Slow is fine Tatienne. I'm not 100% certain I'd be able to go more than slow anyway. It's just time to start moving again, if only slowly.
Athan's still 'in' as far as I'm concerned. We'll just muddle for a bit.
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It's funny looking back at a 5am, sleep deprived post.
Not too bad, except I didn't realize how much I had used the word assess. I'm usually cognizant of repetitive phrasing....
Too late to fix it now. :)
Any ideas on how to derive damage from large falling rocks? The falling rules use only height and have nothing to do with weight.
The other thing that comes to mind is giant boulder-tossing.
Neither seems like a good fit.
Spheres of Power has falling damage rules for their Creation sphere. It is third party, but it was something considered by them when they created the ruleset. Creation Sphere rules here
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Under Falling, in the CRB:
Objects that fall upon characters deal damage based on their size and the distance they have fallen. Table: Damage from Falling Objects determines the amount of damage dealt by an object based on its size. Note that this assumes that the object is made of dense, heavy material, such as stone. Objects made of lighter materials might deal as little as half the listed damage, subject to GM discretion. For example, a Huge boulder that hits a character deals 6d6 points of damage, whereas a Huge wooden wagon might deal only 3d6 damage. In addition, if an object falls less than 30 feet, it deals half the listed damage. If an object falls more than 150 feet, it deals double the listed damage. Note that a falling object takes the same amount of damage as it deals.
Dropping an object on a creature requires a ranged touch attack. Such attacks generally have a range increment of 20 feet. If an object falls on a creature (instead of being thrown), that creature can make a DC 15 Reflex save to halve the damage if he is aware of the object. Falling objects that are part of a trap use the trap rules instead of these general guidelines.
Mott beat me to it, but yeah, falling object damage is from the Core.
Thanks. Not a rule I reference often.
I'm off on a camping trip tonight, so posting before I go! This skips Tatienne's turn, so she can act twice.
Invandi: the attack entries I just posted got me thinking about stuff with your character today.
#1: adamantine shield - in my PFS games, the hardness-breaking function of adamantine was heavily used to cut through doors, chests, locks & probably even walls in a pinch. It can be highly disruptive, but those parties often didn't have any Disable Device access & PFS is kind of a free-for-all environment as well. I'm hoping we can mostly ignore hardness breaking in noncombat situations here unless it becomes party-saving or something similar. Tatienne should be able to take care of most related issues without resorting to a miracle cutter. Does that sound fine?
#2: shield throwing & underwater attacking - it looks like your build is Dex-centric & maybe focused on maneuvers from range. Once we start going underwater though, thrown weapons are treated the worst of any weapon type in the game. By my reading it sounds like they just don't work at all down there. I'm not currently seeing a RAW solution...even Freedom of Movement says it doesn't help 'hurled' weapons underwater. I'm hoping that we can figure something out & I could theoretically GM it away, but starting a discussion is step #1.
Easiest solution could be to come up with a weapon property. It's not RAW, but if you want to let Invandi play their character the way they want. Underwater already exists, so you could just say it needs to be +2 for a ranged weapon...
Typing this from my phone. Heading to Seattle in a few hours so I'll post a proper game post from there (or from a laptop on a cell phone hotspot).
I did want to respond to your concerns though, while responses are fresh in mind.
Regarding adamantine being disruptive: using a metal disk as a makeshift crowbar might be in Invandi's wheelhouse. It could also be a pretty effective shovel in a pinch. But I don't need to play him as turning to its hardness to solve all problems. To be honest, Invandi is too inquisitive to risk breaking possible artifacts, so breaking chest locks is out. Going through walls... seems like a lot of unfocused effort. I'll try to hold back using it as a "break anything" unless it's story appropriate or character saving. Ill try to use it as kind of as any tool, where a standard shovel or crowbar would be appropriate, he might try it then.
In underwater combat there's a few options:
The Shark Tooth amulet would be the easy fix.
More appropriate, and kind of neat in my minds eye, is to come up with a spear-sling equivalent for his shield. Honestly, in my imagination, it's a gauntlet with a mechanism that allows a curved hook to slide it forward while spinning it extremely fast. Kind of like the thing that throws a shotgun target clay-pidgeon, if that pidgin were mounted on an arm.
Otherwise, he turns into a half-decent melee specialist, doing piercing damage with his shield to avoid the half damage, and still doing combat maneuvers. (Though, obviously not prone....)
(It looks like Athan/Zach doesn't think he'll be viable for the campaign any time in the foreseeable, and asked me to pass on his regrets. Bummer. :-\ )
Darn :(
Losing Athan is a bummer. It's unfortunate, although I'm glad he told us so.
In other news, I've been a bit sluggish lately because I went on vacation and vacations are somehow always less good for posting than I think they are going to be beforehand.
