# Forum > Play-by-Post Games > Finding Players (Recruitment) > Out-of-Character >  A Small Heist [5e] OOC

## J-H

Player
Character
Race
Class

Pyrophilios
Barit the Pretender
Half Elf
Warlock (Djinni Blade)

Xav
Raevis
Human
Druid (Moon)

Frendle
Breddo Toothwise
Orc
Fighter (EK)

BobtheWizard
Clip - Calliope Pascia
High Elf
Artificer (Armorer)

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## J-H

This module assumes that the party has already worked together before as a group, and is in a major city after a successful and somewhat news-worthy adventure.  Let's say Waterdeep for now, just because it isn't in the process of falling into the Abyss or freezing in winter or whatever else is going on along the Sword Coast.

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## Pyrophilios

Yey, 
Looking forward to it - hopefully there aren't too many true- and blindsight creatures in this module 😄

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## Pyrophilios

History check to know anything about Olivier Sandalwood

(1d20)[*12*]

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## J-H

Your character doesn't recognize the name.

I've PM'd Frendle.  Lord of Gifts hasn't been on the forums in over a week, so I'm assuming that Sauron has dropped, and have invited Bob the Wizard.

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## Frendle

So sorry, I missed the start but I am here.

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## Bobthewizard

Hi everyone. I'm Bob and I'll be playing Clip, a elven wand slinger and burglar. Excited to be a part of this story.

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## Frendle

I like the Character summery you guys have on your posts, but I can't get my image to size down, how'd you do that?

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## Pyrophilios

You can quote my post - there you should find all the formating code - just be careful to only exchange the urls  :Small Smile: 
Especially the image should have a "120" as wide in it.

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## Bobthewizard

Arcana (1d20+9)[*17*]

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## J-H

The portable hole will be folded and not shrunken.  



> "If we are only 1/2" tall, how do you propose we get the book off the shelf and into a miniature portable hole? We couldn't even lift a book at that size."


Great question!  I assumed you could position the hole under it and then move the book so it falls into the hole, but I'm not sure how you'd move the book.  Any thoughts on how to do this without introducing any other suspiciously specific magic items or spells?

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## Frendle

At 1/2 inch, what size category will we be?

A tiny creature with 20 str can lift 250 pounds. Sprite at 1 foot are tiny according to MM.

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## J-H

1/2" is below tiny.  I don't think 5e has size categories for it.

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## Frendle

> 1/2" is below tiny.  I don't think 5e has size categories for it.


Well, Tiny seems to be 1/6th of a Medium creature at 6'.

So 1/6th of 12" is 2"

and 1.2" is 1/4 of 2"

So halving each time (Which is the pull/push/lift rule Medium to tiny) means at 1/2" a 20 str might be able to lift 62.5 pounds.

Dunno if that makes sense in this case.

EDIT: How much will we weigh at 1/2"? A proportional amount, or our regular amount? (Like ant man :)  )

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## Bobthewizard

I would guess that it rescales the whole game. 1/2" will be medium. 2-3" would be large, a mouse might be huge, and a cat gargantuan.

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## J-H

> I would guess that it rescales the whole game. 1/2" will be medium. 2-3" would be large, a mouse might be huge, and a cat gargantuan.


Yes, that's exactly what I've done with the minor vermin :)

A 12" x 2" tome of boring lineages is going to be, relatively, 96' H x 20' W, with a relative weight measured in tons.

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## Frendle

> Yes, that's exactly what I've done with the minor vermin :)
> 
> A 12" x 2" tome of boring lineages is going to be, relatively, 96' H x 20' W, with a relative weight measured in tons.


Well, so much for me pushing it :)

Maybe we can pull the hole over it like a bag. Oh, probably the hole resizes too. :(

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## Frendle

Can Reavis wildshape into an owl?

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## Bobthewizard

Maybe the neighbor's owls could help us. JH said the portable hole can stay full size and fold down to where we can carry it. So we spread out the now 600' diameter hole, then the owl pushes the book into the hole. Then we spend a long time refolding the hole.

