PFS 6–05: Slave Ships of Absalom (Inactive)

Game Master Wilmannator

Damn gremlins killing my PbP play time. I like to think that the reason for the recent inactivity was those blue goblins mucking with the server.

The 404 for those who haven't seen it.

So, who's going first? I've got this image in my head of everyone just standing back and saying, "not me, you first, no you first..."

I'm writing at post at the moment, and will write it as if I'm the first one up the ladder. It will take me a little bit to get the post down, but it should be ready fairly soon.

One Question, do we know from the ledger where this Kat Season is supposedly from, based on the ledger?

Great question. The adventure doesn't say, but let's say they're masquerading as a slaving vessel from Sedeq (in southern Qadira).

Great, thanks! I'll write up a post now. It looks like the paizo website is actually working once again.

Phew, my post is up. That took a long time with the website not cooperating :)

That post was awesome ibid...

I wasnt able to get my post up last night due to the website acting up. That's what I get for getting caught up in the baseball game and trying to post at 11pm...

I should have mine up this morning

-Posted with Wayfinder

GM - I need you to rule for me at what point in that timeline I make it over the rail... If I see the gnoll go down to fetch the captain, Cyrus would be hard pressed to resist the opportunity to sneak up and knock out the half orc, though maybe not with that awful stealth roll... :)

Ibid gave you plenty of time. 2 rounds before the captain appears, Cyrus makes it over the rail! Oh, and that stealth roll was to avoid being spotted through the porthole.

Wow, those rolls turned out pretty well foreveryone!

Not for my guys!

I just noticed this little tid-bit GM Damo slipped into his last post, in regards to Gunari intentionally crashing through the grate to the hold. Haha!

Round 1:

Ibid <= acted, manacles on Captain Wardak
Amaranti <= acted, lance meets half-orc
Cyrus <= !
Finarin <= acted, shot mainmast
Wardak (manacled)
Gnoll 1
Gnoll 2 (belowdecks)
Curtzog
Miro
Gunari <= acted, acrobatic destruction
Kaisharga

:-)

So... how do we all feel about the combat table? Does it help? Any suggestions for improvement? Would you like to see one for every combat or just the complicated ones?

I got the idea from Doomed Hero's profile (he's had this PbP GMing guide in draft mode on there for about 2 years now).

I love it... helps keep things very clear, no question about where we are at. Hopefully its not cumbersome or difficult for you to do, because then I would feel guilty for wanting it... you do enough work as the GM. Now if it makes your life easier, then its a win for all of us..

I really like it, as well! How difficult is it for you to maintain, though? If it's tough on you, we could do without it for the less complicated fights, as you suggested. I think it really comes down to how difficult it is for you.

I keep a copy of it in my Notes app so it syncs on all devicies. Then it's just copy/paste/delete for every new round. I'm very happy to maintain it. Glad you guys like it!

Wow! 3 Rounds in one afternoon! That is incredible...

The Great Golem Sale is definitely not kind to this website.

Ah, is that what it is? It really, really hurts me when I need to do these long posts. I have to post and re-post to make sure my descriptions match the rolls! Ergh.

Might pick up those Greyhawk maps. Eric Mona did a ton of work on Living Greyhawk - respect the heck out of his work.

FWIW Finarin has low light vision.

I gave a +1 to combat table
and a -1 to our damage rolls

I gave a +1 to combat table and a -1 to our damage rolls

I am confused.

And, I am buying a bunch of flip mats, map packs, and probably a bunch of modules. Just 'cause $3.50 print modules?

So, if we wanted at some point, I could probably run a module via PbP as well.

I'll make sure to grab several low-to-mid level mods.

I gave a +1 to combat table and a -1 to our damage rolls

Combat table = good

Our damage rolls = bad

Ah... now I understand.

damned kids, always comin' up with new ways to say the same damned things... and always gettin' on my lawn!

I had few questions in regards to round 2, specifically when the captain trips Ibid. I know this combat got crazy complicated very quickly, and it's always difficult via play by post, so I'll try my best to state my questions clearly to help out. Sorry if this is a pain in the arse!

