Basically, nothing - though there is the dimmest, most subtle suggestion that there is something out ahead of him. Perhaps it is that some of the blackness out there may be a little more reflective than the rest of the blackness.
Therefore, following his described action, he edges forward from here during the 2nd round of his sanctuary spell. Moving forward two hexes (2 AP), he sees:
On the left, some sort of grey-brown figure, about six and a half feet tall. On the right, what appears to be the edge of a well, with a very crude windlass atop it, only two feet above the well. As you wait the remaining AP of your second round, you discern that the figure is completely motionless.
In two rounds, your sanctuary will run out.
Action?
Engelhart moves to 0812, giving him this slightly improved evidence:
79 comments:
Ha, but there's been a misunderstanding, Alexis: I declared the casting of Sanctuary but not that I discharged it.
It would, of course, be completely reasonable to assume that I would discharge it forthwith, hence my specifying in the previous thread that I would hold onto it and the reason for that being two-fold:
1) The spell's description has it as inhibiting movement to two hexes per round, which would frankly limit the usefulness of my exploratory effort were I to cast while stil atop the stairway.
2) I was counting on discharging it at the sight of trouble, which I don't quite know if it would work out as intended. This course would definitely hinge on clarification on your part.
Now, you have me as moving 5 hexes in round 1 (three for the stairway plus 2 hexes), which exceeds the spell's limitations.
Not wanting to give you too much bother on editing, we could just split the difference and make the call that Engelhart discharges the spell upon getting the inkling that he may not be alone after all.
That would grant me 3 rounds left to act, on 2-hex move per turn budget.
I certainly don't want to come across as trying to wheedle out freebies, just aligning our communication gap, is all.
Okay. Agreed, I forgot that you could only move 2 hexes per round once the spell was cast.
However, YOU forgot that casting the spell without discharging means that you must continue to concentrate on the spell: this means you can do NOTHING else except to move 1 hex per round.
You can't go down stairs.
I strongly suspect that your very careful wording was DESIGNED to catch me in this mistake.
Convince me it wasn't.
After all, why did you not use the clear and perfectly understandable words, "I'll cast Sanctuary and not discharge the spell"?
I don't quite follow your reasoning, Alexis, designing my phrasing to catch you in error to what purpose?
I wasn't very emphatic about it, easy enough to concede, but I ask that you don't read into what isn't there.
Not to make a reply that doesn't move the game forward in some fashion: I assumed (not presumed, I simply followed the wiki), that "moving 5 feet" included negotiating minor changes in elevation, like stairs.
You can establish whichever precedent you feel suits better, the course of action is untouched for it: if Engelhart cannot hold a spell while descending the steps he'll simply cast it at the base of the stairway, having descended.
As for moves, not wanting to detain the running for the rest of the fellowship, I'll declare that I move to 0812 to try and get a better look at the rest of the chamber, particularly any occupants (could they be simple statuary?).
The remaining two rounds after that are a simple matter of beelining from 0812 to 0816, using my remaining APs not spent moving to douse the lantern in the final round, and from there back up to the barrow, guided by my companion's torchlight.
No, that doesn't really convince me. I think you know exactly what I mean.
I think that your statement, "I ask that you don't read into what isn't there" shows that you evidently have gone in your mind to exactly the same place I went.
Try again.
I'll repeat for clarity: absolutely no obfuscation was intended from my part.
If you don't feel like you can trust me, send me on my way. I'll be genuinely sad for it but if you've latched onto the interpretation that I'm out to get you, what can I really do or say?
It isn't as though this is an isolated incident.
Let me try to run it down for you, as briefly and as reasonably as possible.
Some of these issues may arise from the time difference; I have seen you comment quite often at different times of the day, so I know you're able to follow generally.
1) On the whole, I have noticed that you seem exceptional to the idea of asking the party what you should do or what they need. Take this particular situation: you didn't ask Lothar for his lamp, you just assumed you had it; you didn't ask the party if they thought you're going down the stairs was something they felt was wise, you just went ahead and did it; the party has been talking about waiting, not going down today, setting up a base camp perhaps ~ but you said absolutely nothing about that, making no suggestions and not addressing the general conversation. Instead, you went balls out, saying what you wanted to do, then went ahead and did it.