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## Bobthewizard

Raevis can change his spells on a long rest. Clip was referring to casting speak with animals and then animal friendship on the neighbor's owls so they would help us, not having Raevis turn into an owl. I would guess the wards are blocked for those particular owls, not every owl.

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## Xav

I can, but I also have an owl familiar. So, we all can potentially get there on my owl. Or we can be disintegrated, if only Special owls are allowed through.

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## J-H

Only the specific owls are allowed through.  Eldaroth was pretty thorough, although also kind of a jerk to all the animals without special privileges.

You do have a long rest to swap spells, buy mundane gear, etc. before the heist begins.

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## Frendle

Can we end the diminished size ourselves? Without going to 0 hp's I mean. :)

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## Pyrophilios

Barit has his Bottled Respite feature: He can just hold the book and go into his ring. Since the space is extra dimensional, the book should come with him and remain there once he exits again. The Ogre Strength Gauntlets aren't affected by size changes, keeping strength always at 19, so it shouldn't be a problem in general to lift the book.

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## J-H

> Can we end the diminished size ourselves? Without going to 0 hp's I mean. :)


With a Dispel or something similar, sure, but you won't be able to go back to small.




> Barit has his Bottled Respite feature: He can just hold the book and go into his ring. Since the space is extra dimensional, the book should come with him and remain there once he exits again. The Ogre Strength Gauntlets aren't affected by size changes, keeping strength always at 19, so it shouldn't be a problem in general to lift the book.


That should work.  I do want to make sure that there's a solution available to parties that don't have a specific subclass, though.  Any other ideas?

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## Pyrophilios

The easiest way would be to have the book be a magic item itself.
Armor resizes for the wearer. A scroll of enlarge/reduce would likely be the next best solution.

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## Bobthewizard

If enlarge/reduce would work, I could take it as a spell during our long rest.

@J-H do we think it would be enough for the book?

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## Bobthewizard

> Barit has his Bottled Respite feature: He can just hold the book and go into his ring.





> With a Dispel or something similar, sure, but you won't be able to go back to small.


If the book won't fit in your ring while it is small, we could dispel your reduction, you grab the book, go in your ring, then we put the giant-to-us ring in the portable hole. The ring would likely fit in a portable hole that reduced with us.

We should also be able to use the neighbor's owls, but that is ultimately up to @Xav since they'd need to change some spells.

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## J-H

That cuts the size by half and the weight by 1/8th.
That would reduce it from, say, 3200 lbs to 400 lbs, which a STR 18 character could get behind and push off the shelf.

That sounds reasonable.  I'd include a scroll of Reduce so that a party that doesn't have the spell could still handle it.

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## Xav

Reducing the book or enlarging one of the characters with high strength (like Raevis) should work.
Also some kind of telekinesis? Mage hand/invisible servant? Familiar, that is summoned near the book. Other sentient summons.

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## J-H

All the magic gets rescaled with you (including Tk effects).  Otherwise, you could do things like blow 3 Large mice apart with a single casting of Magic Missile.

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## Frendle

Honey I shrunk the murder hobos?

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## J-H

You can assume you have some gold left over from the dragon's hoard.

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## Pyrophilios

Enough for two Potions of Animal Friendship at 100gp each?

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## J-H

Sure, that's fine

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## Pyrophilios

Cool, I'll change my last post then

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## Frendle

So it is now evening the day before the party?

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## J-H

It's the afternoon the day before the party.  You have about 26 hours to make any necessary preparations.

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## Xav

So, I've added Animal Friendship (for owls) and Conjure Animals (instead of Call Lightning because house) to memorize.

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## J-H

Has everyone finished their preparations?  Are we ready to time-skip to Shrinking Time?

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## Pyrophilios

Yupp, I certainly am  :Small Big Grin:

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## Bobthewizard

Before we shrink, I think we should find the owls and befriend them. Then we shrink and ride them into the house.

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## Frendle

I'm ready.

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## J-H

If you want to befriend owls, you need to do it before Shrink-Time, and I'll need some details about who's going to try to do it and how.

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## Xav

Raevis. I can describe later, but, basically, via Animal Friendship.

