RED OAK: ARCHIVE

Longman's hex-based exploration PBP campaign

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

Post by Longman »

No, you don't really recognise anything in here. Such missions as yours are not common. No one knows much about Boldenwald.

(OOC - I made a a few rolls and Talin has not heard of such things, nor Kilian. The elves would certainly not know).

Which way do you go?
Woe
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

Headed toward H11. General plan is to hook around there and start heading back. Three days out, three days back. Back to the three-hour exploration/hex speed unless something heard the shrieking bat.

PS Tiana updates her map/journal appropriately as the others pack. And the dwarf definitely bathes today.
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
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

PS

Tiana will retrieve her dagger, and if it's a light creature, Kilian will move the body into the campsite. It's not a great attempt at hiding the creature but hopefully something else will find+eat the creature.
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 »

OK. You move south through the hills and down into H10. You spend 2 hours on the other side of the hills. You hit H11 without incident.

This forest is pretty. It's much older and less disturbed than he stuff on the other side of the river.

After a while of moving slowly through H11 - old oak and beechwood - you come across the body of a dead goblin. Talin thinks it is a juvenile. It has a hunting bow with it. Its eyes have been ripped out.
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Longman »

Ps - dagger retrieved, and once again you do an OK job of making it look like the monster died of natural causes.

Let's hope Columbo-Stirge agrees.

More EXP coming soon,
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

OOC: We are back to the 3 hr/hex explore rate?

Does the goblin's eyes look to be pecked out, as from an eagle? Or do they look to be sucked out, as from the bat-like creature from the morning?

H11 looks like it has a larger body of water and a hill. The party will try to crest the hill to get a good look of the nearby terrain -- keeping a lookout for flying creatures. Between the lucky encounter this morning and what they saw earlier, the threat level may have elevated. Is Talin noticing any signs of humanoids -- tracks, snares? Or does this area feel more "safe" other than the dead goblin juvenile which his eyes missing.

Does the goblin have any usable arrows, or anything else of decent quality and use?
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 »

I hear you about the 3-hour rate, but there are other factors.

You'd already spent 1 hour in H10 last night so I gave you 2 hours this morning to complete the job in that hex.

You've now spent 3 further hours in H11, including finding the young goblin, and crossing the small stream using a fallen tree, at which point you can also wash, much to the elves' relief.

The view is good and I have done a quite major map update. You can see the nearby lake very clearly and it looks idyllic. Further west in F12 there is another lake that has a small island in the middle.

The only problem with your intended route is that you will have to cross the 'middle' fork of this river system and that is quite wide - about 20 feet or more, and deep.

I'm guessing the elves and Talin can swim. What do you think about the dwarf? Also, what steps would you take to prevent your stuff getting wet as you swam across?

The goblin arrows were bone, and you have plenty better, but you can take them for show if you like. Talin suggests this goblin might have nicked his father's hunting bow for the day. An eagle or even a hawk is a likely culprit for having taken his eyes out. He has a puncture wound in its throat as well. He might have been here for a day or so.


Image

Apart from the corpse, the forest over the south side of the Swell is generally much nicer than the other side and there are no signs of goblin activity at all, and plenty of animal indications. You see deer on several occasions. You also see the golden eagles again, flying over F11 and G12.

Image

You have 1 more hours left in the day and it is probably going to rain again. You are up in the hilly area. Nothing quite as good as the overhang presents itself but you can at least find a place to stay dry.

You haven't had any more encounters today, so far. You're all feeling pretty OK and are probably more worried about bears than anything else.

The MU can have 50 exp for dealing with the "stirge" scout. I am also giving you all another 50 for play so far and for avoiding bad encounters and staying safe. You can expect a larger reward when you get out of the forest.
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

I hear you about the 3-hour rate, but there are other factors.
No concerns. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't missed.
swimming
Good question. Kilian can dog-paddle and probably stay afloat for a short bit, but it's not his favorite activity. At all. Swimming leaves his beard a mess and him looking like a drowned shaggy dog. He'll avoid it when he can.
crossing
Kilian balks at swimming, especially with all his gear. He makes some good arguments about keeping the gear dry, the viability of constructing a raft, and the belief that the party needs to explore into the mountains; but everyone knows it is all a ploy to avoid swimming.

What is the behavior of floating disc when Tiana is swimming? Could she ferry the gear and the dwarf across? The weight limit looks ok but I wanted to check.
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 »

Floating disc is a good idea, I hadn't thought of it.

You can have a few options for the spell -

1 - Tiana pulls out a miniature coracle and enlarges it and then floats along behind her for an hour with all the gear on. (This was how I had imagined it).

2 - Tiana makes a disc of force which does likewise. (The more normal version of the spell).

Either way, it will be possible to swim across the river with the object following along. You'll only be actually swimming for about 10' or so,the rest will be wading.

The weight allowance is fine for the dwarf and all the gear that would suffer if it got wet, so this seems like a winner to me.

In future, if you try to swim further than about 40', I will start to make some rolls to see if it drifted away from you or capsized. But this river is quite crossable using the spell.

You could also build a raft, it'd take you half a day, tomorrow, depending on rolls.

If you use the disc, do you go tonight, or stay in the safety of a well-known hex for the final hour?

By the way, it is raining gently.
Woe
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Re: The Road from Red Oak (chapter 1)

Post by Woe »

Coracle would be great. I was thinking the disc form, but if Tiana can elongate the sides, even better! That will definitely help with the dampness.

All the gear includes the armor, weapons, and everything else as swimming in leather armor is difficult and not needed here. Baths for everyone (except the dwarf who huffily reminds everyone that he already bathed today). If Tiana needs to make multiple trips, that's fine.

I'm trying not to think of exploration as "hexes" so I'll think of the question differently. If there's an already known dry area close and on the current side of the river, the party decides to wait until morning. They had an early start today so despite the change in atmosphere, no point dragging out a long day if they don't need to. Also no point trying to find shelter as the rain comes in. Same setup for watches. No snares because no sign of goblins, and the party doesn't want to set up something that looks out of place.

Yum, iron rations again. Kilian grumbles about wanting warm mutton and warm ale.

No raftbuilding necessary since the disc looks to be failsafe for this length. I was thinking that if there were a risk of the disc getting too far away from Tiana -- like current pull -- the dwarf would tie on to Tiana to keep the disc closer. Probably not great for swimming, but would hopefully offset the current.

Barring any surprises in the night, plan for tomorrow is H12, H13 (and another survey from a ridge), and finish in G12.
Daily, the party is becoming more amazed by Tiana's magical powers.
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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