[PFS2_Luke_Parry] 2-06: The Crashing Wave (Inactive)

Game Master Luke_Parry

PLAYER: The Sesquipedalian Thaumaturge
CHARACTER: Adalan Mussara
PFS #: 270872-2001
STARTING XP: 55
STARTING FAME: 29
STARTING GP: 111.26

Downtime: 8 days of Off-Hours Study

BOONS:
Faction: Improved Vigilant Seal Champion
Vigilant Seal Bonus: Resist Corruption
Advanced: Off-Hours Study (Pathfinder Society Lore)
General: Sand Slide (3 uses)
General: Wayfinder
General: Adamant Wayfinder
Slotless: Engraved Wayfinder
Slotless: One-Who-Waits
Slotless: Ally of the Iruxi
Slotless: Multicultural Training (Varisian)

Scenario Consumables: scroll of fireball and minor healing potion

PLAYER: The Sesquipedalian Thaumaturge
CHARACTER: Adalan Mussara
PFS #: 270872-2001
STARTING XP: 55
STARTING FAME: 29
STARTING GP: 111.26

Downtime: 8 days of Off-Hours Study

BOONS:
Faction: Improved Vigilant Seal Champion
Vigilant Seal Bonus: Resist Corruption
Advanced: Off-Hours Study (Pathfinder Society Lore)
General: Sand Slide (3 uses)
General: Wayfinder
General: Adamant Wayfinder
Slotless: Engraved Wayfinder
Slotless: One-Who-Waits
Slotless: Ally of the Iruxi
Slotless: Multicultural Training (Varisian)

Scenario Consumables: scroll of fireball and minor healing potion

#1-16: The Perennial Crown, Part 1 - Opal of Bhopan

PLAYER: Pete H.
CHARACTER: Bair Mann
PFS ID#: 123584-2001
STARTING XP: 50 (lvl 5)
STARTING FAME: 28

Items Purchased: NA
STARTING GP after purchases: 92g 27s 48c

BOONS:

PLAYER: Ever_Anon
CHARACTER: Mara Spintho
PFS ID#: 2364939-2001
STARTING XP: 55
STARTING FAME: 41
STARTING GP: 259gp, 7sp, 2cp

BOONS
Faction: Improved Envoys’ Alliance Champion
Advanced: Touched by the Storm
Generic: Skillful Mentor (slotted for free)
Generic: Experienced Mountaineer
Generic: Valais's Assurance
Generic: Sand Slide

Earn Income roll for 1-16: Library Lore DC18: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

Failure so Mara earns 64cp.

Just a note, Bair's Initiative is +12 from Stealth unless he is unable to use the Avoid Notice exploration tactic and has to rely on perception.

For future reference, who in the party would typically benefit most from the extra action granted by haste?

That is a good question. I would say Bair, Thorax or Mara would be the top three since you only get a Stride or a Strike with the extra action and the other three are mostly casters.

But between two rogues and a barbarian tank, the rogues usually do more damage if they can get into flanking so an extra action might help facilitate that. Plus, they have agile weapons which only applies a -4 per attack so a bonus 3rd or 4th strike would hit better than Bair's -5 increments.

If Bair got it he would probably end up using Demoralize more often. So any of us would be happy to get it but I'd suggest one of the rogues.

Hey, all. I just received word that my work is closing permanently and I'm being laid off. I suspected this might happen, so I wasn't caught too off guard, but it still sucks to say goodbye to something I've been doing for fifteen years.

The next X amount of days will probably be a mess as I file for unemployment and get my resume updated and start applying for new work, so please bot me if needed. I'll try to check in every night.

Aww, that sucks. Stay strong and power through. You got this.

Oh, I wish you to find out another one soon.

Best of luck working all that out.

Apparently I bought a Hat of Disguise way way way back here. I'm thinking maybe I'll actually start using it...

I think these obstacles require discussing some strategy. GM, please let me know if I'm misunderstanding anything.