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## Xav

Plan added. I suggest not to hunt for mice ourselves, but to to buy them.

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## J-H

You can certainly find a place to buy live mice, but the mice will be much larger than you when you are shrunken.  How do you plan to move them?

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## Xav

They are needed only to lure owls. Small pieces of food is a material component of the spell, and in this case we must be sure, that owls come. So, mice it is. In no way we are going to take them with us. Although mice riding might be not the worst idea. But then there can be a cat in the house...

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## Bobthewizard

The mice can't get past the wards, only the owls. I think the plan is 

1. buy mice
2. find owls
3. cast animal friendship, using mice as food
4. feed all the mice to the owls
5. shrink
6. ride owls into house
7. find book
8. deploy portable hole below book
9. push book into hole
10. fold up portable hole
11. escape
12. huge profits

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## J-H

Shrinking happens at Olivier's office, unless you want to stand around in an alley in the good part of town doing obvious magic with disappearing (shrinking) people around sunset.

When do you plan to befriend the owls, and how will you reach them?

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## Bobthewizard

If we shrink here, how do we get all the way there? It will be hundreds of miles at our tiny size.

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## Xav

Well, I also thought, that we're going to shrink only near house, after we've befriended the owls.
In other case, I don't know, how do we get there.

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## J-H

Olivier has a box.  He's also got a long string tied to it that you can use to descend the 960' (relative size) stone fence wall, in case you didn't plan for that, and the portable hole folded up and tied to be relatively small (about 50 lbs relative weight).

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## Frendle

I have spider climb and can carry one person at a time over the wall. So long as they don't weigh more than 250 pounds, I can carry us one at a time over the wall ala Princes Bride sans the rope. Then lower each down with the rope on the other side.

It lasts an hour and gives me a climbing speed equal to my walking speed.

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## Bobthewizard

Maybe the rest of us could shrink, then Raevis could stay normal size for now and be the only one to shrink after he befriends the owls. 

J-H, if this adventure relies on us walking through the yard, and using the owls would mess up the adventure, it might be better to have the owls prevented from entering without getting zapped, instead of them having free passage. We wouldn't have even pursued this option if that had been the case.

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## J-H

I think you're going to have trouble reaching the owls, who nest in another estate that has some wards.  There's also the challenge of "befriend when you're human size, then expect that to carry over to when you are snack sized" with creatures that have INT 1 or INT 2.  

Perhaps Olivier could bring up having already thought about charming an owl and dismissed it due to the wards and their lack of intelligence?

The owls add a flying enemy that makes "We'll all just fly across the yard" have an element of risk.  They are 10-20 times the size of the party, and it's hard to hide in midair unless you're outright invisible.

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## Pyrophilios

I'd prefer not flying on owls - or rather make that an option, once we are shrunk. 

A dead mouse should be good enough as bait.

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## Xav

Of course, in this case I'd prefer not to deal with them, and to leave the distraction.
So, we're getting inside without the owl's help. Do we need to describe the way, we are going to get there? I guess, our quest-giver will send there someone with the box, but it'll be probably left behind the fence.

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## Frendle

I had Breddo roll stealth, but do we really want to do that? At least not until we get close?

Maybe even wait till we are in.

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## Xav

> (1d20+7)[8] - Stealth


Looks like night flying acid-spitting ants are coming for me...

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## J-H

Fun fact:  Owls can hunt invisible creatures based on sound.

https://inlightofnature.com/owls-ability-hunt-sound/

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## Frendle

Foreshadowing?

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## Pyrophilios

All the more reason not to sound like a mouse  :Small Wink:

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## J-H

After the joke about flying invisibly across, I decided to see if owls hunted by sound or not, and it turns out that they do.  

I guess it's better insight into how some forms of blindsense or blindsight work.  At some point in the future, I need to equip someone with a group of owls that act as sentinels to spot invisible infiltrators.

What grid square(s) is the party moving through next?

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## Bobthewizard

I like the cover these bushes provide. I would like to change my vote and suggest we mostly move along the west side of the walkway so we can stay under these bushes. So go north 3-4 squares from the top of the bush giving us a little space from the beehives, then cross the walkway, then north under the bushes in the second squares from the walkway.

