GM Red's Down the Blighted Path (Inactive)

Game Master GM Red

Posted.

Everybody remember that I have saving finale, so if you fail a saving throw I can end my performance and let you reroll. Just say the word!

Yizzik, you are correct and I will have to retcon some things as you would have reached the flag before Erna, although you wouldn't be able to go anywhere after getting the flag.
I'll have to retcon a few NPCs who went after you.

Thats ok ^^ was just checking if I could have done it. I didn't think I'd be able to go anywhere so I wanted to do whatever I could to hold my position and protect the flag however I could.

It'll probably work out well. I can't end my NPCs move action on the same square as you, and they can't very well jump to your pillar, steal the flag, and jump back (move, standard, move)... so you're pretty safe there this turn. They could bull rush you off but you're quite the climber, as we've seen.

I'm assuming that's where you planned to move Vingold?

Erna will take a penalty to her readied steal action, considering she can't clearly see the flag on Yizzik's belt due to her blindness.

I'll be out most of today - might not get another post up until tomorrow morning.

Was I close enough to Vingold to get the +2 to skill checks when I went to make that "jump"? If so I would have landed on my feet and only taken the nonlethal. Let me know.

Sorry folks, Ive been pretty tied up the past couple days.. I'm getting married next week so there's tons to do. :) I'll have at least a post up before I leave for a week.

Well congratulations are in order then. And no worries mate

Congrats!

Congrats, we'll be here when you get back.

Enjoy!

Congrats my friend! I wish you and your new wife the best!

Still kinda quiet around here lol

Hmm? Let the man have his fun, lol

Though if its just the lack of posting getting to ya... What's up?

Haha just commenting on how the players were even gone too xP

As for what's up, not a whole lot. Mostly work, though I did just start Hell's Vengeance here. Quite a wild start all things considered, but fun so far

As a DM or player? I've got the AP so far but haven't gotten a group together to run it, though I wouldn't mind being in it. Though to be honest I feel like that'd play better in a real life group. The tone of voice would be fairly important in my opinion.

As a player. Yeah, I agree I think that is certainly a game meant more for in person groups. I dm'd Wrath of the Righteous and that's a game I feel could work here or in person. Was really fun, mostly cause its easy to tweak the game and let the players feel both powerful and weak in the same book xD

Haven't read through that one, but I've heard good things. There are quite a few ID love to play in, and plenty I wouldn't mind DM'ing, but it's so hard to find a group where I am. The local gaming store only does open game nights on Saturday (which I always work) and dedicated Pathfinder/D&D stuff on Wednesday (again, always work).

Not easy to find people that are free Mondays or Thursdays for whatever reason. sigh

I know exactly what you mean lol dedicated groups are hard to find open, I only recently started getting one together.

Wrath is a fun AP, but the longer I read it and DM'd it, the more I regreted DMing it. It was really well written, really fun and ACTUALLY went to level 20. I got to see Lv 20 Mythic 10 characters in legitimate actions, fighting it out with a Demon lord. And while I enjoyed DMing it, it became one of those, "man! i wish I coulda played this instead!"

That's invariably how I always end up feeling. Which is odd, because I've had groups get fairly far along an AP and then just... stop. Like I've actually been told they don't find it interesting anymore and ask if there is a different one they can mess around in. I just don't get it, and I'm... really starting to wonder if it's me as a DM.

No it's the AP. Sometimes they get a bit stale cause they don't offer enough to really get invested in your character or creativity or sometimes the stakes really don't feel as high. I didn't have that problem in Wrath but I saw it in Iron Gods and Rise of the Runelords. It takes a little extra to help the characters sometimes I think, leaving the book behind for some personal character growth.

It's sort of been a long time coming... but with my new workload, I've found that I have nearly no time for Paizo at all. As you've probably noticed, my posts have fallen both in count and quality... and I've come to realize I cannot keep up with the majority of my games - whether because they move too quickly, or because I completely lack the inspiration.

Ultimately, I've decided to drop out of nearly all of my campaigns for now. Sorry for any trouble this causes. I can stick around and do an inadequate job of trying to see my way out, or you can feel free to bot my character.

This weekend I have a very large tournament to attend (I'm an umpire) which will take up most of my time from Friday to Sunday. I should still be able to check the boards later at night, but starting on Friday my posting will be very scarce until late on Sunday.

Guessing that's being posted in all your games?

I am so very embarrassed to finally be posting.

I'd first like to apologize profusely for abandoning my game. I have no excuses to have not at least popped in and told you guys what was going on.

At first, I was really busy after getting back from my wedding. Returning from our trip (it was a destination wedding), we bought the condominium we live in and I was looking for a new job. The last thing I was thinking about were the games I'd left behind.

Then, about mid-June, I remembered that I'd been running a game and was honestly scared to come and check on here... and perhaps see at how you guys might have been saying, What a jerk GM, making us design characters and then all of a sudden disappearing

So I avoided as much as I could... But I knew I'd eventually check, and here I am.

Play-by-post is pretty time consuming and I don't think I can keep up at the pace I did before. I originally told you guys once a day, but I'd often post 5, 6, 7 posts a day, refreshing this page almost constantly ... It became something of an addiction.

I understand if you guys have zero interest in continuing this at all, I'm again really sorry about disappearing, but I'm proposing one of two things that I know will fit into my life better than the commitment I had before. Reading above, I think we've lost a few players and that's fine - can't expect you guys to wait around for me if I just disappear. My thoughts are,

1. Either we bring the game to Roll20 and can get through it a lot faster by scheduling biweekly/monthly sessions -- either text or voice depending on whatever everyone is comfortable with,

2. Or we continue with PbP but with lessened expectations... That is, the bestI can do is one ACTUAL post a day, and even that isn't written in stone... A day here and there may go by.

