RED OAK: ARCHIVE

Longman's hex-based exploration PBP campaign

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Woe
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

After much discussion and a confirmation from Tiana that enough food remains, the party decides to explore the noise tomorrow. They will try to avoid detection though -- stealth counts. Talin and Freya will scout a bit ahead of the other two.

Shouting, chanting, singing?
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Longman
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Longman »

Drunk "singing" = shouting over some pretty bad music. Heard briefly when the wind was in the right direction.

Day 6 -

The morning brings bright sunshine and embarrassed looks on the faces of those who earnestly predicted rain today. It hasn't rained in a while and the ground is drying out.

You move into the hills hex of 'D14' and Talin and Freya scout ahead.

Talin thinks there are human tracks in this area, Freya disagrees and thinks they are humanoid. Talin also thinks they are recent, and Freya doesn't. Whatever the case, something on two legs has been moving around in this hex. The tracks seem to be going up a ridge.

Do you guys want to make a combined woods-craft roll at +3? You can nominate to do that any time. If you nominate to roll separately, you get two chances of success, but you might get confusing results if one person succeeds and the other doesn't.

(PS - I am only doing this to teach you a house rule, in a situation that isn't life-threatening.)

Meanwhile back at base camp - the GM makes a wandering monster roll for Kilian and Tiana and gets.....nothing.
Woe
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

Yes they work together. Maybe one of them will learn something from the other. Talin is more structured with his searching and draws from wisdom of older rangers, but Freya has the intuition of an elf.

BTW I meant "ahead of" more as 100' ahead of the other two -- close but not distractingly close.

PS Freya + Tiana are female. Talin + Kilian are male. While it wasn't intended, -a = female and -n = male. :)
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Longman
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Longman »

(OOC - I knew the genders. I tend to use 'guys' as a unisex word. Is that what you were referring to?)

The consensus is that Freya is right, and there are humanoids in the area, probably goblin or some other smallish bipedal creature.

You advance into the hex and Talin succeeds in following the trail (yay) although by the time you have gotten up into the hills he is not longer sure what made them.

There's a gulley area, in between a pair of hills, one on the east side, one on the west. Each hill has an escarpment about 80' high facing inward towards the other hill. The gulley narrows until the cliffs are only about 200' apart, forming a steep-sided and sheltered valley. It's full of bushes and vines, although there's a trail leading in there. Totally the sort of place you'd pick for a base or campsite so you coudn't be seen from anywhere.

You going in? You can't hear anything in there but the trail is pretty clear to Talin. No sign of goblin traps of the like around here. In fact you haven't seen any at all, south of the lake.
Woe
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

Can the party get to the top of one of the cliffs and view the gully from above?

(OOC: You said Freya then later she (?). I read that as "Is Freya female?")
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Longman
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Longman »

(OOC - no, I meant, am I right in presuming that it would be Freya who went inside the mound? All good now, anyway.)

Yes you can climb the hills although it takes a while. Freya and Talin do the last 100' alone, the other two wait near the bottom of one of the small hills that enclose the gulley.

At the summit, you catch a glimpse of something interesting.

There are quite a few larger trees growing in the enclosed gulley area and it looks like someone has stashed some gear up one of them, in a large leather sack. No sign of any ropes linking them to the ground so whoever put them there must be planning to climb about 50' into the air to get it down again.

You can't quite see the floor of the enclosed gulley area, too many bushes and undergrowth. But it's pretty clear someone / something is using it as base. You are still not sure what.
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

(OOC: Ah, yes. That's a good choice)

How far away is the sack from the ridge top? Is it something that Freya can climb over to or Tiana could animate this way?
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Longman »

Heh.

I hadn't thought of animate. Good idea.

It's about 80' out into the gulley, and also about 40' below you as well. Probably about 90' all up on the angle.

So not in range, but if you climbed down the cliff face a bit I'd let you do it.

Thing is, the standard move rate for an animated object is 20' / round so you'd probably only get it 40 feet and then it'd fall.

It's also tied onto the trunk or a branch, or at least secured in place somehow. Animate could have a hard time dislodging it.

All in all it is a risky venture.

The thief Freya might also be able to do some nifty rope work to grappling hook the tree and then swinging over, but, she'd have a tricky time doing it quietly...in case there does turn out to be someone below.

Another factor - the elf-mage sneaking up here might be more noisy than one of the quieter characters who are already on the western cliff face, looking down.
Woe
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

Freya only has 50' of rope. She'd have to do some tree hopping assuming intermediate trees are between the edge of the gully and the tree with the sack. If only one of the eagles had befriended Freya!

Still thinking on it. How often are climb rolls made?
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Woe
Posts: 3953
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2013 6:45 pm

Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

More q's. I'm thinking about scaling down 50' then scaling across 50'. Here is a plan: toproping on the gully face to about 50' down looking for a ledge/outcropping, then slacklining (haha!) over to the tree and back, and then either solo climbing back up or throwing the rope back up to Tanin to toprope back up.

The q's:
- is there a ledge 50' down where Freya can stay safely while she switches from climbing down to climbing across?
- if there's a ledge, is there something she can tie off to after she grapples onto the tree?
- and then assuming everything else goes great, is she confident she can scale back up the face on her own, or should she plan on throwing the rope back up to Talin so he can tie off.

I'm not sure I'm seriously considering this, but it's about the only way I can make 50' of rope work.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

Red Oak map
Red Oak loot
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