The Pyramid of Shadows (Inactive)

Game Master PathlessBeth

I can eat psionics and magic too - if you cast spells/psionic powers into my dire mantle I can:

gain any one of the of the following benefits per spell level, stacking up to three spell energy levels to gain greater bonuses:

+2 insight bonus to next concentration check
+1 enhancement bonus to attacks with her dire weapon for one round,
+1 insight bonus to all saving throws for one round
+1 deflection bonus to her AC for one round.
+2 insight bonus to one use of one skill. This lasts for 24 hours or until used.

Once per day, the direlock may expend three stored spell energy levels to:

* Gain a point in her dire pool
* Gain 10 temporary hit points (duration equal to 1 round per direlock level).
* Increase the DC of a spell the direlock casts by 2

So if you casters are looking for something to do….

Well i hope you guys like getting moved around... I am realizing that i can do a huge amount of teleporting and moving people/things around. In fact, i should be able to set up flanking extremely easilly :p

Next, got to look into how to improve concentration checks and combat casting...

Well, I'm up for flanking - I can use this to harm it I'm sure - it's not a huge amount of damage (2d6, less with a save), but if we can get it to chase me/come toward me it should help a little:

Pain Threshold: The direlock’s dire zone becomes a frontier of pain. All enemies attempting to move into the direlock’s dire zone take 1d6 force damage upon crossing into the dire zone for every 3 levels the direlock possesses (to a maxium of 5d6). Simply moving toward enemies or pushing them so that the border crosses them does not inflict damage – a conscious effort to enter on behalf of the enemy is required (whether compelled or free-willed). A successful Fortitude save reduces the damage by half (minimum 1).

or maybe this:

Blood Zone: The direlock’s dire weapon forms jagged edges, wicked spikes or heavy flanges - creatures struck by the dire weapon suffer bleeding 1 hp (even if they leave the dire zone). This increases to bleeding 3 hp at 10th level. A successful Fortitude save negates this effect.

Though I'm sure a garbage eating monster has a hella Fort Save...

Haha ya :) i actually have NO WEAPONS AT ALL O.o
a very intended weakness on my part :)
We may just have to tickle it to death, or risk casting at it. Next few rounds i intend on poping you guys around to set up flanking and then doing some debuffing as best i can (i am loving having near absolute mastery over positioning and seting up bad/good senarios XD)

Okay, that's a majority, so B+C it is! Specifically, for initiative in the future

i)When combat breaks out, I will roll everyone's initiative.
ii)If your character provokes an encounter, you can roll your own initiative and I will count it.
iii)During combat, you can post your action, or possible contingent actions, before your turn comes up. These can be changed if later posters whose turn comes before yours alter the situation.

Does anyone have a strong objection to the above procedure?

I'm hoping we can have the prologue done relatively soon (i.e. everyone can get inside the pyramid of shadows where the adventure really picks up.) That is probably when I will reveal the campaign traits. If you have a preference for what sort of bonus you want your campaign trait to give, now is the time for requests:)

by the by Gemheart, you should be able to post your actions and unless De does something radical, have a fair good idea of what to expect :)

Deranged_Maniac_Ben wrote:

Okay, that's a majority, so B+C it is! Specifically, for initiative in the future

i)When combat breaks out, I will roll everyone's initiative.
ii)If your character provokes an encounter, you can roll your own initiative and I will count it.
iii)During combat, you can post your action, or possible contingent actions, before your turn comes up. These can be changed if later posters whose turn comes before yours alter the situation.

Does anyone have a strong objection to the above procedure?

I'm hoping we can have the prologue done relatively soon (i.e. everyone can get inside the pyramid of shadows where the adventure really picks up.) That is probably when I will reveal the campaign traits. If you have a preference for what sort of bonus you want your campaign trait to give, now is the time for requests:)

by the by Gemheart, you should be able to post your actions and unless De does something radical, have a fair good idea of what to expect :)

Yep.

