Nerd Pride Radio

And yes, building an accidental bond with the giant is something that I have thought of.

And for what it's worth, I'm really in love with the name Order of the Song right now. But that's because it's all about me.

But using words like Order, League, Legion, Company, Guild, Society, Band, etc, there's all kinds of possibilities. A name could be reflective of our actual accomplishments or membership or goals, but doesn't have to be. We just have to own it and make it meaningful. The Band of Merry Men is one of the stupidest names ever, but it's so familiar and so connected with that story that we forget.

Get an "I" in there and we could abbreviate it as iOS.

Wait! How about...

The Sandpoint High School Marching Monarchs

Monarch as in butterfly, not hereditary ruler. Not as fearsome, but it makes sense.

I know for me, updating the name of the group would help me feel like Anna's more a part of the group. I know it's a small thing, and one I would never consider suggesting on my own, but as it's been raised, I thought I'd weigh in.

Cheers!

I've never been thrilled with the name anyway. Dothan was pouting at the time and had no input into it. And for me, it smacks too much of Paranoia. I'm really excited about a change. New name for a new era of heroes. (Because I define an era as 2 months.)

Good point that most of us aren't really from Sandpoint (even Dwyn, for whom it was once the "city"), so although our story circles around it, it shouldn't be part of our name. There are eight of us, so maybe something to do with that? The Octonauts is already taken, damn! The League of Eight?

It interests me that if we were a sphere ensemble, we would be an octahedron ensemble since there are eight of us. But this is a world populated by sihedrons, I.e. seven-pointed stars. So whatever our name is, maybe we need our own symbol too... not an octahedron as a Platonic solid, but as an eight pointed star.

?

Sorry moved that post out from under you when I saw Tahlvin's thread. Didn't know you'd be replying already.

Splitting the party makes sense in this case only because Hal will be on autopilot. I'd suggest Dothan accompany, especially if Hal is absent. The mission, as I see it, is simply to ambush the fleeing giants so that they a) do not fetch reinforcements, b) reduce the numbers of giants we ultimately have to fight, c) rob their leader of valuable intel.
Timetable: two days or so. Assuming Giants have a sleep cycle. If they don't, that changes everything.
A badly wounded giant can easily be contained (briefly, until some mending) by attentive guards, but adding Hal makes it pretty much no worries.
If there is a ranger or other dangerous in an ambush npc that might add to our force but not our stress, the party should invite him/her.

There might be assets in town that have more skill than we at skinning, research into the pressing questions about the plateau and dragons, etc, etc, so the time is doubly useful. We also have an outsized amulet. Does that have similar properties?

Sorry, I thought I mentioned making a shield out of it, but I may just have thought that instead.

Our expectation for the chase mission is just to erase them and then return, right?

That's what I thought. Maybe they get info from the leader. But basically, yeah.

I thought we wanted to question Tiki-Tak, if possible, to see what he was trying to retrieve from Sandpoint. Then kill him.

Serious question here: how confident are the six of you at potentially taking on 8ish stone giants without Hal or Dothan?

Giants are wounded and on the run, but maybe they have their own healer. Maybe they have support staff that didn't enter the city. You guys do have the option of choosing the battlefield and hopefully setting an ambush. That worked well at Fort Rannick and only took 17 hours of discussion to make ready. Who knows if you will have the same luxuries here.

I ask, because although I'm super excited about staying back and getting stuff done, Bill has raised some doubt, so we have at least one team member with reservations about this plan.

Discuss!

Well, Kay is always over-confident, so her opinion doesn't actually count, but... I think if we lead with a nice fireball into their camp and set up a good support fire position for Eldthor and Sam to do Arrows and Sam's fire thingy from, Anna can do her level best to harass them and make their day worse, Sam can haste us. Anna can make a couple of us fly for extra speed. (I think I'd like to make that standard if she has the spells for it. If not I'll buy some scrolls or a wand... Eventually I'll probably learn it... or maybe the conjuration variant with an Electricity elemental as the outsider that carries me, if Darcs agrees to it... In my opinion, flying and using spring attack makes me able to attack just about anywhere on the field, especially with haste and that makes a lot of sense...)

In short, I think we can handle them...

Anna definitely has the spells to make at least a couple of us airborne. If she cast it on everyone, I'm fairly sure that would exhaust her complement of 3rd level spells. (Mass Fly isn't available until 7th level)

Between the arrows from Eldthor, Sam's variety of spells, Illian's shiny sharpness, Kay's spring attacks, and Dwyn's raw damage output, I think I'm comfortable taking them on. I'd focus on at least bringing Teraktinus unconscious first, but I'm thinking that with those things, Anna will focus more on battlefield control and save-or-suck type effects.

A confusion, some black tentacles, and maybe a summon will keep things well in hand. I do like the idea of leading with a fireball if we can catch enough of them in it.

I don't think a fireball will kill them outright like those ogre slaves.... just tenderize them a bit...

I agree: cast a fly spell on Eldthor, and he can get close enough to get the point blank shot and intuitive shot bonuses, on top of favored enemy, while still staying out of range of direct melee attacks (park 30 feet above them), and quite a bit of damage can be dealt without being too risky.