(OOC) Scourge of Daggerford (Full)

[FitzTheRuke]

Knee-jerk reaction (& some useful info for your calculations):

1) Level 2 Spell Scrolls cost 75gp
2) I think it's a bit of an abuse of poorly-worded, vaguely-defined trigger on the spell to try to use it for "enemy behind you" (What's an 'enemy' to the spell? How does it know where you are facing?) "goblin within 30 feet" is probably good enough, but I'd have to give it more thought if you want to argue for broader.
3) I take issue with the minecraft-style computer-building, just because it's not D&D to me.
4) People would pay for it, sure, but it's not like they're wealthy right now. It's got a limited market. (The ven crossover of people who want it to people who can afford it is not huge.)
5) Ultimately, my main concern is "Is it fun for you, me, and everyone else in the game?" I dunno the answer yet.

 

[gargoyleking]

As a random thought, you could install a series of them across the city to repeat the same signal as a sort of early alert system.

It'd be more a matter of selling to the city government than to people in general.

 

[tglassy]

Right, with enough money, you could make a series of them circling the town.

I figured the town wouldn’t have enough money for many. I’d considered making some for the town for, like, 12 gp apiece. They cost 10 gp per casting, and I just don’t have a lot of money right now. I read a write up on what you could do with this spell, and it’s amazing the shenanigans you can build, but they cost money, which is the limiting factor. Maybe I could write to the nobles of Daggerford and see if I can get them to commission a series of them for the town? As a protection?

I don’t have the money to scribe it, yet, but if I can, I’ll go ahead and purchase the scroll. I’ll only have 33 gp after buying it. I need 17 to scribe and another 10 to cast the first one.

If anyone else wants to commission one, I’ll charge 20 gp to make one item for you. Any message and any trigger on any item. Earrings of goblin warning, Amulet of treasure finding, you name it. It’s gotta be an audio or visual stimulus, and the message has to be less than 25 words, with a range of 30 ft.

I’ll just need to charge first so I can get enough money to make them.


Basically, I’m trying to figure out how to survive. Titus is all about surviving, but he does have a sense of responsibility towards the town, now. He wants them protected. I was looking over the Rituals I could buy, and that one caught my eye. Alarm only lasts 8 hrs. Magic Mouth is permanent. Also, getting money will help with surviving.

I wouldn’t go so far as the computer stuff i read about, that’s too complicated. However, After reading that write up, you could literally create a series of multiple Magic Mouths, in a relay, that activate upon hearing another Magic Mouth. You’d have multiple magic mouths at each relay point, one for each of the other relay points, so they alert the guards of which relay point went off first, giving the general location of the intrusion. Make relay points circling the city. This would cost a fortune, though. Each relay point would be only 29 ft from the next one, and to circle a town, you’d probably need a few dozen, to a few hundred, depending on the town let’s say there’s 50, just for an even number. I’d need 50 magic mouths PER RELAY (I can put the Magic Mouth on a grain of sand, so size isn’t an issue.). But per relay, that’s 500 gp per relay, which is 25,000 gp for a 50 relay alert system.

And it would likely take more than 50 relays to get around the whole town. At 100 relays, that cost is increased to 100,000 gp. Of course, once done, no goblin will ever sneak into town again, but that’s just cost prohibitive. I’m currently just thinking of giving them to guards or scouts to help them stay alert at night. If I found a city or a Lord willing to pay to have a security system like that, heck yes.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I like your enthusiasm, but this 'write up' you read sounds more like someone pointing out how poorly designed the spell is than something that should be allowed on any game to me. You point it out yourself: Alarm lasts 8 hours. MM is permanent and does way more stuff. It's a spell open to abuse, clearly. You shouldn't be able to sell unlimited permanent magic items at a profit for 12gp... it goes against all the rules for magic items (such as they are).

Look, I will allow something like this (to an extent) but story-wise I'd like it to be that Titus discovers some magic loophole that no one ever noticed before (he was destined to be a great wizard after all) that allows him to build a magical warning system for the town at a personal profit, but I don't want this to become "Magic Mouth does EVERYTHING."

