Lurking
Lurking.
Morythine - Let's be honest, we all know that THIS is Morythine.
He has a far better hat.
Lurkinating once again.
So we have:
Setsuna - Skull's Crossing
Zoli - Skull's Crossing
Eugeni - Whatever Zoli says, so Skull's Crossing.
Mory - Unclear.
Rilee - Leaning toward Whitewillow?
If we go by majority wins, then it looks like we're going to Skull's Crossing?
Just waiting on Rilee to return from her outing and give you all an update on what she did/saw, then I'm ready to update and move along...
As Rilee and Olympus climb high into the sky, she looks north towards the Wyvern Mountains and the Storval Deep. She leans on his left flank and the two bank in that direction. After covering about half the distance across the Kreegwood, Rilee stands up on Olympus's back and outstretches her arms. Then she leaps from his back and Wild Shapes into a peregrine falcon, staying aloft on her new wings. The two avians continue to fly over the ruins of Fort Rannick and then they continue on to get an aerial view of the Skull's Crossing.
They circle the site a few times, then peel off and fly north back to Turtleback Ferry.
Seems like she was already intent on returning.
And then she changed her mind and headed to check out the dam. I gave her the info she saw via whispers in Roll20 last night, so it is on her to relay what she scouted to ya'll.
Sorry, I wanted to do more on Roll20, but got kicked off and couldn't get back on.
I'll post anyway.
I'll give everyone a chance to respond before I update tonight.
Lurking, by the by.
FYI, timeline got wacky yesterday. My summary:
Real world
- CDL and Stalwart were on roll20 and decided to take on the ogres at the dam solo. I think the in character question of why they'd go alone (and why we'd let them) took second seat to "this will be fun to play out, we'll find a way to make it work in game!" (which I've done myself and can sympathize with; no complaints from me!)
- I found out while they were there, but it didn't make sense to retcon Zoli in. Thron said he had something fun for the three of us who were behind though...which he led me through on roll20 and then posted to gameplay.
Meanwhile, gameplay thread timeline had gotten a bit confused (at least for me). I (player) thought that, in the hours after Black Magga, Zoli and Setsu and Eugeni had gone off to gather info...and that the following morning we'd all wake early to head to the dam. Thron thought that we'd spent the day after Black Magga gathering info, healing, and just relaxing around town. I strenuously objected because I couldn't fathom an in-game reason for Zoli not to have launched in to action that morning (and it made my brain hurt trying to shoehorn in some rationale). Thron felt merciful and let me tweak the timeline a bit. My understanding:
Day 0
- We fight Black Magga.
- That evening Setsu, Eugeni, and Zoli gather info.
Day 1
- Zoli intends for the party to go together to the dam...but Rilee is off scouting so the team delays.
- While they wait, Yap the fairy arrives and persuades Zoli, Morythine, and Eugeni to go on a side quest, while Setsu (who has can only move at 30' and so would've slowed us down) stays to wait for Rilee and explain.
- Rilee returns with the urgent news of the dam being hammered by ogres, and she and Setsu set off to stop it ASAP.
- Shortly after they leave, Zoli, Eugeni, and Mory return from the fey swamp. They hear what's going on and they head North to reunite with Setsu and Rilee.
Any corrections or questions?
Makes sense. With being on full time daddy duty now, I have much less time to hang around Roll20, hopefully won't miss too many R2 sessions in the future.
I'm going to assume the new arrivals are going to be working their way to the dam...so gonna post a quick update to move them on along to their first encounter.
Lurkin' the night away. If enough of you show, we can real time the rest of this.
Back from the desert! To expand somewhat on Eugeni’s post, as well as my own snarky comment in the Gameplay thread (sorry!), I must admit feeling an increasing disconnect from this campaign. So much of it now seems to be taking place on Roll20, and I’m left trying to fill in the gaps from the gameplay thread. Now I know there’ve been recent examples when I’ve been unable to post, and certainly extenuating circumstances with the present scene; I understand our DM needs to fast forward some things in order to get the party back together. But I feel there’ve been other moments when I’ve been left behind simply because I wasn’t on Roll20. And the fact of the matter is, whilst on the whole I can manage a post a day, I don’t have time to just lurk on Roll20 and play in real time.
