Saltmarsh OOC Chat

[JadedDM]

(ooc @Jaded: how does Dogmeat react? Amon is being bound now, too)

I...don't know? I'm having trouble following what's happening. It's only been one round, right?

This is what I've been able to piece together:

Brax KOs Human2. Sanbalet casts Colorspray, and it knocks out Amon, Echo, Searos, Dogmeat and Kim. Someone(?) lights a lantern. Gnoll1 withdraws. Sanbalet, Gudrum and Human3 and Human4 arrive. One of the two latter has rope.

Human1, Human3, and Human4 approach the party. Human1 holds a sword to Searos, while Human3 and Human4 tie up Amon and Searos. Echo, Amon, Searos and Dogmeat wake up. Human1 moves to Echo and threatens her. The smugglers bind Echo and Kim. Gudrum confirms that Human2 (henceforth known as Hugo) lives. Sanbalet demands the healing potions from Brax. One of the humans (Human1?) now threatens Kim. Sanbalet demands the healing potions again.

So, yeah, I'm confused. You just said 'Amon is being bound now, too' but you seemed to claim he (along with Echo, Searos and Kim) have already been bound in an earlier post. I'm also confused on who is being threatened right now, other than Kim. Are all the humans holding swords to the party members, or just to her? Because he was holding a sword to Searos and Echo, earlier. Or were they different humans?

Long story short, I'm totally lost. I can't react without knowing what the situation is. Too much is happening at once. Can I get some clarification?

[Breila]

Sorry, it seems I'm still finding my style. I want to write a gripping narrative that gets the image I have in my head into all of yours, while avoiding to get verbose. And of course, you're someone to spot each and every omission and inconsistency. And I've made the mistake to continue writing out of my memory, instead of checking all the previous posts to get the names correct. I'll put things into order here and edit the two posts. (None of the posts of you players has to be modified).

Brax KOs Human2. Sanbalet casts Colorspray, and it knocks out Amon, Echo, Searos, Dogmeat and Kim. Someone(?) lights a lantern. Gnoll1 withdraws. Sanbalet, Gudrum and Human3 and Human4 arrive. One of the two latter has rope.

Correct. The smugglers have a shuttered lantern that was covered, and during the tactics meeting held before the party came down, Gudrum was ordered to uncovers it just after Sanbalet (the mage) cast his spell.

Human1, Human3, and Human4 approach the party. Human1 holds a sword to Searos, while Human3 and Human4 tie up Amon and Searos. Echo, Amon, Searos and Dogmeat wake up. Human1 moves to Echo and threatens her. The smugglers bind Echo and Kim. Gudrum confirms that Human2 (henceforth known as Hugo) lives. Sanbalet demands the healing potions from Brax. One of the humans (Human1?) now threatens Kim. Sanbalet demands the healing potions again.

Correct again, and because the effect of the spell lasts only one round, which is approximately one minute of game time, at the end of that round, only Amon and Searos are tied up. The three humans move on to Echo and Kim as they (plus Searos, Amon and Dogmeat) wake up.

In my memory, it had been Searos and Echo who had been bound first, and Kim and Amon now as they're waking up, so I made the mistake of letting the man wound Kim and not Echo, and telling you Amon was being bound. I'll correct that now and mark the edits. Sorry again.

[Breila]

I will be having guests over for the weekend, and because rushed posts are likely to contain errors, I would like to place the game on hold until Monday. Feel free to post, but I won' t continue the thread until Sunday night at the earliest.

[Breila]

Sanbalet's initial plan was to go to the village the next morning and ransom Echo and Amon for gold and safe-conduct. If the Color Spray had held long enough to bind Dogmeat as well, it might have succeeded...

As it is, I don't feel up to playing out a battle of NPCs, perhaps even NPC mages (and I would certainly lose if I let Jaded play Daos!) and I think it would be boring for you to just read about it, so I let Sanbalet opt for a quick retreat to save the rest of his operations.

The barricade will be partially open now (Sanbalet, the gnolls and Gudrum have passed it), so we can assume the party gets rescued and is brought back to town. Because I can't really post this weekend, I think we can skip playing this out, or does anyone object?

Now would be the time for anyone to enter or leave the game, before we start the next module part.

[JadedDM]

Seems a bit anti-climatic. Although I guess as long as Sanbalet shows up again some day, it's not too bad.

Do we get any XP for that little (mis-)adventure?

[Jenara]

I have XP to give out, for sure.

[Breila]

If it is important to you, we could of course play out how the town militia comes in and helps you out, next week.

