GM Lorenzo's #8-00: The Cosmic Captive (Subtier 7-8) RetroCon PFS Special (Inactive)

Game Master Lawrence Smith 2

Okay, 2 players delaying. Waiting to see what Ninlil does in reaction to the two prison guardians slowing your advance.

Some folks are wondering about calling on the aid of the water veela you rescued earlier.

Pacing is an issue during a Special. We're heading into Day 3 of this encounter. No pressure, but a post that advances the action is often better than one that keeps the party in stasis or slows the group down.

Please check in and post as often as you can. When posing a question to the group, it can help to let everyone else know what your own preference is.

I'll usually go with the Rule of Two, unless it's do-or-die.

I did mean the Marid. And Haliban will attack if Ninlin identifies either of these enemies as evil.

Ninlil favors calling a friend. She also went on delay, although I suppose we could retcon that to spellcasting. To me, this looks like a rougher encounter for pacing because of the combination of surprise round, terrain nobody wants to deal with, and the problem that the enemies haven't really started messing with us yet. I guess we should just murderhobo things.

For swimming, there's this sheet we can refer to. If you're carrying 16 pounds of gear, you can walk on the bottom at half speed. Yes, this is way different than both reality and the bog rules. In my home games I house rule it to 5 feet per round, but... y'know.

I am gonna drown lol.

So I'm a little confused about movement and there have been some things posted that I'm not sure about, and it seems this isn't following 'normal' rules.

So GM, is that right if we have enough weight we can walk? If so, does that mean no swim check needed? Do we have our land speed in that case?

Also, how high are these caves?

It seems like we have at least the party in favor of calling the veela support in. That would also hopefully end this encounter faster.

The caverns are submerged in at least 4ft of water. Swim check to move/maneuver. If you're carrying enough weight, you can touch the bottom, which will help and ensure you won't drown, unless you slip beneath the surface for too long.

The cavern's description indicated the 'hallways' here are 40ft tall, so 36ft above the water.

I gathered that plenty of PCs were wondering about dialing 911 for the friendly veela. Some folks did that ooc, some in third-person plain text, few if any said so in-character with their dialogue.

I prefer to see your PCs express themselves in-character. That also gives the bad guys a chance to react, in some fashion, to your plotting right in front of them. ;-)

Just like knowledge checks, if the PC says it, then most everybody hears what you know, because you've told them. If the PC doesn't say anything, I spoiler the result for the PC that made the check.

Darn it. I actually don't have enough weight to sink right in.................

Your armor weighs 50 pounds on its own, plus 10 for the weapon (unless you lose it)

You'll be fine. =)

Can't you give me the reasons why I dislike swimming lol....

My weapon makes it hard to fight in that kind of environment.

GM, wasn't looking to dismount this round (Its not even possible for Theo to make the fast dismount roll).

Was wondering if it was possible to dismount into that particular square.
Typically one just moves to a square adjacent to the mount... but wasn't sure how the corner might affect stuff.

No problem with you dismounting into that square. Hopefully, the red veela will bite the dust before the end of this round.

Sorry GM! It seemed like Ninlil had been botted so I didn't think she had any other actions left. I'm not actually sure where the extra damage would have come from, either. Turn taken...

Ninlil, I'm not sure what extra damage you're referring to.

I took another look and I think I see what's going on. Since the veela stayed in the square you gave me extra damage on the veela's turn? That's a new interpretation for me (I've always seen it run as per flaming sphere, and you only deal damage when you move the thing). Thinking about it, I can see why you'd run it that way though. I'm okay with doing less damage but either way I'm not going to argue!

Anyway, I think I know what's going on now.

Maybe I misread the rounds count. I thought having cast the spell in round 1, you'd have the cloud attack again in round 2.

Ah, well. Haliban's arrows would have likely done it in, anyway.

Question:
Instead of climbing down, Could I just have Alden drop down to the surface instead?

Dropping to the ground is mentioned as an option.

You can drop the 15 feet, if you'd prefer. Just make an Acrobatics check.

"Ayrzul’s will infuses the earth here. Any spellcaster that attempts to magically dig through or alter the fortress often fails." She warns and sets off.
Effect: A spellcaster must succeed at a DC24 caster level check or the spell fails.

You mention that as an ongoing condition but the DC 24 is only spells effecting the earth, Not all spells cast right?

Alden will just drop relying on the Boots of the cat. :P

To Clarify: Any spellcaster that attempts to magically dig through or alter the fortress must succeed at a DC24 caster level check or the spell fails.

