The Way of the Wicked (Inactive)

Game Master HighonHolyWater

Infernal Healing is 10hp every time, but over 10 rounds. CLW varies from 1d8+1 to 1d8+5, unless you have some special feat or revelation which allows levels beyond 5 to be added. Thus, Infernal Healing is 10 hp every time and CLW ranges from 5.5 average at level 1 to 10.5 average at level 5+.

Gotcha. Good to know.

Hey guys, I'm terribly sorry for not posting as frequently as a I should. I was recently accepted to my first pick college that is on the other side of the USA, I have been scrambling to be ready to leave in about a month. Needless to say I have a had very little time for recreation. But I will be back on my "A" game today when I get home from work.

Warmest regards,
Meeko

Hey, congratulations meeko!

I'm in a similar situation: I've just started a new full-time job, and I'll essentially being work 12hrs a day. I get all the game updates via email now though, so I'll still be reading and able to post each day, probably still both morning and night.

Can we get a summary status post? Carnadine was stripping armor. Others were chasing. Thanks!

Combat is still rolling so to that question yes, blame Yzera and Kaath lol. Has been 6 rounds since Yzera and Kaath chased that guard. I will consider all the armour removed. A few people haven't posted their actions since then so that is what I am saying everyone upstairs is doing for now.

Haven't seen a post from Caprin, Red, Rodgers or Iscar in a while. Everyone should be updating more regularly. Hoping we haven't lost half the crew.

@DM

I think the guard kit was chainmail, heavy shield, blue-shirt, longsword, club, right? Please confirm.

Also, where can Carnadine be right now?

cheers

I posted the loot each time guards were defeated.

What actions have you been taking? You are upstairs somewhere but you are free now and can do what you like.

I think it was 5 rounds to strip the armor with help and 5 rounds to don the armor with help, right? And it was chain shirt?

I had noticed they hadn't posted in a while. I assumed they were helping remove armor, as that is the most logical action up there. We can't help Yzera and Kaath until someone relays that they need help to us.

Here is the movement post from yesterday.

Here is the rules from the d20 site.

Measuring Distance

As a general rule, distance is measured assuming that 1 square equals 5 feet.

Diagonals

When measuring distance, the first diagonal counts as 1 square, the second counts as 2 squares, the third counts as 1, the fourth as 2, and so on.
.
You can't move diagonally past a corner (even by taking a 5-foot step). You can move diagonally past a creature, even an opponent.
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You can also move diagonally past other impassable obstacles, such as pits.
.
Closest Creature
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When it's important to determine the closest square or creature to a location, if two squares or creatures are equally close, randomly determine which one counts as closest by rolling a die.

It makes a difference in this case as if he is adjacent to the door, then he can open it (move/standard) and then flee (move). If he is at least 5' away, then he will have to move to the door, and then open it. In one case, he should be 5' from us, in the other, he will be out the door stirring up all sorts of additional trouble.

My view of what people are doing so far. With armour all free to wear. But I have no idea who wants to put one on.

Yzera - Downstairs fighting a guard.
Kaath - Downstairs fighting a guard.
Kord - Standing at top of stairs seeing that a fight has happened and grumblejack pounding a dead guard.
Rosemary - Headed down the stairs can see a fight has happened and sees grumblejack with the dead guards.
Carnadine - Posted that he is donning armour, will take 4 more rounds.
Kelvar - Helping Carnadine perhaps or something else?
Iscar - last post says he is collecting gear from the guards.

Caprin hasn't posted since the first fight.
Red Ledger hasn't posted since the first fight.
Rodgers hasn't posted since the first fight.

Kord and Rosemary both know that something has happened downstairs and could possibly let you know. Otherwise the plan is still to escape alive from here.

I posted the loot each time guards were defeated.

What actions have you been taking? You are upstairs somewhere but you are free now and can do what you like.

Finally found the loot post

@DM With so many players posting, it is challenging to keep track of rounds.

Carnadine was stripping armor and then donning armor. By RAW this takes 5 rounds and 5 rounds for 10 rounds assuming another person helps. I think this means that at best Carnadine will be ready to do something on Round 11 (probably 13 because it took a round or 2 to drop the guard). One account of the current round is 6, so it will be awhile before Carnadine and whomever else is working on the armor.

