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

Game Master Balacertar

Woo, lets do it!

Also, you can really tell when you're up against something serious when they take 5 actions (inspire courage, crown casts mirror image, eyes of charming, project image, move and draw).

Will vs Fear with heroism, aura of courage and bashiel’s variant for resistance: 1d20 + 13 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 13 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 2 = 44

The +3 comes from mind-affecting bonus, isn't it? Does all types of fear compute as mind-affecting (frightful presence specifically)? If someone could shed light on this... I have no time to look up today.

Which of the duplicate Ileosa's in the room appeared when she cast the spell? Is that the one next to us?

Yes, but it will be hard to keep track of them in the chaotic scene, as they all look the same.

I’d think so? Fear and mind affecting seem like they’d go together

https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Category:Mind-affecting_spells

Fear is listed as mind affecting

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rule s/

“ Fear Aura (Su) The use of this ability is a free action. The aura can freeze an opponent (as in the case of a mummy’s despair) or function like the fear spell. Other effects are possible. A fear aura is an area effect. The descriptive text gives the size and kind of the area.

Fear Cone (Sp) and Ray (Su) These effects usually work like the fear spell.

If a fear effect allows a saving throw, it is a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 fearsome creature’s racial HD + creature’s Cha modifier; the exact DC is given in the creature’s descriptive text). All fear attacks are mind-affecting fear effects.”

And this points towards it being mind affecting as well

DM wrote:

bonus damage dice is not multiplied in criticals, except for the burst extra damage

Sorry about that. Which part is the "bonus" damage I shouldn't multiply on a crit...

Oh, it's here: multiplying damage. So basically all the bonuses and the base weapon damage is multiplied, but extra die you roll (all those additional d6 from acid, sonic, etc.) are not multiplied. The 'burst' weapon qualities are an exception in this regard, because they say, they add a d10 extra damage on a crit.

[dice=fort save vs. breath (burst of adrenaline)]1d20+15+8 I think I made all the other saves, but any chance Bashiel gave me a bonus on this roll from anything? If not, I got the Str drain and the mummy rot. Could I get a verification of this before I post my turn? If I take Cha damage it will affect all my abilities.

Ilsa has a cloak of resistance +5, while Bashiel's angelic bond gives her a +7 resistance bonus, thus Ilsa's save check is 2 higher, 28. I do not know if there are more flying bonuses around, but that is enough for her to pass the check ;)

Speaking of which…

Wis Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

So -1 to all will saves, right?

Sorry for missing Bashiel's attack. It certainly takes out the dragon and avoids the horrid wilting. I also forgot Laori's turn.

This week was the commissioning of the circadian lightning system project I have been working on for the past 6 months. It is in a new ICU at my district's Hospital and there is a lot of pressure to open it due to the pandemic pressure on the area (6th wave here in Spain). The last days have been hectic and I am feeling very tired, but setting up this was also a very fulfilling act of love.

I just forgot to re-read and apply previous posts I already read before yesterday.

I am glad that you were able to accomplish such a large project. Understandable that you are tired, and no worries about missing things. We all do that from time to time.

Completely agreed. You've gotten through a really tough time at work, and are also juggling a very complicated final fight here. No worries at all, and get some rest!

Big contrats to you, Rutseg!

O bien hecho! :)

Sounds very exciting Rutseg! No worries about PbP stuff - I miss things all the time when GMing, and I don't have the excuse that I'm tired from doing tons of good work. :)

Thanks all!

Zamanda, Timely Inspiration only works with attacks and skills. But Bashiel's divine bond shall make you pass the save check anyway ;)

Okay, thanks.

Question... on the map it looks like there is an extra queen and Laori both floating/flying above the shaft. Is this correct?

(1) Zamanda, can you move so Kalem can pounce on her?
(2) I’m thinking it might be possible to fo a steal action to take away her crown. It seems like doing so would neutralize much of the Queen’s power. Does this sound feasible or dumb?

