Grog'tial cheers Icy on, and encountering the necrotic resistance potion in his pocket as he warms up one of his hands, he frowns. "What does I have in my pocketsies? I could swear I drank that already," he mutters, before quaffing it down for real. He also reloads his crossbow with another regular bolt to replace the one he used on Icy.

He hurriedly whispers to the crew, "We need to be moving on! Let's dash left, shortly, to get out of sight of the beach, until the vampirates there follow Icy - and meanwhile we take care of this skittering sound!" He just hopes it's vampirates on the ceiling making that sound, and not... *shudders* ... spiders.

If there's no strong disagreement, he immediately does so, having his crossbow ready. He'll take the time to aim properly if circumstances allow it, but well knows the speed of vampirates, so won't hesitate to fire if a vampirate is closing in on him or any crew mate ahead of him seems to be in immediate risk, hoping his practice on the ship has paid off.

If there is disagreement, and others move right toward the plaza, he'll follow them instead, joining the Count in the rear guard and mostly keeping his eyes on what might be sneaking up from behind.

If we end up splitting into two teams to fully cover both directions, he'll go along with the team toward the Plaza, feeling surprisingly anxious about Icy.

In all fights, he will try to avoid necrotic ash, and use one of his holy waters and/or a blessed stake if it comes to a melee encounter.

[Grog'tial proposes a quick dash left to get out of sight from the beach forces, taking care of the immediate enemies there, to then move toward the plaza afterward. He's open to alternative plans, though.]

edit: [See later post for actual action; carried over everything still relevant from here to there.]

Ooc: in retrospect, I agree that this isn't ideal. Once I saw 5 turns, I should've had Icy hang back until we were beyond the door without triggering an alarm (e.g. by using my portable hole). I didn't have enough time to think it through fully after this mid-turn update, though. But hey, the GM says it's not supposed to be a stealth mission anyway, so let's just roll with it. :D

"Something's comin' fast, folks!" - Count Karnstein announces while unsheathing his saber and facing the tunnel from which skittering sound is coming from. That doesn't sound like vampirates, unless they got wooden legs. Count just hopes it's not another centipede.

Assuming they're all going towards the beach, Count will also move along to avoid standing right in front of the tunnel and whatever arrives from it. All while bracing himself for the encounter.

Hard to come up with some actions not knowing what it'll be exactly. Maybe I'm reading it completely wrong here, but for me it sounds like some kind of arthropods.

If it's small creatures, Count will fight them using kicks and blade, paying attention not to get swarmed.

If it's large creature(s), Count will fight it one at a time using saber.

If it's huge creature, Count will yell "Run!" to the crew. He will then use Cat o' Nine Tails power to entangle the creature and possibly mount it, like he very successfully did with a centipede previous season.

If it's a cart full of explosives, Count will yell "RUN!!!" to the crew and run himself.

If it's renowned tap dancing trio of a gnome Steph A'Stuttaire, halfling Will Poundfloor and an orc Jack Hammer, Count will pretend he doesn't see it.

If it's vampirates (with wooden legs?) after all, Count will sigh and fight them same as "large creatures" above but paying extra attention for the ash. In fact Count prepared a special tactic against vampirates, but will not reveal it until he's sure.

Wait, then what would have happened if we tried that?
In general I don't like too much if good ideas get nullified to preserve intended game plans (up to a point).
It's a bit like fake choices in modern adventure games.

--

Anyway, Durik didn't like the noises coming from the tunnel.
"Wat be that sound? Me hope not spidies again pls"
"We can't stay in open, where we position?"
"Maybe stay near cave entrance so we protec 2 sides and can fall back if trouble? Or ye prefer to rush in? (to 7) Me think more dangerous tho."

All right, GM needs to clarify something that seems to be confusing Crew. This is NOT a snatch and grab stealth mission. You will need to kill them all.

It has been said many times now, you cannot completely stealth against vampirates. Remember Crew's previous experience with them. Once you are within 30ft/9m of them (further for that mage and captain) they will detect life force and you will start being drained until you are too weak to fight them. These are not vampires nor normal enemies. They are very very fast. They spiderclimb. They do not drink blood nor need to get close to kill you.

