The Spider God's Bride -

Game Master dain120475

If so, it is a very lowgrade upgrade, that functions more like a highgrade downgrade. That is how I would grade it anyway.

I'll have a post up within the next 2 hours, assuming site isn't down (like it was both times I tried to check in yesterday).

Also, I'll be travelling Feb 16 - Feb 18; I'll try and check in during this time but please bot me if needed.

Gentlemen, at this point I think we're pretty much beaten even if we miraculously start hitting. If Bjoern goes down (which seems likely if we continue as we have) we have little chance of damaging it or of dragging him to safety.

If it decides to full attack Caslav it's almost guaranteed to drop me, though I'd like to think it would save Caslav for last due to his demonstrated ineffectiveness thus far. As a last ditch effort I could try to use wild empathy on it, as it seems at least partially oozey, but it would have to be out of combat and would require a d20 roll, which I seem to be pretty bad at.

If you guys want to retreat to Tairin, I could try to outmaneuver it to follow you, assuming it doesn't just follow you right into the next room...

Bjoern was giving you a chance to run for it but you stayed.

Honestly I'm not worried about myself - I haven't even succeeded in an aid another attempt, while you and Hedran have both hit it, so I think Caslav's an unlikely target. If your latest hit doesn't drop it and you want to continue to stand and deliver I'll continue to provide the flank. Keep in mind that it appears to have DR we're not penetrating (unless the dagger isn't affected by it) and some sort of regeneration that triggers every time it hits.

Can I ask you people to decide if we are going to fight or retreat?

I would head over there to heal Bjeorn but I currently have my hands bound and Samir is supposed to be watching me.

I will go over there but it is more dangerous than it would normally be. Otherwise I will heal people when they reach me.

Tairin opted to retreat and said as much to the group right at the beginning. I think the golem’s self healing ability will mean little harm will come to it - it’s drinking Bjoern’s blood to heal itself every time it hits him.

Tairin's already inside the other chamber (via the rear door). She won't know what's going on in the chamber with the blood golem currently.

I fully agree Ariarh.

This is one of those times discretion is the better part of valor, and cowardice is the better part of discretion.

But the boys seem to be overtaken by battle lust and not listening to you. If they are about to die I am going around there to heal them even if they are making a mistake.

Maybe you can wait until the boys drag Bjoern to you? Better chances that way, and, Red isn't up and close to the blood drinking golem.

Hi folks! A reminder that I'll be travelling today through Sunday Feb 18; please bot me as needed during this time. Caslav will try and keep it together, hoping for a coordinated but swift retreat into the next chamber with Bjoern in tow. If we get to safety and it's allowed, Caslav could try to tend to Bjoern's wounds - using his healer's kit he's at Heal +9. (I don't know if someone can receive treatment from two different people in the same day)

I hope everyone enjoys their weekends, and I'll be back in game Monday Feb 19 at the latest!

According to the player’s guide, it’s only one healing per person per day via the Heal skill. Tairin healed him a little earlier when Bjoern fell into the pit. Any other healing comes with full night’s rest.

Red has a powerful healing elixir on her person (that we found earlier). A person recuperates more hp with rest...I believe. The description was placed on the discussion thread at the time of discovery.

Safe travels, Caslav, and have fun. :)

Sorry for the hold up. It’s been a very busy Saturday and now I have a migraine. I’ll post Tairin’s next action tomorrow.

At this time we're still waiting on Hedran to act until the Round can be formally over and then I can finish the enemy and it's your turn.

If I don't have someone bot Hedran by the end of the day, I will bot him myself.

In the future I think I'll have to come up with a general plan for how to deal with botting PC's who are AFK for more than 24 hours.

As it stands I will either have Hedran do a Full Attack or a Full Defense; I don't know where he would move to, unfortunately, and I don't want to put him somewhere he does not want to be.

Dain- I just re-read Hedran's last post and it sounds to me like he was going to retreat with the party, just isn't sure exactly where to go. If I was going to bot Hedran's character I would have him withdraw and follow the rest of us. It seems to me that is closer to what he intended and much less dangerous. My thought anyway.

Dain- I just re-read Hedran's last post and it sounds to me like he was going to retreat with the party, just isn't sure exactly where to go. If I was going to bot Hedran's character I would have him withdraw and follow the rest of us. It seems to me that is closer to what he intended and much less dangerous. My thought anyway.

