Chapter 8: Q&A / Discussions

[Ken]

Brian, at this point, Condign is the only one who has seen the woman with the blood-stained dress step out of the women's cabin. Is Condign going to react to that, or stick to the stated action of heading toward the spot indicated by Shorak?

P.S. I'm guessing that the woman's appearance is intended to get us turned away from the threat in the box. As distractions go, it's a good one!

P.P.S. I don't think it's a vampire in the box, either. I'll venture a guess in character once Brian confirms Condign's action. But I think it's something that needs to be removed from the ship quickly.

[Brian]

OMG, I missed that whole paragraph when I read Jeff's latest post! I seriously didn't know what Ken was talking about--I thought there had been new post from Jeff. Damn damn damn.

I'm going to rewrite my last post. Please make sure you go back and read it.



Damn.

[Jeff]

Aww, now I missed what you originally had, Brian.

[Dave W.]

Just IMHO, "jets of open flame" + wooden ship = bad; very, very bad.

Lightening might be better.

Just MHO...

[Jeff]

This would be a really unfortunate time for Jeff to have stumbled across the MM entry for Mimic...

Oh, I already know all about mimics. Put one in my Eberron novel, after all. ;D

[Darren]

Not jets of open flame, Dave. Controlled fire.

Geez, remind me never to come to a barbecue at any of your houses. Apparently when you guys light a fire, all hell breaks loose.....

[Dave W.]

I'm just saying that irl, during the wooden ships era, sailors were paranoid re: fire.

And in not real life, I've been burned (see what I did there?) by gm's who (not entirely unreasonably) who insisted that tossing magical fire around in places like towns can have unintended consequences...

[Jeff]

True, sailors would be wary of fire on a ship. Absolutely. That said, any exceptional ship—like the Merrow or any belonging to House Lyrandar—will have a vertain resistance to fire. Because this is Eberron, and if you've got money, you can hire magewrights to be involved in the fashioning of stuff. That said, it doesn't mean fire is welcome on any ship. Caution still is the norm.

Also, I forgot to mention, Belarin and Kal don't spot the mechanism for the hatch. It looks like something requires people above and below. And the two crewmen by Morsha aren't paying attention to anything but her.

[Brian]

Darren:

Once we've done that, we can search for the vampire that bit the female crewmembers.

That would be okay, except that Condign is already down the hallway and heading for the crew's quarters. Right now, he's pretty much out of earshot.

[Darren]

Yeah, that's sort of what I'm afraid of.

[Jeff]

Seems to like we have four or five possible distractions right now: the Captains poison, the vamp attack in the womens cabin, the crate, the attack above decks, and possibly the storm (I've been wondering if the storm is natural)

Seems about right to me. ;D

[Brian]

Don't worry too much about Condign. I'm not playing him as suicidal. If I see a gazillion vampires in that cabin, it'll be time for a strategic retreat. Also, the hallway is very defensible: at the most, he can be attacked by two vamps at a time. Unless they rush the down the port hallway.

[Darren]

Alright, guys, I was going to post, but I think we need a real plan before things get too much out of hand. So, let's lay out what's going on:

- There's possibly a wyvern attacking on the main deck. The other crewmen, along with Larest, Sem and Starg might have that under control for right now. At best, we can expect that we won't get any help from them. At worst, everyone up there is going to get killed and the ship gets sunk.
- Morsha's been poisoned, but hopefully Streko has managed to deal with that, so besides keeping her guarded, I don't think there's much more we can do for her right now. Her cabin is in a good spot, defensively, so as long as no one can teleport to the other side of that door, I don't think we need to worry too much more about her.
- There's the issue of the women's cabin, which may or may not be full of vampires and dead women.
- There's the box which has a giant...something....inside of it.

Assuming we're in for a fight, we're somewhat more than surrounded at this point, so the hold may be the best place to make our stand since there's room to maneuver. I agree with Brian that Condign is in a pretty good spot if vampire's come rushing down that hallway, so I think he should hold there and back his way down towards the main hold if there's trouble.

I think the rest of us should focus on destroying that box. Given how mean Jeff has been lately, I'm willing to say that setting the box on fire right now will probably turn against us, so I guess we should just destroy it the old fashioned way - with spells and weapons.

My thought is that if everyone, minus Condign, takes care of the box first, we can hopefully finish it off quickly. Adamant should stay roughly where he is so that he can block off the other hallway, in case vampires decide to come through that way, too. If Condign can hold back whatever vampires there might be until we're done with the box, we'll be in a better position to fight them off.

I'm not going to post again until I hear everyone's thoughts on this. I think we're way too vulnerable right now unless we work as a group, so I want to make sure we're all on the same page before we move forward.

[Brian]

I'll do my part and keep the blood-suckers off your backs. If Krez is in that room and not riding a wyvern, then I will definitely be backing up and a new strategy will be in order.

[Dave B.]

That all sounds good. Shorak can still assist from the doorway of the captain's cabin. This will allow him to back into the cabin if needed and his best attacks are with his missile weapons.

Just a thought. What if the box isn't holding a threat? What if Krez has trapped something important to the ship in there? Maybe an elemental? I'm just saying.

Or what if there was some sort of magical trap set off and that's what this crate is? Either way, whatever is inside the crate seems pretty much stuck in there. Anyone want to try speaking to the thing in the crate? Maybe we can get a truer read on the situation.

