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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 5124769" data-attributes="member: 726">This was our 31st run of the campaign; the tactical notes will be short, as there was no combat.  This was also our first session that saw significant and improvisational use of rituals.   Okay, it was only three, but Rituals have been an underused system for us thus far, despite the fact that we have at least three Ritualists in the party.  It helped that Piratecat adopted the house rule that non-combat rituals only take 10% of the listed casting time.The first one was a 1st level Ritual from Primal Power called “Traveler's Camouflage.”  It gives everyone in the party a bonus to non-combat stealth checks for 10 hours, and with a good roll plus assistance, Bramble's 30+ Nature check bestowed a whopping +10 bonus!  This proved invaluable as we slipped through the streets of a panicked city without being slowed or accosted by the masses.  A bit of plot summary for context:   Our duchy used to be called “Iskaine,” but Duke Torden declared independence and broke away from the Empire.  Now he's King Torden, and there's been massive preparation (and conscription, and press gangs) given that the Emperor is expected to try to take back his rebellious dukedom.  Today the Empire Struck Back.  A hundred-foot Colossus* appeared in the harbor, smashing Torden's ships in its mighty hands.  A huge voice then boomed through the city (blowing out every glass window) declaring that all the buildings in the city (Bressail, capital of Iskaine) would be smashed to pieces in 12 hours unless Torden was handed over to Empire authorities.  What a coincidence!  Logan is trying to find a lady friend who was conscripted away from her family, and The Grey Guard's ritualist used the Magic Map ritual to discover that said friend was in the royal palace.  So, we suddenly found ourselves with a decent distraction for getting into the palace to look for her – that being a huge mob trying to break in and grab Torden to prevent city-wide destruction.  Still, the palace gates are closed and locked, and the guards inside won't be opening them for anyone right now.  Bramble pulled another Ritual out of her book:  Tree Stride.  She used it to allow us to teleport from a tree outside the walls, to a tree inside the walls.  And once inside, we have the stealthy cover of the first ritual to stay unseen by the guards.  (In theory it won't be a huge problem if we're spotted.  We're Grey Guard, and we're investigating rumors of a monster inside the palace.  Never mind that we started those rumors, and that the sound of the monster is actually Strontium using Ghost Sound.)A couple of other notes:  With the Stealth Ritual going, Logan (a stealth-build Cunning Rogue) managed Stealth Checks of 46 and 47!  We're only 7th level, but he's got a +18 base check, +10 for the ritual, and rolled an 18 and a 19.  Finally, unrelated to the game itself, I was idly rolling d20's four at a time during some downtime.  I wanted to see how many it would take to roll a “20.”  It took me an astounding 156 rolls!   The odds of rolling 155 times without getting a “20” are about 2850 to 1 against.  And here's the kicker.  When I had gotten up to about 50 rolls, and the others were starting to look on with morbid fascination, Piratecat said “watch this,” picked up a single die, and rolled.  20.  I kid thee not.* - Piratecat hinted afterward that the Colossus was our first Level 30 monster.  I''ll buy that, given that it was picking up warships, one in each hand, and smashing them together.  Yikes!</blockquote>

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