S@squ@tch's Against the Giants - Team Gold OOC - Recruiting

[s@squ@tch]

Welcome to Graf and stonegod to Team Gold -- their PC's will be replacing Asenfel and Lo-Kag.

The next question to pose is, are Hudder and Domoris currently travelling together? (easiest to integrate into the group) or separate (more difficult, but could be more likely in a realistic sense.)

 

[stonegod]

'ello!

I'll post Domoris over on the RG thread. If anyone wants to donate any armor with the wild property, he'd be more than happy. Any other comments welcome.

As for Hudder, while I doubt we met initially, its possible his "trampling" around in jungle attracted Dormoris' attention and now the shifter is acting as impromptu guide. That work?

 

[s@squ@tch]

I'm trying to get my head around the motivation for Domoris to signoff on being a guide to a dragonmarked dwarf out looking for answers in the middle of Xen'drik.

Nevermind the fact that the dwarf is looking for answers in the jungles of Xen'drik for his friends death via brain extraction in Stormreach.

Throw in the adventurers, who are out looking for giants and you have a whole lot of loose ends.

Must ruminate over lunch.

 

[Shayuri]

Welcome new people!

Hey, what if the dwarf is looking -for us-? After all, we had some fairly public shenanigans looking around for and talking about flayers of minds and so on. If the dwarf was asking around Stormreach, someone mighta said, "Oh yah, those others in the team House Thrashk put together were talkin' about somethin' like that. That funny lookin' one especially. You should go talk to them."

Then druidy mcdruid could...hm...maybe he's upset over the psuedonaturals? And since the problems seem linked, he said he'd help the dwarf find us, because he wants to find us too and quiz us on these weird monsters?

 

[s@squ@tch]

I'm sure Zurai would have played Asenfel differently, but unfortunately, an AC of 15 does not hold up well in close-combat. The two rends against him went for insane damage.

And I did not purposely try to kill him off either, as I had bigger plans for him.

Davan/Darv are up.

 

[EvolutionKB]

Welcome, both of you. Enjoy the ride...while it lasts I think Shauri had some good ideas, they make sense to me as well.

 

[s@squ@tch]

Since Hudder and Barrak knew each other and were friends, Hudder has arrived in Stormreach and found out that Barrak was killed the day he (Barrak) escorted the current party to the House Tharashk enclave.

Calling in a few favors with those in the Stormreach Kundarek outpost, his investigation into Barrak's death has only yielded the fact the man's brain was missing. The trail in Stormreach has run cold.

His only lead being that Barrak was killed immediately after meeting the PC's has sent him after them in order to find out anything else they might know.

He knows the PC's are on a recovery mission into the hinterlands of Xen'drik to find some Tharashk corpses, but not much else at this point.

As far as Domoris goes, it is up to stonegod whether he has run into Hudder in the jungle already, or will run into the PC's not knowing Hudder -- his choice. You have some leeway in figuring out what type of connection/interest you have with the PC's, now that they are in your home turf.


@Graf: I need some clipart for Hudder's token.

 

[stonegod]

Been playing around with equipment. Here are the two main sets I am looking at. The first violates the 1/2 rule to get some armor with the wild property (a +3 equivalent; it'd be available at ninth, but not eight level); the second is w/ more legal purchases:

First Set
+1 wild Dragonhide Breastplate (16700) [3200 over 1/2 limit]
belt of growth (MIC: 3000)
stormfire ring (MIC: 4000)
treebark carapace (MoE: 3200) [a graft that gives +1 inherent natural armor]
100gp left

AC in Shifter Form: 18, touch 11, flat-footed 17; +6 armor, +1 Dex, +1 natural
AC in Shifted Shifter Form: 20, touch 11, flat-footed 19; +6 armor, +1 Dex, +3 natural
AC in Predatory Form: 22, touch 11, flat footed 21; +6 armor, +5 natural, +1 Dex
AC in Shifted Predatory Form: 24, touch 11, flat footed 23; +6 armor, +7 natural, +1 Dex
AC in Aerial Form: 20, touch 11, flat footed 19; +6 armor, +3 natural, +1 Dex
AC in Shifted Aerial Form: 22, touch 11, flat footed 21; +6 armor, +5 natural, +1 Dex

Second Set
belt of growth (MIC: 3000)
bracers of lightning (MIC: 11000) augmented with armor +3 (9000)
stormfire ring (MIC: 4000) augmented with deflection +1 (2000)
1000 left

AC in Shifter Form: 15, touch 12, flat-footed 14; +3 armor, +1 Dex, +1 deflection
AC in Shifted Shifter Form: 17, touch 12, flat-footed 16; +3 armor, +2 natural, +1 Dex, +1 deflection
AC in Predatory Form: 19, touch 12, flat footed 18; +3 armor, +4 natural, +1 deflection, +1 Dex
AC in Shifted Predatory Form: 21, touch 12, flat footed 20; +3 armor, +6 natural, +1 deflection, +1 Dex
AC in Aerial Form: 17, touch 12, flat footed 16; +3 armor, +2 natural, +1 deflection, +1 Dex
AC in Shifted Aerial Form: 19, touch 12, flat footed 18; +3 armor, +4 natural, +1 deflection, +1 Dex

The beasthide augmentation from Complete Adventurer/MIC is only a +2 enhancement, but it only works with real wildshape (it counts as an extra use). As Domoris can shift whenever, I didn't think that'd be kosher. If it did work regardless, then I might go that way. It'd be like Set 1 in that case, though I'd have 7000 left to spend.

s@s: Thoughts?

