The Crucible of Freya (Inactive)

Game Master Grimmy

Never mind after the campaign post :p

DMG wrote:

Any questions?

Yes, who from the party have expressed concern about barelli and the mouse?

I think just about everyone was suspicious, after all they found her hiding with everyone else dead.

The party let her come along as a guide down to the crypt, but what they don't know is that Jerrid under control from a suggestion spell allowed her to equip her magic items before leading them to the door.

Also Kev has done detect evil on the mouse.

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French Wolf, thank you so much for the nice words! I don't always execute it perfectly how I hope, but that is always my goal, to give the players true agency, to influence their own fate and impact the narrative. That is what I'm striving for.

Never mind after the campaign post :p

Ok. Don't forget your reflex save.

A shame I was not here at that time, I had a good trick to know the cook true identity.

Jerrid and I had a good trick too. It just wouldn't fly with the more morally focused members of the group :P

I feel most of us saw this coming, though I admit I wasn't expecting the reveal to be quite so...shocking?

A shame I was not here at that time, I had a good trick to know the cook true identity.

Ah sorry for that. When I was botting you I didn't know of the trick.

Jerrid you too, make your Reflex save while you're here.

Jerrid and I had a good trick too. It just wouldn't fly with the more morally focused members of the group :P

I feel most of us saw this coming, though I admit I wasn't expecting the reveal to be quite so...shocking?

Ah so you guys had some PM action goin on? ;)

I'm glad to hear you guys had it figured out. I thought you did but at other times I was like oh my gosh are they really not getting this?. Haha. I was hammering the clues pretty hard.

I guess it was more about how to do it in character and not metagame what was clear for the players.

I don't remember it being PM's but we did have a chat about the correct course of action ranging from interrogation to the much simpler option of slitting the bastard's throat. We tend to be rather pragmatic folk :P

I think this is a situation that definitely suffered from being stretched out so long. A lot of planning and concern tended to die off over the breaks in favor of wanting to simply make progress. Not a criticism, just fact of the pbp format.

In the end though, that's just an excuse for our lack of action beforehand.

I wholeheartedly agree with French Wolf. This has been an excellent campaign so far and I'm extremely satisfied with the way things are playing out. You've done a great job weaving everything together DMG and we should have a ton of great roleplay to chew over when the dust settles.

Provided we don't all perish down here of course :)

Yeah, can't wait for Grimmy to DM us the whole Rappan athuk :P

Yeah, can't wait for Grimmy to DM us the whole Rappan athuk :P

I think we're gonna need to work on our tactics before we tackle that labyrinth of death :P

I think this is a situation that definitely suffered from being stretched out so long. A lot of planning and concern tended to die off over the breaks in favor of wanting to simply make progress. Not a criticism, just fact of the pbp format.

Well it is my fault, all those long interrupting breaks, but I couldn't help that, i'm just happy you're all here now I'm back. But I'll tell you, even before I ever had to take my first time off, and as long as I've been trying this PbP thing, I've had this nagging worry, Is PbP the wrong medium for the style of game I run? and also Is Pathfinder the wrong system for the style of game I want to run?

In the end the answer to those question must be yes, but yet I still want to do it. And I do think it's possible. I just have to work out some kinks, and hone my DM skills. Work on pacing and consistency. As long as I have the buy in from the players. "Old school feel with new school rules" that was how I advertised this PbP (also the slogan of the publisher of these modules). Well now we have a better idea what I was trying to say with that, I hope it is something you still want to invest in.

I guess it was more about how to do it in character and not metagame what was clear for the players.

I want to be sure we have the same idea about metagame. In my table at home, it would be ok for the PC's to act on the knowledge of who Barelli really was, if the players had figured it out from in game clues. It seems to me that some of you knew who Barelli really was but you felt it would be meta to act with this knowledge?

Jerrid I can understand, he had the burden of acting under the effect of a spell. And I wish I could buy him a beer, he did it with so much class. True gamer pride.

But the rest, the clues were there in game, if you figured it out you figured it out, why make the character play dumb? Maybe that is another old-school vs new-school issue?

Provided we don't all perish down here of course :)

u have so many action points though

Leoven. wrote:

Yeah, can't wait for Grimmy to DM us the whole Rappan athuk :P

I think we're gonna need to work on our tactics before we tackle that labyrinth of death :P

I don't know if RA is the best fit for this group but you have the freedom to go there if you wish. I have a lot of stuff replied that can take you a few different directions according to what interests you. I want to give you the freedom that's my goal. In my notes I have written that the slave ring was the plot hook that got the most interest so I have put much of my prep there.

I have also noted over the years we've been playing that something a little more linear might appeal to this group. Not quite an adventure path, I can't bring myself to run anything like that it's just not me... But perhaps something with a bit of an inciting incident, something with acts and scenes. That may suit this group better than wide open exploration. I may have some material like that, even up through reasonably high levels. I am still reading and prepping. We can talk more about it as we conclude this plot arch. The choice is yours though, if it's a dungeon crawl you want just ask yourself where did these cultists come from. Probably not a nice neighborhood if you know what I mean.

Damien "Wet" Winters wrote:

Provided we don't all perish down here of course :)

u have so many action points though

Uhm, how many actually?

I think they released some good stuff about bards gate lately, and they have plenty of small adventures. Some stuff like slumbering Tsar and Cyclopean deeps seems like a lot of fun though it's true that they are probably not for this group.

