GM Kiora's Wrath of the Righteous

Game Master Kiora Atua

I have faith in everyone else to pull this off just fine.

I'm gonna vote here cause there's too much to read in the gameplay thread:

I vote Annabelle comes with us but never moves more than 15' from me, under any circumstances, ever. Not while we're out in the open in the daytime. That way I can get to her even if there's difficult terrain and cast protective penumbra.

No need to vote. Your cohort, your decision :3

Remember that pulling out your scroll is a move action, though.

Hmmm, didn't see that she moved into the water.

It's actually a 15' drop into the water from there. You'd need a climb check (DC 15), the water is too shallow for it to be safe.

Also, is she mounted or not?

I am very confused, mostly because of a lack of knowledge about how the map looks.

I'm going to say that she is mounted, and with the idea that the brown land is on the same elevation all over - she can urge Blossom to jump each gap, right?

How did Valaria and Ary get over safely?

The map is meant to be a hill overlooking a floodplain with mudbanks sticking out of it.

Okay, so, on the left-most side of the map there is a large hill. The elevations are written topographically on the hill. It is highest towards the top of the map (elevation of 30', there's some trees planted there) and lowest towards the bottom where it reaches the water level.

The walkways on the water itself are all the same level, just barely over water level.

The water itself is mostly 4' deep, with some pools of 10' deep water. There is fog covering the water that obscures line of sight. So actually attempting to move through the water would require me to roll a % chance you stumble into deep water.

However, if you are at the very top of the hill (at 30') you are higher than the fog and can see the whole area.

Valaria and Ary went down the hill (they didn't have to make climb checks because they weren't in combat) until they reached water level. They then waded across a small amount of water to get across the banks.

Make sense?

Also, since Blossom is large, she wouldn't even have to jump. The shallow water doesn't slow her down. It is not difficult terrain for her.

But of course crossing a large swath of water would still be dangerous because of visibility reasons. And because the water is running water.

There was a really bad Hercules movie recently with the Rock in it. I mean, still enjoyable. But also kinda bad.

Anyway the idea in it is that Hercules was once a regular dude. And that all of his feats and exploits were done with the help of a group of friends. But over the years the telling of his tale morphed into the Hercules mythos, but the film's story is a glimpse into what really happened. Which makes sense especially in a time period where stories were mostly told through oration, and changed a little for each telling.

I thought that was a cool concept, and I like the idea of something similar happening to your heroes. Which could totally be done through Isilme's journal/story.

So really I don't think there can be too much abstraction or embellishment.

Sheesh, y'all were up late! And yeah, that's what I was aiming for with the story. Definitely a neat premise for a movie, even if it wasn't great. Thanks for the feedback :)

I totally should've sent y'all off with a mythic heroism, it was stupid not to, sorry! So on to the important topic of saving Val's ass:

If I'm 15'ft up, and use acrobatics to soften the fall from there to 5', that deals no damage right? Can you combine a jump with an acrobatics check to soften fall? e.g., from where Isilme is standing, could she jump to the path up and to the right of her (10' jump, 15' down) and reduce it to a 5' fall as well?

:) Ary could not have moved that far. She only had 30 feet of movement due to it being a surprise round. Likewise, Val's charge could only have reached #3 unless we spent another round jockeying.

Finally, Ary wanted to flank valaria, not flank with Valaria. Mostly, I wanted her to be able to stay beside her to help keep her safe. If all of those are okay. (With everyone else so far away, Ary is prioritizing keeping Val safe over killing people who may or may not be bad guys.)

I'll be working some fancy bard Isilme magic to get there right away, assuming jumping works right.

Hopefully I'll be able to have Val free in time for her next turn (if she doesn't break free this one). Shame I had to roll a 1 on init :p

Well that escalated quickly. If it weren't for the fog I could risk doing something stupid fancy, but I think I'll just have to double move.

It might not be a bad time to make use of wildshape. Getting 60 ft. move as a standard action is a net win, and completely eliminates the terrain problems at the same time.

I am back, just finished reading all the messages! I'll be posting a summary of Hinagiku's action during the past two days once the battle is over!

Note: wedding was crazy. My wife I help the groom to make some of the food... it took 7 hours or so to make salad for 150 people... madness!!!

Welcome back!

