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I mean you're counting on the fact that the Fighter has the dragonlance and it hasn't been innocently borrowed by the kender before the fight...
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Nov 28, 2019 15:44
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If you haven't innocently eviscerated the kender after the first time, it's your own drat fault.
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Nov 28, 2019 17:26
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Death to Kender
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Nov 28, 2019 17:34
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Zeroisanumber posted:Death to Kender If anyone cares, I'm two posts into a review of Dragonlance over in the FATAL & Friends thread. 
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Nov 28, 2019 18:00
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Chokes McGee posted:Clerics have the ability to Turn Undead, which is yet another reason they're ridiculously overpowed in AD&D. (T)urn is a unique menu option for Shanna, and it can be activated once per fight. If successful, any affected undead will gain the Fear effect, which makes them hightail it off the battlefield. Unfortunately, this is doubly useless: not only is it not guaranteed to work, but if the targets don't have a path to flee through, they'll just get stuck in a corner. At higher levels, you can actually banish skeletons and zombies with (T)urn, which is a mass instakill. I don't think PoR supports that particular mechanic, but the rest of the Gold Box series does. On a related note, we're not going to see a whole lot of low tier undead once we clear the first game. I am here to tell you that it does! I generally do Sokal Keep after the Well (although I didn't get that from the strategy guide that I recall), but on one occasion I left it for much later, and when I went in with a high-level cleric they were nuking skeletons and zombies left and right, to the point where I didn't bother providing the password because it was so much fun watching them explode.
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Nov 29, 2019 17:16
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Turning at higher levels is so fun, in the Aurora Engine games (BG, IWD, etc) the crunch you hear when the skeletons and zombies implode is quite satisfying, as is seeing all the skulls and crossbows popping up and wiping the map in Gold Box games that are more heavy undead.
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Nov 29, 2019 18:15
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idonotlikepeas posted:I am here to tell you that it does! I generally do Sokal Keep after the Well (although I didn't get that from the strategy guide that I recall), but on one occasion I left it for much later, and when I went in with a high-level cleric they were nuking skeletons and zombies left and right, to the point where I didn't bother providing the password because it was so much fun watching them explode. Yeah apparently I forgot that the graveyard exists. The game was sure to point out my error to me this week.
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Dec 1, 2019 08:01
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There are many reasons to WANT to forget the graveyard exists.
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Dec 1, 2019 11:24
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Valhingen Graveyard: just in case you ever forgot how much this game hates you, personally.
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Dec 1, 2019 16:41
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Turning Undead was deemphasized in 3ed but in previous editions it was baller The number is the number on a d20 that you have to roll to get the undead to turn. T is an autoturn and D is just outright destruction. Since the level cap for clerics is 6, this isn't all that much use when you're fighting the powerful undead from later in the game. 
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Dec 1, 2019 16:48
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Zeroisanumber posted:Turning Undead was deemphasized in 3ed but in previous editions it was baller Good to know, my first D&D game was Eye of the Beholder so turning got ingrained in my mind as "have the undead flee for a while then ambush me when I forget about them, so useful!". I'll try not to forget it exists when I play the others.
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Dec 1, 2019 17:16
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Zeroisanumber posted:Turning Undead was deemphasized in 3ed but in previous editions it was baller turning undead was definitely baller in the Dragonlance Gold Box games, I always made my cleric worship Majere for its turning bonus.
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Dec 1, 2019 19:00
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Zeroisanumber posted:Turning Undead was deemphasized in 3ed but in previous editions it was baller Part of me is going to regret asking, but what's the D* for?
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Dec 2, 2019 00:20
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Randalor posted:Part of me is going to regret asking, but what's the D* for? Maybe just destroyed without needing to roll for chance?
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Dec 2, 2019 00:23
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Isn't that just straight D though?
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Dec 2, 2019 00:32
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I read D to be roll to destroy, guaranteed turn if failed.
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Dec 2, 2019 00:44
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If I recall correctly, I think D and D* both automatically destroy undead. D* is a higher average number, though (1d6+6 undead targets instead of 1d12?). Unfortunately, I've misplaced my 2nd edition ad&d books, so I can't confirm for sure. I did find my 4th edition Hackmaster books that cribbed a lot from 2nd edition ad&d, though, and there is a similar table for turn undead where a D* has a descriptive footnote that states additional undead are destroyed.
