Fuck it, let's try to tame the wolf. An extra meat shield in a fight is never a bad thing. I'm hoping we can trade up to griffons or wyverns soon though, flying mounts is where it's at.

Ah, but in order to access the full capabilities of your mount, you gotta burn up a feat slot and take "Mounted Combat". Can you afford the feat tax? :tpg:

I'm okay with training it, but don't expect Ebony to be happy around a wolf that tried to bite his head off.

The wolf probably won't be happy to hang around with a Kobold who threw an axe at it and stabbed it in the face either, I'm sure we can work round it.

He fuckin' deserved it. I was bleeding out.

Diplomacy is clearly the answer to all of life's problems!

Wait, these two are still alive? Get a move on, I've got a sorcerer in platemail in the wings here.

Don't worry, the giant wolf sees us as a main course. :(

Surely you don't get enough feats by level 5 for that to be a viable option. I'm sure when I worked it out for Bob he needed to be level 10 or so before platemail became a sensible choice.

No doubt we'll die soon though. We almost got killed by the warm up group so once we're fighting monsters a higher level than us it's not going to take long to kill us off, especially since our dailies will inevitably miss because the dice hate me.

Also, I wish I'd started posting in first person in this adventure, I'm running out of descriptions for "The old cleric" and "Elderly lycanthrope" whereas I could be rolling on with I and my. :(

Additional Spam:
Also, if I use Healing Word and burn the Wolf's surge, does that count as one of our required skill passes?

Additional Spam:
Also also, surely as we're no longer strictly in a combat situation Ivory can just lower himself off the roof by his arms rather than jumping? I know I can scale my way down a 12 foot drop without serious injury and I'm not a trained warrior so surely if the wolf holds off on biting him Ivoery can get himself to the floor injury free?

If you really want to burn its only surge for the day, it's fair enough to consider it an automatic success. Otherwise it's a DC17 Heal check that can only be used for 1 success.

Arguably you aren't weighing yourself down with bulky armor and assorted adventurer's tools and provisions weighing dozens of pounds either :tpg:

But all right. I'll let you scale your way down, DC15 Athletics. If you fail, you take the damage :)

Additional Spam:
Sorceror? Really? Isn't he like the worst striker ever? You're supposed to show me a super-optimized character amirite :D

FUCKING BASTARD CUNTING DICE FUCKERS.

Seriously, my luck is just non-existant in this adventure.

Ahahaha, dice are loaded against you, mate.

Care to try your luck before I update, lurker?

Additional Spam:
Do remember that you can use "Aid Another" for all rolls. Just roll a 1d20 check of the same skill. If you hit DC10+half your level (12) then the aided roll gains a +2 bonus. Otherwise there is a -1 penalty.

Does that also carry a -5 penalty?

Yep. Until you try to make nice with a DC20 diplomacy check (Ebony's diplomacy is 1 so, uh... you need to roll 19+ to succeed unaided and without props!)

Are all of Shin's rolls thus far failures?

Nope.

I'll let you know which checks succeed or fail once the challenge ends. :)

Shin help :(

Additional Spam:
Also: Zerg you said that I have to beat 12 in order to aid someone. Does that include my score for that skill? So like, if I have a 12 in Athletics and I roll a 6, but I also have that -5 debuff, does this mean I still help Shin's roll?

Yes to both questions.

But Shin's athletics roll was to let him avoid falling damage. He didn't actually roll Athletics as part of the skill challenge, I don't think. So there's no -5 debuff in this case.

Additional Spam:
Psst psst psst. Remember when I gave Shin a +5 for offering food during diplomacy? No reason for me to deny it to you :)

My second athletics roll was for the skill challenge though!

Yeah, but lurks specifically mentioned aiding your attempt to climb down. Your athletics check to tame the wolf doesn't need any aiding. ;)

So thus far, here are the rolls:

Ebony's roll to aid Ivory in climbing down: 18 PASS
Ivory's roll to climb down: Athletics 9 FAIL (take 9 falling damage)
Ebony attempts to bond with the wolf: Diplomacy 19 FAIL (DC20)
Ivory patches up the wolf without using healing word: Heal 18 (counts as one-time success/failure)
Ivory uses his nature knowledge to recall prior knowledge about the wolf: Nature 15 (primary skill)
Ivory uses his athletics ability to restrain the wolf: Athletics 20 (primary skill)
Ivory tries to calm the wolf by saying a prayer for its soul: Religion 23 (success will make all future rolls easier by +2)

I'll be officially updating in maybe 10 hours' time. Let's give lurker enough time to digest! Since it's a crying shame to miss a very difficult diplomacy check by just 1...

that was flavor text, as Shin didn't specify what Ivory was doing with regards to his athletic roll.

Additional Spam:
also can't Shin just Aid Another?

Sure he can. But he has to say so explicitly. And it has to be the same skill (diplomacy).

Though! The offer to give power bonus if food is a component of your diplomacy check, still stands.

Is that what you were trying to tell me?

Yes. Being subtle is not my strong suit :(

Just say it out straight next time! I was wondering all this time why Shin didn't Aid Another (me).