DM Carbide's PFS#8-07: From the Tome of Righteous Repose (Inactive)

Game Master John Woodford

Kel takes a semi-defensive stance as the Mohrg paralyzes two of his friends, and sighs.
Why me? Why is it always weird, ugly ass things like this?

Nevertheless, he takes a quick step to tumble past the thing, and then takes two swings at it, faster than usual.
Using a Ki point for an extra attack.

Attack 1: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14
Damage: 1d6 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14
Sneak Attack: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Attack 2: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29
Damage: 1d6 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17
Sneak Attack: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Crit Confirm: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13
Damage: 1d6 + 12 ⇒ (1) + 12 = 13

Acrobatics to Avoid AoO: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (4) + 19 = 23

Shadow Clone Doubles: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Round 2 (ongoing; rearranged):

Initiative order
Mohrg-acted
Aldebert
Celidrian-acted
Chaul-paralyzed
Kel-acted
Jeb-
Alektara-

Celidrian tags the creature with a magic missile, then Kel attempts to tumble past it. The mohrg is too quick for Kel, but the swashbuckler nimbly avoids a tongue-lashing before stabbing it. I'll give you the sneak attack damage if Alektara isn't paralyzed.

Aldebert, Jeb, and Alektara up!

Mohrg: AC 23 T 15 FF 18 HP: -43* HP

FORT vs DC 21: 1d2 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

Alektara succumbs to the effects of the Mohrg's attack...

I rolled the sneak attack just in case. I was hoping she wouldn't get paralyzed, but oh well. It happens.

Jeb and Al have their attacks yet to go. No pressure on Al, though--he just has to roll well.

Aldebert steps up. "Because Agent Na-yargh, the gods are cruel and the universe wishes our deaths. If it is any consolation, they have yet to kill me! BWAHAHAHAHAHA"

Mathilda, strike #1, RS, DA, PBS: 1d20 + 13 - 2 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 13 - 2 - 2 + 1 = 19
Damage: 1d10 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 1 = 13
Mathilda, strike #2, RS, DA, PBS: 1d20 + 13 - 2 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 13 - 2 - 2 + 1 = 16
Damage: 1d10 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 1 = 13
Mathilda, strike #3, RS, DA, PBS: 1d20 + 8 - 2 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 8 - 2 - 2 + 1 = 23
Damage: 1d10 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 6 + 1 = 11

So much for rolling well.

i just realized in my haste to post i messed up the die roll post for the fort save.

Round 2 (ongoing; rearranged):

Initiative order
Mohrg-acted
Aldebert-acted
Celidrian-acted
Chaul-paralyzed
Kel-acted
Jeb-
Alektara-paralyzed

Two crossbow bolts fail to penetrate the mohrg's obdurate body, but the third sinks into the mass of entrails in its ribcage.

Jeb, over to you!

Mohrg: AC 23 T 15 FF 18 HP: -54 HP

Jeb keeps shooting!
Pistelero!: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 12 + 1 = 23 for 1d8 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 5 + 1 = 12 damage! Spending a grit point to UP CLOSE AND DEADLY!Additional damage: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 2) = 3
Pistelero!: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 7 + 1 = 12 for 1d8 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 5 + 1 = 13 damage!

One of Jeb's bullets finds its mark, but the other whizzes by the creature's head.

Round 3 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Mohrg-acted
Aldebert
Celidrian-
Chaul-paralyzed
Kel-
Jeb-
Alektara-

The mohrg then turns its unwanted attentions to Kel. One skeletal hand claws at the swashbuckler despite the shadowy forms around him (unless you try to parry, take 12 HP), but Kel avoids both the other claw and the tongue. He also pulls away in time to keep the foul thing from holding onto him.

Everyone who isn't paralyzed can act!

Mohrg: AC 23 T 15 FF 18 HP: -69 HP

Celidrian uses his wand again, hitting the mohrg with a magic missile.

mm dmg: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Jeb fires some more!
Pistolero!: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 12 + 1 = 22 for 1d8 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 5 + 1 = 10 damage! Jeb spends his 4th Grit point of the day to get UP CLOSE AND DEADLY! Additional damage: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 5) = 9
Pistolero!: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 7 + 1 = 12 for 1d8 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 5 + 1 = 10 damage!

i believe she was paralyzed for 1 round and you do not have her marked as paralyzed on your list so I will have her act, please notify me if that is wrong.

