cynarion's Carrion Crown PbP

Game Master cynarion

What happened to the good old days where you right a 'II' after your name when you die?

You make me smile, Rose, often. :)

One of the local gamers here in Melbourne runs a biannual 1st ed game, where bringing in your younger sibling when you die is actively encouraged. I think the thief in the last game went through eight of his family members in a single session. ; )

So I have good news, and I have bad news.

The good news is that everything you have faced so far has had maxed hit points. This means you're doing really well.

The bad news is that means I am going to have to get even more creative with the encounters I design. I intentionally staggered this first encounter (although I had hoped my drake-thing would show up while the skeletons were still around) because I figured it was an opportunity to test the PCs--but you made it through everything so quick that you wound up being able to ready actions for pretty much every threat, and then all the critical hits were the icing on the cake. : )

You can expect me to throw more mooks at you in each encounter from now on, as well as the maxed hit points. I figure it's important to let you know in case you find yourself suddenly facing higher difficulty levels without explanation. : )

Behind the curtain: you did 79 damage to the winged drake-creature in one round. Even with maxed hit points and hardness 5, that's enough to kill it--and it is (was!) a CR 4 creature.

Let's see how long it takes for you to beat that single-round damage total. : D

Watch, now we will all roll 1s and the zombie will kill the entire party.

Zombie revenge fun time! : D

Mind posting that bone beastie stats? I'm interested in what you whipped up.

No problem. : ) Most of what I wrote is just descriptive; the crunch is a medium animated object.

I toyed with using an actual river drake with the skeleton template, but what I really wanted was a creature that was comprised of all the various bones in the pond, rather than a single skeleton. I didn't want anyone wondering where the original river drake had come from!

So I chose to make the same shape out of an animated object instead. Seemed to work okay until it got critted to death. ; )

EDIT: What I really wanted to do was use a Large animated object, but 2d6+9 damage per attack sounded a little too tough for a 1st level party.

Was all these calcs done by hand or Herolab?

All by Hero Lab. Don't have time to do that kind of stuff by hand! Hero Lab is flexible enough to accommodate any of the adjustments I'd like to make to base creatures anyhow. : )

Bathtime for my little ones now, back later for the aftermath. : )

Looks like I'll have to invest... put it off for AGES because I didn't want to buy all the damn expansions... but that sort of flexibility is just too good to pass up.

Yeah, I've found it really helpful. If you have any questions before you make the leap, feel free to ask. : )

Carrion Crown GM wrote:

All threats eliminated. Good job!

Battle XP

Defeated
1 × yellow musk creeper (CR 2): 600 XP
3 × skeletons (CR ⅓): 3 × 135 = 405 XP
1 × Medium animated object (skeletal river drake, 4 CP; CR 4): 1,200 XP
1 × gnome zombie (CR ½): 200 XP
TOTAL XP: 2,405

TOTAL XP PER PC: 300

You all gain 300 XP.

Running Total: 1,635 XP

This was more good luck than anything else... This could have been a hard fight... which worries me as we strive to get to 2nd level.

That said after a while, we'll start to fall behind the power curve after a while level wise and that will normalise the challenge/threat

Well, the general idea was for the following to occur:

1. The musk creeper ties up one or two PCs with its pollen.
2. The zombie provides a squishy target to occupy one or two more PCs.
3. The skeletons arrive, prompting a scrambled defence.
4. The skeletal drake shows up just as the PCs are finishing off the other foes.

As it was, everything that could go wrong did--and I didn't make a single attack roll save for the pollen. The skeletons stumbling through the water was particularly irritating for me--especially as the dice rolls changed on the final preview I did before posting. (For what it's worth, in the original set of rolls they passed their Acrobatics checks and I dealt damage to Dragomir and Raj.)

Buy hey, sometimes that's the way the cookie crumbles! : D

This could have been a hard fight... which worries me as we strive to get to 2nd level.

I agree that luck ruled the day in this particular battle, which is why I said I will have to be more creative about the fights rather than just throwing more baddies at you. After all, I can swamp you with mooks quite easily at first level, but that won't be fun for anyone as they try to desperately grind their way through room after room, having to rest and heal in between each and every fight.

I do, however, like the idea of miniature boss battles from time to time. So look out for those. : )

Yah... that was a ridiculous string of rolls. It sure was fun to read the description of us destroying the animated bones, though. :D

Excellent! As long as you're having fun, I'm doing my job. : )

The next couple of challenges will be interesting, presuming you continue in your journey the way I expect you to. : )

The skeletons stumbling through the water was particularly irritating for me--especially as the dice rolls changed on the final preview I did before posting. (For what it's worth, in the original set of rolls they passed their Acrobatics checks and I dealt damage to Dragomir and Raj.)

