Lady Jastian will stand the first watch with Cudberct:  Although he is actually a veteran warrior, in her eyes, he's just an innkeeper with a good heart and a bit of local experience.

Aminda / Lady Jastian: Noted and posted to the first post of this thread.

I offered third watch with Hasor,  I wasn't sure if that was missed or not needed.

I was wondering:  Does the game's planet have any unusual astronomical phenomena that potentially impact night vision (extra moons, gaudy nearby planets or nebulae, ominous clouds of darkness, etc.)?  In what phase is the moon?

Quote from: StormBringer;601854I offered third watch with Hasor,  I wasn't sure if that was missed or not needed.

I did miss that. Sorry. It's been added to the Watch List. Thanks!

Quote from: Sir Wulf;601894I was wondering:  Does the game's planet have any unusual astronomical phenomena that potentially impact night vision (extra moons, gaudy nearby planets or nebulae, ominous clouds of darkness, etc.)?  In what phase is the moon?

There are three moons, but they are never in the sky at the same time. Rather they follow each other in sequence, with each appearing as a new moon, waxing to full, and then waning to a lunar senescence before passing from the sky and being replaced by the next. The moons are:

Tiamat (the Chaos Moon)
Abzu (the Ordained Moon)
Hubur (the Mother Moon)

Each is roughly the same size of our world's moon (although Hubur is slightly larger): Tiamat is a dull and ruddy red; Abzu is a silvery-white; and Hubur glows blue (apparently being covered in water). The dark side of Abzu is pinpricked with lights, which are said to be cities. (Although who, exactly, lives in them is disputed.)

It's said that murders and violence spike under the "chaos light" of Tiamat, but women are more fertile under the light of Hubur.

There's a complicated calendrical system which tracks the occasions when multiple moons will appear in the sky at the same time (generally at the end and beginning of their cycles through the sky).

The current moon is Hubur, which is waxing gibbous.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;601921I did miss that. Sorry. It's been added to the Watch List. Thanks!

Awesome.  Everything happens on third watch ( ), so I wanted to make sure there was adequate coverage.

QuoteThere are three moons, but they are never in the sky at the same time.

It's three wolf moon, not three moon wolf.

Having been to the ravine before (and assuming the Sunless Citadel as well), along with the Ashen Plain, Bone Hills, and Witch's Hallow down south, I should have some idea of the local terrain and distances.

So what's the distance to the ravine through the hills? What would we need to encamp and visit the ravine goblins? If this involves going down the ravine, what sort of gear (donkeys? rappelling gear? elevator?) would be expected?

It's gonna help the IC confab about preparation and tactics.

Quote from: Opaopajr;601985Having been to the ravine before (and assuming the Sunless Citadel as well), along with the Ashen Plain, Bone Hills, and Witch's Hallow down south, I should have some idea of the local terrain and distances.

So what's the distance to the ravine through the hills? What would we need to encamp and visit the ravine goblins? If this involves going down the ravine, what sort of gear (donkeys? rappelling gear? elevator?) would be expected?

It's gonna help the IC confab about preparation and tactics.

Distance to the ravine along the Old Road: 20 miles. The Witch's Hallow is about 12 miles south; the nearest edge of the Ashen Plain is about 8 miles west.

Cudberct may have visited the northern end of the ravine, where it broadens and deepens considerably into a proper canyon that slices at a shallowing northwest angle through the Ashen Plain. But the goblins are thought to inhabit the southern edge of the ravine (at least that's where they've been seen in the greatest concentrations over the years; and the goblins who come bearing the magical apples tend to just come walking up the Old Road).

Off-hand, I think there are a couple of obvious approaches to the ravine: You could either head straight down the Old Road and then probably need to climb down into the ravine (ropes, etc.). Or you could head westerly about 20 miles or so and ride into the shallow, northern end of the canyon and simply ride down the floor of the canyon as it narrows into the ravine.

Re: The Citadel. The "Sunless Citadel" is actually unknown locally. The only reference to a "Citadel" that anyone has is Gileus' research: An ancient map indicating a location which is apparently pretty close to this "ravine" everyone in town keeps talking about; but on Gileus' maps no such ravine or canyon or anything else of that sort is indicated.

In light of this new information, should we recon references to the citadel out of our grandiose plans? For his part Winthrop hasn't really been making plans to go to the citadel, just to the ravine.

Also, as the most knowledgable about the area, I will assume I know everything you mentioned about the ravine. Would a knowledge geography or local reveal any new info?

Lady Jastian would rather leave the cart behind.  She would also prefer to enter the gorge from the open end instead of descending by rope.  While the journey may be longer, this would allow them to bring the horses, which may be needed if the party must evacuate wounded allies or survivors from the first expedition.  She is also uneasy about the group's ability to retreat from the canyon, should they encounter an overwhelming hostile force.  Fleeing on horseback would be preferable to retreating up a set of ropes while taking fire.

She'll ask around while preparing to leave: Are the goblins known to use bows or crossbows?

