Lucius Cypher

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Unfortunate but expected. Too bad I can’t reckless ranged attacks. Alas.

Overlord: Momento Mori

I was just thinking, since in Overlord the Floor Guardians refer to their creators by their in-game name in full with seriousness, how exactly would Mamoru pronounce {| || || |_}? Loss his the name others will call him because typing his name out is annoying, but Mamoru wouldn't do that. Would she basically say "Bracket-Vertical Line Vertical Line-Vertical Line Vertical Line-Vertical Line Vertical Line-Underscore Bracket"?

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Orchid roared as he was attacked by the cowardly kobolds. They were having a nice conversation with the tentacle monster, but now they annoyed him! Unfortunately Orchid couldn't muster up a fury against them, and so he'll just have to make due with some brutal cunning. Now that the monster had released him Orchid swiftly took out one of his javelins and moved to attack the kobolds, hurling his spear at their shadows. He needs to be careful now, so instead of charging the kobolds, he instead backs away, trying to get out of reach of their throwing weapons and possibly slings. If possible he'll even try and get some cover.

Rolls and Info

HP: 17/30
AC: 16 (Shield)
Rage: 0/3
Status: Not Raging
Weapon: Javelin (1d6+3)

Javelin = 11
Javelin Damage = 7

Keratia: Story of the Surf, Tales of the Deep

Might be a bit complicated, but I decided to make a proper table of sorts for this. Essentially, you can choose to hire directly, but promoting someone to a higher rank (aka NPC stat block) only cost half of the hiring cost, though you will still need to keep in mind to increase their wages. And naturally, you cannot demote someone to a less costly stat block in an attempt to curb pay (you can still try, but that'll likely result in some mutiny). Additionally I divided up these lists into groups based off who may be collectively available. For example finding guys who'll be bandits is easy in a pirate port, but finding a wizard there might not be.

Commoner (Slave) - 1 GP/0 GP

Bandit - 25 GP/1GP
Thug - 30 GP/5GP
Bandit Captain - 100 GP/25 GP

Tribal Warrior - 20 GP/1GP
Berserker - 50 GP/5GP

Scout - 50 GP/10GP
Spy - 75 GP/10GP
Archer - 100 GP/25 GP

Guard - 25 GP/2 GP
Soldier - 30 GP/3 GP
Veteran - 100 GP/25 GP
Knight - 500 GP/100 GP

Apprentice Wizard - 25 GP/2 GP
Deck Wizard - 100 GP/25 GP

Acolyte - 30 GP/5 GP
Priest - 100 GP/25 GP

Cultist - 10 GP/1 GP
Cult Fanatic - 50 GP/5 GP

The Vanishing Kingdom

Tyrael was evaluating his options. He can do two-on-one easily, but his wounds would mean even a small mistake could turn into a lethal one. Zastriel was still distracting the other one for now but Tyrael could certainly use her help against these two, and she couldn't slay the lone warrior on her own without compromising her stealth. Still he needed assistance so Tyrael was about to call her in when suddenly there was a noise from above. Before the warrior was grunting as one would when swinging a sword about, but this time he screamed in terror. Tyrael wasn't sure if Zastriel learned a new trick, and was positive it wasn't her when a corpse came flying into the varuk.

There was a brief moment where the combatants saw a large lizard man decend upon them. Though lizard man wasn't quite an accurate description; this creature was far more burly and had rougher scales that what you'd expect from a mere lizard. Tyrael vaguely remembers seeing pictures of these creatures, some sort of large aquatic reptile sometimes called swamp dragons, but such trivia was not important to Tyrael right now. The confusion effectively took out the varuk. And as the stranger leapt towards the soon-to-be corpse, Tyrael dashed forward towards the final remaining swordsman. He was startled for multiple reasons, lowing his guard just enough for Tyrael to dig his knife into the sand and toss a considerably clump into his face. On instinct the swordman moved his sword to block, but a blade could not protect him from a cloud of sand as it blinded him. In this blinded state Tyrael crushed the man's knee with his club, and as the man started to kneel Tyrael drove his dagger into the man's chin, going through the roof of his mouth, through the brain, and out the top of the skull. His body went limp as Tyrael twisted his knife out of the current corpse and turned towards the newcomer, who no doubt has finished off the last remaining varuk. He wasn't sure if this was a friend or foe so Tyrael didn't lower his guard.

"Lakur. Who are you and why are you here?"

Keratia: Story of the Surf, Tales of the Deep

Yes, not only do you need to pay the difference but you'll also have to increase their monthly payment. Otherwise they'll look for someone else who can afford their services or worse, might mutiny.

I will provide NPC's who do actually have class levels, hirlings and cohorts are simply NPC's who you can straight up pay for. The NPC's with class levels are generally more unique in character design (Because I'll create them from scratch as oppose to just slapping a race onto an NPC class) and may have different requirements to obtain/keep them.

Keratia: Story of the Surf, Tales of the Deep

And done. Oh btw, this is also an opportunity to hire new crew members or otherwise "level up" current ones.

Leveling up your new cohorts basically means you pay out of your own pocket to give them better gear and switch their stat block. For example, turning Tayang from a regular bandit to say, a berserker or something. Some crew members are better at certain things than others of course.

Keratia: Story of the Surf, Tales of the Deep

She seems nonpluss right now, like a woman who’s just doing her job. If you had to guess the previous ship were honest merchants do nothing exciting there. You know that Thersa enjoys bargaining with plundered loot since she makes a decent coin from them.

Keratia: Story of the Surf, Tales of the Deep

“Aye aye captain, I’ll relay the orders.” Tayang nods and heads topside you tell everyone your orders. What would’ve been an hour only takes thirty minutes thanks to Nyx’s magic, and the crew had amassed the cargo intended for trading ready as well. With your men you check in the prisoners who were quietly sitting in their cages, apparently praying for help by the time you arrive. It doesn’t take much to ensure they comply should you have any demands for them, the elf who’s ear you tore off in particular is very frighten of being around you. Finally at long last, the ship reached port.

There were little issues docking. Your first mate was experienced in these dealings and made sure to get a good spot and bribe the right people to verify their cargo (aka don’t ask questions and don’t actually look at what’s being brought to shore). Once docked your crew went to work offloading the cargo to be picked up. All that needed to be done now was for you and Tayang to speak to Ms. Silvermane, who just finished doing some business with another shop.

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

“Never a dull moment with you Sylvia!” Pylia says with a smirk as she followed you, along with Buddy and Shortfang. The Lightning Company we’re moving fast, and by the time they reached what looked like a mansion, someone who looked like a simple servant stepped out and followed them away from the mansion. Shortfang relayed this information as the lightning company and the servant. However there was a chance to intercept them using the very alleys they used to move quickly around the city.

“I know where they go!” Shortfang says as he gets out from his Familiar vision and directs the party to a fairly small backstreet area. There was hardly any traffic here, which would explain how the lightning company managed to move through here so quickly. “They come here soon, like... One minute!” Shortfang says as he gets out from Buddy’s bag and digs a hole in the ground with his magic, then covering it over with some trash, effectively creating a foxhole for himself. Pylia looked to you. “We should confront them here. If we’re lucky maybe we can convince Erendal to stand down peacefully.”