GM R Box - Iron Gods AP

Game Master Twistlok

lol Nice

Great job on the sleet Elkin, that fight was hella fun.

I did mean to mention that I had plans and backup plans for that fight. None of them made any sense when the sleet started falling.

This is an early warning that I'll be away for Memorial Day weekend. I start traveling early Thursday AM and won't return until Monday PM. I will make sure that I have an updated "Bot Me" spoiler in my profile before I leave for the vacation, and I'll post again here Wed PM as a reminder.

So I am controlling a minimum of eight NPC's in this battle. I considered going easy on myself but that would make it way to easy for the group. My plan is to not post until eligible actions have been taken so there is less confusion. Those with a surprise round action and a first round action should take both.

So whats the plan people. Should we have the wizards move to the middle and then circle them so if we get surrounded they can cast and we can fight? Maybe take them by surprise by charging through the door?

Charging into the middle works well for Ivar. I don't chase people well.

I’ll be away on and off for the next two weeks.

May 25-28 Paizocon
May 29-May 31 Regularly scheduled programming
June 1-June 5 on vacation.
It is incredibly unlikely that I’ll be able to post each day during the con and the vacation. Please don’t let me slow the games down, and feel free to bot me. I’ll check in as I can.

I can't get the combat map to open on my phone. I'll delay and make an update when I'm home at my computer.

Given that it is a holiday weekend in the US as well as Paizo con I am giving Vedia and James the weeekend to post.

You are in the final stretch of book two so I want people to be able to participate.

I also want to tell you all how glad I am that we have made it this far. A lot of games flame out before now and I plan to take this to the end.

Hi team; got back later than expected yesterday and off to a slower start than planned for today. I will try to catch up on as many games tonight as I can, but won't truly be back to regular posting until Wed. Thanks for your patience!

Welcome back.

I'm back for until Friday and then out again, but I'm here now.

So Elkin is well and truly dead; his negative hit points far exceed his constitution.

The cheapest way to get Elkin back into the swing of things is via raise dead and two castings of restoration; this would cost a total of 8,010 gp.

We could also explore the idea of replacing him with a brand new PC.

Thoughts?

What do you want to do most?
It's quite costly and I'm not sure how much we have after we bought stuff at the caravan before going to the arena.

Elkin I'd really like to know what you preference is.

As a player I'm willing to pay the amount needed if you want to continue to play Elkin.

There are some characters I would want to raise if they died and others I could replace and be ok with. Honestly, I'd roll something up other than a wizard if Vedia was in your shoes.

I concur - what's you preference? James has a fair amount of high cost gear, so I could definitely raise some funds and am happy to do so.

You have 2600 in gold.

I have an Inferno Pistol, and arc pistol and a stun gun, plus some batteries. (My other stuff was class given, so I am not sure if it has value or not). They are probably all worth something. And we have this neosomething armor that no one is wearing. I have 121 gp in cash too.

You might have to sell your cackle cloak to get us over the top... but we can try to get creative if everyone is in.

And maybe someone will pay for a chainsaw?

I am all for what Elkin wants.

I believe we can garner a deal with the cleric at the temple. Especially with such a wonderous Chainsaw. A true mechanical marvel!

If not I will welcome the new companion with open arms...as long as its a goblin

Hahaha I will have to think on the goblin! We've only got two dwarves in the party and no elves; it should be a smashing success!

I really like Elkin, but I also don't think my vision for him has come to fruition, and we don't seem to be moving in that direction either. (Basically, a master debuffer allowing us to drop save-or-suck spells/effects.)

Let me see what I can come up within the next day or so as far as a character concept to build for. Feel free to suggest any holes that you think could be filled in our party makeup.

@GM, do you have any thoughts about building a new PC for this game? Any guidelines you'd want me to follow?

A new character would be a level 5 using the same rules at the start, I would have to look at what they are but if they need a tweek we could talk. Clearly they would not just walk up and wave hello so working them in would take a moment.

This would put the new character ahead of the current regarding gear but that evens out quick in an AP so I do not worry about that.

Raise Dead:
Right now the group has 3k gold. The autograpple is surprisingly valuable but at a glance I would guess you need to sell the +1 chainsaw. That said I did not audit your sheets and don't plan to so there may be another way to get the gold.

Vedia and all:
If you want to run something else, as was implied, I am fine with that. You should all know that I am aware these games take years. We are over a year in and not done with book 2 so minimum two more in this game. I am open to making sure people are enjoying their characters.

One more thing.

What would you each think of moving to tracked XP vs milestone after this book? One of the things I miss as a GM is the ability to reward good roll play with a bit of extra experience.

Just a thought but I would like your input.

Hahaha I will have to think on the goblin! We've only got two dwarves in the party and no elves; it should be a smashing success!

