Sam and T are suspicious of the dwarves, having faith in their abilities of tracking and reason, respectively. "Maybe the dwarves made those tracks," thinks Kos, but the otbers are certain it was the orcs. Whixh means that guard, at least, is lying.
<trying to speed this up a bit>
If pressed, Stillguar admits that the orcs have been coming and going from the tower while paying the Wardens handsomely for the privilege. Stillguar offers to allow the characters to explore the tower and pay only a one-tenth fee should they agree to keep this knowledge to themselves and not inform the Greyhawk militia.
.They don't know ehat the orcs are up to, but business is business and theyde rather not deal with it. They do see the orcs in a negative light and would prefer to be rid of them, but they dont really know where they're coming from, how many there are so, they're just acting neutrally. Ostensibly, this is precisely the kind of thing they should be investigating and trying to stop. From a certain point of view, the blood of those killed on the river road is on their hands.
T starts bristling with anger, his beard quivering. Normally he gets along well with dwarves, but these were a disgrace. " your business is yours to run, but these orcs attacked innocents, and that makes you accountable for harboring them. We will find the orcs and deal with them, but we're doing it as a service to the community- not to get loot. We will determine what we do afterwards. It's in your best interest to help us however you can. " (20 persuasion with advantage- he is wearing a belt ot the dwarvenkind)
<sorry, im running iut if time. Traveling for the next two weeks.>
Stillguar balks at the accusation. Begrudgingly, he suggests you may keep whatever you find, noting "your business is your own." He tells the guard who met you at the door to see you out and ge obliges.
<you di t iwe them anything, so theres no need for them to search you, etc.>
Once out of hearing if tbe rest of the dwarves, the guard speaks to you in a hushed tone. "You lot seem like the right sort to have this." With yhese wirds, he produxes a rolled parchment, which he unfurls to reveal a map.
Triskelion wants to get a good look at the map, well enough to reproduce later with various illusion cantrips and spells.
"Master of Reality. Sam that's way better than what I said about being an Illusionist... I like it! Master of Reality!"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
<sorry, im running iut if time. Traveling for the next two weeks.>
Stillguar balks at the accusation. Begrudgingly, he suggests you may keep whatever you find, noting "your business is your own." He tells the guard who met you at the door to see you out and ge obliges.
<you di t iwe them anything, so theres no need for them to search you, etc.>
Once out of hearing if tbe rest of the dwarves, the guard speaks to you in a hushed tone. "You lot seem like the right sort to have this." With yhese wirds, he produxes a rolled parchment, which he unfurls to reveal a map.
You see at once there is bately anythi g to the map. "That there's a copy, i made meself. As you can see, there isnt much to it, yet. I got the original, but its just that piece in the corber there. I found it on an explorer we taxed and he contributed it willingly. I been snooping a bit on what it could be, and i think its a piece of a map to something i should like to find. I'll pay you handsomely for any other pieces of the map you should come across. The genuine article should be easy to discern once in hand. It was written in a vicid pale green ink, but the more i stared at it, over days or weeks, the map, now returned to the surface, began to glow with a fiery orange shimmer. I'll give you a hundred gold for ei h piece ye should find." Stilgaur concludes.
<obviously the incentive here is for yoi to didn the map, not the 100gold. I didnt write this, its in the book, but as a player, id just think why not rip up each piece i find into like 4 smaller pieces? So, thats the limit im aetting. Any smaller and its not a map, its confetti.>
"We'll have to make sure to keep an eye out for more pieces of the map."
Triskelion moves to go with T and Sam as they start to explore.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
The dwarf thanks you and adds "Let's keep this map business between hs, ok?"
Departing the guild hall, the wartower lies to your immediate right.
Behind a deep pit stand two stout wooden doors, barring the entrance to the Tower of War. Skillfully carved into their surface is the image of a great wagon and eight chariots soaring through the air, accompanied by more than a dozen hawks flying escort and a host of hounds on the ground below.
