A Sojourn in Sairundan [Judge: Manzanita]

Trouvere · Jun 19, 2007

Conuld, human transmuter 1 (AC 12, HP 6/6)

"Forty dragons!" says Conuld. "That is astonishingly generous... and it saves me no small amount of embarrassment. I volunteered for this journey without considering the parlous state of my finances."
[sblock=Spells Prepared](0) Ray of Frost; Ghost Sound (DC 14); Message; Prestidigitation
(1) Enlarge Person (DC 14); Mage Armor; Color Spray (DC 15)
[/sblock][sblock=Important numbers]Initiative +6; Listen +1; Spot +1; Move Silently +3; Sense Motive +1[/sblock][sblock=DM]Yes, Conuld is a little bit of a cipher, even to me. This was initially somewhat intentional - a no longer very young man, who has spent the last 7 or 8 years helping out in a private library for little more than bed and board, who feels his life has been wasted until now, and begins a transformation when he discovers an aptitude for magic - and is kicked out of his library by an angry employer when he expresses a wish to earn his fortune. But at least in his first adventure, nothing much immediately sprang out at me - he was a little more suspicious than I expected, and showed flashes of anger and frustration with dithering and with being thwarted. There was, in the back of my head, a peasant background for him, which was going to express itself in feelings of inferiority towards the smarter, Chromatic Order-educated Tommy Worthallingham, but really they got on just fine. Yep, I'm perfectly happy with any acquiring-a-familiar subplot.[/sblock]

Rystil Arden · Jun 19, 2007

[SBLOCK=Lasair]Idea! Lasair talks a lot about measuring people's mettle by reading their ziivash, but right now, it's just flavour-text on her Sense Motive. How about a rare ziivash focus crystal that aids her in taking a person's measure by reading their ziivash, sort of like an aura reading. It's fooled by anything that stops detections, and really it's just a more fun and flavourful version of the Detect cantrips/1st-levels (but it gives more colourful details while not necessarily saying 'good' or 'evil' in black and white--Lasair has to decide that from what is given). It's basically a way for her to get any weird 'aura' type clues that a GM might want to throw in and to measure a person's strength of character. Perhaps if she spends the concentration to use the focus crystal to read the ziivash, she might also get a +1 or +2 circumstance bonus to the DC of Telepaty powers against that person--that's the flavour I've always had for Lasair, that she can read and manipulate the ziivash that flows through every living thing (and leaves a gaping numbing void where there are undead!). This item would be well-within Lasair's means, I think--even if we are to consider the overpriced Psionatrix of Telepathy as a baseline (which seems silly anyway), in raw power, getting +1 or +2 to Telepathy DC without spending an action is vastly more useful than having to spend one round to get a +1 (or +2) to DC and then using a power (because you could just use the power twice in a row and have a much much higher chance of it working unless you're fighting something ridiculous that saves normally exactly on a 20, which is an edge case anyway), so the only real purpose would be for flavour. I'd price the +2 DC version at maybe 2000 (that's the price for a continuous use 1st-level spell or power, and this isn't as good as that).

Tell me what you think and let me know if you have any better ideas along this vein![/SBLOCK]

Solange · Jun 19, 2007

[sblock=Supplies]Being not familiar with horses in general, what can you load on a pack horse, and what kind of horse would be best? Given the distance we'll be traveling, Horseback just seems faster, and I would think carts would be problematic in the sand.

I've got a pretty big budget for reasonable supplies, so let me know what you think would be good beyond the obvious.

Rae, how long of a trip are we expecting? I'd assume less than 2 months, and closer to 1 based off the letter.[/sblock]

Trouvere · Jun 19, 2007

Conuld asks "Have you decided in which direction we shall travel, Lady Shadya? All I know is that Sairundan lies to the south-west, but I do not know how far. Could we take a ship that is heading south from Orussus? I, uh, knew someone who did that recently. Or, I believe there are many villages along the coast road where we could find occasional rest and re-supply. Or we could follow the River Grellgo southwards for a time."

OOC: The river Grellgo obviously flows towards Orussus, so wouldn't speed our travel any, but we could head south towards Lathirn along its banks. Beyond that, I'm mapless.

Solange · Jun 19, 2007

"The roads to the south are best. I do not trust these buildings that float, if you refer to them," Shadya says. "And no need to call me lady, please."

OOC: I think Riem is on the way, if I remember right. Beyond that, all I know is that it's southwest, closer to the tower of air, and Shadya's been there before. It looks like 400 miles or so along the road by the river Grellgo, as a guesstimate with the map. I think the world is pretty big, but not sure how close to the edge Sairundan is.

Rystil Arden · Jun 19, 2007

(OOC: The map that says 2000 diameter is way off--Sairundan is probably many thousands of miles away. Lasair's home is, anyways.)

Solange · Jun 19, 2007

OOC: I haven't seen that one. Is there a map that has Sairundan on it? If we get horses that can go 50', we can I think go 60 miles a day on horseback, which still won't get us more than 1500 miles away in about a month.

Rystil Arden · Jun 19, 2007

(OOC: I've seen a map with the deserts on it, and the way Sairundan is described, it has to be in those. The southwestern desert should be substantially far away from Orussus)

Trouvere · Jun 19, 2007

"Very well. I am just plain Conuld, too. From my limited experience with ships, they attract pirates - even pirates who have no ship of their own! So I think you are probably right." He muses. "Do you think it would be an extravagance to purchase a wand of healing from the priests of Hyrag?"

OOC - the wiki suggests, vaguely, that Rheim, with that spelling, is somewhere not far from Covington, and both are somewhere beyond the T-junction of the Lathirn-Orussus-Fallon road, about 40 miles east of Orussus. Rystil, you were in Festival of Halina, right? Is there more known about the geography than that?

OOC 2 - with a world diameter of 25,000 miles - but the hints that noone has been too close to the towers for many years - we could still be looking at 5000 to 10,000 miles!