Adventure Path Reign of Winter

Game Master Almonihah

Yeah, I’m thinking the tower soldiers have something like 60+ apiece and the trench soldier swarms around 150+…

Well they are Russian WWI soldiers and they aren't dead so I'm guessing they've been through some shit.

They also probably have some plot Stats. Plain ol' soldiers would present literally no challenge or threat to us at this level, so these have to be tougher.

BTW, do all Adventure Paths have a part where you have to deal with an enemy army encampment? This is my second one and the first one I played had 2 in it.

Not *every* adventure path, no. These soldiers are supposed to be veterans of the Eastern front--there's actually a note that, after the horrors of WWI, having to fight Baba Yaga's Hut takes only a small amount of mind control to make them shrug and figure it's just another day in the trenches. They are level 6 fighters with a special archetype, if you're curious. The troops work like modified swarms, so they did take extra damage for the 'area damage' of going through the destroyed wall.

Checking in before continuing--is everyone having fun? The camp is supposed to be a difficult nut to crack, with opposition that reacts to you and tries to counter your tactics (and knows exactly what your goal is before you even do), but it's not supposed to be impossible. Are you feeling like it's been the right level of challenge?

Aye, GM, no complaints here, you’re doing a great job running the camp; I am enjoying this ‘puzzle’. Indeed, it’s tough to crack, but considering it’s an armed camp run by Rasputin, I’d expect no less; it’s proving a very worthy challenge to us as we’re constantly having to adapt…

Yes, I'm enjoying it. I'm a fan of whittling things down, so that's been nice. I don't always like the escaping by the skin of our teeth part in the moment, but afterwards, that's a nice feeling, too.

I'm still enjoying myself. It's been nice and thrilling with all the anxiety about the danger for the party.

How are you doing? This honestly seems like a bit of a nightmare to run with all the moving pieces. Like, one more bullet on the pile and this would need to use Mass Combat rules.

When a GM asks for feedback, I think a detailed answer is called for, so forgive me if I ramble a bit.

First off, there is no harder sort of module for any Pathfinder GM than the 'Sandbox' adventure. It's really hard to maintain any sort of narrative storytelling when as the GM you are letting the players have all the initiative to dig around and proceed however they want. And it can be really easy for players to get sidetracked or lost or bored or frustrated, because it forces them to really test the limits of their group dynamic in terms of planning and reacting to the situations they find themselves in as they poke their way through the sand. Or just plain not knowing what to do next.

Kalchine's player and I were together in a different AP that was very successful and had some marvelous roleplaying and really seemed like a safe bet to stay alive, but we hit a sandbox module where we needed to take down an armed camp (I think he may already have referenced this) and the whole thing just fell apart. The GM lost the thread or at least seemed to lose interest, we spun our wheels trying to figure out what we wanted to accomplish and taking the initiative to organize ourselves, and after a few weeks we all kinda figuratively looked at each other and decided that we weren't having fun any more, and just dropped it.

We are definitely not in that situation now. Partly I think our group dynamic is stronger and more cohesive and we've had more discreet goals and clearer bites at the apple. It helps that our group has a consensus about Quasit being the leader and setting up plans and agendas to accomplish. Which is not to say anything more than that having *any* of our characters being a clear leader helps in a less directed scenario like this.

To me it feels like the GM is providing very reasonable and realistic obstacles to our various forays into the camp. Our plans are not always panning out, and our repeated retreats are evidence that we are being tactically stymied from time to time simply because of the numbers of our opposition -- once our cover is blown and the camp is aware that we are there, things have quickly been getting too hot to remain, which is absolutely valid. And the fact that we are now on, I think, our fourth trip inside the compound, means that we have utterly lost the element of surprise and are now having to just chew through all the opponents. That also seems absolutely valid.