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Dec 2, 2019 01:02
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Do evil clerics in 1e command instead of destroy?
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Dec 2, 2019 02:31
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Girl Drink Drunk posted:If I recall correctly, I think D and D* both automatically destroy undead. D* is a higher average number, though (1d6+6 undead targets instead of 1d12?). Unfortunately, I've misplaced my 2nd edition ad&d books, so I can't confirm for sure. I did find my 4th edition Hackmaster books that cribbed a lot from 2nd edition ad&d, though, and there is a similar table for turn undead where a D* has a descriptive footnote that states additional undead are destroyed. I just found my 2nd edition ones, and the asterisk is indeed "an additional 2d4 creatures of this type are turned/dispelled". Also in 2e, evil priests' turn/dispel is indeed command; a "turned" undead will obey you for the duration of the "turning" and a "dispelled" one is now, basically, your undead minion instead of their former master.
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Dec 2, 2019 03:58
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Do evil clerics in 1e command instead of destroy? Evil Clerics can also, if I recall correctly, Bolster Undead to make them more difficult to turn. This is what happens if they use their power on undead they already command. The Evil and Good Clerics can get into an opposed Wisdom check or something to determine whose faith is strongest, with bonuses for whose temple they're in, level, and so forth.
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Dec 2, 2019 04:11
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Randalor posted:Part of me is going to regret asking, but what's the D* for? IIRC it was destroy up to your level in that number of undead and turn some number of D6 additional undead of that type.
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Dec 2, 2019 05:44
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idonotlikepeas posted:Valhingen Graveyard: just in case you ever forgot how much this game hates you, personally. There's several compelling reasons to put it off as long as possible but also a compelling reason not to. (don't spoil anything tho) In summary, gold box is a land of contrasts
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Dec 2, 2019 20:48
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The original Ruins of Adventure module had some reasons for that that don't exist in the CRPG version, too, but I'll hold off on going into detail until you've done it.
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Dec 3, 2019 00:17
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idonotlikepeas posted:The original Ruins of Adventure module had some reasons for that that don't exist in the CRPG version, too, but I'll hold off on going into detail until you've done it. Oh, no. I know what it is, and I'll just go ahead and spoil it. IIRC, the number of undead rises exponentially the longer you put off the graveyard mission.
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Dec 3, 2019 23:28
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Is that why I always had so much trouble doing the Graveyard last?
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Dec 3, 2019 23:47
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Chokes McGee posted:Oh, no. I know what it is, and I'll just go ahead and spoil it. Specifically, the number of "loose" undead of each type (not part of special encounters) doubles for every two other missions you do. The module includes advice to the DM that the city council should remind the players that the graveyard needs to be dealt with in more and more frantic terms as time goes on.
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Dec 4, 2019 00:05
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Does this mean we can get increasing random encounters with undead in other areas if you put off the Graveyard? It would be more effective than a frantic council in addressing the problem for most adventurous parties I know.
