Blergh - work followed up by ear infection and chestiness of youngest. Still here and will update with new map as soon as able (over the weekend though).
Sorry to hear you're having a rough week, we'll be here.
Finally back in relative position to push a bit of momentum back into this... though I'm also mindful of the season in question - so won't look for anything too hectic until we're past the silly season.
I'm presuming he didn't keep his hand on the door to hold it open. Now that he's seen Docia's game, he might want to do so in the future, at least until his pet gets out, but that ought to give him the grappled condition or something, right? :)
Using open/close offensively. That, my friend, is impressive.
Best Cantrip use in recent memory
Indeed he didn't see that coming :)
It's surprisingly effective in a man-made structure. In an unworked cavern or open wilderness, it's virtually useless. Nice to have it come in handy. :)
Went to see the second Hobbit movie tonight as we had a rare opportunity to get a babysitter in... I immediately regret it and will update tomorrow to spare the bile from my opinion of the movie tainting the thread.
Mark's definitely had a hot hand rolling saves vs. Theodric. :P
Does the door open into the room we're in, like the door the lizard was behind? We could put Lann and Nessa on corpse-piling duty, but if there's more than one enemy behind the door, the Str check to break free won't be much of an obstacle. If it opens into their side, there's not much we can do but be ready for an attack from behind.
You could Ready a grease to throw behind us if they open the door, if you want. There's at least two bad guys back there since they were whispering to each other.
FYI - Just riding out a busy time at work and with visitors at home - so I'll get a post in when I can.
Still your action anyway, Theodric. You going to ready or try to block the door? DM, can we tell which side of the door the hinges are on to know if it opens into the room or not?
- it opens outwards away from you.
I'm still swimming upstream like a crippled salmon - I'll be back in thread as soon as I realistically can.
Still your action anyway, Theodric. You going to ready or try to block the door? DM, can we tell which side of the door the hinges are on to know if it opens into the room or not?
I'm not going to move from my position of relative safety. I'll just keep up the readied action for now.
Sounds good. Opens away from us, so there's no real way for us to block it anyway.
If no one opens a door on the bad guys' init, thus triggering Docia's readied cantrip, she'll open the northern door on her turn. Then it will be up to Gregori to charge in at whatever's back there.
Personally, I'm a little worried: They've been chanting for three rounds straight back there. What kind of spell has that sort of casting time? ;P
Probably Summon Balor II or III, my guess. :-)
I'm hoping they're first-level and not that bright, so they've already wasted two spell slots summoning things that went poof before we opened the door.
Finally emerging from the haze of busyness that's suffused me over the last week. Have had parents visiting (they fly out tomorrow) and work hit a conflux of activity (culminating in a four hour meeting on Friday afternoon that resulted in a forty page program for me to write over the weekend - and am currently 85% through).
Should return to normal service this week with my apologies and thanks for your relative patience. So I shall have the next in game post up within 24 hours.
And no...not Balors.... not yet...
Hello friends. I hope all are well and have had a good holiday season.
I wish to apologize for my absence and the obvious hole it left in this game. I suffered a major shock in my life around Thanksgiving that has affected my network of family and friends, my emotional health, my career, and long term financial wellbeing.
My job increased in duties to overcome a vital loss in our small ranks just to make it to the new year. While we struggled to meet that milestone, my job may yet still evaporate in the coming months if the board moves to dissolve. Exhaustion and depression had settled over me, to a sense that I knew something was wrong but was unable to stop it.
I have been around long enough on these boards to see people up and disappear, and I always wondered what happened. Well, I am here to report that sometimes life can kick you in the teeth, and take something from you. I loved visiting these boards and not just for the online PbP. Several times a day. Usually first thing in the morning after checking email and last thing at night, looking for that last possible update. Well, a switch had been thrown in me. Something I loved just fell away.
Over Christmas, I did some travel to spend time in desolate places to clear my head. I love the desert and its effect on me. Seeing life growing, however limited, in the harshest of environments is a good inspiration for one looking to renew one's life or get over life's hurdles.
My job still may evaporate and I don't look forward to finding a similar job in this economy, BUT I have turned a corner and have begun to look at this proactively as something to prepare for instead of dread. Maybe even doing some fiction writing, something I always wanted, but a full-time career held me back...we will see.
Through this, my local friends and family have been supportive. In that vein I seek to get back with my wider net of friends I have made over the internet. Chatting with people all over the world in different locales and different (or the same) places in their life has always been an education and comfort. So while not completely over my depression (I have been battling depression to a smaller degree for a number of years now) I am in a better place, so I return to my old haunts. I want to thank those that reached out and others that expressed concern.
