Sorry to hear about all the stress, GM. I can wait patiently for further updates.
@Layla. I'm very low on spells and have none to help in this current fight. My frail Ratfolk arms are also not made for helping Narahari. So I am afraid I can only offer moral support at this juncture.
The GM is amused.
Player: "I don't have any options! I can give moral support, I suppose."
GM: "You could do [this thing]..."
Player: "... ... ... here, have moral support. It's all I can do."
:)
Translation of above post for Dijiron: Have your character make a wish out loud. :)
Oh I know what he meant. But Dijiron doesn't. He can't the spoilers so he has no idea that the thing will listen to him much less grant his wishes specifically.
Processing. It may be up tonight or tomorrow...
EDIT: Also, Dijiron, make a Sense Motive, DC 8. If you do so, you can mention any last minute wish that your character wishes to make. Your character should have realized, by now, that the Gol'ee-ath was granting wishes... though also realized that there is some sort of unknown "cost" that Amita is paying (what, exactly, is very vague). The reason for this is that I just remembered that you were included here in the group that sussed out the conversation here. The DC 8 is to avoid retconning the situation (since your character has acted as if he did not) but is low enough to probably succeed - if he succeeds, he puts all the pieces together, otherwise, he continues onward as he currently is. Sound good?
EDIT: Also, Vitreous, I don't see your enhanced hit points anywhere, and I don't recall if you improved them during your transformation. Either way, you're currently in the clear - the thing didn't deal enough damage to drop you - but I wanted to mention that for your sake.
Hm. Just added a significant second post. It was supposed to be at the bottom of the first post, but due to site issues when I first attempted to post my larger one and the website ate it, it appears I'd not saved that portion into the word document - and when I realized this and went to edit it back in, it took me juuuuuuuuuuust long enough to rewrite it that I ran out of time. My apologies.
Alright, because I'm a much better in-person GM than PbP GM, allow me to make some corrections, clarifications, and other notifications.
First, to "draw" a better picture (maybe) and remind people.
- In the central of the massive cavern, there is an enormous central column. Previously, that column had prisoners, Jakk, and an evil ritual. You guys thoroughly disrupted that.
- The column rises nearly to the ceiling of the cavern (nearly a 100 feet "up" from the "main floor"), but also goes below the "main floor" because it sits within a deep hole or chasm. Said chasm is 80 ft. deep (making the column a total of 180 ft. more-or-less). The gap between the column and the "main floor" of the cave you are in is about 40 ft. wide. There is currently a rain of holy water surrounding the column and pit.
- To the "east" of that column (the right side of the Roll20 map), on the main floor, there are two major points of interest: an enormous jade pagoda to the north/east (from whence you came - it has a stairwell leading up, which you'd fled down away from a nasty fire and strange green mists) and a now-shattered bowl to the south-east (the bowl once held blood, but is now effectively empty); there is now a smeared trail of blood from said bowl leading to the pit surrounding the column.
- To the "west" of the column (the left side of the Roll20 map), there is only one "point of interest" - the chasm itself actually has a canyon-like extension cutting through the cavern floor all the way to and through the western-most wall.
- To the "north" of the column is a large crevasse in the wall, a deep-looking hole that has turned out to be a tunnel leading away from the chasm. Most members of Gob Smash One are leading folk out through that tunnel.
- Vitreous has been flying along side the column and smashing it where he can, weakening it, and now is between the whirlwind (summoned from a card) and the escaping people near the floor of the cave. Schnorzel attempted to help, Sunny to help Schnorzel, so now there are three whirlwinds (see "retcon" below, for details).
- Everyone else is guarding the group of refugees (including the huge number of midori... or in many cases ex-midori...) currently ("safely"?) pulled along in the "wake" of an enormous whirlwind-misty green-dragon-Ooze. Of those who are no longer Midori, their old corpses are now shambling corpses attempting to escape the pit.
