Might I ask if there was any indication of defenses we should know about? The first Magic Missiles impacted him while he was visible - did he seem to have shield running? Do Nellys bites meet resistance(like from Stoneskin) or only tender flesh?
With an estimate of 25 from scorching rays, 16 from magic missiles, 17 from Nelly, another 19 from Nelly, 8 from hal's magic missiles, another 35 from Nelly puts the running Tally at around 120 damage - which suggests that if he's still up and fighting, he might have SOME additional defenses going, but so far I missed any kind of flavor text that might indicate what kind of damage types he resisted strongly.
There's a lot of blood on the ground underneath him and at your first glance of him, he didn't look as scrawny as mot other mages. Let's put it that way.
Also, not that he could have failed the Caster Level Check, but Fennith does have SR, just mentioning it if we ever face someone lower-level that casts against us. :)
@Explanation: All good, just didn't want to focus on a certain mode of attack only to find out he did have something running that effectively shuts it down completely and I should have tried something else.
Sounds good.
Reasoning:
We seem to be doing okay now, but
(A) a lot of high level mages have contingencies, or pacts, or delayed spells, or triggered items. Hal wants to stop that happening.
(B) if someone else enters the room and tries to cast a spell, he wants to stop that.
(C) it was this or scream at the mage and start thumping it with his staff.
Mr. Generic Mendicant Monk is looking quite crispy, it seems. I'll do something about that next round. This Healer's Hands + Heal Skill Unlock combo does awesome amounts of healing, but it's single-target touch-range only, so I can only help one PC at a time. Even that would be pretty tough if it weren't for those very shiny gloves the GM graciously bestowed on me that let me do it as a swift action instead of a full-round.
Aye, I'm also a bit paranoid - hence why Nelly stays instead of helping out Fyrtor and Kazador.
Fennith could have, but is currently mostly in self-defense mode(plus we know there's more people so chances are high that lower-level reinforcements will be on their way-).
I considered scorching someone, but it seems a chance to get some summoned support in - who can provide us with some temporary HP via Aid, then move through doors we open first to trigger any readied responses.
I hope Kaz and Fyr will be ok for a round.
@Kaz: As you expressed worry about killing one of your kind - you'll find you have to actually try to kill him for that to happen :)
It's a DC 16 Will save if you WANT, otherwise he automatically survives.
I figured a bunch of prisoners would be handy to blow up the whole operation.
Well, he doesn't want to...so that's good to know. Yay for safe blunt force trauma!
I'll hold Nelly in reserve for now - if someone else "checks" the probably-but-not-certainly-semi-dead mage, she will step into a flank with Fyrtor and attack.
If Mel and Hal do other things, she will maintain her action to Ready an Attack on the Mage if he does ANYTHING except bleed.
Sorry! Just realised I'd forgotten that his 24h con buff gives (8) temp hp. Happy to skip the healing if that would make a difference.
Take the healing. I've got six more of those today, and you took 44 damage from that Chain Lightning. Frankly I'm surprised you weren't in negatives after that hit -- you don't seem to have a piles of HP.
Plan was to use False Life and Greater False Life to be more robust. That was a lot of damage though.
Aye, Greater False Life is nice.
If you do have that, I would very much like to copy it at some time - if your spell books are compatible :)
(I luckily made the save, otherwise I would also briefly have been in the negatives before Mels healing after already having taken damage-)
No, I planned to pick it up though. Figured False Life would do for now.
Will update after work today.
Did Hal find out the strength of the most powerful spell the guy still has? Also, did he manage to snaffle an item? Thinking if I nick his component pouch, gag him and tie him up it might actually be safe...
Just to clarify: is the top of the map north?
Because if so, the guy burning things is in the northwest room, not the northeast.
I think we're on the same page otherwise -- Mel wanted to go after the guy with the papers -- it's just the labeling is off.
This would be the perfect time to use that Create Water cantrip that Mel can prepare as a level 1 Warpriest! What a pity that I don't have it today. I've got Light, Enhanced Diplomacy, and (oddly) Detect Fiendish Presence.
Since I don't have Create Water, instead I have ... rules questions!
Rules question #1: if I were to dump a Potion of Resist Fire on a pile of burning papers, would that prevent them from taking damage and/or extinguish the fire? Or is this the sort of thing where you have to try it and find out?
