Order of the Gate (Inactive)

Game Master SOLDIER-1st

Thank you for being so communicative! I'll stick around for it, no worries.

Just like Vince after being insulted; I'm not backing down or running away.

Yeah, it’s nice to have a GM who explains stuff like this. I will definitely continue as well.

I'm here whenever things get back on track.

Unless anybody has anything else they want to do, I'll progress here in an hour or two.

So obviously that was a lie.

Because life hates me, my roommate managed to get a scratch on her cornea, and between that and pre-existing ocular deformities, is pretty much blind for the next couple days until the doctor says the scratch is healed enough to wear contacts again. So her and her kid are going to require pretty much constant supervision.

Once again, I do not plan on dropping this game, and I am very sorry that it is going so slowly and with so many delays. I should have more news on Friday when she goes back to the doctor, but I doubt I'll be able to post again until after Christmas.

No worries. I hope she is going to be okay! I scratched my cornea when I was in college, so I can sympathize. :(

Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I wish you and your family all the best health and happiness.

Happy New Year!

I've scrolled back through the thread trying to remember our mission. I think it is to find Caudex and 'purge' anyone who he may have spoken about Kalat.

What I haven't been able to find is why and where in Numeria?

Are we able to mention the mission to Vezzio?

What am I missing?

cheers

Well, you didn't ask the right people. I gave some hints to it in this post. I will also note that the Vicarius has information that you don't, as befits the head of the most paranoid Hellknight order. You're starting to get more into the plot now. You're at the stage where you can start independently finding answers to your questions, if you look hard enough and ask the right people.

It's up to you how much you tell Lord Vezivo.

I reread the post and again missed the hints.

Are you saying that the vicarius withheld basic information like where in Numeria to start looking? In a very lawful structure, I would have expected very unambiguous orders explaining what we can do, what we cannot do, where and when we do it, etc.

Glad my character is the strong, silent type and leaves the talking to Morvan...

cheers

Not necessarily. You haven't spoken to Lord Vezivo yet.

Kizziar, was your question directed to/including Lord Vezivo?

Yes, the intent was to include everyone in the room. I'll try to be more specific when talking telepathically in the future.

Just to be clear, was that telepathic? I treat bold + italics as telepathy, and that's why I assumed it was not to include Lord Vezivo, since I thought you'd just ask out loud if the question was for everyone.

Yes, it was telepathic. Kizziar usually talks telepathically unless he has a pressing reason to do otherwise.

Saturday morning I leave for a week on business with only phone access to this account. So bot me if necessary.

cheers

Presuming you all are done with your conversation, I have a little side-quest that will primarily involve Melii. Since it will be possible for everyone to get involved, I'm going to do it in the gameplay thread instead of via PM (also I hate Paizo's PM system), but it will be primarily focused around her. After that, we're going to fast-forward to getting into Numeria, so I would suggest either IC or OOC deciding how you're going to go about that.

A similar side-quest type thing for Kallant will happen while in Numeria, and then depending on how things turn out, Vespartius will get his turn.

I am mostly telling you this so that even if you aren't involved, you pay attention during this and let me know if you like how it goes and get some ideas ready for your specific time to shine. I don't normally do things so individually like this, but I know this game is super slow and I want to make sure to give everybody their time to shine just to make sure you have plenty of things to rp with. And you all are always free of course to rp as much as you want. I am more than able and willing to roll with whatever you want to play out.

Hope everybody's still enjoying it, and I'm excited for this next arc in the story!

I'm ready to move on.

For getting into Numeria, we should work with whatever Lord Vezivo suggests - unless Kallant knows something that can help us get in.

