GM Giuseppe's Council of Thieves

Game Master Giuseppe Capriati

Sure - Varius' in game advice and behaviour are not always going to be optimal. He wears his low wisdom score on his sleeve.

Luring out the big spiders is fine. Varius also has two pints of lamp oil in his inventory we can make use of. I can do something about that next round.

So Faustina grabs the oil with Varius' direction, and throws it, Varius ignites it, hopefully helping take out the swarm, and we concentrate on the big spiders. Is that the plan?

Giuseppe did the flare dazzle the pink (called it white in my post) spider? I didn't see it in the description or rolls.

I forgot about it, Petals, but since it missed, fortunately it had no impact on the fight.

As a side note, I believe you should start cooperating a little more among yourselves, perhaps using this thread a little more to coordinate your actions, otherwise even a bunch of spider will pose a serious threat to the heroes of Westcrown!

I think we've got the right idea, but we could stand to act a little more harmoniously. With initiative order as it is, I don't think Varius can five foot step back before the swarm's turn.

So the question is, can Varius light the oil-coated swarm from where he is? GM Giuseppe, it would be good to know if 1) lighting the oil with the torch is a standard action, free action if the torch can just be dropped, etc., and 2) if he lights it now, will he damage himself?

If it would damage him to light the oil where he is, he could try moving back (provoking an AoO) and throwing the torch (perhaps AC 5 to hit the right square?).

Varius may also need to move to back up enough so that everyone can attack the big spiders, but they're still bottlenecked. He could try an acrobatics check to avoid the AoO.

How does that all sound?

Edit: I've also got my gameplay post ready for today, but I'm waiting a bit before posting it so we can work out our tactics a little. I figured I would just shoot at the spider closest to us (or the one in back of i have a clear shot). If we hold at the top of the stairs that seems good. But if we all want to flee into the fire room, that's another story.

It sounds good.

At the moment Petals can continue to try and dazzle spiders making them have a minus to attack and back up anyone needing healing with her remaining spell and wand. Or plug a hole if someone needs to back up.

I'm going to hold off on posting until I see what Varius is doing. With me being last in initiative order, I've stood around long enough waiting for the spiders to come up the stairs.

Varius will light the oil and back up so we can take on spiders. He was intentionally blocking the passage so the squishes could get away, and then took a turn to produce the lamp oil.

Hey guys, what do you think about making two posts each tomorrow? I believe we should end this fight as soon as possible. It is clear that the spider won't kill you; it's just a matter of when and how you will kill them, and I'd rather see this combat to its conclusion sooner than later.

For my part, that doesn't seem too onerous. My turns are fairly simple in this fight now, and I think our tactics to hold at the top of the stairs and let the spiders walk into our whirlwind of steel should be quite effective.

That is fine with me as well. I usually check in the morning and evening, though I do know our time zones are significantly different.

I'm in.

I'll do this best I can. Bot my attack if you need to.

Sure.

Thank you guys!

Assuming you decide to go with Faustinia's plan, how would you split the group?

Alessandro's split sounds good. Alessandro and Catina come from the north stairs. Petals, Varius, and I come from the south. One person who can heal in each group is probably prudent. :)

Okay, what is the plan here? Stab them until they are dead or try and retreat and burn them? We are packed in right now and I don't love the idea of giving them an attack of opportunity.

If it is stabiness we are going for Petals moved in the room so Faustinia can try killing one too. I didn't include that in her post even though I moved her in the map.

If it is burning, I'm not sure how to accomplish that this turn.

They seem to go down easily. Just hang in there for a round and try to leverage as many attack against them as possible.

Varius and Alessandro's attack styles are to our benefit here since stabbing a bunch of little critters is right in our wheelhouse.

Hey everyone, I'd like a quick strategy check.

These enemies are lined up perfectly for me to use color spray - perfectly except I would also hit three of our party members.

This is definitely a high risk, high reward situation, and I don't know how much more use I'll get out of this spell considering we're approaching the levels where not everything is under the hit dice limits.

So before I just do it, I want to check in. Do you all think i should risk using the spell? Given that everyone is 4th level, Petals, Varius, and Alessandro would risk being blinded and stunned (but not unconscious) if they failed a DC 15 Will save.

Another note: I'm going to delay in the initiative order. It might be good to see if we can deal with them with just regular attacks first. If we get some bad luck and low rolls, though, color spray might be more attractive if there are still 5 or 6 of them.

I'm game for a color spray, but yeah - we'll see hwo the attacks resolve.

Petals is -6 strength, and now -2 con, so yep, good with an area effect attempt.

The writer of this dungeon must have really loved ability damage, between the shadows, vipers and these blood-draining suckers. Maybe he had stock in the local temple producing scrolls of restoration. :)

The writer of this dungeon must have really loved ability damage, between the shadows, vipers and these blood-draining suckers. Maybe he had stock in the local temple producing scrolls of restoration. :)

What would that be? Collusion? Inside trading?

In any case, it's very Chelaxian.

Questions, I can come up with:
1. We came across a runecurse down here. Is the caster of the curse within the Knot as well?
2. Is there another exit out of the Knot besides the entrance we came in from?
3. Are there more devils in the Knot?
4. Does the Chelish Crux we seek have the key to the Pathfinder lodge that we need?
5. Does the current Mayor come into the Knot?
Just some thoughts on options. I don't want to use up all the questions.

Taking it here for a bit, so we can discuss. I think out questions should focus primarily on finding the Chelist Crux, opening it, and getting out of the Knot safely. Questions 2 and 4 seem perfect to me. 5 would be nice, but optional. Perhaps other questions could be:

I agree 2 and 4. 1 would be nice to know. I doubt we'll be that lucky, but if it is then we need to take care of it while we are here. 7 is excellent.