Since we all have to use 1 action for Complex Etiquette, we each only have 2 actions to spend on the actual obstacles. We need a total of 9 successes, (3 obstacles with 3 successes each), out of 12 actions (6 players with 2 actions each). Not a lot of wiggle-room, especially since most of us already used our auto-success.

Thorax, Dran'Thor, and Deshacerla have all gone, (although Deshacerla does still have one action remaining). Right now the obstacles stand as follows:

Injured Dancers: 1 success (Assuming a 21 is high enough)
Perplexing Magic: 0 successes
Relentless Beat: 0 successes
Spinning Flourish: 1 success
Watchful Guards: 2 successes

I think we should ignore Perplexing Magic and Relentless Beat and instead focus on the three obstacles that already have 1-2 successes.

Got ninjaed by Bair and decided to go ahead and post my own actions. The new status, (assuming the DC for a success is no higher than 20) is as follows:

Injured Dancers: 3 successes COMPLETE
Perplexing Magic: 0 successes
Relentless Beat: 0 successes
Spinning Flourish: 1 success
Watchful Guards: 2 successes

Adalan has two actions remaining and Deshacerla has one.

So... Yeah...

For trying to help this guy overthrow the monarchy, you are actually punished - the end fight is the same, regardless (his monologue is just different), but if you opt *not* to help him, he still breaks in anyway, and the King asks you to go investigate - but he opens the vault for you, which means you don't have to bypass the traps...

Just a note, Bair's Initiative is +12 from Stealth unless he is unable to use the Avoid Notice exploration tactic and has to rely on perception.

Don't forget to update this on what I assume is a preformatted initiative block you keep somewhere.

_________________

That was... not necessarily annoying and actually moderately comical that we got betrayed by the dude. Maybe it'll teach us a lesson about not trusting npc's and we'll screw up a bunch of missions in the future now because we are super wary? I can only hope! :D

While the betrayal was an interesting development, it didn't go the way I expected. I truly anticipated him stealing whatever it was he wanted and locking us in there as something else attacked us.

Perhaps we shall learn our lesson! Perhaps not...

And next time we will have to follow the guy because otherwise there will be something missing...

Fortunately, the GM said we would be there anyway. Well, we took the traps more.

I'm sort of glad that he did turn out to be lying; it's good to know that the flimsy motivations were actually intended. But it is difficult sometimes to tell when the scenario is giving us a choice. In an actual campaign I'd be quicker to say 'F@*$ this guy, it's clearly a trap,' but in PFS I don't want to risk missing out on anything by being too suspicious.

Just to be sure: do we get the chronicle sheet for the previous one before this one? It's for the update of the sheet as I will be lvl 6.

Of course you get a chronicle for Part I; why wouldn't you?

Everyone should have received a link to their chronicle sheet.

Please post reporting details for Part II :-)

Signing in for #1-17: The Perennial Crown, Part 2 - The Thorned Monarch (Regular Speed):

PLAYER: Nefreet
CHARACTER: Thorax Toothlicker
PFS ID#: 66548-2001
DOWNTIME: 4/8 days continuing to Craft a batch of 4x Alchemist Fire, Moderate, saving another 8gp (which finishes them), then spending 4/8 days preparing to Craft a batch of 4x Frost Vial, Moderate:
Level 3 Item, DC 18: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (9) + 11 = 20
BOONS:
• Faction - Vigilant Seal (Improved)
• Advanced - Heroic Defiance (slotted for free)
• General - Lastwall Debt
• General - Touched by the Storm
• General - Professional Hireling (Culture, Pathfinder Society Lore, Underworld Lore)
• General - Professional Hireling (Survival, Butchering Lore, Mercantile Lore)
• Slotless - Engraved Wayfinder
• Slotless - One-Who-Waits
• Slotless - Ally of the Iruxi
• Slotless - Blood Offering

Free Swords Items: Lesser Healing Potion, Moderate Alchemist Fire.

I thought that perhaps we would get both CS at once.

