Spire's Shadow (OOC)

I thought I’d just give a heads-up in advance, that I’ll be gone from the 17th until the 21st. Got a festival coming up; beer, music and parties ahoy!

I’ll PM the DM my character’s plans shortly before leaving.

While I’m away (from tomorrow afternoon), Polp will help in this and any upcoming battles as well as he can, requesting an invisibility spell or using his potion if the group is in serious trouble.

Otherwise, he’d just be his typical fearful self, ranging from utmost despair when things look grim to joyful optimism when things go well.

Thanks a lot Ben! I expect you all to be wearing necklaces with eyestalk-trophies by the time I get back.

is that "recruiting reopened" in the title still applicable? If so, I'd like to join (as a Tuladhara Binder*from Tome of Magic*, dropping the +1 LA via the initial 3 munch points).

Glad to see you're still alive, Duckluck. Does this mean there'll be a post in the game thread soon?

No problem!

If I'd known you were off to Comic-Con, I would have seen if I could have put you on the hook for a certain promotional issue of a comic that got handed around there a few years ago... been wanting it for ages to complete my series.

(And its difference with the other #1 issue of that comic I have? The, um, cover. Gad, I am such a fanboy...)

No prob!

Hope the trip goes well.

Woot! Love the entrance--talk about greeting cards. I want a refund on the interplanar travel service. lol.

I really like it! I've been doing the same with my Prime's culture, as I created Avlis as a realm to contain his ranger spirit and not worry about stepping on cannon.

It makes conversing unique when you live in a realm without cities, plains, towers, etc etc. Anything barren of trees is marked as a blight of evil and either shunned or reforested quickly. Even the mountains are heavily forested and their tops avoided as the holy ground of the heavens, which cloak Avlis from the darkness beyond...

Yes, I have a hippieland on my hands, but without the drugs and classic rock.

There's something I'd like to do at this point but I can certainly imagine howls of player outrage if I went and did it unexpectedly, so I'd like to give everyone a heads up and wait a day or so to see if anyone freaks. :^) (Character outrage is an entirely separate thing, and might be quite fun!)

We never really established which one of us picked up the gems and jewelry from the temple of Athene in Ooze. Zhegre spent some time going over the magical artifacts we recovered. P&~P ran off with the dusty rose ioun stone, but other than that nothing much was said, and Zhegre does have a handy haversack in which it would have been convenient to pack the haul.

(For reference, it was 2000gp in general coinage, 1000gp in gems and banged-up jewelry, a ring of mindshielding, a ring of sustenance, a conjuration periapt of some sort, and the ioun stone.)

Zhegre also mentioned, a couple of times, returning all this stuff to its rightful owner. ^_^ That is to say, Athene, who temple it was. Since we're back in Sigil now, he fully intends to do exactly that first thing in the morning if the loot is still in his haversack. I'd like to write up an individual scene in which this occurs, and the temple has any reaction Duckluck would care to supply.

Now, one of your characters might feel robbed if they felt entitled to a share of the stash, but Zhegre's willing to defend the ethics of his action, so that's not as much of a problem. If a player, on the other hand, would feel that this is an unjust swipe, speak now or forever hold your peace. We can have it transpire that you had already picked up a share or something, and Zhegre has been spending downtime on the trip trying gently to convince you that, you know, it's not yours, it's theirs, but hasn't wanted to sow group discord and so has not pushed the matter. However, I'd much rather be able to give it all back. ^_^

There's also the matter of whether the GM would prefer that we pick up the standard advancement treasure somehow, despite this attempt to return it; but that'll be his post. Any comments?

Whoo, level-up!

(For reference once again: There was 2000gp in coins and 1000gp in gems. The dusty rose ioun stone is 5000gp (P&~P took that and ran off with it), the ring of sustenance 2500gp, the ring of mindshielding 8000gp, and a periapt of some conjuration school (possibly health, at 7500gp).)

About the treasure, there are a couple of options, some of which would require DM intervention:

1.) Zhegre follows the communal will whenever possible. If, way back after we'd just gotten out of Ooze, everyone else insisted on keeping the treasure and dividing it up evenly, he'd have reluctantly gone along with it. Assuming Linji didn't get a share, that's P&~P, Baba, M'rek, Zhegre, and Kadar. It's not easy to divide up that loot evenly, so he'd propose holding them in common, getting the periapt properly identified (to the tune of a 125gp scroll), and using them as necessary. However, people might want specific items for specific uses -- such as coinage to upgrade weapons, or materials for magic item creation, or the like.

2.) Failing agreement on divvy, I guess we could have diced for it, highest number gets first choice. The lots could go sustenance, mindshielding, periapt, coins/gems, and the ioun stone making its way to P&~P.

3.) Here's something that might be interesting: this is at least 26000gp worth of treasure. Think about the value this has to the temple of Athene! Instead of keeping it for ourselves, if we returned it the temple might be considerably grateful -- to the tune of some valuable spellcasting or magic item creation services "on-call" as we might need them in the future. Even if the absolute value of the "trade-in" was less than the amount of the treasure handed off, it's also handier since it's flexible to meet our needs as they arise. Alternatively, they might have something more specific to offer. And besides, in a meta sense we're also handing it off in exchange for roleplaying XP, which has its own value. ;^)

4.) The temple might just look at us funny and refuse to take the loot. Zhegre is a Ring-Giver, after all. Gifts from them often have a hook in them. ^_^

If we do decide to dice for it, here's my roll below:

I'm going to be disconnected for the next few days as I move. Hopefully I'll be reconnected Monday evening. Assuming any other active players mention their preference for disposing of the loot, I'll go along with whatever Duckluck finally proclaims happened.

Just throwing it out there but since Hilaren hasn't really rolled any important dice yet then if DL was amenable why not just change the background mechanic's and play on? All your dialogue would still make sense and you'd be able to be a geomancer in no time, or at least give yourself a couple of levels of druid so you just need to get the arcane caster levels.

Alternately you could just use a whole lot of munch points.

Actually, I could easily make druid part of Hilaren's build (I think), should I be allowed to do so. It'd be fitting as well, since the druidic role is heavy in Avlis' society. I don't think a 'pure' woods world has been created too much (that I know of), as most people are loath to surrender their +3 swords for a living wood bow...I'm really liking the feel, though.

And plus, he would see himself as a ranger foremost, as his role is to roam the expanses of Avlis, protecting the Round against razing incursions and monstous humanoids bent of pillaging. This would make his druid classes go unnoticed for a season or so.

The cottage is the only building of wood described, so yeah, it's the tavern.

Let's see if a natural 19 on the Diplomacy check will make a difference, Ben.

Regardless, the shad definitely will have some words to share with Hilaren of a much more serious nature than Polp usually employs.
Pretty impressive luck too, that you didn't kill the gardener outright with 24 damage - that probably would have left us unable to make a difference for Hilaren's fate (I'm guessing the gardener is a level 4+ Commoner).

Well well, Hilaren and Polp have been busy little boys while I was gone. :^)

Since there has only been one post on the disposition of the treasure from the group involved there, I'll force the issue by assuming that Zhegre was outvoted and everyone decided to split the loot. Zhegre will take the unknown periapt. Part of my post will be him dropping it off at the Temple of Athene; if they're inclined to return the favor materially, that's GM's prerogative. The rest of you can split the rest up as you choose.

Anyway, I'm back. I still need to level Zhegre up, but I'll get to that in a day or so. After that, I'll compose a post that runs any activities thus involved.