The Absalom Gambit (Inactive)

Game Master Vuvu

Yggdrassil?

Varin it looks like it should be but varin neither hears not feels his patron.

Fort: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16
Engineering: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Warriors Fort: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
Both Ehad and the warrior look around trying to figure out what is going on. Ehad seems only slightly fazed by the shift but the warrior doubles over and wretches as he comes to grip with whats going on. As they take in their surroundings Ehad and the warrior follow everyones gaze to the So, ummm, any ideas on this one?

"If we time it right I can use feather fall and we might catch him."

remember he is 75 feet out from all sides

underline "might"

could just let him die and reroll lol

just an uppity orc right?

Would you mind making a basic side view picture of this room like what we did in the begining? I'm running a few thing through my head and have a few questions about everything: How high up is he and how far from the walls do the roots extend from our friend ect? I have climbing materials and lots of rope sooooo, I'm may do some crazy acrobatics and climbing should I need to :)

He is suspended 20 feet above the level you are on. The roots only extend down above him. IE you have no access to them. The walls are smooth marble. The pit is 150 ft across, and he is suspended in the center, so 75 ft from all directions. I cant make a map until tomorrow unfortunately, but i think from that info and the info in the first post it is a decent picture.

All the way around the pit is a 15ft wide lip. Basically you are standing on a donut. The only thing that you can tie a rope to is the device with the buttons. The glass box with the ooze has nothing to attach to and is also 20 ft up. To fall is pretty much certain death.

If you need better I will make a map tomorrow when I have time.

Nah thats good, I was just thinking, hmmm I have rope and climbing equipment, Ill just climb up the wall and swing from the roots to Varin and then use the rope as a 100 ft long swing and rock back and forth and jump from the rope. Yeah I lose 100 ft of rope, but I save a life and I figure he would be willing to splurge and replace it.

Lets shoot him with that grappling hook you were going to use on the light creatures.

Or does anyone have spider climb?

Varin does I think lolz

Kracow pulls out his gun and yells up
Hey Varin, do you want down?

Turning to the team, he says,
We can climb up to him. Then what? Or I can get him down to us.

No spider climb. If someone can think of a clever way to use grease I got that. Otherwise, I don't see anything promising in my spells or scrolls.

it appears yhat Varin cannot hear you. I like where you guys are going though!

if the monster dies, would it potentially release Varin as it will open the door? I ask because with the scrolls I'm carrying (endure elements) I could go head to head and probably win against the little bugger.

If the monster is released Varin gets released, apparently safely, is what Boneyard figured out

"I think that releasing Varin safely and taking our chances with this creature is starting to look like our best option. Unless we can come up with a way to catch Varin."

Then let's work on releasing and killing the creature first, then freeing Varin.

How hard can it be to kill that thing from up here?
Kn: dun
1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (7) + 7 - 2 = 12
and which button free Varin?
DD
1d20 + 15 ⇒ (13) + 15 = 28

so is someone going to push the button then? Or are we going to attempt some other rescue?

No guarantee we dont accidentally drop him first. If someone else has another 50 ft of rope. we can at least string out a rope he can try and catch. I have things to nail it down with so we can stand ready for whatever that thing is and also be ready for Varin to drop at the same time.

Lolz, so I just realized that had I chosen the friendship braclet in the candy store, I could just summon him next to me....

I have the extra rope
hands it to Ehad.

