[PFS] The Broken GM's Black Waters (Inactive)

Game Master Broken Prince

As the group take in their surroundings and peer into the eastern recess they see the perfectly preserved body of a young boy lying in a puddle and staring silently upwards.

All but the injured Rogar also spy a dull silver gleam amidst the pooled debris in one corner of the room, and investigation reveals a silver ring engraved with stylized pictures of birds.

Perception Rogar: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
Perception Yarg: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22
Perception Mrachni: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
Perception Alafair: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Perception Slachagok: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17

"Ouch... that thing certainly packed a punch! It's good we hacked it to pieces... Now, I would just love if someone could help me, as I think that last blow broke something..." says the taldan smiling... and clenching his teeths at the same time

Any loot in the form of armor or weapons?

"This'll fix ya," the warpriest grunts, seeing another opportunity to show off his snazzy wrist-mounted wand-launcher.

Give Rogar a tap with the wand, then reload it into the sheath.

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

"Some sort o' zombified bugbear, this 'un," he nods toward the putrescent corpse recently de-animated by his allies. "What it was doin' down here or how it got t' this state, I couldn't tell ye. Never been t'a necropolis before, though, p'raps these types are standard fare."

He ponders the implications of an entire facility full of goblinoid undead for a moment, before turning to consider at the body in the puddle.

"Dunno what to make o' this either. Strange state to be in, if he's been here since the floodin'."

Sweep the room with Detect Magic. If this doesn't turn up any auras, take 20 on Perception (for 22) to examine the body in the puddle.

Yarg heads over to the gleam of silver... Could it be the ring that they were searching for?

Pondering carefully he looks through his pathfinder kit for thread and fish hook and then prepares a fishing line to try to hook the ring.

Mrachni steps over and kneels by the boy's body, one hand held hovering over it. "May he find justice in death," he whispers, before standing to observe Yarg's actions.

"The boy's state of preservation is concerning. Magic of some kind must be at work, or he is a newly dead. Can anyone check him for means of his death? Of course, he may be another zombie."

Best not disturb any bodies down here... it would be almost too much to be hoped for for that child to be alive and preserved from the perils of the like we've just encountered.

The burly orc nods. "We should hurry on and finish our task."

Glancing over at the caretaker, he pauses and tries to get a sense of the other's thoughts.

Slachagok sees that the ring is magical and spies a slim leather bound book beneath the boys body. The boy shows no signs of life, or undeath, but it seems as if he is only hours dead - much like the arm from above.

It is pretty clear that this ring is not the two-finger ring topped with a ruby salamander you are seeking.

Yarg tries to hook the ring with his fishing rig.

Take 20

Rogar feels relieved as Slachagok cures him:"Thanks, mate" he nods, then glancing towards the exit he adds:"Well... if we are done here I think we have better move along, I think that thing might have some friends somewhere near and it would be inexscusable of us not to greet them as they deserve"

Rogar moves towards the room's exit

Mrachni growls softly. "And you would warn them that we are coming with your bright light. Kindly sheathe it, or at the least hide it beneath your cloak. Those of us who can see in the dark will go in front."

Glancing over at Yarg, he observes the ring-extraction process with some interest.

We should probably grab the book too, but Mrachni didn't see it. Anyone have mage hand for that, assuming it's not magical?

The group move forward passing by an empty flooded room lined with alcoves filled with multitudes of ancient skeletal remains.

In the room ahead water drips from the double-vaulted ceiling and trickles down the walls to pools on the floor. Bone shards of a hundred skulls litter the floor like scattered seashells. Wide stairs climb to the west. Narrow stairs dive to the north. On the south wall an open doorway gapes, a carved relief depicting a massive battle filling the archway over the door. The rest of the walls are filled floor to ceiling with nooks, that house ancient drenched skeletal remains. In the centre of the room sit twelve school children in a circle on the floor. One child seems to be silently telling a story, her arms moving rapidly as she makes scary faces.

