Communication

Doesn't the Queens party have a pair of boxes that can shuttle messages to one another over infinite distances?

Also, the Brooklyn party has a cup that can send things to a dungeon in Aege from anywhere on the plane. Unfortunately, no one is ever in Aege. But still, you get the idea. I guess the now retired Tobin hangs out around there. We could give another party the cup, then the Doodya could tell Tobin and Tobin could tell someone else? In any case, returning missives would be tough, because the cup kind of empties to a point in the middle of the room.

Kerry: Here's my short-term ideas-

• Messenger - I know both the Following Alexander Party and the Danger Gang have druids. Messenger is fine provided we have a "drop box" and we know where we will be at a specific time in the future to pick up a reply. The limitation is distance. You get a max of around 90 miles/druid level. I think that puts most of us out of range of one another, at least for now.

• Magic Mirror/Magic Font/Clairvoyance - You can read through these spells, and they have the advantage of no distance limitation. If we can make a scheduled time to view we can pass messages one-way, or two-way if both sides have the spell. I think only the Queens party has this capability, though Harald can use Clairvoyance if he knows a location to aim for.

• Polymorph Other + Charm Person - This would get around the limitation on distance and intelligence that Messenger has. The idea would be to charm someone and then secretly polymporph them into a giant eagle or other fast creature. Tell them that we can fix them, but we need some component/information from our confederate far away. The polymorphed fellow then flies off with our message/package and brings back a return shipment to a predetermined place at a set time. Scrying could be used to make sure everything is going OK. This has the advantage of being able to deliver even large things, and a person is more adaptable than a dumb bird. The downside is that Hal would screw it up for sure.

- Chris: Yeah, also, I think it might fuck with most of our alignments (at least for the Brooklyn party) to kidnap some stranger, hypnotize him, change him into a giant bird monster, and then black mail him into flying around the world.

Long term-

• Use the boxes the Queens group has. I know this is an uphill struggle, but the benefits would be huge. Hell, give one to the Brooklyn party if you don't trust me. More communication is better, period.

• Dream - If someone can get Nimue's spellbook she has Dream. That would be a fine way to convey info from one group to another in real time.

• Spell research - If anyone gets enough money to build a lab they can research spells. I bet a Telephony spell would be around 4th level, maybe something like 1 rd/level, 1 person/3 levels, no distance constraint, must be a willing and known recipient (use crystal ball table for success rate), verbal communication only, blocked by lead, must concentrate, material component two cylinders connected by a piece of string.

tcm: the Masons have a mail system set up. you can send a letter from anywhere to anywhere else, but it'll cost you one gp per mile, which can get pretty damn expensive (fucking Eorl). More importantly, we rarely know where other parties are (in game), with the sole exception of Eorl, who's ensconced himself in Chrysopolis.

also, Sam's cleric Anna may have recently acquired a message-type spell where she can send a short message (I'm talking really short here, like two-words short) to anybody in the world. there is no distance limit and the recipient knows immediately who sent it, but like I said, it's a super-short message and the aforementioned recipient would have no way of contacting Anna back.

However, Reynaldo has Magic Mirror so that he can check in on whomever he likes, and he's thinking about learning to read lips so that maybe we can somehow communicate with a combination of spells (maybe Anna sends a short message and then Rey casts Magic Mirror and Eorl or whoever answers back). but things like this would take a lot of high-level spells to just ask one question and then have it answered. although, if another member of another party also has Magic Mirror (or a similar scrying spell) then we could scrye each other and write messages on the ground or whatever. a 10th century instant messaging, if you will. the only problem here is coordinating such an event. besides the fact that nobody not in his immediate party knows Rey even has Magic Mirror (unless JC told Harald or something) and Queens party certainly doesn't know if anybody else has a scrying spell (except maybe JC), we can't just invite somebody to chat. we'd have to figure out a way to coordinate this so that both members with scrying spells knew to cast the spells at a specific time. Anna's messaging spell may come in handy there....

Well, those are some of my thoughts.

Kerry: Anna's spell could be used to give Harald a location ("Scry Kebnegard") so that he could then use Clairvoyance. You could then Magic Mirror Harald and we can write stuff. You would have to give a specific location or else have some sort of sign visible from the air and then I can focus in with a second spell. JC updated Harald on your adventures and spells, so this could work out in game.

tcm: also, the limit on the distance those boxes can message has yet to be determined. however, i would prefer they stay in Queens party because they've come in real handy to us whenever we've needed to coordinate a two-pronged attack. the breaking of the siege of Novgorod would not have been possible without them, for example.

