GM Rennai's Reign of Winter (Inactive)

Game Master Rennaivx

By the way, how up-to-date is the XP total in the header right now?

"Gain a +2 bonus on all Fortitude saves against severe weather while moving up to half your overland speed, or gain a +4 bonus if you remain stationary. You may grant the same bonus to one other character for every 1 point by which your Survival check result exceeds 15.

Wouldn't moving half speed mean we'd have to make twice as many saving throws, though?

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I doubt we will manage better than that in the snow anyway.

Up to you guys what you want to do with the rolls. However, personally I would advise against taking the extra time for the +2 bonus. Take Matt for example. Sure, with the +2 he would have passed that fourth save...but then he would have to roll four more saves with increasing DCs, each of which he would have a less than 50% chance of making, even with the additional +2.

Side note, if someone does really badly on their first 2-3 saves and are getting into the danger zone, we can have Evelina hand over the coat for the rest of the trip. Also I believe mythic surge can add 1d6 in a pinch too, right?

My point is that due to difficult terrain we are already moving at half speed, or slower.

I do already have the difficult terrain calculated into the travel time. If you want to up saves with Survival, it would slow you further still. And yes, mythic surge can be applied to these saves as an immediate action.

The header is inaccurate because I am not currently considered GM and thus can't change it. Truthfully, though, I was intending to move to story-based leveling unless someone objects. Does anyone?

Maddy also has Survival as a skill if that helps the group at all. She also has a MW survival kit...

No objections to story based leveling on my part. It's actually my preferred method of leveling for pre-written material.

I don't have any trouble with story-based leveling.

Cithembi also has Survival trained, but I agree that the +2 bonus is not worth more checks. I might also point out that we may not want to make all of the checks at once, as there may be events that happen along the way to the village.

I'm good with rolling all the checks now to get them out of the way. I can narrate them when the time comes no matter when they're rolled.

I'm quite happy with story based levelling. As long as we don't stay at level two for FIVE MONTHS (ahem, excuse me, no reason for that outburst).

I'm okay leaving Mat with that last failed save - it makes sense for him.

If the GM says make 4 saves, I trust that means there will be no reason to split the saves up. And if we get interrupted, so be it, I'll make the saves again. I'd rather make too many rolls than hold the game up by doing one or two, then waiting to see if anything happens.

I prefer story based leveling as well. Makes the most sense for APs.

I'll post today after work but had a quick question...how does Maddy's Cold Resistance 2 get worked into the Fort saves?

And I prefer story based levelling as well :)

I had Freyja bring up the same question via PM, Madison. I'll have an answer a little bit later.

Long day - left home at 0700, just getting back at 2300, and found no time for a proper post in between, so the proper post will be tomorrow.

And if Cithembi and Martok hadn't mentioned Inspired Spell, I was about to. :p Since Cithembi's offered to mention the possibility after the first round of saves, the first are the only ones that will potentially cause any harm. I haven't decided on the interaction with cold resistance yet.

Long day - left home at 0700, just getting back at 2300, and found no time for a proper post in between, so the proper post will be tomorrow.

And if Cithembi and Martok hadn't mentioned Inspired Spell, I was about to. :p Since Cithembi's offered to mention the possibility after the first round of saves, the first are the only ones that will potentially cause any harm. I haven't decided on the interaction with cold resistance yet.

I mentioned it first. He's just a copycat. :)

Well, I'm certainly some kind of cat... ;)

Sorry, everyone - got home earlier and promptly managed to fall asleep by accident! Working on a post now unless I nod off again in the process. :)

For reference, for those with cold resistance, I am going to go with the close-to-rules-as-written interpretation of the environment rules (precisely-rules-as-written doesn't quite address everything). Unless under endure elements, you continue to make Fortitude saves, but failing a save only harms you if it exceeds your cold resistance. (I.e., Freyja has cold resist 5, so she would only take damage if she rolled a six.) Spoiler alert, cold resistance will already be powerful enough in this game that it doesn't need the boost of duplicating endure elements.

Shh. Not everyone knows she has cold resistance. Heck, she does not even know it. She just thinks she makes her fort save all the time. :)

Order matters here for my bard song at least. Might need init to see if anyone gets these bonuses this round. Also those with her long enough should be thinking about delaying for her to act as almost every combat her first action is to inspire courage. No reason to act before it.

Yeah, initiative might be useful for determining inspire courage's effect. I actually was a little tempted to wait until you posted and get the bonus, in case we are just going in post order. However, I ultimately decided against it, because:

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Shh. Not everyone knows she has cold resistance. Heck, she does not even know it. She just thinks she makes her fort save all the time. :)

My bad. That's a mighty good Fortitude save she has there. ;)

Order matters here for my bard song at least. Might need init to see if anyone gets these bonuses this round. Also those with her long enough should be thinking about delaying for her to act as almost every combat her first action is to inspire courage. No reason to act before it.

