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P'ui: You can meet up with the others at the following location before they depart the city. Everybody: We'll assume that you're taking Richard's suggested path and depart heading North, favoring the Western side of Mandel. At the outskirts of Geareg you come across a large, impressive looking stabling operation. A tidy General Store is ringed by a tavern on one side, large stables on the other and has a great amount of business coming and going between it all. There are two caravan wagon-trains lined up near the stable, one with the markings of Draunti traders and the other an extra large wagon with a hard, angry metal look to it with an empty harness designed for a Horse the size of a house. There's also a half-dozen smaller wagons or carriages lined up with their horses in the adjacent stables. Topping it off is one of Geareg's Dwarven Patrol Tanks sitting silently, powered down completely. Inside the Bar are most of the merchants and caravan teams. Inside the General Store are a surly group of three Dwarves in Geareg armor and markings, undoubtedly the tank crew. They're touring the generous stockpiles of the store and picking up a great deal of supplies from a wiry-looking middle-aged Gnome woman in a thick and sturdy caravaner's clothing with an old officer's vest on top, balancing a piece of straw in her teeth as she converses with one of the Dwarves. If you guys are ready to depart as is, state so and I'll start the journey through Mandell. Otherwise... tell me what you do to alter your journey, then state you're going!
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Mar 13, 2013 14:19
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I got nothin'. Let's go.
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Mar 13, 2013 15:20
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Ready to go.
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Mar 13, 2013 20:11
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POST
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Mar 13, 2013 20:44
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I'm ready to go, cap'n
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Mar 13, 2013 21:11
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Query response: Affirmative
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Mar 13, 2013 22:10
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yes go
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Mar 13, 2013 23:38
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Olimar is ready to make the journey.
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Mar 13, 2013 23:55
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P'ui is ready to go.
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Mar 14, 2013 02:34
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Olimar, Survival: You don't need to do this unless you're in unusual circumstances. Your snake can generally take care of itself and as a snake you're willing to keep out of a cage is a bit low maintenance to begin with. OOC: Between the lot of you, Olimar has 5 days worth of Food, Lefty has 7 and Vanessa wrote down "misc adventuring gear" that I'd like her to update, refine and spend 12 gp to plan for having a Pathfinder's Kit available, matching Lefty's which I will assume means Vanessa also brings along 7 days worth of food. Thorgeisl has a Ring of Sustenance and doesn't actually need to eat, but it takes a week to attune to new wearers so he has no reason nor will there be any benefit to sharing it. Edie can Create Water each day. Two Days of Travel occur, meaning that Olimar has 3, Lefty has 5 and Vanessa has 5 left. P'ui, Edie and Oreom will need to pass two DC 10 Survival Checks(every 2 points of the result over 10 allow you to feed one more person for one day) to forage as they travel, but doing so causes the entire group to move at half speed. Otherwise they can bum food off their friends, though every noted instance will drop your current stock of 13 rations by one. Feeding the three for both days automatically will drop you to 7 rations. You can also ignore the first two days of needing to eat as per Starvation Rules, but at the end of the third even the toughest character will begin to march on their stomach. As Vanessa owns the only Horse, everyone is traveling on foot. I suppose she keeps pace with you all but with greater comfort save for the saddle sores. IC: All the same, whether time is spent foraging or not the travel begins in safe, easy to traverse lands. You pass by the General Store and leave Geareg, walking through fields of farmland ringed by the dark black spines of terrible machinery picked clean of any working bits, only immovable heavy frames left behind like rising bits of menacing spiked hills. The husks of destroyed and warped tanks and giant stone men have fallen in great number along the rifts and trenches that outline the farms, where battlefields have been cleared as best they can yet too many reminders of what happened remain. Your path keeps you along a well-kept dirt road, heading north at a rate of 24 miles per day. The first day is simple and calm, a chance to enjoy the rigors of outdoor hiking and the transformation of the landscape from packed farmlands into spread out, distant farmlands with wide green plains or small forests between them. The second day moves you through a cleared site of an Illithid Encampment, where the great black metal spikes reach up to the sky but nothing else of value or use has been left behind, leaving only a few angry marks of the Flayers between groves of trees. However, whether you've traveled at the regular pace or paused to forage, you are close enough to Mandell lands to see a tell-tale sign of one of the Bands of Ogres further down the road, visible for miles. The Ogre Clans believe in not wasting a moment of life in unnecessary luxury and are said to travel with great mobile furnaces and bonfires born on the back of heat-resistant beasts, favoring extended Forced Marches and being ready to attack or camp rapid-fire like, pausing only to sleep at a harsh Caravan Master's judgement. Thus, you can see a single black plume of smoke rising above the trees. They seem to be sticking to the main road and continuing along it will inevitably bring you into contact with them.
