Mended Wall's PBP for beginners (Inactive)

Game Master Hoary and Wizened

Stepping among the scattered timbers, Goruck kneels in the ashes of the orphanage. Running his meaty finger along the charred surface, the masked half orc rubs the charcoal between his fingers as he speaks, "I think I may have to concur Chillel."

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

A quick but thorough examination of the premises shows children's footprints all over in the soot and ash. So many are the footprints that it's impossible to tell anything from the varied prints. However, both Kairon and Illiam notice that several of the sets of footprints seem to generate and cease at a central point. Sweeping aside some of the ash, an iron latch to a trapdoor that leads below the floor of the burnt out husk of building is revealed.

Goruck! Open this up, please. We'll cover you. Kairon moves to one side of the trapdoor and holds his new spear ready to strike downward, checking to see that the whole group is ready to act.

Dolok takes a moment to study the burnt timbers and ashes, knowing something of the nature of fire as he does.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

He's trying to see if he can determine anything about the nature of this fire or where it originated maybe? Just seeing if anything suspicious about it might turn up? Does he need some sort of knowledge check maybe?

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As he notices the others gathering around the trapdoor he will have his magical lights focus above the door so as to provide light into the interior when it gets opened, and he will stand ready to shoot a ray of fire into the hole if needed.

Illiam takes up a position where he won't be directly in line with the door when it opens, but will have a clear shot at anything that pops out.

Chillel essentially does the same thing as Illiam. Tense behind outer calm, she waits alert.

Moving so he can lift the trap door without obstructing his allies' lines of sight, the swordsman wraps an armored fist around the latch and pulls.

As Goruck pulls the burnt wooden trapdoor open, the stench of rot and death belches forth from the cellar. It is a ten foot drop to the cobbled stone floor below. Short of jumping down, or popping your head through the opening with some kind of light source, there is very little way to tell what else lies beneath.

"Do you want me to send my magical lights down into there so we can see?" And unless there are any objections Dolok will proceed to do so.

After Dolok sends his dancing lights into the cellar, Goruck jams his massive half-orc head through the opening and peers around. A chipped, blood-stained oaken table rests against one wall, with all manner of blades and barbed instruments laid out on it. A single pair of rusted shackles is bolted into the opposite wall, whose bricks are stained in a bloody account of pain and cruelty. The robed corpse of a woman on the floor is the source of the reeking stench of decay.

I put a resized Goruck icon on the battle grid map so you can see where the opening is relative to the basement, and also get an idea of the scale of things. As per the falling rules deliberately jumping means that the first ten feet's worth of damage is turned to nonlethal damage, and that you do not lie prone when you land (because you didn't take any lethal damage). Anyone that can make a DC 15 Acrobatics check can make the deliberate jump without taking any damage whatsoever. Otherwise, of course, there are more teamwork oriented options available, but I'll let you dictate those scenarios. :)

Pulling the coil of silk rope from its place on the right side of his pack, Kairon suggests, I can hold the rope and let each of you climb down. Goruck first, of course. He offers a silent chuckle and a wry grin. Though it'd probably be better if we had some sort o' ladder to use, and could be sure the door would stay open -- don't wanna get stuck down there, even if we could manage a way out . . . .

The priest looks about for any surviving timbers or fallen trees that are more than 10 feet in length that could be propped on the floor of the room and up through the trapdoor.

Perhaps resting on the laurels of my past Perception check to do so? Or letting it serve as prep work for the following?

Perception (Yet again, we lumber along, for construction purposes!): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

Illiam, in no hurry to climb down, looks for a way to secure both the rope and the door so that they don't get stuck down there.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

Pulling his grappling hook free from it's pouch, the massive swordman searches for a place to secure the hook. At Kairon's words the half orc chuckles. "Perhaps instead of a ladder we could use our newly acquired shield," Goruck slams the said shield down for emphasis, "as a crude lift of sort, similar to those used by farmers. I hardly lack the height or the strength to do so."

Sliding backwards as if dodging a strike, Goruck grunts as he buries his normal axe into the ground besides the trapdoor. "Perhaps we can affix it to this? Sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones most effective."

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

Strength-Anchor ahoy!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

While Goruck's axe buries itself deep into the burned timbers of Elara's one time orphanage floor. Kairon and Illiam feel wrapping the grappling hook around the still standing stone archway makes for a much safer connection. So they do. Then dropping the rope down through the trapdoor and leaving the door all the way open, resting on the floor, so there is no worry of it closing, the way is prepared to enter the stinking cellar to examine the body on the floor and look for any evidence of children's comings or goings.

Dolok waits to find out what others who go into the stinky hole find out. He would prefer not to go into the hole if it is not necessary, but certainly will if he is needed. In the meanwhile he keeps an eye out above to try to make certain nothing sneaks up on them.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19

After refreshing the light spell on his spear point, Kairon secures the weapon and climbs down the rope to the room below.

