BobJones 5-02 Wardstone Patrol (Classic) Tier 3-4 (Inactive)

Game Master TheBobJones

As the Pathfinders get closer they can see a small pile of dead bodies near the townfolks. Not sure if I included that in the description. Added a graphic.

Had to zoom in to see the graphic, then saw detail on the other ones. Must be awe-inspiring tokens like that which are inspiring Steve so much. ;-)

TheBobJones_GM wrote:

As the Pathfinders get closer they can see a small pile of dead bodies near the townfolks. Not sure if I included that in the description. Added a graphic.

Had to zoom in to see the graphic, then saw detail on the other ones. Must be awe-inspiring tokens like that which are inspiring Steve so much. ;-)

Hahahahah!

Not to crush any of your parades, but I looked at the map again, seeing everyone going a different route than Delzden. Am I wrong in assuming your route took a 25 feet drop? :)

Irrelevant, though. Handwave it as a cinematic cliffjump action hurdle.

First, you are right about the land elevations.

So this is the same map that is in the Mod for this encounter, but I got a copy of it from the mapmakers webpage because it had the water elevations. The Mod map has no elevation markers. Actually the mod is very vague as to where you are and such, and makes no special note of terrain except for the water elevations (difficult terrain and swim checks). So I am handwaving the land elevations. Please feel free to retcon any of your movements.

Thanks for pointing this out, I hadn't thought about the land side of it.

Heh. I hadn't noticed the elevations until well after the post (when I zoomed in). Let's just say Xûll and Luna slid down a cool, muddy slide and kept running when they hit the bottom. :-)

Thanks GM for a more than fair ruling on this.

... but I gotta know....

I got a copy of it from the mapmakers webpage

It was readily available? How did you find the webpage in the first place?

So I had all the map stuff done back in late April, before I 'figured out map extraction' ;), and I think I Googled 'Wardstone Patrol Map' and yeah, found the mapmaker's website and got the Map.

My Googlefu is strong.

Shoouldn't mass inflict wounds give a will save for half damage?

So just to make sure I did this right, abandoning the body for the creature is a swift action - no AoO. The withdrawing is a full round action. It leaves the square it currently occupies for free, and burrows down 5 feet. Once it leaves that 5 feet, then you would get an AoO, but you do not threaten 5 feet below the dirt, so no AoO.

If I did that right, and I spent about half an hour looking up rules on that one, then I will move you back to Sir Ilivan and give you a little Gm knowledge about the last combat.

Expect to be at or close to Fort Portolmaeus by Sunday/Monday morning.

The results are correct, but the reason is wrong (I believe). You threaten 5ft (or your reach) around you in all directions. If it burrows down 5ft, then it is equivalent to standing in a 5ft hole (ie. the top of the cube it occupies is level with ground level), which we can attack into. However! There would be an edge from the corner of the hole it just dug, providing it with partial cover (maybe improved or full given it burrows like a worm), which it can move out of without provoking.

The clearest way to view that is to draw a cross section. It's what I do every time Combat progresses to 3 dimensions.

I know I'm a pedant, but I just wanted to share in case it comes up again.

You are right, you do threaten but cannot attack.

So without Kn Planes, you would be hard pressed to figure out everything. Zed and Jeb were demons, and they we making Brown and McDonald beat those other two farmers. Then when you approached, he made them form a defensive wall to block you.

Xull hit Jeb first, but did no damage as they have DR/cold iron.

Delzden hit a farmer with cold iron, because that is all he had, doing damage.

Hence, you all figured they were demons. I tried to do the reluctant warrior for the farmers, but by that time ...

I really like this encounter, as the tactics were tough. The demons healed each other while harming you. Neat trick. You only faced 2 demons, one was removed for the 4-tier adjustment.

Windows, why must you do a forced update restart while I'm working on something. The designer should be poked, hard, for excruciating pain. Nnghn.

Wow Delzden, I have never heard nor read that rule before. Color me bewildered.

