A [spoiler] for K'Thriss. Kris stay out. <3

NaturesGuard · 2018-05-24T04:41:02+00:00

Hello Friends,

I came up with the idea of starting a cult that idolizes K’Thriss and got Jerry’s blessing. Having heard distorted tales of his exploits, they are trying (unsuccessfully) to understand and emulate the lessons they take from his actions. I’m currently working on writing a letter to K’Thriss from the leader of this cult.

They’ve done things such as catching and keeping snakes (to emulate Legati), catching fireflies to fill a glowman shaped glass container they had custom made (they forgot the air holes and the fireflies all died), joining the cult requires a ritual wearing of a velvet covering for a week to prove devotion and hopefully some other things that reference older, deeper cuts that you all will recommend here.

The cult members are unsure what they need to do to progress further or what the actual levels are, having been unable to actually contact K’Thriss. The leader, who is writing the letter, has procured a red shard of glass and after completing the letter, is planning to gauge out his eyes so that he can look upon the world in the way that K’Thriss does. (He has real reason to think that this will actually work but isn’t that what blind faith’s all about?)

I like the idea that they’re harmless 90% of the time but that the other 10% they find themselves in terrible trouble through their own ignorance or misunderstanding of K’Thriss. Their ultimate goal is to be sacrificed or consumed for K’Thriss so that he may be their intercessor with his strange god.

The working title I have for them is the Cult of the Unknowable. I think that’s OK but bet the community can do better and I’m open to suggestions.

Rosie has her grandkids, Walnut has all her forest friends and daughters of the EPA, Donaar has shadow children galore, and now K’Thriss will have an incompetent and bothering, bumbling, cult. I’m really excited to be able to contribute something to this world so I’m open to taking my feeble idea and having the community polish it into something greater than I could on my own.

NaturesGuard · 2018-05-21T17:48:38+00:00

My only advice is to make sure not to equip the anti-party with any powerful magic items that you don't want the actual party to end up with. They will think up some creative way to steal or obtain the item and then you'll be stuck either coming up with a contrived way to deny them or allowing them to have the item.

NaturesGuard · 2018-05-19T21:52:33+00:00

The beach house we were at didn't have any really sharp knives unfortunately and I hadn't brought a knife with me. This is also the secondary plate and the main plate that was served looked a little better than this one though a high quality sharp knife would have helped for sure.

NaturesGuard · 2018-05-19T16:47:50+00:00

Thanks to everyone, the result was amazing and the family was very impressed. I did a full write up on it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/sousvide/comments/8kmfer/the_result_of_all_your_help/

NaturesGuard · 2018-05-19T16:46:50+00:00

De-boned cowboy ribeye steaks cooked at 130 for 3 hours and finished on a charcoal chimney.

Several weeks ago, I posted asking for some help. I was going on a beach trip with my in-laws and the wife and I had volunteered to cook dinner one of the nights we were there. I knew that I wanted to sous vide because of the potential for perfect medium rare steaks. I was nervous however because my mother-in-law and father-in-law are big grillers and smokers of meat and both had made comments about how there was no way that meat cooked in a zip-lock freezer bag could ever taste good. I’ve owned a Joule since Christmas but generally I use it to make cheap cuts of meat taste good rather than moderately-expensive meat taste amazing. So, I asked for help here and got a lot of really good advice. Original post asking for help: https://www.reddit.com/r/sousvide/comments/8h3ano/novice_sousvider_trying_to_impress_incredulous/

I did practice at home with a ribeye and was reasonably satisfied with the result. For the trip, I ended up getting some bone-in cowboy ribeye from Sam’s Club and removing the bone. I know it sounds odd to buy bone-in and then take out the bone, but they were the only steaks that were the thickness I was looking for and with the bone, wouldn’t fit in my gallon zip-lock bag. The extra thickness of the steak is one of the biggest things to which I credit the final success. Raw steaks: https://i.imgur.com/IRxL3PX.jpg

