DM Carbide's PFS Emerald Spire

Game Master John Woodford

Gotcha. So Mr. Goblin is up.

With four melee I'd expected inspired rage to be a big hit.

I may have to rethink things.

For those who are carefully scrutinizing Senja's alias, I just updated him. Hero Lab was not capturing the Alertness feat a witch gets from the proximity of his familiar, so I had to tweak that. And I gave him a +6 Headband of Vast Intelligence, but that shouldn't alter things much.

There's a button on the 'In Play' tab that marks you as near your familiar.

So there is. Thanks. I had checked other tabs but missed that one.

Going to give Kragnor the headband?

Going to give Kragnor the headband?

Now you've spoiled the surprise! Ah well, I guess I'll just give him the Greater Rod of Maximize Spell. So useful for rangers!

Are the goblins up now? Or are we waiting on a PC? I thought we were waiting on Melody, who healed Asvald.

I believe the goblins are up.

Yep--let me get something posted.

I'll be out of town most of this weekend; thought I'd have a chance to post today, but was mostly being domestic.

I can see this thread is getting active but I just started work at a new lab this week and have been really busy so please bot me if I'm holding things up and I'll catch up tonight. Same goes during the day for the rest of the week, but things should settle down by next week.

Thanks for the heads-up. Will do. So far you've used two channels and your CLW scroll; anything else?

I think I used both of my cure scrolls already. Should have 3 channels, 2 lightning arcs, and 3 bit o' lucks left for today.

I just got home so I'll catch up in a few minutes. The good news is that I think I found my lab home for the rest of my PhD program! Really enjoying it but I shouldn't have joined a corn evolution lab during harvest time, haha. They're keeping me busy but at least I get to be outside (which I enjoy but also means I'm not around the computer as much to check in on PbP).

Very cool! Hope this works out for you. How many more labs are you going to be working in this semester?

Most people rotate through three labs this semester and this is my second one but I'm pretty certain I'm going to stick in this one for good. I'll probably just go tell the last guy that I'm staying in this lab rather than waste a month rotating through his lab when I have no intention of working there long term.

That also gives you a little bit of a head start on your actual research, though I don't know how much difference a month or three will make. (It always seems to take longer than you think it will; at least, that was my experience, and the experience of most of the other people in my research group.)

Yeah, that's true, although it'll really just be making up for the three weeks I'll be gone in December when Mrs. Endless and I take our honeymoon to New Zealand. She still thinks I'm joking when I say I plan to walk the trail to Mordor and through my wedding ring into the fires of Mount Doom. But it HAS to be done.

Just so no one gets their finger bitten off.

For any of you who might be interested, I'm going to be running "From Shore to Sea" for PbP Gameday 3. Signup sheet is HERE. Character level range is 5-7.

I would but I've already played it. I can say that it is certainly a fun one, especially if you are a Lovecraft fan. It's essentially Shadows Over Innsmouth: The Module. If you haven't read that short story yet, I suggest you do so before playing the module because you'll get more out of it. Actually, I suggest you read it even if you don't play the module because it's just a great story.

Coincidentally I was considering running this one last week but then hesitated. If I run another module soon though I'll pick something else now so I don't steal players away from your game. I promise I will run it eventually though since it's a lot of fun.

I've been a Lovecraft fan for quite some time. Will probably reread Shadows to get into the mood, though--it's been a while.

I'd love to, Carbide, but I only have a couple of characters of the appropriate level, and I need to keep them free for a local con the weekend of Nov 8, which is cramping my PbP Gameday style significantly. Unless you feel like holding off your start date by a week, I'll have to pass.

I'll see how the roster develops; holding off for a week when the game day spans three months wouldn't be a great hardship, though.

A few days ago I saw a discussion about the first level of Emerald Spire, and there was a PFS (I think) run of it in which one of the players brought in a human battle oracle with the lame curse.

This was, as you can probably guess, a far from optimal choice. Offhand, if I wanted to make a character that would be an optimal melee combatant for this level, I'd go with a tiefling barbarian with the Nimble Steps feat.

Was Asvald able to get into the room with a double move?

Yes, as you see.

Ah.

Also, ouch.

Is it difficult terrain in this room too?

Yes.

I'd love to, Carbide, but I only have a couple of characters of the appropriate level, and I need to keep them free for a local con the weekend of Nov 8, which is cramping my PbP Gameday style significantly. Unless you feel like holding off your start date by a week, I'll have to pass.

I've got at least one other person who may not be available by 11/1, so go ahead and put yourself on the list--I don't mind waiting a little.

Also, we're getting close to the end. Please give me your PFS numbers and day job rolls, if you have them.

