Scrying as much as possible - the outside of the mound looking for another way in, the area looking for a good place for the ship to rest, etc.

I'll talk to Timber about additional work on the ship that can be done over the next five days.

1) Gangway that can be extended/retracted from the ship.

2) Shields that can be temporarily fitted along the sides to give any guards we have a little extra protection.

3) Assessment of the spars, masts, and other wooden parts of the rigging to see what needs to be replaced.  Actually, why does a ship that flies on magic even have rigging?

4) Get an estimate (price and time) for a cargo crane to move cargo (and giant metal crabs) to and from the ship.

#2 I hope after the mission is completed.
#3 Probably to make it look less suspicious? I don't know
#4 Cargo cranes on the ship? I don't think it will fit and it might decrease the max speed of the ship.

Installing some shields is to give our people something to hide behind while they're protecting the ship during the raid. Even a +1 to AC is a 5% better chance not to get hit. Depending on how many of our friends volunteer, we can install a few brackets along the sides that we can slip a tower shield into. Certainly not movable and not something we'd want permanently.

I've seen small cranes on ships (real world and fantasy). They're to help get things into and out of the hold.  They don't need to be able to handle really heavy loads, hopefully the port will have a large crane if that's necessary. But smaller places ... or questionable places might not have anything and I don't want to be lifting thousands of pounds of weight on my back while climbing a ladder if I don't have to.  I'll see what Timber has to say about how realistic it might be.  This is definitely something for after the mission, if at all.

just letting people know that i am still here. i've had a difficult year so far with the death of a dear friend, my wife crashing her car (She's ok, just the car is written off).

My plan is to try catch up on posts on the weekend and then i'll be back posting by next week

So sorry to hear about that, Kalliyan!

Do we have any estimation on the Size/Age of the dracolich?

If it's a wrymling, we're good to go. If it's ancient, we're toast.

I've dug back through the posts but haven't been able to find anything. I remember Amara scried on it ... the cultists noticed ... so she stopped and we haven't looked again. But I don't remember what, if anything, we discovered.

Because even with two weapons of disruption, killing it isn't going to be easy.

First, we have to hit it and then it needs to make a Fort saving throw.  And dragons are really good at Fort saves.

As an example: A dracolich made from an Adult Green Dragon has an AC of 29 (even flat-footed) and a +17 on its Fort Save. Plus an average of 230 hitpoints. We'll skip over the damage it can do other than to say ... ouch!

I have about a fifty/fifty chance of hitting it with my best attack, and then it has to roll a Natural 1 for the disruption to work given the base DC of 14 for a 'weapon of disruption'.

Amara thinks it might be an Adult. But, she's not 100% sure.

It's not going to be an easy fight... I'll do my best to keep the cultists off you - but I'm useless against the dracolich.

Here's another option. I take all three Iron Golems through the front entrance. That would cause a ruckus.

A ruckus? LOL More like a riot!

While I'd love to give them the swords and send them in after the dragon, I don't think they can use weapons, we can't cast the Disruption spell on their fists, and I'm not even sure the Mariasha new hull is up to holding 7.5 tons of iron.

Can we even "program" them to not hit the civilians?

The waystone is outside the entrance to the mine. I'm figuring 250 yards? They're already at the waystone in Daak. I could have them at the mine quicker than you guys could get off the ship. But, they would attack everything unless I was with them to stop and direct them.

That sounds like a good idea, but I would vote against that. The Golems protect Daak from intruders using the Daak Waystone.

I'm not sure about the golems. They'd be very helpful but Roen is right, they're keeping Daak safe.

As for the dracolich, it's all going to come down to statistics.

There is a 1 in 20 chance of any blow destroying it. With my stats, I'll be able to hit, on average, once every other round. If Byron is the same, after 10 hits, there's a still only 50% chance we'll have gotten it.  Over all, we're going to need between 10 and 20 rounds to kill it. All the time it's going to be pissed off and trying to kill us which, I'm sorry to say, it a lot easier. So, the more people hitting it with disruption weapons the less time it will take to get the magic die roll.

Of course, the damn cultists will be there, so we can't have everyone attacking the dragon, but we'll just have to see how that goes.

Can Roen use anything other than his fists? I know he doesn't normally, but is that based on some kind of oath?

The Disruptions spell can only be used on a weapon, so if he's going to go after the dragon with us, he'll need a club or something like it. Again, it doesn't matter if we're hitting it with a dagger or a greatsword. We're not going to kill it through damage.

I could make a Belt of Giant Strength for Byron, but it will take more time to make.

In reply to Nolan (msg # 136):

I have magic to temporarily increase his strength

Ok, then Nolan can make some scrolls of Stone Skin.

It's mainly just a preference, Myarra. If Roen had a weapon with the Disruption spell cast on it for the battle, he would use a staff. But, the chances of him actually hitting the AC of a Dracolich is considerably lower because half his levels are in Healer. He would be better off fighting the Cultists that are trying to stop you.

3:50, Today: Amara rolled 28 using 1d20+18.  know arcana.

What would happen if the phylactery is destroyed first? I think it just makes the lich aware and angry, doesn't it?

Pretty much. It would mean that the dracolich would die permanently when we kill it.

But to destroy the phylactery first, we'd need to find it. And it's probably very well hidden.

But, as an added item to our list ... once we kill the dracolich, we'll need to make sure the cultists don't run away with the phylactery.

I've known monks that have different opinions on what weapons they can use. Some are based on oaths they've taken and Myarra wouldn't want to insult Roen if that were the case.

And, while you're probably right about where your strengths would be best used, I'd prefer that everyone who has a weapon be properly prepared ... just in case.

Sorry for the short sporadic post but busy in RL right now.

Yeah, that would just upset the Dracolich, but would kill it permanently if we managed to.