Dawning Aegis |
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NobodysHome wrote:I pity the fool that thinks they can f+#! with my Phylactery!Supperman wrote:They really, really hate that lich.But if you think he's going to be carrying his phylactery on a convenient neck chain when he finally returns...
"What's your prediction for the fight when they're all level 16 and Templai can actually move quickly?"
"Prediction? Pain."NobodysHome |
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Boring Efficiency
Tonight's session had very little silly to it.
They managed to get to the troglodytes' ziggurat undetected (by choosing a very good path), then simply manhandled Lessikal et al. About the only excitement came because Kwai Chang chose to scale the pyramid far ahead of everyone else, and took on everyone on top single-handed for a couple of rounds. He still had enough hit points to survive.
The map of the ziggurat is unbelivably hard to play on, though. Next time I'm just going to battle mat it. What does it mean to be "on top of the ziggurat but under the spire?"
I'll work with the group to try to get a better sense of the map before another ziggurat battle. This one was mainly marred by not knowing which level was which, how high the levels were, and what the "top" encompassed. Ah, well, I'll work on something that makes sense and see what the group thinks.
NobodysHome |
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Well, there IS a map of the ziggurat. I just hadn't examined it carefully enough, and the players and I were clearly envisioning very different things from the map. Kwai Chang's player spent a lot of effort and took a ton of damage trying to grapple Lessikal and drag him off the ziggurat. I thought it was a pretty reasonable tactic (kept Big L from spellcasting OR using that nasty scythe of his, so it neutralized him pretty well), but once everyone started talking about "all the damage" Lessikal was going to take from the fall, I asked, "Er, you KNOW that's only a 20' drop, right?"
At which point we all realized that we were thinking two very different things about the map.
Ninja-Assassin |
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I feel like I should help the kids out.
You know, be kind.
Like an assassin should.
EDIT:
Hey! Hey all you SS players!
I got a spoiler for you~!
This'll help you prepare for the rest of the AP!
Be sure to take careful and comprehensive notes!
BAM, baby~! Who's got your back?!
EDIT 2:
Also...
I know, right?!
EDIT 3: And finally, most important of all:
There. It is done. Now pay up!
EDIT 4:
And that's how I qualify for assassin.
Tacticslion |
Supperman wrote:They really, really hate that lich.I am *SOOOOO* sad that I have to pull him from the campaign for 9 months.
But he's got to go find some money, then rebuild his phylactery, so he's out of the picture for quite a while.
Athelya's sacrifice wasn't in vain... you just have to listen to the group describe what they're going to do to the poor lich when he returns and they're all 16th level.
But if you think he's going to be carrying his phylactery on a convenient neck chain when he finally returns...
Man, it only takes him nine months to scrape up the 120k-g necessary for a phylactery?!
NH! I didn't know you allowed cheesy twinkeriffic money-making shenanigans in your game~!
D'ohohohohohoh~! This changes everything~! >:D
NobodysHome |
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NobodysHome wrote:Supperman wrote:They really, really hate that lich.I am *SOOOOO* sad that I have to pull him from the campaign for 9 months.
But he's got to go find some money, then rebuild his phylactery, so he's out of the picture for quite a while.
Athelya's sacrifice wasn't in vain... you just have to listen to the group describe what they're going to do to the poor lich when he returns and they're all 16th level.
But if you think he's going to be carrying his phylactery on a convenient neck chain when he finally returns...
Man, it only takes him nine months to scrape up the 120k-g necessary for a phylactery?!
NH! I didn't know you allowed cheesy twinkeriffic money-making shenanigans in your game~!
D'ohohohohohoh~! This changes everything~! >:D
(1) Have an entire undead country just to your east.
(2) Have that country dedicated to war so much that they're guaranteed to provide a market for whatever you craft(3) Have a high enough crafting skill to double your rate, generating 2000 g.p. in items per day
(4) Have no need to sleep, allowing you to work on two items at once
So crafting 2000 g.p. per day at a cost of 1000 g.p. per day means he can earn the requisite 120,000 g.p. in 120 days = 4 months by opening up a shop and selling his items at book price.
Another 6 months to build his phylactery would mean a grand total of 10 months, using by-the-book rules for crafting.
I figure the lack of a need to eat, sleep, or otherwise provide for his common welfare means he can accelerate that by a bit. 10% seemed reasonable, so I put him at 9 months...
