I've reported the scenario, and am working on the chronicles. They'll all be Slow progression, so 1.5 xp, 2 Prestige, and 8,883 gp if you want to get started on purchases.
[dice=Perform]10+18+4
I'm indifferent on finding a backfill for Kali. New blood is always fun but it's going to be a tall order to find someone interested in joining the fun this late into the campaign.
Asvald, do you have any modifiers to your Day Job roll, or to the amount you earn?
10 GP x 1.5 = 15 GP
I'm imagining a PbP of the original Tomb of Horrors now, where the DM messages the first character to crawl into the Sphere of Annihilation trap about what happened to them, and the DM & player agree to put up some innocuous spoiler-protected dialogue about the character continuing to explore.
Not sure why that came to mind just now.
Perish the thought.
As it were.
Nice visual effect, Senja.
I didn't find anything specific about that in the Bestiary description of gaze attacks, but the core rules were not known for their stellar organization.
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Yeah, it's definitely not clear. In the gaze entry in Universal Monster rules (which you already read, Carbide), the last sentence says "The creature can also veil its eyes, thus negating its gaze ability."
Since glitterdust says "A cloud of golden particles covers everyone and everything in the area, causing creatures to become blinded," it seems to me that the creature's eyes are actually covered in the particles, which should "veil its eyes" and thus block the gaze effect. That doesn't answer the larger question of the blinded condition blocking gaze effects, but it seems like a reasonable answer specific to glitterdust.
I don't mean to push for a particular outcome here either way, since the thing is so close to dead - but I did want to look into it, since my approach was based on blocking its gaze attack.
It's a reasonable argument, and I'll look for past cases on the boards. In this case, as you say, it doesn't matter much.
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I definitely didn't find any consensus (or many discussions about it, for that matter). One thing that was generally agreed was that an active gaze ability that relies on actively gazing at a specific target can't be used if the creature is blinded (unless it has blindsight or some other targeting ability that's usable while blind).
Unfortunately, that doesn't help here because the cephalophore doesn't have to "target" anyone to use its ability — so it really does come down to "are your eyes covered in glitter, or is it just a cloud of glitter everywhere preventing you from seeing".
From a pure physics perspective, if light can't get to your eyes for you to see, then presumably light can't get from your eyes to other people's eyes...?
The room with the shadowfire elementals has one truly horrible part--basically, the author wrote a TPK event into the scenario, apparently assuming that no one would ever do what you seem to be planning to.
Just saying.
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Well, that's not ominous at all.
I'm reading this to mean that bad things will happen if we break through that east door, though I'm not sure because it's not in the room with the shadowfire elementals, so maybe it has to do with not finishing off the elementals or dealing with something in that room?
If it's the latter, anyone have a good plan for vanquishing the shadowfire critters? The anti-magic effect is very limiting indeed, though at least Senja's hexes work in it, so I could keep stacking debuffs on the elementals.
Ideas, anyone?
How are you set for ranged attacks?
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Senja has a mundane light crossbow! Looks like Eva does too, and Torque has a heavy crossbow. Asvald has somehow made it to 9th level without a ranged weapon at all. So we are poorly set for ranged attacks, I would say.
I think the idea of fighting them one at a time in the doorway makes sense, and we can have the front-liners rotate through that role if they get beat up. A couple of things occur to me:
They go incorporeal when moving - so they might be able to move through the walls and get behind us in the hallway. But they don't seen to have much interest in leaving the room, right, Carbide?
Also, the dispelling effect and the fireballs - I don't remember if they reached beyond the room itself. Do we have any sense whether those things would affect us in the hallway?
Splash from the fireballs extended into the hall, but no one in the hall was ever a target.
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Okay, then it seems this approach is worth a try. Let's brainstorm a bit on buffs, debuffs, etc.
Daylight on something carried by one of the front-liners seems like a good idea, since they are shadow creatures.
Senja will drop Misfortune, Evil Eye on each of them (though will be limited by which ones have already been affected).
Can put the Ward hex on each front-liner (+3 to AC and saves until hit or fail a save).
Persistent Blindness on one or two of them? I'm not sure that the spells will take if the target is within the area of the dispel effect.
Other thoughts, gang?
