Navior's Savage Tide

Game Master Navior

Can't see the map, but from memory, Tippi's intention on her init was to cantrip the door closed, then invoke Archaeologist's Luck and use Acrobatics to move through the Lotus Dragon's space toward the others. If she doesn't hit the DC, he should still have a 50% miss chance on the AoO due to her invisibility.

Can't see the map, but from memory, Tippi's intention on her init was to cantrip the door closed, then invoke Archaeologist's Luck and use Acrobatics to move through the Lotus Dragon's space toward the others. If she doesn't hit the DC, he should still have a 50% miss chance on the AoO due to her invisibility.

Being invisible, she won't attract an AoO since concealment negates AoO's. If she she fails her check, she just won't manage to get past.

We're waiting for Festa to take his turn at the moment, though. Festa, get over to the game thread! :)

That would have actually meant she didn't have enough movement left to make the move even if she'd succeeded in her check(since using Acrobatics to move through threatened squares takes double movement and Festa moved into the last square she could reach).

Yeah, I couldn't see the map on my Kindle and wasn't sure where anyone was in relation to her. Does half-speed for Acrobatics apply only to moving through threatened and occupied squares, or do you have to move at half-speed for your whole movement (i.e., if she were moving out of one threatened square, would it count as 10 feet and the rest of the squares as 5 feet, or is the whole thing at double-movement cost)? Seems like for Douena we agreed half-speed only counted for the problematic squares and she could move at normal speed for the remainder of her move, but I can't remember for sure.

Yeah, I couldn't see the map on my Kindle and wasn't sure where anyone was in relation to her. Does half-speed for Acrobatics apply only to moving through threatened and occupied squares, or do you have to move at half-speed for your whole movement (i.e., if she were moving out of one threatened square, would it count as 10 feet and the rest of the squares as 5 feet, or is the whole thing at double-movement cost)? Seems like for Douena we agreed half-speed only counted for the problematic squares and she could move at normal speed for the remainder of her move, but I can't remember for sure.

I generally apply the half-speed only to the squares that are threatened (since she can stop using Acrobatics when not threatened), but even taking that into account, she only had enough speed to get just past Felos--a spot that Festa stole just before she moved. So it's all Festa's fault! Well, there's also the fact that she failed the Acrobatics check, but we'll ignore that. :)

I've removed the kobold from the order as she won't be doing anything else this battle that the rest of you can see or hear. :)

You're welcome. Festa: friendly and efficient

Until the battle's over and we find out she's been busy summoning the vast invisible and inaudible kobold army of invincibility. ;)

Until the battle's over and we find out she's been busy summoning the vast invisible and inaudible kobold army of invincibility. ;)

Have you been reading the adventure? ;)

Until the battle's over and we find out she's been busy summoning the vast invisible and inaudible kobold army of invincibility. ;)

That would be awesome. So like I said: you're welcome ;)

I'm moving and won't have internet service at my new place for a week, so my posting will probably be erratic for that time. Please bot Jacinth to keep the story moving as you need.

Ok, I have internet again. It will take me a couple of days to get up to speed, but I'm back.

The best part of my job...

Ah, school bands. Given their ages, I'm quite impressed. An ambitious piece.

Thanks! I was very proud of them.

Grades 7 and 8 mostly, with a smattering of 9s and two high schoolers.

I think we've actually hit upon a really good place to make our stand. Yes, we're surrounded, but they can only come at us a few at a time, can't easily gain flanks (which is good, as some of these guys might have rogue levels), and we've protected our spellcasters. Good job, everybody.

If only Tippi had a clw wand to keep topping the three of you off, we'd be sitting pretty.

We fiiiine :D

We fiiiine :D

Well, now that you've skipped the cure wand storage room, I wouldn't be so sure. ;)

Forgot we had bless active. Doesn't really matter when you roll a 2, though.

Or a 3. :(

I applied a -4 for soft cover on my last roll, when technically it ought to be a +4 to AC applied by the DM. Either way adds up to another failure ... and more Lotus Dragons showing up by the round. :P

At least you can 5-foot-step back and use your longspear this round, Jacinth, although we're rapidly running out of squares to retreat to.

I still have a morning star, but with these rolls it won't matter.

It's been over 24 hours. I vote if LoreKeeper hasn't posted by the next time Navior checks in, Festa does a Focused Blow on #14.

