The Eye of Anubis: OOC Thread

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Do we really need the blood of sentient beings? Can't we just as easily catch and kill a desert rabbit or somesuch, or perhaps a vulture, and use its vitae?

And I definitely think we need those patrols dealt with: when in doubt, a clever general calls in the reserves. That's what those patrols are to Cavendish, if we attack him, and they could strike at us from behind.

[Kaitou Kage]

Do we really need the blood of sentient beings?

Yes.

[NeoTiamat]

DM's orders. As I recall (feel free to prove me wrong), Ravenloft vampires only subsist on humanoid's blood, so you need humanoid's blood to tempt them.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Well, shoot.

...

No bloodbanks anywhere nearby, I suppose? ^^; Anyone want to make a donation?

[lostboy]

we could all hold Jervis down and appropriate some of his, Im sure he'll be fine with it....

As for the plan, broadly yes Im on for it, but:

1. Lets not go OTT until we know what bits of info NT is gonna let us have via Otto.

2. Which ship are we stackign with gunpowder?

BTW: khalil's STR is 12 so not amazing but can probabley carry a barrle or two.

[NeoTiamat]

we could all hold Jervis down and appropriate some of his, Im sure he'll be fine with it....

Well, I can certainly promise lots of blood.

A quick note on how to actually start the explosion.

An individual barrel will ignite if the gunpowder is exposed to 1 point of fire damage. If its with other barrels this promptly leads to a chain reaction and the whole kit and kaboodle blows up.

Nominally, the barrels are closed tight, so any damage needs to bypass the wood's 5 Hardness and 10 HP. Once they are opened, this no longer applies, and any fire damage, whether from Flame Strike or Fireball or what-not will light the whole thing.

You can also set a fuse, for however many rounds you want to wait. Lighting a fuse is a free action. Stomping it out is a full-round action unless you happen to have access to a lot of water.

All clear?

[The Whistler]

Sorry guys, I'll be a little later than expected with espionage posting (Rosh Hashanah w/ relatives and w/o wireless). I will get it up tonight, though.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Hey, these things are important. I say take the time you need for them. ^^

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Alright, I am notifying everyone of my intended spell selection for the coming battle. If you see anything wrong with it, speak up now before I finalize it!

Lev. 5 - Mass Fly

Lev. 4 - Evard's Black Tentacles, Force Missiles, Greater Invisibility

Lev. 3 - Fireball x 3, Haste

Lev. 2 - False Life, Invisibility, Scorching Ray x 3

Lev. 1 - Mage Armor, Magic Missile x 3, Shield

Lev. 0 - Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead x 2, Resistance

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Justification:

Lev. 4 - Greater Invisibility i/o another attack spell: If worst comes to worst and we have to split up the artillery group, Lia can do more damage if she can attack unseen. Evard's Black Tentacles might be useful to pin a bunch of undead in place for our attacks. Force Missiles shouldn't miss, so I felt they'd be more useful than the hard-to-aim Shout.

Lev. 3 - No Fly spell: We have Mass Fly in effect. Also, I figured every extra Fireball would count for a battle of this scope. Haste needs no justification.

Lev. 2 - Invisibility, when I also took Greater Invisibility. Someone else might need this advantage. I originally wanted to include Cat's Grace to improve Lia's chances of hitting a target, but ... Eh. I figure more blasting power is more important than focusing on accuracy this time.

Lev. 1 - I picked up Shield for some extra protection. I may not need it, but who knows, it might come in useful.

Lev. 0 - One Resistance, in case anyone winds up needing help with a save, since we're fighting undead and their fun, fun tendency to do things that require saves. Lots of Disrupt Undead, since they're the best cantrip I can think of against the walking dead. Does anyone think a Caltrops might be needful? Yes, no ...? One Detect Magic for those wards.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So. Opinions, advice? I'd like to optimize the selection. If no one gives any better ideas, this'll be what I'm going with.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

What? Devereux hypnotized the undead? o_o; Remind me to keep on his good side!

[NeoTiamat]

What? Devereux hypnotized the undead? o_o; Remind me to keep on his good side!

You see, no one ever taught Devereux that undead are immune to mind-affecting abilities.

===============================================

Alright folks! It's show-time!