#55162-22
Perform (sing): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

That was pretty fast!

10774-16

Oratory: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

PFS# 60133-10

No day job.

If you are going to run the next level of Emerald Spire, I'd like to continue.

Also, it looks like my cleric will be free by November 1st, so I placed her on the list for Shore to Sea.

Ok, it looks like I can't edit google docs from my phone, so I will add the cleric to the list when I get a chance.

@Kali: I think the idea was to play the entire thing. If you do certain levels at slow progression you can remain in tier with the same character for the whole module.

I've estimated based on my experience that APs take about 3 years to complete via pbp. But as this is a straight dungeon crawl with less exposition and/or sandboxing and as it is shorter than an entire AP I don't anticipate it will take quite that long but it's still going to take a while to complete the whole thing.

PFS# is 80015-7. No day job.

As for PbP gameday - I may or may not have a character free. I'll hold off on signing up for now and see what's happening as we get closer.

The early levels are going to go fairly quickly, I think, but some of the later ones get kind of hairy.

And I have a warning for everyone up front: the next level does not have the same terrain issues that this one does, but it does have some intermittent visibility issues. I don't know if the one-two hit was planned; it seems like quite a coincidence otherwise. I just want to give you all a heads-up so you won't be too upset when it happens.

ETA: Kali, I put you down on the sheet.

PFS #86776-5

Profession (Schoolteacher): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13

Eva is on slow progression.

I've estimated based on my experience that APs take about 3 years to complete via pbp.

I was in (the) one that completed in 120 days... ;)

@Eva: Well, three years for "standard" 1-2/day posting. But yeah, if you post more frequently obviously you'll finish earlier. 120 days is pretty incredible though, you guys must have been online 24/7.

Also, if you take Eva slow track this level you won't keep up with the rest of us throughout the rest of the dungeon and risk not being in tier for some of the later levels. The PFS rules sheet for this module suggests the following:

Level 1: The Tower Ruins 1–2
Level 2: The Cellars 1–3
Level 3: Splinterden 2–4
Level 4: Godhome 3–5*
Level 5: The Drowned Level 3–5*
Level 6: The Clockwork Maze 4–6
Level 7: Shrine of the Awakener 5–7
Level 8: The Circle of Vissk-Thar 6–8
Level 9: The Spire Axis 7–9
Level 10: The Magma Vault 8–10*
Level 11: The Tomb of Yarrix 8–10*
Level 12: The Automaton Forge 9–11*
Level 13: The Pleasure Gardens 9–11*
Level 14: The Throne of Azlant 10–12*
Level 15: Order and Chaos 10–12*
Level 16: The Emerald Root 11–13

Where the * levels are slow track. That way everyone is in the right level range for each level of the dungeon and stays within tier for the future chronicle sheets.

I think you might be ok doing slow track now rather than later but just thought I'd post the entire module layout for everyone to see and consider.

Well, we weren't on 24/7, but we were all having fun and committed to checking/responding pretty regularly. Almost all of us were holding down full-time jobs as well, so it's not like we were sitting in our parents' basements playing Pathfinder all day. :)

Hrm. I was thinking if I slow-track level 1, then I stay the lowest possible level for every level of ES... but I'm betting they don't suggest it due to the higher mortality rates of level 1s.

DM, Eva will normal-track level 1. :)

So 120 days for a whole AP means you covered each book in about 20 days. Yeah, you guys must've been flying through combats in about a day each at the most. Even my F2F Reign of Winter game took a year to complete the entire AP, meeting for 4-5 hours every week. I bow before you, Eva. Maybe someday I'll run an AP in that amount of time.

If you do, invite me. :)

Running that fast usually includes a lot of prodding and teasing of the slower people.... ;)

I thought we were flying on Shattered Star; we're over halfway through it in less than a year and a half. Compare to the RotRL game I'm in that started a month earlier and still isn't out of the first part, or TBH my own Kingmaker game. There, though, I was handicapped by a whole lot of life happening to players; I probably would have dropped it, but the other players seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Running that fast usually includes a lot of prodding and teasing of the slower people.... ;)

Heh, actually there weren't really any slower people... that was the beautiful part. There were sections where some people were less active than others, but on the whole everyone was engaged and eager.

@Carbide: We're still moving pretty fast in SS in my opinion. My RotR game is moving at about the same pace or maybe even a bit faster but that's mostly because RotR probably has fewer combats/book than SS. My JR game is moving a bit slower but I think we've been in a lull because book 2 hasn't been that compelling (in my opinion).

If you guys want actual stats on any of your games, let me know... I probably have them. :)

Thanks for that breakdown Melody. I'd been looking for a guide on which parts to slow track.