GM supervillan's 9-07 Salvation of the Sages (low tier) (Inactive)

Game Master supervillan

And we're back!

Gameplay update incoming...

Rogar, Enora, and Nith will all have further posts to make before the round is out.

I was looking at the Assault On Absalom sign up sheet - looks like Noral, Supervillian, and myself have all signed up for the same table with our alts.

Looking forward to that game! ;-)

Going to give Nithrandyl another 15 hours or so before I bot him (ie tomorrow morning, my time).

Might i suggest he use the heal scroll he was considering before the div appeared? Get Karos back to full

I can't fault that logic.

That seems a very prudent course of actions should he not post.

Yes!!!

I'm out of time this morning, but should be able to update when I get back from work in 8 hours or so.

Nith won't be able to use the Heal scroll because he doesn't have enough actions, effectively. He needs to draw the scroll (move action), cast it (standard), and move up to Karos (move). He doesn't have a spring-loaded wrist sheath on his character sheet (which would allow drawing the scroll as a swift action) and a scroll doesn't count as a weapon for the purposes of drawing it. He can however move and cast his Cure Serious Wounds spell on Karos.

Is anyone in touch with Qwerty1971 (Nith's player)? I have messaged him today, but it doesn't look like he's posted anything for about a week.

I may have to bot him again. I am loathe to bot a PC in such a precarious situation so I would welcome the views of the rest of the party.

Nith needs to make 2 fort saves. The poison save is of little immediate consequence, it's wasp venom that does DEX damage. The distraction save is a bit more important. If Nith fails the distraction save he's just going to get out of the swarm, and that's all he can do. If he passes it, my thought would be to have him 5' step out of the swarm, draw the Heal scroll and try to use it on himself. He has 3hp remaining. The Heal would also cure his ability damage and poison. However, the scroll is a party resource. I could just have him full withdraw.

What are your views?

This enora save is going to be complicated with dhiara's reroll and gallant inspiring

As for botting - the heal scroll thought makes sense

Enora is just out of range of Dhiara's mystic wisdom. But no reroll needed - prescience for the win!

Thanks GM!

GMing this scenario is RP-wise and mechanically so challenging and now with Nith gone you are very considerate! Great job!

My opinion on Nith:

Nith should use the reroll if he fails the distraction save.

Then he should withdraw completely so that he does not face any immediate danger. When he is in safety he should try to use the heal scroll.

Does that make sense?

Moving away is fine. If that is the action i would not reroll distraction as it only gives a little extra movement

Can torch use his bag of goodies in combat? I'm thinking of asking him for a scroll of cure mod or serious to get Amenopheus back in the fight next round. Also, if he does so would it be a move for him to hand it to me and a move for me to take it, or would it be just move for him?

As far as Nith goes, I think he should move and use the scroll on himself. If he withdraws, he won't really be able to use the scroll on someone else, and this keeps him in the fight and able to help out.

All of the active sages have all of the abilities and resources on their character sheets, so yes, Torch can access his bag of goodies!

Feel free to recommend or request specific actions of any of your sage allies.

You've been running them perfectly imo.

Thanks Rogar, glad you think so. There are some brief guidance notes on the Sages' personalities and motivations in the scenario for the GM.

Yeah, man. Good job. This is a difficult scenario to run, I would think, and you're doing great!

I looked up the immersive mindscape rules again, just to see if there was anything important that might affect your decisions about staying inside the Sages' mindscapes round to round.

You lose you DEX bonus to AC (for your physical body only) whilst you are inside an immersive mindscape. But you are not helpless, and you still make saving throws. You are also unaware of any changes to your physical body, including being unaware of any damage it sustains. If your physical body should die, your mind would remain in the mindscape. (I really hope I don't have to rule on how or if anyone can be raised from the dead when their body is dead but their mind is in a Sage Jewel!)

I'm going to rule that whilst you are in a mindscape you cannot benefit from Inspire Courage (because you are unaware of the Performance) but you can benefit from Good Hope. The spell can legitimately target you by targeting your physical body and I can find no rule that requires you to be aware of the spell to benefit from it. Magic, eh?

