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Post by WxMAN on Feb 1, 2018 15:27:16 GMT -6
Just start with 7th level as you reached that level when the combat was over and it'll make life easier for everyone that way
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Post by WxMAN on Feb 5, 2018 9:55:38 GMT -6
A quick clarification from Friday night: The start of next session will begin where the last session left off, as normal. There are currently no known external threats to the Shieldlands by the PCs are allies of the kingdom. Any potential internal threat has taken a back seat to rebuilding and re-establishing normalcy. All of that means that we may go through several months quickly early next session - so give a few minutes of thought as to what your character will be doing about the kingdom in the case we go through several months of kingdom building with minimal threat. Some things to think about: - What will your PC be doing within the Kingdom for the next few months?
- What kind of celebration (if any) will be done for the year anniversary of the founding of the Shieldlands? How many BP will be spent on it? A note: every 2 BP spent will remove 1 point of unrest from the Kingdom.
- What are each PC's thoughts and plans RE: Andrei's marriage. How quickly is Andrei preparing to wed Liliya? How (if at all) has Tess' relay of Walays' revelation of Hana's intentions (whew! it is a soap opera!) changed those plans?
- What will you be planning on building? There have already been several suggestions: cemetery, wizard academy, tavern, etc.
- How will Melinkova begin to integrate within the Kingdom - and how will each PC interact with her?
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 5, 2018 10:35:23 GMT -6
FRAK! I had a long, in depth response typed up in the Quick Reply thing and Chrome crashed on me before I could submit it.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 5, 2018 11:16:18 GMT -6
1. Activity: Andrei will be alternating his time in the dual roles of Ruler and General (since he's still handling both), as well as getting to know his bride-to-be. 2. Celebration: At the minimum, I'd recommend 2 BP. When does this expenditure take place? If it happens during the Edict phase (which I'd initially suspect), then theoretically, we could roll well on the opening Stability check and already be down to just 1 Unrest. 3. Marriage: My response to this one is a long one. First and foremost, at the earliest opportunity - in fact, this may have happened on the first evening - he's going to have a one-on-one conversation with her where he goes out of his way to establish that, if she is being pressured to wed him against her will, then the wedding is off because he's only going to wed her if she is willing. Now logically, if she's the younger sister of an established Lady or the younger daughter of a landed nobleman, then she's likely to see the marriage as a way for her to become the mistress of her own domain & is unlikely to just throw that opportunity away. Besides, Andrei is a likeable fellow (CHA 14) so that is an advantage. Regarding the "how soon" question, well, logically, the sooner the better as he needs heirs to cement his position as Ruler. At the same time, he has no desire to pressure Lady Liliya into this (as stated above.) Ideally, the grand celebration should coincide with the wedding (which would then explain the great feast and the like.) As to the revelations that Tess dropped in his lap, well ... Andrei is in a quandary here. He would like to consider himself an honorable guy (initial character weirdness with the bandit thing in session 1 aside; I blame that on what TVTropes calls " Early Installment Weirdness" ... I hadn't nailed down his character.) so he's honor-bound to fulfil his side of the marriage contract. Further, this is an arranged marriage and, while Hannah is the second-in-charge of Mivon (currently), she is not (as far as I'm aware) actual nobility. Her (aborted) proposal also hinges on the presumption that Brevoy loses the war and the locals in the region accept the other guy as the new ruler of Rostland (instead of, FREX, demanding a local Rostlander nobleman rather than the "foreigner.") All that said, Andrei is more than aware that having Mivon as an enemy is not something the Shieldlands needs or wants, so he's definitely going to be looking at some way to patch up this issue without it leading to bloodshed or ill feelings. Besides, for all we know, poor Liliya could die in childbirth (though with clerics available, I'm not sure how that would happen with nobility) ... or could be murdered by A. her own Family who use this death as a pretext for war; B. fucking Nimbleshanks; C. Walker's brother who has gone irredemibly evil; and D. some other, currently unknown enemy of the Shieldlands. Or, for that matter, Hannah herself might get gaked in the war. At least initially, he's going to consult only a small number of individuals about this - Jhod, who has sort of turned into his personal advisor; Tess & Walays (because they already know); maybe Svetlana - and try to hash out a way to resolve this without it blowing up in his face. Which we all know that it absolutely will. 4. Building: This is another potentially long one. First, we need more farms to reduce our Consumption (especially as we continue to expand.) I'd like to at least look at building some roads to connect our three settlements, and would also like us to expand to include both the dwarven Watchtower and the elven Castle, which we could repair and integrate into the realm. Regarding the settlement construction, I think a Graveyard (4BP, +1 Loyalty) in Fort Voronkov is a good idea for our "honored dead" but we're also at the size (11-25 hexes) where we can build two buildings per turn. "The first House you build during the Improvement phase does not count against the total number of buildings you can build during the phase" (3BP, -1 Unrest) so we should look at that, probably at Tatzleford, and perhaps also add an Inn (10 BP, +1 Economy, Loyalty) there as well. Adding the Tavern (12 BP, +1 Economy, Loyalty) to the capital should be in month 2, with maybe a Shop (8 BP, +1 Loyalty) or another Tavern to Tatzlford, or perhaps an actual Inn at Svetlanagrad. Then, around month 3, we should probably look at adding a Shrine (8BP, Loyalty +1, -1 Unrest) to the capital and maybe some other stuff. I'd like to add a Shop there as well but we definitely need to upgrade our other holdings as well. Plus, as stated, farms. And fisheries. And roads. 5. Cannot answer this until Xenocore gives us a better grasp on the character.
