I apologize for going silent - I have been completely underwater with work the past couple of days. I will try to catch up later tonight (I'm on US Central time, currently UTC -5), but should be mostly back to normal by midday tomorrow.
I'll be on the road this weekend. My posting rate will likely be less than usual.
Will be a gorgeous weekend. Be safe.
I'm reading a novel (TERMINUS, by Peter Clines), and just reached the start of chapter 9, which begins:
"Murdoch stood on deck as the Liza Dane hummed through the waves toward the island’s west coast."
I just watched The Matrix for the first time a few days ago. Whew.
We rewatched it with our kids last year. I was surprised at how well it held up.
I'm updating the loot sheet - is anyone planning to keep the mithral rapier?
Before I proceed...
@Reillana I want to make sure that you consciously decided to ignore Piotr's advice and not that you just didn't read my post
Yeah Reillana decided to trust Barkot's gut on this one. Piotr did jump straight to lacedons but I don't think Reillana's said anything to indicate what kind of undead he is. Reillana's intention is to imply that Lockerbie's a ghost and giving Liza the locket lets him rest.
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That's fair. Perhaps Piotr should stop meta gaming... Lacedon are a common threat to sailors though, so it is a reasonable jump.
Okay, I'll probably require a Bluff check to make her believe that.
I'm thinking we should get some xps for this endeavor. "Story Awards: Feel free to award Story Awards when players conclude a major storyline or make an important accomplishment. These awards should be worth double the amount of experience points for a CR equal to the APL. Particularly long or difficult story arcs might award even more, at your discretion as GM."
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/Gamemastering/#Awarding_Experience
Side quests always provude xp awards, but certain conditions need to be met first.
The party has earned several story awards so far. Others have been missed.
A dungeon crawl like this book needs side quests simply as a change of pace.
This particular side quest, the party is still in the middle of accomoplishing.
I love Squint. He reminds me of.. me.
By my count, I have two votes to destroy Lockerbie immediately, one to simply not accept his help (I think that is Squint's vote), and two votes to warily accept his help.
I'll wait until someone actually responds to Lockerbie in some fashion before moving the story along.
In fairness, Squint's clarification was that he'd prefer to see it destroyed. I won't speak for him but I think we're 3:2 for destroying over fighting alongside.
Deric actually flip flopped on his opinion. If Hungry has ill will to us, he will show up at the fight regardless. Give him the opportunity to fight with us as we have nothing to lose. If he betrays, he is mine.
This seems like more of a character focused decision for most of the party, rather than one of logic or tactics.
It might be better if Deric made his case in character. :)
I am still not clear on this map and our surroundings. Deric is not so smart and apparently has no sense of direction, so that works out just fine. Is that water they are in?
There is no balcony on this map. I know you did not draw it, gm.
Since a majority of the party appear to be confused by my description of the room, I obviously need to take more care with my descriptions.
Any advice on how I could have worded that post better would be appreciated. Perhaps I should have broken it up into multiple posts?
Reviewed your post again and compared to the map. Stairs lead up to the balcony where we are fits your description and the map. The blue is not water in this case, it is a glow from the fungus. So to get to the blue room, we can just walk down the stairs?
There are no stairs to the balcony.
There are stairs in the center of the "blue room" that descend down into darkness.
There is another stairwell along the western wall of the blue room that also descends.
Both of those stairs are visible on the map.
Yes, the blue glow is from light emitted by the fungus.
To get to the blue room, it appears (and Lockerbie will confirm) that you go back to the eel room and take the western passage. That passage will connect with the blue room.
Other than that, you would need to jump or climb down from the balcony (in full view of the current occupants).
Oh, I think Barkot hit on the reason you thought there were stairs leading to the balcony.
The passageway from the eel room has a circular set of stairs where it bends to the west.
If it's going to be Deric, Barkot, Squint/Ulyi, and Lockerbie, what's our marching order? I think we can go two by two, so should it be Deric and Squint/Ulyi up front to have a clear charging lane, then Lockerbie and Barkot?
Don't forget that Lockerbie is a ghast and you already identified his stench ability. Two by two is easy, but you'll probably want him to be behind you as you approach the blue room.
It will take a few rounds just to get back to the eel room. How long it takes to move around to the blue room depends on whether you are being careful and/or stealthy.
It is doubtful that Bless would be still be active on Paeral and Reillana by the time you make it there.