Rules are rules though, and I appreciate you bringing it up. I do make errors so always feel free to point them out - it is much appreciated.

Just curious though, with no wand of CLW, how were you planning on healing?

Thanks Xull for the rolls.

Wow Delzden, I have never heard nor read that rule before. Color me bewildered.

Rules are rules though, and I appreciate you bringing it up. I do make errors so always feel free to point them out - it is much appreciated.

Just curious though, with no wand of CLW, how were you planning on healing?

Thanks Xull for the rolls.

Honestly, I just completely forgot to get one myself. I was making tiny purchases all the time, but never realized that with UMD I should be having a lot of different wands as well. Alas, there's a "one wand with PP per scenario" limit, so I can't hoard up a lot of them in one sitting.

Next up, wand of CLW, then wand of shield with a spring-loaded wrist sheath.

I am so getting UMD next level (after this chronicle). While I'm still level 3, John, please note that I'd like to retrain out my weapon focus (nodachi) feat to "additional traits". At level 3, this costs me 3 x 50 gp (150gp) and 3 PP. That should get me to +9 or +10 on UMD if I max it out, depending on if I take Cha as my 4th level ability point (though I'll probably take Con). Obviously this happens at chronicle time and not now, but please do note it on my sheet. Thanks!

Delzden, if you want the wand you could try Fort Portolamaeus. If Fort Portolamaeus isn't big enough for auto-purchase (5,000 people+) and has a purchase limit below 700gp, you could still send a courier to pick it up for you from Hulrun (GM willing) or ride hell-for-leather there and back overnight. I'll even give you a potion to help with removing fatigue. :-)

Will do, remind me at Chronicle time.

I can help out with healing inside the fort ;)

On a scheduling note, I have enjoyed this morning game sessions. I have a few before work commitments that will make posting difficult in the next week or so. I will try and post at an appropriate time for Delzden, but alas, I have no idea how to tell time in Finland. In the US we us the o'clock method, and I never really understood metric time. ;)

The Scars of the Third Crusade haunts me again!

It seems I forgot to print out the damn chronicle sheet before I went to GenCon! As such, I've muffed all subsequent chronicles and should have had more GP to spend. Sigh.

Anyway, I'll get Xûll's PDF chronicle list sorted out. No mechanical changes, just thought I'd let all of you know what a moron I am.

Hey guys, sorry about the radio silence over the weekend. It was a busy one, but a good one.

I am so digging this adventure. It feels like such a great fit for Pooka - As I am sure many of this season's adventures would.

Hopefully I asked the right questions - Also, I am assuming based on Xull's post that we are all full on healing? Just want to make sure we get clarity on the wand situation before we head back out. If the fort helps with healing then that is awesome - Just don't want to risk life and limb because we couldn't heal up all the way :)

And yes, Pooka may just consider UMD with his very limited skill points as well - Or maybe I will throw a level of Paladin.... no. no cross classing. To many fun things yet to get...

But holy warrior cavalier.... hmmm..... tempting...

I've just leveled up to 4 as an experiment to see what I could do with UMD, and I'm now seriously considering retraining to toughness instead (I really don't like weapon focus) and getting a wand of infernal healing - it's on my spell list, which I can finally use next level! Also on my list are shield and phantom blood (both great first level spells for a bloodrager!). Hmmm.... I think I have just convinced myself.

Sorry for the flip-flop, John, but it's still a retrain, just to a different feat.

This sir ilivan chump really has pooka riled up...

So fun! :) I can't wait to see how it all works out.

My active times (local, UTC+2): 8am to 3pm (8-15), and 8pm to midnight (was it 12am or pm?, anyways: 20-24)

East coast (UTC-5): 1am to 8am, 1pm to 5pm

West coast (UTC-8): 10pm to 5am, 10am to 2pm

Australia (East, no one livesin Perth, UTC+10): 4pm to 11pm, 4am to 8am (IN THE FUTURE!)

