One thing I think 2e is going to improve upon is how these bonuses are attained and it will hopefully be less fiddly.
Hopefully so.
I've thought about a campaign setting in which "the gods" have deemed that "raising a weapon against a fellow higher order being" is deemed an unacceptable sin. Instant death from on high.
So hunting and fishing and farming are still okay. But armed war and conflict are things of the past.
Lark, you here? I know this is a tough fight, but I'd like to keep up the pace. I'll wait a bit more and then start botting folks, but I'd rather not do that in this boss fight.
Sounds interesting, KeefX. So the only creatures fought would be non-intelligent beings? Would say, dragons have to eat only cattle? Are there beings that try to get around it? ("Can't raise a weapon," fine but can you raise a fist?) Is there a massively insane spy network that does the work that war would do otherwise?
Definitely can raise a fist.
Definitely spies and diplomacy.
I would have to think about dragons...
Probably weapon use would involve some praying and some 'chancing it'.
Probably a tough campaign to run but would make for a good one-off. It would definitely be an unarmed combat rules workout.
Is it Varossa's turn? If not, what did she do in round 6 - anything that Lark should consider in round 7?
Whoops, you are right, I skipped Varossa's turn. Sorry about that! If you see I am posting and don't see that I am posting what I should, please feel free to say something. This is a lot to track, especially since who is friendly and who isn't is changing!
She's going to move and load her pistol (she's going to try to set up another shot-while-invisible to do sneak attack damage to Orsilir).
For future reference, could Threnody have used that Hero Point for +4 on the saving throw (and thus a successful save) instead of a full on re-roll?
Yes. I wasn't writing very clearly, and apologized if I misled to a poor choice. Thren, it's okay with me if you retcon that. At this point I really just want to try to get through this fight.
I will abide by my decision for the reroll. Thank you for the chance to retcon it, but I'm going to let the dice fall where they may.
Fair enough.
Lark, you're up then.
I think Varossa is due a Round 7 action. I'm going to go ahead with Lark's round 8.
Also, did Threnody move to the other side of Orsilir? The character token is on the other side of the ship now...
Yup. It's in the description in the gameplay.
I believe it's Lee,then Orsilir, then Varossa.
ETA. Whoops I forgot to have her go after Orsilir last time. I was waiting to see if Thren used her hero point.
Reminder - Lark has Resiliency. If he drops to 0 HP or less he gains 12 temp HP (rogue level x 2) for 1 minute.
Hmmm, you bring up an interesting issue. Orsilir's calcification of minions triggers either when the subject hits 0 hp (and has barbs in him) or 0 Dexterity from the drain. It doesn't say what happens if someone has an ability that auto-restores hit points (Orc Ferocity would be an issue too). I suppose if it auto-activates and gives you positive HP, then the calcification shouldn't trigger.
(I know Muffin will become an agathion, not an azata, but a push from Desna seemed the right call given the story and the themes.)
Who took the quick runner's shirt from the hag hoard? It's not as nice as a permanent base speed improvement, Lee, but it's a way of getting you to move faster in a pinch (it allows you to make an extra move action... I think it's only once per day or something, but it's still useful). That is, if someone else claims the boots.
Edit: to answer the question about using the Redclaw and casting spells... the description says it functions as one's own arm, so since it doesn't say you CAN'T use it to cast with somatic components, I'll say that you can. Of course you only ever need one hand for somatic components anyway.
SO: we are approaching the end of this chapter. KEEP PLAYING. There's a few rooms you haven't cleared out yet (and they do need clearing) and of course you may wish to wrap up stuff with various NPCs in the area.
But I want to note a couple things at this moment:
- Soon enough you will have a stronghold at least if you want it (I would strongly recommend taking it). Think about some things you would like to do with it. I'll post full guidelines later but you can look at the rooms/teams rules in Ultimate Campaign to get a sense of what stronghold upkeep looks like.