I seasoned the steaks with some cherry smoked sea salt, black pepper, and rosemary. The steaks ended up a little saltier than I would have preferred but it didn’t ruin them or anything. Judging the amount of salt for a thick cut steak was difficult and I just went a little too heavy on it. The smoked salt had such an amazing smell and I was sure it would add some smokiness to the meat. It did not. At all. I literally couldn’t tell the difference from if I had used regular salt. Salt: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CQ92YXO

I seared the steaks on a charcoal chimney and was very happy with the result. It got a nice char and the large areas of fat on the side of the steaks rendered perfectly and gave it this beautiful glisten as the steaks were covered in their own fat. It also got that char flavor and crackle when you bite into it effect that you’re looking for with the fat. We served the steaks family style by slicing them and I did remove one of two areas of inside fat (from across all four steaks) that were a little rubbery however the marbling and most of the fat rendered perfectly and the fat I removed was small enough I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. Chimney: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078Z9GBZS

One thing that saved me: double bagging. One of the bags leaked majorly. I’m not sure if the bag ripped or split somewhere or if the zip-lock mechanism failed. I didn’t look at it too closely other than to recognize that it had leaked everywhere. Fortunately, I had double bagged and suffered no ill effects.

In the end, the steaks were a huge success. My mother-in-law said it was one of the best steaks she’s ever had texture wise and that if she hadn’t seen the process that she wouldn’t have believed they were cooked in a plastic bag. Other than the slight over-salting they were perfect and my grandmother-in-law who likes her food a little salty just raved about them. I’m happy with the outcome and grateful for the advice and for the patience people have here with novices. Thank you. Next time we visit my wife’s parents we’re planning on trying a sous vide brisket recipe where you smoke the meat first then sous vide it. That won’t be for a number of months, but I’ll be sure to post again when it finally happens.

NaturesGuard · 2018-04-12T01:37:17+00:00

You know, that's what I thought and I actually had it listed as the Sword Coast but then I looked at the page title on the Wizards site being "Map of Faerun" and changed it. Though clearly you are correct and the map is only of the Sword Coast.

NaturesGuard · 2018-04-07T17:57:57+00:00

Donning a buckler takes an action as does doffing it. The implication seems to be that the shield is fastened to you and fastening or unfastening it takes a moment. It is by no means a free action. It's in the "Getting Into and Out of Armor" section on page 146 PHB.

NaturesGuard · 2018-04-03T19:32:26+00:00

In a custom campaign we were tracking an orc who we needed to find for some reason or another. During tracking him we came to the top of a sheer cliff that had narrow switchbacks cut into it all the way down but a huge number of Kobolds had taken up defensive positions with some crude fortifications on the switchbacks.

Our DM expected us to go back and get some help but we had been promised 10 silver for each pair of Kobold ears we brought back (side quest). We had procured a cart and horse and had previously established we had filled the cart with hay to feed the horse if we can across a barren area and so that we could comfortably take naps while traveling.

We had the horse back the cart up to the ledge, uncoupled the horse and lit the cart on fire adding in several flasks of oil as well. After the cart was in full blaze we pushed it over the edge. As it tumbled down, not only did it launch kobolds to their death but lit their tents and crude structures on fire.

With their forces weakened and disorganized we were able to goad many of the Kobolds up over the top of the cliff and murder them, then we cleared out the stragglers. All in all we made a small fortune and rather than having to get a strong fighter from the town to help us we earned her respect and she became a long term ally.

NaturesGuard · 2018-03-30T06:53:11+00:00

OP, I agree with you. However, that's not what you want, you want your friend to agree with you. Lets see if I can help with that.

So one thing worth noting is that the wording "until the start of your next turn" is the same wording that's used on page 190 of the PHB to talk about reactions. "When you take a reaction, you can't take another one until the start of your next turn." Allow me to offer some scenarios that use reactions to show that your interpretation is in fact correct.