(And honestly, I pay the kids 100 g.p. per PC per day for helping the Pathfinders research, plus a flat 1000 g.p. bonus if they roll a "secret". That's 700+ g.p. per day if the party wants to do nothing but guard the Pathfinders. In their month and a half at Saventh-Yhi, they've chosen to assist the Pathfinders in their research... 7 times! Is it any wonder the Pathfinders are irritated with their "guardians"?)
NobodysHome |
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Oh, tonight's session answered the age-old question: "How can you possibly have the complete drop on a bad guy and STILL give him the total combat advantage?"
The answer comes tomorrow, in a rather hilarious session (at least from the GM's point of view).
Though it's a bittersweet "win". They're finally fully buffing the paladin and sending her into the water with Yog'Oltha, and I'm not betting on him in THAT fight...
EDIT: Favorite moment: I seemed to be the only one tracking who had what buffs, so Templari went running into the water before anyone cast Touch of the Sea on her. I was "nice". I let her get waist-deep before realizing that she was about to sink like a stone...
Dawning Aegis |
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Oh, tonight's session answered the age-old question: "How can you possibly have the complete drop on a bad guy and STILL give him the total combat advantage?"
The answer comes tomorrow, in a rather hilarious session (at least from the GM's point of view).
Though it's a bittersweet "win". They're finally fully buffing the paladin and sending her into the water with Yog'Oltha, and I'm not betting on him in THAT fight...
EDIT: Favorite moment: I seemed to be the only one tracking who had what buffs, so Templari went running into the water before anyone cast Touch of the Sea on her. I was "nice". I let her get waist-deep before realizing that she was about to sink like a stone...
A GLORIOUS, BLUE AND GOLD STONE OF HOLINESS AND BUFFS
NobodysHome |
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Also, if it was already revealed to the PCs... What is Yog'Oltha for those who keep an eye on this thread without having the AP? Buffed up Aboleth or something else?
Long day of appointments, so the writeup'll be tomorrow, but yes, they were reunited with the Free Captains and got Water Breathing, Freedom of Movement, and Touch of the Sea. Pretty hilarious watching Templari jump into the pond before she had Touch of the Sea. I can just see her sitting there at the bottom, fuming, as the aboleth stares down at her blankly.
Yes, Yog'Oltha is an advanced aboleth. But I'm kind of disappointed in how not-scary they are in Pathfinder because they reduced illusions to near-meaninglessness. He basically gets to use his Project Image to Dominate them when they get careless, but otherwise is just not a very scary guy. He hit Malek with his whole, "I turn you to jelly" tentacle attack, and Malek, being Malek, just shrugged it off and kept right on swimming at him... leading to that whole, "Can you just ignore a Mirage Arcana and swim right through it?" thread I started in the Rules section. Because if you can, Yog'Oltha's going to get pounded into very thin sushi...
...darn it! Now I'm trying to remember what squid sushi is called. Octopus is "tako". What's squid?
Drejk |
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Meh. I had in the past bookmarked a great Japanse translation page, but I don't have that bookmark anymore and the page I got to doesn't seem to be that website.
EDIT: I found the bookmark and it leads to the page I just reached. It seems that they redesigned removing 90% of utility of the webpage...
NobodysHome |
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We got him! We got him! Wait!?!?!? Who's got what?!?!
In spite of Talky McTalktalk arriving late thanks to Pokemon Go, the session started fairly well: Both Talky and Bacon Boy (Voren's player finally has a name! Yay!) had birthdays over the last few weeks, so Talky politely deferred and it was Bacon Boy's birthday reroll game. His very first reroll was to avoid a pointless encounter in troglodyte territory. I appreciated it; that fight would have taken most of the night. So the party safely returned to the Pathfinders, and dug right down into the business of how Templari didn't want to give the Mantis Blade to Chivane, but everyone else in the party did. It was a bit of a hairy argument; the third time Chivane saved the party, she'd asked Templari, "So, we have an agreement?" and Templari had responded, "Yes," which was kind of a promise.
Templari decided that the logical thing to do was hand Chivane the sword and then kill her. I wasn't the only one at the table amused by the idea of handing a high-level assassin an artifact-level blade and then attacking her, but Talky was insistent that Templari could take out Chivane in a single round before Chivane could do anything. I was rather tickled internally that:
(1) Talky was stealing my idea of, "Follow the letter of the deal, then kill the other person," and
(2) In spite of everyone else at the table agreeing that if Templari wanted to go one-on-one with Chivane in a fair fight, they'd stay out of it, Templari wanted to ambush Chivane and kill her before she could do anything.