Rules question #2: if I were to try and knock the guy over so that he falls over on the pile of burning papers, would that be a Trip attempt or a Bull Rush attempt? Trip renders someone prone but does not move them. Bull Rush moves them but does not render them prone. He's standing right next to the fire, so logically it ought to be possible to knock him over onto it; but this is a case where the available game mechanics do not match up. I am hoping that if I can knock him prone on the fire he will extinguish it by rolling around on it, possibly taking a little damage in the process.
I would tend towards getting some Water Elementals for their Drench ability.
However: I would either have to swap a lower-level spell slot spending a Turn doing so, then another summoning(only 12 seconds in the grand scale of thing, but a lot can happen in two rounds) - or I can do it with my last Level 4 Slot(which means we commit to the fight, as no Dimension Door to get out would be available) - which only takes one round.
I think we are in a decent spot here, assuming the caster was the biggest threat - so would tend towards the latter, but I'd still like to hear if anybody thinks differently and would like to have the emergency exit strategy intact.
Err, I don't think anyone is in any danger of burning alive here, Kazador. He's burning evidence, not setting the place on fire more generally.
That's not to say it couldn't get out of hand if things go badly, but I don't think burning the building is the intent here.
Well checking to see who is dead and alive is still a good use of time
In theory, yes.
In practical terms, I can assure you that everybody is still alive. Fennith ensured that.
While initiative lasts, nobody will die unless we will it.(and make the save)
Seems Hal took care of the fire, possibly. I'd love to get an update on the success of that action from GM before deciding on an action.
As a side note, I have aqueous sphere prepared, I just worry that drenching the papers will damage them almost as much as burning them.
Hal: Mind blank is his most powerful spell and you can take his component pouch.
Mel: Ah I often mix up my easts and wests unless I imagine a map of the United States. Yes the guy burning stuff is in the NW room. I'll allow that as a bullrush. I'll also allow the resist fire attempt to have a 90% chance of success, needing 91+ on a d100. I don't think it would be guaranteed to work but it's such a reasonable and interesting idea.
But that's moot! I generally check and answer discussion stuff before checking gameplay. Hal definitely extinguished the fire.
Also, between the last four fights, you guys are now extremely close to level 10. Go punch out a squirrel or something. XD Not actually that close but very, very close.
Well, we DID just take a bunch of prisoners for interrogation :D
Maybe that awards us some story XP when we hand them over *puppy eyes*
I mean, that guy has casual Level 8 spells when I'm hoping for Level 5 in the near future. He must be a valuable prisoner - that is not just some random minion.
We have summons, haste and other short-term buffs still running.
I'd say we keep going - we are out of initiative because there's currently no hostile and we stopped that guy from burning documents.
But we have no idea whats behind door 2, 3 and 4 or if more guys from upstairs will arrive shortly. I'd heavily suggest we secure the whole area before slowing down to try and properly prepare the prisoners.
@Brookside GM: given it was an evocation spell, does the water stick around? If so, would 'Book Ward' be possible on the collected papers as 'one object'?
@Túrion: If people want to continue, I'm fine. I agree if we pause we might need to run instead. Hal is VERY worried about the mage.
One more reason to keep our momentum.
That is one downside of it - by being fixed to -1 HP pretty much any kind of healing could get him up again, so we don't want someone rushing in and channeling, or hitting him with some other kind of healing.
So, pre-emptive clearing of the other rooms and upstairs :)
Hal, you can use book ward on the whole pile of papers. That's a very niche spell and I'm not about to stop it from applying here if you have it!
Yeah the mage had high level spells but his top two spell levels were just utility. Essentially, the extra levels just made him tankier.
You will be getting some story/RP XP soon so be prepared to level up.
Ah, Spell Study lets him get it - it's not that he had it prepared, if that makes a difference.
Spell study is fine as I don't really care HOW you access the niche spell. The important thing is that you can cast it on the papers almost immediately. If you needed a minute to prep it or something, that would be too slow.
1 round per spell level
So two rounds to prep and cast on the third.
As for what to do now, I believe we had discussed having a team of the Viscount's agents waiting in the wings to secure prisoners after our strike and take possession of evidence, etc. We could call them in, which would basically wrap things up here.