1. Yes.

2. Guessing the DC is going to be too high, but creative idea worth trying, I'd say.

Added all of Ileosa's stuff to the loot sheet... wow on some of it. Didn't go back and write in stuff from earlier in the sunken queen, but just that stuff (even at half price) has us already over 100,000 gold in worth *each.*

Too bad this is the last chapter. With some of this stuff (or the associated wealth from selling it), we could probably start our own country. ;)

One question. As you might have guessed already, all this scene is building up to the return of Kazavon. That said, it is very probable (as I glanced through your actions in Gameplay), that you abort it before it happens.

So, I wanted to know what you all think, do you want to stop it? Or do you want to have a last combat, measuring your strength against a legendary CR 25 blue dragon?

Looking at his stats, it seems like a crazy beast, but you have dealt with everything significantly well so far, so you might surprise me surviving even such a combat.

There is nothing else remaining for the AP on regards of material and so, only whatever roleplaying you want to do to close up the campaign, and after 3 GMs this is basically your adventure more than anyone else, so I thought to let you know in order for you to decide ;)

"this is basically your our adventure more than anyone else, so I thought to let you know in order for you to decide ;)"

Part of me would love to see what we could do against a legendary CR 25 blue dragon.

On the other hand, I think that the chances of us losing are fairly good. We've used up alot of resources already, so we aren't fresh. To go from "we did it!" to "party wipe, Kazavon is back" is a big swing on how the campaign might end.

So, I'm down for the fight. It is quite rare to have combat at this level, especially against something like this. However, my big caveat is this: If anyone is uncomfortable with risking their character at the end of the campaign, then I have no problem skipping this. I'd much rather everyone be able to enjoy the satisfaction of having completed a multi-year campaign with a well deserved ending. If anyone at all lost a PC at an optional fight at the end and felt unhappy because of that, then it wouldn't be worth it.

So yes. If everyone agrees, and accepts the risks of this, then let's do it. If anyone feels that this is the proper end, then I'll change my vote to respect that.

I agree with Kalem's thought--this needs to be unanimous or we shouldn't do it.

That said, I'm up for it!

Wow, a fight vs. a CR25 dragon would be wild. I assume that Kazavon successfully forms if you don't have Serithial for whatever reason? Or maybe if the PCs are too slow and Ileosa finishes her ritual?

If the fight occurs in this relatively cramped room and we start in melee, we may have a chance of beating it. More likely though, it wins initiative, hits us with some ridiculous level 9 magic or just full attacks without missing, and we're turned to paste without much of a chance to act. I don't doubt that by this level we're in full rocket tag mode. It seems a bit anticlimactic to do everything right and then get killed by a foe that you had no business fighting.

If people are interested, I'd be cool with a "vision" of the fight, where whether we win or lose we return to where we are right now and its revealed to have just been a vision. Maybe a bit of a cop out, but it seems like a fun way to test if we're actually capable without torpedoing the ending of the campaign.

I’m alright with such a “vision” but I’d prefer it to happen after the campaign wraps up. Right now we just “won” and it would break the flow to do a long combat that doesn’t impact the story

I'd rather do the vision idea as well, not risking it happening for real, but would be fun/interesting to play out to see if we could actually do it.

So a vision afterwards seems to be the consensus? I'm looking forward to getting wiped out by this mythic dragon :)

Okay, here's my strategy for the mythic dragon fight. Zamanda remembers seeing both a portable hole and a handy haversack in the queen's possessions. So, using mage hand she takes both and puts the rolled up hole into the haversack close enough so that the dragon gets sucked into the black hole of doom (but not her allies).

I mean, in normal circumstances she wouldn't destroy valuable things like that, but in the face of certain death she might. :)

Sorry, you mentioned it, but I don't know what the aura of justice benefit is, so I can't include a number in my rolls. I don't see it listed in a post or in the party or individual buffs. If it is at least one though, then with my forgotten +5 from the ring and that point from Bash, I wouldn't be shaken from last turn, and I would make the save below as well, for half damage, so going with that, but let me know if I am applying it inappropriately.