I also got sick, then tested positive for COVID. Not very fun, but for me this was about like having a normal flu (so far).
The good news is that I'm on the upswing, and trying to figure out now when I'll be able to get home. Long days of home isolation on vacation might be more conducive, though it'd be hard to promise anything.
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Invandi: that Shark's Tooth Amulet idea looks pretty good. I wasn't aware of the item before. Just looking at how this would be in practice:
* -2 to hit to begin with
* range increment of 5'
* Far Shot means range increments only cost -1
* maximum range is 25' since thrown weapons can only have five range increments
This is all still preliminary, so let me know what you think.
A separate post for dealing with the new lack of a divine character:
We'll need to do something about this. Having Sarine step in worked out well for that one combat, but even if having a long-term GMNPC was a good idea she isn't what the party needs right now.
I'm also really not inclined to start a recruitment thread while I'm on vacation though. So, if anyone knows someone that would like to join I'm happy to have them. In the meantime I don't think we'll stop but we may just sort of muddle along with the party of four for now.
I think the current party is probably fine for the moment: you aren't without some recovery resources even in Athan's absence.
We could also look at some more creative solutions, like giving someone a second character to run? A GMNPC would also probably be more suitable if they were designed to be both tailored for the party needs and non-flashy so as not to take attention.
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If everyone is fine to press ahead for the time being, where would you like to go now? It's probably a good idea to summarize some general approaches you could take:
* return to the Faceless Temple, likely going back to the elemental room first?
* resume exploring the rest of the island to soak up some of the xp you didn't get before
- Hullhold
- facility with the weird device Tettia never got to figure out
- generally searching the rest of the island
GM, I'm glad to hear that you're on the upswing, and sorry you got sick!
I always find I intend to post on vacation and there's not as much time as I'd hoped. And on that note, I'll be leaving town for a week next week.
I'll leave next steps to the party. Taty is still unfamiliar enough with the island to have much of an opinion and will defer to her more experienced comrades.
First off, yikes re Covid. Glad to hear it sounds like you're on the mend. My own case back in November was very mild but that's certainly no guarantee. Take care of yourself.
I agree with the various points about it'd be nice to have someone doing at least some dedicated healery type stuff. I will think if I know anyone else who might be looking for a game.
In a pinch, Jenner's an existing former PC/NPC with divine spells and the cleric spell list..... just thinking about Aurelian's Charisma, etc. I'm fine either playing him or allowing him to be botted as needed by whoever.
That elemental fight is STILL kind of rough with our party comp, unless Sarine's NPCd along. Her brute force damage would be helpful. That said, if we went into it smarter, and better buffed, we might manage even without a Sarine or other high STR focused character.... it'd probably mean a lot of summons from me. The DR is still a problem though. I vote we try and avoid that complex for now, though obviously we can't forever. ICly, Zay would certainly WANT to recover Kass's body to give her a proper burial, but not at the risk of losing more people.
With Tettia gone, the RP rationale for going back to the tower seems a little forced, though it's still another location that needs indexing, etc.
My vote in an OOC sense would be: yeah let's explore the rest of the island, giving the complex a wide berth unless we have a solid strategy in mind. ICly Zay will advocate that our various still-dominated colonists need to be taken back to the village as a first resort so they can be put under guard and aren't a simultaneous liability and threat to us-- it's hard to babysit mind-controlled people through a hostile wilderness.
I think Zay's plans are good. I can post that we're looking for folks in a Discord I'm in that has some good players. Someone who can do some healing/divine caster certainly makes sense.
Zay's plan sounds good to me as well!
* it's probably if Sarine NPCs along now and then. The elemental fight would be a good example of an encounter I don't really want to make a huge deal out of and that she could help a lot.
* the remaining dominated colonists are under pretty decent guard in the current situation. I'm saying that there are an undefined number of non-dominated colonists on the beach at Zanas Tahn (current island) and that Sarine is usually around with them. They're using the old tower to house the dominated colonists. But if you guys want the current batch shipped back to Talmandor's Bounty, you can certainly have them do that.
* if other searches for a player don't go well, there are some people I know that I could ask. They aren't heavy into PbP but I know a few that could try it out...the worst case is we look for someone else.
I'm going out of town tomorrow for the next week and posting will likely be intermittent. Please bot as necessary.
I got a message today from a player that is asking to join the campaign at motteditor's invitation. I don't see a reason to question it, so we'll be back up to five players.
I started writing a recap post to them as a private message, but realized that it wouldn't hurt at all to make it available to everyone.
