Out of Character discussion:

No worries! Family first.

Yeah, I am but I thought I gave a heads up this week was gonna get crazy, and doesn't look like I did. My bad.

Finished 2nd Place in the 16U division at the 2022 USA Wrestling Girls Folkstyle National Championships today in Colorado Springs.



Wrestles again tomorrow morning in the 18U division.

Wow! Congrats to her!! What a little champ!

Just a head’s up. We get home from Colorado Sorings late tonight, and tomorrow I’ll be back to my usual frequency.

I appreciate your patience this last week+.

No prob at all, safe trip!

Everything go alright with the return trip?

Yep. All's good, and a new post has been made in the oficial thread. Kiddo heads back again to Billings for a really big tournament this weekend. Same town again, but I'm letting the wife take her this time and I'll just watch her matches on livestream this weekend or have the wife record them and send to me. I have plenty of work to catch up on, to say the least of how our campaign has been sorely neglected. I'm ready to get you folks either back in the dungeon or out on the trail of the gnolls.

I do believe the idea was to at least snatch the contents of the armory first, return with it, and then consider the gnolls or the dungeon some more, was it not?

Yes that sounds accurate

Man, everyone's hating on Eltrezar! Just a bunch of bullies.

Is Mal able to roll for natural healing as well? Seems she's down to 3 HP herself...

I should have Part 9 posted tomorrow…

Onwards and upwards! I can't wait to see how "unlucky" Luban is really!

Okay, we're only starting the first round of the first combat with the new rules for Initiative, and I still think I prefer Individual Initiative over Group Initiative in general, but I'll admit, this makes the game run a thousand times faster already. You guys were right; this is probably way better for the PbP format of gameplay, than Individual Initiative is. I can see us getting a round of combat done in a day (or maybe two days tops), versus a week or longer like before.

One other thing real quick, specifically for @KCC:
I don't recall you posting it specifically in the roleplaying that transpired when Ora was introduced to the party, but I think we also operate on the idea that probably the PCs are having all sorts of conversations here that we don't post because the PbP format would make every discussion take forever, but did Ora Rusk inform the party that she's a Mage (in terms of her Class)? Or did she just basically say she's a Magic-User, generally speaking.
In other words, I would assume that some, if not all, PCs would probably know a bit of the differences between a Mage, versus a general Magic-User. Was Ora basically like, "Oh, well I'm a spellcaster", but wasn't specific about the details of her class with the rest of the party, or was she pretty clear that she's specifically a Mage, and this is sort of what being a Mage is all about as opposed to a spellcaster like Eltrezar?

The only issue I foresee with the group initiative involves movement and ranged weapons. Having characters run in front of archers before they actually fire can make it a little confusing. BUT so long as we aren't in a tight hallway, I think we can probably assume the archers adjust position to fire clearly.

Also, I feel bad about taking on Spuignor and his demands when Ora is a scroll-caster! I need to look back at when all the decisions were made (both hiring Spuignor and deciding Ora is a mage), but I may have screwed the pooch here. Luckily, we haven't found any scrolls as of yet, and statistically speaking Spuignor isn't long for this world.

Meanwhile I'm just over here grumbling about Ora getting all these nifty tricks while Eltrezar has a single spell. A grumbling out of jealousy, nothing more. Haha.

Maybe Ora can sneakily pilfer scrolls before Spugnoir sees it...

Yeah, I can tell that's going to be a problem at some point, and I'm going to crap the bed a bunch getting that sorted out. In face-to-face you would all declare your Actions ahead of time, and then we'd sort it out, but that's gonna be a pain in the butt as well with PbP, so I'm honestly thinking that we just go "first come first serve" and let everyone move and shoot as they post, like we did with Individual Init. Just because it's gonna probably be a headache of retconning all the time with shooting through other PCs' positions.

Bingo

I imagine Ora up front about her abilities. Provably over a drink last night, or when everyone went out this morning. Or maybe been on the way here!

I hope Gilly doesn't give Eltrezar too much crap for nearly being eaten by a rat!

Of course not! She aimed at that rat to cover our wizards retreat! Bros before woes!