Hellknight Hill: Bumblebrashers! (Inactive)

Game Master Joana

Hiya.

Yep! Though one of my computers isn’t cooperating, sadly.

I’m drifting away from Paizo forums really so I don’t post as much as I used to. I’m really only here for this game, to be honest. I know we’ve slowed, but I’m definitely enjoying it. I hope we can ride out the lull!

Strolling back into the thread like...

Apologies for the inaction, my access did indeed get chewed up in the site update apparently and I've been unable to log in for a wee while. I shall return to functional status now...

I'm presuming that, unless there's an obvious Big Bad in the mix, Gethric will use his Nimble Dodge against the first attack targeting him in a round. Hasn't worked out for him so far, since both first attacks as yet have been misses anyway.

Steve, I'm aiming to get us moving at a steady pace again, especially once we pick up some new players. I had too many things come up in November and December that I said "I can't deal with it now; I'll deal with it after the holidays," and then After The Holidays arrived and I had to play catch up. :P

Weird wrinkle, but as inspire courage is a spell with an area of emanation in 2e, the center of the area moves with the bard. In addition, line of effect for an emanation can be blocked by a solid physical barrier.

So, by my reading, if Darla moves out into the corridor with her 25 feet of movement, the area of effect for inspire courage would be limited to basically the 8 column and Aronida. If she stops at AE8, she can get Alek and Gethric as well but excludes Gellius. If she stops at AF8, she gets the squares everyone in the party currently occupies, but she hasn't withdrawn as far as she might wish to. (Gellius could get the benefits of ic with Darla in AE8 by stepping to AI9 before attacking.)

Which square would you like to stop in?

Steve, I'm aiming to get us moving at a steady pace again, especially once we pick up some new players. I had too many things come up in November and December that I said "I can't deal with it now; I'll deal with it after the holidays," and then After The Holidays arrived and I had to play catch up. :P

I feel that. Moved house and then lost internet - everything just took so long to sort out.. I bare more responsibility for slowing things down than anyone, I think.

Gradually, life is returning to normal. :)

Which square would you like to stop in?

Nice catch; I'll try to keep that little tidbit in my memory bank in the future. Let's say she took two Steps to reach AF8. I'd forgotten to update her hit points after the recent heal-fest, and she's at full. She can (hopefully) hold off the skeletons briefly while the others escape.

Eep! Not 100% confident I'm going to make it out! :o

That accumulated 16 hits because it was a natural 20: steps it up from a miss to hit.

Got it. Reverse the order of those and I'm in trouble! :p

(Got down to 4hp before Alek healed me).

Is it too metagamey of me to notice that skeleton 1 has used it's reaction AOOing Aronida, do you think?

Eh, drawing off AoOs was de rigeur in P1e, as far as I was concerned. Of course, in that edition, you always had to take a change they might have Combat Reflexes.

But Gellius actually has Attack of Opportunity and thus ought to have an understanding of how it works, just like a wizard understands the limitations on how enemy wizards cast spells. So use his expertise and plan his tactics accordingly.

Cool. Thanks. :)
(I figure the same, I just don't want to be too cheesy if that sort of thing bugs people).

Is it too metagamey of me to notice that skeleton 1 has used it's reaction AOOing Aronida, do you think?

Didn't need to worry about it anyhow. I was going to try and "help" Darla in some sense, but made more sense to just be defensive.

I considered stepping then "taking cover" rather than using my main gauche, but the specifics of the taking cover seem a little too judgement based for PBP. (Like the bonus ends when I leave the square...I think it would help during an AOO, but...).

It's interesting - I like the tactical options I'm getting as a fighter. Each round there's nearly always two or three ways to "spend" my actions that feel meaningfully different.

Had to double-check the rules on dying and being healed. Alek's healing restores Gethric to 3 hp and to consciousness, but he gains the wounded 1 condition until someone successfully Treats Wounds or until he is restored to full hp and rests for 10 minutes.

So Darla's healing potion is probably better saved for a more dire occasion, presuming the party is going to retreat to the Bumblebrashers and not fight another battle right away.

Always happy to serve as a learning moment by trying / being subjected to something new ;)

I'll second Gellius opining on the options available in 2nd ed as well. The three actions and a more streamlined way to use them for stabby characters does make the combat seem more involved and active.