Option three being forgetting about the whole thing because it's too late.

Thanks and sorry again.

Eh, I'm not surprised. Everybody goes through their honeymoon phase with the boards. At one point I had 40 active games.

The thing to keep in mind is that a play by post is different from a scheduled meeting. It moves at a constant, but significantly slower pace. If you get one significant thing achieved a day, you're doing good. That can be as much as advancing to the next round of combat.

Welcome back, If we keep the game going I'd prefer keeping it pbp while slowing down the game. I've tried things like roll20 and it's just really hard to get many people together at an exact time every week and if one person misses one meeting it really screws things up.

Thanks for understanding. I think you're right about there being a honeymoon phase, Vingold... I was playing in 5 or 6 games and GMing this one before I left. It was quickly becoming overwhelming.

40 active games is just.. Insane. Wow.

A slower pace rather than moving to Roll20 will work for me. Let's first see if other folks check back in. If not, I will have to see about finding a few more players.

I could do it xD i'd have to remake Yizzik though if everyone wanted to continue cause I tried to use him somewhere else cause i liked him so much xD but I'd be down and I was having fun

Glad to see your back!

It's not that big of a deal, I figured you'd eventually come back and if not, well, it's not like I don't make a bazillion characters and do nothing with them anyway, lol. (Sadly not joking)

But yeah, I'm definitely cool with continuing as a pbp.

Ok, great. That makes 4/5 assuming Vingold also wants to continue? I think Gigt said they were going to be quitting Paizo, so we'll be short one player. We can technically play with four, but I'll look back at the recruitment thread and send some messages first.

Yizzik, that's no problem, change whatever you'd like. You can reuse your old back story as well if you still have it.

For continuing, I'd prefer to push through the remainder of the obstacle course - you all had the clear advantage and the other team had little hope of catching up - and move forward into the story. I'll do a quick recap before we start, but first things first.

Yes, I most definitely want to continue.

Gigt dropped out of a lot of rps since he was having trouble keeping up with his new job but since we are slowing down I'll ask if he's interested if you want him back

Gigt won't be joining back sorry, he's been busy with work and I guess he doesn't want to join any more rps

That's no problem. Technically, the module is built for four players so let's continue as such.

Quick recap:

The Spring Festival is well underway in the subterranean city of Davarn when Yizzik and Vingold arrive to partake in the festivities. Visiting the Lucky Imp, they overhear the barkeep, Falia, speaking with Glorgrim, Hinata, and Gigt. They learn of Luther Stinnison, a dwarven merchant in the city, infamous for making some questionable business deals with shady magical items. They also hear brief rumours about the disappearances of townspeople, and word has it members of the Axebringer dynasty are those most frequent to go missing. Falia tells the group of Luther's relation to the Axebringers, and how he uses it to his advantage when making deals.

The newly formed party of five departs the Lucky Imp to track down Luther. They locate him in his shop, but before they're able to get many details on the disappearances, he persuades the party to participate in the Spring Muddle, a competition held every festival.

The Muddle begins and the challengers, who eventually became known as Team Axebringer, quickly gain an advantage over the Davarn Chokers, with Gigt Axebringer scaling directly up the mountain and quickly across the finish line. In a complete upset, Hinata, Glorgrim, Gigt, and Yizzik all manage to grab a flag, and the crowd's favorite quickly turns to the challenging team.

--

Gameplay posts to follow at our agreed upon slower pace. :)

I should be all set and ready to go when you guys are xD

Vingold, was that supposed to be a local or nobility roll? What about the rest of your actions for this turn?

If I had to guess that would be a religion roll to see what he knows about skeletons and their weaknesses and such.

Right! That makes sense.

Oh my bad, yes Glorgrim is correct. And I wanted the results of the knowledge roll before deciding my actions as it might alter them.

Right, level 5 would mean +2/+2. That means green is down and blue is at -20.

I had already added the inspire courage to my attack and damage, but the +1 Vingold had said earlier. That said, as I mentioned in my latest post, I did screw up otherwise on my damage last round. Sorry about that.

It's all good. Where did your kinetic blast come from that's going to draw AoOs? Is Kinetic Blade a form of it?

Kinetic blade is an infusion that changes the shape/form of kinetic blast. So, it's still a spell-like ability and thus provokes AoO.

It just has special wording in the text that spells out that since it is made as part of another action (the use of kinetic blast as an attack) it doesn't provoke extra attacks of opportunity past the initial one of using a spell-like ability while in a threatened square.

For a more in depth on what's going on mechanics wise in the background here: each use of kinetic blast can have a form and a substance infusion added on to it which increases the burn cost by a certain amount. In this case, kinetic blade is a form infusion that normally has a burn cost of 1, but that is being reduced by 1 by Infusion Specialization. Which is why I can use kinetic blade pretty much at will without having to spend a move action to gather power to reduce the burn cost.

I'll do my best to remember to let you know if I provoke. But feel free to call me out if you think I should or that I missed something. I really wasn't thinking too well last night when I fudged my damage.

Would that mean that the previous round would have yielded a single AoO from the non-prone skeleton? I guess that's why you're saying that you get two AoOs now. Thing is, you're the last PC to act, so those that are threatening your square could be dust by then, especially with Yizzik's luck. ;)

This is true, I was just mentioning that if they were alive and hadn't moved by my turn I'd provoke. And yeah, I provoked from the yellow last turn (thought I had said that) and if it survives til the end of the current round that's an AoO from both of them.

Vingold, your actions?

I'm just waiting to see if Vingold also wants to try to seek information from the townspeople.

I add the same as her so I couldn't beat the 28. Proceed.