GM Tektite's PFS #05-05 The Elven Entanglement (Inactive)

Game Master Hawkwen Agricola

Bruxo's still 7. So is Rosham.
And, upon further review, KULIK must be out of the mix for this one.

I have no desire to bring a 7 along with your high-tier group and have them feel like they're babysitting (which they very much would be); and my other option, my Horizon Walker, is a switch hitting melee type with trapfinding. Overlaps a lot, and besides he's my first-ever PFS PC and is not very optimized.

So, since you have a legal table even if I bow out, I will drop and let y'all run with what you have. I realize that removes the time-zone symmetry ;-) but I think you can live with that.

I think that puts us into the high tier anyway with the 4 player conversion.

Well sorry to hear it.

If we're high-tier anyways go ahead and stick around. Not really babysitting, I'm sure we could use the help.

Bruxo's still 7. So is Rosham.

And, upon further review, KULIK must be out of the mix for this one.

I have no desire to bring a 7 along with your high-tier group and have them feel like they're babysitting (which they very much would be); and my other option, my Horizon Walker, is a switch hitting melee type with trapfinding. Overlaps a lot, and besides he's my first-ever PFS PC and is not very optimized.

So, since you have a legal table even if I bow out, I will drop and let y'all run with what you have. I realize that removes the time-zone symmetry ;-) but I think you can live with that.

Well that's just great! Thanks for nothing! I was feeling all good and stuff and then you come and rain on my parade! Now I the most senior of the group! ;)

Seriously, sorry to see you go. You sure? Can't talk you out of it? Hawthorne is the man!

Am I sure? No.

Hawthorne cut his teeth on a lot a Season 0-3 stuff. To say that he wasn't built for Season 4 stuff is an understatement; I played up with him at 9th level in Feast of Sigils and knew by round 2 of the [redacted]* encounter that he was thoroughly outclassed. Waking Rune (yay, zero XP chronicles!) underscored that.

I respect the players here (the GM too, BTW) and don't want to put any of your PCs at risk with a character which may not be up to snuff. That's the crux of my reticence.

Amira is a 10 Con Cloistered Cleric who uses favored class points for skills. If I was worried about flying in the Danger Zone, she wouldn't exist. If you think you're somehow a detriment, though, that's you're prerogative.

-Posted with Wayfinder

yay, zero XP chronicles!

?

Have I been wrong this whole time? (It's very possible.) But I'm pretty sure you get the XP no matter how you do, even if you run away during the first encounter and never do anything else. You only lose PP and gold.

That being said, have you seen Glaurung? She's a pseudo-melee sorceress who thinks she can handle anything. One of my first few characters so she's really not optimized for anything except funny RP moments.

Nope, there's a few cases for 0xp chronicles;
The first is the fact that 3 encounters have to be cleared to get Xp. If you don't kill/diplomacy 3 bads, 0 xp. That leads to the funny situation of finishing Mists of Mwangi with 0xp and 2 PA.
The second is playing for no credit. You still get a chronicle for recording money spent, conditions gained, and whatnot.
Technically, quests exist, but those are weird.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ok, I knew about playing for no credit and quests but I hadn't heard about the 3 encounters rule. I guess it's never come up for me before. As a GM I've never had people run away and as a player I've died twice and run away once but all three instances were in the final encounter.

Yea, 3 encounters to get xp. Though for any mods in the Blakros museum I would make an exception.

And as far as not being optimized enough, barring the occasional death-mods like Bonekeep and Waking Rune, you don't have to be bleeding edge to succeed. I think Hawthorne contributes just fine. The same goes for Kulik as long as he isn't healing any enemy dragons that is....

The same goes for Kulik as long as he isn't healing any enemy dragons that is....

That sounds like a good story.

There is a lot of mechanics bits that's highly amusing that I'll note later when I'm not tired and out-of-bed. Let me just say the phrase "Oh my god, they failed the DC by, like, 1" and "He keeps trying the DC 30-Something intimidate and that's just gonna kill 'em" came up numerous times in my head.

If it makes you feel ANY better, (and everyone else feel worse...), I played in Cultist's Kiss and Words of the Ancients both with this character and died in both of them. Granted, I was playing up while early level 7 and late level 8, but also as first game of level one he survived Waking Rune. On Hard Mode. Run by Jon Compton. Am I nervous about playing this? Well, yeah, but no pain no gain. Besides, have some tricks I want to try out.

The same goes for Kulik as long as he isn't healing any enemy dragons that is....

LMAO...true, that. :-D

Thanks for listening to my concerns, all. If you guys are okay with it, I'm in and good to go.

And the zero XP thing was a TPK in the first encounter. Which, for those who've played Rune, is not a pushover but...well, it's not the Runelord, either.

A zero XP chronicle is mainly so you can't take the same PC back to that same scenario and rerun it knowing what you need this time around.

Side note: We just made a last minute decision to take the kids up to visit family and stuff for fall break. I won't be able to change the map, but can probably update as needed from my mobile. Just want to let you know. I'll be back home Sun.

I will probably just pause here until Sun. Cool?

Fine with me. I'm at a convention this weekend anyway starting tonight.

Quick, thunderspirit is going to a convention! Someone provoke teenage drama show-level shenanigans!

-Posted with Wayfinder

Yup.