2) Most of the time, when not actually in combat, virtually everyone tends to accept "cast a spell" as actually making the spell active. I know I have this rule about cast-discharge, and yet I've never actually had a player EVER make the distinction you made in this particular case. Now, on the one hand, it is clever; I can see it having great possibilities. The spell is on a hair-trigger, you see the bad guys, boom, discharge, no worries. Bad guys ignore you, you walk away. Clever. I like innovation and I had never, ever considered that before.
Unfortunately, being that we are online, any cleverness that isn't IMPLICITLY stated is suspect. And you did not implicitly state it. You hashed the cast a spell and hold onto it (which I did not automatically take as "not discharge"), though you had plenty of opportunity to be more precise in your statement. The fact that you with-held the clear intent of your thinking suggests you felt I would countermand it by reflex, as if I would suddenly say, "You can't use sanctuary that way." That implies a lack of trust of ME. It feels as though you are deliberately withholding what your character does, in order to catch me.
3) In this case, I wound up revealing things about the room that I shouldn't have revealed because you wouldn't have been able to pull your trick downstairs. That was, absolutely, in part my fault; I did not go and read the sanctuary spell when you cast it, I did not remember that you can only move 2 hexes a round when using it. If I had read that spell, I wouldn't have moved you as far as I did. But since the 2 hexes per round is supposed to be a limit, which I ignored, at least I didn't give you LESS than you were entitled to. I gave you MORE.
You may have noticed that I screw up quite often as a DM. I don't have a problem with that. The game is extremely complicated, more so with my rules, which is why I try to write them out so that the players can correct me. But I also expect the players to STATE these things ahead of time, which I look around and I see all the other players doing, constantly. They do it because they want confirmation. You don't do it because ~ why? Because you expect me to have perfect memory? Or because, as I have seen many withholding players do in the past, you're waiting to take advantage of my errors.
4) You constantly feel the need to speak with the other players in character. This is fine, but on the whole you're coming off like a crazy person, babbling out non-sequiturs and not really connecting with other people on a human level. The only time you "speak in character" is when you make it flowery and impressive ~ and I must tell you, half the time I don't even know what you're going on about. All I know is that it seems to have very little to do with what's happening in the game, and therefore as the DM I can ignore it.
But this is why I totally ignored this line: "Will you grant me the light, master Svensson?" Meaning that my last comment was in error, because you DID ask for the lamp. After a month of blathering nonsense, however, I didn't bother to read anything in italics. It might have helped if you had at least said "lamp" ~ but no, it must all be poetic. In any case, I'm not wrong, you had to take it out of Lothar's hand, because he never answered you, never gave you the "light." In fact, they all ignored you, because you weren't engaging in the conversation that Lothar, Pandred and Embla were having.
These are PROBLEMS. Problems that you don't seem to be aware of, that you don't seem to care about, that you don't feel need to be addressed in this conversation ~ because you don't see that they all tie together.
This is TEXT. It is a huge pain in the ass to run in, yet I write well and in general things happen. In the bigger sense, however, let me try to explain something else to you.
(continued)
There are dozens and dozens of comments to every one of these posts. People are talking at cross-purposes, they're not reading each others' comments, they're not addressing the points others have made and they're not getting specific answers to questions they ask. A lot of this is because a question is mashed between a bunch of postulations and other observations, a last minute idea about something and then one or two suggestions about what else people can do. There are very few straight, direct posts. 10 words or less. "I do this." Simple. Easy to interpret.
Instead, it's a lot of, "I'll do this is She does this, or do that if He does this, whatever people want, I'll be fine with it." Such comments are almost totally useless. It does not state any sort of definitely, distinct, absolute feeling. "Let's go downstairs and fight." Instead, it pushes the responsibility for going down to the stairs on some other person, who doesn't want that responsibility. "I don't want to say let's go downstairs now, because if Pandred gets killed because I said let's go . . ."
This makes the comments field really tricky. I need that comments field to be as CLEAR and PRECISE as possible. You, Engelhart, have your own way of being imprecise. However, I locked onto your decision to go downstairs and asked for your light source, since it was the first thing I needed to make the Image I needed to make for your going downstairs. I didn't think about where you got the light source from until this morning, when I finally had the energy to put up the post.