Oh right, forgot

Just had a look over the criticals house rule, makes my character's melee weapons very easy to crit with... 18-20, might not have to make a bracers of truestrike after all...

Ya get keen on those puppies as soon as you can XD
as for me, i dont need a weapon, there is plenty i can do even if i cannot do direct damage because if the spell resistance. I hear being entangled, prone and flanked is a bad place to be X)

De'arv'ki Paddfoot wrote:
Ah of course, posting from down in australia here, so everyone is posting at 4-5AM my time >_< no wonder i never seem to be posting anywhere near the times you guys do...
[emphasis mine] You are of course assuming I am not also in Australia.

Ah, the impetuosity of youth... ;)

sorry about that, made an ass out of u and me (Ass+u+me..., o.O, just made a dad joke! :O thats bad, i think...)

@Midio Oh, i intend to get the critical range extending feat, then it isn't subject to A-M effects/fields, but you're right, 15-20 crit range... nothing shall resist the might of my swords!!!!
EDIT: looking at it, it will either cost 8000gp or 8th level to double the crit range, so...

Having read the houserules twice I still cannot make head nor tail of them.

A):

If I roll a 20 for an attack, skill check or save, I reroll and add 20 to find my actual result?
If I roll a 1 for an attack skill check or save, I reroll and subtract 20 to find my actual result?

B):

I can only critical if I get more than 20 above the opponents armor class? And this is after determing my actual result using the system outlined in A above? And I get to add 20 to my reroll if I hit my weapon's critical range.

So I attacka creature with AC17 and roll a 20 (or anything in my threat range that beats the creature's AC). I reroll and get a 7, so my actual result is a 27 which is not 20 more than the creature's AC of 17 so this is not a critical hit. Right?

And I still need to naturally roll my threat range before modifiers to get the critical reroll?

De'Arv'ki: the default tactics in your profile are sufficient:)

Oceanshieldwolf: The reroll from a natural 20 or natural 1 is affected by the same modifiers as the original roll. So, in your example, if you rolled a natural 20, and then a 7, your result would be 27+whatever modifiers you had to the original attack roll. So, if the target's AC was 17, you would need to have a bonus to attack rolls of +10 to get a critical hit with that roll.

If your attack bonus is +6, and you roll a natural 20, then you reroll with a bonus of +26. If you roll a natural 1, you reroll with a penalty of -14.
Most of the time, this has the same effect as the standard rule:
in your example above, suppose you have an attack bonus of +6, and the target has an AC of 17. If you roll a natural 20, you reroll with a bonus of +26. You are guaranteed to hit, BUT you need to roll at least an 11 to get a critical (26+11=37=17+20).
Under the standard rules, you would automatically get a critical threat from a natural 20, but you would need to roll an 11 to confirm a critical. It works out the same either way under normal circumstances (which is intentional)

The times when my system yields different results from the default are mainly when either someone has a really high attack bonus, or a wide threat range, both of which are more favorable using my house rule.

Shouldnt there be a ref save or something to avoid going in there?

Could be Mr. Russell made this template somewhat stronger than advertised...
I still think y'all have the capacity to defeat it. Although, you don't really have to (if it is trapped in the pit, you [i]could[i] just walk away)....

I think I got one round left in me if these rats Don't keep debuffing me.

you know midio, when i can make those gloves for you, suddenly only metallic doors/walls are going to pose a problem to us... not sure how many of those we'll see though...

