DM Puppet Master's Humble Bundle Welcome Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Anon A Mouse

Sorry busy week, yes I am good. we're 8th level now yes? Ive done all the work on Finnrick, just have to officially input it. Didn't Etam leave because of Graduate school? I am beginning to understand...

Sorry for that yes a +1 Lamellar Horn
Ok so I think that he is ready to go and I appologise for taking so long to get him going.

HP: 1d8 ⇒ 8
HP: 1d8 ⇒ 5
Millsy HP: 1d8 ⇒ 4
Millsy HP: 1d8 ⇒ 8

I bought a bunch of gear and crafted some as well. Here's that

7th Level
- Feat Craft Wondrous Item
- Access to Level 4 spells
- FCB +1 Millsy Acrobatics

8th Level
- Wildshape 3/day (huge/diminuative/better elementals/plants)
- +1 WIS
- Millsy got a Feat, which I just realized I haven't added
- FCB +1 Millsy Acrobatics

PF back in 2010 was blindly unaware when they took on topics like drow and Asia and they did some unsettling stuff. I hope that this module is better, but since it's from 2010, I'm not holding out too much hope.

Flying to Vancouver in the morning to help my brother. Not sure if I will have a chance to post from there or not, so might be essentially offline until the 4th. Apologies for the late notice. Please bot me as needed.

Hey, I've got finals this week so posting will be sporadic sorry.

Hey all, hopefully Paizo is back up and working for good now (I would hope so after multiple days of "maintenance"). When you see this, kindly either have you character weigh in on breaking into Lankesh's house or post in the discussion thread, so I can see who's still around/when people have seen that Paizo is back up.

I am here, but I'm actually going to be largely unavailable until Sept. 1st. I'm going on a trip, and am unclear how much if any availability I will have.

Back!

I'm still here!

Here. I already voiced my concerns in game about the break in. Marzela isn't going to try to stop it, and thinks it might actually be useful, but she doesn't so much want to participate, and she worries about what she will have to do if they get caught.

Can a kinetic blade attack take the -4 penalty to deal nonlethal damage? This appears to be somewhat muddy from a RAW/RAI perspective, so looking for an official ruling for this game. For reference, here is a thread discussing it: thread

Thanks for the link! Despite what Mark says, I'm going to say that as long as you're using kinetic blast as a melee weapon that deals a typical weapon damage (which is to say something like B/P/S, not elemental damage), you can take the normal -4 to deal nonlethal damage.

Why would you want to deal nonlethal? You think them dropping a loom on us was an accident?

The garuda is a chaotic good outsider. Either they bound it, or it's actually evil (which would be really weird), or these guys are not actually evil and there's some kind of huge misunderstanding going on.

Well, we'll see soon enough. Holy Smite will hurt evil creatures. If they get hurt, then they are evil.

Mostly, I was thinking about trying to keep one alive to question.

Lankesh isn't here yet, so we could wipe these ones out and still have him to question if we need someone. :)

I mean, I bow to your wishes, but the whole poisoning thing isn't leaving me in a generous mood. :)

So, another discussion about torture? ;P

So assuming the party wins (and there's no reason they shouldn't once Carrakas wrecks that garuda), we need to decide whether to go to the trouble of raising Lily, or whether I should be making a replacement.

What is your preference? If you are attached to the character I have no problem sacrificing whatever we need to sacrifice to bring her back. (Unfortunately I won't have a real resurrection spell till next level, so we'd likely have to buy it... but seriously. As a player, not worried about digital fake money, and Marzela would do anything because of her guilt over letting you die, so neither of us care about the cost.) :)

If you want to start a new character though, then I am all for that as well, and we can think of some interesting backstory connections about why she would hook up with this group.

Totally your choice. I'm good with anything.

Maybe the Garuda is, completely by coincidence I'm sure, packing a scroll of Breath of Life? Then you could Gift of Life + Breath of Life to save her.

Short of that, I agree that either way works, so you're preference Lily. I'm on board with contributing the funds to get the spell cast if you want to keep your character, but I'm sure we could make the story work well if you want to go another way.

