Good question, indeed. I think from how the spell description is worded ("It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn") I would agree with Sui. The shark shows up and attacks on the round it was cast.

Please note: Originally, I did it Almerin's way (my first time playing that is) but was corrected by several Expert players and DMs (read: 20 years + each)

Experts are wrong then. The casting time for Summon monster is 1 round. Look up Casting Time, on page 174 of your PHB, and it says:

A spell that takes 1 round to cast is a full-round action. It comes into effect just before the beginning of your turn in the round after you began casting the spell. You then act normally after the spell is completed.
Not much room for questioning there, spell description or not.

That's fair. You won't get argument from me as you're the DM. As I said, I even did it that way originally. Thanks for the official decision though!

The Players Handbook gives a description in the beginning of the magic section that includes the example of Mialee casting Summon Creature I. It waits a round. Also the full-round difference is something I use, but until I saw this I didn't have anything to base my opinion on for terms of this discussion. I suppose my comment comes at a slightly inopportune time, we having agreed upon which method would be used already.

Fine call, Almerin. That was helpful for sure!

BTW, thanks for sending the shark!

I will do my best to update somewhere this weekend. I haven't heard of or seen Philo for a while, so I won't wait for him. I'm keeping his character inactive until he returns.

updated!

As in the OOC: maybe you can all post what your characters intend to do for two rounds, so that I can update a bit faster.

I can't go until I know what the bard is going to do.

Sorry for the delay... RL.

Sui: you can't go until you know what the bard is going to do? Your initiative is first. Logically speaking, if you wait for Beinsel, that means your initiative is dropping to his. Or you can just post your own intentions, and I can NPC Beinsel. I don't want to wait for people too long.

I think I can improvise.

I will be away with work starting tomorrow (July 3rd) until July 16th inclusively. I will attempt to post soon after that, but will likely need to catch up on work and family back home first. Give me a few days grace.

As a further "heads-up", summer is always a "busy" time for me as, with work and vacation, I will be away for 8 of the next 10 weeks with limited connectivity. Feel free to NPC Pio to move the story along and not wait for me. If I see an opportunity to post, I will.

Or feel free to have him become a cool cat snack.

(jk... please don't... I really like Pio)

Check ya later! (If you post today, Almerin, I'll try to do the same.)

Ayrn

*sigh of relief*

ok, guys... the fight is over, and we're ready to continue our quest. You can definately do something with this situation if you play it right.

Good luck!

I just posted. You won't see it, because by the time I pushed the submit button, I had timed out of the site again. I figured I had fixed this finally by selecting 'remember me' so that any activity on the site automatically logged me on, but I guess not. I'll try again in the morning, because it is way to late here to start over now.