Way of the Wicked - The fall of Andoran, Chapter II (Inactive)

Game Master increddibelly

Both bowmen at P shout in horror as Talon cuts their beloved cleric in two.
"By the light! Avenge her!"
"You will Dieee for this!"

The archers fire their bows as best they can.

full round, manyshot, good hope +2
#1
atk: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20 dmg: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
atk: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25 dmg: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
atk: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17 dmg: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11
#2
atk: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19 dmg: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
atk: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18 dmg: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
atk: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23 dmg: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
Talon manages to dodge three of the arrows, but he catch the other three in his arms.

The warrior at Q steps behind Talon and makes one powerful slash at a vital area - cuttin deep at the base of his wings.
good hope +2. vital strike
atk: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (6) + 15 = 21dmg: 2d8 + 8 ⇒ (2, 5) + 8 = 15

29 + 15 = 44 damage. Are you dead yet?

The fighters near Artephius busy themselves with the alchemy golem and score a critical hit, cracking the glass of one of his reservoirs.
Artephius remains mechanically dispassionate, but his emotionless error messages are an indication of his peril. "pressure drop detected in container #2. Emergency protocols initiated."

Just a reminder, we need to take at one of them alive so we can ascertain how they're getting here.

Cole continues his assault focusing on the knight that just stabbed Talon in the back.

Attack Many Shot: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (19) + 21 = 40
Damage: 1d6 + 12 + 1d6 + 12 ⇒ (3) + 12 + (1) + 12 = 28

Attack Many Shot Confirmation: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (1) + 21 = 22
Damage: 2d6 + 24 ⇒ (1, 3) + 24 = 28

Rapid Shot Attack: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (4) + 21 = 25
Damage: 1d6 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18

Haste Attack: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (3) + 21 = 24
Damage: 1d6 + 12 ⇒ (1) + 12 = 13

Attack 2: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35
Damage: 1d6 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Attack 2 Confirmation: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (19) + 21 = 40
Damage: 2d6 + 24 ⇒ (4, 2) + 24 = 30

Cole delivers 5 arrows into the knights side. 103 total damage

Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (11) + 20 = 31

There is someone behind the curtain. Artephius bomb the curtain.

Cole takes a 5' step forward.

new map is up

Artephius responds to Cole's voice commands. "Message received. Command published to Queue."
...Whatever that means.

Sindran takes another step towards the wall, both to get a better view on the bowman on the northern part of the room and for a better defense against whoever could be behind the curtain.

The half-orc chants a spell, the temperature rapidly increasing as a globe of fire appears over the bowman, threatening to inflict severe burns if he doesn't get out of the way.

Cast Flaming Sphere, DC 20 reflex negates. If victim fails saving throw:
Damage (fire): 3d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 4) = 9
Rounds on Fire (2 fire damage at beginning of victim's turn): 1d4 ⇒ 2

The chain of force which tripped the guard that attacked Sindran winds its length around the man, dragging him away from the half-orc and closer towards Talon and the melee.

Drag: 1d20 + 9 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 9 + 8 = 32

The chained warrior writhes about in fear, as he finds himself unable to withstand the terrible chain's patient force. SE corner of R4!

Isn't it always the same with these guys? Nobody Ever Looks Up!
reflex save vs dc20: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15
The archer burns.

Artephius <---
Caladwhen
Vexor
Grumblejack

"Commands.First().Execute()"
Artephius seems to be ignoring the fighters by his side for now. With much buzzing and whizzing of gears, he aims his arm cannon toward the curtain Cole indicated.

With a satisfying *Whoomp* sound, Artephius sends a small cannister spinning from his cannon - dangerously close to where Caladwhen is flying. The small container hits the thick curtain, sliding gently to the floor where it tumbles three times before bursting into a big cloud of intense, freezing cold.

ranged bomb atk: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27
energy type: 1d4 ⇒ 2 acid, cold, electricity, fire
energy damage: 8d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 5, 1, 6, 1, 2, 2) = 24

total concealment miss chance, DC50: 1d100 ⇒ 13
well, it's cold right there, but unfortunately that's not where the voice came from :-/

Crap was wishing for fire or acid to take the curtain out. Would it be crazy to think the cold froze the curtain and it can be shattered now with an arrow? I know things like this are not realy in the rules so your call. Thanks.

Uhh... okay, didn't realize that anybody could give the thing commands?

Alarmed at the sudden turn of Arthepius against them, Caladwhen looks north following the voice. Somebody knows how to command Arthepius. Calling out to her summoned demon, Caladwhen speaks abyssal in a commanding voice "Vehar zeith, azan!"