Somehow, "Stabbing a lawful opponent by surprise as they turn their back," and, "goddess of honor and justice" just don't mesh well in my mind.
Fortunately, the party took the hint. Kwai Chang discussed their plans with the sword, and the sword told him Chivane would sense it and come for it at midnight. Athelya cast a Divination and learned essentially the same thing. So they went ahead and ran the standard watches, with Templari on first watch so she was sound asleep before midnight. With her paladin-like Perception roll, Chivane didn't wake her at all, and once she, Kwai Chang, and Athelya were well out of earshot, she gratefully accepted the artifact and admitted that she owed the party one more boon for the favor. The idea that a Lawful assassin considered the blade to be worth MORE than their lives three times over didn't faze the party; they'd fulfilled their part of the bargain, and Templari was sound asleep throughout the proceedings (much to Talky's disgust).
Anyway, they had to choose between, "Find the Free Captains" and "Kill Yog'Oltha", and chose the former, so their magic mart is up and open for business again. (The Free Captains recognized Dominate-inspired conflict the moment they saw it, and fled into the woods until the Dominator could be found and terminated. So yeah, choosing the assassination would have been better, but there's no way the kids could have known that.)
Another Divination to find Yog'Oltha (assisted by Bacon Boy's second birthday reroll when the first cast failed) gave nothing more than, "Search the waters of the rising sun." Conveniently enough, the kids immediately realized this was east, and headed straight for Yog'Oltha's pond, armed with a scroll of Water Breathing, TWO potions of Freedom of Movement (not cheap!), and two CL 5 scrolls of Touch of the Sea (to last as long as the Freedom of Movement). They discussed the multitude of buffs they were going to cast. They stopped 500 feet away from the pond to put Magic Circle Against Evil on Malek, of course.
Then, the wheels fell off.
You know that whole, "OK, guys, let's discuss the plan and determine who's going to do what when, and how we're going to approach the pond?"
Yeah, not so much.
So as they got near the pond, no one knew what to do to figure out whether or not Yog'Oltha was there. Unfortunately, Kwai Chang, usually a sensible fellow, is so utterly enamored of his Boots of Levitation that he decided to levitate up, perhaps 50 feet from the pond, until such a point that he could see the bottom to determine what was in it.
Well, the kids and I have all agreed that a medium creature in the sky on a clear day gets a -20 to their Perception DC to be seen. They're just pretty darned obvious. With Yog'Oltha awake but not suspicious (taking 0, as it were), his +20 gave him a raw 20, letting him see Kwai Chang from a paltry... 400 feet! So the surprise round was Yog'Oltha's image showing up on shore, saying, "Are we really going to do this again?"
I really, really pity Bacon Boy. He kept TRYING to get the party together. "I can't cast Haste until Kwai Chang comes down. No! You can't stand there! I need to be in the middle of the party to cast Water Breathing because it's a multi-target touch spell. OK, everyone declare that you're going to follow me when I move so you can all stay in my circle of Protection from Evil."
And some people listened, and some didn't. And people spent rounds self-buffing with Protection from Evil because the circles that were getting cast were being cast on people running all over the map. Some people got buffs, other people didn't. I'm thankful I had Roll20 to track the chaos.
The summary of the fight so far is pretty straightforward: The moment Malek had both Water Breathing and Touch of the Sea on him, he charged forward to get into the water. Which was awesome because on Yog'Oltha's previous action I'd said, "He seems to be waiting for something to happen so he can cast a spell."
Which was, of course, a declared Dominate on Hooken the moment Malek charged. Because the party uses the same tactics every. Single. Fight.
Hooken failed all three saves (including Bacon Boy's third and final birthday reroll) and started shooting Malek. But of course, Malek is beloved by the gods and Impus Minor's die went cold, hitting Malek only once. Malek's response? "Ow! That actually hurt!"
Now he knows how my bad guys feel. EVERY DAY.
More hilarity ensued as the rest of the party desperately started self-buffing to avoid a Dominate spamfest, and Templari cast Fire of Entanglement on Yog'Oltha (I keep banning that spell and friggin' Hero Labs keeps letting it slip back in) and then charged forward into the water, learning only then that no one had put Touch of the Sea on her. (A jerk GM would have made her sink. I figure SHE would know whether or not she'd received a buff, even in the heat of battle.)