It might not be a bad time to make use of wildshape. Getting 60 ft. move as a standard action is a net win, and completely eliminates the terrain problems at the same time.

I was considering it, but I'm not sure whether he could reliably navigate through the air in this fog. He'd only need to be in the form for like, two rounds at most, though. Just getting to Ary and Valaria is all that really matters.

Also, have I ever mentioned that I really hate critical fumbles? :P

Crazy! Well welcome back from the madness :)

Yup, but it's the difference between taking two (actually three for you I think) full rounds to get in range to do something or getting a standard next round. Remember that each terrain jump is gonna cost at least 5' mv. And I don't think navigating would be any worse than getting there on foot. After all, nothing in flying says you need to go high up, can just hug the ground/water on your way across.

And it's not like you need to drop the form once you're there.

Welcome back, Hina. I've only ever attended one wedding and that was busy -with- catering.

I don't envy trying to catch up on everything. :p

:) Ary could not have moved that far. She only had 30 feet of movement due to it being a surprise round.

A little busy right now, move your pawn for me :)

Likewise, Val's charge could only have reached #3 unless we spent another round jockeying.

too late for that, it is done

If I'm 15'ft up, and use acrobatics to soften the fall from there to 5', that deals no damage right? Can you combine a jump with an acrobatics check to soften fall? e.g., from where Isilme is standing, could she jump to the path up and to the right of her (10' jump, 15' down) and reduce it to a 5' fall as well?

If you jump into the water I'm gonna say it'll soften 5' of fall damage just by nature of jumping into water/mud

You could then succeed on a DC 15 soften fall check to ignore the other 10' of fall damage. Since you take no damage, you do not fall prone.

Welcome back!

Isilme wrote:

It might not be a bad time to make use of wildshape. Getting 60 ft. move as a standard action is a net win, and completely eliminates the terrain problems at the same time.

I was considering it, but I'm not sure whether he could reliably navigate through the air in this fog. He'd only need to be in the form for like, two rounds at most, though. Just getting to Ary and Valaria is all that really matters.

You could fly above the fog. It is 25' tall.

Also, have I ever mentioned that I really hate critical fumbles? :P

I love them <3

---

I think that's all the questions. If you had another question bring it back up. Be back later :o

Still waiting on Markus to decide what you want Annabelle to do.

If Annabelle is mounted, just use the horse pawn. Annabelle's separate pawn is meant to give you something to use should you want her to dismount (or if she is force-ably dismounted)

UGH I need to stop and go back to doing things.

But I'm excited to see how you handle this encounter. My f2f group had some serious issues with it. I don't think it's too hard though. ...Maybe? Hah. I guess we'll see :) They won in the end.

Anyway, part of the point of this encounter is that its hard to easily discern friend from foe. I elected to keep everything out of spoilers, which means you all have info easily readable that you don't all necessarily have IC. So try to be careful on this front. Communicate to each other IC. Whatever.

For example, technically only Ary and Valaria know that Valaria is in trouble right now :)

I mean, the issue is urgent regardless so there is good reason for all of you to haul ass. I'm just saying be careful about what you do and don't know.

Unless you climb up above the fog, the rest of you cannot see what is going on at all.

Hopefully Ary will apprise us of the situation via message :)

Sorry about that. :( I should have just toughed it out and waited to see where Val went and then moved myself. I'll work off of the assumption we were able to move ten feet before they were aware, and thus we were able to move 40 feet... otherwise, Val just magically got a burst of speed that left Ary in the dust. :(

Sorry for that bit of trouble. Ary is where Ary would have been in relation to her, had she not been a cheat! :o

Also, Ary is sort of panicky right now, and is unlikely to think to use message, as she doesn't even know yet that Val is all 'Hurrrrkkk' Or is that obvious?

Also, Ary is sort of panicky right now, and is unlikely to think to use message, as she doesn't even know yet that Val is all 'Hurrrrkkk' Or is that obvious?

Should be pretty obvious. She is getting force choke'd!

Yeah, she was levitating off the ground and everything :)

Alrighty, I think all of my ducks (and super failures!) are in a row. Lots to do in that first round!

I think I'll just indiscriminately blind and drown everyone present. We can explain our good intentions later. ;P

Counting on Ary to hold the line, you'll have bard support whenever init 2 rolls around :P

I'm hoping I'll have some luck with the sense motive checks once I get there as well.