In addition, to Jen's XP, there will be a general roleplaying XP award, as well as a few extra points for defeating two gnolls and a human...

And don't worry, if you search the house and caves again the next day, you will find clues that Sanbalet and his men are up to something and should be pursued...

[The_Muffin_Man]

Awww, just as I would looking forward to joining a smuggling operation...

[JadedDM]

Well, then...guess we should start forming a treasure pool, see what we managed to collect.

All Amon was able to get were three books (The Magical Properties of Gemstones by Mage Tenser, The Magical Properties of Herbs and Flowers by Mage Tenser, The Metaphysics of Mathematics by Mage Nystul) and a spellbook that was never updated to 2E.

What about the rest of you?

[JadedDM]

Okay, I'm guessing nobody actually was keeping track of their inventories, were they?

So I took the liberty of going through the 80 pages of the game thread myself.

Here's what I found:

Amon - The Magical Properties of Gemstones by Mage Tenser, The Magical Properties of Herbs and Flowers by Mage Tenser, The Metaphysics of Mathematics by Mage Nystul, Nymphs and Pixies (a volume of erotic poetry, fully illustrated), Saltmarsh Almanac, Sanbalet's spellbook (Color spray, Hypnotism, Detect Illusion*, Wall of Fog, Invisibility, Magic Mouth and Darkness 15 radius)

(*There is no 2E spell called "Detect Illusion" but maybe it should be "Detect Invisibility" instead?)

Vee - Magical plate mail, "handful" of gold coins (actual amount unspecified), dagger

Searos - 20 gp credit, gold locket (30 gp), three emeralds (100-125gp), small box containing 101 gp, a broadsword, a large two headed axe, two longswords, and a small handaxe

Brax - Vial of chloroform, dagger

The daggers are the ones with wolf heads on their hilts. I've no idea if they are any more valuable than a regular dagger or not. The broadsword, axe, longswords and handaxe were the epic magical artifacts that Searos found. (Which reminds me, during the downtime, Amon, Echo or Kim should cast Detect Magic on all of this stuff, to be certain. Anything that does turn out to be magical, Amon can then cast Identify on it. Likewise, Searos can use Appraisal on any non-magical goods found that we haven't appraised already.)

I don't think anyone actually saw Searos claim the credit, so he could probably keep that hidden from the rest of the group. Likewise, nobody saw Amon take the almanac or the poetry book, nor did he ever mention them to anyone else. :3

So the question is, how should we deal with this? Finders-keepers, losers weepers? That kind of sucks for Kim, Gunther and Echo then, who didn't pick up anything. Or should we pool it all together, liquify the non-magical goods, and then split the coin equally among the seven of us (with magical items going to whoever can use them in the most optimal manner)?

[Jenara]

I like the spilt idea, what i had planned all along. You'll note that none of the items really fit brax anyway!

I think there were some neutralize poisoned potions too.

The handful of gold will be 25gp.

Vee only took the breast and backplate.

[Breila]

Thanks, Jaded, for reading through the game, I thought I'd have to do that Monday... and there are two vials of "neutralize poison".
But there is more in the house and the caverns, so dividing up the finds is something that could even be played out later.

[The_Muffin_Man]

I'm happy to split everything up. Though Searos had planned on "finding" an appraiser, selling the gems, and then lying to the party about the value of the gems and keeping the rest for himself. At this point, I don't think I'll do that.

[JadedDM]

Hmm, I didn't find any reference to Neutralize Poison potions. Must have missed them. I remember them finding a vial of purple liquid, which was purported to be a healing potion, and I think they gave that to the smugglers. And I remember them finding vials of a cleric liquid, which turned out to be chloroform.

Where and when did they find neutralize poison potions, and who picked them up? I'll see if I can find that scene.

Oh, and I wasn't suggesting we actually roleplay out the splitting of the treasure. That would be kind of dull, I think.

[Breila]

Hmm, I didn't find any reference to Neutralize Poison potions. Must have missed them. I remember them finding a vial of purple liquid, which was purported to be a healing potion, and I think they gave that to the smugglers. And I remember them finding vials of a cleric liquid, which turned out to be chloroform.

You're probably right, as you are most of the time. In the module, the purple liquid was identified as neutralize poison, so that's what Jen and I had in mind, even though it was played out differently.

As for playing out the splitting of the treasure, I just thought it might be fun to give Searos an opportunity of being Searos... andway, there's more to be found in the house and caverns if you look, and we could postpone the splitting until you have everything. But thanks again for doing the inventory!