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Mar 14, 2013 15:17
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If we're still in settled farmland, it shouldn't be too hard to trade a couple of copper pieces for eggs, bread, cheese, or easily-stored vegetables and keep ourselves fed without much time investment. And Lefty wouldn't dream of doing anything so nobby as riding a horse. He's got better boots on now than he's ever possessed in his life, with actual leather on the soles, so walking is tiring but hardly a chore compared to the hike to get to Geareg in the first place. He's not sure what to do about the ogres, though. You think those stories about war-parties who waylay travelers and eat people are, uh, overexaggerated?
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Mar 14, 2013 15:57
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Rtwo posted:If we're still in settled farmland, it shouldn't be too hard to trade a couple of copper pieces for eggs, bread, cheese, or easily-stored vegetables and keep ourselves fed without much time investment. Good point, though it's actually 5 silver per ration to cover a day's meals(or at least a day without starving with one meal and two missed meals.) A last chance to buy some grub! quote:He's not sure what to do about the ogres, though. You think those stories about war-parties who waylay travelers and eat people are, uh, overexaggerated? Conventional wisdom would be to meet them and hope for the best, which isn't all that wise, on second thought. The actual conventional wisdom would be to slow your travel a bit and go off the road to avoid them.
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Mar 14, 2013 16:03
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Looks like I put 100g into whatever "misc adventuring gear" is supposed to be. If we're going to be carefully tracking stuff I guess I could work out what that actually entails, though I need to go to bed right now so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.
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Mar 14, 2013 16:11
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(I'd appreciate it if you did, even if you just do something as casual as Lefty's buying of "includes everything" kits from the kits page. "I buy 100g of stuff" is fine when you're in a city where you can buy things. Once you're in the wild, it's gold in your pack.)
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Mar 14, 2013 16:13
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Remember that Hecate substituted her Summon Creature I for Mount on her fourth level, Doom! Which means she could actually summon enough horses for the party for 10 hours every day. Still, going to pay for some food too, 3 GP worth (Six days) The Sorceress stays most of the first day sighing from as she lazily caresses the bridle of her summoned horse mount. She's not walking all this distance on foot, and while she'd rather conserve her magical power in case of an emergency, she is willing to share the mounts with the rest of the party. She tries to use detect any residual magic in the Illithid encampment on the second day, but is dismayed at the failure to do so. Still, it would be asking too much for a camp so close to Geareg to still be untouched, and there's just the way forward to go.
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Mar 14, 2013 18:44
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 Thorgeisl Whose Laughter Stinks of Killing Thorgeisl had wisely invested in a magic ring to sate any thirst or hunger, and alleviate most of his need for rest as well. So he saw no need to buy supplies for the journey. He appreciates the offer of a mount, though the summoned steed seemed less pleased with the prospect. Each day Thorgeisl summons a few, no more than half a dozen, small air elementals to secretly keep an eye out and scout. So he is perhaps the first to learn of the smoke plume. Before that however is the Illitid encampment. The site of it further agitates the summoned horse, as it agitates Thorgeisl. Whirls and swirls on his body light up in various colored energies, smoke rising here and there as he gazes upon the site. Remembering what was done to him, what he had become and what he had done to his people. The name that haunts him. It takes only a little effort to get him to move away from the site, but he is in a foul mood the rest of the day. Upon learning that there is an Ogre Band ahead he grows quiet, his eyes shadowed. "Perhaps we should avoid the Band." With everything he has said and done, with his clear inhuman ancestry, it seems odd that he would say this, yet he did.