I think we're making concrete progress. I think we are winning. I think we're gonna get that machine turned off. And at that point, I think the sandbox fades away and we get into a last few final encounters culminating in a boss fight against Rasputin. I worry that we are going to blow so many resources getting to that point that we might have a hard time dealing with a guy who's apparently capable or throwing 8th and maybe even 9th level spells at us, but we won't have any options for recuperation or retreat at that point. That seems built into this scenario, no way we could have avoided that.

I've tried to imagine alternative paths we might have taken which might have been more efficient. I think right now we're paying for the decision not to engage that sally by the enemy to track us down at the Hut, maybe we should have engaged them there after all. But with depleted spells and with all their forces clumped together, that would have been a tough challenge to overcome, especially since the Chicken Hut buggered off instead of helping, as I'd kinda hoped it would. That is one of many moments where I guessed wrong about what would happen. But other than that instance, I think we've done this about as well as we could. We don't have a party with the skills to ninja our way from tower to tower, taking each down before they could fire a weapon or raise an alarm. I think if we'd had a cleric with lots of Silence spells, or if Sakitu could throw some Deep Slumber spells at all the towers as we get into them, we might have been more efficient in clearing the main surveillance forces we've been trying to overcome. C'est la vie.

I definitely feel like we've been messing around in this camp for a really long time. As a player I'm chafing for it to be over. But I don't feel that any of that has been avoidable or that it's the result of inexpert GMing or unfocused action on our part. It's just been a tough nut to crack.

As someone who's played Pathfinder for years, I was aware that his book of the AP involved Rasputin and encounters with World War I Russian soldiers, which was one of the reasons I was drawn to play this AP in the first place. What an amazing concept! I've enjoyed that the adventure has played with the legend of Rasputin, introduced us to the Romanovs, and allowed us sword and sorcery types to interact with early 20th century Earth technology and culture.

And as always, for me the most important aspect of the gameplay has been how the adventure fosters fertile opportunities for roleplaying. Typically we bloom in our 'downtime' between encounters or at the end of the day in game time, but this adventure has provided a lot of sparks to play with. Some rifts and tensions have popped up and had to be dealt with, Quasit has experienced moments of sheer panic, existential dread, loss of self-confidence, awkward ear tickling--I'm still fully engaged in her character arc and development, which is always my prime barometer for how things are going.

So, to summarize, the State of our Nation is GOOD. Keep calm and carry on.

Hmmm... it has been kinda heavy to run, lots to keep track of, but it's also fun to play a villain (well, villains) who's seriously working to counteract you instead of sitting in a room waiting for you to come.

I think the GM has done an excellent job. No time for an in depth answer at the moment though.

That said, I personally find sandbox easier to run, not harder.

In any case, my life is going topsy turvy again. Theoretically I’ll have more time for posting, but that’s after we get everything moved.

Hey GM, are Maka and Fin up for their first round actions?

Fin, Bulvi, Quasit, Kalchine, and Selena could all act before any enemy reacts to Maka shooting up into the air in an eye-catching display of pyrotechnics.

Roger that, GM…so this would be a surprise round then, a single action?

Nope, this is a normal round. The surprise round was Maka shooting up into the air.

Roger that, GM, thanks!

Does Deflect Arrows not work on the machine guns or was that just pellets shot from scatter weapons?

Deflect Arrows doesn't work on machine gun bursts, no, since they're representative of several bullets hitting you almost simultaneously.

Going on a Caribbean cruise for a week tomorrow; I’ll have the internet package and will check the thread morning and night so should be able to keep up with posting…

Woohoo! Which line? Where are you sailing from?

Woohoo! Which line? Where are you sailing from?

Royal Caribbean; we get pretty good perks there with their loyalty program. Hitting the Eastern Caribbean and we just left port. Fixing to head to dinner…

Caribbean cruise during hurricane season? It’s a bold strategy Cotton!

I’m jealous you have time for a vacation much less the money. Enjoy it. :)

Caribbean and hurricanes... I was thinking the same thing. Don't tell me, you got it at a huge discount! Selena, that's how he can afford it.