The stealth part was getting in and not letting them know you are coming so they couldn't trap you and swarm with all of them draining you at once. They have a mage. It was logical that there would be a magical warded 'dinner bell' at the tunnel's end. The decisions with what info was available at the time was made to have the ice elemental trip whatever alarm there might be and distract most of the vampirates off to hopefully kill or hurt as many as possible without risk to Crew. That's been done. The portable hole wasn't mentioned previously and as GM I do not interfere and just outright tell things if somebody doesn't think of it or have the chessboard and ask a close enough question. Devin already looks over your inventories and tries to think if his character would have logically seen someone using something or talking about it so as to not metagame his tactics. For now, Icy has tripped an alarm and distracted vampirates off to the right, hopefully causing chaos and damaging some. The decision now is which way to go.

Well, I think the quest was just to get the treasure, but ok.
Maybe we could have attacked a group at a time, instead of alerting everyone (the cave looked quite big for just a 9m detection).

But I wasn't asking to redo or for the GM to interfere.. what is done is done.
I was just commenting about the game in general.

"Perhaps, Durik, that cannon of yours might be a good thing to use if it is just one giant creature coming from the east. Then we can use it like a bowling ball towards the vampirates coming from the beach south of us. I'd hate to be fighting on two fronts so hopefully this will even the odds in our favor by just focusing on the southern fighters."

"Careful with those. Your explosive cupcakes may or may not cause a cave in. Best ask our Dwarf friend Grog'tial if using those explosives be safe to use in this ice cavern. If I recall, he has mining experience and would know a thing or two about these sorts of things."

Captain's Log Mission 6 - Turn 3:
Ice is nice. Especially if you have your own pet ice elemental to wreck havoc for you. Grog'tial sent the big icy wonder to terrorize all the vampirate denizens to great results. Busted the lock on a metal door here, decapitated a vamp there, stuck another to a wall around the corner. But now it seems we've attracted the attention of the entire cavern. Enemies can be heard coming from the south and another being from the east can be heard approaching quickly. A fight on two sides would be unwise. Best take care of the one closest to us first and hope we are able to defend ourselves from the other group once the first has been taken care of.

BenKii suggests the team take care of whatever comes from the Eastern Passage first. If everyone agrees then he will head that way to engage in combat with the eastern foes making sure to stay out of sight of the enemies coming from the south. However, he will determine first if the eastern hostile (or hostiles) are in fact friendly before engaging and if standing to the side and letting whatever it is pass is possible or talking peacefully to it can be achieved. Otherwise he'll just shoot it. If Durik or Count Karnstein wish to use their Cursed weapons on the beast first then he will wait for them to do so before engaging. If they are successful then he will shoot whatever eastern enemy is still available to kill. If all enemies to the east have been dealt with then he will remain hidden from the southern enemies and do some squats to stay warm (Hey! It worked for Cloud in FF7, right?).

(I just thought of this but maybe Devin could use his cat to scout the East tunnel so we can better plan a strategy for whatever monster is coming from there.)

I had an appointment so couldn't address this fully earlier.

The portable hole wouldn't have worked. Look at the map, use the beds as approx 6ft/1.83m long, the distance the portable hole can go. The door is off the map at the top. The rock is too thick and the door was magically warded with the alarm behind it. So while it would have been a good thought, it wasn't going to work. :P

LOL! If vampirates didn't slowly regenerate I'd throw in a peg leg and hook hand just for Count's pleasure! ;) Skittering and scuttling are the sounds that supposedly large spiderish creatures would make against mixed stone and ice. Oh, and as it comes closer you all began to feel a slight drain ...

You aren't in the open, Crew is as positioned on the map, just in front of the tunnel mouth which they can retreat back into, in an area which they can move and dodge in with restricted accesses to each side which would funnel enemies to them. It's not open like the beaches would have been.

What would have happened with the portable hole is answered above. It wouldn't have worked.

Since it is already passed, I will tell you what would have happened. People were getting restless with nothing to do so I advanced the turn to get Crew through the tunnel.

You fight the ice elemental. If Grog'tial and Bellandra didn't do enough damage then noise results possibly alert the vampirates. Restricted area means unable to dodge well from ice spikes and grapple. Crew would have prevailed, but some would likely be hurt before the main battle with the vampirates.

You had Dakka eat it. Most likely would have succeeded. You would get to the end of the tunnel and Devin would roll to disarm the trap on the way (the one he succeeded at) and the door. The door trap he would have had to fail badly on, but the alarm ward was another story. Chances are it would have gone off and you would now be being swarmed by vampirates with the mage knowing you were there.

