DM Panic's Devil We May Know Part 4 (Inactive)

Game Master wakedown

HAR! Here be discussion.

For your mustering pontifications:

In the conclusion of the Devil We Know campaign arc, you are called once more to Cassomir, where a mass abduction of the residents of Swift Prison has the entire town in a panic. Venture-Captain Hestia Themis once more partners you with an Aspis agent to see what link the Swift Prison event has to the earlier kidnapping of a Pathfinder agent. You will explore an empty prison, delve the tunnels below, and come face-to-face with the source of Cassomir's troubles in a vile grotto deep beneath the city.

GM Bold Strider has warned this one can be a bit difficult in places, so make sure you bring your A-Game!

Yo!

Dien here. Just to reiterate from Flaxseed:
While I have some flexibility in the matter, I would most like to bring Pinball, who operates kinda like a magus (going to be in the frontlines, going to be casting arcane touch spells on enemies). Pinball has a decent buffed AC, can operate CLW wands, and can party-face with Diplo +11.

Twigs here. Shardra is just about ready to go! She's given a generous amount of gold to work with so I want to grab her a thurible to better match her art and some consumables. I'll post a full list some time this evening.

My stats seem to relegate me to a fulltime caster and hex-monkey, but the nature of what I prepare can be catered to filling gaps in our capabilities. (summoning probably, but also de/buffing and healing). She has diplomacy, knowledge, and a familiar who can scout (Bonuses to stealth in rocky terrain and underground.)

I would most like to bring Pinball, who operates kinda like a magus (going to be in the frontlines, going to be casting arcane touch spells on enemies). Pinball has a decent buffed AC, can operate CLW wands, and can party-face with Diplo +11.

Looks good to me! There's a little double up on the utility front between us, and six shocking grasps a day isn't the most reliable source of damage, but otherwise I say go with your gut! If you can get an additional source of damage (something Shardra absolutely does not bring to the table, and a rogue will struggle to do alone) for taking down big nasty boss-monsters or for long adventuring days I might feel a little safer. Of course, that all depends what Fromper brings to the table.

DM Snider Here.

I am flexible as well. My rogue is ment to deal good damage as well as able to sneak and do nice roguish things. I can see and hear through 15ft of just about anything for 10 rounds so being sneaky should be pay off. GM you also get to roll my perception automaticly for traps. I get a +2 to my listed perception on any trap within 10ft of my character and the roll is made in secret.

Looks good to me! There's a little double up on the utility front between us, and six shocking grasps a day isn't the most reliable source of damage, but otherwise I say go with your gut! If you can get an additional source of damage (something Shardra absolutely does not bring to the table, and a rogue will struggle to do alone) for taking down big nasty boss-monsters or for long adventuring days I might feel a little safer. Of course, that all depends what Fromper brings to the table.

Well, I'm also a partial controller through my laughing touch ability. As you point out, my number of direct attacks are limited, but denying foes any actions for a round off a successful touch attack keeps me helping the party. Pinball's really almost a defensive build as I'll be at 24 AC a fair bit of the time, acrobating to give flanks to others, and busting out the shocking grasps mostly when necessary.

eta~ Though this reminds me I want to snag some utility spell scrolls to shore up some of Pinball's physical shortcomings. *looks at stuff, mutters to self*

If we are really worried, I can always bring my actual magus, heh. She's also level 4 and a little more conventionally combat-oriented, but it's still gonna be a lot of shocking grasps, by and large. (Or a barbarian 6.)

As I said in the Flaxseed Lodge thread, I have a few options, but I'm leaning towards my front liner.

She's a level 4 Chosen One Paladin. Other than having a familiar that can cast Guidance at will and "Lay on Paws" a couple of times per day, she's a pretty traditional two handed weapon paladin, mechanically. Because I put feats into healing (Fey Foundling, Greater Mercy), I won't have Power Attack until level 5, so she's not the heaviest hitter, but 1d8+5 with an 18-20 crit range has been good enough at lower levels. Her specialty is tanking by having average AC and lots of above average Lay on Hands.