The pit is 15 feet across and 30 feet deep. The Wartower Wardens keep a number of heavy wooden planks just inside their building that they use to bridge the gap, allowing entrance to the tower. The Wardens gladly lay down the planks for anyone entering and exiting the tower, as long as a deal has been struck.
The great doors leading into the Tower of War are never locked, although they are rusted with age and difficult to open. (Opening the doors from either side requires a successful DC 25 Strength check.)
*Up to three other characters can assist in this check. If the characters are unable to open the doors, the Wartower Wardens will gladly do so for a 10 gp fee, grumbling the whole time.
(To speed this up, just roll kr pay the 10 gold, then...)
With a whining creak, the heavy doors of the Tower of War open, revealing a large chamber flanked on either side by a row of columns. A staircase on the far side of the room, next to an empty wagon, descends into the black depths beneath the tower.
Aside from the war wagon, eight unused chariots reside on the platform on the far side of the chamber. Each chariot might fetch up to 5,000 gp to the right collector.
With a whining creak, the heavy doors of the Tower of War open, revealing a large chamber flanked on either side by a row of columns. A staircase on the far side of the room, next to an empty wagon, descends into the black depths beneath the tower.
Aside from the war wagon, eight unused chariots reside on the platform on the far side of the chamber. Each chariot might fetch up to 5,000 gp to the right collector.
Three swordwraiths appear
“Well these would fetch a good price” seeing the swordwraiths he gets him self ready
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
I'm sure you've noticed its been almost a month since i posted here. I was travellomg and ive been thinking about how I'm going to continue this experience. I want to run things differently, with a shift in the way pillars are featured. Basically, this means eliminating combats with foregone conclusions. This fight with some ghost guards and a chariot is meant for you to win. I don't really love 5e combat in pbp, but I do think it can be really fun for big fights, so I first considered doing a boss rush, where it's just all combats with bosses. But then I thought about the sacrifice to exploration and determined I like that and want to keep it. So, here's what I'm proposing for the balance of this campaign: slightly less political intrigue than the original adventure as written, but still explore the city of Greyhawk as much or as little as you want. The rest is dungeouns, full of exploration as usual. Traps and hazards can still be deadly. The only modification, and this is where I need player buy-in, is how 'combat' works outside of boss fights, where I will ask for player initiative and use static for monsters. In conflicts with lesser 'monsters' their disposition is randomized unless theyre NPCs. If random, i wont roll it, so youbdont know instantly if the thing js a monster ir an NPC....
I wonder if DND Beyond ever addressed how to handle certain things for PbP? It would great if they had ways to adapt things from real life or online and change it so it worked better on PbP. I'm ok with just about anything you want to try to make it run smoother or easier for both the DM and players. So long as we're all having fun is what's important.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
So, if you want to talk your way out of a fight, great. It may work. You want to nuke the squad, thats fine. Yse your features, yse your items, combo, tag team, wgatever you like. Its all narrative. Not even trackimg tesources, so it works the same as you use them get a long rest before the boss fight and your all fresh for it. The thing is, the interactions are still consequential. NPCs & monsters might drop loot, gift boons or rewards or favors, or hire an assassin to kill you. Its not without impact, it just doesnt use combat. Bigger bosses and sub bosses, we still run as usual with mapd and combat mechanics and all that. There are a few of these baked in as objecrives. Im thinking of Szazz Tam, Father Llymic and a few lesser, plus a couple fixed points i wont reveal here. PCs already know of the two i memtioned. So, if you want to participate, youre welcome to do so. If you want to continue but don't love the way I want to run it, let me know and we'll decide what to do from there. If i have limited players, i will recruit more. Im thinking 5 or 6 for this. So, yeah. Let me know.
(crossposts) Ok, seems like we can try this. Just to describe the scene one more time... (it's been a minute and it looks like I never finished the description in the first place) A large chamber flanked on either side by a row of columns. A staircase on the far side of the room, next to an empty wagon, descends into the black depths beneath the tower.
Three waiting sword wraiths manifest, wearing the golden torcs of the champions of the Fee City Arena, victors of the Champion Games.
Aside from the war wagon, eight unused chariots reside on platform at the far side of the chamber.
