Géatan, could you walk me through your damage bonuses for that last attack?
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It's in his profile, mostly.
+4 Str (normally +2 but he has his Mutagen active and an adaptive bow), +4 Weapon Training, +5 Enhancement, +4 Greater Weapon Specialization, +2 Sentinel, +1 Prayer, +1 Point-Blank Shot, +8 Deadly Aim = +29
The "for +2" in the profile damage line I assume is "Str +2" using the French abbreviation for Strength.
So, having slept on it I’ve decided on this: the enhancement bonus to damage doesn’t apply because the arrow flew into the antimagic. Because I have no flavor to go on for Symbolic Weapon, I feel that I have to rule it in the same way (it’s supernatural, so the damage bonus wouldn’t apply). The jury’s still out on whether prayer would apply, but that actually proves to be irrelevant to what happens next.
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Damn. I was really hoping to kill her.
Well, I was thinking that if she survived, she'd have killed Sir Hendric on her next 2 turns (assuming that the display with the swords earlier means she has Telekinesis). So I guess this is an okay outcome. Though now we have to deal with Alexayn's contract. I have two ideas there, but first let's see what happens with Ratarion.
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Alexayn ideas in my order of preference:
1) Get Ratarion to send a force to destroy him
2) Offer him a tiny piece of ash and see if he is satisfied with what we are claiming is Nox's head (do this before any Wish to restore the body)
3) Sir Hendric sacrifices himself
4) Ratarion's head (over Sir Hendric's exhausted objections)
It was a contract too rashly entered into and I should have thought about it more.
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That's a good point... I wonder if there is a timeframe in the contract, or how specific it is on the targets.
Sir Hendric can deliver a tiny bit of ash from Nox and say that Nox betrayed Alexayn by siding with Suliji. And he can promise to continue hunting Suliji to eventually deliver her head to Alexayn. What rush can a mummy lord be in?
I really didn't want to fight him (he was entertaining), but maybe we could have refused his contract without a fight? Hmm.
but maybe we could have refused his contract without a fight? Hmm.
You couldn't have.
Sulii: Slow track or no?
Patience, my dear wayang. There’s still scenario left.
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Thanks again Hendrick for putting up with me trying to be clever.
I'm really sorry, Nox.
A great deal of the enjoyment I derive from playing Sir Hendric is from playing somebody honorable. That has never really caused any problems in his PFS career; where there were conflicts, there was usually a creative solution that could work. This arc, and particularly this final decision at the end, was just a bad fit for him.
My other Seeker would have been a much better choice for this arc in terms of capabilities and personality. (Archivist bard filling a lot of holes we had: Spellcraft + Dispel combo, fantastic Knowledge, teleport spells, bardic performance, and more.) While he wouldn't have advocated killing the Patrons, he wouldn't have stood in the party's way either (or provoked Suliji). My PCs who would have supported killing the Patrons are either lower level or Core. (Though playing this Hard Mode in Core... wow, that would be tough.)
Some highlights from when I first ran All for Immortality:
A grenadier alchemist
A mindchemist alchemist
A Life oracle/paladin
A Necroccultist with a 30 Int and stupid high save-or-suck DCs, including Possession
A Necroccultist with a 40-something AC and very high DPR.
A Herald Caller cleric of Sarenrae with Versatile Summon Monster for the Aerial template. His Modus operandi is to summon flying dire tigers with pounce or flying woolly rhinoceroses with trample (one of my characters actually got in the path of those rhinos [plural] and got trampled [I gave my consent because it was a nasty combat that needed to be finished] and my character was dropped to -71 hit points! It took two Breaths of Life to bring him back up! An unforgettable moment in gaming and the two of us have a great laugh over it.) Did I forget to mention that he also bought a Robe of Gates?
”What is taking you idiots so...Where’d you go?”
The biggest thing with this combat was that Kaarim got blinded by a Blinding Bomb from one of the alchemists and I was gobsmacked—he couldn’t Heal because he couldn’t read the scroll of it, and he couldn’t dispel it because it was alchemical, not magical. He could flat-out do nothing until Saabira died and he got an auto-Heal.
Me: Well, there goes half of its tactics...
Gotta say, though, the fight was entertainingly frustrating! The herald caller’s player had printed off handouts for the other players to roll for his dire tigers to make things go quicker (which was actually very thoughtful), as soon as he summoned maximum flying dire tigers (“I spent 60 grand on this robe, might as well use it”) he gave out the handouts for everyone to roll simultaneously.
Me: ”Trust me here. You! Roll for the tiger.”
Player: ”Uh...bite: miss. The Claw hits for X damage.”
Me: ”You hit it—it splits...”