Chris: Well, I think the first problem we'd have to over come, at least for us, is that none of us know who you are, let alone where you are. I mean, Eorl has at least met some of you guys, but, as you say, he's not even traveling with the Brooklyn party anymore. I'd say the surest way to set up some long-term, permanent system of communication between the parties would involve face to face meetings. Maybe not all at once, but Noah always has some trick up Eorl's sleeve, and if you guys were to sit down with him. Arben and Xenon are also, possibly going to be retiring to Chrysopolis, making it kind of a hub of semi-retired PC's and a the anti-octopus movement.

There's no way to call for a convocation of parties, unfortunately, and I'd hate to have whatever leads you guys are following go cold so you can trudge back to C-Town. But basically, I don't know, if you're like us, you kind of have a laundry list of things you could do, and you cross off the list whatever is the closest or most interesting. If that's the case, I would just add, "check in on ol' Eorl in Chrysopolis" to the bottom of the list.

Kerry: That's been on my list for a while now. We may stop by after Cairo, since we'll be fairly close then. If we get a better means of transport we could be there sooner. I have to deliver some princesses to various spots around the world, so we'll be by sooner or later.

tcm: same here. there's some money waiting for us in Constantinople (which Wong insists we go get after Kebnegard), and Chrysopolis is only a hop, skip, and a jump away from there.

Kerry: So, Mr. tcm, I advise that you try out Anna's new spell next time you are in a locale that Harald knows, i.e Kebnegard or its environs. I will also try my Charm/Poly plot to get a message off to old Chrysopolis.

Noah: This is all super-good news which is like to make me weep with joy. Martialis is also now 7th level druid which gives him a really good range with the messenger spell, provided he knows where he's sending it. It should also surprise no one to learn that a lab for spell research is planned for Chrysopolis. Eorl is in the process of bringing in a boatload of dough to facilitate the construction. In any event, I think we have enough different ways to jury rig a system of communication before a more reliable route is determined. There is an awful lot of info that needs to be shared between parties.

Any way we can get the text of Anna's new spell - like, can she send messages to people she's never seen, or will people who don't know who she is still know the circumstances under which the message is being sent (i.e., it's Queens party doing the sending)? Is the text limit two words? Because there's an awful lot we can do with even two words...

Awesome!

Oh yeah, addendum: I think the range of messenger is greater than 90 miles per level (unless Hal has said otherwise), as birds are able to fly quite remarkable distances in a short amount of time. It also depends on bird type. Some birds are better at longer distances and so forth. Also, another method of mail transport unmentioned is the Eastern Orthodox church, whose distribution network Eorl won the right to use. Unfortunately, he's not been keen on them snooping at every damn piece of mail he gives them, so he's not made use of it yet. But it is there if we should need it.

Kerry: I got 90 miles/day from taking the fastest MV of a bird I could find (48, giant eagle) and applying the standard "twice your MV in miles/day" rate. Maybe Hal can chime in on bird speeds? We've a druid as well, so I want to know. Harald is famous as a Jew-friend around the middle east, so messages can be sent to synagogues in cities I know we will stop in. He can also use the Jew mail, which seems pretty efficient, though it doesn't extend to Ethiopia.

Noah: I don't think the way daily movement is calculated for humans and horses applies to birds because they are often gliding on currents and not exerting themselves. They can also benefit from favorable winds, etc. I have endeavored to do research and come up with some overly-favorable numbers (see: http://audubonmagazine.org/birds/birds0011.html which describes geese flying over 1000 miles a day), so I figure thusly:

Range and speed definitely depend on the bird available. A crane can fly further faster than a starling, so depending on what you use, your mileage may vary.

In Asia Minor falcons, or birds from the falcon family, are fairly plentiful, so the calculations I used for movement, based on their raw MV of 36 and the guidelines in the PH, look like this:

10 x 36 = 360 yards or 1080 feet per round 1080 x 60 / 5280 = ~12.25 miles per hour

I figured that flight would be from sun-up to sun-down, or roughly twelve hours, minus perhaps two hours for the bird to take care of bird-things (eating, avoiding being eaten, dodging unfavorable winds, bad weather, etc.). That leaves about 120 miles/day, which sounds reasonable to me. Martialis as a 7th level druid could thus send a message around 840 miles, which I think could reach Cairo from Chrysopolis fairly easily.

I believe I once presented Hal an article (possibly from Dragon magazine?) mentioning that the Abbasids and Fatimids could send each other messages between Baghdad and Cairo (a distance of about 800 miles) using carrier pigeons, which consistently made the journey in around 3 days.

Hal definitely needs to weigh in, and indeed there may be, I don't know, some kind of DIE ROLL involved in sending messages great distances via avian post.

All this aside, a bird messenger is not very secure. Certainly not as secure as magical telepathy type magic. So, not ideal for party communication, maybe. Certainly better than nothing.

Hal: The first edition DMG has rules for travel by air; we'll have to look it up later.

