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

Game Master Balacertar

Sorry, been a busy bee. JJ updated.
Level capped in HW so his bonus against demons goes up by an immodest +4.
Taking the stat point in con.

It's been a week. I'll do my best to keep up, but my heart's been shackled by the loss of my old dog, Lancelot.

He passed away all within a day, would take a drink from his mother, even stood up when I came home, but this world weighed him down to his final rest, and we were there for him, to witness his final breaths.

My thoughts and condolences Bror.

Hopefully your broken heart mends a little knowing he'll be running free with my boy Darby. And when they're done chasing through favourite places, your Lancelot will draw near to you, this much I do know.

It's been a week. I'll do my best to keep up, but my heart's been shackled by the loss of my old dog, Lancelot.

He passed away all within a day, would take a drink from his mother, even stood up when I came home, but this world weighed him down to his final rest, and we were there for him, to witness his final breaths.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Been really backed up with work since I go back from vacation, will try and post at some point this week.

Thanks for your understanding.

I'm sorry, Kikinnin. Take whatever time you need.

Yeah, losing a member of the family is never good. Best wishes.

Apologies y'all - battered at work. Abnormal service should resume in a day or so. Please bot me as/when/if required.

And we have just gone into full lockdown for a few days. That will be interesting.

I am back from my trip!

Sorry for that Kikinnin. I am sure he appreciated to have his friends around when he passed away. At least it was a short process.

Are things ok JJ, is the lockdown because of covid?

Thanks for noting the Initiative bump up Kythel, those things help me enormously to keep my dice rollers updated!

I will see to move us forward. Now to Gameplay!

Yeap, we just got our first community case in about six months. So, full lockdown for a few days. I'm guessing it will be a couple of weeks.

Welcome back, GM!

I cannot catch a break here, bear with me, I should be back to posting normally by next week.

Thanks.

Thanks for the update Storyteller. It seems we are having trouble recovering our posting routines after the holidays. Well, except for JJ and Marigold who are solid pillars on whom to lean :)

Easier at the moment with lockdown.

I try. Being something of a homebody (even without the pandemic) helps, heh.

I know what you do mean. I started this monday going 3 times per week to the office. Mostly it feels good and a blessing, but it is exhausting too! Well, I need to get used again to the pace of life.

I will live online once more this Saturday, sorry for the LOONG delay. Beena bit crazy lately in RL.

Ok, thanks for the heads up! I will give this a small push in initiative, but you can post your turn when available ;)

I hate split initiative, I am tempted to just delay all the enemies so you all go in a single block.

^If that makes it easier for you GM, go for it!

I often do that. Some big boss fights I'll break things up, but often... pbp is just so much easier with blocks.

Ouch, that 1 is awful Maxim after using your highest spell, would you like to spend 1 hero point to have a reroll on that shot?

Kikinnin and Kythel still to go, I will GM them during the weekend if they do not show up before.

Would indeed GMR - had temporarily forgotten about Hero Points! Been a while since I've used one.

Reroll done. Smidge better - thankful its a touch attack!

I will update tomorrow morning, getting a bit too tired to concentrate as its getting late over here.

Can I also add GMR you're doing a great job of managing these big battles and all their moving parts! Appreciate the efforts :)

Thanks a lot Maxim, it is getting increasingly hard (the other day took me hour and a half). It would had been easier to deal with letting you explore and seek the remaining Cagewrights one by one, but given you were waiting in the tree, it had sense they moved together over you, and after your fresh level up I considered you could deal with them together and that would do for a more interesting end of chapter!

It certainly does. I imagine fighting them one at at time wouldn't have been too taxing, but en-mass. Now this is a battle.

Now that's what I'm taking about. That feeling of mortality at high levels... love it :)

Indeed! That bear's endurance probably saved the sharp merchant's life. And the holy aura is really saving the day here for the party I think!

Maxim, what is the Blessing of Fervor bonus you do take this round? I will go ahead and assume you take the +2 as it seems the more natural here (and is going to save Maxim's life anyway, hehe).

I wanted to push tonight, but I do not have enough time left to play two characters and two NPCs. Will have to wait for tomorrow's night, sorry!

How about one character and two NPCs?

Much better this way, thanks sir! :D

Sorry, things just won't stay tamped down. Will probably post tomorrow morning.

I think next week things will get a bit slower compared to the last few months.

Hey GMR et al. - just a shot in the dark here. As proven posters who've lasted the course just wondering if any of you beautiful peeps would be interested in joining a long standing PF1 pirate game?

Freebooter Game is run by the esteemed Voodoo Chili set in a mad mashup Green Ronin's Freeport and the Shackles full of mishaps and a very motley crew.

We've suffered an attrition of long standing players o'er the last few months losing first our grubby Oracle of Gozreh, and now our Snakefolk Blooded Sorcerer Insane.

Current makeup is: Kaul - a murderous half orc Thug who sports a mechanical claw, bloodthirsty hatchet and numerous scars ran by yours truly; Corliss Blackboots" - a priest of Besmara played by Profession Smith 6 Ranks, whose touched by his goddess and fights hard for the crews bodies and souls (their minds being lost lol) & James "Madman Jim" Patterson - a carousing Fighter/Swashbuckler played by John Woodford who (despite his monicker) is ironically the sanest of the lot.

