GM Giuseppe's Council of Thieves

Game Master Giuseppe Capriati

If anyone had any daily healing left before our rest (from class features and not items), can we say they had used it before resting?

Of course you can. Just roll the dice in the Gameplay Thread if any daily healing was left.

We have arrived and has found that internet does exist here! I'll be back on track for the next couple of days and then disappear again for travel.

I'm going to be away this weekend. I'm taking my daughter to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania.

Since it's Sunday and both Alessandro and Petals are away and won't be able to post, and this is a very important combat, I will post only tomorrow morning. Have a good Sunday folks!

So what is the plan?

Varius, with the enemy having DR, if you want to borrow the Petal's earth breaker you may. Alessandro has it currently. I doubt the silver part of it will help here but it is masterwork.

I think Catina can spot the source of the darkness next turn. Hopefully, that will solve one of our problems. Then, it's just a question of getting her in striking range: readied actions will stay bothersome. Maybe someone can try a flying grapple/tackle?

I have could use my bonded item to cast Darkvision on myself, then be able to read my own scroll and cast Darkvision on someone else. If Catina can find the source, though, that's probably a lot better. It's at least more efficient.

I think ranged attacks or jumping to knock her out of her falling loop is a good idea if she continues to attack from range.

Sorry for the delay, guys. These days are just crazy!I'm posting in a few hours at the latest anyway ;)

No problem! Hope you're the good kind of busy. :)

No problem! Hope you're the good kind of busy. :)

Just a lot of work. And on the top of that, I'm preparing to move to Paris...which requires a lot of paperwork, which is swallowing the majority of my spare time.

If any of you can think of a good way to stop me falling (or make it more controlled), I'm open to suggestions! I can use my arcane bond to cast feather fall, which should work if we can't work out something else.

Since the tiefling falling through the stairwells seems to have been opening the doors, I'd also recommend that maybe we should just let me fall another round? The north door seemed to flicker, so maybe this is working or maybe I need a more controlled fall to control the doors? I think waiting a round is probably okay, though.

Paris? That's quite an adventure, Giuseppe! Didn't you already move not so long ago?

Yeah I moved in October last year. Now I will move again :D I've been quite a wanderer during the last years.

Hey everyone! I planned to remember this, but I totally missed the date...

Anyway, happy belated birthday to this game! The first player posts for this game were on July 1st of last year. Here's looking forward to another year! :D

Oh, how nice of you to (make an effort to) remember. Happy birthday everyone. :D

Happy birthday everyone! Let's hope for more years together!

Happy birthday!

I need a quick feedback from you guys: are you feeling a little bored by the chaotic nature of this fight?

Hm. Not necessarily "bored," but it is a little tough fighting an enemy at a good pace in PbP when they use a lot of evasive tactics. It certainly feels different from our other fights, in that our previous foes haven't been so adept at and focused on eluding us. In that way I like the variety and it makes this foe more interesting, but this kind of round-by-round chase might work better in a face-to-face setting. Especially when she's quick and can navigate the opening and closing doors better than us and has successfully fled. It's not so much the chaotic nature of the fight that's boring (I'm finding that pretty interesting!), rather the fact that we're being outmaneuvered and going through a bunch of stairwell rooms that it's hard for us to control and that all look the same.

If I were to offer some solutions to making this feel a little more engaging, I could recommend any number of things:

• One, we could drop combat initiative now that our foe has escaped and keep moving, going back to initiative if we find her. That might not work great for tracking how far away she gets, though.
• So option two, we could describe our next actions as if we weren't in initiative. If we still want to chase her (and I certainly do, to get back Catina's things since it's my fault they've been taken) then we could describe moving through the rooms, carefully lowering people down through the holes while holding on to a rope so they don't take falling damage but we can still open the doors. We can describe doing a bunch of actions and then figure out how many rounds it takes, eliding several "empty" or "boring" rounds into a a shorter amount of days and posts.
• Option three, maybe it would be fitting to make use of the Chase rules from the Gamemastery Guide (linked)? I don't want Giuseppe to have to do a whole bunch of extra work, though, so maybe even just simplifying it to a couple of checks to see if we can catch up would be good.
• The last option is similar to the first one I suggested. If our would-be assassin has gotten so far ahead that tracking rounds or giving chase isn't really feasible, we could just drop initiative and say that she got away. Maybe she leaves the dungeon with Catina's stuff, or hides in a different place ready to ambush us again. Having her just get away stinks for us, obviously, but sometimes that's just what happens in a game. If she's truly gone, I'd happily offer some sort of recompense to Catina for the things she's lost in my efforts to get rid of her runecurse.

Do any of those sound good to the rest of you?

I'm not bored, but I am wondering how it will end (and whether it will end in a timely fashion). Any of the suggestions by Faustinia would work for me.

One thing that would impact the resolution (but is unknown to us) is the tiefling's goals and motivation. If she just wants to get away, I have no doubt she'll succeed. Maybe we'll run onto her again some time, but after we find a reliable way to operate the doors, it seem like we could drop out of initiative. If she's trying to lure us somewhere or ambush, we could maybe skip to that point?

If lowering Varius down with a rope works, we will get through with enough trial and error. As Catina said if it takes us too long, she will get away. That part could be determined randomly by you, knowing where she is and what she wants. Or with an intelligence check from our wizard's big brain to see if she can recognize a pattern and the probability of our target's path.

Otherwise skipping to the ambush would be nice.

I agree. I think we can move out of initiative until the enemy reappears. Also happy anniversary

Yeah, I think moving out of initiative when the enemy is out of sight helps us pace things a little better. And with Varius and the rope, it's just me pushing as much as possible. This is a cool encounter but the format does stretch it out a lot.