Climb: 1d20 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (2) + 3 - 2 = 3

Illiam watches from above the stinking room.

Seeing Kairon's movements, Goruck rushes to keep his friend from falling in, before once more demonstrating his ability to scale surfaces.

Strength-Catch that cleric!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Climb-Half orc away: 1d20 + 10 - 4 ⇒ (13) + 10 - 4 = 19

I tried to edit that last post to account for the likely fall and the consequential damage, but it got caught in the "Maw of Paizo NoStore". Ah, well.

Kairon just about falls the entire ten feet, but then his hired muscle flashes a massive half-orc hand to the strap of his backpack and grabs a hold of him, giving him just the assistance he needs to slide slowly down the rope.

For future reference you can take 10 on a climb check if you want. Knotting the rope helps with the DC of the check too.

After assisting Kairon to get his grip Goruck also climbs down. The two stand looking around the basement, Kairon's vision assisted by his light and Dolok's dancing lights. There is very little to see, save the table with various tools and instruments, the manacles bolted into the far wall, and the bloated corpse of a woman that lies on the floor near the manacles. That and a number of sizable cobwebs across every corner of the room. The cobwebs play host to desiccated corpses ranging from flies to birds, and even a few bats. Somewhere amidst the webs there must be a rather fat and happy spider... or spiders.

Please be very "descriptively" clear about where you go and what you touch... Because... reasons... also

Oof! Nice save, Goruck! 'Preciate it.

Kairon turns in place for a few moments, trying to glean all the information he can from the room. He notes the cobwebbed areas -- and the size of their contents! -- and reasons that this room must be part of a much larger complex, and one that opens to the outdoors. Never did find the spiders up at the Crag. He also focuses on the positioning of the corpse and any nearby oddities of construction, such as contrast changes, visible seams, or uneven tiles.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

Chillel follows the other two into the lower level, saying as she starts to climb:-

Coming down. Some help might be needed, strength isn't my strong suit.

Climb: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (12) - 1 = 11

Athena, meanwhile flys down effortlessly.

Kairon's quick examination doesn't show any egress other than the one he almost fell down, but those upstairs, Dolok and Illiam, do notice a number of places where light comes shining through some rather gaping holes in the burnt out floor. They are holes, easily, big enough for a bird or bat to fly through.

"'Tis no trouble, but perhaps next time a slower descent may be more appropriate." Carefully, Goruck helps make sure Chillel gets safely down. His humor had, the swordman inspects the table of implements, peering at the manacles before switching to the body. I truly hope this isn't what I believe it is.

Strength: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

KN:Religon: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

Thank you Goruck. Says Chillel as she and Athena peer closely examine the room. Chillel will avoid touching the cobwebs and bodies, but move around the room to search, testing the floor before putting all her weight on it.

perception, Chillel: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

perception, Athena: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

An urgent hoot accompanied by a pointing motion with her beak draws attention to the giant spider lying in wait. Athena thinks to herself humans have such poor senses and are always making noise when they should be paying attention to their surroundings. Poor locomotion as well. Fortunately I am here to keep my mistress and her mendicants out of trouble.

Do we roll initiative now?

Well yes, but not why you think...

As Goruck examines the instruments on the table he realizes it is exactly what he thought it was. Instruments of torture. Why there would be instruments of torture in the cellar of an orphanage is beyond imagining. Providing even less clarity is the fact that the corpse on the ground is a human woman in her fifties, which would make her of the same age as Elara, the woman that ran the orphanage. Unfortunately Goruck gets very little time to examine the corpse because as he approaches the bloated corpse explodes with a disgusting rupture and a swarm of baby spiders comes pouring out of it.

I'm ruling that the spiderlings get a surprise round because no one was aware of them. I put Goruck where I thought he would have been as he made his move from the table to look at the corpse. Close enough that the swarm of spiders gets to climb all over Goruck and start chomping away... Might be a good time to refresh your knowledge of Swarm Traits. They are immune to mind affecting effects, like slumber hexes... XD, and also immune to all weapon damage, and any spell that affects one target. They do, though, take half again (+50%) damage from AoE spells like burning hands... :)

Initiative is: Dolok (upstairs still), Swarm, Momma Spider, Chillel (Athena), Illiam, Goruck, Kairon. Please do me a favor and review the bonuses I have listed for initiative and make sure they are right. I'm not sure if I updated everyone at level up or not... Enjoy the combat. :)

Just as soon as the swarm of spiderlings explodes out of the woman's bloated corpse, they crawl like one hideous living thing right on top of Goruck and start finding all the tiniest holes in his armor, jamming their tiny, needle-like pincers into his flesh.

Swarm Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Goruck, I need you to roll two separate Fort saves, one for the poison and one for the distraction, both are DC 11. Dolok, you're up to bat.

