[ACG] [PluTo] Adventure 3-3: In Search of a Sage by Yewstance

Game Master Yewstance

:( Sorry to hear, VampByDay. Cogsnap will be missed!

I'll probably take ally for the card feat, with whatever the highest unclaimed ally is for my upgrade. Though if absolutely no one else wants the Spell 5, I might take Blizzard instead.

Card feat will be item. Wand of Flying which will be traded for latern anyway.
For the upgrade I'm wanting one of the weapon 5s.

And here is my new deck handler.

For Scenario 3-5D: IN CHAOS, ONE SHALL REIGN...

Tier Progression: (5.4) Card Feat.
Blessings 3 [X] 4 [ ] 5

Estra banished Charm Person during the scenario, leaving her with an empty Spell Slot.

For Estra's Deck Upgrade, her preferences are as follows:

Estra: CONVERSION

Character Conversion

If you have a character that was created using a previous edition of this guide, you’ll need to do a quick conversion before you continue playing. (If your character has only ever played Season 0 scenarios, instead see Appendix 4 on page 15.)
Adhere to Feat Maximums. If your character has more feats of any one type than their Tier, the maximum number of feats of that type is permanently increased to their Tier + 1. If your character has any feats in excess of that, uncheck the excess feats and get a hero point for each feat unchecked.
Calculate Experience Points. Determine the number of experience points (XP) your character has by counting the number of different scenarios they have completed since tiering up. For example, if your Tier 4 character has completed 2 different scenarios since starting Tier 4, you have 2 XP. If you have at least 3 XP, you may spend them all to advance to the next tier. If you have at least 6 XP, you must spend them all to advance to the next tier.
Convert Die Bumps to Hero Points. If your character had any die bumps, they now have the same number of hero points. You cannot spend these hero points to gain feats.

Feat Maximums:

A SHORT GUIDE TO CONVERSION

Very briefly, here are some of the most important points to consider now that we're officially changing the ruleset of the game.

Your 3 sources of new information are...

Oh, and for those of you unfamiliar with Hero Points...

Lini used a die bump on June 6th and March 14th.

So Lini is tier 5. Has 4 xp. 2 hero points from her 2 remaining die bumps.
5 skill feat 1 from each tier
6 power feats 1 from each tier and 1 from role card.
6 card feats. 1 from each tier and presumably 1 bonus one we got at some point.
Cap is tier +1 so no changes needed.

With 2 weapon 5s I'm pretty sure Lini will be okay to take 1. And she will visit Hadden Hoppert.

I'm like 90% sure I haven't used any die bumps.

Darago is Tier 5 with 4XP

5 Skill Feats from Tier Progression (Skill Feat max set at Tier)

6 Power Feats from Tier Progression and Role Card (Power Feat max set at Tier+1)

7 Card Feats from Tier Progression + Assault on Absalom + A bonus from somewhere? (Was there a bonus card feat from an AD reward or something? I can't place the 7th one... Card Feat max set at Tier+1)

Card Feat: Check off something then immediately uncheck it for a Hero Point

Card Upgrade: Weapon 5 for Iceblade Spelldagger

Weapon 5: 1d1000 ⇒ 928

Trader: Hadden Hoppert If there was an official nail in the coffin for Sunburst Market, then I'll stop using it. Though I agree that it doesn't seem to make much sense

If there was an official nail in the coffin for Sunburst Market, then I'll stop using it. Though I agree that it doesn't seem to make much sense

As silly as it is, there is official words from Vic on the matter.

As it turns out, though, Sunburst Market is still fully workable - at least in how you're using it - even though it's a bit odd. It can now be used to gather any level 0 card, but not Basics or Elites, since they've been culled from the vault at this point in time.

In that thread there is a list of cards that the 'new' Sunburst Market can use.

Some of these are pretty potent, so the party should let me know if they're switching their Trader choice to Sunburst Market.

The most desirable "new-Sunburst Market" cards include...

