The Red Arm of Absalom - Ongoing Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master GM Red

Ya I'm actually a field biologist, and well.. once Oct/Nov hit, most my field time turns into computer time :( So for about 6mo of the year I'm floating around on lakes and ponds and the other 6 I'm processing that data into colorful squiggly lines with words attached.

I'm also still avoiding a smart phone but this game is pushing me towards ending that streak. That and you can't take s*$~ for pictures with a flip phone.

Hmm: I've never played it. As I've never played most scenarios. What is the level range for it?

It is for all levels -- It's a special.

Hmm

...Uesugi-san! Uesugi-san! There's a call for a test of your blade!

(wanders around the building looking for the samurai)

I am certainly willing to join, Hmm. I have someone available from levels 1-4. (My highest level is in the Emerald Spire Superdungeon.)

I'm always up for more PbP fun, especially this time of year. So long as you don't expect mad posting on the weekend (That does take place during icefishing season you know...) then I'm in. However, other than Mr Peppers here my other characters are likely to be only level 1. Maybe a level 2 by then.

Mad posting on the weekend?

Only in the face of another starfall, of course. ;)

This special is guaranteed to be asteroid-free. So this will be January -- should I tell Shifty I am bringing my own table?

Hmm

Aw, can I play too Hmm?

No space rocks? Count me in in some low level form.

Yes, of course you can, GM Red! Lady Ladile wants in too. How many do we have?

Hmm

Sounds like 4 plus Lady Ladile and either Eric or King of Anything. Full table. Can you PM emails, please???

Hmm

Me too. And probably Gallix. If blood is going to get spilt I like having my barbarianwith me

Oops sounds full now. I'll try for another table then.

BTW Uesugi and Gallix should be home by Toilday or Wealday. So Red you can decide when you want to start the module.

Sounds good Uesugi, although I assume they will take some in-game downtime between the end of that adventure and the start of this one.

I woke up to zero posts in the Gameplay thread... So strange. I'm glad to have a break though. I'll use this time to re-read the module and really familiarize myself with the lore. I know it's pretty roleplay heavy from having read it a month back.

It looks like I am going to run Blood in January as well, but I signed up for a Core table. So Hmm, feel free to send me any notes to avoid making a mess of it. I haven't played or seen it yet, but the last special went pretty well, so I am happy to do it again.

I'm starting to twitch a little bit, guys, I need to post here. Hehehe.

Don't worry. As soon as I put Cup a bit more together, I'll be showing up in that library next to Mr. Peppers.

"Wha? Who woke me up? I was having the best dream...."

Perfect. I was just being silly so no rush, I'll keep creeping other games to get my fix! ;)

I hear ya. My other scenarios have slowed down significantly, so when I check the boards and see no progress it makes me sad.

yeah they need more games that follow our format. I'm constantly refreshing!

That sounds like something me and Red spoke about.

'We refresh too much'.....

Yup, me too... Probably refreshing every 10 minutes. It gets me in trouble sometimes, especially if I edit a post once D has already seen it in a game he's GMing :)

lol well at least these breaks give us something to look forward to. It's like opening presents!

Presents are best opened every 10-15 minutes.

Can't wait to see Cup! I hope she brings Mr Peppers a cup of wine, or maybe tea. Why else would she be there?

oh man and so it begins!

Why else would she be there?

Because gnomes are sociable and like to travel.

(Casts innate magical stuff to decorate the place)

Cup glances at the tall elf over her glasses.

I can see that I need to make an appearance soon. There's some attitude that needs adjusting, here.

Ah yes. Head decorator and/or cleaning staff?

(Crosses arms)

A moody elf...

(Casts more)

Mr. Peppers's tankard/mug is now decorated with emblems of leaves, vines and arcane runes.

HAHAHA I remember one of the first things Uesugi thought when he was forced to join your group. What an odd group... (cue entrance of Cup)

Great looking work! Do you sell these on the side of the road?