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Dec 4, 2019 00:14
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idonotlikepeas posted:Specifically, the number of "loose" undead of each type (not part of special encounters) doubles for every two other missions you do. The module includes advice to the DM that the city council should remind the players that the graveyard needs to be dealt with in more and more frantic terms as time goes on.  "
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Dec 4, 2019 01:40
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Pierzak posted:I like the idea of late-game graveyard being literally an enormous pile of animated corpses, barely held in check by the cemetery walls and gates and terrified guards going all "can we like, not open it at all and instead torch the entire thing, or bombard it with catapults? I’d add in some, like, slimes and/or basilisks and/or whatever else, added by well-meaning parties to combat the undead problem (and which immediately become a new and terrifying facet of the increasingly tricky undead problem)
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Dec 4, 2019 02:00
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Pool of Radiance, Chapter 10: Robberhaus   *scribble*Proclamation CXXXIV posted:Be it known that the council has declared those individuals who have taken up residence in the mansion of the former Koval Family to be traitors and thieves. Be it further known that a reward has been offered for the elimination of these outlaws. A commission to rid the city of this blight may be obtained from the council clerk. Hmm.   Well. You— No. No, gently caress you. We just cleaned out three regimens of orcs and hobgoblins. We exorcised an entire keep. We got the shipping lanes back open. All of them. I'm not dealing with your passive-aggressive bullshit today. Actually, I was going to say you did a good job. Oh. Uh. ... Thank you? I was going to say it. Now, I'm not. Dang, Justine. That's some hella self-ownage. Oh, while you're here...  Someone should really do something about that. ... The undead, I mean. ... I'm telling you to go to the graveyard and stop the undead. ...I don't follow. Of course you don't. So, I guess you all know what this means. Ugh. Love to have the life drained out of me by— We need to clear that mansion, pronto. ... Hey, it beats having the life drained out of you! Right. Why have someone else do it when the rest of you can do it for me? Gotta admit, it saves time.Now that we've opened up the north side of the city, we'll be clearing out Kovel Mansion on today's Gold Box adventures. The whole place has been overrun by thieves, and I'm sure it will be a completely straightforward mission with no surprises whatsoever. But first, let's get our level on!   Heather and Hanover hit Level 5. Justine is still stuck back on Level 4, because experience points reset when you get hit by level drain, because lmao of course they do. Everybody else doesn't qualify yet. Still, extra hit points are a very good thing.  Six for the north side of the city, please. One platinum?   Look, it's not our fault. We have to keep raising our rates because some idiot keeps wrecking our boats. Here's the money, let's stop talking about this.  Okay. So, we can all agree that Sternn totally shouldn't drive the boat this time. Well, somebody has to... I can do it! Have you had any experience sailing? I was first mate on an island once! ... We could sail the island around, if that helps. ...sure, why not. As long as we keep Sternn away from the wheel. That'll be easy. Since when? Since I put enough gabapentin in his lunch to knock out a horse. I'M ON A BOAT! TOOT TOOTFifteen minutes later...  ...and what I want to know is, how did you wreck the boat when we were already docked? Hey, any landing you can walk away from! All right. They're probably waiting for us at the front entrance, so we'll want to sneak around the back. Holy poo poo. Was that an actual good idea from you? Sounded like it to me. We should drug him more often! *thud* Or not. Don't worry! I'm okay!    Aaaand we're in. A'ight. Let's get to lootin'. Ooh! Ooh! Can I help? Hey, boss. Do we have room for an intern? It's coming out your cut. Let's be honest, it was going to anyway. Wow. I love it when you don't have to train 'em. I'm a self-starter!     Ah, the ol' secret passage backstab. Not today, my friend. Hanover, if you would do the hon— ...or not? I may be a woman of the cloth, but I still believe in self-defense.Welcome to Kovel Mansion! One of the many delights as we wander around will be these random drive-bys. Thieves will pop out of secret passages, get a free backstab attempt for massive amounts of damage, and then pop back out. We, of course, will never find these secret passages nor have access to them. The good news is, if they fail their THAC0 roll, we can beat the holy living piss out of them for trying. It's pretty cathartic. You can let the thief go, but you don't want to do that. For starters, they'll just take another shot at you the next time you go by. For another, our goal here is to kill 21 thieves and clear out a scripted fight. You won't be told any of this, of course. You may accidentally clear it by beating up random backstab thieves and then clearing the main fight, but you'll have no idea how. The Gold Box adventures: When in doubt, just kill everyone. The thieves here are actually pretty easy to deal with. The vast majority of them are level 1, have one die of hit points, and will attack you 1-4 at a time. They're annoying, but they're not the primary threat...   