Follow the Flood Road (Inactive)

Game Master Transylvanian Tadpole

Hmmm... It seems with our busy lives, the anniversary of our inaugural gameplay posts bade fair to pass unnoticed this past February... I'm sorry that this did not get more fanfare, as maintaining any game, especially a play-by-post, at a high level for a year and more is a feat of significance.

With my schedule, this is the only gaming I get to participate in currently. So, it means a great deal to me to have a great game in which to play! I want to thank everyone for some really excellent roleplaying! I'm looking forward to the next year! =D

clap, clap, clap

Easily the best PbP I've ever played in.

And even though you players are great, the majority of the credit goes to Tadpole.

Thanks!

I hope this group has the making of a 'real roleplaying group' where a few years we would have done through a few games and a few PCs each.

Game on!

great callout Pyotr. This has been a pretty fantastic game, the standard by which I measure all other games I play/stalk.

I join in the slow clap....for us AND the boss!

Yay! Happy birthday us, and as always, massive thanks to all of our players for making this so much fun. I'm glad you're enjoying yourselves, and thanks for your patience with my slightly erratic posting from rustic Borneo.

Also, a special shout-out for Alagor, our not so new addition, who I think has fitted very well into the spirit of Follow the Flood Road.

I hope this group has the making of a 'real roleplaying group' where a few years we would have done through a few games and a few PCs each.

Great sentiments, though a few years might be an understatement. At our current rate of progress, the PCs should be hitting 20th level by about 2024! Of course, this campaign doesn't necessarily need to go all the way to such exalted heights ... though there's no reason why it shouldn't.

Still, I've got a notion of what the campaign after Follow the Flood Road might be, one which may interest Bonegrit especially considering his character in Thron's Rise of the Runelords campaign ... (do ask, please do).

Of course, the next campaign is likely several years away, so who knows!

Oh, if you do anything Realms based I might do a little goblin squee of joy.

Squee away little goblin, but with the proviso it will probably be years ‘til we conclude Follow the Flood Road, barring of course your complete and utter annihilation in the Garrison of Arith-Zind, and the likelihood of me changing my mind completely in the interim.

The Realms is certainly my first love when it comes to fantasy campaign worlds, and I’d love to run a Pathfinder campaign set therein. My concept for the possible one-day successor (itself taken from my list of one hundred campaigns to run should I be able to live forever) of Follow the Flood Road would be a Realms campaign inspired somewhat by the old 2nd edition boxed set The Ruins of Zhentil Keep (though not on the pre-written adventures included in the campaign expansion).

For those not into their Realmslore, Zhentil Keep is kind of ‘bad guy central’ for the Realms; a large city which serves as the headquarters for the Zhentarim, a major military and mercantile force with various evil, expansionist plans and a ruling council made up of bickering evil wizards, priests of dark gods, beholders and even the odd fiend. In 1368 DR, a series of upheavals culminate much of the city’s destruction at the hands of frost giants, orcs, white dragons and the machinations of the mad god Cyric.

The immediate aftermath would mark the beginning of the campaign; the balance of power within the Zhentarim is swaying wildly, and most of the city lies in monster-prowled desolation, its magic and treasure for the taking. The result is an ideal sandbox for adventurers, who can share their time between exploring the ruins and venturing into the shadowy machinations of those trying to contest for power in the Keep. It’s a campaign where evil PCs might find a place, forwarding their own ambitions, though good PCs would also work (though they’d need to keep their heads down and their agendas hidden); but certainly a much more mercenary outlook than that we currently share in Follow the Flood Road. It would probably begin at 5th level as well, though they’d still be many high-level mages, priests and monsters to flee from.

There’s the pitch, but as I said, you’ll probably have to wait a few years for the reality.

I don't know much about the Realms but I'll learn about if you do start a campaign so give me a couple of months heads up.

I wasn't aware that we had hero points but I'm glad we do.

How many do we have so I can write them down?

L8r,

Fabian

Thank you all guys for an absolutelly superb game, I am really enjoying it.

Being a great fan of DM Tadpole's style of play, and a long, long time fan of the Realms (one of my best memories in games is a Commodore 64 Pool of Radiance) I would probably leap at the opportunity to play in Faeroon, especially if Zhents are involved. Anyway, that's a long way from now, so back to the Flood road now :-)

because I think Del has the wand of CLW

According to my records Pyotr. If that has changed or is incorrect, please let me know :-)

@ Pellius: you're down to one Hero point, as is everyone else. You receive one hero point whenever you level up, but can never possess more than three.

As for Pyotr; 'tis but a scratch.

Awww, crap. I'm missing an arm, now, aren't I?

Ha! I knew that quote wouldn't go unnoticed!

If we run into some kind of lich-bunny guarding a cavern, Bonegrit's goin' back to Vigil.

