Lords of Themselves: A Kingmaker Adventure Path.

Game Master Red Ramage

Hah! Yeah that's sort of what Idris would look like, but without the violin and the handaxe. She is short, brunette, and stocky for a human woman.

Then let him go with the levitate.

Pretty will wait outside along with the others. She will use her Darkness spell-like ability to allow us to move closer to the wall, in the dim-lighted area, as soon as Jegred leaves with the invisibility. Probably Fat Norris would not notice the difference in the light strength, since while sit he will not have a good line of sight of the immediate ground. We will gain the equivalent to a move action, anyway, and some benefit with the stealth...

Ok, I'm confused as to what is happening now... Pretty removed her armor and I spent a Mage Armor on her and now she's not going? Are we ret-coning who gets what spell here before moving on? It seemed like Ramage was saying that 3 rounds (with Sera's Vanish) would be enough to get Jegred in and attack the sentry if he uses his levitate, and the invisibility spell Kivan cast on Pretty would be plenty to get her over the wall and on to release the owl-bear or whatever else she decided to try once she was inside. What is holding up the plan? My behind is sore from sitting on the edge of my seat for like a week now! >_<

If I have this correct I think that Pretty is getting the invisibility, and she is going over the wall and opening up the owlbear cage. Jegred is getting a vanish from Sera, and will be attacking the sentry to open the doors. I think only Jerged would want a mage armor at that point since Pretty would still have invisibility for quite a while.

Ok, then let's make it like this. Keep the Mage Armor on me, and I'll have invisibility with my tools (which will also get invisible), climb the wall, and open the cage for the Owlbear. I'll provoke it a little just in case it is sleeping, and open the cage if needed. After that I'll use my darkness spell to grant the creature some advantage over the bandits, and maybe take out a torch, coup de grace someone or kill folks with natural darkvision or caster (which will make me invisble, by the way).

Jegred, once I get the invisibility, count to 30 (5 rounds) and follow up with your part (with Vanish), so the Owlbear will hopefully be released just a little before you get to Fat Norris. I'll take longer than you to climb the wall, and some time to search the cage, be careful about the enemies and pick the lock with care.

Then we shower them with death and arrows and vengeance and regret!

@Maja are you 100% sure your husband is not here somehow?

Ok! Sounds good to me, though I half expect a problem with letting the Owlbear loose, like it won't attack the bandits or something. Just remember to call us in, when needed! *crosses claws*

If I am getting a vanish, my armor will be on so I won't need Mage armor.. That sounds like a plan to me!

I suspect the Stag Lord has a way of commanding it, since it uses the creature to torment his followers. It would be good for us to know that, but Bara probably doesn't know and I bet the boss won't be around for some seconds, thus he will be pretty beat up killing the bandits before his boss awake.

Pretty suggests that, as soon as Jegred opens the gate, everyone gets in (although keeping really close to the door) and supports the Magical Beast, or just kill the bandits. So if they manage to close the gate we won't have too many problems. I'll wait for the group to advance before turning visible, unless there's a chance to get the Stag Lord unconscious.

alrighty, typing. It's a long one.

ETA: On Maja's behalf I'd say that while she can't say with 100% certainty that her missing husband is in the stag lord's fort, if he is he'd be in captivity and not running around with a sword making angry faces at adventurers storming the castle.

Great intro write-up for the camp! Loved the song lyrics too. ^_^

That Dovan is freaking me out with his midriff displaying armor topped with an ascot. That dude is clearly evil and just wrong!

Oh please, take me prisoner! I've been such a bad bandit! You could probably torture ALL KINDS of secrets out of me, yes you could!

So am I opening up the gate?

Edit: Yes I am.

Oh please, take me prisoner! I've been such a bad bandit! You could probably torture ALL KINDS of secrets out of me, yes you could!

That's the kind of guy that makes a girl want to slip out of her good alignment and into something more comfortable. ^_~

I didn't figure out what pictures you were talking about at first, then I looked at the encounter map and saw them. All I have to say is... god. damn.

That guy is really creepy.

If by creepy you mean hot, then yes... creepy. Extremely creepy.