Alektara feels her muscles again and swings her elven blade at the foe once more...

ECB1+PA: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27...DMG: 1d10 + 14 ⇒ (1) + 14 = 15

ECB2+PA: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14...DMG: 1d10 + 14 ⇒ (7) + 14 = 21

before taking a 5 ft step to her back right...

Between Jeb and Celidrian, the creature falls!

Out of combat!

The chest contains a number of items that you believe to be personal effects of the deceased, probably set aside for next of kin. Among them are a searing arrow, an aegis of recovery, and an immovable rod.

Alektara, the paralysis was for one minute, not one round, and I forgot to mark that on the initiative order. Academic now, though.

Jeb pauses, then moves over toward the paralyzed folks, checking them for bleeding injuries or obvious trauma. "Can anyone get these folks unfrozen? Will this wear off or is it forever?"

@ GM-Roger

Kel attempts to parry the creature's claw with his rapier, but right at that moment the assault from his allies cuts the creature down!
That was a nasty one mates. Everyone ok?

He moves to inspect the rest of the room to make sure no more nasty surprises are waiting...

"Sorry, I can't unparalyze, but these things tend to wear off in time, unless they are turned to stone or something... but they seem to still be fleshy to me." Celidrian turns his attention to identifying the magic items which was apparently successful, since you told us what they were, lol. By the time he's done, folks should be starting to come out of paralysis, at least I hope so.

Jeb nods, but stands by the paralyzed folk like a mother hen until they unfreeze. He helps them sit down, to recover from their ordeal.

After a minute Alektara starts to murmur and then move her hands... eventually with the assistance of the others she manages to move on her own and shoos them away...then she walks over to Chaul and waves her hand in his face to see if he is still there..."He took a worse hit than me so he may take a bit longer to regain control." she says and stays near the man for when he does recover and needs help.

The paralysis wears off in time with nothing worse to show for it than a foul streak of mohrg fluids where it hit with its tongue. Re the items, I figured I'd just save some time and rolls.

Where to now?

"Light of the Dawn!" cries Chaul.

"That was horrible!"

He gets down on bended knees, thanking the dawnflower for providing such steadfast companions.

"You were all magnificent. And I contributed nothing." he says, shame faced.

"nothing to feel shame for... you have done much for us all on this little adventure... We each contribute as we can, when we can."

Jeb scoffs. "You got sh!tcanned by an undead monstrosity. Ain't nothing shameful about that. It kept one of us from being eaten by that thing. Get off your knees and let's soldier on."

"Is anyone injured?" he asks.

"I am thankful it didn't come up on us from the rear when we were fighting the ghost."

He looks at the various items that were magical.

"These are enchanted, can any of you identify them?"

Items already identified. I think Alektara and Kel each took a hit.

Realising that leading in every case is perhaps not wise, Chaul hangs back a little, letting others enter the next room first.

"I could heal you now if you like.. how badly hurt are you all?"

Aldebert cheers. "Another victory for Taldor, the Society and the living everywhere around the Inner Sea."

Jeb nods at Aldebert. "Let's finish here and we can toast Taldor, the Society and everybody living later." Jeb reloads his pistol quickly.

Where to now? There's still a bunch of unexplored space to the west, and a bit on the south end.

"Shall we go this way?" Alektara asks the group after they all gather their bearings. She walks into the hallway that leads to the west.

Jeb nods and follows the elf woman.

There's a short hallway leading south from where you are; it jogs east and ends at a flooded stairway going down. The water is clear, and there seems to be a slight current in it.

Jeb looks at the water and sighs deeply. Keeping his pistol above water, he starts to wade in. "Remember me as a bad-arse, eh?"

The staircase seems to go down quite a ways; unless Jeb has some way of breathing under water, descending safely would be impossible.

Spluttering and spitting out water, Jeb emerges, shaking like a Labrador. "Too deep unless someone's got gills or magic enough to give 'em to me."

"If one of the magik types detects magic down there then i guess we could continue.. if not then we can pass."

"If the magic is deep enough, chances are it will be blocked... but I'll try."

Celedrian casts detect magic and turns his sight to the stairway and what lies below.

"If we need to explore down there, I can enable us to breathe water. But not until tomorrow. It would appear that the morrow this servant of the sun will be somewhat water focused."

