[PFS] GM Lithrac's Thornkeep, part III - The Enigma Vaults (Inactive)

Game Master Cyril Corbaz

Ditto on what Choamski said.

Yeah, if is strange - I wouldn't expect the ones who post with quality to disappear.

As much as I am enjoying it, of course, I think that Choamski might have the right idea, with a suspension around the appropriate time, or certainly a slow down. I would think we could handle that and still remain a good group. Since I'm also on for other games I would see when things start back up easy enough.

I haven't played or GMed any of the modules, so anything is good with me.

Congrats on being a dad soon.

Sorry Kort didn't pan out, but I too understand when RL tears up.

I don't mind replacing the playlist with other ones. I am quite enjoying the group we got so replace as needed :)

Congratulations! And yes I hope it goes without saying we're all more than happy to work around your pace and schedule, thus far these games have been so much faster than the norm there is plenty of room for manoeuvre. Carrion Hill works for me, have not run it and it sounds intriguing.

I'm sad to see Kort go, but I was getting frustrated with him in honesty, I understand sometimes its hard to find the time to get a proper post in, but it seems pretty easy, and takes 2 minutes to give a heads up. Hopefully we have no major need for trapfinding before the next module when Rellen will have it.

Kort was a good combo for us as sorcerer and rogue, it seems.

Mmmm, we have rogue more or less covered and I really don't see what unique ability an arcanist offers to a party with a bard before 5th level, even then really. Kort was more a rogue that used Vanish, and his disable device and stealth were only just better than Rellen's. Personally I think we would be better off getting another focused damage dealer, ideally a ranged character - either that or a battlefield control type, but its hard to do that effectively at this level.

That said, I think since we have most things covered we can afford to select based upon criteria other than pure utility. A faster poster who RPs well is the main priority IMO.

I still favor an arcane sort :) But I'm flexible.

Rellen - That's probably true, especially with you as an urban ranger. Still, I wax nostalgic for (and probably am stuck in) the days of fighter, cleric, magic-user, thief.

Did I mention I am going straight cleric?

I have no opinion.. With 5 people already it could be any class..

Hey Lithrac, I just saw that you are running Skull & Shackles! Too bad I live in the wrong country, that AP sounds like fun. :) I've been trying to get in a PbP for it.

Although, looking at the post (the pirate crews thread), that AP was well over a year ago.. did you finish, or still running?

I ran the first installment of the AP then we had to stop for various reasons. It's a shame because it's an amazing AP in my opinion.

Apologies for being late, I'm sick and unable to post as regularly as I would like.

No worries! Get better!

My apologies. I didn't mean to speak for another character. If you want you can still use up my action and the item and say he didn't take it? Or say I tried to feed it as a full round action (which would burn my standard up next sturn, as I had to draw as a move this turn).

Would any of these compromises be acceptable?

I'll accept the compromise that Rellen would withdraw to the square to your right and allow himself to be fed the stillgut by you. I don't see why it would be a full-round action (unless he was unwilling to take the potion, which he isn't), so a standard is fine.

To be clear the action Rellen takes is closing the door. He would happily accept Choamski's aid after that, but I am not willing to have my actions dictated.

I do not believe I have done anything that means I should loose my control over my character and see no reason why I should compromise my choice of actions. Perhaps I am being a tad petty but I really do not understand why we are not simply going with the action of the players character.

Choamski, I absolutely understand you had no intent to dictate, etc.

Hmm. Well... Unfortunately, I ran through the once-opened door like a darned fool. If it was clear that it was closed, then I would have waited. Eh, oh well.

PbP works with a lot of assumptions, all the time. For this scenario alone, I'm counting at least two.

Example one:

The order I'm trying to suggest:

Round 1, 2 - Guidance over Rellen then Chasik
Round 3, 4 - Resistance over Rellen then Chasik
Round 5, 6 - PfE over Rellen then Chasik
Round 7 - PfE over Knorrin; Choamski casts Bless over the party; Whizzy starts his performance; Rellen casts Lead Blades.
Round 8 - Whizzy begins his performance, someone (Whizzy?) opens the door from the side, I'll fire my crossbow at something as a Readied Action, and we start rushing through.

