Main / CT-OOC

Court of Thanes - Out of Character Discussions

8/26 Carissa

Just reading up on the goddess of importance this round. I mean, the chat doesn't read as this being true, but part of me now can't stop wondering if we're really just trying to rescue this lady's husband...

"Aphrodite is extremely vain. There is a 10% chance she will overhear any unfavorable comparison of her beauty. In such cases, she will avenge herself by making the transgressor fall in love with a statue, turning him into a shell, or having bees sting his eyes. Omens from Aphrodite are often associated with the sea."

8/31 Carissa

Debated if it was worth posting or not, but A) the grammatically incorrect tagline is really bothering me so want to post again (shh no judgement), and B) better to clear up some potential confusion in game.

Just want to clarify so nothing is taken personally that Shi is a lot more absentminded right now and therefore won't be paying attention to things like where the group is going and who such-and-such is because she has too much on her mind (and to a degree, she does not care to know). Also to clarify as it'll likely be more prominent later, her bias against strangers (especially human strangers) will be much more pronounced and obvious. This is especially true with all the new characters and hence why her desire to converse is limited to only those she has known for a long time (gypsies being elf-like and Thistle-like will probably be one of the few exceptions, maybe).

Fun stuff to RP out, but came up twice by different person not sure why she responded as she did so figure I should just put this here. Also forgetting to put "it" in that tagline bothered me. Some form of OCD? Probably.

10/12 Carissa

Just some current thoughts I debated sharing, but figure why not. I'm still a few cents short of a dollar.

  1. Are we after "dark" elves or Drow? The fact that they set-up camp in a forest makes me wonder as well as the fact that Drow are rarely seen. Elves would know about them from myths and religion (see: Corellon), but maybe others think dark elves are just elves that look like Shi but wear black. If so, it might not be Drow we'll find. Or maybe it is to the surprise of any high elf. That's the fun of this, right? Not knowing for sure.
  2. Also what about the orcs? We ask about the Drow more. To be fair, while elves hate both orcs and Drow, the Drow are going to be a bigger focus because of the whole point of shame thing (see: above link). And yes, it could be because the elf in the party is laser focused on the fact any Drow would dare show its face where the sun does shine, and therefore that becomes everyone else's focus, but just thought to mention it.
  3. All that said, everything matches with the priestess's word so far. Orc fled into the Old Forest, Dark Elves cast magic on them. Maybe there is an entrance to the Underdark nearby? Do Orcs and Drow normally band together?? The enemy of my enemy kind of ordeal?

There were probably other thoughts, but will leave it off here for the moment.
why are all the posts on this page only mine so far?

10/16 Lisa

Thanks for posting Carissa! I’m sorry I haven’t been contributing more. When it comes to elves, my characters would be taking Shi’s word on things. Like how I had Indigo stop saying dark elves since it seemed to upset Shi. Is there a difference between dark elves and Drow? No one in this campaign has ever come across either, so IC no one in the party other than Shi and perhaps Skarp could really speak to that.

I have no clue what we’re going to find in the woods. My take on the ambush? I’m thinking this wasn’t a random bandit ambush. I think the whole thing was to get this shell. The Greek priestess said they were on their way back from their cleansing ritual so the ambush was the second time they were travelling around with the thing. Maybe the elves saw it when the Greeks were traveling north and then planned the ambush for the return.

Orcs don’t really seem to be the brains of any operation, though they might want to argue that. The witness accounts were the elves were casting. I would say the elves probably hired the orcs as the muscle and protection so they could cast freely. Unless we stumble upon some orcs we can question as to the elves and possible survivors, I don’t think the orcs have the shell now or are cohabitating with the elves currently.

10/21 TMO

To open up the Coup de Grace for OOC discussion, I'll just post the way I see the event happening. I know Fritz, at least, was concerned that Drayven didn't get to do a reaction to try and (I assume) stop Ilero. I'll also point out that all of this is just *my* interpretation of events. Doesn't mean I'm right. ;)

Personally, on afterthought, the way I see it, Drayven (nor anybody else) didn't have time to react once Ilero actually acted. The blade was already against the orc's throat at that time. It only takes a second to cut its throat. Now, if Ilero had been 10 feet away and I stated he was going to go over and coup it, that would give the others time to intervene. But I believe nobody expected Ilero to actually do it, so nobody reacted to him putting his knife there. I'm pretty sure that if another such situation arises, there will be a LOT of reaction to it before Ilero actually has a chance to do anything. ;)

Also, this isn't intended to replace any IC discussion that's going to happen. :D Anybody wants to yell at Ilero needs to do it in the IC section or next Friday.