Book 1 & 2 Summary. Some book 3
Book 3 Recap (before the most recent events)
Most recent events:
After getting some reinforcements from the colony at Talmandor's Bounty, the party headed back to the Faceless Temple and explored several rooms. One room had a complex Azlanti device that they managed to activate, which seemed to restore power to the ruins. At the same time, however, it released a trio of lightning elementals on them which forced the heroes back and slew one of their number.
They retreated back to the beach again and found themselves tracked by some slow but very persistent slime monsters created by the people of Azlant. They managed to get some rest before facing the creatures and slew them on the beach with a mix of innovative tactics.
Rather than return straight to the Faceless Temple, they have now decided to begin exploring the island of Zanas Tahn once again, ensuring that they understand the area around the enemy stronghold. They are currently looking at a set of clockwork constructs that are patrolling the beach on the far side of the island from the colonist beachhead.
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In case it might clear up some confusion, I was one of the players when we started the campaign, with the character Sarine Dulciare, a bloodrager. We went through a number of GMs over time and I decided to take over for the current run. My character is still hanging about and took part in the slime combat since she is currently posted at the base camp on Zanas Tahn. So sort of a DMNPC since I'm not willing to give up on her entirely, but Sarine is only sometimes taking any relevant actions.
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The most recent recruitment effort had a post here to give some ground rules you can use to build your character. Starting treasure was still an open question then, and that was decided here later on.
Please ask if you have any questions. I don't think we'll stop the action to wait for the new character, but you can assume you are with the party when your character is set to go.
I'm probably forgetting something, but that should be a good start.
Thanks, I’ll get to work. It’s very comprehensive! Could you tell me if there’s a specific role that is missing? It looks to me that “primary arcane casting” is what’s needed (sort of) but Aurelian specified some healing in discord. There are classes which can do both, and I’m happy to figure something out for either or even both roles.
Welcome!!! I'd say that primary divine caster is even more 'needed' than arcane-- we're light on healing but also on status removal. Aurelian would certainly appreciate someone who can cast restoration... ;)
I play Zay, a druid with a lot of focus on wildshaping and utility, and our only other caster is Tatienne, a melee-focused bard, so that should give you an idea of the casting situation.
An arcane caster can also be extremely useful, of course. Ultimately, play what stirs your passions. Glad to have you aboard.
Yeah, I generally agree with play your passion. I think we've got a strange collection of characters, with some odd holes. I'm not sure we have a big hitter in melee -- Aurelian can be ... but only against things that take precision damage. (Maybe Invandi can? We haven't really seen them in action yet.) But also some casting holes too.
Fixing my ability damage would be wonderful. :)
Yeah lol our highest STR character is our bard. We're a weird party.
Invandi isn't a heavy hitter...
Dien may attest that I tend to build support characters and Invandi does that to some extent. He's built to help set up an enemy for a follow up party-member...
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Restoration limits me to shaman, cleric, Oracle, and warpriest (though warpriest not until 10). All four of those have melee “builds” but none are exceptional except for the warpriest, and maybe a battle oracle/shaman.
If you don’t need super-high level casting, the warpriest would certainly be the “strongest” meleer but the shaman has the best ability to poach from other spell lists with flexibility - providing pseudo-arcane support. The Oracle probably would be the “best” though (if correctly built). I dunno.
I don’t especially have any passions, though I haven’t played many strong melee characters, so that may be fun. I’ll keep working on it.
I've personally never been able to get an Oracle to work properly for me. Not saying they are bad...I just can't quite get myself to make one. Clerics are more my speed if I want something like that.
Aurelian is a great damage dealer except when he isn't. We're probably more gunshy on that than we should be at the moment since the party recently encountered two sets of creatures that weren't vulnerable to precision damage and had some form of damage reduction.
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yes, Aurelian Fache is fantastic at everything. It is the oozes and elementals that have the problem!
I’ve got a shaman so far - because the deep shaman adds a huge amount of versatility to the waves spirit which is otherwise lackluster, it seems pretty interesting.
I’ll post the character later today and everyone can provide feedback.
Here's a draft:
Male half-orc shaman (deep shaman) 8 (Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Aquatic Adventures 51, Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 35)
CG Medium humanoid (human, orc)
Init +2; Senses tremorsense 30 ft.; Perception +14
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Defense
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AC 20, touch 13, flat-footed 18 (+7 armor, +1 deflection, +2 Dex)
hp 59 (8d8+16)
Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +13
Defensive Abilities sacred tattoo[APG]
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor), swim 30 ft.
