AP #67-72 - Reign of Winter: Misfits Unchained (Inactive)

Game Master Wilmannator

Pardon me, but ...

Playing on my phone at work has some serious limitations, and I have been busier than normal the last few nights. Hence I have missed a part here or there, glossed over a bit at times. I felt like I was keeping pace a bit, if slower than others. Love the thread blasting but hate the catch up. We know how it goes.

So anywho ... We are NOT full f#~%ing stop - going to try and take on the dragon.

That is all.

Please carry on with some of our best role-play in months.

Glad you're enjoying the roleplay. It's taking quite a bit of my time (clearly) but it's been very rewarding. I, for one, am happy for you boys to keep the thread blasting. Just glad I've got enough spare time to more-or-less keep up for now.

Amused to read that you're not for facing the dragon right now. You may not have a choice... :-P

Regardless of what happens here, you will all be able to go back to your respective plot lines (or follow new ones) as appropriate once we're through. Just wanted to let you know that we won't be leaving things unresolved.

Holy crap. I hope we get to leve a couple of timesl before taking that on. As if the trolls were not bad enough

Holy crap. I hope we get to leve a couple of timesl before taking that on. As if the trolls were not bad enough

Yea, I may have pooped my pants when I read through that bestiary entry.

Was trying to do some brainstorming tonight. I asked myself, "Self? What would be my ultimate wish list for fighting that dragon?"

A couple of obvious ones came immediately to mind.

• potion/scroll of resist energy (a 7th level casting gives resist cold 20 instead of resist cold 10)
• potion/scroll of protection from energy (minimum of 60 points of cold absorption)
• FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!!

So I was also thinking about what we could do to raise our AC. Then I really started thinking about it, and that thing has a + freaking 20 to its bite attack. +20. As in, even if one of us were to somehow get our AC up to 30, it would still have a 50/50 chance to hit us. With its main attack. Not to mention the other seventeen attacks it has.

Holy balls.

Then I realized, increasing AC isn't the answer. We have to make it have a miss chance, and we have to make it so that it can't just stand there and unleash unholy hell on us. So this made me think of things like:

• potion/scroll of displacement
• potion/scroll of blur
• potion/scroll of mirror image
• potion/scroll of invis or greater invis

There is no way we get through that fight without a death unless we scheme and plan and stick to the plan. Even then we might not make it.

Anyone else excited? Muwaaahahahahahaha!!!!

On a serious note, I don't think this is impossible. IMQiS basically can't miss with his bombs. The dragon is smart enough to figure this out, and so we need to keep the little goblin alive.

I can give everyone the outflank ability for 3 rounds, which gives you a +4 to attack when flanking instead of +2. Combined with my judgements, I can give myself almost a 50/50 shot of hitting him, though obviously putting myself in peril since he almost can't miss me. With at least Aoife and Ishbaad hacking at him, and Jorvik either shooting or melee attacking, we have some potential to put on the hurt. Kuragin is a complete wild card, and could help in so many ways between buffing and debuffing.

We can do this. WE CAN DO THIS!!!!

:)

Anyone else have any more ideas? If we can keep him moving somehow, it will limit his physical attacks.

Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight will probably use all of his level 2 extracts for resist energy -- that would give him four. Can't cover everyone, and currently only level five, of course. Gonna hurt fighting him.

It is the physical attacks that are going to be worse, though. A full round attack and any of us are dead. We will need a misfortune hex on him, that does not go away until he dies. Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight can lob bombs, but I would guess his average of 16.5 fire damage per round if he always hits (24 with vulnerability)... That would take him 7 rounds to kill the dragon.... Of course, he'll have help, but he needs to not be threatened. At he dragon's attack bonuses, it won't miss any of us very often (so maybe the hex won't help as much as we'd like).

I love how much you guys are now thinking about prep - and how much you're pooping your pants.

First up... definitely see Solveig again before making too many plans / buying anything. She's got some goodies for you (which was one of her tasks for today).

Secondly, you will be leveling up prior to the tower raid. I had you deliberately low level in the Howlings, but upon reviewing the clocktower encounters, you really do need to be level 6 (and very well prepared) if you are to do it all in one hit.

Thirdly, I really wanted this dragon fight to feel special. Think back to the old days of D&D (those of you who played). Think about how much harder it was to face a dragon back then. Appropriate CR encounters? Pfft. What's that? You had to research the thing, gear up appropriately and set out to hunt it if you wanted to stand a chance. Also, I'm about to reveal some tactical details on his lair's layout that should help.

