Something Wicked This Way Comes (Inactive)

Game Master Fanguar

Happy New Year fellow Knotters!

Here's to a villainous 2018 :)

Happy New Year, all! And welcome back, Albreckt. :)

Welp, I was gonna check Xanos' map to try and get a visual of where we are, but all I get is a blank page with 'Not Authorized]' in the upper left hand corner :(

Ditto! Fell portents indeed!

I'll see what I can do to fix that.

Right now we are on the third floor in the staircase room. It is sealed off and hidden from the rest of the third floor.

The archetecture of this place is full of tricks. I'll put together a longer post explaining it later when I have more time.

For right now, we need to get to the rest of the third floor and explore it. If we don't go through the wall then there are two options. We either go back to the second floor and climb up through the pit trap, or we climb/fly from the outside of the horn.

Hmm. If you are already logged into Roll20, the link works fine. If you are not logged in it takes you to the Not Authorized page.

I'm not sure how to fix that. I guess just log in first

We are currently in 3-13.

We need to climb up through the pit trap in 2-5 (marked C). That will put us in 3-1 (marked P)

Sounds like a plan to me.

Seconded. Albrekt can toss Sari up right? :D

From a practical standpoint, it's much easier to climb up from outside. Better yet would be to fly.

It's easier to climb hundreds of feat outside than to toss a grappling hook up through a hole in the ceiling?

You're going to have to explain that one.

Yeah, fly would be good for either.

Xanos is really trying to avoid that staircase again.

Any windows in this room we could climb out of to make things simpler.

And Xanos - given undead don't feel things like fatigue then yes climbing hundreds of feet might well be easier as long as its dark.

This room is completely sealed in. In isnt even connected to the rest of the dungeon, except by the hidden stairs.

It looks like room 3-1 has a balcony on the south side of it. We could let Xanos (and maybe Haruk and/or Rose) stay below while Molasbar, Albreckt and Sariana climb up to the balcony and check out the other parts of level 3. If he wants, Xanos could lend us a hand, remotely.

It's easier to climb hundreds of feat outside than to toss a grappling hook up through a hole in the ceiling?

You're going to have to explain that one.

Yeah, fly would be good for either.

The third level is 200+ feet above the second. It would be easier to climb a mountainside than a vertical shaft.

Access to the upper level is designed to be by flight or throne teleportation.

Wow, I did not realize the pit trap was a 200 foot fall. That's a hell of a trap.

Fiendishly nasty I'd say :)

Might be we need to restock with some flying spells/scrolls/potions/items etc from Farholde?

We need one more level then you and I can spider climb everywhere and find out the teleporting password!

It'll become "Der Nest" - perfect place for our vamps to slumber (and suitably lofty as befits our position as Uber-Knotters ;)

I can add levitate and spider climb to my magus spell book.

Don't suppose anyone wants to just Stone Shape a door in the wall right in front of us.

Wow, I did not realize the pit trap was a 200 foot fall. That's a hell of a trap.

Ya, I don't think anyone is really supposed to survive it.

Once you have access to the teleportation command word for the upper throne, moving between levels is pretty trivial.

If either of you fail that save I'm not going to make you do anything. Channeling is mostly for dramatic effect here. I'm using it as the "how Xanos overcomes vampiric blood" explanation.

Also, just to make sure it's clear, Xanos might be mad, but I'm not. This is an awesome scene. Thanks Sari!

Yeah - Sari is now rather pissed with certain arrogant wizards. I'm just having fun!

In case its not clear the 'command your own blood' comment refers to all of his blood that Sari is now holding, rather than a comment on your 'how to stop the vampire blood' plan. :)

You weren't trying to turn Xanos into a vampire? Is what you described exactly how that usually works? Did I misread something?

It actually didn't occur to me that way. I was working on a 'suck out the tainted blood' theory and then 'well i have to put something back'. Also purely for myself I'd say that, since Sari and Albrekt currently lack the ability to create spawn, either of them could completely exsanguinate themselves into Xanos for no real effect.

Now once we get the create spawn ability :D

My intention was basically to provide a huge level blood transfusion. Hence Sari getting so shirty :)

I kind of like how you had very different views of what you were doing, though. Xanos being suspicious of Sariana's help is perfect.

