GM Shady's Crypt of the Everflame (Inactive)

Game Master shady18

Inventory updated by the way.

Welcome Jaer!

We're being invaded by the lolipop guild guys...

You love it really.

Thanks all for the warm reception; hopefully I'll be of some assistance going forward (as opposed to whiffing every roll for the next two levels, as is my usual custom). Just finished getting up to date with the gameplay, so I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Looking forward to getting things underway~

Hi. Please PM me your Roll20 id, or even better change your in-game name to reflect your character, and I will give you control over your counter.

I've already done that for Jaer, Harken and Illya. I do know some of your IRL names but not enough that I can guarantee I won't get it wrong with the others.

Roll20 - thanks for getting back, everyone now has control of their token.

Re Bardan's pack - I probably need to do an inventory on it but the contents are basically up for grabs - you should be able to figure them from the character avatar, but if that gets deleted I have a record in HeroLab when I get round to spinning up my mac.

Uhh, Harkan? You might want to, as the kids say "Posh up bro." I don't think we want a dead PC this early on in the adventure.

Lesson learned - Ka'narg shouldnt try diplomacy any more :(

He could be our brooding bad boy at least. Like Piccolo!

Well, he can certainly brood with the best of them - and he does have a reputation around Kassen for being churlish. But he's good at heart and means well, even if he is not great with the actual diplomacy side of things..

Like Piccolo!

Ahem, sorry. Yeah, I at least expect a slightly different response from the town the next time we roll around. Maybe Keshy won't freak people out even.

Hey, don't rely on the child-minded Rogue to give bad news either! She does, after all, break things for a living. Locks, bones (mostly her own), apparently the occasional heart...

I've never been a big fan of alignment but we're kind of stuck with it within the game system*. Those of good alignment can screw up their implementation of it ("it came out wrong, but I meant well" - I think btw this is a description of Ka'narg's action here), so long as they start with good intent.

I think players of notionally "good" PCs need to be careful on displaying a bit too much heartlessness though. In this particular case, we could be going round in circles; my suggestion would be to spend a little time/effort comforting the guy and then plan what to do next (simply barricading him back in probably isn't sufficient).

*and I've tried the Unchained rules - they end up in my experience with probably too great an impact on the Golarion setting to end up trusting published modules and APs to continue without a lot more rework than I have time for.

At the same time the "good guys" should want to rescue someone who's been kidnapped. It doesn't appear to be that we have the 4 more days needed to deliver this guy back to town, and get back here in time to save Dimira. So, one of those "damned if we do, damned if we don't" situations.

At the same time the "good guys" should want to rescue someone who's been kidnapped. It doesn't appear to be that we have the 4 more days needed to deliver this guy back to town, and get back here in time to save Dimira. So, one of those "damned if we do, damned if we don't" situations.

True, but I wasn't suggesting re-barricading-in vs returning to town, more like being somewhat more comforting vs watching him collapse and then barricading him in. Sorry, should have been clearer.

give him some mead and let us move on to cracking skulls...

Green Smashomancer wrote:

At the same time the "good guys" should want to rescue someone who's been kidnapped. It doesn't appear to be that we have the 4 more days needed to deliver this guy back to town, and get back here in time to save Dimira. So, one of those "damned if we do, damned if we don't" situations.

True, but I wasn't suggesting re-barricading-in vs returning to town, more like being somewhat more comforting vs watching him collapse and then barricading him in. Sorry, should have been clearer.

Oh, that makes more sense. Not the mead, the comfort thing.

Edit: Alrighty then, now that Roldare has been comforted into a deep depression, and likely alcoholism, lets make our way down into the crypt!

Our diplomacy is sublime. You can be sure that we will point out every danger at every turn, keeping you safe from the monstrosities that you were unaware you had no defense against. No, don't worry about our armaments nor about our odd religious fervor, we only use those to punish unbelievers! Your thoughts are pure, aren't they? Of course they are. We'd have destroyed you by now if they were otherwise. Rejoice! Keep smiling, it's good for you!

Well that's Ka'narg's attempt to make amends for doing his part in depressing the guy to the point of catatonic slumber.

So, I gotta ask, is it a typo, or did we lose a thousand xp at some point? Did I roll too well at diplomacy? Is that the problem?

Hm, you got me. I wondered if people were monitoring it. I had miscalculated it (my fault). Basically, I had gone through when I did my initial prep and typed the various XP awards into a spreadsheet, in too much of a hurry.

