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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Take the southerly route for being described differently from the others.
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Apr 9, 2019 22:46
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Jackard posted:Sounds like a death flag, let's head west. Death flag, shmeath flag. South.
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Apr 9, 2019 23:26
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Jackard posted:Sounds like a death flag, let's head west. Grey Star the Wizard posted:Running west along the empty corridor, you notice that the tunnel begins to slope upwards. As it narrows, you see a group of worker Mantiz ahead, intent on some task. Sunlight streams down through a shaft above their heads. You see that they are boring into the rock in front of them, and suddenly you realize that this passage is unfinished.
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Apr 10, 2019 04:10
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They're workers, hopefully they think we're not their job. Run past.
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Apr 10, 2019 04:25
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:They're workers, hopefully they think we're not their job. Run past. Where I work you can go almost anywhere you’re not supposed to as long as you act like you belong there and don’t attack anyone.
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Apr 10, 2019 04:28
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Run past waving a clipboard and muttering about efficiency. The workers should steer clear.
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Apr 10, 2019 06:11
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achtungnight posted:Run past waving a clipboard and muttering about efficiency. The workers should steer clear.
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Apr 10, 2019 06:51
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achtungnight posted:Run past waving a clipboard and muttering about efficiency. The workers should steer clear.
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Apr 10, 2019 09:42
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Grey Star the Wizard posted:With reckless audacity spurred on by fear, you jump onto the chitinous abdomen of the Cave Mantiz. Before they can react, you have thrown yourself into the shaft, scratching and scrabbling for a handhold in the smooth sides.
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Apr 10, 2019 15:04
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Sure, let's fight the unending swarms of insects. 
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Apr 10, 2019 15:25
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Run!
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Apr 10, 2019 16:24
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Run like formicating hell!
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Apr 10, 2019 18:41
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Tiggum posted:Do we fight or run? Fight or flight? I'll go with flight.
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Apr 10, 2019 19:57
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nelson posted:Run!
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Apr 10, 2019 21:58
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Comstar posted:Run! Grey Star the Wizard posted:You are forced to a sudden halt, for the way ahead is blocked by a fallen tree. You turn and see a large soldier Mantiz rushing towards you, and you gasp in frenzied desperation. You are trapped! Wounded and bloody, you prepare to deter yet another attack, fear gripping your heart with an icy chill. Grey Star the Wizard posted:Though you have beaten the Cave Mantiz, the remaining horde of deadly insects overruns you and tears you to pieces where you stand. Grey Star the Wizard posted:You vault onto the dead tree, using your Staff for support. Hauling yourself to the top, you reach out and grab the thick branch of a Giant Azawood. Your chest contracts with pain every time you draw breath and the humid, fetid air clings to the sides of your throat. Slowly and painfully, you climb the tall tree while the columns of insects march relentlessly towards you, their pincers gnashing and clacking in crazed fury.
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Apr 11, 2019 03:22
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Tiggum posted:‘Wise Shianti and Kundi man, Kundi man sees himself.
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Apr 11, 2019 04:08
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Runcible Cat posted:Run like formicating hell! Before we move on I just wanted to highlight this use of the word because there are so few chances in one's life to use it so well.
