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

Game Master Yewstance

Thanks for boxrunning! I believe that's all the AD correct? I'm good with a break here with the upcoming gameday coming.

Grazzle is most interested in Blessing 1.

Blessing 1: 1d1000 ⇒ 619

What's involved in advancing to tier 2? And no pressure if you don't have time to answer now.

What's involved in advancing to tier 2? And no pressure if you don't have time to answer now.

Looking through the Guide to Organized Play, it looks like there's no particular rewards or changes involved with advancing to tier 2 - it's just a way of indicating that the character has gotten somewhat more powerful - and it limits what scenarios you can play. Correct?

Thanks for boxrunning! I believe that's all the AD correct? I'm good with a break here with the upcoming gameday coming.

Grazzle is most interested in Blessing 1.

Blessing 1: 1d1000

I think the card game special starts October 1st.

With 3 blessing 1s and 2 item 1s I should be good to take a blessing.
Even though we have a lot of spellcasters in the party, The blessings I use most often tend to be the ones that add 2 dice to one of two different non combat skills.

With that in mind I'll replace one of the Blessing of the Spellbound with a Blessing of Milani.

No interest in any of the Loot.

To clarify various details.

Sorry for the delay, I was playing the ACG IRL and we decided to go on a late-night ice cream run afterwards. (Half-price shakes, slushes, etc. at participating Sonic locations after 8, in case you weren't aware and ever crave late-night sugary beverages)

Boon Roll 1/20: 1d20 ⇒ 15

For the upgrade, I'm considering Blessing 1, but I'm still fine with my deck as is, so if anyone else wants it, they can have it.

I am fairly interested in Loot: Game of Afterlife

I'll also officially tier up to Tier 2

I'd be 100% down for continuing into AD2 and beyond. I'm having a really good time! :)

I'll take the weapon if no one's taking it.

And I wanna keep playing after a break.

On reflection, I think I'll take one of the Item 1s (there are 2 of them and so far I don't think anyone has expressed interest). That also leaves 3 Blessing 1s, and I think 3 people who want them, so I think everyone can get what they want.

I'll use the Item 1 upgrade to replace Crowbar with Staff of Minor Healing. (My reasoning is that, although we have tons of healing in this particular party, if Valeros is going to be viable in the future he'll need some healing options, especially if he ever plays with a different party).

I'll tier up to Tier 2.

I'm definitely interested in continuing to play with this group. If we can get through the whole AP that would be awesome. I can keep playing now or take a break, depending on whatever everyone else wants to do.

I've also signed up for the PACG Assault on Absalom special starting Oct. 1. I had been assuming that I would need to start a different PC for that, but based on what Stuart wrote it sounds like it would be fine to keep playing Valeros in the special and still be able to continue with our group after it's over, in which case that would be my preference.

REWARD SUMMARY -- SCENARIO 3-1E: TRAILS TO THE SKY

AAUGHWHY // Darago - Blessing 1 + Tier Up
Abraham Z. // Valeros - Item 1 + Tier Up
khazkhaz // Damiel - Weapon C + Tier Up
bigguyinblack // Lini - Blessing 1 + Tier Up
GM Andrew // Grazzle - Blessing 1 + Tier Up

Hello my dear box runners and players!

I’d first like to say thank you so much for participating in the first Cards Against Gnomanity event. It’s truly been a fantastic showing by our burgeoning online community, and the box runners should be commended for putting up with a system that is still having some major wrinkles ironed out.

Cards Against Gnomanity officially ends this coming Sunday, August 12th, at 11:59 PM Eastern time. If you have a game ongoing that you’d like to continue past this time, that’s fine with us, but any game that ends after 11:59 will not be counted as being part of this event. However, we have another event that is starting up RIGHT AFTER this one! I’m talking about Play-By-Post Gameday VII. This event will include the multi-table special Assault on Absalom in slot 2, which runs from October 1st-November 12th. As of this moment, there are two slots left at tables for that special on the ACG side, so if you haven’t signed up yet, go check out the Specials Sign-up Sheet.

