Gameplay thread for Project: Golarion
It's evening, and the sun has just disappeared beneath the horizon. You've made camp in this forbidden forest, partaking of a small but nourishing meal around a campfire with your fellow adventurers. The firelight dances in the center of the camp, painting all of you in strange reds and oranges. Perhaps some of you are grim, reviewing the plan over and over, analyzing it for any weaknesses you may have forgotten. Maybe some of you are excitable or nervous, anxious for the battle to come.
Tomorrow you will awaken early and begin to hike, three-miles, to the cave where your prey sleeps. Tomorrow you will hunt a drake.
You remember the Dwarven smuggler who first told you of your quarry. His one eye twinkled as he twirled a dagger effortlessly between his fingers when he spoke to you. Some of the NPC's you meet are certainly more memorable than others.
The dwarf spoke in grandiose tall-tales but what it boiled down to was this- There lived a drake in this forest, and this drake had a horde. But what your various contacts (both originals and sellswords alike) had confirmed was much more interesting, within the dragons horde was a map. A 'quest' map that could lead you to...somewhere. But the urgency with which the Hellknight patrols had harried you all on your discoveries told you something important. A.R.O.D.E.N did not want you to have this map, which of course meant that you*, in your various reasons, needed to have it.
And so you had quested, queried, researched, and pulled favors to bring you all here. The basis of the plan was simple; the drake hunted at night, and so you would attack in the morning, when it was asleep and vulnerable. You had meticulously made your camp just outside its hunting grounds and had stealthily avoided the other dangers that lurked here. But right now, in this moment, you are safe, and you are among, well, who are you among? How do you feel about one another?
Most importantly:
What would you like to do?
Erin has long black hair, rest of her facial features are hidden behind a ivory white mask. her jaw protrudes from beneath the mask. Her vestments seem religious in some ways, yet not, one can only guess. Stylish yet practical. Her eyes seem almost white from what you can tell from what you can see through the mask. All the time you have been travelling with her, she has yet to remove the mask
Reiko sits by the fire, sharpening her katana with a whetstone. She is relatively short but sturdily built, her heavy armor giving her an imposing presence despite her stature. She has hazel, almond-shaped eyes and a small nose, and her dark hair is cropped short beneath the samurai helmet she wears. Her horse Isamu grazes nearby.
"It is a fine night to share among friends. Tomorrow, we hunt a dragon!" she says boisterously.
The boy who calls himself Darkdealer sits in front of the fire. A card appears repeatedly to vanish from his left hand, then return as if it was never gone, as he idly practices the back palm vanish technique in his non-dominant hand. The hand hardly appears to move, and he doesn't even bother to look at the card. He is simply honing his fingering.
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His long, dark cloak is pulled tight around his shoulders against the breeze, and the fur of the bat pelts accenting it there brushes lightly against his cheek when it blows. Although he sits almost perfectly still, his shadow dances behind him, echoing the dancing of the flames in front. Broken up among the trunks of many trees, it's easy to miss the shadow's bat-like wings and wicked fangs.
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As the evening's meal settles in his stomach, he steels himself for the task at hand.
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Without looking up from the flames, he speaks to his long-time companion, the android alchemist, 'Hacker'. Let's go over it one more time. Everything in your databanks about drakes.
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I want information in this order please
Special abilities
Special defences
Special attacks
As per this source
Rafe, a recent addition to the party, sits still
Hopefully the map that this 'dragon' guards will gain us more information on our true purpose. he says as he runs a tanned hand through limp dark hair. I must admit, I did not except A.R.O.D.E.N's delusions to run so... deep
His silverly gaze goes over the other members of the group I must thank you for allowing me to join your 'adventuring party'. Safety in numbers is a phrase with much truth to it
** spoiler omitted **
BigHatLogan (More like HatLogan. It wasn't all that big. The game was annoyingly precise about dimensions. No ridiculous outfits or items.) sat on a log messing with the Short Range Creative Tool he'd been given as part of the Beta-Test stage. A.R.O.D.E.N. had really impressed him by making it invisible to all but him. It was from this tool that he could cast "magic" in limited quantities and effect. Unfortunately it was completely unreadable, obviously written in a new language, and he'd had to mess with it for hours to make even basic effects. And since he could not describe it well to others, it was mostly up to him to figure out how to use it. He'd used Hacker as a sounding board most of the time since he'd given DarkDealer some mods before. But it was slow going.