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Mar 14, 2013 20:07
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Olimar is a dwarf of great fortitude and a ranger with enough survival skills to go around. He will attempt to supplement his and the group's food supplies, when and if needed, with his survival skills. He is prepared for a long and hard trip. Upon sight of the Ogre band tracks Olimar becomes slightly grim. He examines the tracks a bit before stating, firmly, "I agree with tall and handsome, we should avoid this band if we might be able. I can lead us around if you are quite prepared to move off the roadways and into the forests." He seems quite sure of his survival abilities despite only testing them underground previously. Maybe even a bit dismissive of the 'dangers' of the surface world.
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Mar 14, 2013 22:14
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Discussing strategy is a grand idea for a sunny afternoon in tranquil woods, but it is interrupted by a reminder that Ogres prefer to travel quickly. The dark smoke rising over the woods is joined by some small trails of dust and the low rumble of angry hooves along the road ahead is getting closer and closer. Not caring for subtlety or stealth, this is a loud approach that causes small debris to bounce with the rumbling. A jumble of voices singing out of tune in the Giant tongue in what sounds like more of a yelling contest is barely audible, just so much vocal rumbling. Meet or Go Around, and if you continue to Wait, it seems they'll Meet you on their own!
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Mar 15, 2013 20:51
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 Oreom Bonne"Just two now, c'mon, two from each'a ya --" Following Hecate's lead, Oreom eventually gave up on trying to insist that in the spirit of camaraderie his group should have been thrilled to feed him as well as partake of his company, grumbling and parting with some of his coin for some root veggies and salted meat from a farmer on their way out of town as well as a few more of the same from one of his neighbors just so he wouldn't have to go out and hunt down rabbits in the meantime. Not that he would have minded doing so, he just got the sneaking suspicion that they might have used his convenient absence as an excuse to move on, and he didn't want to give them the chance. Choosing to walk instead of taking a horse (once he has determined beyond a shadow of a doubt that the horses were not black as midnight with flaming manes and spiked hooves to trample their enemies with, Oreom figured that it's not worth getting saddle sore over anything less) alongside the rest, he occasionally passes the time on the first day by launching into drinking songs that are far less merry in the bright of the day without good booze than they should be in an ale-soaked candle-lit little place, but that doesn't actually stop him from flexing his voice. On the second, he's a bit quieter if not exactly somber when they pass through the old camp, snorting and smacking one of the sturdy metal spikes with a trebutje just to test how strong the drat things really were. Still, with nothing to loot, if anything he's one of the first to urge them to just keep moving. And despite the fact that two days of walking might well have made him ready and eager to get into a scrap .. it's the sound of the marching band that has him agreeing with Olimar and Thorgeisl. "Let's get outta their way, lads'n'all," he decides in his very most authoritarian, merc captainiest voice, waving his hands off to the sides of the road.
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Mar 15, 2013 21:20
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I am posting to explicitly agree with this plan to avoid the ogres.
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Mar 16, 2013 01:36
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Vanessa "Yeah, let's go. No point in messing with them."
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Mar 16, 2013 02:27
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Heading into the woods, you guys enjoy uneventful travel through Mandel, following Richard's suggested path through the West. As you travel through the forest you can hear the rumbling approach, reach maximum loudness with a deep, angry voice bellowing orders over the singing, and eventually pass. Glimpses of large humanoids in heavy spiked iron armor riding menacing silhouettes of squat, wide bulls pass by in a small contained stampede, one of the beasts bearing the frame of a giant bonfire upon it's back without trouble. Most of the Ogres have painted their right arms in blue designs of varying skill, some simply dying their armor(or actual arms) a vibrant azure blue, or actually painting individual scale lines onto the designs. Later in the day the rumbling returns and they pass by again, having come back the way they came, but tracking doesn't occur to the Ogres. Another two days of travel are needed, with Olimar keeping your pace steady but your food needs are still addressed by what you have on hand. Vanessa's down to eating Wandermeal for 4 days of her 10 day supply, Olimar drops to 1 day's rations, Hecate drops to 2 of 6 days worth, Lefty to 3, and Oreom didn't give specific numbers so I'll assume he got 6 days worth, same as Hecate, and drops to 2/6 left. Thor has his ring the entire time. P'ui and Edie: You pass the farming communities on Geareg without stopping to barter for food and have none accounted for on your character sheets. The others need to volunteer to feed you for 4 days(8 rations total) or you'll need to roll two Constitution Checks each as you begin to starve... as they watch.  Pausing to forage with Survival will slow the group and add another day to the travel time.Early on the start of the fifth morning, you guys finish cresting through alternating thick forest and rocky outcroppings and steep hills, as Mandel's Northeastern border is occupied by a huge mountain range and your travel along the Northwestern border passes along a small extension of it, your current hiking taking you down a rough cliff path that descends out of Mandel's land and into the Wilds below, where a short jaunt will place you at Ostorn. It's said that you'd be able to see the towering thorn walls looming over the horizon, but a thick fog has appeared this morning.  You can barely make out the shadows of the town ahead, the sight of an early raid by the Illithid. It looks like a simple but large Human frontier town that had time to defend, ringed by a barrier made of buried trees. The city is large enough to have multiple entrances and approaches. You can either approach directly from the South or scout around to the East or West. In the fog, some of the larger buildings are a few stories tall and stand out, but look off somehow. Too tall, too wide, too thin. It's all just shadows in the fog right now.