MiniGM, anyway we can reasonable catch him or string rope across the chasm? What would be an appropriate roll for that?

it will be a challenge, but if you have the 150 feet of rope to stretch across and can figure out how to attach it to the second side there is a chance. If Varin is dropped out the bottom. And he can reflex and make it. It is possible. Need an Engineering to get the pitons set right and then a DD or Sleight of Hand to tie good knots.

i am not giving you DCs' but the rolls will matter.

hmm anyone got decent stats for those? I'm sitting at +6 engineering and +4 sleight of hand

Bone has a huge DD, as does Kracow, you can assist the engineering untrained in this case

Great, you two handle the ropes I'll get the pitons in place with my trust side kick.
Well I am actually trained in engineering (I dipped into most of the knowledge skills I likes me the books)
As Ehad is handed the rope he looks it over and hands it to Boneyard I can handle the pitons placement, but your fingers seem more ideal than mine for tying rope. I'll help how I can, but I can't promise much.
assuming I and my little warrior can help, here are my rolls.
Ehads DD assist: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
Ehads Engineering: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

Warriors DD assist : 1d20 + 2 - 8 ⇒ (5) + 2 - 8 = -1
Warriors Engineering assist: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (15) - 2 = 13

ill try and get a profile up for the warrior tomorrow.

Ehad is able to get the pitons set into the stone, though it takes a lot of hammering. Others feel free to try to assist. The higher the number the better the chance.

Waiting for the real DD check. Once checks are made let me know EXACTLY who is doing what when the button is pushed, obviously there will only be one shot at this. Once everyone has made a post I will roll some dice.

Anyone going out onto the rope will need to make a acro and or a climb check. If you are trying to help grab him I will need a STR and a Fort as well

[ooc]I think Im best at DD[/occ]

Kracow will assist with the piton
Kn eng
1d20 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (19) + 3 - 2 = 20

and set the knots for the rope
DD
1d20 + 15 ⇒ (14) + 15 = 29

Boneyard can auto assist the rope. Waiting on a post from him and Salus

Salus readies himself to use a feather fall to assist Varin in as he falls. He utters the first syllable of the spell and moves his left hand as if in a grasping motion.

swift Arcane Armor, Standard Ready Featherfall

Ehad directs his lackey to the button. He presses it. The bottom of the acorn vanishes and Varin tumbles out. Salus immediately finishes his spell and Varin slows.

ok Varin time to make those checks!

Kracow casts resist elements: acid from his scroll once the rope is finished just before releasing Varian.

He has his gun out and loaded.

Here we go.

And thus I hung upon the gallows tree for nine days and nine nights and then I fell into death. Thank you Yggdrassil for this blessing. Varins possibly last words....

Varin's STR check 1d20 ⇒ 14

Varin Tumbles out of the acorn. Slowed by spell he reaches out and comes close to grabbing the rope but misses.

Boneyard shouts out some encouragement. Uses Marshal ability to allow a reroll of a d20

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

Varin kicks out a foot and snags it with his foot, slowing hi just long enough to allow him to grab the rope. Varin is easily able to climb to the edge safely.

You owe Boneyard BIG

Our heroes move to the now open door and fine the nuumbers 0-9. Above the large numbers are 5 empty boxes flat on the wall.

its a keypad folks

640 XP to each party member

Before going and removing the pitons and collecting the ropes, Ehad looks at Varin and claps him on the back. You sir, are one lucky orc.

1d100 ⇒ 31

Ehad claps Varin on the shoulder a little to hard sending him stumbling over the edge into the acid!

muahahahahahahahahahaha

just kidding...oviously I hope

You might think this odd but I was almost hoping I missed. Then perhaps I could find what I seek. Alas my dream fades even now. I might have to try it one day. If I do will you help me Ehad. Hang me for nine days and nine nights stabbed through the heart with my own spear?
Varin follows the party. Looking lost in thought with the idea of seeing whats on the otherside. And the life that death brings....

Welcome back from the cocooned. I hope we were interrupting a mystical nature rite.

Now let see what these numbers are all about.

Kracow examines the sequence of numbers.
DD
1d2 + 15 ⇒ (1) + 15 = 16

Are they in a particule order? Do they line up with the open boxes? What's in the empty boxes? tehehe

it's a keypad have all the info you need other than in modern terms it is a keypad for a number code

Are the boxes in a similar order to the 10 numbers? or in a row or in a column? or just randomly placed above the numbers?

