GM XaveTheNerd's Emerald Spire Full Run (Inactive)

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Stunned doesn't make the enemy helpless, so coup de grace isn't gonna work.

Apologies in advance: probably can't make another gameplay post until Monday. I'm out of town at my parents' house, still working my day job remotely and trying to juggle family hang-out time around my crazy work deadlines. If I can get a post in before bedtime I will, but no promises. Thanks!

Sorry all! I've had a busy day haggling with a landlord (in a good way) and securing a move to a dream townhouse in a great part of town! Unfortunately, it's left me with no time to get Play by Post done, as I need to finalize prep for an irl play game tomorrow. Sorry about the delay!

Congratulations! :)

There are a couple folks looking to join an Emerald Spire game after The Drowned Level. We have room for two more; should we invite them in?

The discussion is in Flaxseed Lodge Recruiting.

One of the players is on my "no play" list. If everyone else would prefer it, I'll suck it up, but my vote is "no."

I like 4 players best myself. Modules were written for 4.

Especially if one of them is on Torrak's "no play" list (I like Torrak and trust your judgment).

I highly prefer Emerald Spire with just four players. I've had a few people reach out to me as well, but I think the group we have now works quite well.

Sorry all! It was a rough week last week. Had a whole bunch of things come crumbling down. This week's looking to be much better.

Torrak, what do you mean by "underpass to the east?" Really, anywhere else you'd like to go is going to require swimming.

So, we have a few ways forward. Either you guys can continue the circling of where you'd like to go, or we can create a standard exploration procedure such as "follow the right wall" or something. I'll only stop us in that case if something is a bit off.

I meant going back a room, to the west, then following the path north that goes under the path we took to get into the room we currently are in.

I always love standard procedures! Right hand rule works for me.

I'm on the same page as Torrak for our next movement.

Alright. Zelphar is MIA due to some life things, so I'll just plan to bot him until further notice. Should help get us moving again.

I've no issue with running. Torrak is slow, but I think that makes it better for y'all then ;)

Well, aside from the fact that Zelphar is engulfed and Torrak is grappled. Both of those tend to put a damper on moving unfortunately.

Stop with all that thinking! :P

Merritt is happy to keep granting aid bonuses whether we stay or try to beat a retreat. Obviously, though, when the GM advises fleeing....

If we do flee, we need to think about getting new scrolls of ride the waves, along with a plan for the mud monster when we return.

I haven't looked at everyone else yet, but could we just heal up and go at it again? IIRC, it got the jump on us and we fumbled around for a few rounds with weapon switching. It also (hopefully) won't have the chance to heal what we've managed to do to it if we don't leave.

Just a thought, otherwise, yes, we will have to get new scrolls and figure out all of that.

Hey thanks to the GM for cutting me a LOT of slack while I was absent from the game. And for using a change of enemy tactics so that I didn't die.

OK, so I'm not totally clear if we are resting now or just healing up and going after the mudlord (same day in-game). I also don't recall if we all used our Ride the Waves scrolls (but I feel like we did)

We did indeed use them - the plan now is to head back in while Tseghet’s buffs are still active and have Torrak flank with some elemental friends. Let’s do this!

So what's the game plan? Initiative is rolled as soon as something enters the room, so plan your order accordingly.

Is the mud thing just hanging out in that one corner? If not, is it moving about, or has it retreated to some other location?

I assume the elemental is no longer there.

I propose that Torrak and Zelphar move to the other entrance (if that won't take too long re: spell durations).

Zelphar summons something to flank with Torrak (and draw it away from our entrances, if need be). Merritt will use aid another attacks to give Torrak an additional +2 bonus to hit while Tseghet inspires and keeps us alive as best he can.

Other thoughts?

I haven't moved the mudlord. It would have retreated back to the center of the room. Let me move it real quick.

The elemental could totally stick around, but yeah...it's gone as soon as those dolphins come out.

As for the other entrance...you haven't been that way to see if there's something that may stop you. (spoiler alert: there kinda is, kinda isn't. It's complicated.)

Merritt, your plan works for me! Even if we funnel out of the same entrance, summons and 5ft steps should get us into flanking in short order.

I was envisioning Merritt making the aid another checks to boost Torrak's attacks and leaving Tseghet free to wander the battlefield, healing whoever needs it. If there's no need for healing in a specific round, he could step in with an aid another to defense.

I'm about to leave for a remote-ish area of WY and will be gone until Monday. I'll try to make time to stay caught up.

Have fun Zelphar!

That works too Merritt, I'm happy to roll with that.

I'd like to give a formal apology for last week. I honestly just needed a mental health week. I felt off for most of the week. It's cleared now, thankfully, but that's why my posting was inconsistent last week.

No worries GM, glad to see you back!