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Since we don't know what the TPK threat is, I think resting is a dicey move. And I think we still have Resist Energy up (I didn't see anything to suggest it had been dispelled in the elemental room), but it's vs cold, so that doesn't help us much.
Here's what I propose (I've moved tokens on map to illustrate the plan, but we have not actually moved yet):
We have Asvald be our front-liner, where I've put him on the map. He puts up Raging Song and whatever other buffs he can, and Torque casts Daylight on Asvald's belt buckle or something before we go down the hall.
Torque stands behind Asvald and heals him as needed, doing whatever else he can to support - and stepping into Asvald's place if he goes down or needs to withdraw.
Senja stands just around the corner, where he can still see into the room to drop hexes and perhaps try a spell or two, in the hopes it doesn't get counterspelled. Senja will cast Haste on everyone just before we get into position (unless Torque has another Blessing of Fervor, which might be better).
Eva stands behind Senja, wondering what the hell all that noise is around the corner, and stands ready to run up and help, or run away, as needed.
It's possible we'll need to attack the elementals to get them to come after Asvald, so he can have Senja's crossbow to get their attention if needed.
Sound dumb enough to work?
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Two questions for you, Carbide:
Would you allow the Fortune hex to apply to a caster level check? Would be great to have a reroll on a Dispel Magic, but I don't know if it counts as any of the types of checks listed. If it does work, I'll put it on Senja before haste and then cackle my way up the hallway.
And do you need one of us to write up a post describing all of this in detail, or can we just say 'the well-prepared Pathfinders implement the plan they have crafted'"
Write up the full plan here in Discussion, so we can all reference it.
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Based on previous plan posted, with slight revisions:
Asvald in front line. Casts Good Hope as pre-buff, puts up Raging Song.
Torque next in line, casts Blessing of Fervor as pre-buff, as well as Daylight on something (like a copper piece) that Asvald can drop on the ground just as the fight starts.
Senja next in line, then Eva.
Once everyone is in position, Torque can shoot his crossbow over Asvald, to start the fight (this way Asvald has a weapon in hand when the fight starts).
Pre-buff spells will be cast when we're in position right at the edge of the room, then Torque will shoot at an elemental.
Would still like your thoughts on whether Fortune hex applies to caster level checks, Carbide.
Senja, the Fortune hex won't apply to a caster level check. (Nor will Misfortune, as I read the description.)
At your discretion, and knowing that none of you are carrying reach weapons, you may have collected one of the guisarmes from the emerald automatons that you fought in the first room.
If you're interested in the gory details of the trap, I'll put them behind a spoiler tag.
The entire chamber is a massive conjuring trap. As soon as any living creature native to the Material Plane approaches within 10 feet of the central flame or the statue, the ancient spells guarding this room awaken, draining magic from the intruder to empower a spell crucible in the middle of the room, which in turn summons Yarrix’s servants.
The spell crucible summons three shadowfire elementals (see Creatures, below). Then the crucible makes a targeted dispel magic (CL 12th) against each non-elemental creature in the chamber. As long as the spell crucible is active, any creature casting a spell or using a spell-like ability in this room is immediately subject to a counterspell (dispel magic, CL 12th). If the crucible succeeds in dispelling an existing spell or counterspelling a spell being cast, the affected creature or caster is targeted by a fireball 1 round later (10-ft. burst, Reflex DC 14 half). The fireball deals 1d6 points of fire damage per level of the triggering creature’s dispelled spell (or the combined level of all spells if the crucible dispelled multiple spells on that creature).
(NB: the elementals are healed by fire damage at a 1:1 ratio of points healed to damage.)
The chanting generates an unholy aura that fills the entire room as long as at least one shadowfire elemental is chanting. The elementals speak in Ignan and endlessly chant: “Our souls burn and die, our sacrifices call across the void, these souls burn and die to summon you, Yarrix, mistress of the Void!”
(...)
They (the elementals) do not immediately attack, and instead begin chanting, beginning a ritual to summon more of their kind. If the PCs ignore the chanting elementals, the elementals ignore them—but after 10 minutes, they summon a fourth elemental. After 1 hour (or when the GM deems appropriate), the four elementals together summon a neothelid.
I have no clue. It was surprising to run into when I was setting things up, that's for sure.