GM Tealk's - Core - Thornkeep Series (Inactive)

Game Master Tealk

Not gonna lie guys, I find myself laughing out loud with this group's banter more than any other game. Hahahahah, dying right now.

@Pietro I can see that conversation now

“Get back before you’re eaten “

“Wrong direction, into the stomach, for valor “

I was sort of picturing the situation with Pietro in the allosaurus's jaws and the narrow doorway like the when you put your hand into a space to grab something, and then go to pull your fist out, and the item sticking out from your hand smacks the inside edges of the opening, so you try turning your grip a bit to try and pull out again and the item goes smack again. So you keep trying to swivel your grip trying to tug your hand out over, and over, and repeatedly smacking the object you are clutching into the aperture's frame. This goes on for a while until of course you are frustrated enough to just pull, and pull, hoping that something will break.

@Telos, our of curiocity, how much gold do you have?

1622 GP, 20 PP right now, but hoping Pietro gets to him with some CLW or CMW soon'ish.

That should cover most of the repairs to my morningstar. Your next character can owe me the rest. ;)

oh blame the beefy meat shield! :P

My apologies, I was shooting the thing near Roran and Pietro, I'm not sure what it is, but I think its one of the baddies...

"THAT'S MY BEARD!"

Sincerely apologise for not posting last few days. Have had two family birthdays in a row, which always happens this time of year. I will be back to normal posting schedule tomorrow after work.

Np, hope they were enjoyable!

Hey team, just checking in with everyone - how are you all doing engagement wise? With the virus spreading quickly around the world, Outpost III around the corner and life getting out of control, I understand if people are having it tough keeping up with the posting.

Just wanted to see how everyone was doing.

I've been busier than normal. I'm trying to check daily. My son is home, and I'm trying to work from home, which is not a winning combination timewise! I think this will be a challenging time for all of us, but particularly those with kids (and especially for anyone in higher risk categories). I'm very thankful that we're all low risk, I've got a relatively large employer and my job allows me to work from home.

Oh you should have my undivided attention for the next few weeks. Although this might be the best time to really dig into that novel I've been wanting to write. ;)

Busier than normal (also with kids, though not all *so* young). I'll be able to maintain usually daily posting though.It might just be strictly limited to my one time in the evening (but honestly possibly not noticeably diff. from usual).

I would have been so happy to see the dice gods let Pietro do that...

It's a one in a million shot. That means it just has to work!

Hey everyone, just an update from me. So looks like i will be working from home moving forward, based on all the infection going around. Which means i should have more time in the mornings to keep up with posts more regularly.

I hope everyone is staying safe, and keeping out of trouble.

Who had the blue mark on them?

Not Pietro.

Not the Mark of Daegros, right? That's what Telos has.

Potentially relevant.

Seward braves another of the contraptions, opting go for the yellow symbol instead. "Brave, may the mark of Vuzhon bode you well."

Seward gets the blue stamp too.

I am sorry if I/Roran ruined something for the party by slaying Rozimus. He honestly would think by slaying him along with Vuzhon is the appropriate thing to do.

Claw: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 241d4 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
Claw: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 241d4 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Claw: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 321d4 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Claw: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 241d4 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
Grab; Eviserate: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (5) + 15 = 20 2d6 ⇒ (3, 4) = 7 1d4 ⇒ 1 -- @Telos please make me a DC 18 Fortitude save, or take CON damage.

Did the con damage that killed Telos get rolled earlier, and that Telos would ahve been unconscious (having 30 hp, at 34 damage, 1 con damage, after failing this fort save).

@Will, yep we will work that all out now :)

He is a pathfinder isn't he? Shouldn't we let him escape being magic jarred and eventually killed?

But, as you say, that presents a paradox, because who got us here?

Interesting choices.

He is a pathfinder, and the Rozimus who got you there was the Rozimus which was taken over by Magic Jar. :)

Yeah I am fairly certain letting the time loop end with him dead is the 'safe' choice.

The evil is well and truly stopped this way

I would agree. There are plenty of movies/theories that when you alter the time line, bad things happen.

