Solstice Scar B GM Thread (Inactive)

Game Master Granta

Okay! Just making sure I didn't jump the gun prematurely :)

Hey folks, I've recently learned that I'll be heading out of state for some work training from Sunday, April 15th through Friday April 20th. Since that coincides with the last couple of days of Session #1, I'd like to request a backup GM to help my table finish up when the time comes!

I can help out, Ladile.

Hmm

Thank you! :D

Hey all —

Granta is looking to step down from the Overseer seat once the second session of Solstice B concludes. As a result, I am looking for another person who would want to be Overseer, and who might want to shadow Granta now.

The Overseer needs to be organized, responsive, and in possession of good communication skills. They have to be willing to post across multiple threads and three different forums. Granta, can you add any other qualities / responsibilities that I may have forgotten to list?

Do you see yourself as a potential overseer for Assault on Absalom or Solstice C?

Send me a Private Message, telling me what you have to offer.

I hope to hear from many of you!

Thanks,
Hmm

Organizational skills are by far the most important. It's also vital that you be comfortable saying no to people. Everybody and their mother and their grandmother is going to be asking for special treatment. Just say no. Your sanity will thank you for it.

Edit: Potentially four forums. The French lodge was told that they could have a table in future specials as long as their GM was fluent enough in English to communicate with the overseer and one of the backups was able to post on their site. The latter requirement also applies to RPGgeek and Myth-Weavers.

It also might not hurt to put out a general call in Flaxseed (or privately point out the upcoming vacancy to people that management think might be good candidates) if it's not already in the cards :)

It also might not hurt to put out a general call in Flaxseed (or privately point out the upcoming vacancy to people that management think might be good candidates) if it's not already in the cards :)

On it. :)

Hmm

Dotting back in as I seem to have lost it here.

Anyone have thoughts about the nature of the darkness in the circle? Is it magical, or just lower ambient as a consequence of being near the rift? Specifically, would daylight negate it, returning the area to ambient light (dim) as it would vs. magical darkness, or would daylight raise it two steps (to normal light) as it would an area of nonmagical darkness?

I don't think we came up with a majority answer to the darkness question in either session of SSA, either.

*Erases an embarrassing problem with reading comprehension that hopefully nobody saw.*

I dunno... the scenario description simply states that the light level is reduced by one step.
Nothing indicates it's magical in nature... and given the gates connection to the shadow plane, that makes sense.

I'd guess its just supposed to reacted to light sources normally, even a torch. Though that's no fun.

So I'd get more literal. It reduces the light level on step, no matter what the current sources, or when those sources are introduced.

So if everyone's in there with torches (normal light) it'd be dim light. If everyone's in there with light spells (normal light) it'd be dim light. If everyone has heightened continual flames (normal light) it'd be dim light.
If someone throws out a daylight (bright light) it would be normal light.

That seems to be a good 'as written' interpretation, that will mostly have it dim light in most cases across the board, that still allows for some cool descriptive stuff about the portal sucking up light (except for those buzz-kill daylight folks, of course) and doesn't completely hose anyone without darkvision...

I treated it as a non-magical darkness, something like a darkness fog, meaning light sources make it normal again.. Although after reading through EM's thoughts, I'm more inclined to go that way in the future.

I've been treating it as EM says, taking the literal phrasing in the scenario text. Which also means that before the party approaches with their own light, because the ambient lighting is in dim lighting (I'm assuming moon-lit night), the area inside is in darkness.

That was my reading too. Kind of like the light was being sucked out of the area by the portal.

If my table succeeded in the 3 checks for closing the portal, does that mean the portal is closed, at least for my table?

If the PCs succeed, the rift starts to close slowly.

This seems to imply that it still remains open Asking because my players are working to close the portal first before killing the undeads. I'm wondering because I assume the black tentacles and negative energy disappear when the portal closes, and hence trying to figure out when it actually does.

The "portal closed" condition does not change the black tentacles or negative energy effects.

Sorry I think I wasn't clear. What I mean is that (independent of the "portal closed" condition) if my players succeed in the 3 average checks to close the portal, does that shut down the black tentacles and negative energy effects? I would assume so, but the text says the "rift starts to close slowly" and that threw me off.

I don't think so. Nothing says that it does. The effect of closing the portal is achieving the "portal closed" condition.

Don't expect the scenario to make sense :-p

I was wondering about that too. In the end I through that if they succeeded on the skill checks, I had the supernatural darkness, negative energy and tentacles stop, but existing undead still had to be handled.

I can see a lot of table variation in this one. It might be worthwhile noting this for part C and having a PBP consistency call made in the conversion document.

I think there's an error in the reporting form? For K (Leaf and Scale), when the party overcomes the encounter on the frozen lake, we are suppose to report a success. However, the form only allows for reporting of a fey sucess, which comes under The Fey's Favor section of the Leaf and Scale.

Separately, does a fey success counts as a success as well, like how special successes also counted as successes in earlier sections?

Should be fixed now.

Woah, that's fast!

Looking at the tracking form, I think Woodenman might have meant to report a success rather than a fey success.

yes...I think so too but there was no option to report a standard success. I meant to ask about that but I was on the run working from my phone when I reported it.

Changed to a normal success.

I noticed that this set of influence with the fey, there isn't the line "... exceeding the DC by 10 or more earns two successes" that we had in the previous one and which is also part of the usual intrigue rules. Just seems such a waste that some of my players are blowing the DC checks out of the water, but they still count only as 1 success.