A small light appeared in front of his face. Logan flinched just before it popped into a much brighter light for the blink of an eye. Even through his eyelids it stung. "Shit." He rubbed is eyes to remove the instant welling of water. "So yeah. Found that little bugger yesterday. Thought it would be good to blind enemies. Was thinking more like a few hundred of them and not in front of my damn face though." He recovers and blinks away the last remaining tears. "Thought it might help with the drake but I probably won't get it by the time we get there. Just going to make Reiko huge and send a few bolts its way."
Info Rolls:
This Drake is called Shi'Ralq the Mighty. It is of the variety commonly known as a "Forest" drake.
Special Abilities: This kind of drake can push itself when threatened to move unpredictably quick, moving twice as fast as normal in 6 second "sprints", but this exhausts them and they can only do this thrice per day. This particular species is also amphibious and is perfectly at home in the water as it is in the land and skies. Finally, the drake has a powerful sense of smell, at least equal to a wolf or hunting hound.
Special Defenses: This sort of dragon does not regenerate itself, and it does not have unusually fast reflexes, an unusual fortitude, or an unusual force of will.
Special Attacks:This drake has a special ability to spit balls of acid onto its prey, which tend to splatter in an approximate 10 foot radius spread. Savvy reflexes and timing can allow one to at least avoid some of this damage though. The acid has a secondary effect though, it quickly evaporates soon after it makes contact, leaving behind obscuring vapors that last for a few seconds before dissipating entirely.
Weaknesses: In your exhaustive research, you are confident that this drake does not have any special weaknesses to any particular elemental attacks.
Saves: Shi'Ralq is as hearty as he is quick, though he is no pushover it seems that it may be best to use spells and effects that assault his mind or target his force of will.
Resistances: This result was intriguing. The reports didn't indicate that the drake resisted anything but...something seems amiss here.
Acid, huh? Darkdealer considers this for a prolonged moment.
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I'd rather not get hit by that if I can avoid it. With a little misdirection, I suspect we can make him fire it in the wrong direction.
With a subtle motion, Darkdealer transfers the card to his other hand while appearing to crumple it up in his palm. Then, with a bit of a flourish, he extends the hand and opens it, one finger at a time, starting from the pinky, revealing it to be empty before producing the card from his other hand.
I'm thinking telekinetic footsteps from behind him. We just have to make sure he doesn't hear US first. Any idea how often he can do it?
Well, then we'll just have to be on top of him before he can spit any at us. Every blob he spits the other way is one that won't hit us, and he won't want to get it on himself. I still think it's a good plan. Darkdealer huffs, momentarily letting his grim facade slip as a bit of petulance creeps into his voice.
Besides, I'm not hearing any better ideas.
"In just here to make sure you stay alive long enough to tell the tale!" a sort of chuckle eminates from behind her mask
"Don't look at me for combat advice. I don't do too well with that"
-Posted with Wayfinder
Just the usual tactics come to mind. Scout its lair with stealth so we can attack at a time of our choosing. Much depends on the nature of this lair, is it a small cave or a large dungeon complex? Do we have this information?
Hacker speaks solely to DarkDealer52 "The Drake Is a subspecies commonly known as a 'forest' drake, it can force itself to move faster when threatened but only 3 times a day, it shoots balls of acid that evaporate quickly on contact leaving a acid mist."
Of course, we scout first. He'll never spot me in bat form.
Darkdealer continues to think for another moment. Here's another idea. If the there's a high ceiling above him, I could fly up there and drop something on him. In bat form, my maximum load is less than 20 pounds without interfering with my flight and stealth, but if I had a 19-pound bag full of alchemist fire vials, that could do some real damage. Might even be enough to kill him in one shot.
