Ugh those dice. I've gone from Poirot to Clouseau! I am a fraud~!
Get outta here, Maritine! If you ain't rolling 20's yer not wanted!
And folks, moving forward can we keep ooc posts in the Discussion thread? Thanks!
Quick note: the symbol high up on the wall needs no climb check to examine - it's huge, and only difficult to spot due to its improbable location.
I'll post a more in-depth description of the ruin soon for anyone who follows Yelena into the alley. Then, if people decide to enter/explore it further, I'll post more, but for now assume you're simply drawing close.
Mihaela is going to assist with the interrogation, I believe, rolling Sense Motive checks as appropriate as well as casting detect lies if she smells something fishy. I know it's probably a bit early to ask (as in, we've only just arrived at the market), but does her scent ability pick up a track? (mind you, it'd only work with aberrations).
Also, it probably got buried between posts earlier, so I'm asking again
On that note, am I still in time to switch her drawback from attached to overprotective (as it hasn't come up yet)? In the end, I couldn't find any good way of making it click with her backstory, while overprotective would reflect as the mark all the people she lost in her previous adventures left on her.
Yeah, sorry for all those alterations, but I rushed through building her character sheet as I was hurrying to catch up with campaign...
Note on the Message spell: talking quietly while using it counts as "passing a secret message", meaning you can use your Bluff skill. If there's someone nearby, it's their Perception vs. your Bluff for them to notice you murmuring softly to yourself.
Also: sorry to be a bother, but I've completely forgotten where you click to add / change stuff in your status bar. Anyone?
Also: sorry to be a bother, but I've completely forgotten where you click to add / change stuff in your status bar. Anyone?
For a string to appear under your alias, you should type it in your Name / Race / Class fields in your profile, like I did it here ;)
Ah-ha!
Thank you!
Update: the maps link above is now live! Click on it to see the Slipper Market. No need for your icons as of yet.
Bah, I blew my Knowledge roll. Is there anyone else who can make a DC 30 Religion check?
@DMLC: pretty sure Walter's "Spooked" drawback will be triggered once he realizes that he's in Mythos territory!
Can't wait, @Walter ;)
Mihaela is going to assist with the interrogation, I believe, rolling Sense Motive checks as appropriate as well as casting detect lies if she smells something fishy. I know it's probably a bit early to ask (as in, we've only just arrived at the market), but does her scent ability pick up a track? (mind you, it'd only work with aberrations).
Also, it probably got buried between posts earlier, so I'm asking again
Yeah, sorry for all those alterations, but I rushed through building her character sheet as I was hurrying to catch up with campaign...On that note, am I still in time to switch her drawback from attached to overprotective (as it hasn't come up yet)? In the end, I couldn't find any good way of making it click with her backstory, while overprotective would reflect as the mark all the people she lost in her previous adventures left on her.
No worries on the alterations - I'm fine with people tweaking their sheets until the second or so fight. So yes: feel free to swap out attached for overprotective. Be especially nice if we see that protectiveness start to emerge in her emotions/thoughts ;)
@Lys: love the book quote. Very atmospheric.
Apologies for the absence today - I just got back home since being up at 7 am. Working on a post now!
I may do a little bit of tweaking on my side, as far as skills go. I feel like I've spread myself a little thin, especially as far as the rest of the party makeup goes.
No worries, Kolthis! Weekends are always going to be a little trickier than weekdays.
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Gosh, going through this just makes me really want to play both Arkham Horror, and Bloodborne. I love it.
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Oh boy. It seems there is a lot we don't know about Walter...
I did say his Neutral Good alignment was a recent thing...
Guys. Guys. Your posts are knocking it out of the park.
One the one hand, another poor knowledge roll doesn't make me look great as an inspector.
On the other hand, I guess I still have my sanity? (For the moment.)
The atmosphere's great though!
@DM, hypothetical question: if Walter were to get hit with two checks on his Spooked drawback in rapid succession, and fail both -- would it only stack in duration, or would they stack in intensity, moving him from Shaken to Frightened or what have you? RAW doesn't really seem to say...
Not that this is likely to come up, of course.
I think that would be a bit more severe than the Spooked trait merits - we can just run with your Shaken state being extended.
Also, we can run with your being Shaken for now, but I think moving forward it should only apply when you actually see a creature, not just a sign of them. At that point, check in with me as to what the DC should be for your save.
I think that would be a bit more severe than the Spooked trait merits - we can just run with your Shaken state being extended.
Yeah, that would be a bit brutal for a trait-equivalent Drawback. (But it's a Lovecraftian campaign, so if you'd gone that route I wouldn't have caviled.)