10/22 Carissa

Short reply to say yes, I didn't think Ilero was actually going to do it, and the reason I thought he did it was because Drayven said, "Give him a dagger" and, I mean, you can interpret that two different ways. As for IC from Shi? Eh, she wasn't a fan of keeping it alive to begin with, and to then get her to agree to let it have some version of honorable combat? Yeah, she's not mad at Ilero at all.

Can't speak for anyone else, of course. :)

10/22 Lisa

My characters aren’t really angry either. I think it was a bit of a shock since we didn’t expect it. And out of combat kills are uncomfortable I think in general. I thought Ilero was just doing more of the threatening thing. But I thought it needed to go there eventually, just not right that second. I had a laundry list of questions, but not a whole lot of ideas on how to get him to talk. Violence was not going to work, but neither was bargaining so options were either to kill him or let him go back and tell his pack/tribe/herd (?) what we were asking about.

I was going to have Bran want to talk to Ilero not because she was angry about the act per se, but how he did it right in front of Kenna who was interacting with him via her healing. It looked like another symptom of all that is bothering/haunting Ilero.

Indigo was annoyed that Kenna was upset, he had also just bandaged the orc up, and now there was a bloody mess at the wagon where we had him tied up. But he was also coming to the conclusion and was saying in chat that this wasn’t really working. He’s not going to go yelling at him or anything.

10/26 Carissa

Thanks Branwyn, and especially Ilero, for giving Shi things to think about. Maybe now she'll be a little less self-destructive. More importantly, you have a much better chance of having her agree to talk to a Drow without worrying about her stabbing it. :)

Anyways, as for first finding where to go? Three spells on my mind from my list that could be helpful:

  1. . Elf Camouflage. This is one of her new specifically only elves can cast spells. If you want to do recon, this would be super helpful, although you have to move slow so that's one limitation. Still, worth keeping in mind, and as it's only mistletoe for a component, easily cast multiple times. Mistletoe is EVERYWHERE. Seriously. This winter, when the leaves of the trees fall, go look for it. Don't let the holidays color your opinions of it. It's actually not a nice plant. That aside, Shi would have grabbed it on any of her walks. Also cantrip if needed.
    1. . Summary: only in the wilderness settings, allowing the priest to instantly and completely hide (9) persons, concealing them against even thorough searches. It is effective against infravision and ultravision, and is especially useful for spies and infiltrators. The concealed individuals can move while magically camouflaged, creeping slowly up to 10 feet each round. Trying to move faster dissipates the spell. The concealed individuals cannot be detected except by magic or by moving stupidly. Until the spell wears off, they enjoy near-total invisibility.
  2. Commune With Nature. It's one-half mile per level so 4.5 mile radius of surrounding nature knowledge. That also means nine "facts" of the area. This is one I don't if Shi chooses what to know or if that's determined by the DM what she knows. I'd have to pull out the spell book and see if it clarifies it. If it is Shi wanting to know, then what are nine things we'd want to know? People, of course, unnatural creatures, but anything else? If we were clever and know what a good camping spot for ambushers was, we could use that, but I can't think of anything... (as in, you'd want to camp near all the berry bushes, so look for berry bushes, or something of that nature). It'll be a one time cast so we'd want to make sure we use it well and at the right time if we use it.
    1. Summary: This spell enables the caster to become one with nature, thus being empowered with knowledge of the surrounding territory. For each level of experience of the caster, he can "know" one fact--ahead, left, or right, about the following subjects: the ground, plants, minerals, bodies of water, people,general animal population, presence of woodland creatures, etc. The presence of powerful unnatural creatures also can be detected, as can the general state of the natural setting.
  3. Speak With Animals: you know how it works. Shi gets two free casts of this from her god, plus five more if she uses her spell slots. So yes, that is not much to ask her to use at all and why she uses it a lot. She also has a "Locate Animal or Plant" spell, but again, we'd need a specific one we'd think would be near camp and some of them are percentage based so it could fail.

Just some spell ideas, thoughts, and such. I'll add more later if I think of any. Hopefully something gives itself away to help us know where to look, or someone will appear, but need to plan for not as well.