Melee +1 longspear +10/+5 (1d8+7/×3) or
. . mwk cold iron shortspear +10/+5 (1d6+3)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with +1 longspear)
Special Attacks hexes (beckoning chill, chant, crashing waves, deep heart, evil eye, murksight), wandering hex (battle master)
Shaman (Deep Shaman) Spells Prepared (CL 8th; concentration +12)
. . 4th—divine power, restoration, slowing mud[ACG] (DC 18); wall of fire[S] or wall of ice[S] (DC 18)
. . 3rd—beacon of luck, deadly juggernaut[UC], magic circle against evil, sleet storm; magic vestment[S] or water breathing[S]
. . 2nd—burst of radiance (DC 16), remove paralysis, shield companion[ACG], winter grasp[UW]; fog cloud[S] or slipstream[S,APG] (DC 16)
. . 1st—divine favor, heightened awareness[ACG], obscuring mist, shield of faith, wave shield[ACG]; enlarge person[S] (DC 15) or hydraulic push[S,APG]
. . 0 (at will)—guidance, light, mending, ray of frost
. . S spirit magic spell; Spirit Waves Wandering Spirit Battle
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Statistics
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Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 19, Cha 14
Base Atk +6; CMB +9; CMD 22
Feats Alertness, Extra Hex[APG], Extra Hex[APG], Extra Hex[APG], Power Attack, Weapon Specialization (longspear)
Traits expert explorer, two-world magic
Skills Acrobatics -1 (-5 to jump), Diplomacy +9, Fly +4, Heal +9, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (history) +7, Knowledge (local) +5, Knowledge (nature) +9, Knowledge (planes) +7, Knowledge (religion) +7, Linguistics +9, Perception +14, Profession (sailor) +13, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +8, Survival +12, Swim +17; Racial Modifiers +2 Profession (sailor), +2 Spellcraft
Languages Abyssal, Aquan, Auran, Azlanti, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Giant, Infernal, Orc, Sylvan
SQ aquatic hexes, aquatic spirit abilities, battle spirit, fluid mastery, orc blood, sea raider, spirit animal (blue-ringed octopus (mauler) named Arcane Familiar), water breathing, wave strike
Other Gear +1 agile breastplate[APG], darkwood heavy wooden shield, +1 longspear, mwk cold iron shortspear, belt of giant strength +2, besmara's tricorne, cloak of resistance +2, headband of inspired wisdom +2, ring of protection +1, 2,486 gp
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Special Abilities
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Aquatic Hexes (Su) Beckoning chill hex causes fatigue & entangle, crashing waves hex applies to spirit abilities.
Aquatic Spirit Abilities (Su) Wave strike does lethal B dmg & pushes 10 ft. Fluid Mastery torrent does 8d6 dmg in 30 ft cone.
Battle Master (Ex) +1 attack of opportunity each rd (stacks with combat reflexes).
Battle Spirit +2 (5 rounds/day) (Su) As a standard action, allies in 30 ft gain bonus to attack and damage.
Beckoning Chill (Su) As a standard action, foe in 30 ft is entangled 1 rd when take cold dam for 1 min.
Chant (Su) As a move action, extend the duration of other hexes by 1 rd.
Crashing Waves (DC 18) (Su) Water spells that deal dam knock foe prone (Fort neg).
Deep Heart (Su) Gain the ability to breathe underwater & a swim speed equal to her unmodified base land speed.
Deliver Touch Spells Through Familiar (Su) Your familiar can deliver touch spells for you.
Empathic Link with Familiar (Su) You have an empathic link with your Arcane Familiar.
Evil Eye -4 (7 rounds, DC 18) (Su) Foe in 30 ft takes penalty to your choice of AC, attacks, saves, ability or skill checks (Will part).
Familiar Bonus: +3 to Swim Checks You gain the Alertness feat while your familiar is within arm's reach.
Fluid Mastery (4d4 cold damage, 3/day, DC 18) (Su) As a standard action every d4 rds, icewater in 15-ft cone deals cold dam and push 5 ft (Ref part).
Murksight (Su) See through natural fog, mist, murky water, and rain without penalty and ignore concealment from these effects.
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Sacred Tattoo +1 to all saves.
Sea Raider +2 racial bonus on Craft checks to repair ships, +1 damage vs. targets in or on top of the water.
Share Spells with Familiar Can cast spells with a target of "You" on the familiar with a range of touch.
Speak with Animals (Ex) Your familiar can communicate with animals similar to itself.
Speak with Familiar (Ex) You can communicate verbally with your familiar.
Spirit Animal (spirit animal (blue-ringed octopus (mauler) named Arcane Familiar)) If spirit animal is slain, cannot use spirit magic or prepare new spells.
Swim (30 feet) You have a Swim speed.
Tremorsense (30 feet) Sense creatures and objects in contact with ground or water.
Water Breathing You can breathe water as well as air.
Wave Strike (5/day) (Su) As a standard action, melee touch drenches and pushes 5 ft.
I didn't give him any "getting wet" money, because he doesn't need items for that stuff.
