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

Game Master Balacertar

Congrats Kalem! That's some great news!

Think about all that extra time you'll have to post while you're up at 4 in the morning!

Very nice. Kalem would make a great dad when he's not doing his one-shot kill on BBEGs!

Small update because difficult day and to give time for Ilsa to do more with the deck, Kalem to have some breath from real life, and general preparation time before opening A72.

I should probably be familiar with this while playing a psychic character, but that's my first time seeing the psychometry skill.

It just looks like a function of appraise, which I'll never be very good at. Untrained and a -1 penalty, but I'll go ahead and roll.

appraise: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10

You can take a swift action any time you could take a free action (but only once per round). Because the surprise round specifies you can use free actions, I think you can takes swift actions in surprise rounds.

Now, even though you can put the red mantis in line of sight (I will let you chose where exactly you where before the door opening, I think that is fair), the dominate person is a 1 round casting spell, not a single standard action. Thus, you can start casting during the surprise round and finish casting with your round 1 standard action, but you cannot cast it full during the surprise round.

I will let you change the action if you wish, or go with this interpretation if the others post before you state your intentions Ilsa.

Oh--thanks for pointing out the 1-round casting. That's easy to miss. I'll go ahead with the same action, I guess.

Also, good to know on swift actions! I'll remember that!

If any of you play Starfinder (or want to), we're starting chapter 3 of Dawn of Flame and need one replacement player. Really good DM. Recruitment thread is here:

https://paizo.com/campaigns/v5748p75ivm4z/recruiting&page=last

I do not play Starfinder, it seems interesting but I feel my head would explode if I add another ruleset, specially one so similar but so different at the same time. Thanks a lot for the invitation Zamanda, and I hope you find a good player to join :)

As for invisibility here, it is a creative idea, but you need to be at reach of the head, because range touch.

EDIT I am going to rule Zamanda uses "imbue arrow" to cast invisibility in an arrow and stab the projectile in the head. By raw it only works with area spells, but in this particular case, I think it does not matter the head receives some arrow damage to deliver the spell, alas!

Ha ha... you are totally correct, but thanks for the creative storyline allowance, and sorry about getting the spell wrong. I know I looked it up, so I must have been reading the wrong spell (I looked up some others too), or maybe I scrolled down too far and was reading mass invisibility instead. Oh well. I'll try to get it right next time. :)

I think Bashiel needs to take a move action to reach Kayltanya, isn't it? :?

I automatically bumped south one square when I picked a side of the blade barrier, then took a 5ft step to move after Kayltanya. If that's not right, I'll make the first attack only (but as a dazing assault rather than a power attack, for net -1 to hit and Fort DC25 or dazed 1 round)

Ah! That makes sense. I think what the blade barrier means is you are on one side of the wall or the other, but you are still in the same square where the wall was cast. Even if the spell called for you to move, my guess is the 5 feet movement would count for the next round like other abilities that let you move out of your turn (like the Step Up feat).

Sorry, just saw it was my turn, but on the way to church... be back in about 3 hours, but feel free to bot me if I am holding things up.

Gotcha Rutseg. I've run it differently in my own games, but I'm happy to roll with that interpretation. So, single attack it is.

I am following your brainstorming. I am likely to cut it back at some point if you are not fast to decide ;)

As for Kayltanya's name, Sabina did indeed give you the name.

Ilsa, what do you do of Kalathuro? Is he just following the party and defending you? Or do you leave him somewhere perhaps doing some other task for you?

Hei, I invested 30 minutes of my life to figure out if Ilsa can trigger her spell anticipation trick while surprised, but I could not find anything specific in the mesmerist rules nor any clarifying discussion. In the end I settled with the idea that as you cannot take an attack of opportunity or an immediate action while flatfooted, you cannot trigger a mesmerist trick either, even if it is a free action you can take out of your turn.

But if you can point me to more specific rules that disputes this I am happy to retcon this.

I'd suggest this language controls (from the Tricks description itself):

"The mesmerist can activate the trick as a free action when a triggering condition is met (as defined in the trick’s description), even if it isn’t his turn."

Then, from the Spell Anticipation trick:

"He can trigger this trick when the subject is targeted by an enemy’s spell."

So I think that when the triggering condition is met (in this case, being the subject of an enemy's spell), it would activate as a free action.

As for the assassin, I'll just continue to order him to defend me. Perhaps if we leave I'll ask him to spy for us.

