Hekazu

D&D 5e - High Seas and Tall Tales

As soon as Dyn heard the mention of a Beholder being a part of the arriving group, he began making his way to the others. No use hanging in the back if they already were on full alert thanks to him. He stared back at the guard who had seen his presence as a threat and pondered on raising his cutlass to meet the guard's spear. In the end, he chose against it. Sometimes he wondered why he bothered with the whole diplomatic act, especially when they were greeted with hostility. He stared at the guard with about half of his eyes, his dislike towards the merman evident in the way he carried himself.

Another creature of the sea attempted to calm the guardsman apparently known as Lucian down, but he was having none of it. Dyn's grip around the handle of his cutlass got ever so slightly more forceful over time, but that came to an end once the guard finally lowered his weapon. Not that Dyn would have loosened his grip, he just stopped preparing for an immediate fight. The lady merfolk introduced herself as Cythia, the Beholder making a nodding motion at her in response.

Before he could return the greetings, the kobold that called herself Askia interjected, her words filled with obvious intent to woo the member of the guard. Oh for the love of... that's not how you act the moment somebody shows the slightest bit of understanding. Just disrespectful. He would have to hand it to the kobold though: They sure were brave for one of their kind.

As the kobold turned back to the group, Dyn graced it with a passing gaze of three of his eyes. She seemed happy about the situation. However, somebody should perhaps get in a few more meaningful words in, and who better to do that than the mastermind himself? "I, in turn, am Dyn'yer'zhead. I would not mind a guide, especially one that seems to understand how to behave in civilised company. And be warned, many of this crew may try and make moves on you... as you may have already seen. Or enjoy the attention, whichever it is for you."

With those words spoken, Dyn 'floated' to his usual spot on Jill's left side, if a bit higher up than regular and looked at the captain. Dyn had carefully crafted the situation to paint himself as the authority among this group, but of course that all could be ruined by just about anyone spilling the beans. Which it wouldn't be the first time of.

The escape from Wolfwing's lair

@Hekazu I had Mistletoe throw her curtain at the jailor in my last post. Am I to assume it had no effect and she should try something else, or?

@Dusksong

I am so very sorry I forgot to reply when I read this! The curtain did hit the Jailor, but it has not impeded whatever it is doing currently.

Group Submissions

@Circ
Harvesting planets is what we do. We need it to stay alive. So in that way, yes, you have our main directive well in check. We do not use The Titan willy nilly, in fact it has been used once for planetary destruction for demonstration purposes in the past. But it remains as a credible threat to other military groups.

I understand the concerns of it being above the power levels of other groups, but let us think about it for a moment. The Titan is currently compared to the Death Star, something it definitely is not. The Death star took one shot to destroy things. For The Titan, it is a long period of extended bombardment, pummeling the target planet apart little by little. Quite wasteful. Not the preferred method of fighting. It is merely a powerful weapon that happens to be capable of eventually busting a planet. And while Ragnarov Fleet is known for harvesting planets, their military presence is also something they pride themselves on. We are a Fleet, space military. What changes are you looking for exactly here?

As for the Sower, we believe extending the working period to one week or one and a half might still make sense if the speed of the operation is truly the only issue here. It should be noted that getting the thing into position is not instantaneous or that secretive though, so there will be a fair period of responding to the approaching platform.

Group Submissions

I think some of the critical points should be walked back slightly.

For example, you can't destroy planets and terraforming an entire planet should take at least a month.

Otherwise it looks fine.

@Circ

I would like to voice my concerns on the removal of the main point of our critical point 2, The Titan. I brought it up with @Zyamasiel earlier and received no feedback of such sort. I would like to ask why giant weapons capable of destroying planets over a period of multiple days through steady bombardment would be that big of an issue. After all, the Fleet could just use multiple smaller ships and/or the Harvester for the same end result. We are a Fleet. Not UFP level strong, but still a force to be reckoned with.

As for the Sower being too quick, I will concede we could tone it down somewhat, but given what our entire Fleet is about, taking an entire month for each planet would be woefully slow and more or less eradicate any reason for us to exist as we are.

I would also like to question why none of these things were brought up in the preliminary thread which I put up specifically so people could see what we are doing and we could get some mod feedback for the powers and points, but I digress.

D&D 5e - High Seas and Tall Tales

Dyn turned a bit to the side, so two of his eyes could see the tabaxi that had asked him the questions. It was commendable that she showed interest in his thoughts, as well as a healthy amount of suspicion towards the new arrivals. "Hrrrrmmmm... I do not know what you have spoken of with the gatekeeper and that does not settle in well with me. In addition to this, cap'n Jill has also neglected to ask for any sort of a reward for this. Our skills cannot be allowed to go to waste like that... I am not here to 'set the world right', nor to solve the problems of other beings out of the good of my heart."

