Nerd Pride Radio

Here's the ones I've come up with off the top of my head:

Immediate Questions:

- What does Mokmurian's mother wish to do with his remains?
- What is inside the bronze doors?
- How can we disperse the giants encamped outside?
- How can we destroy the cauldron?
- Can we secure Jorgenfist from outside entry in order to return to it, if the need should arise?

Short-term questions

- Can we identify the "X" mark on the map we found?
- What happened to the dwarves we rescued?
- Can we find out more about the shield we found?
- What of all of this stuff can we sell?
- Updating our character wealth... it'll take some time, but we need to get a better idea of how much cash we have to deal with

Longer-term questions

- Who is Karzoug?
- What is a Runeforge?

Besides checking out what's behind Bronze Door #1, we need to clear out the rest of Jorgenfist. We skipped the upper levels and went straight to the basement; Mokmurian could have had some henchmen higher up in the tower that we should eliminate as well. Like if the lamia that fled from Fort Rannick/Hook Mountain came here after our last encounter, she's not one we would want to let go if we can help it. And facing her while we're hopefully rested and fully-prepared, we can hopefully keep her from teleporting away from us this time. Maybe Mokmurian's mother can help us in terms of at least pointing us towards the threats that need to be taken care of.

Oh, and we still have that cavern full of wyverns, if we wanted to clear that out. And we mustn't forget the dragon's lair full of coins that need to be shipped back to First National Bank of Magnimar.


Also, there's the question of our immediate next steps. Do we go ahead and rest for 8 hours and recover? Do we check out what's behind the bronze door first? Do we go back and inform Mokmurian's mother about her son's demise? If we take the time to rest, will we lose the opportunity to surprise any of M's leftover henchmen? Or was he isolated enough down in the basement that we can take 8 hours to rest and nobody will be the wiser to the fact that he's no longer in charge?

Rather than any more fighting, I think we need to find Mokmuri-mom and see if this isn't all over.

I'm fine with that. We could check in with Mokmurian's mom (Conna?), let her know M has been defeated, get some intel on other threats in the area that we need to clean up. Then we rest, face those threats, and check out the bronze door. Does that sound good? If necessary, perhaps Conna helps us keep up the ruse that M is still alive until we have the opportunity to rest up and are ready to face any other threats.

Do we have a cleric capable of a sending currently or will that require rest? If so, we could contact mama-Mokmuruan that way and find out what she wants done with her son's remains. Otherwise, i suggest we put one of the medallions on him to preserve him as is. (He didn't have one of his own, did he? Wait... He didn't have one of his own... Did he?!?! That seems ... Strange...)

Look, I either need Mama to have our back, or else we need to emerge triumphantly with Mokmurian's head. I'm hating the idea of throwing a bunch of new sihedron-marked bodies onto the ancient god-king reviving sin-machine. And I'm thinking if we make an intimidating show of how we toppled their God, then maybe we leave with just a couple minor scuffles, and we don't have to fight the spell-casting giant twins upstairs or any of the hapless soldiers who would just as happily go home. Let Mother-murian rally her people and maybe we just walk away.

Dothan, what do you know about Stone Giant death rituals and ruler succession, of the normal kind, not the "taken over by an ancient madman" kind? That might tell us what we need to do without consulting Mama ahead of time. For instance, if they cremate or bury, I doubt if the head being severed will matter. It isn't like we're planing on taking it with us. If they do some sort of mummification ritual for their rulers, then it could be dicey if we go removing body parts...

I'll knowledge that up shortly.

Meantime, I'm really leaning towards severed head.

- What does Mokmurian's mother wish to do with his remains?
We need to either find or message her right away.

- What is inside the bronze doors?
We will find out.

- How can we disperse the giants encamped outside?
By working with Mokmurian's mother and/or displaying his head and letting them know it's all over.

- How can we destroy the cauldron?
Research. If it's like the sinspawn fountain under Sandpoint, maybe nothing. Did we ever sort that one out?