1. When the captain succeeded at her trip attempt against Ibid, did his attack of opportunity (rolled as a 15) hit against her prone AC?
2. Additionally, Miro is on the opposite side of her from Ibid, in which case I think we should both get a +2 flanking bonus. As such, should my attack of opportunity be at a 17 against her prone AC?
3. Lastly, does Miro also have the chance at an attack oppertunity when the captain begins to stand, after she tripped Ibid?

Also, on a side note, this combat is going flipping awesome so far! Kudos to you GM Damo for being able to keep this clustered combat clearly described for us!

As an FYI... I am in a software conference today and tomorrow. I will post when I can.

Unfortunately, I do not have a weapon drawn, so no AOO's or flanks from me. :(

Oh, that's my bad. Right you are, Miro. You patted the sword which was still sheathed in your belt. I misunderstood that earlier, and for some reason thought it was drawn. That's my bad, thanks!

That actually brings up a good point Miro (as if we need to make this more complicated...) If the captain is handcuffed (sudden idea for awkward comment from Cyrus) she should be unarmed right? So maybe I don't provoke an AoO when I just tried that Trip attempt...

I have to admit, I laughed when I read Ibid flipped her over as she was sleeping and slapped the manacles on her. Must have had lots of practice. Maybe he takes lessons from the Continental.

Hey-O! Zing!

I was just trying to use the situation to our advantage. Ibid (nor myself) have ever done that before. Though it does look back for Ibid now because Cyrus has probably just tripped her, and Ibid goes to brain her while she is down.

1. When the captain succeeded at her trip attempt against Ibid, did his attack of opportunity (rolled as a 15) hit against her prone AC?
2. Additionally, Miro is on the opposite side of her from Ibid, in which case I think we should both get a +2 flanking bonus. As such, should my attack of opportunity be at a 17 against her prone AC?
3. Lastly, does Miro also have the chance at an attack oppertunity when the captain begins to stand, after she tripped Ibid?

1. You do hit! I read the roll as 11 (your actual dice roll), and for some reason didn't properly the result. I'll fix it in my next post.

2. See Miro's reply. Also, I could swear he wasn't there when I first started to post that last set of combat actions...

3. As above with Miro's reply.

So many moving parts! Quite a few less after last round. Well done you and the trollhound!

@Cyrus: She is indeed unarmed and you do not provoke an attack of opportunity (actually, I think technically you do provoke, but she cannot make an AoO because she is unarmed).

I had written out that I had moved, and had thought I moved myself on the map. I found I was still across the deck this morning, so I moved myself (possibly again). Sorry for the confusion.

All cool. I'm just glad that I'm not going crazy!

Just a totally sappy thought I had: This play-by-post team, GM and players, is amazing. Posting frequency, quality of posts, people's attitude and helpfulness... It's all superb.

It's an honor to be gaming with this crew :)

Likewise! I'm a very lucky (and busy) GM! Thanks everyone.

I am happy to be a part and am thankful for the players and GM.

Truly this is the best PbP group. You all know how I roll by now, I started another PbP on the exact day we started Trial by Machine. We still haven't gotten to combat yet. Our current discussion page is longer than that game's Gameplay page.
Finarin - 120 posts
Negerp - 34(6) with the 2 posts I did as Negerp's bear.

+1

This group and GM is awesome, I am loving it. This is exactly what I pictured when I started PbP, and it has been a blast!

+1

Almost feels like this group could do PbP in near real time If we wanted to.

@Gunari: Not unless I get a lot faster at typing! The post I did just then took over an hour and a half (with time spent looking up rules and eating my lunch, but still).

So glad all of you are having a good time! We should also thank Deussu and DM Jelly. If it wasn't for them and Deussu's 1 week+ for a single round of combat*, I never would have decided to GM PbP... nor would I have been so adamant about finding players who had decent posting records. I'm so f**king glad I put in the effort to read all of your posts (and the posts of others who put their hands up) before selecting a team.

