OOC chat

In case you want exchange some meta (OOC) info, ask rules question etc. - please use this thread.
Answering possible question:
Although you will discover that cage is full of dead stinky bodies, it does not impact movement - terrain is not a difficult.
Ceilings up to 30 feet high covered with stalactite, so moving with spider climb of similar feature there would be a difficult terrain.
The only objects one could take cover behind are rocks near the zombie.
One square on the grid is 5 feet
I have not yet decided how to move and measure diagonal distance, will do it approximate for now, in case of uncertain I will try to pick what is best for players. But we will see if it works.
Nat20 - I will double the rolled damage dice for simplicity.

Feel free to argue or suggest alternatives. I.e. we may do NAT20 as your roll+max of the roll dice. i.e. if you roll d20=20 and 2d6 as 2+5 the critical damage would be 2+5+6+6. I'm just afraid if monster do nat20 a PC who is target may be quite upset.

I know that you like to keep things orderly, but aren't you getting a bit carried away with the amount of chats/threads?
(Maybe I'm the only one that does not get it.)

Player tip: Spells that don't require an attack roll, like Acid Splash, never suffer disadvantage.

Can we please do simpler criticals? Like double the dice or double the numbers rolled on dice??

yes I am using double number for critical right now. open for anything majority vote for
I'd prefer double dice if everyone is ready to check their rolls and di extra post upon crit

I like the crit additional dmg as average for the dice rounded up. A critical d6 would be its roll plus 4 dmg.

That's something! I like it. If everyone agree I am up to use this instead of double the damage

That works for me

Then I would ask you kindly to be forever bound to remind me of this, because I will forget

can we still reach the worm?

Not with melee, worm is 10 ft up on the wall

oki ty

Not sure if I told you this already, but I want you to know: this scenario is not un rails. Whatever you do - it will have impact on the story limited by my ability to improvise. As a DM I resist "you accomplish nothing unless you do what I want you to do" type of game.
You will almost always accomplish something, but it will only be something important if I can figure out how to properly incorporate it into the story

I rolled perception to see if Angius still remembers the sight of the dead.... If it makes the case a bit more logical...😅

Hey, all. Since you don't hurry to take any meaningful actions I could give you a hint. Your characters may or may not - as you wish - remember that other maze runners told you monsters are always in areas with chests. So you may need to search the chest.

One more note - as described in game description, you must be ready to fight 6-8 medium difficulty fights like this one before the long rest. And you do remember that a short rest means risk to meet more monsters. Meta-game info: short rests will not add more monsters to areas you have not yet been to, only in the areas you have cleared already (or - if unlucky, then into the are where you try to take short rest, this interrupting it)

In case you didn't know - rules clarification regarding passive perception
This means that your passive perception is -5 in the cave when you need to spot something. It is your normal when you want to hear or smell something, though I am ruling that you also have disadvantage on smell in this particular cave for obvious reasons.
You still have torches with you... but well you know everyone will see the light from afar.

Well my passive perception is 4, so i ain't the best lookout

Just to let you know I am waiting for any actions from you.
If you are not comfortable making actions I could invent following custom rules:
Whenever you want you just roll d20+wisdom modifier and ask DM to describe what a character does, I will decide what it does based on the roll
Alternatively you could ask DM to secretly roll your intelligence and suggest some "smart ideas" based on the roll :).
In any case result 11+ will be more or less good, while 10 and less will be suboptimal. If you score 0 or less on wisdom your character may decide jump into lava.

hint: with pp below 10 it is impossible to detect any traps even simplest ones

I know, i know

French, when did you prepare an action? (Im curious ^^)

French did initiative +submitted fist round actions, which is correct. I will resolve the action in initiative order. Should all spiders be dead by his initiative for whatever reason, I will ask him for new action.

Oh.... ok Big thanks, I misunderstood it. ^^'

I forgot that you do your actions and then see what happens here

If i remember correctly anguis didn't get attacked yet, right?

exactly. Spider were running toward you, reached you and decided (for some reason) to turn toward Phoenix

Okay, then pacifism and Diplomacy prevails, I'll start persuading others to stop. 10 words per round.

Bubbles, sorry this for confusion, you can't do anything yet I have not "resolved" your current turn yet. All you could do for now your reaction - you either kick or you don't. You could do what you posted on your next turn - after monster turn is over and after Bellow swings hist both axes and Elrond fires his crossbow

And - no you don't need to roll anything. I don't see how would you be able to "fail" to deliver so simple and straight forward message.
It is up to players however how they think their characters react as they understand your opinion.