"A great many things here seem to be difficult to bypass by virtue of unpreparedness. Is there any reason we should not regroup and reassess? It's only a tomb, after all. These moldy warrior of old won't mind the living taking some time to rest now will they" asks Aldebert after picking up those bolts that didn't break on the ground.

I plan on just counting my misses and marking half of those bolts as broken and useless. Sound good?

I think you have to mark off all the hits as well, unless you use durable arrows

"I suggest we explore further so we have full knowledge of the challenges we will face on the morrow."

did we finish room 14? IF so, how about the room to the south of it?

Celidrian detects no magic in the water.

The party makes its way back to the ornate nobles' crypt, which is still filled with the echoes of ancient despair, then looks to the south. That chamber contains three white marble statues of faceless humanoids in robes. The walls are covered with a single mural, faded by time but still showing thousands of similar featureless white spirits streaming towards a great pillar in the distance. Chaul and Celidrian (and anyone else making a DC 10 Knowledge (Planes or Religion) check) recognizes this as a depiction of the River of Souls and Pharasma's Spire.

There is nothing else of interest in the room. A stairway exits the room to the south.

know planes: 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 8 + (3) = 12 barely, lol good thing you can't crit fail a skill check

Celedrian passes on what he recognizes of the mural. "Shall we continue south, then?"

Jeb nods to Celedrian and gestures with his pistol. "I'm with you."

Alektara moves to the stairs and looks around...

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

I'd mark those off as well yes. 16 Bolts are gone, I recovered 5.

Aldebert follows gingerly. "I do not like this one bit. I like it even less then that time during the reclamation of Demgazi."

Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28

Alektara sees a narrow hallway extending to the south before branching to the west and opening to the east. She hears a faint susurrus from somewhere up ahead.

Chaul brings the light of Saeraen to shine on the corridor ahead of Alektara.

"What do we have here?"

You should all know what to do here.

Which is to say,
Name:
Character Name:
PFS #:
Day Job Check (if any):

Name: James Martin
Character: Jeb Shakes
PFS: #1904-6
Day Job: Thieves Guild Membership, Sleight of Hand: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (7) + 15 = 22

Name: Steven Stewart
Character Name: Kel Na'Yaa
PFS #: 174394-2
Day Job Check (if any): Profession Bartender: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Name: JAF0
Character Name: Wizard of the Coast (aka Kel)
PFS #: 52335-9
Day Job craft alchemy with crafter's fortune: 1d20 + 17 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 17 + 5 = 42
faction: DA

This might get confusing with Steven's character, also named Kel, so I'll go by my character's full name for this game - Celidrian

ooh - sweet day job roll...

Name : B Viggers
Character Name: Chaul Drammerson
PFS: 100387-4
Day job: None
FAction: Silver Crusade

Name: qwerty1971
Character Name: Alektara Bluemoon
PFS #: 114768-11
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Day Job Check (if any): NA

figured we needed some melee. the other character I was going to bring was an Arcanist

What do we need? I have a crazy taldane crossbowman, a melee occultist that needs to undergo some retraining before we start and a really dumb proto-rage prophet (levels 7, 6 and 5 respectively).

Edit: Never mind. I've got it figured out. Hope you guys don't mind crazy people.

Name : Greg Rebelo
Character Name: Aldebert Dunitee
PFS: 43451-4
Day job: Hunting Lodge: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26
Faction: Sovereign Court

For what it's worth, Kel is extremely effective in melee. He solo'd one of the dragons in Shadow Lodge. I hope that helps you decide.

EDIT: Apparently I was ninja'd like an hour ago. I'm a terrible Swashninja.

It's Ok. Aldebert is a terrible shot. He makes up for it in volume.

Albert had a bit of bad luck with his rolls, but pretty much single-handedly did all the damage in the last two scenario's.

It looks like a good balance, we have traps covered with a sneaky ninja and an investigator, them and a wizard for skills. Chaul is a heal-bot. And two gunslingers to lay down the damage.

Gameplay post up later; currently have phone access only.

Aldabert, the purchases are fine. Anyone else buying anything?

I'm one fame short of getting the Phylactery of Positive Channeling.

Curse you module sub part Fame!

I've got a pre-gen chronicle due for Chaul in the next day or so, that will bump him up to 7th. Will that cause any problems?

No. You're in high subtier already.

