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

Game Master Balacertar

22nd :)

100ish more posts, and we'll be top twenty...

We can do eet!

Well done everyone! You are an outstanding group :)

That makes an average of 1200 posts per chapter. That means we are probably approaching the 14k by the end if everything goes good.

I hope you all are enjoying the road at least as much as I am doing!

Ouch, you are truly abusing that cleric low Reflex save! I will wait to see what Kikinnin and Marigold throw in here, because the bolt is going to be painful but not definitive.

On another level, I wanted to share that Sunday I ran the final encounter for Rise of the Runelords. It was an extenuating battle that ran for 7 hours non-stop, the most crazy and epic thing we have ever done. Karzoug is a truly epic BBEG.

We have been 5 years playing RotRL and it is the first AP we completely play from level 1 to end game, and it was the first in-person game after two years playing the campaign online. As such I am still processing all the events and feelings this brought.

Wow, that is epic. Did you manage to kill any of the heroes?

Amazing! Like JJ would love to know how the final encounter played out and if you sent any gloriously to the Boneyard! :)

Actually the monk died to a finger of death but was resurrected the next turn by the oracle.

The oracle also was petrified but made the safe thanks to a hero point, then trapped in a maze spell and burned another hero point to get out using an antimagic field spell (she could not make the Int DC 20 even with a natural 20), only to end trapped in a force jail, from were she healed and trowed fire.

The bard died to a wail of the banshee, but burned 2 hero points to survive death. She was flying over a pool of lava, but burned her last hero point and her muse, the driad Myriana, intervened to have her safely land on a ledger. She put Karzoug to his toes with a sonic effect that left him stunned for 1 round, gave him 2 negative levels, and her buffs were key on going through Karzoug defenses.

The only one that did not really die was the fighter, whom surprisingly endured everything, including a couple disintegrates and even a dominate person when she was infamous in the party for being easily controlled. She was a bit limited for not having a means of flying, but removed one by one all of Karzoug minions and the lens of souls trapping Karzoug in his dimension even if the party would fail.

The initial rounds were brutal with Karzoug stopping time and hitting hard. Then it became a back and forth were each side would undo the advances of the other. But later it all became an attrition war. The monk managed to break through Karzoug defenses with the bard's help and finally managed to bring it down.

Karzoug used two times a wish for him and his minions still alive to be back at full health. So by the end they had dealt to him near 600 damage in total.

Very epic indeed, we were too tired of it by the end though!

Sounds truly epic :)

Sorry folks, went out of town for a few days and completely forgot to give notice! Back now and working on catching up on my games.

The madman is down!

I will update after dinner :)

4 posts within 46 minutes... that was very synchronous...

Alright, I'm settling in for a quiet Friday night, and tending to character sheet and expenditures, per our quartermeister Maxim.

"Have blanked the Loot Sheet from our last visit to civilisation - amounted to 97,150GP each. Commons gets another 97,167GP SP taking its total to a whopping 172,981GP, 9SP."

Given Skie's Catalog, Kikinnin will have retconned made the following purchases (Pending GM Approval, of course):

Sell Ring of Protection +2 (+4000gp)
Purchase Ring of Protection +5 (-40000gp, 20% Skie Discount)

Sell Belt of Mighty Constitution +4 (+8000gp)
Purchase Belt of Mighty Constitution +6 (-28800gp, 20% Skie Discount)

Sell Headband of Alluring Charisma +4 (+8000gp)
Purchase Headband of Alluring Charisma +6 (-28800gp, 20% Skie Discount)

Sell Ring of Feather Fall (+1100gp)
Purchase Ring of Blinking (-21600gp, 20% Skie Discount)

...

I agree with Maxim- we should retcon some spending from the Communal Wealth in order to stock up on several of those scrolls from Skie, as well as a Bag of Holding, if we don't already have a decent-sized one.

...

Marigold, if it's no trouble, I'd like you to sport Kikinnin's Pearl of Power IV to cast Air Walk, so he can feel more secure regarding future pit traps :)

Hmm.. do I owe some money to the commons? I had a feeling I borrowed a chunk of cash at the end of last chapter.

If not...