I think we would be fine with tour first choice pinball. You have healing and our other melee has healing as well. We should be fine with either of your choices

Since you guys seem to honing in on character choices, what I'll need next is the usual:

PFS #
Day Job Roll
Initiative
Perception

Aight, Pinball it is! *fingers crossed*

PFS# - 30341-14
Day Job - none
Initiative - +3
Perception - +1

PFS: 22306-6
Dayjob: None
Initative:+6
Perception:+8

PFS #: 38137-16
Day Job: Nope
Init: +0
Perception: -1

Init: +2 (Or I can go on Misaki's initiative)
Perception: +9 (The bird is the brains of this pair)

GM if you dont have a problem i have a friend who would like to bring a lvl 3 blood rager

If you guys allow it, and if you GM are ok with it, I'd like to bring this guy to the game.
PFS #: 29609-3
Day Job: N/A
Initiative: +5
Perception: +6

No objection here, we could certainly use more bamf-power. 'Course I'm not the GM. :P

I'm certainly ok with bringing another PC, if the GM allows it.

But having front liners as 4 out of 5 party members might get a little crowded. I could switch PCs, if you guys want, to bring a non-front liner. Or we could just have a crowded front line, and be damn sure the rogue always has a flank partner. :)

:) works for me lol

I'm not to worried about being too crowded. Pinball can move around okay, usually, and I can always stand back and magic missile plink if there's a jam.

PFS # 84608-4
Day Job Roll N/A
Initiative +1
Perception +8 (+10 w/Alertness)

Enormously excited to play my favourite of the ACG iconics, even just for a short game.

Initiative +4
Perception +7

I'm playing Shardra right now in the WOTR PACG; that's fun and interesting, even if very different than actually playing Pathfinder.

Your friend is absolutely welcome! I'm working on my macros for Init/Perception now, but please jump into the gameplay thread and start posting away!

Double-check the numbers below for your PCs (or familiar) but we're all set to get started.

@Misaki: We can have Whistles go on your initiative, but I'll roll Perception separately.

Initiative
Misaki: 1d20 ⇒ 5
Phantomblade: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
Pinball: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Vrothum: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
Shardra: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Perception
Misaki: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (6) - 1 = 5
Phantomblade: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25
Pinball: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19
Vrothum: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21
Shardra: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11
Whistles: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21

How does a paladin get their hands on a familiar? Misaki's build looks really interesting. I'll post purchases and spells prepared in the gameplay thread and have my profile short-handed and combat ready when next I'm at my keys. (Might be a day or two but I can post from mobile.)

It's her archetype, Chosen One.

You left Kolo out of the perception checks.

And yes, the Chosen One archetype gives the paladin a familiar (which also has an archetype) instead of a mount or bonded weapon. Now that she's level 4, she has all the normal paladin stuff otherwise, which she gained in a different order than other paladins, to make up for getting her bonded familiar earlier than other pallys get their bonded item/mount.

Misaki! You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Aspis, not join them! You were to bring balance to Pathfinding!

I can't believe I never thought of using Mage Armor on a familiar. I usually just hold them back from combat to avoid them getting hurt.

But Whistles does help in battle occasionally, as necessary, so this is a great idea. I should get one of those wands for myself, even though Misaki can't cast it, and just ask any arcane caster in the party to use it on Whistles. Or take some ranks in UMD, since Misaki has a high charisma, even though it's not a class skill.

Armoring up familiars is handy, and for a buff that lasts an hour, UMDing it via a wand is very feasible. If I'm relying on the wand, I also usually carry a potion of mage armor just in case I roll that nat 1 before I roll the success on the check (and assuming nobody else in the party can use it). But yes, I highly recommend it.

I'm a little confused by the map. I don't remember a lot of the details of the adventure, since it's been 3 years since I last GMed it, but I'm pretty sure that map we're currently on is supposed to be the overview of the area, not a combat map. The squares on that should be pretty big each, not just 5 feet.

If thats the case i will wait for them to move up to us

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ah, you are correct, each square is 10ft instead of 5ft. I'll adjust the map accordingly.

Huh. I thought it was bigger than that, like 20 ft squares or whatever. But as I said, I don't remember details.

I'm not sure how to add a mini to the map. Whistles will usually leave Misaki's shoulder during battle, so I'll need a mini for him.

You can just drag and drop an image. I added Whistles.