[Darren]

Given our current situation, I think we're in an attack now, ask questions later kind of position. I'd guess that once we start attacking the crate, it's going to break open before whatever is inside is dead, anyway. If it was someone or something from the ship, then we can apologize before we completely destroy it.

[Ken]

I'll go along with what Darren proposes. I don't think what's inside the box is anything good. If the crate did contain something potentially beneficial which Krez had imprisoned, Krez would have killed or marooned it. He wouldn't have gone to the trouble of aerial attacks and tricky teleportation to sneak it aboard our ship.

Ideally, we'd get it off the ship quickly. Since that doesn't seem possible (unless Jeff the flight attendant indicates the emergency exits forward and aft), it seems best to destroy it on our terms.

It's at times like this that a controller would be handy. They have the best array of powers with zone effects. Belarin has some controller-y powers, but they require line of sight to the target. I'll keep Belarin's position as I last stated (at the end of the corridor that we came down) -- he can use eldritch blast to damage the crate until we get a look at what's inside.

[Brian]

Okay, no vampires in the female crew's quarters--or so it seems. That leaves Larest's room, Histra's room (where I assume Old Grandad is and therefore unlikely to hold slobbering vampires) . . . and the closed door just south of Condign's current position.

Question: Do you want Big Red to continue determining what our threats are away from the hold, or do you want him there to help fight the ooze-which-holds-something?

I doubt that whoever dropped off that crate has left this level of the deck. Personally, I'd hate to leave something behind unchecked. But if you want me to rejoin the group, just say so.

[Darren]

I agree with you Brian, except that from a tactical perspective, we don't have enough people to split up like that. If Condign goes that route, he has to go by himself, and if he encounters anything tough, he's going to be in trouble. I think it makes more sense for him to double back towards the main hold, then work his way up the opposite hallway.

Jeff, which cabin was ours? Kal is suddenly wishing he hadn't left his sharash behind.....

[Brian]

Wait a minute. That closed door is two steps away from Condign. He can move there and open it, making sure he has a path clear to the main hold. I really don't have any intention of going down that other hallway. It's either contain what may be in that other cabin or go and fight the oozy creature. Or both. ;D

[Darren]

Sorry, Brian. I misunderstood. I thought you meant Condign would continue further "north" and go around the other way. By all means, yes, open that cabin and see what's in there. Just make sure you are on the "south" side of the door, in case anything jumps out, so that you can back your way towards us instead of getting separated.

[Darren]

Another question, Jeff....

What is the deal with off-hand weapons in 4E? And is channelling through a weapon considered to be using it for purposes of determining handedness? In other words, could Kal hold Skyfang in his left hand and his longsword in his right and still channel spells through Skyfang normally in addition to attacking normally with the longsword?

[Darren]

While I'm waiting for Jeff to answer my questions, why don't I just go ahead an get yet another post in this thread?

Guys, just a reminder....don't use up all of your best powers in the fight with this ooze. We KNOW there's going to be something else coming, and it'll probably be worse than this fight. Save some of the good stuff, just in case.

[Jeff]

Darren, that's no problem. The way "off hand" works in 4E is fairly simple. You can hold two weapons, one in each hand, anytime you want. Attacking with both at the same time is another thing, though, and that requires special powers (usually ranger powers).

Wielding a longsword in your main hand (presuming Kal's right-handed) is fine, and a dagger has the "off hand" property, meaning you can wield it in your off hand and use it in place of the longsword anytime you want. So casting spells through it even less of a problem.

[Ken]

Jul 25, 2011 19:20:26 GMT -4 Brian said:

I doubt that whoever dropped off that crate has left this level of the deck.

Consider that the vampire may have left the ship the same way he came onboard.

Guys, just a reminder....don't use up all of your best powers in the fight with this ooze. We KNOW there's going to be something else coming, and it'll probably be worse than this fight. Save some of the good stuff, just in case.

I'm usually 100% in line with this, but Belarin's crackling fire -- if successful (cough cough) -- also gives the target vulnerability 5 to fire and lightning (save ends), so Belarin was hoping to give Kal's attacks too more damage per round and help kill this thing faster. Didn't happen this time, though.

[Darren]

That wasn't aimed at you, specifically, Ken. It was just a general comment. It's easy to get caught up in, "Hey, this is a big ooze and it's probably hard to beat up" and forget about what's behind door #2.

Jeff, did you see my question regarding which cabin was ours? Can you mark it on the map? Is there another deck below this one? I can't remember.....

[Jeff]

Jul 26, 2011 13:11:54 GMT -4 Darren said:

Jeff, did you see my question regarding which cabin was ours? Can you mark it on the map? Is there another deck below this one? I can't remember.....

Nope, totally missed it.

Map updated.

[Brian]

Ken:

I doubt that whoever dropped off that crate has left this level of the deck.

Consider that the vampire may have left the ship the same way he came onboard.

Of course. Sorry, my bad.

[Dave W.]

Q: I am grabbed, IIRC, that just means I can't move, right? I can still attack?

IIRC, I can try to escape with an Athletics or Acrobatics check but I suck wind at both of those (I blame the armor penalty).

I was thinking I'd save my few Radiant powers for later... but I will point out that this thing packs a mean punch... I'm nearly bloodied... so don't hold back too much either...

[Darren]

What does the fact that Adamant is grabbed mean for Kal's attack? If Adamant is still grabbed, does he get pushed with the ooze?