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Apr 11, 2019 05:51
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Now, as promised, here’s how you’re supposed to get through this book. I’ll keep the scores and starting options we rolled the first time just to show it can be done. Combat Skill: 11 (11) Endurance: 23/23 Willpower: 26 (24) Sorcery Elementalism Enchantment Alchemy Prophecy Wizard's Staff Meal Meal Meal Meal Vial Vial Vial of Saltpetre Vial of Sulphur Map of the Shadakine Empire Magic Talisman (+2 WP) First choice: On the voyage across the Sea of Dreams we were given the option to use Elementalism and we took it. I’ll do the same because I want to lose a Willpower point. With different starting scores it might be better to not use it, in which case you’d eat two Meals and lose 1 EP. WP:25 Next is the choice to enter by day or by night. Night is better since it gives us the opportunity to sell our boat for 20 Nobles. I’m going to pointlessly use Prophecy here as well to lose another WP. WP:24 Nobles: 20 You then follow the fisherman’s directions and head straight down the street because hanging around the harbour or taking a detour only leads to trouble. You then have the option to go into the inn or head to the market. There is nothing of value at the inn. In fact, it’s a trap. If you go in there you can waste some money and talk to a Redeemer, one of those helpful healing monks, and he gives you a Vial of Pink Liquid and a Medallion. They are worse than useless, because they’ll actually send you down the wrong path later. In the market, Alchemy gives us the option to visit an apothecary, which sells a bunch of useful stuff. If we hadn’t sold our boat we wouldn’t be able to buy any of it, but we did so we can. We’ll take 1 Jar of Ezeran Crystals, 2 Vials of Laumspur, 1 Vial of Alether and 3 Tarama Seeds. This costs all of our money. Nobles: 0 A guy follows you out of the shop and he’s going to get you arrested no matter what, so it’s best to get it over with as quickly as possible. Run away. He’ll alert the guards. Surrender. They’ll take your staff and backpack, and you go to meet Mother Magri. As we’ve used only 2 Willpower so far we get to the option to use Sorcery to resist her, but we’re not going to take it. Just go with pure Willpower. ”Grey Star the Wizard” posted:The combined WILLPOWER scores of Mother Magri and the Kazim Stone are 50. Add together your current WILLPOWER and COMBAT SKILL scores and subtract this total from 50. EP: 21/23 We get thrown in the cell and meet Shan and Tanith. We’re going to use one of our Laumspur Vials on the old man, because that gets us +10 WP. WP: 34 We then talk to Tanith, because that’s going to happen anyway and if you start the conversation then you gain 1 WP and restore 3 EP for some reason. It really makes no sense since it’s the food you eat that restores you and you eat it either way - it just doesn’t do anything if you didn’t take the initiative to talk to Tanith. EP: 23/23 WP: 35 You then get the option to sleep, which we’ll take because it gains us a further 1 EP and 1 WP. Our EP is full already, but there’s no cap on WP. WP: 36 We’ll then use Alchemy to escape the cell. It’s not as cool as Evocation but we don’t have Evocation, and in any case it’s actually the slightly better option. We use our Sulphur, Saltpetre and Ezeran Crystals to make some Ezeran Acid, which we use half of. So we’ve now got some leftover Ezeran Acid and two empty Vials. You may recall that the rule in this jail any time you use Prophecy is to always go left, but we’re not going to do that because that leads to a fight. We’ll first head right, then left, then left again. We find a locked door, but that’s what the Ezeran Acid is for. So that’s all used up now. Past the door we go left again and come to the room with the two doors, one dark and the other with light visible beyond it. We take the dark one although it makes basically no difference. This is where Tanith shows up again, and of course we talk to her and get our Backpack and Staff back and make our escape. Eventually we arrive at the bridge, which we destroyed with Elementalism last time, but we’re going to save our willpower and just keep running. You can stand and fight the pursuing Shadakine but there’s absolutely no point. Just run away. Night falls and we each eat a Meal (1 remaining) and Shan and Tanith offer to take turns keeping watch so you can sleep. Take them up on it and you get another +1 EP and +1 WP. Our Endurance is still at maximum but the extra Willpower is always nice. WP: 37. In the morning there’s the debate over whether to visit Jnana the wise or not. You should definitely go see him. This is also the point where the Redeemer’s potion and amulet would send you down the wrong path, ie. away from Jnana. You travel for 3 days, gaining another +6 EP and +3 WP, plus some fresh Laumspur. WP: 40 Some monsters show up, but Tanith says not to attack them. Don’t attack them. They work for Jnana and you should allow them to lead you to him. He gives you a Silver Charm, 5 Meals, a Broadsword, 2 Potions of Laumspur and a Rope. The Laumspur goes in our Herb Pouch (filling it to capacity) and with the Meals and Rope our Backpack has one empty slot remaining. The Charm is a Special Item. Because we have Alchemy, Jnana also offers us a Pestle and Mortar, a Packet of Ezeran Crystals, a Jar of Yabari Ointment and 4 Tarama Seeds. We can use the Yabari Ointment immediately and it will keep insects away and disguise our scent for the remainder of the book without taking up any storage space. The Pestle and Mortar go in our Backpack, so we could take them but they’re useless so we won’t, and the Ezeran Crystals can take the place of one of our four empty vials. We’ll also take the Seeds, of course, because they take up no space. We then leave and continue our journey, during which we “may restore your ENDURANCE and WILLPOWER points to the value of one half your current totals”. Project Aon says to multiply our current scores by 1.5, with the caveat that Endurance cannot exceed its original maximum but Willpower can. So that’s +0 EP and +20 WP for us. I don’t know if that’s what Page originally intended, but his rules text is ridiculously ambiguous and we basically always follow what Project Aon says, so that’s what we’ll do in this instance as well. WP: 60 Then we run into the battle between the Shadakine and the Knights of the White Mountain. We don’t want to have to fight here, so we have to go to the knights’ aid. Yes, you aim for the exact opposite of what you want to happen. You need Enchantment to follow this path though, and if you don’t have it then you will be fighting no matter what you do. But we do have it so we’ll use it. WP: 58 We then have to fight the instinct to stay safely on the bridge and charge into the battle. Attack the Shadakine officer and, thanks to what appears to be a massive oversight by Ian Page, the battle is over. Pretty sure there’s meant to be a fight scene in there, because (as Project Aon notes) there is no description of how you kill the officer. But his mistake is our gain. After the fight you meet Rendalim and he gives you a bunch more stuff. We’ll take 3 more Tarama seeds (10 total now), Rendalim’s Elixir, and the Calacena Mushrooms. We’ll chuck out an empty Vial to make room (2 left now). Then we eat two Meals, bring our total remaining down to 4 and freeing up two spaces in our Backpack. Next is the Kleasá encounter. We wake up to find Tanith talking to the fire. We investigate and see Mother Magri. We’ll use Sorcery to shield ourself (at a cost of 2 WP) and fight the Kleasá for four rounds. Its Combat Skill is 25, so we’re at a Combat Ratio of -11 no matter what we do, so there is a 20% we just die in the first round. If the fight last for the full four rounds then it’s almost a 60% chance of it instakilling us, plus the risk that it’ll just do enough damage to wear us down. So we want this fight over as quickly as possible, preferably in one round. The way combat works is, you have to spend the WP before you make your roll, so you can’t see the result and then choose the right amount of WP to kill the enemy in one hit. But we can work out what the likely outcome is and work from there. The average damage we do on a successful hit is 3.5, which means spending 9 WP per round should get the job done. Grey Star: COMBAT SKILL 11 ENDURANCE 23 WILLPOWER 56 Kleasá: COMBAT SKILL 25 ENDURANCE 30 Combat Ratio: -11 We roll: 4 Grey Star: COMBAT SKILL 11 ENDURANCE 14 WILLPOWER 46 Kleasá: COMBAT SKILL 25 ENDURANCE 30 We roll: 9 Grey Star: COMBAT SKILL 11 ENDURANCE 10 WILLPOWER 36 Kleasá: COMBAT SKILL 25 ENDURANCE 0 Now that was not ideal, but it worked. We do take another 5 damage and lose another 5 WP though. EP: 5/23 WP: 31 Tanith sacrifices herself and we lose another WP, then we spot the abandoned shack. WP: 30 We send Shan in just ‘cause it’s funny, pick up 2 Meals (we now have 6) and take shelter from the storm. We eat a Meal (5 remaining) and regain 1 WP and 2 EP. EP: 7/23 WP: 32 Here’s the part where we fought those tentacle plants, and we’re just going to skip that completely this time. Move away from the river, then head left through a “dense maze of impassive rocks” and arrive at the place where we fought the Quoku. There’s no avoiding them completely, but you can do better than we did. First, just run. Keep running. Run some more. You’ll lose 2 WP but avoid a fight. WP: 30 Run again. The wounded Quoku chases and is catching up to Shan. Shout a warning. Then we have to choose whether to jump across the ravine or fight the quoku, and this is the first place where the correct choice is not obvious. But jumping is a die roll leading it instadeath, with, at best, a 60% chance of making it. So I say fight. At a Combat Ratio of -3, the Quoku does an average of 2.7 damage per round so we want to end this in two rounds at most. We do an average of 5.5, so we could probably get away with spending 2 WP per round, but I’m going to go for 3 just to be sure. Grey Star: COMBAT SKILL 11 ENDURANCE 7 WILLPOWER 30 Wounded Quoku: COMBAT SKILL 14 ENDURANCE 18 Combat Ratio: -3 We roll: 8 Grey Star: COMBAT SKILL 11 ENDURANCE 6 WILLPOWER 27 Wounded Quoku: COMBAT SKILL 14 ENDURANCE 0 That worked out almost perfectly. 