Here's the discussion for the new Bloodcove/Azlanti scenarios. Just dot in whenever you are levelling and upgrading.
All aboard! The game has started in the gameplay thread.
Anara, did you level? Your stats still say level 1. Let me know if you need more time...
Do you guys want me to recruit additional players? I have a whole list waiting...
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I don't like to dismiss anyone... but we've gotten to the point where we're about to start our first battle and we need a fourth. Her participation has been bare minimum in the recent mods and none at all so far in this one. It is nice if players can be present at least once a day.
that said I defer to group consensus and welcome Anara if she's able to start playing.
Welcome!
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I can start playing a little more regularly at this point, but I do apologize. I mentioned on the other thread that I was on vacation (started beginning of June) I am back now, but if I have already been replaced I understand and can back out of this. Will wait on decision before posting anything in gameplay.
Hiya, welcome all, and thanks for joining in on such short notice.
@Kelsier: not necessarily, you can choose to have none, or whatever you want.
@ Anara: I kind of calculated in that that might happen. I'm fine with you joining in - we'll have a seven-player table, which is busy but manageable (and useful for the next encounter, which is tough). You still owe me a disguise/intimidate rolls, though.
I'm loving the discussion - I'm tempted to sit back and grab the pop-corn. Have we converged on 'swaggering in'?
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I'm really puzzled by the impatience. The fight took about 12-18 seconds. We tied them up (5-10 minutes?) And we've chatted about what to do (2-4 minutes?). It's not like we've wasted tons of time. The conversation actually overlapped the tying up, so we've been here like 10 minutes max. Pbp is just slow since you have to wait for everyone to react to what's happened before more time can pass.
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Brodey is taking some time in-character to remind everybody why we're at the alchemist shop in the first place. He doesn't try to make purchases in a strange, cut-throat economy without some local guidance. It rarely goes well.
Beating up some extortionists who violate contracts and work for Aspis is just a bonus. This would have actually been harder if the alchemist didn't need anything from us. Also, the Society owes its information sources better than to be trapped into a situation like this.
So for Brodey it is a win-win-win. No downside at all, unless of course we somehow get killed. The quality of the opposition so far isn't exactly worrying him though, and as for exotic beasts, well, he's gone toe-to-toe with some pretty bad things already with smaller groups of Pathfinders than this unruly mob :)
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It wasn't impatience with the amount of time spent, more the lack of cohesiveness of the discussion. I'm just used to a smaller group, probably. Sorry if I've been rude, but Lunaea has never known anything other than the small group she started with, and this feels totally chaotic to her.
It's been clear all along that we'd have to go deal with her, and it would be a hard fight. That's why DM brought everyone in to supplement the group when it looked like we might be down to three, and because there were lots of players needing a game. These thugs were easy, but the next ones won't be.
Some background on Brodey and Lunaea - "fawning" is the farthest thing from their relationship with each other, which is strictly professional. Lunaea is a Witch, and Brodey is a Witch-Bodyguard. They've pulled each other out of lots of holes, and have trust between them. The two characters were designed together and share team feats. There's some rather cool things you can do with team feats and we thought it might be fun to try them out. So yes, she is going to look to him first because she trusts his judgment, especially in this type of environment, but not for unprofessional reasons.
LOL - Tyraneus :D Yeah, Lunaea would probably be running for the hills in that case.
The smaller one is the summoner, the larger one the eidolon, though you haven't confirmed yet that the summoner is actually ichon.
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Objectives of this mission
1. not be noticed
If we had arrived and there was nobody there but Ichon and maybe a few retainers sure, we pretend we were hired to "fix" the broken contract as a pure mercenary payment thing.
Starting a brawl with a million bystanders isn't the plan, no. Which is why I'm asking about time of day. If it's daytime we can still maybe deal with the trade portion of our objective while we wait for the crowd to disperse. If it's night time our best bet is likely to hole up and hit them when they're closing up (if we don't know where she lives) or ambush her as she crawls into bed (if we do).
Of course if a fight happens anyway while we're trying to learn things Brodey will defend us all vigorously, but that's not plan A, B or C.
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And now we know how to quietly dispose of a body in this town. I'm thinking that maybe the best approach is to make her disappear, rather than do anything to her openly. Kill her when there's no one around, or at least no-one we can't handle. Then find the pig farmers and dispose of her. That way no-one can be sure what really happened with her and won't trace her back to our alchemist, which allows him to reopen his shop and start supplying us with potions again.
Which leaves the thugs in the basement. I'm thinking that given how easily we disposed of them and if their boss mysteriously disappears, we can intimidate them into silence.
