@GPierce will you take theivery on the finding of a safehouse if it involves breaking into a warehouse?

nm, chose to use diplo again instead and made it just fine...now to write the story

point of order

if we're going to city hall and registering the warehouse under our name..

isn't... that a rather ovbious place to look?

especially since this town has a remarkable level of modern ID paranoia?

oooh, I see what you're doing

making sure it's abandoned, rather than buying it

@BrianBallsunStanton not registering, confirming abandonment

read it wrong the first time

maybe chatting up a records clerk in a bar or something

nice and informal, getting them to tell you where the really abandoned buildings are

@BrianBallsunStanton Good point. Ooh, editing

then do the perception to make sure it's actually abandoned and there's a way in

oooh, no I like what you did

darn, I was half hoping the kitty would come into play in this, but our cats are trained in stealth and athletics...

whew, skin of my teeth...

@BrianBallsunStanton how is that?

yeah, skin of your teeth

@BrianBallsunStanton I tried the streetwise check knowing I only needed a 3 on another insight, but still it was a risk...

yeah

molly... was not the right person to tail the inspector

@BrianBallsunStanton Darwin and Animus's skill sets didn't exactly match our challenge either :(. But at least there were two of us...

yeah...

looking good so far

now to see how yink does

you still have yink's tailing of the inspector to save that one. granted, his is a little differently focused, but it'll work

@GPierce yup. Ok, gotta go to bed

@waxeagle night, man

religion

d20

boo

d20

wtf

thievery

d20

much better :P

bluff

d20

who made these dice?

I'm going to random.org instead

that was straight out depressing

though the 'crit' on bluff was nice

yeah, these dice tend to be... treachorous

I used my gamescience dice for my rolls

and they... were almost nice?

ish

hmm, my messages didn't go through

anyway, I like random.org because its scientificaly proven to be random in a random way :)

and... I hate having a bad seed and then being screwed for the next hour of dice rolls

wonders how hard it would be to pick Clueso's pocket to nab his paper and replace with a forgery

@waxeagle might be a little harder of a skill challenege as it is a magical document

@GPierce good point. we do have a character with arcana though, so she might be able to participate in the forgery...Between bluff and arcana...the theft may be more difficult though...hmmm

however if she uses stealth+arcana to sneak up and "disarm traps" yink could move in and pick his pocket with stealth+thievery....

@GMNoob and @BrianBallsunStanton what do you guys think of my comments above?

bam

done

nice. also nice tribute to "most people don't look up"

@waxeagle i'm glad someone appreciated that

@GPierce we are a session or two away from starting to forget again and our DM dropping another dragon on us...

i feel like that was a nice IC-fluff glossing over

@waxeagle on your thursday games? hilarious

@GPierce yeah. have you read through Cairn yet?

So, I just realizd. Animaus, a Dark Elf, is jumping over rooftops, probably wearing a cloak. Seeing as you are thieves, a black one (or dark blue as it blends better with the night sky). So, you've got this dark figure with pointy ears jumping over buildings in Redmere. Animaus = Batman

@waxeagle That's the one that comes with Monster Vault, right?

@GPierce yes

@waxeagle Nope, not yet, I've been off and on reading through the Red Box, actually

Is Cairn good?

There is a scene in there where you walk into a room with a white dragon (a small one, L3 I think). Our Dm had noticed that we had stopped looking up, and we were over leveled for the encounter, so about half way through he dropped an L1 white dragon on us

@GPierce I thought so. We had a lot of fun with it.

It was kind of sad to get to the end of it though and realize that the plot line just ended at that point...Nentir Vale hadn't been released yet

I really want to read the Slaying Stone and Reavers of Harkenwold. Apparently they are widely considered the best modules

@GPierce Reavers was a lot of fun. I don't think we've played slaying stone

@waxeagle Slaying Stone is supposed to be fairly sandboxy while remaining on the rails. You have a series of objectives and can do them in any order, but their are consequences for the order in which you tackle them. From that alone it seems like it could have some minor replayability

no we played L1,L2 from the red box

@GPierce indeed. I'm getting sick of L1 though...I want to try paragon at some point fairly soon

@waxeagle I have a group of buddies who want me to teach them to play 4e. I think I'm going to start them with the Castle Ravenloft board game to ease them into the concept and some minor rules mechanics, and then either start them off with the Red Box or my heavily modified version of KotS

@waxeagle Understandable. The highest level 4e character I've ever played was 10, and it was for a one-shot. My knowledge of Paragon and Epic is sorely lacking. Epic is a little more understandable, but Paragon is supposed to be where it's at

@GPierce either is fine. Redbox is nice. Although its char creation is goofy...