You bot him; I'll move the action forward :)

Hedran does not play on the boards on weekends as that is his family time. He's mentioned it a few times. If he is required to post over a weekend, then it appears his actions will need to be formally botted and no one is waiting around for his player to post.

Hedran, when you're back on the boards and reading this, who would you like to nominate to bot your character over weekends? :)

You are right about the effect of withdrawing Ariarh, not very surprising as you quoted the rules. That is why I suggested withdrawing, we don't want Hedran getting back to discover he is dead. :(

Ok. A medium sized blood golem’s land speed is 10ft. Dain, you said this one, being smaller, moves faster, but even at double the speed (20ft) it couldn’t have reached Hedran and attacked in one round. I’m confused.

Ok. A medium sized blood golem’s land speed is 10ft. Dain, you said this one, being smaller, moves faster, but even at double the speed (20ft) it couldn’t have reached Hedran and attacked in one round. I’m confused.

The Spider God's Bride has different stats for different creatures.

For example; according to the source book the HD for this Blood Golem is less than a normal one, but it's Movement Speed is 30 feet.

So technically it could have reached Hedran and attacked him in one move.

As it stands, I believe it's your move.

Okay, since Red had another action available to her in the current round, I have asked her to pick up the bow for Hedran (and yes, this is done in retcon). I think this makes the best sense and Hedran doesn't cop an AoO to either retrieve the bow or move from a threatened square.

Red and Dain GM, I hope you are okay with this scenario.

Bjoern: Your current hp is -1, but you're stabilised and not bleeding out. You've also suffered 2 CON damage. It wasn't listed on your status line, so I thought I'd post it here for you and anyone else who wanted to try healing you, etc.

=========

Red: If you're happy to pick up the bow in Round 9, then the GM seems fine with it. You can hand the weapon back to Hedran at some point soon. :)

=========

Hedran: You took 6 damage in Round 9. Please note that on your status line. Thanks, and, sorry I couldn't spare Hedran the hurt when I botted him in Round 9. :(

It’s back to us now - Round 11. :)

Okay, so after Red's excellent healing, Bjoern should be conscious now - at 8 HP and with 2 CON damage.

We could also give him the healing elixir. (Just a suggestion/option for the near future. It's better than nothing.) We do need our tank back up and fighting sooner rather than later. Just thinking out aloud is all.

Notes on the healing elixir: The vial is version of the Healing extract you had received from the Bathouse; but it is more potent. Anyone who drinks it will receive 1 HP per Hour back for a period of 24 hours. If the person who drinks this potion is in a state of rest (i.e. sleeping, or bed rest) the amount of healing for that hour is doubled (so theoretically at one day of normal travel you’d gain 16 HP back while awake and walking, and the last 16 for 2x the healing while Sleeping) This stacks with the normal healing bonuses you have for 8 hours sleep and/or bed rest.

Instead of botting all three guys, I'm going to wait and let them take their own actions this round. If Bjoern stands from prone, he'll cop an AoO...and that's not good as he's barely living at 8 HP, so I'll let him figure it out. I'm pretty sure Hedran would wait until both Bjoern and Caslav are inside the other chamber before withdrawing. But again, I'll leave that up to him/them. I'm pretty sure Caslav will be back to posting on his Monday.

Assuming Bjoern is still prone in O:14. I see two viable options for helping Bjoern get out of there:

Of course Caslav could also just skedaddle into the next room now, leaving the two Tharagians to their own devices. But in character he fears that if he does so and they survive, one or both may be violently displeased with his leaving them behind.

Any thoughts? I'll post up an action within 9 hours from now either way.

What if Caslav went first? He could then drag a prone Bjoern back 5 ft to say N:14 (use a free action to advise Bjoern what you're doing so he's compliant) and that would be classified as one move action for Caslav. Then Cas could move himself - 30 ft into the chamber. I don't believe any of those actions would incur any AoOs on Caslav as he is behind Hedran. Then Bjoern who is now in a square not threatened by the golem can stand and move into the chamber (two move actions). Hedran can then withdraw as a full round action without copping an AoO.

Hmm. Although reading the message boards, it seems half the people feel that dragging will provoke an AoO on the person dragged, so I'm not sure that will work. Bjoern could try acrobatics from prone as full round action, but that only gives him the chance to move/tumble back 5 ft and he'd still be in the room with the golem in the new round.