While on the road, Jastian will coach the other party members to be more alert and cautious (getting them used to her Marshal abilities to improve others' AC and Initiative)

Cudberct would unconsciously slip into military speak when discussing strategy. Referring to the cart's encampment as a "forward operating base" and talking about the suggested parley group as "scouts reconnoitering," he'd see this as any other military maneuver. Sir Braford probably was stupid enough to kick the hornet's nest and piss off the goblins, so even though Cudberct presses for parley first, he's prepping for real battle and casualties.

Further, the cart allows rapid redeployment and reassignment in case plans change while away. There's no time to go back and swap out more appropriate gear in case the goblin lead runs cold. There's two cocky veterans with two 'newbies' out for longer than their sparse prep could sustain in rations/water alone.

He doesn't play around when dealing with raw recruits, as at least two obviously will be (Hasor and Certh). Overkill is his defense against the failings of such an untested group. He will have little patience with niceties for visitors who want to play fast and loose with his town folk (and employees).

Not bringing the cart is not an option.

A lot of the stuff over the past few messages could probably be moved to the IC thread. I'm going to use Sir Wulf as an example, because his message is convenient.

Quote from: Sir Wulf;602668Lady Jastian would rather leave the cart behind. She would also prefer to enter the gorge from the open end instead of descending by rope. While the journey may be longer, this would allow them to bring the horses, which may be needed if the party must evacuate wounded allies or survivors from the first expedition. She is also uneasy about the group's ability to retreat from the canyon, should they encounter an overwhelming hostile force. Fleeing on horseback would be preferable to retreating up a set of ropes while taking fire.

So, for example, all of that could be said IC and hashed out as part of the current sequence. Ditto on Opaopajr's response immediately above.

QuoteShe'll ask around while preparing to leave: Are the goblins known to use bows or crossbows?

ROLLS DICE

Nope. The goblins are mostly blamed for disappearing livestock and the occasional cattle mutilation, but no one in the group has any particular memory of the goblins using bows or crossbows.

I'm going to let you frame this into the IC thread. I'd probably just take it there directly, but I don't want to preempt the group's response to Cudberct's parade rest.

QuoteWhile on the road, Jastian will coach the other party members to be more alert and cautious (getting them used to her Marshal abilities to improve others' AC and Initiative)

This, OTOH, is an OOC heads-up to me of future intention that's not immediately applicable to the current sequence. It could go in the IC thread, but it's also just fine here. I've made a note of it and will be able to weave it into the IC thread at the appropriate moment.

Aminda is recommending everyone has at least 20 days of rations. (as per Justin's previous post I'll also put this in IC). You can read below the line if you are interested in how I came to that number.

Sir Wulf: When Aminda came by to check on Jastian in the morning she would have asked for 20 gold for supplies. Any problems with that?

Justin: Does Aminda have any problems finding 70 days of rations and 8 yards of canvas? (for 35 gp and 8 sp by my calculations)

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20 miles to the ravine entrance.
20 miles down the old road to the ravine.
Going off the map in the IC thread it looks like that may be roughly an equilateral triangle so I'll assume 20 miles between the ravine/old road and the ravine entrance.

Roughly 2 days to the ravine along the old road. (with cart. people with horses and can easily make it in a day. Donkeys in a day if we hustle. Gives us a day+ of parley before the cart arrives.)
8 miles west to the plain so... 1 day.
12 miles across the plain to the ravine entrance. 1 day.
20 miles in the ravine to get back where the boys and friends probably lowered themselves down. Not quite sure what the terrain will be like down there. But erring on the side of caution 3 days with the cart.

Heading back will be a bit shorter. 3 days (ravine) + 1 day (plains) + 1 day (to town)

A week to get there and 5 to get back. so, 12 days of travel. Let's say 5 days doing non-travel related stuff. 2 Companions. 4 addons partway through. And lets tack on an extra 20% for delays, slow travel 'n' such. I'd like more of a buffer but I only got so much gold...

((7+5)*3+5*7)*1.2 = ~85 days of rations... (-15 for the ones my group already has)

I'm still putting this here as IC seems to have been sped up to next morning and way too much was skipped without being discussed. Hey, play by posts delays will do that. We're playing catch-up as fast as we can.

Gold's not a problem. Cudberct in the planning phase would easily cover his crew, and help with Lady Jastian's crew if they're willing to accept the help. Extra adventurers willing to partly cover their own costs in a rescue? He'll take that deal everyday and twice on Saturday. (Besides, any recovery reward should cover such expenses.)

Second, I need hirelings to hire. Give a quick slate of guards at the Hucrele compound and I'll pick from there.

SUPPLIES
The Hucrele general store is well-supplied: Unless it's something exotic, it'll be stocked. We'll assume that at some point during these morning's activities, time will be made to buy supplies. (You can certainly add that to the IC thread, or we can just assume it'll happen in the space after the current onscreen stuff fades to black.)

So, long story short: Subtract the cost from you money supplies and add the pertinent equipment to your sheets. (And, again, make those changes at the locations I've linked for your character sheets. If you do it somewhere else, it never happened.)

LOADING UP THE CART
In addition, it sounds like a large quantity of supplies could be ending up on the cart. (Assuming the cart is going.) If you want something on the cart either pay for it or remove it from your character sheet and then post a message with the resulting list in this thread. I'll start maintaining a CART SUPPLIES list at the top of this thread for common reference.