JZ's Carrion Crown - (Wake of the Watcher) (Inactive)

Game Master JamZilla

Well, he’s certainly had an impact on Vala =P

I'm trying to stay close to Zed, but I'm on a mobile device today; internet is out at the office due to a severed trunk line. I can't edit the map.

Oh that's a cool enemy.

Knowledge checks to identify?

Religion, naturally. You'll get a lot of mileage out of that skill.

You can't actually see them from where you are Zed, Vermundr is on his own back there. You guys are separated by a curved wall. You could certainly hear the commotion of course

Gotcha. Verm do you want help with those things? They don't seem to have a ton of damage but with grapple checks they might be a big hassle.

We haven't finished the round yet, correct?

Once Zed is back up again he can cast see invisibility.

As much as I hate to respond to such fantastic and immersive writing with a rules question...

Circle of Death

Circle of death snuffs out the life force of living creatures, killing them instantly. The spell slays 1d4 HD worth of living creatures per caster level (maximum 20d4). Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first; among creatures with equal HD, those who are closest to the burst’s point of origin are affected first. No creature of 9 or more HD can be affected, and HD that are not sufficient to affect a creature are wasted.

As level 9 characters we would normally be immune to Circle of Death, although perhaps there are some specific mechanics going on that aren't strictly vanilla.

Of course if we want to go with the rule of cool, we are in the big climactic fight and I wouldn't be opposed to some fudging in order to tell a better story. But I did want to point that out as a possible oversight.

Edit: Ah you just got the second post up. I just saw your note on rule of cool. If that is referring to my question above than no worries.

P.S. You're definitely one of, if not the best GM I've had the pleasure of playing with on the boards. I know you hold no animosity towards us and that character death is a very real possibility, and indeed such stories are lessened without the threat of death. No bad vibes from me :)

No problem with calling me out on this. I actually was going to bring it up myself but my post was getting long as it was.

This book says you should be level 9 at it's end.

I wanted you guys to level up early, knowing this was coming. Using Circle of Death is the number one thing Vrood does in his tactics section, so the book fully assumes you will be vulnerable to it.

But knowing that it was coming, I wanted you guys to have the best abilities and saves possible to fight it off because save or dies are kind of lame from a player perspective in my opinion. Nothing mitigates those natural 1s though.

Thank you for your kind words also, it's a genuine pleasure for me to run this game for such an amazing group of players and long may it continue. This doesn't have to be the end for Hazel or Zed but if it is then these are deaths that are meaningful to the plot. So either way it works for the overarching story we are telling.

Understood. I have no issue in that case, thanks for clarification!

Yeah, save or dies are rough. Especially AoE save or dies. A rather brutal tactic to use right at this level. Ooph. But yeah, rolling a nat 1 on an important save versus the BBEG necromancer spellcaster. That does happen, and very little could have been done.

My only regret is not casting see invisibility on somebody that's still alive now :')

SO...sorry to break into the flow of a dramatic moment...

I'm not sure if I moved the wrong token or some such, but Kaz hadn't moved from where the Hand had grappled him.

As such, that puts Kaz nearer to Vrood than Zed at the time of icky death.

DO you want to retcon this? Pretty dramatic moment...

I'm ok with taking Zed's nat 1 and dropping, here. Frankly, i think that the party has a better chance with Zed up and me down, but however you guys want to handle it.

Do note, though, that if we do make it out of this, Kaz will definitely want a 'raise dead'...

Well dang. I thought I was about to save everyone by popping my dispel evil, but circle of death doesn't have the evil descriptor. >_<

Wow, so I read Discussion before checking out Gameplay and so I thought things were bad enough with Zed and possibly Kaz biting the dust...

Somehow missed Hazel's name coming up until I read the actual Gameplay posts!

While Hazel's Channel Vigor (Torso) buff would've given her an additional +6 on her Fort save (giving her a 16 instead of a 10) I'm suspecting that it still wouldn't have made a difference. So...congrats GM! You're the first GM to kill one of my PbP characters :3

Now to cheer you guys on while I decide if Hazel should come back or not (provided the funds can be scraped together for a Raise Dead)...

