[OOC] Realm of the floating islands: A Strife in the Sky

[LeDragon]

Originally Posted by Pinotage

Enjoy Rome. Have they cleaned up the Trevi fountain yet?

Yes. This morning, it was perfectly clear again.

Btw: will they clean the Yellowstone Morning Pool geyser again? My brother thinks about seeing YS in autumn.

[purplerook]

Ok, I've got my head back on a little straighter, and more importantly, my wife is back home and less stressed.

@LeDragon,

• You said the lock pick couldn't be used, and Khat rolled badly anyway. I'm going to play/assume that Khat wasted her turn examining the locks, only to have Prrup-tik find the keys and open a cell.
• How do you play Entangle? Could it be cast on the ground floor of the tower? Or does it need to be outside?

[FatherDondo]

Originally Posted by purplerook

Ok, I've got my head back on a little straighter, and more importantly, my wife is back home and less stressed.

@LeDragon,

• You said the lock pick couldn't be used, and Khat rolled badly anyway. I'm going to play/assume that Khat wasted her turn examining the locks, only to have Prrup-tik find the keys and open a cell.
• How do you play Entangle? Could it be cast on the ground floor of the tower? Or does it need to be outside?

"less stressed." Huzzah!

The description doesn't specify that it be outside, just that the plants would come up from the ground, so I see it as being like the plants that break through concrete

[LeDragon]

Originally Posted by purplerook

Ok, I've got my head back on a little straighter, and more importantly, my wife is back home and less stressed.

I'm glad to read this.

@LeDragon,

• You said the lock pick couldn't be used, and Khat rolled badly anyway. I'm going to play/assume that Khat wasted her turn examining the locks, only to have Prrup-tik find the keys and open a cell.
• How do you play Entangle? Could it be cast on the ground floor of the tower? Or does it need to be outside?

About the lock: Khat rolled badly, so I told you that the locks are too jammed to be unlocked by Khat. One round was wasted at one lock.
Prrup-tik chose another solution and took the keys. He's busy with unlocking the cells right, now.

About entangle: it creates magically plants 'from the grounds', so imho, it can be any ground - earth, stone, steel, wood, basement, 3rd floor, ship deck, stable, field, forest, inside, outside,...

[purplerook]

Getting ready to post. A few things:

Overall, I'm not sure in how much detail you want to play out our desperate flight up the stair (and then up the ropes into the craft).

Khat plans to delay rather than defeat our opponents (due to their overwhelming number). I hope (see questions below) we can pull up or destroy the ladders to slow them down. As an example, in this turn, Khat will scatter Clatrops onto the stairs mixed in with the plant growth making them hard to see.

• Sululruk reached the second floor before the Entangle spell overtook the 1st floor. However, it sounds like Prrup-tik, Khat and Valerius must make it through the Entangle (difficult terrain) on the stairs.
• I confused Entangle (1st level) with Spiked Growth (2nd level). Entangle only creates difficult terrain, while Spiked Growth does damage for every square.
• Spirit Weapon does not mention needing a line of sight to move the weapon or attack. RAW, the weapon could attack enemies outside the tower, and or float into the tower.
• there are four floors - 1st (aka ground) to 2nd has stairs. 3rd to 4th sounds like a ladder. What is 2nd to 3rd? Can the ladders be pulled up? How much effort is to damage/destroy them?
• See Shatter Spell. Cast on the ground floor, it would attack inanimate objects (e.g., Stairs/ladders) on 1st and 2nd floors (plus any Orcs on them). Objects can have AC (15 for wood) and HP (18 for a medium resilient object like a barrel). The Shatter spell alone is enough to destroy the ladder, but with some attacks (e.g., Sululruk's Spirit Hammer, Khat's rapier), we could destroy it.

Tower Dimensions
The tower has an inside ground floor area of 35 feet x 35 feet (=7 x 7 squares). The upper ones are smaller by a little more than half a square per level. The top level outside has 5 x 5 squares.

[LeDragon]

Originally Posted by purplerook

Getting ready to post. A few things:
Overall, I'm not sure in how much detail you want to play out our desperate flight up the stair (and then up the ropes into the craft).

I want to see at least some good roleplay. If you act clever, it'll be easier, if you act dump, there will be troubles.

The tower is built like this (top to bottom):
- Top of tower, 4th level, stone floor with wooden support
- middle of tower, 3rd level, ladder upwards and ladder downwards, wooden floor.
- middle of tower, 2nd level, ladder upwards and ladder downwards, wooden floor
- bottom of tower, 1st level, ladder upwards, stairs downwards, stone floor with stone support; partly covered with vines and weed of the entangle spell; one can climb upwards without being entangled.
- entrance with broken door, completely covered with vines and weeds.

