The Masters of Golarion

Game Master tumbler

I think that we can all safely assume that Validk has become Schrodinger's Wizard. But yeah, thanks for the buff, P.

Out of curiosity, would it be anachronistic to have gunslingers about? I was thinking of what to put in Jacob's demiplane and I thought that a good deal of his library would be filled up with pulp novels about detective and western-like stories. Although, I guess the pulp novels might be a bit anachronistic in and of themselves. Still, I think it's a fun idea.

Who's wizard? For some reason I wasn't seeing updates for the game thread, just this one.

Do you have the Inner Sea World Guide? Or even the Inner Sea Primer? Because we are in Golarion, and it is actually very specific about the level of technology in it. There are guns, but they are EXTREMELY rare and primitive, and pretty much isolated to a specific area.

They are manufactured in the Mana Wastes, from a city called The Grand Duchy of Alkenstar. Firearms were developed here because the Mana Wastes are a virtual dead magic area, located between the nations of Nex and Geb, and created as a result of the war between those two rivaling nations so devastating it stripped the land bare of both life and magic. The Mana Wastes themselves are basically a stretch of desert wastelands now rife with mutants. The malformed kind. Guns have not really traveled outside of the Mana Wastes due to them being early firearms and the existence of magic everywhere else.

http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Mana_Wastes

Anything of the "western" genre based in Golarion would be centered around this area, but with the dark mutant and just emerging firearms twist.

As for detective stories, it depends on what kind of detective stories. A lot of places could work, but a lot of places may not either. If you're thinking Sherlock Holmes style, then a few of the larger cities in Varisia and Cheliax may work. Absalom, Andoran, Taldor and Molthune have potential as well, but with a decidedly more medieval bend to it. Darker, gothic style detective stories could easily sprout from Ustalav.

Thanks for the notes, Pirate, I've gotta check that information soon. I just like the idea that, since Jacob's a sorcerer and can't learn new spells from books or anything, he wouldn't really care terribly for spellbooks or anything. But mages need to have libraries, so he opts to get the kind of cheap silver piece stories he'd have read as a kid.

Just an idea, though.

Who's wizard? For some reason I wasn't seeing updates for the game thread, just this one.

Schroedinger's Wizard is a concept I've seen on the boards a few times. Technically, it means "a wizard who has every spell that can steamroll this encounter memorized." But since everyone was saying "Where is Validk?" I thought the whole imaginary superposition of Validk being close enough to both the vanguard and the rear would be an interesting use of the term.

Who's wizard? For some reason I wasn't seeing updates for the game thread, just this one.

Weird. I have heard of those who don't get gameplay thread updates but all the others go through. Strange indeed.

And here I thought you were referencing his cat...

So any ideas for the plan? All I have is "big silver dragon, halfling on a polymorphed dinosaur, and shapeshifting nature monk keep this thing busy by hitting it while everyone else throws magic at it."

"big silver dragon, halfling on a polymorphed dinosaur, and shapeshifting nature monk keep this thing busy by hitting it while everyone else throws magic at it."

Since when was that not considered a pretty go-to plan? :P

Sir Orrin is going to go into a fair bit of detail (as we push through the storm towards the beast) regarding strategies/tactics, and I mean actual combat tactics, including possible tactical positioning, specific contingencies, etc. However, I am far too tired right now, so it will have to wait until after I get some sleep.

Sounds good to me. I've got a few possible spells lined up that I'm hoping make things easier to deal with. I'm sure Tumbler will give us a tactical map soon for these sorts of tactics.

Wow, okay, so that was a stupid big post. Sorry about that. Anyways...

Nets are usable against creatures one size category larger than the size of the creature the net was made for. So if this thing is Huge, a Large net would work against it. Why bother with such a mundane weapon? Because they are AWESOME! They target Touch AC, when they hit they reduce the targets movement speed by half, they prevent them from being able to run, they prevent them from being able to charge (this fact may very well save on of our lives), and they apply a -4 penalty to it's dex (various skills, AC and reflex saves go down) as well as a -2 to it's attacks. It can only remove these conditions by either escaping the net (which is a Full Round Action, thus negating all of it's offensive abilities for that round except for AoOs), or by tearing the net to shreds (also a Full Round Action, thus negating all of it's offensive abilities for that round except for AoO's). Multiple nets means multiple rounds of it being brutally hindered or completely ineffective.

