DM Brainiac's Ironfang Invasion: Table 1 (Inactive)

Game Master DM Brainiac

I'm waiting for confirmation that Wulfram has finished his meditation.

Yes, you have meditated successfully.

Does it look like we need to dismantle the log fence to go inside the cave?

No, you have a key to the gate.

I think we want to have Rogar shoot one of the Gorgons from ambush (not too close), and then fall back to the rest of us at a defensive position. Hopefully we can fight from behind a Wind Wall and kill them before anyone gets petrified.

Wulfram help me understand where Eustoma would be standing at the wind wall. If I'm on the other side of the wind wall, the arrows are useless.

I'm trying to understand how I can contribute to the fight. I have spells, but those are mostly ranged as well.

Perhaps you can throw some summoned creatures at them to delay them, so we can shoot for longer. You could be in front of where the Wind Wall would be, and retreat if they get too close.

I can probably take one out if I take some Burn and don’t miss. From there, my insane Fort modifier should hopefully keep me safe from being petrified.

Being able to move from in front to behind the Wind Wall is probably the best option. We can have the melee take place with Sia and Nik'o just on the edge of the wall, so the gorgon's breath doesn't reach them?

That should work. They are big enough that the wind shouldn't affect them too much when attacking.

Okay then! Let's get this road on the show.

Okay then! Let's get this road on the show.

And let bygones be byg- No wait.

Wulfram's going to delay. He wants to give others a chance to act before he puts up the Wind Wall. One option is to melee the Gorgon, but I don't know if Sia and Niko have the movement to get there. If they do, he could surround the Gorgon with the Wind Wall.

I also don't know who can see the creature at this point. Wulfram's vision is limited to 40 ft from the light spell.

Wulfram, you can see the gorgon clearly after Karla hits it with her glitterdust.

I really struggled with what to do with the Wind Wall this round. If I placed it back around the party, we can't help Rogar if he fails his save (a roll of one is always possible). I'm going to wait until we can engage the gorgon in melee, and then surround it with the barrier, so it can't easily move past it.

Sounds good. I completely missed at first that Rogar would be on the opposite side of us, meaning the gorgons could charge at him instead of us...

Pele may not understand conversational common, but she knows all the words related to fire. :)

I think Rogar's CMB should be 7 (8 BAB -1 Str), not 5. Not that it's going to make a difference with that die roll — I'm pretty sure a huge snake is going to have a very high CMD. :(

Edit: Brainfart! I'm wrong — 5 CMB is the right number.

We need to concentrate on killing the snake before it kills Rogar.

I wish I was full BAB. Fortunately, the kineticist gets enough accuracy/stat boosts that I can still Blast plenty well. It just doesn't translate that well to.... well, everything else really.

On the bright side, it'll take more than a few rounds before I'm actually dead. On the not-so-bright side, I'll be knocked out long before then.

Note to self: don't run into melee after accepting tons of Burn.

Now we have to figure out how to get 21 freed prisoners back to Longshadow! How many Teleports can Navah cast per day? I'm presuming that she can take 4 people with her at a time.

If you rest here overnight, Navah can use most of her 5th and 6th level slots and get everybody back to Longshadow in the morning.

It looks like there's no specific class restriction on using staves, other than being a spell-caster. Recharging them requires having the appropriate spells on you spell list. Burning Hands is on Wulfram's spell list, but RAW Fireball and Wall of Fire aren't (he casts those as spirit spells).

Wulfram carries a longspear, so it might make more sense for Karla to have the staff.

Going over the playtest documents now. I will likely run the adventure
Doomsday Dawn here, starting it in a week or two. I wanted to give you guys first chance at reserving a spot if you are interested.

Oh, yes please! That sounds great.

I'd love to play.

I'm interested.

Everybody has gained enough XP to reach level 10!

Here we go! I've been waiting for this... (and by that, I mean I did the level up weeks ago because of the cool stuff I get. Well, one thing, really. But it's really cool.)

Summary:
+14 HP
+1 Ref, Fort save
+1 BAB
Utility Talent: Earth Glide
Skills: Perception, Stealth, Acrobatics, Profession (stonemason), Climb, Intimidate

Earth Glide, here we go! Oh, this battle's going to be fun.

Level 10 woot. Woot!!!

Wulfram lvl 10:

Skill Ranks:

1 Diplomacy
1 Fly
1 Knowledge Nature
1 Perception
1 Spellcraft

Background skill ranks:
1 Handle Animal
1 Profession Soldier

Hex: Flame Curse
Cinder Dance now give Acrobatic Steps

FCB: +1 HP

If Wulfram goes up a level before training the freed slaves, he can use Profession Soldier (+7) instead of Perform Oratory (-1).

I'll track down our loot and figure out what our level-up budget is here in a bit.

Some questions regarding Earth Glide:

What sort of senses would Rogar have when using Earth Glide? Tremorsense would work, I assume, but not sight, while hearing would be muffled?

Can he take a 5ft step when Earth Gliding? If so, any restriction on taking a 5ft step straight up?

Can he breathe while using Earth Glide?

So far as I can tell, I'm all but blind when Earth Gliding unless I use a move action (or take Burn) to gain Tremorsense 30. Next level, though, I'm going to take Stone Sense as my feat, which gives me constant 10 ft. Tremorsense, which will help a lot.

