Out of Character discussion:

I'm in it to win it. So if it is just the two of us (plus our illustrious DM), we will need a whole mess of cohorts. Obviously I'm all for KCC staying (perhaps with a new character), but sometimes leaving a game that isn't inspiring you is just what the doctor ordered.

I think one of the main reasons we were using individual initiatives was because Halflings get a +1 to their Initiative. It would definitely speed up combat significantly to use the grouped initiative, which may be worth exploring.

Personally, I wouldn't mind having a second character. It's harder to pull off in live gaming due to the speed at which the game moves, but it seems like it would be much easier on PbP. If we end up going the route of two players and a ton of hirelings, that's a whole mess of work for the GM.

A wizard and a dwarf... Where have I heard that story before?

Yeah in other pbp games I've run/played in we would apply the highest individual initiative bonus of the group to the roll to keep the perk relevant. It speeds up combat exponentially and the story suffers not one bit.

I would also be ok playing a second character (I just like making characters really) or bringing in new blood, either way so long as the tale continues.

I may have just thrown together a character, minus equipment. So whatever we decide, I'm ready.

What'd you make?

Luban the Unlucky, aptly named Thief.

Nice

Okay I' got back to town, last night. Internet service/cell service was 100% non-existent in the arena all weekend, which is freaking *insane* for an arena that seats 12k people in the year 2022. The biggest wrestling tournament in the state and there's literally no way to check brackets online, text family back home to report results, or even make/receive a phone call. The internet service in the hotel was really lousy as well and would just drop you every three or four minutes. I felt like I was living in some twilight zone.
I'm sure @cowleyc gets used to it when he's traipsing around the middle of nowhere, but this is in an arena that seats twelve thousand people in the middle of a city of 110K people! WTF!?!

So... Back to business:

1. Are we thinking if we lose @nezzeraj and @KCC we're gonna do double PCs?

2. Are we thinking we want to drop individual Initiaves and switch to group Initiative, using the highest PC's modifier to tray and speed up combats?

Reminds me of my time in Seward, AK. The service wasn't amazing there, but it became entirely nonexistent when cruise ships would roll in. Bonkers!

1. I think that's something Dom and I are comfortable with, at least until some new players roll in (should we go that route). We'll still be hiring some cohorts, though.

2. As Dom pointed out, the grouped initiative would really speed things up since we wouldn't have to wait for our individual turns. It does, however, increase the chance of being eaten alive super fast. Hence hiring cohorts.

Yes to everything. I'll make a second character if it's easier/faster to keep with two players, though I truly hope nezzeraj AND KCC keep playing cuz I know their style and I think they are amazing players. Also I do feel like group initiative will speed things up with combat, though I am ultimately fine either way.

Thanks for the kind words but I don't think the system is a good match for me. It was my first time using it though so I'm glad I got to experience it for myself and can add it to my list of "games I've played" lol. I'll stick around until Bors is conscious and give him a proper send off and whatnot.

@KCC, what are you suggesting? That we try for a different module? That we go off on our own?

I'm all for going back into the moathouse because it's the adventure. This is the way.

This is the way.

Yeah it pretty much all takes place in the dungeon below the moathouse in Elemental Evil. We need to bring more cannon fodder with us next time for sure.

Hey funfungiguy how'd your youngster do in the tourney?

She did good. She took 3rd overall, which isn't quite what we hoped for, but nothing we're ashamed of either.

She went in seeded #2. Things pretty much went as we expected the first two days, won all of her matches by pin through the quarterfinals. Ran into #3 in the semifinals and got beat.
My daughter made a mistake in the first period of the match, and the other girl jumped on it and capitalized on it and put us down 5-0, and then the #3 girl spent the rest of the six-minute match fleeing the mat, running, stalling, and basically just playing games to ride out the clock for three periods.
It's technically a legit win for the girl; it was a strategy for sure. I'm not saying we got robbed or anything. But it's generally considered a "low form" of wrestling in the sport's community, and not a style I respect at all.
But we also know it was going to be messy when any of the top three seeded girls finally met up, so it is what it is.

My daughter wrestled through the consolation bracket after that, and wound up with the #4 seed for 3rd and 4th place. Her 3rd/4th place match was a really a good brawl. She won a 10-4 decision in the end, but both girls walked off the mat bloodied, and mat-burned, and wearing ice bags on body parts, and just generally looking like they had a bat-fight instead of a wrestling match. They evidently earned one another's respect enough that they decided to become friends afterwards, and have been sharing Snapchat thingies back and forth multiple times a day since I've learned.

#3 seeded girl we lost to had the #1 seed in the finals, tried the same stalling garbage, but it didn't work out so well for her a second time around. She was a senior and finished her high school career never winning a state title she wanted, because she never figured out that that passive wrestling sometimes wins matches, but rarely wins titles. It's a shame because she was part of our club. I taught her how to wrestle, and our club never taught that passive wrestling trash. She picked that crap up from her high school coach when she because a freshman, and honestly it's why she never won the state championship title she always wanted. But she made her own bed, and she'll live with those choices.