"Cassiel! I knew you were alive! Daddy is here Daddy is here, please come back with me. Cassiel!" Deris wails, pushing forward past the group sobbing uncontrollably at the sight of his little girl...

Perception Rogar: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Perception Yarg: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22
Perception Mrachni: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Perception Alafair: 1d20 ⇒ 18
Perception Slachagok: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

Aww DM, why you gotta roll so low for me!?

"Oh? Could this really be?"says Rogar scratching his head, puzzled

Wait, he says, grabbing at the distraught man. Let us stay quiet a moment so as to not draw unclean things to your daughter.

I take it ring and book were extracted? The action sort of jumped there

Posted this this morning, not sure what happened, thankfully Lazarus saved the post.

Sorry Yarg, my bad meant to say you got the ring. The book we can leave - its for a faction mission and not actually useful to any of you so I figured you could worry about it on the way back.

Yarg was indeed easily able to retrieve the ring. The soft padding upon the long dark stair draws closer to those keen of ear.

Deris nods fervently hugging his daughter, horror spreading across his face for a moment as he obviously passes through the girl. A glazed expression drifts across his features again and he shifts his position so he appears to be hugging the girl who is obviously ignoring him, and like the sad students above, obviously no longer of this mortal coil.

Perception Rogar: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19
Perception Yarg: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
Perception Mrachni: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Perception Alafair: 1d20 ⇒ 15
Perception Slachagok: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

Please give me two rounds of actions and place yourself where you wish to be on the map everyone.

Keeping his voice low, Mrachni warns the others, "Something coming."

He draws his sword and moves up next to the stairs, taking a deep breath and focusing on justice and life. Round one: move around corner from stairs*, drawing sword. Activate War Mind on self as standard action. Round two: forgo move action, ready action to attack hostile.

* Map updated with the assumption that we're talking about the stairs now NW of Mrachni.

No readying out of combat, that's what surprise rounds are for - and nobody is surprised here.

I read "two rounds of actions" as us being in combat. He'll just wait until the second 'round' to use War Mind.

As he waits for their foes Mrachni and anyone else with darkvision at the top of the stairs sees three figures that look vaguely human, but have a terrible bestial savage aspect.

Knowledge Religion.

Knowledge (Religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Following Mrachni moving on the other side of the stairwell, weapon out of the scabbard, considering movement it should take 2 rounds I guess

"Did you hear THAT?" says Rogar to the half orc

Knowledge Religion (Identify Monster) 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

Will wait for the result before I act but I suspect unless we have a magic weapon we are Soooooooo screwed

Round 1

Throw elemental ray at the nearest target. E ray, ranged touch: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16
Electrical Dmg: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Round 2
If same one is still standing, target with magic missile. If not, choose next closest. All the while staying behind the wall of masculinity.

Magic Missile dmg: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Three gaunt hungry figures are now visible to the whole group, though they are in dim light and have cover due to the steep angle of the stairs. They hiss and howl with lust at the sight of living flesh!

Everyone is up. Remember they have cover so -4 and if you do not have darkvision they are in dim light for the moment - though only just moving a light spell or similar onto the first step of the stairs would put the first in normal light, etc.

Initiative Rogar: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14
Initiative Yarg: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15
Initiative Mrachni: 1d20 ⇒ 14
Initiative Alafair: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
Initiative Slachagok: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
Init Ghouls: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11

Mrachni will take the +1 to AC for this round to put his AC at 17 (11 touch). Round 1/10.

"The Swordmistress guide us!" exclaims Mrachni, gesturing with one hand and gripping his sword tightly in the other. Cast bless.

"Wait for them to come to us," he cautions quietly. "We have the advantage now, but if we engage them in the stairs, we won't have it."

Ghouls! Eaters of flesh - 'ware their claws! They can paralyze you...