The golem seems to be after the Yadar dagger (Tairin noted that the runes on the god statue match those on the dagger and scrolls in our possession). If the golem protects this chamber, maybe tossing the dagger away will distract it long enough for the three of you to move safely into the other chamber? At the moment, the golem is after Hedran because of the cursed dagger. It may have been stolen from this chamber by the tomb raiders. I don't really want to toss away a magical dagger ... I'm just talking aloud via stratagems because Bjoern has no more healing allowed to him this day and if he goes down, he will need to sleep/rest 8 hours to gain any further healing (plus the boosted healing from the potent extract Red's holding). We'd have to barricade ourselves in the next chamber for 8 hours.

I don't think dragging Bjoern would provoke an AoO on either of us if one assumes you can use the drag combat maneuver on allies as well as enemies. However, this maneuver specifies that the person is dragged into your current square while you move in a straight line away from them. This makes it impossible to execute the maneuver around the bends the altar and statue create.

Caslav might be able to execute a reposition maneuver on Bjoern, again with the fiat that it can be applied to allies, but also the wording of the maneuver seems to imply that the target must be able to move into the desired square on their own - "to force a foe to move to a different position in relation to your location without doing any harm".

I've been reading through threads on this topic (using combat maneuvers on willing allies) and there doesn't seem to be an official ruling/FAQ, so I think these are solidly in the realm of DM house ruling.

Regardless of how the rules mechanics play out, I think Caslav is going to try to drag Bjoern at least 5 feet away from the golem. That seems like a good balance between not wanting to abandon him and not wanting to be exsanguinated by a horrific monster. I'll have a post to this effect up within a couple hours.

It looks like my knowledge of the Pathfinder rules has improved to the point I can play rules guru. So I am going to look very smug and lecture people on what they should have done.

Rules quote-

"Withdraw
Withdrawing from melee combat is a full-round action. When you withdraw, you can move up to double your speed. The square you start out in is not considered threatened by any opponent you can see, and therefore visible enemies do not get attacks of opportunity against you when you move from that square. Invisible enemies still get attacks of opportunity against you, and you can’t withdraw from combat if you’re blinded. You can’t take a 5-foot step during the same round in which you withdraw.

If, during the process of withdrawing, you move out of a threatened square (other than the one you started in), enemies get attacks of opportunity as normal.

You may not withdraw using a form of movement for which you don’t have a listed speed.

Note that despite the name of this action, you don’t actually have to leave combat entirely."

That is what Hedran should have done in his last action. Technically, Hedran should have said he was using the withdraw action when he made his last post. Based on past rulings I think Dain will say that is what happened. However, I know from experience not all GMs are so benevolent.

Now, another quote-

"Fast Crawl

You are skilled at moving while prone.

Benefit: While prone, you can move at half speed. This movement provokes attacks of opportunity as normal. You can take a 5-foot step while crawling. This benefit does not stack with the rogue crawl talent.

Normal: You can crawl 5 feet as a move action. You cannot take a 5-foot step while crawling."

That is a feat description, I am concerned with the bit on crawl speed. What I believe the best thing for Bjeorn to do on the last action was for Bjeorn to withdraw crawling, which moves him 10 feet and then Caslav pull him into the other room. Then Samir close the door.

I hope I haven't offended anyone with my tongue in cheek lecture. If you guys are going to keep playing Pathfinder not all GMs will let you change such things or rule you use the withdraw action when it is clearly the right thing to do.

Where are the boys at? They're awfully quiet. ;p

Hedran, Tairin already healed Bjoern via the Heal check when he got hurt via jumping into the pit. He can’t get any further healing via the Heal skill this day as unfortunately it’s only allowed once a day per person.

Sorry folks, having a minor medical emergency, will post tomorrow.

I hope everything is, or, will be okay? Take care, Caslav.

Okay, I'm going to toss this idea up for discussion.

I've been thinking about this and I am good with the idea of retiring Tairin and building a new character (this is by no means me saying I don't like playing Tairin - I do - but it seems we have other more pressing needs). We have a support person now in Caslav, so there won't be too much of a void. And we have an arcane caster in Red.

We are in desperate need of serious healing power as our front-liners get hit hard and often. Red does a fine job as a witchy healer, but her healing hex can only do so much per person. We could store up on healing extracts, but they are not readily available, costly, and take time to aid a person, even if imbibed.

I have contemplated the idea of making a Cultist Healer for the group. One dedicated to Belet-Lil, the Moon-Goddess of Susrah. She'd still be good with the diplomacy and she will be wise to boot. I'd make her Decadent ... seems to fit the cult she belongs to.

