Adventure Path Reign of Winter

Game Master Almonihah

I'm sorry.

That's always hard.

I'm sorry. As Kal said, that is hard.

Damn…sorry Maka, that sucks. Thoughts and prayers are with you…

That is rough, yes. Take all the time you need, don't worry about us.

Indeed. Losing a dog is terrible. Been through it a few times myself. Take your time.

Thanks everyone.

Sorry to hear Maka.

Greetings assorted people.

I'm taking tomorrow off and heading to visit my Mom. Her internet is spotty at best so I likely won't post until Monday.

Please bot me if necessary.

I should be getting back into the regular swing of things now, thanks for everyone's patience.

I finally dug into Baluder's Gate 3 and wow Karlach is basically a Barbarian version of Maka.

Got an idea for how to tackle the headless horsemen’s camp, came to me when Quasit mentioned approaching the camp using the temple as cover…

The temple has that tower that some undead snipers were firing at us from when we got bushwhacked by the robotic tanks earlier; I killed one but I think there were others. When we go thru the temple, we could go up the tower, take out any snipers that might be left, and then Fin could snipe at the horsemen that are arrayed just inside the gate to their camp. Since I’m firing a bow, there won’t be a lot of noise and that might keep the tower guards from being alerted. That should draw the horsemen’s attention and lure them into the temple ruins where the rest of you would be awaiting in ambush…since we’d be fighting inside the temple ruins then, that might keep the rest of the camp from being alerted…

How does that sound? Any other ideas?

That could work. The other ones we killed didn't have any horns or other alarm devices, and there don't seem to be any captains that they would run off to to report any irregularities. Can headless people report anything? If nothing else, clearing a sniper nest is probably worth it for its own sake.

Let's do it!

Getting off work now; I’ll post when I get home…

Hi guys. I know it seems like I never work, but I totally do...

Except I'm taking Monday off to go view the eclipse.

I may post this weekend but probably won't on Monday.

Careful with traffic if you're going to be in Texas. It's expected to be insane.

GM, I think I had a wrong idea about the physical layout of this sniper tower. I'd imagined it was like the other towers, a fenced platform, x feet in the air, open to its surroundings from about waist height up, with a roof and accessed by a ladder. Clearly it is different since we are going up stairs and the snipers are shooting through holes. Could we get more of a description of the sniper tower? If Maka and Chest Thumper can't access the snipers from the outside, it doesn't make a lot of sense to send them up the outside -- they'd be better off just following Findurel up the stairs.

I should have brought it up earlier, sorry. This is the tower of the ruined Eastern Orthodox monastery at the center of the camp, so it has one of those 'onion domes' on the top. It's partly ruined and has cracks in it, but it functions basically like an enclosed tower with arrow slits.

Ok, then Maka and Chest Thumper should just come up the steps with Fin and Q. Might be better that way anyway, less fire storms visible to the rest of the camp.

Careful with traffic if you're going to be in Texas. It's expected to be insane.

It actually wasn't bad at all.

I think the doomsayers forgot that people could literally see it from anywhere outside so travelling to any one place was not a big deal.

We also went to the arboretum, which opened at...I don't even know how early...like it does every day so people were literally showing up and leaving over 4 hour periods each way, rather than everyone getting there at once and everyone leaving at once.

It wasn't like "the Eclipse is showing at ATT Stadium at 1:42 so traffic will be crazy."

Esclipse was cool. Wish I had my android to try for better pictures, but oh well.

Life is crazy at the moment, I'm sure you have noticed. Might get better soon, or might get worse soon. Not sure yet.

Sakitu wasn't in the tower so she wouldn't have heard Fin talking to her.

Ulp! Good point, my bad…

I just know that Sakitu's so much on your mind that even when she's not physically present, you still think she's there.

Been thinking on what exactly this second part of Miroslav is…been confused because it appeared all of his corporeal ‘parts’ were at the first location…but when the goat showed up, it brought up a memory and got me thinking maybe it’s a non-corporeal part that’s missing?

When I was playing DnD (5e), I recall coming across an item called a Ghost Lantern; it held the spirit of a person and that spirit was bound to it (till freed by a spell, I think). However, I don’t recall it emanating fear and I’ve never came across it in Pathfinder so I may be off-base here…but we might not want to keep encasing the goat in ice, might be worth a shot for one of our casters to see if they can ID the lantern? Just a thought…

Fin, a similar thought occurred to me, that Miroslav's soul might be the missing part.

Since all heck is about to break loose in the camp, I think we should:

(a) Kill the Glow Goat and see if anything Victor-related occurs.

(b )If that works, Quasit and Findurel go stealth and bring the body to the tombstone fairy by stealth through the camp. Everyone else bamfs back to the Hut and we call it a night.

(c) Hopefully Victor gives us more info on disabling the machine, then after a rest (probably tomorrow night) we come back, take down the towers and turn off the machine --> Profit!

I get the feeling we're supposed to be looking for Anastasia too, but I have a feeling that we're going to be dodging bullets a lot here, so it might be just as well if she doesn't turn up immediately.