Cleric:
The cleric then summoned a stampede of flying woolly rhinos to trample over the ooze, but boing it did nothing! They ultimately won, but it felt good to invalidate that really cheesy character.
Necroccultists: Dimension Door
Me: Alright, she’s alive, what do you ask her?
Caster Necroccultist: Mind Probe
Me: ...What?
Caster Necroccultist: Mind Probe. I cast Mind Probe
Me: S-She’s willing to tell you things already!
Combat Necroccultist: The paladin isn’t here to stop us.
They found out about Alexayn before he did them (occultist shenanigans) and decided to send the caster Necroccultist in invisible to cast command undead. Alexayn didn’t make surprise round, but he saved because of his pride, then Initiative was rolled and the Necroccultist beat him in Initiative and tried to command him again. Alexayn would’ve failed the second one if he hadn’t used Charmed Life (he technically has Improved Uncanny Dodge so he wasn’t flat-footed and could take immediate actions). From there he just turned on the Alexayn charm.
They likewise allied with Alexayn They mostly forgot their deal with Alexayn, but managed to “pin” the whole raid on the mummy.
Let me get one thing straight: Khayn is a pushover. He only has 140 hp, which is nothing at this level. But what he lacks in health he makes up for in gear and strength in numbers.
I can’t remember exactly how, but I think someone cast monstrous physique on the combat Necroccultist because he was either Large or Huge.
Khayn charged the caster Necroccultist and managed to sunder their headband and armor before he went down.
The nemhains (the real threats) focus-fired the combat Necroccultist and actually managed to knock him down.
The cleric summoned flying dire tigers to control the battle, and had the angel cast antimagic field and went right next to the nemhains (I ruled that, since Incorporeal is extraordinary and nothing said otherwise, that the nemhains’ incorporeal touch attacks were also extraordinary).
I actually had one of Khayn’s wishes to be a Persistent control winds five feet above the ground and pointed toward the ground to hinder ranged fighters and fliers.
They went inside and something happened that honestly makes me ashamed of my actions. Suliji started to talk, but the combat Necroccultist interrupted saying that he doesn’t care and advances on her. I started panicking because that’s not what the scenario intended and I was horrible at on-the-spot GMing. The combat Necroccultist said that he’d only be willing to listen to her if she She disarmed herself, took off her armor and magic items, and let the party tie her up. To me that was completely ridiculous, and I tried to turn it back on him by asking him to do it first—I can’t remember exactly what he said but it was either something that invalidated my argument or make me just feel more contempt at the player for saying something hypocritical. He said that he charges Suliji, and I—in the heat of the moment and the anxiety getting to me (especially since we only had 10 minutes before the gaming store closed)—did what is quite possibly one of the most disrespectful things that a GM can do: I took away his agency as a player by saying that he can’t.
He said that she had to the count of 3 before he attacked, and that’s when a stupidly obvious thing came to mind.
Suliji:
That shut everyone up.
They listened to Suliji’s spiel and when she came to the part about killing the Patrons, the Sarenite, grasping at straws to make good of a bad situation, had a very good in-character exchange with Suliji:
Cleric: ”Okay, yeah, we can kill them and bring them back to Absalom where we’ll lock them up and resurrect them—“
Suliji: “No. Kill them permanently.”
In the end they ended up siding with Suliji.
Combat Necroccultist (after the Decemvirate member finishes speaking): ”And with that I take my axe to the Decemvirate’s head, thus committing an evil act, and am kicked out of the Society, because I am never playing this character ever again!”
I was just so flabbergasted at what happened that I didn’t even know what to say (spoiler alert: he actually did end up playing that character again).
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Ahh, so the Mind Blank is why Nox couldn't see her with the Gloves of Reconnaissance - although the swirling winds could have been visible, maybe. It would also foil See Invisibility, although not Invisibility Purge or Echolocation or Dust of Appearance.
Your other party sounds dangerous and rather ruthless. Did the first necroccultist manage to Possess anybody? Might have been a good trick to try on Mr. Khayn. Or the ooze. Possession is not mind-affecting, and lots of things with immunity to mind-affecting rely on that immunity rather than a good Will save.
And the joy of bypassing nasty challenges with Gust of Wind... Sir Hendric actually had a couple of scrolls of that spell but was doing okay with his Echolocation. Still, this arc really did try hard to make Martial/Caster disparity even worse. It was much worse than Eyes of the Ten in that regard. The only way martials can keep up is to buy exactly the right magical gear, and so I have a few more suggestions for the list: Void Dust and Dust of Appearance. That Mind Blank/Greater Invisibility combo is nasty. And Wall of Force is such a pain to deal with.
