Ironfang Invasion

Game Master Rostam

I have no problem with it.

I don't have an issue with it, but I appreciate being asked.

All good here, thanks for checking

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I am going on a 5 day hiking trip from Saturday to Wednesday (kinda snuck up on me, sorry for the short notice) then going on a canoe trip next week Saturday/Sunday, and owe a buddy a Warhammer game the Friday night, so I can really only post next week Thursday.

Luckily we are at an okay spot to pause. I suggest we take a break until July 5 then resume. I will make up a post about the loot you've found and anything you learn from further searching the area. This will give everyone more than enough time around July 1 and July 4 to party, camp, relax or whatever without worrying about the game.

I expect to have cell service occasionally so I'll post if it looks like I need to, but otherwise see you all in a week.

Have a nice trip.

Level 5

BAB: No change
Saves: No change

Skill Points: 4 + 3 Int = 7
Craft (alchemy) +1
Diplomacy +1
Heal +1
Knowledge (nature) +1
Perception +1
Stealth +1
Survival +1

Background Skills: 2
Craft (carpentry) +1
Profession (herbalist) +1

Class Features:
Bomb 3d6
Briar Bombs 15' radius
Anaesthetic (Gain Skill Focus (Heal) as a bonus feat)

Feats:
Skill Focus (Heal) (Bonus)
Weapon Focus (longspear)

Extracts Per Day: +1 2nd level, +1 1st level
New Extracts in Formulae Book: Bull's Strength

EDIT:
Wound Points +2
Vigor Points: 1d8 ⇒ 3

Level up!
Arcanist 5.
8 Skill Points:
- Knowledge (arcana) +1
- Knowledge (dungeoneering) +1
- Knowledge (local) +2
- Knowledge (planes) +1
- Perception +1
- Spellcraft +1
- Use Magic Device +1

2 Background Skill Points:
- Appraise +1
- Knowledge (geography) +1

New Arcanist Exploit:
- Quick Study

New Feat:
- Superior Summoning

New Spells:
- Stone Call
- Create Pit

Vigor Roll: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Psychic 5

Skills: 1 rank each in Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidation, Knowledge (nature), Perception, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Stealth and Survival
Background Skills: 1 rank each in Knowledge (geography) and Linguistics

New Feats: Iron Will

Formless Body: Blurred body is now minutes per day rather than rounds, and Nyakala gains access to gaseous body

+1 2nd level spell slots
New 2nd level spells known: invisibility
Nyakala gets two more 1st level spells known at this level, one from regular advancement and one from her favored class bonus, and I was considering burst of adrenaline and heightened awareness. However, both involve choosing to use the spell before making a roll when it isn't Nyakala's turn, which I'm worried may slow things down or require retconning in PbP. I suppose I could pre-set conditions like casting burst of adrenaline whenever Nyakala needs to make a Fort or Ref save and dismissing heightened awareness whenever she rolls initiative, but that would lead to some wastage of spell slots. DM, do you have any thoughts on how to integrate things like that smoothly? I'm also happy to pick different spells if necessary.

+1 Wound Point
Vigor Points: 1d6 ⇒ 1

I'll get a gameplay post up tomorrow.

Swashbuckler 5

WP: 1d10 ⇒ 3 Another bad one. :(

+1 BAB
Swashbuckler Weapon Training (+1 damage and crit is now 17-20 with longsword)

Combat Reflexes - more Parry

Yay, level up time! I feel this is cheating slighly as I only just joined, but hey :)

Level 5

VP: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Arcanist Exploit: Dimensional Slide

Skills (*= BG skill)

Heal
Knowledge (arcana, local, nature, *nobility, planes)
*Linguistics (Goblin)
Perception
Spellcraft
Stealth
UMD

Spellbook: Scorching Ray, Web

Feat: Greater spell focus (conjuration)

Annelise, I'm pretty sure you don't add your Constitution mod to vigor each level, just to wound points.

Oh, my mistake. I'll have to go and reread how it works, this is my first time using this system. Thank you for spotting it.

@Nyakala and Charles - Unfortuantely, other than having a preset condition in a spoiler, I don't have a good way to do reactionary spells/actions. Like I said before, unless I need to know the result to continue on I am going to defer them to the players in the future, but if you could create a spoiler with contingency actions when you think you will want to use them that would be great.

I don't have a good way to help prevent this from wasting spell slots/action points though.