Something like that? If the actions make sense and are all doable.

Knorrin's suggestion of buffs before opening a given door. People hardly commented on it, and Wizzy certainly didn't say anything about his performance being started beforehand, but all the bonuses were taken into account regardless, because it was assumed so. If you don't like assumptions, I'll ask for everyone to state every buff he's casting before opening a door every time, and we'll lose the fast pace you like in my games. We could do it, but no one would like it. That's why assumptions exist in PbP.

Same with example two:

Rellen clutches his head and steps back, grabbing Knorrin and pulling the door shut, "Gah, don't know what that was but we don't want any more of it."

Turning he opens the other door, once again giving the others a pointed look and a couple of seconds to prepare.

Did Rellen wait for someone else's opinion before opening the door? I'm sure the party cleric would have liked an opportunity to cure those 4 charisma damage hampering his second most important ability score. Rellen choice to open the door relies on the assumption that everyone in the party is okay to proceed so. Are they really? I'm not sure, but you made a choice for someone else. And so did Choamski by rolling your second save (by the way you haven't answered my question: how come your will save is -2 and not -1?). You did so in the interest of moving forward in the game, you made a call. So did Choamski.

That's the point I'm trying to make you understand here. If we want to progress at a good pace, we're forced to make these assumptions. That last one was particularly clumsy from my part and Choamski's, since we should have waited for you to make the save or state another course of action. But we made a call. Next time in the same situation I'll ask Choamski to erase his post with the roll and wait for you to roll.

Now let's move along with it, please.

Fair enough.

ALLCON -

First - rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated. I'm not dead - simply being eaten alive by new job and new commute. Please accept my sincerest apologies for the dead air, I really hadn't anticipated the impact of the changes on my free time.

I still haven't caught up on PMs. Correspondance to follow.

Hi Kort,

We have moved quite a bit since you last checked in. As for the last two times you acted in a similar fashion, I just would have liked a simple message letting us know what was going on. Apparently it was too much to ask despite my repeated asking for this. Be warned that if this happens again, you won't be accepted back into the game.

As of now, we're about halfway through the module. This means that if you come back in the game, you'll only gain half gold, exp and fame/prestige. You'll be able to join at the end of the current encounter.

ack, I can't believe I called my character a dwarf! I swear I have paraphasia sometimes.

Rellen, that was a crit threat...

Oh nice, so it was! I swapped out my combat scabbards for sharpened combat scabbards because the former cannot be made in MW weapons on herolab - which I suspect is correct - and was remembering the old crit range. Damn 18-20 that's awesome!

And boosh! Well spotted Choamski!

Moved you forward one room since the first room hold no interest at all and is actually detrimental to game pace.

Hi all,

My computer is in the shop and my backup computer is resisting all attempts to start up properly, so I may need to be botted by someone or GMPCed if there's a holdup.

I may be able to sneak some time in to make a post, though, but don't want to hold things up.

Hi Knorrin,

Thanks for letting us know! I'm sorry about your computer, I hope things will get fixed soon.

+1 :)

The situation seems dire... any suggestion what the best move for Knorrin might be?

As a cleric of Saerenrae (with the Sun domain, no less), perhaps channeling to harm undead would be in order.

Was the bard +4 vs. sonic affects taken into account for the babbling save?

Thanks for bringing this to my attention! What a relief!

As for Knorrin, I'm going to give him 24 hours since the round began to post, if not I'll go with a channel (or something else if you make better suggestions, but this one seems a safe bet).

Rellen,

Are your familiar with the ability to make knowkedge checks untrained on favored enemies using your favored enemy (+int) bonus? It essentially gives you a virtual K(religion) +2 only to identify undead ( or a it would add your favored enemy bonus if you had the skil K(religion))

So, in your case +3 on K(religion) v undead

I was not, that is good to know!

Just to be clear: we split up the costs for the healing after the mod, if everyone's alright with it?

These would be the 4 lesser restorations: 2 Rellen, 1 Choamski, 1 Knorrin.
I have the cash to cover up-front costs right now for 4 lesser restoration (4*60 = 240 at standard prices), and we settle up at the end (I know not everyone has the cash right now). I believe that's within the scope and spirit of rules for PFS. So that would be 40 gp for everyone at the end. Sound acceptable?

