[PFS, Outpost II] Solstice Scar, Version D (Inactive)

Game Master Blake's Tiger

It actually is. 1 round (beyond your turn) to go before death.

Fluttering down to the massive beast, Trey reaches a pale hand out to its still form. "Zhis vill be un interesting experiment. If it vorks."

DC12 Will save for the SLA, not likely to work but worth a try!

Red Will: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

"Ah, I see. Ze bolstering is lost vithin ze false life energy. But I do feel a swelling of musculature. Fascinating." For the moment, the professor appears to have forgotten the battle completely.

No worries, I should have reminded when I updated my AC in the post. 5 images left now.

Watching the image sizzle under the weight of the massive spider's claw, Keri tries to aim better.

entangled point blank deadly aim arrow #1: 1d20 + 16 + 1 - 3 - 2 - 4 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 16 + 1 - 3 - 2 - 4 + 2 = 27
entangled point blank deadly aim arrow #2: 1d20 + 16 + 1 - 3 - 2 - 4 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 16 + 1 - 3 - 2 - 4 + 2 = 29
entangled point blank deadly aim arrow #3: 1d20 + 11 + 1 - 3 - 2 - 4 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 11 + 1 - 3 - 2 - 4 + 2 = 22
point blank cold iron damage #1: 1d8 + 2 + 1 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 + 1 + 6 + 2 = 14
point blank cold iron damage #2: 1d8 + 2 + 1 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 1 + 6 + 2 = 17
point blank cold iron damage #3: 1d8 + 2 + 1 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 + 1 + 6 + 2 = 14

Off to work soon, but those arrows will do it.

"It zeems zhat we are fully into ze fire, ja?" Trey observes, taking a moment to imbibe one of the many vials he carries.

Barkskin for 110 minutes thanks to the death knell. I think those things had enough HD to last him awhile, but let me know when 10 minutes/HD is up either way.

Assuming based on GM’s quick-post that Keriassa’s arrows drop the spider in front of her…

As several shafts thud into the vermin in front of her, Laara steps back as the beast collapses and turns around. Thanks for the help back there! Looks like we made good work of these things, huh? She turns with a smile – one that fades as she notices the copious cuts and bruises on half the party.

Oof. You guys okay? Laara looks back to the fallen spider and kicks one of its legs. Welcome to the Fangwood I guess.

Brushing some fallen leaves from his shoulder as the wings wrap around him, Trey nods. "I vas most fortunate to be mooch too small a meal for zhem. I am quite villing to share mine healing vand!"

A couple of questions for the GM: do you allow average rolls for a Cure Light Wounds wand? And does one of those spiders have 15 HD or less? I’m considering animating one into a skeleton (it’s kinda this character’s style).

Valentino’s chanting is halted quite suddenly by a howl of pain as he’s bitten by the massive spider. As the last one falls he takes a moment to catch his breath, then takes out a wand after re-casting Bestow Curse into his chain shirt.

"Whatever is happening here is most foul." Keriassa exclaims loudly as she tries several times to yank her leg from the outgrowth, before finally stumbling into the clearing.

strength check: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
strength check: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12
strength check: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Moving far away of any downed spiders (or whatever it is Valentino might be doing), Keriassa will channel Erastil's goodness into whoever follows her.

channel positive: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 2) = 8
channel positive: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 2) = 6

Lissa drops the whip then the water holding her up and lets out an deep breath. "I think I dislike the welcome wagon," she says a little weakly, now that the adrenaline has worn off, "but I've seen worse." After Keriassa's channeling, She looks over to the good Professor. "I would be most thankful for a bit more healing. It only got 1 good hit on me, but that was a doozy."

"Lissa, I'm happy to share my healing wand. Anyone else need a bit of magical patching up?"
@Lissa: How many HP are you down?

As the spiders fall Ragnilde guides Helga down again to bask in the healing waves Kerlassa's channeling. The stone giantess takes out a wand and starts tapping the woolly unicorn.

"Well, that was quite the introduction. Both to the fauna and flora " she looks dubiously at the writhing vegetation " and to you folks. Please give me a moment to tend to Helga here."