Yikes! I was not expecting to outright kill anyone. :| I would prefer not to completely retcon what happened, but I echo the others' sentiment; we can find a way to work this out both for if you'd like to keep playing Lily or introduce a new character.

Eh, I don't have the illusions that many mid- to high-level wizards use for their defense like mirror image, blur, and greater invisibility. Necromancers are squishy.

In the meantime, do finish up the combat, we can work out what to do after that.

I woke up to the bad news. If you decide you want to keep playing as Lily, Jaed will sell (or do) whatever is necessary to revive her.

I just remembered that the activation of the magical swords require a command. So, two questions: is it a standard action (similar to the activation of a regular magical item) or a swift action? And can the command be the same for both swords so they get activated at the same time?

I typically assume people have their special weapon effects activated at all times, so you can assume they're already active. If for some reason you decide you want to deactivate the abilities and timing comes up again, I'll look more into activating multiple at once later (The magic weapon page specifies it's a standard action though, not a swift action).

Carrakas is going to be 17 layers of confused when Lily drops for no apparent reason - he was off in the rafters when she died, and then all the action after that was hidden by the cave, so he has no idea what went on. Should be fun :D

Someone will have to explain Jaed too because he missed most of what was happening on the other end of the room.

I know it probably isn't allowed, but I was wondering if I could donate my Kassen's Boon to Lily. Since we know the moment she is going to die again, perhaps a well-placed boon to stabilize her at the moment of sinking hit points could save her?

You cannot donate Kassen's boons. Though Lily should also already have one of her own since you all got one.

Did Lily ever actually end up deciding if she wanted to keep this PC or make a new one? I would like to at least confirm a preference before spending too much time thinking about how to implement a resurrection that may not be desired.

I like this character fine, and it's probably easier than trying to introduce someone new.

Is there a safe place to pass through the Wall of Bones where it has been broken without risking being grappled? Can I blade rush through the opening without risking being grappled?

Looks like it is already resolved, but the wall was broken on the two lower 5 foot squares, so just ducking down a little so the upper 5 foot square arms can't reach down and get you might work. :) Sorry that spell doesn't allow dismissal.

Also, really sorry about this, but life:

I am moving to Texas next week, and won't be able to post for sure Monday-Thursday, and it just depends on what is going on whether I will be able to post the rest of the week. Hopefully will be back up and normal on Monday the 29th latest, since I start my new job that day, so things have to be resolved at least that much.

Please bot me as needed. In this case, heal or shoot. My character sheet is up to date I believe, but no 4th level spells left, and only 2 3rd level.

Thanks for the heads up!

Also, I forgot to mention that I have a plan for getting Lily resurrected. Most likely she'll die during/after this combat, but she most probably won't miss anything particularly interesting.

Good luck with the move!

I have a trip from Wednesday to Sunday. I think I will be able to post as usual but it could happen that I cannot connect every day. If you need to bot Jaed please feel free to.

I'm going on a trip from Friday night to the following Thursday night. Not sure how much if any I'll be able to post. Bot as needed. Thanks!

I'm also going on yet another trip from tomorrow to Sunday. Please bot Jaed as needed too.

DM, we're deciding where to go next, but are we jumping the gun? Not sure whether to save my spells in case we have to fight our way out or not. If Garuda boy is going to let us get away, then I will cast lesser restoration as well to get rid of this ability damage.

As soon as you leave the garuda will attack you from his high vantage point. So you should figure out how you want to bypass/deal with him first.

So, what do you think, gang? We could try staying the night here and I could prepare some better spells that could actually hurt him (or ones to help us get to him?)... then he will either have to stay up there all night, or go to his nest or come in, either of which would give us a chance at him. The down side to that is that he might be able to get reinforcements from somewhere, even though we already got everyone else.

If we run, I can just keep healing the whole time, but his individual shots are too powerful and I can't keep everyone alive.

Do we know how far it is to the nearest shelter/next building/guard post?

I can use the burn-costing version of Earthmeld on all of us, to let us all merge with the surrounding stone until "the next time I recover burn", which would presumably be in the morning (I recover burn after 8 hours of sleep). We could chill in the stone, pop out and ambush him if he comes back in during the day, or rest through the night and pop back out in the morning with fully refreshed spells.