Yog'Oltha, not being an idiot, fled deeper into his pond, hiding his tracks with a Mirage Arcana to prevent Templari from getting line of sight on him.
So the night ended as Kwai Chang performed a "Give me that!" disarm on Hooken (a natural 20), and Voren finally caught up to put Touch of the Sea on Templari.
Fun times indeed!
NobodysHome |
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In other notes that don't count as "Silly" because they're showing maturity on the part of the kids:
Players. Abuse 'em long enough and they start getting clever.
Tacticslion |
Yes, Yog'Oltha is an advanced aboleth. But I'm kind of disappointed in how not-scary they are in Pathfinder because they reduced illusions to near-meaninglessness.
Only because I wasn't running him*... muwahahahahah~!
* This is very likely not true.
He basically gets to use his Project Image to Dominate them when they get careless, but otherwise is just not a very scary guy.
Heh. Eeeehhhhhhhheheheheheheheheh~!
Man, I really want to link the way I handled Yogsnog, but, uh, since you're final event isn't over, yet, I'll wait off...
... but I'll PM YOU~! NYAHAHAHAHAH~!
Drejk |
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I did not care for the whole Aboleth angle, so I completely ditched him and the AGM that live you know where.
I honestly can't remember what I replaced them with however. But yes, I've never been overly impressed with Aboleth in general.
I never cared for aboleths until I saw Lords Of Madness and now playing Rift drives me to reimagine them even more in the line of sort of lovercraftian elder horrors...
Tangent101 |
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I've very fond memories of Aboleth. From 2nd Edition AD&D. I was going to adapt Night Below to Pathfinder in fact before Skyrim - er, I mean Reign of Winter drew my combined tabletop-Skype game into it (and then froze it solid until finally the cold penetrated to the core and shattered it like extreme cold does to pine trees - okay, it's not the AP's fault my tabletop players decided never to schedule games. And it's happening again for the complete-tabletop version. *sigh*)
Of course, adding multiple levels of cleric and wizard to Aboleth would probably make them insanely overpowered (unless I went the whole Prestige Class route)....
captain yesterday |
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I've never read Lovecraft and my brothers relied entirely too much on Mind Flayers and Beholders so I never faced off against an Aboleth.
I get why they're in pathfinder, I think they fit in most campaigns I've seen them in. It's just, in a lake, in the middle of the jungle, and the ridiculous efforts it took to get there, it all seemed a bit... forced.
And that's why I ditched it, and nope, still can't remember what I replaced them with. :-)
Drejk |
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My main 65 can solo any (non-event) critter in the game... EXCEPT the Akvan Matriarch.
Ouchy big buggers, they are.
Yeah, if aboleths were more like akvan (which are obviously related), they would be much scarier.
Good to know... I looked on them while swimming over Draumheim and wonder about their carnage quest (kill 7 of those I think) while there are carnage quest requiring killing single 65 elite with less hp than them.
NobodysHome |
NobodysHome wrote:Good to know... I looked on them while swimming over Draumheim and wonder about their carnage quest (kill 7 of those I think) while there are carnage quest requiring killing single 65 elite with less hp than them.My main 65 can solo any (non-event) critter in the game... EXCEPT the Akvan Matriarch.
Ouchy big buggers, they are.
Yeah, if aboleths were more like akvan (which are obviously related), they would be much scarier.
Yeah... definitely wait 'til you're 65 or have a group of 10 or so before you take 'em on. They can be grouchy.
NobodysHome |
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"We finally got him! We've got him cornered! Let's get him!!!"
"Er... wait a minute! Don't we have only four recurring BBEGs we let get away so far (Yarzoth, Zakkiya, Lord Garaub, Sozothala)?"
"Y'know what? You're right! The GM's job isn't hard enough yet! Let's let Yog'Oltha get away, too!"
You know those moments as a GM, when the players are whisper-close to achieving a major milestone, but they miss it, they're obviously going to miss it, and anything you say to nudge them in the right direction will be a dead giveaway and they'll walk away from the table dissatisfied because the GM "gave" them the BBEG?
Well, that was last night.
Throw in a multitude of hilarious fumbles by Kwai Chang (RNGesus was working overtime last night) and ruthless killing efficiency by Heron (on Irwin, no less) and it led to a session that might lead to plagiarism lawsuits from the Three Stooges, if they weren't all already dead.
