PFS The Waking Rune: Hard Mode (Inactive)

Game Master Matthais777

Alright everybody, you know the drill!

Player:
Character:
PFS #
Faction:
Day Job:
Slow Track or Normal:
Played before or no?:

Things I should Know about ahead of time: AKA things like trap sense, weird automatic abilities, oddball saves I should be aware of, ect.

Your character isn't "Locked" until ya post a intro in the gameplay thread, so feel free to change up until we actually start.

Player: Abraham Z.
Character: Sir Mr. Proudefeets
PFS #: 100198-4
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Day Job: no, but will check one box on a Treasure Map in lieu of day job roll.
Normal track
Have NOT played/GM'ed before

Things to know:
* Rallying armor gives allies within 30' a +6 morale bonus vs fear
* Always acts in the surprise round

I have some gold to spend and some updates to make to my profile, but should be ready in a day or two.

Player: Steven Johnson
Character: Vos Alavane
PFS # 26225-10
Faction: Sovereign Court
Day Job: Never have, never will.
Slow Track or Normal: Normal
Played before or no?: Yes

I have well-versed, so I get a +4 bonus to saves vs. sonic-based effects.

I can make untrained skill checks on every skill.

I have lingering performance, so I will be activating my performance every third round.

Hi GM Starson and Team Pathfinder!

Looking forward to putting my life in your hands! ;)

I would like to purchase a second potion of fly (2 PP) and a scroll of freedom of movement before we begin if that’s OK, GM Starson.

I am tossing up a third purchase as well, that I will let you know about before we leave the briefing.

To business!

Character: Eadie Navhelan
PFS # 69095-3
Faction: Scarab Sages
Day Job: Take 10 Profession (scrivener): 10 + 6 = 16 (10 gp)
Slow Track or Normal: Normal
Played before or no?: Haven’t played, read or run.

Things to know: Nothing much really. Eadie is a vanilla two-handed fighter build, whose SOP is to hit things.

She has a four leaf clover which lets her add a +2 luck bonus to saves 3/day and is considering getting a lucky horseshoe which adds a continuous +1 luck bonus to saves, PLUS an additional +3 1/day.

(I realize the luck bonuses don’t stack between the items)

She is also fond of applying an oil of bless weapon to her blade to auto-confirm crits against evil things.

★ --- ★ --- ★

Unfinalized team appears to be:

Sir Mr. Proudefeets: Mounted melee 10
Vos Alavane: Bard 10
Yazdan Al-Ashraf: Necromancer 10
Rognak: Wizard 11
Jurin the Cold-blade: Archer 10
Eadie Navhelan: Melee 10

This line-up looks pretty solid on virtual paper.

Player: Matt Hill
Character: Yazdan al-Ashraf
PFS # 103843-18
Faction: Scarab Sages
Day Job: none
Slow Track or Normal: Slow
Played before or no?: Played on normal, also GMed it. I'm using a GM* to replay this session.

Things I should Know about ahead of time: AKA things like trap sense, weird automatic abilities, oddball saves I should be aware of, ect.

If no one else in the party has trap sense I will probably be having Nancy, my Lyrakien Azata familiar UMD scrolls of Find Traps on herself, and I'll cast an extended Aram Zey's Focus on her. Nancy has constant Detect Magic, Detect Evil, and Freedom of Movement. She also has Truespeech. And two bandoliers full of wands and scrolls to UMD.

She and I both have ioun torches with Heightened Continual Flame (5th level, cast by me, which I can make for others if desired, BTW). I have blindsight at 10' (living and undead only).

I'll be good and ready to immediate-action-cast Emergency Force Sphere if I'm in an area of bad stuff happening.

I think that's about it re: things you should know.

Your character isn't "Locked" until ya post a intro in the gameplay thread, so feel free to change up until we actually start.

Good to know; I haven't played this guy in a while and he just got an AP chronicle, so I need to make a shopping list. Also I'd like to coordinate spells with Rognak, the other wizard in our party.