Feat Maximums:

For Scenario 3-5E: A LEGACY HIJACKED

Tier Progression: (5.5) Estra gains a Hero Point.
Estra now has 4 Hero Points.
Estra will Tier Up (you Tier Up after earning your Hero Point, so you cannot immediately expend it for a feat).

Scenario Reward: Estra gains a Skill Feat and checks off...
Wisdom d10 ☑ +1 ☑ +2 ☑ +3 ☐ +4

For Estra's Deck Upgrade, her preferences are:

Free Skill feat +1 to Strength. +1 hero point.

Eagle Aerie could be very handy but I don't know what spell I would cut and it is useless in a siege scenario so I'll skip upgrades.

I still like the idea of having an ally that does something in my hand so I'll be visiting Sunburst Market for Fire Gecko again.

I'm only interested in an item upgrade.
(FWIW, Eagle Aerie would actually be very handy this scenario, to neutralize Five-Pointed Sun. Metagaming, I suppose; but no more metagaming than it being a siege scenario.)

I'll join at Ghoul Market.
Is Estra interested in Elemental Treaty this scenario? I'm deciding between that and/or Remove Curse.

I'm only interested in an item upgrade.

(FWIW, Eagle Aerie would actually be very handy this scenario, to neutralize Five-Pointed Sun. Metagaming, I suppose; but no more metagaming than it being a siege scenario.)

I'll join at Ghoul Market.
Is Estra interested in Elemental Treaty this scenario? I'm deciding between that and/or Remove Curse.

Depends whether or not I get both spells or just one, and it might also depend on what Armor I see from the Trader. My Fly spell is likely going to be traded away or replaced with a loot spell if it's not replaced by Psychic Surgery.

Elemental Treaty is a tiny bit worse than usual on account of it not blocking Curses from the Adventure Power if we suffer more than 1 damage at a time, but that's pretty minor. It still covers all of those nasty "take 1 damage" BYA/AYA powers that murder the location decks in these scenarios... plus, if it and a Safety Bubble are both dropped at the Five Pointed Sun then it's pretty damn safe to sit there.

Buuut it's a moot point. I'm afraid you've just reminded me I have to cull Elemental Treaty and Remove Curse both from our Loot options, for the same reason as to why we can't take basics anymore with Sunburst Market - they're no longer in the box. I can't say whether this matches the designer intent, but it's been clarified to me that you can't trade for a card that doesn't exist in the box.

Hm I didn’t think loot replacements counted as trades?
Besides, doesn’t loot comes from the box, not the vault? (Otherwise, loot would appear in locations and traders.) And it’s the vault that loses Basics/Elites.

For Scenario 3-5E: A LEGACY HIJACKED

Tier Progression: (5.5) Skizza gains a Hero Point.
Skizza now has 5 Hero Points.
Skizza will Tier Up (you Tier Up after earning your Hero Point, so you cannot immediately expend it for a feat).

Scenario Reward: Skizza gains a Skill Feat and checks off...
Dexterity d10 ☑ +1 ☑ +2 ☑ +3 ☑ +4

Deck Upgrade:
Weapon 5: 1d1000 ⇒ 517 Blasting Pistol +2

Trader: Falsin Deek

I'll tier up to Tier 6.

I am back to having 5 Hero Points

I'd like the other Spell 5 to replace Life Drain with Death's Touch

Skill Feat: CON

Trader: Hadden Hoppert

Hm I didn’t think loot replacements counted as trades?

Besides, doesn’t loot comes from the box, not the vault? (Otherwise, loot would appear in locations and traders.) And it’s the vault that loses Basics/Elites.

Remove Curse and Elemental Treaty aren't Loot-type cards, so they're in the MM box as usual. And yes, they can turn up in location decks - if they weren't removed as we hit AD3.

The closes thing to this ruling can be found in this forum. Note that, pre-Core, you could as a table 'choose' not to remove all Basics/Elites, but Card Guild Guide v6.0 has simplified those rules and simply states that you must remove all of them (except Blessings).