And that was when I took a round off prepping a counterspell to drink a potion...

I'm happy to retcon. In the write up we can just substitute the words Kaz for Zed. I'll leave it up to you guys. Narratively it still flows either way

Zed, tag me in?

Oh man. I feel like I'm being asked to make a huge decision where I have the most problematic conflict of interest possible.

I suppose a fair way to think about this is how Kaz would have been positioned. If he would be closer to the focal point of the spell than he would indeed take the hit. But I'm sure if given the chance Vrood would prioritize Zed since he just revealed he has the ability to cast see invisibility.

If you are truly leaving it up to us, than (fully admitting my bias) I would like to tag out, so to speak. Perhaps Kaz's incredible insight lets him see what is about to happen, and in a selfless sacrifice he throws himself in front of Zed to body-block the effects of the spell. It would be not dissimilar to a use of the "In Harm's Way" feat where you can take a hit for an ally but are forced to suffer the full effects of the blow, or more appropriately a use of a hero point. Perhaps instead of sitting back and pretending the word Zed is exchanged for Kaz, we allow him to make a dramatic writeup where he describes his reactions and the last thoughts or words he has.

That sounds like a plan. Give me a bit to come up with a suitable (and hopefully temporary) send-off, and I'll post.

You guys are great players

Wow, so I read Discussion before checking out Gameplay and so I thought things were bad enough with Zed and possibly Kaz biting the dust...

Somehow missed Hazel's name coming up until I read the actual Gameplay posts!

While Hazel's Channel Vigor (Torso) buff would've given her an additional +6 on her Fort save (giving her a 16 instead of a 10) I'm suspecting that it still wouldn't have made a difference. So...congrats GM! You're the first GM to kill one of my PbP characters :3

Now to cheer you guys on while I decide if Hazel should come back or not (provided the funds can be scraped together for a Raise Dead)...

I take no pride in that, Hazel. It really is just luck of the dice. But we live and die by them so we will embrace it for the good of the story

I just realized that Vrood rolled high enough to kill four level 8 characters.

This fight is brutal. Just a high enough level for 6th level spells to be reasonable, but not high enough to be immune to circle of death or to have access to counter abilities. Truly an AoE save or die with little counterplay. Beyond something incredibly drastic and unreasonable like being a party of undead.

Your sacrifice is not in vain Kaz. The dice gods have smiled upon you and bestowed upon me another crit.

*Applauds*

Remind me to tell you about loot, but not yet. Let's take these moments to reflect first.

You can't even fault the GM for bringing out the big guns against us. 1 because we are strong and deserve it, but also because karma immediately paid him back with that much bad luck in one round. Not only did we utterly smash his into the ground in one round, failing that save means we would have had an entire extra round beating on him with no repercussions.

Quite right. Still plenty of AP left. You aren't always going to land those crits!

Hey, it's all good - it takes some of the punch out of things if there's not any danger to what we're doing! And still here, still reading along, but work has been busyish so the slight (unplanned) breather has worked out haha.

"Unplanned Breather" may now be my new euphemism for high-level character death...

Spellbook (2,800)
Quarterstaff +2
Amulet of natural armor +1
Cloak of resistance +2
Ring of protection +1
Wand of animate dead (10 charges)
Lesser silent metamagic rod
Belt of giant strength +2
Pot of marvellous pigments
Potion of cure serious wound x3
+1 breastplate x3
+1 scythe x3
Pearl of power (level 1) x3
Onyx worth 1250gp
Silver dust worth 75gp
Wand of command undead (6 charges) x3
Bloodroot poison x12
Masterwork light crossbow x3
Masterwork shortsword x3
Cloak of resistance +1 x3
Ring of protection +1 x3
1,700gp
Potion of cure moderate wounds
Silver rapier +1
Composite longbow (+2 strength) +1
Light steel shield +1
158gp
Vial of acid x4
Lens of detection
2250gp
Composite longbow (+4 strength) +1
Breastplate +2
Breastplate +1 x4
Falchion +1 x4
Antitoxin x4
Restorative ointment
Dust of sneezing and choking
50lbs of silver dust (250gp)
2,500gp worth of onyx stones
Scroll of control undead

Should be a decent chunk of loot there

Zed will destroy the wand of animate dead.

