I might have just ninja'd that.
Hopefully a 31 smashes the door in.
Hah! All good. Kat wouldn't mind having her thunder stolen here. Heck, she'd happily hand you a crowbar if you wanted.
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:D
Sorry I'm a little distracted by the elections. Not really feeling writing horror right now.
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*hugs* no worries! I totally understand. Take your time.
Reminds me of the Tatterman fight.
We were running around terrified and things looked dismal.
Then Dervak confirmed a pair of crits, one just by the skin of his teeth.
Pulled out the win.
Definitely was on a razor's edge and could have gone either way.
We were officially in an asylum; so we probably can't have razors...
Dervak is good to keep going. Still have 1 1st-level spell, 2 2nd-level, and 8 rounds of Rage.
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Phew! Wild week. We finished moving our stuff to the new place, thank goodness, though. Lemme tell ya, the stress of moving plus the stress of election drama was not something I ever want to deal with again.
Back to the game, though. Kat still has all of her inspiration, her long term buffs, and some extracts. Her second shield extract is probably gone by now so she'll have to do without for now.
I'm assuming back down to level 3. You were starting to head south, did you want to continue in that direction?
Works for me.
Sorry to say this but I'm going to take a break from GMing for a week. So much going on (just in the last couple of hours) I really don't have the bandwidth right now.
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Okay, take care of yourself!
We will be here when you get back.
It's cool man!
No worries, take care.
Get your rest! I totally understand. We'll be here :D
Good planning everyone. I'll get a post up soon hopefully. Two of my coworkers are out from COVID, I luckily tested negative as of Friday. Between that and having to put down my wife's cat going on 19 years its been a rough couple of weeks.
My condolences, it sounds like a difficult time.
That is rough, and I am sorry for all the trouble.
My condolences on your wife's cat. It is always too soon to say goodbye.
We are sorry for your loss. We had to do that last Summer also. But we got lucky; we got to adopt our friend's little fella!
Horrid Wilting is on both Mara and Theo's spell lists. Theo should carry the scroll for now, since he's trained in Use Magic Device.
Mara has 2 scrolls of Remove Paralysis, FWIW.
Dervak has Resist Energy known, and 2 2nd-level slots left. Planning to cast one and re-engage.
Pretty sure that killed Kat, too. Even if she used inspiration to bump her save she’d still fail.
Seems like a good time to run away.
We may need to recruit from any Lowls haters in town....should be a big list!
I missed that Kat was down hp. Otherwise Mara would have healed her. I was thinking that it was Dervak who was beat up. :(
Theophilus had Heroism active. Is his stat line updated with that factored into his saves?
Dervak wasn't opening the door because he wanted to get a full attack. Kat might have been a better choice if she had been fully healed.
The Open/Close cantrip really is a great spell.
Edit: Theophilus also has his Four-Leaf Clover to boost saves 3/day as a free action. And - while I do not generally peek behind the "GM Screen" spoiler this is a time to check everything - the chain attack was a natural 1.
With either Heroism or the Clover (let alone both), Theophilus would have made the save vs Hold Monster, and both saves vs Order's Wrath. That's still 74 damage, but he would still be alive.
I suppose closing the door and escaping is our plan.
Kat was slightly below half HP, as was reflected in her stat line
I'm sorry, I honestly didn't notice. It would be good to ask for healing when you're down hp, and about to go into combat. Mara has a phylactery of the shepherd, so she should automatically know Kat's current status, but that doesn't guard against me as a player being tired.
Everyone is allowed to peak behind all spoilers, even if you're not called out to. I'm only putting them behind the screen so that I'm not cluttering up the post. I trust you guys to keep instances of character knowledge vs player knowledge separate.
You're right Theo wouldn't take the chain attack, sorry I missed that. He should use the four-leaf clover.
With 74 damage if I'm reading it right would put him at -13.
I also didn't notice you were down, Kat. My apologies! If it helps, the White Rabbit could have pinned the 4 leaf clover to you...
I was out of it this past week due to the holiday, myself. I should have drank my Cure Moderate Wounds extract instead of my Resist Energy extract, I suppose. Or had us wait another round and do both.
At least only Kat died. *sigh*
I think Kat must have been wounded for some time. Mara would have had plenty of time to heal her up.
No, it was all from that first salvo in the room. I've been keeping track. She was only down 3 before we entered combat. Kat is chaotic now so those empowered order's wraths or whatever hit her hard.
I'm having trouble seeing where Kat too enough damage to kill her. As far as I can see, she took 21 damage in the initial salvo, and 57 in the second, for a total of 78. What am I missing?
First, she got hit by the zelekhut for 18 slashing and 3 electricity. There was then a lightning bolt that hit for 12 and a successful save vs order's wrath for another 9 again, and she was at 80/83 when the fight started.
So she took 21 and 21 again, then 57, for a total of 99, three more HP than was needed to kill her.
OK, I completely missed the extra 21 damage in the first attacks. Does she have 2 Inspiration left? Because it looks like an extra 6 would be enough to save against the 2nd Order's Wrath.
Either way, she just rolled a 3 on the inspiration, so not enough.
@GM In the future, assume that Kat would use inspiration on a save if it would be enough to knock her out/kill her and go on ahead and use it. It costs two to use it on saves.
