Lost Lab of Kwalish

“I agree, he’s holding all the cards. Maybe see if he’ll equip us with some ‘tools’ to help us succeed. I would think he would prefer for us to succeed and return with his book. But maybe he doesn’t really care about whether we return or not.” Thinks Barril.

(Would love magical armor and weapons, or any other items that would help)

<It's written  in the module that he's unwilling to let the items go.  They are his path to what would be called a legacy if he didn't also aspire to lichdom.

I assumed you'd fight him.  He's actually really weak.  He is so weak, in fact that he probably wouldn't be alone because the encounter would be too unbalanced in PCs favor.  But it really is up to you how to proceed.  I'm just role playing him as he is.  This is almost exactly asking the kind for his kingdom. You can't roll a 20 on that one.  To that end, Etrigan should hold onto his dark one's own luck for a rainy day.>

<In case you missed it, tearlier here were some tanks in a lab with old men floating in them.  Why they were old, I cannot imagine.  Maybe it's like milk and the fresh stuff is further back.)>

Quote from Wile_E_Coyote >>

<I assumed you'd fight him.  He's actually really weak.  He is so weak, in fact that he probably wouldn't be alone because the encounter would be too unbalanced in PCs favor.  But it really is up to you how to proceed.>

 Insight: 24

:-)

(OOC: Ok then, but when we met him a bit earlier you seemed to suggest that he was almost invincible. We should perhaps fight him then. Thoughts?)

(WTH, not sure how the time warping thing works but nothing ventured nothing gained. Also, if an ally can get within 5’ of him and Barril doesn’t have disadvantage, sneak attack damage …)

Just in case

Initiative: 7

Etrigan initiative:23

Quote from Oberon99 >>

(OOC: Ok then, but when we met him a bit earlier you seemed to suggest that he was almost invincible. We should perhaps fight him then. Thoughts?)

< I only said what caster level he was from his stat block.  I described him as powerful because in theory he is, but epic monsters are largely neefed by 5e's bounded accuracy.   I felt that was what the check warranted.  Also, rhe concept of combat chains is what the whole system is predicated on.  I'd say about 70% of the strategy of the game is resource management to spread out your spells and abilities and short rests across the suggested (but almost never used) encounters (not necessarily combats) per adventuring day.  The other 20% being puzzles, which I prefer to pose as combats because it achieves 3 things at once.  Puzzles that aren't boring, for variety combat encounters to sap resources, and a way to potentially introduce magic items. It can also potentially make combats more memorable because of the unique features, and all without breaking the 4th wall.  I really like combat puzzles.  This module likes them too.  Like we the Thessalhydra.  That thing just won't die, until you solve the puzzle.  The other 10% is decisions like this one.  Your decision will have some effect in the world, but it's not a puzzle and it's definitely not resource management.

One more bit: mechanically, you don't have to have all the pieces to do anything in particular to advance the story.  You just get as many as you can.  I made it known that they are linked to leveling, but nothing requires you to collect them all, just to be motivated to crawl theough the places where they are.  That said, they are linked to leveling, but level progression and story connection are not really linked at all, so do what you want.  I'm not forcing a combat here.  It just might be cool to do the things the characters are built for.>

Barrils insight: (I'm not sure what you're hoping for here, so maybe if you tell me this will change, but...) Thesellar seems pretty serious about everything he's said.

Quote from Wile_E_Coyote >>

Barrils insight: (I'm not sure what you're hoping for here, so maybe if you tell me this will change, but...) Thesellar seems pretty serious about everything he's said.

 (It was a joke where I was breaking the 4th wall. I was testing my insight vs. the DM’s deception. Sorry it wasn’t more obvious. It wasn’t a serious check.)

Tetrevess mentally messages the group "can we grab him and get him in the water?  We all breathe water, oerhaps he cannot?"  

tetrevess initiative 5

(OOC: Seems we are about to attack then, waiting for Sam and Huarache. Can we get a new tactical map please :-)

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/dymExry8pZKX

What do you guys think of this? It's easy for me to update it and it tracks health.  I won't set it up if you hate it though.

Looks good :-)

works for me. who's who?

I like it, but yeah, labels would be good. Or a legend off to the side or something.

Here it is with labels and zoomed out all the way.  I do t think I like this app though.  So I don't even know of why I'm sharing this one.  I'll get you a better map.

(OOC: It´s a little hard to make out the names but otherwise it´s ok I think. Tell us if you want us to proceed or wait for Sam and Huarache.)

Ok.  Finally. I think this will work.  It's been going well with the published maps from the MztG campaign and now I'm just using my maps.  Moving tokens was the part that sucked before, but I think this is going to be much more streamlined, meaning I can update maps way more frequently.  More of a puzzle than a technical issue, but I think it's going to be really good from here out as far as maps go.

I'll roll the initiatives for Sam and Huarache since they haven't yet and we can slide them to the end if we get to them and they haven't replied.

Sam 22

Huarache 4