GM Hawthwile - Forged in Flame Series (Inactive)

Game Master Hawthwile

Then it is decided.

As Cirri opens the door to the south, she sees two immense staircases sweeping up each side of the entry hall, joining at a second floor twenty feet above. A well-furnished room extends to the west, which contains sofas and chairs upholstered in leather with a metallic sheen. A steel table is set with stone plates, crystalline cutlery, and gold-lined goblets. Doors to the north open onto a narrow terrace, and the portrait of a stern efreeti hangs along the west wall.

Small doors lead to both the north and south, two additional sets of double doors mark entrances on the south side of the estate, and massive bronze doors to the east mark the main entrance.

What do you do?

”Lead the way. You were successful until now. I would propose to go north!“ Crowe says.

Cirri nods and turns invisible. "Okay. North it is."

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Riddlywhipple Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18

+14 Nobility; can't fail

Masayoshi scoffs.

"An entire room to display their wealth? These genies sure are something."

Masayoshi follows Cirri and Crowe's lead to the northern door.

You're entering this room from the northern door. If you would like to move your icon(s) next to a door on the map, perhaps that would help clarify where we will head next.

Masayoshi proceeds to head right out from the way he came.

"B*tch, I know what I said!"

In all seriousness, though, the box-text got everyone confused. I'll just follow where everyone else goes.

"Alright, let's try the southern door."

”Southern door it is, then. Who is leading us in?”

"I'll peek in first, since they can't see me."

Stealth: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11

Then it is decided.

Cirri finds another room with a glass table and high-backed glass chairs. Double doors exit the room to the northeast and southwest.

What do you do?

Fahd moves to the northeast doors. ”Any objections?”

Ninlil, (slightly flickering) pterosaur on her shoulder, steps up the first few stairs to get a view of the doors. Quietly, she says "I'm good."

As Fahd opens the double doors, Snaggletooth easily notices a familiar pane of pale blue air in the doorway. A welcoming pool, likely filled with hot water from the way steam rises off it, lies on the other side.

What do you do?

Hmmm, going to have to check manually for a while. My campaign RSS feeds stopped updating again. Whee~!

Intelligence: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Opening up the check for everyone:

What do you do?

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19
Int!: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

"That's interesting. Another one! They must have some way of getting through these... a stone or charm perhaps? Hey, did we search the bodies?"

"I.... let's go search again, just to be sure!"

Snaggletooth flies back and starts rifling through their fallen foe.

Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (4) + 20 = 24

"Let us go back and search all the rooms also with detect magic! We might have missed something." Crowe says a little concerned.

Are we in a hurry? I think we should check the library and the other adjacent rooms again.

Cirri follows and checks the effreti woman for any charms or keys she may have had.

The only time sensitive factor is my 9 minutes on invisibility.

Examination of the drake's corpse reveals little, but the efreeti carries a masterwork falchion taller than most of the Pathfinders and a large brass key decorated with the same motifs as the doors that open to what appears to be a library or archives to the east and an entrance hall to the southwest.

What do you do?

"Okay, we found a key. Is there a keyhole?" Cirri picks up the key. She eventually goes west up to another room.

"Is this door locked?"

The doors are not locked, but using the key to open them disables the traps.

Cirri opens the double doors to discover a room filled with stacked furniture, piles of random colorful knickknacks, and lavish room decorations.

What do you do?

Cirri peers in.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20
Riddywhipple, do you see anything? She thinks telepathically.

Riddywhipple's Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13
You probably found more than I did. Riddywhipple responds.

With no apparent threats, Cirri casts Detect Magic and then begins looking for any particular items.
Spellcraft: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (5) + 17 = 22

Fahd stands by, menacingly, making sure nothing untowards happens while Cirri looks around the room.

Neither Cirri nor Riddywhipple see anything of value in this storeroom. (Optional encounter that we're skipping.)

Remember your mission objectives...

What do you do?

“There are a few details and addenda, of course. First, the estate in question is Emberhearth, which keeps most of its security on-call and off-site. Unless you relish drowning in armed guards the moment you make a mistake, you’ll need to neutralize them first. Second, the Cinderfurys maintain a pristine set of local records, and I would like you to secure any local security contracts you find in their library. Third, they keep an heirloom known as the Cinderfury gorget, which you should bring to me. Finally, I have plans for the estate; do keep the destruction to a minimum."