Edit: That was my plan Ehren, Glitterdust isn't something you really have to apologize that much for ;)

So... because it's running water, I'm not sure that I want Annabelle to take quite that level of risk. That's pretty significant for a battle - involving the only two things that can actually kill her.

Markus will command her to go back to watch over the caravan.

And if Markus can see the battle and target people from atop the hill he's already on, there's really no need for him to actually move... a medium-range spell will get there.

I'm guessing you'd need to be on at the copse of trees to our north (30' high), or use some other mechanism to get a better vantage point *wink wink, nudge nudge*, as the fog is 25' tall.

Markus can see the battle and target ONLY from the 30' tall area of the hill (the part with the trees)

You can simply move your pawn back there if you want onto the hill and say that Markus never moved further than that (you guys arrive on the scene at the top left hand corner of the map)

But it is a ~75'+ range from there to the bad guyz.

EDIT: Or of course if you had some way to move vertically, moving above the fog is no issue for an archmage such as yourself ;)

I am back, just finished reading all the messages! I'll be posting a summary of Hinagiku's action during the past two days once the battle is over!

Note: wedding was crazy. My wife I help the groom to make some of the food... it took 7 hours or so to make salad for 150 people... madness!!!

Welcome back!

Basically:

Annabelle ended up not going to Horgus Gwerm's house because she was distraught over the fact that she can't go near living horses anymore, and they do not allow her to ride them.

I assumed Hinagiku would stay at Annabelle's side rather than Ary's, so she stayed at Defender's Heart with her and comforted her, though Annabelle wasn't in a talkative mood. Realizing she couldn't ride really broke her spirit, so all she wanted to do was sit and cry.

Well, until Markus arrived back at Defender's Heart and rose Blossom, her old horse, back from the dead for her. They went riding together at night. It's up to you if Hinagiku came too or if she gave them some privacy.

The next day, Commander Irabeth assembled the heroes and gave the crusaders orders to escort Ehren to Fort Portolmaeus to investigate their misfunctional wardstone, with the assumption that Hinagiku/Valaria would come of their own accord. Ary was promoted to Captain and placed in charge of Markus, Isilme, and Annabelle. In addition, there is word that Fort Portolmaeus has been subjected to demonic attacks, so the heroes are to assess the severity of these attacks, send word to Kenabres of the situation and then stay and help in whatever manner they deem necessary. They are to stay at Fort Portolmaeus until they can rendezvous with Ser Jorsal of Lauterbury, a Third-Sword Knight of Iomedae. (There are 11 circles of knights in service to Iomedae, with Crusader Queen Galfrey at the head as First-Sword Knight) Ser Jorsal is to interview the group on behalf of the Queen to determine what happened at Kenabres in the Grey Garrison. After that, you are basically waiting on orders (thats military life)

Fort Portolmaeus is two days north of Kenabres. They elected to bring a covered wagon and a coffin for Annabelle's protection from the sunlight. Though Annabelle did not agree to sleep in the coffin. She would rather stay awake and talk to her friends during the daytime than sleep in a coffin.

Hinagiku was given the option of a free riding horse courtesy of the crusades. It is up to you if she took it. If she did, I want to know what it looks like :)

Anyway, the first day of travel was uneventful, though the heroes got a view of how devastated the border is due to the recent attacks. I want you guys to really have to face what prolonged wartime does to a nation. That minor victories at this point don't do much to stem the suffering of the common people. Perhaps when you are higher level, you will have access to magical solutions for these problems. For now it should just be sobering.

The next morning it is foggy, and the group moves past Bedis, an abandoned Sarkorian farming and fishing village that has been used as a staging ground for demonic attacks in the past. The group decides it is worth checking out, especially after Ary finds a bunch of fresh tracks moving into the orchards proper.

Ary and Valaria scout at first and find the scene - a group of peasants that appear to be killing each other with farming implements and also at least one necromancer out on a floodplain.

The floodplain map is a little complicated so please review the rules associated with it. If anything is unclear, please tell me. I went over them to Markus a few posts above. But basically there are elevations labelled on the map and the water is covered with fog 25' tall per Fog Cloud rules.