This is my first visit to the boards in quite some time, and I image there is a lot that has happened in my absence to go back and read. I suspect I have been dropped or replaced in some cases, and I totally understand and respect that. And again I apologize for the disruption I brought to this game. If the group does still have a place for me, I can begin to resume my postings here as I try to get back up to speed.
In either case I have enjoyed my time here and will read future developments as it has been a fine game.
Meowzebub - as expressed over the electronic mail sending device and what will be a plethora of other threads on here by the time I am done... condolences for the shock over the holidays and if I saw you in person I would offer platonic man-hugs of a comforting nature.
For mine you're always welcome in any of the many many games that we share on here. Our fledgling little bunch of crusaders and hopefuls is starting to face what will be it's first stern test at the hand of pesky cultists and forces of evil. Nessa's wee sword will hopefully do it's fair share of snicker-snacking to put paid to it.
Cliff notes version is that I'm kind of embarrassed to find that I've let this fight stretch out to two months and counting now! You've just cleared the first room of mongrels and have had the door opened to a couple of dark cultists in the Northern room.
Welcome back! Nessa is an awesome character and it'll be great to have you back in the mix against these demon-worshipping scum!
VoV--yeah, the pace has slowed a bit, but that's to be expected over the holidays. For my part, my interest in this game has not waned at all--still excited to see this through.
Eudocia attempts the trick that allowed the lizard to be corralled, but is thwarted this time as the near cultist kept grip on the handle of the door long enough to bar it's closing.
Are you saying that Eudocia cast her readied spell and it failed, or that she never cast it because she saw that the man was still holding the door? Because if she took her readied action, her init should have moved to just before the cultists' so she won't be up again until next round.
I'm kind of saying both and neither. I didn't want to pause the thread to get a clarification of whether you still cast or not, so I let you cast anyway and then didn't adjust your initiative.
So you got the benefit of the attempt without the payment of any cost in an interest of keeping somewhat of flow going.
I hope that's ok?
It kind of turns on how detailed a Ready condition can be. It would make sense that she'd prepare to cast it when someone opens a door and then lets the door go so the spell can work, but some DMs place limits on how small a detail one can notice in a split-second in the heat of battle.
At any rate, I'm happy to trade a cantrip for a crit, (at least I hope a 23 hits) even if I rolled terribly on the damage dice. :P
Sorry to hear about the emotional turmoil Meowzebub, it happens to all of us at times. Glad to see you back.
Gastro family over the last couple of days - updates coming over the course of today.
Hope everyone's on the mend, Mark.
Pretty much mostly there - problem is that it's only been taking us out one at a time... it's been through me and both boys... but not yet my wife... *cue ominous music*
Finally managed to get on top of the recent work madness as well.
Famous last words... hit my wife this morning.
Will get an update in tonight though (public holiday again in Malaysia today)
Well then... nothing to worry about that ominous chanting then eh? - though two crits and a max damage bastard sword'd do in most things at this level ;)
Whoo! Let the overconfidence begin! ;)
IC, my inclination is to push forward through the eastern door and not waste resources on anything that's not coming out to challenge us. Then again, since our goal isn't merely fighting our way through but genocide and we're expected to slaughter any survivors anyway, perhaps we might as well get whatever's behind the southern door over with. Either way, Nessa's shield of faith duration is ticking so we'd better not tarry.
Keep going north, the way Lann thinks is the main passage through, or stick around to kill whatever's behind the southern door?
I say keep pressing on once this combat ends. I wouldn't say genocide is our goal so much as routing and scattering the enemy. Cutting a good chunk out of their forces and hopefully stumbling upon their leader will probably be more than sufficient, right?
I tend to want to avoid the meticulous room by room sweep in PbP and play a little more guns-blazing. I like a fast paced game, and tend to lose the thread of the plot in long dungeon crawls. What does the rest of the party think?
"Then again, since our goal isn't merely fighting our way through but genocide and we're expected to slaughter any survivors anyway, perhaps we might as well get whatever's behind the southern door over with." This makes the Paladiny part of me twitch. Then again Gregori worships the Angel of Vengance and it modifies his code.
I say keep pressing on once this combat ends. I wouldn't say genocide is our goal so much as routing and scattering the enemy. Cutting a good chunk out of their forces and hopefully stumbling upon their leader will probably be more than sufficient, right?
I tend to want to avoid the meticulous room by room sweep in PbP and play a little more guns-blazing. I like a fast paced game, and tend to lose the thread of the plot in long dungeon crawls. What does the rest of the party think?
You make some very good points (regarding both IC and OOC) and Theodric, of course, is inclined to agree--he wants to reach the surface and sees this as an obstacle in his way.