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Post by WxMAN on Feb 5, 2018 12:39:19 GMT -6
Obsidian Portal updated, as well as the XP/Kingdom timeline. If Rigil would be so kind as to fill in the Kingdom stats (Economy, Loyalty, etc etc) from the May rolls on the timeline I'd appreciate it - I've still gotta look up the unrest thing....
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 5, 2018 15:29:53 GMT -6
Obsidian Portal updated, as well as the XP/Kingdom timeline. If Rigil would be so kind as to fill in the Kingdom stats (Economy, Loyalty, etc etc) from the May rolls on the timeline I'd appreciate it - I've still gotta look up the unrest thing.... Kingdom stats amended. Also included an extra note regarding the unrest thing. Regarding that, the Unrest on the Kingdom spreadsheet is currently missing the 6 that I think were erroneously added in the wake of the craziness and my original misunderstanding of how that was going to work. I believe that I originally calculated how much unrest the damaged buildings would remove, then added it back which I don't think was accurate. If that was in error, then Unrest needs to be increased to 8 (which is Ouch...) Also, you were going to look into transferring magical bonuses from one item to another or perhaps finding a way to emulate the Ancestral Relic feat from 3.5 for those of us (which I honestly think might just be me) who are tied more closely to an ... ancestral relic. (Which might just be the way to fix that. Tell me to pick up that feat.)
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Post by LabRat on Feb 5, 2018 16:43:50 GMT -6
Activity: Tess has several things she wants to do: 1. She is going to ask Walays to do her a favor by keeping his ear close to the ground regarding the whereabouts of her sister. She wants to find her in order to make sure she is safe and isn’t in any trouble.
2.After the destruction of everything, Tess wants a place to go in order to unwind after a hard day’s work. Right now, she misses the atmosphere of The Lusty Unicorn in Restov, and so she wants to create a Tavern here. She wants to work with a brewer to make her own ale, and wants to make sure the right sort is going to man the bar. She wants to have a place where there is an atmosphere that all are welcome and there is no violence. This is her neutral ground. She’s the Work Hard, Play Hard sort, so having a place where she is comfortable and can let her hair down a bit is important to her.
3.All this talk about marriage is making her acutely aware of her own unresolved feelings towards Casimir. The fact that he is hanging around is not helping. Depending on his actions while he is here, will help me figure out what Tess is going to do. She hasn’t had too many interactions with men in the romantic sort, so you know, there’s the right way, the wrong way, and then there’s the Tess way.
4.See to the people after the attack- Since the devastation from the OwlBear attack, almost 10% of the population has died. Tess is going to set up “disaster relief” of sorts. She’s going to coordinate with Svetlana if she is willing to set up a soup kitchen for people whose spouses just died or if there if anyone is willing to make donations (either monetarily or of service) to see to their need. She will incorporate that into her sermons to try to garner support. She will also address the council to see if anyone else has any ideas or if we can develop some sort of fund to help those who need it.
5.Cleric-y duties: TBD, outside of the basic cleric duties (you know, burying babies, kissing dead people, etc) I want her to do something specific that will help her spiritual growth as a cleric...maybe a pilgrimage of sorts, or...something….? Still in the works
Party!: I agree with Rigil’s assessment of at least two but I would probably not go higher than four. We have a lot of things that people are wanting to build so going nuts on a party is a bit unwise. Still it is an important occasion and we’ve had a tough but bountiful year. It is good to do some celebrating.
