Jorgenfist Planning

[Phoebe]

My price is pretty low: do my dishes and let's talk!

I wonder if all billionaires all have a personal GM? I certainly would want Darcs to continue his work with young people in some capacity - he has to do something to have a little mental break from thinking about the games, right? The difference is he could do it on a volunteer basis, you know, a drop-in basis. Then we will hire him a full-time cook/nanny/maid.

On a serious note, we need to start planning now if this whole shared nursing home thing is going to work. I think we're best off pooling our investments and actually building a new nursing home from scratch, or taking over an existing one that's for sale. Then we can hire people who understand the vision and won't interfere. Medicine delivery, baths, etc have to be scheduled around our leisure activities. Special care must be taken in the design of common rooms with surround sound, etc.

[Bluedevyl]

So, ahead of our session tomorrow evening, we have the following questions, most of which are for Pat:

Do we have some divination spells or something we could employ on that cave to see if we're heading down the right path or heading towards a dead end?

Have we seen any supply shipments on the way here?

What did we see going on inside the fortress walls while doing our aerial observations? Any indications on size of the force we would be facing once inside the walls compared to outside?

How do the giants handle waste? They've got 250-ish various giants and giant-sized animals around in a fairly small area. How do they manage latrine facilities? I'm guessing stuff mostly gets dumped in the river, but do they have actual latrines?

Once we know the answers to those questions, we can formulate a plan of attack. Anna is going to push hard for the "teleport into the upper cave" plan, as it seems the least risky to her, and, at the outset anyway, most of the risk is on her, which she prefers greatly to putting anyone else in harms way.

As to the divination spells question, Anna doesn't currently have any, but Sam or one of the other casters may.

[DMDarcs]

You have not seen any supply shipments come into Jorgenfist. You have seen stone giant patrols come in and out of Jorgenfist; when they return to Jorgenfist, you have seen them carry in aurochs and large sacks of what you presume is food, and in one case, a manticore. The camps surrounding the fortress have also sent smaller numbers out to go hunting each day, though their shares seem to be smaller.

During your aerial observations of Jorgenfist, it appears that the interior of the fortress is very lightly guarded. You're not sure, but it seems like there aren't more than a dozen stone giants and some bears within. There is a large pit within the walls that you have seen stone giants enter and leave (there is a ramp around the interior); the bottom of the pit seems to be a pile of corpses and bones, serving as a food source for flocks of birds. There are three large buildings within the walls. A large building to the southeast appears to be woolly mammoth stables. You have seen stone giants enter and leave the building to the northwest, and this seems to be where they are keeping their supplies. Smoke issues from the building continuously, and you have witnessed the giant bear often wander in to this building. A smaller building to the northeast is pretty much left alone, but you have seen two blue-skinned giants enter and leave this building.

The six stone towers (including the two flanking the gate) are each manned by a stone giant at all times. You haven't seen anyone guarding the taller iron tower, and the giants seem to steer away from it on general principle.

The ogre camps and hill giants around Jorgenfist appear to have dug holes to poop in. Stone giants appear to burn their own waste.

[DMDarcs]

Note on the caves:

* Eldthor has flown into the cave to the east. It is about 450 feet up a near-vertical mountain face. Shattered skeletons of dozens of animals, wyverns, and even a few rocs litter the ground far below the entrance. The cave is fairly deep - AND FULL OF TREASURE. Piles of coins in the back. We're talking dragon hoard here.

* The lower cave (50 ft. up) by the river has had wyverns flying in and out, primarily at night.

* The upper cave (250 ft. up) by the river hasn't had any activity. Closer flybys have revealed the floor, walls, and ceiling to be carpeted in bloated, many-legged insects, and you can hear the loud clicking of millions of bug legs as you fly by.

[bralbovsky]

Given that a frontal assault is out (since we don't have a holocaust cloak)
What are the chances we can get past the first tower and into one of the back doors (I am so far counting three, two by the river, and one higher which belonged to the dragon), without raising the alarm? Does anybody have an inclination about whether it would be better to fight a handful of muscly giants or one clearly badass matriarch? Right now Hal would vote group because there are enough of us for flanking, and because I suspect she has some magic enhancements, maybe communication.

Informational considerations:
Is there a difference of effort in reaching - as a whole party- either of them? Spells necessary, time involved, etc. It would be helpful if our spellcasters could develop an efficient protocol for moving all of us.
Is there a natural, obvious, available escape route if temporary retreat is necessary? I know Kay doesn't like the river. How deep is it here?

I'd pitch for beginning at the dragon lair: If it is unoccupied, it might have treasure which we could ferry to a city and thereby resupply potions, etc. If it is connected, it might be less well guarded. If it's not connected, it might make a good temporary rally/retreat point that it would be difficult to chase us to, and it might be close enough to frustrate typical searches.

[Bluedevyl]

I like starting with the dragon cave. We can clear out some stuff, make our preparations there, and the giants are likely to stay away from it, especially given that they don't know the dragon isn't coming back yet.

Perversely, I'd almost prefer to use the bug hole, rather than the wyvern nest. Having said that, I don't have access to Cloudkill or anything else that would serve for a giant can of Raid. If we can time the hunting trips of the wyverns, perhaps we could figure out a way to get into the cave when they aren't there. If we can, we could set up an ambush for them.

[Mike]

Dothan's curiosity about the dragon's hoard is near overwhelming. If we can start there, I am super happy... even if sorting loot is the only thing we do tonight.