If you plan to continue a game and would like sessions reported between August 13th and September 30th to count as part of GameDay VII (and therefore be eligible for ACG boon rolls), please email me at cartmanbeck@orgplayonline.com with your screenname, the link to the paizo.com forum thread where you’re running the game, and the game number in the ACG online database BEFORE Cards Against Gnomanity ends on Sunday night.

When the first slot of GameDay VII ends on September 30th, if you are running or playing in any tables of Assault on Absalom, I will ask that you try to wrap up as many of your tables as possible in order to free up time and energy to devote to the Assault on Absalom run. We want this to be a huge success! Andrew (Hawkmoon 269) will be the lead for this event, so if you have questions about how it will run, email him at hawkmoon269@orgplayonline.com.

As of now, I’m seeing 75 sessions of ACG in our reporting sheet for Cards Against Gnomanity (I’ll note that I’m behind on reporting a few sessoins myself, but will get that taken care of later today). If you have not yet filled out the reporting sheet for your games, PLEASE do so as soon as possible! Reporting Sheet

Once the event ends and we've confirmed that all sessions have been added to the reporting sheet, I'll be doing a drawing for a small number of paizo.com gift certificates. Each player and box runner will have one chance at getting these, so it doesn't matter how many games you played, you have an equal shot. I'll also be looking over the total number of convention rewards/boons that we gave out to see how close to 10% we got... if the random number generator was a bit greedy, I may randomly hand out a few more of those as well.

Thank you all again, and feel free to email me with questions.

Tyler (Box Runner Nalshene/Cartmanbeck)

Alright all; we will not officially start the next scenario until the 13th but I have prepared the new Adventure and Scenario texts for your perusal.

This is a "Defensive Stance" scenario, also known as a "Siege Scenario". It's one of the more unusual rulesets that occasionally turn up during Seasons 3 and 4 of organized play. I've provided all of the exact rules text, but you can think of it like this.

You're protecting the 'boons' in the location decks. All of the banes that would normally be shuffled into location decks are instead put in one giant pile, and you 'explore' this pile regardless of your actual location. When you take damage (or meet other conditions as stated depending on the scenario) you lose boons in the location decks; in this case it would be representative of the burglars breaking or stealing things from you. As a general rule, you will NEVER be encountering any kind of boon during this scenario; you'll only be dealing with monsters and barriers.

You win by clearing the siege deck of all cards without running out of boons in your location decks, basically. At the end of the scenario, you are rewarded with all remaining boons in the location decks as if you'd acquired them. So the less boons you have to banish, the better your choices of card upgrade are going to be.

There will be exactly 39 banes to dig through, and 31 boons across the location decks to protect. You won't often need to take bonus explorations to win.

Reducing damage is more important here than it would ever be in another scenario. Armor, Elemental Treaty and even Evasion effects will prevent the loss of numerous boons every time you take damage. Remember there are plenty of banes that force you to take damage whether or not you defeat them ("Take 1 electricity damage before you act", "Take 1 poison damage after you act", etc). If you split up, you're less likely to be caught by a nasty area-of-effect damage, and you'll lose less boons when you do take damage. Remember you can adjust your deck of cards using loot or using the Traders that are available.

(There's an alternative strategy regarding sticking together in a team and stacking Elemental Treaties, which is what another table of mine did, but I'm not necessarily advocating that. It's a pretty high-risk, if high-reward, strategy.)

So I can see the pros and cons.

If we are by our self and take dmg we only lose that much dmg. If we are together and hit a card that says everyone takes 1d4 dmg then we could lose a lot of boons.

However, 1 elemental treaty can block or reduce that damage, Valeros reveals an ally to add to combat checks, Binder's Tome which a couple of us have can add to combat checks against many foes. And that will help on turns where someone may be without an attack spell or weapon.

I also think Valeros should choose weapon for his starting card and get the ally so he can reveal it.

The real question is who gets a remove curse and who gets a treaty? I think I will trade in my Locate Object because I presume it has no effect during this.

Monday, August 13, is my wedding anniversary, so I will most likely not be able to post at all that day. Also, I will be traveling Thursday, August 16 to Monday, August 20 and may have very limited internet access. Please bot me as needed.