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## Pyrophilios

Provided there aren't any spiders in those bushes...  :Small Wink: 

We can move on in a straight line to G35, 34, 33, etc. right at the border to the F column - should be good enough for us to reach the safety of the bushes if necessary.

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## Xav

Bees are probably asleep, but either way I'd vote for line E-F. Near the bushes.

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## Frendle

I think we should head straight north through the grass until we get to the two bushes to the north, using them to stay on course, then head west to the walkway.

So head north up column K until row 28, then head west on 28 to row G then head north again.

We need to stay away from those bees, some my still be coming back to the hive.

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## Bobthewizard

> Bees are probably asleep, but either way I'd vote for line E-F. Near the bushes.


I like that line. I think we should stay to the left (E-F) instead of the right (G). Going up G is about 10 rounds (5 dashing) from the bushes. That seems pretty far. I think E-F border makes more sense. 

I think we're at about G-34 right now. So I suggest north to 29 then over to E-F border.

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## J-H

I rolled physical dice for encounter checks per square and rolled a 1 on the first square that could had something.  It's gonna get real, really fast.

Party perception checks vs rolled DC 20
Barit (1d20+4)[*14*]
Breddo (1d20+5)[*11*]
Clip (1d20+4)[*14*]
Raevis  (1d20+7)[*16*] or (1d20+7)[*12*]
*edit: that's bad*
Random targeting in alphabetical order since nobody is trying to hide (1d4)[*4*].  I don't think anyone is walking around with a light source?

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## Xav

No Light, but Raevis' stealth roll was a natural 1, so... Perhaps, he smells tasty?

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## Xav

Well. Two stealth rolls. And both are natural 1. What is this?

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## J-H

Clip's lightning launcher should be doing 1d6+6...how is it doing 1d6+10?

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## Bobthewizard

> Clip's lightning launcher should be doing 1d6+6...how is it doing 1d6+10?


It's 1d20+10 to hit and 1d6+6 damage. I think they are right in my post. they each did 9 damage.

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## J-H

Sorry, you're right. I just can't read right after waking up.

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## Bobthewizard

That's ok. I had a whole reply apologizing for confusing the two modifiers, and then looked it up to make sure I at least did the to hit rolls right.

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## Frendle

I'm gonna put it here cause instants are a pain to retro fit into a post.

If the owl attacks me and it looks like a hit, I will cast *Shield* to hopefully cause a miss.

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## J-H

> Move - move to the bush to the North, behind one of the branches
> Action-hide


You're in the middle of the grassy area, more than a minute's travel away from any bushes.  Would you like to change your action?

Owl con save (1d20+2)[*13*]

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## Xav

> You're in the middle of the grassy area, more than a minute's travel away from any bushes.  Would you like to change your action?


Sorry, missed that one. Yes, no hiding then. I use perception to see, if any more owls are arriving.
(1d20+7)[*15*] - Perception
(1d20+7)[*20*] - advantage

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## J-H

The readied action won't go off until the other two PCs who go before the owl take their turns, and it moves back into range.  I'll hold off on rolling the save until then.

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## J-H

Owl Wis (1d20+1)[*13*]

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## J-H

Are you moving straight up the G line?

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## Bobthewizard

I thought E-F, but if everyone wants G that's fine with me.

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## Xav

I'd say E-F seems kinda better.

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## Frendle

Agreed E - F

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## J-H

*Spoiler: surprise checks*
Show


GM1 (1d20+7)[*11*]
GM2 (1d20+7)[*12*]
vs party passive perceptions

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## J-H

I need to know what order y'all are traveling in.

Init rolls
M1(1d20+4)[*7*]
M2(1d20+4)[*6*]
Barit (1d20+3)[*13*]
Breddo (1d20+2)[*12*]
Clip (1d20+3)[*12*]
Raevis (1d20+3)[*22*], (1d20+3)[*16*]

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## Pyrophilios

> I need to know what order y'all are traveling in.
> 
> Init rolls
> M1[roll0]
> M2[roll1]
> Barit [roll2]
> Breddo [roll3]
> Clip [roll4]
> Raevis [roll5], [roll6]


If no-one stops him, Barit will be up front.