Round 1 - Casts Divine Favour = +1 luck bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls for 1 minute. Range: Personal. Round 2 - Action held to attack the first creature in melee range using destructive smite (Destruction domain = + level to damage, no action cost from what I can tell)

Attack 1d20 + 4 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 4 + 1 + 1 = 8/Damage 1d10 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 4 + 1 = 12

Edit: Move to current square but same as above and Judgement of protection: Adds +1 to AC

How are we breaking the init tie between Slach and the ghouls?

I always going favour of keeping the group together, so you go first.

On his turn Rogar moves down the stairs and attacks the nearest ghoul with power attack

Considering how narrow the passage is Rogar goes down to meet the ghouls 1 vs 1 instead of allowing them to spread:"And what have we got here? That dead bugbear ugly brothers? Time to go meet him, undead scum!"

Attack Roll: 1d20 + 6 - 1 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 6 - 1 + 1 = 19
Damage Roll: 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (5, 3) + 9 = 17

Rogar's blade carves through the ghoul's neck sending vial smelling ichor flying and sending it tumbling back down the stairs, destroyed.

Alafair and Slachagok are up!

Mrachni I don't mind in character chastisement, but please don't give any out of character - sort of boarding on it there. Remember Mrachni has no right to order other characters and they are free to disregard him utterly.

Mrachni, I read what you wrote, it's just that Rogar is the way he is. Read his profile... "valiant fool" wasn't put there just for show, when I play a character I try to convey his personality with speech and actions. And Rogar is a young, impetuous fool, out for glory. Does this mean he's suicidal? Not at all, it's just that in a situation like that I felt he would have done things exactly that way. I understand it was not the best decision from a tactical point of view, and your character has all the reasons to expect a different approach (as he doesn't know him yet), so no problem with Mrachni calling him a "fool", but also consider I know fully well how risky it is for a lvl 1 character to confront ghouls 1 vs 1 but Rogar doesn't. Rogar might very well die here, because of his personality. He would have taken the risk just to prove his mettle, and then regret his decision and be forced to retreat. We'll see what happens next.

DM, I believe you read more snark/hostility into my post than I intended, but I've removed it in case I misjudged the levels when I wrote it.

Rogar: There's a lot I want to say, but I don't want to write a dissertation here. You don't seem to be upset, which is good; I hope we can continue to discuss this in a cool and collected manner. There are basically three things bothering me:

1) Your action is causing the rest of the table to basically "sit out".

2) Rogar's not a 6-wis barbarian. In fact, he's wiser than the average joe, and with an average intelligence. Could the "heat of battle" cause him to do something stupid? Sure... but you are the one who determines who he is and how he acts.

3) We're in play-by-post, so I can't read your expressions or your inflections when you say that's what he's doing. Since you didn't say anything about the tactic (even OOC), I had no idea if you read the post and were ignoring* it, or missed it in the flurry and hadn't considered the option. In a PbP it's extra-important to communicate - something that would really help us all be on the same page would be an OOC note like 'As a player I agree with the tactic, and this may be an unwise decision, but I'm going to go for it... and if I die, I die.'

It's a team game, and we're supposed to be a team. Yes, you want to play your character the way you think you should, but you also want to make sure that your teammates (co-players) are on board with it... and the latter needs to take precedence. Communicate obsessively; we all want each other to have a fun game.

* Some people (trolls) seem to think it's "fun" to do precisely what the rest of the group warns against; and that, unfortunately, looks exactly the same as taking the warned-against action for some other reason, unless you communicate.

No problems from me. I agree on most of what Mrachni wrote (aside from the wisdom remark) and especially on the part where he stresses how everyone needs to have fun. I didn't think of things that way when I took that decision, and I don't want anyone to feel left out, so next round, as long as I can, I will withdraw back and allow for the ghouls to be lured into the room.

A bit of a 'Leeeeeroy Jenkins' moment... lets hope you don't get paralysed... if you DO get paralysed, we reserve the right to draw a moustache and goatee on you with charcoal until you recover.

