I myself have been traveling as well and couldn't post due to the obvious board issues.
Will be able to post normally again at the very least on Friday. Maybe Thursday but don't want to promise that.
Sorry for any hassle.
I mean, basically none of my games have advanced at all in the last week/week and a half, so you picked a good time to go traveling, Morthos.
Indeed. I was away as well. In fact, I was trying again and again to post when all the site problems started to actually notify yoyu guys of my absence. I managed to succeed at some point, but even so, it actually mattered little in the end.
Okay. Fingers crossed the boards are now back up. I am also back from vacation and have a lot of email to get caught up on, but I'm going to get everything updated in the next day or two.
Also, I did receive a very nice PM from Ordy's player and he has decided to withdraw. So, that's him and Asturu, which is unfortunate but I think will actually leave us with a slightly more manageable party. I'm fine with leaving the number as is but let me know if you feel differently.
Finally, if you haven't already, please "dot" in here so I know you're back online after Paizo.com's outage. Thanks!!!
I think the smaller party should be fine. If we do have trouble (which seems unlikely considering our luck so far), we can always recruit then, but level 5 and up, from what it seems, is where a lot of our builds start to 'come into their own,' as it were.
Yes, still here of course. The Paizo forum thingy was -but hopefully no longer is- quite troublesome though.
I do not mind keeping our number as is, but neither do I have a problem with recruiting if needed or desired. I am after all a new recruit so to speak.
On the matter of party skills with Ordywyt and Asturu gone, I will be posting two slightly different versions of Raven in the coming days. One will be a Rogue (Unchained) 2/Monk (Unchained, Perfect Scholar) 3 and will be the Trapfinding version in case Javell keeps Morthos as is; the other will be a Rogue (Unchained, Consigliere) 2/Monk (Unchained, Perfect Scholar) 3 without Trapfinding in case Javell does go with a rebuild. In any case, once Raven dies and rises as a fledgling vampire he will have been rebuilt as one of these two versions.
I'm here and ready to go again.
On the matter of party skills with Ordywyt and Asturu gone, I will be posting two slightly different versions of Raven in the coming days. One will be a Rogue (Unchained) 2/Monk (Unchained, Perfect Scholar) 3 and will be the Trapfinding version in case Javell keeps Morthos as is; the other will be a Rogue (Unchained, Consigliere) 2/Monk (Unchained, Perfect Scholar) 3 without Trapfinding in case Javell does go with a rebuild. In any case, once Raven dies and rises as a fledgling vampire he will have been rebuilt as one of these two versions.
You really going to rebuild him? Are you sure? If you're sure, then I'll just keep rolling with Morthos as he is.
Because I can't really rebuild Morthos. It would have to be a whole new dude. I just can't see Morthos being anything other than an Antipaladin. It's very difficult for me to switch up classes on pc's I run. Mainly because I can't 'see' them as being such.
Well, unless you're talking about going from cavalier to paladin or vice versa or something to that nature. If it's similar in that regard I can swing it but this would be just way too weird for me.
Sorry, this site is killing me. Shortly after I posted that, it was down again and I just stopped checking over the weekend. Updating now.
With the boards down and then Labor day I've been out but I'm back now
Ditto. I think we are all kind of thrown off. I wouldn’t be surprised if some campaigns fold after all that.
Most of mine seem to have survived. But then again, I have one of two extremes in my campaigns: super active (and thus had people posting in them even during the outage in rare moments of stability) or incredibly slow (and thus I wouldn't notice if they stopped for quite a while). So, who knows?
I totally love it! I hate for you to burn a spell like that, Affyria, but I couldn't resist playing it out. It was just too good to pass up. Morthos can now only be healed by negative energy.
This is actually the very first thing he can do as part of his archetype(Knight of Sep.). So I kind of want him to go through a 'learn as he goes' type thing.
Oh damn, well good thing I didn't do a cure moderate then :D
Time to get a wand of Infernal Healing, I guess.
Affyria, are you able to spontaneously convert spells to Inflict spells, or does your archetype trade that out? We now have two characters who heal with negative energy after all.
Yeah I do have that ability. Also my channel ability will heal them also since it doesn't qualify as positive energy.
Oh damn, well good thing I didn't do a cure moderate then :D
Lol! Oh man that would've been hilarious. And a lot more painful. :P
Yeah your channel ability is perfect. Heals only 'Evil' alignment. Man that's greatness.