To add to that - Albrekt's threat is basically his natural reaction... he's sensed Xanos ability to control/dominate him as a necromancer.

His reaction isn't to illicit a PvP scenario - merely its a brute warrior's threat of violence against a powerful character who can hold sway over him against his will.

Regardless - great RP :)

A blood transfusion of necromantically infused blood... I'm not sure what that would do in this case.

Basically, Xanos's other arm (the good one) is badly infected beneath the bracer locked to his wrist. Eventually he's going to ave to cut his other hand off to remove it (like he did with the last one).

Based on what I understand of Necromancy, I think Sari's blood would probably make the infection progress faster, but for a while Xanos would be able to ignore it's effects.

I like that as a story element, so I'll go with it.

Decided to just jumpstart the other hand thing. I'll just be one-or-sometimes-zero handed for a while. It will be an interesting roleplay exercise to only be able to cast spells while my familiar is attached to my wrist.

If I can make it to 7th level I'll be fine.

Super fun scene everyone, thank you.

I was drawing more on vampire mythology generally - haven't studied the ins and outs of necromancy in any great detail! More from the test subjects perspective ;)

Very cool RP folks. Though I admit that mostly what I'm hearing is that if someone can steal Xanos' familiar, he can't cast spells. Hmmmmm.........

Only for one level! Grr.

One level changes a lot of things...

That's not entirely true! He can still cast spells without a somatic component. Let's see... There's True Strike. Feather Fall. Um. Oh! Hold Portal! Yeah, this could work!

Still spell :)

Still spell :)

Good point, but he wouldn't be able to take it until 7th level when it becomes a non-issue anyway. Of course, he could get a rod of metamagic: still spell. Then all he would have to do is grab it and - oh, sorry. ;)

*laughs in sign language*

News flash - Pathfinder Second Edition!

There's going to be a lot of cranky fanboys...

Interesting times - looking forward to the playtest and seeing what form PF2E takes.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. I plan to listen to the podcast demo and follow the play test. I see some potential in the changes they have teased so far. I haven't looked at 5th edition D&D at all, so I don't have that as a basis for comparison.

Honestly, if nothing else it will serve as a reset. All the splat books over the years have added a lot of bloat to the system and I imagine that it's got to be pretty intimidating for a new player coming in. Personally, I hope they don't mess with it too much. While I like 5e D&D, there's a lot that pathfinder does better. Some of the changes seem reasonable, though I'm not really liking the changes to combat. That being said I still think that 4th ed. had the best combat system of them all, so what do I know.

Can I get a head count of how many boggards live in the caves right now?

Since we have a big cash dump, I think we should talk about what to buy.

I think the adventure expects us to use the cash to fix up the Horn. I'm mostly in favor of that. We're going to need food supplies, beds, stuff to fix up the Tavern, parts to fix the traps, NPC weapons and armor, and other basics to repopulate our new dungeon.

I'd like to request we pick up a Lyre of Building. I have a number of renovations I want to do to bolster our defenses. When we are done with it we can sell it for 1/2 what we paid, so we'll recoup some.

I also want to buy three ballistas.

Who shall play said Lyre?

Are we to dump most/all our loot into the Horn? I would like to get a few things for Haruk, including the Diabolical Masquerade Mask and a Glorious Gorget.

Course, it would also be super awesome if we leveled soon :P Gotta learn Abyssal finally, lol.

I've been planning this for a while. I'll put points into perform. My familiar gets my ranks, and is undead. If I can get the bonus high enough the little hand can play the lyre without stopping for as long as we need it to. If I fail a check the hand stops playing and Xanos himself starts.

Anyone else could also put a point or two into perform strings. Then when one of us fails a check they pass the lyre off to the next person.

The Horn doesn't need a ton of construction. Just some walls put up and knocked down, and some murder holes drilled. We'll be able to renovate the whole place in a matter of days and then sell the Lyre if we want to.

Isn't a Glorious Gorget a scaling magic item? Do those exist in this game?

FYI All - am heading off for the weekend (pit crewing for a bike racing mate of mine). Will be gone from this evening until Sunday evening w/ minimal chance to post.

Please bot me as required. Normal service'll resume late Sun/early Mon.

Cheers

BD