[OOC] A Trip to Remember (OOC)

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by Corwin

Any sign of surviving items or furnishings? Particularly shelves with scrolls or the table with the hidden drawers under it

Nothing has fully survived, but there are traces that items and furnishing existed before the fire. The scroll rack is unrecognizable and the worktable has been burned up in a curious manner, in a way that makes it out to be one of the clues that there was some additional/intentional damage done to the room apart from a mere fire. Aside from its wings, the table has been turned entirely into charcoal, so it's impossible to determine if there ever was any secret drawer.

[Corwin]

Anything interesting about the wings of the table?

Oguun's downtime is up at https://www.rpgcrossing.com/showthre...79#post9592079. As far as I can tell from RAW, a spellbook with 6 wizard spells just appears at wizard level 1, like poof it's there. I hope that's right because otherwise it costs like 350+ gold to MC to wizard 1 and Oguun hasn't remotely got the cash.

I haven't finished his level-up post, hoping to tie it up tomorrow.

[Mindsiege]

@Corwin:
By bringing in Thrella Gnarlroot, I will consider her and everything that may follow from her involvement moving forward. Let me know in what capacity Oguun will interact with her. Teaching Oguun the basics and setting him on the path of becoming a War Wizard seems to be a given.

@edit:
Interesting cross-post! I've got the downtime thread subscribed, so I got to it early.

Yes, there is no particular cost to multiclassing into Wizard by the rules. You may assume that you got heavily funded by Thrella.

@2nd edit:
Wizards also get spells on every level-up at no gold cost. That part was designed pretty friendly by WotC.

[Corwin]

Use Thrella as you you wish if you like At the moment, I only envision her as a between-adventures sandbox mechanic allowing a PC to multiclass, as in, if Oguun is going to MC to wizard 1 and later go War Wizard, somewhere there must be a War Wizard willing to teach. She seems to be a cranky old gnome who was in the Scarlett Legion before she retired. Maybe she thinks it'd pump her street cred to have an Outsider apprentice. Maybe she's just too lazy to carry her own firewood up four flights of stairs.

The two free spells at level-up is handy for West Marches wizards, considering that wizard spells are hard to come by any other way

[Mindsiege]

@Corwin:
Oh, I've already annexed Thrella as we speak. It was unavoidable once Oguun alluded his previous adventure to a retiree from the Scarlet Legion.

But just like with the other characters, I will make Oguun work to meet any progress. Thrella will hear him out about any weight that Oguun might carry on his alien heart, however there will be a great variance to how seriously she'll take him. There is a possibility that she'll relay something to her connections with the Scarlet Legion, or she might send Oguun to spread the tale himself. Since you had a narrative auto success in establishing a favorable connection with Thrella, I'll say this and Oguun's studies into wizardry will cover most of his two months of downtime.

If Oguun tells her his story of this quest, you can give me a Persuasion (CHA) check with advantage due to the extended period of time and multiple opportunities to convince her of Oguun's word. We'll see how she takes it. She's a bit of a cranky skeptic.

About extra wizard spells, we do have a thread somewhere about WM wizards helping each other with scribing spells. Also, they do come up during adventures from time to time. I remember just recently Derek decided he didn't have the funds to learn a Sleep spell and picked it up on his next level-up instead.

@edit:
I just saw that I never replied about the table in the basement. It's burned and broken in half, missing a good 70% of its original matter. Is there anything in particular you are looking to find out about it? You've had a great Investigation result, so you may ask me questions to add precision.

[Corwin]

That's a new twist to leveling up Just as fair warning, my bandwidth for posting time is much lower than usual right now and will be for weeks, so more writing for level-up will slow the process.

Re the table, Oguun would be looking for signs that it was destroyed in a way that might have been intended to remove any evidence of the hidden drawer. In the ashes, he'd search for any remains of burned paper, the drawer lock (which I think was metal), basically anything that doesn't look like wood ash. On what remains, he'd be looking for markings.