- Next to the pit, three monstrosities (Knowledge [planes] to know about them... but perhaps Appraise, Perception, Sense Motive, Survival, Wisdom, or similar such checks could tell you more as well, or you could aid someone else in figuring it out...) have crawled. They are not currently in melee range with Schnorzel, Sunny, or Vitreous, but any of those three could be within melee range with a single move action... if they cared to provoke from the whirlwinds.
Hope that helps!
In case it wasn't clear, it's time for you guys to take action... if you will. >:D
Also, a VERY significant retcon!
---------------------------------------------------
I had erroneous notes based off of a few edits and back-and-forth talks. The last blightning was, in fact, destroyed, and does not make a reappearance this time, as noted here! My sincere apologies! Thus, there is no attack by the blighting, and one less whirlwind. There are, now, three whirlwinds. My apologies.
---------------------------------------------------
There is no DC listed on the Sense Motive on purpose. You all get the gist by now.
Ceru (or anyone with this skill), you could attempt to "translate-ish" the giant's strange vocalizations (it is a minor thing, not super important; it's just a possible use for your skills, if you care to do so) via Linguistics, if you so chose.
Also, the last DC 20 Perception check with Nuglet... yeah, I'm sorry, I'm a doofus. The check is supposed to also require "Midori" language to understand it.
If you do choose to make these different actions, remember that you have the ability to add mental "Aid Another" to any checks made by anyone else - the little telepathy-crystals seem to work well for supporting those attempts. Also, to be clear, "continuing to run" is a valid option for those near the hallway... if that's what you think is a good idea!
My apologies for any confusion you may currently be experiencing as a result of my text-heavy but content-lacking posts!
Whoa! What the heck? Crazy! :)
Considering Layla's actions and will try to post them tonight...
This is a lot to take in. One big point -- aren't most of us over 200 feet away from Vitreous/other creatures? (And considering for Ceru she then spent the next round running, that would put her 280 feet away.)
So, say, for my character to get in the action, she'd have to spend at least two rounds just running back toward anything, even to get within a bow's range increment of fighting.
She also seems far away enough not to clearly see or hear any of what's happening in a way that she could make sense of it.
So I don't see anything sensible for her to do other than keep helping people run away. :/
As I was just about to tell Layla: take your time! If anyone understands reasonable delays... it's me. :)
Running and keeping folk safe is a perfectly reasonable thing.
But I will explain what's happened over the last few rounds, to maybe help you out.
You are around ~200 ft. away, yes, but not further. For one, you're currently moving a bit more slowly due to the press of getting everyone in the tunnels and because the footing is uneven, thus the actual "Run" option isn't available. Instead, you've been moving (generally speaking) "double speed" each round.
... buuuu~t that's totally fine.
Part of the issue is that you all actually started (around here) on the "southern" part of the caves (around 250 ft. away of your entrance by the pagoda... give or take... but around 375 ft. away of the cave you're headed to*) and, over the last several rounds have traveled to the "northern" area.
By contrast, Vitreous is and was closer to the cavern entrance than you guys were to start with, can fly at an angle, and moved lower, toward the cavern floor.
The haste-like effect (given here) makes you move at double speed (normal speed being at 20 ft., double speed at 40 ft.). Four rounds of double-move actions (80 ft./round) net you 320 ft. of movement - about what you'd need to be to get everyone into the caves.
Vitreous is left (very roughly) 150 ft. away, meaning you'd need about 70 ft. range on your attack to reliably hit after moving 40 ft. this round... though you could try it from further away, if you so desired. (I suppose 60 ft. could also be within the second range increment, but my purpose of making that note was to allow 70 ft. without penalty.)
* Part of this distance is due to the fact that you have to follow the curve of the chasm, and can't just move in a straight line toward the tunnel you're fleeing toward. If you could have gone straight, it would have been much closer.
Sorry about not posting. I've been sick since Sunday.
Sorry about not posting. I've been sick since Sunday.
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Sorry about not posting. I've been sick since Sunday.