10/26 John

These are great spells and should help enormously. I had been more preoccupied with understanding why the Drow were still here and how we could possible catch up with them, but now I think why they can't go back is because of the early thaw and that may be why they took the shell. Not that I think a peaceful solution is more likely now, but we may have a better understanding of the situation. Maybe.

11/2 Lisa

People who got bit by werewolves:

I'm leaving my typo in the formatted chat line in the hopes people will open it and scroll down to the end to read the final story update before next week.

11/3 John

Thank you for the clarification on who not to trust now.

From Fritz: Prequel:

  1. ). North Ambria was saved by both Glamis and Cawdor from an ogre invasion.
  2. ). As Banquo and Macbeth were returning as victors after battling the Ogres of the Eye they meet 3 hags in the woods who gave them a dark prophecy

Dark Prophesy:

  1. ). Macbeth would rule both Cawdor and Glamis
  2. ). Banquo would beget thanes of both Cawdor and Glamis hereafter

Court of Thanes rules:

  1. ). Cawdor - Village of "Light" elves - No longer prejudiced against drow
  2. ). Glamis - Drow settlement located under Birnam Wood - Drow follow Eilistraee

Cawdor citizens:

  1. ). Thane Duncan - Unified Cawdor and Glamis 50 years ago. Spends 1/2 year in Glamis and 1/2 year in Cawdor. Killed (by his own guards apparently) in Glamis this past week in Macbeth's underground Tower of Dunsinane
  2. ). Thane Banquo - Member of Court of Thanes. Suspected Macbeth arranged Duncan's murder. He was killed by dark elves (werewolves) of Glamis
  3. ). Thane Fleance - Son of Banquo
  4. ). Thane Malcolm - Son of Duncan
  5. ). Thane Donalbain - Son of Duncan
  6. ). Macduff - Military commander of Cawdor

Glamis citizens:

  1. ). Macbeth - Duncan killed in his tower. "Feigned" outrage and had the guards that killed Duncan executed
  2. ). Macbeth's Sorceress - sent chilling undead spirits to repel the “Light” elven assault on Glamis

Recent events after the death of Duncan

  1. ). Banquo/Fleance/Malcolm/Donalbain and 36 eleven warriors assaulted Glamis. Repelled at entrance to Glamis by Macbeth's Sorceress. Few casualties amongst the 36 elves.
  2. ). Macduff has gone to North Ambria to get aid from Dwarves.
  3. ). Banquo/Fleance also seeking Dwarven allies were attacked by the drow werewolves and Banquo was killed
  4. ). We rescue a fleeing a Fleance at our campsite from drow werewolves
  5. ). Several of our party members are bitten but all the werewolves are killed
    1. ). Shurkural gave wolfsbane to everyone bitten, which should greatly reduce or eliminate chances of lycanthropy. However, I think she only has enough wolfsbane for one more encounter of this size. (I guesstimate she only carries a dozen sprigs normally)
  6. ). Fleance enlists our aid to return his father’s body to Cawdor and bring peace to Birnam Wood

11/4 Lisa

Thanks to Fritz for converting Macbeth to this story arc. This will really help everyone and esp. the people unfamiliar with the play. Still disagree about chopping off heads, Fritz? :D

And thanks TMO/Shur for the wolfsbane! If Branwyn can cantrip berries and mistletoe for Shi, I think she can cantrip some wolfsbane to help replenish supplies.

11/8 TMO

I haven't yet finished Isaac Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare's explanation of the play yet. I'm not ready for the final exam yet, teacher!

11/11 TMO

I worked on my chars' encumbrance over the weekend, and noticed that Shur does have Wolfsbane listed in her inventory. IIRC, it was 12 dried sprigs, 16 fresh. This inventory is easy to keep up if the mages can cantrip up new supplies whenever needed. Can they cantrip fresh wolfsbane, or only dried/older?

11/11 Lisa

TMO - Cantrip for components like wolfsbane would be what she concentrates on. If she has seen both, presumably she has over the years with Shur, Branwyn could do either. She has to be familiar with the item otherwise she can’t do it.

About the other night… Like Carissa, reading the full chat log after the fact provided a bit of a different perspective.

First, I thought we had 3 options, not 4. Oops! But we probably wouldn’t have chosen dwarves as a first option anyway. (Sorry Ryan).