Ok, but he is dead, and there is now this other Rozimus. The GM said our choices are:
(A) Do you let Rozimus leave before he is able to be turned by Vuzhon, or
(B) Do you force him to be stuck here, and for time to play out as it already has.

It looks like we have two votes for B, but this Rozimus may not be willing to do that.

How exactly does this time lock work? It seems like there are two options
1) Endgame option, changing the past, creates a new future, so it doesn't matter what we do, in which case we should save our fellow pathfinder from his fate.
2) Paradox occurs option, changing the past is bad, which doesn't seem to work, because we already killed Rozimus, and now we're seeing an echo from his past. For the future to actually progress (as it did), he'd need to be magic jarred without his ioun stone, recover his ioun stone, and leave, bringing us here. If we keep the ioun stone, neither him nor Vuzhon can escape. ??? I'm just so confused

Furthermore, if we do break the time lock, Nhur Athemons (or his apprentice Togarin?) is released, and apparently he wants to do bad stuff, according to Daegros, who is, as far as well can tell, telling the truth.

Basically, Togarin from the other location was offering you to kill the anomaly to stop the time vault. Here, Draegos is offering you to kill his brother in exchange for keeping the time vault active, in exchange for old Azlanti power.

So if we leave him dead, we don't create a paradox, we kill Togarin (and his tiger) and leave? Is that what people want to do?

Haha Will! love it!

I will wait for Telos and Pietro to voice their opinions before the final post. :) Give it another day.

But i think we are close to a consensus here.

Ok, but he is dead, and there is now this other Rozimus. The GM said our choices are:

(A) Do you let Rozimus leave before he is able to be turned by Vuzhon, or
(B) Do you force him to be stuck here, and for time to play out as it already has.

It looks like we have two votes for B, but this Rozimus may not be willing to do that.

Technically, isn't B already happening(ed). Where's Roz going to go? Can he even go as he is only a possible alternate timeline phantom. Most likely he just winks out of existence once outside the dungeon. Also, (for clarity's sake) Rozimus was never 'turned' he just had his body stolen by a wizard in order I assume to escape though something obviously drew the wizard back.

Furthermore, if we do break the time lock, Nhur Athemons... is released.

And we know he didn't just die a thousand years ago someplace a thousand miles from here because...? And what does that even mean? I mean isn't he the one who made all the time locks. We don't think a wizard clever enough to do that wouldn't have made a copy the key? And how do we even know about any of that? I realized he was mentioned at some point by someone, but that's like mentioning I don't know--the locksmith who put the locks in on the front door of your grandmother's house. Yeah, he's a person, but what does he have to do with the current situation?

I meant Togarin, based on Daegro’s warning

So if we leave him dead, we don't create a paradox, we kill Togarin (and his tiger) and leave? Is that what people want to do?

The killing of Togarin would just be to ensure that the time lock is never broken via manipulation of the next bright-eyed group of adventurers? I suppose another option could be to somehow close off the entrance to this level on the way out. We have the ioun stones right, so by leaving with those and keeping them very far away it does become closed off?

lol, we just leave and wall of stone over the timelocked dungeon?

Something tells me high level wizards will get out if we do nothing, if the're so inclined, but I don't know.

We hold the stones they need. They could never be brought back here.

Technically, isn't B already happening(ed). Where's Roz going to go? Can he even go as he is only a possible alternate timeline phantom. Most likely he just winks out of existence once outside the dungeon. Also, (for clarity's sake) Rozimus was never 'turned' he just had his body stolen by a wizard in order I assume to escape though something obviously drew the wizard back.

To be fair, English is not my first language, so i should not have used the term 'turned'. Regardless, Vuzhon would have had to eventually let Rozimus's body go, but as far as you know even that spell has limitations. Technically, the spell is only hours per level.

From what he told you, Vuzhon came back to deal with you, as you posed a threat to their plans, which they had concocted together with The Visitant.

And we know he didn't just die a thousand years ago someplace a thousand miles from here because...? And what does that even mean? I mean isn't he the one who made all the time locks. We don't think a wizard clever enough to do that wouldn't have made a copy the key? And how do we even know about any of that? I realized he was mentioned at some point by someone, but that's like mentioning I don't know--the locksmith who put the locks in on the front door of your grandmother's house. Yeah, he's a person, but what does he have to do with the current situation?