The "Vault vs Box" thing is misleading. Previously the term "Removed from the game" meant it was not in the box, now it just means it's not in the vault, but the same practical application applies in that they no longer exist from the perspective of the Adventure Path.

You're welcome to debate this with Mork, incidentally - we're both in a table where he's decided that we won't be able to use the Monkey Loot starting from the next adventure, because as an Elite card it'll have been removed from the game.

======================

You're in the BR Hangouts chat, so you would've seen the discussion on the matter. I'm willing to be convinced to just leave it in (which I think is closer to the design intent, but I'm also confident is against the rules as most recently written in the rulebook and clarified by Vic on the forums).

Of note, it feels awkward to let someone trade for Remove Curse loot, but be unable to take it with Sunburst Market, despite referring to the exact same hypothetical card.

Bah. It's complicated, and I'm unsure as to whether you can or cannot take cards as Loot after they've been removed from the box. It hinges on the entirely undefined term "Game Box" (which is different to "Box", but in an undefined way). Ugh, I kinda have to rule on this vague nonsense.

Very well, in the absence of anything super-official, I make the following ruling:

Until further notice, you MAY continue to take Remove Curse and Elemental Treaty as Loot options, but not as Sunburst Market trades. This is in line with RAW for how post-Core Loot works, though I am not certain it is in line with RAW for how Season 3 Loot is supposed to work.

Anyway, Traders will be up shortly.

I'd like the other Spell 5 to replace Life Drain with Death's Touch

Sure! I'll strike off a use of my Treasure Hunter Boon to take the second Item 3, then.

Prior to Darago's turn, this is a quick summary of what I think's left in the siege deck. Card numbers are from this post.

5 monsters:
2) Shaitan Ghul: Combat 20 (immune to Mental/Poison, resistant to Fire, discard weapon/armor before acting) (Undead)
4) Hollow Serpent: Combat 16 or Stealth 12 (immune to Mental/Poison, vulnerable to Cold, discard 1 random before acting, only 1 card can be played) (Undead)
8) Mummy: Combat 21 (immune to Mental/Poison/Cold, vulnerable to Fire) (Undead)
25) Ghawwa: Combat 18 and STR/CON/Fortitude/Divine 5 [trigger: summon random Pairaka] (immune to Fire/Poison, resistant to Acid/Electricity, before acting summon random Pairaka, after acting damage if Melee) (Henchman)
[bottom card] 1) Akvan: Combat 35 (immune to Fire/Poison, resistant to Acid/Divine/Electricity, before acting WIS 9 or +4 difficulty, must be last) (Henchman)

5 barriers:
7) Corridor Dart Trap: DEX/Disable/Stealth/Perception 18
20) Word of Ra: DEX/Disable/Stealth 17 (Lock)
22) Eternal Captives: WIS/Divine 10 or CHA/Diplomacy 8 (all local must defeat) (Undead)
23) Baited Jewel Box: Disable 12 or Craft 14 [trigger: shuffle away weapon/armor/item] (Lock)
24) Killing Box: INT/Knowledge/Perception 13 or Disable 15 (Obstacle)

Good call collecting those.

Of those, Baited Jewel Box is one of the most overtly challenging. Skizza is the only member of the party with Disable or Craft, and so outside of him we're all stuck rolling 1d4s by default. It is, however, an excellent example of how we can leverage the Avenging rules to our favor - if worst comes to worst we can eat the small 'undefeated' consequence and then let Skizza avenge us, if we're at the same location.

There's other high-difficulty barriers there; but at the very least a Dexterity check is a lot friendlier than a Disable/Craft check. Estra, for example, can at least use Honaire on a Dexterity check, and Lini can use 'beastform'.

For Scenario 3-6A: A SAGE BESIEGED...

Estra expended 1 Hero Point during the scenario.