Here’s how I saw it as we were playing. The witches were a first stop to what I thought was a huge battle. I figured we needed the most hps and spells we could get. There were 15 magic clouds (making me think we had 15 giants) and that reminded me of that huge giant and skeleton battle we had at Bob’s house for the 25th Anniversary bash. We won, of course, but it was not an easy feat and we had more characters in that fight than what would have gone into this one. So, I was pushing retreat for lack of a better option being offered at the time.

But afterwards reading, Michael might have had a good idea for the giants, but just less than optimal execution. He ran his full movement right into a cloud. This gave the giant the chance to toss him right back. But, what if he ran 40 feet away from the clouds on one round. And then the next round did a full charge right on by. Maybe he would have run into some witches?

We retreated but did not travel to the battle at the end of Friday night. Do we have a chance to rethink things? Other ideas?

Just an FYI – like TMO said on Friday, in turn based combat sometimes it is difficult to move because no one wants to be the first one to do it. I had Indigo moving backwards but we would not have done anything like leave the map and abandon characters. It was my goal to move people out of stomping distance and I felt someone had to be the first to move back. Branwyn has 2 teleporting spells memorized so I had her wait around and would have gotten any stragglers out if they couldn’t get out themselves.

11/13 John

When wanting to retreat, we should be able for the first player to go old action and move together when the second player moves. We sometimes ignore this for roleplaying I think

Oh and I was thinking maybe the three for giants were the witches.

11/14 Carissa

First, a recommendation to have an idea of what you think we should do tomorrow or I can see us spending more time than necessary debating it. As a reminder, our options are: Go with Fleance to the battle unknown, Defend the village unknown Go to the three witches to see what they know about the magic of Macbeth, Go in search of the dwarves and another way into Glamis.

Second, uh, I forgot we already HAD a prophecy earlier and it might change some minds about what we want to do. Remember the totally not a Drow Old Crow? She said to us:

Weird Sisters, Virago, Erichtho, and Canidia will do their best to present you with their prophecy and you will follow the dwarves.

11/15 Lisa

I’m leaning towards doing a cloud rush and seeing what’s beyond the fog. I’m definitely not in favor of fighting giants to the death. Even if we got a back door into Glamis, ran in and grabbed the shell, we kinda promised the elves we’d help them in this battle. So I would also be in favor of helping in the battle after we do the witches as originally planned.

John’s comment made me laugh. It would be funny if instead of three hags standing around a cauldron, there were three (literally) giant witches. I don’t think they are though since they were only saying surrender or die and nothing else. They might be the witches' guards? The witches are the ones making the magic fog to protect them?

11/17 Lisa

I’m feeling a need to decompress again after last Friday. These have been two kinda stressful weeks of gameplay and player interaction for me. At first I wanted to talk about the spells. How everyone who has them has been playing their casters for years now and pretty much know what their spells do and don’t do. And that it can be frustrating to be told how we should be running our characters.

Then, as I was reading and formatting the chat, I realized that there seemed to be a disconnect in what the actual goal was that was leading to all these spell discussions. If the goal was to fight the giants, yes, dealing with the fog makes a big difference. But in my mind, I never, ever wanted to be in combat with multiple giants and so all of the dissipating fog with spells discussion was irrelevant and I just wanted it to stop.

I think we have to get in sync with what our goals are and I’m sorry I wasn’t getting that at the time during the night and if I didn’t communicate that well enough. I just didn’t see fighting against things that weren’t connected to the main goal as a good use of our spells and hps. To kill them meant knocking off hundreds of hps for the encounter. And if there was any lingering doubt beforehand, as soon as we saw they had an AC of -7 during combat and saw what damage they were inflicting, that should have been convincing enough for everyone to get the hell out of Dodge.

To me, the giants were merely a barricade that we had to get past to get to the witches, which themselves were only a pitstop so we could get to the major combat and main goal of the whole night. And Bob had basically told us how to do it a couple of weeks ago by having us all stop and calculate movement and encumbrances, etc. All we had to do was run.

Next, it really bothers me when characters die. I feel guilty that I didn’t do something differently to prevent it and generally blame myself at least partially for the loss of the character. This time? Ack! I feel absolutely horrible that Miranda was killed. She and Branwyn were the last of the inaugural PCs still playing from the 2010 Phoenix Era. I feel worse because I did see John’s recent IC post that under no circumstances is anyone to bring her back (something that I unfortunately was not as clear about in my head when it came to Shi).

