[In Game] Oct 21 - Nov 3: Thistletop Fell

[Mike]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we cashed all that in, and now we can pretty much everything below the dragon/giant list at the top. That leaves about 6 grand worth of stuff up there, plus anything anyone wants to trade in now.

[Elle]

Dwyn will try to find an engineer and building crew in Sandpoint or, failing that, in Magnimar. What she wants them to do in the hired month:

The first task is to ensure all people in Sandpoint have access to a shelter, E.g. storm cellar, blocked off portion of underground tunnel, quick evacuation route.

Second, set up adequate "forest fire" type lookout stations, so signals can be relayed from outside town in case of threat.

Third, figure out what reinforcements, E.g. at bridges or far banks of the river, could help. The goal is just to buy time. How much do these cost? Dwyn can put some $$ toward it now but will wait to hear recommendations from them first.

Fourth, head to Fort Rannick via barge and help Vale with repairs/rebuilding.

We can hold off on explaining the dam to them until we get there ourselves, if we ever do.

[Bluedevyl]

More questions for Dothan to ask Gunrus:

If we were going to try to approach Mokmurian directly to attempt to reason with him, as we have with you, is there a way to get close to him without alerting the entire valley? Are there tunnels, caves, or other avenues of approach besides straight up the valley floor?

Are there any members of tribes that you know of who aren't happy with his plans?

You mentioned that he has other dragons helping him, in addition to the one who came here with you. Have you seen them? What color were their scales?

Would you be at all amenable to settling near the Storval Deep? While I am sure you can take care of yourself, we have a Fort set up nearby, and it would be nice to be able to see you again... it wouldn't be too far of a trip.

Anna would propose, if we are planning on letting Gunrus go, to teleport Gunrus and Dothan to Hook Mountain, and let Gunrus decide his path from there. We needn't upset the citizenry of Sandpoint, and if they woke up in the morning and he was gone, I dont think they'd be too upset on the whole.

[Mike]

Dothan asks those questions.

[Elle]

When Dwyn goes to Magnimar, she will NOT talk to the Mayor. If she can hire a construction engineer and a crew of workers in Sandpoint, she will, and if not, she will hire one in Magnimar, beginning by asking Father Fendus for recommendations of trustworthy contractors. Assume that she covers the 1038 GP required for this herself. She will pay them 50% of the money up front to come to Sandpoint and begin work. I assume Anna is good at writing and will write up a contract to sign.

I don't know if you want me to come up with 9 random NPCs who will play these roles - if so, let me know, or I assume there is Some Person, such that this Person is our New Contractor. In Sandpoint, they should take instructions from Mayor Deverin in our absence. Hopefully, this eventually results in an organized Sandpoint with lookout posts and signalling mechanisms, secure hiding places, and escape plans. If they complete all this work to Mayor Deverin's satisfaction, they receive another 25% of the money, which Dwyn will entrust to the Mayor (who is some kind of cousin to Dwyn's cousin Alma, so I assume she's good for it). Dwyn will front another 100 GP to the Mayor to pay the contractors for any material costs in Sandpoint, with the hope that the town can also provide some of the total materials required.

After the necessary work has been done in Sandpoint, which I assume takes a week or two, the crew is asked to take the ferry to Turtleback Ferry (I can cover this additional cost - not sure how much that was?), meet up with the Priest of Erastil, and spend a week assisting the townspeople there with any repairs still needed after the flood damage. That might eat up most of the month, considering the week of travel time required.

With whatever days remain, they can go to Fort Rannick and see what Vale needs done. We will either meet them at the Fort or TBF within the month with the last 25% of their fee, or we will do a Sending to Vale or the priest. If everyone they have worked with is happy so far, then a bonus and another month's contract extension can be arranged (for the dam and mines, etc).

In Magnimar, Dwyn will attend services at the Lodge and purchase potions from them or from wherever Anna and Kay are buying them. She can assist with trade-in of the other stuff and buy other things people might need, but really it's Anna and Kay you want for that part of the talky job.

