[AP] The Shackled City Adventure Path by GM Rutseg (Inactive)

Game Master Balacertar

Gatlinburg! That's only about a 2 hour drive from me, hehe. I think you'll like it :)

Heading out on the lake today, will get up another/more Gameplay posts later tonight!

Nice 'little' loop there K :) Safe travels while you're gone.

I am around following the discussion.

It is fun seeing you thinking how to manage the situation :)

Whenever you are decided come to me with an action please.

I have set up a map so you can more easily plan a layout and action plan for your ambush :)

Remember to tell me when do you plan to leave the the inn exactly. It is currently night and everybody is apparently sleeping except for Orin and Sara who are still working in the common room.

Once you know when are you leaving, feel free to post an action moving to an ambush site without waiting for me to move the action to a different location!

About the ambush map.

Are those bits of forest or low-lying bush along some of the edges?

Yes Sir! :)

The jungle is close to the road at almost all its span.

If you have no ideas for how to stop/convince them, I can default to you being hidden in the jungle and hope you spot them before they do so.

We can just string a rope across the path. That will stop anyone and everyone. And they might well try to slip away overnight, can't see many legitimate folk (other than us!) doing that.

It should be concealed, though.

They're likely both experienced and alert.

tried to put my gameplay statement into view on the map feel free to use or trash, moved the horse to the side, none of us are trained in mounted combat so fighting from them would be detrimental, the rope across the path as a final measure is far enough from our line to allow them a chance to build up speed and loose sight of it in their haste to make an escape also won't interfere with us if we have to move.

Slammed at work (again) folks - am pitching for a day off tomorrow so hopefully will get the opportunity for some meaningful posts on the morrow at the latest.

Hang in there Maxim!

Hanging in - am still slammed, loads going on operationally and supervising offshore techs is a draining scenario lol.

Bot me if needbe - Maxim has pulled his gun but plans to cast magic missile and burning hands through it if necessary.

Sorry gang - hopefully I'll be on point come the end of the week!

I'm back... <grumbles>... vacations just aren't long enough... :)

Thank you for your patience, as I get up to speed and lend very little to this current encounter...

Welcome back! I hope you had a great time :)

Thank you! It was a lovely time, replete with wonderful meals, new destinations, and black bears wandering below our breakfast room patio in Gatlinburg... :)

Black bears! Cool! Unless they get too close.

Welcome back, and nice breakfast companions so long as you're not the main course :) Where was that in Gatlinburg if you don't mind my asking

The Buckberry Lodge, up some quite steep hills.

@GM, Ryan is using a heavy crossbow, claimed the one the dark stalker was using in Jzaridune, and gave his light crossbow to Marigold so she wouldn't need to buy one. Granted right now as he has need to reload he is looking at the half-orc's repeating crossbow with envy.

Yup, sorry about that, you perfectly wrote your post and I just went over :(

I assume then you are not using your shield in order to avoid the -4 penalty for shooting one handed.

Assumption correct with it being a quick draw shield should be able to draw it and my mace within same round.

The heavy crossbow being more of a as they're at distance and time allows, other words a one shot deal most of the time.

Hi All!

I'll be out of town for about a week.
Visiting family and all that.

I should be able to keep up with the posts with my laptop, though.

Just a head's up in case I'm a little slow posting the next few days.

Thanks!

Enjoy your trip! :)

Safe travels Juraan, and enjoy

Okay, so...assuming we all make it through this scrape alive, this seems appropriate...

*edit* Not mentioned as snark by the way, just chalk it up to my odd sense of humor. Sometimes I have to be careful lest my fellow players think I'm being flippant about character survival when I'm not meaning to be (which has sadly happened once or twice).

Happy trails Juraan - and agree with you Marigold - this scrap has demonstrated holes in our game... We're facing a group who are organised and well drilled and its exposed us somewhat.

I will say that it's definitely given me (and Marigold) some ideas about future feat and spell selection at the very least!

My only comment on this current fight will be our starting position from the impeding rope. With two dwarves in the party, there's no way Kikinnin would have wanted to start from so far away.

^ Yeah, with half of the group being small-sized we'll have to give more thought to distance and speed in the future if we ever need to set up another ambush. I really should have caught that myself and I hate that I didn't, especially with you and Maxim being away and/or busy and less likely to catch it yourselves :\

Agreed and it was not intended as such, the rope was to stop any pushing past the group's roadblock, but was not communicated well to the GM.

I did the initial drawing on the map, with the intention of the Lucky Monkey being at the bottom and Cauldron at the top. And I never went back to the map when we were talking about setting a rope across the map during the night.

It was after the conflict started I realized the issue but the GM already had the board set at that point. My original thought was a much more intimate meeting within PBS range.

A suggestion - those with things like magic missile, if you ready them against the spell casters casting a spell, not only do you damage them, you also get a chance to disrupt their spells.

It is a weird bit of temporal physics in PF that a mage can ready a magic missile against another mage casting the same spell, but I figure it is kind of like having most of it cast and just holding off the last bit of it.

I feel responsible about the setting of the rope. I should have asked for clarification after I set the direction of the Lucky Monkey. I set it top because the Lucky Monkey is at north of Cauldron.

Interesting catch that one about the physics of readied actions JJ, that's awkward really!

And good trip Juraan!

I'm here!

I'm definitely going to need Mage Armour in future!

As far as planning goes, from the point of view of Juraan's Chaotic Neutral viewpoint:
"What's a plan?"
:D

Seriously, though. I like flexibility, myself.
I always expect plans to wobble. A lot.

