I like/am fine with the watch schedule, though man, as bog-standard humans Kel & Tris are screwed, not even a low-light-vision between us. ;) I don't think there's anything to be done for that, though, there's just not that much darkvision to go around in the party.
Jubal, how much further to Fairhaven?
Your directions from before and the confirmation from the messenger put you at least 2-3 more days. Now with your sideways direction and potentially not traveling on the Peak's Wood Path...?
Signed on watch order. Thondrir will stand an extra hour into the Human-Watch as well, so there's at least someone who can see something.
I believe we did agree to purchase a wand of Cure Light Wounds as well, did we ever determine who has it? I can't cast it of course, but Thondrir and Esaul can. For situations where we don't want to overshoot with Infernal Healing, it might be better to use Cure Light.
I know I paid half of a CLW wand, but right now I don't know who has it.
BTW, between a sick daughter and being slammed at work, I'm too tired to write a real post. I hope to write something tomorrow or Saturday.
Hmm we should decide who has it then! Thondrir, Esaul, who wants it?
Hey gang, catching my breath after a crazy week. Seems like we'd have been plotting as we talked, knowing that a medusa can turn one of us to stone. Here's what Kel would suggest:
Kel has the ability to gain blind fight for one minute. Seems like Kel could potentially sneak toward the source of the arrows and then pull a blindfold over his eyes and attack (if he gets lucky, maybe even with surprise).
Is there anyone else that makes sense to get within spitting distance of the medusa? Or do we have everyone else attacking from range?
If we go this route, Enlarge Person on Kel sounds good to me. I don't really know what I'm getting into, but I could see Kel + some disposable summon of Devan's going in while all else fight her with arrows. (Heck, maybe Thondrir approaches and puts on a blindfold too. He'll very rarely get a hit in while blind, but he'll at least help to split up her attacks...and no one is better than he at absorbing attacks!)
Whaddaya think?
Well, if she is seeing us I believe we can see her back.
Do we know her gaze attack has a limited distance to affect its targets?
I have Obscuring Mist to let us approach her, if you think it would be a good idea, Elbows, but I personally believe we should take it out from a distance.
Well since typical gaze attacks only go 30' and I think at least one of us beat the knowledge DC by at least 5, we could ask that our tidbit of information be "how far does their gaze go?" That way we know in character for sure and can plan accordingly.
I think offering her Thondrir and Kel with their eyes covered as distractions while the rest of us shoot her from a distance is a good idea.
Jubal, the map shows her but the text only said we saw an arrow. Can we see her yet?
I put her there to show the origin of the arrow. You can make a perception check to target her...
RE:Stone Arend.
Okay, so Arend has no type of immunity to petrification or stone that I know of. If he dies, I'm supposed to be able to summon him back with half HP the next day. So if he were stone, couldn't I just dismiss him and have it be treated like he died? What about breaking his head off to kill him myself?
Devan, that's how I'd read it. I'm pretty certain he *can* get petrified...because the Celestial Appearance evolution (and maybe a couple others) grants +2 to saves vs petrification (amongst other benefits).
And as a bonus, you'd have a stone Arend head to keep as a souvenir.
EDIT: Kelbows' question: Lets say I was 60' away from the medusa at the start of my turn, and had blind-fight active. Could I take a free action to drop my bandana over my eyes, and then charge the medusa? I believe the partial cover doesn't interfere with the charge. Assuming I set my location before dropping my blindfold, does someone with blind-fight + a known target have any penalties to charging?
DIfficult terrain does not allow you to charge, Kel.
Anyway, I conside Arend a pokemon, and as such he would return to his "poke-realm" if frozen/petrified/died, So I would rule it's like death for it.
DIfficult terrain does not allow you to charge, Kel.
There's no difficult terrain only partial cover.
Kel, if you want that Enlarge Person, you shouldn't move too far away from me. I'm not going to cast it yet because I don't want to alert the Medusa to my presence.
Edit: except I just rolled a 5 stealth. So I might as well cast it in the next two rounds, so I'll be sure to stay within 30 feet of you.
Carter, how does this sound to you?