- Once you've finished tying up loose ends, you have potentially an almost-unlimited amount of downtime coming up. This is to say, there is nothing plot-wise to push you forward until you are ready to go to Port Peril to petition the Hurricane King for Free Captaincy. While you don't want to get too reckless before you get your letter of marque--because other Free Captains may feel free to attack and loot your ship without impunity if you draw their attention--you basically have all the time you want to get things in order, including whatever you want to do with your ship, fixing up or selling The Fearsome Tide, and setting up your base of operations, etc. As some of you mentioned in game you may also want to touch base with Kelizar. In addition to downtime proper (handling your ships, crew, and stronghold), you can also travel to other ports and seek out some unscripted adventure (or just go shopping). I'm willing to run a bit of a sandbox before we get into part 3 proper.
- And of course consider if you want to keep playing. I am assuming at this point you do want to continue to Book 3 of Skull and Shackles, but of course if you're not, now's the time to share your concerns. If we want a planned hiatus that is also fine. I would like to run Book 3 if you want to play, though I'm hoping to have some prep time while you take care of post-Plunder and Peril loose ends.
Let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc.
Now that we have a stronghold (I'm assuming we take it), we'll need someone to run it. Need to start thinking about hiring, I don't know, a castellan? Major domo? Some title for someone who oversees day-to-day biz.
As far as the boat goes, do we want to hold it? Get it to stay afloat then put the restoration on the back burner?
Hmm...crazy idea. How about Varossa as castellan? She wants to retire, we have a place to retire to....
I'd like to do a bit of sandbox stuff. Go loot a few ships, build up some Infamy and Plunder, be piratey, and want the stronghold too.
As for clearing rooms, we need to be careful. Lee and Thren are down to cantrips and we're all beaten up in general.
Varossa would be great except for the day when she promotes herself to 'Lord & Master'. Also, the whole affair has been bittersweet for her.
What about Kroop?
Also, what resources are on the island? Do we have the kind of lumber we need to support shipwrights? Or do we need to tow Redclaw's ride to a garage?
As far as clearing rooms goes, that will be a good task for tomorrow. Wear asbestos underwear, everyone.
Well, I did say it would be a crazy idea. I like Kroop as a much more reasonable alternative.
I feel safe to say that Varossa would manage things extremely well but probably also engage in fantastic levels of embezzlement. You'd have a well-oiled stronghold but strangely always very low coffers.
Kroop I will leave you to discuss with him.
The island is covered in jungle--so plenty of wood, so long as you're willing to brave the denizens of the jungle.
The harder part is you will need to have a drydock built before it can properly be repaired, and hire a team of shipwrights to do the work (this will be represented by your labor cost). Conveniently, you have recruited Doc Imogene, and she has all the skills to oversee the project. Looking at the rooms/teams rules, I'd say a drydock is a building made of a dock, storage, and a workstation, and so would cost 18 goods (360 gp), 2 Influence (60 gp), 16 labor (740 gp), and it'll take @ 30 days to build. (It should take longer technically but I'm combining effort.) (The ship isn't going anywhere, don't worry. The module is a bit inconsistent in describing WHY the ship has lasted, or moreover is inconsistent in how the coral interacted with it, but I'm going to go with what it says about having an effectively reinforced hull and it won't sink). You will not be starting with zero capital (goods, influence, labor, magic), so you well have the means to do this. The bonus of building a drydock is that it also becomes a place you can fix up Besmara's Whim and other ships.
You CAN also tow it to somewhere else to have it fixed up. You're not near a lot of super-friendly ports, so the hard part would be getting it that far without pirates trying to take it from you on the way. Closest ports are Vilelock and Raketooth, both on Shark Island. Vilelock is a dangerous place but certainly have a drydock; Raketooth is little further but slightly less of a hive of scum and villainy. The next nearest proper town is on the Smoker, a tourist town called Plumetown. They too likely offer ship repair services.
