calvsie's page

Congrats on finishing!

My group just finished last night after over 6 years.

Wish I had done foam core or something to demonstrate the verticality better, but it was a fun time.

Throughout the adventure in the Pinnacle of Avarice things have felt very cramped and the fights have been about bottlenecks and weirds positioning.

Last night they encountered the gargantuan rune warden and I could not figure out how this was supposed to work.

A player (Rouge Halfling) was like, "yeah, hey wouldn't be funny if the map you are working with had a little note in the corner that said each square is 10 or 20 ft?"

I look over at the book... "1 square = 10 Feet"

Pardon me while I go reconsider everything.

Mine arrived saturday, of course our mailman once again cannot differentiate a 6 and an 8 so it wne tot my neighbors house. Thanks Paizo! this book is real pretty.

Name of PC: Sir Von Duley The Third
Class/Level: Level 14 Half-orc Barbarian
Adventure: Sin's of the Saviour - Shimmering veils
Catalyst: Dragon's Breath
Story:
Third was the last remaining member of the original party unmarked by death. This was good because due to dealing with devils his soul was no longer his own, so death meant he was not coming back. A dragon that the party had fought previously had followed them into the Runeforge secretly and taken over the Shimmering Veils. The fight was hard pressed as the dragon hovered out of reach of the fighter and barbarian, Allowing him to repeatedly use his breath weapon on them and to deploy a lovely icy fog that slow ate away at them.
The Sorcerer and Cleric took a beating both nearly succumbing to the onslaught but managing to stay on their feet.
In a moment of re-configuring he decided to take a bite at one of those two pest that had been shooting arrows (rather unsuccessfully) at him. He jaws Critically impacted on the poor barbarians body. May the gods of Golarion have mercy on his soul, because Chorus right hand of Asmodeus surely will not.

Just when I think my party has reached its final configuration...
Name of PC:Jeff
Class and Level: Male Gnomish 13th lvl Druid
Adventure: Sin's of the Saviors - Vaults of greed
Catalyst: Rushing ahead

Him and the fighter of the party were double teaming the rooms (leaving most of the party behind due to shenanigans) they came to one and attempted to sneak in. The Golem in the room was waiting as the hapless druid rushed in and was immediately pounded into a smear on the floor.

fifth times the charm? He is getting much better...

Busy like Niantic on Pogo's launch.

So two players actually are contracted with him in my game for power. In particular our one Sorceress basically humiliated him while he was trapped in the dame, so he is trying to manipulate them into killing her. He has become way more involved in the plot than he was suppose to be... :-/ I'm not sure I would ever allow it to go this way when I run it for my other group.

Is there a specific way to railroad the runeforged or how do Dm's prep for 7 separate areas?

Name of PC:Parker
Class and Level: Female Half-Elf 5th lvl Rouge
Adventure: Misgivings
Catalyst: True Love

Tall man?

This group is not going to go down in history for making intelligent choices. Druid tends to sacrifice his animal companions by making them fight his battles (his horse plummeted to its death on the goblin bridge), the rouge tries to steal anything not nailed down, and the Sorcerer is more about his crazy back story involving his character being possessed by an alien entity and is playing up the fact his character is literally insane.

What if they faked the Chosen One's death? I am against players killing fellow party members without a darn good reason. But, if they faked the Subject of Obsession's death, it could cause his Lordship's focus to shift to another target and put him off balance when the Chosen One reappears to confront him. Follow up questions: how does the Chosen One's player feel about the situation? Is she enjoying the attention from His Lordship? Have the party members pitched the plan to her of "removing her from the board"? How much do they know about His Lordship? They could turn the fake death into a trap for His Lordship.

Holy cat... that would actually be interesting.

sock party?

Independently I have had two players approached me about what would happen if they kill Lordship's obsession, aka Parker the rouge of the group.
I've been cagey about as I hate to encourage party killing, that and really all it is going to do in the long run is anger lordship as I've been doing the Lust obsession with her.

So two question, would you allow your party to kill one of its own, and what are your thoughts on Lordships reaction?

Party made a mess of Thistletop and ended up leaving with the lower level undone and a number of other encounters have been missed. (fought a certain lady in the temple instead of down there) They are a bit behind where the book says they should be.

I could force them back to level up but story wise they have a gripe with Orik who bluffed them into thinking he was a mercenary un-involved with the goblins.

I did one random encounter where they encountered a couple bandits they mistook based on rumours as being Orik and am now thinking I could use this by rumour milling them either back to thistletop or like the pit or other features around sandpoint.

They do seem to be taking the role of acting Sherif while Hemlock is gone to magnamar fairly seriously.

Thoughts or advice?

Ever had one of those sessions where you have no idea what your players are doing?

Name:Bush Senpai
Race: Elf
Class/Level: Sorcerer 11
Name:Ember
Race: Dwarf
Class/Level: Sorcerer 11
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Story:Pit Guardian Barracks - After getting off to a good start where they bluffed the guards into lining up for inspection and then attacking the group divided up into three parts Two sorcerers in a corner blasting the giants, two melee fighters taking on one giant and the cleric just kind of doing their own thing, a couple giants decide the sorcerer look squishy so goes over and squishes them when they try to cast magic while it is in melee with them. (I thought they had learned by now that casting in melee is bad)

Name:Sir Von Duely the Third
Class/Level: Barbarian 11
Race: half orc
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Story:

It was kind of moot point.They never even encountered the war horse and the bridge has been permanently cut free from the mainland side. They barely even saw the second basement level.
Good times.