How big are the boxes?

boxes 2 by 2 in a horizontal row above door way

Boneyard also examines the device to see if there is any clue other than random number pressing available or if there could be a way to fiddle with the box itself.
Disable Device 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (3) + 14 = 17
And learns nothing further!

I'm a little confused about the boxes. I'm assuming it looks like when we press numbers on the keypad, it looks like a number will appear in the boxes?

SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER!!!

boneyard is correct that is the assumption. But no one has touched a number yet

Keep in mind EVERYTHING that has happened since your entering into the tower, is your only hint

Salus plays his hand over the device, "Did anyone else feel a number brought to mind when we came in here? I remember feeling one drawn from my thoughts when we stepped into the portal."

"Strange you should ask. I certainly did. 19."

42 and that it had great meaning

Welcome to the Absalom Gambit

I am looking forward to this, greatly. Admittedly, I will probably make a mistake here and there, still being relatively new to PbP, having run the solo campaign for about 3 or 4 weeks.

That being said, I selected all of you, based off of creativity mostly. I looked at the builds to see if we were dealing with uber min-maxers or anything like that, but mainly I wanted interesting characters with depth. This being a sandbox I already have many ideas for additional side quests. I made a massive list below to try to cover all questions, but really this will be a pretty laid back game, low stress and fun.

Here are the expectations

1. Post at least once per day. I will most likely post once in the morning and once in the evening, though often I will post in the middle of the day if time allows. I hope that your characters will spend time talking, debating, and perhaps arguing, please feel free to do that as much as you would like. Though I do not want any PvP.

2. In general for things like perception I will let you make one check per room, or hallway etc, and you can choose to take 10 or roll and it will apply for the room, otherwise it will take a million years to get through one room of traps.

3. I did find a way to post maps, though they are not interactive. For rooms that might be complicated I will post up the map and show where things are, but the majority of the gameplay will be descriptive.

4. Finally got an idea, that is not specifically outlined in the rules? Go for it. Just let me know what you want to do, and we will figure out something that makes sense. Basically I love creativity

Other things to know
1. We are doing Medium advancement, and I will occasionally award xp, based off of what you have done.

2. I have opened the gameplay thread as well. USe the discussion thread to discuss things like loot division etc. I will not mandate how you do loot, I encourage you all to come to a decision on your own...like a party imagine that!

3. If your character is speaking in a language other than Common, stick it in a spoiler.
I will roll initiative for everyone at the beginning of combat. I dont mind if you post your action out of order, but know that I will keep them in order when I do the accounting.

4. I will ask you to select a spokesman after a bit, I will ask them occasionally where you are going, if it not clear.

5. Finally if you are going to be on vacation or whatnot PM me and I will bot your character. If more than one person is going to be gone for a bit, then we can just put the game on hold until people are back. If you cannot post for more than 24 hours I will do a basic bot of your character as well, so everyone is not held up.

Go ahead and chat a little bit, while I put some specifics into the Gameplay thread for each of you.

It will be late this evening before we get into the meat of each of your first tests. Take the time to here in discussion talk about whatever you need to, and if you want to make edits to your skills, or your gear feel free...within reason :) If you have not done so please put your character fluff and crunch into a profile, and if you can put your Init, Saves, HP, and AC's where it can be seen as part of your profile.

In the gameplay you will all be in the same room for a bit so get to know each other as well

Welcome again

This should be most interesting. I think the group will have quite a bit of fun due to the differences that each character has.

Very untraditional party, but the backstories were just sooo good, I couldnt say no.

Kracow will be making an appearance to the discussion thread, though obviously he wont in the gameplay for awhile. Not sure how long the interview/test will take, but after all Kracow went through it too.

Thanks a ton for the selection MiniGM. I'm really excited to play Boneyard! I don't think I'm going to make any more changes to him unless anyone spots a gap we really want to fill (and that wouldn't be fun to simply leave as gaps).