Oh, and since there's no combat encounter of significance between now and then... please level up to 6. Think of it as a reward that was long overdue rather than a rushed level up so soon after the last one. :-)

Oh, and since there's no combat encounter of significance between now and then... please level up to 6. Think of it as a reward that was long overdue rather than a rushed level up so soon after the last one. :-)

That is AMAZING! :0

I AM DRAGON BANE!

and really excited :) awesome!

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ugh, really busy at work today, and so much happening on the games.

But, LEVEL-UP, SWEET!! Can Kuragin take the Winter Witch prestige class? He should qualify for it now.

As for fighting the dragon, I'll need to plan how Kuragin could help. He cannot cast fire spells, so damage-dealing is out of the question. Buffing the others with resist energy (cold) should help at least.

Misfortune would be nice, but the dragon would need to fail will save. (And the dragon hits even with low rolls). Evil eye helps a little, although the dragon's attack bonus is too great for any game-changing benefit. So I'll need to study the spell lists :)

Main thing would be to prevent it from full attacking, and getting us all under it's breath weapon.

Ok - Chris is busy at work, but had some questions he didn't want to have to wait to ask, so he texted me.

• Curious about the mechanical man/soldier in ice thing.
• Where exactly is the singing taldan voice coming from? (this floor? closed room on floor below?)
• At this moment, how long has dragon been gone? (He just wants to get a sense for how much time he might have)

Side note, the impression I got from the mechanical dude in ice was THIS and THIS - the little mechanical things that come around as part of the clock mechanism. Took me forever to find pictures online that showed what I was thinking. If that is right, hopefully everyone gets a visual of that now - I picture that most of this area is busted up and cleared out to make space for the magnificent pile of treasure and the dragon's space, but the majority of the clock mechanisms work.

Main thing would be to prevent it from full attacking, and getting us all under it's breath weapon.

I am with you 100% on this Kuragin. And I LOVE the idea of you becoming a winter witch at this point in the story. It feels so synergistic and appropriate. Kuragin returns home, just in time to realize his latent winter powers. Perhaps they were always there, and he unknowingly delayed them from manifesting because he ran to the southlands? No matter what it is, I just really like the timing. Feels awesome.

As far as when the dragon does attack, I still think our best option is something like mirror image. It would hopefully buy us a couple of rounds of missing with its attacks and hitting images instead. It wouldn't last the whole fight, it would just be to buy us some time to hurt it before it starts skewering us.

With the level up to 6, Ishbaad can put out some damage. IF I can get a buff or two off, (which is the goal of this whole recon scene) Ishbaad can have flames of the faithful on his weapon, and be able to do 2d6+19 + 2d6 from bane + 1d6 fire - Average damage on that is about 35 damage (taking into account the fire vulnerability).

With the right judgements and being able to flank, I can give myself about a 50/50 shot to hit. So a fortune hex would be incredibly valuable there. Fortune Hex could also be awesome for Aoife or Jorvik as well, but I am not as familiar with what they can put out. In my opinion, because it is so easy for the dragon to hit anyways, a fortune hex on at least one of us would be better than a misfortune hex on the dragon. Increasing our chances to hit just means we can bring him down faster.

The full out, blow my wad list of buffs I could do without anything extra we will still have access to:

• Wrath (spell)
• flames of the faithful (spell - could cast it on multiple weapons)
• Judgement of Justice w/ Judgement surge
• Dragon Bane
• Cavalier's challenge
• Protection from Evil (spell - could cast it on multiple people)
• shield of faith (spell - could also cast it on multiple people)
• Touch of Resolve (will use on everybody, lasts 10 minutes, +4 vs fear)

I think that is most everything...

But, LEVEL-UP, SWEET!! Can Kuragin take the Winter Witch prestige class? He should qualify for it now.

For sure (I take it you can learn easily enough before the 'real' level up a 3rd level spell with the cold descriptor... I will also allow you to switch out 'stinking cloud' if you like). I had always assumed that would be the class you would take eventually.

• Curious about the mechanical man/soldier in ice thing

It is exactly as per your musings (and those links are great!). The railings are for it to come out on every hour when the clocks chime (the chime has been turned off). The chain that would normally pull it along has been broken and / or frozen in place. The soldier itself is solid brass and - despite being well made - unremarkable.

• Where exactly is the singing taldan voice coming from? (this floor? closed room on floor below?)

From the closed room on the 3rd floor.

• At this moment, how long has dragon been gone? (He just wants to get a sense for how much time he might have)

Roughly 1 minute.

Ok - I am having nerd overload between Cyrus and Ishbaad right now.

On this level up, Ishbaad can dump an existing level 1 spell and replace it.

I think what I want to do is this.