Thanks, GM. Luckily, it's just a cold and should pass soon.
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*Glomp hugz Dijiron* (^_^)
Wishin' ye gettin' better soonest!
Have a good weekend and a Happy Easter, all! I'm out for three days! (Ish - still feel free to ask questions, however...)
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Hi guys, I tried to post a reply to this earlier this week and several attempts got eaten, and that made me think I just needed to think on it more. I haven't been sure whether to just PM this to Tac or say things publicly, but I feel like it's better to tell everyone where I am with this.
First: Tac, you are a good GM. I love how enthusiastic you are and how much you push us to be creative and find interesting solutions in things. I think in many cases you're doing a good job in explaining things.
Where I struggle first off is just that there are just too many people and too much going on. And I recognize this game was an experiment to see what could be done with this. I also recognize that I probably bit off more than I can chew and this type of game is one I am not mentally capable of handling competently. So, that's my mistake and a lesson learned. My inability to grok this sort of thing is none of y'all's fault, and being in the same room I am certain would not help.
I'm hitting a point too, however, where I'm just not feeling it, and this is where I will lay in my only criticism: for me, personally, this scene has gone on way, way, way too long--in addition to too much happening at once and too many moving parts to track. I think in real time we've been at this ONE SCENE for months, and even in game it's gone for more rounds than any Pathfinder combat should really last. I feel like it's one of those JRPGs where you fight the boss, beat him, feel this overwhelming surge of victory----but then he gets up and says, "But now I will reveal my true form!" and then that happens about twelve more times, and that surge of victory fades into a quickly exhausting frenzy of button mashing that goes on for HOURS and in the end your thumbs hurt, you have to pee really bad, and you just don't even care if you win the fight you just want it to be done. And for me at that point, I shut off the console without even finishing the fight, toss the disc out the window, and look up the ending online because while I liked the story, the grind required to get to the end of it was no longer worth it for me. I am in a place where my thumbs hurt, I need to pee really bad, and I just would rather look up the ending online.
Moreover, I'm at the button mashing phase. I am out, entirely, of ideas, excitement, or creative juice. And without creative juice, which is the stuff that Tac wants to most see, I can't really contribute meaningfully to this.
I have decided to be frank and honest about this because I respect you all enough to share this (if I'm quiet and reticent and say nothing, that's when I'm REALLY upset and really distrustful of the people around me). I am SORRY, truly, if any of the above hurts, but I figure it is more helpful to be clear about where I am with this than just avoid or drop out without a word, or just phone in a few posts here and there. I don't write any of this with the intent to be hurtful, but to clear the air.
I really, really, really appreciate being invited into this game. I STILL want to play with y'all. I'm looking at Firedove's cooking game -- if she would still have me after saying all this. I would love to play in another game that Tac GMs provided it's a smaller scale adventure, like an AP or module with a smaller initial group of players.
I recognize also that there were stalls and complications in this game that were REALLY REALLY nobody's fault AT ALL. Happy healthy baby is very good, and the most important thing than any game by a very very very long shot.
In the end though, I'm out of useful things I can give. So I think it's best for me to bow out now.
So: Ceru runs, prioritizing the safety of the innocents she is more certain she can save than those she cannot run back and not. She does not have the combat strength to meaningfully help the party with the daemons, and I don't have any good ideas.
I am sorry, truly. I want this to go well but I've not nothin'. I'm sorry.
No worries, Ceru!
And besides, if we all run now, maybe the cave will just collapse on the daemons, and we won't have to worry about them anymore. :)
Frankly I've never been in the position of losing my muse on a PbP character before. On getting back to the game I noticed with increasing frequency that I would sit at my computer on deciding to write a post for this game and said writing became distinctly familiar to pulling teeth.
The ideas I held onto (and foolishly never wrote down) on how Schnorzels various mental maladies interacted, on how to write that in an interesting manner. I doubt anyone would mind less than stellar posts but it is all up in my mind where I'd know the difference and in the end that is what my brain seems to consider counting.