Yeah, those are the ones I was referring. But what happens when the mesmerist cannot react to current events? There is nothing in the ability specifying this other than she can act out of turn, thus as I see it the general rule that you cannot take actions until your first opportunity to act in combat applies.

I am pretty sure she can trigger tricks at any moment she could take an immediate action. In my opinion they just made it a free action instead of an immediate to grant mesmerists the ability to trigger more than one trick per round.

I am confident they cannot do so while unconscious or flatfooted, and I also think they cannot while stunned or dazed. As paralyzed allows to take pure mental actions, I think tricks can be triggered while paralyzed (provided line of effect and range conditions are met, of course).

Hei Kalem, could I have an updated AC breakdown? I think the last I god is outdated right now as I see AC 39 in your status instead of the 35 back then.

I hope I made it correctly for this round, I considered Kalem's AC as: 39 - 4 shield - 2 charge = 33

AC: 10 (Base) + 3 (Dex) + 4 (Beast Totem) +3 (Amulet) + 1 (Dodge) + 11 (Armor) + 3 (Ring) +4 (Shield) = 38

Goes up to 39 at lvl16. Goes to show at these levels an audit should be done periodically!

Yeah, those are the ones I was referring. But what happens when the mesmerist cannot react to current events? There is nothing in the ability specifying this other than she can act out of turn, thus as I see it the general rule that you cannot take actions until your first opportunity to act in combat applies.

I am pretty sure she can trigger tricks at any moment she could take an immediate action. In my opinion they just made it a free action instead of an immediate to grant mesmerists the ability to trigger more than one trick per round.

I am confident they cannot do so while unconscious or flatfooted, and I also think they cannot while stunned or dazed. As paralyzed allows to take pure mental actions, I think tricks can be triggered while paralyzed (provided line of effect and range conditions are met, of course).

Okay, my read is that it's tied more to the triggering condition being met, "even if it isn’t [my] turn," than whether I can take an action.

That said, I'm happy to defer to your interpretation and doubt it will come up that many times.

Weird. For some reason I thought we were up in the attic already I guess, from that comment about putting Bash's token in the attic. So I put my token up there too when I said I followed him. Since we were up there, I thought talking was safe, and I was unlocking something on that level, so we weren't going to be overheard that far away, but I was obviously very wrong. Still can't sing. ... In any case, note that Zamanda (and Ilsa too, as far as I know) still look like specific Red Mantis individuals, as does Kalathuro, obviously. Just in case that fact makes a difference at some point.

You are in the balcony of the Fourth level Zamanda. I set the token in the Attic map just for reference so you know where you are respect the towers. Sorry if it was confusing.

I tried to set your tokens in the map in a reasonable place according to the actions you were describing. I would certainly prefer you all keep updating your token position so if combat starts it is you who placed yourselves in a certain square, but I know it is just wishful thinking and if your token is two rooms away while you are describing the search of this room, well, I have to do a guess and set the tokens location myself.

So to summarize:
- you are in the fourth level map
- there is the attic level map over your level
- there is another towers level map over the attic level

In the balcony of this last tower's level there was an invisible devil, as per the adventure script, he has a 20% chance to spot the party each time you enter a balcony, I rolled and this happened. Bashiel and Kalem had see invisibility but their perception was not enough even to see something easier to spot, and anyway I decided to delay a bit the encounter for a better flow (so you could do what you did in the tower). Still I granted them a Perception roll for a Surprise round as usual before starting the combat.

I hope it is clearer now! :D

Yeah, no worries. I usually do update my token, but I was in the wrong place, sorry. On the same page now.

As a note, Kalem’s weapon is +5 when raging. I think that overcomes all DR except DR/-, right?

Oh, sure, thanks for pointing that out! I have adjusted the damage in the previous post.

Still some DR's matter, like DR/bludgeoning, but in this particular case it is enough to bypass the devil's DR ;)

Given this might be the difference between a PC death or not, does Zamanda want to use her Timely Inspiration spell on Kalem's third failed attack?

YES. If that spell can make the difference, she will definitely use it. I'll mark it off my sheet.

Kalem, also remember you have a trick I can use as a free action on your turn. I can't remember which your standard trick is.

I am not a fan of excavating a person-sized whole in a stone wall using a sword, even if that's an adamantine one. Now, if you have an adamantine pick, we can talk, but it is going to be loud, messy and dusty.

If you wish a quick and clean bypass I suggest using teleportation, shape stone or similar magic.