It would take the party a couple days in-game to note this, but I'm going to say it here for planning purposes:
The Fearsome Tide is a nice ship -- it has the same stats as yours, but has armored plating (some of the black goo has sunk in and reinforced it), an extended keel, and four smuggling compartments.
It needs about 1,500 gp worth of repairs (Lee's fireball didn't help it), and 1 week of work once you've got your drydock up and running.
Unrepaired, it is worth 9,000 gp just because it is still a freaking nice sailing ship. If you chose not to bother with it, you would have to find a way to tow it to the nearest port, as while it won't sink, its rigging is wrecked and the steerage probably needs to be replaced.
Repaired it is worth 16,000 gp, though frankly, if you're going to bother to repair it, I would keep it were I you, to either sail in yourselves (sentimental attachment to Besmara's Whim besides). While you will need to crew it eventually if you want to use it, I believe there are opportunities later in the adventure where having multiple ships in your fleet can be a boon, and it bolsters your reputation as well. If you keep the ship you can't count it as plunder if you're using it.
Would The Fearsome Tide be considered plunder if we turned it into a floating Bed & Breakfast in Plumetown?
I guess this is a real question:
Do we all want to be recognized as Shackles Captains?
Would The Fearsome Tide be considered plunder if we turned it into a floating Bed & Breakfast in Plumetown?
Lol no, but it could certainly generate revenue.
Do we all want to be recognized as Shackles Captains?
If you don't want to be recognized as Shackles captains, the Skull and Shackles adventure path will immediately end, since the plot is 100% dependent on you going to petition the Hurricane King for a letter of marque.
Now, we can sandbox from hereon out, but... it would probably also eventually result in your stronghold being attacked by all the other Free Captains, since you have no recognition from the Hurricane King, and it's legal to attack any stronghold or ship in the Shackles not belonging to a Free Captain. Which quite frankly would probably get you all killed sooner rather than later. So basically, deciding not to become Free Captains means you don't want to play anymore.
Sorry, but that's unfortunately how it's plotted, and I'm not sure how to play around the consequences of going off the rails otherwise. I guess if you decided to leave the Shackles entirely?
My question should have been more like:
Do we want to advance Lark as a Shackles Captain and continue with Thren and Lee as crew? Or do we all want to be captains? Is there a position in the Shackles hierarchy for powerful, non-Captain adventurers?
Even if we had a fleet, I'd still want to adventure together and hire (recruit? develop?) NPC captains.
I believe how it technically works is that one of you obtains recognition as a Free Captain, but then with that recognition, all of your crew (PCs and NPCs alike) gains appropriate papers that identify them as legally seafaring plunderers of the Shackles region. Anyone who works for the Free Captain gets their letter of marque, including across your fleet. However the AP often words it as the PCs becoming "Free Captains" in the plural so it may all be semantic. When you petition, you will be offered *cough* opportunities to prove yourselves worthy that in at least most cases more than one of you will be participating in the effort.
Any lower-case-c captain operating another ship in your fleet would be operating underneath your flag; they themselves do not need to be recognized as "Free Captains" themselves. (But then of course if those captains did something the Hurricane King didn't like, you would be held responsible.)
Basically, what a "Free Captain" is, is the head of a floating city-state recognized by the ruler of the Shackles. If you want to decide all three of you are the oligarchic rulers of your "city state" or serve the tyrannical despot Lark is all kind of academic. The end results will be the same either way.
I like the idea of city-state co-tyrantcy but then having the despot Lark be in charge of the ship once we are sailing.
I'm with you on that one KeefX.
What I'm overall hearing is that we're gonna need more loot to get our new ship fixed up, either by building our own drydock or sailing to one. That lends itself to us doing some sandbox work to build up our new residence (not to mention our own personal coffers). Once we're in a decent spot, we can go see the Hurricane King about becoming Free Captains.
One other note: I'll be off visiting our old friend over Philly-way this weekend so my posting may be spotty till Tuesday.