"Look, we are not neccesarily interested in fighting you- we were after some Orcs" T begins to say. If they don't back off, he will cast a radiant fireball or lightning bolt at them (depending on which is the better shape to limit collateral damage)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Sam and T are suspicious of the dwarves, having faith in their abilities of tracking and reason, respectively. "Maybe the dwarves made those tracks," thinks Kos, but the otbers are certain it was the orcs. Whixh means that guard, at least, is lying.
<trying to speed this up a bit>
If pressed, Stillguar admits that the orcs have been coming and going from the tower while paying the Wardens handsomely for the privilege. Stillguar offers to allow the characters to explore the tower and pay only a one-tenth fee should they agree to keep this knowledge to themselves and not inform the Greyhawk militia.
.They don't know ehat the orcs are up to, but business is business and theyde rather not deal with it. They do see the orcs in a negative light and would prefer to be rid of them, but they dont really know where they're coming from, how many there are so, they're just acting neutrally. Ostensibly, this is precisely the kind of thing they should be investigating and trying to stop. From a certain point of view, the blood of those killed on the river road is on their hands.
What do you do?
T starts bristling with anger, his beard quivering. Normally he gets along well with dwarves, but these were a disgrace. " your business is yours to run, but these orcs attacked innocents, and that makes you accountable for harboring them. We will find the orcs and deal with them, but we're doing it as a service to the community- not to get loot. We will determine what we do afterwards. It's in your best interest to help us however you can. " (20 persuasion with advantage- he is wearing a belt ot the dwarvenkind)
<sorry, im running iut if time. Traveling for the next two weeks.>
Stillguar balks at the accusation. Begrudgingly, he suggests you may keep whatever you find, noting "your business is your own." He tells the guard who met you at the door to see you out and ge obliges.
<you di t iwe them anything, so theres no need for them to search you, etc.>
Once out of hearing if tbe rest of the dwarves, the guard speaks to you in a hushed tone. "You lot seem like the right sort to have this." With yhese wirds, he produxes a rolled parchment, which he unfurls to reveal a map.
Triskelion wants to get a good look at the map, well enough to reproduce later with various illusion cantrips and spells.
"Master of Reality. Sam that's way better than what I said about being an Illusionist... I like it! Master of Reality!"
"ahh... love maps. Let's see. Thank you.". T says, looking over the map and stroking his beard.
You see at once there is bately anythi g to the map. "That there's a copy, i made meself. As you can see, there isnt much to it, yet. I got the original, but its just that piece in the corber there. I found it on an explorer we taxed and he contributed it willingly. I been snooping a bit on what it could be, and i think its a piece of a map to something i should like to find. I'll pay you handsomely for any other pieces of the map you should come across. The genuine article should be easy to discern once in hand. It was written in a vicid pale green ink, but the more i stared at it, over days or weeks, the map, now returned to the surface, began to glow with a fiery orange shimmer. I'll give you a hundred gold for ei h piece ye should find." Stilgaur concludes.
<obviously the incentive here is for yoi to didn the map, not the 100gold. I didnt write this, its in the book, but as a player, id just think why not rip up each piece i find into like 4 smaller pieces? So, thats the limit im aetting. Any smaller and its not a map, its confetti.>
(cool,).
"Very interesting. Certainly we will see what we can find, as we search for these miscreant orcs. I suppose we should get moving". T says
"We'll have to make sure to keep an eye out for more pieces of the map."
Triskelion moves to go with T and Sam as they start to explore.
The dwarf thanks you and adds "Let's keep this map business between hs, ok?"
Departing the guild hall, the wartower lies to your immediate right.
Behind a deep pit stand two stout wooden doors, barring the entrance to the Tower of War. Skillfully carved into their surface is the image of a great wagon and eight chariots soaring through the air, accompanied by more than a dozen hawks flying escort and a host of hounds on the ground below.
The pit is 15 feet across and 30 feet deep. The Wartower Wardens keep a number of heavy wooden planks just inside their building that they use to bridge the gap, allowing entrance to the tower. The Wardens gladly lay down the planks for anyone entering and exiting the tower, as long as a deal has been struck.