Now, each time I make an image, it goes like this. I make all the pretty little adjustments to the characters, putting the nice axes in their hands and dollying up the way the light source looks, so that it is all very pretty. Then I save the publisher file, then I save it as a PNG, then I edit the PNG, then I post the PNG to blogger and edit it again, because blogger is a tit, then I write some stuff around it. This is all a lot of work and it takes many minutes to make it look right. Every once in a while I forget to make an adjustment, so I go through and fix it up again.
As such, you can probably guess that I don't like making an image until I have to, until it is a SURE thing that it's needed. So when I make the image and put it together and reveal the cool little images that I've painstakingly put together, to create the mood and the feeling and the anticipation for the moment that has been building up online for four days, I don't like being smacked in the face with a lecture about what you meant and what you said and "OH, you're so stupid Alexis not to have immediately understood what I meant."
Now, maybe you didn't mean it that way, but the "Ha" came over as sarcastic and the "of course" sounded pretty pompous and self-righteous, while the two point argument after that sounded awfully superior, which was then followed by a set of suggestions in which YOU told ME how to fix the situation now that we understood what happened.
Um, I've been a DM for quite a while and this sort of thing happens. I don't need any (what sounds like) smug advice on how to fix something that has gone wrong.
(continued)
Now, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. But it WAS pretty easy to read into your statements all that which you say was not there; and your rejoiner did not help, since it contained pretty much more of the same. And your final ultimatum, "send me on my way" is absolutely a thrown down glove.
Now, I could have just written, "Goodbye." Instead, I've tried to explain my viewpoint, using a lot of words to do it, to express my honest, sincere, what I think is reasonable position. I'm dealing with a lot of issues running this game and one thing that makes it possible is that when something does go awry, EVERYONE apologizes immediately. "I'm sorry I wasn't clear." "I'm sorry I fucked up." Just like that. "I'm sorry."
With most of the people I run online, "I'm sorry" is the first thing they write. It is, most of the time I fuck up, the first thing I write. I am, in fact, actually sorry for making errors. I'd rather not make errors and I'd rather not put people in the position you, Engelhart, are in right now.
But what I often find, when I write a long explanation like this, is that readers on the internet get their backs up and decide they must then go into just as long a description as I've written, to explain why they're right and I'm wrong ~ and it is all a waste of time.
Sometimes, I get back a reader who says, "Oh. Yeah, I get that. I'm sorry."
Here's the thing. I did not kick you out. Oh, I thought about it. Instead, I decided I'd find out what you believed and where you stood. Okay, you've stated it. You're ready to be asked to leave rather that imagine there's something that can be done or changed or made clearer. I think, from your position, that you feel that you were clear. I'm telling you that you weren't.
And you haven't been. Often. And that is a problem.
Now, if you want to play, you can figure out what to say next and we can move on. If you don't want to play, then just go ahead and write a really long answer I'm not going to read. What is it going to be?
Honestly, I made you out as having already decided on the whole matter from the get-go. I was expecting a post with a curt farewell note and instead you did go the distance. That is both unexpected and appreciated.
You make some very good points and you expound on them more than enough for me to say that I can perfectly see where you're coming from. I want to play and I don't wish that there be any bad blood. I apologize for any misunderstanding brought about by my shortcomings in communication.
Note that I tried my darnedest not to bog down the game until you very much forced me to. That, yes, could have been construed as trolling on my part, and I'm only interested on the kind that has HD.
Understand that I'm not adversarial nor do I have any wish to be, and also that I was presented with a choice between reaping benefits of illegal play or calling you out. I went with the latter, poorly as it was, and here we are.
Will you accept my apology?
Yes, I do wholeheartedly. Please accept mine.
With a caveat that in the future, you cannot descend stairs or do anything complicated or difficult with any spell cast but not discharged, let's presume you're in the hex depicted, 0613, with sanctuary cast but NOT discharged, as was your original wish.
Therefore, what does your character do now?
I discharge it, of course.
Then resume the same path stated before: move to 0812 to try and get a better look at the rest of the chamber.
The remaining two-three rounds after that I back away to the exit, extinguishing the lamp before the spell runs its course and rejoin the party topside.