Babau attack with Longspear: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26
Longspear Damage: 1d8 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

Seeing how Talon is no longer in any danger, the Babau move to R3 north and attack the unknown figure while removing the concealment. The moment Caladwhen can see it, she'll cast Suffocation Will DC 25 on the target, whoever it is.

Also, if Caladwhen can, she'll move out of the crazy area to somewhere less hectic... probably T3 (but still near the ceiling), and try to retake control of Arthepius. Is that an opposed roll or something IB?

It's OK Cala:

There is someone behind the curtain. Artephius bomb the curtain.

There's not a lot of controlling to do. Artephius' software is doing that. Let's hope there aren't any bugs, mkay? ^_^

It's OK Cala:

Cole Adams wrote:

There is someone behind the curtain. Artephius bomb the curtain.

Duh... don't know how I missed/forgot about that. Oh well, still sending the Babau after whatever is in there.

"Welcome to my pleasure barge!"

dotting

*snrk*

lol, just say this thread and couldn't resist.
Errhm, that's probably not what they meant.

Hehehe. Well, it may not be what they meant, but it's what they said, innit?

If nobody wants Havelyn's plate armor, Aerent would definitely be interested. He'll toss his current armor (mw full plate) in the pile to offset the treasure price.

IMHO it'd be odd if anyone else put that on. check out dastard and I'm sure you'll agree ;) Although Aerent, it'll probably take a while until something nice drops specifically for you.

Unholy information overload, batman.

If I wasn't such a diligent reader I would have been lost. Thanks for the summary DM

You lot have the benefit of being the second group...I'm extra careful around the stuff that didn't 'work' very well with the tabletop party. However, if we continue on at this rate, (and there's no reason we shouldn't) before next year you'll overtake the tabletoppers, and you may lose that benefit :)

Hey folks, just letting you know I'll be away and unable to post until Sunday evening. Feel free to bot my move to keep things moving.

We have three nice candidates for our rogue vacancy. I'll have to come up with a poll at some point, but that means work, so it can wait. There will soon be plenty of things to do before you'll need any backstabbery done anyway ;)

you now have 24 hours to stroll through Farholde. Kindly give me a hint as to what you'd look for first and I'll paint the scenery for you. That's probably better than dumping the entire Lonely Planet of Farholde on you all at once, and it makes more sense too: if you were to stroll into an unknown city, you'd discover it suburb by suburb.

Also: please setup your disguises while you're on the barge, so that it makes sense that everyone recognizes eachother when you meet in town?

there are many leads you could follow up on.
I'd like to reduce the information overload into something manageable. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to be the short-term todo list in a sensible chronological order:
- go shopping
- gather information on Baron
- dinner with possible ally and/or possible enemy Baron Arkov Vandermir
- find place to sleep
- sleep
- find out location of Horn of Abaddon
- meet with 7th knot as they arrive on the docks
- sleep, look for Horn, move party to Horn or repeat

I don't mean to push or railroad you; this general outline is what your characters would easily put together, even though it may not be evident to you the players, since I dumped a ton of information on you in the past two days.

If you have any questions, I'll be here. Watching...

Sorry I've been quiet, have had trouble accessing the site for a few days. Will get a post up ASAP.

The black market, aside from being pretty a cool feature to tie into a character's background, simply exists to provide a storywise sensible way for you to have access to the absolutely appalling enchantments I'm sure you will come up with - the stuff that's not available in any decent society. Cheliax, however...

Bianca's rates are 80% of normal. Mechanically, I'd like this discount to compensate for the 20%-ish extra you pay on the black market via Sindran's contact.

I suggest you don't overuse Bianca's generous heart, or pretty miss deVallya may just break a nail (or suffer an equally invalidating accident) and be unable to perform for a while.

Cheliax would say it's not available in any decent society because it's available in better, greater societies.

And huzzah!

I'll assume we'll have divvied up the 5000 gp we got.

Well. Considering I have 1406 gp, this leaves me with exactly 1 gp. I suppose I'll be sleeping on the streets!

Just throwing it out there - but some of you have picked up loot that could be considered worth a (partial) share. That might give Sindran some pocket money so he doesn't have to live like a bum.
Also, I'd love to see a consolidated loot list - does anyone feel like googledoccing one?

I can be a pretty good book keeper if asked, however I'd need an updated list for right now. After that I'm very sufficient in keeping a list

I'm kind of swamped at the moment, but if there isn't a document by the weekend, I can probably provide it.

