GM Rat Sass's Age of Worms

Game Master Governayle

Sorry, folks- a wave of continuing education hours and seminars is getting in the way of my updating the Game Thread. I should be on it shortly, and will be much freer, come the end of March, as the renewal period closes... sigh

Sigh, I'm back. Daughter came for a visit, unexpectedly, and I've been derailed from the update until now. Will be better paced, I think in a day or two...

Shifted gears a little these last couple of days- our 12-year-old coonhound is now gimped, I think for the rest of his days. Been picking him up, and coddling him more for his lack of activity. My attention has been elsewhere, as we watch the elderly dog shift harshly into the appearance and behavior of an elderly dog...

That's sad. Give your hound the attention and love he deserves. We will be around!

Things here in Spain have become a bit hectic this last week. It is first time in my life I am under the State of Alarm and see my movements restricted by law. But I guess it makes sense. It is going to be a tough series of weeks, probably even months.

Fortunately I can work from home and I still have these forums as compensation for all the PnP roleplaying that will be lost.

Yes, family comes first. Take care of your pooch!

Yeah, it's gonna be a rough year, I think, all around. Politics, health, aging... I will find quiet pleasures in writing in my games, to be sure, but sometimes the shoulders slump, and the eyes close...

Welp, I've just received a two-week vacation, courtesy of COVID (non-essential healthcare, I'm not ill). All apologies, if my post count mounts, as I'll need some way not to drive my wife nuts, lurking about the house...

The wings of the gargoyle are very interesting, but not for Eidi.

Similar for the ring of evasion.

As for what to buy... Eidi is mostly interested to save money to build his mausoleum. Unless I spot a weakness he has to cover, he probably is going just to buy some material components like diamonds or a statuette focus for the contingency spell.

.4375.6 gp

-2700.0 gp glamered armor
———
.1675.6 gp to spend

...1675.6 gp money

Sucks getting old. Been laid up with a pulled back muscle, trying to lead a skittish limping dog up a ramp. First day in a while with little or no pain... Game on... sigh...

Take care man! My muscles are just in pain too after I tried to make some exercise to compensate this lockdown stuff :P

What would be a good use for Eidi's contingency spell?

I am a total noob at this high-level play and have no idea how to better make use of that.

As the highest spell level I can use is 15/3 = 5, my best ideas so far are a breath of life if Eidi falls bellow 0 hp or dies, or directly a raise dead if he dies.

Any ideas?

You open up an interesting discussion, Eidi. I have also not leveled this high in my games, so I'll be interested to hear your shared thoughts, among the more expert gamers among us ;)

Well, there are lots of options naturally. Raise dead is risky, as you might be raised in the middle of combat, only to die again - and expensive. Breath of life is better for that, though still not foolproof.

One favorite is Freedom of Movement whenever your movement is limited (grappled, held, underwater, etc).

Another idea, at fifth level for clerics, is Plane Shift to the pub under certain circumstances. As long as you're not outright dead, Cedric could revive you, and you'd be safe from whatever hostilities brought you low. Might be a bit better than the more typical 'Teleport to my lair' options. I think there are magic items that allow for raise dead without a caster/scroll. You could give it to Cedric as a backup in case you are dead.

Not sure how you'd word it, but Break Enchantment clears a lot of hurdles (turned to stone, possessed, feebleminded, etc).

Those are very good points.

Perhaps I will settle with break enchantment. Those things you list do not come often, but they are horrible when happen. Perhaps something like "Whenever I am incapacitated to cast my spells or forced to act out of my will by an enchantment, transmutation or curse, trigger the break enchantment".

The Plane Shift is solid to safe Eidi, but I would not like to leave you all alone in a dire situation.

This chapter seems an interesting crossover between greek myth adventures like Jason and the Argonauts and an Indiana Jones movie competing with the nazis to reach first an ancient relic.

Let's see on which one it builds the most if any :D

Either way, I'm just hoping submarines are not involved.

When I was 9 or so I was able to 'follow' my brother through a maze at Universal Studios because he reeked of cigarette smoke. Given Darl's companions, I see no reason whatsoever why Mortimer couldn't follow a similar wake :-D.

Well, your island is one big wind tunnel... but I suppose if Mort's got the Scent Extraordinary Ability, we're all good ;)

We need animal companions in this party!

Everyone gets a puppy!

There are some scents for which you do not need the extraordinary ability. I bet "Minotaur" is one of them. Not to mention Krekie.

You presume too much, Mortimer. A minotaur freshly bathed is quite indistinct from elderly half-elf three days unshaven.

Oh, I have to say in my defense that Cedric forgot to place a bathtub in our shiny new home :)

Unable to stand any longer, Mortimer thuds to the ground unconscious.

I am confused, what happened with Mort? He should still have a lot of hp remaining and Strength, isn't it? Isn't it? :scary face: :O

Oh gosh, this combat is turning much convoluted than I expected. I start to think I should have used prismatic spray when I had them all at reach in the first round.

Yeah, I was waiting on two Fort saves, which will knock him unconscious if he fails both...

Before I update our next Round, I thought it might be a good time to remind everyone about your Hero Points.

Hero Points are pretty versatile, and reflect your powerful characters' ability to bend the luck of the universe ;)

Ok, I was wondering this last week what that "HR 6" entry meant on Eidi stats line. Mystery resolved, thank you for mending my rusty memory xD

I guess we are waiting for Mortimer to roll his saves, isn't it? That would make a good use of hero points Mort!

Well, I’m thinking Mort gets a single reroll if he so desires, as he’s stated he failed both rolls during his collapse post. Still, it means he may be up in the round for full activity...

