Godsmouth Heresy - PFS - Presented by DM Eric S (Inactive)

Game Master Eric Swanson

This is the Discussion thread for the PFS Godsmouth Heresy session. The plan is to begin on Friday June 22nd!

Dot!

Here I am. Here I am.

I ams what I ams!

I'm reluctant to bring my charge fighter into a dungeon crawl, but I'm more reluctant to start a new PC when I have little time to play the others. So Damien it is!

So...a deadly dungeon is just the place to send a fresh-faced sorcerer right out of training, right? :)

*edit* It's been a little while since I first created this character so I'm going to try and do one last audit to see if there's anything I want to change before we get started!

I've got a naiad sorcerer (wild blooded-sylvan) or an aasimar "something" (probably a paladin/oracle). I'm hoping to apply the Chronicle from Hell's Rebels to the PC to make one of the two level 2. Could we wait to start until we get that Chronicle from GM Red?
Larry

I have no problems delaying the start of this game for the end of Hell's Rebels and the sweet Chronicles therein!

That will also work out for me anyway since I'm getting some other game projects up off the ground while I'm off this weekend!

By the way, I noticed that everyone else is bringing or looking to bring 2nd level characters - would you guys prefer I do the same? I could swap Lucina out for Katarina, my 2nd level spiritualist, if need be :)

Larry, I really hate to burst your bubble, but that chronicle is only valid for PC levels 2-4. You can certainly apply it after this module, or to another level 2 PC.

Eric, just a heads up that Damien here has the Devoted Guardian class ability, allowing him to act in the surprise round even if he does not notice the enemies.

I haven't peeked at the Hell's Rebels Special Instructions & Chronicle Sheets download, so there might be special rules for that adventure that overrule the guidelines in the PFS Roleplaying Guild Guide on p. 7:

You can apply credit from a higher-tier adventure to a

1st-level Roleplaying Guild character. When doing so,
reduce the gp reward to 500 gp if the adventure grants
1 XP or 1,398 gp if it grants 3 XP. You do not benefit
from any boons until your Roleplaying Guild character
reaches the minimum level listed on the Chronicle
sheet, unless otherwise noted.

That's what I was hoping to do with the PC I bring to this adventure. Is that a possibility?

I'm waiting to dot into the Gameplay thread until I can select a PC. Sorry for the delay I'm causing.

Ah! Yes, it does apply. I definitely forgot about that little rule. Good catch Larry.

I've created the basic shell of Uriel, paladin (oath of vengeance/warrior of the holy light) and oracle (dual-cursed) of Sarenrae.

I'll update his equipment as soon as we get the Hell's Rebels Chronicle from GM Red. No pressure, Red. ;-)

*wanders in*

"Oh! Someone else like me that's been doubly-cursed! How wonderful!" Corona remarks as she peers curiously at Uriel.

And he's just as pretty as Zarnel! Where do they make these men?

"Remember New Friend, always stipulate when you want to ruin someone's day with your double-curse powers or else you'll make the Voice in the Sky sad. Oh! And have fun, that's the most important thing of all," she smiles and then wanders away with a vague wave of her hand.

I'd appreciate any tips you can suggest, Corona.

Usually I like to set Misfortune to activate to negate a potential crit against an ally (or self) or when it looks like an ally (or myself) has failed a saving throw but you can use it to just make a foe reroll a general attack roll if it looks like it'll hit. *Technically* the text on Misfortune says you can force 'a creature' to reroll any one d20 roll before the results are known and so I've seen a lot of people allow you to force an ally to make a reroll as well in order to help them get a better result on something. I think this is somewhat subject to table variation; so far all of the GMs I've had have seemed cool with that but I honestly feel kinda iffy about taking advantage of such a thing - especially since you later get Fortune which is ostensibly meant to be used to give allies a reroll.

Just my own two cents, of course.

Ok since I have seen Uriel has posted, and all Chronicles have been spent, I will kick this off on July 4th with the intro post!

Feel free to finish your purchases and if you are busy with celebrating no worries if you wish to wait until the next day!

Thanks for everyone's patience.

I tweaked Uriel's build a bit; less optimized but more consistent with his backstory.

Switched deities from Sarenrae to Ragathiel; seemed more appropriate for an Oath of Vengeance/Warrior of the Holy Light paladin.

Dropped Extra Revelation (Misfortune) feat in favor of Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword), Ragathiel's favored weapon, enabling him to use it one-handed and to use a shield.

"Shenanigans": Temporal Celerity revelation enables Uriel to roll Initiative twice and take the best result. Added a second attempt in the pre-formatted spoiler on Slide 2.

Happy Independence Day, everybody! 242 years and counting!

Day Job
Profession (soldier): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Dawn can't play this module because I played this already with a different level 2 PC. So here's a brand new PC.

She likes to punch things.

Just need to fine tune Mae's gear a bit, and she's level 3 now due to the HR Chronicle. Other than that she's ready to go.

Lady Mae, you sure you can play Godsmouth Heresy with a level 3 PC?

If not, one option would be to slow track the HR Chronicle.

Godsmouth Heresy is a Tier 1-2 scenario and your APL is currently 1.8. You are good to go :)

I don't think the APL is a factor, just each individual PC's level?