I've depicted what you can see from 0812 on the post above.
Not much more information. There does appear to be something in in 0409, and also in 1209 . . . but these things are so much on the edge of your torchlight that you can't make out what they would be.
Please, everyone ~ Engelhart is back in the room, so feel free to comment on what he has described.
I've updated the Pathfinding I skill to include finding a good campsite where parties can rest.
Alright. So I'm seeing, at least to my mind, a pair of statues, or golems, or whathaveyou.
The well, if that's what it is, is more troubling. I'd expected undead and constructs, something that could guard this dwelling indefinitely, but it's possible that the barrow may have been breached and is now occupied.
If this was a frog-man (and I really think it was) then there is also a tiny possibility that the well might have been a point of entry for amphibious gravetenders (or thieves).
Either way, most of us are still very much in fighting shape.
What I want to suggest as a plan for entry/exploration is thus, and anyone is obviously free to correct me or put forward their own plan.
First, we throw/roll some amount of light down into the room.
Embla and someone else with a throwing weapon head down, another light in hand. I'd prefer a torch, something semi-permanent, that we can drop in an emergency and still see down there. They explore the room slowly.
On the stairs, or at the base if Alexis tells me we cannot do this, I will be with the two archers. We will have our respective ranged weaponry loaded and ready to go, to launch a cover-fire volley at whatever threat appears closest to our exploratory team. Hopefully this stuns the target and buys time for a retreat.
Is the group satisfied with this suggestion, or have we got other ideas?
I have ideas in that same vein. But we'll need to erect the basecamp if there's any wish that I recover my spells, I'll leave that up to the consensus.
I'll develop my own thinking once near a physical keyboard.
I agree that basecamp is important, but combat is 6 seconds per round, so they aren't mutually exclusive. That assumes that those two figures are combatants of some kind as well.
12 seconds, but your point stands. I'm feeling a bit dodgy about exploring any more without absolute full resources, but that is probably just me being gun-shy after our last expedition.
I am on board with exploring this new room a bit, however; if the figures haven't animated yet I think it will take a bit more than walking around down there to set them off, especially since Engelhart didn't wake them up before discharging his Sanctuary spell.
Whoops, forgot to switch back to my alter ego...
Ah, I should make it clear.
Having three of your followers getting their feet wet, as it were, the other two, Petar and Fjall, feel a bit sheepish about not climbing down and getting involved. You may count on everyone entering the lower room without the need of a morale check.
You need to eat. Fjall has food ready, so assume the next conversation will be had while swallowing oatmeal stew (much like barley soup, but thicker, called "pottage") and whatever meat/vegetables you had available for Fjall to cook into it.
Can I get a vote on camp first/the wellroom second, or wellroom first/camp second?
Well room first, camp second.
Camp first.
Well first.
Also-
Lothar, I hadn't realised you had a longbow in your possession. Please feel free to join myself and the archers.
I volunteered Embla to go ahead first because of her considerable HP and bonus when throwing spears/javelins, but obviously anyone else is free to step forward if they'd prefer to be the vanguard.
Well first.
I'll take the vanguard, but if there is something nasty, I will need to retreat quickly - I still only have 10hp.
Question: do I have any ability to sneak while carrying a torch/fire beetle gland?
That's fine. I won't lie, I assumed you had like, three to five more hp, but the goal isn't to get into a big melee anyway. I just won't feel good about setting up camp until I'm relatively certain that nothing is going to crawl out of the barrow after us.
Engelhart, do you want to go with Embla? She has a salve I gave her a little while back, so the pair of you would have some healing in an emergency, and I'm sure Lothar wouldn't mind parting with the salve I gave to him. I'm not very familiar with our hirelings' capabilities, and I'd rather not run the risk of one of them going coward on us in an emergency.
I would like to get it settled that you're going down the stairs first; that's three votes for and one against. Embla said the well room first, despite knowing her hit points, so don't try to second guess her Pandred. Rather than trying to please Engelhart's choice, I'd rather you convinced him to go downstairs or DECIDE AS A PARTY that one nay vote is a veto. We'll wander around all day long tomorrow if we don't settle this.