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Mar 16, 2013 14:44
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Okay so I'm assuming my sheet changes are set, so I should be able to feed P'ui and Edie from those 24 on the horse. The Wandermeal's for emergencies. So 12 out of the 24. Also are we passing through towns that would have food? If so we'd be buying from them, not cutting into rations.
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Mar 16, 2013 14:53
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Your path takes you away from the traveled road by the middle of the third day. Any nearby civilization in Mandel would involve passing by what you can assume is the Ogre Band's patrol route, as you hear them starting up again on the third morning in the distance. It will also take you off path and directly to the West.
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Mar 16, 2013 14:58
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Well clearly I've missed something, nevermind.
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Mar 16, 2013 15:12
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"It says something about this voyage when we are doomed to die of starvation on the first day." Hecate says with a sigh as she looks at the frontier town, her attempts to discern buildings failing due to the heavy fog. "We COULD buy rations there, although there's always the chance that whatever humans were there ended up with their skulls smashed."
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Mar 16, 2013 15:39
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Sorry I didn't post for the last couple of days, I've been fighting nausea and exhaustion. My bad. I didn't think to bring food, it's not a commonly used mechanic these days and it didn't occur to me I'd need it. P'ui, Ratfolk Poisoner P'ui is used to going hungry, but when it becomes apparent that none of her, relatively speaking, very rich colleagues feel like sharing their food with her, she has no qualms about halting the process of the caravan to forage. Survival: 1d20-1 6 She makes a big show of finding some weeds, stashing them away in her pack. When nobody is looking she just steals some food from Lefty: Stealth: 1d20+16 36 Sleight of Hand: 1d20+10 28 On the topic of the city, P'ui considers her knowledge of war history to see if the town ahead was notable, at least in historical record for her people: History: 1d20+12 13 Probably not. Mirthless fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Mar 16, 2013 |
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Mar 16, 2013 17:36
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Lefty might not notice the theft attempt in progress, but you can be damned sure he's counting his rations and finds some are missing next mealtime. : "Since some connivin' scunner would rather nick my grub than prepare for a decent journey or shop from the farms we left day before yesterday, we might oughta slow down and see what we can find by way of wild fruit and game out here. We ain't in any grand hurry except to keep away from the ogres, yeah?"
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Mar 17, 2013 01:26
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With the final retroactive adjustments, you guys have arrived at the abandoned settlement of Hillside on the Sixth Day instead of the Fifth, bumping everybody down another 1 shot of rations. If P'ui isn't accepting rations from Vanessa than I'll retroactively adjust from there. No more retroactive activity. It's Day Six, act from here on. (As an aside, as I've just done with P'ui, asked of Vanessa and did with Oreom earlier, if you guys don't give me numbers I'm going to throw a reasonable one in and make the update. And as I'm posting now, after awhile I'm going forward with hard numbers that won't be retroactively adjusted.) quote:Olimar - 0 Fortunately, it's the start of the 6th Day and you guys can roll Survival Checks to spend several hours finding food. DC 10 is food for the day, every +2 over 10 is 1 more ration. You still have the matter of approaching the town, whether straight on from the South or sneaking around to the West or East sides. The fog is thick on this day as well and the descriptions from before still count. P'ui, History: Hillside has no real relevance to the Rat-Folk. It was a popular trade settlement and could have become large enough to be another boom town like Geareg, but a Mind Flayer Slave Raid crippled it and their prolonged settlement during the continuing war buried it. As Richard warned you, it was the site of prolonged encampment and battle, though you see no signs of looming Flayer Spikes in the shadows of the fog. There's no sign of Humanoid life and everything is deathly quiet, as though the forest has reclaimed the land for nature. Doomykins fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Mar 17, 2013 |
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Mar 17, 2013 02:12
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I don't think any of us realized we were actually going to track food.
