Stavanger, May 21, 1650

Continued from Reaching the Surface

Conditions: A cool temperature, with a light rain falling and a moderate breeze blowing out of the west. A new moon in the night sky.

1. Engelhart, I am never going to hand out D&D adventures on a silver platter when asked for, ever. Your local church will tell you to give up this adventuring, settle down and follow orders in furthering the power of the church. The Rathaus, or town hall, will be too busy to see you.

Engelhart: I know.

2. Vafrandir, the 10% bonus always applies when you get experience.

3. At present, the value of the boat is 827 g.p. At least, that is how much I will pay for it. The boat will enable up to 7 people to comfortably travel upon it, up to double that number in a pinch; but unless you pull into the shore to cook food, you'll be stuck eating cold provisions while aboard.

Engelhart: Got it. We'll factor this on our choice of destination, but going anywhere around these parts without a boat is bound to be a slog. Plus it would enable us to carry significant amounts of cargo or loot.

4. The apothecary will tell you that the book has been seized by the authorities as critical to the welfare of the state, and that no remuneration was offered.

5. Marcule, I take it you don't plan to take advantage of your credit at this time, since you've had a windfall?

Marcule: I will be picking myself up an extra saddle bag in the market, passing up on my credit at this time.

Travel Preparations (continued)

Engelhart: Just to say that I second Pandred's "one hex east of Jorpeland" (and the area beyond) as a promising mid-range destination, unspoiled wilderness without being excessively remote. We can sail to Jorpeland and leave the boat there for further repairs as we explore on foot for a while.

The DM: We're speaking of specifically this hex, yes?

Engelhart: Exactly. It opens onto a broad area of unexplored ground.

Pandred: Our boat holds seven. With Me, Marcule, Engelhart, Embla, Vafrandir, Odds, Willa, and Fjall, that's eight. So be aware we're at a squeeze. What we should do is explore the settled (the lighter yellow hexes) area near our destination, and see about setting up a base camp. That way in a pinch we have somewhere to fall back on. Find out if folks are friendly, and what they know about the area beyond. Alexis calls it a tundra, so even in the event of a ranger it looks rough on the food/shelter front as we explore.

Pandred: I'm going to shop today, and use Engelhart's boat as storage for some things. Tomorrow I'd like us to head out and recon the easternmost of those settled hexes near Jorpeland.

The DM: Can I get a consensus from other people on this plan?

Engelhart: I'm good with the plan.

Marcule: "The plan sounds fine by me Pandred", Alexis will I be able to bring my donkey along?, if not i will have to hire someone to carry my gear.

Pandred: Looking over what you have listed, this really doesn't seem like a big deal. We'll have to pay to stable the animals until we have a place to store them ourselves, but honestly just make a tab for things you want to keep on the boat. I doubt Engelhart is going to throw a fit over some dice and extra boots being left aboard. I don't think it's worth your time or our space aboard ship to find another squire just now.

The DM: As I've been reading a lot of Horatio Hornblower lately, the donkey can't be gotten aboard without a sling or a proper gangplank and the boat is too small for either. The boat really isn't large enough for yet another person.

The DM: I think, as Fjall and Willa listen and consider the party's plan, that they're concerned about their presence overloading the boat. There are fishermen who come in from Jorpeland all the time to sell their wares in Stavanger. Perhaps the two of them could make arrangements with these boats and meet you in Jorpeland within a week?

Pandred: That is amenable to us. I think we're on our own timetable without those frogs or demons on our heels.

Engelhart: Don't forget that I'm due to have an henchman join me, meaning one more slot on the boat taken.

Pandred: Guys, I made a page for Engelhart's Boat. We all picked up stuff from camp, and I think it would be wise to consolidate that in one place. Please give it a look. Alexis, is there any way you could set up some kind of index page for our character sheets/hirelings etc? Just for ease of navigation. I'm learning as I go.

The DM: the boat page looks simple enough to me. Could I pass along the work of the index page to Vafrandir or you for the moment, Pandred? I'm working vigorously to produce a sage ability page for sailing that is long overdue.

Pandred: I have added the links to the main page of our wiki. I know that we just dig through recent changes or our email for updates, but we might consider having the party's current page be displayed there as well.

Pandred: I paid to have my clothes laundered, and bought an extra set. Everything I bought, with the exclusion of my Chain Armor, is on the boat. Just minor things I should have had a while ago. The Plate and Studded Armor were owned before. Unless anyone has suggestions, I'm done spending my money.

Marcule: I am also ready to leave should we make way in the morning or would we like to leave sooner?

The DM: Note today's weather, Marcule. It is raining. Do you really want to head off in the rain?

Embla: I'll do some shopping and put a host of supplies on the boat. I'm also down some 30hp, so I'd appreciate taking some time to rest until the weather clears, at the very least.

Engelhart: At first chance I'll cast Aid and Cure Light Wounds on Embla, granting her (dice rolls...) a combined 22 hit-points in healing. We can sail out tomorrow and you'd be little worse for wear.

Pandred: Everyone please take the time to put whatever you brought from the campsite onto the boat page. It would be extremely helpful.