Haha, ya that was my line of thinking :)
Except i can only do it for 10 rounds a day, i might be able to pull a few people through once or twice but it will run dry rather quickly :)
wait untill i get time hop next level XD
All of a sudden i can port that door a minute into the future, wait, i mean, what door?

build two, thats only 2000gp at 7th level, so cheap as. swap out as needed

thinking about how the system for creating custom items works, might also be able to make a set with more uses per day... although the cost remains almost the same as making 2, so its only more helpful, not cheaper...

whilst midio is requesting a magic item to be made in the future, anyone else got something to add to the list?
will attempt to create all objects that i can (barring spell completion or effect based ones, unless a caster has that spell)

Let me know if you need me to help you by casting spells for you while you're making items. Should be no problem.

well, that was the plan. good to know it has support :)

Hey De, you might want to delay your turn slightly so that i can port yout out of there. Also, i was planning on swaping you with Vass, maybe you can actually hit something if your closer eh ;)
Also also, you guys should have flanking set up so you get an additional +2 to hit (and Thomases bless for +1 more)

Sure, flanking sounds good, but I'm pretty unclear what is where. The Charnel Lord is in the pit. I know that. But who else is in there with him/it?

Gemheart and De are still in the pit with it. Everyone else is out. If y'all cooperate you should all be able to get out this coming round.

De should just be able to turn invisible & climb, with Midio porting Gemheart. Then all I have to do is get the trap sorted out. The way the RNG has been acting that could take several hours. :-(

ok why dont we try that :)
De is invis, so its not like i can see her >.>
Ah, actually it will depend on what the rats do... that could make a big difference XD

Isn't it funny that the "minions" have the most impact on this fight?

Who are the "minions", Thomas?

Thomas just jumped into the pit >.>
There goes that plan!!!
BTW I approve!!!

The rats are the minions

Thomas just jumped into the pit >.>

There goes that plan!!!
BTW I approve!!!

I figured I'd do something reckless and foolhardy to mix it up a bit, and to get further away from those Damon rats. If it comes down to it I can hold the Charnel Lord off with defensive fighting while switching my judgement to heal for a bit.

yeah, getting beat up pretty bad. could use a TP up outta there

well, initially i was trying to set up everyone in a good position and rescue those who seemed to need it, but then somehow everyone ended up in the pit anyways >.>
so I figure I got the thing flanked by FOUR sides, i should just give up on that idea and start contributing to fried bug...

Even the best laid plans fall apart on contact with the enemy...

or your allies :p

and for the record it's not a bug it's a trash, tentacle, thing...

ya just look at it in ti's full glory

http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderChronicles/PZO9210-Otyugh.jpg

its a bug >.>
And I found my mind thrust!
here is it in action
and Here is the result XD

The dice are really messing things up for ya...

Yup. Yessai is a hero!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
But not according to the dice roller...

Ya, nice spell resistance and will save roll :(
On the plus side, i probably just saved someone from eating a critical, and probably their life...
Keep trying Vass!!! Theres only so many times you can roll below a 7 >_>

This 'retreat' is seeming more like an all-out attack...I guess you aren't afraid of death?
I guess it makes sense that Yessai wouldn't mind dying in a way that didn't involve being eaten by a lich:P
But is being eaten by an Otyugh better?

Ya, nice spell resistance and will save roll :(

On the plus side, i probably just saved someone from eating a critical, and probably their life...
Keep trying Vass!!! Theres only so many times you can roll below a 7 >_>

On the other hand, you did allow it to recover energy.

Though I'm wondering why you are all still using weapons when they haven't been working and you've known its weakness since round 1...?

I dont have anything else. To attack it unarmed would invite more AoOs

I dont have anything else. To attack it unarmed would invite more AoOs

Ya, plus my mindblade seems to be sorta effective so I'll stick with it.

And I think that's like the third crit I've landed on this thing.

Alright decision time guys. We can either all drop our weapons and start punching it to death (it can only make 1 aoo a round), which, honestly would probably be more effective than what we are doing right now.

Or we can all beat feet and try and get out of here. Climbing out of the pit (that Vass just jumped into :p) and running away from the rats on top.