Player:Ed Birnbryer
Character:Rognak (of the Quadruple deaths)
PFS #66136-3
Faction:Dark Archive
Day Job:Alchemy: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (7) + 23 = 30
Slow Track or Normal:Normal
Played before or no?:No
Special:Rognak is a Spell Sage wizard so he has no school or arcane bond but at this point, twice a day he can cast a spell 4 caster levels higher and can also convert two of his spells of the same level to cast a Bard, Cleric or Druid spell of the same level. He has a Varsian tattoo (Evocation) so he cast those spells at +1 Cl, and has Spell specialization (Chain Lighting, +2 CL) so if need be, he can cast Chain Lightning at CL 18. I also have 9 uses of Amateur Investigator for Knowledge checks and a small sliver of Mythic power so if needed, my Initiative would be 27 for one battle.

I was thinking the same thing Yazdan and wanted to see your spell list to do some swapping.

And I have the Service brand for this adventure.

I have just played high tier Race for the Runecarved Key and Salvation of the Sages with Eadie, and found prior preparation to be a must for succeeding with both of them.

Eadie’s MO in Runecarved Key was keeping the enemy off the arcane casters/archers and then mopping them up once they’d been softened up/battlefield controlled/debuffed. I envisage a similar role for her with this group.

Yay! Yazdan’s heightened continual flames should fix any darkness problems we run into.

I have a scroll of anti-incorporeal shell for helping with incorp undead. Can anyone cast that spell from a scroll?

Vos, you appear to have quite the healing arsenal. Eadie has two CLW wands holding 41 charges total, which she is happy to contribute to the cause. Do you think we have enough?

Guys, do we have/need any restoration magic?

The other spell I have found useful is life bubble (great for dealing with cloudkills). Does anyone have/able to cast this spell?

Otherwise, I’m thinking saving throw boosts will be a must for this one. Thoughts?

Okay, mine and Nancy's stat blocks on my profile are both current. I intend tomorrow to transfer many scrolls to Nancy's inventory, and also make a list of my "check this box/cross this off" chronicle boons (I have it in handwritten form but I'm new to [and enjoying] PbP).

EDIT: I need to triple-check all my passive situational bonuses from chronicles. I'll get those added ASAP as well.

Rognak, I've only chosen a few spells for the moment, based on my specialties. I oppose Abjuration and Enchantment. The biggie of those is Dispel Magic. Looks like our good Bard Vos can cover Dispel Magic and Haste. Show me what your preferred daily prep list looks like and I'll tailor mine around yours. I also have Fast Study, so I usually leave one slot of each level open. Here's my book, so we can trade later if you'd like (it's a copy/paste big wall of text from Hero Lab; I at least quickly cut out the cantrips):

Eadie, any incorporeal undead should soon fall under my control, so save that nice scroll. Looks like Rognak has access to Cleric spells, which would include Restoration. Your Life Bubble scroll is on the wizard list. And if anyone else has scroll needs of a more urgent (1 round/level) nature, Nancy is no slouch at UMD.

OH and Nancy can commune with Desna before we go in. As I've played and GMed this adventure, I think it's most fair to ask the rest of the party if they have any questions that could be answered by the divine. 6 questions. We can RP those but I wanted to mention it here.

Rognak, I've only chosen a few spells for the moment, based on my specialties. I oppose Abjuration and Enchantment. The biggie of those is Dispel Magic. Looks like our good Bard Vos can cover Dispel Magic and Haste. Show me what your preferred daily prep list looks like and I'll tailor mine around yours. I also have Fast Study, so I usually leave one slot of each level open. Here's my book, so we can trade later if you'd like (it's a copy/paste big wall of text from Hero Lab; I at least quickly cut out the cantrips):
** spoiler omitted **...

No opposed schools here but tend to be heavy in Evocation spells and I also do the same with the Fast Study/Open slots trick. My daily spell list is pretty much what is posted on the character sheet. And yes, I would love to trade.

I have Glitterdust as my Preferred Spell choice if you'd rather prep something else. And I think Vos can cover Haste.

I still need to update my PbP profile to level 10 and I've got some purchases to make - will post here again when I've done so.

Re strategy, Mr. P and Griff can do much more when they can charge and ride by, rather than standing on the frontlines (and with flying and wheeling charge they can do so reasonably often depending on terrain). For that reason, it may be helpful if some of the casters can add some summoned beasties to assist our fighter on the frontlines. Otherwise, it sounds like we really only have 1 character to stand toe to toe with the baddies.

