Expedition: Fingers/The Ghostly Trial - 16 July 2021

[Zhym]

"Can I keep the sword if I name it 'Penderyn?'" asks Fingers. "That's a better tribute than leaving it in a tomb no one visits, right?"

He wipes his nose on his sleeve and looks toward the entrance to the tomb, then off toward town. "I guess the question is whether everyone will come back if we haul all this stuff to town," says Fingers, looking at Allmond. "The stuff that's in that tomb still needs to be set right and all, right?"

[Alethan]

Bandy pipes up, "After getting this armour adjusted for my size, I'll return to help set it straight."

[DavetheLost]

We can honour Baudh and the former owners of these relics by using them to assist in cleansing this place. We should also give a tithe to the temple upon our return.

[Marullus]

That sounds like everyone is okay going back to town, cashing out, sizing Bandy's armor, and returning?

How much do you take, and how are you transporting?

[Zhym]

Do we need to re-recruit Allmond if we do?

500 lbs of gold is 100 lbs each. We won't be able to carry all that back unless someone has a bag of holding or something. Is there any landmark where we could cache or bury the remaining loot?

[Marullus]

viewtopic.php?f=353&t=5467&start=20#p245719
You can carry 160lbs each if you have sacks/packs to do it. You can carry up to 320 each if you drag sledges.

I won't make you re-recruit Allmond.

[Zhym]

I don't suppose there's anything around to make sledges with, is there?

Fingers has a backpack and one small sack. Is anyone else set up better for lugging coins back to town?

[Marullus]

There are no forests in sight. Allmond points out that he and Heingist currently have a pair of extra staves between them. That can make at least one sledge or stretcher. If they use their new magic staves as well, it could be two... But they're then unarmed.

You could use a coffin... We will say that adds 100lbs.

[Zhym]

Okay. So let's say 320 lbs of gold on a sledge, 100 in a coffin, and the other 80 split among PCs. The silver and copper we could either leave out or try to stash somewhere. I don't suppose we have a way to dig a hole?

I don't like moving at 1/4 speed; we seem to run into so many random encounters that way. But I guess it's better than leaving all the gold sitting out. Maybe.

[Marullus]

320lbs of gold on a sledge.
A 100lb coffin, then holding 220lbs of material.
That's two of you occupied with dragging.
There are more coffins - the other three of you could each drag 220lbs as well.

[Zhym]

Are you saying that the 100 lb coffin full of 220 lbs of gold would ride on the sledge? Or that we could pull the coffin and be able to carry 540 lbs of stuff with the sledge and the coffin?

I don't like having everyone loaded down with loot. It may not make a difference in game mechanics, but it seems unwise to have everyone slow and laden in case of random encounters—which happened a lot on Olaf's trip back from the Morlock caves, mostly because the group was crawling back to town for carrying all that loot back.

I'm tempted to say we carry what we can at no slower than half speed, stash what we can't, and get back to town as quickly as possible. What does everyone else think?

[Marullus]

Are you saying that the 100 lb coffin full of 220 lbs of gold would ride on the sledge? Or that we could pull the coffin and be able to carry 540 lbs of stuff with the sledge and the coffin?

A coffin with 220lbs in it IS a sledge.

[Zhym]

So that would be two sledges: one made with spare staffs, the other by dumping some poor corpse out of its coffin. Right?

[DavetheLost]

A coffin sledge should be pretty quick to drop if we get jumped. Hengist at least has a mundane mace as a backup weapon. We would be traveling very slowly though.

[Marullus]

2mph in the plains X .25 speed (instead of .75 speed). About 8 miles to the Ford. So it was about 6 hours here and is 16 hours home. That's four encounter rolls (every four hours outdoors).

I need confirmation of what you take and what you leave.

[Zhym]

And we can't move any faster by half-loading the sledges, I assume?

If that's correct, I think we should bring one spare-staff sledge and two coffins, for a total carrying capacity of 940 lbs. That gets us 5000 gp, 4400 sp, and however many SP we can stuff into our pockets. Call it 5000 sp total for a nice even number, which assumes we can find room in our pocketses for 60 lbs of silver. We leave the other silver in the tombs. Markd, Hengist, and Allmond would drag sledges. Fingers would scout about 180' ahead, hoping that his cloak lets him see any potential encounters before they see him. Bandy stays back and acts as guard for the sledge-haulers.

Unless...

Would Bandy the halfling be any harder to spot than Fingers in the elven cloak? Or does the halfling skill at blending in not stack with the cloak? If it does, Fingers might loan the cloak to Bandy to act as scout. Then Fingers would hang back as sledge guard.

[Marullus]

You can move at half-speed (8 hour trip) if you each are at a max load of 79lbs. I ask you count what's in sacks, backpack, and worn gear appropriately.

[Zhym]

Sorry—I ninja-edited my post. Also, that didn't quite answer my question, which is whether we can carry things on a sledge any faster if the sledge isn't at full load. I assume by the response that the answer is no? Whether you're carrying an empty sledge or one loaded with 380 lbs of stuff, the movement rate is at 1/4?

[Marullus]

Yes, I want you to have proper containers if you're moving faster. Sledges are awkward and slow (full or not) but evade the container rule. I will allow the staves and blanket to be used for a stretcher that can carry the 158lbs for the two guys holding it, as a container.

[Zhym]

320lbs of gold on a sledge.
A 100lb coffin, then holding 220lbs of material.
That's two of you occupied with dragging.
There are more coffins - the other three of you could each drag 220lbs as well.

I'm really having trouble understanding what the rules are here. I thought the above meant that we could have one person dragging the staves-and-blanket sledge and one person dragging a coffin. But now that would take three people? And the staves-and-blankets sledge would only carry 158 lbs?

This is getting to be way more of a pain in the ass than it's worth.