@Everyone - could you please go to the campaign info tab and find the die rolling info sheet. I had to blank the info due to an issue with it, so could you please go fill out your skills/saves in the column with your character name.

Makes sense. I'll just assume that I can only use them when I give a condition beforehand. As one exception to that, is it alright if I have a permanent condition that Nyakala will automatically cast burst of adrenaline if she has more than one first-level spell slot and you roll an out-of-the-blue Constitution or Reflex save for her (because of any undetected trap, for instance)?

Also, I'm going to be backpacking Tuesday through Sunday, so feel free to bot me when necessary.

Just realized I forgot my Favored Class Bonus. I'll grab an extra Skill point, and raise Spellcraft by 1.

No worries DM. I am all set to spoiler out my reaction stuff. I am made a bunch of templates on my character pages to make things easy to add. If you need something else let me know.

@Nyakala - I am okay with having that as a blanket condition. Now to write it down somewhere I will never forget it. ...immediately misplaces notes...

@Charles - thanks.

It looks like everyone but Elyas is leveled up and the conversation is pointed toward him a bit as well. I'll update tomorrow.

sorry, crazy few days over here. I'll get my character updated ASAP

Level 5

vigor: 1d8 ⇒ 2 VP
2 WP

no bab or save changes
skills (2, +1 int, +1 FCB, +1 human) = 2x diplomacy, 1 perception, 1 sense motive,1 spellcraft
Feat: Spell Focus (Conjuration)

access to third level spells!
extra d6 to channels

DM: I have a contingency action in case I am hit (Windy Escape as a prepared spell). I will do my best to mention it next time we're in combat and it looks like I might be a target.

Also I am re-reading the vigour point/wound point issue as it's clear I got it slightly wrong. Quick question: do I add favoured class bonus to Wound Points, or Vigour Points? Or neither at all?

access to third level spells!

Yeah, yeah, rub it in :P

Have we hit a roadblock? i'm not quite sure what we're supposed to do here to move the adventure forwards.

I think, based on both the Chernasardo Ranger medallion we found and the tracks leading deeper into the forest, that we're supposed to try and find the Chernasardo Rangers. However, Lyndis's idea of mapping out the forest isn't a bad idea - better to know the lay of the land.

Maybe our first step should be to talk to Aubrin. I'll suggest it in-game.

EDIT: Totally forgot she already showed up.

@Annelise - I'd say you haven't hit a road block, just some expectation adjustment from a regular AP. The first two books of this one essentially present themselves as "here's a bunch of area with some stuff in it and how it interacts with other stuff. Let the players try not to die whilst trying to live in the woods and solve all their problems." It's not actually quite that bad, but very little happens in the AP without the players first saying "let's try out this crazy idea and see how it goes" and then letting the DM manage the fall out.

Thanks DM! i will recalibrate :)

My gaming instincts tell me that this is a hexploration section of the AP, and that we'll stumble across a Chernasardo ranger fort as we explore.

Okay, so from the looks of things mapping the surrounding area is the prevalent opinion. With that said, I suggest you figure out what direction you want to start out on and if you want to bring any of the NPCs.

Also, everyone can pick one NPC to receive another level. Only restrictions are that Aubrin, Jet, Rhyna, and Kining can't get one, no NPC can receive more than one, and no NPC can become higher than level 4.

With that I am off to struggle through finishing up the map. Paizo does not consistently map things to a specific scale to making the maps from Book 1 and Book 2 match is going to be annoying.

Chernasardo map is updated. I also need some more input from you guys. All I have right now that I can actually work with is Nyakala wanting to go south. I'm going to move the game ahead with that Wednesday if there is no other debate about it.

Going forward, in the interest of moving things along, if a discussion about what to do goes 1 week day (not a Saturday/Sunday) without input I'm going to jump things along a bit. If the group wants to slow the pace down then let me know.

I am trying to make an effort to get back to 3 meaningful posts a week on my part in all my games as I feel I've been slipping, and to do that I need frequent player input give the type of AP this is.

Just updated my stats on the rolling sheet, also I want to level Skeefson, sorry for taking this long.

@Lyndis - I dislike having to do this, but Lyndis you have hit your 7 day no post deadline. I hope everything is going well for you, and this is just a lapse in being able to post. Please let me know if you need more time or if something is up. I don't need details, just a heads up.

If I don't hear from you in a week, I will put it to the group to top up again or continue on with 5. Of course if something drastic has come up, I will work you back into the game as best I can. I wish you well and hope that everything is going well.