 

[stonegod]

As far as Domoris goes, it is up to stonegod whether he has run into Hudder in the jungle already, or will run into the PC's not knowing Hudder -- his choice. You have some leeway in figuring out what type of connection/interest you have with the PC's, now that they are in your home turf.

I see one of two things:
- Domoris has been following Hudder, coming upon him after the PCs, trying to figure out what the odd figure is doing out here. When he sees the apes, he goes beserk and then gets drawn in with the others.
- Domoris has had previous contact with the Tharashak agents before in their comings and goings, guiding them or whatnot. He knows they have disappeared as they have not come back their usual way, though he may/may not know why. Seeing the groups guide (another Tharashak agent he recognizes), he seeks the PCs out to determine what is going on.

 

[Graf]

Sorry for the slow responces, was at class, then sleeping.

Personally I'd thought the easiest solution would be for Hudder and Domoris to know each other but that seems tricky. Domoris wouldn't ever hire himself out as a guide; it sounds like he wants to disappear, and with his skills it'd be all too easy.

My intention is to have had Barrak have "saved Hudder" at some point in the past during an excursion to Xen'drik (the Hudder's team o' brave explores had a "wee misshap" an' "hadda do a bit o' strategic retreat'n" "so I run off away from tah group, whooping 'n holler'n to get them undead bugs tah chase me an' what to I run inna but this Tharask mining camp. So Barrak says "Halt inna name of Tharask" and I yell back at 'em "LADDY, YAH DON'T WAN' ME TAH STOP!. ".
"So's he was pretty mad at first on accounta tha damage them bugs inflicted, fer being dead it didn't stop 'em from eat'n everything fer miles but he admitted later that they'd cleared out that pack o' demonic apes that'd been troublesome and it actually made it easier tah dig. Ha! That's Xen'drik fer yah, unpredictable!
And that's only tha first time I met ol' Barrak. Tha second time was even weirder. We'd traveled deep inna ta contenient ba riva boat when....")
How much of this actually happened, and how much of it is Hudder wildly overstating things and forgetting what happened is the purview of the DM to decide.

So the timeline is:

• Hudder (obsessively keeping track of things on Xen'drik through the stream of rich, idle nobles that flows to and from the continent in search of adventure) gets word of Barrak's murder (or something similar like "heard he took a nasty fall" or something
• He puts off the wedding "jus' fer now".
• Pulls some strings with a Lyrander captain he knows gets to Xen'drik
• Pulls strings with the local Kundarak Stormreach and finds out about the missing brain
• (Probably plays a formal visit to House Tharask) -- whether they tell him anything or not is up to s@s of course
• Decides the first order of business is to "pick up where Barrak was forced ta leave off" and heads out.

Hudder is many things, but he's probably not dumb enough to go off into the wilderness of Xen'drik by himself.
His normal mode would be to drop some platinum, pick him self up a few traveling companions (maybe a chef, a hunter, a porter to carry any loot he finds, etc etc).
But, for the first time in his life he hasn't two coppers to rub together; Kundarak's never borrow money.
Fortunately he knows X*.
X tells him about "a powerful shifter and nature worshiper who would not accept payment in coin but could be swayed to join your cause" (or whatever)
Hudder and Domoris make contact.

Where X is anybody who could reasonably know about Domoris, maybe an old shifter wise woman who's lived her whole life on Xen'drik and is said to have an uncanny sight into the future (rich nobles like to visit her before starting off on expeditions; she's spooky and meeting her makes for good stories).

I mention this because:
1. My impression is that Xen'drik is pretty darn hostile; Hudder isn't the awesome Xen'drik expert he imagines himself to be, but he's not inept either. Going out by himself is probably a bit too stupid.
Besides, it's more fun adventuring with people when you have someone to talk to (or, rather, someone to listen to him talk)

Still, if Hudder got exited and couldn't find anyone then he could easily wind up getting lift (riverboat?) to somewhere nearby where the party is supposed to be and then go off tromping through the jungle in full plate metal.

(I suppose it's too late to buy something like Cold Weave?)
[sblock=Cold Weave]Appeared in S&S's Scarred Lands. It was mostly a justification for why the Necromancers of Hollowfaust didn't have to strip naked before casting spells. (Arcane Spell casting in SL caused heat).
You could also get cold weave padding for armor, so long as the natural temperature was under 130 degrees it kept you a cool and comfortable. So you could wander around in platemail in the blazing sun.
Like Endure Elements but only for hot places; and it provided no protection against the cold.
I think it was around 100 gp a suit?
[/sblock]

[sblock=Hudder's personality]
I made Hudder up for another game, that only ran one session. He was an attempt to play a character who was radically different from the normal sort of cerebrial wizard types that I play.
The group did not love him; they were more mercenary, Hudder is more adventurous.

He's -not- meant to be irritating. If he's getting on people's nerves just let me know.[/sblock]