This is by no means meant to step on Red's toes - we just need more healing if the group is to survive. We seem to chase out tails when it comes to combat and healing. Not that a cultist will be super powerful via healing at first level, but she will become so as she goes up in level. And with Red's healing ability, we can do more for the group together. Caslav is also able to heal, as well as Hedran.

What do you guys think? Tairin does bring certain skills to the table, and, I can try to build a new character to bring in other, needed skills (and some covered by Tairin).

I got some feedback from the GM and he said I shouldn’t scrap Tairin. So I suppose my previous suggestion is moot.

If we ensure the door is secure and the hole/tunnel is, too (we can always push the bookshelf back against the wall and cover the hole), than this chamber may be a good place to rest and sleep? We could organise a watch shift ... Hedran is merely doing some quick reconnaissance right now ... to get some more info and very carefully ... but once he's back, we can hunker down here to help Bjoern regain some of his health.

What do you guys think?

Ariarh-I think there is a problem with starting a new character designed to heal a lot. It isn't you stepping on my toes, I am fine with that, or even that Tairin is a cool character who is doing a lot to drive the campaign forward.

It is that most healing magic isn't possible in the world of Zoth. Dain allowed the Healing Hex as an exception and i think imposed a restriction, of sorts, that it can only be used once a day per person [which is all you can normally do anyway].

It isn't that we don't need a healer, we do. It is that the healer as a role is excluded by the rules that apply to the world. Characters heal faster than they do in normal Pathfinder, which helps a bit.

It is up to Dain of course, but that is what I recall of the rule changes for the setting.

Hey guys - I will have more when I can; I'm not feeling very good now and will likely be AFK for a few days, I should be able to have something up when I'm able, but probably not until Sunday my time.

Have a good weekend; if you get a chance between now and then, post any response to what Hedran tells you he notices.

I qish you best of wishes for a speedy recovery.
And I am happy for the lack of healing, it makes for a very gritty feeling

Take care of you, Dain GM. Hope you feel better soon.

As to changing characters, it’s okay as I’m not going to. But thanks for the responses Red and Bjoern.

Is Bjoern going to reply to Tairin? She did ask him a question and since he isn’t unconscious anymore, he is able to speak/respond. ;p

Sorry for the prolonged absence, had some RL stuff to deal with. I'll be updating all my games tomorrow - thanks for your patience.

Thank you all for your well-wishes; I appreciate them :)

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well, Dain - I know how that goes. I hope you feel better soon.

Dain- get well my friend.

Thanks again, gang! I do really appreciate your support, and I'm sorry for the delay!

My posts are not insulting any of the males in the party. They simply state that Tairin feels that had the male PCs backed her word to withdraw (this doesn’t include Samir as he was not involved in the combat in the slightest) and/or disengaged earlier from fighting the golem, it would have been better and with less casualties. She’s basically saying pick your battles more wisely and basically communicate with one another. Bjoern, if you wanted the other men to back out and move to Tairin, while you held the line, you could have voiced it again in rp, for eg, and then withdrawn from combat. I know you said it initially, but the others seemed to be protecting you as you were trying to protect them/the party. At the time, the golem wasn’t close enough to do anyone much harm and everyone should have simply moved/withdrawn to the other chamber and closed the door. Just my 2 cents. No disrespect intended.

Hedran does not feel insulted Tairin :D

On another note, I think the new Paizo forums setup is throwing me off - I'm not sure if I am logged in or not.

And I don't think new posts are showing.

Anyone else experiencing anything similar?

Hedran: Go to the top of the screen, where it says My Account. Click on the profile token right next to it. That’ll show you if you’re logged in or not.

The new profile did throw me off a little yesterday, but my new posts are showing. I hope you figure out what’s going on with your account.

Dain GM, as to torches, some people had them earlier on and the dungeoneering kit that Bjoern’s been carrying for the party has two torches in it.

Dain GM, as to torches, some people had them earlier on and the dungeoneering kit that Bjoern’s been carrying for the party has two torches in it.

Of course! The question is; how many do you have total?

Also, since they only last an hour, you will likely not have all them when this is over - but then again, you might; but you might not need them, though :)

All I can say is that during Tairin’s watch she has her dancing orbs up for light and will recast as necessary. As to what the other guys will do on their watch, only they can say via their rp.