Morthos can also heal himself as far as that goes so that'll help.
Daidalos tells his servant as it materializes, pointing at the fallen paladin. As the daemon goes about its work crystallizing his immortal essence, Daidalos finally gets a chance to look at the wand he captured and study it for magic.
Hoh! Are you serious?! Man that is big time horror flick creepy. Tripping me out with that one. :)
Cacodaemons: perfect for all your soul-trafficking needs!
The site may be working again but I think their dice roller is broke now.
Four 1s in a row...!
Is this because it has been a while since the last time Raevanis sacrificed a platypus to the Dice Gods?
Edit: Make that five with Timo's rolls...
And that makes 5 .... at least my haste attack wasn't a 1
What about those items we found? Should we divvy those up? Shot in the dark but I'd wager they're probably all magical. I know that's unheard of in your typical adventure, but hey, you just never know. ;P
I ID’d them for Daid in a spoiler box. Give the diabolist a nudge or he’ll keep them all for himself. ;-)
Who, me?
*whistles innocently*
Have you decided how to divvy up the loot?
Do you need time to come up with a plan moving forward?
I don't want to push but I also want to make sure I'm doing what I can to keep things from stagnating.
I think that we'll divide the monetary loot up once it actually matters, and keep the potions and whatnot in their nebulous 'for anyone' state for now.
I'll take the wand and scroll as I'm the only one who can really use them, I guess Timo is taking the armor, Morthos is taking the headband, and then Raven can have the longsword (until he dies, at least)? We haven't officially ID'd it yet, but I'd be surprised if the cloak wasn't one of resistance for whoever still doesn't have one, i.e. Affyria.
The cauldron of brewing, in the unlikely event we keep it, won't do us any good for now so we can lump that in with our 'sell' pile, I suppose.
Also, just a heads-up...
I am going to be traveling for a conference Sunday through Wednesday evening. I will try to keep up with the posts but will likely not have ready access to the PDFs I need to run combats and navigate around the Watch Tower, so please bear with me during that time.
I think that we'll divide the monetary loot up once it actually matters, and keep the potions and whatnot in their nebulous 'for anyone' state for now.
I'll take the wand and scroll as I'm the only one who can really use them, I guess Timo is taking the armor, Morthos is taking the headband, and then Raven can have the longsword (until he dies, at least)? We haven't officially ID'd it yet, but I'd be surprised if the cloak wasn't one of resistance for whoever still doesn't have one, i.e. Affyria.
The cauldron of brewing, in the unlikely event we keep it, won't do us any good for now so we can lump that in with our 'sell' pile, I suppose.
This all works for me.
Once again, my apologies for the delay. I've had to do some digging in rules and 3PP supplements to figure out how I want to handle this and a combination of this conference with continuing work demands has made that difficult. ANYWAY... Map has been updated.
Going to be using a mob template to resolve this, kind of like a swarm but for larger creatures. I'll try to have a post up this evening (provided my boss doesn't drag me out and make me get drunk again).
Tiny female progeny is going through her first cold these days resulting in fussiness and sleep deprivation aplenty. Posting will be hit or miss -probably more the latter than the former- due to severe lack of energy. Please DMPC as needed for the next couple of days if I seem to be taking too long.
Will do. We have a three year old so I’m very familiar and the memories are fresh. Hang in there and I hope she feels better soon.
I have my first coming in January.
Good luck! (You'll need it.) ;)
Two-year old with a cold here as well, and both me and my partner took it over from her. :)
For me, simply being an undergrad Physics major is enough to keep me busy.
GM, is there any way for us to tell if we've weakened the tower enough to send off the signal, or how close we are?
Daidalos, I think I answered your question in the Gameplay thread but let me know if not.
Everyone, I will write something with Kiffex's scouting report this afternoon. Given that you are resting (and absent any surprises), you'll be going at the gatehouse with your full resources. Provided you come up with a tactic for gaining access that works, the outcome will be a nearly forgone conclusion. So, here is my question. Would you rather:
1. Have me resolve the downfall of Balentyne in narrative format, or
2. Go through the final combats with a series of rolls and movement through the gatehouse, clearing the last of the defenders?
Yeah, that answered my question, thanks. I’m guessing clearing out the gatehouse would make the battle easier on the bugbears?
As for resolving the combat, well, I think you write some pretty great narrative stuff, and that would be a lot faster (and less likely to go horribly wrong) than actually playing out the conclusion. So that’s my vote.