Pre-rolls in case it's ok with everyone:

GM and Choamski,

Actually, I had purchased (*ahem*) and used a scroll of lesser restoration already, healing my 4 points of Cha damage (unless there was more from somewhere that I missed):

Knorrin's healing

;-)

Ok, I (and my character) are cautious sorts, so I'm still going to pre-emptively deal with it.

Ah, right! That's one less to do then. With Choamski buying one, only Rellen's 5 Wis and 4 Cha remains to be cured.

There appears to be no time constraint can we hire a healer? I believe there is one in the NPC codex with a +9. If we were to hire one for one day who could care for six of use in 24 hours we would all recover 4 ability score damage and Knorrin could prepare some spells.

I am not sure whether ability score damage would heal at four points per score or four in total - anyone know? I've had a brief look and its not clear to me.

I had been toying with the thought of suggesting a sort of RP event at some point. Maybe a chance where we could more of less GM Lithrac a bit of a rest and do some light RP, and I was considering having Rellen marry Chief Wolfsmane's daughter. Only a very vague notion at this point, but I think it would be great fun and an excellent way for the characters to bond, etc. We could invite the important NPCs, of the town, etc. I don't imagine it would cause any problems with PFS play as long as we do not gain anything tangible, and from what GM Lithrac has said it does not seem like the town is connected in any real way with the modules. Thoughts?

Anyway I thought that healing wisdom and charisma damage naturally would probably be akin to rebuilding the psyche. So if the chieftain's daughter was a healer and spend a day essentially digging into Rellen's heart and soul it would provide a very compelling reason to become close to someone quickly.

Also I am cheap and I need to buy a lot of swords :)

This is a PFS game so you can't hire someone, but you can definitely purchase spellcasting services. A single casting of Lesser Restoration costs 60 gp or 1 pp. Otherwise, a night's sleep restores one point ability damage, two if you have a full rest (24 hours). Can you imagine Rellen staying in bed for five days? ;)

As for the time constraint, don't forget the dungeon is not a static environment waiting for you to come back. We're currently one fight away from the end of the module, so I'd like to wrap it quickly if possible. You're more than welcome to roleplay afterwards. Your idea of rebuilding the psyche is definitely an interesting one! Though with Rellen's Charisma score...

A final note: After the end of this module, I'm going to take a break from GMing this series of PFS events for obvious reasons. I'm not sure if I'll resume them afterwards so if you want to play your character, please do so! It's been very fun, but the upcoming time constraints won't mesh well with GMing online.

I'll can finish up the series, if folks wish. EDIT: if people don't mind my substandard grammar and tendency to leave words out of sentences.

I am pretty sure you can hire hireling in PFS, there is a debate about it over on the PFS forums, but its on whether you can hire hirelings to accompany you into danger. Everyone seems to agree you can hire them outside of that.

I would like to finish up the series, but I would be very sad to see Choamski go. Perhaps we could appeal to some other GM? Or here's an idea we could sign GM Lithrac up as a player which is less time consuming.

I'll can finish up the series, if folks wish. EDIT: if people don't mind my substandard grammar and tendency to leave words of sentences.

Outstanding news! Thanks for stepping up.

@Rellen: I believe you can hire one, but it's a vanity. Check the PFS Field Guide for more information.

@Lithrac: What sort of subject do you teach, out curiosity?

English (as a third language) and History

Good! I feel slightly better. If you taught something like Computer Science and had such perfect English I would feel considerably worse about my dubious grammar and spelling.

U.S. nationals and our silly tendency towards monolingualism...

Knorrin, my output sheet for PCGEN is going into the next distro! I feel almost useful...

What's the decision regarding Rellen's ability damage?

In the interest of moving things along, Choamski will fund Rellen's lesser restorations out of his personal funds

Wis: 1d4 ⇒ 2
Cha: 1d4 ⇒ 4

That leaves me with 140-ish gold left over.

Thanks, Choamski, for offering to take over the GMing, and thanks especially to GM Lithrac for the GMing so far. (I had to put my own aside for now, too, since it is so time consuming.)

I'm still without my own computer, but ready to take on the BBEG.

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