Unless we know to run, because the characters out front can't communicate with the characters in the original room.

Please help us stay coordinated.

cheers

Right, posted what I'm doing this round. If someone tells me something is happening that I'm needed for, I'll change that next round.

I think Yzera said it is round 6 but this is wrong. It has been 6 rounds since the guard ran and Yzera and Kaath chased after. 6 rounds where you have been getting the armour ready, 4 more till you are done.

Poke - where is everyone?

If several people have not posted in a week, only 2-3 weeks into the game, I say we drop them. If they have valid excuses, then we can consider allowing them to return. DMHW posted yesterday about several players who had not posted in over a week, one in more than two weeks. If these players cannot even spend 30 seconds to leave a message in the OOC that they will be away, this is something that greatly concerns me as a player with over 23k posts on the boards.

Sorry, I've been busy with school and work. I will be posting more often from now on.

Donning armor.

I don't have much to add. I'm helping Carnadine don armor until someone tells me there 'a a fight down stairs.

Yes, Iscar, Red and Rodgers are likely to be left behind if nothing is heard from them. I would like Kord, Caprin and Rosemary to post a bit more often but no one is in trouble yet and thankyou Caprin for that post.

Updating gameplay soon.

I have posted this in many other campaigns. Even if your character is not doing much, there are things you can post to let us know you are alive. Post that you scratch yourself. Make a snide comment about a fellow adventurer's choice in apparel. Poke at the dead guard to make sure he is dead. Just have fun. The only way that campaigns die is for people to stop posting. If you need to be away, let us know and DMHW or one of us can NPC you character. But whatever you do, don't go awol, it is annoying and makes me lose interest in the game. I'm sure that others feel similarly.

And, now, back to our regularly scheduled game of slaying innocents.

I feel so VILE. This is great.

You are vile and you should feel vile. That poor defenseless commoner.

Take the other one alive. We can sacrifice her later.

heheh you went outside. I will have to create another map for you. Give me a bit.

Sorry, I had computer troubles all week and I haven't been able to post much. I'm back though and I 'll try and keep my posting up to one a day.

Ok Rodgers, if you can keep up the posting then I will allow you to continue. Any news on Red Ledger if he plans to continue?

Those who were putting on armour upstairs are now done. New map is linked up the top of the page. Unfortunately dungeon grid doesn't allow me to make a big enough map for the whole grounds so i'm splitting it and will create more if you go to those areas. Basically it should be apparent that the main building is in the centre of the walls. The walls are accessible through spiral staircases at each wall tower at specific places along the wall about 100ft or so apart. The walls are 1 floor up and on the other side are steep cliffs a couple hundred feet down to rough waters that could prove a struggle to swim if you decide to escape that way, not impossible but difficult and dangerous.

Sadly, the Red Ledger has decided to drop out. He hasn't really been in the mood for Pathfinder lately.

Can Carnadine keep that Disguise check to be a guard?

I'll repost Carnadine leaving now that he's finally done donning armor. @Holy. Would you please move him up.

Thanks!

I will be making secret rolls for the disguise checks when it is appropriate as you aren't supposed to know how effective a disguise is. Though if it fails it will probably be quickly apparent. But that's all from the disguise skill.

I will be making secret rolls for the disguise checks when it is appropriate as you aren't supposed to know how effective a disguise is. Though if it fails it will probably be quickly apparent. But that's all from the disguise skill.

OK good to know.

Yzera I'm not ignoring your search, I just want to give time for others to be able to post too.

Understood, you were on so we got 2-3 steps on during the process.

Geez, I go to bed early and you guys go to town. I don't usually see that many updates in the morning.

Here is a question for you guys. I have thought about this for a while and I guess I'm putting together a list of my own houserules. As we have already started I won't make any changes that could affect you guys without letting you know first and with some course of diplomacy.

Here is what I would like to do.

• Weapon Finesse feat is gone and is not a prerequisite for any other feats. Instead anyone(pc's and npc's/baddies) automatically uses the higher of their str or dex mods for finessable weapons.
  