If anyone has the fabricate spell, we can create appropriately sized nets on our way to the beast with an appropriate Craft: Weapons skill check. If there is nothing in the land itself to turn into these non-magical nets (a slab of stone, a sheet of glass made by the storm, several square feet of grass), Sir Orrin has several Furs in his saddle-bags (used for bedding for Carolinus or to keep us warm in cold climates) that can easily be fabricated into one or two Nets of various sizes.

If there are areas of stone, spells like Transmute Stone to Mud is another way to temporarily negate it's mobility, reducing it's speed greatly while in it (cast it on the stone while it's foot is on it to make it sink, unlikely to trap it, but reducing it's speed TO 5'. Yup, reducing it's speed to five feet per move action. Follwing it up with a Mud to Stone has the potential to trap it (but it gets a reflex save to pull out just in time).

Wall of stone and the like can be used to prevent it from charging in certain directions, and to possibly guide it closer to characters we want it closer to... or take up some of it's attacks destroying it.

While Katja's full attacks can be devastating, we do not know how powerful this beast is. Until we get a better sense of it's capabilities, I'd recommend to Katja to use her superior mobility via flight to our advantage. If it succumbs to your Frightful Presence, you can greatly control where it moves by your own position in the sky above it. You also have FlyBy attack to make swooping single attacks against it from above and out of reach (hopefully it can't fly and also doesn't have a too large of an Acrobatics skill so that it can't jump up to attack you), as well as two breath weapons. Alternating breath weapons from above with flyby vital strike bite attacks (hurray for long necks and extended reach with bites, and hurray for FlyBy allowing a standard action during your movement, meaning Vital Strike works with FlyBy) and general support with spells and heals as needed while waiting for your breath weapon to recharge. I leave the choice of Cold Damage breath weapon or Paralyzing breath weapon up to you. Without knowing if it has evasion and/or immunities, I can't really say which one is more advantageous to use. If it is susceptible to paralyses, then getting it paralyzed would be HUGE! However, it is also a save to negate, and it may be immune. It may be worth trying it first and seeing how it reacts to it, then going from there. Keeping a Dispel Magic handy may be useful as well, especially if it has spell like abilities. Even if they are At Will, it still takes an action to use them, and that is one less action it has to attack us.

Sir Orrin would like someone to tell him what type of creature it is so that he can activate his Bane ability, which need to target a creature type or subtype. If he has this info, he can make his Lance a Bane weapon against that type/subtype for a limited number of rounds, which will make him even more effective against this beast.

Sir Orrin has a huge CMB to trip, and gets a free Trip attempt each time he hits a target which doesn't provoke an AoO... but failing by 10 or more means you get tripped in return. Thankfully, it doesn't make Sir Orrin drop his lance (that would be truly devastating as it would remove all our Banner bonuses as well), but being tripped while mounted is something not really covered in the rules, so this is something for tumbler to answer: what happens when a person who is mounted gets tripped? Please consider the following:

Can a rider even be tripped? There is a feat called "Unseat" which uses a bull rush maneuver to knock a rider off his mount and makes him prone on the ground. If a mounted rider can be tripped, there are rules in the Ride skill that hep determine the exact effects. I propose that a tripped rider be permitted a Ride check to stay in the saddle. Failure means he falls off his mount and becomes prone on the ground. Success means he stays in the saddle, but is knocked back/off balance/prone on his mount, requiring a move action to re-align himself. HERE is a recent thread discussing exactly this, though the conditions creating the situation are different, I think it still applies here.

Sir Orrin is, as he mentioned before, unfamiliar with the ins and outs of magic, and it has probably been some times since he's last seen what everyone is capable of, so I'm playing that he doesn't know exactly what all of your spells and powers are at this moment, though he does have some idea. Again, he's also going on the basis of not knowing how powerful this creature actually is, so while he intends to charge directly into the fray, his general tactics and suggested tactics for us all as a group is more about keeping us all alive while being able to overpower the beast at the same time rather than simply risking it all to brutally overwhelm it (which, without knowing anything about the beasts capabilities, has the potential to catastrophically fail, hence the more defensive mobility route).

