The Rod of Seven Parts: Kauai Team OOC

[Strahd_Von_Zarovich]

I'm back.

1. Regarding you gma - Hope she'll be fine.
2. As for Mael - better leave him as a ranger, you can always multiclass later

 

[Ambrus]

CB, Mael will keep about 30 ft. ahead of the party from now on; out of the forward arc of Voadam's torchlight so that he can better exercise his stealth and scouting abilities.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Got it, thanks. The boards are loading super slow for me right now and have been for the last two hours. I'll try to hop on in a bit to see if things are faster so I can post using less time.

 

[Ambrus]

Heh. Piercers. This adventure is really old-school.

If Maelicent's plan works, and he can successfully hurt the first piercer (and nothing else goes wrong) then he'll just sit tight and keep shooting until all three of the things fall down dead.

 

[Mista Collins]

Chev is updated for 2nd level. Nothing fancy.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I'll have a look in short order.

edit: looks good, thanks.

 

[Ambrus]

[sblock=CB]In your last post you said that the piercers blend in too well on the ceiling roof, but what are they blending in with? I'd understood that there were only stalactites along the north-eastern tunnel roof, the one from which the piercers had emerged. I'd figured they'd stopped advancing since they knew better than to enter a cave devoid of stalactites to hide amongst. Is the whole cave filled with stalactites then?

If Mael couldn't identify the three stalactites upon returning to the cave entrance then he wouldn't have entered at all, certainly not if the whole room is filled with such protrusions. He would have simply remained in the entrance and taken 20 on his spot check until he'd found them again. Wandering in without confirming where they were seems pointlessly foolish to me.

Either way, Mael will return to a safe spot near the cavern entrance beneath a ceiling devoid of stalactites and take 20 to spot the remaining piercers in the room and then systematically shoot them all.[/sblock]

 

[CanadienneBacon]

[sblock=Ambrus]Following your lead, I will put my comments in spoiler text. Ambrus, the piercers are now hovering in the on the cave mouth on the southern piece of ceiling where there is rock rather than crystal. Maelicent's natural 2 on his spot check was not enough to beat the natural 15 I rolled for the creatures' hide. Working with what I had to go on in your last post, in which you stated that Maelicent would enter the room with an eye for picking off the creatures, I posted that he entered halfway then stopped. With nothing else to go on, and since I'm not able to read your mind or converse in person with you, I had him stop in what I felt to be a somewhat secure location in the crystal cavern. He stopped and waited to try to spy out the piercers. Maelicent is sneaky, true, but past experience DMing him has shown me that he can at times be aggressive. I felt he had the advantage by staying put, so I gave it to him. And good thing, too, or else he'd have had a harder time saving Gamad. Apologies if this is not what you wanted your PC to do. Again, I had limited information and it's the nature of a PbP environment that sometimes things won't turn out precisely as you expect. My primary concern was not to flay Maelicent but to reward him for his caution, which I felt I have done. This isn't the first time you've expressed discontent with things, nor do I expect it to be the last.[/sblock]

 

[CanadienneBacon]

[sblock=Ambrus]

Either way, Mael will return to a safe spot near the cavern entrance beneath a ceiling devoid of stalactites and take 20 to spot the remaining piercers in the room and then systematically shoot them all.

No, he will not. You wrote a post, I have replied in context in the IC, and we are going to play from where the PCs all currently stand. Please reference the map I provided in our IC. We are on initiative at the moment and I will not be supplying "re-dos" because you are unhappy with results.

If, on the other hand, you mean that on his turn this round that Maelicent will move then try to spot the remaining creatures, that will be absolutely fine. There is, however, no taking 20 on spot check during combat.[/sblock]

 

[Ambrus]

[sblock=CB]I'm sorry that we seem to keep clashing CB; although it may not be apparent I really don't care for arguing with players or GMs. That's in part why I posted my comments in spoiler format; I don't want to say anything to challenge your rules adjudications openly. I'm not trying to circumvent combat initiative, I simply imagined that, if Mael isn't already standing beneath a piercer and doesn't move that it would largely signal the end of combat since I can't imagine that these creatures will be able to move into position directly above Mael if he's looking up to prevent them from doing so. I'm starting to suspect however that you don't see it that way.

Maybe I'm just not picturing the cavern properly but if the ceiling is bare of stalactites or protrusions (which is how I read it) then I can't figure out how three hanging stalactites are managing to remain unseen. They'd either need the hide-in-plain sight ability or some kind of cover or concealment to take cover behind to attempt hide checks. With an unobstructed line of sight it doesn't sound like they have either so I'm puzzled why Mael needs a spot to check to find them at all.

I recognize that you're trying to be fair with what we write, but I can't help getting the feeling that unless we're exacting in our descriptions, that what we inadvertently leave out is made to work against us more often than not. I try to be particularly exacting in my posts to avoid such problems (though perhaps I haven't succeeded as I imagined I had been) and I tend to get frustrated when I feel my actions are being interpreted improperly. In this instance I assumed that Mael, upon seeing that the stalactites weren't where he'd left them, would simply stop before entering into the cavern – and likewise block Gammad from entering a dangerous area.

The only solution I can see is to be more explicit in my posts. Unfortunately that tends to make posting slower and more tedious. Listen, if I'm causing you or the other players some stress (which seems to be the case based on some things you've posted lately) then perhaps you'd all be better off if I bowed out of this campaign.[/sblock]