My interpretation is that Magical Knack will only boost things like his spell duration for the oracle spells (which will help quite a bit). I certainly would not mind seeing it extended to the Voice of the Grave and Ancestral Weapon abilities, but planned him on the interpretation that it does not help those since they are based on character level, not class level (hence why he still carries a physical rapier too).

As I mentioned originally, I'm open to replacing Voice of the Grave if you would prefer. There are a couple other revelations that are quite in character for him too. Voice gives you the opportunity to do some things, but could also be problematic if you happen to forget he has it. Of course, we're at a level where we could probably scrounge the dough to get a cleric to do it for us too.

I'm also open to putting in a few more things if you would like. I toyed with the idea of giving you a little something about a couple of his previous investigations. One was going to revolve around a missing person who turns up as one of the statues on Statue Street. Another was going to be getting into a case with The Harlequin and the Forthright Men where Boneyard got trapped between two competing obligations and got really, really sick as a result. I was also considering a couple ideas that would really ratchet up things between him and Lady Kythes Finch.

I like all of those Boneyard, and I also love the flavor of Voice of the Grave, its only 1 time per day, and am happy with your read of magical knack.

And love the investigation Ideas as well.

Gameplay thread is open btw

Anything else you need fleshed out? I'm finishing my shift at the moment but can handle it when I get home.

nope. Just putting the character info into your profile and the other info so it can be seen under your name.

Hey all *waves*
So I'm playing Kracow as a classic roguish character, the rogue persona, not the DnD class. He's a gish of rogue and wizard and full of background flavor. Watch for some fatal character flaws to come out.

I've been browsing through others' profiles to get ideas how to best present Kracow. So there might be some changes. Let me know if you read mine and are unclear or want to hear more.

Look forward to hearing from you ingame and glad you made it to the sandbox.

Didn't mean to kill the conversation with my deep sights *chuckles*

So GM, will you post NPCs in the players section?

Wondering what the difference is for Players tab and a Characters tab?

once you post in gameplay you get added to character automatically.

Don't worry about killing the conversation. I think people have just been busy recently. Lots of universities are going through midterms right now. I have 2 other pbp games that have stalled from this, but yeah, I figure after this weekend, things will speed back up.

Yep, I'm going through the last week of my first term of an online course for my Masters, as well as a crazy time with being on call at work.

Boneyard: What mystery do you have as an Oracle? I just noticed that the statblock doesn't include it on yours or mine. I'm an oracle of Life, and just seems you might be the opposite. :)

Looking forward to this game for sure. :)

:) I very carefully crafted a team that should interact interestingly.

And Kracow is now more worried about Killing himself. He has been getting himself into all kinds of trouble as we are wrapping up his solo campaign.

Both of my games were dead this weekend as well, I was begining to worry it was me.

Anyhow as soon as Boneyard gets into the game, I will continue on.

I know about the busy schedule too. I got my master to finish plus grading papers and mid terms for two classes.

Studying for a test is hard, but writing tests for 30+ is just as hard. No one is ever happy.

just completed my MA in the spring, my favortie lines to say to students were.

student how can you do this to me?

me how can you do this to you?

and

student I'll do anything to get a better grade.

me anything? Study

Boneyard

I looked at the revelations you are using and magical knack. I think it is unclear if it should count towards the revelations. I think I will allow it, based off of the revelations you have selected. Basically it lets you do speak with dead for three rounds, and have an ancestral weapon for three fights that is masterwork. I am alright with that.

just completed my MA in the spring, my favortie lines to say to students were.

student how can you do this to me?

me how can you do this to you?

and

student I'll do anything to get a better grade.

me anything? Study

Student: why are you doing this to me?

prof: Because it's fun to crush the hopes and dreams of others...muhahahh!
(I worked with the disable for 15 years, so I have no patience for lazy or self indulgent.)

Sorry for the delay folks. It was a busy weekend. Normally I am able to post, but while I didn't have any midterms, I did have a con and a regular game. But, I'm back.