Not my type, IMO. He looks like he crashed through a Hot Topic and wore what stuck.

btw good job sneak attacking the rogue, pretty XD

LOL! I'll remember that one.

He does indeed look rather haphazard, I'm still tripping on the ascot.

I added a possible image for Sicarius. Might not be what Jegred had in mind, but I figured a place holder was a good idea for now anyway.

Dang, I forgot to use my swift action to apply Arcane Strike. Red, could you apply that when you update (if she hit, that is).

That's the exact image I had in mind when I was building Sicarius!

Thanks! But hey, Pretty doesn't even know what Uncanny dodge is, yet, but she will learn that from him, so give her a discount ^_^

Not my type, IMO. He looks like he crashed through a Hot Topic and wore what stuck.

Well said!

By the way, am I too picky or is the map quality worst than it was before? (including worst than the one a few layers down?)

sorry for the delay, the computer system at work was down tonight. Somebody saw fit to download an email attachment that ended in .exe and so IT airgapped everyone's machines to isolate and remove anything that came through.

Yes, the map's kind of s$#@. I didn't have my PDF copy of the adventure with me at work when I posted it, and had to grab it off an obsidian portal site.

So I did a bad thing and sort of inferred that the Challenge Rating we're facing here is somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 just counting the generic bandits... Did we screw up and come here way too soon or is it always meant to be a beyond epic level fight? =/ *getting nervous*

The bandits have over 20 HP each... reverse engineering them means that they must be at least 3rd level, making them CR 2. Auchs has a +10 to damage, meaning he has a +10 damage, meaning he probably has power attack, 18 strength, and a +1 weapon, or 20 str, Weapon Spec, +1 weapon. In the first case, he would need to be level 6 at a minimum to have a +11 attack, and in the second, he needs to be at least level 4. That's more likely, so a CR 3 (technically) monster, but optimized, so more like an average CR 4 monster(CR system is not meant to be optimized). Assuming Donovan and Akiros are the same, we have a total of 10 CR 2, 3 CR 3 creatures, and 1 CR 5 creature (the owlbear's attacks look like he has the advanced template).

Our APL is 3+1 (for having effectively 7 people in our party), so 4. The way the ecounter is going, we are effectively facing 6 CR 2 +2 CR 3 creatures though, giving us a total xp of 3600+1600, which is 5200, which is a little way through a CR 8 encounter, so lets say it's a CR 8.5 encounter now, probably higher later.

So CR+4.5= beyond epic. Yup.

We may have to retreat heh.

it's meant to be a very memorable fight, and tough enough that simply kicking in the door and challenging the bandits to a dance-off is near suicidal. You've got the owlbear on your side, and have at the very least delayed the entrance of the Stag Lord into the fight by your alcohol plant. You're also toting a competent NPC around with you. It's by no means impossible ;)

It will be memorable, that's for sure :)

Hopefully not in the "We gather here today to honor the memorable sacrifice of the Lords of Themselves..." sense of the word. >_<

I intentionally held back the move action, so I'll 5 foot step her back behind Idris now for some cover from the bandit that got her.

Retreat? Hell, we just got here!!

Well, the encounter is memorable, but we need to put them down at once. We're spreading our attacks and thus the bandits won'd die easily. Where's our leader??!!? We will have some trouble once the brute and the leader join the fray...

I saved my warp wood for the Stag Lord, since there's a post way back where it says he prefers using a bow.

Also speak of the devil, Pretty, and he appears :P

Alright if we want a plan then focus fire the bandit currently near Sera and Maja so that we can have our magic users get back into the fray, and then focus on the bandit next to Pretty (oh wait he's dead now). After that focus on the rogue clown. Hopefully by that time the owlbear will have been killed and we can focus on whoever remains standing after that (nameless bandits before Lord Shinning Armor). The two currently fighting Bara, and the dinosaur will have to wait as the Stag Lord will probably arrive by the time we finish that fight off. Maybe if the dinosaur and Bara deal with their threats then they can take the place of those who are wounded while Kivan, or Sera begins to start the healing by using the wand of infernal healing, but otherwise we had better be prepared for a long fight.