There's a precise reason for staying in initiative, my friends. Anyway, I believe it won't create too many problems if we speed up things a bit: in your next post, please describe 3 rounds of actions. And thanks everyone for the feedbacks! They've been highly appreciated and I will make use of them ;)

Could someone move me 40 foot down, to try and cut her off? Sorry, still really busy. Should be better after Sunday.

No problem! I've moved you into the Observation Room. :)

Tiefling's Loot

Medium spider venom (5), potion of cure moderate wounds, potion of gaseous form, potion of invisibility, +1 leather armor, +1 short sword, masterwork hand crossbow with 15 bolts, hat of disguise, bejeweled bust of Asmodeus worth 800 gp.

A note about Catina's backpack: Despite what the description in the Gameplay Thread may suggest, Catina's backpack is still intact, as its contents.

I've added the tiefling's loot to our loot tracking sheet. I imagine Varius will be taking that +1 shortsword. :)

He can now attack shadows!!!!

Just got home. Really late, so straight off to bed. Sorry, but Catina's post will have to wait until tomorrow morning. Some time before 11, I hope.

EEEEEE!!! Yes, yes he will.

I love that book!!!

Um, well Petals can't is out of it for 2 more turns, the others 1 more. Best is wait til we are all free. Then we can see if leaving without fighting is an option.

Or we can try and figure out why the book has this power over the undead.

Hey all, I'm confused on where we are fighting the mummy. The map still has him in the same place he started but in the below...

So as not to have to deal with the clutter in this room, Faustinia carefully leads the mummy out and to the north into one of the unfinished chambers. Once there, she takes a deep breath. “I'm sorry,” she tells him, before ordering him to allow himself to be destroyed.

I figured we just hadn't reset the map since we'd all be close or around him in one of those other rooms. Petals flanking statement had to do with that assumption.

As well I should be adjacent to the mummy, regardless of terrain since this'll affect any kind of full attack action.

Sorry, was not able to edit the map. Varius and Alessandro should be adjacent to the mummy, the others can place wherever they want in the range of 3 feet from the undead.

I've gone ahead and moved us into one of the northern rooms that I mentioned in my earlier posts about luring the mummy there.

Thank you Faustinia! I've just checked the map and it works just fine. The flanking positioning is clever of you, but I've got nothing against it.

Good morning all, another quick question. Is Varius's Warhammer still on fire, since he turned it into a makeshift torch. Or did the act of using it as a weapon tear all the burning cloth off?

Alessandro, I don't think you ever officially returned Petals hammer. Being the gentleman and carrying it for the poor weakened elf. Might work better since it is more damage in a single hit.

Can't think of a lot to do, other than keep singing and aiding another to hopefully let the flaming hammer it (if it is still flaming). If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know. She can aid another on a trip attempt?

Actually I'll want clarification on that before I post since it'll change up my actions.

Yes I still have the warhammer. I could try it.

Wait, I thought I had it?

I'll post a single attack on the assumption I had it and was attacking with it - and am ditching it this round for a second shortsword.

You have your flaming Warhammer, you had bought one, correct? Alessandro has Petals Earthbreaker, the two handed hammer.

Yes, there we go. Was confused. And yeah, big two handed weapon is the deal. Varius is going to need a weapon for every occasion at this rate.

Also - if the warhammer remains flaming I'll hang on to it if at all possible. Just posted the action to get something in for the day.

Hey everyone, sorry for my silence. Real life issues aren't allowing me to sit down and post. I will get back as soon as possible, hopefully tonight.

I'll hold off on posting until I see what happens. If the mummy gets through with that crit, I'll be at -10. Not in a good place, but not quite dead either! I'll be dead at -12, so that's something to keep in mind...

UGH, I forgot we had slept. I remembered using smite evil against the water ghouls, so couldn't use it here.

If you die horrible because of my memory, I apologize greatly Faustinia!

UGH, I forgot we had slept. I remembered using smite evil against the water ghouls, so couldn't use it here.

If you die horrible because of my memory, I apologize greatly Faustinia!

I appreciate that, but I believe in everyone's ability to keep me from dying and win the day at this point! ^_^

We still have a potion of cure moderate wounds that we got from the tiefling if that would be better to heal me in this case.

I also have a potion of cure serious wounds we could give to Alessandro, which might be better to conserve our other healing or spells, unless wants to use her channel energy. Since he has a much higher max HP than me (until the Con damage, at least), the potion probably won't have any wasted over-heal.

We want to get Alessandro and I healed up quickly after the fight, I think. From what GM Giuseppe described, it sounds like the onset of mummy rot is fast but not immediate, so we have a short window where we can be healed without caster level checks.

Just got back from RL roleplay evening. Won't have time for a post. Feel free to use all of Catina's remaining channels. I hadn't yet deducted the one I was going to use offensively against the mummy.

Hey, GM Guiseppe, I have some questions about my summon monster II spell. I’m considering summoning either 1d3 celestial dolphins or a small elemental.

Dolphins: The summon monster spell says, “Creatures cannot be summoned into an environment that cannot support them.” Is it too filthy and gross to summon some celestial dolphins into?

Small elemental: Here I’m choosing between an earth elemental and a water elemental. They both depend on some environmental factors.

First, the earth elemental’s earth mastery ability:

An earth elemental gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls if both it and its foe are touching the ground. If an opponent is airborne or waterborne, the elemental takes a –4 penalty on attack and damage rolls....

Second, the water elemental’s water mastery ability:

A water elemental gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls if both it and its opponent are touching water. If the opponent or the elemental is touching the ground, the elemental takes a –4 penalty on attack and damage rolls....

Obviously these elementals could get some minor bonuses or some hefty penalties based on whether these foes are “touching water,” “waterborne,” or “touching the ground.” Is it obvious to Faustinia whether any of these bonuses or penalties would apply?