ALSO: While Sir Orrin's banner buffs work in a radius around him, he plans on using Ride By to perform mounted hit and runs, so there is no realistic way to keep everyone within all his banner bonus radii all the time. However, there are a few other buffs he plans to give everyone just before we (if we go with his basic plan so far) initiate our attack. Primarily, he will use his Tactician ability once we get close to give everyone bonus teamwork feats. I can give everyone two of the feats I know. I know Coordinated Defense, Paired Opportunist, and Coordinated Charge. I think Coordinated Charge and Coordinated Defense would be the best two to share, but if you feel otherwise, please make your case. Everyone has to get the same two feats though. Note on this: if you gain a numerical bonus from a teamwork feat that activates from being near an ally and that ally is Sir Orrin, the bonus increases by +1. For example: Coordinated Defense normally gives you +2 CMD when beside an ally who also has this feat, which increases to +4 vs creatures larger than you and your ally. If that ally is Sir Orrin, you actually gain a +3 CMD, increased to +5 vs creatures larger than us both.

Also note that creatures hit by Sir Orrin must make a will save DC 16 (piddly, I know, but natural 1's still auto-fail for saves) unless they are immune to fear effects. If they are not immune to fear effects and they fail the save, they become panicked! If they make the save, the still become shaken. These conditions last as long as they can see Sir Orrin.

Sir Orrin has a domain, well, an Inquisition actually. It is the Inquisition of Valor. As such, he actually has to (try to) be in the middle of the fray when things start. He's not against smart tactics, but even when doing hit and run tactics (which are actually the norm for highly mobile mounted combat), being the one in the middle, being the one making the strong effort to be in his opponents face and being in harms way, even placing himself between his allies and his enemies is exactly what he does/will do. In his mind, being the one most easily targeted by his enemies while still keeping his distance, IS smart tactics. ^_^

So that's another reason why he is suggesting forming a circle of bodies around the beast, being mobile around it while also hampering it's mobility. It allows us all to be effective and to contribute, while also allowing Sir Orrin to speed in and out of striking distance with the beast while also keeping himself in a mobile position between it and the rest of us.

Validk: Do you need Sir Orrin to give you a Remove Fear? It looks like you failed the will save. However, if you caught up to within 6-' of Sir Orrin when the save needed to be made, you would have had a +6 moral bonus to it. I also notice you have a 20 minute duration Greater Heroism as an active buff, but I do not recall when you cast this. If it is up, you're immune anyways, but if it's not...

Oh, on the note of a tactical map... I can't speak for tumbler, but that would, I think, normally only be given out once we get close enough to actually see the area in question, at which point there wouldn't really be time to plan, and we'd instead be having to put our plans into action. If we had fast and reliable means to scry on the area, or if we were ahead of the beast and laying an ambush for it, sure. But in this scenario where we are trying to catch up to it to in order to engage it, I don't see how knowing the details of the area where the battle will commence in advance in order to discuss tactics using it as a reference will be realistically possible. But that's just me viewing tactics discussion as an in character thing.

Jeebus this post was huge too!

...did I miss anything?

Damn, Pirate, that's a lot of words. Lemme respond in parts to the best of my ability.

Currently, I'm kicking myself for removing Fabricate from Jacob's spells known list. However, I do have something that could help out with entanglement. I picked up Mass Icy Prison and even get a bonus from Spell Focus to the DC. So, if it fails its save, it's helpless (but unfortunately we lose our lines of effect to it) and it needs to blow a full round action to escape. If it saves, it's entangled. And either way, it takes 28 points of cold damage per round, which should either negate or come close to negating the regeneration of a spawn of rovagug. Not great, but not exactly chump change. Other than that, I've got Waves of Exhaustion which would help if I have a shot where Jake gets close enough. Plus there's Haste. Should probably cast that on the party again soon.

Like I mentioned earlier in the gameplay thread, a few strategic Prismatic Walls should help deter movement for that thing. Or it could take about 140 points of assorted damages (before resistances and immunities) and get sent to another plane. Here's hoping that this monster of storms is afraid of rainbows, because the more I think about that strategy, the more it starts falling apart.