"Um, I guess we're done on this room?" Cirri turns around. "We still need to find the Cinderfury gorget, and add more evidence." Cirri grabs some of the evidence and places it here.

"Unless someone has another Dispel Magic spell for that blue room, I think we should head upstairs."

Ninlil asks, "Well, she got past the door somehow. Does the key work? Is there a keyhole or something?"

Each door does indeed have a keyhole. Upon closing the doors to the pool room and turning the key, the cold blue pane dissipates as the doors are re-opened. Beyond them, a deep bath with stepped sides and filled with steaming water occupies most of the room.

What do you do?

”Anyone feel like taking a bath? Looks like this might just be a time waster, unless someone really wants to explore in there.”

Ninlil casts detect magic while Snaggletooth quickly takes a flap around the room and quick-searches Perception, maybe with a penalty for speed?: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (8) + 20 = 28

Not wanting to waste much time here, but we should take a quick look anyway.

The air smells quite mineraly, as if the water were heavily salted. There does not appear to be anything of interest in the room, magical or mundane.

What do you do?

"So, upstairs, then?" Cirri shrugs. "Mineral baths every day must be relaxing, though. But we don't have time."

"Enough idle speculation. Let's go upstairs!"

Ninlil wonders, "Do the efreet enjoy cool baths? It seems like they wouldn't enjoy hot ones, for obvious reasons."

Masayoshi shrugs. "For all you know a boiling bath would be considered 'cool' to them; they do live on the Plane of Fire, after all."

Then it is decided.

As the Pathfinders make their way up the grand staircase (struggling slightly with steps sized for creatures twice their size), they find themselves on a balcony overlooking the ground floor of the building. Two large windows give notable views of both the front and back of the estate, and a small bookshelf and chairs provide a cozy space for reading. Sets of double-doors mark exits to the northwest, northeast, southeast, and southwest.

What do you do?

Fahd examines the bookshelf for anything that might pique his interest.

Perception 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33

Cirri and Riddywhipple help Fahd examine the bookshelf.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Riddywhipple's Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

Once the search completes, Cirri walks up to the first door they saw. "Let's check out this room." She tries to listen for anything suspicious before opening the door...

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26
Riddywhipple's Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12

Ninlil checks out the bookshelf, too. Linguistics, maybe? (+heroism): 1d20 + 16 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 16 + 2 = 21

All of a sudden, she realizes everyone else has breezed it back to the stairs! She gets back behind Cirri.

In the meantime, Snaggletooth decides to help carefully listen at the door. Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (14) + 20 = 34

The books, composed of thin brass sheets bound together with wire and written in Ignan, are mostly recollections and recountings of the glory of the Cinderfury family. Those who investigated the lineages section of the library might notice that these seem to be highly selective histories, as if aiming to present the best possible face of the family.

Neither Cirri nor the two reptilians with their ears pressed up against the uncomfortably-warm brass doors hear anything on the other side.

To clarify - everything is uncomfortably warm here. It is the Plane of Fire.

We have one vote to move inside. Two votes move the party.

What do you do?

Ninlil whispers, "We're ready."

Then it is decided.

Cirri unlocks the double doors and slowly pushes them open. Inside, the Pathfinders see exotic trophies, ancient relics, and glimmering weapons resting atop illuminated pedestals that encircle the room. Several pedestals are empty. Upon further examination, nothing in the room appears to be particularly notable or even magical. The only way in or out of this room is the doors Cirri just opened.

What do you do?

Ninlil and Snaggletooth would take some time searching the room and looking both at what was there, and what was missing--any clues there? But if it is devoid of interest, they'll make their way to the second set of doors on the south side of the second floor.

All of these trophies do interest Cirri, in terms of their historical significance. But are any the Cinderfury gorget? Or the Flamebinder's Jaw?

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Riddywhipple's Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Assuming neither of them are found here, Cirri follows Ninlil to the next room.

Cirri and Riddywhipple peer around the room, but they do not see any throat jewelry or jawbones. The two do discover a frost-forged steel breastplate inscribed with Shelynite iconography, but everything else seems to be of historical or sentimental value only.

