GM Kiora's Wrath of the Righteous

Game Master Kiora Atua

I'm glad everything worked out, Ary :D

Do you guys have employee e-mails? If you do, I'd definitely send concerns like that via e-mail rather than face to face. That way your complaints are documented, and you can point to them in the course of investigations like that.

Ah, these poor men have dysentery. :P

We don't. The place is still running Dos for most of its computer systems. : /

That sucks! Especially the DOS part. :(

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More on point, you'll notice that there are more NPCs on the battlefield than there are listed in initiative. This is because if I were to include all of the friendly NPCs that are available in this combat, combat would be very long for me to conduct (I'd need to post a lottttt) and also it'd be really rough to balance fights around the assumption of 6 PCs + 10+ NPCs

But at the same time I don't want you to feel like all these NPCs are just hanging around uselessly during mass combats. So my solution is adding the "crusader aid" initiative slot at the very end of initiative. At that time a friendly NPC will step up and do something useful to help your cause. A heal, a buff, an attack roll, whatever.

Ary, as the commander, can call for aid from a specific NPC to designate what you'd like to happen during that turn. If she does not ask for something specific, then I'll choose what happens. If left up to me it might be something mighty useful, maybe something kind of 'meh'. :p Utilize your men!

Also, in general, random NPCs (like those poor helpless crusader guys stuck in the locust swarms) will take their turns during the "Crusader Aid" turn in initiative.

Also, Ary - this may go without saying but please write up your turns for Anevia and Ary at the same time so we don't have to go through unnecessary back and forth of Anevia -> Valaria -> Ary. I'll resolve your actions in correct initiative order.

If I remember right, we know that we can use holy water on things like this, right? Or no?

If I remember right, we know that we can use holy water on things like this, right? Or no?

Yes, you learned that all the way back with the hellwasp swarms :)

Isilme:

1. Yes, they are low HD creatures, but they are entitled to a CON save - they'd take bonus CON damage since it is AoE
2. terrain is roughly level, except for the obvious cliffs
3. At the end of the turn you cast it (So, you pick a spot, it manifests, creatures in that area make saves, then it moves 10' affecting creatures in that new spot... then sits there until your next turn)
4. Nandus is dead. The 4 other crusaders who were sick are dead. There are 5 live crusaders, including Chaleb, that are marked on the map, though their lives are imperiled by locusts.

Are those crusaders all going to act last?

Correct, they're moving all together at the very end of initiative.

Updated overnight information:

Ary is using Keep Watch and Protection From Evil as her prepared spells.

She also gave her specialty arrows to Anevia:
5 Holy
3 Evil Outsider Bane
2 Undead Bane

Assume that Anevia will delay in order to act in tandem with Ary, so Val can go first.

Anevia isn't really equipped to deal with swarms, soooo...

Edit of previous post: add a 5' step to get a clear line of attack to one of the swarms.

Happy 9,000 posts, you guys!

We went through a thousand posts in about 3 months :) Because we're awesome!

Just so you guys know, we've officially caught up to where my old face-to-face group was in this campaign :)

So everything ahead is uncharted territory for all of us! How exciting! (And a little terrifying.)

Forward into brave territory!

Was this the fight where they got shredded by swarms? :o

Also, something that would have changed the fight a great deal, probably: Gambits add the initiation modifier to the D20 roll they're associated with. So... anytime Anevia used a gambit, it got a +2 [Luck] to hit.

Also, you cannot recover a maneuver used as part of a gambit with said gambit! The more you read! :P

Nah, they got decimated by the hellwasp swarm in the first sidequest :)

Their deaths:

1. The fighter was killed by the vermlek witch coven outside of Bedis.
2. The summoner was killed by the hellwasp swarm inside of the Worldwound while trying to save the captured cavaliers from Fort Portolmaeus
3. The shaman was killed by the nabasu demons during the Sarkorian Prophecy sidequest (you guys invised past the encounter)
4. The skald was killed by the final boss of the Siege of Nerosyan sidequest (he attempted invisibility to save Sosiel but the boss had invisibility purge)

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Ok! Thanks for the heads up.

Speaking of Anevia, I've decided I'm not worried about nerfing that feat. The damage buff is small, and the saves buff isnt a big deal cause Anevia's saves kinda suck already.

Amusingly, those are some of the parts that we had trouble with too.

Yeah, I can agree on the saves side. At level 7, her highest saving through possible would be 10+3(level)+3(int)+2(weapon)+2(Feat) with that. DC 20 v. what level 10 characters are fighting...