No clue on the trip mechanics. Combat maneuvers are not my thing. I remember picking up a spell on my second most recent sorcerer character that did nothing BUT combat maneuvers and I never used it once. However, lately I've picked up Battering Blast, though. Only reason I mention it is that, the way I read it, it gives one blast per five caster levels, each of which grant a bull rush attempt with a +10 bonus for every blast that hits past the first. Ergo, if I'm seeing this correctly, assuming Jacob makes the poor touch AC that most gigantic creatures have, he'd get a +81 CMB to bull rush the Storm of Wrath and a chance of getting it prone. So, yeah, big paragraph here boils down to "I can help move the thing into a better position for us".

I'm not sure who else will be charging, and I don't know the range on a cavalier's teamwork abilities off the top of my head, so I'm with you on sharing those two feats.

Also, it seems like it'd be hard to get into this sort of thing's head to predict who it'll go after first. At least, at this point. As far as we know, this thing isn't even used to creatures surviving this close to it. But that's just the way I look at it.

Think that hit most of the points you brought up in both the threads, P. Anything else you want to talk about for tactics here?

Don't forget to zap it with Prediction of Failure! :D

I thought of that, but I think that this thing might be immune to mind-affecting effects. Though Major Curse seems like it may yield sufficient results.

Wow, long post. I don't have fabricate, and I don't have followers high enough to cast it either.

Something for future thought. I can probably set something up for nets on demand.

Validk cast the greater hero when he caught up to Jascob, not sure if that was within 6' of Orrin. Since the spell grants immunity, it would wipe the fear effect whether cast before or after casting.

Maze may slow it down for a bit, as well as prismatic wall.

I have one use of my arcane bond to pull any spell from my list.

I'm thinking that the 'entry' to my demiplane, being a dead-magic zone that's deep and narrow would also make a good prison. I might have to build another one, start storing BBG's in demiplanes...

One thing I'd like a confirmation on is the way multiple demiplanes stack up.

Spell states that it can be cast to extend the zone. Each extension can have a gate. Any reason why that gate couldn't be located somewhere else within the overall zone?

What I am envisioning was several gates in a 'room.' One gate per expansion of the zone.

Anyone have a counterpoint to this?

Not sure if pulling it into the demiplane would be ideal. That's where all our stuff is.

Anyway, nets seem like they would only do so much. Who wants to send this thing into the sun? Or barring that, the plane of negative energy?

I need some time to get through these posts, but I wanted to say that the beast is colossal.

Alright, good to know.

Want to cast a few 1 round/level spells, too. Out at the moment, but I'll take care of it later. Don't wait up if you want to post in the gameplay thread though, Tumbler.

Tripped while mounted: I like your proposal for this. Would the ride check be based on the maneuver check of the attack? Being prone in the saddle makes a lot of sense conceptually. It keeps you from threatening, requires a move action to undo.

Type of creature: several people made the knowledge check to know what the creature is, so you guys know it's type.

The creature is currently far away and often obscured by weather, so it isn't tactically visible at this point.

The observation that the creature would not be used to even seeing other creatures is a good one. Few creatures could survive for long in this storm, so it probably isn't accustomed to company.

I was only debating that we don't know if this thing thinks. Even if the knowledge rolls took care of identification, does that knowledge explore the creature's mental faculties? If it isn't used to seeing other creatures and it is immune to mind-affecting effects, would anybody know if it thinks?

I wasn't thinking about pulling him into 'our' demiplane, but into one modeled on our door way, dead magic, heavy gravity, positive energy.

While getting started on the whole immortality quest we'd also become inter-dimensional jailors.

Ah, that'd be interesting. But doesn't it take six hours to cast Create Greater Demiplane? Seems as though that may be less than convenient.

It does take six hours to cast Create Greater Demiplane. However, would a regular demiplane as created by standard Create Demiplane work?

Create Demiplane is a sixth level Summoner spell. Miracle can specifically mimic any seventh level or lower spell in a mere standard action. As such, Nagato only needs like three seconds to create a place to trap this thing. It would not be a dead magic world, but it would at least give everyone a place to dump this thing without worrying about the fallout from the fight killing innocent people.