"Unless it sees you. I don't think these beasts are dumb. A bat carrying a bag full of things will be noticed very quickly" she warns
-Posted with Wayfinder
Like I said, nobody spots me in bat form. Not if I don't want to be seen.
I have three of them. Anyone else have any?
Anyone else? Darkdealer looks around to the other faces assembled around the campfire.
Another pop. Another bright light. Another muffled curse. "I give up." He looks up and sees people looking at him. "What. Oh yeah." He rifles through his bag as he talks. "So yeah, drake. No special weaknesses or resistances," he looks up ponderously then over at Hacker. "You said spits acid. Probably pretty resistant to that right?. Odd it didn't say...oh, wait. Course it's not resistant. It's immune I bet. Why is that two different things?" He goes back to rifling. "Typical animal. Good reflexes and hardy. Though attacks to the mind might work. If that was an option." Finally he pulls out what he has been looking for. Two vials and a stone. "Pack came with some acid and a thunderstone. Lot of good that will do. Acid won't work and we don't want to wake it up. So yeah. I'm with Rafe on this one. Need more on battlefield first."
A thunderstone? You think I could borrow that? It might work even better than footsteps to get it spitting in the wrong direction, and if we do catch it snoozing, the only tactic we'll need is ganking it before it wakes up. Hell, if it's asleep, I might be able to get in there, grab what we need, and leave it none the wiser.
Darkdealer resumes practicing his card tricks.
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Speaking of dropping stones, if it's in a cave, there might be stalactites we can drop on it. Any ideas for breaking one loose that would work better than a one of my kinetic blasts?
Considering the acid, Darkdealer recalls a boring lecture in Mr. Henderson's chemistry class back in high school, which now seems worlds away. If it's immune to acid, maybe you should make alkalai flasks instead. If he's an acid-based creature, they might even do extra damage.
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And if we're throwing in stuff other than Alch fire, maybe think about adding something to blind it. That would definitely make the fight easier. Maybe even add a tanglefoot bag if someone has one.
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"I hardly think Alkali flask will work seeing as it still does Acid damage Hacker pauses seeming to considering his next words
“As for the others Flash powder will work for the blinding. I currently have a Thunderstone for deafening, A Tangleburn bag is better than a Tanglefoot bag if we can get one. For pure damage a Pellet grenade is by far the best if materials can be found"
Reiko bristles a bit as Hacker calls her "Toyama." "Toyama is my family name. We are friends, so you can call me Reiko, or Reiko-san. I'm trying to RP properly here, guys."
When asked about tactics, the samurai shrugs. "I'm not much good against flying things. If you all can bring it down to ground level, I can run it through with my lance."
[dice=Kn: Engineering]1d20 + 6
"Not sure how specific this game is in this situation. I mean bases neutralize acids so if you could get the alkali flask in its mouth we could possibly neutralize its breath weapon for a short time," he says ponderously. "But that's something that only happens in video games and we aren't in one anymore. This is real. Sometimes I forget that. So I couldn't suggest it but bombing it with a goody bag of alchemical splash weapons sounds like a good opener."
Reiko listens to the planning and nods. "Sounds like we have a plan. But they say that no plan survives contact with the enemy. So let's hope for the best, but be ready to improvise!"
Hacker bot roll
Its tricky but the resounding answer is a...yes! Absolutely, the alkaline will at the very least ignore the dragon's acid immunity and deal damage as normal, but if it's ingested or rubbed into a wound it would react violently with the dragon's systems, causing an explosively volatile reaction.
After getting a night's rest (I assume the androids are keeping watch, since they don't need sleep), DarkDealer will lead the scouting mission into the drake's cave. He first takes on a beastial form, with the features of his face and his hands becoming bat-like, then he begins to shink, taking on even more bat-like features, with his clothes and gear melding into his form until he is indistinguishable from an actual bat. He takes flight, immediately disappearing into the shadows, and scouts ahead, watching for any dangers.
Rafe moves in with DarkDealer but keeps farther back and lets the shapeshifter take the lead.
Reiko waits with Hacker, mounted on her horse. She has a javelin at the ready, prepared to throw it at the drake before it gets low enough for her to impale on her lance.