All ladders can be pulled up and can be destroyed in two rounds (one attack per side). The stairs are made of stone and fixed.

You can throw down anything you like - spells, fire, bombs,... please keep in mind, that fire and smoke will follow you and may hurt/kill you, if your pick-up service arrives too late. The concept of the tower supports the fire's spreading.

[purplerook]

Khat is not a trained engineer, but inquiring minds want to know, if we take out the floor, will the tower walls remain standing?

[LeDragon]

If it's just the planks, probably not. If you destroyed enough of the beams, surely. It's an orcish tower. Craftsmanship was replaced by mass.

[purplerook]

I’m confused by the ladder upwards and stairs downwards. Are there two ways to get between the 1st and 2nd floors -stairs and ladder?

If so, Khat missed a big hole - we need to destroy/pull-up the ladder between 1st and 2nd floor.

[secretID]

I think LeDragon was describing the way up and down from each floor. The other way to put it would be that there each pair of floors is connected by a ladder, but there are stairs going down from the first floor as well. And that makes me a little worried...LeDragon, you said that Prrup-tik didn't recognize any of the prisoners. I don't think he expected to know any of them. Did he had descriptions to work from? And do these prisoners not meet those descriptions?

I think the first question will be how quickly the prisoners can ascend. I'm assuming that at least some of the heroes will go last. I don't know Suluruk's current hp, but if he isn't very injured, he's the toughest. The other three (excluding Kazza) are about a tie.

The very good news is that the hatches between floors are excellent choke points, basically only allowing one attacker at a time. On the way down, PT and Cujo demolished the orcs using those points. We should be able to do the same going up, and we have the additional advantage of sealing them behind us.

Speaking of Cujo, that is one problem ahead. He's on the second floor, so he has two ladders to ascend. RPing properly, I don't think PT can help him up without poisoning him. Maybe Suluruk?

Anyway, I think the immediate steps are pretty clear: prisoners up, then heroes (Suluruk last), closing/sealing the hatches behind them. Of course some spells may help considerably. That seems manageable enough that I’m opposed to fire.

[LeDragon]

Originally Posted by secretID

I think LeDragon was describing the way up and down from each floor.

Yes. There is only one wooden ladder between each floor.

Originally Posted by secretID

LeDragon, you said that Prrup-tik didn't recognize any of the prisoners. I don't think he expected to know any of them. Did he had descriptions to work from? And do these prisoners not meet those descriptions?

Prrup-tik know that the wanted prisoners are called Thoran and Finkra. He never asked how they look like, and the crew didn't tell him either. Snyder Smallblade told Prrup-tik that the orcs had caught two humans.

The released prisoners are:
- an old, male dwarf in worn leather armor who looks suspiously at Prrup-tik.
- a male elf in torn noble clothes, age unclear, because his face is dirty, scab-covered and swollen. He ignores Prrup-tik at all.
- a female elf in torn dress, probably young, she has a dirty blindfold over the left eye. If she doesn't scream or cry, she just holds the hand of the male elf.
- a mid-aged, human woman in torn aeronaut clothes with a dirty and bloody face. Rank 1st engineer. Although obviously fatigue, she has keen eyes and seems to know exactly what is happening.
- a young half-elf in a torn uniform jacket with a coat-of-arms of King Aaron's notorious Silver Griffons. He is pushing eagerly to the front, i.e. to the ladder, not to the fighting area.
- a halfling in dirty explorer clothes. His hand are handcuffed in addition. He smiles the whole time as if everything is a kind of joke for him.
- a young human man in torn aeronaut clothes, rank of 2nd Helmsman. He helps the human woman, although he can't barely walk by himself.

Originally Posted by secretID

I don't think PT can help him up without poisoning him. Maybe Suluruk?

Suluruk can lift the Cujo, so that the wolf jumps the missing few feet. No jump roll needed. It's just a matter if the wolf likes to be lifted by a half-orc... but that's more a matter of roleplay than rollplay.

[secretID]

OK; looks like we have our two, then.

[LeDragon]

Waiting for Fatherdondo's post resp. Valerius' actions, then we continue.

[LeDragon]

@FatherDondo: please help me - in which post did Valerius start a fire in the first floor of the tower?

[FatherDondo]

2nd to last post, he knocked over a ladder and dropped his oil on it, and said that he would light it, and you said you were conjointly two rounds, so I operated under the assumption of 1 action to use oil and 1 for produce flame