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Zeldaruil River Elf Druid 2/Wizard 3 AC: 16 (mage armor, shield) | HP: 29/29 | Initiative: +1 | Passive Perception: 16 (darkvision 60 ft.) Spell Slots: 1st 3/4, 2nd 3/3, 3rd 2/2 | Spell Attack: +7 | Spell DC: 14 Prepared Spells: entangle, faerie fire, goodberry, healing word, speak with animals; feather fall, mage armor, shield, silent image; invisibility, web Wild Shape: 2/2 | Arcane Recovery: 1/1| Natural Recovery: 1/1 | DM Inspiration: 1/1 Zelda nodded her assent after everyone had their say about Taborlin's leadership. She really did seem to have the right approach for a leader, and their reservations had been noted. She watch Noodles climbing to the nook, and took the opportunity to assess the climbing surface of the wall, considering whether it was time to take on one of her animal forms. "I think we should bring everything up and make our camp in the nook. Even if the raven can write—which we should definitely try out!—it will be a slow form of communication. The only real trouble is Sanaa... Does anyone have any spells that could help here? Maybe a reduction spell? Perhaps we can form a harness and lift Sanaa up with ropes? Should we have to get back down, jumping down is an option—Question and I both have magic that should help us fall safely." She left unspoken the rest of her thought: assuming the ley lines cooperate. Still, their odds were good, especially with two spellcasters, and checking out those runes and those doors was the most important thing. Mechanics Main Hand: Wand of the War Mage (arcane/druidic focus) Off Hand: Shield Proficiencies: +6 Arcana, Investigation, Nature, Perception | + 4 Stealth Action: Inspect the wall to determine how hard it is to climb a) with the rope, or b) without rope, but in a form with a climb speed. Bonus Action: Move: Manipulate:

How far is it to the base of the spire, if we were to go on foot? Zelda can always use wild shape to keep up with Taborlin and/or Sanaa, if we decide to go that route. She can wild shape into a riding horse (60 ft. speed) or panther (50 ft.). I also have invisibility if desired. I'd say wait for the familiars first, and then decide if we want to follow with a scouting party (or the whole party). Perhaps there's a way in from the bottom instead of the top. Also, re: my IC post, I'm still on board with @scootloops as captain, but Zelda doesn't love being told what to do.

Zeldaruil River Elf Druid 2/Wizard 3 AC: 16 (mage armor, shield) | HP: 29/29 | Initiative: +1 | Passive Perception: 16 (darkvision 60 ft.) Spell Slots: 1st 3/4, 2nd 3/3, 3rd 2/2 | Spell Attack: +7 | Spell DC: 14 Prepared Spells: entangle, faerie fire, goodberry, healing word, speak with animals; feather fall, mage armor, shield, silent image; invisibility, web Wild Shape: 2/2 | Arcane Recovery: 1/1| Natural Recovery: 1/1 | DM Inspiration: 1/1 Throughout Deidre's and Question's conversations, both in the night and during the day's hike, Zelda was content to quietly listen in, absorbing as much of their theories as she could. Every so often she could be observed mumbling some thoughts to herself. On the rare occasions when someone spoke to her, she responded amiably enough, but she let those conversations end naturally and resumed her quiet observations. She was a little shocked, though, when Question decided to nominate Taborlin as their leader. It was clear Taborlin seemed the most skeptical of the rest of the group, so putting her in the lead would help the team stay cohesive. She seemed level-headed and rational enough. Still, unilateral power under time constraints? Zelda had to speak up. "Taborlin can take lead, sure, but even under time constraints I feel there's room for dissent. Each of us can take actions if we must act immediately, otherwise we should at least brief the group. Though I don't expect she'll be making any rash decisions on our behalf." Hopefully that doesn't offend anyone. Zelda stepped back and looked out towards the spire, watching Thistlewing's progress while considering her options. Mechanics Main Hand: Wand of the War Mage (arcane/druidic focus) Off Hand: Shield Proficiencies: +6 Arcana, Investigation, Nature, Perception | + 4 Stealth Action: Bonus Action: Move: Manipulate:

I've had several very full days in a row and my brain has been too tired to do much else. Just checking in for now; I'll be back tonight or tomorrow and hopefully have a post! Feel free to push forward unless there's something you need from Zelda (I haven't caught up on the IC yet).

Good decisioning! For watch purposes, remember Zelda is an elf, so she'll be awake longer than some. Perhaps she should take a middle watch, so the sleepers don't have to interrupt their sleeping (not that it makes any mechanical difference). We're mostly fine with the tiny hut, but I suppose it's possible something could dispel it. Say, how many creatures are we, total? The hut holds 9 max, and none larger than Medium. We have 6 characters, a hyena, a shrub, and a raven, am I missing anyone? I'll have to remember not to keep my familiar around in the hut (I expend wild shape to summon her, so it's only ever for an hour at a time). Also something to keep in mind if we take on any NPCs.

I was interpreting captain as an out-of-character role, so I'd support for that. And I don't want things to slow down too much when I inevitably miss a few days because I'm swamped. If we want a captain in-character, I'd be fine with assigning Zelda as the nominal head of the expedition, but we should make decisions by consensus as far as possible. She's intelligent and wise, and understands the need to have the team working together... but she'll make self-interested decisions when it comes down to it (she's chaotic neutral, but she feels the ends justify the means just enough that there's a potential path where she could slip into evil). But once y'all save her life, your interests will matter nearly as much as her own.

