After the fall of Thistletop

[Mike]

Here's to Gogmurt!

Now to planning.

1) Release Gunrus. (Wewease Gunwus!)

2) We need to get to Magnimar. There's a dragon corpse and a few new items to fence. Plus people will want to shop again.

3) Planning for the defense of Sandpoint.

4) We need to figure out how we are approaching/dealing with Mokmurian

We could move faster if we split up again, however, I think Sam's right. We need to stick together. We will have to transport the dragon overland, but then can we teleport back?

Also, I just need two days to finish my magic item. Can we maybe take the weekend off and stay in Sandpoint? We'll touch base with everyone, do a little defense/evacuation planning. That kind of thing.

[Tahlvin]

[Bluedevyl]

I'm 99% sure that we dont have a giant rune. We're preserving the dragon with a normal-sized medallion.

What is Gunrus' profession? Is there any chance he'd consider moving into the clanhold on Hook Mountain? If he's a farmer or a brewer we could make introductions.

Are we sure that Sandpoint needs defending? I'm all for it, but I could easily see us taking a ton of time setting up defenses, as this town seems incredibly important to some of our group. I'm not sure we have that kind of time.

Im with Sam insofar as I dont want to split up again until at least post-Magnimar.

[Zen]

Have we considered offering Gunrus a position at the Fort? Also, the medallion on the dragon is normal sized...

[Tahlvin]

I could have sworn we had a sihedron rune that one of the giants was wearing, or that we took one off the giant statue at Hook Mountain.

As for setting him up at Hook Mountain or Fort Rannick, I'm not sure how well that will work. At Hook Mountain, the only people remaining should be the ogres who were down in the mines. We're not exactly on friendly terms with them, even though we freed them from their giant overlords. Not exactly the sort of environment I would trust putting him in. And as for the fort, I'm not sure it's sized for a stone giant, I'm not sure he wants to hang around with humans that much, and I think he might scare off some of our potential recruits.


Also, I want to check with DMDarcs to see if Eldthor could do one thing at Thistletop before they left. I was going to put this in the chat log on Roll20 last night, but we switched back to Sandpoint before I got to it and then go sidetracked with circles of standing stones and death ray lighthouses. Eldthor wants to leave a message for Gogmurt in Druidic asking him to meet me back at Thistletop in three days' time (based on the phase of the moon; this should allow enough time to go to Magnimar and back). Just in case Gogmurt escaped and is hanging around, and our funeral pyre attracted his attention to the point where he comes back to check out what was going on.

[Mike]

[Elle]

Great idea. Maybe if he talks to certain kinds of plants and Forest creatures is there a way of leaving a message with them too?

[Zen]

Nope, the statue with the Sihedron medallion on it was just stone. We've found tattoos on these folks, but not any medallions other than the one that Dwyn sundered on the Lamia.

Having him work for us at Fort Rannick was just a thought... Since he's Dothan's pal and he seems earnest about not wanting to return to his evil overlord, it might be a good job and we need muscle. He HAS that! The passageways are not really giant friendly at the fort... I'll grant you that. Hook Mountain is much more suited to a man of his girth.

Good thinking leaving a message for Gogmurt. I was wondering if he would see the funeral pyre and investigate, personally, but, ya know, I wasn't there... By the time we were all back together, well, we never really were. LOL!

Question for Darcs: What are the chances that Kay could get her hands on some Chthonic Steel either here in Sandpoint or in Magnimar? If I have a little help (like "Aid Another" from Dwyn... or whatever that crafter bonus Dothan had was) I could make one arrow every two days from that metal and it has a +2 bonus for critical confirmation... I just thought that my husband might like that since he seems to be shooting so well recently. (At a cost of 5 and 1/3 gold pieces per arrow for me to make them...) While adventuring it would be one arrow every four and a half days without assistance, so two arrows every 9 days. So if I bought enough materials for 20 arrows, and worked on them in my free time, it would take less than half a year to finish them all. But I'd probably be able to replace them as he broke them. (Assuming I don't screw up my rolls too much...)

[DMDarcs]

[DMDarcs]

[DMDarcs]

[Elle]

I hope we find Gogmurt! Which autocorrect wants to be Yogurt.

