Rappan Athuk [Pf]

Game Master Chris Manos

All right. Updated map.

As an aside, that bodyguard build is pretty cool. You've kept Agyen alive to do his thing (which is a surprisingly good amount of damage for magic missile, by the way) for a very long time with it.

I'm loving the bodyguard thing myself. This is a particularly awesome encounter for that shtick. Most of the time the spell casters have a place to hide. Hopefully there will be more like this.

As for introducing the new character, that would be lovely. It would give an unfair advantage to the players, but considering we have 8 five-dice CR 4 monsters with lots of nasty melee attacks attacking 6 fourth level characters, I'm voting that we could use the help (even if Tessai is willing to take them on alone. Belle is going to have to reevaluate her intelligence downward, and her fighting abilities upward after this)!

Actually Belle, you're totally right. Wands do not require concentration. Not because of anything in that discussion, but here:

Spell Trigger, Command Word, or Use-Activated Items: Activating any of these kinds of items does not require concentration and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

My bad, thanks for arguing it.

Bodyguard is definitely owning ;)

I think I'm gonna vote having Tony spring right now, and backstabbing a gargoyle - organically speaking, that is :D

Yes, that was an actual 5 ft step, to the left of Reynaud, where #5 is now. Not sure how much that changes, if anything, but seeing as #1 may not have known that I moved, and attacked air instead, (There's no noise from casting as I'm a psychic, but I am wearing plate mail)I'm going to wait until you make a ruling on it before posting, (it's fine if you just say that it didn't happen, though, I probably should have clarified better.) :)
Also, Tony springing right now would be pretty cool. :)

Hmm. I think I'll let it stay the way it is. If you'd moved, you'd have been the one to get charged instead of Reynaud, so it works out relatively equally, although not entirely, perhaps.

Ok, sure. You were due a random encounter anyway.

I'll explain how tomorrow, if that's okay. I've stuff to do tonight.

Yeah you guys look like you could use the back up. Plus they left their back exposed for a lovely sneak attack

I was totally expecting this Bodyguard schtick to only kick into gear inside the dungeon itself, too, since space would be more limited down there. I've been trying for a while to make a classic MMO-style "tank" build. It seems to be working better than the powergaming fora said it would.

Bodyguard build rocks. I've been trying to get a Magus (Kensai) bodyguard build in a game for a while now. Investigators is also a good class as they can get the ability to aid another 3 times in a turn, and they will all stack. Get benevolent armor and gloves of aracne striking (if you're eligible) and you're good to go.

just when I thought it was safe to get back in the water...

hp levels 2,3,4: 3d10 ⇒ (6, 10, 3) = 19

I don't suppose I could wheedle you all into showing your hitpoints in a tag line? It would sure help me figure out who to heal.

I use the following for my tag lines usually if you want to go gung ho like me and put pretty much everything the GM might need to see...
Race: | Perc +XYZ, skill1 +XYZ, skill2 +XYZ
Classes/Levels: | resource1: XYZ/XYZ | resource2: XYZ/XYZ | Active Conditions: None
Gender: gender alignment race class/level | HP: XYZ/XYZ | AC: XYZ (XYZ Tch, XYZ FF) | CMB: +XYZ, CMD: XYZ | F:XYZ , R:XYZ W:XYZ | Init: +XYZ | Speed XYZ ft

Mine are in a tag line.

Mine are in the spoiler.

Mine are in the spoiler.

Aha! Not used to that.

Reynaud La Croix wrote:

Mine are in the spoiler.

Aha! Not used to that.

It's easy enough. jus put the spoiler in the tag line, I've done it before.

Heya. Sorry for not telling you whats up and disappearing. I went to my grandfarthers funeral.

And I got a little too drunk the night before that.

I'm back now though.

Take your time Olaf.

Okay, here goes for a reason for Tony to pop up.

See, there was a mage by name of Mervin Screed in Greenshore, looking for a specialist.

Apparently, there was a doorway, or a portal, somewhere in Rappan Athuk, beyond what mr. Screed called 'the Gates of Hell', that'd take the guy to a market he wanted to visit.

In exchange for safe passage home, and at least 400pp, Tony was supposed to accompany Mr. Screed into the dungeon, (the Gates supposedly lay somewhere above the Halls of the Goblin Kings, and the mage knew of a shortcut down there) and use his skillset to pop the Gates.

That partnership ended quite abruptly, as a gang of ghouls popped out of the underbrush, and collectively started eating the unfortunate Mervin.

Tony booked it, but found that he was getting hounded by ghouls. They were stupid, but persistent, and although he thought he'd given them the slip on several occasions, they always caught up to him again.

Quite by chance, his mad rush at escape has taken him to the crest of the graveyard hill, with a maddened gang of ghouls hot on his tail. He looks down, and sees a melee playing out beneath him.

A chance of survival, maybe? Quite a few of the combatant look human, or at least human-ish, and one of them carry the trappings of a holy warrior pledged to the forces of Good. Those are usually willing to protect people just because, and Tony could sure use some protection right now.

Acceptable?

Sure. Anything would be acceptable to me.

So... Olaf, the way you found to have Tony spring up is having him bring up a band of ghouls on his tail - shame on you! But I like it :D

GOGO!!

By the way people, how are we going to handle condition removal - Sickness, negative levels, stats loss, stuff like that..? Any ideas?

The ghouls were due regardless. I'd like to get Tony's assent to this modification to his backstory before we commit entirely - the writeup implies that this Mervin Screed character was kind of shady, and that Tony operated out of Greenshore, which is as shady as humanoid townships get.

Tony might not be down with that, for a variety of reasons. In the meantime, I'll at least deal with the fire elemental.