The scenario is printed in such a way that these read something like:

CR 2,300 XP

with not much space after the comma. I figured the XP movement was too quick so went back and checked and I had several of them added incorrectly (i.e. added as 2,300 rather than 300, in the above case). I subsequently went back and corrected. Apologies.

OK just while we sort out some issues on my side, which may pause us till tomorrowm, can you please go into Roll20 and mark where you think your character is right now.

Left my pack too, dunno if my post was clear.

Left my pack too, dunno if my post was clear.

Ah, sorry, missed it. I don't think it's too material and we can make it Roldare's error. By the way, I'm tracking time as spells etc will need replenishing, it's currently about 13.30. An option may be to camp out overnight in Roldare's well fortified room, if more shuffling of packs is required.

Bad Ka'Narg. BAD. No giving the GM ideas.

Also as you post can you please confirm positions on Roll20.

WE DUN GOOF'D. ABORT. REPEAT, ABORT. (or maybe grab the shiny hot dagger AND THEN abort!)

Note - Jaer please wait for next move to allow the others to catch up.

Oh absolutely!~ :D

Bad Ka'Narg. BAD. No giving the GM ideas.

Sorry... The GM thought section of my brain kicked in for a sec there and vocalised before I could stop it. If anything bad happens, I am sooo sorry :(

Keshik "Keshy" Moldrok wrote:

Bad Ka'Narg. BAD. No giving the GM ideas.

Sorry... The GM thought section of my brain kicked in for a sec there and vocalised before I could stop it. If anything bad happens, I am sooo sorry :(

Oh, I'm sure 6 HP will be plenty, don't you worry...

so, I was thinking a Wizard could be cool to play...

Keshik "Keshy" Moldrok wrote:

Bad Ka'Narg. BAD. No giving the GM ideas.

Sorry... The GM thought section of my brain kicked in for a sec there and vocalised before I could stop it. If anything bad happens, I am sooo sorry :(

If anything were (ahem) to happen, it won't be down to my suddenly thinking of it. But you guys are all queued up in (and blocking) the corridor, so if it came to initiative order and those at the front roll low, Jaer is going to effectively be by herself.

is anyone else having issues logging on the the map?

is anyone else having issues logging on the the map?

Just tried it and can see it fine. But I may be a special case as GM.

had to delete the old bookmark and save a new one it seems.

People can still pass through ally's squares without issue though, yes? Just can't end a move inside of one?

Edit: well, without issue outside of it being a double move to do so. Never mind, I don't think even that applies. Please disregard the gibbering Australian for now..

People can still pass through ally's squares without issue though, yes? Just can't end a move inside of one?

Edit: well, without issue outside of it being a double move to do so. Never mind, I don't think even that applies. Please disregard the gibbering Australian for now..

In blocked corridors I regard it as hampered movement. The general assumption of moving through ally's spaces rather than opponent's ones is that the ally can step deftly aside, but they need the space to do so. Realistically in a 5 foot corridor it is going to take the individual at the back of a 5 person queue more time to get to the front than if the spaces ahead were free.

At any rate, the way the initiative rolls panned out this should not be an issue as long as people move in an order sufficient to unblock the corridor. Given PbP delays I'll assume this is the case and figure out the timing issues afterwards, so don't worry about the order in which you post.

Fair call - I know GMs who have called it on both sides for a 5 foot wide corridor. Seems to be up to interpretation - either way, all good :)

As a level 1 Rogue in an Incorporeal encounter, I feel obligated to say:

G!! d%@mnit Paizo.

That is all :)

P.s. I think the blocked corridors thing is totally reasonable too.

Well, at least the sorceress is going next, maybe she can help make this manageable. As for Keshy, he has exactly one option: Throw the Acid Flask as hard as he can with smite, and hope it does enough.

Damn Irgal being out of commission for 2 more rounds. Hopefully we can stay alive long enough for he and Illya to do some magical smiting.

One option here (speaking as a disinterested observer) is to back off so you're not fighting the smoke and the shadow at the same time.

@Jaer: yeah, bear in mind also this was written for 4 players and I haven't increased the CR on any of these encounters, although the XP is being divided by 6 rather than 4, a 4 player party wouldn't have levelled yet. So for a normal party it's worse than that (and the cleric being incapacitated was sheer bad luck).

