[AP] Curse of the Crimson Throne by GMs Rutseg, Zek and Snowheart (Inactive)

Game Master Balacertar

An 80ish point damage arrow to the face is quite a way to say hello!

Totally cool with Bash wielding the axe... hope it doesn't hate you for being good. :)

So, I admit I'm probably wrong, but I don't understand why...

Only one point of drain, but it takes Con from 12 to 11, which would take away my bonus point of HP for each level, which is -14.

Then, 6 points of damage, and the text says

"multiply your total Hit Dice by this penalty and subtract that amount from your current and total hit points" ... doesn't that mean 14x6?

The penalty it is referring to isn't the value of the CON dmg itself, but:

For every 2 points of damage you take to a single ability, apply a –1 penalty to skills and statistics listed with the relevant ability.

So with 6 CON dmg, you have a -3 penalty to CON-based rolls and you take a 3 x 14 = 42 HP hit to your current and max HP.

Oh, okay... referring to the penalty, not the damage itself. I get it. Sorry for misunderstanding.

Bashiel has it right.

I rushed on last post and added the Con to drain instead of damage. It is in fact -1 drain, -6 damage. So you remove 1 point of Con and temporarily recalculate accordingly, then apply the Con penalty for damage.

Zamanda is right, we are in the ground level, the previous map does not properly reflect it, better use this one for now.

We were in the other one because you descended from the battlements to the green area, then we followed inside and I did not take the time to move the guest wing to the ground map.

That's okay. As soon as we run up the stairs again, I think we'll be back on the other map. I was just confused, sorry.

290 damage...man scythes are nasty in the hands of buffed power attacking martials. That's enough to one shot an adult dragon! I live in fear of the day that the GM throws a cursed mirror at us that makes Kalem fight himself.

SShhhh... don't give him ideas like that, honestly.

Aaaah! I love good ideas :)

Okay, so we're trying to get into the start tower, correct?

There doesn't seem to be an entrance on this level, unless we missed a secret one. (or if, for some reason, what looks to be a closet on the south side of the star tower is actually an entrance).

I guess we could go back and look for secret doors, and if not, it sounds like Zamanda is suggesting we go down a level more?

Zamanda checked that closet and it was not an entrance (unless there was a secret door I missed, of course).

All,

I am going to be dealing with a cancer death in my family, as well as a funeral, this upcoming week. :(

I'll likely be unable to post until after Memorial Day. Feel free to bot me.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Wish you and yours the best.

That's terrible Ilsa. My best of energies to you.

I will give you some time to post in case it gives you some respite from what is happening around you, but otherwise will bot when needed.

Let me be the first to say that "save or have your soul sucked out" is terrifying.

I am waiting a bit more discussion about how to deal with the negative levels and for what Zamanda thinks before moving us to the Anchoring Spirit.

Sorry. Yesterday I spent a while on an attack post, involving a crit and so some extra time writing it I guess, since I was at work and already distracted a bit, and when I finally had it up you had already posted that the combat was over, so I just deleted it. I didn't have time to compose another.

I made a post just now, but I don't feel like it is up to me whether we dive in with negative levels... it is up to the people who are hurt as to whether we move forward now or sleep and battle some things over again tomorrow. I'm willing to do either.

(With the oath, Zamanda is effectively using a +5 weapon.)

Ok, I assume you are applying the bonus already to your rolls, isn't it?

That's a handy ability :)

Yes, the +3 is added with the oath part to bring it from +2 to +5. I just was saying it in case it needed to be extra magical to overcome DR in a way that a +5 can do.

It is handy occasionally, but unfortunately you have to be pretty selective about when you use it... can't do it too often, or with anything you can't follow through and kill or the bow is really bad for a week or something. We fought these stupid land sharks back when we did the shoanti test and since we didn't actually kill the one I swore to slay, my bow was reduced to masterwork level for a while, including a battle. We went back and killed it later, but it was rather annoying.

So, OOC thoughts:

We've beaten the four spirits mentioned in the poem, but we haven't come across Serithial anywhere. I wonder if we have to just keep looking around, or if there's some other hint in the poem I'm missing.

I'm sure it's here somewhere. Maybe the star tower which we still haven't found our way into?

Well, you lacked still a piece, but I did not want to rush too much the previous post.

Hopefully, with this new one, things will be more clear for you :)

Sorry to do this after my recent absence, but I'm on a quick trip with family. I thought I'd be able to post, but it's looking pretty busy. I'll rejoin Monday.

Thanks for the heads up Ilsa! No worries, I think we will have some transition time for a few days.

What level is Laori? Can she cast Restoration?

She cast the one she had prepared on Kalem a while back. If you happen to have a pearl of power IV or higher, she can use it to cast it again today before resting.

As for the move forward, there is only a general indication that "most" of the undead are free after the curse lifts. So this is basically a decision of what you want forward. The most relevant enemies are already defeated, but there were still a few unique encounters you avoided by following the path you did.

We can do whatever you prefer, we can go through all the combats left around the main gate area and the NE octogonal tower, we can extend it to just the two or three more remarkable left, or we can just skip it altogether because really, at this point, they are not relevant to the plot neither the feeling the Fortress is an undead madness.

The single area that remains relevant right now is the Star Tower. You can try to figure out how to enter there, or we can just skip that part and dimension door through as suggested by Sial.

"She cast the one she had prepared on Kalem a while back. If you happen to have a pearl of power IV or higher, she can use it to cast it again today before resting."