I really like Elkin, but I also don't think my vision for him has come to fruition, and we don't seem to be moving in that direction either. (Basically, a master debuffer allowing us to drop save-or-suck spells/effects.)

Let me see what I can come up within the next day or so as far as a character concept to build for. Feel free to suggest any holes that you think could be filled in our party makeup.

@GM, do you have any thoughts about building a new PC for this game? Any guidelines you'd want me to follow?

Since we'll still have a wizard, it isn't like we really need a second full arcane caster, so you could do a lot of things. If it were me, I'd probably lean toward something that takes advantage of the things you only get in this AP. I like Ivar, but if I were to pick up a second iteration of this AP for some reason, I'd probably go Eldritch Archer Magus. Spellstriking with a laser pistol just seems like it'd be awesome, and where outside of Iron Gods will you get the chance? Several of the tech-focused archetypes seem like they'd be a lot of fun, for that matter.

If you play a ratfolk, it would probably be easy to introduce you as a friend. Or we could come across an android...

I'm fine with Vedia. She's my first wizard, and I'm not sure I'm playing her to the best she can be. I usually play spontaneous casters so spell choice on a daily basis isn't an issue.

^^^That’s the reason I stay away from most prepared casters myself.

For the moment I'm fine with Xandar but I might change him later, he is not build as well as I thought when I started him. But I think most here enjoy what he brings to the party.

I have a tentative build of an Android Rogue with the Numerian Scrapper and Underground Chemist archetypes. He would focus on dealing sneak attack damage with splash weapons.

I may explore what that would look like as an alchemist, as well, just to see the options.

So are we going back to recruit someone or keep on going while we are here. I don't mind either just want to know what the plan is.

Well I am in a hold until you guys tell me really. It sounds like Elkin has some ideas but you do have a dead body of a friend for the past few months at least.

Your call. If you leave clearly conditions will change but it is unlikely the Hellion could call in a massive number of reinforcements. He may dig in a bit though.

This is already a 7 player party, right? There shouldn't be any issues with you guys continuing without Elkin. That gives me time to try out some builds on paper to decide what direction I want to go, without holding you up in the meantime.

Yep, I think that makes sense. I don't want to give him a chance to regroup if we can avoid it.

We could try and continue on and wrap Elkin up and retrieve him for later? not a fan of that but i am pretty sure Elkin would rather us take out Hellion then stop on his account

FYI, at this point, I'm going to stop reading the gameplay thread. I'll start again when my new character is introduced, without knowledge of what has happened in the meantime.

Excellent idea.

Quick question:
Can you all get my actual email address from the maps? I want to be sure that you can, if not I will provide it. I have seen too many games were the GM ghosts and have just assumed you could see my actual email.

I can't see your email, but I might not know where to look.

Is S10 the room where we can go forward now?

S10 is the other room you found, reminder of what it was is below. It was a bit ago.

The northern wall of this cave bears a crude but still unsettling cave painting of a strange, four-armed red fiend rising up from a mass of what look like dead bodies—whatever eerie pigment has been used for this painting glows faintly in the dark. A dozen real bodies of orcs and ratfolk and a few humans lie heaped against the base of the wall below the painting. The torso of each decaying carcass is split open, as if it exploded from within

Ah that was that room, I remembered it as another. I was just makibg sure it was there we had to go through to explorer som more.

Welcome to level 6 folks. I will give you guys some time. Please let the group know any cool new tricks you get.

Well I get
Bardic performance: Suggestion
Expanded Versatility: Use magic device or escape artist (haven't decided)
+1 bab and saves
+1 2nd level spell known and spell per day

Sorry for the lack of posting I have started a new job still getting used to the schedule

This level is pretty unexciting for James. No saves or BAB adjustment, but he gets a talent, which I am currently torn between Infusion (to share my extracts) and quick study (to make studying a target a swift action instead of move). Given my known extracts, I am thinking there isn't a lot of value in makeing them infusions, but it might be good if we are short on a CLW here or there.

Vedia - do you have a spellbook separate from your prepared spells? It just occurred to me that I could copy some (if you allow it), which might push more for Infusions. I see Enlarge Person (which is not very useful to me, but could be a good infusion) and Levitate (which any could benefit from), so if you will let me, I will go ahead and copy those. There is nothing else I see from you that matches the alchemists list, though.

Once we are back to town, I suppose I can buy some scrolls to help expand my list.

Yes she has a spellbook, and she'd be happy to let you take a look at it. Copy away.

1d10 ⇒ 6

We are rolling HP, right?

It was roll or take average.

HP: 1d12 ⇒ 2 Half it is...

Took Intimidating Glare Rage Rage power. Busy time at work. Ill be updated tomorrow when I get home.

Going to assume that is enough time.

Rank in Intimidate, Know religion (after trashing that temple I had to take another one), Perception, Survival, know nature.

Zeer is wiser than ever wielding a chainsaw.

All leveled.