Sorry, I'm not making a list, I don't like that type of work. Instead, I'm happy to pretend that we've already made that list and found out that all the junk on the list can be sold for a total of 1500 gold.
And from now on, we *will* keep track, in a cloud document somewhere.

Now, to dinner.
we can make this as elaborate as we want, but it may suck the pace right out of the game as we wait for everyone to contribute. Then again, it's a dramatic moment. Perhaps a little drama is just what we need right now.

Everyone should make an attempt to convince the Baron to help your cause. Please make a little speech, and roll a skill check that you feel is appropriate to the story you've presented.
Or - if you don't have the time or simply don't feel like writing speeches, it'd be just as much fun for everyone if you'd simply state which topics you would address if you were making a speech.
That would take significantly less time, but add just as much to the story.
for instance, perhaps you'd play on his vanity? what would you compliment him on? perhaps threaten him? perhaps a staring contest with the guards?

All I'm asking is that you get creative. Surprise us all. Tell your own part and add a roll.
After this dinner, we'll be working hard on the task before you, so this is probably the last opportunity to do a little storytelling if you feel like it.

Oh - and before I forget.

1500 gold hurrah! With loot possibly offloaded to traders or smugglers to hide where it came from (thereby ingratiating Grima into their good graces by supplying the smugglers with something to smuggle, etc.)

Diplomacy is my thing because Sindran is really meant to be a social character, so I'll be acting my bit out.

And level 6! Most Excellent. Will get to that tomorrow or thensuch. Should we use level 6 stats for skill checks during the Baron encounter?

Hooray, level 6.

Following up with a bunch of flattery and specific questions. Since Thorn wasn't sure how the Baron can help us, figured Aerent would just toss everything out and see what sticks.

Toughest obstacle may be keeping Sindran from burning the place down. ;)

So, loot. I'm going to let everybody keep track of their own 1k cut of the large payment. I'm going to have this 1500 gold as "party funds". Are there any miscellaneous items that I should be keeping track of right now?

My apologies for the radio silence, weekends are tough to get detailed posts written. In any event, I'll be posting at length for the dinner later this evening.

Also, level 6! Woot!

IB, does Caladwhen have suitable time to actually make some magic items? I'd like very much get the best bang for the buck, and make a few items using the Craft Wonderous Items feat? We have 1,000g from the last payment correct?

Man Talon's getting scary. Wait till next level, he gets medium armor lol.

I've never taken a magus to this level before, and the magus arcana are a little overwhelming to me. Can I get some opinions? I'm stuck between arcane accuracy and empowered magic I think (although looking at this makes me want to invest in a rod of silent metamagic once I have 3k to my name)

I would say 'empowered spell' just for the opportunity for dramatic moments. And, let's be honest, your spells HURT. If you get a high-damaging one that connects, pchooooo! Plus, free empowered spell per day! That's like two spell slots, which you can put it on any spell you want.

On the other hand, arcane accuracy is a safer bet that'll give you a better chance to connect when you need it. It does however use up your arcane pool, so you'll have to be thrifty with your pool when taking this, but you'll be able to use it a lot more times.

...I still say empowered spell for the overkill factor.

I like the Empower Magic feat personally, but I'm looking at it through the eyes of a spellcaster... an empowered shocking grasp attack like you just gave that Thug would be pretty impressive though.

...I still say empowered spell for the overkill factor.

Exactly, well put.

Overkill and more drama, I'm sold.

So I was reading the magus rules, and I just got terrified. If you take magus arcanas to get empowered and maximized, and pick up the magical lineage for shocking grasp, you can get the normal 5d6 shocking grasp to be an empowered, maximized 10d6. oh but it gets better, with a keen scimitar that crits on a 15. so in a single hit you can do 180 damage...plus weapon damage. I mean its only once a day...but wtf? How many things have 200 hp at lv 10?

That's pretty impressive... question though, and I don't know Magus well, but does the electrical damage also double on a critical hit?

Yes, you can crit with any spell that takes an attack roll (so no fireballs), and it even specifies under the magus rules that the spells cast through your weapon use your weapons crit range (although not the modifier)

I'm fine with whatever min-maxing anyone can come up with, as long as you can make it work in the story.
You mentioned overkill and drama, that sounds like something your sword would agree to do; great fun. But a magical lineage sounds like something you cannot just buy in the store. It'll have to be earned, like your wings earlier - which, I'm very happy to admit, you're not abusing. Thanks for that :)

I'm a little worried that this ability has the potential to end 'boss fights' far too quickly, which wouldn't be fun for the others.

