Clebsch GM Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path (Inactive)

Game Master Clebsch73

My views of Paladins falling are:

--If you directly violate one of your specifics acts of faith
--Or do a clearly evil deed
--or try to circumvent your commandments on technicalities while also disregarding the intent/spirit of them.

THen you can very well fall

If you do something like accepting powers from questionable sources (the source in this case is Sevanna, a mortal who does not ping as evil, and the raging song also carries a celestial component), then perhaps some introspection is called for later.
She would have some interesting sensations while accepting the weapon song, note, you can chose each turn if you accept it or not.

Directly accepting a profane gift from Belana (who is a Demon, and a pretty hard core Nocticulan) would make you fall, trading and bargaining with her does not (unless you try to sell souls or slave, both of which are evil acts), nor does fighting side by side with her against a greater threat.

I also view that there are 2 different ways of falling for a Paladin, one is simply falling from grace because you did evil, the other is viewing yourself as having done something evil and thus be unworthy of grace, even if your deity has a different view on it. (which is what happened to Ciar, until belana removed his memory, making him feel himself worthy again, Iomedae never abandoned him).

Yeah, my feeling on Ellena is that she would reject the blessing even though Sevanna doesn’t appear evil. The whole thing would just be too icky for her to accept. She’d feel crappy about using those powers, evil or not.

Thats the most complicated fight I ever ran pbp! Feel free to ask questions!

Also, I am happy about having found a slutty picture of Iomedae, perfect for Ellenas least favorite Cosplayer ever! (which is a more memorable name then Jeneaimine).

There is a line in the buffs that reads:

Your AB, assuming you accept rage: increases by +1 (untyped), and +2 (morale),+2 (extra enchantment) for a total of +5.

What is AB?

I suspect it means attack bonus.

Attack bonus. weapon song improves exising enchanments by +2 in her case. Incluing for no yet enchante weapons. The +1 is from haste, and she also cast good hope.

I am totally not foreshadowing an optional later encounter, in which the heroes must deal with the horrible situation of being trapped in an Abyssal Reality TV show. No, not at all.

I am ruling that if you are throwing a Paladin, who is smiting a target, at the target you get the smite and the damage bonus of the thrown weapon attack, whcih is why ragnar hit.

Gotta say I am semi happy to wait on Ellenas surge, that turn was plenty complicated, and it seems Jerribeth came prepared for Bloodragers!

Notes:
--Sevanna used Rally reroll
--Cydric currently in deep shit
--There is a way to turn the current problem with Ellena into an opportunity.

Ellena of you consent

Sense motive 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20

Yes, Ellena will roll the charge attack against the baddie. Let me add up all the bonuses and make a post.

As a perhaps different explanation, she didnt "throw you", she performed a dive bomber attack.

The Vrolikai has less then 80 hp left.

I believe if you are willing to 'bot Anarya, she would be able to target Cydric with some potent healing. She usually activates Life Link before battle, which does some small amount of healing each round to up to 11 other allies. She would probably be using alignment channel to harm Evil Outsiders. She could also run to touch Cydric with a high level cure wounds spell. Or she is close enough she could do a general channel positive energy to heal allies, selectively excluding up to 8 targets, doing 7d6 healing.

Ill have her heal Cydric after Ellena takes her full turn.

@Ellena, if Belana would not have been worried about Cydric Dying, she would have sung
"FROM THE ABYSS DEPTHS
IN SILENCE
CAST THEIR SPELLS
EXPLOSIVE VIOLENCE

LADYS NIGHTTIME STRIKE PERFECTED
FLAWLESS VISION UNEXPECTED"

At the top of her lungs

Night witches cover

I assume I am not up again as I just attacked not long ago. Let me know if I’m incorrect, GM.

You are up, the Succubus did mythic bullshit to have you get an attack out of turn. You have your full turn!

Also, if Ellena super murks the Demon, which isnt that unlikely, ill have Yathlara redirect her barrage into Jerribeth, unless she wants to boink either of the enemy Succubi.

I did not roll any attacks for the elemental because I'm not in control of what type of attacks it makes (Nona doesn't speak Auran). So it still gets an action. If it does a whirlwind attack (my vote) then I think it is just some saving throws and damage to be done. If it makes a slam attack, let me know and I can post the rolls for that if you prefer.

Redirection sounds great and Yath redirecting with range is much better than Ellena having to rush to the other side of the battle field.

How do you like the fighting so far?

What I try to have in fights:

--Meaningfull decisions on what you are doing.
--Memorable moments, I dont think getting dive bombed by a Succubus into a Vrolikai was on Ellenas list of stuff likely to happen.
--Laughs, like, I tried to GM wrath of the righteous in a serious and bleak way once, by taking the worst stuff I well from human history and dial it up one notch... which just got me near depressed in real life.
--Risk of failure (Sevanna getting mind controlled would have been pretty bad, the bad guys winning initiative would also have been very bad, you starting a fight with the Forsaken and the bad guys then attacking would have been... yeah, very bad too)

I’m having a blast so far!

The extensive dialoguing is hard for me to keep track of, since I constantly have to check who's who and it makes it seem a bit like the battle's going in slow motion, with time for all that chatter.

Other than that, I'm enjoying the process of making my posts and watching what happens next.

I would make one suggestion: proofread posts before submitting the post. I always do this so that posts feel as much like professional writing as possible. Having to figure out what a sentence means because of typos takes me out of the narrative to deal with the writing, which distracts from the vicarious experience we're trying to achieve.