But man oh man, John! I felt like this was so preventable. We had a plan. All we had to do was run as fast and as far as we could. The only possible reason that I could think of for you to break that plan was Ilero’s lollygagging. I admire the sentiment of wanting to watch over him. I have had Branwyn sometimes tail him over the years when he decides to run off by himself. But it was a straight line and I felt if Ilero was left all alone he would get his act together and come to us. I wasn’t going to kill myself over him and it makes me so very sad that Miranda did. If I’m seeing this wrong, please tell me.

I don’t know how to fix this but I guess I’m just disappointed because when we started running I felt like we were finally going to get through this and then it all got derailed.

11/17 TMO

I just checked and confirmed, Ilero did state IC that he intended to try the stealth route at the same time the rest of the group tried the speed route. Doesn't mean anyone heard him, of course. There were lots of plans and voices flying about at that time, one might easily have gotten lost in the hubbub. I am very sorry if this was the cause of Miranda's death.

11/17 John

No one should feel bad, but I do. I would say I was surprised how well the plan worked. I and Miranda were a little more cautions then needed as it turns out but no she was not waiting for anyone. No dex checks, fewer hits and less following then I would have expected. I feel bad so much was sacrificed just to get Miranda's body, but I understand as everyone was more concerned about role-playing. I am sorry Miranda won't be there for you.

11-19 BOB

To pick up on a couple of points here. I think that part of the discussion about spell use should be done in whisper in the chat log not in private messages. That way the player can see it, it does not take up everyone's chat at the moment and then everyone can see it afterwards in the Chat Log. Of course if it is something critical that people think should be discussed then calling a time out and asking OOC makes sense too.

I like to tell the story of how sometimes it is more important for roleplay than maximizing combat by Branwyn's inability to learn detect magic to the point now that she does not even try and mostly does not believe that such things should be done. Quirks of a die roll that develop characters and add to the story.

We still have several weeks of sessions to go before we make it through till the morning. It will be interesting.

11/20 Lisa

Ahem ... *cough* … Branwyn can detect magic just fine. It’s dispelling magic that she has a bit of trouble with.

But looking to Friday, I wanted to bring up a couple things. First the prophecies revisited.

The first prophecy isn’t saying go jump on the battlefield and kill everyone. The first prophecy tells us to guard Macduff’s family because Macbeth fears Macduff. Now in the play, Macbeth orders the death of Macduff’s wife and children and is successful. Can we save them in this version? Do we even know where they are? Strange prophecy.

The second is the famous one. None of woman born can kill Macbeth. Enter Macduff can since he was a C-section baby. We really can’t do much with this except take note. However, it does explain Macbeth a bit. If you think you are immortal, you get a little arrogant and greedy. I mean, who’s gonna stop you, right? But it also tells me that we should pretty much ignore him. We’re not killing him so why spend the effort trying.

And the third, Macbeth takes no care where conspirers are. Macbeth shall never be vanquished until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane shall come against him. Again, when you think you’re invincible, who cares about anyone else? He already took care of Banquo and we don’t know if he knows that Fleance lived. The important part here is the Great Birnham Wood to Dunsinane have to all show up. In our game, methinks this means both the grey elves of the woods and the dwarves (?) of Dunsinane all have to be there so Macduff can do his thing. Macduff after getting driven back from Glamis went to go get the dwarves after all.

The tricky part is the shell and Lady Macbeth. In the play, she just dies off stage, presumably killing herself since egging on murder is easy to say and somewhat harder to live with apparently.

But the witches tell us -- Search for the Lady she is sustained by the blood and the shell. So this shell is helping her magic. We know she’s a sorceress. And a vampire? That would explain the ease of creating a bunch of undead. Basically only a necromancer would be making undead. If you are undead yourself, making them is even easier than that.

Dealing with vampires. I’ve never tried to kill one. I believe instead of sucking blood, they level drain so I recommend keeping a safe distance. They also have charm oozing out of them which may have been why Bob asked if we had any characters who were charm resistant. Branwyn is. I believe elves are pretty charm resistant, aren’t they?

Once we figure out what’s what and what we’re going to do, I’m all for breaking out the potion chest and using these. We have 23 unlabeled potions. So we will replenish our stock easily if we go to town chugging the ones we have already identified. And we have some good ones. The only thing we have to figure out is who’s taking them and if they do, then they better get out in front. Otherwise it’s just a waste. Using these all depend on what we find, I just don’t want us to forget we have them or think we should save them for something bigger?? I’m not sure what’s bigger right now.