+2 damage is also kind of a drop in the bucket. Rogues don't really have 'need' of damage. :)

On that note, Anevia will ready Resonance Strike over Leaping Dragon.

Such that I don't overwrite what other people want with Ary being teh Leader, Ary now leans towards taking care of the castle now. While the army likely doesn't have the supplies, it's likely that Icerift will have something within. Likewise, attacking now, before they can fortify, will ultimately save lives, and could possibly save the supply line.

What is everyone's vote regarding Icerift?

My vote about Icerift is definitely not. I think we have one specific thing that we were sent to do, and we shouldn't endanger our lives and supplies and our actual mission trying to do something else instead.

I'm all for taking it out sooner rather than later. I don't know what kind of hit the army would take, but I do think it's a situation we can handle. At the very least, the prisoners that the enemy took might be able to join the army, should we succeed.

Val abstains on the grounds of ignorance and me still being torn on whether it's a good idea or not.

If the castle is on the way of supply, than I would go for it. No point in taking Drezen and then dying of hunger. However, I think we should send a message to Ary's superior to make sure people know what our characters are planning.

So that's a clear majority for going to Icerift (Ehren/Ary/Hinagiku are for, Xanderghul against, Isilme/Valaria abstain).

Isilme is interested in clearing out the force camped next to what was formerly the Ahari Bridge before moving on anywhere.

Do you guys want to go to the bridge (due west), or march straight north to head towards Icerift to intercept Ser Jorsal's army?

I think first we need to get info from Ary's superior. They might send back a message spell to tell us to stay on our mission.

Does a character that passes their Will save against scrying know that the attempt was made?

I would like to point out for a moment that we have an army that numbers just over 150. The force across the bridge is rumored to be the size of our army, and the force that headed north is apparently 2-3x the size of our army. While we may have an advantage due to having paladins, they *might* be worth 2-3x a demon each. In order to attack a much larger force and come out in good shape, we need to totally dominate them, which is unlikely to happen with what we have now.

Granted, I *could* be wrong, we could be significantly more powerful as a fighting force than I thought. The *only* way to be sure of that, however, is to cross the river and fight the force that's roughly our size. If we can possibly succeed at Icerift, we should be able to cream the guys across the river without so much as breaking a sweat.

If we incur casualties fighting the force we *have* to fight, we need to seriously consider what kind of losses we would face if we went to icerift, especially in light of our mission.

Does a character that passes their Will save against scrying know that the attempt was made?

Per CRB -

A creature that successfully saves against a spell that has no obvious physical effects feels a hostile force or a tingle, but cannot deduce the exact nature of the attack. Likewise, if a creature's saving throw succeeds against a targeted spell, you sense that the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells.

ahhh! I had gone to see the map of Drezen to notice that the bridge was right in the middle of the city, hence my last post. However, as Kiora said, she changed the maps. Yeah, so now I have a better picture of what is going on (still would appreciate a hand drawn map with time between places).

I apologize for the confused posts though, I've got to submit my thesis in 15 days... been slightly stressed and pretty focused on that... which might expalain why so I am not at my best when writing posts! Anyway, only 2 weeks of stress left!

Also relevant:

Scrying: a scrying spell creates an invisible magical sensor that sends you information. Unless noted otherwise, the sensor has the same powers of sensory acuity that you possess. This level of acuity includes any spells or effects that target you, but not spells or effects that emanate from you. The sensor, however, is treated as a separate, independent sensory organ of yours, and thus functions normally even if you have been blinded or deafened, or otherwise suffered sensory impairment.

A creature can notice the sensor by making a Perception check with a DC 20 + the spell level. The sensor can be dispelled as if it were an active spell.

Lead sheeting or magical protection blocks a scrying spell, and you sense that the spell is blocked.

Ary so wishywashy. :(

Since it was two neutral, two for, one against, with Ary being the 'tiebreaker'... it's just illogical to clear out nests that will refill. That is definitely not dealing with the source, but only the symptoms. :( Ugh..

That's fine! I'm glad that you guys are digging into the options like this. I didn't want this to be a problem with an obvious or simple solution ;)

Hinagiku - that's excellent! I'm sure you'll kick some ass these next two weeks. I'm sure you're sick and tired of talking/thinking about it, but what is your thesis on?