Apologies for being a bit out of circulation over the last week - we lost a team member from work, so it's taken some adjustment and mental reconciliation.

Sorry to hear that; my condolences.

@Joana: Time for the party to crawl back to Breachill and recruit a couple new heroes?

Good plan.

And let’s see if we can ditch Alex while we’re at it.
(Gellius does not like him.)

Oh, c'mon, what's not to like about an Asmodeus-worshipping Hellknight-maybe-wannabe? ;D

Honestly, I meant to put up a recruitment post for new players last weekend, but I've been super-busy IRL. Should definitely get it done this week.

Recruitment post is up. I'd appreciate it if you guys kept an eye on the thread and gave me some feedback when the time comes to pick new players.

Here are the players who submitted a replacement character:

Kittenmancer, Des Bumblebrasher, goblin oracle
eggellis, Nosteo Faustus, human sorceror (champion dedication)
nilesr, Nilan Milarne, human wizard
Atlas2112, Gwendolen, human warpriest
Deevor, Ragbik, dwarf wizard
Javell DeLeon, Drake McClain, human ranger
rainzax, Lough, changeling witch
Molemanking, Phaeton Sanlest, fleshwarp cleric

Please PM me within 24 hours or so with any feedback you may have on our options.

Hello! Thanks to all for allowing me to be a part of this one. I appreciate it.

For the record, I'm still learning this game but it's coming along. Slowly but surely and all that. I'm in another one that's a beginner box so that's been helpful.

Welcome aboard!

This is my only PF2 game so I still consider myself a newbie, but Joana's been very patient with me thus far. I think you'll be fine.

Whew! That's good to know. It's always good when you find out "you're not the only one", you know? :)

This remains my sole PF2 experience. I’m using it as a way to kind of “interrogate the system” to be honest. (I still struggle to use the take cover action without feeling like I’m cheating!)

Welcome to the newcomers. :)

Hi all, happy to be in this group! Another "PF2 newbie" reporting for duty.

I'm all caught up on the gameplay thread, so ready to jump in whenever.

Welcome, Des!

Looks like we've got a replacement for our previous goblin PC!

I'm all caught up on the gameplay thread, so ready to jump in whenever.

Warbal has just announced her intention to accompany the heroes back to town and let the council know what they've accomplished; this would be an opportune moment for Des to accompany their mentor and join the group, particularly with Revka assuring them she'll stay to look after the Bumblebrashers healing-wise. So if you want to jump in, Kittemancer, go ahead and do so!

Drake will meet up with the party in-town. I've worked with Javell to tweak his backstory a little so he's a member of the town guard in Breachill who has been thinking about going out for a Call For Heroes; when he hears about the grauladons, the dragon angle will be enough for him to volunteer to head back up to the citadel with the party when they return. Both Darla and Gethric would be acquainted with Drake from being fellow residents of Breachill, though how well acquainted is up to you guys to decide.

Really appreciated that link back to Dalvyn and the conversation when we left, Joana. It was useful to go and read that back. I'd completely forgotten the mystery about the fire - even though far as I can tell it was literally just yesterday!

I'm very much looking forward to kickstarting this again and lifting the pace. I should be fine to post daily, but in the interests of speed, please feel free to bot me as necessary if everyone else has posted and I disappear for a day or two:

I've taken on a third job as a favor to my boss through until June and my mother-in-law has simultaneously taken a serious slide into dementia which is taking up a lot of my time and energy. I really should be able to post here daily even then, but sometimes a day or two slides by and the 'non essential' things just drift off my radar.

Sorry to hear about that, Steve. Dementia is always emotionally difficult to deal with for the family.

I noted that Profession Smith has a note in his profile that he tested positive for Covid last week, though he has posted elsewhere recently, which hopefully means that he's not having a bad case.

And Mark has been missing for about 3 weeks now, which we'll hope is just overwork.

We're back in town now, so we'll get Javell's PC picked up as quickly as possible, and perhaps NPCs can take up the conversational slack for a while to keep the momentum up.

Hang in there, Steve.