No ideas were nullified, they were all considered. Captain Aylar was PM'd all suggested ideas, was told the information currently available at that time and got his own tactical questions answered based only on what he could logically deduce. At first he favored Dakka, until Grog'tial made the other suggestion. Then the tactical situation of:
1) using Icy to draw off most of the vampirates, hurting or even killing some without Crew getting hurt upfront;
2) possibly having the mage waste time and energy on trying to recapture Icy;
3) while Crew had a good chance of getting in behind Icy undetected; and
4) with the tactical advantage of trying to go for the mage before being fully discovered (while the others had their attention on Icy) appealed to him.
He made the decision PM'd to GM with what he had available to him at the time as he also wasn't able to post. The result is as you hear. Icy has distracted a group of vampirates in (7), with more headed for that fight. So far Crew is not yet discovered.

I will say there is always more than one way to accomplish a mission, just some are more favorable than others. This time your more tactical minded mates once again put talents together to thwart some perfectly good hitches to Crew. This way was actually the most opportune one you could have, so you are already doing probably the best idea Crew could.

Yes, the quest is to get the treasure. Vampirates won't just let you have it though. They would actually love to see you try parlay. ;) Durik doesn't understand vampirates. That's the character and that's okay. Crew has been told enough and learned some things from before to have the tacticians think it through. Vampirates are very very fast (you saw that in the Vampirate Captain on the Denuvo). They spiderclimb. They drain their adversaries to weaken them while the vampirate gets energy and stronger and the smart ones will do that preferably from a distance you can't hurt them from. They aren't affected by the cold or icy water, and don't need to breathe. Last year a couple came up and tried to spiderclimb the hull of the Ship and Admiral Polly told you then there were stories of them swarming ships from beneath that way. They swarm. So what is the most likely thing(s) to happen the minute you attack a group of them?

Admiral Clíodhna knows a lot, but she isn't allowed to know everything the GM does, for reasons of not just spoiling everything. Assuming anyone knows more than the GM generally doesn't work out well. (that said with a mischievous GM smile) I'm not going to give away everything, even though your tacticians Grog'tial, Captain Aylar, Devin and Captain BenKii (through Luck, good questions and a chessboard) have been working to crack me. :P If I told everything it ruins the aspect of the game where you try to outwit the bad guys (and occasionally me). ;)

I don't want to dwelve too much on this, but the point wasn't about the current situation, but I was reflecting in general, like:
1- a scenario was imagined as X
2- one player has an idea that can transform it into Y
3- the GM then A) accepts the changed conditions or B) forces them back <--i meant this by "nullified" ideas

I simply stated that I tend to prefer option A when possible and if it's not too radical.
It was an opinion caused by gogtrial34987's post.

That's it. We can just continue as it is, I have no objections.
Everyone simply suggested to use his own tools and others were more effective.

I'm confused. No ideas were nullified. You need to give an example please.

While most times I am flexible on many things, even the story line was forced into a radical change at one point to save a character. (Don't ask, I won't be doing that again.) No, I'm not going to have players setting the scenarios and missions as you don't know the story or what is going on in the background or what is necessary to get where we need to. There is a plot here, it isn't random missions. Each time we are picking up an item, information, or something that is a key to what we need. These have taken a lot of time to set up and balance, and to find maps that will work. Most missions are also coordinated to be part of certain characters' stories. Last was Bellandra with a passing nod to Gilius and Aylar, this is Baldbeard's. For example, Durik wouldn't know Baldbeard's background story, so to have Durik suddenly say I want to change the mission scenario to Y could potentially mess up Baldbeard's story. That would be one character dictating the story in a way that denies another his and I'm not okay with that. I don't think you would really be either, but what I am saying is that I don't think you are seeing or considering what all is behind things as they are set up. No player knows what the GM knows about the overall plot and certain stories within it until they are revealed.

Now if what you are really saying is that if a scenario or mission has a goal and a possible battle and a character comes up with an idea that can solve it without a battle (and doesn't mind losing the loot and experience from that) then fine. I'm open to creative and intelligent thinking around things like that. As long as it is still the mission, we get what we need from it, don't deny another character his/her story and the goal is met. That's great and I take great delight in smart tactical players who can pull that off. :D Again, they may not get certain loot or levels, but it is a valid way to play through. On this mission we've already had the choice between fighting the ghosts or fighting the vampirates. If you are wanting to change this to a snatch and grab, okay, I'll let you. Go for it. (evil grin) I am not going to tell you what will happen. It is one of the things the GM already planned for and a couple of players have already (caught on) ... um, figured out and asked privately about to confirm. :P

Ooc: No problem with the current course of action, it was just a bit of Argy's grumbling ;)
Although the captain taking decisions over the votes of the crew is giving her grounds for a mutiny...