Mawaige: RE: Hannah-I think Tess made it pretty clear to Andrei how she wants this settlement to succeed and so he needs to do everything in his power to make sure that he doesn’t get on Hannah’s bad side. It is up to him to resolve it amicably. RE: Liliya- Tess will definitely want to get to know her to see what she is like. If Andrei mentions anything about him making sure that this is what Liliya wants, then that would go a long way with Tess. Being a follower of Cayden and upholding personal freedoms, she considers arranged marriage against people’s will rather abhorrent. She will probably have the “are you happy/is this what you want?” talk with Andrei at some point, and even though she may not understand why someone would want to do this, she will be happy to bless a union between two willing parties for the good of the kingdom.
Build all the things!- Tess will personally think that a cemetery will probably be a good idea for sure, and then I hinted at this in game, but she will want to take on building a Tavern as her own personal pet project. Since Cayden doesn’t really have actual churches set up in his name, Tess wants to have to place to spread the adventures of the magnificent Cayden, and so Holy Spirits Tavern will eventually be a thing. Obviously needs to come up with an actual church at some point, so she can start to recruit disciples, but I assume that is to be more on down the road, still it is something that needs to be in the chute.
Melikova- Tess is generally rather curious (read: reservedly nosy) so she will definitely want to get to know her. She definitely would want to ask her if she would be willing to go get drinks sometime, and will probably want to show her around the town, hoping to get Melikova to open up a bit more.
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Post by Gigermann on Feb 5, 2018 17:09:18 GMT -6
- At Tess' request, will be asking around about her sister, because "he owes her some money." Also keeping tabs on Melli to determine whether or not she's a threat—may enlist the kobolds. Will also be contemplating a career change—is finding he prefers sneaking about to all this stand-up fighting.
- Will want all the party. Will want to spend none of the money Will probabl end up conspiring with Babus regarding fireworks
- Actually just wants to see the realm succeed (for his own reasons), so he's for "the more powerful alliance," but he's probably not going to push too hard. Probably making bachelor-party plans, and lamenting the lack of a proper brothel as a result
- Doesn't find all the building terribly interesting, except when talking about the tavern—and will lament the lack of a proper brothel as a result
- See #1
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Post by LabRat on Feb 5, 2018 17:16:29 GMT -6
Doesn't find all the building terribly interesting, except when talking about the tavern—and will lament the lack of a proper brothel as a result Make a brothel next to Holy Spirits Tavern, call it The Confessional
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 5, 2018 18:14:57 GMT -6
Mawaige: RE: Hannah-I think Tess made it pretty clear to Andrei how she wants this settlement to succeed and so he needs to do everything in his power to make sure that he doesn’t get on Hannah’s bad side. It is up to him to resolve it amicably. I look forward to further arguments between the two, especially when Andrei gets to throw her alignment-based argument in her face with a "So, as long as I do what you want, to hell with my honor then?" (Note that Andrei is likely still trying to figure out how this became his fault since he did not actively lead Hannah on...) She should expect a long explanation about alliances and how nobles wed other nobles for prestige rather than "love." He'll likely throw in some Neutral Goodness in there ala 'and if the gods will it and you are worthy, well then, love will come along in its own time.'
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 5, 2018 18:58:56 GMT -6
Oh, forgot an activity that Andrei will be undertaking. He's going to have his mother pen letters to his sisters, inviting them and their families to relocate to the Shieldlands. He does not expect this to actually take place but figures the option should once again be made available for them.
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Post by Magman on Feb 5, 2018 22:33:01 GMT -6
1 Take care of Bro problems. Go to Candlemere Isle and continue with casting Diminish Plants. Marshaling the land with the pack. Will help with clearing his head of recent events. 2 A 2 day celebration would be a good thing. Totally on board with Babus fireworks display. 3 It is his choice and if it helps the Shieldlands in the long run I am down with it. Did someone mention a bachelor party! 4 A cemetery is needed, Holy Spirits Tavern a must. 5 Sociable but indifferent until I get to know her and her reliability.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 6, 2018 10:06:27 GMT -6
Considering the difference in personalities, I sort of envision a bachelor party beginning - wine! women! debauchery! - and Andrei discreetly sneaking out midway through it to go do real work or something but nobody notices because they're all drunk.
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Post by WxMAN on Feb 6, 2018 10:44:27 GMT -6
Alright, so - we need to do a minor retcon... I had forgotten to move one of my notes over from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3, so I didn't see it.
For the kingdom building as you defeated the Owlbear and returned with evidence of its demise, unrest was to go back to 0 while economy, stability and loyalty are to increased by 4. So we'll keep the same rolls, but I think that may boost the taxes received and possibly mitigate some of the unrest that occurred - luckily Rigil takes good notes for that part so I'll let Rigil figure that out.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 6, 2018 11:24:42 GMT -6
Notes are recorded as thus: Based on the stats (new and improved), we would have needed a 6 on Stability roll, so it still failed. Since it only failed by 1, that means Unrest is increased to 1. The Taxes roll was 15, which is total result of 50, which we divide by 3 for 16 which is 3 more than previously. So our final Treasury is 25.
