DM CH-P's CoT: The Bastards of Erebus
Game Master Are

Y-you get to play? I remember getting to play. Now that convention season is effectively over (Kyle recently got us involved in another convention in 5 weeks' time), I'm going to run some GM training and design a few store events around introducing new GMs so that I might get some play-time.

I believe there were 14 slots over the course of the weekend (11 plus 3 slots of "Midnight Madness"). I think I ended up GMing 3 on Friday, worked 8 hours on Saturday, oversaw the Special, 3 on Sunday, and one today; amazingly, I wasn't roped into GMing the last slot of the convention, and that gave me a chance to visit the dealers' rooms.

Sadly, my table (GM) of Midnight Mirror fell through. Even so, I had fun.

Y-you get to play? I remember getting to play. Now that convention season is effectively over (Kyle recently got us involved in another convention in 5 weeks' time), I'm going to run some GM training and design a few store events around introducing new GMs so that I might get some play-time.

This kind of stuff worries me, Yahirma. I can't imagine working any GM that way at any convention (unless they requested it). I know we did a few less tables than DragonCon (170ish to 120ish), I know that we had only 2 GMs who GM'd more than 4 tables and we had 30+ who just GM'd 3 of the 11 slots.

I hope the GM 101 training spurs more GMs, however, I begin to think that the problem is more endemic than that.

So yeah...our GMs play a lot. I hope you'll come out sometime to see. :)

Overall the con was a lot of fun. Met great new players and the mods were pretty good. I recommend the Golem-works Incident.

Appario has no problem with slaying of evil, especially those as evil as them dark creepers/stalkers.

None of the dark folk were evil at all, actually :)

***

So you're actually getting to play about 1/3rd of a season at a single convention (well, except Yahirma who has to GM all of those instead)? That's a pretty good deal.

Yeah, the con was a blast. I don't know if I'm ready to be an adult again.

***

We should be good to resume regular progress today/tomorrow.

I'm starting to think that every group should include an oracle with misfortune :)

Agreed.

The forum just impressed me! Internet Explorer decided to get an error when I previewed the post for the second time (after having already previewed some of the die-rolls earlier), and then threw me to the messageboards main page when I refreshed.

So I had to click my way back into the campaign thread before attempting the post again, figuring I would have to go with a "trust me, that's what those rolls were" kind of solution. I had copied the post, as usual, but I assumed the rolls would be lost by making a new post. But the forum actually remembered the rolls despite all that :)

That was actually something I got fixed a few months ago.

I was in a PBP with a guy that I'd caught wind of cheating and after reporting it to Gary he fixed it.

Good thing you (and Gary) did :)

By the way, considering the misfortune tracker question; I have a txt-file where I keep information on various things (damage, ongoing effects, spell slots and class abilities used, etc). Should I post that information to the game thread as well (in a spoiler tag)? If so, how frequently?

I tend to update my profile with a note of who has used Misfortune already. If it would help, I can include a few updates in my combat posts.

I was just curious about such a thing's existence.

Yahirma's profile would work.

While we're at it every group should include a bard with inspire courage.

Absolutely. And if I had remembered that Derek could activate his bardic performance as a move action, there would have been a lot more pain to go around earlier in this combat :)

"Too many doors here," Yahirma mutters to no one in particular. "It's a wonder that anyone can navigate this building for all its doors," she concludes with a hint of irony.

Yes, the whole place is essentially designed to delay invaders as much as possible :)

Appario has a strange memory. This is the first locked door (as opposed to hidden) you've encountered in this entire building!

Uh...maybe Appario mis-thought. He meant to say traps! Yeah...that's it...traps and illusions.

How can people really function in a trapped, mostly-illusioned lair!?

And them dark folk are totally evil...

Because they know how to bypass those traps safely. Well, at least the ones who would need to know do.. the dark folk simply knew they shouldn't enter certain rooms :)

Nah, they're just CN ;)

Huh. It's half past 7 already. It was 4 the last time I checked the time and thought "I'll be here another half hour or so".

Going to bed :)

Good night!

Injury update:
Appario: 1 STR damage (4 temporary hp)
Derek: 20 damage
Maddok: 12 damage (9 temporary hp)
Xerath: 44 damage
Yahirma: 9 damage (10 temporary hp)

It's going to be tough getting in the room without continuing to stand in a lightning bolt formation.

Well, as long as Maddok is determined to be adjacent to Derek there will always be a lightning bolt formation :)

Besides, lightning doesn't hurt some of you that much anymore, plus wizards typically don't have limitless amounts of each spell prepared (and staff charges deplete quickly).

Xerath will be home in ~30 minutes.

I'll be here!

I've been spending some time figuring out what a spellcaster can actually do while grappled, which turns out to be woefully little. If you're a spellcaster and you get grappled, you better have a group of friends to help you or get lucky relatively quickly :)

I've been spending some time figuring out what a spellcaster can actually do while grappled, which turns out to be woefully little. If you're a spellcaster and you get grappled, you better have a group of friends to help you or get lucky relatively quickly :)

Yep.

There are solutions, hopefully none that he has.

I'm going to keep trying to pun him to death. I'm going to make it un-bear-able to be in that room. Of course, sadly, there will be some collateral damage.

