How many older lizard and frog folk are around? She'd like to hire whoever is left to take on roles in safekeeping the tribe's future.

Few, if any, are left to be hired. The lizardfolk and frogfolk seem to largely have assumed that you carted off the kids to be enslaved, sacrificed, eaten, or whatever else humans do with their prisoners. The survivors of the Battle of the Briouze have either fled deeper into the hidden reaches of the swamp, or left the area entirely.

You can make a reaction roll at the table to coax a couple of additional swamp folk to join you. Beyond that, you'll need time to demonstrate your goodwill and your nurture of the children to the point of persuading further survivors.

Initially, the quarry needs to be set as a proper podding and nesting ground for the amphibious. She has daily Create Food, Create Water, and Purify Food and Water spells that can fill the quarry and provide appropriate sustenance.

Each casting of Purify Food and Water, Create Water, and Create Food produce/purifies enough provisions for a dozen adults to eat and drink; we can call that enough for about 25 kids. Fortunately, Dr Martin Wills is paying to have additional food brought in (at significant expense). Rain water should fill the quarry over time (Create Water doesn't produce enough to move the needle at all for that purpose). Hauling buckets or barrels of water from the river will also help, though that's a significant chore until you hire more staff.

With Weefa's potential help, she'll seek out area snakes that she can cast Snake Charm and Growth of Animal to use transporting materials and other tasks.

An interesting idea, especially paired with Speak with Animal! But a double-sized snake is still not going to be much good at transporting materials. I doubt they'll be much use for other menial tasks, but if you come up with some things that are suitable for a double-sized snake, we'll run with it.

Speak With Plants can be used to locate appropriate resources and Insect Plague can be used as a possible food source for the hungry youth.

Your usage of these spells is creative and appropriate! I figure they should work just as you intend them to. The youngest children may have some trouble, but the rest will get some foraging experience along with a meal.

Given the structure the hole, there might not be much needed for them for now, other than bowers and other places built of wood and reeds for appropriate areas (bedding areas, play areas, school areas). It's not optimal, but can suffice at this time.

You'll probably want to set up some shade to keep the sun off of everyone; frogs in particular don't handle direct sunlight well. Other than that, the main issue is that they're currently all but defenseless if Sir Furcas stages another raid on Rouvière. The quarry is north of the Keep and outside of the fortifications. Any forces from the Chateau and its environs will reach the quarry entirely unopposed.

By now, some of the orphans she helped raise after the Glantrian war might be old enough to help. She'll pay them and put them up in the area, and will put out a call for extra work days for locals.

A handful of the orphans Audrey helped raise are old enough to help while still remaining in her orbit (as opposed to finding employment elsewhere, going off to seek their fortune, encountering some dreadful fate, etc). We'll do some rolls and RP at the table for a clearer sense of how many are available and what conditions will apply to their work and compensation. Ditto for extra work days for locals.

The ranger she's not initially interested in hiring as a hireling — although if I'm allowed three, I will — she will seek to hire as a kind of project manager over the build with a mind for security, establishment of resources (continual sustenance), and so on, along with Yvonne and Weefa.

With a Charisma of 14, Audrey can have up to five retainers, so hiring Daiza Koff won't be a problem. We'll do reaction rolls for all three at the table.

Initially, the quarry needs to be set as a proper podding and nesting ground for the amphibious. She has daily Create Food, Create Water, and Purify Food and Water spells that can fill the quarry and provide appropriate sustenance. With Weefa's potential help, she'll seek out area snakes that she can cast Snake Charm and Growth of Animal to use transporting materials and other tasks. Speak With Plants can be used to locate appropriate resources and Insect Plague can be used as a possible food source for the hungry youth.

Given the structure the hole, there might not be much needed for them for now, other than bowers and other places built of wood and reeds for appropriate areas (bedding areas, play areas, school areas). It's not optimal, but can suffice at this time.

By now, some of the orphans she helped raise after the Glantrian war might be old enough to help. She'll pay them and put them up in the area, and will put out a call for extra work days for locals. The ranger she's not initially interested in hiring as a hireling — although if I'm allowed three, I will — she will seek to hire as a kind of project manager over the build with a mind for security, establishment of resources (continual sustenance), and so on, along with Yvonne and Weefa.