Tier Progression: (6.1) Estra gains a Hero Point, and expends it to gain the following Card Feat...
Armor 1 [X] 2
Estra now has 3 Hero Points.

Scenario Reward: I'll wait for team discussion, but I'd personally look to drawing a Blessing, with Lini getting priority for the first Blessing 6 drawn.

Deck Upgrade Preferences: (These are in full for the rest of the AP. I'm happy to step aside on any of these, because I've got so many in total. I'm still re-building my deck due to Core Rule changes inhibiting my initial all-in Ally/draw cards strategy.)

Used I think 2 Hero points. I have 1 left before scenario's end. Using the one we just got for +1 hand size power feat.

Picking blessing for the draw simply because we didn't get any. Not worried about if I get it.

The only upgrades Lini has left are...

Blessing of the All-Seeing Eye (Blessing 6): 1d1000 ⇒ 818 replacing Blessing of the Spellbound.

Rejuvenation (spell 6): 1d1 ⇒ 1 replacing Restorative Touch. Very low priority.

Velociraptor (Ally 5) replacing Wolverine.

Vengeful Storm (Spell 6): 1d1000 ⇒ 259 is an upgrade over Volcanic Storm. Edit: And has the electricity trait which is relevant next scenario.

I'm not that worried about the upgrades because I can always trade in my worst card for something at Sunurst Market.

I still plan to use Life Lantern loot.

I think Qualzar's top choice for upgrade is Spell 6 (Dominate). But would also be happy with Armor 6 (Robe of Vision), or maybe Item 6 (Pearl of Magic). If there aren't enough of those to go around, I'll choose Spell for my reward; if there are, I'll choose Blessing.

Not sure yet about my feat. I might want the extra armor slot (especially if I get the armor upgrade), might instead take the power feat for the flat -2 to Combat damage, might stall with INT +3.

I won't finalize trader until I decide my feat, but probably Hadden Hoppert. (Might be tempted if others are going to Ghoul Market or maybe Falsin Deek.)
Qualzar is interested in taking Pharaoh's Key this scenario. Will decide on Remove Curse/Elemental Treaty after trades.

Picking Blessing for the draw.

---

Weapon 6: 1d1000 ⇒ 440 Priority 1: Enervating Pistol +3.

Blessing 6: 1d1000 ⇒ 947 Priority 2: Blessing of Old Deadeye. (Allows Combat Re-roll for anyone).

Blessing 6: 1d1000 ⇒ 801 Priority 3: Blessing of Alkenstar 3.

Item 6: 1d1000 ⇒ 781 Priority 4: Blessed Bullet.

Weapon 6: 1d1000 ⇒ 236 Priority 5: Flaming Musket +2

Ally 6: 1d1000 ⇒ 652 Priority 6: Nightwalker Isra.

---

Trader: Falsin Deek.

---

Using my Hero point to upgrade Hand Size.

I will wait for confirmation on what to draw for Darago and Qualzar. For now, I'll draw Blessings for Skizza, Estra and Lini...

Random Blessings...
Blessing of the Lady of Graves (Blessing 5)
Blessing of Ptah (Blessing 6)
Blessing of Ptah (Blessing 6)

I think I want a spell for the reward.

Random Spell...

Ride the Lightning (Spell 6)

Here's my upgrade preferences:

Spell 6 for a whole bunch of options: 1d1000 ⇒ 22 I actually want 2 of these, but almost everyone else also wants one, so I'll hold off on the second for now

Spell 5 for Fire Barrage: 1d1000 ⇒ 301

Armor 6 for Phoenix Cloak: 1d1000 ⇒ 603

Item 6 for Pearl of Magic: 1d1000 ⇒ 552

Not really sure how I want to spend the Hero Point yet.

Final Random Spell...

Foresight (Spell 6)

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This is my initial distribution of boons suggestion - let me know if anyone dislikes it or has a request or better idea.