@GM_Delmoth: Mara's Phylactery of the Sheppard allows Mara to know Kat's exact HP total. If I had known Kat was down 45 hp before we opened the door again, she would have used her Healing Hex (2d8+10 healing) on Kat, instead of casting a CLW on Dervak (actually would have recommended waiting to open the door for more healing).
Either way, she just rolled a 3 on the inspiration, so not enough.
@GM In the future, assume that Kat would use inspiration on a save if it would be enough to knock her out/kill her and go on ahead and use it. It costs two to use it on saves.
I absolutely will not remember that. Please remind me at the time if needed.
Otherwise if you're ok with a slower pace I can certainly kick saves to the players. It is frankly a headache for me to keep up with and keep straight, especially since you have a lot of provisionals.
@GM_Delmoth: Mara's Phylactery of the Sheppard allows Mara to know Kat's exact HP total. If I had known Kat was down 45 hp before we opened the door again, she would have used her Healing Hex (2d8+10 healing) on Kat, instead of casting a CLW on Dervak (actually would have recommended waiting to open the door for more healing).
This is why I ask that everyone keep their byline up to date. I'm sorry but I'm not going to recon this, both you and Kat had plenty of time to realize Kat needed healing.
If it's a problem for you, I'm happy to take care of my own saves. Normally, I would be more laid back about it, but this is honestly the hardest campaign i'm in right now and I want to make sure I'm making use of all my resources to the fullest.
And I did keep my byline up to date. And I was on vacation all week so I was on the boards less. It's not my fault people didn't read it.
NO worries. We will just need to Resurrect Kat. Happens. I remember this one time...wait; my characters often die; so maybe I am not a good example!
Perhaps memorizing one Breath of Life is not enough (it wasn't this time)...
We are 10th. We just need to remember that death easily comes knocking at our doors....we need a slush fund for diamond duct and Ress scrolls.
Reincarnate is cheaper! Spin the wheel and take a chance...
Well, we are at a level where death can be overcome. Raise Dead will work.
I was writing the GM. I had asked earlier about taking Leadership - not so much that I really wanted to, but that there isn't much else in Dervak's bloodline bonus feat list that he would want.
And now it looks like it might be a good choice. That would come in at level 12, for a 10th-level cohort.
I don't like being so powerful that we don't need any tactics. I find such games boring. (Dervak is solid, but he is well short of that level of optimization. Does not compare to say an Inquisitor Archer.)
And I don't like being so underpowered that we need to play perfectly to succeed. It's nice to have a little bit of a cushion against things going wrong. Sometimes we may have a week when everybody is just off their game.
Adding a cohort seems like it would hit the sweet spot in between.
I wouldn't want to step on anybody's toes, and I wouldn't want to seem like I was taking over any aspect of the game. I have a couple of ideas that might work in terms of background and story. In terms of capabilities, someone that helps the party survive would be my preference. The cohort would also need to be sturdy enough to survive despite being two levels lower.
Would you all be okay with this? And are there capabilities you would like me to look for or avoid?
Thinking of a bard of some sort for Saving Finale. Arrowsong Minstrel might be good (adds ranged attacks and blasting spells, both of which we lack). I'd steer clear of investing too many skill points in either Knowledge or face skills. A magus might be an option (maybe Myrmidarch or Eldritch Archer). Or, a cleric could have their own Breath of Life spells just in case it is Mara who goes down. Again, it wouldn't come into play for a couple of levels.
Mara's archetype adds Contingency to her spell list next level, so that should help her stay up. She's also going to buy several more Aegises of Recovery.
EDIT: FWIW, she also has Permanency on her list now, in case that's useful for anyone.
I am still fumbling around with the Witch spell list. It just hasn't clicked with me. Mind-Affecting spells are rampant, but the majority of our opponents are immune. Probably should have seen that coming from the start...lol.
I was actually considering a Bard after I thought Theo bit it...again. Sometimes I forget how delicate our Mad Hatter is!
Considering we are a party of 4; I don't see a problem with Leadership for one player. I certainly trust your judgement, Dervak. Sometimes I wonder whom is the most addicted to PbP: you, Delmoth or myself...lol!
@Dervak: Before the Mysterium I would have been reluctant, but now I'm not so sure. The danger level seems to haver increased dramatically.
@Mara, that was my thinking too. This has been a very difficult dungeon.
I also think we might be under-leveled? IIRC we were about one level behind as a 5-person party, which is about right, but now we are down to 4. Have we caught up?
@Theo - summoning is still good as long as you realize that typically only your top-level summons have a chance of hitting. Lower-level summons can still block enemies or use SLAs. Summoning will get a boost especially if I get a bard cohort. There are non-mind-affecting Will save spells like Bestow Curse. Blasting is fine (you have Lightning Bolt). Theophilus is actually fairly tough for a caster, with his 16 Con, and a good thing too. As to mind-affecting spells and hexes, I think "immunities" should be the first fact you ask for; Theo has a very good Knowledge (Planes), so might have known about the Inevitable.
And true, I have found myself in a lot of PBPs. So many of my earlier campaigns died off early that I figured I had to join 10 to get to play 2 or 3... turns out I have found some more reliable groups, which is great.