The bonuses of the ring do not stack with Bashiel's angelic bond, that gives you all +7 deflection to AC and +7 resistance to saves. It seems that was not added in your vs fear roll, hence Zamanda is in truth not shaken, thanks to Bashiel's mantle.

As for the Aura of Justice, you should be 10' away from Bashiel's position at the moment he activated it. I am fine to say you were at the bottom corner instead of the top one, if you want to benefit from this and Aura of Courage. That would make sense for her positioning.

Finally, the bonuses of smite, are +Bashiel's Cha to hit and +Bashiel's level to damage. That is +3/+17 apparently. Note the first hit damage doubles against evil outsiders, undeads and dragons. So +17 extra damage on first hit too. Also, as pointed by Kalem, smite helps you bypass DR of evil creatures. Oh, and there is a +Cha (+3) deflection to AC, but with all the other larger bonuses you have, that part has no real effect.

“ Kalem, avoiding the lightning bolt as good as he can, swings his scythe in a frenetic rage, but finds the magic armor blocks two of his attacks while the others do not penetrate the hard scales of the dragon.”

I take this as being 2 misses due to AC. But with smite (and a +5 weapon) how did the other 2 hits do 0 damage?

“ Kalem, avoiding the lightning bolt as good as he can, swings his scythe in a frenetic rage, but finds the magic armor blocks two of his attacks while the others do not penetrate the hard scales of the dragon.”

I take this as being 2 misses due to AC. But with smite (and a +5 weapon) how did the other 2 hits do 0 damage?

They all failed to AC. Two of them failed only because of the mage armor and would have hit before. The scales are hard (natural armor). That was the intent of the wording, sorry!

Bashiel's smite bonuses are +3/+21 because silver smite bracers increase his effective paladin level by 4 for the calculation.

They all failed to AC. Two of them failed only because of the mage armor and would have hit before. The scales are hard (natural armor). That was the intent of the wording, sorry!

They all failed to AC. Two of them failed only because of the mage armor and would have hit before. The scales are hard (natural armor). That was the intent of the wording, sorry!

Oh, wait for shield next round :)

Kalem, I don't have any debuffs... I mean, I think that Bards can have them, but not how mine is built. I can't reduce the AC for you at all... and apparently I am only going to be able to hit on a 20, so not sure I can help at all, actually.

Honestly glad this is just a vision. I'll just stand and die, but actual Zamanda would be using Bard's Escape to teleport everyone to the secret pyramid exit just now. Queen down, uncontrollable way-worse evil unleashed on the world. Check.

Ilsa has a "that didn't happen" thing leftover from the deck of many though, I think, though I don't remember the details... so maybe that could make a difference here, or at some point.

Good call, Zamanda.

Maybe I use the "that didn't happen" card to say we didn't do this crazy suicidal dream sequence!

I certainly can't hit it. It does have my standard debuffs already, and I can get some more if it will fail its mind fog check for me.

Yeah he has some astronomical stats. I think if we had a couple full 9 level casters doing some hijinks with time stop and wish, this would be a bit different. But as is it's going to be an uphill battle to stick enough damage. Fingers crossed he can't heal himself...

Actually Ilsa, if you still have the undo, you might want to save it for that situation, since this is a vision anyway.

Honestly, I don't think that we're going to get that far. I am likely to die next turn, and if we can't hit him, everyone else will just follow.

Total damage: 154 + 61 + 193 = 408

Yay smite-song-scythe crits! Maybe some extra elemental damage too. Even if Kalem goes down, he will have given a good showing.

Alright, I fired off my one-off secret weapon. Assuming Kazavon doesn't have fortification or contingencies, that's 799 damage total. If he does have some contingencies, maybe he'll fail one of the 7 fort saves coming his way, and if either of the crits stuck, he'll at least be staggered and not full attacking us for a bit.

799 damage. “Moderate wounds”

lol!