P.S. I think it is easy to persuade someone that smoking kills, make them stop smoking is not.

Oki, no kick then

Noted, thanks

Gnellson, why second attack is +3? You should have +2 from rage. Am I missing something?

I added the performance check to the last post

Bubbles, ok for this turn you could do it like Eminem "tongue-twisting average of 4.28 words per second" - up to 25 words. Please state what Anguis is saying or twisting :)

Added the full text (exactly 25 words) to the last post

Done, exactly 25 words!

everyone please pay attention to what your teammates are doing and what signals they send before submit your next turn. Except "Bellow sees Elrond's silent gesture. I purse my lips tightly and make an angry face... and keep on hacking spiders." - this will happen on next turn only

French you realize shocking grasp has a verbal component, right?

I will make my turn after phoenix, need to know if the dude is still conscious or not ...

I did not think that through but I will accept that there is a verbal component

While we wait for Anguis turn I suggest you to discuss here your next actions, you will very soon kill the last mechanical spider and need to decide what do you do next.

By the way - should anyone want to investigate further anything from where you have been already - you need to tell me details of where and what. You may as well tell me you character is investigating everything but it will consume some time. From what I understand you have only been investigating floor for possible traps. So you missed the tiny holes in roof where spider came from.

I have impression that I as DM failed to deliver message about this place to you as players. My conclusion comes from Anguis thinking "rock gnomes so paranoid". I'm really worried about this game as I've made it with assumption that your characters - adventures who managed to survive as many battles as to reach lvl 8 - have some tricks to make proper decisions most of the time.
Question
If I would explain you the situation and the clues you see in the tomb - would it help your characters do any better and avoid taking this much damage+spend resources trying to go through the most heavy protected part of the tomb, using brute force.

Suggestion
If any one of you think his character is wise enough and have some gut feeling about this place - I will allow you to roll Wisdom ability check

It's good, it's all my fault, at the begging you told us something about a rock gnome and this place, i think, so i got fixated on the fact.

Tbh long texts ain't my best thing, but I'm fighting this problem head-on.😅🙂

Point taken, less lore text more conclusions that your character make from that.

I would like to get any (i.e. including negative) feedback of the puzzle traps I designed in this tomb. I have a feeling you are not getting fun of solving them and I blame myself. I should probably not make any more of those player-puzzles and stay with problems that you as a player clearly understand the options and the risks of.

Example: I wonder why didn't you try to investigate floor for :more used paths" back in the rooms you have been earlier. I told you you don't see them in the long hall . Perhaps I should have suggested directly to look for them in other room using a light?

Because the barbarian suggested we continue on this path. We agreed.

Now Anguis has a reason to tread back.

Bubbles, if all you do is poking ground with your stick you do not find the walked path. In order to do that you need to use your hands to clean up the dust. You could describe where do you move poking the ground to for me to understand if you reach any of the traps on the ground

exactly where Angus is about to step , if there's nothing, then he's glad no to fall through another pit.

You mean I should take back the fact that you discovered floor is more used in the place where you stand because that is not what you are bothered about

Bubbles. I've decided to delete my and your last posts in the game chat. As Anguis are poking the ground with the stick he see all ground intact and noticed nothing else strange as is too focused on looking for pit traps.
P.S. Sorry for trying to guess your character actions, will now wait for you guys to tell me exactly what you do

It's alright, I get it, its hard to resist the urge to control and trust your players.

Don't forget you could do a short rest at any time. There will be small chance that new monsters will appear somewhere if you do so, but you will eventually need to take at lest some SR during the day. Yes I was hoping you will not it it by now, but well... you were not as lucky I as hoped you will be.

It's alright, we can at least take another combat, i still have my asimar HP pool and a couple of spell slots.

Also i decided to add a little verbal component to anguis spells, since i thought that this would make it a bit more immersive.... It's a spoiler so you're free to skip, if your character doesn't know the language and you don't want to metagame or you just don't care.

Im sorry for being aloof, did we find any magic items yet or only food?