(Assuming the medusa stays where she is) I walk to the yellow triangle (which I just marked on the map) and activate my Blind Fight ability. Meanwhile you take a 5' step to the blue triangle and cast Enlarge Person on me.
The following round, I'll drop my blindfold and charge to my death...and you'll take copious notes to feature in your next journal! ;0)
EDIT: Kelbows' question: Lets say I was 60' away from the medusa at the start of my turn, and had blind-fight active. Could I take a free action to drop my bandana over my eyes, and then charge the medusa? I believe the partial cover doesn't interfere with the charge. Assuming I set my location before dropping my blindfold, does someone with blind-fight + a known target have any penalties to charging?
Jubal, any word on this? (Fine if the answer is "Elbows isn't really sure", but I thought I'd ask in case there's something he'd know that I don't.)
I can't find anything in the game mechanics that would prevent this. Can anyone else? However, from a modeling real life, I'm very dubious, especially in a forest as sparse as it may be.
On the other hand, she will be tough enough anyway. Therefore, go ahead and charge off a cliff you want...
*shrugs* RAW, it seems fine to me. You might give him a Reflex save to avoid tripping over tree trunks or something if you think that's fair?
But as far as 'modeling real life' goes, I don't think there's any real-life equivalent to things like 'the ability to fight without any loss of dexterity when you can't see', so.... we're dealing with extraordinary abilities already, regardless of whether they have an actual (Ex) after them or not. :P So I generally don't worry too much about trying to model real life, when it comes to RPG chars in a system like Pathfinder's.
My thoughts:
* Forest off trail would often be difficult terrain (at least in patches), making charging impossible, but this forest isn't. (Mechanically were treating this forest more like a fog that's hard to see through than a series of obstacles and uneven ground).
* Moving full speed while blind (even on easy terrain) isn't possible without Blind Fight (which I agree isn't a "realistic" feat) but with it this seems legit.
* Given those, this seems to work mechanically, as a game. That said, if you as GM wanted to say "no, that's not reasonable", I wouldn't complain.
Sounds good to me Kel!
@Carter -- Cool, now hopefully we find it again soon -- and hopefully *not* because one of us just turned to stone.
Anyone have a way to thwart it's stealth? (Maybe Light's scent? Anyone have a spell like Glitterdust?)
Jubal, got to say, this is definitely an interesting, confusing, high stakes encounter.
Just get prepared for when it shows up. Light and me can sense it through scent, but it is too dangerous since it will have to get very close to us. The Medusa will show up, and if it doesn't we can just move away from it. It is not a part of our objectives.
I hope you like it. I enjoy variety in encounters and having bad guys use tactics based on their Int and Wis.
cheers
I have no glitterdust, but I am debating climbing a tree, lol. Aerial view of battlefield, etc. Tree cover may not let me see the medusa either, but it's a tactic that I think Tris would go for, and I won't know if it works until I try...
I like it! Especially if you see a tree that's > 30' tall, so it's harder for the medusa to corner you from below.
Exactly, Kel. :)
Silly question, but did everyone heal their level in hit points for their 8 hours of rest?
I know I thought about it, because it was going to put me at 24/25, but I apparently didn't write it down. Woops. *edits*
Carter doesn't get second level spells until Level 4, so no Glitterdust from me.
I did, bringing me to 30/32 (as in status)
I did.
Time to run? Maybe the medusa won't follow. If she does, at least maybe she can't be quite so stealthy in pursuit.
If we do run, I suggest:
1. we run South first (away from her last known position) for a couple minutes, and
2. we space ourselves out some, so that we minimize how many of us are in the area of her gaze at any time.
Whaddaya think?
Jubal, metaquestion, what's your preference about this kind of "table talk"? If you prefer it all be in character, shouted across the battlefield, let me know.
I'm an old school gamer, where there's more table talk than role-playing, so I'm totally ok with coordinating discussion. I play Pbp, because I get to experience more role-playing than I get at the home table.
cheers
If we're calling for a retreat, that means Tris is definitely not climbing a tree this round. :P
Well, I'm at least raising the question. I don't think the right next step is clear, but if you ask me I don't yet see a better option (though it'd be unfortunate to do so right after using Carter's scroll).