Hearing I'm less sure about (probably muffled if I'm adjacent to the ground, or deaf if I'm further away), but I suppose I can always poke my head out for recon if Tremorsense doesn't work.

Presumably, I can take a 5 ft. step straight up or down if I want (I can move through anything but metal 'as easily as a fish through water').

While I can't breathe underground, I can hold my breath for 52 rounds (5 minutes) while just taking move actions, or 26 rounds (2.5 minutes approximately) while taking full round actions, before I even need to start making checks (having CON as a primary stat is awesome), and even when making checks, I autosucceed them all for another 16 rounds, and at any point, I stick my head aboveground and that time is reset. Eventually I might grab a Necklace of Adaptation or something similar, but I doubt I'll ever need to stay away from air for more than 3-4 minutes anyway.

Oh boy. I underestimated how long it's been since out last loot divide....

So, looking at the edit history of the doc, nothing since May 4th has been tallied up. This.... may take a while.

Okay, so working my way through the loot list, a couple of notes:

did the Barghests from the Munitions camp have any loot? I can't seem to find it on the gameplay or discussion threads. Same with the Hobgoblin Troops we fought.

I also realized that we can't actually improve internal defenses any more. Could I use that roll for Profession (soldier) for training? It would be a result of 24 instead.

Eustoma is updated. She got a level 2 and a level 4 spell.

Bull's Strength, Flame Strike

No loot from the barghests or the troop.

Wulfram and Rogar can both use Profession (soldier) to train the rescued slaves. I'll allow Eustoma's Initimidate check to work, so that all three groups are trained!

Earth glide!

I think you make a tunnel when you "glide." I wonder if someone can follow in your wake ;)

Ok, looking at level 5 spells, my head is spinning a bit. I can also swap spells from my list at this level.

So here's a question: I can use personal spells on Nik'o. How would she react to spells like Dragon Form? Elemental Shape?! Monstrous Physique?

I could use Alter Self and change Nik'o and Karla into Hobgoblins, then DD into their camp...

She would likely be confused but as long as you practice with her, she'd be okay with the shape changing spells. Of course, she'd still be only able to make cat noises, even in humanoid form.

Wulfram could charge the staff once a day.

Btw, we haven't figured who should have it. I see Wulfram or Karla making better use of it. Karla has focused on battlefield, buffs, and utillity so far. The staff could shore up the direct damage, but it depends whether Wulfram wants to go melee regularly. the staff is a good way for him to soften up the other side first.

In any case, I'm fine with Wulfram having the staff.

I've started the thread for the playtest game. You can find it here.

Okay. In that case, the loot list should be basically up-to-date. I think the best strategy would be everyone claiming the stuff they most benefit from and then selling the rest, splitting that go evenly. Way less bookkeeping.

Also, to clarify something somewhat confusing from my last gameplay post: once people are done making things outside/people bunker down in the city, Rogar does his best to completely seal off the front gates, with an extra deep hole (at least 40 feet) in the area in front of it, and the gate itself completely filled in with essentially their own wall, 10 feet thick (5 feet of stone either side of the normal gate)

Wulfram is taking the Flame Curse Hex this level, so for a Standard Action, he can make an enemy vulnerable to fire (+50% damage) for 2 rounds. It would be good if Karla had a means to do fire damage. :)

When I claim an item, I delete it, or reduce the number listed, from the general list, and add it to Wulfram's column.

Wulfram is taking the Flame Curse Hex this level, so for a Standard Action, he can make an enemy vulnerable to fire (+50% damage) for 2 rounds. It would be good if Karla had a means to do fire damage. :)

Does this mean you think I should have the staff? Or that I should add some fire spells?

If Wulfram has the staff, he will have some action economy issues, because he want's to hold a spear; likely he would drop the staff, or just not take it out, whenever he gets close to the enemy. That's not to say that the staff is useless to him, just noting the limitation. The staff would add additional uses of spells he already has.

As for Karla's spells, keep in mind that I don't know your plans for your character, and I haven't looked at the build possibilities. Superficially, I can see the attraction of knowing something like Scorching Ray; down the line, the ability to cast a quickened Scorching Ray against a vulnerable enemy would be nice.

Ok, then let Karla take the staff for now, though she will need you to recharge it regularly, though this can be done diring downtime. That way, we can concentrate our fire when needed.

On a related note, I need some help choosing my only 5th level spell. I’m debating between the following:
-cloudkill: nice against mooks and armies
-teleport: obvious uses for keeping the legion on their toes. I could take scrying to make it even meaner
-seeming: to infiltrate
-angelic aspect: interesting buff for Nik’o (flight, DR, resistance combined)
-beast shape 3: other useful buff for Nik’o; more versatile, but less defenses
-permanency: could get very useful down the line, probably keep for later.

Any suggestions are welcome!

It's really tough picking just one 5th lvl spell! I'd pick something you're likely to use every day.

I think you want to get something like either Angelic Aspect or Beast Shape 3 eventually.

A couple of other ideas:
Fire Snake: adjustable area of effect makes targeting easy.
Roaming Pit: the idea of a pit that moves around collecting enemies sounds fun! Not useful against fliers.