DM Grimmy wrote:

Damien "Wet" Winters wrote:

Provided we don't all perish down here of course :)

u have so many action points though

Uhm, how many actually?

Well I didn't use any when I was botting you. Do you know how many you had before then? It was start with 2, gain 1 on level up if that helps. Make sure to keep track of all that stuff on your char sheet.

Vhillish has 3 left - Started with 2, 3 Used and 4 Gained.

I think they released some good stuff about bards gate lately, and they have plenty of small adventures. Some stuff like slumbering Tsar and Cyclopean deeps seems like a lot of fun though it's true that they are probably not for this group.

I have the old 3.5 copy of Bard's Gate and I will probably get the new version. It's a great city. You guys should definitely go there sometime no matter what else we do.

Glorious last stand of the 33rd! Loving this encounter (even if Vhillish is in grave danger lol)

dang I totally forgot the posting format...

I am sorry guys.

Gotta say, this is one of my favourite campaigns. Not just for the excellent DM, but the excellent players as well.

It's always been a treat when we get to start back up again.

I like that challenge evil ability on Kev, there needs to be some agro mechanic in pathfinder thats more balanced than antagonize.

dang I totally forgot the posting format...

I am sorry guys.

Well I had the wrong round listed up top I just fixed it. My initiative table said we were in round 3 that's probably what screwed kevezyat up too.

Nice to see Leoven's personality coming out in the role play!

Indeed! Hopefully we can help him come to terms with it. Excellent job.

On another note I'm with Vhillish, that seemed a little too easy O.o

I'm sorry but that was just freakin epic Janna. I thought Vhillish was toast.

Was epic - forgotten what an awesome game this is :)

And while we're on the kudos express - DMG this whole encounter has been superb; love the blend of foreboding threat and heroic challenge you are presenting us with.

Great stuff DMG. Thank you kindly.

So we're able to act on the totality of the blue text? I'd wager this would be an interesting conversation. One hopefully kept short though...

edit

I was thinking of having Sam keep that to himself, because well he's Sam. He does stuff like that :) But I'll have him hint at it.

Adding that bit to Sam's dialogue.

BTW, does anyone know if Chainmail is ok? Do you guys play with him in other games?

BTW, does anyone know if Chainmail is ok? Do you guys play with him in other games?

Sadly no, the only other member of our group I'm lucky enough to share a second game with is French Wolf.

Hopefully it's just a temporary disruption for our opportunistic halfling.

edit

I was thinking of having Sam keep that to himself, because well he's Sam. He does stuff like that :) But I'll have him hint at it.

Adding that bit to Sam's dialogue.

Very true. I think you captured Sam rather well with that post. That's why I asked.

Thanks for throwing us a bone though. This promises to be...interesting ;)

XP
Caryatid Columns - 800
Vortigern - 200

I think I realized before that I forgot to allocated some skill points for Kevezyat in the knowledge (religon) area....sheesh , a paladin with no idea about religion :)

I guess I'll have her start hitting the books at next level up :)

Yeah perfect time plot wise, just unlocked keep of wizard interested in religion with a lot of books.

To the guys in the hall, remember it is dim light, and darkness in the bottom of the pit. You guys have not turned on any light source since separating from Damien.

In the wizards room, there is a light spell centered on Damien. Plenty of concealment for stealth for small creatures (i.e. Samduc and Jerrid) in the form of books, shelves and clutter.

To the guys in the hall, remember it is dim light, and darkness in the bottom of the pit. You guys have not turned on any light source since separating from Damien.

http://paizo.com/campaigns/TheCrucibleOfFreya/gameplay&page=95#4729

Oh right, sorry Leo I forgot.

But I think Vhillish still has the 50% miss chance due to no line of sight. Does that look right?

Edit: Never mind. I am calling that a hit. I put the cultist token now in a place where it shows how high he has climbed the corner of the pit, and I can trace a line of sight. Just barely.

hey all. got invited to a pathfinder game with some friends I haven't seen in a while. so I am sorry about Yesterday.

Also tomorrow I have a Pathfinder Society game so I may not be available tomorrow either.

reading through for a post now.

BTW, if it matters, Janna does have Darkvision

I'm not sure how many squares away is vortigern from me

9 squares.

I'm not sure what action would be needed to retrieve something from other people backpack

Still a move action if they're willing is how I play it.

About Vortigern,
It should be just a move action to sprinkle the dust, but he needs a move to get it out too. So he is not invisible yet.

can Janna act once at the bottom of the pit?

Yup, Round 8 is open. Janna can act now.

Kev you seem to have gone twice in Round 7 again. It didn't make any problems, the actions add up, I just want to get a system down so we can get organized before combats get more complex as we level up.

This is what I've been doing:

In the initiative table I use four arrows next to your name to show you haven't acted yet in the current round.

Like this

Round 2

Bob
John
Sarah <<<<
Tim

Bad guys <<<<

means we are waiting for Sarah

Let me know if this works for you folks. I can try putting it in the thread instead of the campaign info header if you want. Does the campaign info header not show up on mobile devices or something?

The headers definitely show on mobile. The system you're using works really well in my opinion. I think it's just a matter of everyone getting back into the swing of things. Kev posted after the start of round 8, I'd wager it was a simple typo.

On a different topic, can Jerrid still spot the Imp? I think Kev and I are both waiting to see if he can at least point us at the right square.