Ilsa, what do you do of Kalathuro when you dimension door?

Ilsa should be able to take him with us... she can take 5 additional people, while I can only take 4... and with Kalathuro, we're 6, so it still works (one additional medium or smaller creature per three caster levels).

That's totally fine, I just want to make sure we do not forget about him. He is having a really bad day you know? :)

Ha ha. :) Are you going to give him a tragic backstory now? :)

I could think of that. Who knows, it might end being a PC in a follow up AP "I was dominated and my organization mopped up. I realized I needed a change of life at that point... and so I begun adventuring"

Good one. Maybe we need to start a branch of the Evil Minions Anonymous support group here in Korvosa... sounds like all of these former bad guys are going to have a lot to work through. :)

Haha--I'll keep him with us still please.

Haha, they are going to have a lot of work here these Evil Minions Anonymous xD

Can we include in the messages making sure that Sabina and Cressida know about each other and suggest they work together? Trust may have been questionable before, but Sabina's information checked out, so just giving them that opportunity might be a good thing.

Sure, feel free to write the exact messages if you wish! :)

About the teleportation, yes, Zellara's empathic guiding would be enough for Ilsa to dimension door you somewhere "close" to where Zellara feels the bones are.

List Review

1. Trifaccia.

2. Black dragon in Castle Korvosa. (Zarmangarof)

3. Wizard named Togomor.

4. Ishani Dhatri missing. (In castle?) [Note name similarity with Gray Maiden leader.]

5. Red Mantis assassins, take 2 (in castle, find proof that Ileosa is behind them)

[Partly done... Probably all wiped out, but no proven link to queen]

6. Disband the Gray Maidens. (Sabina Merrin and their chief indoctrinator, (Vavana Dhatri) Get surrender or defeat from both.

[Partly done... Sabina taken care of (in a good way), but not Vavana.]

7. Devils in Castle Korvosa/proof that Ileosa is trafficking with devils.

[Partly done... took out one, but likely more, and no proof other than them being in the castle.]

8. "Capture" Ileosa. (Seems like the boss fight, so not sure we can do this yet, but not against trying.)

I have "Vavana" on the list. Did I get it wrong?

Interesting, the torture chamber calls her Davana Dahtri, but her NPC entry calls her Vavana Dahtri. Given that and that the NPC briefing table calls her Vavana too, my guess is the entry in the torture chamber has a typo and the real name is Vavana.

Good catch!

If one of Kalem or Bashiel also confirms to want to try the many stuff deck, we will go for it.

In that case, how many cards (from 0 to 4) Ilsa and Zamanda would chose to pick for themselves?

Do we have any inclination for what the number represents?

Is it sort of a risk/reward mechanic, where the more we draw the more benefits/harm we might encounter in the ritual?

It is the number of cards you want to fetch.

Some are good, some are bad. As you can use your Harrowing Points to skip bad cards, if you pick a large number of cards, you risk getting yourselves without Harrowing Points. But if you are not extremely unlucky, you might end with 4 positive effects.

I'm going to go ahead and draw 4.

Zamanda will choose 4.

Well I'll have to draw 4 as well then.

First time seeing a deck of many in action. So excited!

There you have! Enjoy! :)

I made the rolls in the order you posted here.

The Trumpet: “ The Trumpet: This card grants the character the ability to summon an outsider of his alignment once per day. This outsider must be of a CR equal to or less than the character’s level and serves for a number of rounds equal to the character’s level.”

The Fiend: “ The Fiend: A powerful evil outsider takes notice of the character and sets plans in motion to destroy him.”

The Big Sky: “ The Big Sky: Once per day, the character can add +10 to his CMB or CMD for 1 round. When he does so, a piece of metal in close proximity shatters.”

The Winged Serpent: “ The Winged Serpent: The character is granted a single wish. This wish functions similarly to the spell wish when it comes to affecting rules and statistics, but can also change reality in ways outside the bounds of the spell’s effects—such as rerouting a river or ending a war. The GM decides what the wish can and cannot accomplish.”

——

Wow! Just…yeah. Ok, I know that I could get rid of The Fiend. But I won’t, because it’s too IC. Kalem has his Goddess on his side (The Trumpet) but in doing so he has earned the ire of his infernal ancestor (The Fiend).

Now the questions are…what outsiders can he summon and what to use the Wish on? Honestly have never seen Wish before, so it’s kind of exciting.