I can hold off applying it until we finish here if you prefer, otherwise I'll do the bump up later this week when I find some free time.

I'm going to be afk a lot over the next few days, so posting frequency will be slow.

Map is updated. I'll get a real post up in a bit.

I just got an awaited chronicle and realized Celidrian just made 6th lvl... will that change our tier? if it's a problem, I will drop out... otherwise, I'll just level him up and continue on.

No. You're in high subtier already.

I think we're good. :D

Today's been hectic, and the next few days promise to be likewise. (In a good way, though--my wife and I went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show this afternoon, and we're going to be doing a lot of cooking tomorrow for visiting Christmas and the day after.) Posts when I get the chance.

Just a heads-up that I won't be able to post anything until tomorrow. I'm off in the wilds of Upper Michigan, and have almost no data access.

I'll be away for a week from Saturday, so expect my posting to go very quiet (I may have internet, but no guarantees). Please NPC me as required.

Celidrian, what's your bonus to Initiative?

+2, now added to his status lines

Thanks.

I'm having a major WiFi headache. It should be sorted in a couple of days. Posting will probably be scarse, so bot me if needed please.

I'm going to be on the road most of the day, but should be able to post something tonight.

I will be away for a few days... will have internet access in the evenings but not sure how reliable it will be... just a forewarning that I might be unable to post... if that happens, feel free to bot me as needed.

Will do. Any preferred actions if (hypothetically speaking, of course) the party gets into a major fight?

ETA: Before we get any further, Chaul, did you ever heal the damage you took from the archon?

Good question. Yes, Chaul would have. We have a wand of CSW, and he'll happily use it.

CLW: 3d8 + 5 ⇒ (7, 6, 6) + 5 = 24

I'm happy being three down.

OK. Busy day at work, and didn't have time to get a post up. We'll get rolling again tomorrow.

I just found out that I'd misread part of the scenario, and the archon shouldn't have been there. Chaul, take back the damage and the wand charge(s).

Is Chaul aware the phantoms are outsiders? IF so he has alignment channel, so he could try and effect them. But to be fair, the undead are higher on his hit list.

Yes--you've got a rank in Knowledge (Planes), and between that and your ranks in Knowledge (Religion) you know they're not undead and have a guess that they're outsiders. Besides, I think Celidrian made his check; the player may not have said they were outsiders, but it makes sense that the character would have mentioned it.

Question for the more experienced, since I've never seen this come up, and it'll probably matter a lot. The ghost's katana is resolved as a modified noncorporeal touch attack. Is it possible for Kel to parry it without a ghost touch weapon?

Honestly, I have no idea. I don't think so. If it were me, I would rule no, in lieu of an "official" answer. If it were possible, I would see it being more of a "dodge and strike" than a "parry and riposte".

If it were me as GM, and his weapon is magical, I would have a 50% chance of being able to parry, same as a normal magical weapon having a 50% chance of effecting an incorporeal creature.

That's a 3.x thing that was changed in PF; magic weapons do half damage, and no longer have the 50% chance to affect.

Ahh I was thinking of the next bit of the rule

..spells and effects that do not cause damage only have a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal creature.

Thanks for the comments; sometimes I think we're all still learning the ins and outs of the system.

The system keeps changing too :-) New interactions working in unanticipated ways.

There is a certain amount of moving target, true.

Celidrian fires another magic missile at the ghost...

[dice=mm dmg]1d4+1

Remember the last thing the Venture-Captain told you in the briefing:

"If you're getting tired, running low on resources, retreat and rest. Got it?"

It's OK to nova on this one, leave, and rest a day.

I'll be scarce Saturday and most of Sunday--we have a bunch of people coming over late afternoon, and I'm going to be cooking a lot. Right now the house smells of chilies; I roasted ten poblanos in the oven, skinned and seeded them as best I could, roasted a couple of pounds of tomatilloes, and made a bunch of salsa verde. More different kinds of chili tomorrow, along with lentils, feijoada, macquechoux, and cold sesame noodles (for Lunar New Year).

all sounds yummy!! enjoy!

Hey, sorry for my absence the last few days, my two year old brought home some kind of demon flu and everyone in the house promptly failed their saves. I'm on the mend and updating all my games now.

Completely forgot I got a caravan for Chaul a while back, so he does have a day job

diplomacy: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (8) + 18 = 26 50gp