Ninlil opens the double doors to the next room to discover what looks to be a bedroom. A wardrobe and small stand accompany the prominently-placed bed, and a large portrait of a stoic efreeti hangs on the wall.

A single door stands closed in the corner of the room, the only exit besides the doors the Pathfinders are peering through.

What do you do?

If the others give, the ready, Fahd downs his Mutagen and prepares to open the remaining door in the room.

Cirri knows and cares little about nobility. But she does see a good place to put some incriminating evidence (maybe plans to kill the sultana?) Once that's out of the way, she and Riddywhipple take a look around the room for either the Cinderfury gorget or the Flamebinder's Jaw.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Riddywhipple's Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27

Once that's done, she joins Fahd and prepares to enter the next room.

Knowledge (nobility), heroism: 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 10 + 2 = 30

"Xojject Cinderfury... must be the family patriarch. Lovely fellow, I'm sure."

She nods at Fahd. "I'm ready."

Then it is decided.

Please download your Chronicle sheet here and let me know if anything needs correcting.

Part II will involve a dungeon to explore - to keep things moving, I would like to suggest changing from 3 agreements to 2 agreements to open a door or move to another room. Is this acceptable, or does someone have a different idea that's worked better for them?

Level up if needed, buy some fancy new toys, and buckle up for Part II!

Yes! Works for me!

Faction stuff:

Was Qalkami an Efreeti Malik (Noble Efreeti)? If not, then would you consider her a strong political figure and that we "secured an alliance" with her?

Additionally, Masayoshi will be slow-tracking again this time around and instead of a Day Job he'll keep building his nobility upon the Plane of Fire (same thing as before):

Knowledge (nobility) w/Faction Pin vs DC 19: 1d20 + 14 + 1d4 ⇒ (2) + 14 + (3) = 19

Son of a...! I only get to check one box (for context, I had two boxes left and exceeding the DC by 5 or more lets me check another box).

I've played a lot of PFS but I haven't played a lot of play-by-post. I'm down for whatever! (And appreciate the fast-track.)

I'll try to get Ninlil updated tonight. No big changes but she is getting some GM credit on top of this, so she should have some cold hard gold to spend.

@Masayoshi - Hmm, she's probably not open to such an alliance at this point (based on some faction mission stuff in both scenarios). Perhaps she'd be more open after you conclude your business with her in the City of Brass? And remember that you can use your reroll if you don't use it during the scenario for your Nobility mission.

@Everyone - please take a moment to check your position on the Marching Order slide. I'll be relying on it significantly more this scenario. If you bought something exciting, do let me know here so I can be prepared and we don't have to waste time retconning and backtracking.

Rule of Two is perfect with me.

Rule of 2 is fine with me.
My chronicles look great - thanks!

Perform(Dance): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

Oh, I just hit level 9. Sweet. I'll boost my stats tomorrow.

I lied. I boosted them tonight!

Ninlil, if you want to learn
Animal Aspect, Greater
Bestow Curse
Feel free to copy from my spellbook!

I will post ASAP but I will change the pregen I am using and the character that receives credit.

I am fine with the marching order. Now on my way to work, will apply chronicle later.

Ooh, Ninlil likes new spells! Thanks, Cirri!

Among the interesting things, Ninlil has a belt of constitution and a new spell: Quell Energy.

Other information remains the same.

@Cirri - Looks good! What an appropriate skill for the headband, eh?

@Ninlil - That certainly looks like a spell that could be useful here.

@Noral - I need to know what character you're applying this chronicle sheet to before I can continue the scenario. Please post that information as soon as possible so we can continue moving.

Yes, switching the pregen to a more social character will do wonders for us, so we don't have to rely on Masayoshi for everything. He deserves a break every once in a while, don't you agree?

Thanks GM!

Player: Noral
Character: Dana Katsu
Faction: Liberty's Edge
PFS: 314670-12
Track: Normal

I will play Crowe again!

Toctep has gained another level and is now lvl 8!

Articles of Nethys vs d20pfsrd:

AoN needs a search bar. Badly. I don't use it beyond looking for Spells for this reason. For d20pfsrd, I don't even need to open the page to start the search- it's hooked up with Google, so Chrome lets me hit tab and I can just type "Grappled". For AoN, I need to remember which chapter the rule came from, and guess which of 20 links is the correct one.