What do y'all think? Did y'all see my question, above?
Going to go about getting caught up tonight. In-character, Thondrir would see the medusa as the sort of creature the Samaritans exist to put down. Out of character, and in my experience, modules tend to yield better results by not skipping content (also bearing in mind I think we started this one a level behind, if in greater numbers than recommended).
Don't worry about meta-gaming the module. We're in the random encounter phase until you get to the town, so there's no significant story letdown.
If you want Thondrir to act last turn, please go ahead. Glad to have you back.
cheers
I'm fine with just standing there for now, hah. Until it's exposed, there's not a ton dwarfiepants can do.
IC-ly, even though the Samaritans should put down a monster like this, I would think our greater priority is surviving the fight to be able to assist the town? I mean, from an in-character perspective the risk of the whole group being turned to statues is actually fairly realistic. Committing to fight one evil means we, IC-ly, run a strong risk of not being alive to fight the other evil we already know about. *shrug* Just my two cents.
And Tris, IC-ly, is very much of the he-who-runs-away-lives-to-fight-another-day school of thought.
OOC-ly, I think we're in for a rough fight if we stay, with strong odds of someone getting stonified-- all you need is a fail on the 50% dice, then the dice just being a little unkind on the Fort save, after all-- but I'm not necessarily advocating fleeing. I think we can win if we play smart.
Well, we have no way to communicate in character without giving away our positions, and we don't know where she is.
It's not like we'd all simultaneously decide to run away in the same direction, in character, without talking about it. But I totally agree that if we can run away from this thing successfully, we should. Why try to fight something that lives out in the middle of nowhere and can turn us all to stone?
Kelbows has already given away his position -- and just grew to 10' tall so inconspicuous isn't one of his goals. He can call the question in character.
Indeed in normal situations we would kill it to prevent her from causing harm to good fellows, but killing it now is against our best interests. The Orcs and whatever will be walking these trails pretty soon, and she is too valuable not to let alive....
Everyone BUT Thondrir moves at 30 ft, right?
EDIT: Why in seven hells is Longstrider a "personal" spell?!!!
So now's probably the time for me to point to who Rahaal's profile really is.
The hidden subtext is that, while I've been loving this game and everyone else's roleplay...I've been frustrated by my roleplaying of Kelbows. I knew it'd be a stretch to play him as I'd imagined him...but in the end I never figured out a voice for him that felt right. As a result I approached Jubal with the idea of finding a way to switch characters.
Jubal suggested this as the way to make the change. To be clear, if Kel (or anyone) leaves now there's no way he'll be back before the adventure is over.
That said, in character, Esaul just made a great case for why he's more suited for the role. Whoops!
I'll be busy for the next 2-3 hours, but back online after that. Let's see if we can find a way in character for it to make sense for Kel...and I'll ask all of yours' patience with my introducing a new character for you to get used to.
I think that Rahaal is going to be much more interesting for me to roleplay, and hopefully will prove to be a fun and useful member of the party (if not a member of the Samaritans, at least initially).
Thanks to all -- especially Jubal -- for understanding!
Fine by me. I've had that happen to me before too. It's really hard to play a character you can't get into. Especially in PBP where the roleplay aspect is so prominent.
I'm ok with it too. Weirdly enough, I was imagining if Elbows replied something like "Yes, I do mind", in case Esaul would agree saying "ok, whatever".
Anyway, Esaul was thinking that's because Elbows is feeling useless after those ranged fights, and would let him do whatever he wants.
^_^
I promise I'm not piggybacking on gyrfalcon, but I've also been thinking for a while that I've been having trouble being Carter. The character started as the favorite author of my character in another game, and I'm thinking he shouldn't have been brought to life. He's a bit too fake. Plus, I've discovered I'm not a huge fan of the Arcanist class. My real life is getting pretty busy as well, so I've had a hard time keeping up with the posting. I'm going to call it quits on this game. I've had fun playing with you guys, maybe we'll play together again in the future.