[Tahlvin]

If you want to use the dragon's lair as a basecamp, keep in mind that it's 450 feet up a cliff face. So getting to and from the lair will either require spellwork (fly, teleport) or quite a bit of climbing. I'd hate to use up the majority of our spellcasting ability just getting to the fight, and not have enough left for the actual fight. And while we can keep a general eye on Jorgenfist, to see large scale comings/goings, it probably won't be close to do our detailed scouting, so we still need to be able to come and go over those first couple of days.

But hell yes, I'm all up for searching through that horde to see if there's anything that can be useful for defeating the giants.

[Mike]

Dothan's with you on that one. It is unlikely to be connected to the base camp in any way. It's way too high up to be useful except as a lookout. We're too many days travel from any decent sized town to make it worth it to try to cash any of it in before we make our move. Honestly, our time would be way better spent by leaving this until after, except...

What if there's something useful in there? Dragon lairs will absolutely have some cool magic items. What if there's something that can help us?

It may be a lame justification, but Dothan will jump on any chance to go scope this out sooner rather than later.

[Bluedevyl]

We may be many days travel, but we're only one spell cast away if we REALLY need to buy something.

We need to ask Pat if we are able to wait one more day. If we are, we can teleport into the lair, then somewhere else the following day.

[Mike]

I keep forgetting teleport! I think we have the option of a couple more days if we need. But I'm just guessing. It sounds like we have free reign for invisible flying as long as we don't get too close. But again... just guessing.

Assuming we don't have the spell power to invisible-fly EVERYONE in there and then back. IF we choose to take the time, we can invisible-fly a couple people in there to load up everything that detects as magic (and maybe a little extra in cash) and bring it to a more reasonable base camp. Then we can sort and decide and teleport to Magnimar if needed. That allows us to do it all in one day and then recover spells and figure out what we're doing the next day. The danger of that is what if there are traps or guardians or other hazards in and around the hoard, and we're sending in just two or three people to deal with it?

Either way, I'm not as interesting in the shopping part as I am in the finding some cool magic stuff part.

[Phoebe]

Okay y'all, time for the contrarian view from the person who doesn't think we should be here in the first place:

Why do we NEED to go into any of these caves at all? We're going to risk tangling IN ITS LAIR with a dragon because... we think we might find a nifty sword or headband or something that improves our gear before fighting a horde of giants that will surely stomp us all into dust? Nah, those are grim odds. This looks like a setup. Probably the insect cave is the magical one because who wants to go in there???? Not me. The one with small wyverns is bad because even though I think we could take them on as a group, what prevents one from flying away, warning the armies here, and then we're toast?

If we're going to do this thing, we need to somehow figure out where Mr. M lurks and sneak ourselves into there. Don't we have great magical and bardic powers of disguise at this point? Can't some of us enlarge and pretend to be giants pulling a cart or somesuch, while the others are magically concealed therein as vegetables or something? Whatever they eat? A new cart of fine boulders? I am sure that among our magic users, there has to be a way to make most of us look like boulders. I would actually say Dothan and anyone else who's a good talker should be the ones enlarged to pull the cart BTW. Dwyn will say something dumb to give away the scheme, but she would make an excellent boulder, or even a silent partner with her Iron Beard.

BTW HOW GREAT IS THE IRON BEARD?

[Mike]

The dragon's lair belongs to us, because the dragon is dead and we just sold its body in Magnimar. Yes, there's all sorts of possibilities that maybe this is the lair of a different dragon connected to Mokmurian, or maybe it had a mate or something that's still here. But we've been here a couple days and seen no sign of active dragon. Therefore, Dothan (who is the most wise among us) is convinced that this is the lair of our dead dragon, and that loot is ours for the taking.

The bug cave is also fascinating, and I agree probably has the most possibility as a secret entrance or some other tactical advantage.

Wyverns are animals that look a lot like dragons. They're dumb. Taking them out is like sneaking into a field at night and killing a whole family of elk. No one's going to notice unless them come looking (and no one's come looking at/for them so far). And if one gets out, they don't go warn anyone, because they don't have brains for that. At best, they fly away screeching.

[Eliahad]

Just to bolster Dwyn's idea... Everyone already thinks Illian is a carrot, so that's one disguise we don't need to worry about.

[Phoebe]

I certainly feel that way.

[Zen]

Since we haven't seen any signs of a dragon, I think we can feel relatively safe that our recently killed dragon is the former owner of this horde. Hence, WE are the rightful owners of this horde, correct? I say we go claim it! Or at least as much of it as we deem useful and able to be carried. Perhaps we should have invested in more bags of holding...

As far as using it as a base of operations, that is a bit harder since it does cost spells to get there and back. However, some of use do intend to go into battle in flight in the first place so we could do a multi-pronged attack, making it easier to transport the rest into the cave of choice and we could come from above when the time is right?

[Mike]

I'm serious... invisifly two people in. Scoop up everything that detects magic. Come back. We'll sort and identify and see if there's anything useful. We can make arrangements for all the sweet sweet lucre later.

[Phoebe]

It never even occurred to me that this is the lair of the dragon we KILLED, which is why I am not the decider here. Jeez, that is sad even for me.

[Tahlvin]

Now to be clear, he was pretty young as dragons go, so this won't be an YUGE horde. But it certainly isn't something we want to completely pass up. This could help make Dothan's wings a reality!

[Mike]

The only thing Dothan needs for her wings now is about 23 more days of work. She can put in a quarter day during each day of adventuring, so these will be done around 8 Pharast (that's 13 weeks of game time).