However, if we determine that these people are a cult of Baphomet (and therefore have a very likely hand in the assault on the surface), I think it would probably be our duty as crusaders to make sure that none of them escape. I think the best outcome would actually be to take a few of them alive for questioning, but if that is not possible then killing all of the cultists is the next best thing. Again, as crusaders I would say that it is our direct responsibility to do so.
Oh if they're proven demon worshipers all bets are off,not a hole deep enough for them to hide.
Well you're safe in this case :P - and for the most part it really won't come into play. Especially once you cross the Worldwound into enemy territory as well.
You've always the option of 'defeating' them, and assuming offscreeners clean up by encapturing, etc.
As a side note on pace - I have been and will be narrating through some of the conflicts without rolls to skip the less interesting portions of the AP. But in this case I wanted to have a nice protracted fight against the mongrels to try and stretch you guys. Hopefully it won't grate too much now that we're back in mostly regular action.
Because as per AP... you're Level 3 by the time you come out of the mongrel's lair.
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Meh, meeting a group of total strangers who ask the party to go up the road a ways and eliminate another group of total strangers "'cause really! they're totally evil! we swear!" makes my spidey-sense tingle.
As for the Baphomet cultists, I refuse to take anyone seriously who fights in boots with three-inch heels and is posed like she's rehearsing for a kick-line in Golarion's version of the Rockettes. ;P
Hey, she might have Improved Kick and Power Kick, then who won't be taken serious?
And Nessa has no qualms fighting these folks. Our Mongrols showed us kindness and these ones block our way out. Decision made.
Oh, I don't have a problem with killing them. I have a problem with being sent to kill them. A fine distinction, to be sure. If they were simply between us and the surface and refused to let us pass, I'd have no issue with fighting our way through them. The fact that a bunch of their own kind who have been living a fifteen minute walk from them for some appreciable amount of time without coming to open warfare have encouraged us to go wipe them out gives me an uneasy feeling that we're being used to settle personal scores.
In short, it doesn't make me like the "Evil" mongrels more, but it makes me trust the "Good" mongrels less.
Of course, I have severe issues with authority. My RL group is as Chaotic as I am, and it's well established that the best way to get us to do something is to have an in-game authority figure order us not to. Otoh, the more tropes of the game employed to hook us on a certain plot, the more strenuously we resist them. The last time a DM tried to start with the "mysterious cowled stranger sitting at a corner table in the tavern" bit, we were all, "You know, that guy looks like he picked the corner table for a reason. Let's respect his privacy and not bother him!" :D
Whoops, I forgot that Sleep had a longer casting time. This could get interesting with Gregori there :-)
ignoring the opponents on either side of the door
Two AoOs and a readied attack? This could get pear-shaped in a hurry if they roll high. ;P
Go, Go Gregori!
To our senses Theodric, we heard you mutter something arcane but seeing nothing going on, would not have the experience to wait for something to happen. Figured you were buffing or somehow helping Lann. It will only get worse if we drop one of the door guards and the spell has fewer targets. And I hate to say it, but he does have the best saves possible.....and with that, I doomed him.
Otoh, if all three attacks from the door guards hit, Gregori might be unconscious anyway and you won't have to worry about him being in the AoE. :)
Go, Go Gregori!
To our senses Theodric, we heard you mutter something arcane but seeing nothing going on, would not have the experience to wait for something to happen. Figured you were buffing or somehow helping Lann. It will only get worse if we drop one of the door guards and the spell has fewer targets. And I hate to say it, but he does have the best saves possible.....and with that, I doomed him.
Oh, I understand from your characters' perspectives--totally understand your decisions. I'm just mad at myself for forgetting the casting time
Rolling a '1' as his backup has not helped the situation at all. But hopefully she can be a distraction.
But Nessa definitely likes Gregori's style.
(And I need to get back into this character. Being away, I forgot I have 30' of movement as a halfling. Might have changed things for the better...like blocking Gregori's charge ;-) )
Yup Gregori takes 2 for the team. Absorb AoO's to protect Harrol, Effectively force the archer to quit taking potshots through the door or die. He has the best chance of surviving anything cast into the room and if he survives their turn, can heal himself as a swift action.
Gregori's tactical while being sort of balls to the wall at the same time. He does stuff that while thought out, will often seem crazy when in a fight.
Man I hope I got that right in the end - had to re-write it about fifteen times as I kept getting rules right, then wrong, then forgetting things, etc etc.
Gregori - I would've done the same thing in your place anyhow ;)
Mook Mongrels:Unworthy of being searched due to gear related similarity
You know, you could totally screw me over for being a smart aleck by assigning one of the mooks pack-mule duty and have him be carrying all the stuff the boss is too cool to be burdened with. ;)
Loot list is updated at the bottom of Eudocia's profile. I assume we're okay with just destroying the unholy water?