Embla, regarding sneaking, I can't say, since you have no idea what you'd be seeking around. You can assume that anything that has sight would probably be a no.
Engelhart said he had some thoughts, and I'm willing to hear them: I've certainly had my fair share of the discussion.
Thanks, Alexis. That makes sense.
Engelhart, I am very interested in what you have to say.
One of the reasons I would like to scout out this room is to get a sense of how big this complex might be. While Alexis used the word "dungeon", this "well room" might be the bulk of whatever is attached to the barrow or the beginning of a much larger area. We'll need to make a supply run within the next day or two (and I'll need a couple of days to recuperate fully as well), and the more we know before that supply run, the better-equipped we'll be to explore this place.
I'm still not near a keyboard but I'll lead with this: Pandred had locked onto thinking that there are two of these things but close observation of the latest picture reveals that there are actually four.
And these are just the ones we can see.
Now, we're talking 6 foot hulking brutes here, so there's no way we can reasonably expect a beetle combat redux. If the four-figure holds it'll probably be a challenging fight, if there's even one additional foe (or more!), we'll be in trouble.
Take a closer look at that picture and the description Alexis gives and chime back. If you still want to march ahead afterwards, I'll be game and we can start drawing plans.
Given that you were halfway into the room before you discharged your Sanctuary spell, and were carrying a lit lamp at the time (which would absolutely have notified anything capable of seeing of your presence), I don't think we have anything to worry about in the way of spontaneous enemies suddenly appearing from the statues. It is possible that they may be working on a proximity spell trigger rather than a "presence" trigger, or it may be they didn't react because you were carrying the frog lamp. Or it may be that they are statues and nothing more.
I think we could experiment a bit and see if anything will set them off; getting closer, setting down the lamp, leaving the lamp outside, etc. Not that I'd want to push our luck today, but in the future. For now, if we can get the perimeter of the room mapped and see just what these things are, I'd be happy. Perhaps just one of us takes the lamp in and scouts the whole thing out while the rest wait by the doors?
If something does wake up and prove to be way more dangerous than we can handle, we can always scarper up the ladder and pull it up after us.
Yes, there is definitely the chance that the frog lamp is somehow special. But it strikes me as odd that the builders would plant guardians only to leave behind a method to render them wholly inoperant.
[Also, going a bit more meta, I interpreted my positioning on the floor as a generosity on Alexis' part, a mending of fences of sorts. Something that I would not take as a signal that the room is safe, though none better than to ask the man himself].
I can't say if it is or isn't. You don't know.
Regarding the lamp as a key: If the builders intended to return at any point in time (which they clearly did as evidenced by the fact that lighting the lamp opened the door ), it would also make sense that they would also wish to guard the rest of the complex against unauthorized entry, while allowing themselves easy access. Suppose we had dug down from above, or tunneled through the door to enter the well room. No one who had any idea of the purpose of the structure would do that, but if someone comes through the door carrying the lamp, it may be presumed that they have some idea.
The best key is one that is easy to use but difficult to duplicate. Lighting a specific lamp would be perfect, especially because it also provides needed light for the wielder. A better security system requires those authorized to gain access to both possess an object and know some secret information, like a key and a combination, so that obtaining one doesn't allow an interloper in unchallenged. The Fire Trap was the secret knowledge. The lamp may be the key.
Regardless of whether your positioning was a generosity or not, it did not activate the statues with as close as you got. So presumably anyone who repeats your same steps would be safe as well. I would be willing to bet that at least one person can move around the room unchallenged while carrying the lamp. Other circumstances will require testing to verify. For now, we can approach the situation carefully, and test one boundary at a time.
Very well, let's do it.
Good enough. How?
Lothar, remember that Engelhart was also protected by Sanctuary.
To be clear, we've a few assumptions:
1) There are some kind of guardian constructs in the room
2) They will attack when someone gets too close
3) BUT deactivate when a bearer of the frog lamp approaches
There could just be a couple of statues in this room - we may be overcomplicating this a wee bit. Just in case, though:
Pandred, as the toughest of us, would you like to use the frog lamp to scout out the edges of the room? I, and the rest of the ranged folk, will cover you from the stairs.
Pending buy-in from the rest of the group, I will volunteer to walk the perimeter of the room with the lamp.