Just wanted to be very clear here, that the only reason the spider swarm gets an "attack" in the surprise round is because swarms don't make attacks. They automatically hit the creature whose space they occupy, and it made zero sense to have them have the ability as an "organism" to crawl on Goruck, but not actually bite in the same round. Normally in a surprise round, I know, you only get one action, move or standard, but not both. This is a special case that, to my mind, works differently. Sorry Goruck!! Double ouch that they got the full 6 out of their d6 of damage!!! O.o Good thing you've got HP to spare.

Please do me a favor and review the bonuses I have listed for initiative and make sure they are right. I'm not sure if I updated everyone at level up or not... Enjoy the combat. :)

Unless you're taking Improved Initiative as a bonus combat feat at level 2, it's pretty unlikely. You can't just add ranks to initiative like you can with skills.

The World Around You wrote:

Please do me a favor and review the bonuses I have listed for initiative and make sure they are right. I'm not sure if I updated everyone at level up or not... Enjoy the combat. :)

Unless you're taking Improved Initiative as a bonus combat feat at level 2, it's pretty unlikely. You can't just add ranks to initiative like you can with skills.

A good point, and that was my assumption, but there are a lot of wacky character goodies in Pathfinder, and I wanted to make sure, because I haven't done a thorough examination of everyone's updated character sheets yet.

Edit: I added a shape to the map to represent where the trapdoor is in relation to everything. Dolok and Illiam since we're in combat you can no longer take ten to climb down the rope, and I'm fairly certain that it never got knotted, so the DC is 15 to climb down. Either that or you can attempt the DC 15 Acrobatics check to avoid lethal damage on the way down...

I'm not sure how it changed? My initiative bonus is a + 3 though. + 2 for reactionary and + 1 for Dex. Question: I know that my fire ray would be useless against the swarm since it is a target creature, but does Dolok know that?

Having seen how the strong Kairon nearly fell, Dolok has no desire to try to climb down that rope. Hearing the commotion down below, Dolok will lay down on the ground next to the hole and stick his head in so that he can try to see what is going on.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

"What's going on you all?"

Fort Save-Poison's are naught before the earth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21

Fort Save-Ow, quit pinching me!: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

Roaring in pain as the minuscule spiders begin to clamp onto his scarred flesh, the group's muscle yells out, "Be careful, there's spiders everywhere down here!" Snarling, the half orc nearly loses his focus at the onslaught of pain before gritting his teeth. No, I will not let my fury consume me. I WILL NOT LOSE MY CONTROL!

Is Goruck's kinetic blast considered weapon damage?

Is Goruck's kinetic blast considered weapon damage?

"As a standard action, the kineticist can unleash a kinetic blast at a single target up to a range of 30 feet" means it's useless against swarms.

Goruck of the Stone wrote:

Is Goruck's kinetic blast considered weapon damage?

"As a standard action, the kineticist can unleash a kinetic blast at a single target up to a range of 30 feet" means it's useless against swarms.

Yep, that. Anything that targets a single creature is useless against a swarm... I'm glad you made both your saves. I'd like to say that I planned to have the swarm attack the guy with highest Fort save bonus, but that was pure luck. :) Up next big hairy spyiders... That was me channeling Megamind.

The swarm of spiderlings finishes their heroic climb all over the mountain that is Goruck of the stone, fully engulfing him. It is a disgusting sight, for spiders even start crawling into the holes in his mask. The conglomeration of their needle like bites adds up to pure annoyance, and each little pincer still injects a drop of poison that seeks to sap the warrior's strength and his resolve.

Swarm Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Goruck, I need you to make two more Fort saves, DC 11, again for poison and distraction. I also realized I had the swarm sized wrong, they take up a ten foot by ten foot square. So I resized them and moved them over the top of your icon. The picture is transparent, which is kind of cool because you can still see little bits of Goruck's icon sticking through. :P Kairon! Where are you with that burning hands man!!!!

If the onslaught of the spiderlings wasn't enough their mother in the corner climbs onto the ceiling of the cellar directly towards Kairon and fires a glob of webbing at his feet.

Ranged Touch Attack with Webbing with range penalty: 1d20 + 5 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 5 - 2 = 14

The sticky webbing slams into Kairon's feet sticking him fast to the stone of the cellar's floor.

Kairon, breaking out of the web is either an Escape Artist or Strength Check DC 12, and requires a standard action... Things just got worse... Up next: Chillel (Athena), Illiam, Goruck, Kairon, Dolok. Remember Dolok and Illiam are upstairs. Which reminds me... where is Chillel's icon? I'll go add it.

Can't believe I didn't have an entangled condition marker yet. Just added it. Yes Dolok, I know that means all the conditions are now out of alpha order. If you want to fix it, go for it. :) :P Kairon, because the entangling material is "anchored to an immobile object" it does prevent all movement until you either escape or break the webbing.