Did we miss something? I've got only 80 gp instead of 100 as lvl 5.

Otherwise I assume we begin this one at full with all our spells. I've got a new slot.

PLAYER: J.G.
CHARACTER: Dran'Thor
PFS ID#: 212081-2001
STARTING XP: 63
STARTING FAME: 53
STARTING GP: 428.65 gp

Downtime after 1-17, 8 days, Crafting, Magical crafting, Jade Cat, lvl 2 DC 16: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23
3 gp raw

BOONS:
Faction Boon: Improved Verdant Wheel
Advanced Boon (or others but not faction Boon): Amateur adjuster
Generic Boon (1 slot because of Improved champion): Valais's Assurance
Generic Boon: Secrets of the Jistkan Alchemists
Generic Boon: Touched by the storm
Generic Boon: Nexian Researcher
Slotless: Engraved wayfinder
Slotless: Beginnings and Endings
Slotless: One-Who-Waits
Slotless: Ally of Iruxi
Slotless: Blood Offering

Out for this one: Experienced Mountaineer, Naturalist

Free Schools items: Scroll of Insect form

With Tiger (Bonded animal)

@Dran'Thor: Yes, you did miss stuff - to receive full rewards, for example, you had to succeed at *all* of the group checks for traveling through the jungle. You missed two treasure bundles.

:Cry

And for this one it will be the same

:Cry again

It's difficult to manage to come over each of these skill checks.

PLAYER: Ever_Anon
CHARACTER: Mara Spintho
PFS ID#: 2364939-2001
STARTING XP: 59
STARTING FAME: 45
STARTING GP: 324gp, 3sp, 6cp

BOONS
Faction: Improved Envoys’ Alliance Champion
Advanced: Touched by the Storm
Generic: Skillful Mentor (slotted for free)
Generic: Experienced Mountaineer
Generic: Valais's Assurance
Generic: Sand Slide

Earn Income roll for 1-17: Library Lore DC18: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16

Failure so Mara earns 64cp.

#1-17: The Perennial Crown Part 2, The Thorned Monarch

PLAYER: Pete H.
CHARACTER: Bair Mann
PFS ID#: 123584-2001
STARTING XP: 54 (lvl 5)
STARTING FAME: 28

Items Purchased: Heroic Defiance Boon (4 fame), +1 Striking Silver Halberd (142g)
STARTING GP after purchases: 30g 67s 48c

BOONS:

PLAYER: The Sesquipedalian Thaumaturge
CHARACTER: Adalan Mussara
PFS #: 270872-2001
STARTING XP: 59
STARTING FAME: 33
STARTING GP: 191.26

Downtime: 8 days of Off-Hours Study (making 18 total).

BOONS:
Faction: Improved Vigilant Seal Champion
Vigilant Seal Bonus: Resist Corruption
Advanced: Off-Hours Study (Pathfinder Society Lore)
General: Sand Slide (3 uses)
General: Wayfinder
General: Adamant Wayfinder
Slotless: Engraved Wayfinder
Slotless: One-Who-Waits
Slotless: Ally of the Iruxi
Slotless: Multicultural Training (Varisian)
Slotless: Blood Offering

Scenario Consumables: scroll of magic missile, scroll of fireball

Retraining Bair's lvl 2 skill feat Titan Wrestler and replacing it with Combat Climber AFTER the session. This takes 7 days.

All PCs can be freely rebuilt through the AcP system right now ^_^

That's what I used to rebuild Thorax.

Bair Mann wrote:

Retraining Bair's lvl 2 skill feat Titan Wrestler and replacing it with Combat Climber AFTER the session. This takes 7 days.

All PCs can be freely rebuilt through the AcP system right now ^_^

That's what I used to rebuild Thorax.

Ooh, that is very nice. I shall take advantage of that after the session. Not a lot of changes incoming but a couple little things to improve.

Plus that means full rewards for earn income, now I'm rolling in the dough!