My inactive time (I sleep): 12am/pm/midnight to 7am

East coast: 5pm to midnight (great)
West coast: 2pm to 9pm
Australia: 8am to 3pm

I think I got them right.

Metric time is not the same as a 24-hour clock, if that's what you mean. Metric time was an experimental way to measure time which tried to get through during the French Revolution way back in history. They proposed that a day has 10 hours, divided into 100 minutes, and further into 100 seconds. Also each week would have consisted of 10 days, but workers strongly opposed it since back in the day it would have meant 9 days of work and 1 day off... and a 10-hour clock would have been very odd to use for the first couple of, uuh, decades.

But metric time would have made calculations so much easier! None of this 86400 second BS we deal with these days.

Are you moving to Australia in the not too distant future? So random otherwise to include Perth of all places!

Have I mentioned this yet? I am loving playing in this scenario, and loving the scenario. Well done GM sir... (not cur... heh!) Well done!

Is there still loose plans to continue in season 5 stuff? Just out of curiosity... I know we have a heapload of stuff on our PbP plates currently and in the near future...

This has been a nice interlude in the mornings - what is everyone's feeling on this? What have/haven't we played?

I'm totally down with playing some more. You know I am. Playing actually takes up a lot less time than GMing, so I've got PC bandwidth to spare.

Although, I'm getting a little tired of typing Xûll like that... it can be quite exhausting to keep up at times. I think I'll have slightly less accent in the next post. I'll see if I can find a happy medium - something that still "sounds" Shoanti-esque, but not quite so grating with the tenses and so on. I know Deussu will be happy to hear that! It must be hell on someone for whom English is a second language.

Oh, and Steve has mentioned that he's loving the scenario, but I wholeheartedly concur every time he says so.

Everything I have and haven't played (minus the last month) is on the scenario planner. I'd be happy to add Deussu (Stefan, is it?) there also to help with planning it out. More season 5 would be awesome.

I quite enjoy this scenario, but I've yet to find the true personality of Delzden. He was a quick character I devised specifically to tackle with my habit of making rude and judgmental characters. I haven't played him elsewhere than on Thornkeep level 1 (which sucks, btw) so I'm still trying to come up with all his tricks.

I'm playing in four (4) PbPs and plan on starting one additional, but I doubt they would interfere with another game. Best bet for a scenario I haven't played is one from season 5, 6, or 7. I kinda dropped off tabletop gaming around mid-fourth season, playing only occasionally after that. I wouldn't mind a series, but I guess you've all already played Echoes of the Everwar. For the record, those scenarios suck donkey balls (I tried to prep for the first part, but after the premise I put it aside and told the players the story is so doofus I ran something else instead) but with a right mindset it can be made fun (of).

Actually I personally don't mind Xûll's odd speech patterns at all. English being the second language doesn't really make it that hard, considering I've been hearing and reading it since I was 6. If anything I feel I surpass many other native speakers in terms of grammar and punctuation, but that might just be my ego talking.

"It be not so hards at speaking like Xûll."

Well it's an absolute bîtch to type like him, especially on the phone. Contextual autocorrect may be all well and good for most occasions - but Xûll just can't cope with Apple's constant adjustment. Maybe new Xûll will. ;-)

Season 5, I believe, was the plan - so awesome sauce!

By the way, I'm really enjoying Delzden's voice. Keep it going man, you're definitely on the right track (for something good anyway!).

I strongly dislike Apple products although I own an iPad Air. And I outright hate posting with a mobile device, especially said iPad, even preferring my Android phone with a tinier screen for one reason: custom keyboard. I haven't found a single good application from Apple's appstore.

And I dislike autocorrect as well. Suggestions are alright, but changing my writing? Stop doing that. Good thing I've turned all those things off.

Oh, FYI, Xûll's chronicles are now audited and up-to-date. Made a mistake on my 3rd chronicle (actually, Jack did and I never picked it up - missed a 360gp purchase) and it carried through to all of them. Lots of scratchings out later, and we're good.