Also, we can run with your being Shaken for now, but I think moving forward it should only apply when you actually see a creature, not just a sign of them. At that point, check in with me as to what the DC should be for your save.
I'm working out Walter's backstory as we go along -- I didn't have more than a sketch at first, but it's starting to come clear. And the list of things that Walter might potentially find triggery is long. It includes obvious stuff like tentacled horrors and clear, moonless, starry nights. But it also includes panting dogs, fat men, oddly shaped bottles, buzzing noises, two children of a particular age holding hands, and sun hats.
That said, I'm not planning on having him flip out every time he sees a sun hat. We can go with "monster actually appears", NP.
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Going to move us into the house in my next post.
Quick note: PbP can really bog down with dungeon crawls and room-by-room explorations. To avoid that, I'll move you guys through rooms that don't have anything important in them, making perception checks for you as you go, until we hit something worth slowing down for.
Walter in particular is badly affected by the stench; he nearly retches as he walks through the room, and feels his gorge rise several times, his stomach spasming and nearly doubling him over. Walter is sickened for as long as she remains near the vicinity of the slime.
Ah wait, you said you'd be "making Perception checks for us as we go". So... I guess you'll do that and tell us if we found anything interesting in the bookshelves or wherever?
Meanwhile, before we go down those stairs: LET'S TALK PARTY MARCHING ORDER
Standard order is tanks in the front, missile monkeys in the rear, squish casters in the middle. But that raises a question... do we want to scout? On one hand, a scout can provide vitally important information about what lies ahead; on the other, it's always a little depressing when the monster opens combat by throwing the blood-drained body of your scout at you, one piece at a time.
So, questions:
-- We have one Gunslinger, Lys. Is anyone else strong with ranged attacks / missiles?
-- Do we have one or more Stealth monkeys; and if so, is that person willing to scout ahead? (Note that I have Invisibility as a prepared spell, and will absolutely cast it on a scout.)
-- Who has what healing? Our tankiest character is also our cleric, so let's make sure there's a CLW wand or some other backup healing just in case.
-- Finally, buffs. I got a wand of Mage Armor (1 hour, I offered Yelena a hit earlier) and Protection from Evil (duration just 1 minute, will cheerfully cast it on a scout, or on everyone if combat seems imminent).
Thoughts?
@Walter: Right - but there's no harm in your digging deeper into matters that are of particular interest to your PC. I'm always happy to flesh out the scene and provide more fodder for rp. However, in a multi-room romp like my past post, if I don't roll or provide obvious hooks, you can assume there's nothing of particular note to be found.
Mihaela sports a +14 modifier to Stealth, no ACP, and her Inquisition allows her to roll twice and take the better result. She has both invisibility and see invisibility as well as PfE is in her known spells list (with 5 level 1 spells per day, she has one to spare after fully buffing herself); indeed, she's basically built as a scout. Not that it was really an option not to — she's a glass cannon and needs a lot of preparation to perform optimally, so knowing about threats in advance is vital for her survival.
She does solid damage but is limited to one attack per round, so Haste would be a tremendous buff to her. All in all, her strategy would be to eliminate the strongest foes as quickly and possible (while hoping enemy attacks don't get past her still rather decent AC) and then retreat and use her starknife as a thrown, returning weapon (even without the Precise Shot Feat her accuracy would be decent — again, we're talking about fully buffed status).
Also, could everyone model their stat bars along the lines of Mihaela and Yelena's? Thank you!
Aside from his handy cleric heal spells, Kolthis also has a wand of CLW in a sheath on his wrist for easy accessibility. He has some ranged capability with his sling, but generally the buffs and build is to be upfront and swinging. Buffs as spells are more individual focused, being True Strike, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, Aid, Bull's Strength, and then Lesser Restoration.
Huh: if I'd known you had invisibility, I wouldn't have prepared it. Ah, well.
Okay, I think you're making a good case for being the party scout. Lys has +15 Stealth, but you have Low-Light Vision and anyway a gunslinger is happier at range. So I think it looks like you're the scout, Lys is the backup.
-- Dang, we don't have anyone who has both Stealth and Darkvision. In principle I approve -- I don't love that Paizo has handed out darkvision to almost every playable race -- but if it's dark down there, all the stealth in the world won't help you scout. Hum hum, what can you do.
Lys has a similar stealth skill with no ACP, but I don't get to roll twice and pick the best one, being a inquisitorial intern and all.
I think my stat block is up to par, let me know if I should remove the spoiler from it.
lol I somehow missed your spoiler, Lys. My eye went right over it. You're all good!
Okay -- I don't want to jump the gun, but it looks like a plan is taking shape.