Hi! This is a heads up that I'm going camping this weekend. I'm leaving tonight (Thurs) and won't be returning until Sunday. Please bot me as needed!

An apology: I had a game I was GMing get moved to last Thursday on shorter notice than I'd have liked. I'll be posting today to make up for it.

As a heads up to all: I'm going to be spotty with posting for the next few weeks. In addition to sending my primary computer to the shop for some routine maintenance, I'll be moving in less than two weeks. I'll let you all know when things go back to normal.

Good luck GM!

Merritt, saw your bump in gameplay, bumping here to draw attention to the GM's post above. Assuming it is still the case for now.

I always forget to check Discussion for these notices. Thanks!

I'm going to do my best to get consistently posting as of this week.

Yay! Glad to hear from you GM!

Wooooo! :)

Since I'm currently running a table of this module for some friends, Tseghet will not make decisions on where to go next or what to do unless someone specifically asks him or we need a tiebreaker. Otherwise he'll be happy (enough) to go with the flow (though he might speak very loudly about how Iomedae would never do such a thing as the group is doing...).

I'm hearing an Iomedae-sanctioned go-ahead to butcher, maim, and kill innocents. Anyone else? ;)

Sorry all. I was feeling a bit sick and out of it last week. I aim for this week to be better.

Long day with Open House (parents meet the teachers, so we have to put on a bit of a dog and pony show) after school today, so no posts. Please bot as needed!

Apologies to all. I've had family in town this week. I thought I could keep up with PbP while they were here, but that just...didn't work out. They leave Sunday.

Has the website been super slow for anybody else lately? Every time I went to post Sunday and Monday, it refused to load for long enough that I gave up on it.

Yes, but only on certain threads. One game I could only preview a post, another took about 5 minutes for the post to show, another duplicated the post (I very intentionally pressed the button once too!).

Very odd...

Whew. You're the only one to have said it's not just me! Thought maybe I was going crazy or something.

I would like to offer a sincere apology to all of my Play by Post tables. I've been feeling quite off these past few weeks, with this week as a turning point. I've managed to narrow down what exactly is causing these feelings to "GM fatigue".

I think I've got these feelings sorted out, and I'm moving one of my games into early-level Starfinder for a bit to help keep things "easy" for me to prep while I actually get caught up on prep for two of my other irl games. Unfortunately, as a consequence, Play by Post had suffered, as I spent the time I'd normally have used for PbP on prep for these games. I've received enough of a break in prepping the Starfinder Beginner Box and stuff, so I think I'll be able to get back to posting daily soon (TM). In the meantime, just hang tight. I'm definitely not abandoning these tables.

Hang in there GM, we'll be here for you when you return!

It's with a heavy heart that I make the following announcement:

A considerable portion of my PbP Anxiety seems to have come from this campaign. When we started, I had a bit more time for PbP than I've had recently, but I now find myself consistently dreading the "set up" for the next combat. Considering the Emerald Spire is just a giant dungeon crawl...I think it's time I called it how it is:

I should no longer GM the Spire for you all.

If we want to switch who the GM is, I've got a character or 2 in the range here for the Spire (I believe), but I'm not sure how valid an option that is. I'll have to use 2 replays to continue through the next level and (I believe) the one after. But, considering my desire for 1e PFS has dwindled significantly, I don't know how else I'd use the replays I have.

I've also given Zelphar plenty of chances to post, but seeing as the gameplay is still sitting, waiting on him, I believe it's officially time to call it and find another PC, unless the table wishes to dissolve entirely.

I don't doubt the ability to pick up another PC, but picking up a different GM is a different task entirely. So, I leave it at this:

What say you?

Goodness knows nobody needs another source of anxiety this year. Hugs, GM.

I would want to press onward - it might be tricky finding a player ready to join mid-way through the Spire, but we can’t have been the only group to have folks losing steam before the end.

If the other two folks would want to continue as well, I can reach out in the Recruitment lodge thread. Or does somebody have a particular GM/player in mind already?

I definitely want to continue; I scavenged the forums to get a gift of a Tiefling boon to play this PC, so more than just wanting to see this through, I kind of feel an obligation! And, with that, it only really makes sense to do so as a player; switching to GM (for me) is the same disrespect to that gifted boon.

I think we'd probably have a reasonable chance of finding a new player; I can only imagine that other runs of the Emerald Spire have fallen apart before, so there have to be PCs out there that would like to jump in.

Getting a new GM is typically harder, I think. Our easiest path is probably for one of us to switch into that role, especially since Xave seems willing to become a PC.

Thoughts?

Xave, whatever solution we end up with, are you able to finish the floor we're on? (Not trying to pressure you to, just want to know where we stand, so we can figure out how best to proceed.)