Reign of Winter / Snows of Summer (Inactive)

Game Master Keith S.

Fail

Sorry - my bad on Ianto's AC. It was a miss. I guess I could make a case for being flanked but not in a short encounter with no map.

But we are still waiting for Boulder to go....we can save Victasys shot until Boulder goes and then the bad guys go, then you guys go.

And the posting in alternate aliases is confusing me....so maybe Boulder did go and I missed it?

I think boulder said he was offline until Sunday it is Wednesday now does someone want to take His turn that understands his weapon?

Once he reaches the other side he loops a tree to keep him from being pulled off his feet by the rope and pulls out his bow to engage the ice monsters.

Boulder swings his weapon from 10 feet away at one of the ice things.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23 to hit
1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20 to confirm
2d10 + 6 ⇒ (7, 5) + 6 = 18 for critical damage

One critter shatters.

The other spins and glides across the ice, easily following Ianto to attack

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14 to hit but misses.

Victasys shoots a crossbow bolt at the last creature and the bolt chips a large chunk of ice off!

(obviously I need to roll for Boulder more often! And I am not sure I got his bonuses correct but it worked regardless)

The players are up (except for Victasys who went already). The ice thing is next to Ianto across the stream.

Ianto takes partial cover to gain a clear shot and lets an arrow fly.

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 181d8 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Cadell creates another ice dagger and moves up crouching behind Ianto (or try to get around the ice creature for a flank?)

The ice thing is badly fractured but still moving.

Boulder moves twice to be in range of the creature (which is across the ice covered stream from him - each space takes a double move due to ice or deep snow). He ends in range of his reach weapon but cannot attack due to the double move.

Allistair? Taryn?

Does Cadell move across ice or snow in an enhanced fashion?

He swishes.

He bounds like an expert eskimo... but without any fancy abilities or stats.

From those less than specific answers, I assume Cadell uses double moves for ice and snow like everyone other than Allistair (who uses double move for ice but single move for snow due to snow shoes).

Thus, Cadell cannot get into a flanking position this turn.

This should teach you guys to run right off the map for an encounter!

Alistair and Taryn are paralyzed with fear and self doubt.

The creature takes a 5 foot step around the tree Ianto is using for cover and swings.

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14 to hit, but misses.

Party may go!

Ok, I am back. Sorry for the inconvenience. How far am I from being able to strike out at the lone creature?

Taking a shot with a light crossbow

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 141d8 ⇒ 2

Continuing around, he takes another shot.

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 251d8 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

confirming threat: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 242d8 + 6 ⇒ (6, 8) + 6 = 20

"How do we kill this thing?!" Alistair yells as he launches another rock at the beast.

Sling: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 111d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Taryn beats everyone with a crossbow shot, which puts the final deadly chip into the thing and it collapses.

The creatures appear to be nothing more than ice....how weird is that?

Again the wood is silent.

Everyone can cross the stream, and you stand in deep snow to the north of the trail and the pair of legs.

Approach it carefully from the far side and observe the legs from a distance.

aid another perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

detect evil wide and targeted first

No evil can be detected. The legs are unmoving and have snow on them, in addition to being dressed in typical farmer / peasant clothes from this local area.

Ianto carefully moves up with his bow at the ready to see if the farmer lives.

Vic gingerly crosses the river and approaches the legs, mace drawn.

Indeed, you have discovered a dead farmer. A broken bow lies under his body. You remember a tale from the village about Old Man Dansby, a farmer, who claimed that something was stealing all the food from his fields. He had headed into the wood to stop whatever it was.

It looks like he was not successful.

What did he die from?

Move him off the trail and cover his body with field stones, we can recover him on the way back.

He is full of tiny arrow holes, complete with tiny arrows, in his upper chest and neck.

Vic shakes his bag o' sprites vigorously!

Cadell searches the farmer. Perhaps he has an heirloom on him that proves his identity.

Can any of the magic-y types detect magic?

Detect magic.

Now can you do it every time we begin an encounter and search afterwards? =]

No magic detected. No heirlooms. No gold or gems.

Do you camp to heal / restore spells or move along?

I don't think k anyone is hurt.

I have little to offer in terms of spells at this point in my career... it is ok by me to move along.

Okay to move along as well

Alistair is ready to move on

Tally ho!

Detect Magic

I hope one of those faeries bites you.

As you trudge through the woods along the beaten path, you hear some voices ahead of you. It sounds like two or maybe three folk are arguing, although you are far enough away that you cannot make out words.

You can see that ahead of you the trail begins to climb toward a ridgeline or hill. Snow continues to fall in fat, heavy flakes. The trees around you still have leaves, but they are shriveling in the cold temperatures.

Can the steathier in the bunch circle around a little and see what we can see/hear. And lets watch out for this being ambush bait.

If at least one other person agrees we can move.

stealth: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16

Go ahead Ianto, I'll stay behind and make sure they don't circle back on us. The farmer we knew could be out here. Where there others that we should be on he lookout for?

Cadell settles down in the side of the hill staying hidden as much as possible..

This seems like a trap, the only survivors after a carriage ransacked...yeah these are truthful people.

Alistair watches Ianto carefully, prepared to rush in if any trouble occurs.

(I seem to be either having internet issues or Paizo board issues - a post I made yesterday doesn't seem to be here - and the same thing happened the day before also. So bear with me as I work through this).

Ianto creeps forward. He sees 3 bandits standing alongside the trail, arguing about shares of the loot. The carry shortbows and shortswords. They have the look of guards, although not good ones.

They do not appear to notice Ianto.

They are 30 feet away.