Yeah, I caught the covids. :(

Not a heavy case, but it's being tenacious. I thought I was coming out of the tunnel a couple days back, then my fever returned yesterday morning (after being absent for like 4 days); then I felt good yesterday afternoon and posted in many of my games; and then last night I had the chills and had to wrap myself in a blanket. Got a good night's sleep and feel OK this morning--I'm hoping it's on its last legs.

That sounds super rough, hope you feel better soon!

Javell, you're the member of the town guard in the office with the councilors. You're there to discuss the arsonist.

And we never actually found a gate, did we? Did we find some notes that mentioned it?

The charau-ka Revka questioned mentioned an elf-gate.

But no, you haven't located the gate.

Hello fellow Bumblebrashers - many apologies for the radio silence for far too bloody long. Work has been... probably the hardest stretch I've ever done. I'm writing this at 11:20 pm staring at probably another couple of hours work before I can contemplate seeking slumber.

Much stress and pressure, plus our lads are getting larger and interesting in their own ways (good, bad and indifferent). None of this of course is an excuse, but I've nary been able to find the headspace for much creative of an eve - which has obviously driven into the PbP space as well.

I'm not sure when / how I'll come out the end of it, but owe all you good sorts better than I've been giving you of late. I'd like to say give it another few weeks and see how I'm travelling... hopefully the door falls down a tad to more level and stable footing.

Cheers,
Gethric

Good to hear from you again. Hang in there!

Good to see you, Gethric. Important that gaming be fun and not a chore, imo. You definitely need that creative headspace!

Glad to see you check in, Mark, and to hear that you're (relatively) okay, if overworked. I hope things turn a corner for you soon.

I'm not sure if the Loot List is up-to-date; didn't we trade with the kobolds for a magical ring?

Yeah, I didn't get that on there. It's fixed now, and I believe it is up to date.

*kicks thread*

Can everyone take a look at the loot list and see what you want to keep and what, if anything you want to sell? I believe Gethric has the onyx dog, and I'm not sure if you guys have used any of the healing potions?

I’ll get to this Joana, I promise.

I’m really sorry to greet you with silence, kittenmancer and javell. This is a great game but I’m just spending so much time dealing with a demented relative atm. It eats up creative energy. :/

I’m back home Thursday and we’re making plans to get some help so it won’t be so burdensome soon..

No worries, Steve, these things are important. I'm sorry you're dealing with this, it can be indeed very draining to care for others. I hope you still make space for yourself!

I'm of the opinion that we should keep all the alchemical items and potions if someone has the carrying capacity to deal with them. The only item on the list to sell are the polished obsidian figures. And maybe the ring, once we manage to identify it.

Quentino Posandi would probably be your best bet for selling the obsidian figurines as collector's items/objets d'art.

I believe it's common knowledge that Voz Lirayne, the owner of the Reliant Book Company, dabbles in magic; she'd probably be the best bet to take a look at your ring.

I agree. Sell the treasure, work out what the ring does and keep the rest for now. Should we divvy up the loot in fives, do you think? Assume Aronida and Revka take a fifth share and maybe Javell and Des have "savings" of coincidentally similar amounts. ;)

Joana - would it be useful for me to take tracking treasure off your hands? I'm not particularly good at computer stuff, but I have a 5 post alias I can repurpose and just post here whenever the loot sheet is updated. No reason for you to have to do that bookwork for us.

I'm thinking something quick and dirty like this (I'll add the links later, if you think it's a good idea):

Fire aftermath:
antiplague (lesser)
healing potion (minor) x2
antidote (lesser)
200 sp

Court of the Nail:
6 gp
14 sp
40 cp

Cinderclaws:
15 gp
38 sp
wondrous figurine (onyx dog)

Bumblebrashers:
tanglefoot bag
alchemist's fire (lesser)
15 gp
comprehension elixir (lesser)
invisibility potion

War room:
polished obsidian figurines (20 gp)

Pib and Zarf:
ring

Yeah no worries on the whole "savings" bit. I'll just start fresh moving on. It's all good. :)

I'm also happy to maintain the loot sheet or make one, I have several templates with automated calculations.

I'm also happy to maintain the loot sheet or make one, I have several templates with automated calculations.

Sounds like it would be better if you did it, to be honest.

Technology is not generally my friend, so I wouldn’t be doing anything clever!