Heck, seeing as the spell has never come up before, we can call it "Titus' Magical Mouth" and say he invented it (which is why it does more than it should) Just don't get too cheesy please.

 

[tglassy]

Lol, I was just trying to figure out a way to make some money. We’re lvl 4 and I only have 100 gold. It’s why I brought it up here, instead of just trying to make something and saying “What? It’s in the rules!” The potential for cheese is astounding. Although, it is a 2nd lvl spell with a consumable spell component, whereas Alarm is a 1st lvl spell without one, so it should do more. It’s basically an upgraded Alarm Spell. It just...has few limitations. Like Prestidigitation. A creative player can do some crazy things with the ability to soil anything at any time.

For example of something completely in the rules but very cheesy, there is no size limit to the object you can put the magic on. So if I got a string a mile long, I can make it so that “When someone says a long A sound into a cup at this end” as the trigger, and the effect is that a Mouth appears at the other end and simply says a long A sound. That way, saying that sound at one end makes it say the sound at the other end. Perfectly within the scope of the spell.

Now get 26, give or take, such strings, and cast the same spell, but with different sounds for each one. Make one for every sound you could make. Anytime someone makes the corresponding sound on one end, the mouth makes the sound on the other. If you have every sound available, then you’d literally just talk in one end, and the combined strings would say the same thing on the other. The telephone has been invented, and it only cost the cost of a few mile long pieces of string and 10 gp per sound. Cover the strings in something durable, and you have a telephone line. Make a duplicate, only with the input and output at opposite ends, and you have unlimited two way communication.

Combine it with Arcane Lock, and you have all kinds of shenanigans.

But I digress. I’m not going to revolutionize technology with a 2nd level spell. And a full warning system for the whole town is much, much too costly. All I want it for is to be able to make earrings or amulets that detect when certain creatures are nearby, which is in the description of the spell itself. An early warning system, mainly for the night watchmen. It would be limited based on the amount of gold the town has to make such a thing, though.

Although, I suppose I’m in charge of the town. That means I collect the taxes. And it means I have a say on how those taxes are spent. And I don’t think the town would object to my using the taxes to magically beef up security.

Thoughts on that?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

My only thought on that is, collecting taxes NOW, even if they are due, would be a pretty cruel thing to do to the people.

That said, it's not like you can't come up with any money. They're broke, not destitute. You'll have operating funds. Giving most of the money that belonged to the town back to the town is why the party's not richer, after all.

As far as the "level 4 with only 100 gp" goes, there's a few reasons for that:
1) I levelled you up "fast" because PBP takes years. I played that adventure IRL in about four sessions. Okay, we did a bit more detail here, but I doubt it would have taken more than six.
2) The game so far as taken place over, what, six days? eight? 100gp is a fortune for a week's work.
3) You're good characters, for the most part, and you didn't rob the town like a murder-hobo.
4) 5e doesn't really give you anything (well, much) to spend money on. You have to stretch (as 'Goyle has) to even find a way to spend it on Magic Items

 

[tglassy]

Oh I’m not complaining. I just want to beef up my Ritual caster book, and that costs money. Elsewise, I’m happy.

 

[tglassy]

I heard a good point, in that what I’m trying is basically offering Magical Services. I think there are rules on how much you can make offering Magical Services that may be a little more fair. I’ll try to find them.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Yes. 30' move and 3x jump distance.

If Tommi wants to keep the boots, that's fine. But Angis will take them if he doesn't want them

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Okay, now that Titus is free of his responsibilities, unless he objects, we can skip some time. Say, four weeks. I'd like you all to return to Daggerford at the end, but you can do anything else that you like. Much like how we started this campaign (go back and look if you like, there's some interesting stuff there) I'd like you to give me three skill checks - different ones if at all reasonable, though two of them can be the same if you're really concentrating on one kind of action. Write a post that describes the kind of thing that you're up to, along with the checks. I'll respond with a description of how it all went, and we'll start the new adventure after. Don't sweat too much about success on the checks. In my mind failure just causes interesting things to happen. If you have anything in particular in mind, feel free to OOC your intentions, just so I narrate based on it.