Also, before I make my purchases it would be helpful to know if there are any particular buffs that the casters anticipate using. Haste actually isn't as useful to Mr. P as it is for many martials because he's at his best when he's making a single charge attack (but of course I won't say no if it's happening anyway, and I imagine it's very helpful to our fighter). My weapon, armor, and shield are all currently only +1 so I'm thinking about upgrading but may hold off if anyone has Greater Magic Weapon and/or Magic Vestment. Anything else that

Also, how are we set for in-combat healing/status removal? Although Mr. P can channel, it's only as a 6th level Paladin (i.e. only 3d6) and he doesn't have selective channel.

Do we have any archers? If so, Mr. P gives you 12 pheremone arrows to use if you can fit them into your routine (they're helpful for the Griffon's attacks).

Mr. P gives a continuous +6 morale bonus vs fear to anyone within 30 feet.

Mr. P, do what you need to do to keep that damage coming. ☺

While Eadie can do decent damage by standing her ground full attacking, I suspect she will be slashing and moving a fair bit in this game to keep the heavies away from the casters/archer.

This was kinda the case in her Runecarved Key game (played with 3 arcane casters + healer cleric + paladin archer). After the first fight, we worked out what everyone did and set about playing to the party’s strengths to smack around the enemy.

Worked out pretty well.

Yazdan, thanks for the note about incorporeal undead! I have decided to sell the anti-incorporeal shell scroll to afford:

• scroll of life bubble (handy spell and the duration can be shared equally amongst the entire party), and
• lucky horeshoe, to boost the fighter’s saves

Do you all think we might have an issue dealing with DR or Elementals? I have access to a +3 Keen Adamantine Heavy Pick that I can acquire for one adventure.

In Eadie’s case, she is pretty specialized for crit hitting and damage output with her +2 adamantine falchion, Rognak.

She has backup cold iron + silver weapons and access to oils of bless weapon, so should be OK with most DR.

Elementals are always painful because of their DR/-

Probably the best way to deal with them is with an Archer/Sir Mr. P/Eadie massive damage alpha strike.

Gotta admit, high level spell casters and failing saves is what I’m most concerned about. Any advice regarding that or ways of stopping them getting their spells off in the first place, would be welcome! :)

Sir Mr, I am not at all specialized for summoning but I am very much specialized for animating recently-deceased beasties. I even have a cool item that'll allow me to add the advanced simple template to an undead creature I animate. So if we defeat something that looks like a good candidate, I'm sure I'll animate it (not sure how the Paladin in you feels about that but we can figure it out in RP. Mechanically, it'll be good for the party). If we have an opportunity to shop before we head to Krune's lair, maybe I'll buy a scroll of SMVI.

Nancy has a big pile of support scrolls to UMD. Greater Magic Weapon and Magic Vestment aren't among them but maybe I can afford them; I'll check. Nancy has all the important "Remove X condition" scrolls. Not as good as a real Cleric of course, but better than nothing. And as Rognak has noted, he can spontaneously cast Cleric spells. As far as in-combat healing... I went through my "cross this boon off when you use it" stuff today and I have access to a 6d6 channel. Other than that, we seem sparse. Nancy has First Aid Gloves. I have several chronicles with limit 1/partially charged wands of Cure Moderate; maybe I'll buy one of those for emergencies as well. I'll try to make sure Nancy has a scroll for every bad occurrence.

Regarding in-combat buffs: looks like Vos has all the good Bard usuals. I'm more of a debuffer and Rognak is mainly a blaster from what I can tell, but we wizards can be versatile. I'd say only count on the Bard buffs being up every fight. I have 2 scrolls of Displacement. Looks like we tentatively have an archer called Jurin who hasn't weighed in yet who could use your pheremone arrows. I hope they are with us because high-sub tier hard-mode with 5 PCs is like the hardest of hard modes.

Eadie, ranged PCs readying to hit casters with something really hard when they start casting is the best way to prevent enemy casters from getting spells off, so that's not in your area of expertise. Or a good counter-speller, but that's not me or Rognak. Hard-hitters who can ready a charge/pounce-type thing is nice and also very rare; doesn't look like we have that in our party make-up either. Let's all make sure our Cloaks of Resistance are up to our affordable max, and buy a Cracked Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone for the competence bonus, if we can afford that as well. Always a good choice between upgrading from +3 to +4 on the cloak.