We've reached the Fey Ally milestone, if it matters.

Should I go ahead and usher my players out of the Fey Court since we've reached the milestone?

It wouldn't hurt to double check, but I don't think fey successes contribute to regular successes.

Only 2 days til we get to the last bit? Long way to go to any kind of milestone before then.

Seems like too many may have segued into the Fey part, now there's not much time to get enough kobold encounters.

It wouldn't hurt to double check, but I don't think fey successes contribute to regular successes.

Yes. In each act a special success (one that grants the room a bonus) counts as a normal success as well.

The only thing I can think of (off-hand) that gets reported and is not a success is the Kellid Slain condition. That is certainly not a successful set of circumstances.

I'm pretty sure part A explicitly said that special successes count as regular ones, and the author was just clarifying in that post--rather than being a jerk and saying, "read the scenario, it already answers your question."

Also, a "fey" success might not be considered a "special" success.

Of course, that is far from definitive either way. I'm just a very literal interpreter.

After I had asked the question earlier, I went to scour through the scenario again, and I believe Granta is right.

Successes: The number of successes reported has two potential effects: adjusting the kobolds’ morale during Part 4 (see Scattered Kobolds on page 31) and triggering the encounter in area N early (see Surprised Dragons on page 31). Once the House has reported a number of successes (not special successes or fey successes) equal to 2 × the number of tables, rounded up, read the following aloud...

In version A, there was a confusion because Part 2 explicitly mentions to include special successes but Part 1 was silent on it, and hence I think that was why the author needed to clarify. However, that's not the case for version B this time.

Looks like we might not hit the milestone in time then.

Well, look at that. Hooray for definitive answers. Thanks Kuey!

This may be a stupid question but regarding large creatures and those tiny, tiny shortcuts - even having the Narrow Frame feat wouldn't allow a large ape companion to squeeze through without making that Escape Artist check, correct? It admittedly doesn't seem like the language of the feat would supersede what's written in the scenario but on the other hand it also seems to defeat the purpose of taking Narrow Frame for your companion in the first place. Thoughts?

Looking at the scenario text and the feat text: No, Narrow Frame does not override that no large creature instructions because a Medium creature must squeeze to pass so the diameter is less than half the width of a Large creature.

That's kinda what I was thinking too, but I wanted to make certain before I gave an answer to my player as I am still in training on my Rules-Fu and occasionally second-guess myself.

If it helps, I think Red forgot to report his first kobold success...

So we have 12! Doubt we'll see another 12 by tomorrow though. =)

When we calculated out how many days were allocated to each section - did we take into account Easter?

Those 4 days should probably only have counted as 2. Much like how the weekend counts as 1 (that's how we do it right?)

No to both. The schedule is fairly restrictive, unfortunately.

I'm starting to set up for the next encounter and I've got a few questions about the map.

I put my group at the entrance to the room. Normally I'd have the kobolds skirmish through the caverns, but that will take forever in PBP.

I assume the tunnels would be for it to fly up and then come down behind them if you were skirmishing in the tunnels. And a backstory way for a big dragon to get in and out of a small cave.

@Granta: I think you posted the GM part rather than the Overseer part (pg. 32). It means the players miss out on the dragon calling for them. Should we post the overseer part ourselves?

The kobolds continue to mount a frustrating defense, luring

Pathfinders into cramped and trap-filled tunnels and unleashing
captive monsters on unsuspecting agents. Even so, the kobolds are
losing ground with each battle. As another skirmish echoes from
elsewhere in the caverns, a tremendous roar reverberates through
the cave complex, rattling stalactites and causing snowdrifts to slide
down the outside slopes. As the sound dissipates, the voice of a
massive creature booms from deep within the kobolds’ warren.
“Long ago my ancestor Grathatonhakis ruled here, and a
meager dwarf challenged his might only to become his trophy.
Both were fools, and both are now dead. I am neither, and your
paltry attacks shall not change that. Fall back, kobolds of the
Shiverscale tribe! Let these intruders die in sight of the last fool to
challenge Horralydax, the master of the Tusk Mountains. Rally to
me, my children. Today we dine on adventurers!”
The kobolds kowtow to the booming voice, scramble to their
feet, and begin retreating deeper into the caves. For once they
aren’t covering their tracks, so the way to the dragon’s lair is clear.
Table GMs, please move to the encounter in area N swiftly.

Thanks for the pickup Dennis. I for one have gone ahead and added this section into my thread. I think leaving it to individual GM discretion is probably the best option, as different tables may have progressed into the final encounter already.

I thought that overseer post was a little odd. I too have added the section in my latest post to my group.

Oops! That's what I get for rushing to get it done right before bed. I had wanted to give you an extra day for the encounter by posting right at midnight, but screwed it up instead :-/

Yes, please post the overseer part yourselves. I'm leaving for work in a few minutes, and won't have time until tonight.

No worries Granta -- I also posted the overseer text after seeing the thread here. Thanks for the extra time for this encounter!

Oh, high level play. The kineticist at my table just dropped the dragon using cold damage.

Just curious as to how one would do that against a Dragon immune to cold?

I went to check it out ('cos I got a kineticist of my own). Learnt of this magic item known as the truefrost elixir which bypasses cold immunity. 1500gp for 6 rounds for half-damage. Quite a bit of investment but looks like it paid off! Wonder if there's something similar for other elements...