Yeah, but it's an 8th level sorc/wiz spell. I always thought that a spell counted as the highest level listed when dealing with replicating and wish spells. I'm sure Val or Jake can drop a Wish if the demiplane is the consensus. Now comes the "how are we sending it there?" discussion. Am I remembering right that Plane Shift only affects willing creatures?

School evocation; Level cleric 9
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S; see text
Range see text
Target, Effect, or Area see text
Duration see text
Saving Throw see text; Spell Resistance yes
You don't so much cast a miracle as request one. You state what you would like to have happen and request that your deity (or the power you pray to for spells) intercede.

A miracle can do any of the following things.

Duplicate any cleric spell of 8th level or lower.

Duplicate any other spell of 7th level or lower.

Undo the harmful effects of certain spells, such as feeblemind or insanity.

Have any effect whose power level is in line with the above effects.
Alternatively, a cleric can make a very powerful request. Casting such a miracle costs the cleric 25,000 gp in powdered diamond because of the powerful divine energies involved. Examples of especially powerful miracles of this sort could include the following:

Swinging the tide of a battle in your favor by raising fallen allies to continue fighting.

Moving you and your allies, with all your and their gear, from one plane to a specific locale through planar barriers with no chance of error.
Protecting a city from an earthquake, volcanic eruption, flood, or other major natural disaster.

In any event, a request that is out of line with the deity's (or alignment's) nature is refused.

A duplicated spell allows saving throws and spell resistance as normal, but the save DCs are as for a 9th-level spell. When a miracle spell duplicates a spell with a material component that costs more than 100 gp, you must provide that component.

By RAW, Summoner spells are free game for Miracle. Nothing in the Miracle text says otherwise, and to my knowledge, nothing else says I must treat a duplicated spell as its highest level.

As for Plane Shift, you can send any creature to another plane provided it fails its save and you beat its SR.

All this being said, I would still prefer to actually fight this thing before resorting to high level magic hijinks.

Does make sense. I was just thinking that there may be an issue because it's also another spell of 8th level depending on which list you're talking about. That was just the way I understood it, but the RAW seems pretty clear.

And of course, I'm looking to fight, too.

I wasn't as much talking about this mob, or more to the point after we stop it if we cant kill it.

I would certainly be willing to create a demiplane to dump bodies into. Set up some theater seats, sell tickets and popcorn...

Down the line, yeah, it does seem like an interesting prospect.

So, should we start going about things due to Orrin's strategies soon?

Argh. I'm at work, and it's proving to be stupid busy, so I'll not likely be able to make any real posts today.

However, I just wanted to put some concerns/points out there to consider.

I'm leery of using Prismatic Walls for two reasons. They are really good at obstructing everyone else other than the caster, so it could screw over Sir Orrin as well. Second, and this point applies to every idea put forth about sending it someplace else... if it does fail a save and gets teleported to a random plane of existence, we have (in Sir Orrin's mind) failed. That (and anything where we simply send it somewhere else) is simply making this beast someone elses problem, possibly putting many other lives in danger for our own convenience.

Some of the planes become more dangerous, as it is very likely to be able to survive in even the most hostile of outer planes, meaning it could find it's way through them to areas or other planes that are inhabited by innocents, OR, it could be found by a powerful evil who also has access to inter-planar magic, who could then turn this beast into his own weapon of evil against other planes by opening a gate and sending it through.

Is this thing immune to fire? It may be able to survive on the Sun, in which case a powerful evil could track it down there, make himself immune, and open a gate from there to wherever he wants to destroy.

If this thing is likely immune to mind effecting spells, there's also a chance it will be immune to energy draining effects, making the Negative Energy plane of safe haven for it. It is also a safe haven for powerful, evil undead, including liches and other high level casters who could then open a gate to attack good aligned planes by sending the beast through.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Of course, as Sir Orrin has said already, we should go one step at a time. First things first are disabling it (Sir Orrin plans on essentially beating on it it until it collapses), then we can discuss banishments, imprisonment, and/or figuring out the unknown unique way to actually kill it for good.

Anyways, I gotta get back to work.