I'd rather spend 1 minute on a Google search rather than 10 minutes guessing the wrong links.

If the GM needs an official reference, hopefully someone else can find it before I get home and open my CRB, because AoN is just going to waste my time.

That's a fair enough point - if I really want something from AoN I'll type something like "pathfinder grapple nethys" into Google and it usually finds what I'm looking for. Biggest personal concern is accuracy, which has been a problem sometimes with d20pfsrd - but I love how they link relevant FAQs right next to a rule.

tl;dr - either site works for me. Thanks for being patient with your GM.

I prefer Archives of Nethys, but the search engine optimization is absurdly bad! So what I do is I make a custom search in my browser. Whenever I type in "pf" followed by a space, it will use Google to search the Archives of Nethys and it generally works okay.

The string I use to make this happen is

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aarchivesofnethys.com+%s

Yes folks, it is indeed a trap. You've gotten all the information you can out of it with skill checks. And yes, you'll need to disable it or avoid it if you want to enter the room on the other side without triggering it.

Dear all, I will be away for a short Cristmass break until December 27th.

I hope you will have a fine holiday (assuming you will celebrate)

Happy holidays and may the warm winds of Armun Kelisk have your back during the break!

I will be celebrating at home with family, but I've got a number of Pathfinder-related projects I expect to be working on. Plus, y'know, I'm sure I'll be maxing out my family tolerance. So I'll probably be sticking around and expect to maintain some semblance of my PbP availability just at increasingly weird hours.

Apologies for almost wrecking (or maybe fully wrecking) the diplomatic attempt, but Cirri does not like the idea of slavery or negotiating with slavers. As far as she's concerned the only reason she's here is to help the azers and reclaim that jaw.

No worries here. Sorry for not being quite as on the ball as I would like to be, everyone--been a lot of meetings and sick time and doctor visits lately and it's got me off my game! (Literally?) And thank you for pushing us toward a conclusion, GM!

So, anyone has a good plan to handle that wall of fire? If not we need to retreat and bring the fight outside. Very difficult for me, but I can raise another Obscuring Mist to blind the room.

Not terrifically. We could put the Wall of Fire out with cold damage, but Ninlil's two built-in ready-to-go options for cold damage average out below the 20 points of damage we'd need to take out a 5' section of wall.

Even if we got the wall put out, that doesn't address the problem of needing to stabilize Crowe.

We could try to dispel it or throw some resist fire at people, but SLAs tend to be really hard to dispel and it's gonna take Ninlil a round before she can either make a dispel attempt or throw some fire resistance to everyone. (Since she's on Sorcerer spells known per day, and needs to eat a spell for arcane pool points and read a spellbook before she can get to either of those spells.)

Her ideal tactics are to cast Spectral Hand this round, move her Aggressive Thundercloud to do some damage, and next round start Frigid Touch-ing cold-vulnerable targets (or Quell Energy-ing Xojject) with standard actions while using move actions to aggressive thundercloud. She can obscuring mist, but I'm not sure that's going to help much.

I don't know if anyone else has a way of stabilizing Crowe which is why I'm holding off on Ninlil's action for the moment--if someone can get him out of the fire she can stabilize him with a faction-granted lay on hands, and I bet we've got a few options for removing him from the flames.

Ninlil, thanks a lot for trying to save me! ;-)

Toctep / Megabeus has not been active on the boards for some time and thus we have to assume that the GM will need to bot him.

If anybody heals Crowe, then he could get out of this situation himself as he still has actions.

Thanks again!!

With Cinderflame gone, Cirri has a chance to at least flee the room, yay!

And yes, Toctep should drag Crowe out. I hope Megabeus is OK.

Yes, I also hope he is ok!! :-(

Likewise. He's a good guy. Hope everything is all right!

Thank you for your patience everyone. Large posts like this take me a while to type out and I had to run to rehearsal in the middle. Almost done - we can do this by Sunday!

Hey GM, I still have Displacement up, so I get a 50% miss chance on melee attacks.

No worries on my end, GM--I'm just excited to have time to Play by Post again. :o)

Ohh! Maybe Fahd did it. He hit at least once!