Yeah well that all seems to have vanished into smoke as I have spent many an hour since my last post sitting at a blank text box and simply having nothing of value to write. I had hoped each time that if I just left it alone for another day that I might come up with something decent. However that has now stretched to a ridiculous length.
I still don't have anything to write for this character, I like the concept but it seems I just can't work up the gumption to make a post I consider worthy anymore.
So lesson learned, the biggest rule for PbP is Inactivity kills, so pulling this crap where I wait and wait trying to write something I feel to be a solid set of interactions with the story really doesn't fly.
If you don't know what to do post that and keep the story moving, as amusingly strange as it is PbP the game which takes weeks to complete a single combat has little time for indecision.
Hopefully I don't have to repeat this lesson again. Falling into the same damned hole all the time is infuriating.
@Ceru
Pretty sure this most recent 'boss form' was my fault. Had we all kept running our glorious spider lady would have likely martyred herself, the single big whirlwind would have spat out one really really big monster and we would have all got to scramble madly as falling chunks of cavern crashed around us while The Ghol-Ee-Ath and Super Jakk duked it out Kaijuu style.
Which is exactly what I had been pressing for way back before the pause.
Then I had to go and chance my darn mind.
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A belated thanks for understanding, guys (my Internet was on the fritz and I've been busy in terms of lunch breaks, etc.).
Schnorzel, if you decided you were acting in character--then you were acting in character! Don't feel bad (if you do). :)
Alright, with no more input (and the loss of a player), I'll be updating the final round of combat* and how this whole thing susses out.
No promise on the exact time for updating (I've been consistently incorrect so far), but it shouldn't be tooooooo far from now.
I should note that I blame nothing on anyone other than myself. None of you should presuppose anything about yourselves either. :)
I'll respond more to Ceru's post (and with more information in general) more after the update, and actually address some of the (very good) points within it.
Thanks, all, for sticking it out so long! :D
Okay, bad analogy. Starting over.
What I'm trying to say is that, due to the current weakness of the thing, Vitreous is going to swallow the tentacle thing - the same one you're gunning for. Do you want to switch targets, miss your attack, or me do something strange and (maybe?) cinematic or (maybe?) silly? You're later on in this turn, so it'll take me a bit to process getting to that point.
*
*shrug* Schorzel will target Death JR then.
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Well, Ceru is IN the final round, but her act is simply to keep running and helping the others escape. As this is no different than prior posts, there's not much point in adding to the thread. :)
I've already submitted a character to the Cooking game. Ceru needs a vacation, the muse is pretty quiet at the moment. Heck, I've got fandom-based muses being louder at the moment ()
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I be sorry fer not postin' lot, neither. :(
Suny be wantin' ta be runnin' but her lil' goblin buddy is all "RAAAWWWWR!!!: At tha' bad guy, thing. :(
Wishin' every one all'a very bestests! (^_^)
So... do you attack the evil dead weird outsider things, attack the winds, or take some other action? :D
(Any are fine.)
Well, Ceru is IN the final round, but her act is simply to keep running and helping the others escape. As this is no different than prior posts, there's not much point in adding to the thread. :)
Fair 'nough! Mostly I was just poking fun. I do understand, however.
*shrug* Schorzel will target Death JR then.
Jolly good. (She'll go for the [redacted] but, upon seeing that taken, she'll take frustration out on [redacted]. Sound good?)
I've already submitted a character to the Cooking game. Ceru needs a vacation, the muse is pretty quiet at the moment. Heck, I've got fandom-based muses being louder at the moment ()
Hah! I know how that goes! :D
*shakes fist at how much of his life "fandom-based" muses have taken...*
It appears this game has ended (albeit with Vitreous and Schnorzel technically still waiting on responses to actions), so Tac, would you mind setting it to "inactive" so it can be removed from active campaigns? Thanks.