(also, be sure to actually tell Sir Orrin stuff. I'm taking all the discussion here about spells as us players talking out of character. If there is something that we as characters should know, please remember to actually tell all of us in game)

^_^

Alright, good points. First, let's deal with the thing. I made my last post assuming that we'd encircle it, so unless I hear different, that's a start.

I believe that we will probably need a map to do anything else. It does not even have to be anything fancy, but playing out an epic level battle in the air is going to be difficult to visualize otherwise.

I agree about surrounding it. Maybe Kat and I get in its face while Sir Orrin sneaks around to flank? Now where to put the spellcasters... Perhaps the casters (everyone who isn't Sir Orrin it seems!) can hit it first with some spells and then the melee team moves in.

Blast it! I show up to replace a camera at a client for my job and the lift I ordered needs a key to operate. The key is not there. I need it! Kinda hard to use the lift without it. Grrr. Had to call the rental company to get their on call guy to come out and get me a key so I can get this work done.

*sigh*

Sorry to hear that, Vixen. Everything taken care of now?

No. Their guy came out and we cannot find the lift. Turns out I had the wrong lift (it belongs to the store). Now we have to find out where it was delivered. New driver and all. I will have to come back another day.

Well that blows. Hope things get sorted out soon.

I was thinking about the encirclement technique, and I'm not sure if that's even entirely necessary. I've got an idea that I'd like to discuss OOC before bringing it up in the gameplay thread.

So, my idea is that we send out someone (preferably our party member with the best defense) to draw the attention of the beast. As soon as it gets attention, they retreat to the rest of the party who will be hiding in wait. When the beast gets to the proper position, everyone springs up and starts doing what they do best to take the thing down. This will allow us to encircle it without having people too out of position. The only downside is that we're going to need to have someone who can book it and resist attacks from the beast as long as possible. Thoughts?

For that, I suggest a combination of Katja and Nagato. Kat is by far the fastest flyer, and Nagato can sit on her back and give support (Mass Heal if necessary, Ant Haul to make Nagato's weight trivial for a quadruped Gargantuan creature with high strength, etc.). Moreover, a Gargantuan dragon is probably the most likely of our present group to draw the beast's attention.

Seems like it should work pretty well. And if it attacks one of you more than the other, you could save Mass Heal and just go with Heal.

I just think that with getting everyone to surround the Storm, we get a lot of points that could go poorly, I.E., people that get spotted prematurely. If we try this, we have fewer people that can get caught out of position.

I'm thinking we need Tumbler to come around soon with a tactical map to progress further. Or we need to cement a battle formation so Tumbler can get ready with the map. One of the two.

Map is up in the Gameplay thread.

I've put Jake's piece down. Just wanna know if we should start that far away or further.

What's the terrain below? It looks like plains, but for some reason, I keep thinking it's the ocean.

Sir Orrin did not suggest splitting up and coming at if from all angles from a great distance. He even states that such would be foolish as it would be non-conducive to powerful short term buffs, and puts us all at risk of the storm, as we only have a 600' radius of calmer winds around Katja to really work with (another reason having Katja as aerial support flying above the Beast is a benefit, to keep us all in her radius of calm more easily while we surround the beast).

Sir Orrin was asked about combat tactics. He replied based on his years of service in the military as a soldier, eventual general and commander of men in the Andoran Military, the Eagle Knights (while now a Steel Falcon, he used to be in the Golden Legion), in a similar position in Lastwall alongside the Knights of Ozem, at the Worldwound along side the Mendevian Crusaders, as a Purple Dragon Knight of Cormyr when he visited the world of Toril), and of course for his own people, the militant halflings of Casmoron.

Getting into a flanking position, especially on large scales, is huge.

There are two issues I see with the lure technique. One is environment (which itself has two parts). First, we are in a plains. The only real hills are basically created by the destruction this creature is doing to the landscape. Having spent time on plains, I can tell you that you can see very far. Unless we are told there is a decent sized hill nearby (big enough to hide us, which includes dragons and a storm giant) from a creature that is colossal in size, I don't see how we could lure it into an ambush without burying ourselves into the ground. Second part of environment is this storm. Anyone who gets more than 600' from Katja is going to suffer the full effects of this Storm of Wrath.