Fahd, if you want to make a Day Job check for this chronicle sheet, now's the time. Once I have that, I can post chronicle sheets. Well done everyone! We (barely) made it on time!

Profession Bouncer 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

Alright everyone, chronicle sheets can be found here. If you can stick around and participate in the conclusion, that would be wonderful.

Thanks everyone! And GM Hawthwile: thank you so much, and I'm sorry to have been a problem child. :) It's a lesson learned, for me! I had a really good time. Thank you all, again. Ninlil is very happy!

Hi GM. The chronicles look great.

What is in Xojject's spellbook? Cirri would love to copy spells from them if she gets the chance.

Ninlil, it's been a blast fighting alongside you. Good luck in the next game!

Here are the boons I received.

You ran a great game, DM! It was super fun.

Very effective use of that wall of fire. That almost got us!

Thanks so much! You were really great! :-)

Given that we worked together for a longer-than-average session, I would be very interested in hearing any feedback you might have to offer me as I continue to improve my GMing. What went well for you, what didn't, what stuck out to you, etc.

And again, thanks for playing!

You are really good! Honestly, you know the rules, have a great pace, draw the surroundings and the NPCs out well!

That was a lot of fun!

Thanks a a lot!

What do you do? is very wide open. I felt like you were giving a hint to something but you always posted it.

We had to rush the finale but that was due to time (and one of the PCs disappeared.) I did like you were quick at accepting corrections and encouraging us to move on.

I liked the “What do you do” push, because sometimes in a PBP that is necessary, rather than us just standing around talking to each other.

I really enjoyed your game. I suspect I will be applying to several in the future.

Longer than average? I think we got through two scenarios in the time it took me to get through one run of the Confirmation that, itself, was going relatively quickly. :)

The pushes were nice. You had a very consistent approach. Seemed straight out of... maybe it was Painlord's guide?

You were far nicer with Xojject than I was when I ran this. That's probably a point in your favor. ;) It certainly helped speed things up, too, so I'd say it was the right call.

I'm somewhat new to play-by-post so I'd take my pbp feedback with a grain of salt. But overall, as a GM, you were really good. I had a great time. Thank you.

This was my first time trying Displacement. That 50% concealment saved me from every single 30+ damage blow, so I'll keep that high up on my list.

Thank you everyone for the feedback - I don't remember where I got the "What do you do?" idea, but I suspect as well that it might have been Painlord.

So, fun stuff from that last encounter:

Craterflame: Fiendish magma elemental with barbarian levels. We got very lucky Crowe and Fahd hit hard because it had either DR 10/good or DR 5/-, plus rage. Purely a beatstick, but a potentially challenging one.

Xojject: More-advanced efreeti with arcanist levels. We never got to see it in action, but he had dimensional slide and Vital Strike to surprise folks in the back-line. The potion he drank in the first round was protection from energy (cold), so he was "immune" to cold damage even as his vulnerability meant it was used up quicker. And Cirri got incredibly lucky with all those displacement rolls because he hits like a truck at this tier.

I'll be closing down this campaign in a day or two, so make sure you have your Chronicle sheet! If you have a particular scenario in mind you want to play, don't hesitate to reach out. Speaking of which, does anyone have a level 6 or 7 character who wants to go someplace... wetter after the Plane of Fire?

Yeah, Xojject is a wrecking ball. We got very lucky! No complaints here, although I'll echo the comment about the nice use of Wall of Fire.

Ninlil is occupied fighting for her deity, and she just turned level 8 besides. Samten the cleric and occasional summoner just hit level 7, though. She might be interested. Her blue skin even camouflages her in aquatic terrain! (Well, I can dream, right?)

Full disclosure: if I'm guessing the scenario right, I've already run it. Haven't played it, though.

Hi GM, Treacherous waves? If yes then I won't join you as I have played and GMed it already. ;-)

Ideally, Threacherous Waves straight into Torrent's Last Will. But that's a [3-7] to [7-11] scenario - so while it is possible, it'd be significantly trickier finding characters (aside from pregens) since they would have to be between level 6.2 and 7.2.

Also, it'll be delayed a little bit. I was asked to pick up a table for RetroCon and I'd rather not find out I've passed my burnout limit in the middle of that. But if anyone's interested, leave me a note here or PM me and I'll reach out when my schedule out a bit.