I think I'm with Lathiira, some time spent building up our fancy new base might be a good way to go.
Let me know what you think about this for our initial loot distribution:
Lee
staff of minor arcana
quick runner shirt (retrieve from Besmara's Whim)
Thren
Only Reason to Live.
mithral shirt
Lark
+1 cold iron short sword
Boots of Striding and Springing
Monkey Belt
Items to take now:
the Redclaw
potion/oil of cure moderate wounds (CL 3)
potion/oil of remove fear (CL 1)
potion/oil of purify food and drink (CL 1)
divine scroll of neutralize poison (CL 7)
divine scroll of barkskin (CL 3)
arcane scroll of daze (CL 1)
All the gems and jewelery?
Everything else we can grab later (and I'll add it to the loot spreadsheet).
The division of loot seems right.
Once we are Free Captains, other Free Captains are obligated to not attack us. But that also works the other way. So if there's a Free Captain with whom we have a beef, we'll want to settle matters here in the sandbox period. That being said, how are we feeling about Barnabus these days?
Yes, because in a nation of thieves, murderers, and outlaws, you're going to want to be really careful about always obeying the law. ;)
In seriousness, being a Free Captain gives you some protection and leverage. It doesn't mean everyone is your friend, and there are plenty exploitable loopholes if you want to fight someone as a Free Captain or they want to fight you (though course you'd be encouraged to "resolve your differences on shore") (not leave them). The difference is that if you take on a Free Captain and you yourself are not one, other Free Captains may feel free to gang up on you and or the Hurricane King may decide you are a menace to be ganged up on later, whereas if you're both Free Captains, provided you resolve the issue in an appropriately piratey way, you'll be let be--or even helped if you can prove your enemy is all kinds of bad.
Even if you could somehow find him in a massive archipelago full of twisty islands and sharks and pirates galore, I strongly, strongly discourage you from seeking out Harrigan and his crew at this time. Varossa nearly killed you, and Harrigan alone is twice Varossa's level and several of his crew her peer. And Varossa, while a deeply imperfect being, is a much, much, much, much, MUCH nicer person than Harrigan.
Overall, please try not to overthink this, and please for both my and your sakes, focus on the here and now.
Let's focus on building a stronghold, working on our reputation, and loot of course. Both as a crew and personal. A bit of time in the wide open ocean help with all of that. Scores can be settled later.
On further thought, I feel like I need to clarify things about at least my (possibly flawed) understanding of the Free Captains. Please also reference your player's guide for guidance.
The Free Captains are a very loose organization. They are united in one thing: to defend the Shackles from those who would take it, especially Cheliax. So they largely try to get along with each other, to help attain this goal. They seldom go out to war with one another because they know that would weaken the Shackles as a whole, so overall they have an agreement to leave each other alone.
The Hurricane King, as elected ruler of the Shackles says any non-Free Captain ship is fair game for pirating. This keeps the Free Captains focused on attacking ships not their own. It works fairly well.
However, and this is crucial: pirates lie, rob, cheat, steal, murder, lie, steal, cheat, lie, murder, rob, lie and cheat. Free Captains are pirates. Therefore, Free Captains lie, rob, cheat, steal, murder, lie, cheat, steal, lie, murder, rob, lie and cheat. Free Captains will assume you will do the same. (And none of you are Lawful, so, while good, you should be willing to cheat a little to get by in this sort of setting.)
So, if they really want something belonging to another Free Captain, they'll find a way to take it if they can. But a smart Free Captain would choose such things carefully and not in a way that would alert the Hurricane King and the Pirates Council, who have an interest, again, in keeping dissent to a reasonable simmer so as not to attract enemy nations who would exploit their clashes to take over the realm, something they are easily in danger of all the time. So they're not going to really go out of line unless it's really that important.