I ended up altering Orik quite a bit.
The Group ended up fighting Nualia and her entourage of goblins and bug bears in the chapel of thistle top Nualia fled as the only survivor.
Orik slept through this fight and the group was so worn down they looted bodies and then headed back to sandpoint to recover before finishing their exploring.
Next day on their way back I added Orik to my random encounter table.
I rolled and they encountered him. I'm rolling bluff checks and he is rolling really good while the party is doing poorly at sense motives.
They believe him to be a wandering mercenary whose employment recently ended. (technically not far from the truth even :P)
One of the party members offers him to gold to come with as their guard. Orik likes money so he agrees. They pay half his salary right up front.
Orik keeps offering to guard their retreat, at the horses before the bramble maze, at the bridge, at the stairs going down...
Before he had left I rolled for Orik and ended up having him ransack the first basement level and first floor of the fort. so the group finds the place in a more disheveled state than when they left. The part splits up one group (Druid, sorcerer) going down to the second level of the basement and the other (Rogue, Orik) heading to the tentramort den.
Orik had not been trying to be stealth in spite of being told to be. The thief tells him to guard the door while she sneaks past the Tentramort. Once the thief is out of sight I have ORik make a run for it.
The Druids familiar had been told to guard the bridge and pestered him long enough that the thief had figured out the deception and pursued him. When the Thief was half way across the bridge Orik managed to hack the ropes holding it sending her falling into the roiling strait below.
Orik escaped the familiar and ran off into the woods... To be continue? :P

On my second DMing of RotRL and I love it when my party works super hard to enter a room that really proves not worth it.
Warning possible spoilers.

FOOD STORES
Location: thistletop
A room that has been nailed shut, they became convinced that it must be important.
spent about an hour IRL trying to find a way to open it quietly.
Eventually they opened it and discovered a bunch of food none of them wanted.

Currently running two groups:

#1 Teach my nephews about table top rpgs

Dwarf (formerly elf) Fire elemental Sorcerer 12 - Really hates being a dwarf and is currently seeking the ability to cast wish.

Half-orc Barbarian 12 - Older nephews first character, he made a deal with the demon powering the dam to get the power to read.

Elf Air Elemental Sorcerer 12 - previous character was killed tragically, this one is a bit more functional. Has poor impulse control.

Human Cleric 12 - The den mother of the group she smacks them into order and keeps them on track and heals their injuries.

Elf Fighter 12 - occasionally confuses the dickens out of me with WoW terms. Since he joined the party him and the barbarian have introduced a lot more tactics to the fights.

#2 Want me to run a filler game while you are to busy to prep? 4 months later we have yet to return to his game...

Human rouge 3 - Parker from leverage actually but a terrible thief. Keeps having near death encounters due to her desire for loot.

Elf Aberrant Sorcerer 3 - player is basically playing a b&+@&~& insane pretty boy who may or may not be possessed by a cellphone from space.

Aasimar druid 3 - Obsessed with his horse or was till he ordered it to test a bridge. now he has sworn vengeance on the goblins and those that drive them.

Looting a party member body during a fight? He´s evil or what??

Chaotic Neutral.

I'm darn near speechless.
It went worse than I thought.

The Druid decided that the horse was the heaviest of them so it should test the bridge... HE ORDER HIS HORSE TO TEST THE BRIDGE!

The fall was enough to finish off the horse.
It also took me a bit to realize they assumed the bridge had broken, not that it was trapped.

I was expecting never ending story, but that was way more fitting.

The druid has been wasting a lot of resources and time to get his horse through the thistle maze.
The rouge is playing Parker from Leverage who hates horses and is now pissed off half the time as the druid keeps ruining the element of surprise with his antics.

Part of me suspects my druid maybe losing a horse tonight... Thank you.

I have a druid in a game I run that has a horse.
He likes to take his horse everywhere.
In an up coming session I know there is a Rigged Rope Bridge.

Pretty straightforward trap.
Four ropes and three of them fall away when so much weight applied.
Reflex save to grab the rope that doesn't fall.

Would the horse get the reflex save if it fell? If yes how do I describe it? horse grabs the rope with its teeth? leaps 30 ft to the land? falls in such a way to not get hurt?

Lost two during the giant assault on Sandpoint.

#1
Name:Simol
Race/Class:Gnomish druid 10th
Adventure: Stones over sandpoint
Catalyst: Stone giant
Story:
Our druid had gotten in the habit of using wild shape with a bird form as an escape mechanism. Her, her brother Tiggger (aka tiger animal companion), and our Rouge/Ranger and splintered off from the main group to challenge one giant while the rest of the party took on the group heading for the old light. The fight was going poorly and she thought she would be safer and better able to support the fight from the air.
Sadly a stone giant nailed her with a rock and knocked her unconscious. Falling damage killed her.

#2
Name: Joil
Race/Class:Elf Rouge 5 / Ranger 5
Adventure: Stones over sandpoint
Catalyst: Stone giant
Story:
After the druids death (see above) I allowed the druid to continue fighting as her brother for the duration of the fight. Jiol sees the druids body and attempts to loot it... in the middle of combat. Tiggger sees this and attempts to protect his sister from this fiendish member of her own party. They end up fighting each other. until a stone giant shows up and criticals the rouge and easily smashes the tiger.

As DM I really have mixed feelings on how the whole thing played out...

So Tonight I run the infamous trapped bridge at Thistletop. Not my firts time running a group through RotRL, but its quickly proving to be the most interesting.

The Druid has worked hard clearing brambles and other shenanigans to ensure his horse is with him. This is partly due to the lack of a frontline fighter type in the party and the horse filling the role. (Strangest group I've ever had I must confess)

Any rate as I prepare for the bridge crossing I find myself asking a few things and not finding answers.

1. Would a horse fit? I assume yes as the goblins brought one across

2. Would the horse get a reflex save when the trap triggers? It can try to grab the rope with its teeth but that doesn't seem logical seeing a horse hanging by its teeth...

Any advice on handling this would be greatly appreciated