Engelhart: I'm holding back for now because I'm waiting on the henchman joining up and needing to be equipped. I have a spare Leather Armor, but if anyone has a better one gathering dust I'd happily avail myself to it.

Pandred: My trunk has both Plate and Studded Leather. Feel free to use either.

Sailing

The DM: I have created in depth sailing rules for my wiki that you will all want to read.

The DM: there was a mistake in the fault check calculation for amateur-status but I fixed it.

Engelhart: Good work. I've just first learned about "Broaching". We definitely need to wait for a lull in the weather to depart. How long is the journey supposed to take? I'm thinking just a part of the day, but I could be very wrong.

The DM: under the present conditions, as described at the top of the post, you'd be close-hauling against the wind; Jorpeland is 13 mi. away, so it would take about 6½ hours; the hex east of Jorpeland we indicated would take 12 hours.

Engelhart: Considering we're making for Jorpeland to proceed from there on foot, my prediction was reasonably accurate.

Marcule: I will employee the necessary fear concerning venturing to sail as i will have little to no hope of developing sea legs at this time, like many people of this century i have resigned that i might drown, i am to eager for treasure to allow that to stop me.

Fighters in the Party

The DM: Please note, that some of you have a Sage Study called "Athletics." Chances are, you haven't realized that athletic knowledge points need to be assigned to specific sage abilities within that study. The page needs rewriting (jeebs, what doesn't?) — but you can subscribe your scanty points to sailing there, if you wish (1 pt. would be enough to make you "supportive crew," if you wanted to spare towards swimming, skiing or some other athletic). Please sort out those points at this time.

Pandred: I took Swimming. 7 points in it now.

Engelhart's Levelling

Engelhart: Alexis, I've addressed you in my character page regarding my level up, kindly take a look]

The DM: Hit Points: I'd rather keep any character talk here, and not on other pages. So many changes to make, 5th level is a real sign post. Could we start with rolling your hit points. A d8 (unless you've done it?). If you roll a "1", roll again.

Engelhart: Right, I rolled a 6, which adjusted for Constitution grants +7 Hp.

The DM: Sailing: It should be increasing like your other abilities, technically counting as "out of fields." roll 4d4 -4 to catch you up to 5th level for that ability.

Engelhart: I roll 10, meaning 6 additional points to the study.

The DM: It's technically an ability within the study of Athletics.

The DM: Sage Abilities for The Church, Power and Theology & Customs: For each study in these fields, please roll 1d4 -1 and add those numbers to those studies.

Engelhart: Meaning to each and every single one of these skills under the headers, correct?

The DM: Meaning to each and every study under each of these fields. Check the Cleric Sage Abilities page for further clarity in nomenclature.

The DM: Beasts: roll a d12 and add that number to your beasts total.

Engelhart: Roll comes up as a cruel 1, so much for expertise.

The DM: It will happen.

The DM: Choose one of your other sage studies in Legends & Folklore as a specialty. We'll continue when these five things are done.

Engelhart: Very well, but I both need to be absent for a bit as well as think on my choice. It'll be a while yet.

The DM: No problem.

Engelhart: I'm back, and my choice is "Artifacts".

The DM: Right. Add 1d12 points to artifacts as well, and then 1d8-1 points to the remaining two studies in your chosen field.

Engelhart: Done.

The DM: Next, spells. You get TWO 3rd level spells, one from the usual table and one bonus 3rd level spell from your 17 wisdom, a one-time only bonus.

Engelhart: Here comes the meaty part of the thing. I choose Prayer and Death's Door.

The DM: Death's Door will make the party happy.

The DM: Henchman. Henchmen are rolled up slightly differently from main characters. Like before, roll 4d6 for six stats without specifying, one time, regardless of the results. You're then permitted to either accept those six rolls, whatever they are, or you MAY try again and roll six new rolls, a second time. If you take this option, however, to roll again, you MUST ACCEPT the second rolls, no matter how abysmally bad they are. Once those six rolls are settled, the remaining character making process is the same.

Engelhart: 11, 11, 14, 13, 10, 15. Incredibly middling. I'm going for the reroll.

Engelhart: 11, 9, 16, 13, 14, 14. More like it but just shy of enough for a credible Ranger. I'm going for a Fighter instead.

The DM: I'll need gender/sex and race as well.

Engelhart: Male, Half-Orc.

The DM: I'll have a background ready for you tomorrow.

Engelhart: Excellent. I've gone and added "Sling" as my third proficiency, as it was due.

The DM: Hope you see this; I will also need to know how your stats are arranged.

Engelhart: Yeah, I was about to leave that here as it did occur to me in the meantime that you'd need it. Strength: 16, Dexterity: 14, Constitution: 14, Wisdom: 13, Intelligence: 11, Charisma: 9.

Engelhart: Before you need to ask: the guy's name is Thrax.

The DM: I did change the ability stats for the race of half-orc (+1 str, +1 con, -2 chr), but not for your age, so you're another +1 str and another +1 con. This does not make your strength a percentile, but 18 +1 to hit, +2 damage. You need a natural 18 for a percentile strength. With a constitution of 16, you're 10 h.p., +2 for con. Your mass grants you an extra d8, that I roll: I got a 2. This starts your hench with 14 h.p.

Continued on Awaiting the Weather in Stavanger