It's been over 24 hours. I vote if LoreKeeper hasn't posted by the next time Navior checks in, Festa does a Focused Blow on #14.

Agreed. :)

Navior's hogging all the high d20 rolls. :P

I noticed!

Regardless of Tippi's trip result, Festa's action is:

It's an effective 9 with soft cover. Guaranteed fail.

Hey folks, I'm having some major computer troubles at the moment. Either my screen is dying (again!) or my graphics card is. Either way, I can't use my main computer at the moment as the screen keeeps flickering and then going black. As my game maps and files are on that computer, I'm going to be very limited in the kinds of updates I can do until I get the problem solved (especially annoying since both games are in battles at the moment).

Update:
The problem is confirmed as my graphics card. The fan on the GPU isn't working and the card is overheating. A friend of mine has a spare graphics card that he doesn't need and is going to bring it round on Sunday, so hopefully I'll be up and running by the end of the weekend.

Thanks for the patience.

The graphics card transplant was a success! The computer seems to be running more or less smoothly now.

I will update both games in the morning. Thanks again for the patience everyone!

And we're back up and running! (Would've been earlier if the site hadn't been down.)

Its slow speech means it's not going to be able to say anything more in the six seconds of a single round.

Just trying to interest it enough that it might put off ripping her throat out for a while. Its init comes up before hers so we'll see if she gets a chance to elaborate. :)

Ack, I have computer woes again. Although the replacement graphics card fixed the display issues, new problems have arisen resulting in the computer freezing frequently and repeatedly, amongst other things. My wife and I had already decided that we needed to get a new computer and these new problems made that even more necessary. The computer is over five years old now, so it's had a good life and until the last couple of weeks, we have had virtually no problems with it. Anyway, we went out this evening and purchased a new one, which I will be setting up some time tomorrow.

What this means for my games is another brief delay. I might get new posts up tomorrow, but they might have to wait until Saturday.

At last! It is over.

A friend and I spent a large chunk of Friday and Sunday struggling to get an operating system running on the new computer (I use Linux). This computer did not want to give up Windows 8. But we finally got it working last night and I now have a fully functional computer again!

I've just spent some time transferring all my MapTool resources and everything is good to go. I will start updating the games as soon as I'm done this post! :)

Felos wrote:

It's probably too late, but we could try offering them the treasure from the sea caves. The GM might be merciful...

The GM was being pretty merciful until someone attacked out of the blue. :)

The treasure's back at Lavinia's place anyway, iirc.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the merciful bit was allowing us to talk at all rather than be attacked on sight. Once everyone's dead, I'd like to know if there's something we missed; I don't see how 4 2nd-level PCs are supposed to survive this dungeon at all, unless it's one of those old-school static dungeons where you can take out a couple of encounters at a time and then go rest somewhere while the inhabitants completely don't notice that their friends are dead and looted. We haven't even cleared half of the place, judging from the GM-view map.

The treasure's back at Lavinia's place anyway, iirc.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the merciful bit was allowing us to talk at all rather than be attacked on sight. Once everyone's dead, I'd like to know if there's something we missed; I don't see how 4 2nd-level PCs are supposed to survive this dungeon at all, unless it's one of those old-school static dungeons where you can take out a couple of encounters at a time and then go rest somewhere while the inhabitants completely don't notice that their friends are dead and looted. We haven't even cleared half of the place, judging from the GM-view map.

I don't mind revealing a few things right away.

The offer of employment from Rowyn is actually scripted. The remaining adventures in the AP even all have sidebars with suggestions on how to modify them if the PCs are working for Rowyn. I'm actually kind of curious to hear about any games out there where the PCs have actually accepted the offer. At any rate, she is supposed to attack you if you say no, but I wanted to make her a little more complex a character than written--particularly regarding the relationship between her and Vanthus. It also had the beneficial side effect of not having you all ganged up upon by a an unbeatable number of Lotus Dragons.

You've actually come very close to dealing with all the inhabitants. Even though there are quite a few areas you haven't explored, you encountered virtually all the occupants at this point, since almost all answer the alarm. The only ones left are the worg (Festa successfully blocked the Lotus Dragons that were on the way to let the Worg out), the spider (which is chained up a few rooms farther in, and one other Lotus Dragon who is specifically written as not responding to alarms. Oh, and the kobold of course.