Hey guys. Sorry I haven’t been very active, I’m going through some stuff right now and don’t have the mental capacity to keep up with my games. I’ll need to take a temporary hiatus. DM you can write me our of the narrative for now if you’d like (a wizard mysteriously takes me out via a portal?). I’m sorry

Bubbles, Gnellson I am getting more players into the game meanwhile feel free to continue exploring. I will stop you in case you encounter any enemies or come close to next traps, though as you have the map now you should have the idea where the traps are.

Ok we have a player swap and I made it as reasonable as I can. Please do not try to look for clues in what just happened, I have simply removed two characters until players are back and willing to continue and put a new character in. Please continue as 3 players because I do not have any new applicant at the moment. Besides I hope Phoenix could be back any time soon.

Ye, let Solar run!! He ain't even standing next to Nessus!! XD

So Lucas investigated the map, right? I'm not sure what to understand from the answer though, haha. I must be missing something about the significance of this map and the statues and stuff. Could somebody sum it up for me, please?

Araklusta, forgot to mention - I provided short summary in game chat. To get more insight you will need to read game chat from page 15.

somethingsomethingbirds1: let me clarify situation with mage hand. All I want is for You to describe what does the mage hand do - does it touch, lift, push or otherwise interact with the object. If you don't want to make that decision as a player, just let me know - I could do the decision for you based on a roll. In this case it would pure wisdom check.

Hey, hey. Players. I feel like we have some miscommunication here:
1. I apologise to somethingsomethingbirds1 if it felt like I am behave offensively on your mage hand casting. All I wanted to say that I was missing your description on the result of your mage hand casting. Could we agree that I delete my posts and you complement your post describing what did others saw when your invisible mage hand interacted with the object?
It triggered no traps or anything, so it is all up to the player to describe

2. In the game chat I will only respond to player actions that either cause some reaction from monsters or mechanisms that you don't know about. I will keep silent if nothing unexpected happens. If you want me to interaction - just ask me to.

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I've been really sick. Apparently not COVID, as of my test this morning, but I was surprised. Should be able to make a post later this afternoon.

I don't think what you did was coming of as offensive at all. I've played with several DMs who interpret the capabilities and function of mage hand several ways. I'm big on your game, your interpretation. No offense on my end.

Bubbles, could you remind me please which object did Anguis target with the Light cantrip. Lucas don't have darkvision so I may need to manage his vision limitation.
P.S. You could all assume you have at least few torches with you.

Bellows shirt

HELP! Please tell me if I am missing something
1. After my last post in game chat I was expecting Lucas to react on it somehow. Wasn't it obvious? ​

2. We seem to have players dropping too often. Is this trapped room too boring, annoying or just too hard for party that want to fight monsters?

3. Any recommendations for improving this game, do you want more choices, make choices more obvious or remove the choices whatsoever. Or should I find ways to explain you in details how the traps work as you fail to discover it yourself. Or should I make your character discover it even if you as a player fail to imagine actions to do so?

For example: you choose not to test/investigate/analyse the Statue that stopped casting fear magic at you, you probably forgot that the statue at first altar also had that yellow marker. As a DM I had a specific "trigger" for each trap. It was "on touch" of the floor for the spider trap in the hallway. Technically it was Magic Mouth cast on each of floor panels - the magic lasts forever no concentration required. The spiders have this feature:
Voice Lock. The vox seeker must move toward and attack the source of the nearest voice within 60 feet of it, to the exclusion of all other targets, for as long as it remains operational.

Okay, here's my two cents about it:
1. Since DND is about roleplay the concept of being something obvious is a 'shady topic' for example i have a campaign rn where people have been figuring out a puddle for a week now...at the same time i see that they mostly enjoy the process, because if they wanted to speed up, they would have 'turned on logic' , if you get what i mean.

2. Players drop often - yes.
In my case, me as a player and Anguis are done with the place, but aren't in a rush to leave it, due to the fact that it's more dangerous to travel alone. Though he has 0 trust towards our angel brought buddies.

I don't mind the puzzles or how you DM, but personally found the place slightly boring, if you compare it to food - i would call it bland, not unedible, just bland to the taste.

3. Maybe add 'sum spice'? I like the current amount of clues, because i will often attempt to guess what they are based on observation rather than logic, as i did before.

