DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HHE: The Haunted Helm OOC: Geese

I've been working on several different Taliskers I got for Christmas. They're proving dangeously quaffable! Especially after my return flight was delayed by 4 hours because of brake failure.

My favourite! And you get a huge free glass when you go around the distillery! I've been.. oh.. more than once!

I'm more of an Islay man myself, Lagavulin being my fave. But the Taliskers are a much easier drink, not as peaty, so you can really hit them hard.

I am an Islay fan aw well Neil. Mine seldom last more than a few days once to cork comes out <sigh> So I don't get to enjoy them as often as I would like.

Talisker, Lagavulin, Oban, Ardbeg, Laphroig, Bruichladdich ... damn there are just so many delightful examples I could keep on for far too long.

If you are looking to take a break from the peat, occasionally, there are some great Speysides too ... Glenrothers, Ben Riach, Balvenie, Cragganmore ... too many again <g>

Lagavulin is second on my list!

I have emptied several bottles of Lagavulin <g> But I wouldn't turn any of them down <wink>

I vote for Islay scotches too. They're great. When one of my best friends was near the end of his life, his last request was that we toast his life with some great scotch and that's what we drank.

Nice Neptune! If you can find it, Caol Ila is a lovely day-time Islay, for those times when you don't want to reek of whisky afterwards.

There's a restaurateur I know who invests in scotch, and by all accounts it gives a better return than gold. If you don't drink it. Probably not a good idea for you, Mike.

Am leaving Saturday morning for a 2 week business trip to Barcelona. I don't expect to have a lot of time to post, so please ghost for me while I'm gone if needed.

Noted "Caol Ila". I don't drink in the daytime. I mean it's night time somewhere, right?

Definitely worth trying if you like Islay Nep!!

Caol Ila - another favourite! We have similar good taste!

You'll need a strong drink after this round of combat!

Five natural 20s -- fortunately three of them for initiative -- and general high rolling made for a very offensive round on both sides.

Neptune. You don't need to roll, I take care of all that behind the scenes. (I used your rolls anyway for this round.)

Jex's Soundburst proved decisive in elimating the Dragonman Savages. These had very high damage output, capable of 12 damage in the first round and 15 in the second, without crits. You couldn't let these rampage through your front ranks.

However, the remaining Dragonman Mages are insidious. Only able to dish out low damage at first glance, but with an area effect and trickle of ongoing damage that stacks. After two rounds, the PCs could be taking 6 damage per round, 9 in the third, and so on. Nasty!

So, Gypsy, I'm recommending you break out the Breath of the White and waste them asap!

Hmmm. Zoltan's ability to save at the beginning of his turn instead of the end might come in handy, or do these get no saves?

Implacable is indeed handy, Zeim. You'll see just how handy when you check out the forthcoming notes. Suffice to say, it's probably that Zoltan will come out of the first few rounds in the best shape. But then he is the party's tank.

That round was bitty, but fell in favour of the party, I think. The ongoing acid damage is still a mare, especially for Seyja, but Bearkiller proved unexpectedly useful in that round.

NPCs in 13th Age generally use monster-type stats, no more detail than that. I agree with that, it makes less of a job for the GM, and ensures the PCs out-perform them.

So far in HHE, your NPC followers haven't been hugely effective. Almador and Heilbutt main use has been as meat shields, which isn't nothing, but is a far cry from a fully featured PC.

Bearkiller's He Who Sicks Balls ability forced the dragonspawn to use basic attacks only. That meant their acid spray wouldn't inflict ongoing damage, making it an unattractive option since using it in melee would provoke an opportunity attack. He Who Sicks Balls is a situational ability then, but in this situation it might have averted catastrophe.

We got to see a sorcerer breath weapon finally. Thanks Gypsy!

The cool thing about these, is now that it's cast, Tindarien can recharge it on the fly. At the start of every turn, he rolls 1d20 to recharge vs 16. On a success, he can use the breath weapon again.

Also, I have to check back to see if Zoltan's ever been hit by an attack to AC. Iirc the dragon didn't even land a hit on him. Unrivalled tankiness.

D's shadow walk was a success and gives him Momentum, enabling more of his abilities. He also got in a big hit, 24 damage, only exceeded in this round by Seyja's 30 damage. (She does tend to take a lot of damage in return though.)

Jex's Song of Heroes doesn't seem very potent at first, when it's just a +1, but as the Escalation Die increases it becomes a net +2 in the 2nd round, +3 in the next, which them seem quite substantial.

In D&D 3rd Ed, I'd bemoan having a bard in the party because they underperformed mechanically, but 13th Age has converted me. I'd like to see what they've done with Monk class (it's in a sourcebook).

I don't envy Weston's choice. If he stays with the bow, he can keep moving around the walls of the cavern and shooting at MW, or he can join the others in one round of dedicated movement to close for melee.

That dedicated round of movement will take the others across the ice, DC 20.

Don't worry, if you fail, you won't fall to your doom or flounder. We fail forwards remember, so I'll just make things a little tougher for you later.

What are the odds on Seyja being able to hit with her fire bomb from this range? If not good, how much closer does she need to get to have a good chance of hitting the wyrm?

Ooh, good point! You'd need to spend a round closing, then throw it. But you definitely want to distract MW some how, 1., so he doesn't kill Nestaron, and 2., so he doesn't stand too close that you can't use the fire bomb.

Some ploy perhaps. Probably best to role-play it.

How far is it from Nestaron now?

MW can move and attack Nestaron on his next turn. He has a ranged attack, those ice spears, so you might be able to convince him to attack one of you instead.

So to verify. Shadow walk could be done again. But what about distance moved? Dragon is very far, Distances are Very far, far, nearby...? IE can't Shadow Walk from here to there... but move a zone and toss a blade?

So, we know the ranges are defined as 'Nearby' or 'Far Away' in 13th Age, but you could further define them as:

• Nearby. One move action away.
• Far Away. Two move actions away.

In this situation, that results in one round of dedicated movement to get to Nearby range with MW.

So how do we determine who can make ranged attacks at what range?

Well first of all, spells and other abilities will have range defined in their description, like Chaos Bolt.

Ranged weapons? Here's the extract from the rules regarding them.



So from this we can see that D and Seyja will have to spend their next turn in a double move, before they can employ their dagger and fire bomb.

What might've led to confusion here is that MW started out Far Away, and is still Far Away, even though the PCs have been advancing. This is because MW has also moved to maintain that two move range (and close in on Nestaron).

Thanks. That helps. I was confused.

OK, so we're running a bit behind. Work madness has meant GM activities mostly occurring over the weekend, and with March looking even busier, including more meetings in Scandinavia, free weekends will also be at a premium.

However, I'm making HHE my top priority and clearing mid-week evening activities so I can focus on GMing us back on track. So we should actually see a speeding up, as opposed to a slowing down! That's the plan anyway.

Well, we would be happy to see things 'take off', we understand if you need to keep RL going <wink>