Also my bad - my weird-sleep-and-stress-addled brain didn't have the fortitude to search for everyone's initiative, and I forgot Inspire Courage and its effect on rolls. That's what I get for posting in an odd hour of wakefulness while under the beginning effects of a sleeping pill. ;) Also, I realized that I never specified how I usually run combats. (This taking-over-someone-else's-game thing is weird!) Because of this, I'll interpret actions in the most favorable way, which means everyone will benefit from Freyja's Inspire Courage. I'll factor it in for those who didn't already. As you say, especially for those who've seen Freyja in action already it's fair for them to wait for mood music. :P

For reference in the future, I usually roll initiatives for each character and have it determine who gets to act before the enemies in the first round. I have all enemies act on the same initiative (for simplicity's sake and to avoid making people wait to post). Then I open up the floor to everyone and take actions in approximately posting order, although I reserve the right to modify order slightly in ways that benefit the players in cases of cross-posting and the like. It's the best compromise I've found to let high-initiative characters have benefit from their investment while also keeping the pace moving.

I like it. When I run I usually group enemies and have them act on different initiative, but that is at table games.

my idea with the darkness was to keep it up at the bugs head, and therefor more or less away from us (it is giant, after all). It's not a mind-affect spell, but actual darkness, so it should affect it. Matt will concentrate on keeping the spheres of darkness away from everybody, so even if the bug dips its head down to grab somebody, nobody should actually be caught in it.

That was how I understood the intent of your dancing darkness, and I don't see why it shouldn't be able to work that way. They can be up to 120 feet away (if my memory serves me), and that includes vertical distance, too.

Post coming soon!

Don't mean to spoil the fun but per the rules each orb of darkness radiates a 20 foot radius of darkness. That is the size of a fireball. Also, the light rules in this came are as complies as any other part of the game. Maybe more complicated and unclear than grappling. So, based on my best understanding two intersecting areas of light or darkness from the same spell, or even spell type to do not stack. i.e. one dim light effect or 10 dim light effects still equals 1 dim light effect.

Was in a PFS mod this past weekend where the DM ran creatures that could cast darkness at will and had lots of time to prep. He had the creatures cast dozens of darkness spells in the room and then incorrectly ruled that each darkness needed to be countered by a light spell of ours. When per RAW one light of the same level would counter all of the darkness spells where they overlapped. This make an encounter that should have taken 10 minutes last 2 hours.

Again, these rules are quite unclear and therefore highly debated.

I see what you mean - as we're in normal light, the spheres would drop it to dim light, not actual darkness. And even though there's 4, where they overlap they wouldn't make it dark, they'd just stay dim. That makes sense to me. Still, I would think that even that, dim to normal light, flickering back and forth in a strobe-like effect, would be pretty disorienting. Glad @GM agreed! :)

@GM - I don't think I got an answer to Matt's earlier question - what did the portal look like from this side of it? Could we see back through to where we came from?

Hey GM,

Wouldn't it be easier to start your own gameplay thread and just link to this one.

I'm getting tired of seeing the old games in my campaign tab.

Have you talked to anyone to see if they can place them in inactive status?

Anyone know who to talk to have this done?

Surprise mini-vacation for me today! And less excitingly, sudden, massive, dizziness-inducing head cold to go with it. I'll try and get Gameplay responded to, but it may not get finished until tomorrow.

Re: Dancing darkness - Ok, I see what you're saying, Freyja. I worked off memory and thought the orbs lowered the light level by two steps, not one. It wouldn't have significantly changed the outcome anyway; all the front liners' rolls were on fire. :)

Re: Starting a new thread - I wanted to have easy, cohesive connection to the story that's gone before, so that's why I kept Frosty's thread. I'll see if I can reach out to Customer Support over the next couple of days and get ownership switched and Longears' other game moved to inactive. My brain definitely just said that in my work phone voice. If that doesn't work, I'll look at starting a new thread.

I thought the use of the dark orbs was clever. Still could have been disorienting to an opponent. But strangely to get the flickering light levels to affect the target you would have to have them centered well off of him since each is 20' in radius. They can only be 10'feet from each other so if you cast then just in the right place, likely 15'-18 feet away from the target and move them just so you could get the regular light/dim light cycle. <-- perhaps I think about such things too much. lol. My wizard uses Dancing Lights all the time so I know the spell effects off the top of my head.

Would 'hide fro animals' work here?

I can spend a mythic point and cast it as fourth level (4 PCs).

You are making me work hard knowing that I have a whole lists of spells at my disposal. I like it. :)

If you're not actually moving, does the armor check penalty come into play with stealth? That is the difference between Maddy having a +2 or a -1 modifier.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure armor check always applies if you are wearing armor, regardless of movement. For a shield it applies if you are actively using it.

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I don't see why hide from animals wouldn't work for the crow swarm, although you would only have time for one casting (which you've already taken into account in your Gameplay post, I see). Do of course be mindful how many mythic points you have a day - it's not an infinite trick. ;) I get the feeling it'll be a good workout for me on what magic can do, too - my witch in my IRL Wrath of the Righteous has Wild Arcana, but I always forget it's a thing I can do.