Alakast is currently a +5 weapons (+2 bonus, +1 for demon bane, +2 for holy = +5) - that has a value of $50k
An extra $78k would take it to +8. I'd probably just up the base bonus on it to +5 at this stage as that will help with my damage and to-hit against non demonic foes, where I sometimes feel more like a mosquito nipping at their ankles. Nipping a lot, but still nipping.

Marigold, if it's no trouble, I'd like you to sport Kikinnin's Pearl of Power IV to cast Air Walk, so he can feel more secure regarding future pit traps :)

Oof, Marigold doesn't actually know Air Walk - she's got Overland Flight but that's a Personal spell. Kythel was the one with the magic flight-making powers :(

That said, maybe when we get back to town Marigold can retrain one of her spells known for Air Walk?

or buy some pages of spell knowledge?

^Or that, assuming GM Rutseg would allow a retroactive purchase! If not, I'll pick one up as soon as we head back to civilization.

"Oof, Marigold doesn't actually know Air Walk - she's got Overland Flight but that's a Personal spell."

Ah, the joys of spellcasting. I'll admit I'm not too versed in the limitations, I play more brutes than astutes ;)

Given Skie's Catalog, Kikinnin will have retconned made the following purchases (Pending GM Approval, of course):

...

Skie approves! :)

Marigold, if it's no trouble, I'd like you to sport Kikinnin's Pearl of Power IV to cast Air Walk, so he can feel more secure regarding future pit traps :)

^Or that, assuming GM Rutseg would allow a retroactive purchase! If not, I'll pick one up as soon as we head back to civilization.

Ok. Page of spell knowledge is not within the initial allowed sources (Ultimate Equipment will probably happen in the next AP I do GM, I guess).

But I sort of gave this solution to Kikinnin about buying the pearl for flying, and so I feel now responsible this is not working anymore

As such, I am going to say the pearl has been infused with Kythel's power over air and give it the ability to cast air walk once per day at your CL instead of its normal ability. That is, each day, you can use the pearl to recast a prepared 4th level spell (or lower) or to cast air walk, your choice. The pearl is dormant until the next day then.

Would that be satisfactory or is there something else I am not considering?

Alakast is currently a +5 weapons (+2 bonus, +1 for demon bane, +2 for holy = +5) - that has a value of $50k

An extra $78k would take it to +8. I'd probably just up the base bonus on it to +5 at this stage as that will help with my damage and to-hit against non demonic foes, where I sometimes feel more like a mosquito nipping at their ankles. Nipping a lot, but still nipping.

A holy nipping mosquito of sorts :)

JJ has been paramount at skipping some wild hazards through the campaign too, and even some massive combats!

"As such, I am going to say the Pearl has been infused with Kythel's power over air and give it the ability to cast Air Walk once per day at your CL instead of its normal ability. That is, each day, you can use the Pearl to recast a prepared 4th level spell (or lower) or to cast Air Walk, your choice. The pearl is dormant until the next day then. Would that be satisfactory or is there something else I am not considering?"

More than generous, GM Rutseg :) Given your mechanic gift, I am going to self-restrict it to only cast Air Walk, to keep it simple, yet very very effective.

Entering a weekend of reconnection over here, Thanksgiving and all. Just wanted to tell you all I'm thankful for our time together, storytelling with style. The whole beginning of the year felt like I lost my taste for a great many things, courtesy of the pandemic. Now, I'm getting the color back, working out the aches in my prose joints. Thanks again for your patience with my pace, or lack thereof.

Me too, I am thankful to have you as a playing group, it is being a great pleasure to GM this campaign for you :)

Big hugs Kikinnin, reduced social life has affected me too. Slowly recovering.

So far, Shatterhorn is falling as more interesting to me than the previous dungeon.

Poetically put as always Bror. Am defiantly thankful for the creative collaboration these boards, and this game in particular afford over the years.

While our number may have dwindled, feel the quality has not, and our illustrious GM is the driver behind that. Here's to you all, this game and the games to come!

I hope those who celebrate it had a Happy (US) Thanksgiving or a Happy Thursday if you don't. There are many things that I'm thankful for and one of them is all of the great people I have the privilege of playing Pathfinder with - like you guys :)

Likewise here. I'm not a statesider, but I think a day where we count our blessings is a great idea.