Fun potions that may be helpful:

11/21 TMO

Just a couple of comments:

11/22 Carissa

It's been a busy week for me, but I did want to add a few thoughts.

In regards to spells, I will also add, for those who haven't played a spell caster in a long time, that we also have to consider spell components whenever we cast. Some of it is minor, such as mistletoe, which can be easily foraged. Some of it is much more complex than that. It's not just rationing spells for a night without rest. Due to some of the spell components, it's rationing out spells for a full adventure. True Seeing, for example, uses a special ointment as a spell component. With her lab and herbalism skills, I would think it fair to say Shi made one in that many years long break, but she wouldn't have brought multiple of them. If she were to cast that spell, it would be once, total, for this full arc, and maybe longer, if they go somewhere straight after this adventure. There is a reason she's not casting all her fun spells - there are limits and BOB expects us to know the limits.

There are times, as a group and in chat, I'm okay with tossing out a few ideas, and it's usually pretty clear when those times are, or at least has been in the past, but everyone playing a spell caster has played their spell caster for a few years by now and knows their spells. They may not always be completely sure of consequences (such as if Ilero wanted to be possibly stuck in the mud), but they know them, and they'll ask as a group for ideas if they want them (or to double check ideas for, say, making temporary magical weapons).

And anyways, I am still of firm belief that everything has a solution that won't require magic. I mean, yes, some of them will be more difficult without magic (such as getting Etienne out... but we could have found a way to break the wall), but I still think with enough consideration and creativity, there is a way. Such as running past the giants.

As for plans of action, I guess we need to be more clear too as to who is and isn't going to go with the plan. I am sorry about Miranda, but I didn't realize she wasn't going to attempt running. I don't know if next time we need to pause before going and just ask that everyone is on the same page and clarify who is doing something different or what, but this is (correct me if I'm wrong) the second time in a year I think this has happened? Where we had a plan and then... things went wrong and the plan wasn't fully followed. It does get frustrating, and we all hate losing someone and causing others pain, so we do need to find a way to prevent that from happening again, especially if it's going to result in others changing their action (like if rescuing needs to be done).

In regards to Lisa's plan, it sounds doable, but should Branwyn go alone? Or do we think Dispel Magic might need to be cast on the shell? Still trying to figure out when it should be used. And yes, elves are 90% resistant to charm and sleep. :)

To TMO, I'm going to also point out that things not human are born from not women... just a backup plan. And always trying to find reasons for more animal friends. ;)

11/30 John

I always seem to know what to do once I log off. Someone who is invisible to undead should take the rod, run just in front of the shadows going to town and when the shadows run into, some will die. Next round again run just ahead so when the attack. Of course if Branwyn can control them, there will be less running.

12/4 Carissa

Just a thought after reading through chat. I'm thinking if we defeat the remaining shadows, we'll be okay in terms of not creating more. I don't think they're a spell so much as creatures in which case, I don't know if Dispel Magic would work on them. Kind of like if you Summon Animals, you can't unsummon them or dispel magic on them (my knowledge of summoning spells is limited to what Shi has). But you know how you get rid of shadows? Light. Lots and lots of light. Shi does have a more powerful light spell that she could try casting, and unlike Dispel Magic, shouldn't cancel out her Undead Invisibilty Spell (seriously, a single hit and she's gone otherwise). And I don't know if we want to undo the magic rod. John's idea isn't bad, actually, especially as one of our undead turning priestess will be gone (and maybe the other, too, and Shi does not have that spell).

That said, kind of worried about it before, but moreso, about touching the dagger. Lady MacBeth was old, and I'm mean Bog Cheese old or Roman Tomb Wine Old, which I am thinking could be due to the spell and/or dagger. Not unusual to have spells age you (like Talwin and the potion), but you know, age you more than a year. But that is Branwyn to decide upon as I don't know if anyone else could even try to use a magic dagger.

And just a reminder, if I'm reading things right, and you can correct me, Ryan and Spring will be limited timewise (coming in late or leaving late?) due to work, Mario is gone, and TMO is maybe gone on Friday. So... you know, no pressure trying to solve this shadowy problem with limits. :)

12/5 Lisa

Sorry I haven’t posted sooner. It’s been a crazy week for me. But yes, I was very concerned at the end of last Friday. We are still in combat and just because the witch is dead doesn’t mean we are out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.

