OOC:  The bodies are in the fire and stay in the fire, 1d-1 damage for being in fire for a full turn.  So an average of 2.5 damage per second, if a 10HP body has to go -10xHP... that's 44 seconds.  Stay in school kids and don't do rules calls this way...

Even your call of 1d-3 is an average of 0.5 damage per second which is 3.66r minutes*.  To be realistic, yeah, it takes about 3ish hours for a completely fresh body to burn down to ash on a bonfire.  So by the time we're done buryin them, nightfall.

* This is one of those areas where GURPS absolutely breaksdown and shows that it's a "gameable approximation of reality".

Virgilio spends most of the rest of the day watching Guillaume tend to the horses and manage the camp, in expectation of needing to know this stuff pretty much immediately.  Once the fire has burned long enough, he'll cast Extinguish Fire (two or three times if needed) to be sure the fire is completely out, then use Apportation to assist in filling in the ditch to cover the ashes.

OOC: I agree, both on the damage for fire by the rules, and on how long it takes to burn a fresh corpse in real life.  I'm fine with nightfall.

In reply to Virgilio Hohlfeld (msg # 55):

Reanna will set up camp, and take first watch.

Dilandua spends the early evening in eerily quiet combat exercises, spear katas and unarmed katas.

Dne offers to take second watch, and keeps it twenty yards up.  Harder to take him by surprise that way.

Virgilio volunteers to stand the mid watch with D'ne, and prepares by casting a spell on his appropriated staff, causing it to radiate brilliant "light" visible only to those sensitive to magic.  He'll also spend some time, either in the evening or during his watch, attuning himself to the staff.

OOC: I'm not aware of an "attunement" process in GURPS (DFRPG thing?); I presume this is analogous to the D&D5 method of bonding to a magical item, requiring a period of meditation while handling the item.

[Private to GM: 05:06, Today: Virgilio Hohlfeld rolled 9 using 3d6.  Continual Mage Light (daylight) (15 + 1 extra time/ritual).
05:07, Today: Virgilio Hohlfeld rolled 10 using 2d6.  Continual Mage Light, duration.]

OOC:  As per DFRPG Adventurers, pg 115 Power Items:  You just have to get it fully charged and that switches the Power Item over to you.

But if it's "magical bonding" as to a Magic Item that has powers, casts spells, etc:

If it has a passive benefit, it simply works.  So a Puissant weapon simply does more damage (+ to damage rolls), Accurate weapons just hit more easily (+ to skill), Shatterproof weapons are "unbreakable", etc.  Note, Cornucopia Quivers fall into this category.

If it has active benefits, ie spells, you just have to know how to activate them.  This varies wildly from item to item.

However, some Artifacts (or just bizarrely designed lesser items) do require some sort of bonding ritual.  This is also wildly variant based on the item, how it was designed, what the Artifact may want (if it has self-agency), etc.  But this is very rare.


There is also the Perk, Weapon Bond.  This does require you to do things like practice with it, bond with it (take it out to dinner, maybe a movie) before you can buy the Weapon Bond Perk (Weapon Bond gives you +1 to skill when using that specific weapon).

OOC: I was referring to Msg #925 in the previous thread.  "with a few hours attunement, perhaps a power item."  Without being "mine" I don't know that I can even sense if there's power still stored (much less draw on it), and without knowing in detail what other enchantments it carries, it's impossible to know its value, hence what its Power Item capacity might be, to know how much charge it'll need.

OOC:  Power doesn't "store" between "owners".  The moment you 'make it yours' (which by RAW is "claim it, keep it, and pay to recharge it") it loses the charge the previous Owner had in it, as Power Items are personal.  Which means once it's charged, you can't hand it off for someone else to use the Power from, it's only yours.  That also means if someone steals it, and pays to have it recharged for themself, your charge is gone.

And yes, it's impossible to know how much until you get it appraised (but we can make educated guesses as Players*).

It's possible (outside chance if he's of the Knight Template)) that Aegis has Connoisseur (Weapons) or Armory (Melee Weapons), both of which wold allow him to make an appraisal roll.


