I haven't been on skype for a while now, and even then it is never that long. Sorry about that ;P. When is your birthday Owen? I have long since forgotten.

Well, there's not much activity over there, either, but when there is it's not hard for me to notice, unlike the echo chamber of solitude (haha, that sounds like the secret base of a really self-important politician-based superhero) that the Q&A is most of the time.

Anyway, the date was on the 11th there, just a couple day ago now.

What do you do? And more importantly: what do you think?

I freeze for a moment, wondering whether or not these monkeys have long fangs designed to puncture deep into flesh and rupture internal organs.

With mere seconds to spare, I gather my wits and throw up a defensive wind spell that flings the monkeys back from me in all directions.

After that I activate the protection matrix woven into my longcoat while drawing a black metal rod, about and inch thick and approximately two feet long. Finally, I wait to see if the monkeys change their mind or continue even despite their failed ambush before using more drastic measures to counter them.

(btw, I'm picturing them as literal monkey-sized creatures with large bat-wings, feel free to correct me. The wind spell would be set to throw them back regardless of size, aided by the fact that flying creatures suffer penalty against wind)

[Q&A] You should maybe check out Skype concerning actually picking our next heading. We (I)'ve determined that the treasure map led to somewhere around D5 or D6, so one of those two is likely to be our start. I've also detailed how long it should be before Kyrie returns to full health (I think it was the 14th?) and we can set out.

Alas, I am fairly busy atm, being at work and all. I will see if I can log in tonight for an update.

Did you take into account that I get a +2 to appraise from Stonecunning? I actually don't remember if I took out stonecunning for an alternate racial trait, so let me know about that too! XD

Oh, I guess Appraise can be used untrained.

Well, I've counted it now (according to your char sheet you still have it... but then your char sheet also neglects to add your +1 Int bonus to Appraise checks).

Either way, Frodrick's skill at appraisal does not serve him in identifying whether the rock is at all valuable.

Also there's kind of a lot of stuff posted on Skype yesterday, if you wanted to check that out. A few of those things might be interesting to know for the party's Guide.

So the one-eyed dwarf can spot a bear trap in the midst of a bunch of foilage, can scrounge for food in the wilderness, and can ride a horse into battle, but he'd be damned if he knew what the hell that shiney gold stuff is. What a pathetic dwarf. Next thing you know, he will be shaving his beared and turning to the ways of counter-industrialization (druidaism)! Or perhaps he shall take of his armour and take up the leotard and join the great traveling troup: Soup of Sun! ;P

I will get on Skype tonight, but this does not bode well if the dwarf is the guide of this party!

Hehe, in Frodrick's defence, he's a warrior, not a miner. He has never studied dungeoneering or was trained in the art of valuing precious metals, despite having something more of a natural eye for it than a layman of any other race XD

What he was trained in, however, is how to survive off the land and keep a careful watch out for hazards or possible enemy attack.

I was just working off of the stereotypical dwarf: covetus, subterranean, and crotchedy. Frodrick only fills one of those three aspects.

It's funny, I was looking at a section about character creation earlier and I noticed to my amusement

"For instance, if you're playing the aforementioned dwarven fighter, perhaps one of the following holds:

You have taken a vow against drinking, can't hold your liquor, or act in a peculiar, eccentric way when drunk."

(the other five suggestions that were there didn't quite apply to you, since you do wield and axe, have a beard, are not a pacifist, and do hate goblins, though the 'lives in a forest' one came awfully close)

Anyway I thought I should point out that on Skype I mentioned that we've been on the road for a week and two days, leaving 5 days left on our two-week soft limit (i.e. the length of time for which we've packed enough food for four humans, a dwarf, and four horses) would give us time to explore at least one hex from where we are and get back either slightly before or slightly later than this limit ('soft' because if it's like 2 weeks and 4 days it's not going to be that huge of deal).

Or to be more specific *copy-pastes from convo*
[3:47:50 AM] MortalCuriosity: You could explore the area of the old bandit camp (destroyed more than a month ago) then head back home, you could instead fill out that section of forest above that and be back with a day to spare. You could explore either of the tree or bridge hexes then shoot back north and come in just a little late again. You could even Go south for a day to the river, assemble the wagon into a makeshift raft, set the horses and dwarf free, then set sail for the Tuskwater and whatever waters run further south from the Little Selen River.

EDIT: Also, that proposed route I estimate to take approximately 15 days, 18 to get back or so. Assuming you mean starting at D5 (where we are) rather than D1 (where we were a month ago)

EDIT2 (The Editor Strikes Back): Also the river hexes, as long as there is a bridge across the river in that hex (or an easily traverse-able ford, like next to the bandit camp) then it only takes the normal length of time to explore the whole hex. If not, and no other means of crossing the river in a timely manner arises (boatwagon plan gains force here) then you'll have to explore it from opposite sides of the river before you can consider it fully explored (regardless whether there is an Event in the hex that you've already encountered on the correct side of the river).

I had stated that in my notes: we would have to go aroundafter exploring the bandit camp hex.

I am too lazy to redo my post. so fly with it someone and point out that we cant all salvage like a baws. (Cause you know, Frodrick can.) Lets just say he is being a silly dwarf and neglecting that fact.

Well, Frodrick is a pretty silly dwarf, but besides that it's quite a possibility if Frodrick could scavenge enough food for the whole party that we could stay out plenty longer (well, except for the horse's nutrition, come to think of it), thought doing so would also slow us down even more than we already are.

Also, the half-exploration wasn't my main point. It was that the bridges allow for normal time, contrary to the suspicion posted, namely with regards to D4. For C3 you were entirely correct (obviously) XD

But I thought horses could graze on newly budding grass for a bit there. Or would that be like me eating (only) an apple a day? I don't know about animal nutrition to say anything on the subject.

From what little I've read of it, it's basically one of the most common horse-related mistakes in fantasy (right behind horse-equals-motorcycle). It's like eating an apple, going on an 8-hour hike, then eating another apple to finish the day.

A horse under light labour (I don't know how much labour 8-hours riding and/or pulling wagon counts as) needs at least 1.5-2 lbs of hay per 100lb of horse (which run ~1000-1200lbs) and .5-1 lb of grainfeed (can be as simple as a mixture of oats and whatnot). They can sustain themselves on grazing, but it's looking at about 15-20 lbs of it stopping at frequent intervals throughout the day, but also giving them actual feed is better off.

For simplicity's sake horse feed/day is 0.05G and 10lbs. For even simpler simplicity's sake we're already ignoring the necessity of food except to pretend that we have enough for a journey lasting just over 2 weeks at a time.

Out of curiosity I tried to look up how much water a horse takes, and I only came up with a vague probably twice as much (unless you've seen that more specifically elsewhere).

Trail Rations x5 x14 = 70lbs
Horse Feed x4 x14 = 560lbs
Water x5 x14 = 280lbs
Water x4 x2 x14 = 448lbs
1358lbs of sustenance to take with us (not counting when the horses can just get water from the rivers but otherwise skeptical about that horse water req.)

That said I am so glad we're not keeping track of this stuff. Things like this are so much nicer when they happen automatically behind the scenes and don't just become another thing no one remembers to keep track of until everyone should be half-dead of starvation and thirst XD