This is important: whenever "rules" or "codes" are mentioned to do with the Shackles, you should be taking this with a chunk of salt large enough your mouth feels dry. Besmara's code, Shackles code, etc.---all very, very, very rough guidelines. Moreover, if you act like you are beholden to a strict code of laws or honor, Free Captains would learn this and gleefully manipulate it so as to rob you of every gold piece, ounce of reputation, and stake that you have in the world. (Nicer ones might just abandon you, none the wiser, on a jungle island of lizardfolk, to keep you away from their treasure.)
TL;DR: the Shackles are a deeply Chaotic-Aligned society. YMMV.
It is still necessary for you to get recognized in order to operate in the Shackles with the least amount of fatal interference. (And to be clear here: not because it is "the rules" but because it means you on an individual basis have earned a reputation enough to be respected and feared.)
However, by the same token, you should plan on encountering fatal interference at some point. It's how the pirate world works.
The best thing you can do to protect yourselves is build up enough of a reputation, ship, and crew, that you will be taken seriously as Free Captains so that you're not going to be messed with until situations turn dire.
Hope that helps.
Thank you for the further explanation.
I think GMDQ mentioned the possibility of planning a hiatus. I'm interested in that - anyone else?
Either way, the end of this week and the holiday weekend will be busy for me. Not that I've been great at posting on weekends lately, but this coming one will be even more so.
We can take a few days off at need. That last fight was grueling enough to warrant some RL recovery!
I am fine with a hiatus and would appreciate a break to prep for the third book, but I'd like to clear the last two dungeon rooms if possible first, so we can properly close this chapter. (Going slow either way during Mem Day weekend is fine.)
What I envision is finishing out the dungeon, and posting you the stronghold development guidelines (with the specifics pertaining to Ghoral Rhey) to have something to think about while we take a break.
Sounds reasonable to me.
I like clearing the island (or at least the stronghold portion) then breaking.
Sounds like a plan then!
BTW, is Quinn able to heal the DEX damage dealt by Orsilir?
Bleah. I'll be honest, I didn't even think about that.
No, she can't. I thought lesser restoration would heal it but it doesn't. Looks like you need restoration which is a 4th level spell. Which means no one in the party would be capable of casting it even if they were divine casters until the end of the story. I'm not sure if the jackass who designed the monster and the fight assumed no one would actually be afflicted, would be cured because they would be made a minion, or otherwise just didn't think about the level appropriateness of the ability.
You'd need to find an appropriate spellcaster to cast the spell on you, which would cost you 280 gp. Since you wanted to do some adventuring, that would be a good reason to go somewhere.
If you know of anyone who might be interested in joining the campaign (perhaps preferably as a cleric or oracle) we could also reconsider recruiting at this time, especially since we're planning a break. I am just not sure whom to ask who isn't busy as heck already. Or if any of you want to retrain as a divine caster... ;)
I could run an open recruitment but I feel a bit awkward about that since we all know each other, and even if one does one's best, that affects the dynamic of how folks interact.
Eh, the monster's CR makes it something that's relatively level-appropriate. It's just that good encounter design IMO doesn't rely on the party having access to a specific ability to succeed or survive. And anyone who's played from the ancient days loathes anything which permanently screws with our stats. As it was, the whole fight hurt a lot.
Finding a spellcaster seems to be the best idea for now, though we've discussed the possibility of adding someone. Given we're about to sandbox a bit, this might be the time, awkward or not.
As a reminder, the island is called Brightglass Island, as noted on the map you found at Warvil's Folly (and on other maps of the region). The fortress is named Ghoral Rhey (from its Gholgani Empire days) but of course you can rename it. I'm sure Captain Redclaw called it something else.
I agree with you on the good encounter design, Lathiira. I honestly forgot what cured drain. I did tweak the monster slightly (I removed its immunity to flanking, because BS). The encounter design counted on your figuring out the barbs (which I did try to repeat over and over again) and focusing blows only on the bad guy. I didn't realize how badly it could go if the players didn't key into those tactics until we were in the middle of it.