* During that combat and the subsequent wrap-up, we recruited, started and completed Trial by Machine. True story.

I'm in a PFS game that started in february :D Well, it is a module, and therefore longer, but anyway. The current combat started in September 16th... So yes, this is slightly faster :)

Then again, I a bit ashamed I haven't been able to contribute as much as I would've liked; last two weeks have been really busy. But now, the kids are asleep, and I have a moment of "personal time" before sleep wins. So post goddammit :D

Don't feel ashamed Amaranti! Real life happens, and I believe the minimum requirement is 1 post a day, and even that can be flexible due to circumstances because everyone here is awesome and understanding.

Its not your fault we all hit refresh every 30 minutes... :)

I wish I could restrain myself for 30 minutes. Oh, smartphone, how I love and loathe thee.

And Cyrus is spot on, Amaranti. Besides, you're almost always posting more than the minimum and only once did you ever miss a deadline (and even then by only 4 hours as I recall... I still feel a little bad for botting you back then).

Hope things calm down in RL for you, mate. From our end, though, you're all good.

I'd like to start a collection to move Amaranti & family to the CDT timezone ... passes hat around.

Finarin, I second that motion. As a recent mover to the USA myself, dibs on not helping Amaranti with the paperwork. Ew. What say you, Amaranti, would you like to pay out of your nose and ears for healthcare and go from 6 (?) to 2 weeks' paid leave a year just so you can post between 3pm and 11pm USA time? ;-)

So, I just wanted to praise your work on that last encounter. It had the potential to get very nasty for you guys. You ticked absolutely every box on the preparation front. The wonderful work in preparing and coming up with a believable bluff managed to get the captain out of her cabin. She could have been spending a few rounds burning the evidence (as you'll discover soon enough), but your ruse brought her above decks.

Your tactics during the battle were incredibly sound. I was taken aback when Ibid slapped the manacles on, not expecting that on an NPC who was already under the effects of sleep but it did invalidate my next move: kick her awake. The sleep also got her to drop the ledger instead of flinging it overboard. Good luck and good tactics combining.

Speaking of good luck - a big reason for your success has to go to the paizo.com dice rolling system. That first mega-block was incredibly one-sided in your favor. I managed to get some licks in (including some awesome miss rolls on the AoOs vs the captain), but it definitely was weighted in your favor.

Gunari's leap through the grate was crazy and really fun - even if it did increase my combat admin two-fold. The adventure actually says that if Captain Wardak comes to the top deck the encounter gets much harder. It didn't ever consider that you would engage every enemy simultaneously. By my rough calculation, that made it a CR 6 encounter. Nice work to the drunken priest! Very entertaining.

My favorite highlight, however, was still Cyrus climbing up the side of the boat for flavor reasons alone - even though he needed a 19+ to succeed. Still chuckling at that one.

Enjoy the wrap-up lads, and well done!

Careful what you say about 'Merica GM ;)

:-) Nothing untrue, nothing untrue. I'm here 100% by choice and loving it.

It was a lot of fun. Gunari is incredibly easy to get into the character of,as well... It was reckless, and daring, and exactly what a Caydenite would do! He wouldn't even have guessed to have tried if he hadn't made the engineering check! Glad I have that skill.

Holy moly. I just went over the gameplay thread. We started Thursday last week. Feels like so much longer than that - so much has happened. Finished (well, almost) in 8 days. Wow.

You ready for the next one, Gunari? If not, I can grab another scenario and run that.

Oh, and a module might be good. I will say, though, that getting a physical copy will make more work for you. PDFs are very handy. I can have a copy on all of my electronic devices, and it's very easy to copy-paste from the pro-forma text. Not necessarily a huge amount of extra work, but still extra work.

Let me know if you want any of the BBCode for my stat rolls (perception checks, etc), the combat table or anything else. Happy to email it to you.

Wow... Really? Only 8 days? That just seems crazy!

-Posted with Wayfinder

There was a week of bar room relaxation and half-orc bashing. That probably makes it seem like the game took longer.