Also you should mention, make more obvious that the game is meant to be a survival one, not a pure roleplay sandbox. It will help in finding the right players, because not everyone reads everything and not everyone is there to play everything...

enlightening! Anyone want to add anything - I am still willing to have feedback

As for now I plan to speed up a game to get you out of the tomb - honestly I am also bored with what is going on there. I will attribute this my mistake to lack of forum game DMing experience. Hope that next scene will be more playable. If not - then I just give up as forum DM.

Bruh... don't take my words too much to heart, I told you what I did and how i did is because i trust you to be good enough to take it head on. I mostly did it because you know what kind of person i am.

Besides, giving up because of a couple of scratches ain't sport....

I should know that pretty good, had sum nasty rumors and lost a couple of 'friends' when i began DM-ing.

Anyhow, don't think about it too much, look at it as an research experiment, if something goes not as you want it, change the variables then observe and analyse the results....if it doesn't meet the margin- rinse and repeat until you have enough data.

I've unlocked prologue thread. I've decided to alter history and assume there were one more team of maze runners. You will eventually meet in the maze and work together. I would like to keep both threads in parallel - you will have opportunity to introduce your new team members as if you met them "in the morning" at camp in prologue thread. While we will keep progress as 3 of you work through the maze.

Sorry to be silent. Life has been busy. I'll catch up soon.

So... Sup with the fight?

Yes I was hoping that Araklusta would join the fight eventually, but unfortunately you are alone.
To give you a chance to balance encounter I will allow you to do insight check on this enemy

Bellow is good for two rounds and then he will fall. We're going to need a lot of luck.

Gnellson, could you please tell me if you as a player understood that you are passing by a creature that is pretending to be statue. Did you decide that your character would ignore that fact or was it my fault providing poor description to you as a player?
If you have good in character reason for that I will give you inspiration, but please tell us - so far I am but confused

P.S. I was about to give you a surprise round if you would attack it, not sue why didn't you

I've just figure out that one way to solve the issue would be to put GeneCortess new character right into the buttle starting next round. That would ridiculous for him to fall from the sky right into the battle, but I could arrange that.

You can, but then I would like to have a heatstroke check for Anguis XD

The poor bloke is already really paranoid. I personally think that this is a good moment for you to improve as a DM, cuz this is a pretty uncommon, yet not unsolvable situation. I personally want to see how creative you can be with the situation and available assets.

OK. I will proceed as planned originally don't want to torcher your character. Your current encounter is indeed not unsolvable situation.

Everyone!
Check out games tavern. there are two new 5e games opening. Probably it is time to close this game and move there.
My enthusiasm for this mage suffered from high player drop rate lately and it has contributed the player experience, so it looks like we are not having fun in this game any more.

I will try my best to continue this game if at least 3 of you will ask me to do so.
Waiting on your feedback.

Bruh, why do you always give up so fast?

Personally like the game, of-course there are moments when your inner rule/order keeper ticks me off, but it isn't that important for me, for I also need to learn to accept people.

You know what, let's finish the battle the way it was designed and without any divine interventions/help from me
If you manage to survive we continue. I still believe you can survive if you start rolling above 10 on D20 :)

I'm up for continuing. Maybe another party hears the fight and comes to help.

Bellow are you still standing? You suffer 11/2=5 HP

The game story progress is suspended till January-3. I will be reading the forum regularly and ready to answer any questions, I just want to have all players completely back in the game before we continue.

oki

Bellow got as low as 5 HP. Long rest restored him to 25 of 32.

OK, we could slowly continue the game , but if anyone is busy with NW don't worry - I will wait for everyone to respond to my posts before move on.

oki, im ready

One important notice.
All 4 of current PCs have met this morning at the breakfast (porridge)
So when you will eventually meet in the maze - you should be surprised that two teams are meeting each other, but you do recognise each other immediately.
If you remember each other name - that is up to you, but let's assume Lilly told you who are participants of the other teams.

oki

Eveyone, I'm wondering what is the reason for so low player activity lately.
Are you bored/unsatisfied with athletics checks and choosing piles? Let me know! I can skip this particular challenge and move on.

idk, its like that everywhere, I think you're overreacting

I think you're right on target, Grey. None of the characters think that going back the way they came in is going to get them anywhere they want to go. I've been playing this game for well over 40 years and the one thing I've learned about managing a game is that you shouldn't really follow the dice too closely. There is an option to make all rolls open for everyone to see. I don't like to use that option when I'm DMing. If I find the game dragging, I try to move it along by whatever means necessary.