So, either way we should figure out a plan of attack, probably. Hmmmm....
Okay, so it looks like I can also prep spells from the Magister's spellbook with a DC 15+spell level Spellcraft check (assuming I've deciphered the spell, but that's easy with a point from my Arcane Reservoir, switching out a single cantrip for read magic). Considering I have a +15 Spellcraft bonus, I just need to avoid rolling lower than the spell level and I can prep it. Just to get the rolls out of the way for while I'm strategizing....
I would have to agree with going with Narrative format as well. I think that's a good idea.
I can probably use stone shape to provide us with a way in without little trouble.
So the current tasks to be completed seems to be:
-Burn the arrow supplies
-Wipe out the remaining defenders
-Sabotage the siege engine(s)
-Lower the drawbridge/open the gate
Reality warping spells for the win.
K. Try to figure out a rough plan today, and then tonight or tomorrow I'll post a write-up. May not go exactly according to plan, but I think we should wrap up this scene/event and move along.
I have this really messed up picture in my head of this army of orcs crashing the castle to find it completely empty except for us sitting around a table playing cards
And here I was, thinking of a complicated way where I could turn our frontliners invisible and giving them flight, having them sneak in, then teleport (Dimensional Slide for the win!) and coming up with a way to force the door open....
Or we just take the door out of the equation. That works too.
Also, Timo, I love that image. "Oh hey, what took you so long?"
Okay, I think what's been discussed and decided are roughly:
Decided
* Stone Shape to open the door/wall on the upper bridge
* Kill them all
* destroy the arrows and siege equipment
* raise portcullis/lower drawbridge
Discussed
* Use siege engine at the keep to attack the gatehouse
Implied
* To use stoneshape on the door/wall to create an opening, some or all of you will be making use of the opening and going into the gatehouse's interior
Questions
* Any other spells you're planning to use?
* Any use of expendable resources you're willing to put into the mix (e.g., the wand of fireballs)?
* Are you going to keep a couple folks in reserve to use the siege engine on the keep, or is everyone going in through the breach created by Stone Shape?
I'm going to aim to write something on this today so I will go with the above as best I can with some license unless I hear otherwise. :-) I promise it won't hurt. Signed, Asmodeus.
I think Daidalos would be best served staying out from the breach some- I don't think the siege engine would be a good idea when everyone is in the gatehouse. While I'd prefer to save the Wand, I could use a charge or two from it. That said, I can also prep Fireball myself and use Potent Magic to make it a 7d6 damage-dealer. I wouldn't have any castings of Fly, though.
But I think Daidalos would probably Fireball the interior to Dis, Web up the survivors, Enlarge Timo, and use Magic Missile to finish off any survivors. I also have a few Glitterdusts and and Pyrotechnics SLA to top it all off.
Long story short? If we're brute-forcing, I just got a ton of fancy new blast spells from that spellbook. The wand is probably redundant.
If they have the bridge covered with arrow fire I can get us there under cover of darkness. I don't know if we all have darkvision, but I can drop the spell once it's not needed anymore.
Another thing I would like to do is to use some summon monster II and III spells to summon a few hell hounds and send them through the gap first. They have a breath weapon so they're pretty good against regular soldiers.
I agree that the siege engine is probably overkill. We don't want to risk damaging the bridge, which would pose problems for the bugbear horde.
Also, unrelated, but I just came across this gem of a spell: flesh puppet.
Sounds good to me
Thus concludes (or nearly enough) Book 1 of Way of the Wicked. The level-ups are coming quick but I think it's because I was a little slow getting you to level 5. Nonetheless.... DING! You will reach level 6 after your next rest. Go ahead and start planning for it.
Without dropping too many spoilers, the next book has you essentially building your own dungeon, populating it with monsters, and repelling attacks from would-be do-gooders. It has a bit of a Dungeon Keeper vibe to it.
So, like the assault on Balentyne, it can be a bit sand-boxy as you decide what kind of defenses to deploy, where and how. I think one of the things that happened with Balentyne, in addition to my crazy scheduling leading to erratic updates, is the sand-box nature of the infiltration left us in a bit of analysis paralysis and forward momentum got a little herky-jerky. I'm normally hesitant to foist decisions on the party and tend to try to figure out what the consensus is, but that can take time that slows things down and affects play.
If you have any suggestions on how to speed up that process, please share here so we can discuss. I'll give it some thought myself, too.