Noah: I am for once not crazy, though neither am I entirely correct in my recollection (as usual). The article on the Caliphates communicating to each other by pigeon post is on page 48 of issue 116 of Dragon Magazine. However, relay stations were used so that one pigeon would not have to make the full trip (like, duh). The article goes on to say:

  The speed of pigeons varies with conditions and from bird to bird, maximums being 
  approximately 60 MPH in windless conditions and 110 MPH with a powerful following wind; 
  less, of course, bucking a strong head-wind . . . Range was about 500 miles per day for 
  ease, but relay stations were placed closer together than that when possible.

So there's that, for what it's worth.

Noah: So here's Hal's ruling regarding the messenger spell (possibly adjudicated using air travel rules from the 1st ed. DMG?)

  For every 3 MV of the bird, it can travel 10 miles a day.

Thus a falcon, with a MV of 32 can travel roughly 107 miles a day (32/3 * 10 = 106.666, repeating of course). Not great, but not too shabby either. However, without a relay station of some sort, the parties are too far apart at the moment to make this kind of communication effective.

Kerry: We've got some info that all may want to see so let's get the ball rolling on this communication stuff. I think the Queens folks have to take the initiative, since they are the only ones who can get a verbal message out. We'll get Reflecting Pool pretty soon, so I can start scrying on folks then, but that only gives us a little info. Now we're way too far from everyone to do any kind of distance-dependent stuff.

tcm: we have. we're just waiting for Brooklyn to catch up in time. i don't think Harald got it, though, because Anna doesn't know who Harald is, and JC didn't speak up when we did it. we'll try it again soon, but we're kind of in the middle of something right now.

Noah: tcm seems to think that Harald and JC both have Clairaudience. Is this true? If so, it shouldn't be too difficult for both parties to arrange a phone call.

Kerry: We both have Clairvoyance, not Clairaudience. We can watch each and write messages in real time, though.

Noah: So, in actuality nobody in Queens party has Clairaudience (at least not yet), so that's a bust. However, it does strike me that a variation on Kerry's suggested method above could prove feasible for them. While charm and polymorph other are likely not enough to do the job, quest and polymorph other could work nicely. Especially on prisoners the party has taken, who justly owe service if they wish to be spared. Even without polymorph other, a human adventurer with some means could work just as well as a courier, and since the spell stipulates that he must 'return to the priest with proof that the deed was accomplished,' to wit, a letter in return.

This would also provide a solution to the problem of what to do with prisoners, that Queens party sometimes wrestles with.

tcm: Noah brings up a good point: Rey and JC don't know where you are. We can Message you to tell you to Clairvoyance Kebnegard and find us, and then what? You won't have anyway to tell us where you are or where to CLairvoy. Luckily, we have Magic Mirror, so maybe it won't suck too hard. Read the Magic Mirror description to know the inherent problems in trying to write to someone Magic Mirroring you. Also, it lasts like nine minutes. Although, I guess we could pinpoint your ass with Magic Mirror and then Clairvoyance you wherever you may happen to be. Okay, we're gonna be fine. I just logic-ed this shit out.

Kerry: You can read text easily through a magic mirror. Harald could then just write you a message telling you where he is. The order would be to Message Harald to scry on Kebnegard, then write a message for him explaining that you are going to Magic Mirror him. Then we can chat by writing to each other.

Noah: I don't think magic mirror has ever been cast before to know if you can read through it or not, so you'll have to try it (although it does seem to be the case, since you can cast comprehend languages and read magic through it). It may be harder to read through clairvoyance, however, although if the text is positioned correctly in front of the sensor I don't know why it wouldn't work.

This sounds like it has a pretty good chance of working, and there's an awful lot of information that can change hands in a 8 or 9 minute text session...

Hey! Now that I look at it, if anyone has the 1st level spell Message, there's a 5% chance per level that you can talk through the magic mirror once it's cast. How do you like them apples!

Noah: Word on the street is that Hoboken party is tooling around Cairo, which is well within range of the druid messenger spell for them. Drop us a line some time! You know where we are, but we don't know where you are.

Kerry: Already planning on it. It presents a problem for Hal, since we're a couple of months ahead of y'all, but I"m sure he'll deal. Plus, now we've got a boat, so we may stop by C-town, creating yet more trouble for Eorl.

Noah: Why would it be a problem? Hal will simply mark the day on the calendar that the message arrives, and when our calendar advances to that day we'll get it (assuming, you know, nobody intercepted the letter and the bird doesn't get eaten). I think it will be a far greater difficulty for us to reply to you in a timely fashion, since we will likely then be writing to you from the distant past, and wherever you say you are you will no longer be! But that's fine. And as long as the city is still standing, Eorl is always happy to have visitors.

Noah: Hey, hey, hey -- it looks as though Brooklyn's got magic mirror! We'll be seeing y'all soon...