Okay, thanks.

To be honest I would rather like Enora to come back to the real world and then go back inside on her next turn.

If that resets the unknown successes then that is fine but Tahari is standing right next to her and being unaware of what is happening would be too much ... even for a halfling! ;-)

So Enora comes back to the real world as a free action.

Okay, thanks.

To be honest I would rather like Enora to come back to the real world and then go back inside on her next turn.

If that resets the unknown successes then that is fine but Tahari is standing right next to her and being unaware of what is happening would be too much ... even for a halfling! ;-)

So Enora comes back to the real world as a free action.

No problem. She's back.

Vordrek will stay, his AC is nothing special anyway.

My turn was based on vordrek staying in... otherwise i would have gone in.

Oh well.

Ah, sorry for sowing confusion folks.

There's very little about mindscapes in the scenario, I have to refer to the mindscape rules in Occult Adventures. These are reasonably clear that you get no information from your real-world body whilst you are in an immersive mindscape. A binary mindscape is different, but these are immersive.

There's also no way for PCs to tell if or how you can accumulate successes in the mindscapes. There is some discussion on this point in the GM Discussion thread on the scenario. The scenario text says "More than one PC can enter and contribute in the same mindscape, and their successful skill checks are cumulative." GMs have asked if that means cumulative round to round, or just cumulative with multiple PCs within the same round. The author of the scenario says its the latter.

I don't want to unfairly disadvantage you, but I don't want to unpick half a round's actions if I can avoid it.

So:

The Sage's mindscapes are effectively on loop-repeat. This means that there is no advantage to you staying in a mindscape round-to-round. Although PCs have no way to know this until one of you actually does stay in round-to-round, I am giving you this information.

If I had pointed out to you earlier in the encounter that staying in a mindscape left you with no information about what was happening to your real world body you (ie Vordrek and Enora) might have decided to come out after making your checks. That's why I have invited you to change your minds.

That leaves Rogar's actions.

I think Inspire plus Good Hope is pretty strong. If you wanted to enter Tahonikepsu's mindscape you'd need a move action to get close enough, and then would not have a full round action to attempt the checks. You'd be spending round 3 and round 4 standard actions to make checks, so Tahonikepsu couldn't be freed any earlier. If you do feel strongly that you prefer to enter the mindscape I will retcon though.

Complicated scenario is complicated. Despite this hiccup, you're doing an admirable job running this GM!

So if my successes vanish each round then I leave I the mindscape. :-)

So if my successes vanish if I leave I will stay in the mindscape. :-)

I interpret what supervillain said as meaning that the successes reset every round, so there is no point to stay in.

Im not looking to retcon my action. But i stayed a 5foot step away if i needed to hop in.

OK, thanks Rogar. On the map you are 10 feet away from anywhere you can access Tahonikepsu's mindscape. But I think you have a 5' step available from Round 3 - I will move you closer to Tahonikepsu using that 5' step.

Yes, as Kramac says, there is pretty much no reason to stay in a mindscape if you don't free the sage in one round. You can enter and leave as free actions, so you are always better off leaving.

The only retcons are Vordrek and Enora deciding that they will exit the mindscapes after their unsuccessful attempts.

On with the show!

I'm away on a family visit this weekend, but I should manage an update after Karos posts.

Me, too.

Oh, wait...

Vordrek, you didn't have a shocking grasp spell prepared so I assume you used your bonded item?

Yes, sorry I forgot to specify that. I assumed (hoped) it would be a good use of the item-- and it was!

Wow, gotta say, I was not expecting a +5 weapon. Who needs a Holy Avenger?

GM, do we have any indication of how important it is to free all the Jewels before killing Aryana? Do we think killing the ghost will be enough to end her influence, or will she maintain some control over the spinel sage jewel if we don't close the mindscape before offing the necromancer? And do we think there would be any way to purge the jewel short of doing the ritual again? Maybe take it to the mindscape machine and jury rig it to replay the mindscape that Padrym is trapped in?

I fully expect the answer to all these questions to be either 'you don't know', 'you're in combat... don't really have time to suss that sort of thing out', or 'make a hella hard knowledge arcana check', but it doesn't hurt to ask.