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by Corwin

That's a new twist to leveling up Just as fair warning, my bandwidth for posting time is much lower than usual right now and will be for weeks, so more writing for level-up will slow the process.

I might be slightly confused. I wasn't considering for you to write more narration to be eligible for your level-up. I was trying to establish that Oguun's success in making a useful ally like Thrella and having the opportunity to make use of her Scarlett Legion connections will be the extent of what Oguun can mechanically accomplish within his two months of downtime. That and of course turning into a multiclassed wizard, but that part is for free without requiring dice rolls. Only the part where you could make a connection to the Scarlett Legion and which might affect the overarching narrative shall hinge on the dice.

Originally Posted by Corwin

Re the table, Oguun would be looking for signs that it was destroyed in a way that might have been intended to remove any evidence of the hidden drawer. In the ashes, he'd search for any remains of burned paper, the drawer lock (which I think was metal), basically anything that doesn't look like wood ash. On what remains, he'd be looking for markings.

That's the suspicious part of it. Had this been just an accidental fire, or even just one left by itself, then there should have been remains or at least traces of paper and the hidden drawer. Alas, there aren't, and the interpretation that your character may deduce from it is that this fire was overstaged. While the room looks as if it had been fully burnt out normally, the damage has been too thorough and too much evidence is missing or has been too thoroughly destroyed. It's not clear which of those it is, but this looks like an intentional removal of evidence. The problematic part though is that it only becomes clear if you have certain expectations of what should have been there.

[Corwin]

Oh, I was just thinking it sounded like there would be further outright conversation with Thrella during the downtime. If she asked about Oguun's activities and motivations, he'd tell her, but I don't think he'd tell her without prompting on her part. He'd view her as an authority figure, but he isn't very impressed with West Haven authority figures. He expects a much higher level of intrusive benevolent tyranny

Anyway, if she asks...

Dice Persuasion:

2d20kh1

15, 8 (keeping 15)

Total = 15

Since the table wasn't entirely reduced to featureless ashes, Oguun would have expected to find remains from the hidden drawer. Finding none, he would assume that it was removed prior to the fire and the fire was rigged to prevent more casual observers from guessing anything had been there.

[Mindsiege]

Truthfully, I may have misread "threats that inhabit my plane of origin" as "threats that inhabit your plane of origin", which I took to be a reference to the adventure. While I realize that this wasn't your intent, let's just roll with the punches and assume that Thrella did dig into Oguun's business a little. He is enough of a curiosity after all, and inquiring about the current extent of Oguun's experiences with arcane magic could easily bring up Almavalesh and that dream journey quest which got Oguun started here in the West Marches.

I assume there has been plenty of conversations between Thrella and Oguun as she apprentices him as a wizard, so I figure I'll take that Persuasion roll as well. She'll probably not keep Oguun in the loop though, so for now you don't know if it has done anything.

About the table who had been reduced to charcoal and ashes, I have nothing that would refute or further support Oguun's assumptions.

[Corwin]

All good! What Thrella thinks is her business. Oguun probably told her all about slaadi, mid flayers, primal chaos, and Almavalesh's little problem. Whether she told him to shut up about Zerthimon is up to her

His level-up is posted.

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by Corwin

Whether she told him to shut up about Zerthimon is up to her

She probably did at some point. Probably earlier than later.

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by Mindsiege

She probably did at some point. Probably earlier than later.

He wouldn't press the point except maybe if he met a githyanki. He thinks about the Way of Zerthimon all the time but he isn't evangelical about it

[Mindsiege]

@Corwin:
I'll keep that in mind.

@all:
Did anybody have anything left to accomplish with their downtime? If not, you'll see me moving forward with recruiting for the next episode in the Inn.

[Togot]

whats the next episode called?

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by Togot

whats the next episode called?

It will be called Noble Hubris. In all likelihood we'll be joined by new players, so I'm excited. I'll give everybody a day or so to order their thoughts and tell me if there is anything left you'd like your characters to have accomplished before the next episode, but after that you'll see me introducing the new quest hook in the Inn thread.