Perfectly clear now. Thank you!
Oh, I think Barkot hit on the reason you thought there were stairs leading to the balcony.
The passageway from the eel room has a circular set of stairs where it bends to the west.
That’s how I understood we got to the balcony level.
"Well Paeral, your call. Do we stay put or move down?"
Good call, I do not like to separate. That said, you both are pretty agile. Could get down with little or no harm.
I find it somewhat natural and comforting playing a low IQ character.
Charging through a door, with an ally standing in front of the door....
Pathfinder physics and the joys of a 10ft square map. *facepalm*
I will allow it, but I repositioned Squint so that he is 10ft away from the derro instead of being adjacent and too close to use his reach weapon.
Note: your AC is 19. 19 (original) -2 for charging +2 for reckless luck
I placed an everburning torch on my waist when we entered. It has been a long time irl but I cannot recall removing it or a reason to remove it.
Darkness trumps Everburning Torch
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Hmmm... An everburning torch is continual flame, which is 2nd level. So... the two spells negate each other, meaning the normal light conditions take over. In this room, that means darkness.
Thanks for the call. Deric will wait in hopes that his allies can light up this room somehow. Guys, we need to call off Lockerbie. There is a chance we can interrogate the dwarf headed thing.
Eh, just take it out. Reillana or Barkot will stabilize it.
Also good thinking on the Everburning Torch, Deric! Reillana has hers too but I assume she hid it while spying on the derro.
Would overlapping multiple continual flame effects change anything?
I guess I'll have to research. Magical light effects get confusing...
@GM I could see it going either way. Two effects of 2nd level could just have either cancelling it out but both having no additional effect; or one cancels while the other lights up. I'm good either way.
The rules spell this out. Do not recall off hand, but this has been resolved. I believe you need a higher level, but again, iirc. Sorry, up to other things atm. Our GM always makes the right call. So far.
From Darkness: This spell does not stack with itself. Darkness can be used to counter or dispel any light spell of equal or lower spell level.
The "does not stack" is not included in Light (or Continual Flame) but I think the intent is that all magical light effects work the same way. I don't think overlapping effects change anything.
Sorry, I forgot about the stench effects. Are they poison-based saves?
Moot, as I was still able to edit my original post, but useful to know for further saves.
Being immune to poison makes you immune to stench, so it seems to follow it would be considered a poison effect.
Will a regular Light cantrip work at this point? Or do we need a mundane light source? Barkot has the former but not the latter.
Neither will affect the Darkness spell. It is still active and will block mundane light or light of a spell of 2nd level or lower.
It cannot actually lower the normal light level, due to the effects of Continual Flame, but still blocks other light sources. That is the way that I read the spell and the posts I have seen talking about it.
Natural light (daylght, moonlight, and I suppose starlight) would work, but the derro have the benefit of being in their own territory.
Can one of us prep that at level three?
Prep what? Continual Flame?
If Barkot knew it, it would be a 3rd level spell (though he can't cast third level spells) and would completely override the Darkness spell.
There are other third level and higher light spells, certainly. Metamagic could also make Light a higher level spell, I think.
Finding the object he cast darkness on and covering it or removing it from the room would also work.
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When my party reached this point, we rushed in to attack the three of them before they broke off and I don't think any of us had darkvision. We had a very hard time of things.
You guys only have two and a half characters sidelined, and Lockerbie is occupying the only enemy, so it is really a simple matter of time. It does suck to be sidelined, I understand.
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Can the PCs with darkvision see the source of the darkness, the way we’d be able to see a light source? Or would that take detect magic and two rounds of concentration?
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Can you see the source of something emitting darkness? That is an interesting question.
I guess it would be darker than everything else?? I mean, even in bright sunlight, you can tell that a light bulb is on.
Ulyi certainly would have seen that he dropped his scalpel on the ground right after casting the spell. I was debating whether he would know what that meant or not, but you raise a good point.
The source of the darkness is the scalpel the derro had been holding. He dropped it into the square between Barkot and Ulyi after casting the spell. I'll place a marker.
GM - you don't happen to have a description or link for "bloodbane," do you? I haven't been able to find it on d20pfsrd or AON. Here's the complete list of poisons at d20pfsrd.
Oops, sorry, Bloodroot.
Deric is going to back up 10 ft into the light. Is the map updated? I am on screen three. Does not fit the description.