GM Abraham's Emerald Spire

Game Master Abraham Z.

I do remember you mentioning the side quests and even providing a list. Thanks for the reminder. Glad we didn't murder hobo her.

Yeah, at first she seemed like one of those illusory-victim-but-will-transform-and-destroy-you-if-you-get-close-enough types.

Precisely my 'fear'

Fyi, solo parenting for the next 9 days and also a little busy with work so posting may be a bit slower for the next week or so.

Please do not worry! All the best!

Fair enough. Been there myself. Gotta say: I don't know how full-time single parents do it. They're some sort of super-humans, I tell you. :)

If you are having trouble logging in, clear the cache for Paizo, kill the browser, open the browser, and log in under My Organized Play.

Probably other ways, but that is what worked for me.

Hi everyone, I was hoping to get another update in before leaving for a short vacation with my kid but it's not going to happen so I likely won't be able to post again until Thursday. Sorry to leave things hanging mid-fight but just too many things on the to-do list before leaving.

Fair enough. Have fun!

I’m buying a house currently so I appreciate the pause. ;-)

Have fun!

Nice! Good luck, and may everything work the way it's supposed to for a good long time.

No worries. I don't mind the wait.

You make it back okay, GM?

Yes, so sorry everyone. Have just been bogged down with work and childcare. Will try to get us going again soon. Thanks for your patience.

Well my gosh everyone - I'm so sorry that I just left us lingering there mid-fight for so long. No excuses, just lately daily life has felt quite busy. But I've got us up and going again and don't foresee any obstacles so hopefully we can keep it moving along now. Sorry again for the long delay and I appreciate all your patience.

Glad life is less busy for you now. :)

Thx - hope everyone else in the group is well too.

Yes, thanks a lot!!

No problems here.

Hello everyone!!

My wife and I the decided to take vacation during the Easter break. So I’ll be on vacation for two weeks until April 25.

I’ll probably not be able to post much so can you please bot me if I don’t react within 24 hours?

Thanks and sorry for the short notice message!

Ooo! Enjoy!

Have a great trip!

Would be great if one of you could bot me please. Thanks!!

If anyone has a scroll of protection from evil, that gives another save from mind control.

Now that we’re facing you in battle we see how powerful you are! ;-)

The thing is that she is conditionally powerful. Usually this dang dungeon neuters her abilities. And the sad thing is that by the time you take her down she will be out of bombs anyway and once again be neutered. After 4 levels of neutering I am seriously considering bringing in a different character.

Well, she managed to kill Stinky in one round, so I can't say she's useless.

Beware, though: Kala's next animal companion will be named Smelly, in a long-planned nod to the stupid, stupid rat creatures from the Bone comics.

Yea, she's hell on wheels against PCs. Lucky us.

A reminder to everyone: besides giving you an extra attack (when you full attack) haste also gives you a +1 (untyped) bonus to your attacks and a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves. Not sure if you have been adding those but just fyi.

The thing is that she is conditionally powerful. Usually this dang dungeon neuters her abilities. And the sad thing is that by the time you take her down she will be out of bombs anyway and once again be neutered. After 4 levels of neutering I am seriously considering bringing in a different character.

Yanda, I hope I haven't been unfairly targeting you, or that you aren't feeling that way. If I'm remembering correctly, the earlier situation where you got stuck in the pit with the snakes was mostly just bad luck of when you moved forward in relation to the initiative order. In the current circumstance, your foe was aware of the group's presence and your relative abilities beforehand (I'll explain how later) and was thus able to prepare. He's also smart and therefore I decided that he could choose his target for dominate person according to good tactics, rather than just rolling a random target. Just wanted to be sure that you all understand that I am thinking about these issues and not just targeting one PC to be a jerk. Please let me know (here or by PM) if you have any concerns.

Re the dungeon: one of my issues (not only of this level) is the weird way that the authors distributed whatever their xp budget was. The result (as we see amply illustrated on this level) is often a bunch of trivial encounters and then one or two really deadly ones.

Have no fear, I do not reset it at all. Pathfinder and their modules themselves seem to have a grudge against fire wielders. That and Yanda's pathetic will save has gotten her into these messes, not you.