What would we do with Lily's body in that case? ... And what do the rest of you guys think?

I'm not going anywhere...

Sorry guys, I didn't have the chance to post during the trip but I'm back now.

Regarding the Garuda, Jaed has no way of dealing significant damage to him while he is flying (the crossbow is not going to be very effective). So if we want to fight it we either find a way to bring him down to the ground to the ground or we lure him inside.

If we prefer to spend the night we can try to seal the doors and windows, either with whatever is inside the mill or with one of those spells that can alter stone.

Another option would be to wait until it's dark outside and let Jaed attempt to sneak out and go look for reinforcements to the closest guard post. He should have a good shot at leaving undetected.

I'm also good with that idea, but I am not sure if the guard will be more successful unless they have mages.

So proposed plans thus far seem to be
- Earthmeld and ambush the garuda if it comes in
- Earthmeld and rest overnight so Marzela can get some ranged spells
- Wait until night for Jaed to sneak out and get help (though I will also point out that Jaed doesn't know Vudrani, so you'd probably have to send him with a note)

The nearest building is not that far (there are two buildings right next to the ones you're in), but you don't know if the door is actually unlocked or if there are people inside. The only guard station you've been to is pretty far away in a completely different district (you're all currently in district 11- the low caste district. The guard station you went to is back in district 7- the merchant district). It's also currently maybe around 10 or 11 am.

Also because I think Marzela mentioned going to Niswan at some point- you're currently in the city of Niswan.

Oh, okay. I mentioned that because of the note, but I guess that means that the "Masters of the Order" are on their way here. Super. :)

I guess I vote we run for it. We need Lily's help in this battle anyway. I don't think waiting will help with his flying, super-high damage, spell resistance, and probably a high DR as well. He's just too strong unless we have a chance to hit back, which we currently do not. Maybe Carrakas take Lily's body, and everyone else just run for it full out (4 times movement, right?). I assume that once we are in a "good" part of town that he will stop following/attacking so as not to draw extra attention to himself and get others involved, but who knows... arrgh. I have no idea what to do. Maybe get him to target me so you guys can get away? I can open up a stoneshape door on a side of the building he isn't expecting, but depends on where cover is...

The thing about running for it is that a single full attack from his bow has a decent chance of dropping mostly any of us. From that high up, he'll be able to hover and full attack for a while given the range increment of a longbow. I feel like our chances of success in a run are slim, given his position.

I feel like Earthmeld and ambush has a decent chance of working, because I doubt he'll want to keep his hovering position all night and I wouldn't think he would want us to have free reign of this building for that long. I'd bet on him coming back in at some point. If we meld in one of the smaller rooms, then spring out when he is between us, we could hopefully keep him in range and kill him. I see two downsides to that plan:
1) He could go for reinforcements. Don't know the size of the cult presence in town, but I doubt this is all of them. If he runs off to get more peeps, and they all storm the building, we could be in a very tough spot.
2) Even if he comes in, I'll be maxed out on burn, which means very high NL amounts for me - if I have to meld 6 people (Marzela, Jaed, Finnrick, Millsy, myself, and the guy we found) that would be an extra 48NL damage, on top of my current 24NL, for a total of 72NL, leaving me with an effective 21hp at full health. Marzela would have to stick close by to keep me healed up.

We could also just camp out normally, not looking for an ambush, but just hoping he comes in to try to deal with us at some point.

We are clearly not in a good position. If we are going to run then we would need a distraction so we can get a head start. For example, some creatures summoned by Finnrick that surround the garuda or the guards if Jaed goes looking for help. Moreover, if someone has to draw his attention that should be Jaed. He has more HP and higher AC than Marzela, which should give him a higher chance to escape (Carrakas would be the other option but he will be carrying Lily's body).

The ambush sounds good but I would do it in a more traditional way: just hiding among the looms. Earthmeld sounds cool but I would prefer a Carrakas with the highest HP as possible (as he is the one that can hit the garuda the hardest) to an extra surprise round. The problem is that if the garuda does not come alone we are pretty much doomed.

According to Jaed's character, he would prefer to fight the garuda and kill him (all as pure revenge). So he would probably prefer the ambush option but I'm open to run for it if you prefer.