Dump ear piercing scream for compel hostility. compel hostility is an RP appropriate spell that I could use as an immediate action to make someone attack me instead of one of you. (albeit) after getting through spell resistance and a will save)

Then I would pick up weapon of awe as my new 2nd level spell.

However, an alternative I considered was to dump protection from evil and pick up something like cure light wounds, or could still go with compel hostility - while also picking up protection from evil (communal) as my second level spell.

A third alternative would be cure moderate wounds as a second level spell.

I am leaning heavily towards the first option. I could be convinced of one of the other options, and would love to hear your opinion, or alternatively hear if you don't care - ;)

Exciting. I started a tab in the loot spreadsheet last night for how to kill the dragon. Didn't get close to putting anything of substance on it.

Will have to check out level 4 ranger abilities but I know heafoc becomes a full HD animal companion. Doesn't do much but we'll see.

Quick confession, I have not read a single of Aofie's/Ice's posts in the tower. Not for any malicious reasons - you know I love your posts Aofie & Ice, but because I didn't want it to cloud my player/character knowledge. Is this a mistake? i.e. should I read them?

You are missing out on some great stuff, so I recommend reading them at some point. Otherwise, no, I don't think so. I think it's cool you as the player don't know anything, though there might be some context that you would need GM damo for. Ie, nothing seems out of order except for the explosion and the Dragon going to investigate. That was the theme ishbaad was trying to focus on, nothing seems wrong, so going in now might actually make things go wrong, instead of helping.

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Jorvik, I wouldn't beat yourself up or anything for not reading the posts.

However, it is exceedingly relevant information. I'm assuming Aoife at some point will reveal all... and having read the posts will make that easier (it would be wasteful for Chris to just re-type it all).

That said, I am aware there is an awful lot to read. Just make sure you're prepared when it comes time to face the dragon!

To that end, I'm going to let you know now what Solveig gives you (just in case it's a little while before it actually happens in game). To aid in your quest to slay the dragon, she has managed to obtain the following items (mostly via donation) from her friends in the Heralds of Summer's Return:

• Potions of resist cold x 5
  
• Potions of protection from cold (CL 8th) x 5
  
• Wand of Ray of Enfeeblement, CL 6th (7 charges) x 1
  
• Dragon bile poison x 1
  
• Wand of cure moderate wounds (50 charges) x 1
  
• Oils of greater magic weapon x 2
  
• Alchemist's fire x 6
  
• Tanglefoot bag
  
• Potion of fly x 2
  
• Lesser talisman of beneficial winds x 3
  
• Potion of spider climb x 1
  
• Elixirs of hiding x 2
  
• Potions of invisibility x 3

I'm so riveted... Did not see that coming.

Aaahhhh!

-Posted with Wayfinder

Glad you like it. The "boo" was a bit out of character, but it was a private joke with Chris, that one. ;-)

Added a Portraits page for putting things in so that it doesn't mess with the tactical. Enjoy!

Glad you like it. The "boo" was a bit out of character, but it was a private joke with Chris, that one. ;-)

I was still very surprised too!

My heart is literally racing. Wow. Just wow.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Sweet! That was great fun. Thanks everyone for indulging Aoife and myself through that whole exchange and stealth mission. I had a great time and sorry if I forced the game to be about Aoife too much there.

We're all good. The next portion involves Aoife very little, unfortunately. She's the only one without contacts to talk to in the city...

... oh, and Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight just sent his to their deaths. :-)

I'm 100% cool with Aoife taking a back seat. Also, Aoife is now updated to level 6 (she took a 2nd level of ninja).

1 unchained barbarian(brutal pugilist) / 2 brawler(strangler) / 1 unchained monk(martial artist) / 2 ninja... what the hell am I doing with this character :)

Ishbaad: When I've done my analysis, Divine Favor almost always comes out ahead of Weapon of Wrath. By a reasonably large margin. Gets +2/+2 instead of +0/+2 (right now), though only for a minute. The shaken effect is pretty lame, really.

Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight hasn't realized the repercussions of his actions, yet. He'll feel a little sorry for them, but in the end, he feels he saved Aoife, so it is probably worth it. The only problem is that they cannot be used later.

However, Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight will still want to go see if he can find his mother...

Working on his leveling...

For his free extracts, he'll be taking and Alchemical Allocation. (the latter allows him to spit a potion back when drinking it... saving the potion). I will probably want to do some "shopping" for alchemical formula, but I am unsure how that would work here.