2 WP would have dragged the fight on for another round and cost us more in total. Anyway, we now leave Shan to his fate and arrive at the lake of death. But first we’re going to eat that fresh Laumspur we picked up earlier to bring our EP up to 10. If your Endurance is lower than 10 here you take one damage, because gently caress you that’s why. EP: 10/23 At the lake we’ll go through Shan’s stuff and keep the Laumspur, 1 Torch and a Tinderbox. We’ll drop a Meal to make room (4 Remaining). There is nothing of value around the lake, so we’ll go straight for the cliff and lose 1 EP. Then we’ll enter the cave and “inexplicably” lose another EP. EP: 8/23 Don’t sleep in the cave because you’ll die. You can use the Torch here but it makes no difference. Just don’t use your staff to make a light because it costs you a Willpower point for no reason. We eat a Meal (3 remaining) and regain 1 WP and 2 EP. EP: 10/23 WP: 28 Then the first giant ant shows up. Fortunately we’ve got that insect repellent from Jnana so it goes away. And we’ll light our torch (in order to not die) and stumble into the Mantiz (giant ant) nest. As usual, go left. We run into a soldier ant, and surprisingly the correct respnse is not to run away or to charge in to fight it. Those both result in combat. In this case it’s actually correct to blast it with our staff from a distance. It costs us 2 WP but there’s no fight. WP: 26 We then head upward, and then west. We get trapped between the workers ahead and the soldiers behind and jump over them and out to the surface. It costs us 2 EP but that’s getting off lightly. EP: 8/23 We keep running straight into the last fight of the book. And this is the one that you can’t win. You can evade after one round, and we must or we’ll die. Evasion works the same as in Lone Wolf, so after the first round (which is fought normally) we “fight” one evasion round in which the enemy takes no damage regardless of what we roll. We still have to spend 1 WP though or our staff would be useless and we’d have to drop our CS by 6. Grey Star: COMBAT SKILL 11 ENDURANCE 8 WILLPOWER 26 Cave Mantiz: COMBAT SKILL 15 ENDURANCE 18 Combat Ratio: -4 We roll: 9 Grey Star: COMBAT SKILL 11 ENDURANCE 8 WILLPOWER 25 Cave Mantiz: COMBAT SKILL 15 ENDURANCE 9 We roll: 5 Grey Star: COMBAT SKILL 11 ENDURANCE 4 WILLPOWER 24 Cave Mantiz: COMBAT SKILL 15 ENDURANCE 9 And then we lose all our remaining Willpower and meet the Kundi. We win!
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Apr 11, 2019 06:04
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And the question for today is, how do you want to proceed?
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Apr 11, 2019 06:07
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that combat skill is really bad and I'm sorely tempted to call for a reroll just for that, but then again it is kinda novel to go through some of these books with such a poor score as to affect our strategic approach. Y'know, I'm gonna go with reset, because I just had this visual of us goons limping through each book like Goofus and then you posting the Gallant walkthrough afterwards with what we should have done, either laughing at us or Page/Dever as is situationally appropriate. And seeing how bad CS11 will continue to hamstring us going forth. quote:We’ll then use Alchemy to escape the cell. It’s not as cool as Evocation but we don’t have Evocation, and in any case it’s actually the slightly better option. We use our Sulphur, Saltpetre and Ezeran Crystals to make some Ezeran Acid, which we use half of. So we’ve now got some leftover Ezeran Acid and two empty Vials. Yeah I'm still bummed we lacked the democratic will for Evocation because it really is the cool version of the jailbreak
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Apr 11, 2019 06:33
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Kangra posted:Before we move on I just wanted to highlight this use of the word because there are so few chances in one's life to use it so well. Thank you. I always keep an eye out for giant insects in the hope of getting to use it. I vote for rewrite. The wisdom of the Shianti guided us! Also I like the pics of the Kundi. They look like cool guys.