Speaking only for myself I think it’s important to a least allow 24 hours windows for other players to get involved in what’s going on, be it a roleplay moment or a combat. I find whole scenes have been wrapped up on Roll20, so even though I post (or sometimes not), there’s nothing much to add. It can be a bit of a vicious circle, the more stuff happens on Roll20, the less engaged my own posting becomes (in frequency and/or content), which probably (perhaps subconsciously) spurs those on Roll20 to forge ahead with action. And given the slow progress of the PbP format, I can understand the appeal in that.
I enjoy this campaign and playing alongside all you cool people, but I just thought I should share my thoughts. And if this campaign is destined to become a Roll20 campaign rather than a Paizo one then so be it – at the end of the day I’d rather play the full campaign or no campaign rather than half of it.
Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Now I’d better go post in the Gameplay thread!
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Here is the reason the recent Roll20 shenanigans have went down:
A) Upon scouting the dam in private, Rilee returned and told the group her findings, and Setsuna insisted on leaving immediately via riding Olympus, Rilee shape shifting, and everyone else hurrying quickly to the scene. Their movement speeds were going to be much higher, so that they'd make first contact by hours. So, I was faced with either running them through the fight PbP style, taking days/weeks to resolve while you guys were left out, or hammer it out on Roll20.
B) Meanwhile, there was another side venture to take place that I knew I could work you guys through. However, it was a low-combat scene, full of mostly narrative. After reading it, I saw there really wasn't much there aside from conversation and exposition of things that had already happened. So, instead of drawing out that scene, especially since Morythine is a rather quiet sort, and Eugeni had already stated he was doing whatever Zoli did, I went ahead and wrapped it up quickly as well so as to not spend days/weeks on a scene that really wasn't going to have much impact beyond creating a sense of urgency/dread, I did a Roll20 fast forward there too.
C) The rejoining of the group was going to take place via PbP, but then Eugeni one-shot the only thing between you guys and them, meaning all that was left was searching an empty upper level, and then the showdown downstairs. That search could have been wrapped up in one post anyway, and 4 out of 5 of the party was logged into Roll20 at the time, so I didn't see a problem zipping through another trivial scene. Then Setsuna decided to scout downstairs while invisible, and I settled that quick scouting session ASAP as well, as it set us back up nicely for getting back into things as a full group.
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I do not intend to convert this campaign to a purely Roll20 experience, by no means. The scheduling nightmare alone would be too frustrating to bother with. However, if a majority of the group is online, and are in full agreement to proceed with an action (which, aside from these strings of circumstances as posted above, honestly is a comparative rarity in the grand scheme of this campaign), I have no reservation about proceeding in roll20 as long as the action is not major/pivotal to the story. Had this been a Big Bad Boss encounter, or a major story reveal, I'd have insisted on remaining on PBP style to allow everyone a chance to take part.
I'm sorry to have made you feel a bit disenfranchised from the game, but I figured it better to blast through trivial material ASAP rather than let it bog us down for a prolonged period.
Aaand just waiting on everyone to post their prep for heading downstairs, or whatever you are doing.
Don't want to double post, so here's what I'll do before we go down.
1) I'll turn Invisible.
2) I'll cast Bless on the party when the doors come in sight.
3) I'll cast Channel Vigor: Will on myself.
4) I'll summon a Hound Archon before we open the doors.
5) I'll try to cast Haste the first round of combat.
@Rilee: I highly recommend that you summon the Satyr when I recall Presley and then Stirge the Trident Troll into submission. I can cast Tongues on the Satyr if you want to spam Suggestion.
Mory, thanks for speaking up about the roll20 sessions. I do think this recent period is more an anomaly than a trend, and I certainly want you to still feel at home here. We've been at this one together for a long time now!
Thron, is this still the same day as our trip to the ghostly nymph? If so, I'm down all four of my Charmed Life save bonuses.
Either way, I'm ready to go!
Yes, same day as the nymph.
Lurking while I prepare the update.
My follow-up summon will be a crocodile, FYI.
As Morythine moves through the chamber, the creature lashes out at him with his claw. The dhampir nimbly avoids the large creature's clutches, and lunges for the trident. He wraps his hands around the spear, and spots the troll moving to sink his teeth into his body. He quickly hops away, the creature's jaws snapping together mere inches from him, the sound as loud as thunder.
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[dice=Grazuul AoO 1, Movement]1d20 + 12
[dice=Grazuul AoO 2, Pick up an Item]1d20 + 12
Grazuul you suck!