He picked up the Enhance Potion discovery, which will enable him, INT bonus times per day, to drink a potion, and get its effect as if he was casting the spell himself (for caster level, etc). He's going to be getting a lot more potions brewing! There is pretty amazing synergy with this discovery and Alchemical Allocation!

GM Damo, just let me know when a night has passed.... if any

Each night he will brew a potion of Resist Energy (costing 200gp). He'll keep doing this until he has enough for everyone (including three resist energy extracts).

I'll dig deeper into your suggestion... That's exactly why I post that here! Thanks!

Also, maybe save your brewing efforts on resist energy, we are going to get some of those from the heralds as gifts.

Also, I keep forgetting to ask. Early in this game the conversation came up about ishbaad and enlarge person. We talked about Ishbaad not being able to use them because he is a native outsider, not a humanoid, and Damo gave me the option of mimicking the aasimar trait that lets them be more humanoid than outsider. I think that conversation died before I made a decision, and I forgot about it because it didn't come up, but I know I was leaning towards the humanoid option. It fit with my idea that ishbaad was part giant... Or at least believed he was.

I just want to make sure that is still ok to officially accept that, and see if there was anything I was supposed to give up for it.

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Thought you already had accepted it. Fine by me.

Updated

updated

I couldn't remember, and couldn't find it in the posts. I knew I wanted to, mostly just wanted to make sure we were on the same page with it. All the confusion was in my own head then. Carry on! :)

-Posted with Wayfinder

updated

Oh, and Heafoc all of a sudden becomes a very beefy bird. Nice!

Personal dream of mine... Heafoc takes to the skies to chase down a badly wounded Logrivich... and lands the killing blow.

"Caw!"

I couldn't remember, and couldn't find it in the posts. I knew I wanted to, mostly just wanted to make sure we were on the same page with it. All the confusion was in my own head then. Carry on! :)

-Posted with Wayfinder

We probably PMed about it. Gmail search: yet another reason why I'd be happy to never PM on this site again. Google search: why a post is superior to a PM also.

Heafoc wrote:

updated

Oh, and Heafoc all of a sudden becomes a very beefy bird. Nice!

Personal dream of mine... Heafoc takes to the skies to chase down a badly wounded Logrivich... and lands the killing blow.

"Caw!"

You and I share that vision - yeah Boon Companion!!

Level 4 for me in Ranger is a dead level for ranger abilities, except for Heafoc becoming Full HD in stead of 1/2 hp per HD.

So she is 8 HP per, and was only getting 1/2 hp or 2 hp+con, and now she is 4 hp+con per level.

And nice attacks to boot.

Beak: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27
Bite Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Talon #1: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14
Talon Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Talon #2: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10
Talon Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Also, I keep forgetting to ask. Early in this game the conversation came up about ishbaad and enlarge person. We talked about Ishbaad not being able to use them because he is a native outsider, not a humanoid, and Damo gave me the option of mimicking the aasimar trait that lets them be more humanoid than outsider. I think that conversation died before I made a decision, and I forgot about it because it didn't come up, but I know I was leaning towards the humanoid option. It fit with my idea that ishbaad was part giant... Or at least believed he was.

There's already a similar trait for oreads:

Mostly Human: A few oreads have appearances much closer to those of their human ancestors; in fact, they may not even realize their true race. Such geniekin appear to be human, save perhaps minor features like unusual eye color, and they count as humanoid (human) as well as outsider (native) for all purposes (such as humanoid-affecting spells such as charm person or enlarge person). These geniekin do not automatically gain their associated elemental language (but may select it as a bonus language if their Intelligence is high enough). This ability alters the geniekin's type, subtype, and languages

I think it came in Inner Sea Races, so probably it wasn't around when Ishbaad was looking into it...

Nice to have a bit of a break over the weekend. I was thinking you guys could lead the discussion, but I've realized it's mostly waiting to head back out and do your respective things. There's a bit to discuss first, though, and I'll try to get that post up early this morning (in the next hour).

It's a complicated one...

Read the gameplay thread first.

Well, you don't really need to...

... but minor spoilers to follow as my fanboy comes out!

So! Yeah. A priest's lesbian lover rescued from a tower where children are butchered and fed to trolls. I f~%$ing love how not PG13 Paizo has decided to be at times. Great stuff. I swear that whole situation was 100% the adventure. The reunion scene? Well... a man has dreams.

Back on the tower... man, this whole book of the adventure is filled with content that is almost absurdly disturbing - and you guys aren't even getting the backstories that I've got in here. Please do let me know if it gets too much. I was going to include something in Aoife's scene that was... obscene. However, I did realize that no self-respecting hero would allow <what I had planned> to just happen (even if it meant their life) - so I held back.