This part of DMing and similar parts of my job are what I like the least about them.

Sorry about that, everything is ok, it just felt like I didn't have anything meaningful to contribute at the time. I'll be more active.

Thanks for the quick response. Even just a weekly, Lyndis looks on with disbelief and grumbles... or similar comment is enough. I can understand not having much input sometimes.

Thank you for pushing the conversation on Nyakala.

It is the middle of the week and after looking at my coming schedule I think it will be best if I pause the game until I come back from vacation around September 13/14. I honestly only have time for 2-3 posts between now and then and don't really want to start into much.

Please get a conversation about your plan going amongst yourselves and I will pop in and answer some questions as I can, but I can't get the effort in to move the game forward really at the moment.

Sorry for the delay, but I need to focus on the trip planning we are doing.

No problem - have a great trip. AS you say, it gives us time to do some OOC planning for where we go from here

I don't know what to do with the conversation you have had. I've got Charles with the opinion that the owlbears should be hunted and everyone else discussing still.

I am going to leave it until the group makes a stronger decision. It would be very helpful if when asking what others want to do you state a clear opinion yourself about course of action you think the group should take. I can then just take the majority decision once we get to it and move on.

The slow decision making has been a recurring theme that I am running into with people largely seeming to not have strong opinions about what to do. Unfortunately, to drive the game forward either I need strong opinions so its decided by vote or for someone to take a leadership role others are happy to follow. Or continuous discussion about what to do so that something is happening. Right now most discussions die off after one post per player without much/any follow on.

That's fair. I've been hesitant to have Nyakala be very assertive in group decisions because I don't think that would fit well with her personality or how she perceives her relationship to the group right now, but I can definitely see how the indecisiveness is a problem. I vote we all just try to continue discussions until a clear decision is reached, and have our characters be more upfront about their opinions.

If others think it it's necessary, I would also be okay with having a leader who makes the calls unless someone else strongly disagrees, or with having a system where we each include a clear out-of-character vote in our post and if the in-character stuff doesn't come to an obvious conclusion we can go off the votes.

Agree that we need to help the DM out to make it clear what we're doig. As a newcomer and one with secrets to hide, Annelise isn't a natural for being assertive. But i will do my best to impove this as we go along. I'm also good with having a leader, and going along with them by default unless I specfically disagree. In this situation Annelis' preference is to investigae the owlbears because it's weird, and weird could be bad. But she doesn't feel so strongly about it that she's going to insist.

Just dropping a quick note to say that I'll be absent until Monday, maybe tuesday. Please bot me as necessary.

I've come down sick with something the last few days (I don't have covid, it's just a stomach bug). I'm up and a little better but haven't been up to posting. I should get some posts up this evening or Saturday.

@Annelise - get better soon!

Sorry for the delay guys. Between house reno's, thanksgiving, and work I have no energy at the moment. Will get a post up tomorrow.

Also, thanks for being involved and getting posts up when it relevant. It is appreciated.

Thankd DM, better now and jsut getting through the work I missed when I was off sick.

For managing wounds when taking Con damage IRL we just recalculate the wound point pool and threshold based on the new con score.

But I realized I have never had someone drop as low as 6 con and that as written the wounds and vigor rules say to add your constitution modifier to your wounds every level. For a level 5 con 6 person that becomes 6*2 wounds for first level -10 wounds for the -2 con mod with a threshold of 6. So 2 wounds with a 6 wound thershold, and you live your life comatose... I don't like that.

Simple rules change here - Instead of adding your con mod per level, add your constitution bonus per level (minimum 0). There, no more comatose level 5 characters due to con damage!

Makes sense. I guess in retrospect that would mean that the basidirond's last hit put Nyakala at her wound threshold and she should have been making Fortitude saves to avoid losing more wounds while fleeingm but that probably wouldn't have changed the overall outcome much.

No you received aid quick enough it likely wouldn't change anything.

DM, are you waiting on us to move things forward or have you just not been able to post?

Sorry, I have just been swamped. I should have chimed in sooner to let you all know that.

I meant to post this on Friday guys, but Happy Holiday!

I will not be posting again until January 3/4, as I can easily pick up the game with Herge's next words.

I hope all your holidays are enjoyable!

Likewise, and thanks for the update.

Hey, Lyndis, Charles are you around?

I'm here, sorry for the delay, had an unexpected emergency, I'll catch up with the game and post tomorrow if I can.