I also need to look through all the available consumables and make sure Bair isn't ignoring stuff that will really jam us up later (water breathing and fly options maybe?)

Yeah after that whole quadruple trap setup I looked for consumables to maybe reroll failed Thievery checks and I couldn't find anything.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open.

A part of hero point and glyph I don't know. And you can't reroll a reroll like this. The case appeared in a session yesterday night.

Sorry for my delay - work has been...well...yeah. Posting now

Do all the enemies have rules about saving reactions for only attacking spellcasters? That’s the only logic I can see around ignoring Bair running past them to attack the person they are supposed to be guarding.

Bair’s attempts to draw off a little heat seem to be a waste of time. I’m just trying to figure out a way in pfs2 to actually convince enemies to attack him and so far am coming up blank.

They don't have rules specifying to only take AoOs on spellcasters, but they have an intelligence score, saw Deshacerla cast a spell, and moved up specifically to threaten her...

...more to the point, the one you (theoretically) provoked an AoO from, is the one Thorax KO'ed...?

I hear your frustration - I think it depends on the intelligence of the enemy - mindless/animal intelligence things will just go for whatever provokes their aggro, but intelligent enemies will act, well, intelligently; why take an AoO on the fighter-type, when you know that you have a caster surrounded?

The chance of three AoOs is why Thorax stepped three times. When I saw Bair's path, I literally pointed it out to my buddy and said "Welp, I guess he's getting dropped", Lol.

I think I provoked from three or four enemies (with reach) as I strolled by.

But all that aside, does anyone know of feats or class abilities to pull threat? I haven’t found any yet. Pfs1 had antagonize and some spells, so maybe stuff like that.

We face a lot of smart enemies, it would be nice if Bair could make them do dumb things.

I agree but I also haven't found anything until now.

Not really... but I am sure that they will arrive with time.

The closest thing that I am aware of is the Champion ability that punishes you for *not* targeting them...?

Antagonize in PF1 was stupid, though. You shout an insult at the Wizard, and suddenly they feel the need to charge at you with their dagger? Then you brutally beat them and they run away for the rest of the fight.

If it wasn't ubiquitous, I wouldn't have had such a problem with it, but literally every Convention I went to from state to state it was everywhere.

That sucks. I've literally never seen it used on any character I've played with. I do tend to agree it was a poor feat too.

I shall just have to continue my planned build, which should help resolve some of the issues facing Bair as he continues leveling up. He should become more of a threat and thus take more of the enemy's focus, plus getting AoO at lvl 6 should at least force them to take a hit if the smarter enemies use the 'kill the casters first' tactic when they try to rush past.

Bair: I found that the fighter archetype allows to get the fighter feat of AoO. But you need to take two class feat to get it (Fighter dedication + Opportunist).

I’ll look into that, but probably just wait till lvl six when I can get AoO as a barbarian for only one feat.

I am glad that you did that, Mara, because:

Development: Though it will take some time for word of the events that transpired in the vaults to get out, if King Webhekiz dies by the PCs’ hand, word eventually spreads of the cruelty of the Pathfinders who visited Bhopan, granting *each* PC 1 Infamy.

Lorefinder: the First World

Is it possible to win this fight?

Possible?

Yes.

Extremely difficult?

Definitely.

There are a lot of complaints in the GM thread about the Boss Monster.

Fortunately, even if things go bad, it is highly unlikely to be a TPK (provided you get rid of the remaining cocoons) - the monster just wants its crown back, after all...

FWIW, the last two times that I have run this scenario, there have been no deaths... although the mission was only a partial success.

I use the downtime before the quest to bond with a new animal. It will be a smilodon this time (lvl 6).

Eh. Why don't you just be utterly ridiculous (showing how stupidly broken the feat is), and bond with a Roc, instead...?

After that (from level 8, when you can auto-command it), a Purple Worm is probably your next (and 'unfortunately' maximum) choice...

:-P

That said, if you want to restrain yourself, A smilodon is fine.

((Really, they need to errata the feat.))