Vos, you appear to have quite the healing arsenal. Eadie has two CLW wands holding 41 charges total, which she is happy to contribute to the cause. Do you think we have enough?

I mostly have them because they were interesting short charge or increased caster wands I could get on the cheap. Vos has 2 wands of lesser restoration, but they aren't fully charged, so I would like to use those sparingly. That being said, This is likely going to be Vos' last adventure, so I would like him to go out with a bang!

As far as healing out of combat goes, I'm going to assume that everyone has wands of their own for me to use on them during downtime. If not, I would recommend at least a wand of cure light wounds, which is only 2 PA.

And yes, I will be hasting (probably in every combat).

I would not need lifebubble; I have a necklace of adaptation.

As far as adding to saves goes, your saves look pretty good Eadie; let me offer this piece of advice though:

make all your saves, and never get hit.

It's a lesson everyone can use.

The only down side with my casting cleric spells is that it takes a while so it is better doing those out of combat (1 full round per spell level).

If we all pitched in 483.34 gp we could get a scroll of Planar Ally and have a Movanic Deva join our cause in stopping Krune.

He was quite handy when another character of mine allied with him in All for Immortality pt 3 Hard Mode.

I'm down with this idea, Yazdan.

Having a decoy second person to hold the frontline will help everyone.

If everyone agrees, I'll work out how to fit another 483.34gp under the salary cap ;)

Unfortunately I don't have anything that I could contribute to either the scroll itself, or the summoned creature's payment.

Mr. P is fine with contributing to a scroll/payment. @Yazdan, no need to buy scrolls of GMW or MV but thanks anyway.

Do you all think we might have an issue dealing with DR or Elementals? I have access to a +3 Keen Adamantine Heavy Pick that I can acquire for one adventure.

** spoiler omitted **

This won't be helpful to me but thanks.

Are we still waiting on one PC?

Mr. P picked up First Aid gloves.

Also, fyi, pretty sure you can’t ready to charge.

I'll have to double check my available funds, regarding the Deva. I forgot that the payment was in addition to the 1250 gp offering.

Yes, we haven't heard from Jurin the Cold Blade.

Normally you can't ready a charge, yes. But Rhino Charge gives you the ability to do so. There might be a few other weird ways. One of my buddies I play with locally was telling me about a game he was in where a PC animal companion and one of the baddies both had readied to charge each other.

So what would the total charge be for the scroll and the payment? Mr. P is happy to contribute but his funds are getting a bit low so I should make sure I have enough.

That's interesting about Rhino Charge - hadn't seen that one. Raises an interesting rules question about whether, in the case of a mounted rider, do both the rider and the mount need the feat, or can you do it if either of them has it? I can imagine a lot of table variation on this one. In any case, it'll be a long time before either Mr. P or Griff can fit it in.

If there's no word from Jurin, I wonder if we should try to recruit a different sixth PC? Besides the ranged option that he would have brought, it seems like we could benefit especially from some divine caster type. Has anyone heard anything from him?

Total cost for the Deva to join us is 4100. I have 5815 available. I'm willing to pitch in on the Deva, but I also want to triple-check that I've got all the consumables I want before we go in.

I definitely do not want to do this without a 6th. I agree a divine caster would round out this party.

I'll send another message to Jurin. If not, we can try and recruit a 6th.

Got this profile set up; should help avoid confusion.

Hi guys, I have no character in tier but could play Shardra Shaman (Life) Iconic Level 7 with you if no one else signs up.

I'd be happy to be your 6th. Do ya'll need a healer?

(I have a few character options in range) (I also have an earth kineticist 'tank')

Hello, Oogachucka.

OK so, the current party is:

Sir Mr. Proudefeets: Mounted melee 10
Vos Alavane: Bard 10
Yazdan Al-Ashraf: Necromancer 10
Rognak: Wizard 11
Eadie Navhelan: Melee 10

We're lacking a divine caster. We have scrolls and Rognak can cast a few Cleric spells, but a divine full caster would probably be ideal.