The other option would be to study the papers and figure out what's in them. Mel is definitely curious about that, because we could decide what information to pass on to the viscount (and what, potentially, to keep to ourselves).
It kind of depends on how long we're talking about. If it's going to take 15 or 20 minutes to get the gist of these papers, then I think we should do that. If it's going to be hours and hours, then we start running into problems with prisoners regaining consciousness.
Speaking of that, I am not too worried about the caster. Creatures in negative hp recover 1 hit point per hour, so he's out cold for at least an hour. Once he wakes up he'll find that he's blindfolded, his hands are bound, his spell component pouch is missing, and he's still so wounded that any vigorous motion would send him straight back into unconsciousness, this time without the benefit of Fennith's cry of mercy. And on a meta level I would be more concerned if he was a heavily foreshadowed named NPC, instead some guy we had no idea existed until he started chucking spells at us.
Don't forget a watchful eye on him that would not hesitate to chomp him the moment he does something suspicious.
Also, he's chewing on his sock or something, because stuff like dimension door wouldn't need vision or hands. Not taking risks.
As for how to proceed, I concur: We'll want to take a look at these papers and estimate how long it would take to retrieve useful information.
The guard at Mumblethunder was...not inclined to be helpful without some serious persuasion. I would assume once we give the papers up, we will only be fed information that seems necessary for whatever next step is decided on - we are still outsiders even if we have proven ourselves.
So, check the papers, check the mage for a spellbook (and other equipment - I think the 4k per person are fine for the 'mooks' but a guy of his caliber? I'm pretty nicely set up equipment-wise, so not hoping for an upgrade, but I still think his stuff needs double-checking(even with vanilla NPC networth for his level, that would be more than 7k per person from him alone-)
So two rounds to prep and cast on the third.
Sorry: 2 rounds to cast. Didn't have second level slots he wanted to burn, which is why he burned 3rd. The spell is only 2nd level.
As for what to do now, I believe we had discussed having a team of the Viscount's agents waiting in the wings to secure prisoners after our strike and take possession of evidence, etc. We could call them in, which would basically wrap things up here.
There are other options to call in as well. I believe we've got 3 prisoners? The one who surrendered in the first room ("Mr Sensible") - assuming he wasn't killed by a round of tentacles, the spellcaster ("Mr Mage"), and the guy burning documents ("Mr Pyro"). I think that's it, and they're all male, but I could be wrong on these.
Hopefully the people up top are still there, though, so if we want agents to come in we'll need to clear a way.Hal will follow the group's lead on this.
The other option would be to study the papers and figure out what's in them. Mel is definitely curious about that, because we could decide what information to pass on to the viscount (and what, potentially, to keep to ourselves).
It kind of depends on how long we're talking about. If it's going to take 15 or 20 minutes to get the gist of these papers, then I think we should do that. If it's going to be hours and hours, then we start running into problems with prisoners regaining consciousness.
There are 2 lots of paper (assuming the ones in the first room weren't tentacled to scrap.
We could just stick 'em in an extradimensional bag, and find a place to study them at leisure?Speaking of that, I am not too worried about the caster. Creatures in negative hp recover 1 hit point per hour, so he's out cold for at least an hour. Once he wakes up he'll find that he's blindfolded, his hands are bound, his spell component pouch is missing, and he's still so wounded that any vigorous motion would send him straight back into unconsciousness, this time without the benefit of Fennith's cry of mercy. And on a meta level I would be more concerned if he was a heavily foreshadowed named NPC, instead some guy we had no idea existed until he started chucking spells at us.
Hal is very, very scared of letting Mr Mage go. This is a devastatingly powerful mage who might well be set up for scry-and-die.
He's also scared of killing the guy, and terrified this is some form of duplicate. Hey - he spent a long time alone in an extradimensional prison, he has unusual fears!
So, check the papers, check the mage for a spellbook (and other equipment - I think the 4k per person are fine for the 'mooks' but a guy of his caliber? I'm pretty nicely set up equipment-wise, so not hoping for an upgrade, but I still think his stuff needs double-checking(even with vanilla NPC networth for his level, that would be more than 7k per person from him alone-)
Hal is certainly willing to entertain the possibility Mr Mage keeps some of his stuff in another dimension - Hal keeps his spellbook there, and it is a 1st level spell.