Some things to consider.
1. Health. I am currently at full hps, Thomas is at 6 hps, and coming down with a disease, Vass has 24, De is at 9 and running, Gemheart is at 11, and i believe Mundrion is at full hps and on the far side of the pit.
2. If things go south and heroic turns into suicidal, then there is a very real chance that only me and De can escape easilly, with Mundrion having a good chance. But everyone in the pit dying, unless i can save 1 of you...
3. Equipment. None of our equipment is particularly effective. We know its weakness, but we havnt taken advantage of it and i believe our attacks arnt doing enough. There is, however, a pit back at the very start that has neumerious dead bodies and probably enough gauntlets to suit our needs and De could sneak in and grab them.
4. Tactics. Our tactics have largely been charge in headlong, which i am also at fault for. This could very well be a good lesson that we need to drastically improve our tactics and be more careful.
5. We might not be able to handle the encounter at the moment. I think if we did escape, we could be forearmed and have an almost easy time of it if we prepared for it and came back. Atm we are trying to brute force our way through and the GM has been warning us...

I honestly think we should try to retreat and come back better prepared and fully rested. I think we would be surprised how easilly we could defeat it then.

I'm fine with retreat, maybe we could just get out of the pit and hit it with ranged attacks from outside the pit?

Thomas' nature will require him to be the last out however. I'll switch my judgement to healing and take full defense.

I'm fine with retreat. I was merely trying for a critical and attempting to pierce a vital spot.

@ GM - Where are the dragonborn?

Also:
I'm not understanding this:

"It's unnatural nature gives it great resistance to physical attacks made with weapons, but make it vulnerable to unarmed strikes. It might be possible to harm it with magic too powerful for it to eat or resist."

[Emphasis mine] This would lead me to believe gauntlets (which Yessai already has) wouldn't work, but mostly I just don't understand. This is not based on damage type but damage form?!? Can someone explain?

If we swing the elf-mind-in-a-drow-head at the otyugh, is that an "unarmed" strike? ;)

Maybe the head knows some magic "too powerful for it to eat or resist"...

Yeah that is why I didnt use my spiked gauntlets, because it is a weapon. As that was written, only an actual unarmed strike (which most of us would do 1d3+STR nonlethal with) would work.

Im not against retreating. No real point in fighting this thing and im getting my ass slowly whittled down

The dragonborn initially stayed behind with the sahuagin, one room to your north. They have not entered this room during the time you have been fighting, so either they are still with the sahuagin or they went off in a different direction.

The otyugh has DR/natural weapons or unarmed strike.
A (normal) gauntlet counts as an unarmed strike, but a spiked gauntlet does not.

You might also want to think about which direction you are retreating in: there is the door to the north that you came in from, the one to the south, and there is a third hall to the northwest at the other end of the hall. Getting to either of the first two would require bringing Mundarion accross the pit, and everyone else out of the pit. Getting to the northwest door would require getting everyone but Mundarion across the pit and past the rats, but it would let you pick up the magic item Midio uncovered at that end of the hallway.

Maybe the head knows some magic "too powerful for it to eat or resist"...

Well, you could ask her:)

Now I can take the time to write a decent post or two. :-)

So, what is our quest?

While Mundarion has very important personal reasons for being here, as far as the group as a whole goes the answer is probably killing Karavakos. At least once, possibly as many as three times.

Does killing the Charnel Lord advance us in that quest? Based on the information we have now the answer appears to be no.

So why are we playing with this thing then? It would be one thing if we knew that if we cut him open we'd find a plus 5 tiefling bane heavy crossbow. But for all we know the only thing he's got in him is lots of otyugh manure.

We also know that Karavakos is supposedly somewhere to the north. If we head straight north we'll be going back the way we came. The Sahuagin might get tired of putting up with us. At the very least we'd likely have to end up taking out the Ettin. But if everybody came to Mundarion's side of the pit then nobody could get to us without playing with the otyugh first. We could rest up and then take off Northwest, which might actually be worthwhile.

It's a servant of Evil. That's all that matters to Thomas.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Did it actually detect as evil or is it just being an otyugh and eating everything smaller than it is?