I can't believe that we're lvl 8 and don't have a solution to invisibility amongst all of us....no glitterdust, nor faerie fire, nor purge, nor nothing else. Of course Appario is as guilty as anyone of this.

Maddok has a solution through his summons but he's fresh out.

=(

Hey there. Awesome seeing another long running CoT game, although you seem to be taunting the monster a little too much. :)

Taunting is a decent strategy against a spellcaster who thinks himself near-invulnerable :)

***

In case anyone wonders, the fear spell was from his staff.

We do have a reckless habit of picking fights with anything Yahirma doesn't lure into our increasingly motley crew.

Outsiders, ex-outsiders, hag-spirits, [purported] vampires, and [supposed] lycanthropes! You would never guess that the party is 90% human.

Oh, and an amorous satyr.

That satyr may begin wondering when he'll have his reward! :)

I must say I really like this bear-version of Xerath! Perhaps shapeshifting is his niche?

Perhaps.

That satyr may begin wondering when he'll have his reward! :)

Appario was wondering about how to make coin off men and women's desires...

It occurred to me that the party has managed to craft a long list of more-or-less villainous people and creatures who might feel they owe the party a debt for being allowed to live :)

I think we're counting on that.

I meant in terms of potentially providing aid at some point in the future :)

Exactly!

How's everyone doing on resources?

Let's see.. Assuming my tracking is right:

Appario has both his spells left, plus 1 use of smite and 1 use of lay of hands.

Derek has 0 3rd-level spells left, 3 2nd-level spells, and all his 1st-level spells, plus 10 rounds of bardic performance. He also has several of the Morrowfall's powers (1 sunbeam, 1 sunburst, 1 blindness, 3 searing light, plus the at will abilities).

Maddok has 0 uses of summon monster left, 0 3rd-level spells, 2 2nd-level spells, and one 1st-level spell, plus 4 rounds of rage.

Xerath has 2 4th-level spells left, 0 3rd-level spells, 4 2nd-level spells, and one 1st-level spell, plus all his uses of his bloodline power.

Yahirma has 3 4th-level spells left, one 3rd-level spell, 4 2nd-level spells, and 2 1st-level spells. She has no uses of natural divination remaining, 5 uses of reminder of death, and all 10 uses of undead servitude.

***

Injury-wise:

Appario has taken 1 STR damage.
Derek has taken 46 damage.
Maddok has taken 31 damage.
Xerath has taken 52 lethal damage, 12 nonlethal damage, and has 1 temporary negative level.
Yahirma has taken 9 damage.

Are you impress me again.

I think we'll be good to press on if we can get patched up off of wands.

Derek/Yahirma has healing wands, we have TONS of potions of lesser restoration for Appario's STR damage, and I believe we have a wand of restoration for Xerath's negative level.

I'm good to heal up a few party members and try the rest of the mansion proper. This talk of a treasury and the noble crime lord implied to be somewhere downstairs sounds like a bit more than we can handle in one go. Let's clear the upstairs and head to the ground floor.

I have that Yahirma has 4 3rd level spells left, having cast two renditions of resist energy, communal and one round of chain of perdition against that dark stalker. Perhaps I missed a few rounds of cure serious wounds?

Yes...I must have missed at least one CSW in Walcourt.

I think we're more or less done with this floor.

Does Yahirma want to rest before we try venturing down?

I'm good with clearing anything on the ground floor. It sounded like there's a basement (dungeons), and that sounds a bit dangerous with slim resources. Clearing everything above the dungeons/basement sounds like a reasonable goal, after which we can assess the need for rest.

Yes...I must have missed at least one CSW in Walcourt.

CSW

CSW

So 2 CSW, 2 Communal Resist, and 1 Chain. I had missed something too, though, as you have one more 3rd-level spell per day than I had written down (I must have forgotten to check bonus spell changes when the headband of charisma was upgraded). So the final tally is that Yahirma has 2 3rd-level spells left :)

This is a test: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Hmm..

Oh yeah, I just learned about that formatting a couple nights ago.

It must be new.

Bah, we should have done that whole conversation in here instead! Now there's a dozen ooc-posts in a row cluttering up the page..

It's okay. We're padding the post count!

So 2 CSW, 2 Communal Resist, and 1 Chain. I had missed something too, though, as you have one more 3rd-level spell per day than I had written down (I must have forgotten to check bonus spell changes when the headband of charisma was upgraded). So the final tally is that Yahirma has 2 3rd-level spells left :)

Spells and Pet Projects list updated

Yahirma's True Neutrality: Because victory isn't complete unless 50% of all of my enemies end up becoming my friends [without Appario's knowledge].

If anything I'd think she was hiding her scheming from Xerath, not Appario. Appario doesn't care who we make alliances with.

Yea, Xerath is the one who has a problem with allying with everyone that tries to kill us. Especially those that succeeded.

Yahirma wrote:

Yahirma's True Neutrality: Because victory isn't complete unless 50% of all of my enemies end up becoming my friends [without Appario's knowledge].

If anything I'd think she was hiding her scheming from Xerath, not Appario. Appario doesn't care who we make alliances with.

What? I think Appario is making it pretty clear that some are less trusted than others.

Livia? Fine.

Talking Devilshead of Pure Evil? Fine.

Xerath? Must. Be. Watched. ;)