Reference

One of the casters—either the primary caster or a secondary caster who the primary caster specifies—attempts one of the skill checks required by the ritual every 10 minutes of the casting, unless the ritual takes 1 hour per caster level, in which case the caster attempts the check every hour of the ritual. These checks cannot benefit from the aid another action, and the caster attempting the check can't take 10 or take 20, even if she has an ability that would normally allow her to do so when threatened or distracted. Furthermore, because of the specific procedures of ritual casting, mundane equipment that grants bonuses on skill checks can't usually increase the caster's bonus on the checks required by the ritual, unless the GM allows it. Bonuses on the skill checks required for the ritual that are granted by feats, spells (with enough duration to last throughout the casting), traits, and magic items usually apply, at the GM's discretion. The primary caster decides the order in which the various skill checks are attempted, but the GM rolls for the checks and tracks the progress of the ritual casting in secret. Once a ritual casting begins, it must be performed to its completion unless it's disrupted by outside influences or fails.

Okay. That means there are 6 skill checks in total since the ritual takes an hour. I think that, since this is an Occult ritual and Melii is the Medium, plus the one who was asked by Lord Vezivo, story-wise she should be the primary caster.

Skills breakdown is below

Knowledge (planes) - Urashu (+13), Morvan (+12), Kallant (+10), Melii (+6)
Spellcraft - Urashu (+14), Morvan (+9), Kallant (+5)
Use Magic Device - Melii (+11), Urashu (+1)

Does having additional secondary casters affect the skill DCs at all? For instance, would Lord Vezivo be of use in this ritual? What about Jade?

It doesn't affect the DC, but every 4 secondary casters you have gives you a +1 bonus on the check. Not going to give their stats away, but at the very least they could act as secondary casters.

As an addendum:

Since it is possible for those lacking the ability to cast arcane, divine, or psychic spells to cast rituals, variables that would normally rely on caster level (such as range and spell resistance) use the character level or total Hit Dice of the primary caster instead. This is the case even for a ritual caster who has the ability to cast spells. Characters with a caster level gain a +1 bonus on skill checks to cast a ritual, and this bonus increases by 1 for every 5 caster levels they possess (to a maximum of +5 at caster level 20th) as their understanding of the fundamentals of magic grows.

Hmmm...okay. So, I'm thinking Melii as primary caster, the rest of us except Kizziar as secondary casters. We bring in Lord Vezivo to round out the secondary casters, giving us 5 people, a primary and 4 secondaries for that +1 on the skill checks. Kizziar and Jade can keep an eye out and try to make sure we aren't interrupted.

Sounds like a plan. Just have to implement it.

I have a post coming based on my spoilered knowledge checks but I’m going to wait to do it until i can get to a computer. Can you guys please hold off on posting? I want to be able to make the reaction in the right time frame

Based on how close our rolls are, I suspect you and I got the same info off the Knowledge (planes) check, but since you know what you plan on posting, I'll wait and react to your post.

Legendary spirit get! I think we're gonna need all the power we can get for this, so that was totally worth it.

Will level up later.

Excellent. Should I level up Vespartius, or just Kizziar?

Excellent. Should I level up Vespartius, or just Kizziar?

Both. Ves will be explained once you find him.

I will level up Melii tomorrow morning.

I’ll level up when i get a chance

I've finished leveling up Vespartius and Kizziar except for Kizziar's feat. It was rather difficult to find a feat that would be useful for him, but eventually I stumbled across Evolved Companion, which would be quite nice. However, due to the typical restrictions on the feats animal companions can take, it's written on the assumption that the master will be the one taking it. Since imp companion's aren't restricted in their feat selection, can Kizziar take Evolved Companion to evolve himself?

Kallant chooses another level of Hellknight Commander where he gets a Discipline. I would appreciate any advice (remember that Kallant has a crappy casting stat, Charisma). My top three choices at the moment are:
1. Summon a Bearded devil once per day
2. Using Intimidate he cause frightened instead of shaken
3. Another Favored Enemy. This would be a winner if the GM lets his two Ranger Favored Enemy increase, too. As if he earned it a third Favored Enemy in his ranger class, I think.

I've finished leveling up Vespartius and Kizziar except for Kizziar's feat. It was rather difficult to find a feat that would be useful for him, but eventually I stumbled across Evolved Companion, which would be quite nice. However, due to the typical restrictions on the feats animal companions can take, it's written on the assumption that the master will be the one taking it. Since imp companion's aren't restricted in their feat selection, can Kizziar take Evolved Companion to evolve himself?