Hey everyone.
I want to do something I've seen other DM doing on gamesrplane. I will be posting story progress every evening in interval 19:00-21:00 UTC. If you miss your post before that time I assume your PC does nothing.
Will start tomorrow, so next 29 hours we do as before - I post progress whenever I see sufficient input from at lest one player.

OK, since Aldrusian have been inactive over a week I assume we are down to 3 players again, but I don't want to hire any new players before we end day one, will try to adjust difficulty.

I hope you enjoy a little bit of social insertion.
Honestly I was hoping to tear some of the lore dumps on you, but failed. Will try again later, but I don't plan to give away easy. If you feel like everything around is totally dumb, let me know and I will give some minor lore/reasoning to what is happening in the maze for free

One more question - everyone OK if I roll for your a roll required as part of your turn? Or you would like to roll everything yourslef? I'm fine either way, just wanted to move forward.

You can roll in my stead, i don't mind.

Feel free to roll for me anytime you feel the urge.

Torhem has the dilemma of his lifetime rn, lol.

Smiles. Just the way he is. Actually, haven't seen the way was before he lost memory.

A note about mimic. I am actually a bit confused about this creature mechanics/behaviour, i.e. could is "see" in the object form, but I can't find any mechanical drawback for their object form in the monster sheet, so I will rule there are none. I will also rule that any weapon attack, even failed one actually touches mimic due to it's Adhesive trait stick to it.
If a weapon stick to mimic you could use action to make Str check DC13 to try to get your weapon back.
If you stick to it, to escape that you could also to Str check DC13, but with disadvantage

What should I roll if i want to stick the javelin further in the mimic not pull it out?

Javelin is not IN it. it adhere TO it. Still same rules str check as action

Ok

Hey, I don't remember who got them but I believe one of you have javelin -1 and another one javelin -2. You could still use them with negative modifier. This is probably the battle where it is better -1 than nothing.
The chests are actually good enough to work as improvised weapons as well.

yeh. this could have been tough fight for melee characters. axe and warhammer are both attached to mimic just as morningstar. It is a quite an arsenal, but mimic is close to die.

Angius has one -1 javelin the other one is Bellows.

Since it is again just 3 of you I plan to hire 2 more players soon. They would join you next day after you return to the settlement and level up.
That is assuming 3 of you find this game good enough to continue.
Let me know also if you have any suggestion for how to change and improve game. I have no idea about what will happen next game day yet. So everything is possible.

It's good, though why don't you give us a pet and we follow Tasha's rules where the thing gains fighter levels?

Imean we can wait for more players, if you prefer that.

first - you will not wait. My plan - new players will get onboarded in parallel to you 3 fighting final boss.
second - for the final boss this may indeed be a good idea to add some animal/construct companions helping you in the fight. Thanks for idea will explore that.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
I've decided only make an insignificant balance tweak to make battle possible to win for 3 player team, however I will let you as players know that the this battle will not be lethal to the team. Should you loose the fight your character will be resurrected. You are ultimately fighting only to acquire some magical items protected by the day 1 final boss.

Given that I will be very open to any clever out of combat ideas that would help you gain some tactical advantage.
Hint: do not forget to use anything you have seen or collected in the maze so far.

Where is bob the builder when you need him?! XD

Alright, how much are you guys against a flame-thrower dog at the cost of a couple of villagers?

Thorem considers that the way this place is. The hell hounds should have chests associated with them. Perhaps very nice ones too! He plans to risk is life and limb to try to get such at the moment.

Just a note - You saw 3 chests but so far have ignored them

Ack! I'm so bad about details. Yeah. Kill the Hell Hound and get the three chests! Game plan.

Thorem would love to blast that Hell Hound from a distance with is Fire Bolt but what is the point. He is currently out of casting Slots, Action Surge, Second Wind.

Theoretically this is only know lore to Anguis, so don't open the spoiler if you are not ready to metagame your PC not knowing that. If you have any question my interpretation of the above text or have suggestion how should I - I'm open for discussion.