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Skizza: Weapon 6, Blessing 6

Estra: Armor 6, Item 4

Lini: Blessing 6, Spell 6

Darago: Spell 6, Spell 5

Qualzar: Spell 6, Item 6

Qualzar's 1st choice is Vision, 2nd choice is Canopic Conversion. What's Darago interested in?

This is my initial distribution of boons suggestion - let me know if anyone dislikes it or has a request or better idea.

==================

Skizza: Weapon 6, Blessing 6

Estra: Armor 6, Item 4

Lini: Blessing 6, Spell 6

Darago: Spell 6, Spell 5

Qualzar: Spell 6, Item 6

(For my own records; Qualzar got a Spell 6 and Blessing 5 - Estra got an Armor 6 and Item 6)

I ended up trading for Dune of Doom, so Qualzar is free to take Vision.

Also I spent my Hero Point on a Power Feat: +1 to Recovery Checks.

No Trades and same loot.

Qualzar will choose Ally for the reward, as I could use either an Ally 5 or 6. Also could use an Armor 6 for the other upgrade.
Probably just going to take a skill feat, but not 100% certain yet.

3-6B reward: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Jackpot!

For Scenario 3-6B: UNCOILING THE SNAKE...

Tier Progression: (6.2) Estra gains a Hero Point, and expends it to gain the following Power Feat...
[X] At the start of your turn, you may exchange an ally ([ ] or a blessing) in your hand with an ally in your discard pile.
Estra still has 3 Hero Points.

Scenario Reward: I don't need an AD5/6 Weapon, Armor or Ally, so I'll pass on my choice.

Deck Upgrade Preferences:

I'll spend my Hero Point on a Card Feat: Blessing

The only thing that I want from the Acquired Cards is an Armor 6 for Phoenix Cloak Armor 6: 1d1000 ⇒ 905

If there aren't enough Armor 6s to go around, my scenario reward will be drawing an Armor 5/6. If there are enough, I'll defer my choice to someone who would actually use a Weapon or Ally upgrade.

Convention: 1d20 ⇒ 11

Tier Progression: (6.2) Skizza gains a Hero Point, and expends it to gain the following Ability Feat: INT +3.

Skizza still has 5 Hero Points.

Scenario Reward: Weapon 6 (Flaming Musket +2)

Reward Preference is Armor 6 but only if no one else wants the remaining one.

Trader: Falsin Deek

I'll defer to Skizza and Darago for the Armor 6s, if we can go fishing for Allies with any extra picks? I could use Ally 5&6 or Ally 6&6.

Qualzar will go to Hadden Hoppert.

I would like to try for a weapon 6.

boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 17

Spending a hero point for card feat armor. Adding Armor of the Sands.

I'll check out the Ghoul Market trader.

If there is a spare ally 5 I'll take it.

Boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 2

With my Blessing Feat, I'll fill in the gap with a Blessing of Pharasma (WCD 3)

I'll visit Hadden Hoppert

3-6B Rewards Summary

Lini: Ally 5, Card Feat

Darago: Armor 6, Card Feat

Qualzar: Ally 6, Ally 6, Skill Feat(?)

Skizza: Weapon 6, Armor 6, Skill Feat

Estra: Ally 2, Spell 4, Power Feat

Switching out Wolverine for Velociraptor.

Hey everyone!

I'm letting everyone know that I'll be travelling to the States on my Friday, October the 18th, a journey which - between the series of long flights and the absolute necessity to pass out asleep as soon as I reach my destination, and the associated settling in - will likely take me out of action for about 36-48.

For the timezones of most of you, this effectively means I likely won't be posting around Thursday or Friday (and possibly Saturday). Once I'm settled in, standard posting frequency should resume, albeit at different time slots.

Extremely sorry. Typhoon Hagibis has get me scrambling go get some things handled here but I hope to be back on stable posting tomorrow.

boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 20

armor 5: 1d1 ⇒ 1

Taking the Life Lantern loot again. Visiting Ghoul Market.