Here's his spirit guide:
Arcane Familiar CR –
Blue-ringed octopus (mauler) (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic)
CG Tiny magical beast (animal, aquatic)
Init +6; Senses low-light vision; Perception +12
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Defense
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AC 23, touch 18, flat-footed 17 (+6 Dex, +5 natural, +2 size)
hp 29 (1d8)
Fort +2, Ref +8, Will +7
Defensive Abilities improved evasion, ink cloud
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft., swim 30 ft.; jet 60 ft.
Melee bite +14 (1d2 plus poison), tentacle +12 (grab)
Space 2½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks bond forged in blood, poison
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Statistics
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Str 11, Dex 23, Con 10, Int 6, Wis 13, Cha 3
Base Atk +6; CMB +10 (+14 grapple); CMD 20 (can't be tripped)
Feats Mobility, Multiattack[B], Weapon Finesse
[b]Skills Acrobatics +6 (+2 to jump), Diplomacy +0, Escape Artist +16, Fly +15, Heal +3, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +2, Knowledge (history) +4, Knowledge (local) +2, Knowledge (planes) +1, Knowledge (religion) +1, Linguistics +6, Perception +12, Spellcraft +0, Stealth +26, Survival +5, Swim +18; Racial Modifiers +10 Escape Artist, +8 Stealth
SQ amphibious, battle form, empathic link, spirit animal (waves)
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Special Abilities
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Amphibious (Ex) You can survive indefinitely on land.
Battle Form (Str +6, Dex -2, 3/day) (Su) As standard action three times a day, grow larger.
Bond Forged in Blood (Su) You cannot speak or communicate with language. Master dropping a foe grants +2 att/dam to both master and familiar for 1 rd.
Empathic Link (Su) You have an empathic link with your master.
Grab: Tentacle (Tiny) (Ex) You can start a grapple as a free action if you hit with the designated weapon.
Improved Evasion (Ex) No damage on successful reflex save; half on failed save.
Ink Cloud (5 ft. radius, 1/minute) (Ex) Emit an ink cloud, which provides total concealment.
Jet (60 ft.) Move in a straight line at 60, with no attacks of opportunity.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Mobility +4 to AC vs. AoO provoked by moving out of or through a threatened area.
Poison: Bite - Injury (DC 14) (Ex) Bite—Injury; save Fort DC 14; freq 1/rd for 6 rds; effect 1 Str; cure 1 save.
Share Spells Spells with a target of "You" can be delivered by a familiar with a range of touch.
Spirit Animal (Waves) The spirit animal can breathe underwater.
Swim (30 feet) You have a Swim speed.
Because of the archetype, the octopus gets the amphibious subtype instead of the aquatic type, allowing it to breathe water and air, and allowing him to take the octopus out of the water. I think that works! I also gave the octopus the mauler archetype, allowing it to do (decently) when fighting in the water, but I'm not married to that, and I know it won't do much for fighting outside of the water - being a little octopus.
*****************
He would be a follower of Besmara - more or less. Will flesh out the backstory in detail if everyone likes the crunch.
Looks awesome to me! :D
If you don't need any 'getting wet' money, feel free to spend the rest on something quirky. From the post above:
Edit: I noticed after I decided this that Athan Cree (now Houghton) will be able to breathe underwater and has a non-trivial swim speed. That doesn't mean that a 'getting wet' solution isn't useful--maybe something to swim faster or to deal very strongly with darkness might be a creative use of the funds. If you aren't coming up with anything though, try to find something off the beaten path to spend the money on. The existing characters have some fairly weird items.
Regarding the current encounter, I was debating whether to say anything at first. I don't want to bumble into another disaster though.
If you end up fighting these constructs, expect a serious brawl. It's a high CR encounter that might be undervalued. These critters are also not super sluggish like the oozes. If you decide to try to take them on, make sure you have a getaway plan.
OOCly, when I hear 'metal men' I immediately mentally jump to constructs, which, if they have DR.... same fun and games we've been dealing with, maybe not quite as bad.
But that, as well as your warning here, is meta and OOC information. Our party's scouting the area; we see a patrol squad of creatures functioning after millennia untouched, I think we'd wind up having to investigate unless we intend to just universally start avoiding everything, which wouldn't make for a very interesting game.
Of course, investigating may not mean fighting, but... *shrug* The only way our characters may have of finding that out may be to approach them.
And that's fine. This isn't so dangerous that you can't take a look. The thing I'm wanting to avoid is the impulse players get sometimes to think that an encounter must be beatable because it's there.
Even then I might not have said anything if the last two encounters weren't kind of squirrely.
Ohhh I never assume that one, lol. Been burned too many times.
I'm back and catching up on life/work. Sorry for the radio silence - turned out I didn't have internet after all, which was pretty lovely actually. I hope to get caught up today/tomorrow.
Welcome Litejedi/Houghton!