Well, that you understand - it is a fiend not an animal. Thorem would assume someone or something has brought it here from "Nine Hells" and if it was a summoning spell it should normally disappear within hour of it's summoning. But since you spent more than hour digging into this place ... it is probably not summoned but brought here by someone who could move between nine hells and your plane of existence. Or you are in nine hells :)

Insanely attached? Is grappling considered being insanely attached? XD

At first he was worried about being jumped by them on the way back, but now he sees the hound as a possible major asset to the whole 'maze running', so he's ready to risk it and attempt to tame it, if not it can always be killed, it's pack is dead and either it accepts the situation or dies from our hand.

so.. are there any non-functional npc? that can become food, or can anguish leave the hound on 15 ft leash and then it is free to attempt to anyone that gets too close??

im thinking how to properly pull it off.... about items I vote hp pots and javelins approx 5:1 if possible

> non-functional npc?
You have not noticed any disabled, paralysed, petrified, or otherwise permanently unconscious NPC. If that was the question.

If you want to know skills/abilities/languages know/etc. - a full profile of each person .. well you should it in game, it is no way an OOC question.

Non functional as in not a crafter or someone we cannot gain direct benefit from...

I will not answer that OOC, that is for your PCs to figure out... and probably fail

Alright, Anguis will take chef feat for lvl 4

Ey... I get to lvl up as a person XD

LOL
I knew I'm overwhelmed and gonna make some mistake soon, but didn't expect it will happen it the OOC.

by the way, I believe it was a mistake to invent item ordering mechanism. I will be replacing it with something else in future
Meanwhile, if everyone is done the lvl up on lvl 4 we could move on to next day

Well, actually no, Anguis still has the mask and the funny bottle from the temple, what does it do?

Except for that I'm all set

yeh let's assume there is npc capable to identify. it was Potion of Diminution

mask - eyes of the eagle

So... What do we do with the batman mask and tiny potion? I guess anguis can keep the potion until it becomes useful... But what about the mask? @Gnellson,@GeneCortess

H is hugh L is low, i.e.
Advantage: 2d20H1+1
Disadvantage: 2d20L1+1


GeneCortess - why did you roll DEX save with disadvantage? Bellow got you out of monster so you were no retrained. It does not matter this time as you both rolls were so low, but just for clarity

Yoth can spend his Channel Divinity ability to heal Thorem 20 hp (or spread that 20 hp around multiple PCs). But I can only do that once until we have a short rest.

Did you guys get any chance to rest in the maze on Day 1?

Once, i think...

DM, I am having a hard time knowing exactly how to proceed in this game. You indicated several times that you are a little green behind the ears in terms of DM experience, and as such you urged us not to pursue alternative actions in combat, and with that frame-of-mind, we are proceeding through this dungeon, but now you are indicating that there are more flexible options available to us.

I'm not trying to put a damper on anything, and I don't know how the others in the group feel, but as for me, I am missing some of the finer details here that you may have pointed out to us.

As a human being, I have a 9 intelligence, so if others in the group have a clear sense of what options we have (and I missed those options), please disregard. I was just taken aback by your comment above, when during our combat with the ooze, I tried to use an alternative method to save my friend's character from the gelatinous cube, and then I was told that my course of actions was outside of what was allowed for this particular game because it was not spelled out in the rules.

This is how I understand DnD rules
Normal game goes like this according to PHB:
1. The DM describes the environment.
2. The players describe what they want to do
3. The DM narrates the results of the adventurers’ actions.

I am trying to support any player improvisation within this patter.

There are a few cases with a more detailed rules however, for example
Chapter 9: Combat
Chapter 10: Spellcasting

Just as I am not going to allow any improvisation with spellcasting just the same goes with Combat.
a Special not I was referring to is this text in Chapter 9:
Now what I'm really sorry for it that I will be using the power gived to DM in the rules:
To mostly say action is not possible.

Could you elaborate what map is referenced here?

@Bubble First I don't like you rolling without describing your PC action that is associated with a roll
To fix your last roll I narrate the action your PC is doing for you. Hope you don't mind me deciding on your PC actions.

I will also remind everyone that whenever you roll a dice for ability check and fail don't necessarily means "nothing"

Whatever, as long as it goes with the mojo... If you don't like the way i think then edit my post and tell me what you did there, i know that you can do it, and i don't really mind....

oh mine. I am continuously failing to deliver the message. I like the way you guys improvise. I like the way you think. I like the way you roleplay yourself into problems.

I only want to follow this rule
Actually let me quote another DM on the same topic. I believe he does it better than I do:

The map of the big room shows pillars arranged in a pattern. If I imagine that pattern expanded I might expect another pillar where I instead see a fake chest.