"So I must confess some ignorance. I was asked to join this caravan at short notice, but I wasn't present for the earlier clash with I believe dragons? Can someone explain the object of our current quest?"

Oh yeah, he was a cocky one. The half-elf smiles remembering the dragon.

Best I can recall Lara says as she smacks another branch out of her path. This Vildeis - or at least her spectral paladin whose dagger is the thing we need to actually kill that shadow-spirit thing - is a bit reluctant to fully bless and fix Medda Twinhorn's dagger outright. Another branch gets *thwacked*. So to prove she's worthy, we have to follow in that paladin's footsteps and re-cleanse this part of the Fangwood just like she did back when she was alive.

And with Medda not here at the moment, I'll just say it: Vildeis and her believers don't really seem good at 'long-term fixes'.

That's at least what I/Laara remember about the mission at the moment. Feel free to correct her if she's got things wrong guys: Laara's not the best 'notes' gal.

The forest opens to a small clearing that is free of the dark flowers that seem to permeate the rest of the landscape. A ring of tall grey trees circles the clearing, their branches reaching toward each other to form a ceiling of black leaves. A chorus of whispering voices echoes within the clearing as countless faces form out of tree bark only to meld back in, flowing from tree to tree. Three of the faces remain in place and speak out in unison. “Who wanders these forlorn paths? Do you seek to join us? Join us!”

-20 minutes on buffs

While there are dozens of different faces that manifest and fade upon the trunks of the trees, three faces remain steady and fixed enough to speak with: a calm face, an angry face, and a jovial face.

Phase 1: You have the opportunity to interact with the faces and each of you can perform a Sense Motive check.

You can also ignore the faces, if your characters truly want to.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

"Vhat a vunderment. Talking trees!" Trey exclaims. "Professor Hurtubize, at your service. Vhat do you mean by 'join us'?"

Oh, do tell me which face you're interacting with.
I'm going to assume Calm for Trey's.

"Become a part of our gathering," the face says. "So many have joined us over the centuries, many of whom fell to Mother Bloodleaf's terrible ways."

Phase 1

Keriassa
Laara
Liassa
Trey - SM fail
Ragnilde
Valentino

Finally done with stats. Before we got back under way I also wanted to cast Greater Magic Fang on Helga (9 hour duration).

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

The giantess raises an eyebrow and directs her query at the calm face. "I am Ragnilde Jotunnsdottir. Mother Bloodleaf? Who is that?"

"A witch," the calm face replies. "A powerful witch has done much harm to these woods."

Phase 1

Keriassa
Laara
Liassa
Trey - SM fail
Ragnilde - SM fail
Valentino

These are pretty rough DCs, but Phase 2 is technically easier.

"And you wish to fight this witch? Can she not sense your treachery?" Keriassa gets right to the point, as is her way.

Sense Motive vs Calm: 1d20 ⇒ 9

"Fight? Who said anything about fighting?" the jovial face says with a laugh.

I’m not sure if you noticed, but there’s been a bit of fighting going on over here. Laara replies annoyedly to the happy face. And if more and more faces keep growing because of that witch, I’m guessing it’s been happening for a while.

SM v Jovial: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Talking trees?? This is so cool!
"Join you?! Where do I sign up?!" Valentino eagerly says to all of the faces at once.
Not gonna even bother rolling Sense Motive. Valentino lacks common sense.

**Earlier**
Lissa pulls a wand of her own out of her belt pouch, and offers it to Valentino to use. "Thanks. I can force it if I need to, but I'd prefer not to."

**Now**

Lissa walks over and suspiciously looks at the faces. "A grove of trees, with faces, talking about becoming one with them via a Witch's blessing? I don't like this..."

Sense Motive vs. Angry: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Lissa's only slightly better then Valentino.

"Witch's blessing!? No, no, no!" the faces begin to talk over themselves. "If you're with Mother Bloodleaf, we want nothing to do with you! We don't want to fight. Someone should stand up to her. Whose side are you on? Can't we all just get along?"