"Rogar's assault is brave, but he's keeping the rest of us from having a clear shot. Step back, brave Taldan, step back and let the rest of your allies aid you," Alafair cries as her countryman rushes into the fray bravely decapitating one of the ghouls.

Staying well behind the others, but keeping line of sight, Alafair casts Magic Missile at the next nearest ghoul, hoping to wound it enough to let Rogar back away.

Magic Missile Dmg: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

I fully support sub-optimal tactics justified by character flaws, just to weigh in. It's one thing if it puts the rest of the group directly at risk, but with four fully-stocked players waiting in the wings, I don't think anyone else needs to endanger themselves to summit this encounter. I have seen a single ghoul almost TPK a 5-person party when everyone decided to pile down a hallway single-file, though, so if he does get paralyzed, well, he should hope the ghouls don't stop to eat.

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

Slachagok grunts in frustration as the fighter goes charging up the stairway, though he cannot argue with the immediate results.

"Watch out f' their bite, ye damn fool!" he snarls, shouting down the corridor.

Slach speaks these inspiring words, granting a minor blessing of Nobility to Rogar. +2 morale bonus to attack rolls, skill and ability checks, and saves(!) for one round.

I sort of regret wasting my judgement in light of events but C'est le Vive...

The ghoul next ghoul moves up the stairs towards Rogar and sinks its fangs into his thigh needle-sharp fangs tearing into the flesh and coming away with a great gobbet of Taldan meat in its gore stained maw!

Rogar feels his leg stiffen and begin to tingle as if its asleep, but is able to shake off the effect.

Everyone is up!

Just so its clear the stairs count as difficult terrain, hence the ghoul only getting one attack and not all three. Please bare this in mind!

Ghoul vs Rogar: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19 Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Rogar DC 13 Fort vs Disease: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Rogar DC 13 Fort vs Paralysis: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

As I promised Rogar will withdraw

Rogar feels the ghoul's claws bite his flesh and supresses a cry of pain, angered, he prepares to launch another attack:"So eager... now it's your turn to die! but then he eaars Alfair's voice and reason returns to him:"Very well... never disappoint a lady! You get to live, or whatever you do for a couple more instants... be glad, ugly!" and so saying the taldan fighter retreats to his original position.

Let's see what would have happened if I stayed and fought
Attack Roll: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
Damage Roll: 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (6, 6) + 9 = 21EDIT: XD It would have meant another dead ghoul, but no biggie

I'm guessing the rest of you wish to ready? If not just post your action and I'll slot it in retroactively.

The ghouls rush forward after Rogar hissing and gnashing their fangs with lust filled eyes staring at the tender flesh before them. The first ghoul stops at the top of the stairs, where it is still able to snap out at Rogar, but with the wall offering cover the fighter dodges.

The second ghoul races up to the top of the stairs, its hunger overruling its better judgement.

Ghouls vs Rogar with Cover: 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (13) + 3 - 4 = 12

Yarg turns his judgement of protection into a judgement of justice (+1 to hit) and attacks the ghoul from his position using his destructive nature to augment the strike.

Attack 1d20 + 4 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 4 + 1 + 1 = 9
Damage 1d10 + 4 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 4 + 1 + 1 = 8

The dice... they love me

Alafair steps back 5' from the nearest ghoul, giving one of the melee combatants a path to the undead. From her more distant position, she fires an elemental burst of electrical energy at the lead ghoul.

Elemental Ray, Ranged Touch, into melee: 1d20 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (19) + 2 - 4 = 17
Electrical Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

I believe this would be the same one that took a Magic Missile earlier.

The ghoul hisses in pain as Alafair's second magic assault strikes true, snarling at her, even as it dodges Yarg's strike.

Readying is good.

Mrachni swings his sword at the ghoul foolish enough to enter the room.

Readied Swording (bless): 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 4 + 1 = 25
Confirm: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 4 + 1 = 23
Damage: 2d8 + 4 ⇒ (6, 3) + 4 = 13

After that, War Mind will be +1 to attack rolls and he'll ready again (for the last one to step forward).