The point, which I forgot to add above, is if we want to try to clear all the jewels before killing the ghost, will require some planning to get it done this round. I was thinking we can get Dhiara to repositioning strike Vordrek (assuming Vordrek is ok with that... maybe she can do nonlethal damage? Rogar has a pretty beefy diplomacy, so he could most likely handle it on his own...) next to Rogar, then Amenopheus can hop down and dim door Rogar and Vordrek next to the gem, giving us two opportunities before we kill the ghost next round (hopefully). I'm pretty sure if I don't get knocked out that Karos and I, along with a lightning bolt from our resident lich and haste from Enora can finish the ghost off.

Pertinent questions Kramac !

Some knowledge checks would be apt, i will post soon in gameplay with details.

Dhiara's repositioning strike can only move a target 10 feet from its starting position, so it didn't look like she could usefully get Vordrek any closer than 1 move action from the Onyx.

I was thinking she could kick Vordrek next to Rogar, then Amenopheus could take them both with dim door. No worries, I'm pretty sure that Rogar has this with his plus 18 to diplomacy.

Ah, gotcha. Missed that possibility - also I wasn't too keen on dropping Amenopheus plus pathfinders adjacent to Tahari or into a wasp swarm!

On flying rhinos:

Any creature with a Fly speed can use that speed to move, however many manoeuvres require a Fly skill check to succeed in. Anything that isn't flying forwards at at least half speed generally requires a check.

Air Walk can be trained. Fly doesn't need training as a trick because it's already a skill.

A creature that doesn't normally Fly that gains a Fly speed via magic might not know what to do. An animal would need either a Handle Animal or a Ride check to move in the way that a PC would like it to, in addition to any Fly checks needed.

The reason why I would require a Ride or Handle Animal check in these circumstances is that Jino is an animal that has not flown before (or at the very least has not flown regularly); if it has ranks in Fly (a class skill for animal companions, but still requiring that the creature has a reliable means of flight) I would not require a Handle Animal check, but might still require Ride depending on what was being attempted. Fly checks are always needed for flight maneouvres.

A Fly spell grants a Fly skill bonus of 4 for Good maneouvrability, plus an additional bonus of 1/2 caster level. A Large creature gets -2 for size. Then you add the DEX mod.

For Jino to fly out of the pit, he has to attempt to fly straight up. That's a DC20 check. Kramac could instead circle upwards, making a series of 90-degree turns that need DC15 checks (each such turn using up 5' of movement).

If you want to ride a flying rhino, I'm going to ask for a DC20 Ride check OR DC25 Handle Animal check to push as a move action (Jino is wounded, so that becomes DC27), plus the necessary Fly check (DC20 to go straight up, each 5' up counts as 10' of movement). If Jino is trained in the Fly skill then I'll say a DC5 Ride check (which Kramac auto-passes).

I am so sorry!! I completely forgot that I obviously did not use consume spell to turn spells into arcane reservoir after the first fight which I thought I did! :-(

You already recapitulated GM but here for my sanity:

2 Arcane reservoir in first fight: 1 Arcane Barrier + 1 Dimensional Slide

1 Arcane reservoir in cleansing room: 1 Dimensional Slide

2 Arcane reservoir at the beginning of the final fight: 2 Arcane Barrier (second time used)

1 Arcane reservoir in the middle of the final fight: 1 Dimensional Slide

___

No Arcane reservoir remaining ==>> ENORA DID NOT USE ARCANE BARRIER IN HER LAST ACTION

:-( Very, very sorry!

Your count of prescience is completely right!

No idea how I f*** up there!

Thanks GM!

Regarding the last action: Enora expends a move action to consume a second level spell. She now has 2 arcane reservoir points. She can consume spells twice a day.

Thanks!!

Regarding the last action: Enora expends a move action to consume a second level spell. She now has 2 arcane reservoir points. She can consume spells twice a day.

Thanks!!

You had a move action available, so that's all good.

She's finally resorted to her touch attack! We've almost got her now!

I could never stop that pesky hobbit! ;-)