Bummer. Frank is going to slow track HR so I can get back down to 5.5XP and stick with Mae.

GM, if you need help putting maps together for future encounters, I'm happy to help.

This one was a little confusing without a visual reference.

Thanks for the offer! Fortunately this is the only encounter that is 'mapless' and I do have the dungeon map all set up. The only issue I have with these module maps is the scaling of the map for the encounters, he he.

With a MacBook, I open the scenario in Preview, select the part of the map I want to display, and save that selection as a PNG file, which can be uploaded into the Google slides. (I have trouble with many JPG files.) That might help with scaling.

I see. That is a good idea, I am sure I can do that in Windows easily :)

You can also use pdfimages to extract images from pdf files if you don't mind the command line.

If you have an Adobe CC subscription, Adobe Acrobat can also be used to extract images. But that isn't cheap!

Some GM tips based on my own experiences...

This is a massive dungeon with, if i can be frank, a s%%+ ton of doors. Doors and PbP are oil and water. I think we should come up with a sort of MO with opening doors to make things a little more expedient. Let's say we choose clockwise, for example. GM rolls perception for each PC to check for traps on the door, if it's clear, we open it and proceed. If not, we either disable it or smash it down, or go through the other door instead. What do you guys think?

OK sounds like a plan to me. Let me know when you want to implement this procedure. You won't be able do this until you exit this room however.

Yes Doors suck. Either everyone check or have a certain person do it, either via GM roll or take 10. No sense adding a day of posting for each doorway.

Uriel will also cast detect magic, scanning for auras in an unoccupied room before anyone enters.

I'd add another element to our SOP: If a room is unoccupied and we're not pressed for time, it would make sense to Take 20 on Perception checks.

^Those SOPs sound good to me. Lucina can also make use of Detect Magic and/or Read Magic should we find anything of interest. She will, of course, always share anything she happens to spot or learn with the rest of the group.

(Needed a nap after lunch & errands, catching up on games now.)

SOP:
When we're at a branch, try to go right.

If we're not pressed for time, we will take 20 on Perception checks.

Uriel, Lady Mae, and Lucina will cast Detect Magic. Lucina will also use Read Magic.

Annilda is willing to be the guinea pig and fiddle with switches first. She has Combat Reflexes in case she is caught flatfooted.

Hey folks, got called in to work tonight on somewhat-short notice so updates here and elsewhere will be delayed a bit to either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Well, we're fighting in cramped spaces against an undead reach enemy. Yeesh.

I can spontaneously convert one of my spells to Cure Light Wounds, and then run in and bad touch it. After that I can tank the thing while everyone else tries to hit it.

Sounds like a plan? Anyone with a CLW wand can also try to bad touch it.

I'd mentioned earlier that Uriel has the Temporal Celerity revelation that enables him to roll Initiative twice and take the better result.

I'd added a second Initiative roll for Uriel in the pre-formatted Initiative block on Slide 2, but I just realized it's gone. Is it okay to put it back in there?

Yeah please put that back in there, and thanks for the reminder!

Guys I messed up here, and fairly seriously I must say. Simply put, I ran the wrong encounter for this particular room. Normally I would say since this is just a module I can simply hand wave the mistake aside but since this is PFS sanctioned I am not sure I can do that since this encounter caused ability drain here, which means it will require spending PP to recover your ability.

Therefore I put this to a vote. You can either...

A) Continue on as is. I will swap the encounter out as it is not one you have run into yet. This also means the CHA drain will stay with your PCs as well...OR...

B) I retcon this entire encounter. This means there is no CHA drain suffered by any of your PCs. I must warn you: there is still a combat encounter here should you wish to retcon. The gasburst zombie would be encountered elsewhere and I would require you not to meta-game that encounter once you run into it.

Go ahead and let me know which option you prefer. Since there are five of you the first option to get three votes wins, he he.

I'd rather go with option A so we don't have to retcon or metagame anything.

Because some of us have CHA drain, we will need to spend 2 PP to get the Restoration spell. (Lesser Restoration does not work.) However, CHA drain is a condition you can carry between sessions as long as the score doesn't hit 0.

So divine casters could buy a scroll of Restoration for 700 gp, make the CL check (DC 7) and restore the drain. But you'd have to do that after this adventure ends since that's when we get the chronicle.

I'd lean towards Annilda's suggestion as well but since I didn't suffer any CHA drain my vote doesn't count near as much. But it would be really hard to not change tactics when we faced that thing again...

Definitely not in favor of accepting drain in a low-tier adventure.

Voting in favor of running the module as written.

I didn't suffer the drain either so I've been holding off to see what the rest of you want to do but I'm fine with retconning if that's the option we're leaning towards.

I'll be traveling to and from Gen Con over this coming week. I will post when I can, but it will unlikely be every day.

Larry
aka Uriel

Just a note that I'm hitting the lake today so I'll largely be out of pocket (and unable to post) until sometime this evening :D

Lake Nonlethal Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

I totally hit the heck out of that lake!

Too bad I ended up getting punched by the sun; promptly went to bed after getting home yesterday evening with a heck of a headache and a little bit of nausea. Slept 12 hours and felt much better upon waking up this morning...except for the raging sunburn I have, but I kind of expected it as I may as well be a ghost with how pale I am :)