This part isn't very well explained neither in The Emerald Spire, nor Thornkeep modules - so to be fair, this has been vastly to my own interpretation. No spoilers ahead for those who haven't played TES, so don't worry.

Pietro Slaszval the Boisterous wrote:

And we know he didn't just die a thousand years ago someplace a thousand miles from here because...? And what does that even mean? I mean isn't he the one who made all the time locks. We don't think a wizard clever enough to do that wouldn't have made a copy the key? And how do we even know about any of that? I realized he was mentioned at some point by someone, but that's like mentioning I don't know--the locksmith who put the locks in on the front door of your grandmother's house. Yeah, he's a person, but what does he have to do with the current situation?

This part isn't very well explained neither in The Emerald Spire, nor Thornkeep modules - so to be fair, this has been vastly to my own interpretation. No spoilers ahead for those who haven't played TES, so don't worry.

It just wouldn't seem relevent to Pietro without more concrete evidence.

And good show! I would never have guessed you to be a non-native writer.

What do others think of Togarin’s offer?

Pietro looks about ready to brain the guy with his morningstar.

He is not adverse to casting shatter on the ioun stone just to see the wizard's expression. Pietro doesn't really plan for the long-term.

There wasn’t enough ale, and I already had a headache

Pietro’s memoir on how we spent 10,000 years trapped in here.

Don't tie the ioun stone to his pet until *after* we're through, and deal. Seems reasonable.

I guess if we are to leave this is the best choice. Especially being 1 PC down.

My only question though, does this count as neutralizing the threat? I know we took care of the Visitant, but is that enough?

Now I just need to convince the paladin that lying on our chronicles is ok, or lying to Togarin is ok...

Will makes a knowledge religion check

This reminds me of 'not evil' PFS PCs...

No. Those are Sarenites that are the shining beacons of honesty.

I am okay with leaving Togarin alive since he did not ping as evil. As long as he keeps to his word of keeping to himself.

Some book-keeping, so that it can be reflected on Telos' chronicle sheet.

Telos has 20 prestige points.

...

Restoration: 2 PP (4 PP to remove a permanent negative level)
...
Raise dead: 16 PP

So his pre-existing PP gets him to alive with one of two negative levels removed.

Previous levels of Thornkeep have netted us 4 PP, and if that is true for this one, then he spends that for the other negative level and is fully rsetored (albeit with all of his prestige points drained).

Alrighty, so we are basically finished with this module series guys! I apologise for slowing the pace down at the end significantly, i guess i have just ran out of juice!

I will have all your chronicles finished this week, so bare with me!

@Telos sounds good, i will make the notes on your sheet. :)

Thank you everyone for playing being a part of this very long journey! It has taken just over a year to get this finished, we started in January 2019, and finishing up in May 2020! It has been a sincere pleasure running the gauntlet with you, and I have grown to love the wit and humor of all your characters!

Special thank you to Will for joining us for the home stretch of the campaign!

I hoped everyone had a good time with all the twists and turns (and occasionally the few flavor things I have added) of the module series!

That's alright. We kept a decent enough pace for that first year that the slow end didn't really kill it. Thanks so much for sticking with it and running the whole thing.

It has been a lot of fun, and there's something particularly satisfying about getting to actually finishing a series like this for once :)

So, emerald spire next? :P

Chronicles!

Thank you Telos!

To be honest, i want to move away from the River Kindoms, and do something else for a change. I was going through Paizo's plethera of modules, and came across something that caught my eye for your level!

I would like to run Cradle of Night for this group! It is a newer module, so it might be a little more challenging for core characters, but i am sure this group stands up to the challenge!

I have not read (or even purchased) the module yet (only just came across it and thought it was super cool), so i am happy to take votes from you guys as to what you want do to next. Please let me know, happy to take opinions - even if you wish to take a little rest with this character or whatever. Just let me know, and we will see where to go with this group next!