Out of Character discussion:

Could always have Gilly scuttle away into the night with Bors when he’s better. Though she did kind of come around to the idea of staying with the group.

Hmmm…

Or Luban hangs around while others join in. I got think I've come to team Let Them In.

Haha, we use the gnoll storyline as a funnel to exit characters while the real team goes back to the moat.

The only character that really matters is Eltrezar. All others are expendable, replaceable.

We could run two teams! Double the work on the GM!

We could. I was thinking more of an NPC force that we fire and forget. A justifiable reason for some characters to leave the scene and make space for others, as both quests are of importance to the people of Hommlet. It pains me to say it, but I could cut Ora loose to make space for another. Her, Bors and others could all go hunt down gnolls and agree to meet back up in the near future. Whether that happens or not depends on how well the new players hold up!

What do you all think?

Gilly is super useful to us and I love the character, I would hate to see her go.

Yes of course this is Eltrezar's world and we are all just renting in it.

I have no problem with an 8 person party, with as lethal as BECMI is we need the numbers. That said, I also like how smoothly our 3 player crew operates and if we bring in two more players we will have to lag for probably a week while they make characters.

It sounds like some PCs are pretty adamant that they want to return to the dungeon, but some are interested in the gnolls storyline. Ora sounds like she's here for the gnoll-hunting right out of the gate, for example. So another option is that we can also split the party and have some that want to continue raiding the moathouse ruins go that direction, and those that want to hunt gnolls go that direction.

I'd be willing to put in the effort of making a post every day for each group, if you like, and I think an argument could be made that since the group is divided, the gnoll hunters would split XP only with the rest of the gnoll group, and the dungeon delvers would split XP only with other dungeon group.

Then you'd be basically attacking the module from two different angles, and assuming the PCs live from their excursion, they're not splitting XP with a hundred different PCs and hirelings. By the time one or both issues are solved, you might have some beefed-up PCs to continue with.

I'll leave it up to you to think about. I told the two new players I probably wouldn't have an answer for them until tonight or tomorrow since some of you were out of town for the weekend and I wasn't sure when you'd get back to a keyboard. They both seemed cool with that.

Uh, are you forgetting the first rule of surviving a horror movie? Never split up. That would defeat the purpose of us running double characters, right? That said, it would be fun to have basically two parallel games running in the same world... IDK, whaddya all think?

Me too. Generally I think it's a mistake to split the group. That's my lean. My intention was to roll back into the dungeon with like 10 guys and just destroy it.

I'm not super keen on the idea of running two groups. That's a lot of work for everyone. I like the idea of using one large group to stomp the enemies. And hey, we're still pretty fragile! It shouldn't be long before we open up a spot for a new player.

As far as the two missions go, I think we settled on a little of column A and a little of column B. Lots of back and forth. But doing so as one group.

We currently have 6 actual PCs, two possible new additions. That’s 8. The archeologist we need to accompany, and perhaps an NPC’s Bors or Elmo to round out the 10?

We stomp the moat, chase down the gnolls and then we can have some split off naturally, if everyone remains alive. Or just don’t replace our dead if they don’t?!

I'm down with that

Hey just a heads up, as I assume some have noticed my postings have been slower than usual...

I'm on the board of directors for our local wrestling club, and we're hosting a state championships this weekend, so we've been runni g around like headless chickens during this final week of locking everything down (concessions permits, security, and hiring of referees has been my task).

Meanwhile, my daughter is heading to Colorado Springs for the National Championships next week so we're getting her ready for that trip (she travels alone, so it's a lot of travel scheduling, hotel accommodations, registration, setting her up for travel money, etc.).

Meanwhile I spent a significant pile of my time between working towards a new job at a funeral home doing body recovery, which has required a lot of interviewing, background checks, piss testing, etc.

Things will probably be a bit rusty and slow until at least this weekend. Middle of next week at the latest, but I'll try to stay on top of things while I can.

I mean, this has all been just roleplaying. I hadn't even noticed you weren't around!

Yeah man I'm not missing out on the thrill, do what you gotta do. Time is an illusion ;)

We can keep pottering around the inn for a while.

That’s certainly an interesting new job you have lined up though.

Bors when he finally wakes up so he can depart lol:

OH FRICK!!! I'm sorry! My daughter's in Colorado Springs today wrestling in the Folkstyle National Championships, and I didn't tell you! I'm sorry! It's been a disaster of a week. She's wrestling well, but the besides that the week's been a disaster. I'll have something posted tonight. I'm sorry.

It happens! Don't stress it. On my end, I was assuming you were still swamped with work and wrestling. Wasn't worried a bit.