Unless Tippi turns around and goes back, she should be able to get away alive. If Felos survives the next set of attacks on him, he might make it out alive as well (assuming he also retreats). Things don't look good for Festa and Jacinth though. Alas.

I hadn't expected a full on fight with people going down. I had expected to get a couple ranged shots at the leader, skirmish at the door, and lead them on a fighting retreat.

I didn't expect two people to barrel into melee range. I feel bad for starting this, as I never intended to play the lawful stupid paladin that gets everybody killed. However, Felos won't abandon them, so I guess he's going to buy Tippi escape time.

It might be a bit premature, but the flavour of the undine watersinger bard sounds like fun, using bardic performance to sculpt nearby water into whatever useful form you need.

Freebooter rangers also look kind of fun, as you get to be a ranger with a weakened version of bardic inspire courage for your allies (albeit unlimited times per day).

Stabilization Check 1d20+1

That might just do it. Of course they'll kill me anyway. I wonder what my next character will be.

Well, they know we're working for Lavinia. They might try to ransom back anyone that survives. After all, you're not worth anything to them dead ... unless Rowyn's looking to acquire another zombie.

Jacinth the Bright wrote:

Stabilization Check 1d20+1

That might just do it. Of course they'll kill me anyway. I wonder what my next character will be.

Well, they know we're working for Lavinia. They might try to ransom back anyone that survives. After all, you're not worth anything to them dead ... unless Rowyn's looking to acquire another zombie.

That's looking on the bright side... :)

Ooh! I can use the race guide to make an undead character. Awesome! Now I hope they do kill me and make me into a zombie.

Ooh! I can use the race guide to make an undead character. Awesome! Now I hope they do kill me and make me into a zombie.

Tippi wouldn't like that, since she's the brains of the operation.

Haha! It took me a moment to get that one.

Just as an errant thought: if (most of) the party dies, we can also consider one of the recent APs: mummy's mask, iron gods, or if we look at the "older new" APs also wrath of the righteous. I don't know how others feel about it, but the fantasy steampunk vibe of Iron Gods has me curious.

Can't the Squeezing rule then apply?

Ending Your Movement: You can't end your movement in the same square as another creature unless it is helpless.

A creature can squeeze past a creature while moving but it can't end its movement in an occupied square.

Accidentally Ending Movement in an Illegal Space: Sometimes a character ends its movement while moving through a space where it's not allowed to stop. When that happens, put your miniature in the last legal position you occupied, or the closest legal position, if there's a legal position that's closer.

They never actually explain what happens when a creature who is helpless becomes not helpless while someone is in his square; I've usually seen DMs giving a free, non-provoking 5-foot-step to one or the other of them.

Anyway, if you were squeezing, that would give Felos a -4 to attack and both of you a -4 to AC (in addition to the -4 Jacinth gets for being prone) while surrounded by bad guys. Not a good option.

Hey folks, apologies for the game delay. My schedule has been turned upside down, and I'm trying to figure out where to fit everything now. Will be back in operation in the next couple of days.

Thanks for the patience.

I've been putting off writing this for a few days as I really don't want to do this. However, I've come to the conclusion that I don't have a choice. I'm back at school full time for a year (from two weeks ago to next May). I have 30 class hours per week (that's including a practicum assignment), plus attendant readings and assignments (those readings are already piling up on me). My program also requires that I fit in a minimum of two hours of community service every week. On top of that, I'm trying to maintain part-time work so that I actually have a bit of money to pay bills with. Over the past week or so, I've had to think carefully about what things I need to cut--at least for the time being.

I don't want to end my pbps permanently, as these games (especially Serpent's Skull) have been very important to me. They've helped me through some rough patches over the last few years. As such, I'm not so much ending the games as I am putting them on hiatus. If people are around in a few months and still want to be part of them, hopefully we can resume them once my schedule clears up a little again.

I want to thank everyone for a great game. It's been huge fun for me, and I really wish I didn't have to put it aside for now.

:(

Michael.

I know I'll be here. Good luck with it all.

Don't worry. Keep the chin up and keep trucking. We'll be keeping an eye out. :)

Navior wrote:

So who's still around?

I am. Clearly.

In both games.

Mmrrrrrowwwrrr! STRETCH!!

"Mmmmmm. Warm sun. Cozy fire. Great nap..."

That wasn't a nap. That was a hibernation! :)