I mean. Everything is foggy right now. But only the fog over the water is thick enough to obscure vision completely.

Anyway Ary and Valaria hold out for the group to gather, but while the rest of the heroes catch up, one of the peasants is sacrificed, which forces Valaria and Ary's hand. Valaria charges in, misses, and is Evil Eye'd and Hold Person'd. Not that Hinagiku would know, she can't see anything but fog.

And that brings you to the present!

This battle is a s%$%-show.

Gods.

At least I didn't feed a kid to a crocodile. Sheesh. ;)

I agree that is a rather cruel scene.

I'm changing Markus' first action - disregard the previous spoiler.

Totally! My heart stopped when I saw Sigrid had been attacked, I was expecting to read on and find her dead before Auraelia had even had a chance to act :\

In regards to our positioning, can we then choose any point between the 30' area and where we currently are as our starting point?

I already figured that most of them were innocent from context. But I can see why your F2F group had trouble with it. Considering your group that is willing to spend more time actually thinking out a problem basically had the option of letting innocents die or jumping in unprepared, I can see why they got screwed. More so because there's a witch and a cleric in the enemy group (probably the only two actually evil ones).

In regards to our positioning, can we then choose any point between the 30' area and where we currently are as our starting point?

Yes.

I already figured that most of them were innocent from context. But I can see why your F2F group had trouble with it. Considering your group that is willing to spend more time actually thinking out a problem basically had the option of letting innocents die or jumping in unprepared, I can see why they got screwed. More so because there's a witch and a cleric in the enemy group (probably the only two actually evil ones).

It's a hard encounter :)

My group was really unprepared for the difficulty jump, I think. 2 levels, 1 tier, some boons... means fights are gonna be a little more complex from now on!

I have faith in y'all to pull through, though.

It's far from unbeatable. It's just obnoxious and we have much less intelligence than we're used to, which is a difficulty spike of its own. Having a contained area like Kenabres and enemies that all knew each other meant that we always had information on what we'd be facing next. That's not really an option anymore.

I think I have a way to help a lot on round 2. I wish I could do it with my first action but I need the elevation first.

We've got quite a few tricks up our sleeves, so I'm sure we'll make it through. It's just a matter of how much we'll have to burn to get things under control. When we have a lot of intelligence ahead of time, we tend to use less resources to achieve the same effect.

Biggest thing right now is to leverage our real-time intelligence, i.e. communications capabilities. There's theoretically no reason any of us should need to act on incomplete knowledge :P

I am always down with you guys talking to each other out of turn, even if its beyond what should be achievable in 6 seconds.

I've read on these forums that not all GMs are cool with this? Good thing I'm a cool GM ;D

Cool is selling yourself short ;)

It's much more fun in combat if you can banter back and forth or communicate. Six second rounds are one of the least realistic things in the system in my opinion. It means that at high level an attacks are pretty much nonstop in both directions, and in many cases it's not just opportunities. High level fighters can pretty much be guaranteed four hits a round, not counting AoO's and other abilities. I'll never understand the motivation for compressing the combat rounds by a factor of 10 from 2E->3E.

In GURPS, each turn is only one second long.

Watching people play a combat round in GURPS is a little bit strange. You can always only do one thing or a portion of a thing. One person spent five turns in a row re-loading a gun.

I'd prefer something like ten or fifteen second turns in Pathfinder - it would seem more realistic.

One second long, how do you even handle talking in combat? I'm going to start reloading and say "Look" :p

I suppose I like the combat to feel more cinematic, and short rounds take away from that. Fifteen sounds like it would be a better balance between the old, slow 1 min rounds, and the new 6 sec rounds.

I prefer an arbitrary amount of time passing in a combat based on exactly what is occurring in the said combat. So dramatically sneaking up on a pair of enemy and disabling them should be 6-12 seconds, yes.

But other fights take longer. I tend to visualize the combat as there being a lot more missed/parried actions than what is actually rolled for that compensates the extra time. But of course everyone has their own mental cinema of this.

In my game at least, you should avoid saying things like "this shield will last 6 minutes". because in my game it could be shorter or longer than that, really, depending on my whims and what is going on.

This does mean that I have to try and make sure you guys get proper mileage out of your buffs. I try my best here. But if you feel like I'm being unfair let me know.