The Ballad of Bloodmarch Hill

Game Master Joana

I do so much narration as GM I'm struggling with tenses as a PC here (16 hours of work didn't help)- your mostly writing in present yes?

Third person, present tense, yeah. :)

All right, Alicia is going to sell the book cover, Kaleb is going to Gather Information, Marikel is going to be early to bed, early to rise. Vhailor? Plans for the night?

Those of you who are 1st level can go ahead and level up. Roll for hit points in the discussion thread; if you roll a 1, reroll until you don't get a 1.

I'll be out of town for most of the day but I'll post (and update to level 2) before the night's out.

1d8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

I've had a couple of crazy-busy days but will plan to post in gameplay tomorrow. I aim to get the first in-game day wrapped up quickly and move on to the morning. Vhailor and Marikel still need to level up.

HP for 2nd level: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

YES!!! :-D

Character leveled. Spells altered. FC bonus to hp. Increased ranked skills by 1.
Think I got everything, but my PC crashed and I'm rebuilding a new one, so I had to level without Herolab. Tough times indeed. :-)

Nice couple of rolls.

Mark, does Vhailor have any intentions before heading back to the Ramblehouse?

1d6 ⇒ 6 - wow... unexpected but I'll take it :P

No intentions intended, will have a post and levelled up tonight.

Might make another post later but nothing worth waiting pushing the game on for.

I had to level without Herolab. Tough times indeed. :-)

Hey, at least you're second level and not tenth or something.

I haven't made a character by hand in years. I think I could handle the math, but having to flip through all the books to find my options would be horrible. Scrolling through 'Only valid items' in Hero Lab is so much easier.

I don't expect to find any problems, but I'll be looking over your character sheets in the next day or two to make sure everything adds up.

HeroLab is a massive time saver for me. Couldn't manage without it now.

My longest-running campaign back in 3.x (1st to 11th or 12th level) came to an end basically because I didn't have time to hand-build enemy stat blocks at that level of complexity. HeroLab very well could have kept it going.

Day two, level two: at this point, you guys will be 20th-level in less than a month! ;P

Actually, there was a lot of story-award XPs in the first level of this AP, fattening you up for the challenges to come as quickly as possible. I mean, seriously, "If the PCs win the tug-of-war game, award them 400 XP," "If the PCs find the torn paper in the half-orc's room, award them 400 XP," "If the PCs discover that the hopeknife in the wall was not Kerst's, award them 400 XP." Not that we're tracking XP, but if you wonder how you got to 2nd level so quickly, that's why.

Don't know whether you've read the first Wrath of the Righteous... but it's similarly generous in parts. I seem to remember that climbing into and out of a not particularly deep pit was worth a good 1,600xp or so.

Well, Wrath was focused on getting the PCs to 20th level (and 10 mythic tiers!) in six books, so I can see why they'd give out XPs for breathing to fit in more levels in the same page count.

And the investigation at the beginning of Bloodmarch Hill takes up more page count than a simple dungeon or list of encounters, so I guess the same reasoning applies.

Still, just cements my preference for level-up points rather than tracking XP.

Just a short note with apologies - I've not been in a happy headspace (well that plus busy with real life events over the weekend) for a while which has made it difficult to get into character. Hopefully on the mental mend and will be back into it sharpish, but a bit of patience is appreciated.

Note: Nothing major major, just a passing melancholy.

My calls for GMs not to overdo it so they don't burn out applies to players too.
Take care of yourself. I'm happy to lose you occasionally short term if we get to keep you long term. :-)

News on the work front... I have some! Will be mobilising offshore (to an oil rig) on Sunday for anywhere up to 3-4 weeks. The role should continue on and off through till the end of May - which gives a bit more stability to me here (plus means I can get paid again ;).

What it might mean though is that I suddenly drop off the contact map. Until I get offshore I have no clue what their internet filters are or aren't going to pick up... so while I'm hopeful Paizo is still accessible it isn't guaranteed. As long as I can get online I'll pop up a quick howdy - but again given it's a new job and I'll be landing right in the middle of ongoing operations it might take a few days before I get meaningful downtime.

So ultimately smiley face followed by pensive face which is hopefully followed by tired yet professionally satisfied visage.

Wishing Mark well as he heads offshore, and here's hoping he's able to access the boards for the duration.

I'll just assume Vhailor is following along with the group until I'm told otherwise.

Yep - following along is good with me. I'll be flying offshore at 05:30 tomorrow morning so should have a good lay of the land by the end of the day.

Shall check in if and when I can.

Going to give AK a touch more time to follow up with Cham if he wants to; if he hasn't posted by Monday, I'll presume he's satisfied with the Information he's Gathered and catch Kaleb and Alicia up to the others at the Howling Hound. I'd rather have everyone go in together than leave one PC I have to narrate alone.

Enervating couple of days... sigh.

Enervation... that's a nasty spell. :-)

So Marikel's taking the straightforward approach via the front door? Alicia, you going along with him or taking a separate tack?