Good questions, all around. I would support 2 and 7 so far, but I don't know about 4 - we're in deep enough that I think we're going to take it anyway and we don't have any other leads. I would call it nonessential, but good for confirming if we can spare the question.

Other question suggestions:
9. Can we find the password to the vault (the one mentioned in the margin notes of the dead elf we found after entering the Knot) within the Asmodean Knot?
10. Is the Chelish Crux inside the vault in the Asmodean Knot?

Also, here's an alternate version of question 6 that might be good:
6a. If we leave through the door marked "Exit," will that lead us to the most direct path to the Chelish Crux?

Lastly, when I was going back I realized that I forgot that we picked up a Pearl of Power I. I think Catina is holding on to it now, but I could certainly use it now that I'm out of 1st level spells. If you think you would get more use out of it, though, that's also totally fine if you want to use it for something else.

Actually lastly, I could use a little healing. A single CLW should do it.

2 and 7 sounds like a good start to me too. We can see what answers we get before spending all our questions at once.

I totally forgot about the pearl. It's not on my sheet, so please claim and use it, Faustinia.

Hey guys, sorry for not posting yesterday. Actually, I did post, but I didn't had the time to check the thread frequently due to a lot of things going on in RL and I failed to realize that I didn't actually post, just previewed the post. Anyway, I'm posting now.

I like the idea of pacing out what we ask for questions since there's no idea how helpful the imp will be. So start with 2 and 7 and extrapolate from there.

Hey guys, sorry for not posting yesterday. Actually, I did post, but I didn't had the time to check the thread frequently due to a lot of things going on in RL and I failed to realize that I didn't actually post, just previewed the post. Anyway, I'm posting now.

No problem at all! I think we were all still figuring out what questions to ask anyway.

You're now free to go where you want to. This is perhaps also a good opportunity to rest, if you want to take the risk. Remember that the cells allow you to gain the benefits of normal rest with only 2 hours of time needed. If you prefer, you can continue your roleplay with Livia however. Your choice: rest, talk with Livia or push forward.

Hey all, what do you think? Talking to Livia is just a matter of making a post, of course, so I don't think we need to come to a particular consensus on that. I'm asking more about whether we should keep pressing on at this point.

We defeated the phobia fights handily, but they were still a little bit of a resource drain. I feel like we can expect worse moving forward. I have some resources still in the form of a few offensive scrolls (although they require me to get up in melee - that's what the scroll of false life is for, though, I guess) and the pearl of power. I could get all of us back up to the cells with the levitate wand, and we know that there's another exit. I'm currently on the fence about whether to keep going or rest. What do you all think?

Since we have no idea what is left, 2 hours of rest giving a full nights, sounds great. Petals is all out of spells and songs, down to 4 charges on the wand and a potion of csw. Which if we press on she'll use one charge on Faustinia.

Completely in favour of rest.

Rest works for me. We need to climb back up that slippery tube though, don't we?

Yep, I'm all for resting.

Giuseppe, what did you mean about platforms when returning to the cells? That was the part where we fought the devil, right? I thought that part was after our jump, so that we could easily return to it.

Giuseppe, what did you mean about platforms when returning to the cells? That was the part where we fought the devil, right? I thought that part was after our jump, so that we could easily return to it.

Oh yes, that's my mistake. For some reason I completely failed to remember the map correctly. That's why one should always be checking the map before posting...Anyway, I suppose you're going to rest now. Are you doing guard shifts? That would prolonge the total resting time to 4 hours instead of 2.

The main reason to rest is to refresh our spells, correct? If that is the case, Alessandro and Varius could keep watch without getting the extra two hours.

That's fine with me. I can keep watch.

The main reason to rest is to refresh our spells, correct? If that is the case, Alessandro and Varius could keep watch without getting the extra two hours.

It will also restore one ability damage per ability score, but you're the one who could most use that. :3

I would greatly appreciate if Alessandro and Varius could keep watch for us!

Yes, that would be very helpful. Now, another question: however many lesser restorations should I prep. And for whom? I'm thinking perhaps two, for me and Alessandro. I'm afraid Petals has so many Strength damage that it could take too many spells. Although I realize that it might be boring, to play her like that without being able to attack effectively...

Adversity builds character! :)

Just like the potions I'd prefer most of us in great fighting shape than all of us at mediocre fighting strength. So yep, good with her remaining weak. She can still sing, heal and distract.

Rest works for me. We need to climb back up that slippery tube though, don't we?

Yes, although if it requires any difficult checks I can use the levitate wand to get us all back up. It means we have to all slide back down, but I think we can manage that potential HP loss alright.

@ Catina: two lesser restorations sounds right. I thought that Alessandro's ability damage was mostly healed, but he probably knows best so I'll just let him address that when it comes time to heal.

@ Giuseppe: since we're posting a guard but those two aren't resting, we'll only take the two hours. Could you please let me know if my mage armor's duration runs out over that time?

Hey everyone, I go out of town tomorrow for a week. I hope to be able to post still, but if I'm lagging or the even horrible happens where I don't have internet, please forgive and bot Petals as you see fit.

That's fine if I can't restore the damage. I'll just heal it later then.

If anyone had any daily healing left before our rest (from class features and not items), can we say they had used it before resting? Even after resting I'm down some HP. If not, or if you wanted to save it for emergencies, that's fine too.

Here are my prepared spells:

2nd: glitterdust (DC 17), mirror image, summon monster II x2 (school spell)

1st: grease (DC 16) x3 (school spell), magic missile x2

0th: dancing lights, detect magic, read magic, prestidigitation