Phase 2

Phase 2 is the persuasion stage. Here you can, if you want, attempt to convince the spirits to help you. You each get 1 check. More than 1 PC can attempt to persuade the same face. You can literally use any skill you want but you have to make the RP make sense for the skill, and the DC varies depending on the face, your tactic, and your RP.

Or you can say, "Forget you, trees!" and move on.

"A vitch?" Trey ponders this revelation a moment, before continuing to address the calm face. "Logikally, zhis Mother is off no good to ze health und wellbeing off your forest. Ve are accomplished adventurers vith a great deal off experience dealing vith such individuals. You should be joining vith us so ass to drive her avay und leaf the forest in peace. What say you? Vill you join us?"

Diplomacy on Calm Face: 1d20 + 12 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 12 + 5 = 25

"Yes. You are absolutely right," the calm face replies to Trey. "And with such experienced adventurers leading the charge, they are sure to keep us safe."

Trey stumbles upon the Easy DC for that face by using the correct keywords.

Phase 2

Keriassa
Laara
Liassa
Trey - Influence Calm +1
Ragnilde
Valentino

Angry: pending
Jovial: pending
Calm: Convinced

Brilliant! I was going to use Knowledge Nature, but his persuasion was just a bit higher.

Keriassa will seek out the angry face and recite the famous story of the Shining Crusades against Tar-Baphon, which united disparate forces (Taldor, the Knights of Ozem, and the dwarves of the Five Kings Mountains among them) and how that led to the tyrant's defeat, comparing it to this potential alliance of trees and Pathfinders and barbarians.

perform(oratory): 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (19) + 22 = 41

Keriassa noticed that the calm face is really seething with suppressed anger toward the corruption in the forest and strong, bold arguments would sway it more easily. (Which Trey managed to step into.)

With the calm face won over, she attempts to convey the value of partnering with the Shining Crusade in defeating tyrants such as Mother Bloodleaf through the power of storytelling. It appears to work.

"I'm worried that you're overconfident, but I guess you do have some good points. There are an awful lot of you," the angry face concedes.

(And Keriassa manages to blow the Hard DC out of the water so picking the wrong argument for the face didn't really hinder her.)

Phase 2

Keriassa - Influence Angry +1
Laara
Liassa
Trey - Influence Calm +1
Ragnilde
Valentino

Angry: Convinced
Jovial: pending
Calm: Convinced

Ragnilde mentally hypothesizes that anyone looking jovial while imprisoned by an evil witch must be trying to mask existential despair with frivolity. She's going to share some of the funny yet bleak stories of her own career in order to try to build a rapport. Her stint in the Ungrounded ("earth witch captain") and the troubles at a certain clock tower in Uringen serve as particular inspiration.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (8) + 20 = 28

Valentino addresses the jovial face.

”We join you, you join us…’the more we get together the happier we’ll be’! But I’m afraid if we don’t team up...well I don’t want to make you sad cuz you seem like such a happy guy and all.”

Valentino’s expression turns exaggeratedly dour. ”But I’ve heard grave tidings about what’s in store for your lovely forest home. Deforestation. High-end vacation home developments for rich nobles who have a fetish for torturing talking trees. And worse. Best help us help you now, yeah?”

Obviously Valentino’s heard nothing of the sort.
bluff: 1d20 + 27 ⇒ (11) + 27 = 38

Or if you're not going to help, then you can at least stop talking. Laara says, not hiding the frustration in her voice and on her face as she stares at the smiling bit of bark. Because if a fight comes and it gets hectic, we can only try so hard to avoid a stray chop or flame hitting the wrong bit of wood.

Intimidate: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (17) + 23 = 40

I'm passing on this. There's no way I can do any better then the rolls already on the table.

The jovial face laughs along with the amusing parts of Ragnilde's story but in the end simply says, "Yeah, those were good stories."

The face actually stops grinning for a moment as Valentino talks. It seems... bamboozled. It then shrinks back at Laara's anger. "I'll help," it says meekly.

Challenge Complete.