Back to Vigil? It's only a model!

Just a model? but look at the bones, man.....

Quotable Python... This could go on for a few pages...

The bridge is a substantial structure, it's worth noting. Bonegrit, ahead of them, can't see the end of it, and his darkvision extends 60 feet.

Then, if others agree, we proceed with Bonegrit at 40 feet ahead, followed by the rest of us spaced by 10 (20?) feet in between. Any better proposals maybe?

You may not get that far ...

Oh now you're just teasing...I will resist the urge to check spoiler...resist...

Delkaneth watches this exchange, and seeing Agtharda reticent to give up her wand or its command word, decides to make use of their own resources. Taking the wand bought from the Temple of Abadar, he crosses over to Pellius and taps him on the leg. Nothing happens. The wand’s magic is already spent.

When you bought the wand I rolled 1d12 to see how many charges it had remaining. Unfortunately, I only rolled two. The priests in the temple did warn that it was nearly exhausted!

That's cold, man........just cold.

@ Pyotr; sent a reply to your PM, hope you got it!

@ Pyotr; sent a reply to your PM, hope you got it!

I did, and I always intended to reply! This has been the weirdest weekend (spilling over into Monday). Every time I glanced at the clock I was running late. Which is weird because I don't really have a "set schedule" for anything.

Sorry for the posting infrequency and the delay in response to your PM.

Not entirely sure if everyone is of a mind on how to proceed here against the skeletons (and also rather busy at home), so I'll leave it a little longer for the PCs to discuss in character their course of action.

If indecision continues, I'll go with Pellius using disrupt undead..

I'm not opposed to plowing through. That they haven't attacked us gives me pause, however.

Not entirely sure if everyone is of a mind on how to proceed here against the skeletons (and also rather busy at home), so I'll leave it a little longer for the PCs to discuss in character their course of action.

If indecision continues, I'll go with Pellius using disrupt undead..

I think we are all in agreement with that plan. Everyone accompanies Pellius until he's 35' away when he will unleash disrupt undead and see how the skeletons react.

This afternoon brings a big crash on the part of my tired old laptop, including maps and stats for this encounter (and everything else for the Flood Road). Currently trying to back up the most important stuff in safe mode, but in the meantime I’m unable to use my laptop, making running the next encounter a little bit of a headache.

Once the backup has finished I’ll be able to call up my notes for the encounter and run it, although I won’t be able to update the map. The update might be later tonight or tomorrow.

This afternoon brings a big crash on the part of my tired old laptop, including maps and stats for this encounter (and everything else for the Flood Road). Currently trying to back up the most important stuff in safe mode, but in the meantime I’m unable to use my laptop, making running the next encounter a little bit of a headache.

Once the backup has finished I’ll be able to call up my notes for the encounter and run it, although I won’t be able to update the map. The update might be later tonight or tomorrow.

Sorry about your troubles but thanks for letting us know.

I'm sure we'll all be here waiting so take your time.

Game on!

I've managed to back-up my laptop, but it will probably be about two weeks before I'm in an area of civilization with the means to repair it. It's been a troublesome beast for the last couple of years, so I think as well as repairing the old one it's well past time to buy a new laptop.

However, one consequence of this is that I had Photoshop on the old laptop which I used for all our maps. Until it's repaired or I've found some new (free) program to replace it on the new (as yet unbought) laptop we'll have to manage without maps.

I'll give Bonegrit and Delkaneth a few more hours to post an action for the current round then update to round 2.

Guys just FYI, posting this across all my PbP's here, still in the field (my 3rd day) returning to civilization tomorrow morning, will start posting afterwards (12-16 hours from now). Sorry for delay.

Finally, a word of caution. These foes could be some of the toughest you’ve faced in Follow the Flood Road. Act accordingly. Of course, now I’ve said that you’ll probably annihilate them in a single round.

Translation: "Delkaneth, you only have 9 hit points and zero luck, so please don't die. Again."

Not sure what prevarication is, but I was simply waiting for skeletons to act, since they were ahead of Alagor in inititive. Posting my actions ASAP

Before your time agreed that during combat rounds they'd be a 24 hour window for PCs to post their actions in order to make things move more quickly. The idea is that you predict as best you can what might occur and what your PC wishes to do. I also encourage players to post a few different options "i.e. if this happens, Frodo will . . , but if that happens Frod will instead . . ." but that rarely happens.

It's not a cast in iron rule - if something unexpected or dramatic happens I'll give PCs a chance to reconsider their actions, but it does help keep the flow going and means combat don't stagnate whilst we wait for someone to post. I also imagine it adds a flavour of the chaos of real battle, we're there's little time to deliberate, just act!

Alagor, as skeleton 2 was destroyed, I moved you instead to H10 to flank with Pyotr.