Sure, let me update this character and I'll be ready.

EDIT: Updated, also I do not have high hopes for this crew.

Good to have you Oogachucka. Look forward to you all dying horribly. :) Post in the gameplay thread with your intro, and we'll get this ball of horrible death rolling.

Guys, this strikes me as a test of nerve and faith in each other. I plan on giving it my all.

If my actions/dice roller/whatever dictates my PC dies –– so be it.

But if there is anything we need to spend now to help our chances, please let me know before we "Break the token"

....Maybe my message came off as a bit harsh as will this one as well. I am sure ya'lls characters are cool and interesting, but this is hard mode waking rune. If your character is not something that you cringe at playing because it ruins games due to its sheer op'ness then we are likely to TPK. If you don't overtly or covertly apologize for your character's power level, we are likely to TPK. Again, I don't mean this as an insult to anyone or their characters, it is simply how hard mode and all of the Bonekeeps were designed. And, depending on how the GM prepared this, we may not even stand a chance regardless of our preparations. So mentally prepare yourselves.

All this being said, I swear to all of you that I will do my best to keep you up. If you run away from me, do something silly, or have a less powerful character, you will be prioritized lower in the resurrection queue. I will try to keep track of the damage on your characters and will post my track to the Discussion thread. If I have missed something please let me know.

That's good enough for me ;)

Let's do this thing!

I am aware of the challenge here. I've GMed and played it. IF the GM strays from Krune's tactics as written, we're probably screwed no matter what. But that would go against the spirit of PFS, where you must run tactics as written.

I recently played through All for Immortality Hard Mode with one of my clerics. This PC went through the Gauntlet, which I guess is "kinda hard" with no problem as well. I am using a GM star to replay this on Hard Mode because I want to do all the Hard Mode scenarios before Pathfinder v2. I trust in my own system mastery enough to feel up to the challenge before us.

I need to triple-check my last-minute purchases, then I should be ready to break my token sometime this afternoon.

Having never did "Hard Mode" before, what is the difference? Do you get more benefits or just bragging rights?

Did we ever make a decision about the scroll of Planar Ally? And if so, what was the total cost per PC? Just want to double-check my purchases before we get started.

Having never did "Hard Mode" before, what is the difference? Do you get more benefits or just bragging rights?

I believe they are generally just bragging rights, though I don't know in this particular case since I've never played this one.

Hard mode is just for bragging rights, although there’s a con boon from season 5 (I have it) that lets you recharge its use by completing hard mode scenarios.

I -think- I’ll buy the planar ally scroll and then anyone who wants can pitch in whatever they want. I just need to go over my ITS’s and consumables when I get a chunk of time. I’ll do that this afternoon.

IF the GM strays from Krune's tactics as written, we're probably screwed no matter what. But that would go against the spirit of PFS, where you must run tactics as written.

Luckily, I'm evil, not a jerk. :) I've read the GM help thread cover to cover on this one, and plan on following Krune's most diabolic tactics, tricks, and evil schemes as intended (We're so lucky in PFS to have the developers and writers chime in so often on stuff like that!). Frankly, he's much more fun to run that way, and I want you all to be able to brag that you beat Krune and MEAN it.

Having never did "Hard Mode" before, what is the difference? Do you get more benefits or just bragging rights?

Yup, Bragging rights. I've done a fair chunk of the hard mode stuff, and it's always worth the story.

Besides the First Aid gloves (4500) mentioned before, Mr. P also purchases a Cloak of Resistance +2 (4000) and two Pearls of Power I (2000). This leaves him 1261 gp and he is happy to contribute towards the Planar Ally.

I -think- I’ll buy the planar ally scroll and then anyone who wants can pitch in whatever they want.

Thanks, Yazdan!

I'll also contribute to the planar ally scroll. Just let me know what the cost is.

I am on an overnight work trip, but have my tablet so posting will be no problem.

I may need some help moving Eadie's token on the map, if someone could please help out with that.

Hey, just a heads-up: I'm leaving Thursday (tomorrow) evening after work for a weekend music festival with my family. I'll try to make time to check in once on Friday and Saturday, but I can't guarantee I will. I'll be back home Sunday.

I am glad I was not have any coffee in my mouth when I read the post.