:-)

Actually you’re safer at sea when cruising than you are if you’re on land; the cruise ships are excellent at dodging hurricanes. This is our third straight October cruise and they all went great. Ian hit a couple of years ago while we were in the Caribbean; on the ship, you’d have never known there was a hurricane. They flip-flopped the itinerary and avoided the hurricane altogether; it was all sunshine and rainbows. However, Port Canaveral was hit kinda hard and the port was closed for a few days so we had two more days cruising at no cost. The RCL cruise captain on that ship was nicknamed the Hurricane Dodger…

Thankfully they are super rare here, though when we do get them our buildings aren't really built to handle them terribly well. I'll take regular rain over having a hurricane season though!

Hey, fellow church lurkers, I think the GM is waiting for to fight or flee here. Quasit has called for us to evacuate to the tents to the southeast. Who’s with me!

If Fin can dodge typhoons on his voyage of the damned and still check in, we can too!

Yes, I do need to know where you're going. I want to make certain you know the interior fence does not block line-of-sight.

Yes, I do need to know where you're going. I want to make certain you know the interior fence does not block line-of-sight.

Yes, I would have assumed that. From the map it looks like the squads are mostly hidden now between the longhouses, so it seemed like we wouldn’t see anyone right now up at the fence, and so a quick move to a more forward position might seem feasible to Quasit, especially since the towers are mostly gonna be focused on Maka right now.

Selena is waiting to see what happens, either to be rearguard for her companions as they leave, or to respond to Rasputin, which I’d kind of expect to say something one way or the other.

So Fin and Maka will continue their attacks and the rest of the group will reposition with Quasit.

Job happened, yea! Will try to post tonight.

Picking off a few more enemies doesn't feel worth the risk to the party right now. It's probably best to try to bounce. Instead of spending a few rounds flying everyone up, Selena and Kal can just teleport everyone out.

Saki can use ghost sound to shout a warning to leave for Fin and Maka. She can produce the equivalent of 40 human voices, which is louder than a dragon roar. It can also be left on repeat.

Quasit, Sakitu, Bulvi, Kalchine, Thumper, Viktor and Selena. Can she teleport us all? At least one of us would be left behind. And the pattern has been that Rasputin hits us hard, once, then vanishes.

I was considering Kal in the teleport count but he needs a tree or something which might be outside the blade barrier. That's a problem for plan bugout.

If Kal shrinks CT into that figurine that makes 6 and Selena can teleport 5 including herself…that leaves 1 within the blade barrier; Bull can withstand the most punishment of those in the barrier so, if Saki casts fly on him before she teleports with the rest, he could fly back to camp with Maka. Fin can make his way thru the hole he cut in the fence under the NW tower and go stealthily back to camp…

Of course all this is a bit moot. Quasit made a choice in character, and if another character who is present has a different idea, they need to speak up. And quickly, before Rasputin just drops a Horrid Wilting or something on us.

So I forgot about wildshape.

Kal casts carry companion on Thumper, then puts Thumper in his pocket. Next round Kal turns into a badger(or something) and burrows away. That leaves Quasit, Saki, Bulvi, and Victor for Selena to teleport out.

Well I'm devastated. Posting my be irregular for a bit.

Same.

Well I'm devastated. Posting my be irregular for a bit.

About what?

Hey all - a reminder to keep political discussions off of the forums. Take the time and space you need, and be sure to take care of yourselves and those around you.

America has chosen explosive diarrhea over ice cream. Today, we are all ass-holes.

I’m fine with Fin taking out that tower…but not sure if Maka might be able to do that faster… trying to remember our past fights…if Maka’s fire can effect all the soldiers in the tower, she may be able to clear it quicker…for past volleys at the towers, Fin was able to take out 1 gunner and injure another so, unless I get a couple of crits, takes him about 3 rounds to clear the tower…as for the trench troops, I think most times I was taking them out with two volleys…

I’m good with the plan as is, just didn’t know if Maka’s capabilities might be better suited than mine on that tower…