Current stats (I'll update the spreadsheet with this too): Economy 35, Loyalty 16, Stability 27, Size 11, Control DC 34, Treasury 25, Unrest 1.
Note that I'm fairly certain we did the Income thing wrong in the earliest sessions. We were mistakenly presuming that you had to make the Control DC with that Economy check, which is not what the rules actually say (upon re-reading them.) Not relevant now, but we really should have have successfully collected taxes every month ... just not a whole lot with crappy low rolls...
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 6, 2018 11:49:01 GMT -6
Addendum: I just went back through the rolls and ... dude. We thoroughly hosed the kingdom with our misunderstanding about how the taxes roll works. We should have 42 more BP than we actually do!
Specifically:
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 6, 2018 12:25:37 GMT -6
New activity that Andrei will be undertaking: Oleg, the kingdom's Treasurer, pays Lord Andrei a discreet visit to inform him that he has discovered someone has been embezzling monies from the Shieldlands! Andrei wants to find out who is responsible and reclaim those monies...
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Post by LabRat on Feb 6, 2018 12:49:58 GMT -6
I look forward to further arguments between the two, especially when Andrei gets to throw her alignment-based argument in her face with a "So, as long as I do what you want, to hell with my honor then?" Sorry, I don't think that I was making myself clear. She's not dictating as to what he should do. She's merely pointing out that this situation could have some undesired results if Andrei doesn't "put out the fire", so to speak, by making amends. He doesn't have to marry her. If Hannah didn't have her influence or her position then Tess probably wouldn't have told Andrei in the first place. Right now, we are not in a position to tick off potential allies. Tess believes that Andrei didn't do anything to lead Hannah on, that's why she's making him aware of the situation in the first place, because she knows that he would remain blissfully unaware. She wants to help. If he's still feeling a bit salty and wants to pick a fight anyway, then Tess would say that this has nothing to do what she wants but it is a consequence of the path that he chose by wanting to rule. Great power = great responsibility to the people of this settlement and their welfare, blah blah blah...
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 6, 2018 13:09:58 GMT -6
1 Take care of Bro problems.
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Post by WxMAN on Feb 6, 2018 13:12:55 GMT -6
New activity that Andrei will be undertaking: Oleg, the kingdom's Treasurer, pays Lord Andrei a discreet visit to inform him that he has discovered someone has been embezzling monies from the Shieldlands! Andrei wants to find out who is responsible and reclaim those monies... Kingmaker Chapter 3: Accounting 101
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Post by WxMAN on Feb 7, 2018 9:28:21 GMT -6
We thoroughly hosed the kingdom with our misunderstanding about how the taxes roll works. We should have 42 more BP than we actually do! I am brainstorming ways to fix this in-game. You should expect to see the majority of the 'missing' funds come into the kingdom's possession within the next couple sessions as 42BP is so much to embezzle it pushes credulity (I mean Walays is good, but not that good. However, Oleg would like a word with the council as he has found some curious discrepancies in the past couple months....
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Post by WxMAN on Feb 7, 2018 9:38:13 GMT -6
Also, you were going to look into transferring magical bonuses from one item to another or perhaps finding a way to emulate the Ancestral Relic feat from 3.5 for those of us (which I honestly think might just be me) who are tied more closely to an ... ancestral relic. (Which might just be the way to fix that. Tell me to pick up that feat.) I like the ancestral relic idea too much to have people buy it with a feat, especially given how feat hungry certain builds are - it just seems like outside of a real roleplay heavy character, that feat is a complete waste. So I figure we'll basically emulate the ancestral feat, including with transferring magical effects from weapon to weapon, though the weapon you are "taking" the magic from will only count as half its value for the sacrifice and will be used up (made worthless) in the process of transferring the magic. Sound good? Anyone can choose whatever they want for their ancestral relic, as long as you have a good story for the weapon and we can retcon if you've swapped weapons/whatever to ensure you have the meaningful relic still on you.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 7, 2018 11:20:10 GMT -6
Also, you were going to look into transferring magical bonuses from one item to another or perhaps finding a way to emulate the Ancestral Relic feat from 3.5 for those of us (which I honestly think might just be me) who are tied more closely to an ... ancestral relic. (Which might just be the way to fix that. Tell me to pick up that feat.) I like the ancestral relic idea too much to have people buy it with a feat, especially given how feat hungry certain builds are - it just seems like outside of a real roleplay heavy character, that feat is a complete waste. So I figure we'll basically emulate the ancestral feat, including with transferring magical effects from weapon to weapon, though the weapon you are "taking" the magic from will only count as half its value for the sacrifice and will be used up (made worthless) in the process of transferring the magic. Sound good? Anyone can choose whatever they want for their ancestral relic, as long as you have a good story for the weapon and we can retcon if you've swapped weapons/whatever to ensure you have the meaningful relic still on you. This works for me. It means I need to find 7163 gp more to upgrade my father's sword to +2 equiv (totally random rolled what the extra should be and came up with +1 defending ... which seems apt) ...