If we are by our self and take dmg we only lose that much dmg. If we are together and hit a card that says everyone takes 1d4 dmg then we could lose a lot of boons.

When any player takes damage (no matter how much or how little), if it's not reduced to 0 then you have to banish the top boon from your location as well as every unoccupied location. So spreading out decreases the amount of boons you lose, even if only 1 player takes 1 damage.

he real question is who gets a remove curse and who gets a treaty? I think I will trade in my Locate Object because I presume it has no effect during this.

I actually made a statement regarding that card in Hangout about a week or two ago. Defensive Stance rules means that any time you would explore OR EXAMINE a location deck, you instead may do so on the Siege Deck. There's no boons in the Siege Deck, so this means that if you cast Locate Object you will simply example every single card in the Siege Deck, then shuffle it.

PRO: You know exactly what the Siege Deck may throw at the party, if not the order.
PRO: Something like 25-33% of banes in Mummy's Mask have Triggers (though not the henchmen), meaning you literally could potentially wipe out as much as 10 banes in a single casting of it if those Triggers caused encounters or self-banishing.
CON: You're gonna get hit over the head with more triggers than anyone ever should in one scenario, a great number of which may force damage or force other negative consequences, and may lead to huge boon loss.

I have, in another scenario, actually willingly examined the entire Siege Deck whilst playing as the Antipaladin, Ugraz. It mostly worked, but I can't say I recommend the strategy, especially when the timer isn't critical anyway.

It's interesting to note that Siege scenarios do tend to significantly alter what kind of cards you want to use. Cards that help you explore, close or acquire boons are all useless (or at least significantly less valuable), so non-Sunburst Market traders are more likely to shine. Not only do you get a more powerful card from them, you get to thin your deck of useless cards - having a smaller deck size can be a huge merit, since it means you're more likely to draw your best cards, and faster, and cycle through your deck better. Anyone who's played a Collectible Card Game or Deckbuilding Game is certainly familiar with the prospect of "Smaller deck size == better", but then it's not usually also representative of their only source of 'hitpoints'.

I found the text for the Warehouse. Which is what all of the locations are.

Monster 3
Barrier 2
Weapon 0
Spell 0
Armor 1
Item 2
Ally 1

So none of the loot we get afterwords will be a weapon or spell.

At this location
At the end of your turn, you may recharge any number of items and weapons.

When Closing
Succeed at a Dexterity or Disable check with a difficulty of 4 plus the scenario's adventure deck number.

When closed
On closing, summon and acquire a weapon, an armor, or an item from the box.

It has been FAQed that you still have to make the check to acquire it.

And it occurs to me that Locate Object has some interesting effects in this.

Discard this card to examine your location deck until you find a boon. Encounter it, Then shuffle your location deck.

The scenario has a deck full of enemies and traps and next to it is Defensive Stance.

When you would examine cards in a location deck, you may examine them in the siege deck instead.

May. So that gives me 2 options.
Option 1. Examine the Werehouse that is currently nothing but boons. And encounter the first card.
Option 2. Examine the entire siege deck because there are no boons to find. This will have the side effect of hitting every trigger in the deck. All of them. But remember that many triggers involve encountering the card. If we have 2 - 3 Elemental Treaty down this could be a way to clear out several cards at once. Probably want to pass Lini a weapon at some point.

A reminder, however, that even if you only take a bonus exploration once every three turns, you'll still beat the scenario in time. The risky Locate Object strategy may not be worth it. Use your best judgement.

Oh I'm not recommending it as a great way to beat the scenario in time. Thogh the faster we win the less opportunities for us to take dmg.
I'm saying it would be really cool to examine 15+ cards with one spell.

We could actually all get Elemental Treaty and just pass it to caster if you can't use it. Then one person could use Remove Curse as loot.

Alternatively I could go with my original plan of trading in Locate Object to the sunburst market and just use my amulet of mighty fists for combat.

So possible game plan.

Everyone trade a card in to Sunburst Market for an Elemental Treaty.
Then trade a card for loot if you want it. Including a 6th! Elemental Treaty.
We hand Valeros the ally.
If you can't recharge Elemental Treaty hand it to a caster. They can display it before your first explore.
We all start at Smoking Den and stack up Treaty's as fast as we can.
We can add up to 3d4 to combat checks at the same location so I think sticking together is a good plan.
Spend blessings freely. Grazzle can easily heal us and we can easily heal Grazzle.