Ianto motions for the others to attack now, taking aim and releasing an arrow once they get closer hoping to gain surprise.

initiative: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

Longbow, hopefully in a surprise round: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 201d8 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

Longbow against a second target, if it was a surprise round for the beginning of the next: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 241d8 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

confirming critical: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 152d8 + 4 ⇒ (6, 1) + 4 = 11

The first arrow does not drop a bandit, but the second one puts him down.

The rest of the party struggles through the deep snow to get within 15 feet (double move).

Alistair can charge into melee if he wishes or take a normal move and fire a ranged weapon (due to his snowshoes).

After Alistair goes, it is the bandit's turn.

Move 15, fire crossbow
init: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12
ranged: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10dmg: 1d10 ⇒ 6

Detect Magic

Victasys' bolt misses!

Still need Alistair to go

(it looks like we are having attendance problems....We may be down to just 3 players at this point)

Alistair will charge into melee, wielding his scimitar with two hands.

Scimitar: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 71d6 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Alistair misses, but his wild dash on snowshoes leaves him right next to two bandits. They take a 5 foot step to flank him and attack!

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17 to hit with a shortsword
1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19 to hit with a shortsword

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22 to confirm crit with second shortsword

3d6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 3, 3) + 3 = 11 for damage to Alistair

I think that puts Alistair down at -5 hp and bleeding.

PCs may go!

I have given up on Taryn

We are down to Ianto, Victasys, Alistair (if he lives!) and Cadell.

Uh... as far as I am seeing neither of those were critical hits. You rolled a 12 and a 14. Although the two hits probably still take me down into the negatives, completely forgot I got smacked in that last fight.

He fires an arrow at the first bandit he wounded.

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 141d8 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Discussion forum...

Are we playing all of the Reign of Winter modules, I sure hope so because I based my entire character around being in a winter campaign lol

I intend to run it as long as we have players.

To be honest, I think some of the higher level fights in Pathfinder become a bit overly complicated and overpowered.

But we should be good till at least 12th level or so, right?

I should do a better job of finishing my thoughts.

I have seen high level campaigns where the players had to build their characters in exactly the right way to make the fights winnable, under a strict rules environment.

I prefer role playing with combat; players should build their characters to fit their concept and the GM (me) should adapt the module to match the characters.

This can get tricky with high level pathfinder. We will see how it goes, but I am in it for the long haul, with a few breaks for vacations and GenCon14.

Sounds good to me, as long as you're willing to run it, I'm willing to play it. That includes any other campaigns you start by the way. But at any rate I think level 12 seems good, I mean I assume it's the PFS cap for exactly the reason you brought up above. When wizards start casting world-shaping spells, I think the "adventure" is pretty much over. I have seen some pretty decent high level campaigns, some reaching all the way to 20 and beyond, but it definitely requires some GM customization and probably a couple Resurrection casts as well.

Hi gang! Thanks to the GM for special consideration, you now have to put up with me. :)

I'll get a character posted up soon, need to look over the Players Guide to this AP first. I'll have it up tonight sirs.

Is everyone cool with an ice sorcerer?

Are we making our own initiative rolls?

yes, each person make an initiative roll....

OK, that d20 is fired.

Boulder, lol

Please pardon my limited responses this week.
At a conference in Vegas.

I'm afraid if I post it might be a bit "off kilter" or unintelligible.

I'll give my best when I can........

I didn't know that wet t-shirt contests were a "conference."
Good to know. :)

Gonna be unable to post till Sunday. Bot me if need be.

Ok folks, I am sorry but due to life I am going to have to bow out of all games. I really am sorry.

Sorry to hear that boulder. Hope everything works out.

-Posted with Wayfinder

OK. Thanks for playing.

For our part, that puts us at 5 players:

Ianto the Human (?) Paladin
Victasys the Half Orc Inquisitor
Taryn the Changeling Winter Witch
Alistair the Human Ranger
Cadell the Elf Sorcerer

The adventure path is designed for 4 players so we can make this work.

FYI- I am leaving to go out of town for a few days. I'll try to check in, but I can't make any promises. :)

When Ianto publishes his re-created character, we will move forward.

We can swap after this building if you like

Your call. We can swap mid building as we move along. This is liable to be a long time to finish (at the rate of a few posts per day).

How about we continue and when you want to swap we do?

Sounds good

Vic opens the door.

I'm looking at going gunslinger. Any House rules there?

Im looking at musketeer with a level dip into monk sensei to get bard skills without charisma. Ive got a good backstory.

Not until you min / max it into a broken character.

I am not so familiar with guns. I would say we are at "emerging guns" - black powder weapons. Not revolvers and etc.

Well it depends on what you consider broken. A crit with a musket is 4d12+4 at first level and it attacks touch ac within 40 feet.

I would sort of think that you would build a character around a concept rather than maxing out the damage he will do.

However.

I am alright with the emerging firearms (muzzle loaders only). Black powder (10 gp) and bullet (1 gp) are the only available ammunition types.

Keep in mind that this may be hard to replace in the wilderness (or beyond). Consider the encumbrance of carrying much ammunition.

Firearms are very rare. Repairs will be difficult in the wilderness as well.

It looks like emerging firearms misfire on a base roll "to hit" of 1-2; a few are worse, going up to 1-4.

Here we go, we need a door kicker and this is problem solved.

I am just hanging out and waiting for someone (or better - a couple someones) to agree on what your plan is.

It looks like Vic is the only player left at this point.

Do we recruit more folks or let it die a peaceful death?

I'm a pregen not much I can do

Up to you guys. If we are going to recruit more lets keep a stronger pace during the week.

Valeros' answer pretty much sums it up for me....

Ok, well, it was fun thus far.
Thanks Keith. See ya soon.