As a heads-up, I'm getting a tooth extracted Wednesday. I'll presumably be on some sort of pain killer for a few days afterward, so not sure how that will affect my posting. I'll post tomorrow (Tuesday), but I'd say feel free to bot me after that if I'm ever holding things up.
POST WITH THE DRUGS COURSING THROUGH YOU seems like a great decision.
OOC note while I remember: probably I'm a hawk, right now, rather than the allusions to crow or raven. Just saying so for accountability due to actually needing to know my stats if we do get into a fight. Hawks fly faster than ravens, and crows don't seem to be statted, not too surprisingly.
Thanks for the feedback.
I'm adding a few things then
750 - Wand of Cure Light Wounds
1000 - Pearl of Power
10 potion sponges
5 potions of mage armor (for 'The Kraken')
Note that he has Besmara's tricorn, which is also pretty fun, and I think thematically appropriate. We could move it to the fun item area instead of the murky rod.
Fun/Silly/Neat Items
Saltspray Ring - 4500 - Can summon a bunch of mist constantly! Might be useful to make sure Harley's little buddy stays damp. It also does nothing underwater :D.
Lesser Murky Metamagic Rod - 1500 - Allows him to make underwater murky with his mist spells (but not the saltspray ring). I didn't even know murkey existed as a metamagic feat until I was looking for thematic things.
Faithful Lantern A lamp that follows around, even underwater, without fuel.
Looks like that's about 8500 GP for "fun" things, depending on how you categorize everything. I have a little more regular money too if we want me to bring along some other consumables.
Here’s a background I whipped up:
Houghton Harley
Houghton lived a hard life. Born slave of pirates, never knowing his parents past the age of five, and exploited for his strong back and agreeable demeanor, Houghton didn’t know much comfort growing on the ship, and what comfort he got seemed to come from the music the pirates sang and the comfort he got from their perfunctory supplications to the patron of buccaneers, Besmara. The big half-orc seemed to take all manner of punishment with a smile. Japes and insults aplenty. He was often tasked with retrieving things that were dropped from the side of the ship - as a remarkably good swimmer, he seemed to flit through the water better than any of his masters. He never knew kindness, but he took the indignities on the chin with aplomb - until the boatswain tossed him overboard in a drunken haze one night while Houghton was swabbing the deck as they skirted the Eye of Abedengo, hating Houghton’s positive attitude.
Houghton didn’t drown, he swam after the boat, until the boat went out of sight. The lad sighed, resigned to his fate, but when his strength failed, and he felt the pull of the briny deep, the young man calmly let himself sink. Which he did. Holding his breath as long a possible, the young man gave up and gulped in the water. It filled his lungs, but was warm and comforting. He continued to fall - the lightless depths grew more and more bleak as he descended, but he wasn't alone. He saw shapes moving in the water, flitting about or swimming lazily - from place to place, great creatures with fins that watched him warily from the distance but did not approach. Other than a small octopus that moved to him and followed him slowly as he descended.
After what seemed like an age of Golarion to the inexperienced boy, with the lightless depths and crushing pressure seemingly not affecting Houghton or the little creature that was his only companion, his feet touched the ocean floor. All was black. He called out ”ahoy? Be I at Davey Jones’ locker?” There was no response, but a mere moment later - an eye, taller than any ship he had yet seen - yellow and squamous and luminescent, opened. Its pale light illuminated part of a creature of immense proportion - like and unlike the little blue octopus that followed him. A low rumble echoed across the floor.
Houghton bowed to the eye, which focused its enormous pupil at the half-Orc, ”beggin’ yer pardon, sir or, erm perhaps madam, or otherwise with respect, it looks as if I’ve been separated from me mates after a prank. But I seem to be alive. I’m afraid my schooling’ as it were, neglected the understanding of the cacophony that was yer rumble.” He looked apologetic. Another rumble. Houghton looked confused, but the little octopus swam over, and perched on his shoulder, resting.
was all that the boy could understand, though this was a fair sight better than what he knew before.