I was just coming here to say what Eidi already said about SR. Then I see that Heal, one of my stock-in-trade spells, heals ability damage - a fact that eluded my dim brain these last several days.

Sigh. As others have said - someday I'll get good at this game... :)

The game is vast! In your defense I will say I am fresh from a recent run through Scarwall on a Crimson Throne. My poor Carangal had to pull out of his sleeve all his tricks to keep ability damage and drain out of my fellow companion bodies. It is still ticking in my head :P

I continuously miss things, specially as a GM, feats, item powers and class features continuously slide out of my mind. At PbP is a bit better because you have time to double check stuff, but still, I often forget terribly on some of the critter powers and items. I fear I will never be good at that part of the game :)

We just past post 11,100 in worms!

I wanted to play the "false Solrisa clone" stuff, but it feels bad to leave her back in the misunderstanding.

I think Ascaria will have his full round after we dimension door, while Mortimer and Solrisa will likely have to run to reach Eidi.

I wanted to play the "false Solrisa clone" stuff, but it feels bad to leave her back in the misunderstanding.

Thanks. Solrisa does have some abandonment issues...Da, Mum, & Sis have all left her.

Mort just wants to see what the commotion is about. He hasn't quite grasped what is going on around him yet.

Solrisa still has the Outcasts :)

Sorry for the delay, folks. My Fitbit records my bedtime yesterday as '4:00pm' for some reason. That's what I get for kayaking 4 hours after waking up at 5:00am, then lavishing the family with Black Dog bbq under the noonday sun...

That is an overtly valid reason.

I have made kayak only once, in an artificial lake by Castelldefels (El Canal Olímpico). But it was real fun. Also done rafting once, the contact with the river and the nature was very touching.

Besides, spring BBQs are the best :)

How are you all doing there in the States? Here in Spain the pandemic seems finally under control and although I still work from home, we can finally go out, walk and do some exercise.

Well, when I arrived at the Landing to secure our kayaks, my family, and the employees of the Landing were the only ones in sight wearing masks. This was a national park, and everyone was looking forward to splashing about, carefree.

Getting back to 'civilization', my heart was lifted in Champaign, where almost everyone I saw at the outdoor seating/restaurant was wearing a mask until they were seated well away from everyone else.

I had my first patient today refusing to wear a mask. There is plenty of resistance to the science. We're getting undermined by political nonsense, as well.

We're acting like the pandemic is over, much to our own peril.

The weather has gone from beautiful to soggy hot, so I get to walk the dogs after sundown, where the temp and the number of possible encounters at the park go down...

Most people out here on the north west coast are pretty serious about the masks thankfully.

Local govt. makes it feel like we're treating the 'opening' as a kind of experiment which if at any point starts to fail, we're back to square one.

Don't want to keep doing this.

Well, I understand where this rebellious point of "don't tell me what to do" comes, but it is one of those times when how we behave collectively as a society it matters a lot.

Here we are starting to see the other face of the coin too. The two most important sectors of our economy which total 20% of it are severely hit by the barriers to mobility: tourism and car manufacturing (you might be surprised to discover Spain is second EU car producer after Germany). They employ many people here. The hit is going to be tough.

Personally, I think it is going to be ok unless this extends for more than a year, and I really hope to have some sort of holidays during August.

On the bright side, my wife and I have been experimenting a lot with new dishes, wines and cheese lately, discovering how good the Sun lights our balcony during lunch time, and witnessing with marvel how a couple of pigeons nested on the tree in front and how our little pigeon had its first flight just yesterday :)

I will always take more Bright Side :)

Don't misunderstand me! I'm more than happy staying home and being a "control model" (told what to do), and I am lucky enough to be able to do that. What I don't want is to keep opening, have a viral resurgence -- more people die so we close, then open too soon again, close etc. etc. etc. Cases are already on the uptick here.

I have heard this approach just prolongs any eventual real recovery for which we might aim. I just think it was too soon.

It's gonna be hard no matter what, I guess.

In other news, we've also been enjoying bird watching. Heckle and Jeckle of the crow family brought by their brood to show them all the cached watering holes and favorite planters to stash acorns.

Scrub Jay and Mockingbird are both managing their own fledglings, and there's a new hummingbird in "town".

Eidi could use paragon surge to get Wild Empathy through the Wilding feat due to his netural alignment, but he does not fulfill the level requirement.

That was close, but made me marvel to what extend the elder can cheat on this game.

Eidi, did you use your own material component or Ascaria’s?

I checked Eidi equipment but did not found any ruby. He would have used the one offered by Ascaria, but I might be wrong and failed to scribe some ruby on my profile earlier?

I think it's a diamond, but either way, I'll take mine off as used. :)

Do you think it might be worth to walk once at the forest?

I am a bit concerned to find someone able to harm us while in cloud form, and flying over the trees will not allow us to see much.

Rat Sass - how long would it take to do a walk-about in the forest? Also, how much time has passed since the roc?

Ascaria is concerned about time more than anything else as we're in competition with a more prepared (I suspect) opponent.

Maybe we can do a fly-by of the forest as we have, and descend into any obvious clearings or other structures and take the rest of the day to walk a bit. It's early yet so that should still be several hours of hunting on the ground.

The forest is dense, and will require hours, if not days, to bite into, without any leads as to what you're looking for. Took you a half hour to meet the Peak, several moments to pluck a Feather, and now you've arrived back to roughly where you started, for another half hour consumed. How much time you invest in sweeping the forest without any direction, and your time will wile away easily.

In that case it might prove worth to try get more information from the guardians now that we can show the feather as prove of capability?

If we feel very lost I can always use some divination magic, like divination or legend lore, to know more about a certain NPC or location we are searching for. Or find the path to direct ourselves to a certain place.

Lucky plants in Barcelona.