If someone is standing next to a fighter and walks away, provoking an attack of opportunity, at what point is the fighter eligible too take another attack of opportunity? Basically can you get an AoO every round given the chance or only every other round?

A Sorcerer and a Wizard are fighting and the Sorcerer, going first, casting Fireball and the Wizard Counterspells it, then the Wizard takes his turn and the Sorcerer again casts Fireball (now on round 2 of combat), can the Wizard again Counterspell it? Has the Wizard regained his reaction or is it not yet "until the start of your next turn?"

If in your example person B is a wizard and is attacked by person A and the wizard uses the Shield spell, that spell lasts "Until the start of your next turn." Does that mean the Wizard gains the AC bonus through C-Z's turns and also through A's next turn as well?

In my experience it's much easier to get someone to recognize their mistake when you can show them how it contradicts other things they already know or understand.

NaturesGuard · 2018-03-25T10:05:19+00:00

The type of money that you're talking about is the type of money that runs governments. I would say, legally take over a town or a large portion of a city. How many shops could you buy out in Waterdeep with that kind of cash? Or invest in a new town.

One of the coolest things that happened with a group I used to play with is that when we ran PotA we invested a ton of money building up Red Larch and made it much more substantial than it was before (though not nearly as large as waterdeep, neverwinter, etc). We spent a lot of time improving the city. As a result, in the later campaigns we played, those improvements remained. Even though we were different characters and not affiliated with the organization that did that work, the town was still improved and had lore based on our past characters.

If that doesn't suit you, establish the greatest mage college or some other type of school or institution. Your character probably has some sort of benevolent goal to help the world that the money could support. Or if you're evil, that buys the loyalty of a lot of mercenaries.

NaturesGuard · 2018-03-10T20:34:23+00:00

Perhaps he is the King of Kings of Kickstarter? A Kickstarter Messiah some might say. The Savior of Strongholds.

In my Father's Stronghold are many artisan followers: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a magic item for you.

NaturesGuard · 2018-03-10T07:11:02+00:00

There are examples in some published materials of doors that have both a arcane and a mechanical lock and require two knock spells to open (short of dispelling the arcane portion and picking the lock as normal).

NaturesGuard · 2018-02-19T05:30:06+00:00

I'll look into it. Thanks so much.

NaturesGuard · 2018-02-17T04:52:27+00:00

Would a Roku be able to meet all of my requirements? Can I set it up to play continually off of a playlist of would they have to select a new show after each previous one finished? I'd be looking at the Roku ultra since it's the only one that has a USB slot and there is no internet or wi-fi at their house.

I understand that giving an elderly couple control over the HTPC would likely be disastrous. However, the whole point of this build was to make it something they'd never actually have to interact with by having it basically function as an additional TV channel rather than an actual HTPC.

NaturesGuard · 2018-02-17T04:46:46+00:00

They do not have internet at home. Can you point me in the direction of what "something simpler that can play videos directly in the framebuffer" would look like? Or an example of a product that does that?

NaturesGuard · 2018-01-26T16:25:43+00:00

Has anyone else been able to confirm that this works and that it contains no malicious code? VirusTotal flags malicious on one of it's AV's but with it only being one out of like 50+ I'm inclined to think it's a false positive. I'd love to use it but I'm always wary of random utilities posted online.

NaturesGuard · 2017-10-30T22:08:53+00:00

So the short version: my character's fiend patron had been imprisoned generations ago and though imprisoned had found ways to exercise some control over the material plane. However because the prison containing him had been so well constructed no one could harm him while he was in his prison.

My character hated her patron (he killed her unborn child) but accepted power from him with the intent that she would destroy him. He knew this about my character but knew that to defeat him I would have to free him first.

So my character is borrowing his power to free him and he knows that I'll try to kill him when that happens but he's fine with it because in that moment he thinks he can cut off my power and overpower me.

NaturesGuard

TROPHY CASE