• Power Attack feat is gone and is not a prerequisite for any other feats. Instead the option for less accuracy and more damage on attacks(scaling with BAB like Power Attack) is free to all.
  
• Deadly Aim(same as Power Attack.
  
• Combat Expertise(same as Power Attack).
  

I'm ok with implementing them immediately and people getting to choose other feats if they chose one of those at character creation. I'm ok with testing this and reverting it if it turns out to be a bad idea.

I have thought about allowing two-weapon fighting to scale into improved and greater at the appropriate BAB also.

Tell me what you guys think.

Everyone - if people are not into this campaign, please let us know so that we can find new players or shut this down before putting too much time into it. I really want to make it through this AP, but at this point I am becoming very discouraged. DMHW is doing a great job, but so far we seem to have lost several players - players who only a month ago committed to posting at least once a day for several years. Now, we seem to be getting a lot of tag along posts. There are 10 of us and it seems that other than 2-3 of us, nothing is being done. For instance, nobody went to investigate the door/barracks north of the mess hall. Doing this would have saved 2-3 days worth of posting and gotten us on to the real fun of trying to escape from the prison.

I like the group, and like my character, but if others are not going to put the effort into this to make it enjoyable for all, then perhaps it is time to either reopen recruitment, or call it a day.

Sorry to be the spoilsport, but it seems as though Yzera has been pushing this for quite some time. I do not mind leading, but would like someone else to join in and help. For instance, Kaath and I came down the stairs following the guard. Nobody else did anything other than hang out on the second floor trying to get into armor for 5-6 rounds. We could have easily taken out the guards, and avoided alerting the whole prison, if one or two more had joined in. I am looking forward to trying to escape with the guards alerted, but hope that everyone else partakes in the escape.

Tirion/Yzera

@GM I'm comfortable with whenever you would implement those house rules.

@Yzera I agree and support the increased participation and posting rate.

Your other points less so, because Carnadine was not one of the ones who had one of the first armors or a mage armor. Second, Carnadine is not interested in looting the barracks. After the kitchen and armory, he thought we should be moving. Even the office seems a distraction until we found the map.

cheers

@GM I'd be okay with those house rules. I've got some ideas for feats I was going to take later on that I can take in place of Power Attack.

@Yzera I agree regarding other people's posting. I'll admit, as a player, I tend to focus on making sure the group members are all capable of participating, and if that means taking 5-6 rounds helping others get into armor, I'll do it. It's how I typically play in face to face games.

That being said, a PbP does work differently, and I probably should have had Kelvar follow Kaath and Yzera down in pursuit of the other guards, pausing only long enough to grab a shield and a longsword. I'll have to remember that for the future.

Not posting = not okay.

I don't agree with Yzera that staying upstairs was bad(or whatever actions and character thought that were had as long as something was happening), but I do agree that not posting is not helping things along. If you aren't sure what to do remember that some plan is better than no plan(you are desperate to escape and want to live) and in no way do I want to kill anyone at level 1. That said I still recommend being smart of course.

If you are here and you can't think of any awesome escape plan/change of plan/improving of plan/etc, post to say you agree with whoever has made a plan. Post to say you follow or aid that person. Not everyone has lots to post all the time, you all get your spotlights at different times.

So far those I am wondering about are:
Kord, Iscar(more than a week and no posts)
Caprin, Rosemary, Rodgers(only one this week)

Red Ledger is confirmed left.

Those that are safe are:
Kaath(slightly under 1 per day)
Yzera, Kelvar, Carnadine(1+ per day)

If you are the first group and not really feeling into it then let me know. Won't be mad, no hard feelings, best of luck to you. If you do want to continue then please step it up for the enjoyment of the others and your own. 1 a day and 1 on weekends isn't that hard to ask.

I took more than suggested knowing leavers were highly likely on these boards and take that in stride not worrying too much about what I can't change. I know I can run this for 4. I would like 5 or 6 though and will likely create a post in recruitment advertising places this weekend and by next week I hope either my players will continue or we will have others to step into their places.

As a note on my above post. It was more directed toward the timing. Yes, I agree 100% that better equipped means longer survivability. However, it is the timing. Having dead guards who cannot warn their comrades is usually preferable to having alert guards on walls fully armed and stocked with arrows.