BOB said that all of the un-named dwarves and elves and Penelope are one shadow hit from becoming shadows themselves and on the next round, if we don’t eliminate them, they will grow again to 50.

We also have 10 shadows heading to Cawdor to annihilate the undefended village.

The only thing we have going for us at this point is the initiative. Indigo (who is at 7 STR currently) goes first and so he can grab Penelope and run away from the shadows to try to save her, yelling for the others to run away as well. Shi also goes before the shadows. I have no clue if a light spell will end them but definitely worth a try since we won’t have any priests to turn at the beginning of the night. Branwyn is on the ground and so is in reach of both the shell and the dagger. I was going to have her try to command the shadows to retreat and tell either Talwin and/or Tiberius to go into the tunnel and try to get a Drow priest to turn these things. I don’t know what else to do.

I don’t know if Branwyn can use the dagger. It could be only usable by evil alignment characters, etc. If Shi’s light spell works, Bran has a couple of those she can help out with, but if not, I don’t see anything else to do except give it a try.

Illuminated by the glint of fireflies in the cave walls, Glamis is shrouded in sinister webs that extend 100' from the top to the bottom of the cave. Four ziggurats extend from the cave floor, apparently built around stalactites that protrude through the tops of the ziggurats. An inverted ziggurat is built into the ceiling. Coiled around the downward point of this ceiling structure is a purple, serpentine creature.

The Run. The central area of Glamis is a racetrack around a fire pit. The pit's walls are walls of iron and every night, residents tell stories at communal meals. Twice a month, the priestesses of Glamis hold a Circle of Song, a religious storytelling where worshippers sing and dance in a circle. This pattern has been disrupted of late.

The inverted ziggurat is made of reinforced stone embedded deep in the ceiling. The stalactite in the center is surrounded by construction. The outside balconies allow uninterrupted walking around each of the four levels; the balconies are also connected by ropes. On each of the balconies are arrow slits, in which you can see haze but no light. There do not appear to be any doors.

12/14 Carissa

If you weren't here on Friday, I highly recommend you read the description of High Dunsinane AND log into kLoOgE to see the layout. As for ideas tossed around so far (I'm tired, add any I forgot to add):

12/19 Carissa

One more thought. You know what police do when someone won't come out of a building? Smoke 'em out. There is that nice fire pit directly underneath that could be put to use. We could also summon some insects to fly through the arrow slits or let someone fly up and toss in some homemade smoke bombs. Or maybe drown him out, somehow, or set the inside on fire and let him burn... if MacBeth wants that place to be his coffin, who are we to argue it?

Provided Peyton lets us, of course.

12/26 Michael

Right. So quite frankly i've dropped the ball on posting the plan but here's the absolute distillation. It's going to have to do for now. There are two groups who will be involved. The first set is Me, Brandarus, and I vaguely recall ... i'll get back to it one second. The other group is going to try and charm dragon boy into drinking potion of gasseous form. If that doesn't work, they are going to try stabby stabby.

The hope is we can meet up and go all in on the Macbeth and hopefully whammy him. I highly suggest people have any "anti-trap" garb/potion/chant stuff they can have on them at the time. Oh yeah, uh, Macduff is with the climbing group. I'm hoping the three of us tied together via a rope would be good for an anchor. If anyone has any rope abilitiy to tie knots, that would be nice to add to our good list. uh, all Elves will be on the Dragon side for talk/charm/stabby. We are meeting up regardless and we have to backup Macduff so he can go in for the final whammy.

After that Bob can grace us with xp and i'm loopy because i'm exhausted after work and am going to bed. If i remember anything else i'll get back to it. sorry

-michael h

12/27 Lisa

Not too sure about the plan as stated above.

BOB put the info about the charm man spells in last week’s chat and so it doesn’t seem to me to be able to work on the dragon – so I think that’s out.

Then about using the Gaseous Form potion. The ziggurat opens with a word. Turning the dragon into a gas isn’t going to get us the word to get in there.

Also being in gaseous form makes him there to see everything even if he can’t do anything about it right then. So say, gas dragon watches us dose him, break into the house and kill his master. We decide to head back to Cawdor to take a nap, dragon follows and comes back to form and attacks the village.

The potion of Overwhelming Love should act like a charm to any creature and should bypass the man requirements the shell has. Maybe a better option to get the door open?

I didn’t see any discussion about how to get the potion in the dragon’s mouth. It would need to be a called shot, so I think the two best fighters should each take one in case one misses. Also if any of the priests have some bless or chants available, it would be a good time to use them.