Oh, and now that it's done properly, turns out I don't have the prestige to train out the weapon focus feat. Guess I'll just keep it. Sigh.

Also, got a True Dragons of Absalom boon that lets me play a kobold! Not sure if I should do that on PbP or play in person... so much fun to be had.

Looking forward, if we want to, how about

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–24: Assault on the Wound

for the next one?

Sounds awesome. I've done mass combat before and it can be fun.

Anyone want to get some ranks in profession (soldier) for this one? ;-)

I've played Assault on the Wound before, and that gameplay was boring was hell. It's no wonder it has scored so low; the whole mass combat system is so flawed it makes my brain ache.

Then again I feel most PbPs I play are average at best. I'm currently stuck in Crypt of the Everflame, and it seems to be yet another "one month combat"...

I'm happy to play something else. If you're liking the group, it'd be great to keep having you on board (GM willing, of course). Let's keep the four warriors thing going!

Depending on how the timing goes, I might get Xûll to 4th level so we'll actually have some spells. They just won't be terribly useful.

... I've also got my 't-shirt' ward for rerolls.

My wife was wearing the one you gave me this weekend. I told her I was going to take a picture. Then she dropped a pun on me today that was epic - we have a pizza joint here in Kalamazoo called "Bilbo's" - it is Tolkien themed. She texted me to say that we need to get our next pizza from there because it is so good. In fact, it is so good it is 'hobbit' forming.

I am winning the war! She is slowing coming over to the nerd side.

I'm sorry your PbPs have been so average! In the last year I have played PbPs that have completely changed the way I look at this game - so much so that I have come to prefer this method of gaming over actual 'live' gaming. Granted... That is still kinda like saying I prefer red m&ms over green ones, but you get the point. Stick around and we will rock your PbP world.

Totally random note - skill focus (handle animal) replaces the expert trainer class skill for PFS cavaliers. which makes sense, since you technically have an "unlimited" amount of time between scenarios with which to expertly train your animals (expert trainer reduces training time). So it turns out there are no typos at all. Pooka is good. Sorry I never mentioned that earlier!

Oh yea - input - yee-gads the awful reviews... I will be honest, I am still intrigued, but if Deldzan has already played and wants to stick with us, then we don't need to do that one.

What about the Destiny of the Sands trilogy? Though it seems I am doomed to run all the Osirion/Scarab Sage scenarios with Pooka and all the liberties edge scenarios with Cyrus - it still looks awesome. That is a 3 parter that would bump us all a level by the end.

If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm really open to most everything. Just happy to be part of a good, solid gaming group. Whether it's the desert or Worldwound, my axe is yours!

I have only played the Season 5s I've run for you, Glass River Rescue, Merchants Wake, Scars of the Third Crusade (Xull and Pooka's favorite), and this one. I am up for whatever.

How much XP will everyone have after this scenario? Xûll will be at 5 XP (level 3.2). One chronicle off 4th level - unless WBG3 hits at the right moment.

Destiny of the Sands sounds fun.

@Stefan, I've added you to season 5 of our Scenario Planner. Just put P and / or G next to the games you've played or GMed respectively in Season 5, and this whole discussion will go a lot easier!

Let me know if you need help filling it out.

For everyone here, I've added a "beasts" column to the Season 5 sheet that shows the games played, just for the 5 of us.

Filled.

Just for the record, The Sealed Gate has horrendous reviews and holds some really dicky encounters, all thanks to Kyle Baird.

Intriguingly, the Finnish PFS scene uses this, which seems very similar to that scenario planner. One dude even made a web application where you filled in who's going to join and then list out what scenarios they were able to play.

That was Kyle Baird? I thought it was a potted plant.

In any case, looks like Steve's played that one.

Actually, our only option for season 5 at our tier is Day of the Demon - so that makes the next scenario really easy.

We'll have 3 scenarios to play when we ding level 5, but nothing for all of us before then. Up to the GM if he wants to run before season 5 or not (maybe pick up something from season 6 that the Drongos haven't hit, like Technic Siege). If he's willing, I'll add some more Stefan & Beasts columns to the other sheets.

