Out Of Character

[mushgnome]

Part of the intention of the 'piecemeal scroll/potion' house-rule, is in response to players requesting a way to drain their bank accounts: 1st level scrolls cost ~14gp/day and 1st level potions cost ~36gp/day (and eventually, more, for higher-power items). It's a way for me as DM to bleed gold pieces from the PCs. Think of it like a punch-card at the donut shop; each time we flash-forward a day, the party's casters get a 'punch' on their card, and then after 7 rest-days, their potion or scroll is complete.

The 'old school tabletop' way of handling item/spell research, would have been to back-burner that character for X number of consecutive campaign-days, and if the player wants to participate with the group, they roll up another PC, to be active while their caster is making the potion/scroll. So each player has a 'roster' of multiple PCs that they rotate in and out of the game, based on item completion times and other side-quests. But I kind of don't want to do that for this campaign; I don't really want the party's druids dropping in and out of the game to craft potions and scrolls. A week of in-game-time could be months of real-world time (at the rate we've been going) and I would be sad to back-burner great characters like Noh and Bilfur.

In specific response to @kipper's comment about "handwaving the passage of a week when the characters are in a safe location would be materially different from handwaving the passage of a single day." It's true: that is an accurate observation, of the campaign mechanics to this point. The party has been floating along in a holiday pancake bubble, where they get free room and board, totally unaffected by campaign-world politics or Larger Events. But I will *spoiler* it for you: Once the party reaches an Heroic level of experience (only one or two more Delves, for Dame Simonetta) the bubble pops, and suddenly, maybe it actually does make a big difference, whether the party rests for a day or a week. Maybe it makes a difference of 6 days closer to the Mayoral Primary election, and the party needs to move quickly, if they want to thwart the anti-hobbet candidate.

tl;dr Once the Party is equal in power to Frederick and his allies (a day which is fast approaching, just a few thousand xp's) y'all are no longer under Frederick's protection. You become his peers.

[kipper]

((Can we assume Beppo now knows all the safe places for hobbets in town -- or is Frederick's place the only safe place in town?

I'll leave it to the other players to answer that question in-character (or not). I know of at least one other place (other than the House of Pancakes) where Hobbets are welcome to rest their heads, but it's not my secret to share.

Personally I have no idea what you are referring to, but I do have a horrible memory so it might just be something I've forgotten.

[kipper]

OOC: Bilfur made that invitation yesterday, Jan 4th, and nobody took him up on it. It is now the 5th, too late to retroactively change what happened yesterday. I know it's no fun feeling left out, but this was handled privately between Bilfur and the DM. I'm just trying to spare the party from unnecessary SAN loss.

Oh, OK, I get it now.

The confusion for me is because you said that in PM communication he chose to investigate alone and not offer to allow anyone to accompany him, but then he *did* post an offer for others to accompany him but we did not have time to respond because less than 10 real-time hours later the day was advanced forward to Jan 5th. That is why I was unsure whether that offer was being made on the 4th or the 5th, but then after we were told there was no offer on the 4th I assumed the offer was being made on the 5th.

[mushgnome]

You're right to call me out for being more impatient than usual lately. I accept that criticism. I'm itching to get back to the dungeon, because that's where the Adventure is!

If the party tries to take a time-wasting detour (like spending another day on the surface) then I'm going to gently steer you back on track.

[mgtremaine]

I assume we just hit with the end of year slow down but I for one am ready to go back down into the dungeon....

[rredmond]

Sorry all! Work has been kicking my butt (we're implementing a new EHR and transitioning from the old one!) and I think my notifications were deleted -- Thanks Ethan for the PM!!

Anyway, Noh will take Faerie Fire as the unspecialized spell and he and Carc will head with the others into the unknown... after passing the known bits of the unknown of course!

[kipper]

I bring this up just in case the party thieves get into trouble, and the non-thieves have to climb down in the hole to rescue them.

Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn!

Yeah, sure, 'just in case', OK.

[mushgnome]

Classic @ehiker133 moment! I'm sure having fun with this.

I think I maybe read somewhere that Spider-Goats mate for life, and practice sexual dimorphism? (The ewes are exponentially larger, and hungrier, than the rams.)

[Scottenkainen]

I think I read that same article, only I remember it saying that spider-goats live alone and spend all their time hoarding gold and magic items.

[mushgnome]

My mistake; I must have been thinking about the sequel: "Spider-Goat 2: Bride of Spider-Goat."