That said, 4Kgp is about 8Kgp pre-sale of items each equals 40K. It might be all there is?New topic
Are people going to tell Hal not to take the crates of drugs and poisons?
Are the crates part of the 4K loot?
Not sure if this is meant be to an ethics test, but...
We also have a Dwarf, another couple humans, a Halfling - plenty of prisoners.
I think ONE guy was downed before Fennith was called in, and even he would be stable if he wasn't dead before she arrived.
Mister Mage may have kept stuff in an alternate Dimension, but it's worth checking regardless. That, and Secluded Grimoir(if you refer to that) only works on one book at a time - no multiple casts - and a standard spellbook has 100 pages - I have a feeling if he has Level 8 Spells he'll have more pages covered(since spells take a page per level).
Of course, he may have a Blessed Book, but even then it's worth checking/making sure.
(and yeah, his allowance would be 35k, so pre-sale it checks out. But I doubt he had a lot of +1 weapons or armor...that is, I am fine with waiving it forward, but he may have some of that value invested in things interesting for us. Say, a Pearl of Power or Two. Calculating those into sale value, then purchasing them back at double price seems undesirable :)
@Drugs&Co - unless you intend to peddle the drugs to street orphans, I won't really mind. Hal is a grown man and can spend his spare time as wasted as he wants. Personal Freedom is a big deal! :D
Yes; we have basically all of them as prisoners due to the Cry of Mercy thing.
Yes, we could stick the papers in a bag and peruse them at our leisure, but what would we tell the viscount? That they were destroyed before we could get there? How might that affect our nascent alliance with him?
Mel may have some objections to selling drugs or poisons, depending on what they are. If it's a giant pile of fantasy marijuana, she's probably not going to be fussed. If it's a giant pile of fantasy LSD, that's another matter entirely.
Similarly with poisons. If it's lots of rat poison, that could be sold for the legitimate purpose of killing rats, have a blast. If it's rare toxins designed for killing or incapacitating people, she's probably not going to be on board with selling that to the highest bidder.
The money is before the sale of the drugs and poisons.
Some of these poisons may have non-nefarious applications but the most valuable ones would be useful for subtle assassinations.
Among the drugs, the story is similar. There are some that are recreational and not particularly habit-forming while others are rarer and much more potent.
You will be getting some story/RP XP soon so be prepared to level up.
@Brookside GM: does this include Hal?
If so; a couple of questions.* Are we allowed to discuss options here or is it metagaming - I'd like to try and keep Hal's spells differentiated from Túrion.
* At 5th level there are some very powerful spells - eg Teleport. Are any of them banned or restricted? I know you said before you worried about scry'n'die.
* The Backgrounds Feat system you were designing is not in effect, correct?
Sorry, I've been quiet, busy week. Just a note all of Fyrtor's damage was nonlethal, so in addition to the spell Fenith cast, anyone that Fyrtor hit should still be alive unless Kahz completely brained them following (which is a very real possibility lol).
As for our 0lan, I say we grab what we want, then call in the cavalry. Holding onto the papers and hand delivering them to 5hw Viscount protects them from damage and would give us time to review ourselves. Also if any need to disappear we can make that happen as well.
My understanding is that we do have two background feats. At any rate I picked out a couple for Mel. They haven't come up in play.
I like the "hand-delivering the papers" angle. We tuck the papers in a bag, have the Viscount's men secure the premises, and schedule a meeting with him in a few hours to bring him up to speed. In the interim we rest up from the fight and go through the papers to see what's there and if there's anything we want to hold back.
As for the drugs and poisons, Mel wants no part of that; but I don't object as a player. So if you like, I can arrange for Mel to be distracted. She never has to know! :-D Just don't give her any of the proceeds, as she might wonder where they came from.
I'm all for calling in the cav.
With the drugs...Kazador would have been willing to sell them in the past to fuel his alcohol addiction. But he's been trying to piece together his honor. So while he'd likely have some experience with moving illicit goods, he won't suggest doing so. Also, if anything, turning over the illicit goods to the cav would put us in good stead.
Hal, yes to leveling up soon, discussing level up plans, and background feats.
Here's the link again for anyone who's unsure. Everyone is supposed to have two background feats right now but I'm sure it was easy to miss that fact. Also, like Mel says, they aren't intended to make much power difference, making it even easier to miss that you should have them.