So are we going to just be continuing these threads for the modules or starting up a fresh one?

Also, anyone have any cool grand plans for their characters? I've started projecting more long term with Mr Peppers since it is a bit more realistic with our posting speeds. After doing more digging I've come to realize how awesome and combat versatile Arcanists can be with meta mixing. Looking forward to getting higher level spell slots :)

Well, i want to pick up foe throw and telekinetic haul.

Throwing things, and people as well.... >:)

Sounds like we'll have some decent battlefield control at our disposal :) Which is good speaking as an 11 Con Elf caster...

Usually I make exploratory characters to try out different classes, or I have a character idea in my head, and I see if it's possible in Pathfinder.

Turns out Sirettis will work out well as all-around support. I hope to have her fly around the battlefield and curse or heal as needed. Prehensile hair is a limb with 10 ft reach, so I can make melee touch attacks with it to deliver spells (let's go Bestow Curse!) Enchantment and Ice will also be important for the character's theme.

I need to figure out which hexes I want and when. I know Flight will be at level 4. That's about all I know. I'm also one of the few witches who won't take cackle. Not in character for her.

Evil eye is a must have, imo.

You can stack a -2 penalty on either AC/attack rolls/skill checks/saves, for rounds equal to 3+ int modifier. Best thing is, even if the target passes the save, the effect will still last a round. And the effects stack, as long as it's a different effect every time you cast it.

There's healing hex, useful, a CLW for everyone 1 a/day. It turns into a CMW at 5th lvl.

I've not fully thought out the mechanics for Uesugi yet but I will think on it.

Ya Evil eye seems nice, especially when it comes to keeping melee alive and saving them some hits.. or dropping a crazy high AC down to reasonable levels.

We'll see.. or maybe I'll see... how much you can keep a 'character' relevant in these adventures before you have to choose optimization more over 'character'. I'm hoping those times don't come too frequently. I'm also hopeful on seeing skills staying relevant vs things just trending on being effective in combat.

Thinking through our overall group composition, we definitely won't have a dedicated healer, although I would think Cup will be able to drop a few heals, and Sirettis also. I've got a very good UMD for some wanding in a pinch. Hopefully I can reduce area damage, at least spell damage, to help out on the no channel front.

I usually find groups without a dedicated healer work out better, less relying on being bailed out and a more realistic approach to 'not dying'.

The group i've played a long lasting game with, which we successfully completed, had no healer for a long time, doing with wands.

So i 2nd what Mr. Peppers said.

The fight between "in character" and "optimize, dammit" continues. The disguise hex, for example, is very in character for Sirettis but I've almost never seen it used in PFS.

I also don't plan much ahead- the difference between theory and reality kick in and I learn my build isn't fun or viable...

Love the activity. To answers Mr. Peppers' question, we'll be using these same gameplay and discussion threads for the upcoming module unless anyone has any objections.

Fine with me I envision the thread hitting 2000 posts soon enough hehe

Do any of these PFS games have travel type encounters built in? I can't think of any so far that have, out of the few I've run. The randomish traveling encounter is a strong piece of the game, one that I do very much enjoy. Without them you also tend to lose the resting/nighttime encounters. Many a full plate wearing fighter/paladin did so not envy those night time ambushes!

The Frostfur Captives has a few travel encounters (and some terrible goblin escortees).
Confirmation has one as I'm sure you know, but resting overnight isn't really necessary.

There are a number of adventures that are multi-day or have travel encounters. One of the things that I love about GMing PFS is the diversity.

Hmm

Ah good to hear. Diversity spices things up. I'm loving seeing such a wide variety of characters, races, abilities, etc. I'm hoping that holds true once we're out of the low level phase.

I've come up with a simple yet crafty idea to get you guys to travel towards Isger. It's especially nice because it takes into consideration something you were particularly good at in 7-10. :)

Of course, I will likely fast track the travel time so as to not spend too much time playing the game before actually playing the game...