Admin, OOC, and Launch Discussion

I can see how you might confuse the two.

I mean, to be fair, the noxious gas is probably there too.

Sorry, fellas. Things are blowing up at work and then I have company visiting at home, so I'm squeezed on all sides.
Going to give it a shot to get some posts up now, but I may get blown out before I make it to print!

Housekeeping Issue:

Dear Barbaric Ragers (Kray, Ivor),

If you have the interpretation that Rage halves the damage on blood drain, I don't share that view. Rage DR is a S/P/B resistance.

Here's the quote on Stirge attack vs. the follow-on blood drain:

"Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: (1d4 + 3) piercing damage. The stirge attaches to the target. While attached, the stirge doesn't attack. Instead, at the start of each of the stirge's turns, the target loses 5 (1d4 + 3) hit points due to blood loss."

I believe that Rage should half the Attack Piercing damage, but the loss after that is just straight up a parasite draining your life blood out of your body. That's a physiological effect that really can't be explained away by toughing it out, being psycho, being extra animalistic in battle awareness and reflexive instinctual movement, etc. Plus, really simply: it's not B/S/or P damage. It's called out separately from the previous piercing damage.

I don't want to debate this too much or get sidetracked. I also don't want to do a big retcon that breaks flow. I feel certain that you guys likely have made decisions on what to do in these critical moments with the assumption that the blood drain damage that you knew was DEFINITELY coming at you over the next round or two or more was going to be half as bad as the known and upcoming dice say. So I know that places us in a bit of a predicament, but I want to work it out in a practical way that I hope is fair. Or at least fair enough.

Right now, we will leave the Blood Drain as halved by Rage. That includes the damage that Kray already has received. That also will include the upcoming Blood Drain Damage that Ivor is about to get on round 1 of the climb.

Because this is such a high stakes circumstance, we will also say that the exception will carry on for another round after that. So if there is a climb round 2, or a few more stragglers draining you guys like fat kids with Slurpees, they will be half the numbers.

After that, we are shifting to a full interpretation of Blood Drain being what it is: a full direct draw on life force account balance. That seems realistic enough to me, because narratively that will mean 3 plus rounds of having a siphon or six pulling suction on veins and arteries. Extremely bad news. Everyone has to throw in all the help they can to save a buddy (or themselves) in that circumstance.

Good news is that each stirge only does 2 or max 3 rounds of blood drain draws. They max out their drink at 10 hp, which is a bitch for tracking purposes, but it does cap the drain for you guys.

Sorry to bring up this downer of a convo in a life or death situation. But if I didn't, wouldn't we all be disappointed? Ha!
Maybe not, but can't help it - it's gotta go like this. Thanks for bearing with me.

Sincerely,
J-Ruthless

I have to break again. Sorry, Hyp. Didn't get to Trece's loot-the-body report, but it is coming. Trece is in no danger at the immediate moment.

Keep fighting, Ivor.

I actually never imagined blood drain as being halved by Rage. Ivor's actions were taken cognizant of that. But if you say so, ok: I'm halving what the dice say.

He still takes 29hp of damage, which brings him to -5hp. I take it we're past the zero hp state and he falls off the rope (and possibly takes fall damage).

Jabes, absolutely right. You had never posted an assumption on the half damage. Ez mentioned half / reduced damage, so I wrote the piece to talk it through in public. I wanted to cover it as a whole, make the call, lay out a way forward, and move on. I should have clarified that you had not weighed in either way, but that the solution applied overall.
Sorry if the typing came off like an asshole voice. When I read it back now, I think it sort of does, but I was in such a terrible hurry based on RL time limitations that I just didn't do a good job on review and editing. I apologize.

Nothing to apologize for, J. Your post didn't come across harsh in any way for me. I was just saying. :-)

I logged in to start rolling a new character haha! But now I think I nailed Ivor's CON save.

You're good J. Didn't come across as negative in any way.

Also, the blood drain makes sense. Didn't think about it before, just halved damage on rage.

This scene... Fuck! I love it!

Shit...

Another one down.

Yeah Jabes, that scene was good stuff. And, to J-Ruthless, it's great you took the time to write up Thorn and Kray pulling a dead man up.

Damn. RIP Ivor, an afterlife of wenches and feasting. Going to miss that hulking death machine holding down the edge. Badass retarius with that trident and net.

Sorry guys, got called away. Gimme a couple of minutes to write off this death scene.

Damn, what a ride it's been! Thank you all, guys! Special shoutout to J!

Ivor MacConall out!

Legendary.

Jabes, that was one for the record books. Y'all, I've been talking with Jabes by PM, and plus what I see here on the boards of course, and I'll say this:
No one holds the line on realism better than Jabes, even unto character death.

You guys heard (read) me squirming, multiple times seeing if Jabes wanted to send Ivor out towards the ground floor north gate. Jabes knew it would have been easy to do. But in the end he wasn't convinced that Ivor would have interpreted it that way. To him, Ivor had decided that he was going to kill that lizard dog and climb up that fucking rope. To Ivor that was it. If something was going to try to stop him from that - bring it on. He would fucking handle that too.

Turns out that no one could really handle this death machine in that condition. Jabes knew that too I guess, but he didn't think Ivor would - so he held the line and played it out like it would have been in the experience and the viewpoint of the character. In the end, it cost everything in terms of mechanics, but for me watching as a viewer it was such a dramatic scene that I won't soon forget.

It is also quite heavy for me since I've known the character for so very long now, including extended backstory and conversation that has always been behind the scenes. Ivor was always a guy who kept a lot to himself.

As I said Ivor was one of the greatest.
I will add to that Ivor was managed by one of the greatest players of all times as well.

Thanks, Jabes. That was a masterpiece story with an ending that blew me away.

Poignant Jabes. Fitting too. And Kray won't forget that Ivor chose to hold the rear.

What a scene. Ivor clothed in stirges getting fat on his blood and he makes it to the top. One of the most memorable moments I've had in any game.

Here's to hoping you re-roll with us Jabes.

Ivor's character sheet has always been visible to all.

We'll have to grab some of it for sure. Torches, tinderbox, rope etc.

Also, Kray could put that manica to use. J, how exactly would that work as far as stealth considerations (metal manica)?

I dont know about the rest of the group, but I might be interested in the Ulathi dagger (Ivor memento) and the trident (raging Kray could put it to good use).

Manica is something we sort of winged it on. It was incorporated into Jabes' purchase of my single HR-tailored Feat of all time: Retiarius (which is now discontinued by the way in memory of Ivor).

In that set up, it was a small shield that did not have to use the Bonus Action to get the +1 AC.

Not trained with it, I think I would have to say that it could be used as a Small Shield, but it would cost the Bonus Action to activate the +1 AC.

You can grip another item or weapon when wearing it, but again, without training I would say it levels a Disadvantage to Attacks with any use of that arm (I think it is the Left Arm for a "right-handed" guy, since the idea is to have your forward arm protected facing the opponent, but the primary arm free for more strength, thrust, control, etc. , but Jabes can correct me if I'm wrong on that. Who knows. Maybe Ivor was left-handed).

I don't think there is Stealth adjustments. The manica has some metal inserts in it for strength, but it is mostly layered leather and padding.

To sum it up, yeah maybe it can work to a degree, but not optimally unless you are trained with it.

Ivor wore the manica on the left. See photo above.