Sorry folks, don’t have time to update before bed (work went straight into a long rehearsal). I’ll catch you in the morning.
So the question really is, "Why did you come to the shrine? What was your desired outcome?"
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Kiku just assumes the proper way to deal with most situations is to pray to the proper god(ess)[s]. Also, she worships the empyreal pantheon, and one of them is literally the goddess of religion and I feel like she would be upset about missing the chance to do something religion-y.
Those sound like admirable goals. Perhaps someone can communicate them to the stranger?
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My apologies for rushing off; Shiro's concern was the safety of the people behind the barricade, and he doesn't know enough about magic to know what you were planning for him. My intention is to do a fighting retreat back around the building towards the group to draw them back away from the barricade.
I contest that ruling, it applies to creatures that can reasonably expect to be reformed and join society, which is why I did not fight defensively. If that is not the case, I would have fought defensively.
That is quite fair - this was not a decision I made lightly. Here is my reasoning:
Peace (Ultimate Magic pg. 50): The monk must strive to attain peace and may only use violence as a last resort. He can never strike the first blow in combat. If attacked, he must use the fight defensively action or the total defense action for the first 2 rounds. He must always give his opponent the option to surrender, and cannot purposely slay another creature that could reasonably be influenced to flee or join a civilized society as a productive member (obviously this excludes many monsters). Many monks who have taken this vow learn how to grapple and pin opponents, tying them with specialized knots that allow them to work themselves free after sufficient effort. Many monks of peace are vegetarians.
Line by line:
He can never strike the first blow in combat.
No contest there - the mummies struck first.
If attacked, he must use the fight defensively action or the total defense action for the first 2 rounds.
This was the crux of the decision. Shiro attacked without fighting defensively or taking a total-defense action. There is no mention in this sentence of the attacker needing to be capable of civilization.
He must always give his opponent the option to surrender, and cannot purposely slay another creature that could reasonably be influenced to flee or join a civilized society as a productive member (obviously this excludes many monsters).
No contest there - the mummies are not capable of surrendering nor of being productive members of society.
From what I can tell, there is no connection or implied dependence of the second statement on the third. I am open to your perspective on the matter as you have first-hand experience with this particular vow, but the text is straightforward. Narika, as a VA your perspective would be welcome as well.
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Just fyi what my plans are:
- trying to get two if them in range for a burning hands
- misfortune them plus cackle.Hamish, would you like an enlarge person?
Not at this point, the AC drop would negate my build and for a few rounds I'm going to be supporting (should have started like that but... can't undo poor decisions). I'll let you know if there is a point in the battle where I would like it as it would improve a chunk of his melee abilities.
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GM, he has the trait Magical Knack which for some inexplicable reason I had showing on his profile as 'uncanny knack'.
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If I may, in my experience as a retired VO and an almost four star GM (and as an English major :P) I agree with the GM's gloss of the particular sentence, even if I can understand where Shiro's interpretation came from. I do however have a dispute. What I would do in a situation like this, since there is no specific language in the guide to organized play or FAQs about monk vows, I would apply the metric used for the next closest thing:
Alignment Infractions
Players are responsible for their characters’ actions.
“That’s just what my character would do” is not a defense
for behaving like a jerk.
Alignment infractions are a touchy subject. Killing
an innocent, wanton destruction, and other acts that
can be construed as evil might be considered alignment
infractions. Ultimately, you are he final authority at the
table, but you must warn any player whose character is
deviating from his chosen alignment. This warning
must be clear, and you must make sure that the player
understands the warning and the actions that initiated
the warning. The PC should be given the opportunity to
correct the behavior, justify it, or face the consequences.
We believe a deity would forgive a one-time bad choice as
long as the action wasn’t too egregious (such as burning
down an orphanage full of children, killing a peasant
for no good reason but sport, etc.). Hence, you can issue a
warning to the player through a “feeling” he receives from
his deity, a vision he is given, his conscience talking to
him, or some other similar roleplaying event.
If infractions continue in the course of the scenario
or sanctioned module or Adventure Path, an alignment
change might be in order. If you deem these continued
actions warrant an alignment change, you should note it
on the character’s Chronicle sheet at the end of the session
in the notes section The character can remove this gained
condition through an atonement spell. If the condition is
removed, you should also note it on the Chronicle sheet.
My thinking is that players should always know before their action is set-in-stone whether the GM is going to rule that they have broken a code or made an alignment infraction. I think this is especially important in online play when communication is not as smooth and can be misinterpreted.
Thus, in short, the action in question would indeed violate the code. However, Shiro was not given a warning ahead of time from the GM that this action would have consequences, and Shiro appears to have made an honest misinterpretation of the rule. IIRC, there are in fact other similar class features that do use a creature being undead or a construct as a blanket bypass.
