Hey folks, I realize if you're one of the people having trouble with this you may not see this, but in case you're able to read the site:
If you have been locked out from logging in, delete your Paizo.com cookies, then try again.
I always have my browser set to clear its cache after every session so I hadn't noticed a problem and wondered where everyone was, but Kahuranga's player checked in on another thread about the issue and apparently Threnody's player has also been having issues.
If you are able to log in, can you please check in here? I will push us forward once I know everyone can get online. I know Chakam is having other computer woes and may bot him if he can't get on yet, just to turn the combat round, and will welcome him back once he can get on.
I'm here. Go Sharks!
Ok, finally back. Had to clear cookies twice, make new passwords, and sacrifice a goat to the old gods but I'm back.
Y'all ready to go?
I'm good to go. I need to add the loot to the Loot link. That is mostly a note for me.
Had a huge pile of extra work dumped on me yesterday for this week. I'll post when I can, but if I disappear for a few days you will know why.
Family emergency. May not be able to post for awhile. Will update when I can.
Hope everything turns out ok. We'll be here.
Sorry to hear that. The hits just keep on coming.
Please continue to stand by. I am hoping by the weekend things will be a little more normalized.
Take your time.
Hey there, things are settling down. Stuff got really scary when I first had to check out, but are getting much better now. Long, complicated story. The end result is I'm gonna need to help keep an eye on some family matters for awhile, so I am going to be slow for awhile... but the emergent issues are past so I'd like to post here when I can, especially just to give my brain a break.
In short, I'm back but may be slower than usual. I appreciate your patience.
It's all good, GM! I'm glad most of the emergency thing seems to be taken care of.
Glad you're back. Hopefully nothing else springs up or gets worse.
Sorry I'm quiet right now team. Nothing dramatic, it's just the week before inventory in a very short-staffed building. With OT and weather issues on top.
Sorry folks, long week helping take care of family stuff. Hope to post tomorrow (taking some needed time to rest today).
No problem. Rest up. We'll still be here.
We're all here! Take care :)
For the record, I had this image while Thren was mesmerized of Sandara grabbing her by the tail (successful grapple check) to stop her. Thren then flailed her arms to swim forward uselessly to break free (failed to escape), and then Sandara realizing she needed her hands to keep swimming and started to sink (failed Swim check). All in Looney Tune fashion.
Heh we're a merry band aren't we!
We all still here?
First I was waiting for folks to respond to Kahuranga and see if they agreed with his course of action. As I had mentioned prior, I wanted to get a clear message from you all you were ready to proceed, which I never received from anyone but Kahuranga, and I didn't want to make presumptions given the group had some disagreement.
Then a fortunately temporary emergency disrupted everything and I forgot what was going on.
If y'all are good, I will respond to Kahuranga's post later today (I'm about to go into a work meeting).
Yes, I agree with Kahu's idea to get that thing and move to the ship! YOLO :D lol
Sorry, HUGE deadline hit yesterday, and need to catch up on some other things. Will post later today, hopefully.
And then I ended up working until 8, mainly spending a ridiculously long time reformatting a table. Will post tomorrow, can't brain right now. Sorry folks.
And now I hit my head and have a mild concussion. I need to limit my screen time. I will post later but will be slow. I'm sorry for the continued delays.
Concussion? Who did you hit?
You may choose the scenario that pleases you most; one of them may be the true option:
1. I finally headbutted Dan Didio, for reasons you know and others will have to guess
2. I had an epic battle with Captain America because he doesn't deserve Peggy
3. I lost a battle with Captain Nightstand after slipping while getting into bed.
4. Human missile in a nearby circus
5. Jumping inside the house is a problem when it has 6-feet ceilings
6. Chicken Little was right
7. Karate board breaking competitions gets really savage
8. Someone shook a red cloth and you couldn't resist to charge
Hope you're okay! Take your time to recover!
Option 1. Definitely option 1.
I recognize at this point things could go real bad for the party.
I have various contingency plans/scenarios that don't end immediately in TPK, as I really try to avoid it. But it is likely that the best case scenario is likely to leave Chakam continuing to be dominated by Uthiggmaru (an advanced telepathic aboleth) for the time being. We'll see what happens. But we'll need to think about things like rescue parties and/or what Chakam's player would like to do going forward.
Feel free to discuss thoughts and/or see what happens here.
Honestly, thinking from a party perspective - I'm happy if everybody escapes and Chakam stays behind. I hate losing a character but I'd rather lose it than the entire party.
Now, future wise, I don't know if people would prefer trying to rescue him, or just leaving him behind in definitive. As much as I love the character and its strength, I'm more in the game for the fun of it and I don't mind if I have to put together another character... It's however the party chooses, and I'll do whatever the GM allows me to.
Not sure how we can rescue Chakam yet. First we have to save ourselves :)
Considering Chakam could probably hide down here for most of forever (limited by wild shape, which isn't much of a limit just now). Breaking the domination will require some good luck with a dispel...with a capricious die-roller involved. We must ponder this.
Well, Chakam also can't see in the dark (right now he's holding that light dagger from Kahu) so it's another thing we could use against him.
I had been assuming Chakam had been under some sort of dominate spell, but I must ask - it's not charm monster, right? Just asking, because this spell wouldn't actually allow the enemy to control him, neither get him to attack his allies. It just makes Chakam interpret him as an ally and accept suggestions, but it doesn't mean he becomes an automaton, obeys anything, and it doesn't mean his current allies could be interpreted as enemies.