Garrick - Boneyard's revelation is Ancestors. So, in a way, it is the opposite of Life. He is also dual-cursed with both Haunted, which fits right in with Ancestors and also has the Legalistic curse from the Blood of Fiends companion (and thanks to one of his ancestors). I don't plan to have him advance further as an oracle however with the exception that he may still use feats to pick up extra revelations.

MiniGM - thanks for the generous application of Knack. That definitely helps those revelations become more than stage tricks. I'll probably still have him carry a rapier in appropriate situations. It will also give me more of a chance to roleplay certain ghosts :)

Mage armor question for those in the know. It looks like it provides a benefit versus incorporeal touch attacks, but not against regular touch attacks so would not be incorporated into touch AC. Is that the way people generally read it?

That is how I have played it since 3x. As for pathfinder, I have yet to read a distinction that changes this interpretation.

Mage armor AC only works against incorporeal touch attacks and reg attacks but not reg touch atks.

that is my understanding as well.

If someone can point me to something that says otherwise then awesome, otherwise that is how I play it

Thanks. Just making sure I'm setting things up right.

just finished making rudimentary maps for each test

and kracow just headed down to his death so we are doing well!

That sounds very ominous :)

Im still alive!

Huzzah! Always good to survive, I would hate for you to die before we got the chance to meet.

While I'm at it I find it helpful when looking at a character to determine what they would like in the form of loot, gives insight into who they are. For Salus getting his weapon enchanted merciful as soon as possible is a big deal, in addition to standard buff items, wands, potions, and so forth. How about everyone else? What are you looking for when it comes to loot? What does this say about your character?

Well Kracow did just walk into an ambush...sorry Kracow you are about to find that one out.

You guys will need to figure out how you want to do loot.

Please put your stats in your profile so they are visible like Ehad Tsur has, it will increase the speed of play ten fold.

The next chunk will be all individual, and spoilered so those who want to post more than once per day can do so

MiniGM, do you mean having AC, HP, etc. on the class line so it is exposed at all times (in which case I think I'm good to go). Or, do you want the stat block broken up and spoilered like he has it? Alternatively, would you rather I just remove the spoilers from the stat block and leave the whole thing exposed?

boneyard you have it right. Just enough so that I can just list out the dice and the attacks and then continue into

"the poison from teh dart courses through your veigns and you feel weaker" or whatever if you fail the save, which i can just make right there"

Sorry if I don't spoiler to much stuff for the next couple of days, my computer just died on me. On the bright side, I still have an iPod I can post from. Though its extremely slow my comparison... Stupid thumb typing, I miss my keyboard already.

no worries. I am still working out how best to post for this

Sadly I cant put spoilers in spoilers, but I do when I can. I just figure everyone will eventually share what happened.

BTW let me know how I can do this better. I am still learning abit here. In general I will only roll your saves when it matters before your turn. So I will roll poison and traps etc. But I try to let you roll as often as I can.

And CALLING GARRICK!

I have sent Garrick a PM, since it has been since Saturday since he made a post. Hopefully he just got busy, and is alright. Only a few days, so not a big deal yet, but since I was asked here is my thoughts. The plan is, if I don't hear or he doesn't turn up, by the time everyone finishes their test, if he is still not in site I will reopen recruitment for some kind of healery type, with some specific rules so I can drop him on into the campaign at a later date.

Sounds good. He may have just gotten busy or the other infamous problem is losing a dot although this one has been well-behaved so far.

yea I thought he might have lost the dot, so I pm'd him

I was going to ask if the damage rounded down before resist but looking at my Reflex and Lay on Hands rolls it hardly matters.

all damage rounds down if it is being halved

still no word from Garrick

Hopefully he is alright. Since the tests are winding down, though Boneyard has a little ways to go, I am prepared to move on without him. I will still open recruitment, but not much luck as of yet.

I have also come up with "a device to make all well" 1 gp to whoever knows who said that!

So if no good character is presented we can continue sans healer and not have to pay a fortune and have some in combat healing as well.