But it was supposed to be a very tough, life or death kind of thing, so I think seeking out healing isn't a too hard outcome of the fight.
My main issue is this: being immune to flanking due to all-around vision, tremorsense, or whatnot doesn't bother me, though it makes our damage curve plummet as we rely on Lark to sneak attack a lot. Varossa couldn't be sneak-attacked but with her feints could do so to us, making it so just slugging it out with her was a bad idea. The barbs, however, aren't to me very intuitive. Who uses Heal in the middle of a fight? Sunder or disarm would make some sort of sense, but Heal? Overall, I think they should've taken us down hard as it was. Lee was at 1/4 hp before he got an action, and the rest of the fight we got whittled down pretty steadily. But mostly...the barbs, yeah.
As far as focusing on him: he didn't even show up the first round or two, by which point we were already in trouble. That tactic makes sense, but by that point Varossa was already showing herself to be a far more pressing issue than some strange telepathic snail :(
Sunder or Disarm would have worked fine--why didn't you try it? You totally could have come up with another way to remove the barbs--an attempted combat maneuver is a good idea! I've said from the very beginning of the game that if you think of possibly something you need to roll, to go ahead to try it.
And if in doubt, ASK!
Heal is what's noted in the Monster stat block, but there's no reason to limit it to that, nor did I EVER say the solution was limited to that. My hint to Lark was to "use a scalpel"--and in part, that's because he DID have a Heal bonus and it would be the best method for him to use--but if he had on his own interpreted the hint that it meant to sunder or attack the barb or whatever, I would have allowed it to work.
However, thermopyle read the monster's stats. He is the one who decided, therefore, he had to use the Heal check--again, I never once actually asked for one. He declared it. If you had wanted to ask about trying something else I would have been more than happy to discuss it, especially since that would have indicated you weren't "reading ahead" and I'd much rather reward creative thinking than cheating.
I encourage you to test things, pick up on details, and be creative and try different mechanics (as long as you are indeed using mechanics the way they are intended to be used, e.g., no matter what, hydraulic push cannot be used as a jetski, but that's because of its own self described limitations). This is not a video game.
As for the monster -- he appeared after the surprise round, and I left a round of him climbing for you to take pot shots at him. The monster is intelligent; he is going to use his minions to protect himself. Of course he would wait to appear. You just did exactly what he wanted you to do--focus on them instead of him. Of all the problems with this chapter, that tactic is not one of them. An intelligent big bad should behave intelligently.
Varossa was only a threat as long as she was controlled and/or the monster was alive.
The fight was tough and had a crazy design, and some of the die rolls were f+#@ing insane which weren't helping (I'm also way too used to my rolls sucking and you guys just tearing through everything--I still tend to assume every fight for you is going to be an easy victory, even though this has been one of a couple hard fights in this campaign). But I'm not going to blame the module for your allowing yourselves to be distracted and fall for the monster's tricks. :) (There are many things I'd probably redo if I were redesigning this fight, but that isn't one of them.)
For that matter, you could have also tried to look for the monster before. You were warned about him by the ahuizotl. He sent you (Threnody) a telepathic message--that was a hint that he had to be close by. All of these were messages he was close by and dangerous. None of you acted on that.
None of this is to berate you or tell you you "played it wrong" --- I'm just dissecting the situation for future reference. Even when I try to shove you along the rails, by all means fight and jump off them and go off course. Where reasonable anyway. :) Obviously sometimes with APs if you go too far off course it's hard to come back (like if you decided not to petition the Hurricane King.) I'm worried my tone is coming off as pissy or blamey. Just kind of trying to debrief a little.
I will try to be better about communicating options that are before you. It's always hard to tell if I am being too obvious or too subtle and will work harder on being clearer. I know there's a couple things I could have done to highlight a few things--e.g., emphasize Creed's injuries so you could have maybe figured out more easily he had been under the influence of Orsilir but then freed by barb removal (in fairness, I had added that detail to Creed myself; the module just said he'd generally gone crazy because reasons); maybe had the ahuizotl say something to be clearer that Orsilir was close by and you could look for him.
