waste it, aside from the "my buddy just tried to kill me" confusion and CC that provides).

[Stelio Kontos]

Oh right... silver...

(TFW you as a player roll a 1 on that intelligence check)

[Darvin]

So, quick question for the GM:

If you are affected by a spell while attempting to cast a spell of your own, you must make a concentration check or lose the spell you are casting. If the spell affecting you deals damage, the DC is 10 + the damage taken + the level of the spell you’re casting.

If the spell interferes with you or distracts you in some other way, the DC is the spell’s saving throw DC + the level of the spell you’re casting. For a spell with no saving throw, it’s the DC that the spell’s saving throw would have if a save were allowed (10 + spell level + caster’s ability score).

If Dalen were to, say, cast Mage Hand at Wererat #1 to distract him would that trigger a DC 16 concentration check? Because attempting to disrupt the casting of Summon Swarm seems like Dalen's best course of action.

[Inspectre]

That is an interesting idea. I think the intent of the "affected by a spell" line is more intended for things like Daze or other non-damaging crowd control spells, or at least ones that have a specific target in mind rather than the 5-pound version of unseen servant.

That being said, the image of Dalen using mage hand to slap the wererat in the face (or other parts ) is amusing to me, and it's no less disruptive to the wererat's turn than blasting him with Daze would be - with the caveat that it could theoretically be more effective than Daze against higher-level targets. Still, if Dalen is casting 0-level spells at the arch lich in anything other than a desperate last-ditch effort to thwart his Meteor Swarm from killing the party because he's out of every other spell, well I will just have to shake my head at him.

DM RULING: I will allow things like Mage Hand to force Concentration checks against Full-Round spells, or against Standard spells if readied as an interrupt (i.e. "If that mage starts trying to cast a spell, I'm going to give him the ol' Mage Pimp Hand!")


. . . None of which actually apply in this case, as the wererat is summoning a swarm in the "I prepared the area ahead of time by using my rat empathy racial to bring hundreds of my little friends nearby and have them hide until I need them as an additional monster", not "I cast the spell, Summon Swarm". So there is not anything to disrupt that will prevent the rat swarm from showing up next round, alas.

[Inspectre]

Update posted!

In hindsight, I may have been a little unclear about when and where the rat swarm would be at the end of Round 2, so I will happily let Dalen act retroactively last round, and then prepare his little welcome gift for the rat swarm to go off THIS round, at the end of Round 3, when the rat swarm will actually move in and join the "party" in earnest. Also, while your post mentioned Dalen getting into a better position, I didn't see any coordinates so if he was going to move let me know!