- Can we secure Jorgenfist from outside entry in order to return to it, if the need should arise?
I leave that to the tactitians.

- Can we identify the "X" mark on the map we found?
I'm betting the X in Sandpoint is the old "Lighthouse". My favorite theory on it is the crackpot guy's idea that it's an ancient Thassilonian weapon. So when I saw the row of X's on the map, I immediately thought that it's some sort of defensive perimeter (assuming that the coast was farther out, 10,000 years ago). We need to go back and ask the lighthouse guy, because I bet he has awesome ideas about what sorts of ruins/landmarks might be found nowadays near those X's.

- What happened to the dwarves we rescued?
Good question.

- Can we find out more about the shield we found?
Likely.

- What of all of this stuff can we sell? - Updating our character wealth.
We'll work it all out in the Loot Thread, but anything we don't want to keep, we'll find a buyer for in Magnimar.

- Who is Karzoug?
Ancient Runelord of Thassilon. Epic level spellcaster. Almost to the level of god-kings in their day. I think there were seven Runelords representing the seven sins... which in Thassilon were thought of as the "Seven Virtues." So Karzoug may have been Wrath or Greed or Gluttony or whatever. Greed would have been represented by the people marked in Turtleback Ferry, which is nearby, so that's my best bet.

- What is a Runeforge?
I don't know, but at this point it sounds super scary. More research.

Yes, Thor... you have a cute butt. Now go patrol the perimeter or something... adults are talking.

Good point.

And all I've done above is answer Andrew's questions to the best of my ability. Dothan can't focus enough to come up with any new questions yet. She's really intent on getting out of here and back home as soon as we can. She has a lot of research to do based on just this stuff and is eager to figure it all out.

We also need to find out who Xaniasa is (I think I got the spelling wrong on that) because I think we're going to need some ancient super power spirit on our side if we need to go up against these Runelords.

So the big M didn't wear a sihedron of his own. Maybe because he was the host for one of these Runelord folk? Everyone else we fought were lieutenants in some way to this larger threat. Which means that he, the bigger threat in this case, didn't care if they lived or died, because all of that fueled his power. So they were marked for death, basically. I, um, I am suddenly less fond of using these amulets to our own benefit.

And maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but what are our plans after we are done with Jorgenfist? If we are resting here, then we have time to talk.

Let's presume there's some minor action left for tomorrow to clean this place up. It may involve fighting or intense negotiation or something, but we're on the downhill side of this one. Then what? To my mind, this map indicates that we're making our way back to Sandpoint. But how?

Do we take a couple days to touch base with Fort Rannick and Turtleback Ferry? When we head home to Sandpoint, are we teleporting? Do we do any overland travel at this point? We need to visit Magnimar to sell/buy. Do we have any reason to check in with his Lordship the Mayor while we're in town? Is there anyone or anywhere else in our growing network that we need to keep up with?

If I read it correctly, Anna can teleport herself + 3 others, all with full load. Sadly, there are eight of us, so that would require three trips, which means five uses of Teleport, which would mean two days worth of spells. But essentially, we all get home by 13 Kuthona... if we choose to go that route. Although that means, some part of the group goes home early and some part is left behind for 24 hours.

At level 12 (or if she has something that boosts her effective caster level for Teleport right now), she'll be able to transport herself + 4 others, and then we can travel with just 2 trips... 3 spells... 1 day.

I'd love to stop by Fort Rannick and make sure everything's going well there. A shopping trip in Magnimar would be nice. But I certainly want to check out the ruins in Sandpoint, now that we have a bit of a better idea what M was sending people there for. A little in-game downtime would certainly be nice, given we pretty much went from Fort Rannick right to Magnimar, right to Sandpoint to fight the dragon/giant invasion, then right to Jorgenfist to fight Mokmurian. A little time for Dwyn to get hitched, Dothan to make some wings, Kay and Eldthor to make... something.