You continue deeper into the forest, now accompanied by several tree spirits. Their faces flicker from trunk to trunk. Every so often they guide you around a danger or direct you back on track when you lose your way.

-20 minutes on buffs

The spirits suddenly freeze in place. "Who are these newest foul minions of Mother Bloodleaf?" a deep, booming voice demands from the shadows around you.

Ragnilde looks around from her high perch, trying to see where the voice came from. Her own voice is stone-deep and booming as well.

"We are no minions of anyone. We are Pathfinders. Who are you?"

That feint works better in person where it wouldn't take so much time.

A burly middle-aged man with the ears and legs of a goat steps out from behind a tree. He grins and waves his hand. “Ho there, adventurers! I got bored waiting, so I think we should have some fun! Don’t worry, this won’t take long. I wouldn’t want you to miss the main event, and I plan to have a front-row seat. Oh, where are my manners? The name’s Grimpfkin. So, what do you say? Do you choose to test your speed or might?”

"Ah, a pleasure to make ze acquaintance Grimpfkin." Trey greets the curious forest person. "I am not off ze might, but vould be villing to challenge for speed. Vhat do you think, mine comrades?"

Will be out at the movies all day today, but will be back tomorrow if I can't find time to chime in.

Edit: Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (14) + 15 = 29

Waiting for what? Laara asks. And what sort of test are you talking about?

"Waiting for you to reach Mother Bloodleaf," Grimpfkin says. He then proceeds to speak slowly as if to a child, drawing out the single syllable in both 'speed' and 'might.' "A test of... speed or a test of... might."

”Ah, Grimpfkin my good man!” Valentino smiles a slightly sinister grin. ”I am Valentino. Yes, let’s have some fun! I’m with the good professor on this one: I feel the need for speed!”
knowledge nature: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (10) + 15 = 25

**OVERSEER ANNOUNCEMENT**

Even though much of the forest withers from some evil curse, eager faces flow from tree to tree as the friendly, whispering spirits encourage their would-be saviors onward.

Table GMs, the Helpful Spirits effect is in play.

Ragnilde looks levelly at the strange man, and questions her companions. "Are we playing games now? Fine. I suppose we can put up a pace if needed."

She casts Mass Feather Step on the party.

"While I'm not adverse to a friendly challenge, will you tell us what this test will entail before we agree to it?" Lissa asks, ever suspicious.

Grimpfkin looks at Lissa and taps his finger on his chin thoughtfully, "Um... no!"

The portly satyr-like creature hops atop a mossy rock, and flings the contents of his mug into the air. Before it reaches the ground, the fizzing ale transforms into a bird and takes flight off into the woods, leaving a faintly sparkling trail. The seilenos looks on with surprised approval before clapping his hands at you and exclaiming, “What are you waiting for? Catch it, and the prize is yours. Just, ah, no flying or teleporting—it’s a challenge, remember?”

You will face a number of obstacles. They will be described to you, but your choice of how to overcome them as an individual is up to you: you can use spells or abilities, but they grant bonuses to the check rather than outright invalidating a challenge. As such, Ragnilde's mass featherstep grants you a +6 bonus to checks involved in plans for overcoming difficult terrain. If your plan has multiple step, the check applies to the part that is most important to success.

Gathering your wits, you rush off into the woods after the magical bird. The spirit faces on the trees are released from their paralysis and move along with you. "You can do it!" cheers one of the spirits.

The glittering trail leads across a wide ravine that cuts through the forest. The ravine has several old logs set across it, and a slowly flowing creek runs along the bottom. Grimpfkin is sitting at the bottom of the ravine next to the creek, fishing. He waves at you from below.

Obstacle 1

Keriassa
Laara
Liassa
Trey
Ragnilde
Valentino

Ragnilde guides Helga down to the forest floor and looks at the logs skeptically. "No flying eh? To make it a proper race, fair enough I suppose. But I'm not sure Helga can cross those logs.."

Ragnilde's taking a long hard look at the ravine. How wide is it? Would jumping be an option? How rough is the wall? Climbing maybe?

Don't worry about Helga passing the challenges.