[Elle]

Depending on how much money Dwyn receives from our loot, she will buy a haversack to address her heavier normal carry load with new armor. Don't want to be slowed down, or impeded if we have to move through rough terrain.

The remainder will be spent on potions, saving some as a rainy day fund. I'll post details once we know our loot haul.

[Mike]

Okay, I think I answered this for myself, but I'm going to get a ruling from the DM before I say for certain.

A) Can I take 10 on a Spellcraft check to craft a magic item? I don't see anywhere that it says I can't (in the Spellcraft description or in Create Magic Items or in Using Skills), but I could be missing it. If I can take 10, then no problem... my magic journal is done.

B) If I can't take 10, then is a 1 considered automatic failure on skill checks regardless of your bonus (like it is in combat), or if your bonus exceeds the DC, is it just considered automatic success? In the Combat section, it specifically states that a 1 always misses. In the Skills section, it does not say the same thing. My DC for crafting this journal is 7, and my Spellcraft bonus is +14.

The reason reason I ask... rather than bothering with waiting for you to make a ruling, I figured I'd just roll it, and as long as I didn't roll a 1, then the point was moot, and who cares about the rest. I rolled a 1. So here I am hoping you tell me that the roll wasn't necessary, and I didn't just throw away 2,750gp and all those days of labor.

You know... no big deal either way, right?

[Mike]

Also GM ruling on dragon parts:

You gave us a list of what parts have value and could be used in magic item creation. Each one gives a 20% discount on specific item creation, which means the dragon parts are "worth" 10% of the full cost of each item. I made the assumption that we would be able to sell them off for half that value (like with everything else). Therefore, each dragon part can be sold for 5% of the value of the items made from it.

Based on that, I'm adding the dragon parts to the loot list, and if anyone has parts they want to keep, because they want us to construct said magic items, then they can claim them and I'm assuming we'll properly render and preserve those pieces for later use. Everything else, is part of the loot to sell.

Using this method, the total value of the corpse in its current condition is around 14,000, but Dothan already has a couple pieces she's going to claim, (and I'm sure others will as well), so it won't be that much in the end.

But I put it here to make sure you're okay with this accounting. If you have something else in mind or want to adjust some of the values or whatever, we'll go with that then.

[Mike]

One more dragon question, D. The others make a good point:

If we want to keep particular parts of the dragon for ourselves, what is the time factor in taking them out and making them ready to store for future use? Do we need some sort of spellcraft check to do it properly?

If it's going to be more than a day or two, then we might reconsider.

If we sell the corpse as a whole, how does that affect the price (assuming you are okay with the price guidelines above)? I calculated about 28,000 gp worth of parts by their value in making items, and thus, about 14,000 for all of it together if we just sell it off. If we don't part it out, how does that change things?

FWIW, I'm finishing the magic journal now, so IF I can get those wings, I can start the month+ of construction on my Wings of Flying right away, and the wings cut almost 3 grand off the price.

[DMDarcs]

[DMDarcs]

[DMDarcs]

[Bluedevyl]

So we can do a little math-ing, sell the corpse whole to someone who has the time to part it out, and call it a win, right? I don't think any of us have the time or the knowledge to properly butcher a red dragon.

Let me know what you think...

[Mike]

Yeah... I've got the numbers. I'll math that up. That means about 28000 for the dragon and 19000 for everything else. Unless we have to take a discount on the dragon for selling it whole.

[Zen]

Hal added in the gloves of swimming and climbing as well. Those are 3125

[Elle]

Really bummed that Gogmurt is vanished. Hopefully he survived somehow. It's always good to have a friendly goblin around, when my understanding is that lots of goblins are running around the vicinity of Sandpoint/countryside. True that recently, as far as we know, they haven't organized themselves like they did under Nualia, and perhaps they spend more time infighting than attacking others. However, being able to negotiate and work with them - now against a common enemy - would be really good for the area. When we get back to Sandpoint, we should discuss this with the officials. Any contact with goblins? Let them know about how the giants mercilessly crushed a successful community of goblins, and how we're working together to prevent that from happening to any other goblins or towns!