* It's a Staff, it's Ornate, so that's at least 20$ up to 100$, so 1-2 PF.  Further it might be Fine (+20$), Very Fine (+190$), Sylvan (+150$), or Balanced (+40).  It could be Silvered as part of the Ornate, and of course Ornate just means "make it more expensive" so it could have gemstone set itno it, etc...  so it's anywhere from 1-5FP, but it could go higher.  And yeah, staffs suck as Power Items unless you swap out the wood for Dragonbone... because bone is expensive.

That's where the Alchemists really make their money, peddlin massive bone tonic to Wizards...

OOC: I presume I'd be able to see Silvered or inset gems.  There's the Guild symbol, of course, but what that does to "value" is ambiguous.

OOC:  Yeah,. but it still takes appraisal to know whether it's silver or silver paint, coloured glass or gems, etc.  I mean, yeah, if it's all gaudy and glitzy, we can assume it's Ornate, it was a Mage's Power Item most likely, and I doubt they went in for cheap flash which does nothing...


It's an Ornamentation so it's "Ornate", which increases it's value.  The fact that it's a decrease in Resale Price is meaningless, otherwise Broke (the Disad Wealth: Broke) Caster Professions would have sucky Power Items (and Broke Warriors would sucky Heroic Items, everyone would have suck Endurance Items, etc... not that anyone other than Casters has really gotten into the Power Item gig - I really should for Dilandua, despite none of their items being of high value, even a 3 point Heroic Item suit of armor is better than 0 point suit of armor.  I just keep forgetting the option exists).

fine, decorated, enchanted quarterstaff, as Per DF 13, loadouts (mostly obsolete due to changes in armor pricing)
decorated with extensive relief, and $430 worth of gems. total value $530, good as 6 point item once charged,  enchanted with Staff Spell

OOC:  So Reanna is on 1st, Dne and Virgilio on 2nd, and who's on third?

No, Who's on first!  Dilandua and Aegis will end up taking third watch, which should afford Dilandua time to exercise before we leave (as long I don't roll a 6 again)...
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:33, Sat 04 Sept 2021.

OOC: That's good to know.  Not that I have so much as a bit to spend on getting it charged at the moment, but at the least, it's a quarterstaff with Staff -- and if we can figure out a non- or minimally-destructive way to get rid of these Guild marks, we can discuss whether a freed prisoner can make a claim against his erstwhile captors before their loot is divided...

OOC: I don’t know is on third.  That’s what I’m asking you!

In reply to Dne Utrotare (msg # 68):

are you moving back to your camp, or staying near the ash heaps?

OOC: I thought we'd filled in the ditch, covering the ashes.  Without a bunch of wood to fuel a pyre, there would be fairly small amounts for each body.  A few pounds each, at most 30-40 lbs, which would be less than a cubic foot, if the fire wasn't hot enough to fully calcine the bones.  That volume of ash shouldn't leave a visible mound when the earth is filled back into the ditch.

Too bad we don't have a druid to grow vegetation back over the disturbed earth.

OOC: And then our camp is about half an hour back towards St Remy, it has running water.

In reply to Dilandua (msg # 71):

Reanna at camp...

Dne follows Reanna, for some reason.

Joining the others going to camp once the ditch is filled in.

OOC: Did we clear the fallen tree from the road?  Most likely too heavy to Apport, I'm sorry to say; might have to be cut up to move, but if it's still blocking the road, it's much more likely for travelers to notice the filled-in ditch.

OOC:  At best I suspect we pushed it off the road unless someone (like Aegis) was volunteering (and Aegis doesn't strike me as the "volunteers for work" type, like most soldiers) to chop it up while we waited on the bodies to burn and scrounged up bolts.

In reply to Dilandua (msg # 75):

it would take Aegis and maybe three more people to pull it aside.

OOC:  Dilandua is cool with helping push it aside.  And here is where having a specialized Power Blow is not helpful...

In reply to Dilandua (msg # 77):

Reanna to would help before she left. That would definitely be part of clearing the site. A horse or two may also assist, as may lighting it up.