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Apr 11, 2019 07:56
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Tiggum posted:[*]Reset: Just set our WP and EP back to their starting values from this book and keep our equipment. We're going to show how much it was a lie you can do it with low stats.
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Apr 11, 2019 11:16
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Reset works for me too. For all the reasons stated already. I too enjoy the Goofus/Gallant approach.
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Apr 11, 2019 12:23
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Reset but change the rule for using wp in combat such that we can end the fight in one round if we do average damage.quote:But we can work out what the likely outcome is and work from there. The average damage we do on a successful hit is 3.5, which means spending 9 WP per round should get the job done. nelson fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Apr 11, 2019 |
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Apr 11, 2019 14:42
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nelson posted:Reset but change the rule for using wp in combat such that we can end the fight in one round if we do average damage. Have to agree with this. Thanks for showing off the "right" way, amazing how completely counterintuitive many of the decisions were!
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Apr 11, 2019 16:35
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nelson posted:Reset but change the rule for using wp in combat such that we can end the fight in one round if we do average damage.
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Apr 11, 2019 20:53
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OK, seems it's unanimous. Resetting our scores back to their starting values and keeping the equipment from this book. Also the new WP rule will go into effect.The Forbidden City posted:The Story So Far … First we get to add 10 to our Willpower for completing the first book, so that's now 36. We also get to choose another Magical Power. Only Psychomancy (cryptic clues from objects) and Evocation (necromancy) remain, so pick one of those. Also, look what I got in the mail today:  So we'll move on to that after we're done with Grey Star.
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Apr 12, 2019 03:43
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Evocation.
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Apr 12, 2019 03:49
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 Evocation
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Apr 12, 2019 03:59
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Congrats on getting the new Lone Wolf book. Better be worth the price. Evocation!
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Apr 12, 2019 04:03
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achtungnight posted:Congrats on getting the new Lone Wolf book. Better be worth the price. It cost almost $60 (AUD) so it definitely won't be! 
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Apr 12, 2019 04:09
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If I remember right this book is where Grey Star gets interesting. The art is good too
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Apr 12, 2019 04:20
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achtungnight posted:Congrats on getting the new Lone Wolf book!
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Apr 12, 2019 04:46
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Mister Perky posted:
And yay more Lone Wolf! A qualified yay considering the last few of those, but I'm still interested in how the playthrough'll go.
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Apr 12, 2019 07:24
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The Forbidden City posted:The room is silent. Okosa, the Kundi king, his servants, and Urik, the old Shaman of the Kundi tribe, look on intently as you concentrate on the strange riddle. Suddenly, the solution crystallizes in your mind.
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Apr 13, 2019 03:30
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Urik the Wise is one of my favorite fantasy characters of all time for good reason. Shield ourselves with Sorcery!
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Apr 13, 2019 03:44
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Y'know, it occurs to me that the last book did at a fair number of points make "just shoot them" the right answer. It's not that unreasonable given the setup: there's 7 skills, of which we have at minimum 5, so making "use applicable skill" always a good idea is not the greatest design. I guess what I'm saying is blast them with our staff!
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Apr 13, 2019 04:04
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achtungnight posted:Urik the Wise is one of my favorite fantasy characters of all time for good reason.
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Apr 13, 2019 04:10
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Tiggum posted:OK, seems it's unanimous. Resetting our scores back to their starting values and keeping the equipment from this book. Also the new WP rule will go into effect. oh man he is gonna gently caress that wave up
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Apr 13, 2019 06:02
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:blast them with our staff!
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Apr 13, 2019 06:27
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