Okay, now that I've gotten some sleep and I'm a little bit better emotionally stabilized, let's try getting a response out.
Firstly, apologies if I came across as a mistrustful jerk. I know I came very close to an accusation of railroading, and for that I apologize. I did not intend to come across as accusatory in any way, and ordinarily I trust the decisions you make and understand the core philosophy behind why you make them. I can live with both of the questions you pose in your second to last paragraph, truly. I also never intended to imply that I needed nor did I ask for a peak behind the DM screen, but I do appreciate the trust it took to give us a look.
Even still, I still stand by my main points.
As far as the section at Halfday goes, I think that there was a small disconnect between the scene as intended and the one as communicated. Reading back over that set of posts on Corson and Rhoderick's stakeout with the context you prov, in my minds eye the two of them were positioned in such a way as to have a good line of sight on the shed, and the bad guy just kinda disappears with no clear opportunities to catch or chase him. From a player standpoint, relighting the signal and calling him back here would have never occurred to me, partly because it'd take too long for that signal to be received, partly because the information the spy needed had already been given by the kitchen boy so there's no good reason that he would have shown back up, and partly because there's no guarantee that he'd have come alone if he did, meaning we'll have called the bad guys right to us and blown whatever lead we had on the hope that he couldn't smell a trap. To me, running seemed then and still seems now to be the only option that was both presented and feasible, doubly so since the entire game up until now has been
about running. Everything that flowed from that scene, I'll take as a given to be the natural consequence of our actions. And to be honest, we're going to have to work through the consequences regardless so there's not much of a point to continuing that line except for maybe trying to piece out what went wrong and what we all can learn from it.
I still stand by the statement that the forces pursuing us are unfairly stacked against a survivable combat, even at full health and spell slots. We are still out of resources and options as far as I am aware, so alternative specialties or ideas won't really matter since both will require the use of resources we don't really have. I do invite everyone to challenge that assumption, I would
love to be proven wrong.
I still stand by the idea that this chase skews towards failure in a way that feels unfair. We are rolling at Disadvantage, so skill checks are going to be a death spiral in the aggregate, as demonstrated by Rhoderick's most recent post. We are (as far as I am aware) surrounded by fields which are too fallow or small be used to hide in or be manipulated in a way that benefits us. Having to roll poorly in a critical scene like this doesn't feel good, and having more of an opportunity to roll poorly also doesn't feel good. I understand the reason why Exhaustion 1 was given, I just think that there was a chance for a Constitution Saving Throw that could have prevented some of us from catching it and increased our chances overall.
As it stands, I'm not really sure where to go from here. Dropping that flaming sphere was my best attempt at reshuffling the deck to get a better hand to play, but it's a little underwhelming now that it's been dealt and only served to lengthen the amount of time we get until we're caught. My money is on us being caught, and I'm not the betting type.
The only thing I can think of going forward is this: unless Cole was our only contact, then whoever was supposed to meet us at Halfday could still have been there and seen our pursuers ride through, and set up a rescue plan. Additionally, Salien and Cole are out in front, Corson and Rhoderick are right behind them, and Tovrunn and Lancaelad are dragging behind a good distance having set that fire trap. If anyone is going to get caught, it's gonna be Lan & Tov first. Combine those two ideas, and the consequences of failure is not handing over Salien, it's Tov & Lan getting caught before reinforcement arrives. Personally, I think I'd rather take that than lose Salien at this point. It gives everyone a chance to rest, gives the two of them a chance to talk one-on-one, a chance to overhear some juicy gossip, and sets up a daring rescue attempt or prison break sequence. Idk though, maybe that's just me.
Last edited June 23, 2025 8:02 pm