Thanks for that! I looked around a little but didn't find it. Alarm is in my wizard spellbook, so it will always be available as a ritual for me. I think we'll find more use for alarm if we want to know if something passes through a specific place where we're not, since we have tiny hut for resting. Assuming the ley lines cooperate. :-D We'll see; I might save the inks for now. Who knows what we'll find inside. Misty step was the last spell I had hoped to buy ahead of time—well, that and magic mouth—but I figured I'd probably just take those two at level up. Right, magic mouth requires components, so maybe I shouldn't grab that unless we find it with components. It's just a fun spell to toy around with, and another ritual.

Zeldaruil River Elf Druid 2/Wizard 3 AC: 16 (mage armor, shield) | HP: 29/29 | Initiative: +1 | Passive Perception: 16 (darkvision 60 ft.) Spell Slots: 1st 3/4, 2nd 3/3, 3rd 2/2 | Spell Attack: +7 | Spell DC: 14 Prepared Spells: entangle, faerie fire, goodberry, healing word, speak with animals; feather fall, mage armor, shield, silent image; invisibility, web Wild Shape: 2/2 | Arcane Recovery: 1/1| Natural Recovery: 1/1 | DM Inspiration: 1/1 After Zelda helped forage some food for the group, she observed Question's ritual with great admiration. I have to learn how to do that! Then Zelda summoned her magical energies to cast her goodberry spell. Unfortunately, the ley line disruptionI rolled a 40, so there's chaos. I can edit this post once I know the nature of chaos this unleashed. Fittingly, I also had a chaotic cat-on-the-keyboard disruption while posting this. interfered with the magic. Once the debacle was concluded, she simply shrugged and placed the berries in a pocket. She turned to the others. "I have magical berries which can sustain us tomorrow, should we fail to find more food. We'll want to fill up our skins from the stream before departing, in case we don't find good water ahead. Should that happen, I can prepare a water spell the next day, but I'd rather not do that just yet. Question, do you require any form of sustenance?" In truth, Zelda was more concerned with the ley line disruptions than the lack of water, but she knew the latter was likely to become more of a problem eventually. Mechanics Main Hand: Wand of the War Mage (arcane/druidic focus) Off Hand: Shield,. Proficiencies: +6 Arcana, Investigation, Nature, Perception | + 4 Stealth Action: cast goodberry Bonus Action: attempt to neutralize ley line disruption Move: Manipulate:

I'll give it one more try, and if that doesn't work I'll need someone to walk me through it. Tens Ones

That's all true, though faerie fire targets Dex saves, while entangle targets Str saves. That anti-invisibility part can be very helpful when it does come up, of course Then I also have web, which is mostly an upgrade on entangle (though not exactly), and which targets Dex saves (but allows Str checks to escape). If we're using the hut, maybe we'll skip alarm on "stormy" days, unless there's some passage we want to keep an eye on. I'll try rolling for the night's goodberry, though. This is my first time trying this dice roller... Storm Check

Oh, and I can also cast alarm as a ritual, which can help us with the watch-taking. I suppose I should establish my end-of-day procedures: cast goodberry, ritually cast alarm, and possibly cast create or destroy water. I'll use bonus actions to aid those castings. How do ley line disruptions and ritual casting interact?

Forgive me as I address things in a haphazard order here. I have both Arcane Recovery and Natural Recovery, but more importantly Wild Shape is a short rest resource. I'll also want 10 minutes here and there to cast ritual spells. I'm surprised the bonus actions only halve the chaos; the wording made me think the bonus action made it sure. So we're basically all wild magic sorcerers here. Good to know. I'm okay with taking the rear; Zelda's definitely meant to be a back-lines character but isn't helpless up close. Regarding the hardcore mode, I'm pretty torn, mainly because it's hard to know how hard each of the modes will turn out to be (and how amazing this team will be). I'd be inclined to vote for a middle option, letting the DM decide what's more interesting as we go, but I sense you want to take those decisions out of your hands so you can referee the module without constantly putting your finger on the scale. Hmmm. Finally, I'd like the team's thoughts. My usual druid spells right now are entangle, faerie fire, goodberry, healing word, and speak with animals. If I swap one of those out for create and destroy water, I'll need to drop something. I think I remember seeing someone else had faerie fire? If someone else is casting it, then I probably can skip it. It's a great spell, but I also don't want to lose the option of ritually speaking with any animals we encounter (druids can ritually cast prepared spells; wizards can ritually cast from their spellbook). Meanwhile, I think entangle, goodberry, and healing word will probably see regular use.

I can prepare create and destroy water if we need it (you forget we have a druid!), and I also plan to cast goodberry at the end of the day. It would be a good idea to buy some extra waterskins or other containers to collect the created water in, though. I'll add a second waterskin to my equipment, as well as 175 gp of spell ink (when I have a few more minutes). For what it's worth, I also have the outlander feature, which may help a teensy bit if water is limited but present? Thanks for the equipment leniency, DM!

For this campaign, is there an assumption that we are strictly delving into the dungeon as far as we can, or are we free to travel back to civilization in between things? I recognize that traveling to civilization would be quite a trek, either way, so I'm not suggesting frequent pit stops. On a related note, may I retroactively adjust my equipment, spending most of my remaining gold on the rare inks needed to scribe new spells into my spellbook? Or would you rather hand-wave that and just spend the gold when we add the spells?

I'm in US central time (GMT-5). I'm definitely on board with this. We would have assembled an expeditionary team for sure. I like that, too.