As for her question about the contingency plans about the new arrivals, Dyn raised a few of his tentacles in an expression that would have been a shrug with more conventional body shape. "I don't have much better to offer yet. I'll keep an... I will gauge their abilities more thoroughly and form a better plan in due time. You are welcome to aid me in that endeavour." But past that, the newcomers were already on the deck and Dyn decided they should know what to call him so they knew how to properly address him.

The kobold seemed to think highly of itself. If it was like the rest of its brethren, she might turn out to be a valuable minion one day. But the way she carried herself suggested otherwise. There was something different about her and that something suggested her to be a much hardier case than most. "I am called Dyn'yer'zhead", the Beholder introduced himself to the newcomers. "Do not cross me or my minions, do not complain about the food, work to earn your keep and do not forget who your superiors are... and we'll get along." If things went as they usually did from there, these people would talk back at him, something he could do nothing about with the captain still there. But it would not be the first time he had made somebody's life miserable on this vessel for doing so.

Soon after the introductions were done, it was chosen that they would be diving into the water, aided by Eliza's spells. She was one of the few Dyn trusted enough to place a spell on him, but even then he didn't really need it. But since the trust had already been established, there was no bad side to having a separate survival measure available. Once they were preparing to hop into the water, the Beholder pulled up the hood to his cloak and floated down, joining the rest of the crew in the depths.

The Cloak of the Manta Ray allowed Dyn to move faster in water than he could muster on land, easily outpacing those of the group with no such item in their disposal. The many eyed ball darted about in the formation, making use of his greater speed by ensuring that nobody got lost or left behind. Minions that got separated from the band couldn't help with anything. Especially close eye was kept on the newcomers and it didn't exactly take long for the being of eldritch knowledge to notice that the kobold was holding back from reaching her true speed. She was hiding something. Not a good sign.

When the guards approached, Dyn tactfully remained a healthy distance behind the rest, making it possible for the guards to mistake him for something not quite of his nature as to not make their hostile disposition even more so. Due to this, even if he wanted from his whole unnatural heart to slap Koan out of the speaker's spot, he couldn't he was forced to simply watch the situation unfold.

@Zverda - I finally got around to replying. Sorry for taking ages.

Group Submissions

It is finally time for the world to recognise our presence.

Faction Sheet for Ragnarov Fleet

Name: Ragnarov Fleet
Graphic:

<Subject to change, but this will be it for now>

Motto: Explore. Expand. Exploit. Exterminate.
Leader: Fleet Legislative Council, the figurehead being the spokesman, but they have no actual power in the council as they merely oversee the process. The council gathers together the most important from each of the official government departments, the military having a higher than usual presence though. A few examples of members of the council would be the primary and secondary fleet admirals, ground operations general, head of the medical facilities and taxation overseer.

Description: The Ragnarov Fleet is not exactly the easiest to approach by outside forces. Their desperation for neverending expansion and consumption to keep themselves alive has led them to become an extremely territorial force, requiring extensive paperwork for anyone to enter the area of space they happen to govern at any given time. Their area of influence does not exactly expand, a more accurate way of describing it would be to say it moves, so while their presence might be a nuisance for some time, eventually they will have cleared themselves (and the planets they found use for) out of the way.

Given how secluded they tend to be, what most outsiders know is simply the fact that where the fleet roams, planets tend to disappear in their wake... and the fact they are very, very willing to trade for most workable metals that they themselves seem to be fervently gathering. As for how they pay, when breaking apart entire planets, one ends with surprising amounts of rare materials with a niche use...

Goals: Founded by the Scroungers, essentially for the Scroungers. The overarching goal is to manage to collect enough ferrous materials to sustain the building of exoframes for the dying race, as well as for weapons and spaceships. Thus what they seek is to take control of planets, exploit them until there remains but a husk, and then recycle the husk. Explore. Expand. Exploit. Exterminate.

Unique Abilities:
Planet harvesting
Few species take resource gathering to the extreme Scroungers (and by extension, the Fleet) do, so they alone possess the technology to break apart entire planets. They have very specific harvesting cycle for each planet: Sow, Exploit, Harvest. In Sowing, they terraform the planet to be hospitable for mining operations, in Exploiting they gather all the resources that are available through conventional means and then finally in Harvesting they break down the rest of it, gathering any resources left behind for trading purposes if nothing else.

Advanced Computation All-Source Intelligence Analysis System (ACASIAS)
The biological supercomputer ACASIAS possesses an intricate neurobioelectric web to all Scrounger infrastructure. High ranking Scroungers jointly use ACASIAS for nearly instant communication, calculations, and processing/storing large amount of data, for instance, the genetic sequences for the Xenoendoplantation Lab. ACASIAS also engineers/mass manufactures the majority of the technology the Universal Nova utilizes, including the nanobots for a Scrounger's Nano-Modules.