Can do. Gives me a bit to finish up my character profile with his inventory and all that. Now that I actually have a few days off from work AND PFS play.

To address a couple questions: The STR damage is from time spent exposed to the poisons of the Tanglebriar and does not require damage to effect you, just amount of time spent in the "vegetation". There is another mechanic that deals physical damage, that Amira got, but that is separate from the other. Woodland stride would help, in that you can move through the Tanglebriar faster. (default speed is 1/4 normal) but that would leave the rest of the party 4 times the distance behind you. (so if everyone had woodland stride, you would move faster and therefore lessen the time of exposure to the poisons.

I was checking out the belt of physical perfection last night, and the description states that the first 24 hrs is counted as a temporary ability increase, so my read is that it can still be used to mitigate the ability damage taken. (I could, and probably am, completely wrong), but I think that is why the scenario calls out Cecilla allowing the party to use the belt.

I think I covered everything, if not let me know.

On the belt: I believe you are correct. I'm sure why there's a difference between temporary ability increases and permanent ability increases (maybe there's a spell that only affects or doesn't affect temporary?) but it still works just like you'd think it would as soon as you put it on for most purposes.

I assume the language is just carried over for uniformity, because a headband of intelligence doesn't grant additional skill points until after 24 hrs, but I assume the belt works like you just had all the corresponding spells cast on you at once.

What the belt won't be able to help is, say, Gannus' inability to TWF; as a temporary ability bonus, it doesn't count towards feat prereqs and the like, though it would help his Dex-based skills, AC, Reflex, etc. etc.

Ok, that makes sense.

Toshi has it right, though I already have an enhancement bonus to dex so unless it was +4 which I doubt, it wouldn't do anything.

+2..Glaurung?

I've got a belt of mighty constitution on right now but I could probably take it.

I'll put it on and adjust my stats accordingly.

Apologies for pestering about it. I'm running this in a week and want to be prepared for whatever these local players throw at me.

As for the belt, go for it Glaurung! Wouldn't help me with my bow anyway, haha.

Apologies for pestering about it. I'm running this in a week and want to be prepared for whatever these local players throw at me.

As for the belt, go for it Glaurung! Wouldn't help me with my bow anyway, haha.

Don't worry about it. Your not pestering. I would rather you ask, because I do miss things, sometimes on a routine basis. So I would much rather be questioned about it.

So, I got to thinking about the logistics of a PFS vanity carrying the unconscious body of the owner of said vanity. The Vanity doesn't disappear upon the character's death, so Toshi (in this case) is still technically "around."

The really weird case is where combat starts, though, because the cohort effectively "disappears," which means Toshi drops Amira wherever PCs start on the map the exact instant init is rolled. The thought (and after-effects) were amusing, to say the least.

Then we'll just have to keep him off the edge of the map, then, shan't we?

I'm curious if this johnny goat boy would have some means of getting her back on her feet, or if he'd even be willing to do so. Would hate to have Amira down for the rest of the adventure.

Yea, it sucks not getting to participate. I'm just more interested in why he's talking to us in the first place.

To be honest, I'm not really even irritated at non-functionality right now. Having 7 Strength SHOULD be a drawback that's not solved by "buying a magic bag or Tien Boy," and I'm glad to see the system work.

Needless to say, the Lesser Res wand is getting bought after this, but still...

Yea, it sucks not getting to participate. I'm just more interested in why he's talking to us in the first place.

Methinks we just stumbled into his home... No shoes on the carpet, gents. And ladies.

Glaurung has Bull's Strength. I'll just pop you with that the first round of combat and we're good to go.

Yay magic!

I keep thinking of how trivial this would be if I did bring my paladin what with having a wand of lesser restoration and all and prepping it in 1st level slots.

Gannus wrote:

Yea, it sucks not getting to participate. I'm just more interested in why he's talking to us in the first place.

Methinks we just stumbled into his home... No shoes on the carpet, gents. And ladies.

If we just stumbled into his home, Then the rest of us should leave him and the gnome alone for a while.

Oh! Well if you're going to Bull's Speed (as it is known to the 8 Wisdom and Int Samurai around here), you can totally use Amira's Rod of Extend, Lesser, so she can do her Diplomacy thing and actually talk to this guy.

Alternatively, you can just bed him and be done with it, do ho ho.

Yeah, I think this scene needs to just fade to black for a bit. Then Glaurung will come back with tousled hair and all the information we need. Then we can just get on our way.

Could be fun trying to explain this one: Well, when a female gnome and a male-or-female whatever love want each other very much...

I suppose it's about that time I should put up my list again.:

Yep, I'm willing to run another once I finish kil...er I mean we complete this one.

Amira!

Building off Glaurung's list, excluding a mere few I have played, if you all would have me back.

After I posted that, the same thought came to mind. Perhaps what I'll do is only use slow track when I'm getting characters too high too fast. I have an 8th level character that I've played SIX times. Should have slow tracked him. Ah well.

-Posted with Wayfinder

I had one character reach 5th level before I played him. All my GM credit was dumped on him for a couple months. I've gotten to play him plenty at high-tier though so it worked out.

See, I prefer the "just don't take credit for gming" option on the screened side is the table. The slow track does have its place, but that place is "local game day when players are, like, 3rd and a new guy joins and nobody wants to make new 1st levels." Then they learn they should have just made a new 1st level.

-Posted with Wayfinder