1) Mihaela down the stairs as far as she can see, with Invisibility and Protection from Evil on and Message running. Possibly Walter and Lys can go down a bit more slowly, taking up a position 30' down or so? (Walter actually has decent Stealth.)
2)(a) If there's enough light to see by, explore for a minute and report back by Message.
2)(b) If you run out of light, even for Low-Light Vision and Scent (Aberration), go a bit further, listen, then turn around and come back. In this case, we adopt a party marching order that looks something like this:
Mihaela -- Invisible, Stealthy, 60' ahead
Kolthis
Walter -- squish, but Burning hands only has a 10' range
Maritine
Yelena -- move up if you have short-range spells?
Lys
If two can go abreast, move Maritine up next to Kolthis. Just stay clear of Walter's 10' cone...
Light sources: Kolthis has a light spell on his hammer and Walter has a lantern staff.
Comments, thoughts? Sound like a plan?
Sounds like a plan. I think most of Yelena's spells are close range, (aka 35 feet), but that's still long enough that she'll do best in the back. She doesn't have any touch or super close range spells.
She does have Dancing Lights as a cantrip, so she can send lights out to help us see without them being right on top of us screaming 'Here we are, please kill us!'
I have no qualms with that plan!
If there's anything else, instead of my hammer, that someone would like Light on instead, I have no problem moving it over.
Wow I'm late to the party and unfortunately I'm gonna be later still, small but serious IRL issue to handle. Good news is it shouldn't be longer than a few hours, so here's hoping.
Real quick to not be a load, Maritine can pass around potions like an alchemist and they work as spells, and she can make a useful flanking buddy for Mihaela. I can add a little more once I don't have IRL stuff dondeal with.
No worries Maritine - I hope the issue resolves itself well. Good luck!
Hope all goes well, Maritine!
@GM - would it be a little late to get an Ioun Torch for Lys? I was re-doing her inventory to make it more 'monster hunter-y', and I realised just now that most of these are hunted during the night.
No problem - like I said, everything is flexible up until your second fight, so feel free to change things around some.
In that case, I'm open to any comments or anything about useful changes to gear, spells or whatever!
Best of luck Maritine - real life can definitely be a lot.
Having reach on the hammer means I could potentially be another decent flanking buddy as needed!
@Kolthis, Maritine: I'd love me some nice flanking buddies. Also, Maritine, hope whatever it is, everything turns out for the better!
@Walter: worry not — there's no such thing as too many invisibility spells prepared :) Seriously though, Mihaela only has 3 2nd level spell slots, and she's already used one (see invisibility); having to reapply it after every combat burns out spell slots very quickly (her inquisition granted-ability only lasts 5 rounds, rather than 5 minutes). Other than that, plan sounds solid!
An update for all you dangerously curious folks!
I mighr be gone a bit longer than planned - I have an electrician in checking on a problem that, fun fact, turns out to be bigger than anticipated and looks like they're gonna have to go digging into walls and stuff.
So!
I'm guessing another several hours - they've already been here for 3, and you never want to be told 'this is worse than we thought.'
So thats my main focus for another few hours, and I don't want to say this, but if I need to be NPC'd/Bot'd I'm okay with it.
And now, to make sure the apartment doesn't fall apart.
Oh no! That sounds terrible. The joys of home owning - it's the gift that keeps on giving :/
Perhaps I'll move things forward a little, and that way you don't have this post hanging over your head ontop of everything else? Best of luck!
Okay, so Mihaela is going invisbly downstairs to attempt a first scout? Mihaela, Walter will tap you with a Protection from Evil and also cautiously move 20' down the stairs to take up point.
--> Mihaela: making a Stealth check to go down the stairs to explore. Confirm on the gameplay thread?
--> Walter: making a Stealth check to go 20' down the stairs. Then, prepare action: cast Fireball. If Mihaela comes running back with Hell at her heels, Walter is ready...
If Mihaela reports back that it's too dark down there to scout, then we revert to the party marching order above.
Sounds good. I'll wait for rolls in individual posts, and please update statuses to reflect invisibility and such. If everyone is 20' behind Mihaela, feel free to move your icons back upstairs into the house or wherever appropriate.
@Walter, let's keep ooc posts in the Discussion channel, please.
And now, to make sure the apartment doesn't fall apart.
That looks quite the worthy endeavor.
In other news — post incoming!
Buh. That took all day and they have to come back again tomorrow. I am so tired.
I'm going to read all the posts I missed, attempt to catch up and make a post, and give everyone an update again when they come back tomorrow. Hopefully I can at least attempt to keep up. I worked hard on getting into Carrion Hill, I will not be booted for idleness!
Bleh. My dice really are all or nothing, huh?