Tomorrow afternoon, I shall move the lot of you to the map, and day after the fight starts (ready or not).

Three questions to be answered by combat-time on Saturday (As usual, if left unanswer, DM answers as best he can):
1. Where do you guys want to be?
2. Where do you want the undead to come from?
3. Where do you stick the explosives?

And then..... fun fun happy happy boom-boom time!

[EDIT: I know that Kage has proposed a plan and Rock signed off on it, and that's what I'll probably refer to in absence of any other comments, but what do the other people think? Everyone good with it?]

[Nathan of the FoS]

You see, no one ever taught Devereux that undead are immune to mind-affecting abilities.

*looks left*
*looks right*

Well, I ain't gonna tell him.

WRT the plan--what is the plan? Shoot the cannon at 'em, get a bunch on board, then start the fuse and teleport away? Which is the signal for a general assault?

[Kaitou Kage]

I MADE A BIG GIGANTIC POST THAT I LINKED REPEATEDLY THAT HAS THE PLAN IN IT.

[Nathan of the FoS]

I MADE A BIG GIGANTIC POST THAT I LINKED REPEATEDLY THAT HAS THE PLAN IN IT.

Right. But, as the little note at the end says, there is a lot of work to be done on the tactical level before it becomes a real plan.

Everyone, please declare which group you are in and what you're doing. We're starting an hour before dawn, yes?

The gun crew (Kuzan, Otto, Dieter, Ianthe) will sneak aboard the Vaasi frigate, gunpowder in tow (is this correct?). They will fire on Cavendish's undead and draw attention to themselves. Once they have enough undead in range (or the undead are so close they're going to kill the gun crew unless they escape) they will start the fuse that will blow the ship to heck and gone.

It seems to me that this should happen first, because a) all the undead will be drawn to the one source of trouble, maximizing the number caught in the massive explosion, and b) it will make a wonderful signal to start other operations.


Group 2, the arcane artillery, (Lia and who else?) will lay down long range fire. I think this should start after the ship goes up, for the reasons given above.

We don't need to worry about the undead doing their bit; either it will be happening somewhere else (the Argus' diversions to keep the patrols away) or Devereux provided for it, or they're not coming, depending on the group. So we don't need to have anyone decoy/talk the undead into position.

Group 3 (composition undetermined) will perform a surgical strike to remove the hostages. The composition of this group is up in the air. The explosion and long-range arcane fire will provide cover for this nicely.

There are, at present, no other groups or tactical aims on the table. Is this correct? Do we want any more groups and/or aims? Is it important to get more information on cleansing the Ruse or what Cavendish is doing here before we start?

[lostboy]

Rock, yes spells good, good annhilation potential.

OK Im assuming that 3rd group is Ishaq, Tomas, Khalil and Jervis, however Im questionning the sense of sending 4 tanks in alone without any support. Im guessing everyone apart from Tomas has cack will saves so we would be vastly vulnerable to spell effects should Cavendish happen to notice 4 guys with big swords doign the slice and dice.

So the plan for group three is to wait for the big bang then race in under cover of fire, free the hostages and then start layign waste to anything that moves? If so it probabley makes sense to come from the East (shortest distance and away from the covering fire, giving the remainign dead two seperate targets) or over the ship to the North East and starting by sneaking up on that big dead cat thing....

Once group three is in, perhaps the memebers of group one also pile in from a different direction to add a bit of additioanl carnage? Or provide some more ranged support giving the wonder of a crossfire...

So where does Charles fit into this? I would argue he's probabley the man for releasing hostages whilst we hold off the inevitable hordes of dead people (plus with 4 tanks about theres got to be provison for a bit of flanking )

Oh and the more buffs we can give the tanks the better (haste, dark knowledge etc) because with smilers and vampires around we dont want to get bogged down with zombies that we take three rounds to kill, we need the tanks to concentrate on the bigger stuff and take them out of the equation, and quickly.

And what was the plan with the molotovs?

Also are the devourer and his dudes coming or not, and if so are they gonna concentrate on Cavenishs forces or add to our prtoblems?

Finally, can soemone just have a pop-shot at Cavendish in his hammock just for kicks? Having him end up on his arse would just be great!