(nameless bandits before Lord Bare Chested and horns)

Agreed. I'm trying to hold my spells to use corrosive touch on the leaders, so I'll be dazing and acid splashing once out of melee. If we can cluster them for a 15 ft cone, she can blast them with the burning hands wand as well, or Kivan can colorspray.

Now that Jegred is in range, a channel from Maja wouldn't be a bad idea either.

I think Lord shining armor meant Akiros.

Oh, my bad!

Indeed I prefer for the GM to roll for AoOs.

Kivan should use glitterdust once the owlbear falls, or once the stag lord appears, I think.

My minion will not fall!! I'll help it!!

OK sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. If Pretty's AoO finishes off the bandit, Idris will not attack that bandit on her turn (obviously) but will 5-ft step closer to Dovan and use the above attack (17, 15 damage) against Dovan.

I found the rolls, looks like:

and oddly enough I don't see an initiative roll for Pretty, but I know she surprised the rogue. But Sera humbly requests Idris take that step this round, or else that nasty rogue could just step right out of that flank (albeit into another one) and reach Sera.

Edit! Added Kivan in, whoops!

Shouldn't Kivan also be in there?

Shouldn't Kivan also be in there?

Everybody beat the bandits, so I don't care what order you all go in.

DOn't Owlbears have darkvision? ^_^

I mean the Owl part!

My minion shall not perish!!

yes, they do, good catch

I like how we're mowing down the mooks -- and the named NPCs -- like nobody's business.

Spells with attack rolls can critial hit!

Spells and Critical Hits: A spell that requires an attack roll can score a critical hit. A spell attack that requires no attack roll cannot score a critical hit. If a spell causes ability damage or drain (see Special Abilities), the damage or drain is doubled on a critical hit.

From the PRD.

Good golly, that means my corrosive touch can crit as well, and if I deliver it with a melee attack that crits as well... O.o

I still had a post I could edit, so rolled the extra damage there.

That's correct, Sera.

Incidentally, that's how the magus does tons of burst damage. When a magus spellstrikes a touch spell, the spell crits if the weapon attack does. A min-maxed shocking grasp/scimitar magus with a keen scimitar will crit on a 15-20 for silly damage. I made one for a one-shot session that was magus 11/sorcerer 1 (crossblooded draconic/orc] with Wayang Spellhunter and Magical Lineage for shocking grasp so he could apply Empowered for free. He would crit an Empowered, Intensified Shocking Grasp for ((10d6+20)*1.5)*2. 165 average damage from a crit and a second level spell slot. It gets better, he had a spell storing scimitar with another metamagic'd up shocking grasp, and would quicken yet another (sans metamagic) for some completely stupid nova damage.

A guy I play PFS with built a wizard based around critting people with necromancy spells. A crit Ray of Enfeeblement is serious bad news!

anyway, typing now but will be on my phone so it'll take awhile.

Talking with you about the Magus builds has convinced me to draw one up for PFS eventually. I've run with a Tengu Magus in games in the past and suffered from severe damage-envy with my poor rapier wielding rogue!

Stag Drunk... nice one Idris...

So I'm running 3 PFS tables of The Devil We Know Part 3: The Crypt of Fools and I had a player stand me up, leaving my tier 1-2 tables with only 4 players to each.

I noticed several of you play Pathfinder Society and so wondered if any of you would be interested in stepping in on this Play by Post Gameday event. We began on April 5th and will be moving into the first combat in the next few days, so the character would need to be ready very soon. (in like 24-48 hours)

I'm really hoping to get at least 1 more, but I could potentially find room for a few more if need be. Anyone interested? You should get a nice gameday boon in addition to the chronicle. ^_^ I'm keeping a good pace and we may even get through Part 4 of the series by July 5.

Link to the opening post for this scenario. Note I originally had my Venture Captain Themis face on when I made the post initially.

I'm willing to help you, Sera, but I haven't played parts 1 and 2... Is that a problem?

As for characters I've got a standard summoner with 5 xp and a sheet ready for the entire lvl 3; A barbarian with 1 xp; a paladin with 7 xp; and fighter Archer with 2 xp; a halfling 3 xp rogue, and a cleric with 3xp, which maybe would be the best choice, but you can choose.

Sure, I'll bite. I'll post in the discussion thread if that's cool.