The great doors leading into the Tower of War are never locked, although they are rusted with age and difficult to open. (Opening the doors from either side requires a successful DC 25 Strength check.)
*Up to three other characters can assist in this check. If the characters are unable to open the doors, the Wartower Wardens will gladly do so for a 10 gp fee, grumbling the whole time.
(To speed this up, just roll kr pay the 10 gold, then...)
With a whining creak, the heavy doors of the Tower of War open, revealing a large chamber flanked on either side by a row of columns. A staircase on the far side of the room, next to an empty wagon, descends into the black depths beneath the tower.
Aside from the war wagon, eight unused chariots reside on the platform on the far side of the chamber. Each chariot might fetch up to 5,000 gp to the right collector.
Three swordwraiths appear
“Well these would fetch a good price” seeing the swordwraiths he gets him self ready
initiative 22
Triskelion's Initiative: 19
I'm sure you've noticed its been almost a month since i posted here. I was travellomg and ive been thinking about how I'm going to continue this experience. I want to run things differently, with a shift in the way pillars are featured. Basically, this means eliminating combats with foregone conclusions. This fight with some ghost guards and a chariot is meant for you to win. I don't really love 5e combat in pbp, but I do think it can be really fun for big fights, so I first considered doing a boss rush, where it's just all combats with bosses. But then I thought about the sacrifice to exploration and determined I like that and want to keep it. So, here's what I'm proposing for the balance of this campaign: slightly less political intrigue than the original adventure as written, but still explore the city of Greyhawk as much or as little as you want. The rest is dungeouns, full of exploration as usual. Traps and hazards can still be deadly. The only modification, and this is where I need player buy-in, is how 'combat' works outside of boss fights, where I will ask for player initiative and use static for monsters. In conflicts with lesser 'monsters' their disposition is randomized unless theyre NPCs. If random, i wont roll it, so youbdont know instantly if the thing js a monster ir an NPC....
I wonder if DND Beyond ever addressed how to handle certain things for PbP? It would great if they had ways to adapt things from real life or online and change it so it worked better on PbP. I'm ok with just about anything you want to try to make it run smoother or easier for both the DM and players. So long as we're all having fun is what's important.
Yeah I’m ok with that
So, if you want to talk your way out of a fight, great. It may work. You want to nuke the squad, thats fine. Yse your features, yse your items, combo, tag team, wgatever you like. Its all narrative. Not even trackimg tesources, so it works the same as you use them get a long rest before the boss fight and your all fresh for it. The thing is, the interactions are still consequential. NPCs & monsters might drop loot, gift boons or rewards or favors, or hire an assassin to kill you. Its not without impact, it just doesnt use combat. Bigger bosses and sub bosses, we still run as usual with mapd and combat mechanics and all that. There are a few of these baked in as objecrives. Im thinking of Szazz Tam, Father Llymic and a few lesser, plus a couple fixed points i wont reveal here. PCs already know of the two i memtioned. So, if you want to participate, youre welcome to do so. If you want to continue but don't love the way I want to run it, let me know and we'll decide what to do from there. If i have limited players, i will recruit more. Im thinking 5 or 6 for this. So, yeah. Let me know.
(crossposts) Ok, seems like we can try this. Just to describe the scene one more time... (it's been a minute and it looks like I never finished the description in the first place) A large chamber flanked on either side by a row of columns. A staircase on the far side of the room, next to an empty wagon, descends into the black depths beneath the tower.
Three waiting sword wraiths manifest, wearing the golden torcs of the champions of the Fee City Arena, victors of the Champion Games.
Aside from the war wagon, eight unused chariots reside on platform at the far side of the chamber.
(Chair for scale)
I am still in, and here!
really impressive chariot!
"Look, we are not neccesarily interested in fighting you- we were after some Orcs" T begins to say. If they don't back off, he will cast a radiant fireball or lightning bolt at them (depending on which is the better shape to limit collateral damage)