@GPierce yeah, I'm kind of ancy about it. We just hit L8 in our main plotline, but we keep getting side tracked...

@waxeagle Yeah, i wouldn't follow those steps. I'd rather just walk them through the Heroes of line so they can choose what they want to be not from a Chose Your Own Adventure

@GPierce I'm ok with the choose your own adventure path, it was fun to sit down with my DM and build a character, but the end result wasn't anything like what a real 4e character (even an essentials one) really looks like...

@waxeagle That's got to be nice.... Though, I guess to be fair for the longest time in 3.X level 8 was the highest character level I'd ever played. We would just keep stopping there or just short of it. 1 2yr campaign and 1 1yr campaign (that is still ongoing) later and I've bested the level 8 cutoff. I Figure it'll eventually be that way for 4e, but sadly I don't play it enough or have a more regular group. My 4e group is awesome, mind you, but we meet once every two weeks and just started

@waxeagle It looks fun to read through and "play" through a few times, but it also appeared severely gimped

@GPierce yeah, we meet weekly and are just hitting L8 after nearly a year. I think we will continue (with at least most of the group) following Keep, our DM has something planned so we will see what happens.

I've been on and off of being frustrated with the group for a variety of reasons (this week its "hey lets add a new player for a session in the middle of a game day", but I think that's resolved), but overall its been a ton of fun.

@waxeagle Definitely try to keep playing. Playing in long on-going campaigns is a blast, simply for character growth and also seeing your dude become awesome power/gear-wise. And if you want to try something new you can always do a one-shot or something

@waxeagle For just one session?

@GPierce or sporadically..I think the DM is going to revive a different plot line that is more "mission" oriented...

Just have it be a "thematically appropriate npc." created under character creation rules, but someone who story-wise makes sense

is it a dmnpc?

@GPierce no, its a brother of another player in our group who wants to join us on occasions...

Our issue is that its literally in the middle of a game day (our DM has said no extended rests between returning to the keep and facing down Kalaral)

@waxeagle Hmmm. I think that could be done well. Reoccuring "NPC" Maybe a villager from Winterhaven (is that the right name for KotS??) who wants to tag along, fights beside you and sees some things and decides next time you venture into the keep to sit out. Regains some courage and goes back in with you the next time.

@waxeagle Ah... that's the problem. If you had extended rests I don't think it would be an issue

The "no extended rests" things makes it story-wise make no sense

for new character introduction, at least

@GPierce yeah, its a pain, but I talked to the DM and we are going to do something else, so its not an issue :)

Has the brother ever played D&D before?

@GPierce I don't think so. (which means yet another total newb sigh)....

@waxeagle lol, you were a newb once, just remember that!

@GPierce he played Dread with us a few weeks ago and was really into it, so thats a good sign (and the award for best use of a character sheet goes to)

Since that is the case, starting off with a level 1 game would be smarter. I started playing D&D (3.x) in the middle of a campaign at level 6 and was beyond confused. I got the basic mechanics but still, I was over my head. The next campaign we started started at level 1, I actually got to build my own character, and I got it. It just clicked.

@waxeagle That is promising

I don't really put much stock in the average age of a group thing, but is within y'all range?

@GPierce oh I know, but we just intro'd 2 new players a few months ago and they are just now finally getting it...

@waxeagle I'm actually excited about introducing some friends to the game. IT's going to be a game of patience for me, I'm sure, but I think it'll be fun

@GPierce 22-31 I think

And probably annoying at times

@GPierce its fun to introduce folks to the game, it can just be a challenge (specially if we were going to have to do it during a rather deadly experience), this should be ok as its an unimportant plotline.