As the entire available local labor force is tied up with castle construction over and above the usual farming and other tasks, it'll be much more expensive to hire people for construction. These will be either locals willing to give up their rare days off (skipping religious holidays, weddings, funerals, etc) for a price, or the dregs of the Glantri City labor pool who no one else has been willing to hire for whatever reason — they're too old, too young, too weak, too clumsy, too violent, disabled, criminals, drunks, drug addicts, despised Darokinese immigrants, etc.

Let me know how Audrey aims to navigate this situation!

The quarry is a good, safe, and containable area. She has a good bit of coin to hire appropriate caregivers as well as new hires to build the right enclosures. At the quarry, an eye can be kept on their growth and development before they are mature enough to move back to the swamps.

The exact location has yet to be determined.

• Dr Wills opened negotiations with Émeric de Troeven (son of slumlord Prince Frédéric) to procure a spot in Glantri City's swampy, lower-class Low Waterside district for the next three months. This provides an established structure to move the younglings into right away, and allows for easy access to city services and for staff to find their own housing off-site. Long-term, however, it's by far the most expensive to maintain due to rents, and is fraught with the potential troubles of exposing the younglings to Glantri's dark underbelly.
• Audrey, for her part, hoped to scout out a location in or around the Briouze itself, which would be cheap and especially well suited to the swampfolks' skills and disposition. But it would be a hard sell for staff and would be troublesome to guard and supply. It would also demand the complications of either raising a new structure in the swamp, or of moving into the original lizardfolk lair and trying to keep it secure despite its isolation from civilization and proximity to monsters.
• Martín and Roland proposed putting it on Rouvière land, using the recently opened quarry as a pond for the amphibious younglings. This keeps the younglings handily under Company protection. Unfortunately, all available manpower is tied up with castle construction. And while Rouvière is not as expensive as Glantri City nor as isolated as the Briouze, it's not as close to useful services as Glantri City, nor as salubrious to amphibious folk as the Briouze. And while it doesn't have urban cutthroats nor swamo monsters, it is directly threatened by Sir Furcas' forces.

Feel free to discuss next steps here!

Wintergreen would be happy to trade his scroll of protection from normal missiles to a squishier and less armored spellcaster, but he'd appreciate some other minor magical item in exchange. (He was on hand for last session's defense Rouvière, though he was heavily injured and is busy recuperating.)

Encouraged by Renee’s uncharacteristic initiative, Martin will gift the Magician 1000 gold pieces to pursue his research, and volunteer his services in procuring “research material” from his underground contacts, as well as his insights into their effects and services as a test subject (my hope is that the glyphs he transcribed and MLB's toxicology will suffice as spell notes/research materials and get him to the 500gp/level + 3d6 check territory).

As a final entreaty for anyone still reading this – we’re a light on spellcasters these days so Martín and Roland have been bringing our hireling wizards. They’re around level 4 - quite squishy and not particularly useful (no offense). If any PCs would be willing to give or loan some "magic user items" (wands, scrolls, tomes, protective items) this should help improve their impact and keep them alive to get better spells!

We don't really have many bow users (and Martin's hands are usually best used for hitting things). I'm curious if enchanted arrows work just as well when thrown or stabbed into something. If that is the case these become interesting single use items for many characters.

Martín would be interested in the Antidote and Curative potions and arrow of Quickjump. But none are really game changers.

Martin is our only frontline guy without any level drain protection, right? As much as I covet that ring, it should probably go to him.

The ring of the silver sun: An ivory ring inlaid with a silver sunburst. It acts as a ring of protection +1 and shrouds the wearer in silvery continual light. Once per month, it can protect against a single level-draining effect by unleashing a blast of positive energy; this exhausts all of the ring's powers until it's had a month to recharge.

The lucky sword of One-Eyed Felice: A short sword +1 with a pair of dice engraved on the forte. It scores a critical hit on a roll of 7 or 20.