Assuming that he goes in the front door, Ali is sneaking around to the back door as soon as his back is turned (or a back window, as the case may be) and sneaking in the back way while he's knocking on doors.

Marikel is happy to go with a majority vote or whatever. He's a lot more flexible than he appears. :-)

Sorry for the delay.

So offshore sojourn number 1 should be winging it's way to a close on the morrow - 20 days offshore, so not too bad a ticket to swing at. Likely get a little bit over a week at home before I have to do it all again.

Hey, guys, just noticed that I don't think it's ever been said who was carrying what of the loot from the burned church, other than Marikel's longsword. Let's get that figured out so it's available for use rather than floating in limbo somewhere.

I'm presuming that Vhailor has the scrolls of knock, hold portal and summon swarm and Marikel has the one of ghostbane dirge, as they're the only ones who can cast them, but there are some potions as well.

Does anyone want the chain shirt, falchion, or hand crossbow? Is Marikel carrying the 2 extra holy waters, or are you spreading them around?

Speaking of bookkeeping no one wants to deal with, Mark, you need to add the wands you found to your character sheet. I believe that you had planned to have Vhailor learn detect magic as one of his cantrips for day 2 in order to identify things (like the wands)? Is the spell selection on his profile updated?

Marikel will take the two Holy Waters for possible distribution. Will update sheet... over Easter. :-)

and a narrow wardrobe that looks like it is fashioned from an old shipping crate turned on it.

"... turned on its end." :P

Bump for when you get a chance to think about it, Mark.

Speaking of bookkeeping no one wants to deal with, Mark, you need to add the wands you found to your character sheet. I believe that you had planned to have Vhailor learn detect magic as one of his cantrips for day 2 in order to identify things (like the wands)? Is the spell selection on his profile updated?

Alicia, do you want the hand crossbow? I believe you're the only one with the proficiency.

May as well. Also, whatever happened to that fifth player-character?

As I wasn't present at that stage of the game, have not piped up about loot.

So, I've added the scroll of ghostbane dirge, 2 x holy water and oil of magic weapon. I was tempted by the MW chain shirt but would rather keep the extra point of AC.
There's also the potion of shield of faith and the potion of darkvision which I could use but the darkvision may be better for Alicia who did pocket it in the gameplay I believe. And the shield of faith may also be better for a maneuvering rogue than a charging cleric also. If no one else grabs them, I'll take them by default though I'm already ahead on treasure I believe.

Yeah, as in Riddleport, you're coming out ahead in the loot, simply due to your PCs being able to make best use of NPC gear. Ali sold that book cover for a hefty pocketful of change, so she and Vhailor can "catch up" with a larger share of the coin.

As I wasn't present at that stage of the game, have not piped up about loot.

Yeah, you came in at Wealth-by-Level, so the presumption is that what they got before you joined the party is split among the original PCs. If there's something they don't want that you do, though, speak up. Mostly consumables left so I'm not greatly worried about unbalancing things.

Also, whatever happened to that fifth player-character?

The PC wasn't ready when AK's character came in, so we're kind of waiting on a more opportune point to introduce a new PC than just "some guy comes wandering down the hall and you invite him to join your group."

Busy Easter: church, lunch, egg hunt, family. Will post tomorrow.

Actually, wish I'd remembered about the darkvision potion earlier. Could've been useful. I'll definitely take both potions.

No claims.

Actually, wish I'd remembered about the darkvision potion earlier. Could've been useful.

Hey, I tried. ;)

Yeah, I so rarely use potions in my tabletop games that I tend to avoid using them (and forget about them) in my PbPs too. Same problem with scrolls.

Yeah, my RL group rarely used any consumables other than cure potions. Probably because our typical campaign (all homebrewed) left civilization at level one and never saw a store again. The only stuff we got was placed by the DM and tended to be unlimited-use.

So I hoarded consumables like crazy in Baldur's Gate and its ilk. I'd get to the end of the game without having ever found a situation when I really, really needed to use that potion of bull's strength or firebreath or whatever.

So Monday was 4 hours in an Immigration office followed by 7 hours in an airport, and Tuesday the site was down... and the job offshore's been delayed until Saturday - so I've a couple of sneaky days in town before I go out again... but at least the Immigration side of things is sorted now.

I promise that tonight I shall do those little things I've been lax on... like spell selection and whatnot...

So ... did Vhailor learn detect magic today?

Excellent.

Spellcraft (wands) 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 261d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

Taking 10 on Spellcraft, Vhailor can identify the wands he found as magic missile and burning hands. The auras are weak, indicating that they are not fully charged.

EDIT: Or, you know, rolling, not taking 10. I couldn't remember if caster level for a wand had to be at least 5, in which case he couldn't succeed by taking ten, so I decided to roll and see what he got and only worry about looking it up if he rolled low. Only then I forgot to edit.

Sense Motive requires 1 minute of observation/interaction, Ansha. I'll update you on Ali's assessment of Urnsul's story in a post or two.

Typed Ansha instead of Alicia and caught it 10 minutes too late to edit. :P

Oh, well, you know who I mean.