@Kiora: My thesis is about the effect of congenital blindness on the organization of the brain. Specifically, understanding how the "visual" part of their brain divided into small regions with a specific roles (analyzing movement, analyzing voice, analyzing braille) and how it communicates with the other parts of the brain. Briefly, I found their brain to be subdivided into slightly different region (and a new one!), and to have really special ways of communicate with auditory regions (its on and off!). I hope I made it easily accessible, if you have any questions, don't be shy and ask!

Interesting. That must have taken a ton of research.

Do you know how your data syncs up with those who were blinded later in life? That'd be neat to know as well! (Though a ton more more research!)

We did acquire data from late-blind people, however it was strange, they shower no differences with congenitally blind people nor with sighted people... so we could not draw any conclusions other than we need more people. So, that's one thing to do in the future, recruit more people who became blind later in life. However, based on research from other people, losing sight late in life leads to less important changes within the brain. Also, late blind people do not have the improved auditory abilities of the congenitally blind ones.

That's really interesting!

How are you measuring brain activity? fMRI?

Yes, fMRI. We use what is called "resting-state". Basically, people let their mind wander, and by doing so we can acquire activities related to many modes of thoughts (imagining things, thinking about grocery list, relaxing, etc), and even though we don't know what is going on exactly, we can still extract brain networks which are instantiated in the participants (regions acting together at the same time).

Ehren: I would recommend waiting until after the battle to head out. Also you might consider memorizing a couple copies of the greater version of Longstrider, which boosts fly-speed by 10' for hours/level.

In fact, if we altered our trip towards Drezen slightly, perhaps we could get within a day's march of Icerift, which with longstrider would mean you could conceivably scout and catch up to the army by nightfall of the same day.

I agree with Isilme. We can spend some time recovering while you scout.

I also wanted to ask: I'm thinking of taking the Binding Ritual universal path ability but I don't really want to waste bits of it. It adds a bunch of spells to my spells known and allows me to cast planar binding with mythic power... Only problem is that I can't cast conjuration spells. Can I cast planar binding if I take that path ability?

I agree with Isilme. We can spend some time recovering while you scout.

I also wanted to ask: I'm thinking of taking the Binding Ritual universal path ability but I don't really want to waste bits of it. It adds a bunch of spells to my spells known and allows me to cast planar binding with mythic power... Only problem is that I can't cast conjuration spells. Can I cast planar binding if I take that path ability?

You may not cast any conjuration spells, even the spells the mythic path ability would add to your spell list.

However, you can cast the conjuration SLAs with mythic power, since those aren't wizard spells you have to learn/prepare - they're innate powers.

The battle against the forces left near the bridge? If it's inevitable, then yeah, I'd be better off waiting till after.

I don't know about changing course, though. How much of the terrain beyond the canyon is actually negotiable?

The canyon road to Drezen is a railroad a straight line, but it does run parallel to the river, so either way the trip to Icerift from the army will get shorter and shorter as the crow flies.

I'll try hand-drawing a terrible looking map for y'all, haha.

Damn. And I suppose I can't take Opposition Research either? What about Harmonious Mage?

I'm going to go with James Jacobs's ruling:

Nope; one of the main points of the Thassilonian method of magic is that they can't use their opposition magic. This really helps to make these types of wizards feel different than modern wizards; it's an older method of using magic, after all. On top of that, it's meant to hearken back to the specialist wizard of 2nd edition D&D to a certain extent, and even to 1st edition's illusionist class.

A Thassilonian specialist who figures out how to use their oppositional spells essentially abandons their Thassilonian specialty and becomes a normal wizard, in other words. Keeping their opposition schools inviolate is what makes them what they are; removing that lessens them.

So I'd go with you can take Opposition Research or Harmonious Mage, but you'd lose your benefits of being a Thassilonian specialist and essentially become a normal illusion specialist wizard.

Huh. That makes sense.

That's real rough, though.

Now I've gotta figure out a way to bind armies of angels like the real Runelord Xanderghul did without the use of planar binding. I mean I guess I could use the SLAs for my mythic points...

I would guess he used Binding Ritual to get around his Thassilonian restrictions, haha.

There's also the option of using magic items, but I doubt he'd disgrace himself by using magic items made by some other wizard to dominate angels with :P

That is a good question. Then again, Karzoug is a generic wizard, not a Thassilonian specialist, so maybe the Runelords were (ironically) not actually sin magic users.

EDIT: Correction, he is in the anniversary edition, so I still have no clue.