Oh, cool. I guessed that. As I've described Bellow indeed realized that the design should have been on a purpose and highlights the chests being among the pillars.

I would like to agree with Gnellson - if you fail to find non obvious path, then you should just follow the obvious one - i.e. go by water to the stairs that lead to the second floor
However just for the first time I'm willing to share

could you elaborate what would "take a few" means here in this sentence? My English fails at this sentence.

Don't you think that his animalistic adrenaline would shake him out of his stupor?

I am also expecting battle lust to take it over and hope that the PC will get himself wet when see party members in a deadly fight.
BTW did I say, Thorem get inspiration ? He does if he still don't have one.

Note: I will wait till 19:00 UTC. If still no initiative roll by Yoth I will roll on behalf of player and we will continue fight as per my rules - if no post by 19:00 UTC then PC dodge.

Been super busy. Sorry I haven't kept up the pace. I have one more busy day tomorrow, then things should ease up.

rage duration clarification
1 minute is 10 combat turns (each turn 6 seconds)
Rage continues 10 rounds
If you would get paralysed by crab monster your rage would have ended because you wouldn't attack next round.

Hey, everyone. My life has changed a lot since I signed up for this game, and (as you can probably tell), I'm having trouble keeping up with posting.

I feel like I should drop out. However, if that leaves the game in a lurch, I can continue to post, but probably not at the rate/consistency of everyone else.

Sorry, gang.

Sorry to hear, timplausible. I would prefer to drop your PC and reduce encounter difficulty proportionally - the way I'm trying to run this game slow posting rate is making party hurt.

I suggest to have timplausible PC cast cure wounds on Mal and then I narrate something stupid like water breathing Lizardman is poisoned by the water and slowly gets permanently paralysed, so party have no choice but to leave him (or transport back to settlement and return to maze).

Smiles. Put him on top of the crab and deliver back to the settlement.. :) .. Everyone eats crab forever.

by the way, that was not a crab but aberration that has crab's pincers, squid tentacles, fish tail, four legs that do not reference any creature you have seen. I called it crab because pincers where what you saw first/most of the time above the water. Now as fight is over you certainly understand that.

And also understand that it is not at all something Thorem would like to digest.

Sorry to throw a wrench into things. Good luck everyone.

Wow... We're 1 player down... I guess that our hunter fled back to the village and became an npc while others weren't looking 😂

well given how battle intensive this game is, let's make it indeed regain all HD on a long rest

How deep is the water pit?

pit? Water was up tu 5 feet deep where the crab fight took place and around. Why ask?

I was thinking if Anguis would be able to carry Torhem across.... Or together with Bellow

It is easy to carry weights over the water. It will probably take a minute but you could do it without any issues. The problem as far as I understand is that Thorem is not wiling to

Well there's always heroism spell as plan b

Just a guess... maybe my dear players you do not enjoy guessing what could be behind which doors before opening them? If that it the case I am more than happy to narrate that there are small holes in the doors and you could see through them and reveal you the whole map. It would samve me an effort I'm putting into hiding/unhiding rooms from you. So if it makes everyone happy, I stop cutting parts of the map - I would certainly be easier for me.

if not, then I will just wait for you to decide on the door opening (or doing anything)

I can second it, whatever the DM thinks is the right choice in the situation.

Could you please clarify. Do you vote DM choose the door? Your DM thinks the right thing is for players to choose doors now. But he is ok to do wrong thing and blow up all doors at once just to "keep game flowing ".

Llets Play Russian roulette with ghosts

Just a heads-up for you all. I will be on vacation starting on Thursday 5/26-Thursday 6/2, and I don't know if I will make any posts during that time.

Thanks for letting me know.
I will find ways to narrate your PC stay out of next combat (I bet it will start and be in the middle by 6/2) and adjust combat difficulty for 3 PCs instead of 4.

by the way, note: this is another proof of how uneasy it is for a person to understand what another person may not understand especially when we communicate in text. I suggest we all describe reasons for character actions to reduce confusion. I'll do mine:

- hellhound (h) was obviously looking for more spiders and he found them using his keen smell, while none of PCs were able to
- the invisible creature just moved through the wall to avoid Thorem attacking it, how it did that - you don't know as you do see it, only hear it
- spiders did not intend to attack medium sized creatures until you started poking at them (under the cloth)

P.S. I totally forgot that it not uncommon for DnD community to use custom rules for invisible creatures in a battle encounter, assuming that it is impossible for other creatures to know the location of an invisible creature. DnD rules make invisibility less powerful than that. I hope we are now clear about those rules as I may be putting more encounters where you may have issues seeing your enemies - be it invisibility, darkness type spells, fog or other reasons to have limited visibility or enemies at range >60 feet in non magical darkness.