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## Bobthewizard

Looking at the sheets, I would normally recommend Fighter -> Moon Druid -> Warlock -> Artificer bringing up the rear. 

So Bredo, Raevis, Barit, Clip, so 

For this round, it's easy for Barit to move up to the front to cast silent image.

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## Frendle

I'm ok with that order

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## J-H

You can cast Animal Friendship at will, but it's a single target spell, so you can only hit 1 moth this round with it.  Are you going to do the one on the right or on the left?

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## Pyrophilios

I'd say the right one. Should have picked Ifreet as patron than I could crack a joke about moths drawn to the flame...  :Small Big Grin:

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## Xav

My turn now?

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## J-H

Yeah, that was just a reaction to the first attack that hit it.

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## Frendle

Man I can't hit anything with that fire bolt

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## J-H

GM1 Dex save (1d20+4)[*19*]

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## J-H

GM2 Wis save (1d20)[*12*] vs charm

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## J-H

Barit con save (no modifier) (1d20)[*7*]

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## Pyrophilios

Damnit, should have invested into this cloak of protection...  :Small Eek: 
9 vs. DC 10...

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## Xav

Moth on the right (that didn't turn invisible) was not in faerie's fire area of effect?

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## J-H

No, and it's charmed.

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## J-H

I'll be out of town until late Sunday, and probably won't be posting anything here until Monday or Tuesday.

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## J-H

Con (1d20)[*15*] vs scorpion poison

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## Pyrophilios

Con save is a good idea - I assume I get one the next round? 

(1d20+2)[*15*]

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## Bobthewizard

Let's have Clip attack the invisible one instead of the charmed one.

Disadvantage roll 1 (1d20+10)[*12*]
Disadvantage roll 2 (1d20+10)[*14*]

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## J-H

Ooh, that's not going to hit.

Barit does not get to save every round against the sleep effect.

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## Frendle

Breddo will also attack the invisible one.

First
(1d20+10)[*11*]
(1d20+10)[*26*] 
Damage (1d8+6)[*8*]


Second
(1d20+10)[*26*]
(1d20+10)[*13*] 
Damage (1d8+6)[*12*]

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## Pyrophilios

> Ooh, that's not going to hit.
> 
> Barit does not get to save every round against the sleep effect.


Wait - this is a sleep effect? Elfs and Half Elfs are immune to that thanks to fey ancestry:

_Fey Ancestry. 
You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep._

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## J-H

Then yes, Barit is not unconscious.  Fey Ancestry would probably be better phrased as having immunity to the "unconscious" condition.  The bite attack is phrased as "unconscious" but it's really just falling asleep, similar to drow poison and a few other things.

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## Frendle

Is it possible for me to slide around behind the moth to flank it to get rid of the disadvantage?

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## J-H

I don't use the optional flanking rules.

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## J-H

Wis save vs DC 13 (1d20)[*17*]

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## J-H

You can make checks to identify the various animals you're coming across... typically Nature, occasionally Arachna... I mean Arcana.

Your travel path is due north from the current square once you are ready to proceed, correct?

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## Pyrophilios

That's my understanding. 

Here are my rolls for the next encounter  :Small Wink: 

Arcana (1d20+4)[*12*]
Nature (1d20)[*12*]

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## Bobthewizard

Here are mine

Arcana (1d20+9)[*23*]
Nature (1d20+5)[*10*]

Edit: let's hope it's magical

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## J-H

Applying those to the most recent encounter.... not so good on the Nature front so far (but the Druid hasn't rolled).

On the Arcana front, however, *Ghost Moths* are a minor curiousity to illusionists and spell researchers. They are a predatory moth that somehow has an affinity for invisibility, being able to both turn themselves invisible for short time periods as a defense against predation, and actively seeking out items or creatures affected by invisibility magic.  

In theory, a population of them could be used to help detect invisible intruders, but in practice, nobody's figured out how to get a dense enough population to stay in one place long enough for them to be useful.  Things you want to guard usually aren't things you want a few thousand insects and their food around.