Tony's Initiative, for when he joins. Probably the next round.
1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

By the way people, how are we going to handle condition removal - Sickness, negative levels, stats loss, stuff like that..? Any ideas?

Potions? The higher level nastiness is going to cost us, unfortunately.

Hmm. Getting access to those potions in a timely fashion presents something of a problem, if I can butt in on party planning.

There's like, nearly a week's worth of random encounters between your current position and the nearest outpost of civilization that you know of. You could always camp out on the road and hope that a merchant comes by, of course.

Alright. It appears that Tony will be acting this round, by virtue of rolling higher than the gargoyles.

To fascilitate that, I've made a partial update of the map, adding Tony and Belle's Fire Elemental's positions.

If you need any help interpretating it, or any additional information, please ask.

Updated map is here, and as always in the link up top.

Belle is still located at 1 east and one northeast of her current location. Remember she moved there after the summon monster went off and has not moved back yet.

Didn't magus move? He mentioned being back in the thick of things.

Yes. The only things I've moved on the map are the new appearances from this round - the elemental and Tony. A whole bunch of you moved around. This is not reflected.

Totally Cool, with this entrance. And the dealing with Mervin Screed is quite in line with how Tony operates. The band of ghouls is just going to be awesome.

Fantastic! Welcome to the game proper, then. If you could please make an acrobatics check? The inside of the hill is both muddy, due to the rain, and quite steep.

DC is 17 to move down at full speed, 22 to run. Failure deposits you in the mud at the bottom, prone and with broken stealth.

Success means you get down without problems.

Is it a full on run action, or just a double move?

full run!

Welcome to the team!

With a bit of luck, we can sic the ghouls on the gargoyles and then clean up the leftovers.

That actually sounds like a great idea!

I'm not above using a bunch of ghouls as a weapon.

Just out of curiosity, would anyone have a problem if my back-up character was chaotic Neutral? I know CN has a rep for being played as CE, but I honestly can't say this guy is good (though neither is he Evil). He's a barbarian so the standards he lives by are completely alien to people from civilized societies (so chaotic) and I can't call him good, though he's not Evil.

If it is a problem, I'll put him as Neutral; after all he has his own honour, it's just not recognisable to 'civilized' people.

I personally don't have a problem with it (and I'd probably allow you to play evil characters even... Once Tessai is dead.), but pvp isn't allowed. Doesn't matter how IC it would be, or what the other character said to start it.

Sorry if that seams overly zealous, but I literally just last month came out of a game where someone was playing an 'honorable barbarian', and started down that road. She (the player) left that game in a huff and a puff the like of which I've never seen at a roleplaying game.

Renard don't think of ghouls as weapons. Think of them as enemies of all living things, such as the gargoyles.

It won't be your fault that the ghouls' hunger for the brains of a sentient gargoyle makes them attack your stony foe.

Or the fact that you can slip away comfortably to safe distance.

Hmm. So, by my count, Tessai just took some 33 damage. There's some in there for Agyen and Reynaud too, although small measures, by comparison.

That marks the turn of the round, your turn again. I'll have the map up in a minute.

Map!

Your turns now, including Tony.

I personally don't have a problem with it (and I'd probably allow you to play evil characters even... Once Tessai is dead.), but pvp isn't allowed. Doesn't matter how IC it would be, or what the other character said to start it.

Sorry if that seams overly zealous, but I literally just last month came out of a game where someone was playing an 'honorable barbarian', and started down that road. She (the player) left that game in a huff and a puff the like of which I've never seen at a roleplaying game.

lol, I don't think that's a problem. I don't intend to play pvp; he would not see 'civilized' people as a worthy challenge. He might try to make them think he would, to test them but 'little men' are not worth his bother. He's a warrior of a great tradition, not a bully that picks on the weak. Besides, he has a wisdom of 13, he would know it's not a good idea to go around beating up his compatriots, even if they are 'little men'.

(and I'd probably allow you to play evil characters even... Once Tessai is dead.)...

Don't know what you mean - Tessai will live FOREVER!

----

As for conditions removal, etc... Don't want to worry myself by anticipation, but the first time someone has the need for a Lesser Restoration or something of the sort, we're dead in the water, or am I looking at it wrong?

Probably not. We should look into getting a wand; expensive but a godsend when needed.

I feel I should point out that lesser restoration will not heal permanent attribute damage; shame as that is not uncommon even at these levels.

Now I understand it perfectly - Olaf did not select a full divine caster because he wants to KILL US!!

The shame Olaf... The shame...

Oh man, anyone would think this is a killer dungeon!

Oh, and you can see my reserve character here. I haven't added background yet.

I was thinking, maybe I will play him as Chaotic Good. He is not really touchy about petty insults from little men and it would make him a better team player. Maybe he has a soft spot for chicks and fluffy things.

I got no issue with characters of any alignment.

I tend to think of Chaotic Neutral as even more unpredictable than Chaotic Evil - one can never know what a Chaotic Neutral character will do right? He/She is the epitome of 'chaoticness' :D

That depends on what you define 'chaoticness' as. If you equate it to arbitrary, then yes I'd agree; but I see 'chaoticness' as more a case of promoting personal agendas as opposed to communal ones (which would be lawful). To me, Lawfuls are about a rigid application of procedures, logically chaotics are about personal expression and opportunism. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and neither are Good or Evil in their own right (as opposed to arbitrariness which is usually considered at the very least bad, if not Evil). Of course personal expression and opportunism can be at the expense of others (so Evil) or for the benefit of others (Good). Similarly a rigid adherence to procedures can be for the good of others or at their expense (or somewhere in between).

Here endeth the lesson.

Honestly, I personally have problems differentiating Chaotic and Lawful characters in meaningful ways.