At the same time I don't want to just say, "here are your choices, a b or c..." because I feel like that's not any fun. And you are also often capable of coming up with options that are much better than what I'd think of anyway. You guys are creative and smart players. I'll note, a lot of the stuff you have done has worked way better or differently in an interesting way than what I or the module allowed for. For example, the module just assumes the PCs will kill Crazy Creed when he attacks. Zero options for how to deal with him otherwise. You guys came up with some good rolls that made sense for something different to happen. This forced me to adapt the scenario and create a new, different challenge instead (the whole rescue-him-from-the-incutilis scene was off the cuff) that would let you rescue him in a way that you didn't have to kill him, since that is what you guys wanted to do.
If anything--I know I'm wordy, but usually details I provide are for a reason. If I am repeating something over and over again, it's for a reason. Please do read carefully--and you can always, always, always reread the thread to refresh on ideas. One of the best things about PBP is that it's an automatic record of gameplay---no one is in danger of forgetting what happened last session because "last session" is the thread itself, and it's all there for you to read and reread to your heart's content.
If my attitude is coming off as negative or poor, for my part, I apologize. I just feel like that fight wasn't won by us, it was won as much by Varossa as us.
It had occurred to me to try sunder or disarm. But, being honest with myself, none of us are set up for combat maneuvers, so the idea of prompting an AOO every time wasn't appealing. We were already taking lots of hits. Taking more hits...not sure how that would have worked out.
Ah well. Fight's over. Time to finish making the donuts!
No, you are being very reasonable.
I understand that feeling. On one hand, I honestly thought the fight would go very differently and you wouldn't even need Varossa. (With all the talk of fireball and then ask questions, I figured you'd fireball the ship preemptively to flush out the bad guys (which would deny Varossa her surprise round), as you'd been told by the ahuizotl you were walking into a trap, and then when Orsilir was forced to emerge, you'd web him to the side of the ship and pot-shot him to death. (This is NOT to say it was the "correct action"; there was no correct action, it's just what I anticipated you'd do based on past tactics and figured the fight would ergo be no problem.)
When things went badly, turning Varossa was your best chances of not getting killed (that, or fleeing and coming back with reinforcements, which had its own drawbacks). Which is why my hint to Lark went in that direction.
BUT you still had to a) successfully free Varossa; b) successfully free Lee (who did crucial damage to the monster), c) buy Varossa time to set up her invisible pistol shot, which takes three rounds to accomplish. And the killing blow was dealt by Lark. (The frustrating problem for you specifically is you got whacked before you could get out of the way to shoot Orsilir.) The fight was definitely yours to win.
It is also very much in the theme of how you have been playing your characters to create and use allies to assure victory. Many times you have been a talk-rather-than-fight group, so maybe it doesn't feel like the most shiny victory--which again, I totally understand why that feels unsatisfying--but it is completely appropriate to how this group plays and succeeds in its endeavors.
I will study any upcoming boss fights (I think you'll be facing more people rather than monsters for a bit, though I could be wrong) to be sure they're well suited to the group. I have always been lousy at encounter design (note that's the part of RPG Superstar where I crashed and burned) so I can only hope to improve. Thanks for putting up with me.
As the third section of Plunder and Peril was written, I believe, by Stephen Helt, I will also be sure never to use anything written by him again. I am trying to trust the modules/APs to be well designed that I don't have to do a lot of rejiggering, and this third section was a bit frustrating to work with in this regard. A lot of this chapter had a lot of "right and wrong ways" to do things, rather than spectrums of possibility, which put all of us in difficult positions. In spite of a few points where I could have used some more info, I thought the first two sections (Lilywhite and the seafaring bits through to the end of Warvil's Folly) were really fun.