I have on my tagline 4 negative levels. I think that this is correct, and that restoration only removes 1 negative level each week. Just checking in to make sure that I'm properly up to date.

Dang, I forgot about the 1/week limit on permanent negative levels. I think in that case we should liquidate some of our treasure at Kaer Maga and get an appropriately leveled NPC caster to hit us with greater restoration. That way we can wipe all the negative levels at once without waiting a week each time. Continuing with 4 negative levels could be pretty quick suicide.

Sound good to folks?
---

Also, as far as remaining above-ground foes are concerned: I think in character Bashiel would be in to clear them out and be thorough, but since this is PbP, OOC I'm happy to focus on the more significant stuff ahead of us.

Sounds good to me!

So far you have not removed any permanent negative level, only some temporal ones after the specters fight, and some Con drain from Ilsa.

Hence, three castings of restoration could leave Kalem and Bashiel with just 1 permanent negative level each until a week has passed (likely during interlude between Book 5 and 6).

Also, I think you should still have this scroll of restoration with you.

Thanks for clarifying the status. Restoration is 1 level per week, so I think Bashiel is right here that we need to teleport out to get greater restoration cast on us.

@GM: We already used that scroll post danse macabre. I've been tracking our healing resources on the loot log. As far as I understand, we have 4 permanent negative levels to clear on Kalem, so it'll take 4 weeks to get them all sorted if we don't rely on greater restoration. Please correct me if that's wrong.

Logistics:
We can't teleport the whole party to Kaer Maga because of how many we now have. I believe Zamanda can activate a teleport scroll, then send Kalem, Bashiel and one more along with her. We sell stuff, get our greater restorations, buy new gear for the party as desired, then teleport back here the following day after we're rested up.

I'll work on filling out prices on the loot log tomorrow.

Loot log's been updated with prices. There's a few items we still need to ID, when we have a chance. Also take a peek if you want to claim anything.

The specters energy drain is only temporal negative levels until you rest. So if hit before that with simple restoration, they are removed. If not, Kalem needs to roll Fort DC 16 (easy for him) to avoid the levels becoming permanent.
Can Kalem roll for that in Gameplay?

That is why I said if you are hit by restoration you are only carrying 1 permanent level ;)

Ok, does everyone want to leave the Fortress or are there other thoughts besides Bashiel's?

Besides, thanks a lot for the loot bookkeeping

Gotcha GM! In that case, we can rest somewhere safe in the fortress, get restorations tomorrow from everyone's favorite spiky lady, and roll with one permanent negative level each until the end of the book.

I'm OK with that if you are Kalem.

There's a non-zero chance that we get more neg levels in the star tower and will need to back out and get those greater restorations eventually. But that can happen when we need it.

Completely fine for me. Let's do it and keep going

Antagonism yes, but not because you are taking my place. Kalem is drop-dead gorgeous, but we've never been a thing. I think he doesn't really like Aasimars on some instinctive level, you know? Plus, he gets to make his own choices, and even if we *had* been a thing, he is clearly choosing you. No, no... the antagonism is that I'm worried that you're going to hurt him. He seems a little confused about whether he wants to be a good guy or not, and I've been there, and I want him to realize that he is truly good, down deep. ... And hanging out with you, I feel like you are going to influence him in the opposite way, and maybe even get him to hate himself more. It isn't really personal--it's just that evil and good don't mix well, and so I don't really want to make friends, because I'm worried I'll have to kill you in the end, after the inevitable betrayal. You get that, right?

ha ha

I thought of adding a diplomacy roll, but then decided that she isn't really trying to be diplomatic, so...

That was a fun scene :D

I am ready to wrap up the sleep scene and move us forward. I basically need from you where are you going next. If you are going to the Star Tower I need to know how you plan to find a way in.

Indeed it was!

And once again "Not rolling Sense Motive because I have a +8 and he rolled higher than I could." I find it hilarious that both of our characters are so good at lying, but aren't nearly as good at telling when someone is lying. So we could both lie to each other, roll a 2, and the other person would have no way of figuring it out.

I just added labels to the map. I forgot before.

So the map is hard to follow as far as where we can go from here. Can we make it into G4 or G5 through these little points off the star? Or are those all closed and we're still looking for a secret door or something?

Kalem, did you reset your spells and rage rounds during the last rest? So far the group has only had the fight against the undead orc and the hell hounds today, and both were short lived ones.

I think that I probably missed the refresh...damn. Going to have to do some forum diving to fix this. Thanks for the catch. Until then mind if I throw heroism up?

Sure, go ahead.

6 rounds of rage used

Cast shield (lvl 1) heroism (lvl 2) see invisibility (lvl 2) infuse self (lvl 3) greater false life (lvl 4)

Lvl 1 (3/4) Lvl 2 (1/3) Lvl 3 (1/2) Lvl 4 (1/2)

I will be on trip for the next week with no access to the tools I usually use to GM here, to make it worse my touch screen stopped working just yesterday. Hence, do not expect much input from my side through all next week.

Luckily we just concluded Book 5! Which means you have a couple of tasks you can do without much interaction with me.

First, you need to level up your characters to 15th!

Then, feel free to RP your trip back to Korvosa. Feel free to have a peaceful trip back through some days, or shorter with magic, sort out equipment sells and go on a trip for buying. Your achievements in Book 4 have contained Ileosa's loyals mostly to the Palace, thus, you can assume to have a somehow normal access to the city resources.

Once I am back at 100% we can continue with the start of 6th book already at Korvosa.