I kind of put up a joke post... so if we need to be serious and you guys think you can win, just replace the whole thing with "Zamanda delays her turn."

I thought of one other idea but couldn't figure out how to make it work.... if I could get the cursed chatter ring on it, I bet that would incapacitate it as well... I think that would take more than one roll though, and no way am I going to get more than one lucky roll in a row, so I guess not worth rolling to see. Would have been funny though, if I could have figured out how.

Ok, it seems Bashiel really found Kazavon's weakness and capitalized on that. TAC 5 (10 with mage armor and haste) against smite evil is a dead end xD

You got a bit lucky with the storm breath finishing in just 1 round, if it had been a few more rounds there, Kalem would have been struck with another 90+ electrical damage (free action) and could have easily perished. Still, Bashiel's touch AC would have left the dragon badly injured, but without Kalem's critical, still at 28 hp, and he might have had a real chance to kill more of you or even all.

So now, you can choose, to make this become the real end, or proceed with stabbing the thing with Serithtial before the ritual completes.

In general I am inclined to leave the decision to Bash, since that's who had the vision in the story.

If I were forced to choose, then I would choose the non-vision events, because I think it is wiser not to have risked that battle, and put an end to it sooner.

My question is--is there any benefit to making it real? Have we actually killed Kazavon and prevented him from coming back in the future, or are those fangs lying there in the dust just the seeds of the whole thing happening over again?

Good idea on the call. Very nice way to tie it all in, and I agree on leaving it to Bashiel.

I could very well be wrong, but I remember reading that the only way to permanently kill Kazavon is to destroy all of his relics, and we only destroyed one. So even with this being true, I don’t think that he will stay dead.

Regardless of how effective or not actually defeating Kazavon this way would be, I think we signed up for a "just for fun" fight so that's what it should be. My vote is for this scene to remain a vision and for us to otherwise continue from the non-vision events.

So it is decided, so shall it be! It was fun. :)

Okay, so are we done with the game, or do we need to hunt down ways to destroy this stuff... the blood pool, the fangs, etc.?

(I'm all for continuing, don't get me wrong, but is this the end of the published adventure / the end of what our DM signed up for, or is there any more?)

You have indeed fully finished the AP, congratulations!!! :)

There is only pending coming back to Korvosa, if you wish so, and figuring out how the different pieces fall and the political control of the city ends up.

We can then resolve in narrative mode the future and destiny of your characters. Some or all of you could take the mission of destroying the left artifacts if you wish so. Or you can pursue some more personal goals, your characters deserve it really after almost 5 years of hard work :D

Very cool! I'm not used to there being so many loose ends at the end of a campaign, but it makes sense - the whole campaign is about saving Korvosa and that's basically done, but there's still higher level adventure to be had if desired.

I'm in to head back to Korvosa and wrap up with some narrative description on what comes next for Bashiel. There's a lot he's going to want to do :)

Ok people, I think we have hit the end here!

Please, proceed to write a last post with whatever your character's future looks like (if you wish, if you prefer to just leave it here it is also fine :D). Do not be shy to write up things that involve NPCs, things will end as you wish with them.

Once you are done, I will publish a last ending post trying to sum up things. I would be grateful to be the one to put THE END to this story.

I’ll get my post up in a day or so. But it’s been an absolute blast. I thank everyone here for such a wonderful experience, with special thanks to GM Rutseg, who made this possible.

I don't know if I really have an ending for Zamanda. Her character has already come a long way, but I don't think she is settling down or staying here. She'd wait and see if they could find how to destroy the artifacts and then go with Bash (and whoever else) to make sure that happens. Personally, she'd make sure her family is taken care of, and might hook up with Sabina if Sabina keeps staying at her place, but it also might be weird because Zamanda killed the queen and all, so not sure it would work. She'll likely just keep wandering, addicted to adventuring and feeling like a hero... maybe look into the whole angel thing and whether there is religious significance to who she is now, try to figure out that side of her life, find other Aasimars, etc. She's gotten to this point, which is amazing, but she's still searching.