If taking 10 is an option Haliban would take 10 on Perception. I'm guessing not though.

Not sure how things like shirt / char folio re-rolls work in PbP, but I had held off on Urien's next round action as I was going to try to use a saving finale to try to help Alden against the curse since we were warned about it. If Alden has a way to re-roll one of those fails, Urien could have helped with the other. Still may end up cursed, but it might be worth a try.

I have a 5*GM reroll but I think it's a far off chance imo as the DC is rather high and my rolls have being really bad lately.

Besides, Alden tends to get cursed/ability damage/etc rather often.......

So a quick check shows the following for relevant skills.

Ninlin
Kn Dungoneering +11
Survival +13

Haliban
Kn Dungoneering +15
Survival +13

Theo
Kn Dungoneering +3
Survival +12

Fairbeaks
Kn Dungoneering NA
Survival NA

Alden
Kn Dungoneering +10
Survival +6

Urien
Kn Dungoneering +7
Survival +NA

So our 3 best options seem to be Haliban, Ninlin, and Theo. Possibly with the aid of Heroism or Inspire Competence.

Nice work, Haliban, and kudos for pointing out how others could help.

Theo did his roll. 2 more to go.

Urien doesn't have Inspire Competence. Ninlin is already under the effects of Heroism. Would Urien be willing to cast Heroism on Haliban?

Urien has the bard option to take a 20 on a knowledge roll too, I think.

Of course, that still puts him 1 point shy of 28... but I think he also has heroism going on himself... so that would bump it up to a 29 and a success. So don't count him out. =)

Hadn't realized he still had it. But I checked and while he has mentioned the ability a couple of times he hasn't used it yet.

And roll Theo did! Well done. Ninlil's entire round seems to be garbage. =/

Garbage is over here!

I still have -4 to practically all my rolls. :P

And Theo I didn't forget my curse though I didn't add it in my rolls.
Hence why I crashed and skidded on my landing.

Boots of the cat helps. Alot.
At keeping my footing.

Sorry, had two offline PF games yesterday and a bit behind.
Yes, will cast a heroism on Haliban and will use a Loremaster ability if needed for the Knowledge: Dungeoneering.

Also, thanks for the reminder - need to update those knowledges here, forgot to upgrade the +3 bardic knowledge to +4 for hitting 8th L...

GM, I think you did a double-post on accident rather than the follow-up post...

Yeah, the double post was unintentional, a result of the problem of some posts sometimes ‘disappearing’ and a simple refresh not solving the problem.

I was waiting for some Overseer GM guidance, before making the follow-up post.

Any additional information on breaking the circles? That seems the next step to take. Just wanted to clarify, does this seeem like whack them with weapons, or spells, or both?

Ask Urien. ;-)

As described in the three tasks, though, you can just randomly try stuff. And see what happens.

I'm cursed so I can maybe do random stuff and see what happens lol

Alden, I appreciate your roleplaying.

In case there is a mechanic where beating the DC by a lot is relevant, I forgot Heroism and Haliban actually beat the DC by 10.

Yup, heroism was noted in your tagline. That's why you got an extra success. You're good, man. Almost like you've done this before. ;-)

GM: does the planetary adaptation spell not make the need to breath a non issue? If I can survive in a vacuum, I'm assume breathing isn't a necessity at the moment?

And for the record, I totally zoned on the fact we had to walk through the wards to work on the orbs. Oops! =)

And with heroism, didn't Haliban get the same result as Ninlil (33) ... if it helps get 2 successes from each of them, heh.

Heroism is t3h best! Except for this whole shaken thing...

I meant on the Disable Device check. But yes Heroism is a great spell.

Theo, the 'suffocation' is an evil compulsion and fear effect, not connected to the actual physical environment. The DC of a Perception check is more difficult than the other two skills attempted. Urien is aware of why all the checks were even more difficult than they could be.

I'm cursed and that -4 to all checks and rolls is pretty significant.....
Also alot of the skill checks have rather high DCs for Alden.....

And the dice has proven they hate me.....

A lot going on in this encounter. If you think I've overlooked something, or if you have questions, please use the Discussion thread to point it out or to ask your questions.

You'll notice I adjusted some of the PC icons on the map to match up with their stated actions.

Sorry, snow day with 2 yr old - don't have time for coherent post - delay.

GM: you're missing Theo on the init list... but since he got a 5... well, I assume I'm last. =)
You can delay Fairbeaks to there.