@waxeagle Oh yeah, that's not bad at all. My group's range is 24-37, and the other one is 24-35-ish. That seems to be average I've noticed. AT one point we played with my DM's 13 year old son. He had some smart ideas but sadly was a 13 year old... who was annoying.

Annoying and liked rushing into battle without thinking.

Or would get grounded so he couldn't play.

@GPierce yeah, kids have the great feature of fewer preconceived notions, but they also have no life experience...

@waxeagle I'd play with him now just fine. He's about 16, I think, but sadly has lost all interest in the game.

Hell, I never actually minded playing with him. I'd rather play with him than Captain No-Personal-Hygeine-Reinforce-Bad-Gamer-Stereotypes-Powergamer who just mysteriously stopped showing up to play. No one was saddened by this.

@GPierce bummer, thats a great age for this kind of thing, I wish I had the game in high school....

@GPierce lol

@waxeagle Me too. I am sad I didn't discover it until I was 22

Though, I did grow up playing Baldur's Gate (1&2), Icewind Dale (1&2), and other games under the Forgotten Realms imprint

@GPierce I was 25, but at least it means I actually have the money to spend on the habit :)

And reading the original Dragonlance trilogy and probably some other FR books at some point.

@GPierce cool, not so much for me, I mostly played RTS games growing up, getting into some shooters in later highschool...

@waxeagle Exactly. When I discovered it I worked at a bookstore. So money+discount=awesome

I remember when 3.0 was released in 2000ish and some kids at my highschool were starting a group. I totally wanted to play, but had a reputation to uphold (rolls eyes at retarded social stigmas in high school)

Alright man, I need to get ready for the day. I'll talk to you later. I'll try to check in on the wave around lunchtime, so forumlate a plan on what y'all want to do. I probably won't have my books on me, though

But we can figure something out at the very least

@GPierce k, compendium is available on your smart phone if you have one :P

not having books is no excuse w/ DDI

@GPierce it was banned at my HS, so even if folks played they didn't/couldn't talk about it

snap Missed out on a great conversation

I just tried to introduce d&d to my friend with essentials... he didn't like it until we played through the red box... then he grasped it and loved it

@waxeagle Be very happy you didn't have D&d in highschool. Middle school is great, and then adult hood. In between, its way too much of a time suck and social stigma... I know from experience :)

@GMNoob :). Good point

whats you opinion on trying to steal/forge our Inspector's papers?

@waxeagle My first thought was we should steal it. My second thought was we should find a way to figure out whats on it before we try to actually steal it

it might just be a schedule, and then if we steal it, the schedule will have to change

@GMNoob ooh maybe try to shoulder surf him...

but if we just memorize it, then its as good as stolen

aye

if only we had a char with a small pet that could read...

@GMNoob I'm thinking we could maybe edit his schedule and leave sehanine off or move it someplace convenient...

@GMNoob lol, I don't think our kitties read...

they aer stealthy and atheltic, not intelligent

hence, if only :)

I'm thinking we should steal the raven from OOTs

I think with Yink's theivery skill, and everyone else doing an assist, we should be able to hit the 35 dc needed to steal a raven from a comic strip

If only @GPierce hadn't bought the ddi , you could have told him it was in the DC table

@GMNoob lol, he has all the books now too

oh well.. ok back to reality... I was thinking maybe we could find a ranger with mindmeld and a wizard to boost the int of the cat

@waxeagle uhhhh

@BrianBallsunStanton just spitballing here

well, I know what feat I'm begging for next

Wild talent master.

cause OMGWTF do I need it

thinking about it, we've identified a hole in their defenses

we know when the inspector is dormant

so we go for a shift change when he's normally asleep. Go in through the roof (I'm allergic to front doors)

escape through roof/sewers

and Yink dresses like guard for our Go to hell plan

non-lethal takedowns

and, after the 5 minutes of wiggle, we have guards who'll be there for a while

and I didn't identify any random or spot patrols

And if we can use the uh... unaware state, we should have a decent chance of 1hit-KOing most of the folks who we can't avoid, though we can't take brother animus with us

let's keep him in the congregation to cover the main room through talky and bluff while we do a sneak

I wish I had got data on interior guard patrols, cause that was what I was after

but 5 minutes to do a recon in force should be enough to get a feel for if we can commit or not