If there are spiders coming, Argy could use the cold light of the lantern against them. It was effective in past encounters. But Gilius is shivering and extra cold around doesn't seem like a very good idea right now.

As a tall Dutch person (tautology), who always grumbles at hotel beds being only 2m long rather than a proper 2.20m, I'm really glad I'm playing a half-dwarf here, since those beds are just waaaaay too short. :P

Woo hoo, go Icy! (Actually glad to hear that lack of time with trying to come up with a silent way past the door probably wouldn't have mattered. I was thinking a bit that I'd messed up there.)

===

From before: Grog'tial cheers Icy on, and encountering the necrotic resistance potion in his pocket as he warms up one of his hands, he frowns. "What does I have in my pocketsies? I could swear I drank that already," he mutters, before quaffing it down for real. He also reloads his crossbow with another regular bolt to replace the one he used on Icy.

new: As Grog'tial listens to the skittering sounds, his paranoid brain becomes more and more convinced that it's a spider approaching. Probably another big one? He shivers, as his overactive mind conjures up dozens of scenarios, including the spider being used as a mount by a vampirate. He gulps, and seeing several other crew members act to fight whatever it is, Grog'tial will instead swiftly head toward the ledge overlooking (?) the beach. (If necessary, he'll first swiftly use his situational awareness to help Durik and others to position advantageously for whatever is coming.) Assuming he reaches the ledge before enemies show up (did the approaching footsteps on wooden slats start on the bridge rather than the beach?), Grog'tial will crouch near the ledge, peeking over the edge, and carefully aim at any enemies he sees, going for heart-shots, shooting and reloading regular bolts as many times as possible. (If enemies show up before he reaches the ledge, he'll do the same, but without the crouching.)

On his way to the ledge, he'll also glance down the tunnel which Icy disappeared into, making certain there aren't any enemies in sight there at the moment. He'll listen to the sounds Icy is causing, so he can be prepared for vampirates showing up after Icy has no more to give.

If he notices any lifedrain from the frozen vampire, he tries to stay as far away from it as possible, but not at the cost of fighting effectively.

If crew members engage the spider? before Grog'tial can act, and do badly at the fight, he will instead assist them, but he doesn't expect this to be necessary.

In all fights, he will try to avoid necrotic ash, and use one of his holy waters and/or a blessed stake if it comes to a melee encounter.

[Grog'tial will move to the ledge overlooking the beach to do some target-practice from there.]

Yeah something like that, but without drawbacks. For example:
- a scenario\area requires a final boss battle to reach a room with an item needed elsewhere
- a player using his abilities manages to enter the item room undetected, skipping the boss
- the GM could then A) force the battle anyway (=idea nullified) or B) let the player leave with the item

B could be less epic and wastes the boss BUT it gives more satisfaction to the player for being creative. It makes his stratagems matter (instead of becoming "flavor") and the story unique.
Obviously it could become a problem if it caused like.. a skip of the entire campaign, but I'd still give some reward for intelligent solutions.
On the other hand, it shouldn't become a situation where players overcome the GM and constantly try to break the game.

Durik put the fire oils on his cudgel and prepared for battle.
(he didn't have any anything to light it on, so in case he asked Gilius)

His position in the tunnel depended on the info his allies managed to gather (Grog'tial peeking or Argy's bat scouting).
He would have faced the side with the biggest enemy, to eventually use Dakka on it.

In case the info wan't sufficient to choose a side, he would have defended the Eastern Passage as BenKii suggested (maintaining the position, so not going out in the open, if possible).

--

He also reacted to other dangerous situations like:
- if he noticed a group of vampirates (2+) together close enough ahead, he threw his Garlic Grenade on them.
- if he felt that the crew was affected by fear, he used the heart-shaped box.
- if some member was dangerously surrounded, he threw 1 holy water on the enemies.
- in any case, he also had stakes to impale vamps from behind, if they were distracted while fighting