Once we've figured out the size of the room and actually looked at the statues, then we can see about getting everyone down.
Whoop, typing at the same time. I'm open to Pandred carrying the lamp. I currently have 18 HP.
If I followed the above correctly Engelhard didn't discharge his spell until he was in hex 0613, so we can get at least that close. And I do realize we may be way overestimating things, but better safe than sorry.
Just to clarify,
Engelhart was NOT under the sanctuary spell when he first saw the humanish shape (that being all he can be certain of), when he was in 0613.
If the players agree to Lothar's walk, I want to know where the players will be when he does that.
Or Pandred's walk, as may be.
I suggest outside the room, just in case it is the presence of anyone unshielded by the lamp that will cause them to activate. If indeed the do activate, anyway. We can always ready our bows and then move up if necessary.
I concur with Lothar.
Now, the plan part that I was holding out on - and that is quite independent of us resting or not.
All of this assumes that these enemies animate and attack.
The key to this encounter, as I interpret it, is the stairway.
1.) First things first, lighting our way much as Pandred described. We fling a couple of torches, nothing fancy.
After that, we assume a formation that ought to include the pointman (woman..) that blocks the stairway access at about half-point, in what would be 0817, and that takes nought but one attack per round from the bottlenecking. Even so, low AC and high HP are a given (though whoever assumes this position can be switched if stunning occurs).
This should grant a defensive AND offensive bonus from the elevation advantage.
This pointperson is to be the agent provocateur of the whole encounter, exploring the room and running back into the formation's point should anything go awry.
2.) To the back, in what would be 0818, a second rank fighter, equipped with Rowan's spear (might a staff work too?) to fight from the second rank (I don't know if Alexis' rules support this, confirmation is needed).
3.) Up in the barrow proper, our archers, raining attacks from the top of the stairway and above the heads of the two fighters onto the incoming enemies.
Season to taste with burning oil flasks and earthworks from the sappers if you want to be extra defensive.
Now it all hinges on a couple of questions to which only Alexis has the answer:
- How many hex-equivalents is the stair worth? One? Two? And does it grant any elevation bonuses?
- Can a spear be used the way I postulate?
- Have the archers enough angle to fire from atop the stairway past our men?
To conclude, I'm not expecting any less than a lethal encounter. If each of these humanoids is even the equivalent to two of the larger beetles then we'll need all the slant we can get.
Agreed, Engelhart. Your tactics sound solid to me.
So Pandred, do you want to scout the perimeter or shall I?
Keeping in mind,
The stairway is a downwards tube; the top of it does not have line of sight with the room at the bottom. At best, a target fired at from the top of the stairway would have to be in 0815 or 0816. From midway down the stairs, in 0714, 0814 or 0914. The bottom of the stairs can see the room.
The sappers are unwilling to light oil flasks without knowing the air quality of the room. They have only 8 ounces left between them, in three small soft containers, none of which are designed to hurl and break.
Count the stairs as two hexes.
See my rules on Spear that I wrote yesterday. So no, it cannot be used from the second rank; that would be a "pike." It is too short to engage two hexes away (it can easily be avoided by a defender at that distance).
Anything I missed?
Very good.
Targetting into 0815/16 is all that I expected and all that is needed for the tactic at hand to be practical.
All that remains is to know if shots can be loosed from the top into these two hexes if a friendly is taking up 0817/8 (the stairway).
[If anyone has any weapons they'd like me to write rules for, let me know]
And who will be the Agent Provocateur?
I'll go and retrieve Gudbrand's sling & bullets, like I've already stated previously.
They might come in some demand in a few minutes' time.
Also, it wouldn't be amiss to get some explicit positioning for followers and such, not that I have any.
You have the bullets. The position of the followers and such right now are around the campfire, having just finished eating.
You want to 'make' some explicit positioning for them?
Not at all, they're not mine to position.
I was more aiming my remark at in a "who actually has the morale to descend and who will still stay up top?" sense.
Otherwise, the generalistic "archers up top in the barrow" is all that I'm asking.
I thank Fjall for the stew and say, "Shall we head down?" I then descend into the barrow. On my way, I grab all of my javelins from my pack.