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 8, 2018 19:24:45 GMT -6
We thoroughly hosed the kingdom with our misunderstanding about how the taxes roll works. We should have 42 more BP than we actually do! I am brainstorming ways to fix this in-game. You should expect to see the majority of the 'missing' funds come into the kingdom's possession within the next couple sessions as 42BP is so much to embezzle it pushes credulity (I mean Walays is good, but not that good. However, Oleg would like a word with the council as he has found some curious discrepancies in the past couple months.... Logical presumptions: - Some of the absence is due to bandits that has since been recovered by our patrols (way to go, Walker!)
- Some is due to accidental miscalculation (Oleg is very apologetic - like the rest of us, he's still getting the hang of this job.)
- You could include some of it as part of Lady Liliya's dowry as a nice hand-wavey way to add some to the Treasury, perhaps with a caveat that we need to construct a specific building of some sort (a Mansion, perhaps?) since it is technically her money.
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Post by WxMAN on Feb 11, 2018 17:58:47 GMT -6
Obsidian Portal updated as is XP. I have sent an invite to Xenocore for both the Obsidian Portal as well as the Spreadsheets/Maps. Apologies for what (imho) was a bit of a stilted session, had a lot of individual items which led to less spotlight time for certain folks. Next session should be more unified as I think the group will have a lot of things to do together as the chapter (should) get started properly... I do understand if there is some frustration over a bad dice roll leading to some kingdom upheaval. Kingdoms require a lot of spinning plates, so one bad dice roll can definitely hurt, but I will make sure that a single dice roll will not unravel all of the work you've done - with some good roleplaying and some good thinking, the odds will always be improved for you to fix the problems that the dice throw your way. Nothing worth obtaining is ever easy
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 12, 2018 16:28:34 GMT -6
I have two homeworks to work on this week, so I'll be too busy to properly prep for the game. So, unfortunately, this means: NO KINGMAKER ON FRIDAY FEB 16.Sorry for the inconvenience, though we should be OK for next Friday 23 Feb. So, since there's no session, should we knock out the promised kingdom building turn for the month here on the boards?
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Post by WxMAN on Feb 12, 2018 19:34:10 GMT -6
That's fine - I just feel bad because Babus tends not to show and he's been agitating for a wizard's acadamy... and now that he's a father....
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 12, 2018 19:39:47 GMT -6
Well, considering we're in the middle of a crisis, we weren't going to do the wizard's academy for a while. Heck, we don't even have Tess' Shrine or Walays "Bordello"...
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Post by WxMAN on Feb 24, 2018 18:16:59 GMT -6
Obsidian Portal updated, as well as the XP/Kingdom timeline. Next session will begin as the PC's arrive at Varnhold as the sun is just beginning to set - with two 'bandits' in tow, as well as their five children which you will ask the church of erastil to grant sanctuary to....
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Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 25, 2018 13:50:51 GMT -6
Right. So in the wake of the "bandit fight" thing, I've been thinking about what we did wrong and what we should have done. I don't think I need to rehash what we did wrong - we're already familiar with that - so what should we have actually done? I've come up with two major things that come to mind:
1. We're not accustomed to having a dedicated roguely type in this party, so we did not use Melikova's abilities like we should have. Getting her into the camp to scout (in addition to Walker, I suppose) should have been high on our list. We need to figure out a way to utilize her more effectively in future encounters - glancing over her stats, I see she's got Stealth +10 (presuming she's not weighed down with gear) which can be bumped to +14 for about 6 rounds (using her Ki pool.) Plus Darkvision. Need to keep this in mind.
2. Rather than charging forward en masse like we did, I'm thinking that Andrei should have advanced ahead of the rest of the company under a banner of truce to offer the bandits terms of surrender. Yeah, they might have conceivably still resisted but giving them the option to see the overwhelming force arrayed against them might have gone a long way in circumventing this mess.
So ultimately, this was a failure of tactics on our part (although as stated, they were bandits and all.)
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