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## J-H

1) Continue at normal speed
2) Continue at stealth speed using same rolls
3) Continue at stealth speed using new rolls

First 3 votes decide unless it's a tie.

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## Bobthewizard

> 1) Continue at normal speed
> 2) Continue at stealth speed using same rolls
> 3) Continue at stealth speed using new rolls
> 
> First 3 votes decide unless it's a tie.


I vote normal speed but Clip will slow down if everyone else wants to.

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## Pyrophilios

Same, speed is important

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## Frendle

Bumping is racing. Speed, Speed, Speed.

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## Xav

As I see, stealth rolls don't help much, so - normal speed.

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## J-H

Con save vs paralysis (1d20+1)[*11*]

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## Bobthewizard

Sweet. Everyone, you should get advantage to attack it, and melee hits are automatically crits.

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## Pyrophilios

Wait with that until I tried to charm it. Having a riding lizzard might be a good way also to cut down our travel time.

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## J-H

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there a way to tell if a creature is charmed when it can't act or react?
I don't think you know if it worked or not until the lizard is un-paralyzed.

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## Pyrophilios

Probably - but it should appear a lot calmer - maybe an insight check?

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## J-H

Can a paralyzed creature even move its eyes and breathe?
I think when we had someone paralyzed underwater the answer was either that breathing is still controlled, or the paralyzed creature just holds its breath automatically/frozen.

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## J-H

Eh, go ahead and roll an insight check...but determining the mood of an unintelligent paralyzed animal is DC 18.

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## Pyrophilios

Fair: Insight

(1d20)[*2*]

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## J-H

I'm waiting for a post from Breddo.

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## Pyrophilios

Frendle hasn't been online for over two weeks now, I think we can consider the character lost.

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## Bobthewizard

Crit roll (1d6)[*5*]

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## J-H

You should have two attacks from Extra Attack on your readied attack, then two more attacks from taking your action if that's what you're doing.

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## Bobthewizard

Thanks. I misread the order. Added the extra attacks.

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## J-H

Waiting on Raevis and Barit...or Barit and someone to post for Xav if he's still feeling bad.

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## Pyrophilios

I'll take care of both once I get home

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## J-H

*oops*
The lizard is Gargantuan, and Raevis is only Large as a scorpion, so it's not a valid target for grappling unless you're just trying to hold on and get carried around by it.

If I'd realized earlier, it would have escaped from melee.  Instead, it stayed and died.  It had 171hp, and you all had it to 170 damage before I rolled the save vs. poison.

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## J-H

DM rolls because I'm not around my physical dice
*Spoiler*
Show


(9d8)[*7*][*4*][*1*][*6*][*7*][*8*][*1*][*1*][*4*](39)

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## Bobthewizard

Now that we are closer, do we see any good entrances for creatures our size - cracks under the door, keyholes, slightly open windows?

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## J-H

From what you can see and what you know of how houses are usually built, you've got 3 options:

1.  There's a good chance you could fit into a crack under the kitchen door.
2.  Most brick houses have weep holes built into the brick near the bottom to allow any moisture that gets inside to drain out.  You could probably find one of these.
3.  There are windows, but they do not appear to be open.  You could perhaps find a way to unlatch one and go in that way.

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## J-H

Can I get a specific route in map coordinates, please?

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## Bobthewizard

I would say D 10 close to C then straight north until we get to the door. If we can get under the door, that might be easiest. If not then we'll look for other ways in.

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## J-H

I'm getting the idea that we need to recruit another player.

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## Bobthewizard

Is it just Pyro and me left?

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## J-H

I think so.  Xav hasn't posted since December 9.

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## Bobthewizard

Then let's at least get a 3rd, and maybe a 4th.

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## J-H

Recruit via PM or try public posting?
Having multiple games with all the same players is great as long as everyone stays available, but if/when someone drops, it then impacts all of the games at once.

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## Pyrophilios

I'd say recruit public. The regulars that I played with that were reliable haven't been around in a while  :Small Frown:

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## Bobthewizard

I'm fine with either

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