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I agree that Shirogane appears to have made an honest mistake in interpretation of the text of his vow. I also agree with Kiku's reasoning that this is the sort of situation where a warning/chance to change actions is the proper solution, rather than consequences. This is especially important in PbP, because misunderstandings of the situation arise even more easily with the delays in communications.
Thank you for your input. Shiro, I am sorry for overreacting and not giving you a proper warning of the consequences of your actions. Given that we are now in the second round of combat, I don't believe the vow's restrictions will come into effect again later.
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Holy crap I'm glad we are getting some semblance of control over the situation. Poor Kiku seems to always end up in rough combat scenarios (though everyone ends up getting out alive, so *fingers crossed* that continues).
My takeaways thus far from this encounter:
If thou art squishy, thou shalt stay behind those that art not squishy.
If thou art a fireballer, thou art blessed and hast saveth our asses.
If thou art playing up, thou shalt stay behind those that art not playing up.
If thou art a phantom, thou needest defense buffs to tank without dying.
If thou art doing damage, thou shalt concentrate damage when possible.
If thou art a blackfrost mummy, I hate you.
If thou art Kuokei the Owl, you deserve many treats and are a good boy.
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I am quite happy we are turning the situation around.
My personal takeaways...
...if my PC can buff the group, I should buff the group first.
...running up to within' a 5-ft step of enemies is not smart.
...and if me not dying quickly depends on fighting defensively, make sure I CAN fight defensively before exposing my pretty ears to zombie mummies.
The fact that I may be able to learn from my mistakes is awesome, thank you my good allies.
Edited to Add: But we ain't done yet, combat can turn on a dime very quickly.
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OK, strategy talk time. I seem to be the best source of fire to toast the mummies, but also I have the wand to fix the seal. I'm guessing there is an endless pile of mummies who will keep coming after us until the seal is fixed. I can hand off my wand of burning hands to anyone who can use it, or hand off the wand to fix the seal (Narika won't be great at that, because she's CHA based.) I'd welcome any thoughts as to how we as a team want to handle this situation.
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Everyone else would need to UMD the Snow Shape wand, as it’s only sorc/wizard, cleric, and druid. Yojimbo has a decent UMD (+14) and a 17 dex, so he might be able to swing it, but he’s also the tank for all these squishies over here. Ideally, I’d like to be able to move our line forward so Yojimbo can tank for our giant buddy, too, since he seems to scoot off when he gets interrupted. Kiku has a slightly better UMD (+15) and slightly worse dex, but she also has a lot of catch-up work to do on getting Yojimbo’s AC buffed and the party healed. Either way, that’s still a big chance of doing nothing if the skill check fails, and we still have that invisible thing to worry about.
I’d say at least for this round, you give the wand a go, Narika. I really needed to get Hamish back up and give us another set of actions and to move Yojimbo out of the one-good-hit-to-poof zone, as if he poofs from damage, I can’t get him back until the next day.
You got it. I'll wait until everyone else has posted actions before botting Narika each round until you post again to give you the most time to take back the reins when you're ready. Hugs and best of luck!
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@GM The ruling you were asking about re: wrist sheathes is in campaign clarifications, under adventurer’s armory.
Scrolls and potions are both possible to put in wrist sheathes.
Yay! Thanks for finding that for me!
Alright, we're getting close to the end of the scenario - which means its time to roll for boons! Roll a d20 - if the result is a 19 or 20, roll a d4 to determine which boon you'll be receiving via email from the wonderful support team!
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Also, GM, as we are nearing the end, I was wondering if you could sign off on me doing some retraining on my chronicle? I want to retrain Celestial Obedience (Ashava) into Deific Obedience (Ashava) and to retrain two levels into Evangelist PrC. It should be 15 prestige (blech) and 1350 gp (I feel pretty confident Evangelist's aligned class feature makes it have synergy). Evangelist mechanics for Ashava sadly didn't exist until recently, and it's what I would have gladly made her at the start otherwise :(
Woo! Well done everyone - that was a tough final fight.
Chronicle sheets can be found here! If something's not right about your chronicle, just let me know and we'll get it fixed. Kiku, I'm not quite certain what is needed from me regarding your retraining so let me know if what's on the Chronicle sheet isn't what you were looking for and we'll adjust.
If anyone has any feedback about my GMing, I'm always looking to improve. I'd love to hear your thoughts (either here or via PM) on:
- What went well?
- What was frustrating?
- Did you get bored or tune out?
- What was your favorite part?
Rolling boons for myself, Narika, and Shiro:
Oh well. Noke, can you send me your email via PM so I can let the organizing team know where to send your boon?
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I think that should do it for the retraining, GM! Thank you.
I never got bored or tuned-out on this one. It was quite good! And you did a great job GMing it. Trying to figure out the travel arrangements was a tad frustrating, but we were able to manage it. That last combat was tough but fair, and I enjoyed it. Got to really dig-deep on that one. I also know what languages Kiku will be picking up! Really glad I brought her along.