Hellhound cone works like this:


Logically it looked like this

Hellhound had a choice to breath away from Anguis, but he chose not to... who knows why

I'll delay posting until Monday as we are missing two player turn posts and HeroAmongMen is usually unavailable during weekends the next post will most probably be only Monday evening European time.

Does Anguis know that there's something next to him?

Your PCs are well aware of invisible creature location, I've marked it red on battle map. We play RAW creature gives away it's location when attacking and have still gave away location until does hide action. This particular creature don't try to hide

@Bubbles are you aware divine sense do not work through the wall. Anguis is aware based on sound that creature is on the other side of the wall before his current turn.
Are you also aware divine sense only give you the location it does not remove invisibility condition.
You will learn creature type if it will not be under total cover for you. But mechanically that is your only benefit.

To roll with disadvantage you need to write
2d20L1+4
Advantage: 2d20H1+4
Note that you could test your roll commands here

please specify damage type.
As far as I understand
bellow extra damage type to be announce. Enemy may resist some (or be immune to). please also remind me if your weapon is a magical one.

I hope he will post today

Hey all, I'm back!

@Bubbles and others who maybe wondering
I want to share some insight into how I narrate/decide hellhound behaviour
1) Anguis is right, hellhound can be trained to following orders.
The training has not yet been carried out however. It is only threatened not trained.

2) You all have seen that hellhound do not eat. If burns the flesh. It's killer instinct is not caused by need stuff the stomach. The instinct requires him to kill for the stake of killing and inflicting pain to creatures.

3) Being immune to fire hellhound do not have concept of using his fire-breath carefully to avoid burning his pack (even if we assume it treat other PCs as his pack). I want to rule that this will be very problematic to teach hellhound to avoid burning PCs. But he will not attack (bite) any PC unless h decide to fight you to death for whatever reason.


P.S. Don't forget Hellhound is a fiend not beast. You wouldn't expect imp to behave similar to angel just because they look similar, would you? I don't think of hellhound decisions as if it a dog. I think as if it is a devil himself.

Sure, but as a player I want to point out that Aguis is not the wisest, so it will take some trial an error for him to get this trough, also, he has no clue on how to train anything except probably a soldier.... that he has no memory of...

Perfect. We are on the same page. I plan to assume that hound will get trained (through trial an error) in by next day or two depending on amount of trails.

whelp, then hope that Anguis doesn't find out. cuz there are a fe options there if he does.

1. big saddo
2. angry violence
3. cold served vengeance

unfortunately at the moment I only see these 3 as options for Anguis..... Cuz he literally believes that taming the hound is a god-sent challenge for him, to prove himself before the great secretive plotter.

Opinion: Bubbles, am I missing something, but sounds like you are playing "that's what my character would do" thing here.

Mechanics:
1. I do not mechanically disallow PvP behaviour
2. I will use my as DM ability no narrate and introduce NPCs/environmental things to prevent things I do not want to experience in my game. PvP is number one.

I'm playing around and putting possible results on the table to see which ones are allowed and which ones are not, to be prepared with a appropriate reaction when it will be needed.

Appropriate reaction - a reaction that would follow the characters personality, but still will be contained in the "limits for enjoyable roleplay".

Hence i must clearly see what are the said limits.... This train of thought lead to my last post...

Logically thinking if Torhem wants to murder the hound as a player (bubbles) I'm alright with it, but as Anguis i won't be exactly happy with it.....hence if the murder is done well enough that he notices nothing there will be reaction A if he notices that someone is connected to it there will be reaction B.

Simple as that, there's nothing really hidden under the dock...

ANNOUNCEMENT
I have decided retire this game. Will do that mechanically tomorrow

Reason
I admit It was all my fault as I avoided interrupting party interpersonal conflict, assuming that players will take care of that eventually.

P.S.
Thanks everyone for being part of the game so far, I did enjoy most of it and have learned quite a few lessons as DM. Most important - I have no idea how to properly DM pbp games. Looking forward to play with you as player in other games.

Yep, thanks for the game!