When Yzera charged down the stairs, it might have been fool hearty, and somewhat suicidal, but was intended to keep too many guards from forming up against us. I was just very surprised that nobody else came down, or even investigated, for several rounds.

Ah, a lively debate on our next course of action. Always enjoyable.

Seriously, though, I'd like as much of the party as possible to give their opinion on which way we go next. I know Rosemary is part Magus and Caprin is part Alchemist, and we haven't found either of their books yet, so they kind of have a a big stake in which way we go if they want to find those. Otherwise, we can see about picking up replacements later.

We can just as easily have the debate here.

I've written what Carnadine thinks in the Gameplay, and I'll go with consensus.

Maybe we can use some of the leaving prisoners as red shirts.

I see two big decisions:

1. Whether we assault the Warden's Tower.
- This is a surprising move that might buy us some rounds of confusion.
- The entrance to the Warden's Tower will probably be more difficult than the Gatehouse

2. Whether we use the magic window INSIDE the prison
- This would help us bypass one door
- Then, we really need to climb down the walls to escape

cheers

Well, I can go either way. We're currently blind as to whats going on outside. I don't know if it's DMHW's playstyle, but if this were my table, there'd be guards waiting any second to storm in to push our hand. At least we're all armed now.

Kelvar had a point about Grumblejack. How integral is he to our party? Do we want to keep him around for the long haul? I personally feel that he is expendable, but the possibility of going from 10 to 4 or whatever it may be might mean we have to keep him around to compensate.

I am all for those changes, DMHW.

I'm good with the houserules, and I'm in favor of assaulting the tower. As for Grumblejack, he's an expendable meatshield who nevertheless should be kept for as long as possible in case of emergency.

I like using the tables as tower shields. The problem is that we do not know how many archers there are. Most likely the shield/tables would only give a +4 or +8 to AC. A nice boost, but a nat-20 still hits, and if confirmed kills.

My goal is to get on the walls. We do not need to hit the warden's tower, although it might have some nice supplies and would eliminate the senior leader of the prison. On the walls, we can storm any archers - even using a table if we want - to take them down quick. I do not know how many guards there are, or where they are positioned, but I would suspect they have their bows aimed at the two doors from the parapets on the walls. They know we have taken down nearly a dozen guards, demonstrating that we are not incapable. After all, the guard that got away saw Yzera and Kaath take down at least 4 guards all by themselves, without a scratch. Yzera did not get hit until she charged outside.

Also, if we get onto the gatehouse, then we will have any guards within trapped. We can simply pour the kegs of oil down and burn anyone within alive. Finally, if we clear the gatehouse, we can then climb down using the ropes, and make our escape on the walkway. There might be arrow slits in the front, but that would be the only access.

If we go for 3b, we must get in through an exterior door on a gatehouse, undoubtedly it will be locked and barred. Since nobody is as tall as Grumblejack, either we need to have him crouch under a table while trying to smash the door, or have him hold the table while the rest of us try to take it down. We could also dump the oil and try to burn the doors. Either way, this is going to give the guards on the walls several rounds, at least, of easy sniping at those crouching behind tables.

I will try to pick up the pace. But I must point out that I posted Sunday Monday and Tuesday. If you would like me to post several times a day I can I just need to know that's what's expected of me so I can allot the appropriate amount of time for this game.

On house rules. DMHW I really like the proposed changes. Also I might suggest something that could help move us along. That is the "Rule of Cool" in that I know strictly speaking there are rules for donning armor, but I feel it works way smoother in PbP if sometimes we can skim the details. I.e no one is going to post if three characters are in round by round combat and the other's need ten rounds to get armored. Just my two cents. I like this group and hope to be a part of it for a long while to come.

Gameplay post incoming shortly.

I apologise Rosemary, your posting is higher than I somehow thought. I may have misread when I checked your posts. If you continue to post 1 per day I am happy.

The stopping to armour up did halt things but I think that was necessary. Remember there is the don hastily option. I think that this will be a one time thing though and we won't have to worry about a similar situation happening.

We will put my houserules into effect then once we escape.

Lol - should I be scared that the DM is referring to the party as "we"?

Typo