Also, Kay mentioned a Ring of Protection and I think we have one at +1 in the loot. Could be enchanted up or traded in for a stronger one? I have a +2 one with back of mind plans to up its strength someday when I have more money. Next purchase is a carrying device, as my new armors be heavy!

[Zen]

[Elle]

Gunrus really needs a place where he can find a bear and commune with stones, yeah.

Even with Dothan's powers of persuasion on our side, I worry about simply letting him wander off from Sandpoint because the townspeople might not see it the way we do, and word of our generosity to the town's fearsome attacker might even get back to people in Magnimar who would disapprove. One option to avoid that would be that when Eldthor goes back to Thistletop in three days' time, a few of us travel east with Gunrus and let him go off on his own out there. Dwyn would be up for this because it would give her an occasion to ride home to visit her family for a day - that will be a quicker journey now that we have horses. I can't remember where exactly Oshar lives, but is her family on a farm somewhere out here too? Just trying to make sense of this side trip for Dothan too. Whoever else wanted to travel with us could assume we spend a night with Dwyn's family and then return, and whoever wants to travel with Eldthor could do that.

[Elle]

Sandpoint Defense

Assumptions: (1) it is unrealistic to think we will stay in Sandpoint forever. These people have to be set up to defend themselves, just in case. We can't predict when they might be attacked next.

(2) We have maybe two weeks to prepare better defenses, assuming M decides to handle an invasion himself or send another better band of raiders. It takes a week for Giants to come marching upon Sandpoint once they decide to do it, and they won't know that things have gone horribly wrong down here for at least another week. (I am going on what Dothan said here where Gunrus hails from.) So we have a little time, but we have to devise quick solutions.

(3) The most vulnerable points in town are the two river crossings, and of course, the possibility of giants simply walking right through the rivers and over any walls.

(4) The lighthouse might be a weapon, but we don't know how to use it.

(5) The tunnels and caves beneath the city are difficult for giants to penetrate, but easy for townspeople to enter.

(6) Some of the plan will cost money. Dwyn is willing to pay for some of the labor and raw materials needed.

Plan of action:
(A) Develop better lookouts. The Romans and others used to erect temporary tall wooden lookouts, which can go up relatively quickly. A good tall tree can also be used for this purpose, making the construction easier, like an old fashioned forest fire watch. We need one on that vulnerable SE flank of the town, and we need a couple farther down the paths to the North and East. They could use birds - perhaps we can donate Ironbriar's old messenger ravens for this task? - raise flags like hurricane/storm warnings (the seacoast town might be used to this already?) or have runners who can sound out a warning to the town.

(B) Fortify defenses at the north gate and river crossings. The north gate can simply use more hands and more traditional defenses. For the river areas, we need some sort of weapon that anyone can fire without too much training - Hal mentioned one during the game on Thurs night but I can't remember/find.

We can booby-trap a strip of land just past the riverbank (like on the edge of whatever farms lie across the river). One way of doing this was to create a fence with wooden spikes, but that won't work against Giants. So what we need are other options like "landmines" spaced randomly of sharp metal spikes. They're simple devices, easy to forge, and can have wooden bases that are buried in the earth like fenceposts. They'll loom large enough to be avoidable by townsfolk who know they're present. To giants (and especially their bear companions) hopefully they're foot-hobbling devices that at least slow them down for a while to give the people a chance to take cover and gather weapons. To increase the effectiveness of this approach, we have people dig holes deep enough for a giant's leg up to the knee, and intersperse these among the spikes. So hopefully there's no point of land approach to the town where you wouldn't risk either piercing your foot or getting temporarily derailed or tripped by a hole.

I include the area along the bank that has trees, since the giants might well go smashing through trees to reach the riverbank without noticing the occasional sharp metal spikes underfoot. The goal is also to drive enemies toward the actual river-crossings where weapon-defenses can be fortified.

(C) We know the giants prefer to throw stones, and therefore can smash anyone who's out running around or hiding in a house. We need storm cellars identified as hiding-holes, and we need to open some area of tunnels and caves that can be reached from different access points across the town. I don't think we can hope to open ALL the areas beneath the town, which seemed fairly extensive. However, we can clear a few areas that people can access quickly. Some of those caves could house lots of children and elderly people who need to hide, and an underground cave seems like a good place to be if stones are being thrown above.