Hold on a sec, I thought only one of us was going to go down the stairs at first?
You know what, that's my bad. I took barrow to mean the well room, so I was striding in as backup. I'll delete my comments.
I'm clearly getting ahead of myself.
I will clarify though.
I one hundred percent intend to be at the bottom of those stairs behind whoever is our forward scout. I can't shoot from the stairs. But I can shoot from the base, and I'm prepared to hold the stairs with an AC of 6 if we have to retreat.
I'm nervous about having somebody not holding the lamp be in the room right away. IF something starts attacking I can give a shout and then by all means come down the stairs and shoot, it should only be 2 AP to get to the bottom, which will leave you enough move to make a shot, correct? I promise not to stick around and fight a room full of enemies by myself. First sign of trouble I'll skedaddle.
Well, wait. Can you move around with a drawn bow?
I don't see anything on the wiki that would restrict my mobility, but common sense at least tells me I can't, or at least shouldn't, run with a loaded crossbow.
As far as I know my only restriction is the bowstring itself, and how long I can maintain tension on it. I can preload and be ready to fire in a single round. If we get some warning I believe I can fully load it and not discharge for a round or two as well, though I'll check the comments for where Alexis clarified how long.
Wow, two minutes at fully loaded.
That's ten rounds of exploration.
With your reasonable objection mind Lothar, as long as Alexis clarifies that I am able to do so, I will fully load the crossbow when our explorer descends, and wait at the stairs, with the intent to walk down and fire when trouble arises.
I stepped out for a bit.
I also took "barrow" for the first room, NOT the well room. You were on the surface when thanking Fjall. Who would like it if you could give him and Petar ten minutes to clear the dishes.
You can't move around with a bow drawn. A crossbow is a mechanism; a bow is not. I offer this for humor's sake.
Right now, I only want to know who is going FIRST. Let's manage that to start with. Is that Pandred? Or Lothar?
I am.
All right. I'll start to set this up in a bit. I'm just making dinner.
Sorry, I just have to confirm. Up until now it has all been planning, and in lieu of Lothar restating his intentions, I'll propose:
Lothar takes an undisclosed number of torches (?) with him, along with his weapons not drawn because he also has a lamp in his hand, and moves to hex 0817. Yes?
Nope. Please state your movement.
Ok, once the dishes are cleared and everyone is grouped around the doors, I gently roll two of the beetle bladders down the stairs. Then I light the lamp and a torch, tucking three more torches under my lamp arm and hold the lit torch in my good hand. I descend the stairs and pause at the foot, surveying the room.
Excellent! Let's skip the making of a new image for that; imagine yourself in 0816. The glow is reddish coming from the beetle glands, and with the torch provides a greater candlelight power overall.
Someone tell me who comes down the stairs behind you, and how far they come. If there are two persons on the stairs right now (the maximum), please let me know who they are and what order they're in.
Lothar, don't worry about what they do; presume they will back you up (and we'll sort their position out as we go). What do YOU do?
I, javelins in hand, follow behind Lothar. When he enters the room, I move the base of the stairs, just below 816.
I'll come in behind Embla, a little higher up the stairs.
I'll finish the loading of the crossbow as I do so.
Good. Hold the movement of any other persons until Lothar moves again.
Assuming the presence of my allies on the stairs seems to cause no rumbling or awakening of the statues I advance to the well, ears open for any kind of stone on stone noise.
You haven't actually seen the well, so I need you to indicate a hex you can see right now, that you move to with your amount of AP.
Pandred and Embla, consider yourselves on deck; try to prepare yourselves for giving a description of where you intend to go once Lothar has moved.
I don't need anyone else moving until Pandred and Embla clear the stairs, so please resist describing the movement of the followers; Engelhart, too, must wait.
I will move to 915 when Lothar gets clear.
[Moment of truth, friends]
I move to hex 0811 then.
Taking up position at 0714.
Embla,
I don't know why you told me where you were moving, when I clearly indicated that you were not to do so until Lothar moved.
It won't make any difference in the long run, but you're technically giving him information he can't have . . . and on the whole, you will make my life easier if you will please, please, please stop jumping the fucking queue.
Please.
The next post is up.
Perhaps I am just being miserable.
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