Palace of the Vampire Queen (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

I hope everyone returns when they find the time.

I realize this has been a long, sometimes confusing adventure

I've placed a little interlude in the game thread I hope will serve to give focus on what is going on, and answers most of your questions

I am waiting to see what the party decides to do with the captive goblin, remember Zeebu is available to deliver the captive to Galinea, if you take that route.

The campaign information tab has been updated with some notes on Goblin Deities.

The synopsis from 2014 is still relevant, but I'll try to get a new one up soon.

The adventure map is updated

As long as no one has any objections, can you move the group the places I've specified?

no objections

no objections to objectify

I updated the map, I hope I got everything correct.

Let me know what you plan on doing next.

Next, assuming we aren't interrupted, Mixz is going to open the door.

In other news - I am traveling to Boise to put my wife on a plane (she is going to Cambodia for two weeks to visit our daughter). I might be late in posting this weekend and the beginning of the week

ok... thanks for the heads up... have a safe trip... same to your wife as well...

I've sort of got my house in order, and being a bachelor for two weeks is going to be a challenge (I bought three frozen pizzas, that ought to be enough to last, right?)

I made a small game post, but I'm looking for the rest of you to get involved in the shenanigans as soon as you have a moment.

I sent the second of two private messages to Grundar - he has not posted to any threads since June 14th I hope he is well

If we lose him, the party is back to 4 Player characters

Hallister
Miagnik
Chuffer
Mixz

Which can still work - hopefully

I know it's slow, but I don't intend to quit

I think I am going to have to assume Grunder is missing - which means a quick rework of the next several encounters _ I'll be as quick as I can and will update the game tonight

I've been dealing with internet issues for about a week now, I kept hoping it would improve and I didn't want to say anything but today I rushed getting a post in while I had service and I screwed it up

So to be clear

The goblin king and queen are held one floor below you, but there are no other details

The dwarven prisoners are held in cages in the large room at the end of the hall, to the left back out the door you came in, and are guarded by a bone golem

Leaving this morning for Boise to pick up my wife and daughter who are returning from Cambodia - Our daughter has finished her Fulbright Scholarship and will be home for three weeks (we haven't seen her for a year) so the next little while might be a bit slower than the regular slowness

no problem, thanks for the heads up, and congratulations on reuniting with your daughter again... family first!

Did we just get randomly hit by a spammer?

yes, whatever the boards call a drive by i seems

checking in

Mixz actually brings up a good point in his role playing.

I'd assumed given the nature of the island that the Goblins were different from the typical depictions of their race in Pathfinder and didn't hold superstitions about the "evil" scratching in books stealing the thoughts from your head.

Does that still hold true for the most part, with Miagnik and Mae being different due to their upbringing? Is it the opposite with Mixz being the unconventional one? Or is it just based off of personal background?

good point, Miagnik... I'm not sure, was just playing Mixz like a typical goblin in PF... If that's not accurate on the island, we'll call it a quirk of Mixz's background and nothing more... she'll get over it with a little help perhaps, maybe even learn to read in time! lol

I'm hoping things will settle down by Wednesday or Thursday, when my daughter heads for San Francisco on her way back to Cambodia, but right now, emotions are running high

...we bought her wedding dress on Friday. The wedding is being planned for February, on Oahu...yikes

As far as Mixz is concerned. It doesn't matter if I said originally that goblins in this campaign should not be thought of in terms of typical Pathfinder Goblins. Like many things I say, it is only a suggestion and a player is always welcomed to role play their character how they imagine they should be.

I can easily see Mixz being from one of the struggling goblin settlements, with many well intentioned and educated goblins trying to hold onto old traditions and cultural identities while the economic harassment of the dwarven lords (some worse than others) upsets the day to day quality of living - this is what has led to an uprising among the goblins and the looking at the traditional "king and queen" as not so much relics of a time past, and figure heads, but possible leaders in a new independent goblin nation recognized as free and sovereign by the dwarves - yes it's all a bit over the top, but this is easily the sort of situation that can lead to goblins growing up more superstitious, less educated, and more "disagreeable" than they have been in the past.

Setting my goals on updating all games in the next 24 hours. I hope everyone is still around. I’ll post a short recap to remind everyone where we are and then try my best to get things moving again.

Thank you

I will be traveling from Saturday morning until Weds. night (driving up north to see the eclipse). I will try to check in at least once a day, but if I miss a post time, please feel free to bot me to keep the flow going. I don't want to hold up the game.

Welcome to our part of the world, if you are headed into Idaho.

I failed to update games -

actually, we're headed to Salem, OR... wanted to go to Idaho, but every hotel we tried to get into there was booked. Portland had some rooms still avail. and it's not too far from Salem.

I will be attending Strategicon from Friday through Monday... Will be able to make limited posts, but not reliably nor frequently... I will try to keep up with at least one post a day, but no guarantees. Please bot me as needed to keep up the pace of the game, thanks.

Like to just say that the information I gave was that the other characters would miss the first round, unless Mixz gave some kind of warning

She did,

Miagnik jumped in with an Initiative roll but I have not heard from Chuffer or Hallister

Oh, I thought Mixz was the only one in combat so far. Sorry for the delay.

Yikes - I don't want to narrate a collision. Hall, you posted well after Chuffer and she has moved into the same place you called out.

Oh, that's a typo. I was trying to head for AC8. Thanks for catching that.

I've updated the map

Mixz I'm going to describe your action as tumbling past the Golem into the laboratory behind the creature is this okay with you?

that's fine! that was what was intended.