The gap looks a little less than thirty feet across and the walls of the ravine for natural rock walls.

Lissa scowls a little at the dismissal of her 'request', but still jumps into action at the urging. Without hesitation, she goes to bound across the logs.

Acrobatics(Sick): 1d20 + 19 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 19 - 2 = 28

Sending it now.

Agree on the passing, but IIRC boosting doesn't cost an action right? So:

Helga boosts attack: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (11) + 16 = 27

(I envisage a low-tier party suddenly seeing a 6 metric ton woolly thing landing on their enemy.)

It doesn't, but Attack was already boosted. :)

And you saved a high-level character's life from a nasty crit. :)

Okay, I have a weird request. I have the Waterdancer wild talent, which varies my speed:

Uphill - 30 feet
Level ground - 40 feet
Downhill - 50 feet

As such, can you mention what the terrain is like in this reference?

Wow, good job guys. 4.5 days ahead is an eternity for these

I am leaving on a vacation with my family on Sunday, March 24th until Sunday, March 31st. During this time, I'll have limited access to the site. I will try to keep up on my games, but if you feel the need to bot my characters during this time, feel free.

Here have an aid token

Aid token 7
Boosts: Allied Offensive, Burst of Healing

Since I charged forward there at what is presumably one of the big bads of the chapter, she'll probably try something nasty at me. I doubt (likely) impalement puts her completely out of commission. I may want to use rerolls to make it safely through anything she throws at me so that the rest has time to get over here too.

Not going to say no to bursting that healing for everyone.

The current Aid Token has boosted Allied Offensive and boosted Burst of Healing.

So:

Allied Offensive would grant you +4d8 damage for your next attack (it has to hit).
Burst of Healing would grant you 7d6 healing.

I'll go with healing after Ragnilde's action if nobody has argued for a different tactic.

The current Aid Token has boosted Allied Offensive and boosted Burst of Healing.

So:

Allied Offensive would grant you +4d8 damage for your next attack (it has to hit).
Burst of Healing would grant you 7d6 healing.

I'll go with healing after Ragnilde's action if nobody has argued for a different tactic.

Healing seems appropriate.

Healing applied. Passing Aid Token.

***AID TOKEN #3***
Passing Aid Token to: GM Blake
Current Boosts: Allied Offensive, Easy Knowledge Religion (Charlie Robert McGee)

Are we allowed to use this aid token this encounter? If so, either as offensive boost when Laara gets there or as more healing to slow the digestive rate?

No, only one aid token per encounter. Can pass/boost and pass/sit on it.

That's what I figured. Well I don't have any good boosts available. Ragnilde isn't that highly educated.

We're having a convention this weekend, so my uptime is a bit spotty. I'll try to keep checking in, but if it takes too long I think my botting notes should be thorough enough.

Oh! Oh! Oh! I didn't think about it, but Lissa has a nexus crystal shard from Bonekeep Level 1. It gives her negative energy resistance 10.

Sadly, my Bonekeep characters are otherwise involved.

Our Con is over, was a great weekend. Tomorrow morning I'll freshen up Ragnilde's stats.

If you don't have any additional buffs to apply, let me know.

I'm always too cheap with the scrolls and potions. Making note to self that by level 9+ my characters hsould really all have Death Ward scrolls/stuff on them, plus FoM, Remove ___, and maybe Break Enchantment.

Oh something that I wanted to make sure everyone knows: I have a scroll of breath of life in my right-hand spring-loaded wrist sheath. Left-hand sheath has dimension door.

For the breath of life, I only need a 4+ on the die to actually activate it but I need a 10+ on the die to emulate the casting stat (WIS). I hope we don't need it but it's there if we do.

Keep in mind that we have a one-use ability of breath of life available to each of us if needed. Link.

You won't need it on the Negative Energy Plane... since you immediately turn to ash.

Tempted to activate my use just to ignore the planar traits when curing for this encounter...

Thanks for the reminder, Trey. But yeah, if we turn to ash at 0 HP, breath of life isn't going to help...