Antidote potion: Neutralizes poison.
Curative potion: Cures disease.
Potion of diminution: Shrinks you to 6" in height.
Potion of healing: Heals 2-7 points of damage.
Potion of innocuous polymorph: Polymorphs you into a chosen animal that has no more than 1 hit die.
Village hero’s potion: Raises a level 1-3 fighter, dwarf, or halfling to 4th level for the potion’s duration.

Arrow of law: +5 "to hit" and damage against demons and undead.
Arrow of pass-wall: As the pass-wall spell.
Arrow of the ram: As the ring of the ram.
Arrow of silence: As the silence 15' radius spell.
Climber’s arrow: Embeds itself into wood or stone and trails a climbable rope.
Firework arrow: As the pyrotechnics spell.
Magefire arrow: Turns into a single magic missile, as per the spell.
Nimbus arrow: Illuminates the target as the faerie fire spell.
Quickjump arrow: Teleports the archer to wherever the arrow strikes, as the dimension door spell.
Rust arrow: Destroys a target's metal armor.
Threefold arrow: Splits into up to three arrows to attack that number of targets.
Web arrow: As the web spell.

Cut Cutelain: His speedy, frenetic nature allows him to turn into a blur of pint-sized murder, once a day, as a Haste spell cast upon himself.

Roland: Barbaric YAWP! His presence is so intimidating to tribal humanoids, he may 'turn' them as a cleric does the undead, essentially routing the affected hit dice. A table could be put together listing Goblins/Kobolds, Hobgoblins, Gnolls, and so on, perhaps at half his current level or something like that. Like cleric turns, the highest ranking humanoid must be affected first. Auto turns would equal surrenders.

I dunno, the Roland idea sounds cooler than it would probably work. They would just run away, leaving them to be cleaned up later. Maybe he doesn't have to maintain concentration to do it, leaving him able to fight.

Last night generated my idea for Roland's. And, now 8th level, my cleric gets one, too. Here are two ideas.

Roland:
Following the mutual slaughter against the Eyedrinker Tribe, the double-size Roland, Lord Zanzibar &c picks up the Potion of Growth he threw down to expand his size. Enveloped within his massive hand, he sniffs at the thing, then sips the dregs. Faint reason thuds into the fighter's scant brains: This was no potion at all! It was… water!

Roland, Lord Zanzibar, Ant-Man, &c could double his size, as per a potion of growth - once per day - all along! The Sword Princes of Neutrality have conferred this upon him, doubling his neutrality upon the world for a little time. As neutral as they are, they didn't bother to tell him!

Audrey:
I've been bouncing some ideas around. One idea was projecting a permanent Protection from Evil, 10' Radius effect, as per an AD&D Paladin. But then I realized I get an extra 1st/2nd/4th level spell now and that 4th level spell can just be used for that purpose.

Other ideas include permanent Bless effects, something to do with Negative Plane Protection or Restoration (e.g. allowing saving throws for companions), access to one of the 6/7 level Cleric spells in later editions like Flame Strike, Heal, or Blade Barrier. But I'm now thinking:

Summon Valkyries/Sisterhood Spearmaidens.
Seff is associated with the feminine spirits of vengeance and honest battle, who collect the dead and select the slain. This would work like a Horn of Valhalla, where instead of generating Viking-constructs, it generates ghostly forms to aid in combat selected from the sect's ancient orders. Something like 1d4+1 spirits of, say, fifth level, with plate/shield/spear, magical striking properties but no bonuses, who last for a certain number of rounds or until dissipated/slain, who can become intangible and move over water/through allies. Maybe 1 turn/level.

Thoughts?

I'm in midtown west if you ever find yourself here, day or night. Otherwise I can head over to the next game you play at Cafe 28 or Bread & Butter.

1. No interest in Mark of Amber, alas
2. Definite interest in Planescape; I can hold on to it until IO emerges from his man cave, and then he can have it. I just want to look at the pretty pictures.
3. I'll take a RTTOH as well.

What's a convient way to make the drop? i'm leaving town for turkey-related madness on Wednesday evening and returning sometime on Sunday…

IO, given James won't actually use it, perhaps you two can timeshare it so each of your shelves gets bragging rights?