My day is very busy, I'll try to get a post up late tonight or sometime tomorrow, absolute latest on Monday morning.

It may be best to split the party. We are on a deadline with the party corpses and need to wait for information from Vrood's body.

Back in town, what churches are there, or divine casters we know of? Do we know what gods they worship?

What town are we talking about? You came from lepistadt and then to the lodge

There are small towns dotted along the way but if you want to spend a few days travelling back to Lepistadt, then I'm not going to worry about the Gentle Repose issue.

I only mention that because its the closest settlement with a wealth level that you could sell what you have and buy wjat you need

Yes, Lepistadt. I assume the small towns likely won't have a 9+ level cleric on hand.

There was a church of Pharasma there, correct? I believe I remember speaking to an older cleric of the church.

Lepistadt is a small city with a population of 10,000.

Base Value 6,000 gp; Purchase Limit 37,500;

So that means there is a 75% chance that any single item with a price of less than 6,000 is readily available and the town can pay a maximum of 37,500 for any single item you have for sale.

There are also spellcasting services of 7th level available - i.e. spells of 7th level and lower.

Perfect, to there we shall go!

Gentle Repose shouldn't be necessary. If we're springing for resurrections they've got a timing requirement of 10 years for caster level.

What's the best way to split the party? I was thinking we should send Zed and Constantin back with the bodies. Vala and Vermundr can stay behind to question Vrood. I imagine Vala has some pointed questions for the man.

Raise dead is usually the better option as long as we can get them back in time. 7000gp total instead of 11000gp.

I think that's a good party split. Zed with his heavyload belt can likely carry both of the bodies without issue.

Fine by me. I can use divination to foresee any problems with the trip so that Zed and I can avoid accidentally running into random encounters that we can't handle.

Sounds good Constantin.

Fun fact: Zed doesn't take penalties from negative levels until he has enough to kill him.

Weren't they killed by circle of death?

From the loot Vermundr's got eyes for the following:

Cloak of resistance +2 (4000gp)
Belt of giant strength +2 (4000gp)

We should probably hold on to this stuff because it's generally useful:

Pearl of power (level 1) x3 (1000gp each) (3000gp total)
Scroll of control undead** (2275gp)
Wand of command undead** (6 charges) x3 (540gp each, 1620gp total)

Speaking from beyond the grave, Kaz actually does not have a cloak of resistance yet, so one of the +1's would be great.

I'd keep the potions of CSW and CMW and the antitoxin for the party stores.

Kaz also still has a good deal of cash lying around, so it looks like he can pay for his own raise dead and restorations.'

Ah yes, the nasty little "death effect" caveat. We are going to have to shell out for resurrection anyways, so no rush on bringing the bodies back.

Hazel's got a little over 6k that she can contribute to her own Resurrection once the time comes~

Make sure everybody (including the dead people) claim what loot they are interested in. How much money we have from selling other stuff off will contribute to the resurrection funds.

I'd love to see the obscene totals Kaz could put up on Perception with the Lens of Detection. Color me interested.

Hazel can take the +4 Composite Longbow.

Zed takes a disproportionate amount of combat gear so I'm happy to let Kaz have the lenses of detection.

I'm interested in none of the loot. Since I wiped my coin supply due to an error in the last distro, I just need cash.

Sorry guys, I’m extremely sick and have been flopping from one sweaty side of my bed to the other all weekend. There are like 14 posts in the discussion thread alone I haven’t read yet; my apologies if I’m hanging things up in the gameplay thread. I’m trying to get better but it’s only been downhill so far.

Thanks for letting us know Vala. Don't worry about us, please take care of yourself.