The second issue is not so much a tactical issue, as it is a roleplaying/character issue. Sir Orrin is smart, but he's no genius. He believes in god tactics, but straight forwards tactics that hold no deceit. He is also dedicated to the concept of Valor. He is against ambushed. He is all for riding out and meeting an enemy face on. And of course applying smart tactics once engaged. He even worships a deity who is known for making rash decisions and sometimes getting into trouble for it, but her god heart and warrior skills always seeing her through. Sitting back while someone else acts as bait is to Sir Orrin an act of cowardice (and if someone suggests this in game instead of OoC, Sir Orrin will state as much). However, if such a tactic becomes a necessity, Sir Orrin would not be satisfied unless HE was the bait (he may not be as fast as Katja can fly, but on land he is - as far as I can tell - consistently the fastest at the moment). Of course, all of this I would rather discuss in the game in character rather than out of character. This is, after all, Sir Orrin's point of view, not necessarily my own.

On the note of Valor, the book Knights of the Inner Sea has a section for Knightly Codes, one of which is Valor.

I guess there's a third issue as well. What contingencies does the Lure tactic have in case something goes wrong there? What if the beast doesn't give chase? What if he does and catches the lure instead? What if there is something else on the field of battle that springs up and flanks the lure while we are separated? Sir Orrin's suggestion doesn't have all the answers either, but that is why Sir Orrin asked in character about what resources we have available, so as to tweak, adjust, or even completely change tactics and - more importantly - contingencies, if things go awry. It is also more in line with Sir Orrin's ideologies, which can be described as: "Meet your challenges head on".

The tactics suggested by Sir Orrin are also based on my current real life reading of the texts "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. I am well aware that this was written based on and for real world warfare and of a larger scale (actual countries/armies fighting each other), so there will be some discrepancy between that and a special forces unite like us adventurers against a single beast, but that is where Sir Orrin's mind is at. One of the biggest things though, after considering initial actions based on environment, terrain, enemy resources, personal resources, intentions, and so on, is to create and become familiar with as many contingencies as possible for if and when things change (for ill or will), and being bale to adapt to those changes on the fly.

Don't get me wrong, I'm actually all for discussing tactics and the like. On the other hand, we could spend all year discussing this, and this is a pbp game, so at some point action needs to happen. On another point as well, there is a difference between discussing good tactics between players (me, Pirate, talking to aceDiamond, GMV and CDL, etc), and our characters discussing the tactics that we're actually going to use in game (Sir Orrin talking to Jacob, Validk, Nagato and Katja, etc). While Sir Orrin is controlled by me, he is not me. (unless of course we decide as a group that we want to play this game like that, then I will adjust accordingly).

I guess my real beef is that we're doing a lot more 'out of character' discussion of in game tactics than I prefer. I'd personally prefer our actual characters to be having these discussions, so we can be on the same page as to what our characters are actually going to do. But again, that's just me.

What's the terrain below? It looks like plains, but for some reason, I keep thinking it's the ocean.

Based on our location (the red dot) shown HERE, I'd say we're on plains. I'd guess that the roughness of the landscape is caused by the destructive power of the beast and the storm that is surrounding it.

My question(s) would be:

• how high on average are the variations in the landscape?
  
• Does it count as difficult terrain? (ie: the squares with smooth land is normal terrain, while the squares with what looks like rough, raised land is difficult <- this is my assumption, but assumptions are dangerous)

Thanks in advance! :D

My Dragon Style laughs at Difficult Terrain.

:D

(I spend a good amount of time deciding between Improved Unarmed Strike + Dragon Style vs Nimble Moves + Acrobatic Steps + huge acrobatics/jump skill modifier for Carolinus. In the end I decided the later was more in style for how I envisioned him)

It turns out that I would have made the Will Save after all. With Sir Orrin's banner, I forgot to factor in my Iron Will feat, which would have made all the difference. Well, let's just say that I suffered a one time penalty for seeing and experience things that most humans never should. Unlike even one else, Mira's personal experience is essentially nonexistent with world-destroying monstrosities. The Storm of Wrath is easily the worst thing she has ever dealt with.

It's funny (and maybe a bit tragic) how much her admiration for Nagato takes her sometimes.