Chillel, realising she can do little against the swarm, moves forward to bring the giant spider within the range of her hex, invokes the spirits of
curiosity, a swift action increasing the DC of saves vs her hexes by one, and uses the slumber hex on the giant spider.

DC 16 will save, including the invocation bonus.

Trying to slap the tiny pests inhabiting his body, Goruck winces slightly as they continue to try and devour him piecemeal.

Fort-Too close for comfort: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Fort-Lol, that poison tickles: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

I have a feeling Goruck is really not going to like spiders after this.

Trying to slap the tiny pests inhabiting his body, Goruck winces slightly as they continue to try and devour him piecemeal.

[dice=Fort-Too close for comfort]1d20 + 7

[dice=Fort-Lol, that poison tickles]1d20 + 7

I have a feeling Goruck is really not going to like spiders after this.

LOL!! I bet.

Just did a little research. Did you know that unless a Hex specifically says it is "mind affecting" that it isn't considered a mind affecting effect? So...

Momma Spider Will Save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

Chillel's supernatural magic slams into the mother spider's life force, and the disgusting vermin shudders for a moment, but then clacks its mandibles together in loathsome anticipation of a plump meal, its mutliple black orbs staring at Chillel with ravenous hunger.

Where am I with burning hands? Tail end of the initiative, that's where. :P

Don't have time for a full post now, you can consider me to be holding action until the next bad guy turn.

Okay that means Goruck, Kairon, Dolok, batters up.

Peering down into the hole, Illiam sees Goruck's distress. Why did it have to be spiders? Illiam mutters under his breath. He begins to speak the familiar incantation of illusion and traces out a line on the palm of his hand. As he does so, as if his hand were a copy of the room in miniature, a line of fire springs up, reaching from floor to ceiling and ten feet thick. It emits no heat and casts no light (unless you think Silent Image should be able to do that), but Illiam hopes it will be enough to halt the advance of the mindless creatures and allow Goruck to escape. Then,
assuming that the spiders will not understand, he speaks up, Fake fire, Goruck! Come on through!

Added some pillars in the most likely places that didn't involve messing with the minis too much. I also dropped the swarm below Goruck so that he'll be able to move his mini when the time comes.

Darting though the Illiam's conjured flames, the swordsman skids to a stop in front of Chillel. Staring angrily at the spider, Goruck instinctively makes a sweeping gesture with his meaty hand.

Kinetic Blast-Rock it to the top!: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

No fire, do stones work?: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Feel free to move me if needed Mended, I had trouble telling the grid spaces.

Kairon tries to break free of the spider's webbing, straining against its hold with all the power he can muster.

Breaking the Bonds (Str): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

And only succeeds at being "Time Walked" by a spider. Argh.

Illiam's quick thinking and brilliantly placed illusion of a wall of fire, which is a real spell that many creatures have seen conjured into existence, causes the mother spider to scream, a hideous sound, like a fork across stoneware. It also causes the spiderlings to abandon their clinging to Goruck as soon as he makes a move to run through the illusory flames. The mass of baby spiders all scramble away from the fire as quickly as possible to avoid dying by fire. Their mother scrambles quickly across the roof to be near her babies, then bobs up and down on her legs with her torso connecting and disconnecting from the ceiling in a gross display. She stares at the wall of illusory fire and screeches nervously.

Goruck, I realized I forgot to answer your question about the kinetic blast. Some things we'll all want to be aware of:

1) Even the weakest kinetic blast involves a sizable mass of elemental matter or energy, so kinetic blasts always deal full damage to swarms of any size (though only area blasts deal extra damage to swarms)... 2)All damage from a kinetic blast is treated as magic for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction. Kinetic blasts count as a type of weapon for the purpose of feats such as Weapon Focus. 3)I'm guessing you chose the earth type... Element earth; Type simple blast (Sp); Level —; Burn 0

Blast Type physical; Damage bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing
You shape earth into clumps or shards and send them flying at a foe.

Initiative: Chillel (Athena), Illiam, Goruck, Kairon, Dolok, Swarm, Momma.

Okay people, we've got two maps now. The brown squares (hastily thrown together) is the above ground floor where the mother and babies just appeared after double moves on their part, and climbing through a hole in the boards. I realize the above ground map and below ground map don't match, but it was the best I could do on short notice. I didn't even think about the fact that the spider and her babies would leave the cellar to come above ground, but that seemed the most logical response to their fear of the illusory fire, and since I had alreayd said that there were some sizable holes in the floor where light was escaping, it just made sense.

No worries Mended. I thought I read something to that effect, but I just wanted to make sure. Kineticist is a fun class, but it's very complex. Out of curiosity, would my kinetic blast have hit the swarm?

AC wise you mean? Not by a long shot. Swarm's AC is 17.