I often have to say this, please don't be offended

But sometimes it is okay to talk to each other in the OOC thread about what your character is planning to do

Thanks Terquem, sometimes I need to be reminded that's an option.

So Miagnik is noting what kind of effect the fire has and has decided that even more fire has to be a solution to the problem. He has a whole bunch of oil flasks that he's been carrying around and occasionally uses as an intimidation tactic against more talkative but uppity foes.

In this case just burning the golem. The vegetable oil burns a lot hotter at 2d6 fire but doesn't last as long as the seal oil flasks at 1d6.

My apologies everyone, especially Hall, I got my "Down" and "Up" backwards in my mind when describing the monster's move after the firework exploded in its face.

The monster is moving Up on the map (which is now updated) putting it around the wall from Hallister if he also moves up (I assume you want to move to AD/7 but I'll fix the map again before I go to bed tonight if I have too).

I'm trying to post an update but I'm confused (I have too many old school rules in my head)

A Flesh Golem is immune to any Spell that grants Spell Resistance

Burning Gaze, and Snapdragon Fireworks both allow Spell Resistance

A magical (doesn't say spell, but I'm not sure if they mean all Magic effects that do fire damage) attack that does Fire Damage slows a Flesh Golem (no save) for 2d6 rounds

So, what does this mean?

The golem is immune to the spell

The Golem is immune to the spell damage, but is slowed

The Golem takes fire damage on a failed save, but is immune to other spell effects (and is slowed)

I’m struggling here, please help me figure this out

If the Golem is immune to the fire damage from spells, but is slowed, can it be set on fire?

I'm pretty sure your interpretation is accurate. It's immune to spells, but Fire spells, instead of any of their usual effects, Slow it instead.

The way I read the "Immune to Magic" ability is to do the following:
a) Determine if the spell has an unusual effect on the golem. If so, apply the unsual effect and stop. If not, move on to (b).
b) Resolve the spell as if any caster level checks against spell resistance failed.

In this case the golem is affected by fire magic:
- The way snap-dragon fireworks is worded, even on a successful save the creature(s), in the designated 5 ft. square take half damage, thus the golem is slowed for 2d6 rounds. The spell also has a dazzling effect were it to fail the save, but even if it does fail, that should not apply.

- If I were using Flaming sphere, and the golem made its save, it would take no damage and be unaffected.

As far as whether or not the golem is able to be caught on fire or not, I would rule it as yes, but it has to be from a non-magical source. For example:

A 13th level Druid casts Fire Storm on the golem. Most creatures on a failed save would catch on fire and burn for 4d6 until it put itself out. But since this is magical fire. So it would not catch on fire and would only be slowed for the normal 2d6 rounds.

A clever 5th level sorcerer comes up with a brilliant plan to have him and his friends cover said golem in oil. Then hits the golem with a burning spell to act as an accelerate. The non-magical source of flames burns the golem for normal damage, and the magical fire slows it as normal, since thankfully the golem isn't made out of devil flesh or some other naturally fire resilient material.

Sorry if I'm a few posts behind... Husband is in surgery today and probably won't be able to post again til late tonight or tomorrow... Again, sorry for any delay - feel free to bot me to keep the action moving...thanks.

I hope the best for you and your family. Don't worry, I'll be here when you have time to visit us

Maybe it’s just me going through a negative period, but I get the feeling that the group is not motivated to accomplish any specific tasks right now. I get that, but if all you need is a reminder of what things you could be doing I’ll pitch in here. On the other hand, if each of you has really lost any ambition to “go do something” in the game, please let me know what I can do to help you find interest in the adventure again.

Thanks

I'm kind of in reactive stage here... just going with the flow... but yeah, a reminder wouldn't hurt.

Ah, sorry about that Terquem. Work and school have been taxing me a lot heavier lately than usual. I was just waiting on identifying those items.

Now that we're done with this secret room area, we can get back on track. I'd say we should head to the large rectangular room with the double doors to the west of the smaller triangle rooms.

Our group is on a time limit with various enemy reinforcements showing up, not to mention Omara arriving. Not only that but every day we further delay is another day that the Goblin king and queen might not make it through their imprisonment. Then we have to worry about the frozen maidens reviving.

Character Talk:

So I don't know about the rest of you guys, Miagnik has been fairly heavily taxed today with all of his lower level magic being drained and most of his 2nd level spells.

How are the rest of you doing?

This is by no means the only reason we should halt our progress forward. I've always felt that it was foolish for parties to adventure for an hour and then fall back to rest for a full day simply because the spellcaster is low on magic.

Mixz is good to go as is, but if you need rest, we can do that, too... or you can progress with a crossbow and cantrips, lol.

Rest sounds good. Hal is still pretty beat to crap right now.

GM, as for motivation stuff, yeah this is a bit hard. We are in dungeon crawl mode, which means while we aren't in combat we only move as fast as our scout (who is new and hasn't gotten much opportunity to practice pushing the narrative forward), and every time combat ends there's a necessary transition that has to happen back into exploration mode. No one wants to push things forward too early in ase tehre's discussion that needs to happen, so I think everyone ends up waiting for everyone else out of politeness.

Lets try a rest and recap scene, then move forward.

The map is updated and shows the party just before a set of very large doors. Two doors, each one is ten feet wide, and a room beyond, please take a moment to decide where you want to be when the doors are opened, and how you will open them. They push in to the room to open.

Do we have any way of recon'ing the interior of the room?

Well, magic could be used, but other than that, there is Listening at the door, and not much else.

keyhole to look through?