Also, I had a question on "luring" the party back with the smoke. This wasn't the intent. If you read back to Roldare's account of the killing of the villagers, you can see the involvement of the fire (and some warning as to what was still there); the beetle was dragging a charred body and pushed open the door to get it there. The spread of the smoke is not "as written" in the scenario but I had reasoned it as a necessary outcome of the door being open and the corridor being full of fumes.

Oh yeah, my above comment was not a criticism of you or the module. It's just Rogue + Incorporeal = "RUNAWAYYYYY!" :D

TL;DR: Jaer's all for NOPE-NOPE-NOPEING out of there and, uh...Well. Cheering? She can do cheering, presumably once she sticks her now very toasty hand in a bucket of water.

Also, I had a question on "luring" the party back with the smoke. This wasn't the intent. If you read back to Roldare's account of the killing of the villagers, you can see the involvement of the fire (and some warning as to what was still there); the beetle was dragging a charred body and pushed open the door to get it there. The spread of the smoke is not "as written" in the scenario but I had reasoned it as a necessary outcome of the door being open and the corridor being full of fumes.

That's totally cool - from a player perspective, un-ventilated smoke + dungeons/caves is always a bad thing, hence the turning back - I didn't feel like having the top level be filled with smoke from a fire, let alone actually being on fire. I don't feel lured as such, it felt like a natural consequence for us not having gone southwards in the first place, so I'm fine with it.

Hopefully we can pull back into the other room without too much casualty.

I was going to the post this over the weekend, it depends whether you like/dislike meta-commentary, so say if you hate it, but here goes:

As I think I mentioned before, CotE is in some ways a tutorial for changes in PFRPG over 3.5. You've managed to miss out on the possibilities of CMB tutorials with the wolves (fended off by food) and the statue (which you might have tried to disarm). You've seen a couple on damage resistance. Here's one on incorporeals. I would say that Paizo in my experience tend to make their scenarios far too difficult, especially at low levels; on the other there are 6 PCs playing a scenario designed for 4 (and I'm not doing anything with the CRs to take account of the fact).

At any rate, remember throughout (not just here) that there are choices other than fighting (one is running). Right now you're fighting both the fumes and the shadow, and your cleric is out of action for 3 turns. Just saying.

Just for when we go back towards the shadow, now that we know it's there - if we don't have more magic weapons by that stage, maybe give Keshy the dagger to use for his smite evil power??

Just as a tactical suggestion :)

That's one way to go. But we should keep in mind that Smite won't get past the incorpreal 1/2 damage thing on it's own. We might be better off with Keshy using it with the single acid flask he has for 1d6 + 5 damage, and letting someone else stab at it with the dagger, since 1d6 + 5 and 1d4 + 2 or so + 1, will do more in the long run.

Does Arcane Strike let Illya hit an incorpreal?

Not sure that the acid flask will hit it as it's not a magical weapon..whereas the dagger is, and with the additional damage from smite, it might be enough to negate some of the half-damage from being incorporeal.

If you want me to rule in advance on what can damage it:

Jaer has some posting issues at the moment I think. I will bot her if it gets to this evening.

Oh, I was under the impression that energy damage (acid in this case) could make contact?

Nope. It's a physical alchemical material. Rules get a bit weird I guess because of the idea of energy damage, but last I heard the consensus is that if it isn't some manner of magical damage, it doesn't count. I mean Acid Flasks work on the idea that the glass makes contact and shatters anyway, right? Can't do that with incorporeals (....though, actually, Illya might be able to. Arcane Strike and all that. Huh.)

Also, right you are Shady. Very busy weekend. I should have chance to get to my posting obligations (and breathe) once I land home in about an hour. Sorry for the hold up folks; your scheduled trap-happy shenanigans will resume shortly.

Ah, I see. Well, safe travels!

Oh, I was under the impression that energy damage (acid in this case) could make contact?

There's a sidebar in CotE which says energy attacks (such as a torch) can have 50% damage, but in the actual rulebooks (CRB and Bestiary) it says any source of attack must be magical, and subject to that only certain attacks do 100% damage. 3.5 DMG specifically excludes "mundane acids" from damage against incorporeal, btw.

I think to effect acid damage (and even then at 50%) it would have to come from a magical source.

Happy to be proven wrong though.

(verbiage from rules can be found here: https://carrion-crown-kyle-s.obsidianportal.com/wiki_pages/incorporeal)