Edit: Only 5 Elemental Treaty in the box so 5 max.

Lini, do you still want the Spear? I’m fine with giving it up.

Also, someone should take Akhentepis Armor. I will if no one else wants it.

And the last loot item - game of afterlife - seems like a high INT character should take it.

No. I forgot that I have to trade a weapon for the spear and I would rather use the trader for an elemental treaty. But if you happen to draw it and Lini doesn't have a weapon then it would be useful if you hand it to her.

I completely forgot to mention, sorry:

By completing an Adventure, everyone has been rewarded with a single die bump. Die bumps are a one-use reward tied to your character and are awarded with each completed Adventure.

From the Card Guild Guide:

Your character can use a die bump to add 1 to or subtract 1 from the result of a check. Multiple die bumps can be used on a check, and multiple characters can use die bumps on a check.

If a character dies, at the end of that scenario, the party may collectively use 3 die bumps to resurrect that character back from the dead. Players may not be coerced into using die bumps for this purpose. The resurrected character is no longer dead and gains rewards as if he had not died.

Hello! Welcome to Play By Post Gameday VII. As part of the festivities for this event, we have a few rewards you can win. After your table completes a scenario, win or lose, each participant (player and/or box runner) rolls 1d20. If your result is 1 or 20, you win. Select your reward from the list below and inform your Box Runner of your choice. We’ll make sure you get the reward sent to you.

Remember, Session 1 runs from August 13th, 2018-September 30, 2018. Your table must complete the scenario between those dates to roll for a reward. During Session II (October 1-November 12th) we’ll be running the multiple table interactive special Assault on Absalom.

Box Runners: If you have any questions about how to report, please contact me.

Have fun!

Gameday VII Adventure Card Game Rewards
Season of Tapestry’s Tides Reward #1
Unconventional Firepower: You may add one weapon that has the Firearm trait and one item that has the Ammunition trait from the Gunslinger Class Deck to your box. These cards must have an adventure deck number equal to or lower than your current tier. Each time you advance a tier, you may exchange one of these cards with another card of the same type from the Gunslinger Class Deck, following the same restrictions.

Season of Tapestry’s Tides Reward #2
Burgeoning Captain: At the beginning of a scenario that uses the Skull & Shackles Base Set, you may cross out this reward to gain the skill Survival: Wisdom +2 on your checks attempted while you are on a ship and on your checks attempted against a ship until the end of the scenario.

Season of Tapestry’s Tides Reward #3
Sea Legs: When you would fail a combat check against a bane that has the Aquatic trait, you may cross out this reward to reroll the dice and add 1d6; take the new result.

We back!

Traveling with family to vacation all day tomorrow and was just in a car accident. We are all ok but shaken up. Will be Sunday or Monday before I can post and will likely be erratic for the next week.

Traveling with family to vacation all day tomorrow and was just in a car accident. We are all ok but shaken up. Will be Sunday or Monday before I can post and will likely be erratic for the next week.

Geez, I hope everything's okay! No rush to post (for anyone, given all of the mess of the past week regardless); just take care of yourself and your family!

I will be at Dragon Con this weekend. It starts officially about 48 hours from this post and lasts til Monday. I am not doing too much there but there could potentially be an outage from me.

If anyone else is there, I will be wearing the nametag "Yiroep (GM Andrew)."

Dragon con in full swing for me. Posting will be very sporadic.

Traveling all day with wife and baby. Likely will not be able to post until sometime tomorrow. Please bot as needed. Thanks and should be about to return to a more normal posting schedule (assuming the site cooperates). Thanks for your understanding.

Sorry all. You do still get to choose a card upgrade if any of them appeal to you, and you still get to roll for a boon as per above.

3-2A Boon Roll, BR: 1d20 ⇒ 2

boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 16

What options does everyone have for Blessing B in terms of adding 2 dice? The only non basic B option I have is Blessing of Pharasma. Add 1 die to any roll or 2 dice to a spell.