So. It's a trap. Right? Every room in here is trapped. All of them. Don't be so paranoid, Justine. Yeah, you're right. Let me get the door for you. Why, thank you! oof That was mean. Oh, I know.As you'd expect, if anything around here can be trapped, they've trapped it. Doors are trapped. Treasure is trapped. Even the thieves are traps. Don't ask how that works, it just does. The good news is, we have a thief in the party...  loot loot loot loot gimmeeeeeeee Oh, for the love of—search it for traps first! Worrywart. Why are you on their side, again? As an intern, I get free coffee. Oh hmm. Do you have any other positions open? Sorry, we're not hiring right now. Bummer. Ha! A simple gas trap. Should be easy enough to disarm.  *gag cough retch* urp I'm gonna hurl why, why do we do this to ourselves...the bad news is, he's not very good at his job. Failing this disarm nets you an ambush by thieves, which means they go first. At least we don't take any damage from the trap itself. That's... something, I guess? Anyway, even though Sternn sucks at his job, he'll (presumably) still make some disarm rolls as we go through this section. Even if he only succeeds at 50% of them, that's still cutting the damage from this section in half. It makes a big difference. As for the fight, there's not a lot to see. We get our murder on, and then we're back to examining the pile of weapons. Most of it is crap...  *cast*  ...but a significant portion is not. The magical weapons are:
Note they throw in a cursed weapon as, of course, a trap . This place has so many trolls in it, you'd think it was part of the Rope Guild. Also, I almost typed Pope Guild there. That's a pretty good joke. We'll probably see it a game or two later after you've forgotten about it. We fill any remaining holes in our gear with this stuff and save the rest to sell. To be honest, with Long Sword +1s across the board, there's no real reason to use most of the weapons. The Scimitar +1 is neat, and the Morning Star +1 is probably the second most powerful thing we've seen so far, but 1d10+1 against large targets is still superior. We also leave the Broad Sword -2 behind since—everyone together now—I already know it's here.   Jesus Christ. Could they be any more obvious about— KILLLLLLLLLLLLL Aaaaand there she goes. Wow. I thought Hanover had rage issues... You know it's mostly an act, right? Mostly.  After them! Which one? *flips coin* Tails! What does that mean? Hell if I know. Let's go east!  I THIRST FOR REVENGE ...so that's a no?  A little excessive, don't you think? I did say, "Mostly."Following east puts you in a fight with this scrub. Following south, on the other hand, drops you directly into the scripted fight and counts as a surprise attack. How did I know which to pick? Do I even need to say it at this point?  Seems completely safe to open this door! *push* Wow! Thanks for shoving me out of the way, Justine! ...yes. Yes, that was what I was doing. No it wasn't. No. It wasn't. All right, Sternn. If you blow your disarm this time, I'm going to open the rest of them with your face. You got this, boss! I'm worried about the effect you two are having on Rezen. I'm sure she'll be fine. Hey, whose wallet is this? Give that back! Might as well work left to right... Nothin' to it. Also nothin' to it. Good start. Yup. Let's see what the rest have... Whoops. Hey, at least it didn't hit anyone. Should we— Nah. Like, you're at bad as this as Shanna. EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROLSternn disarms two of the four traps, one of them doesn't hit anyone, and the last one does a tiny amount of damage. We're gonna call that one a win.   Scattered throughout the mansion are various documents and maps, all of which will be extremely useful later, presumably. I'll save you the individual updates, as finding them isn't very exciting. I'll just post a dump from Shanna's journal and move on. Journal entry 29 posted:Journal Entry 38 posted:Several pieces of paper with highly organized writing. Journal Entry 41 posted:Journal Entry 51 posted:Fact: Bishop Braccio is the highest ranking religious leader in Phlan. Runs small temple in civilized section of city. Most of this is flavor text that will never come up again. The maps, however, are of the Vague Castle Full of Giants (remember the Podal Plaza rumors?) and will be absolutely essential later.  We also find a trapped cabinet that Sternn fails to disarm and nukes half our party with. Rezen blows it off its hinges with Knock in revenge. The doors, I mean. Not the party.    This is a hell of a haul for Rezen, including:
These scrolls round out her spellbook nicely and will be even better once she finally unlocks Spell Tier 3. With that, let's get back to our crew, who have just made a terrible discovery...    *scream* ...that's not good.    Wow. Didn't know you had it in you, short stuff. Just because I don't have my powers anymore doesn't mean I forgot how to put a knife through the fifth and sixth ribs. ...  No respect for the trade at all. You tell 'em, boss.  Journal Entry 48 posted:Several pieces of paper with highly organized writing. Mother of gods. A dragon. The Boss is a dragon. Like, with fire and everything. If only we had some kind of warrior. One that fights dragons. You mean... a dragon warrior? ...quote:
I don't think we're going to find one of those any time soon. old dude. No idea who you were, but those guys were jerks, and we gave 'em a taste of their own medicine.At this point, we've grabbed all the loot, and most of the bushwackers are dead.  No, still not those. Only one place left to go. Let's see what's behind door #3...   *buffing intensifies*  Congratulations! You've won fifteen Level 1 Thieves and three Level 6 thieves!   Like Sternn, they're made out of glass and break real nice. Rez has three Sleep spells now, so as long as we don't let them get behind us, this'll be a walk in the park. Unfortunately, it seems they ambush you even if you didn't follow the thief to the south. Note this counts as a whopping 15 kills towards the Thief Murder counter. It should be eighteen, but apparently only Level 1 Thieves count towards the total. I dunno why all the scrubs are out here guarding a major hideout, anyway. I guess if you throw enough poo poo against the wall, it sticks? Regardless, you get a little bit of EXP since you beat up some Level 6 guys, but no magical gear. Two journal entries are found on the floor post-combat, but we've already seen them. Regardless, it ticks the "scripted fight" box. More importantly, it also puts us over the top on our kill counter.  WHO WILL CHALLENGE US FROM OUR THRONE OF BLOOD AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA That probably counts as vengeance for the old thief? Close enough for me. Now, let's get out of here. I've had enough thieves for today. Hey, guys! I found another wallet! WILL YOU GIVE ME THAT BACKAnd that's Kovel Mansion! It's an unceremonious end, but the mission itself is pretty straightforward. The hard part is all the traps, ambushes, and the confusing map. If you can deal with those, you just get in, murder some folks, and get out. Easy peasy. Hope to see you back for the next update, wherein we'll begin exploring the wide wide world, and you'll hear Shanna say... ...lemon curry?Next Time: u nomad?
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Dec 4, 2019 05:56
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Yo, mom. I'm back from saving the world.
Oh, how lovely. Where are your new friends?
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Koval Mansion is a fun level, more so with a bad Thief than a skilled one. The scrolls are very much worth the trip. I wonder how long Chokes will delay the Graveyard mission...
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Dec 4, 2019 08:40
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I always liked Koval Mansion, if for no other reason than the fact that C64 version loaded a minute or so every time you entered combat and it's relatively combat light. And the scroll loot is huge.
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Dec 4, 2019 10:02
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achtungnight posted:I wonder how long Chokes will delay the Graveyard mission... How many zombies do you need before using them to create the greatest Thriller flashmob?
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Dec 4, 2019 11:45
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This chapter's journal entries feel like the party has found the GM notes.
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Dec 4, 2019 13:29
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FeyerbrandX posted:How many zombies do you need before using them to create the greatest Thriller flashmob? The bigger question is how many zombies do you need before they have enough votes that they can vote out the current ruling party and instill the necromancer coven as the duly-elected rules of Phlan? ... what? Am I the only one that would use necromancy to assume power legally? Zombie apocalypses are great and all, but then you have "heroes" and "adventurers" and "chosen ones" kicking in your front door every weeknight and twice a night on weekends trying to stop the tide of darkness.
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Dec 4, 2019 14:13
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Thieves were such absolute garbage at their jobs until 2E rolled around, you might as well not have them along until they hit the double digit levels.
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Dec 4, 2019 15:28
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Randalor posted:The bigger question is how many zombies do you need before they have enough votes that they can vote out the current ruling party and instill the necromancer coven as the duly-elected rules of Phlan? Llewyn get off the forums, how do you even have internet from that book
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Dec 4, 2019 16:21
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achtungnight posted:Koval Mansion is a fun level, more so with a bad Thief than a skilled one. The scrolls are very much worth the trip. What graveyard mission 
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Dec 4, 2019 16:22
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Chokes McGee posted:What graveyard mission The mission you received at the start of last update, of course! Save the poor settlers!
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Dec 4, 2019 16:46
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 06:42 |
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Hob_Gadling posted:The mission you received at the start of last update, of course! Save the poor settlers! Oh right, the Kovel Mansion mission with the thieves! No, we already did that.
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Dec 4, 2019 16:47
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