(D) Request that the Mayor and Sheriff hold a meeting at which Dothan will do the talking and Hal will lead the organizing of people. We will copy a pre-existing list or draw up a list of every building and person in town who needs to be accounted for. These will be divided into units based on where people live, and each unit needs a leader. Within each unit, the leader has to make sure everyone is alerted to the threat and does what is needed. Vulnerable people will move to a safe hiding place, and are assigned to grab specific supplies on the way (food, water, first aid). Others capable of fighting will then take up posts for defense. The goal is to make sure everyone knows their specific job in case of a crisis. Then we can practice a drill to make sure everyone has the plan down.

If we could at least get the people organized around a plan like this over the next week, it wouldn't have to be completed before we leave town. It will take time to line the riverbank with spikes or whatever else people might suggest instead.

(E) During our trip to Magnimar, request some funds and people to help bolster defenses. Let's say it's going to cost 1500 GP to cover fortifications. Dwyn might have Dothan propose to the Mayor that she'll match the funds if he'll contribute some gold or raw materials along with a few volunteers to help with our fortifications. We especially need an engineer, and hopefully one willing to travel with us elsewhere if we like her/him.

Total costs are hard to estimate. A pound of iron costs 1 sp, so maybe a hundred GP could buy the raw materials for a thousand wooden posts with metal spikes on the end, and maybe we have to double that sum to pay for the labor to create and sink them in the earth? (Compare a shortspear that costs 1 gp for 3 feet of solid metal and includes the cost of its crafting, vs. a post of wood with a metal topper.) Suppose we want to cover 2000 feet, all along the far riverbank, and we don't just want a single line of posts but a randomly scattered distribution across a strip a few yards wide. So maybe we need about 4000 of these things, and it costs 400 gp for materials and another 400 gp to pay for creating and deploying? Total 800 gp. Then another sum to bolster defenses at the actual gates and crossings.

Finally, I'd like to purchase a few scrolls of Obscuring Mist in Magnimar, in the hope that Zantus or some low level apprentice of his can cast them in case of emergency. For instance, if the giants make it through the town defenses while people are still seeking shelter, these spells could buy them some time against stone-throwing attacks.

[Tahlvin]

Wow, you're going all out. I don't know that we want to spend too much time trying to beef up defenses or constructing elaborate fortifications. Just give them a plan for early warning and where to flee. Without us there, there aren't many skilled fighters or tacticians, so best to go with flight instead of fight for any future invasions.

And for the immediate threat of Mokmurian, it's probably better if we eliminate the threat rather than trying to defend against it. If they attack with the kind of numbers they have, there's no way we could defend against it even with months of prep time. It sounds like eliminating M will eliminate the threat to Sandpoint.

[Mike]

True. Once we get to the root of all this, I think the threat dissipates.

[Tahlvin]

[Elle]

I don't think I'm following what y'all want to do next that doesn't involve bolstering defenses for the town. Presumably Gunrus and Mr. T weren't lying about what M wants and his willingness to send raiding parties until he gets it. So we have to wipe out the threat of M, and we know that if a smaller raiding party was a difficult match for us, a bigger raiding party could be a truly deadly threat. It seems like to solve the underlying problem, we have to figure out what M wants in Sandpoint and get it out of here, if possible. (If he wants the whole lighthouse, that's tricky, but if the lighthouse really is a weapon, maybe we have to figure out how to use it, thus killing two birds - or whatever else - with one stone. One lighthouse made of stone.)

Anyway, I expect a second wave as soon as M realizes the first wave failed, or maybe he'll come himself next time. Maybe what he wants has something to do with these new mysterious stones we found at the church, or maybe it's something else entirely, but we haven't scratched into the surface very deeply here yet. Dwyn was thinking that our next steps involved Fort Rannick, and maybe they do eventually, but it's going to be hard for her to take on any other project while her family appears to be in mortal danger from a most credible threat that might come to fruition sometime in the next few weeks.

Here's another consideration, depending on what we discover about Gogmurt: there are probably more goblins around this general region than were living in Thistletop. And even if they fight amongst themselves, they might be really pissed off if a huge number of their kind were mercilessly destroyed by these giants. They might be willing to help warn us of an impending threat, if they know we killed a dragon and band of giants already, and are willing to come intercept and fight any other giants they find.

[Zen]

I believe they are saying we take the fight to him! We know where he lives...