You'd better believe it's happening when you raid the tower, though!

Okay, time for some planning (to help me with my next raft of posts when you split up).

We still have the following open threads:

• Jorvik's friend in the Iron Guard (enlisting their help in rebelling against the Winter Guard).
  
• Kuragin's friend at the Cocoa Pot (catching up, perhaps enlisting his help, discovering why Pavel counts him as a betrayer).
  
• Plan for assaulting the tower. The tactical now has all the floors on it at once, with all the areas Aoife has explored revealed. I've annotated it. Bella tells you that the children are somewhere behind the doors as marked (but she's never been inside them, the children were brought up to her room when she needed to sing for them).
  
• Magic item round-up... 3 days to get all the gear created... and for you to buy anything else you'll need.

There are other threads you could open up also (eg. other things you could plan for).

When you post next, please let me know [ooc] where your character is going to go / what they are going to do next (after you leave the shrine). That will help me with planning and where to 'push' you guys after this encounter.

Heh, Paizo seems to have a thing for female priests. IIRC, Kyra is also favouring ladies. I just wonder would the relationship be as well received if they were both men, instead..?

Kuragin already has lvl3 cold-descriptor spell: Ice spears. It was in a scroll somewhere (perhaps the tower). But I cannot remember what happened to the other Remove curse scroll... Did we use it on something? The first went to removing the curse on Aoife. But the second? Did we need it on Taavi? I couldn't find it in the loot sheet... But if we do have it, I'd have Kuragin learning it, and take another level-up spell instead. If that's acceptable by GM, of course.

Sorry for Aoife's sort of "temper tantrum", I was trying to figure out how she'd react to Jorvik's post if she thought she had actually done good. Also, I figure this is a good way to put her fully in the background for a bit.

@ Jorvik: I hope Aoife response doesn't come off as too harsh. It was intended only for RP between the Aoife and Jorvik, to add a little friction for a bit. Sorry I had her "freak out" on you :)

I just wonder would the relationship be as well received if they were both men, instead..?

No, it would not. You've met your fellow roleplayers, right? ;-)

It brings me back to the Kingmaker campaign where I decided to make my character (for reasons best left off the forums) bisexual. There were some very awkward roleplaying moments, but my GM (and fellow players) did a sterling job of keeping it... well, as tasteful as it could be.

You had the remove curse scroll. Saving it for just this purpose (ie. learning it). So yes, please do take another spell. I didn't see ice spears on your character sheet yet, so I was wondering about that. That will certainly qualify you for the prestige class.

@Aoife: Love it. I think we've played together long enough to separate player opinions from PC posts.

Sorry for Aoife's sort of "temper tantrum", I was trying to figure out how she'd react to Jorvik's post if she thought she had actually done good. Also, I figure this is a good way to put her fully in the background for a bit.

@ Jorvik: I hope Aoife response doesn't come off as too harsh. It was intended only for RP between the Aoife and Jorvik, to add a little friction for a bit. Sorry I had her "freak out" on you :)

I thought it was perfect.

Not to stray off topic, though I am. In Merchant's Wake that I ran for you the merchant was male and gay. Also in some of the Dave Gross Radovan and Count series, there is an important male + male relationship.

(Paizo) Pathfinder has no fear of including it in their material.

Oh, cool. By the by, I said (mostly jokingly) that it would not be as well received, not that they would never included it. Nice to see that Paizo (seemingly) has no bias. ;-)

FYI... on Jorvik's post about fighting the dragon elsewhere...

I've been looking at his lair. Other than the advantage that it is high up in the sky, it's not a great place for a dragon to be. Loads of hard cover and spaces that you can fit through but he can't (the spaces to allow for the clockwork soldier on the rails). If you get your ranged attacks in... it's actually not the worst place to be. Add to that, there's only a small trapdoor through which potential reinforcements could come in and it could well be a great place to fight.

I don't want to influence you too much, but just thought I'd add that in.

Oh, and you may have noted some loot to help with the "working at heights" advantage Logrivich has.

It's been a while, and there's a lot to digest (not to mention what's going on in the Drongos game!) so I'm going to wait for posts from Ishbaad and Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight to post before moving on. You others, feel free to post more. I'll push forwards tomorrow morning regardless.

Just got mine up. Lots to digest today.

Still really looking forward to this. I'm glad we had some time off this weekend too, it felt appropriate after that incredible tower scene, and what a crazy awesome way to finish it.

It felt like reading a novel, I was on the edge of my seat. The daring rescue, the mad dash in the chaos with the perfectly timed goblin distraction....

It was awesome. Gotta let the adrenaline die down and build back up again gradually.