FWIW, having run into this particular board 'quirk' more than once and speaking only for myself, if you wanted to adjudicate based on your real rolls (with an OOC comment on what happened), I would be fine with the results.

Agreed. the boards can be wonky sometimes.

After seeing the DR problems Theron's going to have to deal with, I think he's going to be pulling a Hawkeye and getting a bunch of different special arrows as soon as he gets a chance, lol. I'm assuming that getting Bludgeoning arrows shouldn't be a big problem... but I have a feeling getting "Durable Adamantine" arrows in this town will be difficult ;)

Note to self: Invest in an Efficient Quiver as soon as possible. I'm already having to track two different sets of arrows, hah XD

Well, there are a fair number of MW items we can sell (but possibly not in Revengro) to fund your 'dream quiver' desires. :)

Shall we divvy stuff up, folks?

Weapons

• 1 × Small masterwork light crossbow - Lem
  
• 1 × Small masterwork rapier - Sell?
  Armour
  
• 1 × Small masterwork studded leather - Sell?
  Magical Items
  
• 1 × small snuffbox containing magical powder (faint transmutation) - ???
  
• 1 × wax-sealed steel vial containing a swirling lilac liquid (faint illusion) - ???
  
• 1 × scroll of feather fall - ???
  Mundane Items
  
• 1 × masterwork thieves tools - Raj

BTW, I apologize if I'm being pushy. I just think that with 8 players we've got to try to keep ourselves organized to (a) keep things from bogging down, and (b) take as many administrative tasks off Cyn as we can.

If you want me to back off on this kind of stuff - just say so.

I'm hoping a 20 on spellcraft will identify the powder, if not maybe someone will be able to assist me.

Give Lem the option of the crossbow, same with the armor (i'm not sure what he's wearing).

I guess we can wait on the others til we get them ID'd.

I hope the IDs you and Septimus did will let us know who should carry those interesting items or if we should sell them the PHAT LOOTZ!

I think Lem has parade armor on - roughly equal (in protection) to standard Studded Leather.

I have feather fall in my book, so not really needing the scroll for scribing, and it'd be better for Karrik to copy it from me (and Septimus if Alchemist's can learn it) if he doesn't have it rather than use the scroll for it.

The scroll is going to be another victim of Raj's experiments with magic ;)

Good point. We could always sell it, if need be. It's not like you could fall down a pit and whip it off that scroll, eh?

If no one wants to wield the short rapier, Raj can carry it as a backup piece until we sell it.

The scroll is going to be another victim of Raj's experiments with magic ;)

Hey, I'll happily play with it. :)

Actually, I approve of this use of the scroll just because of the slight chance that Raj will trigger a scroll mishap event on himself and cause something hilarious to happen ;)

Updated with the current ideas...

Weapons

• 1 × Small masterwork light crossbow - Lem
  
• 1 × Small masterwork rapier - Raj to hold until SELL?
  Armour
  
• 1 × Small masterwork studded leather - SELL
  Magical Items
  
• 1 × small snuffbox containing magical powder (faint transmutation) - ???
  
• 1 × wax-sealed steel vial containing a swirling lilac liquid (faint illusion) - ???
  
• 1 × scroll of feather fall - Raj to experiment OR SELL?
  Mundane Items
  
• 1 × masterwork thieves tools - Raj

Hmm, it appears that somehow Rajuna managed to cast Reverse Gravity from a Feather Fall scroll. Bye bye Rajuna!!

Hmm, it appears that somehow Rajuna managed to cast Reverse Gravity from a Feather Fall scroll. Bye bye Rajuna!!

This is exactly what I was thinking of. Maybe if he's lucky the feather fall will kick in when the reverse gravity is done with him :D

As a player with a long history of creating magic-mucking characters who pay a high price for their dabbling... I say:

"BRING IT ON!"

Glorious and silly character deaths are my specialty.

I'll keep the crossbow, if y'all don't mind. At least until we're done exploring Harrowstone.

We can sell the armor, though. I like my own threads. ;-)

@Rose -- I can't detect undead unless I use the scroll I have.

@Rose -- I can't detect undead unless I use the scroll I have.

Hrmph. I told you I'd be useful, Kendra says in a huff.

After seeing the DR problems Theron's going to have to deal with, I think he's going to be pulling a Hawkeye and getting a bunch of different special arrows as soon as he gets a chance, lol. I'm assuming that getting Bludgeoning arrows shouldn't be a big problem... but I have a feeling getting "Durable Adamantine" arrows in this town will be difficult ;)

There is a dwarf smith in the town, so getting them made may not be the problem so much as getting the raw materials organised.