This is perfectly fine, I just have two questions:

1. I thought Del was already in H10, and that he was already flanking with Pyotr?

2. Could I have my attack versus skeleton 3? Or did I simply miss in round 3 again? (I hit AC 18 without flank, and AC 20 with flank - was that a miss?) I should have enough movement for both Move and a strike (Alagor was in G11 previous round, so it's only a 5' step).

Finally, a new map/excel might help for round 4. Thanks.

Del's at G10. He's flanking, as are you. You could have struck either Skele 1 or Skele 3, but even with flanking, it would have still been a miss.

The map has been updated every round. The latest map is in the shared drive (I didn't make a quicklink in the thread, but it's accessible via the link on the campaign page as always). Current map is updated for round 4.

Cheers :-)

Thanks a lot for the prompt reply. Now my turn to run and cry - AC 20 a miss!?! Damn, Alagor's a dead puppy now :-(

It seems like the DM re-opened the door to negotiations, and it looks just wide enough for a Lastwall Iomedaean Paladin to slip through. <_< , >_> That's only if you guys want to talk, though...

Pyotr wrote:

I assumed that the glaive had a minimum of +1 enhancement, or even if you use alternate rules that allow weapon special abilities without a minimum +1, it's still a masterwork weapon.

The damage also assumes the glaive is a +1 weapon, which may have been a faulty assumption:

But what if it's cursed? :-p

I hadn't thought of that...

Important Announcement . . .

Good deal! I'm pretty sure I had Pellius level 3 all planned out but there was a question or two.

I'll check tonight at home and let you know.

Game on!

Roll for Hit Points: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

Edit: Lol. I have this weird mix of "Yay!" and "Wait, I don't get to use my bonus blessing hitpoint?"

Ah, well... ridiculous to think I would be happier with something lower just because I get to add one to it... 10 it is!

1d10 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

a little tired of missing all the time, Del will add another level of Lore Warden......

1d10 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 +1 for Con is 5.....thank you, Iomedae!

Do you want a post recapping the changes another level makes, or just a full update to the profile?

Do you want a post recapping the changes another level makes, or just a full update to the profile?

Always welcome if you have the time!

I try to write everything out before I go edit the profile anyway. its actually a pretty fun level for me.....

Let us see, first HP

HP: 1d10 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 2 + 1 = 7

First +2 is Constitution bonus, while the +1 is the favored class bonus.

EDIT: OK, not really the best for a front-line warrior, but still acceptable. I'll try to add now a Spoiler like Del for the level up.

Do we gain a hero point at level up?

@Bonegrit - I have deleted the two blunt arrows from my equipment (which you gave me in the first time). Please make sure you add them to your inventory (as well as Potion of CLW, if you did not add it before).

Massive tropical storm, just spent one hour rescuing seven puppies from the rising flood waters. No updates till tomorrow. Plus, I'm a hero.

Massive tropical storm, just spent one hour rescuing seven puppies from the rising flood waters. No updates till tomorrow. Plus, I'm a hero.

Pyotr doffs his official "White Paladin Hat" to the hero of the seven puppies. =)

Stay safe!

A few notes on levelling up.
Everyone gains an extra Hero Point one levelling up (which I believe gives everyone two Hero points).

@ Pyotr, I’m not sure you can also take on the Shining Knight archetype as:

A character can take more than one archetype and garner additional alternate class features, but none of the alternate class features can replace or alter the same class feature from the base class as another alternate class feature. For example, a fighter could not be both an armor master and a brawler, since both archetypes replace the weapon training 1 class feature with something different.

Both redeemer and shining knight both have abilities that replace aura of justice.

Still waiting on Bonegrit to level, hit points aside.

@ Delkaneth – featastic! I presume it’s weapon focus (hand axe) rather some other kind of axe.

@ Pellius – we can assume that Pellius’ has deciphered his new spells whilst studying the spellbook of Lamintar Greyfoal. I note you never expressed an interest in learning any of the other spells set down in that tome . . . ?

Finally, could everyone give me a quick audit of expendables (potions, arrows etc). I notice that in some cases what’s on the character sheet isn’t quite up-to-date.

@ Pyotr, I’m not sure you can also take on the Shining Knight archetype as:

Paizo wrote:

A character can take more than one archetype and garner additional alternate class features, but none of the alternate class features can replace or alter the same class feature from the base class as another alternate class feature. For example, a fighter could not be both an armor master and a brawler, since both archetypes replace the weapon training 1 class feature with something different.

Both redeemer and shining knight both have abilities that replace aura of justice.

I PM'd you about it. Granted, that was a pretty good while ago. I can forward you the messages if I need to, but here's the relevant bit:

I'm also happy with combining the 'shining knight' and 'redeemer' archetypes. At 11th level Pyotr will take the knight's charge ability in place of aura of mercy/justice.

Cheers,

James B