Feel free to assume Whistles starts in your square/above your square/adjacent - whatever is most convenient. I'm not a stickler for avatar/icon placement, so folks are always welcome to suggest "oh I was at so-and-so's shoulder discussing Taldan fashion" for initial placement. I usually place minis with melee in front/casters in the rear.

Yeah, 10ft or 20ft scale maps are a pain. I do recall years ago when I played this in person, the GM had this massive map for this fight. It would probably be okay to run at 5ft scale, I'm not sure it changes much other than expediting the fight's inevitable conclusion.

Apologies for the quiet spell, the day marking my incremental decline... er, twenty-third birthday rolled around, and my hosting duties and the ensuing food coma kept me from checking in. All caught up!

Happy Birthday!

Thanks! :)

Hey guys just wanted to let the party know that the GM and I have discovered a discrepancy with my character due to a new errata about rage and bloodrage. I have consulted my VL and other GMs in my area and they said I could rebuild the things effected for free. Our GM said its ok for me to make the changes now instead of after the scenario so if you notice some things change with my character you know why.

So i found this relating to your Familure moving in threatend areas and provoking. I only even know this because i was researcing something for a friend with the Link here

Tiny, Diminutive, and Fine Creatures

Very small creatures take up less than 1 square of space. This means that more than one such creature can fit into a single square. A Tiny creature typically occupies a space only 2-1/2 feet across, so four can fit into a single square. 25 Diminutive creatures or 100 Fine creatures can fit into a single square. Creatures that take up less than 1 square of space typically have a natural reach of 0 feet, meaning they can't reach into adjacent squares. They must enter an opponent's square to attack in melee. This provokes an attack of opportunity from the opponent. You can attack into your own square if you need to, so you can attack such creatures normally. Since they have no natural reach, they do not threaten the squares around them. You can move past them without provoking attacks of opportunity. They also can't flank an enemy.

Vrothum: As you resolve the oversights, I also noticed you had 3 traits: Indomitable Faith, Reactionary and Unscathed.

Not sure if you have a boon for the 3rd, or this is an oversight on your part (or mine!).

Argh! Three days of no internet, just as I start a new job. I'm all caught up now, I apologise for the delay. I can usually post by mobile, but as I'm learning new rules for a lot of Shardra's posts I like to be able to sit down and nut them out a little longer.

All caught up!

GM I have had family emergency come up and may be unavalable starting wed until I get back from it. i will also be heading stateside this week right before i leave. I wanted to give you a heads up incase i cant post. It wont be more than 2 weeks. but i am taking emergency leave to take care of it.

My apologies for the absence guys, we got slammed at work and are moving product around so it all hit fast and hard. I think we're all caught up so I'll try to catch up. Thanks for moving the game along GM.

We're in the home stretch here, folks.

With some good posting rates and rolls against the derro (plus a group with a lot of darkvision), we could potentially wrap up the scenario before the weekend!

(also, I'll be out a good amount of the US holiday weekend, so it's a bit of a goal to wrap things up)

As a heads-up, I'm going to be at DundraCon Friday through Monday. I'll have Internet, but I'll also be playing or GMing roughly 12 hours of PFS a day, so while I will try and check in after my games, please feel free to bot me during that interval rather than letting me hold up the action.

Pinball is kinda useless since I haven't given him a way to cope with darkness yet. He'll focus on healing people, or, if a foe moves adjacent to him and his allies tell him about it, trying to land a laughing touch on them with 50% miss chance, I suppose.

I apologise, everyone! To expand on the above, I work in learning support and with two days notice I was offered a full time position as an aide for a new support class the school has opted to start up. As a sixth year undergrad, I leapt at the opportunity for some regular income. We had an empty classroom, no resources, and students at several different levels of schooling and ability to integrate, so we've been really slammed. The short notice left me rather overcommited on the PbP front, as my workweek went from 5 hours at my other job with sporadic casual shifts to a proper 38hr workweek, with a massive adjustment to my sleep schedule to boot. It really took the wind out of my PbP sails for a while there, but things are finally settled.

I'd hoped to post last weekend, but didn't find a window. Most afternoons I've simply been exhausted and uninspired. I'm ready to get back to my regular posting rate and squeeze as much out of the rest of this scenario as I can. :)

Thanks for playing everyone!

Here's the chronicle sheet!

Thanks for GMing!

OK, five days since I posted the chronicles. I'm closing this one out and marking it inactive!