Otherwise, module. Otherwise, just one more scenario!

Again, to help... what XP is everyone on?

I actually ran the Blakros Matrimony, so pretty excited for Day of the Demon. I wanted to play/run Hellknight's Feast before I played that one, but the tiers are wrong... so whatever.

Counting from character #1 (or #3, numbers #1 and #2 are no longer in play)

#3 Dwarf cleric, lvl 6.2, currently playing 7-02 Six Seconds to Midnight.
#4 Half-orc barbarian/monk, lvl 13.2, venture-captain
#5 Human inquisitor/rogue/delver, lvl 9.0, available
#7 Human Fighter (Delzden!), lvl 3.0, playing this
#8 Halfling Gunslinger, lvl 7.1, available
#9 Human Ranger, lvl 4.1, exclusively reserved for live, tabletop games
#10 Tengu oracle, lvl 5.0, available
#11 Tiefling inquisitor, lvl 1.1, currently playing Crypt of the Everflame
#12 and beyond : 1xp GM blobs
#17 CORE character! Whoo!

Core. Now there's an interesting idea...

I haven't got a core character, but I'm assuming that would negate almost any issues with planning, right? We'd just have to start from scratch again. Maybe a module or two to get us back into the "race" quickly.

That core character is the one I've been playing with Lufien and a few others. She's at lvl 2.0 now.

I was thinking for your hypothetical #18. ;-)

Xull not to worry about your faction missing. I kind of shelved it due to RP, but might do as a flash back later.

Core is not super interesting to me so I'd like to keep it in classic mode. Will take a look at the scenario planner later today.

I'm not to crazy about Core either, other than the fact that it opens up options for replaying scenarios.

One particular loop hole (that I could be wrong about) is that you can start a character out as core, and then eventually switch to non-core. It seems to me like you could use this to get into some scenarios you might not otherwise be able to play as a group, then branch out into stuff beyond the CRB.

Not sure if this is frowned upon or not, but I don't feel it is abusing the rules as the spirit of the effort is fun, inclusive gameplay for the group. Its not like we would be doing it to farm xp for a stable of characters.

Main problem with that approach is that you're still stuck with the core class unless you branch out prior to level 2.

So, Day of the Demon next? Figure out what else some time before that finishes.

Pooka is 4.0 - I knew I was forgetting to mention something. Will be putting the WBG chronicle on him also.

I am very anxious to get him to 5.0, so I would totally be down with a module if that is what we wanted to do. I've mentioned in the zedroom thread that I would like to do slave master's mirror with Pooka, and we haven't made up our mind if we are going to do that with the drongos or not (with Lort and Cyrus stepping aside for the two alternates).

Day of the Demon is perfect for next, which gives us plenty of time to figure out what will be after that. So basically exactly what Damien said.

Edit: I math good. WBG + Wardstone + Day of the Demon = Pooka at 5.0. Still down with a module if thats what everyone wants to do.

Just added Stefan and Beasts columns to the rest of the Scenario Planner. That should help. I can modify the Beasts formulae as and when someone else wants to join in.

With Pooka chomping at the bit for level 5, I'll definitely pop WBG3 on Xûll, then. Need to find an appropriate scenario to play the kobold in! Day of the Demon probably involves some hob-nobbing, so something else most likely. Everyone will have a bard for a game - which will be nice! Annoying, but nice.

Once we hit 5 (how are you set for that, Arthrax?) we can possibly swap in that Tengu Oracle belonging to Deussu... ;-)

I keep forgetting about the kobold I can use... I don't have that one scanned, that boon is to use the kobold in the place of a pregen for a 4th level character, right?

And don't let my anxiousness to get to level 5 change what you want to do with Xull. Pooka can be patient. As far as you know. :)

Also - just thinking about True Dragons of Absalom makes me realize how badly I want another shot at that, with a competent GM.

Oh man... I really want to do that one again...