Houghton studied the creature’s eye, and then thought ”perhaps I find myself blessed but I understand ye. My name is Houghton, great beast." He bowed warily. There was no sound. The eye blinked slowly, and the pupil dialated, peering at him intently. The little octopus chirped merrily. The eye closed and he was engulfed in darkness, yet again. The octopus patted him on the shoulder gently, and he waited an age. Eventually Houghton sat down, and ran the sand on the sea floor through his hand. The eye opened, and the ground rumbled. Houghton heard one more word, . He found himself growing strong, and the weight pulling him down were released - he felt buoyant again. He moved his arms experimentally, and foud he could swim as easily as he could walk. The octopus pointed up and chirped at him. Houghton laughed, "alright, lad, up we go. Thank you kindly, great creature. I'll take the little kraken with me, and leave ye to yer rest, repaying your kindness as I can to others." The great creature rumbled, almost a discomfited grumble, and closed its eye, leaving him in the dark again. Houghton mouthed a word, seemingly instinctually, and a halo of light spread from the octopus, who chirped again and began to swim up. "Aye, little one, let's go back, mayhaps my chums have noticed I am gone, now"
Houghton swam up, up and up, shooting up like a fish, and broke the water as the sun was rising. Covered in weeds and with the octopus sitting on his shoulder, Houghton looked around, and got a weird sense that the wake of the ship was that way and began to swim, that way, and then realized that that way, was east. He swam... and swam, and then spotted the ship. He caught up to it and then grabbed onto the side. Grinning at The Kraken, he whispered, "a fair trade would be to do an equal joke, for the boatswain, eh?" He tapped his head, and climbed up the edge, leaping over with a thud, sopping wet, and covered in sea plants and sargasso. "WHERE'S STOUT JON!" he roared, and the deck nearly cleared, as his 'masters' nearly cleared it. Stout Jon blinked his eyes open, and stood up with a start from the hammock, drawing his cutlass warily, "ye... I saw ye fall over, into the deep. Yer dead, ye look half-dead anyway!" Houghton stomped over, and Stout Jon, looked left, and right, for support, but saw few allies, as the other pirates seemed to be giving wide deference to whatever was about to happen. Houghton approached, grabbed the cutlass from his shaking hand, and tossed it, point down onto the ground. Grinning maliciously, "one good turn... deserves another!" Laughing, he picked up the huge man, and threw him over the edge of the ship. The other pirates laughed, and Houghton turned to them, "if I recall correctly, Jon here isn't the best swimmer, is he?" The pirates laughed. Houghton turned to the flailing boatswain, "are ye, Jon? Tell everyone what ye did to poor Houghton." He cupped a hand over his ear and pantomimed listening, "can't year ye, lad, shall we pull ye up? What do me mates think?" They looked at each other and shouted, "NAY" and "no!" by-and-large, and one of the older ones shook his head solemnly, "tis owned by Besmara, methinks, Houghton." Houghton shrugged, turning back to Jon "yer mates don't think kindly of ye, Jon..." But Jon, struggling, had begun to sink. Houghton sighed, "tis enough of a punishment, methinks," and retrieved a long pole from nearby, dipping it toward the boatswain, who grabbed at it greedily until he found purchase, "hold on tight, Jon..." He gestured at The Kraken, who grew to the size of a man, startling the pirates nearby, who made signs to ward off evil, and the pair pulled up the wet, exhausted, furious, and terrified boatswain back to the deck.
Houghton slapped the man on the back as he coughed up water, then looked up and The Kraken shrunk to normal size, "Jon here - learned a good lesson, ye shall not throw away a good worker fer pettiness, shall ye, Jon?" Jon shook his head, and he asked for concurrance from the others, "shall we, lads?" They shook their heads, he stepped forward, opening his hands, "methinks there will be some... changes here... what think ye all?" he grinned at the others, who nodded agreeably. And there were.
***********
Suffice it to say, Houghton wasn't a slave any more. The captain eventually emerged from his reverie, and seeing the signs of Besmara's favor, made Houghton the chaplain and Boatswain both, which Houghton agreed to happily. In return for passing on the blessings of Besmara, Houghton stopped the pirates from slaving, made them more selective with their targets, and made stout Jon swab the deck from stern to stem for three months straight. They kept offerings up to the Pirate goddess, and Besmara favored them with fair winds, lucrative treasures, and as much ale as they could find. In time, Houghton found himself growing tired of some of the debauchery, and fascinated by the artifacts he and his mates had seized from time to time, questioned all they met about the strange ruins that lay under the waves. He spent two full years enriching of the now-renamed "Kraken's Wake" with a growing expertise in these matters, but a yearning for more - kept him searching. Soon, the captain of the Wake told Houghton that they pickings were dry, the routes were poor, and few now bothered to excavate the ruins, given the success of the ship at robbing nearly everyone (at least in part). Further, Captain Montego wished to head to warmer waters and perhaps for the lot of pirates to retire and rest.
Houghton was disappointed, but understood. He doffed his cap at Montego, and said, "aye, but the sea pulls at me Cap'n. There's riches here, riches aplenty. More than we can count. Besmara won't have me sitting and drinking rum with ye for the rest of my life. I'm staying." He was let off at a nearby port, and spent time doing odd jobs as an adventurer.