I don't recollect saying that ;-)
Now, if you don't want to fight Ichon, remember that one of the reasons you're here is to find a cure for Senzer's boy. The other reason is to break the dominance Ichon has over Senzer, though you might be able to achieve that by other means.
Combat is still an option, though.
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I guess I was under the impression from what you said before that I could cure the disease if we could get her out of the picture. if that's not the case then it does change things. Even if the boy would need time for recovery he could reopen the shop and return to business.
If we need a cure from her then we may need to avoid combat until we have that either located or negotiated.
In case there was some confusion about the cant that Ichon uses:
kip = establishment, joint
to rattle the bone box = to talk
to scrag = to do away with, to kill
berk = person, used disdainfully
to pay the music = to be honest, to own up
to peel = to scam
to put in the dead book = to kill
It's from 2nd ed. Planescape, where it in turn was derived from actually existing London slang - great for thieves' cant.
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Couple points on rules.
1. You can not ready an action out of combat. When all are aware of each other, initiative determines who goes first. In this situation it means that she saw spellcasting begin and reaches for a potion, then Brodey and Oleander get to try to act against either person, and because they are faster reflexes, they go first, regardless of who initiated the action.
2. While it is true that PVP is by consent, on the same page there is a rule about not bullying other players. I for one have not enjoyed the sniping and my fun has been greatly reduced by a party member actively sabotaging our undercover mission with her comments and actions. Starting a fight during a negotiation is perilously close to PVP in such a dangerous situation and bullying is an offense that can get you ejected. If the GM is annoyed enough. Players can just choose to walk if they stop having fun. That is also an option, you get zero xp and gold.
Let's step on the brake here.
One of the disadvantages of PbP is that it is hard to judge for me when people get annoyed, which consequently makes it hard for me to act upon it. It's good that you voice your opinion here.
At this point, I think the PvP rule is clear, and should be adhered to. The bullying rule is - by design - more subjective, and I would not rule it at this point.
I do observe that the majority of the group wants to have a talking resolution to the conflict, and that a single player is going rogue, which has the potential for significant party friction. Something I'd rather not have.
My proposal: we keep the initiative order, but combat hasn't started yet. Specifically, Anub'arak casting action hasn't started, and Ichon hasn't stated her action (to which, indeed, Brodey and Oleander got to react, hence their superior order in the initiative list - I forgot to explain that). In short, none of that happened - I'm just keeping the initiative list for convenience.
Anub'arak: I strongly suggest to review your action. Please post the action you feel is justified and motivated by your character's personality. Please don't just initiate combat for the sake of forcing a melee.
Everyone: feel free to PM me if you have further concerns.
I will hold off further posts in the game thread until Anub'arak has had the time to respond.
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As we are in the discussion phase...
1: I had assumed that Anub'arak (the character) had a thing against full blooded elves - and that is why she was sniping at me.
2: I also think that the player took the DM comment about people not stepping in if we fought Ichon as a hint that is the right activity to be undertaking.
PbP can be a frustrating experience with folk dropping, and all of us having different posting rates (on top of our own preferred styles, and our characters preferred style).
I think the initiative is a bit confusing at the moment, as nothing is actually happening for us to react to. Oleander is just going to stay at the back with bow and arrow ready. She knows she is not a talker.
BTW - I know my own posting rate is pretty high and generally I try to push a game forward. However in this case Oleander can't do that. If you want me to slow down my posting I can (doesn't look like that is a problem in this game, but it can be in others).
Back on topic and on the subject of characters and RP games.
Oleander doesn't really like or trust humans. She also has a low charisma, neither of which makes her a great conversationist with much of the party. That doesn't mean she doesn't want to acheive the same objectives. PFS is nicely set up in that we are all part of an organisation which has "cooperate" as part of its creed.
Anub'arak has decided to withdraw from this table, so he won't be part of this combat.
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At some point the GM will roll higher on will saves. Or we'll fight something immune to sleep.
That fight could have been very tough. Using that potion as an opening move was a very strong tactic if it had worked. An invisible summoner means we end up fighting the eidelon, probably with any buffs she knows boosting its abilities, then, when we beat it, we have to run her out of summons, which she can do without making any noise to give away her position.
So while it was a little anticlimactic to have her dropped in one round, I'll take it. I think this team could have handled the longer fight, but it would have been pretty dangerous.
There's a variant where one of the thugs in the store gets away and alerts icon. If that happens, she has a fully buffed eidolon ready to rock as soon as the party comes in. I had that happen once, and it got within an inch of a TPK. The encounter is pretty tough.