WotL OOC Thread IV

[JadedDM]

No, the gas is poisonous, not flammable.

[BishGada]

Hi,
I'm going on vacation from tomorrow until Oct. 1th. So if Tulbas is needed to be played then once the cloud is gone, if the spectral hand and shocking grasp are still active Tulbas will attack Tethys with it. Otherwise he will use Acid Arrow. As far as Tulbas doesn't see Magnus he will work with the rebels but will keep in the background and will try to avoid too many eyes witnessing it. He will also look for reinforcement and so position himself where he can hide both from the current attackers and people coming from the stairs easily enough.
If Magnus appears Tulbas will focus all his attention on him and will try to draw the others to do the same with the excuse that Magnus is the greatest threat (even that there is Tethys and the dragon Tulbas doesn't mind lying if it will help killing Magnus). He will start with magic missile and then Web + burning hands on Magnus, and let justice be done

In any case I hope I'll be able to post since this is probably the last session in the whole ~6 years game...

Thanks.

[TristenC]

Butler is a dragon. Dragons are bullshit, let's get out of here. I hope he didn't notice me yet.

I literally laughed out loud at this while at work. fortunately nobody was around.

[Haahque]

I mean Haahqae's two previous encounters with dragons led to his love interest getting locked up and a tavern being burned down with a single breath. And he's done a little research into their capabilities and flight paths in order to pull off heists since.

He's just putting 2 and 2 together and finding that he has 0.

[TristenC]

totally legit response to a fking dragon ahhahah

i'm guessing the dragon is blocking the way out for gobax...

[JadedDM]

No, you can still get around him to reach the entrance (and I strongly suggest you do, unless you want to be crushed to death when the mansion comes down). But if Tulbas casts his grease spell, it will affect everyone who tries to leave (including Tulbas himself), not just Magnus.

[Haahque]

Given Haahqae's previous experience with dragons; he really doesn't want to fight one until he's leveled up at least 10 more times. Would Haahqae be crushed to death before he managed to escape through the sewers? He has a fairly direct route there that doesn't involve greased stairs.

[JadedDM]

I would say you have about 2 rounds before being completely crushed. You'll start taking damage from falling debris next round, and then the round after that...squish.

[Haahque]

Well, according to my calculations pouring over maps and checking the options; it appears my fastest method out is:

Climb a wall (10ft or less, require a 55% climb walls check?) and drop over the other side (20ft falling damage = 2d6) then walk to the sewers (26 squares of movement, of which 2 squares are stairs and 3 doors which are likely open) and drop down (? distance xd6 falling damage).

This has multiple problems. First off; I don't know how long it takes to climb 10ft, is that just part of a move action? And if it requires a climb walls check; then that's only a 55% chance of success.
Secondly; the fastest type of movement I can see is "walking"; which is your movement in yards in a round. I didn't see any options for "running like there's a dragon collapsing a house behind you". This means in the most optomistic account; that 26 squares of movement would take me at least 2 rounds (or parts there of) to do.
Thirdly, it likely involves at least 3d6 falling damage. As haahqae is a multiclass thief/wizard who didn't roll well on HP rolls and is rather wounded, this has a very high probabliltiy to KO him below a falling building (not even including any falling debris damage). Which is a little bit of a dangerous situation to be in.

If it was only a 55% climb check he had to make to reasonably get out I would have said he'd take his chances at climbing instead of fighting a dragon (which he estimates at much lower then 55% chance to survive). But given the vast amounts of potential falling damage, I'm estimating his survival rate at trying to get out of the building to the sewers asap to be closer to 10%, perhaps a dragon can be fooled?

The other method of escaping; the one he would have preferred to do with spider climb preventing the falling damage and guarenteeing the climb was successful would take an action to cast spider climb; so unless he can do this on the same time as one of his movements; or there's a way to move twice in one turn (my lack of 2e knowledge coming in here); that's not much of an option for getting out of the building before it collapses.

[JadedDM]

Well, no, the fastest way out would be to follow the others out the front door.

But as for your other questions, you want to check chapter 14 of the PHB. It contains rules for jogging and running, and also shows how to calculate climbing speed.

[Haahque]

Movement rules in chapter 14 read and... they don't look encouraging, besides the fact that Haahqae might be able to run 24 squares in one turn if he gets lucky. I guess Haahqae should take the faster route out even though he doesn't like it.

[BishGada]

Hi,
In play, Tulbas is raged and only wants to kill Magnus no matter what. Out of game I don't want to possibly ruin it for the others.

[JadedDM]

There is something thematically appropriate about Tulbas using up all of his spell slots to try and kill the one person who has the best shot of helping them beat the dragon. It may be screwing over the party, but it's very in-character.

[JadedDM]

I just realized...it happened again. The fifth anniversary of this game came and went, way back in August, and I failed to remember. Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter now. This is the last session, so it's not like there's an XP bonus to receive.

I can't believe this chapter has already run for 6 months. Remember back when a 30 page chapter would take 3 months? No, me either.

But yeah, five years. Wow. And we've lost 10 players along the way. That's 2 a year. But you four have stuck it through to the end. Shout-out to Haahque and Horizon, who have been here since Day One, back in 2013. Damn. I just can't wrap my head around it. I'm not sure I've ever run a game that lasted that long before. Not just here at Planet, but like anywhere, ever, in any format. Not chat-based, not forum based, not face-to-face.

Anyway, here we are, after all that time, at the last fight at the end of the session. I feel like I wrote this scenario, the final boss being Inferno, years ago. Maybe it was years ago. But in any case, this is the end. Either the party dies, escapes and lives in the sewers with the gully dwarves for the rest of the occupation, or by some miracle, slay a mature adult red dragon. It's not impossible. Especially with the help of the NPCs, a couple (like Miriam and Magnus) being higher level than the party.

But in the end, it doesn't really matter how it plays out, since the game ends anyway. So have fun with it. Go all out. Hold nothing back.

[Haahque]

Indeed it's been a long campaign, with many adventures of many different types, and an interesting experience.

And now it comes down to feeling like Haaqae's in a no-win situation, where either he helps out fighting the final boss of the campaign with little enough health that a baaz could kill him in a single hit and his only spell left is essentially an escape tool. While his dpr isn't exactly impressive either, especially with 2e's backstab rules (basically you can only backstab a target once). When not even the full party is dedicated to helping against the boss.

Or Haahqae tries to escape; where I feel like the DM wants us to at least fight the encounter for a few turns; and I can sympathize, as a DM it's really annoying when you have a group just run away from your planned and anticipated boss because they (you feel wrongly) overestimate the threat that it poses.

Either way I'm not optimistic about Haahqae's odds of survival or ability to meaningfully contribute.

Ps. working on a post; hopefully I'll have it done today.