As you may recall, we ended last session as Kwai Chang masterfully disarmed Hooken with a natural 20, Templari finally had Touch of the Sea and Haste, giving her a chance to pursue the fleeing Yog'Oltha, and Malek was already in the water.
What happened next was... utterly inexplicable.
Yog'Oltha, already hidden behind a first Mirage Arcana (according to the spell description, even though it's a glamour you can create "structures where there are none" and gain concealment using them, so I'm calling it legit), swam to the bottom of the pond and created a second Mirage Arcana as backup, deciding he was outclassed at the moment.
Malek, hearing the casting and being the only one in the water, panicked and swam out of the water. Templari, being a paladin, swam in to the water. Hooken, finally having Malek in his sights again, reached into his efficient quiver and pulled out his back-up bow. Irwin and Kwai Chang took their attacks of opportunity, and in a sign of things to come, Kwai Chang fumbled the attempt and gave himself a point of CON damage.
I'd love to give a full blow-by-blow of the insanity that progressed, but unfortunately I didn't do round-by-round records. I really, really wish I had:
Eventually, the party's Haste ran out and they decided that Yog'Oltha had gotten away. All the while he was there, hidden on the bottom, hoping to his evil core that the paladin didn't find him.
I'm going to post this now so the kids can demand edits or put in rebuttals, but there's a second follow-up coming tonight.
Drejk |
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Drejk wrote:Templari hadn't managed to swim into the illusion itself triggering Will disbelief save for interaction with it?No; that was the whole problem with her, "I swim 30' above the bottom of the pond" statement.
30' away is 30' away...
You know, in the hindsight that touch of the sea might have been bad idea. Without it Templari would just sink to the bottom and might have walked into the illusion...
Seannoss |
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(re: monks and fumbling. I've seen the same thing before, maybe because of all the extra attacks. We instituted a rule that a player could only threaten a fumble once a round no matter how many ones they rolled.)
Oh... I generally agree with your illusion thoughts. Illusions should do something, especially high level ones.
NobodysHome |
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OK, wrapping up Monday's session: Our dejected band decided to head back for the Pathfinder camp, sure that Yog'Oltha had gotten away. (And now he has, and is plotting even MORE mischief! Mwahahahahahahahahahaha! Oh. Sorry...)
They decided to go by way of the Muse, and finally used their scroll of Heal on Juliver the crazy naked elf lady, getting her whole sad tale: With a Pathfinder group out of Absalom, learned the serpentfolk were waking from their long dormancy and rising again to conquer the world. Her group had been captured in a vast city, and she'd escaped, passed through a portal, smashed the portal to dissuade pursuit, run into a group of undead serpentfolk, and... been Feebleminded.
The group decided to return to the haunted house and retrace their steps.
Unfortunately, it's been five VERY rainy days since they last saw the tracks leading east...
NobodysHome |
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Well, I'm afraid that a bit of a cold plus running Crimson Throne two weeks in a row did me in, so there was no game tonight.
We'll resume your regularly-scheduled insanity next week, when the party gets to travel into the vaults and answer the age-old question, "What DOES happen when the already-insane lose their minds?"
NobodysHome |
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I'll have to see what this Rift game you speak of looks like, if only to banish the mental picture of SAMAS or Glitter Boy power armor blasting away at Gargoyles infesting the ruins of Berlin.
It's an MMORPG where the other players are actually POLITE to each other (for the most part) and they have a SEPARATE player-vs-player server so you don't have to deal with other players trying to kill you all the time. It's 5 years old, so it'll run on older machines.
But it's annoyingly Windows-only. I've got it running on my Mac using PlayOnMac, but performance is pretty bad.
But if you're really interested, let us know! You get bonus points for referring friends!
Drejk |
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captain yesterday wrote:I'll have to see what this Rift game you speak of looks like, if only to banish the mental picture of SAMAS or Glitter Boy power armor blasting away at Gargoyles infesting the ruins of Berlin.It's an MMORPG where the other players are actually POLITE to each other (for the most part)
I guess you left channel <1-29 level> then...
and they have a SEPARATE player-vs-player server so you don't have to deal with other players trying to kill you all the time. It's 5 years old, so it'll run on older machines.
But it's annoyingly Windows-only. I've got it running on my Mac using PlayOnMac, but performance is pretty bad.
But if you're really interested, let us know! You get bonus points for referring friends!
It does not look as good on my laptop. I think I have everything set on minimum... Guild Wars 2 looks much better.
Drejk |