On one hand I am extremely tired of having my character neutered, but on the other hand the RP aspects are just fantastic, which is great and unexpected for a dungeon crawl. I'm feeling rather double-minded to tell you the truth.

I love Yanda but completely understand! ;-)

I think that I’ll also switch characters after this level.

Totally appreciate the details in the fight GM! :-D

The tight spaces have been tough too. I like Yanda's idea of using a potion of Fly to get past baddies when we're bottlenecked. Kala may have to copy that idea for the next level.

If I may offer a couple of hopefully helpful suggestions/rules reminders:

1) Reminder that you can draw a wand as part of a move action (like a weapon), so you can potentially draw, move, and heal all in a single round.

2) If you are trying to disrupt the spellcaster's casting, readied attacks (which can include spells) can be more effective than just moving adjacent and hoping to take an AoO because a) the caster can 5' step away and b) the caster can try to use casting defensively to avoid an AoO but that doesn't help against a readied attack.

Yeah, I intend to do the 2nd in my next round. Earlier, I was just trying to squeeze out as much attacks as possible (especially with haste) to get through his mirror images.

On that though, got a question. Is it possible to ready action to attack if he casts a spell OR at the end of his turn? So that if he doesn't cast a spell, I won't waste the ready action.

Keep in mind that Yanda has taken bleed damage. So a little healing might save her life if this battle goes on for much longer.

Yeah, I was debating that. But we gotta survive this baddie and at least three of us were in the single digits. Also, Mind-Controlled-Yanda just killed Stinky, so it'll take Kala a bit to start thinking clearly.

On that though, got a question. Is it possible to ready action to attack if he casts a spell OR at the end of his turn? So that if he doesn't cast a spell, I won't waste the ready action.

No, not according to my understanding. From a game design perspective, as I understand it, Readied actions need to have some kind of potential negative (i.e. the possibility that if the trigger doesn't occur then you've wasted your turn) or else everyone would just ready every single turn.

If anyone survives, Kala has potions of CMW and CLW in her pack. Heal her to consciousness with those, then she can use the wand of CMW on everyone else.

How close is Yanda to being dead?

How close is Yanda to being dead?

You are actually back in the fight. Sort of. You've got 11 hp at present, but also 11 points of non-lethal, leaving you staggered. You're also prone. So unless I've done the math wrong, or you have an ability I don't know about, you probably don't have a way to throw a bomb this round.

Got a good hit in on the Serpentfolk Caster.

Firewarden Yanda wrote:

How close is Yanda to being dead?

You are actually back in the fight. Sort of. You've got 11 hp at present, but also 11 points of non-lethal, leaving you staggered. You're also prone. So unless I've done the math wrong, or you have an ability I don't know about, you probably don't have a way to throw a bomb this round.

Just looking to live. I'll take your word for HP totals. You deserve it for having to do math.

Yes, non-lethal does work like that. When you get healed it is like an uber heal. Interesting how NL works regarding being staggered. I sure hope he doesn't get off any more fireballs.

This battle is sooooo cool!!

Love it. In case we survive, we need to celebrate! ;-)

Absolutely. It's been rare for me to believe that one of my characters might actually die or that I might experience a TPK. This is great!

If Kala survives, she'll definitely buy drinks for everyone (after she gets herself a new animal companion). There's a tavern near the Emerald Spire, isn't there? If not, there should be.

I’ll just mourn Stinky!!

I can still remember one of your first adventures where I gmed for you.

I was really impressed by your role playing!! :-D

Thanks! Kala's been one of my more relatable characters. When I started with her, I wasn't sure about my decision to play Stinky with a dog-like personality, since I'm not a dog person. It turned out well, though.

It's funny how you can get attached to a familiar. Even when it does not die, but you replace it with an improved familiar it can be silly sad.

It saddens me that Yanda was the vehicle for the poor thing's roasting, but it will make some good role play. Heck, you might want to have Kala resent Yanda for a while.

But level 7 really is a good step for a new animal companion. Eager to see what you come up with!

I'm leaning toward giant skunk, but wolf and bear are contenders too.