Houghton is a 6'3" half-orc with tanned olive skin. His large eyes are brown, and his grin is toothy. He wears clothes made of cured and magically reinforced seaweed and linen fiber from the sails of wrecked ships, paintstakingly collected over years. His breastplate is pitted and scored from exposure to the seawater, but the magic reinforcement seems to have kept it perfectly functional. The rest of his gear seems to all be designed to be used in the water, or at least have a waterproof component. His black hair is tied up with strands of seaweed into braids, which hang into his face when he leans forward. He carries a huge spear, which he uses to keep himself balanced on land, largely having permanent "sea legs".
A little octopus, which seems to be amphibious somehow, is perched on his shoulder when out of the water, and chitters merrily from time to time. When in the water, the octopus flits about in his space, except when in "attack mode" at which time he aggressively tries to kill and strangle any of Houghton's enemies.
Quick to laugh, jolly, and jovial, Houghton nevertheless is greedy and always looking for treasure. He's merciful, but capricious, and will annoy, pester, or otherwise humiliate any of his enemies, though he rarely kills sapient creatures except when absolutely necessary. If particularly annoyed with someone, though, he will leave them with a store of food and water on a piece of driftwood, letting Besmara determine their fate.
In the water, he seems at home, and has no problem eating meals, drinking, or doing most activities below the surface. He has an array of odd powers, including what he calls 'Besmara's curse' (evil eye) which he uses to soften up foes at range, before moving in to stab the foes furiously. He also can summon even more strange powers, which often seem to manifest with harmless but surreal phantom imagery, such as tentacles which seem to emerge from his back, the odd noise of a wooden ship creaking, and the sound of lightning crashing.
Looks like a lot of fun! I really look forward to playing with Houghton!
I was in the hospital for a short time, but it was a minor procedure. Please let me know when/how you'd like to rope in my character, or if there are any required changes.
Houghton can be on site immediately unless you'd prefersomething more elaborate. My assumption is that he joined up with the party the last time they visited their base camp.
Sounds like the things I chose were fine, then. Great! I’ll make an alias and put in some backdated RP into the gameplay thread, ASAP.
Glad it was nothing serious! Will be happy to back-date RP your party arrival.
Hey @GM Netherpongo, I noticed that you previously mentioned an issue with how mist spells work and that you were a little concerned about PCs having an easy way to have these set up - and a way to bypass them.
Houghton does, in fact, have a few abilities built around this. Would you like me to rebuild/change things to minimize the aspect of the character? One thing would be swapping out the seaspray ring, for example.
That said, from reading the gameplay posts, it seems like this is a pretty difficult AP in terms of combats.
As an initial matter, it'd be pretty embarrassing to have to ban the Saltspray Ring since the source for it is the first part of this AP.
Looking at the price of the ring and its effect though, I'm not really certain that it should be creating the kind of opaque mist that would cause concerns.
My default reading for
Upon command, the ring causes a thick vapor to continuously surround its owner as per obscuring mist
definitely includes the idea of an opaque mist that blocks line of sight. If I look at the price of the ring, though, its 4500g tag is completely inconsistent with the idea that the wearer would have total concealment from anyone not adjacent to them. That's a pretty crazy ability at a super cheap rate.
The concern with 'see through mist' overall is mostly around the idea of shooting out of a cloud while the enemy is unable to respond. The much shorter radius of the cloud provided by Saltspray somewhat negates that concern. I think. It'd depend how we centered the cloud and so forth. My typical drawing for a 10' burst centered on a corner wouldn't allow any of the squares to be in total concealment, depending on the angle being viewed from.
We could also read the ring's powers as not providing an opaque cloud (despite the fact that it is still my best reading of it). It would provide the fire dousing and skin-wettening functions still, and possibly 20% concealment if we decide to split the difference. If I look back at the source AP entry, it is focusing on the skin-wettening part of the ring's powers (the original bearer needed it). That shouldn't completely cramp how we read the ring's functions, but something like no one being able to see the bearer seems like it would merit a mention.
As far as overall AP difficulty, we've hit some rough patches in recent times. I wouldn't say the AP has been crazy difficult overall though. A lot of the AP we were just blazing through except for areas where we skipped available XP, perhaps. Book III might just be different that way from earlier ones as well. Others might pipe in on that question?
None of this is a ruling. The question ended up being more complicated than I expected and I'm still thinking through it.
Not to detract from the conversation on the gear, but just regarding our current scene:
I don't remember us finding anything like a code. With our luck it's back in that complex we failed to clear, haha. But if your bluff is decent, Taty, you might try some sort of last ditch 'the Code is X, you haven't been updated/you're glitching', etc.
I mean, worst case scenario it fails and they attack us, but they probably will anyway if we can't give them a code. This is not something that it would occur to Zay to suggest ICly, Zay not being a very tricksy person.
*shrug* IDK, probably we're in for a fight, I'm just trying to think of any possible lie that might get around us not having a code, haha.