Another update. Just got a couple interesting ideas, so we might have someone after all

Also I forgot to put in the opening recruitment, hopefully no one is upset by this.

I am not allowing Leadership and Craft wondrous Item, Craft Ring etc

Scribe Scroll, Brew Potion, Create Wand are all fine-the rule of thumb is if it is an expendable you are making its ok by me.

Might alter my overall plan a bit, not really that big of a problem though.

sorry about that, a complete over site on my part

I had a bad experience in a homegame with someone in the party (I was playing no less not even GM) that just abused it completely, and I am pretty turned off to it.

I will entertain the idea, of the crafting as it comes up but, full disclosure, it will be a very HARD sell.

Yeah I have a friend who figured out how to craft 16k worth of items a day.... It was completely legal by rules, but it was pretty dumb.

I wasn't planning on any custom items, probably just end up enchanting my sword further, maybe other party magic weapons, possibly do some wonderous items. Nothing overly ridiculous, just more fun to put personal touches on items and not have to go to the magic mart. No love for magic mart, prefer crafting stuff either in party or friendly npc, only when somewhere it makes a lot of sense do I like the flavor of magic mart (we're talking Sigil or the City of Brass)

I assume items can be custom enchanted further, no problem, but my issue becomes the half price and blowing out the Wealth by level for one character that is the main issue. I have no problem with the flavor of you study and learn how to enchant your sword further, but it costs full price, and avoids the magic mart feel.

my experience resulted in a character at level 5 with a +6 stat boosting item, WBL was unbelievably skewed then.

However as a foreshadowing (not much really, since everyone will learn this when the tests are done) I will go ahead and reveal that one of the fringe benefits of working for Halwer is being able to have an item crafted or enchanted at cost, as long as you are in his employ. Though once chosen that item is the item. IE say you chose your sword. you could turn it over to halwers man who would spend the days required to upgrade it to a +2 and you would be charged cost, but you could not later say, ok now do my armor at cost. If you did your armor first you would be forever locked into upgrading your armor. See what I mean?

Perhaps that will alleviate any disappointment.

I'm ok with that, I wasn't looking to do any personal enchanting until after 9th or 10th level to begin with. I can deal with full price for buying or crafting without much problem.

As far as the previous WBL problem goes, item creation shouldn't make it skew that badly. First you can only exchange found items for made items on a 1 for 1 basis, you sell stuff for half market and you make stuff for half market. Second there are minimum CLs for all the Paizo items, so that +6 should not of existed until CL 8 had been acheived, which I could do a build for at 6th level but it isn't easy and requires some very specific stuff. Third no one character should be that overblown unless they are just selfish, I run evil fairly regularly and tend to end up with less wealth than the rest of the party and I tend to grab a crafting feat for anything with a CL. (last part is anecdotal to be sure, but still...)

O good, just making sure we are still happy

:)

Ehad not to be nit picky but I was just looking at your profile. Are you adding in student of stone to your attack and dmg rolls?? Because it looks like you should be doing +4 dmg to the monsters in your test not +3. +2str +1amof +1 student of stone =+4. If I'm wrong sorry just trying to help

Varin is one of the potential replacements for Garrick, who confirmed that he is too busy right now. I invited him to look at the gameplay thread, him and another who have posted good potential characters.

As of now it is between 3 people to replace Garrick, and barring a new post between now and noon tomorrow I will make a decision by then, otherwise by noon the following day

Ehad not to be nit picky but I was just looking at your profile. Are you adding in student of stone to your attack and dmg rolls?? Because it looks like you should be doing +4 dmg to the monsters in your test not +3. +2str +1amof +1 student of stone =+4. If I'm wrong sorry just trying to help

Ooooo I forgot about that, I also forgot to put in the +1 that it would give on tripping. Thanks for the heads up. I have a lot of my stuff written down, but with my computer out of commission, I've been missing a few bits of info on file. Thanks again on that, I'll make sure to add that in the next time.