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Mar 17, 2013 02:14
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I sure didn't! But apparently even after mentioning a last-minute "hey guys we can still buy food" I'm supposed to have enough to share anyway.
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Mar 17, 2013 02:23
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(And now you are aware. You all left Geareg as fast as you could, didn't plan your trip, didn't take Richard up on his offer for help, and ran by the General Store without stopping, then you got a bone thrown to ya by buying some food from Farms on the outskirts of Geareg. Fortunately, you're in temperate woodlands instead of say, the Dead North.  )quote:I'm supposed to have enough to share anyway. (Not supposed to, but I am pointing out when your teammates are starving in case you want to help them out. You're not obligated to, though obviously certain alignments and personalities will feel differently. Edie is traveling IRL, but Vanessa got a good retroactive 20+ rations in her pack to account for that.)
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Mar 17, 2013 02:25
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I didn't know, but I like to be safe and not have to deal with it, so one of my first purchases is often a ring of sustenance
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Mar 17, 2013 02:27
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Well I guess "no more retroactivity" but a donkey with a pack saddle and 54 days of rations is 40g. Maybe next time or whatever.
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Mar 17, 2013 02:44
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54 days! Does that include the donkey's feed as well?
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Mar 17, 2013 03:15
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Well presumably the donkey grazes. Animal feed is super heavy, 10lbs per day. A donkey's medium load is 150lbs (light 75). Maybe 5ish for when we go through sparse areas.
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Mar 17, 2013 03:26
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(Sorry, I've been really busy lately due to work and stuff[Other people on vacation so I am covering large amounts of shifts and going in earlier] I assumed that my saying I wanted to use my survival skill to survive and lead you guys would account for also finding food. Sorry for assuming and not rolling dice, I couldn't get the dice website to work on my phone at work. I know I should make assumptions without actually making statements but I just had a really poo poo/busy day at work today. I knew we were gonna track food because I've never played in a game that didn't, I just thought that I would use my survival to supplement my food.) Olimar spends a while searching for food for the rest of the group and himself. Suvival seems to be something he's not bad at, he's able to find a bit of food for anyone who needs it. He shares the food among people to help them not starve. He grumbles about people not knowing how to find mushrooms in a cave or meat in a packing house as other people seem incapable of hunting down their own game.
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Mar 17, 2013 03:33
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(If you can't roll but need to, just ask me to do it for ya, Mali. Also you can't assume you supplement food with Survival unless you decide to travel at half speed every day.) Olimar got a result of 16 and found 4 units of food to use in the future. Everybody's actually covered for now. It's the start of the Sixth Day and I've already accounted for eating for the last five. Doomykins fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Mar 17, 2013 |
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Mar 17, 2013 03:41
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Nessa tags along occasionally with Olimar, but doesn't turn up anything more than a bit of flavor, relying on her rations. She shares with the others, with only slight grumbles. OOC: Vanessa is always going to share food if she has it. Like, flat-out policy, she won't watch others go hungry. zachol fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Mar 17, 2013 |
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Mar 17, 2013 03:48
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Oh goodness, we needed to track food? What? I don't think I've ever been in a game where the DM didn't handwave food and, within reason, carry load. Edie von Altman, who would have made a terrible girl scout Utterly unprepared for a sudden camping trip out in the wilderness, Edie gratefully accepts Nessa's offer of food, promising that next time she will have to bring enough to share and pay back the favor. Food isn't terribly expensive, she simply hadn't known that upon arrival at her new quarters they'd be setting out immediately for who-knows-where. She is suddenly rather jealous of the half ogre with the silly name and his incredibly convenient magic ring.
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Mar 17, 2013 04:28
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