Airwalkrr's Greyhawk D&D 3.5 - Maure Castle OOC

[airwalkrr]

House Rule Update

As I went to remove Walking Dad from the OP, I took another look over the House Rules. This is nothing major but I decided to remove the change to Comprehend Languages. It now functions as listed in the Player's Handbook.

FYI I will never make changes to the House Rules that require retooling to your characters. I doubt anyone built their characters with any dependence on the way Comprehend Languages works which is why I felt comfortable with making the change. Also, any time I decide to make a change (either addition or deletion) to the House Rules from this point forward (which should be rare), I give all players right of veto. This includes the change to Comprehend Languages. I will return it if any one of you desires so.

I was pretty careful in my selection of House Rules and Variants for this campaign. Most are rules that I consistently use in my home games. (The Comprehend Languages rule was to prevent an abuse that I don't imagine will be an issue with this group.)

 

[airwalkrr]

Vertexx69 brought something up in a PM that I figured would be best addressed to everyone. He was concerned that this might be an adventure where there are a lot of traps and the rogue is the only one who gets much of a chance to shine while everyone else is bored (if I didn't convey your concern properly, Vertexx69, please correct me). It is true that there are a lot of traps in this adventure, but saying that is overly simplistic.

Rob Kuntz is the primary author of this adventure. As such, it is quite "Kuntzian," which is to say that this adventure is very old school. A trap, in this case, is far more than the conventional type that a rogue can disarm with a simple Disable Device roll. While there are a few of those, a lot of the so-called "traps" in this adventure are more like puzzles. In this respect, they can be "disarmed" by anyone with the wherewithal to figure them out. And in most of these cases, Disable Device isn't going to help anyone.

This is a thinking-person's adventure. Brute-force methods like beating stuff down or rolling a skill check just aren't going to cut it as effective means of getting through a lot of the obstacles. While such an approach might work with a lot of extended (and painful) effort, it is usually unnecessary if you figure out the "trick" to an encounter through teamwork, putting your heads together, and using reason, logic, and the occasional leap of faith. Although this adventure uses the 3.5 rules set, it is very un-3.5ish in the sense that it expects the players to look before they leap and be ready to play more than a tactical wargame. It's one of the reasons I love this adventure and one of the reasons I believe it will work better in PBP than your typical 3.5 adventure. I think most of you have enough experience with roleplaying to understand that, otherwise you wouldn't have passed the interview portion.

 

[Vertexx69]

Glad to hear it

 

[Rathan]

Research: Warlock's Crown (will give spell pen or greater spell pen if character already has spell pen.) [500 gp]

I never really got a yea or nae on this Air... did I get to create this item.. or at least the blueprint for it?

 

[airwalkrr]

As Kal-fen concludes his research on the item that would be the warlock's crown, he comes to two conclusions that can guide his research further.

1) Crafting such an item to grant a permanent benefit would be incredibly more costly than he originally anticipated. Perhaps it is because such an ability is inordinately more powerful than he conceived. (You can try research again, but you didn't get close enough to the actual cost of such an item. All you know is it would cost far more than you expected.)
2) He believes he could craft such an item with the same effect at similar cost to what he was hoping for, though it would probably contain a limited amount of magic, allowing it to be used only a few times per day. (You can try research again with the concept of a charged item as opposed to a permanent effect.)

The 500 gp is spent. Further research costs are based upon expected value of the revised item. Since we haven't quite gotten to the dungeon yet, you can use starting funds/xp to continue research if you wish. We'll assume it happened retroactively.

 

[airwalkrr]

If you guys are done questioning Mellary, let me know. If so, the ball is in your court. It is fairly easy to learn the location of Maure Castle. Mellary can give you a map and some directions. Overland by mount the trip shouldn't take more than a few days. You are welcome to use magical transportation if you have the means to do so. The land is somewhat dangerous, but not so much for a skilled group such as yours. Once you decide to embark, I will fast-forward to your arrival. Describe what preparations you want to make for the journey in the IC thread.

Before that, however, you should probably look into a means to open the "unopenable doors." Searching for the Silver Key or Portals or perhaps some other means would be advisable. Of course you are free to simply travel there and see if you can find a way to enter the dungeon on your own. The worst-case scenario is that you can't find a way in and decide to hunt for the Silver Key of Portals after all.

 

[Rathan]

I was kinda hoping it'll be on display at the Greyhawk mage thingie you mentioned in my arcana check... I think this would be at least worth a glance. Now that we know what it looks like (I assume there was a sketch in that book there) we might want to detour really quickly as it's 'in town' to take a peek. I'll post this course of suggestion/action sometime soon...

 

[Vertexx69]

If its not too early, Roshan will now pray for the next 2 days, to add Everbright to his Ancestral Great Falchion. It costs 2000g so will take 2 days of prayer on consecrated ground. ie; the temple district. If we get enough coin from the 1/2 payment up front for services rendered, then I would really like to get Blueshine added to his armor as well.

 

[airwalkrr]

Yes, Rathan, you do have a picture of the Silver Key of Portals. For all intents and purposes, it appears to be a very simple looking key made of silver. FYI, you don't really know where it might be.

[sblock=Rathan]Though you have it on (dubious) authority that the Circle of the Eight is in possession of the key, that really doesn't imply any association with the Guild of Wizardry. While some of it's members may also be part of the Guild of Wizardry, such facts are matters of speculation because of the Circle of Eight's secretive nature. No one is even certain of the identity of it's current members beyond that of it's founder, Mordenkainen. However, it is widely speculated that Jallarzi Sallavarian, one of Greyhawk's most notable mages, is a member. She, at least, is a prominent member of the Guild of Wizardry (and some even think she is involved in a dalliance with the guild's master, but that's all hearsay). No one knows where the organization's headquarters is located, if it even has one, although Mordenkainen is rumored to have a citadel somewhere in the peaks of the Yatil Mountains far to the west. All of this is common knowledge to you only because of your high ranks in Knowledge (arcana). Your average neophyte adventurer would be lucky to know the organization even exists.

And actual artifacts like the Silver Key of Portals, would NEVER be on public display. Replicas perhaps, but never the actual item. Such items are usually found locked away inside the vaults of the world's most notable heroes or (more often) buried within the abyss of some wretched dungeon and guarded by a terrible monster and diabolical traps.[/sblock]

Perhaps I should have qualified my allowance of the ancestral relic feat a bit. You can use the feat to enhance your ancestral relic with any ability that you would normally have access to. That means anything in the DMG or stuff you picked with your MIC list. So you could add holy to your weapon (provided you are of the appropriate level), but since I don't recall everbright being on your access list, that one is off-limits, at least for now. Maybe after you bring the journals to Mellary she can do something about that (as that certainly won't be the end of the adventure).

 

[Vertexx69]

Ulan is a special paladin mount so when not called is on a celestial plane (the white sands of the Mithardir layer
of Arborea), and therefore doesn't need to be stabled in town.

@ 12th character lvl, the value for my Ancestral blade is 11.5k/44k gold so its just a question of having the cash equivalent to afford the enhancements.

I have the strongarm bracers which are a lvl 10 item. I didn't think there were any lvl 2 items but just found the least weapon crystal of return (draw weapon its attached to as free action) is lvl 2. Is it cool if I take one of those for my other 2 lvls of MIC items?

@ Voda - you may want to change your weapon focus to falchion now that you are no longer carrying a greatsword.