I'm a little raw still, I suppose, but I'm happy with the 3rd Place finish too, because it was a hard won 3rd. If she had won another State Title but wrestled the way #3 did all weekend to earn it, I would be disappointed with her. But she wrestled through every match really tough... Constantly pushed the pace and attacked, maintained constant pressure on her opponents. Just wrestled a very aggressive style of wrestling we teach and expect from out athletes every match. That's what I really care about, so 3rd Place at High School State this year is fine.

She took that loss really hard, though, tbh... She won state as a freshman last year and her big dream was to be the state's first female four-timer. A lot of people in the state though she would be. There's was a lot of pressure leading into this weekend and she was handling it well, but that loss crushed that dream forever. That's one of those matches that haunt you, and you just play over and over and over if you let it have room to run around your head. She cried on her momma's shoulder so hard after that one... It took a lot of work to get her head back in it and remind her she still had a job to finish and she needed to put it aside for the rest of the day.
It'll probably stick with her for long, long days to come, but hopefully it puts a little chip on her shoulder and she uses it to get better next year.

High school season's over now though for the year and she was already sitting down last night, planning her post-season plans and tournament schedule for this year... couple tournaments in Iowa she's looking to go to, one in Texas she wants to do... Mostly all the stuff we just give her money and put her on a greyhound bus, make hotel accommodations for when she gets where she's going, and tell her "Good luck; we'll be watching online. Call us after your matches, kiddo." So I guess she's fired up and hungry...

I DM a 5th Edition campaign for her, and my youngest son, and two of their cousin's. We get together and play after school at my parents house, but the campaign (Lost Mines of Phandelver) has been on hiatus since her season started, so all the kids are already pretty excited to "get the band back together" on Wednesdays.

As far as the game goes, I'll probably have a post up tomorrow at the latest for the next Part of the campaign. We'll let those that are staying with the game make secondary characters, we'll let Bors get some rest so he can recover and gracefully step out. We'll give Gilly a chance to do what she thinks is best for herself.

Regarding @KCC's questions:
That's entirely up to the group. While the campaign is "T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil", as I understand things, Gygax originally wrote just the "T1: The Village of Hommlet" part of the modules, and Frank Mentzer came in later and helped write the rest of it. You're all still basically in the T1 part of the game, The Village of Hommlet, which was sort of designed by Gygax to be kind of a open-ended sandbox. Basically a very detailed village the party can use as a base of operations, as they go out and explore the world around them. There's a ton of NOCs to interact with, there's some nefarious things going on in the sly in town, and there's the ruins of a moathouse that seems to be sort of the hub of all these troubles.
You guys have definitely focused on the ruins, and as @cowleyc and @dominion451 said, it's sort of the hub or focal point of all the other side-quests you might find. You just haven't really found many of the side-quests. There's the issue with the pack of gnolls that are attacking the gnomes to the north that was mentioned. There's the merchants and other travelers being abducted (and brought back to the moathouse). There's the mention of all these series of misfortunes plaguing the community that's interfering with the clerics at the church being able to provide an adequate amount of healing potions to the party.
There's definitely opportunities to get XP and level up besides getting slammed over and over in the ruins, but as you can imagine, everything does ultimately lead back to whatever's happening in the ruins in the end.


True that the last two delves have been pretty tough walks of shame home. I'm honestly surprised that the party didn't haul out a ton of that loot from the armory this last one. The gold that could have come from selling it off, and the XP that was to be gained as a result would have easily put some, if not most of you at 2nd level, meaning more access to magic ( both divine and arcane), stronger ability for Turning Undead, and definitely more HP letting you last longer in the dungeons. There's definitely been opportunities to gain XP that have been missed, and that's slowing down level progression.
I don't think you are. PbP is a slower process than real time for sure. It's more of a slow burn storytelling format. I'm currently a player in a couple of 5e games as well that have gone on at least as long as this one and my PCs are only just turned 2nd Level on those as well. Even @nezzeraj's Dead of Night game sounded like we were hoping to run it for the month leading into halloween and look how long that one-shot wound up taking. Things just run slower in PbPs and I tend to focus on the story that everyone's telling together rather than focusing on the rate of character advancement through leveling.

In any case, I should have the next part open by tomorrow at the latest and that way players can do what they think is best.

In regards to the armor and weapons we left behind, I think Eltrezar left it behind for two reasons on my end. First, he just wanted to get back to town. That was the priority. Anything else was secondary. Second, I (as a player) didn't think it would have all that much XP and Gold value. Granted, I only bought daggers; I didn't really look at the prices for most of that stuff.

Generally, I think that armor and weapons as loot is sort of a waste of time. It's usually trash: nicked and rusty weapons, dented and ugly armor, and has very little value when sold, considering the encumbrance gained to haul it.
But I tried to emphasize a number of times in my posts that the stuff in the armory was all well-maintained, good quality equipment, and would have definitely fetched a higher than usual stack of gold than a bunch of used garbage looted off some idiot goblins swinging sharpened pieces of scrap metal.
The encumbrance would normally still have been an issue, but hauling it on the trip directly out of the ruins, and having spare horses to carry it, the encumbrance wouldn't have been much of an issue most likely.

One has to assume though that it's unlikely that when whomever patrolling the halls of the ruins discovers their armory was busted open they're, and some of the leather armor was snatched (by the gnolls), they're not going to keep it left sitting there. At least not unattended.

I mean, I think we'd all be more than willing to accept your oh so gracious offer of a retcon. Haha.