I don't think we'd have been better off if we just had "an arcane caster" per se. We'd have been better off if we had an arcane (or divine) caster with the right spells for every obstacle, so more likely a wizard than a sorcerer.
Yeah, I was worried about AMF not fully blocking the Nemhains' abilities, which is why it wasn't my first tactic when I saw them. AMF made incorporeals wink out in 3.5, but not in PF. Unfortunate change.
@Géatan, Magus is also Medium BAB and does DPS. I'm not surprised a combat necroccultist could do the same.
He never got to possess the ooze; though I REALLY wanted him to and have it split (use telekinesis to chuck the "dead" body into the acid)
@Hendric: I don't see why not.
@Nox:Echolocation. When you were talking about Dampen Presence I tried SO hard to crush that dream (within the confines of the rules, of course) specifically because Suliji had that. Although, her Perception was actually up there (you would've had to roll bad and her roll well)
Also, I’m not sure how many of you guys caught on, but I added Xavier Kahlvet (my -1 character) in Part 1 because he actually oversaw the construction of a lodge in Pashow (spent the prestige for it and everything). Just a slight touch of my own characters. For any curious, these are the guy’s stats. He has a Perception that consistently rivals Nox’s stealth, hence how he saw Nox in Part 1.
Oh yeah, forgot about this. Inhales
There. With my internal screaming turned to external, I can finally relax. And by "relax" I mean run Eyes of the Ten for some of my friends.
EDIT: Also, I would like to say that when most people start GMing for PbP, they usually start with Confirmation. To them I say "HA! I DID ALL FOR IMMORTALITY!!!"
EDIT 2: Just realized that I wrote that Sulii's faction was the Concordance on his chronicle; I was mistaking him for Obsidian (another of Saashaa's characters). My bad. Not a big enough deal to completely rewrite the chronicle, though.
I would like for all 24 of my boxes to be used in contribution to the rejuvenation of Nox. If possible, I'd also like to spend 12 PP (the rest of the cost) out of Suli's prestige.
You can’t use your actual prestige—that is solely for yourself—but your debt to the Patrons is fair game.
I would also like to mention that removing a negative level from raise dead isn’t able to be done with that boon because it wasn’t directly inflicted to your character by an Aspis agent.
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Alright, Just to make sure I'm understanding. We said that I could get my body back, which means I just need a raise dead? Or do I need a resurrection on my vacuum cleaner dust? I'll happily pay the 4 prestige myself for the negative levels. Just need to know if Sulii has some boxes left or if Hendric has to chip in to rez me.
A) you may only contribute boxes to one another, not actual prestige since that is, by definition, only to be used by players for themselves (the boxes are an exception)
B) the party was able to recover Nox’s “body,” which is currently a pile of ash, so he still needs resurrection but doesn’t need a body recovery.
C) Nox, I know that you expressed interest in running this series so I emailed you a .zip file with all the needed images that I used for this series; I got an email saying that you requested access (since it had to be sent as a Google Drive file since it was too big)—I’ll give you access, but I can’t do it currently because I’m only on my phone. If anyone else would like my accumulated images for this series then please let me know and I’ll send them to you.
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Also, Nox, Resurrection only gives you one negative level, unlike Raise Dead which gives two. So that's less of your own prestige you have to spend on Restoration.
Let me know how many boxes I need to check off for Nox. I guess I'll use 2 of the boxes for myself a Restoration on the Con drain from the Nemhains.
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The nemhains were actually once Aspis who willingly succumbed to undeath to protect the Aspis Building, so that does work.
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Well that is highly inconvenient...In that case, unless others are opposed, I'll just cover the entire process with a lump of money. It is somewhere around 11-12 thousand if my math approximation is correct. This levels Suli to 16, which is when a chronicle of the final book of Strange Aeons that I applied to him will come into play. So, 11-12 k is a fairly small amount considering. And, he'll be level 17 so I don't even know the next time I'll be playing him.
All that said, in-game his money does come from a Chelaxian noble as Suli is in fact a slave to a one Lady Jasmine Henderthane.
Well, you would have to resolve the condition prior to those held Chronicles being applied to Sulii.
Well, you would have to resolve the condition prior to that Strange Aeons Chronicle being applied to Sulii.
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You guys do realize that those boxes apply to ANY of your PCs, right?
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It has not been very often that I have needed to expend Prestige to rectify conditions. And never (until now) due to Aspis agents' actions.
So these boxes are a very limited utility resource (unlike gold). This is pretty much the ideal situation to use the boxes. I would happily donate more if needed but I think between Suli and I we have given all that we can.
If no one has anything else to say then I’m going to mark this campaign as inactive later today.