EDIT: you don't HAVE to be dead to use BoL. So it could still be helpful if getting close to dead. Although I agree, suppressing the impeded magic is not a bad idea at all.

FYI: I will be having same-day surgery on 4/10. I have requested a back-up GM to cover.

4/9!

If the giant was using Invisibility, wouldn't he become visible after the first attack? It won't cancel any hits, but it saves on some sneak attack damage. Also, doesn't cleave require followup targets to be adjacent to each other? Helga and Ragnilde clearly are, but Laara clearly isn't.

It's possible that the giant has some advanced abilities but in that case that's also good to know that we're dealing with something more than regular cleave.

Re: Cleave & Laara: Good catch. I read his advanced feat as "within reach" (because that's how it starts) but it does qualify "adjacent" later, so Laara is saved her damage.

Re: Invisibility & Cleave: SKR agrees with you.

***AID TOKEN #5***

Passing Aid Token to: GM Blake
Current Boosts:
Allied Offensive ("Dare" Howitzer),
Provide Knowledge: Religion Hard (Irp the familiar)

General heads-up to all my PbP groups: I have a local PFS con Friday 4/12 and Saturday 4/13 with games from 8am-10+PM MST. I don't foresee being able to update my PbP games during this time (these twice-yearly cons are fun but also kinda grueling).

I'll try to get some basic botting up for my PC games. My GM games probably won't be updated until Sunday or Monday.

There's been a call for help, if you're willing to pass your Aid Token.

Is the Allied Offensive mentioned at the start of the fight part of the token? Either way, I'm okay to pass it. Either by using the offensive or just pushing it over.

No, you have benefit from other tables wooing the drake, which functions like Allied Offensive, and you have Aid Token #5.

I'm okay with passing it since there's a call for it.

Since you have a free Allied Offensive, I think you should *cough* heal *cough* and pass as soon as I post this. I'll just assume you do that...

SOLD!

For full disclosure on your consideration: some tables are going to have to do both encounters in order for the House to win, but also know that I think the army encounter is potentially tougher than Eshimka.

The house is at ~20% success right now (each success is worth ~4%).

Trey has a half-price raise available, so I'm willing to try. I'll accept the party's consensus however.

Laara is also willing to try and fight the army. Though she has little ability to heal Lissa back up quickly.

I dunno what the army does, but I get pretty nervous from fear auras that lock half the party out of the fight.

We still have some of those scrolls we got, I think there was a big healing scroll in there too? And the SNA-6 could pack some firepower.

I have a packet of Mimic Fibers, I dunno if that's enough to get Keriassa's bow back into non-broken status?

The breath of life effect from Vildeis' blessing heals a decent chunk if it's not used as breath of life.

Trey would be more than happy to use his boon to help get her in the fight.

I dunno what the army does, but I get pretty nervous from fear auras that lock half the party out of the fight.

I got called out for cowardice in the last special, so I'm being a little more reckless going forward. Death is just a status condition. :) I totally understand not wanting another 'sit out the fight while everyone else play' kind of battle, of course.

Keri is willing to lay on hands twice for a 6d6 boost for her.

Also, nice item Ragnilde, never seen that before.

Go ahead and play out Valentino’s last action this round and then do you 2 rounds of action/movement (standard tactical rules apply). If anyone vociferously declines the battle before tomorrow morning, I’ll void any consumable use and not run the fight.

Alright y'all, I'm down to take on the army. And I kind of feel like animating Eshimka as a skeleton via my dance of the dead performance. I wouldn't be able to inspire courage at the same time, but that would be a big (huge) chunk of reach + HP to aid our efforts. And kinda poetic justice at the same time to use Eshimka's corpse against the army. I think I'd need to UMD a scroll of desecrate to make this work. Is anyone opposed to this?

@GM Blake I just GMed this special locally and have the scenario in my downloads and can do all the math on making Eshimka a skeleton.

Can you reanimate a 'destroyed' undead? (I know we technically killed Eshimka, but I applaud the cinematic segue into the next part of the special.)

Trey would be ecstatic to view the creation and destruction of such a specimen in real time but I know how much of a headache these things can be. :)