Yes I'll allow that. The evolution must come from the unchained evolutions list, and Kizziar must fulfill the prerequisites.

For purposes of fulfilling prerequisites, he is of the devil subtype, bipedal base form, and has the wings, tail, and sting evolutions already.

Kallant chooses another level of Hellknight Commander where he gets a Discipline. I would appreciate any advice (remember that Kallant has a crappy casting stat, Charisma). My top three choices at the moment are:

1. Summon a Bearded devil once per day
2. Using Intimidate he cause frightened instead of shaken
3. Another Favored Enemy. This would be a winner if the GM lets his two Ranger Favored Enemy increase, too. As if he earned it a third Favored Enemy in his ranger class, I think.

That doesn't actually give you favored enemy. It give you favored quarry, which is different (namely not combat bonuses, just skill bonuses). I wouldn't let that increase your favored enemy, but I would let it stack with one already chosen. So you could take favored quarry evil outsider and get a total of +6 to bluff, knowledge, perception, etc... (+4 from favored enemy, and +2 from favored quarry) but your bonus on attack and damage would stay at +4.

I think that

Shadow Step (Sp; any order) (Path of the Hellknight pg. 59): The Hellknight can use enlarged shadow stepUM as a spell-like ability, as if the Enlarge Spell metamagic feat were applied to the spell, using her character level as her caster level.

is actually a surprisingly good choice, particularly for the tank. My personal choice would probably be

Summon Servant of Law (Sp; any order) (Path of the Hellknight pg. 59): The Hellknight can summon a creature or creatures to help her, as if using a summon monster spell. At 3rd level, she can summon 1d3 hell hounds. At 6th level, she can summon 1d3 advanced hell hounds or one axiomite (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 36). And at 9th level, she can summon 1d4+1 hell hounds, 1d3 axiomites, or one zelekhut inevitable (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 167).

It's hard to go wrong with free summons.

I'll progress gameplay once everybody's leveled up and checked in

I have leveled up. Hello HK Signifier Class and Level 4 spells! And way more HP thanks to a bonus point in Con.

I would be a fan of the summoning options. They can preoccupy the enemy up close while i blast them from a safe distance.

Morvan is leveled up with another level in Warpriest for more of that sweet, sweet increase in sacred weapon bonus and fervor. I can also now cast one additional level 2 and level 3 spell per day, but that's not as important.

I wouldn't say no to free summons either. Your combat style thus far doesn't seem predicated on heavy use of intimidate, so I'd skip Fearsomeness for now.

I'd say either Summon Servant of Law or Summon the Bearded Devil.

Melii is leveled up and ready to go. My spirit bonus goes up this level and I get a secondary attack thanks to hitting BAB +6.

I'm going to come up with some alternate builds in her stat block for the other spirits, though, since I will be channeling the hierophant to remove blindness and eventually my new legendary spirit. They'll be in spoiler tags on my profile.

Cool. So, between Melii and I we should be able to handle everyone's blindness

I also got my second attack from BAB, plus boosts to Fortitude and Will saves.

Thanks for the help. I chose summon Bearded Devil. It'll be fun RPing that he can summon back the devil that he killed in his trial.

He also took a +1 Int, so he took a boatload of skills

He's ready

cheers

Kizziar and Vespartius are both done. Kizziar gets an enormous bonus to Perception from Evolved Companion (Skilled) so he should be an even better scout, while Vespartius gets a couple more spell slots, Augment Summoning (though that won’t be too useful until he can actually add some summoning spells to his spellbook) and a bunch more hit points due to an increase to Con.

I've another week-long business trip starting tonight with spotty posting availability. Please bot me if necessary. Be back Friday evening.

cheers

Is there a temple or shrine nearby where I can use my seance to contact the spirit of the hierophant?

That's a question for Lord Vezivo.

So apparently Morvan was lost during the site change or something... I'll give him the rest of the day and then we'll move on.

Sorry, I'm here. I'm going to post now.

My family is leaving for a week vacation tomorrow with limited Internet connection.

cheers

Have fun!

Let's reread this post and this page before we retread any previously covered ground.

Halloo? Anybody going to post?