That said - Cala, Oret, if you'd have to guess, what would be your highest damage roll around level 10? give or take?

Oh no, I was just saying under the magus rules there's a possibility of it happening. I don't intend to powergame that much at all. This is my first time playing a magus, and I'm just rather awed by their combat prowess. Actually, I might pick up some more versatility arcanas, like ghost blade and such.

Aha! I was wrong! Thank god. In order to apply the metamagic from his magus arcana, a magus must spend a SWIFT ACTION. THE ONCE A TURN MOVE. So you are NOT allowed to stack them up.

Whew. Makes me feel a lot better.

Thanks for investigating, Talon :) I think that's a good call from paizo.

Do we need to officially take the Leadership feat if we want it, or do we get some basic cohorts even without it?

This AP deals with leadership in the most elegant and easy-on-the-mind way I've ever seen. In essence, you get to be masterminds of your own criminal organisation. and masterminds set commands, and expect results. They do usually not deal with the lowly thugs.
The goal of these changed rules, is to maximize disinterest in the underlings. Assume they're there. Use them. Push them aside when they get in the way.
This is very good - because micromanaging a million mooks sucks giant meatballs.

Without leadership, there simply is no need for these changes.

Either way, you can assume there's a messaging system in place and if you need something fetched, someone can do that for you simply because that's more fun than doing it yourself. The more disinterest you show in the mooks, the more likely it's going to work. If it has a name, it's a cohort. and that requires leadership ;)

Speaking of level 6, here is my rough work. Not a big level for Wizards, really. Level 7 is where Caladwhen will finally get Animate Dead proper... and then, well, things get fun!

At level 10, Oret will have 9 ki. He'll have 4 attacks with a flurry, at +13/+13/+8/+8, with the ability to spend 1 ki for another attack at +13. Each attack will do 1d10+5 (plus whatever enhancements he picks up - hoping for an amulet of mighty fists), and will be able to overcome magic/cold iron/silver/lawful DR as long as he has ki in his pool.

In addition, he will move at 50', have DR 1/- and full save progression, and will be able to heal himself (for 10 HP) or restore 1 ki when he scores a critical hit or brings someone down to negative HP.

While monk isn't the most powerful class out there, it's not very equipment dependent, and it seems fairly capably even at higher levels.

Cala, just in case you wanted to pick up a different 3rd level spell, haste is on the top of my list next level to pick up. It's more of a combat spell so I figured as the combat caster I'd pick it up, but if you want to keep it go ahead. Just letting you know.

For those looking for another language; the cult of the Headless Horseman lived in the horn last. They dealt with Abaddon, and will probably have left a few writings behind. Perhaps it would be helpful if you could read them?

what's the language?

I'm guessing Abyssal.

Well, we've got the Baron's cooperation. Now we just have to find the Horn of Abaddon. If Tiadora's still around, we can ask her if Elise Zadaria (leader of the 7th knot) has already arrived or when they can be expected.

We're all going about our business to gather information, yes?

Sindran is prowling the streets, going about tradesmen, pirates, and smugglers. He inquires into guides that know Caer Bryr (I read this as Care Bear once, and I don't think I'll forget the name again). Perhaps there's an old smuggling route or map. He'll also visit the orphanage. Now's a good time to brush up on his management and leadership skills.

Talon has the shady part of town with thieves, low-lives and Lord Drownington (who may know things). If there's something bad going down, he'll hear it.

Aerent, Caladwhen, and Oret haven't dedicated themselves to any particular task or location.

Handy reminders:

• Find out where the Horn of Abaddon and its dangers (such as what happened to that hunter guy, Aiden Kael, and what he looks like since apparently we get to give him the burn notice!). It's supposedly less than a day outside of Farholde so it shouldn't be too far.
  
• Research into the seal and how to undo it (can be done when we arrive at the Horn and have the actual seal to inspect, but town has more resources and people to ask)
  
• Figure out what and how to bargain with Vetra-Kali
  

I'm guessing Abyssal.

The player is, but what does Sindran know?

Also, boo for not gaining any hit points :(
It fits your character, though.

Sindran Eithe wrote:

I'm guessing Abyssal.

The player is, but what does Sindran know?

Knowledge the planes check perhaps?

Knowledge the planes check perhaps?

That makes sense. Roll yet? ;)

regarding researching the Caer Bryr and the Horn's location:
It makes more sense to me if I'd allow you to take 20 as you can just all hang around likely sources and / or use the Baron's library to research.

If you disagree with this type of spoiler, let me know; to me, this makes more sense for a PbP game.