So, Theron just identified dust of tracelessness. Raj is probably the best recipient for that one.

So, Theron just identified dust of tracelessness. Raj is probably the best recipient for that one.

I appreciate the thought. Depending on how this campaign goes, there could be a need for us to cover our tracks if/when we start playing with Way agents - and tracelessness is good for smoke-screening all of us or just a few. If we want to plan for the long-term, we could keep it and I'd be happy to carry it. If we are more concerned with immediate needs - we could sell it and use the cash to finance more 'right now' buys.

I'm good with going either way.

I'd say keep it for a 'just in case' type scenario. Of course I've always had a slight bias against magic item buying/selling outside of minor items (like potions and scrolls). So far I've had a good feel for what I prefer, where it seemed like only a few items were available, anything else we'd have to go to special lengths for.

What a time to lack Prestidigitation to dry the corpse. Wait, a second 'Kendra would be useful' moment.

Well, derrr.

Kendra seems to have been drinking in your absence.

Wait'l you see what Flori an' me did to th' house. Iss oarsum. Mebbe nex' time you won' leave me here, eh?

<hic>

Carrion Crown GM wrote:

(Total damage dealt: 10 (6 base + 3 extra vs. swarms + 1 splash).

Depending on how we want to interpret the rule, alchemists deal "the minimum damage of the bomb" as splash damage. That would mean 5 splash in this case, which would be a total of 14 damage on the rat swarm. That seems like an awful lot, though, so feel free to rule zero as you please.

Interestingly enough, the rat swarm takes no splash damage because the swarm's other squares aren't considered a separate creature. Splash hits "all creatures within 5 feet of the target" meaning that it's based on the creature's size and squares as well-- if you hit Walter when he was adjacent to just Theron, you'd splash Theron-- 5 damage-- with a reflex save for half. If a tyrannosaur was smack dab in the middle of the party and you hit him with a bomb, it'd splash to everyone within five feet-- so, Dragomir on one side, 20 feet away, Karrik on the other side 20 feet away, and Rose on the corner 15 feet from Karrik and 25 feet from Dragomir. If a great wyrm red dragon was in the middle of an army of adventurers, you'd splash everyone by bombing the dragon, and even get the spearmen if you had explosive bomb discovery. It's important to mention that a creature being hit by the bomb doesn't take splash damage.

There's also the aforementioned reflex save. DC... 3+0+10 for DC13.

Technically not correct.

See Here.

When targeting a Large or Larger creature, you choose the 5' square to target. The creature itself doesnt' take splash damage, but all creatures within 5' of the square do. So no splashing a dragon to hit the entire army surrounding it.

Technically not correct.

See Here.

When targeting a Large or Larger creature, you choose the 5' square to target. The creature itself doesnt' take splash damage, but all creatures within 5' of the square do. So no splashing a dragon to hit the entire army surrounding it.

That rule isn't in my core rulebook I have (Sep 2010, 4th printing) so I've never used it during any game I've ever run because-- surprise-- we bought the books to use them at the table instead of PFSRD.

Makes me hate PFSRD something fierce. Grrr.

Thank you for the correction though : ) I'm sure it would have made a few encounters in our Serpent's Skull game with our bomb-focused alchemist run a little differently.

EDIT: Yep.

• Page 202—In the Throw Splash Weapon section, in

the first paragraph, add the following sentence after
the fourth sentence:
If the target is Large or larger, you choose one of its
squares and the splash damage affects creatures within 5
feet of that square. Splash weapons cannot deal precisionbased
damage (such as sneak attack).

shakes fist

Sorry for the correction, I hate doing it to be honest (it's what I do at work, /blargh) but I recently started playing an Alchemist and happened to know that one.

Interesting...although I am going to Rule 0 this one anyway with regard to swarms, as the splash damage is affecting the individual creatures that make the swarm up, therefore one could expect the splash damage to hurt the other creatures as well. Just because a swarm technically counts as a single creature by most of the rules doesn't mean it actually is a single creature.

Anyhow, this is better for you, so I expect there shouldn't be too many objections--unless some of you were planning on shapeshifting into swarms at some point...? ; )

Gotta go look after the kids now, be back in a while.

I hate swarms with a passion, so I am completely alright with this ;)

I also hate swarms, so I'm fine with that.

Sorry for the correction, I hate doing it to be honest (it's what I do at work, /blargh) but I recently started playing an Alchemist and happened to know that one.

I like when people correct me. It makes the game run the way it should. I normally DM, and my players correcting my absurd decrees on rules is the primary way for me to rulescheck without opening the book first. :P

Heh, be careful, I'm very OCD about rules and I've been holding back my correction urges ;)