Weather improving down under as well, and with my senior students all off for exams, I'm swimming each morning and just pottering around the house. Only get called in for relief once a week or so. Ahh, the life.

Apologies folks - we've had power cut since Friday 16:00 and lost all comms too due to Storm Arwen battering the NE of Scotland. Restored late yesterday we were in recharge and reheat mode!

Will try and get up a post up shortly :)

Yikes! Glad you finally got some power back!

Stay toasty, friend :)

I thought Scotsmen just linked hands and rubbed their kilts for the static electricity...

Haha. Aye there is that final option right enough - tempered of course with a wee warming dram or three! :)

Did we get a chance to do those weapon upgrades discussed above (technically discussed after the start of this adventure - so fine I didn't get it done)

If this snake has dr/adamantine, then normally a +4 weapon can overcome that.

Bror, curious as to your ear waggle on this tune...

Sure, go ahead and consolidate those purchases JJ :)

Cool song for a cinematic scene severing Cagewrights heads to their boss Kikinnin!

Hot dog, the spell I picked up over three years ago finally sees some use! :D

Oh yeah, that's rewarding! :D

It is really one of the few that can affect it.

I ninja'ed you JJ for just a few seconds :P

Braving gale force winds in Chicago until tomorrow. Will renew my posts when I can :)

Ok, tried to push, from my phone- Google Slides is murder for big fingers…

Wow, good luck with that. Terrible images of collapsed factories in the mid-east reached the news here this week :/

About mobile Google Slides, the app actually works almost ok, at least it is much better than trying to edit with the browser, which is mission impossible.

We lost power for four hours during the heavier winds, knocking out some power lines, while the other side of the street enjoyed no interruption of service :/

The devastation was made even more grisly, when we keep reading these texts about workers threatened with losing their jobs if they sought out shelter away from their positions at work...

Omg, that sounds like terrible management. Better save than sorry.

Wow, good luck with that. Terrible images of collapsed factories in the mid-east reached the news here this week :/

The weather here this month has been...highly unusual...to say the least. Tornadoes in December? Crazy.

Luckily we don't have tornadoes to worry about here, though it does blow a lot.

That said, we had a large amount of rain dump on us over the last two weeks, and the ground is still giving it up.

I read an article a few months ago explaining the warming in the ocean was changing currents and affecting the way temperature is distributed through the landmasses around the Athlantic, which in turn was affecting the mainline winds essentially making possible atmospheric phenomena in places it was an oddity before.

Marigold's got one 3rd level spell left for the day so only one Stone Shape available until we can rest again.

Oh, you can always use a higher level spell slot to cast a lower level one, so do not worry too much about that! :)

Aye! You are level 18 now! :D

You have perhaps noticed levels are arriving faster recently. We have been a level or two behind the intended track for most of the campaign while we had 6 PCs then 5. As you are now only 4 PCs I am leveling you faster to keep encounters balanced, but mostly so we can reach level 20 before the campaign ends as it is intended for the AP.

Expect level 19 to arrive shamefully soon (but not before we finish Chapter 11).

Any new daily use you gain with the level (including new spell slots), as well as hp, it is automatically gained (you do not need to rest), daily resources spent today, remain spent until you rest.

Huzzah!

18th LEVEL UP

+1 Hero Point

+1 Level of Arcane Trickster

Spellslinger 6/UC Rogue 4/Arcane Trickster 8

+1 BAB
+1 FORT Save
+1 CL (CL14; additional 6th & 7th Level Spell/Day)
+1d6 Sneak Attack
+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: Appraise & Lore (Tobacco)

Happy Festives when they come my friends. Hope you are all on Santa's good list :)

Have a great day, and thank you all for the gift of great gaming and greater friendship throughout these strange times we now live in.

A Blithe Yule tae ye aw!

Merry Christmas everyone! :)

It has been a blessing to have this game with you all through all this tough time.

I wish you can gather with your loved ones and have an as normal as possible happy time together.

I’m doing Kikinnin proud, with a current mixture of tequila, whiskey, and soju running through my veins. Granted, the sushi that preceded it is holding down the headiness, but when you’re sitting next to an ex-marine, it’s hard to say no to a brother-in-law, and sample what’s proffered. :)

Merry XMas all.

Looking forward to a New Year with you all.