OOC A Tide of Discussion: the d20 ToF OOC thread

Im working on a combine....REALLY I AM!! lol...

Ditto


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Use the light switch, Luke. Trust your feelings!

First interlude is up. You'll note it's dated two or three days before the projected arrival of the Red Hand. There will be other interludes dating before that date, soon-ish. I wouldn't be concerned if your own updates are dated "out of sequence" or out of time; indeed reading them one after another out of chronological order my fervent hope is that they'd give the reader sense of chaos, of urgency, of desperate preparation as the city of Brindol faces down what surely is the most deadly threat to its existence that it has faced for three hundred years, and the one for which it's least prepared. Enjoy!

(Also note the title: we're into what I nominally term "Part Three" of the adventure. Longtime readers will remember the first part, waaaay back, was "A Glimpse of Rain", and the second, just before Celbrandir Silverwind was killed, was named "A Stream of Ruin". We now have reached the cistern into which that stream empties: a pool of blood.)

I'm glad, Ramza. I'm not fishing for compliments, but I have to confess I'm consciously trying to improve my writing, and ToF is something of a test bed to work with some of the good stuff I've been reading lately. This, above all else, is why you should be discouraging me from reading Jimmeh Joyce.

So, all quiet on the Western Front, guys?

Actually...just finished most of our combine..just polishing it off and up. Hopefully, it will get posted soon!!!

After that..Im guessing the plotting will occur. I dont mind of Ariel plays air support, and checks out the folks. But with all the normal birds we got around here...... just saying. We DO need some intel.

Find out EXACTLY where they are located, would be nice.

Scribing..scrolls, birds.. dont care.
But if we're gonna hit the head honcho.....

we need to talk...

Since Saint mentioned in his update that we did kill Karn, I need to know how the company goes about to doing it. Zanaek will be against any assassination attempt regardless of how beneficial Karn's death will be to us and therefore will not help. It's an evil and dishonorable act. I imagine Skadi would also be against it, and if she is, will the rest do it quietly behind the clerics backs and convince others to help that might be see-sawing over the idea?

I'm asking because I'm writing Zanaek's response to everything we'll have accomplished off-screen, and that topic I'm touching on.

That's still assassination, you're just doing it with a team rather than a single person.

Anyway, its why I'm asking. I need the details man!

It would fall under the Rules of War, I imagine, assuming Faerun has something equivalent of the Geneva Convention and if not, I would imagine Tyr and Torm would have such rules to keep its clerics and followers from dishonoring themselves in battle.

If you guys kill him during a hit and run, it doesn't matter. But you all were discussing before in having William port you in and out and slitting his throat as he slept in his tent. Not pulling a ZD30 or getting lucky in a random raid. Hence why I'm bringing this up and asking for the general details agreed upon.

Well, posted the combine post. Will post mine as soon as I get the details of Karn's death.

Mitth has a valid point: of course the clerics would object vehemently to an assassination. I remember Skadi did precisely that when Zanaek himself speculatively volunteered to tiptoe into Vraath Keep and terminate the minotaur, remember?

Here's how we could retcon it - luckily no IC "canon" things have happened yet. Yes, the Company was pulling a hit-and-run, say having identified the Red Hand's stores of scrolls held by its clerics. This is a pretty valuable store since a full store of scrolls vastly expands clerical range on the battlefield, as if that wasn't terrifyingly wide enough. During the course of that raid - which would've been a plain old "teleport in, set fire to everything, teleport out," the Company has the fortune misfortune to run into Kharn who's on a random inspection of the camp. Kharn knocks down William for a few crucial seconds, someone takes Kharn out, and to provide a distraction for the few moments required to get William back and aware enough to cast, Mazarun and Ariel pull two diversionary tactics to give the Company enough time to get clear.

If, on the other hand, you guys would find it more interesting as characters to have dissension over this issue and leave it as a targeted assassination, I'm down with that too. Maybe the party literally divides in half over this; perhaps Zanaek and Skadi are able to prevail upon two people in the party not to take part, leaving the mission down to William + three others. At this point this is more about what interest you guys would like to add to the story, I'm happy to deem it either way. And I'm happy for people to do limited godmode and write the fine details of what happened - subject to the above - for themselves.

P.S. I loved the combine post, Mitth, Ktala - that's a lovely, sensitive little piece between the two of you!

Just to let you guys know, I'm cool with whichever way we deal with Kharn - deliberate stealth assassination, complete with lectures and dirty looks from the clerics once we get back?

Or utterly random encounter while we're mucking up/stealing the scroll stores (because, let's face it, if we can get at the enemy's scrolls we can grab some rather than wipe out such valuable resources completely) that leaves Kharn dead and William with a gorgeous black eye from being punched by a warlord?

Do we have the ability to scry and find out about those scrolls? Or do we learn about them another way? We DO need some serious intel...

Especially if they are getting close. And if there ARE giants and dragons involved...they gotta be somewhere. Probably good to find out now.

I don't think a kill through a random encounter with Kharn would be plausible, simply because it's an encamped army and any fighting with a capable warrior will simply bring the rest down on us.

A kill through stealthy assassination is more likely to succeed, plus it adds flavor to the story and shows that we are not a group of adventurers entirely without morals and it gives us something to write/ponder about.


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Use the light switch, Luke. Trust your feelings!

On the other hand, given the party's capabilities I think it's perfectly plausible for you to take down an unprepared melee-ish type fairly quickly, and then holding a perimeter/using a distraction to let the rest of the party get away. Even though it's an encamped army, that doesn't mean the entire army has lightning-quick reflexes and you'd have entire divisions of troops thrown at you in three rounds or under. You might clash with sentries, perhaps with any bodyguards Kharn might have with him at the time, but it takes time to put on armour or mobilise enough to meet a threat. I think there'd be enough time for you to take out Kharn even if it's a random encounter and then get away without having to face down an entire division. And that's even if only four or five of you go: Ragnar is more or less an instant death token to anything with less than about 50 hitpoints, Mazarun gets four attacks a round or so and drow abilities to go with it, William's a caster, Ariel can fly and fight, Evelios can buff you all to stratospheric levels, and Corrath gets horrifying bonuses on sneak attack.

As to how you gain that intelligence: I think a combination of flyovers by Ariel and nighttime incursions by Corrath and/or Mazarun over the days preceding the raid. Hitting the Red Hand's scrolls would occur to either Zanaek or Skadi, I'm happy to suggest; or indeed Mazarun might come up with the idea, coming from matriarchal Menzoberranzan where pretty much anyone with female genitalia is a cleric

Hmmm.... Could we do a bit of both?

The rest of us go in...thinking we're there to only grab/destroy the scrolls..and while busy with that..the sneaky squad could be slitting ole whats his face throat? The best of both worlds..... One would cover up the other...and the clerics woudlnt know...

Or the assassination mission becomes known to the party when it goes belly-up, thus necessitating the aforementioned holding action and distracting maneuver in order to get out alive.

I say that's what we did. Z scrys for scrolls and pots to destroy while William secretly scrys Kharn. So on the night we go, the clerics think we're after magic items and those that are for killing Kharn in his sleep sneak off while the clerics are busy and distracted. Ariel or Poe and Meagan keep watch above.


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Use the light switch, Luke. Trust your feelings!