We also have 100 Reverand Ones. Maybe they are awe-inspiring to any elves and can help lure Macbeth down. He knows the prophecy. It seemed like Peyton knew about the witches but didn’t know all the prophecies himself. But the Reverand ones can help – at the very least for cover. If it’s just a dozen of us in a room, the dragon can target us pretty easily. When there’s 112, maybe not as easy to hit us specifically.

We have potions for people to use. We have two potions of climbing if people want to go up the webs.

We also have 2 potions of levitation. That potion lets someone go up or down carrying up to 600 lbs. So if the door was open then someone could levitate themselves and 2 other people straight up to the door.

Since Macbeth is a caster, we have 2 potions of protection from magic and 2 potions of minor globe of invulnerability (protects from 1-3rd levels spells) that we could use for Macduff or those that want to go head to head with Macbeth.

I don’t think those potions protect against a dragon breath weapon so if Mario’s priests aren’t planning on a big spell fest for this battle, I would ask that they heal anyone that can’t take a breath weapon attack before we start the show with the dragon.

12/27 Carissa

Yes, I was hoping for a post because there were some kinks I definitely felt needed to be fixed. :)

In terms of priests, do any who are on have Zone of Sweet Air (I think it's called?). If we end up fighting a dragon, that's a possible important spell depending on its attack. I do not have that spell.

Agree with Lisa, I think we'll have better luck trying to charm with potion than we would with a shell. It is an artifact of a god, and as we see from the dagger, could be powerful enough to charm a dragon, but is it worth the risk being wrong? High chance it's a single day cast or something. Of course, I believe there are more hints about how it works, and how Lady and Lad MacBeth got that many followers, but those hints have flown over my head for now.

As much as we seem to want to use the gaseous form potion, also agree that maybe not the time yet to try it.

In the end, I think it'll be hard to avoid a dragon fight. Peyton seems loyal to MacBeth. How would he take MacBeth being killed? Because MacBeth will die, one way or another. I'm up for trying one more attempt at persuading Peyton to at least maybe come down, or maybe finding out more about him that might hint to another path (only have one convo I could think of right now to have), but if MacBeth raised him as a hatchling... not sure he'd just take MacBeth death nicely.

That said, unless you're sneaky, I also don't know if people can sneak in to kill MacBeth until Peyton is gone or charmed or whatever. And besides, once you get up there, how do you get in? Anyone small enough to fit into arrow slit or good at finding trap doors to open?

Then again, as we all learned with previous spell caster fights: hit him before he hits you. Would a dragon fight interrupt his mediation? Climbers are good to add to the MacBeth fight, but flying is fast and might get you there before a dragon can stop you.

12/28/19 John

Sum up of plan: Let the elves take out the dragon

12/29 Lisa

Yeah, that part went a bit easier than expected, but we had a brutal shadow fight and if we would have unleashed the 100 elves then, the shadow fight would have been much, much easier and the dragon fight much harder. I'm good! :-)

I had a thought yesterday. The dagger might know the password to the door if it had been unsheathed at the time someone opened it. I could ask it on Friday, though the dagger is pretty disgusted with Branwyn at the moment it might be worth a shot.

And I just had a thought now. I forgot (and apparently so did BOB) that Indigo was STR impaired from the shadow fight. He shouldn't have been able to climb the webs. So, if you (Bob) want to chuck Indigo off the balcony for damage, I would think that would be fair.

12/30 Carissa

That's a good point. One or the other fight would have been hard, and at least this time we are for sure fulfilling the prophecy by making sure the "forest" is still alive to help take down MacBeth. Easier to restore lost strength (although we lost Penelope) than to have everyone burn and splat to the floor. :)

If Indigo was STR impaired, wouldn't he have just gotten stuck on the web? Obviously up to BOB, but since Indigo reached the balcony and did bind wounds, that's not hard to rewind, right? Maybe he just got to the top then got stuck in the webs leaving someone else needing to bind wounds and later rescue Indigo rather than another splat. The floor is already a mess of melted Elven (or did they turn back into trees and it's just ashes?) bodies...

12-31 BOB

I am ruling that Indigo is up on the balcony as we ended with.

If I had the bad guy miss a couple of attacks, it would not be fair to go back to reroll them to do damage to you. Just a mistake we did not catch during play.

The key things now are to figure out how to get in, track down Macbeth and then .... how does this end for you?