If it was charm monster, the maximum the enemy would be able to do is to ask Chakam to defend him, and even in such cases Chakam wouldn't attack his allies (but rather, argue that the enemy is a friend, and make himself the target of the attacks... Maybe holding them with grapple at maximum, but never something like what we have been doing).
I just wanted to double check because I was considering this entire time as if Chakam was first under some sort of glamour/illusion, then absolutely dominated by the creature. If it was charm monster, then I think we had been doing the entire thing wrong!
Of course, since it's an aboleth, then my guess is that it's dominate monster - in which case, I think Chakam would get a new save everytime the enemy tries to change the order (with a +2 to his saves if the order goes against Chakam's nature).
It is dominate monster. (Should anything similar like this happen again I'll be clear about the mechanics since I usually overlook something.)
Honestly, I had been following the AP's narrative of what the creature is capable of commanding more than the letter of the spell description. Silly me, for trusting the developer to be accurate and clear and rules-binding for how it should work. As such, I had overlooked the conditions for making new saves. I'd rather not retcon things, but you can attempt a new saving throw at the start of your round (and Kahuranga's misfortune will not apply, since you should have been able to make this save prior to its casting).
Your order has been more or less "attack" with flavor added as to which target and why. But attacking your friends should provoke a save.
BTW if any crankiness appeared in the prior post, it is at the AP and myself, not at you. I love this game. We're hitting a level where I am struggling to GM it well, I think, however. I ran a higher level Pathfinder game than this once, but it was early on in the game's development with core only (as there was nothing but core at the time to play with). I can't manage with all the moving parts of AP expectations and splats, and PCs who can easily kill the whole rest of the party when dominated. I don't know how to moderate all that and feel like I am being fair to everyone.
I've been thinking about this a lot and I think after we finish this arc (the end of part two of this book), I will end the campaign. Beyond any frustrations expressed here, this game's gone on many years and I feel like I need a rest. Mind you I expect this will still take probably a few weeks to resolve, so this should not be sudden. But just an FYI to all that I am planning to wind this down and end this with the spy search.
Chakam is up this round. Please attempt your save. I've solidified my backup plan and hopefully it will work.
I understand. We've been at this forever, evolved the party a bunch of times, gone off the rails a few times, nearly TPKed a couple more. Sooner or later all good things must come to an end.
I also apologize for my own crankiness. I'm getting too sensitive to being dropped in combat. It's an occupational hazard. We're all lightly armored. I'm not a raging barbarian. I should take it better than I have.
I love the game and I feel bad it's coming to an end, but it's absolutely important this is fun to everybody - GM included - so I understand and respect the decision! Let's make these last weeks count, and in advance I already thank GMDQ for all the effort here, and all the fun moments I had with Chakam and you guys :)
I'll post in gameplay. Cheerio!
Whatever comes, I've had a great time with this campaign. I never get to play in games that last very long, so you have given me a great gift.
Thanks for your understanding all.
Good news: I got my COVID vaccine (1st dose) yesterday.
Bad? news: I expect it will probably make me off all day tomorrow and then I'm visiting my dad for Easter, and then taking some well-deserved R&R (taking reasonable safety precautions) away from home Monday, so I may not post again until Monday or Tuesday.
All of that is a good reason to not be posting for several days.
Chakam, you still with us? If he doesn't post soon I will bot him.
This said, I'm getting my 2nd dose of vaccine tomorrow. I did ok with the first dose but many have said they felt worse after the 2nd. If it knocks me out I might take the weekend to post again. So I thank you in advance for your patience.
Hi guys! Posting it on all my pbps.
Our offshore team at work is very affected by the pandemic at the moment and with the fiscal year approaching to an end, our reduced capacity is terribly affecting my time. For the next several weeks it will likely impact me in such way that I simply won't be able to keep up with the forums, things normalizing only as we start approaching mid June.
For the games where I play, GMs please feel free to bot the characters. If you don't desire to bot me for so long, I completely understand, apologize for the late notice and wish you all the best of fun. If you hold me around, though, I should be back after this storm.
For the games where I host, my sincerest apologies to the players - I won't let you hanging so if you stick around until my return we will give it continuation as normal. Otherwise, please message me and once I'm back I'll recruit replacements.
To everybody, I'm sorry for the late notice and I hope we will continue playing together once I'm back!
Cheers,
Archlich
Good luck, Chakam. Thanks for the heads up.
Edit: I plan to keep Chakam in game since we're heading toward the end anyway. I don't know how long it will take to wrap up--if we ended the game once you returned to the Temple of Norgorber you might not be back before we close out. If we take it to the end of the spy chase (which was my original plan) hopefully you'd return before we ended properly. I may also ask KeefX again if he's willing to come back with Lee or another character.
Lathiira or Tumbler, would one of you be willing to bot Chakam, if not RP at least run him in combat, for now? Alternatively if there's another character you'd rather bot like Chad that's fine; we just need a third party member and Chakam would be a lot for me to bot in combat while also running.
I can take a shot at running Chakam in combat. After this encounter I might think about someone else from the crew to make a third (fifth with our cohorts and familiars).
Thank you!
Thanks :)
Not long after I posted, I got a call and need to go attend to my dad, who is very ill in reaction to the COVID vax, so I will be limited in my ability to post over the next couple days.
I hope he's going to be ok. Some people have reacted worse than others. Take care of him and we'll be waiting.
DQ's last few die rolls:
Really critically important combat rolls: 1, 4, 6, 10, 10 (both at a penalty versus a powerful boss), 1
Skills checks of relatively minor relevance: 19, 16, 20
So the die roller is working as usual. I'm expecting the next combat we are in the monsters won't hit you at all or kill you instantly. Let's see what happens! ;)