I think Ill move to porting them to a text file, proof reading them and them porting them back.

I am slightly paranoid about there being a change in the RNG an everything suddenly being different.

The combat is vastly complicated, but there are demons, banter, people being thrown, lots of backstory. So... I am quite good with it.

I am bad about typos too, probably due to my inability to spell worth a cricket. Depending on where I am posting, I get spell check automatically. Other times I am just bad.

I preview the text before submitting the post to proofread it. I also select the text in the box and save it to my clipboard before previewing or posting, in case the Paizo gremlins eat the post.

My father was a college English teacher and I've taught composition as well, so I'm more sensitive than most. Still, if you have the time to read through what is going to be posted before submitting, it should be straightforward to catch any obvious typos.

In my defense, english is my third language, Russian and German (pretty sure Sherlock Holmes would immidiately identify me as a Germanic, on account of the evident hostility against verbs) being the first and second, if the rampant captilization of every noun (when I am not paying attention to it) wasnt a dead giveaway :).

Is it everyone's turn or are we waiting on the healing decision?

English is my only language and I am still horrible at it. Pronouncing words has always flummoxed me, which makes spelling pretty bad as well. Though our language doesn't always make the two intertwined.

I wanted to give people time to decide what to tell Anarya to do, I am ruling it as "go help Cydric".

Is the creature in the red border next to Ellena an enemy, GM? Want to be sure before I stack hacking at it.

THats the vrolikai its already ded!

Something is kicking my arse, 40 degree fever.

Feel better. Don’t rush on our part. We will be here when you are back up to snuff!

Here are some funny artworks in the meantime:

Ciar if he joined the Forsaken

There were situations in which he could have turned, particular if you would have attacked them during the Parley

Paladin Bait Forsaken warrior

The Forsaken have plently of non evil recruits, they teach them to hold villainous monolouges and wear spiky black plate armor while standing in front of Paladins.
These tactics are unlikely to come into play.

Alternative art Sevanna

Alternative art for Forsaken polearm troops
Forsaken warriors

Those are really cool works!

Also, alternative lyrics in case of fighting the forsaken

Also, merry christmas! People who write something funny in character may get something.

Example

Oh Lord Krampus, you whose dark elfs are red with the blood of their victims, you whose fiendish reindeers horns are so sharp, they count as having "improved improved improved" critical, you, who was always counted among the allis of midnight on account of your ability to break the lightspeed barrier, I beseech you to...

Make my consort pass some important willsaves, pretty please? I promise to be extra naughty!

Signed, Belana the black feather

Next fight will have less moving parts!

RAW, telekinesis does nto allow for adding wisdom to the CMB check, but thats clearly not RAI.

I assumed the absence of wisdom modifier in the RAW was because it was not expecting a divine caster to be using the spell. I assumed that the rule that allows a Shaman to cast the TK spell would provide the shaman's casting attribute rather than the attributes associated with wizards and sorcerers.

Yeap, totally fair, ruling that it adds your wisdom.

If there are other spells the main spellcaster attribute also applies, I think its similar to a Skald getting CHA to it if he is spell kenninging it.

Also, can people do me a favor and calculate their current wealth? Doesnt have to be precise, but I like to keep the party within +-20% of each other.

Also, feel free to pm item wishlists!

Mine is easy, as a new character she has wealth by level 62000. Complicated with crafting feats. Which puts it around 75000

I’ll try to calculate my items on Sunday. Tomorrow is kind of a hectic day.

A while back, I sent Anarya's player a message on Discord. I don't check Discord often as I rarely get personal messages on that platform, but I just noticed she responded to my message. Based on what she said, I would not expect her to continue, at least not for a good while.

Regarding wealth, I'm glad you asked that because I think I need to review the build. I have a couple of spreadsheets that I used to track wealth and spending when creating the character and I think the numbers are not complete. I've assumed Nona would have gained 46k for being 9th level, which is the level of the other PCs who were in the campaign from the start (now just Ellena).

Given this is a mythic campaign, it might need to be boosted. I haven't gone through the potential booty total according to the AP, although I know as I tried to keep wealth consistent with what PCs would gain if they acquired the treasure listed in the AP for the encounters.

I do have a question. Yath is 10 level but Nona and Ellena are only 9th. I believe I followed instructions, but should I reduce her level by 1?

Nah, Ellena and Nona are going to level up.

Okay, GM. Not counting potions, my gear has a value of right at 32,000 gold.

However, that does not count Radiance the named sword from the AP. It also doesn’t include the armor of the pious I am wearing. I think that might be AP specific as well. Last thing, it doesn’t include the silver dragon scale all the characters were gifted in the first volume of this AP.

Right now and for the next month and a half, Tuesday through Thursday is when all my work is concentrated, so posting is limited then. I'm digesting recent posts and will try to post this afternoon between classes if I can.

There sure have been shenaniagians going on!

I would send Anarya's player the idea about having Anarya disappear for a while. I'll also forward the description through my Discord connection. It seems a fair way to go.

I'd suggest we try to recruit another player/PC or two.

Nona's wealth is standard for 9th level: 46,000.

Sorry, long day today. I’ll read everything and get a proper post up tomorrow morning.

I have sent Anarya a PM, if you have players in other games whom you would like to play with, reaching out to them is great.