That sounds good to me, Q…

Status update
HP: 66/66
Spells; -/3/4/4/3/3/2
of;-/5/5/5/4/4/2
A Pool; 4 (5/8)

I think this is correct, let me know if I’m missing something. I really need to make a habit of posting status every post, especially during combat.

HEY GM,
A) was Selena able to learn Remove Curse from those scrolls Tez has? I know I missed it at the time, but she’d absolutely learn it and replace Tez’s scroll if given the chance.
B) I presume it has been more than 12 minutes since we fought the jacket headed creature, correct?

Yes, Selena would have been able to learn Remove Curse.

You've taken some time searching the building with the ghosts in it, so it's been more than twelve minutes since then, yes.

Who’s actually up right now?

I'm not sure. My cruise wi-fi doesn't let me see Discord so I haven't seen if anyone has posted something there with this info.

I've made a couple RP posts but I don't think I've taken any real actions. But it doesn't look like anyone other Bulvi has either.

From what I can tell, everyone has posted…but action-wise, Fin made a double-move, Bull moved and went total defense, Maka attacked, and Kal attacked…Selena mentioned an action but not sure if she followed thru as Quasit wanted her to stay close so we could teleport out more readily (which is much more prudent in my eyes as well since things can turn quickly in this camp as we’ve already found out)…

How’s the cruise going, Saki?

We’re sorta stuck until the undead goat breaks out of the dome.

The cruise is going well. It's the last stop today (Ensenada, Mexico). Tomorrow we get back to Long Beach then fly home. Leaving sunny Mexico and going to rainy Portland will probably require an adjustment.

There's still the troop of soldiers in the trench shooting at you.

Thanks, GM…looks like Kal is lighting ‘em up in the current round and if they’re still standing, I'll fire a volley at ‘em next round…so I’m guessing that’s it for us this round and the troops from the trench will fire at us this round before we can all go again?

I can also drop a Shadow Evocation fireball or something if I still have actions and the guys are still up.

I think you still can Saki, sounds like a good idea.,,

That troop hasn't been hit yet, it'll take more than a single spell to take them down.

Sorry, GM, I’m a little confused. Which troops are we talking about? I was thinking it was the nearest ones in the trenches east of us…and I thought that was the trench Kal targeted with the fire storm he cast in our current round? But it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve misread things ;)

Kal targetted them with a firestorm, yes, but that's the only thing that's been aimed at them, so I'm saying they're definitely still alive if Sakitu wants to add in a spell this round.

Duh, my bad, GM, haven’t had my coffee yet this morning. ☕️ As I said, not the first time I’ve misread things, thanks for clarifying…

Since this is a world without magic, it seems like they should automatically miss the Will save on any Shadow Evocation spell. ;)

I suppose if we wanted to properly kill this nasty goat, we should have led him to a gravel pit first.

Well, things have gone downhill for me. I will try to check in but I’m likely to have even fewer opportunities. If any of you know of an angel investor, I could really use one right now.

Also, no more access to discord for me.

Oh no! :( I hope you do get a break.

In my mind, the Hut is currently east of the camp, and the treeline runs basically north to south along the edge of the open ground between us and them. The idea of 'moving north' was to stay in the trees but get some distance between us and the Hut so we'd have a safe place to observe. And be ambushed by Goldilocks at. We were safer in the camp!

Maybe I’ve got things a bit mixed up…when the GM posted this:

Also, it's going to be awfully hard to lead anyone around behind the approaching group--the Hut is right at the edge of the "No-Man's Land" of cleared area around the camp, and they're approaching from the camp, so there's only twenty or thirty feet of forest cover before you're in open land that would be hard to find anything to hide in for those without special stealth abilities..

…I assumed getting behind them would be problematic. I’m having a little trouble visualizing; GM, I don’t suppose there’s a map showing the terrain between the camp and the hut?

Ulp, big brain fart, upon reread, I think I gotcha now, Q…my bad, I’m directionally challenged and perhaps my reading comprehension is lacking…ignore my post and we’ll proceed north to observe, not to encircle…

Okay, it wasn't going to be much of a map, so I'm just as glad not to draw it. XD Basically it would have been a line and two boxes, one for the Hut and one for roughly where the enemies were coming from.

GM, is there any sign of the headless Cossack leader?

Scratch that, GM, don’t see how I missed him…

Goldilocks and her pets are still about…do we just wanna wait ’em out, Q?

GM, the time is fast approaching when Quasit will need to turn off the machine with 4 Disable Device checks. I have a few mechanical questions about the process.

--My understanding is that at this point Quasit has a +15 bonus to her checks, thanks to finding the blueprints and talking to Victor. Is that accurate?
--Can someone else with Disable Device assist Quasit for an additional +2?
--Since we need to turn off all 4 machines in one hour, taking 20 isn't really an option, but would it be possible to take 10 on the checks?
--As a rogue, Quasit has a +7 bonus when disabling traps. Would that be applicable for disabling the machine as well, since it will blow up like a trap on a failed check?

I'm probably overthinking this, but I just want to cover my bases.

Fin has +10 on Disable so he should be able to auto-assist you for +2…