Territories:
Universal Nova, a giant artificial planet that acts as their home base. The building of it began as it became evident that the Scroungers would need to harvest their entire home system and would need a somewhat transportable home base for themselves, given how their life would turn out from this point onward. It is capable of supporting life like any real planet of its size, perhaps even more since it is not prone to natural disasters. And, most importantly, with enough transport ships, it is capable of changing locations.

Exploitation zone, or what others would call the moving territory of the fleet. Once planets are harvested, the fleet moves onward, obtaining another mining settlement for themselves. Currently its centre point is around a planet labelled as Pavor Prime. These planets usually have little to no defences themselves and trust the fleet to be capable of defending them. Due to this, the size of the exploitation zone is largely dependent on the size of the fleet itself. As of this moment, the size of the zone roughly equals 1/10th of what UFP governs.

• Critical Point: Harvester, a one of a kind mining platform capable of carefully disassembling spent planets and recycling the materials they still house within through the use of adaptive self replicating nanomachines. Harvester is then capable of breaking the machines down into the materials they built themselves out of once again, this meaning the process pretty much involves turning the husk of a planet into nanobots, which are then turned back into the disassembled planet.
• Critical Point: The Titan, known to outsiders better as The Ragnarov Titan. This ship is essentially a massive weapon, with more weapons strapped on top and some resemblance of steering control to make the spaceship operable. The Titan has proven to be capable of destroying entire planets with continued bombardment in the space of less a standard tenday all by itself. Theoretically its effective range extends to 10.0 light years, but since debris usually drops the effectiveness more than can be accounted for, the actual effective range is closer to 1.0 light years.
• Critical Point: Sower, a giant terraforming facility attached to a spaceship, created for hastening the process of preparing a planet for exploitation. Due to how it is not safe to exceed certain speeds in terraforming relative to the size of a planet, the sower has been observed to terraform any planet within ten standard days.

Allies:
None, thus far.
Enemies:
None, thus far.

Members:
@Hekazu's Characters: General Creft, lead of ground based operations, one of the council.
@Gordian Nought's Characters: Captain Vropda
@JBRam2002's Characters: Head Medic Ceraun Farohm, one of the council
@Zverda's Characters: Chief of Special Operations, Chayyliel/Drekavac, one of the council
@Corporal Lance's Characters: Nick Zelthis

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Is it allowed to swing a Greatsword while wearing a shield? I understand that with the dual-wielding hand-axes, thanks to PHB p195, you would have to forfeit wearing a shield.

I am curious to what @The Harbinger of Ferocity's stance on this little skirmish.

@Gordian Nought

Greatsword as a weapon has the two-handed property, so it requires two hands to use, leaving none free for the shield. The wording could be clearer on it, but I cannot see a case to be made for using a shield with two-handed weapons.

As for Harbingers opinion, he happens to be the only person in the RP we have yet to hear from. But in the end, I would like to see some of the debate on who to send out IC as well. It would also let me set the battle scene in another DM post without double posting.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Without rage I don't have a health pool big enough to be a meatsheild, so I won't be dual wielding. If it's 1v1 I think I can wear him down through grapple and face punches.

@Hekazu could I possibly hold my kerambit in my shield hand? I'd like to think that the small dagger, with the ring hilt for extra grip, could be held in the same arm holding my shield. This way one hand can be used to grab the half-dragon and the they could be used to slash him up without sacrificing the protection of my shield.

@Lucius Cypher

I am afraid that allowing one to wield a weapon in the same hand as their shield would be breaking game mechanics. As things are, that cannot be allowed. But when it comes to the disarming attack, that works! Let me quote the DMG Variant rule for you:

Disarm

A creature can use a weapon attack to knock a weapon or another item from a target's grasp. The attacker makes an attack roll contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) check or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If the attacker wins the contest, the attack causes no damage or other ill effect, but the defender drops the item.

The attacker has disadvantage on its attack roll if the target is holding the item with two or more hands. The target has advantage on its ability check if it is larger than the attacking creature, or disadvantage if it is smaller.

Now, Battlemaster Fighters have their own manoeuvre for this, which can be easier or harder to land, but they have the option in case anyone ever encounters a game where this variant rule will not be taken into effect.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Not enough time has passed for a Long Rest. You may have taken a Short Rest though. After this fight, unless you decide to do something monumentally stupid surprising, you have the time for the Long Rest.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

@Lucius Cypher
No, the half-dragon does not currently have weapons on him. As for your plan, I'll have to look into disarming people like that, but otherwise I don't have a problem with it. But still, the champion of Greenest has not yet been named. I would like everyone to have a word in the matter.