We're short on arcane casting, but we're an unorthodox lot so pretty much most things go! Know its a big ask for anyone to join a very long-standing game, but you all are proven posters and some of the finest role-players I've been lucky enough to collaborate with.

We split our time between shipborne misadventures and urban Freeport shenanigans.

If any of you fancy getting your pirate on and joining in the black humoured fun follow the link and drop Voodoo a PM. Appreciate your consideration and apologies GMR for hijacking your OOC :)

Thanks a lot for the offer Maxim, and feel free to make this kind of calls in here! In my case I think I am in the right spot on the number of campaigns right now and do not want to venture myself on new ones, specially that advanced.

I took a look at the campaign though and it sounds like something really special and fun. Also, I saw you are using E6 rules for advancement. I think those are great for a campaign without an ending predesignated like yours, specially after seeing how difficult is to deal with high level combat for a long time.

Cheers, I hope you find more cannon fodder sailors for your troop! :D

Same as our good GM, I very much appreciate the invitation but I'm afraid that I'll also have to decline for basically the same reasons. That said, I briefly played in a Carrion Crown game way back in the day that used the E6 rules and greatly enjoyed it so it was cool to see those being in use in your game :)

Hey folks, work was kinda rough last night (emotionally) and I've sadly got a funeral to attend later today so I'm going to take a rest day from PbP and anything else that requires creative/cognitive effort. Please feel free to bot/delay Marigold as necessary and I'll hopefully catch back up with things tomorrow.

Sorry to hear Lil' Miss. Hope your weary heart and mind are restored soon.

Apologies too on my low profile o'er the last week, work has been a grind of report writing and appraisals. Will endeavour to get a post up and the loot sheet updated by week end.

Sorry for your loss Marigold... :(

So that is basically the end for Chapter 10, Thirteen Cages!

It would be nice to hear how was this book for you, when you finally confront the Cagewrights. Plus how are you feeling about what remains of the AP. We are starting chapter 11 soon, only two remaining, wow!

Also, you could start thinking about level 17 stuff :)

Okay, ready to get back into the swing of things!

Thank you for your patience <3

Sorry to hear about that Marigold. It's never easy, no matter how many you go to.

Wow, level 17. We are rocketing up at the moment.

That chapter was very dungeon crawly, and fewer bigger fights, which was a bit of a change of pace. Fights were pretty epic though. That last one was right up there with the corrupt town council fight.

Level 17 - lofty heights indeed.

Will try and get that Loot Sheet update o'er the course of the day, so we can have some nice new swag to go with our nice new level :)

Am liking the epicness of the fights - brush with mortality at this level is always a timely reminder. As previously stated GMR - feel more for you in that kindof scrap - like herding berserker cats!

The subterfuge and sub-plots have faded a little, but that's to be expected as we get to the sharp end of things.

Ok people, stick here with me! I know the last chapter was very meat-grinding with a vast and confusing dungeon, but we are well past the time of mystery and conspirators, what lies ahead is just stitching up the loose ends.

The next chapter is a single dungeon, the true Cagewrights lair, but it has a more reasonable size. This one and the last chapter are half the size of Thirteen Cages or Lords of Oblivion. We will be finishing sooner than you might expect if we manage to keep a reasonable pace.

I do not know about Kythel, but I think we can count on Kikinnin to come and drop a post every now and then.

With 3+ players, I think I will remove Juraan from the party and push your level up to keep the balance and hopefully reach level 20 before the last dungeon so you can experience level 20 capstone power.

Grip your pants. Hold your stomachs. Pray the dice gods. And keep refreshing daily that tab with me, because we are entering Shackled City's Epic level ending chapters :)

Wow, 17... I'm not sure I've ever been 17 well, not since I *Was* 17, and that was a long time ago, in a game system far, far away.

A full caster would be getting 9th level spells. Wish! Miracle! Hurrah.

I think it is a good call dropping Juraan. Not that I don't like having him, but from a DM burn-out point of view, running extra high level characters is a really big ask.

Sounds good to me, GM! I'll try and get Marigold leveled up within the next day or two, presuming you want us to go ahead and bump up to 17th now.

Sounds good to me, GM! I'll try and get Marigold leveled up within the next day or two, presuming you want us to go ahead and bump up to 17th now.

And of course I post that before I check Gameplay, otherwise I'd have already had my answer, haha!

Alrighty then Lady & Gents. Loot sheet is finally updated and open fir business :)

Have put a claim in for the ioun stone on behalf o' JJ but apart from that its all available.

Once we're settled on whose takin' what then we can look at hocking the remainder and splitting the coin into shares.

I've not added the spellbooks yet.

Likewise if we're raising any folks, then let me know the damage to the common's fund.

17th LEVEL UP

+1 Hero Point
+1 Advancement Feat: TBC

+1 Level of Arcane Trickster

Spellslinger 6/UC Rogue 4/Arcane Trickster 7

No Change to BAB
+1 Reflex & Will saves
+1 CL (CL13; additional 4th & 7th Level Spell/Day)
Impromptu Sneak Attack 2/Day
Tricky Spells 4/Day
+6 HP (4 from class, 2 from CON)
+7 Adventuring Skill Ranks; additional ranks taken in: Disable Device, Fly, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Engineering), Perception, Spellcraft & Stealth
+2 Background Skill Ranks; ranks taken in: Lore (Cauldron) & Lore (Tobacco)