Speaking of which it looks like we get a new background feat this level, because we'll be character level 10. I shall have to ponder that! I've had the rest of this level basically figured out for aaaaaages, but that bit I hadn't considered.
I actually got a ton of mileage out of my background Feats - something I had not actually expected. I mostly picked them so that I would not be completely useless in the intrigue story arc, ruining our plans left and right by messing up.
But after magicking Rollinsby it turned out to be very useful and relevant. Maybe more than they should have been, I did feel a bit guilty on that, but I figured sticking to the background role I had originally intended for the operation was no longer an option at that point.
@Drugs: Actually Túrion would be quite indifferent to it. There's recreational drugs in his home country as well, and same as with alcohol it's an informed choice to use those. However, he has no experience with strongly addicting stuff, as that is not "usual" in Avinoax. So unless he learns what kind of stuff this is, he wouldn't mind.
@Poison: He would be keen to learn what kind of powerful poisons they have available, what counters exist and how to notice them or test for them - he also wouldn't be above using those that seem useful himself. As in, not sell them, but keep them safely stored for when they might be useful. Venom and Poison are common in nature, and powerful tools for those creatures making use of them. Denying their utility out of a sense of morality would be ill-advised in his opinion.
@Regarding spells: I was contemplating Icy Prison and Feeblemind.
We had quite some trouble coming from Casters recently, so Feeblemind would be decent(with the penalty for casters, and being a compulsion which gets boosted DC from my bloodline). Icy Prison targets Reflex, which makes it one of very few Save or Suck spells doing so, and carries a decent penalty even on a failed save.
Neither is locked in, and to be honest, most of the time I will probably have SM V in the single slot I get to prepare - at least until I had some more time to catch up with Fennith.
@Brookside GM: Hmm - might I ask what the rules regarding retraining are?
I remember the feat system being discussed - I think I missed when it came in, sorry. I was sort of hoping I might prompt it's adoption ;P
@Spells: I didn't want Hal to be very combat-ish at the start, because he's not supposed to be a killer. That said, I think I need to get some sort of damaging spell for combat that's a little better than Hydraulic Push or Magic Missile.
I'm actually considering trying to buy something like the Book of Harms. Otherwise I'd need a 5th level combat spell - probably something like Fire Snake.
Ideally I'd like to get something subtle to stay with his theme, but I'm also trying to avoid too much compulsion-ing (which I believe is one of Turion's niches?) and summoning.
Teleport is really really good. 'V', standard action, gets you out of tentacles and you can commute to the dungeon from home! It might be too good though.
For what it's worth, I don't think there is a thing like too much control. Wall of Force is a 5th Level that provides plenty of it. Just as a suggestion.
Fickle Winds or Communal Stoneskin are also things we will eventually want to have access to.
I did get it from a Spellbook and love it, but Phantasmal Web could fit very well in your repertoire.
That said, I got the Summons because of a Spellbook, and for Fennith - I did call in Lantern Archons this time but I am not usually summoning for combat purposes, so by all means go for that, too, if you want. Just maybe evade those spells as level-up-choices you can copy from me.
But yeah, compulsions overall get the +2 DC from Fey Bloodline, and I'll pick up Spell Focus in the future, so those would probably be most efficient in my hands. Everything else I'm flexible.
(That said, there's no reason we can't both prepare e.g. Icy Prison and make use of it.) Either way, there's a lot of nice spells available on Level 5 - I just pre-picked 2 that I think will help me fulfill a Controller and Threat Negation Role most efficiently.
But I'm fully flexible.
Turion: I'm a little confused by the three rolls. I'll guess you intended the first two for the skill challenge?
It was kind of intended as a combination roll - knowing about the stuff from nature and pinpointing it with geography.
I figured since it was not one of the listed "applicable" rolls, but could be reasoned to matter, I would make a dual-roll, figuring the lower roll could count(as in, roll twice, use lower, because it was not among those checks you listed as highly relevant).Or, alternatively, if you had decided that either is not really applicable(e.g. if we KNOW where the stuff is coming from some other documents, or if it's mundane knowledge about the drugs so Nature doesn't help much unless I would want to cultivate it locally), there was a backup in the other roll.
Basically I figured I'll roll both and let you decide what to do with it :)