I think we should come out on top of this fight.
A bit battered perhaps. But we should still do well.

Heh...battered is an understatement. I'm almost wondering if I should've made Marigold a Life oracle after all! :)

well between me and you, Kikinnin should be pretty well off and you got a couple back in the exchange as well

*edit - nvm - just went back to the page before he's still pretty battered as are the rest of us AND them.

Congrats everybody you stopped the assassins! :D

It is now time for you to level up to 3.

Remember your feat and you get another hero point.

Level 3!?

:D

I'll get MG's profile updated in a bit :)

Yay!

I can't recall, are we doing HP PFS style (so 6 for a d10 class?)
I'm thinking that JJ is turning into a bit of a linguist, so might pick up dwarven as well (from overhearing y'all).

I'm wondering about feats. JJ keeps falling asleep at critical times, so iron will might be handy. But then again, so might two weapon defence or something else less combat focused.

I think we've been doing PFS style for HPs, yes. Looks like Marigold will gain:

+8 HPs (Half HD + 1 = 5 + 3 Con)
+6 Skill Points (5 + 1 FCB)
+2 BG Skill Points
+1 BAB
+1 Fort & Reflex
Gain a Revelation (TBD)
Gain a Feat (TBD)
Gain a 1st Level Spell Known (TBD)
Gain an additional 1st Level spell slot

Re: JJ feats - Iron Will is rarely a bad idea, not to mention I'd rather not be on the receiving end of a charmed/compelled/confused JJ somewhere down the line! But JJ is also your character; how do you see him progressing? :)

Fighting Demons! That what he wants to do. Oh, and learning magic (JJs goal, not mine!).

This is his first real trip outside Cauldron as an adult (ish) so maybe something like alertness or self sufficient. So many choices, so few feats.

Last Level- March 13, 2016 ;)

Hi there!

I couldn't connect to the Internet the last couple of days.

Well, the battle ended nicely, from the looks of it.

I'll do the levelling up stuff a bit later today.

Still kicking around spells and feats a bit. Although I do plan to invest in some metamagic feats as we level a bit more (Reach Spell yes please) I'm not sure what to take right now. I'm actually less inclined to pick up Extra Revelation since this game is supposed to go all the way to 20 so MG will eventually get all/most of what she'd want from her mystery anyway.

So far I was thinking maybe Toughness (#1 cause of death is lack of HPs!) or maybe Lightning Reflexes (she did not like being entangled). Any other suggestions?

For spells I was looking at either Bless, Command, or maybe Liberating Command. I do know that Ryan was planning to memorize buffing-type spells so Bless isn't as high of a priority.

@ Marigold: Cautious Fighter is a halfling racial feat opens up a bunch of feat options for down the line - and is pretty in keeping with her character :) Food for thought?

As for Maxim he'll be going Arcane Strike for his 3rd Level feat.

At the moment I'm torn with taking a multiclass level or sticking with Wizard and access to 2nd level spells :)

I've had some discussion with GM-R and my multiclass level (when it comes) will be either in Gunslinger or more likely Rogue (as this is in keeping with Maxim's background/career). Long term it would be 15Wiz/5Whatever...

Will need to look at what I'll lose and gain depending (and also what the group will lose/gain) - but like Marigold I'd be interested to hear what folks thought.

Ohh, if you go rogue, JJ could trade out of the urban ranger archetype. I've been thinking about that for a while. I held off as we don't have any alternative for trap finding, but if Maxium took a level of rogue, it would become a viable option.

That would potentially also open up arcane trickster for Maxium (well, you need a couple more rogue levels as well, but you can get to 9th level spells still).

My archetype puts me in an odd spot.

At level 4 I'll have level 2 spell slots, but no level 2 spells known.

So I'll need at least one metamagic feat to use those level 2 slots.

That's fine, though. Metamagic feats are always good to have.

Juraan's changes to Level 3

Sorry! Posted this earlier in the Gameplay part by mistake.

• Hit Points: 17 HP (+5)
• FCB: +1 level 0 spell
• Bloodline Power: Dragon Resistance (5 Acid, +1 natural AC)
• Bloodline Spell: Mage Armour
• Spells: Prestidigitation (level 0), Burning Hands (level 1)
• Background Skills (1 each into the following): Craft (alchemy) +6 (from +5), Profession (herbalist) +6 (from +5)
• Skills (1 each into the following): Bluff +7 (up from +3), Intimidate +7 (up from +3), Spellcraft +7 (up from +6), Use Magic Device (+9 up from +8)
• Feat: Enlarge Spell (metamagic)

@ GM Rusteg:
Do we each get +1 Hero Point too?
I have not yet added cash, pending loot division and all that good stuff

Yes, you get +1 hero point each level, with a maximum of 3 hero points at any given time.

Trapfinding is a good thing to have until mid levels, but I guess you can do without it also.

Maxim, let me know if you need any clarification about loot stuff!

Okay, finished with the last of MG's level stuff!

Added a skill point each to: Diplomacy, Heal, Kn. Local, Kn. Religion, Sense Motive and Spellcraft.

Background skills went to Kn. History and Profession: Librarian again.

I keep forgetting that language-dependent spells (such as Command) are much less viable considering Marigold's curse so I went with Cause Fear.

New revelation - Spray of Shooting Stars.

New feat - I rather liked Maxim's suggestion on Cautious Fighter and went with it. I won't take all of that feat line with her, but the first one does fit rather well hehe.

I will get her profile updated very shortly!