It'd be a Stealth check to help Evelina hide better, though, not a Survival check, which means you don't quite make the DC10 to aid - sorry! D: But after long, hard thought, and with the point made that it joins right in with the methods you're using already...I'll let the cloak of the yeti give a circumstance bonus to Stealth in this case, which bumps Evelina up to the DC. For I am a benevolent god. ;)

Armor check penalty does always apply, whether or not you're moving. In this case, it could be extra noise it makes as you're ducking down, or extra bulk that keeps you from fitting into as good a spot, and those are factors that ending up still won't help. But since our resident shaman's got you covered with hide from animals, it's a moot point. Still, good reference for later.

For I am a benevolent god. ;)

Thank you, benevolent GM.

Review my post and adjust as necessary as I may have been a little 'ambitious' and not separated PC and player knowledge. :(

I'm mindful of the daily mythic points but this is a very good way to use it as a caster. Still, I'll probably go to sleep with some left and kick me for not having used them. :(

This is new for me so we'll see how it plays out.

Game on!

Since I take posts in post order, and since the result of Stealth checks is fairly apparent to an onlooker, I was ok with your choices. It's not hard to tell that Freyja's actually managed to temporarily turn herself into a polar bear and that Matt's somehow managed to invent the neon sign for the sole purpose of creating a giant red arrow pointed at himself. :P If it was something along the lines of "who's made a save and who hasn't", I'd be less lenient, but your response made sense given the situation.

Internet is down at my house. Yard work cut cable in 4 places Thursday. Not fixed yet. Sorry for my lack of posting.

I just got Longears other game made inactive by contacting customer service and explaining the situation and giving them the link. If you guys have other inactive games of his, just email CS.

And I have control of this one now! I knew a post in Website Feedback would work. :)

Botched yard work happens - thanks for letting us know, Freyja.

Ouch, Freyja! Hopefully it will get fixed quickly!

Internet is back up! 70 hours in the stone age. lol

Yay Internet being back! :D

I've had some work weirdness the last couple of days, and sleep difficulties on top of it hasn't helped any in the having-time-and-energy-to-post department. I'll be working on a post now.

OMG Martok, gross!

Do you know the difference between Mick Jagger and a Scottish dwarf ?

One says, Hey you, get off of my cloud.

The other says, Hey McCloud, get off of my ewe.

The only appropriate reaction I have....

You people need to get your head from out of the gutter. :)

Martok is just saying that he has a new found sense of respect for the dumb goats he is used to herding since perhaps one of them is a distant cousin to this very eloquent (and beautiful) creature here.

Jeez! :)

Oh believe me, that reaction was as much me trying to figure out what Matt was getting at...followed by horror lol.

Martok, your kink's not my kink, and that's ok. ;)

Sorry if tonight's post ends up a little scattered - what I thought was a head cold seems to be morphing into the flu, and knocking me thoroughly on my rear in the process. I shall persevere, though!

Note that my since motive was on Nadya, not the fey creature. If I saw through Nadya's bluff I had planned to confront the fey creature about the shard of ice in her heart and who she worked for. Too late?

And here's proof! I had missed that your Sense Motive check was toward Nadya. I relied a little too heavily on the context of the post and not enough on the actual text for the dice roll. You do see through her bluff - and indeed, you know for a fact you aren't a childhood friend of hers visiting from another Irriseni village. She is clearly nervous about Mierul, although it doesn't seem to be anything specifically about the forlarren. Rather, it seems to be a more general mistrust of fey, and a desire to keep the group's outsider status under wraps as much as possible.

It's not at all too late to confront her, and indeed, I'll do a pretty brief post and leave the floor open for it. The short post is entirely to let Freyja have her chance to confront Mierul, and in no way an attempt to ease my aching head. Not at all. *nods*

Traveling today. 10 hours of driving. Will post either tonight or early tomorrow.

I'm here and watching, but it seems everyone's out having a life or something this weekend. ;) I'll leave things open another day.

As to Martok's suggestion, Nadya will offer to stay with Martok and Mierul. Petr will join them so that Nadya can look after him, and Ivan and Katalin are a bit divided between wanting to protect Nadya and wanting to stay away from Mierul. I know Maddy and Matty want to avoid Mierul - everyone else, up to you.

OK. Finally able to post, and now I find myself hesitant to do so. Here is my original thinking: Mierul is fey and icy blue, so like the other icy blue fey likely works for the witch queen that is not our friend. Once you get that shard of ice in your heard I am not sure you have free will any more as far as who you serve. And Freyja did not believe Nadya did a good job with the bluff so she suspects that Mierul saw through the story and will report us to the witch queen or her minions at her earliest convenience. I had thought to challenger her based on her icy nature and Freyja's knowledge of that.

But Mierul is a bard and Freyja would love to try to befriend her. And she is not totally sure that Mierul did not buy the story. What to do?

Not knowing what the other person's thinking or intending - it's almost like real life, isn't it? ;)