Hey Mory, why drop the trident? You can flurry with your other hand (or feet or elbows) while you hold onto it, if you want).
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It doesn't go with my hat
Lurkin'
Lurking, DMPC'ing Eugeni since he has to double move to get back to the fight anyway.
My whole family is down with the flu....prolly won’t be posting much or at all over the next few days.
Geez, this has got to be the bloodiest campaign I've ever played in. Three characters have died in this book alone.
Seriously! So sorry Mory. I know you gave a DNR in game recently but you've been at this from the very beginning. Let us know what you want to do.
Zoli will be sad to lose Mory...and gyrfalcon would hate to lose Transylvanian Tadpole.
Wow, this game is lethal.
And with the bad luck reincarnating 'Lu, now it seems like no one is willing to spin the wheel. Though I think a lot of these fights would have gone differently with a dire crocodile...
Sorry, Mory! You sure you don't want to give it a whirl?
Based on Eugeni's post, apparently I HAVE been giving this thing AoO's when it shouldn't have, even though my original search-fu seemed to indicate that it could. But, at this point, going back to fix everything would be a cumbersome undertaking. So, unless someone shows me a ruling showing it can still make AoO's, from here on in it will not get AoO's while grappling something.
A grappled creature is restrained by a creature, trap, or effect. Grappled creatures cannot move and take a –4 penalty to Dexterity. A grappled creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grapple. In addition, grappled creatures can take no action that requires two hands to perform. A grappled character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler's CMB + spell level), or lose the spell. Grappled creatures cannot make attacks of opportunity.
There are some monsters that overrule this in their bestiary entry, I think.
Unless it says somewhere in its stat block that it doesn’t get the grappled condition (via some special ability), it does when grappling and cannot AOO.
Also just in case, it can only grapple one person at a time. Sorry to see Mory drop TT. Hope we can work something out for you.
Lurking on Roll20
This is the monster stat block, for clarity. I swear in my initial research I had seen that monsters with grab and grappling could make AoO's. What made me think so as well is it having Combat Reflexes while clearly being a grapple oriented monster.
Wasn't trying to screw any of y'all over or power game. Don't want y'all thinking that. I legitimately thought this was the way it worked based on my forum search for rules clarity.
Well, even though it would be a pain in the ass, I think we should probably make sure that mistake didn't lead to Mory's death in any way. As long as the goof up didn't kill him somehow I think moving forward is fine. Everybody makes mistakes with the rules sometimes, no biggy as far as I'm concerned.
Hmmmm, yeah, was it already grappling when it AoO'd Morythine? We all make rules slip ups, but I agree it seems a shame to die to one. Maybe just have it drop him unconscious now (and retcon the head still being attached, just bruised) and otherwise not rewind anything else?
I believe it was already grappling one of the hound archons when it got me. I'm not sure though. If I'm dead, I'm dead, and them's the brakes. Zoli better scream, weep and self-flagellate a little though.
I don't wanna ride the wheel; coming back as a crocodile is a silly thing :-)
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THAT WAS ONE TIME!
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Thron, that's a great idea for how to handle this! Are you cool with me amending my post for this round to use my 1/scene reroll on my missed second attack?
Yes.
Lurking. After working from 7PM to 11AM. Come join me in my delirium.
LEVEL UP!
Woot! Lil Zoli is 9th level. Papa Tanitus would be so proud!
fcb: +1 HP
feat: iron will
bonus feat: combat reflexes
Updated in profile.
Level 9:
Gained Clustered Shots, move 60' now and can AOO with my bow (but only within 5').
Edit:
(-_________________________________-)*
I just realized that I've been playing without the bonuses from ANY of my magic items except my bow. I apparently never added them into hero lab when I switched Eugeni over to that. -mutter mutter- Guess I'm not done editing my profile yet.
Actually up to date with my actual real stats now. Damn have I been playing on hard mode comparing to what I should have been. Should be all in line now.
Also, reminder to self:You can jump like 15' straight up on a roll of a 1 with a ki point. Maximum ups should be 24' vertical leap if you roll a 20. Long jump is much farther. Jump more.
Sorry for the stat goof up guys. I can't help but feeling everyone's deaths have been my fault now.
Not quite as bad, but I forgot to level up Olympus last time, so he had a really big jump in power this level.