1d20 ⇒ 9

@Lini. I only have a Blessing of Erastil in my B cards.

Boon: 1d20 ⇒ 13

Grazzle probably won't take an upgrade.

If no one is taking the blessing i'll take it.

boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 9

Valeros won't take an upgrade.

As noted, my preference is to try another scenario and then come back to the siege one, but I'm also happy to do the siege one again if that's the consensus.

Btw, the cards I got during the scenario, like Nefti the Bard, and Blessing of Elements from Sun Falcon, those were only for this scenario, right?

Valeros won't take an upgrade.

As noted, my preference is to try another scenario and then come back to the siege one, but I'm also happy to do the siege one again if that's the consensus.

I don't think there's been consensus. Grazzle has stated an interest to replay, you've stated an interest to continue. I can't find any other conclusive statement, so it's still split.

Btw, the cards I got during the scenario, like Nefti the Bard, and Blessing of Elements from Sun Falcon, those were only for this scenario, right?

They count as acquired cards; but good catch! I missed Nefti the Bard, so there's also an Ally B on offer for a card upgrade if someone wants.

I personally dislike sieges. They are constant combat in a set filled with damage sources we are not set up to stop.

Stick together? punished.
Split up? Punished.
Roll low? You fail, Punished.
Roll high? Too high. Punished.

But we have to beat it before the next tier. My vote is to leave it to last so that we are better prepared to face it but I'll go with the majority.

Yeah, let's do that then. Move on to the next one and more normalcy. ;)

Anyway, I'll see if I can get the text and locations for next scenario set up before I have to head to work.

Boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 7

I'm not gonna take an upgrade this time. I'll post all the pre-game stuff in the game play thread.

REWARD SUMMARY -- SCENARIO 3-2A: RAID ON THE WAREHOUSE (Scenario Reward not earned)

AAUGHWHY // Darago - (None)
Abraham Z. // Valeros - (None)
khazkhaz // Damiel - Blessing B
bigguyinblack // Lini - (None)
GM Andrew // Grazzle - (None)

Notifying the party of a resource I've made (or modified, more accurately), if you want to use it.

I've created a "Party Sheet" or "Party Deck Handler" for us, based on a spreadsheet originally built by Maelwys0, a player on another table I'm a part of. It imports data from each of our Deck Handlers so, with one sheet, we can see everyone's notes, hands and deck sizes.

This is purely a convenience sheet; you may ignore it or refer to it as you choose; this just saves you from having to scroll up and down a page to see what cards are in everybody's hands and what you have available to use on your checks. It'll also automatically highlight Blessings that the party have.

Let me know if it's helpful to any of you, and if you'd like me to add in any more features or highlighting rules! If anyone thinks they'll want to refer to it actively, I can put it in the campaign header as its own link, or I can add it as a new tab of the Loot spreadsheet.

This is really helpful - thanks!

boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 2

Skill feat will be +1 to wisdom.

The only upgrade from all of that that I can really use is Blessing 1 so hoping to get that.

No interest in the loot. And I'll pick my trader after we know more about the next scenario.

boon boon booooooon: 1d20 ⇒ 2

3-2B BR Boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 7

Boon: 1d20 ⇒ 13

Skill Feat: +1 Wisdom
Taking Reward (I don't have use for the Natron Fang though)

First Choice: Blessing 2 1d1000 ⇒ 430
Second Choice: Armor 2 1d1000 ⇒ 547
Third Choice: Blessing B 1d1000 ⇒ 50

Boon: 1d20 ⇒ 5

Skill Feat: Intelligence+1

Deck Upgrade: Blessing 2 (but literally only to increase trading fodder: Pharasma B => Pharasma 2. Feel free to take it if you have a better use.)

I'll post all this and trader choices in gameplay once the next scenario goes up.

1d20 ⇒ 12

Taking an Inteligence +1 skill feat

1 Item 2: 1d1000 ⇒ 96
2 Weapon 2: 1d1000 ⇒ 517
3 Blessing 2: 1d1000 ⇒ 519

Skill feat: +1 STR

Deck upgrade: Ally 2